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

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.”