Drouin Counter Lunch Sunday 26th September, 2004

Oz Racers around the World - July 2006

Moto GP – Laguna Seca 23-7-2006

Nicky Hayden has put one hand on the 2006 MotoGP World Championship by repeating his debut US GP victory of one year ago - while Valentino Rossi suffered a potentially title-shattering retirement. Hayden, starting from sixth on the grid, gained three places into turn one - and was soon hot on the heels of fellow American Kenny Roberts Jr and pole sitter Chris Vermeulen. But Vermeulen grabbed vital breathing room by bravely diving inside Roberts at the final turn, to lead at the end of lap 1 of 32. Rizla Suzuki's star rookie, a double Laguna winner in World Superbikes, then rode the wheels off his GSV-R to pull a near two-second lead by the time Hayden squeezed past Roberts at the top of the corkscrew on lap 9. Questions remained about how long Vermeulen's Bridgestones could perform in the crippling temperatures - of 39 degrees C (102.2 degrees F) ambient and 56 degrees C (132.8 degrees F) on the track - but with nearly a third of the race gone the Aussie was showing no signs of weakness and Hayden had a straight fight on his hands. The Kentuckian chipped down Vermeulen's lead relentlessly over the following laps and as the halfway stage arrived Chris ran slightly off line and reluctantly conceded the lead. Thereafter, Hayden quickly built a comfortable two second buffer in front of his nearest rival - that then grew steadily to three-seconds by the chequered flag - but it wasn't over Vermeulen...

The #71 had continued to lap consistently after being passed by Hayden, but then began to suffer from an intermittent fuel supply problem and was mercilessly reeled in by Nicky's team-mate Dani Pedrosa. The 20-year-old rookie had dispatched fellow Honda rider Marco Melandri and front row starter Colin Edwards, but then found his progress blocked by determined former 250cc rival Casey Stoner. The pair battled for every turn, catching third placed Roberts in the process - resulting in a dramatic moment on lap 10 when Pedrosa elbowed past Stoner into turn six, then outbraked Roberts at the final corner... only to run wide and lose drive on the exit. That allowed both Roberts and Stoner back through and the trio then fought side-by-wide for the next half a lap; with the experienced Roberts again losing out to the youngsters as he was shuffled behind both Casey and Dani respectively. But, perhaps due to the constant pressure from Pedrosa, Stoner's challenge finally ended in the turn six gravel when he low-sided his Honda LCR out of third place on lap 15.

With ten laps to go Pedrosa was the fastest man on track, an attribute that resulted in him pulling to within a second of Vermeulen. The move finally came when Vermeulen, having gamely resisted another factory Honda rider, got off line and was forced to surrender the runner-up spot with eight laps remaining. Once past, Pedrosa was unable to close Hayden's lead and the top two positions were effectively settled.

But the real drama was only just beginning...World champion Valentino Rossi, just tenth on the grid after another horrendous qualifying. But the Italian jumped past both Suzuki's John Hopkins and Camel Yamaha team-mate Edwards on lap 11, before being promoted to sixth by Stoner's exit. By the midway point Rossi was still sixth, but had now caught Roberts and Melandri ahead of him, overtaking both a lap later. Although victory was out of the question, The Doctor was expected to quickly catch up to Vermeulen and limit the championship damage with a repeat of his 2005 podium...

Alarm bells in the Rossi camp began ringing when he stopped closing on Chris and - with just five laps to go - suddenly began fading backwards from the Australian. As Roberts and Melandri rocketed past a lap later, a rear tyre problem was identified as the cause of the seven-times world champion's dramatic deterioration. Rossi kept his composure and looked set to at least nurse his M1 to the flag, when huge clouds of smoke suddenly began spewing from his exhaust! With his engine performance plummeting, the #46 slipped back to eleventh at the end of lap 30, then stopped altogether on the very last lap. By that point Rossi had been black flagged, although it's not clear if that - or total power loss - caused him to halt while out on track.

Rossi may have been the highest profile casualty of the last few laps, but another rider who deserved much better than he got was Vermeulen: Just moments after Rossi's M1 began smoking, Vermeulen's growing fuel supply problems reached critical and his bike began cutting out. The young Aussie thus lost a podium to Melandri and then dropped a position to Roberts before reaching the finish line in fifth, one place ahead of American team-mate John Hopkins. After a strong qualifying Colin - riding in a special 'stars and stripes' livery - never looked a threat this afternoon while, by total contrast, Hayden had reversed an at times "inconsistent" pace with a faultless race day ride to secure his third ever grand prix victory.Hayden celebrated by riding the cool down lap with his Bubba Shobert replica helmet and a large American flag in his hand.

With Rossi's retirement dropping him to fourth in the standings, Pedrosa has now moved back into second - but an increased 34 points from Hayden - with Melandri a further 10 points back. With only 150 points still up for grabs, Nicky's 2006 title lead - which until now has often looked 'on loan' - now appears permanent as MotoGP heads for its long awaited summer break. Round 12 of the 2006 world championship will take place at Brno, in the Czech Republic, on August 20.

MotoGP rookie Casey Stoner gave a typically harsh assessment of his season so far, after sliding out of a podium place at the midway point of Sunday's US Grand Prix. Despite never seeing the Laguna Seca circuit before, Stoner adapted quickly to the technical layout - finishing third in first free practice - but could only qualify seventh. However, a strong start saw the Honda LCR rider fourth at the end of lap one, then third after overtaking Kenny Roberts Jr ten circulations later. By that stage Stoner had been caught by fellow star rookie Dani Pedrosa and all three fought bar-to-bar for several laps, until Stoner lowsided while under pressure from Pedrosa. "Everything felt fine and I had a race set-up good enough to be running up front. I just made a small mistake and as I let the brake off for turn five the front just slid away," said the 20-year-old Australian. "I knew I had to conserve the tyres early in the race, but once I got in front of Dani and Kenny it was no problem, I just concentrated on running a strong pace and not going too hard.

Stoner's retirement marked his fourth of the season and leaves the Qatar pole sitter - and Turkish Grand Prix runner-up - sixth in the world championship standings."It is a difficult moment for both Casey and the team," admitted team owner Lucio Cecchinello. "We all believe we deserve better results, there is a very big potential for Casey and the team. Casey did a perfect warm-up and a perfect start but just made a small mistake while racing in third position. Both Casey and the team have a strong spirit and I believe we will come back at the next race even stronger, and challenge for the podium result we deserve."

World Superbikes – Brno 23-7-2006

Yukio Kagayama took his first win of the season at round seven of the Corona Extra Superbike World Championship at Brno in the Czech Republic on board his Alstare Corona Extra Suzuki. Kagayama sat behind race leader James Toseland for 14 laps before making his decisive move on the run into the hairpin. From there he pulled a 3.9sec lead over the British rider to take a well earned win.

James Toseland's second place finish on his Winston Ten Kate Honda moves him into second place in the championship and he appeared pleased with his result after a crash in morning. "Bit of an interesting start with a local rider thinking since it was Sunday morning he would take things steady, on my line!" quipped Toseland, "Anyway I'm happy to be second. Congratulations to Michel and to Yukio who had a difficult start to the season. We have pulled some points back on Bayliss with his misfortune so it was a good race."

The final podium place went to Michel Fabrizio on the DFX Treme Honda. This is his first podium finish in the superbike class, and it is even more of an achievement since he is recovering from a broken collar bone sustained at the British GP when he was standing in for Toni Elias on the Fortuna Honda. Championship leader Troy Bayliss' race ended on the first corner when Regis Laconi on the PSG-1 Kawasaki crashed and took Bayliss down with him. Petronas had a dramatic start to race one with Steve Martin's bike setting itself on fire on the grid. He had to start from the back of the grid on his spare bike; however his race was short lived when he retired due to a technical on the fourth lap. Alex Barros on the Klaffi Honda had a race to forget as he retired on lap eight, he appeared to be having problems with the front end tucking on him. Andrew Pitt was also forced to retire on the last lap with a technical which was a shame as he had been running in third place for a large part of the race.