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Joshua Coppins is recovering well from his left shoulder injury sustained at round 11 of the MX1 World Championship held at Loket (Czech Republic) on the 29th of July, but unfortunately his present condition does not permit him to enter the Grand Prix of Northern Ireland held coming weekend at the Moneyglass Demense circuit. Coppins missed the Belgian Grand Prix two weeks ago and now had to decide to cancel his participation in round 13 of the championship as well. Joshua does the very maximum t

Josh Coppins still leads the world championship despite missing his second Grand Prix in a row. The New Zealander has seen his advantage narrowed from 77 to 43 and now to 12 as main rival Steve Ramon could only finish fifth. Yamaha Motocross Team's Marc de Reuver was seventeenth after scoring points in just one moto in front of 18,500 people. De Reuver started the third-to-last meeting of the year in sixteenth position after riders of both classes on a wet Saturday had only 45 minutes to practic

The wooded hills of Brno, thronged by 141,632 spectators, proved a less than happy hunting ground for the Fiat Yamaha Team at today's Czech Grand Prix. Valentino Rossi was dogged by traction problems almost from the start and was only able to hang on for seventh, whilst Colin Edwards slid out of the race on the second lap. Starting from sixth, Rossi slipped one place at the start but regained his starting position by the end of lap one, behind Loris Capirossi. The Italian then spent several lap

After the disappointment of yesterday's Czech Grand Prix, it was back to the drawing board today for Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards as they embarked on the traditional two-day test at Brno, alongside almost the entire MotoGP paddock. The sun shone until mid-afternoon when it clouded over, eventually giving way to rain at about 4.30 pm. The main focus of the test for both riders is tyre testing with Michelin and they worked through a variety of new material today as they seek to find a better

Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards rounded off two days of intensive work at Brno today, following Sunday's Czech Grand Prix. After heavy rain yesterday evening the track was still damp this morning, which delayed the start of action, but conditions improved throughout the day and both Rossi and Edwards managed to complete their planned testing programmes. Once again both riders concentrated mainly on tyre testing, trying a variety of new material with Michelin. Rossi also put in laps with the n

Yamaha Motocross Team's Josh Coppins made a brave comeback to the FIM Motocross World Championship despite sustaining a two inch break to his left shoulder only four weeks ago but could not prevent his lead in the standings being lost to rival Steve Ramon. Meanwhile MX1 debutant Antonio Cairoli marked a new highlight in a truly wonderful season of success as the MX2 world champ won his first ever outing in the premier class with a 2008 production YZ450F in front of 28,000 spectators. Coppins wa

Valentino Rossi's hopes of a glorious homecoming to Misano ended after just five laps today, when an engine problem forced the Fiat Yamaha Team rider to retire when running strongly in fourth position. Rossi's team-mate Colin Edwards meanwhile struggled with rear grip in the later stages and was only able to bring his YZR-M1 home in his starting position of ninth. With thousands of passionate Italian fans looking on, Rossi started the San Marino Grand Prix from second on the grid with high hope

The Yamaha Motor Italia squad travels to this weekend's final round of the 2006 Superbike World Championship with Noriyuki Haga looking to take the runner-up slot in the championship from Honda rider James Toseland. While Troy Bayliss (Ducati) celebrated his second world title in Imola last weekend, the British rider overtook Haga in the battle for second place and holds a two point advantage going into the final race. Haga had a difficult time in Imola, where set-up problems restricted him to

Yamaha Motor Italia's Noriyuki Haga topped the timesheets in today's opening practice session at Magny Cours, while team-mate Andrew Pitt also impressed with the fourth fastest time of the day. In a close qualifying session that saw the top ten riders covered by less than one second, the Japanese rider topped the timesheets for virtually the whole session. Haga set a best time of 1:40.474 just six minutes into the session and was never to be topped. The Yamaha man went on to work at finding the

Yamaha Motor Italia riders Noriyuki Haga and Andrew Pitt will start tomorrow's final round of the 2006 Superbike World Championship from fifth and ninth places respectively. Both men made small mistakes on their superpole lap to slip down the order from their positions in regular qualifying and, despite not qualifying as well as hoped, the Yamaha Motor Italia riders are primed for action in tomorrow's 22-lap showdown. A damp circuit, caused by overnight rain, meant that superpole positions wer

It may 'only' have been the battle for second place in the 2006 Superbike World Championship, but Yamaha Motor Italia's Noriyuki Haga and Honda rider James Toseland certainly served up an end of season thriller at Magny Cours today. Along with outgoing world champion Troy Corser (Suzuki), Haga and Toseland gave the fans probably the best racing of the year as they traded positions corner after corner in the day's opening race. Haga did a remarkable job to even catch the leading group after run

Five years to the week since he won the MotoGP World Championship for the first time, Valentino Rossi heads into the penultimate round of the 2006 season at Estoril in Portugal next Sunday aiming to finally overthrow Nicky Hayden from the top of the standings and set-up his sixth premier-class title in a row. After an amazing run of form for the Italian, who has made up 39 points over the last four races, he is now just 12 behind and on course to catch the American by the final round at Valencia

Yamaha Motor Italia has signed Australian Troy Corser to ride alongside Noriyuki Haga in the 2007 Superbike World Championship. The spectacular line-up demonstrates Yamaha’s commitment to a series they returned to in 2005. Haga has won races on the R1 in each season – ending the 2005 and 2006 campaigns third in the standings. Corser is a two-time world champion with 33 race wins to his credit. He won the series with Ducati in 1996 and became the first rider to win the world superbike champions

The World Supersport race report of last Sunday included a mistake in the announcement of the Yamaha Motor Germany Team riders for next season. The release mentioned that both Kevin Curtain and Broc Parkes re-signed with the team for 2006, this must be for 2007.

Camel Yamaha Team riders Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards will start the Grand Prix of Portugal from the front two places on the grid tomorrow, after a sensational qualifying practice that saw the Italian seal his fourth pole of the season with a record time of 1'36.200. Edwards was just 0.278 seconds off the pace of his team-mate to equal his best qualifying position of the campaign ahead of what promises to be a mouth-watering penultimate round. Both riders worked hard on the race setting of

A fantastic team effort from Yamaha today saw Valentino Rossi take the lead in the MotoGP World Championship by eight points ahead of the final round of the season at Valencia, after taking second place in a race that saw Nicky Hayden (Honda) dramatically crash out at Estoril. Rossi missed out on victory by just 0.002 seconds after a photo finish with Toni Elias (Honda), the Spanish youngster slipstreaming the Italian to the line to take his maiden success in the class. Nevertheless the 20-point