Kawasaki WSB - 2010

Akira Yanagawa is returning to the World Superbike series this weekend aboard the Kawasaki as a wild-card rider at Silverstone for the British round of the championship.

The Japanese rider has been called on as a replacement rider for the injured Chris Vermeulen and has said he is looking forward to the event although he expects it to be tough.

Yanagawa began racing for the World Superbike Kawasaki team way back in 1997 and rewarded his team with three race wins and finishing in fourth place overall in the 1997 championship.

The last time that Yanagawa was on a World Superbike was at Sugo back in 2002 before the team decided to concentrate more on the MotoGP series.

Yanagawa still races in the All-Japan Superbike series which he was leading in 2007 until he finally lost out to Atsushi Watanabe.

Leon Haslam 2010

The North Yorkshire Road Racing Supporters Club are delighted to announce that they have the father and son motorcycle riders Ron and Leon Haslam with them for a chat night.

The event takes place on Tuesday 3rd August following the British round of the World Superbike series at Silverstone where Leon will be competing on the Alstare Suzuki, currently running in second place in the World Superbike championship.

The talk night will take place at The Yorkshire Suite of the Golden Lion Hotel in Northallerton with the doors opening at 7.30pm and the event beginning at 8.15pm.

There is a bar at the event along with a raffle and TV highlights to be shown all for only £6 or £4 if you are a NYRRSC member.

Karun Chandhok - HRT F1 2010

The 2010 HRT F1 driver Karun Chandhok is to be replaced at the German Grand Prix by Sakon Yamamoto following his impressive performance at the Silverstone Grand Prix when he drove in place of  Bruno Senna.

The 28-year-old driver ended the British Grand Prix in 20th position for the Hispania Racing team and has been given a second opportunity to drive this time alongside Senna.

Chandhok is expected to race again later in the season with team test driver Christian Klein stating that from now onwards any of the four drivers may get a chance at the race seats.

The Japanese driver has completed 15 Grand Prix starts, initially with the Spyker team now Force India and then the Super Aguri team before joining the HRT F1 team as a test driver in April of this year.

Yamamoto said in an interview;

“The last race weekend was very exciting for me. Now, the team has given me another chance to race on Sunday and I will do my best to prove that it was the right decision.

“I have a lot of good memories of the circuit in Hockenheim. I like the track layout with the passing point at the end of the long straight and also the Stadium sector, which is very challenging. There is always a nice atmosphere with the spectators at the grandstands and I am always looking forward to come back to Hockenheim. Compared to Silverstone, I think we are more competitive and we can achieve a good result again.”

Chris Vermeulen - WSB Kawasaki 2010

It has been announced that the World Superbike Kawasaki rider Chris Vermeulen is to be out of the series for up to six months as he recovers from his injuries.

The Australian had previously decided to sit out the rest of the 2010 season and is to undergo keyhole surgery on his injured knee this week.

Vermeulen received the injury five-months ago at the Phillip Island round of the World Superbike championship which was aggravated when he crashed again at the Brno circuit.  The surgery will concentrate on repairing two of the three damaged ligaments in his right knee but it is the recovery period that will require the time to heal properly which led to his decision to sit out the remainder of the year to enable him to be fit for the 2011 season.

Akira Yanagawa has been named as the replacement rider for Vermeulen at the Silverstone circuit on the 1st August, suggesting that the team may still be looking for a full-term replacement for the remainder of the season.

The 39-year-old Japanese rider has previously been on the starting grid of the World Superbike championship over 100 times, achieving 20 podium finishes with 3 of them being on the top step from 1997 until 2001.

Since 2001, Yamagawa has been on hand as a test and development rider for the former MotoGP crew but is excited to be once again riding in the World Superbike series especially on British soil.

Mark Webber - Red Bull's No.2 Driver

Mark Webber is now lying in third place in the F1 championship standings after crossing the line to take the chequered flag at yesterdays British Grand Prix at the newly modernised Silverstone circuit.

Webber was still smarting from the team decision to give his Red Bull team mate the newly developed front wing off of his car just before the start of the qualifying session after the one fitted to Sebastian Vettel’s car broke during the morning session, leaving the German driver to go on and secure pole position.

The Australian driver led the race from the very first corner as he squeezed his car in front of his team-mate Vettel, who in turn touched wheels with the McLaren of Lewis Hamilton, damaging the rear wheel of the Red Bull and was forced to return to the pits for new tyres.

Webber set fastest lap after fastest lap ahead of Hamilton and third place man Robert Kubica in the Renault, Nico Rosberg for Mercedes and Fernando Alonso in the Ferrari.  Alonso and team-mate Felipe Massa appeared to make contact as they battled for position resulting in the Brazilian driver heading back to the pits after a puncture.

Kubica retired from the race after suffering a driveshaft failure on his car leaving Rosberg the chance at the third step of the podium while a challenging Jenson Button stayed on his tail after moving up from fourteenth place on the grid to fourth.

The safety car was deployed on lap 28 of the race after Force India driver Adrian Sutil ran into the back of Pedro de la Rosa in the BMW Sauber as they headed down the pit straight, littering the circuit with debris.  The incident played nicely into the hands of Vettel who began to work his way back through the field despite making contact with Sutil after finally getting past without either drivers suffering any problems.

Webber, who had created a gap of over 7 seconds on Hamilton until the safety car, finished the race 1.3 seconds ahead of the McLaren driver who was followed by Rosberg and Button.

In fifth place was the Williams driver Rubens Barrichello ahead of the BMW Sauber of Kamui Kobayashi and Vettel who finished in an impressive seventh place from the back of the field.

Adrian Sutil crossed the line in eighth place followed by Michael Schumacher in ninth and the second Williams driver Nico Hulkenberg in tenth.

It was a disastrous weekend for the Ferrari team after Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa’s starting incident and then later Alonso was given a drive-through penalty for taking a short cut when overtaking Kubica on lap 17.  His penalty coincided with the deployment of the safety car which moved him from 4th place back to 15th and out of the points.

The Toro Rosso of Jaime Alguersuari suffered brake failure just 7 laps from the end of the race while Lucas di Grassi failed to finish the race due to an hydraulics problem in the Virgin car.

Here are the results;

1. Mark Webber Australia Red Bull-Renault 52 laps 1hr 24m 38.200s
2. Lewis Hamilton Britain McLaren-Mercedes +1.3s
3. Nico Rosberg Germany Mercedes-Mercedes +21.3s
4. Jenson Button Britain McLaren-Mercedes +21.9s
5. Rubens Barrichello Brazil Williams-Cosworth +31.4s
6. Kamui Kobayashi Japan BMW Sauber-Ferrari +32.1s
7. Sebastian Vettel Germany Red Bull-Renault +36.7s
8. Adrian Sutil Germany Force India-Mercedes +40.9s
9. Michael Schumacher Germany Mercedes-Mercedes +41.5s
10. Nico Hulkenberg Germany Williams-Cosworth +42.0s

all times unofficial

The two British drivers take time out from their hectic training schedules to give their thoughts on the track at Silverstone, their preparations for this weekend, and what their expectations will be for a Grand Prix on home soil.

The pair also speak about what they’ve been doing in their down time whilst back home in Britain since Valencia two weeks ago.

Oulton Park

After cancellation of some of the races of the British and National Superbike championship the organisers have now rescheduled and the dates are as follows;

Round 6, British Superbike series, Race 2 at Knockhill will now take place on Saturday July 17th at the Snetterton circuit. The participants of that race are confined to those published on the Grid for Race 2 published at Knockhill on 4/7/2010.

National Superstock 600, Round 3 at Oulton Park will now run over the weekend of July 30/31st and August 1st at the Silverstone circuit, supporting the Superbike World Championship. The participants of that race are confined to those published on the Race 9 – Final Grid published at Oulton Park on 3/5/2010.  Round 5, Race 2 at Knockhill will now take place on July 17th at Snetterton. The participants of that race are confined to those published on the Race 3 and 10 – Final Grid published at Knockhill on 4/7/2010

British 125GP championship, Round 6 from Knockhill will now take place on Saturday 11th September at the Croft circuit.

The Henderson Harley Davidson XR1200 Trophy, Rounds 3 & 4 has now been incorporated into the event at Brands Hatch on the weekend of August 6/7/8 with the revised remaining rounds as follows;

Round 3 August 7th Brands Hatch GP

Round 4 August 8th Brands Hatch GP

Round 5 August 29th Cadwell Park

Round 6 August 30th Cadwell Park

World Superbike Championship 2010

The Interwetten Honda MotoGP injured rider Hiroshi Aoyama is to be replaced by the Honda test rider Kousuke Akiyoshi at the Assen round of the championship and the following Catalunya round.

Aoyama was injured during the warm up session at Silverstone last weekend and suffered a fractured vertebrae.  The Japanese rider was hospitalised and kept in to be monitored following the crash which is expected to keep him out of the series for at least the next couple of months.

Akiyoshi will now take to the track on the RC212V at Assen next weekend and again in Spain for July 2-4th where he will race under the number 64, the test rider will replace Aoyama until a longer term replacement can be found.

Jorge Lorenzo - Silverstone 2010

The Fiat Yamaha rider Jorge Lorenzo won the British MotoGP yesterday after dominating the race from pole position at the Silverstone circuit.

The Spaniard crossed the finish line 6.743 seconds ahead of second place man Andrea Dovizioso on the Repsol Honda and Ben Spies taking his first podium this season in third for the Monster Yamaha Tech3 team.

As the race got underway, Lorenzo had a fight on his hands as he battled with his fellow countryman Dani Pedrosa for the lead.

The Ducati Marlboro rider Casey Stoner had a terrible start seeing him drift towards the back of the grid from sixth position by the first turn while the San Carlo Honda Gresini rider Marco Melandri crashed out on the opening lap.

By lap 7, Lorenzo had managed to create a 5 second gap while Dovizioso and the LCR Honda rider Randy de Puniet fought for second place with the second Marlboro Ducati of Nicky Hayden hot on their tails.

Stoner struggled to make his way back up the grid finally making it past Pedrosa who was sitting in eighth place on lap 13 of the race.  Meanwhile Loris Capirossi crashed his Rizla Suzuki whilst trying to pass the Páginas Amarillas Aspar machine of Héctor Barbera, running off circuit and landing in a heap in the gravel trap ending his chances of any points in the race.

As Dovizioso, De Puniet and Hayden continued their own race for the two remaining podium places the gap between the three riders was less than half a second with Spies still tracking them down for his share of the points.

While Lorenzo rode a lonely race way out in front and with only three laps of the race remaining, Hayden and Spies both managed to make it past De Puniet followed by Stoner who had now moved into fifth place.

On the final lap of the race, Spies made his move on Hayden and slotted into third place where he remained until the chequered flag behind the second place man Dovizioso.

Hayden finished in fourth place ahead of Stoner in fifth and De Puniet in sixth. Marco Simoncelli claimed his best result so far this season with seventh place followed by Pedrosa in eighth, Colin Edwards in ninth and Aleix Espargaro in tenth.

Hiroshi Aoyama did not take place in the race after suffering injuries when he crashed during the morning warm-up session.  The Interwetten Honda rider received heavy contusions to his back and was sent to hospital for a CT scan.

Here are the results;

1.  Jorge Lorenzo  ESP Fiat Yamaha Team  41m 34.083s
2. Andrea Dovizioso ITA Repsol Honda Team 41m 40.826s
3. Ben Spies USA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 41m 41.180s
4. Nicky Hayden USA Ducati Marlboro Team 41m 41.397s
5. Casey Stoner AUS Ducati Marlboro Team 41m 41.577s
6. Randy de Puniet FRA LCR Honda MotoGP 41m 43.138s
7. Marco Simoncelli ITA San Carlo Honda Gresini 41m 48.508s
8. Dani Pedrosa ESP Repsol Honda Team 41m 49.396s
9. Colin Edwards USA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 42m 2.0370s
10. Aleix Espargaro ESP Pramac Racing 42m 16.477s
11. Hector Barbera ESP Paginas Amarillas Aspar 42m 17.448s
12. Alvaro Bautista ESP Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 42m 17.491s
13. Mika Kallio FIN Pramac Racing 42m 17.663s

DNF:
Loris Capirossi ITA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP
Marco Melandri ITA San Carlo Honda Gresini

Simon Andrews - Kawasaki

Simon Andrews will be back on a Kawasaki this weekend as he rides in the National Superstock 1000 support race at the British MotoGP Grand Prix.

Andrews suffered a fractured heel while racing in the World Superbike round at Valencia two-months ago as a replacement rider for Chris Vermeulen.

The British Superbike rider will be replacing the injured Conor Cummins at the Blackhorse Kawasaki team after Cummins was injured during last weeks TT.  Cummins received a back injury, a broken arm, a dislocated knee and bruised lungs in the high speed accident at the Isle Of Man and is expected to be out for the rest of the season.

Andrews is also expected to return to the British Superbike championship at the next round at Mallory Park.