Forward_Racing

Forward Racing

Forward Racing

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Forward Racing is a motorcycle racing team competing in the Moto2 World Championship and MotoE World Championship.

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History

The team started competing in the MotoGP class as the Hayate Racing Team, a scaled down version of the Kawasaki factory team that withdrew from MotoGP for the 2009 championship due to the Great Recession.[1] The team took its name from the Japanese word Hayate meaning hurricane. The team ran one Kawasaki ZX-RR motorcycle that was ridden by Marco Melandri.

Kawasaki stopped developing new parts for the motorbike in March 2009, meaning Kawasaki's involvement was limited to servicing and maintaining the motorcycle for the rest of the 2009 season.[2] Despite this, Melandri achieved a remarkable result in coming second at the French Grand Prix at Le Mans in May.[3]

In 2010, they participated as Forward Racing in the new Moto2 class, with Jules Cluzel and Claudio Corti as their riders on Suter bikes. Cluzel won the British Grand Prix and finished 7th in the championship. Corti had a pole position for the same race, but his best result was ninth at Misano. In 2011 the team competed with Cluzel and Alex Baldolini, later replaced by Raffaele De Rosa. The best result was a fourth place clinched by Cluzel at the British Grand Prix.

The team returned to MotoGP in 2012 as one of the Claiming Rule Teams and signed Colin Edwards,[4] fielding a Suter chassis with a BMW engine.[5]

For the 2012 Moto2 Championship Forward Racing signed Alex de Angelis and Yuki Takahashi.[6][7] The team started the season with Suter bikes then switched to FTR after six rounds; with the new chassis de Angelis won the Malaysian Grand Prix.

For 2013, Forward Racing expanded its MotoGP involvement to a two-rider team, signing Claudio Corti alongside Colin Edwards with new FTR-Kawasaki bikes. The Moto2 effort was expanded to four riders with Simone Corsi, Mattia Pasini, Alex de Angelis and Ricard Cardús aboard Speed Up bikes.

In 2014 the team again entered the MotoGP class with two bikes for Colin Edwards and Aleix Espargaró. Taking advantage of the new Open category, Forward Racing intended to use Yamaha-leased YZR-M1 engines with FTR frames, however the team started the season with a complete Yamaha YZR-M1 engine-frame-swingarm package[8] with other parts supplied by FTR. At the Mugello round Edwards debuted the new Forward frame built by Harris Performance.[9] Espargaró, who stayed with the Yamaha frame, achieved a pole position at Assen and finished on the podium at Aragon with second place, finishing seventh in the championship.

In Moto2 Forward Racing stepped back to a two-rider team, retaining Pasini and Corsi. The team started the season with 2013-specification Kalex frames modified in-house and rebadged as Forward KLX.[10] At the fifth round the team switched to official Kalex bikes.[11] Riding the new frame Corsi scored two podiums, but a crash at Silverstone ended his season. He was then replaced by Supersport World Championship rider Florian Marino.

For the 2015 season, Forward Racing renewed their partnership with Yamaha, planning to run two bikes with YZR-M1 engine-frame-swingarm packages and abandoning the in-house chassis project.[12] New riders were Stefan Bradl and Loris Baz. Forward also renewed its commitment to the Moto2 class fielding two Kalex frames for Simone Corsi, returning from his injury, and new teammate Lorenzo Baldassarri.[13]

Shortly after the German round, littles problems afflict the team that than announced that they had released Stefan Bradl from his contract at his request.[14] The team returned on track at Brno in both the MotoGP and Moto2 classes with Bradl being replaced by Claudio Corti alongside Baz, Corsi and Baldassarri.[15]

Results

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Notes

* Season still in progress.

  1. Lamborghini raced for Forward Racing at the San Marino Grand Prix as a wildcard.
  2. Baldolini rode for the team in the first ten races, then he was replaced by De Rosa. Both riders competed for other teams during the season.
  3. Vermeulen replaced Edwards at the French Grand Prix.
  4. Pasini replaced de Angelis at the Valencian Grand Prix.
  5. De Angelis replaced Edwards from the Czech Grand Prix onwards.
  6. Marino replaced Corsi from the San Marino Grand Prix onwards.
  7. Corti replaced Bradl from the German Grand Prix onwards. He was himself replaced by Toni Elías for the Aragon Grand Prix.
  8. Elías replaced Corti from the Aragon Grand Prix onwards.
  9. Non-bracketed number refers to the number accumulated with the motorcycle, with number in brackets referring to the total accumulated for the season.

References

  1. [1]
    "Kawasaki statement in full". crash.net. Crash Media Group. 9 January 2009. Retrieved 21 November 2011.
  2. [2]
    "Marco Melandri: I will race the Hayate". crash.net. Crash Media Group. 12 March 2009. Retrieved 21 November 2011.
  3. [3]
    "Lorenzo takes dramatic victory at wet-dry Le Mans". motogp.com. Dorna Sports. 17 May 2009. Retrieved 21 November 2011.
  4. [4]
    "Colin Edwards confirms he will leave Tech 3 team at end of the season". BBC Sport. BBC. 2 September 2011. Retrieved 2 September 2011.
  5. [5]
    Birt, Matthew (20 October 2011). "Colin Edwards to ride Suter/BMW in 2012". Motor Cycle News. Bauer Media Group. Retrieved 20 October 2011.
  6. [6]
    "de Angelis to NGM Forward for Moto2". crash.net. Crash Media Group. 5 November 2011. Retrieved 5 November 2011.
  7. [7]
    "Moto2: Takahashi goes Forward for 2012". crash.net. Crash Media Group. 18 November 2011. Retrieved 21 November 2011.
  8. [8]
    "Qatar MotoGP: Espargaro sticking with Yamaha frame". Crash.net. Crash Media Group. 20 March 2014. Retrieved 22 September 2014.
  9. [9]
    "Forward Racing to use new MotoGP chassis at Mugello". Motomatters.com. 22 May 2014. Retrieved 22 September 2014.
  10. [10]
    "Moto2: Forward announces new 'KLX' chassis project". Crash.net. Crash Media Group. 13 February 2014. Retrieved 12 November 2014.
  11. [11]
    "Le Mans Moto2: Forward announces official Kalex deal". Crash.net. Crash Media Group. 15 May 2014. Retrieved 12 November 2014.
  12. [12]
    Birt, Matthew (15 January 2015). "Forward Racing abandons chassis project". Motor Cycle News. Bauer Consumer Media. Retrieved 22 January 2015.
  13. [13]
    Rowles, Aaron (10 March 2015). "Forward Racing release 2015 bikes". GPxtra.com. Retrieved 16 August 2015.
  14. [14]
    Emmett, David (31 July 2015). "Stefan Bradl released by Forward, Aprilia signing imminent?". MotoMatters.com. David Emmett. Retrieved 16 August 2015.
  15. [15]
    Emmett, David (6 August 2015). "Forward Racing to return at Brno, but doubts beyond that". MotoMatters.com. David Emmett. Retrieved 16 August 2015.
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