Interesting! This will be cool to see... Rossi has NEVER been to Laguna Seca!... so come July in California we shall see a little more competion there...
This could be Nicky's turn to really shine. I think he would be the man with the most recent track time there, although Barros and others longtime GP guys have been at Laguna in the past.
Maybe Kenny Roberts Jr. and Hopkins will be doing a little extra testing there prior to the race. I s'ppose Rossi may be able to do the same if Yam wants it to happen. Yamaha is throwing a lot of cash into the facility, effectively sponsoring the current GP upgrades and track refurb at Laguna for there 50th Anniversary.
//monkey
MotoGP - new track for Rossi
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QuietMonkey
- Legendary 750
- Posts: 913
- Joined: Mon Jun 14, 2004 6:11 pm
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- Location: Okanagan Valley, BC
MotoGP - new track for Rossi
"Zounds! Zorched by Zarches, Spaceman Spiff's crippled craft crashes on planet Plootarg!"
For Sale: Ninja 600 with parts bike, needs minor work, $30, no title... (GEE THAT DOESNT RING ANY WARNING BELLS DOES IT?)
For Sale: Ninja 600 with parts bike, needs minor work, $30, no title... (GEE THAT DOESNT RING ANY WARNING BELLS DOES IT?)
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lurcher_boy
- Rookie
- Posts: 19
- Joined: Sat Jun 19, 2004 1:29 am
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QuietMonkey
- Legendary 750
- Posts: 913
- Joined: Mon Jun 14, 2004 6:11 pm
- Sex: Male
- Location: Okanagan Valley, BC
YEP... an awesome track. I've been there once in 1993 to watch the AMA Superbike races (Doug Polen, Miguel DuHamel, and Scott Russell where the podium finishers).
They are working on safety... In the past GPs from the 2-stroke era there have been some hairy highsides on the turn just before the run up the hill... a little desert dust on the circuit makes running offline real sketchy.. Also the run upto the the finish line has had some action... again lowspeed corner and then heavy acceleration to the start/finish.
It's a unique technical circuit and the not as highspeed as most tracks (especially compared with Europe). The TOP SPEED they were reaching at Laguna was only about 150MPH, so that means the bikes are gear for WICKED acceleration!! The latest GP bikes geared low will rev out sooo FAST. Makes for awesome wheel-spinning action. And of course the corkscrew is amazing.. you really cannot imagine it seeing the place on TV. You hit 150MPH and then pile on the brakes as you crest the hill and the top of corkscrew is a blind left hand turn... yowza! watch that from an onbike cam (superbike or otherwise) and it's freaky.
When you stand at the top of the corkscrew (the track has AWESOME spectator viewing areas, and you can travel all over the place) the corkscrew is killer. huge elevation... that massive downhill twist and turn "chicane" combined with 200HP will be a demon for the latest GP bikes...
Although even the "friendliest" two-strokes of the later "big-bang" engine era had less manageable power than the current four-strokes, i think the extra 30,40+ horsepower that the current bikes are making is pretty significant too. The 2-strokes spun up very fast (light internals, no valve train, twice as many power strokes, etc..)
Another nasty crash which rings a bell is when Eddie Lawson bit the dust a the TOP of the corkscrew --- his front brake pads FELL OUT of the bike (i recall it was a mechanics error there! yikes!) he nailed the rear brake to scrub off as much speed as possible, but there wasn't enough run-off and he literally pitched the bike away before hitting the retaining wall. He broke his leg, heal, etc.. something like 7 fractures, and that was the 2nd or 3rd race of 1988 or so, and the previous race (Phillip Island, Australia) Mick Doohan had taken Lawson out of third place when Doohan made contact with Eddie's rear tire and took him off the track!! arghhh. Eddie's)... That season sucked... too long to heal up after Laguna and no chance for a 5th championship after that, as it became Eddie's last year on Yam, I think... then he did his swan song on Cagiva after that.
later
//monkey
They are working on safety... In the past GPs from the 2-stroke era there have been some hairy highsides on the turn just before the run up the hill... a little desert dust on the circuit makes running offline real sketchy.. Also the run upto the the finish line has had some action... again lowspeed corner and then heavy acceleration to the start/finish.
It's a unique technical circuit and the not as highspeed as most tracks (especially compared with Europe). The TOP SPEED they were reaching at Laguna was only about 150MPH, so that means the bikes are gear for WICKED acceleration!! The latest GP bikes geared low will rev out sooo FAST. Makes for awesome wheel-spinning action. And of course the corkscrew is amazing.. you really cannot imagine it seeing the place on TV. You hit 150MPH and then pile on the brakes as you crest the hill and the top of corkscrew is a blind left hand turn... yowza! watch that from an onbike cam (superbike or otherwise) and it's freaky.
When you stand at the top of the corkscrew (the track has AWESOME spectator viewing areas, and you can travel all over the place) the corkscrew is killer. huge elevation... that massive downhill twist and turn "chicane" combined with 200HP will be a demon for the latest GP bikes...
Although even the "friendliest" two-strokes of the later "big-bang" engine era had less manageable power than the current four-strokes, i think the extra 30,40+ horsepower that the current bikes are making is pretty significant too. The 2-strokes spun up very fast (light internals, no valve train, twice as many power strokes, etc..)
Another nasty crash which rings a bell is when Eddie Lawson bit the dust a the TOP of the corkscrew --- his front brake pads FELL OUT of the bike (i recall it was a mechanics error there! yikes!) he nailed the rear brake to scrub off as much speed as possible, but there wasn't enough run-off and he literally pitched the bike away before hitting the retaining wall. He broke his leg, heal, etc.. something like 7 fractures, and that was the 2nd or 3rd race of 1988 or so, and the previous race (Phillip Island, Australia) Mick Doohan had taken Lawson out of third place when Doohan made contact with Eddie's rear tire and took him off the track!! arghhh. Eddie's)... That season sucked... too long to heal up after Laguna and no chance for a 5th championship after that, as it became Eddie's last year on Yam, I think... then he did his swan song on Cagiva after that.
later
//monkey
"Zounds! Zorched by Zarches, Spaceman Spiff's crippled craft crashes on planet Plootarg!"
For Sale: Ninja 600 with parts bike, needs minor work, $30, no title... (GEE THAT DOESNT RING ANY WARNING BELLS DOES IT?)
For Sale: Ninja 600 with parts bike, needs minor work, $30, no title... (GEE THAT DOESNT RING ANY WARNING BELLS DOES IT?)