7:00PM CENTRAL

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/next-moto-champion/2012/05/18/tommy-hayden-cameron-beaubier-and-cameron-gish

For immediate release; SGA/KATRA Racing recruits top female road racing talent from around the world to compete in this weekends WERA Nationals Miller Motorsport​s Park 6 hour endurance race.

SGA/KATRA team co-owner and Poland native Kat Zimpel has finally out done herself. Zimpel has constructed what some consider to be the most talented group of International female riders on the planet for this weekends WERA national 6 hour endurance race. Nadieh Schoots from the Netherlands rode as a Wildcard in the British Superstock 600cc class, Krystyna Kubran took home two WERA West Championships in 2010, Melissa Paris was the first female ever to qualify for a World Supersport event and team owner Kat Zimpel has taken home first place CCS trophies from Daytona.    
Fresh off a 16 hour plane ride, Nadieh Schoots said:

“To me being a part of this all women’s team feels very special. I’m so
grateful for the opportunity to race for SGA/KATRA, as no one with the
team has actually seen me ride before. I hope we can get some good
results, and persuade more women all over the world to start racing -
because we really can be just as fast as the guys!”
Two time WERA West Champion, California State Champion and mechanical engineer Krystyna Kubran said:

“I am thrilled & honored to have been invited to join SGA/KATRA in the WERA National Endurance Series opener at Miller Motorsports Park! After having done several endurance races on my own, for fun, I’m looking forward competing on a team with top notch equipment!  I hear the R6s were built by Graves Motorsports and I’ve always wanted to ride one of those!! Kat has found some fabulous women to ride, and I think we have the equipment for a legitimate shot at a great finish! I’m looking forward to riding alongside AMA Pro Melissa Paris, meeting and riding with an international standout, Nadieh Schoots, and learning a thing or two from CCS standout, and multi Champion, Kat! I’m excited to see what we can do!”

AMA Pro Racing Daytona Sportbike class #13, Melissa Paris said:
“I’m really excited to be teaming up with such an amazing group of ladies for this 6 hour race. I know the SGA/KATRA racing equipment will be top notch & I’m honored to have been asked to be a part of this effort.”

SGA/KATRA team co-owner Charlie Grannon said:
“Kat and I have been working together for a while to establish a platform that provides opportunities for riders of different skill levels, ages and nationalities either through the AMA or WERA racing programs. Hopefully this is the start of a women’s team’s presence in the WERA endurance paddock.  I am very excited to see where it goes.”

When asked for comments on this up coming weekend SGA/KATRA team co-owner, Kat Zimpel said:
“What an incredible team we have this year, I feel so thankful and lucky to have this group of girls come together from all over the world. With Charlie and the SGA team backing us on our Graves Yamaha we look forward to an incredible race. We also have Tim Hunt and the Apex Race Service team helping us during pit stops and they are the best at what they do. I’m not sure where we will end up after 6 hours but I am 100% certain that this team is going to have an amazing time on and off the track this weekend and I can’t wait!”

At Thursday’s pre-event press conference at the Monster Energy Grand Prix de France in Le Mans, Repsol Honda Team’s Casey Stoner surprised the racing world by announcing his retirement at the end of the 2012 MotoGP™ season. At the same time Valentino Rossi confirmed he will be continuing in the sport for at least another two years.

Stoner had previously dismissed his retirement plans as rumours, however he has now publicly stated that he will not continue racing past the end of the 2012 season. He said: “After a long time thinking, a lot of time talking with my family and my wife, this has been coming for a couple of years now but at the end of this 2012 season I will be not racing in the 2013 Championship. I will be finishing my career at the end of this season in MotoGP, and go forward in different things in my life.

“After so many years of doing this sport which I love, and which myself and my family made so many sacrifices for, after so many years of trying to get to where we have gotten to at this point, this sport has changed a lot and it has changed to the point where I am not enjoying it.”

“There are a lot of things that have disappointed me, and also a lot of things I have loved about this sport, but unfortunately the balance has gone in the wrong direction. And so, basically, we won’t be continuing any more. It would be nice if I could say I would stay one more year, but then where does it stop? So we decided to finish everything as we are now.”

As for the race in Le Mans, Stoner hopes to resolve the chatter issues which have plagued him throughout the season so far: “The last two races we’ve struggled a little bit with chatter, especially the last two, and it’s something we want to really reduce so we have to work hard here.”

Yamaha Factory Racing’s Jorge Lorenzo, who lies just one point behind the reigning world champion was shocked by the Australian’s announcement: “It’s a surprise for me, for everyone. I didn’t expect it. I heard the rumours and I thought there was a possibility, but I thought he would continue next year. Now he has told us, it’s not good news for MotoGP I think, but his decision is to live quietly with his family and we must respect his decision.”

He will be looking to snatch back the lead in the championship this Sunday at a track he really enjoys: “Le Mans is one of my favourite tracks. Since my first ever-front row in 2003 I have always had good results, so I’m happy to be here.”

Monster Yamaha Tech 3’s Cal Crutchlow saw the lighter side of Stoner’s announcement: “With Casey making that announcement, maybe he can slow down and let me have a place in the top three. They [the aliens] don’t make many mistakes. Maybe they need to change what they have for dinner the night before or something.”

And following a race to forget at Le Mans last year for the team, Crutchlow is looking to carry his good form this season into this round: “I’m looking forward to it, yet it can always throw a few things with the weather. I think we’ve had some not so bad performances this year, although Estoril was disappointing. We really struggled a little bit with the set-up, and maybe a little bit with myself. But hopefully we can get on with it this weekend at Le Mans.”

Valentino Rossi also had some big news as he announced he would continue racing a further two years past 2012, yet not before commenting on Stoner: “Yes, it’s a big surprise. I think it’s bad news for all the MotoGP world because at the end of the season maybe we’re losing one of the great riders and a great rival. Is negative, but it’s his own decision. For me it’s very difficult to understand where my retirement news started from, as I never spoke about my retirement. I want to race in MotoGP for the next two years for sure.”

Le Mans was the place of his only podium with Ducati last year, which he is taking confidence from: “I have had some bad results in Le Mans, but also good memories from the past. We had a not so bad weekend in Portugal and we’ll try and continue on that way and try to improve our performance to try and get closer to the guys in front of us. Last year was the best result with the Ducati, so we are optimistic.”

Rounding out the event was local CRT rider Randy de Puniet: “It’s a very important race for me, even if this year I don’t have the bike to be at the top. But top CRT. I think for the CRTs it will be a difficult track because you have two or three big accelerations, like on the back straight, but you never know what happens with the weather conditions. I hope to be 100% on the bike after my crash at Estoril, because I still have a lot of pain in my ribs. I really hope to be the first CRT this weekend in front of my home crowd.”

In what could be one of the biggest “rider off a team, rider on a team” events of the year, we were the first to let you know that Solis was breaking his contract with Riders Discount/Vesrah Suzuki. Then we predicted that Solis would join the Kneedragger.com/Triple crown team, we were right about that too. In the “Paddock Rumors 2″ post NMC also predicted that Joey Pascarella would go to the “black and yellow, black and yellow” team of Riders Discount/Vesrah Suzuki – which makes the NMC network 3 for 3 this week. As a growing company that’s increasing it’s fan base, readers and visitors by the month we take pride in providing you with the most current and up to date information when ever possible. To the dedicated fans and NMC network, thank you for joining us on this journey, let’s grow together.

Yes it is true, I’m in World Superbikes… it’s not in the best circumstances that I have come to get this offer to test this bike, following the injury of Joan Lascorz. Despite all it was a great opportunity for me, so I did not hesitate for a single minute to take up this challenge.

The tests, initially meant to only assess my potential for the future, went very well, so well that the team wanted to keep me for the rest of the season. But it wasn’t so easy for several reasons, the main being my contract with MRS team. I’m not going to disclose the whole process of negotiations because it is not interesting.

I would simply like to thank the team MRS, mainly Adrien Morillas, who made this “transfer”much easier and who continues to be my coach in Superbike as well as FFM, French Motorcycle Federation, who have been following me for years. All of this has eventually allowed me to be engaged with a factory Superbike team at the age of 19.

I would also like to thank all my personal sponsors and Adrien’s who were not opposed to this transfer.

So now you understand that I am in an official Kawasaki Team Member.  A dream… an opportunity that I did not really expect to arise.

DONINGTON

The objective of this first weekend: there was none actually and if there was any, it was to learn, learn and learn!!! My positions have already been settled during the testing, therefore I only had to get accustomed to the bike again because last time I was in Monza with a stock !!! First practice was positive, my lap times were improving step by step and I finished 20^th, 3 seconds behind the best time.

During the second session I continued to find the best line and cut my best times little by little, so did the others but I still managed to get closer, 2 seconds behind the best time. We started to set up the bike to adapt her for my riding style and I started myself to work on my style that I had to change a bit for this bike.

Following the precious advice from father Riba, my chief mechanics, Pablo, my telemetric man, and Adrien, my coach, we were aiming in the right direction !!!

The next morning I improved my times and found myself in 18^th position, 1,5 seconds behind the poleman and only 1 second behind names like Marco Melandri or Max Biaggi.

In the afternoon I continued to learn and we also tried a new rear tyre. I noticed from the start that it did not reach high temperature as quickly as the others. Despite all I was in the middle or improving my best lap while, in the last corner, I fiercely lost the back and crashed. Nothing serious for me or the bike.
By observing the telemetry, we could analyse that I accelerated too early… and also with the new tyre this wouldn’t have happened… it was a shame because we lost 30 precious minutes of developing the bike as a result.

Sunday, the day of the race had come. Pressure was rising a bit but it was a healthy pressure that made me full of happiness for being there, and ready to start my first race in Superbikes class!!!

First race:

I started carefully, a bit too much, but it wasn’t a big deal. They flew away very quickly in the front but after 4 laps I stabilised my rhythm and I was riding between 1  to 1.2 seconds from the leading riders on the top. I was battling with Zanetti and Aoyama, the former coming from MotoGP and he was also one of the last 250cc world champions.  A few laps later I felt much more comfortable and managed to overtake them. I increased my pace a bit and pushed myself forward to finish 16^thoverall. Everyone on the team and mainly myself were full of joy because to finish within 1 second of the winner on 3 laps is indeed superb!

Second race :

The objective remained the same- to learn. I had a bit better start than in the first race and I was lucky to avoid the three riders who crashed in a group in front of me. I put myself into the action much quicker than during the first race and I managed to stay in a group comprising Aoyama, Berger, Zanetti, Davies and Badovini. I got in front of the first three quickly, however, the former two had already took a small advantage. From that moment on, until the finishing line, it was very long for me because with all the riders crashing out and my increased pace I was 12^th, then 10^th and I was suddenly in front of a group of three riders, where I never had more than 1 second advantage. My lap times were consistent and I entered into the last lap…Last lap where 2 out of 4 riders on the top crashed and I crossed the line in 8^thposition. An unexpected result for my first Superbike appearance to say the least!!! What was more important, however, were my lap times… I finished 21 seconds from the winner (if we take away those 3 seconds that I lost on the first lap due to my place on the starting grid) which amounts to an average of 8 tenths difference per lap from the winner… It was exceptional for me and let me tell you, my team was over the moon!!!

I would like to say a big thanks to many people without them this would not have been possible :
First of all the team, my mechanics who did a great job during the whole weekend and Adrien who was giving me advice, as always for 9 years already. I would also like to thank all the people that made it possible for me to step even higher into the Superbike class and there are many of them… I would like to start with my family, all my friends who are always here for me, also all my former sponsors from my earlier years.. This is a huge new step for me but I have all the cards in hand, so that it all goes well from now on… so I can use them all!

Thanks a lot to everyone who gives me their support and see you in less than 2 weeks in the USA!!!

Loris Baz

Bazooka

OR with Miller being the last race in a 3 race agreement for Pascarella and SGA/KATRA/YCRS team do we see Solis on a SGA/KATRA/YCRS Yamaha for Road America?

So then where does Pascarella go????? Hmmmmmmm, black and yellow, black and yellow, black and yellow????

GPtech has secured a wildcard grid spot in the Moto GP class at this year’s Indianapolis Moto GP event. 

GPtech contracted BCL Motorsports to design a frame and has partnered with Vesrah Suzuki/MCJ Motorsports as a technical partner on the project.

The frame is manufactured from billet aluminum and designed to accept a Suzuki GSXR 1000 engine.

The project has been in the works since January and quietly moving forward until a grid spot was guaranteed.

A short list of submitted acceptable riders is soon to follow.

Geoff Maloney – (owner GPtech llc and team manager)

“The new CRT rules have allowed us the freedom to develop a complete program that is worthy of being on the Moto GP grid – A big thanks goes out to everyone behind the scenes helping!”

Mark Junge – owner Vesrah Suzuki/MCJ Motorsports

“Being able to develop a Suzuki GSXR 1000 engine under the CRT rules of MotoGP is a huge opportunity and I look forward to building a competitive engine package.”

Sponsors:

MotoSpec Chassis Software

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Galfer

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