SuperBike Magazine

July 1, 2009 - Alan Dowds

MORE MotoGP this weekend with the start of Laguna Seca ... Scroll down for the full story

MORE MotoGP this weekend with the start of Laguna Seca. The riders are out in California, and they've blagged their way into Universal Studios to see how the rides compare with a 230bhp, 800cc MotoGP bike...

If you're in the Monterey area, you've no excuse for not getting to Laguna. For those less fortunate, it's all on't telly.

The BBC's coverage of the US MotoGP begins with qualifying on the red button or online, at 21:50, Saturday 4 July. The race is on BBC Two and online from 10pm on Sunday night.


Here's the Dorna PR on the shindig.

This weekend's Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix at Laguna Seca is the first of two
FIM World Championship visits to America this year and is the second of four
GPs in a five week period, as the 2009 season really begins to gather pace.

With Indianapolis to come in August the MotoGP riders will this weekend
enjoy their first Stateside trip of the campaign as they head to California,
with visits to Sachsenring and Donington Park still to come on the busy
schedule before the summer break.

After seven rounds so far this year things are tight at the top, with three
main protagonists emerging as the title candidates. Heading to Assen in the
Netherlands last weekend, Valentino Rossi, Jorge Lorenzo and Casey Stoner
were all square on points at the head of the standings and even though Rossi
has pushed ahead with the superb 100th GP victory of his career at the Dutch
track his young rivals are still snapping at his heels.

Last year at Laguna Rossi took a hugely important win over Stoner, passing
him brilliantly on infamous Corkscrew corner and scoring a significant
psychological blow against the Australian. This year, however, he has two
key rivals to contend with.

World Champion Rossi goes into round eight in great from, with a five point
lead over Lorenzo in the general classification, having relegated his Fiat
Yamaha team-mate to second place in the last two races at Catalunya and
Assen. The Italian looks as strong as ever, with his Yamaha M1 machine
working brilliantly as he looks to turn up the heat on his rivals.

Lorenzo, meanwhile, has never completed a race at Laguna having crashed out
on the first lap on his debut at the Californian track last year. He insists
however that this year he is finding things more comfortable at tracks which
did not favour him in the past and can be expected to be pushing Rossi hard
at the front again this weekend.

Fitness doubts for Stoner could be the major factor hindering the Ducati
star following another grueling race in The Netherlands, where for the
second round in succession he finished third, but was totally exhausted on
the podium. If he can recover full strength he will be confident of another
good performance on Sunday, at a track where he won in 2007 and finished
second in 2008.

Behind the leading three in the championship, the Repsol Honda duo of Andrea
Dovizioso and Dani Pedrosa will be desperate to bounce straight back from
their Assen disappointments having both crashed out of the Dutch contest, in
separate incidents at the same corner, when well positioned to earn some
decent points. Dovizioso is currently fourth in the standings, some distance
behind the top three, but with just a two point advantage over Pedrosa and
Colin Edwards.

Texan rider Edwards arrives for his home race in good form following his
fourth place at Assen and is hoping for another strong result as he seeks to
extend his MotoGP career. The Monster Yamaha Tech 3 rider was on the podium
at Laguna Seca in 2005 but since then has struggled for good results there
and will aim to correct that pattern on Sunday.

His compatriot Nicky Hayden, the only other American rider in the premier
class at present, boasts two of his three MotoGP career wins at Laguna and
would love nothing more than to get his first top five result of 2009 on his
Stateside debut for Ducati this weekend.

Ahead of the weekend's Californian spectacular Randy de Puniet, Toni Elías
and the aforementioned Stoner have already been soaking up the American
atmosphere with a visit to the famous Universal Studios Hollywood theme park
in Los Angeles, on Tuesday afternoon.

Taking a chance to relax before they head up the coast along Route 101 to
Laguna, the trio of premier class competitors were given a tour of the
Universal Studios Hollywood attractions, including film and TV sets and
rollercoasters, getting up close and personal with 'Desperate Housewives',
'Jaws', 'The Mummy' and 'The Simpsons'.

The Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix promises to be a memorable event, coinciding
with the American 4th July celebrations and commencing this Friday, 3rd
July, with Free Practice 1 at 1.55pm local time, (9.55pm GMT, 10.55pm CET).
The 250cc and 125cc classes do not compete at Laguna and will be back in
action at Sachsenring on the 17th-19th July weekend.