Rossi Gets His Podium Fix

This is kinda cool. Rossi and Dovizioso competed in the Monza Rally outside Milan this past weekend. The field of 97 included 8 WRC champions, 5 European Rally champions, one IRC Rally title holder, 11 Italian Rally champions, and 3 winners of the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Sébastien Loeb, 8 times WRC champion won the three day, nine-stage event. Winner of 2 stages, 24 seconds behind the leader on accumulated time and second overall was ... Valentino Rossi! Awesome. Dovi finished 54th.

So How's It Going?

Well, if Ducati thought they were going to catch up with 1000cc between the wheels, they seem to be misguided. After completion of the second private test round at Valencia, the Honda RC213V is top of the heap, with fastest times by Pedrosa and Stoner. Fastest CRT (Claiming Rule Team) rider was Colin Edwards on the BMW-powered Suter team bike. Several factory riders were absent, notably Rossi and Dovizioso who are driving in the Simoncelli-themed Monza Rally and Nicky Hayden's recuperating from wrist surgery. For 2012 Randy DePuniet will be on the Aspar, Aprillia powered CRT bike. Times for the CRT bikes seem to be 10 seconds slower than the Hondas, so we may see two distinct classes going round the tracks. It's early yet.

What's a CRT you say? Well, the engines for these non-factory teams cannot be supplied by one of the big four factories (Yamaha, Honda, Ducati and Suzuki). They get 12 motors instead of 6 and 24 litres of fuel instead of 21. Any of the big four teams can claim and buy any CRT motor at the end of any race for €20,000 with transmission or €15,000 without. A maximum of four claims can be made against one CRT in any one racing season, and each factory team may not claim more than one engine per year from the same CRT. So now you know.

Next action is the 2012 Official Test at Sepang, 31 Jan - 02 Feb.

Let's Give This Another Go

For some reason, I got put off blogging about bike racing after watching the 2009 MotoGP at Indianapolis ... a real crap piece of track. The USA has many better tracks in the east, notably Barber. But, motivated by money rather than quality of racing, MotoGP has now had three years at Indy. So enough about that. I think I'll start blogging once again, just in time for the 2012, litre bike debut.

It's going to be interesting to see if Ducati can get their shit together. They've been held back by their innovative frameless 'chassis' (with limited ability to design in adequate flex) and 90 degree L motor (which puts the crankcase too far aft). The Desmosedici GP12 has had the carbon fibre headstock-airbox replaced with an aluminum version which is easier to machine-in flex. However, it's still a very rigid connection between headstock and engine. Rossi seems to like it, but so far in testing, he doesn't look significantly faster than he was before. It's just a bandaid solution that doesn't address the two main problems. Ducati seems to be betting on the power of their litre motor, but if I were them, I'd get over my emotional attachment to the frameless design and hallmark motor configuration.

Oh, and Indy is still a crap track.