Motorcycle Racing 2024 - MotoGP, WSBK, BSB, MotoAmerica, TT

[SKR]

MotoGP Red Bull Grand Prix of the Americas -Sprint Race

It's been a while since there's been any bike racing hey? Since last week's Argentina GP was cancelled, this weekend is the first back for MotoGP. A few different names at the front after qualifying with Maverick Vinales on pole, and Honda still sucks with all 4 of their bikes qualifying in the last 4 spots. Nobody could touch Vinales all race long. Marc Marquez held off attacks from Jorge Martin and Pedro Acosta. Aleix Espargaro rounded out the top 5. Ducati had an awful day with Enea Bastianini 6th and Francesco Bagnaia 8th. Yamaha was awful and I don't think I heard Fabio Quartararo or Alex Rins' names said all race. All but one of the Hondas crashed out with Luca Marini the last running rider, almost 23 seconds back of the lead in a 10 lap race.

Early on it looks like Martin is the man to beat, and if he can get some maturity to match his talent he'll win buckets full of championships. Aprilia looks good too when their bikes aren't breaking down.

[SKR]

MotoGP Red Bull Grand Prix of the Americas

Holy what a race today. When Maverick Vinales fucked the start and Francesco Bagnaia and Jorge Martin pushed their way through, I thought the race was over. Usually once one of those two gets out front they check out and that's it. But Pedro Acosta raced as hard as anyone and led for a long time. Marc Marquez led briefly but crashed out of the lead a couple corners later. Bagnaia had trouble all weekend and after the first couple laps wasn't really a factor. I think Martin used up a lot of his bike trying to get past Acosta. Enea Bastianini did what he used to do, run 2/3 of the race saving his tires and then turning it on to come through the field. And Vinales coming back from 11th on lap 1 to win was something else. And not just win by a little bit either, it was a shit kicking. Great race today. Vinales became the first rider in the MotoGP era to win on 3 different manufacturers. Acosta finished 2nd, Bastianini 3rd, Martin 4th and Bagnaia 5th. Honda again was awful, with I think 2 retirements with mechanical problems, 1 crash, and Luca Marini, who chose to leave a satellite Ducati team for factory Honda, was last of the running riders in 16th, 33 seconds back. Even Alex Marquez, who crashed on lap 11 and remounted, finished ahead of Marini. Honda is so fucked.



MotoGP Standings after COTA:

1. Jorge Martin (Prima Pramac Racing) 80
2. Enea Bastianini (Ducati Lenovo Team) 59
3. Maverick Vinales (Aprilia Racing) 56
4. Pedro Acosta (Red Bull GASGAS Tech3) 54
5. Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team) 50

Next 4 Weeks:

April 20-21 – World Superbike Pirelli Dutch Round – TT Circuit Assen
April 20-21 – British Superbikes Round 1 – Circuito de Navarra
April 20-21 – MotoAmerica Superbikes at Road Atlanta – Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta
April 26-27 – Cookstown 100 – Orritor Circuit
April 27-28 – MotoGP Gran Premio de Espana – Circuito de Jerez - Angel Nieto
May 5-6 – British Superbikes Round 2 – Oulton Park
May 6-11 – North West 200 – The Triangle
May 11-12 – MotoGP Grand Prix de France – Le Mans

[SKR]

World Superbike Pirelli Dutch Round

Assen makes for such good racing, and mixed weather conditions really shook things up. Danilo Petrucci is out after being injured in a motocross crash, and is being replaced by Nicholas Spinelli. In race 1, most riders opted for slicks on a wet track, but Spinelli gambled with intermediates and it paid off. He took off to a 24 second lead, and as the track dried that lead dropped to 3 seconds. In one more lap he was going to be swallowed up by the riders on slicks, but the race was red flagged due to oil on the track, giving Spinelli his first win in his Superbike debut. Toprak Razgatlioglu finished 2nd, Alvaro Bautista 3rd, Remy Gardner 4th and Alex Lowes 5th.



The Superpole race was dry and factory Ducati led the way. Bautista won, followed by Nicolo Bulega, Alex Lowes, Gardner and Jonathan Rea, who was finally having a decent weekend in his first season at Yamaha.



Race 2 started off dry, then had a small shower partway through the race before drying again. Razgatlioglu won, Bautista 2nd, Gardner 3rd for his first WSBK podium, Andrea Iannone 4th and Andrea Locatelli 5th.



WorldSBK Standings after Assen:

1. Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing - Ducati) 123
2. Toprak Razgatlioglu (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) 117
3. Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing - Ducati) 109
4. Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) 93
5. Andrea Locatelli (Pata Prometeon Yamaha) 64

[SKR]

British Superbikes Round 1

Teams and Riders:

Hager PBM Ducati
Glenn Irwin

OMG GRILLA Yamaha Racing
Ryan Vickers
Kyle Ryde

ROKiT Haslam Racing BMW Motorrad
Leon Haslam

Oxford Products Racing Ducati
Christian Iddon

FHO Racing BMW Motorrad
Josh Brookes
Peter Hickman

Completely Motorbikes Kawasaki
Jason O'Halloran
Max Cook

McAMS Racing Yamaha
Danny Kent

MasterMac Honda
Lee Jackson
Charlie Nesbitt

LKQ Euro Car Parts Kawasaki
Storm Stacey

STAUFF Fluid Power Kawasaki
Tom Neave

Honda Racing UK
Tommy Bridewell
Dean Harrison
Andrew Irwin

Cheshire Mouldings BMW Motorrad
Rory Skinner

DAO Racing Kawasaki
Brayden Elliott
Danny Buchan

Rapid Honda
Franco Bourne

Whitecliffe CDH Racing Kawasaki
Luke Hedger

TAG Honda
Jaimie van Sikkelerus
Fraser Rogers

Cumins by Team IWR Honda
Alex Olsen

C&L Fairburn / Look Forward Racing Honda
Billy McConnell

IN Competition / SENCAT Aprilia
Lewis Rollo

NP Racing Kawasaki
Louis Valleley

The biggest movers this season are 2023 champion Tommy Bridewell going from PBM Ducati to Honda, Dean Harrison going from DAO Racing to Honda, Jason O'Halloran going from McAMS Yamaha to Kawasaki, Lee Jackson going from Kawasaki to Honda and the return of Rory Skinner from a year in Moto2.

The first race of the British Superbike season starts off in Spain for some reason. The commentators said Navarra is a track without many passing spots, which makes me wonder why the fuck are we here. Usually BSB is the best racing, but not this weekend. Ryan Vickers swept the two races, winning race 1 over Kyle Ryde, Danny Kent, Glenn Irwin and Rory Skinner, and race 2 over Kent, Ryde, Leon Haslam and Christian Iddon.



British Superbike Standings after Navarra:

1. Ryan Vickers (OMG GRILLA Racing Yamaha) 36
2. Danny Kent (McAMS Racing Yamaha) 30
3. Kyle Ryde (OMG GRILLA Racing Yamaha) 30
4. Christian Iddon (Oxford Products Racing Ducati) 21
5. Glenn Irwin (Hager PBM Ducati) 20

[SKR]

MotoAmerica Superbikes at Road Atlanta

I couldn't decide whether to pay for MotoAmerica again this year. They used to upload the races onto youtube a few hours after, but this year they stopped doing that and it'll be a week I think until the races are available for free. It's $160 which is an awful lot, but hopefully a deeper field this year means better racing.

I'm not going to do a full run-through of the riders and teams. These are the guys who'll be at the front the most this year:

1st to 3rd:

Jake Gagne - won the championship the last 3 years in a row
Cameron Beaubier - won 5 championships in 6 years, went to Moto2 for 2 years and returned to MotoAmerica last year
Josh Herrin - every year the Ducati gets better and he has a teammate this year to help collect data
Cameron Petersen - teammate to Gagne and had a good year last year
JD Beach - don't know much about him, but people talk about how good a superbike rider he was before he went to American Flat Track

4th to 7th:

Sean Dylan Kelly - comes over from Moto2
Bobby Fong - seems to be a good rider but doesn't quite have enough to stay at the front
Richie Escalante - could be in for a win on a good day
Brandon Paasch - young kid in his second superbike season
Loris Baz - back to MotoAmerica after a couple seasons with BMW in World Superbike

8th to 10th:
Ashton Yates - will be neat to see what a Honda can do, and I think it's in Superstock trim
Hayden Gillim - another Honda

Absences from this year are PJ Jacobsen, who moved to Superstock to mentor Kayla Yaakov, and Mathew Scholtz who went to Superstock after his Superbike team folded around Christmas.

Race 1:

A lot of careful racing for the first race of the season. It wasn't until the last couple laps when things started heating up at the front. Cameron Beaubier won, ahead of Jake Gagne, Bobby Fong, Sean Dylan Kelly and Josh Herrin. Right after the checkered flag, Loris Baz slowed faster than Richie Escalante was anticipating and Escalante crashed into him. Baz was able to race in race 2 but Escalante is out indefinitely with a fractured wrist and a few vertebrae.



Race 2:

Race 2 was wet after rain in the morning. Gagne came out ahead despite a couple pass attempts from Beaubier on the last couple laps. Cameron Petersen finished 3rd, JD Beach 4th and Kelly 5th.



MotoAmerica Standings after Road Atlanta:

1. Jake Gagne (Attack Performance Yamaha - Yamaha) 45
2. Cameron Beaubier (Tytlers Cycle Racing - BMW) 45
3. Sean Dylan Kelly (TopPro Racing Team - BMW) 24
4. Bobby Fong (Wrench Motorcycles - Yamaha) 22
5. JD Beach (Tytlers Cycle Racing - BMW) 22

Next 4 Weeks:

April 26-27 – Cookstown 100 – Orritor Circuit
April 27-28 – MotoGP Gran Premio de Espana – Circuito de Jerez - Angel Nieto
May 5-6 – British Superbikes Round 2 – Oulton Park
May 6-11 – North West 200 – The Triangle
May 11-12 – MotoGP Grand Prix de France – Le Mans
May 18-19 – British Superbikes Round 3 – Donington Park
May 18-19 – MotoAmerica Superbikes at Barber – Barber Motorsports Park

[SKR]

MotoGP Gran Premio de Espana - Sprint Race

Weird race, this one. Wet in qualifying but the track was pretty dry come race time. They said it was windy with strong gusts though that might have played a factor. Twenty-five riders started the race - the normal 22 rider grid, plus wildcards from test riders Dani Pedrosa (KTM), Lorenzo Savadori (Aprilia) and Stefan Bradl (Honda). And then the carnage started. Crashes from:

Aleix Espargaro
Jack Miller
Francesco Bagnaia
Fabio Di Giannantonio
Lorenzo Savadori
Alex Rins
Brad Binder
Alex Marquez
Enea Bastianini
Marco Bezzecchi
Marc Marquez
Maverick Vinales
Luca Marini
Stefan Bradl
Johann Zarco

After all that, Jorge Martin sailed to win again and extend his points lead. Pedro Acosta finished 2nd, Fabio Quartararo 3rd after starting 23rd, Pedrosa 4th and Franco Morbidelli 5th. Hopefully tomorrow is different. This was entertaining, but you wouldn't use it as an example of good racing.

[SKR]

Cookstown 100

The Cookstown 100 is the first race of the Irish road racing season. Coverage is sparse; Northern Ireland seems to prefer Facebook, and I can't be wading through that mess to get results. They had 18 races scheduled and it sounds like they got them all off. Here's some race winners you've heard of.

Michael Dunlop won the Open A Invitation race Friday evening, before crashing in the Supersport A Invitation race later on. He wasn't injured but withdrew from the rest of the meeting.



Michael Sweeney won the Supersport A Invitation race Friday and the Supertwins A race Saturday in his first racing action since crashing at last year's North West 200.

[SKR]

Cookstown 100

Dominic Herbertson won 4 races: The 125/Moto3 race, Supersport A, Open A and the Cookstown 100 Open A.









The next Irish road race meeting is the North West 200 in a couple weeks.

[SKR]

MotoGP Gran Premio de Espana

Another ripper of a race, although it was probably helped a little by Jorge Martin crashing out while leading under pressure from Francesco Bagnaia. A battle late in the race between Bagnaia and Marc Marquez left rubber from Bagnaia's front tire on Marquez's right arm, but both stayed up. It looked like Marquez had Bagnaia beat but then Bagnaia set a race lap record on the 23rd lap of 25. Marquez set a personal best on the next lap but it wasn't enough. Bagnaia won, Marquez 2nd, Marco Bezzecchi 3rd, Alex Marquez 4th and Enea Bastianini 5th for an all-Ducati top 5.



Dani Pedrosa was promoted to 3rd in yesterday's sprint after Fabio Quartararo was penalized for being under (over? I don't know) the tire pressure limit. Unfortunately Pedrosa crashed out today, but the 3rd place finish yesterday gives him 7 points in the championship, which is more than Alex Rins (6), Franco Morbidelli (6), Johann Zarco (5), Takaaki Nakagami (4) and Luca Marini (0), all of whom have started every race this year.

MotoGP Standings after Jerez:

1. Jorge Martin (Prima Pramac Racing) 92
2. Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team) 75
3. Enea Bastianini (Ducati Lenovo Team) 70
4. Pedro Acosta (Red Bull GASGAS Tech3) 69
5. Maverick Vinales (Aprilia Racing) 63

Next 4 Weeks:

May 5-6 – British Superbikes Round 2 – Oulton Park
May 6-11 – North West 200 – The Triangle
May 11-12 – MotoGP Grand Prix de France – Le Mans
May 18-19 – British Superbikes Round 3 – Donington Park
May 18-19 – MotoAmerica Superbikes at Barber – Barber Motorsports Park
May 25-26 – MotoGP Gran Premi Monster Energy de Catalunya – Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya