Review: MotoGP Grand Prix of Qatar

Oh wait...they haven't run it yet.

Dorna (the motorcycle equivalent of Bernie's FOM), the FIM, and the riders all decided that the race should decidedly not be run because of the treacherous conditions on the race track.

It turns out that, when it rains at a night race, the lights have a fun tendency to reflect brightly off of the wet track surface and the riders can't see a thing. While they can easily do a rain race during the day (they raced in the remnants of a hurricane at Indianapolis last year), the fact that they can't see the track at night could probably pose some issues.

So Dorna has rescheduled the race for 9PM local time tonight, which works out to (*quick math*) 2PM in the east of the U.S.



Unfortunately, this is likely what viewers of the Speed Channel will be seeing when the race is run. See, Speed has this cool deal where the kings of the network are either stock cars (one of several reasons I resent NASCAR) or a bald guy forcing idiots to race their muscle cars. Much in the way that there is no longer "music" on "Music Television", there is not much "speed" on the "Speed Channel". So, I'm most likely going to post the result and say "I bet that was a fun race to watch...too bad I couldn't watch it."

Update! Results are in from Qatar:

1 C. STONER Ducati Marlboro Team 42'53.984
2 V. ROSSI Fiat Yamaha Team + 7.771
3 J. LORENZO Fiat Yamaha Team + 16.244
4 C. EDWARDS Monster Yamaha Tech 3 + 24.410
5 A. DOVIZIOSO Repsol Honda Team + 27.263
6 A. DE ANGELIS San Carlo Honda Gresini + 29.883
7 C. VERMEULEN Rizla Suzuki MotoGP + 33.627
8 M. KALLIO Pramac Racing + 34.755
9 T. ELIAS San Carlo Honda Gresini + 39.481
10 R. DE PUNIET LCR Honda MotoGP + 42.284
11 D. PEDROSA Repsol Honda Team + 48.526
12 N. HAYDEN Ducati Marlboro Team + 48.883
13 S. GIBERNAU Grupo Francisco Hernando + 52.215
14 M. MELANDRI Hayate Racing Team + 56.379
15 Y. TAKAHASHI Scot Racing Team MotoGP + 1'00.286
16 J. TOSELAND Monster Yamaha Tech 3 + 1'14.978
17 N. CANEPA Pramac Racing + 1'15.028
Not classified
L. CAPIROSSI Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 15 Lap

Must have been fun to watch. Still no word on whether or not Speed Channel will come to its senses and show us the race...