Tag

Racing

Browsing

UPDATE: You have to love Photoshop…it looks like the good folks at Mavizen forgot to whipe the original photo thumbnail, click here for an unblurred (albeit small) picture of the new TTX02 that confirms its RC8 lineage.

UPDATE #2: The Mavizen TTX02 has been officially unveiled here.

In one week’s time, Mavizen (a product of Team Agni’s TTXGP race-winning electric motorcycle team) will release what they call the world’s first production electric racing superbike, the TTX02. With a teaser image hitting the TTXGP website today, speculation is already swirling around the company, its bike, and its RC8 look-alike chassis.

New race teams seem to be flocking to the 2010 MotoGP season. First it was Italian hopeful FB Corse, and now Spanish Inmotec has joined the fray with their own MotoGP bid. With their official launch to come at the Valencian GP, Inmotec hopes to enter their 800cc prototype racer, the the Inmotec GPI 10, with success against not only the other privateer teams, but against the factory squads as well. More after Inmotec after the jump.

Reports are coming in that Alex de Angelis will be headed to Scot Honda (thus ending any rumor that Toni Elias would be joining the satellite Honda team), and that Elias will be headed to Moto2 with the Sito Pons team. Kalex Engineering is expected to be providing Sito Pons with one of their Moto2 chassis solutions. You may remember Kalex from their gorgeous liter-bike track weapon we ran a couple months ago. While many are reporting these moves as fact, their appears to be some margin of uncertainty in the plan.

John Hopkins, in a recent video posted on his personal website (not for the weak-stomached), has declared that he is uncertain where he will land for the 2010 racing season. With things at Stiggy Honda beginning to look bleak, it seems clear that the team will be unable to afford both Leon Haslam and John Hopkins next year. Haslam is rumored to be headed fro Alstate Suzuki, while Hopper has been keen on getting back into MotoGP.

After previously leaving 250GP racing and the Dakar Rally, KTM has announced its withdrawal from another race series: 125GP. Choosing instead to focus its 2010 racing efforts on the RC8‘s upcoming World Superbike debut, KTM cites financial difficulties as its reason for leaving the GP scene. KTM will continue to be involved with the Red Bull Rookies Cup, which features talented young riders racing around on spec KTM 125cc race bikes.

One of the big criticisms of MotoGP is that it is all but impossible for satellite teams to compete against the factory supported squads. Besides having smaller budgets, satellite teams also have to contend with the fact that their machinery is many revisions behind what the lastest spec is, and in some cases they are relegated to using bikes from the previous season.

The end result of this practice is essentially the 2009 season, where the only riders on the top step were from factory teams (not counting the freak outing at Donington Park), and on any given Sunday, the same four riders are the day’s favorites. Honda however is set to change that in 2010, and is structuring its satellite teams on a pay-to-play basis.