Motourage

FTR Moto is hoping to get the 2011 Moto2 World Championship under way in the same manner as last year with a podium finish in Sunday night’s Qatar opening round.

Alex Debon took second in the inaugural Moto2 race last year at Losail

It was FTR-mounted Alex Debon finishing second a year ago under the lights of the Losail circuit – 15 miles outside the country’s capital of Doha. Now FTR heads into this year’s first round with 10 riders carrying the hopes of the Buckingham company.

Riding the unique M211 machines, BQR Team riders Esteve Rabat and Yonny Hernandez are joined in the same garage by Kenny Noyes with the American running with backing from GP Tech and FOGI Racing. Scottish youngster Kev Coghlan appears in the Debon-run Aeroport de Castello Team for his World Championship debut season.

The Italian IODA Racing Project operation fields Simone Corsi and Mattia Pasini on FTRs while the 2010 race-winning Speed Up squad have placed their hopes, and their M211s, in the hands of youngsters Pol Espargaro and Valentin Debise.

The Stop and Go Team has the second of the Hernandez brothers from Colombia, Santiago, paired with Thai tough guy Ratthapark Wilairot – back in action and all set for his FTR debut after a serious road traffic accident in early December while at home in Thailand.

“We had a really good time in our debut year last year,” recalled FTR’s Steve Bones. “But now it feels like we’re taking a big step forward. We’ve gone from four machines on the grid last year to 10 now, it’s exactly what we were hoping for – for the Grand Prix paddock to confirm its belief in our machine.

“We’ve made a lot of subtle changes and improved the machine for 2011 but it’s also thanks to the four riders we had last year that they were regularly on the pace and pushing our M210 to the maximum to ensure we received the very best and most accurate feedback.

“From those four riders – Alex Debon, Gabor Talmacsi, Karel Abraham and Andrea Iannone – all of them finished on the podium and two of them won races, and there were a handful of fastest laps and pole positions – the same again in 2011 is our initial target but we have to keep developing the M211 – the World title is what we ultimately want.”

IODA Project's Simone Corsi

FTR Moto will be represented by five teams running a total of 10 riders in the 2011 Moto2 World Championship, which gets under way in Qatar on Sunday, March 20.

Buckingham, England-based FTR has retained its relationship with two of the three teams from 2010 – Alex Debon’s Motor Sport 69 project and the Speed Up Team while the third 2010 partner, Karel Abraham’s Cardion Team, moves to the MotoGP class after Abraham won the season finale Moto2 race at Valencia in November.

The Motor Sport 69 Team is being managed by the now-retired Debon and features one rider, Scotsman Kev Coghlan. Speed Up has replaced its two 2010 riders with Spaniard Pol Espargaro and French youngster Valentin Debise.

The established BQR squad moves to FTR machinery with a three-rider lineup of Esteve Rabat, Yonny Hernandez and Kenny Noyes. Noyes runs under the Avintia STX banner in a team established by financial and technical partners GP Tech and FOGI Racing, the latter continuing its relationship with FTR after supporting Spanish Championship and GP wild card entries in 2010.

Giampiero Sacchi’s Italian IODA Project team features Simone Corsi and Mattia Pasini on FTR M211s while the Spanish SAG squad fields Colombian Santiago Hernandez and Ratthapark Wilairot.

“From our four riders of 2010 things have really moved on this winter and the level of interest in FTR Moto is exactly what we hoped for,” said FTR’s Steve Bones. “The team partners we have for 2011 offer a variety of everything imaginable in racing, from experience to youth and from very well established teams to relatively new ones.

“In theory the 2011 Championship should offer more stability in terms of consistency from riders but from the winter testing it really is difficult to see any pattern emerging. We know from 2010 that the class can be unpredictable and that may well be the case once more.

“At the beginning of 2010 Alex Debon took his one and only podium finish in the first round while Speed up’s Andrea Iannone struggled to 19th place in Qatar then won three races. We still have interest from other teams for 2011 but, right now, everyone at FTR is really geared up for an exciting 2011 campaign.”

Team Blusens by Queroseno Racing

Team Owner: Raul Romero
Team Manager: Ricard Jove
Chief Technicians: Josep Oliva and David Thomas
Rider: Dani Rivas

The BQR Moto2 project began at the end of the 2006 racing season. The Würth/BQR Honda 250 team had just finished a 15^th-place 250cc season with current AMA Team Hammer rider – and Motourage favorite – Mártin Cárdenas. Team owner Raul Romero and then-manager Kino Contreras began development of a four-stroke MotoGP engine. Both Romero and Contreras understood that the days of the 250cc two-stroke class were numbered; however, they entered into their new experiment with little insight into the future of the GP support class.  BQR, which had been mating its chassis with 250cc Honda engines for several seasons, came on board at the beginning of the project, and its two technicians – David Thomas and Josep Olivia – have been instrumental in its coordination.

In February, BQR became the first team to unveil a Moto2 machine

BQR had originally planned to enter the MotoGP World Championship in 2011; however, the early announcement of the Moto2 class and significant successes in testing allowed the team to unveil the first Moto2 bike back in February and field a Moto2 prototype at the 2009 CEV Buckler Spanish Road Racing Championship.  In November and December, Julián Simón and Mike Di Meglio tested in Valencia onboard a machine loaned to Team Aspar by BQR. The teammates consistently lapped at the top of the sheets for those riders onboard true Moto2 machines (Ant West lapped on rebadged Stiggy Honda CBR600 Supersport bike).  No official word yet, but there are rumors circulating that Aspar may decide to run BQR-supplied chasses due to the pullout of Aprilia from Moto2.

If you’d like a quick listen of how the new Moto2 bikes will sound, here’s a short clip of the BQR Moto2 bike in action at Jerez.