Nate Adams (USA) flew to victory in front of 18,000 fans at the fifth stop of the Red Bull X-Fighters World Tour 2009 in London on Saturday night. A heavy fall on the course in front of the city’s legendary Battersea Power Station forced defending champion Mat Rebeaud (SUI) to abandon any chance of defending his crown.

LONDON (UK). In front of a sell-out crowd, the twelve best FMX athletes in the world electrified the former coal-fired power station once responsible for providing the bustling metropolis with energy. Going into the event no fewer than four riders – Nate Adams (USA), Robbie Maddison (AUS), Eigo Sato (JPN) and Mat Rebeaud (SUI) – were in with a chance of riding off with the overall title at the end of the night.

“This is the greatest achievement of my career. Whoever wins this Tour goes down in the history books. The pressure was huge; it’s a great feeling to win against the best riders in the world,” beamed 25 year-old Adams from Phoenix (USA) after defeating 17 year-old New Zealand rookie Levi “Rubber Kid” Sherwood in the Final.

Swiss ruler and 2008 champion Mat Rebeaud was lucky to get away with bruises, a few stitches and a flat tyre after over-rotating on the Superkicker and crashing into the up-slope opposite in his Quarter-Final.

Handicapped by a fall in Qualification on Friday, Eigo Sato was also forced out at the Quarter-Final stage as Australia’s Tower Brige Conqueror, Robbie Maddison, made it one steo further to the Semi-Finals, where he was eliminated by eventual winner of the event Nate Adams. 

This year’s Red Bull X-Fighters World Tour took the sport to the next level with the first ever Double-Backflip in FMX history by Cameron Sinclair (AUS) as a total of 200,000 fans packed the stands in Mexico City (MEX), Calgary (CAN), Fort Worth (USA), Madrid (ESP) and London.

Final result London: 1. Nate Adams (USA), 2. Levi Sherwood (NZL), 3. Dany Torres (ESP), 4. Robbie Maddison (AUS), 5. Jeremy Stenberg (USA), 6. Mat Rebeaud (SUI), 7. Eigo Sato (JPN), 8. Mike Mason (USA), 9. André Villa (NOR), 10. Thomas Pagés (FRA), 11. Adam Jones (USA), 12. Chris Birch (GBR)

Final overall championship standings World Tour 2009: 1. Nate Adams (USA), 2. Robbie Maddison (AUS), 3. Eigo Sato (JPN), 4. Mat Rebeaud (SUI), 5. Dany Torres (ESP), 6. Levi Sherwood (NZL), 7. Jeremy Stenberg (USA), 8. Cameron Sinclair (AUS), 9. Thomas Pagès (FRA), 10. André Villa (NOR)

Pirelli Moto have committed funds and support to ‘Get On’, the Motorcycle Industry Association campaign to get Britain biking. The company, which is part of Pirelli UK Tyres Ltd, is responsible for Pirelli and Metzeler motorcycle tyre brands in the UK.

The industry wide campaign, which promises to allow people from all over the UK to get on a motorcycle or scooter for the first time, is seen by Pirelli Moto as an important part of the diverse UK market. The company has class leading tyres for all machines including supersport, touring, commuting, off-road and scooters.

The Get On Campaign, which was launched to the trade and media one earlier this month, will promote motorcycling to a wider audience and ultimately give tens of thousands of people a first riding experience, through professional training centres across the UK. The initiative has the full backing of the UK’s major motorcycle distributors including BMW, Kawasaki, Harley-Davidson, Honda, Piaggio, Suzuki and Yamaha. The campaign is designed to drive new enquirers to a website designed for the new to biking public and can be viewed at www.geton.co.uk

The Pirelli Moto - Get On partnership allows both the distributor and its dealers to demonstrate their support for the campaign through point of sale and promotional literature.

Steve Kenward, Motor Cycle Industry Association Chief Executive, commented; “It’s very important that major brands such as Pirelli and Metzeler are backing the Get On campaign, it adds credibility to what the industry is doing- effectively looking for new blood and ‘growing the market’.”

Gianmarco Spigolon, Director of Pirelli Moto UK, concurred, “We are fully supportive of the Get On Campaign- we all have to look to the future and not just our current bikers. It’s a very forward-looking initiative and reflects our own philosophy of innovative marketing plus dealer support.”

Italian to start British Grand Prix from head of MotoGP grid for first time since 2005.

Valentino Rossi took pole position number four of the 2009 season on Saturday afternoon with the fastest lap of MotoGP qualifying at Donington Park. The Fiat Yamaha rider’s time of 1’28.116 gave him his first top spot for the British Grand Prix since 2005 –the last occasion in which he won at the Midlands track.

Rossi now has twice as many pole positions as he did for the entire 2008 season and, following his pole position last week in Germany, heads the qualifying timesheet for consecutive races for the first time since the beginning of 2007. His hot lap came at the end of the session in a frantic shootout, in which he sent Dani Pedrosa –the top man in both Free Practice sessions- packing by just under a tenth of a second.

Teammate and title rival Jorge Lorenzo was also hot on the Italian’s heels, placing third on the grid and maintaining his 100% record of front row starts in the current campaign. He relegated Ducati Marlboro’s Casey Stoner –who lowsided at Macleans for his second fall of the day- to the head of the second line by just 0.044.

Andrea Dovizioso and Colin Edwards join Stoner on row two, riding for Repsol Honda and Monster Tech 3 Yamaha, respectively. Edwards’ teammate and the only home rider in the premier class, James Toseland equaled his best qualifying performance of the year with ninth in the session.

In addition to Stoner’s fall, Scot Racing rider Gabor Talmacsi also came off his bike during the run-out.

Tommy Hill will be back in the ViSK British Superbike Championship in association with Pirelli at Mallory Park this weekend (17/18/19 July).

Hill parted company with the Althea Honda in the World Superbike Championship and since then has been determined to return with a competitive team, in a bid to get back on the podium.

Now he has now been given the chance to ride the Worx Crescent Suzuki in place of injured Sylvain Guintoli at Mallory Park. Hill is already a BSB race winner, taking a maiden win with the Virgin Mobile Yamaha team in 2005 at Cadwell park.

Team manager, Jack Valentine said: "I'd firstly like to thank Michael for his efforts since Sylvain's unfortunate injury.

"Michael did a good job for us, getting two front row starts out of three, while running strong lap times. However, we need to convert good qualification into strong race finishes and we believe Tommy has the ability to do this.

"After completing 45 laps around Mallory Park on the Worx Crescent Suzuki today, he impressed the whole team and on top of his obvious talent, has a good attitude so should fit in well."

"With Sylvain Guintoli making a steady recovery, the team continue to treat each round as it comes, and as such Hill will be riding under a one race contract at Mallory Park.

"We're still not completely sure when Sylvain will be able to get back on a bike, so we're treating everything on a round by round basis.

"However, consistency is obviously very important in racing and if Tommy performs how we anticipate, I see no reason why this deal can't be extended to further rounds."

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