World Superbike Championship – Round 13 – Portimao, Portugal – Sunday 16th October 2011 Lascorz Equals Season Best As PBM Bow Out In Style Paul Bird Motorsport’s tenure as official representatives of the Kawasaki Superbike Racing Team in the World Superbike Championship ended in positive style as Joan Lascorz posted an impressive fifth in race one at Portimao at the weekend to equal his best race result this season. The young Spaniard had qualified well at the Portuguese track and started each race from the second row but had two less than perfect starts and was made to fight hard to take his third top five finish of his rookie season. Finishing eighth in race two he ended up top Kawasaki rider in the final points table in 11th place, after showing some great consistency as he learned the intricacies of the Ninja ZX-10R along the way. For Yorkshireman Tom Sykes, who gave the team a victory last month in Germany, it was to be a less successful end to the final round of the year. He finished eighth in the first race before a technical issue put him out of race two meaning he ended up in 13th place in the World Championship for the Penrith-based team. Joan Lascorz: “In race one, I lost some rear grip and it was difficult at times then on the last lap Biaggi came past me. But it was a top five placing like at Donington and Aragon which is good. In race two we had the same tyre choice but made a little change in suspension set-up. I did not make a good start again and I think on the first lap I was 12th. Near the end of the race I was a little faster but just not enough to finish any higher than eighth.” Tom Sykes: “We struggled a bit all weekend with front end feel and race one was a big learning session. Badovini passed me in turn one and put me wide and onto the dirty bit of the track so I lost places. It was unfortunate but we had a great start and got up to fifth position at one time. We all know where we need to be and the team has a very good understanding of what I need from the bike. Race two was unlucky for us but that’s racing sometimes.” Paul Bird, Team Owner: “It’s been a privilege to run the official Kawasaki team since 2009 and I’d like to say a huge thank you to the riders, the team, the organisers and our sponsors. We have achieved what we set out to do and that was to win a race on the brand new Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R and both Tom and Joan have done a great job this season. We now are concentrating on other projects and we wish Kawasaki well in 2012.” Results – Race One 1, C Checa (Althea Racing) 2, S Guintoli (Team Effenbert-Liberty Racing) 3, J Rea (Castrol Honda) 4, M Biaggi (Aprilia Alitalia Racing Team) 5, J Lascorz (Kawasaki Racing Team) 6, M Melandri (Yamaha World Superbike Team) 7, M Berger (Supersonic Racing Team) 8, T Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) 9, L Haslam (BMW Motorrad Motorsport) 10, J Smrz (Team Effenbert-Liberty Racing) Results – Race Two 1, M Melandri (Yamaha World Superbike Team) 2, E Laverty (Yamaha World Superbike Team) 3, J Rea (Castrol Honda) 4, C Checa (Althea Racing) 5, S Guintoli (Team Effenbert-Liberty Racing) 6, L Camier (Aprilia Alitalia Racing Team) 7, M Biaggi (Aprilia Alitalia Racing Team) 8, J Lascorz (Kawasaki Racing Team) 9, A Badovini (BMW Motorrad Italia SBK Team) 10, M Berger (Supersonic Racing Team) DNF T Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) Final Championship Standings 1, C Checa 505pts 2, M Melandri 395 3, M Biaggi 303 4, E Laverty 303 5, L Haslam 224 6, S Guintoli 210 7, L Camier 208 8, N Haga 176 9, J Rea 170 10, A Badovini 165 11, J Lascorz 161 13, T Sykes 141 More, from a press release issued by Bridgestone: Australian Grand Prix debrief with Hirohide Hamashima Round 16: Australian GP Post-race debrief Phillip Island, Tuesday 18 October 2011 Bridgestone slick compounds available: Front: Soft, Medium. Rear (asymmetric): Medium, Hard The Australian Grand Prix was won, for the fifth time in succession, by local hero Casey Stoner who in doing so clinched his second World Championship title and the first for Honda in the 800cc era. The weekend started off with fine and dry weather on Phillip Island, in the Bass Straight south of Melbourne, but the temperature dropped and the wind picked up with each day until the threat of precipitation materialised on raceday. Spots of rain wetted parts of the track whilst others were in sunshine making the grip level very unpredictable, resulting in four riders crashing out of contention. The Yamaha Factory duo of Jorge Lorenzo and Ben Spies were both unable to start the Grand Prix due to injuries sustained from separate crashes, and Mapfre Aspar stand-in Damian Cudlin was also sidelined after injury. Hirohide Hamashima Assistant to Director, Motorsport Tyre Development Division How much of a challenge does Phillip Island pose for tyres? “It’s really a very tricky circuit as it’s one of extremes it’s both relatively undemanding and the most severe circuit of the season for the tyres. The ambient temperature is usually quite cool, and even though the track temperature was very reasonable this year, the wind that comes off the ocean has a significant cooling effect on the tyres so warm-up performance is important. For the front tyres, it’s an easy circuit in terms of durability as there’s only really one area of heavy braking, but softer compounds are required to generate good grip. “For the right shoulders of the rear tyres, the circuit is also fairly easy in terms of durability but, again, generating a good level of grip is very important and this is why we used our extra soft compound rubber this year. But the extreme comes in the form of the last two corners that demand an awful lot of the left shoulders of the rear tyres, which experience the highest tyre temperature of the year. This is the reason that we need a special construction of rear tyre for this circuit, as without the suitable level of heat resistance and durability we’d experience blistering and other ill-effects. “Over the weekend, tyre wear was low in all respects other than the left shoulders, where it was quite high because of the temperature. Casey in particular slides the rear a lot at Phillip Island and therein lies some of his advantage, but it leads to a high rate of wear on his rear tyres. So the main challenge for us at this Grand Prix is balancing the need for a very soft right shoulder in the rear tyres with a very heat resistant left shoulder that has sufficient durability for the race without chunking or blistering. We saw signs on the rear tyres of high wear on the left side, but nothing that’s out of the ordinary or what we wouldn’t expect from Phillip Island.” What about the laptimes during the weekend? “Well we selected softer rear slicks for Australia this year for better warm-up performance, and we know from experience that riders will generally always prefer the softer option rear for qualifying as it provides more grip and so is faster. This weekend Casey did dip under the lap record in qualifying, using the softer rear, but there are a few factors that diluted any advantage the softer option may have provided. For a start, the circuit was much bumpier this year which did a lot to slow the riders interrupting the flow of the bike and the tyres into the corners. Also, as ever, the wind was a big factor but on race-day it was particularly strong with gusts above 50kmh, and such strong winds have a profound effect on a circuit that is so flat and open as Phillip Island. Think of it like the effect of wind across a links golf course. Overall I believe the softer compound options were a step forward as even though any laptime improvement was masked, they offered improved warm-up performance as the weather got cooler each day.” More, from a press release issued by Yamaha Racing: Metcher takes the European Superstock 600 title for Yamaha MTM-RT Motorsports Australian Jed Metcher (MTM-RT Motorsports Yamaha) secured his first European Superstock 600 title at Portimao on Sunday, the tenth and final round of the season. In the Superstock class the specification of the race bikes is very close to the model sold in a dealership, this success proves the strength of the YZF-R6 production unit. Three Yamaha R6 machines filled the top five places in the 2011 European Supersport championship standings with Frenchman Romain Lanusse (Team MRS Yamaha) in fourth place and behind him in fifth the Italian Dino Lombardi (Yamaha Martini Corse). Metcher snatched the title with an impressive 150 points, 12 points ahead of Joshua Day in second place. Newly crowned champion Metcher took the lead in the standings on the fourth last round, in Nurburgring and defended this position right up to the grand finale where the fourth place finish was sufficient to comfortably claim the well-deserved title on his powerful YZF-R6. The Australian claimed a spectacular seven podiums out of ten races before concluding the stellar season in style yesterday at the Portuguese track. MRS Yamaha’s Romaine Lanusse led the championship from the second race of the season in Monza but an unfortunate high side crash at the German circuit and at his home round in Magny Cours caused him to lose out on valuable points and a chance to battle for his maiden Championship title. More, from a press release issued by Crotchrocket.tv: Shawn Higbee Wins WSMC Toyota Cup Formula 1 on Crotchrocket.tv, EBR 1190RS Riding the Crotchrocket.tv EBR 1190RS in its WSMC Formula 1 race debut, Shawn Higbee rocketed from a second row start at the Streets of Willow to take an early lead, which he held for virtually the entire 12 lap race. The Crotchrocket.tv EBR 1190RS was literally a street bike 3 days prior to the race. Owner Rob Weaver and Higbee burned the midnight oil to transform the bike into the winning machine. Rob Weaver – “We could have only done this by starting with such a great platform as the EBR 1190RS. I think Erik Buell Racing should say ‘Buy our street bike and get the race bike for free’. It’s really that good off the show room floor. It takes a rider of Shawn’s talent and knowledge to take it that final step. Shawn knows what it takes to win, and how to get it done.” Shawn Higbee – “The first time I rode the bike was at the Motoyard track day on Friday. The power is incredible and the EBR1190RS turns so easily it feels like a 600. Once we were able to get the setup dialed in the bike was phenomenal.” The victory was made sweeter by being the second anniversary of Harley Davidson closing Buell Motorcycles and the beginning for Erik Buell Racing. This grassroots Crotchrocket.tv racing effort received contributions from Buell riders and enthusiasts at BadWeatherBikers.com. Award-winning Buell riders set aside their own rides this weekend to pitch in and serve as pit crew making this a big win for Higbee as well as for the EBR community. Motoyard Track Days, Shorai Power, Traxxion Dynamics, Penske Shocks, Dunlop and Chickenhawk Racing provided product support. Crotchrocket.tv is a video-centric motorcycle entertainment website. Webisodes follow Rob Weaver, who in his late fifties decides to become a motorcycle racer. The site also presents Special Features, Reviews and News related to motorcycles.