Well, now that the dust has settled and I’ve had some time to adjust to “normal” life (as normal as my life can be, anyway), I’d like to recap the WSBK’s at PI and reflect on the things that I noticed most.
First of all, the fruits of my “labours” at PI can now be heard on Motopodcast where my interviews have been published in two parts so you need to listen to Episode #352 and #353.
Motopodcast: The internet radio programme about motorcycle road racing.
A big thank you to Jim Race and Jules Cisek for having faith in me and helping me get there.
Now, some sidelights from PI.
Ducati disaster.
Ducati leaves PI with no points. The statisticians can probably tell me when this has happened the last time.
Aprilia dominance.
If you want to win, you may have to be on an Aprilia to do that.
Sofoglu/Lowes.
Supersport is traditionally one of the most fiercely contested classes in the game and the weekend’s race certainly shows that this isn’t going to change. It looks like it’s going to be a two-man brawl between Sofoglu and Lowes with van der Mark as the “sleeper”. The first two were noticeably superior and, unless there is an intervention of bad luck, it seems hard to see them being challenged.
Intermoto bravery.
Czech-based team, Intermoto Kawasaki suffered a “shocker”. Both riders, David Salom and Luca Scassa were part of the multi-bike accidents that plagued FP1 in Supersport. Salom was airlifted to hospital after being concussed and there were fears his injuries were more serious, but he came back to the track the next day and, amazingly, went out and qualified in the top ten. I was watching the team as the session unfolded and I can tell you that there were many people within the team trying to convince him not to go out at all. Scassa’s right wrist was also damaged (suspected break although the x-rays didn’t say so) and he was taking pain-killing injections just to get out there. Amazingly, he also qualified inside the top ten. Come race day, they finished in 7th and 8th, an astonishing performance given both of their injuries.
Melandri/Checa washup.
Carlos had a brain fade and centre-punched Melandri in T4, eliminating both of them. Checa was airlifted to hospital after also being concussed and spent several days there. Marco was examined and treated at the Medical Centre at the track and raced in Sunday’s second race with a shoulder, barely recovered from his 2012 Aragon accident, damaged again. He was in great pain and said afterwards that he couldn’t feel his arm at all from about 2/3 race distance. Given that and the obvious pain he was in at the press conference afterwards, it was an amazing performance to get on the podium. Marco has since been operated on at home and doctors are saying that the shoulder will be OK by the time the next race rolls around at Aragon at the end of the month.
Flag-to-flag races.
With the 2013 rules mandating flag-to-flag races, most teams need to looks at what they will do if they have to change tyres during a race and both Kawasaki and Honda teams spent a great deal of time on the Thursday practising wheel changes. Fortunately, the weather stayed great, but you can bet that the time spent practising will be worthwhile at some stage this season.
Ducati heat shield.
The new Panigale’s exhaust system may look trick, but it’s a nightmare for the race team because there is less than half a centimetre of clearance between it and the rear tyre. Add in a tyre warmer and there is virtually no clearance at all. Consequantly, when the bike comes in from a session, the first thing the team does after applying the tyre warmers is to insert this heat shield in between the exhaust and the tyre. You can see that this warmer has already been blistered by the exhaust on a previous occasion.
Fine tolerances, eh?
That’s all for today. Promise to update more frequently, but still suffering from the chest infection that I picked up at PI (hence the coughing on the interviews). Hope it goes away soon. Stay safe.