Mladin #7

 When I heard that Mladin had taken #7 instead of sticking with #6, I
thought:

"Man, what a cocky bastard. He picked seven because he 'knew' this would
be his 7th championship."

I mean, I should know better than to underestimate Mladin, who well has
good reason to be cocky. Much like his little embedded 7 on his #6
graphic last year, he has a flair for marketing himself, but, wow, 7 on
his bike basically rubs it in to the noses of everyone else, and that's
brazen even for him.

But it's his last year, so, what does he have to lose.

But then I learned that perhaps his number choice is not as sinister as
I thought.


With reference to: http://superbikeplanet.com/2009/Jan/090129-2.htm

Effectively, riders don't "own" their numbers any more. Rather the TEAM
owns the numbers. Mladin is taking #7 because he was really only offered
  a choice of one of 3 or 4 numbers of which 7 had been one.

So, no more 66 (or 6), 22, 100, 155, 2, 95, or 40. So far, 17 and 32
aren't even playing this year. Josh Hayes by fate gets to keep his #4.

You know, big deal, it's just a number. But IMHO it IS a big deal. The
numbers are part of the racers identity. I don't know if there's big
controversy over who gets what number every year, or if riders get to
pick whatever number they want in order of finishing last year, or what.

But it just one more change that externally seems to be for changes sake
  rather than solving an actual problem. Counter to the old way as well
as counter to the other major series in world simply to be contrary.

And maybe it's part of the DMGs goal to reduce the riders standing and
cede to the team. When B. Boz moved from Ducati to Honda to Ducati to
Yamaha, we always knew it was B. Boz, as he has his number with him.

If he does that today, at a glance we won't know that -- all we'll know
is Ducati, Honda, Ducati, Yamaha. Guess we can't have the rider trump
the brand or team or whatever.

At a minimum it's just one more thing happening this year that makes me
shake my head and go WTF.


Regards,

Will Hartung

 Will Hartung wrote:

I don't see where it's very clear in the stuff on the AMA website how
this works. I see lots of stuff in the rulebook about style and
placement of the number, but not how it is determined. The season app
isn't entirely clear if it's for a team or a rider, but it must be
signed by the rider, and the app asks for a competition number. Soup
makes it sound like numbers are assigned to be used over all classes and
not just each individual one, since Hacking and Bostrom aren't running
in the same class. If so, doesn't sound like the #1 can be used by all
class defending champions, right? They say Yamaha has taken 2, 4 and 6,
but they have four riders, or two if this doesn't count Graves. So did
they take #2 because Benny wanted that (unable to use #1 since DSB isn't
exactly SSp), #4 because that's Hayes' number, and #6 only because it
means Mladin can't run his number? Does someone now HAVE to run #6 for
Yamaha this year? Will Herrin still run #46? What about Aquino?

So it seems DMG has established a first come - first served system here,
which may be in part a reward for those teams and riders who signed on
early. That all may change down the road when things get less
contentious (assuming they do). In any case, it now seems it's just more
lack of respect and lack of real thinking on DMG's part...

 

From what I can tell the team reserves, or requests the actual numbers,
but you would think that some preference would be made for past champs,
either that, or maybe any single number (2-9) be reserved solely for
them on a first come basis...

 T3 wrote:

Well, it looks like Hodgson is running #100 for Corona.

http://superbikeplanet.com/2009/Jan/080130a.htm

So, who knows.

Regards,

Will Hartung

 

For what it's worth, I'm pretty sure they still do DT that way, only
past Champs can use single numbers, all others are on seniority, that
is, if you had #A this year, you get 1st shot at it next time..