Donington "race" - spoiler - the race and the post...

 Well, well, well. That was pretty much the height of absurdity, really
at the Qatar level - but the at the opposite end of the moisture curve,
of course:

- After the first few laps the #s 2, 3, 4 and 6 guys in points were
gone, the entirety of Honda teams Repsol and MoviStar.
- So by just finishing Rossi confirmed what we already knew, this
championship is over. That all his pursuers were gone allowed him to
ride harder and take chances without as much potential consequence. I
counted at least four serious moments from him, but he and his damnable
luck managed to get through every time. He must have gotten a measure of
the limits in the process, something he certainly put to good use later on.
- The four protagonists at the front all have about a decade of world
experience, which means a decade's worth of chances to race in the rain
in the UK and elsewhere. The one who had the most to lose, in terms of
points, was Edwards, #5 coming in and #3 now and a point out of 2nd, so
he may have decided 13 points was too much to risk.
- The race for second will be the focus the rest of the way, now sitting
at Melandri 107, Edwards 106, Biaggi 100, Gibernau 95, Barros 90, Hayden
85. Now if they could only convince Rossi to go on vacation until October...
- Roberts on the box in 2nd! For those of the "Great Equalizer"
pusuasion, particularly ready to trot it out on Vale today, this surely
must show he remains among the very best in the world, doesn't it? On
the "British opinion" on Kenny, I note that those Brit gits in the
commentary box offered that this showed how the Suzuki and the
Bridgestones were particularly good in the rain, but that Roberts pulls
out a good performance or two each year, just enough to get another
contract. Of course when Rossi pulled away it was all about Rossi's
sheer brilliance, no mention of Yamaha or Michelin at all...

Anyway, the sodden betonrain.com British GP was in stark contrast to two
weeks ago at Laguna, from the brilliant sunshine to the emotional podium
celebration there, and, in the slightly tweaked words of another group
contributer, I'm rapidly coming to the view that big-time racing doesn't
need Great Britain or British riders...

 

I think it takes more than luck. While he himself stated he got lucky in the
post-race interview (I am still waiting for him to act arrogant, as he was
portrayed in Laguna), I thought one of them was a brilliant save reminiscent
of the one Mamola pulled off many moons ago, and probably will be shown for
a long time.


Just made anote on that. I can't recall the group for 2nd being so close
before.


Yes. Awesome race by Roberts. Note my issue with Roberts has never been that
he can't ride - anyone who wins a championship must know how to ride a bike
a little, really. Motivation was the big question mark. His finish here
shows that he knows the rain as an equalizer gives him a chance to shine,
and he pushes harder. I am not sure he pushes hard when it's dry. He lets
Hopkins (who's still ahread of him on points) do that.


Roberts himself made such a comment after the race, but I see it more as a
nod to his sponsors (which must have pleased them no end) rather than as
technical analysis on his part. No one can take this away from Roberts, he
showed he still has it.


Goodgawd Mark, why do you have to perpetuate grudges on and on. That's utter
nonsense, MotoGP without a stop in the UK is unthinkable to me. And the
public is awesome, today's weather didn't quite let it come out through the
TV, that's all.

...pablo

 pablo wrote:

Roberts has said as much, this in Cycle News at Laguna:

"Realistically, you have to understand that MotoGP, nowadays, as much as
people want to talk about the riders and this and that, but if you put
myself or John on a Honda, we're going to be competitive. I know that
sounds bad, but in the end, that's what you have to realize. We just
have to make our bike, team and tires as good as we can. But
realistically, on this bike, the quicker I want to go, the slower I go,
because I don't use corner speed as much as this thing wants to use it
because we're down on the engine side of it, and the reliablility side
of it, because the engine is not where we need it to be with torque and
all that stuff.

"John is on the second row, and he'll get a decent start and end up 8th
or 10th [he took 8th]. The point is that John is not riding bad. If you
put him on a good bike, he'll do really well. I know I can ride really
well, but I need something to ride really well with. Right now it's
difficult. I'm not going to say what John is doing, but I remember when
I was his age and I didn't win races and a championship, and your mental
process is a lot different. You don't know if you're ever going fast
enough. You don't know what fast enough is because you're always
pushing, non-stop. Then when the bike's not right, it's out of control
and crash or whatever. And you don't know what happened. When you start
to learn and figure it out, then you start to settle down. Neither one
of those is the right way at the moment. We've got a lot of issues on
this bike."

So I think he's pretty frank about not hanging it out on the edge the
way Hopper does, that doing that and risking injury fighting for 11th or
12th just isn't worth it. What his opinion seems to be is that he has to
work to do what he can to make the bike better, and if it gets a lot
better, then he'll be able to compete. Today he had an opportunity, and
you could see the difference in approach and results between Roberts and
Hopkins.

It's a unique position he's in, as a former champion very much in his
prime still, as I've said. I think it's a bit unfair to be really
critical of him, simply because no other past champion has really been
in that position, except maybe Lawson at Cagiva. Lawson knew what he was
getting into from the start, and Cagiva certainly appeared to be doing
what they could to improve that bike, something that has to be
questioned about Suzuki. I think Roberts' loyalty to Suzuki, even if
he's had no other option, has to be commended.


And he totally passed on the opportunity to say anything bad about
Suzuki, given that setup by the moderator.


It's not purpetuating a grudge, Pablo, it's called "the needle", and one
simply cannot pass up such a choice opportunity to insert it. And as for
the British fans, like the Spanish fans of the past, I'm sure they were
mostly there to see the 125s...

 

No one has ever stated that 125cc equals or surpasses the popularity of
MotoGP. You're making that up and arguing against a position no one's held.

Yes, 125cc is a class to rear talent, thus the age limit. It makes for
exciting racing, in my opinion, but I must admit I don't watch it as often
as I used to. There used to be a time when it was far more relevant, with
class specialists (Nieto at al) and with huge commercial significance. Some
of the names racing in 125cc and 250cc held their own in popularity with the
500cc guys. Nieto, Mang, Ballington and so many others. Now things have
changed, MotoGP eclipses everything else and is *the* championship, and
125cc and 250cc are clear support classes with guys attempting to make the
progression to MotoGP.

I don't think it a fundamentally flawed idea to mix a popular national
championship and MotoGP in the same weekend. Then again, I prefer to see
more variety in technology, and the Superbike and other 1000cc four stroke
formats don't seem differentiated enough. There's no way to get it perfect:
the benefits of the 125cc and 250cc two-stroke is that they offer about the
best cost-performance envelope for motorcycle racing. 4-strokes in open
class become very expensive, and I am not sure they're so much cleaner when
the performance is pushed as high anyhow. The best format would probably be
to open the entry level classes to more local wildcard riders to see how
they do against the up-and-coming world talent, and teach the field a lesson
or two about the local circuit as well. There is a certain chaos in
international alignment of motorcycle racing categories that works against
the sport's best interest. It'll be interesting to see how it pans out.

...pablo

 pablo wrote:

Relax, Pablo, take a pill. That's the needle again, and what I was
talking about was the '70s and 80s, prior to the Pons/Garriga 250
success and move to 500, when the tiddler classes were clearly more
popular in Spain. Understandably so, as you touch on below.


Yeah, I think part of GP's problem with support classes, they have kind
of outlived the equipment at this point and there isn't that much
interest worldwide in the bikes. The manufacturers keep making them, but
how much advancement has there been in the last decade? Do they really
want to keep building them? As Julian has said, what the class needs is
(relatively) low-cost four strokes of some kind, whether it's 4-cylinder
600s or 400-500 twins or whatever. And it really should be something
that can and would be duplicated at the national level, to create an
entry route for guys outside of southern Europe, and to encourage
wildcard involvement. The ideal thing to me would be for SB and SS to be
the support classes, under unified, worldwide rules and with open
qualifying, and that would make for massive interest, and in all
classes. Of course that eliminates WSB and all the small bikes, and is
unlikely to ever happen. An alterantive would be to have a middleweight
SB class, similar to AMA FX, and then something smaller, like a
non-street 400cc twin.