Le 21è Mondial du quad qui s’est déroulé les 25 et 26 août 2007 à Pont de Vaux (Ain) a vu la victoire pour la seconde année consécutive du team belge Piron, sur un Yamaha 450 YZF piloté comme l’an dernier par le trio Alexandre Piron/Stéphane Piron/Guy Meertens.

Avec 120 équipages qui ont représenté plus de vingt nations, cet événement incontournable dans le monde du quad avait encore réuni l’élite mondiale avec de nombreux vainqueurs des années précédentes. Il est à noter que un tiers des partants était constitué par des pilotes de moins de 18 ans, preuve de l’intérêt grandissant pour cette discipline.

Les trois manches (trois heures le samedi, cinq heures de nuit et quatre heures le dimanche) ont été riches en rebondissements, sur une piste aussi difficile que technique et rapide. On a longtemps cru que le jeune trio Romain Couprie/Clément Jay/Anthony Jay, peut-être les plus rapides en piste, allaient décrocher la victoire. Mais c’était sans compter sur les rebondissements incontournables dans une course d’endurance.

En plus de l’épreuve reine des 12 Heures et de sa dauphine le PDV Quad Contest, pour la première fois cette année des motos ont pu tourner sur le mythique circuit de Pont de Vaux pour le Défi Motos. De nombreuses animations, tant dans la ville de Pont de Vaux qu’au sein du village Quadexpo ont attiré un public venu en masse. On a ainsi pu approcher Stéphane Peterhansel venu faire des démonstrations sur la piste au volant d’un Mistubishi Pajero du Paris-Dakar, rappelons-le construit dans la commune.

Cette année, l’organisation renforcée s’est surpassée et nous donne rendez-vous les 22, 23 et 24 août 2008 sur la plaine Bressane pour une épreuve qui est reconnue à juste titre comme une date phare du quad mondial.

Christophe GARCIA

Classement final Mondial
# Team Riders Machine Tours
1 TEAM PIRON PIRON (B) / PIRON (B) / MEERTENS (B) Yamaha YFZ 210
110 TEAM RACE MORIN (F) / BONNARD (F) / CICLET (F) Suzuki LTR 207
103 HOLZ RACING / DOUGLAS WHEEL GILLI (I) / FREDERICK (USA) / HOLZ (USA) Suzuki LTR 207

John Mitchell took an outstanding double win in round three of the European Quadcross Championships, held at the Hungarian track of Nyaregyhaza. Paul Holmes was also on top form as he took two thirds and moved into third overall in the championship.
Team ATV World Yamaha moved their gruelling race schedule to Hungary with newly crowned British Champion John Mitchell already leading the European by 12 points. British Under 21 Champion Paul Holmes was looking to build on his points tally and move into the top three.

It all started well as John and Paul went into qualifying. With such a technical track it was imperative that both riders got good starts. John made second, just behind Jeremy Warnia and Paul took fourth. The track was sandy and had some impressive jumps. It was also red hot with John describing it as the hottest weather he has ever raced in!

In the first of two 30 minute plus races, John was second into the first corner, he passed Warnia only to get caught on a burn and had to battle to take the lead. He then pulled away to finish with a lead of over a minute. Paul Holmes made an impressive third place finish.

John took the holeshot in race two and rode hard to pull a gap from second place, finishing comfortably with a 32 second lead. Paul Holmes was eighth off the line and had to work hard to move through the pack. This task was made even harder as the hot weather had resulted in blistering on his hands. It took real determination for him to break through the pain barrier and go on to take third place.

After all the autograph signing and poster hand outs, John and Paul finally made it to the podium, greeted by rapturous applause from the Hungarian fans. Thanks to the organisers for a great event, well organised and plenty of fun! With both ATV World Yamaha YFZ450’s working perfectly again the team now head to Germany for round five.

John Mitchell now leads the European Quadcross Championships by an incredible 25 points with Paul Holmes in third position.

Source: ATV World

For the fifth time this season, Harley-Davidson Laval Buell rider Michael Leon finished on the podium. Leon rode his Buell XB-12R to a second place finish after starting from pole position in round 6 of the Canadian Thunder Championship, held August 12 at Atlantic Motorsport Park located in Shubenacadie Nova Scotia

Michael set a new lap record during Saturday’s qualifying session, with a time of 1:11:303, lowering the record that he set last year by 0.677 seconds.

After a less than stellar start, Michael was third at the beginning of lap one following BMW riders Michael Taylor and Michael Ferreira. Within a few laps, Leon was able to pass Ferreira and chase down Taylor setting the fastest lap of the race in the process, a 1:11:435. After repeated unsuccessful passing attempts by Leon, Taylor was able to use his wealth of experience to stay ahead for the win.

Joining regular crew members, Carlos Carrascosa and Jonathan Payan was team engine builder Alex Grupp of Milestone Motorsport. With results being so critical at this point of the season, Alex made the trip from Whitby ON to Nova Scotia, by motorcycle to spend the weekend at the track. The crew worked hard from start to finish, swapping out motors twice in order to break in and try a new engine configuration, not to mention crash repair efforts from a lowside tumble on Thursday. Our results this weekend, and throughout the season, would not have been possible without Alex, Carlos and Jonathan’s hard work.

Elka Suspension’s Stephane Lepine provided valuable suspension tuning advice via telephone as the team battled initial rear traction issues.

With one round remaining, the team still leads the Championship, now by only 5 points, over Michael Taylor. The Championship will be decided on Labour Day weekend at Shannonville.

Note that live feed of the track announcer is now available during the race events at cdnsuperbike.com. The Thunder race is usually the second race of the day held at approximately 2:00 pm. Tune in on Sunday September 2 and lend your support!

H-D Laval is sponsored by Deeley Harley-Davidson Canada, Milestone Motorsports, J Precision Racing Heads, Elka Suspension, Revolution Performance, Les Importations Thibault, Bell Helmets, Hal’s Harley-Davidson, Primatek, Indigo Powder Coating, Woody Airbrush, Flexi-Glass, and Gianmajor.

We recently had Elka Suspension put on our 2007 Suzuki.  My son Cole Campbell competes in the junior 125 CMRC division of Southwestern Ontario.  He is really impressed with the suspension and has found that the bike responds well.  I just wanted to let you know that we dealt with Brad Dehaan from London and his service was excellent.  He had the suspension ready within days just in time for our first CMRC race.  We have had Factory Connection in the past, it was good suspension as well, but I do like the personal touch Brad has given us.  Just wanted to give you a little feedback.

Carolynne Campbell
Delhi, Ontario, Canada

Hello Marc,

I’ve finally finished up my testing of the shock you sent me for my 04 GSXR 750. The following is a complete report.

Upon opening the box, the first thing I noticed is the Elka shock is beautiful, a work of art. I studied it for awhile before I put it back in the box while I awaited my tire order, because I try to setup my bike with approximately 15-40 laps on the tires as that’s about the extent that I run them under racing conditions, and the tires on my bike had gone 100 laps already during a school I was teaching.

My tire order arrived May 3rd, and our race weekend started with Friday practice. I removed the Penske triple clicker and set the Elka to the same length (335mm) and installed the new shock. I checked the sag, and it was 3/4 inch out of the box, perfect starting point. I suited up and went out for a session. Honestly, I was so rusty, I just used the session to get myself up to speed and check for any immediate differences between the shocks. I found nothing strange and it felt really good along our bumpiest section, a medium speed curved straight that goes from 2nd gear to 3rd and back to 2nd, all while on the side of the tire.

When I came in I decided it was close enough to put some fresh tires on and really test. Unfortunately, my job as track owner/promoter took over and I wasn’t able to make it back on track on Friday. Saturday we had winds of 45mph sustained with 60mph gusts, so I opted not to ride practice.

Sunday morning I had to skip practice to do my promoter duties. I had to announce the first 4 races and then suited up for race # 6, Heavyweight Superbike. After a warm up lap, armed with a brand new set of Pirelli Diablo Supercorsa’s I had not ridden on or tested, I took the line for the race. Third place into turn 1 and into 2nd by turn 3. Leading the race was Mike Shreve, 3 time ASMA #1 plate holder and current AMA Pro. I was able to stick right on Mike’s tail and for the first time I was able to hold it wide open down our bumpiest section. My best lap time ever, a 1:09.21 happened on lap 3. I finished the race in 2nd place and quite happy with the first real test.

In the pits during the lunch break, I added a click of low-speed compression to the shock to help with too much weight transfer out of the slow bus stop and waited for the Formula Arroyo/Unlimited GP race.

Another mediocre start put me into turn 1 in second place, again behind Mike Shreve. I was able to stick to his tail once again, and we pulled a small gap on AMA Superstock regular and 2006 ASMA #1 plate holder Ivan Garza. Shreve almost highsided right in front of me and that allowed Garza to catch back up and the three of us circulated in the high 1:08 range. I was having a slight problem running wide in the carousel, the fastest turn at ASR that leads onto the long back straight. A bit past halfway, I was getting tired and starting to make mistakes so I waived Garza by and cruised home 3rd. On lap 4 I turned another personal best lap, 1:08.81. The lap record is 1:08.60. If only I had done a little more testing before the race I believe I could have broken the record. But, for only adding one click on slow-speed compression from a shock, out of the box… it performed awesome!

This past weekend was a 2 day trackday and I resolved to finish testing. I went out for 10 laps to get a feel from the bike and get myself up to speed. I then proceeded to adjust the shock a little bit each session, only to keep going back to the same settings. The only thing I really found, was adding one click of preload cured the problem I had running wide in the carousel. I also ended the day with one more click of slow speed compression and two less rebound from the out of the box settings.

All in all, I’m very impressed with the Elka shock. It was closer in setup right from the box than anything I’ve ever used in my life. The valving is spot on for our track and I will be under the current lap record in the clockwise direction, hopefully next month.

Roger Heemsbergen, President
Arroyo Seco Raceway

Dear Sebastien and Stephane,

I just wanted to say a quick thank you to you Sebastian for your support leading up to the National Opener at Mont Tremblant. Please also pass on my thanks and appreciation to Stephane for his help at the track. He was great and helped us a tremendous amount.

We only had a very little bit of dry time on the Superbike (3 sessions) and he helped us find a better baseline than we had all last year. Stephane your help is very much appreciated. We will be taking your suggestions for AMP and testing early next week prior to our next regional round in Shubie, next weekend.

Once again thank you for your continued support.

Terry Steeves
TSR Performance Racing