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Oh, So This is What a Motorcycle Pitstop Looks Like?

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Whether your four-wheeled racing fetish comes in the form of NASCAR or Formula One (maybe you tick the box for “other”?), chances are that you are accustomed to the concept of a pitstop. The idea is a bit lost on motorcycle racing though, as most circuit-racing is done on a single-tank of gasoline, e.g. MotoGP, WorldSBK, AMA Pro Racing, BSB, etc. At road racing events, like the Isle of Man TT though, pitstops become again the status quo, but the nature of the TT fails to bring a certainly level of sophistication to the process — the same cannot be said for the World Endurance Championship.

We already showed you today the oddity of a motorcycle chasing down a headlight on a race track, and we’ll bring you another interesting video from the WEC: a bonafide well-choreographed motorcycle pitstop. Showing us here a nearly textbook refueling, tire change, and rider swap, BMW Motorrad France Team Thevent’s total time in the pitbox was 17 seconds (a few seconds lost to some trouble getting the refueling system hooked up to the bike). Not bad.

With riders Sébastien Gimbert, Damian Cudlin, Erwan Nigon, and Hugo Marchand finishing second in the FIM World Endurance Championship, and third at Le Mans (a crash by Gimbert two hours into the race took the team off its pole-setting pace, and dashed hopes for an outright Championship win), the upstart French team is representing its German brand well. Hopefully they will be back next year to give those boys at SERT another run for their money.

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Bikes

BMW HP4 Mega Gallery + Video

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The international launch of the 2013 BMW HP4 is now over, and while we may not have been in Spain to bring you our thoughts on the pepped-up S1000RR, BMW was at least kind enough to provide A&R with some more photos of its winky-faced superbike. More than just an updated BMW S1000RR, the BMW HP4 features the German brand’s Dynamic Damping Control (DDC) system, a semi-active suspension system that fine-tunes the HP4’s suspension settings on the fly for the road and riding conditions.

Initial reports on the HP4 appear to be very favorable, though expect the pricing here in the United States to be as extreme as the Bavarian motorcycle’s tech specs. BMW hopes that with the DDC and bevy of aftermarket parts, the HP4 will more than justify its expected $20k+ price tag. Will it be enough to persuade riders away from the Aprilia/Ducati/KTM of their choosing? Check out the 126 photos and two videos after the jump and let us know.

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Racing

Video: John McGuinness Does a Lap in the Dark at Le Mans

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We’re used to seeing on-board footage of John McGuinness riding his Honda TT Legends CBR1000RR race bike, though usually those videos include a certain island in the middle of the Irish sea. Well, McPint and crew were in Le Mans this past weekend, participating in the last World Endurance Championship round, and have provided us with a knew perspective on road racing.

Completing 24 hours of competition, the Honda TT Legends team finished a respectable fifth place in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, which allowed them to post a fourth overall in the WEC season standings — one of only two teams to finish every round of the WEC season, we might add.

Taking us around for a lap on the historic circuit at night, McGuinness drags some knees inthe  pitch black night, with only the headlight of his CBR1000RR and a spattering of flood lights to show him the way around the French track. This isn’t your typical track footage.

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News

Sorry, The Japanese-Spec Panigale is Not a Hoax

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Never underestimate the power of denial. When we first published photos of the Japanese-spec Ducati 1199 Panigale, the immediate reaction from readers was that the machine had to be a hoax. Oh no dear Ducatisti, Japan’s v-twin abomination of Italy’s latest superbike is very real.

With Japanese journalists now getting a chance to swing a leg over the machine, we get our first glimpse of the bike in motion. Noticeably quieter than our American-spec version, we still don’t understand the need for such a butchering of Ducati’s design. But then again, we’re bloggers, not engineers.

Featuring a single right-hand-side-mounted exhaust that taps into the under-slung units we are more familiar with, the Japanese-spec Ducati 1199 Panigale also features an enlarged plastic clutch cover, and a re-worked engine map (the S model also features the base model’s wheels). Check the video out after the jump. If any of our Japanese speakers hear something interesting in the video, post it up in the comments.

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News

Left Side Story – Why Alan Kempster is Your Personal Hero

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You probably haven’t heard of Alan Kempster before, but we promise that by the end of the video posted after the jump, he will be your personal hero. A double-amputee, Mr. Kempster lost his right-arm and right-leg after a tragic accident, which saw a drunk driver hit Alan while he was riding his motorcycle.

Where many would have given-up, Alan persevered, and ultimately set out to resume his motorcycle racing efforts. Rigging his motorcycle to have its controls on the left-hand side, Alan finally convinced his local motorcycle racing league to let him compete. He won his very first race. His racing number is ½. Respect. Thanks for the tip John!

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Racing

Video: Greg Tracy’s Sub-10 Minute Run up Pikes Peak

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Carlin Dunne and I might go back nearly a decade, but when it comes to Pikes Peak racers, Greg Tracy is sorta my hero. A six-time winner in the Race to the Clouds, when Greg isn’t racing in America’s second-oldest motorsporting event, he spends his off-hours as a major-production stuntman. You’ve probably seen him before, but just didn’t know it. Despite his blockbuster resume and besides being a boss on two-wheels, Greg also happens to be one of the nicest and down-to-earth people you will ever meet in motorcycle racing, let alone Hollywood.

Maybe it’s because when your job involves risking it all on a daily basis, you don’t take for granted the little things in life. Also at the same time, you probably don’t sweat the small issues that cloud what is really important at the end of the day. You would only have to spend a few minutes around Greg to find an anecdote to support that hypothesis. For as nice of a guy as Greg is in person, I would hate to be one his motorcycles in competition.

Racing up Pikes Peak with fractured vertebrae (Greg had a big crash the weekend before, filming a promo video for Audi & Ducati at Pikes Peak), Tracy was the fourth-fastest competitor ever, in any class, at the 90th Pikes Peak International Hill Climb. Putting down a jaw-dropping 9’58.262 time up the 12+ mile course, with its 156 turns, Greg was just six seconds shy of Carlin’s class-winning time of 9’52.819. We would be hard pressed to imagine what that race would have looked like had Greg been 100% fit. Respect.

A video of that sub-10 minute run is after the jump.

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Racing

Video: Peoria Euphoria with Sammy Halbert

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You might think of flat track racing as the NASCAR of the two-wheeled world, but any form of motorcycle racing that involves crashing into hay bales, sliding around with no brakes, and competing with true wheel-to-wheel action gets our asphalt-loving respect. Just coming back from the Indy Mile, we can confirm that there is a spectacle in flat track races that is currently missing from road racing, so if you get the chance to make a local event, we whole-heartedly recommend it.

One such recent event was the Peoria TT, where young-gun Sammy Halbert made a little video about himself, riding with only left-hand turns, and of course racing at Peoria. A tad on the uncouth side, we suppose that is just part of the charm of that the series provides. Check the video out after the jump, it is totally “titties” as Sammy would say. Thanks for the tip Tyler!

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Racing

A Lap Around Indy with the GP Tech CRT Bike

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For the Indianapolis GP, race fans will delighted to see two American wild card entries on the grid, as both Attack Performance and GP Tech will likely be racing CRT bikes come Sunday afternoon. We have already gotten a chance to see Attack’s bike, as Steve Rapp piloted it around Laguna Seca for MotoGP’s first stop on American soil this season. Unfortunately for Rapp & Attack, they failed to qualify for the Red Bull US GP at Laguna Seca, missing the cut-off by just under seven-tenths of a second.

Meanwhile GP Tech, a veteran to wild cards at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, has stepped up to the big show this year, with Aaron Yates on board the team’s Suzuki-powered CRT bike. Getting a chance to try the road course at Indy during the AMA tire test, GP Tech put some cameras on its roided-out GSX-R, and today brings us a lap of IMS from the perspective of a CRT. With both Attack and GP Tech expected to qualify later today, Sunday’s race fans should have a couple more familiar names to follow during the race. Check the lap out after the jump.

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Racing

SBK Classic Corners: Turn 12 at Phillip Island

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Our apologies for being a bit late to getting with the program, as we should have started HRC’s SBK Classic Corners webisodes much earlier than this. While we play a bit of catch-up with the World Superbike team’s short videos series that focuses on the famous corners of the WSBK calendar, we treat you to the first circuit up in our queue, which is also the first race of the season: Phillip Island.

It doesn’t matter what you call Turn 12 at famous Australian track (e.g. Swan Corner if you abide by the marketing), because whatever name you use, the corner is one of the most important turns on the circuit, as the long left-hand sweeper is your entry onto the Phillip Island’s massively long front straight that seemingly drops into the Bass Strait, until you cross the start/finish line.

I have been fortunate enough to ride a track day at Phillip Island, and I can say that the circuit is easily my favorite course to ride with a motorcycle as it has a bit of elevation, gorgeous surroundings, and a good mix of technical turns and flowing bends. One of the Top 3 fastest corners on the track, Turn 12 is certainly harrowing to enter full-tilt as your tires are fading. Of course, you don’t want to hear me talk about it, so we’ve got Johnny Rea and Hiroshi Aoyama after the jump.

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Racing

Video: Google Street View Does Silverstone

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Google Street View is one of those internet services that you don’t think much about, that is of course until you use it a few times, and wonder how you ever got along without it. Giving you an eye-level view of your destination, it has proved to be indispensable here at A&R, as we search for a new workspace.

Tangents aside, the folks at Silverstone have been keen to get the British track a bit more publicity (ladies, did you see Leon Haslam getting his leathers painted on?), and accordingly invited the folks from Google to come out with its Street View camera setup.

Now, here is the fundamental difference between us Yanks and you Brits. Over here in America, land of freedom, democracy, and well armed bears, when we take a bunch of pictures of a road to put on the internet, we use this thing called an automobile. Crazy? Yes, we know.

We feel sorry for the poor Google bastard who had to ride the 3.666 mile track on a three-wheeled bicycle, that just doesn’t seem right (we hear it took him 45 minutes to get around the course). Watch the video of his labors after the jump. As for the fruits of his labor, check it out here.

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Racing

Yamaha Does Another MotoGP Video for Laguna Seca

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Yamaha USA is keeping its Laguna Seca video tradition alive and well with another short flick that features the company’s MotoGP riders. Headlined by Jorge Lorenzo, Ben Spies, Cal Crutchlow, and Andrea Dovizioso, the Yamaha foursome is joined by MotoGP commentators Nick Harris and Gavin Emmett.

Not quite the comedic gold we’ve seen in the past, there is a tongue-in-cheek element to watching the video knowing that Spies dropped the bombshell about his leaving Yamaha, right around the time this video was being filmed.

From our seats, Dovi stole the show…as that grin is surely the same one he will be wearing if/when he gets the nod to the Yamaha factory team. As for Cal, don’t quit your day job mate. Video after the jump.

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