"If I do a full rain race I am mentally destroyed at the end because of the amount of focus that you have to put in," he said. "It's so easy to have a slide, even down the straight. Today I was wheel-spinning in fourth at about 120mph down the finish straight where there was standing water."
The experience of wet-weather racing is that awful that Vermeulen wants a dry race on Sunday - even though he would be a favourite to win in a downpour.
Friday 11.30am - Watch for West, my guru says
Three names - one of them totally unexpected - sprang to mind as potential podium finishers on Sunday after this morning's first practice session in the wet.
Chris Vermeulen, the Aussie who guided the Rizla Suzuki to victory at rainy Le Mans last month,
Randy de Puniet, who heroically led that race before crashing the Kawasaki ZX-RR, could be both be there. And the third? Kawasaki and MotoGP new boy
Anthony West.
"If it's really wet Anthony West will win," said my paddock Old Hand, who's been around since Hailwood times. "He can't win in his MotoGP debut," I countered.
"Watch him," said old hand. "He's incredible in the wet."
Indeed, the 25-year-old Australian won the World Supersport race at
Silverstone earlier this year on a streaming track after starting from 16th place.
Casey Stoner topped this morning's leaderboard with the Bridgestone-shod Marlboro Ducati, with de Puniet third, Vermeulen fourth - and the fast-learning West in eighth place. If bookies know enough about him to offer odds it could be a really savvy bet.
Friday 11.15am - Burnett: 'Eight of Ten Factory Bikes are Already Gone'
World Superbike leader
James Toseland and his manager Roger Burnett are here this weekend, James to play with his band Crash, and the pair to chase possible MotoGP rides for him in 2008.
It's not an easy quest. Here's how next year is shaping up according to Roger Burnett.
"There are ten factory bikes in
MotoGP, but eight of them already look like they're not available to us," he said. "We know that
Valentino Rossi will stay with Yamaha and Casey Stoner with Ducati. Honda will surely retain
Dani Pedrosa and
Nicky Hayden, Rizla Suzuki are likely to keep
John Hopkins and Chris Vermeulen, and Kawasaki have said they only want experienced MotoGP hands to further development of the ZX-RR."
