World SBK | ROUND 03 | Pirelli Dutch Round | 19 - 21 APR

Was it though? I was sitting here yelling "Inters! Inters!" at my TV like they could hear me. Asking myself if I was crazy for thinking they are the obvious choice, and trying to figure out what I was missing as to why there weren't more choosing them.

 

Because had the race run the distance the inter was the wrong tire

 

The Maniac might disagree...

 

He just doesn’t know how to ride a slick in the wet lol.

 

Unfortunately Toprak was also ghosting his fellow Yamaha riders. Garrett, Redding, and to a lesser extent VDM are in serious trouble if they and/or their teams don’t wake up. GG & Redding will be lucky to catch a bootleg satellite ride at this rate with a bunch of the GP guys rumored to be washing out as we’ve been discussing in those threads. GG should be looking to jump on the GoEleven bike if the Iannone to factory while Bautista retires rumor is true. No matter any of our viewpoints on what is and isn’t wrong, this shit is beyond sickening watching our US guys getting slaughtered like this.

 

When you have a dry race and GG is overtaken on the last lap for 2 positions and 1 being an MIE Honda with a Rookie on it - yeah, not a good look when all other BMW's were WAY up the road (except Redding who would have been but thought a yard sale was a better idea).

 

My take on it is that it starts off with a smaller pool of fans than GPs. In Europe, you'll meet lots of people who have no interest in sports bikes that are casual GP fans. I've rarely known SBK fans who weren't into sport bikes.

In addition, there's just no comparison in the level of promotion. And frankly, I don't think there's much of a desire to promote it anyway. From its inception through the nineties, the championship was a venue for Ducati to promote their bikes. It was almost as if the others were there because it existed and wasn't all that expensive. And the promoter wanted them there because it was more credible if Ducati didn't have someone to beat.

Then Ducati went to MotoGP, started to win, and suddenly had much less of a need for WSBK. They remain committed to the series but I doubt that the comparative drop in popularity relative to MotoGP bothers them all that much. There's probably no one pushing hard among the constructors for more committed promotion. No one pushing from the promoter side either, since the Flamini brothers a sold to Dorna who has much less of an incentive.

That's my opinion I stand by at least 1/2 of that.

 

From its inception a 27 stomped a hole in the fields’ ass! On a Honda at that…


I have no idea if you’re moderately correct on the rest

 

I can't answer, I don't know what you just said.

 

damn it man….

Fred Merkel won the inaugural WSBK championship on a Honda… he too was the best number… like me

 

I thought of that after I posted. I wondered if his number was, by chance, 27.

 

I don't know if that is a definate. If Spinelli got that far ahead on the intermediates...how much further ahead would a faster rider have made it? Especially one that that was further up the grid to start with?

 

Interesting insight, thx... its odd to me because I would expect production racing to bigger in EU, but I guess the 'win on sunday, sell on monday' is more US centric due to NASCAR.

Regardless, the races today were fun and the sprinkles in Race 2 really spiced things up. I was hoping VdM could get up to the rostrum.

 

Superbikes don't sell nearly as much as they used to. They're expensive and there's nowhere to ride them on the road and keep your license.

 

This is the truth. My only streetbike is a multistrada and I still ride it like a complete asshole.

The streetfighter V4 taunts me constantly but I may as well just feed my DL into a shredder.

 

Remember when GG first got going? Super fast starts, would try a pass on anyone, anywhere. A win was coming any day! Now, almost every race he now drops multi positions, sits there until tires start to ware. Makes up a few places. Repeat with a decent result to stay in the game on occasion.

I have ALWAYS been a huge supporter, but 8/10 weekends this is the pattern. He has outshone Redding mostly this year to his credit. But would you hire him at this point?? There is something severely damaged upstairs ever since the incident with Yamaha. He may have more smiles, but that swagger and aggression is history. I really hope it comes back, but I have stopped rushing to the app to cheer him on. Now I am just thankful for the incredible TR.

 

I think he has been doing well. He ended last year really strong, getting more aggressive and making more passes. His starts were better and he was fighting more.

This year has started ok. He finished the last race picking up like what, 6 or 7 places? And it's not like the competition got easier this year. He seems to be fighting more/earlier in the race this year and is making lots of passes to gain places instead of waiting for a mistake in front of him. Last year he would be faster than people by a long shot, run them down then sit there too long before getting past them. I thing he's doing better overall and it's early in the season.

 

Starts haven't been the issue (getting the bike off the line), GG's issue starts when it's time to brake for T1 - that's where the mental block seems to be with him - he throws out the anchor WAY early now. EVERY start I watch him, then I usually think - sweet, he started 12th, he should be at least 12th once the rider placement graphic updates after T1 - nope, #31 is now 16th, 17th....

His last YT video - I was floored he thought naming it "My bike won! (But I didn't)" - he goes on and on about how incredible Toprak is, that to me shows he fears these guys, he has no self confidence, and watching his video series is like groundhog day when seeing him enter the pits and debrief with Les (Crew Chief) "Dude, I have NO rear grip, Dude, I have sooo much chatter, Dude...." Usually when you get glimpses like this it's balanced and the rider is calm while trying to offer decent feedback to improve the bike where Garrett looks and sounds defeated even while in the safety of his own box.

That's why I mentioned in a different thread last week that if Trackhouse wanted 2 American riders in GP(just dreaming here) and I was Team Manager for a day - Beaubier would be my choice all day despite being 3-4 years older. He still has that killer instinct and doesn't appear to be so easily intimidated as GG does. I'd want a rider who chews nails for breakfast, not one where I'd have to hire 3 mental health professionals to coax my rider out of their trailer each weekend.

 

All valid points, and lots of others have noticed the same thing on his starts. But there were also multiple times last year where he was visibly more aggressive into turn 1 and came out at least where he started. Those were also the races where he finished the best. Let's just hope he continues to take steps fwd because he has the ability to be up front.

 

GG has fairly consistently had very poor first couple of laps. Very cautious. Basically is out of the race. This year the quality of the field really punishes that strategy. I get the bike not being what he wants, but at some point he has to figure out how to ride the bike he has. For whatever reason he seems to be relatively slower this year.