The inaugural Moto2 season hasn’t even started yet and we’ve already had the first pull out due to financial reasons. The Spanish Kino Racing team who was to compete in the new series on the BQR chassis with 21 year old Argentinean rider Fabricio Perren, have been forced to withdraw after their sponsors backed out.

With the Kino Racing pull out, MZ Racing run by Martin Wimmer and former 250cc rider Ralf Waldmann have been called up from the reserve list and have confirmed that they will compete in the 2010 season with Anthony West as their sole rider.

The German team has already taken part in the private tests at Catalunya and in the recent official tests at Valencia and Jerez.

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If you missed out on Daytona Bike Week last week, you can check out this recap video from SpeedTV that includes the Daytona 200, with spills, thrills and side by side racing on the banking and pit stop problems and much more from all the races.

Josh Herrin won the Daytona 200, while Jake Zemke won the Superbike race, former RedBull MotoGP Rookies Cup and Red Bull KTM 125cc rider Cameron Beaubier took the Supersport race.

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Yamaha USA has released part two of their One on One series with Ben Spies and Eddie Lawson. In this video both champions come across much more relaxed, especially Spies. Listen to these guys talk about competitivenss, fans and rider obligations and winning.

Enjoy.

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More rain and cold temperatures affected most of the final day of Moto2 testing at Jerez, but saw Alex De Angelis rise once again to the top of the timesheet for the second time in this official three day test.

De Angelis put in a best lap of 1’55.280 in the wet, improving on his Saturday times by more than a half a second and the only rider to break into the 1.55 mark. Toni Elias was in second, more than seven tenths of second behind his former MotoGP team mate. Tech3 riders Raffaele DeRosa and Yuki Takahashi, were third and fourth respectively.

Missing were Kenny Noyes and Joan Olivé from Jack&Jones by Antonio Banderas team who packed up early and didn’t test. Mapfre Aspar rider Julian Simon who topped during the Valencia tests didn’t even complete a full lap today.

The third and final pre-season Moto2 test will again take place at Jerez March 27-29 before heading to Qatar for the championship opener.

Overall test times here.

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Mixed weather conditions at Jerez saw Gresini’s Toni Elias set the best time with a lap of 1’45.024 leaving Yonny Hernandez (Blusens STX) in second and more than half a second behind him and American Kenny Noyes in third.

Alex De Angelis (Scot Racing) was fourth on the chart, but was 0.708s from his former team mate Elias. The Forward Racing duo Jules Cluzel and Claudio Corti were fifth and sixth.

Thomas Luthi (Interwetten Racing) was seventh and Roberto Rolfo made a big jump forward from Saturday, taking the eighth position after returning from the shoulder injury he picked up in Barcellona and missing the Valencia tests. Shoya Tomizawa was in 9th and closing the top ten was Julian Simon.

Continue reading: Moto2 Jerez Day 2 - Toni Elias on top on Sunday

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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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The second day of the Moto2 IRTA tests at Valencia, saw Julian Simon with the RSV on top of the chart with a best lap of 1’37”156, followed by Kenny Noyes of the Antonio Banderas team who was second and Toni Elias in third, Claudio Corti of Forward Racing in fourth and Yuki Takahashi in fifth with Herve Poncharal’s Tech 3 bike.

These five riders were separated by only 0.479s from Simon’s best time and overall the first nine riders are separated by less than one second and this includes Yonny Hernandez and Alex DeAngelis and Thomas Luthi who both made a big jump forward from Day 1, as did Fonsi Nieto who moved into the top 10.

Today will be the last day of testing at Valencia and the Moto2 riders will be back on track for more testing at Jerez on March 8th.

Continue reading: Moto 2: Julian Simon on Top on Day 2 at Valencia

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Three days of official Moto2 testing got underway today at Valencia, with all the teams finally receiving the long awaited official spec engines signed, sealed and powered by Honda and prepared by Geo Technology that will have to last for the first three races.

Today’s testing saw reigning 125cc champion Julian Simon come out on top of the charts with his RSV and a best lap of 1.37”548 during the afternoon session pipping out former MotoGP rider Toni Elias of Gresini Racing by just 0.004.

Taking third was Claudio Corti on a Suter chassis bike (Forward Racing) who was 0.489s behind Simon and and another former MotoGP rider, Yuki Takahasi on the Tech3 bike in fourth.

Fifth was Yonny Hernandez who has taken Bernat Martinez place in the Blusens STX team. Anthony West was sixth with Ralf Waldmann’s MZ Racing Team is still on the reserve list.

The entry list for Moto2 has increased from 39 to 40 riders with the official admission of Marc VDS Racing Team’s second rider Vincent Lonbois. Also confirmed in Moto 2 is Simone Corsi with Japan Italy Racing that will ride a TSR alongside team mate Mattia Pasini, who will race with #3 as #24 is being used by Toni Elias.

All the official test times from Day 1 can be found here.

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If you were unlucky enough to have missed today’s first round of the World Superbike races at Phillip Island, here’s two videos with the highlights of both races full of spills, thrills and one of hottest finishes since Monza 1999 when Colin Edwards won over Carl Fogarty by 0.005s.

Check out the second video after the jump and watch how outsider Carlos Checa on a privateer bike out races factory riders.

Continue reading: WSBK Phillip Island Video Highlights

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As usual racing at Phillip Island never lets fans wanting, if Race 1 didn’t disappoint, Race 2 was an absolute thriller. The Italians have a very pictoresque saying about close racing: “correre con il coltello tra i denti” which literally means racing with a knife between between your teeth and that’s what Carlos Checa did today on his privateer Ducati when he won the race.

The Spaniard who debuted with Althea Ducati Racing had a bad start leaving him in 11th on the first lap, but Checa was a man on a mission after his 7th place in Race 1 began working his way through the pack to join the four front runners to make a last lap move to take the victory in front of race 1 winner Leon Haslam followed by Michel Fabrizio who would take third place on the podium.

Haslam seemed to be heading to his second career victory and the race looked like a perfect photocopy of the first race with Fabrizio closely tagging the Brit and Noriyuki Haga in third moving up from his tenth place on the grid, but it would be former MotoGP and BSB rider Sylvain Guintoli who would snatch fourth place from a fading and aching Haga who took fifth.

Continue reading: WSBK Phillip Island Race 2: Carlos Checa wins last lap thriller

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