The home market is hugely important to all of the Japanese companies. But Honda has struggled worldwide and that's why Honda wants to win so bad at home and the same for BStone.
1. For those who want to "skirt" - is there not a protest method/process in place for Endurance where teams can verify their suspicions of others? 2. Is Iker not their top rider or was Nagashima the fastest overall?
Are they losing lawnmower market share as well? The Harmony lawnmower I had about 30 years ago was decent.
I just read over the technical regulations and it seems to be in line with what is mandated for WSBK (minimum weight and displacement limits, no changes to bottom end). What do you think they managed to come up with? I figured with them owning suzuka they just managed to test there whenever they wanted and had the fueling strategy spot on. I also was surprised that the two japanese riders were able to outpace Rea and Lowes so easily
Nagashima was the fastest guy this weekend. From the couple of hours that I watched, possibly the difference between first and second place. He was probably the reason Rea pushed so hard to catch up and fell in the chicane.
Aaahhhhhh! Thank you so much. It all makes sense now. I knew his name was familiar. I was wondering how the hell someone could be that fast and I couldn't remember who they were. Major brain fart.
Update from Gino's family... https://www.instagram.com/p/ChCQAFZ...d&ig_rid=c93614c2-a572-4b0f-904c-f38f94b16b06
Probably electronics. I know there was some controversy the year Stoner crashed their bike, something about throttle bodies and/ or electronics. They own the track and do a lot of testing there. I’m sure they’ve spent some quality time there dialing in the electronics. I know that the open test days there are limited and expensive, so the other teams definitely are behind when it comes to test time. That track is very special, nothing really quite like it anywhere else in the world.
Ah, I didn’t realize he was the ex Moto 2 guy either. That makes a little more sense. I know Takahashi has been struggling in BSB. He used to be their main rider in JSB so I was assuming he was the number 1 rider.
During the Spa 24h race they were talking about how all the teams bikes were struggling on corner entry with the bike backing in too much, they said that they run high/maximum level of engine brake so that they keep the throttle bodies closed as much as possible to conserve on fuel. Maybe HRC developed a better strategy than this? During Suzuka I think the HRC bike would last about 7-9 more laps than the YART before having to come in for fuel. That is absurd for a track with a 2+ minute laptime.
It seems even the Europe-based official Honda team (#5) running the world championship doesn't have the same electronics as the Suzuka factory bike. The commentators here were speculating on whether HRC would give the #5 bike the electronic package for the championship finale next month at the Bol d'Or.
I guess this is relevant to this discussion as well… https://www.autosport.com/motogp/ne...nk-honda-is-reacting-to-motogp-woes/10351256/
As far as the WSBK boys being outpaced, keep in mind that the tire to have for that race is a Bridgestone. I can assume that they're not quite as familiar as the Japanses riders that test on them and pretty sure the JSB1000 series runs them too.
Don’t forget that Bradl is their factory test rider as well. Not exactly on the same caliber as other test riders they’ve had. Hard to provide valuable feedback and data when you weren’t consistently at the sharp end of the field.
The only other wsbk riders this year besides Iker on the HRC was the KRT team with Rea, Lowes, Haslam. And this is not their first go around at Suzuka on Bridgestones for neither of them. Were you able to watch the race? I bought the $5 monthly pass from motorsport.tv. The HRC bike was on another level in all categories.
