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Coinciding with the new 1000cc regulation in the MotoGP class, a new breed of race machine inthe form of Claiming Rule Teams, otherwise known as CRTs, will debut in MotoGP competition in2012.

The formation of this new initiative is to help increase privateer entries in the premier class byallowing independent teams to develop their own 1000cc projects at a more affordable cost thancurrent leasing arrangements allow.

The teams operating under the new regulations will invest in their own technologies in the form offrames, engines, and electronics development. A production-based engine like the BMW S1000Ror Honda CBR1000RR will be tuned and housed in the prototype chassis and allowed to race inMotoGP.In addition, it is likely that national championships will open classes that CRT bikes would beeligible for, thus opening a market for CRTs to sell a previous year's bike to recoup someoperating costs.

Nine CRT bikes will make up the 21-strong entry in 2012. One will be the Suter/BMW projectinvolving Colin Edwards while the BQR squad will run a tweaked Kawasaki ZX-10R motor in aBritish-built FTR frame. Other new projects also include a Honda CBR1000RR-powered machine

run by Fausto Gresini. Dutch experts Ten Kate will tune that motor and FTR will build the frame.

CRT entries will be allowed are more engines and more fuel. While factory prototypes will beallowed 6 engines in 2012 (just as in 2011), CRT entries will be allotted 12 engines for the 2012season.

CRTs will also be allotted more fuel. Factory prototypes are allowed 21 liters of fuel while CRTentries will be given 24 liters of fuel to last race distance.

Because of these advantages, the 2012 regulations will allow a MSMA team, that is, an existingmanufacturer, to claim, that is to purchase for a fixed price, engines from CRT entries directlyafter a race. This concept may seem unusual, until you consider the intention behind the ability toclaim an engine: to discourage factories from spending large sums of money developing motors,then supplying them to CRTs to race with extra fuel and engine durability advantages.

Factories have little incentive if they risk losing their engine technology - which all of the factoriesguard preciously.

Rules for displacement, number of cylinders, and maximum bore will be the same for both factoryand CRT machines. The 2012 regulations for MotoGP state that engines must be a maximum of1000cc, with a bore no bigger than 81mm, and no more than four cylinders.

While there is no rule stating that the bike must run a production-derived engine, the likely paththat CRTs team are going to take is to use Superbike-spec engines. In order to get thoseproduction-derived 1000cc Superbike engines to rev into the 15ks, and thus produce morehorsepower, the engines will need to be bored out to as near 81mm as possible and the strokesshortened -- and the new generation of Superbikes are already doing this.

But what makes the motorcycle a CRT is more than the engine. The Kawasaki engine used in theBQR machine, the BMW engine used on the Suter bikes, and the Aprilia engines currently beingoffered to the Claiming Rule Teams all have their roots in production engines, but the motorcycleconsists of more than just the engine alone.

A major component in a successful CRT will be the chassis. The rules state that a CRT must runa prototype chassis and bodywork that does not resemble, or have any part thereof, constitutedof anything mass produced. Thus frames will be custom engineered and hand built, as they willneed to be with the highly evolved, and harder, Bridgestone tires used in MotoGP.

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For 2012, the Electronic Control Unit (ECU) is unrestricted. Teams have the job now to make themost of the power their extra three liters of fuel will allow them to sustain over race distance which should allow the bikes to make more manageable power without exceedingly expensiveelectronics packages.

Wheels and suspension are also unrestricted, allowing teams to develop these componentsaround the custom chassis.

Finally, for the 2012 season CRT machines will be allowed to use carbon brake discs of varyingsizes, while on MotoGP bikes, brake discs must be of one size for the outside diameter of 320mmwith only 2 standard options of disc mass are permitted.

The entire CRT package, from the prototype chassis, top-tier suspension, carbon brakes,Bridgestone tires to the carbon bodywork, will produce a bike is built for just one thing: to go asfast as possible around a race track, with no concessions made to anything but speed.