Yooperbikemike's 2013 MotoGP Thread

Agreed. But perfectly acceptable to a PLAYBOY!

It would be rude not to.

Sorry about the OT but earlier this winter I read a book that came out about a year ago about Jarno Saarinen and it had lots of cool stories about the 70s road racing. Pretty much all were privateers except Ago & MV Agusta. Also it seemed that everybody wanted someone to beat Ago, even Italians did. Saarinen and other Finns, Swedes, Dutch etc used to travel Europe together for the whole summer racing. In the spring they would go to Italy for one-off races for prize money (money&budget were tight back then), then ride the World Championship season with few extra races here and there. Jarno had a VW van and a small trailer for the bikes (250cc & 350cc). Everybody was friends with others and no handbag tossing like today And no big motorhomes, big teams or army of mechanics. Jarno's team had two people: him and Soili. Jarno took care of the bikes (riding, servicing, set up etc.) while wifey managed lap timing, number board and helped with other things and also drove the van when they went to next race.

Once when another Finnish privateer rider Tepi Länsivuori was struggling to beat Ago's time in QP, Jarno secretly gave him a factory cylinder head that he had as an extra spare. Said it will take a second away from Tepi's laptime. It took more than that and Tepi went on to beat Ago's lap time. Also in one event, Tepi had some issues and couldn't qualify as he liked. Jarno then (maybe partly joking) said "give me your leathers and helmet, I'll ride a lap for you on your bike". Then they decided not to do this in fear of penalties, if something happens and he needs to pull over, marshalls or spectators can see that it is not the right guy riding the bike. Maybe these things were against the rules, but showed how much he cared about his friends and how the spirit was among the paddock, and also when the sport was dangerous, you wanted to help others best way you can. You never know when you might need it.

Once in Brno, Jarno was dominating the race and MV was shocked by his performance. Phil Read was lapping 5 seconds faster than anybody ever did on an MV but Jarno was still faster. MV made a protest to check Jarno's engine size, they thought (or hoped) it was over the limit. Jarno smiled and said "good, please check it" and after inspection it was right under the maximum limit. Jarno was also pioneer in many small details, like gear ratios. Back then many used only couple of different sprockets front and back, for faster track just add 1 or 2 teeth at the front, or slower track take one or two smaller and that's it. Jarno began using them as a combo, not just "one tooth smaller at the front", instead he put bigger sprocket front and back to obtain optimal gearing for example.

It will be 40 years this May since he passed away

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qBbL94vUWY

His time in the spotlight was so brief, but when people today talk about who is the GOAT, for me, Saarinen's name is the first one I think of. I still remember the shock I felt when I read about the accident that took his life. For me, he will always be a supernova that shined brightest but way too briefly.

Motorcycles and watching racing are new to me; I started both in 2006 at age 43. So I appreciate seeing these kind of things from the history of the sport; thanks.

“For me the real gap is less than 0.780s,” he said. “Because Jorge worked very well and had zero problems. All the Yamaha [technical] problems were just on my bike! I was closer to Jorge until we started to struggle with our problems, so for me the real gap between us is less than half a second. But, for sure, Lorenzo is faster than me right now.”

I read this on another site my interest was in the qoute"technical problems were just on my bike" :eek1:huh WOW!!! that sounds SO much like a Quote or two from a B Spies of last years Yammie Top team...hmmm...

My brother snagged this last year when we were at F1. Awesome track!

Smoke has been spotted over the Vatican...

Posted 15 minutes ago:

Marquez fastest so far at <s>#</s>COTA with 2'08.651 (out of 12 laps), Lorenzo 2'09.817, Rossi 2'10.580 and Pedrosa 2'11.445

Track was cool in the AM, riders were leary of the left side of the tire. Blake Young crashed the Attack CRT machine.

The cool track in Austin won't be a problem for the Ducati riders.

Pope Valentino defies gravity at COTA

http://a.yfrog.com/img189/871/hcuqznmbpeejvtkorbgtzb.mp4

@YamahaMotoGP: Lunch break at COTA . Standings: 1.Marquez 2:08.651, 2. @ValeYellow46 +0.711, 3. @lorenzo99 +1.166, 4.Pedrosa +2.794 http://t.co/RnW3eWinGS

The kid is for real

from Honda

<iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/61641416" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe> <p><a href="http://vimeo.com/61641416">Exit of T1 in Austin</a> from <a href="http://vimeo.com/hondaracingcorporation">HRC</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>

Soon nto be known as the site where half the moto2 field went down.

Lap times update: Marquez 2'07.046, Pedrosa 2'07.284, Bradl 2'07.974, Lorenzo 2'08.244, Rossi 2'08.492

Are they using the same layout as F1?

Wow, Marquez is smoking... and Rossi is way off the pace so far. Any indications at to what's going on with him?