Okay. It may be a little late to start a thread on this. Just looking forward to the Malaysian round and wanted to see who else is. I can’t recall when I’ve been so engaged and excited about a racing season; motorbikes or otherwise.
What a season it’s been. And last weekend’s race at Philip Island was excitingly entertaining, to say the least. There were 3x world champions + a magnificent spoiler putting their minds, bodies, and machines through 27 blindingly quick laps; swapping position on most every one of them. That damn Ducati was super-fast, too… speeds in excess of 340kph/210mph down the Gardner Straight. And this was after being struck by a seagull.
Spoiler for Aus GP: Marquez comes from 4th to 1st in less than 2.5 miles, riding the fastest lap of the race to win it. He made up more than a second on the leader in less than 1 lap.
Some great races this season;
Argentina. Marquez is leading the race. But by watching timing/scoring, one can see Rossi’s catching him. Catch him he does and the battle ensues. That is until Marquez gets a little too close while giving chase and crashes as Rossi bends into the next left-hander, pushing MM’s tire out from under him. I was literally on the edge of my seat and screaming! It quickly turned to laughter as soon as MM disgustedly got up out of the gravel.
The race in Assen was stunning as 2 world champions spent ~60 miles racing so closely that you could have just-about covered them with a king-sized bed sheet. The final turn of the final lap was a screamer, ha.
It’s been a great season. What are some of your most memorable moments from the last 8 months of MotoGP?
Phillip Island was one of the best races I’ve seen. On that first lap, they came over the brow of that little rise and I said to myself, “What the hell is that on the track?”.
The big stories for me are Marquez Mistakes and Rossi Resurgence.
Ha! And my second thought, long before they hit him, was, “poor bird”.
That’s one of the best corners on the track. Did you notice Rossi really got on the brakes when he first squeaked by Marquez there? It was a shameless effort that cost him and MM the postition as Iannone swept past. What fun that was!
MM did make a lot of mistakes, but i think it’s fair to give some of that to his coming to *grips *with this year’s machine. As soon as he had them swap to last year’s frame, he started to come alive. I enjoyed those handful of races when he wasn’t much of a threat. Now I’m pulling for him to get ahead of JL at any cost
I’ve been tuned-in to the TV, but not into the board that much this summer. I didn’t see a previous MotoGP 2015 thread… did I miss it?
Every year I mean to start a Motorcycle Racing omnibus thread - MotoGP, WSBK and AMA (or MotoAmerica or whaterve rthey are calling it this year), but always forget. As a Honda fan, I’m dissapointed in Marquez’s season, but it looks like he has his chassis issues sorted and will be a factor next year. Looking forward to the final race and the Lorenzo/Rossi duel. Should be one for the ages.
But mostly I’m anticipating next year and seeing Nicky riding the Ten Kate Fireblade in WSBK! Met Nicky at Laguna this year and he is just as engaging in real life as he is in interviews.
Someone start a thread in Feb 2016 in case I forget
Philip Island was a great race! This season has indeed been one of the best I’ve followed.
I’ve been a bit of a Rossi fan since I started following MotoGP back when they’d just changed the rules to allow four strokes and there were still two strokes racing. I followed him initially because he was fast. Now I follow him because he’s not the fastest anymore, but he can always bring something extra to race day and I think his personality is a very good thing for the sport. That said I’m not necessarily a Rossi “fan boy”, I was kind of surprised he got away with winning Assen by cutting the chicane for instance. Still I like him, and I think this will probably be his last chance of winning a tenth GP so I am hoping he comes out on top in the next couple of races.
Jorge is very good but he seems a bit flaky. When he’s good he is very very good, but he seems to have confidence issues or something. He has certainly been faster than Rossi for the second half of the season but I think (hope) the results from this season will demonstrate that it’s more than just being fast. Consistency is key and Rossi has only been off the podium twice.
Marquez is incredibly talented and fast but it seems that he perhaps needs to tame his enthusiasm a bit. He’s been let down by some silly mistakes this year.
It’s great to see Pedrosa coming into his own in the last few races. Particularly seeing him beat Rossi in a straight out scrap. Before that race where he beat Rossi (I can’t remember where it was) I would’ve picked Rossi to beat pretty much anyone if he has the same pace. His ability to pass and make it stick is awesome. In general the Yamahas have been let down by their lack of straight line speed this year, but they seem to make up for it in other areas. Seeing Iannone stick with the top three last week was very impressive and that Ducati down the straight was incredible. It was also another example of someone beating Rossi in a straight up scrap so I really think that Rossi’s days at the top are numbered. But then I’ve thought that since Lorenzo and Stoner came on the scene, and here he is.
Interesting qualifying at Malaysia today. Rossi in front of Lorenzo. Is that a sign of things to come in the race or will Lorenzo find something for tomorrow? Pedrosa’s pace was amazing, it would be good to see him win one. For my loyalties all I need to see is Rossi finish within one place of Lorenzo, I’m quite happy to see Pedrosa or Iannone or Marquez take the victory.
I’d like to follow WSBK but don’t have a way of watching it.
Edit: And now I see WSBK has a video pass. Looks like I’ll have even more racing to watch next year!
I’m a huge Rossi fan… well, I was up until about an hour ago.
That was not a “racing incident”. That was disgusting. You just don’t do that to another rider. I’m really disappointed with the penalty too. If they (after multiple freeze frames from multiple angles + interviews with Marquez and Rossi) determined it was just an unintentional bump, then I guess it would be a reasonable penalty, but from all the replays I’ve seen, it was a disgusting and intentional kick. So unsportsmanlike. I’d like to see a 3 race suspension, or something similar for such disgusting acts. Instead, by applying 3 penalty points they’ve ranked this alongside some ‘hard passing’ racing incidents.
I’m no longer a Rossi fan, that’s for sure. Such a shame he tainted such a brilliant career with such an act
I don’t think Rossi kicked Marquez. Marquez leaned on Rossi and Rossi pushed his knee out at him. I think Rossi’s version of what caused the fall is reasonably accurate but he shouldn’t have been slowing down and running Marquez out wide.
After watching replays from a few more angles, I agree with you. Not as disgusting as I first thought. I still think he was in the wrong and don’t fully believe either riders version of events, but I no longer think Rossi intentionally kicked at Marquez.
What did you think of the penalty? Fair? Too lenient? Too harsh?
Well, I understand that when Schumacher intentionally ran into Damon Hill he was stripped of all championship points. I expected Rossi to at least be disqualified from the race. I think they’ve ensured that he won’t win the championship, but if Lorenzo crashes he still might. So I guess I think it’s too lenient, but not by much.
Not quite. Schumacher ran into Hill in '94, and received no penalty, thus winning the championship by one point as neither car was fit to continue racing. Even as a Schumacher fan, that was probably unduly lenient, given Schumacher had hit a wall at the previous corner and almost certainly knew he was already out of the race when he tried to ‘defend’ at the next corner.
You’re probably thinking of '97, when Schumacher tried a similar move on Villeneuve (albeit a good deal more blatantly) but only succeeded in breaking his own car. Villeneuve drove on to take the title, Schumacher was (as you say) stripped of all his points that season, but I believe his wins that season are still officially counted.
I certainly lost a little respect for Rossi this weekend. If he was upset that ‘racing’ with Marquez was slowing them both down, why didn’t he just tuck in behind Marquez and follow him?
I think the penalty was too lenient (he should have been DQd), but anything harsher would have given Lorenzo the title and rendered Valencia moot. And they weren’t going to do that.
As for WSBK - sometimes you can catch them on YouTube (before they take them down, subscribe via WSBK.com or a channel on Directv (BeIn) that has them (but you have to subscribe to the extra sports package). I’m hoping with a popular American in the mix next year, maybe Fox Sports may pick it up. No idea how to see MotoAmerica - Internet only, maybe?
Yeah you are right. I was looking at both incidents after the local commentators mentioned them in reference to Rossi’s brain failure and got them mixed up.
I’ve subscribed to WSBK’s video package through their website, it lets you watch any race you like from the past decade or so in the off season. I’ll get the full live screening pass when the 2016 season starts which should let me watch live coverage plus the full races on demand.
I may subscribe next year if no other Network picks it up. I was always afraid of accessing the subscription through the main WSBK page - getting spoilers before seeing the races. Is there a way to go directly to the video subscription w/out going to the WSBK main page?
It just goes to show how in the heat of the moment, even someone who has trained physically and mentally all their life can have a temporary meltdown. Amazing what elite sport can do to you.
Unfortunately (well, not entirely unfortunate), I’ve been out of the country and wasn’t able to watch this weekend’s race until this afternoon. I’ve not investigated or even read you guys’ posts, but I will say, wow! At first I laughed when I thought that MM had done something stupid, but upon replay, I’m not so sure that’s what happened.
I was lovin’ the back and forth duel b/t the rivals, but after about lap 5 I said to myself, “that fuckin’ MM’s holdin’ my boy up. Get `em, Val”. And I was sure that VR wasn’t going to be able to keep that fight up for 20 laps, all the time (on the edge of my seat) hoping he would. Hell, fourth place (really anything but a crash) would have been acceptable from my armchair. Obviously, VR didn’t share that thought.
That incident ruined what was a killer race! After the fall and rampant speculation, I just FF’ed through the rest of the laps. I’m glad they got VR’s take on things, for what it was worth. I will say from the comfort of my living room and having just finished watching, that I don’t like what I saw. I think that MM was holding-up VR, and was probably being a little cunt about it, too. I can understand VR getting a little chapped about it, as well. It appears that VR was just tightening-up and cussing at him in a fit of rage and things went terribly wrong. I really don’t believe that VR wanted MM to crash, but he sure wanted that guy to quit fuckin’ with him. And I guess it worked, ha!
Alright, now I’m going to read the posts I missed and do some research on the matter. See ya in a bit!
