Leg 3 (Latvala and Neuville crashes) - 2013 WRC Rallye Deutschland

End of Day 3: Sordo emerges in front / Etape 3 : Sordo vire en tête

After starting Saturday’s action in third place, 26.3s behind the leader, Dani Sordo (Citroën/Michelin) has moved to the top of the order in Germany at the end of Day 3. The Spaniard is less than a second ahead of Belgium’s Thierry Neuville with Sunday’s two stages (50km) remaining. Today’s second visit to Panzerplatte (SS14) was cancelled ater an accident on Panzerplatte 1.

Troisième ce matin à 26s3 du leader, l’Espagnol Dani Sordo (Citroën/Michelin) a pris la tête de l’ADAC Rallye Deutschland avec moins d’une seconde d’avance sur le Belge Thierry Neuville. Il reste deux spéciales à disputer demain dimanche. Le deuxième passage de Panzerplatte (ES14) a été annulé suite à un accident.

Volkswagen has scored six victories from the eight WRC rounds contested so far. However, it will not have the honour of winning its home event, the ADAC Rallye Deutschland, even though Sébastien Ogier and Jari-Matti Latvala both led before making mistakes.

Jari-Matti Latvala was 14.8s clear of Thierry Neuville after today’s first visit to Panzerplatte (SS11), but then rain blew in over the Trier region. The Finn subsequently crashed out in wet conditions on SS12, reportedly due to a mechanical problem, leaving Thierry Neuville and Dani Sordo to battle for the win.

Sordo, who is competing on ‘pure’ asphalt for the first time in the Citroën DS3 WRC/Michelin this weekend, got off to a cautious start before upping his pace as the rally progressed.

This morning’s loop saw the Spaniard close to with nine seconds of Neuville and he later eased into the overall lead after SS13 (Peterberg), eight-tenths ahead of the Belgian youngster. “I feel more and more at ease with the Citroën and I think it will be a great fight on the last day,” declared Sordo who is chasing his first WRC victory after 106 world class starts.

“I am caught between wanting to make sure I score points for the championship and claiming my first WRC victory,” noted Neuville. “I’ll have a good night’s sleep and then decide, but I think I’ll try for the win…”

Meanwhile, Latvala’s disappearance provided Mikko Hirvonen with a footing on the provisional podium, even though the Finn is almost a minute-and-a-half down on the current leader. Fourth-placed Martin Prokop (Ford) is a further four minutes adrift.

Mads Ostberg (Ford) was fifth before his off on SS12, while Nasser Al-Attiyah (Ford) crashed out on SS11. Sébastien Ogier (24^th, VW), who re-joined this morning under the ‘Rally2’ ruling, won three of today’s stages and could still possibly salvage some valuable Manufacturers’ points for Volkswagen.

Pole Robert Kubica (Citroën DS3 RRC) is now fifth overall and on top in WRC-2, 7.8s clear of Welshman Elfyn Evans (Ford). New Zealand’s Hayden Paddon (Skoda) is third, but Sepp Wiegand (Skoda) went off on SS13.

Sébastien Chardonnet and Pontus Tidemand are comfortable leaders in the WRC-3 and Junior WRC fights respectively.

Après six victoires en huit rallyes, Volkswagen ne gagnera pas à domicile ce week-end. Sébastien Ogier et Jari-Matti Latvala ont tour à tour mené l’épreuve avant de partir à la faute.

Jari-Matti Latvala comptait 14s8 d’avance sur Thierry Neuville à l’issue du premier passage de Panzerplatte (ES11). Mais la pluie s’est invitée sur le Saarland et le Finlandais est sorti de la route dans l’ES12 – apparemment après un problème mécanique -, laissant Thierry Neuville et Dani Sordo s’expliquer pour la victoire.

Pour ses débuts sur asphalte « pur » au volant d’une Citroën DS3 WRC/Michelin, l’Espagnol Dani Sordo a effectué un début de course prudent avant d’hausser le rythme au fil des spéciales.

Après la boucle matinale, Dani était revenu à 9s de Neuville avant de prendre l’avantage – et la première place du rallye – à l’issue de l’ES13 (Peterberg) pour 0s8 d’avance sur le Belge. « Je me sens de mieux en mieux dans la Citroën et ce sera une belle bagarre », déclarait Sordo qui vise son premier succès mondial après 106 rallyes WRC disputés.

« Je suis partagé entre assurer pour marquer de gros points au championnat et attaquer pour remporter ma première victoire mondiale », avouait de son côté Thierry Neuville. La nuit porte conseil, mais je pense que je vais essayer… »

La sortie de Latvala a promu Mikko Hirvonen sur le podium provisoire. Le Finlandais est à près d’une minute et demie du leader et compte plus de quatre minutes d’avance sur Martin Prokop (Ford).

Mads Ostberg (Ford) était 5^e avant de sortir de la route dans l’ES12. Sortie de route également pour Nasser Al-Attiyah (Ford) dans l’ES11. Reparti en Rally2 ce matin, Sébastien Ogier (24^e, VW) a remporté trois spéciales aujourd’hui et pourrait marquer des points au championnat Constructeurs.

Le Polonais Robert Kubica (Citroën DS3 RRC) est 5^e du classement général et mène la catégorie WRC-2 avec 7s8 d’avance sur le Gallois Elfyn Evans (Ford). Le Néo-Zélandais Hayden Paddon (Skoda) est sur le podium provisoire. Sepp Wiegand (Skoda) est sorti de la route (ES13). Sébastien Chardonnet et Pontus Tidemand sont confortables leaders des catégories WRC-3 et Junior WRC.

Moto GP;Cal Crutchlow takes new pole position at Brno

Cal Crutchlow has taken his second pole position of the season in today’s qualifying session at Brno. The Yamaha Tech3 rider was able to lower the record breaking lap that suprisingly enough Gresini’s Alvaro Bautista had just conquered, albeit with a tow from Marc Marquez.

Crutchlow who has been having problems with the new gas tank that he received at Indianpolis had a perfect lap as he posted a 1.55.257, more than two tenths of a second faster than Bautista and more than three tenths of a second faster than Marc Marquez who will close the final row.

The British rider believes this pole is more worthy than the one at Assen, when Jorge Lorenzo was recovering from his shoulder operation, and he also zinged Lin Jarvis when he was at the parc ferme, saying that its too bad that Yamaha wasted money coming to Brno to test …

Open the second row will be Dani Pedrosa, and Jorge Lorenzo, who no doubt will upset about the position even though his race pace puts him line for a victory tomorrow. Another suprise of the session was Bradley Smith.

The MotoGP rookie took 6th and he was just +0.487 from his pole sitting team mate and almost more than two tenths faster than factory Yamaha rider Valentino Rossi, who was unable to improve with his second tire.

Joining Rossi on the third row will be Stefan Bradl and Andrea Dovizioso on row three. Nicky Hayden took the 10th spot followed by Andrea Iannone and Colin Edwards in his second Q2 session after Indianapolis.

2013 MotoGP Brno Qualifying 2 results:

01- Cal Crutchlow – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – 1’55.527
02- Alvaro Bautista – GO&FUN Honda Gresini – Honda RC213V – + 0.227
03- Marc Marquez – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC213V – + 0.336
04- Dani Pedrosa – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC213V – + 0.341
05- Jorge Lorenzo – Yamaha Factory Racing – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 0.422
06- Bradley Smith – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 0.487
07- Valentino Rossi – Yamaha Factory Racing – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 0.659
08- Stefan Bradl – LCR Honda MotoGP – Honda RC213V – + 0.950
09- Andrea Dovizioso – Ducati Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP13 – + 1.298
10- Nicky Hayden – Ducati Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP13 – + 1.452

from TWOWHEELSBLOG

Roy’s Cook’s Rogue

WTF? was our first reaction. Not only is this bike based around the unlikely Honda VTR Firestorm it’s also been built by a 45 year old shed-builder who is described as being “new to bikes, full stop” with little engineering experience. …This is just the kind of feature opener we can’t get enough of, so let’s let brothers Clive & Ron tell the story for themselves.

Here’s how it all began…

Brother Clive: “About 18 months ago, over a pint, my older brother, Roy, announced he was going to build a custom. Now, my brother (aged 45) is fairly new to bikes full stop and didn’t have much engineering  experience to speak of, but rather than mildly customize a bike he wanted to build a frame from scratch! To cut a long story short, he was deadly serious and a donor bike was ridden back from Brum (to South Devon) and stripped down the next day. I tried to reason with him that it was going to be a very tall order to pull this off, but he wasn’t to be deterred. After a false start with a cheap tube bender, we jointly purchased the right tool for the right job. Roy started bending tube like a man possessed. I knocked up a frame jig at work to help him along. Once the frame was all tacked-up we chucked (or rather very carefully placed) it in the back of his car and snuck it at night) into my place of work – to use the big amp welder.”

“After a month, the bike was back up on its new wheels. With some messing around it was ready for the SVA test, which it flew through save for a noisy exhaust. Its now Q plated.” The guys make it sound so easy, but having put a bike through an SVA test ourselves last year, we know it’s no mean feat.

“Roy would occasionally drop a piece of bike around for me to weld up, but he did 95% of the fabrication work himself. He taught himself to weld and use a lathe, and with help from brother in-law Jay made a bloody good crack at a first custom I think. The bike was stripped back down for paint, this was farmed out locally (as was the exhaust system). I then recieved the call, ‘Bike’s finished, you wanna pop round for a squizz?’ …Well he pulled the sheet off and my blooming jaw hit the deck.”

“Needless to say we’ve all got the bug now and have 3 more bikes mid build! There are plans (pipe dreams?) to offer frame kits in the future… Hey, you gotta have a dream!”

So. The bike? The donor is a Honda VTR Firestorm with a Hayabusa front end and a VFR800 rear. The tank (cover) is from a Honda Superdream and the frame is built from 1 and a quarter inch tubing with the subframe at 7/8″. Roy built two back ends. One is very slim. The other carries an auxillary fuel tank built into the seat.

So what next? “In a ideal world we’d love to be able to make some pocket money on selling parts (frames?) but in the meantime we’re busy building up our skills (and tools) on our current projects.” Their mate Jay is doing-up his GSXR400, with upside down forks, a one-off steel tubular single-sided swing arm. Roy’s bought another VTR to chop up. “I’m 3/4′s way through the Zed bobber and have just started buying parts for my next project ;  Norton 490cc sidevalve engine, with a one-off tig welded flat-tanker frame, mag wheels, teles and classic green Castrol racing paint job – I think it will work, honest!”

Considering the donor – and the builder, Roy, (who it turns out is an Immunology Research Laboratory Technician of 17 years) – this is one hell of a good start for a crew of custom bike meddlers, and we can’t wait to see what Clive, Roy and Jay come up with in the future. Thanks for sharing.

from the bike shed