MotoGP – MotoGP is coming to Le Mans … with ten Moto-Net.Com readers! – French Moto Grand Prix at Le Mans: fourth event of the season

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MotoGP arrives at Le Mans … with ten Site readers !

MotoGP - MotoGP is coming to Le Mans ... with ten Moto-Net.Com readers! - French Moto Grand Prix at Le Mans: fourth round of the season

Fourth round of the championship, the French GP is an opportunity for French fans to witness the battles of the sharpest motorcycles in the world. ! An event that many of you will attend, like our ten readers who won an invitation !

French Moto Grand Prix at Le Mans: fourth event of the season

Second French motor sport event in terms of attendance behind the 24 Hours of Le Mans Auto, the French Moto Grand Prix at Le Mans is undoubtedly the unmissable event for all motorcycle racing enthusiasts !

Managed for 15 years by the dynamic Claude Michy, the event now enjoys a good reputation among insiders and its attendance is one of the most important of the sixteen races on the MotoGP calendar: last year, you were more than 75 000 enthusiasts to encourage the Frenchies involved in the three categories! Once again this year, in addition to the eight giant screens and audio players allowing to follow the race continuously, the organizer has multiplied the initiatives so that everyone wants to come and support our representatives on site (read).

Encouragement rewarded in the most beautiful way in 2008: confirming his excellent start to the season, Toulouse-based Mike di Meglio had the Marseillaise sounded in the alleys of the Bugatti circuit for the first time in 26 years, offering the crowd a dose unforgettable emotion !

Not to be missed at the 2009 French Moto GP

As every year for eight years now, the organizer of the GP de France offers spectators the opportunity to rub shoulders with the drivers during the evenings of Friday and Saturday, between 6:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., on the concert stage. In addition, to make up for the elimination of Friday morning practice, Claude Michy had the happy idea of ​​offering a visit to the pit lane. Between 10 a.m. and noon, any spectator with a 3-day ticket (General enclosure or Grandstand) will thus be able to attend the final adjustments before the opening of free practice at 1 p.m., and take advantage of the presence of the drivers to leave with dedications and souvenir photos. ! Rich in entertainment, the French GP is also the opportunity to attend a mechanical show, a stunt demonstration, FMX, concerts and a run of Vincent Perrot’s two-seater dragster! Finally, ten Joe Bar One motorcycles will challenge each other on the Le Mans track, while a tribute will be paid for the 20th anniversary of the French team Tech 3 in the presence of Dominique Sarron – first rider of the team – and Olivier Jacque – 250 World champion in 2000 – and of course the team manager Herve Poncharal.

Fifth French to receive a world champion title, Mike di Meglio will have to deal with the specificities of a quarter-liter category this year that he is discovering in an attempt to join in the fight for the final podium….

Brilliant French hopeful since his arrival in Grand Prix in 2007 and incredible spoilsport for the 250 this season, Jules Cluzel will also be ready to do battle with his Aprilia LE, almost devoid of sponsors. !

After a surprise podium in Qatar and eighth place in Jerez, the 20-year-old Montluçonnais impressed the entire field by pointing fifth in the provisional, only one breath away from the experienced Thomas Luthi! Transcended on his land, the driver of the Matteoni Racing team can create a surprise, because nobody expected such a celebration this season: "I want to continue my momentum and I will be at my best for the Le Mans race", warns the hot n ° 16 !

In GP 250, it will also be necessary to count on Valentin Debise who will participate in the European races of the championship within the CIP Moto team, a new structure set up by Alain Bronec. Riding a Honda RS, the 17-year-old Albigensian will do his best to wear the colors of France high on the Le Mans track, but will have to quickly get up to speed in the face of more trained rivals … will they be able to help him overcome this handicap? Certainly !

The Ornella Ongaro case

Whatever may be said, motorcycling – and moreover motorcycle racing – remains mostly a men’s environment. Take Ornella Ongaro, for example: registered in the French 125 championship, the young woman takes the reins of the category following her recent victory at Nogaro. Until then, except for a few cranky, the trajectory of the young woman does not elicit any unpleasant reaction. Except that when awarding the invitations to the GP of France – the famous "wild cards" -, the FFM takes its feet in the carpet and snubs the young driver for the benefit of boys – of course – that it dominates at the championship … Naturally disappointed and upset, Ornella and her team manager Catline Brossard believe that the explanations put forward by the Federation are not admissible. On her blog, n ° 28 does not hesitate to cry out sexism! A fuss that would have gone well the new president of the FFM, Jacques Bolle, who decided to personally take the file in hand … and finally grant an invitation to Ornella Ongaro at the expense of Richard Tournay, who will give in to him sportingly its place. The opportunity to see that there are still a few gentlemen…

As for the 125 cc, two French tricolors will be present with Alexis Masbou – former driver of the French Speed ​​Line – and the astonishing Johann Zarco. If the former expects a tricky race with a Loncin lacking both acceleration and reliability, the latter has shown undeniable potential during his first GPs by entering the points twice….

As every year, in agreement with the International Motorcycling Federation (FIM) and the Dorna, the French Motorcycling Federation (FFM) has selected several promising French riders who will try their luck in GP 125 on a circuit they know perfectly well: Cyril Carrillo (formerly of the French Speed ​​Line), Steven Le Coquen, Gregory di Carlo (pilot of the Challenge du l’Avenir 2009) and finally – after bitter twists and turns, read box opposite – Ornella Ongaro (member of the Challenge de l ‘Future in 2008).

Finally, after his superb fourth place in Jerez (read), how can we not nurture great ambitions for our only representative in the premier category, the Parisian Randy de Puniet? Much more serene than in 2008, the LCR driver has indeed made a solid start to the season where regularity seems to have – finally – taken precedence over occasional bursts in practice and too many crashes during the race..

Focused, the No.14 now seems determined to accept setting more modest goals – although a top 10 in MotoGP already requires a hell of a dose of talent! -, but above all to finish each race, by seizing the opportunities to hoist his "customer" RCV in the leading group when the opportunity arises. A more mature and thoughtful approach that pays off: Randy is in 7th place in the provisional classification, two points behind Colin Edwards, and only six points behind Andrea Dovizioso on his official Honda !

Arriving on his national GP, the Frenchman is of course eager to "score" a good result in front of his home crowd. But there is no question of breaking the beautiful and fragile positive dynamic that he and his team have been able to put in place since the start of the season: Le Mans is a "stop and go" circuit which requires strong acceleration when exiting curves and at this game, Randy knows that his Honda is likely to suffer from factory motorcycles…

"Running at Le Mans is always something special”, Explains the French driver:“we don’t want to get carried away, I have to stay focused and approach this race like any other race. I would of course be very happy to get a good result here".

Because on his way, the Frenchman will undoubtedly find the cracks of the premier class: with eleven points ahead of Casey Stoner, Valentino Rossi arrives at Le Mans as boss and strongly decided to win for … the 99th time in his career ! However, if the handlebar maestro succeeded once again in taming the young guard more, the n ° 46 could then consider celebrating his 100th success at home, at Mugello, this circuit he loves so much and on which he is undefeated. since 2002 !

Author of a single podium at Le Mans in MotoGP, in the rain in 2007, Stoner will of course do everything to thwart the plans of the Yamaha rider and try to increase his lead over the Spanish duo composed of Dani Pedrosa and Jorge Lorenzo , currently tied on points for third and fourth place! Behind the strong men of the championship also point drivers likely to ignite the Bugatti such as the Italian Dovizioso, the Texan Edwards, but also Marco Melandri and Chris Vermeulen, two of the rare drivers on the field to have already won at Le Mans in the category. Queen…

In short, once again the show should not be missing on and around the Bugatti circuit: this is why Site will be on site so as not to miss a thing and offer live summaries to our unfortunate readers forced to attend to the races by interposed television … And the opportunity also, perhaps, to meet ten of our brave readers who brilliantly won an invitation to the Grand Prix de France by telling us their greatest memory of Grand Prix (see next page) !

Alexandre BARDIN and Site readers

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