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MotoGP is set to follow the World Superbike Championship with the addition of a sprint race on Saturday, after qualifying.

The move is aimed at providing more on-track action during on Saturday’s, and adding a bit more spectacle to MotoGP’s racing format.

Sprint races have been a success already with the MotoE World Cup, where the electric bikes feature hard bar-to-bar racing in their limited racing distance.

The Saturday sprint race format in WorldSBK has also been a strong move for Dorna in the production series, so it doesn’t come as a surprise to see the powers are be implementing it in MotoGP.

On my way to the Indianapolis GP this weekend, I was sitting in coach (because that’s how we roll here at A&R) on Delta flight 147 to Atlanta (direct flights are for wusses), passing the time on the 5 hour flight by watching the airline’s 15 or so TV channels ($6 for an in-flight movie??! Who are you kidding Delta?). Suffering through mostly daytime soap operas, I opted to to watch the news stations instead. While the day’s headlines were mostly about the impending apocalypses that were hurricane Irene and the retirement of Steve Jobs as Apple’s CEO, the segment I found the most interesting were the commercials (this should say something about CNN, MSNBC, and FOX News).

Somehow managing to stay conscious long enough through the advertisements, I hear a Sprint spokesman quickly say “what if we design an electric motorcycle?” Surprised to hear such a non sequitur on TV, I looked up in-time to briefly see a CAD drawing of a motorcycle, whose frame quickly reminded me of the Mission R (with and without its clothes). With the rest of the commercial talking about some Samsung tablets, I remembered that Mission Motors uses a Samsung Tab for the prototype Mission R dash (photo after the jump). Could it be the Sprint was hocking Mission Motors in a TV ad?

Triumph is recalling a number of 2010 Triumph Sprint ST and Spring GT motorcycles for a faulty dipstick. Apparently on just over 200 units of the sport-tourers, a dipstick with an incorrect length was installed, which would result in an inaccurate reading being taken from the oil level that could result in the motor running out of oil.

Since only bad things happen with an oil deprived motor, a recall is expected to start before the New Year. For affected owners, Triumph dealers will replace the oil plug/dipstick at the clutch cover free of charge. Concerned 2010 Triumph Sprint owners can contact Triumph at (678) 539-8782, and of course the NHTSA can always be reached at 1-888-327-4236 or safecar.gov.

Source: NHTSA