Gran Premio de Espana: Asphalt Roller Fiat-Yamaha #46 dominates

Last Sunday in Jerez the Doctor won in a way that reminded to most of us the victories of his “beloved” competitor, Max Biaggi. Pedrosa had a good start but in a few turns was overtaken and relegated to a comfortable second position for the rest of the race. Since the first few laps I noticed the little Spaniard eagerly spinning the rear tire right from the mid corner revealing that he was trying to get closer to Valentino to gain back what he had lost at the entrance of each turn. In the same way we have already noticed in Qatat, despite his weight advantage and the smaller bike, Pedrosa is not able to match Valentino’s entrance corner speed: they start braking together but Rossi seems to apply less pressure on his brakes and use a bit more the last part of his line going to the apex to scrape the extra speed. I would not be surprised by the difference in skills if we were comparing Valentino to Hayden, but not to a former 250cc World Champion matador. My reading is that Dani is still not very comfortable with the front end of his bike and, also, that he is aiming to win the crown by being extremely consistent. He wants to collect each and every possible point, hoping to capitalize his strategy if Rossi should suffer some sort of problem during the season.
Colin Edward got the third place, a result that confirms the successful winter development of the new Yamaha and pleases greatly FIAT, the new Yamaha sponsor.
In fourth position we had Elias: a great race for Toni, too bad that he started cranking fast laps too late to remain attached to the front train. Stoner got 5th, enough to maintain the second place in the Championship with Pedrosa. It’s interesting to notice that both of them are 21 year old, and with Jerez they have took away respectively from Capirossi and Hayden the role of team main riders. To be honest the Kentucky Kid had an incredible start and fought for the 4th position for some time until the deteriorated tires started to slow down his pace and affecting his lines.
My praise goes to Checa for an incredible weekend that unfortunately didn’t produce the deserved podium. After the race, very philosophically, he explained that Sunday the temperature were lower than expected and he didn’t have a good feeling from the bike for the fist half of the race.
Finally a big clap for Hopper: he was the protagonist of a great race with increasingly faster laps that unfortunately ended when he washed the front tire right after passing Hayden for the fourth place.



In three weeks the MotoGp will be in Turkey, a track where Rossi want absolutely to win after last year experience. At that time he started in 11th position, overshot a turn losing almost 3” and getting a final 4th position. Melandri won that race over an impressive Stoner. I personally see again the Asphalt Roller Fiat-Yamaha #46 to crash his competitors, in order, Pedrosa and Stoner.

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MotoGp Poll: Gran Premio de Espana

As per our poll rules I could not include Capirossi as potential candidate to the second place, but after his crash in Qatar and Stoner's victory on "his" bike we know that the big little italian man is going to fight hard to prove that he is still the first rider in the Ducati team.

Grand Prix of Qatar: Australian "canguru" wins on Italian red missile

In the first race of the season we could have had a final classification with riders stretched in longer time span if it wasn't for Rossi slowing down, somehow, the Australian rider on his new Italian missile. The Ducati was much faster than any other bike: in practice Stoner reached 324.7 km/h, much faster than Rossi’s 309.9 km/h and Pedrosa 317.9km/h. The red bike from Borgo Panicale has always been fast over the years, but the extra speed was seldom matched by appropriate stability and grip. Last year, after winning his first race with a bike sliding sideway in every turn of the circuit,Capirossi was compared to a red crab by his fans.
Last Saturday, instead, Casey Stoner looked outstanding on a bike that seemed solid, precise, reasonably quick in changing direction and … fast, very fast. On every lap he stormed Rossi on the front straight: it didn’t matter how many bikes of distance the Tavullia champion had on him at the exit of the last turn, because regardless, Stoner was able to pass his opponent in half straight and gain, maybe, another 70-90 ft by the end of the fornt stretch. Only because of Rossi’s immense talent and his desire to re-conquest the lost World Champion title, we were able to actually see some dicing in the infield. Indeed Rossi, strong of an impeccable Fiat-Yamaha was able to carry much more speed at the entrance of turn 1 so that at the exit of the same turn he was already back on the tail of the young Ducati rider. From there, during the race Rossi has launched his assalts passing the Australian youngster several times: on the brakes or on the outside of a turn leading to an opposite twist. Well, anytime Rossi has been able to pull in front the Ducati, his lead was then wiped out on the front long straight as if Stoner was still riding last year bike.

On the other end Pedrosa’s extra speed was not enough to challenge either Stoner or Rossi, but good enough to put him on the third step of the podium. In a few occasion it seemed that he had passed Rossi toward the end of the front straight but once on the brakes he could not match Valentino's higher entrance speed. As we have already noticed last year, it seems that Pedrosa is still not used to “Rossi’s confidence” when it comes to tight passing. Someone has claimed that Danny is still paying his easy years in 125cc and 250cc when he often won after passing his opponents and taking off to lead the race until the end. Conversely last Saturday he ended up suffering even Hopkin's pressure who, fighting the pain of the recent injuries and a poor performance in his last winter test, pulled out an incredible race for which he almost won a final third place.
There is not much to say about the rest of the riders, including the World Champion Nicky Hayden for his meager 8th place that looks even worse if we consider that two riders have crashed in front of him: Ceca and … Capirossi. Last year, Bayliss stole a secure victory from Capirossi and last Saturday his new teammate was doing it again. Maybe this situation was really bothering him, anyhow after a bad start due to a contact with another rider, Capirossi had unleashed the extra power of his bike to try to catch the front riders but unfortunately he low-sided when in 5th position. Was he pushing too much? Did he trail brake to much? Or was he exploring faster lines? In any case he wasted a secure podium and 16 points that could have been useful for the Championship especially now that the even the young Aussie is in the list of potential winners. As matter of the fact, Stoner has already displayed a cocky attitude: after being asked "... how does it feel to have a 7 time World Champion attached on your tail for the whole race?"... he said something very similar to “ …It was like to have anybody else behind”.


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MotoGp Poll: Grand Prix of Qatar

Like we did last season ...., I don't want to ask who is going to win Sunday because it will reduce too much the number of potential riders. For every race I am going to suggest the first 7 riders in the championship as candidates to "miss the victory", and in case we have the same rider classifying 2nd twice consecutively, in the next poll we will try to guess the 3rd place rider's name. Scroll up and down to read the whole list and click on one of the choices. The poll will be immediately updated.

FIAT-Yamaha: a venture at 6 wheels

And after at least a couple of months of speculation the strangest marriage in town has taken place. To my knowledge this is the first time that in Motogp 4 wheels leverages 2 for promotional purposes. I have recently learned that in Italy, Opel, the European GM division, has been buying commercial time during motorcycling races at least to improve the brand positioning among millions of Italian MotoGp viewers. If anything, to me cars are the most immediate link to motorcycles because they share at least speed and technology. I would see myself more prone to switch from Nissan to FIAT because of their new testimonials than to start smoking cigarettes because of the yellow Camel that we have seen in the recent years. Or, I would see myself suddenly interested in rally because of Valentino racing with a new FIAT car, than to follow the latest oil drilling adventures of the Repsol Group because of the Spaniard talent, Danny Pedrosa.
Anyhow, the bikes look great: they have chosen a graphic where the classic blue Yamaha recalls at the same time the classic color of the World Champion Italian soccer team outfit. For the logo FIAT they have used the simple “old” font characterized on top by the green-white-red colors of our flag. If we look at the graphics that Vanjey Design had recently speculated, I am under the impression that FIAT & Yamaha have agreed for a graphic solution that leaves more representation to the Japanese company.
In an interview, even this one unfortunately in Italian, Rossi has mentioned that because of the bad luck suffered last year he has chosen different superstitious solutions but, I want to add, that he has not changed the use of his favorite color, yellow, on the bike and on his leather suit.

Only a few days to go for the first race of the season: good luck to everybody hoping that the best, only the best wins the 2007 World MotoGp Championship

Max Biaggi is still very fast

Today Max Biaggi just missed a pole position for his first WSBK race in Losail, Qatar, by 0’322 thousand of sec. The pole was won by another veteran, Troy Corser. After Biaggi, in order we have Toseland, Haga and Lanzi. Bayliss only sixth … but with him anything can happen.
At this point can I speculate/hope a podium for our Roman Emperor? After two difficult years he deserves a bit of luck and reward for not giving up in his career.

Forza Biaggi!!!

Luca Scassa: an Italian Champion in AMA

A month ago when with the PMP guys I was in Jennings, I was in the race track facilities when I noticed, among others, a picture of an aggressive rider stating "Luca Scassa, 1:14.81 new track record". This morning I went to read again the post about our winter trip to Florida, and in the picture of the race track lay out I noticed that at that time the record belonged to the canadian Pascal Picotte with a time of 1:15.4 ……
The difference is substantial, so out of curiosity a made a quick research on line to discover that Luca Scassa is the 2006 Italian Superstock Champion that has signed a contrat with Claudio Castiglioni , President of the MV Augusta, to race the AMA Superbike in USA under the colors of the Ferracci Team.
Luca is only 23 year old: a tall, slim guy from Arezzo, Toscany, with undisputed technical skills that are going to be tested and sharpened in the difficult American tracks.
For more info and pictures of Luca, check his website lucascassa.com

Good luck Luca!

Picture source topmoto.it

Max Biaggi 's bet in WSBK

We can call it a bet, the bet of someone who wants to show to himself, his competitors and to the whole world that he is still able to go fast and win. His last victory goes back to 2004 in Germany in frontof Barros when he was still racing with the yellow Honda Camel of the Pramac Pons Team. In 2005 with the official factory Honda Repsol Team led by the legendary technical director Erv Kanemoto, Biaggi
thought that he could be one of the contenders to the World Championship but lack of results brought Biaggi and Honda to a bitter divorce that, indeed, marked the end of his career in MotoGp and the beginning of another one in WSBK. Yes, Biaggi was supposed to start racing with the Corona team last year, but the limited amount of time to create another two bikes for the Roman rider and Troy Corser’s dissent to share the team with another prima donna, it convinced Batta, Suzuki Corona Team Manager, to wait another year to bring Biaggi in Superbike.


The last 12 months have been extremely busy for Max Biaggi: training with the bicycle, in the gym, on the soccer fields, with the supermotard bike and with his new tool, the Suzuki GSX-R 1000 K6 and then K7. He has always been almost maniacal in getting mentally and phisically ready to the racing season, but at his age of 35 and after such a long career the effort and the passion infused in the last 12 month of training measures the size of his bet: new championship, new competitors, new team, new technicians, new bike, new brakes, new tires ….a lot of variables in an equation that can be solved only with winning in WSBK. Indeed the expectations are so high among fans, media and sponsors, that any results that should fall short of the victory would raise tons of criticism. Last Monday Biaggi finished the tests in the Losail circuit at 3/10 of a sec behind the new Yamaha rider Troy Corser, riding as much as 80 laps to include a race simulation with the 2006 Pirelli.
I believe that this one was his last test before the first race of the season on February 24th, when he will have to compete again with the fastest riders in the world.

Do not forget to periodically check Jim’s blog, Armchairbikefan, for overseas insides on the WSBK.

In the first video (source) Kagayama and Biaggi training in Phillip Island
In the second one (source) he is in California where he often goes during the winter to train with other supermotards riders

Ice road racing: a specialty for the boldest bikers.

After a couple of months of unusual mild temperatures, the North East winter has shifted its gears with blasting cold winds pushing our thermometers down in the low teens. Regardless in NYC the wintry weather is never long enough to make people overcoming their natural tendency to cocoon in their homes and other indoor places during the coldest time of the year. If anything, we challenge ourselves with winter sports, and in my case, along with others PMP guys, I go skiing to Vermont. Very often during these weekend trips I have seen people riding their snowmobiles in polar temperatures to get to the local restaurants and bars for a “hot date” or to meet their friends. They looked like the Michelin man with their huge specialized outfits that contain infinite layers of Gore-Tex garments to guarantee enjoyable time at high speed in the farm fields or iced rivers and lakes. I have always looked at them with some sort of admiration, but they suddenly became normal people once I stumbled on this video of roadracers challenging themselves on icy tracks. They are Swedish, people that have a long tradition of speedway (flat track) on ice, but I have never heard about iceroadracing …. These guys have some guts: it looks that they are wearing “normal” leather suits and also it seems that they are constantly on the verge of a huge high-side: I wonder how they would ride under ordinary conditions on a race track after training in “cold blood” temperatures and extremely dicey conditions.



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Valentino Rossi: a real artist in road racing

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