EUROPEAN CHALLENGE CONTINUES FOR TEAM HONDA GRESINI
PREVIEW DUTCH TT
 The
unrelenting quest for MotoGP World Championship honours continues
this weekend with barely enough time for the teams and riders
to catch their breath after the last event.
With the British Grand Prix now behind them, Team Honda Gresini
are now looking ahead with optimism to the Dutch TT, which
takes place as always on the final Saturday in June.
Assen is the only present-day circuit that has been on the
MotoGP World Championship calendar every year since its inaugural
season of 1949. Dramatically altered last season in order
to make way for a new motorsport theme park, the Dutch TT
remains an unmissable event and still features flowing sections
of track that are a pleasure for riders and fans alike. The
track reduction, in fact, removed some of the most exciting
corners, with their spine-tingling blind crests and camber.
At round nine the championship reaches its halfway stage
but the Team Honda Gresini riders are both ready for the latest
challenge. During the weekend at Donington Park, Marco Melandri
and Toni Elias were able to define the set-up of their RC212V
machines in the wet and gather information that could prove
crucial Assen, with rain and bad weather forecast for much
of the weekend.
MARCO MELANDRI: "Last year was a really
tough race for me. It was only a short time after that terrible
crash in Barcelona and I was still suffering. This
time the situation is completely different but we are also
going through something of a difficult period. The whole squad
are working really hard but we still have a lot to do. The
Dutch TT has always been one of my favourite races. Unfortunately
it has lost some of its magic since they changed the track
because they removed the most flowing section of the old layout."
TONI ELIAS: "Assen has always been
my favourite circuit because it is technical, fast and flowing.
Unfortunately I have never actually raced here in MotoGP and
don't really know the new layout too well because I only completed
two laps in free practice last year when I crashed and hurt
myself. I missed out completely in 2005 because I broke my
hand at Le Mans so it will be virtually a new circuit to me.
Hopefully I can have a nice race and pick up a better result
than the last couple of races."
THE OTHER RACE: In MotoGP the racing doesn't
just take place on the track. As soon as the chequered flag
was waved at Donington, the next race began, with the team
packing up in just 3-4 hours and loading up the bikes and
materials in to the trucks in preparation for the journey
to Assen, where the track action will resume in just four
days' time. It is a long and tiring job for the Team Honda
Gresini hospitality staff, who require around 14 hours to
dismantle the entire structure - working late into the night
on Sunday before rising early on Monday morning to set sail
for Assen. It takes around four hours to cover the 200km to
Harwick, the sea port of departure from British shores. After
an overnight ferry crossing, the trucks disembark at Oeck
Van Holland in the early hours of Monday morning and immediately
tackle the 250km trip to Assen, where they arrive around lunchtime.
"It's a race against time," says Maurizio Giordani,
Honda Gresini's Hospitality Manager, who is in charge of six
members of staff. "And it doesn't finish when we arrive
at the track because we need another 14 hours to erect the
hospitality unit again and have it ready for lunch on Wednesday."
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