Former Red Bull MotoGP Academy rider Bradley Smith took a well-deserved second place at the Gran Premio Cinzano di San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini on Sunday, dedicating the result to his Polaris World mechanics after a hot, sweaty weekend at Misano.
Smith reflected on the 125cc contest saying, `It was an important race for me and the team after a couple of disappointing results and we have bounced back. They worked so hard and all I can say is, this is for them!´
Revealing the tactics he had used after he crossed the line five seconds behind 125cc World title holder and race winner Gabor Talmacsi, Smith explained, `I knew that I would have to push hard in the first ten laps to get a gap otherwise there would be a lot of fighting, so I just tried to stay behind Gabor and go with him. When he made the mistake I tried to push and to go for the victory but he had better pace than me and was keeping maybe 10% in his pocket. Obviously I am a little bit disappointed because I always want to win.´
Although Smith is still in search of his first career victory, having led races on several occasions this season, he was taking all the positives from another exciting single cylinder battle. He stated, `At the end of the day today I was fighting with the World Champion. He is the best in the world so I took a lot of experience from this race and I will use it at Indianapolis which is a new track for everybody.´
Having finished tenth in the championship last season with now the disbanded Repsol Honda 125cc team, his latest result puts him within five points of the top five - in seventh position in the standings - in a highly competitive category.
His Polaris World employers have set him what now appears to be a more than plausible target of finishing in the top six before making an announcement on his 2009 contract, though Smith himself appears to be content to stay put.
He commented, `I want to stay in 125cc next year because I think I still need more experience and I am trying to learn and understand all the time. We have to wait and see, hopefully in the near future we will be able to say something but at the moment we have to wait.´
Garry McCoy is planning to make his return to motorcycle racing at the penultimate round of the World Supersport Championship at Magny Cours on 3rd to 5th October.Garry McCoy has been out of action for over a month after suffering a horrific crash during the Saturday Free Practice session at Brno, Czech Republic.
McCoy collided with Ten Kate rider Andrew Pitt and lost control of his SC Triumph Daytona 675 and hit the Armco barrier.
The Australian suffered severe injuries including a broken T6 vertebrae and three broken ribs which affected his internal organs.
After travelling from Andorra to attend Craig Jones’ funeral, McCoy said:
“I still can’t take a full breath because of the broken ribs. One of my ribs broke in three places which has caused a lot of pain. With the broken vertebrae I have to wear a body cast which doesn’t sound too bad but for the first six weeks I have to wear it day and night everyday.
"I’ve only taken it off to shower and when I sleep I have to wake up first before I turn over!”
“After the six weeks are up, I then need to wear it for another two weeks but only during the day. I’m already looking forward to getting on the bike again. In a way I feel ready now but I know I’ll have to wait.”
Heading in to the 11th round of the World Superbike Championship at Donington Park this weekend and there is still no further news on what riders will be racing in what teams in 2009.Historically all the major signings are completed by the Brands Hatch race at the beginning of August, but this season the whole WSB paddock remains in limbo one month on.
The main reason for the delay is over who will replace Troy Bayliss in the Xerox Ducati team when the Australian retires at the end of the season. To date there have been numerous names thrown in the hat ranging from Max Biaggi, Chris Vermeulen, Noriyuki Haga, Ben Spies and Briton Shane Byrne.
Ducati were expected to make the eagerly awaited announcement last week, but the decision has been delayed yet again and MCN understands that there is a whole series of meetings planned this weekend which could determine the final outcome.
With the factory Ducati ride still undecided it’s proving difficult for any of the other rides to be finalised. Currently there have been no confirmed signings at the Yamaha Italia team, Ten Kate Honda are yet to announce their three man rider line up and Alstare Suzuki have only one rider confirmed with Max Neukirchner already signed for 2009.
BMW is another big player with a ride available. The new to WSB manufacturer announced the signing of Ruben Xaus back in June, but are yet to confirm their second man.
WSB has also become a melting pot for young and old talent with BSB young guns and MotoGP veterans all fighting for a top ride alongside the established WSB regulars.
Britain's James Ellison will be lining up as a wild-card ride at this weekend's Donington Park round of the HANNspree FIM Superbike World Championship despite still feeling the effects of a recent wrist injury that forced him to sit out the last round of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship at Cadwell Park.The 27 year-old from Kendal had scored points in every round of the BSB championship on his Shaun Muir Racing 1000cc Honda Fireblade, but had to miss Cadwell, and is now looking forward to racing in World Superbike once again, after two years in MotoGP and a year in AMA Superbike.
"I'm so looking forward to racing at Donington, it's unreal!" declared Ellison. "I was so frustrated at Cadwell but my wrist is fine and I have no concerns about it at all now. All it needed was a little bit of rest and now I'm raring to go. We had a good run in the BSB races at Donington and I'm hopeful we can give a good account of ourselves once again. We know our bike is good, we have got the electronics working a lot better and I'm really up for this one. Top ten would be a great result, but I'm hoping for a top six if I'm being honest and despite it being probably the strongest field of the year what with all the British wild cards, I'm feeling very confident".
Ellison is familiar with the World Superbike paddock, having won the European Superstock Championship in 2000 and 2001, before embarking on a season in World Supersport in 2002. He scored his best WSB results in 2004, taking his Yamaha to fifth and sixth at Brands Hatch.
Repsol Honda factory team rider Nicky Hayden worked on chassis development and tyre testing today. Once happy with the set up of his RC212V the 2006 MotoGP World Champion went out on track to set the fastest lap of the day on Michelin qualifying tyres, the fastest of the three-day test. His time of 1m 38.848s was half a second faster than pole position time set for the Spanish GP at Jerez last year.
Hayden’s team-mate, Spaniard Dani Pedrosa is still carrying a hand injury sustained during testing in January. But the determined Pedrosa returned to the track today after sitting out the wet day on Sunday. Pedrosa and his team technicians worked on his RC212V to try set up variations that would ease the stress on his injured hand. The injury has hampered Pedrosa’s pre-season test programme but the tough young man from Barcelona will be in better shape, but not 100% ready, at the next MotoGP test, at Qatar on February 28-29, the final test before racing begins in earnest at Qatar on March 9.
Nicky Hayden, Repsol Honda: 1m 38.848s - on lap 81 of 82.
“It’s definitely been a really positive and productive three days. We had high hopes coming here because when we tested here in November the bike worked pretty good and Michelin tyres normally work good at Jerez, so this is a good track for us, also there’s no big long straightaways. The wind here has made it tough, the conditions haven’t been easy, but I do feel more comfortable on this year’s bike in the wind. The team really worked hard and made some good moves and good decisions. We didn’t make a lot of big changes, we just got closer to race settings, tried a couple of qualifiers and did a 25 lap run. The chassis seems to be working good and also the tyres are working good. We tried a few different tyre options, and we’re still checking data between the 16 and 16.5 rears. But the show hasn’t started yet, we’ll find out what everybody’s really got and what we’re in for when we get to Qatar but we leave here pretty happy. At the Qatar tests we’ll see how it is under the lights and dial everything in for the first race.”
Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda: 1m 41.699s – on lap 33 of 35.
“After this morning’s rain we were finally able to do some laps and it’s been a pretty good day for us. We were happy that we were able to test in the dry after yesterday’s rain and we did similar work to what we did on Saturday. My right hand feels the same as it did on Saturday. We’ve been trying to make some changes to the bike to make it easier for the hand and that’s been positive. But we weren’t able to try too many things because it’s been so windy, which makes it dangerous to ride fast, so it’s been difficult to improve. I don’t think the hand will be 100 per cent when we get to Qatar but I hope it will be better than it is now. We have ten days before the test, so we’ll do as much therapy as we can in order to be ready for the tests and for the race. The last test at Qatar will be difficult, especially for us because we still have a lot of work to do. And it will also be tough because we’ll be riding under floodlights for the first time, so we have to adapt to that. I hope the track conditions will be good at night and the rack temperature not too low.
Ambient temperature: 19 degrees
Track temperature: 16 degrees
Humidity: 57%
Test Times:
1. Nicky Hayden (USA) Repsol Honda 1'38.848
2. Jorge Lorenzo (SPA) Fiat Yamaha Team 1'39.252
3. Andrea Dovizioso (ITA) JiR Team Scot MotoGP 1'39.313
4. Randy De Puniet (FRA) LCR Honda MotoGP 1'39.351
5. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Fiat Yamaha Team 1'39.568
6. James Toseland (GBR) Tech 3 Yamaha 1'39.727
7. Casey Stoner (AUS) Ducati Marlboro 1'39.845
8. Alex De Angelis (RSM) San Carlo Honda Gresini 1'39.932
9. Shinya Nakano (JPN) San Carlo Honda Gresini 1'40.333
10. Loris Capirossi (ITA) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1'40.442
11. Chris Vermeulen (AUS) Rizla Suzuki 1'40.576
12. Anthony West (AUS) Kawasaki Racing 1'41.026
13. Sylvain Guintoli (FRA) Alice Team 1'41.177
14. Marco Melandri (ITA) Ducati Marlboro 1'41.292
15. Toni Elias (SPA) Alice Team 1'41.311
16. Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Repsol Honda 1'41.699
17. Niccolò Canepa (ITA) Ducati Test 1'42.160
18. John Hopkins (USA) Kawasaki Racing 1'42.970
19. Olivier Jacque (FRA) Kawasaki Racing 1'43.496
20. Vittoriano Guareschi (ITA) Ducati Marlboro Team 1'45.597
Bright sunshine and 25 degrees celsius temperatures provided perfect conditions for Casey Stoner and Marco Melandri as they took to the Phillip Island circuit for the first of three days of testing alongside the majority of MotoGP teams in Australia.
It proved to be a positive day for both Ducati Marlboro Team riders, who recorded impressive lap times on a race setting. Stoner racked up 29 laps in 1'30 whilst experimenting with set-up and tyres, giving highly encouraging feedback on the new Bridgestone rubber. The World Champion is also continuing to regain strength in the shoulder he injured at Jerez towards the end of November, so much so that today he was able to complete a total of 73 laps.
Marco Melandri was also satisfied after completing just shy of 100 laps, making good progress with the base setting of his GP8 in both the cycle part and engine. He did not try the Japanese tyre manufacturer's latest offerings today but will start to do so tomorrow.
Casey Stoner (Ducati Marlboro Team), best time: 1'30.178 (73 laps)
"Everything went really well today, the feeling with the bike was perfect almost straight away. The new Bridgestones, which had already given us positive feedback at Sepang, also worked perfectly here at Phillip Island - one of them in particular improves the bike a lot in the exit of the corners, especially in the final section of the track. We've also taken a step forward with some small changes to the front, which have made the bike more stable and improved grip to the point where my best time came without pushing, on a tyre that already had 17 laps on it. I'm also really happy with the latest specs of the engine and the way it is responding under acceleration coming out of the corners. The weather was basically perfect all day apart from when the wind picked up a little in the afternoon but the smaller fairing, which we used for the race here in October, meant that it wasn't a problem. Towards the end of the day my shoulder was a little sore because this is such a physical track, with a lot of fast corners, but it is still better than it was in Malaysia."
Marco Melandri (Ducati Marlboro Team), best time: 1'30.869 (99 laps)
"I'm really happy today because I finally feel as though I'm riding the bike more or less as I should. We knew that Phillip Island would be better for us and that's proved to be the case. The feeling was good from the first lap, thanks also to the things we learnt in the last test. At Sepang I probably changed the balance of the bike too much, trying to make it more similar to what I have ridden in the past, whereas here we've just tried to find a good base set-up, which has made it more manageable in the corners and less nervous. I am happy even though we're still not at 100%. We've actually got plans to try something new with the weight distribution tomorrow and we want to continue working on the electronics to try and improve the power delivery even more, then we can start tyre testing. In any case we've made a great start here."
Phillip Island info
Circuit Record: Marco Melandri (Honda - 2005) 1'30.332 Best pole: Nicky Hayden (Honda - 2006) 1'29.020
Fastest Lap GP 2007: Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) 1'30.801 Pole 2007: Dani Pedrosa (Honda) 1'29.201
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