World SBK-MotoAmerica | Laguna Seca | July 12-14 2019

the thing potentially worse than different rubber when we shared the track with the Grand AM series cars during MotoST endurance events, was the dirt they dragged onto the track. Cars on road courses, as ya know, often put the inside tires in the grass/dirt to cut the corner more. Was not ideal when we went on track..

i've heard comments about it from a variety of news sources/articles/commentating/interviews every year they share the track there.. is it a real thing? no idea, but many believe it is.

 

Doesn't MotoGP use Michelin and Moto2 Dunlop. I don't think I heard about it during those weekends.

 

So WSBK with AMA Pro, DMG, and MA have shared the Laguna for the last 15 plus years and this comes up in 2019? And what about when AMA Pro was a open championship? In those days you had BStone, Dunlop, Metzeler, Pirelli, and Michelin going at it.

 

I dunno, we have ran different brand tires than others over the years and never had a issue. There were several that had grip issues during different races, it is possible there is something to it. After all the track is half of the equation. Sure we have always seen different brands on track at the same time in the past but not often a whole class laying down a substantial amount of rubber like with WSB there.

 

2019.. we millennials find every excuse in the book.

..and create some for good measure.

 

Gentlemen
I have explained many times on the beeb that the track surface at Laguna is unique. When you combine that with the unusual weather patterns that can happen in that region of California it all makes sense.
IMO if you want more consistent results at Laguna the track needs to be repaved, and it's as simple as that!

 

Sorry but no

 

JP cuts him off A LOT! Greg kind of rolls with it and seems to know when he’s been told to shut up- at least for a few minutes. Overall I’m still happy with the job they both do. Greg does his homework on stats.

 

Some of them were funny, especially when Greg even starts to hint about riding let alone racing. At the end of the podcast though Jason usually goes out of his way to thank Greg for all the work he did preparing, etc.

 

Really doesn’t matter either way, everybody will move on to the next round and it won’t be a issue there.
It is however a very real possibility that the layer of rubber that WSB put on the track did not favor the compounds of the Dunlop’s and they reacted poorly to it. Seen similar deals many times in dirt track racing, when it is a big show and you see several heats on softer rubber (1350’s) the track evolves differently throughout the night than if everyone is on 1600’s.

 

Apparently MotoGP has a problem with rubber from different manufacturers causing issues on the track surface:

https://motomatters.com/analysis/2019/06/15/barcelona_motogp_saturday_round_up.html:

 

But that would impact all of the MotoA riders, not just Scholtz. It's a pretty silly excuse; he just didn't have the pace last weekend, and there's nothing wrong with that.

 

I think Toni Race 2 and Cam’s Race 1 and 2 would suggest otherwise.

This is something that’s been talked about forever in car racing circles. Not sure why it’s so unfathomable here...

 

The track definitely felt diff from SS Q2 at 10am to the race at 4pm. I got a handful of good laps in Q2 with tons of grip. But in the race, I was spinning and sliding by lap 2. I'm not sure that I can blame the Pirelli rubber though. The order for classes was the same for both those sessions: WSBK -> MA SBK -> MA SS. So if the rubber was the issue, Q2 shouldn't have been as good. I mostly blame the higher track temp.

Im sure there's some difference caused by the rubber. But I think other factors cause larger differences.

 

They also talk about it frequently in MotoGP and say that moto2 effects the MotoGP race due to the different tire brands used in each class.

 

Yep, Rumor was Cam thought he had a tire problem in Race 1. Not sure that Toni had grip issues as much as Garrett just broke him where his antics no longer hindered him.
We had grip issues also but believe it to have been a tire going down as the tire came off the track with the same pressure as it left at... Its always possible that it was a result of rubber on the track from the WSB session previous to our race.

 

Did you use the new 0516 front?

 

But, but, but, but wait! That's impossible! The Pirelli guy said so.