Lorenzo Signs With Yamaha

After Ducati prematurely announced that Lorenzo had "signed" with them for next year, Jorge has now signed back on with Yamaha for 2010. That also means that speculation that Ben Spies would be Rossi's new partner next year in MotoGP is also moot. Since Ducati can't seem to setup their bike for anyone except Casey Stoner, if Lorenzo had moved to Ducati, his chances for a championship would have been slim to none. Another year at Yamaha will give him a real opportunity to come out ahead of Rossi in 2010

Brno MotoGP Result

Well, Pedrosa got a pretty good start, but Rossi fired out of the hole like he was shot out of a cannon. While the grid started in second gear it looked like Vale selected first, and pinned it, hoping traction control would keep everything shiney side up. It didn't last long as Pedrosa's motor spooled up and Dani took the lead in the first corner. In a very un-Rossi like manner, Vale retook the lead in the third corner, with the obvious intent of pulling away early. Pedrosa hung on for awhile with Lorenzo hot on his tail, until overtaken on lap four. The two Yamahas left the Honda fading behind them, upping the pace every lap. With six laps to go, Lorenzo made a clean inside pass on Rossi, setting the fastest lap in the process. A lap later, Lorenzo went a little wide in a left-hander opening a gap for Rossi. Rossi slipped to the inside, and Lorenzo, trying too hard to close the gap, pushed his bike too hard, losing the front and low-siding to the outside ... terminating his bike in the gravel, with prejudice. Rossi backed off and cruised the rest of the way to the finish. Pedrosa motored across the line 11 seconds later. Elias battled with Dovizioso, emerging victorious to grab third. With little more than a lap to go, Stoner's replacement Mika Kallio was hot on the tail of Melandri, who over-braked for a right-hander, causing Kallio to torpedo him from behind. When the gravel settled, both riders pushed and shoved each other around, disagreeing on who was to blame. In this case Melandri was reacting to a rider in front and Kallio wasn't paying enough attention. If it was up to my insurance company, they'd say it was Kallio's fault for following too close and not paying due care and attention. I say "that's racing". With Lorenzo down and Stoner, out, the season is a done deal for Valention Rossi. And de Puiniet of the broken ankle? Well, he hobbled to the grid on crutches, his ankle bolted together only a few days ago and from 13th managed to finish tenth, a full second ahead of Chris Vermeulen.

Rossi Crashes in Qualifying ...

... but nabs pole position anyway :-) In a rather strange lowside wipeout, Vale lost the front end in a righthand sweeper. He wasn't leaned over very far, the corner radius wasn't tight and the front end didn't hop, skip or snap over bumps or debris. Luckily it happened late in the session and he'd already posted the winning time, so no worries. In fact, he set another record: this is the first time under the single tyre manufacturer rule that the previous pre-single tyre qualifying record has been broken. Even so, close behind were Lorenzo and Pedrosa. Second row of qualifiers were Elias, Edwards and Dovizioso. If Pedrosa gets his trademark holeshot, Rossi and Lorenzo will probably spend the first half of the race keeping up. The last half should be a close three-way race across the rolling hills of Brno. Either of these guys is capable of winning, but I`m going with Rossi, probably followed in qualifying order by Lorenzo and Pedrosa. How about Edwards for fourth? I think he can do it.

Stoner's Out

Casey Stoner has been suffering physically since Catalunya, apparently the result of a virus that has his doctors concerned. He will be sitting out the next three races while they try and figure out, and hopefully resolve, what's going on. Casey will be replaced by Mika Kallio. So, the only rider with any hope of catching Rossi is teammate Lorenzo. On Saturday, August 1st, Randy de Puniet broke his left ankle during motocross cross-training, had it screwed back together and apparently will be racing this coming weekend in Brno. Ouch.

Mladin Retiring

Mat Mladin has announced his retirement at the end of this season. His protest sit-out of the new AMA venue in Topeka Kansas, had no effect on his championship lead ... well duh. Mat and Jamie Hacking refused to ride the newly adopted circuit on safety issues. Mat could take another vacation next round and still win the season with a wide margin. With Mladin gone next year, it'll be interesting to see which cream rises to the top in 2010. Might be worth watching AMA again.

Meanwhile WSB Does Brno

Last week saw WSB's turn at Brno. Looks like a beautiful track ... sort of like Mugello with pine trees. Pirelli did report that surface traction was down from the previous year, making tyre choice and setup difficult. Race 1 saw Spies crash and Biaggi take the flag followed by Checa, Rea and Byrne. Good finish by Corser on the BMW in fifth. Spies made up in race 2, taking the win, followed by Biaggi, Fabrizio and Rea. Haga managed 8th and 6th. Biaggi has always done well here (8 wins) and it showed. Even though he finished behind Spies in race 2, he set the fastest lap and new race record. Spies seems to adhere to the win-or-crash school of racing and it's slowing his climb up the Championship leader board. If he'd finished every race this year, he'd probably have a very big points lead by now. As it is, he's still 7 points behind Nori, however, with Haga still not 100% fit, Ben will overtake the leader at the next round at Nurburgring on September 6th. It's likely that rookie Spies will be declared champ at the second-last round at Magny-Cours on October 4th.

Bye Bye Donington

Well, last week's MotoGP race at Donington was the last race for MotoGP at that venue. It never looked like much of a track from the circuit map, but all the rider's seemed to like it. I think they just loved the big swoopy downhill sweepers through Craner's Curves, with a clear view of the hard right and uphill curves to follow. The circuit will undergo massive redevelopment in preparation for a 10 year deal with the F1 four-wheelers starting in 2010. The MotoGP-Donington contract was up for bids, and with F1 moving to Donington, Silverstone (now F1-less) simply dumped all they had into it and outbid Donington by a wide margin. So, Silverstone it is. Silverstone will have to make its own major safety modifications to be able to host a premier motorcycle event.

So what happened back on the 26th? Well, you must already know by now, but weather played a major role again. The race was declared wet, with light rain falling just as the race started. Ducati made a big booboo ... Stoner and Hayden were the only riders to start on full wets but the light rain never turned heavy enough to make it worthwhile. Ducati thought it would. Big gamble and very bad decision. How bad? Um well ... how about ... they were lapped by the leaders at mid-race! While the track surface remained damp it provided reasonable traction ... except on the painted lines. One of several painted-line casualties was Lorenzo. Rossi also had a fall but remounted quickly and continued to finish 5th, just ahead of Toseland. The riders able to deal with the conditions were Dovizioso first, Edwards second, dePuniet third and deAngelis fourth. With Lorenzo down and Stoner trailing way behind. Rossi now has a good grip on the championship with a 25 point lead. I'd say it's time to call it: if Rossi stays on his bike and finishes all remaining races, he'll take it for 2009. Lorenzo and Stoner will finish in their current order: second and third.

Rossi Takes Another

Pedrosa got one of his cannon-shot starts to jump into second behind Rossi by the first corner, with Stoner by his elbow. He's definately the best holeshot artist on the grid. Hayden got off the line well, but ended up with the worst possible position on the outside of the righthand first corner, and couldn't get back into line until the first block of riders passed on the inside, leaving him somewhere around 10th where he stayed all race, finishing 8th. About four laps in, Stoner passed Pedrosa and a couple of laps later he took the lead from Rossi. Not much later Lorenzo passed Pedrosa as well, taking third and closing the gap on Rossi. After the race, Pedrosa sounded like Max Biaggi, saying he could of won ... it was his front tyre's fault that he didn't. At mid-race, Rossi, now in his stride, passed Stoner and a lap later Lorenzo followed suit. With five laps to go, Lorenzo out-braked Rossi on the straight and stayed in front of Rossi for the next three laps. With two laps to go, Rossi out-Lorenzo'd Lorenzo, retaking the lead by out-braking Lorenzo at the end of the straight. They raced, at times side-by-side, to the finish with Rossi holding on by 99/1000ths of a second. Pedrosa cruised to third, three seconds later, with Stoner arriving seven seconds later. The championship leader points continue to spread as they finish in board order. It's now Rossi, Lorenzo and Stoner with 176, 162 and 148. I think it will take a DNF to change this order by the end of the season. Valentino ... please stay on your bike and on the track ... per favore.

Big Three On Row One in Deutschland

After Free Practice on Monday at the Sachsenring near Dresden, it looked like Dani Pedrosa would be a contender for another first place. He recorded the fastest race lap here two years ago. Stoner also looked strong ... he holds the fastest lap record during qualifying last year. Lorenzo also looked like his injuries were giving him trouble enough that he might not make the podium. As always, practice sessions can be misleading. In actual qualifying, the rain-soaked track that normally brings wet weather specialists to the front, Rossi smoked (sprayed?) the field, finishing more than 6/10ths of a second ahead of Lorenzo, who also pulled out 6/10ths of a second over Stoner in third. Pedrosa gridded a disappointing 8th behind Colin Edwards. Looks like 7th is the new 6th for Edwards. The surprise qualifier was Hayden who grabbed fourth ... inspite of a spectacular highside in slippery downhill turn eight. Spat off and flying through the air, he torpedoed Ducati rider Niccolò Canepa right off his bike. Both riders walked away. Turn eight saw lots of other big highsides, including 5th place de Angelis, 6th place Randy de Puniet, Melandri (serious butt-landing) and Elias. This makes things a little confusing. On this track, with mild temperatures and overnight rain, I was going to suggest a podium of Pedrosa, Stoner and Rossi ... but now it's looking like another Rossi-Lorenzo fight for first with Stoner in the mix. I think Casey will be a little more competitive in this race. Lorenzo may not be able to go the full distance because of his injuries. This could go Rossi-Stoner-Lorenzo. I also wouldn't be surprised to see Pedrosa seriously motivated to get a blazing fast start to jump up with the front runners ... something he's quite capable of. Hayden's the wildcard in this mix and he may be fast enough in the beginning to seriously get in someone's way. The big three all need to get a clean start and get some clear air between themselves and the "peleton". If Rossi gets a bad start ... which happens more often than it should ... he'll have his work cut out for him climbing to the front.

And Pedrosa It Is.

Dani Pedrosa has just won the Laguna Seca MotoGP, leading from the holeshot. Rossi, running second, closed the fairly large gap in the last laps but left his last-lap charge too late. Running 2 seconds behind Dani, he made up ground coming out of the Corkscrew, gained a little more in turn 10 and braked way late into turn 11, almost catching Pedrosa ... but not quite. Pedrosa crossed a few bike lengths ahead of Vale, with Lorenzo finishing third, 1 and a half seconds back. Stoner, another ten seconds adrift finished fourth, with Hayden crossing 9 seconds later for his best finish this season ... but then again Capirossi and Dovizioso, who would've finished ahead, both DNF'd. Elias was 6th, Edwards 7th ... I was expecting more from him on this track. Toseland and Gibernau also DNF'd. Good job by Pedrosa, but since he's so far back in the points, the benefit goes to Rossi ... the three championship leaders, Rossi, Lorenzo and Stoner, finished in order, so the small point spread got a little wider ... it's now 151, 142 and 135 respectively.

Who's It Gonna Be?

Although Lorenzo managed to secure pole position for this afternoon's MotoGP at Laguna Seca, he crashed twice in turn ten, dislocating his right collar bone and tweaking his ankle in the last crash. Rossi sits second, having difficulties with setup and traction in the cooler temperatures. Stoner crashed without injury and also managed to hang on to a front row spot in third. Good efforts by second row finishers Pedroda, Dovizioso and Elias. Home advantage riders Edwards and Hayden finished 7th and 8th. Not much of a threat there. Today's forecast is cloudy, with clearing skies, high of 18C/65F. So ... Lorenzo is slightly injured and may not have the stamina to go the distance at full pace, Stoner is shaken, not stirred and may be off his game and Rossi is less than happy in the mild temperatures. So who's it gonna be? I'm thinking Rossi, with another crash possible for Lorenzo. Pedrosa might manage a podium this time if he can go the distance. Stoner? Who knows ... I don't see him battling for the lead at the end of the race. Still, if he stays on his bike and Lorenzo has problems, he could do as well as second with a slim chance of winning if Rossi hasn't got his setup sorted. We'll know in a few hours.

Rossi Racks Up 100th GP Win

Valentino Rossi joins Agostini as the only rider to win 100 Gran Prix races. Assen has never been the same since they butchered the north end to make room for more grandstands, but it didn't seem to bother Vale on Saturday as he finished 5 seconds ahead of Lorenzo. After the first few laps, the rest of the pack weren't even in the same race, with Stoner finishing 23 seconds back in 3rd, followed by Colin Edwards another 6 seconds back in fourth. While Casey was at the front at one point, the other four Ducatis occupied four of the last five positions. Something is seriously pooched when only one guy can figure out a setup. BTW Edwards has apparently been offered a boatload of cash to ride for Aprilia in WSB next year. That will be interesting ... I suspect he'll see the podium more than a few times. This coming weekend, the MotoGP circus tackles the Corkscrew at Laguna Seca.

Spies Shows the Brits How It's Done

In a pair of races, not far from Sherwood forest, Ben Spies showed the Brits how to ride Donington's rolling circuit. You'd expect Shakey Byrne, Leon Haslam and Johnny Rea to lead the way, but in race one on Sunday, Ben lead Biaggi and Haga to the podium. Haslam and Byrne arrived next, then Nakano and Rea. A rather uninteresting race really. This was John Hopkin's debut return to the series, finishing a respectable 8th. Race two saw Haga crash hard on lap 5, fracturing his left shoulder blade in multiple places and breaking his right elbow. Biaggi also went down, but remounted and finished 21st with a broken foot. Spies pulled an AMA-style seven second gap on the pack and it was no contest. Haslam grabbed second, with Fabrizio third, then Byrne and another Brit Tom Sykes. Wildcard rider Leon Camier, current BSB championship leader, finished 6th with his BSB teamate James Ellison in 8th. Hopper was exhausted by his race one effort and wasn't able to start race two. What does this do to the standings? Haga's almost certain championship win is evaporating fast. Ben Spies is on a roll, climbing to within 14 points of the leader. With one round left before the WSB summer break, the crowd at Brno may very well see Ben Spies take the championship lead. I'd even bet a few shekels on it.

WSB Misano Results

In the country of San Marino, surrounded by Italy on all sides, just north of Valentino Rossi's hometown, sits the slightly odd, but certainly world-class, Misano race circuit. Saturday's Superpole qualifying saw first go to Jakub Smrz, followed by Jonathan Rae, Fabrizio then Spies. This turn of events was followed by a wet start on Sunday, with Shakey Byrne taking the early lead and holding until halfway through, when bikes started pitting for dry tyres. Shakey postponed the inevitable until 7 laps to go. He pitted, got off to a slowish start on dries and Spies, who had already been on dries for a couple of laps, passed him for the win. Final flag went Spies, Byrne and Fabrizio. If the track had stayed damp, Byrne would certainly have taken his first WSB win. Race 2 was more conventional, but Ben fried his clutch, dropping to 16th or 17th for the early part of the race. In spite of the crippling injury to the Yamaha, he managed to recover 9th position by race end. The first half of the race saw Haga take the lead, with Johnny Rae sandwiched between him and Ducati teammate Fabrizio. Rae's new suspension seemed to work for him as he passed Haga at mid-race. Fabrizio also passed Haga shortly afterwards, but these two then swapped back and forth until Fabrizio was able to pull away several laps later. Michel, once free of Haga, then caught and fought Rae for the lead right down to the wire. Rae owned the last few corners and captured his first WSB win. Fabrizio and Haga joined him on the podium. Smrz who won Superpole, just missed the podium, finishing 4th in both races. Byrne fininshed 6th in race 2. It will be interesting to see how the Brit riders Rae, Byrne, Sykes and Haslam do at the next race on home soil at Donington next week. Also riding Misano under the Union Jack was Anglo-American, AMA rider Jamie Hacking who finished 16th and 22nd yesterday. Hacking was born in The English Lancs village of Oswaldtwistle (pronounced 'Ozzle-twizzle', or 'Ozzie') and, like racing's other Anglo-American: Hopper, has always wanted to ride internationally under his home flag.

Ben Spies' SuperPole Record Terminated

He's been Smrz'd! Of all things, Ben Spies' record SuperPole run has been stopped at 7 by first-time pole-sitter Jakub Smrz ... does he call his father "Papa Smrz"? Not only that, Ben was also beaten by Johnny Rae and teammate Fabrizio was close behind in fourth. Then again, both Ben and Michel are still on the front row for tomorrow's WSB race at Misano, so no big deal really. Oh, and Shakey Byrne snagged 5th, ahead of Haga, with Checa and Kiyonari joining them on row two. Biaggi had mechanical problems, but still managed 9th. Track veteran Troy Corser will be starting the BMW from 15th on the fourth row. This giant go kart track is definately a little odd and may provide for an unusual podium. However, even though Spies and Fabrizio didn't grab the first two SuperPole spots, they're still likely to pull ahead over race distance to take the first two podium steps ... provided they stay out of the gravel. Third is seriously up for grabs, but Rae would be a good bet.

Fabrizio and Spies Lead First Misano Qualifier

While Ben Spies lead today's WSB Misano Free Practice over Fabrizio by 1/10th of a second, Michel returned the favour and came out on top in the first Qualifier with two quick laps at the end of the session. There are 19 riders running within a second at this stage, so tomorrow's qualifier and Superpole sessions should result in faster times for the leaders. Misano is an odd track, with many riders like Biaggi and Fabrizio crashing over the years. In fact Fabrizio has only finished two of six career starts here. Haga has never won here, with only a 25% podium result in 18 races. Troy Corser is the most successful rider at Misano, but he's a half second off the pace, down in 10th, on the BMW. A couple of turns have been added to the billiard table flat layout, so maybe the racing will be a little better this year.

IOM Senior TT

On Friday, John McGuinness broke the IOM lap record on lap two, with a speed of 131.578mph, breaking the recent record set just the previous week during practice by Cameron Donald. Unfortunately he also broke his chain on lap four, allowing teamate Steve Plater through to take the 2009 Senior TT win with a fastest lap of 130.490mph. Plater took the overall IOM points total for the week, winning the Joey Dunlop Championship Trophy. Runners at the back of the pack were flagged to a stop on lap 5 when rain started on the west side of the circuit. Sadly, lap 5 also saw a fatal crash on the Mountain taking the life of veteran roadracer, 58 year old John Crellin.

Exactly as Expected But ...

The Catalunya MotoGP turned out exactly as expected, but in spite of that, it was the most exciting race of the season. Air temperature: 40C, track temperature: 52C ... all bikes running "extra-hard" compound on the right side of the rear tyre. Classic, textbook Rossi race as the Doctor followed Lorenzo with a good start from both. Rossi cruised behind Lorenzo for the first 3 or 4 laps, waiting while his fuel load dropped and tyres scrubbed in. He then passed Lorenzo to set the pace, pulling his teamate clear of the other riders ... not that he needed any help. The race then broke into multiple two man battles: Rossi-Lorenzo, Stoner-Dovizioso, Pedrosa-Capirossi. At mid-race, Rossi calmly slowed, allowing Lorenzo past. He then followed and harrassed Jorge, showing him his front tyre multiple times, but visibly holding back on passing. Crossing the line with three laps to go, Vale pulled the pin and the race was on. This will be remembered as one of the all time great front runner battles. The Fiat Yamaha crew were glued to the monitors, sh*tting bricks. It looked certain that the two riders were going to take each other out in a tangle of twisted metal, shattered carbon fibre and broken bones. Rossi topped it off with a classic last-corner diving pass to take the checkered flag, his 99th GP win, by a mere 0.095 seconds. Behind them, Casey managed to stay in front of Dovizioso and grab the last podium step, just 5/100ths of a second ahead. Next group about 20 seconds back of the leader were the trio of Capirossi, Pedrosa and Edwards ... Colin must be devastated that he missed a 6th place finish ... must've had a bad start. Toni Elias DNF'd when he lost the front on a fast lefthand corner, both bike and rider sliding smoothly across the tarmac, hitting home track gravel. All three podium finishers are now tied with 106 points each in the championship, with 11 rounds to go. Having Lorenzo added to the Rossi-Stoner mix has sure made this a great year for MotoGP racing.

Catalunya MotoGP Ready to Run

Today's second Catalunya MotoGP Free Practice saw Lorenzo filter to the top. He then snagged pole position in Qualifying Practice, followed an eye-blink later by Rossi, with Stoner rounding-out the first row about half a second back. Dovizioso has been holding his own in practice and leads the second row, joined by Barcelona local Toni Elias in fifth and, in sixth ... Colin Edwards ... what is it with him and sixth place? It's summer in Spain and that means it's smokin' hot, with track temperatures running near 50C! You can be sure the whole grid will be running on hard compond tyres, but even those will turn to greasy chewing gum by the last third of the race on Sunday. Tyre problems will probably slow down the main pack of riders mid-race as the leaders pull away. This is looking like a very close race between Lorenzo and Rossi, who hasn't won here since 2006, with Vale possibly having a slight edge when the tyres go off. Dovizioso is lined up to give Stoner a run for his money, but the long Catalunya straight could be Casey's ace in the hole. If Lorenzo and Rossi have a real battle at the front, it could allow a smooth, steady racer like Stoner to "play through". Definately a race to watch.

Catalunya Near Barthhhhelona

It's only the first Free practice, but the MotoGP series leaders want everyone to know who's in charge. First practice finished Rossi, Lorenzo and Stoner. Rossi hasn't had a win for awhile so he's motivated, Lorenzo smells blood and Stoner is ... well ... Stoner. Catalunya is arguably in the top three circuits alongside Phillip Island and Mugello. Besides having a kilometer long straight and a bias for righthand corners, like Mugello, the rolling, hillside terrain provides lots of variety and elevation changes. Any of these three guys can take this one.

IOM 2009 Superbike TT Result

The rescheduled IOM Superbike TT ran the full 6 laps today. With Donald down and out, the veteran riders took the podium, with, as expected, McGuinness first (his 15th TT win), with a new record race lap of 130.442mph. Steve Plater crossed the line 18 seconds later with Guy Martin third. Valentino Rossi participated in the podium presentations and, with fellow Italian racing god Giacomo Agostini, lead thousands of spectator bikes on the parade lap.

So Much For Today's IOM

For starters, Aussie Cameron Donald, who set the track record on Thursday, missed a gear at Keppel Gate and crashed during yesterday's practice, injuring his shoulder and back. Nothing major but enough to take him out of the 2009 TT. Damn. Next up is the snotty Isle of Man weather. Rain and fog are common during race week, but todays rain and high wind was enough to postpone all today's classes and the Sunday forecast is bad enough that the SuperBike and Sidecar 1 races have now been moved to Monday. Monday's races are rescheduled for Tuesday. Valentino Rossi's guest appearance has also been moved to Monday.

Holy Smokin Gixxer!

A new Isle of Man track record was set during yesterday's evening practice session by Cameron Donald on the TAS Suzuki GSXR1000 ... 131.457mph (210.3kph) on a flying lap. That's an average over the whole course! These days, IOM records are usually broken by mere 100ths or 10ths, but Donald upped the bar by a good half second. To average that speed over the full course, he would have had to run the bulk of the circuit at 140mph+ (225kph+). He was clocked at 188mph (300.8kph) on the Sulby Straight. Can he repeat that performance during the race or will John McGuiness do the expected and take the checkered flag first? Could be an exciting race ... just hope nobody dies in the process. There's a Dunlop on the track again ... Michael Dunlop set the fastest SuperSport time in practice, with a lap average of 125.085mph on an R6 that's not a whole lot different than the one on the showroom floor. Racing starts tomorrow kicking off with the 6 lap SuperBike TT at noon local time and Sidecar TT 1 at 15:00. Racing continues on the full circuit on Monday, then Wednesday and finishes off on Friday at 13:00 with the Senior TT.

No WSB Surprise: Spies - Spies

After taking Superpole number 7, Ben Spies ran away with both WSB races on home soil at Miller in Utah. Can you say "9 second lead"? I knew you could. It's always interesting seeing how the Euro riders do on American tracks. In this case, race one saw Checa and Fabrizio follow Ben to the podium and race two saw Fabrizio grab second, followed by Brit Rae. With his big crash on Saturday, Haga did well to even ride, finishing ninth and eighth respectively. Biaggi managed 6th in race one and pulled off a 4th in the second race. Poor showing by Hopper's replacement rider Jake Zemke, 18th and 15th ... I was expecting much more from him on this track. Hopper obviously didn't make the Miller race but is expecting to get back on the bike for the next race, June 21st at Misano. Haga's big lead protected him in the standings. He still has a 53 point lead over Spies, with Fabrizio not too far behind with an 11 point gap. With seven rounds to go, making still 14 races, it's likely this is the order they'll finish in ... but anything could happen and either of these three could be the 2009 champion. My money's still on Haga ... for now ;-)

Not Quite the Storybook Race

Better late than never to comment on the Mugello results. For the second race in a row, a wet start and switch to dry bikes mixed up the favourites and put Dani Pedrosa on his butt ... again. Stoner managed to get the start, timing and tactics right and finished top of the heap. Lorenzo crashed on the warmup lap, but made the start and finished second (by a second) behind Casey. A disappointed Rossi ended his track winning streak, finishing another full second behind his teammate, taking the third step on the podium. Then it went Dovizioso, Capirossi and Edwards. Colin sure seems to like 6th place. Wet races are interesting and really add variety, but it's a bit of a shame, we couldn't have been treated to a warm dry race on such a spectacular track. No matter ... but what matters is that the championship points are "all shook up" again. Now we've got Stoner by 4 over Lorenzo, who's 5 over Rossi and Pedrosa has dropped well back.

Seven Straight for Spies

Ben Spies now has the all-time WSB record for consecutive SuperPoles ... seven. The riders seem to be struggling a bit with the Miller track, with the normal grid order shuffled and shaken. Biaggi ended up gridding way back in 16th, with Haga doing a little better in 9th. Jamie Hacking is ahead of Haga on the grid in 8th, with Jake Zemk way, way back in 23rd. First two rows go like this: Spies, Checa, Kyonari and Fabrizio, then Smrz, Byrne, Parks and Hacking. I think this will shake up a bit, with Spies running away at the front in both races. I'm thinking Fabrizio on the podium with Spies and then who knows. Could be anybody, with quite different results in the two races. It's possible that Hacking could finish in the top five. Unless Haga gets a really good start, he's going to have a tough time working through the traffic to the front group. he could also make top five. Biaggi won't in either race.

Lorenzo's At It Again

Lorenzo captured pole position during today's MotoGP qualifying, leaving Rossi less than 2/10ths of a second behind and back on the second row. This is the first time Valentino has not qualified on the first row at Mugello ... ever. Joining Jorge on the front row are Stoner and Capirossi. Joining Vale on the second row are de Puniet and Colin Edwards. Third row is Dovizioso, Pedrosa and Elias. Interestingly, the highest top speed (341.988kph) in qualifying was set by Mika Kallio (Ducati) who had the slowest lap times ... seems they may have the setup a little out of wack ... no point going fast down the straights if you can't get round the corners. Tomorrow's winner? It wouldn't surprise me if Lorenzo takes it. Rossi is seriously motivated now that he missed pole position and will most likely be on the podium, one way or the other. Watch for a rocketship start by Pedrosa as he tries to leap to the front group from the third row.

Miller Time for Biaggi

Max Biaggi pulled off a great finish to today's first WSB qualifier at the Miller circuit in Utah, beating favourite Ben Spies by 2/10ths and posting a top speed of 307 kph on the straight. He did put in more laps than any other rider, but obviously this track suits Biaggi. There's still another qualifier and Superpole sessions to go, so although Haga was way down the board, there's not much doubt that he'll be joining Max and Ben at the front of the grid. Biaggi seemed to be fading a little in the last two races, so it's good to see him back at the pointy end again. The tighter the competition at the front, the better the race. The forecast for Sunday is around 80F/28C, with possibility of scattered thundershowers.

Lorenzo - Rossi Lead FP1

Usually, the first MotoGP Free Practice bears little resemblance to the final result, however, today in Tuscany, Lorenzo finished top of the board, 2/10ths faster than Rossi. Stoner finished third and Pedrosa fourth, setting setting the all-time MotoGP speed record in the process, at 349.3 kph. Colin Edwards finished 5th with Alex de Angelis rounding out the second row. Rossi has 7 consecutive wins at the Mugello circuit, so he's still the favourite for the win, but Lorenzo is going to do everything he can to break Rossi's track dominance. Pedrosa and Stoner won't be far behind. This could be a very tight race between Lorenzo and Rossi and with both riders probably riding right on the edge, there's a possibility that at least one of them will go off-track in the process. Both Pedrosa and Stoner have the ability to ruin Rossi's day. It's going to be a great race on a great track.

Lanzi Rejoins WSB

Lorenzo Lanzi has signed as Laconi's Ducati DFX Corse replacement for the rest of the 2009 WSB season. Lanzi played the spoiler at several races over the past few years, taking three firsts including Valencia last year. If he's not out of practice, we should see him running the blue and white Ducati with the lead pack of 6 or so riders and he's entirely capable of making the podium. Haga might have the season championship well in control, but there's still a lot of great racing to come with so many excellent riders in the series. Let's see what happens next week at Miller in Utah.

Laconi Recovering from "Perfect" Surgery

Regis Laconi came out of surgery this morning in Jo'burg, with doctors claiming a "perfect" outcome. As planned, a plate was put in his neck to stabilize the fractured vertebrae, a bone chip by his spinal cord was removed and a skin graft topped off the whole shebang. Apparently he'll remain in the Sunninghill Hospital until the end of the month, then be flown back to Paris for further recovery and any follow-up procedures he may need. The official word is that "there should be no physical consequences", although there's not much chance of him returning to racing this season.

Did Baylis "Fix" the Ducati?

Troy Baylis completed testing for Ducati at Mugello on Friday and seems to be happy with the results, with a best time of 1'51.2". Um, wait a minute, I'm a big fan of Baylis, but that's almost exactly what Nickey Hayden rode last year at Mugello earning 10th place during the last Free Practice. Troy might have had a nice sportbiker's holiday, riding exclusive trackdays at one of the sweetest circuits in the world,but somehow I don't think it's going to do much for Hayden's results.

Mat Didn't Win One Race?

For the first time in a long time, Mat Mladin did not win this weekend's AMA Superbike race. That's right, someone else finished first in race 1 while Mat trailed in 5th. For the first time in a very, very long time, first place in race 1 did not go to a Yoshimura Suzuki rider. So who won? Doesn't really matter, but if you must know, it was Josh Hayes on a Yamaha. There's those darn Yamahas again. Mat Mladin was back in race 2 and started a fresh winning streak ... the old one was getting stale anyway. I wonder if the AMA paid Mat to throw a race just to keep audience interst? Didn't work for me.

Neukirchner Out For?

As a result of injuries sustained in WSB Race 1 at Kyalami, Max Neukirchner will be replaced by Fonsi Nieto, but so far I haven't been able to find out how long Max is expected to be off the bike.

Gibernau Out For At Least One Race

After surgery on his frequently broken collar bone, Sete Gibernau will not be riding or replaced at Mugello and may also miss the next MotoGP race at Catalunya. Somehow I don't think that will have much impact on the points race.

Regis Laconi Status

Regis Laconi was apparently brought out of the induced coma yesterday morning and showed signs of "autonomous movement" in his arms and legs. As a result, doctors in Johannesburg will operate tomorrow (Tuesday), putting a cervical plate in place to stabilize the fractured vertebrae. He must then stay immobilized for at leat two weeks before he can be flown to Paris for further treatment. The slightly disturbing news is that the press release also says "other neurological problems resulting from the crash are also showing positive results". He was reported as having had a severe concussion, so we'll have to wait and see whether he has suffered any signficiant brain damage. Hopefully, there'll be more updates over the next few weeks as he recovers.

Haga - Haga, Fabrizio - Fabrizio

After mediocre practice and qualifying, Haga got the job done in WSB Race 1 at Kyalami, leading from mid-race to finish. Fabrizio and Spies battled for second, resulting in a mistake by Ben that almost saw him come off the bike. He wasn't able to catch Andrea and had to settle for third. Biaggi was fast on the straight but unable to pass Checa in time to keep up with the leaders. He later fought Rea for fourth, but had to settle for fifth. In the second race, Haga and Fabrizio brought home the hardware again for Ducati after swapping the lead several times. Ben Spies retired after three laps with gearbox problems. Brit Jonathan Rea battled countryman Leon Haslam, won and bettered his race one result, finishing third for his first MotoGP podium. Still fastest man on the straight, Max Biaggi, finished fifth. Haga is now back leading the championship by 85 points and Spies has slipped back into third behind Fabrizio. Anybody want to bet against Haga? I didn't think so. Next race is in two weeks at one of America's better bike tracks: Miller Motorsports Park, on the way from Salt Lake City to the Bonneville Salt Flats ... yes the track is flat, but the layout is decent.

Shake-up At LeMans

Lorenzo certainly stayed on his bike this time, in damp and windy conditions. The 800's had it better than the 250's who started earlier in a dark, depressing downpour, with track marshalls bundled up like North Sea fishermen. In addition to posting fastest time for this morning's warm-up, after passing Stoner and Pedrosa, Jorge Lorenzo led from first lap to finish, including a wet start and a bike swap for slicks and dry setup, not to mention a nearly 18 second lead at the line. The breeze quickly dried the track under clearing skies, shredding the leaders' Bridgestone wets. An unnatural disaster for Rossi who crashed on fresh tyres after his first swap, changed bikes a total of three times and suffered a drive-through penalty for speeding in pit lane. He stubbornly finished the race two laps down in last place. Showing Ducati how it's done, Marco Melandri rode a brilliant race and finished an incredible second on the all-black Hayate Kawasaki, laying down some of the fastest laps of the race in the process. Ducatisti Stoner and Hayden finished 5th and 12th. The bikes were spread out all over the track with multi-seconds between most bikes. Rounding out the podium was Pedrosa, who ran with the front group for most of the race, just behind Repsol Honda teammate Dovizioso, finally passing for third on the last lap. Colin Edwards had a disasterous start but worked his way from near the back of the pack to finish 7th behind Vermuelen. What does this do to the points ... well it's almost like starting from scratch for the leaders. Lorenzo takes the lead by a single point, followed by Rossi and Stoner tied at 65, with Pedrosa a mere 8 points behind and Melandri and Dozioso tied at 43 for 5th. Gibernau crashed during yesterday's practice, breaking his collarbone and did not make the start. Next race is in two weeks on Rossi's home turf at the beautiful Tuscan track at Mugello, in the hills just north of Florence. I'm looking forward to seeing how Lorenzo does on this awesome circuit. Rossi's going to be seriously up for this race and keep your eye on Melandri as well. Wish I could see it in person.

The Other Down Under

'Member Kyalami? It's been seven years since WSB was in South Africa and I barely remember the track from playing SuperBike2001 on my computer. With one major straight, and a number of changing radius and blind uphill/downhill corners this hilly ribbon of a track will depend heavily on rider skill not to mention correct bike setup. After varying results in the practice and qualifying sessions, Ben Spies filtered to the top in SuperPole, moving into first in the last seconds of the round. The usual suspects gathered behind him, with Fabrizio only 1/1000th of a second slower, a victim of Ben's last gasp charge, resulting in the smallest gap in WSB SuperPole history. Then came Biaggi 18/100ths later, recording highest top speed of the day, Haga another 8/100ths back, and the rest of the top 15 within a second of Spies. If you've been counting, Ben Spies has now equaled the all-time record for consecutive pole positions set in 1991 by another Texan, Doug Polen. The bad news for the weekend is that Regis Laconi crashed yesterday, breaking his C3 and C5 vertebrae, with a severe concussion and lung damage. Latest news was that he's in an induced coma, and may be for several days, while doctors in Jo'Berg wait for his condition to stabilize before operating. Even if things go well, it's likely he'll be completely immobilized for at least three weeks following surgery. Not good.

Mixed Conditions and Results At LeMans Free Practice

A rain-interrupted First Free Practice saw Divizioso finish top of the board. On the pace behind Andrea were Stoner, De Puniet, Vermuelen, Pedrosa, Rossi, Lorenzo and Melandri. The forecast for the weekend is continued mixed conditions so this round of the MotoGP could be a bit of a crap shoot. Now that it's obvious that Melandri still knows how to ride a bike and Hayden can't ride the red bike either, the problems Marco had on the Ducati must've been largely to do with the bike. Ducati has apparently come to the same conclusion and has hired Troy Bayliss as a developnent rider to try and sort out the GP9 setup. They should give one to Rossi and his team ... they'd figure it out.

WSB Monza Race Two ... More Surprises.

Spies takes WSB Monza Race Two win over Fabrizio by a second and a half while Haga hits a bird and crashes on lap three! Kiyonari finished a close third, then fairly evenly spaced behind him were Rea, Biaggi, Sykes, Haslam and Smrz with three other bikes hot on his heels. Spies lead from the opening laps but there was close racing behind that saw Biaggi lose position in the group when he screwed up. Zemke crossed in 20th. Corser was a non-starter after his problems with Race One. No indication whether he has any physical injuries. So what does this do to the points race? With Haga's DNF, his lead over Spies is cut back to 54 and Ben opens his lead slightly on Fabrizio to 21. Following not too far behind Michel are Brits Haslam and Sykes. Haga's insurmountable lead is now mountable, but it will take some more wacko race days like today to do it.

High Drama in Race One

WSB Race One at Monza had to be restarted twice after two successive crashes in the first chicane, taking out Neukirchner, Hill, Tamada, Corser and Roberts. Neukirchner suffered a broken right femur (thigh) and dislocated foot. Naturally, he did not make the restart and neither did Tamada or Roberts. On the third-time-lucky restart, Corser failed to complete a full lap and Spies looked like he had the win ... but ran out of gas on the last corner and crossed in 15th place. I seem to remember this being a favourite track for F1 cars to run out of gas. The beneficiary of Ben's misfortune was Fabrizio who took his first WSB win, followed home 2/10ths later by Haga, and a photo finish for third by Biaggi and Kiyonari. In another raceday drama, Biaggi was penalized 20 seconds for cutting a chicane dropping him from third to 11th. Stand-in newbie Jake Zemke managed a respectable 18th after starting 22nd (without the drop-outs). Haga now has an insurmountable lead of 79 points over Spies and Fabrizio is less than 20 points behind. Stay tooned for Race Two!

He's At It Again.

Ben Spies has nabbed his fifth pole position, setting a track record of 1' 44.073", breaking Bayliss' previous record by nearly a second. Holy smokin sticky tyres Batman! Teammate Sykes got blocked by a slower rider on a critical lap and failed to make the top ten, but will start from the third row. Could be worse. Fabrizio managed second about 2/10ths behind Spies. The grid is all shook up on this wacko track that's like no other in the series. Joining the first two on the front row will be Kiyonari and Neukircher, all under 1'45". Haga leads the second row, followed by Rea, Biaggi and Kagayama. Jake Zemke was in attendance but way down the practice and qualifying results. He'll start 25th out of 29 ... almost four seconds off the pace. Should be a good first few laps if the front row gets a good start and Haga picks his way through them. Fabrizio will give Ben a good run for his money, but Spies will be trying to gap the field and pull away clear at the front before Haga and Neukircher can catch him. If Ben gets a bad start (which has happened before) watch for Neukirchner and Rea to stay with Fabrizio ... until Haga reels them in. There's also a possibility that Biaggi will pull one of his rare near-holeshots from the second row and run up front for awhile. There's a good chance that Spies will do the double at this very American-like track.

Where's Jake?

This morning's Free Practice at Monza had Michel Fabrizio running fastest on his Xerox Ducati. He repeated his performance during this afternoon's qualifying, leading Sykes by 3/10s, with Haga close behind in third. Spies ran 7th, Biaggi 8th, Byrne in 10th and Haslam in 12th. Jake Zemke was nowhere to be seen on the timesheet. Monza's an oddball track. The specs say it's got five left and 8 right hand corners, but it's really four straights broken up with three chicanes and five corners ... all right handers. When tyres go off, you know what side it's going to be. Gearing will be a big issue and in spite of his mediocre performance today, Ben Spies may do fairly well ... the track bears some resemblance to the adhoc bike tracks in the US . but he'll have his hands full keeping up with Haga, Fabrizio and Sykes. So where's Jake???

Now This is Interesting

AMA's Formula Extreme Champion Jake Zemke will be sitting in (on?) for John Hopkins at this weekend's WSB at Monza. Due to a conflict with the AMA schedule he will not be available for the following race in South Africa, but is listed as the substitute Stiggy rider at Miller if Hopper doesn't recover in time. Jake, a long time Honda pilot, was very strong in previous AMA Superbike seasons and finished third in the 2007 championship, with only Mladin and Spies ahead of him. He finished second and third in FX and Supersport half a dozen times since 2000. This will be his first time racing outside the US. Monza and the WSB competition will be new to him, and he's no Spies, but he's likely to produce a respectable result for a newbie.

Seven Straight for Mat

Mat Mladin took both races at the Barber AMA SuperBike round this past weekend. That's seven in a row and um ... zero in a row for everyone else. Benny Bostrum took third in both ... do you think it's a comeback? Ho hum. Nice track though.

Rossi Takes First Win!

Today's Jerez MotoGP turned out slightly different than expected. Pedrosa got a brilliant start and led half the race from the start. Stoner followed, then Lorenzo and Rossi. Whatever problems Rossi had encountered during qualifying were certainly fixed by race time. He smoothly took Lorenzo with an inside pass, then hunted down Stoner. In real life, the expected Lorenzo/Pedrosa battle at the front followed by a Stoner/Rossi battle was missing Lorenzo. With Pedrosa by himself at the front, Rossi and Stoner swapped positions a number of times with textbook corner passes. Vale finally gapped Stoner and set out after Pedrosa. Rossi caught Pedrosa who probably thought he had the home-race won, passed him cleanly with ten laps to go and took the checkered flag by 2.7 seconds. Pedrosa held onto second with a big 8 second gap to Stoner in third. Chasing Casey from fourth, Lorenzo low-sided with four laps to go ... he was not a happy puppy. It looked like he just leaned it so far over in the corner that the wheels simply lost contact with the track. Stoner held third, followed 20 seconds back by De Puniet in fourth and an excellent ride by Melandri brought the Bad Wind Kawasaki home in fifth, followed closely by Capirossi, Edwards and Dovizioso. The "best near-vertical, stand-up wheelie across the finish line award" goes to Casey Stoner.

MotoGP Riders Show Their Cards

Jerez is a great track, fairly technical with a few hard braking corners, downhill straights, esses and uphill corner exits. As might be expected, this morning's Free Practice 2 went Pedrosa, Lorenzo and Stoner. In Qualifying, Lorenzo pulled the pin and blasted to pole position, a mere .071 seconds ahead of Pedrosa. Both home-track riders are motivated well beyond the rest of the pack. Stoner, who won the BMW Challenge here barely a month ago, filled out the front row another half second behind, leading Rossi by 1/4 second. Joining Vale on the second row are De Puniet and Capirossi. Edwards leads the third row, with Dovizioso, the final rider to break 1:40, in 8th. This is going to be a close battle between Pedrosa and Lorenzo for the win and between Stoner and Rossi for the podium leftovers. Tomorrow's race might come down to the last corners for final positions and collisions and crashes are possible for all four riders. I wouldn't be surprised if Pedrosa accidently torpedoes Lorenzo, taking both riders out in the last corner. Capirossi, Edwards, De Puniet and Dovizioso will be heirs apparent to any positions that open in front of them if the leaders drop.

So How's Ole Hippity Hopper Anyway?

John Hopkins has recovered from hip surgery in the Netherlands and has returned home with five screws in his left hip. His hip smashed itself to pieces when he highsided and landed feet first, still travelling at a good speed. He says it was the most painful injury he's ever had ... and he's had quite a few. So how long will it take to fully recover and get back on track with a nasty injury like that? Do you believe he'll only miss two closely-spaced races? Hopper is expected to start training in TWO WEEKS (!) and rejoin WSB in Utah at the made-for-bikes Miller racecourse in four weeks time. These guys are amazing.

MotoGP Jerez Free Practice 1 For What It's Worth

FP1 really doesn't reveal too much but for what it's worth, the "first two rows" of this crash-free session ran within a second of each other in this order: Rossi, Capirossi, Stoner, Lorenzo, Dovizioso, Edwards. Pedrosa ran 10th, but there's no doubt he knows this track well and, if he stays on the track, will probably finish on the podium. Hayden ran a very slow time, but there's still the second practice and qualifier tomorrow. Forecast for this weekend in Jerez is dry and warm, with race day up around 26C. Track surface will be hot.

Rossi to Lead IOM TT Parade Lap

Colin Edwards did it about five years ago, now Valentino Rossi is up for it. In June, Vale will lead the IOM TT parade lap on a 2009 Yamaha R1. It's his first visit to the IOM and like any true sport biker he's appears to be sincerely excited about the prospect. Methinks it'll be the most fun he's ever had going slow. Joining him later as he represents Dainese leathers and riding safety gear will be that other Italian racer genius Giacomo Agostini and brilliant Irish road racer Guy Martin.

Spies, Haga Split Assen.

Spies led early on in race one at Assen today, but Haga eventually came by and kept going. After playing with Leon Haslam for third, Ben Spies eventually made a last lap pass on Haga and closed the door, as he does so well. Haslam finished third and Tom Sykes, another Brit arrived fourth while Biaggi managed 5th.
In race 2, Spies crashed spectacularly on the first (or was that the second?) lap, his Yamaha cartwheeling itself to pieces in the gravel. This allowed Haga to make like Mat Mladin and pull away from the rest of the pack, setting a track fastest lap and winning easily. There was plenty of good racing behind him, at times 5 bikes fighting for second. Again Haslam followed Haga to the podium, taking a well deserved 2nd, with Smrz and Fabrizio (with a failing gearbox) close behind. Biaggi burned out his clutch on the start and retired on the first lap. Nori Haga is looking extremely comfortable on the Ducati, with smooth lines and record-setting speed. He now has a 60 point lead over Spies. That's a lot even for WSB. For Ben to stand a chance of winning the championship, he has to stay on the track, finish on the podium every race and Haga needs a little bad luck. Personally, I've always liked Haga and he deserves to be the 2009 WSB Champion. Go Nitro!
But you know what? Based on how Spies tackled AMA Superbike, even if he doesn't win this year ... he'll take it next year.

I Love Surprises!

Well, Rossi did beat Stoner to the finish line, but guess who beat them both? Spaniard Jorge Lorenzo! Rossi got the holeshot, but "that other Spaniard" Pedrosa had a spectacular start from the fourth row, jumping up into second behind Rossi. Lorenzo quickly worked his way up and swapped back and forth for the lead with Rossi at this late-braking Nirvana track. Lorenzo out-Rossi'd Rossi and was able to hold onto the lead. As Lorenzo opened a small gap, Rossi was passed by Pedrosa, flipping Rossi's "faster" bit that upped the pace. Every time Pedrosa out-braked Rossi and dove inside, he ran slightly wide and Rossi took advantage on the inside, taking back second place. Eventually, Rossi went inside Pedrosa, elbow-down, so close that it looked like Pedrosa's bike was laying on top of Rossi's. I think that freaked Pedrosa enough that he didn't dare challenge Rossi again. Now that's more like it ... that's a motorcycle race. Stoner had problems initially staying with leaders, but then slowly but methodically worked up from fifth, catching Dovizioso with a couple of laps to go, then passed him cleanly to finish fourth.
Lorenzo now leads the series over Rossi by one point and Stoner by three. Close or what? Marco Melandri pushed his Kawasaki to 6th, although the gap to Dovizioso was more than 20 seconds. Edwards had early mechanical problems and finished way back, while Gibernau low-sided out and Hayden was punted off the track when he was torpedoed from behind by local wildcard rider Takahashi. It looked like Nicky may have injured a hip or leg, but there's been no news story saying so.
With Pedrosa's sudden come-back, it appears there are now four riders capable of winning the championship: Rossi, Stoner, Lorenzo and Pedrosa. What a difference a track layout makes. This is going to be an exciting season after all. It's now a quick trip back to Jerez for next week's race ... another good track and both Lorenzo and Pedrosa are on home turf. We could even see them go 1 - 2 with Rossi and Stoner fighting for third. Promises to be another good race.

Four Superpoles in a Row For Spies

Breaking Troy Bayliss' Assen track record by nearly a second, Ben Spies has set the record for consequetive start-of-season Superpoles. Three more will break the all-time record for consequetive Superpoles set in 1991. Behind him at fairly close intervals were Smrz, Haslam, Haga, Fabrizio, Neukirchner, Checa and Sykes. For some reason, Biaggi was well off the pace in 10th and BSB Champion Byrne doesn't appear to able to keep up either, finishing 14th. At least he was a tenth faster than Corser on the Beemer. While odds are that Spies will run away with one if not both of tomorrow's races, there could be a lot of good racing at the front.

Mother Nature Gives Rossi The Pole

This morning's Free Practice 2 was greeted by solid rain and journeyman racer, Colin Edwards posted the fastest time on wets, beating Rossi by .052 seconds. The heavy rain forced cancellation of all afternoon qualifying sessions, with the grid being determined by the Free Practice sessions. That puts Rossi on pole, with Stoner and Lorenzo joining him on the front row. Second row will be Vermeulen, Edwards and Capirossi. This rather insignificant turn of events may actually give Rossi the needed psychological boost that he needs to take on Stoner. Anyone in the front row can get the holeshot, but considering Rossi's renewed frame of mind and the fact that he won the 2008 championship here only six months ago, assuming they keep the rubber on the road, I'm going to predict a very close battle between Vale and Casey, with Rossi taking the win. I also see potential for a battle for third between Lorenzo and Edwards, with the edge going to Lorenzo. If it rains, Edwards could take away second from Stoner ... but then again, in the rain, many of the fastest riders lose the front end so who knows what will happen.

Spies Takes WSB First Qualifier

Ben Spies walked away with Provisional Pole in today's qualifying at Assen. Not bad for a track he's only ever ridden on a PlayStation3. Haga and Biaggi were way back in 12th and 16th. Behind Spies it went Smrz, Kagayama, Checa, Fabrizio, Laconi and Neukirchner. None of this really matters, since the top 20 riders still face the Superpole session tomorrow. This time they'll be on qualifying tyres and I predict Spies will break Troy Bayliss' lap record if he keeps the rubber on the road and that Haga and Biaggi will earn spots on the first or second row.
Remember last month when I said of Hopper that "big crashes are possible"? Well, unfortunately, I was right ... he crashed hard in the first free practice and dislocated his left hip. He will definately miss this Sunday's races and recovery time hasn't been announced yet.

MotoGP First Practice Done

Today's MotoGP First practice has finished with Rossi proud to be at the top of the leader board over Stoner and Lorenzo. Apparently the weather was cool with a threat of rain which held off. Tomorrow's forecast appears to indicate a wet Qualifier. Although Rossi is happy with taking the session from Stoner, it was by a mere 6/100s of a second so there's not really any significant difference in pace between the two. Lorenzo was 4/10ths back. This is only First Practice, so the Qualifier will give a better picture. I think it's likely that Stoner will take pole, but we'll see what the weather brings to the choppy rythym of the Motegi Twin Ring track. Vermuelen and Capirossi did well on their Rizla Suzukis with 4th and 6th. Remember that Capirossi was running very well at Qatar until he lost it. And guess who motored into a solid 5th? Yup, Colin Edwards. Pedrosa is still having problems in mid-pack (11th) but Melandri made another respectable showing on the Bad Wind Kawasaki in 8th. Fastest Hond on the Honda-owned track was Dovizioso in 7th. Hayden was behind Pedrosa in 12th. Why is it that Stoner can ride the snot out of the Ducati but nobody elase can?

Something Newsy After All

It's not WSB or MotoGP, but an interesting result at this past weekend's nasty rain-soaked 24Hr LeMans Endurance Race. First place was taken by the Austrian Yamaha team on the 2009 Big-Bang R1. Let's see now ... Spies winning WSB races on a Yamaha (when he stays on the track), Rossi on a Yamaha, LeMans won by a Yamaha ... hmmm. Now if only someone could do something about that pesky Yoshimura Suzuki team in the AMA SuperBike class. Somebody at Yamaha HQ has been watching too much "Pinkie and the Brain". "What are we gonna do today Brain?" "Same thing we do every day Pinkie ... take over the world!"

Sure Is Quiet Out There ...

It's been awfully quiet on the WSB/MotoGP news front. MotoGP teams are now in Japan for the Motegi GP, while WSB crews congregate in the Netherlands for the fourth round at Assen. Stoner is confident that he'll take this second round of MotoGP and even Rossi is saying that Stoner will be faster and that "we just need to reduce the gap to him so that we can put up more of a fight". That's sad when someone like Rossi says he's not going to win but hopes to not be too far behind. Pedrosa should be a little fitter by now, so might see a better result from him. In WSB Shakey Byrne has also recovered from a hand injury that might see better racing from him as well. Another couple of days and there'll be practice and qualifying results to shed a little more light on relative rider performance in both series. Stay tooned.

Predictable MotoGP Result

Casey Stoner lead from lights to checkered flag ... no contest. After pulling a 2 second lead on the first lap, he increased that to over 3 seconds for the middle of the race and finished nearly 8 seconds ahead of Rossi, as Valentino gave up trying and eased off for the last couple of laps. Lorenzo still trailed Rossi by another 9 seconds. After getting by Dovizioso with 7 or 8 laps to go, Colin Edwards pulled a 3 second gap, finishing a creditable 4th. A very uninteresting race to say the least ... a few off-track excursions, and a little bike-to-bike contact, with a spectacular crash, in a shower of sparks, by Capirossi on his powder blue Rizla Suzuki. Very little in the way of dramatic passing, once the initial laps were over. Pedrosa, Hayden, Gibernau and Melandri went 12, 13, 14 and 15. It's time Losail put a couple of twisties into the middle of that big straight. Much as I respect the incredible talent of all these guys and the stratospheric capability of the bikes, methinks the series to watch this year is WSB.

Parade In Qatar

The MotoGP is more than half over, with Stoner leading Rossi by over 3 1/2 seconds, but Lorenzo is now 12 seconds further back in third, all by himself. The rest of the pack is way back, over 6 seconds behind Jorge. Edwards has just passed Dovizioso for 4th and is starting to increase the new gap to over a second. Not much else happening ... Pedrosa in 9th, Gibernau, Hayden, Melandri running 12, 13, 14. No surprises.

Postponed Race Not So Late

As you probably already know, although the 125s and 250s managed to get in shortened races, the MotoGP race has been postponed until tomorrow night because of rain. There'll be a warmup at 18.30 local time followed by the main race at 21.00 ... 2 hours earlier than tonight's original schedule. All riders will be fresh as daisies (whatever that means), so that falls in Stoner's favour. It also means that the first 4 or 5 laps could be quite frantic, before things settle down. Rossi and Lorenzo will be focused on not letting Stoner get away if he gets a good start. Might see a good battle between Rossi and Lorenzo for second.

Stoner Blows Em Away

Free Practice 2 shook up the order a little, but still Stoner ahead of Rossi by 1/3 of a second, followed by Capirossi and Lorenzo. Guess who was next, only slightly off the pace? None other than Bad Wind pilot Marco Melandri ... way to go Marco! And Gibernau? Um ... that would be 18th again. Qualifying Practice times blew away FP times, with Stoner taking the pole position by almost a whole half second! Then came Lorenzo another half second back, then Dovizioso, Capirossi and Edwards. With Qualifying times a whole second faster than FP 2, Melandri slipped back to 11th, even though he ran a slightly better time. And Gibernau gridded a slightly better 15th, but still more than 2.6 seconds off the pace. Only slightly ahead of Sete were Toseland and Pedrosa ... also not having a good time under the lights. The almost obvious result for tomorrow night would be the same podium as the Qualifier, with Stoner, Rossi and Lorenzo separated by small gaps, with 4 to 6 riders fighting for fourth (that's where the race'll be). But then again, you never know. The race is even later at night than the practices and qualifying, with the MotoGP start at 23.00 local time, so endurance may come into it a bit. If Rossi and Lorenzo can stay close enough to Stoner, there might be a few desperation passes that could make it interesting.

Stoner's At It Again

Friday's late night MotoGP Free Practice 1 had Stoner in front by nearly half a second, then Rossi ahead of Edwards by a similar amount, and Lorenzo another 4/10s behind that. That's Ducati, Yamaha, Yamaha, Yamaha. Pedrosa's back, finishing 18th, but it's only first practice so the results aren't necessarily any indication of how the race will go. Then again, unless someone falls, it's not likely Stoner and Rossi will miss the podium. Good result from Colin Edwards ... didn't really like him that much when he raced WSB, but every year I appreciate his solid, no-nonsense racing more and more. No muss, no fuss ... he just goes out and gets the job done. His 160mph bailout from a flaming Aprilia Cube in 2003 has also got to be one the greatest get-offs of all time.

Rossi Petronas?

The MotoGP teams are in place for tomorrow's First Practice of the first 2009 MotoGP race at Losail. The Fiat Yamaha team's bikes sport a slightly revised paint scheme for 2009, including the Petronas logo. Petronas is now a major sponsor of the factory Yamaha team as part of a business partnership deal with Yamaha. Malaysian Petronas will develop and produce Yamalube engine oils for Yamaha OEM vehicles. Let's hope those 8 letters on the bike don't bring the luck of the Foggy Petronas team with them. At least they didn't paint the bikes that seasick green or whatever that was on the FP bikes. Come to think of it ... isn't that the background colour of the sidebar to the right? Ugh ... now I'm going to have to change it ;-)
There ... now it's red.

Haga Gets It Done ... Twice

With Spies uncharacteristically crashing out in Race one, Haga romped to a 3 1/2 second win over Fabrizio and Neukirchner, followed by Laconi and Haslam. Believe it or not, this was Spies' first Superbike crash ... ever, WSB or AMA. Haga rarely crashes either, so Ben has to stay on the bike to have any hope of catching him in the points race. Race two was similar with Haga taking the lead on lap 5, finishing with a 5 second lead over Spies, with Fabrizio third, Laconi 4th and Haslam in 5th again. Biaggi finished 8th in both races.
Haga's points lead has now ballooned from 10 to 40 points over Spies ... watch out Ben, Nitro Nori might be ruining your brilliant debut. From a 60:40 chance of winning the championship, I'd say Ben Spies' chances of beating Haga have dropped to 50:50. Fabrizio and Laconi did as well as expected, with a good solid performance by Leon Haslam.
Next stop: Assen, a more technical track than Valencia since changes were made a couple of years ago to the early part of the circuit.

Smokin ...

Superpole 2 is now over and Ben Spies and his Yamaha big-bang R1 smoked the standing record by half a second ... on his backup bike! At that pace, that's huge. The front row tomorrow is going to have three Ducs beside Ben ... Laconi, Haga and Fabrizio. Biaggi, inspite of being fast, missed the Superpole cut and will be starting from the back half of the grid in 18th. Nakano on the other Aprilia is now out with a broken collarbone from this morning's first session. Carlos Checa managed to hang onto a second row spot in 8th and Shane Byrne hung onto 12th to make the third row.
It's going to be tough for Biaggi to work his way up to the podium, so I'm going with Spies to either do the double tomorrow, or split first/second 50/50 with Haga. If Spies finishes first, Haga will be second and vice versa. That leaves the third step on the podium up for grabs. Who's it gonna be? There are fast riders all the way back to the third row. No doubt the third step will be occupied by a different rider in each of the two races. I'm thinking the odds are with one or two of the Ducati riders: Laconi, Fabrizio, Smrz or Byrne, but then there's vetern Checa, and don't forget the two Suzukis of Kagayama and Neukirchner. It's possible Biaggi will make his way through to the podium in at least one race, but he'll have his work cut out for him.
So where's Hopper? ... way back in 16th, with a best time of 1:35.251 ... more than 2 full seconds off the other WSB rookie's pace. Well ... he's not going to make any kind of dent in this series, so I'm going to stop talking about him now.
I hope the TV coverage is good, because there's going to be a lot of action all the way back to about 8th place.

Saturday in Spain

The second qualifier showed improvement all around, with Spies finishing first and 11 out of the 30 riders running under 1:35. Superpole is providing some interesting results. Top 12 are under 1:35 and current leaders are Carlos Checa at 1:34:119 from Shakey Byrne at 1:34.238, Kagayama at 1:34.462, Haga in 5th, Speis in 6th and Biaggi out of the top half of the pack ... he may have crashed or had a problem, but no details from Valencia yet. Not sure if these are the final results, but I don't think they're finished yet. If they are done or the order stays close to what it's currently showing, it'll make for a very interesting first few laps tomorrow.

WSB First Qualifier ... Biaggi-Aprilia on Top

Today's first qualifier for Sunday's WSB round at Valencia highlighted this year's three horse race. Biaggi finished fastest, followed by Spies and Haga ... the only three under 1:35, with a single millisecond between second and third. In fourth came Haga's Xerox Ducati teammate Fabrizio, then Spies' Yamaha teammate Sykes. In his first WSB qualifier, Hopper managed 18th, a second off the pace ... no comment. Might as well call it a season ... champion: Spies, runner-up: Haga, best rookie rider: Spies, best rookie bike: Aprilia.

Rolling Start?!

So what's with the rolling start at the Fontana AMA Daytona Sportbike races this past weekend? That's just bizarre .... a two by two, rolling start right out of the NASCAR playbook. I'm sure there's a good reason for it in stock car racing, but it has no reason-for-being in a motorcycle race. Obviously dreamed up by a car guy who doesn't watch bike racing. Unlike a car race, the standing start of a bike race is one of the most exciting moments of the race. Why on earth would you replace it with a boring rolling start? Bizarre. Oh and don't get me going on the 1125cc Buells racing against the 600 sportbikes. That's just blatant Americanism trying its best to get an American product on the podium. A big twin has no place in a mid-size race. Haga rides an 1100cc twin at the front of the WSB pack, so it has nothing to do with the number of cylinders anymore. Actually it's insulting ... for Buell that is ... the only way they can win a race is to run against the little bikes. The commentators were saying things like "look at the power the Buell has down the straight". Well .... duh!

Happy Hopper

John Hopkins seems to be happy with his new ride. Conditions were mixed at the Almeria track where he got to try both dry and wet, tyres and settings. It's interesting to see his comments comparing a SuperBike to a MotoGP bike: "After my disappointing season last year, it's great to get out on track and enjoy riding a bike again. I've never been on a Superbike in my life but the size of the motorcycle makes a big difference and suits my style. It feels good to be able to move around on the bike again and feel it spinning coming out of the corners." Let's see how he does playing in traffic. With the top three to five riders running very fast already and Hopper still learning the bike, I don't see him finishing any higher than 6th this weekend ... if he's lucky. Not that I'll be watching him anyway with Spies, Haga and Biaggi providing all the entertainment at the front. The question is how many others will be able to keep up with them like Kiyonari did in the last race.

Pro Ride Honda Quits WSB

Pro Ride Honda missed the first two rounds of WSB because of money problems, but was expected to rejoin the series this weekend at Valencia. No so ... their sponsor has pulled out, leaving the Italian team in the lurch and 2005 BSB Champ, Spaniard Gregorio Lavilla, without a ride. The team has access to enough cash to run two minor (as in, low cost) riders, David Checa and Roland Resch, in the three WSB "Italian" rounds: Monza, Misano (San Marino) and Imola. Lavilla is trying to drum up a wildcard ride at Valencia and is still hoping to participate in the series, one way or the other ... not too likely.

Stoner Builds BMW Collection

Casey Stoner won this afternoon's MotoGP BMW M Award Shootout, as the only rider to break the 1:39 mark, with a time of 1:38.646. He takes home the limited edition BMW 135i Sauber F1 Team Edition to add to the collection he started last year. The session was halted 3 minutes early due to light rain. Interesting to note that Rossi won the BMW in 2007 but lost the championship to Casey, then Casey won the car last year and Rossi finished as champion. Looks like it's bad luck to take home the four-wheel prize.
Behind Stoner on the Marlboro Ducati, the remainder of the top five finished in the 1:39s, with Rossi second, followed by Capirossi, Lorenzo and Vermeulen. That's both Fiat Yamahas and both Rizla Suzukis. Sixth to fifteenth places all ran in the 1:40s.
Of other interest, Gibernau managed an 8th, ahead of Melandri in 12th. Toseland highsided, big time, but appears to be as well as one can be under the circumstances. Toni Elias must've had some tall gearing ... while finishing 9th, he ran the highest top speed of 287kph, with Rossi second fastest at 284kph.
The final pre-season practice session is in progress and will wrap-up at 18:00 local time. Next stop: Losail, Qatar under the lights.

Lorenzo Takes First Blood

The Jerez First Practice just finished. Only three riders got below 1:40 with Lorenzo 7/100s ahead of Rossi, with Stoner only 4/100s behind. Behind them, 6 riders under 1:41 with Vermeulen, followed by Edwards and Capirossi.

Hacking is a Probie

Jamie Hacking's suspension has been suspended and he won't miss any races. He's still out of pocket the $4000 fine and is on probation for the rest of the season. That means something like, if he swears at an official public venue, then a one race penalty will be enforced. Do you think any of the other riders will try to push his buttons? How about DiSalvo? This has nothing to do with racing so who cares anyway?

Stoner and Hayden Quit MotoGP!

After deciding that they can't compete with the likes of Gibernau and Melandri, both Nicky Hayden and Casey Stoner have quit MotoGP. A loophole in Ducati Marlboro's Shell sponsorship contract allows them to break their riders'contract provided they work for Shell pumping gas in Madrid. Here Nicky fills a wary Spaniard's shiney red bike with diesel while Casey gives him a friendly pad on the bum.

He's baaaaaaaack ...

Sete Gibernau is back on track ... literally. Jerez is his home circuit and he'll be joining in the fun this weekend piloting the Guinea Ecuatorial Onde 2000 Ducati Desmosedici GP9 (say what?) for the MotoGP Official IRTA Test. I didn't think it was possible to make a Ducati look ugly just by painting it, but somehow these guys managed. Having been out of the game for awhile and still recovering from a shoulder operation and subsequent re-injury, Gibernau may have a tough time being competitive. He was a second and a half off the pace in Malaysia in February and missed Qatar because of his shoulder. At least he can keep Melandri company mid-pack. The good news is that once real racing starts, Rossi will be too busy at the front to make a fool out of him again.

Jamie Hacking Suspended

Hacking has been suspended indefinately for throwing a hissy-fit Sunday in the media centre after post race interviews. "No premier sporting organization would tolerate, whether it be motorsports or major league stick and ball sports, the level of disrespectful, profane and vulgar language in a public forum as demonstrated by Jamie Hacking ... . His behavior was totally disrespectful to the media, his competitors and the sport of motorcycle racing in general".

So what happened? ...
Looks like Hacking was already a little peeved at something at the beginning of the race 2 interviews, then when third place diSalvo was being interviewed, Jamie started talking to Danny Eslick. Jason shot Hacking a "Hey! I'm doing a little interview over here!" Then when Hacking and Eslick started talking again:

DiSalvo: "Hey, did I talk during your thing? Did I? Answer my question."
Hacking: "Do you have a microphone? They can hear you."
DiSalvo: "Let's show a little respect here."
Hacking: "I lost all respect for you a long time ago."
DiSalvo: "I never had any for you."

The interview ended with the air full of static and apparently after the cameras were turned off, Hacking left the media centre cursing.

Here's the interview:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCPctYu0txg

Mladin and the also rans ...

Looks like there's no real competition for Mladin this year. It was no big surprise that Mat took first in both Fontana AMA SuperBike races this weekend. In race one on Saturday, teammate Tommy Hayden tried to make a race of it, but Mladin finally tired of playing and got on with business, winning by nearly 9 seconds. Geoff May (Suzuki) arrived at the checkered flag third. Like I said earlier, this year there's no race for first. In fact Mladin doesn't even need to show up ... just give him the trophy now. He's a world class rider walking all over a domestic series ... but I think without him as mentor and competition, Ben Spies wouldn't be the rider he is today. Time for Mat to retire.
Behind Mat on Sunday, the race was Hayden and Yates until Hayden missed a couple of gears in the middle of the race on the front straight and they made contact, with Yates having one of those on-film-forever moments saving the bike. Hayden kept going on a slightly damaged bike for another second. After a highside early in race one, Larry Pegram managed third on his Ducati in race two. I suppose we might as well give Hayden second for the season and send him home as well ... or make the Yoshimura GSXR1000's carry 50lb lead weights to give the other teams a chance.

Told you so ...

John Hopkins officially signed on Thursday, with Stiggy Honda to race WSB, starting with round three in Valencia in two weeks. He replaces Italian Roberto Rolfo. Hopper finished 4th in the 2007 MotoGP, but then switched to Kawasaki for 2008 and suffered multiple injuries, both a factor in his 16th place season finish. Teammate Haslam's podium finish in Australia and Rolfo's 5th place Superpole finish at Qatar, show that the bike is quite capable of a good result. It's now up to Hopper to put his bike where his mouth is. He'll be under a lot of self-imposed pressure to succeed, so big crashes are possible.