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A hungover Dave
Campsite
Thor
MotoGP Race
Boxer burnout
Stefan Donath
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The weekend
If you want to go to a European MotoGP round I can strongly
recommend the German GP - you HAVE to stay at the trackside
campsite (Ankerberg). This is the most amazing party:
apparantly the largest biking event in the German calendar
and even larger than the campsite at Brands Hatch. However
the usual complaints about facilities at the British
circuits can't be applied to Sachsenring. Lots of clean
toliets, plenty of showers and entertainment laid on
from Thursday until Monday meant that we were spoilt
in comparison. And boy did we make the most of it. I'm
sure I'll get my voice back before Donington.
If you get to the site early and don't mind being in
the noisiest part of the campsite (with car engines
on pallets being revved all night) then you can wake
up in the morning be greeted with an imposing view of
the track on the opposite hill.
The band on Friday night, Thor, were
awesome - like Rammstein and even playing some Rammstien
covers. It helped that I had the hots for the long haired
guitarist of course.
For some reason Jimi Somerville was
the lead on Saturday night down at the circuit. We went
for a couple of songs - churlish not to really - but
returned for more partying at the campsite
The circuit
Sachsenring is a hilly circuit nestled in a bowl shape
on the side of the hill, which makes the sound of the
bikes resonate beautifully. It wasn't hard to make out
the difference in engine tone between the factory Ducatis
and the satellite teams. The Kawasakis sounded surprisingly
fabulous.
The Race
Jeremy McWilliams suffered an agonising looking qualifying
crash where his bike walloped into the back of his head
so we were amazed to see him racing on Sunday - these
racers are made of stern stuff, as we all know.
Melandri had a high speed race tumble, another heart
in your mouth moment, but he picked himself up again.
Poor old Bayliss had another spill, a bad day for Ducati
with Capirossi also down.
Biaggi surprised us by taking the win with Rossi only
bagging a fourth. However, with Gibernau making a big
mistake and ditching it early on, Rossi was effectively
gifted the championship lead, but only ahead of Max
by 1 point now! It's a great season!
Boxer Cup
We met Team Boxer Great Britain and had a chat with
the manager and a couple of racers. They were our first
Brits to talk to in 2 days apart from eachother!
German Superbikes
This was a show race rather than for points, but it
gets a mention because we were drinking for several
hours into the wee hours of Sunday morning with rider
No. 45, Stefan Donath, and his team. We doubted their
claim, especially as No. 45 wasn't listed in the program,
but then snapped this shot after the racing. Cool.
Results
1. Biaggi
2. Barros
3. Hayden
4. Rossi
5. Edwards
6. Tamada
7. Nakano
8. Roberts
9. Hopkins
10. Hoffman
Championship Standings
1. Rossi 139
2. Biaggi 138
3. Gibernau 126
4. Barros 79
5. Edwards 75
6. Hayden 70
7. Checa 62
8. Melandri 57
9 . Capirossi 55
10 . Tamada 54 |
