Photo: motogp.com
As we already suspected, the Indianapolis round was the last MotoGP official race for NGM Forward veteran Colin Edwards. After announcing that 2014 would be the last premiere class season for him, the 40-year-old racing veteran seems to have found a mutually-convenient agreement with team boss Giovanni Cuzari and will not take part in the Czech round and races after it.
The Texas Tornado, two-time World Superbike Champion (200 and 2002) and 1992 AMA champion, will be replaced with Alex De Angelis, who will return to MotoGP, after leaving the WSBK Tasca Racing Team. De Angelis and NGM have had previous collaborations in the past, and with his MotoGP experience, the choice seems like a natural one, especially as the contracts for 2015 and beyond are pretty much settled.
Edwards will still be part of the NGM team, helping with the development of the bike, and possibly doing some wildcard appearances before the 2014 season is over.
On the other hand, team PBM (Paul Bird Motorsport) announced its intentions to leave MotoGP after the 2014 season is over. This means that 2 places on the grid will be up for grabs, but if you thought that Paul Bird would sell them to Aprilia, given the fact that the bikes run with Noale enignes, you were wrong.
In fact the English businessman is rather angry with Aprilia and would not sell the two grid places to the Italians. He says that first of all, Aprilia prefers to talk to Dorna more than to PBM, and they delivered only empty promises during the last two seasons.”They did nothing to help us this year and promised things last season. We’ve again been promised things during the winter season. Nothing happened," Paul Bird reportedly added.
Moreover, Aprilia’s comeback for the 2015 season isn’t even 100% certain, so the very thought itself would mean wasting the time. Paul Bird is rumored to be willing to accept a €2 million ($2.67 mil) price for his two grid places, and he will sell them to Dorna directly, rumor has it. We can suppose that the accountants of house Hamamatsu are already preparing the cheque, as Suzuki has confirmed the 2015 MotoGP entry.
Apparently, PBM’s current MotoGP riders Michael Laverty and Broc Parkes will be offered a British SuperBike ride for 2015 in the PBM team, unless some other premiere class team wants one of them. However, given the fact that both riders are 33, we kind of doubt there will be a MotoGP offer for them in 2015.
Edwards will still be part of the NGM team, helping with the development of the bike, and possibly doing some wildcard appearances before the 2014 season is over.
On the other hand, team PBM (Paul Bird Motorsport) announced its intentions to leave MotoGP after the 2014 season is over. This means that 2 places on the grid will be up for grabs, but if you thought that Paul Bird would sell them to Aprilia, given the fact that the bikes run with Noale enignes, you were wrong.
In fact the English businessman is rather angry with Aprilia and would not sell the two grid places to the Italians. He says that first of all, Aprilia prefers to talk to Dorna more than to PBM, and they delivered only empty promises during the last two seasons.”They did nothing to help us this year and promised things last season. We’ve again been promised things during the winter season. Nothing happened," Paul Bird reportedly added.
Moreover, Aprilia’s comeback for the 2015 season isn’t even 100% certain, so the very thought itself would mean wasting the time. Paul Bird is rumored to be willing to accept a €2 million ($2.67 mil) price for his two grid places, and he will sell them to Dorna directly, rumor has it. We can suppose that the accountants of house Hamamatsu are already preparing the cheque, as Suzuki has confirmed the 2015 MotoGP entry.
Apparently, PBM’s current MotoGP riders Michael Laverty and Broc Parkes will be offered a British SuperBike ride for 2015 in the PBM team, unless some other premiere class team wants one of them. However, given the fact that both riders are 33, we kind of doubt there will be a MotoGP offer for them in 2015.
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