The Sockdolager

Here are some pictures of the Ducati MH900e, the most beautiful motorcycle ever created.

Now I’m going to talk about motorcycle racing.

Back in 2008, Australia’s Casey Stoner and Italy’s Valentino Rossi were battling for the MotoGP Championship.

For context, MotoGP is motorcycle analogue to Formula One: It is the highest level of motorcycle road racing in the world. The riders and machines are at the very limit of human and mechanical achievement, respectively.

MotoGP involves a series of races at tracks around the world. These aren’t the oval courses you may be thinking of; each track is a unique challenge. In 2008, the US round of the series took place at Laguna Seca Raceway, a legendary road course that includes a famous series of turns called “The Corkscrew,” a steeply downward-sloping and off-camber chicane that is notoriously difficult to negotiate at speed.

Valentino Rossi is widely considered to be the best motorcycle road racer of all time. His talent is prodigious. Casey Stoner might have been a fraction less talented, but in 2008 he was riding for Ducati, and somehow that particular combination of bike and rider elevated both; Stoner had won the championship in 2007, while despite his talent, Rossi had failed to win it all since 2005. But in 2008, he seemed to have gotten Stoner’s number, and their battle came to a head at Laguna Seca.

It was one of the most epic battles in motorcycle road racing history. Stoner and Rossi passed each other time and time again, neither willing to let up on the pace for even a second. Believe me when I tell you that the talent and physical performance displayed by each rider is superhuman, every bit as stunning and transcendental as a perfect olympic gymnastics routine.

In the end, Rossi pushed Stoner over the edge; Stoner ran off the track and lost too much time to catch up, while Rossi went on to win the race, and the championship.

The Doctor was in that day.