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.

Confirmed: KTM 350 Duke in 2013 – Moto3 Inspired 350cc Sport Bike in 2014

Our friends over at IndianCarsBikes.in were in attendance at the KTM 200 Duke launch in India this week, as the Austrian brand launched its somewhat bigger-displacement version of the popular KTM Duke 125. During the press event, KTM talked about the future of the mini-Duke line and its product roadmap for the emerging country, as well as abroad. With the Austrian brand confirming/clarifying that KTM would release a KTM 350 Duke for India in 2013, zie Austrians also confirmed that the KTM 350 Duke would be built locally in India by Bajaj, but would be exported worldwide — allaying fears that the KTM 350 Duke would be an India-only model.

MotoGP: Lorenzo on Poll at Assen – Spies Continues to Impress with 4th Place Qualifying Finish

Fri, June 25th, 2010 @ 4:15 pm, by Jenny Gun1 COMMENT
Home » Racing » MotoGP: Lorenzo on Poll at Assen – Spies Continues to Impress with 4th Place Qualifying Finish

Jorge Lorenzo continues to dominate in a Rossi-less MotoGP, taking his second pole this season while at Assen for the Dutch TT. Also making waves was American Ben Spies, who after taking a third place finish at Silverstone, finds himself fourth on the starting grid tomorrow for the Dutch TT’s Saturday race day start. Lastly, a big shirt-less high five goes to Randy de Puniet for taking his second second-place qualifying in a row. The Frenchman continues to make the Repsol Honda team look bad with his impressive season, and apparently hasn’t gotten the memo that satellite riders are supposed to be slow.

Always humble, de Puniet was quick to downplay his efforts in Assen this week. “Everything is going in the right direction for us and we completely deserved this second consecutive front row,” said de Puniet. “I am still the fastest Honda rider and the top privateer rider in the classification, so this is not just luck!” Unconfirmed reports say that Randy ripped off his shirt after that statement, and began washing the jersey on his abs in the team garage.

For Spies, the attention continues to build around the young American rider, who has consistently impressed MotoGP fans with his acumen for learning GP racing. Spies has been cautious about his performance so far, but doesn’t discount another podium finish this weekend. “Obviously Jorge is a way ahead of me at the front but the fight between third to sixth is pretty close,” says the American rookie. “I’m in that fight and that could land me on the podium. But it could easily be a dogfight and I could end up sixth or seventh. Going into the race though I’m closer than I was with the lap times than Silverstone, so anything is possible.”

Unlike Spies, Lorenzo will play a more conservative game on Saturday. “I will try to escape but if I can’t I will fight for the podium. We can afford to be very calm because of our lead in the standings, but the team and I are still working as hard as we can to keep going at this level; we’re not relaxing.” The only thing that seemingly could lose the Championship for Lorenzo would be a race time crash, which he’ll be sure to avoid tomorrow during the Dutch TT.

Results from Qualifying at Assen for MotoGP’s Dutch TT:

Pos	No.	Rider	Bike	Time	Diff	Diff. to Prev.
1	99	Jorge LORENZO	YAMAHA	1’34.515	-	-
2	14	Randy DE PUNIET	HONDA	1’34.797	0.282	0.282
3	27	Casey STONER	DUCATI	1’34.803	0.288	0.006
4	11	Ben SPIES	YAMAHA	1’34.926	0.411	0.123
5	69	Nicky HAYDEN	DUCATI	1’34.999	0.484	0.073
6	4	Andrea DOVIZIOSO	HONDA	1’35.015	0.500	0.016
7	26	Dani PEDROSA	HONDA	1’35.162	0.647	0.147
8	58	Marco SIMONCELLI	HONDA	1’35.283	0.768	0.121
9	5	Colin EDWARDS	YAMAHA	1’35.393	0.878	0.110
10	41	Aleix ESPARGARO	DUCATI	1’35.593	1.078	0.200
11	65	Loris CAPIROSSI	SUZUKI	1’35.664	1.149	0.071
12	19	Alvaro BAUTISTA	SUZUKI	1’36.344	1.829	0.680
13	36	Mika KALLIO	DUCATI	1’36.502	1.987	0.158
14	40	Hector BARBERA	DUCATI	1’36.569	2.054	0.067
15	64	Kousuke AKIYOSHI	HONDA	1’38.198	3.683	1.629
OUT	33	Marco MELANDRI	HONDA	-	-	-

Top 5 Related Posts:

Tagged under: Assen, Ben Spies, Dutch TT, Holland, Jorge Lorenzo, MotoGP, qualifying, Randy de Puniet, The Netherlands

Comment:

Asphalt_Rubber says:
June 25, 2010 at 11:16 PM
MotoGP: Lorenzo on Poll at Assen – Spies Continues to Impress with 4th Place Qualifying Finish – http://aspha.lt/14a #motorcycle