AJO Motorsports Johann ZarcoFor the third time of the 2015 Moto2 Championship, Johann Zarco earned the pole position. The Frenchman’s latest arrived at the TT Circuit Assen – and in record-breaking style.Under ideal conditions during 2015 Assen Moto2 qualifying, Zarco – the current points leader – smashed the previous Moto2 pole record of 1:37.133 set by Marc Marquez in 2012 by almost 0.8 of a second. The AJO Motorsports Kalex pilot earned the pole with a 1:36.346 arond the 2.82-mile Assen TT circuit containing 18 corners. This was also Zarco’s fourth pole of his Moto2 career.
Joining Zarco on the front row are the reigning Moto2 Champion, Marc VDS Racing’s Tito Rabat, and Speed Up Racing’s Sam Lowes. And just like Valentino Rossi’s record pole performance in Assen MotoGP qualifying, nobody was even close to Rabat. He finished 2015 Assen Moto2 qualifying 0.287 of a second ahead of the Rabat, and 0.532 of a second ahead of Lowes. The Brit Lowes was also the final rider to post within a second of Zarco.Though he crashed earlier in qualifying Athina Forward Racing’s Simone Corsi qualified on top of the second row. Corsi was 1.047 seconds slower than Zarco. Joining Corsi on row two are AGR Team Kalex’s Jonas Folger (-1.088s) and Federal Oil Gresini Racing Moto2’s Xavier Simeon (-1.163s).Rounding out the top 10 in qualifying were Alex Rins (Paginas Amarillas HP40), Thomas Luthi (Derendinger Racing Interwetten), Lorenzo Baldassarri (Athina Forward Racing) and Takaaki Nakagami (Idemitsu Honda Team Asia).As for crashes, EG 0,0 Marc VDS’s Alex Marquez (13th) wrecked at the Haarbocth first turn and Ratthapark Wilairot (27th) at the Geert Timmer chicane. Both riders escaped unhurt.
Hello everyone and welcome once again to Ultimate Motorcycling’s weekly Podcast—Motos and Friends.
My name is Arthur Coldwells.
This week’s Podcast is brought to you by Yamaha motorcycles. Discover how the YZF-R7 provides the perfect balance of rider comfort and true supersport performance by checking it out at YamahaMotorsports.com, or see it for yourself at your local dealer.
This week’s episode features Senior Editor Nic de Sena’s impressions of the beautiful new Harley-Davidson Low Rider ST that is loosely based around the original FXRT Sport Glide from the 1980s. Hailing from The Golden State, these cult-status performance machines became known as West Coast style, with sportier suspension, increased horsepower, and niceties including creature comforts such as a tidy fairing and sporty luggage.
In past episodes you might have heard us mention my best friend, Daniel Schoenewald, and in the second segment I chat with him about some of the really special machines in his 170 or so—and growing—motorcycle collection. He’s always said to me that he doesn’t consider himself the owner, merely the curator of the motorcycles for the next generation.
Yet Daniel is not just a collector, but I can attest a really skilled rider. His bikes are not trailer queens, they’re ridden, and they’re ridden pretty hard. Actually, we have had many, many memorable rides on pretty much all of the machines in the collection at one time or another.
From all of us here at Ultimate Motorcycling, we hope you enjoy this episode!
