Welcome to 'Last Month This Happened' where we review all that has happened in motorcycle racing over the past month.
Before we get into it, all photo credits go to Jamie Morris (@jamiemorris19).
In March we saw BSB testing get underway and most teams confirm their riders, WorldSBK headed to Mandalika and MotoGP kicked off in Portugal. In the road racing world, it was announced that the North West 200 will go ahead! (thank fuck for that) and the entries for the Isle of Man TT were finalised. For a month that flashed by, quite a lot has happened...
BSB started at the sunny Navarra circuit with Kyle Ryde topping the timings ahead of Glenn Irwin, overall. Then in mid march everyone headed to a grey-skied Donington Park.
Kyle Ryde topped the time sheets once again however it was FHO newbie Josh Brookes who followed closely behind him. At Donington we saw the new F900 class testing ahead of their first ever round.
2023 will be the first year that we get to see the F900R BMW class with riders such as
Richard Cooper joining FHO to contest in the class ( £20 to whoever saw that coming) as well as Dom Herbertson, who is getting as much track time as possible before the road racing starts again.
After Donington everyone headed to an extremely wet Silverstone( kind of glad I wasn't there now) where Josh Brookes topped the timesheets with Kyle Ryde close behind....OMG and FHO are looking very strong so far. FHO lads Brookes and Peter Hickman making the most of testing with being the most consistent riders in getting out on
track.
Despite having little track time, Christian Iddon says he and the team have made great progress and he is looking forward to the rest of the season with the MotoRapido Ducati team.
In road racing news, the North West 200 is back on after all Irish road racing had been cancelled due to soaring insurance costs. However on the 15th of March the CDMC announced the NW200 will take place on May 7th to 13th!! Josh Brookes will joining teammate Peter Hickman on the grid. Dean Harrison and Richard Cooper join forces together onboard YZF R6's run by Boyle Precision engineering/ Russell racing. In TT news, Pierre Yves Bean receives backing from Hickman, ahead of his road racing campaign for 2023.
David Johnson leads the way with the number one brandished on his bike. Davo returns after injury ruling him out last year.
Unfortunately, household name, Ian Hutchinson will not compete in this years TT due to suffering from a stroke which means he is unable to race for 12 month as his license has been revoked.
In World Superbikes, after one of the strangest incidents, Loris Baz feared that his leg had suffered much more severe damage after his Superpole Race collision with Alex Lowes, but is hopeful of being back for Round 3 in Assen. In testing before they head to Assen in the coming weeks, Bautista seems to be ahead of the game, setting the fastest times at Catalunya. WSBK rookie and BSB champion Brad Ray is said to be ready for the start of his WSBK campaign starting at Assen. In Barcelona, on day one Ray completed 69 laps and was around 2.5s slower than champion, Alvaro Bautista.
An eventful start to MotoGP after Marc Marquez takes out Miguel Oliveira in the opening round in Portugal which leads to Marc being handed sanctions due to the harm he caused to Miguel. However RNF Aprillia pushed for harsher sanctions after the severity of Miguels injuries was found out. This has caused controversy across twitter and instagram with everyone putting in their opinions, until Repsol Honda put out their statement.
"In relation to the sanction imposed by the FIM on Marc Marquez for the race incident that occurred at the Portuguese Grand Prix, the Repsol Honda Team considers that the modification of the penalty consisted of a change of criteria on when the penalty should be applied, and that this modification was issued by the FIM two days after the initial sanction was final and definitive, is not in line with the current regulations of the FIM for the MotoGP™ World Championship. For this reason, the Repsol Honda Team intends to use all the means of recourse offered by the regulations in force to defend its rights and legitimate interests, which it considers violated as a result of the latest resolution adopted, and in particular has duly submitted an Appeal before the FIM Appeal Stewards."
And that rounds up March 2023 for all things motorcycle racing!
Here are the important dates coming up in April:
2nd- MotoGP, Argentina
7-9th- BSB, Silverstone
14-16th- MotoGP, America
21-23rd- WSBK, Assen
28-30th- MotoGP, Spain
29th- BSB, Oulton
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