MAHINDRA RACING HEADS EAST FOR THREE IN A ROW

Tuesday, 09 October, 2012: The Mahindra Moto3™ team is preparing for an intensive three weekends of racing, at the trio of Pacific rim races. The demanding schedule starts on Sunday at Motegi in Japan.

One week later, the GP circus will be ready to race again at Sepang in Malaysia, before flying directly to Melbourne in Australia, to drive down to the seaside Phillip Island track.

Mahindra Racing´s Danny Webb (21, from England) will be carrying the load for the only Indian company in motorcycle GP racing as he continues his progress with the latest iteration of the Mahindra MGP–30 machine, which is still undergoing development and improvement.

Making a return to competitive action in Japan will be Riccardo Moretti (27). The Italian development rider sustained neck and shoulder injuries at the Czech Republic GP at the end of August and sat out the subsequent rounds where he was replaced by the exciting Czech teenager Miroslav Popov.

Webb and the team have been working hard on the development of the four–stroke Mahindra MGP–30, one of a tiny handful of all–independent machines fighting the established factory teams contesting the new–for–this–year Moto3 class for four–stroke, 250cc, single–cylinder racers.

The latest improvements are a heavier crankshaft, which Webb says helps the bike to carry top speed; and a slippier clutch. "We still need to work on getting that set up perfectly, and for me to get used to it, but it´s good and helps engine braking and stability into the corners", confirmed Webb.

The Japanese GP is the 14th of 17 rounds of the Moto3 World Championship, bringing the new class to the 2.983–mile (4.801–km) Motegi circuit, in scenic mountainous country some 100 miles north–northeast of Tokyo.

While the Moto3 racing heads east, Mahindra Racing´s Italian CIV championship team will be closer to home on Sunday for the final round of the series. Miroslav Popov will be joined by Austrian teenager Lukas Trautmann on the two–stroke Mahindra 125GP bike. The team is aiming to secure the Constructors´ Championship for Mahindra, an impressive achievement on the international stage for the Indian manufacturer which made its debut at CIV this year.

DANNY WEBB
The layout of Motegi is a bit stop–and–go, with only one section you could call fluid. Our bike´s strong point is handling, but we´ve been suffering a bit in acceleration, so it´s not our ideal circuit. But the new parts seem to have helped, and I enjoy riding there. We´ll be going for the best possible result, as always.

RICCARDO MORETTI
The injury kept me out for much longer than I expected. It was tough to watch from the side of the track, so now I can´t wait to get back on the Mahindra and keep pushing our development forward.

MUFADDAL CHOONIA, CEO of Mahindra Racing
This is a very busy period for us. We are hoping to see an improved performance from the Moto3 team in their tough run of three back–to–back races. We are also hoping to seal the Italian Championship Constructors´ title in the 125cc class. This will be very heartening after all the hard work that went into the development of the bike in the final year of the two–stroke 125cc World Championship in 2011. Meanwhile, our engineers are working hard alongside the guys from Suter Racing Technology on the 2013 Moto3 machine.