The ambience was steadily building on Thursday for the eighth race weekend of the 2008 World Championship, with MotoGP arriving in England at a cloudy Donington Park.
Despite the typically cool weather conditions it was an exciting day at the circuit in the heart of England, with a busy ‘Day of Champions’ agenda ahead of the bwin.com British Grand Prix.
As he will hope to be throughout the weekend, home rider James Toseland has been one of the main protagonists as the MotoGP community and British racing fans gathered for a series of activities to raise money for Riders for Health, the official charity of the World Championship.
Toseland grew up just to the north of Donington in nearby Sheffield and he led a charity cycle ride around the circuit today, before entertaining the paddock with a couple of sets with his band Crash in the afternoon.
There was also the now customary ride-in from the nearby village of Coalville for fans supporting ‘Riders’, followed by a charity auction, a ‘Question of Bikes Quiz’ and a series of interviews with various World Championship competitors throughout the day.
In the Thursday afternoon official pre-event press conference, meanwhile, a star-studded line-up of Valentino Rossi, Dani Pedrosa, Casey Stoner and Chris Vermeulen joined Toseland in facing questions from the media.
MotoGP standings leader Rossi commented, “I like this circuit, because I have a lot of great memories from here, especially the first victory in 500cc, in the wet with a great battle against Jeremy McWilliams. Being on the podium here is always a great emotion because of the crowd, so I want to be back there this year.”
For his part Pedrosa, added, “I crashed on the Monday after Barcelona and there is still some pain so I have to test my condition on Friday because since the accident I have done zero activity. Sometimes the weather here is not so nice so we have practice first and we have to get the bike ready for all conditions.”
Information about how much was raised at Day of Champions for Riders for Health will be published in the next day or two.
