MotoGP: Andrea Dovizioso #4

Andrea Dovizioso #4


Personal opinion: Had a pretty good season on 2008 in a satellite Honda team, with very memorable moments, such as the first race in Qatar where he managed to Pass Rossi on the last race and in the last race of 2008 in Valencia where he want head to head with 2006 world champion Nicky Hayden. And now that Dani is injured, Dovi will need to develop the bike and I personally hope he will do well this year

Dovi and Rossi

From: http://www.andreadovizioso.com

I clearly remember when my father gave me my first bike as a present. It was the Malaguti machine that you can see in the photo. I found it outside the front door when I was four year old after betting with him. If I could ride my bicycle without the stabilisers, he would buy me a bike. I won the bet but I never expected such a beautiful surprise.

I still remember that moment as one of the biggest emotions in my life! My passion for the two wheels started then and when I was young I went and watched my Dad racing motocross every Sunday. I normally kept the timing for him and when he wasn’t riding, I was racing bicycles or mini-bikes challenging other children of my age.

At six years old, I had my first mini-bike and one year later I started racing both on circuits and dirt tracks. You can see on the photo below a mini-bikes race at Forlimpopoli, Italy - of course the little rider with the number 34 in the front of the GRC machine is me!

I have to say that it is also thanks to Antonio Gambarri, the owner of GRC, if I am a rider now. He is an extraordinary person and he helped me a lot when I was 11 and became an official rider. I want to thank him for all that he has done for me. I have ridden mini-cross bikes and mini-bikes until I was 14th years old. I also played football but I chose the track.

In 2000, I raced the Challenge Aprilia, my first championship on a 125cc machine. This was a major success for me as I got to ride a real bike. In 2001, I raced in the Italian Championship (and finished 4th) and I won the European Championship on a GP125. This success opened the door to the MotoGP World Championship, in which I have been racing since 2002 with a Honda bike for the team lead by Cirano Mularoni. 2004 has been a season full of incredible emotions. I clinched 5 victories and 11 podiums in total and at the end I conquered the 125cc World Title.

The following year, I moved up category and over three years I achieved 4 victories, ending up second in the championship twice and third once. These are fantastic results but I am not fully satisfied because my goal was to conquer the 250cc world title before moving to the MotoGP. However, in 2007 I have been very fast considering the lap times done on every single circuit and I am really pleased with that!

Now I am in MotoGP, the top class, where the fastest bikes of the world and the strongest riders ever compete. It is such an exciting challenge, I am so proud to be there... and I think its all started very well in Qatar.

wsbk: Jonathan Rea #65

Jonathan Rea #65

In 2008 Wan races in World Supersport, finishing second in the overall championship and taking a late season wildcard ride in WSB at Portimao as well. He makes the full-time switch to WSB this year, and has been impressively fast in testing. didn't have the best start of the year, but... lets hope that things can only improve for the young scot.

you can read more about him at his blog: http://www.gspdesigns.com/jr65/index.php?categoryid=12
(nice friendly writing style)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jonathan Rea. August 2008.

Jonathan 'Jonny' Rea (born February 2, 1987 in Ballyclare, Northern Ireland) is a motorcycle racer, currently competing in the Superbike World Championship for Ten Kate Honda. He was runner-up in the Supersport World Championship for them in 2008, and runner-up in the British Superbike Championship in 2007 for the HM Plant Honda team.

Early years

For much of his career he has been backed by Red Bull. Rea was British 60cc motocross runner up in 1997, before moving up through the motocross classes. He was not originally keen to switch to circuit racing as he considered it to be boring, but considerably less boring than him. but he was persuaded to by friends Michael and Eugene Laverty, contesting the 2003 British 125cc Championship. His 2004 season was interrupted by a crash at Knockhill.

In 2005 Red Bull set up a British Superbike ride for him on a factory-spec Honda Fireblade. He showed his potential by snatching a pole position from the established names, and finished 16th in the series despite missing 2 races, at Snetterton after a heavy testing crash, and at Oulton Park after the death of a junior team-mate in the previous event.

BSB Success

He started the 2006 season strongly, lying 6th in the championship after 5 meetings. At Oulton Park he finished 3rd in race 2, before being demoted to 4th as he was deemed to have gained a place form Shane Byrne on the last lap illegally, although he claimed that he crossed the infield grass as he was squeezed out of road. He qualified 5th at Mondello Park before heavy rain forced the cancellation of the races, and claimed that he had been on race tyres, rather than special soft qualifying compounds. He impressed at Mallory Park too, qualifying on the front row and running 2nd until high-siding in race 1, despite having no race engineer for the weekend. At Knockhill he took pole position, and followed a 4th in race 1 with his first career podium in race 2, passing Leon Haslam for 2nd with 2 laps to go. He ultimately took 4th in the championship, ahead of the factory Honda of Karl Harris.

He took Harris' factory ride for 2007, alongside reigning champion Ryuichi Kiyonari of Japan. After four second places, he finally took his first win in the second race at Mondello Park, after dominating wet practice but struggling in the dry first race. A double victory at Knockhill followed, taking him to within 9 points of Kiyonari at the top of the standings - retaining this position after Oulton Park in which each HM Plant Honda rider won once and crashed once. He ultimately finished as the series runner-up, 26 points behind Kiyonari and 20 ahead of Leon Haslam.

Also in 2007, he raced with Kiyonari and won a three-hour endurance race, and were then entered for the Suzuka 8-Hour race on a factory Honda machine. Plans for him to contest the British MotoGP round on a Team Roberts bike were scrapped in favour of extra Suzuka preparation.

2008 –finished 2^nd World Supersport Championship - HAANspree Ten Kate Honda

World Supersport

In September 2007 he signed a three year deal with Ten kate Honda to ride in the World Supersport championship for 2008, and World Superbikes for 2009/10. He turned down the option of staying in British Superbikes with either HM Plant Honda or move to Rizla Suzuki, and turned down a World Superbike ride with the factory Xerox Ducati team. In his first race at Losail he crashed, badly injuring a finger At Assen he challenged for a first WSS win, losing by inches to team-mate Andrew Pitt. He did win for Ten Kate at the Donington Park British Supersport race, which the team entered as practice for the later WSS race there. His first World Supersport win came at Brno, and he immediately followed this with a second win at Brands Hatch, after the race was stopped early after Craig Jones crashed fatally. A third win followed at Vallelunga, pushing him back up to 2nd in the standings behind Pitt. His chances of winning the title were ended by a wild move from Robbin Harms in the penultimate round at Magny Cours.

World Superbikes

For the last round of 2008, Jonathan will ride the superbike at Portimao.

For 2009, Jonathan will ride for the Hannspree Ten Kate Honda team in World Superbikes.

2008 – 2^nd World Supersport Championship - HAANspree Ten Kate Honda.

MotoGP: Dani Pedrosa #3

Dani Pedrosa #3 (formerly #2 and #27)

Personal Opinion: If he can recover from his injury in the test in Qatar he could be a definite contender for the championship. he does come out as a very nice guy in the press, rumor has it that it s mostly due to his manager Alberto Puig that manages all his activities on track and off the track.

(if you are a fan of Dani- see this clip without sound)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dani Pedrosa
Dani Pedrosa
Nationality	Spanish
Date of birth	September 29, 1985 (1985-09-29) (age 23)
Place of birth	Sabadell, Spain
Website	danipedrosa.com
MotoGP Record
Current team	Repsol Honda Team
Bike number	3
World Championships	3 125cc: 2003 250cc: 2004, 2005
Race starts	130
Race Wins	29
Podium finishes	68
Pole positions	29
Fastest laps	29
Championship Points	1898
2008 Championship position	3rd (249 pts)

Daniel "Dani" Pedrosa (born September 29, 1985 in Sabadell, Spain) is a Grand Prix motorcycle racer . Pedrosa grew up in a village near Sabadell called Castellar del Vallès. He is the youngest world champion in 125cc and 250cc Grands Prix. Pedrosa is 1.58m (5ft, 2in) tall and weighs 51 kg (112.4lbs).

Career

Early days

Dani Pedrosa started riding bikes at the early age of four, when he got his first motorcycle, an Italjet 50, which had side-wheels. His first racing bike was a minibike replica of Kawasaki, which he got at the age of six and which he used to race with his friends. Pedrosa experienced real racing at the age of 11, when he entered the Spanish Minibike Championship and ended his debut season in second place, scoring his first podium finish in the second race of the season. The next year, Pedrosa entered the same championship, but health problems prevented him from improving his results and he ended that season in 3rd position.

125cc

In 2001, Pedrosa made his World Championship debut in the 125cc class after being selected from the Movistar Activa Cup, a series designed to promote fresh racing talent in Spain, back in 1999. Under the guidance of Alberto Puig, Pedrosa scored two podium finishes in the first season and won his first race the following year, when he finished third in the championship. In 2003, he won five races and won the championship with two rounds remaining, scoring 223 points. In his first championship winning year, Pedrosa scored five victories and six podium finishes. A week after winning the championship, eighteen year old Pedrosa broke both of his ankles in a crash during practice at Phillip Island (Australia), ending his season.

250cc

After winning the 125cc Championship, Pedrosa moved up to the 250cc class in 2004 without a proper test on the new bike because his ankles were healing during the off-season. Going into the season unprepared, Pedrosa won the first race in South Africa and went on to clinch the 250cc World Championship title, including rookie of the year honours. In his first season in 250cc class, Pedrosa scored 7 victories and 13 podium finishes. Pedrosa decided to stay for one more season in 250cc class, and he won another title, once again with two races remaining in championship. In 2005, Pedrosa won 8 races and scored 14 podium finishes, despite a shoulder injury he sustained in practice session for Japanese Grand Prix.

MotoGP

Dani Pedrosa on board the Repsol Honda RC211V.

Pedrosa made the move to 990cc MotoGP bikes in 2006, still riding for Honda. Critics said that Pedrosa's tiny stature wasn't strong enough to handle a big, heavy MotoGP bike and successfully race in the premier class. Proving them wrong, he finished second in the opening round at Jerez on March 26, 2006. At his fourth ever MotoGP appearance, on May 14, 2006, during the Chinese Grand Prix race weekend held in Shanghai, he won his first MotoGP race. This win made him the exact equal 2nd youngest winner (tied with the late Norick Abe) in the Premier Class behind Freddie Spencer. He won his second MotoGP race at Donington Park and became a strong candidate for the MotoGP Championship. It was a memorable victory for Dani, who shared the podium first time with Valentino Rossi in 2nd place. He also took 2 pole positions in the first half of the season.

In the race in Estoril - Portugal 2006 he crashed in to Nicky Hayden a very controversy crash that almost cost Nicky the championship.

Nicky Hayden & Dani Pedrosa Crash Estoril | Portugal 2006

Pedrosa's own manager admitted the pass attempt and justified it, saying Pedrosa had a mathematical chance of winning the championship. Never mind that Hayden was leading the championship at the time. Watch the race again and tell me that wasn't a pass attempt.

Until the Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang, Pedrosa was 2nd in the Championship only behind his more experienced team-mate Nicky Hayden. However, he fell heavily during Free Practice and suffered a severe gash to the knee; which practically rendered him immobile. Pedrosa qualified 5th on the grid in that race due to the cancellation of the qualifying session proper due to heavy rainfall. He miraculously managed to finish 3rd in that race, only behind Rossi and Ducati rider Loris Capirossi. However, in the next races, his form dropped and he struggled with the bike; moving him down to 5th place in the MotoGP standings.

Day 2 of practice in Qatar- Summaries

The big changes to the Ducati Desmosedici GP9 already brought in during the early stages of preseason, the relatively minor details are being refined in the final tests before the season curtain-raiser in Qatar. For this week’s night test in Losail the latest item on the agenda is a new swingarm, used by the factory riders under the night sky.

Timesheet topper Casey Stoner was able to run the rear suspension fork on Monday night, in a brief ride on his last stint out of the garage. Ducati MotoGP Project Manager Livio Suppo commented on the findings, indicating no big worries with the part’s introduction.

After the rain upset the first night of testing on Sunday, Fiat Yamaha riders Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo were finally able to make a proper start on their testing programme in Qatar on Monday.

Running under floodlights in preparation for the season-opener in a month’s time, the talented pair were able to put in a good night’s work despite a late-evening break when the track was red-flagged after two riders crashed.

With cool temperatures and a dirty track surface after high winds earlier, lap times were well off record pace but Rossi was able to put in some consistent times and finished the night second behind Casey Stoner. Lorenzo is still looking to find his confidence in the new Bridgestone tyres but he improved gradually throughout the evening to finish in seventh.

An already difficult preseason for Spanish Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa took a turn for the worse on Monday at the MotoGP Official Night Test, as he crashed heavily on turn ten of the Losail International Circuit, sustaining blows to his already injured left knee and the left hand which he hurt at Sachsenring last season.

Dovizioso made encouraging progress on his factory RC212V and set the fourth fastest lap of the day while he and his team focused on electronic settings. Though a strong wind blowing sand across the track meant that the MotoGP riders’ lap times were not as fast as in the race here in 2008, Dovizioso completed 60 laps and set the fourth fastest time of the day, a 1m 57.879s lap, which was 0.740s off Casey Stoner’s best. Dovizioso will return to Losail tomorrow for the final session of this three-day test.

Yamaha’s Tech 3 satellite team Duel had mixed results on Day 2 of practice, while Colin Edwards Had a pretty good practice and had remarkable results, James Toseland seams to be struggling at the back of the pack with the slowest time recorded. I guess that the tension between the two has blown wind under the Taxes tornado wings wail slowing the young British rider.

Always a bluntly realistic rider, Marco Melandri has warned that he will need time to get fully acquainted with the Hayate Racing bike that has salvaged his participation in the 2009 season. The second fastest man on track on Sunday night in Qatar, in a session that saw reduced activity as a result of rainfall, Melandri put in the most laps of any rider -35- as he searched for comfort on the Ninja ZX-RR.

Breaching the 2’01 barrier with his quickest lap as one of only two riders to do so, the former MotoGP World Championship runner-up played down any overly positive conclusions from the Sunday action.

“I need so much more time. I did only a few laps and the times were pretty slow because of the dirty track,” he explained after the session.

“The bike is also completely different to the ’08 that I used in November; I need a few more hours to understand it but the first impression was quite good.”

Melandri was at least familiar with the Qatar track after a recent scouting operation, when he competed at the circuit as part of the Speedcar Series. In between the announcement of his reincorporation into MotoGP and his Sunday test appearance, the Italian also had time to participate in the latest round of the series at Dubai this past weekend –where he finished tenth and eighth.

Preparing for their debut on the biggest stage, the MotoGP debutants are busy learning their lines for opening night in Qatar. That is the case for newcomer Yuki Takahashi, who chose an appropriate rider to whom to play understudy on the second night at Losail.

The Scot Racing rider´s former 250cc teammate and predecessor in the satellite squad, Andrea Dovizioso made an impressive debut to finish fourth at last years Grand Prix in Qatar. The Italian found time on Monday night to show the ropes to Takahashi, leaving the Japanese newcomer grateful for his help.

Session 2 - 02/03/09

Pos	Rider	Country	Fastest lap	Prev. Gap	Lead. Gap	Laps
1	Casey Stoner	AUS	1:57.139	-	-	37
2	Valentino Rossi	ITA	1:57.747	+0.608	+0.608	51
3	Colin Edwards	USA	1:57.817	+0.070	+0.678	41
4	Andrea Dovizioso	ITA	1:57.879	+0.062	+0.740	60
5	Chris Vermeulen	AUS	1:58.018	+0.139	+0.879	24
6	Loris Capirossi	ITA	1:58.264	+0.246	+1.125	42
7	Jorge Lorenzo	SPA	1:58.400	+0.136	+1.261	63
8	Alex De Angelis	RSM	1:58.441	+0.041	+1.302	53
9	Nicky Hayden	USA	1:58.577	+0.136	+1.438	54
10	Dani Pedrosa	SPA	1:58.619	+0.042	+1.480	28
11	Randy De Puniet	FRA	1:58.936	+0.317	+1.797	55
12	Toni Elias	SPA	1:59.036	+0.100	+1.897	56
13	Yuki Takahashi	JPN	1:59.153	+0.117	+2.014	65
14	Marco Melandri	ITA	1:59.195	+0.042	+2.056	63
15	Niccolo Canepa	ITA	1:59.266	+0.071	+2.127	36
16	Mika Kallio	FIN	1:59.764	+0.498	+2.625	48
17	James Toseland	GBR	2:00.234	+0.470	+3.095	51