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From: Speed.Com:
By - Dennis Noyes:
Barcelona, Spain, November 11
With the confirmation of Colin Edwards and Noriyuki Haga as factory Aprilia riders on the RS Cube triples and of Max Biaggi on a Pramac-backed Pons Honda, the line-up for the Moto GP class in 2003 is just about complete
There are several announcements that have not yet been made yet: Repsol has not announced their deal to continue as sponsor of the lead HRC Honda team. Marlboro has yet to show their colors on the factory Ducatis. We don’t know what colors Team Pons will run and we are unsure of the final plans of the WCM and D´Antin teams, but the following is a summation of what we know along with what seems most likely a week after the final GP of the season. Unless otherwise stated all riders will use Michelin tires.
Honda teams: (Seven riders, six certain, one to be confirmed,) Repsol Honda will run Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden. Telefonica Movistar Gresini Honda will enter Daijiro Kato and Sete Gibernau. Pons Honda with Pramac involvement of some kind either as partner or as sponsor will run Max Biaggi and, although unconfirmed, Tohru Ukawa. There may be a seventh Honda running on Bridgestone tires and entered using one of the two slots belonging to Team D´Antin, but with an independent structure. This bike will probably be ridden by Makuto Tamada (TBC).
Yamaha teams: (Five riders, four certain, one to be confirmed) Fortuna Yamaha will run Carlos Checa and Marco Melandri. Gauloises Yamaha will run Alex Barros and Olivier Jacque. A fifth Yamaha rider (TBC) is expected to appear running out of the D´Antin team structure. This rider will probably be Shinya Nakano or Norick Abe.
Suzuki Team: (Two riders) No sponsor has yet been announced for the factory Suzuki team which will run Kenny Roberts Junior and John Hopkins. This is the first time a GP team has run two American riders in the same class since Doug Chandler and John Kocinski in 1993.
Aprilia Team: (Two riders) No sponsor has been announced for the factory Aprilia team of Colin Edwards and Noriyuki Haga.
Proton Team: (Two riders) The Proton KR team will have the same riders, Jeremy McWilliams and Nobuatsu Aoki, but a new V5 four stroke which is being readied for its first tests. Proton will run Bridgestone tires.
Kawasaki Team: (Two riders) The green team will run Garry McCoy and almost certainly Andrew Pitt on Dunlops.
Ducati Team: (Two riders) The Marlboro Ducati team will run Troy Bayliss and Loris Capiriossi.
That leaves two open slots to take us to the max. of 24 riders and leaves one franchised team, WCM, without with a lot of uncertainty,
The WCM team has lost both riders, McCoy and Hopkins, and has no sponsor and no bikes. Talk of the team turning out with a modified R1 Yamaha engine in a Harris frame has circulated, as well as the possibility, published on the roadracingworlld website, that they are considering building a 135 kilogram (MotoGP minimum weight for 990cc four stroke twins) Ducati twin. This idea was proposed to them by Poggipolini, the company that run the NCR Ducati racing effort. NCR is a racing organization to be taken very seriously. Chief engineer Franco Farné, a Ducati rider in the 60´s and later and for many years the right-hand man of the legendary Fabio Taglioni at Ducati Meccanica, knows more about the true essence of Ducati than anyone still punching a clock at the Borgo Pannigali factory.
MCM racing director Peter Clifford is determined to run a two rider team and his idea of building a hot rod Yamaha or a hot rod Ducati seems strange, but it just might work, especially in the case of the Ducati which would weigh in at 135 kilograms. WCM intend to use Dunlop tires.
Riders under consideration are Britain’s Jay Vincent, a top privateer in the 250 class who rode this year for the Spanish BQR team on an RS250 Honda. Another rider who might ride for WCM is Spain’s Jose Luis Cardoso who filled in for Pere Riba on the D´Antin Yamaha team. MCM have also been talking to Regis Laconi who used to ride for the team. Laconi rode the Aprilia RS Cube this season but has not been signed for next year. GP and Superbike veteran Pier Francesco Chili is a strong possibility. Chili rode the NCR Ducati this year in SBK. British Superbike Champion Steve Hislop, who has the distinction of being faster around Donington Park on his 996 Ducati than anyone, even faster than Valentino Rossi on the works RC211V Honda, declined an offer from Clifford because at 40 years of age he does not want to start a new career learning new circuits but he believes that a titanium rich Ducati twin in an NCR chassis could be competitive on some tracks.
Pending news from WCM, we now have a 22 rider grid (19 solid and three probable) which is composed of ten two-rider teams and one team, that of Luis D´Antin, likely to run a Yamaha out of the home garage and to lease a slot to Bridgestone to run a one-rider Honda effort.
Given the increased costs of leasing factory bikes from Honda and Yamaha and the difficult financial climate, this is a very solid looking grid and if a WCM team can be confirmed, the system of seven works teams and five independent franchised teams (Roberts, Pons, Tech 3, D´Antin and WCM) will have survived a major test in the midst of a world economic crisis. And if WCM manages to pull together an innovative alternative to full factory racing efforts, an exciting new element will be added to the field. WCM team owner Bob McLean has been in GP racing for many years and experienced real success with the Red Bull Yamaha team which won four races in the 500 class. Among the five franchised teams only Team Pons has won more races at the premier class level. Will Bob and Peter be able to pull this off? Those of us who always root for the underdogs are hoping so, especially if they run a hot rod Ducati.
