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.