WSBK 2017

CJhaughey

Well the season has kicked off with two rounds having run now, I only managed to see the second round live as I have Eir and Eurosport was only added in the last few days.
PI was a great race, with plenty of action and passing, Ducati's look good but Rea on the Kawasaki looked unbeatable and proved to be just that.

Buriram Chang Circuit in Thailand looked hot, plenty of engine failures in WSS and in WSBK.

PJ Jacobsons MV Augusta succumbed to the heat as did Jules Cluzels Honda.
The 40 ambient temps must have pushed them over the limit at race pace.

Noteworthy were two black flags handed out to Kyle Smith and Gino Rea for failing to Drop three places in the first instance and start from Pitlane in the latter.

The Eurosport commentators annoyed me a bit by making excuses for them not seeing the warnings and then black flags.
The Kyle Smith incident was particularly bad as he was dicing for the lead and it affected the ability of the second place rider to make a move on the eventual winner.
Its just not good enough at that level to be missing warnings and Black flags IMHO.
The racing was hard and Melandri, Sykes and Rea were all going at it plus Davies.

Eugene Laverty had a couple of bad races Bike DNF in the first and falling off in 6th place in the 2nd which was a poor result for the hard work that had been done to be in that position.
His Aprilia teammate Savadori was lucky to be OK after a big highside in the last corner threw him down the road which led to a red flag while they cleaned the track up.

Max Headroom

A bit meh imo....Smith didnt see the boards or flags because he didnt want to...Melandri let Sykes by(imo) in R1, he only dropped 3 points but it got him on pole for R2...sadly he didnt make the best of it or close the door on Sykes in the last corner........I'm finding Rae very boring now, he always seems to have something to whing about in the interviews...

Laverty was unfortunate..

Magown3

You're dead right CJhaughy, Whitham was all over Kyle Ryde. Then had the absolute gaul to say that he thought the ride of the race went to Kyle Smith. Imagine if it were a Thai rider that got himself disqualified for not abiding by the flags in Silverstone, and then started to overtake a british rider who was looking for a home win. Do you think he'd give that same Thai rider a "Ride of the day" ??

Really pissed me off

Del2005

Was thinking the same myself about the ride throughs. If the guys can't see the black flag because they are too focused on the racing they can't see the yellow or other warning flags. And as said they affected the result as the Thai rider had to defend instead of attacking for the lead.

I had the same thoughts at a race last year, or maybe 2 years ago, where someone got a lap record when the yellow flag was being waved for a fairly serious incident, there was no way they obeyed the flag. There should be a rule that lap records are only valid when no warning flags are out.

frostie500

It was an interesting one at the weekend in Supersport. For Smith he didn't get any warning on his pitboard to say that he was given a ride through and both Smith and Rea said that they didnt/couldnt see the penalty boards because of where they were placed. Bearing in mind that both are two of the most experienced riders on the grid it's probably not beyond the realms to give them the benefit of the doubt.
Gino's penalty was highly unfortunate and he was unlucky not to be told to start at the back of the grid or from pitlane. For Smith...it was a strange penalty. The notification shown on the timing screen said "Rider 111 under investigation" and then it was shown on TV that it was for an incident on Lap 1. Given that the clash with the Thai rider came on Lap 3 it's uncertain what exactly Smith did. With no contact with Gamarino it looks like a very harsh penalty and as a result Smith was highly unlikely to have expected a penalty and with no notification on his pit board he had no reason to think he wasn't in contention for the win.

Max Headroom

Jammy:mad:

Max Headroom

Good days racing today..not great by any means..good 600 race and nice to see Davies finish ...

Great BSB racing too..xcellent 600 as usual..sad for the loss of Mick Whalley yesterday..

Max Headroom

Well done Jack Kennedy in the BSB.......a fourth was a great result but a third is even better....
Horrible crash with Ellison and Haslam, could have been a lot worse...

Wsbk is getting boring imo....:o

Max Headroom

Great first race yesterday...i said it before and i'll say it again...motogp boys should have two races too...

Infoanon

Max Headroom wrote: »

Great first race yesterday...i said it before and i'll say it again...motogp boys should have two races too...

A moto gp weekend schedule simply wouldn't allow for two races - totally unnecessary either way as moto gp has at a minimum Moto2/3 to support the event.

Max Headroom

Infoanon wrote: »

A moto gp weekend schedule simply wouldn't allow for two races - totally unnecessary either way as moto gp has at a minimum Moto2/3 to support the event.

Why not....they usually practice friday, get them to race saturday and sunday ,like the real men...:p

Max Headroom

Eugene...give it up before you get hurt....;)

micknail

Loving the circuit. Davies chucking it into the corkscrew each time was interesting!

Max Headroom

Yawnfest at the moment....it's making motogp look brilliant..:(

micknail

Horrible start by Melandri,
Sykes was on a rocket!
But Rea's rocket is faster!

CJhaughey

I don't rate Laguna Seca as a good track for racing, its very one line and not great for passing. There are only really a few places that you can make a pass that and if it wasn't for the interest of the corkscrew it would be very similar to Brands Hatch Indy circuit.
Very few of the US tracks are in any way interesting Indy is boring, Laguna only one line, CotA too big and not great corners.
The Ducati and the Kawasaki are just too dominant compared to the other makes which could be argued as the others just not being good enough or not bothered.
Honda have put all their factory effort into MotoGP and forgotten about WSBK, Yamaha picked the wrong team to run the R1, Suzuki might come good if the new machine can get sorted for the next season.
Aprilia are streched too thin for a small factory between MotoGP and WSBK.
It doesn't make for great viewing thats for sure.

Max Headroom

Another great weekend for Jack Kennedy..well done mate...some guy on a bicycle finishes 11th in Denmark. .but Jack doesn't get a mention on RTE news...nice...

Mark Fincham...R.I.P

CJhaughey

Johnny Rea getting an MBE for motorcycling.
Good on him imo. The Queen was a bike rider herself so maybe she still likes the two wheeled sports?
Any positive news is always good imo