Dorna has officially confirmed the 2012 Jerez GP. The popular venue was in doubt due to its now well known financial problems, however the city of Jerez has come through with the €4 million euros that Dorna wanted to host the event.

“We are delighted to confirm that the 2012 Grand Prix of Spain will be held at the Circuito de Jerez, a very special locale for the MotoGP World Championship.” said Dorna’s CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta. “I’d like to thank the Junta de Andalucía and Jerez de la Frontera City Council for their support in working toward securing this iconic event. We’ll now look ahead to the future of the event and focus on working together to reach an agreement up until 2016.”

The Estoril and Sachsenring rounds who were still indicated on the recently revised 2012 MotoGP calendar as ’subject to contract’ have yet to be officially confirmed by Dorna.

....

0 comments

When private equity firm Bridgepoint, who also owns Dorna and therefore MotoGP acquired Infront Sports and Media AG, the rights holders for the World Superbike Championship, the acquisition was subject to approval by the EU’s antitrust authorities and now that approval has come through and according to the guys that sit in Brussels have decided that even if there may be some overlaps between the two series it doesn’t raise competition concerns and that they’re limited.

EU Press release:

The European Commission cleared under the EU Merger Regulation the proposed acquisition of Infront Sports and Media AG of Switzerland by private equity Bridgepoint Capital Group Limited of the United Kingdom. The Commission concluded that the transaction will not raise competition concerns due to the limited overlaps between the parties’ activities and to the fact that sufficient alternative sources of supply will continue to be available to the merged entity’s customers in all markets concerned.

Both Bridgepoint and Infront are active in the organisation of motorbike racing events (MotoGP for Bridgepoint and Superbike for Infront). The Commission examined the competitive effects of the proposed acquisition in particular in the markets for motor sport regulators (namely FIM, the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme, which is the regulator for both MotoGP and Superbike), teams and manufacturers, circuit owners and local promoters, advertisers and TV broadcasters.

Continue reading: EU approves acquisition of Infront by Bridgepoint

....

0 comments

As widely anticipated back in June, private equity firm Bridgepoint, who also owns Dorna and therefore MotoGP, has acquired Infront Sports and Media AG, the rights holders for the World Superbike Championship with the announcment made earlier today.

With the acquisition, which is subject to the approval of the antitrust authorities, Bridgepoint will control both world championships, but as there is a lot of worries by loyal fans that World Superbikes may now become the poor relation of the two series with Dorna getting the precedence or eventually merge together (the new CRT teams in MotoGP seem a step in that direction), however the press release tries to allay these fears, by stating that both championships will continue to be managed separately .

“Bridgepoint will encourage the further development of Superbike and MotoGP although both series will continue to be organised and managed separately. Dorna and Infront Motor Sports are each fully committed to the long-term relationship with the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM) as their strategic partner as well as the successful partnerships with teams and manufacturers, circuit owners, sponsors, broadcasters and other stakeholders of the series.”

Press release after the jump.

Continue reading: Bridgepoint now owns Infront Sports & Media

....

1 comment

As everyone knows the GP riders and paddock personnel are very relectant about going to Motegi this October, with Casey Stoner and Jorge Lorenzo stating that they will boycott the race, even if Lorenzo has slightly backpedalled and saying he’ll go to Japan to race, but won’t do it at the Twin Ring circuit.

Dorna and FIM commissioned a study by an independent body and the study with the preliminary results have been posted on the FIM’s website that you can read here.

Cutting to the chase, the Japanese GP is definitely on, radiation risks are negligible unless the current situation changes in these next few months and now it will be up to the team owners to get the riders to change their minds or face some consequences from their bosses.

FIM statement after the jump.

Continue reading: Motegi GP preliminary study released - Japanese GP is on

....

0 comments

Infront Sports and Media, is the Swiss agency that holds the majority rights to the World Superbikes series has been put up for sale on June 20th and supposedly one of the bidders will be Bridgepoint Capital, the investment firm who owns Dorna and therefore the MotoGP rights.

However Bridgepoint has been having financial problems in paying back its interest repayments and has been renegotiating with the banks for a reduction, and would they actually be interested embarking in this ulterior investment at this time?

Whatever the outcome, I can already begin to hear the screaming over here in Italy when this piece of news gets out. Fighting over whether WSBK or MotoGP is a better championship is a topic that comes up every race day, and there is a very deep and unshakeable belief that Dorna, in the person of Carmelo Ezpeleta is systematically out to destroy or at least is heavily encroaching into WSBK’s territory, with the new 2012 MotoGP rules which will allow production based engines in the series and that the FIM is siding with them on the sly.

Source | bikesportnews.com

....

0 comments

Hold your horses, we sort of expected that MotoGP would be heading to the new Austin F1 track in Texas, especially after well connected Superbikeplanet.com revealed that it would be confirmed this week, but what we didn’t expect was that the Lone Star state will be hosting ten years of MotoGP races, starting from 2013 and we can thank the legendary #34, Kevin Schwantz, for making it happen.

This will probably be the first epic change to the racing calendar in the upcoming years, with another Middle Eastern country expected to be added (Abu Dhabi) as well as India and maybe a return to South America, but we could lose some classic European tracks like Estoril or Sachsenring, to make room for these new venues, if the recent rumors are true.

It is still unknown whether the Indianapolis round will still be around after this year, (Laguna Seca is confirmed until 2014), but the Speedway promoters are still working on an extension and they’ve even released their own hopeful statement after the announcement of the Austin GP deal.

Both press releases after the jump.

Continue reading: MotoGP fans put your stetsons on, because Texas here we come

....

1 comment

Last January we reported that Carmelo Ezpeleta, Dorna’s CEO, had mentioned he was in talks with promoters both in India and the Texas’ new F1 circuit to host a round of MotoGP in the very near future.

While most of these talks pan out to nothing, the rumor of a Texas GP is getting stronger according to Superbikeplanet.com who is reporting that Austin will be hosting a round in 2013 and that we should be getting confirmation as soon as next week, and that the US may be getting three GP rounds, with Indianapolis Motor Speedway still in negotiations to get a further extension to their contract after 2011.

The Texas facility which is still under construction will hold 120,000 fans and is due to host F1 in 2012.

....

2 comments

Rumors of BMW and Aprilia entering MotoGP in 2012 have been floating around for some time now, with Aprilia more or less denying that they want to enter the premier racing series, but BMW has a slightly different attitude, and BMW’s General Director of BMW Motorrad bigwig, Hendrik Von Kuenheim arrival during the Qatar GP sent tongues wagging again on the topic.

Apparently Dorna and BMW had set up a secret (not so secret if everyone is mentioning it) meeting to discuss something other than the German manufacturer supplying their cars as safety vehicles for the races (they’ve got a contract with Dorna until 2016) which could mean that BMW is finally negotiating their long awaited arrival in MotoGP.

According to this week’s Motosprint magazine edition, Von Kuenheim seems all for MotoGP and isn’t actually quite that happy with the image return that they get off Superbikes and wants something more, which MotoGP could give them. But this manager wasn’t the head of the division, when Herbert Diess’s idea of entering the prototype racing series in 2007 was shot down, especially after Berthold Hauser showed the company that the initial racing budget to enter MotoGP was around 40 million euros compared to just the 12 million needed to compete in Superbikes, and since racing doesn’t come cheap, Superbikes was chosen.

Continue reading: Not so secret meeting between Dorna and BMW

....

0 comments

The saga regarding pushing the Phillip Island calendar date earlier in the season is continuing.

While the 2011 date is set in stone, Dorna’s Carmelo Ezpeleta has said that the Australian round will not take place after 2011, unless it is moved away from its current October date, to earlier in the year, despite circuit organizers stating that their contract is for races to be held in September or October until 2016, and that Australian fans have nothing to worry about and that they will continue to get their MotoGP fix.

While the riders have repeatedly complained about the poor weather conditions that they have recently found at the Island during the October dates, the saga earnestly began after last year’s race. Australian Grand Prix corporation chairman Ron Walker has been working with Dorna in finding a solution but Ezpeleta seems pretty adamant on what he wants.

Continue reading: Tug of war continues on Phillip Island MotoGP date

....

1 comment

Dorna may be the rights holder to Grand Prix racing, but it’s the MSMA that rules the roost regarding the technical rules and changes where even IRTA and the FIM take the back seat and allow almost free reign to the manufacturers, with the results we’ve seen over the past few years, especially in MotoGP, going from exciting racing to downright boring.

To try to make the MSMA engineers slightly more reasonable, Dorna needed an independent liaison with a background in the technical aspects and the economics of building motorcycles, something they were actually missing on their front, so they’ve appointed Corrado Cecchinelli as Director of Technology.

Cecchinello has an extensive engineering background and has worked for Piaggio for two years and in Ducati for thirteen, following the Superbike project, then as a Technical Director and a Vice Director General and has already worked with the MSMA, but the big question is will this new political role give him a bigger say and above all give Dorna more control over some of the manufacturers decisions? As they say, only time will tell.

Press release after the jump.

Continue reading: Corrado Cecchinelli appointed MotoGP Director of Technology

....

0 comments

Last season Dorna renewed an only one year extension with the Indianapolis Motors Speedway with rumors saying that Indy would remain on the calendar for another season while the new F1 circuit in Austin, Texas is being built.

During every Vrooom event, Dorna’s CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta shows up for his own press conference, reporting on the state of affairs in MotoGP and what the future holds for the premier racing class. This year, besides talking about not taking any current legal action against Suzuki for running only one bike, that we will see 22 bikes on the grid (we’ve heard that one before), that he doesn’t give a shit (my word, not his) about Infront’s (Flammini’s WSBK series) complaints regarding what are prototypes and what aren’t, he also confirmed that he was in talks with both India and Austin regarding hosting GP racing in the new venues, however the Austin promoter has denied discussions with Dorna.

“MotoGP would be great for Texas and the fans but I haven’t had any discussions with him (Ezpeleta) about that,” said U.S. Grand Prix promoter Tavo Hellmund talking to website statesman.com “Everything is F1.”

We bet that the preliminary talks that Ezpeleta refers to, have probably been with Kevin Schwantz, who is a consultant and on the board of the new Texas track.

Source | autosport.com and autosport.com and autoweek.com

....

0 comments

Is there no end to the effect that the Valentino Rossi-Ducati partnership will have on the world of the MotoGP? In rumours coming from London, it is said that Dorna could sell the MotoGP championship as it looks to cash in on the Rossi-Ducati partnership in the twilight years of the biggest drawing card the championship has ever seen - the career of the champion Italian rider.

The rumours state that Dorna, owned by Bridgepoint financier group, could look to sell the MotoGP series in the first half of next year after a four-year ownership of the sport. It originally acquired the MotoGP from CVC group for a sum reportedly around 450 million euros. The CVC group now owns the Formula 1 racing series.

In some ways, while the news seems almost unbelievable, if there were to be any sale it would make sense for it to happen in the near future: after the introduction of the Moto2 and Moto3 classes and the move to 1000cc engines from 2012. Incredibly though, one of the main reasons cited for the possible sale is that Dorna could profit handsomely from the new Rossi-Ducati team by selling now, making a healthy sale and whoever the new owners might be will be left with a couple of years of Rossi still on the grid, before the sport comes to a slight halt (if the tone of the reports is to be credited).

Continue reading: Valentino Rossi in Ducati to cause Dorna to sell MotoGP?

....

2 comments