3503231367606415
Excellent response Austin. Agree man. I can even add to what you said about our anemic promoting of US riders, as I have personal experience trying to get businesses with significant marketing budgets to give a rats ... about kids ready to eat their own guts to succeed in the sport. Errr!
Agree good sir. That does seem to be where the future of potential sales is expanding. Certainly, there has been a decline US (but as you can see from the graph, its still considerable, where a "decline" in the US only means its still consuming head and shoulders more than entire global regions). I was actually up late last night (as you could probably tell, haha) and found some great info about sales and market trends. Looks like China is the place to sell (I know, not news). Maybe the Dorna guys are lagging behind by a few years?...given there is no GPs in China (currently). Or they are still tying to cash in on the willingness of US peeps to go into debt to buy toys. In one report I read that sportbike sales had declined for everybody except BMW & Duc (or the non-Japanese manufactures). Doc, I think it was you who posted this old article from a magazine (right?) That prompted me to look around for old magazines, I found a few but (and I really don't even want to type this, but somebody who will remain nameless, on a fateful spring cleaning day, threw out a bunch of old mags I had in a dusty box in the attic (I .... you not, I almost cried). I would just as soon preferred losing mu wedding pics to a fire. Anyway, I recall reading about a few hard-..... back in the day. Forgive me if I insult your knowledge of Oz history, but have you heard of a dude named Kevin Caruthers? Americans who know their .... about racing history love this dude (or should love him). This name stands out because it was a name that appears again and again in the mags from back in the day (yes, way before my time, but when I was 18, I went crazy about motorcycles, and being from the US, there was NOTHING to watch only read). So...the names that fascinated me came from two countries: US and Australia. Anyway, this cat Caruthers came to the US to mentor a few Americans, perhaps you might recognize these names: Kenny Roberts Sr. & Eddie Lawson. So, I have always had a soft spot for Aussies (sorry my Brit brothers, hehe). And more to the point that I will make below to Stiefel..
You make many good points. First, my anti-Ameri thingy was two fold, one was directed at my puppet BJC, so you can ignore that one. My other point about the Dorna HQ Madrid (next door to Repsol HQ Madrid) favoring Spanish riders was more about 'anti-non-Euros' rather than anti-US riders'. Because, as I was telling DocN above, I'd lump Aussies as marginalized as well. Stief, I've never asked, but are you German? Not that it matters, but you are correct in that Americans shouldn't be complaining about representation in MotoGP...perhaps. We sure have had our run of chaps since the 2000s, KRjr, Edwards, Hopper, Hayden, Spies, and Bostrom (haha, I just added Bostrom to .... with JK). Ok, so you are right, we shouldnt complain..right? Except, let me just say a couple of things in my defense of whining. All those riders were given a turn at the big dance after accomplishing something significant outside of GP itself (what I mean by significant is at least a big boy category title in respective series, maybe with exception of Hopper, though in his defense he was an AMA Formula Extreme champ, which was a badass spec of racing, at some rediculious age like 16+, AND that only earned him an opportunity to ride one of the shittiest machines at the wrong time during a formula transition, a Red Bull 500cc (hangover, as the forumla was going to 2-stroke) that was ejecting him and Gary McCoy into oblivion...for ..... and giggles look back to see the injuries that ride produced, while today we see them getting on premiere class machines and ride away like the wind, thank you electogizmos). So for Americans to EARN an opportunity in GP, they need to come with serious credentials. I'd say its very similar with Aussies (as both of us are a continent apart and rather un-rated in Europe) and have to really go far beyond to impress somebody willing ti give these gritty kids a chance. (Btw, while I'm on a rant, this also applies to Brits to a less extent, see my rant about Brit riders I wrote to Austin). I mentioned Kevin Caruthers to Doc No above, I really do wonder how many people ever heard of him, even though he was a major figure in the sport. Most of us have heard of names like: Doohan, Garner, Bayliss , Beatie, and my personal fav, McCoy (btw, Mat Mladin could have been among the great Aussies but he really was a sell-out for the money. I'll never forget he once said, 'why would I got race in Europe if they are paying me $50,000 a race in the US?). Oh and Vermulen (nice guy award). Sorry, tangent, ok, now contrast this with the new Spanish stacking of the field, who are promoted into the GP lower categories via a mini-bike titles, participation (not actually winning it) in the Red Bull rookies cup, and of course CEV. Then...we start to become familiar with these names and become conditioned to think these must be the best riders in the world deserving of MotoGP seat, ie Espargaros. Without looking it up, can you tell me how many races A. Espargaro has won? (I had to look it up too, but cause I thought, surely he's won something, I mean, people are mentioning his name to replace 'World Champions' because his name 'appears' often (yes, that seems to be enough). But what has he won? As you know Stief, this is the most annoying thing for me regarding people’s takes. Somehow because this guy leads this ........ CRTs (which we have NO reasonable way of knowing the real parity between these entries) we think hes done something because his bike keeps appearing in Parc Ferme like two dicks on a bike. We automatically think, oh, Alexis Espargaro is top of the CRTs, therefore, he must be the best of that class. Not knowing if say the Forward Racing machines or (take your pick) are the DucatiGP versions of CRTs. I met this kid Yonny Hernandez (Columbian) at the airport in Austin (who has a smoking hot girlfriend, but I know you are not interested in that sort of thing). Anyway, Hernandez “podiumed” in the CRT class at COTA (yes, he was the third CRT finisher). Maybe we should start linking him to factory satellite seats now that Silly Season has already started. Why not, right?
Am I making my point? The Spanish stack the field with their riders, good, decent, and ........ riders, get on the best bikes, don’t really accomplish anything ‘really’ significant (sorry Alberto Puig) and their records then start to be ‘artificially’ padded by virtue of the lacking parity structure, their names get tossed around, and bam, welcome to MotoGP your factory ride awaits you sir. (I’m aware my friends will call “conspiracy-tin hat” monger on me, and they would be partially correct, as I really do have such a disposition. Its all good.
