The MotoGP website is currently counting down to a live press conference that will feature Dani Pedrosa. The time on the clock is T-minus 15 hours, and at T-minus 15 hours plus one minute, the MotoGP paddock expects the 32-year-old to announce his retirement from motorcycle racing.
The rumors leading up to the German GP have gone both ways for Pedrosa, with some suggesting that the Spaniard would retire this season, while others thought he would take a ride on the newly formed Petronas Yamaha team.
We expected an announcement, one way or another, from Pedrosa first at the Catalan GP, then at the Dutch TT, but now we know that Germany will be the spot – a track that Pedrosa has carved out as one of his places of two-wheeled dominance.
To that end, Roadracing World has published that their sources have revealed to them that Pedrosa’s plan is to end his career at the end of the 2018 season, rather than try his hand on the satellite Yamaha in 2019.
In the World Supersport Championship, one name has dominated the results list for the past decade: Kenan Sofuo?lu. This is because the Turkish rider has posted five championship titles since he entered the class, along with 43 race wins in the WorldSSP class.
And now, the Kawasaki rider is ready to hang up his spurs, announcing that he will retire from motorcycle racing, after the WorldSBK paddock races in Imola this coming weekend.
Never fully recovering from a crash he sustained at Phillip Island during the 2015 season, Sofuo?lu broke his hip during a crash at Magny-Cours last season, and as a result the 33-year-old narrowly missed out on his sixth WorldSSP title.
Sofuo?lu has talked many times about his retirement from racing, and now with his family, he decided it was time to move on from racing motorcycles.
At the San Marino GP today, MotoGP officially retired the use of #58, giving honor to Marco Simoncelli, who died almost five years ago while racing in the Malaysian GP at Sepang.
Of course, this weekend’s stop on the MotoGP Championship calendar actually takes place at the Misano World Circuit, which changed its official name to the the “Misano World Circuit – Marco Simoncelli” in order to honor the fallen racer.
This makes the San Marino GP a fitting venue for Simoncelli’s number to be retired, and of course the weekend’s events take place in front of a home crowd, with Simoncelli born just a few miles away on the coast, in Cattolica.
Perhaps one of the most well known names worldwide for motorcycle stunt riding, Chris Pfeiffer has decided to retire from the sport. This marks an end to the 45-years-old’s 20-year career, which has seen him perform around the world at thousands of shows.
Largely responsible for legitimizing stunt riding beyond just hooligan antics, the BMW-sponsored Red Bull rider announced his retirement on his Facebook page yesterday, much to the dismay of 270,000+ followers.
One of the greats in motorcycling, Pfeiffer says he is leaving stunting to the next generation of riders. His message to fans is after the jump.
When Marc Coma hinted at a return to the Dakar Rally for 2016, everyone assumed it would be on a bike and with KTM. The famous Spanish rally-raid racer has other plans now, announcing his retirement from the sport, and also that he will begin working as a Sporting Director for the Dakar Rally.
This makes the announcement a double-shock, one because we expected to see Coma vying for his sixth Dakar Rally win, and two because it was expected that when he did stop racing motorbikes, he would follow the path by many competitors, and race in the four-wheel classes.
There has been a lot of talk around Guy Martin’s 2015 Isle of Man TT bid, with several outlets speculating with various amounts of reliability as to whether this will be the charismatic rider’s last TT.
The latest publication to add fuel to the fire is Scunthorpe Telegraph, a local English paper, which quotes Martin in a Q&A session as saying, “I’ll go there whatever happens. Whatever I do I’ll give it 100%. If I go and finish 20th I still know I’ve done my best. It’s the last time I’m doing it.”
“Let’s be honest, it would be mint to win. It would be great, I love motorbikes,” Martin added. “But it is only motorbikes. Tomorrow is another day. I’ve this sort of mindset – it is what it is.”
To paraphrase a little bit, Troy Bayliss is absolutely, positively, for reals this time, never going to race in World Superbikes again, or so said the 45-year-old Australian after he completed the second WSBK race in Thailand on Sunday.
Bayliss has been filling in for the injured Davide Giugliano on the Aruba.it Racing – Ducati Superbike factory squad, but it seems the three-time WSBK champion will call it quits here in Thailand.
The announcement also effectively squashes rumors that Bayliss would do a couple more races with Ducati, as Giugliano is pegged to be absent for two more rounds.
In two weekends from, now grand prix motorcycle racing will be at Silverstone, and while the MotoGP Championship marches on, its progression means that soon we won’t have the color that Colin Edwards brings to the GP paddock.
Beloved by British motorcycle racing fans, Silverstone is sort of the last stop on the Texas Tornado’s farewell tour. But before we release Colin back into the wild (perhaps with a warning label), the motorcycle community has some goodbyes to make.
Our first chance will be on the Thursday of that race weekend, as Edwards will open the bidding at the Riders for Health Day of Champions auction (an awesome event, you should all attend if possible)…it’s surely going to be entertaining. Sunday’s race should be memorable as well.
And speaking of memories, Yamaha USA has compiled a very touching and well done video of Edwards’ career on two wheels. It’s after the jump, and worth watching…maybe twice.
It seems the rumors out of Indianapolis were true, as Colin Edwards’ role at the NGM Forward team has come to awkward end. Officially “retiring early” Edwards will continue to ride for the team by “doing some wild cards,” according to the team press release. The only round confirmed by the team is Silverstone, though Edwards says he will ride at Valencia as well.
“It has been a great weekend here at Indy with lots of support from the family, the friends and the team,” said Edwards. “I’m not 100% certain about how many races I will do till the end of the season but for sure I will be in Silverstone, weather [sic] I will be racing or not.”
“I have a big fans support there and I cannot miss this appointment. I am thinking about my future, the different possibilities. I’m happy and I look forward to the second part of my life,” concluded the Texas Tornado.
Colin Edwards will contest only three more MotoGP rounds in the 2014 season. The Texan is to race at Indianapolis, Silverstone and Valencia, before hanging up his helmet. From Brno, Alex De Angelis will take Edwards’ place, and Edwards will race as a third rider for the NGM Mobile Forward Racing team in the UK and at the last race of the year.
Edwards’ final year in MotoGP has not gone according to plan. The Texas Tornado had hoped that the arrival of the Yamaha Open class bike at Forward, to replace the Kawasaki-powered CRT machine would spark a revival in his fortunes.
When Edwards finally got to ride the Open class Yamaha, however, he found to his dismay that he could not get on with the Yamaha chassis, and was unable to get the bike to turn. He had pinned his hopes on the arrival of a chassis from FTR, but financial problems for the British chassis manufacturer meant he was left to struggle with the Yamaha frame until Mugello.
When a new chassis did arrive, fresh from the drawing board of now ex-FTR designer Mark Taylor, it did not see Edwards drastically improve his pace.
Announcing his decision during the pre-event press conference for the Red Bull Grand Prix of the Americas, Colin Edwards told the assembled press that 2014 would be the Texan’s last season racing a motorcycle.
Citing a lack of improvement on his performance in pre-season testing and at the Qatar GP, Edwards decision perhaps answers the lingering question in the paddock of when the American rider would hang-up his spurs after an illustrious career in AMA, WSBK and MotoGP.