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Currently...we are running two Sunday Race Leagues in GTR2. A bog standard league and a mod league. All welcome. We have a Monday Night fight night at the moment...against our friends and rivals UkAc, these nights have proved to be a really good laugh and a lot of hard work to stay alive...hehe, again ALL are welcome to come and join us. Announcement
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Spies equals Polen at Kyalami
| Saturday, 16 May 2009 19:22 |
 
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 Ben Spies (Yamaha World Superbike) powered to his sixth successive Superpole triumph at the Kyalami circuit in South Africa, equaling the long-standing record set by his fellow Texan Doug Polen (Ducati) in 1991. The session at Kyalami was one of the most exciting seen so far this season, with a two-way battle between the two Monza winners, Spies and Michel Fabrizio (Ducati Xerox). The outcome was decided in the final seconds, when the Texan responded to his Italian rival, setting quickest time by just one-thousandth of a second, the smallest margin ever recorded in Superpole history.
Third and fourth places on the front row for tomorrow's two races went to Max Biaggi (Aprilia Racing) and Noriyuki Haga (Ducati Xerox). The Italian, who again recorded the top speed of the day at 251.8 km/h on his RSV4, capitalized on his final run to jump up from seventh to third. For points leader Haga, fourth place can be considered an excellent result because the Japanese rider was almost eliminated in the second knock-out phase, but just managed to make the cut by a whisker from Shinya Nakano (Aprilia Racing).
Ben Spies: "It was a good Superpole session for us, although it hasn't all gone well. After qualifying we had to look in the mirror and get our stuff together but we've been improving the bike all weekend and I got down to some very fast times on race tyres. I had both qualifiers for the last Superpole but they had so much grip that they were definitely changing the bike and I never could nail one lap but luckily we were able to get it today. It wasn't perfect, but it was good to get the six in a row. I think we have a very good package but it'll be a very tough race and for sure there'll be a lot of sliding around tomorrow."
Michel Fabrizio: "I really thought I'd taken the pole but unfortunately Ben beat me by a thousandth of a second. In any case I'm really happy with the way things are going this weekend. I've got a good race pace, let's see if we can do a couple of good races tomorrow, for sure they'll be other guys up there with us, including Nori, as there are a lot of riders who are quick out there. At Monza I really enjoyed myself with the win, for sure here it'll be even more fun because there are a lot more curves than Monza for overtaking."
Max Biaggi: "It's good to be back on the front row again and I'm very excited for that. In the qualifying we've been running comfortably at a good pace. When we put soft rubber on, things were coming better but we had to solve some real problems and that made the chattering high. For the race we will do some little modifications, but the bike is working well compared to the winter tests so hopefully for tomorrow we can continue this way."
The second row line-up sees an impressive Jonathan Rea (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda) in fifth place, and he will be flanked by the best of the privateers, Jakub Smrz (Guandalini Ducati), his Hannspree Ten Kate team-mate Carlos Checa and Tom Sykes (Yamaha World Superbike). South African rider Sheridan Morais put in a good performance for eleventh place on the Kawasaki ZX-10R machine vacated temporarily by Makoto Tamada, while Suzuki and BMW struggled, with Yukio Kagayama and Ruben Xaus down on the fourth row of the grid.
Times: 1. Spies B. (USA) Yamaha YZF R1 1'37.288; 2. Fabrizio M. (ITA) Ducati 1098R 1'37.289; 3. Biaggi M. (ITA) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 1'37.466; 4. Haga N. (JPN) Ducati 1098R 1'37.544; 5. Rea J. (GBR) Honda CBR1000RR 1'37.634; 6. Smrz J. (CZE) Ducati 1098R 1'37.677; 7. Checa C. (ESP) Honda CBR1000RR 1'37.940; 8. Sykes T. (GBR) Yamaha YZF R1 1'38.241; 9. Nakano S. (JPN) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 1'37.935; 10. Haslam L. (GBR) Honda CBR1000RR 1'37.988; 11. Morais S. (RSA) Kawasaki ZX 10R 1'38.013; 12. Kiyonari R. (JPN) Honda CBR1000RR 1'38.081; 13. Kagayama Y. (JPN) Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K9 1'38.130; 14. Byrne S. (GBR) Ducati 1098R 1'38.171; 15. Xaus R. (ESP) BMW S1000 RR 1'38.194; 16. Lavilla G. (ESP) Ducati 1098R 1'38.733
World Supersport
Cal Crutchlow (Yamaha World Supersport) powered to his fifth successive Supersport pole with another spectacular last-minute effort around the Kyalami circuit. The points leader, running third until the final moments of the session, ended up top of the pack with a time of 1 minute 40.634 seconds, the revised circuit's new benchmark. This season the only rider to get the better of Crutchlow in qualifying has been Kenan Sofuoglu (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda) in Australia, and the Turkish rider once again gave Crutchlow a run for his money at Kyalami. The gap between the two however was over three-tenths but Crutchlow was the only rider to get under 1'41. Two more Honda CBR machines made up the front row of the grid, the Parkalgar version of Eugene Laverty in third, and Andrew Pitt (Hannspree Ten Kate) in fourth. Spain's Joan Lascorz (Kawasaki Motocard.com) looks to be a competitive interloper on his ZX-6R machine, confirming his and his bike's early season form, while alongside in sixth can be found the best of the Italians, Michele Pirro (Yamaha Lorenzini), also a possible candidate for a podium finish tomorrow.
Times: 1. Crutchlow C. (GBR) Yamaha YZF R6 1'40.634 ; 2. Sofuoglu K. (TUR) Honda CBR600RR 1'41.003; 3. Laverty E. (IRL) Honda CBR600RR 1'41.161; 4. Pitt A. (AUS) Honda CBR600RR 1'41.396; 5. Lascorz J. (ESP) Kawasaki ZX-6R 1'41.558; 6. Pirro M. (ITA) Yamaha YZF R6 1'41.563; 7. Foret F. (FRA) Yamaha YZF R6 1'41.603; 8. Aitchison M. (AUS) Honda CBR600RR 1'41.699.
Repsol Honda rider heads the grid at Le Mans
 Pedrosa in pole position at Grand Prix de France
Saturday, 16 May 2009
Repsol Honda rider heads the grid at Le Mans after an exciting MotoGP qualifying session at Le Mans.
In-form Spaniard Dani Pedrosa snatched his first pole position of 2009 right at the death of Saturday afternoon’s MotoGP qualifying session at the Grand Prix de France as the riders got the chance to give it full gas on a dry track.
With Le Mans typically experiencing four seasons in a day morning rain gave way to afternoon sunshine, with provisional pole changing hands several times, before Pedrosa made it his own with a best effort of 1’33.974 on his final lap, to take first spot by a 0.005s margin.
The factory Honda rider who appears to be getting stronger every time he gets on his RC212V at present, following an injury plagued winter, will be joined on the front row by fellow Spanish rider Jorge Lorenzo (Fiat Yamaha) and Casey Stoner (Ducati Marlboro).
Valentino Rossi made improvements as the session went on, his final position of fourth being a significant step forward having lapped eleventh fastest on Saturday morning.
Rossi’s compatriot Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda) and his former team-mate Colin Edwards, who briefly held provisional pole in the session, will line up behind him on the grid.
The third row will feature Rizla Suzuki pair Chris Vermeulen and Loris Capirossi who both qualified within a second of Pedrosa, at a track where Vermeulen took victory in 2007.
The top ten was rounded off by Italian competitor Marco Melandri (Hayate Racing) and home rider Randy de Puniet (LCR Honda) who both bounced back from crashes in the hour-long session.
The weathermen have suggested that there is an 80% chance of rain on Sunday at the time of the fourth MotoGP race of the year.
Button makes it three wins from four in Bahrain
Jenson Button made it three wins out of four for Brawn GP in Bahrain on Sunday afternoon, with a finely judged performance that stretched his world championship score to 31 points.
Before the race the Englishman had suggested that Brawn’s domination was under threat. But when Red Bull dangerman Sebastian Vettel lost out at the start as McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton burst through to momentarily separate the Toyotas, Button was able to squeeze round the outside of the German in Turn One and was thereafter never threatened by him.
It was just a matter of waiting for the Toyota to make their stops (leader Glock on lap 11, polesitter Trulli on lap 12), and thereafter he only lost the lead after his own first stop on lap 15 (regaining it on lap 22 when Vettel and Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen stopped), and after his second stop on lap 37, when Vettel again moved ahead for three laps.
Far from challenging, the young German had his hands full looking after his tyres in traffic, and as Button sped away the Red Bull driver had to contend with a strong challenge to the end from Trulli. A day that started well for Toyota ultimately yielded a podium finish, but after both cars started from the front row that had to count as a disappointment. Trulli blamed a long middle stint on the prime Bridgestone tyre which let Vettel pass in the final stops.
Hamilton quickly faded after his KERS-assisted start, but nevertheless ran strongly to a good fourth place for the improving McLaren team.
Rubens Barrichello had an up and down afternoon in the second Brawn with three pit stops, and grabbed fifth ahead of Raikkonen, who thus scored Ferrari’s first points of the season, having led laps 20 and 21 after a long opening stint. The Finn actually fell behind Glock when the German made his second stop, but used his KERS to squirt past into a sixth place that the Toyota driver challenged to the flag. Fernando Alonso completed the points scorers in eighth for Renault, fending off Nico Rosberg after the latter’s final stop.
Felipe Massa had a terrible afternoon after an extra stop to check damage sustained in first-corner traffic at the start, and could only finish a lapped 14th. Ahead of him were Nelson Piquet who drove a strong race for Renault, Mark Webber who charged from the back of the grid for Red Bull, Heikki Kovalainen who never recovered from a terrible start for McLaren, and Toro Rosso’s Sebastien Bourdais.
Behind were Giancarlo Fisichella, who collided with the Ferrari briefly and then held up Button on the 51st lap, his Force India team mate Adrian Sutil, Sebastien Buemi in the second Toro Rosso, and the BMW Saubers of Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld which had a simply dreadful time with an initial heavy fuel load. Williams’ Kazuki Nakajima was the sole retirement, after a clash with Kubica.
Button now has 31 points from Barrichello on 19, Vettel on 18, Trulli on 14.5 and Glock on 12. Brawn have 50 points, to Red Bull’s 27.5 and Toyota’s 26.5. Ferrari got their points tally off the ground, and have three.
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