MOTOGP

Many have questioned Suzuki’s motives for letting Ben Spies go after he took a trio of AMA Superbike titles for them, but now it’s rumoured that Paul Denning and Rizla Suzuki are offering him a chance to join MotoGP fulltime in 2010.

According to MCN Suzuki has denied the rumours, and frankly I’d prefer to see Spies join Tech 3 Yamaha because it’s a bike that is more competitive than the GSV-R and he’s found a great new home at Yamaha.

But the other man in the frame at Suzuki is Alvaro Bautista, and I believe that this would be a genius move by Denning – finally getting their hands on a top flight 250cc rider like Honda, Yamaha, Ducati, and even Hayate already have.

There was something about last weekend’s race that was exciting even though it wasn’t a head-to-head battle. Valentino Rossi is back to his best according to the European media, but what was intriguing was the lack of pace for both Jorge Lorenzo and Casey Stoner come race time.

Also not to be overlooked is the performance of Dani Pedrosa, who got off to a solid start and lead many laps until eventually being rundown by Rossi, but both he and Honda are improving week in, week out.

Pedrosa has been critical of Honda’s development of the RC212V this season and has reportedly even called for a complete overhaul of the bike, stating that his set-up input isn’t being used as well as he’d like.

The battle between Rossi and Lorenzo is going to be fierce this year and it’s somewhat lucky that there’s a wall dividing their pit garages. But Lorenzo has more than one rivalry in his Fiat Yamaha teammate, because both he and Pedrosa will be battling all year long to prove who is Spain’s best MotoGP rider.

MOTO2
There has been a revelation in Honda’s plans as the engine supplier for the Moto2 category in the series set to take over from 250GPs next season, with engines being built and purchased by Dorna before being forwarded on to the teams.

But the surprise news for many in the GP paddock is that the engines will most likely be maintained by the teams themselves rather than by Honda, which was expected to be the case by many insiders.

Moto2 will use Honda CBR600RR production-based engines, although there will be a number of changes to them that will differentiate from the engines used in the Supersport World Championship – including the cylinders.

Traction control will be very minimal if any, while a control engine management system is expected to be adopted to ensure there are no expensive electronics systems mounted on the bikes.

The question is, will HRC be able to tune these engines better than what Ten Kate currently does in Supersport? Rumours of Ten Kate being contracted to develop the engines are unsubstantiated at this point.

Despite speculation that Honda had committed to building an entirely new engine, that won’t be the case due to the massive expense of developing it in time for next season.

Honda expects the Moto2 engine to be delivered to teams by November.

125GP
While many teams are forced to fly economy in 2009, a big rumour doing the rounds at Jerez was that the 125cc World Championship would be cut from the fly-away rounds and would only compete at the European rounds next year in order to cut costs.

This does make sense in some ways because with the new Moto2 class joining the fray alongside MotoGP next year there are going to be two revamped classes, leaving the 125s feeling a little old school.

As they say, where there’s smoke there’s fire, and until Dorna and the FIM work out exactly what they can do to switch the two-stroke 125 class into a four-stroke category then the future of the tiddler class remains uncertain to some extent.

While we are on the subject of 125s, check out Glenn Scott’s new website at www.glennscott.com.au. Glenn rides in the Spanish CEV series and finished a very solid seventh in the opening round, which is a great result for the former Australian champion.

WORLD SUPERBIKE
The news that American Jake Zemke has been appointed as the replacement rider for John Hopkins in the Stiggy Racing Honda team for the Monza Superbike World Championship round this weekend may come as a surprise for some, but it will be interesting to see how he goes in light of the performances of former AMA rider Ben Spies.

America has become a haven for Euro teams to scope new riders following Spies’ efforts so far this year, but it won’t be easy for Zemke as he has to learn a new track, new tyres and a new team all in the one weekend.

As mentioned previously, Zemke will not ride the bike at Kyalami in South Africa, but sources suggest that Stiggy will only take one Superbike rider to that round being Leon Haslam, simply because it’s an expensive exercise to take all that extra equipment.

Time will tell, but if Hopkins isn’t ready in time for Miller at the end of this month as he plans then you can bet that Zemke will be back on the bike there too as long as he doesn’t completely mess up this weekend!

One rider who may be strong in Monza is current British Superbike Champion Shane Byrne, who raced at Monza in the Italian domestic series last weekend alongside Sterilgarda Ducati team manager Marco Borciani.

Byrne won both races unsurprisingly, so hopefully it points him in the right direction to go and regain the form that took him to the BSB title last year and the fastest lap at many test sessions in the pre-season.

BRITISH SUPERBIKE

British Superbike teams are beginning to stand up and take notice of Jason O’Halloran, who sits eighth in the title chase after two rounds and finished the weekend with 8-10 results. We all saw the talented O’Show in action as a rookie in ASBK last year, but if he continues to impress as he currently is then don’t be surprised to see him on factory equipment come 2010.

Josh Brookes also made a solid start to his BSB campaign, improving along the way to be battling for a top five position in race two before he had a mechanical problem, and he told the official BSB website that he is somewhat disappointed in his performance.

Unlike O’Halloran, Brookes has the pressure to perform considering he’s on the factory HM Plant Honda that riders like Ryuichi Kiyonari, Leon Haslam and Cal Crutchlow have done so well on in years past.

Two riders that are often overlooked since they have been in BSB for so long are Glen Richards and David Johnson, but the South Australians have done Oz proud over there for a lot of years and Richards could be a title contender if he gains momentum – he has won the 1000cc Superstock and 600cc Supersport titles in the last two years.

AMERICAN MOTOCROSS
Australia’s Chad Reed is back in Australia for three weeks after losing his AMA Supercross, an FIM World Championship, title to James Stewart in Las Vegas last Saturday night.

But it’s looking increasingly likely that Reed will contest the AMA Motocross Championship this year, rejoining the series after sitting it out with his former Supercross-only San Manuel Yamaha team in recent years.

Current outdoor champion Stewart now rides for San Manuel and won’t be defending his title, so Reed would go into the series as the title favourite if he takes it seriously. Check out this Racer X interview with him here.

What are the chances of us seeing reed race at the Australian MX Nationals round at Toowoomba in Queensland next weekend? I suspect they are very good if he really is going to contest the AMA Nationals, although there’s been no confirmation yet.