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My Dad, strangely, thinks it hasn’t been a good race if there haven’t been any crashes, somewhat missing the point. But then will happily sit in front of the TV for hours on end during the off season watching all the re-runs – nowt as strange as folk.
At the recent Philip Island WSB round there were a few crashes, as is the norm, throughout both the World Superbikes and the World Supersports races. Those of you who may have recorded the races will no doubt have been as frustrated as we were when the Superport race was red flagged and then strangely the recording finished at the original time thus cutting off the end of the race – grrr! The repeat the following night was an edited version and left us wondering where Pirro went for example after Chaz Davies’ Triumph. threw oil everywhere.
We fans also heard about the Haga, Xaus coming together in practice and that it was a big crash, not at all what Haga needs if he plans to finally claim the championship this year that has eluded him for so long.
Anyhow if you want to see that crash as well as what happened to Pirro and the crashes during the races then it’s all here in this short video
This week there has been a lot of talk in the press about Gordon Brown being questionned about the motorcycle driving test centre fiasco – how we’ve barely got any now (test centres that is) and how people taking their motorcycle test has dropped dramatically as a result.
The PM saying how important the motorcycle industry is in this country.
Now an Early Day Motion is being put forward and as motorcyclists we are being encouraged to contact our MPs to get them to sign it so that a Private Members Bill can be put forward to look into the whole sorry affair.
As with many motorcyclists I am happy that this is at long last being looked into and taken seriously but in the overall scheme of things, in election year in the UK, how much does the motorcycling affiliation of your local MP or the party he represents, matter to you?
Well we were geared up for the beginning of the World Superbikes season in our house, with endless debates on who would likely be champion this year, we joined the MCN fantasy road racing league and set the Sky box to record.
Well the opening round from Philip Island did not disappoint.
With Brit Leon Haslem easily taking his first WSB Superpole – leading all three sessions – plus three other Brits in the top 10, together with serious title contender Michel Fabrizio, it was always going to be a cracking race.
Surprisingly, last years runner up, Nori Haga, qualified tenth, but see later…and Ruben Xaus did his best to end Nori’s season before it started with a spectacular crash in warm up where both riders were lucky to be relatively unscathed.
Leon led from the off in both races and the two works Ducatis of Fabrizio and Nori Haga (from 10th – 4th row of the grid) were soon on his tail. It must have been a disappointing season opener for Yamaha after their clean sweep in the championships last year, and I suspect not too happy a time for riders James Toseland and Cal Crutchlow who both crashed out in the first race, having complained of handling issues in practice.
Despite the top three remaining fairly constant through both races, there were battles [Read more →]
Did you know there is a General Election this year? No, I’m not late catching on, just a bit sceptical about the latest bit of news that has found it’s way to my desktop.
The House of Commons heard Gordon Brown announce yesterday “it is important that we have a strong motorcycling industry in this country”.
Oh really?
That would explain the reason that motorcycle test centres have been reduced from over 200 to 60 since the multi-test centres were introduced to comply with European legislation. As a result there has been a 62% drop in tests taken since the introduction of the test centres.
This is a fact and it’s likely to get worse when the next round of European legislation is introduced with even more steps and hoops for new riders. But it’s OK because [Read more →]
