BatiFan Blog | The Alvaro Bautista Fan Blog | Rizla Suzuki MotoGP

Bluer than Bleeding Gums Murphy!
But feeling blue in a good way though.
As you can probably see…
Welcome to the new-look BatiFan blog, overhauled for a number of varied reasons – though mainly to better serve passing on news and downloads etc as Alvaro moves into the top class for 2010. The Blogger page, whilst easy to post to, had come to feel very restrictive in many ways and I was getting bored with the static, very long, 2 column layout and the inflexibility of the ‘theme’ manipulation.

Given that pretty much all my other Alvaro Bautista, MotoGP, Aspar, El Canto Del Loco, and Pere Tutusaus websites have been moved over successfully to WordPress it made sense to do the same with the blog. In structuring the pages and adapting the skin I’ve tried to retain as much of a genuinely “bloggy” feel to the site – after all it’s NOT simply a news site – and I’ve also made the decision that it’s the right time to shift all the colours away from the Mapfre red that we’ve enjoyed for the last two years and to head off into Rizla Suzuki’s blue territory. Again though, I’ve tried to avoid the obvious – and as it’s NOT a Rizla Suzuki site I’ve avoided simply aping or copying their brand palette and stylings and gone for something that retains an independent aesthetic approach whilst remaining completely sympathetic to the team livery.

Anyway – we’re back and we’re better – hope you like the new lick of paint and the underlying rebuild. There may be further tweaks and adaptations here and there, but hopefully the BatiFan blog is now set to take us into 2010 and beyond as we follow Alvaro on his big MotoGP adventure.

Cheers,
gb

I’ve just completed a marathon creative dev and build that was a one-day intensive project that I’m dead chuffed with. It’s going to require ongoing development and maintenance, but it’s a good cause and totally worth it.

Basically it’s furthering the work of the pimping of Scott Redding’s campaign to get a 2010 Moto2 ride that I publicised previously. It’s a website called “Scott Redding 2010″ and it aims to push publicity and interaction with the cause way beyond Facebook. With the “Scott Redding 2010” project I delivered a website for the Scott Redding Supporters Club to help focus attention on their mission outside of the Facebook environment where it had largely operated before. Whilst over 300 million people use Facebook, over 6.7 billion people use the internet as a whole so it made sense to ensure that the campaign to try and secure Scott a Moto2 ride for the 2010 MotoGP season reached as broad an audience as possible.

The site will serve as an ongoing news magazine to cover events and fundraising activities run by the Supporters Club, to ensure as many internet users as possible find out about the cause and to enable easy access to instant online donation mechanisms.
Like I say, a good cause, and hopefully one that will engage all those many potential fans and supporters who don’t use Facebook.

Please share the news and the link, and ideally make a donation too if you can – Scott’s a superb rider and *anything* that can be done to move his career forward is a good cause.

As readers will know, although this is fundamentally an Alvaro-related blog it’s a place where I’ll occasionally go off-topic to help promote a worthy cause.
And if you have a couple of minutes, then that’s what I’ll do now…

It has been announced that there will be a fundraising event early next year which aims to raise money to help top Brit talent Scott Redding get some kind of Moto2 ride for 2010.

Scott, who’s had a bit of pig of a final 125cc season really – a rough and undeservedly unrewarding time for someone so hugely gifted and committed – so far has nothing lined up, and as I’m also the boss of MotoGP Brits I’ll take this opportunity to spread the word and pimp the fundraiser, and to say that I hope sincerely that the event can help make a serious contribution to supporting his efforts.

The Fundraising event will take place at Bransons Motorcycles in Gloucester and will include an auction where they will be auctioning off his helmet, leathers, gloves,boots and other items. Scott will be there to meet people and sign autographs. Tickets are £10 and can be purchased through the Scott Redding supporters club on Facebook or can be purchased on the day.

Click here for more information on the Facebook group page…

Please help support one of our top Brit riders in pursuing his career!

FULL DETAILS:

Scott Redding supporters club fundraiser.
Date – Saturday 16 January
Time – 17:30 to 23:00
Location – Bransons Motorcycles,
12-14 Spinnnaker Rd,
Hempsted,
Gloucester, GL2 5FD

The latest provisional 2010 MotoGP calendar has been announced by the FIM (Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme).

The newest version of the 2010 Grand Prix schedule includes a number of changes to the calendar to avoid any clashes with other events on the worldwide stage. The season will begin in April when the first event will be a night race at Losail in Qatar.

Date – Grand Prix – Circuit:
11 April – Qatar* – Losail
25 April – Japan – Motegi
2 May – Spain – Jerez
23 May – France – Le Mans
6 June – Italy – Mugello
20 June – Great Britain – Silverstone
26 June – Netherlands** – Assen
4 July – Catalunya – Catalunya
18 July – Germany – Sachsenring
25 July – United States*** – Laguna Seca
22 August – Czech Republic – Brno
29 August – Indianapolis – Indianapolis
5  September – San Marino & Riviera di Rimini – Misano
19 September – Hungary – Balatonring
10 October – Malaysia – Sepang
17 October – Australia – Phillip Island
31 October – Portugal – Estoril
7 November – Valencia – Ricardo Tormo Valencia

* Evening Race
** Saturday Race
*** Only MotoGP class

In the event that one of the circuits is not able to comply with the requirements to hold the scheduled Grand Prix, the Motorland Aragon Circuit in Spain would host a reserve ‘event’ on the same day.

A day back from the Spain trip and I’ve finally put live the new build of the www.TeamAspar.net website, which replaces the old blog page. Now that the team is getting bigger and expanding into the top class of MotoGP I reckoned that we needed to build a completely custom website – a fully-featured and content-managed solution.
That’s now been done, and all the old content from here has been imported, and you can find the new site at www.TeamAspar.net though the old blog will remain online as an archive for a while at least.

Hope you like the new site.
Cheers,
gb

Post-race Brno and Alvaro is confirmed by Suzuki as riding for them in the top class of MotoGP for the next two years.
Here’s their statement…

“Suzuki Motor Corporation is pleased to announce that Spaniard Alvaro Bautista will be joining its official MotoGP team in a two year agreement, to contest the 2010 and 2011 MotoGP World Championships…
Suzuki is very pleased to have achieved the signing of one of the brightest young stars in Grand Prix racing and looks forward to developing a strong relationship and exciting races with Alvaro Bautista.”

We’ll aim to bring you more quotes and reaction as it emerges, both here and on the BatiFans Forum where you can expect much discussion on the matter.