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MotoGP Austin

racer7

New member
If anyone had lingering doubts about whether Marquez belonged with the big boys, I'd say they were answered by his qualifying time that pretty much smoked the rest of the field to give him the pole. And he did it smoothly with all the composure of a well seasoned pro..If he gets through this first season of GP intact he should have a very successful GP career...

Should be a good race. Will be interesting to see how Lorenzo answers during it. And whether Rossi can repeat his last race magic..I'm predicting at least one serious incident at the wide turn at the end of the straight at the hill top- where the track is so wide multiple lines are possible and even invited..where there was a qualifying accident when one rider failed to see another approaching..(There have been hits there during car races also)..

CRB's were way off the prototype pace in qualifying as always....sooner or later this series needs to get everyone on reasonably competitive bikes- IMO its a mistake to think bike racing can duplicate the multiple classes in some car racing and still keep high spectator interest..
 
With two world championships under his belt (125cc andd Moto2) under his belt, questioning his riding ability always seemed odd. My lingering question for him and about many riders is their skills in helping teams sort out bikes when there are problems with developing a current racing bike. For now I agree we are watching the launch of a new star in the MotoGP pantheon.

Qualifying is one thing and racing something else. I hope it will be a good race. I hope the wide F1 style track does not dumb down the wheel to wheel duels we love about motorcycle racing.

I share your view that it is a ?mistake to think bike racing can duplicate the multiple classes in some car racing ?; however I come to a different conclusion. I believe you can do it and generate fan interest if promoters can figure out ways to use media, the internet etc to enhance the race fans involvement. The other big mistake I have no answer for is the use of tracks that do not emphasize the nature of motorcycle road racing but are built for cage racing. Sort the track venue issue out and it will make a huge difference
 
Marquez is amazing. I mourned the loss of Simoncelli and what freshness he brought to GP; MM is bringing that same zeal for competition but seemingly in a much more controlled and fearsome package.

CRT is just stupid. It has essentially mixed two levels of competition on the track. That doesn't make racing more exciting. It just adds danger when the GP elite have to pass CRT that they have lapped. Why not roll marbles onto the track instead.

I have two good buddies working corner 5 this weekend. They all report that Marquez looks the most consistent and comfortable. Just look at him hanging off the bike in this shot. He's amazing.



4&file=marquez_medium.jpg
 
Well, no surprise at the end. He walked away from Dani due to a combo of riding style and tire choice...Notice the lapped traffic at the end...Marquez made his initial move on Dani with a very sweet display of racecraft and while racing and qualifying are indeed very different, he clearly has both down well. Still, its a long season and its way too early to count Lorenzo out though Austin was clearly not a Yamaha track. Rossi rode decently but I think we may have seen the last of him giving the kid any lessons- he was visibly awkward in the esses a couple times as though his injury had made him stiffer...

No incident like I predicted other than a minor tail end- but Dani nearly ran over Marquez in that spot once...

Ducs still well out of it- neither the handling nor the motor. Don't know if its the riders or bikes but in the esses their side to side transitions looked awkward..

Re the two bike types- I don't know what you can do to distinguish them in the minds of average riders. After all, there are all brands in both classes. At least in cage racing, prototypes are clearly different either by make or appearance or both. The average rider can't tell a CRT from a prototype by appearance or brand name...

Still, next time is always a very different race and what appears probable often turns out not to be..

The 61K attendance was decent by US stds for a new bike race at a track thats far away from major population centers but smaller than euro attendance figures, I believe.
The wide and fast track didn't make for a lot of close racing other than Dani trying to rn down Marquez for several laps and a some dicing in the back of the field) though its paved runoffs saved the bacon of a couple of them and allowed them to continue...
 
Super race IMHO !

I'll bet Pedrosa steps up his game at the next round , if he does not perform he will not be on the factory bike next season for sure.

Too bad Hayden still cannot get his Ducati to turn, his new team mate seems to be doing better all the time.

If Spies lasts the entire season i will be amazed , this time it was shoulder trouble and then a nerve in his chest :scratch
 
I got the feeling watching them come out of Turn 1 from the camera angle they had, it sure felt a bit like Laguna Seca's cork screw. Sharp turn of direction, quick downhill, sweeper off to the right. Maybe it should be named the Texas Tornado!
 
Fantastic racetrack for moto racing! The race was not the most exciting I've seen with little passing and the field strung out, even some lappers which is unusual on a track that long. I think we can see how the season is shaping up and the "Kentucky Kid" will run mid-pack again. Nicky needs to think about swapping teams or retiring. Ducati needs to think about leaving Moto GP and concentrating on WSB.

All in all, an enjoyable hour of racing.

pete
 
Fantastic racetrack for moto racing! The race was not the most exciting I've seen with little passing and the field strung out, even some lappers which is unusual on a track that long. I think we can see how the season is shaping up and the "Kentucky Kid" will run mid-pack again. Nicky needs to think about swapping teams or retiring. Ducati needs to think about leaving Moto GP and concentrating on WSB.

All in all, an enjoyable hour of racing.

pete

Nicky has always been my hero even though I'm 21 years older than him. I was fortunate to race against him back when he was a wee lad and participating in WERA. I was on my RD400 and he was on (I believe) an RS125. It was a Formula 2stroke event and if my muddy recollection is still intact, he lapped me by the 4th lap. Great kid, great family...stop by and see Earl at the Hayden Family Store when he sets up at the Indy MotoGP...he'll talk your ear off.

Unfortunetly for Nicky, there is nowhere better to go in MotoGP. Once he leaves Ducati, he'll be leaving MotoGP. Pedrosa will be lucky to keep his Honda seat after this season. Too many young guns coming up....the older guys are left out in the cold (just ask Colin).

I would love to see Nicky and Colin (Ben too!) do a couple of seasons in the WSBK together. I think they would all shine there.
 
There was only one CRT finisher that was lapped and that was the "guest" rider Young. Otherwise those guys were NOT in the way.

Smith and Spies were in fact in the way of Espargaro..
 
Marquez is amazing. I mourned the loss of Simoncelli and what freshness he brought to GP; MM is bringing that same zeal for competition but seemingly in a much more controlled and fearsome package.

CRT is just stupid. It has essentially mixed two levels of competition on the track. That doesn't make racing more exciting. It just adds danger when the GP elite have to pass CRT that they have lapped. Why not roll marbles onto the track instead.

I have two good buddies working corner 5 this weekend. They all report that Marquez looks the most consistent and comfortable. Just look at him hanging off the bike in this shot. He's amazing.



View attachment 39714

G I suck
So humbling
BTW what are the dimensions on this guy
Let me guess 5 foot nuffin' and a hunnert twenty three pounds soaking wet in leathers.
 
What I find amazing is how smooth and composed he is with that unique and extreme riding style. I surely suck by comparison and am not about to even think about emulation let alone actually try it- suicide is not my thing....
However, I do expect we'll see some imitators in his ranks eventually..I don't see what Pedrosa is going to be able to do to beat him on an essentially same bike unless he also adopts some effective style change..And while its tough to consider anything in second or 3rd place in the GP season championship as anything other than truly fabulous riding, I do suspect that if Marquez beats him for the season it might well cost him his seat....I suspect the only way out of that is if they both beat Lorenzo at year end so Honda brings them both back for a redoux...The so-called
"Yamaha tracks" will be the races to watch...

BTW, I liked Scott Russell's commentary during this race. His experience as a racer allowed him to make concise and clear comments that explained some of the race action to those who've never actually had time on tracks at speed in competition..
 
What I find amazing is how smooth and composed he is with that unique and extreme riding style. I surely suck by comparison and am not about to even think about emulation let alone actually try it- suicide is not my thing....
However, I do expect we'll see some imitators in his ranks eventually..I don't see what Pedrosa is going to be able to do to beat him on an essentially same bike unless he also adopts some effective style change..And while its tough to consider anything in second or 3rd place in the GP season championship as anything other than truly fabulous riding, I do suspect that if Marquez beats him for the season it might well cost him his seat....I suspect the only way out of that is if they both beat Lorenzo at year end so Honda brings them both back for a redoux...The so-called
"Yamaha tracks" will be the races to watch...

BTW, I liked Scott Russell's commentary during this race. His experience as a racer allowed him to make concise and clear comments that explained some of the race action to those who've never actually had time on tracks at speed in competition..

You must be kidding about Scott ( the worst champion ever) Russell , that neanderthal can barely speak English. Granted his ability to speak has improved in the last couple of years, but for the life of me i cannot fathom who at Speed network decided to hire him.
I thought the Brit , Green did a great job stepping all over Russell's comments several times .:dance
 
There was only one CRT finisher that was lapped and that was the "guest" rider Young. Otherwise those guys were NOT in the way.

Smith and Spies were in fact in the way of Espargaro..

Well, they weren't in the way very long... :) Hope both get up to speed soon though since I like both riders.
 
Scott cracks me up with that THICK accent. I do prefer the European announcers. At least last year only the USA races (two at the time) had Scott. I think it is like that this year as well.

And I agree that Dani is in some trouble. I ride track but I'm not anything to brag about. But I know the more weight you hang off the bike the more speed you can have in the corner. And MM is about as far as you can go w/o lowsiding. There was a good corner slow mo showing both DP and MM coming through a corner and MM was all over it compared to DP.

This is making GP, which has been a sleeper, some fun to watch so far this year.

I actually had to buy the "BEiN" channel to get World Superbike now that SPEED dropped it. Those dogs!

What I'm really impressed about is that there is some actual RACE talk on this forum. Racing is usually a dead topic here.
 
Actually all this hanging off the bike , while it looks good , does not really make it go any faster.
The trick is to get the power on and get the bike up straight as soon as possible.

As far as lean angle and dragging an elbow, Christian Sarron was doing that in the late 70's or early 80's, so it not a new thing.
 
You must be kidding about Scott ( the worst champion ever) Russell , that neanderthal can barely speak English. Granted his ability to speak has improved in the last couple of years, but for the life of me i cannot fathom who at Speed network decided to hire him.
I thought the Brit , Green did a great job stepping all over Russell's comments several times .:dance

Why do you dislike Russell so much? He was 5 time? Daytona winner after all?
 
Actually all this hanging off the bike , while it looks good , does not really make it go any faster.
The trick is to get the power on and get the bike up straight as soon as possible.

As far as lean angle and dragging an elbow, Christian Sarron was doing that in the late 70's or early 80's, so it not a new thing.

Sure, it's not new, but MM does it so well.

And when you lean off the bike, you shift more weight to the inside. You can counter that weight with more centripetal force, or throttle. Sure, standing it up and gassing it is the goal, but leaning off makes a tighter turn at a given speed. Hanging off doesn't make it go faster, but it allows you to turn sharper.
 
Why do you dislike Russell so much? He was 5 time? Daytona winner after all?

He was a terrible ambassador for the sport. His attitude was as if the world owed him something, his on track behavior left a lot to be talked about. He was often times remanded by the AMA for his antics both on the track and off.

One year , the night before the Daytona 200 he was in a bar shooting his mouth off , some dude took exception to his mouthyness and beat the crap out of him.
Funny that none of his handlers came to his rescue.
He was so beat up the next day he could not race. Yep there's a real role model / champion for ya.

Then there was the episode where he was stopped by the GA. state police for driving his Porsche at a rate over 150 mph on the public road. When asked why , he said" he was Scott Russell" and had to get to the airport.
Yea , I'm real impressed by this wanker/loser.
 
5 foot 6 inches, 129 pounds. Essentially my stats in sixth grade....

I get it, the equivalent jock on a thorobred.
Less load and all that.
But then it's about the jock isn't it.
So he's like twenty something, immortal.
I remember that.
He F'N carves 'em nice tho really dives in me likey.
I want that.
 
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