The Return of the King
secn8ure said:
Liam, any scoop on your buddy Hiro Aoyama? Haven't seen the KTM in the podium so far this season.
Well, the KTM hasn't really been in the hunt. I'm assuming that the development wasn't at the same pace as the Aprilia, which once again took a monstrous step forward in terms of Power. Also, I think the handling of the bike might be suspect as well. If you manage to study the practices (don't know if they're all available online for 250's) you'll see that sometimes the KTM stops while on the track, like the three or four times it stopped in Le Mans . . . like during the race, haha. Actually, I had dinner with Hiro and some friends this past Saturday and then we checked out a Regatta party in the boat harbor here in BCN. I was totally pumped to see these 60 foot racing boats that are piloted around the world by two people. In fact, I remember there's a race starting in Barcelona, 2008, that will see two member teams race around the world, non-stop, on these boats, and it should take about 100-110 days. Just awesone, really. Wish I'd had my camera, because that night's pizza was awesome, too, not to mention the party people.
Anyhow brown cow, tomorrow I leave for the Magic of Mugello, when the Italians will race at home, and the true phenomenon that is MotoGP will be in full effect! This is my Anniversary Race, and those of you who've followed this moto-adventure will remember this was my first race actually working in MotoGP on a racebike
Today, Monday, I woke up fairly early, cleaned my room, and then had a television cameraman follow me around as I prepared my luggage and shot the "intro segment" to my character who will be on this Spanish TV show called Historias.Motos (or something) on Channel 1, Thursday nights at 1AM, haha. So much for primetime! But it's a cool start, and I had fun today talking to the camera and explaining a little bit about my life in BCN away from the races. Then the camera guy, Roman, jumped on the back of a scooter and filmed me riding around on my BMX (urban assault commuter vehicle) on the way to get my typical pizza in the Born district, which was totally cool. I wish I could have pulled some stunts or something, but you know the old saying, "As soon as there's a camera, someone's going to eat it!". I can't really afford to be injured right now, so I casually (ok, speedily) rolled down to the waterfront area, got filmed watching passerby's, and then took the guys to the coffee shop I usually work at, Planet Cafe. There I had to carefully go through some work documents because the camera was high-def and I couldn't show any sensitive material, but it was important to actually show myself working, haha. No Barf at that time! Then, coming to my anniv. race at Mugello, they'll be filming me again in my truck and in the garage, and while I'm busy dealing with my Ducati guy and repairing the Barros bike, they'll be underfoot, also shadowing Dr. Costa and Barros a bit. Can you tell I'm excited? I think it's really cool, although not many people will see it. You never know, maybe one day I'll be calling the races, hahaha. Now that I've actually seen an episode (it's like a more detailed version of Faster), I was blown away by the speed that they're processing and editing everything, and by Thursday night after Le Mans, they have race coverage up and footage from that event. Whoa! That's fast. And it was high quality film, too, err digital. I'm going to source some episodes on dvd, and depending on the legality of ripping it and chopping it up for easier consumption, I'll do my best to put it out there for you guys. Although it's filmed and narrated in Spanish, the English speakers (me) will be sub-titled (I think, I hope, hahaha).
Time to go! I'll see if I can broadcast something from Mugello if I have a connection at the house I'll be staying at. Incidently, "The Hoff" has just re-vamped his own website, and you can follow along with him here at
Alex66.com
P.S. The Return of the King of Races! Woot! MUGELLO!!!!
