Two For Two Wheel Tuesday

First off, very excited to hear that Brett McCormick is going to be racing in the US (I would have preferred to see him in BSB but rides were sparse there this year) and he’ll once again be riding for Pascal Picotte on Suzuki’s.  We will get to see him at Daytona, where he’ll race the 200 and Superbikes.  Check out his new lid for Daytona! The work was done by Andre Roy of 66GraphX.com

 

 

Really well done lid!!  Good luck to Brett!!

 

Now some of you may have seen this on other sites, if not, this is mega cool.  Here is the valve train of the new BMW S1000RR spinning at 14,000 RPMS!!

 

Canadian Kawasaki Outsourcing 2010 Racing Progam

COMPETITION SYSTEMS TO RUN KAWASAKI TEAM

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

TORONTO, Ont. (January 13) – Canadian Kawasaki Motors has secured the 
services of Toronto-based Competition Systems to handle Kawasaki’s assault 
in the 2010 Parts Canada Superbike Championship. The team will consist of 
one rider and focus exclusively on the Superbike feature class with 
Kawasaki’s potent Ninja ZX-10R.
The new entity will be called Competition Systems Kawasaki Race 
Team.
For the past several years, Canadian Kawasaki Motors has run its 
national road race program in-house. Last summer the squad claimed its 
fourth straight titles in the Parts Canada Superbike and Yoshimura Pro Sport 
Bike divisions.
Mike Crompton of Competition Systems has been the crew chief for 
the Kawasaki program through its run of success and will now take over as 
team owner of the new race program. Some of the existing crew will continue 
with the team and a rider and sponsors will be announced within a few days.
“Due to a number of circumstances we have decided to suspend 
activities with our factory program for 2010,” said Jeff Comello of Canadian 
Kawasaki Motors. “But despite this state of change we have tried to keep as 
much continuity as possible and Mike Crompton and Competition Systems are 
the perfect fit. We have been together now for four-plus years and have 
enjoyed a great deal of success.”
     Crompton has some 40 years of experience in the Canadian motorcycle 
industry, supplying engines and race equipment to some of the country’s 
leading competitors.
     “Canadian Kawasaki Motors is a great company and I’m looking forward 
to this,” Crompton said. “We already have a good team structure and 
equipment. We’ve spent a number of years building this program and all we 
have to do is just continue what we’ve started.”
     The agreement between Canadian Kawasaki Motors and Competition Systems 
is for one year and will be re-evaluated at the end of the 2010 racing 
season.
     “Kawasaki is committed to showcasing the Ninja brand in competition 
and we feel strongly that we need to be behind the Parts Canada Superbike 
Championship,” Comello said. “This is the perfect venue for us to display 
our products.”
     “We all have to dig deep and support the series,” Crompton added. “It 
is important to do what we can to have a successful 2010 and build on that 
for 2011 and beyond.”
     In addition to claiming the past four Parts Canada Superbike titles 
Canadian Kawasaki Motors enjoyed a string of nine straight national 
championships from 1991 to 1999, and also claimed the first two Canadian 
crowns in 1980 and ’81 with riders George Morin and Lang Hindle, 
respectively.
     The 2010 Parts Canada Superbike Championship opens May 28-30 at 
Circuit ICAR in Mirabel, Que.

For more series information, visit www.cdnsuperbike.com

Honda Out Of US Motorcycle Roadracing

We aren’t much for cutting and pasting press releases and calling it content, but this does pretty much sum it all up nicely.

Honda Press Release
Honda Racing Announcement
9-18-09

HEAD: Honda Racing announcement

For immediate release:

Torrance, CA: During the 2009 AMA/DMG Road Racing series, American Honda
Motor Company, Inc. contracted team personnel, including team Honda rider
Neil Hodgson, to the Corona Extra Honda race team.

Corona Extra Honda race team participated in this series with our
award-winning 2009 CBR1000RR in the AMA Superbike class, unfortunately
participation in this series did not meet our racing goals and objectives.

Regrettably the current AMA/DMG racing environment does not align with our
company goals. Effective today 9/18/09, AHM will not be renewing contracts
with Corona Extra Racing and will be terminating the on-site Road Race
operations by 9/30/09.  All assets will be put into storage for future
consideration. Team staff was informed of these changes today at 1:00PM
PDT.

DMG DOUCHEBAGGERY

There have been a few things that have really set me off about Roger Edmundson’s Reign Of Terror in the last couple months.  One is minor but important, the other is just inexcusable incompetence.

 

No I’m not going to go on about the cut in purse and bonus money that was announced last week, that’s just an economic reality.  Besides, did anyone think that was truly going to happen at those levels?

 

No what has me hacked off are the reassignment of race numbers from riders to teams, and the broadcast schedule for Daytona.

 

For as long as anyone can remember in motorcycle racing a number has been associated with a rider throughout many international series, including the US. As you go through the years 21 was Eddie Lawson, 34 was Kevin Schwantz, 7 was Barry Sheene, while he started out as 11, 155 became Ben Bostrom’s number 69 is Nicky Hayden, 41 Nori Haga and of course 46 has been burned into out collective conscious as Valentino Rossi.

 

Now, thanks to the influence of “The Beach Front Mafia” just like NASCAR, the numbers belong to the teams.  So, for 2009 #2 won’t be Jamie Hacking, it will be Ben Bostrom, except in Daytona Sportbike where he’ll be #1 along with Jake Zemke,  HUH???? How can you have two number ones for a class that never existed before,  The convoluted thinking is that since Daytona Sportbike combines the FX class and the 600SS class that you combine number ones make one red and one black.

 

Seriously, are you kidding me? If you can’t get something so small and basic as this right, how can we expect you to get ANYTHING right.  While some of the riders haven’t spent years building a personal brand around a number like Valentino, there is still a value attached to it.  When you see #16 go buy, will you automatically associate that with Jake Zemke??  Some of the teams have been smart enough to grab the traditional numbers of the riders, Rog Hayden will still be 95, Tommy Hayden will be 22, Miguel will be 17, but many riders will have new numbers for 09.  Yes it’s small, but it’s all the small things that add up to big things down the road.

 

Item two is the TV schedule for Daytona.  Roger was all happy and joyful when he announced that he had a new TV deal with SPEED a few weeks ago.  What was not said is that the only coverage of Daytona will be for the 200.  No American Superbike, no SuperSport, not a bit of the new hyped SuperPole.  On Friday, March 6th at 8:30PM EST you get the 200, and that’s it!  In years past we got to see ALL the support races, but no more.  Thursday the 5th at 2PM while he SuperSport race is running, SPEED is showing a replay of the NASCAR race from Las Vegas.  Then, at 3:30 when the American Superbike race is going off, SPEED will be showing Truck U.  Finally when SuperPole for the 200 is taking place, under the lights at 6:30, SPEED will be broadcasting Unique Whips!

 

Talk about your major EPIC FAIL!

 

Look, I DO understand the economic realities of TV, especially during this current economic unpleasantness, but give me a break, while the motorcycle audience isn’t the largest one you have, it’s your most loyal and vocal, toss us a bone here, would you mind?