Why, a lot like this of course. We love the sound of v-twins in the morning.
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Qualifying ended today at Infineon Raceway, with nearly all the riders improving on their times in the day’s later qualifying session. While all the entrants will get to compete in the race regardless of whether or not they qualify, the two outings for Saturday gave us a preview as to what we can expect on Sunday’s race. As we’ve mentioned before, the Zero/Agni motorcycle looked very strong with Shawn Higbee at the helm.
Also looking confident was the “flying banana” fielded by Lightning Motors. Piloted by Michael Barnes, Barney took the yellow lightning machine around the course at a pace that was just seconds off what Higbee & Co. were lapping. We know the yellow bike has a lot of power on-board, and could give Zero a run for their money if they’ve been sand-bagging it during the practice sessions. Finishing out the top three was Thad Wolff and his stunning Norton, which blended a little bit of old with new with his streamlined retro bike chassis. Click past the jump for photos from qualifying and a full list of results.
TTXGP hit American soil here at Infineon Raceway today, with two zero-emission practice sessions under its belt for the day. Although dubbed an historic moment, today’s big winner probably wasn’t the sport of electric motorcycle racing, despite ZeroAgni put on a strong performance during the practice sessions. At the helm of the ZeroAgni bike was AMA privateer Shawn Higbee, who looked the part on the former Team Agni Isle of Man bike. Higbee was carrying tons of corner speed, and was the only electric sportbike rider to lap the course at near sportbike speed, and to really go the distance lap-wise.
Yamaha Motor Company is reporting a ¥7.5 billion ($80.9 million) net profit for its Q1 2010 numbers, which is a marked improvement over the tuning fork brand’s ¥15.8 billion ($169 million) loss in Q1 of last year. Sales for Q1 this year were up 16% compared to last year, for a total of ¥309.9 billion ($3.3 billion) in sales. Volume was also up for the brand by 26%, with Yamaha selling 1.6 million units worldwide. Despite these strong numbers, both sales in Japan (-14%)and the United States (-57.5%) fell for Yamaha in Q1 of 2010.
The Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, better known to many simply as the Imola race track, has received approval by the FIM this week, and will be allowed to host FIM sanctioned events this year. This is good news for the Italian track, as it’s slated to play host for World Superbike testing June 28th-30th, and is hosting a WSBK race the week of September 26th, which would have caused a huge disruption in the WSBK schedule if the facility hadn’t gotten the organization’s rubber stamp.
Oberdan Bezzi has clearly been dreaming about Ducati entering the off-road/mixed terrain market recently. The Italian designer has already come out with a Ducati dirtbike and Ducati supermoto, and now adds to that collection with a Ducati scrambler, dubbed the Desmoscrambler.
Here’s an interesting one for you marketing mavens. Harley-Davidson has tapped Marissa Miller to help promote its Nightster series of motorcycle, which isn’t really news. After all this isn’t the first time that a blonde beauty and a motorcycle have been paired in marketing photoshoot, and it also isn’t the first time that Miller has posed for the Milwaukee brand: she was also the company’s spokesperson for Harley’s “Military Appreciation Month” campaign.
The real interesting aspect of this campaign is the fact that Miller comes from a family of motorcyclists, and is a Harley-Davidson rider herself. While some chalk this up to clever publicity statements, it could be a sign there’s some blood still pumping in the Milwaukee marketing department afterall. What better way is there to get women to enter a male dominated industry than with an uber-feminine sex symbol who still manages to maintain all that sex appeal while riding on one of the most recognizable symbols of our industry? Photos from the shoot, and a behind the scenes video after the jump.
As we get ready for TTXGP’s first race in the United States this weekend (and apparently the AMA is racing with them too, who knew?), more details are emerging about what we can expect from Sunday’s race. Our operatives caught Team ZeroAgni and K² out at Thunderhill last week, and saw a modified Zero S (K²’s entry), and a GSX-R piloted by Shawn Higbee taking laps around the track. With the GSX-R clearly not TTXGP legal, we were left to speculate what AMA privateer Higbee would be riding at Infineon, and now we know: it’s the inaugural TTXGP winning bike from Agni Motors (you can see the bike re-painted above, with it’s noticeable “tank-plank” protruding).
In order to get ready for MotoGP’s stop at Le Mans in two weeks, Yamaha France has released a special promotional package and four (both in variety and total production) race replica motorcycles on its website. We’ve already seen the American Fiat-Yamaha R1 LE, with its race livery and fake Rossi signature, but the new race rep’s from Yamaha France will feature paint schemes from both the Fiat-Yamaha and Monster Tech3 Yamaha teams. For the added €1,000 price tag the race replica’s demand, they’re actually a pretty good value, especially when compared to the American YZF-R1 LE. More on that after the jump.
The marketing folks at Red Bull sure know how to make great videos, and this latest one promoting trials rider Julian Dupont is no exception. Taking to the streets of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, Dupont leaves no rail un-ground, no wall un-scaled, and no wheel un-lofted. We don’t know if we’d have the courage to ride like this in the country that invented the Uzi (and trained all its civilians on how to use it), but that’s probably why we’re not a top Freestyle & Trial X rider sponsored by Red Bull. Video of the hooning after the jump.
OmniMoto has a great piece on some KTM R&D engineers who built the fabled KTM Supermono during their off-work time. The project, which wass not supported by KTM, centers around a KTM 690 Duke motor and modified Duke/RC8 chassis. With about 80hp coming from the single-cylinder motor and its cloth-on-carburetor airbox, this RC4 wannabe looks very appealing on paper with its 140kg (308lbs) weight.
The entire front section of the motorcycle is off a KTM RC8, sans one brake disc for added weight loss. The Austrian-loyal have been clamoring for some time now for a KTM Supermono, and if it looks and sounds as good as this, we’d like one in our garage as well. Check out OmniMoto’s post for a bevy of photos, and bring Google along if you don’t parlo italiano.
Source: OmniMoto