Okay, Eli Tomac beats Ryan Dungey by A MINUTE AND A HALF in the second moto, and 21 seconds in the first, for an epic win at Hangtown. Ken Roczen is injured but still riding. Who ya got to win the season? Me first: Tomac, natch.
I hate spoilers, but you opened a thread very appropriately labeled. If you cared enough about the racing to be bothered by spoilers, you'd have known there was a race. This is on you.
I'd say Dungey is still the odds on favorite for the championship. Tomac has the speed but lacks consistency, maybe he'll step it up this year. Roczen is injured and lost his mojo. I'd like to see some of the young guys up there too like Anderson or Baggett. The 250's will be a great year too with AC back.
I care I just never watch them on the date they ran. Was expecting a thread about predictions for the season. No big deal, looks like there wasn't much of a race to watch anyway.
So, compare a margin of victory of 1:31 to any other race at a top professional level. In MotoGP, a MOV of 5 seconds is good, and Tomac was doing that EVERY LAP. Unbelievable. Lap charts comparing him to Dungey are very illuminating. He had him covered every lap by that kind of gap. Looked a lot different than Supercross, where they were more or less even in race lap times, with Dungey winning on his metronome like consistency. This race at Hangtown looked like that race in the 60's, at the Citadel in Belgium, where Joel Robert had such a huge MOV going he pulled over and drank a beer. Before taking the checker. This was a rare feat. Okay, so Tomac is the real deal, and he was inconsistent in the Supercross season. But he was dead consistent on 250's outdoors when he won the championship. My guess is if he can do this again at Glen Helen, he'll get on a roll. There's always the possibility he'll hurt himself, and if so, then Dungey wins in a walk. Definitely need new blood at the top of the 450's. Where's Bowers? Getting surgery for 2 herniated discs. Out for the season. 250 field is already depleted. Could Stewart or Villopoto have won by 1:31? Well, Villopoto is hurt, and Stewart is sitting on the couch, but neither ever did anything like this. Maybe they could have, but Eli did it and they didn't. For the guy who didn't know the season started, here's a spoiler alert, it started, they are racing. Real outdoor motocross.
I'm trying to catch the replay schedule, somehow my DVR wiffed on this big time. Are they streaming the races or uploading to youtube?
That's a bit misleading. A MotoGP grid is way tighter than a MX grid. Back markers on a MX track are 30 seconds off the pace per lap. In MotoGP it's 3 seconds. I think this is mainly due to the fact it's on dirt so the consistency is just not there. I know I looked at lap charts from a AMA MX race last year and the lap times were all over the place, even from the top 5.
True, the lap times from MX to road racing seem to vary a lot more partly because of the track changing conditions and guys riding different lines that they're comfortable with (running along the outside of the berm to hold speed and it may be smoother vs running to the inside rut there to point adn shoot out in as short a space as possible. You get different corner entry points in road racing, but the apex of the corner seems to be consistant, maybe varrying only a foot for different riders) As mentioned in the other thread I believe, Ricky C lapped the entire field in an outdoor (i believe during his perfect season). Thats gotta suck in 2nd or 3rd place, having the leader come around you thinking, "did he fall, or did he just put me a lap down?" Tomac was strong after he got his race shape back from his shoulder injury last year in the 450 outdoor. I picked him for the SX title, I'll take him again for the MX title. Especiall with Roczen and Canard hurt. Dungy will be up there though, remember he started really pushing KR for the championship the 2nd half of the season last year.
You are right, I recall Carmichael did something like this. And Joel Robert LOL I think the bigger differences in lap times front to back in the field in motocross or Supercross is simply down to differences in talent, and late in a race, fitness. The track changes during the race the same for everyone.
Not just talent and fitness, though. Guys with a serious chance at the title in any FIM world championship are all going to be very close in talent and fitness. The track may change the same for everyone but the overall precision is not nearly as high on dirt as it is on pavement - it simply can't be. Less precision = less consistent laptimes, both for an individual rider and across the field.
Certainly dirt is less precise than asphalt, but I also think you might be surprised how consistent the best riders are capable of being, in spite of that--due to their high levels of skill and fitness. You might be interested in the lap charts here, for the second moto at Hangtown, showing a lap-to lap deviation of maybe 1.5 secs, with a general and consistent slowing trend across the front of the field as the track deteriorated and they tired: http://www.vitalmx.com/forums/Moto-Related,20/Tomacs-Dominance-on-Paper-Lap-Time-Graph,1286632 The most interesting thing to see in this is the consistent wide range between Tomac and Dungey, and between Tomac and the other front runners. He was killin' it. Watching the race, it was obvious Tomac continued to attack consistently until the end, the others, not so much. Fitness. Another interesting thing is, Dungey and Tomac were much closer in the first moto. And a third interesting thing is, Martin's lap times on his 250 in moto 2, matching or beating Dungey's times.
Huge bonus points for that reference! There never was a more naturally gifted MXGP racer (IMHO). Just killed everybody...
First time I saw Robert in a race was in the Fall of 1968, at the Inter-Am at De La Veaga Park in Santa Cruz. The guy was an animal. Won the race, as I recall. And as you say, he was definitely a natural. De Coster was his young teammate. Robert left him (and everyone else) in the dust.
So, Tomac is doing something special here so far this season, that any racer in any discipline can understand and appreciate. He's run the table so far, and his total MOV is 2:51, in 4 races. No doubt he won't run the table, the season is long and the field is stacked, but pretty impressive, nonetheless.
