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.