Rider Files

Newly crowned champ Ryuichi Kiyonari in action in the British Superbike Series. (Gavan Caldwell photo)

Ryuichi Kiyonari recently clinched his third British Superbike Champion in the season finale at Oulton Park. Kiyonari’s triumphant return from World Superbike to the British series with HM Plant Honda has made him equal in the record books with Niall McKenzie who also won three BSB championship crowns.

This season the 28-year-old ‘King Kiyo’ compiled an impressive 16 podium finishes, including seven wins en route to sealing the title.

“I had a plan at the start of the season,” said Kiyo. “I had won the title before but my motivation was strong to win again for HM Plant Honda. It was good to be back in BSB again and I wanted more than anything to be champion. We had a good start to the season and testing went well in Spain; we were fast and I was feeling happy as we had lots of development work for this season with a new engine system, electronics and suspension.

“I was pushing hard as I knew that the others needed the win, but it feels a relief now as the win was enough to be champion again. It has been a big fight all season and all the other riders haven’t made it easy for me all year. It has been tough and there have been good and bad moments but now I can relax.

Ryuichi Kiyonari has now scored a record-tying three BSB titles. (Gavan Caldwell photo)

“The championship means as much to me as the others and I have to thank everyone for their support and the team for their hard work.”

Kiyo, who also won BSB in 2006 and ’07, now shares the record of three BSB titles with Mackenzie, who won three straight in 1996, ’97 and ’98.

There’s long been a debate among Superbike racing fans as to which domestic series is stronger, the British or American (AMA) Superbike Championship. A strong argument could be made for both. The World Superbike grid is filled with successful ex-BSB riders. Americans point to the dominance of Ben Spies in World Superbike last year as proof that the AMA series reigns supreme.

While Honda has struggled in AMA Superbike, Kiyonari’s victory was the third BSB title for Honda in the last five years.

These beautiful photos were provided by Gavan Caldwell. Caldwell has been taking photographs for various specialist road racing magazines for many years. Gavan recently turned professional due to the demand for his work and is producing some stunning images.

Chad Reed en route to winning the 125 East event at the Daytona Supercross in 2002. Reed, a then rookie in American racing, went on to win the AMA 125 East Supercross Championship. (Steve Bruhn photo)

After winning a couple of national titles in his native Australia, Chad Reed raced the Motocross GPs in 2001 where he finished ranked second in the 250cc class.

In 2002 Reed decided to test himself against the best Supercross racers in the world when he signed with Boost Mobile Yamaha to race in the U.S. Reed was an immediate success. He won 2002 the AMA 125cc East Supercross title. Along the way he came to the prestigious Daytona Supercross for the first time. The fast Aussie wasn’t intimidated by the grueling circuit. He pulled away from Mike Brown and Grant Langston to take the victory in the 125 class.

 This photo was taken by Steve Bruhn. Bruhn was one of the first Supercross photographers to shoot digital. Amazingly Steve broke into the game shooting with inexpensive digicams before moving up to the then ultra-expensive digital SLR. Shooting digitally allowed Bruhn’s work to get to the still new Web faster than the other photographers of the day. Steve was also ahead of his time starting a website called MotoNews that featured MotoTalk, the first really big motocross/Supercross web discussion forum.

TFS

Bruhn became somewhat of a celebrity, something extremely rare for a racing photographer. He traveled the country in a motorhome, uploading to the web via a satellite connection. He even had stickers made up with a caricature of him and his online identity of TFS (The Factory Spectator). Not sure what Steve is up to these days, but it was a pleasure hanging with him at the races in the early 2000s.

Jimmy Filice racing the factory Yamaha FZR750 in the AMA Superbike round at Mid-Ohio in 1987. Filice is better known for his wins and championships on 250 Grand Prix bikes, yet Filice had a short, but solid career on Superbikes. He raced a factory Yamaha for three years and even though he never won an AMA Superbike race, he scored five-career podium finishes. This during a time when riders like Wayne Rainey, Fred Merkel, Kevin Schwantz, Doug Polen and John Kocinski were in the series. Here in the ’87 Mid-Ohio race he finished third behind Schwantz and Rainey.

Jimmy Filice racing the factory Yamaha FZR750 in the AMA Superbike round at Mid-Ohio in 1987. (Larry Lawrence photo)

(News Release)

INDIANAPOLIS, Monday, Oct. 18, 2010 – Everyone is encouraged to help Indiana families by participating in the “1 Lap, 1 Great Cause” food drive, which aims to gather enough canned and non-perishable food to complete one lap around the 2.5-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval.

            IMS is conducting the food drive Tuesday, Oct. 19 through Wednesday, Nov. 10 with Gleaners Food Bank of Indiana. Approximately 13,200 pieces of canned or non-perishable food are needed to line one lap around the historic, 2.5-mile oval at IMS on Saturday, Nov. 13.

            “We encourage everyone to help Indiana families by participating in the ‘1 Lap, 1 Great Cause’ food drive,” said Jeff Belskus, Indianapolis Motor Speedway Corporation president and chief executive officer. “The generosity of loyal race fans never ceases to inspire us, and we anticipate that they will again reach out to help us lap the track and provide hope and food for Hoosiers in need.”

            Fans can drop off canned and non-perishable food items in donation barrels, featuring specially marked wraps provided by Whitehead Signs of Indianapolis, at these Indianapolis-area locations:

            •Indianapolis Motor Speedway Administration Building and IMS Hall of Fame Museum, 4790 W. 16^th Street, Indianapolis

•Emmis Communications, One Emmis Plaza, 40 Monument Circle, Suite 700, Indianapolis

            •ESL Spectrum Lighting Fixtures and Design, 1591 N. Harding St., Indianapolis

            •Knit Stop, 3941 E. 82^nd St., Indianapolis

            Other drop-off locations will be added soon. Check the official website at www.indianapolismotorspeedway.com/1Lap1GreatCause for updated locations.

            Area companies interested in participating as a drop-off location should e-mail 1lap1greatcause@brickyard.com. IMS will provide donation barrels and will pick up all donations.

***

2011 IMS tickets: Fans can get details on tickets for the three races in 2011 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway – the Indianapolis 500 on Sunday, May 29, the Brickyard 400 on Sunday, July 31 and the Red Bull Indianapolis GP on Sunday, Aug. 28 at www.imstix.com.

For more information, call the IMS ticket office at (317) 492-6700 or (800) 822-INDY outside the Indianapolis area or visit the ticket office at the IMS Administration Building at the corner of Georgetown Road and 16^th Street. Ticket office and phone hours are 8 a.m.-5 p.m. (ET) Monday-Friday.