Yearly Archives: 2011

KTM has officially confirmed that it is set to race in some of the races of the World Superbikes series.  The manufacturer has the RC8R model of motorcycle with which it has been racing in the super stock category with less than impressive results.  However, it now appears that the manufacturer will develop the RC8R into a proper Superbike effort with wild card entries in some rounds in 2012 with the intention to launch a full scale assault perhaps from 2013 onward.  If this happens then World Superbikes can claim more manufacturer presence than MotoGP.

Andrea Dovizioso has been with Honda since he made his debut into Grand Prix racing in the 125cc class way back in 2001.  He has won a World Championship in that category and has been runner up to Jorge Lorenzo in the 250cc class riding an uncompetitive Honda whose development was stopped by the manufacturer.  Dovizioso then moved to the Repsol Honda team to be paired with Daniel Pedrosa and in three seasons has won just one race.  Meanwhile Honda had signed Marco Simoncelli last year and despite bad performances from him have yet again given priority to him and that has miffed his bitter rival Dovizioso.  Despite Honda trying to accommodate Dovizioso at LCR Honda, Dovizioso has decided to switch manufacturers for the first time in his GP career.  He has apparently signed with Monster Tech3 Yamaha.  Contracts of both Yamaha riders in the factory squad will run out at the end of 2012 and Dovizioso it seems is hoping to get a factory ride, most probably at the expense of Ben Spies whose performance is being considered a little below par.  But for that to happen he has to perform exceedingly well at Tech3 and Spies very badly at the factory Yamaha team.

Australian rider Damian Cudlin is having an unbelievable spell on good luck that is directly proportional to the bad luck of some Ducati riders.  Last time out at Motegi, Cudlin rode Loris Capirossi’s Pramac Ducati since the latter was unavailable due to injury.  Hector Barbera who suffered a fall and injury to his hand has had to go under the surgeon’s knife and therefore has become unavailable for the Philip Island race that is coming up this weekend.  Damian Cudlin will now sub for Hector Barbera on the Mappfre Aspar Ducati during the race weekend.

Lewis Hamilton is having the worst season of his F1 career vis a vis the accusations against him about driving too aggressively.  Unfortunately for him he has had a coming together with Felipe Massa on a couple of occasions and has had Massa accusing him of being brainless.  Yesterday again at Suzuka the two touched and Hamilton has claimed that his mirrors were vibrating so much that he could not see Massa behind him.  But Massa has refused to accept this and has called for the FIA to be tough on Hamilton.  A regrettable state of affairs indeed.  Hamilton is a much better racer than Massa and it is a shame that Massa is saying these things after incidents which are purely racing incidents.

During the start of the Formula1 Grand Prix of Japan at Suzuka, Sebastian Vettel made an aggressive move on Jenson Button pushing the latter on to the grass.  The race was won by Jenson Button and Sebastian Vettel finished third.  Immediately after the incident Button was heard screaming on his radio that Vettel ought to be penalized but race direction did not see anything wrong there.  However, post the race Vettel has explained to Button that he did not see him since he was concentrating on Lewis Hamilton and has apologised to Button, who has accepted the apology graciously.  Those who follow F1 will see that there is a genuine bonhomie between Vettel and Button and one hopes that this rare sentiment continues for a long time.