Grand Prix De France 2008
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This event took place 18/05/2008
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Event reportGrand Prix De France 2008GRAND PRIX DE FRANCE 16-18 MAY 2008Le Mans is one of the smallest MotoGP events in Europe, but it is hard to know why. We leave Le Mans with the overriding impression that this is an event that is almost perfectly put together. The town of Le Mans itself is charming, easy to walk and a medieval quarter dating from the 11th century which leaves people speechless. However the star attraction of the town is the new tram system. The past two years we have had to endure the construction and disruption of the roads. Now we reap the benefits! The tram, amongst other places, goes directly to the track - essentially door to door from our hotels. It was so convenient that less than half our customers even bothered to use our coach! We English speakers sometimes take a jaundiced view of the French, a reputation of poor service and surliness which is wholly undeserved; especially in Le Mans. All the people we dealt with, from police to bartenders, clerks or drivers, were incredibly helpful and friendly. We were based in 2 hotels right in the city centre, it would be impossible to get a better location. The exquisite Hotel Concordia featured an eccentric and delightful bar tender, who insisted we try (at no charge!) his latest creations. Considering the rest of the customers at the hotel were Dorna and Repsol Honda (with Dani Pedrosa) he was probably happy to see us as the others didn't strike us as heavy drinkers. Somehow my mental image of Dani does not picture him behind a large pina colada... Our main base was the Hotel Levasseur, the French prototype of Fawlty Towers run by the irrepressible Francois. Everyone loved the place, and its adjoining restaurant and bar saw a lot of the group over the weekend! The French really do have their priorities right: a 5* restaurant attached to a 2* hotel. Festivities commenced on Thursday with a happy hours at the Levasseur and a chance to get to know each other and sample the great selection of draft beers. Le Mans is a great biking destination from the UK and most of our customer had arrived this way (the secure parking garage under the hotel was much appreciated. Friday a small group went up to the track to catch the practice action. Thanks to Italian Team Matteoni (whom we sponsor) we were able to grab a few paddock passes, and several fortunate customers were able to get a view of the paddock and saw several GP riders, and had chats with British riders Bradley Smith and Danny Webb. Danny later gave us all a big fright after a bad high side, from which he was unable to get up and had to be evacuated by ambulance to the hospital. He suffered damage to his hand, ankle and most worryingly, his lower back. Several hours of concerned text messages later, we finally learned the hugely relieving news that he was all right, nothing broken, just a lot of bruising and pain. When we caught up with him Saturday he confessed to pains in his lower back, his rear, arms, and probably elsewhere. However he ran the Saturday practices, qualifying 15th; while not a brilliant position, a brave effort! Friday night we had our opening reception; 40 people joined us at the Levasseur for a great dinner and drinks; a review of last year's rainy race and a great talk by editor of American RoadRacerX magazine and Hayden biographer, Chris Jonnum. Chris gave us some insights into the struggle of Nicky as well as other background on the MotoGP world. Dinner was followed by a quintessentially French cabaret, with players of indeterminate sexes and song and dance performances just slightly less than rude. It was a riot. For some, the reception, dinner and cabaret needed to be rounded out with a what-is-now-becoming-traditional visit to the local Irish pub; alas this reporter had to abandon the gala about 2 am so I am unable to report on further excitement. Let's just say the group all missed the Saturday morning bus! (however a huge advantage of Le Mans is this new tram system which worked to their benefit!) Saturday qualifiers continued to show what an exciting season this is shaping up to be, in all classes. Home-favourite Mike de Meglio was showing the best times in the warmup, and ended up 6th on the grid; Sergio Gadea hanging on to pole from his Friday time. Bradley Smith managed to move up to a great 2nd place in a day of threatening rain. In the 250 it looked like the favourite Alvaro Bautista was sitting comfortably in pole, but on his final run, with no time on the clock, Alex Debon snatched pole position by a mere 1 one-thousandth of a second. You can't get any closer! Finally, the MotoGP qualifiers kept us on the edge with the rejuvenated Colin Edwards holding the top slot for most of the latter half of the session. After his pole at China, and his first pole here in Le Mans last year, he was looking a good bet. However Dani Pedrosa had been showing dominating form all weekend, and to be honest we were not surprised to see him take pole with a couple of minutes remaining. Colin couldn't top this, but a 2nd place on the grid is hardly a poor starting position; and with Rossi taking the last place on the front row, we knew this was going to be a cracker of a race. On Saturday we usually play our 'Pole Position Game' where customers predict the MotoGP qualifying front row. Pedrosa was an obvious choice, but not so Colin on 2nd. One customer, Mark Dougan from Perth, Australia, picked it exactly, and his prize was one of our Le Mans ball caps signed by Randy Mamola, Colin Edwards and Loris Capirossi. For us, the main event of the day was the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup race. These events never fail to be thrilling, and this was no exception. A huge 1-2 on-track rivalry has developed between the Spaniard Luis Salmon and American J D Beach. Of the three races so far, JD has taken 3 second places (twice behind Luis), and he vowed to take the win in France. The entire race was a duel between the two, but JD couldn't manage to get past the tenacious Spaniard. In the end, he settled for his 4th second, leaving him just 8 points shy in the tournament. However the excitement was not just at the front - a superb 3-way contest for 3rd lasted the entire race, with the leader of the group constantly changing between the two Frenchmen, Nelson Major and Florian Marino, and the German Daniel Kartheininger. In the final lap Major just slipped inside of the German on the last corner; to the delight of the local crowd. It was not the last podium to be occupied by a Frenchman in the weekend. While on the subject of the Rookies Cup, our deep sympathy is extended to our sponsored rider Scotsman Deane Brown. In the previous weekend at the BSB in Brand Hatch he has a terrible high side crash, and re-broke his femur (snapped the steel strap which was holding it in place after his break last year, and the leg was re-broken). After a gruelling 5 hour operation, his bone has been replaced by a steel rod, and prospects for his return to racing are good; however he will miss the rest of the season in both BSB and Rookies Cup. Saturday night a group of us sampled dinner in the medieval town, sitting in a lovely garden happy the the on- and off-again rain had abated. The restaurant Fabrique serves traditional Alsatian flamme (a pizza-like concoction that is wholly delicious), washed down with the Belgian beer on draft is part of the great charm of being in France. Sunday dawned with rain a virtual certainty. Thanks to our early departure and the track's enlightened policy of permitting buses to drive straight to the main entrance, we arrived on the dot of 0830 to ensure a full day without the traffic experience. All the bikes had wets on in anticipation of rain, which was sporadic all morning. The opening race of the 125s was one of the strangest 125 races we have seen. Bradley Smith had a terrible start, dropping to 19th; and then worked like a dog to fight his way back to 9th. Danny Webb, also starting from a poor position and racing in great pain, managed to pull himself up to the front of his group, running about 7th. It started sprinkling with rain, which for a MotoGP bike would probably not affect things, but the light 125s started dropping like a flock of ducks startled on hunt day, and race direction red flagged the race. The race was restarted with just 5 laps to run using the positions occupied at the end of the 14th lap. This turned out to be a wonderfully lucky occurrence for Bradley who otherwise was facing a near-hopeless quest for a podium. Bradley quickly worked his way to the lead; but as the rain came down harder, the local hero and wet weather expert Mike De Meglio got past Bradley and held on for an historic win -- the first time a Frenchman had won a GP since 1979. The crowd went wild! Bradley's fantastic second place finish was a reversal of his fortunes that he really needed. Nicol Terol took third. Our Danny Webb's luck was the opposite of Bradley's - on the sighting lap of the restarted race, his bike slid out; to no damage apart from renewed pain to Danny, but he broke his foot peg. He ran the entire rerun not only in pain, but with a broken right foot peg, making racing quite difficult as you might imagine. His finish, although not in points, was a great testimony to his courage and endurance! The 250 race was won both inside and outside the pits. Alex Debon, one of the real GP veterans, and usually a middle-pack finisher; exploited his incredible pole position with a huge gamble to run full dry-weather slicks despite the wet track. This paid off handsomely as the rain did not return and he built up an impregnable lead to take his first ever, much deserved, GP win. Bradley's team-mate, and our choice for 250 world champion, Mattia Pasini, fought a great race in a closing duel with the formidable Marco Simoncelli. Mattia was looking a sure bet for the 2nd place, when Marco pulled a manoeuvre more reminiscent of Mattia's style - slipping under him just at the last corner to shoot past and take 2nd. Still a great day for Pasini, and Polaris World team who put both riders on the podium! Alas it has been a bad year for our friends, the two Czech riders Karel Abraham and Lukas Pesek - both finished out of the points as did our sponsored Italian rider Alex Baldolini. We'll be giving Alex a push at Mugello! Finally the race we had all been waiting for. All weekend a Pedrosa win was looking the most likely result, but for the first half of the race, any of the four leaders, Dani, Valentino, Colin or Casey could have taken the lead. It was Rossi, unsurprisingly, who pushed through, and once he got in front, he was there to stay. Casey got ahead of Colin, and it was looking like Dani and Casey would be sharing Rossi's podium. However the most incredible ride of the race was pain-wracked Jorge Lorenzo who closed a long gap to join the lead group, and then got past Colin, Casey and Dani to ultimately take second. The race was white-flagged, indicating that it had become a wet race and riders could change over. Marco Melandri, who had obvious problems with the start of the warmup lap, which persisted to the real start, leaving him well behind the pack, did a bike change, but no else did. Then we were all amazed when Casey signalled a stop when his bike pulled up without power. More Ducati woes; but you have to hand it to Casey - he pretty much walked the bike all the way around the circuit to pull in, take advantage of the white flag rules, and remount in a vain attempt to get a point or two. Also commiseration to James Toseland - he was looking good all weekend, but had a small scrap early on with Dovisioso and crashed out. The Rossi victory was marvellous however, and brings the tournament to just 3 points separating the top three riders! Our weekend concluded in true French style with a gourmet meal at one of our favourite small restaurants, Les Saveurs. A splendid meal, washed down with many local wines, and the sharing of many photos and stories took nearly 30 of us well into the night. Le Mans it has to be said closes like a vault on Sunday night, leaving us to fend for ourselves for any nightlife - however we can recommend 'Le Mini Bar' as the best (and only!) pub open to 2 am... A good time, as they say, was had by all! On a side note, we had some VIPs come into Le Mans via chartered small aeroplane. With a direct flight from the UK, they landed at the aerodrome immediately adjacent to the circuit, saving a 2.5 drive from Paris. We will be organising these next year - the cost is surprisingly little per person! We had a great time in Le Mans ourselves, and have already confirmed our packages for next year where we will be still bigger, and if possible, better! Photograph gallery on www.le-mans.gp Internal ID: 66 |
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