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Pit
Lane News Editorial
Bikes
• Babes • Builders Riders • Racing News
See
why we're the best!
©
Copyright FastDates.com
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Exclusive -World's First Look, Feel and Test!
Our SBK Fast Dates Superbike Girl Chandi Mason gets Read our exclusive
FastDates.com first USA test with Chandi of the new Multistrada
Competitizone Joing Chandi
as our official Team Ducati Corse umbrella girls on Sunday at Laguna,
we've got two of our other very sexy FastDates.com Calendar Angels.
Actress Janelle Perzina and Miss Great Britain 2003 Nicki Lane will
be handling the umbrella chores for England's potential next World
Champion Neil Hodgsen.
Eric Bostrom and Matt Mladin - battling for supremacy coming into Brainard this weekend Duhamel try to become first four-time AMA Superbike winner at BIR On June 27-29 the AMA Chevy Trucks U.S. Superbike Championship presented by Parts Unlimited comes to Brainerd, Minn., for round 11 of the 18-race series. A single point separates series leader Eric Bostrom from three-time AMA Superbike champion Mat Mladin in one of the tightest battles in the history of the series. Mladin’s Suzuki teammate Aaron Yates, who led the series earlier in the season, is solidly in the championship hunt as is Honda’s Ben Bostrom and Kurtis Roberts. Any one of the top five riders could conceivably leave Brainerd with the series points lead. Miguel Duhamel, also on team Honda , will attempt to become the first four-time winner of the race. Duhamel heads up a trio of former Brainerd Superbike winners taking to the track this weekend that also includes the brothers Eric and Ben Bostrom. This year
will mark the 20th anniversary of AMA Superbike racing at Brainerd.
Motorcycle Hall of Famer Wayne Rainey won the very first race held
there in 1983. Rainey’s win came on a factory Kawasaki, but
since that time the race has been practically owned by Honda. Fred
Merkel and Rainey combined to give Honda four-straight Superbike
wins at the track in the 1980s. Coming into this year Honda is running
a three-race winning streak at BIR. Even more impressive is the
fact that Honda made a rare sweep of the Superbike podium at Brainerd
in 2001. “A lot of drafting comes into play at Brainerd,” said Duhamel, the all-time AMA Superbike wins leader. “Horsepower helps, but the draft can keep you in there even if you lack a little power.” Duhamel should know; he memorably led Brainerd on the Harley-Davidson VR1000 Superbike in the 1994 race. Duhamel’s teammate Ben Bostrom should feel right at home at Brainerd even though this will be his first visit to the track since 1999. Bostrom won his only AMA Superbike race at BIR that year and is hoping to earn his second-career victory this weekend. The third factory Honda rider Kurtis Roberts, of the Erion Honda Racing squad, feels he should have earned his first AMA Superbike win at Brainerd two years ago. That year Roberts made a spectacular pass on fellow Honda rider Nicky Hayden coming into the final corner. He led coming out of the turn and heading to the checkered flag, but he grabbed just a tad too much throttle. That sent his bike sideways and gave Hayden the opportunity to pass him by mere inches at the line. It proved to be one of the most dramatic and closest finishes in AMA Superbike history with Duhamel and Jamie Hacking taking a very close third and fourth -- the top four covered by .500 of a second at the stripe. Roberts hopes to erase the memory of the race that could have been with a victory on Sunday. As good as Honda’s luck has been at Brainerd over the years, it’s been almost equally as rotten for both Suzuki and Kawasaki. Suzuki has never won an AMA Superbike race at Brainerd and Kawasaki’s one and only victory came 20 years ago. Ironically, all that could change this weekend since the top two riders in the series are Kawasaki- and Suzuki-mounted. Kawasaki’s Eric Bostrom comes into Brainerd leading the series. He won his very first AMA Superbike race at Brainerd in a shocker back in 1998 as a replacement rider for the injured Duhamel. It would be fitting for Bostrom to give Kawasaki its second AMA Superbike win 20 years after Rainey gave the company its first and only win at the circuit. Mladin
would love to break through to win his first at Brainerd. It’s
one of the few tracks on the circuit where he hasn’t won.
He’s been runner-up three times at BIR, but his luck took
a turn for the worse here in the last few years. In 2001 he suffered
a rare crash on the first lap of the race and last year his Suzuki
had mechanical problems and he was forced to retire. Mladin would
love to finally give Suzuki a win at Brainerd. Austin Ducati split with rider Anthony Gobert and will bring in Italian racer Giovanni Bussei. The last time Ducati brought over a rider from Italy mid-season it resulted in a Brainerd win for the Italian maker when Alessandro Gramigni took the unexpected victory in 1996. Of the privateers Jason Pridmore has the most history at BIR. Pridmore had one of his best AMA Superbike races ever at Brainerd in 1998 when he finished fourth on a Ducati. The Brainerd
Superbike race will be shown live on Speed Channel at 4 p.m. EST
Sunday, June 29.
2003 SBK Wpr;d Superbike, San Marino Round 7 Ruben
Xaus doubles down at Misano Hodgson, still a clear leader on points even after his Misano mishaps, went out of the opening race after crashing on lap two. In second place James Toseland (HM Plant Ducati) rode hard to secure second, with Pierfrancesco Chili (PSG-1) falling on the very last lap, just in front of the Englishman. French ace Regis Laconi (NCR Ducati 998RS) was the first privateer rider home in third place. In the second 25-lap outing, Xaus and Hodgson shook off the attentions of Chili on the final few laps, and enjoyed a dogfight to the line. Making a pass at the favoured overtaking spot of Tramonto corner, on the final lap, Xaus made himself fast and wide enough for Hodgson to be just unable to pass, and thus Xaus doubled up his tally of 2003 race wins in one day. The intense 31-degree C heat and relatively high humidity on raceday was a factory for most riders, the two-race format of SBK proving to be particularly demanding. Many thought that Toseland's retirement from race two was down to tiredness and pain after his big crash in free qualifying on Saturday but unspecified mechanical problems which caused a misfire in his HM Plant Ducati 998F02 was the real cause.
Regis Laconi followed up his race one win with a fourth place, mainly due to lowering tyre pressures between races, to try and improve traction, only to find it counter-productive. Gregorio Lavilla (Alstare Suzuki GSX-R1000) was fourth and then fifth, after a tough day in the Suzuki office, thanks to a practice crash. Chris Walker recovered well from a bad start in race one to finish sixth, and followed it up with a fatigue affected ninth in race two, losing grip from his front tyre on right hand corners, having changed rubber on the startline. Lucio Pedercini scored an eighth and a sixth on races one and two respectively, but the ëalternativeí Italian star of race two was undoubtedly Vittorio Iannuzzo, running a kitted Alstare Suzuki GSX-R1000 to seventh, ahead of some big names ñ a pleasing recovery from a crash in race one. Steve Martin
rode almost as well in race conditions as he did in the majority of
the qualifying sessions, and finished his day with a sixth and a ninth,
on both occasions just place ahead of one of his own countrymen. In the championship table overall, Hodgson is still handsomely ahead of all his rivals, with his total of 315 points fully 107 points more than new second place rider Xausí 208. Toseland slips to third overall, with 185, Laconi is on 174 and Lavilla has secured a grand total of 155.
600cc
World SuperSport to Fabien Foret on Kawasaki ZX6RR
Chris Vermeulen (Ten Kate Honda CBR600RR), the runaway championship leader, fell on lap nine and could not restart his machine, leaving the field open for his main championship rivals Katsuaki Fujiwara (Alstare Suzuki GSX-R600) and Jurgen van den Goorbergh (Yamaha Belgarda R6) to fight for the win ñ until the Foret Express came roaring past in the later stages. Van den Goorbergh failed to finish, however, after suffering a technical problem before Foret showed up, and thus Fujiwara scored second place, with the fast charging and fully competitive Broc Parkes (BKM Honda) third.Vermeulenís lead was little affected by his crash, with the Aussie rider still on 131 points, 35 points clear of Fujiwaraís total of 96 in second, with van den Goorbergh third on 84. With the Supersport machines not making the annual SBK pilgrimage to Laguna Seca in the USA (July 13) the next round for the 600cc fours is at Brands Hatch, Great Britain, on July 27. SUPERSPORT RESULTS: RACE : (Laps 23 = 93,380 Km)
 Now you can have this 999R that looks just like Neil and Ruben's factory 999F 03's. Celebrating 200 victories in World Superbike Ducati Releases 200 999R FILA Limited Editon Bikes: June 20th: Ducati introduces today at the Santamonica racetrack the limited-edition Ducati 999R FILA to celebrate 200 wins in the World Superbike Championship. Only 200 units of the new bike in the official livery of Team Ducati Fila 2003 will be available. Top level components, sophisticated aerodynamics and a winning tradition, the 999R FILA offers all "ducatisti" the chance to experience the same emotions as the Ducati factory riders on the track. The F03 racing Superbike was in fact designed simultaneously with the 999R road version, thus guaranteeing the right characteristics to turn a high-performance machine into a race bike. 200 Ducati wins have been reached in 16 years of racing in the World Superbike Championship, and the current leader of the series Neil Hodgson is one of 18 riders to have won riding a twin-cylinder from Borgo Panigale. The 200th win for Ducati was achieved by the British rider on May 18, 2003 on the Monza circuit with the Ducati 999F03, while the 100th Ducati victory went to Carl Fogarty in Austria in 1995. After achieving this prestigious goal there were even more wins to come: the Ducati 999 won again at Oschersleben in Germany two weeks later, allowing Hodgson to equal the record of 9 World Superbike wins in a row. The 999R FILA, available in exactly the same colours as the Ducati 999F03 that races in the World Superbike Championship, and the Fila-Ducati clothing collections reflect the great sporting tradition and "made in Italy" spirit shared by the two companies. Specifications: The
bike comes with a Racing Kit including: All the bikes built for the European and world markets, complete with numbered plates and authenticity certificates, can be booked at your local Ducati Store or Ducati Dealer.
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