MotoGP : A Hollywood Blockbuster
Published by Neil Everett
23 July 2008, 00:42
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America, the home of Hollywood and after Sunday the home of the best race of the 2008 MotoGP season so far.
A resurgent Casey Stoner headed back out to Laguna Seca hoping to repeat his performance from twelve months earlier, when no one could even get within touching distance of the talented Aussie until they met again in parc ferme after the race.
Stoner had been rejuvenated since the post race Catalunya test session, where the team managed to make a break through with the power delivery of the Ducati. Stoner claimed he had more feeling with the bike and headed into Donington with renewed optimism.
After dominating free practise and qualifying Stoner put on a master class at Donington for the second year in succession, leaving the crowd to wonder who would finish second. Stoner was clearly pleased to pick up his second win of the year even if sections of the crowd weren’t quite so responsive to Stoners mercurial performance.
Stoner and Ducati had found their feet again and like a prize fighter they came out in the next two rounds with heavy body blows for the rest of the field. No one looked like getting close to Casey at Assen with many of the riders and teams claiming that they had work to do in order to close the gap on the Stoner/Ducati package.
Just seven days on from Casey’s fourth win of the season at Sachsenring the teams headed to the west coast of America and it was to be an enthralling weekend from start to finish.
The first piece of big news came in the form of contract renewals. Yamaha were first announcing two deals that weekend for the two remaining seats aboard the M1 for 2009. Firstly Rossi penning a new 2 year deal and then Colin Edwards signed a one year extension to his Tech3 contract.
The second piece of important news surrounded the participation of championship contender Dani Pedrosa. After putting in a masterful display in the early going at the wet Sachsenring, Pedrosa fell heavily at turn one breaking bones in his hand. He decided to have an operation in the week running up to the Laguna Seca race in an attempt to compete. After a no score in Germany, Dani felt it was important to try to minimise the damage to the points gap before the summer break. His participation was short lived though, partly down to the fact that he was in a large amount of pain, but also because he was struggling to get anywhere near a competitive time on the rubber that Michelin had provided for the weekend.
The last of the news from the paddock concerned rider contracts for 2009, with many believing that Laguna Seca would be Melandri’s last outing on the Ducati, with Hayden still favourite to fill the spare seat in ’09 as we reported on Londonbikers.com earlier in the season.
Before the start of the race few would have predicted the intense and dramatic battle that they were about to witness with Stoner appearing to be head and shoulders above the competition, he was fastest all through the weekend and managed to qualify almost half a second faster than his nearest rival Valentino Rossi. Michelins challenge would start in the hands of the qualifying king Nicky Hayden who had managed to mask Michelins race tyre issues with a fantastically brave qualifying display in front of a passionate home crowd. Few Hollywood script writers would have been able to write a better plot for the race on Sunday, from the early drama of Jorge Lorenzo high siding his Yamaha M1 in to the gravel at turn four, to the two battling Honda riders Hayden and Dovizioso fighting over fourth place and possibly the HRC contract for 2009, and then there was the main plot of the battle that everyone has been waiting to see between the World Champion Casey Stoner and the Doctor Valentino Rossi.
The two shared a race long battle at Catalunya in 2007, but on Sunday it was almost like a boxing rematch with the new champ defending against the former champ.
Neither rider was prepared to give an inch. They should both be congratulated on their level of discipline throughout the race. The overtaking manoeuvres came thick and fast from one corner to the next, the battle for supremacy was intense, neither rider wanted to go into the summer break thinking that they had just given away five valuable points to their opposition.
Stoner has come in for a verbal assault from some fans around the world, but personally I think his battling performance at Laguna Seca will have won him more fans than any of his last three race victories. Stoner battled hard with Valentino, and pulled off some gutsy overtaking manoeuvres around the outside heading into turn one. However Rossi was quick to make a move back, concerned that if Stoner was to get clear he would disappear down the road. It was a clever and calculated ride by the seven times world champion, as he made perfect use of his and the M1’s strong characteristics, while upsetting Casey’s rhythm at the same time.
Unfortunately the end to this fantastic race happened slightly prematurely when Casey ran wide entering turn eleven and his front wheel dug into the deep gravel causing Stoner to fall at very low speed, luckily he was able to remount and finish the remainder of the race to collect the twenty championship points, but the real spoils of the day went to Valentino, who was visibly pleased to have broken Stoner’s run of victories before the summer break.
Chris Vermeulen turned in another fantastic display on the fast improving Suzuki, with his second podium in two races proving that he can score a podium in the dry as well as being one of the MotoGP rain masters. With Chris' recent performance and his personal admition that his desire is to remain in the MotoGP, it looks like Suzuki will be pleased to continue their relationship with Vermeulen into 2009.
Wildcard Ben Spies impressed on his second race outing for the Suzuki squad, coming in ahead of many of the MotoGP regulars in a solid 8th place. It was a tough weekend for Ben who had to switch between the MotoGP paddock and his AMA Superbike team, however he came away with a decent result and will be looking to improve when the teams return later in the year to Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
The drama was far from over at the end of the race though, as both riders and manufacturers were to come in for criticism for their performances to add a final twist to the tale.
Many of the Michelin riders were quite vocal in their protest that they had been let down but the French tyre manufacturer. The situation was at its worst on Saturday before qualifying when many of the riders had to add cuts into their tyres effectively making them from a technical stand point an intermediate tyre, Michelin had suggested this measure needed to be taken just so they could generate some heat into the carcass of the tyre to provide the level of grip which the riders required.
In parc ferme there were a few choice words between the battling duo of Stoner and Rossi. Stoner, seemed a little unhappy about a couple of the overtaking manoeuvres that were placed on him during the race, while Rossi seemed bemused by Casey’s comments feeling that the moves were clean, fair and that there was nothing wrong.
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion about the race and the passes, some will say that Rossi was being too aggressive, while others will say that Stoner doesn’t have any evidence. Personally myself I thought the race was firm but fair. Having watched the race back a couple of times both riders made a couple of moves on their opponent which were on the limit, but at the same time they never made contact. We’ve seen racing like this before with Gibernau and Biaggi and I’m sure we will see it again.
I think a lot of the problems with post race interviews is that the riders have just been racing for over 40 minutes with the adrenaline pumping and then head into parc ferme and have a microphone and camera shoved into their face while they are still trying to compose their thoughts. I think Casey will calm down when he realises that he’s only 25 points down and there is still a long season to run, but I’m sure Rossi will be sleeping a bit easier for the next month before we start again in Brno.
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