Oz Racers around the World – June 2007

Moto GP – Assen

Stoner blasted past pole sitter Chris Vermeulen to take an early lead into turn one - while Rossi made little impression, gaining only two places from his eleventh on the grid (set in Friday's rain)... and was still in ninth two laps later, four seconds behind Stoner. But Rossi found his rhythm soon after, his special Fiat 500 liveried Yamaha carving past team-mate Colin Edwards and countrymen Loris Capirossi and Marco Melandri on lap four, then a fading Vermeulen.

The former five-times MotoGP champion then set about closing down fast-starting Repsol Honda team-mates Dani Pedrosa and Nicky Hayden; the #46 picking them off on successive laps to leave only John Hopkins between himself and Stoner. Rossi vaporized a 2.6secs deficit to the Rizla Suzuki rider within three laps, and then simply accelerated past the Anglo-American on the exit of a tight left hander. That impressive corner speed carried The Doctor to within half a second of five-times 2007 winner Stoner by the halfway stage of the 26 laps, but the ultra confident Australian far from rolled over.

For the next ten laps Rossi remained locked to the rear wheel of Stoner's Ducati, but once again the 21-year-old soaked up the pressure. After several trial runs into the final chicane, Rossi eventually launched his carefully planned attack at that point at the end of lap 22 - then bolted for his 3rd victory of the season. The 28-year-old crossed the finish line 1.909secs clear of Casey and the relief was clear to see - the animated Italian literally shaking his M1 with delight as he took the chequered flag. Unsurprisingly, given the unpredictable nature of the season so far, there was no pre-planned celebration waiting for Rossi, although he did stop and sit on the bull's-eye of a giant Assen logo before returning to parc ferme.

Making a much slower return was Stoner, whose Ducati appeared to run out of petrol on the slow down lap - the first sign this season that any team may have been borderline on fuel. And Stoner wasn't alone; world champion Hayden also needed a push back to the pits in what appeared to be the same problem.
But that minor inconvenience couldn't dampen Hayden spirits: The American, after finishing a best of just seventh from the opening eight races with the #1 plate, took his first podium of the year at Assen after an inspired ride that began with a brilliant 13th to sixth move into turn one.

The Kentuckian, finally riding and sliding his RC212V just as he likes, rose to third by lap four, lost the position to Rossi, and then regained his first 800cc rostrum by passing countryman Hopkins. Thereafter, Nicky held his own ahead of team-mate Pedrosa, and put four seconds on the Spaniard by the finish. Hopkins, a star in the opening stages, collected fifth - where he had started - while Rossi's team-mate Colin Edwards, who came within one corner of victory at Assen last season, crossed the line two seconds behind.

Pramac d'Antin's Alex Hofmann won a thrilling four-rider fight for eighth ahead of Kawasaki's new recruit Anthony West, plus the satellite Hondas of Melandri and Carlos Checa. MotoGP's 2007 pole curse continued this afternoon with Vermeulen not only failing to win, but lucky to survive an over-optimistic move by Randy de Puniet. The Kawasaki rider, whose front row start counted for nothing after a poor getaway, lunging for the inside of Vermeulen's seventh placed Suzuki on lap 12. Unfortunately, the Frenchman didn't get alongside and when Vermeulen inevitably turned-in the pair collided hard. Randy was sent up and over his ZX-RR, while Chris amazingly stayed on two wheels - but was forced off track and rejoined 16th, where he eventually finished. The other non-finisher was Stoner's factory Ducati team-mate Loris Capirossi, who pulled into the pits on lap 18.

West stuns Kawasaki.

Wet weather star West, riding in only his second MotoGP race since being drafted in to replace Olivier Jacque, delighted the team with an exemplary performance at a dry and sunny Circuit van Drenthe. After a patchy start from seventh place on the grid, the 25-year-old Australian soon got into the swing of things, eventually finding himself in a fierce four-way battle with Alex Hofmann, Checa and Melandri.
Satellite Ducati rider Hofmann was able to shake free from West in the closing stages, but former MotoGP winner Melandri and former 500cc winner Checa were forced to cross the line just a few tenths behind the ninth-placed Australian.

AMA: Race 1

Defending AMA Superbike champ Ben Spies lived up to his promise of racing more aggressively in search of wins this afternoon at Miller Motorsports Park, orchestrating a convincing victory from pole. The Yoshiumura Suzuki ace ripped open a 1.481-second advantage on the opening lap and continued to add huge chunks to his lead for the next few laps. Working decidedly in his favor, Spies’ archrival Mat Mladin suffered a less-than-ideal start, and while he made short work out of an impressive pack of contenders while slicing his way up from seventh to second by lap 3, the Aussie already found himself close to six seconds down at that point.

Once Mladin got a clear track in front of him, he proved capable of running roughly the same pace as Spies, as the two traded a tenth here and a tenth there, but the gap remained right around six seconds until just after half-distance. The Aussie then started to suffer tire woes and the Texan took full advantage, upping his lead to over nine seconds before cruising to a 7.273-second margin at the checkered flag.

After claiming his 15^th career AMA Superbike win (tying him with Freddie Spencer and Eric Bostrom for sixth on the all-time list) Spies said, “We got the holeshot and the first couple of laps, I actually made the same mistake in the same corner and was giving some time up. I had ‘+0’ on my board for the first few laps, but that was probably my team trying to make me go for it. I tried to keep it clean and the bike worked really well the whole race for sure. It was pretty much a picture perfect race. I saw when Mat got into second the gap stopped and then leveled out and I just tried to keep putting lap times in until he ran into problems then we were able to bring it back.”

Runner-up Mladin remarked, “You can’t give up six seconds in the first couple laps to a guy when lap times are very similar. I pushed as hard as I could and we got to half race distance and I threw a couple chunks out of the rear tire and that was pretty much my day.”

Explaining what happened at the start, Mladin said, “To be honest with you, as you all know, we have launch control now and it didn’t work. I pushed the button and it didn’t work so I was trying to sort things out on the start line between the ‘2’ and the ‘1’ before it went green. I was trying to sort a few things out there and that was it. When you get used to something and you go back to the old way it feels a little bit different. For some reason it didn’t work so I guess we’ll see if we can’t figure it out tonight. I pushed the button and hit the gas and it’s supposed to stop at the rpm it’s set at but it hit the rev limiter. I got a little bit flustered on the start and made sure I got it right – or somewhat right and not end up 20th in turn one. I did as good a job as I could.”

While the track’s high grip levels and power-sapping elevation weren’t enough to prevent the Yoshimura duo from pulling another of their trademark disappearing acts at the front, there was a healthy amount of dramatic dogfighting down through the field.

AMA: Race 2

Sunday’s AMA Superbike final at Miller Motorsports Park was a dramatic affair with major championship implication shifts by the lap. At the conclusion of the once-stopped final, Yoshimura Suzuki’s Ben Spies stood atop the podium for the third time in two days, completing a clean sweep of runaway victories from pole at the Tooele, Utah venue this weekend.

While the defending class champion continued his stunning mid-season surge, taking another key step towards a repeat crown, it was teammate Mat Mladin who had the wildest day, ultimately escaping disaster and keeping his title hopes very much alive with a heroic effort. The Australian powered into the lead on the opening lap and built up a small advantage while Spies worked his way around American Honda’s Jake Zemke into second. Mladin boasted an early 1.667-second gap but the Texan was whittling away at that lead, decreasing it to 1.295 seconds to open lap 6. Moments later it evaporated completely as Mladin suffered a horrific-looking Turn 1 highside. The six-time champ hit the ground hard and it initially appeared as if may have been seriously injured. When the red flag brought the proceedings to a halt, Mladin slowly got back up to his feet and made his way back to pitlane in to prepare for the restart.

Forced to start from the back of the field on the machine that he had just crashed (which was frantically repaired by his crack crew), the Aussie stormed all the way into ninth on the restart’s opening corner. Spies took full advantage of his rival’s predicament and spent the time Mladin would need to cut a path through the field building up an insurmountable advantage which he would hold to the checkered flag. “We did what we had to do this weekend,” double-winner Spies remarked. “We came here and got the pole and won both races and that’s as much as I can do. “(Mat’s) riding really good right now and to come back from dead last after a crash like that and finish fourth is pretty good. And it’s not making my life easy.”

DuHamel leapt from sixth to fourth in one fell swoop as the Canadian and the Hayden brothers dove in three-wide on the brakes and then set his sights on his old nemesis Mladin. The two traded the spot back and forth on a couple of occasions before DuHamel pulled yet another last-lap rabbit out of his hat to steal the final podium position away from Mladin, who impressed just by finishing fourth considering his roller coaster of a race.

Mladin spoke of the crash, stating, “It happened pretty quick. But we got lucky today, there’s no other way to look at it. We got lucky that we had the chance to get up and get fourth. And you know that's it. Very, very lucky that we had a chance to fix the bike and get back out there almost on the podium.

“The first five laps the adrenaline was still running and I felt pretty good. And I felt myself tightening up just before I got back on the bike to head back out again. I'm like, ‘jeez, let's quick get out there’. And with eight or nine to go I just completely had no gas left in the tank and I just couldn't hang on any more. I’m just looking at the back of Miguel and I'm like ‘come on, let’s go, push, push, push’. I really couldn’t get it together properly. You know, he got back past me and everything, but again running ‘51.0, ‘50.9. I was hurting a bit. As soon as I got off the bikes I just had the shakes and I couldn’t stand up and it all sort of hit me. But that was all right.”

Hacking came back to pick up ninth with FBF MV Agusta’s Luca Scassa completing the top ten. Spies will carry a 382-364 advantage over Mladin into the combined MotoGP/AMA Superbike weekend at Laguna Seca when the series picks back up on July 20-22.

World Superbikes – Misano – Race 1:

Troy Bayliss dominated race one of round eight of the Corona Extra Superbike World Championship at the sun drenched Misano circuit. Troy Corser picked up second with Yukio Kagayama in third. Bayliss took the lead immediately but had the usual suspects breathing down his neck from the off. Noriyuki Haga and his team-mate Troy Corser on the pair of Yamaha Italia machines were running in second and third respectively. Max Biaggi on the Alstare Corona Extra Suzuki was fourth with championship leader James Toseland on the Hannspree Ten Kate Honda in sixth place behind Regis Laconi on his PSG-1 Kawasaki.

On lap three Toseland made his move on Laconi to secure fifth place and started chasing the leading four who had already started to pull away. Lap five saw Italian rider, Michel Fabrizio go out with a technical problem with his DFX Treme Honda. On the same lap Corser made a move on his team-mate Haga to take up second place but that only lasted for two laps as Haga took it back and got on with the job of chasing down the race lead.

It was lap nine when Haga made his decisive move scything into the lead. Slightly further down the field it was Biaggi on the make trying to pass Corser but the tough Australian wasn't going to budge.

As the top four battled for the lead Toseland dropped off the pace and by mid race was 9secs back off the race leader. Corser made a mistake on lap fourteen allowing Biaggi to take his hard fought third place. Bayliss was all over the back of Haga and tried for the lead again on lap seventeen but Haga made himself as wide as possible and wouldn't let him through. He then ran wide while pushing hard letting Biaggi close up to the battle for the lead.

Further back Yukio Kagayama was closing in on Toseland and pushed by him on lap nineteen. Bayliss regained the lead on lap twenty one with Haga and Biaggi fighting it out for second. It was this battle that was to end in tears with Biaggi trying to fit underneath Haga, unfortunately they touched and crashed out on lap twenty two. With Haga and Biaggi out of the race, Corser was promoted to second place with Kagayama third and Britain's James Toseland salvaging a fourth place finish.

World Superbikes – Misano – Race 1:

Troy Bayliss has taken a double win at Misano in Italy for round eight of the Corona Extra Superbike World Superbike Championship. The Xerox Ducati rider lead from the off and was only headed once during the race and that was for a very brief moment on lap one when Noriyuki Haga took the lead for a few fleeting seconds. Haga on the Yamaha Italia took second place following his DNF in race one when he crashed with Max Biaggi. The final step of the podium went to Haga's crash buddy, Biaggi who had to ride hard to secure the final step of the podium on his Alstare Corona Extra Suzuki.

Off the line it was Bayliss from Haga with Troy Corser in third place and James Toseland in fourth place. Michel Fabrizio's race was short lived when he went out with a technical problem on lap three. As in race one Toseland had Kagayama all over him and he soon succumbed to the Japanese rider.
Toseland was soon the target for Biaggi who slipped down the pack when he ran wide and had to rejoin the circuit. Kagayama shoved his way by Corser to take up his third place. On lap thirteen the fight was on between Toseland and Biaggi with the two swapping places, one lap later Biaggi made his move stick. With the podium now in sight Biaggi continued his charge through the field picking off Corser on lap twenty one. He now just had to push his team-mate Kagayama out of the way to take the remaining podium position. He squeezed under Kagayama on the penultimate lap to obtain vital points for his championship chase.

World Supersport – Misano 17^th June

Anthony West continued his impressive instant form in his guest stint with Yamaha Germany by hitting the front as soon as the flag dropped and pulling out a full second over the field in the opening lap. Jones, Foret and Parkes his pursuers. Foret got the better of Jones but the young Briton then made a forceful dash back up the inside and Foret was left with nowhere to go and was skittled off into the kitty litter. Only a few corners later Craig Jones’ machine started emitting some smoke and the young Briton pulled off the circuit to retire.

Kenan Sofuoglu worked his way up to third place and started to hound Parkes but it didn’t look as though either man would have the pace to chase down West. Then on lap six of the 22 lap race a Ducati emptied its guts all over the track and thus the red flag came out to prevent riders crashing on the oil spill. West held a 3 second advantage over Parkes when the race was stopped and that of course carried over to the restart.

Sofuoglu scored the holeshot at the restart with West, Fujiwara and Sanna in pursuit. West made his move on Sofuoglu but the Turk came right back at him and the pair nearly tripped each up numerous times in the first few laps of the restart. Lap four saw Sanna throw his hat in the ring and he forced his way past Sofuoglu to declare his challenge. As the race wore on West, Parkes and Sofuoglu broke away from the pack. After hitting the lead however West was never headed. Sofuoglu crossed the line a fraction ahead of Parkes but on combined time Parkes took second place. Roccoli took fourth.