| Author | Message | ||
     Jaimec |
Did anyone see the conditions for Race 2 today? I haven't seen anything like that since the 2008 Indianapolis MotoGP. Poor Haga... that wasn't what he deserved. Max had one helluva stroke of bad luck too. It's definitely Carlos' year. And he showed remarkable constraint in Race 2. "Careless Chucker" no more! | ||
| Trojan |
Good day for the Brits with the top 3 in WSS and SYkes winning the 'damp' race 2 in WSB. Tom Sykes first win for the new ZX10 came on the same day that Kawasaki announced that Paul Bird Motosport had lost the factory contract and that MotoCard would run the official Kawasaki team from 2012. What a kick in the teeth after all teh development work and Paul Bird putting a lot of his personal money into running Tom Sykes this year (Kawasaki pay Vermeulen and Lascorz but not Sykes). I hope that PBM come back next year and give the Motocard team a good thrashing. | ||
| Jaimec |
I just read about that. Since Yamaha pulled out their factory effort, maybe he could look into fielding a private Yamaha team. Those bikes have already proven themselves. | ||
| Trojan |
Paul Bird is a professional and will no doubt take some time to think about his next move. The problem is that he has other major motorsports projects such as rallying as well as WSB, and may well just concentrate on them for a while rathe rthan endure this sort of treatment from the Japanese factories. I can't help but think that Kawasaki have made a very wrong move that will backfire on them. It certainly doesn't pay to stay loyal to the Japanese factories these days does it! Tom Sykes was also told that he will not be retained by Kawasaki next year (shortly before winning for them!) in spite of being top Kawasaki rider this year, so his loyalty and testing/development has been rewarded with a kick in the butt too. I too hope that PBM pick up the Yamaha team but I think he may just walk away from WSB altogether unfortunately. | ||
| Davegess |
And that Laverty kid just keeps on finishing just off the podium. He is 4th in the championship. I think he has a real chance to win the title in the next two years. He just needs to be a tiny bit more before he is winning on the podium every week. | ||
| Trojan |
Laverty is looking to move to MotoGP next year if he can get into a decent team. he is apparently high on the shopping list of Tech 3 to replace Colin Edwards so may stay with Yamaha and go there, although there are other riders pencilled in for that ride too! I don't know if Tech 3 will risk signing another inexperienced rider (in MotoGP terms at least) to team with Cal Crutchlow next year, although Cal and Eugene would work very well together. I have a feeling that Tech 3 may get Dovi if he falls out of bed with Honda and can't get a factory bike provided for him at LCR. If Laverty stays in WSB he will certainly be in demand with a lot of the top teams (including staying with Yamaha if they can find a team to bankroll them - PBM or Parkingo seem to be favourites for this) | ||
| Gaesati |
Tech3 would be a good place for Dovi given the dearth of worthwhile seats around. | ||
| Trojan |
Tech3 would be a good place for Dovi given the dearth of worthwhile seats around. It would, but there is a long line of people trying to get that ride! Dovi could well price himself out of the Tech3 ride or leave it too late becase he is holding out for a factory Honda to be supplied to LCR (his most likely team for 2012). Tech3 had apparently already offered the ride to Bradley Smith, although he turned it down until 2013 (sensible decision I think). That still leaves Stefan Bradl as the most likely target given Yamahas urge to get a German rider involved, but he is also holding out for his current Moto2 team to lease a factory Honda for MotoGP next year. The team can't get the finances together yet so it may be he leaves it too late as well. Eugene Laverty, Andrea Iannone, Alex De Angelis and both the Espagaro brothers are all also rumoured to be beseiging Herve Poncheral for the ride in his team next year if we are to believe all the press! Almost everyone is trying to avoid the Ducati rides that are definitely on offer at Pramac and Aspar, although if they suddenly and miraculously get the bike to run competitively maybe there will be a late surge for seats there too  Nobody knows what Suzuki plans to do, althoguh Bautista is also in the running for the remaining Tech 3 berth apparently.... Only Forward racing has announced that they will definitley run as a CRT team next year with Colin Edwards (although they currently have no bke or engine confirmed), so there may be further seats becoming vacant in these teams as the season progresses (if they can get any established riders to take them of course). I think the 'silly season' has a long way to run yet | ||
| Jaimec |
MotoGP discussions in the WSBK thread? I see BSB is adopting a "No Traction Control" policy next year: http://moto-racing.speedtv.com/article/motogp-noye s-notebook-broke-dumbing-down-or-wising-up-pt-i/ Be interesting to see how that plays out. AMA Superbike has also proven you don't need "Spec Engines" to make an exciting race: http://moto-racing.speedtv.com/article/ama-sbk-tim e-to-wake-up-and-pay-attention/ I think AMA Superbike scoring is confusing as all hell, but it is competitive. | ||
| Trojan |
I see BSB is adopting a "No Traction Control" policy next year: It is actually a bit more than just 'no traction control'. BSB has not suffered from falling grid numbers or lack of entrants like other series, and is actually having to put a restriction on number of teams fro next year. These new measures are aimed purely at cutting costs. They will continue the restriction on having just one bike per rider, and will have a simple control ECU for all bikes (Motec) that has very little in the way of tuneable electronics, so no traction control, wheelie control, auto blip (for gearchages), GPS mapping etc etc etc They have run a similar system in the BSB Evo class and in 600 Supersport this year, and teams are expected to save up to 30 thousand pounds (US$49K approx) as a result in addition to making the racing a bit closer (although the teams with teh biggest budgets will still have the best equipment of course and I don't expect anyone to trouble the established front runners in BSB next year). (Message edited by trojan on September 07, 2011) (Message edited by trojan on September 07, 2011) | ||
| Jaimec |
Does BMW run in BSB? I know they're about the only team that does NOT use the Marelli electronics in their race bike, so I'm wondering how this rule would affect them... | ||
| Jaimec |
King James is done: http://www.jamestoseland.com/news/752/A_letter_to_ my_fans.aspx Damned shame. We met and spoke to him in Indianapolis this year, and he was looking forward to racing in Germany. He showed us his hand and wrist, and it looked bad... but he moved it for us and it seemed to be okay. No mention if the injury affects his piano playing but I guess if they didn't mention it, he can still continue his music career. | ||
| Trojan |
James has had his critics in the past, but you don't win two WSB championships (on different bikes) if you are not a world class rider. Shame to see anyone bow out of the sport through injury like this, and I hope his piano playing isn't too badly affected  Here are a couple of pics of James from Thundersprint 2009 (The XR1200 is mine but that isn't me on it!)   | ||
| Jaimec |
This is James talking to my friend Dennis just a couple of weeks ago in Indianapolis. It was after "Crash" finished their performance, and James stuck around to chat with the fans. Dennis said he was VERY personable, and spoke like he was speaking to old friends. I believe in this shot he was showing the scars on his hand and wrist to Dennis and explaining them:  | ||
| Blake |
That sucks. I really like James Toseland. He's been a class act all the way. | ||
| Bads1 |
The guy can sing also. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqjGsvHaT-o&feature =related | ||
| Simond |
Nice guy and he worked hard for those World Championships. Laguna Seca 2004 was where he really showed his World Champ credentials for the first time IMO. He never seemed to get over those testing crashes after his first season with Tech 3. I'm concerned that Cal Crutchlow is having similar confidence problems. | ||
| Gaesati |
Saw him at PHILLIP ISLAND 2 or 3 times always fast and impressive. Great sense of humour too. | ||
| Jaimec |
Yeah, we were commenting (after watching "Crash" perform in Indianapolis) that sometimes life just isn't fair. The guy can ride a motorcycle faster than 95% of the people on the planet, he's attractive, he can play the piano, AND he can sing. Then there's people like me. :-( On another note: This was surprising, because I'd gotten the impression he wasn't very happy where he was: http://www.motorcyclenews.com/MCN/sport/sportresul ts/World-Superbikes/2011/September/sep1011-haslam- re-signs-with-bmw/ | ||
| Trojan |
Haslam must have eitehr: 1. Got the assurances that he was wanting from BMW regarding electronic issues (maybe they will give up their 'in house' project and go to Marelli like everyone else. or 2. There were no other decent competitive rides available so he had little choice but to stay at BMW for another year Either way I hope he has a better year than he has had so far this season. | ||
| Blake |
How old is Corser? | ||
| Buell_lee |
He will be 40 on the 27th of November | ||
| Trojan |
Toni Elias is testing the BMW vacated by Toseland at Misano this week. If he goes well then rumour has it that he will either replace Toseland at BMW Italia or even Corser at the official BMW team next year. | ||
| Trojan |
After 1.5 days of testing Elias was still 2 seconds off the leaders pace and over 1 second slower than Badovini on the other BMW, so hardly setting the WSB world alight yet. He does allegedely have a BMW contract offer for next year though despite his relatively poor performance (slower than part time test riders Alex Hofman and Steve Martin!) | ||
| Trojan |
A further update on Elias and the BMW test....from the horses mouth "The tank is so big that I can’t reach the handlebars and levers with sufficient force and can’t control the bike. The first thing I’d need would be smaller gas tank and a different riding position: foot pegs, controls, handlebars.” “I’m not used to riding production based bikes, they move a lot and I can’t open the throttle. I tried stiffening the suspensions, but the BMW become even more difficult to ride. I needed more time to adapt the bike to my physical and riding characteristics. The BMW has a great engine but the power comes suddenly and isn’t easy to manage. The Superbike is more powerful than I imagined.” According to Motosprint, it seems that BMW Italia, after this test, is no longer interested in offering Elias a ride next season and that even Castrol Honda who was looking at the Spaniard to replace Ruben Xaus, has also changed their mind. Good! Now maybe they'll think about giving the ride to a young 'up and coming' rider rather than another ageing refugee from MotoGP with nowhere else to go. | ||
| 46champ |
Oh well guess it's back to Moto 2 or World Supersport. | ||
| Jaimec |
Wow... usually when a rider transitions from GP to Superbike he has an EASIER time. Witness Marco Melandri, Max Biaggi and Carlos Checa. Heck, even Simoncelli podiumed the first time he ever rode a Superbike!! | ||
| Davegess |
Maybe a case of a classic 250 rider being too small for the much bigger SB? | ||
| Jaimec |
How much bigger than Tony Elias is Marco Melandri? Max Biaggi is another one whom the announcers seem to love pointing out as "diminutive..." | ||
| Trojan |
How much bigger than Tony Elias is Marco Melandri? Elias is tiny even in comparison with people like Pedrosa and Biaggi, so it is little wonder he has trouble reaching the bars. However the BMW is hardly huge by Superbike standards, and he woudl really struggle on an R1 or CBR1000R! } |
