Take the FIM Speed World Record Holder Leslie Porterfield, Livia Lancelot the FIM’s Women’s Motocross World Championand Laia Sanz, FIM’s Women’s Trial World Champion put them on a video called “Women Ride”as role models to encourage more women to take to two wheels.

It was about time that the FIM decided to promote female riding considering the rising number of women that are taking to motorcycles, but unfortunately in Italy, the FMI (Italian Motorcycling Federation) is going in the opposite direction and female racers are up in arms against the FMI.

The Federation has unilaterally decided the Women’s 2010 GP Championship will consist of one single race and the title assigned on the basis of that one race.

It looks like big league doesn’t know what little league is doing … wrong.

Source | asphaltandrubber.com

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We’ve come across this video interview by Giovanni Zamagni of Italian website Moto.it with Speed Up Team owner Luca Boscoscuro at the Valencia Moto2 offical tests that are seeing former MotoGP rider Gabor Talmacsi and former 125cc rider, but better known for his head butting, Andrea Iannone coming to grips with their new bikes.

The video is pretty good, not only because it gives us great close-up footage of the bike and the new Honda engine, but because the interview with Boscoscuro reveals certain aspects of this new Moto2 series that we found interesting , so we decided to share with you and translated it.

Q: So Luca Boscoscuro, tell us about the new category Moto2:
A: Well, it’s a new series for everyone, thought up in a very short period of time …

Q: Too short maybe?
A: From my point of view, yes. I see that everyone is in the same situation as ours and having difficulties … what we’ll needing for the season … and since these are prototypes we’ve had very little time to work on them.

Continue reading: Moto2 : Luca Boscoscuro talks Moto2, Honda Engine and Costs

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The final day of testing at the Catalunya race track saw a wet track and cold temperatures that hampered the morning session with only a few Moto2 riders willing to risk riding in tricky conditions.

With weather conditions improving in the afternoon, Raffaele De Rosa (Tech3) and Julian Simon (Mapfre Aspar) were the top riders, posting the exact same times 1’49.3, while Shoya Tomizawa (Technomag-CIP) did a 1’49.4 , the same lap time that saw him on top of the charts yesterday.

Anthony West who is on the Moto2 reserve list with the MZ Racing Team, also recorded the same time as Tomizawa.

All the teams are scheduled back for another official test in Valencia March 1- 3, where they should finally receive Honda’s 4-cylinder 600cc engine developed for the Moto2 class.

Continue reading: Moto2: DeRosa and Simon on Top on Final Day of Testing

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Today’s FB Corse official team presentation in Milan has clarified some questions surrounding this Italian team.

FB Corse’s three cylinder bike designed and built by Oral Engineering will have a racing budget of 5 million euros that will have to last the entire 18 race season.

FB Corse hasn’t been officially accepted in the MotoGP 2010 Championship, but according to the team this is only formality, but the bike will have to undergo approval by Dorna. The final test should be at Valencia and the rider will have to lap no more that 3 seconds from the last qualifier during the 2009 Valencia GP.

The lap time sounds feasible, but once the team is accepted, McCoy will be subjected to the regulations that prohibit any MotoGP rider testing outside the official tests and on MotoGP race tracks, unless the team gets a special dispensation to test as this year’s rookies did.

The greatest problem facing the FB01 is that it’s never been on a race track and has only been on dynos, but the first test should be towards the end of this month with Luca Cadalora and that leaves only one month of very intense work before the season opener in Qatar April 11th.

Source | fbcorse and motociclismo.it

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Ducati isn’t the only team that used the mountains as a background to launch their 2010 racing campaign. Moto 2 team Technomag-CIP were in the Swiss Alps with minus 10°C to present their team and unveil the official livery of their Suter MMX bikes that they will be using to contest in this year’s Moto2 Championship.

The team owned by Alain Bronec, will run Swiss rider Dominique Aegerter and Japan’s Shoya Tomizawa and will be present for the Moto2 tests in Barcelona from February 15th to 17th.

Source | technomag-cipmoto2

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After FB Corse’s last press release who placed the blame on John Hopkins management and sponsor for loosing the American rider, Hopkins has now officially confirmed that he will race the 2010 AMA Pro season with Team Hammer.

Here’s the American rider with his first contact with the Suzuki GSX-R 1000 at the Auto Club Speedway at Fontana, and will race under the banner M4 Monster Suzuki.

John Hopkins:

“I’m really excited to be working with the team and (team owner) John Ulrich again. We had a lot of success when I raced with them at the beginning of my career and I’d like to thank Monster, M4 and all the rest of our sponsors for making it happen. I’m also happy to be back on a Suzuki motorcycle again. I’m feeling healthier than I have in a long time. I think my fitness level is up there with the way it was in 2007 and I’m looking forward to getting out there on the track and enjoying racing again.

I have the chance to ride the bike a little bit today at a Fastrack Riders track day at Fontana and I’m really pleased. It is just a shakedown test but the bike feels really comfortable to me. My goals are to learn the bike and the tracks, have a healthy season, perform to the best of my ability, and see where that leaves us in the championship. I’m really happy to have a ride with a great team and be healthy again and I’m looking forward to having a good season.

Source | teamhammer and johnhopkins

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Buell’s new-look racing company has sold its first race bikes to the Pegasus Race Team, who will use them in the European Sound of Thunder Series. The two bikes are 1190RR-B European spec superbikes, and will join other bikes, the 1125R and XB, in support classes.

2009 Sound of Thunder champion, Harald Kitsch will ride the new bikes, and Buell is hoping this will be the first success story for the new chapter in the company history. Erik Buell says:

“We are extremely pleased that the Pegasusrace team will be the first team in the world to get the new 1190RR-B. Over the years, I’ve been very impressed with every aspect of their organization and I know they will do well,” said Erik Buell of Erik Buell Racing. “We’ve been working very hard to develop this bike and get our race shop set up and organized as we begin to showcase the finest race parts and technology we can deliver without restriction.”

Buell 1125R

Source | Motorcyclist

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Over the shortened route for the Stage 9 of Dakar 2010, Marc Coma won the stage with his KTM. The stage was about 170 km long due to severe fog in some areas, and it also marks the last stage in the Acatama desert.

Francisco Lopez‘ new Aprilia RXV 4.5 continues to do well at third overall and coming in third for this stage after Cyril Despres with his KTM. The brand also took out fourth spot, before Yamaha came in fifth with rider David Fretigné. Despres is in first place overall before Stage 10 starts.

Stage Nine:
1° #1 Marc Coma (SPA) KTM;
2° #2 Cyril Despres (FRA) KTM;
3° #9 Francisco Lopez (CHI) Aprilia;
4° #4 Pal Anders Ullevalseter (NOR) KTM;
5° #12 David Fretigné (FRA) Yamaha;

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Scott Redding has finally gotten a deal to ride in Moto2 this season and it will be with the Marc VDS Racing Team, under the wings of former Kawasaki team manager Michael Bartholemy.

Redding who turned 17 this month, was the youngest winner ever of a 125cc Grand Prix in 2008, had a disappointing 2009 season and was struggling in finding sponsorship money and ride for 2010, but the talented youngster who hails from Gloucestershire has finally got a new opportunity and will ride in the Belgium based team alongside 19 year old Vincent Lonbois, who contested in European Superstock 600 Championship in 2009, taking 3rd in the standings.

Marc VDS Racing will be using the Suter MMX and Redding will debut on the new Moto2 machine in February and has already tried out FTR and Kalex bikes at Almeria last December.

Source | mcn

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It can’t be easy being the son of what the world once considered the most exciting and charismatic Grand Prix motorcycle racers of his generation, but Dakota Mamola, the 15-year-old son of four-time 500cc World Championship runner-up Randy Mamola, is trying to live up to his famous name and on Sunday took his first ever win.

In the final round of the Metrakit 125cc Pre-GP Campeonato Mediteraneo de Velocidad (Mediterranean Championship) at Valencia, the red headed youngster who looks like Bradley Smith’s kid brother was 17th on a grid of 42 riders, took off like a rocket and found himself fifth at the first corner and despite rain swept conditions managed to take his first win.

Riding for the Monlau Team run by Emilio Alzamora, the former 125cc World Champion, Mamola junior races in two different championships. Dakota also saw the podium when he finished third last March in the Pre-125 class of the Campionats de Catalunya de Motociclisme at the Catalunya circuit.

Dakota who speaks English, French, Spanish and Catalan (how many 15 year olds do you know that speak four languages) is sponsored by Monster Energy, Arai helmets, and Alpinestars leathers.

Source | mcn and dakota mamola facebook

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