2011 Silly Season

[Triple J]

Veruca Salt.

http://motomatters.com/news/2010/07/29/karel_abraham_to_ride_6th_ducati_in_moto.html

Man, I wish my daddy would buy me a GP ride.

...and owned a world class track! WTF

[NoisyDante]

Damn, kids got resources.  Is he any good?

[Spidey]

He's hasn't been any good yet.  But Esparaigo was also nobody until he jumped up to the GP bikes, where--despite his crashiness--he's shown himself to be pretty fast.

Wikipedia has a chart of his 125/250/moto2 results:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karel_Abrah%C3%A1m

[desmoquattro]

http://moto-racing.speedtv.com/article/motogp-noyes-notebook-decision-day-coming/

[El Matador]

That's awfully nice of Mr Abraham, but to be honest, Karel isn't particularly bad either. He has shown promise in Moto2 with some pretty decent scraps and solid passing

[duccarlos]

Per the article he was supposedly decent on the GP10 in Mugello.

[Spidey]

This is not really news, but Fiat has confirmed what we already know -- that Ben Spies will step up to the factory ride if Rossi leaves.

[avizpls]

IF


why wont they just tell us?

[gm2]

http://moto-racing.speedtv.com/article/motogp-noyes-notebook-decision-day-coming/

Americans Nicky Hayden and Ben Spies are both free agents for 2011

huh?  ben's got a yamaha contract through 2011.


and that's a really great article otherwise.  as per usual for Dennis.

[Triple J]

Edwards to Ducati WSBK would be great IMO.  Hopefully he could win.

http://www.motorcyclenews.com/MCN/sport/sportresults/MotoGP/2010/July/jul3010-edwards-keen-on-ducati-wsb-deal/

[duccarlos]

 

[Spidey]

OTOH, just the other day Herve made noises about keeping Edwards at Tech 3 for another year.  I'd like to see him back in WSBK (and would love to see Toseland get over the bumps of this season).  They gotta do something about those air restrictions on the Ducs though.  And force Aprilia to actually homologate their bike, dammit.  I'll be glad to see Haga gone from Ducati.  He's just become sad, and it bums me out.  He's a broken man.  

[Triple J]

OTOH, just the other day Herve made noises about keeping Edwards at Tech 3 for another year.  I'd like to see him back in WSBK (and would love to see Toseland get over the bumps of this season).  They gotta do something about those air restrictions on the Ducs though.  And force Aprilia to actually homologate their bike, dammit.  I'll be glad to see Haga gone from Ducati.  He's just become sad, and it bums me out.  He's a broken man.  

I'm not sure Herve will have a choice. Sounds like Edwards is just sick of being mid-pack.

Hopefully they do something about the Ducs in WSBK, but honestly, I think they can win either way. Checa was flat out dominant at Miller...with it's long straight and all and giving up 6-8 mph. He would have crushed everyone both races had his bike not crapped out on him. It seems like the Duc should still be able to win.

[zenjim]

Prediction: Spies on a factory GP ride will finish in the top 3 in 2011. I'd bet even money he could win it all.
And I rooted for Mladin all those years.

I wonder if the holdup on Rossi/ Ducati is him waiting to ride the beast? Maybe he'll say screw it, this thing is a beast and stay at Yamaha?

[NoisyDante]

Rossi said at a press conference it was too early to announce a factory change at Laguna, and said perhaps a better time would be Brno.  Think that still stands?  Because that did come before the Yamaha allowing him to ride the Duc at Valencia news.