Bad news for Ben Spies today, as the American rider finds himself a member of prestigious, yet dubious group of MotoGP riders. After losing a case over un-paid commissions, an arbitration panel has ruled that Speez Racing, LLC (the management company for Ben Spies) and Spies himself have failed to compensate Spies’ agent, and must pay Spies former agent, Doug Gond of Protac Inc., $1.9 million in damages and arbitration costs.
Alex de Angelis had some rotten luck last weekend while competing in the Moto2 race at Le Mans, France. Minding his own business, de Angelis was unaware that wildcard Xavier Simeon had crashed behind him. He was also unaware that Simeon’s bike hadn’t crashed, and was careening straight for de Angelis. The rest writes itself, check it out in the video above.
As teams look to the future of MotoGP racing, the rumors are beginning to fly on how the newly revised rules will affect the competitive landscape in the race series. With news already surrounding what opportunities exist for private teams, we focus now on the factory efforts. Making it clear recently that the Bologna factory is not convinced that 1000cc is the optimal displacement with the current fuel restrictions, Ducati’s Filippo Preziosi has hinted that Ducati is considering a 900cc or 930cc displacement for the 2012 race season.
Eskil Suter is a popular man in the Moto2 paddock. Not only is his Moto2 chassis one of the cheapest, but it’s also one of the best performing units. It should be no surprise then that his Moto2 solution (shown above) is one of the most popular in the race series, and Suter sees that as a great jumping off point to enter back into the MotoGP fray (Suter helped engineer the Kawasaki ZX-RR, the Ilmor X3, and the Petronas FP1 SBK race bikes).
With the MotoGP rules in 2012 to allow for claiming rule teams, the door has been opened for a Moto2 styled team (production motor in a prototype frame) to play with the big boys. Suter for his part is looking to draw on his current chassis success, and base his design around the very potent BMW S1000RR motor. The result should be a fairly inexpensive solution to a high-performance race bike as the S1000RR has been popping up on the internet with 190hp stock.
In case you weren’t able to attend the inaugural North American TTXGP electric sportbike race at Infineon Raceway two weekends ago, we’ve got a bevy of photos and videos to make you feel like you were right there at the Sonoma track (minus a lack of wine). Above we have the full race from the perspectives of Zero/Agni’s #21 Shawn Higbee and #14 Kenyon Kluge (courtesy of Zero Motorcycles). And after the jump, we have photos and clips from the race and practice sessions. Enjoy.
Igor Chack may only be 26 years old, but this designer’s eyes have a taste for something old with a modern twist. Taking his inspiration from the 1929 Soviet Izh–1, Chack sees this iconic motorcycle coming to life nearly 80 years later with a hybrid powertrain and a bevy of features not only unthinkable in 1929, but not seen on today’s motorcycles as well.
Chack’s design centers around a 850cc hybrid motor that makes 140hp when running off of fossil fuel. 50% of the motor is made from heat resistant reinforced plastic, which helps reduce weight and enclose the integrated electric circuits. On the electric side of the powertrain there is a 60kW brush-less motor that’s built into the rear rim, along with its own two-speed gearbox. Chack estimates the combo could achieve 80mpg with the bike’s on-board fuel management system deciding which drive to use.
This is getting a chuckle around the A&R office this morning. It looks like some Buell owners are finding some extra time on their hands now that the American street bike company is out of business. That’s ok by us, because these boys have a good sense of humor, and some balls to grab some footage from a Harley-Davidson dealer.
Taking a couple good shots at Harley-Davidson, we’re left only with the question as to whether the Extra Soft Tail Deluxe Hyperglide American Bald Eagle Historical Limited VXFR1200 Patriot Skull Edition comes in Nightster Black.
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The MotoGP continues, this time with a rumor that’s not about one of the four alien riders. MotoGP veteran Loris Capirossi has long been the rider behind the development of the Suzuki GSV-R in MotoGP, but that hasn’t stopped the lens of paddock gossips from pointing Capirex towards the direction of a satellite Ducati team. More specifically, Capirossi has been linked to talking to the Pramac Ducati team about a seat on a satellite Ducati for 2011.
Crash.net is reporting that Casey Stoner has already made his mind up to leave Ducati, according to a high-ranking Marlboro Ducati team member. While rumors were rife a couple weeks ago that Stoner had signed a deal to ride with HRC in the upcoming season, parties were quick to correct that nothing had been signed, and this was still rumor. Rumor it might be, but the skinny in the MotoGP paddock is that Stoner has basically come to terms with riding with Honda in 2011, with the contract ready to go, but still sans signatures.
We’ll be the first to admit that we don’t fully understand why KTM made the X-Box, better known as the go-kart on steroids…but we sure do want one nonetheless. Along that same vein, we’re not sure why a company like Ducati, known for its two-wheeled pieces of art and performance, would want to try its hand in the four-wheeled realm, but if this is the result, we could probably get over that sentiment.
The countdown to Memorial Day weekend is alive and well in the Asphalt & Rubber office this week (in fact our web designer already took off for Amsterdam…no good can come from that). As we Americans get ready for a three-day weekend (four-days if you played your vacation/sick days right), one of the highlights that we can look forward to is World Superbike’s sole stop in the US at the Miller Motorsports Park.
Helping get us ready for the only WSBK race to occur on a Monday, we’ve gotten ahold of all the past WSBK races, and put them into one post so you can re-cap the 2010 season to-date. Ok, ok, World Superbike put them up on YouTube, and we copy/pasted the clips into this post…but still, it’s a great way to re-live the WSBK season before it hits MMP, or to just catch a race you missed. Kyalami above, Monza, Assen, Valencia, Portimao, and Phillip Island after the jump. Enjoy!