Wikipedia

Pons Racing

Pons Racing was a motorcycle and auto racing team owned by the British company Pons Racing UK Limited. The team principal is former 250 cc world champion, Sito Pons. In motorcycle road racing world championships, Pons has fielded riders such as Alex Barros, Max Biaggi, Loris Capirossi and Sete Gibernau. In auto racing, his team won the 2004 World Series by Nissan championship with driver Heikki Kovalainen.

Pons Racing
BaseLondon, UK
Riders' ChampionshipsMoto2:
2013: Pol Espargaró
MotoE:
2020: Jordi Torres
2021: Jordi Torres
2023: Mattia Casadei
Teams' ChampionshipsMoto2:
2019
MotoE:
2023
Founded1992
Former seriesFormula Renault 3.5 Series
Teams'
Championships		2004 World Series by Nissan
Drivers'
Championships		2004 World Series by Nissan (Kovalainen)
Websitewww.ponsracing.com

At the end of 2023, the team officially left Grand Prix motorcycle racing as a whole.[1]

History edit

500cc (1992 - 2001) edit

2001

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

MotoGP (2002 - 2005) edit

2002 edit

Both Barros and Capirossi remained in the team with the factory-spec NSR500 in the year where 990cc four-stroke machinery made their debut in the top class.[1]

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 filled Capirossi's seat in Donington and Sachsenring, finished 10th in his home race.[2]

Alex Barros was given the four-stroke 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.

2003 edit

Honda Pons entered a new chapter in team's history, with R. J. Reynolds's Camel cigarettes became team's title sponsor.[3] Max Biaggi joined the team from factory Yamaha team, while HRC moved Tohru Ukawa from Repsol Honda.[2] Both riders rode the customer-spec 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 career.[4]

2004 edit

Max Biaggi remained in the team, joined by Makoto Tamada as Pons and Pramac Racing collaborate as one team. Due to the agreement, Tamada raced with Bridgestone tires, while Biaggi remained with Michelin.[3]

The team's technical director Antonio Cobas passed away in Barcelona just days before the opening round in South Africa.[5] Max Biaggi finished the race in second place after battled with Valentino Rossi 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 edit

The agreement with Pramac ended as the company switched to D'Antin Racing as title sponsor, while Camel remained in the team. Alex Barros returned to the team after spending the last two seasons with Tech3 and Repsol Honda respectively, along with Troy Bayliss 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 accident.[6] Tohru Ukawa, Shane Byrne, Chris Vermeulen and Ryuichi Kiyonari filled Bayliss's seat for the remainder of the season. Both Barros and Bayliss moved to Superbike World Championship at the end of the season

Pons signed Carlos Checa and Australian rookie Casey Stoner for the 2006 season. However, the team lost their title sponsor Camel, who moved to Yamaha, forcing the team to withdraw from MotoGP after 25 seasons in the sport.[4] Checa ended up moved to Tech 3, while Lucio Cecchinello's LCR Team secured the lease of one of the RC211V and signed Stoner.

250cc / Moto2 (2009 - present) edit

 
Miguel Molina 2007 WSBR

Results edit

Motorcycle racing edit

Year Class Team name Motorcycle Riders Races Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points Pos.
1992 500cc Campsa Honda Pons Honda NSR500   Àlex Crivillé 1 1 59 8th
1993 500cc Marlboro Honda Pons Honda NSR500   Àlex Crivillé 0 2 117 8th
250cc Honda NSR250   Alberto Puig 0 2 106 9th
1994 500cc Ducados Honda Pons Honda NSR500   Alberto Puig 0 1 152 5th
1995 500cc Fortuna Honda Pons Honda NSR500   Alberto Puig 1 3 99 8th
  Carlos Checa 0 0 26 16th
250cc Honda NSR250   Carlos Checa 0 0 45 13th
  Rubén Xaus 0 0 0 NC
  Sete Gibernau 0 0 0 NC
1996 500cc Fortuna Honda Pons Honda NSR500   Alberto Puig 0 1 93 11th
  Carlos Checa 1 3 124 8th
1997 500cc Movistar Honda Pons Honda NSR500   Alberto Puig 0 0 63 12th
  Carlos Checa 0 3 119 8th
1998 500cc Movistar Honda Pons Honda NSR500   Carlos Checa 11 1 3 1 1 139 4th
  John Kocinski 11 0 0 0 0 64 12th
  Juan Borja 1 (12)[a] 0 0 0 0 0 (3)[a] 32nd
  Gregorio Lavilla 1 0 0 0 0 5 27th
1999 500cc Movistar Honda Pons Honda NSR500   Alex Barros 16 0 1 0 2 110 9th
  Juan Borja 16 0 0 0 0 92 12th
2000 500cc Emerson Honda Pons Honda NSR500   Alex Barros 16 2 3 3 1 163 4th
  Loris Capirossi 16 1 4 1 2 154 7th
2001 500cc West Honda Pons Honda NSR500   Alex Barros 16 1 4 0 0 182 4th
  Loris Capirossi 16 0 9 4 1 210 3rd
2002 MotoGP West Honda Pons Honda NSR500
Honda RC211V 		  Alex Barros 16 2 6 1 2 204 4th
  Loris Capirossi 14 0 2 0 0 109 8th
  Alex Hofmann 2 (4)[a] 0 0 0 0 6 (11)[a] 22nd
2003 MotoGP Camel Pramac Pons Honda RC211V   Max Biaggi 16 2 9 3 1 228 3rd
  Tohru Ukawa 16 0 0 0 0 123 8th
2004 MotoGP Camel Honda Honda RC211V   Max Biaggi 16 1 9 1 3 217 3rd
  Makoto Tamada 16 2 3 3 2 150 6th
2005 MotoGP Camel Honda Honda RC211V   Alex Barros 17 1 2 1 2 147 8th
  Troy Bayliss 11 0 0 0 0 54 15th
  Chris Vermeulen 2 0 0 0 0 10 21st
  Shane Byrne 2 (11)[a] 0 0 0 0 5 (6)[a] 24th
  Ryuichi Kiyonari 1 0 0 0 0 4 25th
  Tohru Ukawa 1 (2)[a] 0 0 0 0 0 (1)[a] 27th
2009 250cc Pepe World Team Aprilia RSA 250   Héctor Barberá 16 3 7 4 1 239 2nd
Aprilia RSW 250 LE   Axel Pons 16 0 0 0 0 3 26th
2010 Moto2 Tenerife 40 Pons Kalex Moto2   Sergio Gadea 17 0 1 0 0 67 17th
  Axel Pons 14 0 0 0 0 7 33rd
  Carmelo Morales 1 (3)[a] 0 0 0 0 0 NC
  Damian Cudlin 1 0 0 0 0 9 31st
2011 Moto2 Pons HP 40 Kalex Moto2   Aleix Espargaró 17 0 1 0 0 76 12th
  Axel Pons 12 0 0 0 0 1 32nd
  Alex Baldolini 3 (14)[a] 0 0 0 0 0 (18)[a] 27th
2012 Moto2 Pons 40 HP Tuenti

Tuenti Móvil HP 40

Kalex Moto2   Pol Espargaró 17 4 11 8 3 268 2nd
  Esteve Rabat 17 0 1 0 0 114 7th
  Axel Pons 17 0 0 0 0 10 25th
2013 Moto2 Tuenti HP 40 Kalex Moto2   Pol Espargaró 17 6 10 6 4 265 1st
  Esteve Rabat 17 3 7 2 3 216 3rd
  Axel Pons 17 0 0 0 0 6 25th
2014 Moto2 Pons HP 40

Paginas Amarillas HP 40

Kalex Moto2   Luis Salom 18 0 2 0 1 85 8th
  Maverick Viñales 18 4 9 1 5 274 3rd
  Edgar Pons 1 0 0 0 0 0 NC
2015 Moto2 Paginas Amarillas HP 40 Kalex Moto2   Luis Salom 17 0 0 0 0 80 13th
  Álex Rins 18 2 10 3 4 234 2nd
Pons Racing Junior Team   Edgar Pons 3 (8) 0 0 0 0 0 NC
  Luca Marini 1 0 0 0 0 0 NC
2016 Moto2 Páginas Amarillas HP 40 Kalex Moto2   Álex Rins 18 2 7 1 3 214 3rd
  Edgar Pons 14 0 0 0 0 4 31st
2017 Moto2 Pons HP40 Kalex Moto2   Fabio Quartararo 18 0 0 0 0 64 13th
  Edgar Pons 18 0 0 0 0 2 34th
2018 Moto2 Pons HP40 Kalex Moto2   Lorenzo Baldassarri 19 1 5 2 3 162 5th
  Héctor Barberá 6 0 0 0 0 10 23rd
  Augusto Fernández 12 0 0 0 1 45 18th
2019 Moto2 Flexbox HP40 Kalex Moto2   Lorenzo Baldassarri 19 3 3 0 1 171 7th
  Augusto Fernández 17 3 5 1 3 207 5th
  Mattia Pasini 10 (11) 0 0 0 0 20 35th
MotoE Join Contract Pons 40 Energica Ego Corsa   Sete Gibernau 6 0 0 0 0 38 11th
2020 Moto2 Flexbox HP40 Kalex Moto2   Lorenzo Baldassarri 15 0 1 0 0 71 12th
  Héctor Garzó 15 0 1 0 2 63 16th
MotoE Pons Racing 40 Energica Ego Corsa   Jordi Torres 7 1 4 2 1 114  1st 
2021 Moto2 Flexbox HP40 Kalex Moto2   Héctor Garzó 16 0 0 0 0 16 23rd
  Stefano Manzi 18 0 0 0 0 36 19th
  Alonso López 1 (4) 0 0 0 0 4 30th
MotoE Pons Racing 40
HP Pons 40 		Energica Ego Corsa   Jordi Torres 7 1 4 1 0 100  1st 
  Jasper Iwema 7 0 0 0 0 13 17th
2022 Moto2 Flexbox HP40 Kalex Moto2   Jorge Navarro 18 0 1 0 0 83 14th
  Arón Canet 19 0 8 3 2 200  3rd 
  Borja Gómez 2 0 0 0 0 4 31st
MotoE Pons Racing 40 Energica Ego Corsa   Mattia Casadei 12 2 7 2 1 156 4th
  Jordi Torres 9 0 0 0 0 65 11th
  Massimo Roccoli 2 0 0 0 0 6 21st
2023 Moto2 Pons Wegow Los40 Kalex Moto2   Sergio García 20 0 0 0 0 84 15th
  Arón Canet 20 0 7 3 0 195 5th
MotoE HP Pons Los40 Ducati V21L   Nicholas Spinelli 16 1 4 0 0 150 6th
  Mattia Casadei 16 5 10 2 4 260  1st 
Notes

* Season still in progress.

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Non-bracketed number refers to the number accumulated with team, with number in brackets referring to the total accumulated for the season.

Formula Renault 3.5 Series edit

Year Team name Drivers Races Wins Podiums Poles F. laps Points Pos.
2013   Pons Racing   Zoël Amberg 17 0 0 0 0 8 24th
  Nikolay Martsenko 17 0 0 0 0 20 20th
2014   Pons Racing   Oliver Webb 5 0 0 0 0 0 26th
  Meindert van Buuren 17 0 0 0 1 21 19th
  Óscar Tunjo 12 0 0 0 0 11 22nd
2015   Pons Racing   Philo Paz Armand 9 0 0 0 0 1 26th
  Roberto Merhi 8 0 1 0 0 26 14th
  Alex Fontana 1 0 0 0 0 2 24th
  Meindert van Buuren 2 (9)[a] 0 0 0 0 (1)[a] 0 (20)[a] 15th
  Will Bratt 2 0 0 0 0 0 27th
  Yu Kanamaru 6 0 0 0 0 9 18th
  René Binder 2 0 0 0 0 4 22nd
  Nikita Zlobin 4 0 0 0 0 0 28th

Notes edit

  1. ^ a b c Non-bracketed number refers to the number accumulated with team, with number in brackets referring to the total accumulated for the season.

References edit

  1. ^ "PONS Racing closes a stage as Sito Pons faces a new era". MotoGP.com. Dorna Sports. 26 August 2023. Retrieved 16 October 2023.
  2. ^ Sports, Dorna. "Tohru Ukawa joins Honda Pons for the 2003 season | MotoGP™". www.motogp.com. Retrieved 2023-04-05.
  3. ^ Sports, Dorna. "Camel Honda announce official line-up | MotoGP™". www.motogp.com. Retrieved 2023-04-03.
  4. ^ Sports, Dorna. "Pons pulls out of MotoGP | MotoGP™". www.motogp.com. Retrieved 2023-04-03.

External links edit

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