Valentino Rossi has been given permission by his own doctor and by the FIM doctor to race this weekend at the German Grand Prix on the Sachsenring circuit. In just a whisker over a month, the Yamaha rider has recovered from a compund fracture, has had therapy in the hyperbaric chamber and has had two highly publicised and successful tests on a WSBK-spec bike.
So, despite the misgivings of Jeremy Burgess and others, it looks like the Doctor will be back sooner rather than later. Having said all that, however, there is no guarantee that he will actually RACE (though I wouldn’t bet against it). His medical permission is to enter and try to qualify and these two hurdles will be what he has to overcome first if he wishes to take his place on the grid. Sachsenring is a notoriously short and unpleasant circuit to ride on a big bike (I think Randy Mamola once described it as a “glorified go-kart track”) and it will certainly test Vale’s fitness as will the next round at Laguna Seca.
And what do you think DORNA is thinking about this? They’re rubbing their hands together. The crowd at the last round was so poor that the helicopter pilots were apparently told NOT to take shots of the grandstands and spectator mounds so thin were the patrons on the ground.
In other news, Alex de Angelis has been confirmed as the longer-term replacement for the injured Hiroshi Aoyama in the Interwetten Team with Aussie “super-sub” Andrew Pitt, taking de Angelis’s place in the under-funded Scot Racing Moto2 team while de Angelis is away.
Josh Waters is recovering well from his US crash and is confident of racing at at least one, if not both of the AMA Superbike events that were originally on his schedule.
Personally, I did another Pass run today and it felt almost back to normal. Though the road was a little damp in patches, I didn’t feel at all spooked and the rhythm definitely seems to be returning. Whoohoo.