I’ve been doing my best to cover the two major world championships so far this season. Both MotoGP and World Superbike have had dominating race winners, compelling challengers and some exciting racing. However, that focus means that I haven’t talked much about how some of the other world series are shaping up. For this entry I’ll focus on the two “quarter” classes. First, the quarter liter class…the 250GP bikes. Second the 125GP class which was traditionally considered the “quarter” class since they were 1/4 the size of the old 500cc GP bikes. Both series have provided some exciting racing and both give a glimpse into the GP stars of the future.

First, the larger 250GP class which started out looking like it would be a run-away but has now become much, much more closely fought. In the first races of the season it appeared Honda mounted Dani Pedrosa would continue his trend of running away with 250 races. The diminutive Spaniard has shown amazing speed for the past two years and his 125 and 250 titles show he is basically unstoppable if he can get out front early. His only possible Achilles’ heal is if he has to scrap with other riders. In the first races of this season he did exactly what he needed to do to escape early but as the series has progressed so have his rivals which has meant he’s had to fight more and dominate less. The last two races have been excellent with four or five riders all fighting for the win, though Pedrosa was able to check out in the second half of the race at Catalunya. I think the big news items are: 1) Dani Pedrosa has led the championship battle since the first race and looks strong to win his second 250GP title. Expect him to be on a Honda in MotoGP next year. 2) Casey Stoner has quickly matured after numerous seasons highlighted by crashes. After he threw away third place in the first race of the year he seems to have gotten his head on straight and is now a legitimate title contender moving into second in the points battle last weekend. 3) Andrea Dovizioso has shown amazing flexibility in so quickly adapting to the 250cc after winning the 125cc series last season. I really thought he would need a year to get used to the bigger bike but he has been competitive from the very beginning. As long as he doesn’t pull a Poggiali and flame out he may well be the next 250GP star. 4) Randy DePuniet and Sebastian Porto both seemed like the riders most likely to run with Pedrosa and both have had horribly inconsistent seasons either finishing in the top three or outside the top 10. Certainly not what was expected from experienced riders with their level of support. 5) the final rider I’ll mention is Jorge Lorenzo who has basically come out of no where to be a front runner. Were it not for Dovizioso’s stellar freshman 250 season, Lorenzo would be the greatest revelation of the year. Expect him to fight for race wins for the remainder of the season.

Unlike the other two classes, the 125cc racing has been close, exciting and unpredictable. There have been five different winners in six races split among three different manufacturers (from three different countries as well!). Aprilia’s Mattia Pasini is the only repeat winner and as a result he leads the championship chase. But Honda’s Thomas Luthi is only one point behind with KTM’s Mika Kallio a single point further behind. As if that isn’t tight enough, the gap from first to fifth in the title chase is only 12 points. With 25 points per win this one is still anyone’s championship. Not only is the points battle close but the racing is as well. Unlike MotoGP and 250GP there are maybe six or eight guys that can win a race and most of those guys are at the front coming to into the last turn on the way to the checkered flag. It could easily be argued that 125 Grand Prix racing is the closest motorcycle road racing on the planet. The fact that KTM (Austrian), Honda (Japanese) and Aprilia (Italian) are all in the running for the title with Gilera, Derbi and Malaguti not too far off the pace means it has twice the brand diversity of the larger 250s and a three-way manufacturer battle that is more diverse than the Honda-Yamaha dual in MotoGP. What is there not to like? Its just a shame that SpeedTV has such an irregular broadcast schedule for the little bikes. Everyone is a noteworthy surprise in this class but the one person I will call out by name is Manuel Poggiali. I expected him to dominate after returning to 125s from the 250 class but instead he has continued to ride inconsistently and generally well below the level expected of a multi-time world champ (He was the 125 champion in 2001 and 2002, then 250 champ in 2003). Someone needs to figure out what has gone wrong in the kid’s head because he looked incredible in his 125 and 250 title runs. He is only 22 years old and is way to young to hang up his helmet. I hope someone can help him get back on course because he was on the path to being another Melandri, Rossi or Biaggi but is now sucking two-stroke fumes mid-pack (his best finish so far this season is a 5th in Portugal).

So there is plenty to watch for in these support classes, not the least of which is that the stars of tomorrow’s MotoGP series are probably racing in these classes today. I think Pedrosa will be moving into MotoGP next year but I wouldn’t be surprised to see Stoner or Dovizioso there by 2007…perhaps even Lorenzo as well. Its harder to separate the seed from the chaff in 125s right now but you can bet that any front runner with an Italian or Spanish passport will be racing in 250s soon with an watchful eye from the factories to see who they can groom to be the MotoGP champs of the next quarter century… With that in mind, the incredible racing is just icing on the cake.

[image from the Yahoo Italy Sports web site.]