Valentino Rossi to launch 'VR46' Moto3 team in 2014

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Valentino Rossi to start 'VR46' Moto3 team with sponsorship from Sky Italia, running KTM machinery and Romano Fenati as one of the riders.

Valentino Rossi-backed Moto3 team now confirmed as having filed an entry for the 2014 World Championship.

Valentino Rossi is to start a Moto3 team, running Romano Fenati and possibly half-brother Luca Marini on KTM machinery in 2014.

Rumours that Rossi would become involved in a Moto3 team have been circling for months.

But in August the seven time MotoGP champion insisted the plan was just to start a 'VR46 Riders Academy', to help support young Italian racers, rather than an actual team.

However Italy's SportMediaset reports that the Italian Federation will no longer field the San Carlo-backed Team Italia squad next year, leaving 2012 race winner Fenati in need of a team.

Italy's Sky TV will sponsor the new VR46 project, while KTM machines are also confirmed - and an obvious choice, having won every Moto3 grand prix so far this year.

"We have joined forces with Sky in order to give the Italian riders the opportunity to be competitive and reach the highest levels," said Rossi.

The identity of Fenati's team-mate is not yet known, but Rossi's half-brother Marini is unsurprisingly being tipped as a possibility. Marini - currently second in the Italian Moto3 championship - made his grand prix debut as a wild-card last time at Misano, but fell at the first turn.

Teams wishing to enter next year's Moto2 or Moto3 World Championships submitted their requests at the San Marino Grand Prix. Further details on the 2014 entries will be made available after the next selection meeting at the Malaysian Grand Prix, in October.

However the official MotoGP website has confirmed that the new VR46/Sky team "has already forwarded an official entry application to MotoGP governing body the FIM and commercial rights holder Dorna Sports in order to participate in the Moto3 class."

Original post found on: http://www.crash.net/motogp/news/196127/1/valentino-rossi-to-launch-vr46-moto3-team-in-2014.html

Valentino Rossi and Sky

From the start of next year, Valentino Rossi will be working alongside Sky Italia - the Italian MotoGP™ broadcaster from 2014 - in order to nurture new talents in the Moto3™ category of the World Championship.

Starting with 2014, Rossi will contribute towards a project which will focus on propelling the careers of young riders on international circuits. This comes after a deal was struck between Sky and VR46, the company owned by the nine-time World Champion.

The team, of which Sky will be the principal sponsor, will race with KTM machinery and has already forwarded an official entry application to MotoGP™ governing body the FIM and commercial rights holder Dorna Sports in order to participate in the Moto3™ class.

Romano Fenati will be a rider as he continues his quest of attempting to climb to the top of the World Championship. "We have joined forces with Sky in order to give the Italian riders the opportunity to be competitive and reach the highest levels," says Rossi.

Earlier this year, it was announced that Sky Italia had acquired television rights to the FIM MotoGP™ World Championship starting with the 2014 season, offering coverage across all Sky platforms including FTA TV, pay TV, internet, mobile and Sky Go.

The memory of Valentino Rossi for Marco Simoncelli - 6 Hours ago in Sepang.

Sepang: Red, 4th arrival at the finish line reminds Simoncelli 

On the track in October of 2011 saw the death of Sic, Smith recalls the pilot friend doing a lap of honor after the race with the flag with the number 58. 

Sepang: Red, 4th arrival at the finish line reminds Simoncelli.

It was certainly a good day for Valentino Rossi, 4th arrival, which in the Grand Prix at Sepang was always watching from the first to the twentieth lap his team-mate Jorge Lorenzo and the two Honda riders compete for the podium. And to say that in practice, and especially in qualifying, the Doctor had done well for a few minutes savoring even the pole position, then faded due dell'indiavolato Marquez. Then, in the race, the almost absolute anonymity for a distant fourth place in the first three, the son of a difficult morning began with a fall during the warm-up to a few hours from the start.

The tribute to Sic - Yet, as often happens to the sample of Tavullia, anonymous one day turns into a moment at a time, however, to remember. Why the finish line, while Pedrosa celebrated an encore in Malaysia after last year's win, Marquez put his head in front of Lorenzo, stretching a little 'over defending champion Yamaha's Valentino cut out their own space on the circuit by waving the Malaysian flag he remembered his friend Simoncelli, who died October 23, 2011 on this track. On 18 October last year, during the race weekend of the Malaysian Grand Prix, riders and the MotoGP paddock had affixed a commemorative plaque at Turn 11 of the Sepang circuit where Simoncelli lost his life.This year we thought Rossi, the usual great champion off the track.