MotoGP: Damian Cudlin To Paul Bird’s MotoGP Team

Cycle News Staff | September 23, 2013
  Damian Cudlin will fill in for Yonny Hernandez on the PBR team in MotoGP.

Australian Damian Cudlin will replace Yonny Hernandez on the Paul Bird Racing CRT team for this weekend’s Aragon MotoGP and his home Grand Prix at Phillip Island, the team announced this morning.

Cudlin, who has raced in both the World Endurance and the German Superbike Championship this season, raced in the 2011 Japanese MotoGP with Pramac Racing and competed in Moto2 at both Assen and the Sachsenring in 2012.

Hernandez, meanwhile, has been released from his contract with the PBM team so he can take over Ben Spies’ Pramac Ducati for the rest of the 2013 MotoGP World Championship.

Brit Michael Laverty, who has campaigned the CRT-specification PBM machine all season, will switch to the Aprilia ART machine for the remainder of the season. The former British Supersport Champion tested the machine at Misano last week and is hoping to improve the team’s results in the final five GPs.

“PBM are looking forward to working with Damian at the Aragon and Phillip Island GPs where he will race the PBM bikes,” said Phil Borley, the team’s technical director. “With his experience and knowledge, we hope to continue the development of our bike and have a positive weekend together. Unfortunately, we will not have the chance to test before the race and so the first sessions will be important for Damian to acclimatize to the bike, the Bridgestone tires and carbon brakes. Our target will be to improve Damian’s feeling in each session and give him a bike he is confident to race. Michael will switch to the ART bikes for the next races, as his feeling was positive when he tested them after the Misano race and we are interested to see if we can improve on our recent results.”