MotoGP: Cal Crutchlow Out At Ducati
Paul Carruthers | August 2, 2014
Photography by Gold & Goose
It’s official: Cal Crutchlow is out at Ducati, the Brit getting released from the second year of his two-year contract so he can join the LCR Honda team for the 2015 MotoGP World Championship.
“Ducati Corse announced today that it has reached an agreement with its factory rider Cal Crutchlow to terminate, ahead of time, the contract that ties the British rider to the Italian team in MotoGP for 2014 and also for next season,” a brief press release from Ducati stated this morning.
Ducati also announced that its two factory riders for 2015 will be Andrea Dovizioso and Andrea Iannone, giving Ducati an all-Italian team for next year.
It was only two weeks ago that Crutchlow told Ducatisti at the World Ducati event that he would be staying for a second year on the Marlboro-backed team. Meanwhile, his manager Bobby Moore was negotiating with Ducati to get him out of the deal so he could join the LCR Honda team, a move that will see him aboard the Honda currently being ridden by German Stefan Bradl. Though Crutchlow missed the July 31 deadline set for him to make his decision, Ducati apparently allowed him more time to make the LCR deal.
Crutchlow has had a miserable year on the factory Ducati, the Brit currently sitting 14th in the MotoGP World Championship after numerous crashes and mechanical failures.
Paul Carruthers | Editor
Paul Carruthers took over as the editor of Cycle News in 1993 after serving as associate editor since starting his career at the publication in 1985. Carruthers has covered every facet of the sport in his near-28-year tenure at America’s Daily Motorcycle News Source.
