Blog.alstare

The WSBK top riders’ve been invited by the qatari Cheikh in Doha to test his speedboats and to see who’s the fastest on the sea… Waiting the fight on track?

Saturday March 14th  2009

The daylight just woke me up. For you, in UK, the alarm clock is getting close to 4 :00am. The sun is even more hazy than the previous days. We could even think clouds are arriving unless… wait a minute… Removing the clear curtain which mask the large windows, I can see a clear sky and the day should really be hot. A good shower to wake me up completely. Everything will be better then.

Liek yesterday morning, praying day, streets are empty. This is a big change with the week’s trafic which extend you driving time on 30km of half an hour easily. This morning, it’s even better. Doha is just waking up. There, for sure, we won’t find early morning joggers.

The circuit is already drawing his shadow. On Sunday mornings, it’s a bit special. First, because the warm-up takes place earlier and that we have to be here by sunrise, but also because it’s the only moment you can meet and talk a bit with people. It’s also the only morning you can have a quiet coffee before the activities to start. This calm moment has no price. Mostly when you’re entering the lngest day of the Championship.

Once waking up with the sun, you’re gonna start your racing day, the return of bikes in crates, the evening rush towards the hotel, a light shower, a 2 hours wait at the airport, eleven hours flight in which you can not really sleep, an the Sunday’s landing in Belgium, the transportation to workshop and, because it’s midday, you’re gonna finish your day without sleeping. So, it’s better to stay calm this morning.

Riders are ready. Yesterday’s bad results forgotten. Whenever, we’ll have to do with and crying wuold only brake the top motivation we need and to believe until the checkered flag.

It’s 9 :20am, bikes are leaving for warm-up session.

10 :15am

Let’s say it’s been quiet stressful.

The new bike we rebuilt as new, teh one Max could not test yesterday ‘cause wasn’t finish, will have just done 2 laps this morning… before ending in gravels, push out apparently from the inside by a too optimistic rider. I’m waiting for the rider to tell me teh story.

Waiting for that, I can see the hostesses arriving. Hmm… ‘Houston, we got a problem’… I think I could be a better grid-girl… except that, as one of them, I could get in the shorts !

Call to her manager : ‘but you’ve been choosing with pics !!’… ‘Yeah but it’s not new that picturs can lie. Photoshop, it’s wonderful but the lies are not lasting’… Sorry. I haven’t got the perfect body but I’m not trying to be a fashion model either. We have to find a job which matches with the body in this case. We’ll use the remaining hostess with Yukio whho has the best place on the grid and Arndt, Max’s assistant, will take the job.

In 30 minutes, there’s a pit-walk and after we’ll go one grid 1.

.

Call from the manager’s assistant, I would have been ‘too rude ‘ with the hostess so the second one don’t want to work with us anymore. People who know me, tehy know also I ca not be like this. So from two, we move to nothing. Normally, in Europe, I could have run the paddock to find two nice girls who would have been replacing the hostesses for the agency. The problem here, under their black bourkha, you never know. So we’ll start like this. Whenever, 4th and 5th rows, it’s not as important that front. Action.

5 :15pm

Reaction.

Hmmm…

What to say… Hostesse have a crual job to fight so much against teh wind with their umbrellas. There are always a lot of spectators… The Emir has always such white clothes. Jean Todt was in the assistance. We heard teh american hythm twice… for those who did not recognize it in Australia.

And for us ?….

I’m sorry. I can not reply. Somebody’s trying to pack up my laptop ten I could not… Finish this… text… I’ll tell you…

Tut…tut…tut…

Friday March 13th 2009

First laps in the gravels.

Of course, there is a kind of logic which apperas with those tests. Once you’ve been cleaning the track yesterday, we’ve been pushing abit more. Photographers were already complaining about all this dust the bikes were lifting every lap, like for african rallyes… nearly. To stop talking shit, when riders were leaving the pitlane and arriving on the track accelerating off line, there was this little clear smoke which was looking like the one happening just before a nice ‘piston-conrod-valves salad’…

Talking about gravels, Max had the very good idea to loose the front, even if not requeted of course, in the last corner. By watching the bike, you realize he was fast. The bike, from the top, is now looking like a banana, with the frame, the swingarm and the rear wheel queuing. But the rider is OK hopefully. The race suit which I’ve been adding, with a lot of care, the sponsors logos on the chest is… dislocated, ruined, cut, scratched, burned… Those riders have no respect…

And all this staff to qualify for superpole at the limit which I would remember to the laziest ones that they are now 20. What a disaster… I’m now thinking to the yesterday’s riders confident comments and the pessimistic speech of the chief mechanic… But experience always come before to much enthousiasm.

5 :40pm

We could have been dreaming.

With his wonderful laptime of free practice 2, Max let us think he would battle for pole… And…No. Here comes the worse. While some are improving by 2 seconds with their qualifiers (!!?…), some others found a lack of grip with the same tyre they set up a burning lap twenty minutes ago. Funny ?

But we’re not the only ones…

So the grid will have again this unusual thing. Starting on 4th and 5th rows, it’ll look like Phillip-Island. With the results we know after race 1 and race 2. No need to be proud when your betting on your results just by the first corner braking point to catch ths ‘fast group’.

I can just tell you now everybody’s working harder to find a solution which could save us. Someting different that a sniper paid with dirty money to shoot the riders of the first four rows. You think this is not sport ? Try to kill 16 guys passing over 300km/h on the main straight and all on one gust, and making all this looking like natural, you think this is easy ?

So I’m gonna check my bullets.

Thursday March 12th 2009

First laps on the sand.

A pale sun illuminated Doha this morning. Always hidden by all this sand standing in the air, buildings too have been taking the ground’s color despite all the work done by those poor guys who have been trying to clean up this dirty shit and give back the town the whit which she’s never had. They’ve even been cleaning all highway’s lighting… oups sorry… the express road…Hmm… the single road that leads to the circuit.

The paddock is looking strange with this mix of local women dressed in black from head to toes and rider’s wives, with shorts, flip-flop and light Tshirt trying to catch sun rays to dark a bit more their skin. Even for guys, it’s a bit the same. It’s easy to recognize a tourist beacause of his shorts, compared to locals with white djellabas or indians with their blue working suits. Difference of culture.

The Supersport thsi morning have been starting cleaning this track ‘flowded’ with sand gathered during the past 3 days without track activity. As usual, the first to ride cleans for the next one.

12 :35pm

OK, let’s say just we’ve got a potential.

Max signed the best laptime foir this first free session with all the same barbarians behind that the ones he got in Australia, Spies, Rea, Kiyonari and Smrz. Yukio scored 6th but he set up the new pit-lane speed record with a nice 85,8km/h instead of the legal 60.

When people are telling you to go on track to race as fast as you can, this is partly right. Just look. Yuki will have now to pay 200US$ for having forgotten.

But what a strange idea to have so long pit lanes ?! The riders are really loosing time to get back in garages. So, they are trying to escape thesystem to save time. And time is money, please refer to above notes.

5 :45pm

So… hmm… let’s say that we…  We can not say that 13th and 15th is a really  result. OK, temperature raised a bit but to be kicked by half the paddock, it’s a bit too much.

According to riders, no real warning and all is the conequence of wrong choices after this morning’s session. They’re still confident for tomorrow and it’s the most important. It’s also true that here, races are looking like 125 GP with all bike slipstreaming. It’s true I don’t remind any rider who would have won here starting from pole. We’ll see then.

Tomorrow will be an other day.

Wednesday March 11th 2009

We thought about, we’ve been told many times but the weather finaly kept its habits on earth, like this sand strom which reduces the visibility on the road to the circuit. It’s like the wind was taking the ground’s color, masking the sun and was helping this amazingly small sand to get everywhere.

A day like today was not special. We set up once again all the useful tools the Team will use during the next three days.

Except the guys working there, the paddock was empty like the desert which spread around. To have an other comparision, there was 10 000 times more spots to light that track for the MotoGP than people in the paddock. I’ve heard someting like 5 millions kilowatts of light power to have ‘live’ a night GP for television coverage reasons… Mother Earth will appreciate again.

Riders, once again, have been taking part to some new photographer’s shooting for official website, meaby also for the next ‘Superbike 2009’video game, and for official programs. Bikes also have been shot one at a time to replace the black shadow next to the rider’s pic on this race’s program.

Tomorrow, the Team will enter the fight. One more task for all, a bit more stress and white hairs for some, a bit more champagne for others.

But Doha always bring us success. We must not talk too early but, in 2005, Troy and Yukio won both one race. The following year, Troy was winning again while got shot in the last lap as he nearly had won the race already. In 2007, Mr B signed his first race of his Superbike carreer. Same for Fonsi Nieto last year who signed his one and lonely victory on a man’s bike. (Pfff… Teasing…)

So we hope Losail will be once agin lucky for us and Suzuki to show our skills to build bikes with supersonic engines.

Yet tomorrow, the first laptimes will give us a clear idea about our chances for Saturday. Cross your fingers.

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