Bel-Ray Racing-Weekend Racing Wrap Up – May 14, 2012

The professional
racing teams supported by Bel-Ray competed this past weekend in Mexico,
Portugal and England in both on and off-road competition.

World Superbike

The historic Donington
Park circuit in the heart of England was the site of Round 5 of the
2012 World Superbike Championship series. Sunny skies were a welcome
sight to the competitors this weekend following the
rains from the previous round in Italy, just a week ago. Both Bel-Ray
racers, Carlos Checa and Davide Giugliano, were aiming to improve on
their 7th and 8th place finishes from round 4.

Race 1 saw both riders
just inside the top 10 as they were caught up in traffic in the first
corner. The duo turned in consistent laps and worked through the field
to an eventual 6th and 7th
place finish with Checa leading the way.  Race 2 was not as kind as
both Checa and Giugliano got caught in a first turn crash that saw
Checa’s bike too damaged to continue. Giugliano, meanwhile, was able to
continue only briefly, but was unable to finish the
race as well.

Checa spoke about the
crash that forced him out of the race, “I tried to start strong and
found a good position, but when I got to the apex, I saw Laverty in
front of me and he braked suddenly. Maybe there was
a rider in front of him, I don’t know. I did everything I could to
brake, to stop the bike, but there were riders all around me and I
couldn’t avoid a fall. My leg is a bit sore and a little swollen, but
I’m ok.”

Teammate Giugliano too
spoke about the unfortunate turn of events in race 2. “It’s a shame
because the day had started out fairly positively. We had seen in race 1
that we had a strong pace and we were certain
that we could do better in the second. I started race 2 convinced that I
could be up there with the top four, but unfortunately what happened at
the first corner penalized me too.”

Both riders are prepared for the next round of the series held at Miller Motorsports Park in the United States on May 28th. Checa is 4th and Giugliano 9th in the overall season’s
points standings.

World Enduro Championship

Lisbon, Portugal was
the site for round 4 of the 2012 Maxxis FIM Enduro World Championship.
The Bel-Ray TM factory team survived the difficult conditions all
weekend to produce excellent results. In E1 class competition,
Antti Hellsten scored a 10th place finish on both days of competition. Teammate Nicolo Mori finished 12th and 11th over the 2 days of completion in the EJ class and Aigar Leok was the team's best finisher with 2 strong 3rd
place finishes in the E3 class.

With half of the
season completed, all 3 racers are in the top 15 in their respective
classes in their chase for world championship points.  Hellsten moves up
to 12th in the E1 class, Mori remains in 14th
in the EJ class and Leok moves up to 3rd in the E3 class in the series' points standings.

The series continues the last weekend in June in Italy for round 5 of the series.

World Motocross Championship

The FIM Motocross
World Championship will make an appearance in Mexico this weekend for
the first time in the history of world motocross competition. Taking
place at the Nicolas Espana circuit in Guadalajara, Mexico,
the high altitude and high temperatures will make the event challenging
for the competitors.

MX1

The Bel-Ray backed
CP377 Monster Energy Pro Circuit team of Christophe and Sebastien
Pourcel suffered bad luck this weekend in Guadalajara, Mexico. Coming
off a victory at the previous event in Italy, Christophe
showed the speed that brought him previous victories. While competing
in moto 1, he ran across a piece of track fencing that became entangled
in his machine. He stopped to remove it, but the time lost during this
stop relegated him to a 16th place
finish. He rebounded in moto 2 with the holeshot and led the first half
of the race. Deteriorating track conditions forced him back for an
eventual 4th place finish.  He spoke about the incident
following the day’s event, “the goal was to get another
podium here, and I would have got it if I had not got green fencing
wrapped around my bike in the first race. I took the holeshot in the
second race and was fighting for the win for most of the race, but the
track was becoming too dangerous and I didn’t want
to take any risks.” Teammate Sebastien was unable to get comfortable
with the track during the competition and rode a smart and safe race for
13-14 moto finishes.  “I never felt comfortable on this track, and
didn’t want to risk another injury. I got a good
start in the first race, but after ten minutes, I felt tired and rode
to score safe points. In the second race, I got blisters on my hands and
my goal was then just to finish the race.”

MX2

Bel-Ray sponsored Team
Floride Monster Energy Kawasaki Pro Circuit rider Tommy Searle scored
another podium finish this past weekend in Mexico. Warm temperatures and
high altitude tested the endurance of the competitor
and the Englishman came through with flying colors. He scored two 2nd place finishes despite an early fall in the second moto that forced him to make a remarkable come from behind. Teammate Joel Roelants is
recovered from his Fermo crash and was able to produce 6-4 moto finishes for 4th
overall. He spoke about his recovery from the crash and his ability to
overcome adversity. “I’m really happy to finish fourth in the second
race, and if I hadn’t crash
in the first moto, I would also have been fourth. I was not riding at
my full potential this weekend after my crash in Italy two weeks ago. I
knew that it would be tough here, as I had to stay in a darkened room
for five days after the crash, and still today
during the races, I had to keep telling myself ‘concentrate,
concentrate’. Normally, I wouldn’t be happy with fourth, but that was
the maximum in the circumstances.”

The series will continue this weekend in Brazil at the Beto Carreiro MX Park.

Follow all of Bel-Ray’s racers in action each week on
www.belray.com  and
www.belrayracing.com.

Bel Ray Company Inc was founded in 1946 and is a privately held, woman owned business serving the lubrication needs of powersports,
industrial and mining customers worldwide. Bel-Ray is
recognized as the leader in the specialty lubricants industry for
setting high standards of quality and performance with
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