MORE Afternoon Moto News - Speed Dating & Dunlop Supports CSC

Road Racer X's Speed Dating column comes to us again...and I missed it earlier this week. Well, along with myself, Joe Petrali, Randy Krummenacher, Nicky Wimbauer, Takuma Aoki, Joey Dunlop, Toriano Wilson, Alex de Angelis, Joan Lascorz Moreno, Colin Edwards, Jorg Teuchert and Terry Rymer are all celebrating birthdays from this past week. Funny, Edwards and I share the same birthday and we were both born in Texas - but I am no MotoGP racer yet, why? Also, Triumph returned to racing during this week in 2003 in the British Supersport Championship.

http://tinyurl.com/ylq7h8t

The California State Championships (CSC) will now be supported by the Dunlop Motorcycle Tire company. It's a good thing for the three round series in this still bad economy...and they are quite pleased with how it has worked out so far. For more detail, please take the link.

http://tinyurl.com/yz3g5t5

More Morning Moto News - NZ Superbikes & WSS

At the second round of the New Zealand Superbike Championship, held this weekend in Teretonga, has spurred some contraversy. Apparently, both Andrew Stroud and Robbie Bugden are claiming victory after the race officials made a huge mistake with the last lap flag, You just have to read the article, it is worth your time. And, apparently, Race 2 was much less confusing.

http://tinyurl.com/yessaoo

At the World Supersport tests in Portimao, Portugal, Eugene Laverty managed to take the fast lap at the end of the session. Second fastest on the day was the Kawasaki of Joan Lascorz, with Honda-mounted Michele Piro coming in third. Sounds like they accomplished a great deal over the weekend...

http://tinyurl.com/ycl9k4u

More Afternoon Moto News - Benelli, Billy Joel and Kawasaki WSS

Benelli, now owned by Chinese company Qian Jiang, has opened their first store in Beijing, China. This puts them in a prime space to improve their sales. Beijing is full of newly affluent people who look at such exotic vehicles as a way to show off their new wealth. So, Benelli might find itself selling motorcycles better on the other side of the world than they do in Europe. A great move for them!

http://tinyurl.com/y8o5wuq

Deus Ex Machina has released information on the custom motorcycle they built for Billy Joel. It is based on the now discontinued Kawasaki W650. It looks awesome and is a take on an old-school bobber; he did not want to have a repli-chopper, he wanted something with style, and he got it!

http://tinyurl.com/y8shype

Joan Lascorz and Katsuaki Fujiwara, of the Kawasaki Provec Motocard.com team, were in Almeria testing their World Supersport machinery in preparation for the Portugal test happening this weekend. It does seem that they had a good test and it all went well, so they expect an even better test at Portimao.

http://tinyurl.com/yb4kun5

World Supersport Testing: Yamaha Testing with Ellison, Rea and West

That is James Ellison, Gino Rea and Anthony West are testing the Yamaha YZF-R6 which brought Cal Crutchlow - now in World Superbike - the World Supersport title in 2009. Apparently, there is more! Martin Cardenas will also be testing the R6.

Ten Kate Honda is testing with Kenan Sofuoglu - already confirmed for the team in 2010 - and Michele Pirro and Maxime Berger.

And, Kawasaki is testing with Joan Lascorz, Katsuaki Fujiwara, Broc Parkes and David Salom.

http://tinyurl.com/ygzt2ao