Keith Huewen has an interesting interview with Ben. They cover a little bit of everything racing. Worth the listen IMO. So many things one could mention, but will add he prolly has the same opinion on the MotoGP aero packages as most here do. 6:30 - US Racers 11:00 - TrackHouse & American Racing 16:15 - Ben, Suzuki then Tech 3 MotoGP 18:30 - Yamaha MotoGP 20:20 - Taking Rossi’s place at Yamaha 21:20 - Talking about riding bikes pre-electronics 25:00 - Bens opinion of MotoGP 28:40 - Suzuki’s exit & future of MotoGP 31:30 - ‘Alien’ of MotoGP 33:30 - Marc Marquez “bikes are easier to ride now’ Quote 34:40 - Marquez on Ducati 37:00 - 2024 MotoGP Season 39:45 - Ben’s Future
Ben talks about Kayla right at the end. He thinks she's the real deal. Obviously since he put her on the team but he thinks she got the goods to go to Europe and win some titles.
Its an interesting idea and topic. My opinion is that if you're going to win a title in Europe, you need to be a cold-blooded assassin. The wimminz are usually not the mass murderer types. Is Kayla?
She's tough enough, motivated enough, and capital "S" smart enough, but the last 2% will be tough to know until she gets in the blender.
You will find out this season. That Supersport class is probably more stacked than anyone has seen since 2008. There are 15 people in that class right now that are box-worthy.. Kayla included.
I watched that interview a couple weeks ago, and yeah, it was very interesting. If I recall correctly, Spies said Toprak is one of, if not THE most talented bike racers in the world right now. I thought that might be a little hyperbolic. But after watching what Toprak did at Catalunya a week ago, I wouldn't bet against it.
Didn't Toprak do a MotoGP test a year or two ago and was pretty far off? I think it was him anyways. Edit: https://www.crash.net/motogp/news/1...-pretty-unlikely-did-test-do-more-damage-good
The best I could tell from various comments made about it, Toprak wasn't immediately comfortable on the bike, and was going to need time to adapt. And Yamaha, with just 2 bikes, realized they needed a rider with Motogp experience who wouldn't need time to adapt. I don't think Toprak was "pretty far off" relative to any other top guy riding a Motogp bike for the first time. And Spies addresses this in the podcast as well. The idea that superbikes are still very different from GP bikes, and that for some reason now it's harder to make the transition. Or, at least Motogp teams are less likely to have the patience when there's a stacked Moto2 grid to pick from.
Yep, same for all of them. I will say every time she makes the next step up she is doing so better than even some of those I've seen go on to win world level races so I'm optimistic.
who besides Troy Bayliss, has ever just jumped right onto a GP bike and done really good, or better than you'd expect? I can't think of anyone else honestly. MOST, of the good people from WSBK that get to try them out end up like what, 1.5-3s down a lap? which seems pretty expected? I dunno what people expect when a guy has 1 weekend on a completely alien bike to him, but all these dudes generally seem to do what I'd expect. the top WSBK dudes do better than the worst GP dudes on the shittiest bikes, but are still a decent mark off any competitive times in their one time testing.
Nicky Hayden, Colin Edwards, Troy Bayliss, Ben Spies all successfully made the jump from superbike to Motogp. Spies is saying that kind of thing is a lot harder, less likely now. Which is why it hasn't happened in 10+ years.
it never occurred to me before that there may be people that didn’t know about all of TB21’s underwhelming years at Ducati and Honda in GP before back to his ass kicking WSBK final tour and his ultra cool 2006 year end wild card domination might be a good time to connect his 2+1 number plate after he went back to WSBK and #1d it again before retiring
None of them were fast right off the bat on a GP bike either. It probably is a little harder now but some of that could be Ben being old and grumpy
i didn't mean in general. i meant for a one-off special wild card or "try-out" weekend. when that was the only weekend. lol shit even that skipped my mind just now. i was totally thinking of 2006 where he wild-carded in and blasted out that amazing win, and forgot there was like a 2003 or whatever that was first that didn't go so hot.
yeah Duc put him in GP for winning his two WSBKs then he rode the satellite Camel Honda too when Biaggi was there… 4 years in GP iirc… so when he went back to WSBK he was hungry and won again… the 06 wildcard was his “reward” from Duc for his last WSBK title and he stomped a hole in the field… he had lots of GP and WSBK experience to pull from and a Paul Bunyan size ax to grind… I still think that last 06 race was one of the greatest ever and his amazing race weekend, he led every session and was never challenged iirc, was completely overshadowed by Nicky winning and Rossi choking… which is mostly what people remember unfortunately
He only had one WSBK championship when he went to MGP. It was Edward who had two. And 2006 was not his last. Other than that, you're moderately accurate.
Damn! I wish I did those stupid signature things that list all my accolades now… I’d proudly display my “Moderately Accurate” rating from Papa! BRB I have to update my LinkedIN
Didn't Mladin get the red headed step child treatment when he lapped faster than Kocinski on the Cagiva?
Did you forget Josh Hayes one-off for Yamaha? He impressed everyone, and had almost no practice time.
