Pons Racing was a

motorcycle A motorcycle (motorbike, bike; uni (if one-wheeled); trike (if three-wheeled); quad (if four-wheeled)) is a lightweight private 1-to-2 passenger personal motor vehicle Steering, steered by a Motorcycle handlebar, handlebar from a saddle-style ...

and

auto racing Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. In North America, the term is commonly used to describe all forms of automobile sport including non ...

team owned by the British company Pons Racing UK Limited. The team principal is former 250 cc world champion,

Sito Pons Alfonso Pons Ezquerra (Barcelona 9 November 1959), better known as Sito Pons, is a Spanish former professional Grand Prix motorcycle racer. He studied Architecture at the university of Barcelona, He competed in the FIM motorcycle Grand Prix wo ...

. In motorcycle

road racing Road racing is a North American term to describe motorsport racing held on a paved road surface. The races can be held on a race track, closed circuit—generally, a purpose-built racing facility—or on a street circuit that uses temporarily c ...

world championships, Pons has fielded riders such as

Alex Barros Alexandre Barros (born October 18, 1970) is a Brazilian people, Brazilian former professional motorcycle road racing, road racer who is a 7-time 500cc/MotoGP race winner and also a race winner in Superbike World Championship. After a long Grand P ...

Max Biaggi Massimiliano "Max" Biaggi (; born 26 June 1971) is an Italian former professional Grand Prix motorcycle racing, Grand Prix motorcycle road racer who achieved six World Championships. With four 250 cc road race titles and two in Superbike Wor ...

Loris Capirossi Loris Capirossi (born 4 April 1973) is an Italian former Grand Prix motorcycle road racer, currently serving as Safety Advisor to Dorna Sports, the commercial rights holder of Grand Prix motorcycle racing. He is a 9-time Premier Class race w ...

and

Sete Gibernau Manuel "Sete" Gibernau Bultó (born 15 December 1972) is a Spanish former professional Grand Prix motorcycle road racer who is a 9-time 500cc/MotoGP race winner and a two-time overall runner-up in and . His racing career spans three different ...

. In auto racing, his team won the

2004 World Series by Nissan The 2004 World Series by Nissan was contested over 9 race weekends/18 rounds. In this one-make formula all drivers had to utilize Dallara chassis (Dallara SN01) and Nissan Motor Co., Ltd., Nissan engines (Nissan VQ). 11 different teams and 31 diff ...

championship with driver

Heikki Kovalainen Heikki Johannes Kovalainen (; born 19 October 1981) is a Finnish auto racing, racing and rally driver, who competed in Formula One from to . Kovalainen won the 2008 Hungarian Grand Prix with McLaren. In sportscar racing, Kovalainen won Super GT ...

. At the end of , the team officially left Grand Prix motorcycle racing as a whole.

History

500cc (1992 - 2001)

2001 The year saw the arrival of new title sponsor in West cigarettes, replacing Emerson Electronics after just one year.

MotoGP (2002 - 2005)

2002

Both Barros and Capirossi remained in the team with the factory-spec

NSR500 1993 Japanese motorcycle Grand Prix">1993 Japanese Grand Prix The Honda NSR500 is a road racing motorcycle created by HRC (Honda Racing Corporation) and debuted in 1984 for the Grand Prix motorcycle racing's 500 cc class. Honda won ten ...

in the year where 990cc four-stroke machinery made their debut in the top clas

West Honda Pons had a solid season with the 500cc bikes where Barros scored two consecutive podiums in Assen and Donington Park, while Capirossi finished third in Welkom before suffered wrist injury in Assen. German

Alex Hofmann Alexander Hofmann (born 25 May 1980) is a retired Grand Prix motorcycle racer, who now works on German television coverage of the sport. He is nicknamed 'The Hoff' in English-speaking countries, a nod to David Hasselhoff. Early years He succes ...

filled Capirossi's seat in Donington and Sachsenring, finished 10th in his home rac

Alex Barros was given the four-stroke Honda RC211V, RC211V in the last four races of the season
the
decision which paid off by finished in top three in those four races, two of them being a victory in Motegi and Valencia, ended the season in fourth place, eleven points behind second placed Max Biaggi. Capirossi scored another podium in Motegi, finished eighth in the final standings. At the end of the season both riders left Honda Pons, along with title sponsor

West West is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some Romance langu ...

2003

Honda Pons entered a new chapter in team's history, with

R. J. Reynolds Richard Joshua Reynolds (July 20, 1850 – July 29, 1918) was an American businessman and founder of the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. The son of a tobacco farmer and major slaveowner, he worked for his father and attended Emory & Henry Col ...

Camel A camel (from and () from Ancient Semitic: ''gāmāl'') is an even-toed ungulate in the genus ''Camelus'' that bears distinctive fatty deposits known as "humps" on its back. Camels have long been domesticated and, as livestock, they provid ...

cigarettes became team's title sponso

joined the team from factory Yamaha Factory Racing, Yamaha team, while HRC moved

Tohru Ukawa (born May 18, 1973) is a former Grand Prix motorcycle road racer from Japan. Ukawa began his Grand Prix career in 1994, racing in the 250cc world championships. He finished second to Valentino Rossi in the 1999 World Championship. In 2002, he ...

from Repsol Honda. Both riders rode the customer-spec Honda RC211V, RC211V. Biaggi won 2 races in Donington Park (After Rossi got 10-seconds time penalty for yellow flag infringement) and Motegi en route to third place in the standings, while Ukawa ended the season in eight place before demoted to factory testing role with Honda, ended his full time Grand Prix caree

2004

remained in the team, joined by

Makoto Tamada (born November 4, 1976, in Matsuyama, Ehime Prefecture, Japan) is a former Japanese professional motorcycle racer currently working as a rider instructor at Suzuka Racing School. He is one of the few riders to win races in both MotoGP and Superb ...

as Pons and

Pramac Racing Pramac Racing is a motorcycle racing team competing in the MotoGP World Championship based in Casole d'Elsa, Tuscany, Italy. History d'Antin MotoGP The d'Antin MotoGP Team was created in 1999 by Spanish former motorcycle racer Luis d'Antin an ...

collaborate as one team. Due to the agreement, Tamada raced with

Bridgestone is a Japanese multinational manufacturing company founded in 1931 by Shojiro Ishibashi (18891976) in the city of Kurume, Fukuoka Prefecture, Fukuoka, Japan. The name Bridgestone comes from a calque translation and transposition of (), meaning ...

tires, while Biaggi remained with

Michelin Michelin ( , ), in full ("General Company of the Michelin Enterprises P.L.S."), is a French multinational tyre manufacturing company based in Clermont-Ferrand in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes '' région'' of France. It is the second largest t ...

. The team's technical director

Antonio Cobas Antonio Cobas (Barcelona 1952 – April 14, 2004) was a Spanish Grand Prix motorcycle designer, constructor and mechanic who built world championship winning motorcycles. Cobas was credited with being the originator of the modern, aluminum frame ch ...

died in Barcelona just days before the opening round in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

br>
Max Biaggi finished the race in second place after battled with

Valentino Rossi Valentino Rossi ( ; ; born 16 February 1979) is an Italian racing driver, former professional motorcycle road racer and nine-time Grand Prix motorcycle racing World Champion. Nicknamed "the Doctor", Rossi is widely considered one of the greate ...

throughout the race. Camel Honda then won two races in a row in Brazil and Germany courtesy of Tamada and Biaggi respectively, with Tamada's victory was the first for Bridgestone in MotoGP. Tamada scored another win in Motegi en route to sixth place in the standings, while Biaggi ended the year in the same way he finished 2003, in third place.

2005

The agreement with Pramac ended as the company switched to D'Antin Racing as title sponsor, while Camel remained in the team.

returned to the team after spending the last two seasons with

Tech3 Tech3 is a motorcycle racing team competing in the MotoGP World Championship under the name Red Bull KTM Tech3 in the MotoGP and Moto3 categories. History The team was founded in 1990 by ex-racer Hervé Poncharal, engineer Guy Coulon, and Be ...

and

Repsol Honda Honda HRC Castrol is the official factory team of the Honda Racing Corporation in the MotoGP class of Grand Prix motorcycle racing (World Championship road racing), formally backed by principal sponsor Repsol for 30 years until the end of 2024 ...

respectively, along with

Troy Bayliss Troy Andrew Bayliss (born 30 March 1969 in Taree, New South Wales, Australia) is an Australian motorcycle racer. During his career Bayliss won the Superbike World Championship three times and a MotoGP race, all with Ducati. He finished his care ...

who left Ducati. Barros winning in Portugal along with 11 top-10 finishes, finished 8th in the standings. Bayliss scored 5 top-10 finishes in 11 races, however his season was cut short when he injured his wrist in a motocross acciden

, Shane Byrne (motorcyclist), Shane Byrne,

Chris Vermeulen Christopher Vermeulen (born 19 June 1982) is a retired Australian motorcycle racer. He competed in the Supersport World Championship and the Superbike World Championship before racing in the premier Grand Prix motorcycle racing#MotoGP class, Mot ...

and

Ryuichi Kiyonari (born September 23, 1982 in Saitama, Japan) is a professional motorcycle road racer. He previously rode a Honda CBR1000RR in the MFJ All-Japan Road Race JSB1000 Championship. He was the 2006, 2007 and 2010 British Superbike champion and en ...

filled Bayliss's seat for the remainder of the season. Both Barros and Bayliss moved to

Superbike World Championship Superbike World Championship (also known as WorldSBK, SBK, World Superbike, WSB, or WSBK) is a silhouette road racing series based on heavily modified production sports motorcycles. The championship was founded in . The Superbike World Champion ...

at the end of the season Pons signed

Carlos Checa Carlos Checa Carrera (born 15 October 1972) is a Spanish former professional motorcycle road racer and winner of the 2011 Superbike World Championship. After racing in 500 cc and MotoGP for over a decade, mostly on Honda and Yamaha machine ...

and Australian rookie

Casey Stoner Casey Joel Stoner (born 16 October 1985) is an Australian retired professional motorcycle racer, and a two-time MotoGP World Champion, in and . During his MotoGP career, Stoner raced for the factory teams of Ducati and Honda, winning a tit ...

for the 2006 season. However, the team lost their title sponsor

, who moved to Yamaha, forcing the team to withdraw from MotoGP after 25 seasons in the sport. Checa ended up moved to Tech 3, while

Lucio Cecchinello Lucio Cecchinello (born 21 October 1969) is an Italian former professional Motorcycle racing, motorcycle racer who manages his own motorcycle racing team. He competed in Grand Prix motorcycle racing from 1993 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season, ...

LCR Team LCR Team is a motorcycle racing team competing in the MotoGP World Championship under the name Castrol Honda LCR with rider Johann Zarco and Idemitsu Honda LCR with rider Somkiat Chantra, as well as the MotoE World Cup under the name LCR E-Tea ...

secured the lease of one of the RC211V and signed Stoner.

250cc / Moto2 (2009 - present)

Results

Motorcycle racing

;Notes * Season still in progress.

Formula Renault 3.5 Series

Notes

References

External links

* {{Moto2 World Teams' Champions Spanish auto racing teams Motorcycle racing teams World Series Formula V8 3.5 teams Formula Renault Eurocup teams Auto racing teams established in 1992 1992 establishments in Spain Motorcycle racing teams established in 1992 Motorcycle racing teams disestablished in 2023