After a brief stint in MotoGP riding for the ill-fated factory Kawasaki squad (you do remember when Kawasaki raced in MotoGP, right?), Anthony West found himself demoted back into GP racing’s middle class, riding in Moto2 with the MZ team. Now getting a chance back in the big show, Ant West will make his MotoGP return riding a CRT bike with the Speed Master team for the 2012 MotoGP Championship.
With CRT entries being comprised of both a production motor and custom chassis, there is a tremendous amount of intrigue regarding what combinations teams will field, and acording to our friends at MotoMatters, West will likely be riding an FTR chassis with either a Honda or Aprilia motor in it.
The news adds even more credibility to the CRT movement, which has already lured veteran MotoGP rider Colin Edwards into its format. Edwards will be aboard a BMW/Suter machine with the NGM Forward Racing squad, and will be joined by over 10 CRT bikes in total on the MotoGP grid.
With CRT bikes looking to be the future of MotoGP racing, experience in the class could be paramount in the coming 2013 and on seasons, and perhaps will give these early-adopters a leg-up on teams still running factory-produced race bikes when an eventual all-out switch to the CRT format occurs.
With the shrinking grid currently occurring in MotoGP, it will be interesting to see if any other former-MotoGP riders make an entry back into the big show by signing up with a claiming rule team. With it looking increasingly likely that Suzuki will not participate in the 2012 season, MotoGP will be down to only three factories involved with the racing series: Ducati, Honda, and Yamaha. Make no doubt about it, we are seeing interesting times for Grand Prix racing.
Source: MotoMatters; Photo: Ant West (Facebook)
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