06 Yamaha Zuma Scooter on 2040-motos

Moto blog

So that's why he's called RANDY de Puniet

RANDY de Puniet may well have just been ejected from his LCR Honda RC212V MotoGP racer during qualifying for Sunday's Sachsenring GP but that ain't gonna stop him from bringing one of the company perks with him to Dr Costa's on-circuit surgery. The Frenchman crashed during qualifying after hitting oil and water spilled on track by Jorge Lorenzo's Fiat Yamaha, after it spewed its guts along almost the entire length of the start finished straight. Following the crash De Puniet was whisked away on a stretcher with a suspected broken foot.

Suzuka Eight Hour capers

Chatting to TT legend John McGuiness recently about his first Suzuka Eight Hour experience got me thinking of a few capers the boys and me managed a few years back at what is still Japan's most important race of the season. It is a unique event that starts at 11am and finishes at 7pm making  it a pukka endurance race as the last hour is run with headlights on in the dark. It is essentially an eight hour sprint that showcases the trickest endurance machinery and manufacturer’s sales can be affected the following year depending on who wins or loses.

Yamaha Wraps Up Sepang MotoGP Test

Pre-season test lap times aren’t a precise barometer for how the 2012 MotoGP Championship season will go, but Yamaha has to feel good about its results after this week’s testing at Malaysia’s Sepang circuit. Last February at Sepang, Honda riders were the talk of the preseason session, taking three of the top four lap times on each day of the test. That pattern repeated itself in the final championship standings with Casey Stoner taking the championship, Dani Pedrosa finishing third and Andrea Dovizioso fourth.