This year’s Motorcycle Off-Road Experience (MORE) will be on for four days between Tuesday 7th July and Friday 10thJ uly at Upavon in Wiltshire.

This will be the fourth year a ‘try out’ festival has been held, which allows people to try off-road riding for the first time. The price, which is heavily subsidised by the group behind MORE, will be £30. This includes hire of all kit, bikes and top class instruction for either a morning or afternoon session.

Places are allocated on a first come first served basis via the MORE website www.rideoffroad.co.uk.  The ‘go live’ date is Saturday May 16th from 10 o'clock onwards via the website.

The group behind MORE includes Honda, Kawasaki, KTM, Suzuki and Yamaha.  Off-road sporting body AMCA run the practical side of the day and it is project managed by the MCIA to encourage new people to off-road riding and sport.

Sandra Cole, who manages the event for the MCIA says it’s suitable for a wide variety of people:

“You don’t need to be an experienced road rider or have a license.  You just need to be interested in having a go off-road.  Whether your long term goal is some gentle green laning, or becoming the next motocross star, you have to start somewhere and MORE gives you that first opportunity”.

Ivan Lintin is the latest top-flight rider to confirm his appearance at the 2015 Bennetts Classic TT with the Lincolnshire rider contesting the Bennetts 500cc Classic TT.

It will be the 30-year old's first time at the Classic TT but Lintin, who will ride for RC Express Racing during the International road race season, has secured a ride with one of the sport's finest, lining up for Brian Richards Racing on one of Andy Molnar's special 4 valve G50 Seeley's.

The venture, a joint one between Richards and Molnar, will see a purpose-built bike constructed purely for the longer road circuits and as such is being designed to cope with the rigorous demands of the TT Mountain Course. It will have a Seeley MK4 frame with assistance also coming from MV Agusta specialists, Mark and Dave Kay, who will provide the forks while the twin disc front wheel is to be supplied the Seeley disc rear wheel.

Maxton Engineering have modified the forks, and will also provide rear shocks, with Bill Simpson having built the frame, and tanks. Molnar Precision are supplying the engine as parts for Richards to build himself and the whole project is fuelled by the burning desire to prepare the first single cylinder classic bike to lap the TT course at over 110 mph.

Richards knows all about the rigours of the Mountain Course having competed at the Manx Grand Prix and TT over a period of 32 years, from 1961 to 1992, before going on to sponsor several well-known riders, including, Bob Jackson, Bill Horsman and Bill Swallow. His riders won the Senior Classic MGP with Swallow's lap of 108 02 mph in the 1999 Singles TT being, until last year's Classic TT, the fastest by a single cylinder classic bike.

Commenting on his Classic TT debut Ivan Lintin said:

"It will be great to have another run round the Mountain Course and this is a really interesting project with all the right people involved. We've got a proper target with the first 110 lap for a single and it would really be something to be proud of if we could achieve that. I've followed the Classic TT meeting for a couple of years so it will good to get the chance to be part of it."

Having provided numerous machines for recent displays and parade laps, Team Collins & Russell will make their debut on the grid at the 2015 Classic TT presented by Bennetts with Jamie Hamilton, James Neesom and Billy Redmayne lining up for the experienced outfit.

Northern Ireland's Hamilton will spearhead the team, run by long term road racing supporters Des Collins and Ronnie Russell, riding a specially built ZX750K in the Motorsport Merchandise Formula 1 Classic TT Race.  The machine is a joint venture with Alasdair Cowan and Hamilton will be hoping to see the chequered flag this year having been forced to retire from sixth place in the corresponding race last year when riding the Mistral Racing Kawasaki.

Joining him in the Formula 1 Race will be last year's Lightweight Manx Grand Prix winner James Neesom who gets his first taste of the Classic TT.  The Bempton- based rider will be on board Nigel Fitzimmons' ZXR750RR for the four lap race.

TCR are also entering the Motorsport Merchandise Formula 2 TT where they will be running a KR1S 250 Kawasaki.  They have secured the services of top local rider Billy Redmayne who won last year's Newcomers Manx Grand Prix and placed 2nd in the Junior MGP Race, where he also set the fastest lap at a superb 119.062mph.

Once again TCR will have an extensive marquee at the Classic TT where they'll be displaying and parading a lot of new and interesting machines from Europe, the UK and the Isle of Man.

In addition, TCR will run New Zealand rider Michael Moulai in the Manx Grand Prix where he will ride ZX6R 600 and ZX7RR 750 machines. The kiwi placed second in last year's Senior MGP.

Bautista and Melandri on the track to improve with their RS-GP bikes

Austin (Texas - USA), 7 April 2015 - The second round of the 2015 MotoGP season, scheduled on the track at Austin, Texas, has Aprilia continuing its growth and development project.

In the opening round at Qatar it was Marco Melandri who rode his Aprilia RS-GP across the wire in his first race distance outing, whereas Alvaro Bautista – who had shown excellent signs during the test sessions on Saturday – was forced to withdraw due to damage to the braking system after contact with Marc Marquez in the first lap.

Bautista's performance in particular would have been important to have a “snapshot” of the progress made by Aprilia Racing Team Gresini, since this is the testing spirit with which the team is facing this first part of the season. In any case, the American round will provide the setting for a second and important test bench.

ROMANO ALBESIANO (Aprilia Racing Manager)
“A season that is so packed, with eighteen GP races on the calendar, doesn't leave us much time even to complain. We left Qatar disappointed that we weren't able to assess Bautista's performance over race distance, but here is a second chance. For us it will be another fundamental test on our itinerary and obtaining information during the race would be really important. In the opening weekend we received confirmation of just how hard a challenge we accepted, but we also achieved some positive results that we'll be able to confirm during this American round in order to lay some solid cornerstones for development.”

FAUSTO GRESINI (Team Manager)
“After a Grand Prix as peculiar as the night race in Qatar, in Texas we'll be back on the track in conditions that we are obviously more accustomed to. The Losail track proved to be particularly demanding, but we expected that. Our Championship strategy is to learn all the tracks on the calendar so we can arrive at the 2016 season fully prepared from every point of view. Looking at it that way, Circuit of the Americas, which is a very complete track with fast turns and long straight stretches mixed with a more flowing part, represents another important test bench and a chance to collect important data. After the episode that involved Alvaro with no fault of his own during the race in Losail, our goal for this round is to have both riders finish the race, testing and taking a first step forward in terms of performance as well, both on the flying lap and race pace.”

ALVARO BAUTISTA
“In Texas we'll be taking on a completely different track than the one that hosted the first Grand Prix of the year. During the winter test sessions at Valencia, Jerez and Sepang the bike consistently performed the same way basically, whereas in Qatar we were facing new situations, but we don't know if that had to do with the particular characteristics of the track or the particular racing conditions with not much grip on the tarmac. So I'm anxious to get onto the track in Austin, a track with some hard braking sections and long straight stretches where we'll be able to check some important things concerning the way the RS-GP performs and continue our development work on the bike. It is essential for us to find the right motivation straight away after our disappointment in the first Grand Prix, where I was unable to complete even the first lap of the race, and get back to work with a positive attitude.”

MARCO MELANDRI
“Austin is a new track for me, so I am expecting a demanding weekend. In any case I think that finishing the race in Qatar was a helpful first experience and I hope it was also useful for the guys at Aprilia to make some important changes that will be able to help me gain more confidence on the bike. Now I'd like to take a few steps forward and at least try to get into the pack of riders ahead of me. It won't be easy, but I'm anxious to try.”

It was a mixed opening round of the 2015 British Superbike Championship for Ducati at Donington Park today (6 April). Problems in the main BSB class were overshadowed by a sensational debut performance from James Eagan in the National Superstock 1000 class.

Jakub ‘Kuba’ Smrz returns for a second season aboard the increasingly competitive Ducati Panigale riding for the Lloyds British Moto Rapido team. It wasn’t to be an ideal start to the campaign, however, as a crash for Kuba in free practice put him out of contention for qualifying.

Despite the best efforts of the team and a complete rebuild of the #96 machine following the accident, there was yet more bad luck in store for the squad as Smrz was forced to start race one from pit lane with tyre issues being discovered just before the green flag lap. Having made progress in the early running the Ducati racer was forced to retire with arm pump – a symptom of having had so little track time this weekend.

For the second race of the bank holiday Monday Smrz made a great start and was up to 22nd from 28th on the grid after lap one. A small mistake saw him run wide, however, and gave him all the hard work to do again. He closed the mammoth gap of over 14 seconds to the pack ahead and began to make up places, but ultimately could only manage 24th across the line.

Team Owner Steve Moore said: “The team have done so well this weekend so a massive thanks to everyone. The total number of laps we completed over the whole weekend is what we'd normally expect to do on day one, so actually all things considered it's not too bad. We had a bit of bad luck with a tyre that Pirelli has confirmed was faulty, and starting from pit lane always sets you back. That's racing though, the key is we completed the second race. Kuba ran wide on lap one but we said let's take the risk and push as hard as we can, and then use the rest of the race as a test session. We've got loads of data to go on to Brands Hatch, so onwards and upwards!”

There were better fortunes for Ducati in the intensely competitive National Superstock 1000 category. Having signed South African rider James Eagan for the 2015 campaign, this weekend was expected to be something of a learning curve as the MWR Motorsport team enjoyed precious little testing in the off-season.

Having had just a single dry session aboard the Ducati Panigale R prior to the weekend, the 24-year-old was able to secure 30th on the grid for Monday morning’s race. The performance of this new bike/rider pairing as the race got underway was something extraordinary, as within a few laps of the Leicestershire venue Eagan was already inside the top twenty.

With his pace increasing at every circulation the Ducati continued to pass rider after rider, and by the end of the 17-lap contest Eagan crossed the line an incredible 11th.

Eagan said: “The bike is just something else – I immediately felt comfortable on it, but the really exciting thing is that there’s so much more to come. Last year in this championship I was just about knocking on the door of the top group by the end of the season, but we’re already at that level after just a couple of sessions on the Ducati – it’s by far the best bike I’ve ridden! We were making big steps forward all weekend, and it’s just a shame we don’t get more track time – if I’d started that race 11th instead of 30th, who knows what might have happened!”

The championship now moves to Brands Hatch in Kent on 17/19 April where in addition to British Superbike and National Superstock classes, the prestigious Ducati TriOptions Cup will blast off for its first event of the year.