Pata Honda's Michael van der Mark, the 2014 WSS Champion
Pata Honda’s Michael van der Mark, the 2014 WSS Champion
MV Agusta’s Jules Cluzel during Magny-Cours WSS practice
MV Agusta’s Jules Cluzel
2014 Magny-Cours World Supersport ResultsSpoiler Alert: 2014 World Supersport results from Magny-Cours, France, listed below.
Though the 2014 World Supersport title was clinched a month ago at Jerez, this didn’t prevent some tough battling during a rain-soaked penultimate round at Magny-Cours in France.The rains were so heavy that the FIM shortened the Supersport race from 17 to 12 laps. Crashes were many, but when round 11 was complete, home favorite Jules Cluzel took the win aboard the MV Agusta Reparto Corse F3 – the third of 2014 Supersport.“I’m delighted, it’s been an upbeat weekend. On Saturday we not only took pole position, we also scored a track record. During the race I was really focused in order to avoid any errors, although I still had to run risks on account of the slippery conditions on the rain-soaked track,” Cluzel says.“And I won at home, here in France, by a massive 20 seconds… it’s been a thrilling weekend!”Cluzel took the win by 17 seconds ahead of the 2014 World Supersport Champion Michael van der Mark (Pata Honda), the Dutchman who joins the Pata Honda Honda World Superbike squad in 2015.Van der Mark crashed, but was able to remount and pass several riders before moving back into podium contention on lap 10.Third went to Go Eleven Kawasaki’s Roberto Rolfo, who began 17th but fought his way to final podium position, finishing van der Mark’s teammate Lorenzo Zanetti, and Florian Marino (Kawasaki Intermoto Ponyexpres).Rounding out the top 10 were K. Coghlan (DMC-Panavto Yamaha), R. Tamburini (San Carlo Puccetti Racing Kawasaki), P. Jacobsen (Kawasaki Intermoto Ponyexprees), R. Wilairot (Core PTR Honda) and D. Schmitter (Hagn-Skm Racing Team Yamaha).Former European Junior Cup champion Matt Davies (Aark Racing) made his 2nd wildcard appearance of the season. He claimed a brilliant 13th to secure his first ever world championship points.
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This week, in the first segment Editor Don Williams talks to us about the new Kawasaki Versys 650 LT. It’s the middleweight ADV style machine that uses the same 650 parallel twin motor as the Ninja 650, so it’s an excellent performer in a user-friendly, good looking package.
In the second segment, I chat with one of my dearest industry friends—now retired Honda PR executive, Jon Seidel. Jon’s fascinating career spans some 30 years with Big Red, and gave him some great experiences with some incredible machines. I was fortunate enough to be invited on many of the press launches that he organized. His new project is documenting and saving many of the old archives from years gone by—and incidentally, if you have anything that may be of value to the project, please contact us by email at producer@ultimatemotorcycling.com and we’ll pass it all on to Jon.
So on that note, from all of us here at Ultimate Motorcycling, we hope you enjoy this episode!
