Racing industry news/press releases

[totalmotorcycle]

I have been posting daily racing industry news/press releases in the News Forum for the past few years. There is quite the collection of racing news there (thousands) so you can always search the news forum for previous victories, highlights, careers, riders and more.

Of course, you can always post any racing news to this forum as well and talk about anything on or off the track here too.

Mike

[QuietMonkey]

Hi Mike,

I haven't been here for a few years, and have recently moved west from Alberta into BC.

The 2011 Supercross season has been pretty wicked, and the roadracing scene is always great, so I'll be posting tidbits to see if there are any people wanting to talk racing.

Maybe Highside will want to take another friendly bet on MotoGP or WSBK as I won the last one (between Suzuki team-mates Hopper vs Roberts) by only a couple points in the end. Ahhhhhhh and so much has changed since then in the world of GP. Gone is the wild-riding hooliganism of the 500cc 2-stroke era replaced by precision electronic controls, a multitude of data gathering equipment, laptops, finite element analysis, and a single tire brand on those 800cc 4-strokes with equally calculating riding style all in the quest for marketing domination and lower lap-times.

Moto2 was killer racing last year, but the one-engine thing is really not so GP to me, despite all the chassis manufacturers. It's just not cool to have only one engine, but the economy is tough, and Moto2 is definitely trying to steal some of the fire from the WSS series.

Currently the only racing I have been doing is a little of the Canadian Mini-roadracing scene which has run a National series for a few years on awesome kart tracks with a multitude of bikes.

When I am out touring around then there should be some pix. I'm sure I have some stuff from last year to toss into the forums.

Cheers,

Monkey

(and his barrel of VP Race fuel) -- please no smoking in the paddock - unless you are trying to clean out Rossi's sinuses after missing a day of pre-season testing on the GP11!!

[totalmotorcycle]

Hey, it's great to see you back! Welcome back my friend.

I can't wait to see some pix from you and your racing. I do agree with you about the loss of the 500cc races and the limitations of the GP now... as the times slowly start to get better I can see the limitations will slowly start to fall away.

I read you are in The Okanagan Valley, BC, Canada now.. ah, I envy you, I lived there for 2 years and the summers there are amazing... although not many jobs and the "sunshine tax" (ie lower pay because it was a vacation spot) sucked as well. How are you finding it today?

Mike

[QuietMonkey]

Hey Mike,

re MOTOGP:

Yeah, the action is not as furious as the Golden Years of 500cc 2-strokes, but moving back to 1000cc 4-strokes next year may help. Removing or altering the electronic assistance (as Rossi, Hayden and others have suggested and supported) would be awesome. Although the street bike market has benefited particularly in the big-bore classes where consensus seems that (in particular) the Aprilia RSV4, BMW S1000RR and new ZX10R have become much safer in the hands of a most riders. And having more people (racers included) injury free means more long term riders on the roads and on the tracks. Also a testament to safety improvements in rider gear. The trickle-down from MotoGP and WSBK is helps reaffirm the concept of racing.

The 800cc GP racing is still pretty intense, although I notice in the 125 classes the no-holds-barred 125cc 2-strokes are often as great as ever. In some ways it is perhaps other rule changes (single tire series) as much the world economy and resulting lower grids of GP which are making it less exciting too. Gotta have more top guys fighting for it. Kawi and Suzuki need to put in resources to mount competitive teams. Happily Kawi is serious for WSBK this year, while Suzuki is hurting all around, and BMW is coming along with SBK too, etc.. I'd love to see KTM do more roadracing, since they lost the 125GP championship by a hair not long ago. Some youtube vids from the mid-eighties showcase probably thirty 500 GP bikes. Likely with the mixed-production based 1000cc and prototype 1000cc engines for MotoGP in 2012 we will see 25+ bikes on the grid.

re THE OKANAGAN:

Very Nice here! It was 30-35C (about 85-95F for the American readers) much of last summer and people said the summer season was shorter and cooler than usual. It had been cold (i.e. snowing for some of my ride out here) starting around Sparwood in May, although the temperatures improved after the second day after a little rain. I think it was around 20C when I arrived in Osoyoos days later after taking the long and winding roads travelling over 1000km to end up probably 700km between myself and Calgary. The parks here are close and plentiful. Great for bicycling and hiking.

The opportunities here are different than Calgary, and things are slower paced. The pay appears lower in most industries. Yes the Sunshine Tax is in full effect, and so is a new mixed tax (HST - harmonized sales tax --- sort of a kick in the head really in which they have started to tax more items and with the usual political bravado claim it is better for almost everyone - when clearly it is worse). BUT - people have been fighting against it since day one and possibly it will be repealed. It's up for review this year.

The politicians in BC are likely some of the worst --> crooks. I can sense the under-the-table-payoffs all around. But I've worked with crooks before too. And I can spot those bas****s before anyone even knows something is wrong. With the middle-class people here, I think they are more genuine and friendly - they surprise me with there kindness and common courtesy.

Work ethic is similar to Calgary although a little different in the summer when people want to enjoy the sun and the lake! Then they run from work! People are generally much more polite in basic ways. A lot of those I worked with in Calgary especially my last 5 years there, had very poor work ethics and some even worse behavior AND very pretty selfish attitudes. Professionalism is hard to find in some industries while totally normal in others. Although that is not to be confused with political correctness which certainly has nothing to do with ethics - and is perhaps even contrary to good ethics. Overall I think work ethic declined a lot in Calgary during the last economic boom. The strong economy gave power to more people, and they threw back that power at employers, sometimes in good ways sometimes not. But the next generation of workers took that advantage as a given and work ethic dwindled while cell-phone and facebook use ramped up. The cultural benefit of all this communication will continue filtering through the weeds (and oil spills) over time. We all change ... sometimes not in ways we consciously control, and sometimes not in ways that are better for us. But the yo-yo returns to rest eventually before needing another rewind and spin cycle.

I am in search of income currently and just starting to feel out the work environment here. But I've learned to live frugally by my own hard fought sense of what is necessary and best for me -- with some of what is not good for me thrown in to remind myself to rework things (or sometimes tear-down and rebuild is more appropriate).

Living lean helps bring out the important things that I enjoy in life and I enjoy them in a more undiluted way while reducing the mass consumerism which lures us, drives us and maybe even drives us apart. It's best for me to find simple comfort, simple food and a few good people -- everything in moderation including a moderation -- we have too much in our lives already -- too much junk. So I would rather have room for the right amount of good clean fun -- or dirty fun if one is riding off-road.

All in all there is a lot to like about this area, but it has it's own problems too, which I have only touched on. I'll just do what I can to make the best of things and learn to follow the "When in Rome" school of thought as best as I am able and also see if I am motivated to change enough so that Rome becomes where I belong. After a while if things are not working then I'll take myself on the road again.

later,

//monkey moto-west

[Darya]

Thanks for sharing this important information.