Ducati on the eve of the MotoGP race launched the new 848 Nicky Hayden special edition and on Sunday ran almost the same livery design plus the Malboro bar codes on his Ducati Desmosedici GP9. So watch Nicky talk about Laguna Seca and being a Ducati rider.

The new livery gave the Kentucky Kid a boost, because he took 5th in the race, and it was his season’s best so far.

Continue reading: Nicky Hayden in Ducati 848 Shoot

Check out our gallery of pics from this weekend’s Laguna Seca GP, where Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa led and won the race from flag to flag.

Images from Laguna Seca MotoGP

Continue reading: Images from Laguna Seca USGP

With yesterday’s win at Laguna Seca, Dani Pedrosa finally ended a winless drought of over a year for himself and Repsol Honda.
After the 8th round of the MotoGP Championship, defending World Champion Valentino Rossi, still leads the series with 151 points, closely followed by Yamaha team mate Jorge Lorenzo with 142 and Malboro Ducati’s Casey Stoner with 135 points.

Dani Pedrosa - 1st

“This is a fantastic win for us and it’s a great feeling after such a long time without a victory.
The start to the season has been really difficult and actually it’s been tough since Sachsenring last year because I’ve had a lot of injuries and I haven’t been able to ride at 100 per cent for a long time, or train properly. But my team and Honda never gave up and I’d like to thank everyone who’s been working really hard to help me get back to this position. I’d also like to thank the doctors who have treated me because there have been quite a few of them! I got a good start, I was able to get into a good rhythm straight away and my pace was a little better than in practice. Perhaps my only mistake here was to slow down too much on the last lap because I didn’t realize how close Valentino was. Anyway, it was a great race, a great day and it’s a great feeling. Now I just want to focus on each race and get the best results possible. There’s a long way to go in the championship but there’s also a big gap to the leaders so I’m just going to take it one race at a time.”

Valentino Rossi - 2nd

“The first half of the race was quite difficult because we weren’t at 100% today. I didn’t expect Dani to be so fast but he was very strong and there wasn’t much I could do to go with him! The last ten laps were very exciting because Lorenzo was pushing me so hard that I had to really make another step and then Dani slowed down and suddenly he was right in front of me! I thought there was a chance to pass on the final corner but unfortunately I was just too far off and it was too much of a risk. Second is good today because we were not in perfect shape here, we missed something in the setting and this is always a hard track anyway, so we have to be happy with these twenty points. We have extended the championship lead so it’s a good result for us and we have shown that we are still strong this year even when things are not perfect. This consistency is the most important thing for the championship. Now I am happy that we have some time to rest because these have been a hard two weeks and the next two races are very important because we are all so close!”

Continue reading: MotoGP Rider Quotes from the Dry Lagoon

It was Dani Pedrosa who was the surprise winner at Laguna Seca. The Repsol Honda rider who was fourth on the grid took the holeshot and was off and lead the race for the entire 32 laps.

Valentino Rossi was second, but on the final lap Pedrosa slowed down and lost 1.2 seconds to Rossi who tried to pass the Repsol Honda rider, but was just too far off, but settled for second just 0.344 from Pedrosa.

It was an impressive and stoic Jorge Lorenzo, who despite his discolated collarbone and a fractured bone in his foot, wasn’t giving up on this race. After passing Casey Stoner, He started his attack on Rossi, chewing up tenths of seconds on his team mate and with 5 laps to go tried to out brake Rossi at turn 11, but briefly lost control of the front of his M1 and had to run wide, but still continued to ride hard to finish a fantastic third.

Continue reading: MotoGP Laguna Seca - Dani Pedrosa takes USGP win

Check out the video with Jorge Lorenzo’s and Casey Stoner’s highsides and the final minutes of yesterday’s qualifying session at Laguna Seca.

According to Lorenzo’s crew chief Ramon Forcada, Yamaha team manager Daniele Romagnoli is not present due to family problems, Lorenzo will decide to race only after assessing his physical condition during today’s warm up practice.

Continue reading: MotoGP Laguna Seca - Qualifying Video with crashes

Certain races get more hype than others and Laguna Seca is no different. Riders show up with different liveries on their bikes like Niccolò Canepa’s Pramc Ducati, or Randy DePuniet’s Honda and others show up with new helmet designs like Nicky Hayden has for his home race.

Loris Capirossi has a new design on his Suomy, a very sexy lady holding a bottle of some exotic substance.

We’re wondering if Capirex’s wife, Ingrid had to say something about her husband’s helmet?

Continue reading: A "Sexy" Helmet for Loris Capirossi

Rider quotes from yesterday’s dramatic and crash strewn qualifying sessione at the Mazda Speedway at Laguna Seca.

Update on Jorge Lorenzo’s conditions: The Spanish rider besides dislocating his collarbone, has a fractured metatarsal in his right foot and mini fracture to his finger.

Jorge Lorenzo -1st 1′21.678

“I was trying to push but first I had some traffic and then the tyres were cold, and I wasn’t in the right shape to try to improve my time. I’m disappointed for these two crashes but I am okay and I am optimistic that I will be able to ride tomorrow. Now the American doctors and the Clinica Mobile are working together to try to help me as best they can and make me more comfortable. Thanks to all the American people here for their support!”

Valentino Rossi - 2nd 1′21.845

“Firstly I want to say that I hope Lorenzo and Stoner are okay for the race tomorrow, because it should be a great battle between the three of us. I am happy about this session because we have had two practices today when we haven’t been in perfect shape and we have struggled in some areas, especially in the last sector where we are still not strong enough. I was finding it quite hard to ride at the maximum there today and control the bike how I wanted, so we need to try to improve a bit more. It depends how the other two are but I hope they’re okay and then we can have an exciting race.”

Casey Stoner - 3rd 1′21.910

“To be honest the bike had given us a few warnings in a lot of places around the circuit today and I’m sure there were a lot of other guys in a similar situation. The tyre is quite hard on the right-hand side and needs a couple of laps to warm up properly. Unfortunately on the lap before the crash, in the most important corner for heating that side of the tyre up I was held up by two riders having a disagreement and then I got stuck behind one of them into the next right-hander too. I was wary that the tyre would be cooler than I needed it to be on the next lap so I went into turn three a lot more carefully than normal, but as I closed the gas on the way into the corner the rear just came around. I tried to pick the bike up and go straight into the gravel but it didn’t want to and that was it - it threw me straight up in the air! It hurt when I landed but I thought I’d only winded myself - now it looks like I might have torn something in my groin, which is not the best thing to happen before the race. Anyway, we have a great bike for this track so we’ll see what we can do.”

Continue reading: MotoGP Laguna Seca - Rider Quotes from Qualifying Session

According to the La Repubblica Jorge Lorenzo suffered a partial dislocation of his right collarbone and a bruised right foot after his massive highside during the Laguna Seca qualifying session, while Casey Stoner’s highside left him a bruised hip.

Dr. Claudio Costa has said that both riders will able to race tomorrow.

Continue reading: Lorenzo, Stoner Injury Updates

The final minutes of the qualifying session at the Laguna Seca racetrack was shaken by two massive highsides by Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo and Ducati’s Casey Stoner.

Jorge Lorenzo suffered the second of his two qualifying crashes and both crashes were at the same right corner. The first coming with about 20 minutes left in the session, Lorenzo lost his front but was was able to walk away the crash and return to his garage to pick up his second bike. In the second crash he hit his shoulder and ankle and knee, he tried walking a few steps but his leg gave out and was transported by stretcher to the track medical center. Lorenzo was clearly in pain, indicating his shoulder and foot to the waiting Dr. Costa.

Valentino Rossi grabbed second place in his final run, 0.167sec from Lorenzo’s pole, but the Italian has set-up problems in the third. but especially fourth section of the circuit, but with both rivals now fighting physical problems, Laguna could again become the turning point of the MotoGP season.

Continue reading: MotoGP Laguna Seca Qualifying - Lorenzo on Pole, but rides away in ambulance