Former Formula1 Champion, Michael Schumacher, has called off his plans to race this weekend at Lausitzring in Germany in the German IDM Championship on Holzhauer Racing’s Honda CBR1000RR. Schumacher had been team back in November, and prior to that has been seen taking laps on both Hondas and Ducatis in the past.
For the tests in Jerez, Ducati will be providing Nicky Hayden with a new set of foot pegs for his GP9. After studying track data, Borgo Panigale has revealed that the 2006 World Champion touches the rear-brake of the GP9 with his foot without noticing it. At Honda, Nicky’s propensity to hit the rear-brake had also been discovered, and was attributed to his past in dirt track riding. With these new foot pegs, we’ll see if the Kentucky Kid can gain a few tenths of a second without even trying.
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UPDATE: Roberto Rolfo announced on his website that he would be leaving Stiggy Racing, due to “reasons beyond his control.” Those reasons beyond his control would seem to be: John Hopkins joining Stiggy Honda, having sponsorship coming with him, and generally not performing that well last season.
According to Roadracing World, John Hopkins is officially racing with Stiggy Honda’s World Superbike team. John Hopkins’ agent Bob Moore confirmed the news that that Hopper will be riding a Stiggy Honda CBR1000RR in the World Superbike Championship series, starting with the next round at Valencia, which starts April 3rd.
While we have lamented about how Oberdan Bezzi is a motorcycle artist and not a motorcycle journalist, despite the fact he is often cited as if he were one, the Italian artist has posted information on his blog (alongside a render of course) that Yamaha is rumored to be building a Moto2 bike which will be ready to compete when the series replaces the 250 class, either in 2010 or 201.
The Spanish based BQR-Honda is the first team to unveil their Moto2 series bike. The CBR-esque bikewill make its debut this season in the Spanish Roadracing Championship (CEV), before going on to race in the Moto2 series in 2011 when it premieres. The 599cc, 140hp, Honda motor is framed into a prototype aluminum chassis, and tips the scales at 302lbs (137kg).
Controversy surrounds the sourcing of the motor from Honda. The BQR team has used a modified Honda CBR 600 engine, which is entirely within the rules of the new category, but also goes against the spirit of the new series. Having a road bike take key parts and development from production road bikes is the exact opposite of what prototype racing is about. The purpose of the Moto2 series is to setup an exotic testing ground for the 600cc class of streetbikes. With these bikes based so closely on the production models, one can only think that World Superbike and Supersport are feeling a little infringed on.
SBK has a contract with the FIM that grants them the exclusive rights to organize a world championship for production motorcycles, and Paolo Flammini (owner of IMS, which operates the SBK) has made several public statements saying that they intend to defend those rights aggressively. While the BQR bike will race first in the Spanish national championship, IMS will have no grounds for recourse, but that could all change in 2011 when Moto2 goes live.
Yesterday, Honda announced that they would be cutting back on their motorcycle racing program, most notably withdrawing their factory team from the Suzuka 8 Hour race. Additionally, motocross and other off-road events will be dropped in order to cut costs, but we’ll miss Suzuka the most. The 8 Hour Suzuka race is a big deal for the Japanese Four. Each year Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki and Kawasaki rope in their top riders from around the world to compete in the prestigious race, much to the chagrin of the riders who are usually enjoying their off-season time. Last year the race was won by Carlos Checa and Ryuichi Kiyonari.
Honda’s withdrawal does not mean that there will be a lack of Hondas on the grid. Only the factory team won’t race this year, but the Honda spokeswoman told the press that they would still help the remaining Honda privateers.
The one piece of good news from the announcement was confirmation of Honda’s commitment to MotoGP. Honda “won’t quit the MotoGP,” she said, adding that though Honda would be scaling back its support for motorcycle racing in general, the one series this would not affect would be MotoGP.
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MotoGP is a special animal. Like how Formula 1 is for automobiles, MotoGP is supposed to embody what the cutting edge of technology can bring to the sport of motorcycling. The talent is the pinnacle of its field, and the bikes are rolling R&D platforms.
This also means of course that the costs are exuberant, and instead of an instant applicable payoffs, the value of racing instead comes down the road many years later as the technology trickles down to the production-level bikes.
This makes MotoGP unlike the racing other series, whereas in World Superbike for instance, teams are working with a bike that is actually sold en masse to the consumer, costs for product line development can be absorbed, and the fabled “Race on Sunday, Sell on Monday” marketing buzz phrase has some bearing on reality.
Because of the intangible returns on investments, and escalating environment of prototype racing, it is not surprising to see the semi-departure of Kawasaki for 2009. So how much money are teams really losing by racing at the top of the sport?
There’s been a lot of talk in the auto industry lately about electric cars, and moving to fully electric platforms. Quietly, motorcycle companies have seen the writing on the wall, and have been exploring electric two-wheel applications for new models. KTM has promised to bring an electric bike by this time in 2010, and Quantya has an electric dirt bike, the Strada already available for purchase.
Not to be left out on this one, Honda has announced that it has partnered with Yuasa to bring an electric bike line-up to their model range by the year 2010.
“Honda is currently developing a battery-powered electric motorcycle which emits no CO2 during operation. The company is aiming to introduce this electric motorcycle to the market about in two years from now,” says Takeo Fukui, Chairman and CEO of Honda Motor Co. “History shows that motorcycles remain strong in a difficult market environment and have always supported Honda in difficult times,” he adds.
Yuasa, maker of most motorcycle batteries (check yours), will be responsible for the development of the high-performance lithium-ion batteries necessary for the electric motorcycles. The two companies will jointly set up a research and development center, and a battery manufacturing facility near Kyoto in Japan. This joint venture is being funded to the tune of $18.5 million, with Honda holding a 49% stake in the company, and the rest being held by Yuasa.
Last week we speculated , Honda has now announced that it will be withdrawing from all of the AMA’s road racing series.
This news really only affects Neil Hodgson, who is currently the only factory signed onto the 2009 season. HRC’s move will not affect Jake Zemke, who won last year’s AMA Formula Xtreme Championship, because all signs point to him riding for the Erion Honda team, which Honda will still be offering support to, as well as the Corona Honda team.
Honda again cites the current economic situation as the reason behind their announcement. We’ll let you discuss if you think factors like Suzuki’s dominance in AMA Superbike, or the new ownership by the Daytona Motorsports Group could be aggravating circumstances.
With the Senate squashing the Detroit bailout loan last night, tougher economic times are surely ahead for us, not only in the States, but also abroad. Last week Honda announced that it was pulling out of Formula1 racing because of the extraordinary costs and tight fiscal situations. Could the same happen in MotoGP? Find out after the jump.
Honda Motorcycle’s COO, Tatsuhiro Oyama is forecasting that there will be worldwide industry drop in bike sales as the credit fiasco finally rears its ugly head in motorcycling. Like the car industry, the motorcycle industry helps move product by offering financing options and extending credit to the purchasers of their bikes. Typically these credit liabilities are flipped to third-party creditors, who handle the debt from there (all unbeknownst to us the consumer), but with the state of economy and the meltdown of the credit industry, many of these creditors are either no long amongst the living, or not taking on any more debt.
Oyama was credited as saying, “There’s been a bit of a lag, but credit is being squeezed. I think if we have flat sales next (business) year we’d be lucky,” adding that forecasts for this year might need adjusting too.
This news leaves companies like GMAC, and in this case Honda, in a lurch. Unable to swiftly exchange the credit liability, they have to be more cautious on who they extend money too. This means more credit refusals, and higher interest rates, which in turn means more people who can’t afford a motorcycle purchase.
At the end of the day, it is Honda and the other manufacturers (except perhaps Ducati) who are left holding the bag with excess product sitting on the showroom floor come December.
There is some good news. Oyama went on to say that the motorcycle business as a whole was holding up better than the car side. So no government bail outs…yet.
Source: visordown