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

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World Superbike Teams

Aruba.it Racing - Ducati
Ducati Panigale V4R
#1 Alvaro Bautista
#11 Nicolo Bulega

Bautista will defend his 2022 and 2023 WSBK title in 2024. Bulega moves up to WSBK after winning World Supersport in 2023.





Pata Prometeon Yamaha
Yamaha YZF R1
#55 Andrea Locatelli
#65 Jonathan Rea

Locateli has been with the team for a few years now. Rea is new to the team this year, coming over from Kawasaki.

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World Superbike Teams

ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team
BMW M 1000 RR
#54 Toprak Razgatlioglu
#60 Michael van der Mark

Razgatlioglu is new to the team this year, and the bike is stronger than ever. Previously competing for top 5s, the addition of Razgatlioglu might mean that BMW is pushing for wins.





Bonovo Action BMW
BMW M 1000 RR
#31 Garrett Gerloff
#45 Scott Redding

BMW is running two factory teams, rather than one factory team and one satellite like Ducati, Yamaha and Honda. Gerloff and Redding will be looking for top 5s.

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World Superbike Teams

Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK
Kawasaki ZX-10RR
#22 Alex Lowes
#47 Axel Bassani

Rea's departure opened the door for a factory seat for Bassani, who lost out on the Ducati seat to Bulega. Kawasaki struggled last year but a new rider and offseason improvements might invigorate them. Lowes will be racing against his twin brother Sam this year, who is on a better bike, which might light a fire under him.





Team HRC
Honda CBR1000 RR-R
#7 Iker Lecuona
#97 Xavi Vierge

Lecuona and Vierge return from last year where the Honda struggled to stay in the top 10. A new bike this year has not shown much more promise in preseason testing.





Team Motocorsa Racing
Ducati Panigale V4R
#21 Michael Ruben Rinaldi

After losing his seat at factory Ducati to Bulega, Rinaldi moves over to the satellite Motocorsa. Familiarity with the bike and none of the pressure of being on the factory team might mean Rinaldi spends more time at the front.

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World Superbike Teams

Barni Spark Racing Team
Ducati Panigale V4R
#9 Danilo Petrucci

A rookie last year at 33 years old, Petrucci will be looking to build on the momentum from last year that saw him competing for podiums.



GYTR GRT Yamaha WorldSBK Team
Yamaha YZF R1
#77 Dominique Aegerter
#87 Remy Gardner

Gardner has underachieved since winning the Moto2 championship in 2021, and will have to show improvements this year.





Elf Marc VDS Racing Team
Ducati Panigale V4R
#14 Sam Lowes

Lowes and the team are both new to WSBK this year, coming over after several years in Moto2. I expect Lowes to be near the front this year, if nothing else near his brother Alex.



Team GoEleven
Ducati Panigale V4R
#29 Andrea Iannone

Iannone makes his return to professional racing after a 4 year ban for failing a drug test. He's been fast in preseason testing and is a MotoGP winner.

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World Superbike Teams

Yamaha Motoxracing Racing Team
Yamaha YZF R1
#28 Bradley Ray

This will be Ray's first full season in WSBK after featuring in the European rounds last year. Ray is a good rider and was the British Superbike champion in 2022, and will improve on his best finish last year of 6th at Imola.



GMT94 Yamaha
Yamaha YZF R1
#5 Philipp Oetll

Oettl will be a top 15 guy, knocking on the door of the top 10 once in a while.



Kawasaki Puccetti Racing
Kawasaki ZX-10RR
#53 Tito Rabat

After a tough last year, Rabat will be looking for top 10s this year.



Petronas MIE Racing Honda Team
Honda CBR1000 RR-R
#27 Adam Norrodin
#95 Tarran Mackenzie

Both riders are new to WSBK this year, moving up from WSSP. Mackenzie is a BSB champion in 2021 but injuries in 2022 stunted his momentum. He's probably a better rider than Brad Ray, but Ray got the breaks Mackenzie should have had. Hopefully he can get some kind of result on the Honda to get a look from one of the better teams next year.

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World Superbike Grand Ridge Brewery Australian Round – Race 1

Nicolo Bulega is already making the most of his factory Ducati bike, starting on pole and winning by 3 seconds. Phillip Island is a different track than the rest in that it's flowing and there aren't really any hard braking zones like you see in the rest of the tracks on the calendar so it can be hard to predict the rest of the season based on results here. But Bulega looks strong. Last year's champion Alvaro Bautista is coming off an injury but was top 10 in practice. Unfortunately for him he crashed on lap 4. He was able to remount and eventually recover to 15th. Jonathan Rea struggled too, finishing 17th in his debut on the Yamaha, 38 seconds off the lead. A pit stop for tires midway through the race was required, due to insufficient time for tire testing on the newly-repaved track, and that caught Toprak Razgatlioglu who was given a 1.225 second penalty for exceeding the pit lane time minimum. But the BMW looks strong and able to compete with Ducati on the straights so he should be pretty competitive as the season goes on. Andrea Locatelli finished 2nd, which should give teammate Rea some hope. Andrea Iannone finished 3rd in his first start in 4 years. Alex Lowes finished 4th, which is promising but Kawasaki has always looked decent here since the track seems to mask the problems with the bike, and the mandatory tire change helped avoid lap times falling off from tire wear like they did all last season. Razgatlioglu finished 4th on the track but 5th on the timesheet after his penalty.



The Superpole race and Race 2 are Sunday afternoon in Australia, or Saturday night here.

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World Superbike Grand Ridge Brewery Australian Round – Superpole Race and Race 2

The Superpole race is a half-distance sprint race, between races 1 and 2. Half points are awarded for the top 9 positions, and the top 9 sets the first 9 starting spots for race 2. Nicolo Bulega got swallowed up at the start again and Andrea Iannone led the first couple laps. Iannone dropped out around mid-race with what looked like electrical problems. Alex Lowes took over from there and ran away to his first win since 2020. That’s good for Kawasaki who have struggled with pace and tire life the last year or two. Andrea Locatelli finished 2nd. It’s nice to see Lowes and Locatelli at the top of the results after their star teammates in Jonathan Rea and Toprak Razgatlioglu left at the end of last year. Razgatlioglu finished 3rd. Alvaro Bautista finished 4th and Bulega 5th.

Remy Gardner was in the mix until the second last lap, eventually finishing 6th and Rea had a better race than yesterday, finishing in 10th.



Race 2 was scheduled for 20 laps with a mandatory tire change midway. Razgatliolgu's motor blew on lap 1, taking him out of the race. On lap 3, Rea crashed and the race was red flagged. Rea was taken away by stretcher but was back in the garage by the end of the restarted race. The race was restarted for 11 laps with no tire change. Alex Lowes went 2 for 2 Sunday, surviving a last-lap pass attempt by Locatelli and making a pass on Bautista. Locatelli crashed out. Bautista finished 2nd, Danilo Petrucci 3rd, Iannone 4th and Bulega 5th.



World Superbike Standings after Phillip Island:

1. Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) 50
2. Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing - Ducati) 41
3. Andrea Locatelli (Pata Prometeon Yamaha) 29
4. Andrea Iannone (Team GoEleven) 29
5. Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing - Ducati) 27

Next 4 Weeks of Racing:

March 8-10 – MotoGP Qatar Airways Grand Prix of Qatar – Lusail International Circuit
March 9 – Daytona 200 – Daytona International Speedway
March 23-24 – MotoGP Grand Premio de Portugal – Autodromo Internacional do Algarve
March 23-24 – World Superbike Pirelli Catalunya Round - Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya

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World Superbike Grand Ridge Brewery Australian Round – Race 2

Since WSBK's youtube channel does an actual good job of posting content, here's the last lap.

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MotoGP 2024

Man, the gap between last season and this season feels as long as the gap between first and second in the F1 race. This week a competitive grand prix championship will begin its 2024 season. Things to watch:

- 19 of 22 riders have contracts that expire at the end of the season
- Francesco Bagnaia will attempt to win his third consecutive championship
- Jorge Martin, feeling jilted after losing the promotion to factory Ducati to Enea Bastianini in 2022 and finishing second to Bagnaia in 2023 will be out to prove he belongs on a factory team
- Bastianini will hope to meet his potential after an injury-plagued 2023 season
- Marc Marquez begins his new career on a Ducati at Gresini after leaving Honda
- Fabio Di Giannantonio will try to keep the momentum from the last half of last season, when he went from being shuffled out of MotoGP altogether to getting a ride at VR46
- Alex Rins gets off the awful Honda and onto the less awful Yamaha
- Johann Zarco and Luca Marini in bewildering moves leave the best bike on the grid in Ducati to the worst in Honda
- American team Trackhouse Racing will make their first start in MotoGP
- Aleix Espargaro and Maverick Vinales will try to make this the year that Aprilia finally gets over the hump and starts to be a championship contender
- Brad Binder and Jack Miller do the same with KTM
- Pedro Acosta, considered by some to be the next Marc Marquez, starts his rookie season
- Miller, Vinales and Rins all could be the first rider to win a GP race on 3 different manufacturers

It should be a good season. The usual suspects in Bagnaia and Martin will be at the front. Bastianini will be too I think. He didn't have a great year last year but he was hurt for a lot of it. Marquez is probably an outside shot at a championship, as is Binder. I expect a lot of riders will be auditioning for Aprilia, and maybe Trackhouse as well. I think the bike is better than its riders. Pramac will probably have at least one opening too if Martin leaves, which everybody seems to think he will since he wants to be on a factory team. It'll be interesting to see what Honda does now that Marquez is gone and they have a veteran rider in Zarco and a new rider in Marini. And if Yamaha can prove they've got a competitive bike, we might see VR46 move from Ducati to Yamaha for 2025.

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MotoGP Riders and Teams

Ducati Lenovo Team
#1 Francesco Bagnaia
#23 Enea Bastianini



Aprilia Racing
#12 Maverick Vinales
#41 Aleix Espargaro



Red Bull KTM Factory Racing
#43 Jack Miller
#33 Brad Binder



Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP
#20 Fabio Quartararo
#42 Alex Rins



Repsol Honda Team
#36 Joan Mir
#10 Luca Marini

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MotoGP Riders and Teams

Prima Pramac Racing
#89 Jorge Martin
#21 Franco Morbidelli



Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team
#72 Marco Bezzecchi
#49 Fabio Di Giannantonio



Gresini Racing
#73 Alex Marquez
#93 Marc Marquez

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MotoGP Riders and Teams

Red Bull GASGAS Tech3
#31 Pedro Acosta
#37 Augusto Fernandez



Trackhouse MotoGP
#25 Raul Fernandez
#88 Miguel Oliveira



LCR Honda
#5 Johann Zarco
#30 Takaaki Nakagami

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MotoGP Qatar Airways Grand Prix of Qatar – Lusail International Circuit - Sprint Race

What a weekend for racing, with the start of the MotoGP season and the Daytona 200. Last year, Jorge Martin was the man on Saturdays in the sprint races and he got the job done again in Qatar. Brad Binder kept him close for the first few laps but Martin eventually checked out and maintained a half second lead to the finish. Aleix Espargaro finished 3rd and it looks like the Aprilia is stronger than ever. Francesco Bagnaia finished 4th and Marc Marquez in his debut on Ducati finished 5th. I don't think he was ever any real threat for the win, but looked strong for a podium until the last couple laps. It will be interesting to see what a full length race looks like. Rookie Pedro Acosta finished a pretty respectable 8th. Fabio Di Giannantonio had a small highside crash which shouldn't have been a big deal, but he got ran over by his own bike and was damn lucky not to be run over by anyone else. Sounds like he's okay and hopefully will be back tomorrow.

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Daytona 200

This is one of the races I look forward to the most. It's a MotoAmerica race, but it's on Supersport bikes and riders from all over the world enter it. This year I think they said they had 62 starters, including TT winner Peter Hickman and North West 200 winner Richard Cooper on FHO Racing Triumphs. There were 10 or so bikes at the front at the start, but a couple engine failures early on broke up the field. Pit stops also spread things out to where only a few bikes were in contention for the win. Cooper unfortunately didn't finish. The broadcast said he crashed, but it looked like a mechanical failure to me. Hickman was set to finish around 12th one lap down but also retired with a mechanical issue with 2 laps to go. The race came down to Josh Herrin and Richie Escalante, same as last year. Escalante ran out of fuel on the last lap and Herrin went on to win his 3rd 200 and second consecutive. Tyler Scott, Hayden Gillim and Bobby Fong all passed Escalante before he crossed the line in 5th.



I was most looking forward to Daytona when I found out Lee Johnston was going to enter. He had a bad crash at the North West 200 last May and nearly died, requiring blood transfusions at the course before being airlifted to hospital. Daytona was supposed to be his first race back but he crashed in preseason testing in Spain and broke his leg so he's out indefinitely again. I think he'll be back for the North West and the TT but those aren't that far away. Too bad about Hickman and Cooper. A lot of the talk was mainly about Hickman, but Cooper looked like he really had a chance at it. And it would have been good for a British rider to win on a Triumph, especially since his Monday to Friday job is test rider for Triumph. But it seems hard to beat the Americans at Daytona.

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MotoGP Qatar Airways Grand Prix of Qatar

Jorge Martin led the sprint race yesterday from pillar to post and Francesco Bagnaia responded today by taking the lead into turn 2 on lap 1. There wasn't much for passing but there was lots of pressure all the way back to 5th all race. Bagnaia managed the gap at around a second all race to win the opening round ahead of Brad Binder. Martin finished 3rd, Marc Marquez 4th and Enea Bastianini 5th.

Pedro Acosta looked great in his first GP, at one point up to 4th, but wore out his tires doing it and dropped back to finish 9th. Still good in a 22 rider field. Jack Miller looks like he doesn't want to stay in MotoGP. He always starts like Gangbusters but drops back almost as quick, and crashed on lap 2. He remounted but only finished 21st. The Aprilias were nowhere. Just like last year, show lots of promise in testing and practice, and then on race day they're nowhere to be found. Every Honda finished which is rare, and Johann Zarco and Joan Mir even scored points in 12th and 13th.



MotoGP Standings after Qatar:

1. Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team) 31
2. Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) 29
3. Jorge Martin (Prima Pramac Racing) 28
4. Marc Marquez (Gresini Racing) 18
5. Enea Bastianini (Ducati Lenovo Team) 15

Next 4 Weeks:

March 23-24 – MotoGP Grand Premio de Portugal – Autodromo Internacional do Algarve
March 23-24 – World Superbike Pirelli Catalunya Round - Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya

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World Superbike Pirelli Catalunya Round - Race 1

I think WSBK is going to be a lot of fun this year. Lots of good battles in the top 10, and when it looked like Nicolo Bulega was running away with it, Toprak Razgatlioglu chased him down from 4 seconds back to pass him on the last lap and get his first win with BMW. Bulega is fast but used up too much tire early on to keep the pace up. Alvaro Bautista finished 3rd, Andrea Iannone 4th and Andrea Locatelli 5th. Kawasaki came back down to earth a little bit with Alex Lowes finishing 6th and Axel Bassani 10th. Kawasaki is good at Phillip Island but struggles with tire life on every other track, so this is kind of where you'd expect them to be. Sam Lowes led for a bit before crashing out. Jonathan Rea's first season with Yamaha couldn't be going much worse, retiring on the second lap with what I assume is mechanical issues. And Tarran Mackenzie rode that piece of shit privateer Honda up to 16th, finishing ahead of Bradley Ray. I've always thought Mackenzie was the better rider of the two but he had those injuries right when Ray was red hot, and his career has suffered for it. Hopefully he can keep up some good results and get off that bike onto literally anything else.

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MotoGP Grand Premio de Portugal - Sprint Race

The second race this morning. Enea Bastianini qualified on pole but dropped back at the start. Jack Miller led for the first bit and then Francesco Bagnaia took over. The fun thing about bikes is that they're so close to the limit all the time that you often see the leader make a mistake, and kind of like Sam Lowes crashing out of the lead in the WSBK race this morning, Bagnaia got out of shape into turn 1 and had to go way wide to stay on the bike, handing the lead over to Maverick Vinales. Vinales held on to get his first win with Aprilia. Marc Marquez finished 2nd, Jorge Martin 3rd, Bagnaia 4th and Miller 5th.

I don't know what is happening with Luca Marini at Repsol Honda. That Honda is bad, but he's by far the slowest in the field. He was 2 seconds off the pace right from the start and finished 24 seconds down in a 12 lap race. He's the slowest Honda rider by about a second a lap. Whatever the reason is, it's going to be a long season for them if they don't get it figured out soon.

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World Superbike Pirelli Catalunya Round - Superpole Race and Race 2

Today's superpole race might go down as one of the best races of the season. It wasn't that long ago that I said I didn't like Catalunya and didn't think it was suited to bikes, but this race was great. Only 10 laps long and 6 different riders led, with 15 lead changes, and another last lap pass for the win. Toprak Ragatlioglu got his second win of the weekend. Andrea Iannone also made a last-corner pass to finish 2nd. Alvaro Bautista is back after getting injured before the season started and missing a lot of preseason testing, finishing 3rd. Nicolo Bulega and Alex Lowes completed the top 5.



Race 2 was slower-paced as you'd expect with double the race distance. A good showing from the factory Ducatis with Bautista and Bulega finishing 1-2. BMW did well as well, with Razgatlioglu 3rd and Michael van der Mark 4th. Danilo Petrucci finished 5th. A few crashes in this one certainly helped, but finally a decent run for Jonathan Rea, finishing 8th.



WorldSBK Standings after Catalunya:

1. Nicolo Bulega (Aruba.it Racing - Ducati) 87
2. Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Racing - Ducati) 75
3. Alex Lowes (Kawasaki Racing Team WorldSBK) 75
4. Toprak Razgatlioglu (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) 71
5. Andrea Iannone (Team GoEleven) 51

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MotoGP Grand Premio de Portugal

Finally for Jorge Martin a good start on Sunday, combined with a rough start for Francesco Bagnaia. Martin took off and never looked back. Maverick Vinales' Aprilia shit itself after crossing the line to start the last lap, and then launched him off of it exiting turn 1 after riding comfortably in 2nd place all day. That promoted Enea Bastianini to 2nd. Rookie Pedro Acosta got his first MotoGP podium, finishing 3rd. Bagnaia and Marc Marquez got tangled up late and took themselves out, moving Brad Binder and Jack Miller up into the top 5. Not a super exciting race, but they can't all be classics. Moto2 was good, with Aron Canet getting his first win in 70 starts, after finishing 2nd for what has to be a record 15 times.



MotoGP Standings after Portugal:

1. Jorge Martin (Prima Pramac Racing) 60
2. Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) 42
3. Enea Bastianini (Ducati Lenovo Team) 39
4. Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team) 37
5. Pedro Acosta (Red Bull GASGAS Tech3) 28

Next 4 Weeks:

April 13-14 – MotoGP Red Bull Grand Prix of the Americas – Circuit of the Americas
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

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World Superbike Pirelli Catalunya Round

Last lap from the Superpole race on Sunday.