Decissions,
Decissions! Newly crowned Miss Great Britain 2003 and 2004 Fast Dates
Calendar cover girl
Nicki Lane (center facing camera), returns to Laguna Seca in Julyas
the offical Team Ducati Corse umbrella
girl, this time for Championship leader Neil Hodgsen. Troy Bayliss
ponders his decision to swith to MotoGP.
SBK
Superbike Championship Preview: Laguna Seca
Team Ducati Corse pairs Fast Dates cover model
Miss
Great Britain 2003 Nicki Lane with
World Championship points leader Neil Hodgsen
 |
London
/ Bolonga / Los Angeles, May 22nd:
The national competition for Miss Great Britain 2003
took place at Tantra this past weekend, an exclusive theater
and club in downtown London before a sell out crowd. The title
Miss Great Britain 2003 was won by beautiful professional model,
aerobics instructor, theatrical dancer and FastDates.com
Calendar model Nicki Lane from the British town of
Reading. Nicki simply dazzled on stage and her stunning good
looks and sparkling personality to make her the Judges' favorite.
History
was made as Nicki, formerly Miss Great Britain 2001, became
the first girl to ever win the title twice. Nicki was sponsored
for her home country British national pageant leading up to
the Miss World competition by the FastDates.com Motorsports
Calendars and Website, who's sash she wore on stage
during portions of the competition and when she was crowned
at the end. |
Nicki
Lane will be familiar to American sportbike fans who may have seen
her in America last summer 2002 where she was working with FastDates.com,
serving as an official SBK World Superbike Fast Dates Calendar
model at Laguna Seca World Superbike shooting for
the calendar in the paddock with the top factory race bikes, and a
week later at the Los Angeles Calendar Motorcycle Show.
On Sunday at Laguna Seca, Nicki also served as the official Team Ducati
Corse umbrella girl for SBK World Superbike Champion Troy Bayliss.
Nicki
talked to FastDates.com just after her win - "I'm so excited.
I'm staying in London tonight as I'm doing TV interviews all day tomorrow
all day tomorrow. I've already been interviewed by MTV and NBC from
the states. I've got an incredible story to tell about the pageant
and what it took to win. I am ecstatic and its a great plus for the
FastDates.com Calendars and all the faith director Jim Gianatsis has
had in me. I'm taking every every opportunity to mention to the press
that I'm this coming year's cover model on the 2004 SBK World Superbike
Fast Dates Calendar, and the great time I had serving as the Team
Ducati Corse umbrella girl for World Champion Troy Bayliss at Laguna
Seca last year. All things are looking good, and superbike racing
is getting great world coverage from it all.
I
am look forward to coming back to California with FastDates.com in
July for the 2003 World Superbike race at Laguna Seca and The LA Calendar
Motorcycle Show ands I'll look forward to meeting everyone who was
so nice to me last year. See you soon. Cheers!" -Nicki Lane,
Miss Great Britain 2001 and 2003.
Nicki will again be joining us this year as one of our SBK Fast Dates
Calendar models at Laguna Seca World Superbike weekend July 10-12th.
Paolo Ciabatti, Marketing Director at Ducati Corse,
has confirmed our Fast Dates Calendar models again will be the official
Ducati Corse team umbrella girls on Sunday for the race and world
TV broadcast. And our Miss Great Britain Nicki Lane will serve as
Ducati Corse umbrella girl for British National Champion and expected-to-be
2003 World Superbike Champion Neil Hodgsen. We couldn't be more pleased
tohave FastDates.com be part of a such a world class championship
winning combination - Ducati, Neil and Nicki
Sete Gibernau on
the start grid on a sunnier day.
MotoGP World Championship Round 4: French Grand Prix at Le Mans
Rossi
Leads MotoGP Pack To LeMans
Gibernau's Spanish triple after
last lap thriller
May 23/24/25 2003: As the momentum of the European
based MotoGP races accelerates to the second
level at the Le Mans circuit this weekend, world championship leader
Valentino Rossi (Repsol Honda RC211V), and a strong list of his fellow
Honda entrants, approach the race with understandably high levels
of confidence. Recent events have given the 2003 MotoGP season an
enhanced sense of purpose and focus and after the biggest trackside
spectator festival of the season at a flowing and rhythmical Jerez,
Le Mans presents an altogether different obstacle. Tight and twisty,
with many stop-go corners, Le Mans is a favourite of few, but the
same challenge for all.
Honda men pack
the top ten in this year’s championship standings, even after
only three of 16 races. Rossi, something of a modern day racing phenomenon,
carries the highest points haul so far, leading Max Biaggi (Camel
Pramac Pons RC211V) 70 to 56. Neither rider has been off the podium
yet, with Rossi winning at Suzuka and Jerez, while fourth place rider
overall, Sete Gibernau (Telefonica Movistar Honda RC211V), took an
emotional win at Welkom in South Africa in round two.
Le Mans hosts
the French GP for the 15th time, having shared the event over the
years with seven other circuits. In last year’s MotoGP race
rain brought about a premature finish after 21 of a scheduled 28 laps
and thus delivered the win to Rossi. Despite this success the 2002
World Champion does not rate the slow sections and tight corners of
the Bugatti circuit, a very much shorter 4.18km version of the classic
24-Hour car racing loop. “It’s good to be where we are
after three races, especially before Le Mans – which is not
my favourite track – in fact I don't really like it that much
at all,” admitted Rossi. “ I won there last year, but
that was mainly because I managed to get to the front and then the
rain fell and they stopped the race, which was lucky for me.”
Despite Rossi’s
great start to the season, realism shines through in his thoughts
about how tough this year’s competition is. “The team
is working well and the bike feels good, but there are many competitive
riders and machines,” acknowledged Rossi. “Things never
get easier and we have to keep up the pressure on them all from the
front – the championship is a long one and we have only just
begun to see what might happen.”
Friday
/ Saturday Qualifying
Experience showed as Repsol Honda's Valentino secured the pole on
Friday and Gauloises Yamaha's Alex Barros a near second behind in
second place. Ducati MotoGP Team rider Loris Capirossi once again
proved the awesome speed of the Italian factory’s Desmosedici
MotoGP bike by going third fastest in the afternoon’s first
qualifying session, putting himself of the provisional front row for
Sunday’s French Grand Prix. Team-mate and Le Mans first-timer
Troy Bayliss spent the day learning his way round the stop-and-go
circuit, ending up 14th quickest.
“We have
never been here before with this bike but it’s working okay,
though I still feel something is missing,” said Ducati MotoGP
Team technical director Corrado Cecchinelli. “I don’t
know what, or we would already have made the changes! The gearing
was wrong this morning, so we’ve fixed that, now we just need
to work at refining our chassis settings. We’ll look at the
data and work from that for tomorrow. The good thing is that we’ve
made a bigger step than most of the others from morning to afternoon
– we are already much closer to pole. Troy, of course, has never
been here, so he still has plenty more to come.”
Gritty Italian
Loris Capirossi fought off the effects of a serious stomach upset
to take third spot on the provisional grid this afternoon, eight-tenths
off pole. The Ducati MotoGP Team rider has been in and out of hospitals
and clinics all week, but that didn’t stop him battling for
a front-row slot today.
As predicted
the weather for the French Grand Prix took a turn for the worse during
the final qualifying session today, however cementing MotoGP rookie
Marco Melandri's debut front row start for tomorrow's 28-lap race.
The young Italian posted a 1'36.161 time aboard his Fortuna Yamaha
Team YZR-M1 in yesterday's dry qualifier to be the fourth fastest,
from a field of 23 entries. This will only be Melandri's second MotoGP
race, since the high-speed incident in Suzuka that put him out of
contention for the first two races this season. The talented 20-year-old
will start Sunday's main event alongside riders in the calibre of
polesitter and defending MotoGP World Champion Valentino Rossi (Honda,
1'35.208), Alex Barros (Gauloises Yamaha Team, 1'35.985) and third
place qualifier Loris Capirossi (Ducati, 1' 36.019).
The Front Row:
1). 46 Rossi Honda Repsol Honda 1'35.208; 2). 4 Barros Yamaha Gauloises
Yamaha Team 1'35.985; 3). 65 Capirossi Ducati Ducati Marlboro Team
1'36.019; 4). 33 Melandri Yamaha Fortuna Yamaha Team 1'36.161 - 1'36.161
Loris
Capirossi (65) led Barros, Rossi, Biaggi, Gibernau and Bayliss until
the Ducati left him shiftless.
Sunday's
Race
Spain's Sete Gibernau on the Telefonica MovieStar Honda won his second
race of the season after battling with Valentino Rossi in an awesome
last lap at the GP of France that had been halted by the onset of
rain and forced to restart. The Spaniard had the French crowd on their
feet after trading positions with the Italian several times in the
last five or six corners and holding on to win the Grand Prix under
new rules that see the abolishment of the combined times procedure.
The race in Le Mans was a 13 lap chase after the interruption by the
weather.
Ducati Marlboro Team riders Loris Capirossi and Troy Bayliss had
a luckless time at Le Mans this afternoon, both riders exiting from
the French Grand Prix in the early stages. Capirossi led from the
start and enjoyed a brief tussle with Valentino Rossi (Honda) before
encountering a minor technical glitch that forced his withdrawal.
Bayliss tumbled out a few laps later, the Aussie uninjured in the
fall.
Rain brought
a stop to the racing and riders returned to the pits to change tires.
Positions in the first ´Leg' ended with Rossi leading and the
next four riders disputing second including Tohru Ukawa, Max Biaggi,
Alex Barros and Sete Gibernau, determined the ranking on the grid
for the second leg.
Barros got the
best start from the depleted grid with most of the riders electing
to use full wet tyres. Some fantastic but cautious racing took place
between Rossi, Gibernau and Barros with the latter pair leading most
of the distance until Gibernau and Rossi commenced their charge.
Sete leads Valentio towards the finsih line.
For Yamaha's
Carlos Checa it was another disappointing weekend when - after a sturdy
start that placed him seventh on the opening lap - the Spaniard highsided
his YZR-M1 exiting the first hairpin on lap two. In an attempt to
save himself from the fall Checa was flung over the 'bars and his
left hand caught under the bike - resulting in a badly grazed thumb.
Although unsure of exactly why his race ended in this fashion Checa
felt that he may have hit a wet patch, which could have contributed
to the fall.
"I lost
the rear and just couldn't keep control of the bike," said the
disappointed Spaniard. "I'm really not sure if I touched a wet
patch or not, but I got on the gas and then I lost control. Gibernau
had just passed me and I was next to Biaggi, we were in a very close
group and on the exit of the corner I kept the inside line and at
that moment the bike just stood up and threw me off. I had followed
that same line on the previous lap so I don't know why it happened.
It's one of those falls where it's impossible to say why."
MOTOGP
RESULTS
1. Sete Gibernau SPA Telefonica Movistar HONDA 24'29.665
2. Valentino Rossi ITA Repsol HONDA +0.165
3. Alex Barros BRA Gauloises YAMAHA Team +1.793
4. Olivier Jacque FRA Gauloises YAMAHA Team +29.912
5. Max Biaggi ITA Camel Pramac Pons HONDA +31.493
6. Jeremy McWilliams GBR PROTON Team KR +33.946
7. Tohru Ukawa JPN Camel Pramac Pons HONDA +35.447
8. Noriyuki Haga JPN Alice APRILIA Racing +36.231
9. Garry McCoy AUS KAWASAKI Racing Team +51.254
10. Colin Edwards USA Alice APRILIA Racing +1'01.802
15. Marco Melandri ITA Fortuna YAMAHA Team +2 laps
DNF - Carlos Checa SPA Fortuna YAMAHA Team |
CHAMPIONSHIP
STANDINGS
1. Valentino Rossi 90
2. Max Biaggi 67
3. Sete Gibernau 63
4. Alex Barros 46
5. Troy Bayliss 40
6. Tohru Ukawa 32
7. Olivier Jacque 26
8. Nicky Hayden 22
9. Shinya Nakano 22
10. Colin Edwards 18
16. Carlos Checca13
23. Marco Melandri 1 |
Click
for a a date with Joanna.
FastDates.com
model Joanna takes it to the max in June Maxim
Our featured 2004 FastDates.com Calendar model Joanna Krupa
is also staring in a sexy 2-page pictorial in the Jun e'03 issue of
Maxim magazine photographed by famed fashion photographer Antoni Verglas.
But this beautiful Star Seach Spokesmodel winner and Man Show "Juggy"
says her most fun experience was shooting with photographer Jim Gianatsis
and fellow models Chandi Mason and Janelle Perzina for the next Garage
Girls, Iron & Lace and Berm Busters
Calendars which premier right here on FastDates.com come July.
