Motoamerica at V.I.R.

Man, I miss Elias on the grid. Watching him and the factory Yamahas battle it out when I first got into MA in like 2018 was awesome.

 

Have to say I went from a fan of seeing Danilo here, to not so much. Not because he’s complained, but the way he’s gone about it. Not cool IMO.

 

MotoAmerica: ‘We needed to get to Danilo Petrucci more quickly

"‘Unfortunately, the crash itself occurred off camera. Race Direction witnessed the end of the crash and immediately acted. As appropriate, a yellow caution flag was deployed.

‘By this time, eighth-place finisher Ashton Yates had crossed the finish line, 27 seconds behind Petrucci. Roughly 17 seconds later, race direction could see that Petrucci was on his feet and appeared to be not seriously injured."

Although Petrucci’s crash occurred in a fast section of the racetrack, it’s also an area with the most run-off of any track at which MotoAmerica rounds are held. A sliding Petrucci also struck a single lightweight sponsor sign that consequently gave way as it is designed to do.

‘Petrucci was up and continued walking and stood trackside until he deemed it was safe to walk across the track. He was then met by MotoAmerica staff and escorted in a vehicle to the trackside Medical Center, which was some 200 yards from the site of the incident.

‘At that point, roughly three minutes had passed, and Petrucci was treated for his injuries.

https://www.crash.net/motogp/news/1003473/1/motoamerica-we-needed-get-danilo-more-quickly

 

Hot takes on the weekend (more accurately, opinions of a nobody):

warhorse camp seems to be full of whiny bitches. At the least the ones riding the bikes. However, I was able to identify with herrins sunday podium remarks. I recall the season he won and remember there being multiple times I thought Hayes was on the receiving end of some bad luck or a bs penalty.

kinda bummed about jr. Cup. First for Kayla. Man that girls gotta get a win before too long. Love her racecraft and she is an animal on the brakes. Also bummed about Max’s dq. Not because I know him or care one way or the other, just because it inevitably will add fuel to a certain forum members fire. His posts have become tiresome lately. Otherwise the class is a giggle to watch.

really hoping this weekend stifles the “next gen rules are bs” comments though that may be optimistic. We saw an r6 be obviously plenty competitive against the other bikes. I do believe there is an advantage in the 750 simply in terms of rideability but that’s the nature of the beast. All bikes have their strengths. And I love the idea that it may pave the way for more manufacturer involvement and provide a method for teams on smaller budgets to maintain more competitive equipment.

ty Scott is the real deal. Early days to say whether he’s the next we see on the world stage but I’d bet at minimum he ends up a MA sbk champ.

stock 1k and twins are killer racing. The btr race also looked a bit closer this year.

What do we have to do to get Scholtz that last .1%? So often he seems so close but just doesn’t quite have enough. Love the program and really hoping we’ll see him beat Gagne straight up at least a couple times this year. Nothing against Gagne but can’t help but look at westby as the underdog and that makes it fun. Especially since that whole crew seems so likable.

Last bitch: can MA start like a lapper school or something to teach people who are too damn slow not to get lapped to at least get out of the way effectively? And start actually adhering to the cutoff rule in all classes? That’s really been my only gripe with MA and has been for a few years. Very frustrating to watch selfish slow assholes fuck up a killer race for the leaders and seems to happen in some class almost every weekend. This weekend it appeared to impact the leaders on Sunday in the closing laps but ty Scott seemed to get the worst of it. And while I’m guessing he wasn’t going to quite have enough to really challenge the other 2, we’ll never really know because someone wanted to stick to their race line running 6 seconds off pace. Would love to start seeing penalties for failures to yield the race line.

 

That's the issue when most of those racers come from club racing that doesn't have blue flags. Simple fix would be to not have blue flags the fast guys will get by easier.

 

Early development, talent and $$$. No one cares otherwise. Both Moto-GP and WSBK have become a European spec rider class. It has nothing to do with American fans opinions.

Our culture in itself , is boning our riders. America doesn’t care for motorcycle racing in general. Americans don’t support it directly. Nor do we support motorcycle racing $ wise. For as big as a market the US is, the US is forsaken because in reality, the general population simply doesn’t care.
The US doesn’t support the sport so it should not be a surprise when the sport doesn’t support US riders etc.

With this being said, Petrucci can suck a fat one.

BTW, where did all the Petrucci nut huggers go?

 

When was the last time Suzuki took a podium in Superbike.

 

I refer to those people as retarded. No offense towards the actual retards of course.

 

As far as the lappers go, going over the top of ridge, there really isn’t anywhere to get out of the way. Lappers are part of racing. Getting to them first can be an advantage, so it rewards those who get there first. I saw more riders do a good job of getting out of the way than not when the blue flags flew. How much a rider is able to get out of the way usually depends where on the track the leaders catch them. In the twins cup race 1 it was just bad luck that the leaders caught a big pack of lappers going over the ridge.

 

Road Atlanta, Race 1. This year...

 

Last race weekend of 2021 they had a win. If you are talking about MA

 

At least at Road America it is more unlikely for them to encounter lappers, and if they do there are more passing spots.

 

Im curious exactly how much support is a US fan supposed to give a US rider? Should we just fund them directly... ala crowd sourcing?

 

Quoting both posts for easy reference. I think @G 97 's observations are correct. S/he doesn't ask for a quantifiable amount of support in the forms of time and money. Just that those are what it takes to grow the sport or, maybe, just keep the lights on. That's my take on it.

That said, I totally agree. As a former member of multiple MC clubs, there's a lot of apathy towards MC racing in the MC street-riding community. Motorcycles are seen as recreational vehicles, not as a primary form of transportation, they are "dangerous" to ride. We can't just blame the MC street-riding community though. Corporations don't see a profit motive for MC racing so that's a blow right there in terms of general market reach (advertising and promotion).

 

Support US riders by going to an event near you. See ya at Pitt Race later this summer!

 

Or subscribe to Live+. Seriously, it's an easy way to support "American" racing.

 

I really enjoy the app and I'll make Road America again this year. Can't wait, and hope Petrucci stays and fights.

 

Have you ever ridden at VIR? 'splain me exactly how you would get out of the way there. There's nowhere to look behind you except maybe coming up to the bridge. We're told repeatedly in rider's meetings to hold your line under the blue flag and try not to interfere with the outcome of the race. If you know someone is there, it's easy to go to the brakes a tick early (extra early by the passing rider's pace) and leave the inside open in a couple of spots, but at VIR there's maybe 3 places you can do that.

Exactly when have MA not adhered to the qualifying cutoff?