Dallas always looked like he wanted to punch him in the face when Rocco was jumping around and screaming everytime he won last year. To be fair, he kicked ass last year. He also had like a 35lb advantage. He lost a lot of that and now he isn't cruising like he was. He's an amazing talent, but he's coming off like he's entitled, which in racing, no one is. He is young and I think most of us were like that at 15, so you can write some of it off to that. I hope he does great overseas, but I also believe he is going to find the experience humbling.
Yeah, two laps after I posted that he touched the grass there, ran wide, and cost him the lead. He almost did it entering into turn 8 the same way.
Agreed. Any parent that’s raised a 15-year-old certainly knows what you’re talking about. I’m sure a 15 year old world class racer is even more difficult. Having said that, if that were my kid we’d be having a talk right now. The optics aren’t great and in this sport that’s a huge deal.
He seems to be taking it different this year, might be taking it too serious. Last year between races I would see him dicking around, riding his bicycle all smiles and now he hasn’t smiled once and is constantly working on something. Wonder how the 2 classes is weighing on him.
Could Landers have won by backing off a hair and staying in the draft for longer to get a good run? It looked to me that he was too close on the rear tire to stay in the draft for more than a second, and ran most of the straights outside the draft. He obviously didn't have any speed advantage side by side.
That's pretty much what Roger Hayden said. He said he pulled out way too early and comes too far over when he does, thus hurting his drive. Rog also said he needs to work on his tuck considering his growth spurt. I'd have to defer to Roger on wether that is true or not, but he knows some things and also stated John Hopkins will help straighten that out. Not mentioned by anyone, but on the front straightaway shots, Dom seems to do a better job tucking his helmet. It's not a lot, but maybe an inch or so. This just makes Rocco's post race interview look worst. When you have experienced riders seeing little things that could be adding up and costing you the race win, and you just insinuate that it's just because the other guy is cheating instead. I guess the problem with young racers is you experience your growing pains publicly, so that kind of sucks and not something any of us really had to deal with.
I don’t think it’s the two classes weighing on him, but the fact he got selected to an ultra-exclusive international series and hasn’t won a single race yet in the US domestic series - not the best optic
I know nothing about this young man, but the day racing is no longer fun should also be the day of your last race.
If he continues to get beat, we will see just what kind of character and attitude he has, because from what I’ve seen (and only these two races, never watched small bikes before) it’s not very impressive so far.
I just think he’s so used to winning and “seems” to have a lot of parent pressure. That’s just what I’ve observed over the past year but my brief interactions could also be a very small and skewed reality of the entire picture. I think it’s time for him to step away from mom n dad and focus on working with the team on the twin. I think that would help him develop a lot faster focusing his on and off track efforts there. He screwed up drafting, plain and simple. He was too close and went too wide to even stay in the side draft. He seems like a good kid but also doesn’t seem to be having the fun he was last year but that’s also part of growing up as well. Also it’s easy to have fun winning all the time, we shall see how he handles himself in the future but I think (and hope) he will be a bit better handling himself off the track. I wish him all the best and he’s got some great people around him on the RRW team that know the off the track stuff as well, if not better than anybody in the paddock.
Rocco just needs to study the last three races, last lap, last turn. It’s pretty simple. The South African comes out of the last turn from a bit back to sit in Roccos draft up the hill and pull out at the top. Rocco rammed it in there like a senior on prom night and was all over his rear tire before even standing the bike up and basically paralleled him the whole way down the straight. That’s not cheating bud, that’s learning how to use a draft. This isn’t rocket science lol.
This class in wsbk is amazing. On a tighter track they should be fun to watch. Unfortunately, road Atlanta is another HP track.
This class in wsbk is amazing. On a tighter track they should be fun to watch. Unfortunately, road Atlanta is another HP track.
Any update on PJ's crash in T12 this morning? I heard the bike caught fire and he was taken to medical. All about 20 minutes ago
On the Junior Cup thing. I rewatched the interview but I didn’t hear Landers say anything about cheating etc? It was obvious how frustrated he was but I missed any accusation/insinuations of cheating.
me too, idk where the cheating thing came from. He did protest at round 1 and lost the protest.. wouldn't put it past them to protest again
Don’t see the bike in tech or in his trailer , the ambulance just left the track so I’m assuming he was in the back of it and they’re on their way to the hospital
Okay so, the bike caught fire and he caught fire too, it was on fire for the whole back straight. He did not crash, he rode it to turn 12 and got off then they put him out. spectator said it was a huge fire