Australia and Turkey, last beats of the 2005 World Championship.
On the next two weekends, Phillip Island and Istanbul will be the venues of the final straight of the 2005 season. The final party will take place after the Turkish event, in Valencia.
75 points at stake and three races is all that is left for the end of the 2005 World Championship. Two world championship titles are yet to be decided, providing for excitement on this final straight. And there is one Repsol rider among the possible winners of the 250cc class, with Dani Pedrosa leading the overall standings, and strongly defending the sceptre he already took last year, wanting to regain it this year. In front of him a strong Casey Stoner, the Australian rider who will be racing at home this weekend and the only one able to stand up to Alberto Puigs pupil at this stage of the season. With 75 points at stake and an advantage of 26 in Pedrosas favour, the Repsol rider will be back at the venue where he seriously injured himself in 2003, and where he became 250cc World Champion in 2004. Dani Pedrosas story with Australias Phillip Island is with no doubt very special.
The track is also special for Sebastián Porto, who took the victory last year in Australia, hoping to be able to repeat the deed this weekend in a season which is not being very fortunate for the Repsol rider. His team-mate Randy De Puniet, who rounds-off Jorge Martínez Aspars squad in the quarter-of-a-litre class, also arrives in Phillip Island with the firm intention of closing a season with results that would match his abilities and competitiveness much better.
In the MotoGP class, both Repsol Honda Team riders know what it means to get on the podium in Phillip Island; Max Biaggi as a winner and Nicky Hayden from the time he celebrated his first podium finish two years ago. Relentless and very demanding for the MotoGP machines, the breathtaking speeds on this layout increase excitement and the show during the races of the premier class within a matchless frame. After the average results achieved by both riders in the latest events, Phillip Island may be the perfect scenario for a heroic deed of the Repsol Honda Team riders. And in the minor class, this will be a new chance last but two to get back on the longed-for podium for Héctor Faubel, Sergio Gadea and Joan Olivé, the three best classified Repsol riders in the overall standings and the only ones who have managed to get on the podium in the 2005 season so far.
Rider´s comments:
Max Biaggi:
All I can really hope for is that we can find something good for this weekend. It has been really hard over the last few races. I just can’t understand why things change so much. One race the bike is great like at Motegi. We get a great podium and at last I feel that there is some hope for the rest of the season, then we go to Sepang where I usually go well and it was a disaster as it was in Doha. I wish we can find a good solution for Phillip Island. I have won there in the past and for sure it is an amazing circuit to win at. Every view is just like a post card; it is spectacular and I only hope that from Friday morning in first qualifying we can report back some good news to give my fan club, who are always so supportive, something to be proud of.
Nicky Hayden:
Phillip Island is a fantastic place. It was somewhere I had heard of when I was a kid and I was so excited to go there for the first time testing back at the start of 2003. It’s a real riders track. If you like riding bikes fast then you have to like it there. The last long fast left hand turn onto the start finish straight is one of my favourite corners on any track in the world. But it’s not just the track; it’s the atmosphere around the place as well and of course it was the circuit I stood on a MotoGP podium first as well which has special memories.
This weekend I’m just focused on getting off to a good start early. It hasn’t happened recently and I guess we just got lucky with the race day set-up at Doha as we hadn’t been too good up to there. I moved up in the points table with the podium and further up is where I want to finish. It’s all pretty tight and these last few races are going to be so competitive.
Dani Pedrosa:
‘I feel much better; my left shoulder is doing well, although I can’t say that its completely recovered. I went to the doctor right after arriving in Barcelona and he calmed me down, telling me that with an intensive treatment it would be much better for Australia. I obviously haven’t been able to do any practice these days, but I’ve been able to rest and to do a bit of rehab, after three races in a row which have been complicated and rather conditioned due to my physical state. Im in high spirits for Australia, eager to prepare the race well and ready to fight, as always. I know that there are a lot of people wanting to win in Phillip Island, but Im also looking forward to winning again, so well see what happens.
Sebastián Porto:
Phillip Island brings back very special memories to me, because last year we took the pole, the victory and we also set the circuit record. It was a perfect weekend for me. This is a very fast, technical track and its on a very special location, I think it is one f the most beautiful Grand Prix of the calendar. Well be starting with a good reference, so if the weather allows and we find a good compromise for the bike from the first day, well be able to be again in the front, fighting for the victory.
Randy De Puniet:
Australia is a track I like a lot, and its also a favourable track for the Aprilia. After the negative result in Qatar I really hope that things will be better here. I messed up the race start last year, the engine stalled and the start was really slow. Then I had trouble overtaking because the engine didnt accelerate well. I was only able to overtake on the straights, thanks to a good top speed. I was able to move up to fifth and decided to push as much as possible to ride with the leading group, but it was too much and I lost the front. This is not being a good year for me. There are only three races left and I would like to have at least a podium finish, to close the year with a better taste in the mouth.
Héctor Faubel:
Qatar wasn’t that bad; the bike responded well and, although we didn’t manage to get on the podium, which I would have liked to, we were in the front, with the leading group. Now we arrive in Phillip Island, a track that also adapts well to the features of the Aprilia, therefore I would like to finish on the podium once and for all. Analysing the season, its been a shame to have had so many failures throughout the year. If we wouldnt Im sure that we would be on a much better place in the overall standings.
The venue of the GP
Phillip Island Circuit (www.phillipislandcircuit.com.au)
Located in the State of Victoria, a two-hour drive to the southeast of Melbourne and only a couple of metres from the Bass Strait which separates Australia from Tasmania, the Phillip Island circuit is surrounded by one of the most beautiful places of the country. Its strategic enclave, on a hill and surrounded by the ocean, as well as its fluid layout, have turned it into one of the favourite circuits, both for riders and fans. The inhabitants of this remote Australian town, a calm summer and tourist resort along the year, share the friendly atmosphere during the Australian Grand Prix week with motor sport and speed lovers. With a tradition of almost one century, Phillip Island had its own circuit from the late 1920’s until 1935, rather crude compared to the current standards, on a non-asphalted airfield, 2km from the current circuit.
It was in 1951, when six local businessmen believed it was time to relaunch racing on the island. The building of Australia’s first international grand prix circuit, with the contribution of more than 7000 persons through subscriptions, started in 1952 and in December 1956 it hosted its first race. An Alfa was used to measure the three-mile distance required for international certification as an International Circuit. In 1962, due to extensive track damage resulting from the mythic car endurance event Amstrong 500 and the inability of the managing society to repair the damages, Phillip Island was closed. The following year a Melbourne business man purchased the circuit, which was reopened in April 1996, in the heyday of sportscar racing. The circuit was closed again the late 1970s due to the same reasons, but this time it wasnt until 1985 that it was both by the society Placetac Pty. Ltd. with the view to re-introducing racing to Phillip Island.
The FIM authorised a race of the Motorcycle World Championship in 1986 and engineer and promoter Bob Barnard lead the restoration works of the track and facilities. Phillip Island staged its first 500cc Australian Grand Prix in 1989, with the victory taken by Wayne Gardner, in front of a crowd of more than 90,000 fans. That same year the track hosted the Six Hour Motorcycle Endurance race, as well as domestic races for both cars and motorcycles. After the success, the circuit staged its first round of the Superbike World Championship the next year, a championship with a large tradition in Australia, being the source of several big champions such as Mick Doohan, Kevin Magee, Troy Corser and Troy Bayliss. Since then, Phillip Island has been an unavoidable date in the Superbike calendar. In 1991, Phillip Island lost its round of the 500cc Motorcycle World Championship to the Eastern Creek circuit, outbid by the NSW government to attract the vent to Sydney.
In addition to Superbikes, Phillip Island continued hosting domestic car races until six years later, when the World Championship returned in October 1997. That year, local rider Mick Doohan suffered an accident and it was Alex Crivillé who took the victory of the race. One year later, it was Doohan who won the Australian Grand Prix to clinch the 500cc World Championship for the fifth time. Currently, the Phillip Island circuit is 4,448 metres in length, including five right-hand and seven left-hand corners. The main straight, carrying the name of legendary Gardner, is 900 metres in length and provides for exciting slipstream overtakings in the minor classes, while allowing for breathtaking braking manoeuvres in the MotoGP class.
The pole position is on the left-hand side of the starting grid and the race goes counter-clockwise. In addition to the tracks own technical difficulties, riders also have to stand strong wind and numerous seagulls, which have already caused more than one incident throughout the years.
Dani Pedrosa has the circuit record of the 250cc since 2002 (137.983), while the records of the 250cc and MotoGP classes were broken in 2004 and are now in the hands of Sebastián Porto (133.381) and Loris Capirossi (131.102) respectively.
