Casey Stoner’s health state has determined him and his medical staff from Australia to take the decision of missing from the next three MotoGP races. Ducati Marlboro team has made the news public together with the mention that Stoner will return to MotoGP racing in October, at the Portuguese GP. He will meanwhile be replaced by Mika Kallio on the Ducati Marlboro factory bike.
Apparently, the Australian MotoGP rider suffers from chronic fatigue determined by a virus – most likely caught during the Barcelona race – and also by the fact that Stoner pushed himself so hard during these last five races.
Together with this decision, Stoner is forced to give up to his current 3rd place in the Championship as well. Afflicted, he commented:
“After five extremely difficult races due to my health, I returned to Australia to visit the sports doctors who have looked after me for many years. We have taken the difficult decision not to contest the next three rounds of the championship, to allow my body time to recover from the recent stress. The doctors believe that during the Barcelona race I was suffering from a virus, and, that I subsequently pushed my body too hard, leading to problems that have caused my fatigue since then. The doctors are continuing with many tests to try to understand these problems and make sure it does not happen again. I have spoken with Ducati and thank them for their understanding at this time. I feel very sorry for the factory, my team, my sponsors and the fans and I am also disappointed because the bike in the last races has been very competitive. I will be doing everything possible to come back at full strength for Portugal.”
This year’s British Grand Prix was a surprise and, luckily, not one related to the weather. Andrea Dovizioso won his first MotoGP first place and it was followed by Colin Edwards and Randy de Puniet. How’s that for the Donington Park podium?
Valentino Rossi won the German MotoGP round after taking off from pole position. He was closely followed by teammate Jorge Lorenzo, while Dani Pedrosa had to comply with third place. Full story
We recently made a post regarding the 2010 Ducati 848 Hayden Edition and now came across a video of one such special bike on the internet. It is located at Commonwealth Motorcycles in Louisville, Kentucky in expectancy of that also special future owner.
Before the MotoGP race at Mazda Raceways, and our lucky pre-grid visit. Yamaha gave us the opportunity to walk right in their secret garages (team Fiat and team Monster).
Located in the back of the garage, the storage area is packed with expensive supplies, all stored in travel cases that probably cost more than any street bikes. Tires are cooking on aluminum racks, and precious suspension bits are piled as if it was Christmas. In between the storage and the pit garage, a narrow engineering room offers just enough space to pack 5 or 6 engineers and their laptops. Behind all that you ’finally’ enter the dream garage, with only two bikes and not one bit of mess anywhere to be found. The floor is carpeted to the team colors and all tool boxes are shinning as if they were just getting out of the show room.
It certainly take more mess for anyone to change their oil than it takes those mechanics to change every single part on those bikes altogether. Simply amazing!
Also check out the Autoblog article made by our friend Drew Philips. He took some great shots during the same visit.
