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Shinya
Kimura from Zero Engineering, Japan, flew in just for the Show
and took the coveted Performance Machine Best of Show Trophy.
Customer orders for his bikes are back ordered 4 years! He's
flanked by Roland and Ted Sands from PM, plus SBK World Superbike
and Ducati Corse FastDates.com Calendar Cover Angels, Miss Great
Britain Nicki Lane and Laura Niles.
Huge
Turnout of Exhibitors and Spectators!
2004 LA
Calendar Bike Show the Best Ever!
545hp! Motorcycle Horsepower World Record is Shattered
Long
Beach, CA, July 17-18th, 2004 -The Los Angeles Calendar
Motorcycle Show Weekend presented by Performance Machine
and the FastDates.com Calendars and Website
at the Queen Mary Event Park in Long Beach, CA, continued to
grow as the most popular consumer street bike show in America
catering to custom, cruiser, classic and sportbike enthusiasts.
Always the 3rd weekend of July, this year’s show featured
a incredible weekend of activities and our first ever sold out
participation by 165 major motorcycle and product manufacturers,
exhibitors and venders, leading custom bike builders
from across the world, together with a 2-day jam-packed crowd
of motorcycle enthusiasts. Spectator attendance was estimated
to be larger than this year's Laguna Seca World Superbike and
AMA California Speedway race weekends combined, confirming the
LA Calendar Bike Show as the biggest streetbike event weekend
in America.
For the
complete story go to 2004
LA Calendar Motorcycle Show.
Loris Capirossi
(65) stuffs the Twin Pulse Desmosedici into the lead ahead of
Rossi (46) and Edwards (15).
MotoGP
World Championship , British Grand Prix, Sachsenring, Round
9
Gibernau, Rossi and Capirossi on Front Row for
Honda,
Yamaha, Ducati as Title Race Tightens
British
Grand Prix, Donington Park, July 24-25th, 2004 A crowd
of 82,000 watched a strangely sterile race here at Donington
Park. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) won from Colin Edwards (Telefonica
MoviStar Honda RC211V), with Sete Gibernau (Telefonica MovisStar
Honda RC211V) third. Race day dawned windy and cold in the low
60's as Rossi stole an advantage in this season's tight title
race. American Colin Edwards turned in his best ever MotoGP
performance after a troubled first half of the season, showing
he could well prove a man to be reckoned with as the season
resumes on August 22 after the summer break.
Left to
right: Colin Edwards shares his first ever MotoPG podium with
regulars Rossi and Gibernau.
Final Qualifying
July 24th - This Donington Park race marks
a key moment in the MotoGP title struggle and Sete Gibernau
(Telefonica Movistar Honda RC211V) qualified second for a front
row start. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) is on pole and Loris Capirossi
(Ducati) is the third front row starter for tomorrow’s
30-lap race.
The
MotoGP circus takes a three-weekend break before the Grand Prix
of the Czech Republic on August 22. And with a title chase as
closely fought as this one none of the three protagonists; Rossi,
Max Biaggi (Camel Honda RC211V) and Gibernau, can afford to
hand each other any psychological advantage to take on holiday.
Nicky Hayden (Repsol Honda RC211V) looked strong in yesterday’s
timed session and was the overnight provisional pole-man but
his challenge in the final hour-long session today failed to
gather momentum and he will start from the second row of the
grid in sixth place tomorrow.
The
new surface here at Donington has proved to be a great improvement.
Grip was previously an issue here and the re-layed tarmac now
offers more consistency, and perhaps even more importantly,
a smoother surface. Bumps into McLeans and Goddards had long
been a source of irritation to riders and these have now largely
been eradicated.
As
per usual, the first three-quarters of the hour were devoted
to race distance tyre endurance tests on what is proving to
be an abrasive (if grippier) surface. But when the final ten
minutes arrived, the action started.
Carlos Checa (Yamaha) hoisted himself to third before Rossi
scorched round in 1m 28.987 seconds to post the first sub-1m
29 second lap of this tortuous track. With five minutes to go
Hayden was still sitting on his Friday time and was expected
to make his move.
But
it was Gibernau who made things happen. The Spanish man had
been relatively quiet so far this weekend, lurking in fifth
place overnight. But he stormed into second with a 1m 29.152
second lap that kept him there in second place on the front
row despite the best efforts of the field.
Capirossi
tried but ended up 0.057 seconds adrift. But Rossi went at the
track again to record first a 1m 28.879 second time and then
a 1m 28.720 second effort that proved beyond beating.
Alex
Barros (Repsol Honda RC211V) fell at Schwantz Curve mid-session
and recovered to qualify ninth. “We had a big wheelie
problem yesterday,” he said. “And we found a much
better balance on the machine today. On my first lap on a new
set of tyres I improved my time and on the second I crashed
in fifth gear. If I’d had a bit more time I could have
improved, but this isn’t a disaster.”
Nicky
Hayden explained his situation. “On my first qualifying
tyre I practically matched my time from yesterday and on my
second I pushed the front really badly through Hollywood –
and messed up the first section. That’s the thing with
these qualifiers, they’re so good on the back they push
the front.”
“Not
easy,” said Gibernau. “But I think I know where
we’re struggling – the first part of the lap. It’s
a tricky track but we’re still up there, still fighting,
especially after two no-scoring races. We’ll be giving
it our best shot and see what else we’ve got in warm-up
tomorrow.”
The
new revised Twin Pulse Ducatis of Capirossi and Bayliss had
them back in the hunt at Donnington.
Valentino Runs Away With the Race
Sunday 25th - The race began under clouds and
remained a predominantly grey affair. Rossi got to Redgate first
from the lights, but Loris Capirossi (Ducati) scythed inside
him down the super-fast Craner Curves to lead the first lap.
Gibernau also made a move on Rossi at McLeans for second place
on the opening lap, but the reigning World Champion retook second
on the brakes at the Melbourne Loop. Capirossi then began to
lose ground and on lap two, eventually fading back to 7th at
the end, as Rossi took the lead from Sete at the Esses and held
it to the checkered flag.
Rossi
slipped around Capirissi and into the lead on the second lap,
when he managed to pull out a short gap of 0.7 seconds. The
distance between Rossi and the rest of the pack increased until
half race distance, and his cushion of time had grown to over
two seconds. Rossi continued his race domination to build a
four second gap which he guarded throughout the final laps,
winning by a margin of 2.945 seconds having eased off to enjoy
a victory celebration over the line.
In
the early stages of the race it looked as if Sete had the means
to mount a challenge and when Edwards began to gain ground on
the leaders to lie third on lap three from a second row start
from fifth, it seemed a battle royal was shaping up.
Just
as Edwards and Gibernau looked to be closing in to dispute the
lead by lap nine, specks of rain appeared at Goddards corner,
just before the start/finish straight. This unsettled the leaders
and Edwards admitted he backed off just enough to let Rossi,
who had also slowed slightly, to steal an advantage.Rossi
then worked his lead hard enough to hold a 2.2 second gap by
two-thirds race distance. And by the closing stages he held
a three second advantage over his pursuers.
Carlos
Checa’s race start pushed him inside the group of top
ten riders, and several aggressive moves during the 30-lap contest
helped him to a final sixth place. This enabled him to hold
on to valuable championship points and the Catalan rider now
lies seventh overall in the standings with 72 points. Rossi
leads the championship by 164 points, 22 clear of his closest
rivals Gibernau and Biaggi, who are tied on 142. After a charged
performance to a second place finish, Colin Edwards (Honda)
is fourth overall with 95 points.
VALENTINO
ROSSI (1st, 45’30.473)
“This was a great victory at an important race, and the
bike was good to ride. I was a little worried about the tyres.
I know it was possible to have a good rhythm through the race
but at the start I did not have so much feeling with the rear
end because it was colder than yesterday. Slowly, slowly the
gap came for me at the front. I had a little problem with the
gentle rain that started falling, but everybody slowed down
and then the weather got better and it was possible to win.
This win was very important because today the bike worked very
well. I have to say thank you to the team who worked very well
all weekend and to Michelin because the tyres worked right to
the end. I am happy because I have taken a small advantage in
the championship and at some tracks we will not have the advantage
in race conditions so it is good to have these extra points.
I will sleep much better in the summer break. We have had problems
with the rear at the last few races and we hope to be able to
fix those on Tuesday when we test here.”
"A
lot of people were putting pressure on me this season, people
who thought I should be doing better. Well here’s to the
nay-sayers I’m back. I made some good passes in the early
stages and then I did a stupid thing by backing off when there
was a little bit of rain. But my team was awesome this weekend.
The front end now does what I want it to do," said a happy
Edwards at the end of the race.
Sete was relieved to finish third after two DNFs. "This
podium almost feels like a win after the last two races. This
was a hard weekend and we ended up changing the set-up almost
100% today. The rain was a worry, but the bike felt good and
I could push hard to fight with Colin. This podium is very important."
Nicky Hayden (Repsol Honda RC211V) finished a discontented fourth."
I’m not happy, he said. Not happy at all with the way
I rode. My bike was good but I didn’t really put the race
together. I put my best laps in at the end of the race but I
was too far back to fight near the front. It was all pretty
frustrating. If the season was going better I could relax a
bit, but I just want to train more and come back stronger."
Ninth was the best Alex Barros (Repsol Honda RC211V) could do.
The machine didn’t want to turn and there was very little
feel, he said. The first half of the race was hard to ride properly
and after that the rear became a big problem. Every lap was
slower and slower and in the end it was almost dangerous. We
test here on Tuesday and we cant afford many more races like
this.
Max Biaggi (Camel Honda RC211V) had a torrid time and finished
12th. I felt there was something wrong with gear selection on
the sighting lap, he said. I felt the problem in warm-up and
thought we had it fixed but we obviously didn’t. I thought
about pitting and changing bikes but that might have made things
worse in terms of time lost. I got four points and I’m
still second in the Championship. Now I’m just looking
forward to Brno.
There was trouble too for Makoto Tamada (Camel Honda RC211V),
the winer of last weekend's German MotoGP riding on Bridgestone
tyres." The track temperature was much lower today,"
said the Japanese. "And the rear of the bike didn’t
feel right. The situation got worse as the race went on and
I couldn’t make any places up at all. Today was just not
our day and perhaps we didn’t make the right tyre choice."
MotoGP
Race: (30 laps = 120.69 km)
Pos/ Rider / Nat / Team / Motorcycle / Time/ KM/H
1 / Valentino ROSSI / ITA / Gauloises Fortuna Yamaha / YAMAHA
/ 45'30.473 / 159.124
2 / Colin EDWARDS / USA / Telefonica Movistar Honda Mot / HONDA
/ 45'33.418 / 158.952
3 / Sete GIBERNAU / SPA / Telefonica Movistar Honda Mot / HONDA
/ 45'34.899 / 158.866
4 / Nicky HAYDEN / USA / Repsol Honda Team / HONDA / 45'36.569
/ 158.769
5 / Troy BAYLISS / AUS / Ducati Marlboro Team / DUCATI / 45'45.184
/ 158.271
6 / Carlos CHECA / SPA / Gauloises Fortuna Yamaha / YAMAHA /
45'47.583 / 158.133
7 / Loris CAPIROSSI / ITA / Ducati Marlboro Team / DUCATI /
45'53.786 / 157.776
8 / John HOPKINS / USA / Team Suzuki MotoGP / SUZUKI / 45'58.594
/ 157.501
9 / Alex BARROS / BRA / Repsol Honda Team / HONDA / 46'05.853
/ 157.088
10 / Neil HODGSON / GBR / D'Antin MotoGP / DUCATI / 46'14.941
/ 156.574
11 / Ruben XAUS / SPA / D'Antin MotoGP / DUCATI / 46'17.963
/ 156.403
12 / Max BIAGGI / ITA / Camel Honda / HONDA / 46'24.477 / 156.037
13 / Shane BYRNE / GBR / MS Aprilia Racing / APRILIA / 46'27.851
/ 155.849
14 / Makoto TAMADA / JPN / Camel Honda / HONDA / 46'37.631 /
155.304
15 / Shinya NAKANO / JPN / Kawasaki Racing Team / KAWASAKI /
46'46.268 / 154.826
Fastest Lap: Colin EDWARDS 1'29.973 160.968 Km/h Lap 8
World
Championship Positions:
1 ROSSI 164, 2 GIBERNAU 142, 3 BIAGGI 142, 4 EDWARDS 95, 5 BARROS
86,
6 HAYDEN 83, 7 CHECA 72, 8 CAPIROSSI 64, 9 MELANDRI 57, 10 TAMADA
56,
11 XAUS 46, 12 ABE 41, 13 NAKANO 37, 14 BAYLISS 34, 15 ROBERTS
29.250cc
250cc
Race: (27 laps = 108.621 km)
Pos / Rider / Nat / Team / Motorcycle / Time / KM / H
1 / Daniel PEDROSA / SPA / Telefonica Movistar Honda 250 / HONDA
/ 42'17.705 / 154.090
2 / Sebastian PORTO / ARG / Repsol - Aspar Team 250cc / APRILIA
/ 42'23.708 / 153.726
3 / Randy DE PUNIET / FRA / Safilo Carrera - LCR / APRILIA /
42'29.168 / 153.397
4 / Alex DE ANGELIS / RSM / Aprilia Racing / APRILIA / 42'30.427
/ 153.321
5 / Fonsi NIETO / SPA / Repsol - Aspar Team 250cc / APRILIA
/ 42'48.135 / 152.264
6 / Anthony WEST / AUS / Freesoul Abruzzo Racing Team / APRILIA
/ 42'50.712 / 152.111
7 / Franco BATTAINI / ITA / Campetella Racing / APRILIA / 43'09.636
/ 151.000
8 / Naoki MATSUDO / JPN / Team UGT Kurz / YAMAHA / 43'12.760
/ 150.818
9 / Hiroshi AOYAMA / JPN / Telefonica Movistar Honda 250 / HONDA
/ 43'15.127 / 150.680
10 / Sylvain GUINTOLI / FRA / Campetella Racing / APRILIA /
43'17.161 / 150.562
11 / Joan OLIVE / SPA / Campetella Racing / APRILIA / 43'23.975
/ 150.168
12 / Alex BALDOLINI / ITA / Matteoni Racing / APRILIA / 43'24.271
/ 150.151
13 / Hugo MARCHAND / FRA / Freesoul Abruzzo Racing Team / APRILIA
/ 43'38.730 / 149.322
14 / Johan STIGEFELT / SWE / Aprilia Germany / APRILIA / 43'39.505
/ 149.278
15 / Jakub SMRZ / CZE / Molenaar Racing / HONDA / 43'46.825
/ 148.862
Fastest Lap: Daniel PEDROSA 1'33.217 155.366 Km/h Lap 11
Championship
Positions:
1 PEDROSA 180, 2 DE PUNIET 146, 3 PORTO 128, 4 NIETO 94, 5 DE
ANGELIS 93,
6 ELIAS 86, 7 AOYAMA 71, 8 ROLFO 67, 9 WEST 65, 10 POGGIALI
63, 11 DEBON 53,
12 BATTAINI 46, 13 GUINTOLI 29, 14 MATSUDO 23, 15 OLIVE 19.
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Holly
Valance Rocks!
We had to go to Italy for World Ducati Week to discover
sexy Aussie/Brit pop vocal & TV soap star Holy Valance
and her newest CD "State of Mind" in the music
store next to our Grand Hotel in the seaside town of Rimini.
This beautiful babe really rocks with her smooth disco
pop vocals similar to fellow Aussie Kyle Minogue!!
We
have Holly spotlighted in the CD player of our BMW M3
where she kept us and the SBK FastDates.com Calendar Angels
/ Ducati Corse girls Nicki, Andra and Robin rockin' out
on our 110mph run from Los Angeles up to Laguna Seca and
back for World Superbike Weekend. Her import CD is a little
pricy from Amazon.com, but will worth it. Click to Order. |
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AMA
Chevrolet Superbike Championship Round 9, Mid-Ohio
Maladin and Zemke
Share Mid-Ohio Double Header Weekend
Lexington, Ohio, July 25, 2004 - Team Yoshimura
Suzuki's Matt Mladin maintained his lead in this year's
AMA Superbike title chase with a win in Saturday's 1st race
round of the Honda Super Cycle Weekend at the Mid-Ohio Sports
Car Course in Lexington, Ohio. Erion Honda’s Jake
Zemke won his second Superbike race of the year, this win
coming on the second day, Sunday The win vaulted Zemke into
second in the championship point standings behind Mat Mladin
(Suzuki), third today, and in front of American Honda’s
Miguel Duhamel who crashed out of Sunday's race while running
in 2nd place.
Duhamel
began the weekend with a strong victory in the Formula Xtreme
race, the French-Canadian solidifying his championship lead
with two races to go. He and Zemke went head to head in
the early going until Zemke fell on a strip of slick pavement
that claimed a number of top riders over the course of the
weekend. Duhamel cruised home with 12.387 seconds in hand.
Erion Honda’s Al
ex Gobert was seventh. Duhamel’s lead over Zemke is
45 points with two rounds remaining.
In
Saturday’s Superbike race, Duhamel was a fighting
second, crossing the stripe just 0.337 seconds behind race
winner Mladin after running him down with time running out.
Bostrom was second until lapped riders blunted his charge.
Soon after he let teammate Duhamel past to collect maximum
championship points. Bostrom finished fourth. Zemke finished
fifth after choosing the wrong front tire.
In
Sunday's Superbike race,Jetting away from the pole position,
Zemke quickly built up a lead that would grow to 12.723
seconds at the end of the 26-lap race. American Honda’s
Ben Bostrom slotted into a safe second, pulling quickly
away from third place Mladin. The gap at the end would be
nearly 10 seconds. Teammate Miguel Duhamel crashed at the
end of the back straight on the 11th lap while closing the
gap on two riders in front, a potential podium in the making.
Knowing that points are only paid for riders who complete
50% of the race, Duhamel soldiered for two more laps to
gain a handful of points.
With
two rounds-four races-remaining, and 176 points up for grabs,
Zemke holds 436 points to Mladin’s 457. Duhamel has
413.
Jake
Zemke, 1st Place, Sunday:Worked
out pretty good. I got a really good start today and that
was definitely an improvement over yesterday and the bike
was working really, really well today. Yesterday I chose
the wrong front tire and the thing just shredded to pieces.
We had no hope but to just bring the thing home. Today,
the guys actually gave me a better bike today than I had
than yesterday. Hats off to my crew. They’ve been
working hard. All weekend long even though I did get on
pole, I haven’t been real happy with the set-up. Kind
of been struggling to get around the racetrack. It would
be OK for a couple of laps but the long distance wasn’t
possible. Today the bike was really good all the way through,
so hats off to the guys.
Ben
Bostrom, 2nd Place, Sunday: I was riding, Jake
(Zemke) was flying, and he gapped us out. I knew Mat (Mladin)
was trailing me there. I didn’t know where Miguel
(Duhamel) was, but I knew Mat was smart was going to play
it safe for the championship. So I just continued my pace
to haul down Jake, but he was going too fast. My bike was
awesome all day long. I thought we could go quicker and
I kept pushing. We couldn’t go any quicker. So then
I had to settle for that lap time and keep going. The lappers
weren’t so bad today. Yesterday they were awful. So
we just cruised around we ended up second. It’s nice
to be on the podium again.
Miguel
Duhamel, DNF, Sunday: It was going real good. I
was being really cautious those first four five laps. I
was over a second slower than what I set in the morning.
After what six laps or something. Seven, I said, let’s
pick up the pace. Then I started getting into 27.9’s
and that felt real comfortable and right away I could see
the gap shrinking to Mat (Mladin) and Aaron (Yates). I was
very confident I was going to catch them before the end
of the race and dice with him and pass him. Pass him is
one thing. I knew I was going to catch up because my bike
was running really good. It’s just unfortunate. We’ve
got four races to go and we’ll go tackle those like
we’ve got nothing to lose.
Miguel Duhamel, 2nd Place, Saturday: The
bike was working really good, and I put my head down, and
to me it seemed I was the fastest guy out there. I was able
to reel in Mat (Mladin), and on a few occasions through
even lapped riders, even though he would break away, I'd
run back in. So things are looking good for tomorrow. It
was a fun race. It was definitely greasy. I was spinning
up everywhere and sliding. Hopefully we got some good camera
shots of that. Putting on a pretty good show trying to get
up there. Didn't have any options besides going out there
and putting the power down and trying to reel in Mat (Mladin).
Ben Bostrom, 4th Place, Saturday
We
came up on five guys coming into turn two and I thought,
‘Well maybe I can swoop them on the inside and cut
them off on the little left before the Keyhole.’ But
instead those guys…a blue flag doesn’t mean
nothing to them. They just stay right on their line and
pushed me to the curb. So (Mladin) Mat goes around me on
the outside and got a couple of lappers in the process.
That’s what gapped us out initially. I lost the front
in the Keyhole trying to catch up a little bit. We should
have made it back. I know Miguel and I would have caught
up instantly if there weren’t lappers. In this case
it was probably his race to win, but you can’t. I’m
not racing for the championship, so I let him by. I knew
I’d be able to stick with him. I knew we’d finish
second or third. That would be great.
Jake
Zemke, 5th Place, Saturday: There was a lot of
traffic for sure, but we were having some difficulty with
our tires. The front tire was just completely shredded.
I had no grip from the get-go. I even felt it on the warm-up
lap a little bit, but first couple laps of the race it was
definitely not going to get the job done. We were actually
OK there in the early part of the race. We started making
ground back up on Ben (Bostrom) and Mat (Mladin), but I
was having rear grip problems as well. And then the only
place I could make ground was on the brakes and I did that
as long as I could and pretty soon the brakes didn’t
work so well. Then I just thought about bringing it home
it one piece.
Saturday
Superbike:
1. Mat Mladin (Suzuki)
2. Miguel Duhamel (Honda)
3. Aaron Yates (Suzuki)
4. Ben Bostrom (Honda)
5. Jake Zemke (Honda)
6. Josh Hayes (Kawasaki)
7. Eric Bostrom (Ducati)
8. Jacob Holden (Suzuki)
9. John Haner (Suzuki)
10. Larry Pegram (Yamaha) |
Sunday
Superbike:
1. Jake Zemke (Honda)
2. Ben Bostrom (Honda)
3. Mat Mladin (Suzuki)
4. Aaron Yates (Suzuki)
5. Josh Hayes (Kawasaki)
6. Jacob Holden (Suzuki)
7. Eric Bostrom (Ducati)
8. Larry Pegram (Yamaha)
9. Eric Wood (Suzuki)
10. John Haner (Suzuki) |
Superbike
Standings
(After 14 of 18 rounds):
1. Mat Mladin (457)
2. Jake Zemke (436)
3. Miguel Duhamel (413)
4. Eric Bostrom (336)
5. Ben Bostrom (306)
6. Geoff May (299)
7. Aaron Yates (272)
8.
John Haner (262)
9. Eric Wood (239)
10. Josh Hayes (237) |
Formula
Xtreme:
1. Miguel Duhamel (Honda)
2. Jason Pridmore (Suzuki)
3. Vincent Haskovec (Suzuki)
4. Larry Pegram (Yamaha)
5. Heath Small (Yamaha)
6. Ty Howard (Yamaha)
7. Alex Gobert (Honda)
8. Giovanni Rojas (Yamaha)
9. Opie Caylor (Suzuki)
10. Jason Farrell (Kawasaki) |
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