Casey Stoner
The 2012 Season is heading through the halfway mark, currently on its summer break, with the lads getting in gear to return to the track and fight for the title.
Reigning Champion Stonor’s season being his last, we hoped for great power, speed and competitiveness, with the pressure of Lorenzo and Pedrosa always on his tailpack.
Stonor finishing this year was a big surprise but being a new family man, we can see why , racing can be a dangerous sport, not knowing what is round the next corner, whether the race day was going to be wet or dry, whether the bike would feel right, would the tyres have grip, would it be your day ?
He always has a great spirit very rarely looking deflated at not winning. You want to finish as a winner you don’t want to end your run as a runner up. That is not the way you want to end up. Everyone remembers a gold winner but never a silver or bronze.
Valentino Rossi
His season so far has not been stable with 4 wins out of 10, the Repsol Honda rider, has previously had Rossi on his tail they have had a good fight in past years, this year though Rossi’s ride has not been up to par, he has struggled throughout, not always even reaching the top ten with crashes, engine breakdowns and bad luck to name a few. 2013 sees him return to his old faithful Yamaha where he seemed to excel and be comfortable and be heading in the right direction. The only downside could be the partnership alongside Lorenzo. They both want the winning bike, and to beat the other,†can both bikes be set up to win in the same team? “ “who do the team push?â€Â “who will be the favourite?â€
Rossi seemed the favourite but then left to join Ducati so Lorenzo had the backing, now Rossi returns what happened to Lorenzo? Teams try to express that they push all their riders but how can they be 100% behind all of them. All riders like their bikes set up differently, how they feel to one will not feel the same to the other.
The people’s rider is of course Rossi, his following is huge.  You don’t need to be Italian to love him he is the people’s champion. His character expresses warmth and feeling. No other rider in the championship has his character, he is funny and a crowd pleaser.
So where will we end the 2012 Season with Stonor being the champion? Will Lorenzo continue to race ahead of the pack out on his own? Will Pedrosa continue to be a steady bet? Does anyone else stand a chance of catching these three, looking at the points and the fight that is unlikely.
We of course being British love an underdog, my favourite is Bautista he has had an interesting season with good and bad moments, almost reaching a podium and then accused of causing a crash and going to the back of the field.  He is the one I am backing unless there is a miracle I know he will not make the Top Three this season, but maybe a Top Three podium before the season ends . I will keep my fingers and toes crossed.
Images reproduced from motorcyclenews.com and ultimatemotorcycling.com
Booked our tickets ages ago through a friend, we prefer wheels to footballs, unlike the majority of the UK population. Although this year it seemed that the crowd had grew to a record amount of over 72,000, what a difference it makes when a Brit is doing well, or should I say two Brits, Scott Redding in Moto2 and Cal Crutchlow in MotoGP
