After the traditional mid-summer break, the MotoGP circus is preparing to head to the Czech Republic for the next round of this season’s championship which will see riders battle it out at the Brno circuit. On the back of two unlucky appointments in Germany and the United States, the Pramac d’Antin team is determined to achieve better results at the forthcoming race, even though regular rider Alex Hofmann will be unable to take part due to injuries sustained in a free practice crash at Laguna Seca last month. The German will be substituted on this occasion by Spanish reserve rider Ivan Silva, who also took part at the Czech Republic GP last season for the Pramac d’Antin team in place of Hofmann, who at that time was a temporary replacement rider for Sete Gibernau at the Ducati Corse team. Alex Barros, on the other hand, will be racing fully fit in Brno after recent injuries to his right hand had hindered his previous races and the Brazilian has a strong motivation to get back in the thick of racing action. The race weekend will start on Friday 17th August leading up to the 22-lap race on Sunday 19th. After this, the team will stay for an additional two days in Brno for some valuable testing. Alex Barros (76 points 9th in championship): “I’m happy to get back to action; finally after this summer break, my right hand has recovered its strength and I’m ready to go racing and determined to recover all the points lost in these two last races. The Brno circuit offers a variety of technical challenges that makes it difficult for riders to perform due to combination of elevation changes. As always I will give my best and I am sure that both my Desmosedici and Bridgestone tires will enable me to achieve my targets.” Ivan Silva: “I am happy to have the possibility to run in MotoGP again, especially this year where we have at our disposal the best tires and bike of this moment. During the entire season both Bridgestone and Ducati have shown to have very good qualities and competitiveness, so, for this reason, I’m honoured to ride the Desmosedici in Brno this weekend. I will do the best I can to contest a good race.” Luis d’Antin General Manager: “After the summer break we start again from Brno determined to recover points we lost during the two last races. Unfortunately Alex Hofmann will not be able to ride, so we decided to line up Ivan Silva. While Alex Barros has recovered from his recent hand injury and I’m sure he will do a good race this weekend. In the first part of this season, we weren’t too lucky, both of our guys were innocent victims of bad crashes that compromised their performance, but in spite of this, we always showed ourselves to be competitive and determined to achieve our objectives. For this reason, I want to thank first and foremost Bridgestone and Ducati for the material that they have given us and to all of our sponsors.” CIRCUIT Opened in 1987, when the MotoGP returned to dispute in Czech Republic. This circuit has a track with different kind of technical difficult which make in difficult pilots and engineers. Opened: 1987 Modified: 1996 Length: 5403m Width : 15m Longest Straight : 636m Right turns: 6 Leftturns: 8 Pole position: left Final Results 2006 MotoGP Class 1st Loris Capirossi: 43:40.115 2nd Valentino Rossi: 43:45.047 3rd Dani Pedrosa : 43:48.157