<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Andy Roo @ Jul 22 2008, 09:49 AM)
<{POST_SNAPBACK}><div class='quotemain'>A week ago we were going through the pre race threads pondering the question how is anyone going to beat Casey. My answer, somewhat stupidly I guess was brake later and get on the gas earlier. The notion that we had to slow the bikes down, or ban Ducati or whatever was seen as the answer by the marvellously myopic.
My somewhat parsimonious response was seen as a little too simplistic however it is a viable answer and as much as we try to complicate racing it’s about whittling every little advantage you can from a given situation until the sum of your advantages is greater than the other guys. Valentino did this sooooo well and as No.1 Casey fan I wholeheartedly agree he (Vale) did nothing wrong and everything right during the race.
Casey may have (none of us are true soothsayers) won if he hadn’t run off; then again Valentino may have kept the pressure up. Valentino knows a hell of a lot and is the master but Casey can learn some of this and at the end of the day he is fast. Real fast. Easier to teach a fast guy other things than it is to teach a slow guy how to go fast.
The bike and rider package for the Yamaha and Ducati look very tight. The Yamaha was on average speeds less than 1km slower than the Ducati and Casey had the bike squirming trying to change his lines to cope with Vale.
Casey will win by adapting; Vale will win by adapting to those adaptations. And so on and so forth infinitum...
I’m amazed at all the negativity; this is potentially the best year for a championship and racing in the four stroke era and we get to see it. It is going to be close and it will go to the next level, as the race at Laguna did the other day.
As for Casey being a sook or whatever, he’s young, he also needs someone like Doohan to coach him which I don’t think he’s getting, I mean, who is the racer that is his mentor like Doohan mentored Valentino or Alberto is mentoring Dani? Casey had Lucio and Alberto for brief periods but is generally isolated from that level of experience. Someone like Mick would have told him that he is playing the bigs and suck it up. He needs an old head and I am hoping that Sete and maybe Nicki can teach him that side of the sport because he needs to brush up on it.
I am casting a bit of blame at his team for allowing some of this and not providing the necessary “psychosocial” support that many of the young racers (such as Dani and Vale) had or have on a regular basis.
That said this is not the U.S election and in a previous post I lampooned getting Barack Obama to ride the Ducati due to it being able to ride itself (yawn) and the need for personality - charming ....... that Obama... Like him or not Casey has the skills and is here to stay and if he never wins the personality or miss congeniality award then it really won't matter that much when he has a number of world championships on the shelf. And it is fair to say, it will be more than the 2007 championship given the state of play at the present time. He is the only real challenger to Valentino and can win races with greater ease than any of Valentino’s prior adversaries.
I do ask you to consider this. I quote Vince Lombardi who said, “show me a good loser and I’ll show you a loser”. The sport right now needs Casey to challenge Valentino as much as the sport needs Valentino. Without Casey this would be a Valentino parade, followed by Dani, then Jorge and the fire that everyone has in them right now and the virulence displayed on this post would be little more than literary (and racing) narcolepsy. Vale wins, Vale wins, Vale wins…. and that is worse than a Casey led parade because it represents too many years without change.
Casey made Vale take it to the next level and I don’t care who wins but that is the edge of your seat racing the series needed.
Long live Vale, long live Casey and it will be "long live motogp" as a result.
Jesus ....... christ.. please please, i would like more text to read. ......