Casey Stoner is getting prepared for the 2010 MotoGP season

The fastest racer so far has been Czech racer Karel Abraham, with the fastest lap of the first few days on his FTR M210 of 1:39. Apparently, this manufacturer is presently talking to no less than six Grand Prix teams and five Spanish Championship teams about working together for the coming season.

The teams and racers will soon begin work getting ready for 2010 and they’ll need to get a few decisions made before they can start to get serious. They need to find the racers and teams that they’ll use for next year and with so many to select from, it isn’t going to be a quick or easy job.

One racer that is waiting to see what will happen, while fielding a number of different offers from teams that want him to race for them, is Toni Elias. A 26-year old racer who has been on the MotoGP scene for five seasons and there are a number of teams that are currently courting him and trying to impress him with their bikes and preparations for the 2010 MotoGP season.

Toni has been quiet so far about his plans and probably hasn’t made up his mind about which team he wants to race for and the bike he’ll be mounted on for the 2010 season. Still, eventually he’ll make a decision and the lucky team that’s able to convince him to race for them, is getting one hell of a racer and maybe a future champion.

Toni recently talked about how excited he was with all the offers he has received and is excited and eager to get the 2010 MotoGP season underway. This is great news for both him and MotoGP, as Toni is definitely a racer to watch, who has the experience required to make a breakthrough that could have him standing at the top.

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Moto2 Bikes on the MotoGP Scene for 2010

FIM officials were in Geneva though, talking with Dorna Sports and the MSMA about changes to the maximum engine capacity of the MotoGP class to 1000 cc for the up coming 2010 MotoGP season. For next year a limit of 4 cylinders will also be added to the rules and regulations, along with a maximum cylinder bore measurement of 81 mm. This gives manufacturers the base information they need to get to work on getting new bikes ready for the 2010 MotoGP season. There were a few minor change announced but the particulars on these changes have yet to be announced.

These are the basics of the rules and regulations changes that the teams will have to deal with at the beginning of the 2010 MotoGP season and they won’t actually receive their hard copies of the new changes until the beginning of the season. There are still two meetings scheduled to figure out the rest of the changes and specifications of the changes made for the new class.

These changes are going to make the 2010 MotoGP season a different one and should add a little more excitement to the action on the tracks. Seeing 1000 cc bikes on the track is going to make watching a lot more fun because of the power that these bikes have and should give the riders something to keep them busy.

These changes won’t really make that much of a difference to the racers, but they’ll mean lots of testing and tweaking of the new engines and bikes before the season begins. Valentino Rossi will of course be back and you can expect him to be the racer that we all expect to come through in the end, but with so many racers that are competitive, it could be the year that one of the other racers actually beats Rossi once the final results for the year are in.

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The MotoGP will have 1000 cc sportbikes on the menu next year

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MotoGP Rule Changes for 2010

Valentino Rossi is busy behind the wheel of a racing car

What kind of competition will Rossi be for racers who have spent the majority of their racing careers racing four-wheeled vehicles? Expect Rossi to hold his own no matter the vehicle he’s driving, it’s really about reflexes and mental acuity, and a host of other qualities that make Valentino a champion racer. Just to be sure someone asked Ford racer Hirvonen about the level of competition that he was expecting from Valentino when he gets him on the track. Hirvonen, who has raced on the type of track that he and Rossi are about to race on, stated that he expects Rossi to be a difficult challenge. Certainly, Rossi will be a racer he’ll remember racing after his racing days end, after all, how many nine-time MotoGP Champions to do get to race in your career? In fact, when you take a look at the racing credentials of the participants, you’ll see that their all talented racers and it should be one hell of a race. Rossi is just having fun, so anything is possible, but don’t expect him to take too many chances. He still has to start training for the 2010 MotoGP season in a few weeks and we wouldn’t want anything to derail the start year when he wins his tenth Premier Class MotoGP title, would we now?

Rossi isn’t the other off season sportbike racer busy behind the wheel of a four-wheeled race car as Mattia Pasini, Andrea Iannone, Andrea Dovizioso, and Loris Reggiani will be competing in the Yokohama Superbikers Drifting contest. This time they’ll be taking Ford Mustangs prepared by Gandin Motors and wearing Yokohama tires around the track as they unleash the raw power of American muscle.

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Valentino Rossi Racing Four-Wheeled Style

You can race as Casey Stoner in the newest MotoGP video game

Pulling their chairs up to the screen and turning on the game, they quickly discovered that they could race as any of the current racers competing in the MotoGP and a total of 17 circuits were available for them to race on and the newest video game even has a new feature for this year, an all new Arcade mode. In this mode they were able to take part in different types of race challenges, before giving the Career mode a try. In this mode you can compete in all of the races and manage your team as you try to build up your reputation as a two-wheeled racer both on and off the track. They were even told that when the game releases later in the year, players would be able to access free downloadable content from the real 2010 MotoGP season as it unfolds in real time, and keep their virtual 2010 season up to date with the happenings in the real season. You’ll even be able to compete in the different classes of the MotoGP, the 125 cc, 250 cc, and even the Premier class, and take your bike online to compete around the world against the best virtual two-wheeled racers on the planet. This game will be realised later in 2010, probably about March and is being developed by Monumental Games and published by Capcom, and should be a riot for any fan of the MotoGP.

In other news, the Moto2 prototype bike of Monster Tech3 is being tested for the up coming 2010 MotoGP season, and apparently the first tests have been going pretty good for the team and they expect to compete for the 2010 MotoGP title. French rider Florian Marino was testing the bike this week, before the real racer Raffaele de Rosa gets on the bike later in the week in Valencia.

The testing of the bike went pretty well and they ran some pretty good times, despite just taking the bike through its first test run, and if they can get it running a little better, this sportbike might have enough speed to compete. Of course tests don’t always tell you everything you need to know about a bike and its ability to run fast and win. The bike will have to be tested under all different weather conditions and running conditions yet, but so far, things are looking good for the team.

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MotoGP 2010 is a Virtual Adventure

Toni Elias, Randy de Puniet and the boys are on time off, while Rossi is behind the wheel of a race car

Randy de Puniet is one of these racers who is currently evaluating his 2009 performance and thinking of things he can do to improve his performance on the bike in 2010. He equalled his best ever result during the 2009 MotoGP season, with an 11^th place finish in the final standings, and he must be thinking that he could do better in 2010. His LCR Honda team manager, Lucio Cecchinello is one who believes Randy is on the brink of a real breakthrough on the MotoGP tour, and he expects 2010 to be the best year for the French man, so far.

Randy had a pretty good year, and had a series of fine results that eventually lead to his only podium finish of 2009, at the tenth race of the season at Donington Park. After that he had an unfortunate accident while training following the British Grand Prix, which left him nursing a broken ankle that took a number of screws to set in place again. It’s no surprise that after his training accident he had a tough time while trying to continue to race on a broken ankle and his results showed that he wasn’t quite up to form because of the accident.

In fact, Randy was in a heated battle that had him in seventh place in the overall standings near the end of the season, and despite his injury he was starting to put pressure on the racers in front of him in the standings. The toughness that Randy showed and his results has me thinking that we haven’t seen the best from Randy, so far, and that the 2010 season could be his breakthrough year on the MotoGP tour.

Randy’s team has stated they are very happy with his progress, so far, and with his willingness to fight through adversity like he did in 2009, and that they believe Randy has all the ingredients to win it all. It may take more time than they thought for him to get up to speed and show what he can really do on the bike, but that he is gaining speed and confidence and the rest of the racers should be on the look out for Randy in 2010.

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Randy de Puniet Should be Better in 2010

The fastest sport on two wheels in on time off

The runner up to Valentino Rossi was greeted by adoring fans that had him smiling and waving to the crowds for quite a few minutes, before he took the time to be greeted by factory President Frank Nagashima and Chief Operating Officer Praphan Phornthanavasat, and then made his way through the factory to talk to the 3000 employees on hand. This was just before he put on a show on his Yamaha YZF-R1 sportbike by taking it out for a few laps and burn a few tire marks in the pavement for his fans. He looked pretty good on the bike after a break that hasn’t seen him get on a bike since his operation in Barcelona on November 16 to take out the plate in his collarbone.

After his run, he took more time to wave and talk to his fans, which is great to see. The fans are the ones that really pay the bills and he obviously knows this and was energetic and loving while walking among the crowds. He’ll be heading over to Indonesia next to entertain his fans and build more support for his sport.

In other news, Dorna Sports has released their calendar for the CEV Buckler 2010 season and it will consist of seven events, including the new venue, Motorland Aragon during the fifth round of the season. The season will start on April 18^th in Catalunya, before heading to Albacete, Jerez, Albacete again, Motorland Aragon, Comunitat Valenciana, and lastly Jerez, one last time.

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MotoGP Building Fan Base

Valentino Rossi has been spending his downtime behind the wheel of a race car

Valentino Rossi just likes to feel the adrenalin rush of the sensation of speed in his life. During his downtime between seasons and trials, he’s usually found chasing after the adrenalin rush he loves behind the wheel of a race car or something else that goes fast. This week he was on the Vallelunga Circuit taking a Ferrari 430 through its paces, as he and team mates Andrea Ceccato and Alessio Salucci were thrilling thousands of fans as they took turns on the track.

Rossi started the race behind the wheel, before handing the driving chores off to his teammates, and then once again getting behind the wheel for another stint. The trio had problems all day with their car, and the mechanical problems teamed with a fire late in the race to keep the trio from their chance at winning the race. The three gentlemen did manage to finish third in the race, behind a Corvette and another Ferrari 430.

Rossi after the race said it was a great experience, although the fire at the end did scare him a little as he sat in the car, but it was quickly put out and nothing really came of the event. He also mentioned that he wants to do more four-wheeled racing in the future, maybe a few different types and will be looking for rides.

Rossi really is an adventurous type and loves to get behind the wheel of anything that will go fast. It wouldn’t surprise me to see Valentino behind the wheel of many race cars in the future, maybe even after he decides he’s had enough of sportbike racing.

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MotoGP on Time Off

The premier class will get some new blood next year

The 200 laps he’ll be on the bike during this period will go along way to getting him ready for the storm that he’s about to enter. He was even able to experience different weather patterns, from rain to wind, and this will help him get use to how the bike reacts to different or varying weather patterns. They were testing the engine and components on the Suzuki, along with the aerodynamic ability of the bike.

The question for me isn’t whether Bautista has the talent to win it all, but whether his Suzuki has the power and performance to compete with the other bikes on the track. They’ll need to get their Suzuki race bike running a lot faster in order to compete with the best and it will be difficult for Suzuki to get their bike up to standards in time for the 2010 MotoGP season. Bautista seemed to become more familiar with the bike after a few laps and he was running fast laps in the 1:38 mark by the end of the session. They should be happy with the 200 laps they were able to run on the bike and this should help them get the bike ready to compete. In fact, Bautista was very impressive on the bike over the days of testing, and if he can get a bike that can run as fast as the other racers, we should be in for a treat or two.

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Alvaro Bautista Moves On Up

Valentino Rossi decided he wanted to have a party with familiar friends

Rossi and Andrea Dovizioso, Marco Lelandri, Julian Simon and a host of other racers got out on the track and raced for the kids, with Dovizioso coming out the winner in the end, after a three race affair. Dovizioso was second in the first two races to 125 cc World Champion Julian Simon, who had to depart early so he wasn’t able to take part in the third race, but took the overall win by winning the third, ahead of Melandri and Rossi. Over 10,000 fans came out to take part in the affair and help raise money for the kids and the event went so well, we can probably expect more of such affairs in the future.

Rossi released his plans for his time off, he’s decided he still wants to race, and will soon be stepping behind the wheel of a Ford at Monza and the Bologna Motorshow. Once he gets that bug out of his blood, he’s going skiing for awhile, before he has to get back to preparing for the 2010 MotoGP season ahead.

After the event, Dovizioso sat down and talked about the up coming 2010 MotoGP season and his final thoughts on the 2009 season. His second season, 2009 was a up and down affair for Dovizioso, which included his first premier win at Donington Park and the low of being beaten for fifth position in the final standings for the year by a single point in the last race at Valencia by Colin Edwards.

The 2010 season he expects to be a great year and hopefully his break out season. He wants to do better than he did this year and grab a few more wins, but understands the challenge before him. He has to content with a man who is a seven time MotoGP Premier Class World Champion and a field of racers who would all love to be the champion. The question comes down to who wants it more in the end and Rossi has always come out on top in this area.

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Valentino Rossi Calls a Party

Valentino Rossi will be back for a try at his eighth MotoGP Premier Class World Championship for 2010

In other news, Repsol Honda has already begun testing their Honda RC212V motorcycles for the up coming 2010 season. Dani Pedrosa and Andrea Dovizioso were seen out on the Ricardo Tormo Circuit testing their new Ohlin suspension which they decided to switch to for 2010, from the old Showa suspension which they have been using for a few years. They looked fast and recorded excellent times on the track and are already looking to be contenders for 2010. They were obviously concentrating on the new suspension and trying to get a feel for the new set up and will get to test the chassis later this week. The 2010 MotoGP season is just about the corner and all the teams will begin testing soon and preparing for the 2010 MotoGP campaign.

It was announced that 2009 250 cc MotoGP World Champion Hiroshi Aoyama will be racing for the Interwetten Honda MotoGP team for 2010. Aoyama was recently awarded a letter of recognition by the Prime Minister of Japan, Mr. Yuko Hatoyama, which is quite an honour and certainly indicates how much his championship means to the Japanese people. The Japanese people and MotoGP fans have really embraced the young champion, along with his open and inviting demeanour.

Aoyama also got to meet Nakamura during the presentation ceremony, who he presented his championship helmet to, before the two gentlemen spent a little time talking about the future and the MotoGP. We expect big things from Aoyama in the MotoGP and he has a bright future that seems to be on the rise.

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2010 MotoGP Season Preparation