IRTA questions..

I saw that Stonah snagged the ride in the wet, but from the dry times
posted it looks like Hayden, as well as Michelin(top 4) might have
something for him and the 'Stones this year, especially if Honda gets
those air heads working and what's up with the (poor) house of Rossi?
5th? I remember when it seemed like the whole deal was set-up for him
to trade in a Beemer every year and how 'bout those two new kids,
Lorenz and Dovioso(good/bad? It looks like they're not having too
many issues moving up, or is it just more of that EuroMed midget
boo'shit? I also noticed a whole boatload of 'Stone driver's, like 13,
14 out of the 21 involved, what's up with that and who might that
benefit?

 

As always it's quite hard to judge much of anything from the tests. it
was a bit cold, windy, damp. Some people threw a qualifier in and went
for it. Others had a half hearted attempt with a qualifier. Good for all
those who got great times on qualifiers. But congrats also to all those
who put in solid fast laps on race tyres on an awkward surface.

I watched the BMW Car session and it looked pretty nasty out there.
Mixed wet and dry and not that hot.

I do think qualifying is going to be really important this year, and
really tight.

 

Agreed! There seemed to be several different agendas over the 3 days,
Rossi appeared to be focusing on a good race setup, perhaps sussing
out tyre durability etc rather than out and out speed.
There were some good times from the newbies but one or a few quick
laps doesn't necassarily mean good race pace on Sunday so we will have
to wait and see.

From what I could tell Stoner had good pace on race tyres in the dry,
he may not have had the fastest lap but he was putting in realitively
consistant fast times compared to the others and this isn't his
favourite track. He was the only Duc doing anything too, Melandri and
Elias are really struggling and if this a sign of things to come for
them it doesn't look good.

Credit goes to Hayden for his exhaustive marathon sessions each day,
he's really trying to get on top of things and the results may be
showing, no doubt he's very inspired to make progress while Danny has
been out or recovering.

Toseland is doing better thann I expected at this stage, I thought
Melandri and him would have been the other way around w.r.t. results.

Anyway roll on March and the first race.

Paul

 

When he ends up with not only the fastest time, but .5 better than last
years pole it's hard for me to think his work ethic is a weakness...

 

With Qualifiers. Race tyre times were not quite so impressive.

 

Hence the need to continue tuning the bike, which, as I'm sure you
know, usually results in doing a lot of laps. In any event, all I saw
was the best time list for the three days with him being the fastest on
the first and last days and with the Q's being so important in the
sprint-like races MGP runs what's so bad about that? To me, the only
caveat about doing so many laps would be a lack of physical
conditioning, because once tired there's a real likelihood that you
end-up just chasing ghosts and while that may be the case for some, I
don't see that with Nicky at all...

 

_Fewer_ hours; less time...

[I knew you'd expect that correction, Neal, even though I am on holidays.
Pretty warm, sunny and humid in Byron Bay today. Maybe I should visit the
girls from www.wickedweasel.com.]

--
Ivan Reid, School of Engineering & Design, _____________ CMS Collaboration,
Brunel University. Ivan.Reid@[brunel.ac.uk|cern.ch] Room 40-1-B12, CERN
GSX600F, RG250WD "You Porsche. Me pass!" DoD #484 JKLO#003, 005
WP7# 3000 LC Unit #2368 (tinlc) UKMC#00009 BOTAFOT#16 UKRMMA#7 (Hon)
KotPT -- "for stupidity above and beyond the call of duty".

 

Ivan D. Reid points to:

I'm sure they'd be happy to entertain you.
Lovingly.
For cash.

I still wish I could buy you a few green cans from
the beach vendor.



Go fast Take chances.
Mike S.