The Aspar Moto GP team, which has run a Ducati with Spaniard Hector Barbera aboard for the last two seasons, has announced it will field two CRT bikes in 2012, with Randy de Puniet and Aleix Espargaro as pilots. Team manager and owner Jorge Martinez will be using Aprilia engines; the chassis isn’t specified but is assumed to also be from the Italian firm.
Frenchman de Puniet spent 2011 with the Pramac Ducati team, and rode for Aspar in 2005 in the 250 cc class. Spaniard Espargaro spent 2011 in Moto 2 after riding for Pramac in Moto GP in 2010.
Martinez said, “”We are really happy because we find ourselves with a brand new challenge ahead of us and we have full faith that CRT is the future of MotoGP, which is why we are amongst the first to join this initiative.”
After a shaky start to the concept, the CRT concept is definitely gathering momentum. While nobody expects the bikes – basically any engine other than factory prototypes in a prototype but “non-factory” frame – to be competitive with the factory Ducatis, Hondas, and Yamahas, they’re being given advantages in terms of weight and fuel capacity, and the governing body clearly expects the class to be the future of Moto GP.
