The Prince Felipe Museum of Science in Valencia presented a party recently to take joy in the 30 year history of the participation of Jorge Martínez ‘Aspar’ in the nation of motorbike sport.

The future has also brought the official presentation of the Aspar Squad for this season ahead. In 2010, the Team Manager will have representatives in all three sessions of the World Championship.

Aspar united with the various figures who have a long history in contributing to the sport, these included Ángel Nieto and Álex Crivillé, along with competitors who have raced for the squads over the years, past and present. Juan Bautista Borja, Jerónimo Vidal, Arnaud Vincent, the Nieto brothers, Ángel Rodríguez, Héctor Barberá, Héctor Faubel, Sergio Gadea, Julián Miralles Jr, Mateo Túnez, Álex de Angelis, Álvaro Bautista, Bradley Smith, Julián Simón, Mike Di Meglio and Nico Terol were all present, along with sponsors, journalists and personal acquaintances of Aspar.

Aspar, surrounded by his racers, states, “To see this team so vast, so competitive, so in tune with one another, is almost the tip of the iceberg of these 30 years – three decades in which we have grown, without stopping.”

With the fresh season beginning shortly, Aspar adds, “In 125cc I hope we’ll retain the title and in Moto2, despite it being a new category, I ‘d like to be fighting for the title in the same manner. In MotoGP, if only!

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Randy de Puniet’s appearance at the MotoGP Test in Qatar saw the Frenchman endure many improvements on his RC212V of the LCR Honda squad, the two nights at the Losail International Circuit left him in a good mood with the opening event less than three weeks away.

Feeling slightly sick with abdominal cramps throug the first evening, De Puniet claimed the fifth best time, then gained momentum the following night to take his eighth best time of the whole test with a 1’56.504.

Focussing on engine performance with fresh mapping options and suspension settings, De Puniet amassed 66 laps and left the Qatar circuit very confident with his achievements.

“This morning when I woke up I felt okay so I could work hard with my crew to fine tune the bike before the first round here,” explains De Puniet. “I am very satisfied as we made good progress, especially on suspension setting and race pace. The bike is smoother now whilst in Sepang the feeling was quite nervous.”

De Puniet adds, “We completed a race simulation and I have posted my best time at the end of it – this is quite positive! I could have done better today but I found (Héctor) Barberá on my line in the last corner.”

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MZ Racing, with Anthony West as their only racer, has confirmed they will participate in the Moto2 year.

The German squad that is run by Martin Wimmer, alongside former competitor Ralf Waldmann, have already raced at the recent tests in Valencia and Jerez, plus a private testing at Catalunya prior to them. MZ have now been announced as permanent entries on the grid of the fresh session, after the withdrawal of the Kino Racing squad, they cancelled their campaign due to financial woes.

The last amendments to the Moto2 list for this season, will involve the return to the World Championship era by experienced Aussie racer West, who vied in the prior 250cc class for quite a few years on Honda, KTM and Aprilia machines, plus in MotoGP in 2007 and 2008 with Kawasaki. West was absent in 2009, and will now race the MZ chassis this season in Moto2, which deemed extremely competitive at the official test in Valencia.

The Spanish Kino Racing squad confirmed their withdrawal because of financial problems. The team was unable to finish their budget on time, after a last minute cancellation of sponsors.


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Taiwanese manufacturer Kymco has created extra depth to its showcase with the release of the 'Like' scooter in 50cc and 125cc varieties, along with a 200cc version to arrive later this year.

Kymco says the Like is a "traditional 1950s era scooter, but gains the exceptional performance of a frontrunner in the new day scooter industry".

The four stroke scooter entails a CVT "twist and go" transmission, front/ rear disc brakes, flip-out passenger foot pegs, plus much more.

 

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Marc Márquez’s form continues at the Jerez test, where he claimed the quickest time over the three days. The Red Bull Ajo Motorsport racer’s time of 1’47.473 in the late session of day two allowed him to place on top of the timesheet.

Pol Espargaró (Bainet Derbi) was the nearest rival to Márquez, and the only other competitor to gain under the 1’48” barrier. Espargaró, who had a fall in the last session, made his best time on Sunday and was only just under three/tenths off Márquez’s best lap.

Espargaró’s colleague Efrén Vázquez, was just above a full second off the quickest time, with Bancaja Aspar colleagues Nicolas Terol and Bradley Smith, finishing the top five spots.

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The Mapfre Aspar competitors ended the last day of Jerez testing with conflicting results. Technical issues were a concern for Julián Simón, who seeked answers in both wet and dry conditions, the Spaniard spent the majority of the session in and out of his squad’s box searching for improvements.

“The truth is that today has been an unfortunate one, as I have only completed three full laps in normal conditions,” says Simón. “When I went out on the track I noticed that the bike wasn’t working well – the engine didn’t respond correctly to the power delivery. I tried to solve it, by going in and out of the box, but we weren’t able to find a solution.”

“It’s a pity because we have practically lost two days. I think we are working very well in all ways, and it’s a matter of having a complete day to finalise the tuning of the RSV,” states Simón, who raced 22 laps and claimed a best time of 1’59.733.

Turning to the other side of the garage, Mike di Meglio had to wait for the wet conditions to clear before commencing at 3pm. The Frenchman raced his RSV with fresh wet settings, and in contrast to his colleague, finished the day quite satisfied with the results.

“I am adapting to the 4-stroke bike and am very happy. Today I felt very comfortable riding in the rain. Every time I went out on the track I had a good feeling, and I found that the RSV has good grip in the wet,” explains Di Meglio.

“At first this new category posed me some questions, but my understanding with the RSV is progressing. On this final day we haven’t proved anything specific, simply some chassis solutions for riding in the wet. I think that without becoming obsessed with times we are doing a good job.

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Honda Australia M.D. Stuart Strickland has commented on an issue he believes could destroy the motorbike market in Australia.

"If the motorcycle road roll continues to stand out as it does at the moment it's going to be a huge issue," says Strickland. "The technology going into cars is following the bureaucracy's theme that you've got to build a product that is basically fool proof. That's pretty difficult for motorcycles and bicycles.

"We are over represented for the amount of kilometres travelled on the road, and we are constantly reminded of that.

"We see governments which are anti-motorcycles, and we see this first-hand because we are in a rider training environment.

"So when you try to find initiatives to get people trained we come across a whole lot of rhetoric from governments - compete crap about the fact that if you train someone you are going to turn them into more of a risk taker.

"What they forget is that we are training them to a basic curriculum put out by these governments, which is not standardised across Australia.

"But what we concentrate on is road craft. It's not encouraging them to take more risks -- it's encouraging them to understand what's happening on the roads."

He has also aimed his views at the lack of consultation with politicians.

"The most disappointing thing to me about the motorcycle industry and rider groups is the lack of dialogue with their local politicians," states Strickland. "Politicians who don't ride motorcycles have no idea and they just follow the theme that motorcycles are dangerous.

"Politicians are only interested in votes. As manufactures we have taken a punt to engage politicians, but they think we are only trying to increase market share and they discount a lot of what we say."

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“This was a very valuable test for us as we were able to introduce and collect good feedback from two new specifications of tyre. The front tyre test especially was a very good study for our future development. I would like to thank all the teams and riders for being so wiling in their support and playing a crucial role in our tyre development.”
“Both days of the test were dry and so the conditions improved throughout the two days. Our new medium compound rear tyre was used by most teams on the second day, and it was then that the times were fastest. Valentino recorded the best time, 0.3 seconds faster than his qualifying record from last year and 0.7 seconds faster than his best time at the previous Sepang test.

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