From Michelin? Nooooo. You had to be one of the select free to get those tires and you couldn’t kick one over to a teammate or take them with you the next race. The Saturday night specials were insane.
It was WSBK but way back only Ducati got the A spec and foggy got them and dominated. When he went to Honda he thought the A specs were coming with him. Nope, f you soggy, you get the standard Michelins. Then there was the Dunlops in the AMA that might have been marked as standard race tires but they were far from available to everyone.
Like the Dunlop supersport class cut slicks from Japan that no one ever talked about? That tire could almost be turned inside out
I know you're kind of joking, but I wouldn't say that the whole overnight tire thing was questionable. Totally within the rules that were in place at the time. The point is to win within the rules, so creative thinking and doing things others aren't doing in order to win was perfectly acceptable in my view. The tires of that era were no different than any other performance part you can name in that regard. Acting as if it wasn't fair to get special tires would be like making Ducati give their latest holeshot device to everyone because it isn't "fair" that other riders get beat so badly at the start. Aside from that, Michelin's efforts in that regard resulted in the development of some remarkable tire manufacturing technology. Pushing technology development is one of the major reasons companies go racing in the first place.
You f&*ing morons don't get it, so I will spell it out for you: True GOATs are larger than life, larger than their sports. The truly greats like Senna, Pele, Jordan... they defined their eras. They were admired for both their accomplishments within the sport and their attitudes and respect from fellow competitors. They were huge influences on young people who were fans and aspired to emulate them. They were the idols of their sports. Rossi has this for MotoGP. Yourgay doesn't, Stoner doesn't, Marquez doesn't.
As a prototype series pushing the envelope of engineering I loved the idea of overnight specials. While spec tires levels the playing field now, it does funnel engineering into a specific path, and force manufactures to follow similar development paths to work with the tires as is. I enjoy the better racing from it, but the Engineer in me likes innovation. It's a double edged sword, and as much as I hate to say it, I think we're better off with spec tires like we have.
who else was getting overnight specials? Not arguing, genuinely don’t know other than Princess Pit Wall
Spot on. “Greatest” means exactly that, overall. Marquez, Lorenzo, and Stoner can all be called the greatest in different dimensions but not the most impactful. Rossi is unquestionably the most impactful GP racer of all time. Agostini is probably close but is second because of time and the limited media of his time compared to Valentino. A large part of Valentino’s impact is merely a matter of timing and being the right guy for that time. Media was going through a sea change and the internet and social media were first becoming things in Rossi’s heyday, combined with his personality and sporting accomplishments it’s obvious why he blew up.
This is on point, but not in the way you meant. If you have the juice to make people fly you in special parts and give you special treatment that’s a marker of sporting accomplishment in itself. Politics and doing it well are as much a crucial part of any sport as the actual performance. I would call Casey probably the most naturally talented rider of all time (Hailwood was before my time, maybe tied with Casey). He never could’ve or would’ve bothered with getting people to fly in special tires for him, because he had no patience for the political or media games. If you can convince people to give you special treatment to better crush your opponents, you absolutely should.
Pedro, McCoy and Rossi. Through out the years it would change with what riders they wanted. Elias had them the weekend he won. foggy and pretty sure Colin in world sbk along with others.
He got them because Pedro wanted another set they brought to the track Sunday. Also supposedly Honda wanted more of the special tires on their bikes to beat Rossi
Those are the ones that were a constant. I am sorry I can’t remember all the names I was told nearly 20 years ago now haha.