Indy 2008 Race

Premier Win number 69 for the doctor. Not too much of a surprise considering his main rival Casey Stoner is still having problems with his scaphoid.

The wind and rain meant that the red flag was brought out with 8 laps to go. Looks like Hurricane Ike was on Nicky Hayden's side coz if the race went on any longer he would have lost both 1st and 2nd positions to Fiat Yamaha.

Stoner, Dovizioso and Spies were fighting it out for 4th place, well as much as you can fight it out when you've got empty bottles and plastic cups flying across the track. Stoner seems to be more relaxed now that he's pretty much handed the Championship to Rossi, too many mind games going on and the poor boy obviously couldn't stomach it. Spies was apparently disappointed with 6th place, could be sign of another whinger for next year, although that depends on if he even gets a ride. You need to lower your asking price Benny!

Rounding out the 19 riders was Marco Melandri who must be waiting with baited breath to start next year on the Kawasaki. Although considering the performances by the current Kawasaki riders I'm guessing we won't see too much of an improvement next year, but if you're going to come last you might as well have your teammate down there with you so they'll hopefully point the finger at the bike rather than the rider.

Fingers crossed the Sun comes out at Motegi.

Indy 2008 Qualifying

The Sun finally came out for day 2 of the Indianapolis MotoGP and Valentino Rossi has finally broken Stoner's string of Pole positions. Although whether or not this will help in the race remains to be seen, whether or not the race will actually take place also remains to be seen, all thanks to Hurricane Ike.

Lorenzo finishes off the front row and the second row contains American's Nicky Hayden and Wildcards rider Ben Spies and Frenchman Randy De Puniet who needs to take some advice from the 1990 movie Days of Thunder, The thing you absolutely need to do to win a race is..... to finish the race. Nicky seems to have mostly returned to form after his heel injury, he's still wandering around in a moonboot but it's a damn good thing he can go left.

Couple of interesting crashes during the qualifying session. Shinya Nakano and Chris Vermulen were admiring the landscaping. More grass, less gravel is helpful when you want to get the bike back on the track but less helpful when you're trying to stop yourself from hitting something solid.

Finally if you want the inside scoop on MotoGP from one of the more outgoing MotoGP riders check out Colin Edwards answering your questions here.

Indy 2008 FP2

Friday afternoon produced similar results to the morning session. More rain made the conditions tougher and the only person that managed to improve on their time from the morning session was little Dani who is obviously still getting used to the new track, new bike and new tyres.

West is still on the top of the leader board, for the first time ever in MotoGP. I heard reports that he's been spotted with a group of native American's dressed in war paint and performing what seems to be a rain dance. Might need to dance a little harder tonight West, while thunderstorms are predicted I'm not sure the rain will be accompanying it.

Vermulen seems to have found his Gumboots and it slowly catching up to West.

The local boys don't seems to be fairing too well. At the end of the second practice Hopkins came in 11th, Hayden is in 15th followed by Edwards in 16th. Disappointing to fans of Colin who were hoping to get a glimpse of the rider running down the straight naked. Maybe Edwards and Rossi should have checked the forecast before attemping to start a new Indy MotoGP tradition, cold and wet weather equals shrinkage.

Indy 2008 FP1

First ever MotoGP race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) and the first half and hour of the first practice is so far showing some interesting results. Of course we still have the rest of the weekend and things are likely to change, weather depending.

While I can't actually see the practice and can only go by the live timing from the MotoGP website my spider senses are telling me it's raining. How do I know that you ask? Anthony West is on the top of the board and at 1.56.605 is lapping 2 whole seconds faster that the number 2 spot being Alex De Angelis (1.58.756), who is lapping 2 seconds faster that Sylvian Guintoli in number 2 on 2.00.482. And it pretty much goes on by there. Now I know I constantly give crap to poor old Ant West, but I can't help the fact that he generally sucks arse in the dry.

Middle of the pack we have Edwards in 9th and Dovi in 10th doing 2.02s. And down the very bottom we have Melandri on 2.06 and Capirossi on 2.08. Doesn't look like the old man is a fan of the rain.

And just after the half way mark Hopkins has joined his team mate and is currently on 1.57. The problem with this being a new track, not to mention the high likelyhood that it's actually raining is that we have no idea what a good track time is. It could be that by tomorrow afternoon the leaders could be running into the low 1.40 mark, we just don't know. But moving on it looks like that testing after Misano may have done some good for the Kawasaki bike. I think there was some mention that they are now changing the bike to fit the tyre instead of vice versa. Gee wonder how long it took them to decide that, especially considering, um, they don't make the TYRE!!!

45 minutes to go and the rain has obviously stopped and Ben Spies, the rider with the only experience at this track is on 1.56.423 and is on top of the board.

I'm now going to go back to watching flashing blue and red helmets on my screen before trying to get some sleep before FP2.

Misano 2008 Race

Congratulations Rossi, 2008 World Championship is pretty much in the bag.

Race settled down to a steady pace after the usual crashes in the first couple of laps, Randy de Puniet followed by Alex de Angelis followed by Casey Stoner. Looks like the stress is getting to the young Australian who seems to be finding comfort in his old habit...of crashing.

The most interesting part of the race (after the crashing) would have to be Vermulen, Toseland, Capirossi and Dovizioso fighting for 5th position. Although personally if you can't get on the podium in order to spray the paddock girls with champayne why even bother.

Colin Edwards did his typical rant after a disappointing 10th position, his words, "It was Shit". With Lorenzo as runner up and Pedosa 4th, I'm not sure you can blame the tyres this time Colin. I think he might find helpful the following mantra during future interviews. "Michelin are a major sponsor, Michelin are a major sponsor."

Also disappointing was the result from the Kawasaki riders, although not all together surprising. I can just imagine West calling home to inform his loved ones that he came 13th and got 3 points! Failing to mention that 3 riders failed to finish and 1 failed to start.

All in all I'm sure there are quite a few people suffering the after effects of a long night of celebrations last night by now. And I shall wrap up with a statement that will become quite common in the MotoGP paddock next year...

"8 time World Championship Winner...Valentino Rossi"

MotoGP LD.

Misano 2008 Qualifying

Very exciting qualifying session, here's hoping it's an indication of what the race is going to be like tomorrow.

Stoner and Rossi, 1 and 2 again. Stoner will try as always to create a gap between him and the rest of the team, including Rossi. It's fairly obvious he's not a fan of close racing, but he's definitely got the fastest bike, so Stoner if you wanna win tomorrow, spend the race on Rossi's arse and over take him at the last minute. Rossi, do what you did at Laguna Seca and don't let him overtake you.

Lorenzo back in the front row after quiet a few races, he mentions in the interview after qualifying that he has got his flow back. He's probably on a sugar high after too many Chupa Chups.

And in the second row we have Randy de Puniet, Toni Elias and Dani Pedrosa. All Randy needs to concentrate on is NOT CRASHING! Toni will be looking for a nice followup from Brno and Pedrobot will be shooting newly installed death rays from his eyes at anyone who dares to be in front of him.

Top 10 is rounded out with Verm, Nakano, Toseland and Edwards. Edwards might want to improve slightly tomorrow otherwise he might get a few abusive comments on YouTube. Oh and if you haven't heard Colin Edwards is answering all your MotoGP questions here.

MotoGP LD.

Misano 2008 FP3

Free Practice 3 ended up similar to yesterday's morning session. Chris Vermulen has improved slowly throughout the weekend ending up in 4th place. Hopefully this puts him in good stead with the folks over at Suzuki who are planning of halving his salary for next year if he want to stay on. They sure have an odd way of rewarding people over there. Capirossi gets signed for next year and is currently 10th in the Championship, oh but their not sure about Vermulen who is 7th. Crazy Suzuki logic, I'm just glad they didn't made by motorbike backwards.

Turns out the Kawasaki DOES suck with West and Hopper in 17th and 18th positions. Doesn't bode well for Melandri next year, although in 16th position after FP3 I guess there's really nowhere else to go but up. At least he's in good company down bottom with the current Kawasaki Team.

James Toseland doing a bit average finishing in 13th. He started off the session fairly well spending a bit of time in the top 5 but slowly descended into normalcy. Nicky Hayden in 15th seems to be acting like an employee who knows he's got another job lined up for next year. Oh that's right his heel is still hurting, If you say so Nicky.

Oh and Stoner finished in first with Rossi in second.

MotoGP LD.