2009 Yamaha Yzf-r1 on 2040-motos

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Moto blog

I can die happy!

As an eighteen year old Kenny Roberts was my bike racing God.  I loved Barry Sheene but as a Yamaha FS1E rider I always wanted the little American to win simply because his bike resembled mine.  The coverage of Grand Prix in the late seventies was sketchy but I clearly remember watching the epic Sheene/Roberts battle unfold at the Silverstone GP on my council estate telly.  The Dutchman, Wil Hartog was hanging in there for a while but as the laps unfolded it became a two way battle with Sheene looking favourite to win.  Sheene lost the most time as the pair lapped a certain George Fogarty so my hero Roberts eventually won by just three hundredths of a second.  I’m not sure what happened next but being a Sunday we would no doubt be skidding around later in the day at the Pines chippie pretending to be Roberts and Sheene.  Fast forward thirty four years and a boyhood fantasy came true as I headed out on Chris Wilson’s 1980 Roberts machine for the Barry Sheene tribute laps at last weekend’s Moto GP.  It crackled into life instantly and felt as sharp as any of the more modern 500s I used to race.  The temperature gauge had a maximum marker on 60 degrees so to begin with I was nervous as it didn’t move but being a hot day (although still keeping my hand on the clutch) I convinced myself it wasn’t working.    The bike felt tiny, not helped by the fact I only just squeezed into my 1989 Marlboro Yamaha leathers.  It still felt rapid though as I played out the 1979 classic in my head while getting tucked in down the Hanger straight.  Steve Parrish was also out there on one of Barry’s 500cc Heron Suzukis so we did our best to copy the famous last lap at Woodcote Corner where Sheene came so close to winning his home GP. As a lad I would have said the chances of me riding round Silverstone on a GP winning Kenny Roberts machine were zero, but in the words of Gabrielle, dreams can come true!

How to solve the mystery of the wildcard replacement

With the two test riders coming forward to act as replacement riders for the injured Rossi and Aoyama, it brought back memories of the days when the grid would be gifted with wildcard riders from the respective countries. The Japanese rounds were always attended by some of the top guys with experience of the 500GP and MotoGP bikes, through racing them in their domestic championships. What resulted was getting to witness the exciting and talented Japanese riders, and bring new riders to the attention of the teams.

2014 AMA Supercross – Seattle Results

Ryan Villopoto won his fifth race of the season while James Stewart took second place to just barely remain in contention for the 2014 AMA Supercross title. Meanwhile it was a bitter-sweet podium for third-place finisher KTM‘s Ryan Dungey who was officially mathematically eliminated from title contention. Racing in his home town of Seattle, Wash., Villopoto led every lap en route to an easy win, his fifth of the season.