Archive - Jul 2007

With all the news emerging about riders switching teams for the 2008 season with only half the season done, MotoGP followers were expressing incredulity that the "Silly Season" had started so early. Now, it just got worse: For the first news is starting to emerge about the 2009 season, some 17 months away.

Rumors had been flying for nearly a year, and now it's finally been confirmed: Jorge Lorenzo, the 250 World Champion, has signed with Yamaha to ride a Factory M1 for 2008. There had been much speculation that Rossi would not have Lorenzo in his team, and the wording of the press release seems to confirm this.

The Laguna Seca race has barely finished, but already the rider announcements are coming thick and fast. After the announcement that Marco Melandri will switch to Ducati for next year, now, Motorcycle News is reporting that Chris Vermeulen has signed a new contract with Suzuki. The contract will see Vermeulen stay with Suzuki for 2008, with an option to extend the contract for 2009 as well.

Ducati have just announced at Laguna Seca that Marco Melandri has signed with Ducati for the 2008 and 2009 seasons, according to Superbikeplanet.com. Melandri and Livio Suppo, the Ducati team manager, go back a long way, Suppo helping Melandri get his first ride in 125s, and have maintained a close relationship through the years.

This afternoon's qualifying at Laguna Seca turned out to be a very strange affair. Despite the appearance of normality, with Casey Stoner taking the top spot almost from the very first lap the riders made of the Laguna Circuit, after just 10 minutes, the session was red-flagged after Marco Melandri had a very nasty-looking accident, clipping a slow Kurtis Roberts while Melandri was going very fast, running wide into Turn 4 and being unable to stay on the bike, tumbling in the dirt before getting up very shaken.

The FIM announced the provisional MotoGP calendar for 2008 today. As expected, the season remains at 18 races, despite the addition of the previously announced Indianapolis round. Of course, something had to give to make way for Indy, and tragically, it is the financially troubled Istanbul round. The Istanbul Park circuit had problems raising the money to stage the MotoGP race every year, as the local authorities refused to help fund the race, despite the boost the race gave to the local economy.