Ling Long Tyres has funded automotive industry charity BEN’s Henley Regatta celebration at the Lynwood Care Home, near Ascot. The event was attended by residents of the Home, the staff, and their families and friends, who, as Ray Diggins (BEN’s Head of Marketing) said: “always like to get involved”. Harjeev Kandhari, chief executive of the Al Dobowi Group and Jorge Crespo, European general manager of Eskay Tyres also attended the event.
Jorge Lorenzo won the latest Italian MotoGP round using Bridgestone’s hard front and rear slicks, overcoming Casey Stoner’s early lead of 2.3 seconds. He also set a new lap record at Mugello, while Championship leader Stoner also lost out to Andrea Dovizioso in the final six laps, allowing the Italian to achieve his best result of the season in front of a home crowd. Round seven’s winner Ben Spies got the better of Marco Simoncelli for fourth position, ahead of Valentino Rossi who finished sixth having climbed from 12th on the grid.
Slight residual dampness on the Assen track made the start of MotoGP’s round seven race vital, as several riders fell foul of conditions, but it was not enough to prevent Ben Spies taking his first MotoGP victory, controlling the race from the front to romp to an eventual 7.7-second lead over second-placed Casey Stoner and his Repsol Honda teammate Andrea Dovizioso. Bridgestone Motorsport manager Hiroshi Yamada congratulated Spies on becoming the tenth rider to claim a premier class MotoGP victory on the manufacturer’s tyres.
Infinity Tyres has announced that it will provide the grand prize for this year’s auction at the NTDA’s Annual Dinner: a complete Formula One package in Abu Dhabi consisting of: two flight tickets, two nights in a hotel and two tickets to the Abu Dhabi F1 Grand Prix. Richard Edy, the NTDA’s Director, described Infinity’s gesture as a “tremendous offer, stating that: “last year, the £1,600 raised by the auction of Infinity’s prize helped us raise more than £5,000 for BEN on the night and I anticipate that the bidding for this year’s donation by Infinity will be keen and competitive. It is a truly generous gesture by Infinity and a great package for whoever ends up as the highest bidder.”
Casey Stoner completed an excellent victory in very wet conditions at the British MotoGP Grand Prix at Silverstone, ascending in the process to top the World Championship. Heavy rain left standing water on the circuit, testing Bridgestone’s wet tyres, while spray reduced visibility at the first fully-wet race since the Malaysian Grand Prix at the end of 2009. Ben Spies, Jorge Lorenzo and Marco Simoncelli all crashed out whilst running towards the front, while Colin Edwards completed a remarkable recovery, finishing third after breaking his collarbone nine days earlier during the opening day of the Catalunya Grand Prix.
Pirelli has appointed Mauro Pessi as president and CEO of its South America region with immediate effect. According to the company, the move is intended to facilitate the “consolidation…development of Pirelli leadership in the growing markets of South America.” Meanwhile, in order to maintain continuity of Pirelli’s business strategy in North America, the firm has announcement that Pessi will retain the chairmanship Pirelli NAFTA Region.
Casey Stoner used the harder rear compound Potenza to win from second on the grid for the Repsol Honda Team ahead of Jorge Lorenzo and Ben Spies in a double podium for the Yamaha Factory Racing team. The Catalunya Grand Prix weekend was punctuated by rain showers, and heavy rain overnight left the circuit soaked for the morning’s warm-up session, which was the first time this season that Bridgestone’s hard compound wet tyres have been used. The circuit dried through the day however and the MotoGP race was run in the dry, although rain threatened at the midway point of the race and the white flags came out as drops fell in the last sector of the circuit.
Automotive industry charity BEN has appointed Peter Cottle as head of business development. Cottle spent ten years in retail banking prior to over 30 in the automotive industry, where he specialised in retail and wholesale finance. He has championed the work of BEN throughout his career.
Ben Butlin has joined research firm JATO Dynamics as global research director. Prior to JATO, Butlin’s career included 17 years at Ford where he began as a professional mechanical engineer. His role developed into overseeing quality, product planning and project management with international assignments in Belgium, USA and Japan. His most recent role at Ford was global CV product planning manager where he was responsible for the alignment of LCV product planning across all regions.
Avon Tyres has announced that it will be the sole tyre supplier to the 2011 Eastern Airways British F1 Sidecar championship following the first two rounds of the 2011 season, in which teams will be allowed to use up remaining stock. The eight-round series started on the Easter Bank Holiday weekend and will conclude on 1 October, with four of the eight races alongside the UK’s premier two-wheeled series – the MCE Insurance-backed British Superbike Championship – shown live on Eurosport and ITV 4. The Avon series will also feature in an hour-long highlights show of all eight rounds during a prime-time slot on Eurosport.
Rob Northcott, head programmer at Team Systems, will be competing in the Dartmoor Cycle 2011 event on 22 May in support of Cancer Research UK. The event is organised by the Firefighters Fighting Cancer campaign and Northcott will be taking part in support of his colleague Matt Bateman, customer support manager at Team who is seriously ill with Hodgkins Lymphona in Derriford Hospital, Plymouth and is currently receiving chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant.
Bridgestone reports that Casey Stoner continued his strong pre-season form to take a clear victory today in Qatar for the Repsol Honda Team, using the harder option front and rear Bridgestone slicks – a choice common to all riders in the tough Qatari conditions – to finish over three seconds ahead of the field and set the fastest lap of the race. His teammate Dani Pedrosa fought Stoner hard for the first half of the 22 lap race, leading for much of it, while Yamaha Factory rider and 2010 World Champion Jorge Lorenzo rode a determined race from third on the grid, leading on the first lap to pass Pedrosa for second as the pair traded positions in the closing laps.
Automotive industry charity BEN has appointed Ray Diggins as its new head of marketing. Diggins has spent 30 years in the industry, with the last 20 as group marketing manager for two of the UK's largest motor groups. BEN says this appointment is “central to BEN's awareness-raising strategy” – Diggins’ primary focus will be on increasing the charity's visibility throughout the automotive and related industries and heightening understanding of the scope and scale of its work. He joined the team on 8 March and will be based at the charity's headquarters in Sunninghill, Ascot.
With much of the Portuguese Grand Prix weekend washed out, the challenge for riders was always going to be how well they coped with using slicks for the first time in unhelpful conditions on the Sunday afternoon race. Tohru Ubukata, manager of Bridgestone’s Motorcycle Tyre Development Department discussed the challenge for the tyre supplier after the race: “On Sunday for the race the challenge was for the slick tyres, which were being used for the first time during the weekend. The track conditions were very slippery and greasy because of all the rain and no dry running and the teams and riders had no time to work on their dry setups, and this situation always makes it very demanding for the tyres. Still, even considering this our slick tyres performed well and offered good warm-up performance which we knew would be important here.”
Having attended Goodwood events in the past Toyo Tires has reported another “successful” year at the Goodwood Revival, at which it was the exclusive Tyre Partner for the first time. To mark the occasion, VIP Toyo customers previewed two brand new road tyres in the Proxes range, the ultra high performance Proxes T1 Sport and the Proxes C1S, tyres built for performance and ride comfort respectively. Both tyres will be made available from 2011. Toyo said that it was looking forward to continuing its deal with the event in 2011.
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