THE MOTOGP CONTINGENT TACKLES MAZDA RACEWAY & THE 'COCKSCREW'
2010-07-23 19:07:34 Author: admin Source:
The first of the American Motorcycle Grand Prix Championship (MotoGP) rounds will ascend on the Mazda Raceway at Laguna Seca this weekend with the Yamaha MotoGP team riding high on Jorge Lorenzo's fantastic run in riders' rankings and the team's indomitable lead in the manufacturers' standings. Another bright spot for Yamaha is the much anticipated second race for their beloved ace Valentino Rossi, all these factors accumulating to high spirits within the team and again as favorites for the race weekend. Laguna Seca marks the halfway point in the 18-race MotoGP season and everyone wants to head into the summer break on a high.
Lorenzo has won five races this season and come second in the remaining three so he arrives in the States as the man everyone wants to beat, with a 47-point lead over Dani Pedrosa in the championship. His first visit to Laguna Seca in 2008 saw him fail to finish but last year he put in a brilliant performance whilst struggling with a shoulder injury to storm home in third behind his team-mate and he is hoping for another visit to the podium this time around.
Rossi wasn't expected to return until the Czech GP in mid-August, but the 'Doctor' has surprised everyone yet again with a return to racing last weekend and a competitive one at that, missing out on a podium by just two tenths of a second. While not yet back to his best, the Italian hopes to be stronger again this weekend and feels ready to face the demands of the spectacular circuit. He finished second last year but the memory of his incredible win there in 2008, which he still cites as one of his best ever races, is never far from the minds of his fans.
Championship contender Pedrosa carries the momentum from his majestic win in last Sunday’s German Grand Prix, where the ups and downs of the circuit await, and where he hopes to repeat last year’s winning performance here. The Spaniard returns to the Monterey for the first overseas race of the season to try and repeat as the winner at a track where Honda has excelled since MotoGP’s return to Laguna Seca in 2005. Of the five races ran, three have been won by riders on Hondas over the years.
Team mate Andrea Dovizioso arrives in California holding third place in the series, 36 points behind Pedrosa. The Italian has already scored four podium results so far this year, with a best finish of second place at June’s British GP, and is determined to score another top-three at the Raceway. Last year, Dovizioso tumbled out of the U.S. race, but he gets on well with the undulating track, having finished just one place off the podium during his first visit in 2008.
Top Honda rookie Marco Simoncelli (above) will continue the learning process when he makes his first visit to Laguna Seca. Though it will be Simoncelli’s first trip, he comes well prepared, with the Gresini Honda team having made repeated trips to the podium and Honda well prepared with a wealth of data. Simoncelli received a new chassis and swingarm at the Catalan GP and will have the benefit of an upgraded electronics package at Laguna Seca. His veteran team mate Marco Melandri is looking to re-ignite the flame that carried him through the early part of the season. Melandri was on an upward trajectory for the opening four races, improving his placements every time, before bad luck and an injury slowed his progress. Since suffering a shoulder injury at the Dutch TT in late June, he’s battled to regain his health and his early season form. Melandri has a pair of podiums in the last four races at Laguna Seca, a track he likes and where he looks forward to racing.
Randy de Puniet has been ruled out of the U.S. GP after breaking both the tibia and fibula in his lower left leg during the German GP. De Puniet is in good spirits, and has vowed to be ready for the Czech GP at Brno at the end of the summer break. His replacement will come in the form of Roger Lee Hayden, a World Superbike rider and younger brother of 2006 MotoGP champ Nicky Hayden. Young Hayden knows this circuit well and has two victories to his credit at Laguna.
USGP is without doubt one of the biggest dates on the calendar for Ducati and its two riders. For Hayden the Laguna Seca circuit is one of two home races this season, as well as being the scene of his first ever MotoGP win in 2005 - a success he repeated in 2006 on his way to the MotoGP title. It is also one of Casey Stoner's favourite dates on the calendar, thanks largely to the nature of the circuit - an old-style layout that follows the natural undulations of the land as opposed to the computer-designed modern tracks. The Australian, who travels to America on the back of three consecutive podiums, took victory in California in 2007 and finished second the following year.
Suzuki MotoGP's Álvaro Bautista will be racing at Laguna Seca for the first time in his career. He has visited the 3,610m track as a spectator before, but has never raced there - due to the fact that 125 and 250cc machines haven’t travelled to Laguna with the MotoGP class. Bautista will be looking to learn the 11 corners of the circuit quickly, especially the feature section of the track – the ‘Corkscrew’. Veteran Loris Capirossi (above) is determined to put the lessons learnt at Barcelona and Sachsenring recently to good use in America. He is sure that the improvements made at the previous races will make both the Suzukis more competitive over the second half of the season.
