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First Shots: Nicky Hayden on the Ducati Desmosedici GP12

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To considerably less fanfare, Nicky Hayden took the Ducati Desmosedici GP12 today at Jerez, which for MotoGP fans means more photos of Ducati’s 1,000cc class prototype motorcycle. Ducati didn’t make a video of Nicky’s adventures on the GP12, but the race team got some valuable input from the American racer, who put in 61 laps for Ducati Corse once the circuit dried from high humidity. “When I woke up this morning, the sky was really gray and the track was completely wet,” said Nicky Hayden. “I was pretty disappointed. I didn’t think we’d be able to do anything because it wouldn’t have made sense to waste a day testing in those conditions.”

“The situation got better and better though, and after lunch, I was able to put on my leathers. I couldn’t wait to ride, and it was worth the wait. It’s an honor to be able to participate in the first track test of the GP12 because it doesn’t happen very often that you get to ride a bike on the track for the first time: it’s a special feeling. Everything went well, and we didn’t have a single problem: the motor is really nice to use, and I had a lot of fun riding the bike. I hope I gave some useful feedback to Filippo and the boys. I know they’ll be working on this bike while we go back to focusing on the next race, because this season just started.”

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Racing

Vermeulen Tests His Knee on a Kawasaki ZX-6R in Spain

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With his knee injury and subsequent recovery has taken far longer than expected, Chris Vermeulen took another step forward today in his attempt to properly return to World Superbike racing. The Australian rode Thursday at Parcmotor Castelloli in Spain, just before a Kawasaki festival being held at the circuit this weekend. However Vermeulen was not testing the WSBK Kawasaki ZX-10R, but instead riding a Ninja ZX-6R, the reasoning of which he explained on Twitter as: “Had a good ride on the supersport bike today a little less physical than my bike but did 40laps and knee did ok.”

Though Vermeulen has been plagued with a slow recovery, he did participate in some of the practice and qualifying sessions of the second round of World Superbike racing at Donington Park last month. However, he sat out both races at Donington, in addition to missing the season opening round at Phillip Island. Since then, Vermeulen has been slowly working his way back into the full-season ride he has with the factory Kawasaki team run by Paul Bird Racing.

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Bikes

Radical Ducati Raceric

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As we look at the latest creation from Radical Ducati, a Spanish custom shop whose name you should know by now if you’re a regular A&R reader, there’s always something about their design that just grabs you and sucks you us into the motorcycle (check the RAD02 Imola Café Racer, 9½, Café Veloce, and Mikaracer). We don’t agree with all the choices they make (of course that might be why we’re blogging, and they’re building), but Radical has certainly created a distinct look that you can spot a mile away. Combine that with some superb photography (they always throw in a couple artsy shots for us it seems), and it shouldn’t be a big surprise as to why their work makes it onto our pages so regularly.

The Radical Ducati Raceric was built way back in 2010 (check out this Facebook album with older photos), which technically doesn’t make it a new creation from the Spaniards, but the folks at Radical Ducati did enlist Paolo Grana to take some more shots of the bike, and that’s good enough for us. Radical did-up both monoposto and biposto seat for the Raceric, and in these news shots we see only the biposto version. Half the fun with the bikes from Radical Ducati is spotting which parts came from which Ducati models. The photos are after the jump, shout out what you see in the comments.

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Rossi/Stoner: Cooler Heads Prevail in Jerez, but Tempers Still Simmer When Words Are Exchanged in the Pit Box

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We’d be remiss if we didn’t talk about the incident between Casey Stoner and Valentino Rossi at the Spanish GP (if you haven’t seen the race yet, stop reading now). Charging to overtake Stoner at Turn 1, Rossi found himself going too hot into the turn, and too heavy on the brakes. With Stoner swinging wide to let Rossi through, the Italian went up the inside of Casey’s line, tucked the front, and the rest is history.

While Stoner would later call the crash a “racing incident” in his press debrief, he still chastised his counterpart for making a rash move and an apology that seemed more like a media stunt than a sincere gesture. For the Australian that got shunned by the marshals in the gravel trap, and watched a few laps from behind the guardrail, this weekend certainly seemed like a rough result because of an incident where he made no fault.

Insult was perhaps added to injury as Rossi continued on with his race (Stoner clapping as the Italian came by Turn 1 the very next lap, a sarcastic gesture for Rossi’s move and outcome), and then went on to finish the race with a fifth place result. Coming into the Repsol Honda garage with several TV cameras in tow, Rossi apologized to Stoner, with the following interaction occurring between the two riders (find it after the jump).

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MotoGP: Crashes Shake-Up Qualifying at Jerez

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Qualifying for the Spanish GP got underway today under the sunny, but windy skies of Jerez, Spain. Unsurprising to just about anyone, the Repsol Hondas of Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrosa were on the top of the time sheets, with local Jorge Lorenzo completing the front row and only 0.16 seconds off the qualifying pace. While the rank and order surprises few, all eyes will be on the latter stages of tomorrow’s race to see how Dani Pedrosa can manage with his ailing shoulder, which the Spaniard will have operated on immediately after the GP

The qualifying session saw a total of six riders hitting the tarmac and gravel traps, with many blaming the wind as a contributing factor. The list of riders crashing includes Valentino Rossi, Ben Spies, Colin Edwards, Randy de Puniet, Karel Abraham, and Hiroshi Aoyama. Thankfully no one was injured, but in the case of Rossi, it meant trashing his preferred bike for the session, causing him to qualify on his other machine, and landing 12th on the starting grid.

He’ll be joined on the fourth row by teammate Nicky Hayden, who has been having a miserable season thus far on the Desmosedici GP11, and once again Randy de Puniet proved himself to be the fastest Ducati, qualifying seventh. Honorable mentions go out to John Hopkins, who continued his progress filling in for the injured Alvaro Bautista this weekend with a fourteenth grid position for tomorrow’s race. With a good start we could see a mid-pack finish for Hopper, who has shown marked improvement with each session on the Suzuki GSV-R.

With the rain very likely to make an appearance for tomorrow’s race, all bets are off for how the Spanish GP will shape-up.

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I Think They’re Selling Gasoline…

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Repsol Honda has debuted a new advertisement to go in-line with the MotoGP Championship stopping in Jerez, Spain this weekend. Drawing on the petroleum company’s sponsored riders in GP racing, we see Casey Stoner, Dani Pedrosa, Andrea Dovizioso, and Marc Márquez making an appearance for their benefactor. We can only imagine the acting direction that must have been given to the riders for this video: “Marc, you’re the youngest so no talking and only use your hands. Dani, divide a really big number by another really big number while staring off into space. Andrea, you’re hot, so very, very, very hot…do something about it. Casey, you’re a sweaty boy, and everyone knows it.”

While we don’t speak a lot of Spanish here in the A&R office, we imagine the real message here is about teamwork, winning, and using Spanish gasoline…at least that’s what we’re hoping for, and that this is not the making of a motorcycle-themed boy band music video. Honestly though, it’s a pretty cool video with the slow-motion shots, and luckily for Repsol it looks like they have a good chance of being on the podium this weekend to go along with this campagin. Check out the making of this video after the jump, as it looks like there’s some A-quality footage still to be used. Do we smell a sequel coming on?

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State Government Backs Jerez de la Frontera Circuit – Ensures MotoGP Racing Through 2016

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The 2011 MotoGP Championship heads to Jerez, Spain this week, as the premier class gets ready for its second race of the season. 2011 so far has been a tough year for motorcycle tracks. First there was concern over whether Donington Park would get FIM homologation in time for World Superbike’s visit (spoiler alert: they did).

Then there was concern over New Jersey Motorsports Park, which filed for Chapter 11 protection, as the east coast venue sorts itself out financially with its creditors. MotoGP hasn’t been immune to this issues as well, as both Brno and Jerez have seen some concern of their future outlook.

While Brno is looking for help from the national government to make the dollars and cents make sense, Jerez was in a similar predicament except that the track has missed its last loan payment, and had its assets frozen my a local magistrate. Concerns over Jerez can now be put to ease though as the Andalusian State Government has announced that it will underwrite the popular Spanish racing venue through 2016.

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WSBK: Kawasaki & BMW Italia Testing at Aragon

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Motorland Aragon will host a private test for the factory Kawasaki and BMW Motorrad Italia World Superbike teams Thursday and Friday this week. Though Kawasaki had a good bit of winter testing both at the official WSBK .

Importantly for Kawasaki, Chris Vermeulen is expected to test in Spain. After injuries and surgery kept him out of much of the 2010 season, the Australian hoped to return at his home round but was unable to pass the physical. He sat out testing and racing in Australia, remaining at home and working on his physical therapy.

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