The Monster Yamaha Austria Racing Team fought hard last weekend for the 8 Hours of Doha to secure a second place finish on the podium for the last race of the 2010 FIM World Endurance Championship. Riders Igor Jerman, Steve Martin and Gwen Giabbani put in strong performances over the qualifying and scored third place on the grid for the race. Martin put in the fastest of the Superpole laps with a 2’02.398. The team battled for the lead, running an equal pace as the race leaders until a forced tyre change with Giabbani onboard relegated them to second, four laps adrift of the lead at the finish line. The second place podium helped to deliver the 2009 world champions third in the 2010 final standings.

The team’s results were even more impressive having missed most of the free practice time due to the team’s Yamaha YZF-R1 race bikes being held in Frankfurt and delivered late to the circuit in Qatar by air freight.

The Yamaha France GMT94 Ipone Team had a less fortunate race at Qatar. Despite a promising start rider David Checa crashed twice, the first time from fifth position, costing valuable time returning to the pits for essential repairs to be able to continue. The team eventually took ninth in the overall standings for the 2010 season. They weren’t the only ones to suffer bad luck in Qatar, having finished strongly with a podium at The 24Hours of Bol d’Or, the YMES Folch Endurance Team recorded a DNF at the final round, meaning they finished seventh overall in the championship standings.

As I crack the throttle open, in second gear, on the Bira circuit in Pattaya, the rear Bridgestone tires protests gently. I shift up to third gear, ride toward the flat-out, revving hard and high I hook fourth, then fifth to go of the throttle as a approach the pit-lane on the Suzuki Hayabusa for a quick stop to do a bit fine tuning on the suspension setup.

After a few minutes I'm back on the tarmac and revving the engine to near redline and fly through the gears until I gently shift the gearbox in sixth, and after a few daunting corners the speedo blitzes past 273km/h before approaching another bend. Deep breath, keep it pinned, and a big shove on the right bar pitches it in.

The Suzuki Hayabusa revs rise as the changing tire diameter artificially lowers the gearing, the track drops away and I'm now on the other-side of the track trying to pull everything out of the 1350cc Suzuki engine. The limiter cuts in, speedo nudging 299km/h, the magic 300km/h is apparently is for me not possible on the Bira Circuit in Pattaya.

Yamaha Factory Racing Team riders Jorge Lorenzo and new team-mate Ben Spies completed a successful first day of the official MotoGP test at the Ricardo Tormo circuit in Valencia today, topping the timesheets as only two of five riders to dip below the 1.33 minute mark . Rain in the morning saw the day's session delayed until the track had dried with all riders waiting until the afternoon before venturing out onto the circuit.

Reigning 2010 World Champion Lorenzo continued to show the form that delivered the world title this year, taking just five warm up laps to go straight to the top of the timesheets where he remained unbeaten for the entire session. The Mallorcan split his riding time between the 2011 prototype YZR-M1 and an updated version of his 2010 machine.

Taking his first outing as a Yamaha Factory rider, the 2010 ‘Rookie of the Year' Spies spent the majority of the afternoon riding the 2011 prototype YZR-M1. The American rider and his crew used their inaugural session to focus on the chassis settings of the new bike, moving quickly up the timesheets, delivering consistent fast laps to end as the third fastest rider of the day.

The Honda CBR250R, while some people are somewhat disappointed in the specifications of the new Honda CBR250R, a Honda spoke person has told us that the choice for the single-cylinder for the Honda CBR250R was not only a financial decision, the specifications of the new 2011 Honda CBR250R are within the specs set out for the new Moto3 motorcycle race class which will replace the 125GP by 2012.

The CS250RE, the new Honda CBR250R engine, is a liquid-cooled 4-stroke DOHC single cylinder with a bore of 76mm and stroke of 55mm, 249cc engine. The maximum bore for the Moto3 race class cannot excite 81mm. The fueling for is managed by a PGM-FI (fuel-injection system), which is programmable with some tools currently already available in Thailand.

Having wrapped up the Riders' and Teams' titles already this season, the victorious Fiat Yamaha Team returns to European shores this weekend for the penultimate round of the season at Estoril in Portugal. New MotoGP World Champion Jorge Lorenzo and his team-mate Valentino Rossi are eager to end the season on a high and hopeful that good results in the final two races will help Yamaha wrap up the coveted Triple Crown.

Lorenzo has swept all before him this season and the 23-year-old has a flawless record at Estoril, having won from pole position in both his MotoGP appearances at the track. The track was the scene of his first premier-class win and he was equally dominant last year, taking his fourth win of the season. This year he has taken seven victories but, having not won since Brno, the 23-year-old is keen to stand on the top step of the podium at least once more before the circus shuts down for the winter.

Rossi is still the most successful rider in history at Estoril and has taken five wins there. Last year was the first time in his ten visits to the track when he finished off the podium and he will be determined to return to it this year. The flyaway races saw an upturn in his fortunes and he took three podiums, including his stunning win in Malaysia, which have somewhat put the gloss back on a difficult season. With just two races left with Yamaha, the Italian hero is hopeful of ending on a high and will be going for the maximum this weekend.

Traction control? Engine management? Halve a kilometer of run-off? You've got to be joking. That time Grand Prix race motorcycles didn't have fancy electronics or anything to help the riders. They just went really, really fast This was the golden age of two-stroke Grand Prix racing, when macho colonials slugged it out on race motorcycle that were good for over 320km/h.

Even Valentino Rossi acknowledges the late 80s and early 90s as a special moment in motorcycle racing history. He grew up watching Kevin Schwantz, Wayne Rainey, Eddie Lawson, John Kocinski, Mick Doohan and Wayne Garner on television as they bumped fairing and went spectacular down on the tarmac. So all Rossi wanted to do when he joined the premier class in 2000 was ride a 500cc like the old dogs, as he called them.

These were scary men, dragged up in the rough and tumble of dirt tracks, so different from today's riders, image-obsessed MotoGP stars with their dainty hairdos and personalized cartoon logos.

The notorious Phillip Island weather tried its best to disrupt the first day of the Australian Grand Prix today, heavy rain forcing the practice session to be delayed two hours after part of the track flooded. Action got underway eventually with new World Champion Jorge Lorenzo getting straight down to business and topping the time sheets, while his Fiat Yamaha team-mate Valentino Rossi finished in seventh place.

23-year-old Lorenzo has only had a few days to get used to being the MotoGP World Champion but with the pressure now lifted the Spaniard was raring to get back on his M1 and get on with the business of racing. The first half of the session was run on a soaking track but Lorenzo took just a few laps to take the lead and was not ousted for the rest of the practice, despite the track drying a little in the later stages.

Rossi, who was hoping to continue in the fantastic form that saw him win last Sunday, was cautious in the difficult conditions today, feeling like he had a good base setting but knowing that he and his crew can improve further tomorrow. With more rain expected it will be important to maximise their wet setting tomorrow morning to make sure they can challenge in qualifying.

The next step in the evolution of the Kawasaki Racing Team’s 2011 machine took place at high speed in Valencia this week, with impressive times being set by Tom Sykes and Katsuaki Fujiwara.

The Spanish track offered good conditions for the test, but high afternoon temperatures made it hard - if ultimately rewarding - work. Despite the heat and busy schedule the new 2011 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R machinery ran faultlessly throughout. Fujiwara’s test bike had only recently arrived from KHI in Japan, to give the team two machines to work with from now on.

On the second day lap times fell to the mid 1’34s on fresh race tyres. Real world pace is already in the mid 1’35s after race simulations were carried out. Effective new geometry and Showa suspension settings were found in what was only the second European test for the new bike, which is still very much at the start of its final development program. The next test will be the first public one for the new Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R, to be held at Magny-Cours, after the final race of the current season.

The MotoGP paddock heads to 'Motorland' Aragon this weekend for its last European stop before the triple-leg overseas tour later this month. The Spanish track is a new addition to the calendar and both championship leader Jorge Lorenzo and reigning World Champion Valentino Rossi are looking forward to getting to the grips with what is known as a spectacular racing circuit.

This will be 23-year-old Lorenzo's third race on home soil this season and, with wins already chalked up at Jerez and Barcelona, the championship leader is eager to get another chance to thrill the Spanish fans. He continues in the imperious form he has shown all season, having won or stood on the podium at every round and with his podium last time out in Misano his 30th since he began in MotoGP in 2008. Lorenzo spent a day testing a Yamaha road bike at Aragon last month in order to familiarise himself with the track and is excited about the challenge of racing there.

Rossi took a trip out to Aragon last week, like Lorenzo taking a day to learn the nuances of the track aboard a Yamaha R1, and reporting back positively. The nine-time World Champion is gradually building back to full strength and was delighted with his podium in Misano last time out, feeling that both his bike and he are nearly back to their best after his injury-hit season. He currently lies fourth in the championship but third is a possible target and would be a superb result considering his troubles this year.

The all-new Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R race bike has been unveiled to the international press at the Nürburgring racetrack, in advance of the full launch of the production machine in early October. The new Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R race bike has been eagerly anticipated by everyone involved in the Superbike racing project for a while now and therefore the Kawasaki Superbike Racing Team are extremely keen to get started with the new Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R.

Steve Guttridge, the Race Planning Manager from Kawasaki Motors Europe, said of the new bike and the timing of the ‘sneak preview’ of the racebike version of the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R, “The new race bike has been eagerly anticipated by everyone involved in the Superbike racing project for a while now. The PBM team have evolved and restructured continuously in order to be in a position to utilize the new bike's potential to the maximum next season. As you can imagine the Paul Bird team are ultra keen to get started with it and so who better than the team itself to help us show the first edition of the race version of it here at the Nürburgring?”

Ichiro Yoda, the Kawasaki Project Director, confirmed that racing is at the heart of the new machine’s DNA. “We have started development this bike with slick tyres and racing spec engine. This is a quite different procedure than previous models.”