Yesterday I combined two very pleasant activities. I went down to a little town south of Nowra and visited a very dear friend and I had the wheels of the Shadowfax Kawasaki polished. The pitting on the wheels has completely defeated me, defying the use of any sort of scouring pad, metal polish, even steel wool. So, when I showed them to Mike at Brightworks Metal Polishing in the little town of Wollamia (don’t worry if that doesn’t mean anything, even some of the locals don’t know it exists) he explained that I’d have never been able to polish them because they were anodised and that th surface would have to be rubbed back on a machine first before anything useful could be achieved.
Needless to say I was apprehensive but, placing my faith in someone who I hoped would know what he was talking about, I left the rims and went and visited Sue. Late in the afternoon I returned to Mike’s little workshop to find this….
Now, bearing in mind that, beforehand, they looked like this…
…I reckon that is a spectacularly good result.
So, a very happy chappy this morning.
In other news, Misano and Nurburgring on this weekend in MotoGp and WSBK. As usual, ahead of the Misano race, the stats from MotoGp.com
54 – Casey Stoner’s win at the Indianapolis Grand Prix was the 54th time he has stood on the podium in the MotoGP class. This places him equal seventh with Randy Mamola in the list of all-time podium finishes in the premier-class. The only six riders who have finished on the podium in the premier-class more times than Stoner are: Rossi, Doohan, Agostini, Lawson, Rainey and Biaggi.
29 – Casey Stoner’s pole position at Indianapolis was the 29th in the MotoGP class. This is the same number of pole positions achieved by Kevin Schwantz during his time riding in the 500cc class. During the modern era of Grand Prix racing, when full pole position records are available (since 1974) only two riders have started from pole position more times than Casey Stoner: Mick Doohan, who started from pole on 58 occasions, and Valentino Rossi with 49.
28 years ago – On race day at Misano it will be exactly 28 years since the 1983 San Marino Grand Prix took place at Imola, at which the 500cc race was won by Kenny Roberts on his last Grand Prix appearance, with Freddie Spencer finishing second to clinch the world title by just two points from Roberts. This made Spencer the youngest ever winner of the premier-class world title – a record that he still holds.
25 – Efren Vazquez celebrates his 25th birthday on the first day of practice at the San Marino Grand Prix.
21 – On the first day of practice at the San Marino GP it will be exactly 21 years ago that Mick Doohan took his maiden GP victory at the first ever Hungarian Grand Prix event in 1990.
15 – There have been fifteen races in MotoGP without an Italian winner. This is the longest barren spell for Italian riders in the premier-class since the seventeen race gap without an Italian winner between Max Biaggi’s win at Brno in 1998 and his victory in South Africa in 1999.
14 – Misano has staged Grand Prix events on fourteen previous occasions, the first of which was in 1980. On the ten occasions that a GP was hosted at Misano up to 1993, the races were run in the opposite direction around the circuit to those held in the last four years.
14 – San Marino riders have won a total of fourteen Grand Prix races shared between two riders – Manuel Poggiali with twelve wins (7 x 125cc, 5 x 250cc) and Alex de Angelis with two victories (1x 250cc, 1 x Moto2).
14 – With Pol Espargaro and Esteve Rabat finishing on the podium for the first time this year at Indianapolis it means there have now been fourteen different riders who have finished on the podium in the Moto2 class in 2011.
13 – There have been thirteen previous San Marino Grand Prix events. The first San Marino Grand Prix was held at Imola in 1981. Three different circuits have hosted the San Marino Grand Prix – Imola twice (1981 & 1983), Mugello four times (1982, 84, 91 and 93) and Misano on seven occasions (1985, 86, 87) and for the San Marino and Riviera di Rimini GP (2007, 2008, 2009 & 2010).
10th – Valentino Rossi’s tenth place finish at the Indianapolis Grand Prix equals his worst result in a dry weather MotoGP race where he has not crashed and re-started. The only other occasion he has finished as low as tenth in the MotoGP class was at the Grand Prix of Turkey in 2007 when he suffered severe problems with the rear tyre.
5 – Marc Marquez’s first Moto2 victory of the year at the French GP made him the youngest ever rider to have won in the intermediate-class of Grand Prix racing. His win in Indianapolis was his fifth win in the class and he is still younger than the previous record holder for youngest intermediate-class winner, Dani Pedrosa. The San Marino Grand Prix will be the last chance to add to his win total before passing the age Pedrosa was at his first intermediate-class GP win.
3 – Spanish riders filled all three podium places in the Moto2 race at the Indianapolis Grand Prix, with Marc Marquez being followed home by two riders making their first appearance on a Moto2 podium – Pol Espargaro and Esteve Rabat. This is the first time that Spanish riders have taken all three places in an intermediate class Grand Prix race.
0 – None of the riders starting the 125cc race at the San Marino Grand Prix have previously won a GP at the Misano circuit.
