Submitted by David Emmett on
As the new year approaches, the Moto2 grid is starting to near completion - though the sudden withdrawal of the Promo Racing / Jack& Jones by Antonio Banderas racing team is a reminder that the grid is only final once the lights go out at Qatar. Over the past couple of weeks, several signings have seen a few of the remaining blank spaces in the rider list fill out, and bringing the grid back up to 39.
The first announcement came from the Italtrans Team, who announced the signing of Italian rider Claudio Corti. Corti had spent 2010 racing alongside Jules Cluzel at Forward Racing, but had been edged aside to make room for Alex Baldolini. Corti now switches to the team that fielded Roby Rolfo and Robertino Pietri for 2010, and will remain aboard a Suter. Rolfo has departed Moto2 altogether, and will be riding the ill-fated Pedercini Kawasaki in World Superbikes, while Pietri is yet to sign a deal in either Moto2 or the AMA, where he raced previously.
The Tuenti Speed Up team announced that they had added Valentin Debise to their line up, signing the Frenchman to run alongside the Spanish prodigy Pol Espargaro. The Speed Up Team will once again be fielding FTR machinery, though this time, under the FTR name, rather than rebadged as a Speed Up, as was the case when Andrea Iannone and Gabor Talmacsi raced for the team last season.
The final official announcement was by the QMMF team, sponsored by the Qatari motorcycle federation. QMMF announced that they had signed Spanish rider Ricky Cardus to contest the 2011 Moto2, riding alongside Mashel Al-Naimi, representing Qatar, with factory support from Moriwaki. The announcement that Cardus was signed to race with QMMF came as something as a surprise, as initially, Czech rider Lukas Pesek had inked a deal to race for the squad, but a disagreement over the wording of the contract saw Pesek lose out on the deal, according to Czech racing site Motokari.cz. As a result, Cardus - a friend and protege of 2010 MotoGP champion Jorge Lorenzo - was drafted in to take Pesek's place. Pesek looks destined to race in the World Supersport class for 2011, with his name being linked to the Intermoto Czech Honda squad that Gino Rea rode for last season.
The Moto2 line up so far:
| Team | Bike | Rider 1 | Rider 2 |
| Aeroport de Castello | FTR | Kev Coghlan | |
| Forward Racing | Suter | Jules Cluzel | Alex Baldolini |
| G22 Racing Team | Moriwaki | Fonsi Nieto | Raffaele de Rosa |
| Gresini Racing | Moriwaki | Yuki Takahashi | Michele Pirro |
| Holiday Gym Racing * | Moriwaki | Xavier Simeon | |
| Interwetten Moto2 * | Suter | Thomas Luthi | |
| Iodaracing Project | FTR | Simone Corsi | Mattia Pasini |
| Italtrans Racing Team | Suter | Claudio Corti | ??? |
| JIR Moto2 | Motobi | Alex de Angelis | ??? |
| Mapfre Aspar Team | Suter | Julian Simon | Xavi Fores |
| Marc VDS Racing | Suter | Scott Redding | Mika Kallio |
| Monlau Competicion * | Suter | Marc Marquez | |
| MZ Motor | MZ/FTR | Max Neukirchner | Ant West |
| QMMF Racing Team | Moriwaki | Mashel al Naimi | Ricky Cardus |
| Racing Team By Quereseno | FTR | Esteve Rabat | Yonny Hernandez |
| Stop and Go Racing Team | FTR | Ratthapark Wilairot | Santiago Hernandez |
| Tech 3 Racing | Tech 3 | Bradley Smith | Mike di Meglio |
| Technomag CIP | Suter | Kenan Sofuoglu | Dominique Aegerter |
| Tenerife 40 Pons | Kalex | Axel Pons | Aleix Espargaro |
| Tuenti Speed Up | FTR | Pol Espargaro | Valentin Debise |
| Viessman Kiefer Racing | Kalex | Stefan Bradl | Randy Krummenacher |
| WTR/Speed Master Team * | Suter | Andrea Iannone |
* One rider team
??? Rider unknown at this time
Comments
AMA riders
Several quality AMA riders are looking for a spot next year. Jake Zemke comes to mind. he was really fast on the honda FX bike and he's a great personality.
Kenan Sofuoglu
I'm keenly interested to see what Kenan Sofuoglu can do once he gets accustomed to the Moto2 machine and setup, but I foresee another season where who will win each race will be anyone's guess.
There was some teams that
There was some teams that were refused entry due to the grid being full. Now that J&J have pulled out, will one of the reserve teams be granted entry to the class? Then maybe Noyes & Talmacsi will be able to make the grid after all?
Do they really think
that Ratthapark Wilairot will be able to race this coming season? I sure hope so, that is at this time we should all just be hopeful he can make a recovery. He has potential. He's a good rider.
gotta agree with phil_price, it would be great to see Noyes and Talmacsi back, hopefully Pietri can get a ride
Should update the list?
Somebody can update the list?, in two wheels blogspot they announce than the team holiday gym will drop for the 2011 season.
http://www.twowheelsblog.com/post/5720/holiday-gym-drops-out-of-2011-mot...
is a shame because the middle class supposed to be an economic class is also suffering from the crisis and two teams are victims of this, jack & jones and now Holiday Gym.
Thanks!
Thanks for that link, hadn't seen that yet. Will investigate and report back.