KENAN SOFUOGLU WITH SIDI SECOND IN THE HOLLAND GP On the Assen circuit the Turkish pilot takes the first podium of his career in the Moto2 category A pleasant satisfaction for the Sidi colours came from the track in Assen. On Saturday, June 25 the Turkish pilot Kenan Sofuoglu (Technomag-CIP) nabbed an excellent second place in the Grand Prix in Holland in the Moto2 race which was won by Spain’s Marc Marquez. This is the first podium ever in this category for this Turkish champion, who is turning out to be one of the great talents in the Sidi stable of pilots. This important result has increased the Turkish pilot’s confidence in the Moto2 category, which he comes to after brilliant performances in the Supersport category where he won two world titles, in 2007 and 2010. Even though Sofuoglu is an expert rider, he’s considered a rookie in this category, since it’s his first real season in Moto2 not considering the two races in 2010 in which he was called upon as a replacement for the unfortunate Japanese pilot Shoya Tomizawa, who died in an accident during the GP race in San Marino. This result is also especially sweet for Sidi, since Assen has always been considered one of the most difficult circuits in the world, and it’s the only speedway where the world motorcycle GP has raced uninterruptedly since 1949. On the podium Sofuoglu was wearing his Sidi Vortice boots, number one when it comes to speed on the track. More, from a press release issued by FTR MOTO: FTR AND ANDREOZZI UNBEATEN AT MISANO FTR MOTO took a double victory in rounds three and four of the Italian CIV Moto2 Championship as 19-year-old Alessandro Andreozzi continued his impressive form with two more wins on his M211 in each of 18-lap races at the Misano circuit on the Adriatic coast. Andreozzi won Saturday’s race by four seconds from Davide Fanelli before a dominant win in Sunday’s second race with a winning margin of nine seconds over Danilo Marrancone. The wins also rocketed Andreozzi to the top of the Championship table, opening up a lead of nine points over Marrancone with four of the eight rounds remaining. Federico D’Annunzio on the second of the FTR machines followed up his eighth place finish on Saturday at Misano with fourth place on the IODA Team machine, narrowly missing out on a second podium finish of the year after being third in the Misano opening round in early April. FTR’s Steve Bones commented: “Since his non finish in the opening round of the year at Misano Alessandro Andreozzi has never looked back, he’s now won the last three rounds is fast becoming a favourite for the 2011 inaugural Moto2 title in Italy. “We’re really pleased with the way the FTR Moto2 machines are working in the national championships, especially in Italy, and the performance of Andreozzi will hopefully continue and take FTR to a first Championship title.” Round five of the Italian Championship is at Mugello on July 23. More, from a press release issued by Yamaha: Historic Win for Spies in Assen MotoGP Ben Spies kickstarted Yamaha’s 50th Anniversary of Grand Prix racing in style, delivering a flawless performance at the Assen TT to claim his first-ever MotoGP win on Saturday, June 25. Spies’ win now vaults him to sixth in the championship standings. Although overshadowed by Spies’ breakthrough win, Yamaha Factory teammate Jorge Lorenzo also delivered a true champion’s performance after being taken out by Marco Simoncelli on the first lap. Lorenzo quickly remounted and charged from the back of the pack to finish an amazing sixth. The result adds 10 points to Lorenzo’s championship tally and he heads to the next round in Mugello, Italy 28 points behind leader Casey Stoner. Meanwhile, Monster Yamaha Tech 3’s Colin Edwards finished seventh and Cal Crutchlow finished 14th, and the pair now rides in ninth and 14th in the standings, respectively. Spies was on form all weekend, delivering a consistently fast race pace in all sessions, whether wet or dry, and only Simoncelli beat him in qualifying and that was by a mere 0.009 sec. But a great start in the 26-lap race saw the Texan lead from the very first corner, quickly building a sizeable gap over rival Stoner, which he extended to over 7.6 seconds by the checkered flag. Unfortunately for Lorenzo though, after qualifying fourth, the chaos of the first lap saw Simoncelli high-side directly onto the defending world champion, sending them both to the ground. Amazingly though, Lorenzo’s YZR-M1 was still raceable, and he was able to restart and put in a really gutsy top-six ride. But the day was all about Spies, the victory made even sweeter with the Texan’s M1 wearing a special red-and-white paint scheme honoring Yamaha’s grand prix heritage. “It was a strange race today as it was one of the most comfortable races we had and it resulted in a win,” Spies said later. “I saw the Simoncelli crash on the TV screen in the corner of my eye so I knew about it. I had good feeling in the bike in the first couple of laps and pushed as much as I could to get a gap. When Casey was pushing back I still had a few tenths if I needed it, so I knew we could match his pace. Wearing Yamaha’s 50th colors added a little bit of pressure this weekend but it came out good! I have to thank my guys they gave me a great bike today. At least we’ve won a race now!” More, from a press release issued by Bridgestone: Dutch TT debrief with Hirohide Hamashima Round 7: Dutch TT Post-race debrief TT Assen Circuit, Tuesday 28 June 2011 Bridgestone slick compounds available: Front: Soft, Medium. Rear (asymmetric): Medium, Hard Wet compounds available: Front: Soft. Rear: Soft The Dutch TT marked the first MotoGP victory for Yamaha’s Ben Spies, who becomes the tenth rider to win a premier class Grand Prix on Bridgestone tyres. Conditions all weekend made running very difficult indeed: the track temperature was a significant 29 degrees Celsius cooler than last year during the race, rain interrupted running every day and left the circuit very greasy, and an oil spill from the Moto2 category on Thursday cancelled the afternoon’s running and although it was cleaned up, it didn’t help track conditions. Hirohide Hamashima Assistant to Director, Motorsport Tyre Development Division There was a great deal of talk of tyres all weekend. Firstly, what can you clarify what happened on Friday? “Friday morning was the first dry running the teams got after the rain on Thursday, so it was the first day that riders used our slick tyres. We selected the same slick tyre compounds this year as we used at Assen last season, because our data and rider feedback suggested there was no reason to change. Track conditions on Friday morning were so bad though. Not only was the temperature cold but the track was slippery from the rain and I believe that some oil still remained from the spill, and that contributed to the riders feeling that grip was so bad on Friday morning. Riders requested a solution to their difficulty in warming-up the left side of the rear slick tyres at midday on Friday. Initially their request was for us to cut the slicks on the left side, which we were prepared to do, but finally there was no consensus between the riders so we were unable to proceed with this measure. “Then we made a proposal of our own to bring a new rear slick tyre specification from our base in Germany overnight in time for warm-up and the race. This new specification featured a softer left shoulder, using our extra soft compound, so would have directly assisted with warm-up performance in this area. The right shoulder meanwhile was still the same medium compound as used in the original specification, which was performing well, so performance in this area would have remained the same. “We were loading the truck in Germany, after the FIM asked all the teams and riders for their opinions and told us that the proposal was well received, however later on Friday evening we were informed that there was no unanimous agreement between the teams so we were unable to change the tyre allocation. Some riders didn’t agree because they didn’t feel there was a safety issue with our original compound selection. In the conditions we saw in the race on Saturday, I think the revised slick tyre specification we proposed would have been beneficial for the first few laps in terms of warm-up performance, but of course the trade-off of this would have been reduced durability over race-distance.” In the race a few riders, especially Crutchlow and Edwards, experienced high front tyre wear. Why was this? “We have seen that most riders usually prefer the harder spec front slicks as they have improved stability and wear resistance, and can be pushed harder through a corner and resist graining. However, seeing as conditions for the race were so cold and slippery, almost all riders chose the softer option front to be safe. The trade-off of the improved low temperature grip provided by the softer option is that it is more susceptible to graining. Bike setup and riding style also play a significant role in tyre performance and extracting the maximum performance from the tyres. Certain rider, bike and tyre packages were more severe on our front tyres, and as soon as a situation leads to the front tyre starting to grain, the issue gets increasingly worse. “Assen has been resurfaced and remodelled many times over the years and so as a result it has a mix of tarmac, some of which is smooth and some abrasive. On the abrasive sections, especially through the long and fast right-handers, the wear resistance of the front tyre was really tested. For most riders it was not a problem, but clearly Colin, Cal and Andrea had a problem with front graining and wear rate.” Is there any more news about the vibration Dovizioso experienced during the race? “Andrea’s rear tyre had no problems we have examined it and there was nothing out of balance with either it or the wheel, and nothing to indicate that the rear tyre was the cause of the vibration. Rather, all the signs point to front tyre graining being the cause of the vibration that Andrea felt through the bike. Basically, as the rubber grained, the right side of the tyre became slightly uneven, or not perfectly smooth, and this is what caused the vibration.” More, from a press release issued by CayloR-Made Motorsports: CayloR-Made Motorsports Romps at Road Atlanta! The CayloR-Made Compound was in full force this past weekend during a WERA Sportsman Series event held at Road Atlanta in Braselton, Georgia. Opie Caylor led CayloR-Made’s charge by winning the Expert Heavyweight Solo 16, on his Dunlop-shod Suzuki GSX-R1000, on Saturday. Opie did it again on Sunday when he won both Formula One Expert and Open Superstock Expert. Turning laps as quick as 1:28.6, Opie’s margin of victory was over ten seconds in each race. CayloR-Made sponsored rider Ian Coleman was on the gas all weekend and it showed. Ian rode his One-Nut Racing GSX-R750 to wins in Novice Heavyweight Solo 16, B Superstock Novice and B Superbike Novice. CayloR-Made’s Dave Krier came from the last row of the E Superstock Novice grid to take a solid second place finish in only his second ride on a CayloR-Made Ninja 250. After post-race tech, Dave was met by members of the CayloR-Made Compound on pit road to switch out bikes. Senior Superbike Novice was up next and Dave would again grid up on the last row but would be riding his ex-Vincent Haskovec 2004 GSX-R750. Dave got an excellent launch off the line and made it into second place by the end of lap one. On lap two, Dave made an aggressive outside pass on the leader in turn one. From there, he put his head down and continued to open the gap until the checkered flag, winning his first Senior Superbike Novice Race in only his first try! CCF Office Solutions’ Fred Turner took a hard fought third in the Senior Superbike Novice, while Derek Mugge finished second in Clubman Novice. Caylor-Made racer Ron Gaither on his Opie Caylor-prepped 07 GSX-R750 completed his first-ever WERA weekend at Road Atlanta on Sunday with a 5th place finish in the Senior Superbike class, a 6th place finish in “B” Superbike Novice, and on Saturday Ron also had a 5th place finish in the Heavyweight Novice Solo. Ron was able to break into the top 5 as a provisional novice racer in his first WERA race. Ron stated that, “Cracking the top 5 was hard to do coming from track days, but it’s a little more manageable when you have a bike that you trust and the advice of Opie Caylor to get you around Road Atlanta.” Ron started out a typical track day guy, but later spent enough time hanging around Marietta, Georgia’s Caylor-Made Motorsports that he started racing. “You hang around a barber shop long enough, you’ll get a haircut,” said Gaither. Ron Gaither is also a lawyer in Atlanta with the law firm of Taylor English Duma LLP and Caylor-Made Motorsports is his client. Taylor English is a full-service law firm composed of the region’s most experienced, results-driven lawyers. Taylor English’s model is purpose built around their clients, including Caylor, and designed to seek new opportunities for them. Saturday’s Heavy Weight Solo race was probably the first time a lawyer and his client were gridded up together for a WERA race. Opie Caylor finished that race with a monster wheelie down the front-straight away passing his lawyer on one wheel. Huge thanks to Dani Mugge, Dan Neeves, Eric Douglas, Kenny Johnson, Marcus Dorsey, Richard Jaggers, and all the friends and family who came out to support the CayloR-Made Compound!