South West Bikers | Motorcycle Forum

After the first two days of testing the new 1000cc Moto GP bikes Cal Crutchlow finished in forth fastest position, with the new bike suiting his more superbike style of riding:

http://www.bikesportnews.com/news-detai ... ewsid=6042

Gino Rea is rumoured to be moving to Moto2, but bad weather meant he could'nt test:

http://www.bikesportnews.com/news-detai ... ewsid=6037

And Randy De Puniet tested for Suzuki on the 800 but was pulling faster laptimes then Bautista had during previous visits to Valencia. RDP was testing, as Bautista has left Suzuki and signed for Gresini, replacing Marco Simoncelli, as the uncertaintity of Suzuki's plans for next year are still yet to be finalised. Suzuki and Bautista seperated on very good terms according to Paul Denning's Twitter feed. There is still hope that they will run a two man team with Hopper, but still no confirmation as yet.

Looked like Bautista and Suzuki were coming on strong towards the end of this season. Good to see them up there mixing it with the big boys. lets hope they can get a competitive 1000cc bike on the grid not too far into next season. If they're going to go with a 800cc ,I can't see that being competitive,which would be a real shame.

Wasnt it confirmed today that suzuki have pulled out of motogp for the next 2 seasons but may look into coming back in 2014

Still no official word, but all Suzuki motogp employee's have been sent emails saying they're presence it not required next year, while crew chief Tom O'Kane has already moved to Tech 3 with Dovi's crew. Looks like Hopper will join Camier in WSBK on the Cresent Suzuki Team. Randy De Puniet is also now out of any job with Bradl taking his LCR ride. He is looking at either a well sorted CRT team or possibly defect to WSBK.

Paul Bird in a last minute deal to run Suzuki instead of Aprillia's??? Doubt it will happen but there were rumours of a collaboration between Cresent and Paul Bird for a Uk Suzuki MotoGP effort earlier in the year, anyone got a spare couple of million to help finance it? If I win the lottery I'll do it ;)

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Suzuki's temporary withdrawal from MotoGP is finally confirmed in a statement by the Suzuki Motor Corporation:

"This suspension is to cope with tough circumstances mainly caused by the prolonged recession in developed countries, an historical appreciation of Japanese Yen and repeated natural disasters.

Having an eye to returning to MotoGP in 2014, Suzuki will now focus on developing a competitive new racing machine for that class.

Suzuki will continue motocross racing activity and support of road racing activities using mass-produced motorcycles, by obtaining FIM homologation and co-operation with the supplier of its development racing kit parts."

... and as a result, Hopper joins Crescent's WSB team

no real suprise there then scotty