Mugello Moto-GP on US TV -- No Rossi

[Arnie]

PROGRAMMING NOTE: The MotoGP World Championship race from Mugello, Italy will air LIVE on SPEED on Sunday, June 6 at 8:00am EST

Valentino Rossi had a huge high side crash and broke his tibia badly. (can you break a bone well?)
He was helicoptered out and will be operated on by the time you read this.  Expectation is that he will miss at least the next 4 race meetings.

Arnie

[FJ Flyer]

I think the latest word is that it will be six weeks before he's on off crutches.  Sucks. (thanks, Arnie)

[Arnie]

I think the latest word is that it will be six weeks before he's on crutches.  Sucks.

I hope you meant OFF crutches.  He's young, fit, and should heal quickly.
The real questions IMO are what he'll do then.  I can't remember Rossi ever having had any serious injuries previously.  Will he want to continue riding after this season?
Will he change to a 4 wheel version of racing?  I'd be surprised if he needed more money.  So, what challenge will it take to motivate him?  We'll have to wait to see.

Cheers,
Arnie

[oldktmdude]

  I think that he wanted to finish his GP career riding for Ducati, so it'll be interesting to see what he decides to do when he's back on his feet. Sure was a hard landing, he probably got off fairly lightly considering how hard he hit the black stuff. Those young fella's are so fit, imagine how long it would take for us old blokes to get over a hit like that!        Regards, Peter.

[vfourmax]

Shame about Rossi, was looking forward to he and Lorenzo battling for the Championship. I would not be shocked to see Rossi go to Ducati next year at all. Both he and Lorenzo are due to re up their contracts. I really think Yamaha is only planning on one of them returning and that is the main reason they changed their minds and brought Spies to Moto Gp for the 2010 season even after they had previously announced he would stay in World Superbike.

For Spies to be eligible for the ride on the factory team next year with the new rookie rule (aka Ben Spies rule!) he needed to ride on the satellite team this year.

I see a couple of you guys are from down under so I do not know how much you have followed this kids career but he is the real deal! Matt Miladin (one of your aussie boys) dominated the USA superbike series for years until this kid came out and as Miladins teammate won 3 Superbike championships. This kid won 14 races as well as the championship as a rookie in the World Superbike last year and 90% of the tracks he had never seen or rode on before race weekend!

This year in the GP again he is trying to learn all new tracks he has never seen plus adapt to the 800cc GP bikes and his times are staying right on the heels of the Aliens!  Let him get some experience on the tracks this year and adapt to the bikes and if they move him to the factory bikes next year he will be a threat up front. And if the GP bikes go back to the 1000cc it will even be better for him and suite his riding style better.

Personally I would like to see all the electronic traction controls be banned and put the riders skills in riding and controlling the bikes back into the skills of the riders rather than the computers.

[SILVERGOAT]

Spies is God!  Still have his AMA Supersport championship t-shirt.

[craigo]

I agree with vfourmax on this one.  Spies will have Rossi's seat next year.  If not, I will be surprised for sure.  

I have been a rabid fan of MotoGP since the days of the Lawson/Spencer duals.  I have seen Roberts, Lawson and Mamola ride long wheelies at Laguna Seca way back in the early 80s. That was before they added turns 2 thru 5 and there was a real long straight with a couple of bends in it.  I was there when Lawson won the 1st real GP at Laguna Seca.  It was always an annual pilgrimage to ride up there on everything from a XS400 to my last FJ.  My current FJ has not been out of San Diego county.

Man, the memories.....

On Rossi, I hope he has a speedy recovery and finishes his MotoGP career a champion.  He is quite the character and really put life back in the sport after all those years of Mick Doohan's domination.

On another note, I spotted a 1985 or 1986 FJ going west on Hwy 8 out of El Cajon today.  Was that any of you guys?

[vfourmax]

Just finished watching the Gp race at Silverstone! Ben Spies got his first Gp podium with a third place finish! Had a nice battle with Nicky Hayden and Nicky got like his fourth, 4th place finish. You know he was bummed.

What is amazing is that both Spies and Colin Edwards on the Tech 3 Yamahas were both at the bottom of the charts as far as top end trap speeds in the field so even though Ben is known to be riding on a bike that is down on horsepower and losing time in the straight stretches he is showing his true abilities by making up for the bikes shortcomings through the corners.

What I thought was also interesting was that Lorenzo's factory FIAT Yamaha team manager even made mention of Spies and how well he was riding when he did his post race interview.

Just shows that the powers at Yamaha factory racing seeing what Ben Spies is doing on less than top flight equipment and finishing ahead of the likes of Stoner and Pedrossa on full fledged factory efforts are paying attention realizing I am sure that put Ben on a factory bike that his potentials are unlimited in a respect.

I do not think that the new rookie rules will allow it but I sure would like to see Yamaha move Ben onto Rossi's bike as the fill in until Rossi can return from his injury. Not taking anything from either Lorenzo's  and of course Rossi the goat's abilities but Ben's performances at the least will put Yamaha in a better position as far as next years contract demands from their factory riders.

GOOOO Ben!!!!!!!!!

[Arnie]

No question that Spies did a great job to get on the podium.  And, yes his bike was down on top speed compared to a number of bikes including the Ducati's and the Honda's, but so was Lorenzo's bike.  Lorenzo's factory Yamaha was over 5kph slower than the Ducati team's bikes.
You also have to be fair and say the ride of the race belonged to Stoner.  He was dead last into the first corner, and finished 5th.  He was the only one to be on the same lap time pace as Lorenzo.  It will be a very interesting rest of season to watch.
Lets try to comment on rider performance without being blinkered by patriotism.

BTW  I'd be very happy to hear my national anthem played on the podium.  Its been a long time without S&S.

Cheers,
Arnie 

[racerman_27410]

Spies is the real deal.

I feel sorry for Nicky.... he was definitely giving it everything he had.....

Looked like he had the bull by the horns for the entire race with the bike bucking and weaving.



KOokaloo!

[vfourmax]

Blinkered by patriotism, maybe a bit but when you talk about a riders performance there is a lot to look at. Stoner has how many years experience on the Ducati GP bike? Spies has how many RACES of experience on a GP bike?  Granted Stoner is a great rider and yes he did put in a heck of a good ride Sunday. Stoner is on a Factory team bike, Stoner is one of the fabulous four known as the Aliens along with Pedrobot, Rossi and Lorenzo which are considered the best four riders in the world which all are riding on factory equipment.

Lorenzo was giving up 4.2 mph trap speed to Stoner, Spies was giving up 6.7 mph trap speed to Stoner and 2.5 mph trap speed to Lorenzo. Stoner was giving up 2.4 mph trap speed to Pedrosa. Granted trap speed is not everything and it was shown by Pedrossa this week. But the only rider on the grid that had a lower trap speed than Spies was his teamate Colin Edwards. Spies was actually riding one of the slowest bikes on the entire grid.

We all know that as a general rule that a satellite team bike is not going to have quite the performance level as compared to the factory bikes. Smaller budgets, a few less one off trick parts and also generally a second tier crew compared to the factory boys. The one disadvantage that Spies faces most every week that he did not face this week was everyone was at the same level as far as track knowledge and experience being this was a new circuit on the schedule.

So patriotic blinkers laid aside, when you take a rider that now has a total of what about 6 races on a Gp bike, riding on inferior equipment when compared to the factory bikes and if you go look at the lap by lap times for the race Stoner and Spies were on most laps were within 3-4 tenths of a second of each other and some laps Bens times were faster and I would almost be willing to bet that almost 7 mph speed difference between the bikes will equal to about 3 tenths per lap in itself.

Actually as far as Stoner riding Lorenzo's pace there are a few laps that he did turn a better time than Lorenzo but on lap 11 for instance Bens time was better than them both. So not taking anything away from Stoner, Lorenzo, Dovizioso, Hayden as they all rode great races when you take all of those guys have been riding the GP bikes they are on for several years and they do all ride on FACTORY teams when you take a kid that has a half dozen races under his belt, riding for a non factory team that actually had the lowest top speeds on the track and this kid is mixing it up with the much more experienced factory boys its easy to overlook that his accomplishments are more so showing his raw abilities and talents as a rider due to his bike not being quite on par and as good as the bikes that the other riders are piloting.

So my comments are based on rider performance more than who is on the better bike.

[SlowOldGuy]

You're missing the more obvious observation about Spies ability.  How in the heck did he learn to ride like that living in Texas?

Must be the BBQ.  That might explain Doug Poulen, Schwantz, Edwards, ... because it's certainly not the abundance of twisty roads that we don't have (not sure that's english).

DavidR.

[Arnie]

I've been a victim of the LONG straight roads in TX before. :-)  Got stopped by a traffic cop and told to go back to the previous town and pay the JP the speeding fine.  I checked my maps thinking I could just leave TX, and found it was about 5 hrs in any direction to get out. :-(  So, I paid the fine sortof.

BTW  Those speed differences in V4's post should be listed in Kph, not Mph.
There's more to engine and vehicle performance than just top speed (hp).  How you get there is frequently more important because you spend very little time at that top speed.  Else, how would Lorenzo (or Spies) have been able to  finish where they did?

Spies is a fantastic rider.  His 2 AMA championships, his rookie year WSB championship, and his being anywhere near the pointy end of the field is proof of that.  I certainly wouldn't bet against him NEXT year.

Cheers,
Arnie

[vfourmax]

Yeah, I will have to admit I am a Spies fanboy, maybe at times I defend him with a little too much enthusiasm! LOL! Actually I am just a BIG motorcycle roadracing fan and have been for years, couple that with being a Yamaha fan boy as well when Suzuki screwed up and let Ben get away and Yamaha snagged him up I was stoked to say the least! Ben seems content with Yamaha and I bet the guys over at Suzuki are kicking themselves in the arse about now!

Just like Rossi, I totally admired the way the guy rides a bike but back then he was on a Honnnnda. Where I realized that this guy was the best in the world was some years back when he was riding for Honda. Rossi made one of his very rare mistakes and ran off the track while leading but did not go down. He reentered the race in like 7th place around 8 seconds behind the leader with 13 laps to go I believe. I have NEVER in my life seen someone ride the wheels off a bike like he did those 13 laps, he was sliding into the corners and squaring them up and spinning it up on the exits (Gosh I loved the days before traction control!) and when the checkered flag dropped he was in second place a little less than 2 seconds off the lead, if he had of had one more lap he would have won that race. Sort of puts you in awe of a guys ability when he is running 1-11/2 seconds faster than anybody else on the track. But I have been a Rossi fan since that race and again tickled to death when he signed with Yamaha.

But back to Ben, I knew he would be good on the world stage, I was totally shocked though at the success he had last year in World Superbike, never would have thought he would done the things he did and dominate the poles and race wins against that level of competition in his rookie year on all new to him tracks. Also from the way Nori is riding this year it seems as if last year maybe broke his spirit or something. I like Haga, seems like a decent guy and was hoping with Ben going to GP that this would be his year. Also would have been interesting to see how Bens year would have gone if Bayliss had not hung it up.

Honestly even this year Ben has exceeded my expectations for his first year in GP with the way he has run thusfar. I am sure that his name is coming up all around the garages with him putting in the lap times he is putting up and finishing in front of a lot of guys with much more experience and higher knowledge of the tracks they are racing on. Those factory boys do not like getting beat period but they really hate it when they get beat by a non factory bike and Ben is doing that already as a rookie.

Although he is doing as well as he is I do wonder if perhaps he could even be doing better if he was on one of the factory bikes? Not currently complaining mind you just when he hits the rear of the elite guys and is just hanging on is it Ben topped out at that point or is the bike topped out. Only way to know is for him to get on the factory bike to answer that though.

I do not know about Stoner, at times he is the class of the field but at other times he just seems to not be mentally on his game. A lot of rumours of course is that he is going to Honda next year and Rossi is going to Ducati. I could actually see where Rossi may want to win a championship on yet another brand of bike, Rossi likes to set records and accomplish things that nobody else has ever done. At one time it seems that the Ducati was such that only Stoner could ride the beast to its potential but it seems as if now the bike has been developed  more and Nicky is riding it well and Stoner has been blaming a lot of his ill woes on the bike.

Also I think Troy Bayliss is having an input on the bikes development and that may be one of the reasons for the changes in the bikes rideabilty. Rossi is another one that likes to develop bikes and he is good at that, I am sure Ducati would love to have Rossi giving them input week in and week out.

I look for Rossi and Nicky to be on the Ducs next year, Lorenzo and Spies on the Yamaha's, Stoner and probably Pedrossa to be on the Honda's. Could be Dovizio depending on how the rest of the year shakes out. Would be nice to see BMW field a team next year with their new 1000 as well.

But yeah, I am waiting for Ben to get his first GP championship, will not be easy but I think the kid has the goods to pull it off with the right supporting cast! Now if they would only outlaw all the electronic traction controls and put it back into solely the riders right wrist then we could seperate the best of the best!

[racerman_27410]

they are going back to the 990's in 2012.. i expect to see Rossi (of course)  but also Ben and Nicky (COlin?) rise to the top of the heap. Those little guys had a hard time wrestling the big beasts around for the entire race....... totally agree with all the electronics.... i miss  the fire breathing no toleratin'fools two strokes of the 80's    especially the evil handling (but monster motor) Honda that Lawson won a title on (right after winning yamaha a title the year before).... he drove that bike around corners with the rear wheel and it was sooooo much fun to watch!



Spies couldnt ride a factory bike this year due to the rookie rule.... it was smart of yamaha to get him in the show on the satellite bike this year so he could run on the factory team next year (if the opportunity presents itself of course)....

oh the drama coated kookaloo of it all