wow!!!he looks goooood

Fountainhead #3
By Chris Vermeulen

G’day, everybody.
As I write this, I just got back to Australia again after the China race. I’ve got to say I’m still a bit sore from the crash on the Saturday afternoon. I had a coming together with Loris Capirossi on my last qualifying lap and we both went down. I got my foot stuck under the bike and injured a couple of toes; at least I won’t need to trim my toe-nails for a couple of weeks!
The race was pretty hard work as I had to start from 15th on the grid—right back on the fifth row. I need to get up on those front two rows to get myself on that podium!
I got off to a good start and was soon up a few places. I got involved in a race-long battle with Loris as we worked our way through the field. Coming into the final lap, he was seventh and I was eighth. We both got past the Kawasaki of Randy de Puniet and continued our battle. I overtook Capirossi two or three times on the last lap, but that Ducati is so fast in a straight line he just blew past me on the straights. Still, a seventh is a really good result from where I started, and I know if I can get a better qualification position, I can run towards the front.
It was good to see my team mate John Hopkins on the podium, as it shows the hard work that Suzuki and Bridgestone have put in this year. We now have a bike that can be strong, and I knew that the results will continue to come for both of us.
That certainly proved true at Le Mans, where I took my first MotoGP race win ever! I’m absolutely over the moon! I’m really happy for myself, my crew and everyone involved in the team. We’d had a difficult weekend coming into the race as not everything quite went to plan, but we were getting quicker and quicker and I’m sure if it had been dry we would have improved more. The conditions were slippery to start with and it was difficult to know how hard to push. Some guys came past me and then a lap or so later they crashed! It started to rain quite heavily, and I decided to come in and change my bike. I came back out and just stuck my head down and tried to get the tires up to heat up as quick as possible. The bike felt really good in the rain, but as it got heavier it made it hard to hold the bike in top gear down the straight; there was so much water it was just spinning the rear! Tom O’Kane, my crew chief, and the rest of the guys gave me a really good wet bike, as we hadn’t done much wet testing with the new 800. The tire choice was spot-on, and the bike was certainly good enough to win on!
I’ve been pretty lucky with the calendar this year so far, as I’ve been able to get back to Australia quite a bit. I’ve managed to get some work done on my hotrods and also take my boat out up the Sunshine Coast. Just before we went to China, we all sailed up to Hervey Bay and spent a couple of relaxing days there. It’s great because it is such a contrast from the pressures of MotoGP.
We’ve now started the busiest part of the season; we have seven races in 10 weeks. Six are in Europe, and the last one is in America. There are some good tracks in there and ones that should suit the Suzuki, so we’re hoping for some good results.
Well, that’s it for me for now, as I need to get back to my training in readiness for the next race.
I’ll let you know soon about some really good news regarding something pretty special that we are doing for the Australian Grand Prix in September, but that’s all I can say for now. Source Link

Wednesday, 4 July 2007

Chris Vermeulen is undecided as to whether he will continue to ride for Japanese manufacturer Suzuki in next year’s MotoGP World Championship season.
The Australian's recent successes – gaining pole position for the Dutch GP last weekend and winning at LeMans earlier this year – has attracted the eye of rival teams, aware that he is unsure if he will extend his deal with Suzuki into the future.
"I don't know yet. I haven't done anything yet. I am very interested in staying where I am with Suzuki, we are talking there, and they are very interested in keeping me. Well, that's what they say at the moment anyway," Vermeulen told autosport.com.
"Basically, I am waiting on a final decision from Suzuki on what they are doing, their technical plans, their goals for the future and what they have got in the pipeline."
Vermeulen has expressed a desire to ride a factory bike next year, furthering the prospect of him switching to a different manufacturer.
"It is important with the way the 800s are developing to be with a factory team and not a private team," he said. "So I have had a couple of different offers and I am weighing things up."
For now though, the Australian insists he is simply concentrating on doing the best he can for himself and Suzuki.
"From my point of view it is not the dollars and cents that is going to sell the deal. It is me getting on a bike that I think will give me the best chance of winning races on."
"But I am not in too much of a rush…Things are going reasonably well. We have got some problems with the bike and other things, but we are working on it and will concentrate on the season."
Vermeulen also responded to criticisms by Italians Valentino Rossi and Loris Capirossi that MotoGP's younger riders are not taking safety matters seriously.
Rossi and Capirossi have said young riders rarely attend the weekly Safety Commission meetings, but Vermeulen, himself a young rider who last year joined MotoGP full time, says he has never been asked to come.
"They have never invited me to start with. All these [safety] decisions are made wherever they make them," he said.
"They [Rossi and Capirossi] might say that, but they haven't come and asked any riders. And I don't know when the meetings are."

Safety meetings are held on the Friday before a race at 5pm......if I know about them so bloody-well should he! He's talking out of his backside....or was the interview from MCN?

Pedrosa attends the meetings Valentino said, and that's it....no one else.

No one is asked to attend, from what I can make of it, they're all free to do what they want to. But if they're going to complain about the racing conditions then surely they should by rights attend the meetings and vent those complaints to the right people and not just to the press!

That's my rant over now!!!

yeah that's exactly what I thought too!

Saturday, October 6th 2007, 07:53 GMT

Q. Chris, it's not hard to pick the main highlight from 2007 so far: when you climbed up on the top step of the podium in France, did it feel like you belonged there?
Chris Vermeulen: Yes, definitely! I was so excited to be up there, not just for me but for Suzuki - it had been such a long time for them.
Q. Twice this season you have been the '2' in an Aussie 1-2 finish behind Casey Stoner, in the USA and at the San Marino Grand Prix. At that Misano race you said you felt you could catch him, but added that perhaps you were kidding yourself. Can you catch the new World Champion in the next couple of years?
CV: Yes, I really think we can - and hopefully Phillip Island is the first place where we can prove it.
Q. When you re-signed for Suzuki, you described the development of the GSV-R since you started with the team as 'incredible'. Taking the start as Everest base camp, how high up the mountain are you now - and what will it take to get to the top?
CV: We're three-quarters of the way up the mountain, I think - but getting to the top is the hardest bit. For us it's a question of exiting the corners: there are a few different ways of achieving that. We've got the horsepower with the GSV-R but getting it all down to the ground is what we're working on.
Q. Yet it seems, from the outside, as if you've taken a backward step in the last couple of races. Anything to worry about?
CV: We had a problem with the bike in Portugal, a really big vibration we just couldn't get rid of. But we didn't have that in Japan. At Motegi, on the start line, it was a really strange thing: the ECU just failed before the start. It was strange, but it's something Suzuki won't allow to happen again.
Q. We're near the end of the first 800cc season. Has it helped Suzuki and Chris Vermeulen? Has it been good for the sport?
CV: Suzuki prepared for the change very early - the last 990cc bike I rode was made to go into the 800 era, it was just a matter of dropping an engine in, so in that sense it didn't help. Me? Not really: I really enjoyed the 990 bikes and their brute horsepower.
And the sport? I personally think it's been a step backwards. I know a lot of people don't agree with me, but in my view there were different ways to ride a 990 bike, and when, say, the tyre had gone off you could change your style of riding to get round that. With the 800 there's only one way to ride and that's with a lot of corner speed.
Q. The MotoGP World Championship is a prototype series where it's all about the competitive edge - yet we are in the midst of a debate about switching to a control tyre. What's your view?
CV: Should we switch to a control tyre? No, for the sake of the sport, we shouldn't. Michelin, Bridgestone and Dunlop are competing, trying to develop tyres as best they can to pass on to road users. With a control tyre that development is lost.
Q. In 2008 you lose 'Hopper' - John Hopkins - but gain Loris Capirossi as a team-mate. Will that make any difference, and how do you view the multiple rider switches for next season?
CV: I get on really well with John, he's been a great team-mate for two years and together we've developed the Suzuki a lot. But having said that, Loris coming on board is a huge positive both for me and the team. He's been involved in the development of that Ducati for years and he will bring information with him to the team.
And for me, he's got so much experience that I can't think of anyone better to learn from. I was expecting wholesale changes because a lot of people were on two-year deals and once a couple moved that freed everything up.
Q. We can't let you go without asking about the Island. What difference will there be on an 800cc machine - and can you climb one step higher than last year?
CV: That's the first aim, to go one step higher! We tested at Phillip Island in January with a number of other teams and on the 800 I lapped consistently quicker than on the 990. It doesn't have as much speed down the straight but the pure lap times were faster. That's down to the corner speed, especially on the last part of the lap. I'm really looking forward to going back.

from:

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/63064

good job trossik46

Britek Motorsport Managing Director, Jason Bright, has given Australian MotoGP star Chris Vermeulen the chance to sample his Fujitsu Racing Ford Falcon V8 Supercar.

Britek Motorsport runs V8 Supercars for Fujitsu Racing and IRWIN Racing in the Australian V8 Supercar Championship Series.

The drive took place at Winton Motor Raceway in North-Eastern Victoria, a track Vermeulen last raced at in 1999 during the Australian Superbike Championship.

The Suzuki MotoGP racer was given an overview of the Falcon from Bright before sitting beside the V8 Supercar star for some hot laps of the three-kilometre circuit.

The winner of this year's French MotoGP then jumped into the driver's seat for eight laps, before returning to the pits for further discussion of the Ford with Bright and Chief Engineer Geoff Slater.

The 25-year-old World Motorcycle Championship star then went back out onto the circuit for another eight laps, improving his speed to be around 4.5 seconds off the pace Bright had been setting throughout the day.

To finish, Bright again climbed into the driver's seat to give the Sunshine Coast racer some extra tuition on getting the most out of the Ford V8 Supercar.

"Just incredible," said Vermeulen.

"The only real thing I can compare with my Suzuki MotoGP motorcycle is the fact that both machines are fast, but from there it's completely different.

"Braking is the biggest surprise. For something that's around nine-times heavier than what I race, the stopping performance is amazing.

"Power from the V8 race engine is also very impressive. I can see why these things are so popular with the drivers and fans alike.

"Vision in the car is very limited to what I'm used to. Being inside and having a rollcage around you, plus the seats and the harnesses is a complete contrast to simply jumping on a bike!

"I had raced at Winton a long time ago, but in the racecar it's like the whole place had shrunk. Compared to the bike, the car takes up so much space on the track. Finding the right line was very tricky as I didn't know where the front left was on the track!

"It was good to first get some laps beside Jason. When I then jumped-in, I took it easy and worked my way into it. I did have a spin and thought it best to come back and have a chat with guys.

"Jason gave me a few more tips and I was really surprised when he said go back out and really have a go!

"Then to finish Jason got back in the driver's seat and those last few laps really opened my eyes to what the car is capable of."

Bright was impressed with his star pupil's first drive of a Ford V8 Supercar.

"Chris did a great job," said Bright.

"Obviously driving a car is not new, but he'd never been in a racecar on a proper circuit.

"He dialed himself in nicely, and then brought his speed up. I was not surprised that he had a couple of spins as he was trying understand the car's limits. I bet he's never spun a MotoGP bike before!


"It shows that talent in motor sports can cross over. Although I'd have to say going from two wheels to four is the far easier transition.

"I found it very interesting to hear his feedback. He clearly understands lapping quickly. The comparison in some areas was close, but vastly different in others.

"He obviously travels down the straights a lot faster on a motorcycle, but with all the extra rubber we have in cars, we get around the corners much quicker.

"Chris was very impressed with the power; obviously our engine shop is doing the right thing!

"I have only limited experience riding motorcycles off-road, but Chris has invited me down to Phillip Island to look at their test in late January. Maybe my first experience of a road bike will be his MotoGP machine!"

Having tested the 08 Suzuki MotoGP motorcycle just last week at Phillip Island, Vermeulen is looking forward to challenging for wins next season.

"Having a drive of the car was fun, but my business is racing in the MotoGP World Championship and after last week's test I'm really excited about 08," said Vermeulen.

"I guess the experience of driving a V8 underlines the fact that you have to give it 100%. My total focus is on bikes and winning MotoGP races and also chasing a world title.

"After I tick all those boxes, then Jason might get a phone call from me!"

Good luck to chris Vermeulen, with the new number 7........... i was a huge fan of barry sheene, and i hope he has the same success as he had!!!!!