Aprilia Racing Team officially begins title defence campaign

Aprilia's 2013 defense of their title with Max Biaggi last year, begins... now.  Eugene Laverty, and, Sylvain Guintoli, will be their riders of course.

http://www.worldsbk.com/en/news/5-sbk-news/16080-aprilia-racing-team-officially-begins-title-defence-campaign.html

Festival of a thousand bikes

Check out this video.  This is the Festival of a Thousand bikes, and it documents many of the riders already highlighted in this blog.  Giacomo Agostini (working on an individual feature about him), Barry Sheene, Kenny Roberts, Eddie Lawson, Freddie Spencer (again, working on a feature about his career), and many more.

2013 World Superbike tires

Here is a profile of the 2013 spec Pirelli tires that will be used in the World Superbike Championship.

MotoGP: Pedrosa Heads Close Opening Day

MotoGP riders and teams are conducting a test session at the Sepang circuit in Malaysia before the season starts.  SPEED has the details.  Dani Pedrosa runs quickest of all.  Here is the full story, with a rundown of the 28 riders and bikes that took part in the test and that should be part of a very large field for MotoGP this season,

http://moto-racing.speedtv.com/article/motogp-pedrosa-heads-close-opening-day-in-sepang

1979 Race of The Year

Here's another epic race from 1979 in World Grand Prix motorcycle racing at Oulton Park in Little Buddworth, Cheshire, England.  Watch Barry Sheene, Kenny Roberts, Barry Ditchburn, Dave Potter, Mick Grant, Steve Parrish, Graham Wood, and Ron Haslam, to name a few, battle for victory.  This is good.

Barry Sheene vs. Kenny Roberts: the 1979 British Grand Prix

The original plan was to do a profile on motorcycle racing champion Barry Sheene, as a stand alone article.  But, this will be something more.  Sheene was a two-time consecutive World Grand Prix motorcycle racing champion in 1976 and '77.  He actively raced motorcycles between 1970 and 1984.  Sheene won titles on the smallest (50cc) and largest (500cc) bikes of that particular era of Grand Prix racing.

Not only was Sheene a great motorcycle racing champion, but he was also a vocal critic of race track safety during his career, and later on, became a television commentator for car and motorcycle races.  He died in 2003.

Kenny Roberts became the first ever American world champion in FIM Grand Prix motorcycle racing, winning the title in 1978, after the two successive championships won by Barry Sheene.  Like Sheene, he was an advocate for motorcycle racing safety, and he also built his own motorcycle, and ran his own racing team.  Roberts went on to win three consecutive 500cc world championships between 1978 and 1980.  His career spanned for nine years between 1974 and 1983.  He won his last ever Grand Prix that he started, the 1983 San Marino Grand Prix.

Roberts had great success, and also battled another successful American champion of Grand Prix racing, Freddie Spencer.  Here is the info on Roberts via Wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenny_Roberts 

Rest In Peace, Barry Sheene.  As for Roberts, he successfully fielded a team in the world championship and in MotoGP from 1984 to 2007, before MotoGP regulations were changed, forcing Roberts' team out of the sport.  Both of these riders left an indelible mark on the world of motorcycle racing. 

  

AMA SBK: Yamaha Details '13 Effort

All four of Yamaha's major factory backed riders will be back to run in both AMA Superbike and AMA Daytona Sportbike in 2013.  These include 2012, and two-time defending champion Josh Hayes along with his team mate Josh Herrin, and, the pairing of Cameron Beaubier and Garrett Gerloff.  Gerloff was out of action for most of the season last year, after fracturing his femur in a crash at Daytona.  However, Gerloff did win the Supersport class at New Orleans Motorsports Park, to close out the season last year.  So, he should be back, and ready to go for it this season.

http://moto-racing.speedtv.com/article/ama-sbk-yamaha-details-13-effort/P1