HRC has announced that it has signed Stefan Bradl as a “factory-supported” rider through the 2014 season. The move is surely a reward for Bradl, who easily claimed MotoGP’s “Rookie of the Year” distinction, and perhaps more importantly, showed extreme talent aboard the Honda RC213V.

Said to already have been using a factory-spec frame (Dani Pedrosa’s rejects) for the latter part of the season, it is not clear how much this announcement will change Bradl’s true support from HRC, but it certainly can’t hurt the young German’s chances. Bradl will stay within the LCR Honda team in 2013 & 2014.

You can’t keep a good race team down, as talk in the World Superbike paddock this week has been swirling around the Alstare Racing team. One of several teams to be on the receiving end of Suzuki’s withdrawal from the major racing series, Alstare found its factory-support from Suzuki draw to a close at the conclusion of the 2011 WSBK Championship season. We use the words “factory support” loosely of course, as Alstare Suzuki had been developing the Suzuki GSX-R1000 almost exclusively in-house, receiving only production OEM parts from Suzuki when needed.

As Suzuki shut its doors to WSBK and MotoGP racing, in the hopes of saving money to buy its stock back from minority shareholder Volkswagen (among other things), the Alstare Team Principal Franics Batta vowed that he would race with the Japanese manufacturer, or not race at all. News then came out that linked Team Alstare to possibly taking over the Kawasaki Factory WSBK team, which would later be handed to World Supersport’s Provec Motocard Kawasaki team. Other rumors linked Batta as interested in campaigning with MV Agusta, though the Belgian team owner could not get a callback from Varese.

Progress has seemingly been made on that front though, as Alstare Racing is reportedly closing in on a deal with the Italian company to campaign an MV Agusta F3 in World Supersport, with the relationship possibly growing to include an MV Agusta F4 RR in a seaon’s time.

Ahead of the Japanese GP at Motegi, Team San Carlo Honda Gresini has announced the re-signing of Marco Simoncelli to the satellite Honda team, with SuperSic once again riding on a factory Honda motorcycle. Hoping that the factory Honda RC213V will yield even more positive results for Simoncelli, HRC has thus also renewed their support for the Italian rider, who will join Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrosa as confirmed factory riders for 2012.

With HRC stating all silly season it would have only three factory riders, two in Repsol Honda, for 2012, this announcement is just as much about Marco Simoncelli as it is about Andrea Dovizioso. Though Dovi has beaten Sic on paper all year long, it would seem the other Italian Honda rider will end up in a satellite squad, either with Tech3 (Team Boss Hervé Poncharal has hinted at Dovi being his #1 choice) or LCR Honda. An announcement on Dovizioso’s 2012 plans outside of a factory HRC contract is expected at Motegi as well.

After going it essentially alone for the 2011 World Superbike Championship, the Alstare Suzuki team is weighing its options for 2012, as actual factory support from Suzuki for the “factory Suzuki” squad is again seeming unlikely. Releasing a “read between the lines” press release this week, Alstare has publicly put Suzuki Japan on notice over the fact that the Japanese manufacturer is expected not be developing the Suzuki GSX-R1000 further for WSBK, and will not fund Alstare’s own R&D efforts to remain competitive in the premier production-class.

As such, Alstare has been linked to other manufacturers, both in World Superbike and World Supersport, as the team is known to be one of the better run and organized squads in the WSBK paddock. Plagued with essentially running last year’s machinery with updates developed in-house, Alstare has made a lot of progress with the hand they’ve been dealt, though to run at the top of the pack would require more assistance from Suzuki.

With the Japanese company still reeling from the worldwide recession, support from Suzuki seems unlikely, though Alstare says the company is expected to make its official announcement by the Magny-Cours round this weekend. Read the full text of Team Alstare’s press release after the jump.

The rumormill regarding whether Repsol Honda’s three rider-team will endure for the 2012 MotoGP season has been in full-swing lately, and paddock rumors have pegged Andrea Dovizioso, the only Repsol Honda rider whose contract is up at the end of the season, as moving out into a satellite Honda team. Whether that means Dovizioso lands in LCR, Gresini, or some other team has been the subject of much gossip, rumor, and speculation. Though an answer appears to be coming this weekend, according to Dovi.

How serious is Honda about winning the 2011 MotoGP World Championship? At Team Gresini’s MotoGP launch at Monza today, it was quietly confirmed that the San Carlo Honda Gresini squad has been given the keys to the candy store, turning the team into a factory-backed effort. While Marco Simoncelli was already assured factory support from Honda for the 2011 season, the move adds Hiroshi Aoyama to the factory rider list, and likely makes Gresini’s life infinitely less complex by not having to manage between a factory and non-factory split garage.

Alstare Suzuki announced this morning that Leon Haslam has been let out of his contract with the “factory” Suzuki World Superbike team. Although only halfway through a two-year contract, Haslam is said to have a clause in his contract that guarantees him factory support within the team. With Suzuki’s involvement being brought into question for next season, Alstare team principal Francis Batta has had no choice but to release Haslam from team obligations after Magny-Cours. Although no announcement has come forth, Haslam is widely believed to be taking Ruben Xaus’s seat at BMW for the 2011 season.

Late last year Mavizen announced the TTX02 race bike with the intention of eliminating reasons for teams to pass on electric motorcycle racing. The TTX02 is a fully electric race bike based on the KTM RC8 rolling chassis and TTXGP winning Team Agni drive train. Today Mavizen and TTXGP founder Azhar Hussain rolled out supporting services for teams that still might be on the fence.

For aspiring racers with poor social skills or lack of budget for a team, Mavizen offers a factory support service of your race bike including transporting it from race to race. It sounds like all you have to do is put on your leathers and ride. The race plastic is all you really own with this package and you can put whatever sponsor stickers on it you want.