Wine country racing...

 ..in France and in Sonoma valley this weekend. Searing heat steadily
cooling off some at Sears ("Infineon"), while some of the usual dodgy
stuff at Le Mans.

In France it was again the all-conquering Yamahas, this time filling the
podium. Rossi won easily, Lorenzo came from far back to take second, and
Edwards at least got a podium for his efforts for a change. No question
at all the Yamaha is the bike of the year, which is making it look easy
for Vale and the Rat (sore ankles and all).

At the opposite end of the scale is Ducati, who hit rock bottom today.
First Melandri couldn't get off the line, then decided to roll the dice
on rains while well down. Then Stoner's motor died after he was looking
like losing even a podium position, and he was forced to go back out on
wets after pushing his bike back to the pits. The two finished at the
end of the field, and only Toseland's crash and Hopkins' broken chain
got Marco a point out of it.

Pedrosa lost his podium very late to Edwards, and his championship lead
to Rossi; now he's tied with Lorenzo for second, 3 down on Rossi but 38
up on Stoner. With Casey only 9 up on Colin, is it already time to start
talking about him as a former champion? In order to win it you've got to
be very good, you've got to be lucky, and you've got to have at least
close to the best bike and tires. Well, Stoner is striking out a bit on
more than one of those, while Lorenzo quite clearly is the guy filling
an inside straight this year.

On the tire front, it was a neutral weekend, it seems, with Rossi
winning on the 'stones and Vermeulen 5th, Capirossi 7th, and Hopkins in
7th when he met his end. A healthy Lorenzo not in 10th on the first
lap might well have given Rossi a very serious challenge. And the
heaviest podium of the year! Average of 64kg, 140lbs! This is more the
way it should be.

Stateside it was another hot and windy weekend for the AMA boys. The big
story was Spies dominating, sweeping all the points he could from Mladin
and closing the championship lead down to single figures. This was
supposed to be Mat's weekend, he's won eight times here and did the test
last month that post-surgical Spies had to miss. For a while today it
looked like it might just be different as Mladin charged hard, but then
he got into the chicane too hot and had to run through the dirt, pushing
a margin of less than a second to nearly two. In the winner's circle Mat
looked exhaused while Ben was relatively fresh, suggesting how hard Mat
was working to even keep it close. The final margin was 8 seconds, two
more than yesterday, but this was definitely the closer race.

Third both times was Hacking, the Kawi looking very smooth and capable
this weekend, the team obviously having taken another step forward. And
the margins to Spies were 12 and 14 seconds, which is a bit of
improvement, at least on paper. The biggest news in that regard was
DiSalvo outqualifying Mladin, but Clubber wasted his grid position,
taking 7th and a mechanical DNF.

The best racing at the front was FX, teammates Zemke and Hayes going to
the line. Today it was SStock, with Yates charging at Holden until a red
flag stopped festivities two laps early (Pridmore and Acree tangled) -
disappointing. Bostrom smoked 'em in SSport, relatively speaking (final
margin over Zemke 3.5 seconds), the news being teammate Herrin was down
in 6th. Ben's 21-point lead over Josh is now the largest in all classes.

Next up are two good ones, Mugello and Miller, fast and furious. While
Rossi has to be viewed as the odds-on favorite in Italy - he's won the
last five - Miller may just be the best chance this year for someone,
anyone to beat the Yosh Boys, or at least challenge them, the site of
the last non-Yosh win (Zemke in '06). And too bad they're running
different courses, it would have been nice to have seen how much faster
the Yosh boys are as compared to the WSB crowd, in this SB racing's
final season on these shores.

On the DMG front, nice to hear Mladin take a full shot at their "vision"
from the podium yesterday, and there was much more in the press
conference. But with some of their boys on-site and spewing their
usual bullshit ("We're talking to everyone, listening to what they're
saying and taking it all into consideration"), one can see the evolution
of their thinking and that they do have a world view and can learn from
other series - rumor has it that to enhance competitiveness they will
require the riders from the championship-winning team pull in to switch
bikes and to finish the races on rain tires. They even mentioned the
possibility that if the all-time race win leader is leading the race, he
will be required to pull over on the last lap to let some old guy in
retro-style black leathers with "Anybody but Mladin" on the front take
over and ride him home to the checkers. 1970 Daytona winner Dick Mann is
said to be in line for the job, but there's also a rumor that if Duhamel
retires this year he'll be the favorite for the position...

 

With the next 5 races in Europe I'd imagine Rossi will have the correct
order fully restored by the time they get to the dry lake..


Two snoozers if there ever were any. Oh wait, there's been a bunch of
'um, something like 45, of the last 46 races. Wow, time flies when you
win them all..


And only on paper, Ben was a over a second a lap faster than whoever
was in 3rd from the get go..


Gangsta usually Q's well, then fades..

What happened with Pridmore, did his engine seize causing Acree to rear
end him, or something?

Mat's out for Mat and given he's contracted to ride SB next year in a
series that won't have one it's quite understandable why he's a
"little" PO'd. Hell, I'd be pissed too, but ya' know what? Tough darts,
and that's how it goes if you choose not to roll with the tide. Be that
as it may, Mat says what's Zuki and Yosh tell him to say and him
spewing may indicate they've decided to bail and take their ball and go
home..(sayonara Sakakura?)