MOTOGP

Rossi isn't happy with only two choices of tyre per GP weekend

Grand Prix megastars Valentino Rossi and Casey Stoner had their say on the 2009 tyre restrictions at Motegi in Japan, with the sport’s two most recent world champions disagreeing on the structure of the control tyre rules that saw Bridgestone introduced as the single tyre supplier for this season.

Eight-time world champion Rossi has blasted the regulations in a press conference, stating that they are unsafe and that although they have an allowance of 20 tyres per weekend (12 rears and eight fronts), he believes that only having two tyres to choose from (softer and harder) isn’t enough.

What happens is that there are actually a greater number of tyres that Bridgestone selects from for each weekend, although once selected at each individual track they are only able to use two specifications per weekend.

“I think we need three different tyres,” said the Italian to the world press. “We don’t have enough choice with one hard and one soft. I think the situation is something strange when World Superbike has more tyres than MotoGP.”

It was earlier a controversial topic when it was decided what the allocated number of tyres overall would be, although the riders and teams were satisfied when it was announced that they’d have 20 in total for each weekend.

“When they spoke about the mono tyre nobody expected just two tyres. When they arrived and just said two tyres we all said f**k,” Rossi concluded.

In fact, Rossi and Yamaha have proposed an extra tyre at each grand prix from now on, which would essentially raise the total to three per weekend if the proposal is accepted.

Meanwhile Stoner disagrees, the calm and collected Aussie taking note that all the riders have the same tyres to work with and he’s quite satisfied with the tyres that have been produced at this point.

One rider who will be looking for answers is Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa, who chunked a front tyre badly at Motegi and still managed to bring it home in third position for his first podium of the year.

“We did see some problems with Dani Pedrosa’s medium compound front Bridgestone tyre after the race,” Tohru Ubukata, Bridgestone Motorsport manager of motorcycle race tyre development, admitted in a press release.

“All the other tyres that were used during the weekend, and this season, performed well so we can say this is a problem isolated to just this one tyre, but of course we have already taken the tyre to our technical centre in Tokyo where we are investigating the problem in detail.”

MOTO2
Multiple European press sources are reporting that the race to be the Moto2 engine supplier has come down to a battle between Yamaha and Honda, with both Kawasaki and Suzuki reportedly not even putting in a bid to secure the rights.

Aoyama is currently Honda's top 250GP rider. Could Moto2 be next for him and HRC?

British MCN is actually reporting that Dorna chief Carmelo Ezpeleta would like to purchase the engines direct from the bid-winning manufacturer and then on-sell the engines themselves in order to maintain complete parity amongst the system.

I say that they should have just set the rules and allowed it to be open for all, because I doubt if Honda wins the bid that MotoGP teams like the Monster Tech 3 Yamaha outfit will field a team if they have to use Honda engines. Likewise if Yamaha wins the bid, you can bet that Ten Kate won’t go through with running a team as they hinted back when the class was first introduced.

That means that we will more than likely have a field of very much private teams, which isn’t a bad thing considering that’s what the 250s primarily are at the moment, but it would have been nice to see some GP development teams start up.

WORLD SUPERBIKE
The economic crisis is further impacting the privateer teams in the Superbike World Championship, with PSG-1 Corse Kawasaki revealing that the team won’t be able to take part in the South African or American rounds of the season.

PSG-1 started the season with two riders in Ayton Badovini and Matteo Baiocco, although it’s now only Baiocco who rides for the team. In what was a promising turnaround for the team at Assen, the Italian scored the team’s first points of the season with a 14th in race two.

World Superbike riders displayed a banner that said “Forza Abruzzo” on the starting grid at Assen in support for the population of Abruzzo in Italy, which was recently hit by an earthquake at the start of this month.

At the next round of WSBK at Monza on 8-10 May, a charity auction will be organised in the paddock on Saturday afternoon following the Superpole qualifying session.

Helmets and leathers will be made available by the riders for the auction, with the proceeds going to the National Civil Protection unit in support for the work being carried out in Abruzzo to assist the population.

SBK organisers Infront Motor Sport will also add its own contribution to the cause.

AMERICAN SUPERBIKE
Taree’s Damian Cudlin has secured a ride in the AMA Superbike Championship with the Paradigm Racing team, bouncing back after missing the most recent round of the series at Road Atlanta in Georgia.

Cudlin started the season at Daytona and Fontana with the ESP Yamaha team until sponsorship issues put an end to that deal, but Cudlin has since stayed in the USA with Jason Pridmore in an effort to land another ride.

There’s no doubt that Cudlin will earn his frequent flyer points this year, also competing with the Phase One Yamaha team in the Endurance World Championship, where he suffered a DNF at the opening round in Le Mans last week.

WORLD MOTOCROSS

Ramon has suffered a fractured neck - and raced with it!

Teka Suzuki MX1 World Motcross Championship rider Steve Ramon is likely to miss up to three months of action after the Belgian was diagnosed with a fractured C7 vertebrae yesterday.

Despite suffering the injury during a crash in the final moments of the first moto of the Grand Prix of Benelux at Valkenswaard last weekend, Ramon still went on to finish the second moto of the day!

He went for a medical examination on Monday and scans revealed the break of the facet joint, although the extent of the damage is not placing any pressure on his spine. Another scan next week will determine the exact length and manner of treatment.

It’s not expected that the 29-year-old will return to racing until the start of August.