MotoGP pulls in at Assen after dash from Donington

2008-06-25 19:30
Just three days after Sunday’s exciting races at Donington the MotoGP travelling circus has checked in at ‘the Cathedral of Motorcycling’ for this weekend’s A-Style TT Assen.

With its special atmosphere and unique history Assen is a favourite with the riders and the pre-event press conference on Wednesday afternoon - the tradition of Saturday racing at the Dutch track bringing the event schedule forward by a day - saw Valentino Rossi, Casey Stoner, Nicky Hayden, Loris Capirossi and Kawasaki’s MotoGP Competition Manager Michael Bartholemy previewing the action.

Current MotoGP standings leader Rossi, who won at Assen twelve months ago from eleventh on the grid, commented: “I remember the race here last year as my best performance of 2007. The circuit is quite different to how it used to be but it has always been good for Yamaha, so I expect a good feeling from the bike and I will just need to work to get my settings right on Bridgestone tyres.”

Sunday’s race winner in England, World Champion Casey Stoner, added, “Donington was a real boost for us. The test at Barcelona and the race at Donington just proved to us that this new software system is really working well and we hope it will work well here.”

Elsewhere, a pre-event promotion earlier in the day witnessed Sylvain Guintoli, Anthony West, Yuki Takahashi and Hugo van den Berg visiting the Soesterberg Army base, where they got to try the Desdemona ‘spatial disorientation’ simulator. The machine is unique in the world and is used for training F-16 fighter jet pilots.

The riders were joined on the visit by World, European and Olympic Judo Champion, Mark Huizenga and the World Judo Champion Guillaum Elmont.

Source: Dorna

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