Latest News

The riders testing in Austin will have several advantages when the MotoGP race is held here in April. Track knowledge and baseline setups alone must be worth the expense to ship bikes and crew halfway around the world to this new circuit. But grip remains elusive, despite elevated temperatures from yesterday, holding times to within a few tenths of yesterday's best.

With only a handful of bikes circulating, the riders to a man are acknowledging that lack of grip is holding them back. For the Yamahas, both Lorenzo and Rossi are particularly concerned with exit grip from the circuit's multiple hairpins. For his part, Lorenzo is relatively pleased with a setup breakthrough near the end of yesterday and continues to make progress. Rossi continues to enjoy the circuit, but that has yet to get him into the 2:04's.

The factory Honda riders both noted the slippery track, but their bikes seem to get better acceleration out of the corners, and Marquez continues to work through elbow protectors the way most people use up chewing gum. Pedrosa seemed less than enthused with the morning work, and continues to search for gearbox and suspension issues that will serve as a reference point. Working alone, Bradl is churning through productive laps and he is progressing along with, and sometimes in front of, the HRC machinery.

With grip an ongoing issue, tires will be a primary topic leading up to the April race. Pedrosa stated that all the bikes are currently running Bridgestone's soft compound, which was confirmed by tire techs. As it is, the tire crews seem well pleased by the durability of the soft compound and expect their current batch to perform comfortably past race distance. Bridgestone's task will be to extrapolate the higher temperatures likely in a month's time, combined with the additional rubber from a full host of series and riders circulating, to determine how much softer the compounds can be in April.

Asked about finding his way around the new circuit, Marquez confided that he was being careful not to show the others his best lines. The guy is competitive, in every sense of the word.

As expected, times have dropped substantially since the lunch break here in Austin, where the temperature is flirting with 80 degrees (F).  The Hondas have made more progress in the Spring sunshine, with Marquez dropping over 4 seconds from his previous pace. The Yamahas have trimmed their times, but to lesser degrees.

It's already becoming common to see Marc Marquez atop a time sheet, although the gap of nearly half a second to Pedrosa might be worthy of a raised eyebrow or two. Stefan Bradl performed yeoman's work putting his LCR Honda in front of both factory Yamahas for much of the afternoon. A late session charge by Lorenzo carved out .7 seconds of his previous time to salvage Yamaha's position close to the HRC duo.

Today's action has been relatively clean; with so few bikes on COTA's spacious track, there are few conflicts for territory. Earlier in the day Blake Young crashed his Attack Performance CRT bike, but any on-track carnage seems to have only slowed Attack.

Rossi completed 68 laps, with all other factory riders putting in 50-ish laps.  It is not for lack of trying that Rossi finds himself well back of the action at what is effectively a neutral site for all participants.

Despite losing his Moto2 ride after the withdrawal of a major sponsor from the ESGP team, Gino Rea is to contest selected Moto2 rounds in 2013. The young Englishman has received the go-ahead from Dorna and IRTA to enter as a wildcard at as many races as he can raise funds for in the 2013 season.

With material support from FTR, Rea will be testing and racing the 2013 version of the FTR Moto2 chassis. The team, run by Gino Rea and his father David, currently intend to race at 11 rounds of the Moto2 championship - basically, all of the European rounds. The exact number of races they will appear at will depend on the amount of money they can raise.

That is the big question for Rea. The young Londoner still needs to raise some GBP 20,000 to contest each round. Rea has received strong support from his fan base, raising money from individual donations through the Gino Rea Club website. That effort continues, while Rea is also searching for more traditional sponsors.

Below is the press release issued by Gino Rea, complete with contact details for potential sponsors:

Gino Rea to wildcard in Moto2 2013 World Championship under 'Gino Rea Race Team'

In the wake of ESGP's withdrawal from the Moto2 World Championship, Gino Rea was against the clock to find a ride for the 2013 season. With the World Superbike championship already under way and the approach of the final Moto2 test in Spain, the opportunities available to Gino were few and far between unless he could provide a six figure sum to race. Keen to replicate and further the success he enjoyed at the end of the 2012 season in Malaysia with his first Moto2 podium, Gino is not prepared to depart from the paddock just yet. With the support of his father David Rea, the pair are to run their own Moto2 team for wildcard entries in the 2013 Moto2 World Championship.

With guaranteed backing of FTR, Gino will be riding the latest 2013 FTR Moto2 bike which is currently being built according to the aerodynamic scan, tests and discussions of Gino and the FTR Factory. In addition, Gino will have the experience and expertise of distinguished world championship crew chief Andy Stone to support him.

Championship organisers Dorna and IRTA have given the go-ahead for Gino to wildcard at an unlimited number of races and now the Londoner is seeking the financial support to make his Moto2 quest possible.

Gino's team, Gino Rea Race Team plan to enter the following eleven races in the MotoGP 2013 calendar:

05/05
 Spain
, Jerez
19/05 
France, 
Le Mans
02/06
 Italy, 
Mugello
16/06
 Spain, Catalunya
29/06
 Netherlands
, Assen
14/07
 Germany
, Sachsenring
25/08
 Czech Republic, 
Brno
01/09
 Great Britain
, Silverstone
15/09
 Italy San Marino, 
Misano
29/09
 Spain, Aragon
 MotorLand
10/11
 Spain, Valencia

Gino will be testing the FTR Moto2 bike at numerous UK tracks in addition to a three day test at the Jerez GP circuit prior to the race weekend.

The total cost for each round including the wildcard entry fee will be approximately £20,000. Gino is looking for sponsors to fund each race and can offer a range of sponsorship packages including per round coverage on his bike, MOTOGP paddock passes, hospitality and meet and greet experiences. It is hoped that this per race approach will be attractive to potential sponsors who could see their company logo showcased to the world as Gino competes for Moto2 glory.

The failure to source six figure sums lay behind the withdrawal of the ESGP team from the Moto2 Championship, whom Gino had agreed to ride for in 2013. In response to losing his ride, Gino appealed to all of his supporters by setting up GinoReaClub.com; an online donation page to fund his 2013 race campaign. After just three weeks, GinoReaClub.com and two individual sponsors have raised enough funds to cover one GP race. Gino hopes his project will encourage potential sponsors to get onboard and keep his Moto2 dream alive.

"I'm really excited about this project. I wanted to remain in the Moto2 Championship and running our own team was the only option. My father and I will run the team with bike support from the British FTR manufacturer. We will have the only British bike on the grid so every effort will go into getting results. Of course, it's going to be difficult to go up against all the big budget teams but I believe we can do it. Our testing schedule will be very limited due to budget but I believe in FTR to build a competitive bike for me. Our first race will be at Jerez, the third round of the World Championship following Qatar and Austin. It's a shame we can't do these two but we hope that if we can attract enough sponsors we can fund the rest of the European races at least. I want to thank everyone who has supported me so far, both through GinoReaClub.com and individually. I am overwhelmed by the generosity of my supporters and I would love to repay them by being on the Moto2 grid this year."

If you would like to support Gino and have your company name on his bike for a MotoGP World Championship Round, please contact Gino Rea Race Team as soon as possible. If you would like to sponsor an International race this can also be arranged. Contact David Rea on +447710728900 / rearacing@sky.com or Bob Moore on +447500334476 / bmoore@wmgllc.com

It has been a busy week for the medical staff of motorcycle racers. In Switzerland, Interwetten rider Thom Luthi underwent a second operation to sort out the elbow and shoulder he damaged during testing at Valencia, while Nicky Hayden had minor surgery to clean up some old scar tissue from his injured wrist.

Luthi's operation was the most serious. After the operation to fix the elbow he shattered, which took place directly after the test in mid-February, Luthi once again returned to the hospital this week to have a few problems in his shoulder seen to. The surgery reattached three torn ligaments in his acromioclavicular joint, the point where the collarbone attaches to the shoulder blade, which were also damaged during his crash at Valencia. 

The operation is serious enough to put Luthi out of contention for the first two races of the season. The team are confident that the Swiss rider will be able to make his return at the Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez on 5th of May, though whether he is at full fitness by then remains to be seen.

In the intervening period, Luthi's place will be taken the Spanish rider Sergio Gadea. Gadea was a strong performer in the 125cc class, winning three races in the smallest class, but the Spaniard never really made the transition to four-stroke racing. A podium in his first year of Moto2 in 2010 was not enough, and he moved back to 125s for the following season, and was having another decent season until a bad crash at Motegi ended his season. Gadea was unable to raise the funds to race in 2012, and now has a chance to make his case again in Moto2 at Qatar and Austin for the first two races of the season.

Nicky Hayden's surgery was a far more minor affair. The Kentucky Kid visited the Californian racing surgeon Dr Arthur Ting to have some scar tissue removed in his right hand from previous injuries. Hayden's right hand had a hard time in 2012, the Ducati rider fracturing it during his monster qualifying crash at Indianapolis, and then following it up with another crash at Aragon, where he was flung over the barriers at low speed in a freak accident at the Spanish track. Hayden's surgery should not require any significant recovery time, and the American is expected to be fit to take part in the final official IRTA test at Jerez, ahead of the start of the 2013 MotoGP season.