| Aye, another superb day out. Even the rain didn't dampen the enthusiasm and it makes it all the better with far more knowledgeable people around to explain the finer points.
Aoyama's ride in the 250's was awesome, his bike sounded really crisp, and much louder than anyone elses, until some of the eagle eyed amongst us noticed that his silencer had fallen off. Still didn't stop him outbraking people into Goddard's despite having taken a tumble there.
The MotoGP bikes were just incredible. So much more so than last year.
Highlights for me...well, I'm not a big Rossi fan - I've never really liked it when anybody or any team works their way into a totally dominant position. Schumacher is the absolute epitome of this at the moment but there are other examples from recent years...Manchester United, Pete Sampras, Tiger Woods...you get the picture.
Having said all that, Rossi was just superb. Totally dominant.
I never thought I would be a Ducati fan cheering myself hoarse willing an Aprilia on either, but Shakey closing down and taking Tamada was brilliant to watch.
Hodgson and Xaus must be chuffed to bits to have finished ahead of Biaggi, who just didn't seem to have any answers, and there was an extra cheer when Hodgson went ahead of Xaus.
Bayliss had a solid race, and looked pretty spectacular firing it out of the esses, but little Loris must've been a bit dissapointed to have found himself going backwards from first place down to seventh. Both of them must've been cheered by the improvement in form though.
The twin pulse engine sounds terrific. What amazed me was how totally different it sounded from the scream of Hodgson and Xaus' bikes, just from a different firing order (all right I know it's more complex than that).
Had a good run home, really enjoyed it, although we got all strung out in traffic. Not difficult squirting past most cars, but harder getting through the little knots of bikes we kept coming across. Some were easily overtaken, like the bloke who was still wearing his polythene mac streaming out behind him like batman...others were a pain, like the guy on a superscoot who gave fil2 some grief about 'cutting him up' in Melton, and another guy on a GPZ who came past me up the inside going through Melton, bazzed through the town ignoring all the speed limits and zipped off out of sight. I came up behind him about two minutes later as he virtually parked his bike on every damp corner...
I would just like to give Jools 'middle finger' award of the day to the **** in the BMW 5 series out in the countryside between Melton and Oakham who was second in a queue of 40mph traffic. I had just zipped by two or three cars in this queue on the way down into a dip, and was just coming up the other side with about 50 metres to go until a solid white line on my side before a blind crest. I was level with the beemer, and already off the throttle, just ready to cruise past him and pull into the 15 yard gap between him and the leading car (with plenty of time before the solid white and the crest). As I pulled level, he glanced at me, shoved it down a cog and accelerated hard to close the gap to less than a bike length - leaving me with no option but to try some kamikaze braking on slippery roads or open the taps again. If in doubt gas it!  |