Motorsport South Africa wants to send their riders to race internationally and have decided that the FIM Superbike World Championship would be the perfect series.

The MSA is the motorsports controlling body and its CEO Francois Pretorious has an ambitious project: to field in 2012 a South African team in various classes of the Superbike World Championship.

The MSA will offer full support and backing for Team South Africa as well as the creation of an international trust fund to support the riders, but will need help from sponsors who could to see a good return on their investments as Africa makes up for 19% of the viewing audience.

According to the Township Times, the initiative will cost around R6m for team rights, while sponsors and individual rider sponsorships will start at R200000. If Team South Africa finds the funds, they will initially support World Supersport rider Sheridan Morais (currently in Valencia testing with Kawasaki’s Supersport team), SA Superstock champion Ronan Quarmby and the 15 -year old Themba Khumalo in the 250cc European Junior Cup.

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Infront Motor Sports promoter for the World Superbike championship has announced five days of official tests for the upcoming 2012 season.

As usual the first official test will be at Phillip Island on Monday and Tuesday (February 20-21) ahead of the first round of the season. With the Moscow Internation Raceway now added to the 2012 calendar, the teams will be able to test on Wednesday August 22nd to get to know the new circuit before the official practice sessions.

There will also be two post-race tests. The first will be on Monday April 2nd after the Imola SBK round, while the second test takes place on Monday July 2nd after Motorland Aragon round.

The new winter testing ban, only for Superbike teams, goes into effect December 1st to January 15th.

2012 Test Dates:

Phillip Island, Monday 20/Tuesday 21 February (pre-race)
Imola, Monday 2nd April (post-race)
Motorland Aragon, Monday 2nd July (post-race)
Moscow Raceway, Wednesday 22nd August (pre-race)

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The last time we heard from Alstare Suzuki team owner Francis Batta regarding his 2012 plans was just last month when he was confirmed that he would be staying in World Superbikes with Suzuki and was even looking into expanding his team and also run a bike in World Supersport if he could find sponsors and funding, instead the Belgium manager in a long interview with Cycle News has confirmed that he has thrown in the towel and is withdrawing from the 2012 Superbike championship.

Batta is reporting that Suzuki has pulled out its factory involvement (which now explains why Paul Denning’s Crescent Suzuki has turned to Yoshimura and that Suzuki will almost certainly no longer be in MotoGP) and he true to his word will not continue any racing efforts without them, despite having had offers to run Kawasaki’s and Yamaha’s but turned them down as a sign of respect because of his long standing relationship with the Hamamatsu manufacturer, but he did admit that he was interested in MV Agusta, but the Italian manufacturer didn’t return his calls.

It is very sad to see that such an important team as Alstare Suzuki who has brought so much to World Supersports and World Superbikes in the last fifteen years end this way.

We expect an official statement from Batta in the next few hours.

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Crescent Suzuki will be moving to World Superbikes next season and have already signed up Leon Camier as one of their riders and now have announced that renowned Japanese tuning company Yoshimura will build, supply and develop the engines and exhaust systems for Crescent Suzuki’s GSX-R1000s.

Yoshimura engineers have already spent some time at the Crescent race headquarters in Verwood and evaluated the development already made with the 2011 engine and devolopment will continue to make the bikes even more competitive and the team will be testing later this month with Camier.

Yoshimura has had several of their own wildcard entries in World Superbikes, but this agreement with Crescent seems to exclude that the Japanese team will be entering the series anytime soon and it also seems that the British team will not be getting any factory support directly from the Japanese manufacturer.

“When Fujio and Yohei came to see me at the Japanese Grand Prix to discuss this partnership, it was clear that their passion and enthusiasm to work with Crescent Suzuki on the global stage was genuine and something they felt strongly about. For us as a team it is a significant level of assistance and a substantial boost to our performance potential. The Yoshimura company was built on engineering the best possible performance from engines and exhaust systems, and that principle has never changed. It is also very pleasing that the whole attitude to the project is of open communication and using the best combination of Yoshimura’s own concepts and ideas and those which already exist in the Crescent developed engine. Yoshimura is a global household name in the motorcycle industry and we are very proud that they have shown such trust in the Crescent Suzuki World Superbike team to partner us so closely, and for us to uphold their honour on the world stage.” said team owner Paul Denning.

Fujio Yoshimura (Owner, Yoshimura Japan): “We at Yoshimura greatly appreciate this collaboration and it will be our highest priority. Thanks to Paul (Denning) and Crescent Suzuki for trusting our engine tuning capabilities and our passion towards competing at the front of the 2012 WSBK Championship Series. We believe Crescent Suzuki has a record of structuring the best racing team in the BSB championship series, with very dedicated technical and supportive team members presenting the most competitive machinery and riders at all races. We hope that the partnership between Yoshimura and Crescent Suzuki will be the most perfectly matched racing team on the WSBK circuits!”

Source | worldsbk.com

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Kawasaki has announced that their rider line-up will not change in 2012, thus confirming Tom Sykes and Joan Lascorz for the upcoming World Superbike championship.

While Lascorz was anticipated to remain with the Superbike team after Kawasaki decided to get more actively involved in the championship and decided to assign the factory effort to Spanish Provec Motocard.com run by Guim Roda and drop Paul Bird, so the British rider’s future was slightly less certain, but the negotiations now have confirmed a much rosier 2012 for Sykes.

“I’m very happy to be continuing with Kawasaki and the Ninja ZX-10R in 2012. I believe the bike has good potential and we saw some of that come through in 2011 with a race win in Germany and Superpole at Misano. These are the kind of results I am looking to achieve in the coming season on a regular basis and I really believe we can do this. I have a lot of confidence in Kawasaki and the team around me, so if we can improve a couple of points with the set-up of the bike on the track which I feel are restricting performance this would be a big step forward for us in the final results. I am looking forward to re-starting our test programme again very soon, ” said Sykes.

Continue reading: Tom Sykes to stay with Kawasaki in 2012

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After announcing that they would be in World Superbikes in 2012 late last month, Crescent Suzuki has confirmed now Leon Camier as their first rider for their debut season.

The former 2009 British Superbike champion heads to the new team after spending his two seasons in World Superbikes with the Aprilia Alitalia factory team, where he went to the podium seven times in 52 race starts.

“I am absolutely thrilled and excited to be joining the Crescent team and with the opportunity to ride the GSX-R1000! My first two years in WSB have been tough but I’ve learnt a lot and had some good results to build on, so this is a great opportunity for me. I have met with Jack and Paul and it’s clear that the team’s attitude suits me perfectly. I feel we all have the same goals and I can’t wait to start testing.

“I’m really looking forward to the new season and I believe that the Suzuki GSX-R is certainly a very capable bike, especially with the technical plan the guys have in place. This is a fantastic chance for me to take the next step in my career and I’m very thankful to the guys at Crescent for giving me the opportunity,” said Camier, who will begin testing the GSX-R1000 later this month.

Continue reading: Leon Camier stays in World Superbikes and signs with Crescent Suzuki

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