With 7 races completed the 2010 points race is led by 16 year old Californian Jake Gagne. With 117 points he is 14 ahead of 16 year old Briton Danny Kent and another 10 clear of 18 year old Spaniard Daniel Ruiz. It was Kent and Ruiz that started the year fighting for the points lead with a win each at the opening double race weekend in Jerez, Spain.

The first 3rd of the season was not that great for Gagne; finishing 5th, 6th and 8th after missing most of the pre season test thanks to a badly twisted ankle he sustained early in that test. He turned his year round with a win in the 1st race at Assen and seized the Cup lead in the most dramatic fashion with double victories at the Sachsenring.

Gagne is certainly the man on form and he is chased hard by South African Brad Binder who turns 15th just before the Brno races. Binder shadowed Gagne across the line in Germany and that moved him to 5th in the points table, 30 adrift of Gagne but only 2 behind Daijiro Hiura the Japanese who has just turned 16. Hiura has also led the points this year after his win in Mugello but before tough weekends in Assen and Germany.

With 75 points still at stake in the final 3 races the Cup is still completely open to any of the top 5. Many more are well capable of featuring in the battle for race wins and rostrum places. 9 different riders have finished on the podium so far this season and one of those, Mathew Scholtz makes very welcome return to racing in Brno having missed 4 races since his Assen practice crash resulted in a badly torn toe.

The 17 year old South African is more than ready to get back to racing at the track where he won in 2008. “Although I realise I have not been anywhere near a bike in seven weeks I have continued to watch my diet and trained as much as has been possible. It has really been a struggle not racing every weekend and watching your friends race on live timing and on the Red Bull site. That is really hard to do.”

Back after an even longer enforced separation is 15 year old Frenchman Alan Techer who broke his arm badly when he crashed at the last corner in Jerez. “I can’t wait to go racing again, it’s been a long time. I am coming to Brno and I just hope I get the clearance from the doctor, it should be OK.”

Unfortunately while 2 riders come off the injury list Alex Kristiansson has gone onto it having broken his collarbone racing in the German Championship round at Schleiz. “It was a fast downhill section and another rider who was trying to pass me, hit me. My collarbone feels better and better every day. 2 weeks is a short time to ride again but I will go to Brno and get advice from Dr. Costa.”

One of the main rivals to Elías’ attempts to further stretch his lead will be Thomas Lüthi (Interwetten Moriwaki Moto2), who currently sits second behind Elías in the standings. Four weeks off will have allowed the Swiss rider ample time to continue recovering from his collarbone injury, and he will be going for what seems an imminent first win of the campaign having been on the podium four times already.

Italian Andrea Iannone (Fimmco Speed Up) is just four points behind Lüthi and with two wins this season and second place in the last round at Sachsenring under his belt will be a main challenger in Brno.

Only a single point separates Julián Simón (Mapfre Aspar) and Shoya Tomizawa (Technomag-CIP) in fourth and fifth, whilst Simone Corsi (JiR Moto2) and Jules Cluzel (Forward Racing) will also have their sights set on podium finishes as they target solid results and advancements in the standings.

A strong home result will be the aim for Karel Abraham (Cardio ab Racing) who has impressed in the two previous rounds with top-five finishes, whilst Xavier Simeon (Holiday Gym Racing) will be the sole Moto2 wildcard entry for this round.

Source: motogp.com

His closest rival at the moment is Pol Espargaró, and the Tuenti Racing rider will be desperate to bounce back from the crash at Sachsenring which ended his battle for the race victory with Márquez. Espargaró’s best previous finish at Brno is the fifth place he took last year, but only victory will satisfy his desire to close the gap on his rival.

Making his return to action after sitting out Germany due to the injuries sustained in a fall at Catalunya is Nico Terol, and the Bancaja Aspar rider is still third in the Championship. Presently 39 points off Márquez with 118, Terol will discover his true level of fitness and have one eye on the eight rounds that remain after Brno as he sets about recovering points. He won at the track last season.

His team-mate Bradley Smith, on 105 points, is still in search of his first win of 2010. Further back and separated by a single point are the two remaining podium finishers in Germany, Tomoyoshi Koyama (Racing Team Germany) and Sandro Cortese (Avant Mitsubishi Ajo), and both will fancy their chances of follow-up top-three results in Brno.

Joining the permanent 125cc entry list from this round is Josep Rodrigues who replaces Michael van der Mark on the Lambretta Reparto Corse team. Wildcard riders in round nine will be Ladislav Chmelik (Moto FGR), Andrea Touskova (Moto 82), Luigi Morciano and Alessandro Tonucci (both Junior GP Racing FMI).

The first practice session of the Cardion ab Grand Prix České republiky is the 125cc class, which starts at 12.40pm local time on Friday.

Source: motogp.com

Qualifying 2 – we made a little change from qualifying 1 which made me even more comfortable with the rear, I went faster in QP2 but so did all the other riders so I ended up 5th again, which I was still happy with. I knew from the times from qualifying that we were going to have 2 great races in a big group.

Race 1 – Race 1 was a good race for me, I made a good start and I felt comfortable. the first couple of laps the front 3 or 4 had a little gap from me and I felt I couldn’t catch but after a couple of laps I felt happy and comfortable and that I could go faster, which brought me up to the leading pack.

I looked behind once, half way through the race and I saw 5 people behind me and I was already in 5th position, so I knew if any one made a big mistake they could mess the whole race up because the top 10 riders were so close. On the last lap I made a move into the chicane before going up the hill and it sort of messed up my drive going up the hill and that let Florian Marino pull a little gap. Round the last 2 corners my mind was set on catching him and going over the line I missed out on 1st place by 0.018 and ended up finishing 2nd.

Race 2 – Race 2 wasn’t a good race for me, I made a bad start and I didn’t feel comfortable with the rear in the corners. There was a lot of juddering and sliding. The front 5 managed to get away from the start and I got caught in a battle with race 1 winner Florian and Nelson Major which meant we couldn’t catch the leaders. I wasn’t very happy with this race but there was nothing I could do and felt it was better to get the points than to crash.

I would like to thank Red Bull for running a great series and a big thank you to KTM for supplying all the bikes, a big thank you to Alpinestars for supplying all the race gear. I would like to thank Arai for sponsoring me all my helmets, Raul and Gustl for all their help and tuition, Alex and Carlos and all the mechanics for keeping all the bikes in great condition

A big thank you to Peter, Michaela and Niki, for doing such a great job and keeping all us youngster’s under control (it’s got to be hard) and finally a thanks to all the Red Bull hospitality staff for doing such a great job through out the year

i would like to wish the Rookies best of luck for the future

Many thanks Danny #52