Motorsport

Breedon Aggregates and speedway team Leicester Lions have agreed a new team sponsorship deal, and will officially be named the Breedon Aggregates Lions, when the team returns to speedway after a near 28-year absence from the sport. Lions promoter David Hemsley said: “We have been working closely with Breedon Aggregates over a number of weeks in connection with supplying material for the track at Beamont Park and during this time we have formed a good working relationship’.

After the success of Silverstone’s return to the MotoGP calendar last year, the circuit has announced it has secured the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup, the Red Bull Matadors, and trials rider Dougie Lampkin – as part of it’s race weekend entertainment package. The MotoGP festival at this year’s AirAsia British Grand Prix will run from 10th-12th June, with the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup the new support race, before the finale, the British MotoGP Grand Prix.

Castrol has agreed a deal to return as the title sponsor of Honda’s superbike team for the World Superbike Championship 2011.

The new team will feature riders Jonathan Rea and Ruben Xaus campaigning Honda’s CBR1000RR Fireblade, with the squad being run by the Netherlands-based Ten Kate Racing outfit, who have led Honda’s World Superbike effort since 2004.?

The EV Cup, the world’s first circuit race series featuring zero-emission electric vehicles, has announced a newly-formed partnership with CAA Sports, a division of Creative Artists Agency.

The seven-race environmentally friendly motorsport series, the EV Cup, will launch its inaugral season this year.

The season includes two principle classes of zero emission electric cars - the City EV cars, where drivers will compete in carbon-free, race-prepared urban THINK cars and the Sports EV class, which will feature teams racing 185 KPH Westfield iRacers.

There will be no Hungary MotoGP next season after the International Motorcycling Federation published the provisional calendar.??Aragon in Spain was used this year with the Hungarian MotoGP venue not ready and it is set to miss out on a race again.??Spain will host four rounds of the 2011 MotoGP championship with Aragon, Jerez, Catalunya and the traditional season finale in Valencia.??The season starts in Qatar on 20th March with the British GP at Silverstone on 12th June.

Mini is set to make a comeback on the international rally circuit from 2011 – marking a return of one the sports most famous names.Owners BMW confirmed that Mini will make selected appearances over the course of next season, before completing the full calendar in 2012.The brand will compete at selected rounds of the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) and the involvement is planned for several years. The car that Mini will use is the Countryman WRC, which is being developed by Prodrive, in close cooperation with MINI, and is based on the production model.

World motorsport governing body the FIA has revealed a 13-round World Rally Championship calendar for 2011 and confirmed that the Monte Carlo Rally will be absent from the series for the third successive season.

As with this year’s calendar, the 2011 series will start in Sweden and, as expected, Jordan has also replaced the previously mooted Abu Dhabi date on the calendar.

The Abu Dhabi Rally will run as a candidate event next season, with a possible inclusion to the 2012 schedule.

The Japanese MotoGP at Motegi has become the first major sporting victim of the air travel problems caused by the cloud of volcanic ash in Europe after organisers were forced to reschedule the race.

Organisers said the race scheduled for Sunday 25th April will now take place on 3rd October as championship round 14 before events in Malaysia and Australia.

The next round of the motorsport series will now be at Spain's Jerez circuit on 2nd May.

Blancpain Watches has signed up as a sponsor for the new FIA GT1 World Championship with the Swiss watch brand becoming the official timing partner for the motorsport series.

The sponsorship, negotiated by championship promoter SRO Motorsports Group (SRO), will see the Blancpain brand receive live exposure on all live feeds including on TV feeds around the world. Blancpain will also receive track-side exposure at all rounds of the new world championship.

Nissan has signed a deal to become the official car supplier of the FIA GT1 World Championship for the inaugural 2010 season, with a further option for 2011.

Under the terms of the agreement negotiated by Championship promoters SRO Motorsports Group, Nissan will supply 4 cars to SRO per event, with one of Nissan's high perfomance cars becoming the official safety car at each event.