Never, never give in.
Yeah Gaz. It must have been a pretty bad atmosphere at Yamaha for Ben to jump (If he did in fact jump?) as he was famous as one who could stare down Matt Miladin. He's no whoose.Originally Posted by roogazza
Great to see him still in the mix as we have not seen the best of him yet. I won't be surprised if between those four they don't get Ducati at the pointy end, again.
It's OK to disagree with me. I can't force you to be right.
Hardcore Biker
So that just leaves the Gresini seat as the only prototype seat left unconfirmed. I read that they were talking to Redding about riding for them, but that they haven't exactly told Bautista to go find another ride.
Pretty much all the CRT seats are in the wind. Be interesting to see if De Puniet signs on for another year, he and Aleix have been doing pretty good on the ART bikes. Their qualifying times are still about 2 seconds down on the lead prototypes though, wonder if the new CRT control ECU will help or hinder them in comparison to the prototypes? Also haven't heard any more rumblings about the production race bikes from Honda or Suzuki, would be interesting to see if that actually happens and how they mix with the CRTs.
Disclaimer: I don't actually know what I'm talking about and everything I say should be taken as words of wisdom from a armchair general/mechanic/engineer/racer.
Hardcore Biker
Hope somebody does something to close the gap. Not as many "satellite spec" bikes will be fielded next year methinks (murmurings and rumours of Cal's, Stefan's and possibly Gresini's 2013 bikes being factory spec, plus Pramac will have factory spec Ducs as well), so the gap between the prototypes and CRTs will be even more obvious if things stay the same in the CRT camp.
C'mon Royal Dutch Shell, Exxon Mobil, Walmart, BP, Toyota Motor, Chevron, ING Group, Total, GM, ConocoPhillips — jump on the MotoGP train and help fund some more prototypes on the grid!
Po ta toes
Yahhh Nicky's back!!
2 stroke-less no more!
What's the bet I can find motogp in a Kenyan town?
Fully qualified Sifter.
Easy as!!!
Enigma
Rach still away Bud ? You'll become a funny shape with one big muscular arm that has a hulk like grip.
Johnny Rea for the win Sunday ?
Fully qualified Sifter.
Don't catch up with Rach till Phillip Island mate!Rach still away Bud ? You'll become a funny shape with one big muscular arm that has a hulk like grip.
Johnny Rea for the win Sunday ?
Think Lorenzo will do the bizz this weekend.
Hardcore Biker
Bit of a read in anticipation of the weekend...
Never, never give in.
Thanks. Good read.
Rather like: "In some ways, it's easier if you don't know anything else when you come to Ducati" Hayden said." (Re Iannone.)
It's OK to disagree with me. I can't force you to be right.
Hardcore Biker
I liked Nicky's quip,"I think they'd take another Casey right now!"Still, there's a bit of excitement in next year's Ducati camp, which is a good thing for them.
Hardcore Biker
A quote from that article:
"Honda threatening to leave MotoGP and go to WSBK because of the lack of technical freedom in MotoGP is like an artist threatening to defect from China because of a lack of artistic freedom, and go and live in North Korea."
Ha ha ha, love it! David Emmett is a damn fine writer and evidently has a pretty damn good view of how things operate in MotoGP. I really like the was he presents the info on his site too. Anyways, on to the important matters......
I like what he said about the rules in World SBK, but I would still wish that they would tighten them up even more. The bikes that are used WSBK are so far removed from the actual production bikes that its hardly fair to compare them. My idea of a fair world of racing:
Superstock - Remove the road going gear and make necessary safety mods, slicks, and race'em. As close to bone stock as possible.
WSBK - At least in the same ball park as the production bikes. Retain the orginal swingarm, frame, engine, fuel tank location, and stock ECU. Allow mods of the shock linkage, forks, brakes, and run with a spec piggyback ECU module that would allow manipulation of the stock ECU, but nothing really elaborate. In other words if the bike comes with a stock ECU traction control system, you can tweak it with the piggyback module; but if it doesn't have a traction control system stock, then you can't add one. Also impliment a engine rule like currently in MotoGP (number of engines = number of rounds/2).
Moto2 - Open to engine development along the same lines as MotoGP but with a sophisticated spec ECU. Engine rule like currently in MotoGP
MotoGP - Open up the rules on engine development to allow people to think and try to come up with different engine layouts to challenge the 4 cylinder dominace.
I would like to see them stay away from a spec ECU in MotoGP, just so that the 'premier class' is where the factories can go all out on prototypes and allow the creative juices flow. If Moto2 were opened up to engine development there would be a opportunity for smaller Tom, Dick and Harry builders to try their hand at making steps forward in motocycle design, while hopefully the factories concentrate on the MotoGP class. May need some rules for Moto2 that restrict the ability of factories to make entries into that series.
Tearing Choppa a new A'Hole
Here's an interesting thought. The last time Ben Spies jumped on an under developed, unproven machine and raced it, he won a world championship. Convincingly too.
No secret I'm a big Spies fan and I hope like fuck he can do what Stoner did on the Ducati.
Vote David Bain for MNZ president
Enjoys doing what he does
Ducati (with the help of Audi) will have to develop the bike in a slightly different direction though eh!
Ben is all corner speed and lean angle but the Ducati is upright and straight line speed at the moment.
squid
I feel a bit sorry for Ianonne, he's possibly my favourite Moto2 rider. Kind of poetic really, his great rival Marquez jumping straight on what is possibly the best bike in the series, and him jumping on what is possibly (probably) the worst.
I think this is the last we'll see of him. People used to talk up Barbera too. Just another victim to add to Ducati's obituaries.
I also think Ben will fail miserably in the Duc Jr team (also known as the "making-up-the-numbers team") and this year will be the last we'll see of him before he disappears into something else, and probably not a GP team either.
The better question is really, who will drop out to WSBK in '14? Who will drop out of racing full stop in '14?
Dark days.
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