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When we talk about shrinking grid sizes, it is usually MotoGP that gets the bulk of our scrutiny; however, some concern is starting to be generated over how large the field will be for the World Superbike Championship next season.

While there were 23 bikes on the starting grid at Phillip Island in 2012, for 2013 that number could well be 19 or less at the season-opener. While there are a number of factors for the smaller grid, it is no small coincidence that WSBK is short the same number of bikes that Effenbert Liberty Racing fielded last season.

MotoGP has just announced that six new teams will be inducted into the premier motorcycle racing series come the 2012 season. Recieving more bids than there was room for, Dorna’s list of new entries is entirely comprised of teams who currently campaign in the Moto2 or 125 GP Championships, which is less surprising than it seems since these teams already have the resources and logistics to do the globetrotting that MotoGP requires, not to mention the economies of scale.

Also, the participation of these teams in the lower classes serves as a vetting process to ensure that only quality race efforts enter MotoGP. Conversely, it’s in the best interest of Dorna to create a ladder program within the three Championships, so participating teams can groom young talent all the way from Moto3, through Moto2, and into the premier class. Find the list of the six new Moto1 MotoGP teams after the jump.

When we first heard the news about the upcoming Moto2 series, we were excited about the rumors of Bimota coming back into the racing scene; after all the 600cc prototype class seemed like the perfect place for the Italian company to show off its amazing chassis designs. So understandably it saddened us to see Bimota not taking a dominant role as teams and the series itself matured. As the situation would have it, only FB Corse signed on to use the HB4 race bike. This however seems to be no longer the case, as another team has shown interest in what we believe is the best looking bike in the Moto2 paddock.

Spanish news site AS.com has an interesting story that breaks down the cost teams will have to bear in the new Moto2 600cc prototype series. Moto2 replaced 250GP for one main reason: money. The series was designed to be cheaper to enter and cheaper to compete in, as well as having bikes that were more analogous to what is making it into consumers’ hands on the showroom floor. So did Moto2 live up to these goals? The answer as AS.com found out is a resounding yes. Click past the break to see the price breakdown and comparison to 250GP.

After crowdsourcing their rule book, TTXGP has set another unprecedented move in racing by allowing teams to own up to 70% of the series itself. The union (TEO), as TTXGP calls it, will be transfered stock in in TTXGP Ltd, the company behind the TTXGP series. Teams then who comprise of the TEO membership will be award individual “units” of TEO based on the number of races the teams enter and their position in the standings.

For 2010, 30% of TTXGP Ltd. will be transfered to TEO, and the goal is to have 70% of the company up for grabs by 2020. TEO will have a considerable amount of sway in how TTXGP is run, thus creating a more open atmosphere for the direction of the series. The move to give teams a vested interest like this also serves to encourage more participation in the series. More after the jump.

Moto2 entries are overflowing at this point in time, with 40 teams on the provisional provisional list (not a typo) that was supposed to contain onl7 37 brave entrants. The overbooking doesn’t seem to be an accident though, as while many teams jumped on-board with the pocketbook friendly GP series, the reality of funding a new racing effort in this economy has become apparent.

Moto2 teams are scrambling to make the bottom-line turn from red to black, and for many this means finding riders with personal sponsorships. There are only so many riders who can fit this bill, suggesting that this number of 40 could be dropping radically in the near future as teams realize that their ends won’t meet. Entry list after the jump.