Car versus motorcycle race videos are pretty ho-hum these days, so how do you spice things up? What about throwing a fighter jet into the mix?

That’s what happened this weekend at Brno International Airport in the Czech Republic. Organizers pit the 2012 Ducati 1199 Panigale against a Porsche 911 GT3 Cup car and an Aero L-29 Delfín Czech military jet in a drag race.

The vehicles weren’t the only notables in the competition. MotoGP racer Karel Abraham of the Czech Cardion AB race team rode the Panigale, on  loan from Ducati Slovakia. The Porsche was also ridden by an experienced racer, Porsche GT3 Cup Czech national Champion Tomas Micanek. The L-29 Delfín (Dolphin) was operated by retired Czech army pilot Pavel Vesely. Continue Reading »

The good news is Ducati managed to trim another second off of Valentino Rossi‘s Day Two test time. The bad news is the Doctor is still over a second behind Casey Stoner.

Of course, considering how much faster Stoner has been compared with everyone else at the MotoGP test in Sepang, that’s nothing to be ashamed of. But it does highlight how much Rossi and Ducati need to improve in order to compete against the 2011 MotoGP Champion.

Rossi led all riders with 42 laps on the third and final day of the three-day Sepang test, recording a time of 2:00.824 on his best lap, fifth fastest overall. That represents a 1.062 second improvement on his Day Two time and a 1.568 second improvement from his time on Day One. Catching up to Stoner would be asking a lot at this point in the Ducati Desmosedici’s development, considering the GP12′s quick turnaround.

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Ducati continues to develop its Desmosedici GP12 MotoGP race bike, setting modest goals while trying to establish a good setup.

Already trailing the other factory teams in development time for its race prototypes, Ducati continued to try to find good base settings for the GP12.

Valentino Rossi achieved the team’s goal of lapping under two minutes and two seconds with a time of 2:01.886 while completing 44 laps on the second day of testing at Malaysia’s Sepang circuit. Continue Reading »

Ducati continues to be tight-lipped about the 2012 edition of its Desmosedici MotoGP race bike, but specifications have finally emerged, thanks to satellite rider Karel Abraham and the Cardion AB satellite team. As a satellite entry, Cardion AB and Abraham won’t have the latest updates to the Desmosedici the factory team has access to, but the Czech team’s announcement reveals some of the basis behind the final machine riders Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden will ride.

The Czech team revealed on its official webpage its Ducati Desmosedici GP12 will produce around 250 hp from its 999cc engine. That represents a 15hp bump from the GP11′s 800cc engine. Cardion AB also says the GP12 will have a dry weight of 155kg (341.7 pounds), about 5kg heavier than the Desmosedici GP11 (330.7 pounds). By the team’s calculations, the Desmosedici GP12 will have a 0 to 100 kph time of 2.6 seconds compared to the previous bike’s 2.7 seconds. Cardion AB also says the GP12 will also reach speeds exceeding 360 kph (223.7 mph) while the GP11 maxed out at about 340 kph (211.3 mph).

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Casey Stoner is one of the fastest man in MotoGP right now, currently leading the championship by 29 points. One of his sponsors, Red Bull, produced the following video featuring Stoner in super-slow motion with footage shot at 1,000 frames per second.

Watch as Stoner leans into a corner with his elbow and knee seemingly brushing against the ground. With the video slowed down, Stoner has time to describe how it feels to be riding almost completely horizontal.

I’m not sure which is cooler, seeing the Bridgestone logo on the tire spinning around or Karel Abraham looking over his shoulder and seeing Stoner coming up behind him!

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