Norton buys Donington Hall

How very Downton Abbey. Norton Motorcycles has announced that they will moving their facilities from the Donington Park circuit to the historic Donington Hall estate and its 25 acres grounds, which is located in the Grand Prix Circuit racing complex.

Norton bought the Gothic Revivial manor, which was built in 1790, from British Midland International (BMI), and it will now serve as corporate headquarters and manufacturing facilities for iconic British manufacturer.

“Donington Hall conjures up a uniquely British way to show style, strength and quality which are all great attributes of the Norton brand,” said Stuart Garner, CEO of Norton Motorcycles.“It became clear some time ago that we had outgrown our current location, to be able to move less than a mile down the road to an outstanding facility like Donington Hall is ideal. It will allow Norton to grow our manufacturing business with focus on ‘built in Britain by British hands’, export growth and job creation.”

from Twowheelsblog

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Kevin Schwantz explains that he was banned from COTA

with TWOWHEELSBLOG

The legal battle between Kevin Schwantz and the Circuit of the Americas regarding the alleged rights to the 10-year contract to promote MotoGP went up a couple of notches during the recent MotoGP tests at the Austin circuit, when the former MotoGP champion was denied entry to the circuit.

Schwantz has released the following statement on the unpleasant situation.

I have read several reports regarding my attendance at the MotoGP test last week in Austin. I would like to make this statement:

“I had been in Switzerland over the weekend where I was the guest speaker at the St. Gallen University. I returned to Texas on Tuesday evening and on Thursday I was at CotA for the MotoGP test, with a proper credential supplied by the Attack team, to coach Blake Young. Additionally I was an invited guest of the LCR Honda team.

While there, CotA security informed me that CotA management requested I leave the track immediately and was not welcomed at the circuit. CotA’s security force also accused me of criminal trespass and warned I would be arrested the next time I entered the track.

This comes as a tremendous disappointment to Honda, Blake Young, and myself. Especially because I am single-handedly responsible for bringing MotoGP to Texas and for the initial design of the facility to accommodate MotoGP racing.”

Pol Espagargaro tops day 3 of Moto2 testing at Jerez

from TWOWHEELSBLOG

following yesterday’s rain storms at Jerez, the sun returned to shine on the Spanish circuit and 

even if took a few hours for the track to dry out completely.

Moto2 title favourite Pol Espargaro took just two sessions to top the timesheets and keep the best lap of the day in 1’42.636 (which was more than 7 tenths faster that Toni Elias on day 1 and 3 tenths slower than in his previous test at Jerez) which remained untouchable for the rest of the field, despite an excellent try by Italtrans’ Takaaki Nakagami who was fastest in the afternoon session, but he couldn’t dip under the 1.43 mark as couldn’t his Italtrans team mate Julian Simon who finished the day third fastest.

Scott Redding finished fourth and he also completed a race simulation run which made it four Kalex riders in the top four.

Aspar’s Nico Terol was fifth and he was the first rider on a Suter and he was followed by Esteve Rabat who was the last rider to be within a second from Espargaro. Jordi Torres, Xavier Simeon and Dominique Aegerter, were 7th,8th and 9th respectively while Axel Pons jumped into the the top ten.

Thursday will be the fourth and final day Moto2 testing, actually it will only half a day before the teams pack up their bikes and ship them to Qatar for the season opener at the Losail circuit.

Moto2 Day 3 Jerez test results:

1 Pol ESPARGARO SPA Tuenti HP 40 PONS KALEX 1:42.636
2 Takaaki NAKAGAMI JPN Italtrans Racing Team KALEX 1:43.103 +0.467
3 Julian SIMON SPA Italtrans Racing Team KALEX 1:43.188 +0.552
4 Scott REDDING GBR Marc VDS Racing Team KALEX 1:43.372 +0.736
5 Nicolas TEROL SPA Aspar Team Moto2 SUTER 1:43.438 +0.802
6 Esteve RABAT SPA Tuenti HP 40 PONS KALEX 1:43.534 +0.898
7 Jordi TORRES SPA Aspar Team Moto2 SUTER 1:43.641 +1.005
8 Xavier SIMEON BEL Desguaces La Torre Zelos KALEX 1:43.720 +1.084
9 Dominique AEGERTER SWI Technomag carXpert SUTER 1:43.800 +1.164
10 Axel PONS SPA Tuenti HP 40 PONS KALEX 1:43.861 +1.225
11 Mika KALLIO FIN Marc VDS Racing Team KALEX 1:43.929 +1.293
12 Anthony WEST AUS QMMF Racing Team SPEED UP 1:44.052 +1.416
13 Randy KRUMMENACHER SWI Technomag carXpert SUTER 1:44.089 +1.453
14 Mike DI MEGLIO FRA JIR Moto2 MOTOBI 1:44.158 +1.522