Petrucci and Moto America

[GuzziMoto]

44 minutes ago, LowRyter said:

Since Petrucci enjoys other forms of bike racing, like Dakar, perhaps he'd really like a go in the dirt during his time in the US and give Springfield or Peoria a shot?

That would be fun. I would pay to see that.

[p6x]

Danilo Petrucci lives in Pennsylvania. He still commutes to Italy, but he has a base in the USA.

Fun interview to watch.

 

[Lucky Phil]

On 6/16/2022 at 11:17 PM, GuzziMoto said:

The races at MotoAmerica were fun to watch. But the results were mixed up in part due to the weather, with some rising to the top in the mixed conditions and others falling back in the same mixed conditions.

Either way, good racing. I will continue to watch the season unfold. Curious to see if Petrucci can pull of the championship. He is not dominating as the first races at COTA suggested. But that was expected. He knew COTA well, and now he is racing at tracks ne has never seen. But I do like Petrucci, and am glad to see him doing well and having fun. Word is if he wins the MotoAmerica superbike title Ducati will give him a world superbike ride. And that may happen. But I feel like Petrucci won't enjoy world superbike as much as he is enjoying MotoAmerica. He seems to really be enjoying the low key nature of MotoAmerica along with the competition.

I watch racing from every place in the world. Irish, British, WSB, MotoGP, Aussie Superbike and Moto America. The thing that stands out to me considering the amount of money sloshing around in the US is how "amateur hour" US racing seems to be. It's like club racing really. It's the same here in Australia but we have the excuse that there's not much money about. The US tracks have almost always the worst looking track surfaces I've ever seen. White bitumen and usually bumpy with patchwork everywhere, they look like they haven't been resurfaced in a hundred years. Then we have COTA and the complete mess they made of the original track and in previous years the total farce of MotoGP bikes riding through a cloud of dust from "track grinding" to remove the bumps just before the event. Couldn't even be bothered to vacuum up all the garbage after the track grinding exercise so the first 2 days looked more like a desert race on the back straight. Not sure whats going on over there with regards to racing. Some beautiful track layouts but poorly surfaced and appointed it seems. As I said money abounds but where it being spent? 

Petrucci was right to be annoyed after his crash at VIR. He lay on the ground for 35 seconds or so then got to his feet and wandered about for god knows how long before assistance. After a big off a rider being unattended for any amount of time greater than 5 or 10 seconds is unacceptable. Just because the rider is on his feet and walking doesn't mean the incident is over and the situation is under control. A rider can get to his feet and be concussed and confused and wander onto the track and get hit by another competitor even on the cool down lap. I remember a superbike race in the US about 10 years ago where a rider crashed and ended up off track and then actually ran back onto the track and lay down on purpose to bring out the red flag! Probably the most crazy racing thing I've seen.

Ciao   

  

[Pressureangle]

3 hours ago, Lucky Phil said:

I watch racing from every place in the world. Irish, British, WSB, MotoGP, Aussie Superbike and Moto America. The thing that stands out to me considering the amount of money sloshing around in the US is how "amateur hour" US racing seems to be. It's like club racing really. It's the same here in Australia but we have the excuse that there's not much money about. The US tracks have almost always the worst looking track surfaces I've ever seen. White bitumen and usually bumpy with patchwork everywhere, they look like they haven't been resurfaced in a hundred years. Then we have COTA and the complete mess they made of the original track and in previous years the total farce of MotoGP bikes riding through a cloud of dust from "track grinding" to remove the bumps just before the event. Couldn't even be bothered to vacuum up all the garbage after the track grinding exercise so the first 2 days looked more like a desert race on the back straight. Not sure whats going on over there with regards to racing. Some beautiful track layouts but poorly surfaced and appointed it seems. As I said money abounds but where it being spent? 

Petrucci was right to be annoyed after his crash at VIR. He lay on the ground for 35 seconds or so then got to his feet and wandered about for god knows how long before assistance. After a big off a rider being unattended for any amount of time greater than 5 or 10 seconds is unacceptable. Just because the rider is on his feet and walking doesn't mean the incident is over and the situation is under control. A rider can get to his feet and be concussed and confused and wander onto the track and get hit by another competitor even on the cool down lap. I remember a superbike race in the US about 10 years ago where a rider crashed and ended up off track and then actually ran back onto the track and lay down on purpose to bring out the red flag! Probably the most crazy racing thing I've seen.

Ciao   

  

You're precisely correct, and it's been so always, since WWII. Americans fell out of love with motorcycles, and into love with money; a racetrack is a huge investment with little return, and difficult to populate not in the least part because of the cost of liability insurance, the U.S. being the captain of Litigation in the world. It sucks, it shows, and it isn't going to change any time soon.

[GuzziMoto]

4 hours ago, Lucky Phil said:

I watch racing from every place in the world. Irish, British, WSB, MotoGP, Aussie Superbike and Moto America. The thing that stands out to me considering the amount of money sloshing around in the US is how "amateur hour" US racing seems to be. It's like club racing really. It's the same here in Australia but we have the excuse that there's not much money about. The US tracks have almost always the worst looking track surfaces I've ever seen. White bitumen and usually bumpy with patchwork everywhere, they look like they haven't been resurfaced in a hundred years. Then we have COTA and the complete mess they made of the original track and in previous years the total farce of MotoGP bikes riding through a cloud of dust from "track grinding" to remove the bumps just before the event. Couldn't even be bothered to vacuum up all the garbage after the track grinding exercise so the first 2 days looked more like a desert race on the back straight. Not sure whats going on over there with regards to racing. Some beautiful track layouts but poorly surfaced and appointed it seems. As I said money abounds but where it being spent? 

Petrucci was right to be annoyed after his crash at VIR. He lay on the ground for 35 seconds or so then got to his feet and wandered about for god knows how long before assistance. After a big off a rider being unattended for any amount of time greater than 5 or 10 seconds is unacceptable. Just because the rider is on his feet and walking doesn't mean the incident is over and the situation is under control. A rider can get to his feet and be concussed and confused and wander onto the track and get hit by another competitor even on the cool down lap. I remember a superbike race in the US about 10 years ago where a rider crashed and ended up off track and then actually ran back onto the track and lay down on purpose to bring out the red flag! Probably the most crazy racing thing I've seen.

Ciao   

  

Motorcycle racing in the USA has very little money in it. And motorcycle racing here is not a primary consideration for most race tracks.  And most race tracks here don't have much money unless they are involved in NASCAR. And what money they do have is mostly spent with a slant towards car racing, because that is where what money there is is at.

Petrucci's version of his crash is less than accurate. There were and are issues with the corner working at that and other tracks. But Petrucci's version of what happened to him was not what happened to him. What actually happened to him was not unacceptable in my opinion. There was no reason to risk others given Petrucci's situation.

[LowRyter]

1 hour ago, GuzziMoto said:

Motorcycle racing in the USA has very little money in it. And motorcycle racing here is not a primary consideration for most race tracks.  And most race tracks here don't have much money unless they are involved in NASCAR. And what money they do have is mostly spent with a slant towards car racing, because that is where what money there is is at.

Petrucci's version of his crash is less than accurate. There were and are issues with the corner working at that and other tracks. But Petrucci's version of what happened to him was not what happened to him. What actually happened to him was not unacceptable in my opinion. There was no reason to risk others given Petrucci's situation.

No money for sure.  We had a local rider here that rode a couple of the last races for the Buell AMA Superbike team.  His coworkers at the Kaw store said he had to pay his own expenses for travel and lodging.  The guy showed promise winning some of the regional/national Jr titles before running some pro class races.  If you were watching  race coverage on TV a few years ago you would've heard his name even if you might not remember him now.   Last I know, he had a normal job and no longer racing.

[GuzziMoto]

1 minute ago, LowRyter said:

No money for sure.  We had a local rider here that rode a couple of the last races for Buell.  His coworkers at the Kaw store said he had to pay his own expenses for travel and lodging.  The guy showed promise winning some of the regional/national Jr titles before running some pro class races.  If you were watching  race coverage on TV a few years ago you would've heard his name even if you might not remember him now.   Last I know, he had a normal job and no longer racing.

Yeah, I was never able to quit my day job. And I was lucky that my friend was willing to spend a bunch of money to go racing, as I never would have been able to afford what we did.

One of our favorite sayings was "How do you make a small fortune racing motorcycles? Start with a large one".

[HRC_V4]

I went to the MotoA race at Road Atlanta this year, love the track, remember seeing Nicky Hayden in his early days of AMA racing.  But I have concerns about the track lasting many more years, several large neighborhoods being built within miles of the track, we are talking 1000+ homes, at least it looked that way, the city of Atlanta will swallow it soon, and I doubt another will get built in the area.  I think VIR is safe for a while, Barber also, but it will take Barber money to make a new track and keep it in business.

[Lucky Phil]

7 hours ago, GuzziMoto said:

Yeah, I was never able to quit my day job. And I was lucky that my friend was willing to spend a bunch of money to go racing, as I never would have been able to afford what we did.

One of our favorite sayings was "How do you make a small fortune racing motorcycles? Start with a large one".

I understand the concept that there's no money for motorcycle racing in the US it's even worse here but as far as the tracks go it's the car racing money that keeps them in business as well as corporate track days, driver training, car and bike track days etc. You would think with the amount of money sloshing around in the car world over there some of it would find it's way to upgrading and maintaining the tracks.

I watched every bit of footage available on the Petrucci incident and ignored Danilo's time on the ground comments. No way should a rider be wandering around after a big get off like he had unassisted for that sort of time frame. I also take an interest in the marshalling around the world in all the racing I watch. With all the money involved in MotoGP these days they still rely on local Volunteers for marshalling which seems incongruous to me. Most is acceptable but you still see marshalling that's totally amateur even at that level. MotoGP uses it's own PR and television production crews these days and I think some money would be better spent on it's own professional marshal group myself. Local racing is another thing I agree, no money's available so it's volunteers. 

[Lucky Phil]

3 minutes ago, HRC_V4 said:

I went to the MotoA race at Road Atlanta this year, love the track, remember seeing Nicky Hayden in his early days of AMA racing.  But I have concerns about the track lasting many more years, several large neighborhoods being built within miles of the track, we are talking 1000+ homes, at least it looked that way, the city of Atlanta will swallow it soon, and I doubt another will get built in the area.  I think VIR is safe for a while, Barber also, but it will take Barber money to make a new track and keep it in business.

This issue has closed quite a few tracks over here. Tracks built and run for 40 years miles from any housing then the developers move in build housing and the people that buy them in full knowledge the track's there then get together to get it closed down due to noise issues. As the old song go's, "Money ruins everything"

Phil