The 2010 Castrol/Honda Day of the Champions classic meeting scheduled for Zwartkop Raceway on Sunday, January 31 will see 18 International racers up against former South African champions from "the golden age of motorcycle racing".

Heading the visiting contingent will be eight-times World champion Phil Read and seven-times Isle of Man TT winner Mick Grant as well as Alan Walker, Sir Alan Cathcart, John Chapman and Tony Salt.

Perhaps the fastest will be 2009 Isle of Man Senior TT winner Steve Plater who set a record average speed of more than 210km/h.

The South African contingent will include Dave Petersen, Alan North, Buks Boshoff, Howard Mellet, Jerry Anassis, Jimmy Guthrie, Kevin Hellyer, Keith Zeeman, Les van Breda, Peter Ekerold, Rodney Gray, Wayne Duncan and Wayne Heaseman.

Six-times SA champion on four wheels Ian Scheckter will return to his racing roots with a rare outing on two wheels.

Honda SA's Yoshiaki Nakamura, a works rider in the 1970's, will race a Honda RC171 and will launch a special edition of the TT-winning Honda Fireblade.

The Historic Motorcycle Group will resound with such great names as Norton, AJS, Bultaco, Greeves, Triumph and the screaming Hondas, Suzukis and Yamahas of the 1960's.top.DisplayAds('SquareAV',19,759);

The Yamaha World Superbike Team has unveiled its racing livery for its 2009 YZF-R1 bikes to show sponsors the "war paint" for the upcoming season.

The team now belongs to Yamaha Motor Europe so has been renamed The Yamaha World Superbike Team. New riders have been hired - three-times AMA Superbike champion Ben Spies and promising Briton Tom Sykes.

Both are new to World Superbikes but have already proved to be fast and highly competitive in pre-season testing.

"The design and livery of the 2009 YZF-R1 perfectly complements the impressive performance already achieved in pre-season testing by the team," Yamaha says.

It features the the iconic "speedblock" design and Yamaha's official racing blue. "The livery will have immediate resonance with fans the world over."

The 2009 bike has technology from the world-dominating M1 MotoGP bike ridden to victory in 2008 by World champion Valentino Rossi. They include a crossplane crankshaft engine and a unique uneven firing order that, Yamaha says, gives linear torque and greater traction.top.DisplayAds('SquareAV',19,759);

Kawasaki has just notified MotoGP's owner Dorna Sports that it is pulling out of the series, effective immediately. The move is likely prompted by a combination of Great Depression 2.0 and the team's lack of success in motorcycle racing's premier class. Marco Melandri is likely to be hardest hit, he'd hoped the 2009 season with Kawasaki would revive a career left in tatters after his disastrous experience with Ducati. "I can only hope that when I wake up on January 1st it is all a nightmare," Melandri told Autosport. Kawasaki is expected to make a public announcement on January 5.

Michel Fabrizio notched up the quickest time with his factory Ducati 1098F09 on the opening day of Pirelli tyre development testing at Kyalami (South Africa). The winter tests are being used by almost all the top manufacturer teams in preparation for the 2009 FIM Superbike World Championship, which gets underway in Australia at the start of March. The Italian powered to a superb time of 1 minute 41.204 seconds, a tenth of a second under the unofficial circuit record set by Colin Edwards (Castrol Honda) in 2002 during the last edition of the South African round, which returns to the calendar next year on May 17th.  

“I’m really pleased because it’s the first time I’ve lapped on this track”, declared 23 year-old Fabrizio, who is about to embark on his second season with the Italian factory team. “I feel sure can go even quicker, I’ll try and do so in the remaining two days.”

Another major surprise was second place for Yamaha Motor Italia’s American rookie signing Ben Spies, who ended up just a fraction behind. “I like this track; it’s almost like some AMA tracks and it’s not too technical, not that difficult to learn, but I was having a lot of fun riding on it. We were most interested in trying out the bike in hotter track conditions than in Portimao. The handling is good; the engine comes in really smooth exiting corners and it lays the power down well. Top end makes no difference in that situation and the engine really drives well from low down”, commented the 24 year-old Texan, a new face on the Superbike scene in 2009.  

It wasn’t a particularly good start on the factory Ducati for Noriyuki Haga, ex-Yamaha, who crashed three times on his debut with the 2009-spec Italian machine: the first after colliding with Jonathan Rea, the others due to a couple of mistakes, but the Japanese rider did manage to set fourth quickest time.

Max Biaggi arrived in the circuit late at lunchtime, after the other riders had already had four hours of track time, due to a series of never-ending problems with his flight, which began on Monday evening and which lasted 36 hours instead of the scheduled 12. Despite this Aprilia’s new signing however did manage to get up to seventh place, 1.2 seconds off the pace, and just behind his equally impressive team-mate Shinya Nakano. “I really like the RSV4, today we just got warmed up, we’ll see where we can arrive in the remaining sessions”, declared Biaggi. Both Troy Corser and Ruben Xaus were not far off the pace either on their first day of testing with the new BMW S1000RR machines, the Australian in a respectable ninth place and the Spaniard in tenth.  

Day 1 times:

1. Fabrizio (Ita-Ducati) 1’41”204 (66 laps)
2. Spies (Usa-Yamaha) 1’41”599 (46)
3. Neukirchner (Ger-Suzuki) 1’41”713 (69)
4. Haga (Jpn-Ducati) 1’41”730 (31)
5. Kagayama (Jpn-Suzuki) 1’41”755 (39)
6. Nakano (Jpn-Aprilia) 1’41”846 (51)
7. Biaggi (Ita-Aprilia) 1’42”446 (29)
8. Kiyonari (Jpn-Honda) 1’42”744 (62)
9. Corser (Aus-Bmw) 1’42”975 (33)
10. Xaus (Spa-Bmw) 1’43”274 (41)
11. Checa (Spa-Honda) 1’43”418 (10)
12. Rea (GB-Honda) 1’44”496 (16)
13. Sykes (GB-Yamaha) 1’46”780 (16)

Back in October this year, Norton had been revived once more, with UK businessman Stuart Garner buying the rights to the Norton brand and setting up a new factory and office complex for Norton near Donington Park.

The company is now supposed to be working on all-new streetbike – probably to be called Commando – which will be launched in 2009. In the meanwhile, Norton have also announced they’re coming back to race at the Isle of Man next year. Robert Dunlop’s son, 20-year-old Michael Dunlop will race a Norton NRV588 rotary-engined bike at the IoM TT in 2009.

‘This is a fantastic opportunity to make history with Norton's return to one of the world's most famous races. It means a lot to me as I will be following in my father's tracks, as he finished third on his JPS Norton when he competed in 1990,’ says Michael.

Steve Hislop won the Senior TT on a rotary-engined Norton F1 back in 1992, and Norton have been absent from the Isle of Man ever since. The NRV588, which Michael will be racing, is actually an evolution of the old F1 and has been developed by Brian Crighton and the Spondon team.

Valentino Rossi, the Italian MotoGP World Champion and hero went to Maranello to drive the red Ferrari Formula 1 car. Valentino, riding the Ferrari with the number 46 on the nose, set an incredible laptime of only 1.5 seconds slower than Kimi’s fastest laptime. He rode the F1 model 2003 to start and the fastest laptime from Valentino of the day was 1.22.500. That compares to Kimi Raikkonen’s time with the 2008 model of 1.21.070. After the test, Teamboss Domenicali said that Valentino would have been an excellent F1 driver, but he chose a different road.

Casey Stoner underwent successful surgery on his wrist on Thursday, at the Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria Policlinico in Modena. Antonio Landi, Specialist in Orthopaedic Surgery and Hand Surgery, was assisted by arthroscopic specialist Dr Luigi Pederzini and by Dr Norman Della Rosa.

Using arthroscopic surgery, two floating bodies were removed from the area of the styloid process of the ulna bone (lower arm).

Stoner was treated for pseudoarthrosis on his left scaphoid before the removal of a staple (which was inserted in Stoner's scaphoid during an operation in 2003), and a bone graft using the Herbert Bone Screw System, which is designed to promote early active motion.

Stoner wanted to give his personal thanks to the medical team and also to Ducati Corses trusted consultant, Prof. Fabio Catani from the Rizzoli Hospital in Bologna, who has provided crucial advice and support over recent months, helping to set up the operation with the team led by Dr Antonio Landi.

The Australian was discharged this afternoon and will begin his rehabilitation over the next few days on his return home to Switzerland.




Wanker

Kawasaki Motors Europe is pleased to announce that the Provec Motocard.com Kawasaki squad will be its officially supported entry in the World Supersport Championship series in 2009.

The new Kawasaki team will have an all new machine to run in the forthcoming 14-round season, the latest Ninja ZX-6R, which will be fitted with Showa suspension and enjoy the benefits of strong Kawasaki factory support.

A final riding line-up has already been confirmed, with six time WSS race winner Katsuaki Fujiwara back for his second Kawasaki season, while 2008 discovery and proven race winner Joan Lascorz steps up to the new role of factory runner.

The new team will have strong links with Kawasaki, one of whom will be former WSS race winner in his own right, Pere Riba, who will be the team’s test rider and advisor, continuing his close links with Kawasaki’s racing efforts. The team has already made a big impact in the World Supersport Championship with Lascorz in recent years, thanks to their commitment and organizational skills, and they are now looking forward to moving to a whole new level of competitiveness.

Steve Guttridge, Kawasaki’s European Race Planning Manager, said of the new collaboration,

“It's an exciting opportunity to put our new Ninja ZX6-R back onto the podium next year. The team is set to work to a strict testing schedule with Fujiwara using the results of Pere's production based testing in association with Showa as an important starting point for the new Provec Racing team. I'm sure that thanks to these new initiatives we will see better results for Kawasaki next season, especially with the new potential from Joan Lascorz in the fiercely competitive WSS category.”

Round DATE CIRCUIT RACE 1 March 1 Phillip Island Australia 2 March 14 Losail Qatar 3 April 5 Valencia Spain 4 April 26 Assen Netherlands 5 May 10 Monza Italy 6 May 24 Kyalami South Africa 7 May 31 Salt Lake City Utah 8 June 21 Nürburgring Germany 9 June 28 Misano San Marino - Italy 10 July 19 Brno Czech Republic 11 August 2 Brands Hatch Great Britain 12 September 6 Donington Park England 13 September 28 Valencia Spain 14 October 11 Magny-Cours France 15 October 18 or 25 Estoril Portugal

World Superbike will ride from the 15th until 17th of May on the South African Kyalami circuit. This news was given by the Gauteng provincial Government last Sunday. Paolo Ciabatti, SBK General Manager said: “The return of the Superbike World Championship to the Gauteng Province is very exciting. We are enthusiastic about this new venture with the Gauteng Provincial Government. This has happened at a magical time, with the championship on the up, and we know that the event in South Africa will prove to be very successful.” The Kyalami circuit is located in Midrand, Gauteng, South Africa. The original racetrack was in use from 1967 and it was rebuilt in the early 1990s. World Superbike races were held for five rounds from 1998 until 2002. The track length is 4,2 Km.


Breaking News: the track has been stolen now

Mugello circuit, Scarperia: MotoGP: 1, V Rossi (It, Yamaha) 42min 31.153sec; 2, C Stoner (Aus, Ducati) 42:33.354; 3, D Pedrosa (Sp, Honda) 42:36.020; 4, A de Angelis (S Mar, Honda) 42:37.466; 5, C Edwards (US, Yamaha) 42:43.683; 6, J Toseland (GB, Yamaha) 42:44.959. Leading championship positions: 1, Rossi 122pts; 2, Pedrosa 110; 3, J Lorenzo (Sp, Yamaha) 94; 4, Stoner 76; 5, Edwards 58; 6, L Capirossi (It, Suzuki) 51; 8, Toseland 43. 250cc:1, M Simoncelli (It, Gilera) 40:19.910; 2, A Debon (Sp, Aprilia) 40:20.409; 3, T Luthi (Switz, Aprilia) 40:20.622. Leading championship positions:1, M Kallio (Fin, KTM) 106; 2, M Pasini (It, Aprilia) 88; 3, Debon 79. 125cc: 1, S Corsi (It, Aprilia) 39:59.020; 2, G Talmacsi (Hun, Aprilia) 39:59.039; 3, P Espargaro (Sp, Derbi) 39:59.056; 5, B Smith (GB, Aprilia) 39:59.198. Leading championship positions: 1, Corsi 87; 2, M di Meglio (Fr, Derbi) 87; 3, N Terol (Sp, Aprilia) 75; 9, Smith 47.

In late May each year, they come in their thousands; fans packed on to ferries and flights to the Isle of Man. Once they have landed, they take up every vantage point around the island to watch the daredevils of motorbike racing test their skills against each other on the treacherous road circuit. It is motor sport at its most dangerous. In the 1970s though, the Isle of Man TT was having problems with a loss of face and credibility. World champion Barry Sheene turned up, fell off his bike on the second lap and criticised the place. Many others regarded it as too dangerous after a string of deaths and, as a result, it lost its grand prix status. Numbers had dropped. The event needed a saviour. They had one. He was sitting in faraway New Zealand, getting bored. Mike Hailwood had last raced on the island in 1967, winning his 12th TT race and stamping his reputation as one of the greatest exponents of the sport. He then switched to Formula One car racing and was destined for the top when he crashed at Nurburgring in 1974, injuring his foot and ending his F1 career. What do you do in your mid-30s without racing? Hailwood opened a bike shop in Birmingham. When that did not satisfy him, he moved to South Africa, where he hoped to run an air-taxi business. He eventually ended up in New Zealand. His manager and friend, Ted Macauley, knew he was unhappy. “There was that restlessness within him because he had been competing since he was a kid. Racing was in his blood,” says Macauley. One day a letter from Hailwood dropped through Macauley’s post-box in Manchester. He told his manager that he wanted to return to TT racing, 11 years after last riding a bike competitively. Macauley was flabbergasted. “I didn’t think it was a good idea because the TT had such a record of death and destruction, even for fellas who were 110%, never mind someone like Mike, who was pot-bellied, had a funny foot and was 38 years old.” Hailwood was adamant, though, and his return to the island began to gather steam in early 1978. Sponsors were flooding in to jump on the bike. “His motivation certainly wasn’t money,” says Macauley. “His father was a double millionaire by about 1947 from his motorcycle businesses and this money was certainly coming to Mike. It made it more intriguing. Why should he want to stick his neck out at a race that was by far and away the most dangerous and testing race in the world? His motivation was purely restlessness because he didn't know what to do with himself.” The task was to find a bike that, if he won on it, it was down to his talent and if he lost, it was because the bike was not good enough. He settled on the reliable Ducati 900 Supersport. Yamaha provided him with a 750cc, a 500cc and a 250cc for three other races and Martini bankrolled the comeback. Word got around that Hailwood was returning to the island. “You couldn’t get a flight; you couldn’t get a hotel room. It was astonishing,” says Macauley. “Between 50,000 and 60,000 people came to the Isle of Man and stayed for the fortnight. Wherever Mike went on the island, people were stopping him to talk. There was no great expectation from fans, just enjoy yourself and do your best was the message.” His first race was the Formula One event. The riders started in pairs at 10-second intervals. Hailwood was No 12, an ideal position on the grid because he had targets to aim at as well as chasers to keep him going. He went off like a rocket and recorded his fastest-ever TT lap speed of 109.87mph. It was astonishing. To the delight of his fans, he passed great rival Phil Read. He kept up his blistering pace and received a rapturous reception on his last lap as he rode to victory, beating John Williams on a Honda and Ian Richards on a Kawasaki. The island went crazy; the legend was back. Unfortunately, the remainder of the fortnight was unsuccessful for Hailwood. The Yamaha bikes were not as reliable as the Ducati and he finished 28th in the Senior, 12th in the 250cc Junior and pulled out of the Classic on the first lap with engine trouble. Hailwood left the island in 1978 with unfinished business and was determined to return the following year. Now 39 years old, but still possessing his innate skill on the bike, he set down a marker by winning the 1979 Senior on a 500cc Suzuki. He was then involved in a dramatic, ding-dong six-lap Classic race in his final appearance on the Mountain course. Scotland’s Alex George, on a Honda, led through the first four laps before Hailwood grabbed the advantage and was less than a second ahead going into the last lap.
Read More Here