Video: 2011 AFM Banquet Film – Death to Second Place

The oldest racing organization in the country dedicated soley to motorcycle road racing, the AFM is a Northern Californian non-profit racing organization that has helped hone the skills of riders like Eddie Lawson, Wayne Rainey, Kenny Roberts, and Steve Rapp — not mention a weekend warrior or two. Each year the racing league comes together for a banquet, and lately the tradition has been to include a highlight film of the year’s racing. I’m not sure what films in the past have been like, but if the latest AFM banquet video doesn’t give you goosebumps, you might want to check your pulse. Bonus points for the including the Versus “Second Place” monologue — it’s very apropos.

Pikes Peak International Hill Climb 2011 – The Ducati Story

Grab some popcorn, because this video from Ducati North America is over 14 minutes long. Telling the story of Ducati at the 2011 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb (PPIHC), DNA has put together a great video that really captures how special the racing is at Pikes Peak, and how gorgeous the scenery is of the Colorado Mountains. With Santa Barbara Ducati’s Carlin Dunne winning the overall motorcycle category on his dealership’s Multistrada 1200 demo model, Alexander Smith from the Spider Grips Ducati Team made it a double podium for Ducati in the 1205cc class. If you’re new to racing at Pikes Peak, or wanted a quick re-cap of last year’s race, Ducati’s video pretty accurately sums up racing on the mountain and the anxiety around last year’s race.

Ducati Announces Pikes Peak International Hill Climb Team with Carlin Dunne & Greg Tracy

Ducati has announced its factory team for the 2012 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb (PPIHC), and the Italian company has secured the services of last-year’s winner and Rookie of the Year Carlin Dunne as well as six-time PPIHC winner Greg Tracy. Ducati has also partnered with the Spider Grips team, who will help prepare the teams Ducati Multistrada 1200 for the “Race to the Clouds” on July 8th. For 2012, the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb will be fully-paved to the top of the mountain, which will surely see the speeds of competitors increase, and lap times drop on the 12.42 mile long course that ends at 14,110 feet.

Cutaway Photos of the Ducati Superquadro Engine

I was flipping through some photos from the 2011 EICMA show, and found these shots of the Ducati 1199 Panigale’s Superquadro engine. Unfortunately at the show, Ducati had its 1199cc v-twin motor behind a Lexan case, which created a bit of a glare, reflections, and of course had smudges from the touchy-feely Italian crowd. But still, the photos give a good idea of what’s going on in Ducati’s most-advanced production engine to date, and are better than just looking at the CAD renders. If you look at the shots very closely, you can almost see where the 195hp and 98 lbs•ft of torque is lurking inside.

AGV, Please Make This Helmet!

In addition to testing the factory Ducati Desmosedici GP12 “Phoenix” this week at Sepang, Valentino Rossi is also trying out a new lid from AGV. Aside from the carbon fiber goodness, and of course the Rossi stickers (which add 5hp & $200), AGV’s prototype helmet sports a noticably pronounced rear spoiler. Tucked in behind the windscreen, it is obvious why the Italian helmet manufacturer designed such a large protrusion off the back of the prototype helmet, as it looks to be clearly helping the flow off the back of the helmet, across the rider’s hump, and down his backside.

2012 Honda RC213V Debuts in Malaysia

While Ducati Corse is busy playing hide-the-Desmosedici at Sepang, HRC is all business in Malaysia this week, and has debuted its 2012 Honda RC213V MotoGP-contender. Honda isn’t saying too much about the RC213V, simply stating that the race bike is all new, but is also a continuation of the company’s design with the 800cc Honda RC212V. Testing the Honda RC213V over the course of last season, reigning-World Champion Casey rode the new 1,000cc machine three times in 2011, while teammate Dani Pedrosa swung a leg over the RC213V twice (missing one test because of injury).

No, This is the “90%” New Ducati Desmosedici GP12

You may have been misled by some eager journalists today and yesterday, if you saw a Ducati Corse livery-clad Ducati Desmosedici GP12 that some sites were passing off as the first shots of the “90% new” GP12. With the alleged new GP12 looking surprisingly similar to the aluminum-framed “GP0″ that was tested at Valencia, Valentino Rossi’s mechanic has now Alex Briggs confirmed that the photos taken were not of the all new “GP12 Phoenix” that the factory team will race this season. While the Ducati lords can taketh away, they can also giveth, and Valentino Rossi himself has posted the first photo of the factory Desmosedici GP12, and the bike is clearly different.

Zero Motorcycles Commences 2012 Model Line Production

Zero Motorcycles has announced the full-commencement of production for its 2012 model line, which is expected to hit dealers in February & March of this year. First off the line was the 2012 Zero DS back in December, though the electric motorcycle company has recently started building the Zero S, Zero XU, Zero X, and Zero MX at its Scotts Valley facility as well. A story we broke back in November, Zero Motorcycles debuted its important 2012 electric motorcycle line up at the 2011 EICMA show in Milan, with the 2012 range being a substantial improvement upon the company’s previous offerings.

The Dainese D-Air Racing Airbag Suit Comes to America

Getting a look at Dainese & AGV’s 2012 collection, Asphalt & Rubber was down in Orange County earlier this week to see the highly anticipated Dainese D-Air Racing leather suit, which has a four liter airbag system that helps reduce the risk of injury during a motorcycle crash. Dainese has been working on the D-Air Racing system for 10 years now, and after soft-launching the airbag suit in Europe, the Italian company is ready to bring the game-changing technology to American soil.

I Love the Nightlife. I’ve Come to Boogie.

Us Danes, we’re a strange breed. From the culture that taught you how to rape and pillage, Scandinavia is making yet another contribution to the motorcycling world with this latest video. Featuring Danish Supermoto Champion Andreas Mikkelsen, we get a RoToR camera-esque perspective (this rig is actually home made) on the Dane’s practice session at the Als Supermotard Club in Denmark. It’s videos like this that are slowly eroding my will-power to resist getting into supermotard riding. Also, I don’t know who was in charge of the music selection on this thing, but my hat is off to him/her. I love the nightlife. I’ve come to boogie.

Spoiler Alert: Hiccup to Its Start, But the Qatar GP Is In The Bag

Mon, April 13th, 2009 @ 7:31 pm, by Jenny GunComments Off
Home » Racing » Spoiler Alert: Hiccup to Its Start, But the Qatar GP Is In The Bag

Spoiler Alert: Hiccup to Its Start, But the Qatar GP Is In The Bag rossi qatar motogp 2009 560x401

After being rained out yesterday, the Qatar GP, at the Losail International Circuit, finally got its green flag today. There was however a good omen to the start of the season, question mark riders Dani Pedrosa and Nicky Hayden made it onto the starting grid and finished a respectable result. We don’t want to give away anymore of the MotoGP season opener, so continue reading for all the spoilers.

It was Casey Stoner who took the top podium spot. The Australian rider had been leading the field all week in the qualifying and practice sessions. There were no surprises then when Casey finished a full 7 seconds ahead of runner-up, Valentino Rossi. It wasn’t all fun and games for Stoner though. A fuel consumption issue had the Australian modifying his style as he streaked out in front, and he explained afterwards that his turning up the heat later on in the race was not a direct response to some fast times coming from rival Valentino Rossi.

“We had a very small problem with fuel consumption, and the team had told me that if it was possible I should run in a way that would help it out. I tried faster corner speeds and riding with higher gears, but from about lap ten it wasn’t enough. I had to change my style again, but there were no problems after that”

Rossi, who finished fifth last year in Qatar, was pleased with his second place finish, saying “Today the conditions of the track were quite different to before and this evening in warm-up we encountered a couple of small problems related to tyres, so our strategy had to change slightly tonight. It’s a pity because I think last night we could have put up more of a fight, but anyway this is a good result to start the season, much better than last year.” Still, we can’t help but think that a 7 second time deficiet burns for a while longer than the trophy ceremony.

Colin Edwards showed that he can maintain his focus on race day, making a respectable fourth place finish, after a poor start. Launching from the starting line seems to be a weakness for the Texan, who has seen too many good grid positions lost rapidly when the green light says go.

Nicky Hayden and Dani Pedrosa did end up making the start of the race, both with injuries that would keep many a rider in the paddock. Dani edged out Nicky by 0.3 seconds to take eleventh place, but considering the shape Hayden was in Saturday, we tip our hats off to him simply for getting back on the bike, despite his team’s protests.

After a strong showing the practice and qualifying sessions, Capirossi was a noticably missing from the race after crashing out 15 laps into the Grand Prix. The Italian lost the front end of his Rizla Suzuki while in third place. His efforts were just barely bettered by James Toseland who finished over a minute down from Stoner’s time, after running wide in turn 1 to build a sand castle in the desert.

It wasn’t the pretiest of races, but at least they got off the line. The next stop for MotoGP is April 26th, at the Polini Grand Prix in Japan.

Results from the 2009 Qatar MotoGP Race:

Pos.	No.	Rider	Manufacturer	Time	Diff
1	27	Casey STONER	DUCATI	42’53.984
2	46	Valentino ROSSI	YAMAHA	43’01.755	7.771
3	99	Jorge LORENZO	YAMAHA	43’10.228	16.244
4	5	Colin EDWARDS	YAMAHA	43’18.394	24.410
5	4	Andrea DOVIZIOSO	HONDA	43’21.247	27.263
6	15	Alex DE ANGELIS	HONDA	43’23.867	29.883
7	7	Chris VERMEULEN	SUZUKI	43’27.611	33.627
8	36	Mika KALLIO	DUCATI	43’28.739	34.755
9	24	Toni ELIAS	HONDA	43’33.465	39.481
10	14	Randy DE PUNIET	HONDA	43’36.268	42.284
11	3	Dani PEDROSA	HONDA	43’42.510	48.526
12	69	Nicky HAYDEN	DUCATI	43’42.867	48.883
13	59	Sete GIBERNAU	DUCATI	43’46.199	52.215
14	33	Marco MELANDRI	KAWASAKI	43’50.363	56.379
15	72	Yuki TAKAHASHI	HONDA	43’54.270	1’00.286
16	52	James TOSELAND	YAMAHA	44’08.962	1’14.978
17	88	Niccolo CANEPA	DUCATI	44’09.012	1’15.028
Not Classified
	65	Loris CAPIROSSI	SUZUKI	13’49.501	15 laps

Source: MotoGP

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Tagged under: 2009, Casey Stoner, Colin Edwards, Dani Pedrosa, James Toseland, Losail, MotoGP, Nicky Hayden, Qatar, race, results, Valentino Rossi

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