#racing

After months of speculation, Dorna and Triumph announced the British manufacturer will replace Honda as the sole engine supplier for the Moto2 World Championship. The deal marks Triumph biggest foray into Grand Prix racing.

Sunday at magnificent Mugello was that rarest of days, when one gets to hear the Italian national anthem played three separate times. Italians placed 1-2 in a mind-bending Moto3 tilt. Italian heartthrob Franco Morbidelli didn’t win in Moto2 today, but beloved countryman Mattia Pasini did. In the main event, homeboys on Ducatis took the top and third steps on the podium.

Starting from pole position with the fastest time among the fastest riders in the world is certainly a psychological edge, but pole position doesn’t guarantee the winner of a MotoGP race, largely because the span of time separating P1 from P6 is less than a second. If starting from pole position were indicative of a race’s outcome, Valentino Rossi’s win record would nearly be halved because he has almost double the amount of MotoGP/500cc race wins as he does MotoGP/500cc pole positions.

Despite a rainy, chilly practice week, where, as of this writing, there has been no practice but copious ale consumption, the Isle of Man is starting to fill up with thousands of visitors and motorcycles here for the 110th annual TT races.

Last time out in France, the racing gods smiled upon Maverick Viñales and Dani Pedrosa while flipping off Marc Marquez and Valentino Rossi. The enjoyable jam-packed top four took a beating, with Viñales now enjoying a 17-point lead over series #2 Pedrosa. Rossi is hurt. The Hondas are a pain to ride. There’s lots on the line heading to Mugello and Round 6 of the 2017 MotoGP season.

Fastrack Riders is a popular track-riding organization that has expanded way beyond that of the typical group devoted to giving street riders the opportunity to ride their motorcycles at their limits in a proper closed-course environment. With the majority of its events being held at Fontana, California’s Auto Club Speedway, Fastrack is the venue’s official motorcycle partner. The 2.36-mile road course on the inside of the superspeedway features 21 turns and a section of banking that allows the current generation of sportbikes to really clear their throats. In addition to its exclusive relationship with Auto Club Speedway, Fastrack is sponsored by BMW and KTM.

The Quail Motorcycle Gathering, now in its ninth year, has become famous around the world for its incredible display of historic motorcycles. Held on the lush lawn of the Quail Lodge & Golf Club in Carmel, California, the event included more than 350 lust-inducing vintage and custom motorcycles.

Today at the 30th running of the French Grand Prix at Le Mans, youth triumphed over experience. Yamaha Top Gun Maverick Viñales withstood a classic last lap challenge brought by teammate and legend Valentino Rossi to capture Yamaha’s 500th grand prix win. The youngster ended his day on the top step of the podium, the grizzled veteran his prostrate in the gravel. Ten years ago, Rossi would have won this race. In 2017, the tide may be beginning to turn.

Fresh off his convincing win in Jerez, Repsol Honda mighty mite Dani Pedrosa has been reinstated in The Alien Club, looking relaxed, comfortable and fast on his RC213V. For the first time in five years, his name is coming up in conversations about who might take the 2017 title. Given his age, his panoply of surgical scars and generally lousy karma, I make him a longshot for the championship. But other than a few Americans with pathologically long memories, there are a number of fans who wouldn’t mind seeing Dani Pedrosa win a premier class title.

Repsol Honda #2 Dani Pedrosa, looking like the 2012 version of himself, won today’s Spanish Grand Prix, leading wire to wire for his first win since Misano last year. Teammate and defending champion Marc Marquez gave chase for most of the race, but never seemed to have quite enough to mount a serious challenge to Pedrosa on one of those days…

The reversal of fortune in Austin, Repsol Honda’s Maximum Marc Marquez winning while young savant Maverick Viñales kissed the tarmac for the first time in Yamaha blue, has produced an early three-man race for the top of the 2017 heap. Valentino Rossi, teammate Viñales and Marquez now stand separated by 18 points with a lot of season left. Six races in the next eight weeks means the offshore shakedown cruises are over. There’s a title to be won. In Europe.

Joe Leonard, a three-time AMA Grand National champion who went on to race Indy Cars, passed away on April 27, 2017 in a San Jose, California, nursing home at the age of 84. Leonard’s racing accomplishments were extremely rare, as the San Diego native won national championships on both two and four wheels.

Forty sweaty high school kids are on a group mountain bike ride in the Fort Ord National Monument, outside Salinas, California. They don’t seem to know, or care, about the identity of the tall guy in their midst. To them, he’s just another well-meaning adult along for the ride – probably somebody’s dad.

We were stoked when KTM told us we could give away a couple of tickets to the MotoGP race in Austin, Texas, this weekend, the only round of the world championship in North America. So we challenged our readers to come up with three reasons why they think they deserved the prize of a weekend ticket, a Red Bull KTM shirt, backpack, hat and lanyard.

As the checkered flag fell in Argentina, the shape of the 2017 season changed. Suddenly, Yamaha’s Maverick Viñales and partner Valentino Rossi, the Boys in Blue, sit on top of the world looking down. Those looking up, WAY up, include defending champion Marc Marquez of Honda and the factory Ducati team, currently residing on the other side of the proverbial tracks. Marquez has never lost, deep in the heart of Texas, which makes Sunday’s contest what my wife (eyebrows raised) refers to as “critical?”