Last weekend (the 24th-25th August Bank Holiday weekend) saw the return of the annual off road racing event ‘The Dawn to Dusk’ located at Walters Arena, South Wales.

Hundreds of riders flocked to the area to take part in the Youth (2 Hour), 6 Hour, 12 Hour, 24 Hour racing plus a brand new 10 Hour night race, the event attracted huge numbers of Marathon/Solo riders, two man and three man teams, plus a new record was set for Funduro Enduro competitors (a pre-race, single lap short motorcross stage held in elimination heats until the final three shoot it out to take glory).

The Saturday afternoon Youth (2 Hour) race held for youngsters between the ages of 10 and 16 years old kicked off with the Senior class rider Daniel Davies coming first -  the track was designed to provide enough of a challenge without any real extreme sections. With Dean Ewards coming second, followed by Liam Barlett in third place - the youngsters each completed 7 laps of the track.

Following a briefing for the 24 Hour race teams from Nick Plumb (Touratech UK’s MD) the riders raced away at 7:00pm undertaking the ultimate off-road challenge the UK racing scene has to offer. Individual riders and teams leaving in classes dug deep to push themselves through the whole day and night of racing.  At 7:15pm the brand new 10 Hour night race started (made up of bikes of 575cc or less of a single or twin cylinder format beginning with a Lemans start) with groups leaving in waves depending on their allocated classes.

With the sun rising on the Sunday morning the riders  turned off their beams to continue with the remainder of the day course. With a 7:00am start the 12 Hour race competitors rolled up to the start line to warm up their engines eager to tackle the terrain ahead, amongst the fresh 12 Hour riders the 24 hour hard core entrants rode on. The 10 Hour race ended at 5:15am – Single Cylinder format winner John Hustwaite crossed the line in first place after completing 24 laps, closely followed by Steve Rose and William Bowman claiming second (22 laps) and third place (17 laps) respectively. Twin Cylinder winner Chris Prickett put in a respectable 8 laps.

After a punishing ride the chequered flag waved an end to the  24 Hour race  - 4 rider Sportman team winners RJS SUPERBIKE completed 48 laps, 3 rider Sportman team MPM Racing came first completing 42 laps, 3 Rider Clubman team SUNDAY SIDE completed a 52 lap win, 2 Rider Clubman team ROEGHOUWERS achieved a win with 50 laps. Other class winners included Marathon Clubman MARATHON BRIERLEY (42 laps), Marathon Veteran MARATHON GAUNT (37 laps), Marathon Expert MARATHON BILES (47 laps), and 2 Rider Expert winners PSV DIRECT achieved 54 laps.

The 6 Hour Race (the perfect introduction to endurance off-road riding, and a favourite with first time Dawn to Dusk competitors) began at 1pm on Sunday afternoon. With a short run to their bikes with a LeMans style start the riders were keen to swing their legs over their machines and experience the event.

The entire event finished at 7pm once the overall (and well deserved) 24 Hour race winner with 54 laps PSV DIRECT crossed the line, and the mass event chequered flag finish looked absolutely spectacular.

Over £2000 in prize money was handed out at the event, comments we have received from the competitors have been the most positive we have ever had – the aim this year was to reduce the level of extremes to make them ‘slightly’ easier in order to encourage everyone to have a go, a strategy which achieved the desired result of ensuring that all riders/classes fully enjoyed the racing.

Dawn to Dusk 2013 was a great success - not only due to the weather and track conditions (which really gave the riders a boost allowing them to put their off road riding skills to the test) but also because of the excellent support staff/marshals all of whom put in the extra effort.

The next Dawn to Dusk event will  take place during the August 2014 Bank Holiday weekend, our goal is to improve the event year on year and for 2014 it will be bigger and better than ever!

For a complete list of race results

After a four-week summer break, the Pata Honda team is heading to the Nürburgring in Germany for this weekend’s (30 Aug-1 Sept) tenth round of the 2013 World Superbike championship.

Riders Jonathan Rea and Leon Haslam are looking forward to riding their Honda CBR1000RR machines again at the famous 5.137km Nürburgring, which nestles 100km south of Cologne in Germany’s Eifel Mountains, adjacent to the iconic Nordschleife public-roads circuit.

Jonathan Rea has enjoyed success with Honda at the Nürburgring in recent years, winning in 2009, his debut SBK season. He took another win and a second place the following season and rates it as one of his favourite circuits.

Haslam, meanwhile, who became a father for the second time after the last SBK round, has taken one podium finish and been a consistent top six finisher at the German track, which has hosted World Superbike races since 2008 and features this season a slight modification after the tight first corner.

Jonathan Rea

I’m feeling good, with recharged batteries after the summer break, and I’m really excited at the prospect of riding my bike again this weekend. I really like going to the Nürburgring and it’s a nice circuit to come back to after a few weeks off. It’s both technical and fast-flowing, which I really enjoy. Hopefully, the guys back at the workshop have had some good downtime, too, because now it’s time to go back to work. I’m looking forward to free practice on Friday and hopefully we can carry on our recent form.

Leon Haslam

The break seems to have gone really fast, but then I’ve had my hands full a bit with the new baby! I’ve been having some more physiotherapy on my leg and I managed to get back riding a trials bike, which is fun. I’ve also been having a few sessions at my dad’s race school and the leg is definitely getting back to where I want it to be. So, I’m looking forward to getting back on the race bike at the Nürburgring, where I’ve always been able to battle at the front in previous races. The track seems to suit British riders especially, so I hope we can have a good weekend there.

Pieter Breddels – technical co-ordinator

It’s been a good break in the schedule and the whole team has had some time off, which we needed. We’ve carried on the evolution of the electronics system, specifically in throttle response, and we have also been preparing a lot of parts because we have four races in the next six weeks, with a flyway to Laguna Seca included. But we’ll focus on the Nürburgring now, where we know the CBR1000RR has gone pretty well in the past. Leon is getting back to strength and Jonathan is in a good run of form, so our hopes are high for the weekend.

2013 World Superbike championship, round 10

Nürburgring, Germany – weekend schedule (local times – GMT+2)

Friday 30 August

11.45-12.30 Free practice

15.30-16.15 Qualifying 1

Saturday 31 August

09.45-10.30 Qualifying 2

12.30-13.15 Free practice

15.00-15.14 Superpole 1

15.21-15.33 Superpole 2

15.40-15.50 Superpole 3

Sunday 1 September

09.20-09.35 Warm-up

12.00 Race 1 (20 laps 102.740km) 15.30 Race 2 (20 laps 102.740km)

Rapido Sport left Cadwell Park ruing crashes in both the Superbike and Superstock classes while Ducati Manchester’s Robbie Brown has season’s best result.

Matteo Baiocco suffered a crash in Superbike qualifying which left his 1199 Panigale languishing in 21st place on the grid for race one. It was a bitter pill to swallow for the Italian who was racing at the Lincolnshire circuit for the first time. Baiocco had struggled in the last few races with his pace in the early part of races and was hoping to be further forward on the grid on this unfamiliar track. Despite his best efforts Baiocco only managed to finish in 18th position at the end of the first contest.

In race two, starting from 18th on the grid, Baiocco again struggled off the line, pushing him back into 21st on lap one, however Baiocco improved as the race went on, fighting back to 15th and into the points.

Steve Moore, team principal, Rapido Sport Racing said: “At the moment the first third of the race is killing us and to be on the back row was always going to be difficult for a good result. We really struggled with set up and tried the set-up from last year but this just didn’t suit Matteo. Matteo liked the track but having never raced here before it was going to be tough for him. We can now put two of the most difficult tracks on the calendar, Oulton and Cadwell behind us and look forward to progressing at Donington.”

In Superstock 1000 Tristan Palmer was looking forward to continue his good form and move up from third in the Championship. Palmer starting from fifth on the grid has his customarily good start quickly taking the lead from Jenkinson on the first lap. Palmer immediately tried to make a break for it, opening up a second gap on Jenkinson and Aquino.

Aquino was proving to be the fastest man on track and quickly reeled in Palmer, passing him into Coppice on lap five. Palmer soon had Simon Andrews on his tail as Aquino opened a 2.5 second gap. On lap nine, Andrews made an aggressive move on Palmer coming out of Coppice into Charlies forcing him wide. With nowhere to go, Palmer crashed out practically ending any championship hopes. On lap 11 the race was red flagged and with two thirds race distance covered the race result declared. Simon Andrews was later excluded from the race after his part in Tristan Palmer’s crash.

In contrast to Palmer’s woes, Robbie Brown on the Ducati Manchester 1199 Panigale finished a brilliant 12th position after starting the race back in 21st. For the first time in 2013 the Biddiluph-based rider really found his groove, and is hoping to press on to more strong results in the remaining rounds.

Tristan Palmer, Rapid Sport Racing said: “I was just gutted after the race, I knew Tommy (Aquino) had gone, I just couldn’t live with him as his pace was really good, but I thought I could settle for second or third. Jenkinson was having a poor race and Hudson (Kennaugh) was out so I knew I could have got some good points. I will just put it behind me now and go to Donington and win.”

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.

For more information, or to find your nearest dealer visit www.dainese.com

APRILIA RACING RIDERS, SYLVAIN GUINTOLI AND EUGENE LAVERTY, LYING FIRST AND THIRD RESPECTIVELY IN THE CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS, ARE READY FOR THE SEASON HOME STRETCH.

APRILIA HAS DOMINATED THE MANUFACTURER STANDINGS SINCE THE FIRST ROUND. THE POINT SITUATION IS NOW 336 AGAINST KAWSAKI'S 303, 276 FOR BMW, HONDA WITH 189, SUZUKI AT 165 AND 128 FOR DUCATI.

Noale, 28 August 2013 - The home stretch of the 2013 World Superbike Championship starts from the German Nürburgring circuit. After the summer break, the first of the remaining five rounds that will decide the rankings finds the Aprilia Racing riders taking to the track with their sights set high. The technical German track is well suited for the characteristics of the Aprilia RSV4 which made quite an impression last year, dominating both races, taking five of the six positions up for grabs on the podium and laying the groundwork to triumph in the 2012 world championship with the double title (Rider and Manufacturer).

Sylvain Guintoli's steadfastness, even able to limit the damage after injuring his right shoulder, has taken him to the top of the rider standings with a 13 point advantage over Tom Sykes. The French rider took advantage of the break to continue his recovery and his fitness conditions have vastly improved. In any case we will need to wait for the track to have the final word, which is the only way to verify Sylvain's physical stamina.

Sylvain Guintoli: “After 3 weeks off the bike and concentrating my energy on recovering as much as possible from the shoulder injury, I feel ready to take up the championship fight in the final 5 rounds. This is the final straight line to the end of the season and I am excited to see how much progress the shoulder has made. The answer will be Sunday”.

His brilliant performance in Silverstone, where he took a double podium in difficult conditions, shook up the order for Eugene Laverty, now lying third in the rider championship standings. His potential for the final victory are on the rise and the young Northern Irish talent makes no secret of his goal for the five remaining rounds. With the excellent support from his bike and his team, Eugene is anxious to close the points gap on his rivals this weekend. This will be no easy task, but it is certainly within the capabilities of the rider from Toomebridge.

Eugene Laverty: “I've enjoyed the summer break but I'm ready to get back to racing. We now have five rounds in eight weeks to finish the season and I feel that these are the most important two months of my career to date. My teammate Sylvain, Tom Sykes, and Marco Melandri will be tough to beat in the title race but I intend to give it my all. Nurburgring is a really strong circuit for the Aprilia and so I hope to gain points on my championship rivals this weekend”.