After announcing that Alex de Angelis would be joining their Moto2 team for the 2012 season, NGM Forward Racing has now revealed that former MotoGP rider Yuki Takahashi will also be in their line-up.

This will be the Japanese rider’s third season in Moto2; in 2010 he was with Tech3 Racing on the Mistral where he won a very dramatic Catalunya GP after Andrea Iannone was given a ride through penalty and 2011 spent the season with Gresini Racing on the Moriwaki, where he scorded a 3rd and 2nd place podium at Estoril and Le Mans, respectively and finished 11th in the overall standings.

“I am pleased to have reached an agreement with NGM Mobile Team Forward Racing to race the Moto2 World Championship next season,” said Takahashi. “To me this represents a new challenge, because I’ll be changing everything: team, bike and frame. I want to aim at winning the 2012 title. In these two years, NGM Mobile Forward Suter Racing and have been shown to be competitive and I will giving it 100% to reach the target. “

Mark Curioni, Sporting Director: “I am very happy to have reached an agreement with Yuki for next season. For 2012 we think we have the “right” bike and we hope to see him and Alex constantly fighting for the top positions. Aside from his professional side, he is very nice and kind that makes a really nice person to work with. I really think he’s the right rider for our team and he’ll integrate with the rest team without any effort. ”

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Alex de Angelis who is fighting for third in the standings in the weekend’s season finale at Valencia will be riding for NGM Forward Moto2 team next season.

The Sammarinese, a former MotoGP rider switched to Moto2 in 2010 riding for Scot Racing until the team folded half way through the season due to economic problems. He was called in to replace injured Hiroshi Aoyama in Interwetten and then finally finished the season with JiR Racing, which continued into the current 2011 season.

Giovanni Cuzari, CEO of the NGM Mobile Forward Racing Team:

“Alex is not just a rider for me, but since many years also a dear friend and I always hoped to build a team with him. Beside the mutual admiration which we share, also the passion for rally racing unites us and for sure Alex will participate in all the 4-wheel events we organize. Therefore, for me, this agreement is the realization of a small dream and personally I’m convinced that it is the right choice to aspire to the best possible results in 2012, because actually we cannot have lower expectations with a rider who might finish third in the overall standings this season.”

Marco Curioni, Sporting Director of the NGM Mobile Forward Racing Team:

“We are very pleased to have reached this agreement. Alex is an excellent rider, and especially during the last races he is showing his great skills on track. Thanks to the experience we accumulated over the years, from a technical point of view we can provide the best possible support to fight for the title of the Moto2 World Championship 2012. Furthermore Alex did not just convince us with his performance on track, but also his huge media presence and his charismatic character are key factors to fully satisfy the expectations of our sponsors.”

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While Casey Stoner sealed the 2011 MotoGP championship title with still two races left in the season, the Moto2 championship is still wide open as Stefan Bradl and Marc Marquez are now separated by just three points following today’s Moto2 race at Phillip Island.

Pole sitter Alex de Angelis won the race, his second in the two years he’s been in Moto2 with JiR team but he was made to work for it by new points leader Stefan Bradl as the two diced it out for almost the whole race distance and the crunch came on the final lap. De Angelis took the lead on the straight going into the Doohan corner, but at the Southern Loop the German rider tried an inside pass and outbraked himself and coming into contact with the Sammarinese’s MotoBI/TSR bike’s rear wheel, De Angelis stayed on while Bradl struggled to avoid going off track and by the time he got it straightened out the race was over and the JiR rider had won by a comfortable 1.358 second margin over second place Bradl.

However all eyes were pointed on title rival Marc Marquez who had to start at the back of the grid after receiving a one minute penalty following his collision with Ratthapark Wilairot at the end of the Friday’s first free practice session. Marquez had a lightning start from his 38th position overtaking 23 positions in his first lap and finding himself already in 15th. The Spaniard then started to carve through the field and by the fourth lap was 13th and only three seconds from Scott Redding who was leading the race at that moment. With a third of the race already in, CatalunyaCaixa Repsol rider was seventh and then fourth with only 11 laps left with Claudio Corti ahead of him. Catching the Italian with eight laps left the two would battle it out to the last lap where Marquez made his final move and beat the Italtrans rider over the finish line.

Continue reading: Moto2 Phillip Island: Alex de Angelis wins race, championship still wide open

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Yesterday the Moto2 test kicked off at the Ricardo Tormo Circuit in Valencia, with the top spot speaking only Italian and shared by two riders, Alex de Angelis and Andrea Iannone.

The teams are running with unofficial engines (the official ones will be available only at Jerez) so we don’t exactly know what 600cc spec Honda engines the various teams are using, so lap times are unofficial and to be taken with a grain a salt.

Iannone (with his new Suter) and de Angelis (his JiR MotoBi with a new livery) both posted a time of 1’36.7, and the only riders to break under the 1′37 mark.

As customary with Moto2 lap times, there’s a gaggle of riders all within bare tenths of seconds of each other, with Julián Simón and Stefan Bradl tied for the second spot with a 1′37, followed by Marc Marquez who after spending two days at Barcelona, was just a tenth of a second off, as was Gresini’s new rider, Michele Pirro.

Last year’s MotoGP riders Aleix Espargaró and Mika Kallio, still coming to grips with their Moto2’s were 8th and 10th respectively.

Continue reading: Moto2 Valencia test day 1: Andrea Iannone and Alex de Angelis share the top spot

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Alex de Angelis has finally penned his deal with JiR Racing team and will continue to ride the Motobi bike in 2011.

The Sammarinese can be placed on our 2010 horrid season list, at least for three quarters of the season. De Angelis started the season with RSM Scot Racing and crashed out several times injuring himself, which forced him to skip two races. Despite a non auspicious beginning in Moto2, was called in to replace injured Hiroshi Aoyama in Interwetten’s MotoGP team for three races, but was unable to live up to expectations, and his best result was two 12ths.

Returning to Scot Racing after his brief tenure in MotoGP, he found that his team had folded due to financial difficulties and was left without a ride. He then substituted Yusuke Teshima (who was replacing Mattia Pasini) in JiR Racing and his debut with the team at Misano Adriatico saw him involuntarily involved in the drama that took the life of Shoya Tomizawa.

De Angelis secured a ride with JiR Racing for the rest of the season, and in the final five races was on the podium three times and winning the Phillip Island Moto2 GP.

Source | motosprint.it

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As we expected after two days of torrential rain, today’s Moto2 race at Estoril on a drying track, offered some big and exciting surprises, with Stefan Bradl taking the win by a mere 0.068s, in one the best races of the season against Alex Baldolini.

Bradl took his first Moto2 win, from 10th on the grid, in a race that saw World Supersport champion Kenan Sofuoglu, in his debut in Moto2 riding for Techncomag CIP and the first time at Estoril, lose an amazing lead of over seven seconds, battling with problems on his left handlebar and a fading rear tire grip.

Sofuoglu would also be denied a third place podium by hard charging Alex de Angelis and fourth place by Scott Redding who beat him to the chequered flag in a nine rider battle.

Continue reading: Moto2 Estoril: Stefan Bradl wins in upset thriller

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An all Italian speaking podium saw Roberto Rolfo win his first race in Moto2 and Toni Elias nab the the first ever Moto2 championship title with a fourth place finish after title rival Julian Simon made two huge mistakes and definitely handing the title to Elias in Sepang.

Rolfo, who won his last race in 2004 was able to take the win for his S.T.R, Italtrans team (and not included in next year’s Moto2 entry list) after battling it out with Alex de Angelis who took the second spot on the podium after just four races with the JiR racing team.

Elias also battled it out for the third spot on the podium with Andrea Iannone finally prevailing, but the Spanish rider was already the world champion with seven race wins and a second place podium and giving Fausto Gresini his second title after Daijiro Kato’s 2001 title in 250cc.

Continue reading: Moto2 Sepang: Roberto Rolfo wins, Toni Elias takes Championship Title

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Alex de Angelis will be taking part in the Gran Premio di Aragon this weekend with JiR Racing.

The Sammarinese has yet to finalize a deal with Gianluca Montiron’s team for the rest of the season, but Montiron has given De Angelis another chance to ride their MotoBi bike after the tragic death of Shoya Tomizawa at the Misano GP.

“I’ll be riding at the Grand Prix at Aragon with the JiR team and this is very comforting. Being at this race is very important for me after the dramatic events of Misano. Getting back on track will infact be the first step to try overcome the difficult time that I’m living and evaluate how I feel once I’m back on a bike,” said De Angelis. “Currently we haven’t found an agreement for the end of season so I’ll be riding for JiR only at Aragon, but my lawyer will be with me so we can continue negotiations with Gianluca Montiron and see if we can close this deal.”

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Alex de Angelis has had a tough 2010 season, between crashes, injuries and being dumped by his Scot Racing team and then the joy of finding a new ride with JiR Racing for his home race at Misano, but all these problems were nothing compared to his coping with the death of Shoya Tomizawa.

In an exclusive interview with Italia 1’s XXL show, the Sammarinese admitted that after the incident that saw him involuntarily part of of the accident, he thought of quitting.

De Angelis said that he learned of Tomizawa’s death while watching the MotoGP race on TV and finds it very hard to explain his feelings and in the days following the accident, some moments are worse than others. His thoughts turning to the Japanese rider and has had trouble holding back his tears, but with the help of friends and family, who stayed with him constantly to get through the first two difficult days, has helped him come to grips with what happened.

In this very touching video, De Angelis admits that his first thoughts were about quitting, giving up racing, but realized that as a person who loves and was born to race, he has to get back on his bike as soon as possible and try to ride, but confesses what happened has touched him very deeply and that Tomizawa’s death will haunt his dreams for the rest of his life.

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Today’s Moto2 race at Misano was marred by a horrific accident that involved Shoya Tomizawa, Scott Redding and Alex de Angelis.

Tomizawa, winner of the first Moto2 event at Qatar, was running in fourth on the 11th lap when he touched the white line with his Technomag-CIP Suter and went careening and crashed at over 200km/h at the Curvone and was hit by oncoming Alex de Angelis and Scott Redding.

Tomizawa was sent to the Riccione hospital by ambulance and Dr Macchiagodena speaking to Italia 1 reported that the Japanese rider has suffered life threatening injuries with multiple and hemorrahaging thoracic, abdominal and cranial injuries.

More news when we get it.

UPDATED:

20 year old Shoya Tomizawa has passed away from injuries sustained in the crash.

Our thoughts are with Tomizawa’s family and friends.

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Alex de Angelis has found a new ride for this weekend’s Moto2 GP at Misano with JiR Racing. De Angelis found himself without saddle after he substituted for the injured Hiroshi Aoyama at Interwetten and after his RSM Scot Racing team decided to skip last week’s Indianapolis round and seems to have folded, at least temporarily, due to financial difficulties.

The Sammarinese will be replacing Yusuke Teshima who was called in after JiR’s very acrimonious and public split with Mattia Pasini (the breach of contract has become a lawyers matter).

De Angelis who has had a torrid 2010 season so far, littered with crashes and injuries, will be partnering Simone Corsi in the team and will be riding a MotoBI chassis.

“I’m happy we found an agreement with the JiR Team for this race in Misano, where I’m at home,” said de Angelis. “Simone Corsi is doing well in the championship, and this makes me guess the machine is a good one. I’m happy also because I already know almost all the team, they are the same technicians with whom I ran in 2006/2007, when I made 20 podiums therefore I feel already at home. Obviously I’ll need to know the machine and get some confidence, but I’ll give all my best as we’re not here to ‘take part’.”

Source | motoblog.it

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After being lent to the Interwetten MotoGP Honda team to replace injured Hiroshi Aoyama by RSM Team Scot, Alex De Angelis now finds himself without a ride to return to.

The Sammarinese replaced Aoyama for three races and cannot return to his Moto2 team because Cirano Mularoni ’s team is in hot water with financial problems and has suspended all plans for the rest of the season.

“Aoyama is returning to his Interwetten MotoGP team and unfortunately I will not not be taking part in Indianapolis GP. The agreement was that at the end of my replacement ride in MotoGP I was to return to the my Moto2 team, but the team has suspended all its plans.” said a dejected de Angelis on his personal website. “After getting a podium at Indy last year, unfortunately I’ll find myself watching this year’s race on TV and its not my fault and obviously I am very sorry.”

But I haven’t lost heart, and I’m working on finding a solution that will allow me to finish the season with another Moto2 team. At the moment we’ve got numerous contacts, but it is very difficult because the teams are already sorted out and to fix up a third bike requires a big budget and contractually speaking it’s not easy dropping a rider to make room for me and that takes time. I’ll try to do everything possible to be present at my home Grand Prix (Misano) next week and will consider and evaluate every possibility that’s at least competitive “

Besides looking to finish out this season deAngelis is also looking for a ride in 2011 and knowing that he won’t have a chance in finding one in MotoGP, he’s focusing on another Moto2 team, but isn’t excluding turning to the Superbike championship.

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