Miller WSBK Race

povol said:

And you would be correct. How can the rest of the racing world take the US seriously, when they flip on their TV to watch an international event, and they see a track with crumbling edges, and looked like it was built on a refuse dump. George Barber didnt have to do what he did to make his track look the way it does, but he understood that having nice grass and landscaping for the customers will bring them back. That is an event that is trying to attract international customers, if their impression from tv is an indicator of what they can expect, they wont come. Remember what they say about first impressions.

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But what Mr. Barber seemed to forget about was gears four, five, and six. That place would be phenomenal if Superbikes used those gears.

mylexicon said:

Re: racing. It sucked. Rea took out Biaggi in Race 1 and Checa doubled so the championship race is looking less competitive with each passing round.

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Wasn't it the other way around? I never got a look at the incident, but Rea looked pretty upset with Biaggi and Biaggi just kept his head down. He looked like he'd ...... up.

Austin said:

Wasn't it the other way around? I never got a look at the incident, but Rea looked pretty upset with Biaggi and Biaggi just kept his head down. He looked like he'd ...... up.

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I saw a couple clips of the incident (someone posted them on Krop's site). It looked like Rea was just riding his own line and he knocked Biaggi off from behind. Biaggi appeared to ride the same line in as everyone else on the first lap. I'm not sure why Rea blamed Biaggi for the accident, but Biaggi fired back in the press after he had his wits about him.



Makes me think Biaggi's luck may have run out this year. Donnington jump start and DQ. Unfortunate ride through for crossing the white line at Monza. Run over by Rea and then blamed by Rea for the accident. All the while, Checa has extended his lead to 60 something points IIRC.



Kind of a bad season in general for WSBK. The silver lining thus far has been 4 winners in 5 rounds, but I don't see things getting much more dynamic at the front. Biaggi will almost certainly join the winners circle, but I can't see anyone else (other than a Camier maybe) having much of a shot. The level of professionalism in WSBK has been a let down this season. Laverty is a rookie, but the other guys have more than enough experience on "big bikes" to stay in touch with Checa in the championship.

povol said:

More like 5-6, but yea, it is a tight track, but here is a fact you might not realize. An AMA Superbike, when they were Superbikes, average speed around Barber, was faster than the average speed of a GP bike around Laguna, and much faster than a GP bike around Indy.

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Faster average speed than Indy? Interesting. I wasn't aware. Laguna is a great track and all, but it'd be nice if they could actually go in a straight line for a little while. And I hardly consider Indy a proper circuit. I don't mean to knock Barber so much, I'm just disappointed that he spent all that time and money to build a brand new facility which should've attracted at least one, if not both, of MotoGP and World Superbike. But the layout is just too tight for them to be worthwhile. It's one thing to have these half-assed circuits like Fontana, it's another to open a purpose built circuit in the past decade built to the wrong specifics. It's not bad, it just doesn't work as a world-class circuit (facilities excluded).

povol said:

Indy is a .... track with one redeeming quality, the 200 mph straight.Without it, Indy would be one of, if not the slowest track on the circuit, if its not already.The facilities are very good, track is a joke.Im not sure how you can defend Laguna and say Barber is not a proper track for GP when its a faster track. The top speed at Laguna is a woeful 165mph and could easily be matched or surpassed at Barber, in current configuration.If a little more speed is what you need, take out the rear straight chicane and you have speeds of around 185. Barber has lost races to GP and WSBK because of local politics, not the facility. The FIM has evaluated the track and there was a short list of minor modifications that Barber was prepared to make but local political pissing matches killed everything. Dont get me wrong, i love Laguna and am in no way suggesting it be removed from the schedule. .... can Indy and add Barber.

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No, i Know what you mean. I enjoy Laguna, but it is a bit Mickey Mouse. Like I said before, I don't mean to knock Barber, I'd just like to see a circuit where they can really stretch their legs properly. And not on an oval. I'm very, very excited for Austin.