Bold new Chinese Racing bid unveiled

As with Honda half a century earlier, the driving force behind the racing project is company founder (and current factory CEO) Mr Taiwai Wong. Wong founded GRG, and has guided it to its present prominence. “I believe we are now ready to put ourselves to the ultimate test of world racing,” he said. “This is the first step towards a full world championship racing programme. I have been thinking about the MotoGP series for some time, and now, as the company moves forward into the world market, we must have the courage to challenge at the highest level of motorcycle racing.

“We begin by sharing technology with our experienced western consultants and we will then introduce our own engineers to the project. The eventual aim is for full factory participation in racing and the integration of the new technology from racing into our products,” said Wong.

“Having achieved the highest standards for our current domestic range, Haojue decided to look to international racing to extend our technical knowledge and experience, and to bring our company and our engineering quality to international attention,” said the CEO of GRG.

The team evolves

During the following two years, operating as consultants to the Chinese project leaders, the England-based partnership assembled the components and personnel for a serious World Championship challenge. Witteveen was enlisted to design the power unit and British motorcycle construction specialists Harris Performance Products were commissioned to do the same on the chassis side. Chassis manufacturer and racing supplier Harris Performance Products is an internationally renowned specialist racing and performance company, with long roots in MotoGP, as well as every other form of motorcycle racing. The initial bodywork has yet to be wind tunnel tested, so major revisions are likely as the bike evolves.

Jan Witteveen – the Engine Designer

The expertise behind the engine design is possibly the most exciting part of the all-star cast assembled for the project. The Dutch engineer has been intimately involved with the development of the racing two-stroke engine for more than three decades and is unquestionably one of the masters of two-stroke engine design. His is the foremost name in two-stroke engine design and development in the world, having won 40 world championships (off-road and road racing) including the machines that still currently dominate the 125 and 250 classes of world championship level racing. Witteveen was technical director of road racing at Aprilia from 1989 until 2004.

Aprilia was then making a name for itself, and Witteveen became a key component of subsequent success, designing parallel and V-twin 250 engines and single-cylinder 125 engines that have in turn been a mainstay of the rostrums and championship tables of the smaller classes.

...continued