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Round 13 of the 2012 MotoGP world championship brings the crew to the recently renamed Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli in the Republic of Dan Marino. The track was renamed in honor of local MotoGP star and hair-farmer, Marco Simoncelli, who who lost his life as a result of injuries sustained during the opening laps of last year's Malaysian Grand Prix.
In other news...Homeboy Hayden is back after his Indy moonshot, Honda World Superbike's Johnny Rea is in for Stoner on a Repsol Honda, and Spies finally spilled the beans that he would be on a 'factory-supported' Pramac Ducati, for 2013.
Hurry up and wait...after scurrying around to get their trucks unloaded, pit boxes assembled, and bikes set up in time for Friday's first practice session, the rain fell mainly in San Marino. Only a handful of riders went out in either of the day's free practice sessions, and accomplished a whole lotta nothing. Everyone else just loafed around in the paddock doing what/whoever. Water scares them almost as much as being away from their iPhones and white sunglasses for any amount of time.
No time for cartoons, on Saturday, as the boys need to get their shit together and figure out what color of power bands work best around the MWCMS. The first session, on Saturday was wet-n-patchy, which had most of the riders going with the more conservative-colored power bands. Blue, purple, and olive green seemed to work the best as they tenderfooted around in the wet-to-drying conditions.
By the time Saturday afternoon's qualifying session rolled around, the track was dry, the sun was shining, and it was time to uncork the power of the preferred colors...fire engine red, neon orange, and bedazzled glitterchroma. With that rainbow party out of the way, we have Pedro on pole, JLo in second, and Calvin Crutchlow in third. The second row was Bradl, Bautista, and Rossi. The Ben Spies was the top Yank in eighth, and everyone else blah blah blah...so on and so forth,
So with the clusterfuck that was practice and qualifying out of the way, I was sure we can count on a hassle-free, smoothly-executed race, right? Negative Ghostrider. On the starting grid, daddy's boy Abraham managed to stall his Ducati just as the red lights were about to go out. The yellow flags came out, the red lights turned to blinky amber lamps, and about half the grid launched from their grid spots...somehow, no one got ass-packed.
Grid up, part deaux...the riders are waiting to do another warm up lap when Pedrosa's crew suddenly wheel his Honda off the grid and back behind pitwall. It turns out the well-oiled machine that is Pedrosa's crew managed to get his tire warmer caught in the brakes. They finally figured their shit out and send Pedro out on his sighting lap, from pit lane. Pedro barely makes the grid, having to draft the pace car just to get there. Since his bike had to be wheeled off the grid and into the pits, Polesitter Pedro is forced to start from last on the grid. Brutal.
Lights out....finally. JLo gets away with the holeshot, with Rossi (gasp!) in second, and Bradl barging his way into third. From last on the grid, Pedrosa gets up to twelfth, but that doesn't matter, because a few corners later, Hectic Hector Barbera mumbles something about Estoril 2006, and uses his Pramac Ducati to torpedo Pedro...sending the wee-Spaniard tumbleweeding into the gravel. No es bueno.
Up front, JLo's going away...guess who wins? Rossi and his shiny red shopping cart are looking solid and fast, as opposed to earlier this season (and all of 2011) when they looked more tentative than a senior citizen trying walk down a sidewalk after an icestorm. Behind Rossi was Bradl in a solid third, with the Tech 3-skateers, Crutchlow and Dovi, playing grab ass in fourth and fifth. Cancel that...Crutchlow just hit the deck. The Spies is now in fifth with Bautista closing fast, in sixth.
Bautista finally gets past Spies and quickly starts to reel in Dovi. Within a few laps, Bautista is on Dovi's ass (not in a gay way), and is looking threatening (not in a rapey way). Bradl's in front of the both of them, but is dropping fast. Bautista makes quick work of Dovi and proceeds to latch on to the rear of Bradl (OK...that one's questionable). At this point Bautista, Bradl, and Dovi are scrapping it out for the bottom position...err...step...on the podium. Bautista's looking comfortable as he tops this battle for the bottom spot on the podium. Dovi starts to push hard, and gets right on the tailpipe of Bautista, but Bautista pushes harder and finishes just .003 of a second before Dovi. Towel, please.
Rossi bags a solid second, and his first dry podium on a Ducati since the dawn of time. Is a win out of the question before he re-jumps ship to Yamaha?
JLo cruised home to a, pretty much, flawless 23rd win of the season. With Stoner gone at the end of the year, and JLo back with Yamaha, 2013 could be a bit of a snoozer. Then again, we have Moto2 nutcases Marq Marquez and Andrea Iannone moving up to the big boy class. They might hurt a few people's feelings...I hope.
Did Good:
1)Lorenzo / Yamaha Factory Racing
2)Rossi / Ducati Team
3)Bautista / San Carlo Honda Gresini
4)Dovizioso / Monster Yamaha Tech 3
5)Spies / Yamaha Factory Racing
6)Bradl / LCR Honda MotoGP
7)Hayden / Ducati Team
8)Rea / Stoner's Bike
9)De Puniet / Power Electronics Aspar
10)Pirro / San Carlo Honda Gresini
11)Edwards / NGM Forward Racing
12)Hernandez / COL Avintia Blusens
13)Ellison / Paul Bird Motorsport
14)Petrucci / Came Ioda Racing
15)Salom / Avintia Blusens
Did Not:
DNF)Espargaro / Power Electronics Aspar
DNF)Crutchlow / Monster Yamaha Tech 3
DNF)Pasini / Speed Master
DNF)Barbera / Pramac Racing
DNF)Pedrosa / Repsol Honda
DNF)Abraham / Cardion AB Motoracing
JLo has left the building with a grown up-sized 38 point lead over Pedro. Stoner and his jacked-up ankle are still in with a mathematical chance, but sit a hefty 84 points behind JLo, with five rounds to go. The next stop is September 30th (a.k.a. my birthday) at the Aragon circuit near Alcañiz, Spain. Send me gifts.
T...Out.
*Pictures from www.cycleworld.com, www.mcnews.com.au, and www.topsportracing.com
So...the 12th round of the MotoGP championship heads back over the pond to Brno for the Grand Prix České republiky (or something like that). Last week, at the Indianapolis Supermotorbrickway, little Dani Pedrosa bagged his second win of the year over JLo and everyone else. This time, at Brno, Stoner and Hayden are out, which puts Stoner further back in the championship points, and Hayden even furtherer back, in Kentucky. With Stoner out, could we see a possible 2012 podium debut from Spies, Crutchlow, or Bradl?
In other news...after being dicked around by Ducati with the promise of a factory ride in 2013, Crutchlow finally said 'fuck it', and re-signed with his current Tech 3 Yamaha team, for next year. With Dovizioso off to the Factory Ducati team, Crutchlow will be joined, next year, by fellow Brit and current Moto 2 midpack Ginger-kid, Bradley Smith. Smashing.
In other other news...in the latest episode of 'As The Ben Turns', we find young Mr. Spies struggling with some very pressing decisions regarding next season. Gresini Honda in MotoGP, A factory BMW in World Superbike, or pack it all in, and head back to Texas to flip burgers and race bicycles? Enquiring minds want to know, yo.
Qualifying...JLo's on pole. Calvin Crutchlow and Pedro round out the front row. The Ben heads up the second row, followed by Dovizioso and Rossi. German wunderkind, Stefan Bradl, puts his Rammstein-sponsored Honda at the top of the third row, with Bautista and daddy's boy Abraham (his pops owns the track), in tow.
On to the race...JLo gets a totally bitchin' start, and leads the posse in to turn 1, followed by Pedro and Crutchlow. Spies gets away in fourth, but gets taken by Rossi and Dovi in the next few corners. A few corners later, Spies throws out an arm-up S.O.S, pulls off the racing line, and drops back to thirteenth-ish....his 2012 'Black cats and broken mirrors' tour seems to be in full effect.
Meanwhile, back in Gotham City, Spanish super-chums JLo and Pedro continue on at the front, followed by Calvin, in a solid third. Rossi's looking decent in fifth, just behind Dovi, but can't seem to make any forward progress. The Ducati mechanics had planned on this, and figured if Rossi can't move forward, then they'll just have to keep everyone else behind. They did this by implementing a clever 'Spy vs. Spy' smoke screen tactic. Upon downshifting/braking, Rossi's Ducati would fart out a cloud of blue smoke to keep his followers at bay.
14 laps to go...Spies gets his shit together, starts picking off some of the midpack fellas, and cracks the top ten. Up front, JLo's still leading, but has been closed down by Pedro...we might have a race on our hands. Back in fifth, the smoke-shooter-outer thingy on Rossi's Ducati seems to have malfunctioned, which has allowed Bradl to close in and get all up his business. Bradl goes up the inside of Rossi who pays him back on the next corner. Bradl counter-counters on the next corner, and makes it stick, for fifth. Back in the pack, Spies rides under a ladder, loses the front and fires his Yamaha into the gravel. Par for the course.
Up front...Pedro shadow JLo, takes over at the front, and the announcers say something about doing 'donkey work'. JLo is not discouraged. He summons the powers of Donnie Wahlberg, and hangs tough behind Pedro. Things hold station, until the last lap, when JLo takes the wide line into the hairpin, turns it in, and barges Pedro out of the way courtesy of a rather generous helping of stuffing. Pedrosa ain't tryin' to hear that, and looks to get past JLo, on the brakes, a few corners later. JLo holds firm on the outside, but runs it wide, which allows Pedro to fire a shot across his bow, square off the corner, and take his third win of the season. Chocala!
Further back, Crutchlow rails out of the final corner, Nick Harris and Gavin Emmett blow their loads, and Crutchlow takes his maiden MotoGP podium...and the first MotoGP podium by a Brit since 1886. Cracking.
Result:
1) Pedrosa / Repsol Honda
2) Lorenzo / Factory Yamaha
3) Crutchlow / Tech 3 Yamaha
4) Dovizioso / Same as Crutchlow
5) Bradl / Rammstein Honda
6) Baustista / Gresini Honda
7) Rossi / Factory Ducati
8) De Puniet / Power Electronics Aspar
9) Abraham / Cardion AB Ducati
10) Espargaro / Power Electronics Aspar
11) Elias / Pramac Ducati
12) Hernandez / BQR
13) Edwards / NGM Forward Racing
14) Pirro / Gresini Honda
15) Ellison / Paul Bird Racing
16) Pasini / Speed Master
17) Petrucci / Ioda Racing Project
DNF) Silva / BQR
DNF) Spies / Factory Yamaha
DNS) Stoner / Repsol Honda
Alrighty then...Jlo leaves Brno with a smaller'd points lead over Pedro. Stoner still has a mathematical shot at the 2012 title, but is likely to be out of the next two rounds due to his injured ankle. Current Castrol Honda World Superbike rider/wrecking ball, Johnny Rea, has been drafted in to fill Stoner's shoes (get it?), if needed.
Next stop is in two weeks at the awesomely-renamed Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli in San Marino. The word on the worldwide interwebs is that Homeboy Hayden will be back in action. Get there.
T...out.
*Pics from mcnews.com.au and some random Google searches.
