#‘what happened in assen?’ watch the race :))

[bikefuckersoftheworldunite]

valentino and sete at the pre event presser at assen 2004

[batsplat]

if you were to direct a motogp movie (or make a one season of television) what season or rivalry would you make it about? and more interesting what artistic liberties would you take? it doesn’t have to be a straight up biopic bc imo those are often boring, instead it could be something like velvet goldmine (1998) aka fictional characters whose real life counterparts are pretty obvious, veering in like rpf territory. anyways👀

did you know. one time this guy put a curse on this other guy. and he never won a race again

anyway, look, I do feel like by this point that's the BORING answer from me, but obviously it's where my mind first went. I'm not sure I'd actually want it out there in film form because by now it's badly enough remembered that it's like, my cute little niche story, and I think there's something fun about the Wider World even within the motogp fandom not exactly getting how bonkers the whole thing was. (I know other humans have canonically watched motogp 2004 but I swear even journalists have forgotten some key key details and it's kinda annoying but also fun.) bold words from someone who's been blogging about it!! weird gatekeep-y instinct. but basically my job here is done as far as outreach is concerned - I wrote a very long post, now I get asks about it twice a week that allow me to think about it some more with the four other people who care, perfect balance. that rivalry doesn't need to go mainstream!! the whole point of it is that it's kinda cruel but narratively pleasing that it's gone under the radar, because it's another sign valentino won. but obviously, I cannot literally make a film about this, so the hypothetical repercussions I think maybe we can put aside for a moment here

okay I came back to this bit of the post after I increasingly got into of the spirit of coming up with dumb ideas, but it did make me flesh out what I'd even WANT from something like that. I'm with you anon, a lot of biopics are boring!! if you want to just know what happened, please just literally go and 'watch the races' and 'read books' like what are we actually getting here. you kinda want to give it a purpose for existing, right, a way of portraying real/mildly fictionalised events in a manner that is also taking some kind of stance on the material AND is doing stuff you can't do 'in real life'. thing is, look, you could make 2006 into a film, and I'm sure it'd be perfectly nice because it's fundamentally a solid underdog story (well, inherently winning a title with repsol honda is NOT being an underdog but you can write it that way), but also what are you doing beyond just telling people what happened? I feel like that generally about single seasons, they're not really doing anything for me. I was also turning around the biaggi/valentino rivalry in my head in part because that's the one valentino gave as his answer for 'rivalry he would turn into a film' (marc big wet eyes sitting right next to him), but like. a film about that rivalry from valentino's pov is fundamentally not something I'm interested in. you have all these isolated very memorable moments that make it work as a rivalry, like you can absolutely spin them into a dramatic yarn that goes through the genesis of their conflict to middle finger gate to punching gate to assen + donington + sachsenring + phillip island 2001 and it's basically *insert rousing music* successful coming of age. at most you can lean into the fact valentino became successful at being a dick. like idk it's fine but also what's the point? valentino is challenged in a sports context by biaggi, he's challenged because he realises his words have consequence and the press actually reports the words he says to journalists (the horror), but he is fundamentally not challenged on a personal level. that's the entire point, right? it's the ultimate comfort zone rivalry - biaggi is a dick who it is quite easy to hate and also reacts poorly to valentino's initial provocation. the animosity escalates and it is inherently fun to beat him. valentino is mean to him, but it's not like he even really crosses any lines to beat him. like you can make it into a film, and if you twisted the material a little bit you could make it satisfying, but I don't want to!

now the way the writing process of this post worked was that I was going to breeze through a bunch of non-sete/valentino rivalries and explain why I think some of them don't work for our purposes here, but then I ended up writing myself into changing my mind. so my take on the biaggi rivalry is that actually, you CAN make it work but it has to be from biaggi's perspective. basically, I think you've got to amadeus it (a web weave I have been thinking of making at some point btw). so,,, it's a meditation on talent and how unfair it all is, maybe minus the bit where salieri poisons amadeus (I know that doesn't happen in the film) or dresses up as amadeus' father to, y'know, make him write a requiem on his death bed. and it's not amadeus in that HERE, the clown prince gets a happy ending! but it's more like, in thematic terms, I think you have to zero in on this bit. biaggi didn't have parents who shoved him on a bike when he was three years old, he didn't have parents who were invested in his motorcycling career (or even necessarily particularly invested in him), he started the sport late and discovered that, yes, he did have a prodigious amount of skill in it - but one that he started honing far later than valentino did. he approached his career with a sort of grim resolve, surly and irascible and not interested in making friends with any of his competitors but very, very good. he goes away from the race track and dates all these models, he irritates fellow riders, he's not part of the gang and he's happy about it. he's very successful! four 250cc titles, wins his first ever race in 500cc at a time when doohan was very much winning everything. he's also just like,,,, an interesting and spiky enough character it's not hard to make him come alive

but then of course you have this gradual emergence of the amadeus character, the one who challenges his established position in the court of,, well... motorcycle racing, and also as the guy italians rooted for! and valentino's obviously, y'know, in so many ways the exact opposite from biaggi, and he's super young and cheerful and lively and is doing all his silly celebrations and is being a bit camp and goofy and treats motorcycle racing as a party (you really want to lean into the culture clash here, like in amadeus it's because you have stuffy austrian court vibes but here it's because everyone is having their bones broken every two minutes and just how... kinda grim a lot of motorcycle racing was). and he's also this innocent! yes, he insults biaggi, and yes, in retrospect we know valentino is kinda evil, but at the time he was a kid with a big mouth who was a little taken aback by how that biaggi feud sort of escalated beyond what he'd actually intended it to do! and biaggi just, hates him. and I think, sorry to the real man max biaggi here, but you've got to play with how once they're actually competing with each other, it's miserable how there's just this unbreachable gulf in talent. like, whatever biaggi does he cannot win! he isn't going to defeat valentino over the course of a full season! which is depressing and horrible and CRUEL, because there's this inevitability to the whole thing... and also! because valentino doesn't DESERVE it. and you don't have to go full salieri pleading with god to explain how god could give this CLOWN all this talent, but it's kinda the same vibe! how is it valentino, who is constantly just having a laff and canonically maybe wasn't the biggest gym-goer in the paddock and is just generally seen as, y'know, a bit of a dandy, this foppish clown who everyone loves and who doesn't have to work hard to be good - how is he the one who is winning so much!! it's miserable and unjust... and I think how you portray this is that you really emphasise the kinda, repetitive nature of the defeat. like, I think you probably want to make this into a non-linear narrative where all this biaggi backstory is communicated somehow but you don't just start it when he was born or whatever - you start it in 2001 when they're competing for a title and already hate each other. and then you heavy on the time loop vibes. the whole cinematic language and all that other shit should emphasise how all these weekends are structured in exactly the same way and if you're losing to this one guy, all these different weekends can start feeling the same. it bleeds into each other, it feels inescapable, you're trapped in this narrative you can't change... worst of all, you even return to the same places again and again - like play with that! biaggi keeps coming back to where they had the fist fight, to where valentino first insulted him all those years back. you play up the disorientation and the misery of it all, plus biaggi canonically gives us all this kinda messy freudian shit to play with like how he was dating 'valentina' and his relationship with her was falling apart because of how miserable valentino was making him. it's all there!!

ANYWAYS the way you conclude this story is!! welkom 2004!! so again we can artistic license this a little bit and, uh, ignore sete (though I do also think it's fun if you lean into biaggi being displaced as a rival and staring at them being friendly and happy with each other from the outside) - but the key bit is that valentino is finally making the big error. biaggi wasn't winning titles on a yamaha, since he left yamaha has gotten worse, now valentino is making this big mistake out of his own hubris. language of cinema that shit and make everything brighter and more hopeful.... the time loop is finally over, biaggi has escaped, this year will be different!!!! everyone in his circle agrees, valentino is fucked. step off the plane at welkom (pre season testing didn't happen in this universe) and it's literal dawn of a new day... staring out at the sun and finally, biaggi can move on, can live a new and different life. anyway. obviously we all know what's coming next - you have this big dramatic climactic race where biaggi throws himself at valentino again and again and again and he comes so close to winning it... but he doesn't. and you have valentino living his best life, being delighted, but the film is focusing on how like,,, we're bleaching the joy back out of biaggi's life, how actually he's returning to what he already knew. and it ends on the podium, with the camera focusing on biaggi on that fucking second step or zooming in or whatever (idk how cinema works) and it just finishes on this shot of biaggi dead-eyed in a bleak world, trapped again for eternity aka until the end of the 2005 season. done!! I'm not sure this is quite what valentino had in mind, but. well. that's how I'd do it

this is from the pushkin play from 1832 not the 1984 film but like. low key pushkin already kinda nailed the essence of sports rivalries in the 1830s and we just have to acknowledge that sometimes

right. so the casey rivalry is where I'm going to go completely off the wall. skip this bit to get to the slightly saner stuff. this is also one I fully admit to sometimes playing around with in my mind anyway, but. uh. I'm gonna be taking this one in just. well. places. I do have a vision here but I also don't quite know how to explain it in a way that doesn't make me sound like I've lost my mind, but well if you're still reading this then that's on you. so lemme get this out of the way: the classic sports biopic formula would work well with casey. if I had to point to a single rider I would sports biopic-ify, it's casey. so you have all this kinda,, obvious adversity that's easy to get across, and it's a narrative you can follow chronologically without too much trouble. you've got all the childhood stuff, the australian racing club not letting him join them, the move to britain, the rising through the ranks, it's also this very biopic-friendly 'nobody ever believed in him apart from like three people' stuff. and the premier class is also narratively satisfying, from the rocky rookie season to the kinda shock success to then all the lows of 2008 and 2009 and the physical ailments and the anxiety and then the switch to honda and the title and then him deciding to retire... that's all good stuff! you can absolutely biopic-ify it! gun to my head and sure, I can walk you through exactly what bits of his life I'd focus on and put in what order and so on, and I think ultimately you could make a very good sports biopic from that

[some mild gore to follow in this next section]

but also. thing is. that's fine. it's just not where I want to go here, because again I feel like at that point you can also pick up his autobiography and just read it - because what you're basically doing here is just filming that. and I get how this stuff works, you're bringing the story to a wider audience, you can show stuff in a different way in that medium etc etc, and that's all great but also I don't care about bringing stuff to a wider audience. I care about doing fun stuff in my brain. so what I'd actually do here is just, basically, go in the exact opposite direction and ditch all the realism. genuinely, ditch the live action stuff, we're going animated - what I'm interested in here is stuff where we need to be able to fully suspend our disbelief and lean into some surreal shit. I'm not going to bury the lede here: my idea is that you take that thing where casey said he hated how ducati was ruining the bike by letting valentino's yellow encroach on it and, basically,, just go all in on that bit. like come on, that is so singularly visually evocative, it truly captures a lot of what's going on thematically in that rivalry. (see also x and x for the most relevant casey posts.) casey sees valentino as the malevolent force, this infection! he associates him strongly with a specific colour, one that can be sickly or unnatural or just... evil. malignant, malicious, malevolent, all the m words. to casey, valentino is a personification of everything that is wrong with the sport. valentino is literally the walking manifestation for so many of his issues, from the dangerous riding to the lack of respect to the lying to the cult of personality to the obsession with image and the media to the backroom games to the politics to the injustice of how different riders are treated differently, like!! he's literally all of that! this is a topic for another post, but this plays out in a lot of kinda, weird and funky ways where it's a two way street and sometimes when casey talks about motogp you go 'actually I think that's just valentino?' (btw he also does this about 'europe' right I don't think those are europeans you hate casey that's literally just valentino) and sometimes when he talks about valentino it's kinda? this feels like it's about a little more than the bloke himself? and basically, right, I think you need to take this to its natural conclusion where casey used to admire him and look up to him and want to emulate him on track and then gets disillusioned when valentino's worshippers turn against casey and casey is the one to bring valentino down to earth and... listen, I think you need to play around with valentino being a literal god. and I think you need to have casey stab him to cover up the yellow on the ducati with blood

okay. look. the idea here, right, is that we're basically making the subtext text, and just digging into that process of 'bringing valentino back to earth', of taking on a god and having the audacity to succeed, and also treating valentino as this sort of. infection in his own mind. the bike is literally being infected!! casey may have left the ducati but he STILL has some fidelity and love for this project, those were his people he worked with, and now valentino is coming in and just twisting everything around himself!! but also I think how this functions is that, okay, so you have all this normal stuff that's the actual 'plot' in the 'real world', but the ISSUE with the real world is that there's a lot of stuff that just. isn't possible there. like the thing casey wants in that rivalry but is never going to have is... a captive audience. a big problem casey has in that rivalry is that he doesn't get the chance to actually say a lot of stuff to valentino. he starts using the media more and more and plays the game on valentino's level, but there's still this disconnect where mr straight talking is the valentino rival who valentino never really blanks or freezes out like... there's a disconnect! there's valentino the person, who casey never quite figures out how to just straight up hate, and then there's valentino the character, the racer, the rider, the god who casey DESPISES. but when they're doing small talk at pressers and podiums, casey doesn't get to talk to that version of valentino! he just talks to valentino the person, who obviously isn't literally a different person but is also not going to explain to casey where he's coming from, is he, and also isn't someone who casey can explain to where HE is coming from. and that gulf... it does bother casey. I don't think he can quite verbalise why either, but there's just... this creeping tension. I think it'd be easier for casey if valentino really were more of a caricature, just kinda a dick in all walks of life. and there's just these canonical hints of that... the way casey talks about how he's sure valentino as a guy is fine, but he never knew valentino like that, the whole 'I'd like to go with valentino for dinner to tell him where I was coming from in that rivalry' thing, like!! it's there

so basically EYE think what you should be doing is using the wonders of storytelling to actually. embrace that element. and just leave realism behind now and again. valentino is a god, he is literally worshipped, he's part of this pantheon that casey is trekking to reach. casey is brave enough to take him on in combat, he is the first one who is truly able to draw blood. he sees how valentino isn't just a god of joy or battles or speed or the SUN or any of that other stuff - he's a disease, an illness, a god who is also a false prophet... the worship never quite goes away, because who ever truly gets rid of their valentino rossi complex, but casey eventually is given the chance to face a chained valentino and kinda,,, ritualistically publicly humiliate him using the ducati as both this sick thing that has to be 'cured' and this symbol of valentino's failure. I'm sorry, visual language goes brr here, like chain him up, do weirdly eroticised torture idc!! (psst psst valentino's fucked up shoulder also extremely goes brr here, casey low key a teensy bit weird about valentino's injuries? his thing after the 2010 leg break where he goes 'why's everyone making such a big deal about this other people break their limbs too' and then after 2011 jerez immediately asking whether valentino's shoulder is okay in just a very obviously passive aggressive way. literally he opens with that, valentino isn't using it as an excuse or anything, for some reason it's already on casey's mind and I would politely contest it was out of genuine concern for valentino's wellbeing!! it's just kinda? I'm so compelled by it? I suppose it is kinda about how valentino's suffering gets taken more seriously than his own? how those absences are received differently by the motogp world? idk I find this fun because casey does know this is one thing valentino can't really be blamed for himself, so it just slips out a bit? but yeah, casey + valentino's injuries, nobody's talking about it but I sure will, let casey get weird and mean and a teensy bit sadistic about valentino's injuries in an artistic manner.) crucially I like animation as a medium here because I think it's easier to lean into surrealism when you don't have to hand hold the audience so much through the suspension of realism, also there's just some imagery you can do in cooler ways through animation where in live action it may just look. weird. (I think you can also do one of those things where you have a live action film with only those specific bits animated but also... why? it just feels like in live action you need more 'justifications' for things, like am I saying casey is having some weird hallucinations and is losing his mind? no I just want to have weird vision sequences ffs.) the colour stuff!! valentino/casey is big on the colour coding as a rivalry, to the extent casey is even, y'know, drawing attention to it in the literal text!! yellow and red are banger colours, valentino is big on imagery himself with all his sun + moon motifs, it's kind of all there to make the easy next step to kinda zany surreal imagery. ritualistic stabbing works better in animation, you can kinda get the blood to like. drip down and overwhelm the yellow illness that's slithered out across the bike

and. AND of course what this entire set up allows you to do is.... give them an opportunity to talk. they can't talk in real life! casey CAN'T give him his real thoughts on anything, and fundamentally valentino can't either. they're opponents. they're strangers who chat sometimes. it's not just that they aren't friends, it's that fundamentally they cannot be friends - because their ability to do their actual jobs depends on a certain level of professional distance. valentino of course does have a decent read on casey, and vice versa, because when you're figuring out how to defeat someone then (if you're valentino) you're looking to play the rider too. valentino's entire approach depends on focusing in on his rivals and attempting to throw them off, to make them unravel. he's watching casey closely!! the entire journey of casey's first three seasons in the premier class essentially becomes like, this god of their world focusing in on him. figuring him out. trying to gnaw away at him. obviously, animation also allows you to go big on the panopticon-y imagery which is kinda fundamental to their rivalry, because of their fundamentally oppositional stances to 'performing' for the ever present cameras where there IS a little bit of common ground in they have both struggled with it. but valentino isn't going to ever say that to casey! casey isn't going to open up to valentino! so if you give them,, you know, a different arena to express themselves, where casey actually has this external figure to talk to (as he's like, cutting him open I guess) whereas valentino actually is put in a position where he's allowed to respond, where he can taunt casey a little bit, where he can interrogate casey's approach and also the similarities between the two of them and how casey has been forced to become a little more like valentino to challenge him... because the thing is, right, valentino is so big on message discipline with his rivals and has completely stopped talking about that rivalry post mid 2013 that, first of all, you have this complete imbalance in who's been telling this story for the past decade, but second of all you kinda don't have a sense of what valentino would respond? idk!! I think this is mainly fun as a thought exercise for me specifically but also I do think it's kinda, digging into some of the bits that make this narratively work as a rivalry, how valentino in this rivalry is actually just kinda... removed. like he's not really emotional about it!! at most he's a bit bitchy, but even that just feels about The Game. it's the most extreme in this regard followed by jorge - but with valentino's other feuds you kinda... see a bit more an unguarded moment, see something a little more real there. the casey rivalry feels so uncomfortable precisely because valentino is a little... inhuman in this one. I mean, if you want to have valentino as some kind of cross between a deity and a monster in any of his feuds, this is the one. casey's just an obstacle to him. idk don't you think casey kinda wants to chain valentino down and stab him and make him see casey a little more... well, I think he should want it and I think it'd be fun to see and get them to talk to each other. ugh and also all the implications of making the faith vs non-believer elements more literal... casey the heretic!!!

there's some obvious stuff here you'd have to figure out, like 'how do you make this work as a narrative even to people who aren't familiar with casey stoner at all' and 'who the fuck do you think the target audience is here' and 'you do know this is not the kind of thing that would ever be made, right, go back to the casey stoner sports biopic like a sane person' but!! I do think it's material you can make work if you're just,,, efficient and smart in how you're actually telling the 'real life' version of the rivalry. also in my head this is. idk. an animated limited series not a film, which then brings in other stuff like 'episodic structure' because I'm fundamentally opposed to tv shows that think they're films. and look, I'm not going to write an entire film script treatment here, I just think a good writer can figure this stuff out. blood on the ducati is the framing device for everything else, simple. lots of animated floating eyes I reckon, first casey is watching valentino and then valentino is watching casey and the whole world is watching them... and it does bleed into real life just a little, where you're wondering whether casey is actually imagining/dreaming this stuff or valentino is or if they both know it somehow... you can get away with more ambiguity in animation. anyway, if you do want more thoughts on this one specifically for whatever reason, let me know because this one I do actually have more on

also laguna 2008 is a bit tortoise and the hare coded if you really think about it

[end of gore]

so. on to jorge. hm. the thing about jorge is that he was kinda writing a coming of age film in his own head, so like - yes, that's what you do go for? you can play it straight and follow how jorge has cast his rivals, or you can pin the whole narrative on the fact that jorge has cast them - the kinda artificiality of the narrative, the way jorge is this storyteller who isn't being recognised as much as he thinks he should be, isnt adequately appreciated. the way there's this three way discourse between what jorge thinks the story is and what the public thinks the story is and actual. you know. reality. I think this is a bit more light-hearted, like you know how the best stories about teenagers take their emotions seriously but also let them be kinda silly? because young people are silly! jorge was silly! he's got a lot of CHARM because he's so cocky and naive and full on and intense and awkward and kinda off-putting and tactless and a bit all over the place and so painfully, painfully young, like he's a good protagonist because that's a KID. but also, obviously there's also a lot of extremely not light-hearted bits of his story - everything about his father, his manager... idk this one's another one where, I don't just want to make it a generic sports biopic, and I'm trying to figure out the clear narrative arc here? I mean, you can point to the end of 2010 and really lean into him choosing victory on-track over popularity off it. the problem with 2010 is that it does not work as a dramatic season, yeah sure with the magic of biopics you can hack at it to shit but also. idk. what are we getting out of it. I think for narrative purposes you want to maybe narrow in, and end it at the end of 2008, with the switching of the numbers this kind of moment of emancipation? but also! this feels like we're straying a bit too far away from the fun sports elements and I don't want to REALLY suggest all the ways in which you could mine jorge's personal trauma in a jokey tumblr post, so I'm gonna move on from this one

the problem is 2015 just straight up doesn't work as a jorge-centric narrative, except in a very kinda comic way that leans into how absurd his role in that season was. 2012 as a season is a bit... y'know, it's fine. okay it's mostly terrible, but that's fine too. but it doesn't have a great narrative hook. which kinda leads you to the problem that I do think the valentino rivalry is more... juicy from jorge's pov, because for valentino, jorge is just kinda? an obstacle? idk he's more normal about it, it's just his job to destroy the guy, you know how it is. but also 2009 does work better narratively from valentino's pov, like it's the build up to catalunya specifically you can dramaticise... idk though, I do love catalunya but my heart isn't really in this exercise because I think valentino isn't really being... challenged here? it's a title fight where he's fundamentally using a set of tools he's already perfected, to beat a guy he doesn't really give a shit about. when the italian press is down on him pre catalunya, it doesn't spark any genuine self-doubt - it's just a handy source of extra motivation. there's no epic highs or lows that season, not real ones. and yes I know I was talking about making valentino who gets stabbed repeatedly to cover up an infection a moment ago, but that reflected real EMOTIONAL truths!! I'm committed to thematic fidelity more than I am to literal fidelity

genuinely I think the best way to tackle jorge is with the jorge/dani parallel journeys... what, film? tv show? maybe show actually - you don't have one coherent narrative Statement per se but you're constantly charting those journeys in reference to each other, really rooting it in their respective points of views, no neutral detached cinematic language like I want everything to be very much written to be from their eyes!! going from one to the other and back again. and you're charting these different journeys, right, and how they both captured different flavours of like... emotional successes and failures. I think it's actually about failure, yeah, about having to accept there's something you can't have and might never be able to get - whether that's universal love or a premier class title or whatever - but Actually, that might not be the end of the world. and during this process, they go from being enemies to tentative friends!! guys who realise they can maybe actually understand each other better than they thought!! this real moment of interpersonal connection. you have all these media narratives and the managers and so on and the fact they're competitors as these built in reasons why they've just been pitted against each other from the start... but y'know, again, it is also just a bit about maturing, about being able to set that aside, about making your peace with defeat and failure as an element of growing up. you can't win everything, maybe there's something you really really really want and you're just not going to get it, but at the end of the day it's kinda... yeah. self-acceptance. idk this is the nice one

so with marc you can go several different ways here I guess, and again he's also perfectly decent sports biopic material, probably second to casey in that category like yeah sure do the comeback story. but also, we do already have a very good self-produced documentary about what he thinks the narratives of his career are? idk this is also just a personal taste thing, I'll leave him to doing all the injury stuff himself, I don't have much to add there. we'll get to the obvious one in a second, but I was trying to figure out if there were other places I massively felt like you need the cinematic touch. and, again, the 2013 season is obviously very exciting!! but also, you have it covered in.,,,, multiple documentaries, I don't feel I have a take their either? his rivalries with dani and jorge aren't really substantive enough to sustain a bit of cinema. dovi... I mean, what are you saying there? what's the arc? I feel like if I tackled dovi, I'd go somewhere else and really go all in with the ducati stuff, and make it a bit more... you know, stark, stripped back, basically just the emotional component of how much he gave to that project and how he managed to beat away one rival after the next and how it all ended up falling apart in a kind of anti-climactic way? he's also good sports biopic material, but in a way I think the marc rivalry is the bit of his story I have the least to say on. so eg, 2017 is a dramatic season, but he's also kinda fine after it? he always knew it was a long shot, he tried his best and he got really close and then he lost. you can't amadeus it because dovi isn't (fictional) salieri. basically, I think what I'm saying here is that dovi is too well-adjusted to feature in this post. though I'd totally watch a film about his 250cc seasons, like it's a bit annoying because HE is the underdog who loses both title fights to jorge, but it'd still be kinda fun idk. I wouldn't really know what to do with the material but if someone made the film I'd absolutely watch it

right then. the thing about sepang 2015 is... yeah, sure, of course you can do it, it already exists as a narrative but... yeah, what are you adding!! idk I always think when you're adapting something, you kinda need to have a reason for it? I mean, what are you doing that's not already there in the footage? idk maybe this is just a sign of having been a fan of this sport for one too many years but to me the idea of sepang 2015 can get a bit boring (or maybe just repetitive) where I need a new TAKE on it to really get into the idea of fictionalising it. like where's the auteur's touch y'know, what can I still add to this!! but it also needs to WORK for someone who is new to the story, which kinda just makes you want to tell the story straight.... y'know the story is strong enough and COMPLICATED enough to stand on its own and it IS good but I don't really have anything interesting to say beyond 'yeah sure that'e be neat'. I can't tell you why, but I also don't think the casey approach quite works here? the idea of providing a framing device with which valentino and marc can actually talk to each other... eh. don't like that. hm. okay wait actually I just turned it around in my head for... a while and I think I've got an idea to make the worst motorcycle racing film of all time. so, my central stupid film-making gimmick here is just. centring the fact we're completely reliant on a few guys and what they're telling us in making up our minds, and our removal from that story and the imperfection of their perceptions and so on. so I think you kinda make a point of... not actually showing the motorcycle racing? like, you always show it by showing other people watching it, you're showing the tv screen rather than the actual racing. even in the cinematic medium, you're centring the theatrical aspects, where you drill it down to just a few characters. valentino. marc. uccio. marc's fuck ass manager. maybe a crew chief or two. keep it limited though, all the others are kept at a distance - you're constantly focusing in on the same few characters. and very early on you basically just like... get them to fourth wall break by telling you, the viewer, with their actual words how racing works for them, what meaning they take out of it - and again it's this remove because we're never allowed to actually feel the racing for ourselves (no helmet cams), and it sets up that as the tragedy unfolds, again and again we're just hearing from them what happened. it's all zoomed in on how claustrophobic the entire situation is, like doing the race direction room after the sepang 2015 is perfect for that kind of thing, and crucially they're only ever addressing the audience because they can't address each other. but fourth wall breaks also obviously draw attention to artificiality! I realise they are very much like, lame gimmick central, but also are these men not inherently about lame gimmicks... idk it's basically the same story but at least it feels like a kinda interesting way of telling it. kinda trite, but cinema allows you to get to the point and let valentino actually play with the camera... so literally take it into his own hands and lead it around and tell the story from his point of view. and you can play with how they do both change in what stories they think they're telling, how they're constantly revising their own stories, how their stories completely clash with each other... like. make them literal narrators. that's my pitch

so. one interesting pattern that has come up with my approaches to these rivalries is that with the exception maybe of the 2015 stuff, I feel like I'm more naturally inclined to treat valentino as a narrative device and centre his rivals. a big part of this is that valentino is a fantastic narrative device. he's kinda. this looming presence in every narrative in this sport where you can just sort of use him as a sort of way to poke away at all these other riders. the monster everyone loves who you are trapped with. BOO!! he's gonna eat you! which is fun! but ALSO, crucially, several of these rivalries aren't that emotionally challenging for him!! again, with casey right, he wants to beat him, but he's not having a crisis of faith over losing to casey. he thinks casey is annoying, he wants to beat him because he wants to win. valentino is casey's foil, but casey is not valentino's. valentino makes for an excellent personal antagonist to casey, but the reverse just isn't true. casey isn't forcing valentino to reexamine his approach except 'ramping up the levels of being a dick on-track' - like, yes, that's a serious competitive challenge, but also valentino is very comfortable in his own skin in that rivalry. sure, you could have valentino have some kind of massive revelation about the casey rivalry, but like. he doesn't in canon. he changes his behaviour towards casey in pretty predictable ways depending on what the relationship demands from his perspective at any given time. there's nothing more there

now, obviously you know where I'm going here. there IS a rivalry where you can make the argument he changes as a result of it, there IS a rivalry that tips him over the line and makes him to do stuff he hadn't done before that, there IS a rivalry that happens to coincide with a period of his competitive life that challenges him both personally and professionally. now, look, I have already talked about the sete rivalry. you know what I think about this rivalry - and if you don't, I really already have told the story here and here and here and here and also here. I think this works perfectly well as a narrative in its own right, and it's one you can tell from either perspective... but you kinda need both. I think again you probably naturally lean towards starting it from sete's perspective and that first proper meeting (I mean, idk if it is their first actual meeting, but it's the logical obvious place you start this story) with sete giving valentino advice during his first 500cc test and valentino just, y'know, ignoring him and being a cocky shit and then crashing. so you get to see sete being kinda exasperated by the whole thing. also, obviously ibiza is like, a key framing device here, like it's the most obvious in-your-face way of tracking their relationship with each other. I don't actually know how often they partied there together, but it must have been at least twice and if the commentators are to be believed it must have included 2003. artistic license and you can add one or two more times, but mainly you want to focus in on 2003 onwards right. so you've got this 2002 one where it's, y'know, high point of their friendship and in the name of narrative efficiency, you establish here that sete is looking to make the honda switch. the emphasis is on how valentino has been winning everything but on the flip side you're getting the first insight into his discontent. and there's a bit of a vibe of, what could you possibly have to complain about? like you are winning so much? so it's late one night where they've had this slightly unguarded alcohol-fuelled moment of genuine vulnerability but in the end it's actually characterised by how... unsubstantial the link between them is, because they wouldn't talk about this kind of thing with each other and they might both be similar in some ways but also don't gettttttt each other. it means you can return there as a location in 2003, where you've just had sachsenring and valentino's dramatic loss but they're still partying together and it's like. obviously In The Air that not everything is quite right... their relationship is already gradually altered and twisted because you're introducing this element of actual stakes and competition (obviously in 2004 they do NOT spend that time together, as far as we know anyway, and you can show them being very much not together at ibiza as a very obvious Oooh Things Will Fall Apart and maybe already haveeee)

and I do think basically I've already said what I think the themes here are,,,, several times by this point, so I'm not going to belabour the point. I think all of this fundamentally works as a narrative with like, minimal massaging and rearranging of the elements for dramatic effect. it's all there already, everything from sete's arc with the [insert non-tasteless way of covering a real life tragedy that fundamentally alters the course of sete's career] and how that leads to sete becoming the challenger and how he does want to win and his eventual downfall. with valentino, you have the element of liberation and self-discovery and... well, growing into your own but also kinda having the narrative drawing attention to how 'growing into your own' can involve becoming a fully realised character who is essentially quite cruel? you have this kind of... build up, right, towards this moment of revelation, where you lay bare who these two people actually ARE at sepang 2004, and then again at jerez 2005. valentino has gone his own way, he has freed himself from the chains of honda, he has embraced individualism and the chance to define himself and his own legacy and stand on his own two feet and not rely on the strongest bike or all this stuff within honda where they chose him as their flag bearer, for better or for worse... like he comes to his own here! he takes the step from 'great rider' to 'legend' because he gets to this dramatic moment of stepping into the unknown, he takes this massive risk that could have cost him so much, and it ends up elevating him. but it also puts him under duress, and in that moment he reveals himself - whatever sete did or did not do at qatar 2004, EVEN IF sete did all that shit, what you are left with is valentino vowing to ruin this man. valentino uses sete to make himself 'better', to fuel himself as a competitor. valentino turns sete into a tool in his own story. and again, thematically you've got all this stuff about how sete was managing the image of the rivalry and how valentino took advantage of that - how sete needed it to remain respectful and valentino was completely willing to abandon that. like, you have two protagonists who really are similar in quite a few ways, who think they have this shared understanding with each other, but when it comes down to it? they end up being super painfully different

now I can go on about this and how to play it straight, basically, you can just do that rivalry and I think it'd be cool and fun and very easy to arrange in a good narrative way. BUT I've kind of already. done that. like I don't want to suggest a film that is basically a nicer version of my tumblr posts. so I want to take this in a slightly different direction, and I think what we need to consider with this rivalry is this: what if you made the curse literal? basically, what's always kinda charmed me about this rivalry is that the curse should not work and all the misfortune that befalls sete after that is so comical that it's kinda... what do you do with that? and the answer is you just lean all the way in. my pitch is this: what if valentino sells his soul to the devil?

so, you know faust, right, and you know the bit at the start of goethe's faust where god and mephistopheles are basically making a wager over how corruptible this one human is. and faust is like... he's kinda disillusioned, he feels that everything he's dedicated his life to in academia is fundamentally hollow, gets very close to committing suicide. and faust has gone a bit new age-y, gotten into all this mystical shit and he's got this pentagram that ends up preventing mephistopheles from leaving his presence in their first meeting... and basically what the devil can give him is like, the chance to attain some true pleasure, and for that faust is willing to bet everything - so if faust can just have that, then maybe eternal damnation is worth it. and look, I'm not going to summarise the entire plot of faust here and it does go off the wall a bit with all the gretchen stuff, but the point is you have this version of the devil who is fundamentally a cynic and is attempting to win an argument with god by making this human succumb to his own nihilism. and what faust basically does is like, abandon his normal life where he's trying to live by normal virtues and goes off on this journey with the devil. and there's this little moment where mephistopheles,,, pretends to be faust and takes on the role of an academic adviser (you know how it is) and seduces this random student away from the word of god and sends him down a wretched path, which ends with this bit:

like, a big part of faust's tragedy is supposed to be about... well, hubris, of the relationship of god to man, of no longer being afraid of the devil... and obviously, this is all framed very much in terms of religion, but at the end of the day it's also about, you know, having purpose - faust is living a life that no longer has any meaning to him, all of his knowledge and studies now no longer fill the void inside himself. his nihilism opens the door for mephistopheles, and is what makes him willing to accept the devil's terms. now, and I am so very sorry to goethe here, I think we have some material we can use here to explore the valentino/sete rivalry. obviously, you can't do a one-to-one, you need to get rid of some of like, the depression and all that - there were times when valentino was feeling 'a bit low' in 2003, but not 'faust thinking everything he'd done in his entire life was pointless' low, yeah? also, unless you want to do a real long view here and even then it can't really be justified, there obviously isn't really a 'tragedy' here from valentino's perspective. like, he wins! this isn't valentino's tragedy, it's sete's! I was being a bit facetious when I said he was 'selling his soul to the devil', and you can kinda parse mephistopheles' motivations in different ways depending on what flavour and what interpretation of him you're dealing with here. you don't 'damn' valentino, you essentially just turn him into a tool of the devil!

so, this is how this works out in my head: the devil works more broadly as the manifestation of competitive impulses, the kind of 'how far would you go to win' question as a bloke who shows up and literally talks to the characters about it (magic of cinema). he's also engaging with valentino feeling like his victories no longer having meaning, with being disconnected from honda and from the entire culture there and just feeling like he's going through the motions. there's this element of like... opening the door to what is essentially a journey of self-actualisation, bringing him closer to being a 'god' but also allowing him to fully come into his own and become himself. to win on his own terms. I reckon ibiza is my preferred narrative device where the devil talks both to sete and valentino there (separately), first literally as a mysterious stranger and then... maybe not? he's talking to them at times of their lives when they're not at ibiza and it's not happening there in the physical world and they both end up kinda having to confront they're dealing with some potentially malevolent supernatural entity. but the important elements of the devil is that a) he's not going to do anything the humans don't actually ask for themselves, and b) everyone knows he's following his own agenda and you should be careful of the requests you make of him. so it's kinda like... essentially, the backdrop of this rivalry unfolding is they're constantly being challenged to decide what lines they're willing to cross. which culminates at qatar... and maybe you do have sete making like. a teensy mistake. a teensy error in judgement, one that is both real and deliberate but he could not have known would get that reaction and instantly regrets. and valentino, who is I think inherently sceptical of the devil coming to offer to help him and maybe does crank out the pentagrams (remember, the whole point of faust is that he was too arrogant to be scared of the devil, or one of the points anyway), in a moment of fury does decide - no, actually. I will take that step. I will curse sete. now the thing is, dramatically this is a teensy bit tricky because when you're talking about being damned by the devil, usually the consequences are a bit more severe than 'not winning a motorcycle race again' (yes, you can get into how sete did also seem genuinely cursed after that, cf his ambulance/bus crash situation, but again we are flirting with being in poor taste in this tumblr post). but the thing is, right, you have to lean into the silliness here! qatar 2004 is inherently silly, a CURSE is inherently silly, like real life is already silly here! you have to engage with the people where they are, and for these athletes all this shit is so heightened that the emotions are full on. like, valentino would've sold that guy to the devil! and to him not winning another race is basically the worst thing that can happen

so, obviously, you get to do the actual curse stuff. curses are inherently campy fun, the devil doing curses is campy fun, getting valentino rossi to crank out the pentagrams is inherently campy fun. you get to play around with this, right, like you know that bit in the brno 2005 race commentary where the commentators are talking about how valentino might as well have a little radio to talk into sete's helmet to remind him of how sete had fucked up at the sachsenring. OBVIOUSLY obviously obviously it is just so... idk scrunchy and fun to have this idea of valentino becoming a malevolent enough force to literally do that.... like damn the commentators did kinda eat with that?? ughhhhhh do you ever think about sete leading the qatar 2005 race for most of the way???? like that's SO fucked up because you literally have articles from about the race going 'hey maybe sete can break his curse' and then the commentators are talking about curses having one year expiration dates but obviously they!! do not!!!!! there's one race where sete goes off track and the commentators are talking about how valentino will surely have smiled into his helmet like that's so fucked!! it's so fucked!! but idk I think basically you have all this creeping curse-y stuff and devil stuff and then you get this twist and then it just becomes misery zone for sete until you sort of. compress the timeline and have him retire without getting into what happened at the end of 2006. and valentino just relishing in all his very worst emotions. and you've got sete who was the better man after jerez 2005, who took the high ground again and again and again and it did NOTHING for him.... and then he's cursed and his career is finished and the devil has had his fun getting mixed in with mid noughties motogp. and now obviously this is inherently kinda dumb and corny and silly but it's the devil!! mephistopheles to me is allowed to get up to dumb shit sometimes, let him have some fun!! idk I like curses being literal idc

I think the obvious critique here is 'this doesn't really feel like it gets the message of faust'. which, yes, is true - and obviously the way narratives are structured, a satisfying resolution isn't 'well selling your soul kinda slaps, actually'. and my statement to respond to this argument is as follows:

this is essentially canonically what happened. valentino DID do something kinda evil and it DID work out 100% for him and it DID kinda slap. at least when you add in the devil, you're making explicit the bit where it is a little bit bad. also, is sports not inherently about selling your soul for success... the story of valentino and sete is essentially about how we are twisted by competition, how pretending that we don't wish ill to our opponents is inherently dishonest. it is about lifting a facade for something that is already inherently there in the souls of men. this is obviously inherently a deeply cynical stance, but this is also a deeply cynical story beyond all the fun battles and camp dramatics. the devil is a cynic and he is basically the point of view character of goethe's faust - he's the one who is positioned closest to the audience. sports is all about living out some of humanity's worst instincts in a relatively low stakes setting, which means we get a free pass to have fun with a deeply cynical story that goes 'maybe selling your soul to the devil is fine, actually'

do I stand by this stance? not really, but the whole fun of storytelling is that sometimes you can just be kinda mean. I think goethe would get it... you can tell which character he enjoyed writing the most

the OTHER way you can do this is centre everything around qatar 2004 as like,,, the mystery box element...... okay look I have now made two posts that go WAY too deep on the 'what really happened' element but I do loveeeeee the whole thing like I would just make a film about that very end of the season and we show it from all these different angles as different characters narrate what happened... like fuck all the riders I want to hear from whichever mechanic used the scooter... the gresini mechanic who gave evidence to race direction.... various honda higher ups the crew chiefs like this is jb vs juan martinez it's war!!! obviously you still have the same emotional/thematic hooks as the general rivalry does but idk I would have a LOT of fun figuring out how to structure that, I loveeee mysteries... maybe I'd write it as a mockumentary yeah..... this one's just fun

anyway. a lot of stuff going on in this post, huh! you can probably tell I didn't edit this much. my classic tell when I edit my tumblr posts is I remember how 'paragraphs' work. unfortunately all I have energy for are like. a bunch of rants about things in my brain. I think when tumblr tells you that you've reached the maximum number of characters per paragraph and you need to figure out where to put a break, it's probably a bad thing? on the whole, my stance is I don't have anything AGAINST mildly fictionalised versions, but for me I'm always more of a.... well I want to take advantage of the full specificity of the events as they happened or just come up with a completely original story. kind of person. I know this ask probably wasn't looking for my 'what if you bled out valentino as he's strung up above a red motorcycle' vision but yeah. with a lot of biopics I'm always a bit 'well you could just read about this couldn't you' like I need stuff to take some kind of a stance on the material it's using... all my stuff takes a stance. that's all I've got. obviously all these stances mean that basically none of these things could ever be made. and I know what I said above but if they called me up to write the casey stoner biopic script treatment, I would also do that. if you've actually read to this point, give me a shout - you're a real one and I love you

[coimbrabertone]

Grip: A Story of How Three Different Racing Series Move.

I watched three different races this past weekend - the Assen TT MotoGP race, Formula One's Austrian Grand Prix, and the NASCAR Cup Series Ally 441 400 at Nashville Superspeedway. That's motorcycles, open wheelers, and big old stock cars on ovals, so you might think it would be difficult to find some pithy way to discuss all three, well...I found a way!

It is fascinating how these different racing series move and how they grip up.

Starting with MotoGP - this is the first race I watched on Sunday, probably my favorite series of the three right now, but also the one I've gotten into most recently - my take on that is that MotoGP is the most physical and natural movement of the three. Now, I know that's odd to say with 300 horsepower motorcycles that are increasingly fast and increasingly using state-of-the-art aerodynamics, but the rider still plays the key role.

The leaning, the manhandling the bike, the having to sit up when the bike has a wobble...you can see all of that, and that turns a very mechanical experience into a surprisingly human one. I've never ridden a motorcycle, let alone something as fast as a GP bike, but when Maverick Vinales went wide on the final lap, everything is so visible in MotoGP that I could tell exactly what happened.

He turned in just a foot or so too late, so his line was a bit off, and you could just see the weight of the bike dragging him out wide, off the rubber and into the marbles, which just compounds the issue because then he doesn't have the grip to get back on the throttle. So, Marc Marquez goes past into fourth - more on that later - while Fabio DiGiannantonio briefly takes fifth as well.

Vinales fights back into the final chicane, retaking the position, but in the process, he just rolled off the edge of the curb and touched the green paint on the outside of the track, leading to a track limits infringement - which on the final lap in MotoGP, automatically converts into a drop one position penalty - meanwhile, Marc Marquez got a sixteen second penalty for being below the mandated minimum tyre pressures, dropping him to tenth.

Marquez would later claim that he had slotted in behind Digia earlier in the race to get his tyre pressures to climb back up to legal limits and would've been fine, had Enea Bastianini not pushed him wide in turn one when Enea overtook him.

The problem with that is one: pushing people wide in a turn one pass is pretty ordinary in MotoGP, no small part due to the fact that it's a Marc Marquez signature, so...bit hypocritical if that's your stance.

Two: That means his tyre pressures were illegally low to begin with and he almost got them into the legal zone for long enough to get away with it - I'd argue that's on Marquez and his crew, got anybody who overtook him.

In any case, that incident also plays into this story, because Marquez had to slow up big time when he was just a few feet off the line, and it would take him a lap or so to catch back up to DiGiannantonio, Vinales, and Bastianini.

The MotoGP bike moves how the rider guides it to move, it appears so fast and beautiful when the rider gets it hooked right up in the perfect way, and when the rider doesn't, well, then that's when you really see them struggling with the weight of this giant 1000cc racing machine between their legs.

Likewise, when the bike has a wobble or slides, you can see all the weight and momentum going through the bike, and the most horrifying example of that is a highside.

A highside is when the rear wheel loses grip, slides out from under you, but then grips back up and pulls the whole bike the other way - the force of that is so severe that it bucks the rider off the bike and into the air - it is one of the most scary-yet-common things in motorcycle racing.

Compare that to the lowside, which is when the wheels lose grip and just slide downwards, which is the more common and less dramatic way of losing it in a MotoGP race.

That being said, as Aleix Espargaro showed in the sprint race on Saturday, a lowside at speed can still be dangerous, and with a little help from a kerb and/or a gravel trap, they can send the rider and the bike tumbling through the air just like a highside can.

With how exposed MotoGP - and motorcycle racing in general is - you can really see everything, and once you see it enough times and start to understand it, the way these things behave becomes surprisingly natural and intuitive.

Compare that to Formula One.

The moment that inspired this blogpost was that, after MotoGP ended, I switched to the F1 race and the first thing I saw was the field going through sector two at the Red Bull Ring. These cars were on rails, just one right after the other, moving so fast and in such a floaty manner that it just didn't look right.

Now I'm sure part of this is down to the fact that I had just watched MotoGP and their comparatively slow cornering speeds, so seeing F1 cars tearing up the Austrian Grand Prix was always going to serve as a culture shock. That being said, the way these cars moved looked so weird to me that the first thing that came to mind was, of all things, the F1 Manager games.

I remember a few years ago now, I watched a bit of F1 Manager 22 gameplay and just though "oh wow the way those cars move looks so bad and janky" so...imagine my shock that in 2024, F1 cars are kinda moving in the same way.

Now, once the initial shock wore off - and I suppose their tyres started wearing out as well - I got used to it and could see the moments where F1 cars went beyond their grip. Particularly in turns three and four - either end of the DRS straight at the top of the circuit - where time after time, cars would slip wide or otherwise fail to pull off an overtake, and then the size and weight of these things became apparent.

Particularly when Lando Norris was trying to pass Max Verstappen, having speed over him and being faster in a straight line when his McLaren had DRS, but otherwise that Red Bull was as ridiculously OP and dream crushing in a straight line as usual.

Like in the F1 sprint the day before when Max passed Lando - who had DRS - without DRS.

So Lando was working damn hard to get this move done, divebombing and such, but that was eating into his track limits allowance, which Max was keen to mention over the radio in that lame little way that F1 drivers try to give each other penalties. The very next lap though, things got controversial.

Lando had speed again running up the hill to turn three. Max knew this.

Max uses his one allowed move to protect the inside, forcing Lando to try it on the outside.

Lando is still gaining on the outside.

Max moves a second time - F1 fans may remember Max being notorious for this around 2016-2017, so much so that the "Verstappen Rule" clarified that this was illegal - in reaction to Norris (defensive moves in reaction also being considered unsafe and illegal, pretty much across all of motorsport) which caused them to touch, giving both of them punctures, and ultimately handing the victory to George Russell in the Mercedes.

Now, for the most part I'm just happy that Verstappen's actions had consequences - he picked up a puncture and lost the race win because he was acting like he was entitled to a win.

That being said, it does aggravate me that, even when Max is clearly in the wrong, he gets off better than his opponents. Lando also had a puncture and ultimately had to retire, while Max continued in fifth place and the token ten second penalty he received was nowhere near enough to actually cause him to drop position.

MotoGP is so competitive a sixteen second penalty drops you from fourth to tenth.

F1, meanwhile, a ten second penalty changes nothing. You could've increased it to a sixteen second penalty just to keep all things even and Max would've still been in fifth.

This is why I'm hard on F1 in these blogs, because it was the first motorsport I fell in love with - I grew up watching F1 with my dad, I've made friends because of F1, and it hurts me so much seeing that my dad fell out of love with F1 like ten years ago and now me and my friends seem to be following in his footsteps.

I'm hard on F1 because it has quite literally been disappointing my family for two generations.

Speaking of two generations, that's about as long as it took for the NASCAR race to finish last night.

I am mostly just saying that to mock them but it really did take them 331 laps to complete a 300-lap race, 441 miles to complete a 400-mile race thanks to all the green-white-checker overtime restarts at the end.

That's not the focus of this blog though.

What is the focus is how NASCAR ties into this grip conversation.

So, Nashville Superspeedway, a 1.3-mile concrete oval forty minutes outside of Nashville, Tennessee. To help stock car racing here, NASCAR applied resin to the bottom lanes and also ran over the track with a tyre dragon - which is a really cool name for what is ultimately a tractor dragging a bunch of Goodyear tyres across the bottom lanes of the oval - which caused an interesting effect on the racing.

This is especially the case because, in the last couple of NASCAR oval races - Gateway, Iowa, and New Hampshire - the top groove had so much more momentum than the bottom, so it was constantly this challenge between the short way around versus the faster way around. Add in another third of a mile in track distance, however, and the script changes, which made for some interesting television.

It was apparent from qualifying that, once cars got out of the gripped up dark stuff on the bottom, they were going to have a problem. This was most obvious with Trucks driver Nick Sanchez spinning out on his qualifying run in that series, but even in Cup, Martin Truex was on a fast lap until he went wide in the final corner and got into the grey stuff in the upper lanes, which put him all the way down in seventeenth.

This trend continued in the race, particularly after the rain delay, when Buescher had a wobble on the bottom, which in turn caused Byron to go up beneath him, and Byron went all the way up until the gray stuff. Jumping the cushion, as NASCAR commentators tend to call it.

This was enough to send William Byron back into the midpack and he'd never really factor into the battle for the lead again in the race. Wow.

It also showed in the battle for the lead late in the race, when Denny Hamlin chased down Ross Chastain and was a lot more capable of using the higher lanes with four fresh tyres than Ross who only took right sides on his final footsteps, so we'd see Denny attacking the corners, while Ross - who had defended valiantly up until this point - was struggling on the top and he kept drifting up ever higher and having to slow down to keep the car out of the wall.

It almost made the day come around full circle, with Ross struggling in a similar way to Maverick Vinales.

It's an odd thing in racing where a motorbike and a big old NASCAR V8 Camaro can have similar characteristics.

Anyway, Hamlin took the lead, Ross was second, and ultimately neither of them would win because we'd get five attempts at overtime ultimately ending in a Joey Logano win with Zane Smith in second and Tyler Reddick in third. Yeah.

So yeah, the races I watched last weekend through the lens of grip and how these three very different racing vehicles behave. I thought it was interesting and I hope you did too.

Next week, MotoGP at the Sachsenring, NASCAR at the Chicago Street Circuit, and Indycar begins its hybrid era at Mid-Ohio. Looks like F1 will be at Silverstone as well. So...see you next Monday for whatever I want to talk about coming out of that weekend.

[anitalianfrie]

alright i'm giving in, i wanna get into motogp (i only know about valentino rossi and marc marquez and read a few posts (think like a thesis or smth) about what had happened so where do i start? (i'm an avid f1 fan if it helps idk) thankuu also hi!

You absolutely came to the wrong person for this because I caved in and started getting into motogp after the season ended.

Jokes aside. There this post were you can read about the teams and riders for the 2024 season, introduction to the sport and a bit about the rosquez situation. Then you can go a bit around in the motogp tag and blogs, find a driver/drivers you think you might like and learn a bit about him (I personally latched onto Marc Marquez, but there's like 300 dudes out there).

There are full races on youtube, and if you want to see amazing on-track action you can watch Assen 2018. (I wish I could recommend more, but only I watched this and Argentina 2018 for now)

There's a documentary on Netflix, hitting the apex, mainly about the 2013 season (so Rossi, Marquez, Pedrosa, Lorenzo). It also talk about the death of Marco Simoncelli. (warning: they show the moment when he gets hit. Yeah.)

Then I'm not gonna lie: to get down the relationships/personality bit I usually start by roaming the tags on ao3, then I go to the blogs, etc etc etc. Fair warning: in general, there's not as much content on motogp in comparison to f1. I mean both in fic and blogs. So it might be a bit more hard to navigate.

I'm sorry I don't have more, I hope this helps you at least a bit :'))

[kingofthering]

more thoughts on alternate universe VR46 Marc

I was thinking that Marc and Valentino arrive in this alternate reality either in Sachsenring or Assen, which means that we have the summer break right after and summer break means time spent at the ranch for the Academy boys. Marc being VR46 means he has a standing invitation.

Marc won't lie, it feels odd and maybe just a little awkward at times. He's in a seat that these kids are dreaming of, he used to be Italy number one public enemy and they were probably spending their teenage years learning to hate him, right?

Really, it's fine. Marc speaking Italian obviously helps him not being left aside too much and some of the boys make efforts to include him (not everyone but it's quite interesting to track how everyone's behavior seems to evolve with the more days they all spend together).

With the exception of Mig and Franky, they're all younger than Alex and maybe it's a little overwhelming at times and Marc will admit that he doesn't understand all their references but, really, it's survivable.

And then there is Vale. Of course Marc got to see Vale being a mentor at the tracks (even before his retirement) but this? This is his element and it's so interesting to watch. Of course Marc knew in the back of his head that Valentino was a good teacher and a good leader and all that but seeing it in action there? Yeah, it's a lot maybe, not to be dramatic or anything.

Obviously they ride a lot and everyone's competitive and Marc obviously loves dirt riding so he has a lot of fun. Valentino rides with them more often than not and their last race together might have only been less than two years ago but the last time they got to battle like this and have fun? Feels like it was in another lifetime entirely.

It's not like they talk much, they don't really need to. Maybe things are a little easier when they have nothing to fight about. [honestly would love to introduce some conflict but I think it could happen in Sachsenring and we're more in the resolution phase there] [I don't know, it's not like I have an official timeline or anything, details]

[Actually, I think Marc gets injured in Sachsenring just like he did this year (technically a bike he's never ridden, he's still quite upset/confused by the whole alternate universe thing, his mind is not in the right place, etc etc) and his hand is doing better by the time he's in the ranch but there is at least one occurence of Vale seeing Marc in pain and they could initially fight ("Why do you always have to push too much like that") but I was more thinking along the lines of Marc letting himself be vulnerable in front of Vale, we can have both.]

Anyway, everyone spends time together outside of the track and the gym, especially for meals, and they have a barbecue night one day, maybe with a fire camp even (they're pretty much in a desert there so they can do that, right? fic, details) and things die down not that late but Marc and Valentino outlast everyone and end up cleaning together and talkingTM, either outside or maybe on the couch with a bottle of [insert some strong Italian alcohol] to share (honestly they're just sipping their glasses, only had a couple of beers earlier, it's just for the ambiance, you know).

Marc compliments Valentino on what he's done with the place and the guys (and the Academy) and Valentino shares some thoughts he hasn't told a lot of people (maybe it's easier to talk about the whole Sic's legacy aspect of things with someone who didn't really know him/didn't truly know Vale at the time).

Marc also shares some stuff that my brain won't come up with but he does. I think he tells Vale about the book he was planning on having published in their OG universe.

"There is a line that goes like "He was my hero once but within a few months I was finished with him. I still am, and will continue to be.". It's kind of funny considering where we are here."

Valentino truly pauses, looks at Marc and deadpans : "And they say I'm the dramatic one between the two of us. Bullshit. They truly don't know you like I do."

[moralchampion]

Okay I know most people who have done this before are very aware but like it was my first time ever going to a motogp race and it was sooo exciting like it's such a different vibe when you're actually at the track instead of watching from home. At home obviously you see more and know more cause of cameras and commentary, which of course you don't have irl unless you have like a screen that you can actually see. And I know Silvo is gonna be very different from Assen because in Assen I was with my dad and it was just him wanting to leave as soon as possible on Sunday after the race while still giving me time to look around and maybe shop a bit (which I did) and I have no clue how Silvo is gonna be but I know that it's not a 4+ hour car rider back where my dad has to work the next day. Also Assen was a bit of a mess for me cause I wasn't sure which timetable was the real one, the one on the website we booked our tickets or the one on Motogp insta (obviously that one) but yeah it was a bit of a mess. Especially when we were just strolling along the track exploring on Friday evening and then suddenly there was a sign about the Ktm boys doing an autograph session so I stood in line, not sure how to and what to bring and all, just for it to be cut off last minute because they ran out of autograph cards (I think) but yeah it was a bit messy but it was so fun. At home I mostly do something else alongside watching the race cause often enough it's boring and the commentators will tell me if anything happens, irl you can't hear commentators so the only thing I did along the races was watching a stream to see what was going on cause our monitor was poorly placed.

But yeah (obviously) it's such a different feeling seeing it all irl and realising that all of these guys are real and everything that happens there is real, I (more or less) saw Jack crash about 100 meters away from me and just seeing all the different fans and all, it was sooo fun

[bobendsneyder64]

Who are your favourite riders? Which racing series do you follow? And which race in TT Assen has been your favourite so far?

Thanks anon!

My favourite riders are Valentino Rossi, Maria Herrera, Ana Carrasco, Bo Bendsneyder, Zonta van den Goorbergh and Takaaki Nakagami

I always follow MotoGP. If I can't watch the race live (mostly that's because it's in a different time zone) I try to avoid social media so I don't spoil myself and see the podium. If I can I watch moto2 too and when Zonta was still in the Red Bull rookies cup I would watch these too on my laptop. I would love to follow all the races but I sadly don't have time for it :(

I think my favourite race in Assen is a tie between the 2 victories from Bo in 2015 when he was in the Red Bull rookies cup and Vale's victory in 2017. I can't choose between those 2 because I've seen them both live and they were both awesome! One that's not my favorite but one race that I'll always remember forever is the moto3 race at Assen, also in 2017. Bo was racing so well, on 5th place and had a podium chance when he crashed and crossed the finish line by sliding over it, sadly without touching his bike, so he was disqualified. You can see what happened in this gifset! When I realised he was disqualified I was so sad because he had been doing so well and I had wished for him to be on the podium!

Thank you again anon!

Anonymously message me (3) things you want to know about me

[piastri]

so I got the motogp videopass thing which is great as you get all the races / press conferences / documentaries going wayy back in 720p and it’s FREE till the 27th. (just make sure to cancel it straightaway so you don’t accidentally forget and it auto renews)

to get the most out of it I’m watching the top 10 races of every season (and highlights of the ones I skipped which I might go back to and watch if I get the time) and I started with 2015. thank you to @dybain for helping me pick some of these and @fabioquartarar0 for convincing me to finally start watching! 💞

this is just a mess of my thoughts as I was going through the season and I wanted to record it

Ratings and Summary:

Qatar - 3.5

vale & dovi looked more like they were doing synchronised skating rather than racing, that’s how often they were side by side

Argentina - 5

rossi vs marquez on diff tyre compounds, tortoise vs hare situation... the ending was explosive to say the least

*jorge wins like 4 in a row from start to finish we STAN*

*mugello & barcelona... me and alex both suffered watching marc being the disaster child that he is 😫

Assen - 5

rossi vs marquez continued. 36yr old vs 22yr old. I swear I will never get enough of these 2, going at it till the very last lap. marc with a last minute lunge (boy never gives up and that’s why I love him). shout out to vale’s lil roly-poly celebration after :’)

British - 4

jorge & vale are tied for points at this stage. we get rosquez in the rain. quite a few crashes. ultimately wet weather master class from vale, how on earth is he STILL this good?

San Marino - 4.5

Mixed conditions, they had to switch bikes 2 times. absolutely fascinating, they don’t have radios so the riders have to make the decisions for themselves. and OH JORGE 😫 some unexpected podiums, imagine crashing and then still ending up on the podium? Scott Redding did THAT.

Aragon - 3.5

crash early on for marc he looked so angry at himself 😩 and SUCH a good duel between Dani & Vale till the last lap 

Japan - 3

wet race.... DANIIIII 🎉

Australia - 5++++

HOLY SHIT there’s a reason this is considered one of the best motogp races ever. overtake overtake overtake OVERTAKE (that one by iannone on rossi and marquez jeeshh) that last lap omg, I was holding my breath, could not call it. top 4 finishing within a second of each other! also poor seagull 😣

Sepang

the pre-race press conference is very important contextually for what happens next. vale accuses marquez of ‘playing’ with him in the last race and wanting to help jorge extend the lead in the championship. all around very awkward affair as jorge and marc are sitting either side of him. to a motogp noob like myself, it didn’t seem like the race was manipulated? but what do I know

bruh how do I even rate this race? I had to stop the race multiple times during the first 6 laps to take a minute because that duel between rosquez, holy shit that got PERSONAL, hand gestures and all. and then of course it all went up in flames, my mouth literally fell open. you NEED to watch this for yourself. in all of the chaos Dani wins ❤️

Valencia - 4

vale starts from the back of the grid after reviewing the penalty, his first lap was insane he overtook like 10 riders and had a great comeback. isolated, the race itself wasn’t that ‘exciting’ not that many overtakes but in the context of the championship it was everything (shout-out to the commentators for really building up the scene and the intensity) I thought for sure marquez was gonna go for a lunge at the end but he didn’t (all the people who say that he stayed behind on purpose can quite frankly fuck right off)

JORGE WINS THE CHAMPIONSHIP. I RESPECT this guy so much you can tell he puts so much into every single race and it takes so much out of him emotionally and physically.

I ADORE the tiny 5’2 spanish man dani pedrosa ❤️ on his day he is incredibly fast and he just comes across really positive.

I LOVE my sometimes overeager, aggressive demon (but also very sweet, humble and incredibly talented) child marc marquez. He sort of reminds me of my favourite f1 drivers (lewis and max) at the start of their careers and I’ve heard he’s matured a lot since 2015 and I’m looking forward to seeing that.

side note - the way marc pronounces victory as bictory 😂🥰

I am in AWE of Valentino Rossi. There’s a reason he’s considered the GOAT. he’s just seems technically so on point as a rider and no one else really comes close in the rain. he’s incredibly passionate about his racing, sometimes maybe even a little too passionate (perhaps if he hadn’t made those comments in the press conference, the outcome of the race in sepang and the championship could’ve been different) but it’s somewhat refreshing to see a guy really wear his heart on his sleeve and say what he actually feels rather than give robotic PR answers. also I’d never realised before just how big the #46 fan base is, every single time he overtakes someone the cheer from the crowd is insane and this is at every race track.

Nick Harris could give Crofty a run for his money with all the shouting, I thought for sure he was gonna lose his voice multiple times 😂 no joke he could commentate on cows grazing in the field and make it sound riveting.

random - I really like how the interviews at the end of the race with the top 3 are short and snappy and straight to the point unlike in f1. and they get to take their helmets up to the podium.

overall this was such a good season of racing, I really picked an amazing season to start with and will defiantly rewatch parts of the season in the future for a serotonin boost.

[batsplat]

hi batsplat this is marquezian.. as our resident casey scholar i was wondering if you have casey race recs !!

boy do I ever have recs! here's a (hopefully) fairly comprehensive list, drawing from more or less all the stages of his grand prix career and featuring races notable for a bunch of different reasons

casey is quite defensive of the 'boring' racing of the alien era (in particular the 2010-12 years)... but it is a shame his time in motogp overlapped so heavily with the 800cc era, which did lead to some tough watches for fans of 'overtakes' and 'close racing' and 'unpredictability'. so a lot of these race picks aren't necessarily reflective of how casey racked up the majority of his wins, plus presumably don't always match up with what his own picks would be. but well, whatever! I threw in a few of the ones I know casey likes

warning: the race descriptions generally spoil the results of the races. since this list is pretty long, I've put an asterisk next to the races I'd particularly recommend, and double asterisk next to my personal faves

my tldr spoiler-free top five faves list is catalunya 2007, donington park 2007, laguna seca 2008, sachsenring 2010, and laguna seca 2011. my five next-off most notable/fun races are assen 2004, turkey 2006, qatar 2007, phillip island 2009 and silverstone 2011

and here's the actual list, in chronological order:

sachsenring 2003: first podium in grand prix racing! big disclaimer: the recordings of the 2003 125cc races you can find on the videopass are poor quality and don't feature any commentary, so not the easiest to watch. this race is also not great to follow on the colour front: the three main protagonists are *squints at notes* casey (yellow bike, number 27), perugini (mostly black and white but with a few greenish highlights, 7) and de angelis (mostly green, 15). but well it's a really tight fight that goes until the last corner, good fun... casey's talked about how nervous the track made him so he wasn't racing his opponents hard enough at the end. which is kinda sweet and revealing

brazil 2003: another tight battle, this time with jorge (green/red, 48) and de angelis, another time he doesn't QUITE make it. jorge's first ever victory! y'know the one where he overtakes everyone on the outside and starts the whole x-fuera thing

valencia 2003: first win! 125cc/moto3 racing being reliably good fun is a time-honoured tradition and it can even make that middling karting track exciting to watch. it's a good fight - quite helpfully, casey's nicely visible yellow bike contrasts well with the blue bike (hector barbera, number 80) and the red bike (sic, 58) (at some point steve jenker, 17, shows up on a black and white bike). that being said... the bloody video on the motogp website cuts off around two and a half laps to the end, which is a shame because those laps were (apparently) filled with drama. very close finish, not helped by the spark plug of casey's bike breaking RIGHT before the end, which is a very casey thing to happen to him. he thought he was screwed but ended up being saved by barbera running wide trying to overtake him in the last corner. here's a cute lil feature with casey discussing the race that you can probably just watch instead of the race. also ofc him saying how good it felt to beat the spanish at their home circuit (clip here), king of spite

^look at him in evil gross luminous yellow

**assen 2004: I'll admit, this race is one of my faves in large part because of the terrorism jorge does on casey on the last lap, which casey was NOT happy about. (in a funny coincidence, the same event features jorge's future teammate doing some last lap terrorism on gibernau that gibernau is also decidedly not thrilled about.) featured in the autobiography - he really wasn't a fan of jorge at the time - and when he's being sulky in the interview they have in the post-race broadcast. but another great fight and, with my apologies to casey, the last lap is fantastic. excitingly includes commentary!!

jerez 2006: casey's first motogp race! you don't reallyyyy see enough of him on the broadcast for it to be completely worth it, but it's still a proper good ride. he starts in fifteenth, makes a great start and then gets a lil lucky at the first corner when toni elias attempts to murder barrels into valentino and opens up a gap for casey. gets all the way up to fourth and finishes sixth!! also ofc a starring performance by dani at the front of the race

qatar 2006: second race of the season. after the first race, casey had been ill with a bad fever, plus there'd been a fuck up with the flights that meant he only got to the lusail circuit ten minutes before the first session. he topped the first practise session and qualified on pole, even though he was still recovering from illness and was massively sleep-deprived. his first battle with valentino, eventually drops a few places but still <3 also features some fun vale/nicky hayden battles

*turkey 2006: the third race of the season (look he front-loaded his good races that year) and my girl's first premier class podium!! but... bit of a heartbreaker as he did come VERY very very close to winning. also he said apparently he was pleased with his podium but when he got to parc fermé his team was acting disappointed he didn't win :( still a fantastic race, the highlight of casey's troubled rookie campaign. (casey was fast from the get-go in the premier class, but was dealing with major tyre issues that the team around him didn't do a good job at helping him with. by the end of the season, he ended up acquiring a somewhat unfair reputation for being a crasher, with the lovely nickname 'rolling stoner'. still, for young talent it's generally the peaks that matter most and you could really see his ability shine through here)

*qatar 2007: obviously of Great Narrative Significance, casey's first race with ducati and when he announced his arrival at the top of the sport by getting his first premier class win. good solid fun casey/vale fight, though it does feature the classic 'ducati blasts past everyone down that very long lusail straight' syndrome. people were kinda mean about that - which in turn made casey very irritable, arguing that if your bike is a nightmare to ride everywhere else then it's an accomplishment to be close enough to blast past down the straight. unfortunately I do agree a lil bit with the naysayers in terms of the actual racing, but still a pretty good fight

^the last year it was a day race

**catalunya 2007: probably my personal favourite? (of the ones casey won, anyway.) just something about a great battle at that track - obviously valentino had about a million, but this was really the only race-long one that he lost. important in the context of the 2007 title campaign - even though it was only a ten-point swing - because it showed casey wasn't just about horsepower dominance. fantastic riding from both of them

**donington park 2007: my fave of his wet weather performances because he actually has to work his way through the field. he started fifth but was outside of the top ten early on after an uncharacteristically poor start. fun race with plenty of good shake-ups of the order

(he sealed the title in motegi and won his home race for the first time that year, but since he finished sixth in the former and won the latter by a few lightyears, they don't make the cut)

*qatar 2008: more fun than qatar 2007!! imo!! obviously it's also jorge's first race and he's on pole and dani's a bit injured and those two have their whole thing™️ going on... and vale has just switched tyre suppliers and is trying to prove he's not washed and casey is starting his title defence... so a big significant race for all four of them, and unlike many races in that era has a fair few twists and turns and almost all of them actually get to fight each other a bit. okay eventually it settles down and gets dull but until then it's fun (and there's also some very late excitement involving dovi/vale)

**laguna seca 2008: I feel a wee bit bad for including this one and casey would throw something at me, but well it obviously belongs on here. ignoring casey's complaints for a minute about vale's aggression, it really is a fantastic battle - and vale only goes as far as he does because casey's so good! (also unsure whether casey would appreciate this line of reasoning.) probably the one everyone's most likely to have already watched, and for good reason since it slaps. sorry casey

estoril 2009: only for sentimental reasons, after the first few laps it gets boring fast. still, it's casey's first race back after the mystery illness-induced break, he immediately has a cute lil battle with vale (which he wins, slay) and... okay then it's basically a procession but it's also nice and sweet when it's over and he's on the podium and he's shown everyone he's still got it. maybe skip like. 20 laps

**phillip island 2009: casey's first win in only his second race back!!! warning that it's a little light on actual overtaking but it's still tense and close most of the way through and casey's so great to watch on this circuit. (he's literally too good at it for most of his races there to be all that interesting, this is probably the best one.) plus it's another one included partly for sentimental reasons. here's my pitch:

sepang 2009: so he's been slandered for months, he's been written off, ducati have been fucking him over, he comes back and immediately gets a podium finish and wins the next race... what does he do after that? win again obviously! another neat little wet performance (partly helped by vale having a bit of a shocker off the line lmao, though he seals the title that day with a p3 finish)

valencia 2009: if you want to see the pole sitter crash on the warm up lap and dani almost miss the start in confusion

**sachsenring 2010: vale's first race back after the broken leg. usually that's the time when everyone would pretend to be nice to each other... but all three of vale, jorge and casey had gone to efforts during vale's absence to make things worse <3 anyway cracking race including a good fun spite-fuelled battle between casey and vale for the last podium spot, one of their better scraps with a dramatic ending - after which both of them are charmingly bitchy about each other to the media (see below). shame it was basically their last notable battle in the dry (I didn't include either jerez 2011 or le mans 2012 on this list because I wouldn't really recommend them as good casey races, but they do more or less conclude casey and vale's on-track story. and the latter is also the last podium they share, plus it's the race right after casey announced his retirement. fave presser moment)

^😭😭😭😭😭 you guys are AWFUL oh my god. people always talk about laguna 2008 but the vibes got way more rancid post-2009 when their actual on-track rivalry was basically over

motegi 2010: this one's kinda marginal on whether it qualifies for this list. casey was really proud of this win and felt his 2010 wins were particularly impressive given how much he had to override a bike that was objectively shit by this point.... BUT in practise once he shakes off dovi, it's quite a dominant win and the real fun is watching valentino experiment with whether he can make jorge lorenzo the first person ever to die of rage alone while riding a motorcycle

*silverstone 2011: one of the truly great wet weather performances. this is a personal taste thing - I don't mind dominance as much in the wet because it's just cool sometimes seeing somebody drop a masterclass on the field in those conditions. but obviously not necessarily the most exciting victory fight once he hits the front after like. a lap. still, good battles going on behind him

^a fan of british tracks, not a fan of the british

*sachsenring 2011: great three-way battle with jorge and dani, with the lead exchanged several times - also plenty of other good battles down the order. not one casey emerges victorious from, but definitely one of the best races that season

**laguna seca 2011: okay look corkscrew this corkscrew that but there's an argument to be made that casey makes a pass in this that's better than anything marc and vale can DREAM of. well no I won't go that far - but it's still an incredible overtake, insane thing to do at a blind corner, and casey just looks fantastic riding on that circuit. in his autobiography he says something along the lines of 'oh it looked scary on tv but I knew I'd make it'. which. okay casey!! not gonna say more than that, one of those where you'll know it when you see it. one of the best races of his career and also a key race in that year's title fight

phillip island 2011: marginal inclusion, but it's sweet he sealed the title on his 26th birthday by winning his home race (even though he mainly sealed it there because jorge lost half a finger and couldn't start the race). conditions got treacherous when the rain showed up but well casey stayed on the bike, just about

*jerez 2012: casey's first and last win at jerez! this is the one that casey called his greatest career win at the time and... sure, fair enough, especially given he had a weirdly bad record at the track. he didn't enjoy the experience much because of his arm pump issues, which makes the performance all the more impressive. fun first few laps in particular, after that it's maybe a bit more tension than actual action. still a proper good race

estoril 2012: another win he's very proud of... another one that's maybe even more skewed towards tension than actual action, but still an unmistakably impressive performance given jorge's strong record there and casey's physical issues. that and jerez completed his set as they'd been the races he hadn't won yet, which made him feel more certain of his choice to retire

phillip island 2012: listen it's his last win and it sealed the title (for jorge), so was at least somewhat exciting. but also according to his autobiography, casey deliberately rode slower for a bit before expanding the gap again just to keep his focus up, which I think gives you a sense of how easy he found winning there

^his penultimate race and sixth consecutive victory at phillip island. he also finished on the podium in his last ever race at valencia

[whydoubleu]

June-July 2018

So, this month is been a great month even its only about 5 days started. I still having internship in a company which is across my father office and that’s why i really looking forward to do internship in the company. Because, i can going from home to office with my father and as well as going back home. That’s the only one that make me can survive in this “random placing division”. But it turn out that the division is really can make me learn a lot and can update my knolwledge and still i have to keep be grateful for what i get now. Because, from the stories that i get from some of my friends that they didn’t get assignment/work that they were meant to do. Because, some people still think that student of administration are just doing “administration” thing, like input data, writing or other “administration work”. Even the worst is my other friend who didn’t get a job to do for about a week and they have to do the internship in other company. I mean it was so wasting time and money........... Better using the money to buying movie ticket, or buying cute outfit (HA!) or buying we the fest ticket or even PARAMORE TICKET CONCERT OMG!

  FYI THATS MY DAD OFFICE YUHUU,the right one

The benefit that i get to do internship here was been found out just yesterday (July 4 th) which I GET TO WATCH RAN LIVE SHOW FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MY LIFE WHICH I’M 21 YEARS OLD NOW. Finally, i’m able to watch one of my favorite music group by my  eyes and Nino and Rayi and Asta were so handsome for real HAHAHA. And yeah i always love their songs, and their live performance is making me craving for more live performance of RAN. I really looking forward to see more of  RAN’s live performance. I will getting great picture of them and of course sing along freely with my friends. That’s what i will do for Barasuara too!

Yess, Barasuara! One on my favorite music group especially my favorite Indonesian band like i’m so into this band so much. Right from their music, the lyric, their funny act and of course the live performance. Their live performance IS SO AWESOME THAT I CAN’T MOVEON FROM THE SHOW.    My first experience watching Barasuara live performance was in November 2017 in the event which held in UI and organized by my friends from FIA, which i so much regret that i don’t yet love Barasuara that much. So, i just watching it from the distance because it was raining and i just taking some pictures and videos and only sing along to “Bahas Bahasa”.

My second live experience of Barasuara was happen last week, on Saturday (June 30th) which the stage really close to the audience and i can see The charismatic vocalist Iga Massardi, The skillfully guitarist Tj Kusuma, The skillfully bassist and funny yet smart guy Gerald Situmorang, The handsome and skillfully drummer Marco Steffiano and two ethnic and has beautiful voice vocalist Puti Chitara and Asteriska, clearly luvzzz. Their opening song was “Barat” which is my current favorite track of Taifun album. I’m so so happy they were singing the song and i love kak Puti looks with the unique color lips which matching to her  outfit, and of course her new hair. And yeah i love the always smile guy Gerald and cool dad kak Iga and kak Marco with the drum and i’m lucky that i get to see Barasuara show before Marco’s absence in July. Oh i love them all and i really want to see their performance in their concert or a cool event such as We The Fest but the ticket is quite expensive that  i better buy Paramore ticket concert.  I hope that in WTF, Marco won’t be there so i will not that regret to not attend WTF event.  I just hope that i can be accepted as WTF crew .

                                       Other activities that related to Barasuara which i did when i’m doing internship is browsing about the review of Barasuara, watching their performances and interviews in youtube and scrolling the band member instagram which is funny and random yet keep making regret that i did not know them from their early  year like when they started the band i just graduate from my junior high school in Salemba and i like to listen music of west singer and band mostly and i only love RAN, Sheila on7, Nidji, and hivi yeah some Indonesian artist but not that much as i love west artist.  But, now i realize that there are many great Indonesian artist, whether it’s a band or soloist and music streaming platform also help me to find out many great Indonesian artist and performer like i can enjoy Indonesian music more. What i like from Barasuara is that they are a great Indonesian band which i think can be picturing what is Indonesian like. From the lyric, the looks/outfit, and their culture. It’s like they might be picturing Indonesia Ideology, Pancasila. It also can be look from the members culture background, the religion and their music genre. I mean Barasuara didn’t  have the exact music genre because they like and have different  background of music genres. But, with the diversity they have, they respect and encouraging each other so they can be unite as a band and making great music which is Indonesia should be like. Be Unite.

     The other super fun show this month is Motogp Assen 2018 which held on Sunday (July 1st) and so grateful that i could watch the race because i think that was the best race of the season so far. There are so many overtakes between eight to ten riders at the front with different bike . It can be prove in Motogp Highlight video which show the overtakes and the video is about 42 minutes length means that there are so many moment of overtakes in Assen 2018.  Eventhough at the end, Valentino only could be in fifth place but, i still happy that he doing his best and show some cool overtakes against those young riders. I really really enjoy the race from the first lap untill the last lap which include the screaming and the jumping in the living room with my father the one and only my partner when it comes to motogp in the family. But, Vale is still be on the second position in the current  motogp championship and he really needs to win to catch points of Marc and hope that Yamaha can immediately fix the problem so Valentino can be #goforten and i always keep faith on Vale getting his tenth motogp championship so #iostoconvale.

Credit: motogp.com

[usamotorscycle-blog]

2017 MotoGP Season Preview

With the start of the 2017 MotoGP season only weeks away, we turn to our trusted MotoGP Correspondent, Bruce Allen, still foolishly bucking for promotion, for a look ahead at what will be on offer for racing fans this year. The racing begins on March 26 in Qatar. MotoGP is the fastest-growing motorsports flavor on earth. That it has virtually no presence or accessibility in the U.S. is a poor joke. It appears the safety-conscious American parents of today are reluctant to let their kids, most of them, anyway, learn to ride ATVs and motorbikes when they’re young. Series organizer Dorna has recognized that a country wishing to develop world-class riders needs to have a formal development program, one of which was implemented in Great Britain just this year. (Probably because of Cal Crutchlow, the Great English-As-A-First-Language Hope.) Such leagues have existed in Spain and Italy for decades. The fact is that the U.S., for its size, with expensive national marketing costs, doesn’t sell a lot of imported motorcycles, and it’s doubtful that showing more MotoGP races would change that. So most of us Americans miss out. Meanwhile the Aussies and Kiwis are all over this stuff, along with Europe and much of Asia. No more giving up calendar dates in favor of F1; MotoGP has MoMentum. No more five weeks off in the middle of the summer, either. Countries from Thailand and Indonesia to Hungary and Finland are clamoring to host races; pressure on the calendar, with four rounds still in Spain (quietly drumming my fingertips on the tabletop), is intense. Even money says the calendar goes to 20 dates within five years. And get rid of Aragon. Or Argentina. Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso and Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi and the rest of the MotoGP grid took part in a test a few weeks ago at Australia’s Phillip Island circuit. Overall, 2017 has the look of a great season. The Big Three factory teams of Yamaha, Honda and Ducati will dominate much of the action, as they are home to the Aliens, those riders whose balance and instincts are a step above the rest of the field – Marc Marquez, Valentino Rossi, Jorge Lorenzo and new Alien on the block Maverick Vinales. Keeping them honest will be the likes of Lorenzo’s teammate and wingman Andrea Dovizioso, Cal Crutchlow on the LCR Honda, and Andrea Iannone on the factory Suzuki. Alex Rins, on the second factory Suzuki, and Johann Zarco on a Tech 3 satellite Yamaha, are the Moto2 grads most likely to podium this year, with Rins looking, to me anyway, like the rookie of the year for 2017. Another Alien in the making. Due to last year’s amazing series of races which culminated in nine different riders standing on the top step of the podium, hope springs eternal for the riders and teams in the lower tranches. Pramac, Aspar and Reale Esponsorama get new old hardware, which could improve prospects for Hectic Hector Barbera and Alvaro Bautista. It would take another Assen-type miracle for either of the Marc VDS riders, Jack Miller and Tito Rabat, to win this year. (There are also rumblings that the team is planning to fold up its tent in the next year or two, possibly freeing up slots for a satellite Suzuki team.) Let’s just look at this thing team by team, in alphabetical order. We will wait until after the season opener to assign tranches to the various riders. Aprilia Racing Team Gresini Embed from Getty Images Sam Lowes Aleix Espargaro Sam and Aleix need to be prepared for a long season. Hard luck Espargaro, having lost out at Suzuki to Iannone and Rins, takes a step down to join the Aprilia factory effort, on the upswing but still learning their way around. The Aprilia and KTM projects are likely to be relatively underfunded for the foreseeable future, slowing their development, and reducing their prospects to those of satellite teams. For Lowes, somehow promoted from Moto2 despite world-class inconsistency, there will be a lot of badly scuffed leathers. Espargaro seems to be getting the hang of things more quickly. For Fausto Gresini, for whom the allure of the premier class is almost irresistible, 2017 will be like shooting 108 on the golf course – enough good shots to keep you coming back, but a vast majority of poor to terrible swings. Two unfamiliar riders and not-quite-competitive bike. Bring a book. Ducati Factory Team Embed from Getty Images Jorge Lorenzo Andrea Dovizioso Going into 2017, the factory Ducati team is the most interesting group on the lot. The Italians expect plenty, and soon, from their brand-new triple world champion. Jorge Lorenzo, in turn, suggested that the first real day of testing at Sepang was a bit terrifying, but with the help of Casey Stoner and Michele Pirro is adapting to the Desmosedici GP17. No more getting blitzed in the straights, but he needs to re-learn cornering if he is to avoid “pulling a Rossi” on the Ducati, which seems unlikely unless he finds himself unable to keep the bike upright. A win in Qatar would do a lot to build his confidence, although the same could be said for every rider on the grid. Nice writing. Consistent Andrea Dovizioso has been flying under the radar during the offseason, allowing the cameras to focus on Lorenzo while he plots his strategy to win the title himself. The latest iteration of the Desmosedici will probably be a great bike, and Dovi has four years in with the factory. Personally, I would love to see him fighting for a title with Vinales and Marquez. It could happen. I think the odds favor him to finish ahead of Lorenzo this season. Embed from Getty Images A recently-filed patent provides clues that the bulge under the tail may hide a variable exhaust nozzle that resembles ones used on jet engines. The Bologna bunch has recently received a patent for a new jet exhaust valve; don’t know what that’s for unless they’re interested in watching Lorenzo leaving Earth’s orbit. It has also installed what is said to be an anti-chatter box behind the rider and bent the exhaust pipes and stuff around it. They are keeping their 2017 fairing secret, but I expect it to resemble the new Yamaha innovation, with the interior wings in a laughable “bulge,” which is expressly forbidden under the rules yet permitted by some guy named Danny. “Y’see, it’s not so much of a “bulge” as it is a continuation of the radius… An’ that’s why they’ve blokes like me, to keep things strite, y’know. Yeah.” For me, the most interesting question is whether the big red bikes are to be housed in Lorenzo’s Land or Gigi’s Garage. LCR Honda Embed from Getty Images Perpetually carrying a chip on his shoulder, Cal Crutchlow finally came through last year with a pair of race wins. Cal Crutchlow My personal favorite rider. To disparage, mock, call out and, ultimately, have to eat crow over. Crashlow won his first two premier class races in 2016 after years of making excuses and broadcasting blame for not having won earlier. He has burned bridges with Yamaha and Ducati, although he seems to be a fair-haired child for Honda as of late. Complaining a month ago that “Honda are on it’s back foot,” or some other foolish British verb conjugation, it seems the litany has resumed. With Vinales added to the mix at the top, I don’t expect Cal to win two races again this season. Marc VDS Racing Team NFL (Not For Long) Embed from Getty Images Jack Miller Tito Rabat The struggling #3 Honda team, at the end of the Sepang test in January, had neither rider fit to ride. Tito Rabat was a great rider in Moto2 but is proving to be a bust in MotoGP. Miller, tagged by HRC for greatness at a young age, is proving to be unable to keep the RC213V upright, piling up more serious injuries than The Black Night in the Monty Python classic, not to mention creating acres of shredded, brightly painted fiberglass. This team could be out of existence in a year or two, providing an opportunity for the moon, the sun and the stars to align in such a way that, as Dani Pedrosa’s contract on the factory Honda team expires, young Miller is standing at the door, kindly showing him the way out. A national day of celebration will follow in Australia, one in which Livio Suppo, team boss at Repsol Honda, having been out-voted by marketing folks seeking an Australian Alien, may not be participating. Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Embed from Getty Images Johann Zarco Jonas Folger Hmmm. Two freshmen on the satellite Yamaha team. Herve Poncharal, team boss, has a thing for Folger; perhaps he likes the cut of his jib, but I haven’t seen much in the way of dominating performances in Moto2 to justify a promotion. Zarco arrived on the strength of having become the only rider in Moto2 to title twice, consecutively, and is probably disappointed at not having a factory bike of some kind at his disposal. Both riders will be on steep learning curves this year, although Zarco fared surprisingly well at the Malaysia test. He and Alex Rins figure to battle it out for rookie of the year honors. MoviStar Yamaha Factory Team Embed from Getty Images Valentino Rossi Maverick Vinales Lin Jarvis’ factory Yamaha team enters the season with GOAT candidate Valentino Rossi and the heir apparent, the aptly-named Maverick Vinales, recently graduated from a two-year riding academy with the factory Suzuki team. During those two years, he figured out how to win (Silverstone 2016) on a relatively slow bike. Now that he has earned arguably the fastest complete bike on the grid, great expectations abound. His “win” at the Sepang test in January affirms those who expect him to title in his first Yamaha season. Marc Marquez, reigning and triple world champion, has been encouraging this thinking, talking publicly about how concerned he is with Vinales. Intentionally adding to the pressure, getting inside Vinales’ head. Rossi-like. Embed from Getty Images Rule changes prohibit the protruding winglets frequently seen on bikes last year. Yamaha’s solution is to move its downforce-generating surfaces inside the fairing. Rossi maintains his Alien status, but it will be tested again this year. (Dani Pedrosa is now an Alien Emeritus.) He still has the passion and the conditioning and the experience. But does he have the reflexes and balance he did when he was 28? I think not. I think he is also less of a risk taker now than he was a decade ago. He will undoubtedly win some races this year, but may lose the season contest with his teammate, effectively ending their friendship for all time. The intra-team competition could tighten significantly, however, if Vinales finds himself cartwheeling through a lot of gravel traps this spring. Octo Pramac Yakhnich Ducati Embed from Getty Images Danilo Petrucci (GP17) Cheesed Off Scott Redding (GP16) The #2 Ducati team. Danilo Petrucci, the burly ex-cop, may find himself in the mix once in a while (probably in the rain) this season onboard the GP17 he won fair and square in the intra-team competition with Scott Redding last year. Redding, sadly, will not be in the mix on his GP16, as he seems unable to get over the hump in the premier class after a glittering (?) run in Moto2. With three name sponsors, it seems likely the team will have plenty of frames and fairings to replace for Redding as he goes bumping around the tracks of the world, muttering about how it just isn’t fair. Pull & Bear Aspar Team Ducati Embed from Getty Images Alvaro Bautista GP16 Karel Abraham GP15 A satellite Ducati team with upset potential. Alvaro Bautista, like Barbera, has been a consistent underachiever in the premier class. His own high-water mark occurred in 2008, when he finished second in the 250cc class behind a guy named Simoncelli. In 2012 and 2013 he flogged Fausto Gresini’s close-to-factory-spec Honda to 5th and 6th place finishes, respectively. Meanwhile, enter Karel Abraham, previously employed by his dad before serving a one-year sentence in WSB last year. He’s back, for whatever reason, this time on a GP15. Bautista has, over the years, shown moments of great skill and moments of sheer stupidity. This year, again mimicking Barbera, he has a chance to peek at a podium or two after two grinding years with Aprilia. This may also be the best bike he has ever ridden, although the Honda back in 2012-2013 was badass. We will stick our necks out here and predict zero podiums for the Aspar team in 2017. Reale Esponsorama Racing (formerly Avintia) Embed from Getty Images Hector Barbera (GP16) Too-Tall Loris Baz (GP15) Another second-string Ducati team that could surprise, 2017 features Barbera on a GP16 and Baz on a GP15. Hectic Hector’s career saw its high-water mark in the 250cc class in 2009 when he finished second to Hiro Aoyama. Once he arrived in MotoGP, never having been the beneficiary of first-class equipment, his career has leveled off. He has battled slow bikes, injury, and a low racing IQ to a series of undistinguished finishes. Last year he showed some improvement which, if it continues this year, could actually make him a consistent top-10 finisher. He’ll have to overcome the initial setback of a broken collarbone, suffered last week in training. Barbera is expected to miss this weekend’s final test at Qatar in order to be ready for the March 26 season opener. Embed from Getty Images The long-of-limb Loris Baz is a rarity in MotoGP these days. Meanwhile, young Frenchman Loris Baz, who is, like, 6-foot-3-inches tall, had an up and down second MotoGP season. Three distinct episodes of “start slowly, improve, then crash” marked his year, including a fourth-place finish at Brno and a fifth at Sepang. Riding a Ducati at his lofty height suggests he’ll prefer the long flowing circuits over the tight squinchy ones. He will need to learn to keep the bike upright if he is to continue in MotoGP. Red Bull KTM Factory Racing Embed from Getty Images Bradley Smith Pol Espargaro Teammates on the Tech 3 Yamaha for the past two seasons, these two get factory rides with the rookie KTM factory team. The Austrians have enjoyed decades of success elsewhere and feel it is but a matter of time before they start winning in MotoGP. Years, perhaps many, in my opinion, but what do I know? Of the two riders, I prefer Espargaro, a year younger, with a title under his belt in Moto2. Smith seems like a nice guy, but appears snake bit. It’s always something with Bradley – an injury, a mechanical issue, a head cold. Whatever. I will gladly back Espargaro this year in the intra-team rivalry, the only competition that will mean much of anything to this group. Embed from Getty Images Not his first rodeo, Pol Espargaro is ready to ride this (Red) Bull. The official factory rollout of the KTM entries in all three classes included words from the Chief Cheddar at KTM Itself, Stefan Pierer, announcing his intention to fight with Honda for a MotoGP world championship in the not-too-distant future. Patience, grasshopper. Repsol Honda Team Embed from Getty Images Dani Pedrosa Marc Marquez Along with the factory Yamaha and Ducati teams, HRC is royalty in the world of grand prix motorcycle racing. Repsol Hondas have been ridden by world champions Freddie Spencer, Eddie Lawson, Mick Doohan, Àlex Crivillé, Valentino Rossi, Nicky Hayden, Casey Stoner and Marc Marquez. Its prospects are decidedly mixed heading into 2017. With several new engines to figure out, the Sepang test was a bit of a struggle, with Marquez working hard to finish second behind Vinales, but able to deliver several impressive 20-lap race simulations. Appears to be another year in which Marquez will have to manage an inferior bike to battle for the title with the other Aliens. He did it last year. I believe Vinales will collect a number of wins and an equal number of DNFs on the factory Yamaha, allowing a mature Marquez to slug it out with Jorge, Dovi and Vale again this year. With two new riders, Suzuki Ecstar will not threaten. Iannone? Dovizioso? I think not. Embed from Getty Images Marc Marquez reportedly dislocated his shoulder in a private test at Jerez but he is expected to be ready for the start of the season. As for Dani Pedrosa, I look for him to finish seventh or eighth this season, as he has clearly lost a step since his prime in 2012. Whether he’s interested in serving as Marquez’ wingman in 2017 is problematic. If he slips out of the top 10, Honda may buy out his last year and bring Miller or, more likely, Crutchlow onto the factory team in 2018. Miller may blossom this year. Probably not. Team Suzuki Ecstar Embed from Getty Images Andrea Iannone Alex Rins The second most interesting team on the grid, a rapidly improving Suzuki will have two new riders in 2017. Andrea Iannone worked himself out of a job on the factory Ducati last season and landed with Suzuki, which may be a piece of good luck for both parties. Thus far in his premier-class career, Iannone has been unable to harness his impossible speed, his temperament and aggressiveness often getting the better of him. It would be loads of fun to see him battle with the front group this season, and it could happen. Unless The Maniac is still, well, a maniac. Alex Rins has had Alien written all over him since he was about 15. Although he never titled in the lower MotoGP classes, he recorded two seconds and two thirds in three Moto3 and two Moto2 seasons. The Rins and Marquez families do not exchange Christmas cards, setting up a new rivalry for the next few years while Rins earns his whiskers. He figures to become a problem for both Marquez and Vinales in that time. Definite Alien potential here. Embed from Getty Images Alex Rins is a strong candidate for rookie of the year honors. I see a couple of podiums in store for Suzuki in 2017, perhaps a handful. Unless the bike is greatly improved they may not compete for a win, but the Suzuki program seems to be progressing nicely. Perhaps 2018 will be their year. Phillip Island Test Three productive days of testing at Phillip Island in early February taught us little we did not already know. Marquez and Vinales seem to be running in a league of their own. Dani Pedrosa still has some juice left in the tank. And rookie Jonas Folger can coax at least one fast lap per day out of his Tech 3 Yamaha. Embed from Getty Images Maverick Vinales topped the time sheets at Phillip Island. Cal Crutchlow and rookie Alex Rins ran almost identical fast laps on Friday. Dovizioso and Lorenzo were running neck and neck for seventh and eighth places, respectively. Jack Miller, Aleix Espargaro and Alvaro Bautista finished ahead of Valentino Rossi, something you don’t get to report every day. And lots of disappointed Ducati riders (six of the bottom nine) muttering to themselves farther back in the dust. Not a great three days for Ducati Corse. Vinales is making it hard not to envision him clutching a world championship trophy in his first premier-class season. If he can stay within himself and not get overly excited, it could happen this year. Then, when Rins joins the fray in 2019… There you have it. Due to incessant demand, and for those of you interested in going into debt with your bookies, here’s my prediction for the Top 10 finishers, in order, for the 2017 season. Bookmark this article so you can rub it in my face in November. Expect a “404 Error Page Not Found” at that time, especially if I’m way off: Marc Marquez Maverick Vinales Valentino Rossi Andrea Dovizioso Cal Crutchlow Jorge Lorenzo Dani Pedrosa Alex Rins Andrea Iannone Alvaro Bautista Click to Post

[batsplat]

Rossi’s Credit: Laguna Seca 2013 // Assen 2015

Or: "At Assen, I realised he was only my friend when he beats me."

Laguna Seca 2013:

0:00

Q: After the race I saw Lin Jarvis [...] going into race direction to watch the overtake again. Did you know something about that or...

Rossi: Ah, so, he cut the track - he have to be disqualified! No, anyway, I think in 2008 I did one of the best overtaking… I want to say of the history I don’t know, maybe yes, and today Marc make the same. And you know, when you do a move like this, you have to risk and maybe something is not perfect for the rules, maybe I don’t know… but that corner is very tricky because [...] in the corkscrew you never see [...] where it’s finished, and I think it’s like this, I mean [...] it's right to do this overtake, and I will try to do a good overtake in the next races to Marc.

//

1:13

Q: Vale, Casey in 2008 complained because of your movement. How do you feel today being the other part of the action?

Rossi: For me, we have a very different character and approach to the race with Stoner. You know, I like, I mean it was a great overtake, when I was on the bike I say, fuck… I needed three, four corners [...] because I expect him from the other side [...] so he did something different. But need style, need different character for take the loser, for take one overtake like this. From one side I’m very not happy for the overtake, because he overtake me in a great way, but from the other side I know that now I have a [...] credit with him, so if I do one time with him, he cannot say nothing, so…

//

Assen 2015:

2:26

Marquez: [...] In the last lap I recover [the gap], and during all the race, I study perfect the last chicane, to put the bike on the correct place, to don’t give the space to him, but okay. I didn’t expect that he will cut. In the end, [...] what I feel is that we won the race, but okay now for me it doesn’t matter, five points more or less, but next races the most important is that we come back in a great level, and we will try to be there. 

//

2:57

Q: It’s a little bit a provocative question for you, Marc. Do you think that if it had not been Valentino the race direction might have had a different view of what happened, and were you expecting them to do something, or…

Marquez: I don’t know. Now, we will see in the future. When somebody will do, then we can say, ah, Valentino did so nothing happened, so we can do. 

Rossi: But we can see also in the past in Laguna Seca, he did so...

Marquez: Yeah, yeah! For that reason. 

Rossi: We don’t have to see in the future!

Marquez: The thing is, though, was not the last lap and was not the overtake for the win, for the victory.

[batsplat]

can’t ask via side blog so this is matchvedev 🫡 you mentioned catalunya in that reblog of vale celebrating his 100 wins… 👀 what’s the story behind that and are there any other fun anecdotes that come to your mind looking at that poster? only if you wanna talk about it ofc but super lowkey, just anything you might wanna talk about

(x) oh yeah sure! I'm gonna leave the other bits of the poster for another time because this post is already long enough and tbh I need to find a version where I can make out a little more of the poster. but I will at some point!!

so, assen 2009 was the race directly after catalunya - a race that valentino also of course just happened to win. it's actually super convenient that these were consecutive wins, because can you imagine if they'd had to lug that massive poster everywhere they went until valentino finally got his 100th? anyway, catalunya was very much the turning point of the 2009 season. going into that race, valentino was in a little bit of trouble... actually, y'know what I do have a post about this race already so I'm just gonna plagiarise from that:

so, long story short, obviously that race was a banger. if anyone reading this hasn't watched it, please go and do that. valentino won it with a final corner overtake on jorge at a bit of the track you're not supposed to be able to overtake at. every time this race comes up, I'm legally obligated to remind people jorge was going around telling pundits that as long as you're ahead going into the final two corners of the last lap, you're safe. which, obviously don't do that! casey did take a break from almost fainting so that he could rag on jorge for not preventing the overtake - not least since valentino had employed that overtake on casey two years earlier, which jorge was also aware of and was later kicking himself over (here, here and here, but don't click on that first link right now). so there's plenty of fun lore with that overtake... anyway, valentino goes full ham with his celebrations. he's now tied in the championship standings with casey and jorge. more importantly, he's shown that he's still got it AND he's beaten his annoying young teammate at home. he breaks out of parc fermé to accept the adulation of jorge's home fans and also interrupts jorge's interview to shake his opponent's hand... just in case jorge is less than generous after his brutal defeat, this interaction will be nicely caught on cameras and mics

there's one more thing he does in his celebrations - but we're going to need a bit more context here. let's go back a few years, to the early noughties. (I promise this is relevant.) now, fun story, did you know that casey was talent-spotted by dani's long-time manager alberto puig and that's where he knew dani from? (stick with me here.) also, did you know that this is actually the reason why dani and casey run consecutive numbers, 26 and 27 respectively? from casey's autobiography:

I'd wanted to use the number 66 when I raced, but another rider had taken it. Number 66, or 166 if there had to be three digits, had always been my number in dirt-track because Dad had used number 6. I had run 66 in the Aprilia Superteens but it had been taken in the British Championships so I'd used 48, which is what I was given. For the Spanish series Alberto had block-booked all the twenties for his riders and I was given the number 27. It was the number I would keep from then on.

and here's another bit later on:

Unfortunately my favourite number, 66, was again already taken, this time by the German rider Alex Hofmann, so we decided to stick with my number from the Spanish Championship, 27. That same year in the 125cc class Joan Olivé would be running number 25 and Dani Pedrosa number 26, so having the number 27 on the front of my bike was a subtle but nice way to maintain my association with Alberto and his team of riders and show my respect for him.

something nice about how those two numbers always remained linked, isn't there! now, back to jorge: for most of his career, he'd been running the number 48 (yes, coincidentally, the number casey had used in the british championships), in honour of his manager dani amatriain who he met when he was ten years old. more on their relationship here, but the most relevant bit is this:

so, until the start of the 2009 season, he'd had the number 48 on his bike (minus the one year where he ran the number one plate). he then had this massive and pretty traumatic falling out with his manager, and he went so far as to change his number to distance himself from the man:

which, good - it was obviously meaningful to him. he later chose to use the number one plate after his first premier class title but stuck to the 99 for the following two... in the end, he really made that number his own

except, one more thing. why 99? so apparently, he ran a fan poll at the end of 2008, and he chose the number that won. here, from an article after the 2015 season:

unfortunately, this doesn't give you a lot of detail about the fan poll... but if you get creative with the wayback machine, you can find an article from the motogp website from 2008 that gives you a little more to work with:

so he didn't really use a fan poll, he got the fans to just... slightly narrow down his preexisting choices. which is important context! fan poll this or that, he did basically choose the number himself

now, regrettably the next bit basically just urban legend. I have found no good source confirming this, it's just something you see on forum posts, it might just be conjecture. but... well, let's just take a second to consider who his three major rivals were at this point: dani, casey and valentino. and if we do some basic arithmetic...

26 + 27 + 46 = 99

look. I have zero evidence that this was actually the reasoning behind jorge's choice. but you have to admit it's one hell of a coincidence, and quite a funny one at that. there's something kind of charming about the idea that all four of those numbers ended up being connected in some way, first through the dani and casey thing and then by jorge linking all four of them together... and of course, it'd also be hilarious if this is how jorge approached choosing his number. 'actually, I'm all three of my rivals combined' - sorry, but I buy young jorge doing this. apart from anything else, that is a man who was canonically obsessed with his rivals, especially vale and dani. is this a dig at them or a tribute? both? neither? what's going on here? who's to say

maybe this isn't actually the explanation! either way, in 2009 jorge rocked up with his new number, having distanced himself from his manager and determined to be his own man now. he might have pretended like he didn't have big title ambitions for that season, but obviously he wanted this to be his year. at latest by the time he got to catalunya, he believed he could win this title and really wanted to beat valentino... he would have loved nothing more than to beat his teammate in a close and dramatic duel at home. except valentino gets the better of him, in pretty much the cruellest way imaginable

remember how we've established that assen was valentino's 100th victory? well, in an extremely annoying coincidence, catalunya of course just had to be valentino's 99th victory. because of course it was. and of course, because it's valentino, he does actually remember this while he's celebrating

funnily enough, the dorna commentators have no clue why he's doing this and are a little confused by valentino pointing at the 99 on jorge's bike. but I got it, valentino, don't worry! which is just... wonderfully irritating, isn't it. during his extremely extensive celebrations where he's really rubbing it in, taking control of the season and all that... he's also remembered exactly what number of wins he was on and decided to be an arsehole about it. think about all the things that had to play out the right way for this celebration to hit the way it did. even if you don't believe jorge's number was directly inspired by [valentino plus his other rivals], it was still a number he'd only gotten THAT year, just in time for this duel. of all the wins that could've given him 99, it had to be one of the very finest of valentino's career. it's just. so annoying

which brings us to assen 2009, victory number 100. they had two weeks to complete their lovely poster and choose the photo they'd take for victory number 99. of course, there's really only one way you can go here:

now, some scholars may recognise this photo as the 'knee retraction shot', where they got very close to making contact. this is headed down the main straight on the penultimate lap, where jorge has overtaken valentino on the straight but valentino has taken the outside line to out-brake jorge in order to reovertake him... and he's so close he actually has to briefly retract his knee to get past (see here for a little more detail). on the final lap, jorge does flirt with running valentino off the track to prevent this, so he did learn his lesson! still, it's the perfect shot: you've got the two numbers clearly displayed and they couldn't be closer together (actually *checks motegi 2010 notes* I suppose you can get them a little tighter still). yes, it's the obvious choice for the 99th victory photo - but again, incredibly annoying behaviour from valentino

one more fun thing: there was actually a second dramatic duel between jorge and valentino in 2009 that unfortunately has gotten forgotten about a little bit. this one was at the sachsenring, and again valentino emerged on top... another decisive blow against his young teammate's morale in a title fight he was increasingly in control of. let's just quickly check in on the painfully slim winning margin

now, I have zero proof for this, but in my heart I truly 100% believe that valentino both noticed and appreciated the coincidence. this whole thing is just very him, isn't it? jorge changes his number for deeply personal reasons, goes through some extensive introspection and an overly convoluted public process to choose his new number which may or may not have been directly inspired by his closest rivals... and then valentino (with an assist from the whole bloody universe, apparently) spent the next half year making this into another new fun part of valentino's story. it's valentino's super special 99th career win! it's part of the 100 career wins poster now! what a lovely coincidence, isn't valentino lucky! doesn't everything just somehow work out perfectly for him! wouldn't he fucking infuriate you! god

[batsplat]

Quick questions about Casey

1. You mentioned something about his back, did he have back issues

2. When was he diagnosed with his chronic illness and what was it (I wanna say it’s sleep related)

3. I read that he hated that the Ducati has yellow on it when Vale switched over

(Not a question but I watched hitting the apex recently and man Casey saying not gonna lie I enjoyed watching him suffer more then we did is the hater levels I want to reach but also your ambitions outweighed your talent iconic)

Did you see that Vale did a interview/show thing in Italy and they asked if his balls were named Casey and Marc like wild stuff is happening over there

in order:

1) back pain: yes, he had back issues going back to an injury sustained at assen 2003. from his autobiography -

After crashing out of the lead group again at Barcelona I was chasing Jenkner for the win in wet conditions at Assen but Dovi's bike missed a gear and I hit his back wheel and ended up in the gravel trap. I had to lay the bike down before I hit a wall. (That crash would affect more than one race; the back injury I sustained would go on to plague my career.)

and he's discussed the issue post-retirement (x):

Basically with chronic fatigue, I can't keep myself fit and healthy. I have a problem with my ribs, and I often suffer from back pain. I have some disks that put pressure on my nerves and cause spasms. I've improved by taking new medication, but I can't train or go out and do things.

apart from the sepang 2006 flare up discussed in this post, there were a couple other major recurrences during his career. first off, estoril 2011, where casey's back suddenly started causing him excruciating pain during the race (x):

and from his autobiography:

My chances of chasing [Jorge and Dani] for the win at Estoril were ruined on the first lap by Marco Simoncelli - who cut me off in turn one and then crashed right in front of me in turn four - as well as my old back injury from 2003, which flared up again. At some point during that race I felt my back completely lock up on me and I couldn't move for three or four corners. I was struggling to do anything and could hardly breathe so for a moment I thought I would have to pull in but thankfully within half a lap it eased up a little, got better and we managed to finish in third place.

lastly, casey had to miss a day of pre-season testing in early 2012 (x):

“I was stretching this morning for a good 20 minutes preparing to go out on track for the first time and then all of a sudden my back just locked up on me,” Stoner said. “I couldn’t move or do anything. I had to call someone to come and help me move into a position that was less painful! “Then I had some physio on it straight away trying to get it better for this afternoon, but it wasn’t feeling good. I had some more physio after lunch, but it still wasn’t easing up. I felt I could have gone out on the bike in the afternoon, but we all agreed it would probably make it worse for tomorrow.

and from his autobiography:

The new RC213V was fantastic but I couldn't even ride it on the first day of the test because of my old back injury, which flared up again when I was warming up. I must have been stretching for a good twenty minutes and then all of a sudden my back just locked up on me. I couldn't move or do anything - I had to call someone to come and help me move into a position that was less painful.

so yeah. nasty injury. I think that one and the wrist were probably the worst continuous problem zones for casey

2) casey was advised he had chronic fatigue syndrome way back in 2006 - but the diagnosis on its own didn't necessarily mean either he or the doctors knew how badly the condition was affecting him. he certainly didn't think it was a satisfactory explanation of his mystery illness in 2009 when he was forced to step away for several races. during that time, he eventually identified lactose intolerance as the culprit - which a helpful anon a few months back informed me makes sense as a comorbidity with chronic fatigue. he was able to improve his health in 2009 by cutting lactose out of his diet, though it was only after his career that he came to better understand the full impact chronic fatigue syndrome was having on him

3) yeah, I mean, there's one mention of casey hating valentino's yellow on the ducati in his autobiography, which has been posted in this parish and I do admittedly enjoy referring back to a lot. just one of those fun accidentally revealing lines, casey's always good for those. the key thing here, right, is that objectively this bike is not inappropriately yellow. there are many bikes out there that have made more extensive use of a secondary colour specific to the rider, which if anything is extremely helpful when you're watching the races. valentino's ducati is a red bike with a yellow number on it. sure, there's riders who just stick with a white number - like the dani/marc honda era, which was just annoying any time they're close to each other on the track. jorge has a red number, and it makes the yamaha era fights with valentino more watchable. also, take a wild guess who else had a personalised colour scheme. rhymes with 'moaner'. it's really just not in any way remarkable, right

so either casey's perception or his memory or his commitment to honesty is out of whack here. I already posted this photo a while back but just for context, here's valentino and casey's ducati bikes side by side:

from the way casey talks, you'd think valentino had thrown a bucket of fluorescent paint over the thing. sure, valentino's seat has a little yellow on it - but given how you'd generally expect that thing to be covered up, this should not be a deal breaker. at this point what it comes down to is whether you aesthetically prefer the colour yellow or the australian flag

and what is so fun about this is... it's not just that casey was paying attention to how much yellow was on the ducati. it's not just that he commented on it at some point. it's the fact that it made it all the way to his autobiography. let's assume casey isn't just being a dick here and knowingly exaggerating... I mean, even if his assessment of the colour scheme were accurate, this would still be a petty thing to bring up. ducati is not going to 'destroy their brand' by running a yellow-ish motogp bike for two years. not to be too cynical here but. it is also hard to take casey's concern for ducati's brand integrity particularly seriously. something about how casey wants to provide evidence for how valentino made motogp worse in basically every way imaginable... like casey takes such a big picture view with valentino, where he does manage to thematically tie him in with 90% of casey's problems with the sport. even with the colour scheme

idk it's just so charming to me because it's SUCH a cheap shot. each valentino feud has its own distinctly fun feel... and there's just something with this one where. y'know. it's not like they're making each other 'worse people' exactly, but they DO have the ability to drag each other down into the absolute dredges. they just make each other PETTY. like valentino always had an ability to get under casey's skin, sometimes on purpose but often just kind of accidentally... whereas casey had to put in the hard work in order to become really, really good at pissing valentino off. and by the end of their rivalry they'd gotten so skilled at pushing each other's buttons that you've got casey still thinking post-retirement about how much he fucking hated valentino's bike colour scheme

casey probably really did remember that bike as being offensively yellow, which just implies a pleasing level of attention being paid to valentino at all times. even when casey really didn't have much reason to be paying attention to valentino as a competitive threat. just this intense preoccupation with all he saw of valentino for years and years. imagine worming your way into the head of a competitor to such an extent that you're at risk of giving them a pavlovian response to a primary colour. beautiful

end notes: yes, schadenfreude is Good. it's fun how much casey's leaned into that angle in his own narrativisation of his rivalry, again comes back to all those handy communication skills he learned along the way. really understood the narrative oomf of the jerez 2011 incident (a bit more on that here and here). and on that last bit. I'm gonna be honest, as a rule I keep up with nothing athletes do after their career is over unless it's relevant to their actual careers. so I have... no clue what this is referring to and. uh. I feel like I'm missing a bit of context there

[batsplat]

i really want to hear your opinion on this. I feel like some people underestimate pecco a lot. most of the people I’ve seen on here are talking like it’s certain that marc will do better than pecco next year, but I’ll be surprised if it’ll be actually like this. pecco has way more experience on the ducati and nobody understands the ducati like pecco does. see race weekends like assen or mugello, he’s literally unstoppable and I feel like he’s even holding back. plus pecco is 26yo and he’s in his prime and probably will be for at least two more years before the decline inevitably begins, and he’s injury free! but the real advantage he has over marc, in my opinion, is that he literally lives under pressure and he already knows that marc will try to hit him on the track and above all mentally. he knows what he is getting into. when he talks about wanting to maintain harmony in ducati it’s because he’s already aware that marc will ruin it. like yeah ppl r saying a lot that marc is going to destroy pecco and all that, but right now the facts state that pecco is a 2 times wdc back to back (probably 3 by the end of this year) and right now on the ducati he’s the best rider of the grid. marc won his last wdc in 2019, it’s been years since he won, and he got his arm fucked up in the process. so yeah marc will try everything to destroy pecco but he needs to be careful to not destroy himself in the process. (this is not marc hate, I’m just tired of seeing people understanding pecco)

first of all, I'm broadly with you on a lot of this, anon, though I wouldn't quite as far as to say I'm predicting pecco to beat marc. second of all, I do think I have a bit of a problem where I have my rational sports brain - but I also have the other less rational bits of my brain. and some of those irrational bits are currently stuck in this mode where I have two different fundamentally contradictory mindsets that are kinda... mental blocks in terms of me predicting what will actually happen next year

mental block #1 is 'you've been following sports all your life and you know how this goes'. like, I've kinda been conditioned to think if you aren't a wunderkind, one of the talents of the century, already a megastar when you were in your nappies bla bla, you're basically fucked? certainly fucked when you are going up against one of those prodigies. you may get close and trick everyone into thinking it's actually possible, but... idk. this is a mindset that broadly stood me in good stead when I started watching motogp, like you just don't bet against fuck you talent. something like 2017, I never really thought marc was going to lose that title. so when I look at marc and pecco, however much I rate pecco there's a bit of my brain that automatically goes 'yeah but marc will win anyway'. it's that kind of... sometimes things that look slim differences in sports, margins that should be small aren't actually small at all, and in a way the end outcome feels like it was always kinda inevitable. I get that same sense when I'm watching 2005 last lap duels between sete and valentino - these are situations where you both parties should have a decent shot, but somehow you know that if you ran the simulation one hundred times, it'd basically always go one way. it's the illusion of competitiveness. one guy's always got something a little bit extra in the back pocket

mental block #2 is that it's actually been really fucking long since I've seen marc win and there's been a lot of false dawns on this front. I thought he'd win the title in 2020. I kinda thought he'd win the title in 2021. I was at least open to the possibility he'd win it in 2022. okay, in 2023... but you could still go 'yeah but he's finally physically fit now' (or, well, you could until the first race weekend was done). and honestly? gut feeling, I was feeling pretty bullish about 2024, partly because I didn't think the gap between the bike specs would be this noticeable. so by now it's a bit? you know, I kinda need to see him win again to believe it? which he probably does too, just a touch, and that makes it a completely different proposition from all those other titles... within this sport in particular, it's really not that easy to recover from years in the wilderness. you never really know if he can get close to handling the field like he did in his prime until he does it again. and... however impressive I've found him this season, which I really, absolutely have, I still haven't seen that from him. I also feel like currently... the magic is still there but his pace is so fragile, and that used to be the really scary thing about him - the relentlessness of his pace. this year, it's one lap pace, it's weekend to weekend, it's how sometimes he's slower in races than you thought he'd be - and yes, there are all these other explanations, but... well, again, if the bike is holding him back, if it's the ducati adaptation period, then that's all well and good. but I'm not really going to feel that's true until I actually see the next step

now obviously both of those things can't be true - and the fun thing about next year is that I don't actually feel it's a done deal. because, yes, people do underestimate pecco. and also because, yes, there's still some real question marks about the version of marc we're getting. just look at this sachsenring situation... obviously 'someone could get injured' is quite a depressing way to look at future title fight permutations, but you can't really treat it as a certainty that it won't happen, no? I feel like one element of last year that doesn't quite get the attention it deserves is that pecco was winning that title a whole lot more comfortably before a bike ran over his leg. the race right after that was misano, where pecco had won the two previous years and there's zero reason to believe he couldn't have done so again rather than take two laboured p3's. that's not a title fight anyone's primarily remembering as an injury arc (cf too the le mans crash) - but it clearly did play a big role and could easily have been decisive, without actually taking out one of those two contenders of competition. marc used to win his titles with a whole lot of throwing himself down the road to find the limit of his bike, but he can't afford to do that any more (if he ever could). we still need to see what version of marc we're getting, if we're getting a version who can just be fast anywhere come sunday - or a very good version of marc who isn't quite that. who knows exactly how much worse the gp23 is than the gp24! who knows how much more there still is to come in terms of ducati potential from marc! we have rough indications, but it's far from definitive. maybe one of them doesn't click at all with next year's bike! we'll only know when we see it play out!

and yet I still expect deep down that marc wins that. it's just kinda supreme belief in his fuck you levels of talent, the belief that he'll figure it out somehow because I've seen him do it so many times. and of course, the other big problem is we don't know what version of pecco we're getting! I have talked before about how historically unusual pecco is as a champion in many ways, which for me always makes it quite tricky to figure out what he'll do in basically any situation. like, where is his ceiling? is he still going to get better? is he going to get his act together? my problem is that I feel like I enter every single season going 'yeah I reckon this year pecco will get his act together, ugh he's going to dominate the field' and then it's just a bit? is this just who you are as a rider, or is this something you can still change?

the thing is, with my fullest respect to pecco's titles, however much I enjoyed those train wrecks, obviously you cannot do this against a version of marc marquez that is remotely up to scratch. like, you just cannot. pecco cannot do a 2022 and expect to win the title. against an even slightly serious version of marc marquez. on the same bike. pecco can't really do a 2023 either. I'll give him a pass for some of those late season results, but if you're chucking it down the road that often early on then, yeah, no

that being said... low key if you ignore all the little numbers, this year is actually a serious title fight...?

like I am always aware that acknowledging this could make them both dnf five times in a row but...? there's one sunday race one of them haven't won, and cota is its own thing. everything else...? whisper it softly but this is a good title fight? 2022-23 were sort of accidentally good because everyone's errors and runs of good forms and performance trajectories just kinda coalesced so you got late season drama, but this? consistent high level of performance from both blokes, decent wheel-to-wheel action between both title rivals at several different races (definitely more than in 2015 and everyone remembers that as a classic, also on course to be more than in 2013 and most years 2007-12). idk, at what point do we just have to acknowledge these guys are pretty good at what they do? sure they're on the strongest bike, as are the vast majorities of blokes who win titles historically. but bastianini's reasonably highly rated and he's not even gotten particularly close to winning a sunday race this year on the exact same bike - one p2 on merit snagged on the last lap and another one less on merit when vinales was highsided to the moon for mechanical reasons right ahead of him. yes, the title contenders have had some howlers... pecco's portimao and catalunya sprints were... well, y'know, and martin's jerez race and mugello sprint were also... y'know. but apart from that?

idk man... we can cry over photos of casey on his gp7 all we like, but at the end of the day these twits have come out with some class performances these last two years. and at a certain point you've just gotta hand it to them. they've become more experienced at how to manage a title fight, which is how you get a version of martin this year who is still fast but is less likely to phillip island it. some of those performances late last season were great! for every martin qatar and pecco india, you also get a martin thailand and a pecco indonesia. maybe they'll stop chucking it down the road so often, or maybe they'll keep chucking it but so will marc, because these days they have ridiculously many opportunities to do so! I also think it's worth pointing out that minus some questionable early season form from pecco, those two are basically always on the pace! they're always there or thereabouts! that's how marc used to kill his title rivals, not necessarily by winning a bunch of races but by making sure he was always picking up points - because he didn't have any truly slow weekends. these guys don't either at the minute! we are seeing them actually get better in front of our eyes, it's great

the other stuff... oof, I don't know what pecco's prime will end up being - remember, actually he's low key already edging out of title-winning age. he's now 27. this century, only two riders have won titles when they were older than 26 - valentino twice and jorge once. obviously, that's partly happenstance, and you don't suddenly get struck down by 'being washed' lightning when you turn 27... plus on the flip side, I also think the fact that pecco has only reached his prime relatively recently means he could have quite a few more years to go. who knows! who knows if marc being increasingly more breakable becomes a big factor! recovering from injuries gets tougher the older you get and the more knocks you've taken! on the other point, the ducati is a bike pecco knows very very well and has a lot of time riding... but broadly speaking I do trust marc with a year's worth of experience get as much out of that bike as he ever will. just the fuck you talent again. we don't know what that performance level looks like, but I don't think it'll be a question of familiarity any more at that stage

so where does that all leave us? do I really want to be making motogp predictions this far in advance? yeah, sure. if I had to put money on it, I'd still back marc, I think? but I really do hope we get a proper fight, and I really do think we might! I'm far from convinced in writing off pecco. basically *grabs the crystal ball, aka checks the races we've literally just watched* let's say pecco absolutely dogwalks the field at a few circuits. like maybe a mugello, an assen, a cute qatar, even a catalunya now he's faced down his demons (though maybe jorge on that aprilia goes bye bye at montmelo). then give marc his races where he laps the field twice in cota and sachsenring. and we're going to get a few classic duels, for the fans. if those duels happen at the mugello's and catalunya's of this world, pecco's might be in deep shit. if they happen at the misano's and aragon's and maybe even jerez's, we can get something going. they both have at least one silly early season crash (also kinda tradition for marc outside of his peak peak seasons lbr) and everyone gets to call pecco a bottler and crank out the good ol' crashquez. and then hopefully we can massage those numbers enough that pecco isn't crashing three times to marc's one and we actually get a proper title fight. and hopefully they don't get injured too badly. I've said this before, but I could easily see a title fight where pecco wins most of the big duels but his inconsistencies let him down. if his bad days are p3's, however, or if marc himself is a bit flaky at times, then we're suddenly having a very different conversation (also don't feel that comfortable in writing off aprilia/ktm and their respective star riders, especially in year two of the factory ducati partnership)

one thing about pecco (that you do also bring up anon)... if there's one trait in his competitive makeup that most reminds me of marc, it's his resilience. he's very good at bouncing back, he's very good at dealing with adversity, a lot of the times he's at his best when he's under ridiculous amounts of pressure... if anything, he's worse when he has reason to feel confident. it comes through both in what a class defensive rider he is and how good he is at dealing with title fight pressure. if there is ever a time where he mentally gets his act together at the very start of the season, surely it's going to be when he has the famous marc marquez in his garage. if that doesn't do it, literally nothing ever will. and listen, knowing marc will try to mess with you isn't quite the same as being able to stop him from messing with you. wanting to maintain harmony doesn't mean your chances of maintaining harmony are necessarily great. but... you know, pecco got his first ever win by defending against marc lap after lap, facing essentially the most stressful situation imaginable with the 93 on his tail. marc made him a better rider that day. marc might make him a better rider next year too... you never know

[batsplat]

at least motogp channel did put sete in valentino’s rivalries vid for their vale tribute HA the valentino snipers did not get to them in time ig https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=63oLIUbRT6M

(video) it's still one of the Big Five Feuds!! admittedly to most people it's fifth of fifth, but it can't be displaced!! he had two title fights with the man!! pepperidge farm will NOT forget!!

genuinely when I sat down to watch the 2004 season for the first time and watched mugello, catalunya, assen... honestly I think I may have watched them straight up in a row because I just couldn't stop myself? like that shit hit SO good and I had this moment of?? why isn't everyone talking about these races ALL THE TIME. I'd never even heard them mentioned?? and okay the answer to that could be 'well they happened in 2004', but they don't even come up that much in discussion of old races!! they're all bangers, they're all DIFFERENT bangers, a real range of flavour that all heavily feature the same two title protagonists. they change the championship picture completely in a way where okay with the benefit of hindsight you can go 'oh ho ho valentino was always going to win that title' - well no he wasn't! valentino showed up in mugello with the wooden medal helmet for a reason! it was his first yamaha season and after that initial welkom high, he did look like he was in trouble! and you get those races to completely change the tone of the title fight?? not crashes, not just dumb mistakes, a direct contest! individually all three of those races would be a decent shout for best or second best race in a lot of seasons, let's be honest. as back-to-back-to-back races, the only trio of races that is even in the same DIMENSION this century are austria/silverstone/misano 2019 - which is undoubtedly a great shout too in all being bangers and having a sort of mini storyline arc with a fantastic conclusion, but it does feature different protagonists and also has less than zero championship implications. plus the biggest interpersonal relationship story we got out of that trio involved a rider who literally wasn't even involved in any of those duels, which is objectively pretty funny and speaks to the lasting power of that particular feud - BUT!! it's not quite the same thing as the 2004 trio

genuinely valentino is so lucky biaggi showed up at welkom to do the dramatic duel with him so that's the crowning achievement everyone remembers from the yamaha switch. like the way the pr works is that - well, people vaguely remember biaggi being the big rival for valentino at some point in his early years and valentino beat him at welkom for his first yamaha win so that might as well be the only important race of that season?? which. the biaggi thing ALREADY wasn't the main rivalry at the start of 2004!! valentino's getting away with a massive act of historical revisionism through dumb coincidence!! literally you can make the argument that this is the only real one-on-one race duel biaggi and valentino EVER have, it's not their only memorable battle (suzuka + phillip island 2001 obviously) but it is the only one in that category of race-long one-on-one! and it just HAPPENED to fall exactly then, which is obviously extremely valentino because he loves having everything work out that way for narrative reasons. but it's also super convenient! by the evidence of the entire 2003-05 period, it is so so so much more likely that duel happens with sete! it'd be unfair to call it a biaggi cameo appearance since he was still a serious factor until honda promoted him to their factory team in 2005 (I have many unanswered questions about what on earth honda was doing with their line up for much of the early noughties) and finished p3 in the standings in both 2003 as 2004, plus there was a time in 2004 where biaggi was super close to the championship lead after... uh. rio? actually no I double checked, after sachsenring he was a point off valentino. point being, biaggi was absolutely a factor but not really in terms of on-track battles!! the actual duels were happening almost entirely between valentino and sete, with ONE exception. of course valentino gets to say his favourite career win was against biaggi. twat

anyway after writing all this out. I did actually click on the video. and. they left oUT ASSEN 2004!! THEY LEFT IT OUT!! THAT WAS THE BEGINNING OF THE END YOU FOOLS YOU AMATEURS THERE WAS LAST LAP CONTACT!! WHAT MORE DO YOU NEED TO INCLUDE A RACE?? IS A LAST LAP OVERTAKE WITH SUBSEQUENT CONTACT WITH OBVIOUS POST-RACE TENSION NOT ENOUGH FOR YOU??? WHAT'S THE STANDARD HERE??

on the other hand, you could say that if a rivalry is so high quality on track that they don't even include a race like that, then it has to be an absolute all timer. I rest my case