MOTO GP starts this weekend, anyone else watch this

[SethO]

I was watching it live and couldn't believe my eyes. Truly horrific to watch. On the day of Dan Weldon's funeral no less. Just tragic in both cases.

Sic always had this issue of pushing too hard on cold tires and I think this may have been the case here as well. He was battling with Bautista and all of a sudden you see him lose the front which started the low-side. But he should have just let the bike go; instead he tried to save it with his knees/elbow. The rear re-gained traction but the front was lost and just shot the bike back into the racing line. Bautista barely missed him; Colin and Valentino, who were battling side -by-side simply had nowhere to go. You could tell by both of their reactions that they knew. Colin just looked dazed. I have a feeling they are going to have nightmares about this one for a while. It's just a darned shame. I think that with some timie Sic was going to be a star for sure.


RIP Marco, you will be missed. Kind of makes the last race almost irrelevant now. But I will watch, albiet with a heavy heart.

my bro asked if I had see the race and I said no, he said I should watch it asap, I did and holy, there is risk in racing and he pasted doing what he loved,a warriors death. Too bad that it happened, you could see that nothing could be done by either rider behind him. RIP

 

[Raptor]

SETH! -

Good to her from ya, man. I hear what you are saying. Everybody that straps a lid on to go race knows what can happen, and fans like us know it too but you are never really prepared for something like that. Hell, my first race as a crew member a guy got whacked in the Featherlite feature race. Got turned into the wall coming out of turn 2 and somehow the car just got launched and got tremendous air and tumbled end-over-end down the back staright. A faulty weld in the frame gave way and crushed his skull, among other things. I was in the pits and watched all of this happen right in front of me.

We helped the EMTs cut him out of the car and they airlifted him out but... Shook me up pretty good. I almost quit right then but I stayed on for 2 seasons. So I can only imagine what Colin and Valentino are going through now. And Marco's family, of course. It just sucks man. But you gotta push through and keep going. And I am looking forward to next season; new bikes, new teams, riders and so on.

BTW, I heard there was a memorial service for him back in Italy and over 60,000 people came to pay tribute to him. I can't confirm the number but wow.

 

[Trooper]

Seth - no, nothing could be done. Colin Edwards saw him and just braced himself for impact...same for Valentino. Imagine the heartbreak for Valentino....best friends off the track, constantly hung around each other, and Valentino was basically taking Simoncelli under his wing. Rossi hitting Simoncelli caused his helmet to rip right off and the results were fatal.

As for 2012, I think we will continue to see a Honda domination. Stoner has been impressive on the bigger bike in testing, and there are still rumors that Aprillia and Kawasaki will be in the mix but there have been no official announcements.There should be more news at the conclusion of the season.

Pedrosa will definately struggle with the bigger powerful machines, and I am sure Simoncelli would have dominated. He was made for that type of machine.

I think Rossi will make a good run, as experience will have a huge factor in being able to handle the upgrades. I even think Hayden will turn some heads.

I am looking to see who will graduate from GP2 top the big leagues, as I am really looking forward to the day that Marquez or Ianonne make the jump.

As for the rest of the riders, it will be a toss up....including Lorenzo.

 

[Raptor]

Well, the last race of the season proved to be pretty entertaining after all. When Stoner pulled away early I thought "well that's that". Then Dovi (the jerk) took out Bautista and things just got more interesting from there. The last few laps were great. I was really hoping that Ben could get the win but Stoner pulled a rabbit out of his... umm, hat, and took the win! Here it was, 2 AM and I'm screamin at the TV like it was the Superbowl or something!

So now the long wait until the season starts again. A whole new era with the new bikes. It's gonna be good, boys! I guess the testing is going pretty well so far. From what I can gather the riders really like the 1000cc bikes so far. A lot of questions to be answered from the Suzuki camp though. Haven't seen a 1000 from them yet. Though the 800 made 4th best lap time at the Valencia test today. With Randy De Puniet aboard no less! Stay tuned, I'm sure there will be lots more to come.

 

[Trooper]

Well, the last race of the season proved to be pretty entertaining after all. When Stoner pulled away early I thought "well that's that". Then Dovi (the jerk) took out Bautista and things just got more interesting from there. The last few laps were great. I was really hoping that Ben could get the win but Stoner pulled a rabbit out of his... umm, hat, and took the win! Here it was, 2 AM and I'm screamin at the TV like it was the Superbowl or something!

So now the long wait until the season starts again. A whole new era with the new bikes. It's gonna be good, boys! I guess the testing is going pretty well so far. From what I can gather the riders really like the 1000cc bikes so far. A lot of questions to be answered from the Suzuki camp though. Haven't seen a 1000 from them yet. Though the 800 made 4th best lap time at the Valencia test today. With Randy De Puniet aboard no less! Stay tuned, I'm sure there will be lots more to come.

I am not sure what is happening with Suzuki either. Bautista has confirmed that he will be riding for Honda Gresini next year ( taking Simoncelli's spot), and the tesing so far with the Honda's ( at least the Repsol team) is going very well.

http://www.roadracingworld.com/news/article/?article=46612

Suzuki has not announced a replacement rider as of yet. De Puniet is doing some testing with Suzuki on an 800cc prototype ( :dontknow: ) but no official announcement has been made as of yet.

http://www.roadracingworld.com/news/article/?article=46597

I am thinking that the Honda's will dominate again in 2012, but that Rossi will be more competitive than this past season. His riding style is well suited for the bigger engine bikes.

Simoncelli would have loved racing the 1000cc bikes. I think he would have dominated.