Day 10 – MotoGP – Qualifying

N36º 34.224' W121º 45.678'

2009/06 - California or Bust...
4 July 2009 in Alessandro, California

Saturday is the second day of the race weekend at Laguna Seca. But it’s the day where things start to get interesting. After spending Friday getting Dianne restored to a semblance of normal function, we managed to get her up at 6:30am on Saturday to get out to the raceway. Our theory was that getting there early, we’d beat the traffic and get some decent parking. This was apparently not a unique thought, as by the time we made it to the raceway there was a fair line of cars and bikes snaking up the hill to the main entrance. While we managed to get to the raceway by about 7:45am, it wasn’t until after 8am before we managed to get to the

Laguna Seca, 8am. It won’t be this empty for long…

We found our seats, and got to enjoy breakfast, juice and coffee. For others, breakfast of choice was Bud Light. To each their own. It is extremely pleasant to be in one of the hospitality suites. Not only do you get complimentary food and drink through the day, you also get a tarp overhead and — best of all — real bathrooms. Agreed, this is not roughing it. At the same time, roughing it is extremely overrated. While being in a suite in no way prevented me from exploring the rest of the events and activities on offer, it was definitely a nice base of operations to work with.

You get all kinds of ‘motorcycles’ here.

For those not familiar with motorcycle racing, and that will likely be many of you, a little background is probably in order. It’s actually fairly complex. There are three international series, based upon bike size… 125cc (which is not much bigger than can be legally ridden in Bermuda), 250cc and the premier class, which is now 800cc. It used to be 990cc, but the rules were changed three years ago to make it ‘safer’. Interestingly, the smaller bikes are also lighter and therefore the only real consequences has been that they enter corners even faster, which probably isn’t the consequence they were expecting.

Life is good. Life is very, very good.

The 125cc and 250cc races are normally held at the same time as the premier MotoGP class, but they don’t bring the teams over to North America (Laguna Seca is one of only two events held in North America, the other being the Brickyard at indianapolis, which was added for the first time last year). There is also World Superbikes, which is racing based upon production bike platforms (in other words, the general public needs to be able to buy the same bikes that are raced, and there are strict limits on allowable modifications. Europe is far more motorcycle-mad than North America has ever been, so there are also local events like the Isle of Man TT (long the most notorious and lethal motorcycle race in the world) and the NorthWest 200 in Scotland (the second most lethal after Man). Both of these races have the unique distinction of racing at the same speeds as at a racetrack, but on a circuit held on public roads. Rather than hay bales and runoff, you have stone walls as racecourse boundaries.

Make way! Motorcycle racer coming through!

There are also national racing series, including British Superbikes, which is like the World Superbike series, but limited to Britain. In America, to add a level of confusion, there is also AMA Pro American Superbike, AMA Pro Daytona Sportbike, and AMA Pro Supersport. AMA Superbike is like World and British Superbike, in that it’s based upon a 1000cc production platform AMA Daytona Sportbike replaced two other racing classes, and consists of an astonishing array of motorcycles based upon actual power rather than motor displacement, which means that you have 600cc, 800cc, 900cc and 1200cc machines racing in the same series. AMA Supersport is new this year, and is designed for entry level races between the ages of 16 and 21, using 600cc production motorcycles with minimal modifications.

What this adds up to is a full weekend of racing, as you have practice, qualifying and racing for four separate series on one three-day weekend. What everyone comes for, however, is the premier MotoGP class. This is the top level of racing, and this year consists of 17 racers (down from last year, courtesy of the global recession). We’ve been watching for the last four or five years (and came to Laguna Seca for the first time in 2007). This year is by far the most interesting in a while, largely as a result of the cast of characters and their various alliances and rivalries. While there are 17 racers, much of the focus centres on six of them.

Valentino Rossi is arguably the most successful, having won six premier-class championships and just scoring his 100th premier-class win. He’s a hyperactive Italian elf that can ride a motorcycle better than probably anyone else on the planet, and also comes with one of the most entertaining senses of humour. He’s long known for his post-race antics, which have included a victory lap with a blow-up sex doll on his bike. Colin Edwards is an American racer who was Rossi’s teammate last year, and is now with the satellite Yamaha team. He’s probably one of the nicest, most decent riders out there, and one I genuinely like. He’s also riding really well this year, even though he’s on last year’s bike. Jorge (pronounced Hor-gay) Lorenzo is Rossi’s current teammate, and probably his closest rival right now. He’s a complete loose cannon who desperately wants to win at all costs; this often results in some spectacular crashes. By all accounts, Rossi and Lorenzo hate each other, which makes the fact that they’re actually on the same team just fascinating.

You’ll never catch me! Never!!!

The other three major players don’t ride Yamahas: Casey Stoner is the last winner of the MotoGP championships not named Valentino Rossi. He was champion in 2007, and rides a Ducati. He is arguably the only person in the world to have figured out how to win races on the bike, and routinely is in the top three or four finishers. Nicky Hayden also now rides for Ducati, and has yet to figure it out, meaning he either crashes or finishes relatively low on the roster; he was champion in 2006, but was riding on a Honda at the time. Arguably he won despite this fact, not because of it, as Honda has pinned its hopes for the last few years (since Rossi defected to Yamaha) on a little imp named Dani Pedrosa who standa ll of 5’2”, and probably weighs 100 lbs soaking wet. The operational theory seems to be the smaller the rider, the lower the weight, and the faster the bike can go.. So far this remains theory, and it doesn’t seem to be a terribly good one.

Would you trust a million-dollar motorcycle to this man?

The current contenders for the championship are Rossi, Lorenzo and Stoner. Rossi and Lorenzo are on the same bikes, and frequently put in similar lap times, but their riding styles are completely different. Rossi exercises precision in pretty much everything he does (hence his nickname of ‘The Doctor’). Lorenzo is a complete nutter, and control doesn’t actually seem to be a word in his vocabulary. Stoner desperately wants to win, but seems to struggle to pull that off these days. His confidence was completely crushed at Laguna Seca when Rossi passed him for the win on the Corkscrew, a lesson in mastery of a motorcycle that few will forget.

The many, many motorcycles that get ridden to Mazda Raceway.

Rossi, Lorenzo and Stoner qualified in positions 1, 2 and 3 yesterday for today’s race, and will make up the front line. And then Lorenzo and Stoner both proceeded to crash in the final lap of qualifying in particularly spectacular fashion. This means two things: the Ducati and Yamaha crews were busy rebuilding motorcycles overnight, and Sunday’s race is going to be very exciting. We’re just glad that we’re here to watch.

Mark finds his dream job — MotoGP pace car driver.

awesome chaos, lunacy, MotoGP, natters, racing, raw excitement