MotoGP goes stateside this weekend after a long-awaited change in fortunes for Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda RC212V) and Nicky Hayden (Repsol Honda RC212V) in Germany last weekend with a first win of the season for Dani and a second consecutive podium for Nicky.
The pair had worked as hard as ever along with the team and its partners to get their season back on the rails after what has been a disappointing first half. A big result here at Laguna Seca before the four-week summer break would signal to series points leader Casey Stoner (Ducati) and Valentino Rossi (Yamaha), second in the standings, that this might yet be a three-way fight with Dani.
Add the resurgent Nicky Hayden to the mix and
what might have seemed like a relatively
straightforward season now becomes typically
involving. Marco Melandri (Gresini Honda RC212V)
too, might be out of the title race for this
season, but he is as hungry as ever for a win,
which would be his first of the season. Third
here last year, the Italian desperately wants victory.
Nicky is effectively out of the running for the
title in ninth place overall with 73 points, but
he has won every MotoGP race held here and the
Kentucky Kid is massively fired up to make it a hat-trick on Sunday.
Dani was new to Laguna Seca last year in his
rookie MotoGP season, but still managed second
place behind his team-mate Nicky, setting a new
lap record in the process. With a season's more
experience things will be different now,
especially as Dani lurks in third place in the
World Championship table with 144 to Rossi's 164 and Stoner's 196
The experienced Canadian Miguel Duhamel stands in
for the injured Toni Elias (Gresini Honda RC212V)
this weekend and the grizzled Quebecois man could
not have been more suited to this task. With
eight AMA titles to his name and 87 victories, he
knows Laguna well, he knows Grands Prix too
having ridden in the two-stroke era.
Built in 1957 near Monterey, California, Laguna
Seca ticks all the boxes for a track in terms of
rider involvement. There is gradient aplenty,
long sweeping curves which invite adventurous
riders to carve radical lines through. It's a
track that rewards momentum everywhere except the
Andretti Hairpin and the infamous Corkscrew.
If ever a turn defined a track it's Laguna's
Corkscrew. Variously described as 'riding off the
end of the earth', 'surfing a 30ft wave' and
'dropping down a lift shaft', this is one of the
great corners in MotoGP. The track has been
resurfaced again this year so there will be new
variables in terms of tyres and set-up.
The longest straight is just 996m long on a
3.610km track that winds around a compact
footprint and turns back on itself providing four
right-hand turns and seven lefts. Set-up requires
a bike that turns-in accurately and yet remains
stable for the two main braking points, the
Hairpin and that critical Corkscrew.
While the main men will try to use this race to
win well there are other contenders who need to
get their games raised here on Saturday and on
race day too; Carlos Checa (LCR Honda RC212V),
Shinya Nakano (Konica Minolta Honda RC212V) and
Kurtis Roberts (Roberts KR212V) among them.
Kurtis will be buoyed by the fact that his
brother scored a fourth place here last year.
Much will depend on how the team's new chassis performs.
Nicky said: "It's a big thrill to be going back
to Laguna for my home race and I'm really looking
forward to having some fun there. There's
actually a lot less pressure this year compared
to last season because in 2006 I went to Laguna
with a points lead in the Championship and I
really felt like I had to win that race or it
would send out all the wrong signals to my title
rivals. Things have been tough this year and
nothing's gone real silky smooth, but we've had a
couple of decent results in the last two races so
I'm definitely going to fight for this one. We've
had some improvements to the machine recently and
I've got a better feeling on it than I did at the
start of the season. The competition's really
strong in MotoGP and no-one's here to make up the numbers."
Dani said: "I'm happy to go straight to the U.S.
Grand Prix because it means we can keep up the
momentum we have from the win in Germany. This
was a fantastic result for the team and I hope we
can build on it. Last year we had a good result
at Laguna Seca, which was really positive because
it was my first visit to the track. It was very
hot too last year - even hotter than the race
we've just had in Germany - and I hope we don't
get that weather again because it's really tough
to ride in these conditions. The track has been
resurfaced again this year so we're faced with a
new bike and a new surface. This will give us
plenty to do on the practice days, working out
which tyres and settings are going to work best
for the RC212V here. There is an interesting
variety of corners - some with banking too -
which means it's important to get a good machine
balance between the higher-G corners and the flat ones"
Marco Melandri said: "Thanks to the help we had
from Honda in Germany we were able to take a big
step forward and we were competitive again
straight away. For a lot of laps I was thinking I
was going to finish up on the podium but in the
end I did what I could. The main thing is that I
had fun again and got the feeling back with my
bike. Now I'm happy to be racing again so soon. I
like Laguna Seca a lot - I finished third there
last year and the track is really nice, so
technical. We'll have to see what the weather is
like, above all the temperature, but I'm
convinced the bike and the Bridgestone tyres can
work well in America. I want to fight for the
podium again, I'm optimistic and I can't wait to
taste that champagne once more."
Elias's stand-in Miguel Duhamel said: "I still
can't believe it. I've been waiting for this
moment for such a long time and it is nice to be
a part of a team as important as Fausto
Gresini's. I feel bad for Toni Elias and I wish
him a speedy recovery, hopefully he will be back
on track soon, but I am very excited. My physical
training programme has had an extra motivation to
it in the build up to this weekend."
Shinya Nakano said: "I enjoy riding around
Laguna, it is a very challenging track. After a
number of races at Laguna I grew to really like
the circuit layout: even if I look at my results
there and see they are not so good! But the
important thing is that I like the track very
much, so I'm confident that if we find a good
set-up there we can do very well. I remember last
year the track had a new surface and it was so
bumpy that everybody complained, so many of us
couldn't ride it very well last year. With a year
of use since being re-surfaced, I'm hoping that the bumps have gone!"
Kurtis Roberts said: "We've got the new chassis
now. The engines in a different position and that
means the air box, radiator and bodywork all had
to be worked into it. The team has done a great
job; the design team and the guys at the factory
have worked day and night to get it ready on
time. Now it's just a final check shakedown when
we get it out of the crate. Michelin have found a
front tyre that works for us and this chassis
set-up and new tyre should help get us to where
we need to be. This is a big one for me and the team."
Carlos Checa said: "The new chassis we have from
Honda is better and we have a found a pretty good
dry base set up. Now we just need to make a few
changes to suit the special character of the Laguna circuit."