As a special promotion for MotoGP’s stop at Laguna Seca, the Fiat-Yamaha team will plant a lucky race fan’s face on the Yamaha YZR-M1′s of Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo. The “Get on the Bike” program officially starts June 1st, and will require fans to upload a picture of their face to the Fiat-Yamaha website.

Mike Werner at Bikes in the Fast Lane got a look at the prospective placement on the YZR-M1 while he was at the French GP as a guest of Fiat-Yamaha, and he reports that the placement is an “ideal spot”.

The winner of the Get on the Bike contest will be announced July 25th, good luck to everyone.

Source: Bikes in the Fast Lane

While attending the Skip Barber Superbike School, A&R Editor Jensen Beeler overheard a conversation between Lead Instructor Michael Czysz and a couple of students. As the students asked Czysz if he’d be at Seca to watch the Red Bull US GP, Czysz lamented that he would not be able to watch MotoGP at Laguna Seca because MotoCzysz would be racing that weekend. As some may remember the FIM’s e-Power Championship series has a round that is occurring at Laguna Seca in coordination with Dorna and the AMA. Czysz went on to pique out ears, confirming that MotoCzysz would be racing that weekend in the FIM e-Power Championship, with the rider yet to be determined.

Even though the 2009 MotoGP season isn’t over yet, that hasn’t stopped the folks at Laguna Seca from opening up ticket sales for the 2010 races. While Laguna Seca may not host AMA racing this year, it will get the chance to host the all-American and all-Texan crew of Ben Spies and Colin Edwards.

Convinced they had cracked the code of the cork screw, Bridgestone arrived at the US GP with a single compound tire. Relying on data from last year’s GP, the tire manufacturer was only expecting a marginal variance in tire temperature between the left and right sides of their racing slicks. As such, they did not develop an asymetrical tire compound like they did for the Catalan GP.

As we now well know from the high-sides of Casey Stoner and Jorge Lorenzo, as well as the plethora of riders that ended up in the gravel that week, this single-compound design wasn’t up to the task of handling the track that many riders described as “one big turn”.

This weekend was a double-wammy for American motorcycle enthusiasts as we celebrated our Independence Day on Saturday, and the coming of MotoGP to Laguna Seca on Sunday. Despite the weather being cooler than in previous years, Seca proved once again to be a hot track that would be no open book to race teams.

Teams and riders had problems keeping both sides of the tires in the sticky, and suspension proved to be an issue on the bumpy and rough Seca tarmac. That didn’t stop a few riders from breaking away from the group though, and giving the American fans some fine laps of racing. Continue through to read more.

Working at the Yamaha North American office must have paid off for Fiat-Yamaha riders Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo, as they take the first two spots on the grid for tomorrow’s start of the US GP.

“George” will start from the pole position, at Seca while he looks to gain the 5 points that Rossi holds over him in the MotoGP Championship standings. With Rossi in the second spot on the grid, they will be joined by the lone Ducati of Casey Stoner.