Ducati Rules - 08 July 2008 01:03 PM

motoho - 29 June 2008 09:52 AM

hi-zoot - 28 June 2008 03:08 PM

i dunno. sure, logically looking towards the future and all hacking wouldn't be a good choice, but i'd still love to see it happen. i like the guy. hell, it's a kawi gp ride, not a repsol ride. why not?

Because it happens so rarely, I'd much rather see someone on it that has somewhere to actually go other than retirement.

I agree, at least with a younger rider there is some upside potential if they do well. Why waste a ride on someone that you would have no intention of moving up the ladder or is a known quantity.

In regards to the Bayliss comments from earlier that was a totally different situation. It was kind of payback for winning the world superbike title for Ducati. Even though he did well it's not like they were looking to bring him back up to MotoGP, although the way things have worked out with Melandri it couldn't have been worse.

honestly i just don't believe they put that much consideration to the future in these rides. they have an obligation to run a said number of bikes and they have the oportunity to run a local which will bring fan attention to their team. i think it's that simple. jaime will bring american fan attention to kawasaki whether he ever rides for them again or not. at the moment he is the best rider on a kawasaki in the states. he has produced the best this year whether you think another is better or not.

amafan - 08 July 2008 11:58 AM

I am starting to wonder if Kawasaki plans to replace Hopkins at Laguna since they said they did not have a rider replace him in Germany because the replacement would not have time to know the bike but Olive Jaque knows the bike and the track in Germany and if they did not want Jaque to race they should have let the replacement rider test at Indy.They either expected to get Milandrie before Germany and not getting him messed up their plan our they were niave about Hopkins injuries and thought he would be back by Laguna so they did not plan ahead.I hope this is not a money thing and they do replace Hopkins with an Ama rider like Jamie Hacking and maybe let him test the bike this weekend in Japan before next weekends race at Laguna.

Kawasaki has just announced that Jamie will be their replacement rider for Laguna and he has tested the bike in Japan at their test track for 2 days and broke the track record. I can not wait for next week ends race at Laguna because i believe Ben Spies and Jamie Hacking will show the world just how good the talent in the Ama is and will give the AMA riders more respect.

"broke the track record"
that's awesome

But I thought motoho said he's too old?

Good choice. The international press should get some good photos of his wife.

I didn't realize Hacking was 37 - I figured he was 32 or so.

And yes. more Rachel Hacking pics.

joe_b - 10 July 2008 11:46 AM

But I thought motoho said he's too old?

Good choice. The international press should get some good photos of his wife.

yep... her insider info really let her down on this one... poor thing...



anyway...

good for Hacker... he is best of the rest in the AMA and i hope he shows well... not to mention, more of Rachel is never a bad thing...

she didn't say he was too old to go fast, just too old for a future in gp. at 37 does anybody disagree with that?

hi-zoot - 10 July 2008 12:35 PM

she didn't say he was too old to go fast, just too old for a future in gp. at 37 does anybody disagree with that?

Yes, Jeremy McWilliams, but I agree - and therefore Jeremy is wrong.

she did not even say that... i assume that was what she was getting at...

and no, i do not disagree that Hacker is too old for a future in MotoGP, but, that is rarely what these wild card rides are for... they are primarily for exposure at the specific rounds... that being the case, Hacker is fine choice no matter the age...

does anyone really think that Porkchop has a future in MotoGP, really?
yet, he filled in quite nicely last year...

then we agree.

gary, mcwilliams isn't looking for a "new" career in gp. he's been there