| Author | Message | ||
     Jaimec |
Don't forget that the year Bayliss won the last race in Valencia, former AMA Superbike racer Nicky Hayden won the whole enchilada. He's the last Superbike-raised racer to win the title. | ||
| Rocketman |
I believe the point is, coming from WSB directly has not yet worked for any rider. And to get to WSB is in some sense a career path which once done a change of career to Moto GP proves unsuccessful to that of WSB. Hayden coming from the AMA championship is an entirely different route, perhaps in the sense that he left the AMA early enough he cut his teeth in GP. That said, his winning year, was a bit of a fluke, so does not really prove the WSB (or SuperBike) to GP exception. Rocket | ||
| Mutation_racer |
A fluke. What happened at the end of the season was called racing. If the doc wanted it he should not have put him self in that spot. Also if we go back I think to the second to last race didn't nicky's team mate take him out? and I if I remmeber correctly he was in control of the point lead at that time. So I guess my point is lets give credit were credit is well over do. Nicky was the man that yr nuff said. | ||
| Jaimec |
Nicky won by being the most consistent podium finisher that year. Rossi may've won more races, but Nicky stood on the podium more often than not. In the three years that Ben Spies held the AMA title, Mat Mladin actually won more races too... but as Max Biaggi so eloquently put it earlier this year: "In order to finish first, first you must finish!" | ||
| Mutation_racer |
NICE, I just hope this is a great weekend for all our american motorcycle racers. And if spies can some how put his bike in the top ten and maybe run up front for just one or two laps before falling back, look out boys there a new sheriff in two and his name is BUFORD T JUSTIS. GO BEN | ||
| Vagelis46 |
I think Spies will do better than a top 10 finish. | ||
| Liquorwhere |
I disagree that Nicky's title was a fluke, he had a great bike, great team, he was consistent throughout the year, he earned it and he won. I don't think Kenny Roberts Jr's title was a fluke either, nor Alex Criville, as far as one time champions, remember Kevin Schwantz was a one time champion and I don't think anyone would call that a fluke either. The WSBK to MotoGP thing is another deal though, Neil Hodgeson, Troy Bayliss, Colin Edwards, James Toseland were all WSBK Champions yet just couldn't seem to get it done in MotoGP. In fact out of those four I don't think anyone won except Bayliss and that was after he had already left to go back to WSBK and rode as a wildcard at the last 990cc race. So where there is smoke there is some fire, I think Ben is really talented, but he will have an HUGE uphill battle to be a top 5 performer in MotoGP. | ||
| Vagelis46 |
Once again Spies exceeded expectations with 9th place in Valencia QP. From what I saw on TV he did not use the soft tires !!! Bravo Ben !!! I am so glad he got the WSBK title and moved to motoGP, where he 100% belongs. Casey is by far the most spectacular rider at the moment, maybe ever. He slided the rear with 60+degrees lean, over and over again. I could not believe I was watching it ! The first rider ever to do it ! | ||
| Rocketman |
By fluke I meant lady luck was on his side that season. Nothing to do with his ability as a rider / racer, but luck decided the title when Hayden won it. And I'm glad he did too. Rocket | ||
| Rocketman |
Casey is by far the most spectacular rider at the moment, maybe ever. He slided the rear with 60+degrees lean, over and over again. I could not believe I was watching it ! The first rider ever to do it ! I think the Ducati has a lot to do with what makes this possible - so let's see if Rossi gets a Duc for 2011 and shows Stoner the stones! As for Stoner, Gardener's right. Honda should go all out for him no matter the cost. With Stoner back at Honda 2011 we could see if he's as great as he's proving to be with Ducati. Rossi certainly has heaped praise on him this season. That said, I'm loving Rossi's mature style on and off the track. Such a magnanimous winner and loser these days, and that's great for the sport. I think it's rubbed off a little on Stoner too. I know he's won a couple but he seems a different head in his shoulders since his summer sabbatical! Drugs maybe, lol? Rocket | ||
| Vagelis46 |
Spies is 5th in warm up ! He is doing better than expected, once again. I say 5th for the race for Spies !!! His HJC helmet is great. I hope he stays with this design, and it gets available for us ! Rossi joining Ducati is going to be huge, and I hope it happenes. I also hope Rossi beats Agostini for GP wins. But Rossi of 2011 will not be the same as Rossi of 2004. But who cares, as long as he rides for Ducati, we will get crazy. | ||
| Rocketman |
Just listening to Rossi's interview with Perry he says Yamaha have to decide between him and Lorenzo for 2011. He says it also depends on Yamaha's performance next year too. Rossi went on to say he has an option to go to Ducati, but he has a special relationship with Yamaha which if he broke it he would feel unfaithful to them. What I found interesting was he got a serious look on his face, couldn't find the English word for unfaithful, his eyes did that tightening up thing and he was visibly starting to sweat. Then of all things he put his hand up under his cap and rubbed his head. Now I'm no psychologist but it looked to me like Rossi has a deal on the table with Ducati for 2011, and Yamaha know it too. In other words, everyone that needs to know, knows it's a done deal. Just my take on the Rossi / Ducati thing. Rocket | ||
| Rocketman |
Spies, f**k me!!!! Rocket | ||
| Gaesati |
Classy ride, Spies!! nice work for Hayden and Edwards too. | ||
| Vagelis46 |
Stoner is the new DONKEY !! The race was ruined from his stupitidy and arrogance ! It is a warm up lap, you s$$$head !! Thanks to Spies we watched some interesting battles. Ben has arrived. He looks better than expected, once again. Ben for the 2010 title. Impossible is nothing. It is about time a man gets a title in motoGP. We have enough of gay-riders. | ||
| Rocketman |
For the first time ever I felt quite sorry for Stoner. Steve Parish gave a good insight for the BBC commentary. This year the race is two weeks later in the season. Ambient and track temperature was somewhat cooler accordingly, and gusting winds. Stoner traditionally hangs back on the warm up lap and fires the Ducati up a bit to get temp into the tyres. Apparently the Ducati likes it this way with Stoner. But the problem this year was the track temp was somewhere in between ideal for hard or soft compounds. This Parish thinks is what caught Stoner out. Gotta hand it to Spies. Up until lap 17 everyone midfield appeared to be racing. Then Spies came charging through looking like a racer whilst everyone around him looked like they'd switched off. Tell you what, it's fair to say that Toseland had a great start to his GP career, but it went south through misfortune and not a lot of luck. Well Spies seems to have got off to a similar start with his GP career, and no one could doubt he can ride a Moto GP bike after this weeks performance. The only shame is we didn't get to see enough of Spies laps on screen. Rocket | ||
| Jaimec |
What will make or break Ben next season is whether he has a factory spec bike or not. Maybe with the new engine longevity rules in effect, the factory and non-factory bikes will be closer in specification. Be nice to see a non-factory team in title contention, wouldn't it? | ||
| Rocketman |
I don't see how it's possible to see a satellite team beat the works teams. It only happens in freak circumstances. Tech II have two identical bikes supposedly, but Edwards made Toseland look lacklustre all season. Works or satellite bike it seems to me the electronics packages determine the difference in performance between two identical bikes. What we need to see is less electronics and more emphasis put on the riders ability and the mechanics of the bike. That's maybe when we could see the racing open up between factory and non factory teams. Rocket | ||
| Liquorwhere |
+1 Rocket!!! Less electonics and more rider!! I agree hell yes. Spies looks good, and Nicky looked better, but Nicky better get a bit between his teeth and show up in a hurry next season or it will be WSBK if he is lucky, AMA/DMG if he is unlucky. | ||
| Gaesati |
Spies interview on Australian TV displayed amazing maturity. I can see why he is so popular as a person and a racer. That said, to compare Toseland and Spies; Toseland was very aggressive in his first half season to the point where other riders weren't prepared to cut him any slack during races, Spies appeared to be a very clean racer as Daryl Beattie pointed out in his comments about Spies' overtaking moves. I write this not to denigrate Toseland because aggression and the will to win is part of being an accomplished racer. | ||
| Rocketman |
That's a good point. We like aggressive style, which I suppose in part is what attracts big numbers to WSB and SBK in general. I see no problem with it in Moto GP either. Toseland seems to have the wrong attitude though. I mean, if anyone can ruin a friendship with Edwards, they've gotta be doing something wrong. Perhaps had Toseland not been such a whiner and whinger with his excuses for not delivering, he might have been forgiven a little for his sometimes aggressive style. After all, on his good days he's damn good. Top 6 several times. Well, 6th several times is more correct. But he's back in WSB now so we'll see if he's got what it takes to prove he is a great WSB rider or just hit the series at the best time on the best bike. He's up against it now that's for sure. Frankly though, they should have put Shane Byrne anywhere at Toseland's expense. Rocket | ||
| Simond |
Ducati were suggesting that their bikes were marginal on fuel for the race and that they asked their riders to take the warm-up lap easy to conserve fuel. This, the cold temperatures and the fact that Casey seemed to be travelling at walking pace through turn 1 would have been enough to pitch him off. Spies was impressive. I'm not convinced that there is much difference between the Tech 3 bikes and those of Rossi and Lorenzo. Colin's performance relative to Vale's hasn't changed much since he switched to the "Satellite" team. He is still capable of impressive single lap speed but is a little further away on a full race distance. He is comfortably the quickest and most consistent of the field behind the four contenders. ......and I was pleased to see Pedrosa take a win too!  | ||
| Rocketman |
I read somewhere the Tech 3 bikes were down on HP to the factory ones, and Edwards has been given upgrades same as the factory bikes where as Toseland at times ran with development parts that he said held him back. We'll never really know perhaps. Rocket | ||
| Jaimec |
Casey ALWAYS does the warm-up lap slow. I noticed this last year at Indianapolis for the first time, and after that noted he does it every time. He always waves everyone past him, and is always the last one back to his grid position. That's why his high-side this past weekend was so shocking. | ||
| Jaimec |
As for satellite vs factory: Rossi and Lorenzo get all of the development stuff FIRST. I'm not sure how much longer it takes for those parts to get down to the Tech3 team but the factory team will always have the "better" bike. Not sure where you heard Toseland was running development stuff that Colin didn't have... that sounds wrong. | ||
| Vagelis46 |
Ducati spoke about "wrong strategy". Why are they protecting Stoner so much ?? It was clearly his mistake. Is Ducati so afraid they might loose Stoner and they are talking sh#$ ?? Hayden has a "normal strategy" during warm up with no fuel problems. So this is not a Ducati strategy. It is a Stoner thing. What Stoner is doing during the warm up lap is wrong and dangerous. It is dangerous to have fast accelerating motorcycles passing him while he is just cruising, they could crash. It is stupid to have everybody waiting for him at the starting line. Who the f#$k he think he is ? The "emperor" that everybody should wait for him for the race to start ?? I am glad he found the hard way how stupid and arrogant he sometimes is. His crash was the most embarassing mistake we have seen the last 10 years in motoGP. I think it is time for some new rules for the warm up lap. No overtaking and no deliberately slowing down. | ||
| Liquorwhere |
His crash was the most embarassing mistake we have seen the last 10 years in motoGP. Possibly for MotoGP, but Alvaro Bautista's celebration wheelie to utter destruction of the motorcycle is the most embarrassing thing I have ever seen....Casey's warm up crash is unfortunate, and while many have a grudging respect for his talent but dislike him as a person or for his attitude, I don't. He came up and fought for his positions from Australia, through the smaller classes, got booted off a Honda and wound up on a bike no one else seems to be able to get speed out of and won a title. I kind of wonder if Rossi wasn't such a good character and so entertaining if some of his antics wouldn't be taken so well if he had a more dour disposition if he would be called other things that maybe the GOAT. Just a thought..... | ||
| Vagelis46 |
Character is very important. Stoner never bothered to meet with the press after the crash, althought they were waiting for him...http://www.motomatters.com/news/2009/11/08/stoner_ crash_officially_put_down_to_cold.html This event shows his character.....poor and little. No "balls" to say it was 100% his fault and even make jokes about it. On the other hand, Rossi after his mistake when he crashed at Indianapolis, he said it was 100% his mistake and said he felt like a stupid donkey. No wonder Rossi is liked and Stoner is slowly loosing respect from his fans. Stoner might be the fastest rider we have seen the last 5 years, but there is something wrong with his attitude. | ||
| Gaesati |
Most embarrassing moment: Lorenzo turn one Australia. Lorenzo in warm-up lap earlier this year. Casey haters need to give it a rest..You'll go blind. | ||
| Gaesati |
And good on Lorenzo for his talent as well as Pedrosa for his. The top 4 have provided the best quality racing since 1988-1993 |
