No, not THESE blue Jays..
..or THESE blue jays
…or even this Blue Jays…
..the great album produced by Justin Hayward and John Lodge (ex-Moody Blues).
No. I’m talking about the official Yamaha USA party that was held at the home/museum/garage of noted US talk show host and noted petrol-head, Jay Leno. Why blue? Because blue is the corporate Yamaha colour. You like that? I hope so, I was up all night thinking about it, so you’d better.
Wednesday night, all the Yamaha glitterati gathered at Leno’s for a party, love-fest, preview for this weekend’s US Grand Prix at Laguna Seca.
Past Yamaha champions like Wayne Rainey, Kenny Roberts and Eddie Lawson were there.
The host spent a lot of time getting to know the World Champion-elect. But I wonder if you can identify the great from the past to whom Lorenzo is listening here?
And there were some interesting sidelights, too. Colin Edwards, whom many expect will announce his retirement at the end of the season, brought along his two little children and, by all reports, spent most of the night chasing them around the place and trying to ensure that they didn’t climb on and play with all of Leno’s valuable toys. I wonder if that was a portent of things to shortly come?
Ben Spies was there, of course, and spent a great deal of time also talking to Jorge Lorenzo. Indeed, reporters on the scene said that the two appeared to talk more in one night than Lorenzo and Rossi have been seen to talk in all the time that they have been team-mates. Another omen? Who knows. A good time was apparently had by all. I guess if Leno can’t throw a good party, who can?
In other news, word out of Europe this morning suggests that Andrea Dovzioso, far from being secure at Repsol Honda as we all expected he would be, COULD be on the move to Tech III to take one of the two (expected to be vacant) seats. Pedrosa must stay, of course, to ensure the continued flow of Repsol dollars, and Casey is already signed. There is no doubt that, despite flashes of brilliance, Andrea has struggled to live up to the wraps that were given to him when he graduated from a stellar career in 250’s. Perhaps it’s time to prove that it wasn’t him, it was the bike? Bit of a step down from a “works” team to a satellite one, though, I would have thought. Honda has reportedly offered full “works” support to Fausto Gresini if he’ll take Dovi, but no word from the Italian on that. Honda is also said to be pressing Ceccinello to expand to a 2-bike team to accommodate Dovi, again with “works” support, but no confirmation there, either. It certainly is a silly season.
Italy’s MotoSprint magazine has published what looks like a pretty “official” photo of Ducati’s long-rumoured crusier bike.
Powered by the 1100cc Testastretta engine (also used in the Multistrada), the bike is expected to be debuted during the upcoming European bike show season.
That should keep you going for at least part of today. Have a good one.
sanoptic says
The Ducati looks like something out of ‘Mad max’ i like it!!
Would love to check out Jay Leno’s garage,i seen him on tv once riding a bike with a helicoptor/jet engine it had an awesome sound.He comes across as a really cool [ mega rich] dude.