FB Corse Will Join MotoGP & Julian Simon Test Ducati Desmosedici GP10

FB Corse has been given approval to join the MotoGP Championship starting at the Jerez round - round 3 - with their incredibly talented rider Gary McCoy. Dorna representatives looked at the lap times (unreleased as of yet) and the make-up of the team and decided to let them join in the challenge. Given that Franco Uncini said that he would look at the overall picture, and not just lap times, we cannot say that the FB Corse machine is the equal of the other manufacturers but we should know that it is competitive - otherwise, it would not be in the series at all.

http://tinyurl.com/yfk8fyf

Ducati test rider Franco Battaini is injured, so the Ducati team asked if Julian Simon could take some test laps on the GP10 at Jerez for the marque. Well, it turns out that Simon seems made for the Ducati machine - or, maybe it seems made for him. He ran some 115 laps and actually came within 1.6 seconds of Valentino Rossi's lap record at the track!

http://tinyurl.com/yepxkxf

Monday Afternoon Moto News - Speed Dating!

Yep, it's that time of the week again, Road Racer X's 'Speed Dating' article. This week's birthdays are Bill Lomas, Jamie James, Franco Uncini, Rocky Robinson, Barry Sheene, Mat Mladin, Eddie Lawson, Henry Riles, Dr. Martin Raines, Elmer Trett, Graziano Rossi, and Philip Conrad Vincent. This week also marks the date of the first MotoGP night race in 2008 and the first race of the 800cc era of MotoGP as well. Take the link and get the stories behind the names.

http://tinyurl.com/ylakg8n

More Morning Moto News - FB Corse MotoGP, CCS Series at Daytona & Jordan Szoke

The FB Corse MotoGP team has been told by the MotoGP Safety Commission that their FB01 must be competitive to be allowed to race in the MotoGP series this year. They will be taking the machine out for some testing and Safety Commmission delegate Franco Uncini will be along with them to determine if they meet the standard. They are worried that the new team may pose a safety hazard by not being fast enough around a track...so, we will wait to hear if they are given the seal of approval before we see them line up on the MotoGP grid.

http://tinyurl.com/yjxqlfr

We did get some early returns from the Championship Cup Series (CCS) motorcycle races held at Daytona over the weekend, but we were not able to see all of them in one post. Well, now I have a link here which will tell you every result in all 28 classes which were held at Daytona International Speedway. There are also some press releases form the series and some teams. If you want to know how it all went down, please take the link.

http://tinyurl.com/ygvjjqt

In the Canadian Superbike Championship it is shaping up to be a privateer's dream as only one factory has even committed to racing in the series for 2010. However, it was recently announced that Honda will likely support Jordan Szoke in the series next year. They say this is only 99% sure at this point, so that 1% could expand in the coming days...but, for Szoke's sake, I hope they do support him fully in 2010!

http://tinyurl.com/ylfxn4d