Moody Blues: Mugello.

In the latest of his exclusive columns for Crash.net, renowned Eurosport MotoGP commentator Toby Moody reveals more 'behind the scenes' news from round four of the 2004 season; Sunday's action packed Italian Grand Prix...

Bridgestone are in a corner after the dramatic and sheer terror of first Shinya Nakano's and then Makoto Tamada's tyre failures along the main straight, at speeds of well over 190mph.

With only four days off before the next time bikes are on track at Barcelona, it is clear they have a dilemma for their five riders (2 x Kawasaki, 2 x Suzuki and Tamada). Tyres may well be arriving from Japan in advance of the Barcelona race, but they are made and en route already.

The even bigger problem they have is that it was two generations of tyre that blew as Tamada and KRJR were on the newer generation of tyre whilst Nakano and Hofmann were on the older generation. What to do? Not an easy call.

Asking KRJR about riding next Friday, whose engine failed so didn't give the tyre the same hammering that Tamada did, the 2000 Champion said, "I can't say I won't ride but it isn't a f**king difficult question is it?"

Roberts has been in hospital already this year because of a tyre blow out at pre-season testing at Sepang. It is also becoming apparent that Tamada had a similar blow out at the Sepang tests too.

The Kawasaki team were obviously wary after the Nakano tyre blow up and opted to tell Alex Hofmann to slow down... rather than come into the pits...

Pictures of Nakano wrestling with his Kawasaki before he actually hit the deck were frightening to see. Word from trackside says that he actually had the tyre blow way before the line, only to fall off at the end of the pit wall some 200 metres later. The seat had already been shattered at that point.

Tamada's blow out was not as big, but he said it started out of the last corner before the front straight. A massive chunk was missing out of his seat by the time he stopped at turn one.

Nicky Hayden was philosophical about crashing out of the leading group. "At least I was up at the front." was the call. "The whole weekend was pretty good at my worst track so no shame in tryin' too hard. I've watched 'em disappear all year so it was good to be with them. I just was about to get back on the gas when I went over the bump and it just upset the front off the ground. It was so slow it seemed to go on for ever."

Carlos Checa (middle pic) lost it at the Borgo san Lorenzo corner after parking his Yamaha in front of Loris Capirossi's Ducati to pass the Italian, but then found that when he gassed it, over he went. Ironically it was the same corner where Melandri fell on Friday morning.

Neil Hodgson had his baptism of fire for the split race. "That was stupid running us in those conditions. We can't have that as it is not safe," stated the reigning WSBK champion. Hodgson then had to scoot off to the North of Italy for a wedding.

Luis D'Antin's problems of finance are getting worse by the day. The truck in the paddock was leaking diesel into a bucket... that would probably be tipped back into the tank. The team still has no sponsor.

Manuel Poggiali was all at sea before the Mugello weekend having difficulty filling out the legal forms for the new motorhome he's got. He was very confused when it came to how much it weighed as he couldn't get his head around what pounds were.

Mick Doohan came down to Mugello for Honda from Monaco in his helicopter with David Coulthard as a guest for the day. Doohan was at the N?rburgring F1 race the week before working for Channel 10 TV (Australia).

A DVD is on the Italian magazine MotoSprint this coming week of a spoof Western involving many of the Italian motorcycling greats. 18 minutes in length with proceeds going towards Rock no War for music and AIDS help in Zimbabwe and Nicaragua.

Stars include, Agostini, Melandri, Locatelli and wife Manuela, Dovizioso, Poggiali, De Angelis, Lucchinelli, Uncini, Sabbatani, Reggiani, Cecchinello, Capirossi and wife Ingrid, Gionola and Graziano Rossi as the Sheriff. Dr Costa was the Doctor of course. Why no Biaggi? They simply didn't ask him. Why no Valentino Rossi? He wanted to and initially said yes, but alas people suspect that his management team said no.

Many in the paddock questioned the wisdom of actually running a second race that would never be stopped even if the weather conditions worsened - as they actually did in race 'two'.

The time it took to re-assemble people for race 'two' (lower pic) meant that the rain at the start of the second race was actually worse than the rain that stopped the race. What it also proved is that riders can race in the wet conditions with slick tyres and not fall off, AND give us good racing.

Now this can work the other way as it did in Le Mans 2003 when it was very wet and the question of stopping the race was a no brainer. For only the second time of operation, it is still too early to change to any other format of a rain interrupted race.

Aggregate races never work and are bad for TV as the guy who crosses the line first usually never wins the race; see Aoki in 500cc Mugello 2001. Pace car intervention was given a punt after the pre-season Barcelona test 2003, but was chucked when riders never got into the spirit of things.

The discussion goes on with regard to safety and scheduling, but the fact that the British TV channel, BBC, did not show the 'second' MotoGP race live will prey on minds at Dorna as the beeb had to cut to D-Day activities in France.

Other channels including Eurosport had to hussle off quickly in order to get to the Roland Garros mens' final and failed to show the post race interviews.

Jeremy McWilliams took the wet tyre punt in the second race after experiencing many rain showers at Mugello over the years. "I know when it rains here it normally pours and washes the day out. Just not this time."

Mugello crowds continue to grow with 85,000 present on Sunday at the track making a total of 126,000 for the weekend.