Tuesday, January 20, 2009
PaddockSpy Headline
Monday, 19 January 2009
Benny Solis and Hayden Gillim move over from Red Bull AMA U.S. Rookies Cup series.
Two young U.S. talents tipped for big things on the world stage have been drafted in to ply their trade in Europe in 2009, as part of the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup series´ third edition.
Champion of the recently-disbanded Red Bull AMA U.S. Rookies Cup, Californian teenager Benny Solis and Owensboro, Kentucky´s Hayden Gillim will take part in the youth talent initiative´s eight-race season as they look to progress to the World Championship.
Solis was an early standout in the stateside version of the rookie talent search, whilst Gillim pushed his fellow American in the latter half of the year. Both have been given another year to hone their skills alongside some of the top young riders in the world.
`I´m really excited about racing in Europe this year,´ says Solis on the move across the pond. `I feel exactly how I felt in late 2007, when I received a call from Kevin Schwantz saying that I was accepted into the Red Bull AMA U.S. Rookies Cup.´
`I know it´ll be hard, but racing is always fun, whether I win or lose. I´m more anxious than ever to go and ride the GP tracks, and I hope to do as well as I did last year.´
The eight Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup races will take place alongside six MotoGP World Championship events, with double-headers at Jerez and Brno bookending the series. Single-race events will take place at Mugello, Assen, Sachsenring and Donington.
Two preparatory tests for the championship are set for March 26th-27th in Estoril and March 30th-31st in Jerez.
source: www.motogp.com
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News
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Lippo circuit fails build deadline
Friday, January 16, 2009
A1GP World Cup of Motorsport has been forced to accept round five of its 2008/09 season, which was due to take place on 6-8 February 2009 at Lippo Village, Indonesia, can no longer go ahead.
This follows notification this morning from the FIA that certain aspects of the track construction project, undertaken by the local promoter and organisers of the event, have failed to meet the requisite completion deadlines.
As a result, the FIA is not able to issue the necessary circuit licence on time for the event to proceed, and has removed the event entry from its International Series calendar.
This information was given to A1GP CEO, Pete da Silva, today and his comment was: “Obviously it is extremely disappointing for all concerned and not the news any of us wanted. The bottom line is, for safety reasons, A1GP cannot race on a circuit that does not meet or has not received the necessary licence from the FIA, so we have no other option but to cancel all plans to bring the A1GP show to Indonesia in three weeks’ time”.
The series will now go from next week’s event, A1GP Taupo, New Zealand, to A1GP Gauteng, South Africa, which is on 20-22 February. A1GP do not plan to run the Indonesian event at a later date in Season Four, but may consider an event in Season Five.
All those who have already pre-booked tickets should contact their ticket provider for further details.
source: www.a1gp.com
source: www.a1gp.com
| McLaren have revealed the car with which Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton will defend his drivers’ crown in 2009. The wraps came off the all-new MP4-24 at the team’s UK base in Woking on Friday. source: www.formula1.com |      |
Friday, 16 January 2009
Following the news that the MotoGP World Championship is set to return Silverstone as of 2010 motogp.com reflects on the history of the British Grand Prix, including previous visits to the famous English circuit.
MotoGP racing is to return to Silverstone next season and the track has previously hosted two-wheeled Grands Prix on ten occasions, in a decade-long period which commenced in 1977.
Indeed, Britain is one of only three countries, along with Italy and The Netherlands, that has hosted a Grand Prix event in each of the 58 years since the world championship series was originated back in 1949.
Initially the British round of the championship series comprised the Isle of Man TT races, from 1949 to 1976, before the switch to Silverstone. Since 1987 Donington Park has hosted the British Grand Prix and 2009 will see the 23rd consecutive World Championship event at the Midlands circuit, before GP racing returns to Northamptonshire in 2010.
The first ever 500cc British Grand Prix race in 1949 saw home rider Harold Daniell take victory on Norton machinery at the Isle of Man TT, whilst another Briton, Freddie Frith, took victory in the now defunct 350cc class and 250cc glory went to Irishman Manliefe Barrington.
During the 1950s and 1960s home riders enjoyed great 500cc success at the TT, with some famous British names such as Geoff Duke, John Surtees and Mike `The Bike´ Hailwood carrying off numerous premier class wins on the island. Four time 500cc World title winner Hailwood in particular was a big fan of the TT and en route to his additional three 250cc crowns and two 350cc championships he secured 14 wins in an 18 year period at the event across all categories.
The death of Italian rider Gilberto Parlotti at the 1972 Grand Prix - when he had been leading the 125cc World Championship - and the subsequent boycott of the event by several elite riders, including the legendary Giacomo Agostini (who had taken five consecutive 500cc wins on the island from 1968 to 1972) eventually resulted in a move to mainland England.
Ireland´s Tom Herron went down in history as the winner of the last 500cc Grand Prix race held on the island in 1976, before the Silverstone became the new home of the British Grand Prix the following year.
The World Championship´s decade-long stint at Silverstone commencing in 1977 coincided with the start of a golden era for American riders in Grand Prix racing with the likes of U.S. stars Kenny Roberts (three 500cc Silverstone wins), Randy Mamola (two 500cc victories at Silverstone) Pat Hennen and Freddie Spencer (one Silverstone win each) enjoying great form at the southern English track.
Roberts´ last gasp victory over home favourite Barry Sheene at Silverstone in 1979 is remembered as one of the greatest races of all-time, whilst the likes of Roberts´ and Sheene´s fellow MotoGP Legend Wayne Gardner (at the last ever GP visit to Silverstone in 1986) and 1982 500cc World Champion Franco Uncini also tasted victory at the circuit.
Since 1987 Donington too has seen many historically significant races, with the inaugural premier class victory at the track going to American Eddie Lawson, before 1988´s start to finish win by Wayne Rainey and three consecutive 1989-91 triumphs for yet another great U.S. competitor Kevin Schwantz.
Schwantz later secured a fourth and final Donington win in 1994, the last of his 25 GP successes, before Aussie MotoGP Mick Doohan took three consecutive victories from 1995. The 2000 British GP gave Valentino Rossi his first ever premier-class race win and he has subsequently enjoyed four more victories on British soil.
When Silverstone welcomes MotoGP back next year The Doctor is likely to be in the hunt for another historic win, whilst the likes of 2006 British GP winner Dani Pedrosa and the 2007 & 2008 Donington Park victor Casey Stoner will surely be doing their very best to halt the Italian´s progress.
source: www.motogp.com
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News
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Thursday, January 08, 2009
For a downloadable PDF of the wheel, please CLICK HERE
Have you ever wondered what do all the buttons on an A1GP steering wheel actually do? Championship leader for A1 Team Ireland, Adam Carroll, takes us through this fine bit of kit, button by button, lever by lever. There is more to it than right or left.
1 – PowerBoost Button
“On the left hand side you have the first button at the top, which is marked PTP. This stands for Push to Pass, but in A1GP, it’s known as PowerBoost. This gives you the increased power in the races that could end up in an opportunity to overtake, but you only have a certain number of uses for each race, four times in the Sprint race, and eight times in the Feature. The buttons needs to be pressed for more than half a second before it activates. It might sound like a short time but when you are in the car it feels like ages. Maybe it’s like that so that it doesn’t go off if you accidentally catch it. You have to make sure it’s a nice good press to feel the boost.”
2 - Neutral
“The next one down is neutral, which only works in first gear. So when you come into the pits or you are on the grid or pulling up to the garage you just go into first gear, hit the neutral button and then the car goes into neutral.”
3 – Start
“The S button is for start. It’s like a burn-out mode where it lifts the rev limiter a little bit. When you are in first gear you don’t quite get everything and it keeps back a little power because you don’t need that amount of revs to get away at the lights. If you hold it, it will give you full revs to spin the wheels and get temperature in the tyres, but I don’t find I really need to use that.”
4 - Empty
“This one has nothing on it because it hasn’t been allocated for any specific function yet.”
5 – Engine
“E is for…I don’t know…E is for engine. The only reason I had to think about that was because once the engine is on I don’t think the button does anything.”
Red toggle switch
“The left toggle changes engine software maps which are different parameters of the engine. You’ve got positions 1, 2 and 3, but we don’t really need to change them. You are meant to keep it on but there are three different positions.”
7 – Pit-speed limiter
“This first button on the top at the right is the pit speed limiter. This is always used when you are in the pits and when you are doing race pit stops, it keeps you at the mandatory speed limit. You have to watch your speed and you take as much speed on entry, but you have to get down to 60kph by the line. You don’t press it to get down to 60kpm, it’s up to you to get down to the speed limit, but then once you press the button it limits the revs of the engine so you don’t go over. That’s why you see cars getting done for speeding in the pits because either they don’t press it or they have pressed it too late and haven’t got down to the required speed before they press the button.”
8 – Radio
“Your radio button is the next one so you obviously press that to access your radio to talk to the team back in the pits. It’s not a constant open channel. You have to hold it down all the time you want to talk, so whenever you talk on the radio your finger must be pushed down. That sounds hard work, but it’s never really a problem.”
9 – Reverse
“R is for reverse gear, not that you should ever need it. If you do need it, maybe on track due to a spin or whatever, you have to go to neutral, pull the clutch and hit the button, hold the button down and it selects reverse. You then lift the clutch back, go back, stop, depress the clutch and then press neutral again. Select first and you are away.”
10 - Reset
“The next one is reset which is for if alarms go off or anything like that happens. That’s where the E button on the other side comes in. If you want to switch the engine off, you don’t switch it off by the master switches on the dash beside you, you actually push E and R down together. So when you come in to the pits in practice and the guys roll you back into your garage, you select neutral, then E and R to turn the engine off.”
11 - Page
“The last button on the right hand side is Page, which rotates the display on the screen. There are a couple of pages to select and they give you details of RPM, gears and speed and the last lap time. It doesn’t show you your position in the race.”
Shift lights
“These two bars are your gear shift lights, and increase with the engine revs to indicate when you should change up a gear. They go from left to right and are green, amber, blue in that sequence but the ones you have to concentrate on are the blue ones. You don’t have to look at your shift lights, they are out of your vision but they are a nice bright blue so when you come to the right point you know when to shift. Once the revs build up then it goes, green green green, amber amber amber, blue blue blue. So once you see that the first blue light is on, by the last blue light you’ve got to be ready to bang and change gear.”
Yellow toggle switch
“The right toggle is for the clutch. There are numbered positions all the way around to nine, but we only use the first three. All it does is determine the biting point of the clutch. I have it on position one because I like a clutch that is very close to me. A lot of people have it half way down but I like to know when I am coming off the clutch because if it’s too far away you are left guessing exactly where it is.”
Clutch and gear levers
“To change gear in an A1GP car, you must use the paddles behind the steering wheel, not a gear lever. The left hand lever changes the gears up and the right hand side of the wheel changes them down. The other levers operate the clutch. The clutch is exactly the same for both sides, it just depends on your preference, which lever you use. I always start with my clutch on the left hand like I would with my left foot on the grid for I always use my left hand. All in all, it’s a very nice steering wheel. You need quite a nice thick chunky wheel because you need to hang on to the thing. It’s a pretty wheel and it does everything it’s meant to do.” 
source: www.a1gp.com
source: www.a1gp.com
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Knowledgements
Friday, 09 January 2009
Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd. announced today that it has decided to suspend its factory MotoGP racing activities from the 2009 season.
Amid the quickly changing business environment, Kawasaki has been promptly taking countermeasures to cope with the situation. As the world economy is not likely to recover in a short period due to the major impact of the financial crisis, Kawasaki decided to suspend its MotoGP racing activities from the 2009 season onward and reallocate management resources more efficiently.
Kawasaki will continue racing activities using mass-produced motorcycles as well as supporting general race-oriented customers.
Kawasaki would like to thank all the fans and all those who have supported us.
Press release courtesy of Kawasaki Heavy Industries
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source: www.motogp.com
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News
| Toro Rosso have confirmed that Switzerland's Sebastien Buemi will drive for the team in 2009. Buemi, who competed in GP2 last year, was Red Bull Racing's reserve driver in 2008 and has been supported by the Austrian drinks company as a member of its Junior Driver programme since 2005. source: www.formula1.com |     |
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