2000
The 17th of January 2000
Team Bimota Sweden have, JIT for the swedish motorcycle-show/-expo in
Stockholm at the end of January, launched their new website at: www.teambimota.com be sure
to visit it and to follow the team and their staff in the Swedish and Scandinavian
Superbike Series.
The team consists of Swedish Bimota importer Gustav Persson and the President of bimota
club scandinava Kalle Sjostrand. They will both race the all new Bimota SB8-R, modified
for Superbike specs and rules.
Read all about it on:
1999
The 20th of December 1999
Former roommates and teammates Ben Bostrom and Anthony Gobert will
meet up again in 2000. Bostrom will ride for the Y2K factory Ducati Corse Superbike team,
along with three time world champion Carl Fogarty next year.
Gobert, who was once promised the same same seat that Bostrom now
inhabits, was thought to be ride-less for next season. That does not seem to be the case
as Gobert has agreed to terms with the Virginio Ferarri-run Bimota World Superbike squad
for 2000. Gobert will move to Monaco (Ferarri's base) after the first of the year and they
will begin testing shortly thereafter.
Bimota will field a Suzuki TL1000R-powered
machine in the Superbike class next year, the Bimota SB8-R joins Honda, Ducati and Aprilia
as manufacturers who will run double-pumpers in WSC next year.
The TLR was raced in 1998 AMA Superbike to
respectable results by Yoshimura Suzuki. The engine was said to be very close to the
competition in terms of power, but the chassis needed more development. Several at Suzuki
and Yoshimura feel that the TL program will killed too early because the machine was quite
promising.
Bimota has raced the World Superbike series on and off in the last
decade or so. They were competitive early but dropped out of the series as it became more
cut-throat. They last raced WSC in 1995, when they raced a partial season.
In 1989 Bimota finished second in the series when American Fred
Merkel and Honda won the inaugural championship. The two makes duked it out for the
championship with Merkel, on a Rumi Honda RC30, coming out on top.
Bimota's rider then was a young Italian named David Tardozzi.
He is currently the Ducati Corse World Superbike team manager.
Ironic, eh?
The 1st of July 1999
"Bimota 25 years of excellence" is the first book about the history and all the
models of Bimota Company in its first 25 years of life. It's written by Giorgio Sarti, the
Bimota Club Italy Vice-Chairman and it's published by the Italian Editor Giorgio Nada.
It's available in two languages; Italian or English. You can order it through the official
Bimota sales network, or through your local Bimota distrubutor.
The 1st of May 1999
The first Trackracing-day for Bimota Club Scandinavia, was a great sucsess for the club.
80 bikes took part in the event, the weather was superb, at least before lunch, and racing
was good. This won´t be the last time we have such an event, work have already started
with setting a new date, and booking a new track.
I would like to send a big THANK YOU!!! to all the people helping us out at at the track,
everybody, from the "flag-wavers" to the riding instructors.
....and to all the riders: welcome back next time! check out the "events area" of the site for more racing.
Kalle Sjöstrand.
The 14th of February 1999
The first SB8-R and SB8-R SP, vill be delivered next week to MC-Kompaniet in Skövde,
SWEDEN.
Be sure to Visit them at The Sollentuna motorcycle EXPO, next week, or their store in
Skövde to see this extraordinaire bike.
This is what we all been waiting for.
Click here to visit
MC-Kompaniet.
The 5th of February 1999
The presence of the Bimota Club Scandinavia at the Swedish Motorcycle Show "På två
hjul ´99" during the 28th thru the 31st of January was a sucsess for the club. A lot
of visitors showed a huge amount of admiration to the bikes that some of the members had
brought to the stand of the club. Another thing that drawed some attention was the fact
that the club will arrange a racetrack-day on the 1st of May this year. It was very nice
talking to visitors ´bout the bims and all ´round ém. Perhaps the club will grow a
little bit after this.
At last I would like to thank Mr Catani at Bimota, for helping us out.
The staff at MC-Kompaniet.
.....and of course all of the members that took some of their preciuos
time, and worked at the show
Kalle Sjöstrand.
Photo by Petter Reuterholt, Roadracing World.
The 11th of January 1999
Bimota is the winner of the 1998 Sport Production Championship (600cc Class). The author
of the win is the young rider Norino Brignola on the Bimota YB9SRI of the Team Panella
Spadaro. This win of the Bimota YB9SRI is to be added to those achieved in the past by the
previous model versions “Bellaria” and “YB9SR” so till now the model
has won 5 Sport Production Italian Championships and 1 Supersport Italian Championship.
1998
The 18th of October 1998
A new speed record, 202.247 MPH, was set at the East Coast Timing Association's event at
the Maxton Airbase facility in North Carolina, with a modified Bimota SB6, is a record for
that facility only. But it does appear that it is the first official record set anywhere,
by any normally aspirated gasoline-powered motorcycle, of over 200 mph. The fastest record
set previously was by Doug Meyer aboard a Kawasaki ZX-11 at 199.444 mph at the salt flats,
recorded by one of the West Coast timing associations. It has been reported that riders
have gone faster at other places but none of those attempts were recorded by a recognized
timing association, or by timing lights. The records set on the Bimota are actually
records for the East Coast Timing Association, not out-right records. There are many
examples of 200+ MPH motorcycles that have been built in a variety of ways. Though the
fact that a normally aspirated bike in full street trim on a 90-degree day could go 202
MPH is impressive,
The 16th of September 1998
Good news travels fast. Bimota launched 2 new models at the INTERMOT motorcycle show in
Munich, Germany.
It is the ever so sucessful DB-family that get it´s 4th member - The DB4. The DB4 will
get a new "basic racing design".
Along with previuos annuonced SB8-R, Bimota launched a SP model of the SB8-R, the SB8R-SP,
with a more aggressive carbon colorscheme (all black).
The 16th of July 1998
After a visit to the bimota factory in Rimini, and have talked to the people on
ZWEIRAD_TECHNIK,
I´m happy to confirm that the SB8R, seems to work just fine (Won the prototype class in a
24 hour endurace race in Spa Belgium).
Productionstart set to December 1998, first deliveries January 1999.
...More news will be announced later.
|
