On Saturday 25 November, World Champions from a multitude of two-wheeled disciplines will be descending upon Motorcycle Live on the third stop of the ‘Ride to the FIM Awards - the Future of Motorcycling’. 

Fans of two-wheels will be able to get up close to British riders who have achieved World Championships throughout the years - including five-time World Superbike Champion Carl Fogarty, racing pundit and double World Superbike Champion James Toseland, and three-time Motocross World Champion David Thorpe. 

Motorcycle enthusiasts can meet their heroes, see them interviewed live on the Black Horse stage throughout the day by fan-favourite James Whitham, hear them share their racing stories, and find out more about their experiences of what it takes to become a Champion. 

The Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (aka The FIM) is the governing body for over 150 motorcycle championships and prizes, and a global advocate for Motorcycling. 

The UK’s largest and most interactive motorcycle and scooter show is the final stop ahead of the annual ‘Celebration of Champions’ gala dinner which is being held in the UK for the first time in Liverpool. 

A full star-studded list will be announced ahead of the event on www.motorcyclelive.co.uk. 

Motorcycle Live, in association with Bikesure Insurance, the UK’s largest motorcycle show takes place at the National Exhibition Centre, Birmingham, between 18-26 November 2023. Grab your advanced tickets here. 

Let’s go…to #FIMDay at Motorcycle Live! 

MikiRaiko NEW GRESINI RACING MOTOGP E-RIDER

Team Gresini Racing MotoGP once again looks at Indonesia and for the 2023 season gambles everything on MikiRaiko, the best-placed, non-European rider in the recently concluded MotoGP e-Sports qualifying for the year. His real name being Hilmawan and known in the gaming world as MikiRaiko since 2021, the young Indonesian rider chose to race with number 49.

This year, the e-sports challenge reaches a whole new level with the premier class competing in four virtual rounds (the first one at Mugello, Montmeló and Misano the 25th of August) and with the final event taking place at Barcelona in November.

#49 MikiRaiko – E-RIDER
“First of all, it is an honour to be standard bearer of Team Gresini Racing MotoGP, a team that is known worldwide and ultra-famous in Indonesia. To arrive in the global scene was already a big goal of mine, and I did so by qualifying first in the non-European standings. The next target is the top five and since I’ll be battling against the world’s best, it won’t be easy.”

CARLO MERLINI – COMMERCIAL AND MARKETING DIRECTOR GRESINI RACING
"The realm of e-sports maintains its hold on audiences, and Gresini Racing has unquestionably embraced this trend. As widely recognized, our longstanding connection with Indonesia has led to a seamless decision in selecting the gamer to proudly represent Gresini Racing in the MotoGP e-Sports Championship. Yet, there's an additional layer to this story. We extend a hearty welcome to MikiRaiko as a new member of the #gresinifamily. Notably, MikiRaiko emerged victorious in the exclusive selection round for non-European gamers, heightening our anticipation for a successful performance."

APRILIA LIMITS THE DAMAGE IN AUSTRIA

ON A TRACK THAT IS DIFFICULT TO DIGEST FOR THE ITALIAN PROJECT, ALEIX AND MAVERICK TAKE HOME IMPORTANT POINTS

It promised to be a demanding weekend for Aprilia with the contribution of a track that is historically unfavourable, and the Sunday race at least partially confirmed this trend. There were signs of improvement, thanks to the hard work in the garage and in developing the new RS-GP. Maverick’s second place in qualifying, his frenzied pace in the Sprint Race, and the shrewd race for both riders today.

Maverick built his race lap after lap, maintaining a good pace and arriving at the point of threatening for fifth. Once again today, a less-than-perfect start proved to be fatal, thrusting him into the first-corner chaos where he lost some positions (blamelessly this time as well). Under the chequered flag, the Spaniard finished sixth.

Aleix is satisfied, praising the set-up improvements on his Aprilia in his overall assessment of the weekend, as well as his teammate’s performance. In the race, he had to manage wear on the rear tyre, particularly stressed in Austria, and he was unable to do better than ninth.

ALEIX
"It was an extremely demanding race physically. It was very hot and at the beginning I pushed as hard as I could to try and stay with the leading group. Then my performance dropped because I began to feel a drop in the rear tyre and I also had to manage fuel consumption. In any case, I’m fairly satisfied. Throughout the weekend, our performance improved and at the end of the day, I wasn’t too far behind Maverick, who rode at an extremely high level here. We knew that this track doesn’t suit our bike and particularly my riding style, but we took home some good points in the end. We’ll keep working, as always, to improve."

MAVERICK
"The start today was better than in the Sprint Race, but it wasn’t enough to maintain my position on the grid and I consequently lost more ground in the melee on the first corner. I squeezed the maximum from the bike for the entire race, making up ground and overtaking several times, but then I couldn’t close the gap behind the riders battling for the podium any further, which was already more than 2 seconds at that point. Right now, our priority is to improve the start. We have the potential to battle at the top and some circuits that are more favourable to us are coming up, so we need to be ready to seize every opportunity."

LORENZO
"I started rather cautiously in order to save my tyre and be able to make up ground in the second half of the race. Unfortunately, while I was keeping up with the group battling for points, I also had to manage fuel consumption, which limited my performance a bit. In any case, we were able to move forward with our scheduled testing programme and that is the most important thing."

A positive weekend draws to a close for Alex Marquez and Team Gresini MotoGP. With today’s fifth place, the Spanish rider confirms the positive trend of results (he was fourth yesterday) and make another small step forward in the standings by narrowing the gap to Miller’s eighth place down to only four points.
 
The #73 was definitely among the protagonists of today’s race as he did all he could to defend his podium position for half race before Bezzecchi and Marini had their way, fighting inch after inch. 
 
Fabio Di Giannantonio’s encounter was an uphill battle from the start as he found himself basically stuck in traffic inside turn one. Today’s 17^th place was not enough to take some points home. The last two events before the long extra-European season will take place at Montmeló and Misano.