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Stoner slams track design after teen rider’s death

admin — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 08:11:05 +0000

THE INSIDE BACKCasey Stoner has attacked MotoGP track designs following the death of Japanese rider Shoya Tomizawa in the Moto2 San Marino Grand Prix. Tomizawa, 19, suffered multiple head and internal injuries when he was struck by following bikes in a sickening 240km/h crash. Tomizawa was racing through the fastest corner of the circuit when he ran wide over the edge of the track, spun sideways as he tried to recover and was struck by Italian Alex de Angelis and Briton Scott Redding. ”The race should have been stopped, you could see from the television that this was a crash you couldn’t walk away from,” Stoner said. ”Tomizawa was a rider to watch in the future, this is extremely disappointing.” Stoner said the placement of smooth tarmac run-off areas and artificial grass on track edges had taken the fear factor out of running off the track and made riders feel ”bulletproof”. ”The extra tarmac gives everybody an invincible feeling that they can run off and come straight back on,” he said. ”It is ridiculous, riders become too confident and without fear they ride with too much confidence and things like this can happen. Grass is not the best thing but if it was real grass or real dirt, people wouldn’t push that far. I was watching the race and these things can happen, it didn’t get inside my head before the race and you know there is always a chance it could happen to you.” POOR PETER A disastrous South Africa Tri Nations campaign and controversial comments by embattled coach Peter de Villiers will be reviewed this month. ”Rugby followers are extremely disappointed with results in the Tri Nations as are the Springbok team and management,” South African Rugby Union president Oregan Hoskins said. ”We take the situation very seriously but there is a process in place and we will follow that through. SARU will make no further comment until the review process is complete.” The thick-skinned coach has grown used to hostile reporters and repeatedly claims that when his team triumph he is a ‘’superman” and when they flop he is a ”clown”. MURRAY MIFFED You have to feel sorry for world No.4 Andy Murray, carrying the weight of four nations every times he picks up a tennis racquet. At his exit from the US Open, in the third round, he said he might never win a major….

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San Marino GP: Ducati race report

admin — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 22:13:49 +0000

TOUGH DAY AT MISANO FOR CASEY STONER, NICKY HAYDEN AND THE WHOLE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP Casey Stoner and Nicky Hayden endured a difficult race at Misano today, the Australian again struggling with front-end problems and the American crashing out at the second corner after making contact with Loris Capirossi. Their disappointment at the race was nothing, however, compared to their sadness and that of the whole paddock at the news that Shoya Tomizawa had passed away following an incident in the Moto2 race. CASEY STONER (Ducati Marlboro Team) 5th “I am very, very disappointed with our performance today considering the feeling we found yesterday after a few modifications. The feeling today was completely different from warm-up this morning. I tried to stay with Jorge in the race but I started to make mistakes because the front kept closing. It became a challenge just to make it to the end of the race and hold my position. This is not important today though considering what has happened. I am deeply saddened for Tomizawa, his family and everybody who worked with him. It is something truly terrible and it left me breathless, like a week ago. It was a pleasure to watch him ride and I was looking forward to see him have a great career.” NICKY HAYDEN — (Ducati Marlboro Team) DNF “This hasn’t been a great track for me over the last couple of years. I got quite a good start and made up some positions but on the exit of turn two when I got on the gas and opened up for the next turn I touched with Loris, who was closing his line a little. I’m sorry but it was a racing incident that can happen at any time and when you start so far back you tend to cross lines. The shifter was damaged and I had to come back in. All this is irrelevant though compared with what happened to Tomizawa. I am really sad, we have lost two riders in two weekends. My thoughts are with his family and his team but I think the whole paddock has been hit hard by this tragedy. At the end of the day we are all brothers here. We have lost a talented kid with a great personality. I loved his style, his determination and the smile he always wore.” VITTORIANO GUARESCHI, Team manager “This was a very…

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Stoner attacks MotoGP track designs

admin — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 17:47:44 +0000

AAP Australia’s Casey Stoner has attacked MotoGP track designs following the tragic death of Japanese rider Shoya Tomizawa in Sunday’s Moto2 San Marino Grand Prix. Tomizawa, 19, suffered multiple head and internal injuries when he was struck by following bikes in a sickening 240kph crash. In the MotoGP race which followed Stoner, still fighting an ill-handling Ducati, finished a distant fifth and slumped to fifth place in the championship. The race was won by Spaniard Dani Pedrosa on a Honda, ahead of championship leader Jorge Lorenzo with Valentino Rossi third, both on Yamahas. Shell-shocked riders paid tribute to Tomizawa’s emerging talent after they learnt that he had succumbed to his injuries at the nearby Riccione Hospital. “He was a very funny guy, always making jokes. There is a big hole inside me,” Pedrosa said. A sad-faced Rossi, the seven-time world champion, said that “the rest means nothing when this happens.” The MotoGP riders lined up for their race, battling emotions to stay focussed, knowing that Tomizawa was fighting a losing battle for his life. Most riders, including Rossi and Stoner, had watched the brutal crash on television as they waited for their race to follow the Moto2 event. “I could feel it on the grid, everybody kind of knew, so I didn’t need to ask – I could feel it,” said American rider Nicky Hayden. Rossi said : “I knew it was bad. I hoped only for fractures but I thought he was dead.” Stoner, the 2007 world champion, led the call for a safety review to instil a feeling of caution amongst riders. Tomizawa was racing flat out through the fastest corner of the circuit when he ran wide over the edge of the track, spun sideways as he tried to recover and was struck by Italian Alex de Angelis and Briton Scott Redding. “The race should have been stopped, you could see from the television that this was a crash you couldn’t walk away from,” said an emotional Stoner. “Tomizawa was a rider to watch in the future, this is extremely disappointing.” Stoner says the placement of smooth tarmac run-off areas and artificial grass on track edges has taken the fear factor out of running off the track and made riders feel “bullet proof.” “The extra tarmac gives everybody an invincible feeling that they can run-off and come straight back on,” he said. “It is ridiculous, riders…

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Stoner qualifies third, Pedrosa on pole

admin — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 15:23:26 +0000

AFP Australian Casey Stoner has bounced back from a disappointing Friday practice by qualifying third for Sunday’s San Marino MotoGP. Stoner’s effort came despite crashing in the first quarter of an hour of Saturday’s qualifying session and puts him on the front row alongside pole sitter Dani Pedrosa and championship leader Jorge Lorenzo. Pedrosa claimed his 17th MotoGP pole by a mere three thousandths of a second from fellow Spaniard Lorenzo to continue the good form which saw him win the United States grand prix in Indianapolis last weekend. “I prefer to be in front because the first corner is very tight and I don’t want to find myself in a mass crash,” said Pedrosa. Italy’s multi-time world champion Valentino Rossi, winner here the past two seasons, was fourth fastest, edging out American rookie Ben Spies, who is replacing Ducati-bound Rossi at Yamaha next season. Qualifying was so tight that the first 10 riders were within a second of each other after Honda had threatened to dominate it on Friday in practice. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.phpFive Filters featured article: “Peace Envoy” Blair Gets an Easy Ride in the Independent.

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MOTOGP: Stoner bullish despite qualifying crash

admin — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 07:45:49 +0000

By Matt Beer Saturday, September 4th 2010, 13:41 GMT Casey Stoner believes he is in better shape for the San Marino Grand Prix than for several races, despite crashing in qualifying. The Ducati rider will start third at Misano, behind Honda’s Dani Pedrosa and Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo, and had a low-speed fall at Turn 4 early in the session. However he is very confident for the race having reverted to older specification forks today after struggling in practice. “Yesterday we were working a lot with the new forks and we couldn’t get any feeling with them,” said Stoner. “We were wondering why we were so far from the pace. “Straight away when we went to bike two today with the old forks, immediately we went a second quicker – literally from jumping off one bike to the next without any more effort. “So we’re looking a lot more comfortable for the race tomorrow. We worked on quite a few things in qualifying to get the feeling better.” He played down the crash, which had when the front end slid away as he slowed for Turn 4 20 minutes into qualifying, just after he had taken provisional pole. “I did one lap which was relatively smooth and everything went so well, I thought ‘okay, we’ll push a little bit harder’ on the next lap,” Stoner explained. “I tried to run a little bit too much speed. It was only a small crash on a tight corner. “For tomorrow we’re looking a lot more comfortable than we have in the past, for sure. “We’re still behind Dani and Jorge. But we’re optimistic for tomorrow, let’s see what can happen. Hopefully get another podium.” This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.phpFive Filters featured article: “Peace Envoy” Blair Gets an Easy Ride in the Independent.

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MOTOGP: Stoner not looking at Honda form

admin — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 11:31:00 +0000

By David Emmett and Matt Beer Friday, September 3rd 2010, 17:25 GMT Casey Stoner says he remains fully committed to solving Ducati’s current problems even though he will leave the team at the end of 2010, and is not paying any attention to future employer Honda’s strong form. Ducati has yet to win a race this year, while Stoner’s future Honda team-mate Dani Pedrosa scored his third victory of the season at Indianapolis last weekend and dominated ahead of his team-mate Andrea Dovizioso in Friday practice at Misano today. But Stoner, who was only eighth fastest in today’s session, said his 2011 team’s performance was of no consolation whatsoever amid Ducati’s issues. “I have to worry about us at the moment,” said Stoner. “I don’t give a crap about what anybody else is doing at the moment. “At the moment, we’re struggling with our bike and we need to concentrate. I honestly don’t care if the Yamahas are going well, if the Kawasakis were here and they were doing well. At the moment, we’re not. “At the moment, we are the slowest bike out there. There are four manufacturers and many times we are the most difficult one. “So we have to pick up our game, and I know we can do a much better job than what we’re doing.” The former world champion said he still did not feel the team had found how to extract the potential from the Ducati GP10. “It’s just difficult to find the solution that makes this bike work,” said Stoner. “We’ve been able to get a great setting for a lot of races, but not a fantastic one, so we just need to keep working.” Ducati has been persisting with a new fork specification at Misano this weekend, and Stoner reckons the best policy is to continue making bold changes to the bike. “At the moment I’ve got not a lot to gain and not a lot to lose,” said the Australian, who is fourth in the championship, 132 points behind leader Jorge Lorenzo, at present. “We’re just going to keep trying different things and see if we can come up with a solution, because I’m sick of finishing third, being on the podium but on the last step and too far away from the lead, so we have to try something big. “Unfortunately when you try something big, it doesn’t necessarily…

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MOTOGP: Stoner rues lack of 2009 Misano data

admin — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 09:30:49 +0000

By Matt Beer Friday, September 3rd 2010, 15:23 GMT Casey Stoner put his lack of speed in Friday practice at Misano down to having missed the event in 2009. Last year’s San Marino Grand Prix was one of three races that Stoner sat out as he recovered from an illness that had hampered his performance for much of the season. He believes set-up data from that race would have helped him get on the pace today, when he ended the practice hour only eighth. “That was a difficult session for us, basically because we didn’t have any information from last year because I didn’t race here,” said Stoner. “The characteristics of the current engine are very different to the one we used in 2008 so it requires a completely different gearbox set-up and obviously that affects a lot of different things. “We took a bit of a shot in the dark with what we thought would work but unfortunately it wasn’t quite right and we had to spend a lot of time today making adjustments. “Hopefully the data we gathered can give us a much better idea of where to start from tomorrow and I’m sure we can quickly close the gap to the guys at the top.” Stoner’s team-mate Nicky Hayden was one place ahead of him, having also had a tough Friday. “That wasn’t the smoothest session we ever had and I’m losing a lot on T3,” said Hayden. “I hoped to start out a bit closer to the top than that. We need to look for some tenths, maybe by finding some better turning in the front and also adjusting the gearbox a bit better. “To be honest it’s not one big area we have to improve very much but small improvements in a few different areas. “We also had a little issue with the fairing, which came a bit loose and my leathers got caught on it so I had to get back to the pit. We were trying something and after that I had basically one chance to make a good lap so we are not sure it is the right direction, which was a bit of a bummer.” This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.phpFive Filters featured article: “Peace Envoy” Blair…

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MOTOGP: Stoner unconcerned about win-less year

admin — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 11:00:59 +0000

By Pablo Elizalde and Toby Moody Thursday, September 2nd 2010, 16:50 GMT Casey Stoner says he has no concerns about finishing the 2010 with no wins, as he feels he is riding as well as ever. The Ducati rider, the 2007 world champion, has finished on the podium five times this year, but has been unable to climb on the top step so far. Despite the lack of results, however, Stoner says he has been very happy with his performances. “Not at all, to be honest,” Stoner said when asked if he was concerned about finishing the season with no wins. “I’m happy with my riding. When I get really angry is when there’s something definitely wrong or with myself, because I don’t think I’ve been performing for some reason. “But this year to be honest I’m really happy with the way I’m riding, training, everything, I’m very happy. I can’t be disappointed with that. “Of course I’m disappointed with my results and that’s why I’m taking a few more risks with set-up. But nothing to be worked up about. I just have to forget about this year at the end of it. “We still have some more races to do and we are trying to get a little bit more speed. But it’s been a difficult season. I can’t seem to get more out of myself or the bike.” He added: “I’m not getting desperate. Like I said I would be if I wasn’t happy with my performances or I’d be really angry if things were constantly going wrong. They aren’t constantly going wrong. “We just don’t have enough speed. I’m happy with the way I’m riding, my attitude… We are trying to get some solutions to improve the results, but that’s it.” The Australian, who will ride for Honda next year, believes last weekend’s race at Indianapolis would have been his best chance to fight for victory had he not crashed out. And Stoner admits he is unlikely to be able to have a better chance in the remaining races of the year. “The best opportunity I had to win was in Indianapolis and even there I think Dani was just a little bit faster and I might have been able to finish second quite confidently. We definitely had the speed for that. There’s no circuits coming up. We’ve got to find some genius thing which if…

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Stoner rejects distraction suggestions

admin — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 08:14:50 +0000

Australia’s Casey Stoner says he has not eased off in his MotoGP campaign after signing a deal to move from Ducati to Honda next year. ‘I’m still working for Ducati and I’m still riding my butt off and I will continue to do the best job I can for them,’ said Australian Stoner ahead of this weekend’s round in Misano, Italy. ‘I’ve got a new challenge next year but that’s in the future and Ducati have done a fanatic job for many years now. ‘I’m still giving them 100 per cent and that’s all I can ask of myself and that’s all they can ask of me.’ Stoner has had a dismal campaign this season and has not won a race but he says he is simply being outpaced by other machinery. ‘Personally I think I’m riding as good as I’ve ridden. I’m as fit and strong as I’ve ever been and everybody in the Ducati team is working hard to get results,’ he said. Stoner heads to Italy and the passion of Ducati’s home fans in a bid to end his 12-race losing streak. He won this race during his world title winning 2007 season but crashed out in 2008 and missed Misano last year while on sick leave. With seven wins from 11 races 23-year-old Spaniard Jorge Lorenzo has command of this year’s championship. Stoner has scored five podiums with a best result of second place at last month’s US Grand Prix at Laguna Seca. He crashed out of Sunday’s Indianapolis GP to drop to fourth in the standings. ‘The championship is out of the question, I’ve just got to get some results,’ Stoner said. I’m just going to take it race by race and try and see where I end up.’ Stoner has been hit by a series of confidence-sapping front-end handling issues on his Ducati and even a new suspension set-up at Indy did not fix the problem. ‘Indy was a big disappointment. We’re just going to have to see if we can come up with some solutions to make the bike easier to ride,’ he said. Meanwhile Italian hero Valentino Rossi continues to battle fitness issues ahead of the Misano race just 20 minutes from his Italian home. He is recovering from a broken right leg suffered at Mugello in June. ‘I’m only about 70 per cent fit and after about nine laps I…

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Stoner ready for final ‘home’ start

admin — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 07:18:00 +0000

Eurosport – Thu, 02 Sep 14:18:00 2010 Casey Stoner will start his last Italian race as a home Ducati rider this weekend at Misano. Stoner won on MotoGP’s return to the beachside track in 2007, but crashed from the lead in 2008 and missed the 2009 round due to sickness. The Australian returns on the back of his third DNF of the season last weekend at Indianapolis, after a crash that ended his run of five successive podiums. Stoner and Ducati still haven’t won a race since Malaysia last year. “Indy was obviously a big disappointment for us but we’re looking ahead,” said Stoner. “I am happy to be going to one of Ducati’s home circuits and a place where we have gone fast in the past. “It is the third of the races I missed in 2009 so we’ll see what we can do this weekend. “We’ll have to work hard on the front again because we don’t want to take a backward step on the progress we’ve made recently. The whole team is working really hard, the guys are giving everything like always so hopefully we can have a good result to celebrate on Sunday.” Team-mate Nicky Hayden claimed his first Ducati front row start at Indy, but it counted for little after his knee slider was ripped off on a drain cover early in the race. Hayden finished sixth. The American was taken out by Alex de Angelis in last year’s Misano race, and will be looking to at least complete his first racing lap of the track since 2007! “We had a really good pace in race trim during practice and warm-up at Misano last year but I got hit from behind in the race on the Sunday,” he recalled. “It is always special to race a Ducati in Italy and I can’t wait for it. “Last year went like I said and in 2008 I didn’t race because of a foot injury so we’ll try to make up for it on Sunday, when I’m sure we’ll have the support of a lot of fans and a lot of people from Ducati.” Team manager Vittoriano Guareschi said: “The race definitely didn’t go to plan at Indianapolis but both Casey and Nicky had the pace to be on the podium. “Now we head to Misano, a place where both riders have proved in the past that…

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