#world ducati week

[promiscuousasexual]

pecco and marc being besties at world ducati week

[evenwiththebestofintentions]

album dropping when?

[legomotogp]

World Ducati Week 2024 🏍️😎👑 Pecahkan Rekor! WDW 2024 Hebat Abis!

[pushlikeabastard]

Enea Bastianini, Francesco Bagnaia, Nicolò Bulega and Alvaro Bautista at WDW 2024

[willownwisp]

ree's leon valentine's day advent <3

hi everyone. <3 as the leon kennedy fluff truther, i'm making an advent for valentine's day because pookie deserves so much love! everyday, i'll be posting a fic ranging from nsfw/sfw fluff for babu leon, i'll be putting out the scenarios and snippets below if y'all are interested. author's note: i've been meaning to put this out like a week ago when i finally figured out the problem w my account as to why tumblr wasn't letting me reply to comments :( but sadly, college got me so head empty. anyway, i've already got 2 days worth of fics already finished so i hope y'all can give me a read. <3

FEBRUARY 8 𖹭 nice legs, daisy dukes. (vendetta!leon x fem!reader) Leon feels like a creep, fuck that. He definitely looks like a creep. Thirty-six year old in all of his 5'11 glory standing outside his girlfriend's college leant against his Ducati like a dick, carrying a box of those, instagrammable pastries you always like to look at. It doesn't hurt to be sweet. Not when you walk — run, at the sight of him in your preppy mini dress, highlighting those long, long legs. Nothing is sweeter, especially when it's wrapped around him.

FEBRUARY 9 𖹭 starry skies, blue eyes. (re4r!leon x fem!reader) Stars dot stygian skies, the night is young, the moon is high. Leon's heart soars with your every laughter. The way your eyes close and your nose scrunches. God he was so in love with you, he could forgive the fact that the tent should have been up hours ago before night. You swear you remember your knots from your wide-eyed Girl Scout days, and he swears these silly moments with you are what makes life bearable.

FEBRUARY 10 𖹭 cold woes. (re4r!leon x fem!reader) Leon S. Kennedy. The apple of his instructors' eyes (and yours), he's a top graduate in the Police Academy for fuck's sake. He's decimated hordes of zombies in his first day as a rookie cop. Endured military training in the middle of nowhere, he's saved the President's daughter. He doesn't get sick. Only that he does catch a cold at the expense of prioritizing you, his clumsy girlfriend, who forgot to wear a jacket on a camping trip, offering his warm clothes to you. He doesn't regret it, he likes taking care of you, but there's something adorable about your sheepish apologies as you wait on him. He could get used to being babied. FEBRUARY 11 𖹭 love on me. (di!leon x fem!reader) As much as Leon loves the sun, the beaches, the tropics. Oh what he would give to become a beach bum in his next life instead of being smacked by bioweapons day in, night out, and being a good bitch to good ol' U.S of A. Unfortunately, after the events of Alcatraz, maybe he's had enough of the sea for now. He gives himself a pat on the back, takes out a chunk of his savings to go to Japan because you've been eyeing it. You said you were interested in the food, culture, and sights. So why in the world were you dragging him to a love hotel? FEBRUARY 12 𖹭 fill up your cup. (re6!leon x fem!reader) He feels himself spiraling recently, turning to the bottle because a glass is never troubled by his woes. He breaks them of course, can't help it, seems like his life is doomed to him breaking in the end. Fragments of glass scatters on the floor, vodka spills on the floor splashes it around like his grief because his body can only take so much. You arrive as he tries to pick them up, attempts to pick himself up. You whisper assurance, he doesn't deserve it. The way you look at him ardently, the gentleness that is your existence. You empty out his pain, and fill it with love. FEBRUARY 13 𖹭 the thrill, the love. (damnation!leon x fem!reader) He wills his old Yamaha to go faster. Your dainty arms clinging to him, the softness of your touch as his speed breaks the sound barrier. What started as mere curiosity turns into rituals. Secrets that only the both of you know. He knocks on your door at midnight, drives you around town. He scolds you every time your arm breaks free, throwing them to the wind. You don't care, you love the thrill, you love him. Leon admits that there is something alluring to the thrill of the chase. Perhaps that's why he's spent his years chasing Ada, but with you it was different. FEBRUARY 14 𖹭 kiss it better. (di!leon x fem!reader) Leon is a man full of stories, his pain, his peace, his fears, his needs. There is more to him than just being a formidable weapon against bioterrorism. He never was a weapon, just a flesh and blood human, and in his mortality there are scars. Deep within him, and littered in his skin. You kiss the faded slash on his hand, he tells you how he'd got it from when Ashley Graham had tried to stab him under the influence of the plaga. You kiss it again, and what he doesn't tell you is the wave of warmth that washes his entire being, it tugs on his very soul. You kiss the scars because it's there, because it's him, and in his reverie, he thinks you truly are his person.

[leoisstillalive]

1.1k word draft of a new fic i'm writing! it started as a one chapter fic with maybe 7k words but it has quickly spiralled out of my control.

[summary: it's mid-2025 and ducati want to do a weekend-long media event at vale's ranch to explore pecco's training grounds- but, to valentino's dismay, they want marc to be involved.]

"You're joking."

Valentino's face was pale, sickly and serious, brows tucked together in a stern line.

He had been loading the trunk of the car he would drive to the airport- a miserable twelve-hour flight to Japan awaiting him the next weekend- when his phone buzzed insistently in his pocket. He had ignored it the first time, letting it ring out as he tucked his bags precariously atop one another. It was probably Uccio, anyway. He could wait.

The sun had been shining with the last of its heat before the midst of Autumn swept it away, and the doves cooed happily in the trees that lined the driveway with nought but the wind to disrupt them. Early mornings were always peaceful at the Ranch, far from main roads and the comings and goings of the town. That morning had been quiet as usual, but the serenity was shattered by another phone, that time it was his landline clanging from past the open door of the house.

He had huffed, lowered the door shut with a muted thonk and hurried indoors. When he had unhooked the phone, some Ducati media officer was on the other end, already sounding impatient.

After a rather hurried practice of textbook small talk- and Valentino spouting a poor excuse for why he ignored the first call- she had wasted no time stating her business, letting Valentino privy to a plan for a media visit to the Academy Ranch to explore where 'Pecco Bagnaia learns from the very best' (and Vale should have rolled his eyes over the flattery, but he always loved it, and that was probably what lulled him into that false security).

He had approved of the idea immediately, any excuse to show off his playground and get some good press- demonstrate how fine of a mentor he was, et cetera.

Then, just as he began to suggest that the week coming would likely be best as it was the final race of the European leg and it was in Misano- very close to the ranch itself- she interrupted him with some of the worst news he had ever been delivered.

"It would be very convenient if you could provide lodging-" She had started after he voiced his enthusiastic agreement to the plan.

"Sì, sì," He had cut her off, "Allora, I can set him up--"

"And for Márquez, of course."

That shut him up.

There had been a long, drawn-out silence on both ends of the line as Valentino processed her words. He had furrowed his brows and pursed his lips, searching the blank wall before him for the answers to his many questions. He had taken the sentence apart.

And. For Márquez. Of course.

"Marc Márquez?" He had clarified, and there was some cruel satisfaction in the woman's response- that's what he gets for not listening, he supposed.

"Why, of course."

Of course.

"What?" Valentino had needed her to backtrack a few minutes, "But you said it was media for Pecco."

"Well, yes, he will be there too. Gigi decided that it would be better to send both of them as they are teammates and only sending Bagnaia could suggest to the other teams that there's weakness in their partnership."

And there it was.

"You're joking."

"Will that be a problem, Mr. Rossi?" She knew it was.

He planted his hand upon his face, massaging the spontaneous strain in his temples. To have Marc Márquez constantly in his general vicinity had been unbearable for the last few months, accidentally bumping into him at the Ducati garage once and exchanging looks that were equally shocked, polite, and outraged.

There was never confrontation- God knows how Vale would have dealt with that, but Marc was not that sort of person. He was self-assured, but avoidant. When things went wrong, when war broke out, he retreated to his little fantasy world where nothing had changed. And if others then reacted to this avoidance with anger or upset, he would play dumb. It was childish.

That was not to say that Vale was perfect, for he said and did many immature things in an attempt to provoke Marc throughout their years of conflict, but Marc's pretence of nonchalance irked him to no end.

Nonetheless, the team had started erecting a divider to separate the two riders during the weekends- not through any arguments they suffered between themselves, but rather to quell the silently growing tension between Marc and Valentino.

Valentino felt it rather awkward, unsure who suggested the partition (though he had a sneaking suspicion it was Uccio) but was glad for an excuse to avoid Márquez when he could.

But to have Marc at the Ranch, on Valentino's home soil, filled him with a horrible rush of dread.

When he did not respond, the woman continued, "We understand you are not on amicable terms with Marc at the moment and so you are at liberty to refuse. But we implore you to put any past rivalries aside for the interests of the team."

"No way. Take them to a go-karting track, show them some childhood photos, there is no need to bring him here."

The line went silent again, and she must have wanted him to consider what he had just said, how ridiculous it sounded, but he would not. He was not the sort of man who wasted time on self-reflection.

"Alright, we will arrange other plans. If you change your mind get in contact, I'm sure Francesco would appreciate that."

She thanked him with a voice that offered no gratitude and Valentino was left alone with the dead air of his telephone. He slammed the receiver onto its hook and stormed down the hall, putting as much distance between himself and the phone as he could, pretending he had never answered it in the first place.

The kitchen was at the furthest end, a spacious area with many windows that filtered in the warm, natural daylight. The floors were tiled with sheets of terracotta, cold against his feet, and adorned with floral patterns painted azure. The countertops were mahogany with a glossy protective layer and complimented the rustic stone walls. It was quite a beautiful building, one that Vale could retreat to when his home became too large, too empty.

And that was exactly why Marc could not be allowed to visit, Vale thought as he marched to the room's corner and yanked open the door to the smallest of three fridges. It contained only alcohol- mostly beer, but some open bottles of champagne and rosé.

He swiped up a Peroni, hooked the cap on the corner of the kitchen island, and drove a furious palm down on the neck of the bottle. The cap popped off with a crack and the static circulation of bubbles.

Fucking Márquez, he met the lips of the bottle with his own.

[coimbrabertone]

MotoGP Silly Season Predictions - Plus Larson Waiver Talk.

As recently as this morning, I was planning on this week's blogpost being about the Kyle Larson waiver situation over in NASCAR, however, MotoGP then decided to do everything all at once and launched silly season into high gear.

So, with regards to Larson, I'll just say one thing: he raced in the Indianapolis 500 competitively and made NASCAR look good mere years after Jimmie Johnson, unfortunately, struggled in a Chip Ganassi Indycar on road and street circuits - and there were a lot of jokes at NASCAR's expense after their seven-time world champion spun out every race. So how does NASCAR repay him? Utter silence over whether or not he'll get a playoff waiver.

Kyle Larson is the 2021 champion, took his car to the owner's championship final four as a result of playoff shenanigans in 2022, and then made the final four in 2023 again. He is considered one of the top talents in NASCAR and he has the results to back it up. So why is there controversy over him getting a playoff waiver for this year?

Because Kyle Larson prioritized the Indianapolis 500 last weekend.

I talked about this in my Motorsports Christmas blogpost, but the Indy 500 was rain delayed and Kyle Larson stayed there to compete, and only then he flew out to Charlotte. Now, Kyle Larson landed, was ready to get into the car, but then it started raining in Charlotte too. Just before midnight, as the track was drying, NASCAR controversially decided to call the race, thus Kyle Larson was not able to relieve Justin Allgaier in the #5 and resume the rest of the Coke 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

NASCAR is mad because every other weekend of the year, they're the biggest show in racing, they can throw their weight around and try to chase NFL ratings while all other racing series are considered a niche. That's true every weekend except Memorial Day weekend, when the Indianapolis 500 reigns supreme. The whole existence of the Charlotte 600 is to compete with Indy.

Larson prioritized the bigger race and that made NASCAR made, because they're used to getting their egos stroked.

Larson is one of the best drivers in NASCAR and the double attempt brought good publicity to both sports. He had already won his way into the playoffs and made an effort to get to Charlotte for the end of the 600 - give him a waiver. If not, well, you face the possibility that Austin Cindric is in the playoffs after his shock win at Iowa, and one of the top drivers in the series isn't.

I like Austin, I'm glad he won, but he's nowhere near the same level as Kyle Larson. If he can compete for the championship and Kyle can't, then it makes the NASCAR playoffs look even less legitimate than they already are.

Anyway, that turned into a longer rant than I intended, so I'll leave it there. Now onto the main topic for today: MotoGP silly season.

Yesterday at Mugello, Enea Bastianini spent the final laps of the race charging from fourth to second, overtaking Marc Marquez for third and then pulling off an audacious last corner pass on Jorge Martin for second. This meant that Enea finished just eight tenths off leader Pecco Bagnaia for a factory Ducati 1-2.

So naturally, Ducati has decided to replace him.

Marc Marquez, who finished four and last out of these three, is going to the Ducati Lenovo Team, according to Autosport.

This was all but confirmed when, a few hours later, Aprilia confirmed the signing of Jorge Martin for Aprilia. Jorge Martin who finished third and got overtaken by Enea Bastianini in the final corner, mind you.

Now, of course, Ducati is not judging this off of one race alone and I acknowledge - as I did in two recent blogposts - that Enea has had a rotten time on the factory Ducati seat. That being said, seeing him lose Ducati to Marc Marquez, who finished last of the main three, and then lose out on the Aprilia seat to the guy he overtook in the final corner. It stings.

That being said, some news out of this weekend might offer a possibility for Enea to have a bit of a soft landing from the factory seat anyway. Let me explain:

Earlier in this weekend, Marc Marquez spelled out his demands in an interview. He said that he was not interested in going to Pramac, saying that he didn't want to switch from a satellite team (he's currently riding a 2023 Ducati at Gresini Racing) to another satellite team (Pramac runs 2024 Ducatis, same as the factory team, with factory contracted riders, they are still customers, however). Instead, Marquez said that the best option was a factory team, and if not that, then a factory bike at minimum.

Translation: Marc Marquez wanted the factory team for 2025, and if he couldn't get that, then he wanted a 2025 Ducati at Gresini, remaining at his current team.

In response, Gino Borsoi, who is the team manager at Pramac, insisted that his team had a contract for two factory-spec Ducati GP25s next year. This was somewhat of a surprise for a number of reasons, one: Ducati announced late last year that they signed Moto2 rider Fermin Aldeguer for 2025, and it seemed like the natural landing spot for him was going to be Pramac...until it emerged later on that Ducati wanted to start Fermin out on a 2024 bike. Two: regardless of which spec Ducati Fermin is going to be on, Pramac has been heavily linked to Yamaha lately.

The Japanese bikes are struggling in MotoGP right now and, ever since RNF switched to satellite Aprilias for 2023, Yamaha has not had a satellite team. Four bikes capturing data instead of two could really help Yamaha right now, so they've been linked to pretty much every Ducati satellite team the last few months. VR46 with the romanticism of a Valentino Rossi and Yamaha reunion, Gresini until they renewed their deal, and most recently, with Pramac.

Yamaha was desperate and the rumor has been that they offered very generous terms to Pramac.

So, the news that Pramac may stay with Ducati after all is a shock to the media, but it does not seem to have been much of a shock to Ducati. Ducati had been working on a way to keep both Martin and Marquez, and it seems that they wanted to offer Pramac the chance to run MotoGP's biggest star - Marc Marquez - as a reason to stay...and potentially a reason to accept taking on a rookie Aldeguer on a year-old bike as well.

Now that Marquez is going to the factory team instead and Jorge Martin has snatched the open Aprilia seat, I see an opening. Ducati can send Enea Bastianini to Pramac, keeping him on a factory spec bike while giving Pramac another frontrunning rider. Aldeguer joins as Bastianini's teammate, on a GP25 if that's what it takes to keep Pramac in the fold, because Marc Marquez will be in the factory team so freeing up a GP25 won't be as important.

What about VR46 and Gresini then? Well, I think Marco Bezzecchi's current season has been a bit of a disaster, so he won't really have much of a chance to get a factory ride next year, so staying at VR46 seems likely. Furthermore, his struggles mean that Bezzecchi probably isn't going to have much luck demanding Ducati gives him a GP25, so status quo is probably the most likely outcome there. It's unfortunate for Bezzecchi, but the sheer reality is that, with all these hot riders on the market, his options seem to be either stay at VR46, or make a more or less lateral move to Trackhouse Aprilia.

Then Franco Morbidelli, another Valentino Rossi academy product, can drop from Pramac into the other VR46 seat.

Where does Fabio DiGiannantonio go then? Well, with Marquez going to the factory, Fabio can now return to Gresini and be reunited with Frankie Carchedi. Thus, restoring the 2023 lineup of Fabio DiGiannantonio and Alex Marquez.

So, to sum things up, I think Ducati can keep all three of its satellite teams and all eight bikes like this:

Ducati Lenovo (GP25): Pecco Bagnaia and Marc Marquez.

Pramac (GP25): Enea Bastianini and Fermin Aldeguer.

VR46 (GP24): Marco Bezzecchi and Franco Morbidelli.

Gresini (GP24): Fabio DiGiannantonio and Alex Marquez.

Maybe Pramac will go to Yamaha after all, maybe my predictions will look radically wrong in a few weeks. I don't know how it'll turn out, but this is the scheme I've thought up in my mind.

I need to do something since with Marc Marquez at Ducati and Jorge Martin at Aprilia, my two favorite teams now have my two least favorite riders and I'm trying not to dwell on that part.

So yeah.

Oh, also this weekend Indycar raced at Detroit, but uhh...the less said about that, the better.

[ray935sworld]

Please I'm so sorry for Alex like he got Marc in his team and now Gresini is Marc's team he'never be able to escape Marc's shadow😭

Don't mind me. So... On gresinis insta you can see that Marc's folder has 48 pictures and started at the end of November while Alex ones starts in August 2023 and contains currently 38 pictures.

Now to the Gresini poster which seems to have started at the end of 2023, so I don't know if they got a new admin but anyway

First off we have the one from 27.11.2023 which was the first time Marc Marquez was on a ducati, during winter the Valencia official testing:

He is the goat and they are using that. Of course they do. But still, Alex is their only currently present rider so their winter season picture is him

Then christmas came around and they focus on Nadia and them as a team, so both are shown as their bike presentations came up. Both are shown in the same pose

Now next thing was Marc's birthday. They portrait him as the joker, the badass antagonist that's known for his smile (respect at the PR dude for realizing the similarities btw)

Then a few months later... This was Alex birthday post... A teaser that he's not single anymore... Like... FOR REAL?! His brother gets compared to one of the well known, most badass villains in comic history and for him you spoil that he's not single anymore... I'll let you have your own thoughts for that one.

So Marc gets the badass villain and Alex isn't single... Okay. Great.

Then the poster for each race started.

The first one definitely decided how much they'd milk Marc for their pr.

Marc. The goat. Again. The new hope. And I don't think I have to remind you that they literally brought A REAL GOAT. A REAL ANIMAL. TO SHOW THAT THEY HAVE THE GOAT NOW.

So here are all poster that only include Marc:

(but the 93 times was in honor of his 93th pole so that migh not count)

Those are the Alex solo posters where one is his contract annoucement and the other one was ahead of the european elections...

So while Marc got 5 cool poster based on epic movies, he got 2 that made to be are funny and aren't even race week related.

And those are the ones were both are included

And the one were none of them was the focus

Furthermore I'd like to point those sgnificant PR-moments out. In Gresini's 1000th GP, Marc was the one holding the flag on the podium. And the team made him a P4 trophy which was honestly adorable, but I don't think Alex ever got one.

Another thing are his dances. Gresini even pulled a competition who could do it best to win GP tickets

And while I haven't counted the posts, I'd say one look on Insta is enough to see that Marc is their current PR face. Most posts are about him.

And that's okay.

Marc is an 8 times world champion. He is the one everyone is watching and talking about. He is the cente rof attention and as team, Gresini is selling him as excactly that. So they post about him and pull the focus on him.

Sure he is also the one bringing in the results. He is the on the podium and getting the points, while my favorite 2 times world champion has so far only 1. And as much as I love Alex, he just isn't as sellable as Marc

Which leads to a very intresting question...

How will Ducati corsa, which is currently only using Pecco, their golden world champion boy, deal with him? On one side you have an at least 3 times champion, maybe even 4 times and potentially the current one. But you also have Marc Marquez who has one of the largest fanbases with an "where you go, I go" mentality. And after all, the PR people, CEOs and however they are called, they only want to sell their bikes and merch and make money.

So... who will be the focus?

And what if Marc wins the 2025 title? What about Pecco in 2026 or afterwards? How long can a team based on them actually keep going?

[legomotogp]

Deretan Ducati Terkeren di World Ducati Week 2024!

[batsplat]

about 2007 motegi, i’ve really thought a lot… when valentino congratulated casey on his title, he specifically mentioned his championship t-shirt. from my observation there wasn’t anything particularly special about it, it might just be valentino’s joke

but casey really cared about valentino’s actions… he not only wanted valentino’s verbal congratulations but also asked just like why didn’t you come shake my hand!!! i should get the same treatment as nicky!!!😠

(vaguely following on from this and this post) oh I remember the shirt, it's actually one of my favourite bits of niche valentino/casey lore!! valentino isn't JUST being a facetious dickhead here, his name is literally on casey's 2007 championship shirt as one of casey's heroes:

isn't this crazy?? I've never been able to find a great source for the actual list of names, so god knows how exclusive this club was... apparently casey also had the names of his ducati crew on there, which is a nice touch tbh. but he had valentino's name on that shirt!! given how by this point he was already mad at valentino for switching up towards him, it's such a funny choice to make. literally nobody would have questioned his exclusion! you're competing against the guy! idk, I love it when casey does something just a little unexpected like that, really makes you want to poke at the guy to figure out what his deal is. and pleasingly, we do also have an actual clip of valentino commenting on the shirt:

Yes, like I say before, it's a great pleasure that one of my fans wins the world championship - so I think half is also mine!

look at his smirk. insufferable. just a fantastic dynamic they've got going on, isn't it

but I did NOT know about casey complaining about not getting a cooldown lap handshake. and. lol?? casey?? come on. some dignity, please. I can't believe they actually got valentino to respond to that. reminds me of a similar-ish 'controversy' from 2010 about how jorge was accused of deliberately ignoring future teammate ben spies coming to congratulate him on the cooldown lap, as like... a form of sophisticated mind games ig. at least there it wasn't actually spies complaining. you can tell that even casey upon reflection probably decided this wasn't a legitimate grievance by how he's not brought it up again since... valentino did have a pretty nightmarish motegi race for annoying tyre-related reasons, so was understandably not in a great mood, and he was not in fact the defending champion... so like. I checked the footage and reckon valentino probably could have worked a little harder to get over to casey, but also this is obviously an extremely petty thing to complain about

and while we're talking petty, the ghostwriter of casey's autobiography thinks that casey was also pissed at valentino at the next race in phillip island for *checks notes* having a special helmet design at casey's home race? incredible scenes

literally started off the infamous phillip island streak with a spite win. your regular reminder that casey says in his autobiography that he doesn't use his rivals to motivate himself

and motegi 2007 is ofc also the table football race. a flyover stretch with fascinating interpersonal vibes, truly

so late 2007 is when casey really starts going in on how valentino had cooled off towards him AND talking about not liking valentino's tone in the press, that valentino wasn't as complimentary of him as he'd been at the start of the season... which might be true, but casey wasn't exactly a shrinking violet either when answering questions about valentino. as an example, this is how he's talking about valentino in july of 2007:

"This rule is not good and we need more tyres," Rossi said earlier in the week, "The problem is for the show because, at the end, it is the tyre that decides the race." "At the beginning of the season, Valentino and the others were all for the new tyre rules," Stoner points out, "but, as soon as they don't win, the rule is crap. I've had my bad races this year, especially in Germany, and I'm not complaining about the tyre rule. "They can moan and whinge about it as much as they want, but it shows that [Michelin] has had such an advantage in the past. This season, they cannot bring a tyre in just for the race [and] it's a matter of relying on the company that supports you to do a good job."

"moan and whinge" steady on casey

valentino over the years has talked about this rivalry far less than casey has... which includes not being all that interested in diagnosing when things soured interpersonally between the two of them - beyond saying a couple times in 2010-12 during the pettiest phase of the feud that casey hadn't gotten over laguna. mostly this isn't that big a problem because valentino's side of the rivalry is so much more straightforward, but it's still obviously not ideal. it's that relative scarcity which makes the following interview answer from 2009 one of my other favourite tidbits:

"He bases his sentences on the results. Even at the beginning of 2007 he was giving me a lot of compliments, then, after winning the World Championship, he started with heavy criticism."

isn't it lovely that casey thinks valentino switched up his tone towards him because casey started winning, and valentino thinks casey switched up his tone towards valentino because casey started winning... just nicely mirror each other, don't they. such good foils

so taking all these pieces of evidence together... you get a really nice sense of how casey by end of 2007 was all over the place wrt valentino. he misses valentino being as friendly to him as in years past!! he liked valentino congratulating him by rubbing his head in qatar 2007 :) enough to mention that parc fermé interaction THREE TIMES in his autobiography!! doesn't appreciate not getting his hand held after sealing the title :( is increasingly surly that whole year about how nobody is giving him enough credit for his successes :/ is building on a reputation already established in 2006 for being rather an outspoken character when it comes to complaining about everyone in complaining range... but also has an issue with valentino being rude about him in the press :| but still puts valentino on his championship shirt on his list of heroes <3 like... buddy. what is going on here

part of what's going on ofc is that casey takes offence incredibly easily and valentino can be a pretty offensive character. now, again, I really don't think valentino was doing that much in 2007, but obviously my standard for 'valentino being reasonably respectful to rivals' is probably rather different to 2007!casey's standards. it's the malice casey reads into valentino's actions that I reckon is mostly misplaced... like yeah sure valentino distances himself from championship rivals, but. y'know. that's pretty normal behaviour. the fun thing about 2007 is that knowing valentino's entire feud history, you're sort of primed to read it as valentino being the aggressor... but if anything, casey is generally openly ruder towards valentino than vice versa. now obviously, valentino at this stage is a lot better at the subtler, under the radar nastiness that must be infuriating to be subjected to... but y'know, at the end of the day valentino still isn't openly attacking casey. and when discussing this rivalry, it's crucial to acknowledge what an extremely prickly character casey is - that's what makes it so enjoyable!! even better, he's an extremely prickly character who is very ready to make enemies but is ALSO kind of weird about valentino rossi specifically

and yes, having a valentino rossi complex is basically part of the job description if you're a motogp rider of a certain age. still, always important to acknowledge that all of valentino's feuds with younger riders involved guys who were already A Bit Weird about valentino going into the rivalry, which inevitably affected how those respective rivalries ended up laying out. what's so fun about it is that all three of them express it in completely different ways - from jorge's somewhat deranged level of dedication to analysing valentino's every breath, to marc's overenthusiastic commitment towards imitating valentino and beating him and also throwing himself at him at every opportunity, to casey's rather more repressed approach where he's simultaneously extremely sensitive to any possible offence on valentino's part while also kind of wishing they could be friends...? or something? I don't even know what casey's after! doesn't help that he's subsequently retconned this period where he like... kinda looked up to valentino, sure, and respected him and all that - but certainly no mention of putting valentino on championship celebration shirts. so we still have quite a limited amount of evidence at our disposal, but I would gently suggest that casey's cool, composed 'didn't even care who I was beating' rhetoric doesn't quite match up to reality. and casey thinks that valentino got more critical of casey because he was losing and valentino thinks casey got more critical of valentino because he was winning... and the thing is, they're both going to be somewhat right!! attacking rivals from a position of strength is actually kinda part of both of their preferred MO's - it's a similarity between them that plays into how casey at times gets to play the valentino role in this rivalry. so yeah, casey will have almost certainly gotten even mouthier once he could get away with it. but equally, even though valentino wasn't escalating hostilities by his standards, even just his natural process of distancing himself a little from his direct title rivals and getting a tad snarky about them in the press wasn't exactly being well received by casey. and thus they can both say with some justification that the other rider was a lot friendlier towards them at start of the year, and both will have reacted to this in a way that helped further gradually ramp up the level of hostility. lovely stuff

still, you do have to come back to how imbalanced this rivalry was wrt how emotionally invested the pair of them were. having a firm grasp of their dynamic in 2007 is key to understanding how the whole thing subsequently played out, in part casey was less guarded and just a little more likely to let a few things slip... valentino wants to beat this challenging new rival, but I reckon he's mostly being sincere in that his main frustration in 2007 is feeling like he's not even able to fight casey at all for bike/tyre reasons. it's a rivalry he generally enjoyed when they were actually going at it! a comfort zone rivalry that really isn't all that emotionally messy from his side. even if he'll maybe still imply casey's compliments of him were never sincere, seeing how they dried up over the course of 2007... or perhaps joke about casey putting his name on his championship winning shirt, how at least he's losing to a fan... something fun about how valentino is always aware of that idolisation dynamic and is capable of playing with it, just a little. even with casey

whereas for casey, this isn't a game. casey really enjoyed valentino being nice to him and is ever so sensitive towards valentino pulling back. casey thinks valentino isn't giving him the credit he is owed and escalates his rhetoric in response. casey puts valentino's name on his championship winning shirt and then complains valentino didn't hold his hand. poor casey... it'd all be easier if he just didn't care, but that's the one thing he could never quite manage

[kwisatzworld]

‘My dad and my uncles used to go on track with their street bikes and sometimes I had the possibility to go with them and I was so excited to see them riding,’ says the 25-year-old Italian, who looks more like a philosophy student than a mean, lean motorcycle racer. ‘I remember perfectly when my dad got his Aprilia RSV4, the one with the trick taillight, and I thought how beautiful it was.’

‘Then I remember one of my uncles arriving at my home to call my dad to go for a ride and hearing the dry clutch of his Ducati 996. So from a very young age I was inside that world and every time Valentino was on TV we cheered for him. I was so happy when he was winning and I was crying when he didn't win the title in 2006. I believed a lot in him when he was at Ducati but it didn't work.’

That performance won him a ride in the 2013 Moto3 world championship but the step was too big. He didn’t score a point all year and wandered around the paddock, a lost, forlorn 16-year-old. Bizarrely, this proved to be his greatest fortune, because Rossi and lifelong sidekick Uccio Salucci saw talent inside the morose teenager. ‘I remember meeting Uccio for the first time at Brno,’ Bagnaia recalls. ‘He told me to smile more, because whenever he saw me I was angry or unhappy. A few weeks later Uccio called my dad and they had a meeting at Phillip Island. They discussed their new project for young riders, the VR46 Academy - I became one of the first academy riders.’

‘I didn't work with psychologists because I think the people that can help you more are the people around you. I love it when those people tell me what they think about me and what I need to improve.’

Bagnaia is so different from his mentor - quiet, humble and hardly bubbling with charisma - but perhaps he will get more interesting with age (riders usually do). However, he does already have some rock-and-roll credentials: during MotoGP’s 2022 summer break he went clubbing in Ibiza with Rossi and the rest of the VR46 clan. On the way home he stuck his car in a ditch and got nicked for drink-driving. This misdemeanour got him into big trouble with many, but not so long ago it was pretty much compulsory for motorcycle racers to get drunk and drive their cars into ditches. At least that episode proved Bagnaia isn’t as squeaky clean as he seems.

Archive｜Bike Magazine February 2023

[gayferrari]

do you know what the ferrari finali mondiale is? is it like a race or an exhibition or like the world ducati week thing?

It's an exhibition event mostly! There is a race, but iirc it's for amateur drivers — basically, Ferrari have their own amateur sports car racing series that's open to all owners of Ferrari GT models who want to compete. They have continental series (I think it's like Europe / Japan / North America) and winners race each other at the final. It's held at Imola and tickets are pretty affordable / Friday entry is free so I guess it's popular if you're car sexual and can get to northern Italy without much trouble.

The exhibition part is because different competition models are shown off etc, and they might have some of the pro racers as special guests. I think Giovinazzi was there last year, I'm expecting some of the hypercar drivers will be there this year since it doesn't conflict with Bahrain WEC.

[uwabbittuwabbit]

we got a schedule for world ducati week! mark your calenders...

[flyingfabio]

'we wouldn't want riders to think you can't fight for the world championship if you don't have a ducati' is a quote from a ducati engineer i read a few weeks ago. it was bullshit then and it's even more bullshit now.

[scrollonso]

Silverstone might be in August but World Ducati Week and the race of champions next week, and all the current Ducati riders are going to be there :)

oh im so ready

[bobendsneyder64]

So I was watching back the episodes from the special TT news they make every year in the week before the TT and learned some amazing things I wanted to share with you

This post has some random things I thought would be interesting to share

- Collin Veijer doesn't actually know the circuit of Assen that well. He moved to Spain when he was 7 or 8 to have more chances in the motorsport and to train even more than what would have been possible here. He misses his hometown a lot but he knows he did it for a good reason. He does see Assen as his home gp

- after Bo Bendsneyder crashed in Germany, they carried him back to safety on a brancard. One of the marshals grabbed him by the shoulder (the one he broke) while he was on the brancard. Bo had to touch his hand to stop him from doing that, because of course it hurted him. He also said they almost fell while they carried him

- one of the mechanics from the Mooney VR46 racing team is Dutch. His name is Robin Spijkers. He used to work for Valentino Rossi and is now one of the mechanics for Marco Bezzecchi. He said when he worked on the Yamaha, they did the job with 3 mechanics. Now, with the Ducati, they work with 4 mechanics on one bike, but he said they still would be able to finish a Yamaha faster with 3 persons. He said a Ducati is very difficult to work on, but that it is also all worth it.

- they interviewed someone who works at Rev'it and he had a lot of interesting stories to tell. The company Rev'it is a Dutch company, that started in 1995. At this moment they make suits for 10 racers throughout different classes. Collin Veijer is one of those 10 who uses a Rev'it suit. They have special airbags that work twice, so if you crash once and are still able to continue, you can do so safely because their airbag can activate again. There are lights on the suit that show the racers if the airbag is working. They get suits back after every session to do a safety check and dry them in special drying cabins (because racers sweat a lot and sweaty leather is a lot heavier to wear). A suit is between €2.500 - €3.000,- and then the airbags are another €1.000. So a complete suit would be around €4.000.-

- in the 1970s racers would wear suits that had their blood type stitched on, so if they crashed medics would be immediately aware of that crucial part of information. So you would see racers walking around with suits with, for example, A+ stitched on.

- in the 1950s, '60s and '70s this sport was seen as extremely dangerous. In those years, somewhere around 80 racers died and from those 80, 5 were world champions. (Hence the reason they had their blood type stitched on their suits)

This is post 2 of 2. Find post 1 here