Latest / B 4EVA Kool "Race A Motorcycle" Podcast / World SuperBike discussed in S5 Ep 34

Transcript

World SuperBike discussed in S5 Ep 34 · B 4EVA Kool "Race A Motorcycle" Podcast

0:00
You're listening to the Beep Forever Cool podcast.
0:01
My name is Rex 45 and tonight, man, we got some cool people in
0:06
the building. It's going to be fun.
0:08
World Super bike was in Esterrell.
0:11
Shout out to Bobby Fung and and attack Yamaha.
0:15
The boy had that Yamaha sliding sideways.
0:18
But I'm not doing the show by myself.
0:20
Let me bring in the folks and introduce them.
0:24
TJ, what's going on, man? How you doing tonight?
0:27
And hanging in there looking in the the New England weather,
0:31
it's cold up here, so low depression season's kind of
0:36
coming to an end. But still watching that race.
0:39
And it was a good weekend with the world Super Bike and see if
0:43
I'll be falling out there and Garrett Gerloff.
0:46
And like, it's tough some Americans, you know?
0:48
Listen, man, come on down, man. Florida is nice.
0:51
You know, it was 60 something this morning.
0:54
I got up to the 80s. Good motorcycle riding weather,
0:59
you know what I'm saying? Come on down, man.
1:00
That's all I got to say about that.
1:02
But yeah, you're right. World Super bike, crazy stuff.
1:05
It's cool. We'll talk about what it, you
1:06
know, what it means to have more riders in Motor America.
1:09
I mean, in World Super Bike as well.
1:11
Not just World Super Bike, but hopefully Moto GP.
1:14
But let's keep the lineup going. Bobby Shakes was good, man.
1:18
Welcome back, man. Man, like 4-4 days in a row,
1:20
man. What's good, man, you know?
1:23
I mean, I mean, this is what happens when, when, when you're
1:25
the Yamaha blue guy, right? When, when you're, when, when
1:29
you're, you're, you're the Yamaha fake blue guy.
1:32
I know nothing about Yamaha, but I dressed the part.
1:34
Look at that. I got the you know how I got
1:40
this, though? Do tell you know how I got this
1:44
Yamaha stuff? So Chad Reed is it?
1:47
Chad Reed, the dirt bike rider. I'll go with that.
1:50
I I I'm bad with names? I hope it's Chad Reed.
1:54
He came to the dealership and we and I did a full documentary on
1:59
dirt bike riding, put out the video and they played it at
2:03
Gillette Stadium during the dirt bike race.
2:05
So while the race is going on in between the races it would show
2:09
my a short film on motorcycle races and and Yamaha was like yo
2:13
man give it give this guy all the gear makes good movies.
2:17
So it's it's it's motocross, not dirt bike race.
2:21
Dirt bike race is what you do in your backyard with your friends
2:26
motocross. But I appreciate the Yamaha, you
2:29
know what I'm saying? I'm definitely a fan.
2:31
But let's keep it going because we got this show to go.
2:33
Luis Ortega, the numbers guy. What's going on, man?
2:37
What's Scott? What's up, man?
2:39
Yes, here working remotely again.
2:42
So I'm coming in remotely. So if everybody's just be a
2:45
little patient with my audio. But I'm out here in California
2:49
doing a couple of things, meeting a couple of people and
2:52
getting some really good info that I'll share later on in the
2:54
show about attendance, about Motor America, about how things
2:59
are looking and how things are going both on and off the track
3:02
for a lot of things. Wow, man, I mean, you know, I
3:05
want to say you like, you know, Michael Irvin, man, you do the
3:08
show from anywhere. Definitely appreciate that for
3:14
sure. And we're going to keep it
3:15
locked and moving. So let's just get into it.
3:18
World Super Bike and Esther, all guys.
3:21
You know, there was 1 champion that came out of the weekend.
3:25
I I think Top Rock was hoping he got that.
3:29
That didn't happen. So it looks like it's going down
3:32
to the last round. I mean it's it's an uphill
3:35
battle for Bulgoga for sure, but you know before I don't even
3:40
know. I'll leave this up to you guys.
3:42
What you want to talk about? You want to talk about attack
3:44
Yamaha and what they did in world super bike first before we
3:48
talk about the rest of the championship or we follow that
3:50
up. We start with TJ, man.
3:52
You know how you want to kick it off.
3:56
Yeah, man, I think we should start with Attack Yamaha
3:59
because, you know, I mean, what an experience to to get the
4:04
chance to go to World Super black for the last two rounds,
4:07
you know, like so we still got a chance to watch Bobby entertain
4:11
us and and for himself to improve and one more round
4:15
that's still crucial because we still have to get a champion,
4:18
you know, so and for him to be out there, he's already seen a
4:24
lot, you know, like he got the tires smoking even like I think
4:28
it was race one. He's a crazy term one incident
4:31
that he just avoided. But it's good to have attack
4:35
Yamaha get that experience and bring that data over to the US
4:40
It's very good. Good to see.
4:42
I, I completely agree, Bobby Shakes.
4:46
You know, I, I, I know you're Auk born and bred guy.
4:50
You know, I, I don't know if you're saying king at this point
4:53
or still saying queen because I think the queen still lives on.
4:58
But what does it mean for, you know, a team like attack Yamaha
5:02
to go from motor America to to go spend a couple of rounds at
5:06
the world super bike level? I mean, we're seeing this in car
5:09
racing and people are trying to I don't necessarily move up, but
5:13
it'd be cool to see attack Yamaha and world super bike
5:15
permanently. What are your thoughts?
5:17
This is this is how we grow the sport.
5:19
This is how we grow attendance. This is how we put out more
5:22
bikes is how the manufacturer grows.
5:24
It's, it's just an upward swing. It's all the big manufacturers
5:31
have to participate because we want listen, and I hate to be
5:36
the bearer of brand news, the motorcycle industry declines 1%
5:40
a year, every year. I I don't know why we have to
5:45
get seriously tight and and play defense mode now because the
5:50
bikes are so damn expensive, right?
5:52
I mean, Harley's a 40 grand. What are you going to buy a
5:56
brand new Harley? You going to buy a car for 40
5:58
grand, right? The sport bikes used to be
6:01
something that you could buy wheelie and crash and buy
6:04
another one. You can't do that anymore.
6:08
We have to grow the sport, and how we grow the sport is by
6:10
getting all manufacturers in. We get them in at the race level
6:14
with the technology, and all that stuff will trickle down.
6:17
Not like wealth, right? Race technology is the only
6:20
thing in the inhumanity that really does trickle down to us
6:23
for people. But I think we need it.
6:26
It's good for Yamaha, it's good for the sports, for attendance
6:29
and just just good for irrelevance.
6:31
Yeah, I I completely agree, man. I completely agree.
6:34
And we're going to hear more about the attendance and stuff
6:36
like that from the US. But Lewis, man, what are your
6:39
thoughts on your boy Bobby and how he did this first round in
6:44
Esterel? I mean, it's huge for Daneze is
6:47
is huge all around attack Yamaha.
6:49
I mean, and I there's, there's not a sad story unless it was
6:52
another not having another team from the US.
6:55
Yeah, I mean, it's it's used for Daneze either way, because the
6:58
two guys at the front are both rocking our gear.
7:02
So we're doing great. And then we've got a couple
7:04
other guys rocking our gear. And as far as like, to me, the
7:08
biggest part of this weekend, obviously I'm looking at Top
7:11
Rack. I'm wondering if Top Rack's
7:12
going to lock it away this weekend.
7:14
But Bulaga is just, he's got a dog in him.
7:17
He doesn't want to give it up. If there's an opportunity, he's
7:19
going to take it. And even though they battled
7:22
hard, you look at the racing, they're battling hard, but
7:25
they're battling clean. Nobody can really say that
7:27
somebody is, you know, taking me out, pushing me off my line.
7:30
Like, you know, they battle hard, but it's it's it's almost
7:33
like they have a, a mutual respect battling hard.
7:37
Like, I'm not going to take it easy on you, but I also respect
7:41
you as a rioter and you know, I'm going to put it on you, but
7:44
I'm not going to put it on you. You know.
7:46
That's the one side. There Because, you know, that's
7:49
top rock doing all that pushing and jumping into spots that he
7:52
really can't fit. And Bulgar is just, you know,
7:56
well, he's he's he's leaving. He's leaving.
8:00
Well, he understands that, you know, there's different dynamics
8:05
working here. So if you're on the outside, the
8:06
inside, you know how you take the corner a little bit
8:08
differently based on the dynamics of your bike.
8:11
So maybe the way his bike works is a little bit different than
8:14
Top Rack's bike. So he has to give that spot, not
8:16
because he wants to, but because the Ducati works in a certain
8:19
way and it leaves that spot open and Top Rack haven't packed.
8:23
Those two guys haven't raced each other so much over the past
8:25
two years. They know the dance.
8:29
You know, if you really are that top level of racing and you're
8:33
racing the same couple of guys, you know what, everybody's
8:36
dances, you know everybody's style, you know everybody's
8:39
weaknesses, everybody's strength, not just the rider,
8:41
but the bike. So you look for these
8:43
opportunities. It's just the top rack bounces
8:46
on every opportunity. And I'll give you this much.
8:48
So does Bulaga. Bulaga, you leave the door open.
8:51
My man is not going to wait for you to close it.
8:53
He's going to kick the door in. So, you know, yeah, Top Rack's
8:57
getting the best out of it right now.
8:59
But, you know, Buluga is still a dog in a fight.
9:01
He's won that race that he needed to win.
9:03
He stayed competitive all weekend.
9:05
He did what he had to do. And then on the upper other end
9:09
of the spectrum, you know, we have our boy Bobby Fong, man.
9:12
And the one thing I can say about Bobby is, you know, he
9:15
went in there knowing that he just wanted to finish in the top
9:19
20, and he finished every race in the top 20.
9:24
And every single race he improved by one spot, you know,
9:29
so, so if you look at what his free practice one time is to his
9:35
final time at the end of the sessions or at the end of the
9:39
he, he improved by close to 3 1/2 seconds from his practice 1
9:44
to where he did as fast as lap time.
9:48
And you got to think about it, man, at the pointy end of the
9:50
sword improving 3 seconds is a lot, man.
9:53
When you're a beginner and you're going to the track and
9:56
you go from beginner to intermediate, you could jump 15
9:59
seconds. But when you're at that very top
10:02
echelon, like, yo, 3 seconds is a lot man to find and.
10:08
It's his first time there and you know, we've seen it with
10:12
with other guys. So he has to, I mean, you know,
10:16
regardless of how this next round comes away, I think
10:18
overall the whole team has to come away, you know, feeling
10:21
good going into next season in Motor America.
10:25
I know for sure. I mean, the one downside they
10:27
have is I'm sure they wish they could bring a truckload of
10:29
Pirelli tires back with them because, you know, they see what
10:34
these Pirelli tires can do. And trust me, once you, once you
10:37
ride on a Pirelli and then you have to go back to Dunlop, you
10:41
know, you, you're like, damn, bro, there's a difference.
10:45
Yeah, once you got that grip, man, it's like, so this is how a
10:50
tire's supposed to work. Damn.
10:52
All right, let's go back to these shitty ass Dunlops.
10:57
But you know what, Jim and the Attack, the whole Attack team
11:02
had nothing to be ashamed of. They went out there, they showed
11:05
up, they finished the weekend, they finished every race.
11:09
I mean, there was a lot of DNFS throughout the weekend and they
11:13
weren't one of them, man. They stayed on the bike, they
11:15
stayed up on twos. They made it through the weekend
11:18
and every single race, race one, the Sprint race and race 2, they
11:22
kept improving their position. They kept moving up from 1 to
11:25
the next to the next. So they have nothing to be
11:28
ashamed of. And they go into this last round
11:30
again, man. They've got nothing to lose.
11:33
They've got everything to gain. And I think the experience that
11:36
the team and Bobby and everybody is getting right now is
11:40
unbelievable, man. I think they they walk away with
11:42
a lot of WS. I don't see any Elsie.
11:44
I see a lot of WS. Right.
11:46
Right now. Let me ask this, TJ, do you
11:48
think that, you know, world super bike motor America should
11:52
have more, more wild cards? And I I put it to see all you
11:54
guys and, you know, the ones that want to speak on the
11:57
financial part of that speak on it.
11:59
But as far as it's like, you know, it wouldn't be cool to to
12:02
have a a a a, you know, like, and I would say like almost like
12:05
what the NFL does, but more than one more than two rounds, right.
12:09
You know, I mean, if it's something that can happen
12:11
throughout the season, where where is a team from the USI
12:13
know, scheduling, you know, may play a part in that, but it'll
12:16
be pretty good luck. What are your thoughts, TJ, on
12:18
that? Seeing more American teams in
12:20
the world. Yeah, I mean, I definitely think
12:25
we should have more wild cards. Like I don't know if the last
12:28
two rounds like, you know, would work, but obviously with the
12:33
scheduling and stuff that that's what fits the best.
12:37
But I think definitely at least two manufacturers should be
12:41
eligible to be in a wild card to to see more Americans.
12:45
Like, you know, our point of view is different.
12:47
Like we want to see Americans over there competing and finally
12:50
get our foot in the door again. But you know, we want to how
12:54
about their point of view? They probably want to also see
12:56
more Americans come in and see what we got, you know, So the
13:00
more that we bring over there, the more fans that can
13:03
participate in and in the whole. So I think it's definitely not
13:08
just one because, you know, we're just focusing on Bobby at
13:12
this point. We're everything around.
13:14
But like, if there's more than one, you know, we got something
13:17
to actually kind of, you know, put forward and put them on the
13:21
table. Right, right.
13:23
What are your thoughts shakes on that?
13:24
I mean, you know, it's, you know, you're a numbers guy
13:27
you're talking about another numbers guy you're talking
13:30
about, you know, the motorcycle industry dropping 1% every year.
13:35
I assume you're going from the 80s when it was beautiful and
13:38
everybody's making money. But what are your thoughts on
13:41
that? Is it is it is does it?
13:44
How much does it, how much would it help the racing community by
13:49
having more American teams in the USI mean in motor, in world,
13:52
in World Suite Wide? Again, it's when we look at the
13:58
NFL. The NFL has ran out of athletes
14:03
in America. Like there's just no more
14:05
athletes in America. So now there's the NFL.
14:08
Africa it it now that's the new farm system.
14:12
How many countries are in Africa, right?
14:15
What does that do? That then opens the sport up and
14:17
makes it more worldwide. Right.
14:19
Right when you have the NBA, the NBA is great.
14:22
We got Jordan jumping around and winning championships.
14:26
But I would like to see the numbers.
14:28
Who did more for the NBA, Michael Jordan or the the very
14:33
tall dude for the Houston chat? What was his name?
14:36
The. Chao Ming, right?
14:39
Who did more for bringing the sport to a more national level?
14:42
Was it Jordan or Yao Ming? Because remember what?
14:45
Once Yao Ming came in and we cracked because the Chinese
14:47
market was tough. They loved this.
14:49
They were locked in. But when Yao Ming came over, it
14:51
just blew that apart. These are things that are
14:54
necessary for sports to grow, the business to grow.
14:59
We can scale by letting in good riders, excuse me.
15:04
And we don't want to water down the sport, right?
15:06
That they there has to be a a second, a second like these are
15:12
the seconds in and you can't be that meant seconds over.
15:15
And then that allows you to come in because we still want to keep
15:17
the quality of the sport quality, but it it can't help to
15:22
expand. And where are most of your sales
15:26
coming from? Yamaha and and and and all you
15:29
guys like where are your sales coming from in America?
15:32
I remember when I was a young, young lad in in England, you
15:36
couldn't just go to a dealership and buy 1000.
15:39
You have to start with a 20 and a 30 and you got to take tests
15:42
and you can go. But America?
15:44
And you're talking about lawn mowers?
15:46
Yeah, Yeah. I mean in America it's a free
15:48
for all if you as long as you can, as long as you got the
15:51
money to go buy the bike. But we don't want people killing
15:53
each other. But we also try to move bikes
15:55
too. So you get they got to figure
15:58
out what market for them is lacking.
16:02
And I think they do a lot of, I think they do more sales in
16:05
America than they do globally. You have to, to push the sport
16:09
here and you have to get it on the ground level.
16:12
It's, it's, it's, it's very simple.
16:14
It's AAU, it's football in Europe.
16:16
It's, it's, it's, we expand. We look for new blood, right?
16:21
And you can see that especially in football now.
16:23
Well, my football is, you know, you have a slew of Africans, you
16:26
have a slew of Spaniards, have a slew of Italians, have a slew of
16:30
Brazilians because they're expanding the sport out and
16:33
they're just grabbing. You didn't say English.
16:37
We're terrible. I mean, we suck.
16:42
All, we all English, all US English people have to do with
16:45
this one job. Keep all the tracks dry.
16:48
We just got to keep the tracks out.
16:49
That's all people asking for. And we screw that up.
16:51
So that just tells you how we are.
16:55
I don't know how you follow that, but you, you heard a lot
16:57
there. There's some things to unpack,
17:00
you know, is it, is it doable? Should it be done?
17:04
I, I could try to unpack that, but I'm, I'm still trying to
17:08
wrap my head around it. So Yao Ming as an example, he
17:13
did open the market up to a very big market.
17:16
China is the one of the biggest markets in the world because of
17:18
the amount of people, just the population.
17:22
But if I were to go anywhere in the world and say Yao Ming or
17:26
anywhere in the world and say Michael Jordan, 9 times out of
17:30
10, somebody's going to know who Michael Jordan is. 99 times out
17:35
of 100, they're not going to know who the fuck Yao Ming is
17:39
because there's a difference between a regional star and a
17:42
global star. And Yao Min was a huge star to
17:46
get us into China. But Michael Jordan is that next
17:50
level. He's that Valentino Rossi.
17:52
He's that name that's recognized around the world.
17:55
And as far as where the most motorcycles are sold,
17:58
motorcycles, the highest volume of motorcycles that are sold for
18:01
the Asian brands is not sold in the US.
18:05
They're sold in smaller displacements in countries all
18:07
around the world. This is why they don't put a lot
18:10
of focus because nobody's buying.
18:12
You know, there's no reason they are kind of discontinuing the
18:14
R1. It's not because they want to.
18:18
It's because they don't feel like investing in a platform
18:20
that's not bringing them back the ROI that they want.
18:23
I can either invest millions of dollars to build a new motor
18:27
just for the R1, or I can take all that money and I can build
18:31
more smaller displacement bikes that I can sell in Indonesia and
18:35
Malaysia and all these Asian and developing countries where these
18:40
are places that eventually in the future, they're going to
18:43
increase their ability to, to, to buy.
18:46
Their buying power gets bigger, they're able to buy a larger
18:49
bike. So I'm, I'm getting them and
18:51
indoctrinating them into my brand at a very low price, at a
18:56
very low. And this is what they did in the
18:57
US through the 80s and 90s and even in the early 2000s and then
19:02
in the in the mid 2000s when the market here went to shit, it
19:06
never recovered because this new generation is not looking to
19:09
invest in these products again. And the price of the products
19:13
has gone up. Is the only company that has a
19:15
different market strategy is Ducati.
19:18
Ducati doesn't make small displacement motorcycles for
19:21
Malaysia and for all these places because they're not
19:23
building in value. They're building to a certain
19:26
amount because this is the profitability that they want to
19:28
maintain. So they don't mind selling a
19:30
$30,000 motorcycle because they only need to sell 3000 of those
19:35
$30,000 motorcycles to make what Yamaha's making selling $30,300
19:40
motorcycles. So this is all the mathematics
19:44
of why is Ducati doing more in racing?
19:47
Because that's their bread and butter.
19:49
Yamaha, Suzuki, Honda, Kawasaki racing is not their bread and
19:54
butter. Racing is a nice place to
19:57
display their name and put their name out there, but their bread
20:00
and butter is a smaller displacements and trying to go
20:03
into developing markets. So I think that explains a
20:07
little bit of some of the stuff that shapes was saying.
20:10
I can't wrap my head around all of it because it was a lot.
20:15
But now back to the racing part of it.
20:18
The reason that we only get wild cards at the end of the season
20:21
is because we don't have a world super bike race in the US during
20:25
the season. If we had one round in the US
20:28
during the season, you would probably see two or three or
20:31
maybe four people participate in that race because they don't
20:36
have to pay the expense of shipping their bikes and
20:39
everything else across the world to race in Europe or race
20:42
somewhere else. Also during the season.
20:46
Do you really want your rider that you paid for to race this
20:49
year in this class going to Europe and possibly hurting
20:53
themselves and screwing your opportunity up here because you
20:56
do have sponsors that you're responsible to in the US?
21:01
So these are all the little nuanced pieces that people have
21:03
to look at. The biggest piece that's missing
21:06
is what I said in the last podcast.
21:11
World Super Bike needs to bring back one round to the US and
21:16
they need to make that round available to not only Super Bike
21:19
guys, but I would like to see a two or three of our Super Sport
21:22
guys. We're competing in Super Sport.
21:24
If they don't have to ship their bikes or mechanics and all their
21:28
stuff around the world and they just got to travel to Laguna
21:32
Seca or Coda or someplace else, then that's an opportunity for
21:37
our racers to race on those platforms, on tracks that they
21:41
already know, where they might be a little bit more
21:43
competitive, where they don't have a learning curve and they
21:46
don't have to worry about a huge time change.
21:48
They don't have to worry about bringing different mechanics or
21:51
it becomes a little bit more of a level playing field.
21:54
They're probably still not going to be competing at the top
21:56
level, but they will be more competitive and they'll be more
22:00
engagement. You know, I'm looking at some
22:03
numbers right now and you know, we'll discuss them later, but
22:07
the the opportunity is there for World Super Bike to bring the
22:11
platform here and let our riders use that platform to elevate
22:15
their names. And who knows, maybe one of our
22:17
riders, two of our riders catch the interest of some of these
22:21
bigger teams. And now the teams that say, hey,
22:24
you know, that guy that raced in the US, maybe that's an
22:28
opportunity to get AUS rider into our team so that we can
22:32
expand ourselves even more. Because right now World Super
22:35
Bike is contracting. They're doing less races,
22:38
they're going to less countries. They're, you know, they're in
22:41
this weird little space where they're actually becomes
22:43
smaller, not bigger. And whereas Moto GP keeps adding
22:46
rounds, it seems like World Super Bike keeps taking away
22:50
rounds or keeps taking away destination points to try to
22:53
keep the cost down. And it's going to hurt them
22:55
eventually. Like there's there's no need to
22:57
them to go to a place where they're not going to make a lot
22:59
of attendance, but to not come to the US or not come to South
23:04
America where you have fanatic motorcycle racers.
23:09
Like you're leaving out two big opportunities to get in front of
23:12
a lot of fans and continue to grow your brand instead of
23:15
shrink your brand. So do you want to be the
23:16
European Championship or do you truly want to be the World
23:19
Championship? Because you're going to fucking
23:22
Australia and that's fucking far, bro.
23:24
It's not cheap to go to Australia.
23:27
So you can go to Australia and you can't come to the US.
23:30
It's like an 82,000 hour flight to Australia, bro.
23:33
It's it's faster to go to the moon and back.
23:36
Well, I I got to assume that, you know, somebody over there is
23:38
jumping off a big fat check to doing A to make it happen to
23:42
show up, you know, so but let's talk about the race a little
23:45
bit, guys. You know, it was it seems like
23:49
it was a battle between just top rack and Lewis touched on it
23:52
initially. You know, it wasn't the race, TJ
23:57
that you thought was going to happen.
23:58
Or did you think that you know, Bouliger was going to, you know,
24:02
fight back even more? He got one race he finished
24:04
second, which was the cleanest racing he's done in a few
24:08
without, you know, bad starts and and and not getting very
24:11
good grid positions. But you know, what are your
24:13
thoughts overall? And we we can talk about the
24:15
Lowell's brothers in that and, and Petrucci who broke his hand
24:20
and still gold is the top independent rider sitting out
24:24
the next two. Well, this past round, the next
24:26
round. So what are your thoughts, CJ?
24:30
Yeah, I mean, overall I thought it was good track, good round.
24:34
I mean, they were saying that it had low grip and all that good
24:37
stuff, but Talbrak and Bogle had definitely put on a good fight
24:43
for all three races. I mean, we was talking earlier,
24:48
I've never seen S Brock in a while start the way he did where
24:51
he had to actually fight to get back to the front all three
24:55
races. And that's I felt that he was
24:59
just being a little bully. You know, he's being clean, but
25:04
a little bully just getting around people, knocking off
25:06
people's lines and just to get to the front.
25:10
But he made his way, took him only one lap, so it wasn't like
25:14
too aggressive. But for him to pull out the 1st
25:18
2 was was really crucial for him to to sustain his championship.
25:23
And Bulaga is trying really hard.
25:25
So it's very important for him to get that last one.
25:27
Still got a chance. That's all you want.
25:31
And just looking at last year, they they, they had the same
25:33
fight, they pulled out the same results basically.
25:38
Top Rock took two, Bulaga took one.
25:39
So. Right.
25:41
Yeah, I mean. It was a rookie last year, so.
25:44
Yeah, I mean, Top Rank only walked away 6 more points
25:48
though. I mean, that's, that's as good a
25:50
fight as you can get without winning all the races and taking
25:54
away some points. Lewis, what are your thoughts on
25:57
on on the weekend as well? You know, you know, it, it's it,
26:02
those are both you guys because they're, they're rocking to die
26:04
in a suit. So I mean, on one hand, it
26:06
doesn't matter who wins. You know it's a win, win.
26:11
Yeah, I mean, it matters who wins.
26:12
I mean, we you know, I personally, I would I want top
26:17
rag to win because I want him to leave world super bike on top
26:22
right. But it but if Buliga wins, like
26:24
I, you know, I want Buliga to also have a championship because
26:28
this is a guy that's had a long journey to get to where he's at
26:31
and to have this opportunity and to kind of know some of the
26:34
background stuff that he's gone through to get to where he's at.
26:38
I want to see him hit that like the top of the mountain.
26:41
I want to see him hit that pinnacle.
26:43
So you're the guy that wins. I'm super happy for them.
26:47
And I'm not actually sad for the other rider because if top rack
26:51
were to lose, he's still going to Moto GP.
26:53
He's getting his dream. He's getting his opportunity to
26:56
race with the greatest guys and really see where he stacks up
26:59
with the fastest guys in the world on the fastest equipment
27:01
in the world. If Bulgar loses, he has nothing
27:05
to be ashamed of because he is literally racing what I can
27:08
consider one of the greatest super bike racers to ever exist,
27:13
even though he only has one title or two titles.
27:17
What top rack can do on a bike, jumping from manufacturer to
27:20
manufacturer, being in manufacturers that nobody else
27:24
thought even had an opportunity to win.
27:27
And taking the Yamaha and being competitive with the Yamaha and
27:31
winning on a Kawasaki and taking a BMW that had little shots of
27:36
brilliance here and there. Like maybe one guy raced a
27:39
little bit and had a good time. And but think about all the guys
27:42
that have raced for BMW since BMW went in there.
27:45
You got Marco Melandry, ex Moto GP Star never got a
27:48
championship. You got Scott ready.
27:50
Moto GP star never got a champion.
27:52
I mean, there's a long list of guys that have been on BMW and
27:56
could never do what Top Rack did.
27:59
Like Top Rack will go down in BMW history as the guy that
28:02
brought them their first world Super Bike championship.
28:04
There's. Always going to that SO 54 bike.
28:08
There's trust me man, he is more than welcomed in any BMW
28:12
dealership in the country. I guarantee you that he's going
28:15
to have a brand new BMW in his house every couple years for the
28:19
rest of his life like he did something for them that you, you
28:22
can't buy that kind of publicity.
28:24
You can't. You have to earn it.
28:25
Listen, that withdrawal next season, Oh, they, they, they,
28:29
they, they're going to be under the bridges.
28:33
They're going to realize when when they put when they put the
28:36
guys that they have next year on the BMW, they're going to
28:40
realize how special top rack was because nobody else has been
28:45
able to do what he did. And he does it on a consistent
28:47
basis. Not a one off.
28:49
It's not a Scott Redding one because it was raining.
28:51
It's not a Marco Malangi one because it's his home track and
28:55
imolar. This happened.
28:57
This guy raced the best against the best at a time that the best
29:00
are really high on a bike that nobody else can do it on.
29:04
And he did it. And B and BM WS get two former 1
29:08
slim Moto GP right now riders, so they're no slouches on their
29:12
own. Both factory riders.
29:15
So you know it it it's going to be we'll see at the end of the
29:19
season if you know how good of a rider Top Rock was in in in
29:24
World Super bike. What are your thoughts?
29:26
Shake on top rock. DJ what's she going?
29:30
To say no, you want to say just Mr. Ortiz, he he rose so well
29:37
that they still couldn't even win the the team championship.
29:40
You know, Zuccotti got it, Ruby. So I mean the the amount of work
29:45
that he put in busts his ass basically won every race for the
29:49
past. Like I don't know how many races
29:51
are just being on the podium so much that they still couldn't
29:55
win the 10 championships. So next year, like you said,
29:58
like it's going to be a eye opening.
30:02
Like I don't know who they're going to have on that BMW to
30:05
they can't replace it, but they even try to get close.
30:10
They've got Miguel Lavera and who else do they have?
30:13
Rexy. I know they got Miguel Lavera
30:15
and Petrucci. No, no, no.
30:17
I thought Petrucci was going to the factory Ducati team.
30:21
No BMW. No, it's Ika.
30:24
Luka Ono's going to BMWI mean you're going to Ducati Iko.
30:28
Oh, OK, so all right, so but knowing that it's Oliveira,
30:32
Petrucci BMW is going to suck next year.
30:35
There you go. They ain't going to do Jack
30:38
shit. Oliveira is going to be lucky
30:39
and nobody hits him. And Petrucci, I mean, I hate to
30:43
say it, the guy is got flashes of brilliance, but he's well
30:48
past the twilight of his career, man.
30:50
Like they should, they should have looked, they should have
30:52
looked at a hungry little tiger in World Super Sport and got a
30:56
hungry guy from World Super Sport and getting that spot,
30:59
giving Petrucci that spot. I mean, fourth in the
31:02
championship, man. I'm not come on, man.
31:05
He's he's 4th in the championship and he's hurt and
31:08
was hurt earlier in the in, in one of the rounds and he jacked
31:11
up himself. And as far as Oliveira, I think
31:14
Oliveira is in in a similar boat to Bulaga because he's had such
31:20
bad luck in Moto GP in the last few years.
31:23
I think Oliver is looking, Oliver is looking for a place
31:25
where it's, it's like, you know, he's, he's Grand Hill.
31:29
Right. He needs a fresh start.
31:30
Yeah, yeah, he needs to get traded to another team, get a
31:33
fresh start, new coach, new players around him and get an
31:37
opportunity. I and Petrucci being 4th in the
31:40
championship, that's not that's more of a slight on the level of
31:45
competition after first one and two than it is that Petrucci has
31:49
done so good to be in fourth. Come on, come on.
31:51
No, no, no, no, no. He was nice in Moto GP, man.
31:54
No, he was nice. He was nice on the factory team.
31:57
You know, he got one year on the factory and I I, you know, he's
32:03
and ah, yeah, Nah, he's, he's nice.
32:04
He's and he's a late bloomer because he was a cop before he
32:07
he got, he came into Moto GP. Remember he he had stepped away
32:11
for a little bit and then he was a little cop in Italy.
32:13
When he came back, when he came and jumped on what?
32:16
Whatever the Aventi, Aventi, whatever.
32:20
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The, the, what do you call it?
32:23
The CRT team or. Whatever.
32:26
Yeah. So.
32:27
So I mean, you know, but again, he had to, he had to work his
32:31
way up there. He he he he didn't come in like
32:34
Olivier did and so forth. And, and, and even, I mean, I
32:37
don't think Ducati wanted to give him a two year deal factory
32:42
and he wanted A2 year deal and BMW gave him that.
32:45
So I mean, I think he had a chance for factory too, but
32:47
just, I think it was just coming like another one year deal for
32:49
him. But we will see.
32:51
I mean, they're, they're both talented writers and, you know,
32:54
if somebody takes all of your out, then, you know, I, I think
32:57
he needs to sell insurance. If, when, say when, Don't say if
33:04
when somebody takes Oliver out. Right, a movie called wrong
33:08
place, wrong time for him because so many.
33:13
So let's talk about the as you, as you said, the the discrepancy
33:17
between 1:00 and 2:00 and the rest of the field.
33:19
We see a Noni and Noni says he he has a ride for next year.
33:23
He hasn't said with who yet. He's shown flashes of
33:26
brilliance. I mean, but this is an older
33:28
guy, Eco Eco, even though he signed to Ducati and coming off
33:33
an injury, he still decide to race that Honda.
33:36
He seems like, you know, I think him and Zarko want to win so bad
33:40
And and I'll put Acosta into this that, you know, they kind
33:43
of just push a little bit more than what that bike want to give
33:46
them. And Eco, you know, crashed out a
33:48
bunch, but he looked as he looked strong on the Honda.
33:52
You know what you guys thought about those those guys and, and
33:55
some of the other guys I haven't mentioned, but you know, we're
33:58
also fighting, you know, Batista, you know, he looked
34:01
good even though he was struggling because he got three
34:04
third places for the weekend. It was entertaining overall, but
34:08
you know, the the the star of the show was Bulgar and and Tap
34:13
Rock and they did not disappoint.
34:14
What are your thoughts, TJ? Yeah, I mean he had a little
34:20
fight. I mean just like mid pack.
34:26
Yeah, like the the lowest brothers and I want to say
34:30
Bautista, I felt like he was just being annoying a little bit
34:35
holding up a pack of riders. And as you know, they, as they
34:40
say, as the race goes on, his bike gets lighter and, and, you
34:46
know, he doesn't use as much tire so he can still keep a good
34:50
pace. So he's kind of a little all
34:52
over the place in in a couple of corners.
34:55
But he was able to maintain, you know, 3 podiums as third place.
35:00
But the pack of the riders I felt still had a good chance to
35:03
to get up there, you know, equals one of them.
35:10
And yeah, I thought, Jonathan. Ray.
35:13
Was Jonathan? Yeah, I was going to say, yeah,
35:16
Jonathan Ray actually, you know, had a had a taste for 1/3 and
35:21
then, you know, the second-half of the race is just they just
35:24
drops off. But it's still good to see him
35:27
up there. It was just a good fight after
35:30
one and two fighting for like third and down when I felt like
35:35
Alvarez didn't have the have the best pace.
35:38
But like that Ducati coming out of the corners, it just just
35:41
saved them basically, where he was able just to pull away out
35:45
of each corner where other riders just couldn't catch up to
35:47
him in enough time and didn't want to dive on, you know, So,
35:53
But yeah, I think Eco had a good weekend for keeping it up at
35:57
least and getting the results that he had.
36:00
But, you know, it was good to see, I guess.
36:03
However, again, in three points in a row at his age, still
36:06
seeing showing that he still got it.
36:08
And he is a good backup writer, I'd say, and still gets you
36:12
those points when you need them and has the intelligence to to
36:15
keep it going, you know. But I don't see him as a number
36:18
one writer. All right, right, Shakes I'm I'm
36:22
going to give you a file of words so I know you have to get
36:24
out of here in a few. It look like you're already
36:27
trying to sneak out the the the the house to where you're
36:30
looking like it's sliding alongside the building.
36:32
No. No, no, no, no.
36:35
I was. I was.
36:37
Something caught my attention on the on the monitor.
36:40
Sounds like looking at the monitor.
36:41
I can't. I need my glasses.
36:43
I can't see shit. I'm like, what's going on?
36:47
Because I'm checking my focus because I'm on the manual focus,
36:49
blah blah blah. No, you got you got you.
36:51
Yeah, But you know, what are your thoughts on, you know,
36:54
these older guys in World Super Bike that struggling a little
36:57
bit? You know, we known a who you
37:01
know, he this is a second year World Super Bike.
37:03
He had a full year ban from Moto GP for illegal substance.
37:11
You know, you got Petrucci who's looking good, but he's breaking
37:14
himself up and some of these other guys.
37:16
I know I don't know if he had a chance to catch world super bike
37:19
overall, but we had thoughts of, you know, the, the, the Yamahas
37:23
and and and the the satellite Ducati's.
37:27
Hey, listen, if you're not cheating, you're not trying.
37:30
But we said this last Wednesday, as you get older, this is this
37:34
is not basketball, this is not football.
37:37
A cognitive nervous system start to deteriorate.
37:41
It's harder to see stuff, harder space.
37:45
It's it's a brain thing and nobody beats father time.
37:48
And that's what sucks about this, this and F1 is just the
37:52
cognitive just starts to disintegrate with the G forces
37:55
and the training that it takes to even stay on those things and
37:58
hold on. You show that to us just now,
38:02
your monitor and what you're trying to see.
38:04
Yeah, exactly. There it is. 20 years ago, I
38:09
could have sat back here and saw the monitor, you know?
38:12
Now I'm like, oh, let's go. There it is.
38:16
There, there it is. I'm 51.
38:18
It's over. It's over.
38:20
Nervous system is gone. Eyesight gone.
38:22
Hearing is gone. And you know what happens as you
38:26
get older? Fear comes in right when you're
38:31
20 and you crash, no big deal. Some die, that's not good.
38:37
But nine times out of 10, you can walk, you can stand up.
38:41
You do a bad crash at 20, now you're 5060.
38:48
You're like, I'm going to take my time down these steps, just
38:51
like racing. I've done this a long time.
38:54
I remember that crash I had and I was 15 and I hated the way
38:59
that felt. Now I'm a little bit older.
39:01
I don't want to take that risk anymore.
39:04
And in this sport, it's on the edge.
39:07
So it looks bad, but the body's competitive, the brain isn't.
39:13
And like we said last week, you just deteriorate fast.
39:16
Even in F1, you're watching Lewis Hamilton.
39:19
You just deteriorate. It.
39:20
It's, it's, it sucks and it's overnight, right?
39:25
It's it's sad, but God bless them and you got to keep doing
39:28
what you love. And you know what?
39:29
Fuck it. Do you have to win?
39:30
Do you have to win? Do you have to have money?
39:33
Do you have to have all the girls?
39:35
You just got to win. I don't know about the money
39:37
part. Yeah, but I don't think you have
39:39
to win. I think as you get older you
39:41
just want to compete still. You want to prove that I could
39:44
survive the generations, so go out there and have.
39:48
Fun You coming out for hot dogs? What you say you come up for
39:51
hot? Dogs.
39:51
I mean, come on. I mean, sometimes you're still
39:54
competitive, but you don't have it.
39:56
I don't think you should hang it up.
39:57
You think Enzo Ferrari had that philosophy at his elder age?
40:03
I mean, and so and so Ferrari thought he was a shit so he
40:06
died. He would get an F1 car at 103
40:12
years old. They could even start it.
40:14
But yeah. I see your point, though.
40:16
I see your point. You're right.
40:18
If you don't, if you, if you cannot maintain that
40:21
fearlessness as you go into your twilight ages or as you get
40:27
older and stuff like that, yeah, you do have to walk away from
40:30
these extreme sports. And it is an it is an extreme
40:35
sports. All right, I have to get at it.
40:38
But my hands are up. Ortega was dropping bombs
40:40
tonight. Like you, calling out riders.
40:42
You ain't good. My hands up.
40:43
Don't shoot at me. My hands is up.
40:45
Hands up. I'm not.
40:47
Going I don't drop a bombs. Right there.
40:51
I, I carpet bomb, yo, I don't drive smart missiles, man.
40:58
I, I just carpet bomb. I know everybody's going to get
41:00
some collateral damage. I know.
41:03
I I thought you were just taking out the nucleus.
41:05
I didn't know you'd take it out. Now watch it too.
41:11
Eyeshakes man, peace man, nice man can.
41:14
You campaign, good seeing you. So Lewis, man, let's talk about
41:21
what how Kawasaki is right now and what they're doing.
41:24
You mean the the bimoto guy struggled, Gerlov struggled.
41:32
You know, is, is it a matter of just not having enough finance
41:36
to put into this bike? You know, is it, is it, is it
41:39
just more time? The Bimotos will probably do
41:41
better next season. Well, the Bimotos have a little
41:45
bit more than the Kawasaki Direct, which is weird because
41:50
Kawasaki themselves this year kind of threw their hands up
41:53
from my understanding, and really hasn't provided Garrett
41:56
or anybody on a Kawasaki any support.
42:00
Like they almost threw their hands up this year.
42:01
Like, yo, just ride what you have and you know, do the best
42:04
you can with what you have. To my understanding, they're
42:08
supposed to do a little bit more next year.
42:10
They're supposed to provide a little bit more support, but
42:13
that's kind of a wait and see, you know, are they going to do
42:15
that? Because just like the R1, the
42:17
ZX10 is now very long the tooth, just like the Suzuki, just like
42:22
the CBR. And like I said, it's these
42:25
these Japanese brands do not have a huge, huge emphasis on
42:30
developing new super bike motors because that's not where the
42:33
money is at the consumer retail level.
42:37
It's still important for them to go racing and have their name
42:40
out there. But until they get that emphasis
42:42
on wanting to have competitive motorcycles there, I don't see
42:47
it happening. You know, I see Honda making
42:49
more strides than anyone else right now.
42:52
I think Yamaha has kept pushing out the same help bike for a
42:56
long time. And now it's kind of coming to
42:59
the end of its run where it's like, all right now, it really
43:02
is starting to lose a lot of momentum.
43:04
It's not as competitive. It's not this, it's not that.
43:09
But Kawasaki, it seems like it gave up a long time ago.
43:12
You know, it's one of the reasons Jonathan Ray left
43:14
Kawasaki is they, they gave up like seems like 5 or 6 years
43:17
ago. And it's not even, not even just
43:19
at the world super bike level club racing, you see these club
43:22
racing like like the Kawi was, was, was the bike, you know, for
43:26
a little bit to, to kind of, you know, face off against the
43:28
R120151617. And, and now you see those guys,
43:34
you know, some of these guys are switching to BMWs and, and
43:36
different manufacturers. And I mean, Ducati, BMW kind of
43:39
deal, which is, which is, it's almost, you know, you know,
43:45
like, I don't know if they didn't understand that was going
43:47
to happen. Maybe they thought people would
43:48
still buy bikes if they didn't throw anything into it.
43:51
But it it's tough when you, you know, you're, you're putting up
43:53
18/19/20 grand. If you want to get really fancy
43:57
and get the 28 grand Cowie, you know, it's not, you know, put
44:02
more investment in. And that's the thing.
44:04
If you're going to raise the price on something, you got to
44:06
raise the value of the thing that you're raising the price
44:09
on. And you got to show that that
44:11
value is there. You know, I can keep raising the
44:14
price on something, but if I don't really change it, if I can
44:16
just say, well, the price is going up because costs are going
44:19
up, that doesn't really register to a consumer because they're
44:23
like, well, last year I could have bought that same bike for
44:25
$2000 less. So you know what I'm going to
44:27
do? I'm going to buy a used 1.
44:29
So now you start losing the new buyer and you convert what
44:33
should be a new buyer into a used by buyer and now they go to
44:37
the used market. And now as a manufacturer, I
44:40
don't see the sales anymore because that consumer is not
44:43
buying my new product, they're buying my used product.
44:45
And that used product doesn't bring any money back to me as
44:48
the manufacturer. So then I'm like, well, wait a
44:51
second, this isn't selling. Why isn't it selling?
44:55
I'm selling less, so now I need to increase the price to make up
45:00
the difference for what I lost. And then all you keep doing is
45:03
taking that new buyer and pushing them back to the youth.
45:05
So you become part of your own fulfilling, self fulfilling
45:09
prophecy. You're pushing the new buyer
45:11
away because you keep raising the price, but you don't keep
45:14
raising the value and you don't show the value because you don't
45:17
support it by going into racing or doing these other things.
45:20
So it becomes as very secular thing that the only, the only
45:24
thing that can stop it is the company decides we're going to
45:26
make a new bike, we're going to set the price here and we're
45:30
going to invest this much into getting the bike in front of
45:33
consumers so they can see how good the bike is.
45:36
And unfortunately the Japanese manufacturers aren't in that
45:40
mindset. The only one that seems to kind
45:42
of be coming back around to that mindset is Honda.
45:45
But again, we'll wait and see because the CBRRRRRRRSPR has
45:52
been around for a while now and it's shown a couple of flashes
45:56
of brilliance here and there, but it's not competitive week
45:59
in, week out. You know, it's starting to do
46:01
some things, but it's not there yet.
46:05
It's not there TJ with your thoughts on that.
46:07
I mean, you know, Honda, Yamaha and and Kawasaki and Suzuki,
46:12
your brands. You got a Yamaha, you got a
46:14
Suzuki. I got a, I got a, I got 2
46:17
Yamahas. You know, it's like you, you
46:20
heard Lewis say, you know, they're starting to come around
46:24
Honda. It's a little bit too late.
46:26
I mean, we do see the flashes of that in, in motor America.
46:29
If you look at some of the European rounds and BSB rounds
46:32
and stuff like that, We see Honda at World Super Bike.
46:35
We see it the Honda's gotten on the podium.
46:38
But is it too late for the fans? I know if Smitty was on on air
46:42
he'll probably say no because he's he's die hard Honda guy,
46:46
but we're not seeing that trickle down to a lot of CB
46:50
CBR1000 RRRI. Mean I, I don't want to say it's
46:57
too late. Everyone likes to see
47:00
improvement. So when you do better as the
47:02
season go on, like you can, you know, you can get a grasp on it
47:07
and say, hey, it just brings you more attention to yourself.
47:12
But what I'll say is it's like next season, if the same thing
47:15
happens where Honda doesn't find themselves to like the end of
47:19
the season, it's just like, you know, you guys just, I don't
47:23
know, just developing too late. It can't keep up.
47:25
But I don't think it's too late. And, you know, I'm not a super
47:30
big Honda fan, but I just know just being on the podcast with
47:34
Smithy, I just know how happy he is right now.
47:37
Just seeing just seeing this Honda actually being a little
47:40
relevant and getting finishes and just looking good overall
47:45
compared to like how they started.
47:47
So it's like, it's good to see that.
47:51
But yeah, I don't think it's too late.
47:53
But as far as like being competitive, like, yeah, they
47:55
have nothing to really shoot for, but it's always to get
48:00
better results each time out. And just like slightly going
48:04
back to Kawasaki, like and Gary Gerloff.
48:09
And I just feel so bad for for him this season.
48:13
And I think he resigned again, but I just remember the yet like
48:19
he hasn't really had any good results this year and just being
48:23
top rocks teammate the year before on BMW, even though top
48:28
rock killed it, like he was able to still find good finishes here
48:32
and there. And like right now it's just
48:34
like, I don't know what's going on.
48:36
And and like Lewis is saying, like they they just gave up.
48:40
And it just, it just sucks to see that when you're a rider
48:44
trying to, you know, get better results, as long as they kind of
48:49
still paying you and and whatever, but still you don't
48:52
want to be always in the back of the pack.
48:54
You know you. Heard.
48:56
You heard what Shake said about winning.
48:59
You know, I think, you know, like Cam and these guys that
49:02
raced in Moto 2 and and and even Moto GP and then come over to a
49:07
different category and you know, you go from the middle of the
49:10
pack or, you know, top 15 to, you know, top five.
49:14
You know, it feels good to walk around being top five, top
49:17
three. So you know, I mean how you
49:19
know, girl off, you know, if he came back to the States, you
49:22
know he's he's what you know, he's like who's number one.
49:26
I mean, you can even you can even see the levels.
49:29
I mean like like where we sit as Americans like in our level.
49:34
So you go to World Super Bike. Obviously it's I think Bobby's
49:38
first time and you know, the bike's not too developed as you
49:43
know, like you know what Bulaga and and and and Tom Brach's
49:46
doing, but you know, he was still in the back of the pack.
49:49
Like he still has a lot of work to do.
49:51
You know, it's not like he just went over there.
49:52
It was just mid pack because of his skill level.
49:55
So it's just still like, you know, it's, it's still, you
50:00
know, you want to see improvement and you know, just
50:03
to be in the back, right. You're, you're right, it's not
50:08
just Bobby Fong. I mean, it's the whole team,
50:10
right? Because it, you know, it's, it's
50:13
one thing to be the top team in, in your, in your arena of field
50:18
or in this case the US and then seeing how those guys are moving
50:23
over there and stuff like that. So I think overall the whole
50:26
team, which I think is cool to see because last year I believe
50:30
only Gillum and and maybe a couple of people went over when
50:34
he when he rode, he didn't there was not like the whole team from
50:37
the US. So to have that whole team come
50:39
over and, and Reese is over there as well.
50:41
So you know, I think you know, the teams from Kanye and, and,
50:46
and Bobby over there. So I got to assume, you know,
50:49
when they come back, you know they're going to, they're going
50:52
to have a little extra. I believe that.
50:56
I believe that for sure. I mean it's just like I said,
50:59
the two rounds is really good, you know, where you kind of can
51:02
feel comfortable to like, you know, just not want it done and
51:06
like wait till next year. You know, like he can actually
51:09
like all right, I know these riders tendencies now, at least
51:13
the pack that he was riding with Bobby and like, all right, let's
51:17
see if I can stay with them next time and see what they can do
51:19
with this track to see what I can do with these tires.
51:21
Like you have another chance and it's just good to see you and
51:25
hopefully next year we get 2 rounds again and maybe like
51:28
Lewis said, some some super sport riders and hopefully they
51:31
can come to the US but. Right.
51:34
Yeah, no, it's, it's crazy to see.
51:36
And I know I'll move to Lewis and just add this.
51:38
I mean, Bobby's pretty lucky, right?
51:40
Because, you know, Ganya has won so much with with the with that
51:43
team. And if it if it was a difference
51:45
in the points this year, it might have been Gandhi on that
51:48
bike instead of Bobby. So, you know, to be a first year
51:50
guy on a team and, and, and, and to do that and then get this
51:54
opportunity and it's going to make him even a better rider for
51:58
for next year is a beautiful thing.
52:01
But Louis, you said you had some things that you wanted to touch
52:03
on and about what's, you know, things to come in the numbers in
52:07
Motor America and such. Yeah.
52:10
So I wanted to go through. So I got a early draft of what
52:16
Motor America is going to put out soon, just overall numbers
52:20
for the season, overall number for attendance, how things were
52:24
from event to event. And I got to kind of look at a
52:28
just a quick snapshot today. The official information I think
52:32
will get released like the end of this week.
52:34
But overall, like Moto America had a very big increase in
52:39
attendance overall for the year, which is great, you know,
52:44
considering the tracks that they went to.
52:46
And you know, some tracks had better attendance than others.
52:49
But overall, the attendance this year, the participation, the
52:52
engagement this year did increase dramatically from last
52:56
year. And even last year was a good
52:59
step up from the year before. So since COVID, we've seen this
53:04
steady increase in Motor America attendance year over year.
53:09
This year it was a little bit more than just a steady
53:12
increase. And a lot of it, as much as
53:14
people like to shit on the baggers, a lot of it is can be
53:18
directly contributed to the baggers.
53:22
Any event where there was baggers scheduled to attend had
53:27
significantly higher attendance than any event that did not have
53:32
the baggers scheduled to attend. And that's, that's an eye
53:37
opening thing that is you're reaching out to a new fan base
53:43
that is not a normal fan base for Rd. racing.
53:46
You're engaging with them and they're willing to come out and
53:49
watch the races, which is crazy to me because we got all these
53:54
Moto I, I didn't realize how many Moto GP superstars and
53:58
financial Wizards we have on the Internet.
54:00
We have millions in the USI mean, I, I'm surprised I have a
54:05
job with all these geniuses that are out here on the Internet
54:09
spewing all their dumb shit about why they think Motor
54:12
America is failing when actually Motor America is doing very
54:15
well. It's just that they refuse to
54:19
admit that baggers are a big part of why Motor America is
54:23
doing very well. And you know, I think just
54:27
looking at the data, I think you're going to see baggers have
54:30
more races next year because they're going to want to
54:33
capitalize on the fact that baggers have 6 rounds in Moto
54:36
GP. The first round.
54:39
Well, no, they have 6 Moto GP rounds that have baggers in
54:43
them. Right.
54:44
No, it's 12. No, it's six.
54:46
It's 6 events. Well, I thought it was 12 events
54:49
for the next season. No, it's 6 events.
54:52
It's Coda. Yeah, Yeah, it's Coda Majello.
54:55
It's 6 events. And all the events are pretty
54:57
much in Europe because they don't want to fly the bikes to
55:00
Asia and Indonesia and all these other places.
55:04
But at those particular events, I think even in Europe, they're
55:08
going to start seeing some significant turn out because the
55:11
big thing with these events is Harley-Davidson goes in and
55:15
spends a lot of money when they go to these events in 2024.
55:20
And again, these are estimates that I was given, so taken with
55:24
a grain of salt, it's estimated that Harley-Davidson invested
55:28
about $400,000 in attending Moto GP in 2024.
55:34
Between between what they did at the track, which was a massive
55:37
activation, and what they did at events around Austin during the
55:41
weekend of Moto GP, which is, you know, $400,000 is not
55:47
peanuts. It's a lot of money, and you and
55:50
I were at Moto GP this year. I can tell you that the
55:53
attendance this year was visually smaller than it was
55:57
last year when the baggers were there.
55:59
When the baggers were there, there was hardly any place to
56:02
park motorcycles because there was Harley Davidson's parked
56:05
everywhere. And this year you could walk
56:07
around and you could visually see the area where
56:10
Harley-Davidson was that had so many less people.
56:16
And overall, just walking around you can visually see there is so
56:19
much less engagement in this particular fan base of
56:23
motorcycling that doesn't really care about sport bikes.
56:26
Right. So Motor America or anything to
56:28
just have Harley-Davidson at every round.
56:31
They should. Well, not at every round because
56:34
even with baggers, there's some rounds that Motor America does
56:38
that. I'm not going to say they're a
56:39
loss, but they will never have the attendance at those rounds
56:42
unfortunately. Like when they go to Coda,
56:45
they're never going to get a massive attendance at Coda only
56:48
because Coda is the site of Moto GP.
56:51
And at that particular track, if you get 40,000 people that come
56:54
out, it looks like 8 people show up because the track is so big
56:59
that 40,000 people looks like nothing.
57:03
Yeah, you're walking for days. You, you and me.
57:05
Been there, man. Like you, You're like, damn, if
57:07
I ever, if there was ever a place to have a scooter, this is
57:11
it. Right.
57:12
Seriously, get them shoes with the wheels in the in the bottom,
57:15
yeah? What are they called?
57:16
Wheelies. Helix.
57:20
The other event that doesn't show up a lot of people is The
57:23
Ridge. Yeah, the, the, the attendance
57:26
at the Ridge is not that great. The attendance this year at VIR
57:30
was good, but you got to remember they hadn't been to VIR
57:32
in a couple years. So it's, it's a little hit and
57:34
miss because if you don't go on a regular basis, you see a
57:37
decline. And then the other place that
57:41
they had a little bit of a decline and, and it's because of
57:44
the scheduling they had Barber and then they immediately had
57:48
Rhode Atlanta. And from Rhode Atlanta to Barber
57:51
is only about a four and a half five hour drive.
57:54
So you're taking from the same pool of people and you want them
57:58
to go to this track from one weekend and then two weeks later
58:00
go to another track. So you're, you're cannibalizing
58:03
your audience because you're not going to pull as many people to
58:06
one location when you divide it over 2 locations that were that
58:10
were then a four and a half five hour driving distance.
58:15
Wisconsin Rd. America biggest turn out.
58:19
You want to guess why? What's in Wisconsin, dude?
58:23
The home of Harley fucking Davidson.
58:27
And you know what else they had at Wisconsin?
58:29
Baggers. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that.
58:32
Makes sense, massive turn out because you're in Harley
58:35
Davidson's backyard, so they're going to invest.
58:37
So this is one of the things that people need to really, they
58:40
need to stop shitting on the baggers and understand that the
58:43
baggers are bringing attention to the sport, whether you like
58:46
them or not. And what I would like to see is
58:50
I would like to see more baggers out there.
58:52
However, there's news that just broke.
58:55
Did it? Did it breaking news, India just
58:58
got sold. Polaris no longer owns Indian
59:03
and they're going to sell it. They sold it to a group that's
59:06
being an equity group. So that's always good news.
59:10
They sold it. They sold it to an equity group,
59:14
and it's headed by the former president of Vance and Hein.
59:21
OK. See, this is a motorcycle guy.
59:25
He actually did work for them for a long time.
59:27
And before that he was AVP at Harley-Davidson.
59:30
OK, so it might be a good fit. You know, they're, they're,
59:34
they're spitting it off into its own company to try to be a
59:40
little bit more of a direct competitor with Harley-Davidson,
59:44
But we'll see what happens. Yeah, and they had their
59:46
moments. I mean, don't get me wrong.
59:48
Like, you know, I, the people are buying them.
59:51
I, I, I don't know if they thought, I don't know what they
59:54
thought because there was a good amount of people that were
59:56
buying them instead of buying, you know, some of these Harleys
59:58
and some of these other bikes and, and didn't, who didn't want
1:00:01
the big BMWs and stuff like that.
1:00:03
So I'm surprised that they were struggling.
1:00:05
And, and you know, I think, you know, in the last five years,
1:00:08
the, the, they, they, I don't see a lot of Indians as, as I
1:00:11
was seeing like, you know, before the pandemic.
1:00:15
I think what they need to do is that one, they they have better
1:00:19
technology in their bikes than Harley does.
1:00:24
I know Harley is doing a lot of changes now and they're kind of
1:00:26
changing their line up and they're going to bring back a
1:00:29
sub $10,000 Harley-Davidson to try to get that entry level
1:00:32
rider. So they're doing a lot of good
1:00:35
things like the new president of Harley-Davidson has a little bit
1:00:39
of an eye and a ball for the future.
1:00:40
And they need, they understand that they need to start that by
1:00:43
having an entry level motorcycle that's well equipped, under
1:00:46
10,000 bucks to get their consumers at an earlier age into
1:00:50
Harley-Davidson and indoctrinate them into the Harley-Davidson
1:00:56
culture. India needs to kind of go back
1:00:59
to the same thing because Indians started making bikes
1:01:01
that were way too expensive, over engineered and all this
1:01:05
other things. They need to go back to building
1:01:08
a motorcycle that is for the masses, that is at a price point
1:01:12
that has the Indian styling, the Indian heritage, and try to get
1:01:17
back to, you know, indoctrinating these guys and
1:01:20
these girls in their teens, in their 20s and so forth and so
1:01:24
on. And I think they haven't, they
1:01:26
have an incredible opportunity because they're going to come
1:01:29
into this market not in a lot of debt.
1:01:31
You know, they're going to come into this market with a company
1:01:34
that from what I understand is very, you know, has a very deep
1:01:38
portfolio and has very deep pockets.
1:01:41
And if this company invests in Indian the right way, invest in
1:01:44
the dealer, the network the right way, makes it affordable
1:01:48
and profitable for dealers to carry Indian.
1:01:50
Because remember, this is another place where Indian and
1:01:53
Harley vastly different. Harley wants you to be an only
1:01:57
Harley dealer, whereas Indian does not mind if you put a
1:02:01
Ducati or BMW next to an Indian because to them it opens up to
1:02:06
more opportunities for more dealers.
1:02:09
So I think Indian if they play their cards right, if they come
1:02:13
up with the right line up and they place it in the right
1:02:16
dealers and have the right support and the right
1:02:18
infrastructure, they can quickly see their their sales turn
1:02:22
around and increase their their market value.
1:02:24
But again, I just got a text about this from somebody just
1:02:27
telling me Hey Indian just got sold.
1:02:29
Wow, that is. Hot off the press.
1:02:33
And so so. So real quick, why, why, why
1:02:37
won't there be more motor bikes on the grid?
1:02:40
Or you said less bikes. Well, the problem is if Indian
1:02:44
gets sold, Indian was supporting a lot of the people racing on
1:02:48
the Indian racing team. So before when Polaris owned
1:02:52
them, they already had a preset budget for raising a preset
1:02:55
budget for this preset budget for that.
1:02:56
Now this new company came in, is this company going to be
1:03:00
interested in going racing and if they are, how much are they
1:03:04
willing to invest upfront? Whereas Polaris in the fast was
1:03:07
kind of floating the bill for Indian to go racing, now Indian
1:03:11
has to float that bill all by themselves under an indie's new
1:03:13
ownership. And you have to look at the
1:03:15
numbers, you know, if it's going to cost me two and a half,
1:03:18
$1,000,000 to go racing, is that 2 and a half million dollars
1:03:22
that I'd rather invest somewhere else as a company that's now,
1:03:26
it's your now your own, your own stand alone company.
1:03:29
You don't have somebody else's Piggy Bank to dig money out of.
1:03:33
Well, I mean, the fact that the fact that they did all what they
1:03:36
did was maybe in the process of being sold or in the guise of
1:03:41
being sold, like kind of what we saw Moto GP doing.
1:03:44
And they were overhauling their website, getting rid of some of
1:03:47
these old big contract guys, bringing all these young guys in
1:03:50
and signing them at, at, you know, lower cost, obviously, and
1:03:54
stuff like that. You know, so maybe Indian was
1:03:57
already, you know, I've been through a couple of companies
1:04:00
that in hindsight, the writing was on the wall.
1:04:02
When you see people pull out there measuring tape, you think
1:04:05
they're just going to be hanging plants.
1:04:07
Most most company buyouts like this typically take about 2 1/2
1:04:12
to three years. Like that's when you're at this
1:04:15
size of a company and I've, I've known, you know, I've been with
1:04:18
several companies that have been bought and sold.
1:04:20
It's usually about a 2 1/2 to three-year process between
1:04:24
looking at the books, setting up the sale properly, making sure
1:04:28
your EBITDA is in the right way. And for those of you who don't
1:04:31
know what EBITDA is, don't worry about it, but it sucks.
1:04:33
But if you're in business, you got to know what your EBITDA is
1:04:37
and making the numbers work so that when the next buyer picks
1:04:40
it up, they kind of can pick up the ball and keep rolling with
1:04:43
it. And usually there's a transition
1:04:45
phase where for six or eight months, the top level executives
1:04:49
of the old companies stay in place to kind of hand the baton
1:04:53
off to the new executive. And after about a year, all
1:04:56
those old executives get their final buyout and the new
1:04:59
executives take the ball and keep running.
1:05:01
So there is a possibility that the Indian team and the racing
1:05:04
department is going to stay as is, but there's also
1:05:06
opportunity. Maybe it'll grow.
1:05:08
Right. Well, we hope that we, we
1:05:10
because we like to see the most likely industry grow and
1:05:12
Speaking of go and grow, we're going to get out of here.
1:05:15
But who's going to you know what's what's going to happen in
1:05:19
Phillip Island this weekend, coming weekend?
1:05:24
Yeah, let's. See, well, you know, there's
1:05:28
pigeons. Oh, by the way, we, we still
1:05:31
talk about our super bike. No.
1:05:33
So yeah, we're back in Moto GP and it's going to be an exciting
1:05:37
weekend because we don't have Mark out there.
1:05:41
Like you said, we don't have a couple of riders.
1:05:45
Yeah, it's going to be interesting.
1:05:46
Like I don't know if Bez is going to be 100% like that's
1:05:49
like Mark Bez and and they're like the the top front runners
1:05:54
hit. Hey, listen, somebody want that
1:05:55
bonus money, man, Come on. I don't know.
1:05:57
That's that's big money right there.
1:06:00
You know, and I want to say I want to say Fabio's finally
1:06:05
going to come on his own and and and pull something out of his
1:06:09
ass. And you know, it is a fast track
1:06:12
and I know it's going to be hard to keep the pace, but you know,
1:06:16
there's those top riders are just not not there.
1:06:18
I don't know if Pekko can can keep that Ducati and and and
1:06:23
stay in front of everybody. So but it would it would be nice
1:06:26
to see him back on the podium with nobody out there.
1:06:29
Well, there's a lot of riders out there.
1:06:30
You know what I'm trying to say, the Champions not out there,
1:06:33
Martinez not out there, Mavericks not out there.
1:06:39
So, but yeah, I'll say, I'll say.
1:06:42
If Reese was here, he'd say Petco's not out there, even
1:06:45
though he's out there. He's he's only there for 4th and
1:06:51
5th. Yeah, yeah.
1:06:53
So hopefully if you change that the third maybe, but yeah, it
1:06:57
would be good to say like Fabio maybe one of the Honda guys
1:07:03
definitely actually want to say the VR46 Academy, so.
1:07:08
Yeah, yeah, I'll say I'll, you know, I'll, I'll say this and
1:07:12
then I'll ask Lewis. I, I think it's any like the the
1:07:17
top ten guys in the last round, like all those guys, you know,
1:07:20
had a chance and had their moment if they, if they get the
1:07:23
set up right. I think any of those guys
1:07:25
because I'd like like, you know, like what you see.
1:07:27
And, and we, we know that, you know, the top guys are not there
1:07:30
and, and, and so here's a chance to to steal one for your
1:07:34
thoughts, Lewis. I want to go, young man.
1:07:37
I want to go. I want to go Acosta, I want to
1:07:40
go. Raul.
1:07:43
Raul, I want to go young man. I want to see these guys that
1:07:47
kind of showed up at the Aldeguerre.
1:07:49
Like I want to see these young guys back up there, man.
1:07:53
You know, don't don't make it a one off.
1:07:56
Like, you know, show up and and do two in a row show that you
1:07:59
can. You know, this wasn't a fluke,
1:08:01
man. I've been in this place for a
1:08:04
while now. Let's do it.
1:08:06
You know, the KTM should should do well to this track because
1:08:09
they've got the grunt down the straightaway.
1:08:12
Aldegare should do well because he's been showing now that he
1:08:15
can, like we said earlier, he needed to put a complete race
1:08:18
together, get the bike to work at the beginning as good as it
1:08:22
works at the end, and run a complete race.
1:08:24
And this past time he showed, hey, I got the bike to work in
1:08:28
the beginning and it works just as good as the end and I was
1:08:30
able to run a complete race. And look what I did, man.
1:08:33
In two races I was right there. And you know, Acosta is hot
1:08:37
because he wanted, he wants, he got it.
1:08:39
He's hot because I would be hot. I'm like he.
1:08:42
I got, I got nipped by a rookie. I'm hot.
1:08:46
I'm hot. He don't even have, he don't
1:08:48
even have a nickname yet. He haven't got a nickname yet.
1:08:53
What is? What is that?
1:08:53
What is the cost of the shark? The shark.
1:08:57
Dude. He just got here with a killer
1:09:00
whale like killer. Whale the constant's like yo,
1:09:04
but I I'm the shark. I mean this guy doesn't even
1:09:06
have a nickname, bro, he's he don't even have his own style.
1:09:10
He uses a a yellow 54 that that that top rack is trying to buy
1:09:15
for him for for like 50,000 bucks.
1:09:17
He's a. Lucky guy he's.
1:09:21
Mr. Nobody too. Yeah, I'm like, yo, I got beat
1:09:24
by by nobody that that didn't do anything in Moto 2.
1:09:30
Like, I'm a Moto 2 champion, you know?
1:09:34
So I think him, him and I. And again, I think if Bez isn't
1:09:39
at a 100%, then Aprilia's next best chance is Raul.
1:09:43
Yeah, Yeah, that's true. You know Raul, Raul is running,
1:09:47
running the shit out of that bike right now, man.
1:09:49
Yeah, it's going to be fun. Young guns.
1:09:52
Let's see, let's see, man. Young guns.
1:09:54
That's what I want. Young, young faces on the
1:09:55
podium, you know, just can't even drink the Prosecco because
1:10:00
they're not even of age, right? It's funny to say and they can't
1:10:04
drink. They just clinking bottles and
1:10:06
putting them down. Clicking bottles and giving them
1:10:09
milk. Like here's your milk man, you
1:10:10
can't drink this. This is for adults.
1:10:15
Oh, my name is Rex 45. It's the Be Forever Cool
1:10:17
podcast. We got TJ from 2 Wheels and
1:10:20
Coffee. We got the Rio.
1:10:21
Luis Ortega, the numbers guy. Peace.
1:10:25
Peace.