patnicholls
13th July 2008, 22:36
I thought I'd start a thread about these two Italians who will be stars in the top classes very shortly - as an English-speaking forum we possibly tend to focus elsewhere most of the time with a couple of exceptions.
Marco Simoncelli has completely proved me wrong this year - I wasn't expecting a great deal (he'd only ever won two races before this year, both in the 125s and both at Jerez, 2004-5) and he's been simply fantastic. He had two DNFs to start the year - and one of those was the Jerez incident where Alvaro Bautista's bike broke down right in front of him, taking them both down which was pretty bad luck. There was that Mugello incident with Hector Barbera, but I don't honestly rate that as malicious - trying to break the tow on the main straight is very common. Whatever - he's leading the championship very impressively and has to be congratulated for turning it around after lacklustre 2006/7 (no podiums in either season) and has done his future prospects a world of good. Bradley Smith also told Eurosport viewers that Marco came to the Clinica Mobile at Catalunya to congratulate Bradley on his 'spectacular crash', before adding that he knows that Marco has to have a helmet size larger 'to fit all his hair in' :D
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And how about Niccolo Canepa?
He's not turned a racing lap in 2008 yet but again looks to have the world at his feet. He rounded out 2007 by taking the European Superstock 1000 title in a four-way final round shootout - pretty tough in anyone's book. He's been testing the MotoGP Ducati this year - which we all now know will have an empty seat on it at the end of this season if not before - including at the new Indy facility where he was fastest of the test riders, including Ben Spies. As well as that, he's done some testing for Xerox Ducati in preparation for three forthcoming wildcard entries, and was second quickest on both days with two-thirds of the field present. Again, not too shabby with one racing legend set to hang up his Xerox leathers at the end of the year. Niccolo also has time on his side, at just twenty years of age.
Looks like there'll be plenty of Italian talent in contention for the future!
Marco Simoncelli has completely proved me wrong this year - I wasn't expecting a great deal (he'd only ever won two races before this year, both in the 125s and both at Jerez, 2004-5) and he's been simply fantastic. He had two DNFs to start the year - and one of those was the Jerez incident where Alvaro Bautista's bike broke down right in front of him, taking them both down which was pretty bad luck. There was that Mugello incident with Hector Barbera, but I don't honestly rate that as malicious - trying to break the tow on the main straight is very common. Whatever - he's leading the championship very impressively and has to be congratulated for turning it around after lacklustre 2006/7 (no podiums in either season) and has done his future prospects a world of good. Bradley Smith also told Eurosport viewers that Marco came to the Clinica Mobile at Catalunya to congratulate Bradley on his 'spectacular crash', before adding that he knows that Marco has to have a helmet size larger 'to fit all his hair in' :D
----------
And how about Niccolo Canepa?
He's not turned a racing lap in 2008 yet but again looks to have the world at his feet. He rounded out 2007 by taking the European Superstock 1000 title in a four-way final round shootout - pretty tough in anyone's book. He's been testing the MotoGP Ducati this year - which we all now know will have an empty seat on it at the end of this season if not before - including at the new Indy facility where he was fastest of the test riders, including Ben Spies. As well as that, he's done some testing for Xerox Ducati in preparation for three forthcoming wildcard entries, and was second quickest on both days with two-thirds of the field present. Again, not too shabby with one racing legend set to hang up his Xerox leathers at the end of the year. Niccolo also has time on his side, at just twenty years of age.
Looks like there'll be plenty of Italian talent in contention for the future!