Latest / B 4EVA Kool "Race A Motorcycle" Podcast / MotoGP 2007 Rewind: Speed, Drama, Legacy

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MotoGP 2007 Rewind: Speed, Drama, Legacy · B 4EVA Kool "Race A Motorcycle" Podcast

• 0:11
  You listening to the beef? Very cool podcast.
• 0:13
  My name is Rex, 45. We're continuing in this
• 0:17
  offseason, which really isn't offseason, to continue to talk
• 0:21
  about some of the Moto GPS of yesteryear.
• 0:24
  So as we dive further in in 2007, I'm excited to continue to
• 0:30
  to talk about this. So with no further ado, let's
• 0:34
  bring the guys in and see what they've been up to this last
• 0:37
  week. TJ, man, welcome to the show.
• 0:39
  How you doing tonight man? Doing great.
• 0:43
  Can't complain besides this, knowing that we're getting more
• 0:47
  daylight every day, getting closer to this bike season.
• 0:51
  Yeah, OK, OK. That must be exciting for you.
• 0:55
  I mean, you didn't mention the Patriots or anything.
• 0:57
  What's going on, man? You getting nervous?
• 1:00
  No, man, No, no, no. The Patriots, we're doing great.
• 1:04
  Two more. So let's see, let's see if we
• 1:07
  can pull it out. But we're, we're, we're looking
• 1:10
  really good. I like it.
• 1:12
  Yeah, my, my daughter's a Bills, Bills fan and she was not happy
• 1:17
  the, the this past Sunday. So, you know, it is what it is.
• 1:21
  But it's like I told her it's it's tough to root for certain
• 1:25
  teams, you know? Yeah, somebody has to go down.
• 1:29
  There's some good football this weekend.
• 1:31
  But, you know, just crossed my fingers.
• 1:35
  Patriots still in it. So yeah, sorry for your
• 1:37
  daughter, but you know, Patriots on their way.
• 1:40
  No doubt, no doubt. Lewis man, welcome to the show.
• 1:43
  Man. What's good?
• 1:44
  How you doing this week? I heard about fire trucks on
• 1:48
  race tracks or race Track I. Had a interesting week this
• 1:53
  weekend. So I spent the last six days
• 1:56
  down at Homestead. I went down to the Yamaha Champ
• 2:00
  School event for two days, then there was a two days with N2
• 2:03
  track days and there was two more days with the Yamaha
• 2:06
  Champion Riding School. So six days in total.
• 2:11
  Weather was pretty good for the most part.
• 2:13
  It was a little cold. One morning we had a couple of
• 2:16
  flashes of rain. If you know anything about
• 2:18
  Homestead, have you ever ridden there?
• 2:20
  If it rains there, get off the track.
• 2:22
  Don't go back on until it's completely dry because that
• 2:24
  place becomes an ice rink. I actually had had somebody
• 2:30
  crash in front of me, his back tied, just nipped the blue paint
• 2:34
  completely went around on him, high sided him.
• 2:38
  Wasn't a good look. And then directly after that,
• 2:42
  when they were cleaning up the aftermath, there was some
• 2:45
  miscommunication between the corner workers, the emergency
• 2:49
  service, and I guess the track Marshall or somebody.
• 2:52
  And somehow the track Marshall let the advanced group go out
• 2:57
  while there was still a fire truck between turn 5:00 and
• 3:00
  6:00. That was kind of red flag you
• 3:03
  want to see coming around a turn.
• 3:06
  Good thing, good thing is that the advanced group with N 2 is a
• 3:10
  lot of quality riders. Like you had a lot of you had a
• 3:13
  lot of fast guys as we, you had Tyler Scott there, you had Blake
• 3:16
  Davis. Yeah, Stefano Mesa, like you had
• 3:18
  a lot of really good riders and they were right at the front of
• 3:20
  the pack. So when they come around 4:00
• 3:23
  and 5:00, I mean, those guys are looking way down field and they
• 3:27
  as soon as they came around 4:00 and 5:00 and they looked down
• 3:29
  and they saw the red flag. Everybody put their hand up foot
• 3:32
  outlet. Everybody know they're getting
• 3:33
  off pace and luckily, you know, disaster was averted.
• 3:37
  But man, some of these tracks just need to get their
• 3:41
  coordination together, man. Right, right.
• 3:44
  No, I completely agree with that.
• 3:47
  Let me bring the everyone in. Let's see, what am I doing wrong
• 3:50
  here? All righty, let's do that.
• 3:54
  Yeah. Guys, you want to talk a little
• 3:56
  bit about that as well, TJ? Man, I know, I know you saw some
• 3:58
  things as well. We've, you know, we've been at
• 4:01
  the track enough that we see some craziness.
• 4:04
  Well, yeah, I mean, like I just saw a post on Instagram just
• 4:09
  following posts going along and I I saw a fire truck in the
• 4:13
  middle of a race track and I didn't realize it was that
• 4:16
  homestead this past weekend. But it just brings back, you
• 4:21
  know, seeing footage like that before where, you know, you
• 4:24
  know, riders just know when they go on track, they just think
• 4:27
  everything is clear. So praise to those riders that,
• 4:32
  you know, saw the danger and, and, and slowed down.
• 4:35
  So everyone behind them, you know, follow suit.
• 4:37
  But you know, it's the communication is key.
• 4:41
  You know, I mean, I, I think thankfully that, you know, my
• 4:45
  our organization and Neymar, you know, we got a actual racetrack
• 4:49
  so they can see high above, but the communication has been
• 4:52
  really good there. So I'm just happy about that
• 4:55
  too. So.
• 4:57
  You know, there's actually, it is actual racetrack TJ.
• 4:59
  I don't want people. Homestead is an actual
• 5:05
  racetrack. Yeah, but, you know,
• 5:07
  communication is key for sure. I haven't been down the
• 5:10
  Homestead yet. We definitely communication is
• 5:13
  key and and it and it happens and I mean it is the first round
• 5:17
  of the season and stuff like that.
• 5:18
  So, you know, I don't think these are normal mistakes and
• 5:23
  stuff like that, but they but they do happen.
• 5:25
  And fortunately no one got hurt and and it was handled in a, in
• 5:29
  a, in a, in a good way. It's I guess the only thing that
• 5:33
  comes to mind is, you know, why is there a fire truck and there
• 5:36
  were no ambulances unless the ambulance is already in used.
• 5:40
  Ambulance was actually already rolling, taking the person off
• 5:43
  the track. The fire truck was kind of just
• 5:46
  following up so they had two vehicles out in the track.
• 5:49
  Ambulance was already already evacuated the guy and the
• 5:54
  ambulance was or the fire truck. It's kind of like a fire truck
• 5:57
  but it's not a full fire truck. It's like AF350 with a fire
• 6:00
  truck rear end. Oh, got you.
• 6:02
  OK. OK.
• 6:02
  And they were just kind of like pulling off the track and they
• 6:06
  were just checking to see if there's any debris or anything,
• 6:08
  stuff like that. There was nobody on the track.
• 6:10
  But yeah, again, there's a big miscommunication between the
• 6:14
  corner worker, the track Marshall, and the EMS or
• 6:18
  emergency services that were there.
• 6:20
  So again, like you said, it's the beginning of the year,
• 6:23
  probably their first event. You know, I'm sure they probably
• 6:25
  had some turnover the over the winter.
• 6:27
  So they might be some new people and you know, this is the time
• 6:31
  to get the cop out. Thankfully nobody was hurt,
• 6:34
  nothing was bad. Like I said, the the guys at the
• 6:36
  front of that group, we're all quality guys.
• 6:39
  I mean, they're Motor America racers, like guys that have been
• 6:41
  around a long time and guys that use their eyesight to look track
• 6:45
  and you know, now you know why you look way down the track even
• 6:48
  when you think it's a clear track.
• 6:51
  Never take for granted. You know, I've seen people hit
• 6:53
  deers because they didn't look down the track.
• 6:55
  They came around the corner and when they look from this cone
• 6:57
  here and look there, there's a deer standing in the middle of
• 6:59
  the track and they're like, oh damn, deer.
• 7:02
  Too late, you know. That's the worst, you know, but
• 7:07
  let's dive into this craziness. I guess the first thing I'm, I'm
• 7:11
  looking up, 'cause I, I got my video game up and there's a race
• 7:15
  happening now. And, you know, sorry to
• 7:17
  sometimes look away, but let's talk about the rumors again,
• 7:21
  man, 'cause I, I, I, you know, there's a podcast and we have to
• 7:24
  address some of it or maybe start our own, you know, some
• 7:28
  crazy rumors. I mean, we see what's going on
• 7:30
  with the Aprilia. Aprilia is, you know, coming out
• 7:34
  saying Ducati is a German brand now and you know, it's not
• 7:37
  Italian brand anymore. I mean, you know, the, the
• 7:41
  workers are Italian, but you know, the, the, the, the, the,
• 7:46
  the corporation and stuff like that and who owns what.
• 7:51
  Obviously, yes, the money is German.
• 7:54
  Well, let's put it this way. Most of the money in Europe is
• 7:57
  German because Germany is the most, you know, the most
• 8:01
  powerful country in Europe when it comes to financial.
• 8:04
  They're the, they're the financially the most successful
• 8:06
  company in all of Europe. It's not their fault that they
• 8:09
  bought Ducati because their brand couldn't exist on its own.
• 8:13
  It's not their fault that they bought all these other brands.
• 8:15
  It's not their fault that they had Volkswagen and it's one of
• 8:19
  the biggest car manufacturer conglomerates in the world.
• 8:21
  Like it's not their fault they're successful.
• 8:24
  It's a little salty of, of the Roman emperor to kind of say
• 8:28
  that about Ducati. But then again, he's paid by
• 8:32
  Aprilia. He's an Aprilia ambassador.
• 8:35
  He works kind of with Aprilia. So, you know, sometimes he likes
• 8:39
  to throw a little shade. I, I think it's a little bit of
• 8:42
  relevant. It's an Italian brand.
• 8:44
  The bikes are made in Italy, even if the financing and some
• 8:47
  of the management is overseen from Germany.
• 8:50
  Like I, I just think it's, it's Biaggi just throwing some shade,
• 8:55
  talking Biaggi shit like Biaggi that's from once in a while to
• 8:59
  kind of make himself relevant and put his name in a news
• 9:01
  cycle. You know, the, the Nuala group,
• 9:05
  you know, the, the Aprilia guys out of Nuala, they, they're
• 9:08
  Italian or they're just as Italian as the Ducatis that are
• 9:11
  there. I think it's a big of a big,
• 9:15
  it's nothing. You know, I don't think the the
• 9:17
  official Aprilia channel will say that it's just Max Biaggi
• 9:21
  that happens to be associated appreciated with saying that.
• 9:24
  But again, man, it's it's it's it's kind of a no, it's it's not
• 9:28
  a big thing. There's there's plenty of other
• 9:29
  bigger rumors and things going on and that'll kind of wash
• 9:33
  itself out of the news cycle in like a week.
• 9:35
  Got you, got you. Anything going to add to that
• 9:38
  DJ, before we jump into the other ones as far as like whose
• 9:41
  contract for 2027 and 28's already been locked up?
• 9:45
  Oh, it's. Going to well, I was going to
• 9:49
  say who asked that question about the the last thing you
• 9:52
  said just to spark the controversy that I actually
• 9:55
  don't really. Matter what he.
• 9:57
  Asked, and he just. Made somebody put a mic in his
• 10:03
  face and say, hey, you want to say some dumb shit?
• 10:05
  And he was like, yeah, I got some dumb shit to say.
• 10:07
  That's it. But yeah, I think some of these
• 10:11
  writers definitely just try to start logging in to see where
• 10:15
  they can fit into these new contracts.
• 10:19
  Like I think we were talking about it before, as we don't
• 10:21
  know when they're going to start, like actually putting the
• 10:25
  foot down and start signing people, signing riders.
• 10:30
  But as far as far as the rider goes, I think you should just be
• 10:35
  ready to get that contract and not waste the ban.
• 10:38
  So yeah, from what I've heard, and you know, I think Lewis is
• 10:42
  probably closer than mine to the ground, but it sounds like
• 10:45
  Marquez is wrapped up for 2728. Sounds like Acosta.
• 10:52
  Acosta is another one that sounds seems to be locked up as
• 10:54
  well. It sounds like the German brand
• 10:58
  ain't messing around. It sounds like they're not
• 11:03
  messing around, but you know, Mark Marquez is definitely the
• 11:07
  first person you could need to get locked in.
• 11:09
  If you're Ducati, that's the first guy you got to get locked
• 11:11
  in before you do anything else. You got to make sure you secure
• 11:14
  services. I don't think he wanted to go
• 11:16
  anywhere anyway. He just wants to make sure that
• 11:18
  the number keeps going up every year.
• 11:20
  And if they the number keeps going up every year, that he's
• 11:22
  more than happy to stay on the most competitive bike on the
• 11:25
  grid with one of the most prestigious teams on the grid
• 11:29
  right now. That's actually really investing
• 11:30
  in motorcycles. And on the back end, he's part
• 11:35
  of the Audi group as well. So now he gets to keep driving
• 11:38
  really nice Audis and maybe once in a while maybe he'll get a
• 11:40
  Lamborghini or something that's also part of that the Audi
• 11:43
  group. So it's not a bad gig to have.
• 11:45
  You know, when he was with Honda, he would get a Honda
• 11:47
  Civic. Now when he's Audi, he gets he
• 11:49
  gets something really nicer than a Honda Civic.
• 11:52
  Well, it's a type R, man. Don't do that.
• 11:54
  Don't do that. And Acosta, there's a couple of
• 12:01
  rumors on Acosta. You know, the VR46 team is
• 12:04
  saying that they already have their riders for next year
• 12:06
  locked in, but then two days later they're saying that they
• 12:11
  might sell the team next year. So it's hard to believe what
• 12:14
  they're going to say because is VR46 actually locking some guys
• 12:17
  in or are they looking to sell the team or what are they doing?
• 12:21
  You know, like they're kind of all over the place.
• 12:23
  They're scatterbrains. Well, you know, I would say
• 12:25
  they're not. I mean, I heard that and also,
• 12:27
  you know, Rossi was going to stop racing cars and and focus
• 12:31
  on this team and he just came out there.
• 12:33
  He signed a read up another deal with them.
• 12:36
  So I, I think, I don't think Rossi's trying and they just
• 12:39
  opened up this and you know, more than I do the Dainese vibe
• 12:43
  store and and not is it Emmy, Roma, Roma.
• 12:48
  He's definitely trying to do the Jordan thing on on that scale.
• 12:53
  So I can't imagine leaving Moto GP would be good for his brand
• 12:58
  anytime soon. No, he's he's always going to
• 13:02
  have to have some sort of footprint.
• 13:04
  But let's say they can get like a bigger group that wants to
• 13:07
  invest heavily so they don't have to constantly be like the
• 13:10
  main backer or they don't have to look for certain partnerships
• 13:13
  to float it. If they can find like a really,
• 13:15
  really strong sponsor to come in and collaborate with them, I
• 13:20
  think that's really what he probably wants to do more than
• 13:24
  anything else because I don't think he wants to sell the team.
• 13:26
  I don't think he wants to be out of racing.
• 13:28
  But I also think he would not mind a little extra financial
• 13:31
  support from some bigger sponsors because right now.
• 13:35
  He's like, listen, Ducati factory can sign Firmin
• 13:39
  Alligator, why can't Ducati factory sign somebody for VR46?
• 13:45
  So yeah, it's it's a possibility.
• 13:47
  You know, who's going to pay for who, who's going to pay these
• 13:49
  guys contracts. I don't think that we're going
• 13:53
  to see the same two guys in 2027 on the VR46 team.
• 13:56
  I don't think unless More More Bodelli does an incredible
• 14:00
  season this year or or digital season, I really don't think
• 14:04
  either one of those two guys has a guaranteed home at VR46 come
• 14:07
  2027. I, I would say they, there's one
• 14:12
  seat available who's going to get it?
• 14:14
  I would say, I would say I, I think it's but yeah, but I, but
• 14:17
  I, I could see them getting rid of both.
• 14:18
  But mobile deli is really good friends with Rossi, So you know,
• 14:22
  it. I, I, I think, you know, I think
• 14:25
  he'll probably get another, another year or two, but not
• 14:29
  both. I don't, I don't see both.
• 14:30
  But I think that I think this year will find that land a good
• 14:33
  home somewhere because he's been more consistent as a rider and
• 14:36
  some of these other riders in 20267.
• 14:39
  I wouldn't be surprised to see him on a KTM because I don't
• 14:43
  think Brad Bender will be around come 2027.
• 14:47
  So if Brad Bender leaves like that's definitely a spot where I
• 14:50
  can see a a digi going to KTM. Right, right, right who?
• 14:56
  Who do we see going to VR46 though?
• 14:59
  Like no Rossi guy, it's right up in his back pocket.
• 15:03
  He's not trying to disclose anything really, but.
• 15:06
  If the rumor is true, supposedly like Acosta's already on that
• 15:09
  spot. Yeah, yeah.
• 15:11
  If the rumor is true that Acosta's already on that spot,
• 15:14
  like one of the two seats in 27 will be for Acosta, which will
• 15:19
  make the Ducati team one super strong, but it'll make the
• 15:23
  Ducati team more Spanish than it's ever been.
• 15:27
  They'll actually have more Spaniards on Ducatis than
• 15:29
  Italians. Right, right.
• 15:32
  I. Think if Pekko stays, he'll be,
• 15:35
  I think, the only Italian like true Italian on a Ducati.
• 15:39
  Because you have Mark, you have Furman, you'll have Alex, you
• 15:43
  have Acosta Morbidelli, he's Brazilian, he just happens to
• 15:48
  reside in Italy. But like a true born Italian,
• 15:51
  it'll only be Pekko Well. You know.
• 15:55
  But I thought I thought Valley wanted only Italians on VR46.
• 15:59
  He also wants to make money and if you can get it's.
• 16:03
  Coming down to that, I guess. For a long time, Ducatio is, you
• 16:07
  know, their thing was they always had to have one Italian
• 16:09
  on the team. Yeah, but now they got it,
• 16:12
  Marquez, and he's making them a lot of money, bringing them a
• 16:14
  lot of attention. They're like the bikes, Italian
• 16:18
  enough. Yeah.
• 16:20
  And and if KTM played a little bit of ball back in the day, he
• 16:23
  would have been already on VR46 Academy.
• 16:26
  So. I mean, K, KTM is going to kind
• 16:28
  of block that from happening. You got to pay me everything.
• 16:31
  Pay everybody if you want them. Yeah.
• 16:36
  And then the other big one that I heard today was like the
• 16:39
  Primack boss is kind of throwing the Ducati factory team under
• 16:43
  the bus saying that they had a verbal agreement to give the
• 16:46
  spot that went to Marquez de Martine.
• 16:49
  And Martine thought that he had it.
• 16:51
  And that's why when he found out that Marquez had it, he kind of
• 16:53
  just was like jump ship completely and went to Aprilia.
• 16:58
  Yeah, I mean, I, I probably, that makes sense.
• 17:01
  I you know, you know, we'll you know, you know how I feel about
• 17:04
  it. Actually, I think you know from
• 17:07
  a from a when you when we and we'll talk about it in O 7 and
• 17:11
  and even O 8IN other years, like they were loyal to a lot of
• 17:14
  dudes, but like for some reason Peko and and and and and Martine
• 17:20
  they kind of like. Well, you know, what it is, is
• 17:25
  Martine has not shown himself to be the most loyal guy in the
• 17:29
  world. So I don't feel bad that
• 17:31
  somebody's not loyal to him either, you know, and and and
• 17:36
  Reese will tell you this in racing, you will get promised
• 17:40
  the world until it's on ink and sign.
• 17:43
  It doesn't mean shit, right, right.
• 17:47
  But I know a lot of Raiders that were promised this.
• 17:49
  They were promised that, they were promised this.
• 17:51
  They were promised that. And when the day showed up,
• 17:53
  there was no contract. There was no ink on the
• 17:55
  contract. And they ended up standing there
• 17:57
  with no ride or no this or no money or this not.
• 18:01
  I can see this in ink on paper. It doesn't mean squat.
• 18:07
  But why? Why?
• 18:08
  Why punish the folks that have, for lack of a better word,
• 18:13
  outsmarted the big guy, right, The the Martine where it's in my
• 18:18
  contract. I mean, I'm, I'm not, I'm not
• 18:20
  breaking my contract. It's in my contract.
• 18:22
  You know, we see that with other, you know, players and
• 18:24
  stuff like that, that, you know, they got the right deal, but no
• 18:28
  one else can get that deal after.
• 18:30
  And then they, they chances get kind of get, you know, pushed
• 18:33
  out of the sport so they don't make the money either.
• 18:35
  I mean, it's, again, it's a, it's a dirty business, man.
• 18:39
  You know, it's, it's, it's a business, it's a sport.
• 18:42
  But every sport that makes money goes from being a sport to being
• 18:45
  a business. If you're playing baseball and
• 18:47
  you're 13 years old, you're playing a sport.
• 18:50
  If you're 22 years old and playing AAA baseball, it's a
• 18:53
  sport leading to a business. Once the business side gets
• 18:57
  involved, it's, it's a whole different ball game, man.
• 18:59
  I hate to say it, but it gets real dirty.
• 19:01
  Oh, no doubt, no doubt. We we've definitely seen that
• 19:04
  Reese man. Welcome to the show, man.
• 19:06
  We we're past the rumors part. So let's you know now it's time
• 19:10
  for to for you to tell us what you know what's happening the
• 19:14
  world of motorcycle racing in in your neck of the Wiz man and how
• 19:18
  are things man. Everything is good, man.
• 19:22
  Just day one of testing, Day 2 tomorrow, you know, So that's
• 19:27
  about it. I mean, ready for the Season 2
• 19:30
  riders? You know you'll hear the
• 19:32
  announcement coming here soon. OK, all right, all right.
• 19:35
  You know, no butterflies, no nothing.
• 19:37
  It's just, you know, just riding off the same energy as last
• 19:42
  season. As as one crew member said, same
• 19:47
  team, same crew, same goals, better vibe that's.
• 19:57
  What's up? I say, man, it got to be.
• 19:59
  Got to be. So that's what's up.
• 20:01
  All right, man. So I see you not giving us much,
• 20:06
  you know. What I'm hey, listen, man, that
• 20:08
  privacy note is big. It's got, it's got a zip.
• 20:12
  You know, I got to, I got to order my T-shirts, man.
• 20:14
  I'm trying to figure, you know, people on the back.
• 20:20
  Privacy note, Man, you got to. Yeah, I don't know what you
• 20:23
  talking about. No doubt, no doubt.
• 20:27
  So what do we, what do we say? What are we hearing?
• 20:29
  Like in a couple of days we'll hear something or, you know, end
• 20:32
  of the month. No, I will say here, maybe no,
• 20:37
  what's today, today's Tuesday? I maybe say either sometime
• 20:40
  later this week or maybe beginning of next week.
• 20:43
  Is that Jack Daniels in that cup you're drinking?
• 20:48
  No, I know Jack Daniels is a protein shake.
• 20:52
  I'm. Trying to keep my proceed up.
• 20:54
  I'm trying to keep my weight up. Dude, we tried.
• 20:56
  We tried. Oh man.
• 20:58
  Old age, kick it in. It happens.
• 21:01
  It happens. We you know.
• 21:02
  Catch it up to Lewis. It's.
• 21:05
  Not a good thing. How was you on track?
• 21:11
  So what was that like after, I don't want to say dusting off
• 21:15
  the cobwebs, but you know. It it was different because
• 21:18
  again, this is only my second time riding this motorcycle
• 21:23
  after I mean close to 20 plus years of being a Suzuki all day
• 21:31
  analog Suzuki at that. And I had no, you know, just a
• 21:33
  quick shift and nothing else. So the first session, just going
• 21:39
  out there and just looking at the corners, understanding the
• 21:42
  corners, everything like that. You can look at a track map all
• 21:44
  you want. You can look at video all you
• 21:46
  want until you feel the, the, the, the, the, the asphalt
• 21:50
  vibrating through the bike into your hands and kind of get a
• 21:53
  feel for how much grip the the asphalt actually has and all
• 21:57
  that. That video is good for
• 21:59
  reference, but it really doesn't mean anything until you actually
• 22:01
  experience it. So the first couple of laps were
• 22:05
  were good, you know, just understanding the line,
• 22:07
  everything like that. Try not to get anybody's way.
• 22:12
  The hardest thing man is is just the judging distance and timing.
• 22:17
  Like it's not like I forgot how to ride.
• 22:19
  It's not like I forgot how to shift or brake or lean or take
• 22:21
  corners. It's always about distance and
• 22:24
  timing, you know, unders getting your eyes and your body to
• 22:27
  understand in how short a distance can I stop from
• 22:32
  different speeds because the longer I stay on the gas, the
• 22:36
  shorter I'll be on the brakes. So how long can I stay on the
• 22:39
  gas and still be able to brake with the shortest amount of
• 22:41
  brake? So and you know, some corners
• 22:44
  are entry corners where you want to carry more speed into the
• 22:46
  corner and more other corners are exit corners where you going
• 22:49
  slow so that you can come out a lot faster.
• 22:52
  And you know, R6 has a different gear ratio than a Gixxer.
• 22:58
  So, you know, I go into one corner, one turn, third gear,
• 23:01
  Nah, it's not enough juice. I got to go down, go into the
• 23:03
  same corner next turn, second gear, still not enough juice.
• 23:06
  I got to go down again, go into that same corner, first gear.
• 23:09
  Now I'm coming out. And now I got a short shift
• 23:11
  because I'm starting to wheelie as I come out, but I'm getting
• 23:13
  the drive I want. So it's it's all that, man.
• 23:15
  But I enjoy that. I enjoy that that, you know
• 23:19
  systematic way that I go about breaking down tracks and and how
• 23:23
  to find my fastest way around because you know, I can hit the
• 23:26
  apex, but my fastest way around because of the way I ride might
• 23:29
  not be the fastest way somebody else use it, but it works for
• 23:32
  me. Well, the weather good there.
• 23:35
  It was good until the the afternoon, the one afternoon it
• 23:38
  poured and one of the mornings it was cold.
• 23:41
  It was like like 35° in the morning and I was like, yeah,
• 23:44
  I'm not. I'm not even putting tire warms.
• 23:46
  On. For this, I didn't take the bike
• 23:48
  out of the trailer that day. I worked that day.
• 23:52
  Second session out was doing better, you know, lined up with
• 23:57
  the first group that went out, so I can kind of see what the
• 23:59
  guys in front of me are doing and see where I can find my my
• 24:03
  way through. And then the last session was
• 24:05
  really good until I saw I started seeing a couple of drops
• 24:09
  on my visor coming down the front straight, started seeing
• 24:12
  more drops in my visor to through two and three.
• 24:16
  And that already kind of had me like, all right, when I come
• 24:19
  around here, I'm just going to put my foot up and hand out
• 24:20
  because I don't know what turn 5 and 6 are going to look like.
• 24:23
  And that's like a long double right-hander where you're kind
• 24:26
  of motoring through on the side of the tire giving some gas.
• 24:30
  And I didn't hear great things about the rumble strips at
• 24:33
  Homestead. I heard that they were, it was a
• 24:36
  mix of paint and Mozzola oil because they said if it rains,
• 24:39
  don't touch those things. And sure enough, I'm lined up
• 24:42
  behind a guy. I'm coming around to double, but
• 24:45
  I slowed down a little bit and the guys rear tired.
• 24:48
  Just touched that blue line in front of me, man.
• 24:51
  And dude high sided right in front of me.
• 24:53
  Luckily I've been doing this long enough where I didn't just
• 24:55
  stay looking at him and run him over.
• 24:57
  Like I put my hand up, I put my foot up.
• 25:00
  I put, you know, I let anybody behind me know I'm coming off
• 25:02
  pace in case they're looking at my ass instead of looking in
• 25:05
  front of him so that they know there's something there.
• 25:07
  And I avoided hitting him, avoided hitting the bike.
• 25:11
  You know, nobody else hit him. Thank thank God nobody else hit
• 25:13
  the bike. But it was just one of those
• 25:15
  things that I was like, you know what man, I'm going to have
• 25:18
  lunch. And then after that, that was
• 25:21
  it, man, I, I, I went out one more time and I still got a lot
• 25:26
  to learn on a, on an R6 man. An R6 is a much different animal
• 25:29
  than a jigsaw. Oh, you actually came over to
• 25:33
  the the good side, you know, you left that.
• 25:36
  Hey, hey, hey. Somebody owed me money.
• 25:39
  You gave me the bike. You you left the squid side.
• 25:44
  Somebody owed me money, they gave me the bike and after I put
• 25:47
  that much money into building it, I was like, you know, I'm
• 25:49
  going to enjoy it. There you got it.
• 25:52
  They had nice bikes. They, they actually, you know,
• 25:55
  I've never, I've never said a bad thing about R6.
• 25:57
  I still think for a 600, the R6 is probably the greatest 600
• 26:04
  that has ever, ever been built, hands down.
• 26:07
  No other 600 can touch that bike.
• 26:09
  And and I'll go back to I don't know what year was, but I think
• 26:12
  it was Kyle Crutchlow was one of the last guys to win because I
• 26:21
  for a long time Honda was dominating world super sport for
• 26:23
  some reason, I don't know why. And Kyle Crutchlow took a 2 year
• 26:27
  old bike that nobody had used that was an R6, and he went out
• 26:30
  there and won the championship just to show you how good that
• 26:33
  platform was that a 2 year old bike would go out there and just
• 26:36
  clean up. And to this day, you know, if
• 26:39
  they didn't stop producing the R6, I think the R6 would still
• 26:43
  be winning World Super Sport hands down.
• 26:47
  I think the R6 would run circles around the Ducati V2 and it run
• 26:50
  circles around the R9 all day. Yeah, yeah, you got, you got
• 26:55
  some points there, no doubt, no doubt for sure a nice bike.
• 26:58
  So you know, I guess you won't be getting AV 2.
• 27:01
  Nah, I ain't getting AV 2 man. I like bikes that when I crash
• 27:06
  them I can I can find the parts in the paddock.
• 27:09
  And not. Have to order them from Bologna.
• 27:14
  You know, you know, you know, Speaking of, let's jump into the
• 27:17
  2007 season, guys. You know, we'll get an overview
• 27:21
  from each of you for what you thought.
• 27:23
  I mean, you know, we coming off of 2006 where Casey Stoner
• 27:28
  wanted Pedroza was able to finish second overall, beating
• 27:32
  Rossi out. You got Hopkins and these guys
• 27:38
  are starting to come into their own in O 7 and stuff like that.
• 27:41
  And then so we get into oh, so this is O 6.
• 27:46
  So we get into O7 with with with Ducati and Casey Stoner left
• 27:50
  Honda and he's now on a Ducati for the first time and stuff
• 27:53
  like that. So we'll we'll go around before
• 27:55
  we dive deep into it, man. We'll start with TJ, you know,
• 27:59
  you know, looking at 2007 with your thoughts, man.
• 28:04
  I mean, the dogs are coming up, these new guys like Petrosa, me
• 28:10
  and Stoner has been out there, but like Rossi has, you know,
• 28:14
  he's the the top guy, you know, he he's the one.
• 28:18
  I mean, I know Nikki Hayden just won the championship.
• 28:21
  So you know, you're looking at, you know, some guys that can,
• 28:25
  you know, be upfront and man, in case he's throwing a that that
• 28:29
  guy did not expect him to win over 10 races.
• 28:34
  You know, and there's one one thing that that was pretty cool.
• 28:40
  Like I think he started a trend like when he was winning Grand
• 28:44
  Prix, he just really going down the straight and then towards
• 28:48
  like the end of the season, like everyone started just really and
• 28:51
  across the line as they were finishing.
• 28:53
  So that was happening. I mean, I know that was
• 28:56
  happening, but I feel like I see the way more this year and I
• 29:00
  just it needs to come back because, you know, now I see
• 29:02
  it's just like the first place guy or second and then everyone
• 29:06
  else is just finishing because the times are so close.
• 29:09
  But you know, it was just cool to see.
• 29:11
  I thought it was a pretty good season.
• 29:13
  He definitely dominated. Right.
• 29:15
  I guess I should say Razi was doing it because he was doing
• 29:17
  most of the winning for for some years.
• 29:20
  What are your thoughts Lewis on overall season going going back
• 29:24
  into the fog cabinet for 2007 man.
• 29:28
  It was it was a great season. I don't think it was like one of
• 29:31
  the most competitive seasons outside of the top 3 or 4.
• 29:37
  You know, the the competition level.
• 29:39
  I'm not going to say the competition level was low, but
• 29:42
  there was so many retirements. Like, you know, I mean, there's
• 29:45
  dudes that didn't even finish half the races in the season.
• 29:50
  There was a lot of guys that would like have maybe one or two
• 29:53
  spots of bright light and then just disappear for the entire
• 29:56
  season. Suzuki, you know, even they came
• 29:59
  in fourth in the championship. John Hopkins would had the
• 30:02
  consistency of oatmeal, like just not good at all.
• 30:07
  You know, outside of the top three, everybody else was kind
• 30:12
  of just fighting for anything off the podium.
• 30:15
  And then the other thing that kills me about this season is
• 30:17
  this is, this is one of those seasons that I'm like, man, this
• 30:21
  could have been a Danny Pedrosa season.
• 30:24
  This could have been a Danny like, again, the greatest rider
• 30:28
  to never win a championship, hands down.
• 30:30
  Danny Pedrosa, man. I don't think there's, there's
• 30:33
  anybody else that is as good as him that never won at least one
• 30:37
  championship. It's just the dude came in at at
• 30:40
  a time where it was just Sharks and every year more Sharks
• 30:43
  joined in. You know, 2 years from now
• 30:46
  you're going to have Jorge Lorenzo join in another shark,
• 30:49
  and then a couple years from now you have Mark Marquez join in
• 30:52
  another shark. It's like Danny Pedrosa just
• 30:55
  came in at the wrong time, man. Yeah, we're going.
• 30:59
  We're going to talk more about that wrong time.
• 31:00
  We're going to give Reese a little some time to talk about
• 31:03
  it. I mean, you, you heard Lewis
• 31:05
  there talk about it just didn't feel right.
• 31:08
  But as we're going to talk about, and you're a technical
• 31:10
  guy, you know, tire, tire manufacturers mattered in 2007
• 31:17
  because then boys on on their Michelin's ward, you know what
• 31:21
  I'm saying? The bike mattered.
• 31:23
  We saw a lot of jock jockeying for positions as far as who
• 31:27
  wanted to be on Honda, who wanted to be on Yamaha.
• 31:29
  No one really thought, even though O 6 and O 5, the Ducati
• 31:33
  was winning, no one thought Ducati is going to dominate the
• 31:36
  way he did. You know how?
• 31:38
  How did it look to you for O7? I mean, no one thought that
• 31:42
  Ducati would dominate the way they did.
• 31:43
  I mean, and I I say Casey Stoner was one of the one of the only
• 31:48
  ones that can ride that Ducati the way it was ridden back then.
• 31:53
  And after that, it was just like even Rossi couldn't ride it.
• 31:56
  I mean, it was just amazing how Stoner rode that bike.
• 31:59
  And you know, the season itself was great.
• 32:04
  The riders were good, you know, and IIA 100% agree with Lewis
• 32:10
  Petrosa just was one of those guys that was a hell of a rider
• 32:15
  and just couldn't win a championship, just couldn't get
• 32:18
  over that last freaking hump just to win it.
• 32:21
  And it's just sucked. I mean, you know, and then you
• 32:25
  had all these other guys coming in the, the, the, the aliens as
• 32:30
  you call them, just here comes one, here comes another one,
• 32:33
  here comes another one. And it just sucked and not see
• 32:37
  him get it. And he should have won it.
• 32:40
  But the, the level of riding that was there at that time was
• 32:44
  just phenomenal. It was an absolute because it
• 32:47
  was not even think about it wasn't that much electronics.
• 32:51
  So everything that these guys had to do was in the twist of
• 32:53
  their wrist. Right entire choice.
• 32:55
  Let's talk about it because Pedroza was upset that Honda
• 32:59
  stuck with with what they stuck with.
• 33:00
  And you know, we saw that with Rossi that affected him in I
• 33:05
  believe in those six as well with his struggles.
• 33:08
  So I mean, you know, I mean, I don't know where they were
• 33:10
  getting the rubber from, but man.
• 33:14
  From a rubber tree, I guess I mean, rubber does play a rubber
• 33:19
  does play a big factor in it because you got to go from tire
• 33:23
  temp to, you know, track temperature, you know, air
• 33:26
  temperature. There's there's a different,
• 33:28
  there's a lot of things into it and then, you know, you're
• 33:30
  taking the actual the core temperature of the tire when it
• 33:34
  comes in to see what it drops. You know, you got to understand
• 33:37
  that that tire is going to, it's going to spike to a certain
• 33:41
  temperature as you're sitting on a tire warmer.
• 33:44
  But as soon as that tire touches that track, it's going to drop.
• 33:48
  It's going to just drop completely.
• 33:50
  But then as it goes around a couple of times, it's going to
• 33:54
  go back up. But you wanted to go back up to
• 33:57
  where you can see it and you look on the data, you can see a
• 34:00
  consistent temperature all the way through.
• 34:03
  Right, right. What are your thoughts on that,
• 34:05
  Lewis and I I want to add something else as far as you
• 34:08
  know, you talk about the season. I mean, you know, Tony Elias had
• 34:13
  had some good races, Barros had some good races, Colin Edwards
• 34:16
  had good races, Hoffman, some of these guys in West.
• 34:20
  I mean, they had flashes of of of like, oh man, you know, but
• 34:24
  not to sustain the whole season. I think that that was the
• 34:27
  biggest thing. But you know, what do you, what
• 34:29
  do you want to add about tire choices and just how, how we can
• 34:33
  see, you know, where Moto GP has just gone to 1 brand.
• 34:37
  So that way teams can't really say it's the shoe.
• 34:40
  Yeah. Well, I mean, if you look at
• 34:43
  this season, OK, across all the races, there were only two races
• 34:48
  where everybody that started finished.
• 34:52
  After that, there were 52 people or 52 times riders did not
• 34:57
  finish races when you put all the races.
• 35:00
  So there's only two races where everybody finished and there's
• 35:03
  at least three races where 5 or more people didn't finish.
• 35:08
  So this is a lot of retirement. And then if you look at almost
• 35:10
  all the guys that are retiring on a consistent basis, they're
• 35:14
  on this one particular tire that's not a competitive tire.
• 35:19
  A lot of seconds. So that's a lot of, you know,
• 35:23
  that's a lot of bodywork because somebody decided this tire
• 35:26
  company is paying us a little bit more money than this other
• 35:29
  tire company. So we're going to stay with this
• 35:30
  tire company, but then at the end of the season, you know,
• 35:34
  what did, what did you do for your team?
• 35:36
  If that other company might have been charging more for the tire,
• 35:39
  But look where their guys are finishing.
• 35:41
  Look at how they got finishing and look at how many times we're
• 35:44
  picking the bike out of the Kitty litter and changing body
• 35:47
  works and clip ONS and swing arms and everything else because
• 35:49
  these tires suck, you know, and there's a there's a positive and
• 35:55
  negative to that. And you know, Reese could even
• 35:57
  tell you about this. When you have a single tire
• 35:59
  manufacturer, that means that you don't have any options and
• 36:03
  you don't really get contingency from that tire manufacturer
• 36:06
  because that tire manufacturer is paying the organization to be
• 36:10
  the the spec tire. And then each of the people that
• 36:14
  are using that spec tire have to buy that spec tire.
• 36:18
  So now the the tire manufacturer doesn't have to work with the
• 36:21
  teams to negotiate either a deal to pay them to use the tires or
• 36:26
  negotiate for better pricing. This is the pricing.
• 36:29
  Everybody pays it because they know that you're a captive
• 36:32
  audience. You have to use that tire.
• 36:34
  Right. And, you know, so when Dunlop is
• 36:37
  the official tire of Motor America, they pay Motor America
• 36:41
  a good amount to be the official tire.
• 36:43
  And they, you know, obviously there's contractual agreements.
• 36:45
  They're going to be at every event.
• 36:46
  They're going to bring this many tires.
• 36:47
  They're going to do this, they're going to do that.
• 36:49
  But then every guy that goes to race at Motor America weekend
• 36:52
  needs to show up with what are you talking about, Reese?
• 36:55
  Six 7000 bucks in your case probably a lot more because you
• 37:00
  get you're going through a lot more tires than you know
• 37:02
  somebody that's only doing 3 or 4 events the entire season.
• 37:07
  I would say about that. I mean, we, we show up with a
• 37:09
  couple $1000 each, you know, season for us tires.
• 37:13
  You got 2 bikes, you got 2 riders, you got, you need, you
• 37:17
  know, I think it's 7 tires a weekend or 8 tires a weekend, 2
• 37:21
  qualifying. Yeah.
• 37:24
  Like what's the minimum, the minimum that you can purchase
• 37:26
  from them? Because I know there's a minimum
• 37:27
  and then you could there's a maximum also.
• 37:30
  I think the minimum is seven. I mean, we have gone through
• 37:36
  almost 20. But there is a Max like you
• 37:39
  don't get over a certain allocation, so you got to make
• 37:41
  them last too. But think about it, you know, So
• 37:45
  now this company knows that they're going to make this much
• 37:48
  money on tires, they're going to get this much free R&D.
• 37:51
  They're not going to have to negotiate with any teams.
• 37:53
  They just connect with Dorna. They give Dorna a nice little
• 37:55
  pot of money. Dorna makes them the spec tire.
• 37:59
  So it does take away from the ability for the teens to make
• 38:01
  some money. But again, if the tire
• 38:03
  manufacturer is allowing you to make more money, but you're
• 38:06
  finishing in last place if you finish, if your rider survives
• 38:10
  the season without killing himself, you know, I mean, the
• 38:15
  punya this year had 123458 retirements.
• 38:20
  You know, Carlos Cheka, 5 retirements, Kenny Roberts 5-6
• 38:29
  retirements, Loris Caparossi 4 retirements.
• 38:32
  I mean even Valentino Rossi had three retirements and Danny
• 38:35
  Pedrosa had three retirements. The only guy that made it
• 38:38
  through the entire season. I think there's only like 3 guys
• 38:41
  that made it through the retire season without without retiring
• 38:45
  or without withdrawing for whatever reason.
• 38:49
  And just think about it, these guys are getting tired that you
• 38:53
  can't even purchase over the counter.
• 38:56
  These guys are getting asymmetric tires.
• 38:59
  You know, you got a medium compound on one side and then a
• 39:02
  soft compound on this side. And in a different compound in
• 39:06
  the middle, you know, you're getting a different compound
• 39:09
  where like we here in America, we'll just get one compound.
• 39:13
  And this was at the time that even on the street, if you had a
• 39:17
  2 compound tie, yo, you were pimping you, you, you got that.
• 39:23
  Right. You were buying what, the
• 39:24
  Michelin 2 CT, 2 CT you? Got 2 compounds.
• 39:35
  Damn, he's a boy. Good old.
• 39:37
  The good old name, so you know. In 2006, Stoner finished eight.
• 39:42
  In 2007, he wins the first round of Qatar in fashion.
• 39:46
  He struggles in the second round.
• 39:48
  Rossi bounces back. I mean, I think throughout the
• 39:51
  season Rossi gave him a good fight, but I think this is the
• 39:55
  first year I think since Rossi started winning championship
• 40:00
  that somebody actually, you know, challenged him, beat him.
• 40:04
  I mean, it's fair to say where, you know, in 2006, you know, you
• 40:09
  can kind of say that, you know, he he he crashed out and when he
• 40:12
  was up 1313 points in the last race, you know, where this one
• 40:17
  is clear. Like, I I mean, Rossi end up
• 40:20
  finishing third in an overall championship and well past 100
• 40:24
  points. You know, what are your thoughts
• 40:27
  on what Casey did with Ducati with those wins?
• 40:30
  I mean, we said we saw Rossi obviously have thirteen wins.
• 40:34
  I think you know, 504 with with Yamaha being being host for
• 40:41
  manufacturer. Now Casey does it and he's only
• 40:43
  two years in in Moto GP, Pretty impressive what he thought.
• 40:47
  We'll start with TJ. Yeah, like coming from Honda and
• 40:52
  going to Ducati, yeah, like right off the bat, like Casey
• 40:57
  went really good and it was just impressive what he was able to
• 41:01
  get out of that Ducati because, you know, a few years back, you
• 41:05
  know, they were just obviously they started in two, 2003, but
• 41:09
  there's slowly improving. But for him to just dominate the
• 41:15
  way he did, and I just remember, I forget it was the race before
• 41:20
  that he won it. He just, I already had the
• 41:22
  mentality where like all the stress was off of him and he's
• 41:27
  just ready to just go out there and he knew it was just going to
• 41:30
  happen when it happened. But just to put Ducati on the
• 41:35
  pedestal the way he did, like it was very impressive to win over
• 41:39
  100 points with had the pressure on him.
• 41:43
  Like Danny Pedrosa is pretty much on his ass like every race.
• 41:48
  He got caught out a few times but it was also Rossi in the mix
• 41:53
  and and Melandry. But I feel like Stoner did.
• 41:59
  Was very impressive that Ducati is pushing forward.
• 42:04
  Yeah, I, I, I I agree. Pretty impressive.
• 42:07
  What your thoughts, Lewis, on that?
• 42:09
  And even just, you know, you think about like before, like
• 42:13
  Melandry came into Moto GP and Hayden, it was like all the old
• 42:18
  dogs that were like up at the front.
• 42:20
  And then, you know, it's it was just kind of like these kind of
• 42:22
  guys are getting on the podium, getting on the podium.
• 42:24
  But with Pedrosa and Stoner, it became to be like not a young
• 42:29
  guns can come and do this more often.
• 42:32
  And, and we and we saw, I mean, we saw how Stoner did.
• 42:35
  I mean, the first thing is, you know, you're only four years
• 42:38
  into the Ducati era in Moto GP. They've only been a manufacturer
• 42:43
  for four years. And there's other teams that
• 42:45
  have been manufacturers for a long time that are still looking
• 42:48
  for the next championship that haven't won championships in a
• 42:51
  long time. So Ducati came in with a bike
• 42:54
  that to this day everybody will tell you other than Casey Stony,
• 42:59
  nobody would go fast on that bike.
• 43:01
  You know, it's just his riding style was just the perfect flat
• 43:05
  tracking, able to slide the rear tire, incredible, like just a
• 43:09
  natural talent that you can't teach because nobody else can
• 43:13
  win as many or as consistently as he won.
• 43:17
  So that was the first thing. And then just having, you know,
• 43:20
  him come into this and Danny Pedrosa come into this and all
• 43:24
  these young guys that are now feeding up from the feeder
• 43:27
  series. Because that was the other thing
• 43:29
  is a lot of the guys that were establishing Moto GP weren't
• 43:32
  necessarily come all coming up through 125 and 250.
• 43:36
  There were some, but not all of them.
• 43:38
  A lot of them were still coming from World Super Bike.
• 43:41
  A lot of them were coming from British Super Bike.
• 43:43
  A lot of them were coming from other Super bike championships.
• 43:46
  And this is, I'm going to say it's the first, but it's the
• 43:50
  first of the new generation of feeders directly from 1:25 and
• 43:55
  2:50 where it's like, hey, Danny Pedrosa one on a 125, Danny
• 43:59
  Bridoso one on a 250, Casey Stoner, one on a 125, Casey
• 44:03
  Stoner, one on a 250. So this is where like I feel the
• 44:07
  feeder series of Moto GP starts to really elevate the quality of
• 44:12
  the riders, these young riders, because no longer Moto GP no
• 44:16
  longer has to look at World Super Bike.
• 44:18
  They don't have to look at the USA or all these other series.
• 44:22
  They're like, Hey, a lot of these kids that we're nurturing
• 44:25
  in this feeder series are actually now coming to this
• 44:29
  class and, and making an impact. And, you know, if you look at it
• 44:35
  now, you know, outside of top rack, I don't think anybody else
• 44:39
  is going to get into world into Moto GP from world super bike.
• 44:43
  And, and I think, I think if if not for top Racks, 1 is talent,
• 44:49
  but two, his ability to bring fans because I think that's a
• 44:54
  big part of why Top Rack is in Moto GP, because being from
• 44:58
  Turkey and having this entire Muslim population following him,
• 45:03
  I mean, as an owner, even if you finished in 9th place every
• 45:06
  race, I'd still hire you if I was Moto GPU owner.
• 45:09
  You know why? Because you're opening up to
• 45:11
  this giant new segment of the industry that nobody's catered
• 45:15
  to. And now I'm the only one
• 45:16
  catering to it. Yeah, I, I, I agree.
• 45:20
  I mean, we saw how many Japanese were in Moto GP back then to
• 45:24
  compare to where we are now and, and it's almost like a lifeline,
• 45:28
  you know, So that's definitely different to see Reese, man.
• 45:31
  I mean, you know, we saw, you know, a second year guy win, win
• 45:35
  the championship. You know, I, you got to assume
• 45:38
  Marquez is looking at that as a young kid saying maybe I can win
• 45:42
  it my first year too, right? I mean it, it's just what we're
• 45:45
  seeing these days. What are your thoughts?
• 45:48
  I mean, definitely he's probably was looking at that coming up.
• 45:50
  I mean, if you watch I can't think of that movie.
• 45:54
  I think it was like, well, hitting the apex when they was
• 45:57
  like there's a young kid coming up and and he even said he used
• 46:01
  to watch Rossi. You know, he idolized Rossi.
• 46:04
  He idolized these guys coming up, Stoner and all that watching
• 46:07
  these guys. So to him coming up through the
• 46:11
  Moto 3, the Moto 2 and in the 120, all that, the feeder
• 46:15
  system, he was aiming for that and then his dad groomed him and
• 46:18
  he just was that good. I mean, you watched him in Moto
• 46:22
  2 come away from the back and win the championship.
• 46:25
  So he was already groomed from that feeder system to do what he
• 46:30
  can do in the GP era. And to watch a guy like Stoner,
• 46:34
  you know, come in and dominate like, like Lewis said, there was
• 46:37
  nobody that could ride that bike like a Stoner, and he was the
• 46:42
  only one. So to see somebody like a
• 46:45
  Marquez come up was just something we haven't seen in a
• 46:48
  long time. Right, right.
• 46:50
  And you know, let's talk about the electronics a little bit
• 46:53
  because you know, we hear we say these young new riders take away
• 46:57
  the electronics and they couldn't ride the bike.
• 46:59
  I mean you we got young Nikki Hayden, we got young Pedrosa, we
• 47:03
  got young Casey Stoner. We had young dudes riding with
• 47:06
  no electronics a little no electronics.
• 47:08
  So is it really and, and you know, this is the same system
• 47:11
  that these these guys are coming up in these new guys.
• 47:13
  I mean, so is it fair to say that these guys couldn't, you
• 47:16
  know, learn to, to ride without the, the, the electronics like
• 47:20
  the way they these guys used to in the past?
• 47:24
  I can't say something, I can say a.
• 47:29
  Lot I'm asking you man, so go ahead.
• 47:35
  It's going to take a whole different talent for them to
• 47:38
  learn that. Like.
• 47:40
  You know, you got to think about it.
• 47:42
  We now have ride height device. You know we have electronics for
• 47:47
  trash control. You know pretty much all these
• 47:50
  kids do now is twist the throttle and go.
• 47:52
  That's a lot of what they're doing.
• 47:54
  Twisted throttle and go. That's like a, if you actually
• 47:58
  listen to the guys besides a Marquez besides I think it was,
• 48:04
  I think it was maybe Quadro, not Quadro when they were, no, I'm
• 48:10
  saying, but when they were talking about top rack, when
• 48:14
  they were talking about top rack coming in, a lot of the guys
• 48:17
  that was going to be hard for top rack to come in and learn
• 48:20
  the bike and learn the tracks and learn certain things and do
• 48:24
  this when Marquez was like, all he has to do is learn the
• 48:28
  tracks. That's all he really has to do
• 48:31
  because if you know top rack, he's coming from a background of
• 48:35
  stunt riding. They don't have electronics.
• 48:37
  They don't have all of that. All they have is their wrist.
• 48:40
  That's all they have. They have their wrist and their
• 48:42
  foot for the brakes. That's all they have, so they
• 48:44
  know how to back it in. If you ever watch a flat track
• 48:47
  rider, they don't have the electronics.
• 48:50
  They just learn how to slide it back it in and learn how to
• 48:53
  control it and they're comfortable with it.
• 48:55
  That's why like a AJD, a Ganye, a Cameron, all these guys that
• 49:01
  were flat tracking, they enjoy it.
• 49:03
  They, they are comfortable when it comes to that.
• 49:07
  You know, their back and end, they're comfortable with it.
• 49:10
  A lot of these new guys, they just want to twist the throttle
• 49:13
  and go as fast as they can around the the track.
• 49:17
  So for a guy like Top Rock coming in that doesn't need the
• 49:20
  electronics, doesn't need all that.
• 49:22
  And he's very good at speaking to the crew chief.
• 49:25
  He's good at speaking to the crew.
• 49:28
  I think we're going to see that phenomenal rider come back into
• 49:31
  the series that we us as as the older generation, myself, Lewis,
• 49:36
  you guys, we're going to see something that we haven't seen
• 49:39
  in a long time. The new generation like I don't
• 49:41
  know what this is right? Right, right.
• 49:44
  Yeah, I, I definitely can relate to that to me.
• 49:47
  And like, just just like, you know, riding with a quick
• 49:50
  shifter on a track, I, I was bred into that, you know, like
• 49:54
  I, I ruled with, you know, just regular shifting.
• 49:58
  Now I got my R6 and it's GP shift and it's a quick shifter.
• 50:03
  One time my quick shifter failed and I had to use the clutch
• 50:07
  going around. And I can tell you I got off the
• 50:10
  track because I was like, yeah, I'm going to fix my clutch
• 50:13
  shift. I know.
• 50:16
  I mean, I obviously if I had to, I can, but you know, you know,
• 50:21
  got to use what you got And, and I know that it will take a lot
• 50:25
  of muscle memory to switch to what you're explaining because
• 50:30
  yeah, it might work the first couple weeks and then you might
• 50:35
  just have a week off and then you go back on and then, you
• 50:39
  know, that one slip up, you know, so.
• 50:43
  It, it says a lot about your, your rhythm being off, right?
• 50:45
  Because that one little thing makes you feel like you got you.
• 50:48
  It's taking you 10 seconds and it's really not what it feels
• 50:51
  like in that moment. Because it took me a while to
• 50:54
  get used to a quick shifter because I'm used to just
• 50:57
  floating it, like just let off just a little bit and just click
• 51:01
  it into gear. You know the same thing you do
• 51:03
  in a car. You can float a gear.
• 51:04
  I can float a gear in a car, a truck, I can float a gear.
• 51:07
  And now you got a quick shift. I could just stay on the
• 51:09
  throttle and just click, click, click.
• 51:11
  Oh shit, I could just call, you know, so I don't need that quick
• 51:14
  shift. I'm like, I'm so used to it.
• 51:15
  But the quick shift, it makes it so much easier and that much
• 51:19
  precise. But it's like, you know, so you
• 51:22
  got to like train your mind, train your muscles and like, OK,
• 51:25
  I got to switch this up. Yeah, Lewis, I'm sure you want
• 51:29
  to add something before we get into Valentino's woes, which I
• 51:33
  didn't realize he had, but he had, he had tax issues back in
• 51:37
  the day. But anything you want to ask
• 51:39
  about the the the quick shifter? Since you were riding the R6
• 51:42
  this past weekend, you had your Translogic installed.
• 51:45
  I tell you what, man, I, I, I, I would have disconnected it if I
• 51:50
  could have because I would have. I would have gotten faster just
• 51:53
  blipping myself, man. Like legit, legit one.
• 51:57
  It's I came up without a quick shifter, like my quick shifter
• 52:04
  was blipping the throttle and shifting, blipping the throttle,
• 52:06
  shifting, blipping the throttle, shifting like I did it myself.
• 52:09
  You know, we didn't have fancy things like round tires and
• 52:13
  shit. You know, we, you know, so we,
• 52:22
  you know, I grew up at a time and I came up at a time we
• 52:24
  didn't have any of that. We didn't have fuel injection.
• 52:27
  Everything was carbureted. We had to take our carbs apart
• 52:30
  all the time and reject them and do all this stuff to try to get
• 52:33
  him to run right because we didn't have fuel injection.
• 52:35
  We couldn't just hook it up to a computer and drop a file and all
• 52:38
  of a sudden my, you know throttle throttle response is
• 52:42
  crispy. Nah man, I have to go in there.
• 52:44
  I have to pull the wire and I had to change The Jets.
• 52:48
  I had to do all this crazy shit to get like 1 horsepower and
• 52:51
  just to make it smoother, you know, so I, I don't know, you
• 52:54
  know, like I think I, I think some electronics are important
• 52:59
  because especially as electronics that add to safety
• 53:02
  because you can't ride a 200 plus horsepower motorcycle, not
• 53:06
  traction control. You know, you can't ride it
• 53:09
  safely, let's put it that way. And if you could, you couldn't
• 53:11
  get the most out of it possible because you need that because
• 53:14
  you're, you're as good as you are in your throttle.
• 53:16
  You know, a computer's always going to do that extra little
• 53:19
  bit. And since the front tire
• 53:21
  overspinning, sliding at the leading angle, blah, blah, blah,
• 53:24
  blah, blah. Like, you know, we don't have as
• 53:25
  many high sides as we used to have because of this, but.
• 53:29
  Electronic safety. You don't tire bills.
• 53:31
  Yeah, but with that said, as soon as one of these new boys
• 53:36
  with all this fancy electronics, as soon as the electronics
• 53:39
  break, they get off the track. They don't know what they're
• 53:41
  doing. And that's when I'll come by and
• 53:43
  I'll flip, flip, flip down, shift down, shift down, shift,
• 53:46
  break and be like, why are you going so slow?
• 53:49
  Oh, your fancy shit broke? Depend on your fancy shit.
• 53:53
  Wow man. Or one of them malfunction.
• 53:56
  That's when is to the moon. If if you ever played the old
• 54:01
  world super super bike game in the old world super bike game,
• 54:06
  you would have to complete rounds with something broken on
• 54:09
  your bike and you would have to figure out how to get around the
• 54:13
  track with something broken on your bike.
• 54:14
  And sometimes it be that your tire wear is really bad on the
• 54:17
  left hand side. So when you go to do left hand
• 54:20
  turn. So if you find, I mean for you
• 54:22
  guys, the old Super World Super Bike, I think for me it was like
• 54:24
  my first World Super Bike game. But they would have different
• 54:29
  problems and you would have to learn how to ride around them in
• 54:33
  the game. And.
• 54:35
  It was like, oh, this is like real real for me.
• 54:37
  There was like, oh, this is real shit.
• 54:38
  Like sometimes you are out there and the side of your tie is a
• 54:41
  little messed up, so you got to like can't lean too much on this
• 54:43
  side, so I got to make it up on this side.
• 54:46
  That's why the RCX is the perfect bike.
• 54:49
  Let's let's talk about Rossi. You know, you know, Rossi, he
• 54:53
  fought, he fought from the O 7 championship, but I didn't
• 54:56
  realize he had issues tax and the Italian media was on them
• 55:01
  and and stuff like that. I forgot that he lived out in
• 55:03
  the UK for a while. So maybe because he was a UK boy
• 55:06
  for a little bit, he he was, he was starting to think he was
• 55:09
  proper or something like that. You know, all you guys thoughts
• 55:13
  on that. And also, you know, towards the
• 55:15
  end of the season, he broke his right hand and still raced,
• 55:18
  didn't have to, but he still went out and still had bike
• 55:21
  issues, which is, you know, you think the hand is the thing
• 55:24
  that's going to make you pit. Oh, TJ.
• 55:28
  Yeah. Yeah, I mean, so I probably
• 55:31
  didn't listen all the way through to know about all the
• 55:33
  taxes and all that, all that crazy stuff.
• 55:35
  But I mean, can you not see it coming?
• 55:38
  This guy's been winning every year.
• 55:40
  Somebody wants a part of Rossi, you know, so.
• 55:45
  Some dudes in the commentary box, man, they can run their
• 55:47
  mouth. You know you got to do this.
• 55:49
  And. Maybe you say it's some good
• 55:53
  stuff, man. But yeah, I missed that part.
• 55:56
  But yeah, he had some woes this year.
• 55:57
  I mean, like with the bike and just performance overall.
• 56:02
  There's just just, I guess Casey Stone just took the win.
• 56:07
  Like it's just wasn't those years that Rossi can pull the
• 56:10
  magic out of the hat and say, hey, I'm going to come back from
• 56:13
  way back in the pack and then do my magic and still have my
• 56:17
  problems in the background, you know?
• 56:19
  So it all caught up to him the same like it and still fought
• 56:23
  really hard. He still got his wins, but he's
• 56:27
  he had some there's one race where he was unsure of his tire
• 56:31
  after switching to I think reigns or something like that,
• 56:34
  and he pitted out pit back in and that was just like it was
• 56:39
  just a a lot of problems, you know that he's not hasn't been
• 56:42
  used to so. Yeah, yeah, I think absolutely
• 56:44
  it was a lot of problems and not used to and I mean I think the
• 56:48
  tire was a big deal. I think in two O 6 they I think
• 56:52
  they wrote it around the Yamaha issues.
• 56:54
  But in O 7, you know they they where he could be in 13 place
• 57:00
  and still win. I think he was fighting for like
• 57:03
  5th, 4th in in O 7. You know more about this than
• 57:09
  the rest of us. I'm sure Lewis with the tax
• 57:11
  issues and and what went down. And I mean, at this point he's
• 57:15
  2829. So I mean, I, I don't think I
• 57:18
  knew I had to pay taxes at 28. Well, I did, but you know.
• 57:22
  You knew, you knew, or the government would remind you.
• 57:28
  You know what tax, tax issues are a really unique thing.
• 57:32
  And not just here in the US but in Europe.
• 57:34
  They're really, really unique because for instance, in Spain,
• 57:37
  Spain has a really, really high tax rate.
• 57:39
  That's why a lot of the Spanish riders move to a certain part of
• 57:43
  Spain with which is outside of the normal tax zone.
• 57:48
  So This is why you'll get a light, you know, right.
• 57:50
  Like right now, you know, Jorge Lorenzo this past week spoke
• 57:54
  about one of the reasons he retired is because he had these
• 57:57
  tax evasion charges on him that were actually like causing him a
• 58:01
  lot of stress. Like he was so stressed out
• 58:03
  about going to jail, about possibly having to pay $100
• 58:06
  million in penalties and everything else that that will
• 58:09
  weigh on you as a as an athlete. You know, so that so for Rossi,
• 58:13
  that happens over his head while he's having issues on the on the
• 58:16
  track, while he's, you know, going through the other thing,
• 58:19
  these outside distractions are heavy.
• 58:21
  And what it is is if you move from your country, just like
• 58:25
  here in the US, if you move from your country to another country
• 58:28
  and you change your citizenship and you're making all your money
• 58:31
  in that country, your, your, your birth nation can't get that
• 58:38
  much taxes. But in Italy, just like in
• 58:40
  Spain, unless you completely denounce your residency, your,
• 58:44
  your citizenship, no matter where you go in the world, you
• 58:47
  got to send a check back home. And so the Italian, you know,
• 58:52
  government was like, hey, you know, this guy made this much
• 58:55
  money between here and here and here and here, and we're not
• 58:57
  seeing the right amount of income.
• 58:59
  And even though he's claiming his residency is outside of it,
• 59:01
  outside of Italy, he still owns property in Italy.
• 59:05
  You know, how do we know he's actually living there all the
• 59:07
  time? Because again, you could be
• 59:08
  travelling back and forth, have your house here, have your house
• 59:10
  there. So the Italian government and
• 59:12
  the Spanish government does this too.
• 59:14
  Like they're always looking at high profile people, unlike here
• 59:17
  in the US where if you're a billionaire, you don't have to
• 59:19
  pay shit. But if I owe you $50, you're
• 59:21
  going to kick my house down and and take it back down my house
• 59:24
  and hang because it's fucking crazy, dude.
• 59:26
  And like Elon Musk, I think pays like $8 a year because he
• 59:29
  technically doesn't own anything.
• 59:31
  You know, he he doesn't have any money.
• 59:32
  All his money is in Monopoly money and, and finance, it's in
• 59:37
  the ether. So, you know, he doesn't pay
• 59:39
  taxes. I don't have that.
• 59:42
  And at this time, you know, like right now, Rossi's also recently
• 59:46
  it's come out a lot that him and his father have had a big break
• 59:49
  in their relationship over money and over management and over
• 59:52
  contracts that were signed a long time ago.
• 59:54
  And this is, again, this ongoing thing where the business side of
• 59:58
  this sports can get really, really dirty if you don't have
• 1:00:02
  the right people in your corner going through these contracts,
• 1:00:05
  reading them, understanding what they're doing like.
• 1:00:11
  And then you get a lawyer to watch that account.
• 1:00:14
  And then you get another lawyer to watch that lawyer.
• 1:00:17
  And then you get another lawyer to watch that lawyer that's
• 1:00:19
  watching that lawyer that's watching that account.
• 1:00:21
  And then you get another accountant to watch the
• 1:00:23
  accountant. Because because it's like if.
• 1:00:25
  Something else? Yeah, because it, well, The
• 1:00:28
  thing is when you're dealing with hundreds of millions of
• 1:00:30
  dollars, if I make 5% disappear, you might not notice it, but 5%
• 1:00:35
  of $100 million, I just made $5,000,000 just by I'm just
• 1:00:39
  going to put this in this account over here and here you
• 1:00:42
  go, you know, $5,000,000 just disappeared because I hit a
• 1:00:45
  three instead of A7 on the account number, you know, so you
• 1:00:49
  got to, you know, you got to watch yourself.
• 1:00:50
  And when you put this as part of an athlete's everyday thing,
• 1:00:55
  like an athlete doesn't want to deal with this, man, I have to
• 1:00:57
  work out. I have to stay in shape.
• 1:00:59
  I have to go ride a motorcycle. I have this other thing to do.
• 1:01:02
  And I'm expecting that these people that are hired to do this
• 1:01:04
  thing that I'm asking them to do for my finances are going to do
• 1:01:07
  the right thing for me. But as soon as I turn my back,
• 1:01:10
  they're stealing from me. They're putting me in financial
• 1:01:13
  risk. They're not doing the right
• 1:01:14
  thing. They're not paying the bills.
• 1:01:15
  They're not doing everything that I really hired them to do.
• 1:01:19
  And I think this really weighed on him that year.
• 1:01:21
  And you know, once you get this monkey off your back, you'll get
• 1:01:25
  better. But you know, any, if you've
• 1:01:26
  ever had any legal issue with either the government,
• 1:01:29
  especially with the the IRS, man, you could kill somebody and
• 1:01:31
  get away with it. You don't pay the IRS, yes, it's
• 1:01:34
  going to jail. You know, I asked Wesley Snipes.
• 1:01:40
  So I think, I think this all kind of did also hurt him this
• 1:01:44
  season because he, you know, he did not have that swagger.
• 1:01:47
  He wasn't as strong in every round.
• 1:01:49
  And I think he's just a little bit mentally warm by the end of
• 1:01:52
  the season. I'm sure he was happy to see it
• 1:01:54
  end. And in 22,008, they came to a
• 1:01:57
  settlement agreement where he paid off a big lump of sum of
• 1:02:00
  money and it kind of just washed everything away.
• 1:02:04
  It got him back into the graces of the Italian people because
• 1:02:06
  that's the other thing. If you don't pay your taxes, The
• 1:02:09
  actual fans in Italy, they were like, oh wait, wait, I love you,
• 1:02:12
  but you got to pay your taxes. Like not like here, man.
• 1:02:14
  He is is holding a game. So was it like a few years that
• 1:02:20
  he didn't pay or is this like a every year I.
• 1:02:22
  Believe it was 5 or 6 years of revenue that he had to pay for.
• 1:02:28
  So I think it was from 2002 to 2007 or 2000.
• 1:02:32
  Yeah, it was like several years that he had to pay.
• 1:02:35
  It wasn't just one year and I think they ended up selling
• 1:02:38
  Acettling because if they had gone actually gone to court, he
• 1:02:41
  could have been on the hook for over $100 million.
• 1:02:45
  And I say, you know, everybody thinks Ross is a billionaire.
• 1:02:48
  The dudes only worth like $250 million.
• 1:02:50
  If I got to give half my shit. I mean at that point get divorce
• 1:02:53
  for your wife because if you you're losing half your shit.
• 1:02:57
  So basically he was paying something, just not not the the
• 1:03:00
  extras or something like that. Yeah, not what he should have
• 1:03:05
  been paying as a as a citizen because he was trying to use
• 1:03:08
  this tax shelter that he lived in England.
• 1:03:11
  Yeah, that's somebody told him like, yeah, you put this address
• 1:03:16
  like like New Hampshire, you know, people.
• 1:03:18
  Yeah. Register all.
• 1:03:20
  Your shit in New Hampshire, you know.
• 1:03:23
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, yeah, man.
• 1:03:25
  So, you know, 2007 is the, you know, the end of borrows check.
• 1:03:31
  I believe in 2007 is, is is heading out.
• 1:03:37
  Roberts junior is heading out as well.
• 1:03:40
  So you know, again, with the change of the guy like
• 1:03:42
  Caparossi, I think he's going to super bike at the end of the
• 1:03:46
  year at this point as well. And these are guys that were, I
• 1:03:48
  mean, they, they, you know, Caparossi was in Moto GP for
• 1:03:52
  like 18 years. You.
• 1:03:56
  Know these guys are around for a long time where we don't see
• 1:04:00
  that as much now. You know, we had a a period of
• 1:04:03
  time where people were coming in and out, you know.
• 1:04:06
  You know, also Kawasaki was looking good.
• 1:04:09
  I mean, O 7 was a good year for Kawasaki.
• 1:04:11
  They signed Hopkins for O8. You know, Suzuki's looking good.
• 1:04:16
  Grassini is kind of Grassini, Primack is kind of Primack, not
• 1:04:21
  like all these other three names kind of kind of thing.
• 1:04:25
  So, you know, we're seeing the changing of the gods of riders,
• 1:04:28
  but also teams and manufacturers around that time frame.
• 1:04:33
  Before we get out of here, let's just talk about that a little
• 1:04:36
  bit. These other guys outside of the
• 1:04:37
  top dogs that, you know, are paving the way.
• 1:04:39
  And now we see, you know, Suzuki's been able to obviously
• 1:04:43
  win a world title. Yeah, me and like CN Suzuki, I
• 1:04:52
  think it was Burno they got, I'm not sure if it was that one, but
• 1:04:56
  I think it. Was like 3 they they got 3
• 1:04:59
  podiums in in O 7. Yeah, so they did.
• 1:05:02
  They did pretty well. And also, like you said,
• 1:05:05
  Kawasaki and I just wish like somehow they can find their way
• 1:05:10
  back into Moto GP just to get all the manufacturers in.
• 1:05:13
  But yeah, like these older riders that were in the in the
• 1:05:17
  game for so many years definitely paved the way for us.
• 1:05:21
  And as you see, like the competition as like, like we
• 1:05:24
  were mentioning, like every year there's a new shark coming in.
• 1:05:26
  So like it burns them out, you know.
• 1:05:29
  So like paparazzi in O7 actually had a couple victories or I
• 1:05:37
  think he got one victory on Ducati did pretty well.
• 1:05:42
  So yeah, it was just I know you guys just watching them all all
• 1:05:45
  the time. It's like, you know, sad to see
• 1:05:47
  them go, but you know, it's like me watching an Alicia spar girl,
• 1:05:52
  you know what I'm saying? It's like or or, you know, it's
• 1:05:55
  just like, let's say on VR on 4 VR 46.
• 1:06:02
  Can't think of his name right now.
• 1:06:03
  Which one you got your guy Rashi?
• 1:06:07
  Marvidelli. Marvidelli yeah.
• 1:06:09
  You know, so like, you know, or even Jack Miller and all these
• 1:06:13
  guys. So for me, those guys like they
• 1:06:16
  paved the way and it's like hard to see him go if when, when they
• 1:06:20
  like finally leave, you know, So it's kind of really important
• 1:06:23
  to, you know, the history that they brought out, you know?
• 1:06:27
  Yeah, I, I, I agree. Because like, you know, we see
• 1:06:29
  these name now when they show up in the paddock and stuff like
• 1:06:32
  that, or they're working for teams and stuff like that.
• 1:06:34
  And you know, they'll like, they'll rattle off their stats.
• 1:06:37
  But it's one thing to to, to hear the stats and it's another
• 1:06:40
  thing to go back and watch it and, and, and see what they
• 1:06:43
  actually did and how they did it, you know?
• 1:06:47
  For sure. Yeah, yeah.
• 1:06:48
  What what are your thoughts Lewis on on these other guys?
• 1:06:52
  I mean, you know, the rest of the guys outside of the top
• 1:06:55
  three, I mean, this is, you know, we still have a good
• 1:06:57
  amount of Americans in the class.
• 1:06:59
  So, you know, I was following it because we did have a good
• 1:07:02
  amount of Americans in the class.
• 1:07:03
  I was looking forward to seeing where John Hopkins was going to
• 1:07:06
  go, Definitely looking forward to see, you know, what Nikki
• 1:07:10
  Hayden was going to do following up, you know what he had done
• 1:07:14
  the year before. Colin Edwards was still Rossi's
• 1:07:19
  teammate, still on a Yamaha. You know, this Colin Edwards is
• 1:07:23
  like a true and blue die hard Yamaha guy, I think for his
• 1:07:26
  entire life at this point. I mean, I think the dude is just
• 1:07:29
  tied to Yamaha at the hip. Just another guy.
• 1:07:31
  Yeah. Yeah, it's a Yamaha.
• 1:07:35
  Yeah. So, and you know, we still had
• 1:07:38
  Curtis Roberts and we did have one a wild card with another
• 1:07:45
  Hayden with Rodger Hayden on a Kawasaki.
• 1:07:48
  So we had a, you know, we had that American feel was still
• 1:07:53
  there. We still had a good amount of
• 1:07:55
  Americans. But then outside of that, like
• 1:07:57
  Christopher Mullen is a guy that I really liked.
• 1:07:59
  Honestly I think he had the coolest showy helmet design.
• 1:08:02
  For the. Longest time I just.
• 1:08:05
  I just like this helmet man. Yeah.
• 1:08:08
  Yeah, I like, I just like the dudes helmet and everything
• 1:08:11
  else. So that's one of the reasons I
• 1:08:12
  followed him. You know, I didn't know he was
• 1:08:14
  Australian or anything, I just knew he had a cool helmet.
• 1:08:18
  Marco Melandra was a guy that I also liked mainly because of his
• 1:08:21
  wife. He was only four foot 2, but his
• 1:08:24
  wife was like 17 feet tall and she was hot, hot, hot.
• 1:08:28
  Wait, like out of if he wasn't famous, no chance he's got with
• 1:08:32
  that. None bro.
• 1:08:34
  But I was watching because every time she was like holding an
• 1:08:37
  umbrella for him, I was like, it looks like she's holding her
• 1:08:40
  child. He's seven years old.
• 1:08:43
  You know what? What's crazy is like?
• 1:08:45
  You know, you would see Capper Rossi and some of these guys who
• 1:08:50
  haven't won that many titles, but have, you know, podiums in a
• 1:08:52
  stretch of like 10-15 years. But then you look at is it not
• 1:08:57
  Melandri? And I think it's Melandri, he
• 1:09:00
  got like 18 podiums in like 3 years or something like that.
• 1:09:04
  His, his, his stat was crazy because he, he got a lot of, you
• 1:09:07
  know, 1820 podiums in a shorter period of time than some of
• 1:09:10
  these good lifers. Yeah, but he came.
• 1:09:14
  He came in. He he was, you know, Norris
• 1:09:16
  Capper Rossi. I mean, he's he's he's at this
• 1:09:20
  point, he's kind of like a internal Moto GP legend.
• 1:09:23
  He's actually, I believe he works for Dorna as like the
• 1:09:26
  safety. So like he's just one of these
• 1:09:31
  guys that found a career in motorcycle racing that leverages
• 1:09:35
  talent. But even he would tell you like
• 1:09:38
  his talent did have a cat. There were certain tracks he was
• 1:09:41
  really good on. There's certain bikes he was
• 1:09:42
  really good on. But Marco Malandre, I mean, he
• 1:09:45
  was a he was a killer man. He came in as a killer, like
• 1:09:48
  from the lower classes. He was already a killer.
• 1:09:50
  He just needed like the right team and the right bike.
• 1:09:55
  But it was crazy that he came in and then short such a short
• 1:09:58
  period of time. Even though he never won a
• 1:09:59
  championship, he made an impact. You know, he was competitive at
• 1:10:04
  the front of the spear. He wasn't, you know, competing
• 1:10:06
  for 9th and 15th. He was top 7.
• 1:10:10
  Yeah, he was one of these guys that was pushing Rossi early on,
• 1:10:13
  at least for some reason. Not a whole season like Casey
• 1:10:15
  did, but definitely some some rounds.
• 1:10:19
  I think a lot of these Italians really, as much as they admired
• 1:10:23
  what Rossi was doing, we're always also looking at him as
• 1:10:26
  the the target. So you have your target on the
• 1:10:30
  track, then you have your target within your teams, and then you
• 1:10:33
  have your target nationally. So like the Americans were
• 1:10:36
  probably looking at Nikki. If like, hey, if I could be
• 1:10:38
  Nikki, at least I'm the fastest American, you know, if I want a
• 1:10:42
  Honda, if I could be Nikki, I'm the fastest Honda.
• 1:10:44
  If I'm an Italian, it's the same thing.
• 1:10:46
  If I could be Rossi, I'm the fastest Italian this weekend.
• 1:10:50
  If I can do this, you know, so there's all these little
• 1:10:53
  championships and mind games and competitiveness at this level
• 1:10:56
  man, these guys are all racing for something like they all have
• 1:11:00
  their own championship were going on in their head you.
• 1:11:05
  Know. But it was, it was great to see
• 1:11:07
  like, you know, all the faces that were here, you know, Alex
• 1:11:10
  Hoffman, you know this, that guy had been around forever.
• 1:11:14
  Carlos Checca left here and went to World Super Bike and started
• 1:11:18
  a second career that went on for a long time.
• 1:11:20
  He did a lot of great things over there.
• 1:11:22
  Tony Elias, he stayed in the paddock for a long time.
• 1:11:26
  Eventually he got demoted. But Tony Elias is the first Moto
• 1:11:30
  2 champion ever. He actually ends up being
• 1:11:32
  inaugural Moto 2 champion with his crazy riding style.
• 1:11:36
  It turns out it was perfect for Moto 2.
• 1:11:37
  It just wasn't great for anything.
• 1:11:47
  Else. So there's there, even though
• 1:11:51
  some of these guys are leaving the paddock in the next year or
• 1:11:54
  two, they still go on to have great careers.
• 1:11:57
  Other places, You know, it's like they, they don't just leave
• 1:12:00
  the paddock and disappear. Like, you know, Alex Barrows,
• 1:12:03
  he's going to have World Super Bike.
• 1:12:05
  You know, Colin Edwards, he's never going to win a race in
• 1:12:07
  Moto GP, but he stays around long enough where he can retire
• 1:12:10
  with a big fat check. Lorence Kapparazi ends up
• 1:12:13
  working for Moto GP Melandre. He's goes to World Super Bike,
• 1:12:16
  becomes super competitive in World Super Bike on the Aprilia
• 1:12:20
  as well as on the BMW for a long time.
• 1:12:22
  When BMW first launches, all these guys leave here and go
• 1:12:27
  somewhere else. Anthony W is going to have the
• 1:12:29
  coolest paying job for a long time that everybody's going to
• 1:12:32
  ride. Want to replicate on a bike?
• 1:12:38
  Oh, Michelle Fabrizio, he's going to go on to be the guy
• 1:12:41
  that takes more people out in World Super Bike than anybody
• 1:12:44
  that's ever existed. He's got like another whole
• 1:12:46
  career that he's got going. They don't call him the Human
• 1:12:50
  Torpedo for nothing bro. I mean, Lewis is right though,
• 1:12:55
  because if you look, they said that Miguel Oliveira had the
• 1:12:59
  fastest time out of all people right now.
• 1:13:02
  Yeah, in. In World Super.
• 1:13:04
  Bike. Yeah, he's he's the fastest guy
• 1:13:07
  out there. I can see that.
• 1:13:08
  I can see that. So so he could have a great
• 1:13:11
  career over World Super Bike. Yeah.
• 1:13:13
  So again, you know, this is how you kind of cycle out of Moto GP
• 1:13:17
  back then. You still could have another
• 1:13:20
  career now when you cycle out of Moto GP depending on your age.
• 1:13:25
  You're over, man. Yeah, yeah, it's, it's, it's I
• 1:13:29
  think for the young guys that got flushed out and were able to
• 1:13:32
  go to World Super Bike and salvage a career, for lack of a
• 1:13:35
  better word, did really well. I think the older guys, I mean,
• 1:13:40
  you're you're like test rider material at best right now.
• 1:13:44
  And you look at, I mean, Danny Pedroza, he could have gone to
• 1:13:46
  World Super Bike and didn't, right.
• 1:13:47
  And he decided to be a test rider instead.
• 1:13:50
  So we definitely see that. What are your thoughts, Reese,
• 1:13:53
  on the over on 2007 series? While you while you were off
• 1:13:58
  here, we were just talking about, you know, the, you know,
• 1:14:01
  what Suzuki was able to do with Hopkins.
• 1:14:03
  Some of these other guys that were starting to show have some
• 1:14:06
  good rounds and, you know, salvage themselves and looking
• 1:14:10
  to make a 2008 impact. You know your thoughts on
• 1:14:14
  Hopkins and you know Edwards and and Nikki Hayden, I mean, he
• 1:14:19
  struggled even though he won the title the year before.
• 1:14:22
  I mean, with these guys, the Americans, I mean, they just,
• 1:14:26
  they were, they were there. Hopkins just never really got,
• 1:14:29
  he was starting to get going, but then he just got plagued by
• 1:14:33
  that bug of injuries, you know, and then getting on painkiller
• 1:14:36
  and painkillers and everything else.
• 1:14:39
  Colin Edwards, I mean, he pretty much, he was, he was doing it.
• 1:14:44
  He was doing very well. I think he just got overshadowed
• 1:14:48
  by Nikki a little bit. But I think he really got
• 1:14:51
  overshadowed by speeds. I think he really got
• 1:14:55
  overshadowed when speeds came in and everything else and speeds
• 1:14:58
  just kind of overshadowed him a little bit.
• 1:15:01
  And I also think that. I was going to say, I thought
• 1:15:04
  you were going to say Rossi a little bit because he was like
• 1:15:06
  the perfect side. But you know, he wasn't like a
• 1:15:10
  killer compared to like, you know, Lorenzo coming in and some
• 1:15:15
  of these other guys before it, before it, before it.
• 1:15:17
  Edwards. Edwards was never that kind of
• 1:15:20
  killer person. He was a great rider, but he was
• 1:15:23
  never that killer. He was never that I'm going to
• 1:15:25
  dominate and come out here and and try to win it all.
• 1:15:28
  He was never that. You know, Nikki, Nikki had the
• 1:15:32
  you know, the no racing is racing kind of I call it, you
• 1:15:36
  know, it's like, you know, he had that luck of, you know,
• 1:15:40
  battling, you know, staying consistent.
• 1:15:42
  You know, that's what that's what racing comes with.
• 1:15:44
  Just stay consistency and he had that and you know, you just have
• 1:15:49
  to be you happen to be right there when Rossi had the
• 1:15:52
  downfall and you were as you know, anything else, as, you
• 1:15:55
  know, a sports next man up, you know, so I think that was
• 1:16:00
  Nikki's saving grace, you know, so but I just think like in if
• 1:16:05
  you're talking about the three Americans, I think the one that
• 1:16:08
  you know was out of the three, the better ones was Nikki.
• 1:16:12
  You know, Edwards was good. He was just never that killer
• 1:16:17
  instinct. I think if he had that killer
• 1:16:19
  instincts, I think he would have, you know, done a lot more.
• 1:16:23
  I think he could have done a lot more.
• 1:16:25
  I don't think Hopkins, where he was at, I don't think he would
• 1:16:28
  have done that. Yeah, I mean, you think if
• 1:16:32
  Hopkins had better luck and I mean, I guess we will find out
• 1:16:34
  more because he he had every, I mean, he finished fourth in O 7.
• 1:16:38
  That was his best season and and I guess we'll find out about the
• 1:16:42
  injuries in in O8 or what's to come and and stuff like that
• 1:16:45
  because it was tough. I mean, between him speeds,
• 1:16:48
  these, these are guys, these are the last guys in motor in the
• 1:16:52
  world in Moto GP and they were plagued with a lot of injuries.
• 1:16:56
  Right. I mean, you got to think and I
• 1:16:58
  think Hayes has said it one time, the bikes is the chassis
• 1:17:01
  on the bike is completely different.
• 1:17:03
  It's lightweight, it's easy to flip, it's easy to turn.
• 1:17:05
  I think even Garrett said that. So these guys coming into as
• 1:17:08
  American, it was just a different feel for them.
• 1:17:11
  They're not used to it. So then the tires set up.
• 1:17:14
  Everybody knows the tires set up is different.
• 1:17:16
  Your forks are different. You know that has a Dick play in
• 1:17:19
  it. You know the flick ability, the
• 1:17:21
  the lightweight of it. It just plays a different game
• 1:17:24
  and then you know, with minimum electronics back then, not like
• 1:17:29
  all the electronics we had. I mean if you high sided you
• 1:17:32
  damn near high sided. Oh yeah, those, those accents
• 1:17:38
  back then were were were were crazy to see these guys barrel
• 1:17:42
  roll and their high sides. And I mean, they were still
• 1:17:46
  getting knocked out. Yeah.
• 1:17:49
  It was, it was one race Laguna Taker or, or I wanted, you know,
• 1:17:56
  Nikki had in one of the two previous years.
• 1:17:58
  But going into this year, I was so ready for this one.
• 1:18:00
  And then first quarter Nikki and Hopkins collided or something
• 1:18:05
  like that. And I was like, damn, that was
• 1:18:07
  the end of that. But yeah, I think Nikki was
• 1:18:10
  definitely the better American and it's cool just to see him
• 1:18:14
  out there. Sure, hopefully get some more
• 1:18:16
  Americans in the game meeting. Oh yeah, I hope.
• 1:18:20
  I hope so, man. I did.
• 1:18:22
  Did we miss anything before we get out of here, guys?
• 1:18:24
  I think we we got a lot in. No, I don't think, I don't think
• 1:18:27
  anything. I mean.
• 1:18:29
  Next, the next season, Oh well, there is a, there is a young guy
• 1:18:35
  that's in a lower class that in an in in a few years is going to
• 1:18:39
  make a big impact. And then the very next year, in
• 1:18:42
  2008, there's going to be a kid that's going to start in 125
• 1:18:49
  that'll eventually be something serious.
• 1:18:54
  So next. Year is going.
• 1:18:56
  To be a interesting year. All right, 2008 people, you
• 1:19:00
  heard it. My name is Rex 45.
• 1:19:02
  It's the Be Forever Cool podcast.
• 1:19:04
  We got TJ with two wheels and coffee.
• 1:19:06
  We got Reese with attack Yamaha, Maria Luis Ortega, the numbers
• 1:19:10
  guy. Peace.
• 1:19:12
  Peace.