Rider Profiles | Randy de Puniet
| The French-born Randy de Puniet began his career in the world championship’s 125cc league back in 1999 until he moved up to the 250cc World Championship in 2001. While 2002 saw him winning two podium finishes, 2003 gave him the chance to at a factory Aprilia ride. With this he had three wins and taking the overall fourth position, and in 2004 de Puniet finished the season in the third position.
In 2006 de Puniet began his career in MotoGP racing for the Kawasaki factory team with who he remained until August 24, 2007, when LCR Honda made the announcement that de Puniet signed a two-year contract. During 2010 he fractured his ankle mid-season, but stayed with the team despite rumours that he was linked to the French Tech 3 squad. Even though the latter half of the 2010 season saw de Puniet enjoying a strong run, a second accident at Sachsenring left him with a broken leg and caused him to miss the race at Laguna Seca. |
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French| For the 2011 season de Puniet joined Pramac Racing riding on a satellite Ducati, but unfortunately for de Puniet the 2011 season turned out to be a disappointing year with very few noteworthy moments. This led to de Puniet making his move for the 2012 season, joining the ‘Claiming Rules Team’ (CRT) of Power Electronics Aspar and riding on a modified Aprilia RSV4. |
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Rider Profiles | Jonathan Rea
| The Irish-born Jonathan “Johnny” Rea was the 1997 British 60cc motocross runner up before he upped and moved through the various motocross classes. Although he thought circuit racing to be boring, he was eventually persuaded by his two friends, Michael and Eugene Laverty, to race in the 2003 British 125cc Championship, which soon proved to be the right choice.
Sadly his 2004 season was interrupted by a crash at Knockhill, but Rea was back in the saddle in 2005, racing on a factory-spec Honda Fireblade for the Red Bull team and finishing the season in 16th place in the British Superbike Championship (BSB). His 2006 season started off well and he ended in the fourth position, ahead of the factory Honda of Karl Harris, whose place he took in 2007, riding alongside Japan’s Ryuichi Kiyonari. At the end of the 2007 season Rea finished second, being runner-up to Kiyonari who he had beaten in a three-hour endurance race; after this Rea and Kiyonari were entered into another endurance race, the Suzuka 8-Hour race. |
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| At the end 2007 Rea signed a three year contract with the Ten Kate Honda team, riding in the Supersport World Championship for 2008, and winning his first win at Brno followed by a second win at Brands Hatch. During 2009-10 he raced in the Superbike World Championship but this time for the Hannspree Ten Kate Honda team, making his debut at the 2008 WSBK final round at Portimão. Rea won his first podium at Kyalami, which was followed by a third spot at Miller Motorsport Park before winning his first at Misano. He finished fifth overall and was the top rookie of the year.
2010 saw Rea suffering numerous crashes, the first two being at Monza, followed by a crash at Miller Motorsport Park, but still he managed to end up in the third place in the overall standings of the championship. For the 2011 season Rea decided he was going to stay with the Ten Kate Racing family, riding under the famous Castrol Honda name, a name which had numerous World Superbike championship victories, including John Kocinski (USA) in 1997 and Colin Edwards (USA) in 2000 and 2002. |
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Rider Profiles | Andrea Iannone
| The Italian born Andrea Iannone first began to get notice, like so many other racers, by racing on pocket bikes. He did so racing in both the Italian and Spanish championships before making his move to the big leagues of the World Championship in 2005. During this period his record reflects quite an inconstancy, but in 2009 he won two races, thereby establishing himself for the first time as a championship contender.
2010 not only saw Iannone riding something other than the Aprilia, but also moving up to the Moto2 World Championship series. Although he had a bit of a slow start, he did begin taking victories, the first two being at Mugello and Assen. During the race in Barcelona Iannone was proving to be quite competitive, but by overtaking Yuki Takahashi under yellow flag conditions, he was given a ride-through penalty. 2011 saw Iannone returning to inconsistency with his racing, because although he was one of only three racers to win more than one race – the other two being Stefan Bradl and Marc Márquez – he often qualified outside of the top ten, but Iannone ended his 2011 Moto2 World Championship season in third place. |
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| This was, however, not the only championship preoccupying Iannone as he got his first taste of MotoGP during the middle of 2011 when he tested Loris Capirossi’s Pramac Ducati. Although there were negotiations with the Ducati and Gresini Honda teams, Iannone made his choice to rather race another year in Moto2 to challenge for the title. |
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Rider Profiles | Max Biaggi
| Max Biaggi, suitably nicknamed ‘the Roman Emperor’, forms part of the elite group of Italian motorcycle racers who have bagged quite a few titles. Biaggi, for one, has won the 250cc World Championship four times and is only the 2nd European, after Raymond Roche, to win a Superbike World Championship.
Now although Biaggi was more interested in football, it all changed in 1989 when he turned 17 and was given his first motorcycle. One year later Biaggi already won his first Italian Sport Production Championship in the 125cc class. In 1991 he moved up to the 250cc class and came second in the European 250cc Championship and finished 27th in the Grand Prix motorcycle 250cc world championship, both on an Aprilia RS250. While he moved to Honda for the 1993 season, but returned to Aprilia and winning the 250cc Grand Prix championship titles three years in a row. In 1997 he went back to Honda again and won his fourth consecutive title, after which he moved to the 500c class. With his first race in 1998 he made an exciting start by not only setting the fastest lap, but also winning his first race. |
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| Biaggi finished the season only second to Mick Doohan. The following season saw Biaggi joining the Yamaha team, battling it out against his former, and the dominant team, Honda – he finished 4th in 1999, 3rd in 2000, 2nd in 2001, and in the 2002 season he came 2nd again but this time to Valentino Rossi.
With the 2003 season Biaggi had a good run and it was expected that he would be one of the main candidates to take the World title in 2004, but after a crash at Estoril he soon began to take a backseat, but was still able to bag the overall third place of the season. In 2005 he began the season as an official factory rider alongside Nicky Hayden, but even so he only finished the season in fifth place. Biaggi took a sabbatical in 2006 and only came back again in 2007 racing for Suzuki, this time however it was in the Superbike World Championship. He won his first race too, making Biaggi only one of five men to have ever achieved this within the Superbike World Championship, and the only rider ever who was able to win his first Superbike race. Although his season began off great, Suzuki was forced to release Biaggi from his contract however due to the loss of the main sponsor. For 2008 he raced for Team Sterilgarda/GoEleven, riding a satellite-works Ducati 1098RS, and in 2009 he joined the Aprilia team, finishing in 4th place overall. In 2010 took the first place in the championship, and in August of the same year he renewed his contract with Aprilia, thereby remaining with the team and within the World Superbikes until 2012. While 2010 was a great year for Biaggi, winning him the first Superbike World Championship title for both Italy and Aprilia, 2011 proved to have more mixed results and he ended the season only in third place after a fractured left foot caused him to miss out on 2 rounds. |
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Rider Profiles | Marco Melandri
| Part of the group of Italian World Champion racers, Marco Melandri was first introduced to the world of racing at the age of six by the former rider, Loris Reggiani. Beginning his career with minibikes and motocross, Melandri won his first Italian championship in 1997 in the 125cc group, finishing 4th in the European league, and making his debut in the world championship as a bit of a wild card rider.
After making quite an impression, he went on to win two Grand Prix in 1998 and five Grand Prix titles in 1999, but missed out to win the championship. In 2000 Melandri signed up with Aprilia, replacing his fellow Italian Valentino Rossi, in the 250cc class. While most expected that he would also fill his predecessors shoes as the championship winner, his debut was less than expected and he struggled to adapt to the bigger 250cc bikes. In 2001 his performance seemed to be improving, giving him his first win at the 250cc Grand Prix in Sachsenring, Germany, but 2002 was when Melandri only really began to shine as he dominated the season with 9 wins, 3 podium spots, and eventually the world champion title. |
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| In 2003 Melandri moved up to the MotoGP class and joined the Yamaha, but after little success he upped and left to join the Movistar Honda team for the 2005 season which was a good move considering the remarkable success he enjoyed, earning him the runner-up position to Valentino Rossi. He finished the 2006 season in fourth position with just one point behind Capirossi, and in 2007 he finished fifth overall.For 2008 and 2009 Melandri joined the Ducati factory team, riding alongside Casey Stoner, but since 2008 turned out to be disastrous, it was announced that Melandri was to join the Kawasaki Racing Team for the 2009 MotoGP season. During these two years he also competed in car racing, riding in the Speedcar Series season of 2008-09. 2010 saw Melandri returning to Gresini Honda, racing with a factory-spec RC212V bike. The following year, however, Melandri moved into the Superbike World Championship and replacing Cal Crutchlow who had moved to the Tech 3 team.
On the 2nd of October, 2011, Melandri signed with the BWM World Superbike team for the 2012 season. This proved to be a good move as he is within 21 points of the championship lead which is currently held by Max Biaggi. |
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Rider Profiles | Colin Edwards
| Known as the Texas Tornado, Colin Edwards II is a Houston-born American rider with two World Superbike championship titles to his name. His love of bikes obviously began with his Australian father, Colin Edwards Sr. who was an amateur motorcycle racer and the one to buy Edwards his first minibike after which he entered his first motocross race at age four.
Although Edwards was absent from the motorbike world for a year or two during his teenage years, it really was just a matter of time before he began as amateur only to move rapidly into the professionals. In 1994 entered the AMA Superbike Championship racing for Vance & Hines on a Yamaha. The following year, 1995, proved to be quite disappointing and Edwards struggled, especially after his teammate Yasutomo Nagai died in a crash, costing him his position at Yamaha. While riding for Honda, Edwards moved up again and in 2000 won the Superbike World Championship, came second to Troy Bayliss in 2001, and then won the title again in 2002. In 2003 he moved to the MotoGP, riding for the then troubled Aprilia team and in 2004 he rode for Telefonica Movistar Honda. |
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| Since 2005, however, Edwards has been riding for the various Yamaha teams, teaming up with the likes of Valentino Rossi, James Toseland and most recently partnering with Cal Crutchlow.
On September 3, 2011, it was announced that he was to leave the Tech 3 team and join Forward Racing for the 2012 season. On October 23, 2011, Edwards along with Valentino Rossi was involved in an accident which tragically claimed the life of Marco Simoncelli at the Malaysian Grand Prix. |
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