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Video: Team Splitlath at 2014 Macau Grand Prix

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They might be better known as Team America at the Macau Grand Prix, since Team Splitlath was comprised of American riders Mark Miller and Brandon Cretu, riding on the American-made EBR 1190RX superbike.

Contesting the last stop on the road racing calendar for 2014, the Splitlath put together a short video about racing at Macau, the challenges they faced there, and the dangers of road racing in general.

Team Splitlath didn’t have their usual results this year as they switched to the Erik Buell Racing platform, with Miller finishing 12th and Cretu crashing out on the 7th lap. But you can be sure they will be back next year. Still, the video is a good watch. Happy Friday!

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Race Highlights from the 2014 Macau GP

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The 48th annual Macau Grand Prix was underway this past weekend, rounding out the 2014 road racing season, all the way on the other side of the world from the normal Irish and Manx roadways.

As much of a spectacle as its European counterparts, the Macau GP is set in the downtown area of the Special Administrative Region of Macu, and is proper elbow-to-elbow motorcycle racing.

A spectacle to see with the tight corners and dense cityscape, we regrettably didn’t cover the race this year due to a communication error on my part with our correspondent (my pay has been docked accordingly).

To try and at least make up for that error, we have for you the video highlights of the race, which Stuart Easton won quite comfortably, bringing his tally of Macau GP wins up to four now.

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Simon Andrews to Ride for Penz13.com at IOMTT

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After sustaining injuries in the FIM World Endurance round at Le Mans last year, Simon Andrews is returning to racing for the 2014 Isle of Man TT in Rico Penzkofer’s paddock. The 29-year-old will be riding a BMW HP4 prepared by the Penz13.com BMW racing team, not only in the TT, but also the Macau Grand Prix and the North West 200.

During his TT debut in 2011, Andrews made it clear he was a serious competitor taking 11th in the Superstock and Senior races while setting a lap record of 125.134 mph, making him the third fastest newcomer of all time.

Add to that a fastest lap time of 126.001 around the TT Mountain Course, and you can start to see why his TT career includes four Top 15 finishes, along with a podium finish in the 2012 Macau Grand Prix where he took third.

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Were These the Luckiest Guys at the Macau GP?

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Proper road racing is a dangerous game, as the spectacle unfolds upon all of the uncertainty that comes with public roads, rather than the controlled environment of a proper closed-course racing circuit.

The competitors you find at events like the Irish road races, the Isle of Man TT, or the Macau Grand Prix are a unique breed to be doing what they do, where they do it; and if you talk to many of them, the prospect of an untimely ending is something that has already been factored into the cost of what that choose to do.

No one goes looking for an early death, of course, but the realities of the situation are ever-present. Just last year, Luis Carreira lost his life while qualifying at the Macau GP, a reminder of how dangerous the armco-laced Guia race track can be for motorcyclists.

Thankfully the 2013 Macau Grand Prix was without major incident, but we did have a close-call on the first lap between Horst Saiger and Marc Fissette. The event’s photographers captured the contact and subsequent crashes with their cameras, giving us a frame-by-frame perspective into what was thankfully just a bad day at the office for these two riders.

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Watch the 2013 Macau Grand Prix Right Here

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What? You mean the 2013 Macau GP wasn’t on your television, despite the fact you get like a billion channels nowadays? And one flying-lap is simply not enough to ease your motolust?

Don’t worry, if you missed the road racing action this weekend in China’s Special Administrative Region, we’ve got your back. Someone in China has broken the Great Firewall, and uploaded the race to YouTube.

The racing is fierce on this nearly four-mile long circuit, and the fairytale ending is worth the price of admission alone. Enjoy over an hour of racing coverage.

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GyroCam: Take a Flying Lap Around the Macau GP Circuit

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The Macau GP is just nuts, let’s just get that thought out and up front. A proper road race on, you know, the road…it boggles the mind to think that competitors at Macau share the circuit’s near four-mile course length with each other, unlike the Isle of Man TT’s single-rider time trial format.

This of course means riders are angling for apexes with each other, all the while there is virtually no run-off to be seen. No margin for error, triple-digit speeds, and 200+ horsepower machines — like we said, the Macau GP is just nuts.

Don’t just take our word for it, have a look for yourself with this excellent on-board footage from eighth-place finisher Didier Grams and his gyros-stablized camera. It’s epic to watch the armco go flying by while this talented German rider does his thing.

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Ian Hutchinson Wins the 2013 Macau GP

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Defying the odds against him, Ian Hutchinson has won the 2013 Macau GP, beating fierce competitor Michael Rutter in the shortened race. Hutchinson took the lead from Rutter on the fourth lap of fifteen, though a crash on the eleventh lap by Dean Harrison brought the Macau GP to an early end.

Thankfully Harrison was unhurt by the crash, though his bike was in the middle of the course, and forced race officials to red flag the race. Despite the premature ending, there can be no question that it was Hutchinson’s day, as the man from Bingley had a solid two-second gap over Rutter.

Coming off an eighteen month recovery period, Hutchinson’s win reconfirms the young Yorkshireman as a true talent in road racing, with today’s Macau GP win adding another impressive entry on Hutchinson’s already illustrious resumé, which includes a clean sweep of the 2010 Isle of Man TT’s five solo-class races.

“It’s probably one of the most special wins I’ve ever had with what’s gone on in the last few years, but hopefully now I can move on to carrying on back where I left off three years ago,” said Hutchinson after the race.

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Ian Hutchinson Takes Pole Position for Macau GP

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The Macau GP is this weekend, and it is already shaping up to be a great event after today’s qualifying. Normally this is a race that Michael Rutter dominates (the Brit has eight Macau GP race wins to his name), but this year sees a new name on the leaderboard at the conclusion of the two qualifying sessions: Ian Hutchinson.

The only man to ever win all five solo races at the Isle of Man TT, Hutchinson was all the talk in 2010, but the Bingly man has seen his last two seasons hampered with tough recoveries from leg injuries.

Though finally healthy, many were beginning to wonder if Hutchy had lost his pace on a motorbike — his performance today on the Milwaukee Yamaha YZF-R1 has ended that talk though.

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American Brandon Cretu Does “150 in the City” at Macau

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Still fairly new to the road racing scene, Brandon Cretu is a three-time Isle of Man TT racer, and for 2012 the young racer was one of only two Americans on the Macau GP grid.

Coming off a big crash at the TT during the fourth lap of the Superbike race, we are still pretty amazed that Cretu made the trek down to Macau, let alone got back in the saddle for another road race this season. Road racers, they’re a special breed apparently.

Slapping some GoPros to his Hel Performance Honda CBR1000RR, Cretu gives another perspective of what a lap around Macau is like (read his race report here).

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Trackside Tuesday: Casinos, Armco, and Road Racing

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Take the Monaco F1 without the glitz and glamor, throw in a Vegas casino or two, add some Chinese culture, with a nod to Portugal, and you have got a rough picture of Macau and the Macau Grand Prix. A former Portuguese colony with gambling revenue that surpasses Las Vegas, Macau remains an anomaly in this area of the world, where conformity to the Chinese central Government is more the norm.

The racing takes place on the 3.8 mile armco lined Guia Circuit, a street circuit with long wide fast straights leading into tight corners that snake past casinos and high-rise buildings. Part of the thrill of watching real road racing is the ability to get up close to the action, sadly that is not possible at Macau mainly due to the tight nature of the track. Spectating is therefore pretty much limited to three large grandstands all within the first mile of the track, unless of course you are fortunate enough to have a media pass.

Given the obvious dangers, it takes a certain breed of motorcycle racer to race at Macau. A glance through the list of past winners reads as a recent who’s who of road racing legends, who between them boast more wins at the Isle of Man TT and North West 200 than I can count. There is even a former World 500cc Champion and multiple World Superbike Champion included in the list.

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Video: Ride the Macau GP with Horst Saiger

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Road racing is mental. I mean real road racing…where motorcycle racers compete on actual city streets, with zero run-off and off-track obstacles abound. Having been to the Isle of Man TT, and seen the Manx course up-close, I can attest to the special breed of rider that chooses to compete in motorcycle road racing events — I dare say I even understand the allure to such an act (you will never, however, see me partake in such a racing event).

Looking at Tony Goldsmith’s photos from the 59th Macau GP though, words fail to describe the lunacy taking place here with the tight and narrow Macanese course. Luckily, my failure as a writer can be overcome through the miracle of technology, in this case: YouTube.

Take 31.25 minutes out of your day, and ride with Austria’s Horst Saiger for all 10 laps of the 2012 Macau GP. Watch him trade corners with Martin Jessop and Conor Cummins on his Saiger-Racing.com Kawasaki ZX-10R in what may be our favorite video of the year, after the jump of course (yes, there is a jump!).

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