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Could we see the return of Ben Spies to motorcycle racing? That’s the talk of the paddock right now, and the former MotoGP racer is helping fuel the fires with his social media posts.

Our sources point to Spies gearing up for a return to domestic racing, as he looks to ride in the MotoAmerica Championship (presumably on a superbike), and possibly also as a team owner as well, fielding his own entry.

This should come as a surprising but welcomed bit of news to motorcycle racing fans, as the 33-year-old seemingly retired from motorcycle racing after the 2013 MotoGP Championship season, after extensive damage to his shoulders seemed to rule him out of a future of racing motorcycles.

Casey Stoner has quashed rumors that he could make a return to MotoGP. In an interview with the British magazine Autosport, he says he will not come back to Grand Prix racing while it continues in the direction it is heading in. “I’m closed. I’m done with it,” Stoner told Autosport.

There have been persistent rumors that Stoner could come back for a couple of wildcards at the end of the season, though the Australian has denied he would be interested in coming in as a wildcard.

More outlandish rumors surfaced a month ago, claiming that Stoner was close to making a shock return to Ducati, and that the Italian company’s new German ownership had offered him a large sum to race again.

When Suzuki announced that they would be pulling out of MotoGP at the end of the 2011 season, they were keen to emphasize that the withdrawal was only temporary, saying they were planning a return to MotoGP in 2014. Though many paddock regulars were sceptical about such a suggestion, Suzuki is sticking to its guns, it seems. In an interview with Italian website GPOne, Suzuki Racing’s technical director Shinichi Sahara reaffirmed that they were still working towards a 2014 return to MotoGP, based on the motorcycle the factory had been developing before the decision was made to pull out.

Just a couple weeks after fracturing his collarbone in three places at Motegi, Dani Pedrosa will once again take to his Honda RC212V, as the Spanish rider has indicated he will take part in Friday’s FP1 in Australia. Taking the Malaysian GP off in order to heal his shoulder, Pedrosa may no longer be in the running for the MotoGP Championship, but he’s shown strong improvements on the Honda RC212V the past few races, a trend he’ll be keen to continue through the rest of the season as he fights for second place in the standings.

Good news comes from the Interwetten Honda Racing team this week as Hiroshi Aoyama has been cleared to ride this weekend at the Red Bull Indianapolis GP. Aoyama has been siting out MotoGP racing ever since his highside at Silverstone, which fractured one the Japanese rider’s vertebrae. Missing nearly two months of racing, Aoyama participated in MotoGP’s test at Brno two weeks ago, and seemed ready to come back to the sport. In his absence Honda test rider Kousuke Akiyoshi and Alex de Angelis have been carrying the Interwetten banner. Riding at Brno, Aoyama was instantly faster than de Angelis, proving that the Japanese rider’s decision to let his back heal naturally was the better course of treatment than having his vertebrae fused together.

john-hopkins

John Hopkins last week at Assen. While initial reports suggested that no bones had been broken, Hopkins, upon his return back to California, found that in addition to the muscle and tendon damage suffered in the dislocation, he also had a fractured femur. The renowned surgeon and motorcycle crash specialist, Dr. Ting operated on Hopkins on Monday, inserting screws to fix the fracture. Hopper has already left the hospital to start his recovery at his California home, and hopes to return to competitive action at the US round of WSBK at the Miller Motorsport Park on May 31st.

 

Spanish magazine Solo Moto has gotten word that Harley-Davidson has put together a plan to revive the Cagiva brand. Cagiva, like many Italian marks, has struggled the past years because of poor financing and business management. In its deal to acquire MV Agusta, Harley-Davidson also acquired Cagiva with that hopes that the American company could provide a remedy to these problems, and has recently laid out its plan on how it is going to achieve those goals. Read more about their road map for Cagiva after the jump.