MotoGP

[LowRyter]

1 hour ago, PJPR01 said:

Excellent plan John...hope you can make it!  Riding the Greenie?

Was just thru Lockhart a few weeks ago on the Tour of Texas coming back from Bandera of course, had to stop at Blacks!  Mandatory stop in Lockhart as one of the stops was the Grand Courthouse just a few blocks away.

 

 

Greenie still in the shop.  The good news is that SKF is sending a disassembly socket for 3rh time, hopefully the charm.  I'll be riding the Duc if I'm up to it.

Are you going? 

[gstallons]

MG Cycle has a socket (IDK if it is the correct socket or not) for sale on their site . $55ish . 

[LowRyter]

14 hours ago, gstallons said:

MG Cycle has a socket (IDK if it is the correct socket or not) for sale on their site . $55ish . 

There are two, perhaps three sockets needed to remove and install the retainers.  According to Don, it's been a comedy of errors with the post office.  They are having some issues with the postman himself.  

[p6x]

Gigi Dall'Igna had confirmed that all hands are on the deck to correct the front end issue Francesco Bagnaia is currently having. I thought it had to do with the tank?

Meanwhile, Bagnaia is hinting that he may go back to the GP24 millesime rather than getting the GP24.9 up to his taste.

You can read about it on Motosprint.it

https://www.motosprint.it/news/motomondiale/2025/03/20-8018798/motogp_dall_igna_bagnaia_non_puo_e_non_deve_faticare_cosi_per_un_3_posto_

 

[p6x]

Weather forecast predicts rain for Friday on COTA. However Saturday and Sunday should be dry.

Nothing will come in between MM93 and the opportunity to get to his fifth and sixth wins of the season.

The greatest uncertainty will be about the second and third; whom will it be?

[PJPR01]

Let's hope he doesn't crash out inadvertently!

[p6x]

I am taking guesses for who will be the first of the seconds?

I watched all the vlogs of MotoGP specialists which have people at COTA last night; there is not a single one predicting anything else but two more wins for MM93.

The focus is on who could arrive behind him; Alex Marquex is not a favorie on this one, even if he probably gets some special information from his brother. Some are predicting the return of Francesco Bagnaia, which is something to be expected, but will it happen here? Maverick Viñales won last year, Alex Rins in 2023, Enea Bastianini in 2022.

So we have two of the winners on Tech 3 KTMs, and the other on a Yamaha.

Unless of course Bezzecchi find its way with the Aprilia.

[p6x]

17 hours ago, PJPR01 said:

Let's hope he doesn't crash out inadvertently!

According to his latest interviews, he said that he is trying to ignore that everybody says he is going to win hand's down. Trying to find some unexpected challenges where they aren't. Good luck with that.

[guzzigary]

On 3/27/2025 at 1:00 PM, PJPR01 said:

Let's hope he doesn't crash out inadvertently!

[GuzziMoto]

I guess the Marc Marquez fanclub is pretty quiet, huh. First Marc screwed up the start of the race because he didn't understand the rules and created a dangerous situation on purpose (but he will probably get away with that), then he tried to dominate the race instead of playing it smart like he had in the last couple races and use his brother as a rabbit. It appeared he wanted everyone to know how much faster he was then them, although in fairness he didn't seem to be that much faster. And, as it turned out, he was riding beyond his limits just to go as fast as he was going. His crash looked to be pure rider error, cutting that corner way to much riding way over the inside curb because he was trying to carry too much speed through that set of corners. It was not a good race for Marc Marquez fans. And the race at the front wasn't overly exciting, beyond Marc crashing out. But there was a lot of good hard racing in the mid-pack.

Edited Tuesday at 03:27 PM by GuzziMoto

[PJPR01]

I am a fan of Marquez...but he screwed up big time.

To quote an old friend..."He snatched Defeat out of the Jaws of Victory".

Very disappointing to have a self inflicted disaster like this...but hats off to the rest of the racers.

It was still a fun day to ride up to COTA and enjoy the environment at the races, always a treat to go to the track and enjoy the festivities...visiting Ducati Island, seeing the Demo Bikes (no Guzzi tent for demos but every other brand was there) and lots of Guzzis in the parking lot..saw 2 V85's, 1 Griso, 1 California, my Norge, 1 V7 Special and I'm sure there were more.

Onwards to the next race...and hopefully more prudent racing and decision making as well!  I'm guessing the race stewards will be re-evaluating their rule book...again!

As much as I would have liked to visit with other V11 members, managing the family, their timing and activities made it impossible to meet anyone and still see the race on time.   Maybe next time!

Edited Tuesday at 04:01 PM by PJPR01

[Joe]

1 hour ago, GuzziMoto said:

I guess the Marc Marquez fanclub is pretty quiet, huh. First Marc screwed up the start of the race because he didn't understand the rules and created a dangerous situation on purpose (but he will probably get away with that), then he tried to dominate the race instead of playing it smart like he had in the last couple races and use his brother as a rabbit. It appeared he wanted everyone to know how much faster he was then them, although in fairness he didn't seem to be that much faster. And, as it turned out, he was riding beyond his limits just to go as fast as he was going. His crash looked to be pure rider error, cutting that corner way to much riding way over the inside curb because he was trying to carry too much speed through that set of corners. It was not a good race for Marc Marquez fans. And the race at the front wasn't overly exciting, beyond Marc crashing out. But there was a lot of good hard racing in the mid-pack.

There were plenty of Marc fans but when Pecco won the race the crowd went crazy, so no love lost I guess. I was at the track an unaware until later that the M power BMW safety car wrecked around the same time as the infamous sprint to the pits to change bikes move. All the dramatics and chaos were fun to watch and I think the lead safety director let it all happen because of the wrecked safety car, which had to be removed from the track with a rollback wrecker.  

Edited Tuesday at 04:52 PM by Joe

[p6x]

On 4/1/2025 at 10:27 AM, GuzziMoto said:

First Marc screwed up the start of the race because he didn't understand the rules

While he most likely expected a different outcome, e.g. starting from pit lane instead of from the grid, because several riders followed his lead to change bikes, he got the best possible deal: a start delay with no penalty and the right for everyone to restart on the grid with their dry bikes.

The MotoGP rules are clear; if 11 riders leave the grid, then this is a delayed restart; this rule was implemented to avoid having too many riders starting from pit lane, as it happened once, making it a safety hazard.

Obviously, they are going to revisit the rule given that a few riders that had chosen a dry bike had their advantage taken away.

However, Marquez was punished since he encroached on that slippery border and terminated his race while in a comfortable lead.

This is good for the show. Giving confidence to Bagnaia that Marquez is simply human, and nulled his advantage where he had an edge on everybody else.

Hopefully, we are going to see the real confrontation in Qatar, with the advantage evened out.

[p6x]

On 4/1/2025 at 11:51 AM, Joe said:

There were plenty of Marc fans but when Pecco won the race the crowd went crazy, so no love lost I guess. I was at the track an unaware until later that the M power BMW safety car wrecked around the same time as the infamous sprint to the pits to change bikes move. All the dramatics and chaos were fun to watch and I think the lead safety director let it all happen because of the wrecked safety car, which had to be removed from the track with a rollback wrecker.  

It happened because this situation (riders leaving the start grid) is accounted for in the MotoGP regulations. But we can expect the rule to be changed as the three riders who had gambled on slick tires did not get any benefit from being smarter than the rest.

[GuzziMoto]

1 hour ago, p6x said:

While he most likely expected a different outcome, e.g. starting from pit lane instead of from the grid, because several riders followed his lead to change bikes, he got the best possible deal: a start delay with no penalty and the right for everyone to restart on the grid with their dry bikes.

The MotoGP rules are clear; if 11 riders leave the grid, then this is a delayed restart; this rule was implemented to avoid having too many riders starting from pit lane, as it happened once, making it a safety hazard.

Obviously, they are going to revisit the rule given that a few riders that had chosen a dry bike had their advantage taken away.

However, Marquez was punished since he encroached on that slippery border and terminated his race while in a comfortable lead.

This is good for the show. Giving confidence to Bagnaia that Marquez is simply human, and nulled his advantage where he had an edge on everybody else.

Hopefully, we are going to see the real confrontation in Qatar, with the advantage evened out.

I believe Marc misunderstood the rules and thought he would have to start from the back of the grid. But he was banking on another mis-understanding of the rules, hoping ten other racers would follow him off the grid. He was confusing the situation with another situation, if more then ten racers pull down pit lane at the end of the warmup lap the rules say the race start will be postponed. That rule was added after most of the grid pulled into pitlane after the warmup lap at, I think, Argentina a couple years ago (but I could be wrong about the specific location). However, that rule was strictly about riders pulling down pitlane at the end of the warmup lap, to prevent a debacle like that from happening again.

The rules Marc did not know as well as he thought actually meant he would go out on the warmup lap and start the race from his original grid spot, but then have to do a drive down pitlane to add to his race time the equivalent of lost time as if he had swapped bikes to his other bike to get off the rains and onto slicks. This article covers the various possible scenarios pretty well; https://www.crash.net/motogp/feature/1066604/1/marc-marquezs-cota-motogp-grid-gamble-wrong-reasons-right-decision

I don't see what happened as a sign of Pecco getting on equal footing with Marc. What happened was Marc made a few mistakes, the new Marc we have seen went away for that race and the old Marc surfaced. He outsmarted himself trying to outsmart everyone else, and was lucky he didn't face the consequences he was supposed to. And he wanted to crush the field to show his dominance, but he failed. He had the win, the race was his to lose, and he lost it. I hope at the next round Pecco pulls himself up on equal terms with Marc and beats him straight up. Then it will really be on.