MotoGP - Sport of warriors (not the Yoga kind)

[raptor17GT]

bit of a random weekend and terrible for Lenovo Ducati. Never want to see riders being injured and Marc hurting that shoulder / arm again is very sad indeed. Gravel traps, never work for bikes / riders but hey what do i know.

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[raptor17GT]

just watched the last weekend of the Aussie V8's and their first season of #Finals Showdown. I think this is the same as Nascar in that top 10 by a certain point of the season then have their points reset / evened and then they race each other for the next few weekends and winner of that lot takes all. I'd say great for entertainment keeping it alive til the end of the season but terrible for drivers as one bad race can ruin a seasons domination, which is exactly what happened. Shootouts imho do not reward season long racing, more like a glorified test run / qualifying until cut off point then play for keeps.

Got me thinking about MotoGP, i cannot remember a season where last years champion and the current seasons champion were not present and racing. Wayne Rainey was the last previous champion i remember not racing :( So, if Motogp had same system Marc would not have been champion by virture of not racing despite knocking it as far out the park as one could possibly do.

It was nice to see the next generation of motogp stars get their chance in the limelight and win races but not good to see that via someone else's injury forced withdrawal. Its going to be a long winter.

 

[fiveoboy01]

Been quite a few years since I was on a bike.

I wasn't MotoGP fast, but had fun. Scared myself on occasion too.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

Been quite a few years since I was on a bike.

I wasn't MotoGP fast, but had fun. Scared myself on occasion too.

Props for tracking it. And you weren't wrapped in air bags like the MotoGP racers.

I had seen enough high sides to convince me to never push cornering limits.

But had years of fun on the road, usually with a current king of speed.

My bikes: https://www.mustang6g.com/forums/threads/anyone-got-a-bike.71710/post-1632962

Got started housesitting and finding a Sears 106cc basket case buried in the garage corner. Put it together, rode it around the block once and headed straight to the Kawasaki dealer to buy windowmaker #1, the quickest street legal bike sold in the USA. It was a slow weekday and the shop actually closed early to follow me and see me die.

Two of the 1st 3 were considered windowmakers even then, but I wasn't married so... But the only one I ever laid down was the BMW I owned between them.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

 

[Ahung12]

Wow what a season so far. Aprilia absolutely killing it with riders and reliability! I'm rooting so hard for Mir (Honda Fanboy) and Ogura (because he's such a class act) to get some podiums this year but it finally feels like there's a real fight for championship.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

Barcelona had too much action. And two red flags. Pedro Acosta' was leading when his engine failed (electrical problem) and Alex Marquez just inches behind ran into him at ~280 KPH. Alex's bike split apart on impact with barriers behind the fork and that half including fork and front wheel slammed into Fabio Di Giannantonio.

Acosta and Di Giannantonio despite serious injuries switched to backup bikes for the restart in 1st and 2nd place. Di Giannantonio went on to win after a 2nd red flag caused by a another crash.

Was sort of interesting to see Joan Mir leading for a while with a good chance of a win on merit. Interesting because he is a former MotoGP champion with just ONE career win ever and even it was not earned on merit. He just happened to be there in a year when all the better riders kept crashing.

Miraculously, Marquez plans to be back for the next race after surgery from this crash.

I don't know how any of these guys can be considered sane.

 

[raptor17GT]

tbf Mir won that single race because of his constant pressure on the leader of the race (his team mate Rins) who then missed a gear on downshift. Mir took advantage and won his only race. And er in order to finish first one must first finish, shame he hasn't applied that to his Honda career. In any case, he won his championship on merit on the same tracks same races as everyone else who didn't win that year, MIr just did it by consistency. Dovi and Rossi missed a huge chance to get their championships in 2020 when everyone else bar Mir was podium or P nowhere

Zarco was a lucky boy and he's said since that after he got his foot hurt in the crash above he shouldnt have gone out for the restart.

Defo agree, they aint sane any of them.

 

[Ahung12]

And Alex walks away with what, a fractured collarbone and minor damage to a vertebrae? From that carnage?

Airbags, folks. Airbags. Don't ride without them.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

And Alex walks away with what, a fractured collarbone and minor damage to a vertebrae? From that carnage?

Airbags, folks. Airbags. Don't ride without them.

Yes. But if he hit what his bike did no air bag would have save him.

These riders are insane. There was a GP2 death at this track around a decade ago, when the rider got to a soft barrier a split second before his bike hit the same spot at high speed.

 

[Ahung12]

Yes. But if he hit what his bike did no air bag would have save him.

These riders are insane. There was a GP2 death at this track around a decade ago, when the rider got to a soft barrier a split second before his bike hit the same spot at high speed.

Nothing short of superhuman these boys. What % of the grid do you think is riding broken and bruised from offs at previous practice/qualifying/races? And competing at this level. Pretty wild.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

Nothing short of superhuman these boys. What % of the grid do you think is riding broken and bruised from offs at previous practice/qualifying/races? And competing at this level. Pretty wild.

That is the vast majority. All bruised, most with partially healed broken bones. Without researching each one individually, I would feel safe betting any that scored points have broken at least one bone per season and that the average number of crashes per rider is more than 1 per weekend. And it seems the more successful a rider is the more often they crash. The closer you get to YOUR limts, the faster you can be but also the more times you'll crash finding that limit.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

Just saw this video of Austria 2020. Another was posted before but this has numerous slow motion edits showing how close Rossi came to "catching" two hurtling bikes.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

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