MotoGP field to get first taste of floodlights in race trim.
MotoGP stars will this week get a taste of what they can expect at next month's championship opener, as they embark on a two-day test with a difference at the Losail circuit in Qatar.
While all know the venue well, this will be the first time most of them have tackled it at night, and the first time for all on full race-prepped machines, as they explore conditions similar to those they will find at the first ever MotoGP night race, the Commercialbank Grand Prix of Qatar, on Sunday 9 March.
Five riders - Loris Capirossi, Marco Melandri, Anthony West, Alex de Angelis and British newcomer James Toseland, who makes his MotoGP debut in Qatar - tested the floodlighting on the first three corners of the circuit last November, but did so riding road bikes rather than their usual race mounts. The verdict then was good, but all admitted that the real test will come when the test starts on Thursday evening.
"It's going to be so exciting to race under floodlights," MotoGP veteran Loris Capirossi admitted after the November test, The difference from when we first tested here at night [in 2006] is amazing. Back then, I wasn't too sure what was possible, but the lighting is perfect out there!
"There's hardly any difference between day and night riding in these conditions and, of course, it's going to be more exciting to race at night. There's no problems with shadows or reflections, and I'm very happy with this.
"We reached nearly 300km/h on [the road] bikes, so I don't think there will be too much difference to come here on a MotoGP machine. We could see the warning flags and braking markers and, even when they tested the rare possibility of a power cut, there was no problem because of the back-up systems."
Team technicians will also be tested, as they get the opportunity to discover what affect night-time desert temperatures will have on engines and, more especially, tyres. The 125cc and 250cc riders will also complete two nights of testing, starting on Saturday.
"It's going to be strange to see what happens when there's no sun on the track," West told Crash.net after his test, "It's still quite hot there at night, but a night race will definitely change the way the tyres work. The bikes just look cooler at night and you could see the exhausts glowing red and things like that. It should make it more exciting."
The logistics of lighting the 3.343 miles of the Losail International circuit are staggering, with the floodlit area reckoned to be the equivalent of 70 FIFA-sized football pitches. Some 3500 lighting units have been installed ahead of the test, in an operation that took American company Murco 'just' 167 days.
The MotoGP race starts at 2300hrs local time and will be shown live in Europe at 2100hrs (2000hrs GMT).
