Written by:
SPEED Staff
SPEEDtv.com
The 2009 MotoGP World Championship continues its most concentrated stretch with its most vivid study in contrast. From last week’s Dutch TT, at the historic Circuit van Drenthe near the North Sea, the championship flies halfway across the globe to the California cool of Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, within sight of the Pacific Ocean, for the first of two Grands Prix in America. The United States Grand Prix is the second of four races in five weeks that span the midpoint of the 17-race championship and the only event on the calendar to feature only the MotoGP class.
With so much attention paid to Laguna Seca, it’s a little known fact that the first two U.S GPs took place at Daytona International Speedway in 1964 and ’65. Both were won by the legendary Mike Hailwood on an MV Agusta. Then followed a 24-year absence after which the U.S GP returned to the calendar at Laguna Seca for six years, ending with the 1994 running. Eleven years on, when MotoGP came to Laguna for the first time, the race was won by a Honda, as was the 2006 edition. Repsol Honda RC212V riders Andrea Dovizioso and Dani Pedrosa lead the six-strong Honda contingent into the 2009 U.S GP.
Dovizioso and Pedrosa currently sit fourth and fifth places in the championship, behind series leader Valentino Rossi (Yamaha), Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) and Casey Stoner (Ducati).
The short interval between Assen and Laguna gives both Dovizioso and Pedrosa a chance for quick redemption. With limited set-up time for their Honda RC212V machines equipped with revised chassis, both men slid off in the Assen race. That followed a promising start to the weekend when Pedrosa missed out on pole position by a scant 0.085 seconds.
Dovizioso was one spot off his possible first podium with the Repsol Honda squad when the 23-year-old Italian fell, ending a string of fourth-place finishes in the previous three GPs. In his first visit to Monterey last July, Dovizioso was the highest placing Honda rider in fourth place. With a year’s further experience on the RC212V, and on a circuit he finds fascinating and challenging, Dovizioso is certain that all the pieces are in place to secure him a place on the podium.
