“Race Attracts ‘Noisier and Smokier’ Motorcycles - Chronicle” plus 4 more

Race Attracts ‘Noisier and Smokier’ Motorcycles - Chronicle
Motorcycle racing, all about family and friends - Abbotsford News
Big Names Line up for International Tri-Series - Scoop
Dunlop boys can deliver at Dundrod - Belfast Telegraph
7-time F1 champ Schumacher will test older Ferrari - CNN Sports Illustrated

Race Attracts ‘Noisier and Smokier’ Motorcycles - Chronicle

Posted: 10 Aug 2009 10:28 AM PDT

For Chris Jones, 46, of Lacey, coming to the Chehalis Classic is a trip down memory lane.

"We're out here reliving the past," Jones enthused. "I grew up riding all these old dirt bikes."

Vintage dirt bike owners are a breed apart, Jones said, from riders who have the newer bikes.

"The technology is different. You have your older two-stroke air-cooled engines, dual shock. Today, you have fuel-injected, water-cooled, single shock. It is the simplicity that attracts us. And, it's noisier and smokier."

National motocross racing took place Sunday on the all natural terrain track at The Farm on Tune Road. Once you left the roadway and drove onto the packed hay field filled with hundreds of RVs, the roar of the track could be heard.

"This is an old-school track," Jones said, pointing out the lack of jumps.

Bikes with colorful riders lined the track, ready for the releasing of a band to take off. Motors revved, sounding like angry hornets.

At the dropping of the band, the bikes leaped forward, some much faster than others. A dust cloud spun over the heads of bystanders.

Bikes zipped past as riders of all ages and skill levels waited their turn on the track.

Quincy Smith, 25, of Vader was waiting for his turn on the track. He was sitting on a 1974 Yamaha 125, built by Buck Murphy, a Legends of Motocross honoree and former professional motocross racer.

"This was my wife's bike," Smith said.

His wife, Barbara, started racing motocross when she was 17 years old. The Smith family racing tradition continues, with their 4-year-old son now in the act.

All the classic bikes were present either in working order, as current projects brought to show off, or waiting on the backs of trucks with for sale signs on them. Jones walked past the rows of bikes enthusiastically listing them off one by one, pointing to such coveted collector's items as the Austrian KTM, the Swedish Husqvarna, the German Maico, the Italian Polini, and the highly collectible Jawa CZ made in Czechoslovakia.

The field of racers that day were predominately men, but there were a few women riders. Pam Bast of California was one.

"I've only been racing about three years," she said. "I come from a racing family and I decided I was just going to do it too."

This day at the Chehalis Classic had gone fairly well for Bast, until the last lap.

"I crashed," she said. "I'm switching bikes now (she rides a Honda 125). But I'm fine. I'm pretty resilient."

For anyone, including other women who might be interested in racing, Bast is encouraging.

"Come out here and have a good time. You don't have to set the world on fire," she said.

•••

Victoria Stewart is a freelance writer and photographer. She can be reached at creative01writer@yahoo.com.

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Motorcycle racing, all about family and friends - Abbotsford News

Posted: 04 Aug 2009 03:22 PM PDT

Amid the tent tops, camping trailers, motorcycles of every shape, size and colour at the Cariboo Raceway, an unexpected sight – women walking around in racing leathers and smiling.

Marjie Robertson of Quesnel is a long time dirt-biker, who at the urging of friends Dave Viskari and Steve Graham, decided to give racing on pavement a try.

"It was pretty easy to convince me," Robertson said with a shrug.

Saturday was her first time road racing, and she obviously has a knack for it.

"I've finished first in both my races," Robertson said, seeming unaccustomed to the attention.

Robertson, who has raced dirt bikes far and wide, from Chilliwack to Dawson Creek said the most difficult part of the transition from the dirt track to pavement is the stance.

"On dirt you spend alot of time standing on the bike, on pavement you sit."

Then there are the reflexes, she added.

Some reflexes are appropriate for one sport and not the other.

"I have to remember not to put my foot down in the corners," Robertson said, something that is common in dirt-bike racing and potentially very dangerous racing on a paved track.

The key to success, Robertson said is in the rider's ability to concentrate.

"You can't let your mind wander, you need to stay focussed the whole race."

Racing alongside Robertson in the intermediate class was Sharon Ham, a mother of three girls, who also races motorcycles.

Ham has spent the last three years following her husband Kevin and daughters Jana and Robin, 11, and Brooke, 13, to different racing events in Saskatchewan and Alberta.

The decision to race motorcycles was pretty much made for her earlier this year when she received a motorcyle for mother's day, she said with a sheepish smile.

"It's fun, if you can't beat them, join them," she said.

"It's something we can all do together as a family."

Daughter Robin felt the same way, saying the best part about racing motorcycles was racing with her family.

Ham, like Robertson, appears unaccustomed to the attention and says that racing in front of a crowd makes her nervous.

That nervousness, admitted Ham, compounds the most difficult part of racing for her, the start.

That is when the racers are lined up on the starting grid of the race when the riders are revving their engines waiting for the starter to send them on their way.

"Don't pop a wheely," Ham says is the main throught going through her head at the start of the race.

The start of the race is also the most troublesome part of racing for daughter Jana.

"The start line, being in the right gear," she said.

Sister Brooke felt the same way.

"It's the starts, popping my clutch."

Sam McManus, 18, made the trip to Quesnel from Calgary, because she likes to race against her friends.

She has been racing for a couple of years, but had to take a year off after a crash.

"I knocked my head pretty good."

Like Robertson, McManus had dirt bike experience before making the transition to road racing.

"I'm hooked," she said.

"I love the dicing with people in the corners."

With barbecues cooking up in between race meals, and lawn chairs and fans, the raceway had a family friendly feel to it, and that in the end is what draws these ladies to the track.

"I like racing with my family," Robin Ham said.

"I like finishing ahead of my mom, Brooke Ham said with a big grin.

"Racing with my family," Jana said.

Dad Kevin agreed.

It's a great family activity," he said pointing to all the tents and trailers, friends gathering to share a laugh after racing each other on the track.

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Big Names Line up for International Tri-Series - Scoop

Posted: 10 Aug 2009 09:27 PM PDT

2009 Suzuki International Tri-Series
PRESS RELEASE

PR2; Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Big Names Line up for Suzuki International Tri-Series

Darryl Atkins is one of the hottest Supermoto riders in the world, and he's booked to compete at Wanganui during the 2009 Suzuki International Tri-Series.

The Suzuki International Tri-Series will be staged over three quick-fire rounds around the central North Island at Manfeild, Wanganui, and Taupo.

Atkins was invited to join 20 of the world's best Supermoto racers in the prestigious X-Games, held in Los Angeles earlier this month. The X-Games is the largest action sports competition on the planet, where Atkins finished a credible fourteenth in the Supermoto segment.

From his California base Atkins says, "The X-Games this year was for difficult for me. I've had little time on a bike since the Cemetery Circuit (2008), as I retired from the AMA series. The testing I did before the event wasn't right for that circuit, I just didn't have a program to get the result I wanted there."

Supermoto is a spectacular version of road racing with riders often sliding their bikes into the corners sideways! Modified motocross bikes are used with cut-slick tyres for maximum traction and incredible lean angles. Coupled with Wanganui's tight street circuit, ingredients that make for close and exciting action during Racweek.

An expat Kiwi, Atkins took a hatrick of Supermoto wins at Wanganui last year on his factory Aprilia SXV 550 and is keen to return. "Just because of the atmosphere and the chance to put on a show that I know everyone liked last year."

The US-based rider caused a Boxing Day sensation in front of 15,000 spectators by lapping Wanganui's tight Cemetery Circuit only 1.6 seconds slower than the fastest 2008 F1 Superbike time, set by Craig Shirriffs on his Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade.

"It was a great event to be at! I enjoyed it all, the circuit, crowd, atmosphere, and the other riders. It's a real special event and that's why I decided to ride it again. I have retired from racing and will only do invitational events being the X-Games, Mettet in Belgium, and now the Cemetery Circuit."

Darryl Atkins won two NZ 125cc Motocross championships and three NZ Supercross titles before heading onto the world motocross stage in 1990. Born in Tokoroa, Atkins was a member of the NZ motocross team at the 1993 Motocross des Nations.
Then, in 1994 he was involved in a car crash in Europe which changed his life, hopes and dreams. Suffering multiple injuries doctors gave him little chance of using his arm again, let alone race a motorcycle! But, within three years Atkins returned to world motocross until moving to California, where he took up Supermoto racing.

Atkins held a one point lead in the 2005 US Supermoto Unlimited series heading into the final corner of the last race, when the nearest title challenger shunted the Kiwi off the track in order to win the race, and the championship.

Event Schedule;
Rnd 1: Manfeild, December 19
Rnd 2: Wanganui Cemetery Circuit, December 26
Rnd 3: Taupo Motorsport Park, December 28

ENDS

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Dunlop boys can deliver at Dundrod - Belfast Telegraph

Posted: 10 Aug 2009 05:30 PM PDT

Tuesday, 11 August 2009

The Dunlop name is synonymous with Dundrod with Joey Dunlop and his brother Robert having scored an incredible 65 wins around the 7.4 mile circuit set high in the hills above Belfast, Joey holding the record for most wins on 48.

Now the new generation of the family steeped in motorcycle racing history Michael and William have taken up the mantle and will be looking to continue the tradition of a Dunlop winning at Dundrod during Ulster Grand Prix Bike Week.

Michael has been the man in the limelight this season with some blistering performances most notably upsetting the favourites by winning his first TT riding his Street Sweep supersport 600 Yamaha after obliterating the lap record unofficially in practice.

The 21-year-old is a straight talking, hard riding young man who has used the motivation of his late father Robert to work his way up the road racing success ladder.

He says: "What my da done in his life is the inspiration that drives me on. I would love to follow in his footsteps and win a race at Dundrod."

Already this season Michael has clinched the Irish 125 and 250cc road racing titles and would dearly love an Ulster Grand Prix win to add to his CV.

It is in the prestigious supersport races where he will look to take that elusive first Dundrod win to make it a TT UGP double in the class.

Brother William already has a Dundrod victory under his belt having won the 250cc race in 2007, with Michael in second position.

William said: "When the wee bike is going well it is a real flying machine. Given a dry race and a trouble free run we should not be far away."

William, who rides for Paddy Flynn in the smaller classes and Crhis Dowd in the supersport and superstock classes, can mix it with the best and his second place behind Ryan Farquhar at Armoy on Saturday in the supersport class shows it is not just the two-stroke classes where he is capable of winning.