My memory is a little fuzzy but I know Attack ran into some issues with a R7 frame with R1 motor in it. Then I think Graves was allowed to run a R7/R1 the following season or two. I know Yamaha wasn’t happy about some of the rule changes etc. iirc.
Im not sure, I thought the same think about him in 600 last year. Wasnt he case, cant say this would happen on Stock 1000
Maybe Mesa should ask Jacobsen to swap bikes next weekend at Road America. That would be epic if they actually did that and PJ still won. LOL
that might be a 2nd bike , its an 18 that's for sale. I doubt he's chasing contingency with that. Just a guess.
That was, essentially, what I remember too. As I recall, the technicality was putting the R1 motor in an entire R7 frame was deemed against the rules. So they had to cut up the frames, and get enough of an R1 frame grafted to the R7 to make it meet the intention of the rules.
Nobody cared about the R7 in a stock class because it was a slow POS in stock form. Likely would have gotten its ass kicked by stock 600s.
I think there's a few contributing factors to this: 1. I think the competition on the 600s was thicker last year than this year. 2. I think he struggled to adjust to the riding styles of racers here. He even said as much in his own rather arrogant way and I believe him. 3. If I remember correctly, he had at least two mechanical DNFs last year right? That's a pretty big contributing factor in the championship considering I don't remember the other top riders having any. Don't get me wrong. I'm actually not a huge fan of his. I think he came off as quite whiny and a sore loser a few times last year. But you can't argue he's an amazing rider. Keep in mind he dropped almost 2 additional seconds off his laptimes in superbike from what he did in stock1000. Cam Petersen made similar improvements by the end of the weekend but PJ was still 2 seconds/lap faster after it was all said and done. The Duc is not 2 seconds faster than the next fastest bike on that grid. For reference, Mesa trapped a higher speed in the stock1000 race than PJ and PJ's trap was 2mph higher in sundays superbike race than Mesa's speed on saturday.
If you are speaking of PJ, he had no mechanical DNF's last season. Crashed out of Race 1 at Elkhart was his only no points race. My opinion, he just got beat last year. Wasn't ready to race to win first couple of weekends. And Fong was ready all year.
He was talking last year, regarding PJ and the 600 class. There was more competition last year in the 600 class versus this year in either class, IMO. Yea he probably figured he would roll through the 600 class last year like he is in the 1000STK class. I actually thought he was going to win the 600 class last year too.
Bombshell! Josh Hayes entering SSTK next weekend on one of these! https://www.roadracingworld.com/news/ducati-begins-production-of-superleggera-v4/