SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER

Turn one bike-billiards took out both Ducattis, De Puniet, and Bautista, when Bautista's front wheel hit Dovi's rear and put Bautista on his side. Bautista was almost in a stoppie trying to avoid him. Everyone else gets through, and Stoner takes off into the distance, with Pedrosa, Spies, and Dovizioso behind. Spies and the two non-Stoner Hondas made a race out of most of the event, and settled in to Spies riding a close 4th as the Hondas dueled for 2nd.

Later on it started to drizzle a bit, and Spies took the Hondas in turn 4, one at a time on successive laps. He caught Stoner in a few more laps, and when Stoner went wide on the slippery surface (and talking to the press, Stoner reports he selected neutral at that turn,) Spies took the lead.

Dovi and Pedrosa dropped back as conditions worsened, but Spies seemed to have the race in hand. Last turn, last lap, though, maybe his line was worse than Stoner's, maybe he was just a little bit too cautious, but regardless, Stoner came for more than a second back to take him at the line by .015! I startled my dog with what I said to the TV; sorry, dog. Spies and Stoner were laughing with each other on the podium.

Crutchlow was able to get by Pedrosa for 4th, and takes rookie of the year honors.

Josh Hayes, riding for the injured Colin Edwards, finished in 7th after starting last on the grid, and battling quite a while with Karel Abraham. (BTW, in the morning warm-up, in wet conditions, Hayes switched to slicks near the end as it started to dry and pulled out the fastest time of the session!)

Marco's father's request for a minute of noise was answered with a fireworks display before the racing. Very cool! There was also a parade lap of all the participants from all classes, with Kevin Schwantz leading on Simoncelli's bike. In the race, Loris Capirossi carried number 58 on his bike, in his last race before retiring.

Sooooooooo close for Spies. Damn Honda power. Stoner definitely earned, deserves this years championship. But I really think Spies will be a contender next year on the 1000. We all know how good he is on a superbike (1 WSBK, 3 AMA Superbike championships).

It was nice a tribute to Super Sic but I do wish they did the 58 seconds of noise (race motors revving) as Marco's father suggested. There is a 13 minute video of the tribute on the motogp.com website and it is free to view. Just be aware you WILL see the results of the race at this website. All us American race fans should be proud of Josh Hayes' performance. New bike, new brakes, new track, new tires and rain to top it off and he comes in 7th. Well done Josh! A hell of alot better than what quitter Ben Bostrom did at the Laguna Seca GP.

Thanks for the reminder. I almost forgot to record it.

fjrgary said:

. . . but I do wish they did the 58 seconds of noise (race motors revving) as Marco's father suggested.

Click to expand...

From what I understand, they did do the noise. It wasn't the bikes, it was the fireworks.

What a finish. As an Aussie and committed Stoner fan, I was really sorry to see Spies lose it on the line. He rode an excellently judged race - held back when he didn't need to get into the dogfight over 2nd, and when he decided to make his moves did them both really well. When he took Stoner and was running first on the road in the rain/dry/rain he also held and excellent pace. What a bummer to get done on the line.

Hi All,

Casey could have coasted, he already had the MOTO GP title, was in the lead all but a couple of laps from the finish and then got it back. Bravo!

R.I.P. SUPER SIC

Regards

Surly

h34r:

Couldn't believe the Honda power to overcome Spies on that last stretch! Is the Honda that much stronger or was there more... like rider weight or did Stoner disengage traction control and go all out?

I think he was simply less cautious than Spies. In the press conference after he stated that he had nothing to lose by going for it, so he did.