The final pre-season tests for the Moto GP circus have been completed at the Jerez circuit in Spain, with — shock, surprise (not) — 2007 world champion Casey Stoner and his Ducati far ahead of everyone else. Not only has Stoner now been the fastest at every test session despite still recovering from an off-season wrist operation, his new team-mate Nicky Hayden seems to be coming to grips with the notoriously difficult Desmosedici — while still just in the top 10, Hayden’s going better each time out and says he’s feeling better every time he rides the bike.
At Jerez, the Yamaha team of Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi were close behind Stoner, while Loris Capirossi was a surprise fourth on one of the Rizla Suzukis and Andrea Dovizioso was fifth on the first Honda.
With only two weeks until the first race, the night-time circus in Qatar, Repsol Honda’s No. 1 rider Dani Pedrosa is still doubtful, his knee just out of a cast this past week from his testing crash last month at — that’s right, Qatar. Meanwhile, Tech 3 rider James Toseland had his second huge highside and concussion this season at Jerez, so we’re into the walking wounded even before the first race.
South of the Border
Things are still stewing in the U.S. series, with everybody apparently mad at somebody else, and all the teams united only in being mad at DMG, the new owners and organizers of the AMA series. The third race of the series is coming up this next weekend, April 4–5 at Road Atlanta in Georgia.
There’s been some oil poured on the waters, at least. DMG has backed off on its suspension of Daytona Sport Bike series leader Jamie Hacking, accepting a fine and an apology for his outburst after the last race, and magically transmuting his one-race suspension into probation. Roger Lee Hayden will be joining him on the Attack Kawasaki squad in his first appearance for the season.
Hayden’s no-show at Daytona and Fontana is still a bit of a mystery. Kawasaki says he was granted a leave for "personal reasons," friends of Hayden say he’s mystified why Kawasaki hasn’t invited him to ride, and paddock gossip says he was sitting out in a bit of a hissy fit over being demoted from his 2008 Superbike ride to a 600 this season (of course, since Kawasaki isn’t racing a superbike this year, that would have been pointless in the extreme). We’ll probably never know.
Isle of Man resident Neil Hodgson is still not fit after his bad training accident, and his spot on the Corona Honda team will be taken again by Jake Holden.
