[kropotkin thinks...] - 2008 Valencia MotoGP Race Report - The Party's Over

[Ninjette Newsbot]

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There are lots of reasons to go to a MotoGP race. If your aim is to see the best riders in the world test their skill, bravery and machines to the limit on a technical track, then you go to Mugello in Italy, or Phillip Island in Australia. If your reason for going is to try and meet the riders, or at least stand a chance of getting as close to them as possible, then you head to Qatar, where the lack of crowds mean the paddock is more relaxed and less stressful, or you visit Laguna Seca, where the AMA's policy of selling paddock tickets means that for part of the weekend, you stand a chance of actually talking to your heroes.

If you're looking for a party, a chance to celebrate the joys of motorcycle racing with like-minded individuals, then you have several options. Mugello combines spectacular scenery with crowd insanity, Assen offers well-organized and efficient celebration, while the extremely low prices of beer, tickets and lodging at Brno make it an excellent choice for bike fans on a budget.

But the two MotoGP rounds which traditionally offer the most frantic partying are the two Spanish races which top and tail the season. The Jerez race, which opens the season in Europe, is sheer bedlam, as hordes of crazed Spanish motorcycle fans unleash a long winter's worth of pent-up frustration in an orgy of wine, wheelies and wanton abandon.

24 Hour Party People

At the other end of the year, the MotoGP season finale at Valencia is almost a mirror image: Vast legions of bike fans gather from all around the world to mark the end of motorcycle racing for another year. Fittingly, they party as if there were no tomorrow, and to an extent, they are right. It will be 5 long months before the MotoGP field lock horns on the track once again, and so the fans amassed at the Circuito Ricardo Tormo do their utmost to squeeze half a year's worth of partying into just three short days. So frenetic is the pace at the Valencia track and in downtown Cheste, the small town nearest to the circuit, that sometimes it can actually feel like quite hard work.

On the first two days of the race weekend, it wasn't so much the frenetic pace which took its toll on Valencia's partygoers as enduring the weather. The torrential and continuous rain turned the campsites and parking areas around the track into a mud bath, and a damp chill seeped its way into the very bones of everyone attending. On Friday and Saturday, the fans had to work a good deal harder at having a good time than they had bargained for.

It wasn't just the fans the rain had had an effect on. The MotoGP paddock, freshly disembarked off a long-haul flight from the sweltering tropics, was stupefied with shock at the change in conditions. From getting off the bike drenched with sweat and close to heat exhaustion, the riders were now dismounting drenched by the rain, and approaching hypothermia.

It seemed like Nicky Hayden was the only rider to enjoy the conditions, leading all three rain-drenched free practice sessions by a comfortable margin. Valencia would be the Kentucky Kid's last race with Honda, and he clearly had his heart set on leaving with a good result as a thank you to his team. But more than this, he was determined to beat his team mate, after getting drawn into an ugly slanging match with Dani Pedrosa's manager, Alberto Puig.

Things Can Only Get Better

As qualifying started, things started looking up, for both fans and riders. On a mostly dry track, Nicky Hayden was once again quickest, until a very gentle rain returned. Hayden looked like he would end his 9-year stint with Honda with a pole position, but it was not to be. The weather gods had only been jesting when they sent a rain shower to taunt racing fans, and the track continued to dry.

As the qualifying session entered the final 15 minutes, Casey Stoner put on his usual demonstration of high-speed riding, snatching pole from Hayden with a lap the Kentuckian had no answer for. To make matters worse, Hayden's team mate Dani Pedrosa was the only rider capable of getting close, taking 2nd place on the grid by just 5/100ths of a second. Nicky Hayden would have to make do with starting 3rd.

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