#casey/valentino have admittedly taken things out of my hands but it's not really paid any dividends yet

[batsplat]

well bat you can’t just drop that you’re a signed up expert on the 2006 250 cc szn and not share WHY (unless you already have ofc…..I’m so sorry tumblr search is so ass) please divulge!! I see bb Jorge domination from the wiki 👀 also Aleix…Dovi…and Chaz Davies entered under like 5 different teams omfg what was going on w Casey’s bestie that year

JORGE DOVI TITLE FIGHT JORGE DOVI TITLE FIGHT omg, I'm like the #1 scholar of 2006-07 250cc era (admittedly another one of those fields where I'm not exactly getting a lot of competition on this website, guys please they're so funny). my short thesis for their 250cc vibe is here, where I described it as the huis clos of teenage motorcycle racing. which!! it is

also jorge categorically did NOT dominate that season, he scored only 17 more points than dovi!! but the thing is that jorge wins WAY more races than dovi does (the races dovi win are pretty cool, mind) - it's as close as it is because jorge is a bit less consistent and also tends to stink up the place in the wet. and then 2007 is a way more dominant season... still, broadly everyone's very impressed with dovi because the consensus is that dovi's honda is way way inferior to jorge's aprilia. see from the 2008 season preview (x):

MotoGP has received a welcome injection of young blood this year, and all of the rookies have been fast. The first question we hoped to see answered is the duel between Jorge Lorenzo and Andrea Dovizioso. Last year, Dovi managed to make Lorenzo's life very difficult, despite being on vastly inferior machinery. This year, the Italian is only on slightly inferior equipment, and will be hungry for revenge. Lorenzo, for his part, will want to make his mark on the series, and get a good finish to establish his place in the hierarchy, which he feels is really at the very pinnacle.

(this is also what sets up dovi being late noughties motogp forums' darling, like I cannot emphasise enough how much they LOVED that guy in 2008. plucky underdog syndrome)

it's a big dovi story point that him sticking with honda during 250cc is like,, a real act of loyalty. and initially it gets paid off when he gets the repsol honda ride in 2009, and then it gets rather less paid off when it all becomes a bit ugly in 2010-11 (more on that here). so it's not even that dovi's defeats during 250cc reflect BADLY on him.... but. but!! the joy of it is that these two SO clearly do not fuck with each other that the vibes are just consistently DREADFUL. in really fun ways!! you've obviously always got these great podium photos where one guy aggressively does not want to be there

generational vibes mismatch

it's also just so AWKWARD because dovi just doesn't really care to engage with jorge AT ALL and jorge is playing out all these sports movie narratives in his head where dovi is like,, his great teenage rival who he learns so much from fighting before joining the big leagues. dovi is not interested in being jorge's great teenage rival. and jorge is just so dramatically undersocialised that his attempts to sidle up to dovi and engage with him are consistently very funny to watch. cf something like sepang 2006... jorge is always trying so so hard. not always clear WHAT he's trying but he sure is trying

and 2007 adds another great twist with this, where jorge shows up with increasingly zany celebrations. so dovi's not only being beaten but he's also having to watch his title rival like,, show up in full gladiator kit. which is just. not dovi's vibe. regular reminder that jorge had a dovi mask made but unfortunately never used it:

as far as WE know, he still has that thing. anyway please just take a moment to picture dovi's reaction to jorge lorenzo showing up with a mask of his face. just let that image sit there for a moment in your mind's eye. appreciate it

what dovi had going for him those years was, a) the power of his contempt and distaste for jorge, and b) the ability to remind everyone of how underpowered his bike was. and both of those things were perfect to very much GET to jorge, like it genuinely would've been easier for him if dovi could've had the decency to openly despise him. he wants some feisty rivalries!! not dovi just staring at him like he's dirt on his shoe and then turning away omg. here's jorge about dovi in 2008 (from the longer post about the jorge/dovi feud):

'play the victim' godddd you can really picture dovi doing his factual neutral little just :) telling :) it :) like :) it :) is :) lines about how shit his bike is while jorge is having so many emotions he's going to explode. you get the sense jorge felt dovi was always looking down on him, like it's SUCH an unpleasant vibe... and jorge basically confirmed that's exactly what was going on when he said the following in 2018, during their teammate stint:

DURING MY WHOLE CAREER TRIED TO UNDERMINE MY MORALE likeeee this goes SO far back... jorge seeing dovi as this kind of condescending know-it-all who has always thought he's smarter than jorge... it's such a horrid little dynamic with two fundamentally clashing characters repeatedly trapped together, all of jorge's brash earnestness constantly colliding against the wall that is dovi's cold disinterest. funny in every single iteration, I'm so so glad they got to be title rivals for two years to consolidate their life-long loathing of each other. now THERE is a reconciliation that is not happening any time soon. anyway, if literally a single person is interested in more in-depth discussion of the 2006-07 250cc seasons and the actual races therein, lmk