mercredi 21 août 2013
mardi 20 août 2013
Karel Abraham to switch to Honda's production racer in 2014
Gresini’s MotoGP squad will not be the only team to field a Honda production racer next season, as Cardion AB Racing has also decided to field the new machine for Karel Abraham, who will no longer be riding his current Aprilia Racing Technology bike.
According speedweek.com, up to July it seemed that the Czech team was not interested in switching from Aprilia to Honda, but team owner Karel Abraham Sr. has told the German website that they’ve reached an agreement with HRC, following the Laguna Seca round.
“For us it wasn’t easy to make this decision,” said Abraham Sr. who also owns the Brno race circuit. “Last year the cooperation with Ducati didn’t work [Abraham rode a Ducati in 2011 and 2012], but with ART we have a very correct relationship. Aprilia wanted to continue, but we want a competitive bike and we had four options: stay with Aprilia, the M1 engines from Yamaha, a complete Honda production racer, or a Ducati, but we wanted a guarantee that there would be continued development by the Italian manufacturer”.
“The Honda offer is very promising for us and we have already signed a preliminary contract,”added crew chief Marco Grana, “but we would like to stick with our own suppliers.
Which could mean that the production racer could be equipped with Öhlin suspension, instead of Showa, and Brembo brakes instead Nissin.
“For me and for our team it will be a big change, but I hope that it gets better,” commented Abraham Jr, who was forced to skip the Indianapolis GP. “For almost my whole career I’ve rode Italian marques. Hopefully this time we have made the right move. Leaving Aprilia isn’t easy, because it is a very good bike and I’ve had a better feeling with it than with the Ducati. Unfortunately, this machine can only be moderately competitive with the prototypes, although the Aprilia as a CRT machine is by far the best bike. “
from TWOWHEELSBLOG
Wish they all could be California girls
The tanned, blonde, Californian beach girl is rarely what she seems. Many of the original beach babes who brought the bathing culture of the Pacific coast to the boil actually came from Idaho and Oklahoma. But, to be honest, who cares?
The good ladies of California were appreciated long before the Beach Boys
If we’re to believe the well-researched opinions of the Beach Boys, as expressed in song in 1965, east coast girls are stylish, southern girls have the sexiest accents, mid-west farmers’ daughters know how to make you feel good, while girls from the north are – apparently – the best at keeping their boyfriends warm at night. But none, they assure us, have quite the appeal of the tanned ladies of California.
“The west coast has the sunshine, and the girls all get so tanned – I dig a French bikini on Hawaii Island…” and so on. You can sing the rest in your head, no doubt. However, as our photo gallery demonstrates, the qualities of the good ladies of California were appreciated long before the Beach Boys. The Model Marcella Flood lolled about on Long Beach as long ago as 1937, while Liz Taylor got playful on the sand in 1947.
Surf's up!
It was in the 1950s and 1960s that surfing influenced the image of California around the world: wooden surfboards, colourful swimming shorts, surf rock – and bikini-clad surf girls. The girls weren’t just ornamental, either – they rode the boards themselves. Take 16-year-old Kathy Kohner who, in the late 1950s, could be seen with her board almost every day on the beaches at Malibu. She was the inspiration for the character ‘Gidget’ in the novel ‘Gidget: The Little Girl with Big Ideas’, written by her father.
Neoprene and hard work
In the 1970s, too, the surfboard was a popular accessory for the Californian beach girls – although a certain pragmatism had entered their dress code. The photos of Joan Jett and her band ‘The Runaways’ shows them wearing wetsuits. In more recent decades, of course, Pamela Anderson and her buddies re-defined the career ambitions of a whole generation of young men, thanks to their day-to-day activities as lifeguards in TV’s ‘Baywatch’. Pam, however, was not raised in Malibu but in Canada. But it seems that she, along with everyone else, wished they all could be California girls.
Photos: Getty Images
Germany’s asphalt contest / En route pour l’asphalte…
Once again, the ADAC Rallye Deutschland is the first pure sealed-surface clash of the 2013 WRC. The specificities and variety of this event make it difficult for the drivers to switch straight into ‘asphalt mode’.
Cette année encore, l’ADAC Rallye Deutschland est la première épreuve 100% asphalte de la saison. Et il n’est pas facile d’y reprendre ses marques tant le parcours de ce rallye est spécifique et varié.
When it joined the WRC’s elite, the ADAC Rallye Deutschland was essentially a combination of three different German events (Deutschland Rally, Hünsruck Rally and Saarland Rally) which each had their own distinctive features.
The Hünsruck Rally used the roads of the Baumholder army camp where the surface was of a poor quality, dusty and highly abrasive, while the wide, fast stages were lined with the infamous concrete Hinkelsteins designed to keep tanks on course during manoeuvers. This year’s competitors will experience a similar challenge in the form of ‘Arena Panzerplatte’ (41.08km) which has been slightly modified compared with last August.
Saturday’s menu also features the short ‘Peterberg’ test (9.23km), a survivor of the former Saarland Rally but used in the opposite direction this year, as well as ‘Stein & Wein’ (26.54km) which visits vineyards near Trier before heading into the Saarland forests. It was during a rainstorm here in 2012 that Sébastien Loeb sealed his ninth Rallye Deutschland victory.
Half of this year’s action criss-crosses the steep Mosel Valley vineyards. ‘Mittelmosel’, ‘Moselland’, ‘Grafschaft’ and ‘Dhrontal’ account for 180 of the rally’s 371 competitive kilometres and were a traditional ingredient of the Deutschland Rally. They are predominantly narrow but also very fast, with a high number of hairpin bends, tight junctions and blind crests. Running water in wet weather and concrete kerbs can be a big hazard.
The first two stages of this week’s rally are new, namely ‘Blankenheim’ (23.54km) and ‘Sauertal’ (14.10km) which will be tackled on the run from the ceremonial start in Cologne to Trier. ‘Blankenheim’ is situated in the Eifel Mountains and only 50km or so from Spa-Francorchamps, while ‘Sauertal’ is closer to Trier and will be contested at dusk.
The weather is expected to remain sunny. However, surprise, heavy storms can never be ruled out at this time of year, making tyre choice particularly delicate.
Rallye Deutschland, tel qu’il est proposé depuis son accession à l’élite mondiale, est le résultat de la réunification de trois épreuves- Deutschland Rally, Hünsruck Rally et Saarland Rally – chacune avec des parcours différents et spécifiques.
L’Hünsruck Rally se déroulait majoritairement dans le camp militaire de Baumholder sur des routes sillonnées par des chars d’assaut. Le bitume y est dégradé, poussiéreux, abrasif. Les spéciales, plutôt larges et rapides, sont bordées « d’Hinkelstein », d’énormes blocs de béton servant à retenir les chars au cours de leurs manœuvres. Les concurrents évolueront sur ces routes samedi avec la spéciale d’Arena Panzerplatte (41,08 km) légèrement modifiée par rapport à 2012.
Au menu de samedi également, la courte spéciale de Peterberg (9,23 km), vestige du Saarland Rally, qui sera disputée dans le sens opposé à l’an passé, et Stein & Wein (26,54 km) qui s’élance dans les vignes à la sortie de Trèves avant de s’enfoncer dans les forêts du Saarland. C’est là, en 2012, sous l’orage, que Sébastien Loeb avait scellé sa IXe victoire au Deutschland Rallye.
La moitié du parcours 2013 se situe dans le vignoble qui s’étend sur les coteaux escarpés qui bordent la Moselle. Mittelmosel, Moselland, Grafschaft, Dhrontal représentent 180 km chronométrés sur les 371 que compte l’épreuve. Ces routes, utilisées jadis par le Deutschland Rally, cheminent entre les parcelles de vignes. Elles sont très étroites, très rapides aussi, parsemées d’épingles serrées, d’intersections et de « ciels aveugles ». Attention aux coulées d’eau en cas de pluie et aux bordures en béton parfois bien cachées.
Les deux premières spéciales de l’édition 2013 sont inédites : Blankenheim (23,54 km) et Sauertal (14,10 km) sont tracées sur le chemin entre Cologne et Trèves. Blankenheim se trouve à une cinquantaine de kilomètres du circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, dans les forêts du Massif de l’Eifel. Sauertal, qui sera disputée entre « chien et loup », se situe tout près de Trèves.
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