Ducati Monster Forum

C'mon! Here it is Thursday morning, we've got a new race on a new track with lots of Yam/Honda backstory from the private tests, Ducati riders talking about taping course map to the tank, Rossi AWOL for hours trying to stitch together air travel to Austin, the Tech 3 pit BURNS TO THE GROUND and the Yamaha Factory pit suffers EPIC FLOODING in the attempt to put out the conflagration* - and it's radio silence around here.

Where's the unfounded speculation? Lorenzo Bashing & Vale worship? Ducati Corsa despair?

OK, let me get this started: Dovi on his first look (from a rental car) at the new track: http://www.superbikeplanet.com/2013/Apr/130418dovi.htm (http://www.superbikeplanet.com/2013/Apr/130418dovi.htm)

Dovi explains his reaction when seeing the track for the first time. "We go around in a car and we stop and get out and we say ...'fuuuuk, which way the track go? Which line we use?'.

 [laugh]

*Well, not really.

Probably because the conversation has largely moved to social media, and message boards are no longer all that relevant? ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

FP1

1MARQUEZ M.Repsol Honda Team2:08.756
 2LORENZO J.Yamaha Factory Racing+0.253
 3PEDROSA D.Repsol Honda Team+1.600
 4DOVIZIOSO A.Ducati Team+1.909
 5HAYDEN N.Ducati Team+2.045
 6ROSSI V.Yamaha Factory Racing+2.072
 7BAUTISTA A.GO&FUN Honda Gresini+2.154
 8CRUTCHLOW C.Monster Yamaha Tech 3+2.476
 9BRADL S.LCR Honda MotoGP+3.173
 10SPIES B.Ignite Pramac Racing+4.057
 11HERNANDEZ Y.Paul Bird Motorsport+4.302
 12CORTI C.NGM Mobile Forward Racing+4.929
 13EDWARDS C.NGM Mobile Forward Racing+4.938

The two Texas boys will be kind of close to each other.    ;D

They're still some 5 seconds off the pace of the private test. Be interesting to see which riders learn the track fastest. So far Marquez is dirty fast and Lorenzo is real steady.

The FP1 results sheet at Soup notes "All riders are complaining of a lack of grip." I'd imagine that will improve as more rubber gets laid down over the next practice/qualifying sessions. Wonder what changed in the month since private testing - wind & dust?

wind, sun, recent rain.
<edit> It's quite a bit colder than it was in testing, too.

Marques flogging it.

Lorenzo and Pedrosa more effected by lack of grip.
They both know it's FP1, no point in decking it, they're thinking championship.
And I reckon they're only concerned with Marquez and each other on Sunday.

Ducatis doing well, normal service in low grip conditions.

or "All riders are complaining of a lack of grip." is just a general comment about motorcycle racers.   :)

fp2 http://www.superbikeplanet.com/2013/Apr/130419fp2.htm (http://www.superbikeplanet.com/2013/Apr/130419fp2.htm)

evidently they found some grip.  and 3 seconds.

Pos.   Rider   Team   Bike   Time
1   Marc Marquez   Repsol Honda Team   Honda   2:05.031
2   Dani Pedrosa   Repsol Honda Team   Honda   2:05.585
3   Stefan Bradl   LCR Honda   Honda   2:06.173
4   Jorge Lorenzo   Yamaha Factory Racing   Yamaha   2:06.637
5   Valentino Rossi   Yamaha Factory Racing   Yamaha   2:06.868
6   Cal Crutchlow   Monster Yamaha Tech 3   Yamaha   2:06.899
7   Andrea Dovizioso   Ducati Team   Ducati   2:07.236
8   Alvaro Bautista   Go&Fun Honda Gresini   Honda   2:07.256
9   Nicky Hayden   Ducati Team   Ducati   2:07.699
10   Ben Spies   Ignite Pramac Racing   Ducati   2:08.034
 

grip is found and down goes Ducati

...which is why they need to start racing on surfaces made of ball bearings. ;D

In the airport in NOLA. Be there in a few hours  :)

(http://sphotos-d.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/531936_608850989142964_763656255_n.jpg)

Nice place. ;D

Smith is so make the beast with two backsing overrated. He's on arguably the best satellite bike. Crazy Joe is right there on the shitty Duc.

Marquez bags pole by over 1/4 second, Lorenzo over a second behind.
His dive in FP3 doesn't seem to have slowed him down a bit.

Looking at all the FP times, it seems MM has got Pedrosa reliably handled by that 1/4 second.

Crutchlow's ahead of both satellite Hondas, and Rossi, so he's got to be chuffed.

Pos.    No.    Rider    Bike    Time    Diff. / Prev.
1    93    Marc MARQUEZ    Honda    2'03.021    
2    26    Dani PEDROSA    Honda    2'03.275    0.254 / 0.254
3    99    Jorge LORENZO    Yamaha    2'04.100    1.079 / 0.825
4    35    Cal CRUTCHLOW    Yamaha    2'04.267    1.246 / 0.167
5    6    Stefan BRADL    Honda    2'04.445    1.424 / 0.178
6    4    Andrea DOVIZIOSO    Ducati    2'04.873    1.852 / 0.428
7    19    Alvaro BAUTISTA    Honda    2'04.942    1.921 / 0.069
8    46    Valentino ROSSI    Yamaha    2'05.380    2.359 / 0.438
9    41    Aleix ESPARGARO    ART    2'05.389    2.368 / 0.009
10    69    Nicky HAYDEN    Ducati    2'05.568    2.547 / 0.179
11    38    Bradley SMITH    Yamaha    2'06.740    3.719 / 1.172
12    11    Ben SPIES    Ducati    2'07.044    4.023 / 0.304
13    29    Andrea IANNONE    Ducati    2'06.872    0.760 / 0.281
14    14    Randy DE PUNIET    ART    2'07.129    1.017 / 0.257
15    8    Hector BARBERA    FTR    2'07.717    1.605 / 0.588
16    68    Yonny HERNANDEZ    ART    2'07.738    1.626 / 0.021
17    70    Michael LAVERTY    PBM    2'08.259    2.147 / 0.521
18    5    Colin EDWARDS    FTR Kawasaki    2'08.475    2.363 / 0.216
19    71    Claudio CORTI    FTR Kawasaki    2'08.792    2.680 / 0.317
20    9    Danilo PETRUCCI    Ioda-Suter    2'08.825    2.713 / 0.033
21    7    Hiroshi AOYAMA    FTR    2'09.062    2.950 / 0.237
22    67    Bryan STARING    FTR Honda    2'10.098    3.986 / 1.036
23    52    Lukas PESEK    Ioda-Suter    2'10.507    4.395 / 0.409
24    79    Blake YOUNG    APR    2'10.606    4.494 / 0.099
25    17    Karel ABRAHAM    ART    2'23.317    17.205 / 12.711

 [popcorn]

The thing is... I'm can't think of a time when I heard of him being marked as amazing at all.  And he's just sort of proving that's the case.  I'm sure that more than a couple of people are having a facepalm moment right now.

My bet... after this year Tech3 takes the hit and breaks the contract and signs on Pol or Barbera to ride the bike instead.  Or Redding if they really want another english rider. 2 more years of mediocrity on one of the best bikes in the field isnt going to do the team any favors, especially if the duc factory bikes somehow get better in the next two and start to displace the sattelite bikes on the grid positioning. Right now is their highest chance to shine and get the screen time to lock in those marketing dollars.

He art again doing better than the ducs  [bang]

How good is espargaro, he's on fire

Enjoying watching the Moto2 boys back it into the corners late in the race.  [popcorn]

Holy shit! The last laps of both Moto3 AND Moto2 were effing awesome!

yawn

Definitely a bit of a snoozer.

Congrats to Marquez.

That kid is freakin' fast

Marquez
youngest ever GP race winner

tied for 1st in the championship with Lorenzo

wow. what a talent


1MARQUEZ M.Repsol Honda TeamLap 21
 2PEDROSA D.Repsol Honda Team+1.534
 3LORENZO J.Yamaha Factory Racing+3.381
 4CRUTCHLOW C.Monster Yamaha Tech 3+6.616
 5BRADL S.LCR Honda MotoGP+12.674
 6ROSSI V.Yamaha Factory Racing+16.615
 7DOVIZIOSO A.Ducati Team+22.374
 8BAUTISTA A.GO&FUN Honda Gresini+22.854
 9HAYDEN N.Ducati Team+33.773
 10IANNONE A.Energy T.I. Pramac Racing+42.112

Spies in 13th... beat by the ART

MM wow :)
Yamaha needs to give crutchlow a factory bike

That dude can ride.  [clap]

moto 2 eees more better.


can't wait for tuesdays moto tres

I was there - first MotoGP I've ever been to and had a blast.  Got the Ducati package - awesome to be able to drive an hour, pull into a Duc parking only lot and walk in and on up to the Ducati grandstand (turn 15). I was a little worried that compared to the buzz around F1 that MotoGP wouldn't draw much of a crowd, but attendance was great. Here's a pic snapped at the break after Moto2:

(http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa111/sejman/Ducati/102a714d-e43c-4bfb-8503-e8f74dadc704.jpg)

View from seat looking sort of towards the right:

(http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa111/sejman/Ducati/7afff8aa-f4c0-4f7b-a285-105dacfbff2c.jpg)

Small part of Ducati-only parking (Friday practice day - wayyyyy more on Sat/Sun)

(http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa111/sejman/Ducati/26edc8aa-ac61-4207-aa2f-f948ae05c0d9.jpg)

That's the shitz.  Ribs, elbows, whatever....... still the shitz.

i had a conversation with guy coulon at salt lick on saturday night, and he seemed to be satisfied with bradley's performance.

he looked to be in a lot of pain on the cool down lap.

i'm expecting his performance to improve once he's healthy enough to do some testing and have more laps on the bike.

sounds like he didn't expect much else given the weird chest pain thing. 

there was 1 great thing about the SPEED broadcast....no Ralph Shaheen !!!

Johnathan Green paired with Scott Russell made for a much better commentation pairing.

The only reason I didn't fall asleep is cuz I loved watching Marquez put the hurt on his teammate.   ;D  And just watching Marquez is fun -- elbow down, basically laying down on the asphalt, getting HARD on the gas at the apex and having the rear come around, and even entering the turns all out-of-sorts.  He does it less in GP than he did in Moto2, but as soon as he got by Pedrosa, his bike started goin' all over the place.  Me likey.   [thumbsup]

Am I the only getting really sick of this Yamaha/Honda circuit shit?  Seems like its even more pronounced now than it was previously, but that might just be me.

Wanna feel bad for Crutchlow?  Read this one --  http://www.motomatters.com/analysis/2013/04/22/2013_austin_motogp_sunday_round_up_of_re.html (http://www.motomatters.com/analysis/2013/04/22/2013_austin_motogp_sunday_round_up_of_re.html)

I read that earlier today and this particular part right here brought about a particular thought...

....Crutchlow's enjoyment was dampened by the fact that no one came to his press debrief after the race. A combination of an overly long press conference, and a timing clash with Valentino Rossi, whose debrief had been hastily rescheduled with complete disregard to the previously agreed schedule, drawn up so that as many journalists as possible got to speak to as many riders as possible. A group of journalists gathered to hear the man who came 6th, ten seconds behind Crutchlow, but no one came to see Crutchlow, who had just ridden one of the best races of his career. The media are a fickle mistress, more interested in fame than in actual achievement....

if he had some negative rant lambasting someone or other....he would have gotten more than his fair share of press time...believe that for sure!!!

First his pit garage burned down. Then nobody came to his press conference. I wonder if he still has to buy his own brakes?

I'm sure Crutchlow will serve up some tasty comments about the media.
Justifiably so, that's rude.

IMO, the MotoGP championship train has left the station, never to return.
Pedrosa and Rossi are not on that train.

Seems Rossi has inherited Ben's stable of lame horses.

you may be right on both counts.. but i think it's way too early to say. 

at least the latter point.  one more something-random-breaking and i'll agree =)

he's not, but looks like he ought to be in big trouble here..

(http://motogpmatters.smugmug.com/MotoGP/2013/MotoGP-2013-Round-2-Austin/i-prQhfcQ/0/L/_SJ31413-L.jpg)

Check out the scrapes on the leathers...

They call Spies Elbows...

Maybe they oughtta call Marquez Assholez ;D

Those scrapes are from his practice crash.

I'm not so sure the train has left yet though.  Pedro will snatch a few wins, Rossi will probably sneak at least one or two, and we'll see Crutch snag a podium if he learns not to crash in late race battles.  I think with the way these guys will take points off each other, that the championship is wide open.  Whoever breaks, crashes, goes past engine limit first will be a big part of how things shake up.

I figured that, but Repsol only brings one set of leathers for the rookie on trips outside Spain?

I *think* he didn't bother to change.  He still had time left in FP and just jumped back on the bike rather than sacrifice the time. 

You're probably right - I looked at the site and found out the MotoMatters image above is from Saturday, when he swapped ends, then got back on and kept going faster than everyone else. I originally thought it was taken during the race.

nah, that was fp3.  he had new stuff for the race.

Marquez is bound to make this season more interesting - already is.  Without him I probably wouldn't even bother tuning in. The guy is amazing, fearless, and will surely be involved in some controversial incidents on the track this season.
 [popcorn]

Marc needs a pack to ride with for it to be interesting.... He and Skipper McCheaterson running away from the chasing peloton does not make for the same show he put on in moto2.

what a great track COTA is.  If anyone plans on attending next year do general admission and walk around to take pictures.  The track is truly a spectators track.  Watching Marquez yesterday was incredible....fearless bastard.

...did you watch the first race?
 

The wife and I were there. Kind of a boring race, but a good time overall. I was hoping for a better battle between MM and Pedrobot, but Pedro almost highsided (or at least has a scary moment) exiting T18 the lap before MM passed him. Pretty cool to see as we were sitting right there. I think the slight delay caused by Pedro's rear stepping out forced MM to make his move on the next lap though as he really closed up on him. I also think it convinced Pedro that he was going as fast as he could. Crutchlow had a great race, as did JLo. Too bad there wasn't anyone around them.

BTW...T18 looks hairy. Super high speed, long, and all the bikes were wagging coming out of it. Very cool!  [thumbsup]

COTA dropped the ball on this race compared to F1. Parking sucked (despite me buying passes well in advance). Getting to the track was easy...followed by 45 minutes to get in the parking lot because there was only 1 way in. F'ing stupid. There were also far too few big screens around the track. They have the screens, as I saw them during F1...no idea why they weren't being used. Amost all of the track was GA...they NEEDED more screens.

...and Austin has great food. The Salt Lick rocks (ate there twice), and the 24 Diner has some seriously good chicken and waffles.  [bow_down] I just need to find a brewery there with good beer & food and I'm set!  [beer]

no doubt derby can help you out there ;)

marquez was just following him, waiting to see if pedro's tires would start to go away. as soon as they did, he made his move.


there are two entrances to the track; elroy road on the north side and fm812 on the south. we had quick entry and egress (from the south) all three days.



there's good food and beer all over. next time you're in town, try banger's on rainey street. 104+ beers on tap and gourmet sausages.

Agreed. You could tell he was just waiting. Seemed after Pedro's moment he couldn't wait any longer.


Getting into the track wasn't the problem...getting into the parking lot was (lot F). 2 track entrances was actually part the problem because it meant 2 lanes from opposite directions trying to get into one lot entrance. Actually it was 4 lanes because COTA did a poor job of lane marking, so people in the wrong lane were constantly trying to cut in front of the people in the correct lane. It was a cluster, and could have been easily solved by having two separate entrances to lot F...one for each direction. Getting out wasn't so bad because they had more than one exit (through G), but it was blocked in the morning (unless you had a G pass).

I was just surprised there was a problem, because they had such good planning for F1. Hopefully they learned.

Apparently, his 6th place finish has Rossi contemplating a career change:
(https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/65666_509926742389153_1537200678_n.jpg)

I bought the Ducati grandstand package which came with (along with T-shirt and other swag) a motorcycle parking in lot D right near the entrance. Since I knew that my wife wouldn't want to be there every day and I don't ever ride two-up, I bought an extra (car) parking pass for race day.  For kicks I tried parking my truck in D by flashing my parking pass and they redirected me to lot C - right across the street [thumbsup].  Easy in - easy out...I was out on 812 before the crowds really got going. I paid a lot more for these tickets, but I figured that I better make the experience as good as I could for my wife who could care less about racing.

It was not clear coming south on 130 that there were two entrances (Elroy and 812) - they definitely botched that on the signage, basically telling everyone in lots A-J? to exit at Elroy.

The fact that my wife actually enjoyed herself is a testament to the venue and the overall organization - great atmosphere, good food, great site lines everywhere. Now if they can just get some track days organized there....

What happened to Redding? After the first few laps he seemed to be going backwards.

Please give Espargaro a decent ride next year!!! That kid is more deserving than half the satellite riders. I understand Ducati going with a young Italian and picking up Ben, but everyone else should have at least looked in that direction. And most importantly, he doesn't suffer from the usual Spanish lack of personality.

Awesome track, but like most we had parking issues until the race day when I decided to park in a private lot and screw the track lots.  It was a long walk to the track but getting in and out was easy.  One thing that bothered me is that they would not let you bring in your own water unless it was in a sealed commercial bottle, and then just one per person.  I brought my own water anyway and concealed it to get past the inspection.  Their rule on water combined with zero drinking fountains will get them in trouble one day.  A few years ago at Laguna  it was +100 and water became a big issue.  It may be April but it can be hot in Texas, then it will be a problem. 
 
I got into the moto 3 race but the rest was a let down.  Seeing a couple of Hondas running away from the start to the finish was disappointing.   I'm telling myself that the Ducs are improving and it will be interesting before long. 

^ you have to watch the gp bikes/ CRT bike race, and look at it as lil race events within the race.

race 1. who is the overall winner?

race 2. which ducati will beat the other ducati, and or which ducati will lose the front end first?

race 3. which announcer will be the first to pronounce Espargaró correctly?

race 4. which CRT bike will cross the CRT finish line first?

race 5. which track will it be... a honda track, or a yamaha track?

race 6. which media outlet will be the first to give Cal Crutchlow/Dangerfield some respect?



Im sure there are many more races hidden within the main race, but these are to ones that I watch when the horses are on the track.

You definitely forgot a few:

race 7. where did Rossi place, and how does it affect your personal comeback/i hate Ducati/i puff for Rossi narrative?

race 8. who did Hector Barbera nearly kill today?

race 9. what nicknames did Spidey invent for Pedrouchebot this week?

I was there, I'll never forget that heat.  People started dropping like flies and were being carried away by ambulance.  The health department forced the track vendors to give away iced bottled water for free.

Only saw the GP race...

So, other than the spectator comforts, what's the verdict on the track as a MC racing venue?  Didn't seem to be many places to pass, and also seemed to favor bikes with more HP....

Opinions?

i saw a lot of passes (and attempted passes) in the turn t12-t16 area (which reinforces my decision to buy season tickets there).