WSBK ; Haslam décroche la Tissot-Superpole au MotorLand/ Haslam races to Aragon Tissot-Superpole

Le Britannique sera en tête de la grille WorldSBK pour la première fois depuis 2010.

Leon Haslam (Aprilia Racing Team - Red Devils) s’est offert la seconde pole position de sa carrière samedi au MotorLand Aragón en battant Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Racing - Ducati SBK Team) de tout juste 0.033s. 

Le Britannique, qui avait signé sa première pole à Phillip Island en 2010, lorsqu’il courait pour Suzuki, partira donc devant Davies, qui avait réalisé le doublé en Aragón en 2013.  

Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team), lui aussi auteur d’un doublé au MotorLand, l’an dernier, complètera la première ligne en ayant fini les qualifications à 0.199s de Haslam.

Jonathan Rea (Kawasaki Racing Team), leader du classement général devant Haslam, mènera la deuxième ligne devant Xavi Fores, le remplaçant de Davide Giugliano chez Ducati, et Ayrton Badovini (BMW Motorrad Italia SBK Team), qui réussissaient brillamment leur première séance Tissot-Superpole de l’année. 

Jordi Torres (Aprilia Racing Team - Red Devils) partira septième devant Alex Lowes (Voltcom Crescent Suzuki), huitième sur la grille après avoir dû passer par la Superpole 1, et Nico Terol (Althea Racing). Suivront en quatrième ligne Leandro Mercado (Barni Racing Team), Michael van der Mark (Pata Honda World SBK Team) et David Salom (Team Pedercini Kawasaki).

Déception chez les Français puisque le Champion en titre Sylvain Guintoli (Pata Honda World Superbike Team) n’a même pas atteint la Superpole 2 et a fini quatorzième. Le rookie Christophe Ponsson (Grillini Team) et Randy de Puniet (Voltcom Crescent Suzuki), qui travaille avec un tout nouveau système électronique ce week-end, seront quant à eux dix-septième et dix-neuvième sur la grille de départ.

First European Pole Position of 2015 secured by the Aprilia rider.

Leon Haslam (Aprilia Racing Team – Red Devils) will start tomorrow’s opening race of the 3^rd round of the Eni FIM Superbike World Championship from Pole Position. A lap time of 1.49.664s, the fastest of the weekend so far and the fastest ever for a superbike on the new MotorLand Aragon configuration, left the Englishman 0.033s ahead of his nearest rivals Chaz Davies (Aruba.it Ducati World Superbike Team) and Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) who will join him on the front row (+0.199s). For Haslam it’s his first Pole Position since Phillip Island in 2010 and the 2^nd of his career.

This afternoon’s 15 minute battle to decide the top 12 places on the starting grid for tomorrow’s races was electric with the final grid line-up only decided in the final minute of Superpole 2, as the outright circuit best lap was bettered

Row two will see championship leader Jonathan Rea aboard his Kawasaki (+0.389), Xavi Fores (+0.785) who continues his impressive debut weekend on the second of the Aruba.it Ducati Superbike Team) and Ayrton Badovini (+1.006s).

The third row was decided in the final seconds of the session, with Jordi Torres (Aprilia Racing Team – Red Devils) taking 7^th.  He will start alongside Alex Lowes and Nico Terol (Althea Racing).

Leandro Mercado (Barni Racing), Michael van der Mark (Pata Honda World Superbike Team) and David Salom (Team Pedercini) complete the top 12 in a grid that sees 5 manufacturers inside a top ten .

Earlier, Ayrton Badovini (BMW Motorrad Italia) and Alex Lowes (Voltcom Crescent Suzuki) were the two riders to progress from Superpole 1 into the final 15 minute shoot-out, as reigning Champion Sylvain Guintoli (Pata Honda World Superbike Team) and Randy de Puniet (Voltcom Crescent Suzuki) missed out on one of the top two places available, the pair qualifying 14^th and 19^threspectively.

WEC, Silverstone : Les essais libres 3 sous la pluie / rain for Free Practice 3

La dernière séance d’essais libres des 6 Heures de Silverstone s’est déroulée sous de fortes pluies. Les teams en ont profité pour recueillir des datas pour la suite de la saison, les prévisions annonçant une piste sèche pour demain. Audi/Michelin a conservé l’avantage.

L’espoir d’avoir un meeting de Silverstone 100 % sec s’est évanoui ce matin quand le ciel a ouvert ses vannes peu avant le début de la 3^e séance d’essais libres. Le beau temps devrait revenir pour les qualifs et la course.

Malgré tout, les datas recueillis ce matin seront toujours bénéfiques. A Silverstone, les teams ne pouvaient se permettre de faire l’impasse sur un roulage sous la pluie, juste au cas où…

En fin de séance, les trajectoires semblaient déjà sèches, ce qui a permis à certains teams LM P1 de passer en pneus Michelin intermédiaires « hybrides ».

Malgré les conditions piégeuses, il n’y a eu que peu de tête-à-queue et d’incidents, sauf pour l’Alpine N°36 (LM P2) qui a dû être tirée du bac à gravier au Turn 9 (Copse).

Pour l’histoire, les meilleurs chronos de chaque catégorie ont été réalisés par l’Audi N°7 en LM P1 (1min52s094), plus de 10 secondes moins vite qu’hier, la Ligier JS P2-Nissan N°28 en LM P2 (2min04s786), la Porsche N°92 en LM GTE Pro (2min13s665) et la Ferrari N°83 en LM GTE Am (2min16s396).

A suivre : les qualifs ELMS à partir de 11h05, puis les qualifs WEC LM GTE et LMP entre midi et 13h00. Les 4 Heures de Silverstone (ELMS) s’élanceront à 14h30.

The final free practice session ahead of Round 1 of the 2015 FIA World Endurance Championship was marked by heavy rain. The teams used the hour’s exercise to gather data that might come in useful later in the season, but the current forecast suggests a dry race tomorrow. For the record, Audi topped the order for the third time this weekend with its N°7 R18 e-tron quattro/Michelin.

The hopes of having an all-dry weekend at Silverstone went out of the window when the heavens opened shortly before this morning’s Free Practice session.

With the sunshine due to return in time for qualifying and remain for Sunday’s race, it’s difficult to know what value the 60-minute run could have for the teams…

That said, it is always possible to learn something and, with the weather so notoriously unpredictable at Silverstone, the teams couldn’t really afford not to use the track time, just in case the first round of the championship turns out to be wet tomorrow.

In the end, and although a dryish line began to appear near the end of the session (allowing some teams to switch briefly to intermediate rubber, including Michelin’s high-tech ‘Hybrid’ tyre in the case of the LM P1 prototypes), only three cars didn’t leave their pits.

Despite the tricky conditions, there were surprisingly few spins and incidents, the most notable victim being the N°36 Alpine (LM P2) which had to be rescued from the gravel at Turn 9 (Copse).

For the record, the fastest times in each category were claimed by the N°7 Audi in LM P1 (1m52.094s, more than 10 seconds off Friday’s best time), the N°28 Ligier JS P2-Nissan in LM P2 (2m4.786s), the N°92 Porsche in LM GTE Pro (2m13.665s) and the N83 Ferrari in LM GTE Am (2m16.396s).

Next up: ELMS qualifying (11:05am-11:50am local time), LM GTE qualifying (12 noon-12:20pm) and LM P1/2 qualifying (12:30pm-12:50pm), followed by the ELMS race (2:30pm-6:30pm).

‘87 BMW R100 – Skrunkwerks

Written by Marlon Slack.

I like just about every bike featured on Pipeburn. From yard-built bobbers, lean café racers and scramblers of questionable practicality there’s always something of merit in their design and execution that warrants a closer look. But there’s a special place in my heart for performance-based bikes built with a singular purpose in mind. Products of consideration, calculation and engineering, often ridden with stupidity paraded as bravery. So today, here’s a real treat – a gorgeous, beautifully thought-out and immaculately crafted 1987 BMW R100 salt racer designed, built and raced by Adrian from Skrunkwerks in Melbourne, Australia.

You might be surprised to know that alongside bourbon, country music and chronic obesity the United States doesn’t have a monopoly of dry salt lakes. Here in Australia we have our own large white dyno in Lake Gardiner, South Australia. Over seven hours out of Adelaide – a similarly isolated area that is also unable to sustain life – our salt lake has a much less predictable climate, an absolutely abhorrent dirt track entry road and no facilities at all. I’m friends with a few people who have made the pilgrimage over the years but I’ve never made the trip myself – being of the demographic that won’t go anywhere without 4G network coverage or easy access to organic fair trade coffee.

This means that only the most dedicated speed freaks carefully watch the weather reports and pack up the four-wheel-drive to make the pilgrimage to the Australian speed mecca each year, leaving casual observers like myself simply turning and tipping a drink in the direction of their noble pursuit five times a day. And after 18 months of planning and building Skrunkwerks joined a throng of like-minded enthusiasts when they finally wheeled this piece of automotive art onto sandpaper-like surface of Lake Gardiner.

Skrunkwerks had big plans for the bike when it was first started in a workshop alongside Supacustom’s Triumph Bonneville that was also being built to break land speed records. The BMW was to have a very heavily worked engine, with Skrunkwerks aiming for 110 horsepower, but due to some last-minute problems this was put aside and a R100 donk already running in his gorgeous café racer was mounted instead. Adrian aims to have the fresh engine ready for a tilt in 2016, possibly with some kind of forced induction. And I’ve no doubt that it will work beautifully.

Because even the back-up engine is nothing to be sneezed at. Producing around 75 horsepower, it runs 38mm Dellorto carburettors, an oil cooler taken from a Bonneville, dual plugs, porting, a CR increase and a few other tricky bits and pieces to get the bike up to speed. Most notable of these is ‘Ramstein’ – the large ram air intakes you see jutting out either side of the engine. Ram air intake systems are finicky, difficult to jet carburettors to and have slim-to-bugger all gains at any speed other than flat-out. To this end the bike also had a set of huge K&N air filters ready to mount if it ran into any trouble at the lake.

A great deal of effort has gone into suspension design, a crucial focus when riding a bike like this far faster than the original maker of the bike or the maker of the rider ever intended. The R100 runs GSX-R triple trees and USD forks at the front while the custom mounting arrangement of the Hyperpro shock marries it to the R1100RT swing arm, and a R1100S bevel drive – required for its taller gearing.

The swingarm lengthens the stock wheelbase by 100mm, with Bridgestone BT45 tyres mounted to the K100 rims on each end. With the fully worked engine, all these modifications add up to theoretical top speeds of over 150mph, thundering along at a max of 9000RPM, all the while combating rear wheel slip – said to be around 10% while running on the salt.

It’s easy to get bogged down into the numbers while missing the sheer beauty of the bike. The fit and finish is immaculate – with some the most beautiful frame bracing I’ve seen on a motorcycle, much of which is laser cut and hidden under the chopped and shut fuel tank. The colours that have been picked are gorgeous, the welding is immaculate and the attention to detail is second to none (look at those guides for the rear brake line!).

Like much of the engine work, the carbon fibre seat and hugger were completed in-house. And I suppose it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, being designed and built by a man who manufactured his own tube bender and dynamometer in his spare time. And here I sit considering my spare time productive if I manage to get through half a bottle of rum and a season of Louie.

For 2015 the R100 was entered into the MPG1000 class – 1000cc pushrod motorcycles that are unfaired and running on pump gas. Acts of God and other tribulations meant that he was to only have two runs on the salt – but still set a top speed of 128MPH (206 km/h) – only 12.6 miles (20.3 km) short of the current record. And all that from a relatively mildly worked boxer engine, which Adrian thinks still had a few more ponies to be let out with some more tuning. That’s academic though as in 2016 the bike will return to the lake with the dedicated salt racing engine he had originally envisaged. Until then the bike will return to his workshop, looking as gorgeous sitting still as it did as a blurred dart across the Lake Gardiner horizon.

via PIPEBURN

‘72 Honda CB750 – Rocker Classic Motorcycles

There any many things in this world that you could class as overdue. Peace in the Middle East, for one. A decent Nicole Kidman film would also be nice. And Nickleback announcing that they are breaking up has been overdue for about twenty years now. But when it comes to us and bikes, there’s been a task on our list that’s been hanging around for ages – and that was to post a bike from one of our first ever sponsors. That company is Brisbane’s Rocker Classic Motorcycles, and this is us crossing that bad boy of our list.

Matt Jones, Rocker’s head quiff, ran us through the build. “The story starts with Nigel, the bike’s owner, calling us up one day and telling us that he wanted a K2 build. Twenty four hours later he turned up, complete with the donor bike and a deposit. If only all our builds were like that. We talked the job through with him and he had a decent idea of what he wanted; in particular he mentioned his love of the ‘Gulf’ color scheme. He also showed us some pictures of bikes he liked, including a few with GSX-R front ends. Naturally, we included that in the budget, too.”

“We’ve seen quite a few Gulf paint jobs around, so we put our heads together to think of a way to tick the box while also looking little different. Once we had that sorted, we rolled up our sleeves and got stuck in. First, the bike was stripped back to a bare frame and all the unnecessary tags, nuts and brackets were removed. Then we welded a nice new rear loop to the frame, and then powder-coated the whole she-bang gloss black.”

“Then the big job of the build was sorted; we sourced an ‘08 GSX-R 750 front end and got to thinking. With the help of a few trick custom bits and a beer or two, we got it to fit the CB frame and look pretty damn decent, too.”

“Next were the wheels. We ordered a set of custom spoked wheels that were hand-built in the USA. To match these, we installed new brakes all round with fresh pads, shoes and rotors to match. Everton Upholstery then hand-made the café racer seat you see here, and we made the rest including the chain guard, oil tank and front guard.”

“We added a lovely set of Gazi shocks to the rear and refreshed the standard Gixxer setup at the pointy end with the customer’s personal settings dialled in. Then to finish, we shortened a Delkevic 4 into 1 stainless steel system for the pipes, added some Tarozzi rearsets and crossed the finish line with some Posh billet indicators. Job done.”

“We’re chuffed to finally get a bike up on Pipeburn, and Nigel was stoked with the result, too. As a matter of fact, he has told us that he’s coming back for another go. This time he says he wants to start with a Trumpy. Bring it on, we say!”

[Photos from Fuel Photography]

via PIPEBURN