MotoGP | 2024 | Race 3 | USA | COTA | April 12-15

A brand new Honda MotoGP bike is a clapped-out POS.

 

I don’t know, Honder and HRC seem angry and an angry Honder is a dangerous Honder.

If I was a 24 year old with the talent and balls to race a motogp bike and potentially win on it I’d have my manager calling them daily.

 

Honda unfortunately still believes they are better than everyone else just because they are Honda. Ducati is similar, but Ducati is winning, so there's that..

 

I thought I saw a quote where one of the Honda riders, I think it was Mir, said " there's no improvement from last year and something needs to change " or something to that effect.

 

Yep, my boy Mir is fading away. Sad to see.

 

He really is fun to watch, isn't he? However, I wonder if it's more a case of everyone else in the paddock is just paralyzed by the lack of feeling from the front tire, and he's just not been bitten by it enough yet.

-T

 

What were the attendance numbers? Viewer numbers?

 

In terms of swapping bikes
""Ortola got up from the crash before Nepa, and ran to get on what he thought was his bike. The Spaniard had spent two seasons alongside Nepa in the MTA team, which is running the same black, white, and pink livery this year as in the past two, and clearly Ortola, who this year is on the MT Helmets MSi squad, forgot he had switched teams over the winter. Only an intervention from a probably confused and angry Nepa prevented Ortola from riding off on the #82 KTM, rather than his own #48 machine.""


-David Munoz also saved the weekend by almost getting punted off the track, to finishing 5th I believe
-Acosta braking is a bit like Dovi was, very late and hard on the brakes

Great weekend of racing.

 

Wonder what his mom has been up to? Pecco's sister is great and all, but Mir's mom... chef's kiss.

 

It amazed me when Pedro was shadowing Bagnaia and he’d put his front wheel next to Bagnaia’s belly pan mid turn every turn.

 

I keep reading this but even Helen Keller can see they have work to do. No way they don't recognize it.

 

Yeah, instead of 2 Japanese brands at the top, it's 3.5 Euro brands. I don't see how this is a bad thing

 

https://www.crash.net/motogp/news/1...=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1713163384

 

Can't help but chuckle at that article. "Had a problem with the front brake so I decided to push harder." He's got more balls than brains.

Martin wasn't much better though. He used half the field as a berm in turn 1 trying to get near the front.

 

Every time that stupid asshole Marc Marquez bins it I cheer loudly and dance around the room pumping my fists in the air for 5 minutes. I'm happy for 2-3 days.

 

What is "because you are a classless, immature ass?"

 

The Honda riders have an agreement: Honda won't listen to us. The only way to get something done is for all of us to crash out. From week to week, we will decide who goes first, second and third.

Cheers,

Dave

 

I don't think even that would make HRC fix the bike. They need the old boss back. The who shoots monkeys to relax. What was his name?

 

This was my 6th year of corner marshaling, I did the first two years on turn 8, ran turn 11 for 3 years, this year I was on 18. There was one serious incident on Friday with a moto 3 rider in 4, he was out, he got stretchered off, and was under evaluation to return.

When Martin went down in qualifying it was right in front of the station I was at, I was watching him when it happened. It looked just a bit to much front brake, he was pushing hard into 19 trying to force by one of the pack he was riding with, think I saw a tiny puff of white smoke and he was down BAM... . once his bike stopped in the gravel it waved the white flag with a huge puff of white smoke, the marshals were calling for the fire bottle but it did not ignite (as I am sure you saw) He was up quick enough and gone behind the wall that the marshals where confused looking for him, he was running behind the 19 wall headed for the pits before they could see through the dust and smoke from the bike.

(For anyone that would like to work MotoGP COTA as a marshal, flagger, light panel or medical reach out to me, it is NOT paid)

Pedro looked awesome and confident, had no issue sliding under people going into 19 and was just rock solid. Had a birds eye view of the chaos in turn 1, could not see who was wide but it was certainly clear when Maverick came around way back that he was one of those that got pushed out. Peco seemed very measured without confidence, almost biding his time (its a LONG season)

Vinales was patient and made a steady measured march beck to the front, his reaction to getting bumped back was smart and measured, it seemed to come from confidence. he just picked his way back to the front, and managed a decent lead to the checkers....

Rumor has it Honda has inked a major bodywork sponsorship deal with a new vendor to motoGP, and wait for it................................................................
Rubbermaid ....

I honestly feel bad for every Honda Rider.... So far Luca seems to understand, he carries the fastest pace he can while keeping the rubber side down as he collects his paycheck.

Moto 2 was AWESOME, so happy for Joe... would love for him to stay consistent, he looked good and rode great... he was mid back in practice but showed up for qualifying and then again in the race. When he lost 2nd late in the race he did not settle, he came right back. I was glad to see he had good lead when he appeared in 18 on the last lap and brought it home...

Did they show the Baggers? they were awesome... they are on stilts to be able to have any ground clearance, they turned identical lap times to Moto 3. DAMN those guys have to wrestle those 650lb (min weight) bikes. I was on Turn 1 at Daytona last year, the top qualifying time was 179 they were flying... at COTA it was right at 165.

 

Great weekend of racing.[/QUOTE]
Nepa was staying at the hotel I was at, I talked to him and

I was staying at the same hotel as Nepa, he and the two Moto 2 riders from the team were playing (or trying to play) pool in the restaurant / bar. Talked to them, I did not realize they are developing another Moto 2 frame, I was under the impression there were only 2 frames in the class.