Dakar Rally

Organizers  in Chile are facing the wrath of Chile’s National Monuments Council (CMN) which is demanding the National Sports Institute of Chile pay the fee for damage to valued archaeological sites caused by the Dakar Rally which  is a 5,610-mile off-road competition, open to motor vehicles and motorcycles,

Of the 56 of 111 sites in the region, which were affected by the rally, several were badly damaged. Even in 2009, National Sports Institute of Chile paid over $75500 in damages following the 2009 race.

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Lambretta Reparto Corse

Lambretta’s return will be in form of Lambretta Reparto Corse with the team being based out of Engines Engineering’s workshops in Bologna, Italy.  “It’s is a wonderful day for Lambretta and one we’ve been working towards for nearly two years. We’re delighted to be back on the racetrack and to compete in such an exciting and expanding sport. It’ll be fun to compete with the big boys and see what happens. Lambretta has an Italian heritage and we’re very keen to maintain that at the centre of everything that we do. We want authenticity and that’s the reason we started talking to Engines Engineering in terms of MotoGP. They have a great reputation and are a great engineering company, and very importantly for us they are Italian.” says Lambretta’s marketing director, John Scully.

Lambretta raced at MotoGP levels last in 1953 when it’s v-twin Lambretta GP Racer competed in 250cc championships.

source: MotoGP.com

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2009 Tech3(& Monster Energy) MotoGP Bike

After departure of Kawasaki MotoGP team, Monster Energy (“the largest selling energy drink in USA”) has pertnered with Tech 3 Yamaha for the 2009 MotoGP Season.

Valentino Rossi in his personal capacity will also be sponsored by Monster energy(are you thinking of Chupa Chups and Lorenzo?)

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TVS Racing team at the event

TVS Motors organized Apache Racing Experience(ARE) at Palace Grounds, Bangalore exclusively for owners of Apache RTR on 7th March. 60 RTR owners turned up for the event where they were providing riding tips and racing techniques by TVS Racing riders including Preetham Dev Moses and C.S. Santosh. The participants were then allowed to ride Team TVS Racing’s machines for testing out their skills. Sudershan Karnany clocked the fastest lap time of 42 seconds on the 600meter track and will now get to train with TVS Racing Factory Team

Top ten riders will now have an opportunity of competing at the “RTR Riders Cup” to be held at Sriperumbudur Race Track, Chennai in April. The event provides TVS Racing an opportunity to find talent for expanding their road racing program and TVS plans to hold such ARE events across country pretty soon.

Apache Racing Experience Grid

Images courtesy: TVS Apache

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This year, Dakar Rally was held in South America for a period of 14 days from 3rd January to 17th January with the entire continent being traversed by the 540 participating teams starting from Buenos Aires and returning back to the same city after traveling a whopping distance of 9578 kilometers.

We have posted some amazing pictures from the rally underneath.

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Trillium Muir on her LSR Hayabusa

Trillium achieved her record at Maxton Mile race track in North Carolina, USA making her the fastest woman yet on a motorcycle. She rode a tuned 2003 Hayabusa featuring a GT35R turbo from RCC turbos, Aims data logger, JE Pistons, Crower rods, MTC lock-up clutch, Elka shock, custom-built swingarm, RCC back cut transmission.

Her next aim is to break the 400 kmph mark on her Hayabusa next year.

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Terry had notified race organisers on Sunday that he had run out of petrol on his Yamaha but it was believed he rejoined the rally with the help of another competitor, all further efforts by organisers to contact Terry failed and search operations were launched without any success.

Satellite tracking eventually showed his bike stopped. His emergency signal was picked up by race officials in Paris but Argentine organizers weren’t notified until Monday morning, when a search was launched. Rescuers had a difficult time because of the dense bush and was found between Abramo and Cuchillo Co, about 190 kilometers (120 miles) south of Santa Rosa.

Terry, a first-time Dakar racer, had taken off his helmet and laid in the shade of a tree, race officials said in a statement, He was seated in a shady spot approximately 50 feet from his WR450F  and was equipped with food and water. The cause of death was due to pulmonary edema according to the autopsy. The forensic report also said his body showed no signs of injury or dehydration, and he would have died between nightfall on Sunday and dawn on Monday.

The Dakar Rally has claimed the lives of numerous competitors, crew, media and fans since it began in 1979. Two motorcyclists died in the last rally, in 2007.

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Hopkins with Kawasaki ZX-RR

The move coming in lines of Honda’s F1 & AMA withdrawal comes after a dismal performance in 2007 & 2008 seasons by the green team which was mostly relegated to the back of the grid combined with an severe global economic downturn.

The news has come as a shock to Marco Melandri & John Hopkins who had been signed on to ride the ZX-RR’s by Team Green for 2009 season. They will now be left in lurch with all other teams having already signed and confirmed their riders.  “I have to wait and hear some words, as at the moment I hear nothing,” Melandri told autosport.com. “If it is true, then I can only hope that when I wake up on January 1st it is all a nightmare.” Marco Melandri is going to be badly hit with the news since switching over to Kawasaki after a terrible year with Ducati in 2008 season.

MotoGP bosses at Dorna must be in a troubled spot now being left with only 4 factory teams in fray while WSBK has added two more factory teams of Aprilia & BMW this year.

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FIM has announced the age limit will increase to 16 from 2010 instead of the current age of 15 years for riders to compete in the world championship.

Limits for 250cc & MotoGP championship will remain at 16 & 18 years of age respectively.

“Sixteen years is the right age,” MotoGP rider Loris Capirossi, the youngest ever world champion at the age of 17.

“When I won the title I had already done two years on real bikes in the Italian and European championships. I was young, but I was experienced.

“You can’t push these youngsters like that: they win their parish church championship and then come straight to the world championship. Unfortunately I visit the Clinica Mobile and I see these kids there, maybe with some broken bones.

“We started talking about this last year in the Safety Commission with Valentino Rossi. Other riders, like Hayden and Pedrosa, agreed too.

“I don’t think anyone can be against something like this, because if they start too young they risk getting burnt. And after all, at 16 years of age, they have a lot of time ahead of them.”

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Vijay Mallya is expected to be pitted against Carlos Slim, one the world’s richest men and majority stake holder of Mexican telecom giant “”. Other contenders include a Swiss hedge fund and Achilleas Kallakis, the greek shipping tycoon.

Vijay Mallya with Force India F1 car

Vijay Mallya’s Force India formula one motor racing team was formed last year after a consortium led by Mallya bought the Spyker F1 team for 88 million pounds.

Indicating that it might have to shut down the formula one racing outfit if no buyer was found, Honda CEO Takeo Fukui said, “We, Honda Motor Co Ltd, have come to the conclusion that we will withdraw from all Formula One activities, making 2008 the last season of participation.

“This difficult decision has been made in light of the quickly deteriorating operating environment facing the global auto industry, brought on by the sub-prime problem in the United States, the deepening credit crisis and the sudden contraction of the world economies.”

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