| Author | Message | ||
     Firstbuell |
Greg, thanx for the way cool TV site | ||
| Gregtonn |
Glad I could help. G | ||
| Aeholton |
I think the Daytona 200 is live. So, that Saturday night, March whatever it is. I believe it will be on Speed. Just an FYI, the 200 is being run on Friday night (not Saturday). | ||
| Firstbuell |
gimme a break!! didja know this? "....As per the DMG rule book, teams now reserve numbers for their bikes ...." so that means BB is no longer 155 Hacking's no longer 2 must we now wonder about what Suzuki & the other crews chose? this # thing SUCKS !! | ||
| Sd26 |
I dunno... It was funny when Kevin Schwantz ran FX at Road America without #34 in 2005. Many other riders have had numbers of other riders. Cooley was 34 before Schwantz. Barney has had it recently. Dale Quarterley was 32 before EBoz. Rainey used 6 like Mladin. The teams need an identity to build their team upon. A number is going to be an anchor for that. Riders, unfortunately, get injured, quit, and struggle. You can bet that Jordan will have 23. It's an identity for the team. | ||
| Bads1 |
Funny you say that Dave. Schwantz couldn't run it in FX at the 2005 Road America race because that year Barney was running 34 on the Kosco Buell. | ||
| Bads1 |
Man this sucks for Hacking and Rapp. http://www.roadracingworld.com/news/article/?artic le=35452 | ||
| Sd26 |
Funny you say that Dave. Schwantz couldn't run it in FX at the 2005 Road America race because that year Barney was running 34 on the Kosco Buell. Barney was riding for JU that weekend replacing Hascovec. Schwantz was riding that weekend for Opie Caylor. Either way, there are examples where "traditional" rider numbers just haven't stuck for various reasons. As for Rockwall...Yeah, that's just part of the economy. They've had it good for a while, Rapp and Hacking. DiSalvo is paying for his ride. | ||
| Bads1 |
Ooop's Dave.... your right. I have a picture on the wall of Barney on the #34 Buell and it is 2004. Man time passes to quickly. That was the year Barney and Ciccotto came over to the Buell area during Homecoming. Never new a racer smoked more then tires like him. | ||
| Sd26 |
Barney does everything. In 2004, he was also racing with us in the FUSA series on an R6. Just get him some beer and cigarettes, and he'll kick ass...LOL! | ||
| Bads1 |
Hes the same age as I. I know I have slowed some in the last few years. I don't smoke and drink very very little. This guy does the complete 180 and the guy is like the energizer bunny. | ||
| Bads1 |
Well it looks like Hodgson is going race 1000's after all. He will have his Honda factory team but riding Corona Extra colors. I guess its getting close for Zemke to sign a deal with Erion. Only one missing is Duhamel. Is he retired?? Is he going to work for Honda??? | ||
| Bads1 |
Talk about screwed. http://www.roadracingworld.com/news/article/?artic le=35478 | ||
| Slaughter |
UN-SCREWED: Rapp and Jensen racing Aprilia: http://www.roadracingworld.com/news/article/?artic le=35504 | ||
| Sd26 |
I dunno. I'm doubting that Rapp is getting the same salary that he got from Kawasaki USA. | ||
| Bads1 |
Saw that Steve. I bet Rapp had a back up plan and it worked for him. Now what about Jake holden | ||
| Slaughter |
No big bucks - CERTAINLY not as compared to KAWI - but it's a ride. Better luck than Holden: http://www.roadracingworld.com/news/article/?artic le=35479 | ||
| Bads1 |
Yeah Jakes situation looks grim. Maybe he can ride a BMW. | ||
| Bads1 |
Wow!! just in. Looks like Corona Extra team is not a good place to be from its history. http://www.roadracingworld.com/news/article/?artic le=35507 | ||
| Sd26 |
No, it hasn't been. Generally, the bikes have looked pretty cool, but they were often just stock bikes with a few bits on it. Nothing special. I think they did work more with Honda America the past couple years though in really moving toward something better. Paying Hodgson shouldn't be a problem as he is contracted to Honda America, not to the Corona folks. | ||
| Jaimec |
Daytona is in a couple of weeks. Guess we'll know soon enough if 2009 is just going to be "The Mat Mladin Show" or not. I'm predicting it will be, despite everything DMG has tried to do to make it otherwise... | ||
| Sd26 |
Excellent! I disagree that Mat will run off. I believe the Yosh team is the most organized, but Mat has been racing Yosh Superbikes with huge superbike forks for too long. I think he's going to struggle with the chatter and all that stock forks are going to provide the load that he puts into them. He'll be up front, but if he could win a third of the races, I'd be really, really surprised. I think Tommy has a good chance at a win. I think Josh Hayes might be the guy that I put my money on as he's been very good on the Honda Supersport bikes when they weren't that good. | ||
| Jaimec |
Found a VERY good analysis of Mladin's chances here. He makes a good argument: http://moto-racing.speedtv.com/article/williams-an yone-but-mladin-doubtful/ | ||
| White79bu |
Maladin is a good rider no doubt. But I hope Tommy Hayden or Hacking or somebody will beat the snot out of Maladin. I am looking forward to seeing something other than a suzuki on the box. | ||
| Bads1 |
I'm with Dave on this one. I think we'll see Tommy doing much better. I also think Neil Hodgson will shine this year. When Matt is not happy with his bike..... he's not happy with his bike. There for he is known to whine and complain about setup. He is not one of the best for compensating. He needs the whole package. | ||
| Sd26 |
Well, Mat is known to whine. But why does he? Because as a guy that has proven again and again that he can win races and championships, if he whines, things happen. This is good for Tommy and Blake too as they will get more parts, pieces, and cash as a result. Kenny Roberts whined and complained about Yamaha not having reed valves on their 500 GP bike. They told him that it couldn't be done all the time. I think he was irritated enough that he would actually crawl across tables yelling at the engineers that it could be done. The year after his retirement, Yamaha had reed valves in their GP bike. Sometimes it's riders that can drive innovation and support. Put two and two together...Mat's the biggest whiner, but how many championships and races has Yoshimura won while he's been on their squad. It's causal, not just correlation. | ||
| Bads1 |
How many were cheated??? Makes you wonder after last year. I don't think he's any better then some other riders. I think his equipment is though. Ben Spies is a great rider as well. He got greater when Yosh picked him up. Lets see how he does now. I remember when Nickey Hayden was beating Matt. He blamed it on the setup. It didn't handle right,It was pushing,bad tire choice,etc. Then the bike didn;t have as much power as the RC51.... and it did. I'm just not a huge fan of Matt. I know he's good but...... | ||
| Sd26 |
I think Mat's very, very, very gifted. If you work with other gifted riders, then put them up against Mat, you recognize really quick how good he is. As for the year Nicky won the championship... First, if we wanna talk about rules, I think even the Honda guys laughed about the RC51 having no stock parts other than the oil sight window. Yosh's set up problems? Showa was working with both Honda and Suzuki at the time. And apparently Nicky was annointed with the championship. Yeah, I do think he was worthy and it certainly could have been a mitigating factor. Similarly, Mat had more chassis issues in 2008 because they were trying to incorporate more of a "stock" size fork into the program in preparation for 2009. That's how Blake Young portrayed the change for Mat in 2009. Ben certainly has had more production based experience than Mat has. That worked in his favor. As for the cheating, it's been going on for a long time, and they got caught because 4&6's Jim Rashid has back bone and Roger Edmonson's AMA allowed the rules to be enforced. Jim told them to bring legal bikes before Daytona. They were warned, but there's just been a lot of elitism for a long time that has let it slide. | ||
| Bads1 |
I know the cheating has been going on along time. But why would Honda go in house for there bikes and since they have got worse and worse in Superbike. While Yosh just gets better and better. Suzuki is a small company incomparison to Honda. What happened. Zemke sucked in Superbike. Let just say Honda had bigger hopes for him and he didn't rise to the challenge. But he rides the FX bike way better. I just think Suzuki had more cheating going on then anyone. | ||
| Sd26 |
I don't have perfect answers. American Honda was pushing hard to have superbike 600 classes in 2001 - 2003. Seemed like Honda manufacturing in Japan had made the 600RR a heavy pig, but with all the race parts, it was very good. Honda America failed to get FUSA/CCS to bite completely on making a Superbike 600 class. We had a big meeting with the FUSA/Clear Channel Entertainment folks, and they were talking to us like we all had 130HP 600's, which was just not really acceptable for cost and reliability. They explained how someone wanted this, and I just said, "Honda". Anyway, in 2003, Honda got a little of what they wanted and they stiffed FUSA/CCS with the bill for the purse, which was good. Then the AMA switched Formula Extreme from a pretty open class class to a 600 class, for Honda, pretty much. The in house American Honda bikes won races with Miguel and Zemke, but their lap times using 16.5 wheels and slicks, Motech engine management, etc. were slower than Supersport. I think they wanted to sell parts to private teams, but it didn't happen. Honda no longer leads the manufacturers in the US. This is from a leadership stand point in making decisions, not from a sales aspect. Mel Harris stuck with supporting the GSXR brand in the US. They have had the Suzuki Cup here in the US since 1986. Honda has continued to scale back the club support since probably the CBR600F3. It's not that the Honda's are bad bikes, but there have been so many opportunities on the Suzuki's. The Yamaha's have been good too, in 600's. Really, the GSXR1000 has evolved very well. Very directed changes over time. It hasn't been a complete "clean sheet" change where no knowledge is taken from the previous model into the new one. I guess I'd describe that as Ducati-esque, for lack of a better term. As for Honda riders like Zemke, how did the CBR1000RR do in WSB in 2008? I don't think it was up there as much as it has been in the past with guys like Toseland. Could be a motivation thing. Put Spies and Mladin on the Yamaha's, and I think they would have won. I believe the Honda America CBR1000RR's were HRC bikes in 2008 in addition to the Graves' Yamaha R1's being R1's from the Italian guys Belgarda, or what ever they are called, that prep WSB's for Yamaha. |
