MotoGP Update

Valentino Rossi's win at Brno this weekend moved him one step closer to the 2009 MotoGP title. Jorge Lorenzo's crash and Casey Stoner's absence leaves Rossi with a fifty point lead in the championship. With six races left on the schedule and 150 winner's points up for grabs this year’s champion is yet to be determined, but the rider assignment picture for 2010 got a little clearer over the weekend.

HRC announced that Dani Pedrosa and Andrea Dovizioso will be riding the Honda factory bikes in 2010, although Alberto Puig announced that Pedrosa has yet to sign a contract for next season. Assuming that Pedrosa will be riding for HRC it would seem to confirm that the factory Yamaha team will once again feature Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo, but David Emmett at motogpmatters.com is reporting that Ducati is pursuing Lorenzo.

Nicky Hayden's seat on the factory Ducati would seem to be more secure after qualifying and finishing sixth at Brno ahead of Mika Kallio, but the Finnish rider still has two more chances to prove that he should be riding along side Stoner in 2010. If Ducati is able to sign Lorenzo both riders could end up on a Pramac Ducati.

Suzuki confirmed that Alvaro Bautista will be moving up from the 250's to ride one of the factory bikes next season. There's been no official confirmation, but it looks like their other rider will be Loris Capirossi. That could mean that Chris Vermulen could be heading back to World Superbike along with James Toseland who’s had a sub-par year on the Tech 3 Yamaha.

Marco Simoncelli has signed for Gresini Honda, and he'll probably have the revitalized Marco Melandri as a teammate. Melandri has had a surprisingly good year on the Hayate, but it's fairly certain that the team will not return next season. That would leave both Toni Elias and Alex de Angelis searching for a ride.

The riders had their final test of the season at Brno on Monday. The test was shortened by rain in the afternoon, but the times reflected more of the same with Lorenzo, Rossi and Pedrosa putting in the quickest times. Next stop Indianapolis.

AMA Road Racing – Virginia Results

American Superbike Race #1 Results

American Superbike Race #2 Results

American Superbike Standings

Daytona SportBike Race #1 Results

Daytona SportBike Race #2 Results

Daytona SportBike Standings

Supersport Race Results

Supersport Standings

Virginia Pics #1

Virginia Pics #2

Virginia Pics #3

MotoGP – Brno Results

MotoGP Race Results

250cc Race Results

125cc Race Results

MotoGP, 250cc & 125cc Standings

World Superbike – News & Notes

The World Superbike summer recess continues as the riders and teams recuperate and prepare for the final four races of the season in September and October. With just seven points between them the title fight will probably come down to a battle between Haga and Spies, but Michel Fabrizio isn’t so far behind that he can be counted out if the top two run into problems.

Fabrizio will have other things on his mind as he prepares for a ride on the Pramac Ducati at the MotoGP round in Brno this weekend. Fabrizio will be replacing Mika Kallio who moved up to the factory Ducati alongside Nicky Hayden to replace the ailing Casey Stoner. Kallio will be Stoner’s replacement for the next three races, but at this point Pramac has only indicated that Fabrizio will be riding at Brno. Of the four remaining WSBK rounds three conflict with the MotoGP schedule. The next round at Indianapolis (8/30) is an off weekend for WSBK.

Ben Spies stellar rookie season in WSBK has been the dominant story this year, but he’s not the only newcomer who’s having a good year. Four of the top seven riders in the standings are newcomers to the series. Jonathan Rea and Tom Sykes had wild card rides in the series last season, but this is the first full season for both riders. Rea took his first win at Misano, but Sykes has yet to match his second place run at Donington last year. Ron Haslam is a newcomer to the series in the sense that he only rode in four WSBK races last season. Haslam competed in 22 races in 2004 and finished eighth in the championship. His return to the series on the first year Stiggy Team has seen him take four podiums, and battling for fourth in the championship with Jonathan Rea and Max Biaggi.

1 - 326 - Noriyuki Haga
2 - 319 - Ben Spies
3 - 273 - Michel Fabrizio
4 - 206 - Jonathan Rea
5 - 200 - Max Biaggi
6 - 180 - Leon Haslam
7 - 150 - Tom Sykes

Max Neukirchner is suffering through a injury plagued season, and will unable to race for an undetermined length of time. After being put out of action after a first lap crash at Monza the German rider crashed at Imola while preparing to make his return. The latest crash left him with four damaged vertebrae and in a body cast, "I have to wear a body cast for around 40 days, so it should come off late in August. Then we will see how it is."

The gradual improvement that the BMW team has made throughout the season was highlighted by Troy Corser’s run to the front in both races at Brno. Ruben Xaus qualified in seventh right behind Corser, but a vicious high-side in race one left him with a broken femur. Xaus went under the knife and had three screws placed in his femur to repair the damage, “The operation went very well, and twenty-four hours later they told me I could leave. It's good that we have a bit of a break before the next race, but I'm already looking forward to being back at the track."

Three-time champion Troy Bayliss will be honored at the Imola WSBK round in September with a lifetime career award. Bayliss continued his transition to racing on four wheels in Australia with a recent test of the Jack Daniel’s V8 Supercar. Bayliss has tested with three different teams this season, and is hoping to race in the V8 Supercar endurance rounds at Phillip Island and Bathurst.

Source: World Superbike Championship

MotoGP – News & Notes

The MotoGP boys return to action this weekend after a two week rest that wasn’t enough to prevent Casey Stoner from sitting out the next three races to recover from his mysterious ailment. Valentino Rossi leads teammate Jorge Lorenzo by 25 points in the championship and returns to a Brno track where he has taken four wins and three seconds in MotoGP. Seven rounds remain in a championship that is far from over, but with Rossi getting the better of Lorenzo in recent races and riding a Yamaha M1 that is considered the class of the field his ninth world title is in sight.

Casey Stoner’s temporary departure has opened the door for Mika Kallio who moves up from the Pramac Ducati team to take over Stoner’s factory ride. Kallio has had some strong rides on the Pramac bike in his rookie season, and it will be interesting to see how his times and race pace compare with Nicky Hayden's on the other factory Ducati. The other beneficiary of Stoner’s leave of absence is Michel Fabrizio who moves up from the Ducati World Superbike team to replace Kallio on the Pramac Ducati at Brno. Fabrizio currently sits third in the World Superbike Championship behind Noriyuki Haga and Ben Spies.

The MotoGP silly season is in full swing with everyone waiting for Jorge Lorenzo to decide whether he’ll be moving to Honda or staying at Yamaha. Most in the paddock feel that his best choice would be to stay with Yamaha, and although he has yet to announce it he will probably be teamed up with Rossi again in 2010. Lorenzo’s decision will have an effect on the movement of other riders although it’s hard to say how it will affect Americans Colin Edwards and Ben Spies. The 35 year old Edwards has outperformed teammate James Toseland on the Tech 3 Yamaha, and looks likely to spend another year in MotoGP. Spies domination of World Superbike has raised his stock, and a move to MotoGP seems more likely if he is able to overtake Haga and win the championship. Like many before him Nicky Hayden has struggled on the Ducati. Hayden is the first to admit that he needs to improve, but with the factory’s recent release of a special edition Nicky Hayden Ducati 848 it’s hard to imagine that the Kentucky Kid won’t be riding a bike from Bologna in 2010.

Canadian Superbike Championship

The other North American superbike championship is winding down north of the border. Saskatoon’s 17 year old wunderkind, Brett McCormick, was leading the Canadian Superbike Championship early in the year, but 3-time champion Jordan Szoke took over midway through the season. McCormick won his third race of the season last weekend at Atlantic Motorsport Park in Nova Scotia, and with just one race left on the schedule Szoke’s lead over McCormick has been cut to 14 points. With the exception of one race when McCormick finished in eighth the two riders have finished either first or second in every race this season. If that trend continues it will be difficult for McCormick to win the championship. The race winner receives 50 points and a second place finish earns 42 points.

McCormick also won the Pro Sport Bike race in Nova Scotia, but he trails Szoke by 16 points in that championship. The final round of the season will be held at Shannonville in Ontario the weekend of September 6th.

MotoGP News – Stoner Out

MotoGP returns to action this weekend at Brno in the Czech Republic for round eleven of the championship. Valentino Rossi leads teammate Jorge Lorenzo in the championship by 25 points, and Casey Stoner is 37 points down in third. Stoner has decided to take some time off, “After five extremely difficult races due to my health, I returned to Australia to visit the sports doctors who have looked after me for many years. We have taken the difficult decision not to contest the next three rounds of the championship, to allow my body time to recover from the recent stress. The doctors believe that during the Barcelona race I was suffering from a virus, and that I subsequently pushed my body too hard, leading to problems that have caused my fatigue since then. The doctors are continuing with many tests to try to understand these problems and make sure it does not happen again. I will be doing everything possible to come back at full strength for Portugal”.

Mika Kallio will move up from the Pramac Ducati team to replace Stoner while he recovers.

Bike Of The Week - BMW R90S

In an age of fully faired, 140+ horsepower sport bikes it’s hard to imagine a time when the BMW R90S was one of the best sport bikes on the road, but when BMW introduced the bike in 1973 the R90S set a new standard for performance bikes.

The R90S left the factory with an 898cc boxer engine that put out 67 BHP, and powered the bike through the quarter mile in just over thirteen seconds. The bike came with a five speed gearbox, and a drive shaft transferred power to the rear wheel. The 478 pound bike (dry weight) came with a hydraulic steering damper, telescopic front forks and twin shocks at the rear. The R90S also had a unique “bikini” fairing and a two tone paint scheme.

In 1976 Reg Pridmore competed on an R90S in the first year of the American Superbike series, and won the championship. The team was a privately funded effort that received no help from the factory, but they developed the bike and increased the engine’s output to approximately 100 horsepower. The success of the bike surprised everyone, including BMW, who told the team that they would give them two R90S bikes if the team would give them one of their race bikes. The team declined the offer.

BMW eventually replaced the bike with the R100S, but between 1973 and 1976 they produced 17,455 of the bikes and helped define the sport bike class with their unique engineering approach. BMW’s latest entry in the sport bike class is the S1000 RR. At this stage of its development the bike looks more like other superbikes than a BMW, and it remains to be seen if it can compete with bikes like the Yamaha R1 and the Ducati 1098 on the track and in the show room.

BMW R90S Slideshow

1976 Cycle Magazine Review

2009 Motorcycle Sales

Like most sectors of the economy motorcycle sales are down. U.S. motorcycle and scooter sales were nearly 300,000 in 1992, and continued to rise until 2005 when close to 1.1 million two wheeled vehicles were sold. Sales have been decreasing since that point with sales of 948,464 in 2007 and 879,910 in 2008. The sales figures for the first six months of 2009 show a decrease of 177,650 over the same period in 2008. Scooter sales, which had increased to 76,748 (+41.5%) in 2008, have decreased by 67% for the first six months of 2009.

The decrease in sales isn’t limited to the U.S. with domestic Japanese motorcycle sales for the first half of the 2009 down by 22.2%. Total motorcycle production in Japan decreased by 232,403 units (-39.2%). This is the third consecutive year that total Japanese motorcycle production has decreased. The Yamaha Motor Company, which sells a variety of products, said yesterday its loss in 2009 would be more than four times bigger than previously expected because of sluggish motorcycle sales and a strong yen.

BMW reported earlier in the year that their motorcycle sales had decreased in the first quarter. After selling 21,046 bikes in the first quarter of 2008, the company’s 2009 sales for the same period dropped by 18.1% to 17,232 units. Ducati doesn’t publish their sales figures, but earlier in the year upper management at the company took a 10% pay cut, and gave up future bonuses. Through June total motorcycle sales in Europe had decreased by 18,000 (-21%) when compared to the first six months of 2008.

The one bright spot in the world of motorcycles appears to be India. Hero Honda Motors, the world’s largest producer of two-wheeled vehicles, reported a 30.39% increase in sales (366,808 total units) for the month of July when compared to 2008. Bajaj Auto, India's second-largest motorcycle manufacturer, is beating forecasts with a 67% increase in second quarter profits with only an 869 unit decrease in production when compared to the first six months of 2008. Bajaj Auto currently owns 31.72% of KTM, and industry analysts are predicting that the company will increase their stake in the company in the next few years.

AMA – Topeka Results

Lots going on at the AMA round in Topeka this weekend. This is the first time the AMA has visited the Heartland Park circuit since 1991, and a few of the riders were unhappy with the safety of the course. As of this writing Mat Mladin, Jamie Hacking and Robertino Pietri have withdrawn and will not be racing this weekend. Mat Mladin also announced that he will be retiring from AMA racing at the end of the season.

American Superbike Race #1 Results

American Superbike Race #2 Results

Daytona SportBike Race #1 Results

Daytona SportBike Race #2 Results

Supersport Race Results