MotoGP

Lorenzo is getting quicker on the 'Stones

As we reflect on this week’s Qatar test under lights, one rider who did make a breakthrough at the Losail Circuit was factory Fiat Yamaha rider Jorge Lorenzo, adapting to the Bridgestones and finishing up the test second quickest behind Casey Stoner.

“I am so happy tonight because this session has been much, much better for us. The long run was especially good but in fact the whole evening has been an improvement, so I am very pleased about the job we have done,” Lorenzo said. “I have a much better feeling with the Bridgestone tyres. Everyone has worked really hard to make this step and I am happy to finish this test on a good note. Now I am looking forward to the race!”

That confidence will go a long way for the talented Spaniard, and he always seems to step it up on race weekends when you compare them to his testing performances.

Not much has been said of the Hayate Racing Team entry with Marco Melandri piloting the ex-factory Kawasaki ZX-RRs in a private effort. The fact that the team is giving it a shot is better than not being in the field altogether, but it’s going to be an uphill battle all year and they know that better than anybody.

“It was an ok three days. We are pretty far away with the rear grip and traction, so we really have to improve and make some big changes to understand our true potential,” Melandri told the official MotoGP website. “Right now we’re not 100 percent, so we have to work a lot to find out how close we really are to the other competitors.”

Full details still haven’t been released regarding the structure of the team and so on, but the development of the bike is sure to fall behind the factory efforts even further as the series goes on. At this stage it’s not even confirmed that the team will compete the entire year, basically committing to the opening races to see how they perform and then making a decision after that. I personally hope that they can surprise as the underdogs this year.

The question is where is John Hopkins and where will he show up? He was very close to securing a ride at Stiggy Honda in World Superbike before Roberto Rolfo was able to make a breakthrough with his nagging shoulder injury, but things have been extremely quiet in the Hopkins camp of late.

One of the most interesting teams in MotoGP this year is the Monster Energy Tech 3 Yamaha squad, with Colin Edwards and James Toseland not on speaking terms at all following a disagreement when James ‘stole’ the Tornado’s crew-chief.

Toseland has more to worry about than Edwards though, struggling for much of the Qatar test as he regains confidence following that horrible crash he had in Sepang last month.

“It has not been an easy test but on the last night I felt like we were finding a good direction and I was certainly feeling a lot more comfortable on the bike. The crash in Sepang hit my confidence and it took me a while to find my rhythm, but I feel I can go much faster now,” explained the former double World SBK champion. “I can still improve and I learned about the bike and the tyres at this test, and at the end I’m only just over a second behind Colin and he has been consistently fast.”

The worrying part there for me is that he sounds halfway satisfied to be just over a second behind Edwards. When is a rider ever satisfied to be a second away from his teammate? Especially considering they are both world champions in their own right.

This year’s MotoGP season is going to be interesting in more ways than just the battle for victory.

American Superbike

Hodgson, shown in testing, challenged the Suzukis at Daytona

The opening round of the AMA Superbike Championship has just been run and won, with six-times series champion Mat Mladin (Rockstar Makita Suzuki) taking a narrow victory in one of the most exciting AMA Superbike races we’ve seen in years. While the battles between Mladin and former teammate Ben Spies were intriguing in years past, the fact that Suzuki teammates Mladin and Tommy Hayden had Corona Honda’s Neil Hodgson battling amongst them for the entire race is a good sign of things to come this year.

Mladin crossed the line just 1.027 ahead of former world champion Hodgson, while the eldest Hayden brother was third, just 0.001 behind Hodgson! Fourth was Ducati mounted Larry Pegram in a solid ride, while Blake Young rounded out the top five on the third of the Yoshimura-built Suzukis. Ben Bostrom was the top Yamaha on the new YZF-R1 in sixth.

A promising ride by my brother Aaron Gobert was had on the Trifoglio Honda CBR1000RR, moving up from his 19th starting position to finish 12th in just his second day ever on the bike that the team purchased last week. A crash in practice yesterday saw him have to make a trip to the hospital for observation, before he bounced back today to take a good haul of points in what is a very competitive class this season.

Mladin had earlier taken pole position in the new SuperPole that they are running in the US for the top ten, so it’s a solid start for him in his quest for a seventh American title.

Daytona SportBike SuperPole was won by last year’s Supersport champ Ben Bostrom, who narrowly took pole from the surprising Buell 1125R of Danny Eslick, who has been on the pace all week at Daytona. Aussie Damian Cudlin was 25th and didn’t make it into the SuperPole session. Daytona Management Group’s new-look series seems to be going according to plan so far, and we’re excited for the Daytona 200 under lights tomorrow. Not to forget that the Supercross is also in Daytona this weekend!

Off-Road
I caught up with Glenn Kearney quickly yesterday afternoon to find out how his race went at the opening round of the GNCC series in Florida this week, and the Husqvarna rider explained that he finished 10th, which was an incredible result considering he only just broke his leg a little over two weeks ago. Those points will come in handy down the track and a top 10 result was more than what anybody expected leading into the race.

Australian Superbike

This email just came in from Motorcycling Australia:

Feedback wanted on potential ASBK practice day

Motorcycling Australia (MA) is calling for feedback on a potential practice day to be held at Symmons Plains Raceway, Tasmania on Wednesday 1 April 2009 ahead of the second round of the Australian Suberbike Championship (ASBK).

To provide your feedback please contact Sam Ryan at MA by emailing [email protected].

Feedback must be received by email no later than COB Tuesday 10 March and MA along with series promoter International Entertainment Group will advise if the proposed practice day will go ahead.

With the first round of the series now run and won, this is the perfect opportunity for riders to check out where the next on-track battle will take place.

Feel free to comment here and voice your opinion on the potential practice day – is it a good idea, or a bad idea?

That’s it for Racing Insider today, we’ll be back on Monday.