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Motogp 2012 on.....
There must be some interest for the premium 2wheeled racing especially that we have the current WC Casey Stoner.
I have been an avid follower since Gardner days and I love watching these madmen go for it.
For thos that don't know "parity" or lets say dumb down racing is starting to be introduced for the first time to get costs down being grids got down to 12-14 riders and less Factories involved.
In time I will post more info for those happy to learn more.
FIM Announces 9 MotoGP Claiming Rule Teams for 2012 Utilizing Modified Superbike Motors from Honda, BMW, Aprilia and Kawasaki; Big Rule Changes Expected for 2013
CEO of Dorna Sports, Carmelo Ezpeleta
A provisional list of 21 MotoGP riders and teams has been issued by the FIM for the 2012 series. Among those entries are 9 CRT teams utilizing modified superbike motors from Japanese manufacturers Honda and Kawasaki, as well as Italian manufacturer Aprilia and German manufacturer BMW. There are some very talented riders on CRT bikes this year, including experienced MotoGP pilots Randy De Puniet and Alex Espargaro (powered by Aprilia), as well as Colin Edwards (powered by BMW). The CRT engines, of course, have tuning advantages in that they do not have to last as long (CRT teams have twice as many engines available to them during the year) and can burn more fuel than factory bikes. This should make for some interesting racing.
CEO of Dorna Sports, Carmelo Ezpeleta, indicated that the 2013 series will see further, significant rule changes, possibly including a spec ECU which must be run by all bikes or a rev limit in a further effort to reduce costs and equalize performance. Announcement of the formal rules for the 2013 championship is still several months away.
The provisional list is as follows:
1 CASEY STONER AUS HONDA TEAM, HONDA
4 ANDREA DOVIZIOSO ITA YAMAHA TECH 3, YAMAHA
5 COLIN EDWARDS USA FORWARD RACING, SUTER*
6 STEFAN BRADL GER LCR HONDA MotoGP, HONDA
8 HECTOR BARBERA SPA PRAMAC RACING TEAM, DUCATI
9 DANILO PETRUCCI ITA IODA RACING PROJECT, IODA*
11 BEN SPIES USA YAMAHA FACTORY RACING, YAMAHA
13 ANTHONY WEST AUS SPEED MASTER, ART*
14 RANDY DE PUNIET FRA ASPAR TEAM MotoGP, ART*
17 KAREL ABRAHAM CZE CARDION AB MOTORACING, DUCATI
19 ALVARO BAUTISTA SPA HONDA GRESINI, HONDA
20 ALEIX ESPARGARO SPA ASPAR TEAM MotoGP, ART*
22 IVAN SILVA SPA BQR, BQR-FTR*
26 DANI PEDROSA SPA HONDA TEAM, HONDA
35 CAL CRUTCHLOW GBR YAMAHA TECH 3, YAMAHA
46 VALENTINO ROSSI ITA DUCATI TEAM, DUCATI
51 MICHELE PIRRO ITA HONDA GRESINI, FTR*
68 YONNY HERNANDEZ COL BQR, BQR-FTR*
69 NICKY HAYDEN USA DUCATI TEAM, DUCATI
77 JAMES ELLISON GBR PAUL BIRD RACING, ART*
99 JORGE LORENZO SPA YAMAHA FACTORY RACING, YAMAHA
*CRT
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Casey sure stirred the pot with these comments going back a little while ago......quite a few of the other factory riders feel the same but would be too scared to air the views whereas our CS tells it how it is.
Casey Stoner Honda 2011 Czech GRand PrixMotoGP world champion Casey Stoner has warned he will have little interest in staying in the championship if the regulations are steered more towards production-based machinery.
Series promoter Dorna is heavily pushing the new Claiming Rule Teams system, which allows elements of modified production machinery.
In addition to several new teams stepping up to MotoGP next year under the CRT regulation, a number of current satellite squads are expected to ditch their pure prototypes to run CRT bikes, amid suggestions that the system could form the basis of MotoGP’s future.
But Stoner said he felt a move too far towards a lower-technology formula would be the wrong choice for MotoGP.
“I think if we kill prototypes then we may as well be racing touring cars,” he said. “It’s no different to this. It’ll definitely take everything out of the racing for me.
“I won’t find the same interest to the point where you can maybe get a street bike, put a different chassis on it, a bit of suspension and this and that, and have a competitive bike.
“This [prototype rules] is the way it’s been for so many years. There have been a few things recently about costs, which have definitely increased, and the amount of personnel needed to run these bikes. They’re definitely more complicated than the old 500cc.
“But if it does change like that [to more production-based rules] then it’s definitely going to be disappointing for me and I don’t know if I’d want to be a part of it.”
Yamaha’s Ben Spies said he was also concerned about the prospects of a CRT-based future for the championship, though he acknowledged that the global financial system might force radical change.
“The way the economy’s going, I hope I have a job in 2013, so I’m not worried about a CRT bike right now, that’s for sure,” he said. “But I’m not the biggest fan of it.”
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Testing underway in Sepang
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yep sure is.....
Repsol Honda Team presentation in Malaysia
Honda presentation in sepang
Monday, 30 January 2012
The Repsol Honda Team, 2011 Triple Crown Champions, hosted the media at a Team Presentation in the Pan Pacific Hotel in Kuala Lumpur tonight with a press conference and welcome party.
After the winter break, team riders Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrosa returned to the media spotlight refreshed and eager to start the new season. Alongside them were HRC team bosses, Shuhei Nakamoto (HRC Executive Vice President), Hideki Iwano (Director, Assistant to Team Principal), Shinichi Kokubu (Technical Director) and Livio Suppo (Communications and Marketing Director). This was also the first opportunity for the media to see the new RC213V bike complete with 2011 World Champion, Casey Stoner's number '1' emblazoned on the front.
The team arrived in Malaysia on Saturday and returned to the Sepang track on Sunday for the first time since Marco Simoncelli's tragic accident in the race on 23rd October. As a mark of respect, the whole team visited the corner where Marco lost his life, laid a wreath of flowers and held a minutes silence.
This season the MotoGP world returns to 1000cc bikes and HRC head into the 2012 season determined to retain the World Championship.
Casey Stoner:
"The off season has been really good, we got to go back home and spend some time with family and friends in Australia over Christmas which was great. Then we came back to Switzerland to get everything in order for the baby's arrival, Adriana's due in just a few weeks and so we've been preparing, as best possible!
After such a strong season in 2011, we remain focused and don't expect to be in top form immediately. I am sure Honda have done a fantastic job with the new 1000cc machine over the winter break and I'm really looking forward to getting back on the bike and seeing what we can do, hoping to start strong again. We know there will be a lot of serious competition out there, Ducati have been putting a lot of effort in as have Yamaha so it will be interesting to get out on track and see what everyone's got. However, it's early days and I think we'll have to wait until the race in Qatar before we really know our competitors true pace and the package they have for 2012, but we're ready for it."
Dani Pedrosa:
"It's nice to be back with the team for the first Sepang test. I'm really excited to get on the bike again after the test we did in Valencia in November. Sepang is a good track for testing and we have still many things to discover out about the new bike. It's been a long time since we were last riding and at the first test it's always important to get the feeling back, the first sensations. We will have three long days here to work with the team and HRC and it's necessary to be very focused in order to get good information to move forward for the second test. I guess the main target in this test will be to know the bike and the new Bridgestone tyres."
Shuhei Nakamoto - HRC Executive Vice President:
"We start this new 2012 season with a clear target: to work stronger than ever to defend our MotoGP World titles in this new 1000cc category. We finished the 800cc era winning the triple crown and we will fight to win this again in 2012. We fully trust in our riders Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrosa to deliver this big challenge and we will give them all our technical and human support.
The RC213V is an evolution of the last version of the RC212V based on the same concept. The machines we have brought here to Sepang are basically the same machines we tested in Valencia back in November with only a few differences. In fact, Casey and Dani will have one machine the same as Valencia, and the other one with a slightly different chassis, based on their own requests. This is the first time back to Sepang since we lost Marco Simoncelli last October, on Sunday we visited the scene of his accident and laid some flowers and said a final 'Ciao' to him. I believe by starting this season strong will be a fitting tribute to Marco."
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Jlo fastest so far with a 2'03'044
Spies .6 back
Rossi 1 sec behind them.
Awaiting more times......
Make or break for Duke and Rossi - manymany changes to how the Vengine is mounted to the frame, going to be an interesting 2-3days testing but everything won't be exposed with everyone around.
I'll update whenever I can .
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Sepang MotoGP test times - Tuesday 1pm
1. Valentino Rossi ITA Ducati Team 2m 2.905s (12 laps)
2. Ben Spies USA Yamaha Factory Racing 2m 2.930s (10)
3. Jorge Lorenzo ESP Yamaha Factory Racing 2m 3.044s (7)
4. Alvaro Bautista ESP San Carlo Honda Gresini 2m 4.110s (7)
5. Katsuyuki Nakasuga JPN Yamaha Test Rider 2m 4.577s (6)
6. Dani Pedrosa ESP Repsol Honda 2m 4.971s (11)
7. Casey Stoner AUS Repsol Honda 2m 7.163s (2)
8. Andrea Dovizioso ITA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 2m 8.375s (4)
9. Cal Crutchlow GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 2m 10.993s (1)
10. Ivan Silva ESP BQR (FTR-Kawasaki CRT) 2m 11.280s (10)
11. Nicky Hayden USA Ducati Team 2m 11.759s (3)
12. Stefan Bradl GER LCR Honda 2m 11.887s (1)
13. Karel Abraham CZE Cardion AB Motoracing 2m 15.563s (1)
14. Jordi Torres ESP BQR (FTR-Kawasaki CRT) 2m 16.565s (5)
15. Hector Barbera ESP Pramac Racing 2m 17.372s (1)
times still way off.... must be still damp out there and alot of sandbagging LOL......
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Still early days - teams not jumping out on the track clocking up many laps.
Stoner had some back muscle pain whilst streching would you believe hence his low times and not many laps yesterday, hopefully he gets back on strong the next day or 2.
Some times just done.
Lorenzo J.2:01.144
Spies B.+0.221
Pedrosa D.+0.494
Crutchlow C.+0.566
Stoner C.+0.667
Bautista A.+1.018
Hayden N.+1.210
Rossi V.+1.256
Dovizioso A.+1.362
Barbera H.+1.453
Bradl S.+1.777'
Abraham K.+1.906
Nakasuga K.+2.221
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Spies to the top
Pos Rider Team Fastest lap Prev. Gap Lead. Gap Laps 1 Ben Spies 2:01.052 - - 19 2 Jorge Lorenzo 2:01.144 +0.092 +0.092 15 3 Casey Stoner 2:01.245 +0.101 +0.193 11 4 Dani Pedrosa 2:01.638 +0.393 +0.586 9 5 Cal Crutchlow 2:01.710 +0.072 +0.658 15 6 Alvaro Bautista 2:02.130 +0.420 +1.078 12 7 Nicky Hayden 2:02.354 +0.224 +1.302 14 8 Valentino Rossi 2:02.400 +0.046 +1.348 15 9 Stefan Bradl 2:02.414 +0.014 +1.362 12 10 Andrea Dovizioso 2:02.506 +0.092 +1.454 13 11 Hector Barbera 2:02.597 +0.091 +1.545 16 12 Karel Abraham 2:03.050 +0.453 +1.998 27 13 Katsuyuki Nakasuga 2:03.323 +0.273 +2.271 13 14 Franco Bataini 2:04.663 +1.340 +3.611 16 15 Colin Edwards 2:07.778 +3.115 +6.726 8 16 Ivan Silva 2:11.734 +3.956 +10.682 5 17 Robertino Pietri 2:12.546 +0.812 +11.494 5
