Twitegi Circuit Gets Ready for the TwitGP

By now you’ve surely heard the news that the Japanese GP at Motegi has been cancelled because of the volcanic ash the continues to spew out of an unpronounceable mountain in Iceland. With teams unable to fly out of Europe and into Japan, Dorna had no choice but to postpone the event until much later in the season.

Leaving MotoGP fans with nothing to do this weekend except watch the confirmed WSBK stop at Assen, some clever individuals have turned to the internet to get their GP fix. Enter TwitGP, the first virtual sporting event, that’s being hosted on twitter. With a bevy of twitter-based wordplay, TwitGP has seen a number of tweeps get on-board with the concept, which hopes to bring racing action straight to 4,000 or twitter followers come Sunday.

TwitGP may have started a grassroots hair-brained idea, but what started out as a little snowflake has gained the momentum of an avalanche. On-board with the project is Suzi Perry (MotoGP Journalist), Alex Briggs (Mechanic to Valentino Rossi), Fiat-Yamaha, Eurosport, Riders for Health, Scott Redding (Moto2 racer), and Toby Moody (the familiar voice behind MotoGP). The event is even being followed by Jorge Lorenzo, who has been one of the early adopters of twitter in the MotoGP grid.

So far for their efforts, there’s an official circuit, Twitegi Circuit, a special TwitGP Rossi Helmet, and even a TwitGP Press Passes. Even race teams are getting on-board with the concept. We’ve seen race commitments from Lambretta Racing, and the Fiat-Yamaha group seems to be on their way (minus team uniforms though?). There’s even a report that Ben Spies has been trying to steal away Colin Edwards’ IT manager in the Tech3 garage (this sounds familiar).

For more info check out the Official TwitGP Blog, and follow @TwitGP & @TwitGPpr