[Lakes]

Bit late i know, but was a great race ( GP Bikes ). they had compulsory pit stop & bike change. Boy that leave's the rest of motor sport looking slack in pit stops  they would have a bike ready to go waiting in pits for each rider each team, they might have the bike set up same as what rider uses first half of race, or might be a different set up ( team strategy ) i seen one of the leaders come in hit front brake do flying jump over the bars onto second bikes seat & off he went. the team have crew to hold the bike he gets off & other crew holding the new bike. good stuff. remember Le Mans starts.

also forgot to mention, have noticed living down here you know when there is bike races on at Phillip Island as everyone on a Bike seems to use the coast road down there.

 

[rustynutz]

I'm the opposite, John...I thought it was a ridiculous and dangerous idea to have a pit stop... 

Things could've so easily have ended in disaster when Lorenzo and Marquez bumped as Marquez exited pitlane....

I thought it would've made more sense to just have 2 separate races if they were unable to run full race distance...

As for Le Mans starts.....
I reckon it was a crazy way to start a race so was quite happy when they finally got rid of them....

[Eureka]

There must have been quite a risk of riders colliding in pit lane, let alone the Lorenzo/Marquez touch-up in turn one.  Two short races probably would have been better from a safety point of view - which was the whole idea of the bike swap.  I thought the race was a bit of a disappointment, but that seems to happen a bit. 

I drove down there on Thursday to stay at a mate's place for 2 nights.  I saw a Ducati Panigale 1199 with WA plates on the way down - surely he didn't ride all the way from WA.  On Thursday evening we went for a walk to Cowes and an Italian guy asked us to check out a very small 'wound' to his neck - he had been swooped by a magpie and wouldn't have realised exactly what had happened.  Just before I was also swooped but my hoodie saved me.  We drove our new friend to a hostel and agreed to meet him at the track on Friday.  Phillip Island residents could get in for free on Friday and  I got in for nothing as well (saved $45).

The Italian turned up at the track with a cute Spanish girl, who was camping track-side but got rained out on Thursday night and ended up at the same hostel.  She's a genuine bike fan but also a big Rossi fan.  As we were leaving the track later in the day I saw Wayne Gardner and Spanish girl was very happy to get a pic with the 1987 500cc World Champion, when I told her who he was.  I don't think she would have been born then.

Later in the evening in Cowes, outside Pino's restaurant, I saw Jeremy Burgess (crew chief for Rossi and also Doohan and Gardner) and more pics were taken when I explained who Burgess was.  We could see Rossi's friend Uccio playing table tennis inside (yes, there was a table tennis table there for some reason) and Rossi must have been inside.  I went back to the house but out 2 international friends waited in the hope of getting a pic with Rossi and they did. 

My PI friend put the 2 internationals up at his house on Friday night but on Sat morning he had to go to Melb so I drove them right to the track and said bye.  Might never see them again, but it was enjoyable showing them around and they got very lucky with the picture opportunities.

I am just kicking myself that I didn't ride down there.  I'm sure I could have squeezed the petite Spanish girl onto the single seat of my bike.  I should have even ridden back down there on Sat afternoon.  Idiot!!!

   

[rustynutz]

Nice write up, Eureka!

Sounds like you had a great time.....

Although I haven't been to a MotoGP/Grand Prix in many years, I still have fond memories of the first 2 held at Phillip Island way back in 89 & 90...

I thought the race was a bit of a disappointment, but that seems to happen a bit.

I thought the same, to be honest....
I reckon Casey Stoner has the right idea re getting rid of all these electronic riding aids. The racing just isn't as spectacular as it was back in the 500cc 2 stroke days. I still have great memories of Doohan hanging it out sideways laying big blackies around the final turn onto Gardner Straight. 
Back in those days you had to have huge gonads just to stay on the damn things. With the switch to 4 strokes and all the electronics it's enabled riders with less ability to still do pretty good in races but the races are just not as good to watch. Now and then there is the exception but on the whole many of the races can be a bit boring....probably even more so as we don't have a competitive Aussie in MotoGP since Casey retired. 

[Eureka]

I went to the 89 and 90 GPs there, too.  There were more racers in with a real chance back then: Gardner, Scwantz, Rainey, Lawson. I think Spencer was there in at least one of those years (well past his best by then) and  Doohan was starting out in the 500 GPs; Mamola, too.  It was a real golden period in GP racing.  I think today's leading riders like Lorenzo, Pedrosa, Marquez, Rossi (past his best now) would be their equal, as was Stoner.  I am an absolutely crap motorcycle rider and I cannot believe what I see these guys do. 

I meant to add to my earlier post that the 2-seater Ducatis (there were 2 of them) gave multiple rides during the lunch break on Friday; there must have been 14 to 16 'celebrities' getting a lap each.  That would be an incredible experience and very, very scary.     

[eye30]

There must have been quite a risk of riders colliding in pit lane, let alone the Lorenzo/Marquez touch-up in turn one.  Two short races probably would have been better from a safety point of view - which was the whole idea of the bike swap.  I thought the race was a bit of a disappointment, but that seems to happen a bit. 

I drove down there on Thursday to stay at a mate's place for 2 nights.  I saw a Ducati Panigale 1199 with WA plates on the way down - surely he didn't ride all the way from WA.  On Thursday evening we went for a walk to Cowes and an Italian guy asked us to check out a very small 'wound' to his neck - he had been swooped by a magpie and wouldn't have realised exactly what had happened.  Just before I was also swooped but my hoodie saved me.  We drove our new friend to a hostel and agreed to meet him at the track on Friday.  Phillip Island residents could get in for free on Friday and  I got in for nothing as well (saved $45).

The Italian turned up at the track with a cute Spanish girl, who was camping track-side but got rained out on Thursday night and ended up at the same hostel.  She's a genuine bike fan but also a big Rossi fan.  As we were leaving the track later in the day I saw Wayne Gardner and Spanish girl was very happy to get a pic with the 1987 500cc World Champion, when I told her who he was.  I don't think she would have been born then.

Later in the evening in Cowes, outside Pino's restaurant, I saw Jeremy Burgess (crew chief for Rossi and also Doohan and Gardner) and more pics were taken when I explained who Burgess was.  We could see Rossi's friend Uccio playing table tennis inside (yes, there was a table tennis table there for some reason) and Rossi must have been inside.  I went back to the house but out 2 international friends waited in the hope of getting a pic with Rossi and they did. 

My PI friend put the 2 internationals up at his house on Friday night but on Sat morning he had to go to Melb so I drove them right to the track and said bye.  Might never see them again, but it was enjoyable showing them around and they got very lucky with the picture opportunities.

I am just kicking myself that I didn't ride down there.  I'm sure I could have squeezed the petite Spanish girl onto the single seat of my bike.  I should have even ridden back down there on Sat afternoon.  Idiot!!!

   

Pictures or it didn't happen!

[rustynutz]

Aussie Kevin Magee was there in 89 too...

I am an absolutely crap motorcycle rider and I cannot believe what I see these guys do.

 

Same here.... Still, if I had my life over again I'd love to have a go at motorcycle racing....
I'd be the bloke wobbling around in last position! 

I meant to add to my earlier post that the 2-seater Ducatis (there were 2 of them) gave multiple rides during the lunch break on Friday; there must have been 14 to 16 'celebrities' getting a lap each.  That would be an incredible experience and very, very scary.

How good would it be scoring a ride on that? 
They'd never get me on the back though as I'm terrified of going pillion....

[rustynutz]

I went to the 89 and 90 GPs there, too.

Did you go to the Jimmy Barnes GP concert in 1990?
If you did you may have seen me, I was standing in front of the security guards at the gate with a box attempting to collect bottles of alcohol from the crowd before "security" confiscated it... 

I did alright too.....

[Eureka]

"Pictures or it didn't happen" -  that's just it; "it" didn't happen.  I had a chance to at least get her on the back of my bike, had I gone back down there on it.  I'm slow in the head - and on my bike. 

I don't have any pics; I don't have a mobile phone or digital camera but soon I will email both the internationals and ask them to email me a couple of the pics taken, just as something to help remember both of them.  (I didn't get them to take my pic with Gardner or Burgess and I had gone back to the house before Rossi left the restaurant.) 

(And I didn't go to the Barnes concert in 1990.)

Terrified of going pillion - that reminds me of a time when I was hitch-hiking to Melb from Ballarat many years ago and a bike went past, with a passenger, who was sitting backwards.

[Lakes]

Well i missed most of the race ( on TV ) then a friend sms ed me about it i just saw from about lap 8 i was trying to work out if the pit stop was a new feature?

Eureka sounds like you had a great time! the Spanish love MC's, so do Italian's. a friend was in Italy when Mick Doohan was racing, he went to the track, & was telling me the fans take stationary motors to the track, when the bikes start racing all these stationary motors fire up & start reving too. can only imagine what that would be like.

I've never been to Phillip Island but one day i'll get there.

[rustynutz]

i was trying to work out if the pit stop was a new feature?

John, they only did it as the resurfacing of the track had made for great grip but this increased tyre temperatures resulting in the tyres being unable to last race distance.
So the decision to reduce the number of laps and to also make a compulsory pitstop was done for safety reasons. 

[Eureka]

Lakes - if you do get the chance to go to PI for the GP, I think Friday is very good value as you see the speed and hear the sound for $45 (the Friday general admission price this year and last year).  You can see lots of the track from different spots so I don't think you need a grandstand ticket.  Along the back and towards the Siberia corner is a good spot.

In 1998 I was on a holiday trip to Italy on my own and I went to Mugello for the GP.  1998 was Max Biaggi's first year in the 500cc category and he won the first race of the year in Japan.  Doohan was under a bit of pressure but he won the race in Mugello and went on to win his 5th straight championship.  (I wonder what Doohan would have done if he had not had the nasty broken leg in 92.  He might have had 6 or 7 championships.)

At Mugello I saw the locals with Japanese 4 cylinder bikes with massive temporary megaphones attached to their exhausts.  I was only there during the day but I think at night those who were camping there had noise competitions with all the others.  Crazy in a great, fun way.

[Lakes]

Thanks for that Rusty, thats weard, but who knows? like a new surface would generally give less traction till some race rubber gets stuck to it from cars & bikes useing it, must have been type of surface they layed, i used to race go karts, some tracks had higher wear rate on slicks than others. also the compound of tyre effected wear too along with track temps. but Trev would know more.

Hey Eureka that would be a great experience!