The FIM’s e-Power Championship came to American soil this weekend, as the series piggybacked off the Red Bull US GP. Twelve teams from around the world arrived at Laguna Seca to test their mettle against the historic and technical track. While the racing would technically be bike against bike, the undulating tarmac of Seca was certainly also an adversary as well.
Lightning Motors and Michael Barnes took the pole position during Saturday’s qualifying, leaving MotoCzysz and Michael Czysz relegated to the second position on the starting line. Coming from behind on Sunday’s race, MotoCzysz won the e-Power race at Laguna Seca with a dramatic pass just 10 feet from the finish line.
Photo: Jensen Beeler / Asphalt & Rubber – Creative Commons – Attribution 3.0
Just as Fiat-Yamaha will be running special race livery this weekend, Valentino Rossi had some one-off paint work done to his helmet for MotoGP’s race at Laguna Seca. For Fiat-Yamaha, the Laguna Race livery consists of the faces of 500 fans who submitted their photos to the race team, but on Rossi’s helmet you’ll find the people that help him go fast: his team.
You can also find Rossi’s dogs near the back, and while it hasn’t been confirmed…the fellow above the AGV on the front looks a lot like Ron Jeremy (whoever that is).
Photo: © 2010 Scott Jones Photography
Our in-person coverage of the Red Bull US GP continues, as the MotoGP paddock finally takes to Laguna Seca for the first time this week. The weather is perfect, the track is perfect, and the riders? Well with some meeting the crucible that is “the corkscrew” for the first time, we’re seeing some interesting lines through the famous turn. A testament to how tough of a nut Laguna Seca is to crack, Saturday we expect to see the MotoGP rider rise to the occasion, and show why they’re the best of the best.
This is what we believe is the first shot of the Brammo Empulse RR race bike that was slated to race in the e-Power Championship round at Laguna Seca this weekend. Unfortunately for fans, and for Brammo, the Empulse RR race bike suffered a critical component failure, and will have to be a scratch on Sunday…but fortunately for Brammo fans (and Brammofan) Brammo CEO Craig Bramscher said on twitter today that the team would race this year.
Sleep is a luxury in the MotoGP paddock. Sunburned, tired, and still with only a rudimentary understanding of Italian, we’re slogging our way through the paddock talking to teams and riders. We’ll try to pick out individual stories during the day…but no promises. Instead you’ll find a daily digest coming your way each morning from the previous day, which will touch on the day’s major events.
Head over to MotoMatters.com if you want more in-depth coverage (or click on the links in the digest), as David Emmett will be making sense of our sloppy handwriting and noisy audio clips, and turning it into MotoGP gold. Thursday’s digest after the jump.
Soon the 2011 Ducati Superbike 848 EVO will be released before a live audience at Laguna Seca, so we thought we’d help wet your v-twin appetites with a little promo video the Italian company put together. The Evo seeming makes right-hand turns as well as it makes left-hand turns, all the while producing a distinctive Ducati note from its exhaust pipes…that should be enough to sooth the masses at Ducati Island, but we wouldn’t mind trying a Bologna Bullet Evo out for ourselves…come on JPC, we know you’re reading this. Video after the jump.
