The F5 Bivouac (rallye raid news) and W2RC - World cross country rally championship

How did Sammy crash so hard ? The Mojave is gnarly !

A freak occurrence - a "foreign object" prevented the bike from turning whilst doing 120 or so, the result wasn't pretty:eek1

I do not know if this is the place to put this news.

Peterhansel go back to 2 wheels (in a Yamha, obviously) and finished 2nd in first round of the FIM world championship in Italian Baja!

Notonly his final position, but he was the only to figt for the light with italin Ruoso; and by doing that he was fastet than FIM regulars Botturi and Zanoti.

Impressive performance by Peterhansel!!!

See italianbaja.com for more details

I was there and can confirm Stephan is still fast as a devil, and moreover very clean and stylish. Anyway the young Italian Ruoso (a not very famous local cross rider) and the other Italian enduro racer Cominotto (who participated only in the Italian championship) were almost always the fastest, let's hope they can make in more of these events

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJLtFXk3sKc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dYAC7piA8U


There were also Schlesser, Andrea Mayer (very fast she too!!) and Holowcc..... well the official Mini. And at last Nicola Dutto who opened the race in the same places when he broke his back a couple of years ago... just respect

Great you could watch him live!!!

Very interesting battle in cars also, with Hollowcyk adn Varela (in an Overdrive Hilux) battle at the second till last stage.
Differences were really at the minimum!

I also noted that quads were really fast, much closer to lead bikes than other rounds

Sorry, my mistake.
Peterhansel participation in Italian Baja.
It is not a FIM round of the world championship.
It is for the FIA cahmpionship, but not FIM.

So they will still use the Bmw or Husqvarna engine? I was at the Italian Baja but saw the bike only passing very fast (Mauro Sant was not only Richard Sainct mechanic but is definitely a fast rider too himself) and it just looked the usual Speedbrain... no chance to take a close shot

I wish them all the best!!

It would be interesting to be Speedbrain through all of this. I wonder how early they knew this would be a possibility, if they were making alternative plans for when their contract with BMW eventually ended, or if they thought/hoped it would be a long-term arrangement with BMW and had no strategy waiting on the shelf to do things alone.

Suddenly (or not so suddenly, depending) they find themselves in a potentially precarious position having lost their relationship with a manufacturer, but having significant experience, expertise, and products. It would have been a waste to fold, but how huge is it to decide to make your own brand of bike!?

(re-read to make sure I stayed at an appropriate level of abstraction so as to make a novice reader assume I know what I'm talking about . . . it's close enough.)

why? For sure IS also FIM Worl Cup!
http://www.fim-live.com/en/sport/ba...item/event/fim-bajas-world-cup-italyitalie-3/
(page still not updated with the results)

another little clip of Peter-speedy-Hansel

http://youtu.be/emMdRzTbcC4

It is not of the FIM Rally Raid World Championship calendar.
Please see here: http://www.fim-live.com/en/sport/cross-country-rallies/events/

I got confused because Italian Baja mentiones FIM classification .

And in fact it is a FIM Baja event, so finally it is part of FIM world Championship, but not the usuall more important and more followed one which is Rally Raid, but the Baja one.

No spy pics yet of the new ktm 450 rally ? I'd have thought with the testing in Tunisia last week we'd be seeing something by now...

My friend who was down there told me they saw it and even had a meal together with Coma but taking photos was not possible. The bike didn't look much different at a first sight...

I'm sure that was just a smokescreen - they probably had a couple of 450RRs in the back of a van to divert attention away from the real new bike...

I was going through my photos and I think I might have snapped it - look at this line up - the rider is wearing mirror goggles so you can't see their face, and the bike doesn't have a race number on it:



I reckon they slid the new bike into the line-up for the final stage of the Tuareg Rally to test it in true racing conditions... possibly.

Jx

:d

So, the new 450RR will have a 2STROKESENGINE?! How fast that thing could be?!:eek1
Lowered center mass, slim tanks, lighter wheels... Damn, those austrian engineers really are geniuses...

News fit to report?