Grand Prix motorcycle racing is the highest class of motorcycle road racing events held on road circuits sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM). Independent motorcycle racing events have been held since the start of the twentieth century and large national events were often given the title Grand Prix. The foundation of the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme as the international governing body for motorcycle sport in 1949 provided the opportunity to coordinate rules and regulations in order that selected events could count towards official World Championships. It is the oldest established motorsport world championship.
Aprilia is an Italian motorcycle manufacturer founded immediately after World War II in Noale, Italy, by Alberto Beggio. The company started as a manufacturer of bicycles and moved on to manufacture scooters and small-capacity motorcycles. In more recent times Aprilia has produced large sportbikes such as the 1,000 cc V-twin RSV Mille and the V4 RSV4.
MicroProse is an American video game publisher and developer founded by Bill Stealey, Sid Meier, and Andy Hollis in 1982. It developed and published numerous games, including starting the Civilization and X-COM series. Most of their internally developed titles were vehicle simulation and strategy games.
Geoff Crammond is a computer game designer and programmer who specialises in motor racing games. A former defence industry systems engineer, he claims to have had little interest in motor racing before programming his first racing game (Revs) back in 1984, but he holds a physics degree, which may explain the realism of some of his programming. As a consequence of that project he became a big fan of Formula One motor racing. At the end of the 80s, this interest, plus the ever improving capabilities of home computers, inspired him to specialise in programming Formula One racing simulations.
Telecomsoft was a British video game publisher and a division of British Telecom. The company was founded by Ederyn Williams in 1984 and operated three separate labels: Firebird, Rainbird, and Silverbird. The first employee was James Leavey, seconded from elsewhere in BT, who, along with Tony Rainbird, became the driving force behind the company in the early days.
Stunt Car Racer is a racing video game developed by Geoff Crammond. It was published in 1989 by MicroProse, under their MicroStyle and MicroPlay labels in the United Kingdom and in the United States, respectively. The game pits two racers on an elevated track on which they race in a head-to-head competition, with ramps they must correctly drive off as the main obstacle.
Ilmor is a British independent high-performance motor racing engineering company. It was founded by Mario Illien and Paul Morgan in November 1983. With manufacturing based in Brixworth, Northamptonshire, and maintenance offices in Plymouth, Michigan, the company supplies engines and consultancy to the IndyCar Series and MotoGP.
Scalextric is a brand of slot car racing sets which first appeared in the late 1950s. The Scalextric were first invented by engineer B. Fred Francis, when he added an electric motor to the Scalex tin cars that were produced by Minimodels Ltd, his own company The first "Scalextric" were first made in Havant, Hampshire, in 1956. Hornby Hobbies acquired the company in 1968.
Cagiva is an Italian motorcycle manufacturer. It was founded in 1950 by Giovanni Castiglioni in Varese, originally producing small metal components. Giovanni's sons, Claudio and Gianfranco Castiglioni, went into the motorcycle industry in 1978. The name is a portmanteau derived from the founder's name 'Giovanni Castiglioni' and the founding location, i.e. Castiglioni Giovanni Varese.
Grand Prix 2, released in North America as "Grand Prix II", is a racing simulator released by MicroProse in 1996. It is a sequel to Formula One Grand Prix. It was made under an official FIA license that featured the Formula One 1994 season, with all of the circuits, teams, drivers and cars. The cars were painted with liveries reflecting the races that did not allow tobacco and alcohol sponsors.
Formula One Grand Prix is a racing simulator released in 1991 by MicroProse for the Amiga, Atari ST and PC created by game designer Geoff Crammond. It is often referred to as Grand Prix 1, MicroProse Grand Prix, or just F1GP. Although the game itself was not affiliated officially with the FIA or any Formula One drivers, team liveries and driver helmets were accurate to represent the 1991 season, but the names were fictional. The game is a simulation of Formula One racing at the time and was noted for its 3D graphics, remarkably high framerate and attention to detail, in particular the player's ability to edit the teams and drivers and set up their car to their own personal specifications. The game was ranked the 27th best game of all time by Amiga Power. Grand Prix's success spawned three sequels, called Grand Prix 2, Grand Prix 3 and Grand Prix 4.
Grand Prix 4, commonly known as GP4 is a Formula One racing simulator game co-developed by Geoff Crammond's development studio Simergy and Infogrames' Chippenham development studio, and published by Infogrames. Released for the PC on June 21, 2002, and is the last entry in Crammond's Grand Prix series, and the last entry released under the MicroProse label. Based on the 2001 Formula One season, GP4 is a huge graphical and physics upgrade from the previous version, Grand Prix 3 which had been released in 2000.
John "Hopper" Hopkins is a former motorcycle road racer based in the United States. During 2017 he raced in the British Superbike Championship aboard a Ducati 1199 Panigale for Moto Rapido Racing, but suffered injuries from a crash at the season-finale race meeting in October, meaning he could not participate during 2018. He has not made a full recovery, which has so far precluded hopes of a comeback, but he has become involved in rider coaching.
Loris Capirossi 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.
The 2005 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season was the 57th F.I.M. Road racing World Championship season. The season consisted out of 17 races for the MotoGP class and 16 for the 125cc and 250cc classes, beginning with the Spanish motorcycle Grand Prix on 10 April and ending with the Valencian Community motorcycle Grand Prix on 6 November.
Civilization is a series of turn-based strategy video games, first released in 1991. Sid Meier developed the first game in the series and has had creative input for most of the rest, and his name is usually included in the formal title of these games, such as Sid Meier's Civilization VI. There are six main games in the series, a number of expansion packs and spin-off games, as well as board games inspired by the video game series. The series is considered a formative example of the 4X genre, in which players achieve victory through four routes: "eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate".
Grand Prix Manager (GPM) is a Formula 1 management game released in December 1995 by MicroProse. It featured the 1995 Formula 1 season.
Pramac Racing is a motorcycle racing team competing in the MotoGP World Championship. The team was created in 2002 by Italian company Pramac. In 2005 Pramac Racing joined forces with Spanish d'Antin MotoGP to form "Pramac d'Antin" and in 2007 the team became part of the Pramac Group. After Luis d'Antin left the team in 2008, the team became known as "Pramac Racing". Their base is in Casole d'Elsa, Tuscany, Italy.
Spirit of Speed 1937 is a racing video game developed by Broadsword Interactive. The game was originally released in 1999 exclusively in Europe by Hasbro Interactive, who released the game under the MicroProse brand name. In 2000, the game was ported to the Dreamcast, and was published by Acclaim Entertainment under the LJN banner, five years after LJN was shut down by Acclaim. This version saw a North American release, and was released there on June 27, 2000. Spirit of Speed 1937 takes gamers back to the 1930s when motorsports were in their infancy and drivers raced for the thrill of speed, the danger, and the glamor that came with it.
