Road Racer X's Speed Dating & Morais Filling In for Parkes

For this week of March we have a number of important dates in the weekly Road Racer X Speed Dating column. Celebrating birthdays this week are Danny Webb, Andrea Dovizioso, Roberto Rolfo, Al Ludington, Steve McQueen, Keiichi Kitagawa, Raffaele De Rosa, Harald Eckl, Chris Walker, Burt Munro, Sebastien Charpentier, Toni Elias, Christian Sarron, Bill Bagnall, and Katsuaki Fujuwara. Unfortunately, it is also the anniversary of the death of Mike Hailwood...Please take the link to learn more...

http://tinyurl.com/yfh76yc

In the World Superbike Championship series, Echo CRS Honda rider Broc Parkes sustained a broken leg in a preseason training injury and had to give up his seat to Josh Brookes at Phillip Island. For the Portimao round (and, quite possibly for Valencia as well), the faster Sheridan Morais will be substituting for Parkes on the Honda. Morais has been able to out-ride Parkes before, so this may be the beginning of something or just a quick trip to the majors for Morais...

http://tinyurl.com/yh6pmnt

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