Anyone else talking RACING?! <--- of the motorcycle type

Rumor is they are fielding 2 riders in 2012, Hopkins has not done well in years.
He was a great rider in the day but it seems now due to all his injuries he would be a poor choice.

 

http://www.motomatters.com/news/2011/02/20/vermeulen_to_miss_wsbk_opener_at_phillip.html

Vermeulen To Miss WSBK Opener At Phillip Island

The huge crash Chris Vermeulen suffered during race 2 of last year's World Superbike opener at Phillip Island has had a major impact on his career. The crash caused severe damage to Vermeulen's knee, and the Australian has had problems ever since, eventually opting to have surgery in the middle of the 2010 season, forcing him to miss the rest of the season while recovering from the operation.

But Vermeulen's problems are not yet over. The former World Supersport champion has struggled during testing with the Paul Bird Kawasaki squad, managing to ride for just one day at Sepang before pain and swelling in his knee forced Vermeulen to pull out of the test. Vermeulen is still unable to bend his knee sufficiently to sit comfortably on the bike, despite intense physiotherapy to try to help the problem.

With the final test before the 2011 season kicks off about to start, and a week to go before the first race of the year, Vermeulen has decided to pull out of both the test at Phillip Island and the race there next Sunday to concentrate on his physical rehab, Fox Sports in Australia is reporting. After failing a fitness test ahead of the WSBK test on Monday, Vermeulen and the team came to the conclusion that it would be better to skip Vermeulen's home round at Phillip Island. The hope is that further treatment to his knee during the four weeks before the second WSBK round of the year at Donington Park will improve Vermeulen's condition enough to be able to race.

Vermeulen's ride will be taken by Kawasaki test rider and World Superbike veteran Akira Yanagawa. Yanagawa also replaced Vermeulen in the latter half of last year, though the 39-year-old Japanese rider could not prove competitive. According to Bikesportnews.com, rumors had former Kawasaki MotoGP and Ten Kate World Supersport rider Andrew Pitt taking Vermeulen's place, but Yanagawa has been named ahead of Pitt. Should Vermeulen's injury force him to miss more racing, or in the worst case scenario, force him to retire early, Pitt may well end up in the frame again.

--I'm not sure I follow the logic here; has surgery last year, has gone thru "intensive physiotherapy", and yet somehow they think one more month of it will fix everything?

This sucks for Chris, I really like him as a rider. I hope something happens and he has a chance to recover and get back to form.

 

Iinteresting, the power of Rossi had obviously brought Fiat into Yamaha so they left when he left... Totally irrelevent but did you know Fiat sounds like Fart in German ?

 

Furtz!! Fart in German, why should Fiat give one cent to Yamaha? Rossi was the reason!

 

Ok ladies, lets shift focus for just a bit..............lets talk upcoming Daytona....yeah I know its AMA, but its frickin Daytona you mooks.

And Zemke has a ride.....oh yeah :thumbsup:

Your thoughts???? C'mon dont be shy ....and I can already hear Betarace going "Meh, its AMA"...pffffttttt. Eslick FTW!!!!!

Sorry, On the Throttle doesn let you embed, but check out the linky:


[video]http://www.onthethrottle.com/races/daytona-tire-test-daytona-sportbike-review/[/video]

 

Lorenzo got #1 and he doesn't have a sponsor yet - he should go with Walmart.

 

Hahahahahaha! That would be GREAT!

 

Good stuff Bear. :thumbsup:

Ya know I really hate to say it but guess I am actually kinda looking forward to seeing Danny Eslick playing more "high speed bumper bikes" with Josh Herrin this year. :lol:

Say what you will about the AMA but it provided some of THE MOST intensive knockdown dragout,if not outright dirty,on track battles of any Motorsports series out there last year.
I'm fully expecting more of the same this year.

Good for Jake Zemke! :high5:
I hope he can pick-up some sponsorship and finish out the season.

I know it's a little off topic Bear,but I gotta say I'm really enamored with those new Ducati 848 EVO's. I finally got to see one in Red. I am absolutely head-over-heels SERIOUSLY in Love! :love:

 

Yamaha has a pretty good shot at the MotoGP title in 2011 and they have a couple guys in WSBK that I believe are going to be at the pointy end. If they win either (or both) championship(s), sans sponsor, that will be pretty cool. Back in the early days, there were no sponsors. That would be kickin' it old school.

Yamaha is also sponsoring Colin Edwards at Tech3 and a couple young guns from AMA. They sure seem to be giving back quite a bit to support racing and motocycling in general. If it hadn't been for Yamaha, there wouldn't be MotoGP at Laguna.


.

 

OK, you wanna talk AMA/DMG roadracing?

Superbike Teams And Riders: AMA Pro Road Racing Roll Call 2011, Part One News Article // RoadracingWorld.com

Daytona SportBike Teams And Riders: AMA Pro Road Racing Roll Call 2011, Part Two News Article // RoadracingWorld.com

Martin Cardenas going to SBK is great, he should do well. Otherwise, it's full of old men, and there needs to be some "changing of the guard" there to make room for the young guns.

Danny Eslick, but more specifically Josh Herrin and Tommy Aquino (and Martin above) should all be going to Europe in my opinion, as I think they are suffering from the bad shape of moto-roadracing in America.

In the worst atrocity, Bobby Fong who put in some amazing rides last year, is without a ride as of 2/9/2011, and that sucks big time.

Those 5 riders, should be all contending for the AMA/DMG SBK championship, on factory teams, then feeding to Europe. But, because AMA/DMG has destroyed the American moto-roadracing series so badly, they will all suffer.

I agree, there was some AMAZING racing in the AMA/DMG series last year, especially in the SuperSport (nee Daytona Sportbike) class. I will watch again, but I really hope that AMA/DMG continues to improve and eventually gets the series to be a true feeder class as it should be, so that young talented riders can get a shot to move up and on.

 

" Back in the early days, there were no sponsors."

LOL

 

Funny you bring this up as I've been reading some race history and Suzuki, for a short time, was the laughing stock of World Championship racing until they learned the secrets of 2T porting, etc.

The reality is most of the big Jap companies don't have the focus Honda does and I am unsure why?

BZ

 

LOL!:smile:

BZ

 

Damn Echo, hate on Honda, not Yamaha.

BZ

 

Those days are long gone, read a UK BIKE mag article last year talking about an up and coming who was good enough but unable to make it into a Privateer BSB team unless he brought in 60,000pounds worth of sponsorship money.

 

Just meant a German saying Fiat sounds like Fart in English. When my German cousin told my he owned a Fart he had some difficulty understanding my spontaneous laughter. :biggrin:

 

Did he admit owning a Fiat?

 

Yes, apparently his Fiat is better than the Spanish made Opel his brother had but then I think my German made Ford is better than both of them. :smile:

 

It is, I drive Hondas, A Pilot and a Jazz, much better cars than the Opel and the Fiat

 

FIAT = Fix It Again, Tony.


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