Watching freestyle trials riders is an exercise in understanding what most motorcyclists imagine they could do on two-wheels when they dream at night, but could never really hope to achieve in a million years during the waking hours.

Brimming with a skill set of patience, balance, and balls, riders like 12-time World Trials Champion Dougie Lampkin entertain us with their antics in confined spaces, on urban landscapes, and wiith gravity-defying front wheels.

So what happens when Lampkin visits the headquarters of Red Bull Racing? Well the obvious of course: wheelies, stoppies, burnouts…and that was just in the front courtyard.

Things start getting interesting though when Lampkin nips a bite to eat in the café, takes a look inside the F1 team’s giant kiln, and then later decides to jump a priceless Formula 1 race car. All in day’s work for a wanderlusting trials rider — we’ll just keep on dreaming.

Since the global financial crisis struck back in 2008, MotoGP’s primary focus has been on cutting costs. These efforts have met with varying success – sometimes reducing costs over the long-term, after a short-term increase, sometimes having no discernible impact whatsoever – and as a result, the grids in all three classes are filling up again.

Further changes are afoot – chiefly, the promise by Honda and Yamaha to supply cheaper machinery to private teams, either in the form of production racers, such as Honda’s RC213V clone, or Yamaha’s offer to lease engines to chassis builders – but there is a limit to how much can be achieved by cutting costs. What is really needed is for the series to raise its revenues, something which the series has signally failed to do.

In truth, the series has never really recovered from the loss of tobacco sponsorship, something for which it should have been prepared, given that it had had many years’ warning of the ruling finally being applied.

The underlying problem was that the raising of sponsorship had been outsourced and the marketing of the series had been outsourced to a large degree to the tobacco companies, and once they left – with the honorable, if confusing, exception of Philip Morris – those skills disappeared with them. There was nobody left to try to increase the amount of money coming into the sport.

News of a possible MotoGP round in Austin, Texas sent GP fans in the United Stats into a flurry, but the proposed third US round has been anything but a sure thing since its announcement, and continues to be so even after the signing of a 10-year contract. Trouble first started brewing as the Circuit of the America’s had trouble finalizing its deal with Formula 1, a deal that was the linchpin to the circuit’s financing. With the issues with F1 resolved, and the premier car racing series set to take the green flag at Austin later this year, MotoGP seemingly is having the same problem of coming to Austin.

Reported by the local Austin news site the Statesman, the issue is both complex and relatively simple. As with Formula 1, the rights to host MotoGP at the Austin track reside with Full Throttle, a promotion company owned in part by Tavo Hellmund, who in turn was a partner of the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) project. When last year Formula 1′s contract with Hellmund was found to be in breach, F1 Boss Bernie Eccelstone terminated his contract with Hellmund, which then sent the F1 deal at Austin into a tailspin, and caused COTA to deal directly with Formula 1 in securing the racing series.

With Hellmund also being the bond that tied MotoGP to Austin, the same issue has arisen with COTA and Dorna, the media rights holder to the MotoGP Championship. According to court documents, Hellmund alleges that COTA had an opportunity to buy the rights to host MotoGP for $18 million from Full Throttle/Hellmund when it bought the similar rights to Formula 1. Clearly unable to close that deal at the time, unless the Circuit of the Americas can secure those rights in the coming months, the Austin GP scheduled for 2013 will likely not be held.

Previously set to host Formula One in 2012 and MotoGP in 2013, the Circuit of the Americas promises to bring more premier motorsport racing to the United States of America. However, news coming out of Austin, Texas is that construction of the new GP-quality circuit has been halted because a contract between Formula One and Circuit of the Americas has not yet been conveyed to the race track according to the parties’ previously agreed upon timetable.

While it is not clear why the contract from Formula One has not been delivered to organizers of the Circuit of the Americas, the news that the construction at the circuit’s location, with its over 300 construction workers, has been halted could mean delays in having the venue ready for the 2012 Formula One season, which in turn could cause delays with MotoGP’s plans to run at the track a year after the premier car racing series. The Circuit of the Americas organizers say construction on the facility would resume once delivery of the Formula One Grand Prix race contract occurs.

A tremendous commotion was started today, as a panel in the Texas Senate decided to cut the $25 million subsidy set aside to help bring Formula 1 to the city of Austin, Texas. Immediately this sent concerns through the motorcycling press as to what it could mean for MotoGP and the Texan GP scheduled to be held in 2013, as it seemed the State of Texas was pulling its support from the still un-built Circuit of the Americas.

The short answer to that question is nothing, as the $25 million was ear-marked to go directly into Formula 1′s pocket, not to MotoGP’s coffers. However, the long answer to the question is a bit more convoluted, as MotoGP’s running in Austin is intrinsically linked to Formula 1 coming to the Texan track, which this budgetary decision seemingly directly affects.

Fiat Chairman Luca di Montezemolo has thrown some more fuel on the never-ending fires about a Valentino Rossi’s rumored switch to Formula One racing. Fiat as you might remember is the title sponsor of the factory Yamaha MotoGP team, and also the parent company to Ferrari. In what he calls a “great idea”, di Montezemolo made it clear that he would like to see the seven-time World Champion driving for Corse Rosa.

In case you don’t follow the series, Formula 1 has been in state of flux for the past few years. 2009 saw a host of new rules introduced to make the sport once again exciting. Adding to the on-track drama has been the discourse off the track by the teams, race promoters, and drivers. Currently, Bernie Ecclestone (Formula One Management) and Max Mosley (FIM) are attempting to impose a £40 million budget cap on the teams, which follows their attempt to instigate a two-tier technical rule system for capped and uncapped teams.

Unwilling to follow such a system, the newly formed Formula One Teams Association (FOTA), has come together as a collective bargaining group aganst Ecclestone and Mosley. FOTA has raised the ante in their negotiations, and has now threatened to pull out of the 2010 Formula 1 season. Taking their toys and going home, FOTA plans on starting its own series, with perhaps Carmelo Ezpeleta, of Dorna fame, as its head.

Friday, Donington Park announced two major developments. The first announcement is that Donington Park has passed FIM inspection, just ahead of this month’s WSBK stop, and next month’s MotoGP stop at the historic British track.

The second announcement is that DVLL, the track operator which leases the premises from landowner Tom Wheatcroft, has settled on its past due rent payments, thus insuring the continued use of the track for motoring events.

Editor’s note: The colored rims are only for non-competetive sessions such as the Free Practice sessions, and for Qualifying or Racing.

Bridgestone, the now sole provider of tires for the MotoGP series, is taking a cue from from Formula 1 and coloring the rims of MotoGP bikes to indicate the tire compound the rider has selected. Like in Formula 1, green will be used for riders using the soft compound, and red for riders using the hard compound. 

For now, this is purely for the enjoyment of TV viewers, but there is speculation that color codes could lead to abuse by teams looking to inject a little disinformation into their rival teams. We imagine safeguards similar to those in Formula 1 will be put in place, and that the coloring scheme will play into MotoGP racing as it has in the pinnacle of auto racing.

Source: Two Wheels Blog

Trouble has surrounded Donington Park since in began redesigning the track to make it suitable for Formula One. First, the track had to reschedule and postpone a number of events after complaints about the construction. Then the run off area between Macleans and Coppice was severely compromised when the new paddock access tunnel was being built. Now, Donington seems to have legal trouble brewing as the owner of the track, Tom Wheatcroft, has started proceedings against Donington Ventures Leisure Limited for unpaid rent.