Moto GP, Round 9 - Laguna Seca

[chunder]

Good God if I had paid to watch that tripe I would be very very annoyed

I lasted 10 laps of the tv feed before turning off,

This really is utter garbage

[ghinzani]

Originally Posted by ghinzani

Providing Alex does'nt take out the field on lap1 I think he should finish ahead of Rojerly.

I know sh*t

Another class Lorenzo flag plant, he is the future people. Then again, I know sh*t...

[bestfit]

Originally Posted by chunder

Good God if I had paid to watch that tripe I would be very very annoyed

I lasted 10 laps of the tv feed before turning off,

This really is utter garbage

Why do you bother?

[ghinzani]

Lorenzo has been planting the flag since his 125 days.

He has been consistently quicker than Rossi this year on the same bike.

Rossi crashed at Mugello whilst attempting to go too fast, too soon at his home track, where he had predicted he would give Jorge a lesson.

Having failed to get Yamaha to play ball with his "its Jorge or me" ultimatum, Rossi is probably off to Ducati, who are sponsored by Marlboro. Despite his self confessed aversion to fag sponsorship, and indeed smoking in general.

Those are all facts, not opinion. Im not bashing Rossi, but Jorge drove most of his first two seasons injured whilst he found the limit.

I hope Rossi at Ducati, Stoner and Pedrosa at HRC and Jorge and Spies at Yamaha provides a bit more excitement. I also hope Suzuki stop embarrasing themselves and concentrate on WSB.

[GORDON STREETER]

Lets face it guys, although the racing is fast and the front runners are good the whole thing really is pants. On the box with the best bits picked out its just about bearable but I don't think I would bother to get off the settee to watch it at the track even if I was paid !

[Schummy]

I prefer one of the worst MotoGP race to one of the best race of most of other racing series. This said, Laguna Seca has not been particularly "brilliant".

One good point, however, was seeing Rainey again in a bike race (almost)

[jhansen]

My observations from being there Saturday, and watching at home on Sunday:

These bikes look and sound so other-worldly in person. This is why you pay to go. If you've never heard one in person, you are missing something.

The Yamaha riders are using the least amount of traction control. I sat for an extended period of time at three different corners during Saturday morning practice. And you could audibly tell that everyone else is using a lot more TC.

Hayden and Stoner use a similar amount of TC, at least at Turn 6. This is different from last year, when Hayden was easily using more TC than Stoner.

Speaking of the Yamaha riders, Rossi and Lorenzo are so smooth! Very composed. Their style seems similar to me. That may be why Lorenzo has benefited so much from the Rossi built M-1.

The GP riders have mad skills. They are so “in-line” with the bike, very compact, and smooth. It's interesting to watch Stoner and Pedrosa, who really move their head far off the bike, and very close to the handle bar. They stand the bike up right after the apex. Especially Pedrosa.

Roger Lee Hayden is a ******. He ran around both Saturday sessions constantly looking for a tow. When I say constantly, I mean constantly. Every time he came by me, regardless of the corner I was at, he was always looking over his shoulder and slowing down, waiting for the next guy to come by. If you can’t run the pace by yourself, I don’t know how you can expect to run the race.

The gyro cam is the best thing since sliced bread. The under tail, rear facing gyro cam was cool to.

Speed's broadcast had a pre race interview with Nicky Hayden. I knew at that moment that Nicky had nothing for them on race day. He was defeated.

The other Hayden, I love how he got 11th out of 17 via five DNF’s. But hey, at least he finished ahead of DeAngelis…

Curse Dani Pedrosa. He robbed us of what could have been a good race. I was looking forward to Lorenzo catching him and the battle that would follow. Oh well.

[chunder]

J I dont think GP riders are any more in line than any other rider? Its the million dollar electronics that Ezpeleta wont ban that are the issue there.

Bikes naturally move and weave with their style under rider input, but the Marelli geniuses have even managed to get rid iof that!

You can dial it out the oldfashioned way but 4 strokes tend to do it more!

Oh ad bestfit, seems I am not the only one who thinks current GP racing is very poor. If you love it, then please tell me why!

[jhansen]

I was thinking about this kind of inline, as opposed to the Doohan crossed up era.

[chunder]

I know, its boring isnt it!!

Bring back McCoy, Crafar, Gobert, all those guys could spin it up!

Actually the current guys can aswell, Melandri, Stoner, de Puniet are all past masters at it.

If only Marelli would let them!

[Schummy]

McCoy et alt were great to watch, but in the end of the day they used to be steamrollered by faster riders. Do you prefer drifting or racing?

About Melandri, IMO he is a burnt out rider who is currently doing "late-Checa-seasons". Perhaps he needs to make an Elias and downgrade to Moto2. Otherwise he will end being poggialiesc.

I agree about less electronics, as wings in F1, less is always better. Anyway, MotoGPs go on being difficult to ride, "Marellied" or not. Let's look at the efforts Spies, Dovi, Hayden, Edwards, etc do to near The Fantastic Four. And the rate of crashes all of them have.

[chunder]

Erm McCoy won quite a few 500 GP's and was solely respnisible for the development of the 16.5 inch rear tyre!

And if he hadn't been shafted by Michelin he may well ahve been a championships challenger! Garry and Jamieson did all the hard work and as soon as Roberts, Rossi Biaggi etc saw how quick it was they all pushed Michelin into supplying them with 16.5 inch tyres.

I can't believe I am sticking up for an Aussie, but Garry is actually very on Oz like!!

[jhansen]

Riding styles change. The focus now is moving towards the Stoner-Pedrosa style, with that big effort to pick the bike up as soon as you can for corner exit speed. Depending upon how the new rules work, maybe it can accomodate a mix of styles. But the electronics need to be cut back. It's destroying the racing. They're all on similar racing lines now.

[djb]

thks j for those "right there" insights and observations...must be pretty neat to see and hear them....

oh, and did you guys notice also how after the Italian anthem screwup (I am sure that all the Europeans were thinking of how Americans in general dont know much of the rest of hte world, I know I know bit of a leap, but does anyone else remember a major race where this has happened?)

where was I, oh yes, you guys notice how Rossi put his cap back on partway through the Spanish Ntl anthem....a discourteous thing to do, and I am sure that he was trying to **** Lorenzo off...Mr. Mind Games at it again methinks....

[Schummy]

Originally Posted by djb

oh, and did you guys notice also how after the Italian anthem screwup (I am sure that all the Europeans were thinking of how Americans in general dont know much of the rest of hte world, I know I know bit of a leap, but does anyone else remember a major race where this has happened?)

where was I, oh yes, you guys notice how Rossi put his cap back on partway through the Spanish Ntl anthem....a discourteous thing to do, and I am sure that he was trying to **** Lorenzo off...Mr. Mind Games at it again methinks....

If I am not wrong, last year's Tour de France screwed the national anthem in the all-important final podium in Paris. I'd suppose those Europeans would know well their own anthems!

About Rossi's antics, I think is more a sad, anger thing than mind games. He has showed some instances of bad-losing versus Lorenzo this season. He does't need it, he is great and should not tarnish his reputation as a sportsman.

[djb]

schum, tks for the Tour de Fr bit, oh well, to err is to be human, its not a big deal, I screw up often....

but for the hat thing, who knows but drivers/riders are usually pretty good about that sort of thing, thats why I see it that he was aware he was doing it.

[bestfit]

Originally Posted by djb

oh, and did you guys notice also how after the Italian anthem screwup (I am sure that all the Europeans were thinking of how Americans in general dont know much of the rest of hte world, I know I know bit of a leap, but does anyone else remember a major race where this has happened?)

In 1987 Kevin Magee rode a few races for Kenny Roberts' Lucky Strike team as a wildcard. In his 2nd(?) race he scored a podium in Portugal (Harama?). No one had heard of him before. In those days they used a graphic of the rider's flag along side his name on the screen. They obviously didn't know where he was from because they used a solid red block as his graphic and then raised the wrong flag on the podium. On another occasion, I can't remember the GP but Doohan won and on the podium they played the Austrian national anthem.

[bestfit]

Originally Posted by chunder

Oh ad bestfit, seems I am not the only one who thinks current GP racing is very poor. If you love it, then please tell me why!

Chunder. I apologise for my remark, it was out of line. You are perfectly entitled to have whatever opinion you like about the racing or any other subject.

As to why I enjoy the GPs, I will work on a reply and get back to you. The reasons are many.

[ghinzani]

Originally Posted by Schummy

About Rossi's antics, I think is more a sad, anger thing than mind games. He has showed some instances of bad-losing versus Lorenzo this season. He does't need it, he is great and should not tarnish his reputation as a sportsman.

Absolutely spot on. Hope he does run Jorge and Casey close next year, but with dignity if he does'nt. We aint going out like that, we aint going out!

[djb]

what, Doohan isnt Austrian? and Magee is obviously from mainland China, his olive green drab leathers gave it away, plus the jaunty little cap he wore on the podium.

I had a feeling more of these would pop up after I wrote that....chuckle

[Schummy]

Originally Posted by djb

what, Doohan isnt Austrian? and Magee is obviously from mainland China, his olive green drab leathers gave it away, plus the jaunty little cap he wore on the podium.

I had a feeling more of these would pop up after I wrote that....chuckle

Ha, ha, ha, poor bestfit had a brain-fade-moment and thought Doohan was Australian! Probably bestfit had a long night yesterday (and I envy it). Everyone knows Joohan Michael Doohan is from Salzburg and loves valses. Just hearing him you know he is not Aussie.

(Anyway, how a bike champion can be from Australia? Ridiculous)

Going on with anthem antics, in one Davis Cup's final match they marred the national anthem of the visiting team. They had months to prepare just a single "song" and failed. Even Red Bull Racing could not do worse than that.

[djb]

Davis cup? honestly dont know what that is, I am assuming cricket or some other long long long match sort of thing.

shall google it now...

valtzes, funny

[djb]

oh tennis.....obviously I dont follow tennis
(other than remarking on the cute little skirts on cute little bums in the sports page photos-oops, did I just think that or type it out?)

[Schummy]

Originally Posted by djb

(other than remarking on the cute little skirts on cute little bums in the sports page photos-oops)

Umbrella girls, there is not more cuteness in planet Earth (I mean FIM grids, of course, not others).