Alanf’s blog…
Scattered thoughts

Friday, June 24, 2005

Where racing is nearly a religion…

Author: site admin
Category: MotoGP, WSBK

The racing this weekend promises to be one of the best weekends of the year with racing in both Holland and Italy.

Assen 75th TT logo

First is the MotoGP race at Circuit Van Drenthe in the Netherlands. This race takes place on Saturday but is being televised on SpeedTV on Sunday. Assen is truly one of the great road racing tracks in the world and it is the one with the longest running tradition of Grand Prix racing. This year marks the 75th Anniversary of the Assen circuit and the 59th Grand Prix race held at the track. In fact, there have been GP races at the Circuit Van Drenthe continuously since 1949! It has been around so long and has such a honored place among the race circuits of the world that it is referred to as the “Cathedral of Motorcycle Racing”. With a title like that, you can imagine how popular the Assen circuit is both with riders and fans. The track regularly boasts attendance figures of 100,000 and in 1990 actually had double that number show up. The experience of watching a race at Assen is supposedly right up there with the Italian and Spanish race tracks which means the atmosphere for the riders is electric. As if the crowds aren’t enough, the track itself really allows riders to shine. The original Assen track was laid out on public roads and thus has severe camber changes over the course of a lap. Additionally, it isn’t a track with a lot of tight turns or long straight aways. Its lack of elevation changes and its gentle bends (with the exception of a new chicane added this year) mean that throttle control and ease of direction changes are the key to a fast lap. This isn’t a track where high horsepower equates to fast laps. Even as the track has been converted to a dedicated track over the years the two defining characteristics remain the crowned track surface and the flowing nature of the track. Expect the Yamaha’s light handling traits to really shine around the 3.7-mile circuit. As a result, Rossi has to be the favorite coming into this weekend. Since he won at Assen last year, he is shooting for two in a row. Gibernau won the 2003 MotoGP race at Assen and is again likely to be the biggest challenger to Rossi. (Assuming he has bounced back from the psychological beatings he has taken over the past few weeks at Mugello and Catalunya). Another factor that was highlighted at Catalunya was the tire issue, with Bridgestone riders suffering in the hot Spanish sun. If the temperatures are high in Holland, expect the Michelin riders to again set the pace and the Bridgestone riders to struggle. Finally, it seemed like Ducati found something between Mugello and Catalunya. This weekend will show whether their showing outside Barcelona was a fluke or if they are really back to being contenders. Then again, since they are on Bridgestones it may tell us nothing new at all…only time will tell.

The second race of the weekend will be the World Superbike races at Misano. As with all racing in Italy, thousands make the pilgrimage to the coast to watch the races. In addition, perhaps as many as a million Italians will tune in via TV. Sadly, SpeedTV decided that a bunch of car races are more important that World Superbike, delaying the broadcast of the Misano races until Tuesday and denying us Americans that same privilege. Argh! Misano, like Assen, is a very challenging circuit. In fact, with its own multitude of camber changes, Misano is a bit like a twistier, tighter version of the Dutch circuit but with one section straightened out. The most spectacular feature at Misano is the Curvone which is a long multi-apex left-hander which leads onto the straight. Not unlike Monza, this curve allows the riders to really spin up the tires and slide the bike making for spectacular racing. If this weekend provides a typically hot Italian day, expect the Pirelli tires to help that sliding whether the riders want it or not. Like the situation with the MotoGP race at Assen, the series front runner in WSBK is also the biggest threat at Misano. Troy Corser has a spectacular record at the Adriatic coast track, including double wins in 2000 and nine other podium finishes over the six years the World Superbike series has raced there. Given his performance so far this season and his trend at Misano, it would be foolish to beat against him. If anyone is going to step up and challenge the Suzuki mounted Aussie it will probably be the factory Ducatis who have scored podium finishes in both the previous doubleheaders at Monza and Silverstone. Both Laconi and Toseland have a lot of work cut out for themselves if they are going to challenge Corser for the championship but either can pressure Suzuki mounted series rookie Kagayama who has been struggling lately. All the Honda and Yamaha riders need to make a huge leap forward as they have been inconsistent so far this season. Finally, I expect Chili to do well as racing in front of the Italian crowds always seems to energize this elder statesman of racing. Hopefully he can contain his enthusiasm enough to keep his Honda on two wheels.

So the dilemma for me is whether to check the web on Monday and Tuesday, knowing I’ll end up reading the results from the WSBK race, or to avoid computers until I can watch the race on TV so I will be surprised by the winner. If I don’t have a new blog posting on Monday and/or Tuesday, you’ll know why…

[image from the Assen TT web site.]

1 Comments so far

1.

muttley
October 17th, 2005 at 7:10 pm

I have been rooting for Valentino Rossi since he joined moto 500cc. He is an unstoppable force inside the race track. He is oftentimes compared to the great Michael Schumacher. He is simply dominating in every race he runs.

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