That outstanding source of MotoGP news, MotoGrandPrix.it, is reporting that Team KR's KR212V will debut at Sepang, during the tests to be held there from 22nd to 24th of January. Kenny Roberts Senior's team was the last of the teams competing in the 2007 MotoGP championship to present the bike, and the KR212V has been the subject of some speculation.

MotoGrandPrix.it and Motorfreaks.nl are reporting that Ilmor will not be present at the next two MotoGP pre-season tests, to be held at Sepang in Malaysia and Phillip Island in Australia.

I would like to express my deep gratitude to everyone who reads this blog. Reading your comments, either posted here or sent to me by e-mail, gives me great pleasure, and seeing visitor numbers grow over the past year has been hugely rewarding.

So I would like to wish you all, rather belatedly, a very happy, healthy and successful 2007, and hope it brings us all another fantastic season of motorcycle racing. May all your plans go better than you expect and some of your more unreasonable wishes come true.

David

About 10 minutes after I posted this reply, I received the official press release. You can find my take on it here:

http://blogger.xs4all.nl/daisy/archive/2006/12/18/162296.aspx

Ilmor have finally made up their minds about who will be riding the Ilmor SRT X³ next year. On Monday, they announced that Jeremy McWilliams (42) and Andrew Pitt (30) will be joining the team for 2007. The line-up is as expected, after McWilliams and Pitt spent a lot of time testing the bike at Valencia and Jerez. However, it is a little surprising for someone of McWilliams' age to be given the ride. Most riders are a long way past their sell by date by the time they hit 40, and McWilliams is 42.

As the dust settles on a long and arduous MotoGP season, you would think that the teams and riders would be ready for a long and well-deserved break.

For the fans of Bob Hayes' great motorcycle racing podcast MotoGPOD, the podcast is back again!

In an interview with German Eurosport's MotorMagazin, KTM boss Stefan Pierer has stated categorically that they won't be returning to MotoGP any time soon. KTM had been linked with the Ilmor team, with rumors saying that KTM would take over the project from Mario Illien.

Although MotoGP followers will have to wait for the news they are awaiting most eagerly, the Ilmor SRT rider line up for next year, one more piece of the Ilmor puzzle has been put in place today, with the announcement of Mike Janes as the Ilmor SRT Team Manager.

Italian site MotoGrandPrix.it is carrying an official Camel press release stating that they are withdrawing from MotoGP sponsorship, leaving the official Yamaha factory team without a name sponsor.

Ilmor today issued a statement on the condition of Jeremy McWilliams, who broke his leg and possibly fractured his collarbone in a high speed tumble during the final day of MotoGP testing at Jerez. The timing of McWilliams' injury is fortunate, coming as it does on the last day of testing before the MotoGP test ban comes into effect, preventing riders from testing between December 1st and January 20th.

Testing continues today at Jerez, where the weather gods are looking much more kindly upon MotoGP than yesterday, when much of the session was ruined by rain. Testing didn't get underway properly until lunchtime, due to parts of the track still being fairly damp from yesterday's rain, but by 2pm, everyone was out and riding. Motogp.com released the top 10 times as of 2pm, which are shown below. These times are not really representative of the state of play, with most of the riders having only put in some 10 laps or so.

As widely expected, after Toni Elias appeared at Sepang with a large sticker on his screen, Gresini today announced a new sponsorship agreement with Taiwanese LCD manufacturer HANNspree.