Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/nofenders/zbjv/~3/lfgbhr2AAIg/yall-might-be-redneck.html
Saturday
2013 Moto2 and Moto3 Valencia February Test Day 1 Press Releases
Press releases from some of the Moto2 and Moto3 teams after the first day of testing at Valencia:
Year:
2013 
Reset
So, here we find ourselves again. Welcome back! Insert excuses galore, but the break was more due to soul searching than anything else. A few nights ago, I was navigating the crazy waters of youtube and stumbled across the much … Continue reading 
Source: http://anotherindycarblog.wordpress.com/2012/12/17/reset/
2013 WSBK Private Phillip Island Test Day 2 Times: Camier Fastest Amidst Another Crashfest
The second day of the private test for the World Superbike teams at Phillip Island went very much as the first day did: with fast times, and a lot of crashes. The new surface was to blame for both: Leon Camier got half a second under the race lap record, but the on/off grip levels of the track saw him, and almost every one else, flung off their bikes at one point or another.
Camier ended the day fastest, the engine updates on his FIXI Crescent Suzuki improving the machine considerably, along with electronic updates for the bike. Sylvain Guintoli - the man Suzuki originally signed alongside Camier, but who jumped ship for the factory Aprilia ride - was 2nd, a tenth off the pace of Camier, proving that the Aprilia RSV4 still a potent weapon. Johnny Rea put the Pata Honda into 3rd, work continuing on ironing out the wrinkles with the HRC electronics, with both Rea and Haslam pleased with the progress made, though still aware of the task ahead. Marco Melandri was the fastest BMW man, though the Italian was wary of pushing too hard for fear of crashing, and adding further damage to his painful shoulder. Melandri did put in a long run on used tires, running a consistent string of laps around the 1'32 mark, a solid race pace.
JeanChristophe Boullion Sebastien Bourdais Thierry Boutsen Johnny Boyd
Friday
The cars are going around the track, hurrah, hurrah
The sand in the offseason hour glass is accumulating more and more at the bottom.
Over the weekend, the Grand-Am Series completed its Roar Before the 24 test, the main test session in preparation for the Rolex 24 hour race at Daytona International Speedway on January 26-27. The Sprint Cup Series takes the track at Daytona for three days of testing on Thursday.
A few notes from the Grand-Am test:
Michael Valiante set the weekend's fastest time in Michael Shank Racing's No. 6 Daytona Prototype. Michael Shank Racing won last year's race in its No. 60 car, which was third on the board with AJ Allmendinger behind the wheel.
Speaking of Allmendinger, he said over the weekend that the Rolex 24 was the only race on his schedule at the moment and that he's looking for other options. Wouldn't you like to see him full-time in the Izod IndyCar Series?
Patrick Long had the fastest speed in the GT class.
Clint Bowyer and Michael Waltrip will be driving with Michael Waltrip Racing co-owner Rob Kauffman and Rui Aguas in the GT Class at the Rolex 24. Aguas set the team's fastest lap on Sunday, which was good for fifth in GT.
2013 WSBK Private Phillip Island Test Day 2 Times: Camier Fastest Amidst Another Crashfest
The second day of the private test for the World Superbike teams at Phillip Island went very much as the first day did: with fast times, and a lot of crashes. The new surface was to blame for both: Leon Camier got half a second under the race lap record, but the on/off grip levels of the track saw him, and almost every one else, flung off their bikes at one point or another.
Camier ended the day fastest, the engine updates on his FIXI Crescent Suzuki improving the machine considerably, along with electronic updates for the bike. Sylvain Guintoli - the man Suzuki originally signed alongside Camier, but who jumped ship for the factory Aprilia ride - was 2nd, a tenth off the pace of Camier, proving that the Aprilia RSV4 still a potent weapon. Johnny Rea put the Pata Honda into 3rd, work continuing on ironing out the wrinkles with the HRC electronics, with both Rea and Haslam pleased with the progress made, though still aware of the task ahead. Marco Melandri was the fastest BMW man, though the Italian was wary of pushing too hard for fear of crashing, and adding further damage to his painful shoulder. Melandri did put in a long run on used tires, running a consistent string of laps around the 1'32 mark, a solid race pace.
Thursday
Random Facts about the 2012 Camping World Truck Series
Needing some random and totally useless NASCAR facts about the 2012 season to tantalize your friends with at your New Year's Eve party? You've come to the right spot! Today, it's the Camping World Truck Series!
John King won the season opening race at Daytona for Red Horse Racing. Because of a lack of funding, he ran just four more races for Red Horse and six more overall. He finished 9th in the second race of the season at Martinsville, and that was that for his top 10 finishes.
Todd Bodine finished 14th in the standings. That?s his lowest finish since he started running full time in the series in 2005. In fact, that?s the first time he?s finished outside the top 10 in that span.
In that same stretch, Ron Hornaday never finished below 7th in the points standings. He was 13th this year. Hornaday was also winless in 2012, only the second time in his Truck Series career that he?s gone winless in a season. The other year was 2004, and he ran just one race that season.
17 drivers ran all 22 races in 2012. The only driver to do that and not finish in the top 10 all season was Bryan Silas, who was 18th in the points standings, or, if you prefer, two positions behind John Wes Townley.
There were 3372 laps completed in the Truck Series this year. Ty Dillon ran 3358 of those laps. Not coincidentally, he led the series in top 10 finishes with 17. Dillon was also running at the finish of every race.
Timothy Peters (8.3) and Joey Coulter (8.5) had higher average finishes than series champion James Buescher (8.6), but Peters won twice and Coulter won once. Buescher won four times.
Buescher led the most laps in the series at 505, but second was Kevin Harvick, who made just three starts. In those three starts, Harvick completed 597 laps and led 445 of them.
104 drivers made at least one start, and 76 of those drivers were eligible to collect Truck Series points.
Pirelli changes tyre choices for Australia and Bahrain | 2013 F1 season
Pirelli changes tyre choices for Australia and Bahrain is an original article from F1 Fanatic. If this article has been published anywhere other than F1 Fanatic it is an infringement of copyright.
Pirelli has confirmed the tyre options for the first four races of the 2013 season.
Pirelli changes tyre choices for Australia and Bahrain is an original article from F1 Fanatic. If this article has been published anywhere other than F1 Fanatic it is an infringement of copyright.
Source: http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2013/02/13/pirelli-tyre-choices-australia-bahrain/
Wednesday
Repsol Media Press Release Interview: Marc Marquez, On Sepang 1, and Learning to Ride a MotoGP Machine
After yesterday's interview with Dani Pedrosa, the Repsol Media Service issued a press release containing an interview with MotoGP rookie Marc Marquez. In the interview, the 2012 Moto2 champion talks mainly about the process of learning to ride a MotoGP bike. The interview is shown in full below:
"You can have a lot of fun on this bike"
Repsol rider shines in first test of the year in Malaysia.
After first wearing the Repsol Honda Team uniform in the team presentation at the end of January, last week Marc Márquez was back on his new MotoGP bike to ride alongside the stars of the class. He made a positive assessment of the three days of testing in Malaysia.
What is your assessment of these three days of testing at Sepang?
"The first practice is always special, because you're always nervous after winter. I felt very good, better than I expected with the bike. With the team everything is working well and we're integrating slowly. I've tried new things and I also had my first crash with the MotoGP bike. It was not a big one and little-by-little we are getting to know the bike, which is what preseason is all about."
After three days of testing on the RC213V, what do you most enjoy and what was hardest when riding?
2012 season in the rear view: Clint Bowyer
Vitals: 2nd in the points standings. 3 wins, 10 top 5s, 13 top 10s. 4 DNFs.
Moment to remember: Clint Bowyer's first season at Michael Waltrip Racing netted him his first road course victory and (surprisingly) his first victory at a 1.5 mile track in the Sprint Cup Series.
In June at Sonoma, Bowyer started sixth and was damn good, leading 71 of the race's 110 laps. He had Kurt Busch alongside him and Tony Stewart behind him when a caution to bring out a green, white, checkered restart flew, but easily pulled away from Stewart and Busch over the final two laps for the win.
In the fall race at Charlotte, Bowyer took the lead on lap 310 from Greg Biffle and made it to the end on fuel for the win. The victory moved Bowyer to within 28 points of leader Brad Keselowski with five races to go.
Moment to forget: This is only here because of the impact it had on Bowyer's Chase chances, because this sure as hell isn't a forgettable moment.
After Bowyer and Jeff Gordon made contact racing for position, Gordon took matters into his own hands (car? fender?) and took out Bowyer. And then that led to one of the greatest garage sprints in NASCAR history.
Bowyer left Phoenix 52 points behind Brad Keselowski, mathematically out of championship contention.
The impact of Gordon's retaliation to Bowyer's championship hopes was an afterthought to the chaos that had occurred. But when Jimmie Johnson had his issue at Homestead, that allowed Bowyer to slip into second place behind Keselowski.
Bowyer was running in the top 10 at the time of his contact with Gordon, and by virtue of his 28th place finish, likely lost about 20 points. His chances going into Homestead would have been slim, and he wouldn't have caught Keselowski regardless, but Bowyer would have been at the championship press conference and in the discussion. Instead, while he was storyline 1A at Homestead thanks to the conflict, his championship hopes were an afterthought.
The wrap: Speaking of afterthoughts, when we look back on the 2012 season in five or 10 years, will people instinctively think that Johnson finished second to Keselowski? That's not discounting anything that Bowyer did -- what he accomplished with a new team and the improvement that Michael Waltrip Racing made is one of the best stories of the year.
It's just that the championship battle moments, the duel at Texas, the comeback at Kansas, the turning point at Phoenix, all involved Keselowski and Johnson. Yeah, even the most casual fans of NASCAR will remember Bowyer for what happened at Phoenix, but hopefully they'll remember that he finished second too.
Skip Barber Paolo Barilla Rubens Barrichello Michael Bartels
Mark Webber: ?The car gives me confidence to push?
After the first two days of testing in Spain an optimistic Mark Webber says that Red Bull is better off than at this stage in 2012. Although he paid no attention to overall lap times Webber was second fastest on … Continue reading 
Source: http://adamcooperf1.com/2013/02/06/mark-webber-the-car-gives-me-confidence-to-push/
Tuesday
Kurt Busch makes Forbes list of disliked athletes for the second straight time
Kurt Busch's move to Phoenix Racing to get back to "old-school" and fun racing didn't do much for his public standing according to Forbes. For the second year in a row, Busch made the publication's list of the top 10 most disliked athletes.
After coming in at No. 10 last year, Busch was No. 8 this season, behind Michael Vick and ahead of Kobe Bryant.
In 2012, Busch was suspended for the season's first race at Pocono after threatening a reporter after a Nationwide Series race at Dover when Busch was asked about racing against Justin Allgaier. That incident was preceded by a fracas in May after the Southern 500 at Darlington when Ryan Newman's crew was unhappy with Busch's driving on pit road after a late race caution.
In September, the 2004 champion announced that he would be driving for Furniture Row Racing in 2013 and made the move to the team for the final six races of 2012. In his final race for Phoenix Racing, he drove away after getting spun out with safety officials near his car and an equipment bag on top of it and said that he couldn't hear NASCAR officials' calls for him to stop because he had his helmet off.
There was a tie atop the Forbes list between Lance Armstrong and Manti Te'o. Armstrong's place at the top after his doping admission is understandable. Te'o's is less so. Many people must be skeptical of Te'o's story that he was completely hoaxed by Roniah Tuiasosopo who was posing as Te'o's girlfriend, Lennay Kekua. Or they don't have much sympathy.
College football video from Yahoo! Sports:
Other popular content on Yahoo! Sports:
? Pat Forde: Vanderbilt stages a Signing Day worth celebrating
? Sixers' Richardson out for season with knee injury
? Michael Silver: Young stars found spotlight during NFL season
? Winger Milan Lucic puts the big and bad in the Boston Bruins
2013 MotoGP Sepang 1 Test, Day 1 Round Up: Surprises We Expected - Marquez, Rossi and Ducati
It would be one of the larger understatements of the decade to say that the first MotoGP test of the year at Sepang was eagerly anticipated. After the anti-climactic washout that was Valencia, many big questions of the 2013 season had been left hanging in the air over the winter. Given that motorcycle racing fans hate a vacuum even more than Nature does, they filled it, with speculation, conjecture, hyperbole and not a small amount of vitriol.
Would Valentino Rossi prove he still has it, or was his switch to Ducati merely the start of his downhill slide to retirement? Is Marc Marquez the real thing, or were his results in Moto2 deceptive, and down only to skullduggery on the part of his former team? Can Yamaha match the Hondas, or does the advantage which Dani Pedrosa had over the second half of the season mean it will be impossible for Jorge Lorenzo to defend his title? What of Ducati? Will Andrea Dovizioso succeed where Rossi failed, and will the Italian factory be able to claw back some of the ground they have been steadily losing to the Japanese factories since 2007?
After nearly 8 hours of track time - more than many expected, with rain forecast for the period during the test - we have answers to replace the speculation, and data to fill the gaping void created by the winter testing break. Were the answers found a surprise? That depends on your perspective. Did anyone seriously think Rossi wouldn't get closer on the Yamaha to the front runners than he did on the Ducati? No. But does the gap to Pedrosa - 0.427 seconds - mean he is fast enough to compete for the championship, or will it leave him running round in third all year? Was anyone surprised by Marquez running up front right from the off? Surely not. But who predicted he would get within a few hundredths of his teammate on just his second proper test? Did anyone seriously expect the Ducatis to have closed the gap to Honda and Yamaha? That would be crazy. But to be two seconds down?
Colin Chapman Dave Charlton Pedro Matos Chaves Bill Cheesbourg
Moto2 and Moto3 Meet for First Major Test of 2013 at Valencia - What to Look Out For.
After the MotoGP class kicked off the 2013 preseason at Sepang, testing season is now well and truly opened. From Tuesday, the Moto2 and Moto3 teams assemble at Valencia for their first group test of the year, a test which should provide a few clues to the way the 2013 might develop, while raising more questions to be answered at the following test next week at Jerez.
It is not the first time on the track for everyone, however. A gaggle of KTM-mounted Moto3 teams have already posted laps at Almeria, joined there by the reigning Moto3 champion Sandro Cortese on his Kalex Moto2 machine, while another group of Moto3 boys had a shakedown test at Cartagena. As neither Almeria nor Cartagena, both located in Southern Spain, appear on the Grand Prix calendar, the lessons learned will be useful, but limited, the bikes still needing work once the teams arrive at Valencia for the three-day test, from 12th to 14th of February.
Kasey Kahne to drive for JR Motorsports in Nationwide Series; Danica Patrick to Turner?
The first business day of 2013 brought some driver and sponsorship news on the Nationwide Series front.
JR Motorsports announced that Kasey Kahne and Brad Sweet would split time driving the No. 5 car for the team in 2013 with sponsorship from Great Clips. If the combination of drivers and sponsor sounds familiar, it's because it is. The two drove the Great Clips car for Turner Motorsports last season.
The sponsorship will be for 28 races, with 27 of them for the No. 5 car and Kahne or Sweet.� (Kahne now gets to be one of the few drivers identifiable by a sole number in multiple series.) The other race will be for Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the No. 88. Regan Smith, who won the final race of the season at Homestead for JRM, will run the No. 7 car full-time. The team is still looking for funding for Cole Whitt, who drove the No. 88 car last year.
You may remember that Danica Patrick drove the No. 7 for JR Motorsports last year. While Patrick is moving to the Sprint Cup Series full-time for Stewart-Haas Racing, she's planning to run 10 Nationwide Series races next year and according to ESPN, those races will come with Turner Motorsports. Similar to JR Motorsports, Turner gets engines and equipment from Hendrick Motorsports, where Stewart-Haas receives its Sprint Cup Series engines and chassis.
Monday
2013 MotoGP Sepang 1 Test, Day 3 Round Up: Rossi, Pedrosa, Ducati - Joy, Determination, Despair
Joy, determination and despair. If you had to choose three words to describe the first test of the 2013 MotoGP season, these are the words you would choose. Joy: for Valentino Rossi and his crew at finally having a bike that Rossi can ride and his team understand how to work with; for HRC, at seeing both their hopes and their expectations of Marc Marquez' ability confirmed; for Bradley Smith and Michael Laverty, at making such rapid progress on their early days in the class.
Determination: for Dani Pedrosa and Jorge Lorenzo, both working hard at preparing for their assault at a title which either could win. For Marc Marquez, focused on learning everything he can to add the consistency he needs to his raw speed, if he is to match Pedrosa and Lorenzo.
Despair: for the factory Ducati riders. Sepang showed the bike is uncompetitive, and with few avenues left to explore with the machine in its present state, despair at knowing they have many months of hard, dispiriting work ahead of them before they can even start to turn the situation around.
Source:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)