MOTOGP » Melandri to race at Qatar - on four wheels!

Marco. Buddy. Did your agent tell you it is Speedcar? It's retired NASCAR car of yesterday, racing against retired F1 backmarkers, in the heat of the angry Middle East sun. Maybe you can get one of the behemoths loaded with air conditioning.

You'd be better off running X-Games or Minimoto.

It is a sad, very sad state of affairs.

Salty great to see you back in circulation! Hope all is well. I see you got 3 disagrees and a knee jerk response within minutes of your post. As you can see Crash people are still wound up tight and humorless. Oh well. Keep up the good work

Salty you are talking about "The Valentino Rossi" not winning a race this season. Hmmm. Who would your money be. Perhaps Nicky Hayden, Colin Edwards and James Toseland put together. You have quite a nerve. Rossi's got a 50% winning ratio, equaled Agostini's records and beaten them. Last I heard he was 2nd fastest in the recent test. Yeah Salty I don't think Rossi will win A race this season . He is gonna win all the races.

The Morgue you are still a bad judge of talent keep up your hunt for it,do you believe Rossi could win a race the season,is the old gang still around
Regards Salty

Just saw this on superbikePlanet: 'Sources in Europe this afternoon confirm that Italian Marco Melandri has agreed to ride the ex-Kawasaki MotoGP bikes this season. Insiders suggest that Dorna will run the team independently and the bikes will be not be branded with the Kawasaki logo.'

'Dorna is attempting to acquire the Kawasaki machines and run them through a self-sponsored effort in 2009.'

Even if they've managed to improve the bike during the winter, and oz tests, they were reportedly having reliability issues. Unless they've been resolved, what's the point in being out there on a machine that could pack it in at any moment? A desperate move by dorna to keep 19 bikes on the grid?

Belly man you have a poor memory, no heart!!! I suggest you take a look back pre 2008, 2006 do you not remember the horrific injuries he was riding with??? and doing pretty well

You know...Marco had one bad season with Ducati and all of a sudden all the haters are sprouting up..The guy has potential for being a World Champion he needs to get on a factory honda or Yamaha! He is faster than JT and Colin put together...and although I respect Colin and JT...If I had a choice to put someone right now on a factory bike it would be him! Unfortunately Ducati was an unfufilled opportunity!
Go MARCO!

As Marco is under contract to Kawasaki he should get paid even if he sits on the couch and does nothing, however taking another ride could lose him money and involve the lawyers. By spending some time on 4 wheels he gets to see whether cars could be an option when he retires from bikes, have a bit of fun, get publicity and pass the year more quickly.

Good luck to him.

Well Marco had no choice. All the seats in World Superbike were taken and the same in Motogp, so for him to have said that he would not go to superbikes is cause there is no place for him.

Very interesting this sidestep into 4 wheel racing while his place in this years motogp championship is very much in doubt.

Does anyone know if this Speedcar series is on tv in UK, I wouldn't mind chcking it out, maybe it'll be more interesting than F1, which I try not to watch.

Marco will find that he doesn't like Speedcar after the first session and mope round at the back like he did with the factory Ducati. The lad is a ****!! All smouldering eyes, pouting lips and no F'ing heart.