Mugello, Italy | MotoGP 2014 (Spoilers)

Thank you for proving my point.

 

I think the spec motor aspect of Moto 2 makes it easy for someone to end up pretty far back. You routinely see big names outside the points in certain weekends. In other series, like WSBK for instance, only 6-10 guys have the necessary HP to win a dry race at most tracks, so even if those guys have a bad weekend, they still make the top 10 if they don't crash. In Moto 2, 30 some have the HP to win a race.

 

What's the ballpark cost for a "pay to ride" opportunity for a decent ride in Moto2? Anyone have any idea?

 

250 GP winners 2009:
Hiroshi Aoyama (Champion)
Héctor Barberá
Álvaro Bautista
Marco Simoncelli
Mattia Pasini

250 GP Finishing order 2009:
1 Hiroshi Aoyama
2 Héctor Barberá
3 Marco Simoncelli
4 Álvaro Bautista
5 Mattia Pasini
6 Raffaele De Rosa
7 Thomas Lüthi
8 Mike Di Meglio
9 Héctor Faubel
10 Alex Debón
11 Roberto Locatelli
12 Jules Cluzel
13 Ratthapark Wilairot
14 Karel Abraham
15 Lukáš Pešek
16 Alex Baldolini
17 Shoya Tomizawa
18 Gábor Talmácsi
19 Shuhei Aoyama
20 Aleix Espargaró

 

Had he not died, I think it's very likely that Marco would have won some races. Bautista, on the other hand, is more inconsistent, but is still very fast when things are going his way. Both were very strong 250 riders, and both are former GP world champions.

 

The previous year's 250cc champion, along with the 2005 125cc world champion, the 2006 125cc world champion, and the 2008 125cc world champion.

 

And Thank You for proving, once again, that I'm always with you

 

I was hesitant on Crutchlow when I posted but I'm positive about Sykes.

 

I think Cal may have won BSB supersport.


Edit: Yep. I just checked. Cal won the BSB supersport championship in 2006, in pretty dominant fashion.

 

So some has beens and never will be's

 

Rossi is finding it hard to win a race now and Simo wasn't good enough to hold his jock, so I have to disagree there. He was just as erratic as Bautista, if not worse.

 

I was posting about superbikes. He failed to win that and moved on to the world championship with good results.

 

:up: And I agree with your premise.


Conversely, when someone squeaks out a championship, without many wins, they may not be ready to move on to the next level and be successful at it.

 

I can't agree with this. In the races leading up to his death, he had found a consistency that Bautista has yet to achieve. In the six races leading up to Sepang, Marco had two podiums, and three fourths. He was riding better than I've seen Bautista ride.

 

But that doesn't make him wrong, either. Accurate or not, European teams are going to look at Herrin as an example US racers and likely pass on future riders as a result.

I'm not trying to take anything from Herrin. It has to be VERY hard for him to be out there on tracks he doesn't know, but he's got to reign himself in a bit and finish races. It doesn't matter how fast he could be if he can't get to the finish, and keeps giving the techs a yard sale to rebuild every weekend. They'll punt him soon if it keeps up. It's cheaper to buy out his contract than rebuild the bike from debris every race.

 

Last rider to win a 250GP World Championship. He hasn't been the same since he broke his neck in 2010. Shame really.

 

Let's not forget that he won the championship on a Honda. Next highest Honda was De Rosa in 6th.

 

This seems to happen with a lot of guys. Just goes to show how much blind luck goes into this sport even at the stratospheric level. Marquez Uno is extremely lucky that he still even has a career after what happened to him in 2011. I wonder how good Aoyama would have been without that incident. Alien?

 

This is 100% true.

 

I'll politely disagree. There are eyes on Cam. While you have engineered some great deals in the paddock, you haven't been talking as much to the second tier teams. They are paying attention.

I'll say 80%.

-jim