Bayliss Out of Japanese GP - Bugger

From Camel Honda's website...

Troy Bayliss will not take part in the Grand Prix of Japan at Motegi
after injuring his wrist (Monday 12th September) whilst training on his
motocross bike in Australia.

Only a series of closer examinations will confirm the length of recovery
time required by the Australian although he will definitely be forced to
miss the next race.

It is a real shame for Troy that he is not able to compete at a circuit
that holds extra significance for the team. In fact, Sito Pons' team
have taken three successive victories at Motegi over the past three
seasons. Alex Barros, who will aim to repeat the feat this coming
Sunday, began the winning sequence in 2002, taking control of the Honda
RC211V for the first time and taking to the podium with team-mate
Capirossi, who finished third.

In 2003 Camel Honda celebrated pole position and a subsequent victory
with Max Biaggi in the team colours, whilst last year saw a repeat
performance from Japan's own Makoto Tamada, with another pole and
victory combination, and who completed the rout by setting a new track
record.

 

Yep; sad but true.
In other news Capirossi has stuck the Duke on pole and Rossi is 11th (4th
row of the grid).

I reckon it'd gonna' take Valentino 2 or maybe THREE laps to get to the
front!

 

thats awful.

 

Nice to see Rossi chewing the gravel after trying to punt Melandri into the
scenery.

Conehead

 

Ooh! Might be worth watching for a change...

 

You were wrong again Clem.

Theo

 

And happy!
The way he was carving through them on the first lap I feared my prediction
would come true.
It's a pity Melandri got hurt but at least the championship is
theoretically still alive.

 

Only if he falls off in all the remaining races and Biaggi wins them all. Of
course now that he's got rid of Melandri all he has to do is take Max out in
just one race..... and he wins the championship.

He did say in the post-race interview that he was following Melandri pretty
close and that Melandri took an "unexpected" line through that corner.
Melandri was his first concern after he got on his feet.

Theo

 

Conehead said....

Yep, the highlight of what was an otherwise miserable GP. Particularly
given the bike that eventually won..

Only consolation, I s'pose is that it's probably the only win that it'll
see for some time..

 

Dick Johnston used to always say that about Wayne Gardner when he was
making up excuse for punting him off too!
Valentino is supposed to be a friend of Melandri's so a big show of concern
when he knew the cameras would be on him would be a smart thing to do for a
very media-savvy bloke (who knows he's in the wrong).
The footage looks to me as if Valentino was several lengths back but just
outbraked himself and couldn't turn in.

 

Knobdoodle said....

Yeah. Can't wait for him to go to Ferrari. At least then, he'll get used
to not winning...

 

He must've gotten the two Movistar Hondas confused...


Postman Pat

 

I think you maybe wrong there.. he maynot win at first, but he will
kill it to a snooze like shoe has.