Jeep Team’s Pierre Smith wins 2-Provinces Mountain Bike Race

PIETERMARITZBURG, 10 APRIL 2015 – Jeep Team’s Pierre Smith claimed Gold at the 70km Riverside Mica 2-Provinces MTB Race in Gauteng on Monday (6 April 2015), with Christoff van Heerden in 2nd place and Wayd Needham in 3rd.

Just under 200 riders competed in the 2-Provinces MTB at Vanderbijlpark in Stonehaven-on-Vaal, with Smith fighting off strong opposition to break the tape in a fast 2h22m40s, just seconds ahead of Van Heerden (2h22m59s). Needham crossed the line in 2h23m23s.

Said Smith: “This is always a special race to me being right on my door step and it is nice to perform in front of a home crowd. I used this race mainly to prepare for Ashburton Investments National MTB Series in Clarens in 2 weeks’ time and it was a good confidence booster. I enjoyed the route a lot with all the single track and jeep track sections in it and made my move with about 10km to go and just kept the peddle down till the end.”

Other Jeep Team results

In the Western Cape, Jeep Team’s OCR champion, Dominique D’;Oliveira, took on the 22-km Old Mutual 2 Oceans Trail Run on Friday (3 April 2015) finishing 17th in a time of 2h56m.

Said D’;Oliveira: “With the Jeep Warrior still in my legs and the Impi Challenge just around the corner it was more of a training run for me than a race as such, but a great experience. It was probably one of the most challenging one-day trail runs I’;ve ever done but also one of the most beautiful.”

On Saturday, multiple world champion paddler, Hank McGregor, was out of his comfort zone, competing on land rather than in water at the Old Mutual 2 Oceans Half Marathon. Testament to McGregor’s racing spirit whatever the challenge, he finished the 21-km race in 1h24m39s, earning himself a Silver medal.

Also view:

Mountain Bike Events / Planning and the Safety of Bikers

Mountain Bike Safety and Riding on the Trail

Endurance Sports, Driver Fatigue and Road Safety

Jeep Team’s Pierre Smith wins 2-Provinces Mountain Bike Race

This Is the Heroic LeMons Team that Finished in 228th Place—So, Last—in the Biggest Endurance Race in History

At the Vodden the Hell Are We Doing? 24 Hours of LeMons race in September, 242 teams registered, 228 managed to get their hoopties onto the Thunderhill Raceway track, and 216 have been counted on the 1st lap soon after the green flag waved. Why are those numbers considerable? Nicely, that race set the record for the world’s biggest endurance road race, and the Guinness Book of Planet Records folks are in the approach of certifying it as such. With so many entries, an individual need to come in DFL, and that team was the Killer Rabbit Racing Team (KRRT) and their 1986 Volkswagen GTI. We think these guys are heroes deserving of recognition, and here’s why.

Most of the time in these races, some group gets hammered with a staggering quantity of penalty laps by the LeMons Supreme Court, and then that team’s automobile throws a rod on its 4th lap and finishes a couple of hundred laps in negative territory and thus in last place. At the record-setting race at Thunderhill, this did not occur.

The KRRT VW rolled into the inspection area during the pre-race inspections, and the LeMons Supreme Court was faced with the kind of dilemma that happens with Rabbits (and Civics) all the time: even though some examples of this kind of auto can be quite rapid on a road course, this GTI had a squishy, worn-out suspension and a track record of sluggishness in previous races. In Class A, exactly where the quickly vehicles compete, the Killer Rabbit would be eaten alive . . . but it was a tiny bit too great for Class B. So, we gave the team a choice: Class A, or Class B with a couple of handicap laps to even items out. Wisely, the team took the latter option. We have been pleased by their Monty Python & the Holy Grail theme, too.

Class B with just a couple of laps to overcome would give the KRRT guys a good shot at beating the P71 Crown Victorias and slushbox-equipped GM F-bodies. There was much optimism in the KRRT camp on Friday night.

When the huge race got going on Saturday morning, the KRRT GTI looked excellent, at very first.

Then, as so often happens with 16-valve Volkswagen engines, a terrible noise issued from below the hood, oil and smoke gushed out, and the vehicle had to leave the track behind the wrecker. The group struggled to uncover yet another engine at neighborhood junkyards but did not succeed in obtaining their automobile in working order.

The Killer Rabbit Racing Group finished one particular lap total, which gave them a total of -1 laps completed with the 2-lap class handicap factored in. That meant 228th location out of 228 entries. Who got P227, you ask? The Pit Crew Revenge “Honda Corvette” (a Civic with C4 Corvette body elements attached) also turned a single lap, but in Class A with zero handicap laps.

The Killer Rabbits refused to give up after this disappointment, and the team will return to a future California LeMons race. They’re not dead yet!

This Is the Heroic LeMons Team that Finished in 228th Place—So, Last—in the Biggest Endurance Race in History

The Rhino Orphanage campaign joins horns with Race the Rhino MTB for World Rhino Day 2014

In less than a week, like-minded people and organisations across the globe will raise their voices against rhino poaching and the illegal trade in rhino horn by hosting events, shows and a variety of other creative initiatives for World Rhino Day on 22 September. First Car Rental’s ‘Post Your Selfie & Win’ charity campaign in aid of The Rhino Orphanage based in Limpopo will be driving rhino awareness by taking part in one of these events, Race the Rhino.

Race the Rhino is a mountain bike competition that challenges mountain bikers to ride for rhino conservation, with event proceeds going to non-profit organisations such as Poached Rhino and the Renosterveld Trust. This year the race will be held at the Van Gaalens MTB Park, Hartbeespoort Dam, Gauteng, on 20 September, the Saturday preceding World Rhino Day. There will be 3 MTB routes – a 55km, 35km and 8km – to cater to all levels of fitness.

Race organisers will be driving 2 of The Rhino Orphanage campaign’s Nissan Jukes, which have been vehicle-wrapped to look like a mom rhino with a baby rhino, from Johannesburg to the race venue at the Van Gaalens MTB Park.

At the race, competitors and their supporters can get involved in raising awareness of The Rhino Orphanage by taking selfies with the Nissan Jukes and posting to their social media ne2rks, making sure to tag with #Rhinos1st, to enter the competition and lucky draw associated with the campaign.

Melissa Storey, Executive Head of Strategy, Development and Marketing at First Car Rental comments, “First Car Rental’s Rhino Orphanage ‘Post Your Selfie & Win’ campaign has gained huge traction across South Africa since its launch in February this year. The Rhino Orphanage Jukes have been featured at the country’s leading events, with hundreds of people posting selfies helping to raise awareness of the world’s first rhino orphanage and the plight of these little offspring.”

“It’s entirely fitting that The Rhino Orphanage campaign will be celebrating World Rhino Day with Race the Rhino MTB Race, an initiative that is also dedicated to inspiring people to take action to save the endangered rhino species.”

Now in its third year, Race the Rhino is an offshoot of Ride the Rhino, a MTB race that takes riders on a 3-day adventure through the Cape Floristic Kingdom in the Western Cape, particularly the Renosterveld, one of the most threatened vegetation types in the world.

Says Heidi Eloff, organiser of Ride the Rhino and Race the Rhino, “Our events firstly encourage all anti-Rhino poaching initiatives. We are closely involved with Poached Rhino and other like-minded organisations that continuously fight against the merciless killing of this majestic animal.

“Secondly, the races aim to rescue one of South Africa’s and the world’s most endangered habitats – the Renosterveld. With only 4% of the region left, the Ride the Rhino mountain bike challenge peddles through as many areas of the Renosterveld as possible to show off its beauty and encourage collective action post-race to save one of the country’s most beautiful treasures.”

Also view:

Mountain Bike Events / Planning and the Safety of Bikers

Mountain Bike Safety and Riding on the Trail

Endurance Sports, Driver Fatigue and Road Safety

;

The Rhino Orphanage campaign joins horns with Race the Rhino MTB for World Rhino Day 2014

One-seat Wonder: Lamborghini Shows 2015 Huracán LP620-two Super Trofeo Race Car at Quail Lodge

The Lamborghini Huracán is taking the exotic-car world by storm—pun totally intended—and now is poised to blaze a path into the automaker’s one-make Blancpain racing series in the form of the wild 2015 Huracán LP620-2 Super Trofeo. The raffishly styled race car makes its official debut at the 2014 Quail Motorsports Gathering in Carmel, California, just one week before the U.S. Blancpain series calendar kicks off at Virginia International Raceway.

As with Lamborghini’s Gallardo Super Trofeo models, this Huracán uses a mostly stock version of the donor car’s direct-injected V-10 engine, which in this case gets a 10-hp bump over the road car’s already substantial 602 horsepower. The standard car’s all-wheel-drive setup is ditched in favor of good ol’ fashioned rear-wheel drive. A hybrid carbon-fiber and aluminum chassis and a hollowed-out, one-seat interior helps bring the purpose-built Huracán racer’s weight down to a feathery 2800 pounds, according to Lamborghini. And of course, the Lambo has an almost freakish amount of aero addenda, including a 10-position rear wing, front and rear air diffusers, adjustable front air intakes, and canards all around.

---

---

Now that we’ve seen the race car, here’s hoping that a roadgoing Super Trofeo “Stradale” version will make an appearance soon so we can see it unleash its torrential downpour of horsepower (and downforce) on the street.

Other Stories You Might Like

---

One-seat Wonder: Lamborghini Shows 2015 Huracán LP620-two Super Trofeo Race Car at Quail Lodge

Spendy Mishap: SEAT Leon Supercopa Race Car Takes a Fall [Video]

June 11, 2014 at 5:23 pm by Davey G. Johnson | Photography by YouTube/MARC RAMOS

There’s an old saying about Spain. Legend has it that the rain in the storied Iberian nation stays mainly in the plain. These Mexican fellows apparently thought that provided their SEAT Leon Cupra Supercopa race car’s Iberian origin, it would happily remain primarily in the crane that was hoisting it to the higher heavens employing a cradle. That blasted crane!

The Leon Supercopa—in most methods just a race-prepped VW GTI with a Golf R motor—had other tips, starting a suicidal forward roll, and . . . effectively, just watch. If you have ever wondered what the undertray of 1 of these issues looked like, this about as excellent an opportunity as you are probably to get without joining a Supercopa pit crew.

---

---

Clearly, there’s a time for Henry Higgins and there’s a time for Colt Seavers. As this clip shows, it’s greatest not to mix the 2 up.

[embedded content material]

Other Stories You Might Like

---

Spendy Mishap: SEAT Leon Supercopa Race Car Takes a Fall [Video]