MotoGP: Rain Washes Out 1st FP Session in Portugal, Saturday Schedule Re-Mixed

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Nicky Hayden comes into the turn nine area at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway during the first free practice session for the inaugural Red Bull Indianapolis MotoGP in September of 2008. The weekend not only saw rain on opening day, but the remnants of Hurricane Ike that caused cancelations, postponements and 60 MPH+ winds that toppled the Yamaha tent in the infield, blew trash and anything that wasn't tied down out onto the track surface.
The MotoGP race was shortened for safety purposes, and the 250CC race was called off altogether as a result of the weird weather weekend. Saturday's qualifying sessions were all run in near-perfect 80+F degree weather,which helped keep the fan's spirits up and the weekend from being a completely damp one as well.
The Kentucky Kid took his Repsol Honda to a 2nd place finish on Sunday during the hurricane leftovers, a little over 5 seconds in arrears to eventual winner and '08 MotoGP World Champion Valentino Rossi on his Yamaha Factory M-1. Rossi's team mate Jorge Lorenzo rounded out the podium for the first motorcycle race held at IMS in almost a century.
After the 2008 season, Hayden, the 2006 MotoGP World Champion, left Honda after six seasons to ride for the Marlboro Ducati team. Rossi will be joining #69 for the 2011-12 seasons on the Ducati team, after having been teamed together with Honda, before Vale split for Yamaha.
Nicky was second in the session this afternoon in Portugal behind 2010 MotoGP World Champion Jorge Lorenzo on his Fiat Yamaha. Rossi was 3rd, followed by '07 MotoGP World Champion Casey Stoner and 2010 MotoGP Rookie of the Year Ben Spies on the Tech 3 Yamaha.
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With what has been a relatively dry season for the MotoGP traveling circus, the stars of the elite World Championship kicked off the penultimate round in Portugal this morning with torrential rains, thunder and lightning that washed out free practice session one, and keeping all but two riders in their respective garage areas. Only Hiroshi Aoyama on the Interwetten Honda and Carlos Checa, in one of two 'guest' appearances on the Pramac Ducati, attempted to circulate the track in extremely dire conditions. The fifteen other riders in the series sat the entire 45 minute session out.

As a result of the all-but-complete wash-out from this morning's session, and free practice session 2 not being run under prime conditions, Dorna has extended tomorrow morning's free practice session 3 to 60 minutes from the standard 45 minutes. Portugal and Valencia (next weekend's final 2010 stop on the MotoGP season) were given an extra practice session to help the teams to better utilize optimum time on the track, but all sessions were also cut-back from the 'old' 60 minute timed sessions to 45 minute sessions.

With the 2010 MotoGP World Championship having been decided two rounds ago in Malaysia, the final two rounds are all about 'who else finishes where' in the other top spots for the season. Ben Spies sewed up the 2010 MotoGP Rookie of the Year title after the last round at Philip Island, but the remaining spots in the top ten in the series are still up-for-grabs with the rest of pack. And those final numbers will be tantamount in establishing the rest of the hierarchy for the 2011 MotoGP season, on AND off the track.

You can read up on today's activities, the changes for tomorrow's schedule and the times for the MotoGP race at Estoril below.
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Here are all of the links to today's on and off track action in Portugal for the MotoGP weekend, all thanks to David Emmett at his excellent MotoMatters.com.

Free practice 1 was all but a total wash out due to torrential rains in the area, thunder and lightning all around the track in Estoril:

http://motomatters.com/results/2010/10/29/2010_estoril_125cc_motogp_result_session.html
Free practice 2 went much better especially over half-way through the session at the Portugal round as the track was drying. Both Portugal and Valencia (next weekend's final round for the season) were given an extra session due to lack of quality track time that the teams weren't getting over the weekend, but session times were reduced from 60 to 45 minutes:

http://motomatters.com/results/2010/10/29/2010_estoril_motogp_fp2_result_lorenzo_l.html
Tomorrow's free practice 3 session has also been extended to an hour to give the teams a little bit more time to help find the right set-up with today's first session being a total loss. Here is the updated schedule for tomorrow in Portugal:

http://motomatters.com/news/2010/10/29/estoril_saturday_practice_back_to_one_ho.html

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As always, you can follow all of the race action this weekend on MotoGP's official site, MotoGP.com. Here is the link for not only the schedule but the link to MotoGP's Live Timing as well:

http://www.motogp.com

Keep in mind that Portugal is +1 GMT or 5 hours ahead of U.S. Eastern time. The MotoGP race will be shown 'live' on Sunday October 31 (Happy Halloween!) at 0900 EDT on SpeedTV.
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The World Is a Sadder Place As The King Announces He Will Not Return in 2010 As Planned....

Earlier this year when plans started falling into place on the world racing scene pertaining

to the end of the 250GP 2-stroke era, and the new 600cc Honda-based Moto2 class to come

for 2010, many well known people started to get involved. One of those names mentioned

and talked about was none other then The King himself, Kenny Roberts.

What was going to be deemed as his return to the world scene after a two year break, King

Kenny expressed a deep interest in firing up the Danbury, England race shop they had all

but closed down after the '07 season, and also maybe to return to the engineering end of things

in the way of designing their own chassis, as well, for the Honda 600-based engines that

will be used in the new series. However, with the economy being what it has been globally-

speaking, of all people involved in the motorcycle racing business, The King was not able

to secure sponsorship to be able to float the effort. At least for 2010. Maybe with things

starting to show the light of day as far as general economics are concerned, the trickle down

effect may actually hit or start to hit more towards the end of next year for a run at the

2011 season. We will see. It is the world's loss, and it also shows how rough things really are

out there when a man like Kenny Roberts isn't able to put together a sponsorship program

to run a motorcycle team on a global effort. And the man DOES know a few things about

how to run a motorcycle team.

While we mourn the fact that we will have to await the return of a Team Roberts bike to

a race track for awhile, we can at least take some solace in checking out The King in years

gone by, and highlighting what the man did best some three and a half decades ago. And

that was making a motorcycle go pretty darn fast on a dirt track. At least in these shots.

This is a mixture of shots taken at Terre Haute, IN., and Syracuse, NY., back in the '74-

'76 AMA Flat Track campaigns. By the time some of these were taken in '75, the

crown was all but out of hand to his long-time rival Gary Scott, and KR was for the first

time in several years wearing and finishing in the #2 spot on the Grand National Championship

trail. The Yamaha parallel XS-650-based motors were getting a little long in the tooth-at least

for the mile tracks-and over a third of the races were on miles, The juggernaut we know as

the Harley XR-750 was settling in mighty fine after years of the big H-D searching for that

'perfect' 750-based platform. Last I checked that plan worked pretty well for them.......

In no particular order, the shots above are of Kenny and Kel Carruthers walking a section of the

track at Syracuse discussing strategy in Sept. of '75. The shot of Kenny doing what I still say to

this day looks like him either doing a broom impression or explaining a pretty far out of control

slide on a 1/2 mile like Terre Haute I shot in August of '74. That was my very first flat track race and I was hooked from there on out. Especially after the race they handed KR his 2nd Grand National Championship and the #1 plate to be worn again by him in '75. Pretty friggin' cool!

The color shot is Kenny and Bud Askland and another of the team members at the time working

on his twin in the pits at Terre Haute in August of '75. Then #72y Skip Askland is sitting in a

chair just behind them and Mike Kidd---yes, THAT '81 Grand National Champ and ex #72

and retired #7 Mike Kidd--in the white Bel Ray shirt with the hat on the left side of the shot.

The shot I called 'Caught Ya' is Kenny in practice at Terre Haute in '75, and last but not

least the Terre Haute race in August '76, and The King leading another Yamaha parallel

ridden by Hank Scott. The Shell Thuett Racing Yamaha #14 was prepped and owned by

Kenny's former tuner from '74, Mr. Shell Thuett When Yamaha down sized at the end of '74 Kenny took over running the team and his mechanics, and Yamaha cut Shell loose. The guy

could build some motors and Hank and Shell went on to win several races together over the

next few years. Just not this day. Kenny took the checkers ahead of then #25 Jay Springsteen

in what would be Jay's run of '76-'78 championship winning years and Hank that day.

Enjoy the shots and the little trip down memory lane and thanks to the fine folks at

http://www.motorcyclenews.com/ and http://www.crash.net/ for the official links to the breaking news.

And besides, they had it posted on time.....I'm a little slow on the go in getting this out.

But deal with it.......Later! And thanks for stopping in. Ya All Come Back Now, Ya Hear!?

http://www.motorcyclenews.com/MCN/sport/sportresults/MotoGP/2009/November/nov0909-roberts-abandons-moto2-plan/?R=EPI-119910

http://www.crash.net/motogp/news/154478/1/updated_moto2_entry_list_-_pramac_roberts_gone.html

Moto GP 2009 Starts This Weekend in Qatar

As we view various shots of Nicky Hayden, #69 and

the '02 AMA Superbike Champion and '06 World MotoGP

Champion, we look forward to the MotoGP 2009 Season

starting up this w/e in Losail, Qatar. You can follow the

events of the w/e via the MotoGP feeds on the left side of the

column, or go to http://www.motogp.com/ for the current schedule,

which is available either in local time (+3 GMT) or by clicking

on the link and having it translated to your local time in your

area. You can also follow through Nicky's website (http://www.nickyhayden.com/)

as well as through the other various road racing links and tabs on the left

side, as well, here. The race will also be tape-delayed on SpeedTV on

Sunday 4/12/09 @ 2200 EDT with the usual repeats on Tuesday 4/14

in the afternoon.

This is Nicky's first year since '97 riding anything other then a

racing motorcycle with the famous Honda wings on it. Over the

course of the end of last season we learned he was making the switch

to the Ducati team after having spent over a decade riding Hondas.

The switch has been a challenge, but like all else Nicky has ridden over the

years he will come to grips and should prove to be a contender after

some real track time.

The above shots were taken over the course of the last 11 years of Nicky

throughout several stages of his career. Starting off is Nicky leading James

Toseland on the #52 Tech 3 Yamaha during practice for the Inaugaral Indy

MotoGP Race in September 2008.

We then see Nicky leading Aaron Yates at Road America in the race one of

the June 2000 AMA Superbike weekend, and a shot of Nicky with his knee down going into a corner at Mid Ohio in late July/early August of 2000, as

well as following Eric Bostrom through the last set of turns at Mid Ohio during

the Sunday races that weekend. And finally, we see The Kentucky Kid pulling

a power wheelie at Mid Ohio in July '97 on his Hyper Cycle Suzuki 750 while

practicing for what was then the 750 SuperSport race in the AMA series. This shot was taken as they come out of the keyhole and head down the backstretch outside of the campground area at Mid Ohio, in Lexington, OH.

Enjoy the shots and get ready to follow and root for Nicky Hayden this year as

he takes on the monumental task of getting used to the Ducati and taking on the

world's best road racers throughout the course of the season. It should be exciting!