Well, the Casey Stoner fairytale came true yesterday though in a most unexpected way. Stoner won a magnificent victory, made even more memorable by the vision of him dancing around on the wet track, on slicks, nursing the bike to the flag at barely-diminished speed. While it must have been SO tempting to pit and get the bike with the wets, Casey kept his nerve and did what he’s done best all year, wring the Honda’s neck and fling it towards the flag.
AND, true champion that he is (I make the distinction because some people can have the word attached to their name because they scored the most points in a season but not be a champion PERSON – Michael Schumacher is one to whom this applies), the first thing that Stoner said to the reporter as soon as he got his helmet off was that that was NOT the way he wanted to win and he felt sorry for Lorenzo who had not been able to compete yesterday due to injury. He proved this wasn’t just talk earlier in the morning by interrupting his race preparation to visit Lorenzo in the medical centre to check on his condition and to wish him well.
But the record will show that it was Casey’s 9th win this season, his 11th pole position and that he now has a 65 point gap on Lorenzo who made as brave an attempt at defending his title against the Stoner juggernaut as you could ever hope to see. As a noted Lorenzo critic in his earlier days (his antics in 250 were pretty appalling at times) he has matured into one of the two best riders out there this year.
The Americans talk about “aliens” and they were hopeful that Spies would be added to that list and make it 5 (Rossi, Stoner, Pedrosa, Lorenzo). That plainly hasn’t happened and I’m starting to be of the opinion that it won’t, ever. Right now there are only THREE aliens, Lorenzo Pedrosa and Stoner. Pedrosa is in the danger zone too in my opinion, he needs to win some more races. But, with Stoner on the other side of the garage, it’s hard, Dani admitting such in an interview with local TV here yesterday.
Stoner now joins an elite group of only 4 other riders who have won a premier class championship on more than one brand of bike, Geoff Duke, Giacomo Agostini, Eddie Lawson and Valentino Rossi. And he is now the 5th winningest rider in Grand Prix history as noted yesterday.
In WSBK, Last night the move to Aprilia by Eugene Laverty was confirmed, and, in MotoGp, a real “out of left field” move was also announced. Hiroshi Aoyama to Ten Kate Honda in WSBK from the Gresini team. This one is a real surprise because I always felt they’d keep him because he was Japanese even though his MotoGp performances have been patchy at best. But, sentiment has not ruled the reality here and he’s been shown the door.
NOW, remember yesterday I said that Gresini would be down-sizing to a MotoGp bike and a CRT bike? Well, I think you can forget that now. Here’s MY tip. They will continue with two bikes and Aoyama’s place will be taken by Marc Marquez!! While everyone (including me) thinks that he’d benefit from another year in Moto2, I now believe that we will see him alongside Simoncelli at Gresini next year in a “semi” works bike (it can’t be a “real” one because, as a “rookie” he is not allowed to jump straight to a “factory” team.) But you can bet your life, his bike won’t be any SLOWER than Simo’s.
Speaking of Marquez, his “burn from the stern” ride to get on the podium yesterday showed two things. One, he’s the best rider out there, and, two, most of the riders in the class are “pretenders” It was one of the greatest rides I have seen in recent years and will long be discussed when the subject of great rides are raised. Truly outstanding. And, with only 3 point deficit to Bradl now and two rounds to go, he STILL could win the title.
Word from Melbourne hospital this morning is that Jorge Lorenzo’s surgery was successful and that doctors are confident he will not lose any use of his left hand as a result of the accident or the reconstructive surgery. Great news. And it was also announced last night, after the race, that the real reason why Ben Spies did not ride was not just because of his broken rib but also because he was suffering serious concentration issues during morning warm-up. A slight concussion was more than enough to convince him that he would have been a danger to himself and to the other riders should he have tried to race. A good call, in my opinion. What is amazing about that was that he qualified in 7th AFTER he’d had the accident. Are MotoGp riders tough, or what?
Carlos Checa won one of the two final races of the WSBK season last night. I wonder where HE will be next year?
And, speaking of next year, a very sad duty I have to let you know that Australia’s dual World Superbike Champion, Troy Corser, announced his retirement yesterday. A true champion and an ornament to the sport. I wish him well in retirement, I might duck over to his place in the next couple of days and pay my respects in person. 🙂
Finally, an even sadder item, Indycar driver, Dan Wheldon, was killed in an horror multi-car accident at Las Vegas Speedway this morning. Condolences to his family, friends and many fans.
PS: Two news items just in.
1. Jorge Lorenzo will (understandably) miss next weekend’s Malaysian GP at Sepang and MAY miss the season-closing race at Valencia (though I find it hard to believe he would miss his “home” race).
2. Althea Ducati has just announced that Carlos Checa WILL continue with the team in 2012. BMW had a huge monetary offer on the table for Checa, but this has been forestalled by an even bigger cash injection from the Ducati factory – big surprise, eh?