Shoulda bet a grand…

Before the race on Sunday, I asked my wife how upset she’d be if I put a $1000 on the trifecta I posted on my March 7 blog entry. A trifecta, for those unfamiliar with horse racing, is a “parimutuel bet in which the bettor must predict which horses will finish first, second, and third in exact order. The word comes from the related betting term, ‘perfecta.’” Well, I totally called it.

“Stoner first, Lorenzo second, Pedrosa third.” Read it here and weep: http://motogpinsider.blogspot.com/. Goddamn I love being right. What I don’t love is considering the money I could have won, had I the balls to make a ridiculous bet like that. Putting down a grand on a trifecta, depending on the odds, would have easily been a seven figure payout, especially since there was a rookie making his MotoGP debut under the strange and untested floodlights (untested in race conditions, that is). But I don’t mean to use this space as a place to gloat, because no one wants to read that.

So now we have a three-week break to analyze, critique, ridicule, speculate and WAIT for the next contest at Jerez. To kill some time, I found some great videos of England’s sole MotoGP hope and his band “Crash” doing a cover of Gun’s n Roses’ “Sweet Child o Mine”. He actually sounds pretty good. But good lord does this guy take himself seriously. 

Next installment, I'll give my spot on prediction to Jerez top three. I welcome anyone else's picks, too. 

Lights, Cameras, More Lights, Action

As the season is about to kick off in the desert, let’s take a look at what makes this circuit special. Well, for starters, it’s in the oil-rich country of Qatar and Persian Gulf-adjacent. It’s the only circuit in the region that hosts both FIA and FIM licenses. But all eyes are on this race not only because it’s the opening of competition, but it’s also the first MotoGP competition to ever take place at night, which, of course, if you remotely follow the sport, you know. The track was built in 2004 in just under a year for $58 Million (USD).

Lighting this 16-turn, 3.375 mile track was actually a pretty impressive undertaking. It’s the largest permanent lighting project in the world. The company, Musco Lighting, is based out of Oskaloosa, Iowa of all places have provided custom illumination to everything from little league parks to the Statue of Liberty. To power this shadow-less system of lights requires some 5.4 million watts – the equivalent amount of energy to light a small city. Impressive. Though considering the source: neighboring Dubai is building friggin islands off its coastline so this is pretty minor in comparison. No riders have complained about the lights except Jorge Lorenzo, who said he felt lonely on the track.

But the track remains untested under race conditions, so we’ll see on Sunday how things pan out.

Here’s my trifecta prediction: Stoner first, Lorenzo second, Pedrosa third.

Lights, Cameras, More Lights, Action

As the season is about to kick off in the desert, let’s take a look at what makes this circuit special. Well, for starters, it’s in the oil-rich country of Qatar and Persian Gulf-adjacent. It’s the only circuit in the region that hosts both FIA and FIM licenses. But all eyes are on this race not only because it’s the opening of competition, but it’s also the first MotoGP competition to ever take place at night, which, of course, if you remotely follow the sport, you know. The track was built in 2004 in just under a year for $58 Million (USD).

Lighting this 16-turn, 3.375 mile track was actually a pretty impressive undertaking. It’s the largest permanent lighting project in the world. The company, Musco Lighting, is based out of Oskaloosa, Iowa of all places have provided custom illumination to everything from little league parks to the Statue of Liberty. To power this shadow-less system of lights requires some 5.4 million watts – the equivalent amount of energy to light a small city. Impressive. Though considering the source: neighboring Dubai is building friggin islands off its coastline so this is pretty minor in comparison. No riders have complained about the lights except Jorge Lorenzo, who said he felt lonely on the track.

But the track remains untested under race conditions, so we’ll see on Sunday how things pan out.

Here’s my trifecta prediction: Stoner first, Lorenzo second, Pedrosa third.

Predictions for the 2008 Season

The 2008 MotoGP season is about to begin and I’d like to go on record (Internetly) and make a few predictions (in completely random order).

1. Rookie of the year will go to Jorge Lorenzo. Despite the Yamaha-instituted and completely weird wall divider that’s will bisect the Fiat Yamaha garage this year effectively making the “teammates” un-teammates, karma will shine fondly on the young Spaniard. “It doesn’t matter for me. Yamaha wanted this line of work and I have to accept it. For me it is fantastic to be in Yamaha. It is perfect like this,” he told MCN. His Yamaha is not fueled on karma alone. Doesn’t hurt that he spanked his teammate and seven times world champion Valentino Rossi by nearly two seconds.

2. James Toseland, despite all the well-wishing and wishful thinking of the entire country of England, will disappoint.

3. After exhausting all Japanese resources, Valentino Rossi will leave Yamaha for Ducati.

4. Dani Pedrosa will still not find a sense of humor. I ran into him last year on the street in Monterey. He was standing outside his hotel and people were just totally ignoring him (I saw at least one guy walk past him wearing a shirt that said, “Fuck Dani Pedrosa”). Seems he didn’t lost a fair amount of American fans when he took out Nicky Hayden in a stupid pass attempt. I said, “Hi Dani, tough crowd out here, huh?” Dani said, “Leave me alone.” Idiot.

5. John Hopkins will finish seventh in the overall standing.

6. Casey Stoner will win it all again.