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2014 World Champion? This poll is closed. |
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| Valentino Rossi |
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13 | 19.40% |
| Jorge Lorenzo |
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13 | 19.40% |
| Dani Pedrosa |
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8 | 11.94% |
| Marc Marquez |
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33 | 49.25% |
| Total: | 67 votes | ||
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Not gonna lie, I copied the last post exactly. I'll edit things around as I get time in case we actually get some new readers but for the rest of us, we know all this jazz. Well here we are, now that football is done we're getting back into the racing season, I'm pumped and hoping for a GREAT year of racing with minimal injuries and no deaths. This thread will be for the discussion of MotoGP, WSBK, BSB, and AMA racing. There will be SPOILERS in this thread. So if the race has been run and you haven't watched it yet, DON'T CLICK ON THIS loving THREAD because we won't be using spoiler tags after the race. So fair warning, we won't be using spoiler tags and if you haven't seen the race yet and click on this thread and then find out who won, don't bitch because you were warned. TY Skreemer 2014 Race schedule pre:DATE Country Circuit 23-Mar Qatar Losail 13-Apr USA, Austin Circuit of the Americas 27-Apr Argentina Termas 04-May Spain Jerez 18-MAY France Le Mans 01-Jun Italy Mugello 15-Jun Catalunya Catalunya 28-Jun Netherlands Assen 13-Jul Germany Sachsenring 10-Aug USA,Indianapolis Indianapolis 17-Aug Czech Republic Brno 31-Aug Great Britain Silverstone 14-Sep San Marino Misano 28-Sep Aragon MotorLand 12-Oct Japan Motegi 19-Oct Australia Phillip Island 26-Oct Malaysia Sepang 09-Nov Valencia Valencia The Big Players: Factory Yamaha Team Same as last year.  Valentino Rossi Needs no description. Multi-world champion who left Yamaha in 2011 to move to Ducati. Success at Ducati did not come as they expected, and he only managed a few podiums. Ducaudi couldn't convince him to stay on this year, so he'd back with a 2 year Yamaha contract. I think it's great. I'm not sure he's has another championship in him, as the competition is tough, but I'm sure we'll see a few race wins from him this year.  Jorge Lorenzo Lorenzo is the reigning World Champion and a 2 time champ now, the first Spaniard to do so if I remember correctly. Yamaha choosing him over Rossi was a big reason Rossi left originally, so this year should be good. In the two years Rossi has been gone, Lorenzo has only gotten better. His form last year was fantastic and his championship run was impressive. He never finished a race below 2nd place, and only managed to crash out of 2 races (only 1 being his fault imo). He's on form and is a contender for the Championship again this year. Tech 3 Yamaha  Pol Espargaro too the fight to Marquez in moto2 2012 but couldn't top him. He won it last year in a hard season long fight with Scott Redding, coming from a rough few races early on to take it. He's no slouch and if he can be fast these first 2 years I'd peg him to replace Rossi/Lorenzo in the factory team.  Bradley Smith....well not much to say. He got this ride as part of a contract he signed a few years back, where he'd ride Tech3's Moto2 bike for a few years, then would get a go on the big bike. He did alright in moto2 considering that his bike had very little development compared to others, but he didn't really set the world afire. Frankly I'm not expecting much from him in motoGP but I like eating my words. Repsol Honda No change, except MM now being WC  Dani Pedrosa Dani had a slow but steady start to last season, often times losing out to Stoner and Lorenzo. With Stoner's injury, Pedrosa got a kick in the rear end and seemed to realize he had a shot at the championship. He put in a hard fight and won most of the races the 2nd half of the year, but still just missed out to Lorenzo. I think he'll be a contender from the get-go this year, as it'll be one of his best chances for a championship. For him, he'll hope that Ducati stays slow, Lorenzo and Rossi beat each other up, and Marquez takes some take to get adjusted, leaving him in a great place to win his first Championship.  Marc Marquez Reigning Moto2 champion and newcomer Marquez probably has the biggest hype surrounding him, and rightly so. He's got a race talent and speed that hasn't been matched quite yet, although others have taken the fight to him. He's also a bit reckless and has done some bonehead moves, crashing into people in stupid situations. Still, I think people will remember him more for racing from the back of the grid to get on the podium multiple times in the lower classes. Portugal 2010 in the 125 class is a good race to look up. Australia 2011 is another, as is Valencia last year. His dumbass moves and recklessness piss me off but you can't argue with his results, he'll be winning races for sure. 2013 showed he learned from his mistakes and matured, and didn't make the same kind of silly accidents from Moto2. Obviously he took the championship, very impressive and I think he'll be dominating for the next few years. Satellite Hondas  Stefan Bradl  Alvaro Bautista They're on different teams but I'm just lumping them together cause I don't have much to say. They were solid in the midfield last year with a few chances at podiums and I'm sure this year will be similar Factory and Junior Ducati  This is where some excitement (or more likely, disappointment) could come in. Andrea Dovizioso joins Nicky Hayden on the factory team to try to sort out the bike that Rossi couldn't ride....eek. Luckily they have some help from  Andrea Iannone and Ben Spies, who'll be riding for their “junior” team but on the same equipment. While Ducati doesn't have any of the superstar riders, they do have a good lineup. Spies was the only non-alien rider to win a dry race in the 800 era of motoGP. Hayden has never looked dominant but can move up in the races, and won the world championship in 2006. Dovizioso has never looked to be a championship contender in GP but he's consistently at the top and a fast rider. Iannone is making the step up from moto2, where he tended to either win a race by 25 seconds, or finish in 27th place. I hope he can really show up on the tracks that suit him. Other than that, there's the CRT bikes and sorry for them but I don't really care to write anything. They just fill out the grid. Except Colin Edwards  He gets a mention cause he's awesome. Here's some examples: Frank talk on stage at silverstone http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdqTMPwjqR8 Getting pissed at the race organizers for not throwing oil flags http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_08p-414uGY Talking poo poo about his bike and settling rumors http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nK9Yy8HCdyg Saving a huge slide then gesturing at the crowd “did you see that?” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37sl4YI-aYE the last time he passed lorenzo... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLM0YX5okdA Moto2 and Moto3 If you aren't watching these races, you should be. MotoGP is about seeing the best riders on the best bikes. Moto2 and 3 is about seeing who has the bigger balls, and the racing the last few years has been awesome. 2011 was a great year for moto2 and 2012 was even better. Pol Espargaro gave Marquez a run for his money in the Championship, but Marquez had it sewn up pretty early so long as he kept his head on. Espargaro will be a favorite for next year for sure. Also near the top should be Simoni Corsi, Alex DeAngelis, Tom Luthi, Esteve Rabat, Scott Redding, Julian Simon, Mika Kallio....there's a ton. We won't really know until the season starts. Also, Johann Zarco and Nico Terol will be in their 2nd year since moving up, so they should be up near the front as well. Zarco already was a bit last year. Reigning Moto3 champ Sandro Cortese and moto3 graduate Danny Kent should be good to watch too. Moto3 had it's first year last year, and it was awesome. I think there may have been 1 boring race, with most of them coming down to the last few corners. On top of that, they were often 4 and 5 wide down the long straights early in the race when everyone was stuck together. Awesome. Seriously, make time to watch these if you can. Great racing and you get to see the rising stars. Holding space for WSBK, BSB, AMA, Irish Road Racing, or anything else anyone would like to contribute. I can't say much about any of them except I like watching WSBK when I can. The championship this year provided a lot of close racing and really came down to the wire at the last race. Unfortunately I don't follow WSBK like I do the motogp classes so I can't really comment much on them. Someone else write up a short bit? HEY PEOPLE HERES ALL THE WSBK RACES FROM LAST YEAR Racing Discussion and Analysis Aside from the earlier mentioned http://motomatters.com if you have a few hours a week to kill during the season, http://www.motopodcast.com/ is a must. MotoPod is a podcast that covers WSBK and MotoGP mainly, but they talk about other racing as well. They're just regular guys who love racing and it's fun to listen to them banter about the races. On top of that, they get some great interviews with riders and journos and other people around the paddock. The podcasts range from and hour and a half to over 3 hours sometimes, I love having it on while working on my bike or whatever. http://superbikeplanet.com/newind.htm/ is good news too. Any other suggestions for good racing coverage are welcome. I'm not going to list the mainstream journals because most people know them and imo they're mainly just PR machines. Now, for twitter feeds. I really got into this last year because you have a TON of racing guys on twitter. One thing again SPOILERS if you follow any of them. Normally they are tweeting live time too, so avoid twitter like it's the ebola virus until you have watched the race, then go talk a bunch of poo poo on twitter because that's a good time. Also, following twitter really shows you how little the mainstream news publications actually work. Last year I remember reading articles on autosport or crash and the only background information the author was working off of was a tweet. Cut out that middleman and follow the riders. The journos will even respond to you. I've tweeted Toby and Spaulders a few times and gotten responses. They answer questions on their broadcasts too, which is cool as hell. https://twitter.com/eugenelaverty WSBK Racer, Aprilia factory team. https://twitter.com/BenSpies11 https://twitter.com/NickyHayden69 https://twitter.com/MotoGP https://twitter.com/jonathanrea https://twitter.com/HondaWorldSBK https://twitter.com/TwitGP Kind of a humorous look at MotoGP, they're pretty fun. https://twitter.com/texastornado5 https://twitter.com/motomatters https://www.motomatters.com twitter. https://twitter.com/realleonhaslam https://twitter.com/martinheath MotoGP and WSBK photographer. https://twitter.com/hiroshiaoyama https://twitter.com/Alex__Briggs Alex is one of Rossi's mechanics. Super cool guy and normally does picture contests as well as provides great information and also is really good at replying to questions. Also if I ever get to Austrailia I'm totally buying him and his wife Ellen dinner(I've confirmed this with Ellen who is just as cool as Alex is). https://twitter.com/birtymotogp motoGP writer. https://twitter.com/chrissyteigen Not motorcycle related at all, but a foody, super hot, and super funny. https://twitter.com/TobyMoody MotoGP announcer. https://twitter.com/DennisNoyes MotoGP writer https://twitter.com/calcrutchlow https://twitter.com/Meligirl13 CHICK ON A BIKE!! AMA Daytona Superbike racer. https://twitter.com/HRC_MotoGP https://twitter.com/MarcoMelandri33 https://twitter.com/TroyBaylisstic https://twitter.com/chazdavies https://twitter.com/marcpotter MCN news guy. https://twitter.com/MotoGPJules MotoGP commenter. https://twitter.com/leoncamier https://twitter.com/superbikeplanet https://twitter.com/CarlosCheca7 https://twitter.com/NickSannen Haydens bus driver. Won't get a lot of news but does post some cool photo's on the road. https://twitter.com/ScottJonesPhoto Official MotoMatters photographer https://twitter.com/JHopper21 https://twitter.com/steveblackburn1 Cal Cruthlow's mechanic. https://twitter.com/charliehiscott TV Producer for MotoGP WSBK and BSB https://twitter.com/michaelguyMCN MCN guy. https://twitter.com/gavinemmett MotoGP commentator. https://twitter.com/Asphalt_Rubber https://twitter.com/MCNnews https://twitter.com/AndreaDovizioso https://twitter.com/ValeYellow46 Yes, it really is Rossi. https://twitter.com/OfficialHAOYAMA https://twitter.com/YamahaMotoGP nsaP fucked around with this message at 00:02 on Mar 21, 2014 |
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Mar 18, 2014 00:32
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| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 08:04 |
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Marquez crashed a lot last year, even big ones like Mugello, but came out of them relatively unscathed. Lorenzo and Pedrosa had less than a handful of crashes but broke bones in them, just the way she fuckin' goes.
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Mar 18, 2014 07:49
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Skreemer posted:2014 Race schedule TY, added to OP
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Mar 18, 2014 07:52
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Motomatters has an article up too: http://motomatters.com/news/2014/03/18/factory_2_rules_adopted_for_2014_spec_so.html Also I got a shout out on the latest motopod for an email I sent complementing/criticizing them. They must not have many listeners so if you want a podcast name drop send them an email about something, lol.
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Mar 19, 2014 03:28
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Lorenzo didn't look happy but it's FP1 at Qatar. They're cleaning off the track still. Last year's pole was a 1:54.7
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Mar 20, 2014 19:03
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I voted MM cause I honestly think he'll dominate till the next new guy comes along. However part of me wants the three spaniards to all have missed races or injuries which let Rossi use his consistency to stay in the hunt and maybe win. Doubt it tho. Barring major injury from MM I think he's going to dominate, especially with the Yamaha's seeming to not work as well on the new tires.
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Mar 20, 2014 23:50
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I'm surprised the poll is so close on all 4 right now.
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Mar 21, 2014 06:01
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Yeah I thought last year was DP's chance cause I thought Marquez would crash out of a lot of races. Turns out he did most of his crashing in practice and managed to walk away from most of them. Everyone else is screwed this year.
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Mar 21, 2014 06:41
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A reminder of the funniness of fate. Marquez crashed a lot (I want to say nearly 20 times at least?) but was relatively uninjured. DP and JLo had like 3 crashes each but both managed to break a collarbone at key times. Also, seemingly small things early can be huge later on. When Marquez barged thru on Lorenzo the last corner of Jerez because Lorenzo left the door open, at the time it didn't seem too huge. Lorenzo still finished 3rd, he didn't crash, so while it was rough and a mistake, it was okay. 20 points to MM, 16 to JLo. Not so okay when Jorge ends up losing the championship on the last race in Valencia by 4 pts. They would have tied and the championship would have been Jorge's by the count of race wins.
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Mar 21, 2014 06:57
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EsA down to 1:54.7... This might be interesting. Dunno what tire or run it was on tho, i had to go to work.
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Mar 21, 2014 21:02
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Skreemer posted:IIRC he was running medium fronts and the soft rear. The comments they were making is that once you brought the soft compound up to temp they would last 3 or 4 laps only making them a great qualifying tire but not much else. Still good for mixing up quali. Motomatters round up out http://t.co/XAtpo1gU1g
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Mar 22, 2014 01:51
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Moto2 Quali on now, GP FP4 and Quali on in an hour.
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Mar 22, 2014 17:09
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Yeah, it's a pain to set spoiler times with people in time zones all over the world. Easier to just keep the thread live and don't read it until you're caught up if you aren't watching live. Really I have to stay off most of the internet if I haven't seen the race. News sites, twitter, facebook, even other forums spoil races. On a Quake forum someone spoiled Jenson Button's 2011 Canadian GP for me by putting it in a thread title and I'm still a bit annoyed about that. Edit: reread your post, nevermind. Announcing the start isn't a bad idea.  Since moto 3 is on, thread will now contain spoilers.
nsaP fucked around with this message at 17:21 on Mar 23, 2014 |
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Mar 23, 2014 17:18
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2/3 weren't crazy but good enough, I watched em while cooking. Now for GP, I'm guessin the first couple laps will be 'exciting' while they sort out race pace from qualifying position but I expect it to be pretty processional after. We'll see!
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Mar 23, 2014 19:52
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Here we go! Lorenzo then Iannone. Stay in this one and get some solid points I bet.
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Mar 23, 2014 20:05
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Crazy race so far, looks to be settling down. Rossi fuel issues? MM sandbagging? Gonna be good.
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Mar 23, 2014 20:24
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All I can say is Thank you Jack Miller for sparing me once.
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Mar 23, 2014 21:03
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n8r posted:Weren't they a fair bit closer time wise than they were last year (too lazy to actually look). Significantly closer, Dovi in the same camera shot when they looked down the straight as Rossi and Marquez crossed the line.
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Mar 24, 2014 23:17
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Anyone ever been a corner worker before? This sounds tempting... http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=963276
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Mar 25, 2014 02:53
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Yeah he said that from the start. Hodgson gave him some leading question about running out of gas on the straight and Cal replied "Who said we ran out of gas?" He tweeted later with the info in that crash article. If you read crash, you'd do well to just set up a twitter account to follow the riders and journalists. Once you're following the riders you realize that the news articles on crash are all fluff writing based around some rider tweets. That and the press releases that some employee writes.
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Mar 25, 2014 16:08
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Not sure I'd trust what they say. Ducati had the same thing happen with their own software to Hayden in Spain in 2012. It's easy to blame the other guy.
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Mar 26, 2014 01:52
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Like a boss Doohan, Ago, Vettel, Fittipaldi http://twitter.com/marcmarquez93/status/448801103023308803
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Mar 27, 2014 00:47
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The BT guys pronounce Aleix's name correctly, finally. Toby Moody and his "Alex Es-spag-a-row". They were a bit worse at gushing over Brits too, Hodgson telling Smith 'You did us proud' when he crashed out was a cringe.
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Apr 7, 2014 02:37
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Saying Ryder isn't knowledgeable is quite a funny opinion and there's been 1 race. Give BT time. http://www.amazon.com/MotoGP-Season-Review-2013-Officially/dp/0857334085 Note the author, 10 years running.
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Apr 7, 2014 21:13
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What Ryder lacks, as did Moody, is the mindset of being a racer. They try but never quite get there and you could see that when Mamola used to do the pit lane reporting, or when they had a guest rider commentating. BT has 2 riders, plus Jules now. Once they sort out the hiccups and get into a zone I think this will be great coverage. I Will miss Spaulders monotone droning though.
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Apr 7, 2014 22:02
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They were a great team but not worth the tears, for real. By the end of this year you'll have forgotten their lovely world-feed-commentating-from-England coverage.
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Apr 7, 2014 23:48
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The 'aliens' were Stoner, Pedrosa, Lorenzo and Rossi. The only alien now is MM.
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Apr 11, 2014 17:10
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GP FP2 is on at 3 EST with Ben Spies in the box. http://www.vipboxus.co/sports/moto-gp.html
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Apr 11, 2014 18:21
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Here4DaGangBang posted:Huh, well there you go. I learned something today. Around 2008-10 or so they were the front runners, if you can find some of the races it would often be those 4 at the front and a gap to the also rans. http://www.motorcyclenews.com/mcn/sport/sportresults/motogp/2009/november/nov0709-valencia-motogp-top-four-aliens-says-edwards/ MM has been dominating today. Sideways all thru 16-18. Passing people around the outside and embarrassing everyone with the time sheets. Last lap of FP1 he shoved a pass up the inside of Lorenzo on the last turn just for shits, that's gotta hurt when you're 2 seconds a lap down. Also saw him pass 3 people in 2 corners when Pol Espargaro was trying to follow him around. http://motomatters.com/results/2014/04/11/2014_cota_motogp_fp2_result_marquezthe_r.html Check out how much the exhaust pipe is moving on the slow mo 
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Apr 12, 2014 02:45
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I thought that was a British past-time.
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Apr 15, 2014 04:13
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Spies was great in the booth. There's gotta be some way to appeal to American TV and show them how they could do a brit style broadcast with guys like Spies and Edwards. The old eurosport coverage and this new btsport coverage has been great and if we could have it with knowledgeable Americans that would be the poo poo. Spies: "What's gotta be nice to see is the Ducati going up the inside on a triple apex right hander" Commentator: "What did they do in the off season to improve so much" Spies: "Just make the bike better...." lol nsaP fucked around with this message at 06:34 on Apr 16, 2014 |
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Apr 16, 2014 06:31
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All I can say is don't try to get into Formula 1. GP racing is a business first and a competition second.
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Apr 17, 2014 18:56
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It's hard to admit this, but n8 is right.
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Apr 18, 2014 06:16
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Tweet Dr. Martin Raines https://twitter.com/motogpmart
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Apr 18, 2014 07:08
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He concurs http://twitter.com/motogpmart/status/458556636404396032 Twitter is cool.
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Apr 22, 2014 18:24
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I caught like half of free practice today and MM was just making everyone else look silly. So sideways into a turn I would have sworn his rear wheel was ahead of his front, bucking over the curbs and the closest person to him in time is his teammate, 1 second back...
nsaP fucked around with this message at 00:35 on Apr 26, 2014 |
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Apr 25, 2014 23:15
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That's a pipedream. It's what the lower classes are for.
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Apr 29, 2014 03:10
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On that note, the moto3 race was great
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Apr 29, 2014 04:53
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http://superbikeplanet.com/2014/Apr/130428a.htm Man he was the best. Coulda stuck with it if he had more of a Raikkonen personality I think Also Ryder Notes http://superbikeplanet.com/2014/Apr/140428rydernotes.htm
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Apr 29, 2014 05:30
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| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 08:04 |
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Or just watch moto3.
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May 1, 2014 01:28
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