Yonny Hernandez’ plight of not being able to ride in MotoGP season due to the lack of funds has been partially solved as the Colombian rider will be paying for his ride with Avintia Racing CRT team in installments, which isn’t exactly a novelty in the less rarefied world of lower class racing, but in the pinnacle of motorcycle racing which should be MotoGP, it should be different.

Hernandez has found half of the needed budget of € 250,000 thanks to a campaign launched in his country to raise funds and the intervention of Coldeportes -Istituto Colombiano del Deportes National (Colombian Institute of Sport - a public institution under the Ministry of Culture).

“We already have half the money needed, about 200 million pesos. With these funds, I can join team. The rest I will pay in two installments, “ said Hernandez.

Now that he has found the budget, Hernandez will be heading to Sepang for the upcoming tests that take place February 28th to March 1st.

Source | elcolombiano.com and superbikeplanet.com

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It’s hard to forget Michele Pirro’s first ever and emotional victory during the final 2011 Moto2 race at Valencia that made Fausto Gresini break down in tears and Pirro dedicate the win to the late Marco Simoncelli, now the Italian rider who hails from Puglia, will continue his collaboration with Gresini, but will be switching to MotoGP and ride Gresini’s CRT bike, a FTR Honda, while team mate Alvaro Bautista will be on the Honda RC213V prototype.

“I’m satisfied to have made this choice and proud to participate with Team San Carlo Honda Gresini in this interesting adventure,” said Pirro. “It wasn’t an easy decision to make because in the beginning I would have preferred to stay in Moto2 and improve on this year’s results, but Fausto Gresini’s growing confidence in me in the final part of season left me in no doubts on the choice I should make. I’m honoured to continue to be part of this fantastic group and to work with them to help develop this ambitious future for MotoGP. I hope to repay their confidence in me with results and a growing technical development in this stimulating enterprise.”

“We thought it was right with such a new project like CRT, to give Michele Pirro the opportunity to further demonstrate his talent. In the final part of the 2011 Moto2 championship he showed his technical and sportmanship qualities and we think he can continue to improve and we also believe that in this new category he can become one of the main players. His beautiful and memorable victory at Valencia made everyone emotional, and made us more aware of wanting him to take part in this fascinating new adventure. We’re an Italian team and having an Italian rider is important for us and the choice to carry out this project with Michele is also the result of these strong feelings,” said Fausto Gresini.

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Moto2 Ioda Racing team will be in MotoGP next season with a CRT and that is a piece of news in itself considering that the team wasn’t even listed in the original CRT entry list that was released in the middle of June.

The authoritive GPone is reporting that Moto2 team Ioda Racing will not only be fielding a MotoGP CRT team next season and will be using a Suter-BMW, but they’ve already chosen Danilo Petrucci to ride for them.

Petrucci is this year’s CIV Superstock champion riding a Ducati and the FIM Superstock 1000 Cup runner-up with Barni Racing team and has been one of the test riders for Ducati’s new Superbike, the 1199 Panigale. The official announcement should be made during the last round of the season at Valencia.

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Moto2 team Kiefer Racing who had an ambitious plan of moving to MotoGP next season with a CRT team with Stefan Bradl as a rider, has been shot down.

Their main sponsor Viessmann, has decided not to support the move which leaves the German team who was accepted as one on the six CRTs, without the necessary funding, and as team owner, Stefan Kiefer stated back in August, “Our MotoGP plans stand or fall with Viessmann.”

Whether current Moto2 leader Stefan Bradl, who was highly tipped to move to MotoGP in 2012 even without his team, now remains to be seen. According to speedweek.de website, Yamaha’s interest in securing Bradl for Herve Poncharal’s Tech3 team has waned and apparently this opportunity for the German rider is no longer available.

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Colin Edwards announced late this afternoon what many already suspected, he’s staying in MotoGP in 2012 and be riding for NGM Forward Racing’s CRT team making him the first rider to be officially confirmed as part of a CRT tea,.

The American will be the sole rider of the new MotoGP squad and should be riding a machine powered by a Yamaha R1 engine, but the chassis maker is still unknown, but Edwards would prefer it to be a Tech3 chassis.

While the team has been linked to a BMW/Suter set-up, it was confirmed during the press conference that the Italian team is in negotiations with Edward’s current boss Herve Poncharal and Guy Coulon, his current crew chief and designer of Tech 3’s Moto2 chassis.

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I come from a family with a very strong history in being runners-up. A couple of generation’s of school reports include words like “diligent”, “consistent” and even “above average” but never “champion” or “outstanding”. Our family heirlooms include a series of runners-up trophies in everything from tennis, to golf, to football.

Which is why I totally dig a guy like Colin Edwards. He might not be up there with the Rossi’s (though not this season), Stoner’s and Lorenzo’s of the world but if there’s someone MotoGP needs right now, it’s people like him. Not just because he’s funny, irreverent and a character, but because he proves that you can make a career in this business without appearing among the “best of” statistics all the time with multiple championship wins under your belt. I don’t want to suggest he’s not a champion in his own right, but he really proves that there are other qualities that make a rider.

Edwards is expected to make an announcement this weekend at the Misano MotoGP round on his future, but he’s got plenty of options and some tantalising prospects, among which are remaining with the Yamaha Tech3 team because of his development skills, or again for those skills to move to one of the new CRT teams (rumoured connections with NGM Forward Racing here). Original rumours that Edwards was going out to pasture in World Superbikes seem to have abated and he’s stated he wants to stay where he is. More after the jump.

Continue reading: Colin Edwards MotoGP future

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The FIM has finally released the list of CRT teams which will be allowed to participate in the 2012 MotoGP Championship, and from the sixteen that originally claimed interest at Estoril and then skimmed to eleven have been further whittled down to a mere six, with those teams already in Moto2 GP getting the priority and it seems that there may even be new manufacturers applying, but they are still under discussion on whether they can enter under CRT rules (24 lt and 12 engines).

Here’s the entry list:

- By Queroseno Racing (BQR)
- Forward Racing
- Kiefer Racing
- Marc VDS Racing
- Paddock GP Racing (Interwetten)
- Speed Master

As expected Marc VDS Racing is present because they’ve been working on the Suter/BMW Moto1 for several months and been testing extensively, but the other teams have yet to produce anything concrete, Speed Master is making the jump with Andrea Iannone (the team is run by his father) and is expected to use an Aprilia RSV4 engine with a FTR chassis.

Continue reading: Six new teams in MotoGP in 2012, so far

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