Race talk - WARNING!! SPOILERS!!!

[MadDuck]

World Super Bike 2nd race, in a downpour!          

[Speed 3 Pilot]

Anyone besides me perturbed that Speed is not showing this Sunday's WSBK races until Tueday?...

[MadDuck]

Anyone besides me perturbed that Speed is not showing this Sunday's WSBK races until Tueday?...

WHAT??

[Speed 3 Pilot]

WHAT??

If you can find WSBK on Speed on Sunday, let me know...

[MadDuck]

Not that I don't believe you as Speed would do something as F'd up as that but jeeeez.........

[Speed 3 Pilot]

Coupla good races at Imola...

[MadDuck]

That's for sure!  Just finished watching Race 2 last night. Good passing in both races and funny how the race turns out sometimes. It was good to see Haga back in the mix of things.

This weekend will be busy with both MotoGP and WSBK. I wonder if Speed will delay the showings again?   

[DRKWNG]

I wonder if Speed will delay the showings again?   

There's this neat new thing called racing underground racing for me you know.

[freeflydive]

From today's MotoGP practice session at Motegi (Thurs in HI / Fri in Japan since they are across the date line).  After all the radiation worries & drama they all showed up for the race (shocking)  !  I hope Spies gets well enough by race time.

Under darkening skies, the MotoGP class headed out for the second free practice session on Friday which saw no fewer than six riders run off the track during the outing.

All but one of the riders in the field improved upon their earlier times with the top four spots of the day going to the Factory Hondas. Dani Pedrosa took over the top spot with 21 minutes to go and set a new fast lap of 1’46.790 ahead of team mate Stoner by a margin of 0.054s. Andrea Dovizioso followed with a 1’46.952, an improvement of eight tenths over his FP1 time, with San Carlo Honda Gresini Team’s Marco Simoncelli occupying the fourth spot after leading in the early part of the session.

Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha Factory Racing) was fifth in the combined times, posting a lap at 1’47.310, six tenths better than his earlier time, while Nicky Hayden (Ducati Team), who had been third in FP1, bettered his earlier time by four tenths to end the day in sixth.

Hiroshi Aoyama (San Carlo Honda Gresini) stepped up his pace by a full second, putting the Japanese rider seventh with a time of 1’47.785, two tenths ahead of Ducati Team’s Valentino Rossi in eighth. Héctor Barberá (Mapfre Aspar) ended the day ninth just 0.02s ahead of Colin Edwards (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) in tenth.

Yamaha Factory Racing’s Ben Spies was the sole rider who did not improve in the outing, the American retired from the session after completing just 5 laps after exhaustion took over him due to fighting an illness the past two days. He checked himself into the medical center and will try to rest enough to participate in tomorrow’s events.

[MadDuck]

Local times for Speed broadcast

MotoGP     Saturday night Oct. 1   @ 10:00pm     Channels  1214 & 214

WSBK Race 1  Sunday morn Oct. 2  @ 9:00am

WSBK Race 2  Sunday morn Oct. 2  @ 10:00am

MotoGP rebroadcast  11:00am right after WSBK Race 2

[MadDuck]

Barring any craziness Checa likely has the WSBK championship sewed up.

MotoGP should be interesting from here on out.  44 points separating Stoner & Lorenzo and just 4 races to go. Dare we ask too much to see some great fighting?

[freeflydive]

Rossi reportedly injured his hand (fracture pinky) as a result of his crash at Motegi...looks like Hayden will be doing most the final testing for the GP12 bike in Jerez.  Not sure who's had worse luck this year in MotoGP, Rossi or Ducati!

"Left Pinky Injury for Valentino Rossi. Tomorrow Nicky Hayden will test the GP12 at Jerez

Valentino Rossi's fall in the Japanese Grand Prix on Sunday was not without consequences, although the initial examination suggested otherwise. Due to the severity of the pain and swelling in his left hand, the Italian on Tuesday underwent additional X-rays that revealed a hairline fracture at the arthrodesis of the first and second phalanx (performed following a fall at Assen in 1995) of the pinky finger on his left hand. Rossi's participation in the Australian Grand Prix on October 16 is not in doubt.

Tomorrow, Thursday 6 October, Nicky Hayden will test the GP12 at Jerez de la Frontera, Spain, using the last of eight days the team is allowed with the 2012 bike."

[MadDuck]

If Edwards could race with a broke collar bone then Rossi sure as hell can race with a sore finger. 

Dorna is so full of it!  Most of the rules should be lifted. They should limit displacement, weight and the amount of electronic rider/engine assistance. That's it and then get the F out of everybody's way. Run whatever tires, how many ever engines and as much development testing that is wanted. It's the OPEN class for cryin' out loud!

There's plenty of other divisions and classes for all of the other "equalizing" rules.

[DRKWNG]

Checa is going to be testing the GP12 as well.

[Speed 3 Pilot]

Some good racin' at Portimao this past weekend...