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Bimota Racing at IOMTT with American Brandon Cretu

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Italy’s favorite boutique brand will be back at the Isle of Man TT races this year, with a two rider team that includes American Brandon Cretu.

Cretu and his teammate Ben Wylie will campaign for Bimota at the big four road races (North West 200, Isle of Man TT, Ulster Grand Prix, and Macau GP) on-board the Bimota BB3 superbike.

This is not the first time that Cretu and Wylie have raced together, having shared a pit while at the Wylie Racing team during the 2011 and 2012 Isle of Man TT races.

Though the Bimota BB3 was ruled ineligible for FIM events, the international road racing scene has no hang-ups letting the S1000RR-powered superbikes lineup on the starting grid.

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Trackside Tuesday: A 2014 Photo Retrospective – Part 2

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I’m going to start the 2nd and final part of my 2014 photo retrospective with the image above of Marc Marquez. Taken at Woodcote during Sunday mornings warm up for the British Grand Prix at Silverstone.

Woodcote was one of the most exhilarating sections of track I shot last year. The sensation of speed as the riders came past, back wheel sliding, only feet away was indescribable.

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Team Mugen Confirms 2015 IOMTT Entry with Shinden Yon

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A bit of a formality, since rider John McGuinness already spilled the beans in December last year, but Team Mugen has confirmed its entry into the 2015 Isle of Man TT.

Mugen will have a new bike at the contest, named the Shinden Yon, “Yon” being “four” in Japanese, and the bike being the company’s fourth TT racer — like its lap times, Mugen’s engineers are very consitent with their naming conventions.

Little is known about the Shinden Yon, and Mugen is saying only that the machine is “newly developed to improve over last year’s model.”

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IOMTT: Michael Dunlop Will Ride for Milwaukee Yamaha

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With the surprise move of BMW Motorrad working with TAS Racing and Guy Martin, the questions have been flying, yet again, about who Michael Dunlop will be racing with this upcoming Isle of Man TT.

The nephew of Joey Dunlop has come into his own now as a racer, taking many of the race victories in the 2013 and 2014 seasons, and with a good ride underneath him, a sweep of the TT races is not outside the realm of possibilities.

Again we get a late answer, as we have news today that Michael Dunlop has signed with the Milwaukee Yamaha team for the 2015 Isle of Man TT.

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Trackside Tuesday : A 2014 Photo Retrospective – Part 1

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As the countdown to the new season gathers momentum I thought I’d have a look back at some of my favourite photographs from 2014.

The image above of Scott Redding was taken as he came in for a tire change during qualifying at Le Mans. Sometimes the riders will disappear to the back of the garage during qualifying.

If you’re lucky they will stay on the bike while the crew get to work. If they do, it provides a great opportunity for a portrait as was the case here.

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Video: Guy Martin’s Passion For Life

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You can’t talk about the Isle of Man TT without talking about Guy Martin. The affable rider can be an enigma at times, both on and off the track.

Immensely popular, Martin is surprisingly mercurial with his fans. Supremely talented on a motorbike, the Lincolnshire man has surprisingly never won an Isle of Man TT race.

Britain’s Channel 4 has put together a great short documentary on Martin, which should start help marinate the juices for this summer’s Isle of Man TT race fortnight.

British A&R readers should be able to click over to an even longer video on what makes Guy Martin tick, while us “colonials” will have to suffice with a seven-minute YouTube clip.

Whichever version you watch, it’s a pretty candid and well done insight into one of the TT’s more mysterious riders. Enjoy!

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Miller Motorsports Park Added to MotoAmerica Schedule

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When the provisional MotoAmerica calendar for the 2015 season debuted, a single date was left to be determined. Now the folks at KRAVE media are able to confirm that Utah’s Miller Motorsports Park will be featured on the rebooted American road racing series’ debut.

Miller Motorsports Park will host MotoAmerica June 26th thru 28th, which will help add more of a Western United States presence to the road racing series’ schedule.

A popular venue for fans and racers, Miller Motorsports Park is just a stone’s throw away from the Bonneville Salt Flats and is flanked by the picturesque Rocky Mountains, making for iconic imagery and a tour of two-wheeled racing history.

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Video Preview the 2015 Isle of Man TT

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We are six months away from the start of the 2015 Isle of Man TT, which for fans and media seems like an eternal amount of time, but for the organizers and competitors, the waiving of the green flag must surely seem like the event is rapidly approaching.

The off-season posturing is already in full-swing, with Michael Dunlop and BMW Motorrad seemingly parting ways, despite a very productive 2014 season. Instead Guy Martin will be on the German brand, perhaps giving him his best shot at a TT race win ever.

No one can count out John McGuinness, of course, as he looks to top Joey Dunlop’s outright TT race-win record. McPint is a contender in every class he enters, though his best hopes are surely in the electric class, where Team Mugen is the outfit to beat.

The electric bikes will be looking to lap 120 mph on the Isle this year, which is proper fast — no matter what standard you use — and puts those top competitors will be in supersport-pace territory.

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Video: Team Splitlath at 2014 Macau Grand Prix

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They might be better known as Team America at the Macau Grand Prix, since Team Splitlath was comprised of American riders Mark Miller and Brandon Cretu, riding on the American-made EBR 1190RX superbike.

Contesting the last stop on the road racing calendar for 2014, the Splitlath put together a short video about racing at Macau, the challenges they faced there, and the dangers of road racing in general.

Team Splitlath didn’t have their usual results this year as they switched to the Erik Buell Racing platform, with Miller finishing 12th and Cretu crashing out on the 7th lap. But you can be sure they will be back next year. Still, the video is a good watch. Happy Friday!

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Race Highlights from the 2014 Macau GP

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The 48th annual Macau Grand Prix was underway this past weekend, rounding out the 2014 road racing season, all the way on the other side of the world from the normal Irish and Manx roadways.

As much of a spectacle as its European counterparts, the Macau GP is set in the downtown area of the Special Administrative Region of Macu, and is proper elbow-to-elbow motorcycle racing.

A spectacle to see with the tight corners and dense cityscape, we regrettably didn’t cover the race this year due to a communication error on my part with our correspondent (my pay has been docked accordingly).

To try and at least make up for that error, we have for you the video highlights of the race, which Stuart Easton won quite comfortably, bringing his tally of Macau GP wins up to four now.

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Trackside Tuesday: A Manx Perspective on the Classic TT

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The dust has now settled on this year’s Classic TT. For those unfamiliar with the event, the Classic TT was born from the ashes of the old Manx Grand Prix. Run on the same Mountain Course as the TT, the Manx as it was affectionately known, featured racing on modern and classic machinery.

Originally created as the amateur rider’s TT,  TT legends such as Steve Hislop and Philip McCallen first cut their teeth at the Manx before moving on to the TT. Multiple World Superbike champion Carl Fogarty won at “The Manx” in the 1985.

As media interest in the old Manx Grand Prix format dwindled, the Manx government started looking at ways to improve its marketing appeal and increase visitor numbers.  Early proposals to cut the amount of modern classes were met with protests by some local fans, but a new format was eventually agreed and the Festival of Motorcycling was born.

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