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.