After a brief stint in MotoGP riding for the ill-fated factory Kawasaki squad (you do remember when Kawasaki raced in MotoGP, right?), Anthony West found himself demoted back into GP racing’s middle class, riding in Moto2 with the MZ team. Now getting a chance back in the big show, Ant West will make his MotoGP return riding a CRT bike with the Speed Master team for the 2012 MotoGP Championship.

With CRT entries being comprised of both a production motor and custom chassis, there is a tremendous amount of intrigue regarding what combinations teams will field, and acording to our friends at MotoMatters, West will likely be riding an FTR chassis with either a Honda or Aprilia motor in it.

MCN and GPone are both reporting that the Mapfire Aspar team has decided to drop Ducati for 2012 season, after being incable of coming to terms with the Italian motorcycle manufacturer. Unable to negotiate an amicable lease price on the Ducati Desmosedici GP12, the Aspar MotoGP team has instead opted to cut its costs dramatically, and run a CRT machine for the 2012 season.

With close ties to Suter, which helps power the Aspar Moto2 effort, a BMW/Suter machine is at the top of the speculation list, though MCN says Aspar has also expressed interest with Aprilia (another company Aspar has close ties to) regarding using a RSV4 motor.

FTR has been working on an RSV4 CRT race bike, though there is also talk that the engineering firm has shelved that project. Idle-speculation could see the two parties linking up and reevaluating the concept, especially since many in the MotoGP paddock view the Aprilia RSV4 as a MotoGP bike built to meet World Superbike specifications.

As we published at the Indianapolis GP this past weekend, Colin Edwards’ time in the Monster Yamaha Tech3 garage seemed to be coming to an end, as the veteran MotoGP racer and former-World Superbike Champion was linked to several other possibilities in WSBK and MotoGP for the 2012 season. Making his thoughts clear, Edwards believes there’s some value to the claiming rule team (CRT) formula, saying ”I think there’ll be tracks where it’s going to surprise some people.”

Finally releasing his plans for the 2012 season, Edwards announced today at the San Marino GP that he will race for the Italian NGM Forward Racing team, on a CRT bike, next season. While the team has been linked to a BMW/Suter motor and chassis, Edwards will use instead an R1 motor with a custom chassis. The preference right now is for Tech3′s Guy Coulon to make a chassis for the R1 motor, as the team did for its own Moto2 effort, but nothing has been finalized with the French MotoGP team.

The CRT rumors continue to swell around Colin Edwards, as the American rider is now being linked to the Italian NGM Forward Racing team for the 2012 MotoGP racing season. Slated to make an announcement at Misano about his future, Edwards has made no secret to the fact that he’s intrigued with the CRT’s possibilities. ”I think there’ll be tracks where it’s going to surprise some people,” said Edwards to Asphalt & Rubber while talking about the CRT formula’s potential.

While Edwards also went on to say that “there will be tracks I think where a CRT bike will get its doors blown off,” the two-time World Superbike Champion concluded his thoughts on the subject saying that an R1 motor in a custom chassis would be a lethal combo. “For me, the weapon of choice if you were going to go CRT would be that. 100%.”

Such a Yamaha-derived solution would have likely come from Edwards’ current team: Monster Yamaha Tech 3, which has had a healthy relationship with Yamaha over the years, and also has a strong history of being the top satellite effort in MotoGP. Talking to Guy Coulon, Edwards’s crew chief at Tech 3, A&R has learned that at the very least Tech 3 has explored the idea of a CRT bike with an R1 motor at one point. Coulon briefly outlined to us that he had all the necessary schematics and specifications, based in-part from his Moto2 chassis design, to build a prototype frame for the production motor, but just needed word from on-high to undertake such a project.

With rumors swirling around where Colin Edwards will land next year, we grabbed a moment with the Texas Tornado to ask him about one rumor that keeps cropping up: him on a claiming rule team for the 2012 season. Of course, you don’t just ask Colin Edwards direct questions, and expect direct answers, as the Texan enjoys a good laugh.

Getting some MotoGP-rookie hazing, Edwards had some fun with A&R while talking about CRTs, but what the Texan did say (or in some cases, didn’t say) is pretty interesting. One thing is for certain, the two-time World Superbike champion was very keen on having a pepped-up production motor inside a prototype chassis for his bike next year.

With an official announcement likely to come at Misano, the question now is where Colin will end up for 2012. Welcome to Silly Season 2011 ladies and gentleman.

MotoGP race team LCR Honda has been caught dabbling with one very trick Honda CBR1000RR. While we’re having a hard time believing the rumors that LCR Honda intends to use the bike as claiming-rule team (CRT) entry in MotoGP, the LCR Honda CBR1000RR is an exercise on what one can do with enough money and access to HRC’s secret stash of motorcycle racing parts.

Raiding the HRC parts catalog, Lucio Cecchinello and his crew have boosted the Fireblade’s output to 200hp, and completing the kit are 2010 Öhlins MotoGP forks, Brembo carbon fiber brakes, Marchesini wheels, and of course a Playboy replica paint scheme (naturally). One of the most impressive CBRs you’ll find, we caution you not to believe other reports that state this is all a part of LCR considering a CBR motor as the basis for a CRT entry.

The real question about the 2012 MotoGP season may be this: will the switch back to liter engines, and the rules that accompany that change, mean that non-factory teams can compete for the championship? Consider Alex de Angelis, shown here at the Sachsenring in 2009, hanging off his satellite Honda in typical style, and the fact that he was 2nd in the 2003 125cc championship, and third in 2006 and 2007 as a 250cc rider, but only had one podium in two years in the premier class.

Since the switch from 2-stroke 500s non-factory teams have not had much of a chance at taking the title, and for a rider on a satellite team the only realistic goal has been to be the Best of the Rest. We will almost certainly see a larger grid in 2012, but will the advantages the Claiming Rule Teams have (more fuel per race, more engines per season) mean they will be in a more competitive position?

I hope that riders such as De Angelis will find themselves competing for more than a few points each round, and will have a greater chance to show they belong in MotoGP before being demoted to another class or series.

When the guidelines for the 2012 MotoGP season were released, a new class of motorcycle was allowed entry into the top series of motorcycle racing. Allowing the use of production-based motors in prototype chassis, claiming rule teams will be able to enter into the series theoretically for much less money than non-factory teams could in the past, which is a move by Dorna to bolster the GP grid size.

One of the first firms to jump on the opportunity is Suter Racing Technology, the maker of one of the more popular chassis being used in Moto2 this season. Using a BMW S1000RR motor as the power plant, the prototype race bike is based heavily off Suter’s MMX Moto2 bike.

German magazine Speedweek is reporting that Norton will be back in GP racing for the 2012 season with a two-man team. Speedweek‘s highly respected Austrian journalist Gunther Wiesinger has received word that Norton has requested two spots on the 2012 MotoGP grid, and has signed a request to join the series when it returns to the 1000cc format. It’s unclear at this time if Norton will be entering as a claiming rule team (CRT), or be listed as a factory prototype, which could have a dramatic affect on the team’s success in the series.

With the factory Suzuki team flailing near the bottom of the pack, many have expected the ill-fated teal team to withdraw from the series. However Suzuki has a contract with Dorna through 2011, which would prevent the team from leaving MotoGP, but as we saw with Kawasaki in the 2009 season, even Dorna can’t force a manufacturer to race. Putting the issue to bed during the British Superbike round at Brands Hatch, Suzuki Team Boss Paul Denning said that the Suzuki GP team would “100%” be in MotoGP next year.