more dangerous move:

smrz banging into biaggi or checa taking out neukirchner?

at least biaggi had a chance. neukirchner never saw it coming.

Any rumors as to what gave up in Bayliss' engine? Mabye one of the little desmo bits came astray or perhaps there was a failure of a piston forged of the fine old Rolls Royce Merlin RR58 alloy. Not a whole lot of smoke, so it was likely a valve train failure. Bet Ducati Corse isn't talking. It should be noted Bayliss was anywhere from 5 to 9 kmph slower than the Zooks during the races.

All in all those were two fine, close races - world-class racing as it should be done.

Wish SpeedTv would have had the class to provide better coverage of WSBK instead of those abominable reality jive shows.

DamattaSpeed - 13 May 2008 01:49 PM

more dangerous move:

smrz banging into biaggi or checa taking out neukirchner?

at least biaggi had a chance. neukirchner never saw it coming.

I don't think Biaggi ever saw it coming either. He was turning in to the corner and then Smrz just blasted through. But Smrz couldn't finish the corner (he had to sit up), which is why he clipped Max in the head. Given the speeds that Biaggi and Smrz were traveling at, I think this incident was much more dangerous.

DARBY - 13 May 2008 04:29 PM

Any rumors as to what gave up in Bayliss' engine?

Troy Bayliss’ race two retirement at Monza has been put down to a leaking clutch seal that caused oil to spray onto the championship leader’s left boot.

http://www.motorcyclenews.com/MCN/sport/sportresults/mcn/2008/may/12-18/may1408baylissmonzaretirementdownto50ppart/

Thanks for the link, MPA420.

There was a guy from Smurz's team on the post race show, and he apologized to Biaggi and Borciani (I think) from Sterlingarda. Borciani seemed to accept the apology, but he wasn't too happy about the move obviously.

He said Biaggi's pinky was nearly severed, and I haven't heard anything since.

Monza looks like an absolutely crazy track to race on, and Chilli said after the race that he doesn't like the asphalt run-off areas. He pretty much blamed the incident on that, saying that if there was gravel these guys wouldn't be trying so many crazy out-breaking manoevers.

RR I think they would still be trying all out braking manuveurs. Anything less wouldn't be racing at Monza. I thought the dude did a great job of avioding taking out a bunch of folks really. Once he realized he had screwed up so bad he tried to weave and avoid everybody. Almost pulled it off... no consoling those he hit but, it definitely could have been worse. The race was shown last night while everbody was sleeping.

If you wanna talk about plow jobs on a race track... see recent AMA events. I think the WSBK dude showed a lot of skill and class. Tried to put it on himself for the mistake without messin anybody else up. Somedays... That's racing.

KingKenny - 15 May 2008 07:33 AM

If you wanna talk about plow jobs on a race track... see recent AMA events. I think the WSBK dude showed a lot of skill and class. Tried to put it on himself for the mistake without messin anybody else up. Somedays... That's racing.

That's what Cardenas tried to do too, but he had to do so without the benefit of a front brake.

MMsports54 - 15 May 2008 08:23 AM

KingKenny - 15 May 2008 07:33 AM

If you wanna talk about plow jobs on a race track... see recent AMA events. I think the WSBK dude showed a lot of skill and class. Tried to put it on himself for the mistake without messin anybody else up. Somedays... That's racing.

That's what Cardenas tried to do too, but he had to do so without the benefit of a front brake.

Yeah, Cardenas unquestionably was beyond a simple out-braking attempt. I have no doubt that his pucks were back in the calipers. It sure appeared to me that he was standing on the rear brake and nothing was happening up front at all.

I love Monza.....makes me wish the old Hockenheimring was still around and WorldSBK raced on it.

swamp - 16 May 2008 06:54 AM

I love Monza.....makes me wish the old Hockenheimring was still around and WorldSBK raced on it.

Amen to that!


Also, just read that the injuries kept Biaggi from testing the GP08 this week at Mugello as he was supposed to. Bummer.

if the guy that hit biaggi at monza had a fully functional bike then he made a huge mistake. that was pathetic riding

DamattaSpeed - 13 May 2008 01:49 PM

more dangerous move:

smrz banging into biaggi or checa taking out neukirchner?

at least biaggi had a chance. neukirchner never saw it coming.

max didn't see it either.

imo, checa was making a pass attempt and almost pulled it off. smrz looked like he was daydreaming, got sucked in off the draft and forgot his brake marker. he came in past 4 riders. if there was that much more room to brake for that corner they'd all have been doing it.

zoot, checa told the spanish press that he knew he had no chance to make the pass but thought he'd have a go anyway. maybe max'd stop his fall.

jamie whitham, a former racer, stated that that was unacceptable for a racer. a mistake is one thing, knowing that you can't make it and still attempting it is consciously endangering your fellow riders.

not my opinion, a fellow racer's ('cause i know that means something to you...)