It is a dangerous thing to write a rider off. We learned that with Valentino Rossi, the old man currently leading the championship after two terrible years at Ducati, one tough year at Yamaha and then the first sign of resurgence from the middle of 2014.
Rossi adapted, learned, progressed, and came back stronger. After the first seven races of 2015, the wolf pack in the media center had written off Marc Márquez and HRC.
The Honda RC213V was too aggressive an engine to be tamed by electronics, the chassis too stiff to contain the stampede of horsepower contained in the 90° V4. The bike span, wheelied, and worst of all, slid the rear wheel unpredictably when it touched down ready for braking into the corner.
Márquez was trying, but perhaps a little too hard, riding every lap as if it was his one shot at pole, overloading the front tire to compensate for the lack of braking at the rear.
Márquez was pushing his luck, and it kept running out during the race, the Repsol Honda man either finishing down the order, or ending up in the gravel once the front cried enough.
If you enjoyed our first sampling of the Paddock Pass Podcast, which is mysteriously titled Episode 2, then we think you will enjoy our latest installment: Episode 3, which we just recorded at Sachsenring for the German GP.
On the mics are David Emmett (MotoMatters.com), Scott Jones (Photo.GP), and Tony Goldsmith (Asphalt & Rubber). The boys talk a little bit about “The Pass’n at Assen” and then get into the happenings at the opening days of German GP.
An embedded SoundCloud version of the podcast is waiting for you, after the jump.
Marc Marquez was back down to business, setting the quickest time in both sessions on Day One at Sachsenring.
You could probably write a book about Valentino Rossi’s “Routine” — he has that many. First up, he always closes his visor with both hands as a walks to his bike from the pit box.
Bradley Smith was only 0.119 seconds behind Marc Marquez at the end of FP2.
The Sachsenring treated us to its usual surprises on Thursday, with rain and squally winds blowing through the paddock in the morning, and the sun coming out as the day went on.
Fortunately, the only people out on track were the riders doing reconnaissance laps on the scooters, and safety officers cutting fast laps during their usual pre-weekend track inspection.
As an observer, it is hard to tell the difference between a circuit safety inspection and hooning round the track in one of the many high-end BMW sports cars that the German car-maker provides to Dorna, but I’m sure that as ex-racers, both Loris Capirossi and Franco Uncini know what they are doing.
Weird weather has already had its effect on the tire allocation. Originally, Bridgestone had brought three specifications of front tire, the soft to deal with the cold mornings, the medium to deal with the warmer afternoons, and the asymmetric tire with soft rubber on the right and a compound closer to the medium on the left, to handle the wind gusting to cool the right side of the tire.
Debuting today at the German GP in what has to be the best industry #tbt move ever, Suzuki is showing off a special 30th Anniversary livery for its GSX-R line, including the GSX-RR MotoGP race bike.
As the name implies, the livery celebrates 30 years of GSX-R sport bikes, which have sold over one million units since their first debut in 1985.
Helping celebrate the special occasion, the 30th anniversary livery bikes will be available globally from Suzuki, though there’s no word right now on how much they will cost in the USA, or when they will be available.
With global Ducati sales up 22% in the first six months of the year, it comes with no surprise then that Ducati North America has some sales growth to report as well.
Selling 6,961 motorcycles in the first-half of the year, Ducati North America is up 12% over last year’s same time period. Helping fuel that increase was an incredibly strong June, where 1,981 motorcycles sold — for a 106% growth over June 2014.
There has been a lot of movement in the rally raid scene lately. First, Laia Sanz jumped ship from Honda to KTM, then Marc Coma announced his retirement from racing and that he will become the new Sporting Director for the Dakar Rally, and now we get word that Husqvarna will enter the world of rally racing with a factory team.
The move is perhaps not that surprising, considering that KTM now owns the Husqvarna brand, and that the Austrian company is a fierce rally raid competitor, but this means also that the historic Husqvarna name will return to one of the most iconic races in the world.
Making a strong debut, the Husqvarna factory team effort is comprised of riders Ruben Faria of Portugal and Pierre-Alexandre Renet of France, who will in-turn race upon the the Husqvarna FR 450 Rally bike, which is likely to be very similar to the KTM 450 Rally race bike.
After competing in the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb last year, Guy Martin continues his pursuit of racing beyond just road race courses, with an announcement today that he will compete with Triumph for a land speed record at Bonneville.
The news sees the Lincolnshire-man aboard the Triumph Rocket III Streamliner, which is powered by two turbocharged 2.3-liter Triumph Rocket III engines that make a combined 1,000 horsepower.
Triumph and Martin hope to top the current FIM motorcycle land speed record, which is 376.363 mph, pop the 400 mph barrier, and thus bring the land speed record back to the Triumph brand, and the UK, after a 45 year absence.
What makes for great racing? Many things, but great last corners really help. A great last corner, or sequence of corners, allows riders to attack the bike ahead of them, and take one final shot at victory.
Even better is when the option to attack offered by the final corner comes with some risk attached: getting ahead is one thing, but staying ahead to the line is quite another.
MotoGP moves from one track with a last corner which guarantees spectacle to another. The final GT chicane at Assen produced fireworks with the clash between Valentino Rossi and Marc Márquez, and the last two corners at the Sachsenring offer similar opportunities.
At Assen, the hard-braking right corner is followed by a quick flick left, giving the defending rider the chance to counterattack if he is passed.
At the Sachsenring, the long drop down the steep, steep hill provides the ideal platform to launch an attack from, diving up the inside on the brakes on the way into the penultimate left hander.
That line comes at a price, though, as it forces the attacker to run wide on the exit. That opens allowing the defending rider to strike back up the inside on the approach to the final turn, the last left uphill towards the line.
Even entering that corner ahead is no guarantee of the win: like Turn 12, Turn 13 offers two lines, inside and outside, both of which can be used to pass.
Just last May, California seemed set to be the first state in the USA to codify a lane-splitting law. That effort seems to have stalled though, with Assembly Bill 51 being pulled by the bill’s authors, after the California State Senate didn’t seem to have the same support for the law that the State Assembly had shown.
This action doesn’t change much for Californian motorcyclists, who can still legally lane-split through traffic, though they do so under the state’s more nebulous “safe and prudent” catch-all driving provision.
The news, however, is a huge blow for lane-splitting advocates in the rest of the country, who hoped that California’s codification of its lane-splitting practice could be a model law for the rest of the United States.