Dorna and Sky Italia have signed a new deal that will see MotoGP broadcasted exclusively by Sky in 2014, giving Mediaset the finger after 10 years of broadcasting and making MotoGP the fifth most watched sport in Italy, while broadcasting not only all three races but also all the three classes free practice and qualifying sessions, and all for free.

Apparently only eight out of the eighteen races on the calendar will be televised free-to-air by Sky, while the others will be pay for view in one of their multiple and costly sports packages, but if Sky is expecting to see a rush of those 4 to 5 million odd viewers that currently watch MotoGP on Mediaset to become new subscribers they can forget, because it isn’t going to happen, at least judging from the very strong reactions from Italians on various blogs and websites that we’ve checked out following the press release.

Sky Italy at the present has between 5 to 5.5 million subscribers, and with the current economic climate in the country, with a growing recession, rising unemployment, spending cuts, massive tax hikes not only from the state but also from the regions and provinces that is causing a rise in social unrest and suicides, no one wants to pull out extra cash just to watch MotoGP, especially not to watch processional races where the outcome is more or less decided after a couple of laps and not even to watch Valentino Rossi, especially a lagging one. To think that Carmelo Ezpeleta not so long ago had stated that he prefered that MotoGP be broadcasted free-to-air to give the championship a larger viewing audience, but that evidently was before the global economic crisis.

What will be MotoGPs loss will be World Superbikes gain, as Mediaset has turned around and just signed a three-year contract (2013-2015) acquiring the broadcasting rights to the popular and highly battled championship, that will with no doubt see a large increase in viewing audiences. WSBK is currently being aired by the smaller LA7 (owned by Telecom Italy) and they currently average between 1.1 to 1.5 million viewers per race weekend, but this is also due to the fact that their digital terrestial TV signal doesn’t reach every home in the country, while Berlusconi’s TV channels reaches everyone.

Following the big online success that Valentino Rossi and Dainese had last December where over 5000 fans submitted questions to the former World Champion, Monster Energy has decided to repeat the idea and will have Rossi answering fans’ questions during a special live broadcast on motogp.com, which will be hosted by MotoGP commentator and After the Flag host Gavin Emmett

You can send your questions via twitter using the #AskValentino hashtag or at Facebook.com/MonsterEnergy.

Rossi will be answering questions live on the eve of the Le Mans GP on Thursday 17 May and you’ll be able to follow the interview exclusively on motogp.com via a free video stream at 18:45 local time.

Back in 2010 at the Indianapolis GP, GPTech entered Jason DiSalvo as wild card in Moto2 with a FTR M210, and DiSalvo finished in a highly respectable 9th place, two years later GPTech has obtained another wildcard entry, but this time it will be in MotoGP, with a CRT machine.

Their CRT will have BCL Motorsports aluminum frame and as Vesrah Suzuki/MCJ Motorsports is their technical partner on the project, the GPTech bike will house a Suzuki GSX-R 1000 engine.

The project has been in the works since January, but they’ve kept quiet until they received an okay from Dorna. The newly formed team has yet to announce who will be riding the first MotoGP CRT bike with a Suzuki engine.

“The new CRT rules have allowed us the freedom to develop a complete program that is worthy of being on the Moto GP grid. A big thanks goes out to everyone behind the scenes helping!” said GPtech owner Geoff Maloney. While Mark Junge, owner Vesrah Suzuki/MCJ Motorsports said, “Being able to develop a Suzuki GSXR 1000 engine under the CRT rules of MotoGP is a huge opportunity and I look forward to building a competitive engine package.”

This will be the second MotoGP CRT wild card entry, as Attack Performance has already announced they’ll be entering Steve Rapp on CRT bike with a CNC chassis and Kawasaki ZX-10R engine and they’ll be doing both US races.

Source | roadracingworld.com

Valentino Rossi has always been tipped to finish his racing career in World Superbikes and the former World champion has always followed the ‘other’ championship with close interest and almost every year rides down from Tavullia (and causing a small ruckus) to see the Superbike round at Misano.

The Italian yesterday commented Race 2 at Donington via Twitter and said “Che razza di gara la Superbike!Che bagarre,bravi tutti,peccato per le BMW all’ultima curva.” (What a Superbike race! What a battle, everyone is so good, too bad about the BMWs at the last turn) but it was his next tweet that will have Carmelo Ezpeleta who has been trying to spice up MotoGP groaning and all racing fans agreeing on “Purtroppo le nostre gare sono diventate molto più noiose” (Unfortunately our races have become much more boring) however after realizing that he personally started even more speculation on his upcoming future, he had to backpedal and tweeted “Ma,detto questo,io voglio correre in MotoGp per altri anni.ci vorrebbe solo un po’ più di bagarre,ecco tutto (Having said this, I want to race in MotoGP for several more years. We just need more battles that’s all).

The Flammini brothers, Maurizo and Paolo who run the Superbike championship are still hoping that Rossi gets bored out of his mind and that not having any results in MotoGP will make him make the switch sooner than later.

Source | valeyellow46@twitter.com

How popular is a motorcycle racer in Spain? And how much does personality and racking up wins count when it comes to selling products?

Last year, Personality Media, a marketing consultancy agency, who indicates to advertising companies which celebrity personality, in this case motorcycle racers has more clout over consumers. Last season Dani Pedrosa outscored everyone else, but this year the always fickle public has decided that Moto2 rider Marc Marquez is better giving him high scores in most of the categories, as more and more people are recognizing his name and face.

Only Pedrosa, Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi beat him in the recognition category as Pedrosa and Lorenzo are known by 88% of the public while Rossi is at 87% (in the past he’s done a couple of commercials in Spain for Nutella) and Marquez is now at 63%, jumping a big 20% over the year.

Acccording to Personality Media, Marquez elicits more consumer confidence scoring a 7.3 out of 10 compared to Pedrosa’s 6.3, while Rossi is still popular enough to beat all the Spanish riders in the two of the fourteen categories studied and Jorge Lorenzo continues not to be very ’simpàtico’ to the Spanish public.

Source | personalitymedia.es via motogp.com

Last March it was announced that Ducati was getting rid of two of their recent family heirlooms, Casey Stoner’s GP1o and one of Valentino Rossi’s GP11s and that they would be auctioned at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco by RM Auctions, well the two bikes went under the hammer last Friday and once again Stoner’s machine beat Rossi’s machine, as the GP10 fetched more than the GP11.

The auction of the two prototypes had a lot of fine print in the contract, with a post sale confidentiality agreement and the Bologna manufacturer’s asking price was around €300,000-€350,000 each, but who bought the bikes got a pretty good deal as the GP10 was sold for around €172,430 while the GP11 went for € 168,420, not bad for two prototypes that usually cost millions in R&D to build.

Source | ducati.net

Even if yet has to be officialized, it looks like India is set to become the next country to host MotoGP next season and they could also become the season opener with the championship to start in March.

Sameer Gaur, managing director and chief executive officer of Jaypee Sports who runs the International Buddh International Circuit, besides hosting F1 he also wants to add a round of the World Superbike championship in the very near future.

“We want to accommodate all of these races, but India has only five months of good weather (October-March) when they can be held,” said Gaur.

Dorna’s CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta has already broadly hinted that India is going to be the next circuit on the MotoGP calendar and that the season should start earlier. MotoGP has opened later over these last few years mainly to avoid the dew and dampness that the Losail circuit suffers during the night race.

The photo above is Jorge Lorenzo who lapped the 5140 meter Buddh circuit last January as part of a Yamaha promotional tour.

Source | bikeracing.it

It looks like Paul Bird has changed his mind regarding Shane Byrne taking James Ellison’s place in the upcoming Le Mans GP as the PBM UK team has now confirmed that Ellison will be regularily taking his place on the grid next week.

It seemed that Bird wanted his BSB rider to give a second opinion on the severe chatter issues that Ellison has been lamenting on his Aprilia ART, but despite confirming faith in Ellison, the team doesn’t dismiss that in some later date either Byrne or Stuart Easton could test or even race the CRT bike.

PBM UK press release:

Following recent speculation regarding James Ellison’s participation in the 2012 MotoGP World Championship, the Paul Bird Motorsport Team (PBM UK) wishes to clarify that James will continue to race the CRT-specification Aprilia ART starting with the French Grand Prix at Le Mans on May 20th.

In order to assist with development with the project, the team considered utilising the services of another rider and whilst this remains an option either in future testing or in a race, the focus of the team will concentrate on James continuing to develop the machine in the forthcoming Grands Prix.

Phil Borley, Technical Director: “It was unfortunate that James didn’t finish the race in Estoril but he proved what the machine was capable of in Jerez. This is a long-term project and we have to look at all options available to us in achieving our goals, which both the team and James understand. Our concentration is now on getting the technical help we need and to make more progress at Le Mans and Catalunya.”

As required by MotoGP regulations, the two nominated test riders for the PBM UK team are confirmed as Shane Byrne and Stuart Easton.

Being the only German MotoGP rider and for Honda to boot, has certain fringe benefits as Stefan Bradl can attest to, as can LCR Honda.

The reigning Moto2 World champion and MotoGP rookie received from Honda Germany - who continues to sponsor the young rider - a brand new car and a VFR1200F, while his team received 5 Honda Vision 110cc scooters to use in the paddock for the rest of the 2012 season.

“I am happy to continue my working cooperation with Honda Germany especially this year. This season is extremely important for me and I want to thank Mr Katsushi Inoue and Mr Klaus-Peter Kniedel for their precious support. Now I can easily ride my VFR1200F for my Sunday outings at home with my friends and drive my new car to reach the circuits in a easy way: then on track I have got my Vision scooter to move easily in the paddock,” said Bradl.

Did you enjoy the photo gallery of the umbralla girls seen at the World Superbike round in Monza we published yesterday? As if that was not enough, here’s another bunch of pics of the nice paddock girls hanging around the MotoGP paddock in Estoril, where the Portugal GP took place a couple of days ago. By the way, this gallery is twice the size of the last one, but if that’s still not enough for you, here’s also a nice video starring the some of the ladies featured in our photo gallery as well as some other Portuguese beauty. So here comes the old unanswered question again: what’s better, MotoGP or WSBK? You decide..

View the full Paddock Girls MotoGP Estoril 2012 photo gallery

NGM Forward Racing has decided to replace recovering Colin Edwards with former MotoGP and WSBK rider Chris Vermeulen in next week’s French GP race at Le Mans.

The Australian dropped out of MotoGP at the end of 2009 when his contract with Rizla Suzuki was not renewed and moved to World Superbikes with Kawasaki, but in the opening round at Phillip Island badly injured his knee which needed extensive reconstruction surgery and he had to pull out of the championship in July 2010. In 2011 after a long period of rehabilitation he suffered another set of injuries which sidelined him again and this season wasn’t picked up.

Vermeulen is considered a wet weather specialist and in 2007 he won his only MotoGP race in a very wet Le Mans.
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“First of all I would like to wish Colin a speedy recovery. I am grateful to have the opportunity to race back in MotoGP with the NGM Mobile Forward Racing team,” said Chris Vermeulen. “I am looking forward to my first time on the bike being at Le Mans, a circuit that holds great memories for me including a victory in 2007. I am excited to be racing at the top level of motorcycling again and look forward to working with the team.”

“Several members of the team have previously worked with Chris and I believe that he will imediately find a good feeling with the team,” said Forward Racing’s managing director Marco Curioni. “Vermeulen is an expert rider in MotoGP with experience working with the electronics and the correct use of the tyres, which are two areas in which we are currently working. Chris has previsouly won at Le Mans and knows the track well. I would like to wish Chris good luck and send all my best wishes for a quick recovery to Colin, who is on his way back home.”

Here is a nice collection of images taken at the latest MotoGP race in Portugal, showing some of the best moments of the weekend ‘away from the track’: once again, you get loads of pics from the grid, from the pits, from the podium, a whole bunch of close-ups and so forth. It surely makes for a nice watch, but we just want you to know that we saved the best for last: a set of pics featuring some of the hottest ladies spotted on and off the track is also waiting in the wings, so keep an eye on this space.