Drouin Counter Lunch Sunday 26th September, 2004

Oz Racers around the World - May 2006

Moto GP - Le Mans 21-5-06

Marco Melandri has become the first double winner of the 2006 MotoGP season, after world champion Valentino Rossi lost a comfortable lead in Sunday's French Grand Prix at Le Mans. After a weekend of unpredictable weather, heavy rain had again greeted the riders upon their arrival at the racetrack this morning - but, as on Saturday, it soon cleared - much to the delight of everyone accept the Bridgestone riders, who had dominated the wet warm-up.

However, while the 125 race was held on a drying track, with the following 250cc event fully dry, dark rain clouds suddenly began to gather just as the MotoGP grid assembled - prompting race direction to declare a wet race, meaning that riders could pit for a 'bike swap' should rain fall at any time during the 28 laps. As it turned out, rain stayed away for the duration of the race - with the sun soon shining once again - but there was drama of a different kind at the first chicane; Rossi brushed the back of Dani Pedrosa's Repsol Honda, causing the Italian to run wide and hit home hero, Randy de Puniet, who then fell from his Kawasaki after striking Sete Gibernau - with the Ducati rider and Colin Edwards both forced off track and into the gravel trap.

When the dust had cleared, Melandri was leading from fifth on the grid - only to be quickly passed by Suzuki's front row qualifier, John Hopkins. Hopper then led until being passed by Rossi on lap 5, after which the Anglo-American and third placed Pedrosa clung determinedly to the #46's rear wheel. But the hard-charging Hopkins, having been passed by Pedrosa, lost the front under brakes for an off-camber right hander on lap 10 - leaving Rossi and Pedrosa alone up front, marking their first duel together. Rossi was soon giving young Spaniard a riding lesson - pulling steadily away from the 20-year-old to hold a commanding lead of over 3 seconds when his Camel Yamaha suddenly ground to a halt on lap 21!
A clearly mortified Rossi was left to park the powerless machine at the side of the race track and, after sitting stationary, finally made his way back to the pits with his head in his hands - still trying to comprehend his second DNF in a row. Rossi would leave Le Mans just eighth in the championship and a massive 43-points behind leader Nicky Hayden.

Meanwhile, Hayden's team-mate Pedrosa - who looked set to claim his second victory in a row after Rossi's exit - was starting to struggle; the 250cc world champion paying the price for a soft tyre choice as he increasingly slipped into the clutches of Melandri and Ducati's Loris Capirossi. Melandri, who took victory in Turkey, put his Fortuna Honda into the lead by outbraking Pedrosa into the turn one chicane on lap 24, while Capirossi squeezed past Dani for second position on the final lap. Behind them, rookie Casey Stoner narrowly edged out a sick Hayden - who had started down in 10^th - for 4^th place at the chequered flag. Nicky still retained his world championship lead by just 4 points over Melandri and Capirossi.

Edwards mounted a remarkable recovery to climb from 17^th at the end of lap one to sixth at the finish - and must wonder what might have been had he not become tangled in his team-mates turn one contact - while Makoto Tamada, Gibernau, Toni Elias and Chris Vermeulen completed the top ten. Second on the grid, Shinya Nakano, held fifth in the early stages, but dropped to 12^th at the finish after serving a jump-start penalty, while Hopkins remounted after his fall and, following a pit stop for emergency repairs, took the final world championship point in 15^th.

AMA - Round 3: Infineon, 21-5-2006

Team Yoshimura Suzuki’s Ben Spies captured his fifth consecutive AMA Superbike victory in the first race of the double-header weekend at Sonoma, California’s Infineon Raceway on Saturday afternoon. Yoshimura Suzuki teammate Mat Mladin brought home a close second-place finish, and Aaron Yates finished an impressive fourth.

The main event saw Spies get the holeshot and lead all 28 laps to take the win. “By the end, I was just focusing on trying to hit my lines, not making any mistakes and putting good laps together.”

Defending AMA Superbike Champion Mladin was off the line right behind Spies and he pushed his Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R1000 hard and rode a smooth, consistent race to second place. “It was a good race today,” said the Australian. “Unfortunately I couldn’t get up ahead of Ben. He rode a great race today. Hopefully tomorrow the weather will hold out and we’ll come back with something for him.”

World Superbikes – Silverstone 28-5-06

Troy Bayliss took yet another win to make it seven in a row for the Xerox Ducati squad at the fifth round of the Corona Extra Superbike World Championship at Silverstone in the UK.
"I'm quite happy. In 2002 I was lucky enough to win six in a row. I've been thinking about it before this weekend, and then Friday and Saturday I threw myself down the road, getting sorer and sorer," commented a battered Bayliss. "Maybe it is just a good weekend to get points. Corser crashed so I really needed to grab it by the horns and make the most of it and not give in to Nori today where as I could have settled for some good points. I really fought hard today for the win and that makes a good difference now in the points for me against Corser."

Second place went to Noriyuki Haga, once again following a race long battle with Bayliss. Both the front runners pulled a ten second gap over third place finisher Britain's James Toseland on the Winston Ten Kate Honda. Toseland was so excited by his double podium at home that he stopped on his slow down lap and threw all his riding gear to the fans. This left him to ride back to pit lane in his socks, boxer shorts and a back protector!

Toseland recently stripped for a Cosmo magazine shoot in aid of testicular cancer and this is what he had to say about his impromptu track side strip, "I always kept my leathers on for dignity but I thought since everybody has already seen it I may as well take my leathers off!"

Troy Corser had a difficult race and slipped back down the order after a strong start. He had been running in fourth but finished in sixth. His team-mate Yukio Kagayama finished in thirteenth, so not the best day at the office for the Alstare Corona Extra Suzuki team.