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Casey Stoner Breaks Shoulder & Leg in Suzuka 8-Hour Crash

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If you will pardon the pun, it’s a tough break for Casey Stoner and his Suzuka 8-Hour debut, as the two-time MotoGP World Champion broke his right scapula & left tibia today in crash that occurred while he was leading the famous iconic endurance race.

Stoner, along with his teammates Takumi Takahashi and Michael van der Mark, took the factory-backed Honda team of MuSASHI RT HARC-PRO to a third-place qualifying position, after the Top 10 team qualifying shootout.

With Stoner at the helm of #634 for his first stint of the day, the Honda team took over the leading position, when the Yamaha Factory Racing Team pitted.

Subsequently, the Australian lost control of the Honda CBR1000RR because the throttle got stuck open, which then caused him to crash into the hairpin turn of Turn 11, which is appropriately enough called “Hairpin”.

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Racing

Video: SERT’s Victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans

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No name means domination more in the FIM Endurance World Championship than the Suzuki Endurance Racing Team, and SERT is currently living up to that hyperbole as the team to beat in the 2015 championship race.

Winning this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans, SERT makes its tally 11 wins out of the last 15 races at the historical French track, with riders Anthony Delalle, Vincent Philippe, & Etienne Masson on the Suzuki GSX-R1000.

So strong was Suzuki’s performance, that the squad’s “junior team” took fourth overall, winning the Superstock class at Le Mans in the process. Helping commemorate that feat, SERT put together a little video for its victories at Le Mans. Enjoy it and the bevy of hi-res photos from the event.

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MotoGP

Bradley Smith & Pol Espargaro to Race at the Suzuka 8-Hour

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The line up for the Suzuka 8-Hour endurance race looks to be the strongest for years. Today, Yamaha confirmed that Monster Tech 3 Yamaha rider pairing of Bradley Smith and Pol Espargaro are to race for the factory entry at Suzuka, alongside Yamaha test rider and Japanese Superbike champion Katsuyuki Nakasuga.

Smith and Espargaro will face Casey Stoner and Michael van der Mark, who will be racing for the Honda factory team.

Rumors that Yamaha were taking their entry for the race very seriously first emerged at Jerez, where paddock gossip had Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo entering the race in the factory team.

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Bikes

Photos: 2015 Suzuki GSX-R1000 Endurance Race Bike

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If there is one team name that is synonymous with winning the FIM Endurance World Championship, it has to be SERT. The Suzuki Endurance Racing Team has won 13 EWC titles in the past three decades, by far the winningest squad on the motorcycle endurance circuit.

Last-year’s runner-up, Suzuki is looking to be back on top for the 2015 season, despite having the oldest racing platform on the starting line — a statement that perhaps highlights the consistency and teamwork that makes SERT a cut above the rest of the World Endurance teams.

Continuing that tradition in 2015 will be riders Vincent Philippe and Anthony Delhalle, who will be joined by their new teammate Etienne Masson.

SERT will test their mettle April 18th, at the 2015 Bol d’Or 24-hour race, but we’ve got a few high-resolution photos of the beautiful EWC-spec 2015 Suzuki GSX-R1000 race bike right here, after the jump.

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Racing

Daytona 200 Gets Online Streaming

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At first it seemed the only way to watch the Daytona 200 was to be there in-person, but DMG has been able to swing a last-minute deal with FansChoice.tv to bring the internet live streaming of the historic race.

Sanctioned now by the American SportBike Racing Association (ASRA), it is not clear at this time what ASRA’s coverage will include, but the green flag drops at 1pm Eastern Time, Saturday, March 14th — commentary, or not.

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Racing

2015 FIM Endurance Calendar Down to Four Rounds

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After releasing initially a five-round provisional calendar, with a sixth round yet to be confirmed, the FIM Endurance World Championship will actually go back to a four-round schedule for 2015.

The announcement coincides with Eurosport Events being named as the series’ promoter, and presumably Eurosport Events didn’t see the advantage of adding a 24-Hour Magny-Cours round to the schedule, along with one of three possibilities in Portual (Estoril), Belgium (Zolder), or Slovakia (Slovakia Ring).

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Racing

Honda Announces Its 2015 World Endurance Racing Team

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HRC continues its bid for an FIM Endurance World Championship, and has reconfirmed its team of Julien Da Costa, Freddy Foray, and Sebastien Gimbert for the 2015 season.

Honda switched strategies in the EWC last year, dropping its “TT Legends” squad of venerable road racers for the current trio of endurance experts.

The plan worked, as HRC finished 7th in the 2014 Endurance World Championship, winning the Oschersleben 8-hour in the process. This was a marked improvement over the 2013 season, where the Honda TT Legends team finished a disappointing 18th overall.

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Racing

Photos of the Top World Endurance Race Bike of 2014

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The 2014 World Endurance Championship was action-packed from round-to-round, and at the end of the season, it was Yamaha Racing GMT 94 Michelin Yamalube team with that surprised the field with 141 championship points (SERT: 104pts, Bollinger 100pts), for the Championship win.

Team riders David Checa, Kenny Foray, and Mathieu Gines finished second at the series opener at Bol d’Or. The team also had a strong 9th place finish at Suzuka, the third fastest full-time team at the Japanese race. At both Germany and Le Mans, Yamaha Racing GMT 94 team podiumed in second place — solidifying its Championship position through consistency.

Left uncleaned from its Le Mans finish, GMT 94’s endurance-spec Yamaha YZF-R1 is off to the museum…the French take the EWC very seriously. You can believe that Honda, Kawasaki, and Suzuki will be looking to give Yamaha a proper run at the Championship defense in 2015.

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Racing

Daytona 200 Lives on with ASRA Sanctioning

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Now that the Daytona Motorsports Group is no longer in control of AMA Pro Road Racing, intrigue has surrounded DMG’s home race, the Daytona 200. An event that usually kicks off the motorcycle racing season in March, the Daytona 200 has been an outlier with its early schedule, endurance format, and technical challenges.

The race always seemed forced upon the AMA schedule, and it required teams who wanted to be competitive to run different equipment and tires than what they were using for the rest of the season.

The limitations on tires ultimately meant that the Superbikes, the premier road racing class, could not compete in 200 mile race, leaving the event for the aptly named Daytona SportBike category, which was a mix of middleweight machines.

With The KRAVE Group now in charge of professional motorcycle road racing in the United States, with its MotoAmerica series, there is little desire to continue the oddity that is Daytona. That hasn’t stopped DMG though from putting on the historic event, which will have its 74th running of the Daytona 200 on March 14, 2015.

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Racing

Yamaha Racing GMT 94 Michelin Wins the 2014 Endurance World Championship

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The 2014 Endurance World Championship has finally come to an end, as this past weekend played host to the Le Man 24-Hour motorcycle race. Winning the 2014 title was the French team of Yamaha Racing GMT 94 Michelin, which also took second place at Le Mans (SERT finding its way to the top podium step).

Yamaha Racing GMT 94 Michelin’s team of David Checa, Kenny Foray, and Mathieu Gines have had a prominent position all season long in the EWC. Finishing second at Bol d’Or, ninth at Suzuka (second among the regular EWC entries), second at Oschersleben, and now second at Le Mans, Yamaha France’s position came about because of sheer consistency.

With Honda, Suzuki, and Kawasaki’s top teams having troubles at individual races (along with Yamaha’s YART squad), Yamaha Racing GMT 94 Michelin showed that true endurance racing is done over the long term. The full 2014 Endurance World Championship results are after the jump.

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Columns

She’z Racing at Suzuka — Game Face, Race Day (Days 3 & 4)

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We are pleased to have Shelina Moreda writing Asphalt & Rubber’s newest column, “She’z Racing at Suzuka”, which will follow her and Melissa Paris’ venture into racing at the Suzuka 4-Hour endurance race later this month.

The American Duo made the first all-female race team at the Suzuka 4-Hour, and campaigned a Honda CBR600RR with the Synergy Force Moriwaki Club team. We hope that you will enjoy the unique perspective that Shelina will be sharing with us. -JB

It’s Day 3 at Suzuka. We had a short practice in the morning and very soon after, I had qualifying. I started out on the bike, got a few laps in, and then it was Melissa’s turn. I got the “Pit” sign on my pit board and came in to the pits, using my pit speed limiter for the first time in a race situation, and we practiced our pit stop. Melissa took off and wrapped up the rest of practice.

My qualifying came quick and it was a short one, I got something like seven laps total, including my out lap and in lap. We tried a bit different of a setup for me this time, handlebars out a little more and the shifter lower, so I was more comfortable.

In an endurance race, the bike has to be set up somewhere in the middle for both riders to be comfortable. We were riding Melissa’s setup, so they made it better for me for my qualifying. Wasn’t much time to get up to speed, but I was at least remembering the track.

When my session was over, I headed to our office and hopped in our big “kiddie” pool on the way, to test it out. The pool is situated just outside the office so we can get in it after our race stints to cool us down. It seemed so cold to me!! but I knew the next day during the race it would feel great.

We didn’t qualify as high as we had wanted, 52nd out of 69 teams, but we were both still getting used to the track and getting up to speed. We also had to realize we were up against teams who have ridden this track before, many locals, and almost all teams were from Japan, so had a home track advantage here.

That said, we knew we had our work cut out for us. Our main goal being to make our team and sponsors proud, race hard and move up. Our team and sponsors wanted to see us finish the race, that was their priority.

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