[rsheidler]

Clearly Dunlop have not kept up this year, but there are a bunch of other Dunlop riders out there (Hodgson, Toseland, BBoz, eg) who do not seem to slide as much as Haga. I think his riding style is a lot harder on the rear tire than most riders out there. Damn entertaining to watch him though. For the first half of the season, he was the main reason to watch, as a Bayliss, Edwards 1-2 finish was preordained.



I could not tell if Haga was at fault in this crash -- clearly he was being held up and was desperately trying to find a way past. I think it is more likely just one of those things. In general, Haga has been riding much better the past several races.



Still gotta wonder (assuming it is true) just what Aprilia are thinking with him and Xaus for next year. At least they should get a lot more camera time than their overall performance would otherwise command.

 

[rsheidler]

From what I read, Honda's SBK effort is under direction of Honda Europe, as opposed to Honda Corporate, and it seems that they may look at racing a bit differently from Corporate. At least based on reports, they DO look at it more as a commercial venture. I cannot imagine Soichiro taking such a stance -- it is inconceivable that HE would contemplate pulling out, or even scaling back, under the circumstances.



Can you imagine the irony -- Edwards earns the No 1 plate for Honda and wears it in the front of a Ducati all next season while Honda either sits it out or mounts a half-assed, low budget effort with a no-name rider?!



I agree with your assessment of Honda's corporate culture regarding racing. They race to win, certainly, and they like the favorable PR, but even more they race to become better -- that is why they rotate engineers etc through their race teams. Their production cars or bikes would not be what they are if they farmed out race development to separate teams like so many others do.



Given that, maybe Honda Corporate will step in and overrule Honda Europe. We can hope!

 

[rsheidler]

Absolutely right about Laguna Seca -- Hayden clearly lost his front tire while trying to stay ahead of Haga, and Nori had nowhere else to go! I think Haga has gotten a bit of a bad rap. In fact, I was sorta ragging on him during the race yesterday, commenting about his propensity for crashing out, when my wife pointed out that if he is 4th in points (ahead of the great BBoz), he must be finishing a few races! Considering the relatively small Aprilia budget, he ain't doin' half bad.

 

[rsheidler]

>>Way more entertaining to watch SBK than F1<<



True, but then, mowing the grass is more entertaining than F1 lately;-)



It is a shame that there wasn't a camera on Bayliss at the time of his crash -- however, in fairness, SpeedTV has nothing to do with that -- the camera feed is provided to them by the organizers (I understand, generally politically driven decision to give the contract to the local - usually state-owned -- TV company) and SpeedTV (and all other carriers in whatever language) provide their own commentary. In Europe, you can flip through the channels and see the same footage in probably 5-6 different languages.

 

[rsheidler]

Re: Why Xaus?

You are, of course, exactly right. My comment was not a reflection on Xaus (or on Haga either, for that matter) so much as it was on the combination -- both are very talented, but somewhat erratic, riders (and are two of my personal favorites). I guess if I were team manager, I would have one of them and a more steady, reliable rider for the other spot.

Regarding the advantage of Xaus being Spanish -- given the huge popularity of motorcycle racing in Spain (check out the attendence figures for the Spanish rounds of both SBK and GP), and the fact that Spain is a huge market, this is a VERY BIG DEAL.