Nothing like a race meeting to bring out the silliness, eh? At Misano last night there was plenty of it.
1. Melandri off to Sterilgarda Yamaha WSBK next year instead of the previously-rumoured BMW.
2. Davide Tardozzi is very unhappy at BMW; he reckons that his work ethic has been called into question (“We have ways of MAKING you work.”). Rumour is that he is off to Sterilgarda as well.
3. Tardozzi’s replacement at BMW hasn’t been announced, but he will apparently be replacing Massimo Merigali who is off to FIAT Yamaha to head up Ben Spies’s side of the garage. Quite where this leaves Spies’s long-time crew chief, Tom Houseworth, is anyone’s guess.
4. Melandri will be taking the place of James Toseland who is apparently being shown the door at the end of the year.
Expect at least some of this to be confirmed after the Misano race tonight/tomorrow.
Pedrosa creamed them in qualifying last night; Stoner must be tickled to death that he will be riding the fastest bike in the paddock next year. Biaggi is on pole at the Nurburgring for the WSBK double-header tonight.
