The Official 2021 Silly Season Thread

Looks like Jonas Folger will be in WSBK for 2021.
https://www.crash.net/wsbk/news/949...onas-folger-lands-fulltime-worldsbk-deal-2021

 

I don't know about his welcome to the team, but this recent Tweet made me giggle in this context.

 

Hopkins doesn't look good in this either. Seems like he missed out on making more $$ and now blaming his rider.

 

Indy is under new ownership and they want the track to be used a lot. I hope it gets on the schedule for WSBK at least since MotoGP seems unlikely.

 

Yea, I'm kind of surprised we never even heard of attempts to get one, if not both, of those 2 there. I agree it seems Penske (that's who bought it right?) seems hungry to fill all the weekends. I thought I remembered that most of the GP grid even liked the track didn't they? Maybe that was just the American riders.

 

I seem to recall the complaint was about the changes in the surface and when they first get there the track is devoid of any type of rubber since the infield isn’t used except for MotoGP so its really slick when they first arrive. I know in the latter years the owners addressed the surface situation.

 

Now they can complain that the infield has too much NASCAR rubber all over the place.

 

https://www.cyclenews.com/2020/11/article/joe-roberts-on-that-aprilia-motogp-chance/

 

I didn’t know he’d renewed with Italtrans before the Aprilia offer. Aprilia’a an opportunity but not so good that it’s worth burning your reputation for. He’s a smart cookie though. He praised the Aprilia’s bike and the team and left the door open.

The worst thing Aprilia has done is to fuck riders over and create a reputation of quickly discarding people. They’d probably have a much bigger name rider there already if they hadn’t done that. At least Ducati was smart enough to promote Petrucci and Iannone to show that the Ducati program works. They might not treat riders well once they’re on the outs but they haven’t dramatically broken contracts midstream.

 

Not renewed. New Team. It was discussed. You probably just forgot.