Oz Racers around the World – August 2007

Moto GP – Misano

Stoner used his fourth pole position in a row to take an early lead, while second on the grid Rossi dropped to third behind John Hopkins. Just behind them, Kawasaki's Randy de Puniet collided with Dani Pedrosa at turn two - bringing them both down and forcing Pedrosa's Repsol Honda team-mate Nicky Hayden, who had made a poor start from the front row, into the gravel.

Chris Vermeulen, fastest in morning warm-up, wasted no time in passing Rossi for third early on in the first lap - but greater drama was to follow when the Italian suffered a shock engine failure on lap five, silencing the 57,321 fans. Rossi had been using the new M1 engine, featuring pneumatic valves, for the first time in a race.

Rossi, whose home town of Tavullia is just ten miles from Misano, began the event 60 points behind Stoner and The Doctor's second DNF of the season - after an accident at the Sachsenring - meant not only the end of his home victory streak, having won the last six Italian Grands Prix at Mugello, but also the end of his realistic 2007 world championship hopes. With just five races and 125 points still up for grabs, Stoner is now 85 points clear of Rossi and is it theoretically possible for the 21-year-old to wrap up his and Ducati's first MotoGP crown next time out in Portugal, although the following Japanese Grand prix is most likely.

As per last time out at Brno, and unfortunately for MotoGP's worldwide TV viewers, Stoner led from start to finish - and again a Suzuki rider provided his nearest opposition, this time in the form of fellow Australian, Chris Vermeulen, who overtook team-mate Hopkins shortly after Rossi's withdrawal. The Le Mans winner then closed to within one second of Stoner, but by the halfway stage Casey had pulled 1.8secs ahead and Stoner eventually won his eighth race of the season by a margin of 4.851seconds, then ran out of fuel on the slowdown lap!

Hopkins made it two GSV-Rs on the podium for the first time since the formation of the MotoGP class, and also became the first Suzuki rider to take back-to-back podiums since Kenny Roberts in 2000. Hopper finished a lonely 11 seconds behind Vermeulen and seven seconds ahead of fourth placed Marco Melandri - who again defied his injuries to charge from 12^th on the grid and beat fellow Italian Loris Capirossi, whose factory Ducati ride Marco will take next season, by two seconds. Top Michelin rider Carlos Checa, a healing Toni Elias, the newly resigned Anthony West, Rossi's team-mate Colin Edwards and Konica Minolta's Shinya Nakano completed the top ten, while Hayden only reached 13^th at the chequered flag.

AMA

Race 1.

Ben Spies’ AMA Superbike Championship lead was whittled down to just two points over Saturday Road Atlanta race winner Mat Mladin, but Spies was fortunate the incident-packed contest didn’t blow the title race wide open in his rival’s favor.

Early in the race, Mladin made his way past polesitter Spies and was slowly breaking his rival’s pursuit as they were leaving the best of the rest at nearly three seconds per lap. Spies, pushing hard on lap 5 in an attempt to keep touch with his escaping teammate, had a tire dip off the track, sending the 23-year-old Texan bouncing on his machine as his GSX-R1000 highsided him onto the pavement.

A red flag was quickly issued as Spies rolled around in pain on the circuit. But just as Mladin had done at Miller Motorsports Park, Spies and his machine were quickly returned to pitlane and prepped for a restart from the back of the field.

While Spies worked his way up the pack, Mladin quickly put in yet another steady ride to claim his fifth AMA Superbike win in a row. It was also his eleventh on the season, tying Mladin’s own mark for most in a single campaign. After winning for the tenth time at Road Atlanta, the six-time series king said, “It was a good race for us today; it was good to get the win and have 11 wins for the year. Before the red flag we had good pace and I knew Ben was very strong as I had followed him for a couple of laps. But I knew that we were strong also in a few spots. We were doing our best to just try and put as much pressure on Ben as possible. He knows that he wants to win the championship a lot more than I do. That’s made for good racing out there and we look forward to tomorrow. Hopefully we can put on a good show.”

 

Race 2

Yoshimura Suzuki’s Mat Mladin stepped up to the plate and did exactly what he needed to in order to force a dramatic conclusion to the epic 2007 AMA Superbike Championship. Mladin ran away to claim a most convincing win on Sunday at Road Atlanta, powering away to a 6.794-second margin of victory over rival Ben Spies.

Twice falling (literally) to fairly imposing points deficits during the season, Mladin’s late-season charge has allowed the Australian to establish a scant three-point advantage (618-615) heading into the Laguna Seca final.  Today’s win marked the Suzuki star’s sixth in succession (tying the all-time record), his 12th win of the season (breaking his old series record), and the 63rd of his career, far and away the most in AMA Superbike history.

After claiming an 11^th career win at Road Atlanta, Mladin said, “Our goal this year was to try to win as many races as possible, and with some bad starts and a couple crashes we’ve given away a few, but we’re in a good position. It’s nice to win and it’s nice to get the bike working so well that we can pull away a little bit when we need to. Laguna Seca is going to be a good race and we’re looking forward to it. We’ll see what happens.”

Looking ahead to what’s essentially shaped up to be a winner-take-all duel between the sport’s giants in two weeks, Mladin said his mindset will not change.

“I’ve said before… my days are over of thinking about trying to tally up points to try to win championships,” he explained. “I really couldn’t be bothered doing it anymore. I just want to get out there every weekend and do the best that I can do. It’s just not how I want to race anymore. Going into Laguna, I’m going there trying to win the race, and if I win the race, of course I’m going to win the championship.”

Commenting on his rivalry with reigning class champ Spies, Mladin commented, “He’s a kid with a bright future. After last year, where a lot of people wrote me off and said maybe Ben is going to ride into the sunset, it’s nice to come back and win more races than I’ve ever won before in a single season… I’m looking forward to trying to improve again next year and I’m going to have to since Ben’s going to be strong and all the other guys might improve a bit. I ain’t getting any younger. I’ll be 36 and I’ve got to work harder if I’m going to stay there.”

The entire season will be on the line on September 15-16 at Laguna Seca when Mladin and Spies square off to decide the 2007 AMA Superbike Championship.

 

World Superbikes – Brands Hatch

After the wettest summer ever in the UK, the local British crowd got to worship their latest local sun god in perfect conditions at Brands Hatch, as James Toseland basked in the glow of his first ever World Superbike double win, scored his first ever wins at Brands Hatch, and took a huge 66 point lead into the final three rounds, which appear after the traditional summer break.

RACE ONE

Toseland led from lap three onwards, but for the pole man Troy Bayliss (Ducati Xerox) disaster awaited on lap five when he fell at Druids, after being passed by Toseland and Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia). The Japanese was to run on himself at Surtees and finish seventh, not his expected second or first, leaving the consistently fast Troy Corser (Yamaha Motor Italia) 1.5 seconds down on Toseland at the flag, with astonishingly effective Brands debutant, Max Biaggi, (Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra) third. Max’s team-mate, Yukio Kagayama, who was also on for a podium at one stage, fell at high speed at Clearways, and was lucky to escape serious injury.

 

RACE TWO

Toseland had to wait for more time to get to the front in race two, pursued by Haga and Corser, but when he did get into clear air, he made the best of it and took a triumphant win by 1.6 seconds. Haga scored second for his only podium of the day, Corser secured his second Brands podium after finishing a close third. In fourth place, eight seconds down on Toseland, Michel Fabrizio (DFX Corse Honda) was impressive again, holding off Kagayama. Biaggi made a jump start and was penalized with a ride-through penalty which saw him restart well down but recover to take eighth in race two.

Ruben Xaus (Sterilgarda Ducati) was the top scoring twin-cylinder rider in each race at Brands, running out fourth and sixth, while the highest place for Bayliss was a disappointing seventh in race two.

For the majority of the pure private riders, Brands held few rewards, but notable rides came from Steve Martin (Yamaha YZF) in race one, as he scored 11^th in his comeback event, but he used a different spec machine in race two and took a 16^th place. Karl Muggeridge (Alto Evolution Honda) ran out of fuel in race one and struggled with a poor front tyre option in race two, finishing 14^th.

 

Championship Standings:

1/ Toseland 355, 2/ Haga 289, 3/ Biaggi 286, 4/ Bayliss 258, 5/ Corser 227, 6/ Xaus 163, 7/ Lanzi 161,

8/ Rolfo 146, 9/ Neukirchner 123, 10/ Kagayama 116.

 

World Supersport – Brands Hatch

In finishing second at Brands Hatch, Kenan Sofuoglu (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda) did enough to take his first ever World Championship crown, putting himself out of reach of his closest rivals with three races to spare. His remarkable year has included six wins, two seconds and one third, and he now has 206 points to second place rider Fabien Foret’s (GIL Kawasaki) total of 126. Broc Parkes (Yamaha World Supersport Team) won his first race of the season, and is now fifth overall, with Sofuoglu the runner-up today and Massimo Roccoli (Yamaha Lorenzini by Leoni) third, just ahead of Robbin Harms (Stiggy Motorsports Honda).

Sebastien Charpentier (Hannspree Ten Kate Honda) was supposed to start from pole but a late change of machine put him at the back of the starting grid, and he had to fight through the entire field to get 15^th – and was later disqualified for not entering Parc Ferme after the race. Early leader Craig Jones (Revè Ekerold Honda) fell on lap five, with the top British finisher being wild card rider Tommy Hill (Yamaha World SSP racing) in fifth.