Stoner started on pole, with Rossi right next to him. It was pretty clear when they left the grid that it was going to be another one of those races where Stoner just disappeared into the sunset after a few laps. Which is basically what did happen. Rossi also broke away from the pack, but Stoner was turning a comfortable lead, lap after lap. Until, about half way through the race, when Stoner low-sided coming through a corner, paving the way for Rossi’s spot on the top of the podium. Speaking of the podium, Rossi was sharing it with some unlikely suspects. Toni Elias came in second riding the Alice Ducati. What? Caprirossi taking third wouldn’t be too much of a surprise, being that he is such a veteran, but lets face it, the Suzuki GP bikes are total crap. Just ask Hopkins, who struggled with their factory bikes for the last three seasons. Speaking of Hopkins, he had a great start, coming back from a major knee surgery. He was in third position for a good portion of the race, but ultimately ended up not even finishing in the top 10. One has to imagine that dragging your freshly repaired knee on the ground at 150 mph, will wear you down after an hour or so. He did make it clear that he should be able to produce some results, once full health is regained. Pedrosa raced like crap and blamed it on Michellin. If empirical data is any indication, there is most likely some truth to his complaint. The Michellin shod bikes have failed to perform, all season long.

After this race, Rossi has a somewhat comfortable lead, in the world championship points. It is going to be a very difficult task for Stoner to make up the ground that he lost, in the points race, after this last crash. It just makes the end of the season, all the more exiting.

Hayden has withdrawn from the GP events of this upcoming weekend because of an injury in the weight bearing part of his foot. The real punch in the nuts, is that he sustained the injury while racing in the supermoto event at the X Games in L.A. last week. I’m not really sure what possessed Hayden to jump into that race. Even if he would have won the race, it wouldn’t have been worth the risk of being injured and missing out on all of the cash that comes with even a single GP race. I guess maybe it was Hayden’s desire to get in touch with his dirt racing roots again that made him compete in the X Games. Although, supermoto is a hybrid race with paved and dirt sections. He qualified dead last in the supermoto event. I think at that point, he should have realized that it wasn’t worth the effort. Whatever.

At least Hopkins will be back this weekend.

Hopkins one of the few non-Hayden American GP riders, has sat out for three races now, and for a total of seven weeks. Unlike Hayden, Hopkins was injured in an actual GP Race. He said that he is feeling pretty good and is excited to get back on the Kawasaki this weekend. It has been a fairly disappointing season for Hopkins, especially since there was so much hype about his transition from the Rizla Suzuki team to Kawasaki this year. Hopefully he will be able to scrap together a strong finish to the season.

Lorenzo will also be returning from his injury to race this weekend. The GP rookie was having a fantastic first season, until he sustained a series of injuries, including fractured ankles and a concussion. If he can get back up to his full gusto, we should see him in the mix for a podium finish.

Yes, I am pretty freaking excited about watching some racing this weekend. Let me know if you would like to join me, this Sunday afternoon.

College football season must almost be here, if GP is over the mid-season hump. I’m getting pretty excited about both College football, and finishing up the GP season. Even though the next race isn’t until next weekend, I thought that I would post anyway. The GP website currently has a free video to get people amped for the battle that undoubtedly will occur in the Czech Republic next weekend. The video skims over some of the great rivalries that have existed in GP over the years. It includes footage of the time that Biaggi appeared to elbow Rossi off the track, and Rossi’s response (flying the one-finger salute, knee to the ground as he passed Biaggi, the next lap). I found it pretty entertaining. So might you.

I’m still crying inside, after missing my two favorite races of the GP Season. Those would be, Sachsenring and Laguna Seca. Sachsenring, because the track is so cool, Laguna, because it is in CA, and broadcast live. For whatever reason, they were not on the DVR queue when we got back, either. From what I have read, they were both pretty amazing to watch. Predictably, Stoner won in Sachsenring, Rossi got 2nd. Pedrosa suffered an ankle fracture from Sachsenring, and withdrew from Laguna. Jorge Lorenzo took a nasty tumble in the first lap of Laguna and broke multiple toes. Now for the crazy part. The Americans got their trash handed to them on their own track, at Laguna. The top American finisher was Hayden (who won this race last year), in 5th place. Ben Spies, who was filling in for an injured rider, finished in 8th, and he is not even a GP rider. The best part of the story is the Rossi was back on top, earning his first checkered flag, ever, on the Laguna circuit. It was dubious if Rossi was going to be able to hang with Stoner, after Stoner set the track record for a pole qualifying time. Go Rossi. Since Pedrosa sat this one out, Stoner was able to easily slide into the second position in the world championship standings. Rossi remains the current world championship points leader. The next race is not until August 18th, when action picks up again in the Czech Republic.

I don’t think that anyone was expecting to see what happened this weekend in Holland. It was crazy from the first lap to the last. Out of the grid, Pedrosa was able to get ahead of Stoner. I think that if Rossi could have teamed up on Stoner, with Pedrosa, it would have been a little more of a battle. Rossi, however, low-sided in one of the first corners, taking Randy Depuniet out with him. Rossi got back on and finished 10th. Depuniet called it a day. Almost immediately after Rossi’s incident, Stoner overtook Pedrosa and had already opened up a bit of a gap by the first time through the start/finish straight. So there was a bit of a battle for the second and third place, between Pedrosa (who is still racing the RC211v with the spring valves) and his teammate, Hayden on the pneumatic valved version of the RC211v for the 2nd week in a row. I have to say that Nicky Hayden did look impressive with the new engine. Until the last lap, that is. As Hayden and Pedrosa rounded the last corner in toward the checkered flag. Hayden’s bike died on him causing him to coast most of the way, and allowing Collin Edwards to pass him for the final spot on the podium. What a punch in the nuts! Apparently Hayden took it pretty hard. He was fighting back the tears in the post-race interview. Rossi’s tumble blew the world championship wide open. Pedrosa moved into first position in the points, with Stoner and Rossi following in suit. It will be really interesting to see how the season plays out from this point. If Stoner can keep performing like he did on Sunday, he will have this year’s championship in the bag. I think that Rossi is pretty bent on making sure that doesn’t happen.

From the first few laps of FP1, Stoner has been on a mission this weekend. He pulled down times faster than anyone. But in the qualifier, he took the lid off of the can and went completely nuts. He will start on poll tomorrow, earned with the fasted lap time ever run on a motorcycle at the Assen circuit. I think that part of the reason that he does so well is that his hot little Australian wife is always there to encourage him and be his biggest fan. I’m pretty sure that if my hot little Tennesseean wife was ever watching me race, I would pretty much smoke everyone. Stoner will be joined on the front row by the usual suspects, Dani Pedrosa and Valentino, “the Doctor” Rossi. Stoner currently only trails Pedrosa by 3 points in the world championship standings. If someone doesn’t get an early jump on Stoner, I think that we can expect to see a repeat of last week, with Stoner being the lone man off in the horizon. Former world champion Nikki Hayden, who won this race last year, managed to qualify for a second row spot tomorrow. Lorenzo, who is still recovering from the nasty concussion and hand surgery will be starting from the third row.

Stoner was back on his game in the UK on Sunday. He started on pole and led from start to finish. Rossi, who started next to Stoner on the grid, had a bit of a sketchy start, but was able to maneuver back into second position by the first corner, where James Toseland, incidentally crashed. After that, Stoner opened up the gap by a few tenths each lap. Pedrosa gave Rossi a bit a of a battle for second place, 5 or 6 laps from the finish, but Rossi ultimately was able to shake him off. It was interesting to watch the spots that both riders chose for overtaking each other. Especially considering that Pedrosa’s RC211v was shod with Medium compound tires, front and rear, whereas Rossi went with a soft front and medium rear. Because of this, Rossi was able to easily overtake Pedrosa in the slower corners, but Pedrosa was able to out-brake Rossi, coming into the faster corners. After Sunday’s results, Rossi hangs onto the leader position in world championship points, Pedrosa remains in second and Stoner moves into third, ousting Lorenzo. Lorenzo, though, taking it easy while recovering from the concussion and hand surgery, was still able to manage 9th place on Sunday. I would expect to see him come back strong again later this season.

At the end of the day on Friday (in the UK), after both free practice sessions, Casey Stoner had noticeably faster times than the other riders. This may not mean a lot, in scheme of qualifying or in the actual race, but it does seem to indicate that Stoner has once again found his groove. It will be nice if Stoner can maintain this momentum until Sunday. He has been visibly frustrated with his equipment set up an other peripheral issues, in the last few races. Stoner won the race at this circuit last year (as well as the majority of the rest of the circuits). It would be good to see him competing at the top of his game on Sunday. As for the Japanese built bikes, Hayden was pulling down the fastest lap times on the new Honda RC211v with the pneumatic valves. The engine was first tested at Catalunya, but not used in the actual race. Hayden’s teammate Pedrosa who won in Catalunya, will still be racing the spring valve version of the RC211v. Pedrosa suffered a spill during Friday’s practice sessions, but appeared to be uninjured.

Jorge Lorenzo will be returning this week after a successful surgery on his hand. He is also recovering from a concussion that he suffered in the hand-breaking wreck during the Catalunya practice sessions. Lorenzo will be riding with special silk glove to protect the skin graft on the fourth and fifth fingers of his right hand. He says that he will be riding more cautiously this weekend, focusing more on regaining confidence in the bike, than getting results.

This view of Pedrosa’s back tire is about all that the other riders saw on Sunday. Dani started on pole and got out to an early lead that only increased as the race went on. Stoner was in second position early, but ran wide on turn 4, twice, allowing Pedrosa to build a comfortable margin. Rossi came up from 9th place to have a spectacular battle with Stoner for second place. There was a lot of overtaking, back and forth until the second to last lap, Rossi was able to make it stick. After Pedrosa’s win, he overtakes Lorenzo for second place in total championship points. Rossi still holds on to the lead as far as points go. If Lorezo misses another race, he will most certainly lose the third place spot to Stoner, who closed the gap considerably with his podium finish yesterday. He will have 2 weeks to heal before the British Grand Prix on June 22nd.

Another nasty crash for Lorenzo will make him unable to compete in Sunday’s race. Lorenzo needed to finish strong this weekend to continue to be a threat to Pedrosa in the GP Championship points, especially after crashing out of the race last week in Mugello. He is currently 3rd in the standings, but he could lose that spot to Stoner this weekend, if Stoner can manage a podium finish. This is the second brutal high side crash suffered by Lorenzo during free practice this season. In the Shanghai race, he suffered two broken ankles (but still raced). This time, although he was not thrown as high as in Shanghai, he still suffered a fractured finger and a contusion on the ankle. It is unfortunate that he has been crashing so much, because he was having a banger of a rookie season. Hopefully he will quickly recover and resume kicking butt.

As for the rest of free practice, Pedrosa was setting the fastest lap times before crashing at the end of FP2. Caprirossi, Rossi and Stoner also clocked impressive times in FP2. It should be a good race on Sunday. I would not be surprised to see a hard battle between Rossi, Pedrosa in the first half of the race. Ultimately, I predict another win for Rossi. He is on Fiyaaahhhhh