|
|
6th Yamaha Race Training Sees Biggest Turn-Out Yet in Valencia
11 April 2008
Last week at a sunny Ricardo Tormo circuit in Valencia on Spain’s east coast, a gathering of Yamaha racing teams and riders from thirteen countries occupied thirty-one pit-boxes at the MotoGP venue to take part in the sixth edition of the distinguished YRT (Yamaha Race Training) programme. Fifty teams and one hundred and one riders from national Supersport standard to FIM Superstock 1000 level meant that over three hundred personnel filled the site. The objective was to improve the participant’s understanding in terms of the technical set-up and tuning of the 2008 YZF-R6 or the 2007/2008 YZF-R1 for Supersport, Superbike and FIM Superstock competition.
|
|
|
|
Gowland & Kallio Hope For Higher
09 April 2008
The end of the opening day in the third round of the World Supersport Championship at Valencia sees the Benjan Racing’s Graeme Gowland and Vesa Kallio provisionally line up in 15th and 21st respectively on the grid for Sunday’s race.
|
|
|
|
Best Yet For Lavilla At Valencia
07 April 2008
Paul Bird Motorsport rider Gregorio Lavilla got to ride his 2008 Vent Axia VK Honda Fireblade in anger for the first time this weekend at the World Superbike Championship round in Valencia and set an immediate season best of seventh in race one. The Spanish rider followed that up with eleventh in race two, and he now sits eleventh overall in the championship, with 32 points. He is the second highest Honda rider in the rankings, two points ahead of his old BSB rival Ryuichi Kiyonari, and has scored in every race so far.
|
|
|
|
Win For Roberts At Opening Round
07 April 2008
Australian Brendan Roberts got his season off to a fantastic start this weekend in Valencia securing the first win of the season. Riding once again for the Ducati Xerox Junior Team in the Superstock 1000 FIM Cup on the Ducati 1098R the youngster dominated the weekend’s proceedings. Setting the fastest time in all but one session, he qualified in pole position, his first since 2006, setting the fastest lap during the race and confidently taking the race win.
|
|
|
|
Walker Makes Up Time for Ninth
07 April 2008
After having to wait 40 minutes extra for their race to take place because of track repairs the Kawasaki GIL Kawasaki WSS competitors each ended their Spanish race weekend in the points. Chris Walker was disappointed after qualifying 14th on the grid, but made up places as he found that he suffered from less problems with the Valencia track surface than some other riders. He was even as low as 16th until he found his confidence and then he had an inspired ride to ninth.
|
|
|
|
Laconi & Tamada In the Valencia Points
07 April 2008
Two 23-lap races allowed the PSG-1 Kawasaki Corse Team’s riders to compete for strong top ten positions in Spain, during round three of the World Superbike Championship. Régis Laconi scored an eighth place in race one today and followed that up with a second race ninth place to overtake his team-mate Makoto Tamada in the championship standings. Tamada was ninth and then a non-finisher in race two after a crash caused by eagerness to pass an opponent and get to a higher position.
|
|
|
|
Bridewell Top Brit At Valencia
07 April 2008
Wiltshire rider Tommy Bridewell celebrated a day of success in the Suzuki GSX-R European Cup when he finished in seventh place in today's race which supported the World Superbike Championship meeting at Valencia. The 18 year old from Etchilhampton qualified on the second row but his hopes were immediately dashed as he got a bad start aboard the Team GB machine and he ended the opening lap down in 13th place.
|
|
|
|
Haga Wins & Corser Scores A Podium
07 April 2008
Yamaha Motor Italia WSB Team rider Noriyuki Haga could not have had two bigger contrasts in his raceday at Valencia, taking a superb win in the second 23-lap contest, but crashing out of the opener at high speed. His team-mate Troy Corser was rewarded for a consistent first race ride with a podium finish in third, and then went on to score a fighting fifth in race two. Corser's podium came in a race where 20 riders finished and there were many high profile incidents. Corser was a lonely third eventually, some seven seconds from the win. Haga crashed out of race one, losing the front at the first corner on lap four as he tried to make up for qualifying 10th in Superpole.
|
|
|
|
Foret 2nd At Valencia, Parkes Second On Points
07 April 2008
Fabien Foret secured a battling second place for the Yamaha World Supersport Team at Valencia today in a delayed race at the 4.005km circuit in Spain. In addition to Foret's podium, which looked unlikely after he suffered a big crash and slight concussion on Friday, his team-mate Broc Parkes went second in the championship overall by taking fourth place after a solid race. Although neither rider felt that they had the perfect set up to maximise grip on the ever-changing Valencia circuit, each was able to secure important points on yet another day when many of the pre-season favourites made no scores.
|
|
|
|
Corti Fifth After 13-Lap Thriller
07 April 2008
Yamaha Motor Italia Junior Team rider Claudio Corti scored a strong fifth in the first race of the 2008 season, after an exciting three rider fight for the last podium place that lit up the final few laps of the race. Corti, now also a test rider for the Yamaha Motor Italia World Superbike Team, took his near-stock Yamaha YZF-R1 to the limit in the final few turns, but in a contest that could have went any of three ways he finished just behind Xavier Simeon and Alessandro Polita.
|
|
|
|
Frustration For HANNspree WSS At Valencia
07 April 2008
The third round of the World Supersport Championship at Valencia was a frustrating event for HANNspree-supported riders after the second round podium clean sweep at Phillip Island. Gianluca Nannelli was the highest finishing HANNspree rider in fifth place, while HANNspree Ten Kate Honda’s Jonathan Rea was the second highest finishing HANNspree rider in sixth.
|
|
|
|
Pirelli Race Review Valencia
07 April 2008
The third round of the season for the Championship and the first with a full paddock at Valencia. After the first two overseas races the two ‘Stock’ classes started and the paddock was back to its full vitality. The good weather at Valencia allowed the riders to exploit their Pirelli tyres to the full, even on Friday, and records were broken. In the SBK class Max Neukirchner, in the SSP Andrew Pitt and even in the two Stock classes: there were new track record in all the classes and several more riders were under the previous records.
|
|
|
|
Noyes Wins, Ortega Leads
06 April 2008
Spanish resident Kenny Noyes continued his domination of the opening round of this year’s Suzuki GSX-R Cup at Valencia with a faultless start to finish victory in the 11-lap race. Despite strong winds, he controlled the race from the front and ran out the winner by over four and a half seconds.
|
|
|
|
Wins For Lanzi & Haga In SBK Round 3 At Valencia
06 April 2008
Lorenzo Lanzi (RG Ducati) and Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia WSB) took the wins in a spectacular day of action at Valencia in front of 60,000 spectators, a record attendance for World Superbikes at the Spanish circuit. Carlos Checa (HANNspree Ten Kate Honda) and Max Neukirchner (Suzuki Alstare) were the protagonists of the first race. Neukirchner led every lap from pole position until the final corner, when Checa dived inside, but the Spaniard crashed and took his German rival down with him. Neukirchner suffered a broken left collarbone in the incident and failed to take part in race 2, while Checa remounted to finish fifth.
|
|
|
|
Max Robbed Of Debut Win At The Last Corner!
06 April 2008
Alstare Suzuki rider Max Neukirchner was heading for his first ever World Superbike win, but was taken out on the last corner on the last lap of the first race today. He had led the race from the start and even though Carlos Checa (Honda) closed in on his rear end on the last lap, Max was in front as they entered the last turn. Then Checa tried an impossible manoeuvre up the inside of Max and his rear wheel hit Max, causing both of them to crash.
|
|
|
|
Third Round Thrills At Valencia
06 April 2008
The 2008 HANNspree World Superbike Championship continued with the third round at Valencia today, where Lorenzo Lanzi and Noriyuki Haga clinched a win apiece in the two 23-lap races. The eventual first race saw many of the series frontrunners struggling to get to grips with the Spanish track. Tyres and set-up caused problems for several riders Yukio Kagayama, Haga and Michel Fabrizio all failed to complete race distance.
|
|
|
|
Gowland Runs Top Six & Kallio In The Points
06 April 2008
Brit Graeme Gowland proved his talent in the World Supersport race today at the Valencia circuit after running in the top six before a mechanical brought an end to his day whilst his Benjan Racing team mate Vesa Kallio once again scored valuable points. Gowland produced a good start on his Honda CBR600RR when the lights went out and moved into 10th position. Gowland stayed in the top 10 in the early laps before moving up to 6th after overhauling Katsuaki Fujiwara and then fellow Brit Jonathan Rea.
|
|
|
|
Still Misfortune For Team Triumph-SC At Valencia
06 April 2008
Once more a bad day which completed a week end to forget for Team Triumph-SC at Valencia circuit, third round of World Supersport. Garry McCoy and Ilario Dionisi race just a few laps before to stop. The Roman guy crashed at the second lap, while McCoy got a brilliant start, but has beel forced to stop for technical problems.
|
|
|
|
Fujiwara Close To The Front Row In Qualifying
06 April 2008
GIL Kawasaki competitor Katsuaki Fujiwara was only one-thousandth of a second from a front row start after qualifying in fifth position for Sunday’s Valencia WSS race. Fujiwara’s best time of 1’37.232 was set on the first day of qualifying, as the higher temperatures on day two at Valencia prevented him from improving his lap time in the final session of timed practice.
|
|
|
|
Tamada 12th In Spanish Superpole
06 April 2008
Two dry days of qualifying saw each PSG-1 Kawasaki Corse rider, Régis Laconi and Makoto Tamada, qualify with ease for the Superpole session, with Tamada eventually finishing up 12th on the grid. Tamada had also found himself 12th going into Superpole but on qualifying tyres he set a weekend best of 1’34.930 in the final one-lap contest that determines the front four rows of the grid, putting down a good marker for raceday.
|
Tags: 
