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 ...can't make up its mind what
the heck it's going to do! Valencia is a port town and the
circuit, just a few convenient kilometres outside, is at
the foot of some mini-mountains. As any amateur meteorologist
will tell you, that's a combination almost guaranteed to
give you some rather interesting weather. And so it was,
as Friday was dry for qualifying and practice, with occasional
wet bits and Saturday was, um, wet with occasional dry bits.
One thing that any racer or suspension guru
will tell you is that the hardest thing to deal with is inconsistent
weather. The difference in setup between wet and dry conditions
is huge - not just in terms of using treaded or slick tyres
but in suspension stiffness, tyre sizes, engine mapping,
everything. And for a rider, not knowing whether the track
is wet or dry around the next corner can make life rather
more exciting than it really needs to be.
Valencia is a fairly complicated circuit.
Actually that's an understatement. Valencia is a highly technical
circuit that adds elevation changes and a highly unusual
counter-clockwise direction to its climatic peculiarities
to make possibly one of the most demanding tracks on the
calendar. And surface conditions which were changing between
laps conspired to make things distinctly interesting.
 Friday qualifying saw the
usual suspects topping the timesheets - Troy Bayliss, apparently
none the
worse for his Donington crash, James Toseland and local hero
Ruben Xaus, with Troy Corser, Max Biaggi and Nori Haga all
in the chase as well. But Saturday's wet weather made things
far more even as Josh Brookes took the slightly power disadvantaged
Alto Evolution Honda to the top of the timesheets and kept
it there. Now when it's raining, Superpole is
a confusing affair for everyone - riders, circuit officials,
journalists
and so on - so chaos reigned for a short time while people
figured out exactly what was going on. For those of you who
don't know, wet Superpole is a fifty minute session where
each rider is allowed up to twelve laps. It's more tactical
than normal, as some riders go out, do their absolute best
and then stop, some wait until the last minute and some go
out, set a time, see how everyone else is doing and then
have another go. A bit like regular qualifying in MotoGP,
in fact, but shorter and more highly pressured. Some people
obviously know when they've got more to give and when they
haven't. Ruben Xaus, for example, did just three laps but
put himself second on the grid. Until very near the end of
the session, in fact, he was in the lead. Troy Bayliss eventually
pipped him by just a tenth of a second in the dying stages,
while Josh Brookes stormed through to third place, a tenth
of a second behind the local hero. Troy Corser, struggling
for grip on the changeable circuit, came in fourth, over
half a second behind the Alto Evolution Honda rider, while
championship leader James Toseland came in just seven hundredths
of a second later to take fifth and head the second row.
Lanzi, Haga and Kagayama lined up alongside Toseland, with
Haga just under a second slower than Bayliss and Kagayama
a full seven tenths behind him. Fabrizio just beat Muggeridge
to ninth, making the Alto Evolution riders the top qualifying
Honda team - pretty impressive for a private entry with a
relatively limited budget.
Race day dawned, as race days do. Indeed,
as all days do. The weather, we all recognised, was going
to continue to be an issue as it essentially continued the
same as yesterday. So the assembled photographers got wet
in the warm-up, properly wet in Superstocks and then alternately
damp and dry in the first race. Grip, it's fair to say, was
at a bit of a premium. It was dry enough for slicks, but
there were distinctly iffy areas around the circuit where
the possibility of it all going wrong was very real.
 When the lights went out for race
one, the
power differential between the Alto Evolution Hondas and
the other front runners was obvious straight off the line
as Brookes was swallowed up Corser, Haga and Toseland, being
relegated to sixth within the first few hundred yards. But
it was Corser who really flew, taking the lead from Bayliss
while Toseland fired the Ten Kate machine up into third,
ahead of Haga. Further back, Muggeridge had also suffered
from the lack of off the line grunt, dropping to twelfth
behind Kagayama and Laconi, with Biaggi moving the opposite
way and using the immense power of the Suzuki to climb to
ninth ahead of Laconi. Fonsi Nieto attached the Kawasaki
to the back of Lanzi's Ducati and chased him for a lap before
diving past to the delight of the crowd. Not for long, though,
as Muggeridge took the race by the scruff of the neck and
climbing to ninth by the end of lap two, passing Nieto to
take eighth just a few laps later. Up at the front, it was
Xaus on the move, the lanky local following Haga past a struggling
Toseland on lap two, passing Haga and Bayliss on the next
two laps and then barging past Corser to take an immensely
popular lead. And, other than a one lap hiccup when Haga
got past again, that's where he stayed. Corser dropped back
steadily as, presumably, a poor tyre choice saw him losing
grip, traction or both, while Toseland stabilised in fifth
place, fighting off an early challenge from a hard pushing
Josh Brookes. Brookes also suffered from tyre fade towards
the end, dropping from a solid sixth to ninth in the space
of just a couple of corners. Karl Muggeridge, who had been
going so well, suffered a big highside at the end of the
start straight, ending up in the Clinica Mobile after clouting
his head. Fonsi Nieto and local wildcard Morales both succumbed
to the pressure of the home crowd and crashed out, while
Max Biaggi, Lorenzo Lanzi and Michel Fabrizio all profited
from Brookes' problems to move up the field.
So a hugely popular win for the likeable
local Ruben Xaus, who celebrated so hard that he and his
Ducati had to get a tow back to the Parc Ferme from one of
the safety cars...
 Race two saw something of a stabilisation
in the weather to something akin to what we normally expect
in Spain - warm, dry, sunny. Well, warm and dry, anyway.
The sun was proving rather reluctant to come out. A spectacular
case of spontaneous self-disassembly in the preceding GSX-R
cup had left a trail of oil on the track. Copious amounts
of chalk dust later, the line was still distinctly there
but it was probably slightly less hazardous than before.
Certainly when the lights went out everyone cleared the first
corner without a problem, though progress was perhaps a little
more circumspect than usual. Corner two was a different matter,
though, as Giovanni Bussei barged up through the inside and
punted Karl Muggeridge into the gravel and out of the race
for the second time. Bussei remounted and continued the race
but Muggeridge was out though unhurt. At the front, Haga
had made the break off the line this time, leading Toseland
and Xaus with Corser, Bayliss, Lanzi and Laconi following.
Brookes again suffered with the lack of off the line grunt,
ending the first lap back in tenth place behind Fabrizio
and Biaggi. Staying with the leading group, things got and
stayed very tight as both Xaus and Toseland passed Haga before
Haga repassed Toseland to take second, going one better after
just two laps. The crowd were on their feet and it was all
getting exciting as Toseland also passed Xaus, climbing all
over the back of the leading Yamaha for half a dozen laps
before slipping past. Three laps later and it was a reversal
as Haga retook the lead, while two laps after that it was
the Englishman's turn to lead the field, staying in front
to take the chequered flag by just under three tenths of
a second. Max Biaggi, after a terrible start, began to claw
his way up through the field, taking sixteen laps to reach
the last step of the podium. But Max is a smart guy, and
he hung back while Haga and Toseland banged fairings and
swapped paint for the last couple of laps, diving in at the
very last moment and mugging Haga for second place, beating
the Japanese rider by under a tenth of a second.
Josh Brookes, meantime, was riding the wheels
off the Alto Evolution Honda, climbing to seventh place and
battling hard with Troy Bayliss, bringing at least some good
fortune to the team in payment for their exceptionally hard
work. Troy Corser had a dismal day, slipping from fourth
to ninth as he continued to struggle with setup problems
on the Yamaha. And Bayliss was obviously not quite as on
form as his race one performance would have us believe as
he too slipped down the field, being beaten by his team-mate
for one of the first times ever. Regis Laconi was the first
Kawasaki rider home, Fonsi Nieto having retired earlier in
the race with a mechanical problem. Christian Zaiser crashed
the MV hard, though apparently unhurt, but all the local
wildcards finished safely in a race which was unusually well
attended by Spanish SBK standards but which attracted almost
no interest by Valencia standards. My guess would be that
there were over a hundred thousand empty seats here in a
circuit seating a hundred and forty thousand.
Anyhow, the championship is as interesting
as ever. Though Toseland has extended his lead there are
still plenty of other riders who could take it away from
him. It's Assen in a couple of weeks, and it's a popular
circuit with Brits, it's Ten Kate's home track and James
goes well there. But Max Biaggi has raced there before, Troy
Bayliss should be fit then and Nori Haga is always quick.
It's going to be a cracker...
Race
One
1 Ruben Xaus (Ducati)
2 Noriuki Haga (Yamaha)
3 Troy Bayliss (Ducati)
4 Troy Corser (Yamaha)
5 James Toseland (Honda)
6 Lorenzo Lanzi (Ducati)
7 Michel Fabrizio (Honda)
8 Max Biaggi (Suzuki)
9 Josh Brookes(Honda)
10 Robi Rolfo (Honda)
Race Two
1 James Toseland (Honda)
2 Max Biaggi (Suzuki)
3 Noriuki Haga (Yamaha)
4 Ruben Xaus (Ducati)
5 Lorenzo Lanzi (Ducati)
6 Troy Bayliss (Ducati)
7 Josh Brookes (Honda)
8 Regis Laconi (Kawasaki)
9 Troy Corser (Yamaha)
10 Max Neukirchner (Suzuki)
Championship Standing
after four rounds:
1 James Toseland 151
2 Max Biaggi 138
3 Nori Haga 124
4 Troy Corser 101
5 Troy
Bayliss 60
6 Lorenzo Lanzi 87
7 Ruben
Xaus 83
8 Max Neukirchner 56
9 Roby Rolfo 46
10 Regis Laconi 37
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