Stavros stitches Matt Roberts up a treat!
Isn’t it lovely to have racing back again? It’s like a weight being taken off your shoulders, and WSB certainly didn’t disappoint from Australia. Okay it does all seem a bit samey with Jonny Rea doing the winning with Chaz Davies not far off and Sykes in attendance, apart from Marco Melandri being in there I guess. I still loved it, and we shouldn’t complain, but I thought things might change this season. Plus, so long as Chaz can keep Jonny in sight until the second part of the year, it could get quite tight.
I also thought the grid swap idea would change things, but the top boys were all nearly in the lead by the end of the first lap of race two! I think Chaz’s Ducati has more speed this year where the Kawasaki would trounce them in a straight line before. I also think Melandri has been great, I didn’t expect him to be so close even if he is clearly a bit ring rusty.
The Supersport race in Oz was stunning, wasn’t it? I’ve not watched the one from Thailand but I believe it’s also a doozy. I was chuffed to see that the factory bikes couldn’t get past Leon Camier’s MV Agusta on the straight in Thailand either, that’s quite gratifying. I did hear a funny story about it, though, in relation to the fact that a couple of MVs’ engines have gone pop after just two rounds. Last year they apparently had a motor that just kept on going, a really good one they used to sling in the bike for each race for at least half the season. The problem is, nobody could figure out who built it, or remember what the actual specification even was!
How Italian is that? Now they’re just like big hand grenades and they’re desperate to find out how they made it so good last time! Bless its heart, though, he’s doing amazing stuff on that bike considering it’s basically a 20-year-old design. Leon must be getting paid decent money to stay there – he could do some proper damage on something factory, but he’s also clearly a decent development rider, too.
I’m quite disappointed with Honda however; it must be depressing for the riders, Stefan Bradl must be wondering what’s going on as he’s finishing in the same places he did in MotoGP, in WSB. I’ll be interested to see how it goes in BSB given the rules make all the bikes competitive with individual tweaks allowed, and they’ll have more time to get the bike sorted than Ten Kate had. That being said, I’d have my money down on Shane Byrne and his Ducati again.
I’d love it to be Leon Haslam but it always seems something untowards happens to him, or a bout of bad luck, or whatever, stops him winning it. Last year his team spread themselves way too thin running three riders, the new team should run smoother and I’m also excited to see how Luke Mossey gets on given his brilliant testing times. It’s time he broke through to the top – or he never may.
As for MotoGP, isn’t Maverick Vinales impressive? He may be on what’s considered the best bike, but it still needs riding doesn’t it? I heard that he and Marc Marquez used to bash fairings when they were young, and came from opposite spectrums in life, one being looked after and the other a bit of a street kid.
I’m also chuffed to see all this aero development still going in GPs, I love stuff that makes bikes go faster, I don’t care what it looks like. All this guff about saving money to make things more competitive is a load of arse, it’s a prototype series so should be cutting edge and those with the most money will always be at the front, and those with less at the back. Only changeable conditions or weird things happening changes the established running order, just like last year.
On my side of things, I’ll hopefully be testing my classic Suzuki soon. It looks great doesn’t it? And I’m also writing a book with Matt Roberts. He came round my house to talk about it, and I got him good! I replaced his car’s number-plates with ‘PENI5’! He didn’t notice and drove off home to Huddersfield. He got in it the next day with the kids, drove around all day and only noticed later when the neighbours started complaining! All I got from him was a text saying “you wanker…” so I’ll be keeping an eye out for his revenge move! Till next month!