Needle matches, grudges, enmity, vendettas, revenge: MotoGP looksclassic this year

The new, slower, long lasting engines could equalize things. I think
Rossi said that, or maybe Stoner.
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Thanks, robots.

 

I really must lurk more. But instead:-

These are being updated so you have to assume they're current, rather
than just a delay by the web team
http://www.amaproracing.com/rr/events/entrylist.cfm?eid=2010011005&class=
SB
http://www.amaproracing.com/rr/events/entrylist.cfm?eid=2010011005&class=
DS
Makes you wonder if there'll even be a Daytona let alone the rest of the
season.

Rookie year, 990s, 2 wins, 2 seconds, 4 thirds, 5th in the championship.
Obviously he's too small for real men's bikes.

Will his rookie year be better than Lorenzo's? Unlikely. But then
hopefully he won't have the 3 big high sides. How often or how soon will
he beat Edwards? My guess is that he'll be fairly quickly into the
second pack and there'll be at least one race where Rossi has his one
big screw up of the year and some other stuff happens that gets him on
the podium.

For quite a while now, you get your one chance in MotoGP and you can
never get back in. Hopkins got 7 years. Toseland got 2. 7 Years doesn't
seem so bad. He got the silver spoon route into 500s which is his one
lucky break. As far as I can tell he's never won anything. He needs
another lucky break but it doesn't seem like there are any, any more.
Right now he either has to win AMA or do a few wild cards on a prototype
that might not even race this year. If Colin Wright was still in BSB, he
might have got the second ride there and it probably would have been
good for him but there were plenty of other people who would have wanted
that ride.

Fixed it for you.

I wonder how much that has to do with money. It seems like all the teams
are expecting the rider to be unpaid and to bring sponsorship. 250GP got
stupidly expensive for the top handful of teams. It seems that Moto2
will also be stupidly expensive. And nobody's got the money to pay for
it.

Double edged sword. He gets to watch Moto2 shake out the bugs. But he
also *has* to win. I think he made the right choice.

I'm guessing that the last person to go from MotoGP/500 to 250GP is
Capirossi. Or perhaps McWilliams. Anyone else?

 

If that was the case I would have not observed such pearls of
sportsmanship as Yates flying into the back of another rider (who
admittedly had taken him down) both legs first. So what you claim
about my claim is -as so often- clouded by your eagerness to see
enemies in each and every one of us who ever dares counter a single
one of your opinions. Enough about that, I got no time for the
diatribes in 2010. And you have way too much time on your hands to
waste if you keep engaging in this.

Well, whatever. They're through, and whatever I think does little to
do the situation.

My point is Pedrosa will not win consistently unless he has a clear
bike advantage. A bike that is set up to perfection. And my criticism
of Pedrosa is that is he was a *great* rider he would have been able
to direct Honda's resources more effectively by now. He would be able
to set the bike up perfectly by now. But all he seems able to do is
ride the package handed to him as fast as he can. Is he talented?
*Every* guy in *every* top motorcycle series is. Especially so in
MotoGP.

Bujt that is the difference between someone like Pedrosa and someone
like Rossi. Or Lawson or Rainey or many other before them - they would
tell the factory engineers "this is BS and we are doing this my way
now"... and would have the credibility to be listened to. Pedrosa
doesn't.

Yeah, we were betting against him last year too. I will not make that
mistake again. He will win at least one race. He is that good.

And on that matter, I think Melandri is on his last legs now. It is
questionable whether he should still be there, and I doubt he will be
there in the near future. Such perceived unfairness tends to correct
itself pretty quickly after it becomes noticeable to us fans in
racing.

Amen to the first, but Hopkins has had some pretty nasty injuries.
Broken femurs are no joke.

And probably they don't *want* to. A rider that has true success
momentum behind him will not move to a ride that will turn him into a
backmarker. What top riders have the second tier Ducati teams in
MotoGP ever hired? And why?

First - you are right. Second - it is *exactly* because of what you
say that I think it could be a very fun series. Whether they rode 250
or roman charriots in Ben Hur before I could not care less about, they
seem to be a good competitive mix. And mixing newbies with experiences
riders is a great thing. It looks like Dorna is doing it right. I
think you forget to mention a few other riders - I seem to recall
there is a Russian there as well and another exotic.

I for one think they are visibly trying really hard to get more
diversity in there. Really hard. All the academy and development work
they do to recruit internationally... come on.

 

The only reason Noyes was brought up was that you said there were no
Americans in Moto2 and I pointed out that there was one. But now this
seems to have changed to "there are no refugees from the AMA".

Ignore AMA for a moment (please!), what is perhaps surprising is that
there are no ex-WSS people in the Moto2 entry list. But now go back to
last year's WSS. There are only really 4 people from WSS who might have
been thought worthy of a ride.
- Crutchlow. Apparently was very close to moving but apart from anything
else he was on a 2 year Yamaha contract.
- Laverty. Has had his time in 250GP. Not entirely his fault but he
didn't shine enough there. Has a real chance of winning WSS this year.
- Sofuoglu. Clearly fast on a 600. But also clearly unable to be fast on
a WSB. So how good is he really, and how much future does he have?
- Lascorz. Who?

So who else is there? You can't just wish for ex-AMA riders. They do
have to actually deserve it and/or bring serious sponsorship. At point
KR was a serious entrant but was unable to get the money.

Watch 125 and 250 and those same riders certainly didn't ride like that
in the smaller classes. So it's not hard to argue that the problem is
inherent in MotoGP machinery and nothing to do with where the riders
came from.

 

I am curious how the 675 triple will do this year in WSS after a decent year
last season.
I was quite surprised to see McCoy out and DiSalvo in, while I think DiSalvo
is a decent rider, McCoy is a lot more fun to watch.

 

In that case I will declare Mamola the first Spanish 500cc superstar,
since he clearly has now spent most of his life in Spain as a
journalist paid by Solomoto and Motociclismo, just like Noyes has. :-D
Dude, your arguments are always so blatantly self-serving when it
comes to this nationality stuff... :-D It's kinda entertaining by now.
Guys with US passports aren't American. But guys like Stoner and Smith
are certifiably Australian and British. Heavens, is Gasol American?

It's a support class. I will give the team managers the benefit of the
doubt for now. I will assume they want their team to be competitive,
and that sponsors still like to be somewhere upfront rather than
support lost causes. I am just saying that perhaps you are not the
only person that runs stats and probability analysis.

How big was Roberts? How big was Mamola? Just wondering... didn't
hinder them to be haf the size of the other riders on the grid at the
time... and didn't seem to cause them to lose control of machines that
were much nastier than anything that's been ridden in over 15 years.

So your theory is that there is absolutely no advantage in advanced
electronics if the riders are just bigger? That is a ludicrous theory.
There is no stopping technology progress, and electronic aids happen
to make bikes much faster. Whether they make things more entertaining
is another matter altogether. ut let's note that in the past there was
no correlation between rider size and their ability to control bikes
(again, Roberts and Mamola were tiny, albeit not Pedrosa sized), tyat
in general big guys need not apply in motorcycle racing, and that
electronics would always have entered the equation no matter what
riders are on the bikes.

....pablo

 

You got it. I am good for it. To be redeemed via Paypal? I know it's a
risky bet for me. I ought to get 2:1 odds at east, but I'll go for it
as is.

 

Oi, stop it. Stop making stuff up.

"There are no Americans in Moto2"
"Well, there's Noyes"

Is the sum total of it. Everything else is in your warped head.

 

Oi. Dickhead. "There is no American presence". If that doesn't mean
"there are no Americans in Moto2" you're clearly not speaking English
but some strange Marknease.

Jeez' why do I bother.

 

Julian Bond asks:

Unknown.


Go fast. Take chances.
Mike S.

 

It's a go!