After a surprisingly positive showing at Indianapolis as a stand in for Karel Abraham, Toni Elias has mentioned that he wants to find a ride somewhere, including in MotoAmerica. "I will be open if it's MotoGP, if it's Superbike. If it's Moto America or BSB. All will be good for me. Just I need this opportunity to continue showing my potential. Of course, my phone will be open 24 hours a day!" Having a former MotoGP/WSBK racer on our grid would certainly be cool. It's pretty awesome that he called out MotoAmerica specifically :up: http://www.crash.net/motogp/news/221949/1/elias-my-phone-is-open-24-hours-a-day.html
That would be awesome and would bring more credibility to the series. The only problem (for him) is the Dunlops. I am sure he would prefer to be on Pirelli's.
Not wanting to start a tire war here but my thought is that a rider of his caliber would just adapt and carry on without the tires phasing him too much. I could be wrong though who knows.
It isn't a tire war or even a debate on which tire is better. He has proven (and has openly admitted) that he goes much better on the softer compound tires. He has a relatively difficult time with feel and coming to grips with harder tires. Hence going into WSBK (Pirelli) a year or two ago and immediately performing well. So yes, the tires do "phase him". But with that being said, in MA he would be racing against the USA's best, not the World's best, so it is likely he would do just fine regardless of the tires.
He openly admitted he could never get along with the Bridgestones, not the Dunlops that he won a Moto2 championship on.
Construction as per his comments. And I think they were mostly directed at the Moto GP tires that he could never wrap his head around.
Unless he brings personal sponsor money with him then I'd say fat chance...but it would be awesome regardless, especially if a team actually paid him to come. Sad truth is even Sheridan Morais paid for his ride this year with Aprilia with personal sponsor money.
Will he be bringing sponsors with him or is he counting on a fat paid ride in MotoAmerica? (Reality check.) Edit: gpstar748 beat me by a minute but I'll leave this up as backup.
Don't you remember Moto2? Elias was GOD on the Dunlops in Moto2. It was the jump up to the Bridgestones in GP that he couldn't handle.
He was on the soft carcass bridgestones in 06 when he was a minor threat to win MotoGP races. It was the Hard carcass "Rossi Spec" Stones that didnt suit him.
He sucked regardless what tire he was on. He was getting beat by the EVO bike when riding the near factory Red Devils Aprillia last year.
Whatever you're smoking must be some potent stuff. He had 9 top 6 finishes out of 24 starts while on satellite machinery. He was riding the wheels off of that bike last year.
The Red Devil's team was on the brink of collapse going into 2014. They couldn't have supported a "factory" bike even if they wanted to. Feel free to send more information about his "factory" bike that he was on though. I'm curious as to where you'd expect to see a rider on a one-man privateer team finishing since you're clearly not impressed by several top 6's.