Submitted by David Emmett on
The final day of testing for the MotoGP class at Qatar ended as a washout. The rain did not lift, as many had hoped, and no action took place on track. The entire day was lost to the weather.
It had started raining much earlier in the day, and light rain was falling as teams arrived at the track ready for a 4pm start. It had been hoped that the rain would stop and the track might dry out. Unfortunately for the teams, the rain did not stop, getting worse in the end, and a thunderstorm rolling in.
As testing at Qatar happens at night, under floodlights, any rain means an immediate end to proceedings. Reflections from the floodlights on a wet track make it impossible to see where the track goes, rendering it very dangerous. Because action is banned in the wet, Bridgestone do not even take wet tires to Qatar for testing.
The loss of the final day means that the 2015 preseason is over for the MotoGP class, and testing is complete. The teams head home for a few days, before returning in time for the first free practice session of the 2015 season, which starts on Thursday, 26th March.
The Moto2 and Moto3 class start their last test of the season on Tuesday, both classes heading to Jerez in southern Spain for three days of testing. The weather is not looking promising for them, with heavy rain forecast for all three days fo the test.
Comments
Laguna
Maybe scheduling a race or some testing there would help California with this drought thing.
Chris
Rain & racing
It is a running joke in the paddock that Dorna could earn more money by offering to organize races in drought-stricken areas, as it is a real guarantee of rain.
Laguna
I think if they got rid of all the AMA / Electric Bike / gopro daytona ebaymotors geico nationalguard probike superbike supersport riff raff classes, they would probably have room for Moto2 and Moto3, even if they had to set up the way they did at Argentina.
SCRAMP Still needs to come up with the funding though.
Just for the record
Those "riff raff classes" brought us the likes of Kevin Schwantz, Kenny Roberts, and Wayne Rainey - more than one of those guys are personal heroes for VR46. American racing is down and out right now but we have a strong heritage and Rainey is committed to bringing it back. MotoAmerica is already doing a better job than DMG ever did and I think there is going to be some great racing this year. As a matter of fact, MotoAmerica will be functioning as a support class for the WSBK race in Laguna this year:
http://www.motoamerica.com/mazda-raceway-laguna-seca
I'd love for MotoGP to come back to Laguna, but I don't think AMA or MotoAmerica is what's keeping them away.
For the record part 2, the
For the record part 2, the quality of racing in AMA has not diminished, just everything else.
Yes, the Superbike class has been the Yamaha cup with Hayes, Herrin & Beaubier in recent years but the Supersport racing is awesome with several riders capable of winning at any given round. Anyways, doesn't matter now.....onward & upward with MotoAmerica.
Lots of cool storylines this year such as Josh Herrin returning & running Supersport instead of Superbike, Jake Lewis moving up to Superbike with Roger Lee Hayden at Yoshimura Suzuki, Chris Fillmore continues to be the only factory-backed KTM superbike rider in the world, Elena Myers moving up to Superbike, Triumph factory support nearly dissapearing, etc, etc.
Now, off to try and scour some data about the test going down at COTA today & tomorrow.
Laguna Seca
Please bring back MotoGP to Laguna Seca - especially with Moto2 & 3. Couldn't agree more with Mattology!!
Laguna is one of the very best tracks for spectating.
If it rains in Qatar?
David,
Does this means that, if rains at all in Qatar for round 1, we won't have a race? I wonder how much the Qatari royalty is paying Dorna for this raw deal...
Cheers!
I was wondering the same
I was wondering the same thing. They cancel the race if it rains in Qatar?
Didn't this happen already?
Wasn't the 2008 or 9 race postponed until Monday?
Chris
Yep -2009
The 125 and 250 races were shortened and then the rain came back, so the MotoGP race was run the day after scheduled.
Awful
Since rain was even mentioned I've been worrying about
that. Was so amped for the first race that year, was watching on SPEED. Took me til like the 3rd lap to realize it was last years race!
But, we all learned that you can't race at Qatar if there's any moisture. Or maybe just at night?
Qatar
If there is water on the track, the floodlights reflect off it and it impacts visibility, making it unsafe to race.
Not really anything to do with moist surfaces or time of the day.
technically.....
technically it has everything to do the time of day. If they could run the race during the day then they wouldn't need the floodlights and visibility wouldn't be so heavily impacted.
Actually...
it does. During the leadup to the announcement the race was cancelled, they were talking about specifically the fact that even if it wasn't raining, the moisture on the track coupled with the dust that was blowing over the course made conditions ridiculously slick. At times there was no "standing water" on the track but because of the dust too it was almost impossible to ride
So while of course everyone
So while of course everyone loses when there were no race distance simulations, who loses the least or gains from it relatively?
Ducati, Suzuki, and those w less time on their current bikes are screwed.