The metronome that is JL99

Well, this is what I have gone ahead and done. I plotted the lap timings of the podium finishers from the MotoGP round of Le Mans 2015. Even while the race was on, everybody had to mention how Jorge was hammering away lap after lap with metronomic precision. I think I heard the precise phrase being mentioned. But I decided to pull out the lap times and see for myself. And lo and behold, there they were, closely bunched up around the 01:33.500 mark, 12 laps out of the 28 in the race. And with the exception of the first lap starting from a stand still and the very last lap of the race, he had them all nicely bundled within a few tenths on either side. Compare that with the timings of Rossi and Dovi, and you'll know why it can be boring race when Lorenzo is in form and gets away at the front. Chances are, he will not put a step wrong and will only build on the gap to the next man. True, watching a metronome can be boring, but the music played to the beat, well, that's completely different.

And then there was a Ducati that wouldn't turn

Ducati has officially launched the 2015 version of their factory MotoGP entry in Borgo Panigale, Italy. It will be ridden by the factory riders, the Andrea duo (Dovizioso and Iannone) in the 2015 season. 

After languishing for years in the also finished category ever since Casey Stoner left them, 2014 was the first time Ducati appeared to be making some promising progress. And if the 2nd half of 2014 and the recent tests at Sepang are anything to go by, Gigi Dall'Igna is the new superstar in the paddock and the Ducati GP15 should manage more than the rare podium this year around. The last win came way back with The Stoner riding the GP10 at the Australian round of the 2010 championship. Since then most who have ridden the various versions of the Desmosedici have hinted at a machine that was tough to coax into a turn. And the best result anybody has managed since, was the 2nd step on the podium. 

So when Audi bought the company, Gigi Dall'Igna was brought in from Aprilia to set things right in the Ducati paddock. And the GP15 is a redesigned machine from scratch that took form under his auspices. We will soon see how it fares at the second round of testing at Sepang. The Andreas are both quick and a competitive machine would definitely stay so in their hands. So here's wishing the Ducati team a healthy dose of success for the season ahead and the fans that much more excitement at the races. Read more about the launch here at the official MotoGP website.

2015 preseason testing: Sepang

The teams converged at the Sepang International Circuit this week for three days of preseason testing. The time-sheets hold very few surprises. Marc Marquez led the first session and then reclaimed the top-spot on the final sheets after having yielded the lead to Jorge Lorenzo at the end of the 2nd day. The Honda package once again seems to be the machine to beat. 

Looking at timings of the best-laps alone, there seems to be some bunching of the riders into groups of 2+5+4 and the rest. While almost all riders have improved on their best times session after session, three riders in particular have shown a significant drop in their lap times over the 3 day period, their final position notwithstanding. 

Andrea Iannone, Maverick Viñales and Loris Baz would be pleased with where they were placed at the end of the third day relative to their first session. With his pace, The Maniac Joe (Andrea Iannone) has firmly placed himself between the leading duo of Hondas and the trailing pack of Yamahas. Maverick Viñales with his improvement is less than half a second behind his much experienced teammate Aleix Espargaro, while Loris Baz, with all his improvement is off of his teammate Stefan Bradl's pace by about 1.2 seconds. Just as qualifying performances and starting positions are only indicators of race day results and are by no means definite predictors, this ranking on the timing sheets with adequate number of caveats can be treated as a general indicator of what we can expect to see during the first few races. Let us though wait and see how the season might try to surprise us.

Legend	Rider	Team
MM	MARQUEZ, Marc	Repsol Honda Team
DP	PEDROSA, Dani	Repsol Honda Team
AI	IANNONE, Andrea	Ducati Team
VR	ROSSI, Valentino	Movistar Yamaha MotoGP
JL	LORENZO, Jorge	Movistar Yamaha MotoGP
PE	ESPARGARO, Pol	Monster Yamaha Tech 3
AD	DOVIZIOSO, Andrea	Ducati Team
SB	BRADL, Stefan	Forward Racing Team
BS	SMITH, Bradley	Monster Yamaha Tech 3
AE	ESPARGARO, Aleix	Team Suzuki MotoGP
CC	CRUTCHLOW, Cal	CWM LCR Honda
MV	VIÑALES, Maverick	Team Suzuki MotoGP
DPC	PETRUCCI, Danilo	Pramac Racing
HA	AOYAMA, Hiroshi	HRC
HB	BARBERA, Hector	Avintia Racing
MP	PIRRO, Michele	Pramac Racing
SR	REDDING, Scott	Estrella Galicia 0.0 Marc VDS
NH	HAYDEN, Nicky	Drive M7 Aspar
LB	BAZ, Loris	Forward Racing Team
JM	MILLER, Jack	CWM LCR Honda
AB	BAUTISTA, Alvaro	Aprilia Racing Team Gresini
MD	DI MEGLIO, Mike	Avintia Racing
KA	ABRAHAM, Karel	AB Motoracing
EL	LAVERTY, Eugene	Drive M7 Aspar
KN	NAKASUGA, Katsuyuki	Yamaha Factory Test Team
TT	TAKAHASHI, Takumi	HRC
ALD	DE ANGELIS, Alex	Octo Ioda Racing Team
MML	MELANDRI, Marco	Aprilia Racing Team Gresini

But why TIRF?

There are possibly a hundred reasons that are working in the background in my head, which led me to think that this is something I should do. But chief among them, is the lack of anybody closer home writing on motorcycle racing. Two-wheelers are truly symbols of freedom in India, especially for small town kids growing up. And I'm sure that just as there are literally hundreds of motorcyclists for every car on the road, there must be hundreds of MotoGP fans for every F1 fan in India. But unfortunately, mainstream print media here does not cover MotoGP the way that it even covers F1. 

Again, why is that? In the matters of its coverage of sports around the world, I think the traditional Indian print media followed the west. And it was the west closer home. The ones who had been here and shaped some, if not all of our recent history. And on their scale, Formula 1 comes a couple of rungs below the likes of soccer, cricket and tennis. And MotoGP still lower, perhaps being billed even below other motorcyle racing events such as the BSB and the WSBK.

There is extensive coverage by media based out of continental Europe. But then, they seldom write in English. As for the US of A, the popularity of the sport has been on it's way down since the Rainey, Schwantz era. And then there is Australia. For a country that has produced talents like Mick Doohan, Casey Stoner and now the promising Jack Miller, I think press coverage reflects the ground reality. Reduced viewership as result of "confusing to me at least" airing rights. More on that, some other time perhaps.

When I turn to the worldwide web in the hopes of finding incisive reviews, race reports and race analyses around the sport, very few results turn up. And whatever do turn up, are mostly sterile listings of numbers which do not convey the excitement that is motorcycle racing at all. A notable exception is the motomatters website, where David Emmett is extremely thorough in his approach, and the entire racing season is covered in crisp beautiful detail including a fair amount of narrative on what happens behind the scenes. And for any MotoGP fan, that, I believe should be the first stop for the weekend update. And could in all likelihood be the only stop required.

But there must be a few like me, who just are information junkies. They need more than one dose, more than one point of view, to stop the tics, the nervous twitching. So for lack of an alternative, I decided to create one. I will write. And I will write from my perspective that would be limited by what TV coverage offers. I will try and consolidate information from the racing world that is already sprinkled around the www. But I will try and provide one more option to the Indian racing fan. Let the racing begin...