Posted on 07/23/2006 10:54:20 PM PDT by SFC Chromey
American Flyer!
Hayden Wins USGP At Laguna Seca
BOMBSHELL: ROSSI DNF
by staff Sunday, July 23, 2006
Pos. Rider Team Bike
1 Nicky Hayden Repsol Honda Team Honda RC211V
2 Dani Pedrosa Repsol Honda Team Honda RC211V
3 Marco Melandri Fortuna Honda Honda RC211V
4 Kenny Roberts Jnr. Team Roberts KR211V
5 Chris Vermeulen R izla Suzuki MotoGP Suzuki GSV-R
6 John Hopkins Rizla Suzuki MotoGP Suzuki GSV-R
7 Carlos Checa Tech 3 Yamaha Yamaha YZR-M1
8 Loris Capirossi Ducati Marlboro Ducati Desmo GP-6
9 Colin Edwards Camel Yamaha Team Yamaha YZR-M1
10 Sete Gibernau Ducati Marlboro Ducati Desmo GP-6
11 Makoto Tamada Konica Minolta Honda Honda RC211V
12 Randy De Puniet Kawasaki Racing Kawasaki Ninja ZX-RR
13 James Ellison Tech 3 Yamaha Yamaha YZR-M1
Race Notes:
Nicky Hayden won his second USGP in a row today when he took victory in front of a packed Laguna Seca. Hayden stalked early race leader Chris Vermeulen, passed him and set pace for a 3.1 second margin of victory.
Hayden's championship rival, Valentino Rossi, made a dramatic bid for the front of the race but saw disaster late in the race when the engine in his Yamaha M1 machine failed, leaving him billowing smoke and trolling (on the racing line at times, interestingly enough). His machine finally quit and he was forced to experience the indignity of a long walk back to the paddock.
Hayden now has a 34 point lead in the championship, over his teammate, Dani Pedrosa.
ENDS
PING!
This should be in Sports, don't know how it ended up in general/chat.
Thanks in advance!
"Americans finished 1,4,6,9." On motorcycles this weekend.
America finished first in golf this weekend, and finished first on bicyles too.
Big weekend.
PING and Hello!
Yes, but we don't love soccer, so we're out of step with the world. (rolls eyes)
Awesome!!!!!
Thanks for the ping -- hubby text messaged me from the track -- he got to meet Mr. Hayden and also got to wish Nicky good luck in the paddock before the race! He also got to have a long conversation with Jeff Emig (ex-supercross racer) and talk to several other people. He said they dropped the price of a bottle of water from $4 to $1 in an effort to get people to drink more. It was apparently 108 degrees on the track before the start of the MotoGP. I was wanting to post something, but I figured I'd wait for you to do it! :o)
WOOOOHOOOOOO!!!! Nicky Hayden ROCKS!!!
That was a great race, so was Ben Spies AMA Superbike win on a Suzuki GSX-R1000!
Eric Bostrom won FX (600cc)
Jamie Hacking won Supersport (600cc)
and Superstock (1000cc)
Ben Spies won Superbike (1000)
Awesome! I ran into Eddie lawson as he was on his way to a signing at Yamaha. I ran into Jim Doyle, who managed Kenny Roberts and Randy Mamola when they were racing. Met Kevin Schwantz(again). At Ducati Island I met Ben Bostrom, Neil Hodgsen, Paul Smart and Doug Polen.
KR bike was on fire all weekend, its great to see them get a 4th out of it.
I didn't get into the MotoGP paddock this year, because the people I would normally get them from were guests themselves. Oh well. They ended up re-scheduling the AMA races so the track might stay in one piece for the GP boys.
Randy gave Ben Bostrom a ride on the Desmosedici 2-seater, Ben was dragging his knees as the passenger, while Randy was dragging his elbows in Turn 2!
I can't wait to watch the race on TV. Hubby was disappointed with Nicky's qualifying -- he said that it looked like Nicky was saving his best lap for last and then he went wide in a turn and blew his time. My comment was "oh well - it's only second row -- that's not too much for Nicky!!" WOOOHOOO!!!
US GP: Bridgestone race notes
Racing series MOTOGP
Date 2006-07-23
US Grand Prix pole setter and Bridgestone-shod Suzuki rider Chris Vermeulen ended an agonising 32-lap race at Laguna Seca this afternoon in fifth position having been in strong contention for podium finish with just three laps until the chequered flag.
Vermeulen led the first half of the race but was passed by eventual race winner Nicky Hayden on lap 17. Even though he was forced to yield to Dani Pedrosa on lap 26, the Suzuki was still looking good for a first 2006 podium, until a technical problem dropped him to fifth in the closing stages. The result still marks his best Moto GP finish of the season, one better than his sixth place at the Catalan Grand Prix last month and his race pace underlined the competitiveness of the Bridgestone tyres at Laguna Seca this weekend.
Vermeulen finished one place ahead of his Suzuki team-mate John Hopkins who took sixth place in his home grand prix, elevating him to ninth place in the riders' classification on 74 points. Two places further back was Ducati rider Loris Capirossi who adds another eight points to his championship tally after a difficult weekend in Monterey. His team-mate Sete Gibernau rounded off the top ten and earned himself six championship points from an equally tough US GP. Kawasaki also endured a problematic race with Shinya Nakano retiring from a top ten position with a technical issue on lap 16, whilst Randy de Puniet propelled himself from 19th at the end of the opening lap to a points-paying 12th place.
The sweltering Californian heat turned the US GP into a race of endurance as the newly-laid asphalt placed increasing demands on the tyres over the gruelling 32 laps. Bridgestone is pleased with the performance of its Laguna Seca tyres which saw Vermeulen amongst the quickest on the track until his technical trouble cruelly denied him a debut podium finish. Bridgestone has worked positively with each of its teams to help them extract the best from the tyres this weekend and derives significant encouragement from the consistency shown over the full race distance in spite of the difficulties faced by some teams.
Chris Vermeulen – Suzuki – 5th place: "Everything went pretty well at the start, the bike was running well and we made – what I think – was the best tyre choice. Thanks to my whole team and Bridgestone for helping me today. But about 12 laps from the end the bike started cutting out, it was not running smoothly and it was hesitating on corner entry - this was making it so hard to ride. It got worse and worse and I only just brought it home. In fact three turns after the end of the race it stopped completely! I'm really disappointed that I didn't get a podium but I think we have proved how strong the Suzuki, Bridgestone tyres and the whole team were here this weekend, and hopefully we can continue this performance."
In attendance today, Sugio Fukuoka, Bridgestone Corporation Vice-President and Officer: "I would like to extend my thanks to each of our teams and riders for solid work this weekend. It was particularly pleasing to see Chris Vermeulen on pole and it was a shame he was denied a debut podium. Our tyres performed well in today's race, but I look forward to the remaining races of the season where I am sure we can return to the podium and hopefully challenge for some victories."
Hiroshi Yamada - Bridgestone Motorsport - Motorcycle Racing Manager: "That was a tough race for all involved, for machines, tyres and riders. The intense heat has really transformed this weekend's race into a battle of the fittest. Chris did a fantastic job and was able to lead up until the midway point and could even retain second place until technical trouble relegated him to third place.
With a podium still looking likely, he suddenly found himself unable to keep pace and saw his podium taken with just three laps to go.
It is a real shame for Chris and Suzuki to miss out on their debut podium this season, but we congratulate them for their strong showing, which demonstrated the full performance of the Bridgestone tyre-Suzuki bike package. We are pleased that both Ducati and Kawasaki were able to take some valuable points away from a difficult grand prix weekend. Now we have three weeks before the next event in Brno, a race where Loris finished second last year for Bridgestone and Ducati. With that memory to spur us on, our development and work will not stop even if Moto GP can enjoy a deserved break before heading to the Czech Republic in mid-August."
http://www.motorsport.com/news/article.asp?ID=226457&FS=
I'm looking for a good article about yesterday! :-D
Silly. Americans only celebrate sports they can win. Does anyone one have any doubt that the Tour de France would be on our radar screen without Lance Armstrong?
SPEED covered some of this, good stuff!
Way to go Nicky!
What a ridiculous thing to say.
I didn't watch yet -- I know it'll be on the TiVo, but I was waiting for hubby to get home to watch! :o)
What a rush!!
You must've missed every single World Cup thread a month or so ago.
Thanks!
That was fun to watch and a couple of wheelies and a big stoppie. :):)
I didn't read any soccer threads or watch any soccer matches, either ~ what a dumb sport!
As some of the shirts people were wearing at the races stated:
Motorcycle Racing:
Because golf is for p@$$ies!
It would be as if I went to a NASCAR thread and started yelping, "quit trying to force your sport down my throat." Just silly.
I don't really care about soccer whether we win OR lose. I watch what I like. I LIKE motorcycle racing. And yes, I watch several classes where we really don't even come close to dominating. And if you think the US dominates MotoGP, then you know nothing about the sport. It's very competitive, and in reality, if Valentino Rossi hadn't blown his engine yesterday from what I hear, Nicky may well have been #2. But I would have been on this thread today posting about a sport I enjoy. So take your wet blanket and go find another thread.
If I have misunderstood what you are saying I apologize. To me it looked like you were saying that the only reason we are talking about motorcycle racing is because the US won.
Had your chosen sport gotten the same treatment, this thread would've been over-run with people accusing you of trying to ram motorcycling down their throat. (I love Tuesdays on Speed channel, btw).
(I love Tuesdays on Speed channel, btw).
As Ernest Hemingway once said, "There are only three sports in life; mountain climbing, bull riding and motor racing. The rest are merely games."
With the California Rodeo in Salinas, we had 2 of three running in Monterey County!
They don't do Two Wheel Tuesday anymore? I'd watch it during the afternoon in a bar in Chicago, but haven't since I moved.
I'm sorry to inform you but that show was yanked at the end of June. Why I have no idea, its was the most well rounded show about motorbikes out there.
Now the @$$hats they have on ride like the bikes are stolen (which I'm not entirely sure they aren't), and in general are highlighting the "Biker Boyz" side of motorbiking.
Ok -- I understand. I don't particularly care for soccer, so I didn't go on the threads. I have friends who like it -- good for them!! SOme like apples, some like oranges. It's all good. And if those had come on this thread I would have responded to them like I did to you -- when I thought you were doing to us what you are telling me they did to you! Dang -- that's clear as mud! LOL In any case, I apologize for jumping down your throat.
You are correct on that, sir!! Seems the squids are in. Greg White was respected by the racers and he did a pretty good job at interviewing IMO.
It was good to see him interviewing the racers during this weekends races. HE was smart and funny at the same time.
Good stuff!
That MotoGP was one of the best I've seen; did you those three riders going through the corner side by side ~ racing doesn't get any better than that!
I agree with your cycling observations.
I like my two wheel vehicles to have a motor. :)
Roger that ~ I've emailed SpeedTV and posted on some of the feedback threads about how much I miss 2 Wheel Tuesday.
I hate that Superbikes show and I told SpeedTV how juvenile and stupid I thought it was.
Bring back Two Wheel Tuesday.
The motorcycle boards hubby is active on don't like the new show either. Blech.
That was wild! There wasn't anyone that could have predicted the way the race went. A lot of people thought Hayden would take it, but once practice got started no one knew what happened to Nicky.
But no one cares about the Tour de France--America doesn't celebrate it, and we've been winning it a lot lately.
America celebrates sports it LIKES. Soccer fans can cry and insult all they want, but if America liked the sport it would be on a national level akin to football or baseball, instead of being largely ignored--and yes, we could certainly win it with an American league, so that's grasping at straws.
What boards are those? I go to http://www.ClubDesmo.com regularly, but that's it.
The main one is fjrowners.com -- but he's got a couple others that I'm not so familiar with. One of his buds from that site is who he went to MotoGP with! :-)
ping a ling
As if I feel obligated to appear on a water polo thread just to tell the folks there that a sport they simply enjoy is "inferior" in some way. (That's called "trolling," btw). Or that something is being held against me because I don't watch . . . a completely laughable proposition. And then whimper "look, soccer fans are insulting." It's comic.
Please understand that I do not object to troll-like comments. But don't claim to be a victim of the tactics you yourself employ.
And my original point stands. If you want to insult an entire sport simply because you dislike it, then the insult would actually have some weight if you were good at it.
As much as I would enjoy owning and riding one of those "choppers," I would be unable to avoid feeling like a complete pimp while riding one.
It's almost as bad as "Texas Hardtails" that has been discontinued, thankfully.
I wrote and complained about the dumb show and asked way Corbins Ride On had been chopped, They cancelled Texas Hardtails and returned Corbin's Ride on.
I have Corbin seat on my bike and I get their newsletter.
I don't know if my email had anything to with all of that; probably not, just good timing. :)
Doncha just love it when the timing of something makes you look REEEEEALLY powerful? LOL!!
It's called lying in the weeds. :):)
That's reason enough to not get a chopper.
I don't like 'em because they don't handle and are ugly. :):)
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