A fond farewell to the 2008 season

This afternoon's race at Valencia marked the end of the 2008 MotoGP season, and yet another World Championship title for Valentino Rossi. Casey Stoner ran away with the event today, with Dani Pedrosa, a not-so-close second, and Vale closing out the trio de podium.

There were no Hail Mary laps, no spectacular shoot-outs, no heroes and no tragedies. Everyone seemed to be on their best behavior. Nick and Dovisioso mixed it up a few times, and The Doctor did not lack awesome as he rocketed to third after a tenth place start. Oh yea, as if I have to even mention it, Randy crashed..... on the first lap..... and didn't even get any camera time for it. You know you are a habitual offender when your bins don't even warrant a replay.

Casey is going to be testing the new Duc over the next couple of days. There is much excitement over the new design and carbon fiber frame. After testing, he will be shipped off to hospital for his surgery. He is getting a bone graft (from his hip) to repair a crack in his wrist that is not healing properly.

The gloriously short winter that I boasted about in my last post will not be so short after all. Qatar, the 2009 season opener, has been pushed back to April. I will dig up the schedule for next year and post it.... and maybe even update my rider profiles, which I think are a whopping 2 years old.

Okay, it's time to thin the herd of brown bottles in the fridge and slip off into my coma :)

Until next time......

Rubb'er Down :)

Sepang!!!!

Okay, I kept myself away from my computer all day today so as not to give into temptation and read the spoiler to another spectacular showing by the MotoGP boys.

Dani winning pole came as a bit of a surprise, but Good Onya "Pud" :) Not only did he win pole, but he ran one hell of a race to hang on to it. Although he could only hold Rossi off for about half the race, he piloted his bullet with nothing but heart. The will to win was there, but (yes, I'm gonna go ahead and give him a good excuse) the tires weren't. By the end I think he had dropped back by 7 seconds...... a formidable gap..... if you will.

Tangent...... apparently next year (and subsequently 2 years after that) the playing field will be leveled as far as tires are concerned. If you are breathing and have a flicker of interest in MotoGP, you have heard that BridgeStone signed a deal to be the only "tyre" (take that Mikey!!) provider for the World Championship for the next three years. So now, everyone will be riding on BS - I just made me laugh.

Back to the race, the shootout for the 3rd podium spot (we have already learned that Rossi and Pedrosa tied up the first two spots, and yes, you will be quizzed on that later) was no less than breathtaking. Hayden and Dovizioso hammered it out like mad-men. Solid entertainment..... thanks boys! In the end, Nick couldn't pull off a permanent overtaking and ended up 4th. Congratulations D... that was a righteous win indeed.

Only one more race left for the season. I will leave you now to look forward to Valencia, and know in my heart that it will be a gloriously short winter. The test season is right around the corner, and from there we move into 09.... come on March!!!!

Until next time......

Rubb'er Down :)