Emerson Connor – Race update
Laguna Seca

The weather was great and the historic track is definitely a challenging one. Emerson struggled on Saturday with the suspension as it was found to have a blown fork probably as a result of the Sunday rain crash at Indianapolis. This was easy to overlook considering the bike had quite a bit of other damage. Other than that the KTM GP125 ran like a dream. He used his qualifying to set up the new front end the team put on the bike.

By Sunday’s morning warm-up the bike was handling great. Emerson was 14th on the grid for the race. The race was red flagged a few laps in due to a crash and a restart was called. He was now starting in 10th. He got a good start to 8th and held it for the rest of the race. I attached a few pictures from the paddock at Laguna Seca.
 
This was the final race in the America for the 2008 season but since Emerson has finished in the top 10 (8th) he is going Valencia Spain to race at the MotoGP to race in the Riders Cup (top 20 Red Bull Rookies Cup riders in the world-and the only Canadian!). We are very happy since this is his first year in road racing and can see that he really enjoys the fast pace and has picked up on it so well.
 
Another piece of good news is that Emerson has been invited back to the Red Bull Rookies Cup team for the 2009 season! Emerson is very excited and will be working very hard during the off season so that next year he is on the podium more often.
Emerson would like to thank Red Bull, Alpinestars, Dunlop and KTM for believing in him and keeping him part of this program.
 
We will keep you up to date.
Thanks everyone for your support!!!
 
Here is a picture of Emerson and Kurt Nicoll at Indianapolis MotoGP.

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Emerson Connor – Race update
Indianapolis MotoGP

MotoGP IS everything it’s cracked up to be. Boy were we impressed with the show. We want to thank all our friends that came from all over North America to visit with Emerson and cheer him on (we were very impressed with the Canadian flag at turns 3 / 4  hanging from the stands!!!). The facility is absolutely massive and first class. Emerson’s bike was all decaled up with special red numbers and logos indicating to everyone that he is within the elite group of the top 20 GP125 Rookie racers in the world. Emerson being the only Canadian racing at this inaugural event was very special and history in the making.

Practise and qualifying on Friday were tough in the heavy rain conditions which made seeing your pit board at 200+kph.
 
Saturday’s race the weather was perfect (sunny and hot, around 90 degrees). Emerson got a great start and piloted the bike like a champion and held on to 3rd place until the last lap whereby the front end slid out (the front forks were set fairly soft and he was bottoming out on occasion and it finally bit him when he sped up a bit on the last lap-it is hard to set up suspension on track no one has ridden before). He immediately got back up, ran to the bike, lifted it up and called the corner workers over to give him a push. He was able to salvage 8th place.
 
Sunday’s world race was in similar rain conditions to Friday. It started to rain just as the race was about to start so the mechanics had to change to rain tires while the bikes were parked in grid position on the track. The rain halted part way through the race and left the track with dry and wet patches making it very tricky. Going through a very fast turn at about 80 mph the bike high sided him and he injured his left wrist slightly (it looked really bad on the giant TV monitor!). They brought him to the track MotoGP hospital where he was x-rayed and inspected by the famous MotoGP Dr. Costa. We would like to thank our friend Dr. Ed Birdsong (orthopaedic surgeon living in North Carolina- we like to call him the TING of the east coast!) that was attending the races with his family (Debbie, Chris and Pete) for coming down with me to the Moto GP hospital and taking a look at the x-rays and giving me a second opinion and also giving Emerson the all clear (no breaks).
 
o    Dr. Victor Fong (renown Chiropractor with a practice in Mississauga www.citycentrechiro.com ) was also at the race and has generously donated his time this week to giving Emerson some laser therapy to speed up healing so that he will be good to practise this weekend in preparation for the following weekend’s Laguna Seca AMA round. Dr. Fong is also a very good photographer (see attached action shot). Many more of his pictures will be found on Emerson’s website within the next week.
 
Tim Marks from Titan Racing (Emerson’s engine builder and friend since Emerson has been riding 50’s www.titanracingworld.com ) has rebuilt Emerson’s practise GP125 motor for this weekend’s practise in Calabogie.     We are good-to-GO!
 
Thanks everyone for your support!!!
 
 
Best regards,
www.redbullrookiescup.com
www.emersonconnorracing.com
 
 
Scott  R. Connor

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Pole Pole Pole!!
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Emerson was on fire during qualifying and wanted to make a statement. This track is very fast with lots of elevation changes, very exciting.
The race started on Sunday at noon hour and right away the bike was low on power as he was getting smoked on the straightaway. On the 5th lap the electrical system shut down completely causing the bike to stall, Emerson just pulled it over to the wall and waited for a ride. These machines sometimes have a mind of their own.
Even though Emerson did not finish the race he is still in the top 10 in points so he will be running all weekend at Indianapolis in 2 weeks.
Emerson would like to especially thank the Birdsong family, Russell Masacar and Scott Harwell for all their help and assistance this weekend.
 
Emerson will be practising at Calabogie this weekend in preparation for Indy.
 
Thanks for your support!!!

Emerson Connor – Races  August 16-17, 2008
Virginia International Raceway

VIR has to be one of the nicest properties on the circuit. They have the best infrastructure of any track we have been to so far.
Emerson had a great time. He qualified in 2nd on Saturday. This set him up front of the grid for Sunday race day. The 11am race started but had to be postponed due to a serious accident involving a couple of the riders*. They restarted the race at 4pm. Emerson finished the race on Sunday in 4th position just 1.2 seconds behind the leader! The next race is at Road Atlanta August 30-31.
 
*(read more about this on www.redbullrookiescup.com,  we will miss Toriano greatly and wish Lucho a speedy recovery).
 
Thanks for your support!!!.

Emerson Connor – Races  August 2-4, 2008
Mid-Ohio

The weather was very nice and lots of people in attendance. Emerson during qualifying was running near the top the entire time until around the last whereby a freight train of rider dropped their time by a second to match Emerson’s same second (it just so happens we were at the slow end of the second). Riders 2-11 were all within 1 second of qualifying time. Emerson qualified in 11th (3rd row on the grid).
 
The race started and made his way up to 8th battling the entire time with 7th (7th and 8th position were all by themselves). Many times Emerson moved into 7th only to get drafted on the finish line straight. Emerson is still in the top ten with a 12 point lead on the next rider below him, with the rider above him only 1 point ahead.
Next race is in 2 weeks at VIR in Virginia.

Emerson Connor – Races July 18-20, 2008
Laguna Seca California

We now know why the movie stars live here. Man this place is nice (thank goodness I was able to use my points for the hotel as everything triples in price when MotoGP is in town). We flew into San Francisco and headed into Monterey. We rented a couple of Kayaks and then headed out into the giant kelp fields in Monterey Bay (first time on Kayaks for either of us), saw lots of seals, sea lions and otters. Tomorrow we are supposed to go snorkelling in the kelp fields (I am getting a diving knife as I hear there are lots of great whites roaming around).
 
 
Met lots of great people at the races and loads of Canadians came over to our pits to give Emerson their support. Friday’s morning practise was great and he was getting a feel for the track (he said the corkscrew feels steeper than last time, I am sure it does!)
 
The 1st Qualifier in the afternoon was going well until the bottom end blew out of the bike, no big deal since they all get 2 Qualifiers. Saturday morning we got our second Qualifier (whatever position we qualified in was going to be our grid position for both races Saturday and Sunday). He was told to take the first bunch of laps easy as they dropped a brand new motor in it, and then when he was just about to start rolling it on the left handle bar came off the bike (cracked clamp), he was able to stop the bike without crashing (those one handed training drills came in handy!!). He was now stuck in 17th for Grid Position. Race 1 on Saturday afternoon didn’t go any better than the Qualifiers as Emerson’s bike creeped out of the start box during starting and he was penalized with a Stop & Go penalty (which brings you to the back of the pack and then some) but was able to pass a few riders near the back of the pack (I think 18th at final).
 
This morning he was ready to roll for his second race. Starting again from 17th on the grid Emerson got a great start and moved up to 12th by the first corner and was able to claw his way up to 8th for the final. With a few more laps he felt that 6th was obtainable. We stayed to watch the MotoGP race which was unbelievable. Tom Cruise was there watching the race. I attached a few pictures from the session. Thanks to Darrick Lucchesi (Emerson’s coach) for staying with us the entire weekend and Doug Chandler for coming by to see Emerson to give him some tip’s.
 
Our next race at Mid-Ohio August 3rd. I will keep you posted.
 
Thanks for your support!!!
 
Best regards,
Scott  R. Connor

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Emerson Connor – Practice July 3, 2008
Indianapolis Motor Speedway

We arrived on July 2nd to see the Moto GP bikes testing. They looked and sounded great! The Indianapolis Speedway facility is first class and Emerson is looking forward to the race in September.
When we arrived on the morning of the 3rd everything was all set-up and bikes prepped. It was pretty much going to rain all day so they were on rain slicks the entire test. The KTM ran great and Emerson really likes the track. Emerson (along with myself) as you may already know are KTM fanatics and we are very happy to still be racing on KTM’s as that is all he has ever raced on for the 8 years he has been racing. Emerson is sitting 7th overall in points and working to get in the top five. I attached a few pictures from Indianapolis.
 
 
The training he has been taking with Doug Chandler in California has really helped as I have seen improvements in his riding since. Emerson has been keeping up with his fitness and nutrition regiment as well as he believes that being in the best physical shape will pay off in these races. We will be practicing this Sunday at Toronto Motorsports Park in Cayuga and then at Mosport July 14-15 with Pro 6 Cycle before we head to Laguna Seca. Thanks to Tim Marks at Titan Racing for keeping the engine on Emerson’s practice bike in perfect shape and BICKLE Racing for making the best tire warmers.
Thanks for your support!!

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Emerson Connor
Em at Doug Chandler School Buttonwillow California - June 14-15 2008

Emerson had a great 2 days training and learned a lot from Doug. The track was nice and we ran different configurations each day. The days were hot with temperatures running between 102 and 106 degrees. Debra Barton’s bike ran perfect and she was kind enough to put Emerson’s number on it for the training. Emerson’s coach Darrick Lucchesi also showed up to assist. Looking forward to the test at Indianapolis with Red Bull on July 3.

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Hi everyone, I just wanted to let you know how great of a time we had last week in Alabama. The Red Bull crew is great. Testing on Monday and Tuesday went great with Emerson posting 7th place in Tuesday morning practise and then 7th in the mock race Tuesday afternoon. Then we went fishing for a few days waiting for the race weekend to arrive.
 
Come race weekend on Saturday his morning practise the bike did not run (electrical issue) so he sat out. For qualifying in the afternoon they fixed the electrical issue but now there was a carburetion issue that caused the bike to stall when it leaned over but was still able to muster us 17th on the grid in qualifying.
 
The mechanics worked on the bike Saturday evening and Sunday morning and the bike was running beautiful for the Sunday morning warm-up and Emerson posted 2nd fasted lap time of the morning.... the only problem being that on the last lap another rider unexpectantly pulled into his race line as he was already breaking very hard before going into a sharp left turn, Emerson had no choice other than to pull on the breaks extra hard to avoid hitting the other rider but in doing so the bike flipped up into the air and bounced end over end as Emerson slid down the track several hundred feet (uninjured). The bike was basically a ball of carbon fibre and metal and with only a few more hours till race time they were not going to be able to even get close to fixing his bike. So he had to sit out the race but is looking forward to the next race in 3 weeks at Infineon in California.
He is very happy that he can easily ride in the top 10 so early in the season and looking forward improving significantly once his personal GP125 bike arrives in a few weeks and is able to practise on his own.
 
Thanks for your support!
 
Best regards,
Scott  R. Connor