KTM Motorsports is teaming up with HMC Racing to field a factory-backed KTM effort in the AMA Pro Superbike Road Racing Championship Series (say that three times fast). KTM & HMC will enter in three races on the AMA Pro Racing calendar: Mid-Ohio, VIR, and NJMP, with rider Chris Fillmore at the helm of the KTM 1190 RC8 R Race Spec. With the team headed by Mitch Hansen of HMC Racing, KTM is trusting old partners with its first official foray into AMA road racing.
As World Superbike prepares to end a three-week hiatus at Monza this weekend, former-champion James Toseland also looks to make a comeback after a testing injury kept him from two race weekends. The Briton broke his wrist whilst testing at Motorland Aragon back in March 18th during a highside that saw him landing on his head and right wrist — as he had joined teammate Ayrton Badovini and the factory Kawasaki team in Spain for testing between the first and second rounds of the Championship.
Though Spanish doctors originally cleared Toseland to race his home round at Donington Park, a specialist in England “found that I had badly displaced bones in my wrist. At that point, things were getting critical as there was no blood flow in the wrist, meaning that the bone could die if I wasn’t operated on immediately,” explained Toseland.
Norton, the Lazarus of motorcycling, continues to gain steam with its MotoGP project, as the latest news is that the British company is working on a 1,000cc V4 for its racing platform, which will debut in 2012 when the pinnacle of motorcycle racing reverts back to a liter bike capacity. Rumors had swelled that Spanish MotoGP hopeful Inmotec, who consistently fails to get its bike on the GP grid, could link up with Norton, likely in helping the British firm design its motor.
We don’t know if that partnership ever materialized, but MCN has snagged a CAD drawing of a Norton V4 motor that presumably is for the new GP bike. Initially the MotoGP race bike was expected to lay the tracks for a production sportbike, which could bode well for Norton fans who wanted something more than just a run-of-the-mill inline-four.
UPDATE: Race results from both races, video of the first race, and a photo from SWIGZ Racing.
Reports are coming in from Fontana (AutoClub Speedway if you will) this evening, where Chip Yates the SWIGZ Racing team were competing against the gasoline-powered liter bike v-twins in the WERA Heavyweight Twins Superbike & Superstock race classes earlier today. Hitting at one point 158mph on the banked walls of Fontana, Yates finished an impressive 2nd place in the WERA Heavyweight Twins Superstock class, and had another podium finish (3rd place) in the WERA Heavyweight Twins Superbike class, racing against KTM RC8 and Ducati 1198 Superbikes.
After a moderately successful Moto2 season in 2010, Gabor Talmacsi has switched his focus to World Superbikes. Currently in talks with Team Pedercini, Talmacsi will be testing for Pedercini with a phalanx of other Kawasaki riders at the Sepang circuit in the middle of January. Though the Hungarian won a podium position at Motorland Aragon and finished the 2010 championship in sixth, he was left out in the cold after Speed Up pulled out of Moto2 for 2011, as did so many other teams with too few funds to go racing in 2011. Despite spending 2009 in both the 250 and premier GP classes, Talmacsi seems to have joined the list of riders unable to remain in MotoGP and looking for work in WSBK.
With the demise of 125GP coming down the pipe, it comes as no surprise today that we learn that KTM has begun working on a Moto3 racing program. According to GPOne, work began on the project a few weeks ago, and is still in the early stages of its design. With all the 250cc MX, enduro, and supermoto four-stroke singles in KTM’s arsenal, the Austrian company has a surfeit of experience in making potent small displacement machines, and could be an early favorite in the 2012 opening season. The news also balances out well with the recent confirmation that KTM is working on a 250cc+ version of its KTM 125 Duke, which is destined for the American market in the next 18 months or so.
After declaring its intention to field a three-man team in the 2011 MotoGP season with riders Dani Pedrosa, Andrea Dovizioso, and Casey Stoner, HRC went immediately into circles about how it would pull-off such an arrangement when the money to finance a larger factory squad did not materialize. Exploring avenues that would see a second, single-bike, factory team (rumored to be sponsored by Red Bull) centered around Andrea Dovizioso, Honda also tried to stick the Italian rider inside the Gresini Honda satellite squad (with the promise of factory support), but both efforts came to no avail.
With Dovizioso holding his ground, and Honda bound by a contract, questions regarding how the Japanese manufacture would handle its predicament were a common source of conjecture in the MotoGP paddock. This speculation has finally come to a conclusion though, as HRC has announced it has secured Andrea Dovizioso in the factory team for 2011, which will will continue to be sponsored by Repsol Honda.
Announced at Valencia this weekend, the GP Commission has finally released the details on the upcoming Moto3 class, which will replace 125GP racing in 2012. Based around a four-stroke 250cc single-cylinder motor with an 81mm maximum bore size, Moto3 aims to reel in the spiraling costs of GP racing, with numerous provisions that are designed to limit how much money teams and manufacturers can sink into the sport to buy victory.
Perhaps the biggest provision designed to help lower the cost of GP racing’s intro class is the spec-ECU rule, which sees teams limited on the level of electronics they can implement, and institutes a hard-cap on the engine’s maximum RPM (14,000 RPM). With multiple manufacturers able to offer motors and chassis for the racing class, Moto3 should be more open thatn the single-motor Moto2 series. The GP Commission has included a laundry list of other provisions, you can find them bullet-pointed after the jump.
According to , MotoGP superstar Valentino Rossi is poised to launch his own Moto2 team for the 2011 season. Rossi is said to be funding the team, with lifelong friend Uccio Salucci acting as team manager. Italian rider Andrea Iannone (currently 3rd in the Moto2 Championship) has been linked to the team, as has chassis designer Suter (how’s that for a star-studded cast?). It’s not clear at this time if Rossi is expected to field one or two machines in the 600cc prototype class.
If you weren’t in Indianapolis for the Indy GP, you certainly missed one of the better side events of the weekend: The Lucas Oil Indy Mile AMA Flat Track Grand National. It’s hard to make riding on packed dirt at breakneak speeds with no brakes more exciting, but throw in former flat track Champion Nicky Hayden, the entire Ducati Corse MotoGP team, and a contract announcement and you have the makings for a very special event.
With Ducati Motor Holdings CEO Gabriele del Torchio on-stage to announce Hayden’s new two-year contract, motorcycle racing fans got to see their homeboy do good. Helping celebrate the event, Hayden took to the track with his steel boot, and held nothing back for his loyal followers.
