MotoGP ***SPOILER*** conspiracies...

[badlieutenant]

I remember that incident as well- highly pissed I was. I also recall it wasn't the only time Edwards made Slights life difficult.
I guess the issue was who was going to be second and who was going to be third. Honda didn't do Slighty any favours, so I can't imagine they ever told Edwards to let Slight stay in front.
I reckon Edwards is a very good rider, but back in those days at least I don't think he was much good at developing a bike. I remember it being obvious that Slight was the driving force behind the development.

When Edwards and Bayliss went to MotoGP I was sure they would do well. Haga too. They've looked pretty ordinary, but the problem is they're not necessarily getting the best bikes or even tyres- look what's happened in the WSBK just because they're all on the same rubber. Top level racing is never a level playing feild. Tis a shame. Perhaps someone should come up with a champions series or something to be run after the MotoGP and Superbikes- everyone gets the same bikes, same tyres for three or four races. I'd love to see that. I recall Slight beating Mick Dohan in a similar situation- vaaaary interesting.

I was pretty sure I wasnt the only one who remembered that, and your right honda didnt treat slight very well at all. I think the real burn came when he'd spent alot of time developing the new bike and then had his operation on his head. When he came back Edwards had his bike and no-one even acknowleged his contribution to honda, I recall hearing rossi had similar treatment. I sometimes wonder what if Slighty hadnt been so loyal to honda and had joined fogarty on a duke on the same team. Would have been interesting . I hope Rossi sticks it to honda.
Read a recent interview with Wayne Rainey. They asked him why he never went to Honda. He replied that he loved watching the frustration of the HRC boss after a win.
That would be very interesting racing (Id put my money on Rossi ) and as for WSBK's I used to watch it all the time, I dont bother now. which is a shame, I really used to enjoy it.
Maybe a top rider bucket race ?

[merv]

ok theres no doubting colins skill as a rider but i have to say Im not a big fan of his. I found his comments after the qatar round when asked if he'd have over taken sete if he had caught up. His reply was (something like this) "you should be asking if I wanted too. We are on the same team". Wonder what aaron slight would have to say about this? Can anyone remember the incident to which Im refering ? Involving a collision between colin and aaron in WSB 1999, they were both on the same team and colin was at fault. If hed done the team thing they would have secured a 2nd and 3rd positon for castrol honda. Fogarty was gona win the championship either way.
I know accidents happen but I remember the commentators remarking on what bad form it was for colin to go in hot on slight and tap out his rear wheel. Edwards should have, at that point in his career, known better.
Aaron looked pissed as he stood in gravel shaking his fist at edwards.

Yeah I remember the incident well. I am a great fan of Slight too and was a paid up member of Slight Advantage at the time. However, I think you are bagging Colin a bit over the top for that incident because unfortunately around that time Slight started tangling with all sorts of people. Unbeknownst to all of us, the man himself included, he was heading towards his head problem and I think he was getting very frustrated, wasn't always qualifying well, and was tied up in battles he perhaps shouldn't have been.

Earlier of course all of this pales into insignificance compared to his days with Kocinski as a team mate (1997). Aaron could have got 2nd that year if it wasn't for Kocinski's behaviour at the end, but then he wanted to win 10 races that year so he had his own goal - got 9 if I remember rightly.

Aaron wasn't clean of these sorts of incidents either as Lynda will remember when he took out her beloved Chili near the end of a race when passing him.

Overall, remember the main team mates Aaron had at Honda in WSBK - Polen, Fogarty, Kocinski, Edwards. In the end I am sure he would say Edwards was the best of them. The others certainly never treated him well, that's if they even spoke to him. Him and Edwards were quite close but in the end the pressure probably did separate them a bit.

[badlieutenant]

Yeah I remember the incident well. I am a great fan of Slight too and was a paid up member of Slight Advantage at the time. However, I think you are bagging Colin a bit over the top for that incident because unfortunately around that time Slight started tangling with all sorts of people. Unbeknownst to all of us, the man himself included, he was heading towards his head problem and I think he was getting very frustrated, wasn't always qualifying well, and was tied up in battles he perhaps shouldn't have been.

Earlier of course all of this pales into insignificance compared to his days with Kocinski as a team mate (1997). Aaron could have got 2nd that year if it wasn't for Kocinski's behaviour at the end, but then he wanted to win 10 races that year so he had his own goal - got 9 if I remember rightly.

Aaron wasn't clean of these sorts of incidents either as Lynda will remember when he took out her beloved Chili near the end of a race when passing him.

Overall, remember the main team mates Aaron had at Honda in WSBK - Polen, Fogarty, Kocinski, Edwards. In the end I am sure he would say Edwards was the best of them. The others certainly never treated him well, that's if they even spoke to him. Him and Edwards were quite close but in the end the pressure probably did separate them a bit.

your right and Im a little bit guilty of baiting a fellow viffer rider I read your post on edwards and had a pang of "that bastard! I remember...". I dont think many of those guys can be painted as saints. Competitive people under pressure make mistakes (rossi on sunday knocking out carlos i think it was).
Always thought Slight would one day be champ but circumstances just never quite went his way. Any theories why he was treated badly by his team mates?

[White trash]

Aaron wasn't clean of these sorts of incidents either as Lynda will remember when he took out her beloved Chili near the end of a race when passing him.

A frequent misconception. I've seen a series of stills from another angle and although they were close, they never touched. There was about a foot between them. Chilli lost the front, plain and simple.

After a cooling off period, apparently Chilli retracted his coments of being taken out.

[manuboy]

Nobody has mention so far Rossi's amazing "whoops - i hit you on the entry, so while still doing a zillion miles per hour at the apex i'll take a hand off the bars and say sorry, then on the exit while laying into the gas, i'll turn fully round and say sorry again" move!!!

or is this something you regularly expect from a freak like Rossi?

AND Who was the guy i watched in the superbikes last week(?) who crashed during the warm up lap, got a ride back from either team mate or a competitor, and then managed to ride from 16th or 18th to 6th on a scary scary looking circuit??????? (i had the sound down)...

[merv]

A frequent misconception. I've seen a series of stills from another angle and although they were close, they never touched. There was about a foot between them. Chilli lost the front, plain and simple.

After a cooling off period, apparently Chilli retracted his coments of being taken out.

So it was the antigravitational karma force of Aaron then!!

[merv]

Just to add to all the comments above, earlier the journos kept saying every time Rossi got near Max, Max would bin it under pressure. Lately of course Max tangled with Capirossi a couple of times.

The classics of all time in WSBK to me though were the times Fogarty crumbled under the pressure from Kocinski and he fell often that year whether or not it was Kocinski he was tangling with. Simon Crafar was the unfortunate in some of those occasions.

This thread started on conspiracies. I guess mainly these things always happen when the stakes are high - reference to rules, protests, crashes, blame, accusation of bias on the part of the officials and all that stuff.

[Big Dog]

Always thought Slight would one day be champ but circumstances just never quite went his way. Any theories why he was treated badly by his team mates?

I reckon it was because (according to a lot of stuff I have read) he would refuse to listen to advice from his senior rider then promptly tell the techs what was wrong with the bikes and go out for another lap just to be sure. By all accounts (including his own) he got on better with his bikes and his pit crew than the rest of the team.

[badlieutenant]

I reckon it was because (according to a lot of stuff I have read) he would refuse to listen to advice from his senior rider then promptly tell the techs what was wrong with the bikes and go out for another lap just to be sure. By all accounts (including his own) he got on better with his bikes and his pit crew than the rest of the team.

LOL sounds like the behaviour of a kiwi, only respecting people who actually DO stuff

[badlieutenant]

sort of back to topic. I missed the racing this year where, in the 125 cc class, the leader raised his hand to call the race off and the field ignored him and racing continued. Apparently this happened a few times and the racing officials never intervened. Something to do with time management and broadcasting times for the main races. Are the guys on the smaller bikes getting screwed safety wise ? whats the story ?

[TonyB]

Nobody has mention so far Rossi's amazing "whoops - i hit you on the entry, so while still doing a zillion miles per hour at the apex i'll take a hand off the bars and say sorry, then on the exit while laying into the gas, i'll turn fully round and say sorry again" move!!!

or is this something you regularly expect from a freak like Rossi?

AND Who was the guy i watched in the superbikes last week(?) who crashed during the warm up lap, got a ride back from either team mate or a competitor, and then managed to ride from 16th or 18th to 6th on a scary scary looking circuit??????? (i had the sound down)...

Totaly agree about Rossi. I can never decide:
1) if he's just trying to pass by completely stuffing the other guys line,
2) if he out braked himself and made a mistake
3) if he's trying to put the other guy in the sand trap

That said, I think he's a rare talent.

The WSBK dude is Chris Vermulen, track was Imola. He had to ride from the pit lane and was dead last (27th I think). He had to hop to his bike after getting a lift from a Ducati rider. It's a shame (I haven't seen the final round yet) I really thought he would win the championship- I would've loved that: a guy on a non factory backed bike that is based on a standard approx $20K road bike beats a hole heap of factory backed bikes based on a approx $40K homolgomation special....

[k14]

Yeah that was a incredible show of sportsmanship by the guy on the duke that dubbed him. Apparantly the cause of the crash was a combination of cold tyres and also an oil leak from the engine casing. He got quite bad bruising from it aswell. Didn't even manage to finish any races last weekend, stopped in lap 8 or so of both.

Next season should be really really good.