“Bristol bicycle riders will honor their departed friend and his family - Elkhart Truth” plus 4 more

Bristol bicycle riders will honor their departed friend and his family - Elkhart Truth
Infront and Eurosport Group extend partnership - Motorsport.com
MC Life Angels and Airwaves' David Kennedy - Motorcycle USA
Video: Travis Pastrana To Set Rally Car Record Jump On New Years Eve - MotorAuthority
Motor Authority - blog Archive: October 2009 - MotorAuthority

Bristol bicycle riders will honor their departed friend and his family - Elkhart Truth

Posted: 19 Oct 2009 08:04 PM PDT

After the unexpected death of a teammate, a local group of bicycle racers will hold a benefit ride in his honor.

Randy Carrick, a 53-year-old bicycle racing enthusiast, died of natural causes in his sleep Sept. 29. The loss shocked friends and family, said long-time friend Glenn Bruce.

Carrick is survived by his wife, Cindy, two children, and three young grandchildren that Randy and Cindy had adopted as their own several years ago when the children needed a home, Bruce said.

Bruce said this weekend's bicycle ride was organized by the Road Dogs Cycling team, Carrick's racing team, and will benefit Carrick's family.

Equally as important, the team and Bruce hope the ride will be an opportunity to share the many cherished memories of Carrick's life with the community.

Bruce met Carrick in the 1970s when they were both teenagers and riding dirt bikes. As they emerged into adulthood, Bruce said, they worked together at a van conversion company.

"We were very close," Bruce said. "We played together. We raced together. We worked together."

But when the 1980s rolled around and jobs became scarce, Carrick not only managed to score a job working on vehicles in South Bend, he got Bruce a job, too.

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Infront and Eurosport Group extend partnership - Motorsport.com

Posted: 19 Oct 2009 05:19 PM PDT

Infront and Eurosport Group extend partnership for FIM Superbike World Championship

In a new and significant rights agreement between Infront Motor Sports and Eurosport Group, the leading sports entertainment media group in Europe has acquired the TV and digital rights to the FIM Superbike World Championship (SBK) for the 2010, 2011 and 2012 seasons, including support classes FIM Supersport World Championship and FIM Superstock 1000 Cup.

This pan-European agreement includes all 59 territories covered by Eurosport.

Comprehensive live coverage

The new agreement with Eurosport Group, a longstanding broadcast partner of the world's leading production motorcycle racing series for more than 10 years, will strengthen World SBK coverage significantly by offering an increased number of Live broadcasts and broader pan-European coverage. 24 out of 26 races will be shown live or delayed on either Eurosport or Eurosport 2.

Each season, a total of 140 broadcast hours on Eurosport and Eurosport 2 will be dedicated to the three championships. The European rounds will also be available in high definition on Eurosport HD and Eurosport 2 HD.

Digital rights include all races from all championships including the Superpole qualification to be broadcast live and in full on Eurosport's online viewing service. The agreement also includes VOD, Catch-up TV and mobile rights.

Laurent-Eric Le Lay, Chairman, Eurosport Group said: "We are fully committed to World Superbike, which is positioned as the top motorcycling series covered by Eurosport. Building on a strong and successful 10 year relationship, we are delighted to renew this partnership and bring our coverage to a new level. With more LIVE broadcasts, HD quality transmission and complete digital rights, Eurosport will continue to offer millions of European motor racing fans the best World Superbike coverage ever across all of our media platforms: TV, online and mobile."

Paolo Flammini, CEO of Infront Motor Sports said: "This is a very important broadcast contract which will benefit fans, manufacturers, teams and all commercial partners. We are satisfied that Superbike coverage in Europe will be significantly improved from the 2010 season onwards, and we see this as a major step in further raising the profile of the world's leading production motorcycle racing series."

Philippe Blatter, President & CEO of Infront Sports & Media, added: "This agreement sends a signal to the market, that Infront delivers what it promises, even under challenging market conditions. Over the past two years, we have continually enhanced and improved this important motor sports property in most commercial areas. In particular we have raised the number of worldwide broadcast territories overall by 31 to 175 and improved the quality of the host broadcast as well as broadcaster servicing."

International signal in HD

Starting half way through the 2009 season, Infront has introduced a true innovation in the field of global motorcycle racing with the arrival of HD coverage of the Superbike World Championship. The last seven rounds were available in high definition exclusively on Eurosport HD, the high definition simulcast of Eurosport.

From 2010 on, the international television signal for all European rounds will continue to be in HD format. The HD standard allows TV viewers to appreciate every detail of the television cameras pick up during the races. Bikes, riders and all the atmosphere of the circuit appear more true to life and realistic, with perfect colours and exceptional depth of field.

-credit: wsbk

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MC Life Angels and Airwaves' David Kennedy - Motorcycle USA

Posted: 19 Oct 2009 05:12 PM PDT

Pacing back and forth it's easy to see David Kennedy is more than a tad uneasy. One could even say he looks quite worried: Earphones in and sweat dripping, his face buried in a fan. You see, Kennedy plays lead guitar and keyboard for the rock band Angles and Airwaves, so high-pressure situations are nothing new of the 33-year-old musician. Though the setting we are in for this story isn't what you might expect. We're not backstage with thousands of fans screaming for him and his bandmates to play a live show, or at a photoshoot, or making a music video. We're baking in the hot desert sun, race gas melting our nostrils as the PA system announces: "Third call to grid for Race 7, third and final call for Race 7…"

That signals it's time to suit up and go – Kennedy's big road racing debut in Heavyweight Novice in WSMC at Willow Springs Raceway is upon us. But before we get there, let's rewind a bit; 12 months to be exact. You see, we met David about a year ago at his first-ever trackday at Buttonwillow Raceway. He was taking it easy and just "trying things out" to see what the racetrack world had in store for this rocker on his custom urbanized Buell Ulysses.

"I've always had this fascination with road racing and road racers," Kennedy explains. "I kind of thought of them like spacemen in their leather suits. Almost like Superheros even. I made it to the 2007 USGP in Monterey at Laguna Seca. My brother and I rode up for that weekend and just feeling the energy and being around so many raced-out fans with their bikes, leathers, etc. It was pretty awesome. Then when we actually got to see the race we were freaking out and were like, "how do we do this?"

It didn't take long before he was hooked, routinely joining us at trackdays and even buying a Kawasaki ZX-10R dedicated track bike. By no means is this an easy bike to learn on but at 6'6", DK doesn't exactly fit on anything smaller. A few months back, while riding at one of our tests, Kennedy declares: "I'm going racing!"

We all had a good-hearted friendly laugh at the hilariously-dry delivery of this random statement and then went about our day, not thinking much of it other than his usual funny antics as he'd only been riding on track for a few months. Looking back at it, from that point on Kennedy was religiously attending track days all across the left coast. None of us read much into it at the time, next thing I know he's calling me and asking if I want to come out to watch his first race weekend at Big Willow. The guy wasn't kidding. MotoUSA wasn't going to miss this for the world. What a story: Rockstar goes racing!

"It's just like playing in a band I suppose," he say when asked what spawned the desire to race so quickly. "No matter what level you're playing at, you write songs and you rehearse and then you play a gig – maybe it's at your local club with 80 people or at Reading Festival in front of 80,000 people. It's the same process. So when I finally started getting to the track more and more I needed something to work towards … it seemed to be the natural progression?"

Kennedy is stoic and soft-spoken, yet hysterically funny, when you get to know his dry sense of humor, for someone who's been musically inclined since the ripe old age of four. Some of the previous band's he's played with include Built to Last and Over My Dead Body, before forming Box Car Racer with Tom DeLonge of Blink 182-fame. The two have been friends since their High School days in San Diego. They had a few hits and made it pretty far up the chart but there was more to come. The two then followed that up as members of the group Hazen St. before making it big with their most well-known and successful collaboration to date: Angles and Airwaves (AVA). AVA has released two hit albums to date, headlined the massive Warp Tour and have a third LP due to be released in February 2010. And while his life and livelihood is still music, as AVA's lead guitar, keyboard player and co-writer to much of their music, motorcycling has made a strong case for becoming his new favorite passion. And as it turns out, the two relate in far more ways than he initially thought.

"It's strange but this is just like before a show, exactly like it," Kennedy muses as we make small-talk prior to his big race. "I have that very familiar feeling of anxiety right before playing a show. It's like when Joey Lombardo from Kawasaki (his mechanic for the weekend) pops his head in the trailer to tell me how much time I have before the race I get the feeling of wanting to ask him "How does it look out there?" "Are the kids excited?" "Is it full?" Exactly what I would do if our tour manager was coming in to tell us five minutes until the show ... it's weird but I really love these moments."

Now I must admit, while I've seen Kennedy getting faster and faster, I had no idea by how much. And when the curtain came down on his debut, we were all blown away by his performance.

The music man started the weekend clocking times in the 1:36 range, but by race time he had the bit between his teeth and laid down several 1:30s (6-second drop throughout the weekend). This was enough to get him to the front of the pack from 11th on the grid, rounding out the first lap in third and battling his way into the lead by the end of Lap 3. After making some daring, around-the-outside passes in his push to the front he kept his head down and held a steady gap on the way to winning his first-ever race!

This was all that much more impressive considering it was against a grid of far-more experienced riders, some of whom have been racing that class all season, while Kennedy had only taken his New Rider School that Saturday. Like I said, everyone was extremely impressed and maybe even a tad surprised. I don't think anyone would peg the easy-going, laidback musician as being so aggressive.

"I probably can't say exactly what was in my head during the race but I will say I'm pretty competitive so I was very motivated to get in front," he said afterwards. "Also, all the advice from earlier in the weekend from different people kept popping in my head, 'have fun … win' (laughs). I have so much respect for the people that make racing their lives and also to the people that have really helped me out. Considering all of this, I wanted to do well rather than just ride around because it was the best way to show my respect for all their hard work."

And while he didn't overtly show it, there's no doubt the rocker was stoked. "Man, I'm pumped," he continues. "I won and that's what I really wanted to do … even if I didn't admit it before. But the cool thing is just how intense and addictive it really is, it's just an amazing experience."

So additive, in fact, that when we visited Kennedy the week following the race at the AVA studio for a our photoshoot he had already registered for the next races at Willow Springs as well as an upcoming AFM club race up at Infineon Raceway in Northern California. And, so it seems, David Kennedy has officially joined the club and become a die-hard racer, or "spaceman" as he would put it…

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Video: Travis Pastrana To Set Rally Car Record Jump On New Years Eve - MotorAuthority

Posted: 19 Oct 2009 05:12 PM PDT

Subaru rally car jumps

Enlarge Photo

The record will consist of driving a Red Bull-sponsored Subaru rally car to a 250-foot jump from Long Beach's Pine Street Pier onto a barge anchored in the harbor. If he's successful, he'll nab the title from his current Subaru rally teammate, Ken Block, who set the current record at 171 feet in 2006, also in a Subaru rally car.

Pastrana's history with the water is infamous: he had his first X Games gold medal taken away for a celebration involving jumping his motorcycle into the San Francisco Bay--at age 15. This time around, he hopes to stay out of the water.

Though the Subaru Pastrana will use for the stunt will be prepared for safety, he says he wants to keep it close to what people drive on the street every day. "Our goal is to make this as authentic as possible. I want to use a really close-to-production Subaru, not some super high-tech ramp or super high-tech car. Just a full-on, old-school stunt. And definitely I want to drive out of it, too," Pastrana told the AP.

The stunt will be televised live on ESPN, following on a tradition of New Year's Eve stunts from other Red Bull motorsports greats like Robbie Maddison and Rhys Millen.

[AP]

Posted in: Subaru, News

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Motor Authority - blog Archive: October 2009 - MotorAuthority

Posted: 19 Oct 2009 05:12 PM PDT

Video: Travis Pastrana To Set Rally Car Record Jump On New Years Eve

Pastrana's history with the water is infamous: he had his...

Motorcyles, rally cars, jumping, racing and just about anything fast, extreme or both--you name it, Travis Pastrana's probably done it, twice. But even he has a few areas left to cover, and this this New Year's Eve, he'll be trying to set a new world record. The record will consist of driving a Red Bull-sponsored Subaru rally car to a 250-foot jump from Long Beach's Pine Street Pier onto a barge anchored in the harbor. If he's successful, he'll nab the title from his current Subaru rally teammate, Ken Block, who set the current record at 171 feet in 2006, also in a Subaru rally car. Pastrana's history with the water is infamous: he had his first X Games gold medal taken away for a celebration involving jumping his motorcycle into the San Francisco Bay--at age 15. This time around, he hopes to stay out of the water. Though the Subaru Pastrana will use for the stunt will be prepared for safety, he says he wants to keep it close to what people drive on the street every day. "Our goal is to make this as authentic as possible. I want to use a really close-to-production Subaru, not some super high-tech ramp or super high-tech car. Just a full-on, old-school stunt. And definitely I want to drive out of it, too," Pastrana told the AP. The stunt will be televised live on ESPN, following on a tradition of New Year's Eve stunts from other Red Bull motorsports greats like Robbie Maddison and Rhys Millen. [AP] Read More

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