Down in Monterey...(Spoila')

"Julian Bond" <julian_bond.TakeThisOut@voidstar.com> wrote in message
news:yyoBNbFcuMpGFAeT@jblaptop.voidstar.com...
> The best thing about Chaz' ride was the way he didn't break anything and
> kept dropping his lap times all weekend right through to the last couple
> of laps. 1m23.7 ain't too shabby. Roger Hayden's fast lap was 1m23.6

Really? See, we didn't get any of that, or at least I didn't notice it if we
did, that said, I think it might be a little premature to throw Chas into
the MGP fray. I know you guys want a homey to pull for and God knows, it's
waay past time, but give the kid a chance to "age" a little before he's
tossed in the middle of all that insanity..
>
>>To me it looked like they both realized their only hope to win was to try
>>to
>>stay with Casey from the get go and maybe force an error, unfortunately,
>>in
>>doing so they may have overlooked that old adage about 1st turns..
>
> I only really mentioned it because Hopper looked full of beans all weekend
> and was positively shaking before the race.

What else is new?


Some time in QP1 I
> remember thinking Hopper thinks he can win this one. Then he never got the
> good lap (due to Checa) and had another mountain to climb. And Hayden
> obviously wanted to do well but also had some ground to make up with his
> team mate in front. Some people thrive on the home race. Some people (even
> the same people in different years) get thrown by the extra pressure.

Some rise to it and some don't, but anyway you look at it, 2 out of 3 ain't
bad..(Meatloaf, IIRC;)

sturd heats up:
> Mark N tries to be the voice of reason:
>
>> So Pablo blames Hayden, and Julian subtly blames overenthusiastic
>> Americans at home in general.
>
> [snip]
>
>> I do not think that
>> incident would have occurred had Pedrosa and certainly Stoner not gotten
>> in as hot as they did, creating a chain reaction sort of thing.
>
> And Mark N subtly blames the midget (and Casey). What a surprise.

No, Mike, I was trying to provide a broader view of the whole incident,
and perhaps I was too subtle. Pedrosa had a huge lead going into that
corner, he was way out front cresting the hill (given the
circumstances), but he got in way too hot and ran well wide, totally
blowing the corner. Then Stoner did the same thing behind him, which may
have been in part because he was reacting to Pedrosa's braking point
instead of his own brake marker (Casey's mistake, of course). I think he
also may have seen Hayden to his right and slightly ahead of him and
didn't want to lose position to him. I think you can see pretty clearly
that when Stoner runs wide it forces Hayden wide, and he gets carried
out toward the edge of the track. Hopkins is behind him and to his
outside going in, and it's not entirely clear if he overheats some going
in or just gets carried wide as well (I think some of both, initially
too hot but then left with nowhere to go once slowed). So as Stoner
finally gets the bike slowed and turned and starts aiming for the inside
of Pedrosa going toward the 2nd apex, Pedrosa having totally blown the
corner and struggling to get back on the gas, Hayden and Hopkins are
left out toward the edge of the track still having to get their bikes
fully turned and moving slower than anyone on the circuit, a parking lot
maneuver. Hopkins gets inside Nicky, but Nick doesn't concede the
position because he's losing spots all the time, and may not have seen
John when he made his turn to get back in the action.

So then the contact at very slow speed and that's effectively the end
for both of them. But at that point they were already going to be
dropping down the order, probably outside the top ten, so it was already
a disaster. And one pretty clearly caused by Stoner, who ended up
shoving both of them way wide. Of the four guys in the lead group, it
appears Hayden may have been the only one who got his stuff stopped
enough and was going to get through that corner properly, so blaming the
whole incident on overenthusiastic Americans strikes me as absurd.

But maybe you see it differently. Or are just being a dick...