Phillip Island WSBK : Carlos Checa takes the Panigale to 1st pole position

from Twowheelsblog 

Carlos Checa wasn’t in the greatest form following his crash during Q1 - that he defined ‘one of the biggest highsides of my career,’ but that didn’t stop the Alstare rider from taking the first Superpole of the 2013 World Superbike championship, with the Ducati 1199 Panigale and sweeping away any doubts on the competitiveness of the new Italian machine.

With a stunning 1’30″234, Checa’s lap is the new Superpole record for the Austrialian circuit after Michel Fabrizio broke it in QP2, and he’ll try to take the Panigale to its first victory and repeat what Neil Hodgson and Troy Bayliss did when they debuted two new bikes for Borgo Panigale.

Next to Checa on the first row will be Eugene Laverty who brought the factory Aprilia into second and just 0.195s from the the Spaniard, while Michele Fabrizio who dominated three sessions out of four (Marco Melandri was fastest in FP2) put his Aprilia into third making it an all Italian manufacturers front row.

Opening the second row will be Tom Sykes who is still suffering from a wrist injury and Marco Melandri who hit his already suffering shoulder when he crashed in FP2. The two riders posted the same identical lap time and both sat out the dying minutes of the session, probably ruing the fact, as Checa, Laverty and Fabrizio would post better lap times. Joining the Kawasaki and BMW rider will be Sylvain Guintoli who finished SP3 in sixth.

The third row will see Suzuki’s Leon Camier and Pata Honda’s Leon Haslam and Jonathan Rea, while Davide Giugliano was 10th, suffering a last turn wobble due to a blistering tire and after Leon Haslam denied the Italian entry into SP3 with his last flying lap in SP2.

Loris Baz will take off from 11th followed by Chaz Davies, Max Neukirchner, and Ivan Clementi. Australian wildcard Jamie Stauffer threw it all away when he crashed on his first lap in SP1 leaving him in 15th and ahead of other wildcard rider Glenn Allerton.

Jules Cluzel will be starting in 17th after suffering an engine failure in the morning session. Ayrton Badovini will not be racing this weekend after being diagnosed with a foot fracture-

WSBK Phillip Island Superpole and starting grid:

1. Carlos Checa (Team Ducati Alstare) Ducati Panigale 1199 1′30.234
2. Eugene Laverty (Aprilia Racing Team) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 1′30.429
3. Michel Fabrizio (Red Devils Roma) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 1′30.581
4. Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) Kawasaki ZX-10R 1′30.615
5. Marco Melandri (BMW Motorrad GoldBet SBK) BMW S1000 RR 1′30.615
6. Sylvain Guintoli (Aprilia Racing Team) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 1′30.683
7. Leon Camier (Fixi Crescent Suzuki) Suzuki GSX-R1000 1′30.991
8. Leon Haslam (Pata Honda World Superbike) Honda CBR1000RR 1′30.998
9. Jonathan Rea (Pata Honda World Superbike) Honda CBR1000RR 1′31.742
10. Davide Giugliano (Althea Racing) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 1′31.283
11. Loris Baz (Kawasaki Racing Team) Kawasaki ZX-10R 1′31.576....

STEVE MCQUEEN’S LOLA T70 MKIII B

This 1969 Lola T70 MKIII B is the descendant of the 1965 Lola T70, a car that was driven by Formula One and motorcycle racing legend John Surtees. The car was designed by Englishman Eric Broadley during his more than 40 years running Lola, Broadley favoured mid-engined chassis and was a great proponent of early aerodynamics – in fact the 1962 Lola Mk 6 GT sports-racing coupé is widely regarded as the unofficial prototype of the Ford GT40.

The Lola T70 is fitted with a carburettor fed 5000cc Traco Chevrolet V8 with wet sump lubrication, a 5-speed transmission and is right hand drive. The standard performance specifications aren’t available but if you imagine having your brain squeezed out through the hair follicles on the back of your head, you’ll get a fairly accurate feel for the car’s acceleration.

The car was sold to Steve McQueen’s Solar Productions film company for his film “Le Mans” in 1970, they bought 5 Lola’s in total, this chassis was painted yellow and given the racing number “11″. It’s the same car used during the film in the scene featuring Rob Slotemaker spinning the car on the downhill approach to Indianapolis Corner, after this the car was dressed up like a Gulf-Porsche 917 and this is where the story gets really interesting;

“SL76/141 (this same chassis) was then whisked away and dressed up to look like a Gulf-Porsche 917 for a scheduled crash sequence with the cloned car being driven by remote control. Up to this point in filming, the production crew had managed so far to destroy two T70 MkIII’s dressed up as Ferrari 512′s when the remote control equipment failed both times. Ultimately, the equipment was dumped from the cloned Ferrari in favour of simply firing the car from an air cannon, which certainly did achieve the spectacular desired effect.”

“The crew didn’t give up though and fitted the equipment to the cloned Porsche 917 in the hope they had cured the problems encountered before. The scheduled stunt was pretty much as before with the driver of the 917 being distracted by an exploding Ferrari, then swerving to avoid running into a much slower 911, and finally crash into the barrier. The start of the stunt went exactly as planned with the cloned 917 successfully managing to swerve and avoid the little 911 and then hit the barrier. However the aerial for the remote control was taped inside the left hand side of the tail and after the car hit the barrier for the first time side on, it fell off. The 917 was now out of control with the throttle stuck wide open at maximum revs. It then went on to play pinball between the Armco on the run towards Maison Blanche. The results were spectacular, and much better than expected, and it was all caught on film by multiple cameras.”

“The car finished up buried in the Armco and sat there with its rear wheels spinning as the engine revved away at full throttle. Everybody stood back and watched hoping that sooner, rather than later, the fuel would run out killing the engine. However someone put rather more fuel in the car than was needed! After several minutes, by which time the rear tyres had ground away to the rim, a brave, if rather foolhardy soul walked over to the screaming wreck, reached inside the shattered cockpit and flicked the kill switch.”

If you have £570,000 and £650,000 handy you might want to register to bid, the car is headed to the Race Retro & Classic Car Sale held by Silverstone Auctions on the 23rd of February 2013. That price tag might seem high but it’s actually a hell of a good investment considering the car’s remarkable pedigree.

Images and additional information provided by Silverstone Auctions.

from SILODROME

Messer Chups - Twin Peaks Twist - GOOD NIGHT !!

Mister Freedom® Spring 2013 MFSC collection “Viva La Revolución” & “The Sportsman” Lookbook

Inspired by imagery of the 1910-1920 Mexican Revolution, here is a short preview of the Mister Freedom® Lookbook for our Spring 2013 “Viva la Revolución” MFSC collection.
Like with previous historical events that inspire our clothes, nothing is ‘literal’, as we do not target the re-enacting market. We just dig in a rich Past to find ‘threads’ to weave into clothes we would like to wear. Again, our loose boundaries are just the ‘historically plausible’.

We are also introducing a new Mister Freedom® classic concept for 2013, “The Sportsman“, which we will add to every season. This one is about classic ‘no brainers’ with our twist, for easy everyday wear, made in the USA with Japanese & USA milled fabrics.

Both full collections will be available starting mid-February 2013 from our Mister Freedom® Los Angeles headquarter and via email to jordan@misterfreedom.com or john@misterfreedom.com, as well as from fine retailers Worldwide.

Soundtrack: To keep it light, I chose “La Guerilla” by Valérie Lagrange (1964, All Rights to the Publisher).
This song was written by Serge Gainsbourg. He originally recorded a track of a similar vain, he penned circa 1961, called “Viva Villa”. Awesome tune 

An HD version of this clip is available on Vimeo (make sure HD is on, bottom right corner of the video screen.) A lower res version on YouTube

For those who have the patience to download and view a hi-res PDF file of the look book, click HERE(WARNING: Very heavy file! About 83MB, this will eat up your entire data plan on a mobile phone when roaming. Use Wi-Fi!)