With the first race of the season now entered in to the record books, the 2013 MotoGP season has gotten off to a quick start with many of the usual suspects rising to the top of the leader board. Its no surprise that perennial favorite, Jorge Lorenzo, sits atop the rankings as the pack heads into Texas this weekend for the Circuit of the Americas race, however, what is unusual is seeing some of the old guard – particularly Valentino Rossi – breathing down his neck in second position. Other notables at the top include Dani Pedrosa and Nicky Hayden, with several newcomers sprinkled in amidst the top, middle and bottom of the rankings.
MotoGP
MotoGP Set to Taste Some Texas BBQ Next Week
In what could become an important part of the MotoGP circuit, several riders are headed to Texas next week to test out The Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas. Several key riders will be donning their racing gloves to check out the tracks including Valentino Rossi, Jorge Lorenzo, and Dani Pedrosa. We anticipate Minichamps will be in attendance too, no doubt capitalizing on the venue to come out with several limited edition bikes some time down the road.
Auld Lang Simoncelli?
Minichamps North America has confirmed that they will be receiving the highly coveted 2011 Marco Simoncelli MotoGP bike on the last week of 2012, with a shipment expected to hit our dock the first week of January (#MIN122111158). Again, we are pre-sold out of this tribute bike, so if you were lucky enough to get in on the ground floor by pre-ordering early, then 2013 is going to be a very good year indeed.
MotoGP: Red Bull Grand Prix of The Americas
For 2013, the US will host no less than three MotoGP races out of the eighteen run. Two tracks are familiar to race fans – one located at Laguna Seca, California while the other resides in Indianapolis. The third is a newcomer, and promises to be one of the more eventful races in the MotoGP circuit. As MotoGP.com describes it:
The Grand Prix of the Americas is the first purpose-built Grand Prix facility in the U.S. near Austin, Texas, with a 5.513km track and a capacity for 120,000 fans. Construction of the impressive 1000-acre facility was completed late in 2012, with MotoGP lining up at the track for the first time in 2013.
One of its more distinctive features is near 41m-elevation change with an impressive incline at the end of the home-straight followed by a sharp left. The circuit is one of the most varied on the GP circuit, with a mix of fast straights and tight hairpins, with most sections mirroring at least some part of a famous track around the world.
It was designed by well-known German architect and circuit designer Hermann Tilke. The driving direction is counter clockwise and has a total of 20 corners with 9 right turns and 11 left turns.
Scheduled to run on April 21st, the Red Bull Grand Prix of the Americas is the second race of the season and will no doubt garner lots of attention from the media, race fans and bike makers alike.