WARNING: Spoilers ahead if you click play.
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After today’s amazing race in Catalunya, the MotoGP Championship standings have become a three-way tie for first place. Valentino Rossi, Jorge Lorenzo, and Casey Stoner each have 106 points apiece, in what is becoming a closely fought season.
With a tenth of a second separating Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi in yesterday’s qualifying, the Catalan GP was shaping up to be a MotoGP race worth watching. Adding to the intrigue was a course that is especially demanding on tires, and a heat wave that was sure to make the rubber selection ever more critical. Bridgestone brought to the track an asymmetrical tire compound that was expected to help teams, but with so many factors going on, race day was bound to get interesting.
The fans at the Circuit de Catalunya were given a treat of a race, that saw two riders battling it out until the very last turn. The end result is a three-way tie in the MotoGP Championship standings, and a season that is really starting to brim with excitement.
After taking entries for the 2010 Moto2 season, 47 teams, with 91 riders, filed to join the new series. After reviewing the bids, the Selection Committee, which is comprised of Dorna, the FIM, and the IRTA, whittled the list down to 27 teams, with 41 riders.
It was a close qualify session in the outskirts of Barcelona today, but at the end of the day Jorge Lorenzo pulled a squeaker of a session on Valentino Rossi to take the pole in front of his home crowd.
Wearing special livery for the day, which paid homage to Barcelona FC (the local soccer team), Lorenzo lapped a 1’41.974 on the Catalan track, just .013 seconds quicker than Rossi’s best effort. This news surely pleased Team Fiat-Yamaha, as once again they’ll have a 1-2 start on the grid for tomorrow’s race.
According to the Spanish news site Solomoto, Honda is about to launch a bike based off their EVO 6 concept. The EVO 6 debuted at the Tokyo Motor Show in 2007 as Hondas stab at making a hypermotard built off the Goldwing 1800cc motor.
The 2009 Isle of Man TT was to be the return of Norton motorcycles to the island and its Mountain Course. It has been 16 years since the British manufacturer raced the city streets of the Isle, and we eagerly awaited their return to the TT, and the showing of their rotary motor powered NRV 588 race bike. We, like many others, were disappointed then to see the Norton only shuffle around on a parade lap, and not tearing down the asphalt in the quest for absolute speed.
We should begin this article with a preface. The following information is comprised of facts, and in some cases, where noted ,substantiated rumor. However, the inferences drawn, when looking at all these instances as being correlated events, are purely our own here at A&R, and should therefore be taken as fanciful speculation on our parts, but none-the-less something to mull-over while riding this weekend..
Looking at the facts leading up to the TTXGP, and the occurences at the Isle of Man, is it possible that Michael Czysz orchestrated a game plan at the Isle of Man that included sandbagging the E1pc’s true performance capability on race day? Our analysis after the jump.
In case you missed it this morning, the first running of the TTXGP, a zero-emission TT held on the Isle of Man, occurred today with Team Agni being the victor. Team Agni has dominated the whole week, setting the fastest times in both practice sessions. Their bike, piloted by Rob “Rocket” Barber, is a modified Suzuki GSXR frame, with Agni’s proprietary electrical motor in place of the standard internal combustion engine. Report and results below.
250GP World Champion Marco Simoncelli turned down offers last year to move up to MotoGP in favor of instead defending his title, but the young Italian rider has now announced that he intends on racing in MotoGP for 2010. While the Simoncelli has not been signed to a team, and no official interest has been made, the Italian seems to see the move as an certainty.
Colin Edwards has to be one of our favorite motorcycle racers, primarily for the epic races he would put on for us while racing in the World Superbike Championship against Troy Bayliss. Since his move to MotoGP, Edwards has been less of a talking point for his racing prowess, and instead usually for controversies associated with him.
First it was the Aprilia RS3 “Cube” that had a propensity to catch on fire. Then, it was playing second fiddle to Valentino Rossi. And lately, it has been the Tech3 antics between himself and James Toseland.
Love him, hate him, discount him, but Colin always has one consistency: telling things exactly the way he sees them. In a recent interview with Riders (an Italian Magazine) Colin did just that.
Edwards fielded some colorful questions about sex, his favorite porn starts, as well as some political topics like gay marriage, and gun control. We didn’t think you wanted to hear any of that though. Continue reading after the jump for some of the more calmer questions, and Colin’s to the point answers.