bwin Grand Prix of the Czech Republic: Karel Abraham ends bad luck streak – finishes ninth Third “top ten” in a row, this time at a circuit where Karel Abraham has never had much success. That is the achievement of the Cardion AB Motoracing team at the bwin Grand Prix of the Czech Republic in Brno. Karel Abraham “Considering all those previous poor race performances in Brno, I’m by and large satisfied that I managed to finish the race and do so in a respectable position. On the other hand, I’m a bit disappointed because I know that my average lap time should have been better by as much as one second. I achieved these times in the qualifying session and I don’t understand why I didn’t do the same in the race. It was not due to track conditions, because my opponents weren’t affected. I have mixed feelings about the bike: grip on the rear wheel was reasonably okay, but I was not entirely confident about the front wheel. I didn’t want to push my luck, because whenever I do so in Brno I end up walking away with nothing. Anyway, too bad I didn’t keep up with the group in front. I could’ve spent the race behind Valentino Rossi or even been battling with him for position.” Marco Grana, Chief Mechanic, Cardion AB Motoracing “There are two ways to look at this result. We’ve managed to complete this tough race, collect some points and made the top ten. The downside is that, based on Saturday’s qualifying session, we could have had much better lap times. Plus, Karel was overtaken by several riders right after the start; he spent a lot of time trying to overtake Elias who had the same bike thereby losing contact with the group in front. Nevertheless, it is our third top-ten result in a row, so feelings are generally positive. Now we have to prepare for the Misano race, which will require a lot of work on the bike.” More, from a press release issued by Kawasaki: Julien Da Costa only two 2 points from the French Superbike title Newsflash, 27 August 2012 It was supposed to be easy, but Julien Da Costa will have to wait a little bit longer and until the last round of the French Championship to secure the French Superbike title that he deserves. Past weekend at the track of Lédenon Da Costa took a second and a third place. He is now only two points from his target, which is the French Superbike title. He is a little bit upset with the result, spoiled as he is with many race wins this season: ‘It’s really frustrating not to win both races, but that’s racing. My goal was to secure the title during this race weekend, but now I will have to wait a few more weeks. The races were not bad but today our contenders were stronger and we have to admit this. Anyway, I’m still leading the championship with a huge 48 points gap, and the 50 points win during the last round are still in the back of my head. I think there is a more tricky situation, the upcoming 24 Hours of Le Mans race. I want to win as well as the whole team, to secure a third victory in a row. It will be a perfect way to prepare for the last Superbike round!’ In the Supersport class, Gregory Leblanc had a partly difficult weekend, having had a small crash in the first race and a victory in the second one. Leblanc: ‘I made a small mistake in race one. I rode on the white line and I this made me crash. Things went better in race two and after four or five laps I could increase my pace and then take the lead to the finish line. As Julien said, we have to be focused on endurance now and I’m sure we will have a big chance to fight for the first spot of the 24 Hours of Le Mans podium.’ Gilles Stafler, Kawasaki SRC team manager, was a bit frustrated but wants to turn things positively : ‘It’s rather frustrating but it’s not the end of the world for sure. For me it could be a positive thing for everyone in the team before the 24 Hours race to stay strongly focused on the target. That shows that racing is not easy and things will not happen as predicted. I really hope now that we will be able to do a strong race in Le Mans and get the result that we deserve.’ FSBK Overall standings after the Lédenon race: Superbike 1. J. Da Costa (Kawasaki SRC Pirelli) 317 points 2. S. Gimbert (BMW) 269 pts 3. G. Dietrich (BMW) 199 pts 4. D. Muscat (Ducati) 163 pts 5. V. Philippe (Suzuki) 161 pts Supersport 1. G. Leblanc (Kawasaki SRC PIrelli) 287 points 2. A. Maurin (Yamaha) 176 pts 3. E. Masson (Kawasaki) 169 pts 4. D. Perret (Yamaha) 151 pts 5. D. Bouan (Yamaha) 140 pts More, from a press release issued by C&H Racing Gets Wet At The ASRA Team Challenge At Summit Point This Past Weekend C&H Racing traveled to their home track of Summit Point Motorsports Park this past weekend for round 7 of the ASRA Team Challenge series. The team just missed an overall podium finish at the previous round when they were 2nd overall after the halfway mark due to a rider error and subsequent low side crash. Team riders, Dennie Huff and Brandon Cretu, were ready to finally get back to Summit Point as it is their home track and they would have friends and family coming to cheer them on. Huff and Cretu both enjoyed success during Saturday morning’s practice sessions with both riders getting back up to speed quickly. They were able to get near their personal bests after having not ridden at Summit Point for nearly a year. Huff showed a bit more pace in practice so it was decided that he would start the 75 lap Team Challenge race on Sunday especially given his superb performance during the first half of the last Team Challenge round at New Jersey Motorsports Park. Sunday would prove to be a tricky situation for every competitor in the Team Challenge series. The weather turned out to be less than stellar with sporadic rain showers coming through the area. The race would be started as a dry race and the track, however green, was dry and safe to ride on with slicks. Dennie got a decent start to the race and maintained 4th overall during the first 1/3 of the race while battling back and forth with another competitor. Huff had to pit earlier than expected for fuel as the team was hoping to make it past the halfway point so they would only need one pit stop. Cretu took point after the first pit stop and as of that moment they were in second overall. Cretu only managed to get 7 or 8 laps in before the race was red flagged due another rider going down in turn 10. It had also begun to rain fairly heavily around the track so the race was red flagged for that as well. ASRA declared the event a wet race at that point and nearly all the competitors made the switch to rain tires. The race restarted in wet conditions with a light drizzle still coming down. Cretu took the holeshot on the start and gapped second place by a few seconds by the exit of turn 9 at the Summit Point Main Circuit. Unfortunately, Cretu’s lack of experience riding a 1000cc motorbike in the rain as well as Summit Point’s less than ideal grip level in the rain would get the best of him by the time he exited turn 10. Upon exit Cretu got on the gas and the rear tire stepped out which tossed him in a less than spectacular high side which saw Cretu sliding down the track and walked away unscathed thanks to his REV’IT! leathers and Bell Helmet. The race had to be red flagged since their C&H Racing Honda CBR1000RR was laying at the edge of the track on the exit of turn 10 and that would also be the end of their race weekend as the bike was not fixable to restart. “I am obviously gutted about this weekend’s outcome. Myself and Dennie both had friends and family at the race since it is our home track. We were doing so well during the first half of the race before the rain. I guess when I got the holeshot on the restart and led the race I let my ambition get the best of me and didn’t wait to get a good feel for riding a 1000cc motorbike in the rain, it is quite a handful especially with the grip being massively different around the track. Luckily I walked away from the crash uninjured so that’s the most important thing.” said Cretu. C&H Racing will not be competing in the final round of the ASRA Team Challenge at Daytona International Raceway in Daytona, FL due to lack of funding so their 2012 Team Challenge season comes to a close after this weekend. “This season has definitely been a steep learning curve coming from a Buell XB12 lightweight bike to a Honda CBR1000RR liter bike. We knew we would have some teething issues but didn’t expect it to be such a challenge especially after a successful test last fall. We are still hungry for better results and we have proven in the past that we can ride a motorbike so after developing the bike this year and working the kinks out of our setup next year will be a different story. We’re disappointed we can’t afford to make Daytona but due to the recent crashes and the fact that we aren’t in the points race we decided it best to regroup and come back strong for 2013. We can’t thank our sponsors enough for their help this year, without them we wouldn’t be able to race at this level and we really enjoy promoting our sponsors products on and off the track.” said Huff, C&H Racing team captain. Cretu and Huff would like to thank their all of their sponsors for their support this year as they would not have been able to compete in the 2012 ASRA Team Challenge Series without their help: HEL Performance, RevZilla.com, Continental Tires, Moto-heaven.com, MOTUL, REV’IT!, EBC Brakes, Bell Helmets, Drippinwet.com, Moto-D, FP Racing, MRP Motorsports, Woodcraft, Supreme Protein, Blue Monkey Motorsports, Zero Gravity, GB Racing, Spyder Leatherworks, Action Motorsports of York PA, NESBA Both Cretu and Huff are looking forward to getting back on their supermoto bikes to do some off season training as well as some other very big news that they will announce in the near future which will see them traveling across the globe for some racing adventures. In the meantime follow them on their website, www.cretu-huffracing.com. More, from a press release issued by Bel-Ray: World Superbike Championship The first race at the new Moscow Raceway in Russia was not so kind to Bel-Ray racers Carlos Checa and Davide Giugliano. Both racers suffered from first race DNF’s but were able to rebound in the second race with fourth and sixth place respectively. After winning the Superpole the day before, Checa had a confident start in the first race. Teammate Giugliano also started well and was into fifth place after the first lap. Unfortunately a collision between himself and (Jonathan) Rea put Checa out of the race. Giugliano would also suffer from an unfortunate incident, as a crash put him out of the race on lap thirteen. The second race was better for the Althea Ducati duo. A solid race for both riders saw Checa earn a fourth place and Giugliano a sixth place finish by the time the checkered flag flew. Both racers spoke about the first-race disappointment and their second-race rebound. “We did what we could and that’s how it went,” said Checa following the race. “In the first race we chose slick tires it would have been impossible to finish the race on rain tires. It was a pity for the crash I was fighting with Johnny (Rea) for the position, he came too close to me, didn’t leave me room and I lost the front when he touched the handlebar. We had to build the bike from the rolling chassis for race two as there were some problems with my bike after the crash. I had similar sensations to yesterday but had real difficulty on the straight it was extremely difficult to pass, or even get close enough to attempt to do that.” “I’m sorry for race one,” said Giugliano after the second race. “I was fast, one of the fastest on track at that point and I didn’t realize in time that the front tire had started to suffer very early on, finding myself on the ground before I could do anything. In the second race I decided to stay calm in the first half and try to control the tire wear but when I wanted to start pushing, from mid-race on, the front tire wasn’t performing and it only got worse in the later stages. I hope that in the next races, with a little less of a straight, we might do better because here you can see that it was very difficult.” With only three rounds remaining in the 2012 series Checa is fourth place and Giugliano is in tenth. The series continues on September 9th at the Nurburgring in Germany. MOTOGP The 2012 MotoGP series continued this past weekend at the Automotodrom Brno circuit for the bwin Grand Prix Cesky Republiky. As the top CRT racers in the series, the Bel-Ray sponsored Power Electronics team of Aleix Espargaro and Randy DePuniet came to Brno as favorites for a top finish. Both racers scored top-ten finishes with DePuniet in eighth and Espargaro in tenth. De Puniet was very happy with the results and progression of the CRT machine this season. “Today went so well that I even managed to pass a number of prototype machines off the line. I am happy, because I think that both the team and I have done a great job this weekend. I stuck behind (Valentino) Rossi at the start and could see that there was smoke coming from his bike on every lap. (Ben) Spies dropped the pace and I kept on pushing. I was praying that the smoke did not mean that the engine would break down completely and leave oil on the track. When the situation stabilized I could focus on my own race. Spies overtook me and I used him as a reference for a while. Soon afterwards he crashed out, so I was left by myself. In practice I had found a fast pace, so I focused on getting back to that and riding strongly to the checkered flag. I am very happy, because I managed to finish as the best CRT rider and cut two points off my teammate’s advantage.” Espargaro retained his lead as the top CRT and spoke about the race following the checkered flag: “I’m a little week from the flu, but in the race I felt more or less ok. The track temperature today had dropped a lot and that affected us. From the start I could feel the bike sliding out a lot. I got a good start, but Randy (DePuniet) escaped straight away. He was just faster than me, taking three-tenths of a second out of my times with every lap. When I got passed by the Ducatis I tried to stay with them, but it was hard to ride with them. On the straight they took off and on the corners I was back amongst (Toni) Elías and (Karel) Abraham. I got as close as I could on the final laps. Toni and I exchanged passes on the last lap on three or four occasions, and in the end I won out. I was expecting a little better from the race, as I thought that we had a little more pace. Still, I am happy to have taken points and to continue to lead the CRT standings.” After twelve rounds of the eighteen-round series, Espargaro is twelfth and DePuniet thirteenth in the overall series standings. MOTO2 The Bel-Ray sponsored Mapfre Aspar duo of Nico Terol and Jordi Torres took promising steps in Brno and scored twelfth and thirteenth place respectively. Terol spoke about the race following his finish. “I am very happy with my performance up until the halfway point of the race. I put up a real fight and wanted to break away with the rest of my group. However, (Simone) Corsi split us up and I think that if I had latched onto the pack more in the early going, I would have had an easier time of it. I had pushed my hardest but hadn’t gained an advantage. I was still having chatter issues today on the front, which distracted me on the final laps. I didn’t know that a large group was coming up behind me and were catching up. We have to be optimistic; we lost places on the last few laps but finished fairly well. I had a good pace going, especially at the start of the race, and we saw that we could ride with the leaders, so we will keep working to battle against them over the next few races.” Torres was happy with his results and achieved his goals for the event. “I had various objectives for this race and I achieved them all. The first of these was to make a strong start and keep my pace up. Thanks to the hard work of the team I was able to run a great pace right from the start and, although I lost a few places off the line, I was able to ride without being intimidated. The other aim was to finish this GP with a good feeling. I enjoyed myself a lot riding and learnt how to control the chatter that hit mid-race. I took a couple of laps to understand the problem, but I didn’t lose any positions. I hope to also find solutions to the lack of pace down the straights soon. The third objective was to get into the points, and I took three today. The team worked extremely hard for all this to happen, so I want to thank them. I am happy with how the weekend went.” MOTO3 Bel-Ray backed Jonas Folger rewarded his new team with a positive victory in Brno. In only his second race for the Mapfre Aspar team, Folger used a tenth-place starting position to reward his new team with the victory. “Today was the perfect race for us,” said Folger following his victory. “I can sincerely say that I had never expected it to be so simple to gain such an advantage in such little time. I made a determined start and decided to push hard when I had moved into the lead. When I noticed that I was extending an advantage, I continued to push for another ten laps in order to create the largest gap possible. The aim was to create a cushion between myself and the other riders and then maintain it, which is what I did for the last seven laps. It was incredible to win this race and I am very happy. It is fantastic to be a part of this team, Jorge Martínez ‘Aspar’ gave me an opportunity and I am trying to repay his confidence in me the best way that I can. Jorge and MAPFRE have got behind me and really taken me to the next level. I have come into the team from a difficult situation, and now I can see that it was worth the suffering to be able to earn this opportunity that I have now.” Folger’s teammate, Hector Faubel, also scored a strong result in this highly competitive class. Despite nursing injuries from his Indianapolis crash, Faubel showed strength and determination to earn an eleventh-place finish for his efforts. Speaking at the end of the race, Faubel had this to say. “When I let off the clutch at the start, the bike began to slide. Once I’d got to the first corner I was swamped by other riders and found it hard to gain positions. After passing various riders I picked up a solid pace until I reached (Sandro) Cortese, (Isaac) Vinales and (Luis) Salom. As the laps went by I began to notice a sharp pain in my back which distracted me. It was a pity to have missed out on a positive result because of not being 100% fit. I felt good this weekend and we had a good grid position, but in the race I was unable to perform as I would have liked. I feel bad, because the team has worked excellently this weekend and I wanted to thank them with a good result.”