Former
World Superbike girl and 2000 Fast Dates Calendar cover
model Taylor McKegney gets set to fire up the world's best
custom bike which just happens to be a modern day version
of a classic 1920s board track racer. Taylor remains completely
up to date in our exclusive world permier and photo
shoot of the Goldammer Boardtracker for the 2006 Iron
& Lace and FastDates Calendars.
Canadian
Roger Goldammer wins 1st Official World Championship
of Custom Bike Building
with a radical retro boardtrack
racer
Morgan
Hill, California, October 9th 2004
-The first annual Official World Championship of Custom
Bike Building has been won by Roger Goldammer
of British Colombia, Canada, who is currently featured in
the FastDates.com 2004 Iron
& Lace Calendar. The noted parts engineer
and motorcycle craftsman demonstrated a level of attention
to detail and dedication to excellence that had judges,
fellow competitors and event visitors alike drooling over
his exquisite homage to boardtrack racers of old.
Goldammer
carried off the cut-glass trophy, diamond-and-sapphire Championship
ring, and $25,000 cash top prize in the
freestyle class of the World Championship by the narrowest
of margins. The independent panel of judges drawn from the
US and European motorcycle Press placed Jesse Jurrens and
Michael Prugh of Independent Cycle, Rapid City, South Dakota
second, with Belgian builder Fred 'Krugger' Bertrand third.
The
contest, widely described by competitors and judges alike
as the highest standard custom bike competition any of them
had ever seen, attracted 64 entries in total, across three
classes, with 47 of them in the prestigious Freestyle class
from which the World Champion was chosen.
The
number of entries far exceeded the organisers' expectations
and featured an extraordinary variety of custom bike design
styles and motorcycle engineering innovations. Superb choppers
were on show, but far from dominating the competition, the
event demonstrated and reflected the glorious individualism
and multiple strands of custom motorcycle engineering that
have resulted in the sector achieving unprecedented levels
of public exposure and popularity worldwide in recent years.
As
befitting the name and ambition of the contest, the top
ten Freestyle entries reflected the truly international
nature of the custom V-twin industry, with five Americans,
two Germans, a Canadian, a Belgian and a Frenchman taking
the top spots. The American Motorcycle Dealer magagine produced
ProShow competition which constitutes the Official World
Championship was presented and generously supported by Global
Motorsports Group custom V-twin sector parts distributor
Custom Chrome at its 18th annual Dealer Show at Morgan Hill,
California.
 |
FastDates.com
is excited to offer the world's first exclusive pictorial
and story on the Goldammer Boardtracker in the Iron
& Lace Garage.
You'll also find revealing pictures of beautiful Taylor
McKegney free with your Iron & Lace Garage
membership in Members
Corner .
Look
for additionl news releases and pictures of other
winners and entrants of all classes being placed in
the World Championship registry in the event web site
at www.amdproshow.com
as soon after the conclusion of the event as possible. |
Gibernau, Rossi and Capirossi on the Philip Island podium. To
Honda's dismay Valentino Rossi reconfirmed himself as the world's
best motorcycle racer on any brand of bike, period.
MotoGP
World Championship, Grand Prix of Australia, Round: 15 of 16
Rossi
Takes 2004 World Title with Yamaha at Phillip Island
Australia, Phillip Island, Australia October 15- 17th 2004
- Valentino Rossi (Gauloises Fortuna Yamaha) secured the 2004
Riders’ Championship today at Phillip Island after winning
an intense 27-lap battle with his main championship rival
Sete Gibernau (Honda). The win gives Yamaha its first title
in the premier class since 1992, and Rossi has now won more
victories in one season than any Yamaha rider in history.
Ducati
Marlboro Team rider Loris Capirossi stormed to a brilliant
third-place finish. In cool, bright sunshine the Italian rode
an ultra-determined race, battling for position until the
very end. Team-mate Troy Bayliss also enjoyed a great race
with the group fighting for fifth place, finally finishing
ninth.
Gibernau
Snatches MotoGP Pole
On a bright, fresh day at Phillip Island on
the Bass Strait Sete Gibernau (Telefonica MoviStar Honda RC211V)
took his fifth pole position of the season so far –
just when he needed it most. The Spanish star recorded a lap
time of 1m 30.122 seconds, one tenth of a second faster than
Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) in second. Loris Capirossi (Ducati)
completes the front row in third.
It's Sete's
next to last chance to catch Rossi for the title.
Gauloises
Fortuna Yamaha riders Valentino Rossi and Carlos Checa had
very different finishes to their Phillip Island final qualifying
session today, Rossi just missing out on pole position while
Checa fell, without injury, in the final minutes of the session.
Rossi, however, was not quite able to improve on his provisional
pole position time from Friday, a 1'30.222, due to some set-up
difficulties. The reigning World Champion will start tomorrow's
Australian Grand Prix from second place on the grid. His team-mate
Checa (1'31.359) will now start the race from the fifth row,
having set overall 13th best time today.
Rossi,
who came in for a new rear tyre just before his final assault
on the stopwatch, was only overhauled by one rider today,
his sole championship rival Sete Gibernau (Honda), who took
the best time of 1"30.122. If Rossi finishes anywhere
ahead of Gibernau in tomorrow's showdown he will win the championship,
and even if Gibernau wins the race, second place would be
enough for Rossi to lift the trophy.
Ducati
Marlboro Team riders Loris Capirossi and Troy Bayliss achieved
one of their best qualifying performances of the year at Phillip
Island today, putting their Ducati Marlboro Team Desmosedici
GP4s on the first and third rows of the grid. In cool, blustery
conditions this afternoon, the pair were two of the strongest
men on the track, running third and fourth in the closing
minutes, Capirossi completing the session in third, just 0.491
seconds off Sete Gibernau's pole position. Bayliss ended up
ninth, less than three tenths off the front row despite losing
time when he ran into a corner too hot.
Checa
made rapid improvements in the first part of the hour-long
session, improving his position twice inside the first ten
minutes, going to fifth fastest on race tyres. Slowly dropping
through the order, he was to finish 13th, crashing out on
his final attempt to set an improved time. As riders used
the major part of the hour to work on race tyre endurance
tests, Carlos Checa (Yamaha) was among the first riders to
improve his time from yesterday. But his early elevation to
fifth place proved a false dawn and he starts from 13th place
tomorrow after crashing at the end of the session.
Behind
in 14th lies Nicky Hayden (Repsol Honda RC211V) who had a
wretched day. The American can’t seem to fathom a range
of set-up troubles that have ruined his weekend so far. But
the other Honda men are all top ten qualifiers with only Max
Biaggi (Camel Honda RC211V) in seventh off the front two rows.
The Roman is still trying to eliminate chatter problems on
corner entries here at this demanding 4.4km track.
“For
the sake of a few thousandths of a second I’m on the
third row,” said Max. “And that’s a bit
frustrating. But the bike is getting better all the time and
even though there’s a bit of chatter that we haven’t
been able to completely dial out, I think we can reduce it
in the warm-up tomorrow.”
Colin
Edwards (Telefonica MoviStar Honda RC211V) heads the second
row as fourth fastest qualifier and the Texan looks strong
here. “I’ve got to be happy as I’m only
half a second away from the pole time. The start of the session
wasn’t so good for me, but when we went back to my previous
race tyre set-up things got better.”
His team-mate
Sete has gradually pieced together the parts that have made
him the fastest man here so far this weekend. “I had
a good session this morning,” said the World Championship
challenger. “I’m into a good rhythm here, and
I need to be, because tomorrow will be a very complicated
race. But I’ll just concentrate on riding my own race.”
Makoto
Tamada (Camel Honda RC211V), riding on Bridgestone tyres,
qualified fifth on row two. “There’s still a bit
more work to do,” he said. “But we worked our
way through a lot of variables today and we’ve already
chosen our race tyres. The start will be crucial tomorrow
and then we’ll see what happens from there.”
A second
row start from sixth was the best Alex Barros (Repsol Honda
RC211V) could manage. “I got caught behind Abe when
I was on my second qualifying tyre and I lost a lot of time,”
said the Brazilian. “I know I could have been faster
with a clear track. But I think I’ll have a good race
rhythm tomorrow and I’m looking forward to it.”
His team-mate
Hayden in 14th said, “That was terrible. My bike just
didn’t feel right from the start and we just seemed
to have a load of problems. That really threw my rhythm and
then on a fast qualifying lap I pushed the front and ran off-track.
Hopefully we can get some feeling back and start fresh tomorrow.”
Rossi
Cliches the Championship on Race Day with One round remaining
The
MotoGP race had all the drama now expected of the premier
class events. It was a fierce, close race played out in front
of 43,000 sun-splashed Aussies. And Valentino Rossi (Yamaha)
won it with his title rival Sete Gibernau (Telefonica MoviStar
Honda RC211V) second and Loris Capirossi (Ducati) third
This
race was a ‘must win’ for Gibernau and the Spanish
title challenger did everything he could to snatch victory.
But Rossi, who only had to finish second to clinch the World
Championship, was better on the day and his win here now puts
him beyond Gibernau’s reach for the 2005 MotoGP Championship
with still one round remaining.
But
there was consolation for Honda here in the form of the Constructors’
World Championship title. The ‘Big H’ now has
an unassailable lead with one round to go after six RC211Vs
finished in the top eight here. This is Honda’s 16th
consecutive Constructors’ title.
Gibernau
who started from pole, tore into turn one in third place after
Capirossi got the holeshot. He spectacularly rode around the
outside of Rossi into turn two, bravely boxing his rival in
behind Capirossi as he then fired his machine past the Ducati
rider to take command of the 27-lap race. Gibernau then worked
at his high-speed race rhythm to stretch his rivals to breaking
point around the rollercoaster 4.4km of Phillip Island. He
had pulled out a 0.55 second gap by lap six. But Rossi was
determined not to let his rival break clear and by the next
lap the gap was down to just 0.2 seconds.
Rossi
seemed content to stay with Gibernau until lap 22 when he
made his first real move to grab the lead – and succeeded.
But on the next lap Gibernau stole it back and the scene was
set for a proper grudge match in the closing laps.
Rossi
reduced Gibernau’s long-term lead from 1.195 seconds
to almost nothing on the seventh lap of the 4.448km track.
On lap 19 Rossi made a successful move up the inside at the
first corner, but could not shake Gibernau immediately. Gibernau
re-passed him on the first corner of lap 23.
Rossi (46)
paced Gibernau until lap 23 when the battle for the lead really
heated up. Just behind, Capirossi (65) matched the leaders
pace and recaught and passed Barros (henind) for 3rd on the
Ducati.
Rossi,
determined to be champion in true style, overtook again before
Gibernau pushed to the front at Honda corner, as Rossi ran
wide. The decisive move came when Rossi made a seemingly impossible
and final pass on the inside going back into the entrance
of Lukey Heights. He held on to take a magnificent victory,
by 0.097seconds, and his fourth premier class title.
The
last lap will linger in the memory. With a World title
at stake it was as intense as they come. Gibernau
held the advantage into turn one and through the early
stages of the final tour until Rossi pounced at the
Southern Loop. Gibernau then spectacularly retook
the lead at the Honda Hairpin. But Rossi then dived
inside at Lukey Heights and held on to win.
“Today
was a fantastic finish to a fantastic championship.
This track is great and today there was a hard battle
until the last lap. In some parts I was faster than
Gibernau and some other places slower. I was sure
of my feeling on the bike though. I made a bit of
a bad start but wanted to stick with Sete. I managed
to pass him early on in the race but he came back,
and then at the end it became a great battle again.
The last lap was a lot of fun for everybody watching
it. I want to say thanks to everyone who has worked
so hard, to Yamaha and all my team. It was fantastic,
thank you. I think this year has been my best championship
winning year.”
Sete
was as disconsolate as any rider who has given their
all trying, and narrowly failing. “I tried my
best,” he said. “I congratulate Valentino
and his team – they won this time, but I’ll
be back again next year.”
|
 |
Loris
Capirossi scored his first podium of the year today, proving
that the non-stop work from the Ducati Marlboro Team and Ducati
Corse is finally paying off. The Italian spent much of the
race duelling with Alex Barros, finally getting the better
of the Brazilian during the final few laps and crossing the
line just ten seconds down on winner Valentino Rossi. Capirossi
also set a new lap record during the race, three tenths inside
Rossi's previous record.
"First
of all my thanks go to Ducati, our sponsors and to everyone
else for believing in us," said Capirossi who dedicated
the race to his friend Luca. "This season has been pretty
hard for us but finally we are back on the podium. This is
like a new beginning for us - I'm so, so happy! It was a great
race, the first few laps weren't easy because the track temperature
was so low but once the tyres were hot I tried to go with
Valentino and Sete, but I was taking too many risks, so I
decided to let them go. Then Alex caught and overtook me,
so I decided to follow him and attack in the final laps, when
my pitboard also told me that Colin was catching us. We continue
working here over the next few days, already working towards
2005."
Five
Rider Island Brawl for 4th Place
Ducati Marlboro Team rider Troy Bayliss spent most of the
race in the midst of a five-man group fighting for fifth place.
The Aussie made an amazing start from the third row of the
grid, muscling his way into third place early in the first
lap, then settling down to a prolonged battle with Colin Edwards,
Nicky Hayden, Max Biaggi and Makoto Tamada. It was his next-to-last
ride on the factory Ducati MotoGP team as the former World
Superbike Champ will not have his contract renewed next year.
"That
was a half decent race for me, I'm pretty happy with it because
we finished closer than usual to the front guys," said
straight-talking Bayliss. "I got a good start; I knew
I would because we run the bike quite long at this track.
But once I was stuck in the middle of that group there wasn't
a lot I could do, we still need a better set-up."
There
was action all the way down the field too. Colin Edwards (Telefonica
MoviStar Honda RC211V) finished fourth after putting in his
best qualifying work so far this season to start from fourth
on the grid.
He said, “I got a bit boxed in at the start,”
he said. “I was seventh on lap one and then got stuck
behind Bayliss and Biaggi while I was trying to get on terms
with the front guys. The on the final turn Barros made a mistake
which let me through, but I couldn’t reach Capirossi
for the podium.”
Alex
Barros (Repsol Honda RC211V) finished fifth. “I’m
just really disappointed,” he said. “I lost a
bit of time trying to get past Capirossi at the start and
then I tried to chase the leaders, but didn’t really
have any grip. I tried to get past Capirossi for a podium
on the final turn, but went into a big slide and Colin came
past. It’s not where I want to be, I know I am better
than this.”
His
team-mate Nicky Hayden (Repsol Honda RC211V) was sixth. “You
put yourself in a hole when you have to start from the fifth
row,” he said. “I got a good start and made some
pretty good passes on the first lap. It took me a while to
get up with Biaggi and it was good fun racing the boys. It
would have been a whole lot more fun racing for the lead though.”
Max
Biaggi (Camel Honda RC211V) was seventh and said, “That
was a difficult race. One week ago I was on the podium in
Malaysia – and now today I’m in trouble. We never
really got to grips with set-up here. I couldn’t put
the power down properly, we were very short of grip. But I
fought hard for the position and could do no more.”
Makoto
Tamada (Camel Honda RC211V) finished eighth ahead of his team
mate Max Biaggi, and was unhappy with himself. “It was
hard to do any better than this,” he said. “I
just wasn’t as competitive as I wanted to be. It wasn’t
really a bike or tyre problem, it was just hard to overtake
people throughout the whole race. It was my mistakes that
didn’t let me do better than eighth.”
Rossi’s
team-mate Carlos Checa finished in tenth after his own tough
battle around the challenging Phillip Island circuit. Checa,
fighting his way past the middle order, was 11th on lap 13,
involved in a personal duel with his fellow Catalan Ruben
Xaus (Ducati) for most of the race. He was a clear tenth,
having been boxed in on the first lap from a fifth row grid
position.
Aside
from Rossi, in the 55-year history of Grand Prix racing only
three riders, Giacomo Agostini, Mick Doohan and Mike Hailwood
have won four or more consecutive premier class titles. Only
six riders before Rossi have scaled the heights of taking
four premier class titles throughout their entire careers.
Dacide
Brivio, Yamaha Team Director- “This is like a dream
come true for us all. Like a movie with the best-ever storyline.
If we wrote a script it could not have been better or more
exciting. It was a hard job for all our engineers and Yamaha
took a big risk supporting Valentino in this challenge. This
was also a big motivation for everyone and our engineers were
obviously just waiting for the opportunity to show what they
can do.”
Double
Top for new Spanish 250cc World Champ Dani Pedrosa and Honda
Spanish motorcycle racing star Dani Pedrosa raced to a calculated
fourth place at the Australian Grand Prix, held at Phillip
Island today to claim the 250cc World Championship. At the
age of nineteen years, and 18 days old Pedrosa is the youngest
ever 250cc World Champion.
The
outrageously talented youngster’s quarter litre success
follows on the back of his triumphant march to the 125cc title
he won in 2003. Pedrosa is the first to achieve the feat since
Carlo Ubbiali in 1960.
Quiet
and deep thinking by nature Pedrosa was absolutely delighted
with his successful season, at the post race press conference
he said. “For me this is a dream, but the reality is
I’m the one who accomplished this but to have been able
to do so I have to think of all the people in the dark corners.
People who helped me in very difficult moments and all the
people in who helped me in racing, MoviStar and Honda, my
team. We have all accomplished this. Of course all the people
at the Blume Rehabilitation Residence in Espludas (Barcelona).
The Doctors, physiotherapists, a lot of people however small
their contribution, they all played an important part. I thank
them all.”
“Of
course I wanted to win the race today, it would have been
the ideal way to win the championship. That’s what I
tried to do but with the crash yesterday and the problem in
the warm up then the wind late in the race I lost a little
confidence and let Poggiali pass me to make sure I took the
title. I was just trying to finish the race. When I crossed
the line everybody was cheering and I started to shout inside
my helmet. Then I looked for the people with the Spanish flag
and the Champion tee shirt but I didn’t know which corner
they were at then I saw my friend Marcelo Carbone waiting
for me and all was OK.”
Pedrosa
won the title in fairy tale fashion at the circuit where just
12 months ago he crashed breaking both ankles, injuries which
took five months to heal and badly hampered his preparations
for his 250cc campaign. In fact Dani did not test his championship
winning Honda RS250R-W until three weeks before the opening
race of the season.
The final round of the championship takes place at Valencia
on October 31, with the present championship table featuring
Rossi on 279 points, Gibernau on 244 and Max Biaggi (Honda)
on 197.
Race
classification MotoGP
Round: 15 - Australian Grand Prix
1. VALENTINO ROSSI (ITA) Gauloises Fortuna Yamaha 41'25.819
2. Sete Gibernau (SPA) Telefonica Movistar Honda +0.097
3. Loris Capirossi (ITA) Ducati Marlboro Team +10.486
4. Colin Edwards (USA) Telefonica Movistar Honda +10.817
5. Alex Barros (BRA) Repsol Honda Team +10.851
6. Nicky Hayden (USA) Repsol Honda Team +12.210
7. Max Biaggi (ITA) Camel Honda +12.847
8. Makoto Tamada (JPN) Camel Honda +12.965
9. Troy Bayliss (AUS) Ducati Marlboro Team +18.607
10. CARLOS CHECA (SPA) Gauloises Fortuna Yamaha +21.245
|
Championship
Standings MotoGP
Pos. Rider Manufacturer Nat. Points
1 Valentino Rossi Yamaha ITA 279
2 Sete Gibernau Honda ESP 244
3 Max Biaggi Honda ITA 197
4 Alex Barros Honda BRA 155
5 Colin Edwards Honda USA 149
6 Makato Tamada Honda JPN 139
7 Carlos Checa Yamaha ESP 115
8 Nicky Hayden Honda USA 117
9 Loris Capirossi Ducati ITA 110
10 Ruben Xaus Ducati ESP 77
Manufacturers Standings MotoGP
1 Honda 315, 2 Yamaha 278, 3 Ducati 137, 4 Kawasaki 82,
5 Suzuki 68, 6 Aprilia 34, 7 Proton KR 15, 8 Harris WCM
12, 9 Moriwaki 7 |
A
championship pairing - Miss Great Britain
and FastDates.com Calendar Angel Nicki Lane with 2004 SBK World
Superbike Champion, Britian's James Toseland.
SBK World Superbike Championship, Magny Cours Round 11 of
11
