Biaggi scores podium in Donington WSBK

Congrats to the Roman Emperor, wearing the Dainese colors, for a great Race 1 at WSBK Donington Park this weekend. Max stayed in Spies' wheel for most of the race for a 2nd spot finish, the best for Factory Aprilia.

Unfortunately Biaggi had a crash in Race 2 and never managed to get back to the top.

Cento! Cento! Cento!

 

Valentino Rossi wins milestone race at Assen TT and leaves his mark in history: 100th Victory!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhsCFMJzgKA

Rossi back on Pole at Assen TT

Valentino clocked a 1'36.025, ahead of Repsol rider Pedrosa and Dainese team mate Jorge Lorenzo, for pole at the legendary Assen TT circuit in Holland.

 

 

AGV Dainese's Sammy Halbert makes Cycle News cover

Congratulations to a very deserving AGV Dainese's Sammy Halbert for making the cover of Cycle News after taking victory at the Bulls Gap Grand National. An outstanding achievement after his serious crash at the previous round.

First AMA Grand National Twins victory for Dainese's Sammy Halbert

Cyclenews.com - June 20, 2009

It’s been nearly five years in the making, but Sammy Halbert finally broke through to earn his first AMA Grand National Twins victory, his second overall Grand National victory, Saturday night at Volunteer Speedway.

 

Sammy, the younger of the two racing Halbert brothers, nearly made a clean sweep of it riding the high-banked red clay 3/8ths-miles on his Halbert Family/Kings Kustoms Harley-Davidson XR750. He was the fastest in timed qualifying, won his heat race, the Dash for Cash and the National.

Despite Halbert’s obvious speed all day the victory didn’t come easy. Halbert battled all race with Blue Springs/Screamin’ Eagle Harley-Davidson’s Jared Mees, who won this race in 2007, and dealt with a late challenge by Kenny Coolbeth on the factory Harley-Davidson.

Halbert led early, but was passed on lap five by Mees, just before a red flag stopped the race when A.J. Eslick laid his bike down between turns one and two. On the restart Mees for another half-a-dozen laps, before Halbert took back the lead on lap 12 of 25. The leading duo battle so hard that it allowed a smooth riding Coolbeth to close the gap and join the battle foe the lead. For several laps it looked like the race would come down to a three-way, last-lap fight, but Halbert turned in a couple of picture-perfect laps to open a gap in the closing laps.

 

Halbert crossed the line .565 of a second ahead of Mees, with Coolbeth a close third.

“It’s been a long time coming, but it was worth the wait,” Halbert said of his first win on the big bikes. “Jared and I had a great race and fortunately I was able to buckle down and turn in a strong last five laps. It feels great to get my first Twins win. Everything seems to be going in a good direction for me now.”

Halbert’s victory was even more surprising since he crashed hard last weekend in Dayton, Ohio, along with his brother and Nick Cummings, injuring his shoulder in the process.

After two rounds of the GNC Twins Series, Coolbeth now leads by five points over Mees, 43-38. Chris Carr is third with 32 points; Sammy Halbert has 30 and Matt Weidman rounds out the top five in the standings with 27 points.

Brad Baker, riding a Brothers Power Sports/Mike Velasco Honda, won the rain-shortened Pro Singles final over Red Bull/Team 95 Honda’s J.D. Beach and Shayna Texter on the Lancaster Harley-Davidson/Screamin’ Eagle Suzuki. The victory, Baker’s second of the season, put him back in the Pro Singles Series lead by seven points over James Rispoli, who finished fourth.

The series moves to Lima, Ohio, next Saturday.

Dainese's Blake Young to World Superbike

Cyclenews.com - June 22, 2009

Rockstar Makita Suzuki's Blake Young will make his World Superbike debut at Donington Park this weekend, Cycle News has learned from multiple sources.
Young will replace Fonsi Nieto on the Alstare Suzuki Brux machine at the track in the British Midlands that plays host to the ninth round of the World Superbike Championship. Nieto was riding in place of the injured German Max Neukirchner. The Alstare Suzuki Brux entry is currently listed as TBC (to be confirmed), according to a World Superbike spokesman who would neither deny nor confirm Young's entry.
The deal to put Young on the Suzuki was sealed at Misano Adriatico this past weekend, where Young attended the race along with his mentor Kevin Schwantz. Alstare Suzuki Brux team owner Francis Batta was looking for a young rider to replace Nieto. When Batta asked Schwantz if he knew a young rider to try out, Schwantz introduced him to Young.
The final approval had to be made by American Suzuki, which today agreed to allow Young to race. Young may be racing with his familiar number 79, though that has yet to be confirmed. An official announcement from Suzuki on Young's entry is expected on Tuesday.
By lining up on the World Superbike grid, the 21-year-old Wisconsinite will increase the American contingent to four. He'll join former teammate Ben Spies (Yam), Stiggy Racing Honda's John Hopkins, and Jamie Hacking, the Monster Energy Attack Kawasaki rider who's racing the factory Kawasaki in place of the injured Makoto Tamada for the second week in a row. The race also extends Young's first ever trip to Europe by a week.

Young's first ever trip to Europe is ending better than it began.  It started with the airline losing his luggage when he and Schwantz landed in Barcelona about ten days ago for  the Catalunya Grand Prix north of Barcelona. From there the pair visited the Dainese factory in Italy before going traveling on to Misano. In Misano, Schwantz made a guest appearance in the television commentary booth for race one, World Superbike's first ever flag-to-flag race. The race was won in a runaway by Spies.
Very few riders have more insight than Schwantz into Donington Park, a circuit that flows well, but can have a tricky surface, especially in the wet. The 1993 World Champion's successes and failures at the track are legendary, starting with his Match Race battles with Wayne Rainey through an illustrious GP career that ended with four wins, including three in a row starting in 1989. Schwantz was such a fan favorite that he had a corner named after him. Schwantz Curve is a fast left that feeds into the much slower McLeans right.
But Schwantz won't be able to offer advice in person, at least not for the first day of practice. He'll be at Barber Motorsports Park for a two-day Schwantz School on June 25-26. Whether he plans to return to the UK for Saturday and Sunday isn't known.

From Donington Park Young heads to Monterey, California for the seventh round of the AMA Pro Road Race Championship in support of the Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. Young currently sits eighth in the American Superbike point standings.

Dainese riders Rossi and Lorenzo give a racing lesson at MotoGP of Catalunya

Fiat Yamaha, and Dainese riders, Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo offered the crowd and fans one of the most epic racing battles of the decade when they took it to the final corner at Montmelo, for the 2009 MotoGP of Catalunya, this past Sunday.

VR46 passes Lorenzo in the last corner, signing his second victory of the season and tying in points and race wins with his teammate and Ducati's Casey Stoner.

The GP in Montmelo marked Valentino's 99th race win.

The last lap...



Valentino Rossi - 1st

“As we say in Italy, “Mamma Mia!” I think I can honestly say that this was one of the best and hardest wins of my career. Maybe Laguna last year was more important but this was a great, great victory because it went to the very last corner and it’s a long time since that has happened. I have dreamed about that move for the last two weeks and today it worked and I am so happy to have this 99th win. We did a perfect job all weekend and my M1 and Bridgestone tyres were brilliant, but we knew that Lorenzo was in the same situation and for sure he was very strong today. I had to be very brave and take it right to the limit in order to beat him. This victory today is more important than the 25 points and anyway now we all have the same, what a championship this is! As well as thanking my team, I especially want to dedicate this win to my Crew Chief Jeremy Burgess because his mother sadly died yesterday. I have to say thank you to her and to him because without him, for sure, I would never have arrived at 99 wins. Now I am going to go to sleep for quite a long time because I need to recover from this excitement!”

Jorge Lorenzo – 2nd

“This was an incredible battle today and a brilliant show for everyone, I am happy to have been a part of it. Of course I am sad to have lost because I put my heart on my bike and in my career I am more used to winning these last-lap fights, but today Valentino was maybe a little bit cleverer or a little bit braver than me at the very end and he was able to beat me. In fact during that last lap, after I passed him, I expected him to pass me back on the brakes much earlier but he didn’t come, and then I just didn’t close the line enough on the final corner and that was it. I am proud however because I am young and I still have a lot to learn in this class. My team have worked so well all weekend so thanks to them, if we can continue as strongly as this all season then who knows what can happen?”