A Big Step Forward In Spite of the Crash Kenny Noyes, starting from the pole in only his third Grand Prix. Felt comfortable running at the front for the first four laps of the French Grand Prix at Le Mans. He, eventual winner Toni Elías, and Frenchman Jules Cluzel were running together with in close formation when Kenny suddenly lost the front on the entry to the Museum Corner. There is a slight bump there that has unsettled the Promoharris in practice, but this time it produced a front wheel push that he could not catch. Looking back on the weekend the Jack & Jones by Antonio Banderas left Le Mans pleased with the pole position, the first by an American rider in the intermediate class (250/MotoGP) since John Kocinski started from the pole at the Australian GP in 1990. Kenny has been strong in the preseason and has fought for he lead both in Spain and in France. The strong performance in Le Mans, in spite of the crash, was especially encouraging because with it Kenny has shown that he can be fast on unfamiliar tracks. And the next three races, Mugello in Italy, Silverstone in Great Britain and Assen in Holland, like this race, are on tracks where the Kenny has never raced. The team struggled on Friday but found a good base setting on Saturday for Sunday’s race. The next thing on the “to do list” is to find some needed top speed by working with the aerodynamics. Crash “I got a good start and was comfortable running with Toni Elias. I tried passing him a couple of times but he got me right back so I thought maybe if I sat on his rear wheel the two of us could get pull some distance on the pack. The idea was to sit back and follow, even after Cluzel got into the mix, and not take any risks. “The crash happened on the last curve where there is a little bump where the track has been patched. I had been feeling that bump all weekend and thinking that it could be a problem. I guess this time I was a little quicker when I threw the bike into the corner and it got me. It is a complicated track and without a lot of grip, but the fact is I made a mistake and we left town without points. But all in all it was an important weekend for us. We got our first pole and when I crashed out I was running third and feeling comfortable with the pace. This weekend was a big step forward for us.” More, from a press release issued by Team Suzuki News Service: Michael Laverty used Cadwell Park’s undulating curves to his advantage at round four of the British Superbike Championship, forcing his way up the current standings with a brace of podiums on his Relentless by TAS Suzuki. Laverty is now third in the BSB standings on 101 points, only nine behind second-placed man Josh Brookes with fellow Suzuki pilot Tommy Hill still on top with 146. Alastair Seeley had a character-building weekend, but after struggling with minor set-up and confidence issues after a slip off during Saturday’s Q2 session, the Ulsterman posted solid results inside the top-10 in both races and is seventh in the championship standings on 79 points. Michael Laverty: “It’s been a good day for me coming away with two podium finishes – an almost perfect day, but as a racer I always want to win and it would have been nice to put the Relentless by TAS Suzuki on the top step. I was suffering with arm-pump today and that sort of spoiled any chance I had of the victory, but I’m happy and we’ve now moved up to third in the Championship. I also proved that the Oulton win was no fluke and the team has also done an awesome job for me again this weekend. I really believe we have established ourselves as genuine championship contenders.” Alastair Seeley: “John Reynolds told me weekends like this are character-building and I have to agree. We struggled with set-up early in the weekend and my tip off at Charlie’s in qualifying knocked my confidence a bit, but I’m not making excuses. The boys helped me a lot and we made some changes to the bike overnight, which transformed it and helped my confidence. With only three bikes to a row here at Cadwell it makes qualifying so important. I got beaten-up a bit at the start of race one by Brogie; after that I put the hammer down and picked them off for ninth. In race two I got a better start but took a while to get dialled-in, but seventh wasn’t so bad and we took six-tenths off my best lap from the opening race.” Philip Neill – Team Manager: “From a Championship point of view it’s been a very good weekend for us. As I’ve said before, time and time again, I always knew Michael had these sort of results in him and he was never outside the top five all weekend with his times. And but for the arm-pump problems I think he was strong enough to win that first race: However it’s good for his Championship. “Alastair had a tough weekend but to see him progress from the first session where he was a bit off the pace, and having crashed in qualifying, was very pleasing. He also put his confidence in the team to make some radical changes to the bike before the races today and I was personally pleased to see him set his fastest lap of the weekend in the second race, getting down in amongst the times of the top five. We are now looking forward to the next round which comes after the Isle of Man TT where we will be looking for some more success on the roads.” BSB Race 1: 1.Ryuichi Kiyonari (HM Plant Honda) 2.Michael Laverty (Relentless Suzuki by TAS) +0.497s 3.Michael Rutter (Ridersmotorcycles.com Ducati) +1.877s 4.Tommy Bridewell (Quay Garage Honda) +2.528s 5.Josh Brookes (HM Plant Honda) +5.168s 6.John Laverty (Buildbase Kawasaki) +7.754s 7.Chris Walker (MSS Colchester Kawasaki) +10.072s 8.Martin Jessopp (Ridersmotorcycles.com Ducati) +11.042s 9.Alastair Seeley (Relentless Suzuki by TAS) +11.953s 10. Dan Linfoot (Motorpoint Yamaha) +13.178s BSB Race 2: 1.Josh Brookes (HM Plant Honda) 2.Tommy Hill (Worx Crescent Suzuuuki) +4.398s 3.Michael Laverty (Relentless Suzuki by TAS) +5.675s 4.Michael Rutter (Ridersmotorcycles.com Ducati) +5.921s 5.John Laverty (Buildbase Kawasaki) +10.465s 6.Tommy Bridewell (Quay Garage Honda) +10.731s 7.Alastair Seeley (Relentless Suzuki by TAS) +13.663s 8.Chris Walker (MSS Colchester Kawasaki) +19.568s 9.Martin Jessopp (Ridersmotorcycles.com Ducati) 1 lap 10. Stuart Easton (Swan Honda) 1 lap More, from a press release issued by Tom Tunstall Racing: Tunstall Bounces Back Doodson Motorsport racer Tom Tunstall bounced back from a massive crash at the previous round and series of mechanical issues to score his first Championship points at the British Superbike races held over the weekend. Round four of the 2010 series was staged for the first of two visits to Cadwell Park. Having been knocked off a few weeks earlier the after effects of the crash hampered Tunstall and his Yorkshire based team during the practice sessions, Tunstall explained: “We were on the back foot when we got here, we couldn’t communicate with our electronics system which meant no data logging and we couldn’t adjust any settings. In free practice one the bike was still bent and therefore not handling at all & we were plagued by oil leaks in the third session. As a result was we only managed to do one out of the three sessions and were suffering from the lack of track time. “For qualifying we changed the set-up of the bike and I just worked at getting into a rhythm. All the work started to pay off & I managed to lap faster than I’d done before around here. With sunshine baking the 2.18mile Lincolnshire circuit Tunstall took his 17th place on the grid for the first of Sunday’s two races. Throughout the 18lapper Tunstall continued to build his pace and worked his way through from 21st to 15th and notch up his first championship points finish of the season. Race two saw the Denby Dale rider get pushed back to 23rd in the first few corners and once again he worked his way through the field but this time his progress was halted after Dan Linfoot crashed his Yamaha in the “Mountain” section of the track leaving the organisers no choice but to red flag the race four laps early. “To be honest I’m happy just to get two race finishes under my belt. We’ve had an “eventful” start to the season and I’ve only seen the chequered flag twice out of the first six races! “This weekend as well started tough. The whole team have worked incredibly hard since we arrived and it feels like we’ve finally started to turn the corner. It’s great to get some points and with the four week break before the next round I’m confident we can get the bike back to 100percnet, build on this weekend and come back stronger. The fifth round of the championship takes place at Mallory Park near Leicester on June 25th-27th. More, from a press release issued by Moriwaki: We are pleased to inform you that MORIWAKI MD600 once again got on the top of the podium at MotoGP Moto2 class last weekend in France. Toni Elias, Gresini Racing Moto2 team, onboard MORIWAKI MD600 won the MotoGP Moto2 class at round3 France Grand Prix on Sunday!!! Elias started from 7th in the grid superbly and moved up to the front in no time. He rode consistently through the race while his rivals were leaving the track with crashes. He took his second victory in the class, following the last Jerez, Spain round. Another 2nd-row starter, Fonsi Nieto, Holiday Gym G22 team battled in 4 in a group to get 5th, but finished 8th. Now, Toni Elias moved to the top of the championship standing, and MORIWAKI is narrowing the gap to only 2points to the top of Constructor Championship standing. Once again, it was a great race for MD600. MD600 riders race result: –1st Toni Elias, No.24 Gresini Racing Moto2 team –8th Fonsi Nieto, No.10 Holiday Gym G22 team 14.554sec behind the leader –13th Lukas Pesek, No.52 Matteoni CP Racing team 25.068sec behind the leader –19th Thomas Luthi, No.12 Interwetten Moriwaki Moto2 team 43.180sec behind the leader –21st Vladimir Ivanov, No.61 Gresini Racing Moto2 team 47.761sec behind the leader –25th Yannick Guerra, No.88 Holiday Gym G22 team 1min07.377sec behind the leader –Not Classified Xavier Simeon, No.19 Holiday Gym Racing team 20laps gap More, from a press release issued by sorrymate.com/SMT Honda: No fun in the sun at Cadwell for SMT Honda Round 4 of the British Superbike Championship at Cadwell Park on Sunday proved to be a tough meeting for the sorrymate.com/SMT Honda team with Christian Iddon registering just a solitary 16h place finish from the 2 races held at the sunbaked Lincolnshire circuit. The team were also represented in the Metzeler National 1000cc Superstock class by Karl Harris but he too was out of luck when he lost fourth gear and ran off the track at high speed on the penultimate lap, fortunately escaping injury. Iddon steadily reduced his lap times during the free practice sessions and a 1m30.514s early in the third looked like he’d comfortably make the top 20 in Saturday afternoon’s qualifying session. However, no sooner had he done this lap then he crashed out and with the bike severely damaged he was unable to take his place in the knockout stages. The bike was repaired overnight and he was allowed to start the first race from the back of the grid but his bad luck continued and he was forced to retire with gear selector problems on the 9th lap. He did complete the second race, this time coming through from the penultimate row, and climbed all the way up to 16th, just missing out on a point by 1.17seconds. Harris, meanwhile, who was having a one-off ride with the team, qualified strongly for the 15-lap Superstock race in fifth place and was running in seventh place in the race, right in the midst of a seven rider dice for fourth. However, having lost fourth gear mid way through the race, he was struggling to change down the gearbox and eventually ran straight on at the end of the start and finish straight on the 14th lap. He went down at high speed, fortunately without injury, and was unfortunate to lose out on a good result for both himself and the team. Speaking later, team owner Robin Croft said: “It’s been a hard weekend for us and, sadly, another weekend without points. As like all the other rounds, Christian steadily improved his times throughout the free practice sessions but in the third, he’d only done a handful of laps when he crashed and the damage was too much for us to get the bike repaired in time for qualifying. The team did a great job overnight rebuilding the bike and changing engines and we were given permission to start the two races from the back of the grid but it was always going to be tough from there. Gear selector problems spelt the end of the first race and in the 2nd Christian did as good as could be expected to climb up to 16th just outside the points.” “Karl joined us for a one-off ride in the Superstock class as he’s been struggling to find from and he did a good job for the team all weekend. He was showing well in the race but, unfortunately, he lost 4th gear and that was why he went off at the first corner as he was in 5th and couldn’t change down to the gear he needed. He was riding well and a big thanks must go to Darren at HMG Construction for the loan of the bike. We’ve got a few weeks off now so we’ll look to regroup for Mallory and come back there stronger and look to get ourself back in the points.” The team now have a few weeks to regroup with Round 5 of the series taking place at Mallory Park, Leicestershire on the weekend of June 25-27. More, from a press release issued by MIST Suzuki: MIST Suzuki Robbed of Podium Finish After Mechanical Failure For the first time this season it looked like MIST Suzuki were going to be racing in warm, sunny conditions at Cadwell Park. Sitting just three points adrift of the top of the points table expectations were high for fourth round of the Championship despite being another circuit for Dave Anthony to learn on a SuperBike. First practice went well with the team sitting as top Evo bike until the dying seconds when he was just pipped by another rider who had slipped in another new rear tyre. The reduced grip levels from the increasing temperature for the afternoon session caught Dave out a few laps in and he slid off on a particularly fast part of the circuit. The bike wasn’t badly damaged but it cost valuable track time which is crucial racing at this level. It took a few laps to rebuild the confidence lost in the crash but a new tyre towards the end of the third practice session going faster and in 17th place and 2nd Evo bike. Things were looking good for qualifying but once again the increased grip levels caused problems thanks to our reduced set up time leaving Dave uncharacteristically down in twenty second and fifth Evo runner. A good start in race one saw Dave make up a couple of places on the first lap and he soon caught Tom Tunstall on his high spec. SuperBike had a lot more power delaying his progress for a few laps. Soon both riders caught the next group slipping by Aaron Zanotti and then chasing down and passing Hudson Kennaugh, his nearest championship rival. With clear track ahead Dave chased Tom Tunstall and the two riders soon started closing on the leading Evo bike ahead. Despite posting the second fastest lap of the race and closing in on the Evo class leader it was not meant to be as an engine problem soon put paid to the race and the team’s hopes for the race weekend. Despite having rebuilt the engine before the previous round one of the main bearings in the engine had failed and with no spare it was not possible to start the second race. In typical fashion had it failed at any other point over the weekend there would probably have been time to rebuild the engine from our spares kit, especially as Dave’s lap times from race one would have given him second place in the second race as well. Team Manage Mike Edwards commented “Not our finest weekend but as all the teams have to drop their worst two race results we are still in second place in the championship but we really should have been leading the class the way things were going. Given the crash on Friday and the changing grip levels over the weekend we never really got a good race setup so if this is what we can achieve on a bad weekend I am looking forward to the next round when hopefully we will have some more luck.”. After the race Dave Anthony said “It was a bit of a weekend to forget for us really as we have lost a place in the Evo standings but it was just one of those tough rounds. We struggled a bit with grip and then we had a technical problem whilst running second in the first race which meant we didn’t start the second one. We now have a bit of a break and hopefully we can come back at Mallory Park and be on the podium again.”. The team is now back on the hunt for further sponsorship to allow them to be on the grid when racing resumes after the Summer break. More, from a press release issued by Team Velocity Racing: TVR/EBC Brakes Yamaha Third in Heavyweight Superbike at Miller TOOELE, Utah””For TVR/EBC Brakes Yamaha, Saturday’s six-hour WERA National Endurance Series race at Miller Motorsports Park was a true test of endurance. With only two riders and a limited pit crew, the team rode to a finish of fifth overall and third in Heavyweight Superbike. Chuck Ivey and James Vanderhaar were the only two riders on hand to pilot the No. 131 Yamaha YZF-R1. They spent Friday’s practice session getting the R1 ready for the race around the 4.5-mile Utah track. “We worked hard to get the R1 set up because the temperatures were much cooler this year,” remarked Ivey. “We had to adjust our tire compound and our suspension settings to accommodate the weather.” Strong headwinds on race day proved to be a challenge, as well. “Between Friday’s practice and Saturday’s practice, our brake markers changed because the headwind going into turn one was so strong,” said Vanderhaar. “The wind made setup and gearing interesting, but we consistently had smooth, even wear on our Michelin tires in the race. They performed flawlessly.” Vanderhaar started the race with a fresh set of Michelin tires and EBC Brakes pads, and he held down fourth overall during his stint. The running order changed little throughout the course of the race, as both Vanderhaar and Ivey maintained a top-three spot in class all day. The two riders worked tirelessly, even when it came time to pit. Ivey and Vanderhaar handled tire changes, while veteran TVR crewmember Michael Dunn refueled the R1. “It really was about endurance this weekend,” said Ivey. “The cool temperatures, the wind, only two riders, and a limited pit crew: we faced a lot of factors, but did well with what we were given.” The team’s second entry, TVR136, ran strong in Mediumweight Superbike for the first four hours. Ethan Ellis, Shane Williams and Neill Herbert were third in class before a crash in the fourth hour forced them to retire. The next WERA National Endurance Series race for TVR/EBC Brakes Yamaha will be on July 7 at Michigan’s Grattan Raceway. TVR’s sponsors include EBC Brakes, Michelin, Yamaha, Aiken Motorcycle, XES Leather, MotoHeaven.com, Arai, Vortex, EK Chains, VP Fuels, and Dyno Jet. Keep up with the team’s season and find pictures online at www.TeamVelocityRacing.com.