AMA Superbike

All i can add is that the buells didnt finish the fx - but none of them had engine failure. Every failed part was jap-made. Im calling sabotage! lol

Mladin will be a 7 timer this year, of course. Spies looks to be a player but Im more interested in seeing how he fights with Josh Hayes and Gobert in FX.

The most exciting part of Superbike for me this year is faster, more competative hondas to maybe win a race or two, and my hope for success with roger and tommy hayden in kawi's return to superbike.

My real desire is that the AMA gets its act together and rebuilds/restructures for next year - but we all know thats a long shot.

On another note, is Hodgeson really that good or did he just clean house in word superbike when 9/10 bikes were ducatis and he had the best one? I'm not taking anything away from him, Just curious if that played into his championship at all?

Careful, General. We've said that about Hodgson before, only to discover he's got some pretty defensive fans

He's good. He beat Ben up pretty good in 2002 on Ben's 2001 machine. On top of that the only guys to beat him in standings were Edwards and Bayliss, on superior Michelins and factory equipment and teams.

Would you call him a natural superbiker or a GP racer. I know he's on a SBK now, and he's had his most sucess on one, but didn't he start his career on a 125? Then move to 500s for a short time? I dunno. Anyway we go on a bit about SBKers vs. GP prepubescents (Guess which side I'm on ) Which category do you think the Hodge falls into?

i am a big fan of Ben Bostrom, but to credi t a guy for beating ben - well, maybe back then it was something, but thats another rider i hope comes on the rebound and does some good racing for a change. he's left alot to be desired for the last few years. And by no means am i insulting hodgeson or saying hes not good, because clearly he is - but i just might question his world championship due to lack of competative bikes/racers that year. I mean would he do as good as say Bayliss, Corser, Haga, Toseland, etc. if he were thrown back into it this season? Maybe he would, but I don;t see too may podiums for him if that was the case, in my opinion.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (richo @ Mar 22 2006, 07:30 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>Would you call him a natural superbiker or a GP racer. I know he's on a SBK now, and he's had his most sucess on one, but didn't he start his career on a 125? Then move to 500s for a short time? I dunno. Anyway we go on a bit about SBKers vs. GP prepubescents (Guess which side I'm on ) Which category do you think the Hodge falls into?
He started on 125s then moved to 250s and then went up to 500s for a season and a half if I recall correctly then the offers started going away in 500s because there wasn't a demand for British riders. Then he got offerred the factory Ducati SBK seat along Carl Fogarty. I would say he was a natural GP rider turned superbiker.

But because he's been more sucessful on the duc supers, that would indicate he's more comfortable on them therefore a natural Superbiker, right? His sucess (or lack thereof) after moving up to bigger GP bikes from 125s, plus his 990GP stint or even his tries with 4 cyl SBKs (He rode for Kawa didnt he?) would indicate that he's not really good at adapting, (which explains Barros's instant WSBK sucess) but he seems to be better on big Ducati twins, so although they weren't part of his initial career, I belive he's a natural superbiker.

He was a pretty good 500 rider, he started from the front row on multiple ocassions. From the interview I read with him it sounded like his nationality had a fair amount to do with the lack of offers in GPs and went to Ducati for WSB. As for his Kawasaki failure I think it would be hard to attribute fault to Hodgson for that. The factory did not make the changes Hodgson asked for to make the ZX-7RR competitive and were very unforgiving when he achieved less than mediocre results on a less than mediocre bike.

Fair enough, but didn't someone win a championship on the ZXR about that time?

Last person I remember to win a WSB Championship on a ZX-7RR was Scott Russell in something like 1994. Correct me if I am wrong about that.

When was the Hodge on a ZXR? '97? I suppose that's a bit of a gap

I thought it was even later than '97, he went to GSE Ducati in '99 and won the BSB in '00 so I thought he rode the Kwaker in WSB in '98.

neils a good rider but not great... its as simple as that in my hungover head 2day ooow that last pint was a mistake

You know, that sums it up pretty well, winner

I'll agree with that.

Ben Spies doubled up this weekend at Barber taking the SBK points lead. He and his crew say that Barber is his worst track so we'll see what happens on tracks that he likes. The next Nicky Hayden? Seems to be on a very similar course to Hayden but we shall see, I don't think he'll be tied to Suzuki the way Hayden was/is to Honda.

The Kawasakis have been impressive this weekend, Tommy and Roger were in the top five in each session and Tommy was in second place in race two before Yates nudged him wide, pushing him back to fifth. Roger is really the embodiment of win it or bin it at the moment in the Superbike class. Although he picked up a win in the Supersport class this afternoon.

Parts Unlimited Ducati look to be in trouble. The team have said that Barber really doesn't suit the twin and the results show it. The Hodge was a mid pack finisher among factory bikes and BBoz has been sick all weekend and was at the back of the factory pack all weekend. Amazing how well the 999F06 has looked in BSB and WSB and how off the pace it is in the AMA.

Jason DiSalvo continued to show today why he deserves a Superbike ride taking a win in Formula Xtreme over teammate Eric Bostrom, Erion Honda's Josh Hayes and Aaron Gobert and fill in rider Kurtis Roberts who took third. In addition to his win he took home a third in Superstock behind Suzuki Superbike rider Aaron Yates and Jamie Hacking. DiSalvo has consistently been faster than former Superbike title contender Eric Bostrom and has battled with veteran Jamie Hacking all season. His battles in Supersport with Roger Hayden and Ben Spies were epic. The kid and his teammates need to be in the real class, end of story.

Where's Mladin? On holiday? Someone tell the hare to get his arse into gear because the tortise is comin up fast!

mats still the man but i was big on spies at the start of season so im happy makes for a gud season thow a ooost?

just saw a bit on the box mat had the front tuck away from him didnt he ooost? and he was in the lead at the time,

Well in race one he straight up got beat by Spies. Race two he crashed and a few laps later the race was red flagged and he got to rejoin in 28th. He ended up third but would have been fifth had Yates not nudged Tommy Hayden and pushed them both wide. If you haven't noticed, I absolutely cannot stand Aaron Yates. It should be a great season, Spies is very hungry and looks to be on Mladin's pace and I think it's only a matter of time before Kawasaki, Tommy and Roger Hayden are on a similar level. We'll see where Honda end up. And if The Hodge and BBoz and pull their fingers out and get the 999F06 sorted over here that should make things very, very exciting.

that dumb ... yates really screwed t. hayden did'nt he! what a tool