THE RACE TO THE CLOUDS
P90
Feature
conditions available—the air is hot, the track is
grippy and the road has been "cleaned" by the
previous 25 or so riders who qualified behind the
pole sitter. It's the perfect time to lay it on the line.
From the start, the course takes on more of
a traditional road race circuit style—if any com-
parisons can be drawn. This sinuous stretch of
tarmac has traditionally been my best section, as
the braking is not as abrupt and you can let the
motorcycle flow from corner to corner, keeping
the roll speed up and getting as much heat into
the tires as possible.
From there it's into section two—called The
W's—named so as it is 10 hairpins connected by
various straights and decreasing radius corners
with the climb in elevation at its steepest.
For some, this is the easy part. For me, it's the
most difficult, as I have always been a bit of a
wimp on the brakes because you're rushing up to
an Armco barrier time after time, a bit like at the
Macau Grand Prix.
Section two ends at an area called Devil's Play-
ground, signaling the riders and drivers they are
Nicola Marcato inspects the Aprilia during Day Three of
practice. His expertise in mapping the Aprilia made all the
difference in overall performance.
