ROSSI WINS IN BRNO

Results for the Czech MotoGP:
1 Valentino Rossi Fiat Yamaha 43'08.991
2 Dani Pedrosa Repsol Honda 43'20.757
3 Toni Elias San Carlo Honda 43'29.747
4 Andrea Dovizioso Repsol Honda 43'30.409
5 Loris Capirossi Rizla Suzuki 43'30.529
6 Nicky Hayden Ducati Marlboro 43'34.535
7 Colin Edwards Monster Yamaha 43'34.667
8 Alex De Angelis San Carlo Honda 43'43.100
9 James Toseland Monster Yamaha 43'44.608
10 Randy De Puniet LCR Honda 43'48.815
11 Chris Vermeulen Rizla Suzuki 43'49.767
12 Niccolo Canepa Pramac Racing 43'59.652
13 Gabor Talmacsi Scot Racing 44'08.179

DNF:
Mika Kallio, Marco Melandri, Jorge Lorenzo, Michel Fabrizio

STONER OUT NEXT 3 GP'S-KALLIO / FABRIZIO PROMOTED

words: Todd Sutherland
Factory Ducati and title contender Casey Stoner has announced that he will not be riding in the next three Grands Prix. Stoner has suffered from a mystery virus and is confident that a full rest period will aid a healthy return.
A game of musical chairs will see Mika Kallio on Stoner's bike, with World Superbike Ducati pilot, Michel Fabrizio landing on Kallio's Pramac Ducati.
Don't hold your breath for any results though. Stoner has long been the only rider (ironically since Capirossi was sacked two seasons ago) capable of running at the front on the Italian marque.
Kallio is the top Ducati rider in the Pramac team, sitting in 15th place in the championship. Niccolo Canepa, Pramac's other rider, is the only other full time championship rider with less points in the championship. In fact if you add Nicky Hayden's (the other works Ducati rider) championship points to the other two Ducati riders totals, you'll find an unwell Stoner still has 40 points more than the trio combined, by himself!

Let's hope that Fabrizio's recent racing at this weekends Brno circuit (he podiumed in the second race, at the World Superbike round, mid July) will give Ducati some kind of result in Stoner's absence.

SMITH WINS AUS SAFARI

GHR Honda takes another Safari win

Twenty-year old Condobolin rider, Jacob Smith, has become the youngest ever winner of the Australasian Safari after dominating the seven-day event, which finished in the Western Australian gold mining city of Kalgoorlie today.
Riding a GHR Honda CRF 450X, Smith took the lead on the third of the event's 19 timed stages and finished the 3771 kilometre event 14 minutes and 18 seconds ahead of his brother, Todd Smith, riding a KTM. Defending champion, Ben Grabham, also on a KTM, was third, three minutes 30 seconds further back.
The final day of the off-road marathon saw competitors tackle two stages on a 165 kilometre loop out of the gold mining city of Kalgoorlie. Navigational skills were really tested over a number of tricky station tracks.
Ben Grabham started the event as hot favourite in the bike section after winning the past two Safaris, but his hopes of a third straight win ended on day two when he lost a rear tyre and dropped over an hour to the Smith brothers.
From then on, Jacob Smith controlled the event, and the third year apprentice linesman was elated with his victory.
"It's fantastic to beat to Ben (Grabham) as he's the best rider in Australia," Smith said. "Any time you can beat him it's a good achievement. It's my third Safari, so it's third time lucky - I was second in 2007, and had an engine failure last year."
While he wasn't the event favourite, Smith was always aiming for victory.
"I always race to win, I don't do it for second, but it was such a strong field it was always going to be tough. But after the first few days I knew I could do it."
Having his 24-year old brother in second place was an added bonus.
"We work together, even though we're on different teams, and we support each other," Smith said. "We always wanted to be 1-2, it was just a case of who was first and who was second."
Anything but a full-time professional rider, Smith will be back at work on Monday morning, less than 48 hours after his historic victory.
Swedish rider, Annie Seel, relished her first Safari experience, and reaped praise on the event and her fellow competitors.
"I think if you want to do the Dakar in Argentina then you need to do this event first as a training event," the 40-year old veteran said. "I'm going to try to sell the event back home and get more competitors for next year.
"I was particularly impressed by how fast the locals ride with the navigation. An Aussie team in the Dakar could do very well. For me, this event was as tough as the Dakar."

Final results, 2009 Australasian Safari (provisional)

1 Jacob SMITH (NSW), Honda CRF 450 X, 22h 58m 09s
2 Todd SMITH (NSW), KTM 530 EXC, +14m 18s
3 Ben GRABHAM (NSW), KTM 530 EXC, +17m 48s
4 Ivan ERCEG (WA), KTM 450 EXC, +1h 58m 57s
5 David SCHWARZ (SA), Husaberg, +2hrs 32m 25s
We would like to thank the team for their all efforts, the supporters and all our sponsors for the continuing support.

Bikedeadline.

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HAMPTON DOWNS UPDATE

News in from Darren at Hampton Downs Ride Days. Click to enlarge.

AUSSIE TAKES X GAMES GOLD AND SILVER

Australian freestyle motocross (FMX) sensation Blake ‘Bilko' Williams has taken Gold and Silver in his biggest competition event of the year, X Games 15, which was held at the Staples Centre in Los Angeles this weekend.

The invite-only action sports event brings together the world's best athletes to battle it out for Gold, Silver and Bronze in their respective discipline.

Williams collected silver in yesterday's Moto X Best Trick, with a 360 Indian air and perfectly-executed cliffhanger flip to no-handed lander bringing the crowd and fellow riders to their feet.

With the judges proving hard to impress, Bilko dug deep into his repertoire of tricks today to take a deserved career-first gold in Moto X Freestyle by a single point after three runs.

The achievement also marks the first time an international rider has taken a Gold medal in the Freestyle category in the history of X Games.

The result is the ultimate reward for the 24-year-old from Baxter in country Victoria, who has now reached the action sport's pinnacle.

"After being robbed of gold in the Best Trick event last night it really lit a fire under my belly to settle for nothing less than gold tonight," said Williams, whose previous best X Games medal was a bronze.

"I am stoked, tonight was the one that counted and it was an amazing feeling to get the win in front of my Mum and Dad who flew over for the event.

"It has been a long couple of weeks and to be honest I actually didn't have the preparation I would have liked.

"I want to dedicate the medal to the late Jeremy Lusk and Bronte Holland and also my mate Cam Sinclair who I should have been competing against tonight."

The next event on Bilko's schedule is the Wendy's Invititional at Portland, the first of three FMX stops on the 2009 Dew Tour.