Latest / B 4EVA Kool "Race A Motorcycle" Podcast / MotoGP 2004: Rossi’s Masterclass in S5 Ep 45

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MotoGP 2004: Rossi’s Masterclass in S5 Ep 45 · B 4EVA Kool "Race A Motorcycle" Podcast

• 0:00
  You're listening to the be forever cool podcast.
• 0:02
  My name is Rex 45 and you know this is season season 5 episode
• 0:08
  45, people. Unbelievable.
• 0:11
  What an unbelievable year we've had.
• 0:14
  So there's 44 more episodes you can go check out if you're just
• 0:17
  tuning in for the first time. Moto GP regular season is over.
• 0:22
  So this is kind of like the offseason.
• 0:25
  If you're in the game, there is no offseason, but you know,
• 0:29
  we're doing a recap of a dance down memory lane, so to speak,
• 0:34
  where we're talking about Moto GP from yesteryear.
• 0:38
  Last episode we talked about 2003, this one we're talking
• 0:42
  about 2004. It's already a heated debate and
• 0:45
  the cameras are not even rolling yet.
• 0:47
  So I'm excited to get the gang in and and chop it all up.
• 0:52
  So let me just introduce everybody one at a time.
• 0:55
  It's it's going to it's going to be crazy tonight, man.
• 0:58
  I'm telling you, TJ, man, welcome to the show.
• 1:01
  How you doing? Pat's beat the Ravens.
• 1:03
  I can't believe it seems like I might have to come up there in
• 1:07
  the fall, in January or February.
• 1:10
  Maybe I'll take part in a parade.
• 1:12
  What's good, man? How you doing?
• 1:14
  Doing great, Can't complain. Yeah, Pat's back on track, you
• 1:18
  know, starting to see. I'm sure we're going to start
• 1:20
  seeing more Patriots jerseys around there.
• 1:22
  People jump back on the bandwagon, but we're looking
• 1:26
  good. Still can't get our hopes up too
• 1:28
  high. Still got to play through
• 1:30
  through a lot, you know, I guess so it gets a little scary at
• 1:33
  this time of year when you when you're actually in the playoffs
• 1:36
  because you know, it's not like any other sport where you got
• 1:40
  multiple games, just one and done so well.
• 1:43
  Listen, Motor GP World Super bike motorcycle racing is 1 and
• 1:49
  done baby. It's one of the few other sports
• 1:56
  that is 1 and done like that man.
• 1:57
  So it is what it is, but we're going to keep it moving.
• 2:00
  Jordan, man, welcome to the show.
• 2:02
  How you doing man? Loving life, brother, loving
• 2:04
  life, man. Sorry for the zoom, dude.
• 2:07
  I can't wait for all the, all the all the Yeah, we've been
• 2:10
  getting it on off camera now. I'm ready to get it on on camera
• 2:14
  now because yeah, this, this is going to be hot.
• 2:16
  Yeah, none of that Patriot crap. No, we ain't.
• 2:17
  We ain't doing all that. No, easy man, Easy man.
• 2:20
  I don't. I don't know where you you hail
• 2:23
  from, but you know. You.
• 2:25
  Know they, they, we go. With Giants, Giants, Giants.
• 2:31
  Hey, you know, all right, we're going.
• 2:32
  We're going to leave it there. We're going to leave it there.
• 2:34
  What's going on, Lewis? How you doing man?
• 2:37
  I'm good. I'm good, man.
• 2:38
  How are you doing today? I can't complain, man.
• 2:41
  I think if I get my tech to work properly, I'll be even more
• 2:44
  happier. But you know, it, it, it comes
• 2:46
  and goes and waves, man. I'm excited about the the
• 2:51
  patriots a little bit. I'm excited about 2004 season
• 2:54
  because I watched a while back and watching it again, I was
• 2:59
  still I, I found my myself at the edge of the seat at the edge
• 3:02
  of my seat, even though I knew the outcome.
• 3:05
  You know what I'm saying? So I'm definitely ready to chop
• 3:07
  it up. But you're you're good, you're
• 3:08
  ready. You're back home for the
• 3:09
  holidays. I'm.
• 3:10
  Home, I'm, I'm, at least I'm home for Christmas, New Year's.
• 3:13
  I'm going to take a short little four or five day trip with the
• 3:16
  family. Just spend the New Year's
• 3:19
  somewhere else, relax the mind, disconnect from the house a
• 3:23
  little bit and then come back in the new year fresh and ready to
• 3:27
  go again. But we'll have Christmas year at
• 3:29
  the house and keep working on all the little projects and, and
• 3:35
  see what next year brings man. And as far as today, I'm ready.
• 3:38
  This is 2004 was a great year, really unique year.
• 3:42
  And I, I, you know, I think we've got all the right show
• 3:45
  notes to, to have a good time and have some good banter.
• 3:49
  I got to keep my spectacles on man for this one.
• 3:52
  So let me set the stage. Guys.
• 3:54
  Is 2000 and four 2003. Valentino Rossi is 1, his third
• 4:00
  world title, one on the 500 or he's won more than that.
• 4:03
  He's won five because the 15250, but he's won on it.
• 4:07
  He's won for Honda the 500CC and 21000CC in the GP era.
• 4:15
  Rossi, after winning the title, has left Yamaha Honda and goes
• 4:21
  to Yamaha Honda signs, you know, every rider that they feel kid
• 4:30
  beat Rossi for the 2004 season. So I'm going to start and go
• 4:34
  around the room and, you know, you guys, you know, search your
• 4:38
  your memory Rolodex and, you know, talk about what you heard
• 4:42
  the rumors, the conspiracies of what happened around that time.
• 4:47
  Was it because Honda was too strict and didn't allow Rossi to
• 4:50
  flex like Dennis Rodman? You know, was it that, you know,
• 4:54
  Honda there was just winning too many titles and they just felt
• 4:57
  it was the bike and not the shoe or or Rossi in this case.
• 5:01
  We'll start with you, TJ man, 2004.
• 5:05
  I know you're just two years old back then, so you know, you're
• 5:08
  just learning for the first time.
• 5:10
  But you know what? What?
• 5:11
  What do you know? I mean, yeah, I mean, I would
• 5:14
  say, I would say, you know, Rossi, you see it, he's a, he's
• 5:18
  a flex. So there's more what he probably
• 5:21
  wanted to do when he is allowed allowed or or for Honda trying
• 5:26
  to show him and you know, trying to set him back.
• 5:30
  So obviously he seemed like he can show that he can do it.
• 5:34
  Him switching teams and being a champion already.
• 5:38
  He's seen it. They just like, all right, you
• 5:40
  want to leave us then we're going to get some good riders
• 5:42
  and you won't win. And you see it like a Honda
• 5:47
  riders. They had a pretty decent squad
• 5:49
  and they gained up on him the whole season and it was it was a
• 5:53
  really good 2004 season. Good experience to watch the
• 5:59
  series. I learned a lot and yeah, a lot,
• 6:02
  a lot of things changed too, like the layouts of the tracks
• 6:04
  and and just rules and regulations and and stuff like
• 6:09
  that. So it was pretty cool, but I
• 6:11
  think they were out to get Rossi.
• 6:14
  He was a little set back for for things that he can probably do.
• 6:18
  No doubt, no doubt. To represent Honda.
• 6:20
  No doubt, Jordan, man, you know, you, you, you know what was up.
• 6:24
  You were, you were right in the mix back then.
• 6:27
  You know, I know you probably really pulled out some posters
• 6:30
  and, and stuff like this and stuff like that.
• 6:32
  Maybe, you know, dust off a couple of torn airline tickets,
• 6:37
  paper tickets. What do you, what do you know,
• 6:43
  man? What do you know?
• 6:44
  Dude, let let me tell you because I, I remember this, I'm
• 6:48
  not saying like the back of my hand, but I do remember when
• 6:52
  everybody switching over from the 2 stroke to the four stroke
• 6:55
  and then the whole, not the whole homologation, but
• 6:58
  everybody's going over to the bigger bikes.
• 7:01
  So this is the first time we've we've gone through a four stroke
• 7:03
  1000CC or 998 at that point in time.
• 7:07
  But it was a, it was a real prototype motorcycle.
• 7:09
  They was actually going and they're actually producing and
• 7:13
  actually a manufacturing and once they did that, Honda kind
• 7:19
  of already had an edge at that time.
• 7:22
  Remember this is right before Ducati actually, all their
• 7:26
  technology and stuff like that. They had a fast motorcycle, but
• 7:29
  Honda was the one at that time. And Valentino was already kind
• 7:35
  of coming up already, already knew he was going to be there or
• 7:38
  the whole paddock kind of knew, OK, this is the cat we got to
• 7:42
  watch out for. This is the guy we have to
• 7:44
  battle and we have to fight for for the championship.
• 7:47
  So we need to make sure that, you know, we beat him once he
• 7:51
  made that transition. And then everybody, everybody,
• 7:56
  critics, writers, journalists, they were all saying it's not
• 8:01
  Valentino, it's the bike. So he took that as a personal
• 8:07
  challenge to go off almost two years of winning streak with
• 8:11
  Honda and then just completely abandoned go to Yamaha, which
• 8:17
  was horribly underpowered, horribly just has Yamaha always
• 8:24
  had a lot of Corning. They, they, that's their, that's
• 8:26
  their key thing, whatever their dynamics is.
• 8:29
  They've always had Corning, but they've always been down on
• 8:31
  power. They've always been down on top
• 8:33
  end. Honda had that and Valentino
• 8:36
  said really, You think it's the bike?
• 8:39
  I'm sure he's the rider and he took it as a personal insult.
• 8:42
  Came back first race, won second race.
• 8:46
  We'll talk about that later on. But dude, yeah, it was it was a
• 8:50
  complete screw you. I'm going to prove to you it's
• 8:53
  not the bike, it's the rider. Yeah, no doubt.
• 8:56
  All right, Lewis, man, You mean you're up?
• 8:59
  You know, you're Mr. Fax, the Numbers guy, everything.
• 9:02
  What does it say, Louis, when you leave an organization and
• 9:08
  the whole team except for one person goes with you?
• 9:14
  I mean, it means, one, that you have a lot of team loyalty, that
• 9:17
  the team around you is loyal to you more than they're loyal to
• 9:20
  the manufacturer. If they're willing to leave the
• 9:22
  manufacturer and come with you on a crazy adventure, a crazy
• 9:26
  journey, they believe in you. They believe in your talent,
• 9:28
  they believe in what you can bring.
• 9:31
  Had Rossi left Honda and not taken that entire team with him,
• 9:36
  it probably would be a different story at Yamaha.
• 9:38
  But the fact that he already was able to bring all his mechanics,
• 9:42
  his techs, his chassis engineers, his lead technician,
• 9:47
  everybody with him, that alone set the stage for Yamaha to be
• 9:52
  able to take a major step forward.
• 9:53
  Because remember, now they're not just bringing the Pilot,
• 9:56
  They're bringing the Pilot and everybody else that made the
• 9:58
  Honda as competitive as it was because all the other Honda
• 10:02
  riders were taking the information that Rossi was
• 10:04
  setting as the baseline to make their bikes.
• 10:07
  Now they're taking that entire brains trust.
• 10:08
  They're taking over to Yamaha and they're telling Yamaha,
• 10:10
  look, this is what we need to go fast.
• 10:13
  I've been behind your bikes for three years.
• 10:15
  I've been in front of your bikes for three years.
• 10:17
  I know the strengths and weaknesses of your bikes and
• 10:19
  with our team we can make your bike more competitive even if
• 10:23
  we're down on power. I see the qualities of the
• 10:26
  Yamaha with corner speed, with braking stability, with edge
• 10:32
  grip, with all the things that I know that the Honda doesn't do
• 10:35
  that well. And we're able to work around
• 10:37
  it. Now we can bring that to the
• 10:39
  Yamaha, upgrade the Yamaha to places where it can get better
• 10:42
  understanding there's some place that it's still going to
• 10:44
  struggle and, and let us show you what we can do.
• 10:48
  And the big difference here is he wasn't leaving for less
• 10:51
  money. He wasn't leaving for a, a, a
• 10:56
  satellite team. He was leaving a factory team
• 10:59
  for a factory team and a factory team that was going to give him
• 11:01
  everything that he could possibly want to make the bike
• 11:04
  competitive. Because Yamaha was tired of
• 11:06
  losing the Honda. I mean Honda was killing it.
• 11:09
  And so, OK, we'll talk about the, the changes to the, the,
• 11:14
  the, to the Yamaha and the engine and, and what that meant
• 11:17
  for the future of Yamaha where we we see the, The Big Bang
• 11:21
  engine today, 2004 is is when that came about in Moto GP.
• 11:26
  What was your memory like of the whole, you know, why Rossi left
• 11:30
  And you know, is it the bike? Is it Rossi?
• 11:33
  Is it it? Was it everybody against Rossi
• 11:35
  back then? No, today, to this day, the the
• 11:38
  prevailing humor has always been that Rossi did not appreciate
• 11:44
  the fact that Honda made it seem that anybody could win on that
• 11:48
  bike. That Rossi wasn't a special
• 11:50
  rider. The bike was what made him
• 11:53
  special. You know, anybody else could win
• 11:56
  on the Yamaha, said Dejib Binaca.
• 11:57
  Win on the Yamaha. Max Piagi could win on the on
• 11:59
  the on the Honda. Everybody could win on the
• 12:01
  Honda. Rossi's winning and dominating
• 12:04
  because of the Honda, not because it's Rossi.
• 12:08
  And he had the opportunity to leave because again, if another
• 12:12
  team did not back the Brinks truck up to his house and say
• 12:15
  take as much as you want out of the back of this and we'll give
• 12:18
  you whatever you want to make you competitive.
• 12:20
  He would have stayed with Honda. Man, sometimes you got to
• 12:22
  swallow your pride and be like, look, I'm going to swallow my
• 12:25
  pride. The rest of these bikes are shit
• 12:26
  boxes. I'm not going to get paid to
• 12:28
  ride that shit box and I'm not going to be able to fix that
• 12:31
  shit box. I'll stay in this not so great
• 12:34
  situation, making my money, winning my championships,
• 12:37
  dominating everybody else. But if you get an opportunity
• 12:40
  like this as a competitor, 1 as a, as a athlete competitor and
• 12:45
  then two as a kind of a personal feeling like, you know what, you
• 12:50
  think your bike is better than me.
• 12:51
  You think it's just as your bike.
• 12:53
  Bring all your riders next year. And on this bike that nobody
• 12:56
  else seems to win on, I'm going to wipe the floor with them just
• 12:59
  to show you that there are levels to this game and nobody
• 13:03
  else is on my level right now. Yeah, now you talked about that
• 13:07
  Brinks truck. Listen man, I I think they,
• 13:09
  they, they gave him a small island or something because I
• 13:13
  don't know if it was Sete or Capa Rossi.
• 13:17
  The commentators are talking about another rider that was
• 13:20
  offered 15,000,000 back in 2004. So and it wasn't Rossi.
• 13:25
  So I'm just like, well, if they if they were offering this dude
• 13:28
  15 mil, What what what did they give Rossi?
• 13:32
  What do you thought, DJ? On, on, on, on, on.
• 13:34
  Like the money situation and we'll go around the circle room.
• 13:39
  What do they get? Rossy They they mean like just
• 13:42
  like Lewis said that he took everything that he could to
• 13:45
  think about his future. So I mean, it's funny.
• 13:48
  It's funny that we still don't know like what these riders be
• 13:51
  getting paid. It's kind of like we had to do
• 13:53
  some deep research. So I don't know what they say.
• 13:56
  Rossy, they came up with good good chunk, like if it was
• 13:59
  15,000,000 back then it had to be triple that.
• 14:03
  We we definitely double that because he's a special rider so.
• 14:09
  In Rossi's highest paid years with Yamaha, it's rumored that
• 14:12
  he was bringing in bringing home an estimated $30 million a year
• 14:17
  between his salary and endorsements it.
• 14:19
  Was 40. Nah, Between 2012 and 2015, it
• 14:24
  was like 3030 million because he was, at that time, he was the
• 14:27
  only motorcycle rider ranked in the top 50 athletes in the
• 14:31
  world. And we're talking baseball,
• 14:33
  football, soccer, everything. He was the only motorcycle rider
• 14:37
  that actually slid into the top 50 highest paid athletes.
• 14:41
  In the world, I mean, I believe it.
• 14:42
  I would believe it. I believe it was 403040
• 14:44
  somewhere there I would believe it.
• 14:46
  There's a lot of there's a lot of motorcycle racing back then
• 14:49
  they kind of dried up a little bit.
• 14:51
  We're trying to get it back. So let's let's get into it.
• 14:53
  So you know, we set the stage. Frosty's left Yamaha, he left
• 14:58
  Honda for Yamaha. We got Biaggi on a Honda.
• 15:02
  We got Nikki Hayden on a Honda. We got Colin Edwards on a Honda,
• 15:08
  Settee Juvenile on a Honda. The Japanese dude that I'm
• 15:11
  jacking up his name. On.
• 15:13
  A Honda and who's it? Is there one other person?
• 15:18
  Maybe one other person I'm missing?
• 15:20
  I think. That's yeah, that was it.
• 15:24
  That was a six, six guys, 2 yellow, 2 yellow, yellow bikes,
• 15:28
  2 yellow bikes and a bunch of blue bikes.
• 15:31
  So the the first race happened in South Africa.
• 15:34
  No one knows what's going to happen.
• 15:36
  Obviously we know by now Rossi comes in and, and, and wins the
• 15:40
  race and you know, I mean, you have to feel a way if you're
• 15:46
  Honda and you got these top six guys, I mean, you know, we'll
• 15:50
  say 5, even though the Japanese writer won two races for the
• 15:55
  season and stuff like that. So which is pretty impressive
• 15:57
  And and and that, you know, you, you kind of have to if you stack
• 16:02
  the deck, you know, if you stack the deck like Miami Heat and you
• 16:05
  lose to the Dallas Maverick, it can't be a good look, right?
• 16:09
  I mean, it's only the first race, but you got to feel a way.
• 16:12
  What are your thoughts on watching the first race, TJ And
• 16:16
  you know, see, seeing it in action, right?
• 16:18
  Seeing seeing the race in action, not just hearing or
• 16:20
  looking at stats because it was pretty wild.
• 16:24
  I mean, yeah, you want to see like how the season was started
• 16:28
  and what Hunter could do and what what Rossi were doing.
• 16:32
  And it's crazy how Rossi pulled it out first race to say, you
• 16:36
  know, it's just giving momentum throughout the season.
• 16:39
  But yeah, you just want to see who would who would keep up with
• 16:42
  them. Like Max Biaggi was was always
• 16:44
  on his tail and set a given. I mean, like those those guys
• 16:49
  was really pushing hard just to try to stay ahead of Rossi.
• 16:55
  But yeah, what a way to start the season for Rossi to get
• 16:59
  ahead. I mean, he barely got first
• 17:03
  place. I mean, like, I mean, not
• 17:04
  barely, but like he won by, you know, a couple tenths of a
• 17:08
  second. But you know, there's still a
• 17:11
  good way to start season. And and you know, the second
• 17:15
  race didn't go as well. But you know, you see that the
• 17:18
  Hondas was was on his tail. Like I'll be third place
• 17:23
  juvenile and and barrels and Hayden, it's not the second.
• 17:27
  Place Biaggi. Biaggi, Yeah.
• 17:30
  Yeah, sorry. Yeah, Biaggi's jibenal barrels.
• 17:34
  Caperasi was on a Ducati and six and and Edwards and Tamata.
• 17:38
  So you know, 1 Yamaha, 1 Ducati and six Hondas at the top.
• 17:43
  But that's. What they were they were
• 17:48
  throwing the kitchen sink at them.
• 17:49
  They they was literally throwing the kitchen sink.
• 17:52
  At them. I think that this was the first
• 17:56
  I was going to say that I think that the first place they didn't
• 17:58
  know exactly. I think they were more worried
• 18:00
  about Rossi too. So like they didn't feel like
• 18:02
  the game plan instead of just trying to work with this the
• 18:06
  Hondas that they had to to just win, but they were just more
• 18:09
  worried about Rossi even pulled it out.
• 18:11
  So that's that's what I saw as as me watching so.
• 18:14
  Yeah, no, I listen, I didn't, I didn't like, I didn't realize it
• 18:19
  was 6 Hondas against him. I didn't realize.
• 18:21
  And you know, you, we hear these names now, these guys are legend
• 18:24
  in Moto GP and you know, some of them were at the peak, some of
• 18:29
  them was on the other side of their peak.
• 18:31
  Nikki Hayden was just getting started.
• 18:33
  Carl Edwards came over from World Super Bike after doing his
• 18:35
  thing there. Jordan, and you know, what are
• 18:38
  you what are your thoughts on on on that first race and what
• 18:40
  Rossi did as you mentioned, you know, we had all these Hondas
• 18:43
  that he had to get through. You know, I think somebody
• 18:46
  should have lost their job after that first race.
• 18:48
  Start Honda. Dude, I agree with you.
• 18:50
  I agree with you 1000% because I mean literally, he won the last
• 18:54
  race on a Honda championship. Good, you know, good for him.
• 18:58
  Then let's go through all that stuff and then the first race,
• 19:02
  come on, a brand new underpowered bike.
• 19:04
  We just explained everything about that.
• 19:06
  And then to win the race, it wasn't by a lot, but like I
• 19:09
  said, the bike was underpowered. The bike was in some forms
• 19:14
  undeveloped, at least for that level.
• 19:17
  Nobody was able to win onto it and to actually have only but
• 19:21
  testing and warm up laps and qualifying, that was it.
• 19:28
  And then next thing you know within, he actually let I I
• 19:32
  think Secti was in a Secti Gemini was in the front a couple
• 19:36
  laps here and there. But I think he was more or less
• 19:38
  playing his Rossi role, trailing behind him, seeing where he's
• 19:43
  good at, seeing where the bike is good at, seeing where the Han
• 19:45
  is good at because he kind of knows it already.
• 19:47
  And then kind of picking his point to be like, OK, I'm going
• 19:51
  to get in front of you. He did it twice in that race.
• 19:54
  He knew he was going to get overtaken.
• 19:55
  I think it was turn 6, something like that.
• 19:57
  And in South Africa. And then it was kind of OK, but
• 20:01
  didn't really lose touch, never really like lost touch and was
• 20:05
  kind of like a 2, three man battle to the end until like I
• 20:09
  said, two laps later, he was kind of like, OK, I, I got it.
• 20:12
  I'm I'm a maintain it. And then higher degradation was
• 20:15
  a big, big factor in that race and the next race.
• 20:19
  I remember seeing that was the tires just going out, that rear
• 20:21
  tire, which is really going out on them, but he was able to make
• 20:24
  it slide and make it work. So I mean, yeah, good race.
• 20:28
  But yeah, I I think same thing. Somebody should have been
• 20:31
  getting fired before that mistake.
• 20:34
  I want to call it for underestimating Valentino's
• 20:39
  skill. Yeah, no doubt there they should
• 20:43
  have. Lewis, man, you know, we let's
• 20:44
  jump into Race 2 in Spain. Juvenile, Juvenile 1, Bij
• 20:53
  second, Barrows third, Rossi 4th.
• 20:56
  I think at this point Honda might have said, hey, all right,
• 20:59
  we got that number now we, we figured something out, right?
• 21:02
  You know what, what? What are your thoughts on on
• 21:05
  Race 2? Well, Race 2 right off the bat,
• 21:09
  it's Spain. So you got to give the Spanish
• 21:11
  guy that Spanish hometown half a second that I was telling you
• 21:14
  when you're racing in your home country, you always find a half
• 21:18
  a second you don't find anywhere else.
• 21:20
  So said they driven out, was able to take advantage of that
• 21:23
  home field advantage in the Spain GP and walk away with AW
• 21:28
  Max Piaggi. You know, now he's kind of
• 21:30
  showing a little bit consistency as two second places in a row.
• 21:34
  And then Alex Barrow jumped up from 1/3 from a fourth place in
• 21:38
  the first round to 3rd place and it was a Honda lockout.
• 21:41
  It's that's a phrase you don't hear very often now, but back in
• 21:46
  the early 2000, a Honda lockout on the podium was pretty much
• 21:51
  almost every race. So this was a really interesting
• 21:55
  thing because it showed that even though Rossi had the skill,
• 21:59
  there was still some limitations to the bike that he couldn't
• 22:01
  overcome. They were still learning how to
• 22:04
  make the bike work, how to work with the tires, how to work
• 22:08
  with, you know, his team, how to get everything together.
• 22:10
  Because again, they'd only had so many practice rounds.
• 22:13
  They'd only had so many tests on the bike.
• 22:15
  They were still developing on the fly a lot of new items that
• 22:19
  the bike was implementing. So a fourth place to walk away
• 22:23
  with a fourth place is nothing to nothing to put your head down
• 22:26
  about because again, you're you're on a new platform.
• 22:30
  It's a platform that hasn't been competitive for a long time.
• 22:33
  You're trying to do a lot of magic in a very short period of
• 22:35
  time and you're up against a lot more riders that are already on
• 22:40
  a competitive bike and moving that competitive bike forward,
• 22:43
  whereas you're now the benchmark for the competitive bike and how
• 22:46
  to get that bike to become more competitive.
• 22:49
  So it's not like he can turn around to Carlos Checker and be
• 22:51
  like, hey, let me check your data.
• 22:52
  Oh shit, you're in 18th place. Your data is shit.
• 22:56
  Who else can I turn to Mark Malandra?
• 22:58
  Can I check your Oh, you crashed?
• 23:00
  You didn't finish the race, so I can't even get your data.
• 23:04
  So you're a one man. You're a one man development
• 23:07
  team, one man racer and one man, you know, data collection unit.
• 23:12
  And you know, Jordan, the crazy thing is that as you heard Lewis
• 23:14
  mentioned, it was a Honda lockout, but it was different
• 23:18
  Honda riders from the first round and and not Rossi
• 23:22
  struggled, but some of the other Honda riders struggle.
• 23:24
  Kappa Rossi struggled a little bit as well.
• 23:27
  So it's not as it's not as easy as the Patriots.
• 23:31
  You know, when in 10 in a row. Don't go there, don't go there.
• 23:33
  Right side edge. And like like you said, you had
• 23:38
  not saying all Spanish riders up there because obviously he has
• 23:40
  some Italians up there also. But you did have Sete who's like
• 23:43
  I said, that was his home track. He knew that track like the back
• 23:46
  of his hand. That's telling me that I go to
• 23:50
  Robin Rhodes all the time. Little track, backwards and
• 23:52
  forwards, literally backwards and forwards.
• 23:55
  That's like me going over there and be like, hey, you know,
• 23:58
  don't win at this track. Really.
• 24:00
  Come on now. Yeah, it's too easy.
• 24:03
  So for Rossi to come out on 4th place, like I said, they wasn't
• 24:08
  really mad at it. They threw the kitchen sink at
• 24:11
  him. They got AW, Whoopi do, we'll
• 24:14
  talk about the next round. The next round after that.
• 24:16
  Actually, no, the not the next round, the next round after that
• 24:19
  was when? Because the next round is when
• 24:21
  both of them crashed. But like I said, they had fights
• 24:25
  going on and like I said, right side tired degradation.
• 24:29
  The the Honda has power, but I mean that Yamaha was really
• 24:33
  linked on there. And if you don't have the right
• 24:36
  mechanical grip for that turn was a 91011 before you get to
• 24:43
  the to that sharp left hairpin before you hit the start start
• 24:47
  straight front straight. You take a big, big beating over
• 24:51
  there, just like in Germany, you're taking a big beat on the
• 24:54
  left hand sides, eleven corners, left hand side on Jerez, that
• 24:58
  right side takes a beating. So if you're not mechanically
• 25:01
  ready for that or the bike's not mechanically ready for that, I
• 25:04
  mean, he did his best to get top five and like I said, 4th place.
• 25:09
  No one's doubting him. He couldn't do it.
• 25:11
  He couldn't be on the podium. Yeah, yeah, Honda back then
• 25:16
  looked like the KTM of today on a start, on a straight, them
• 25:19
  things was erotic. Bullets, man.
• 25:24
  I was going to say about that race, yeah, it was a Honda
• 25:28
  lockout. It's cool to see Rossi get
• 25:31
  forth, but it was also eight or nine riders that did not finish
• 25:37
  and a lot of them did complete most of the race.
• 25:40
  And I don't know. So I have a question.
• 25:43
  So like, I know some riders are rocking Bridgestone tires and
• 25:47
  some had a choice of another tire.
• 25:50
  Was that a such thing in back in the day?
• 25:51
  Because like, it seemed like the Bridgestone tire was not holding
• 25:55
  up too well. So even though we lost the
• 25:57
  couple riders in the in the in the in the race, because you
• 26:01
  know, you know on one side of the tire most of the time.
• 26:03
  That year and the year before Lewis, correct me if I'm wrong,
• 26:06
  that year and the year before, Rossi and I think a couple of
• 26:10
  other riders were actually switching between Bridgestones
• 26:13
  and Pirelli's. Yeah, you, you, you had your
• 26:17
  choices back then. It wasn't a, it wasn't the
• 26:19
  homologated tire rule that we have now where it's a one single
• 26:22
  tire manufacturer. So you did bring, yeah, you
• 26:25
  could bring Michelin, you could bring Bridgestone.
• 26:28
  You had options. Most of them were going back and
• 26:30
  forth between Michelin and Bridgestone.
• 26:33
  But once you started the season on a.
• 26:34
  Tire you. Usually finish the season on
• 26:37
  that same manufacturer because every time you change tire you
• 26:41
  need to change your entire chassis.
• 26:43
  You need to change your geometry.
• 26:45
  Like there's a lot of things you have to get into so if you start
• 26:48
  with Bridgestone, you know you ride it to the end of the year.
• 26:51
  You might try different bridge stone compounds throughout the
• 26:53
  years. This is why eventually they went
• 26:55
  to the single manufacturer rule because if Bridgestone had a
• 27:00
  great tire that year, Michelin sucked.
• 27:01
  Everybody that started with Michelin, they were doomed for
• 27:04
  the entire year. It's not like they can easily
• 27:06
  switch over to Bridgestone or vice versa.
• 27:09
  And if Bridgestone had issues, same thing, you know, you had to
• 27:12
  ride it out to the end. So you'll see that some riders
• 27:14
  would have more tire degradation on the rear tire.
• 27:18
  So by like the 6th or 7th lap, they're already spinning.
• 27:20
  But the guys on the Michelins are slowly walking away at one
• 27:23
  track, while at the another track, the Michelin guys are
• 27:26
  having problems and Bridgestone is having a problem.
• 27:28
  So this is one of the reasons that eventually we get to that
• 27:31
  point in the Moto GP history where we go to the single tire
• 27:34
  rule. So now everybody's on the same
• 27:36
  tire. And one, this also brings the
• 27:38
  cost down because now instead of buying from different
• 27:41
  manufacturers and you can't really do deals with the
• 27:43
  manufacturers because they're different manufacturers.
• 27:46
  Now with a single tire rule, this is your set allotment of
• 27:49
  tires. You know exactly where your tire
• 27:51
  expense is going to be for the year.
• 27:52
  Everybody's developing and working off the same platform.
• 27:56
  It it's a little bit more stable so that you know, you take it
• 27:58
  out of it now, right now, you know, my feeling on our current
• 28:01
  tire situation, the current tire Moto GP is shit.
• 28:06
  You know, as soon as you have to put a tire pressure valve in the
• 28:09
  bike and you have to slow down or go faster if your tire
• 28:13
  temperature goes up or down, that means your tire is shit.
• 28:17
  So I can't wait till that tire is gone and Pirelli comes in.
• 28:21
  Don't get. I'll go off on a different rant
• 28:22
  2004, 2004. Before I move on, I'll say you
• 28:27
  know Bridgestone did bring a tire out.
• 28:30
  They got better as the race went on.
• 28:32
  Can we get a tire that gets better as the race go on today
• 28:35
  please? That's all I know.
• 28:37
  I get more grip 8 laps in. All right.
• 28:43
  Riding on that tire right now. If I get more grip, I need that
• 28:47
  tire right now. But really, this is this is also
• 28:51
  the a time when there was less electronics.
• 28:53
  I mean, you still had the traction show, you still had all
• 28:55
  the EMIMUS and everything, but you didn't have the right high
• 28:58
  devices. You didn't have the aero
• 29:00
  packages, you didn't have this, you didn't have that.
• 29:02
  I mean, the thing that set most of the bikes apart, especially
• 29:05
  the Honda was the V5 Big Bang engine.
• 29:08
  Like that thing put down ridiculous power.
• 29:12
  Right. So you know, we're in, we're
• 29:14
  we're let's move on from the Spanish GP.
• 29:16
  We move on into Le Mans. The third round, you know,
• 29:19
  again, Sete, Juvenal, he won that check a second.
• 29:23
  Biaggi 3rd, so still Honda pretty much.
• 29:27
  Rossi 4th again. Colin Edwards, he's kind of up
• 29:30
  and down struggling. He convinced people to go to the
• 29:33
  16.5 inch rim and also convinced those guys to go to the Super
• 29:39
  bike front forks and didn't change back until like, you
• 29:43
  know, after the summer break, which is wild that he was able
• 29:46
  to convince folks to do that. You know, what are your thoughts
• 29:50
  on on the French round the struggles of Rossi Yamaha, The
• 29:54
  fact that riders had seems like a lot more input to certain
• 29:59
  riders to where again you can convince other people to jump on
• 30:03
  the to change up the the bike TJ.
• 30:07
  Yeah, I mean, like Rossi started out round one on a high and then
• 30:13
  still relevant finishing fourth the second race and the third
• 30:17
  race at Le Mans. But yeah, like Sete was just on
• 30:23
  one for those that Herrez and at the following round and Honda
• 30:31
  felt like they felt like they, you know, got a little step
• 30:34
  ahead, feel like they're doing really good.
• 30:36
  But it was a it was a good race just to see, you know, like the
• 30:41
  layout of how these riders are riding now compared to back
• 30:45
  then. But seeing Carlos Checker
• 30:48
  things, Carlos Checker finished in second and then Biaggi in
• 30:54
  3rd. It just shows like these guys,
• 30:56
  like I don't care about you, Rossi, like we're trying to
• 30:59
  trying to beat you and trying to stay relevant but couldn't hold
• 31:04
  it up. No doubt, no doubt, Jordan, you
• 31:07
  know, the Le Mans round, like I said, you know, the Honda's
• 31:12
  looking good. Melandre who who he, he came
• 31:16
  from the 250. He's he's on a, he's on a
• 31:20
  Yamaha. He's, he's starting to find his
• 31:22
  find his way on the Yamaha. Bayliss is struggling.
• 31:26
  Kappa Rossi struggling. You know, I think Honda at this
• 31:30
  point is just thinking like I it was just a fluke that Rossi won.
• 31:35
  I almost have to agree with you because at that round a lot of
• 31:39
  crazy things were kind of going on.
• 31:41
  I don't know if it was set up issues, nothing like that.
• 31:46
  I believe, if correct, if I'm wrong, I believe they were
• 31:49
  raining that morning session and then it dried out after after
• 31:54
  after that. So if anybody knows anything
• 31:57
  about motorcycles and racing or just motorcycles in general, you
• 32:01
  have to change up the bike a little bit.
• 32:04
  A lot of people change it drastically, but I'm talking
• 32:07
  about 2004 and not 2024. So they've learned that you
• 32:13
  don't have to change the bike that much.
• 32:15
  Yeah, you have to soften it up a little bit.
• 32:17
  It's more or less input that you have to do with the motorcycle.
• 32:21
  That helps with keeping grip in the wet and learning a different
• 32:26
  lean angles. What's good, what's bad.
• 32:28
  So I would say that it dampered a lot of people.
• 32:33
  If I remember that race, there was a lot of 1 offs, a lot of
• 32:36
  people that crashed, couple got back on, but a lot there was a
• 32:40
  lot of crash. It was only a crash fest.
• 32:42
  But I was kind of surprised on what happened during that
• 32:46
  because when that race was going on was kind of like, yeah, I was
• 32:52
  kind of second guessing. It's kind of like, yeah, this
• 32:54
  ain't looking too good two races in a row where, you know, Yamaha
• 32:59
  is down in what, 12 positions, something like that.
• 33:02
  It it was, it was looking pretty bad.
• 33:04
  So I was kind of getting kind of worried about what what was what
• 33:08
  happened. Definitely, man.
• 33:15
  Lewis, let's talk about the next round because we got we time is
• 33:19
  short and we're already we're already in this.
• 33:22
  It was a fluke after that because, you know, Rossi came
• 33:24
  back at the Italian round and did his thing.
• 33:28
  It seems like at this point, you know, like the 2025 season,
• 33:32
  riders start to show who's going to stay up front and we see set
• 33:36
  days decided to say, hey, I'm going to be the lone Spaniard to
• 33:40
  challenge Rossi Because again, this is a time when it's only
• 33:43
  like a few We had, we had juvenile we had.
• 33:48
  Cheka, Cheka and Zaus. Zaus, thank you.
• 33:50
  Yeah, exactly. So.
• 33:51
  So three guys and Zaus is on. I'm surprised Zaus finished
• 33:54
  fifth plate fish in in Italy. But, you know, let's talk about
• 33:58
  the Italian round. Rossi bounced back.
• 34:01
  I mean, it's his home track. He wins by 12 seconds.
• 34:04
  I mean, you know, that's, you know, we hear when, you know,
• 34:07
  some other riders win by 8 seconds.
• 34:09
  We're telling everybody else to quit.
• 34:11
  Yeah, well, I mean, right off the top of the bat, he's got
• 34:14
  that half second home field advantage.
• 34:16
  Anytime you're racing on your home track, you go a half second
• 34:18
  faster. So you add that half second by
• 34:21
  the amount of laps, there you go, there's your 12 seconds.
• 34:23
  You know, he definitely came back in this one.
• 34:26
  He had a a lot of fire in his belly after 2, four places in a
• 34:30
  row. Because again, Rossi's not a guy
• 34:32
  that used to finishing off the podium.
• 34:35
  It's either finished on the podium or finishing the crash
• 34:37
  truck. He doesn't really like to finish
• 34:39
  off the podium. And I think that over those two
• 34:43
  rounds, again, Yamaha was still developing the bike.
• 34:46
  They were still finding a way to get that extra speed, to get
• 34:49
  that stability to do all the that put all the pieces together
• 34:53
  that are missing on the bike. And there's still going to be
• 34:56
  more pieces that are going to come in this long, long journey
• 34:58
  that he's going to have with Yamaha.
• 34:59
  Because I don't think at this point anybody thinks that Rossi
• 35:03
  is going to spend the next almost 20 years on a Yamaha.
• 35:07
  You know, they're thinking he's got a two year, 2-3 year
• 35:09
  contract and then 2-3 years from now, we'll see what happens.
• 35:12
  But he actually ends up spending the majority of the rest of his
• 35:15
  career, except for a short stint on a Ducati on Yamaha and he
• 35:19
  retires on a Yamaha. So he pulls out this win, does
• 35:23
  it in dominating fashion, kind of again, throwing up the flag
• 35:28
  that, hey, I might not have the best bike, but I am the best
• 35:32
  rider and I can't make this bike more and more competitive.
• 35:36
  And from this point forward, he starts really ramping up exactly
• 35:40
  how competitive he is on that bike, right?
• 35:42
  He starts having some really strong rounds.
• 35:44
  He goes on to win the next two rounds.
• 35:47
  Yeah, he goes to Rio, which I don't know if there was some
• 35:50
  type of something happening down because we.
• 35:53
  I can't see footage. I don't have footage.
• 35:55
  Oh, I don't have results, a Moto GP, don't know what quite
• 36:00
  happened, but I, we do believe this is the round that Rossi and
• 36:05
  set, they crashed out and, and, and and so neither one of them
• 36:09
  scored any points. I forget who I I think.
• 36:13
  I don't know if it was Barrows who won or Biaggi who won for
• 36:16
  that. It was Biaggi.
• 36:17
  No, I'm sorry. It was actually no that one
• 36:21
  tomato one. OK, Tomato.
• 36:23
  Yeah, yeah, yeah, you're right, You're right.
• 36:24
  So he that was the first yeah, he that, which is crazy because
• 36:27
  he was fast because his first win and he went on.
• 36:30
  So now we we move on to the German Grand Prix.
• 36:34
  You know, it's I it's crazy to talk about, talk about, you
• 36:39
  know, in in hindsight, especially after watching the TJ
• 36:42
  and watching the races, because a lot has happened.
• 36:45
  But now it is a little bit more tension, you know, riders are
• 36:47
  riding, they're taking more risks, but they're kind of
• 36:53
  taking more risks going into this thing, you know?
• 36:56
  What are your thoughts on on where they're at in the German
• 36:58
  Grand Prix? I believe the German Grand Prix
• 37:00
  is the round. Nope, the British Grand Prix is
• 37:03
  the round. And after that is their summer
• 37:04
  break. And I just want to check real
• 37:09
  quick the British Grand Prix. Rossi did win that one.
• 37:11
  So between the German Grand Prix and the British Grand Prix,
• 37:16
  things are getting dicey. But Rossi's on a tear because
• 37:18
  he's, he's, he's 1, like, you know, 5-6 races at this point.
• 37:23
  What are your thoughts, TJ? Yeah, I mean, he's definitely on
• 37:27
  the tear and and these riders just just trying to like, you
• 37:31
  know, get back at him, trying to keep, you know, relevant in the
• 37:34
  points. I know we moving pretty fast but
• 37:38
  we skipped over. Athens was probably my favorite
• 37:41
  race of the year. Let's talk about it.
• 37:43
  You bet, You bet. No, no, no, that's all right.
• 37:45
  Because, you know, I'm looking at this German Grand Prix where
• 37:48
  Rossi finished fourth, Diagi was in first powers and and Mickey
• 37:52
  Hayden, you know, it was the top three.
• 37:53
  So you didn't see Seth, you didn't see him around there, you
• 37:57
  know, processed irrelevant to get those points.
• 38:01
  But my favorite race was the Athens.
• 38:05
  For some reason, Rossi was just just floating around, just just
• 38:09
  pacing the all the way through and he was able to pull it out
• 38:12
  and get the win. Long story short, but Sete
• 38:16
  thought he had that race the whole the whole time.
• 38:18
  And, and I like that he was so pissed off at the end of the
• 38:25
  race that he didn't want to take his helmet off, lift his visor
• 38:27
  up. And I think that took a lot out
• 38:29
  of him, remember that. And just trying to slow Rossi
• 38:34
  down the way. So he was on a tear with Italian
• 38:37
  and then and then that race and then he won like 3-4 in a row.
• 38:41
  So the German race, you know, he kind of had a little set back.
• 38:44
  But Sante wasn't around. A lot of riders did not make it
• 38:48
  that race. The pressure was definitely high
• 38:53
  on Rossi's attention. Yeah, I'm glad.
• 38:56
  I'm glad you you rewound that back a little bit because you
• 38:59
  know, followed that back a little bit as us Jamaican like
• 39:01
  to say, because you're right. There had to been something that
• 39:05
  switching and Sethe because you can see over the course.
• 39:09
  I mean, you know, by by Qatar, we find out why Rossi and Sethe
• 39:15
  don't don't speak right. So by that that time and I've
• 39:18
  lost my camera but I can still. We hear you.
• 39:22
  You guys can still hear me. Well, I'll sort that out in a
• 39:24
  second. So, you know, what are your
• 39:27
  thoughts, Jordan on on SETE, you know, at the at the Dutch Grand
• 39:31
  Prix, you know, thinking you got something in the bag and and you
• 39:35
  lose by not even a little over half a second.
• 39:38
  Half a second. I mean, he, Rossi was doing what
• 39:43
  he normally does is kind of not just set the pace, but kind of
• 39:47
  stalks people. He's been known for that even on
• 39:50
  two 50s and 120 fives, even known to stop.
• 39:53
  And he did it big time. And Assen and the German Grand
• 39:57
  Prix, if you remember the German Grand Prix where Rossi and Sete
• 40:02
  went out for the first lap, it was like qualify.
• 40:06
  I mean, they were going for each other's neck from the first
• 40:10
  race. Lap 1 going down the waterfall,
• 40:15
  Rossi hits him on the inside and block passes them before they
• 40:20
  even go up the hill on lap one and they already had a half
• 40:24
  second break on the rest of the field.
• 40:27
  So I mean, that goes to show you that the Assen race and the the
• 40:32
  first round of the European race, the Spain race, things
• 40:37
  started going in motion where it's kind of like I I got your
• 40:40
  number, you ain't getting mine. I'm going to make sure I wipe
• 40:43
  the floor with you. And it went on for like the next
• 40:46
  three rounds. And where Sette is, he could
• 40:49
  have stayed on the bike. I'm not going to, you know,
• 40:51
  going to probably skipping around.
• 40:52
  Like I said, we're out of time for right now now.
• 40:55
  But if Sette would have been able to stay on the bike for the
• 40:58
  next two or three rounds, I think it would have been a lot
• 41:00
  closer, closer, not going to say he won, but would have been a
• 41:03
  lot closer. But after that, I mean, he, he
• 41:06
  pretty much Rossi, I'm talking about he pretty much put the
• 41:10
  hammer down and make sure that he had a nice gap between the
• 41:14
  next couple rounds. Yeah, he did.
• 41:17
  He did, no doubt. Lewis, man.
• 41:18
  I mean, you know, Beyoncé won at the German Grand Prix.
• 41:22
  Not enough to really, you know, interrupt what was going on
• 41:26
  between Seth and and Rossi, but you know, you know, 8 rounds in,
• 41:34
  you know, Honda got to feel like they're in trouble.
• 41:37
  What are your thoughts on on where things are?
• 41:39
  Do you believe that, You know, asking the Dutch round was the
• 41:43
  icing on the cake for Sette to you know, I guess I'll say it
• 41:46
  and, and, and what he you know, because, you know, so at the
• 41:49
  Qatar round, Rossi got a, a, a grid penalty pushed back at the
• 41:56
  grid for cleaning his grid position the night before,
• 42:00
  because this is their first year in Qatar and it was a lot of
• 42:04
  dust. And and so somebody went to Race
• 42:07
  Direction and snitched on Rossi and and then Rossi say hey, hey,
• 42:12
  hey. I wasn't the only Italian out.
• 42:15
  Bianchi was out here with me as well.
• 42:18
  You know, if you, if I'm getting somebody dropping down on me,
• 42:20
  I'm dropping down on everybody. Either we all stay quiet and all
• 42:24
  go to jail together or we all stay free.
• 42:27
  But if somebody dropped down on me, man, I'm rolling.
• 42:31
  And it had to be true because, you know, they both got the grid
• 42:33
  position and you know it. Come to find out, Rossi believes
• 42:37
  Sete's the one that informed on on him and and after that he
• 42:45
  wouldn't. He wouldn't.
• 42:47
  Spaniard is out to get him. That's new to me, man.
• 42:50
  That's never happened. He's.
• 42:51
  You know, but it's also a a, a, a, a a shot in the foot for
• 42:55
  Honda, right, because Biaggi is a Honda rider and you also heard
• 42:59
  Biaggi as well, not just Rossi, even though your aim was to kind
• 43:04
  of you know, which I don't know is I mean, look, I I was talking
• 43:07
  to TJ about this earlier. I mean, it's is, I don't know
• 43:11
  how dusty is in Qatar, but I got assume if it's the night before
• 43:15
  in the morning, there's going to be a lot of dust in that spot
• 43:18
  where Rossi cleaned off if. Yeah, that that sounds like
• 43:23
  possibly the dumbest thing ever done.
• 43:25
  Because to this day, Qatar is known as obviously it's in the
• 43:29
  desert. So there's sand in the desert
• 43:33
  and it tends to be very windy. And even during the races,
• 43:36
  riders will say they go into corners very hesitant because
• 43:39
  there's certain corners that during the race they know that
• 43:42
  the winds blowing and it gets a little bit more extra sand.
• 43:45
  So they have to be a little bit more adaptable corner by corner
• 43:49
  and lap by lap because you might go around this corner this lap,
• 43:52
  and while you complete that lap, you know, a strong breeze comes
• 43:55
  across. And now you go into that same
• 43:57
  corner the next lap. And if you're a leading rider,
• 43:59
  you're the Canary in the coal mine.
• 44:01
  You're going to this corner that all of a sudden now has sand
• 44:03
  that you didn't expect to be there.
• 44:05
  And there's why I got a lot of guys end up eating it at, you
• 44:08
  know, Turn 3 and turn 7 at Qatar because those are known as
• 44:15
  places where sand collects more than anywhere else.
• 44:19
  Dusting off your grid position the night before is really,
• 44:22
  really still, I can see it like the day of.
• 44:25
  Or have one of your mechanics go out there and like put some
• 44:27
  special shoes on with some like brushes on them and like brush
• 44:31
  it with his shoes. Come on, man.
• 44:34
  That made that makes no sense. But again, you know, the the
• 44:38
  race went through at Qatar. Rossi ended up retiring, didn't
• 44:43
  finish the race, said that Gibbon I won the race. 2nd place
• 44:47
  went to Colin Edwards. Colin Edwards ends up having
• 44:51
  quite a few second places in his career.
• 44:53
  Never get to 1st place the entire time that he's in Moto
• 44:55
  GP. And Nikki Hayden, you know,
• 44:58
  again, he's in the top five. So at this point in the year,
• 45:02
  Nikki Hayden's either in the top five or he's not finishing the
• 45:05
  race. That's kind of been his pattern
• 45:07
  the entire year. Rossi kind of still leads the
• 45:13
  championship at this point, leaves with more than enough
• 45:16
  points to continue his role. And if the next couple of rounds
• 45:20
  go the right way, then Rossi's going to pretty much clinch the
• 45:23
  championship. Maybe in Malaysia, possibly in
• 45:27
  Australia. It's not even going to have to
• 45:28
  go to Valencia. No, well, it does.
• 45:30
  It does go to Malaysia, but not Valencia for sure.
• 45:35
  Set the Juvenal did did fight. I mean, he, he, I I'll give it
• 45:38
  to him. He he he I think he left it all
• 45:40
  out there. I think he he to me, he
• 45:43
  resembles Reggie Miller or Charles Barkley despite I don't
• 45:48
  know. Again, I don't know how true it
• 45:49
  was with with him, you know, ratting on and Rossi, but that's
• 45:53
  sour day relationship. Jordan, TJ, have you heard
• 45:56
  about, you know, your thoughts on that for this sour
• 45:59
  relationship? And and, you know, I heard one
• 46:02
  of the commentators say, you know, Rossi said I was always
• 46:05
  looking for a reason not to talk to juvenile, juvenile.
• 46:07
  And now he gave me one after that.
• 46:10
  So that's also funny. I'm sure you can relate, Lewis,
• 46:14
  when it comes, you know, to people in the paddock you might
• 46:17
  not want to talk to anymore. But you got to.
• 46:19
  What were your thoughts, Jordan on on, on the on the beef?
• 46:23
  I mean, there, there's always going to be beef.
• 46:26
  Like I heard, and this is kind of bestowing to me that Shaq
• 46:33
  Shaquille O'Neal what, 5-6 time NBA champion with, you know, a
• 46:39
  whole bunch of teams, Miami, Boston, blah, blah, blah, LA
• 46:45
  Kobe, blah, blah, blah. He, he actually admitted to
• 46:51
  lying to David Robinson that he actually didn't like him.
• 46:57
  He actually had a beef with him, lied to the critics, lied to the
• 47:02
  the media, lied to everybody because he thought David
• 47:06
  Robinson was a better center than he was before he became
• 47:09
  really big. So when he supposedly asked for
• 47:12
  an autograph, David Robinson said no.
• 47:16
  He actually put that in his mind so that he played harder at
• 47:22
  David Robinson to make sure he didn't play well.
• 47:25
  And that was his mindset. I say that to say the same
• 47:29
  thing. Something in his Valentino's
• 47:32
  mind, whatever it was, somebody said something in his ear was
• 47:35
  kind of like, oh, I heard that settee did this, settee did
• 47:39
  this, blah, blah, blah. Whether it's true or not.
• 47:42
  He got punished for for for, for the crime.
• 47:45
  So it's a question of who? Said, yeah, that you didn't do
• 47:49
  so for me. It's just like, who said that?
• 47:52
  Really. Oh, so TJ said that.
• 47:55
  OK. Hi, TJ.
• 47:56
  Hi. You will never win a race up
• 47:58
  again while I'm on a grid. You ain't never winning a race.
• 48:01
  That's the mindset that we have. So I mean, from even from there,
• 48:05
  I mean, most of you get gridded. A grid penalty for something
• 48:08
  that you didn't do or something that you didn't blame for.
• 48:12
  Yeah. I take it personal and be like,
• 48:13
  oh, yeah, really? You going to do something like
• 48:15
  that? Some child is like that.
• 48:16
  Yeah. I got your number.
• 48:18
  Literally I got your number. No doubt like that.
• 48:21
  Yeah, TJ man, I I I'm wondering what your thoughts on on on
• 48:25
  Rossi and and the whole beef. And you know, as I'm watching
• 48:29
  cuz again, like I watched it many years ago, I'm not in real
• 48:33
  time, but I wasn't sure when it started because you know, when I
• 48:38
  was watching 2003, I'm like, all right, they dapping each other
• 48:41
  up and on the podium, they dabbing each other up.
• 48:43
  I'm like, all right, all, all, all is good.
• 48:45
  And then this looks like Qatar. It's like even after the race,
• 48:50
  it's just like, I'm not even looking at you.
• 48:51
  I'm not even, you know nothing. What are your thoughts, man?
• 48:55
  And and you know, rivalries are real and beefs are real, right?
• 48:59
  Yeah, I mean, This is why we see Rossi's an icon and and the
• 49:03
  level he's at now, because he's a goal getter.
• 49:06
  He gets his and you can't get in his way.
• 49:08
  You see that? I mean, like, like you can't get
• 49:12
  in his way at all. I mean, like, well, I was going
• 49:17
  to, I was going to compare this season a little bit to the worst
• 49:20
  super bike season we just had. Not that there's any beef with
• 49:24
  Bouliger and Top Rack, but I feel like top rack was Rossi and
• 49:30
  Bulgar was set to, you know, it's like he tries so hard to do
• 49:35
  all that he can but couldn't get it done.
• 49:37
  Not that there's any beep, but I feel like whatever was directed
• 49:43
  towards Rossi to feel like somebody's against him.
• 49:45
  You see, he made his move, jumped to Yamaha's like I you
• 49:48
  tell me if it's not going to work, I'm going to show you now
• 49:52
  if he got that rumour that whatever set they did that
• 49:55
  affected his ridings, like all right, I'll need to speak to
• 49:57
  you. So I'm still do what I got to
• 49:59
  do. And you see like, you know, he's
• 50:02
  still that's the fuel that Rossi likes and it just makes him even
• 50:07
  better. It just shows that how he's a
• 50:09
  legend, so. Yeah, I, I, I, I agree on on
• 50:15
  that front. You know, Lewis, man, I mean,
• 50:18
  you know, Rossi goes to Malaysia, wins the championship,
• 50:22
  after the championship, his boys, they all clean the grid.
• 50:29
  What a, you know, what a, what a, what a way to get back a
• 50:32
  little bit, you know, Are we petty and Moto GP?
• 50:35
  Well, no. This is, this is showmanship.
• 50:37
  You know, this is what's always made Rossi.
• 50:40
  Rossi, one of the few characters that can actually get away with
• 50:43
  this kind of stuff is has been Rossi.
• 50:45
  Other people have tried to do it and it looks very forced.
• 50:48
  It looks unnatural. Whereas when Rossi does these
• 50:51
  different celebrations, it you know, it, it looks organic, but
• 50:56
  it is, it is planned. It's not like they did just
• 50:59
  organically said, hey, we're going to clean this up.
• 51:01
  That he was like, hey, if I win this race or I win the
• 51:03
  championship here, this is what we're going to do in this
• 51:05
  corner. We're going to go out there with
• 51:07
  some brooms. We're going to do this and that.
• 51:09
  This is showmanship. This is something that was a
• 51:13
  little bit more allowed in Moto GP and especially now that he's
• 51:16
  not with Honda, he doesn't have the corporate overlords kind of
• 51:20
  pushing down on him, trying to tell him who to be and who not
• 51:23
  to be. And this is great.
• 51:25
  You know, this is 1. You know, this grid penalty.
• 51:29
  Here's a little bit of a slap in the face to set that driven out.
• 51:32
  If he was the one that ratted me out, I'm sweeping.
• 51:36
  I just swept Honda. So you can kind of take it two
• 51:38
  ways. You know, you guys brought five
• 51:40
  of the fastest people that you can find and put them on the
• 51:43
  best bike. And I just swept you guys as
• 51:45
  well. And you know, I'm going to be
• 51:48
  around for a long time and I'm going to keep making your lives
• 51:50
  difficult. I mean, to this day, up until
• 51:53
  just a couple years ago, he had a beef with Honda because Honda
• 51:57
  owed him a motorcycle that they wouldn't give him.
• 52:01
  And I think just in the last year or two, Honda finally gave
• 52:06
  him the replica of the motorcycle he won his GP on.
• 52:11
  And, you know, and this is the kind of petty shit that if
• 52:13
  you're not a true fan, you don't know what's happening.
• 52:15
  But if you are a true fan, you start to realize, man, there's a
• 52:19
  lot of petty bitches in this sport.
• 52:24
  You know, and speaking though, we'll talk about the last round
• 52:27
  and then we'll kind of just go around and give our overall
• 52:30
  thoughts. Michael Jordan's at the last
• 52:32
  round in Valencia. So talking about petty people he
• 52:35
  took a ride out with. We took a ride out on a factory
• 52:39
  Ducati, which was pretty cool. I want to do that.
• 52:42
  He also got a ride with Valentina Rossi in a BMW.
• 52:47
  They hop out, there's like no helmets, no gloves.
• 52:51
  Drifting, drifting, that thing. Drifting and all this and you
• 52:58
  know how times have changed because now literally the seat
• 53:01
  belt got a seat belt. Rossi won the final round in in
• 53:08
  true fashion. Unfortunately, Nikki Hayden was
• 53:11
  doing really well and crashed out.
• 53:13
  I would say that this was Nikki Hayden's breakout season, even
• 53:16
  though he had a broken collarbone or early on and stuff
• 53:18
  like that. You know, what are your thoughts
• 53:20
  on seeing MJ there? You know, riding the factory,
• 53:24
  taking the factory Ducati around the block.
• 53:26
  Moto GP bike, not not install bike.
• 53:29
  And you know, there was even rumors that he was trying to get
• 53:31
  a Moto GP team. And obviously with CBA, Jordan
• 53:34
  is now with NASCAR and stuff like that.
• 53:36
  How cool that would have been, even though he did have a team
• 53:39
  in AMA on the stateside. But we'll start with TJ and go
• 53:45
  around the room, you know, final round the overall season.
• 53:49
  You know, Rossi does win on the Yamaha, continuing his reign of
• 53:56
  four titles in a row, won the most with nine wins in the
• 54:00
  season on a Yamaha. No other rider had done that.
• 54:04
  The first rider since I'm forgetting his name, there's
• 54:08
  only one of the guy that switched brand and won a factory
• 54:11
  Eastman something, some Westman something.
• 54:16
  I'll I'll get it. But there's only one other rider
• 54:18
  has it was able to do that. And Rossi did that on, on on the
• 54:21
  Yamaha. TJ, what are your thoughts man
• 54:24
  on the 2004 season? So I must say it was actually a
• 54:29
  really good season. I pretty much enjoyed a lot of
• 54:33
  it. If I didn't see the Jordan part
• 54:35
  on the Valencia race. So someone else might have to
• 54:38
  explain that fiasco. But watching the Valencia race
• 54:46
  and Rossi has already won the championship.
• 54:48
  So you know, we're going into the race, you know it's already
• 54:51
  won. You don't really have to try
• 54:53
  hard or whatever, but you know, you're still the rider you are,
• 54:56
  so you're still going to give your 100%.
• 54:58
  So he goes in to the first couple turns like, you know,
• 55:02
  back in like 7th, 10th, whatever, but he still was able
• 55:05
  to pull it out like he's still able to, you know, pick people
• 55:10
  off and get to the front and win the race.
• 55:13
  So it just shows how dumb he was and throughout the season and he
• 55:17
  didn't break. He didn't need a whole squad of
• 55:20
  riders to to help him, you know, like, like Lewis said, like he
• 55:26
  carried his whole, you know, squad over to Yamaha.
• 55:29
  So like he had his interior ready.
• 55:31
  That's all he needed. But what a way to finish the
• 55:34
  season. I mean, this guy actually has a
• 55:36
  now he has a a mirror outside the the Valencia with his face
• 55:42
  on the wall. So, I mean, so I bet you Seth
• 55:48
  never visits Valencia. But yeah, that was that was a
• 55:54
  cool way to finish the season. And it was, it was a good season
• 55:58
  overall. No doubt Jordan, what are your
• 56:01
  thoughts man on 2004 season, Jordan showing up, you know,
• 56:05
  taking a ride on on on the on the GP2.
• 56:09
  I guess this is only their second year Moto GP at that
• 56:14
  point for Ducati, you know, Rossi winning the race, even
• 56:18
  though he already won the title, he, you know, it.
• 56:22
  It's that killer mentality. You know, for some people, they,
• 56:27
  they wake up with it, they go to sleep with it.
• 56:29
  And it seems like that's what Rossi did.
• 56:31
  What are your thoughts on the 2004 season?
• 56:33
  The season was great, season was very exciting.
• 56:37
  Started off with a bang with him getting the first win and then
• 56:42
  kind of little learning the bike as he went along in the season.
• 56:47
  And then you can kind of see his Valentino dominance kind of kick
• 56:51
  in later on in there. A little hiccups here and there
• 56:55
  which is to be expected to happen.
• 56:58
  But when the season kind of boiled down to our you got it
• 57:03
  dialed in, Now it's time to execute and start winning races,
• 57:08
  start pressuring riders. Got to remember 2004, each round
• 57:13
  they had two week breaks. Not nowadays where they're
• 57:17
  racing almost every weekend. You know they have two week
• 57:19
  breaks between every round, so they had a lot of time. 16
• 57:24
  right? Still a lot of rounds, but I
• 57:26
  mean, they had a lot of breaks in between them.
• 57:30
  Even the summer break was almost a month long.
• 57:32
  So I mean they had a lot of stuff going on, but that they
• 57:35
  had a lot of breaks between. So the Valencia round when
• 57:38
  everything's already kind of said and done, now you see all
• 57:41
  the stars come out. World of the Olympians were out
• 57:46
  there, tennis, tennis pros were out there.
• 57:50
  MJ was out there. I mean, it was a, like I said,
• 57:53
  it was a, a, I'm not say a fiasco, but it was, you know,
• 57:57
  who's the Princess of the ball type of situation to where
• 58:00
  everything's pretty much said and done.
• 58:03
  The desk is pretty much already settled.
• 58:04
  I think first and second was already done.
• 58:06
  So it's a matter of who was going to get 3rd, 5th and
• 58:09
  whatever else. So it was just kind of like
• 58:12
  wherever else you're going to fit into, you know, have, you
• 58:16
  know, have a good race, have some fun.
• 58:18
  But for Michael Jordan to kind of have that passion for
• 58:23
  motorcycle, motorcycle racing, to go out to, you know, him
• 58:28
  being Michael Jordan is a world name.
• 58:31
  Anybody in the world, doesn't matter where you're at Germany,
• 58:35
  you can speak English, not speak English.
• 58:37
  You say Michael Jordan, Michael Jordan, Michael, everybody knows
• 58:41
  it. So for him to actually go out on
• 58:43
  there, go out on a Dejo Seddici bike, go out there on a parade
• 58:49
  lab, kind of show people that yes, I am a true fan of
• 58:52
  motorcycle, motorcycle racing. And then like the next year
• 58:57
  start of Michael Jordan Motorsports racing in motor, not
• 59:01
  to say Motor America, but AMA Pro with right.
• 59:08
  He started with the Hayden's, but then didn't really do too
• 59:10
  much because no, he had a, he had a street rider, Montel
• 59:14
  Montes, Montes Montes Jordan, I think it was who actually
• 59:18
  started his first race with AMA Pro.
• 59:23
  But he was a Chicago St. rider, St. racer, I guess you call it.
• 59:27
  So he actually helped pioneer him into what eventually becomes
• 59:32
  Michael Jordan Motorsports. And like I said, now like you
• 59:35
  said is 2311, which is Michael Jordan Motorsports.
• 59:39
  And yeah, so it was good to see it.
• 59:47
  But the whole it was a, it was a big fiasco.
• 59:49
  It was a big media show, full blown.
• 59:54
  Lewis No, all right, man. Lewis I mean, you know, Santa
• 59:57
  Juvenile didn't win. What was the temperature like
• 1:00:00
  back then? Rossi he didn't have to win the
• 1:00:04
  last race, but he win it on their home soil.
• 1:00:07
  I mean, this, these these guys back then, were they were they
• 1:00:11
  they were killers. Is is is the best thing I can
• 1:00:13
  say, man. What are your thoughts on the
• 1:00:14
  2004 season where Moto GP was as you hit other guys, you know,
• 1:00:19
  talk about the different fans that came out or superstars, I
• 1:00:21
  should say, that came out. You know what are your thoughts
• 1:00:24
  man? No, I was, it was great season
• 1:00:27
  overall. A lot of ups and downs.
• 1:00:29
  You know, there was a lot of compelling storylines.
• 1:00:33
  It it, it's a cliche thing, but if, if you were going to write a
• 1:00:36
  movie, you pretty much would write this movie exactly how it
• 1:00:40
  played out. You know, you would have your
• 1:00:42
  ups and downs, your trials and tribulations.
• 1:00:44
  You'd have some wins, you'd have some losses.
• 1:00:46
  You'd have a a, a guy competing against you pretty much to the
• 1:00:50
  end of the year, keeping you honest.
• 1:00:53
  You didn't just walk away with the title even though you ended
• 1:00:55
  up winning by, I think 37 points.
• 1:00:59
  So yeah. Three O 457, so like 4044
• 1:01:03
  points. 4047 points, something like that.
• 1:01:06
  But either way, like, you know, you didn't walk away with it,
• 1:01:09
  but you also, you know, it kind of did come down to the second
• 1:01:12
  to the last race of the season and then the storylines, you
• 1:01:16
  know? So Rossi is the only rider to
• 1:01:20
  win back-to-back after changing manufacturers at the Moto GP
• 1:01:25
  level, at the top level. So he went from a Honda 1 year
• 1:01:27
  as a champion and went to Yamaha the next year as a champion.
• 1:01:30
  And so far nobody's been able to replicate that.
• 1:01:33
  Probably the only sport. And yeah, it's, you know, I
• 1:01:36
  mean, I know LeBron tries all the time.
• 1:01:39
  He leaves a great team and tries to build another great team.
• 1:01:42
  But he lost us. He lost the first one to Dallas.
• 1:01:45
  So yeah. So it's it's a difficult thing
• 1:01:49
  to to do, but in motorcycle racing, at least at this time,
• 1:01:53
  it was a little bit easier for Rossi because he was able to
• 1:01:56
  bring his entire team with him and kind of pick up where they
• 1:01:59
  left off, even though it's a different equipment.
• 1:02:03
  Overall, the season was great. It did set some of the tones
• 1:02:07
  with what we're going to talk about when we get to 2025 as far
• 1:02:10
  as like the rival between Rossi and Jibena gets worse, The rival
• 1:02:13
  between Rossi and Biaggi gets worse.
• 1:02:16
  I mean, from here on out, you know, Sete, Biaggi and Rossi,
• 1:02:21
  that trio, that's just a degradation of relationships.
• 1:02:24
  Like it becomes, it becomes so caustic at a certain point that
• 1:02:29
  it's like, oh man, you know. And now if you think about it,
• 1:02:32
  Fast forward into the future and you think about all the other
• 1:02:35
  people that Rossi has that beef with throughout the years.
• 1:02:38
  Like when Rossi has beef with somebody, he goes scorch earth.
• 1:02:43
  Like there's there's no going back.
• 1:02:45
  There really isn't. The only person he's ever gone
• 1:02:47
  back and kind of shook hands with was Casey Stoner.
• 1:02:51
  And Lorenzo I. Mean.
• 1:02:54
  Marquez No, but Lorenzo? Lorenzo.
• 1:02:57
  After that I forget. Was it Louis Salaam that died?
• 1:03:00
  I think it was after Louis Salaam died he he made peace
• 1:03:03
  with Lorenzo. Yeah, and again, dude, I we got
• 1:03:07
  to wait till somebody else dies with Marquez.
• 1:03:09
  He was also a grown man. But at this point, you know,
• 1:03:15
  he's a young hot head. He's going to carry a lot of
• 1:03:17
  piss and vinegar from round to round.
• 1:03:19
  He's going to he's going to carry that grudge.
• 1:03:22
  And we talked about it before the show started.
• 1:03:24
  Every other guy in his grid is somewhat a legend, but their
• 1:03:28
  legend is elevated by the fact that they raced against Rossi
• 1:03:32
  even though they didn't beat Rossi.
• 1:03:34
  Had they only race between each other?
• 1:03:35
  If, if it hadn't really been Sethi Jemenal and Biaggi, do you
• 1:03:38
  think we'd just still be talking about Sethi Jemenal?
• 1:03:41
  Yeah, that listen, I, I mean, when you put it like that, I
• 1:03:45
  don't know, you're right. I don't know.
• 1:03:47
  I mean, it's tough because you can think about some of these
• 1:03:50
  weird times where you know, like the like the, the replacement
• 1:03:54
  time in NFL with players and the, the, the quarter season,
• 1:03:58
  the half a season and Moto GP with the pandemic or, you know,
• 1:04:03
  the Spurs kind of thing and stuff like that.
• 1:04:05
  So. Let's be honest, if Isaiah
• 1:04:08
  Thomas wasn't talking shit about Michael Jordan once every few
• 1:04:11
  months, nobody would give a fuck who Isaiah Thomas is, man.
• 1:04:16
  No one. Would know when you put it like
• 1:04:19
  that, Lewis, When you put it like that, I guess, I guess you
• 1:04:22
  have a point when you know when you don't win and the only way
• 1:04:27
  to be relevant is to to to talk about the wins you didn't get
• 1:04:32
  where like Michael Jordan or Rossi or these guys, they don't
• 1:04:36
  have to come out, you know, Lewis Hamilton, Verstappen, they
• 1:04:39
  don't have to come out and and have their rings on, you know,
• 1:04:42
  all, all, all the time and stuff like that.
• 1:04:45
  But at the same time, you know, give juvenile credit, give
• 1:04:50
  Biaggi credit, give Kaparosi credit, Barrows credit for
• 1:04:54
  taking out the challenge. Because there's other, there's,
• 1:04:57
  there's a lot of other dudes that like, you know, if I don't
• 1:05:01
  look at him, maybe he won't beat me as much.
• 1:05:05
  And you have to give them credit because these guys, these guys
• 1:05:09
  are the best of the best at this point in time in history of Moto
• 1:05:13
  GP. Whether they're on their way to
• 1:05:16
  the pinnacle of their career, if they're just at the at the top
• 1:05:20
  of the mountain, if they just kind of crested and now they're
• 1:05:22
  starting to decline to retire. These were the top seven or
• 1:05:26
  eight guys in the sport at this time.
• 1:05:29
  And they're throwing everything they can and the kitchen sink
• 1:05:32
  at, at a guy that's, you know, the Michael Jordan of this
• 1:05:35
  sport. And I'll add Honda also, it's
• 1:05:39
  not just these guys, Honda who they they pretty much were Moto
• 1:05:43
  GP. They also I also wanted to toss
• 1:05:46
  this guy out as well and and so all of them, you know, they had
• 1:05:51
  to eat crow until until one man came by.
• 1:05:54
  I mean, you know, they. Got posterized.
• 1:05:59
  What are your thoughts? Join the TJ on, on, on.
• 1:06:03
  You know what Lewis said about, you know, they may not be
• 1:06:06
  legends if they were not fighting against Rossi.
• 1:06:10
  I mean, we'll never know. We know.
• 1:06:12
  We know how it turned out and they are legends.
• 1:06:16
  And to me that was a 2004 was a pretty impressive season to
• 1:06:21
  watch. You know, you know, we hear
• 1:06:23
  folks in in in media spaces talk about, you know, the old
• 1:06:27
  basketball games and stuff like that and and the different times
• 1:06:30
  and who would win and who would win and all that.
• 1:06:32
  I think for Moto GP we already got times at tracks and stuff
• 1:06:37
  like that and we already you can watch and see, you know, you
• 1:06:40
  don't, you don't need to see a 2025 spec bike to say, oh, this
• 1:06:43
  2004 bike wasn't quick. They they was, they were still
• 1:06:47
  going over 200 miles an hour back then.
• 1:06:49
  What are your thoughts, Jordan? And then we go to TJ on on what
• 1:06:52
  Lewis is saying if these guys wouldn't be as big as they would
• 1:06:56
  be if Rossi wasn't there. I thought they were able to beat
• 1:06:58
  Rossi. I have to, I have to agree with
• 1:07:00
  them. I mean, if you look at all these
• 1:07:02
  riders, Sete, Biaggi, Kappa Rossi, the list goes on and on
• 1:07:09
  and on, There's only one factor. They race against Rossi.
• 1:07:16
  Just like you said. What I say to Thomas, he
• 1:07:18
  wouldn't be relevant if he wouldn't talking about the
• 1:07:21
  greatest player that he ever played, the greatest player ever
• 1:07:24
  played the sport of basketball. And he's still an icon, an icon
• 1:07:28
  to this day. Us in motorcycle racing, the
• 1:07:31
  icon that we have is Valentina Rossi.
• 1:07:35
  So if you're going to be a competitor against him, then
• 1:07:39
  then you're relevant to there because I've raced against
• 1:07:42
  Valentina Rossi, I can say I'm relevant because I've raced
• 1:07:45
  against. Kenny Roberts, senior.
• 1:07:50
  I've raced against, you know, a whole bunch of world super bike
• 1:07:53
  riders that are in the world super Bike now.
• 1:07:55
  But I'm here. So the only reason why they're
• 1:07:59
  relevant is because they raced against him, whether they beat
• 1:08:02
  him or not on a fluke or because they was on superior, superior
• 1:08:07
  equipment. That's the only relevant they
• 1:08:09
  have. Yeah, I mean, nine wins is
• 1:08:11
  pretty dope, man. In one in in in 11, in 16 rounds
• 1:08:15
  TT man, you know you know is it should should we realign the
• 1:08:22
  legend status? I mean like, like not to switch
• 1:08:27
  sports, but you know, like there's, there's players who
• 1:08:30
  haven't won a championship in basketball because Michael
• 1:08:32
  Jordan dominated throughout the whole time, but there's still
• 1:08:36
  legends and and good players. So these riders here put up a
• 1:08:42
  great season. So I mean, they they didn't just
• 1:08:45
  like, you know, finish, you know, like 5th and 10th in and
• 1:08:50
  tempo with Rossi. Like they actually had battles,
• 1:08:53
  they actually won some races or got the podium.
• 1:08:56
  So they definitely put up a fight and Rossi had to actually
• 1:09:01
  prove himself. So, you know, it didn't come
• 1:09:04
  easy, especially as like Lewis said earlier.
• 1:09:07
  So like the fact that Rossi proved how good he was and then
• 1:09:11
  these guys were the the second runner upside.
• 1:09:16
  Yeah. I mean, you still got to give
• 1:09:19
  credit, but you know, it's because Rossi is in the way you.
• 1:09:23
  Know yeah, I, I will say and you know, I know Lewis gave me he he
• 1:09:28
  brought up my off off camera brought up you know what I, you
• 1:09:32
  know how I feel about Bagnaya as far as you know, you know, the
• 1:09:37
  caliber riders. But I will you know, and I'll,
• 1:09:39
  I'll even use his point to to kind of, you know, add to what
• 1:09:44
  I'm trying to say. I in 2004, all those guys, even
• 1:09:49
  though they didn't win or whatever, for whatever reason,
• 1:09:53
  you didn't think for a second that they weren't giving it all
• 1:09:55
  they got. I mean, these guys were rolling
• 1:09:58
  over 100 times and and trying to get back out there.
• 1:10:01
  These, you know, we're, you know, we've heard Lewis and and
• 1:10:03
  other guys say, you know, back night, don't run after the bike
• 1:10:07
  after he crash kind of thing and stuff like that.
• 1:10:10
  We we can't say about this in 2004, all these riders, they
• 1:10:14
  were doing everything, including going to the teacher to try to
• 1:10:18
  try to to win the race. You know, what do you, you know,
• 1:10:22
  before I get out of here, anything that you want you guys
• 1:10:24
  want to add that we didn't talk about about the 2004 season
• 1:10:27
  other than if you haven't watched it, go watch it.
• 1:10:30
  You know it's on Moto GP. I mean, I got one things like I
• 1:10:35
  learned that in 2004, the rules and regulations, they switched
• 1:10:40
  the yellow flag so you can't pass a rider.
• 1:10:44
  If you do, you have to go back to, I forget, like your couple
• 1:10:48
  grid penalties or something like that.
• 1:10:50
  But that goes to show that if people are crashing and they saw
• 1:10:53
  a yellow flag, they were like, OK, I still could get on it.
• 1:10:57
  You know, it didn't matter. So like they had to like
• 1:11:00
  regulate a few things. So that changed and then, like I
• 1:11:04
  told you, Aston was my favorite race, but Rossi did the biggest
• 1:11:08
  burnout I've seen at acid, probably pissed off set to even
• 1:11:12
  more. But you don't really you don't
• 1:11:14
  really see that anymore where like riders do like massive
• 1:11:18
  burnouts, like even when doing track days I did someone did a
• 1:11:22
  burnout like, you know, at the Neymar and they were like, oh,
• 1:11:24
  you got to pay for that. You messed up the concrete.
• 1:11:27
  So like, you know, just to see that back in the day, it was
• 1:11:30
  pretty cool. But you know, you see how ties
• 1:11:33
  would change so. Bring back the burnouts.
• 1:11:35
  They can't do burnouts like that now with the shitty ties.
• 1:11:38
  Now they'll blow up and they won't make it back to the grid.
• 1:11:43
  Got less than 1mm rubber left at the end of the race.
• 1:11:50
  I will. I will add one thing.
• 1:11:52
  I forget which race it was, but Rossi on A on A on the fastest
• 1:11:57
  time she he had the 14th fastest bike and he finished that race
• 1:12:02
  in first place by 5 seconds. So he was definitely riding a
• 1:12:06
  slower bike and still beating up on these on these dudes and you
• 1:12:10
  know, so you know, powers and everything.
• 1:12:12
  Well, this, this year laid down the groundwork for what the
• 1:12:16
  Yamaha would be from that point pretty much until now.
• 1:12:19
  It's a bike that's soup, that's got the edge grip, that's
• 1:12:23
  unbelievable, carries a ton of corner speed.
• 1:12:26
  And if it can carry that corner speed, it can carry the momentum
• 1:12:29
  out of the corner and make it so very difficult to pass.
• 1:12:32
  Unfortunately now everybody has corner speed and now you need
• 1:12:37
  straight line speed and this is where Yamaha, we know in today's
• 1:12:40
  day and age is suffering dramatically.
• 1:12:43
  So hopefully with their new V4 engine this will change.
• 1:12:46
  But this set the tone for what the Yamaha would be and the
• 1:12:50
  Yamaha became a very dominant bike, even though it's always
• 1:12:53
  been down on power, it's never been the fastest bike.
• 1:12:56
  It's never had the most horsepower.
• 1:12:59
  But that thing can go into a corner and go through a corner
• 1:13:02
  and come out of a corner faster than anybody else, hands down.
• 1:13:05
  Like that was the geometry and the setup of the bike.
• 1:13:08
  It was a very long bike. Like the wheelbase was a little
• 1:13:11
  bit longer than what the wheelbase most other bikes use
• 1:13:14
  just to be able to carry that corner speed and to be able to
• 1:13:17
  like swing the bike through the corners and keep stability.
• 1:13:20
  Because as you shorten this the, the the wheelbase, you know,
• 1:13:24
  you're going to lose a little bit stability and straight line
• 1:13:27
  speed, and then you're going to lose a little stability through
• 1:13:30
  the corners. And they just found that right
• 1:13:32
  length, a wheelbase that worked with the tires they had, that
• 1:13:36
  gave them the that little competitive advantage in the one
• 1:13:39
  place they exceeded everybody else in the corner through the
• 1:13:42
  corner. No doubt.
• 1:13:45
  Well, my take on the season is, is how the celebrations was then
• 1:13:54
  and now. Valentino, like I said, he was a
• 1:13:58
  showman. I believe that's why he had the
• 1:14:01
  fanfare, has my French has the fanfare he still has in his day
• 1:14:08
  because he celebrates with the crowd, the people.
• 1:14:12
  He does all the extravagance, goes to the potty and turn 4 and
• 1:14:18
  stays in there for like 30 something seconds and comes out.
• 1:14:21
  You know, nobody does. Nobody ever does that.
• 1:14:23
  You know, people who've tried to do that, like you said, you
• 1:14:26
  know, Jorge, he came out with his little 5 suits and stood
• 1:14:33
  there. Yeah, I won five.
• 1:14:35
  OK, dude. You know, Martinez had a good
• 1:14:39
  showmanship. I think it lasts a little bit
• 1:14:41
  too long. I think he was too sweaty to get
• 1:14:43
  from suit to suit, which look like the same suit.
• 1:14:46
  I mean, quote me if I'm wrong. Look at the same suit.
• 1:14:48
  But anyway. But yeah, you know, I think the
• 1:14:51
  last one that Bautista did that was fun.
• 1:14:57
  The one that Bautista did got into the green, the gold suit,
• 1:15:01
  and that was that was that was a good celebration also.
• 1:15:04
  So I mean, I think the fanfare needs to kind of really come
• 1:15:08
  back whether they do burnouts or not.
• 1:15:11
  I agree with TJ. He did a stupidly serious bad
• 1:15:14
  burnout, did a donut and everything, which is kind of
• 1:15:18
  like, and you know, you do that now and you know they're finding
• 1:15:23
  you $20,000 or they're telling you, you got to pay for a
• 1:15:26
  concrete slab this big because you did a standard burnout for
• 1:15:29
  two seconds. It's just like, dude, come on,
• 1:15:32
  I'll get real. So I think the fanfare
• 1:15:35
  attraction I need, I think needs to come back a little bit more
• 1:15:40
  to really bring in the the crowds mostly here in the US, We
• 1:15:44
  still are way behind the power curve and getting the fanfare
• 1:15:49
  for motorcycle racing and motorcycle love and passion here
• 1:15:53
  in the USII. Will say they in 2004 they still
• 1:15:58
  haven't controlled the crowd from running on a track.
• 1:16:06
  What was the other one? Jerez and there was another one
• 1:16:13
  that did it for Germany. They didn't let nobody go out to
• 1:16:15
  Germany. Nothing like that.
• 1:16:17
  It's stupid long straight and there's crowds of people like
• 1:16:20
  just bum rush the whole crowd. Oh yeah, and the riders are
• 1:16:23
  just, the riders are like doing 3040 through because it's not
• 1:16:27
  like they're creeping slow. They just like, yeah, I'm less
• 1:16:30
  like. I.
• 1:16:34
  Don't know if people got hurt at a Moto GP round doing that, but
• 1:16:38
  if they didn't, they're very fortunate because like even when
• 1:16:41
  Rossi won and people were coming to graduate them and stuff like
• 1:16:44
  that, the championship, you know, like somebody will pull up
• 1:16:47
  and there's people around them and then just ride off.
• 1:16:49
  I'm just like, no one is in front of you.
• 1:16:51
  They. Got bounced off the bike.
• 1:16:58
  Different times, man, different times.
• 1:17:00
  I mean, think about it, 30% of the bikes on the grid, they're
• 1:17:04
  still advertising cigarettes. Yeah, that's.
• 1:17:07
  True. Different times, man.
• 1:17:12
  You got motorcycles? You got, I mean, yeah.
• 1:17:19
  Oh. Yeah, no, the the champagne
• 1:17:22
  celebration is definitely different back then than today.
• 1:17:26
  Yeah, like back then you could, you could soak a chick.
• 1:17:29
  Now you can't even spray her. You can fine.
• 1:17:35
  Can't even fine. And on that note, we'll say
• 1:17:37
  goodnight 25. It's to be forever.
• 1:17:40
  Cool podcast. I want to thank Jordan Long for
• 1:17:43
  coming on TJ from 2 wheels and coffee.
• 1:17:45
  The real Louis Ortega, the numbers guy.
• 1:17:48
  Peace. He's out.