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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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).
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 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.
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.
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.
This is great, but it would be even better if it were a BMW factory backed bike. They just can’t expect to have a strong showing without factory support. I’d like to see them prove me wrong though.
Looks great! These new rules will at least give us a small connection with bikes we can buy off the show room floor. Bing it on!
Jenny, you bring up an interesting point. What if a team develops a chassis around a particular production engine as a claiming rule team, and then the maker of that engine decides to enter the series with a 1000cc prototype? Does that affect the claiming rule team’s status? What if the manufacturer just gives the claiming team money but no technical support?
Can a manufacturer supply hot rodded production engines to the claiming rule teams or do the engines have to come from a 3rd party shop? Aprilia, BMW, MV Agusta, they could all supply engines in lieu of entering a prototype. Or they could use a production engine in a prototype chassis of their own design.
Dorna is going to have a can of worms on their hands.
John,
We talked to Hervé Poncharal, head of the IRTA and Team Manager to Tech3, about that. He basically said that CRT teams will be judged on the level of involvement given to them by manufacturers. So if BMW gives Suter money, or helps develop the motor for the them, then they’re no longer a CRT. Plain and simple.
I don’t think having the manufacturer in the series will change anything. They can’t run a production motor, and they can’t help the CRT’s.
so effectively this will become a 2 championship series.
If CRT’s vs Factories. Now if BMW gives info and tech to Suter but does not fund the venture per se is he still a CRT?
We do CRT racing in michigan for circle track. You can run certain small block V8′s. If you podium your engine can be purchased for 500 bucks no questions asked less accesories. This cuts out cheating, and big money motors. It just so happens that everyone in the series runs a chevy motor.
So if I run a BMW and Tech 3 yamaha and gresini a Honda and someone else a Kawa and aprillia there is no reason to CR anyones engine the similarities are not there.
This is a Prototype series, get rid of bore stroke and cylinder restrictions, keep a min weight limit high enough to exclude exotic materials. remove fuel control aids, limit rider aids to wheel spin and ABS no more gyros, and telemetry setups or corner to corner trac. control.
That will slightly reduce costs.
Make the series follow a pattern. Phillip ISle. Japan, China, east north europe, USA(Indy, Houston, Miller, Guna) England, Spain Italy france.
No more qatar, japan, europe China Usa europe usa europe.
Some common sense is needed.
Also tell the stuffy heads that its ok to eat rice all week to be able to afford tires and gas to the next venue. Thats what makes people nuts about racing. If the money and support comes back to GP to buy 1000 a night hotels then so be it if not it will slowly disappear.
Jenny,
So the production motors will have to be developed by the CRTs or come from 3rd party shops like Yoshimura. Or can it? Everybody knows about Yoshimura’s ties to Suzuki. Would that disqualify me from running a GSXR1000 motor in a Suter chassis? Can Ten Kate supply CBR motors?
Have they specified what a production motor is? I haven’t seen anything, but I haven’t looked too hard either. The reason I ask is what if an engine maker (e.g. Cosworth) wanted to offer engines to the CRTs? I’m guessing they’d have to run as a factory prototype even though they aren’t really a factory.
I’m not poo-pooing the idea of CRTs or the new regulations, I’m just trying to figure out how people can game the system. I’m smarmy like that. I rather like the idea of the CRTs. It makes the field more like Moto2 or the old bike F1 class. You get more chassis/engine combos and more companies involved. More players = more fun.
Steveo,
The CRTs still won’t put too much money in their motors because they know somebody else will claim it if it’s too fast. The claiming team may not be able to use it, but they’ll keep the original team from using it, too.
Speaking of claiming, do claimed motors count against your allotment? I should hope not.
The issue at point is factory involvement, which includes both money and information. Teams are certainly going to have to turn to tuning shops for motor development, and at the end of the day I guess its going to be how involved that shop is with the factory.
Yoshimura does do a lot of work with Suzuki, but I don’t think there’s any actual ties to the company (I could be wrong on that point).
The same could be said of Erion Racing. They’re well known Honda tuners, but no actual affiliation with Honda N.A. beyond some joint racing efforts (RLH Moto2 being the latest).
Cosworth would be free to enter as a CRT team…they’re not a motorcycle manufacture.
Remember this is a claiming rule, teams are only going to develop the bikes to the point they’re worth…otherwise some team would buy their engine for the preset price.
I understand the purchasing end of CRT’s but still drop a supposed 25K on a motor that has little in common with the motor you are running makes little sense.
The cost of a motor in prototype or production prototype is in the development IE cam profiles, compr ratio. porting, pocketing. Once the pattern is found costs drop significantly Albeit still rediculously expensive.
So I run a kaw. suter runs a BMW I claim Suters motor, they just build another one, I can’t use it and they can’t. If they get another allotment then they get a fresh slug and I have a really nice technical conversation piece.
I know that a ton of development would not go into this but still
2nd what prevents a factory from running a production GSXR motor highly modified and not CRT status or are they limited to a non production block only?