The Most sound statement made on this topic!! 5 Hondas, 1 Yamaha, and 1 Ducati have a pretty good shot whenever the green flag drops. Todays race was amazing to watch.
You would be saying that about the 1993 World Champion if Rainey would not have had the misfortune he did.
Re: Another season of ROSSIGP Wait til they get to bigger tracks and the Honda gets to show were Honda spends their money (on HorsePower). Rossi will not win everything. Was it not obvious that Max had a faster bike? Germany is the only other track with a slower lap average than S.Africa.
Given the right situation, I think any of the following could win in a straight up fight in '04: Rossi, Biaggi, Gibernau, Edwards, Hayden, Capirossi. The following could win, with some help: Roberts jr, Hopper, Bayliss, Hodgson, Barros, Nakano. The following would need an act of god: Xaus, Aoki, McWilliams, Shakey Burns, Abe, Melandri, The other Roberts, Checa, Hoffman, Tamada The following couldn't win even if Xaus took out everyone else: Fabrizio, Chris Burns, the Aussie riding the Moriwaki.
Honda doesn't have a top speed advantage. To quote Andrew Trevitt and Neil Spalding in the last edition of Sport Rider, the RC211V "... is not that fast in a straight line. In fact, the RC211V ranks behind the Yamaha, the Ducati and the Aprilia...".
sure i would, why wouldn't you? i think it is incredibly silly to discount THE MOST SUCCESFUL GP RDER OF ALL TIME just because you did not see him on tv. the problem with that rational is that you have to readjust who you consider a good rider every time a technological improvement drops lap times. jeez, mike "the bike" was retired for 9 years and then came out on a one off race and won the IOM going away. i guess he was no good because he rode an antique (even in its day) NCR Ducati. in 20 years when the 2-smokes are but a distant memory are you gonna say that rainey was a chump because he rode old stuff? BTW, there is no doubt that doohan was a great rider, you do not win that many races without being a grerat rider. but come on, who was there to challenge him? nobody of record. schwantz was a great rider, but how many championships did he win? there is something to be said for being able to consistently win over an extended period of time, any time.
Rossi *is* God on a motorcycle. Period. 125 WC at 17, 250 WC at 19, 500 WC at 21, he owns modern roadracing. And as a Yamaha fanatic, nothing made me feel quite so warm & fuzzy as him sticking it to the Evil Red Lawnmower Factory. To accomplish what he has at such a young age makes him one of, if not the greatist ever. KR SR, Lawson, Rainey, Doohan - multi World Champions - Rossi joins their company. Scwantz? Great, but not quite there without multi championships...
Repo Man... I love you. I remember Rossi vs Ui in 1997(?), Donnington.. Ui makes a desperate attempt in the last few laps on the Honda to catch Rossi on the Aprilia, and ate a crapload of grass giving Rossi the win. It was as obvious then as it is now. The Boy/Man is a genius!
Maybe to prove his own (Rossi) point, you will see him on a Suzuki in 2006 with team mate Ben Spies. Or Rossi will have nothing to prove by then and drive F1 or World Rally. Or maybe even Aprilia will get Rossi back since he truely loves the company so much.
and that's your right. However, you can't change the fact that KS won in 1993 because Rainey's career came to an end.
I thought I read Rossi only had a one year with Yamaha. Suzuki seems to be pulling a Honda and poaching the top riders for '05 so it might happen.
Actually, Rainey had just taken the lead in points. Up until that point Schwantz had put together a "take points where ever you can" season. Other than Doohan taking out Schwantz at Donington, he had put together a good season. We'll never know. Unless you have a crystal ball. Do you?
It goes without saying that we all would have loved to have seen that year end with Rainey on two wheels. WR is a class act.
Absolutely. What I always wondered was if there wasn't a Schwantz, would there have been a Rainey? And if there wasn't a Rainey, would we have seen Schwantz? Tehy were the perfect "team" at just the right time.
don't forget the Welkom track is at a high altitude, so the bikes' power was down 15-20%. Just wonder if we got a true picture of how the bikes are gonna do. Having said that, I hope Val kicks their asses!
