There is little doubt that teammates Colin Edwards and James Toseland are not on the best of terms right now. It all started when Toseland allegedly stole Edwards’s crew chief Garry Reinders. Not to leave no good deed unpunished, Edwards took Toselands crew chief, Guy Coulon, in kind. The flip-flop has left the Tech3 camp in a bit of disarray with both riders now touting how much happier they are, although still very bitter about the outcome. Now Tech3 boss, Herve Poncharal, has weighed in his opinion on the matter.
With the Aprilia riders having an extra day of tests at Phillip Island, it should be no surprise that they sit on the top of the leader board for testing lap times. This extra day has cause some ire from other team managers who state that Aprilia’s actions are pushing up the costs of testing for everyone else. We think that’s a cheap excuse for the fact that Shinya Nakano leads Regis Laconi, who is back with Ducati, and that Aprilia’s Max Biaggi is in a not-so-distant third. Biaggi finished the day on a bit of a low note, having a relatively low-speed fall towards the end of the day. We’ll have to wait for the other teams to start their testing on Saturday before we can see how the grid is stacking up.
BMW Motorrad has made a timely release of some studio shots of the S1000RR WSBK race bike as they take to , right down to the off-center windscreen. One of these days, BMW will hire a painter who isn’t constricted to colors and designs from the 1970’s. Until then, we’ll have to let the test times from PI speak for themselves.
Relax people, its only Tuesday.
Motorcycle News is reporting that the , after funding problems have struck construction of the brand new Balatonring circuit. Rumors of the tracks financial problems have been circulating since the end of last year, but MCN is now claiming to have received information from “senior MotoGP officials”. MCN is also reporting that a move to the brand new Portimao circuit in Portugal was mooted, as a replacement for the Balatonring round, but that this was discounted because it would be too close to the official Portuguese Grand Prix at Estoril in early October. Given the current calls for cost-cutting in MotoGP, the more popular choice might be for the round to be canceled altogether. Skipping a whole weekend would cut down on expenditure significantly.
Source: MotoGP Matters
This week will be the last chance for teams to get some testing in before the World Superbike and Supersport Championship begins on March 1st. Accordingly, teams are flocking to Phillip Island for 4 days of testing, which will hold separate sessions for the two racing series.
It would appear that nobody is immune from the wrath of the recession. Senior management at previously-healthy Ducati have just swallowed a ‘voluntary’10% pay decrease, and have agreed to give up their future bonuses.
One of our first posts on A&R featured the , being built down-under, int he land of Oz. The Aussie’s have an update for us, and the project looks like a runner. The Aprilia chassis has been installed as intended and fired up. It looks like it fits perfectly, and the sound of the bike is simply awesome. Continue reading for video of it running.
Bikes like the Ducati Hypermotard, KTM SuperDuke, and Aprilia Dorsoduro have been gaining in popularity not only in the United States, but also abroad. It is only a logical progression then that there would be some desire to start a formal racing series for these big-bore “hypermotards”, and Europe’s UEM European Supermoto Championship has that answer with a new “Hypermoto” racing class. The Hypermoto class will be open to motorcycles of 600cc and larger, with 1 or 2 cylinders, and can be either 2-strokes or 4-strokes. Races will take place on the same tracks as the Supermoto Championship (S1), minus the dirt sections. All riders will use Dunlop tires (eight tires per weekend), and have to be over the age of 16.
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Many may remember that Valentino Rossi’s dog Guido died recently, so the Italian rider placed a .
According to both Tuttosport and Sportmediaset (both members of the overly-excitable and sometime unreliable Italian press), Marco Melandri will be riding a privately run Kawasaki for 2009. In a deal brockered by Carmelo Ezpeleta, the team will be led by Michael Bartholemy. Details are somewhere between sketchy and nonexistent, but it seems that Kawasaki will make all of the 2009-spec bikes available to Bartholemy, who will field a single rider, Marco Melandri.
Finance for the project will most likely come from Dorna who want to avoid breaching their own contract with the FIM to field at least 18 riders for a world championship, with Kawasaki possibly kicking in some seed money since they don’t want to breach their contract with Dorna. Melandri would presumably be riding the 2009-spec bikes tested by Olivier Jacque in Australia during January, despite reports of poor reliability.
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By now you are well aware of the cost cutting measures that are on the table for MotoGP next season. It looks increasingly likely that practice and testing days will be reduced this year, along with more drastic measures, which include engines that must last for at least two races, and allow riders to have only one race bike instead of two.