[rsheidler]

Re: Honda is chicken shyt for not playing

I am neither defending or attacking Honda on this -- I am disapointed not to see BBoz have a chance to once again show the international guys around Laguna Seca, and I am sure that Ben is really disapointed.

Still, you have to keep in mind that Honda are not running the RC51 (VTR-SP2) in WSB at all this year, and have only a half-hearted effort with this bike in BSB with Colin's old bike. They probably do not even have a WSB-spec bike available, so would have to build one for this one race -- US spec bikes are different (for one thing, the WCB bikes have to run on 92 octane gas, so they would have to drop the compression on the AMA bikes.

Since Honda have done no development on the VTR SP2 since the Suzuka 8hour last summer, even if they could produce a WSB-spec bike for Laguna, it likely would be soundly outclassed by Suzuki and Ducati. From Honda's viewpoint, they probably figure that they have more to lose than they possibly could gain.

The other factor is that BBoz, who is the rider most likely to want to do Laguna, has been very underwhelming on the Honda -- really has not been able to get comfortable on it. To see him beaten by a non-factory R1 would be pretty embarrasing (which could have been a possibility, except that the top Yamaha rider just got hired to replace Gobert at Ducati Austin for the next two races).

I understand that Mladin and Yates will have access to all the tuning and setup information from the Factory WSB team, and I believe that EBoz's team might get some data from the WSB Kawasaki team (although as poorly as they have done this year, that info might not be worth much).

I'm thinking that this might be one of the best chances that Suzuki have to beat Ducati this year -- either Lavilla or Mladin.

Cheers

Bob

 

[rsheidler]

Re: Honda is chicken shyt for not playing

I think for twins, the main differences are looser homogonization standards for special race-kit parts in WSB (which is why the US Ducatis run smaller throttle bodies) and the different fuel standards I mentioned. I think there is a slightly lower minimum weight as well.

Last year's AMA and WSB Hondas were reportedly very close in performance. Actually, from what I am told, the biggest difference was in tires and suspension. AMA has claiming rules that theoretically limit how much someone can spend of forks and shocks (that is you can spend as much as you want, but a competitor can claim them at a set price and you have to sell). As to tires, since Dunlop basically "owns" AMA racing, they don't have to give the AMA teams cutting edge stuff, like they do in WSB and GP. According to Nicky, the tires he ran in the WSB last year were much better than what he got for the AMA race.

My opinion is that if Ben had been winning regularly this season, his team would have found a way to run a competitive bike for him, and that still might happen. Seems like a lot of people in and out of the industry feel that they should.