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MotoGP Season Review 2007

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“Less cubic centimetres
  but no compromise on
  thrills: the MotoGP
  Season Review 2007
  by Julian Ryder proves
  that MotoGP is as
  exciting as ever...”

A NEW BEGINNING FOR MotoGP it may have been, but as the bikes dropped down to 800cc (from 990cc) the excitement mounted — and The Series got a new champion in 21-year-old Australian Casey Stoner.

Stoner left Valentino Rossi and pre-season favourite Dani Pedrosa floundering, but 2007 saw Suzuki and Kawasaki up their game —
and their riders: John Hopkins, Chris Vermeulen and Randy de Puniet were regularly fighting for rostrum finishes.

In a season that made history, the new bikes may have been slower down the straights but riders were able to brake later and carry more speed through the corners, resulting in a different type of racing. Interestingly, lap times matched those of last year's more powerful machines.

Everyone thought that the engineers of the giant Honda company would produce the motorcycle the rest had to beat, as they did when MotoGP first arrived in 2002. But there was a surprise in store. The smallest company in MotoGP — Ducati — fielded a brilliantly designed bike and a great new Champion raced it to ten wins in 18 races. Casey Stoner's season was nothing short of dazzling. An unexpected triumph!

Unexpected, because Ducati had been keeping a low-profile during testing — saving the best for the race. The astounding performance attracted suspicion. All fuel tanks are required to vent into a catch tank, minimum capacity 250cc, and Ducati built a tidy carbon tank into the side of their radiator surround. Team Roberts used a similar idea, while most other teams used clear plastic containers located some-where on the front of their bikes. As soon as the Qatar race was over, the rumours started, with Ducati effectively being accused of filling their catch tank with fuel and allowing the in-tank vacuum to pull that fuel into the tank as the first few laps went by. Ducati were so annoyed that, by Le Mans, they had fitted their own, highly trans-parent plastic catch tanks in the front of the fairing to prove they were not starting the race with them topped up — and, of course, it didn't stop them winning races!

In his first season as a factory rider, his first on a Ducati and his first on Bridgestone tyres, Casey Stoner racked up an amazing string of performances. In only his second season in the top class, the Aus-tralian's career statistics for win rate and number of wins in a season are only bettered by three all-time greats: Giacomo Agostini, Mick Doohan and Valentino Rossi. And you just know that there's more to come…

In this fourth edition of the Official MotoGP Season Review, Britsh Eurosport's MotoGP commentator Julian Ryder tells the story of each race with the vital assistance of Andrew Northcott's stunning photo-graphy. Neil Spalding provides the technical analysis of Ducati's first Grand Prix Championship winner as well as, individually, each bike on the grid with the help of stunning double-page photographs.

There's also a round-up of each rider's season and a report on the activities of MotoGP's official charity, Riders for Health. And there's the unique and authoritative Riders' Rider of the Year poll in which every rider votes. If you want to know who really is the fastest in the world, you have to ask the racers themselves.

Casey Stoner sounds very laid back when he says: "I don't give a damn about qualifying… as long as I'm on the front two rows!" And John Hopkins says of the champion: "He didn't make a mistake all weekend."

This marvellous book contains beautiful images of racing bikes at their best and portrays all the thrills of the race. No motorcycle racing enthusiast should miss it.

• The official, licensed MotoGP Season Review 2007 is out now in hardback, available from all good bookshops at an RRP of £19.99.
ISBN: 978 184 425 451 4.

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