Posted in: General Motorcycling

Just in from Pramac:

Unfortunately, the pain felt by the Ignite Pramac Racing Team rider at the end of the warm up during last weekend in Austin (Texas), has had more serious consequences than expected.

As a result, Ben Spies will not be able to race at the next round of the Championship, held on May 5th in Jerez, Spain.

After taking part regularly in the Texan race, in which he finished in 13th position, the American rider was seen by his medical staff, who advised him three consecutive weeks of intense rehab in order to alleviate the strain in his pectorals and back muscles.

Despite the constant improvement in the condition of his shoulder after recent surgery, Ben still needs further intense work to build up his muscle, and to acquire the necessary strength which will enable him to endure the stress during the race. Therefore the therapy will be different to what he has done so far, focused on limb mobility, thanks to his better physical condition. These three weeks of therapy will allow the Texan to be back for the Le Mans race.

Posted in: Racing

COTA posted this on their channel today, most likely captured by the S1000RR labeled as the Official Safety Bike of the MotoGP championship

Posted in: Racing

Yamaha’a PR team just sent out an email stating that due to a fire in the Tech3 garage this morning, fire suppression systems were activated in both the Tech3 and factory Yamaha garages dousing everything in water and powder.  They said the fire was small and quickly contained with minimal damage to equipment.

The damage looked worse than actual but it still means that the teams will have to strip all the bikes down to clean them and get them ready for action by tomorrow morning.

Somewhere, Ben Spies is breathing a sigh of relief.

Posted in: Racing

For whatever reason, Nissan felt the need to try and break the Russian speed ice driving record.  Their site doesn’t state what the original record was but they managed to push a bone stock 2012 GTR to 183mph(294.8 kph) on standard non-studded Bridgestone winter tires.

The track consisted of a 3.5km acceleration section, a 1km timekeeping section and a 3.5km braking area.

For clarification, the 2012 GT-R is rated for 540 horsepower out of its 3.8L V6.

Video and link to pictures below:

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Posted in: Cars