Things looked dubious reagrding the KTM/HMC Superbike Racing Team competing in the 2012 AMA Pro Racing season, but despite talk of the opposite before the season, the factory-backed squad is now on the race card. Someone must have tipped off KTM that its “Ready to Race” slogan really carried no water in the American street-bike scene unless the Austrian manufacturer actually raced here in the United States. That is just fine by us, as it means that KTM has committed itself to the AMA racing ranks, adding another competitive manufacturer to the struggling series’ roster.
It also bodes well for Chris Fillmore, Stefan Nebel, and the rest of the HMC Racing crew, who were out testing at Homestead-Miami Speedway after the Daytona 200. With Fillmore taking 12th & 14th finishes in the two races of AMA Pro Racing’s first Superbike round, KTM/HMC Superbike Racing is aiming for Top 5 finishes this season, as the squad continues to build its American road-racing program. You can meet the factory-supported AMA Superbike crew in the video after the jump.
There you are, minding your own business while ripping a fat wheelie through the Lincoln Tunnel on your way to work. Unfortunately, you have to stop because the tour bus in front of you, which is probably full of maple syrup loving Canadian tourists, is crawling along at a snail’s pace. You of course change lanes to resume your morning one-wheeled commute, but realize that the guy behind you is carelessly and dangerously driving while filming you with his cameraphone. The worst part? When you ask the jerk for a copy of the video, he doesn’t even send it to you. Gahh!
An amalgamation of three already existing Ducati models, there is nothing surprising about the Ducati Streetfighter 848. A pick-and-pull creation from the Ducati engineering bay, the Streetfighter 848 draws upon the precedence defined by the Ducati Streetfighter 1098, the Ducati Superbike 848, and the Ducati Multistrada 1200.
A mirror image of the more well-endowed Streetfighter 1098, the Streetfighter aesthetic has been in the public eye since its Milan unveiling in 2008. Like its predecessor, the Streetfighter 848 is based off its Superbike counterpart, and shares the six-year old Ducati Superbike 848’s chassis geometry and namesake. At the heart of the baby Fighter is an 849cc Testastretta 11° engine, and as the name implies, the motor features the same power-smoothing 11° valve overlap architecture that first debuted on the Ducati Multistrada 1200, and has since carried forth with the Ducati Diavel.
We have seen before all the elements that comprise the 2012 Ducati Streetfighter 848, and indeed there is nothing revolutionary about Ducati’s latest street-naked, so it begs the question: is the Ducati Streetfighter 848 merely the sum of its parts? Or is it something more? Continue onward as we explore that question further.
Free Practice 2 for the Qatar GP has just finished at the Losail International Circuit, and the speed gap between the prototypes and the CRTs is abundantly clear. One of the faster tracks on the MotoGP calendar, everyone in the paddock knew going into the Qatar GP that the power advantage held by the Ducati, Honda, & Yamaha prototypes would be apparent down Losail’s .664 mile front straightaway. But now after getting to see how the two bike classifications stack up on the same course and on the same day, the results from FP1 & FP2 show a 13.6 mph gap between the tops CRTs to the top prototype GP bikes.
Since we are out in the Palm Desert testing the 2012 Ducati Streetfighter 848 today, we figured we might as well post a bevy of photos of the tiny Fighter. Coming with Ducati’s traction control system (DTC), and an 848cc/132hp version of the Testastretta 11° engine, the Streetfighter 848 promises to be more than just a smaller version of the original specimen. Other changes include a refined chassis as well as the infamous Ducati wet clutch, which some say is better than the company’s iconic dry-clutch design (gasp!). While we put the Ducati Streetfighter 848 through its paces today, and see if all these rumors are true, enjoy the 40+ photos we have for you after the jump.
Things will be a little slow on Asphalt & Rubber today, as we are in the Palm Desert testing the new Ducati Streetfighter 848. We’ll be spending most of the day playing with its revised chassis & traction control, and getting used to the baby Fighter’s wet clutch & Testastretta 11° engine. You can follow our thoughts on the bike live via Twitter, and our last five tweets will automatically display here on this post.
Slowly but surely, Bajaj Auto continues to gobble up pieces of KTM’s stock. Taking its investment position now to just over 47%, Bajaj has acquired another 6.3% of the Austrian motorcycle manufacturer, and is projected to continue acquiring stock in the company.
The second-largest motorcycle manufacturer in India, Bajaj is also the second-largest shareholder in KTM, with KTM’s largest controlling position belonging to Stefan Pierer (KTM CEO) and Rudolf Knuenz (KTM Chairman of the Board), whose combined holdings come to just more than 51% of the company.
If you haven’t caught on yet, the French love them some endurance racing. So, it goes without saying then that Yamaha France is campaigning its own entry into the FIM World Endurance Championship (WEC). Officially titled the Yamaha France GMT 94 Michelin Yamalube Team, the team’s riders are David Checa (yes, the brother to reigining-World Superbike Champion Carlos Checa’s), Matthieu Lagrive, and Kenny Foray.
Getting to use traction control for the 2012 season, Yamaha France has a strong entry for the season, but will have to contend with the Honda TT Legends factory team, as well as the Suzuki Endurance Racing Team (SERT), who have dominated the sport since its inception. Debuting the bike and team at the Bol d’Or 24 Hour race practice, we of course have a bevy of photos for you after the jump. Happy Tuesday.
Roadracing World is reporting that AMA Pro Racing team Attack Performance has gotten the green light from Dorna to enter both American MotoGP rounds as a CRT entry, with AMA Superbike rider Steve Rapp slotted as the rider of the machine. Listed as the machine’s constructor on the entry, Attack Performance is presumably building its own race bike, which is almost certainly to have a Kawasaki ZX-10R motor at its core.
If the team undertakes the next steps in the process of racing in MotoGP, and it is true that Attack Kawasaki is building its own bike, then the team will have a short amount of time to put together a competent race package, as there are only four months until the Red Bull US GP at Laguna Seca.