Season Finale: Valencia

[DooberRoni]

FIM MotoGP World Championship
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http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk279/DooberRoni/ValCIRCUIT.jpg

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g223/EKron/STVlogo.jpg (http://www.speedtv.com/)
Sunday October 26th
FIM 250cc World Championship
5:00pm Eastern
2:00pm Pacific

MotoGP World Championship
6:00pm Eastern
3:00pm Pacific

http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk279/DooberRoni/Schedule.jpg

Hard to believe it's really over.
Here's a look at years past

http://i282.photobucket.com/albums/kk279/DooberRoni/VALhistory.jpg

[ÜberDoober]

Strange what attitude can do for a guy?

On a cold and wet day in Spain Nicky tops both Friday practice sessions. Cool!

FP1
Pos Rider Bike Time
1. Nicky Hayden Honda (M) 1:47.694
2. Casey Stoner Ducati (B) 1:48.469 + 0.775
3. Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha (M) 1:49.037 + 1.343
4. Daniel Pedrosa Honda (B) 1:49.580 + 1.886
5. Sylvain Guintoli Ducati (B) 1:49.887 + 2.193
6. Colin Edwards Yamaha (M) 1:50.077 + 2.383
7. Anthony West Kawasaki (B) 1:50.397 + 2.703
8. Chris Vermeulen Suzuki (B) 1:50.760 + 3.066
9. Shinya Nakano Honda (B) 1:50.879 + 3.185
10. Andrea Dovizioso Honda (M) 1:51.098 + 3.404
11. James Toseland Yamaha (M) 1:51.210 + 3.516
12. Loris Capirossi Suzuki (B) 1:51.251 + 3.557
13. Valentino Rossi Yamaha (B) 1:51.721 + 4.027
14. John Hopkins Kawasaki (B) 1:52.798 + 5.104
15. Alex de Angelis Honda (B) 1:52.960 + 5.266
16. Marco Melandri Ducati (B) 1:53.083 + 5.389
17. Toni Elías Ducati (B) 1:53.119 + 5.425
18. Randy de Puniet Honda (B) 1:54.199 + 6.505

FP2
Pos Rider Bike Time
1. Nicky Hayden Honda (M) 1'45.777
2. Daniel Pedrosa Honda (B) 1'45.864 + 0.087
3. Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha (M) 1'45.959 + 0.182
4. Valentino Rossi Yamaha (B) 1'46.070 + 0.293
5. Casey Stoner Ducati (B) 1'46.260 + 0.483
6. Andrea Dovizioso Honda (M) 1'46.522 + 0.745
7. Randy de Puniet Honda (B) 1'46.807 + 1.030
8. Sylvain Guintoli Ducati (B) 1'47.055 + 1.278
9. Colin Edwards Yamaha (M) 1'47.314 + 1.537
10. Shinya Nakano Honda (B) 1'47.483 + 1.706
11. Chris Vermeulen Suzuki (B) 1'47.620 + 1.843
12. Alex de Angelis Honda (B) 1'48.015 + 2.238
13. Marco Melandri Ducati (B) 1'48.437 + 2.660
14. John Hopkins Kawasaki (B) 1'48.469 + 2.692
15. Anthony West Kawasaki (B) 1'48.504 + 2.727
16. James Toseland Yamaha (M) 1'48.771 + 2.994
17. Loris Capirossi Suzuki (B) 1'49.092 + 3.315
18. Toni Elías Ducati (B) 1'51.871 + 6.094

[ÜberDoober]

Just after 5:00am here in the Sonoran desert and with 15 minutes of qualifying in the books, Nicky is on top of the pile once again after leading all three practice sessions.

The track is dry, the sky is cloudy and all is well. It could still rain and it is possible that some may be going out on qualifiers early? Melandri and Randy De Punter have already crashed.

<edit>
40 minutes left and there are sprinkles. 3 Factory Honda's lead the way (Hayden, PeePee & Nakano)

[ÜberDoober]

The sprinkles went away and the session finished dry. Nicky maintains a front row start but couldn't hang on to pole. Rossi starting down in 10th so expect a show as he comes through the pack.

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g223/EKron/VALqual.jpg

[ÜberDoober]

250 Grid:

Simoncelli
Debon
Simon
Kallio
Aoyama
Bautista

[ÜberDoober]

Whoa! What a snoozer of a race. Unreal.

It was a beautiful day though.

Results
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g223/EKron/Valfinal.jpg

[Gary]

That's keeping a positive attitude, there, Uber! The race sucked, but it was a nice day :p

Looks like an interesting season next year, or so I hope! :cheers2:

[Hoofhearted]

It was a bit of a parade. I guess we can thank TC for that and look forward to more of the same next year. I wonder how long it will take to reach the F1 level of boredom? I saw the 125s yesterday. Bradley Smith had a good ride. Why does he look like he should be on a Gerbers poster?

[Gary]

If the last race was an example of the future F1 is here - but hopefully the single tire rule will help to some degree. Until they chuck the electronics it will never be the game of the past in my eyes - but the bikes do seem to be sliding around a little more.

[ÜberDoober]

I find it interesting that a week after announcing the single tire supplier rule, word comes out that they are changing the compound to reduce grip and lower corner speeds. We know that's what they wanted to do and without going back to the 990's or imposing performance restrictions on the 800's, it's kind of a sneaky way to achieve their goal.

I agree that the electronics have taken out some of the excitement out of the game. TC was banned in Formula 1 this year and I have seen more tail happy cars and drivers having to actually drive but doesn't just stripping TC out of the MotoGP bikes mean a return to the highside era?

[Gary]

It's my belief that 4 strokes will never be as high-side prone as the 500s were, but who knows - but here is an interesting statistic from gpone:

1999-2008 Fall Count

1999 - 565
2000 - 633
2001 - 634
2002 - 646
2003 - 705
2004 - 706
2005 - 737
2006 - 647
2007 - 672
2008 - 876

This is all classes combined, but it's pretty clear that the numbers of crashes are on the rise. Race crashes seem to be down but practice crashes are through the roof, and the number of injuries doesn't seem to have decreased this year.

Even Rossi is now saying the electronics make the racing dull, and whoever has the best electronics package set-up at a given track is the likely winner. :ack2: Bring back the 2 strokes, let's see who has the stones and who wins because of the computer tech!