At Triumph’s EICMA press presentation today, the British brand confirmed that it would have a small-displacement world market bike for the 2015 model year.
Showing a very sporty concept sketch of the machine, Triumph also confirmed that the model would have a single-cylinder engine, be 250cc in displacement, and be manufactured at the company’s new India facility.
Ducati has announced its World Superbike lineup for the next two seasons. For 2014 and 2015, Chaz Davies and Davide Giugliano will race the Ducati 1199 Panigale for the Italian factory, though details of the team structure are still pending. Testing is due to start for Davies and Giugliano at the end of October, initially with the Ducati test team.
After Alstare split from Ducati after the final round of 2013, there has been much speculation on who would take over the running of Ducati’s World Superbike squad. It is believed that it will come down to a choice between Feel Racing, who ran BMW’s WSBK entry in 2013, and have a long association with Ducati, or an internal Ducati team. The internal team is rumored to be the preferred option at the moment.
The future of the World Superbike series is about to undergo a radical change. The EVO class to be introduced from next year onwards is to be the standard for all World Superbike machines from the 2015 season onwards. As the WSBK grids have dwindled over the past four years, World Superbikes have been looking around at ways to stop the decline of the series.
Former owners Infront were unsuccessful at stopping the rot, and now that the series is in the hands of Dorna, the Spanish series organizer has sat down with the manufacturers – previously excluded – and tried to find a way to cut costs drastically and increase participation.
Talking to MotoGP.com this weekend at the Indianapolis GP, Kenny Roberts Sr. admitted to the website that he is working on putting together a new GP program for the 2014 or 2015 season — though was quick to caution against the project’s full-fruition.
“We’re working on it. And we’re working on something quite big – it’s going to happen or it’s not going to happen. It’s not going to be almost there. When we come back we’ll come back in a big way! And if you don’t see me, you’ll know we didn’t get it done,” said King Kenny.
Just hours before the development team’s public debut on the track (private debuts here & here), Suzuki has announced that it will return to the MotoGP Championship in 2015, not 2014. That gives the Japanese factory 21 months to develop its inline-four GP bike with test rider Randy de Puniet, and Davide Brivio at the helm as test team manager.
While the Suzuki has not given a reason behind its prolonged return, the fact that the team would have to foot the bill for its Bridgestone tires, as well as its travel/shipping costs, certainly didn’t help justify an early re-entry for Dorna’s prodigal factory, especially if the bike fails to impress on its first direct comparison to the machines of Honda, Yamaha, and Ducati.
Said to still be carrying a grudge for Suzuki (and Kawasaki’s) broken promises, and departure from the series, Dorna’s Carmelo Ezpeleta has given Suzuki no favors in its return to Grand Prix racing. Dorna originally wanted Suzuki to re-enter the series through an existing team, rumored to be Team Aspar, but ultimately had to scrap that plan as no current MotoGP team was willing to take on the onerous task of managing the factory-backed squad.
Still, Suzuki’s return will mean another two bikes on the MotoGP grid, and Suzuki itself will manage and run the MotoGP team. What the will do to the 2013 silly season remains to be seen, but we can’t wait to see some more photos of the still unnamed Suzuki GP bike on the track. A press release from Suzuki Racing is after the jump.
Honda is to continue to supply engines for the Moto2 class. Dorna announced today that they had reached agreement with Honda Motor Company to provide engines for the intermediate class for three more seasons, from 2013 through 2015.
Maintenance of the engines has been switched, however. The Swiss-based company Geo Tech Engineering lost the contract for maintenance on the spec engines, which has now shifted to ExternPro, an engineering firm based at the Motorland Aragon circuit.
It looks like the rumors were true, as Dorna announced today that the MotoGP World Championship will race in Argentina during the 2013 season. In an event attended by Argentinean President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, Dorna announced that MotoGP will come to the Autódromo Termas de Río Hondo track in the Santiago del Estero province for three years, starting in 2013 (subject to FIM homologation of course). Bringing premier motorcycle racing back to South America, Argentina is the second stop added so far to the 2013 calendar, as Austin, Texas will also host MotoGP starting in 2013.