Ain't gonna lie, I'm with the old farts who started assigning asterisks when the race went down to middleweights, and double asterisks when it fell out of the championship. It's still a huge accomplishment and you can only beat whoever shows up, but when the top superbike racers are watching on tv, the magic is gone for me.
What is the prize for the winner? If you win, does it at least pay for the costs of racing? I was wondering why Graves or some other big teams arent fielding a bike or two.
You darn tooting!!!! From cycle news about the '95 200..."Up front Russell cruised home to victory a half-lap in front of Fogarty." Those of you who may not remember... Carl Fogarty finished 2nd. Good chance had Scott not fell, he'd have lapped Carl...yes lapped the entire field. http://www.cyclenews.com/2016/11/article/archives-scott-russells-leap-victory/
And this details what he did the year before...http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1994-03-14/sports/9403140238_1_corser-scott-russell-red-flag
I tend to think the same thing as the purists only because the 200 I've always known was the Superbike one contested by all the big named in the business, but it is what it is. The Isle of Man used to be a GP race, now it's its own unique oddity. I guess that's kind of what the 200 is like now. The TT is never going to end up back on the MotoGP calendar and I kind of doubt that Daytona will ever end up back on the MotoAmerica (or whatever subsequent org) either..
Congrats to Rick Matheny and company on their win. For anyone else who thinks this is some easy race to win, or even finish well in, we'll see you in 2019.