There's some racing this weekend

 

There's some racing this weekend. At the greatest race track in the
world.

And a couple of championships to be won as well on the other side of the
world.

Hooray!

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Philip Island *is* the shit, isn't it?

 

just bob wrote:

I was down there in June - unfortunately no racing going on.
The island is cool - and did go to see the track, you could pay a few hundred
to have someone take you around in a V8 Supercar (whatever the hell that is).
But I opted to drop $50 to spenmd 1.2 hour on some go karts (3 10 minute
sessions).

It's pretty cool, the track is a 1/5 replica of the GP circuit - complete with
exact turns and elevation changes, so same binds corners etc. having down that
   1) it was fun
   2) makes watching the races better because now I can relate all
    the camera shots to the way it feels going around, and know
    how one turn leads to another etc.
   3) it was fun - really fun , they had transponders on the cart so after your
    sessions you get a complete ranking/timing/graphs of all the lap times
    And that track was a million tie more interesting than any flat go kart
    track I previously have been on.

If you're down there - ride the karts -it worth it.

(before the flames - of course it would be *more fun* to ride a bike around the
real track but that isn't an option in general)

Bruce

 

Julian Bond wrote:

Best of the currently-used bike tracks anyway. I've always been quite
fond of Spa, though, in part because of the history and the old track.

Anyway, PI MotoGP qualifying just finished, and it all looks as
promising as it should be there. Stoner and Lorenzo got their best out
of their last one, while Hayden didn't and had to settle for third. The
Michelin boys all seemed to run four Qs, and at one point the six of
them held the six top spots. Rossi had a fast get-off followed by a
pretty hard crash, so didn't run through his and will have to perform
one of those Philip Island miracles to get a win.

In terms of pace in the Q session, Stoner had it and no one else did, at
least the three early laps when he did a pair of 30.12s and a 30.41.
Lorenzo did eight straight 30s before going to the Qs, but the best was
a 30.75. Nicky only had one 30, a 30.98, but he was quickest in the
morning with a 30.56, on his 8th lap on that tire.

De Puniet, Toseland and Pedrosa are on row two, and Randy was a mid-31
guy, Toseland did a couple 30 with a best of 30.79, and Dani was down to
  a 30.52 among the five 30s he did. Edwards leads row 3, and he only
got to a 31.38 on a race tire. Dovi's best was a 30.77, but it was his
only one faster than Colin's. Nakano fills the row with mid-high 31s.

Row 4 has de Angelis with very low 31s, then Capirossi, who managed a
couple high 30s after being mid-31s. And then Rossi, who did a best of
30.52 among six 30s, had one Q run and then crashed.

So Stoner's best was 0.4 better than the field, and the next two
quickest guys are outside rows 2 and 4. All on Bridgestones, though, and
again the three lead guys on the three best bikes. Assumedly the guys
who might be able to hand are Lorenzo and Hayden, the factory #2s but on
Michelins, which makes it all look a bit like Motegi. Except for the
grid, that is.

Hopefully the front row plus Pedrosa can stick together while Rossi
catches up and we have a great race. But it could also be Stoner getting
away while the other two 'stones deal with traffic, and the rest of the
front row don't quite have the speed or the tires. I'm going to guess
that Rossi will be effected by his sore neck and just doesn't quite have
it after clinching last week, although it's hard not to include him on
the podium. I also think Nicky just might get his first podium of the
year, and probably last for Honda. Which leaves Stoner with the home win.


Is the New Zealand national championship winding down?

 


Err. No. The other side of the world to Philip Island. ie Magny Cours,
WSB and WSS. Bayliss and Pitt/Rea

--
Julian Bond  E&MSN: julian_bond at voidstar.com  M: +44 (0)77 5907 2173
Webmaster:          http://www.ecademy.com/       T: +44 (0)192 0412 433
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