Casey Stoner rode from the pole to the finish line and never looked back after passing Pedrosa on the first lap. Last year, Stoner often rode very well, contending for the top positions but ending his races early with a crash. This year, he is just riding extremely well, period.
Nicky Hayden did the bump and jostle with John Hopkins on the first lap, eventually ending his day early.
Nicky’s brother, Roger Lee Hayden, did a great job. Taking his wild card ride on the Kawasaki to 10th place after having only a few hours of total practice time on the bike. I have to believe he’ll be getting calls from a few people about possible opportunities.
Melandri rode to third after a crash the previous day that injured his left ankle. Very nice job. Ducati then signed him to ride with Stoner next year which leaves Capirossi looking for a ride.
The Fox television coverage of the race? I particularly liked the commercial breaks with 6 commercials in a row followed by a return to the track that focused on mechanics watching their television monitors while a promo for an upcoming show ran on the lower portion of the screen. No reason to quickly get back to racing, after all, the race runs for hours right? Wait a minute, that’s NASCAR. Oops. Well, let’s interview a rider and get some other non racing color coverage, oh, OK, let’s take a quick look at the racing after this short commercial break. I wonder if anyone at Fox ever watched the TV coverage when they run in other countries, quick breaks, immediately back to racing, knowledgeable commentators, … quite a difference. Someone tuning in for the first time to see what MotoGP was all about would have been confused and disappointed. Knowledgeable fans tuning in to see some racing were certainly disappointed. Maybe next year.
race-dwarf says
Maybe a rumor, maybe true: Our German speakers of Eurosport discussed during the race that Ducati perhaps will start next season with a third GP-ride so Capirossi won’t leave that italian circus. Keep all your ears wide open:-D
hoyt says
Paul – you are right, the coverage was extremely dismal. I had to mute the toob it was so bad. And the filming? What was with the helicopter filming from an extreme height? Again, they must have thought it was a NASCAR race at an oval.
Brutal. As fans, we should write the sponsors indicating to them (if they don’t already know it) how poor the Fox coverage was — amateur
Jason says
That coverage was so bad that I was turned off. Fox screwed the pooch on this one and most likely lost a lot of potential new to MotoGP viewers. Speed Channel does a much better job. I was so excited to see the race that I sped home from a ride with my buds, risking life, limbs, and tickets to make it home on time. What a letdown.
Froste says
Right on Paul.
I was screaming at the TV after a commercial break when they had the camera focused on a crowd in the bleachers for what seemed to be 20 – 30 seconds. After a few seconds, I began to think “surely the nice cameraman is trying to show me something; perhaps a topless babe dancing in the bleachers”. But NO, of course not. Come to think of it, that must have been why I was screaming at the TV.
You may remember last year, when Hayden overtook Chris Vermeulen for the lead and the commentators continued to ramble on about nothing for at least half a lap (30 secs) before they made any comment about the lead change. I was screaming at the TV then, too.
All kidding aside, I thought the actual race coverage (conveniently squeezed between the commercials) was absolutely amateur. I was anticipating (hoping for) a big improvement over last year’s coverage with different commentators and coverage, but FOX simply hosted the Speed channel for an hour.
I finally muted the sound during an onboard shot of Casey Stoner when they referred to the lean angle of Stoner’s bike as a percentage, instead of in degrees of lean angle. That might sound petty to some, but it demonstrates to me a lack of preparation and execution on the part of the commentators.
As for next year, fat chance anything will change. Our best bet might be to subscribe to MotoGP.com and watch the races online.
Jeff says
I agree with the coverage being pretty bad. The commentators seemed to be stressing the popularity that MotoGP and Rossi have in other countries around the world. If this was an attempt at getting people to take notice I don’t think it worked. Unless we get some real coverage and some quality pre and post race information then it will not get as big here in the US as it is in other countries. Heck, you can check you local sports section for the F1GP results but nothing in there for MOTGP when the current Champion (at least until this season is over) is one of our own!!! Look at how many americans we had this weekend in the race and a top 10 from a wildcard! If that isnt worthy of some kind of mention on ESPN then what really is? Oh, bonds and his indictment/homerun bruahah. Give us some coverage of the qualifying, some highlights of the practice, a good well thought out pre and post race program and make the whole thing an experience, not just an hour of programming with 45 minutes of motorcycle commercials.
Larry says
At least Fox was better than CBS.
Maybe.
Doug K. says
I kept telling myself that Fox dumbed down the coverage and commentary because, in theory, there would be lots of non-motorcyclists watching MotoGP for the first time and they needed to be “educated” about MotoGP. Commentators speaking in motorcycle techno-jargon for the informed viewer would have left most of the viewers even more clueless and turned them off. I kept telling myself that.
Mostly, though, I think it’s Fox (or any major US network) that is clueless and sees MotoGP and motorcycle racing in general as a novelty filler to be used between NASCAR races and therefore is deserving only of minimal effort. The network should educate itself and it’s people before they tackle a world class sport like MotoGP. I see the same sort of nonsense when a major US network covers the Tour de France or the World Cup.
By the way, I thought Dorna did video and just fed the footage to the networks who then provided local voice over? Maybe the crappy camerawork wasn’t Fox’s fault?
Doug
hoyt says
Froste – that part about the crowd was aggravating. On my tube, there was a quick flash of the FOX logo taking up the full screen right after the commercials saying something about “…if you are experiencing trouble call ….”, then they went to commercial. Then when they did come back, it was on the crowd. It may have been technical problems on their side. Nonetheless, an amateur effort in promoting the event, executing the coverage of the event, and post race coverage to give new viewers better insight to the event.
hoyt says
scratch that…..amatuers could have done a helluva lot better. Fox’s effort was lame.
chris says
the most aggravating part for me was the Vermuelen/Melandri battle. they showed twenty different replays of the pass. so many in fact, that when they finally went live again, they were back at the same corner the original pass had happened at. horrible. i’m not sure if it was Fox or not, but not getting to see any racing (the little that they actually showed) of anyone below 5th place really pissed me off. that’s where all the good battles usually are! the only thing during the whole hour that got me even a little excited was the first turn incident on the first lap. oh yeah, about that, i take back what i said about Hayden. whether it be poor talent or poor luck, Nicky is going to need a miracle just to finish in the top ten for points this year. let’s hope this is just teething problems for the networks trying to handle a new genre for themselves. unfortunately, i doubt that’s the case. i miss SPEED Channel.
Sid says
Speed Channel doesn’t provide as good of coverage as they should either….no pre-race, minimal post-race. Meanwhile, you get days of NASCAR garbage pre & post race….even “Back in the Day” coverage of NASCAR races 25 fk’in years ago.
Jeff says
As a first time Moto GP watcher and generally moto-savvy person, I couldn’t help but think that almost anyone could do a better job than Fox did. Their inane blabbering about obvious technical aspects of motorcycling was a major turn-off for me and my friends. “Yes, the tires on the motorcycles are curved because the bikes actually LEAN! And instead of the throttle being controlled by the riders’ feet, it’s controlled by the movement on the wrist! Imagine that!”
Oh well, what do you really expect from Fox?
Andres says
I was at laguna seca during the race and did not see the race on tv. I am dissapointed with the poor effort of FOX. I had just about told everyone to watch the race on Fox. Most of the people that I know do not get to see Motorcycle racing . I wanted my friends to get to see what i think is one of the best sports ever. I returned and many said they saw the race on tv but showed no interest or did not say much about it. I think that some must not be race fans but others could of just turned it off after watching the poor broadcast. I would have changed the channel myself if it was not directly talking about the race or showing some action related to the race.
Next time I will just recommend people to get a suscription to Motogp.com for race coverage. I have been a suscriber for years and I guess I will remain with them to get the right coverage.
Stefan says
Sorry to hear you guys had such shocking coverage. If you want to see what real coverage is like, do a search on piratebay. They generally have the race as shown on motogp.com
I used to be a member of the site last year, and still miss watching the qualifying in full not to mention all the races with after race interviews and extras. However this year they trippled the cost, it went from 35 euros to 99, plus added restriction of only being able to replay races once. So I’ve gone back to downloading them after the fact. Hopefully a lot of others have too so they realise the error of treating their fans/customers like sh*t and will fix it up for next year.