MotoGP:
Puig and Honda definitely got a humble sandwich served to them today as Marquez wasn't able to pull the heroics of COTA and goes to show he's mortal
, a huge bummer for Miller and Mir man, they had a great battle going on and Miller had managed to close the gap and fight for 2nd spot but man he got a little too ambitious there unfortunately and it cost him dearly (he's being linked to going back to Pramac or LCR after this season and this definitely sealed that fate, super cool and likeable dude and would have been cool to see him champion but doesn't look like it'll be in his fate to do so). Ride of the day goes to Rins for sure though, holy shit what a start and coming from the back of the pack to a near podium finish was about the best thing I've seen in a while. Yes, you could argue that Marc's comeback in COTA was pretty remarkable but he was being very careless as you mentioned he almost collected Binder and Maverick in the process, Rins did it cleanly and just efficiently. Fabio keeps trying his best but man that still doesn't fix Yamaha's woes, they just lucked out that Portimao is a track in which Yamaha works well and today happened to work in their favor but come Jerez and other tracks, they'll be back to frustration mode as 3 out of the 4 riders are about to call it quits in that outdated M1.
I think Marquez is having problems that they are not telling us. Sure, he was beasting it up in COTA but that's a track he loves. I expect more of the same at Sachsenring. He either really got his setup wrong today or just didn't have anything in the tank for anyone on track. Which I think goes to what I've been suspecting for awhile now. The others have caught him in terms of speed, and it's starting to show. They are relentless and younger. Just as he was when he came in 2013, now he's dealing with the new breed some 10 years down the road.
If by some chance he manages to dig deep and find more speed to put him back on top, I don't think we will see him re-new a contract past 2024. This will be three seasons since he won a championship and the injuries are starting to take their toll. He's paying for it now, and even though he's still young, you can tell he's lost a step. The big crashes didn't phase him before, and now they ring his bell. He's starting to lose the edge. Could he still race well into his 30's?? Sure, I think he would still be a super fast guy at 35, but I don't see him winning a ton more races and championships. However, the way he rides and the damages that he is suffering are going to mean he won't make it racing into his 30's.
That's what kept Rossi fast until I'd say 2017. His 2015 and 2016 season he was super fast and there with the rest of the aliens(arguably 2016 he was the fastest rider on the grid at 37!!). But Rossi learned from the leg break in 2010, that he will need to re-tool his thinking. No longer will outright pace/speed win the day. He had to resort to winning races through consistency, getting the bike setup perfectly, Bridgestone tires(pre-2016)and sometimes winning through the attrition of others. That's what happens as they age, and it starts to fade year after year.
A testament to that though, is Rossi's lap record at Argentina from 2015(which still stands). Also his metronomic pace he set at Sepang(in 2018 or 2019) where he looked more like Lorenzo, until he crashed as Marquez was chipping away at the lead. Those days Rossi was perfect and it all came together. I dare say, a younger Rossi wouldn't have lost the lead in Sepang, he would have waited for Marquez to arrive and then dogfight him to the end.
But I agree, FQ is making the difference for the M1. Yet, these kinds of tracks aren't all in a row. I think FQ will do well in Jerez, Mugello and Catalunya as well as Le Mans(home race will give boost). But after the classic M1 tracks are over with, we arrive at the big tracks. Austria will either be Ducati or a KTM. Brno is KTM grounds. Assen and Silverstone are toss ups but require some serious grunt at times. Sachsenring will go to the Honda or someone else not Yamaha.
I think the big tracks like Sepang and Brno for instance will be tough on Yamaha. Even Philip Island is fast as hell on the huge front straight. I think Fabio needs to do what he did last year, win as many of these classic M1 tracks that are coming up as he can. And then damage limitation the rest of the season. Do his best to be top 5 as much as possible(podium even better).
Moto2:
Super happy to see Cameron starting P2 and battle it up there with the big dogs in the class before the rain delivered that incredible carnage of a multiple rider crash in T2 in which I am also very happy to see that everyone walked away okay from, that could have been so bad it's not even funny. Being a former marshal that had my heart about to leave my chest this morning watching it unfold live and not being able to do shit about it
(note to any racers reading this, this is why we always tell you to walk away from your bike when you crash and you're okay, mainly if you're in the crash zone, get out of there and to safety to a bunker/tire wall/fence, etc and NEVER turn your back on a hot race track, couple riders standing there almost got collected and even one of the marshals running out in the initial part of the crash, again that could have been absolute catastrophe). Although Cameron couldn't take the restart due to his bike being wadded and also by regulation they had to get back within 5 minutes of the red flag back to the pits but another American rider, Joe Roberts took advantage of the restart and won the race on a 7 lap sprint to the finish. Of course everyone is calling the race win "gifted" but many of these type of scenarios have played before where Italian and Spanish riders have capitalized on said scenarios that aren't in their control and nobody ever called it gifted, sure love that American riders are on the radar now in a good way and people are just hating it but oh man we are loving it!!!
I don't get to see Moto2 so I don't have much of a take on it. Just saw the highlights on CNBC and it looked like a crash fest.
WorldSBK:
The battle in between Rae, TopRak and Bautista goes on, some great racing from those three overall although Toprak and Rae got tangled in an incident on race 2 which honestly was only a matter of time it would happen as hard as those go at it. Happy for Iker Lecuona grabbing 3rd place for HRC in his debut season and that's gotta be a huge confidence booster for that kid, KTM did him dirty honestly, he was showing great improvement and was delivering constant top 10 results on that satellite KTM but they gave him the boot unfortunately. Bad weekend and start to the year for Gerloff unfortunately, race 1 he couldn't get any grip or rhythm going due to a bad tire choice (went with the 0 instead of the X tire) and then on race 2 after a good start, he got sandwiched between Rae and Lowes and damaged his bike so he had to pit and call it a day. Such a bummer man because he's shown he can be up there but just luck isn't in his court at the moment, those incidents with Toprak last year really did a number to that team and rider and things just haven't been the same. It's early in the season but sure hope he can recover and show what he can really do.
Kind of same as Moto2, although I do get so watch truncated versions of the race on YouTube, so I get most of the WSBK races. It's shaping up to be another bruising year for Rea, Toprak and now Bautista. Alvaro seems to be keeping his nose clean, and letting those two duke it out. Which is good because no sense in getting in between the hate those two have for each. Just pick up the pieces when they screw up. Bautista is also fast so he can burn them at times too.
MotoAmerica:
Well what is there to be said honestly, Petrucci is just making these guys look beyond silly and this season has barely started, even Matthew Scholtz during the podium interview said that yesterday and you could see his frustration as the skill gap is just too great. However, sure hope that some riders will start taking shit more seriously and that developmental programs such as the North American Talent Cup continue building and supporting so riders here can have a true chance and that investors start queuing in to support and help rider success moving forward.
Now this I do get to watch on FS2. Yeah, I'm highly inclined to agree with you. Petrucci is going to own these guys. We haven't got to see him and Gagne go at it one on one, had a taste in Race 1 but Jake lost it. I think Danilo will only get better as the season goes on. His bike gets sorted out and he will also be 100% physically. He will be a thorn in everyone's side. What will interesting to see is the reliability of his bike. Only the second weekend and his bike looks like it went south and that's not good.
I agree with you 100% on the seriousness of our sport nationally. We need to do more to get riders better prepared for the competition of the world level.
This is an opinion I've had for as long as I can remember and being into motorcycle racing. I'm sure it's not popular with American racers but it's my take on how I've always seen racing as a whole. Back in the day when the AMA was at it's pinnacle and super popular. I still would only rank it at the bottom of championships to get into. They're all stepping stones in a sense to make it to MotoGP or WSBK.
Here's how I rank world racing:
1. MotoGP
2. WSBK(and it is tied with MotoGP in a sense because it's the highest you can go with a Superbike, not a Prototype). It's still not faster than MotoGP.
3. BSB <----this is where you want to end up in climbing the ladder process, because they actually race at WSBK and MotoGP tracks.
4. and 5. ASBK(Australian Superbike) and the Spanish/Latin SBK's are tied.
6. and then AMA(former) now MotoAmerica(latter) <----- however this does tend to pull more racers because of it's TV exposure. Australian and Spanish SBK's are pretty much relegated to their own countries. Although I did used to watch ASBK here on the old MAV TV for a year or two.
Now if we want to go back to the eras of Lawson, Roberts, Schwantz and even Hayden, Spies, Edwards and Hopkins. Then yeah, AMA was was more prestigious back then, as it actually developed riders for MotoGP or WSBK. But I still don't see us getting our racers ready for the elite levels. Some of our best racers that have managed to get on the world stage find that it's very, very competitive, and they are more on the back foot. It's why Mladin never went beyond AMA, he knew the competition was brutal the higher up the ladder.
You have to look at how these other countries operate. For their children, it's either Soccer or Motorcycles and that's about it. Here in America, our children have Football, Baseball, Basketball, Hockey, Soccer, Lacrosse, etc. and then of course the rest are trying to figure out what f**kin bathroom to use. So for the USA, our priorites are a lot differnet in terms of readying riders for the world stage. Auto/Motor racing in general is just not there the way it is in the rest of the world. In the US, we either go in a straight line or in a circle, whereas Road Racing seems to require to much brain power for most to either compete in, or spectate at. 
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Originally Posted by madvlad
They could have had it at home but just fell into the Tampa Bay show but every time we would roll on the gas, those guys had nothing. Now they have to come here to try and win it but I foresee this going to a game 7 unfortunately, they gave TB hope and that's the worst thing they could have done as they came back from being down as well with the Rangers.
