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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Interwetten Racing has now officially confirmed that Alex de Angelis will be replacing injured Hiroshi Aoyama for the next rounds of the championship. The Sammarinese will take the place of HRC test rider Kousuke Akiyoshi, who has filled in for Aoyama at Assen and this weekend’s Catalunya round.

De Angelis spent two seasons in the premier class with Fausto Gresini’s satellite Honda team and with the help of HRC the deal between Moto2 Scot Racing and Interwetten Racing went through, however De Angelis will still be wearing the colors of his current sponsors, and the colors of San Marino while riding for the Swiss team.

Daniel M. Epp, Team Owner:

“This replacement solution is satisfying for everybody. I want to underline that of course I look forward to welcome back Hiroshi fully recovered latest in Aragón in September, but as the team’s work has to go on, I am also happy that with Alex we have an experienced and powerful Honda rider, who already showed for example in Indianapolis last year what he is capable of achieving. He knows all the tracks that are coming now and I expect a lot from him.”

Alex de Angelis:

“This is a very good chance for me and I am very happy. It is a very nice team with a Honda bike. I can come back to MotoGP through this opportunity. I will compete four or five races and have enough time to improve the settings and my feeling for the bike. So it is possible to have some good results, even though it is very difficult. I will do my best not to disappoint the team. I like all the tracks that are coming now and had success on each of them and I am looking forward for this new challenge.”

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Alex De Angelis has finally come to an agreement with Scot Racing to ride their prototype bike next season in the Moto2 category in its first ever season next year.

The Sammarinese has signed a one year contract and an option for 2011 with Cirano Mulroni’s Republic of San Marino based squad, who has now completed their rider line up after having already signed up another former MotoGP rider Niccolò Canepa back in November.

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Sportmediaset website has revealed that Ducati was willing to put a sixth Desmosedici on the grid for Alex De Angelis, but he missed out on their deadline due to the long negotiations that the rider had with Scot Racing.

De Angelis returned to Ducati’s doorstep after the Scot Racing deal fell through, leaving both the Sammarinese and Mularoni’s team out of MotoGP, but was told by Borgo Panigale that it was too late because they would have no time to prepare another Desmosedici after the official factory bikes and those for Pramac and Martinez.

De Angelis was linked for a ride with Aprilia in World Superbikes, but now that Mercanti has confirmed Leon Camier for next season, this leaves only private Superbike teams or Moto2.

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Niccolò Canepa will be in the new Moto2 series next season. Canepa has signed a one year contract with Cirano Mularoni’s Scot Racing.

Canepa in 2007 won the Superstock 1000 World Championship and then become a Ducati test rider 2008 and Ducati gave him chance in MotoGP with Paramc Ducati, but the rookie did not live up to expectations and was also injured in a crash at Phillip Island that forced him to miss the final three races, finishing a lowly 16th in the Championship standings and was dropped by Pramac who preferred Aleix Espargaro.

The Italian rider was first considered by Herve Poncharal’s Moto 2 team and then by Andrea Dosoli of Hayate Moto2, instead the surprise call came from Team Scot.

Canepa’s crewchief will be Emanuele Ventura who worked with Hiroshi Aoyama, the 2009 250cc World Champion.

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Alex DeAngelis still hasn’t lost hope in finding a ride in MotoGP next season. DeAngelis finished eighth in the standings and was in negotiations with Scot Racing, but the team had to withdraw from the premier class, as the team and rider were unable to find sufficient backing in time to meet Honda’s deadline.

According to Italian motograndprix website, LCR Honda owner Lucio Cecchinello, could be interested in expanding his team to a two rider outfit and putting the Sammarinese rider on a second bike next to the already confirmed Randy DePuniet.

The only other alternative for DeAngelis, who wants to stay in grandprix racing is Moto2, where he has numerous offers including one from Sito Pons’ Kalex team.

UPDATED:

DeAngelis is out of luck, and will have to give up any hope of riding in MotoGP in 2010, because Lucio Cecchinello speaking to the Radio Television station of San Marino has said:

“I’m very sorry because Alex deserved to stay in MotoGP. Honda has told me that there isn’t enough time to prepare a new bike and above all we haven’t found the necessary financial coverage.”

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Apparently Honda is not happy seeing one of their MotoGP bikes always arrive last on the grid and Gabor Talmacsi lack of competitiveness so HRC has vetoed any contract renewal between Talmacsi and Scot Racing.

Talmacsi made a surprise move to MotoGP after splitting up with Aspar Martinez Balatonring 250cc team after just three threes over image rights. The Hungarian rider backed by MOL, a Hungarian oil company debuted with Scot Racing at the sixth round of championship riding Yuki Takahashi’s spare bike.

It took exactly two races before Takahashi got the axe from the team, who preferred Talmacsi with his petroleum money lined leathers. The rider is currently 17th in the standings with 17 points.

Talmacsi now seems to be headed lock, stock and sponsor to Moto2 with Luca Boscoscuro’s Speedup Team alongside 125cc rider Andrea Iannone who has already signed with the new squad.

This could leave the last remaining MotoGP ride open to Alex DeAngelis. The Sammarinese rider is still working on getting sponsorship money from his government and Dorna could have an all Republic of San Marino team on the grid, as Cirano Mularoni’s Scot Racing is based in the tiny country.

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While 3 times World Superbike Champion Troy Bayliss was crashing at the Bathurst 1000, MotoGP rider Gabor Talmacsi was driving in the 2nd edition of the Hungary 12-hour Endurance Race at the Hungaroring race track, taking a first and second place.

This was Talmacsi second outing in a car endurance race, having already taken part in the Dubai 24 hour race in 2007. The rider turned driver spent a day getting reacquainted and testing the Brokernet Silver Sting car that he would be using in the race.

Talmacsi competing for the all Hungarian Bovi Motorsport Team with team mates Bódis Kálmán, Rácz István and Barta Attila, took first place in the ‘SP2’ category and were second overall against 38 other teams.

“It was a case of producing real teamwork, where everybody strived to give the maximum. It was a very hard and intense race to take part in. I’m glad to have been involved in this competition, but now I am concentrating solely on the Iveco Australian Grand Prix, because I need to show all my skill there to get a good result.”

Scot Racing Team has yet to announce their line-up for the 2010 season.

Source | motoghhirek and motogp.com

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In these past few years we’ve heard that satellite teams in MotoGP are struggling to make ends meet and with the global economic woes we’ve seen a team like Kawasaki pull out of MotoGP, Scot Racing dump Yuki Takahashi with absolutely no qualms for sponsor rich Gabor Talmacsi and last and probably not least, Sete Gibernau’s team Grupo Francisco Hernando drop out of MotoGP in the middle of the season.

So in the middle of all these difficulties what has HRC decided to do for the 2010? Up its prices, naturally.

Honda has decided to raise its leasing costs for all the satellite teams and advised their clients during last week’s Sachsenring round. They’re talking about € 200,000 more than last year and that will take the cost of leasing two bikes and spares from Honda to a cool € 2.000.000, and that is a lot of cash for team managers like Fausto Gresini, Lucio Cecchinello and Cirano Mularoni. Many private teams get some monetary help from Dorna, but for the rest they have scrape by searching for as many sponsors as they can.

You have to wonder if Honda’s move is wise in these troubled times, and if a customer RCV is really worth € 2.000.000, when it has 800 rpm less than the official bike and especially when you have to give it back to Honda at the end of the season to be destroyed under a hydraulic press.

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Scot Racing could throw up as many smoke screens as they wanted, announcing its intention to keep both Yuki Takahashi and Gabor Talmacsi. They could tell us that they were trying to get a couple of extra RC212Vs, that they needed to give each rider a spare bike in case of a flag-to-flag race. They could feed us news about Yuki Takahashi’s bad back, but we all knew in our cynical hearts that Talmacsi was riding on borrowed time when Gabor Talmacsi showed up in the Scot Racing Team garage with his big name sponsor MOL.

Honda, in their official press release with the preview of U.S GP this weekend, nine paragraphs down, announced that Takahashi has been politely removed from the team due to the usual financial difficulties:

From Laguna onwards, the Scot Racing Team will continue with Gabor Talmacsi in the MotoGP class. Due to unavoidable circumstances Yuki Takahashi will no longer ride with the team. This decision was reached after exhaustive attempts to find a way to continue with two riders, but the economic realities facing the team, combined with the increased cost involved in running two riders, has led to this regrettable outcome.

“For Honda as well as the Scot Racing Team, this is a sad announcement,” said HRC vice president Shuhei Nakamoto. “But we understand that the extremely challenging financial circumstances facing the team left them with no choice. Takahashi was the only Japanese rider in the MotoGP championship and of course Honda wanted to see him continue. But in the end the team made it clear that this outcome was impossible and we respect their decision. Honda will continue to support the Scot Racing Team in MotoGP with Gabor Talmacsi riding.”

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According to the well informed gpone, Yuki Takahashi will not be racing in this weekend’s Red Bull U.S. GP at Laguna Seca, due to back problems.

Officially the Japanese rider has suffered from back problems that were worsened after his crash during the Catalunya GP, but the Clinica Mobile reported that Takahashi fractured his middle finger and picked up a haemithorax contusion in Spain and at Assen, after another crash, he severely bruised his right knee.

The Italian website also reported that the Takahashi may need to undergo surgery on his back and recovery could take at least three months.

Continue reading: No Laguna Seca GP for Takahashi

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If you missed the 250cc qualifying session, then you missed one of the best saves ever and it’s being compared to Randy Mamola’s 1985 save at Misano, even if Mamola was on one of the meanest 500cc bikes.

Check out the video before Dorna removes it, and watch an incredible Raffaele De Rosa from Scot Racing fall off his Honda, continue to hold on the handlebars, get dragged on his knees for a couple of hundred meters and then climb back on.

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