| Author | Message | ||
     Jaimec |
Checked in at the MicroTel in Beaver Falls (birthplace of "Broadway" Joe Namath). Got caught in a quick shower on the way, and other than the car fire practically shutting down I-78 this morning it was a pretty uneventful ride. | ||
| Jaimec |
Fresno: You CAN'T say that Superbike race today was boring! | ||
| Jaimec |
DAMN! Gillim's crash happened right in front of us. When he didn't move, I was afraid for the worst. Fortunately, a fan behind me had binoculars and confirmed he was standing on his own, and got into the ambulance under his own power. Nice touch for Roger to open his leathers after he won to show he was wearing a "69" T-Shirt under his leathers. | ||
| Fresnobuell |
Crazy good race. Glad to see Roger win one finally, even after the red flag. Looks like Gerloff needs to goto Europe ASAP. | ||
| Jaimec |
RoadRacing World reports that Hayden Gillim is fine. Cameron suffered a dislocated shoulder with his incident... hope he can race in two weeks! | ||
| Fresnobuell |
Cam was on a different level...the field got lucky he DNFed. He's young. I suspect he will be ready for the next race in a a couple weekends. H (Message edited by fresnobuell on August 30, 2017) | ||
| Fresnobuell |
Cam out. Looks like he had a pre-existing condition. Herrin is in. WOnder who Josh will dive bomb and take out now? | ||
| Jaimec |
Herrin missed Pittsburgh for the STRANGEST reason. He showed up, ready to race only to find out the team wasn't sending his bike and equipment. Apparently the team owner was upset at MotoAmerica because of the way he was treated after he punted TWO title contenders off the track in two races?? He's lucky they were as lenient as they were! And not letting him score any points doesn't hurt MotoAmerica, it only hurt Josh. Insanity!! | ||
| Figorvonbuellingham |
You'll have that when you combine classes. If I remember correctly that was a contributing factor in Casey Stoners retirement. He was tired of the track being clogged up with the tech bikes. | ||
| Jaimec |
Superstock 1000 and Superbike aren't that far apart, and neither class has enough riders for a decent grid separately (yet). Same for the 600s. The difference between the factory prototypes and the CRT bikes were like combining Superbike with 600cc Supersport. | ||
| Fresnobuell |
There is more to the story with the Meen Motorsport and Motoamerica. Maybe Meen saw the moneypit this thing really is (with no return) and conveniently used the Herrin penalty as an easy way out. Right now, the grids and racing is at an all time low. Even the 390 class has racing that is spread out. IIRC correctly at Sonoma, one rider won by 12 seconds in the first race. What a joke. All I know is if I had to choose any one class to watch it's Moto3. Those boys are balls to the wall all the time. And it's damn impressive how fast they can get those 250s to go. | ||
| Jaimec |
I beg to differ. Since Wayne Rainey and team have taken over, racing has not only gotten better, but attendance (from non-scientific observation) has been growing from year to year and television coverage (thanks to beIN Sports) has improved significantly. DMG and the France family damn near DESTROYED domestic motorcycle racing with their ill-advised running of the series. It is SO much better now and only getting better. Everyone was pleasantly surprised at the size of the crowd in Pittsburgh. The parking lot was completely full and the few food vendors there were completely overwhelmed. I'm hoping they get more vendors (and more variety) next year. The presence of European racers like Toni Elias, Valentin Debise and Ant West has forced the American racers to pick up their game, too. | ||
| Fresnobuell |
Bein Sports is doing a great job, no doubt. Full props to them. Watching the racing commercial-free is worth the price of admission. Period. I will agree my earlier statements were a little harsh and there have been darker days, so the series is not at an all time low, but compared to 10 years ago the series is a shell of what it used to be. I remembering some of the old 600 class shootouts with Eslick, Herrin, the Wolverine, Aquino, Zemke, Hacking, etc. etc. Here's a random entrant list from the Daytona Sportbike of 2009. I believe this was under DMG. I think you will agree this is a much more compelling field of racers...notice even Chaz was on the Aprilia. Good times! http://www.amaprolive.com/live/archives/rr/2009/07 -laguna/ds_entrylist.pdf | ||
| Fresnobuell |
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQirRe48S-E&featur e=youtu.be Enjoy. | ||
| Jaimec |
Interesting changes in the class set up for next year including the addition of a "Sporting Twins" class. With Ducati coming out with a V-4 Panigale next year and no one else really building two-cylinder sportbikes anymore, I wonder what they were thinking? A BMW R-nine-T spec class?? (Message edited by jaimec on September 15, 2017) | ||
| Jaimec |
Okay, so it looks like its open to 600cc to 850cc twins. There are some fairly sporty motorcycles in that range, but no real "hard core" racing bikes I can think of. BMW has the F800R, Yamaha has the FZ-07, Kawasaki has the 650 Ninja, Suzuki has their SV650, and Honda has their CBR650. Ducati also has a couple of Monster models that fall into this range. Of course, there are weight considerations as well. Be interesting to see how this plays out. | ||
| Fresnobuell |
Maybe they are fondly reminiscing of the old Daytona Sportbike (the link a couple posts above actually is a great example of the mish-mash of manufacturers). It was compelling to see the 600s battle it out with the larger displacement, heavier Twins. It's my personal favorite couple of years, when Slick was kicking ass on the Buell. Nobody put on a better show on any bike in the paddock. I do think seeing more variety in the paddock is a good thing. Only seeing 600cc or 1000cc inline-4s gets old..... | ||
| Jaimec |
Provisional 2018 calendar is up: http://www.motoamerica.com/motoamerica-announces-p rovisional-2018-schedule COTA will now be the SECOND race of the season. Road Atlanta will be the new season starter. I am DEFINITELY planning on Pittsburgh and NJMP for next year. | ||
| Jaimec |
Josh Hayes is stepping aside from racing full time to become a test rider and coach for the Monster Yamaha team. Stepping up to take his place will be two-time Supersport champ Garrett Gerloff. I would've preferred seeing Beaubier called up to Europe and Gerloff taking his seat. Hopefully the season will play out and they'll be able to challenge Elias and Yoshimura Suzuki next year. | ||
| Jaimec |
Hey Tim! This is exciting news, how come you didn't report it to us first? http://www.roadracingworld.com/news/motoamerica-th rashed-bike-racing-and-max-flinders-to-step-up-to- superbike-class-in-2018/ | ||
| Jaimec |
MotoAmerica will now offer discount tickets to AMA members. Check out the article at Roadracingworld.com | ||
| Jaimec |
MotoAmerica starts this weekend! Good luck to Tim (Smoke), Max and the whole "Thrashed Racing" crew this season. | ||
| Jaimec |
Eslick's on a BMW S1000RR this year? I didn't know that. Flinders just outside the top ten in QP1 http://www.roadracingworld.com/news/motoamerica-to ni-elias-sets-the-early-pace-in-superbike-qp1-at-r oad-atlanta/ | ||
| Jaimec |
Hey Tim, what happened in Atlanta? I saw that Max didn't grid on either day? | ||
| Steeleagle |
Max had an incident and ended up having surgery on his hand to repair damage. FB notes says he will be a spectator at COTA next weekend. My buds with the Broaster Honda lost their rider (Cam Peterson) to a 1st lap crash in Race 1. Concussion kept him out of Race 2 and maybe COTA. Not a good start for either team!!  | ||
| Jaimec |
Damn. Thanks for the update. That sucks. I saw the red flag incident on Saturday and heard the news about Cam on Sunday. Unfortunately, no one mentioned what happened to Max, and I couldn't find anything online either. | ||
| Steeleagle |
Max's info from our friend, Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/max.flinders/perma link/1641226562628331/ | ||
| Jaimec |
Thanks, Dennis. I wasn't even aware of that group. I've since joined so I can keep up with Thrashed Racing. Tim doesn't come here very often. | ||
| Smoke |
It’s been hectic. Chasing setup in first practice, Max tucked the front in turn 2 and crashed the bike hard and ground his left ring finger to the bone. Plastic surgery rebuilt it but out this weekend. Been an issue getting bike ready but Barrett Long will be riding fill in for the team! #29. MOTO GP baby!!! See you here!! Tim | ||
| Steeleagle |
Hey, Tim! I was planning on being there at COTA again this year, but a bunch of other stuff managed to plow into the way. I hate to miss it and you guys, but good luck! Glad to hear Max is healing up. I'll see you for sure at Road America and Pittsburgh and will see about making at least another along the season. |
