SECOND PLACE IN RACE 2 FOR EUGENE LAVERTY WHO WAS MAKING A PLAY FOR THE LEAD WHEN THE RACE WAS STOPPED.

WITH A FOURTH AND FIFTH PLACE FINISH SYLVAIN GUINTOLI LIMITS THE DAMAGE AND STAYS CLOSE TO THE LEAD IN THE RIDER STANDINGS.

APRILIA CONTINUES TO LEAD THE MANUFACTURER CHAMPIONSHIP.

Nürburgring, 1 September 2013 – Two red flags due to oil on the track, both during the penultimate lap, stopped the World Superbike races at the Nürburgring. A blown out engine for Sandi first and a crash by Smrz in the second forced Race Direction to end the competitions a lap early.

While the finishing order had all but been decided when Race 1 was suspended, in the second race the duels between Davies and Eugene Laverty for first place and between Sylvain Guintoli and Sykes for fourth place were just heating up. In fact, the red flag kept the Aprilia Racing Team standard bearers from a direct attack on their rivals at the chequered flag.

After a difficult Superpole Sylvain Guintoli got off to a good start in both races, immediately gaining positions. After successfully fending off attacks by Giugliano and Camier, Sylvain's race for the podium stopped short at fourth place in Race 1. In the penultimate lap an oil leak caused Rea and Camier to crash, unfortunately injured in the accident, putting an end to the race and deciding the finishing order. Race 2 followed a similar script, at least in the first part. With an excellent start followed by a series of fast laps, the French rider had closed the gap with the leading pack, nipping at Sykes' heels during the final laps. Just as the duel was about to start in earnest, a crash by wild card Smrz with fluids leaking onto the track from his bike put an end to the race a lap early. Thanks to his fifth place finish, Sylvain is now in second place in the rider standings, just one point behind Sykes.

Sylvain Guintoli: “This was a difficult weekend on a very physical track. In Race 1 I couldn't find my rhythm in the first laps, dropping behind the leaders and having to ride alone, fending off attacks. In Race 2 the changes we made to my RSV4 really worked well. I pushed hard to catch Sykes up and when I did my plan was to attack in the last lap, but unfortunately the red flag stopped the race. My only consolation is that my shoulder responded well. I was able to push hard all the way to the end in both races without serious problems. It hurts now, but as long as I'm on the bike everything is OK. We'll go to Turkey as pursuers, but it's a track that I like where I think I can make a good play for it just as well as the other four or five riders who have proven to be consistently fast”

It was a double-sided weekend for Eugene Laverty. Starting from the twelfth spot on the grid, the Northern Irish rider also had two good starts. However, his comeback in Race 1 was interrupted in the fourth lap when a crash forced him to head back to the garage. After the damage to his bike was repaired Eugene went back out, ending the race in fifteenth place and earning one point. In Race 2 Eugene unleashed his potential from the start, reaching the podium range within a few laps where he engaged in battle first with Sykes and then with Melandri, overtaking them both and setting his sights on frontrunner Davies. All signs pointed to an assault in the final laps, just when the red flag that ratified a second place finish for Eugene came out.

Eugene Laverty: “It was a shame about the red flag in Race 2 when I was about to attack Chaz Davies for first place. I'm not saying I would have won it, but I would have had a go. The crash in Race 1 created a bit of a mess. I want to battle for the Championship and mistakes like that one can be costly. When you start so far back on the grid there's a lot more pressure and with that comes the risk of making some mistakes. We definitely will not be able to make any more slip ups for the rest of the season. All told we haven't lost too much ground behind the Championship leaders but we've got a hard battle ahead.”

Aprilia leads the manufacturer championship with 369 points in front of Kawasaki (341), BMW (321), Honda (201), Suzuki (175), Ducati (144) and Yamaha (4). 

Lorenzo Zanetti and Michael van der Mark finished in fourth and fifth places respectively in the tenth-round World Supersport championship race at the Nürburgring in Germany this afternoon.

The 19-lap race around the 5.137km circuit was won by series leader Sam Lowes after his closest challenger Kenan Sofuoglu crashed out of contention. Starting from fifth place on the grid, Zanetti was battling in a podium position for much of the race but a small error two laps from the end saw him slip back a place.

It was a different race for van der Mark, who started from the fourth row after set-up issues and bad weather affected his qualifying performance. The 20-year-old Dutch ace dropped back to 16th in the opening laps but fought his way through the pack impressively to fifth, retaining fourth place in the points standings.

Lorenzo Zanetti – 4th

I have not been 100% fit this weekend, but after Silverstone I had some confidence. I wasn’t sure we could fight for the podium here but I like the circuit and we made some good steps. We changed completely the front of the bike after warm-up this morning. It was a big change and I started the race without trying it, which was a bit strange. Two laps before the end I made a mistake and I lost the podium position but before this I had a good rhythm and was staying with the front guys. I feel positive for Turkey and the rest of the season.

Michael van der Mark – 5th

My start was not so good and I probably released the clutch a little bit too fast. In the fourth corner a rider in front of me made a stupid move and cut right across me so I had to close the throttle. Everybody passed me and then I was 16th, I think. I had to push all through the race and, although I had the pace for the podium, I lost too much time and too many positions at the start.

Pieter Breddels – technical co-ordinator

Michael started from quite a way back and then had to come back from 16th after not such a good first lap. To fight back to fifth was another amazing achievement and he showed again what he can do on the bike. Lorenzo also had a good race but couldn’t quite hold on to third place. He fought all through the race, though, and the result was a good achievement.

2013 World Supersport championship, round 10

Nürburgring, Germany – 5.137km, 19 laps

Race result:

1 Sam Lowes (GBR) Yamaha

2 Fabien Foret (FRA) Kawasaki

3 Kevin Coghlan (GBR) Kawasaki

4 Lorenzo Zanetti (ITA) Pata Honda

5 Michael van der Mark (NED) Pata Honda

6 Ricardo Russo (ITA) Kawasaki

Championship points after 10 of 14 rounds:

1 Lowes 185, 2 Sofuoglu 131, 3 Foret 121, 4 van der Mark 91, 5 Zanetti 86, 6 Scassa 69. Next round: Istanbul, Turkey – 13-15 September

This evening Dainese presented its 2014 collection in front of selected UK media and supported racers including Pol Esparagaró, Nicky Hayden, James Hillier, Guy Martin and Luis Salom. The special event took place ahead of the 12th round of MotoGP, Moto2 and Moto3 at Silverstone this weekend, where Esparagaró, Hayden and Salom will continue their respective season assaults.

New products unveiled from the 2014 collection include the Laguna Seca Evo P one-piece suit, two leather jackets (Stripes Evo Pelle and Laguna Evo Lady) and two textile jackets (Carve Master GTX and Laguna Seca D-Dry).

Three new gloves were introduced, namely the winter-warm Scout Evo GTX, the classically styled Essential and the Veloce sports glove, as well as three new boots – the Lince GTX for touring, a casual sneaker-inspired Street Biker D-WP and the racing-styled TR-Course Out. There were also two new jeans, the D1 1K and the D1 1K Pred, as well as some updates made to the Manis back protector.

More new products will be released from the collection later in the year.

Alongside the new products Dainese presented its D-air systems. Both launched on the market over the last two years the systems are designed to protect riders on track (D-air Racing) and on the road (D-air Street).

D-air Racing is a wireless system built into a Dainese one-piece leather suit that detects a fall or slide immediately and sends a trigger signal to activate the airbag. Not just an airbag, the system also features data acquisition software developed by German company 2D (2d-datarecording), which supplies some of the top teams in MotoGP and F1. The software gives D-air wearers an effective tool to monitor riding performance and record telemetry data, which can be downloaded and displayed on a computer.

The D-air Street is vastly different; the airbag and deployment facilities are fitted in the jacket and the mechanics of the whole system are fitted to the motorcycle. D-air Street features a fall sensor that is physically connected to a display unit on the bikes dash. This shows the rider system information, including when the device is connected, the battery life and information about the pillion’s system, if they are wearing one.

Both D-air systems are available from supported D-air Dainese dealers, while the new collection will start to be available in UK dealers from mid-October.

www.dainese.com

Councils need to commit to long term funding to see progress with the UK’s pothole crisis, according to road safety charity IAM (Institute of Advanced Motorists).  The IAM recently surveyed local highway authorities to chart progress on implementing the key recommendations for the Pothole Review twelve months on.

Results show that councils are adopting new policies and are being much more open about how and when they will fill in potholes. • Forty-seven per cent of councils surveyed said that had published a report giving details on their repair policy and eighty-five per cent say they have clear definitions of what a pothole actually looks like. • Seventy-seven per cent of authorities publish clear information on their response time for repairs. • Fifty-seven per cent adopt innovative communication channels to make it easier for the general public to report a pothole.

The Pothole Review has led to significant changes in the way that councils repair roads.  Fifty-nine per cent of councils said that now they adopt a ‘prevention is better than cure’ approach and seventy-one per cent say that permanent repairs are their first choice when dealing with damaged roads.

IAM chief executive Simon Best said: “It’s probably too early to say that the Pothole Review has been a total success, but the early indications are mostly positive.  Communication with drivers and riders has improved and permanent repairs are now being used in place of constant patching.

“The building blocks are in place but the fact that complaints still seem to be rising means they have a real challenge on their hands.  At least in future that challenge and their response will be quantified and public and we will be watching for signs of real progress on the street.”

“The IAM recognise that it will take time to deliver the quality of roads we want but the lack of long term budgets in many councils is a real worry.  We may now know what constitutes a pothole but without consistent funding many will still go unrepaired storing up even more long term damage for the future.”

Lorenzo Zanetti bounced back from a month-long summer break to take fifth place in today’s first qualifying session for the tenth round World Supersport championship event at Nürburgring in Germany today.

The Italian rider is still not at 100% fitness after sustaining injuries in a crash in July but it didn’t stop the 26-year-old from setting a time of 1m59.686s at the 5.137km Nürburgring circuit, less than 0.7s from provisional pole sitter, Sam Lowes.

Despite a promising free practice session this morning, Zanetti’s Pata Honda team-mate Michael van der Mark was twelfth fastest this afternoon and admitted going in the wrong direction with the settings on his Honda CBR600RR.

Lorenzo Zanetti – P5 1m59.686s

My condition is still not perfect and I only restarted normal training one week ago, but I like this track. I lose a lot of time in turn three but it was a good start and I think we can improve things here and in other areas of the track. I had a crash at the end of the session and I must apologise to my team because, although I was fine, the bike is not OK and I made a lot of work for them.

Michael van der Mark – P12 2m00.100s

This morning started really well. We tried a few different things and in the last few laps I was able to do a pretty good time. We still had some changes that we needed though, so we tried them for qualifying but we went in the wrong direction. It was difficult to ride the bike this afternoon so I think we will go back to the earlier settings to make things easier tomorrow.

Pieter Breddels – technical co-ordinator

Michael had a really good free practice this morning but in the afternoon things didn’t quite go his way. We changed the setting a little, but it had more of a negative effect and in the end he was twelfth and couldn’t match his free practice time. We’ll try again tomorrow. Lorenzo did well today and things are looking quite positive, despite his crash on the very last lap today.

2013 World Supersport championship, round nine – Nürburgring, Germany

First qualifying results:

1 Sam Lowes (GBR) Yamaha 1m58.993s

2 Kenan Sofuoglu (TUR) Kawasaki 1m59.107s

3 Fabien Foret (FRA) Kawasaki 1m59.433s

4 Vladimir Leonov (RUS) Yamaha 1m59.677s

5 Lorenzo Zanetti (ITA) Pata Honda 1m59.686s

6 Jack Kennedy (IRL) Honda 1m59.701s 12 Michael van der Mark (NED) Pata Honda 2m00.100s