Moto3 Rumors Continue - The Death of 125GP & Two-Strokes Seems Nigh

After the GP Commission convened at Assen to meet regarding rules for the 2011 season, and other GP affairs, talk quickly began to spread that rumors of a Moto3 class were true. Seeing the success of Moto2 in replacing 250GP, the GP Commission seems to think that a similar race series could successfully replace the 125GP class, making all of GP racing a four-stroke affair as early as 2012 or 2013.

Likely to be replaced by a single-cylinder 250cc motor, Moto3 borrows some of the Moto2 formula. Most notably absent is a single-engine maker rule, meaning multiple parties could develop racing power plants. The kicker though is that all the motors would have a claiming rule of €10,000, which would effectively curtail any out of control expenses.

Motor manufacturers will also have to commit to a batch size of 10 or more units, while an 81mm bore will ensure that the Moto3 bikes will be high-revving, and peaky motors, not unlike their two-stroke counterparts.

From the 81mm bore size, we can also surmise a trend in GP racing. As Moto2 is one year into a three year contract with Honda as the sole-engine provider, the assumption goes that Moto2 racing could see a 500cc, 81mm, two-cylinder format in 2013 as well. This would likely help manufacturers consolidate their development costs across the class, and could even lead to some interesting cross-series technologies.