Bel-Ray Weekend Racing Wrap Up

2012-08-28 10:47
World Superbike Championship

The first race at the new Moscow Raceway in Russia was not so kind to Bel-Ray racers Carlos Checa and Davide Giugliano. Both racers suffered from first race DNF’s but were able to rebound in the second race with fourth and sixth place respectively.

After winning the Superpole the day before, Checa had a confident start in the first race. Teammate Giugliano also started well and was into fifth place after the first lap. Unfortunately a collision between himself and (Jonathan) Rea put Checa out of the race. Giugliano would also suffer from an unfortunate incident, as a crash put him out of the race on lap thirteen. The second race was better for the Althea Ducati duo. A solid race for both riders saw Checa earn a fourth place and Giugliano a sixth place finish by the time the checkered flag flew.

Both racers spoke about the first-race disappointment and their second-race rebound.
“We did what we could and that’s how it went,” said Checa following the race. “In the first race we chose slick tires – it would have been impossible to finish the race on rain tires. It was a pity for the crash – I was fighting with Johnny (Rea) for the position, he came too close to me, didn’t leave me room and I lost the front when he touched the handlebar. We had to build the bike from the rolling chassis for race two as there were some problems with my bike after the crash. I had similar sensations to yesterday but had real difficulty on the straight – it was extremely difficult to pass, or even get close enough to attempt to do that.”

“I’m sorry for race one,” said Giugliano after the second race. “I was fast, one of the fastest on track at that point and I didn’t realize in time that the front tire had started to suffer very early on, finding myself on the ground before I could do anything. In the second race I decided to stay calm in the first half and try to control the tire wear but when I wanted to start pushing, from mid-race on, the front tire wasn’t performing and it only got worse in the later stages. I hope that in the next races, with a little less of a straight, we might do better because here you can see that it was very difficult.”

With only three rounds remaining in the 2012 series Checa is fourth place and Giugliano is in tenth.

The series continues on September 9th at the Nurburgring in Germany.


MOTO GP

The 2012 MotoGP series continued this past weekend at the Automotodrom Brno circuit for the bwin Grand Prix Cesky Republiky. As the top CRT racers in the series, the Bel-Ray sponsored Power Electronics team of Aleix Espargaro and Randy DePuniet came to Brno as favorites for a top finish.

Both racers scored top-ten finishes with DePuniet in eighth and Espargaro in tenth.


De Puniet was very happy with the results and progression of the CRT machine this season. "Today went so well that I even managed to pass a number of prototype machines off the line. I am happy, because I think that both the team and I have done a great job this weekend. I stuck behind (Valentino) Rossi at the start and could see that there was smoke coming from his bike on every lap. (Ben) Spies dropped the pace and I kept on pushing. I was praying that the smoke did not mean that the engine would break down completely and leave oil on the track. When the situation stabilized I could focus on my own race. Spies overtook me and I used him as a reference for a while. Soon afterwards he crashed out, so I was left by myself. In practice I had found a fast pace, so I focused on getting back to that and riding strongly to the checkered flag. I am very happy, because I managed to finish as the best CRT rider and cut two points off my teammate's advantage."
Espargaro retained his lead as the top CRT and spoke about the race following the checkered flag: "I'm a little week from the flu, but in the race I felt more or less ok. The track temperature today had dropped a lot and that affected us. From the start I could feel the bike sliding out a lot. I got a good start, but Randy (DePuniet) escaped straight away. He was just faster than me, taking three-tenths of a second out of my times with every lap. When I got passed by the Ducatis I tried to stay with them, but it was hard to ride with them. On the straight they took off and on the corners I was back amongst (Toni) Elias and (Karel) Abraham. I got as close as I could on the final laps. Toni and I exchanged passes on the last lap on three or four occasions, and in the end I won out. I was expecting a little better from the race, as I thought that we had a little more pace. Still, I am happy to have taken points and to continue to lead the CRT standings."

After twelve rounds of the eighteen-round series, Espargaro is twelfth and DePuniet thirteenth in the overall series standings.


MOTO 2

The Bel-Ray sponsored Mapfre Aspar duo of Nico Terol and Jordi Torres took promising steps in Brno and scored twelfth and thirteenth place respectively.

Terol spoke about the race following his finish. "I am very happy with my performance up until the halfway point of the race. I put up a real fight and wanted to break away with the rest of my group. However, (Simone) Corsi split us up and I think that if I had latched onto the pack more in the early going, I would have had an easier time of it. I had pushed my hardest but hadn't gained an advantage. I was still having chatter issues today on the front, which distracted me on the final laps. I didn't know that a large group was coming up behind me and were catching up. We have to be optimistic; we lost places on the last few laps but finished fairly well. I had a good pace going, especially at the start of the race, and we saw that we could ride with the leaders, so we will keep working to battle against them over the next few races."

Torres was happy with his results and achieved his goals for the event. "I had various objectives for this race and I achieved them all. The first of these was to make a strong start and keep my pace up. Thanks to the hard work of the team I was able to run a great pace right from the start and, although I lost a few places off the line, I was able to ride without being intimidated. The other aim was to finish this GP with a good feeling. I enjoyed myself a lot riding and learnt how to control the chatter that hit mid-race. I took a couple of laps to understand the problem, but I didn't lose any positions. I hope to also find solutions to the lack of pace down the straights soon. The third objective was to get into the points, and I took three today. The team worked extremely hard for all this to happen, so I want to thank them. I am happy with how the weekend went."


MOTO 3

Bel-Ray backed Jonas Folger rewarded his new team with a positive victory in Brno. In only his second race for the Mapfre Aspar team, Folger used a tenth-place starting position to reward his new team with the victory.

"Today was the perfect race for us,” said Folger following his victory. “I can sincerely say that I had never expected it to be so simple to gain such an advantage in such little time. I made a determined start and decided to push hard when I had moved into the lead. When I noticed that I was extending an advantage, I continued to push for another ten laps in order to create the largest gap possible. The aim was to create a cushion between myself and the other riders and then maintain it, which is what I did for the last seven laps. It was incredible to win this race and I am very happy. It is fantastic to be a part of this team, Jorge Martinez 'Aspar' gave me an opportunity and I am trying to repay his confidence in me the best way that I can. Jorge and MAPFRE have got behind me and really taken me to the next level. I have come into the team from a difficult situation, and now I can see that it was worth the suffering to be able to earn this opportunity that I have now."

Folger’s teammate, Hector Faubel, also scored a strong result in this highly competitive class. Despite nursing injuries from his Indianapolis crash, Faubel showed strength and determination to earn an eleventh-place finish for his efforts. Speaking at the end of the race, Faubel had this to say. "When I let off the clutch at the start, the bike began to slide. Once I'd got to the first corner I was swamped by other riders and found it hard to gain positions. After passing various riders I picked up a solid pace until I reached (Sandro) Cortese, (Isaac) Vinales and (Luis) Salom. As the laps went by I began to notice a sharp pain in my back which distracted me. It was a pity to have missed out on a positive result because of not being 100% fit. I felt good this weekend and we had a good grid position, but in the race I was unable to perform as I would have liked. I feel bad, because the team has worked excellently this weekend and I wanted to thank them with a good result."


World Enduro Championship

The 2012 World Enduro Championship series continued in Karlsborg, Sweden last weekend. The Bel-Ray sponsored TM Factory racing team of Antti Hellsten, Aigar Leok, and Nicolo Mori all competed to mixed results. In E1 class racing, Hellsten competed to twelfth-place finishes each day, while in Juniors class racing Mori scored a fourteenth on day one and no score on day two.

The top finisher for the team was Leok in the E3 class. Leok scored second-place finishes each day and remains third in the overall points standings with only two rounds remaining.

The series continues this weekend in Finland before concluding in France at the end of October.

Source: Bel-Ray Lubricants

Click here to visit our forums to discuss this story