| Author | Message | ||
     Jscott |
Looks like the EBR guys are skipping SBK Free Practice 4. Neither are showing up in Live Timing. | ||
| Hughlysses |
Damn! Geoff may be out for the weekend; he broke his collar bone in today's crash: http://www.cyclenews.com/671/24010/Racing-Article/ World-Superbike--Geoff-May-Most-Likely-Out-For-Phi llip-Island.aspx | ||
| Jscott |
Looks like Geoff May have injured his collarbone. http://www.worldsbk.com/en/news/2014/Lowes+quickes t+in+FP3+despite+crash (Message edited by Jscott on February 21, 2014) | ||
| Hughlysses |
Quick- get Cory on a plane! | ||
| Jscott |
Or even better get Eslick off that Triumph and get him back on the bike he was born to ride! | ||
| Jscott |
Superpole is happening now. | ||
| Jscott |
SP1 over and SP2 just started. Don't see Yates listed could he have not made the qualifying cutoff? | ||
| Jscott |
Well it appears that neither EBR participated in Superpole. Geoff obviously because of injury, not sure why Aaron didn't unless his Free Practice times were so off pace he didn't qualify for Superpole. | ||
| Jscott |
Aaron is listed as position 22 on the grid: http://resources.worldsbk.com/files/results/2014/A US/SBK/Q2A/GRI/StartingGrid.pdf | ||
| Stevel |
Very disappointing results. It is very difficult not to be able to qualify for qualification. It appears their best time is just under 1.36, which is not only last, but is mid field time of the last 125cc Motogp race. Perhaps somebody forgot a sparkplug. | ||
| Vagelis46 |
This is definatelly bad luck... Broken collarbone..... I think Geoff would have made the Superpole2 , if he did not crash..... He lapped a 1.34.6 in FP2 ...... He crashed on his 4th lap in FP3 .... Many bad crashes in Philip Island this year , and many injured riders. Maybe the "low cost" suspension that the teams have to use this year , is to blame ....... The organisers decided to reduce the cost by lowering the specifications of the suspension, but the riders are paying the price .... | ||
| Trojan |
Many bad crashes in Philip Island this year , and many injured riders. Nothing new there, and I doubt if the suspension has anything to do with it. A combination of fast track, high winds, first round nerves/adrenalin and a desire to impress at the start of the season all combine to make PI a track that sees lots of crashes. The new 'grippy' surface means that accidents happen a bit quicker too. As most of the accidents are at quite high speed they tend to end up with more injuries than some of the more technical circuits. I seem to remember a couple of years ago almost all the front runners managed to bang themselves up at PI in testing before ther season started. Shame that both Alex Lowes and Tom Sykes craashed in Superole as I was pretty sure they would have been on the front row. Both look good for tomorrow though  Congrats to PJ Jacobsen on his impressive WSS qualifying performance. | ||
| Classax |
This is why I personally would not have pushed it to impress anyone. Collar bone means he is out for the opener and maybe even round 2. Yates was never going to be fast but he is consistent. He's the kind of rider who notices every little change. You need that princess and the pea type personality to develop bikes but they are seldom the fastest riders exactly because of it. Heal up quickly Geoff. Hope they fix whatever they can by race time. | ||
| Hughlysses |
Classax- According to the article I posted above, the healing time for a broken collar bone without surgery is only 25 days. Geoff was supposedly headed to Melborne to see if surgery was recommended to fix it. Either way, hopefully he'll be good to go for round 2. | ||
| M2typhoon |
Yates is on the grid for the race. I didn't think he'd make it. Geoff May's post was the first thing I saw this morning when I opened FB. Showing his busted up helmet. Not the way I wanted to wake up on a Saturday. I'm going to watch Eslick battling Young at Homestead to chear me up.  http://www.crash.net/wsbk/news/200529/1/may-ruled-out-of-ebr-race-debut.html (Message edited by m2typhoon on February 22, 2014) | ||
| Jaimec |
Broken collar bone? Is that all?? Plate it and get back on the grid! Crap, not what I wanted to see this morning either. At least Aaron made the cut so I'll get to see ONE American riding an American bike, even if he is nowhere near the front.  | ||
| Hughlysses |
Nice shot of Aaron from crash.net:  | ||
| Trojan |
Optimistic quote of the weekend from Aaron Yates.... "We are a little bit off the pace but tomorrow the plan is of course to finish both races and if we can pick up a tow, anything could happen.” Anything Aaron? Good to see at least one EBR make the grid but he is a LONG way back to do anything but finish I think. | ||
| Trojan |
Well surprise surprise...They have bent....sorry, amended the WSB rules to allow Bimota to race..who would'a thought it? Bimota’s World Superbike challenge has been thrown a lifeline now the FIM has relaxed homologation rules meaning the firm only now has to produce 125 of its BB3 models in order to take to the grid. The firm, which is racing under the Alstare banner and has Christian Iddon in the chair, will have to prove production of the official units and then build a further 125 by the end of 2014. By the end of the second season, 1000 units must be in circulation and the Superbike commission will meet again at Phillip Island to review the regulations further. “It is a common intention to bring the homologation requirements in line with the current situation of the motorcycle industry and markets worldwide,” said an FIM statement. “The Superbike Commission will follow closely the production plan of each manufacturer in order to control the minimum number of units produced as above and guarantee the fairness of competition.” This is apparently a rule that will apply to allmanufacturers now, not just Bimota. Which opens the door for some super expensive 'homologation specials' from the big manufacturers that will make a mockery of the EVO rules and any cost cutting ambitions thatt he organisers may have had. What a load of old rubbish..as usual. (Message edited by trojan on February 22, 2014) | ||
| Court |
>>>>Good to see at least one EBR make the grid but he is a LONG way back to do anything but finish I think. HUGE for a company that had 7 employees 3 years ago and sold it's first commercial product earlier today. | ||
| Norcal_blast |
From Motomatters: "The sales numbers have been reduced in response to the continuing decline in sales of large and middleweight sports bikes around the world, under pressure from increasing speed restrictions and monitoring on public roads. Even Honda is reportedly having problems selling the required numbers of the CBR1000RR SP... | ||
| Simond |
So you need 125 bikes to enter; 250 by the end of the first year and 1000 by the end of the second year. I assume that a homologation special or a small volume manufacturer that won the title in its first year but didn't complete the 1000 bikes would be retrospectively disqualified?!!! Do I see an updated Desmosedici on the horizon? Shame about all the injuries. I see little point in Geoff May trailing around at the back injured. Better to heal properly by the next race. James Witham mentioned that three riders suffered a broken pelvis (Barrier, Fabrizio & Scassa). That combined with May and Guarnoni's broken collarbones - not to mention Lowes' dislocated ankle is quite a toll from just a few days. Sykes still looked quickest - right up until the moment he hit the deck! I wouldn't count him out just yet. | ||
| Rocket_in_uk |
Don't see that Bimotas situation applies to companies with mass produced motorcycles under their belt. As I understand, it's a scale of production which applies to the bike raced. Hence Bimota are a tiny tiny producer and they get to race their bike. Honda are a massive producer and they get to race their production bike. I'm not understanding where the 'new' rule says a mass producer can build a homologation special and sell the same number of production versions as a company the size of Bimota is allowed to, to compete. Surely the rule applies where it's needed only for smaller producers? Rocket in England | ||
| Xb1125r |
I hope Geoff has a speedy recovery, even if Yates finishes last if he is able to do that it would be a good test that the bike is reliable. And with that EBR can only go up. | ||
| Jscott |
Well don't want to be a spoiler, but in Race 1 Yates finished ahead of Lowes, Elias, and Haslam. | ||
| J2blue |
Went ahead and bought the streaming package. Not being that familiar with WSBK I was impressed with the video recap of last year. Much more aggressive riding from all the riders. Danny surely would be a better fit, but what do I know. I guess I should expect a little less from EBR starting out this season. Victory will be staying in the race today. Hope Geoff can heal quickly and rejoin Aaron soon. | ||
| Reepicheep |
Congratulations to EBR for being the first American motorcycle company to successfully complete a World Superbike race! Great work guys! Onward and upward! | ||
| Classax |
Congrats to EBR Hero on your first full WSBK race. Very proud of the whole team. On to bigger and better things! | ||
| Jscott |
So for you guys watching the streaming package - how is it? Typically the commentating is far superior to what we get in the states with AMA. How was the EBR coverage? | ||
| Firstbuell |
agreed - I'm very proud of Erik & the Hero EBR SBK team All hail Aaron Yates !! |
