Oz Racers around the World - April 2006

Turkish MotoGP

Of the five riders that led Sunday's Turkish Grand Prix, three were MotoGP rookies - but Marco Melandri believes it was his experience that eventually handed him a last gasp victory, in the best race of the season so far. At one point those race leaders - Casey Stoner (3^rd MotoGP start), Dani Pedrosa (3^rd MotoGP start), Chris Vermeulen (5^th MotoGP start), Melandri (48^th MotoGP start) and Sete Gibernau (144^th MotoGP start) - formed part of a frantic nine-strong lead group covered by just three-seconds.
Camel Yamaha's Colin Edwards was first to drop from the pack, then Bridgestone riders Gibernau and Vermeulen - plus their respective team-mates Loris Capirossi and John Hopkins - began to suffer grip loss around the halfway stage, leaving Michelin shod Honda riders Pedrosa, Nicky Hayden, Melandri and Stoner to fight it out up front.

The tough elimination process continued when Hayden faded with three laps to go, then his Repsol team-mate Pedrosa cracked while nose-to-tail with Stoner and Melandri at the start of the last lap - the Spaniard losing the front of his RCV through turn one. That left Stoner vs Melandri, with the Fortuna rider finally forcing his way past on the entry to the final chicane to win his third premier-class race by just 0.2secs.

With Vermeulen offering a firm defence, the Gibernau-Hopkins one-two was untroubled until lap 7, when Stoner finally accelerated past Hopkins along the home straight - and within a lap Hopkins had plummeted to seventh, in what had now become a nine-rider fight for victory. And one particular rider was starting to command ever more attention: Repsol Honda's superstar rookie Dani Pedrosa - another high-profile casualty of the wet qualifying session - had advanced from 16^th to 13^th and then 9^th within the opening two laps, before quickly reeling in the top eight ahead of him.

But a notable absence from the lead group was Rossi, who had made slow progress in the opening lap - then ran wide and dropped all the way back to 14^th on the second circulation. That mistake would ultimately prevent a podium charge, but by the midway point Rossi was back on the attack and, with the pace up front starting to tell, was beginning to pick off stragglers from the lead group.

The first of Rossi's lead-group victims had been Hopkins whom - having battled so hard in the early stages - struck some form of tyre trouble that sent the Anglo-American from third on lap 8, to ninth on lap 9, eleventh on lap 10 and fourteenth on lap 11 - at which point he was forced to pit for a new rear.

And he was far from the only Bridgestone rider in trouble; Gibernau was also sinking steadily down the order after leading so confidently - losing seventh to Rossi on lap 13 - while team-mate Loris Capirossi was demoted from sixth by his fellow Italian a lap later. Vermeulen then lost fifth to The Doctor on lap 16, forming an all-Michelin top five, as the Japanese rubber - which had been so strong in the wet - appeared to strike endurance problems. But the four Honda young-guns up front - Pedrosa, Hayden, Melandri and Stoner - were showing no form of weakness, and their near 7-second lead over Rossi was insurmountable in the seven laps that remained.

Up front and Pedrosa was credited with leading laps 12 to 16 but - like Vermeulen, Gibernau and Melandri before him - was unable to break clear and his reign was eventually ended by Melandri, who dived inside at the final chicane on lap 17. That location, coming directly after the awesome fifth-gear right hander, was the most popular passing place on the track.

Indeed, on the very next circulation, Stoner demoted Marco from the lead at that location - with the frantic victory battle now a three-way affair as an increasingly ragged Hayden slipped to the tail of the lead group and lost touch with the trio ahead of him. Last October, Pedrosa and Stoner were again battling bar-to-bar for victory at Istanbul - although on that occasion it was in the 250cc class - but each looked every ounce a MotoGP winner as the 2006 race reached its climax. The pair of premier-class rookies sandwiching comparative veteran Melandri, a double race winner, as the last lap began.

But not for long: As the trio charged into the off-camber turn one for the final time, Pedrosa - who had lost a little ground through the final chicane - pushed his front Michelin a little too hard and his RCV suddenly folded under him, sending the 20-year-old spinning off-track. A distraught Dani jumped to his feet and was left to wonder what might have been as he resurrected 14th place at the chequered flag.

Meanwhile, Stoner - riding the 'standard' spec RCV - was still doing a brilliant job of containing factory supported Melandri, leaving no room for a pass and making no mistakes in his quest to become the joint youngest MotoGP race winner. But the grand prix was always going to be decided at the final chicane - and Melandri duly dived inside for the lead, with Stoner trying to brave-it-out around the outside of the Italian. Melandri stayed wheel-perfect through the fiddly left-right-left complex that leads onto the start-finish straight - and Stoner frustratingly lost out on victory by just 0.2secs at the flag, but could still celebrate his first MotoGP podium in just his third race.

The win was exactly what Melandri needed after a poor, podium free, start to the season and the likeable Fortuna rider was justifiably ecstatic with his third MotoGP victory - which also moves him up to third in the championship.

Pedrosa's mistake left team-mate Nicky Hayden to inherit the final podium position and the Kentuckian has now taken the world championship lead, by just one-point from previous occupant Loris Capirossi, after the Ducati rider finished as the top Bridgestone rider in sixth.

AMA - Mladin 3^rd at Barber

Yoshimura Suzuki’s Ben Spies put the finishing touches on a near-perfect race weekend at Barber Motorsports Park on Sunday afternoon, completing the doubleheader sweep in a wild AMA Superbike contest. In the early going six-time champ Mat Mladin appeared to be on his way to getting his revenge for Saturday’s defeat, pulling out an early second-plus advantage. However, the Aussie shockingly lost it on the brakes entering Turn 5 while working the race’s fifth lap and was sent sliding into the gravel. Mladin had remounted and charged up to 14^th and would be allowed to make repairs and get a second chance, starting from just a few rows behind his rivals.

Commenting on today's contest, he said, “The first race I got off to a decent start. I was behind Tommy and had a couple laps where I couldn’t get by him. Then I got by him and set my sights on Mat. The tire just wasn’t quite like it was yesterday; I couldn’t do the same lines I wanted. He was inching away a little bit and I was thinking towards the end of the race he might come back to us in lappers. And then boom, he was down. As the Texan cleared off to grab his second checkered flag in as many days, a huge fight for the runner-up spot broke out involving DuHamel, Tom Hayden, Yates, and Mladin, who had quickly slotted himself up into fifth after restarting on the fourth row.

The Suzuki rider attempted to put his GSX-R1000 up the inside of Hayden’s green machine in 5. Neither man gave any ground and they ultimately came together. Miraculously both stayed upright. The incident did allow DuHamel and Mladin to surge past, however, as both of the veteran riders later claimed they could see the clash unfolding before contact was ever made.

The champ put a final corner move on DuHamel to sneak into second but a superior drive saw the American Honda runner reclaim the position just as they took the flag.

Third-place finisher Mladin admitted, “We got lucky with the red flag today. When you win a lot of races, most of the time the red flag goes against you but today it really helped. By the looks of the way things were going before the red flag we maybe would have got up 8^th. 3^rd is better than 8^th, more points. Now (Ben's) got the points lead. He has to sleep with it. Now he’s going to know what it feels like.”

Commenting on the contact between Yates and Hayden on final lap, Mladin explained, “We all went down into the hairpin together. Aaron got a really good drive out of 2 and I knew he was going up the inside. So I got down on the outside sort of with Miguel and figured something could happen and if it does, I’m going to be ready to square it up. I saw Aaron going in and Tommy coming down and thought, ‘You know what? This is third place right here,’ before it even happened.”

Yates managed to just hold off the works Ducati duo of Neil Hodgson and Ben Bostrom to secure 4^th, while Hayden could manage only 7^th in the race after twice looking on the verge of landing on the box.

World Superbikes – Valencia 23-4-06

Troy Bayliss (Ducati Xerox) and Troy Corser (Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra) were on a different plane of existence from their peers at Valencia, each Australian rider taking turns to lead the races, which were both eventually won by Bayliss. His first double win of the year means that he has now scored three straight wins, after his race two success in Australia. He leads the championship, by 22 points, from Corser. Each Valencia race had identical top five finishers.

RACE ONE A two-man fight for the win pitted the two Troys together at the head of the pack, with Corser the leader for most of the race, but Bayliss making it count at the end, earning a winning margin of 2.765 seconds. The Aussie duo ended up 14 seconds clear of their nearest challengers. The final podium place went to Lorenzo Lanzi (Ducati Xerox) who overcame strong challenges from Norick Abe (Yamaha Motor France) and Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia). Fourth was Abe’s best career World Superbike finish. Yukio Kagayama (Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra) scored sixth place, before a fall robbed him of a good finish in race two.

RACE TWO The second 23-lap race looked like it would be Corser’s, such was the speed of his initial escape, but as the end of the race approached, Bayliss hunted down his compatriot, and took the win by 0.790 seconds. Bayliss’ team-mate Lanzi scored his second podium of the day in third, with Abe and Haga completing an identical run of top five finishers to race one.

Fonsi Nieto gave Kawasaki a much-desired top six finish in race two, running his PSG-1 Kawasaki to the upper echelons, despite being pushed wide by his team-mate Regis Laconi on turn one. Chris Walker continued the happiness for the PSG-1 team in race two, when he finished seventh, one place up on Laconi. Laconi had also finished race one eighth, but Walker touched a wet line and ran off the track, finishing only 23rd. Andrew Pitt finished race two ninth on his Yamaha Motor Italia R1, one place better than race one, having found the Valencia circuit much less grippy than during recent test sessions.

World Supersport

Sebastien Charpentier (Winston Ten Kate Honda) raced at lap record pace to take his third win in three attempts, his new best of 1’38.664 being set on lap two, as he made a decisive break from the chasing pack. Kevin Curtain (Yamaha Motor Germany) rode to his third consecutive runner up spot of the year, with returning rider Katsuaki Fujiwara (Megabike Honda) third, despite his lingering wrist injury. Broc Parkes (Yamaha Motor Germany) was fourth, despite problems with brake fluid leaking onto the rear of his machine. Local rider Jordi Torres (Speed Moto Yamaha) was an impressive fifth, ahead of series regular, Robbin Harms (Stiggy Motorsports Honda). Charpentier leads Curtain by 15 points in the championship table, with Harms third.

Karl Muggeridge will be back in the colours of Team Winston Ten Kate Honda for the Monza race. The Australian, who suffered a nasty fall and damaged a couple of vertebrae in the official tests in Valencia at the end of March, is now back on top form, and eager to get back in the saddle after missing the third race in the SBK season at Valencia. In recent weeks Muggeridge has kept to a strict regime of rest and treatment. Continuous tests now confirm that he is well on the way to recovery, so much so that he has even been training for three or four days. The Australian is due for a final medical checkup but has no doubts that he will be lining up for the meeting from the 5th to the 7th May.

Only in America?

• A van driver in Iowa crosses the center line of the road, running head-on into a group of six motorcyclists. Three are killed, and two more are seriously injured. The driver gets off with a fine of $70—less than an average speeding ticket.
• In Oklahoma, a driver runs over a motorcyclist who was slowing to make a right turn. The driver pleads guilty to negligent homicide. She is sentenced to 30 months probation and ordered to perform unspecified "acts of kindness."
• A U.S. congressman from South Dakota with a long history of traffic offences blows through a stop sign at over 70 mph, causing a crash that kills a motorcyclist. A jury takes just a couple of hours to convict the driver of second-degree manslaughter, a felony that carries a maximum sentence of 10 years. The judge gives him just 100 days.

Tragedies like these have prompted the AMA to establish the Justice for All Campaign, which focuses on inadequate sentencing of drivers who seriously injure or kill others on the road.

These measures will:

• Increase penalties, including jail time, for those who commit manslaughter with a motor vehicle.
• Impose fines and license suspensions on drivers who commit traffic offenses that injure or kill.
• Get motorcyclist-awareness instruction included in each state's driver-education program.