Some supermoto and sport bike riders are challenging each other on November 30th and December 1st, in the Sagittario race track, in Latina (about 80 km away from Rome: the weather should be pretty hot in those days). The aims are to honour Marco "Sic" Simoncelli's memory and to gain money for the Simoncelli Foundation. During the first edition they didn't open the dirt section; I think that they won't do it this time either. Here is some other information: http://www.supermotoaustralia.com/a-few-days-till-the-start-of-the-second-sic-supermoto-day/ And here is the competitors' list, taken from an Italian website: Christian Iddon – Andrea Dovizioso Thomas Chareyre – Valentino Rossi Ivan Lazzarini – Massimiliano Biaggi Edgardo Borella – Eugene Laverty Andrea Occhini – Ben Bostrom Christian Ravaglia – Michele Pirro Lorenzo Promutico – Simone Corsi Edoardo Gente – Romano Fenati Elia Sammartin – Troy Corser Paolo Salmaso – Danilo Petrucci Cristian Lancellotti – Guido Meda Luca Minutilli – Mattia Pasini Beltrami Massimo – Claudio Corti Mirco Gizzi – Franco Morbidelli DJ Ringo – Giuliano Rovelli Fabrizio Bartolini – Andrea Bartolini Sergio Colaci – Michel Fabrizio Matteo Medizza – Luca Salvadori Uros Nastran – Raffaele De Rosa Davide Gozzini – Stefano Cruciani Luca Brambilla – Doriano Romboni Paolo Cianfrocca – Siffredi Lorenzo (his team manager is Rocco Siffredi, from Siffredi Hard Team... Sic would approve!) Diego Guerra – Ivan Clementi Paolo Gaspardone – Alex Gramigni Vladimiro Leone – Riccardo Russo Fabio Gazarri – Marco Bussolotti Miles Thomlon – Eric Stump Jaimie Van Sikkelerus – Marcel Van Drunen Lorenzo Lapini – Gianluca Nannelli Ivo Monticelli – Elio Marchetti Dawid Ciucci – Roberto Tamburini Luca Ciaglia – Gianluca Vizziello The last year Mauno Hermunen and Andrea Dovizioso won the first edition (they race paired). If the race is broadcast on a website, I'll link it. Anyway, they'll probably put some videos about it on Youtube, like they did the last year.
According to many sites, some days ago Rossi said that probably he won’t take part in the race, because Yamaha doesn't seem to be able to prepare a supermoto in time and his contract prevents him from using not-Yamaha bikes in this event. It's strange, because it hasn’t been organized unexpectedly. In 2012 he used a TM: I think that the last year in December he hadn’t a contract either with Ducati or with Yamaha and that he was free to use whatever bike he wanted. The place where I live is about 600 km from that track and so I’m not going there and watching the race, but I think that most of the people who bought the tickets wanted to see him above all and I'm pretty sure that he said this piece of news after the close of the online advance sale of the tickets. Many Italians are disappointed about his likely absence. Anyway, he said that there's a 1 in 100 chance that he will race.
He was likely contracted to Ducati 'til 1159pm 30th December, since Ducati don't make a 450cc dirt bike they most likely let him use whatever as long as it wasn't one of the competition (Yam/Honda/Aprilia etc.) Now he's with Yamaha, they're obviously more protective and no way they'd let him be seen on anything else than a YZF. Also he's known about this for how long? Sounds like a massive cop out blaming Yamaha for not preparing him a bike, it's also not like he's short of a dollar and couldn't have his minions build him a bike.
He has got a private track! (Look at 0:18: that's a Yamaha) If he hadn't a yz, he could for sure afford a new one and sell it for an higher price, because in Italy there would be many people glad to have his bike.
The event finished tragically: http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/news/...-simoncelli-tribute-event-165946562--spt.html I don't think that they will race tomorrow; if they do, here is a site where the race should be streamed, since Italian 12:00 (GMT: 11:00 AM) on Sunday: http://www.telecomitalia.com/tit/it.html. IMO they shouldn't race. Edit: the event has been cancelled as a token of respect for the rider and for his family. If it had been up to me, I would have done the same.
