Press-releas

YAKHNICH MOTORSPORT TEAM

MOSCOW, JANUARY 22, 2010

Yakhnich Motorsport Team is glad to inform that the new sport season has started! The breathtaking contest on Russian and foreign tracks is waiting for the racers. This season the team is taking part in the RMF Cup (Superstock women and Superstock 600). The aim is, of course, to win! The girls are to hold their champion title in the tough rivalry and in the class Superstock 600 Yakhnich Motorsport would like to rise to the leaders and finally become one of the prize-winners.

As for racing abroad the team is focused on improving its results in the Italian Women Championship. This year it consists of two stages: the first one takes place in July and the second - in September. Besides that Nadezhda and Natalya are going to take part in Trofeo Amotori - competition in the frames of the IMF Cup. It is a men championship, participation in which can give our pilots new experience and skills. Besides that sportsmen who take part in this competition are mature racers enjoying agressive style of riding, so the rivalry is going to be very tense. It is peasant that the races will take place on the best tracks of Italy and there will be far more racers on the start greed. It opens for YMS a perspective of more interesting and tough contest. The experience got in foreigh competitions must have positive effect on the team's positions in the Russian Championship.

Also Yakhnich Motorsport is going to pay special attention to Junior motorcycling sport this season: the team is planning to expand the project Junior Team (the more detailed information about it will be given in the nearest future). And, of course, YMS is going to surprise its fans, partners and friends with new original art-projects which are being kept in secret for the present. On the whole, the new season promises to be interesting! Follow the team's news!

The Italian Women Championship, Stage V

The fifth final stretch of the Italian Women Road Race Championship is over. The fearless representatives of not at all the weaker sex demonstrated to their supporters and competition referees again what real woman’s will to win actually means and showed their ability to ride an iron horse under extreme conditions. On the whole sixteen sportswomen took part in the Championship but only thirteen of them registered themselves for the final stretch. Ten girls were citizens of Italy, one competitor was from Poland and of course Russia’s honour was being defended again by “Yakhnich Motorsport” representatives Nadia Yakhnich and Nataliya Lyubimova.

Difficulties arose on the pre-race training stage. Our sportswomen arrived at the international motor-racing circuit Misano being absolutely sure that the weather would be dry and warm. So without hesitation they had taken only summer clothes. But usually sunny Rimini met the sportswomen with absolutely unexpected cold and rainy weather. The proximity of the sea makes the local climate very capricious and changeable. It couldn’t help influencing the track condition. Raised air humidity and rain are suddenly followed by the brightest sunlight which makes asphalt surface get absolutely dry for about two hours. Besides the track dries out unevenly and, in fact, it can be divided into sunny and shady parts which have different asphalt temperature and different surface dampness. Under such conditions it is very easy to make a mistake while choosing the proper tyres. Falls didn’t keep waiting for long. Valery Gola and Manuela La Licata fell at the first training session.

In the first qualification race taking into consideration that the track was wet Russian sportswomen decided to use the following method: they installed a rain wheel in the front and a rifled tyre in the back. But, unfortunately, the mechanics and pilots were not lucky with the weather: the track had got absolutely dry by the time of coming to the marks. As a result neither Nadezda nor Nataliya showed the time they had expected. Nataliya Lyubimova took the sixth position in the qualifier and Nadia Yahknich wasn’t able to continue the race because of two unpleasant falls and rather serious damage of the motorbike which had taken place during the practice on the eve of the competition. In spite of high professionalism of the team mechanics there were still a lot of worries: it took several hours to fix the bike. Emotions may also have taken their part in the final results of the preliminary race. The annoying fall happened on the shady part of the track. Good fortune seems to have decided to spare its attention to Nadezda for the sake of the future competitions.

Nataliya Lyubimova faced some problems during the second qualification race too. The matter is that, as usual, at that weekend several competitions took place in Misano at the same time: The Cup of the Italian Motorcycle Federation (Coppa F.M.I), Mototemporada and the Women Championship of Italy. Races were following one another and were going all they long (from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.) An oil spot had been left by the preceding racers on some length of the track before the sportswomen started the second qualifier. Beware of falling on this slippery spot none of the racers, except Sharon Mermet, was able to improve the time considerably. As a result she relegated Nataliya from the sixth to the seventh place in the standings.

Our sportswoman took the fast start in the main race: having begun the seventh she was the fifth to enter the first turn. But more experienced pilots Sara Zaghini and Manuela La Licata managed to pull out in front of her. The second lap made the spectators worry because of collision and fall of two favourites of the race – a Pole Monika Jaworsky and Alessia Falzoni. However their sport courage and fortitude were just praiseworthy: finally they were able to finish successfully and showed the best time of the race. Falzoni from the twelfth position finished fifth being inferior to the forth place not more than a second. And Jaworska was even luckier. She managed to find herself on the podium with a bronze medal. As for Nataliya Lyubimova she managed to overtake Zaghini after the fall of Jaworsky and Falzoni and was able to gain good speed. Finally our pilot improved her preliminary time for six seconds and finished sixth. She also took the fourth place in the maximum speed rating table.

The results of the Women Championship of Italy have been reckoned up. And they are definitely positive for our pilots Nadezda Yachnich and Nataliya Lyubimova. Their progress is evident! Last year the Russian racers couldn’t overcome the qualifier difficulties but in the frames of this championship they took the seventh and the thirteenth places among the sixteen participants. The Russian sportswomen also took the second and the fourth positions in the group “New entry”. Our pilots are gradually improving their sport achievements and are strengthening their positions in the Italian championship demonstrating better results from year to year.

Nataliya Lyubimova: “We are going on with our training and we mustn’t stop! The results are good but we still have a lot to learn from our more successful rivals. It is important for us to get used to adapting ourselves to changeable weather conditions more quickly – that’s the main lesson of the race. But on the other hand I can say that the thrilling wait for the start which falls on the very end of the competition day for the second time was perceived a bit easier by us. It is undoubtedly a positive moment.  I would like to thank all our team members. There were seven people with us who gave all their support and helped us feel more confident. As for my time I have improved it only for six seconds. That means there is definitely something to strive for. At the minimum I must be one second faster!”

More detailed information about the Championship of Italy can be found in the site of the team “Yakhnich Motorsport”: www.yakhnichmotorsport.ru

Back to Vallelunga...

The fourth competition in the frames of The Women Italian Championship which took place on the Vallelunga track already familiar to the participants is over. The first race of the season took place here in distant April.

Alessia Polita won the title of the Champion of Italy ahead of schedule and the second place is still waiting for its winner. Monika Yaworska, a strong sportswoman from Poland has good chances to become a runner up, but stable Sharon Mermet expects to become a silver prizewinner too.

Yakhnich Motorsport had preparatory tests before the race in Vallelunga, Mugello and Misano.

Unfortunately, Nadia Yakhnich fell ill at the beginning of the test session and Claudio Corsetti (the team coach) made a decision that Nadia’s participation in the race would have  practical character.

Nataliya Lyubimova got the seventh position in the qualification with time 1:51.395 being 1.5 seconds inferior to her closest rival.

Nataliya did well at the start holding her position but in the first lap she was attacked by Vittoria Rampolla. Nataliya didn’t keep her rival waiting for long and overtook her in the next lap. All the rest of the race our sportswoman accelerated giving no chance to the rivals pursuing her. In the race Nataliya recorded 1:50.726, having improved her time for 4 seconds and finished 30 seconds earlier than her closest rival.

Nataliya: “I am very satisfied with the result! Much work has been done by the team in order to prepare for this competition. I’d like to thank our mechanics Roberto and Yuber as well as our coach Claudio Corsetti.”

The MFR Cup - Final stage

The fifth competition in the frames of The Russian Cup took place last weekend. This time only one pilot of “Yakhnich Motorsport” applied for this race. Nadezda Yakhnich had to miss the final competition on account of her health condition.

According to the qualification results Nataliya Lyubimova took the second position on the start grid. She couldn’t finish the race either because of some technical problems.

Nataliya: ”The bike didn’t start on the grid before the warm lap. Then after start it became clear in the first turn already that the bike was out of order and couldn’t rev up. I still hoped that it might have been some little disrepair. But stop at the pit-lane and quick check-up of the bike by the mechanics couldn’t help to ride any more lap. I had to stop…”

Three victories in five in her individual rating let Nataliya Lyubimova become the Winner of The Russian Motorcycle Federation Cup 2009. Nataliya repeated her success of the last season and became a twice champion!

Before the final race journalists always forecast the final podium winners. By the fifth competition the final outcome in STK women had been still vague. Lyubimova – 75 points, Yakhnich – 60 points, Semenova – 52 points, Korkina – 45 points.

Lubimova Natalya had only to finish in order to become a winner. Otherwise the lead would have been taken by Nadezhda Yakhnich. Natalya didn’t finish but Nadja didn’t take part in the race.

Nadezhda Yakhnich raced in three competitions too. Nadja missed the first race because she and her team-mate were having practice in Europe at that time. The final competition was missed by her on account of the health condition. Finally Nadezhda took the fourth place in Superstock women and yielded the place on the podium to the other participants.

The season continues…

Caldo....

On August 2 the hospitable track Franciacorta hosted the third competition in the frames of The Women Italian Championship. The girls were to stand the test taking start at 17:30 (last class of all) after 8 different races riding along the quite slippery because of previous falls track Besides that  they were to race in the sultry August weather which was about to change but still remained sunny and hot.

Alessia Polita, a pilot of CP Racing recorded the fastest lap of the race 1:15.5 and came to the finish 20 seconds earlier than her rivals, having demonstrated again the highest and unattainable for the other pilots level of riding.

Unfortunately, her team-mate Allesia Falzoni fell and couldn’t repeat her success achieved in the previous competition in Magione though there had been good preconditions for that. Since the earliest laps Alessia entered the fight with experienced Romana Fede and the pilots recorded excellent time 1:15. In the fourth lap Romana had to scratch the race.

Monika Yaworska, a talented racer from Poland, got the fourth position on the start grid but managed to enter the first turn second. She was able to hold this position to the end of the race and finished about 20 seconds earlier than Sharon Mermet who had been chasing her.

The pilots of Yakhnich Motorsport got the 8^th and the 14^th positions on the start grid. Since the first laps of the race each of them started fighting for higher positions. Natasha didn’t yield her position to Vittoria Rampolla and then defended herself from Ana Teran. However she managed to overtake Nataliya at last. Nadia joined the fight with Alessandra Gambardella. It should be mentioned that Ana and Alessandra live not far from this place and Franciacorta is their home track. It makes the situation more remarkable that Russian sportswomen are able to compete with the girls having less practice than their rivals.

All the participants were able to get through 20 laps of the difficult race on the small but requiring high technical skills Franchacorta track. Our girls took the 6^th and the 12^th places.

Nataliya: “From race to race the sport level of the girls is getting higher and it is becoming more difficult but at the same time more interesting to compete with them. At present this competition has turned out to be one of the most difficult for us.”