Dutch TT - Elias breaks leg in practice crash

Dutch TT - Toni Elias has been ruled out of the Dutch TT after breaking his left leg in a crash during the event's opening free practice session.

The 24-year-old Spaniard fell off his Gresini Honda at the 100 mph Hoge Heide left-hander when the front end of his machine gave way as he rode over a bump at the turn's apex.

What looked to be a relatively soft impact was complicated as his leg got caught underneath his body as he rolled through the gravel, leaving him unable to remove himself from the scene without assistance.

He was taken to the Clinica Mobile where he was diagnosed with the injury and then transferred to a local hospital.

The Gresini team have until Friday morning to name a replacement for Elias, the last man to win a race for Honda in Portugal last year, but it is thought unlikely that they will do so

Lithium Ion motorbike prototype

How would you like to be the owner of a Lithium Ion motorbike prototype?If you can afford the $15,000 odd fee for a custom modification, a team at the Electric Motorsport shop in Oakland will take out the nasty engine in your ride and replace it with an array of Lithium Ion batteries.As a prototype, the company created a fully electric version of the Yamaha R1 which has a top speed of 100MPH, it goes 0-60 in around 3 seconds and has about a 100-mile range at cruise. The entire engine is missing. So are the tailpipes, radiator, gas cap, transmission and clutch. In their place: a wall of yellow batteries, an AC regenerative motor, an electric throttle and a three-pronged plug, which pokes out from the frame and connects to a standard outlet.Unlike the Tesla electric sport car, which is powered by thousands of tiny batteries, the R1 conversion uses just 28. Each of them is 90 amp-hours at 3.2 volts and 6.6 pounds. Together, they weigh less than everything that was taken off the bike to make it electric. While the majority of the batteries are concentrated in a Mondrian-esque block where the engine used to be, they’re also tucked under the seat where the exhaust was once located, to mimic the weight distribution of a stock R1.The Lightning Lithium is, after all, just a prototype — an idealistic vision of what could be. It was the brainchild of Richard Hatfield, a motorcycle enthusiast and solar panel importer based in Burlingame, and Todd Kollin, who’s been making electric bikes out of past-their-prime gas-powered ones for the last six years at his Oakland shop, Electric Motorsport. Right now, the shop does custom conversions of aging internal-combustion bikes, with a turnaround time of about 30 days.Within a couple years, the two hope to make a comparably priced production version of the bike using a custom chassis, as well as a smaller, less powerful $6,000 to $8,000 model.

1968 Yamaha TD1-C November 8, 2006
There was no doubt that Yamaha got a few things wrong with its first production racers, the TD1-A and TD-1B. The ‘B’ went some way towards correcting these, with a larger 25mm crankshaft and a porous chrome plating applied to the cylinder bores to retain oil and increase engine life. With changes to port timing, the engine now revved to 10,000 and gave better all-round performance, but there were still reliability problems. Engine mounts cracked, the clutch was still a very fragile affair and the chrome cylinder lining would flake off, snagging the rings. However the TD1-C, announced for the 1967 season, was represented a quantum leap in the vital missing ingredient – reliability.
The engine design was all-new and was based on the YDS3. Significantly, the enormously troublesome clutch, which now had three extra plates, had been moved from the crankshaft to the gearbox countershaft – the bane of the earlier design. Without the weight of the clutch on the crankshaft, the engine’s power characteristic and its longevity were much enhanced. The jumble of cogs inside the gearbox was also reorganised, with the huge gap between first and second narrowed considerably and the other ratios altered to suit. Each cylinder lining now incorporated a ‘boost finger’ running up either side of the inlet port with corresponding windows cut into the piston. Thinner piston rings and substantially altered inlet and exhaust porting pushed the power up to almost 40 bhp. The cycle parts from the TD1-B were basically retained, including the distinctive teardrop-shaped petrol tank.
This particular machine was bought new by Perc Howard, who had campaigned a 125cc Bultaco TSS with some success. However the saddle was soon occupied by the top NSW rider of the day, Ron Toombs, who brought with him some sponsorship from Shell. One of the first outings for the new Yamaha was the NSW Grand Prix at Catalina Park, Katoomba, where the versatile Toombs, who rode four different machines at the meeting, won the Lightweight GP from Ray Curtis’ Suzuki and Kevin Fraser’s Bultaco. Howard took over the bike for the Victorian GP at Phillip Island in January 1968, scoring fifth place in the Lightweight, but Toombs was back aboard to take second behind Dick Reid’s AI-R Kawasaki at the Australian TT at Mallala one week later. Toombs lost this race after running off the track at the end of the main straight and was highly critical of the Yamaha’s front brake, which tended to fade badly in longer races. With the all-important Bathurst meeting coming up, With a little help from Shell, Toombs purchased the Yamaha from Howard and Ron’s friend and race engineer Tony Henderson began to make a few changes. The most noticeable was the fitting of twin Lockheed front disc brakes – a mod also made by Bill Horsman to his Manx Norton.
There were plenty of TD1-Cs on the grid at Bathurst. Besides Toombs’ lurid yellow machine, South Australian Peter Richards, and Victorians Allan Osborne and Josh Lange all had new Yamahas. It made little difference to Ron, who battled with Horsman’s Bultaco before clearing off to win. Within twelve months however, the TD-C was itself rendered obsolete by the sensational new TD2 (250) and TR2 (350) Yamahas, and this machine was old to Wollongong rider Geoff Sim. Geoff raced the bike at Bathurst in 1970 and later took out two Australian 125cc titles.
The ex-Toombs TD1-C (engine number 000200) has been beautifully restored in its original Shell colours by Richard Johnson and has been loaned by Sim to the National Motor Racing Museum.
http://www.ma.org.au/

British MotoGp Pic

Championship leader Casey Stoner produced another dominant display as he won the British MotoGP at a soggy Donington Park.
The Ducati rider came home ahead of pole sitter Colin Edwards and Suzuki's Chris Vermeulen to earn his fifth win of the season.
Valentino Rossi, Stoner's nearest championship rival, was fourth and now trails him by 26 points. Vermeulen's team-mate John Hopkins came home in fifth.
VerItalian title rival and former world champion Valentino Rossi could not match the 21-year-old Ducati rider's speed on the slippery Donington circuit and finished off the podium in fourth place.
Stoner, 14 points clear before the weekend, now has 165 points to Rossi's 139.
Rossi's Yamaha team mate Colin Edwards was second, 11.768 seconds behind Stoner, with Australian Chris Vermeulen third for Suzuki.
Texan Edwards had started on pole position and Stoner's success maintained a season-long jinx for any rider starting in the top slot, with the last winner from pole dating back to Japan last September.

Donington Grand Prix result:

. C Stoner (Aus) Ducati, 51 mins 40.739 secs

2. C Edwards (US), Yamaha, 51:52.507

3. C Vermeulen (Aus) Suzuki, 51:56.417

4. V Rossi (It) Yamaha, 52:02.566

5. J Hopkins (US) Suzuki, 52:16.257

6. R de Puniet (Fr) Kawasaki, 52.17.213

7. A Barros (Brz) Ducati, 52:18.833

8. D Pedrosa (Sp) Honda, 52:19.731

9. A Hofmann (Ger) Ducati, 52:19.978

10. M Melandri (It) Honda, 52:42.265

250cc result:

1. A Dovizioso (It), Honda, 48 mins 40.173 secs

2. A de Angelis (SM), Aprilia, 49:02.275

3. H Aoyama (Jp), KTM, 49:43.310

125cc result:

1. Mattia Pasini (It), Aprilia, 41 mins 49.049 secs

2. Tomoyoshi Koyama (Jp), KTM, 41:52.302

3. Hector Faubel (Spain) Aprilia, 41:54.143

SBK

Toseland maintains lead after tough weekend

A tough weekend of racing at the Misano World Circuit concluded today with HANNspree Ten Kate Honda's James Toseland maintaining his lead in the 2007 World Superbike Championship. Team-mate Roberto Rolfo rode well and picked up valuable points to keep eighth place in the standings.
The first race of the day saw Toseland extend his lead despite not finishing on the podium. After a shaky start, the British rider struggled to keep up with the leading pack after experiencing clutch problems on his CBR1000RR. He was running in sixth when a mistake by Max Biaggi in the fight for second position caused both Biaggi and Noriyuki Haga to crash out of the race. This resulted in a fourth place finish for Toseland, who picked up 13 points to remain at the top of the standings.
Rolfo had fought his way from eleventh to seventh at the time of the crash and also benefited from Biaggi's mistake, crossing the finish line in fifth position to collect 11 points.
Despite an admirable fight from Toseland in race two, he was unable to catch the front runners and passed the chequered flag in sixth position. However, the result was more than enough for the British rider to keep his championship lead by a 21 point margin ahead of Troy Bayliss. His tally now stands at 161 points.
Rolfo completed the second race in eighth place after a strong performance of consistently fast laps. The Italian rider now lies in eighth in the standings ahead of the ninth round race at Brno in four weeks time.
Ronald ten Kate:"We've had quite a difficult weekend. The only positive thing about it is that we remain at the top of the championship - we didn't lose too much of the lead in the end. Roby got two good results - he rode well and very consistently in both races. We're going out to Brno for a two day test, which will be really good because we can evaluate the all the data from this weekend. Hopefully we can come back fighting at the next round."
James Toseland:"I knew this round was going to be difficult because it wasn't one of our test tracks and it's a completely new layout. I expected to be coming from behind. We got lucky in the first race when Biaggi took out Haga, but we can't rely on luck for the rest of the season. Needless to say I'm disappointed with the weekend, but I'm looking ahead to Brno and hopefully we can get back on track."
Roberto Rolfo:"I am not completely happy with the results, but I am pleased that we have been able to improve the bike set-up so much this weekend. We worked really hard in qualifying and the bike is feeling very good for me now. I felt like I had a good rhythm in the race and I was making good lap times, but I wasn't with the podium competitors like I wanted to be. I am looking forward to the test in Brno so we can continue the work we have done here and I want to say thanks to the team for their support here in Misano."
Race one results:

1 T. Bayliss 38'52.856

2 T. Corser + 2.374

3 Y. Kagayama + 8.965

4 J. Toseland + 11.110

5 R. Rolfo + 18.709

6 L. Lanzi + 20.467

7 R. Laconi + 22.072

8 R. Xaus + 25.424

9 M. Neukirchner + 30.891

10 J. Smtz + 37.724

FL N. Haga 1'36.356

Race two results:

1 T. Bayliss 38'52.856

2 N. Haga + 2.374

3 M. Biaggi + 8.965

4 Y. Kagayama + 11.110

5 T. Corser + 18.709

6 J. Toseland + 20.467

7 R. Xaus + 22.072

8 R. Rolfo + 25.424

9 L. Lanzi + 30.891

10 M. Neukirchner + 37.724

FL T. Bayliss 1'36.022

Championship standings

1 J. Toseland 237

2 T. Bayliss 214

3 N. Haga 201

4 M. Biaggi 189

5 T. Corser 151

6 L. Lanzi 116

7 R. Xaus 113

8 R. Rolfo 90

9 M. Neukirchner 87

10 Y. Kagayama 62

STONER STILL AHEAD

Stoner fastest in British GP practice


DONINGTON PARK (Reuters) - Ducati's MotoGP championship leader Casey Stoner lapped fastest on Friday in rainswept free practice for Sunday's British Grand Prix.
The Australian led the wet first session at Donington Park with a time of one minute 43.749 seconds, ahead of Honda's world champion Nicky Hayden in 1:43.781 and France's Randy de Puniet on a Kawasaki.
Spaniard Dani Pedrosa, a dominant winner from pole position at Donington last year for Honda, was fastest in the afternoon session punctuated by heavy showers in 1:43.870. Team mate Hayden was second quickest.
Yamaha's former champion Valentino Rossi, returning to one of his favourite circuits, was only seventh in the morning and 10th in the afternoon on a slippery track that made times of little significance.
The Italian fell in the gravel early in the opening session but remounted and returned to the pits.
Australian Anthony West, making his Kawasaki debut in Sunday's race as a replacement for the injured French rider Olivier Jacques who announced his retirement on Thursday, was fifth fastest in the afternoon.
Despite the treacherous conditions, there were few incidents in the two sessions.
Stoner, winner of four of the season's seven races so far, leads Rossi by 14 points.
Hungary's Gabor Talmacsi, the championship leader on an Aprilia, took provisional pole position in the 125cc category ahead of Spanish team mate Hector Faubel.

RIDE TO RECALL

motor horse ride 2004

bullet trader pokhara

Hayden not giving up title

Hayden not giving up on title yet

Hayden has had a disappointing start to the 2007 campaignMotoGP world champion Nicky Hayden says he has not given up hope of retaining his title despite a disastrous start to the 2007 campaign.
After seven races the 25-year-old is 11th in this season's standings but he says a good display at Sunday's British Grand Prix could revive his season.
"Deep down I believe in myself as much as I ever did and I believe I can turn things around," he told Five Live.
"I can't wait for Friday at Donington. I know I'm up to the challenge."
I've put myself in a hole but I'm excited to fight my way out of it
Nicky Hayden
While team-mate Dani Pedrosa has flourished on his new 800cc bike this season, Hayden has struggled and currently lies 99 points behind championship leader Casey Stoner.
He admitted his failure to adapt had hit his chances, but did not want to use that as an excuse for his poor showing so far.
"We didn't make the transition as good as we liked and some of our competitors have caught us off guard - I need to do a better job of riding this 800," he said.
"I'm honest with myself - I know I've made some mistakes, I fell off in France with only a few laps to go and I've got to take the blame for that.
"But I've got some good guys in my corner and that gives me confidence as much as anything.
"I've put myself in a hole but I'm excited to fight my way out of it. I've got plenty of work to do to just get back - obviously first I need to get back on the podium, then winning races, but racing's a funny game, things change quickly.
"I know if I don't get back up front immediately any chances of having a good overall finish go out the window but I'm honestly not worried."