July 23, 2006- Results from the American GP at Laguna Seca

What a fantastic race (once again) from Laguna Seca today!! Unfortunately, I was not able to see it live. I had the laptop at the track with me today, but the feed was coming through so slowly, I was only getting a picture every 2-3 seconds, so I opted to turn it off and wait until I could get home and watch the whole thing uninterrupted. It was worth the wait! Chris Vermeulen ran an impressive race. This was only his 13th MotoGP showing, and he led the race by quite a margin for many laps. He was overtaken by Nicky Hayden on lap 17 in turn 3, when Vermeulen took the turn just a little wide, and Nicky jumped on the opening. By lap 30, Chris had fallen victim to worn out tires and a fully taxed engine, and slipped down to 5th place. Near the beginning of the race, Stoner, Pedrosa and Roberts, Jr put on an awesome show running 3 wide and switching positions literally around every turn. Pedrosa eventually powered past the other two riders and landed himself in second place. Shinya Nikano's Kawasaki broke down 15 laps into the race and he had to retire. The other victim of the 15th lap was Casey Stoner who's front end washed out, sending him off track and out of the race. Toni Elias had a small agricultural excursion on lap 17, but managed to get back out there and finished 15th overall.

The man, Valentino Rossi, struggled from a 10th place start and made it all the way up to 4th, ticking off riders like the seconds on a clock. 6th place by lap 18, past Roberts, Jr into 5th on lap 19, and finally overtaking Melandri on lap 20 for his 4th place position. He was running strong, and I was sure he was soon to catch up to the leaders and slap us all with the entertainment only the Doctor himself can provide. BUT NO!!!! With only 4 laps to go, he had dropped down into 6th position, and continued to fall back. It seemed he had run out of tire, but was pressing on to finish the race and take whatever points he could get. On the next lap, his big yellow M1 turned into a crop duster as it spewed gobs of smoke from the exhaust. He was expected to pull into the pits as he was only motoring around the track at maybe 50 mph at this point. He passed the pits and limped on for those few finish line points. That didn't happen either. The bike finally gave out, and Rossi had to make the long walk back to the pits. A DNF for Vale :( How disappointing.

In the end it was Hayden, Pedrosa and Melandri occupying the podium. The crowd exploded when Nicky took the checkered flag for the second year in a row at Laguna. And Nicky did some righteous celebration of his own as he danced a jig on his pegs, and tossed that oh-so-familiar Repsol Honda around the front straight flying a big American flag. He was one happy guy!! Dani Pedrosa took his second place finish in stride. He was very happy, but handled it like someone who had won 30 MotoGP races... not a first year rider. Congratulations to Nicky and Dani and Repsol Honda.... they went big!!! What a tremendous team. Congrats to Marco too... I wouldn't dream of leaving him out! A well deserved podium spot.. I see big things for him. I think he's one to keep an eye on. Here are the results of the race:

Position	Rider	Manufacturer
1	Hayden	Honda
2	Pedrosa	Honda
3	Melandri	Honda
4	Roberts, Jr	KR211V
5	Vermeulen	Suzuki
6	Hopkins	Suzuki
7	Checa	Yamaha
8	Capirossi	Ducati
9	Edwards	Yamaha
10	Gibernau	Ducati
11	Tamada	Honda
12	de Puniet	Kawasaki
13	Ellison	Yamaha
14	Hofmann	Ducati
15	Elias	Honda
16	Cardoso	Ducati

So that's the story of the 2006 American GP at Laguna Seca. I now have to wait 25 days for my next racing fix... I don't know if I can do that!! For now, I am taking my way-too-tired ass to bed. I had a 16 hour day today of racing in Gainesville, and I am wiped out! I will get to the rider profile/standing updates soon... but not tonight :)

Until next time......

Rubb'er Down :)

Kristen