What a gift! Pedrosa gifted championship bikes when leaving Honda

Dan Pedrosa has been given an incredible leaving present from Honda, with the Japanese manufacturer handing over not only his championship-winning RS250 but also a RC213V MotoGP machine to the departing Spaniard after thirteen years of service as a MotoGP rider with the Japanese manufacturer.

Making the announcement at their annual end-of-season thanks day at Motegi, Pedrosa also got the chance to take to the track on his championship-winning 250cc machine, lapping the circuit owned by Honda on the two-stroke machine.

Source HRC News

WSBK: New race format confirmed for 2019

World Superbike bosses have confirmed a radical shift in the championship’s structure for 2019 as the series reverts to its traditional two-races-on-Sunday format, albeit with significant changes from the past. One main race will still continue to be run on Saturday and Sunday, with a new shorter sprint race added to Sunday morning.

The Sunday morning race, officially titled the Superpole Race, will be fixed at ten laps of the entire season, with points awarded only to the top nine as follows: 12/9/7/6/5/4/3/2/1. However, while points will be awarded and while the race will set the top nine grid spots for Sunday’s second race, it will not be included in statistics and historical data.

In order to make way for the changes, Saturday’s qualifying format will also be altered, with only one single qualifying session in lieu of the current two-session Superpole format. As previously announced, there’ll also be changes to the World Supersport 300 format, with the series now running two separate sessions to accommodate the increased grid. They will then battle it out in a last chance qualifiers race on Saturday afternoon before setting the final grid for Sunday’s championship race.

Source: WBSK News