Any Moto GP Fans?

Yeah, it is expensive. I've instructed and coached on race tracks on and off since 2007. Lots of people told me I should race, but I know how pricey it all gets. I only raced now and again for fun on a R6, SV650 and a Ninja 250. Racing the 250 against 300's taught me a lot on big tracks.

Brandon Paasch, who has gone on to win a British Superbike Championship got his start with us. Austin Miller was a National level dirt bike racer when he did his first track day with us at the age of 15. Knowing he had talent, I have him constant 1 on 1 training for 2 years. He went to Daytona racing twins amateur class (first time there) and was battling for 3rd place expert. I guess he impressed someone with sway because he was invited to race in MotoAmerica Twins Cup that year. Not bad progression for only getting on a sport bike 2 years ago. He's moved to Super Sport class and managed a top 10. Really proud of the kid. He's in college now to become an engineering nerd. (Aerospace or something like that) I became good friends with his father and saw the money involved up into the MotoAmerica racing. It was pretty absurd. Haha

Hell, just coaching I could eat up a set of tires in 2 days and spend $300 in diesel fuel just getting to and from the track with van and trailer when I lived in Kentucky. Anything on racetracks get expensive if you let it. For 3 years, I did 35-37 track days per year. Coaching expenses don't touch racing expenses.

 

It's finally time! Let's GOOOOOOOO !!!!!!



Suzuki riders: "So much fast, hang on!!!"

Honda riders: "I'm right on your tail Suzuki, go wide and I'll take that place"

Ducati riders: "We have 8 riders, so like, we are one third the grid, no? In 2 more years, we grow to half the grid. Then, 2 more years, we add more bike and make 75% of the grid. Soooon, we make the domination"
Yamaha riders: "It would be nice to make it to turn 1 before the Safety Car..."


Haha, I keed, I keed... Kinda.

 

Anyone wanna make a game of predicting the top 3 finishers?

Make your post the night before race day, after fp4 and qualifying.

Take 10 points, divvy the points between your 3 rider picks, with no more than 5 points on a rider and no less than 1 point on each rider.

1st place wins 3x the points.
2nd wins 2x the points.
3rd place wins 1x the points.

Example: my guesses are...
Quartararo 5
Marquez 3
Rins 2

Race winners are:
1st: Marquez (so multiply 3x3 to get 9 pts)
2nd: Morbidelli (no point placed, get none)
3rd: Quartararo (multiply 5x1 to get 5 pts)
Total points earned for that round: 14

Each round, put a total of 10 points on 3 riders. Can be (5,4,1)(5,3,2)(4,3,3)(4,4,2) but not (5,5,0)

Feel free to join in for fun. Nothing serious. Or don't. Haha

 

Here's you front row-

Jorge Martin 89 Ducati 2nd pole in a row at Qatar 1:53.011
Enea Bastianini 23 Ducati
Marc Marquez 93 Honda

Remember any fool can do a fast lap. It's the guy that can do 25 fast ones that wins!

 

Kind of a hard pick this week as no one stood out consistently. I'm going with...

93 Marquez 5
23 Bastianini 3
44 Espargaro 2

Should be a good race no matter...

 

2 out of 3 not bad. Brad Binder doing things on a KTM never done before at Qatar. I wasn't expecting that. Excited to see what he brings to future races.

Pol Espargaro ran a good race but almost gave up that podium spot letting Bastianini drag him into T1 a bit hot. His bro Put in a good run on that Aprilia too.

Not much to say about Bastianini, the man ran a near flawless race! He seems to be very good at tire preservation.

Marc Marquez made some mistakes. A lot, actually. Seems to maybe have been an issue in the front end of the bike, but he blew some corners today. It's gonna be a tough year for him imo...

Bummed for Martin. Very uncharacteristic for Bagnaia. I'm sure he's gutted from that move.

Not the most exciting race, but damn it was good to see the fastest Moto racers on the planet go back at it.

ps: Yamaha still sucks. Hating it for their riders. Once Ducati smooths out their engine situation, Yamaha is going to have a hard time seeing top 10's.

 

Every season is a crap shoot. Some get faster, some get slower. Humbling for MM93 and Quarteraro. It's great to see other manufacturers coming up. But, you know, Qatar is a funny race and never tells the tale of the season. For some reason I really had my money on Vinales to get the fluke win lol.

 

Honestly, I thought Vinales would at least podium, prior to the race weekend. Once I saw results to the free practices, I didn't give him another thought. Oh well...

I'm a big Yamaha fan, and not because Rossi and Lorenzo won so many championships on Yamaha. My track bike of choice is the R6 and has been since 2006. I can easily go stupid fast on them, especially with good suspension and brake set up. Lots of people I coach let me ride their bikes, sometimes I swap with them for a session. I've ridden all kinds of bikes, some that go full retard fast. I just love the feel of the Yamahas though... So it kind of pisses me off to see what's going on at Yamaha. I have an SV650 that is super fun to ride and rail on, but it just can't match the raw power and adrenaline of the R6.

Kind of crazy the schedule went from 18 races last year to 21 this year. More races than ever before in one season.

I gotta say, I wish Simoncelli was still around. Dude was very talented, super nice and quite the character. He loved the sport and didn't take himself too serious. It just goes to show that even a simple low side could be your last in this sport.

I think Ducati is going to get their engine situation under control at some point and be more predictable. As for now, it makes for some interesting racing with Fabio and Marc not able to roll hard.

 

Ducati woes directly from the riders:

https://formularapida.net/martin-le...h-lack-of-pace-than-crash-bagnaia-miller-add/

 

Not MotoGP related, but Moto related:

Brandon Paasch has won the Daytona 200 for the second time in a row.

 

I used to love Daytona back in the Scott Russell days. The year all three Honda's ran out of gas. Gorbert. Yates. DuHamel. Gives me a boner thinking how bad ass those guys were. Then Daytona went to 600's. Why?

 

Safety concerns is the reason they switched to 600cc. Basically, they started as flat track bikes on the beach in Daytona. Once the Speedway opened in 1961, the bikes kept getting faster, even using 500cc 2 stroke gp machines at one point.

"By the late 1990s, even the production based Superbikes were overheating the tires on the banking.[19] To keep Superbikes in the Daytona 200, the West Banking was eliminated to reduce the tire issues that had been plaguing the motorcycles.[19] However, the owners of Daytona International Speedway were unsatisfied with the banking being omitted from the course so, a compromise was reached after the 2004 season reducing the size and power of the bikes by going to a Supersport-based class (known as "AMA Formula Xtreme"), and putting both bankings back into the race course.[19] The Supersport class race kept the 200 miles (320 km) distance, but the Superbike race was converted to a standard 100 kilometers (62 mi) round of the national championship. In 2009, the Supersport class for this was renamed AMA Pro Daytona Sportbike Championship.[20][21] The changes left spectators confused as to why the most powerful motorcycles were replaced by a lesser class in the premier Daytona race.[19] The changes also meant that the top factory backed riders would be excluded from the race.[21]"

 

My favorite Daytona races where the Kenny Roberts, Fredie Specer days of the 2 strokes, nothing can compare to those days in the 200. IMO. Times and motorcycles have changed, the 4 stroke 1000 cc days with Wes Cooly and Spencer and Lawson, fairly incredible. The 600's, yeah it's still fun to watch, but no comparison to the past heydays of speed.

 

It's a shame what they did to the AMA series in general when NASCAR took over, like rolling starts...what a joke. I think MotoAmerica has done fairly well to revive domestic road racing.

 

Anyone watching MotoGP Unlimited on Amazon Prime? I wasn't expecting it to have a whole season, with episodes. I was thinking it'd be more like former movies about MotoGP: Faster and The Doctor, Texas Tornado and the Kentucky Kid. I watched 3 episodes. You have to turn on subtitles unless you understand Spanish, Italian, French.... You get the idea. lol...

No surprise Morbidelli was telling his team at the second, maybe 3rd race weekend "something is wrong with this fxcking bike!"

Lots of friends saying they don't like it / can't watch it, whatever. Maybe they didn't know to turn on subtitles. ??? I enjoy seeing behind the scenes, and a more personal look at riders off the bike. So far I like it.

 

GP of Indonesia this weekend. Get your bets in!

 

Rins will crash. Safe bet.

 

Well he did catch fire! My boy Quartararo back on pole but most likely because a yellow flag saved him. MM93 crashes twice in the same session? Ouch. I'm making no bets for tomorrow. Everybody is fast. The track has some really low speed turns. My prediction? Mayhem with a smattering of Olivera perhaps.

 

With my race 1 bets, I got 2nd out of 20 people. Not sure how I feel about this week's picks. Here's my quick pick for race 2.

Quartararo 4
Zarco 3
Bagnaia 3

After placing my picks, I feel Zarco may have been a poor pick. I just don't see him fighting as hard as these younger guys. Probably should have gone with Martin. Oh well.

If MM93 doesn't stop crashing, he's not gonna finish another full season. I'm predicting an early retirement for him unfortunately.

 

Wow Moto2 reduced from 25 laps to 16 laps over tire wear concerns. MotoGP reduced to 20 laps. Has MotoGP been bought by Disney?