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UPDATE: And it’s off again – Van Der Mark will not be replacing Abraham at Assen after all

Michael van der Mark looks set to make his MotoGP debut at Assen this weekend.

The 22-year-old Dutchman will be swapping his Pata Honda CBR1000RR World Superbike machine for the Open class Honda RC213V-RS of the AB MotoRacing team, where he is set to fill in for the injured Karel Abraham.

Abraham badly injured his foot, severly dislocating his toe, in a fall during FP4 in Barcelona.

Rumors that the Dutchman would get the chance to race a MotoGP machine at his home race started circulating in the Dutch media earlier on Monday.

Several sources close to the situation confirmed that the deal was very close to being sealed. There are just a few final details to be settled, including matters such as covering the cost of damage in case of a crash.

Dani Pedrosa’s announcement after the Qatar Grand Prix that he would be withdrawing from racing to seek urgent treatment for arm pump immediately triggered an explosion of speculation over who might replace the Spaniard during his absence.

Fans and pundits offered a barrage of possible names to take Pedrosa’s place: Casey Stoner, Cal Crutchlow, Michael van der Mark, Jack Miller, Nicky Hayden.

Coming as it did just before April Fool’s day, it even triggered a spate of hoax stories: Casey Stoner, Mick Doohan, Alex Marquez, and Fabio Quartararo were all offered in jest.

Hiroshi Aoyama was always going to be the man to replace Pedrosa, however. For a range of reasons, Aoyama is the only reasonable candidate to take the place of Pedrosa in the short term, all the other names being bandied about subject to sponsor conflicts, race conflicts, contractual obligations or just plain unwillingness.

Here’s a rundown of why Aoayama got the call, and the others didn’t.

After its absence at the Moscow round, Effenbert Liberty Racing affirmed earlier this week that it would be participating in World Superbike’s Nürburgring round with all three of its riders. Always keeping things interesting though, the team has followed up that announcement today with the news that it has replaced Jakub Smrz with Italian rider Lorenzo Lanzi. This should surprise no one.

Rumored heavily to be in financial difficulty, after Effenbert reduced its support for the team after the round at Monza, today’s move is just the latest of many strange developments for the Liberty Racing squad, which showed so much promise earlier in the season, but has spiraled out of control ever since.

The rumors about Noriyuki Haga’s future have been swelling for the past few weeks, as the Japanese rider was tipped to land in the British Superbike Championship for the 2012 season. Officially confirmed today by Yamaha Racing, Nitro Nori will once again take to a Yamaha YZF-R1, as he competes with Swan Yamaha in BSB, and permanently replaces the injured Ian Hutchinson. While BSB fans were surely dismayed by the news that Hutchy would be out for at least part of the BSB season, the Isle of Man TT star’s absence will at least be made up for by the addition of Haga to the BSB rostrum.

A boon for the British Superbike series, Haga’s status as a former-WSBK contender should add another name to the list of riders that British fans will have to follow in 2012. Always a bridesmaid and never a bride, Haga finished runner-up in the 2000, 2007, & 2009 WSBK seasons, and finished third in the 2004, 2005, 2006, & 2008 seasons. Nitro Nori will be hoping to change that luck in the UK though, and with the support of the factory-backed Swan Yamaha squad, we expect to see the Japanese rider on the top step on more than a few occasions.

With the announcement that Colin Edwards would be unable to attend and race the Valencian GP because of injuries he sustained during the tragic incident that killed Marco Simoncelli, Monster Yamaha Tech 3 said earlier today that it was looking into a replacement rider for the last MotoGP round. With speculation swirling after Tech 3’s announcement, Asphalt & Rubber has now been able to confirm that AMA Superbike Champion Josh Hayes will be the Texas Tornardo’s replacement at Valencia.

With its two main racing sponsors being Malaysian oil Company Petronas and Yamaha Motor Kenkana Indonesia, Sepang is an important market for Yamaha Racing, and Jorge Lorenzo is a popular rider with Malaysian fans. This puts Yamaha in a quandary this weekend at the Malaysian GP, as the Spanish rider will be unable to compete in the penultimate GP round as he is still recovering from the finger injury he sustained at Phillip Island.

Needing a rider to fill-in for Lorenzo, Yamaha Racing has tapped factory test rider Katsuyuki Nakasuga to ride the factory Yamaha YZR-M1 at Sepang. The 30-year-old Nakasuga comes with a resume that includes not only testing the M1 with its Bridgestone tires (familiarity with the Japanese tire being paramount, just ask Toni Elias), but also competing in the 2011 All Japan Road Racing Championship, where he currently sits third in the JSB1000 class.

Alex Lowes will replace Jonathan Rea for the World Superbike round at Brno next month while the rider recovers from surgery. Rea had a huge crash during the warm-up ten days ago at the Misano round, resulting in a broken collarbone, injured foot, and radial fracture and ligament damage to his right wrist. He underwent surgery Monday and was scheduled to miss this past weekend’s racing at Aragon and return for Brno.

Instead, considerable ligament damage to the wrist was found, necessitating “external pins in it and screws,” according to a tweet by the rider Thursday. Rea explained further, “I was pretty upset when I got the news after the surgery yesterday because it means a longer rehab than we’d thought. It’s difficult, of course, and I’m devastated, but I’ve got a great team around me so I know I’ll get all the support I need to come back strong.” That team includes surgeon Mike Hayton, who has had a busy couple of weeks operating on Rea last Monday and Troy Corser this week.

UPDATE: According to CMGonline, the MV Agusta Brutale 1090R will replace the Brutale 920 only in the Canadian market.

The Canadian importer of MV Agusta motorcycles has once again outed a new model from the Italian company. First it was the entry-level (if you can call it that) 2011 MV Agusta Brutale 920 that broke cover because of our neighbors to the north, and now the Canadians have let slip news of the 2011 MV Agusta Brutale 1090R, another lower-spec version of the Brutale 1090RR (let us pause for a moment while we collectively go “hmmm…”)

Available in Summer 2011, the MV Agusta Brutale 1090R is sporting a $16,695 price tag in Canada, which will likely translate into a sub-$15,000 MSRP here in the United States. At the core of the Brutale 1090R is a 1078cc that’s good for 144 hp, which is based off the Brutale 990R’s motor, but makes similar spec’s as the lump found in the Brutale 1099RR.

If you’re asking yourself why does MV Agusta need another lower-spec Brutale? “It doesn’t” would be the answer, but the Italian company has seemingly quietly nixed the Brutale 920, presumably in favor of the 1090R instead. With the Italian site still listing the entry-level Brutale as a 921cc model, Canada has either outed a new model, or the news that the Brutale 920 will be replaced by the Brutale 1090R (interestingly enough, the Canadian site has done away with almost all reference to the 921cc machine). Either way, details on this bike are after the jump.

No sooner did news of Álvaro Bautista’s broken femur hit the MotoGP paddock did speculation begin as to whom would/could replace the unfortunately injured Spanish rider. The list of racers capable of piloting a MotoGP machine is short and distinguished, and the majority of speculation turned to whether John Hopkins would have another go at the Suzuki GSV-R in Qatar. The other option banded-about, although with much less fervor, were MotoGP-turned-Moto2 riders Ant West, Alex de Angelis, & Aleix Espargaró.