Gino Rea back to Moto2?

Could Gino be handed a Moto2 lifeline?

Could Gino be handed a Moto2 lifeline?

Gino Rea is potentially being lined up to replace the injured Tom Luthi during the opening two races of the season with the Swiss rider out with a broken arm.

Rea is currently without a ride for 2013, and German site Speedweek are reporting that the injury to Luthi may well prove to be the shop window opportunity that Rea is looking for on a race winning machine.

Rea is familiar with the Suter Moto2 machine after he converted from a Moriwaki chassis in 2012 with his Gresini team, claiming a third place in Sepang with it too.

There are also some rumours suggesting that the Interwetten Team are considering not replacing Luthi for the opening two rounds, saving on two every expensive trips to Qatar and Texas.

There is even some suggestion from Speedweek that if Rea impresses he could find further opportunities at races such as Assen, Sachsenring and Misano due to the teams IRTA ranking.

With no official word from the Interwetten team these are still very early rumours, although it could potentially be the chance that Rea so desperately craves without a 2013 ride.

Melandri’s fear for Checa

Melandri knew something was wrong immediately and sprinted over to Checa.

Melandri knew something was wrong immediately, and sprinted over to Checa.

Marco Melandri could’ve been badly injured, or even upset at the crash caused by Carlos Checa during Race One of this weekends World SBK opening round at Phillip Island, instead the Italian was more concerned about the Italian.

On lap 13 of the 22 lap race, heading into Honda corner, Checa lined Melandri up to attempt an overtake up the inside. Once the Spaniard had realized he couldn’t execute the move, he attempted to sit the bike up.

Unfortunately he couldn’t get the bike up in time, and as a result hit the back of Melandri causing both of them to go down, Checa came off worse. The 2011 world champion smashed the back of his head, and Melandri knew that something was wrong immediately.

“I don’t know what happened to Carlos,” said Melandri.

“I felt a hard hit, I wound up on the ground, and I was afraid that I injured my shoulder.  I’ve have four shoulder surgeries, so I’m very familiar with the dynamics of the bones and tendons.

Checa being taken away on a stretcher with his neck being stabilized.

Checa being taken away on a stretcher with his neck being stabilized.

“But my first concern wasn’t for myself, it was for Checa.

“He was lying motionless at the side of the track, his eyes were open, but he was breathing.

“The marshals moved him around like a piece of plastic, putting him on the stretcher in a very unorthodox way.  These things shouldn’t be happening.  I got upset about it, but it wasn’t helping the situation.”

As a result Checa was airlifted to hospital, and forced to sit out of Race Two, thankfully it was more precautionary measures.

UPDATE

Checa has now been released from hospital, and has told his fans that he is fine.

BBC Sport and Potential Flow theory

It’s been sadly unacknowledged in recent years that BBC Sport’s default background animation represents a doublet from Potential Flow theory.

Potential Flow theory is a branch of aerodynamics in which flows are idealised as being inviscid and irrotational. This means, respectively, that there is no friction resistance to shear between adjacent layers of fluid, and there is no vorticity. Hence, Potential Flow theory does not recognise the existence of boundary layers adjacent to solid objects.

Now, there is, within aerodynamics, a distinction between circulation and rotation, which has the potential (if you’ll excuse the term) to confuse. In a flow with circulation, you can integrate the velocity vector around a closed loop and obtain a non-zero value. In a rotational flow, the vorticity field is non-zero.

In a Potential Flow (guaranteed, by definition, to be irrotational), if the region of space occupied by the fluid is simply connected topologically-speaking, (entailing that any loop can be smoothly deformed to a point) then the flow will have zero circulation. However, if the region is not simply connected, then the irrotational flow can possess circulation. The presence of solid objects in a fluid prohibits the region of space occupied by the fluid from being simply connected, hence Potential Flows around solid objects can possess circulation.

This loophole (if you’ll excuse the term) within Potential Flow theory enables one to represent the circulatory flow around wing sections. Because the equations of Potential Flow theory are linear, one can superpose several solutions of the theory to obtain other solutions. To represent the flow around a cylinder, for example, one superposes a uniform flow with a so-called doublet. The latter provides the stagnation points to the flow at the leading and trailing points of the cylinder.

To represent the circulatory flow around a wing section one basically just adds a free vortex to the superposition.

Hence, despite the BBC’s apparent aversion to covering all the Grands Prix in a Formula One season, aerodynamics is clearly a subject close to their heart.

Source: mccabism

Fabrizio claims provisional pole in QP2

Fabrizio was the quickest man this morning just ahead of Leon Camier.

Fabrizio was the quickest man this morning just ahead of Leon Camier.

Michel Fabrizio has once again finished fastest during qualifying practice at Phillip Island ahead of this weekends season opener.

The Italian appears to be a man on a mission aboard his Red Devil Roma Aprilia, as he posted a unbeatable lap time of 1.30.387, half a second quicker than the qualifying lap record, despite sitting out 45 minutes due to a technical issue with his bike.

Despite the new asphalt assisting Fabrizio deliver that record breaking time it is still a remarkable lap time, a time which he if can replicate this afternoon will surely see him starting from first position come tomorrows races.

Behind Fabrizio was Leon Camier. The Brit has been in scintillating form since taking to track last week at the island, and he posted a time of 1′30.727, which is no mean feet with his GSXR1000 approximately 10kph slower down the Gardener Straight than a BMW or Aprilia.

Last years runner up Tom Sykes was third fastest on his Kawasaki, and just 0.013s behind his compatriot. Despite broken bones in his hand Sykes appears to be cranking it up ready for this afternoons superpole session as he moved closer towards the top of the timing screens in every session.

Aprilia factory rider Eugene Laverty was fourth and is impressing all the while, but won’t like being beaten by a private Aprilia, Marco Melandri and his BMW was fifth proving to be a bit of German meat in an Factory Aprilia sandwich, as Laverty’s team mate, Sylvain Guintoli, was sixth fastest.

Leon Haslam was the lead Honda and he finished the session in an impressive 7th position, just under 0.6 behind Fabrizio. Right behind Haslam was 2011 champion, Carlos Checa, who will still be sore after a big crash this morning, although his Alstare team managed to rebuild his Panigale, and he finished the session in 8th position, just ahead of Haslam’s team mate Jonathan Rea who is still coming to grips with the new electronics that Pata Honda gave him yesterday, although he was still less than a second behind the leader.

Davide Giugliano rounded out the top ten on his with the Althea Aprilia, and he was closely followed by BMW’s Chaz Davies, Kawasaki’s Loris Baz, and Max Neukirchner.

One rider we wont see for the rest of this weekend is Alstare Ducati’s Ayrton Badovini. His crash during Friday morning’s free practice has been diagnosed as fractured which has ruled him out of this weekends opener.

WSBK Phillip Island QP2 results:

1. Michel Fabrizio (Red Devils Roma) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 1′30.387
2. Leon Camier (Fixi Crescent Suzuki) Suzuki GSX-R1000 1′30.727
3. Tom Sykes (Kawasaki Racing Team) Kawasaki ZX-10R 1′30.740
4. Eugene Laverty (Aprilia Racing Team) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 1′30.826
5. Marco Melandri (BMW Motorrad GoldBet SBK) BMW S1000 RR 1′30.931
6. Sylvain Guintoli (Aprilia Racing Team) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 1′30.961
7. Leon Haslam (Pata Honda World Superbike) Honda CBR1000RR 1′31.020
8. Carlos Checa (Team Ducati Alstare) Ducati Panigale 1199 1′31.146
9. Jonathan Rea (Pata Honda World Superbike) Honda CBR1000RR 1′31.353
10. Davide Giugliano (Althea Racing) Aprilia RSV4 Factory 1′31.470
11. Chaz Davies (BMW Motorrad GoldBet SBK) BMW S1000 RR 1′31.526
12. Loris Baz (Kawasaki Racing Team) Kawasaki ZX-10R 1′31.537
13. Max Neukirchner (MR-Racing) Ducati Panigale 1199 1′31.871
14. Jamie Stauffer (Team Honda Racing) Honda CBR1000RR 1′31.874
15. Ivan Clementi (HTM Racing) BMW S1000 RR 1′31.963
16. Glen Allerton (Next Gen Motorsports) BMW S1000 RR 1′32.352
17. Jules Cluzel (Fixi Crescent Suzuki) Suzuki GSX-R1000 1′32.402
18. Alexander Lundh (Team Pedercini) Kawasaki ZX-10R 1′32.487
19. Ayrton Badovini (Team Ducati Alstare) Ducati Panigale 1199 1′32.540
20. Federico Sandi (Team Pedercini) Kawasaki ZX-10R 1′32.898
21. Vittorio Iannuzzo (Grillini Dentalmatic SBK) BMW S1000 RR 1′33.082