Back into action with the Czech Grand Prix.
The intense end of the 2005 season starts this weekend with the Brno round.
Seven races, including this weekend in Brno, are left for the end of the 2005 season, but the Czech round has been considered for quite a long time, due to its strategic position in the calendar just after the summer break, as the starting signal for the final phase of the World Championship, which includes intercontinental races. After the Brno round, with six races left to go, the 2005 World Championship will start its transoceanic trip visiting Japan, Malaysia, Qatar, Australia, and the new Turkish Grand Prix. The full stop of the 2005 season will be set once again since 1999 – by Valencia. As regards the sporting aspect, the Repsol riders are already impatient to start this second half of the season. Hayden, after his third place in Germany, knows his chances and hopes to have another good performance in a circuit where he was not very lucky last year. His team-mate Max Biaggi, record man in Brno with victories on all the bikes he has used in the World Championship so far, hopes to make-up on the Czech track for his bad season and achieve the victory that he hasnt been able to clinch yet.
In the 250cc, the leader of the overall standings, Dani Pedrosa, is back, knowing that the end of the season is getting closer but focussed on what hes going to face only this weekend. He doesnt want to loose concentration thinking about Japan or Malaysia; the young Repsol rider only wants to think about Brno and about making a good race weekend. Those are exactly the same thoughts of Repsol rider Sebastián Porto, who after his highly deserved holidays in his longed-for Argentina, will be back in Brno ready to keep on adding victories to his personal record. Randy de Puniet, with one victory this season Donington- and other rather average results, will have in Brno the perfect chance to start a more positive second part of the season. Something similar happens to Héctor Faubel in the 125cc, where luck, something rather rare for Jorge Martínez Aspars pupil, has hindered him from clinching the victory that has slipped so often through the fingers of the Repsol rider.
Repsol rider´s comments:
MotoGP. Nicky Hayden:
Im really looking forward to getting back on the bike on Friday morning. I’ve had a good time back home but I’m ready to get racing again – in fact I was ready a few weeks ago actually! Me and my bros have been training on the dirt at home and its been fun all hangin out but it’s time to get back to work now. After Brno the season is going to click away real fast and like I said after the race in Germany, now I’ve tasted blood I want some more. Laguna was great and Germany felt kinda’ ordinary just standing on the bottom step. Last year at Brno we went pretty well until we went out. It’s a circuit which seems to make for close racing and I’m real ready for a fight now. It’s so close between seventh and second spot in the championship and every race and every point is going to count for so much. I won’t be happy to finish where I am at the moment. I look to start movin’ up from Brno.’
MotoGP. Max Biaggi:
This is my favourite circuit of all. I like it because it’s fast and I’m particularly fond of the four chicanes. The speed is really high there and you need a lot of courage and commitment to face the changes of direction. In addition it’s a place that fits me; I’ve taken victory several times there and the local people have given my name to a bridge not far away from the circuit. I’ve won there with all the bikes I’ve raced with except for the current one and this I hope to change. I come back from my holidays refreshed and ready for the second part of the season. After the race at Brno we will test and we hope to find some positive results as the last six races after Brno will come very fast together and I am confident we can get some good results for the team and for all my fans who have been so supportive!
250. Dani Pedrosa:
Wed already had some days to rest during the Laguna Seca GP, but these have been real holidays. Ive been able to rest a couple of days and disconnect. Its only been one week, but its always good in order to be back at the races with top strength. Im happy with what weve done during this first half of the season, but I hope to finish it even better. We have to concentrate on Brno and do a good job. Then everything will be very fast but well have to be ready for a very hard end of the season, thats obvious. But everything at its time. Now we only have to think about this weekend, which will be long, because well stay on Monday after the race to do some testing. Im looking forward to being back on the bike.
250. Sebastián Porto:
‘We havent been lucky in the latest races, but now were going to Brno, a very fast circuit and with a series of favourable features for the Aprilia. This track is characterised by its width, allowing you to ride fluently, but its quite difficult to open a gap during the race. It also has several braking points where you can overtake. Well try to find the right path from the very first day, and if we manage to do so, Im sure that well be able to be in the front, fighting for a place on the podium. Although we took the victory last year and set the pole as well, the race was staged under quite strange conditions, but fortunately, luck was on our side. I spent the holidays with my family in Argentina, training and working hard for the races ahead, because they are going to be really hard due to the heat.’
250. Randy De Puniet:
After this holiday period Im really looking forward to start again with normal activity. I spent one week at the Bahamas, and it was a really good rest. Now were going to Brno, a track I like a lot, where I took the victory two years ago; therefore its one of my favourite circuits. The layout has a combination of linked corners, but its differentiating feature are the constant slopes. I finished second last year, but the conditions were somehow strange because the rain showed up both at the beginning and at the end of the race. The circuit adapts well to the Aprilia and therefore I think that if we manage to find a good set-up from the beginning well have many chances to be in the lead.
125. Hector Faubel:
After the bad results of the two last races Im really looking forward to getting back on the bike. Moreover, Brno is one of my favourite circuits and one of the most beautiful tracks of the calendar, so I have very good vibes for this Grand Prix. Its a very fast track and thats an advantage both for me, due to my riding style, an for the Aprilia. During the summer break, I spent one week in Ibiza and dedicated the rest of the time to being at home with my family with at home and workout to be in good shape for the race. Id like to be again on the podium.
The venue of the GP:
Automotodrom Brno – Masaryk circuit (www.automotodrombrno.cz)
The present Brno Circuit was built according to all technological and safety standards of modern times, but the motor sport tradition goes back to the 1930s, where large crowds of up to 100,000 spectators would gather along the 29.1 km that made up the layout of the Masaryk Grand Prix, around the city between forests and cornfields. No races were staged during the war, but racing was taken up again in 1949, although the circuit had changed: the track had been shortened to 17.8 km, and the sense had been changed.
A new tradition appeared in 1950: motorcycle racing. After a rather modest beginning, Brno attracted more and more star riders, until in 1965 after a new shortening of the track to 13.9 km, it was accepted by the FIM to host a round of the Motorcycle World Championship. From then on, it became the venue of exciting battles between Hailwood, Agostini, Read, Ivy and Saarinen among many others, for seventeen seasons until it could not meet the constantly increasing demands of the safety regulations.
It hosted the European Championship in the following years until in 1986 the old Masaryk Circuit ceased to exist. A brand new chapter in history started to be written in June 1987 when the new Brno circuit was inaugurated just about 10 km far from the old pits. Since then and with 1991 as the only exception, the Automotodrom Brno – Masaryk has been hosting the Czech GP year after year. It was rebuilt in 1996, improving the area between the start and the finish, modernising the pits and the paddock and enlarging the track from its original 5,394 metres to the current 5,403.19.
The undulating layout opens its way through forested hillsides, offering excellent places to view the bikes racing, and is made up by six right-hand and eight left-hand corners, with a 636 m long straight. The pole position is on the left-hand side and the racing sense is clockwise. Long, safe and fast, with constant slopes, and undulating corners, the Brno racetrack has a large variety of technical difficulties testing both rider and engineer talent.
Alex Barros (1’59.302), Dani Pedrosa (2’03.332) and Lucio Cecchinello (2’07.836) have the records of the Czech track in the MotoGP, 250cc and 125cc classes respectively. The circuit, still hoping to host a Formula 1 race some day, has become a yearly pilgrimage place for thousands of fans of the motorcycling world. It was awarded the IRTA Best GP of the Season in 1999 and since than has always been on the top places of the ranking.
