As an absolute first for the MotoGP field racing around a track under floodlights, the riders and teams alike face a host of new challenges at the season opener in Qatar next week.
With a lighting area equivalent to that of 70 FIFA football pitches, both John Hopkins and Anthony West seem to be enjoying the idea of riding at night, despite the physical demands that racing in such conditions places upon them.
The power used to provide the huge quantity of light amounts to some 5.4 million watts - enough to provide electricity simultaneously to some 3,000 houses, and this itself can make a rider feel somewhat alone on track, with visibility reduced to only a small area immediately front of him.
These unique conditions call for a level of concentration one step up from that required for daylight racing. But it's not just the lights that cause a problem; racing at night is the exact opposite of racing during daylight hours in terms of track temperature.
Whereas the temperature increases during the day during a normal Grand Prix weekend, at night the track temperature actually drops the closer you get to midnight. This makes tyre choice for the opening race of the season critical, and it's why West and Hopkins both focussed on race tyre evaluation during the first night test yesterday.
The riders aren't the only ones who've had to meet the challenge of this new environment; everyone in the Kawasaki Racing Team has had to adapt to working during the hours of darkness, and only returning to the team hotel at 04.00 in the morning.
And it's not just the working hours that add to the challenge of racing at night. One of the biggest problems the mechanics encountered was identifying their own riders as they accelerated out of turn 16 and onto the start finish straight. In fact, the top of the straight is so dark when viewed from the pit lane signal wall, it's only possible for the mechanics to tell a Kawasaki is on it's way by the distinctive exhaust note of the 800cc inline four-cylinder machine.
'We have a solution to this problem for the race,' claimed Kawasaki's Technical Manager, Naoya Kaneko 'We have told John and Anthony that they must be right at the front from the start, so that we know the first two bikes onto the main straight on every lap are ours and we know when to show the pit boards!'
Always the optimist, Kaneko admitted that he hadn't agreed this plan with anyone outside of the team, and that there was a possibility that the other riders may have conflicting plans of their own!
From : www.kawasaki-motogp.com
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