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Post by truenorth on Apr 17, 2023 8:22:44 GMT -8
Sully: It's amazing what improvements Ken Kuwatchi San has made since coming from Suzuki. And Rins has adapted and sorted this bike much faster than I thought he could.
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Post by truenorth on Apr 17, 2023 8:25:36 GMT -8
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Post by truenorth on Apr 17, 2023 8:46:08 GMT -8
David Emmett: I see the penalty wording has been changed now.
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Post by truenorth on Apr 17, 2023 8:52:22 GMT -8
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Post by truenorth on Apr 17, 2023 8:58:14 GMT -8
Simon Patterson: Circuit of the Americas internal policy is that they won't be releasing crowd figures. Although it seems they don't have that policy for F1!
Mat Oxley: Only 13 finishers today - the fewest since the soaking 2016 Assen race. Riders attributed this to critical lack of grip & feel at COTA - so by the time they felt a tyre go it was too late to save with a knee or elbow.
Martin Raines: Bo Bendsneyder is the first Dutch rider to finish on the podium in the Moto2 class.
Mir: “The fall was my mistake, but I was having fun. The problem is that we’re always late, but I could’ve been in the top 4 if I had passed Morbidelli.”
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Post by truenorth on Apr 17, 2023 9:28:08 GMT -8
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Post by boiler on Apr 17, 2023 9:58:49 GMT -8
The track surface rests somewhere between "it's the same for everybody" and "we're not made of money". It IS a shame to see so many fallers. Next race is Spain, so the complaining should disappear. Yeah the track is a shambles. The BT Sport guys pretty much couldn't stop talking about how bad it was. Someone said yesterday that they think there were north of 50 total riders down for the weekend. I think there were 10-15+ just at Turn 12, and 10 in the MotoGP race is just crazy. What I found interesting was the number of incidents at multiple different places on the circuit where the riders said they were doing everything normally and wham, front end just washed out, or the back end uncharacteristically broke loose suddenly, etc, and the riders were at a complete loss to explain what happened. Usually they know, and aren't too shy to say what it was. The track ownership has the money, but despite getting more than $325 Million from the State of Texas subsidy so far, they're not interested in a proper repair of the track. They aren't racing people, and as weird as it sounds, the quality of the racing surface is the absolute lowest priority at COTA. MotoGP and most of the riders don't even like the racing that they get at this track. The announcers brought it up repeatedly today, when they weren't talking about the "terrible" track conditions and the significantly smaller crowds than they're used to seeing here. Indy's road course might not be exciting, but it can produce good racing and doesn't have issues with the racing surface. They care about the surface, the racing, the racers, and the fans. COTA, not so much. Gotta build those T11 condos Their lack of give a shit is amazingly horrible, not sure if I mentioned it we went to the peppermint parkway before Christmas and my daughter wanted to ride the roller coaster. Well she ends up getting stuck due to a bag of popcorn wedging itself between the track and the car. One of the carnies comes up and told me to tell the track it was a bird..... Get this to get her down the operator climbed the track and was pushing on the car not tied off, no emergency personnel just trying to get the "situation" taken care of asap. All we got for out troubles were some cheap toys for the kids, I followed up with a call to discuss their lack of safety protocols and never heard a peep out of them....
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Post by hairyscotsman on Apr 17, 2023 10:24:02 GMT -8
Simon Patterson: Circuit of the Americas internal policy is that they won't be releasing crowd figures. Although it seems they don't have that policy for F1! Mat Oxley: Only 13 finishers today - the fewest since the soaking 2016 Assen race. Riders attributed this to critical lack of grip & feel at COTA - so by the time they felt a tyre go it was too late to save with a knee or elbow. Martin Raines: Bo Bendsneyder is the first Dutch rider to finish on the podium in the Moto2 class. Mir: “The fall was my mistake, but I was having fun. The problem is that we’re always late, but I could’ve been in the top 4 if I had passed Morbidelli.” Yeah did you see my reply to Simon in that thread? Re: Oxley, I think only 12 finished. IIRC, 10 went down, but Binder rejoined. That leaves 13, but there was also a retirement, which brought it down to 12. They also seem to think the ride height control issues and the bikes shutting down suddenly was caused by the bumps messing with the electronics.
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Post by hairyscotsman on Apr 17, 2023 10:28:45 GMT -8
Yeah the track is a shambles. The BT Sport guys pretty much couldn't stop talking about how bad it was. Someone said yesterday that they think there were north of 50 total riders down for the weekend. I think there were 10-15+ just at Turn 12, and 10 in the MotoGP race is just crazy. What I found interesting was the number of incidents at multiple different places on the circuit where the riders said they were doing everything normally and wham, front end just washed out, or the back end uncharacteristically broke loose suddenly, etc, and the riders were at a complete loss to explain what happened. Usually they know, and aren't too shy to say what it was. The track ownership has the money, but despite getting more than $325 Million from the State of Texas subsidy so far, they're not interested in a proper repair of the track. They aren't racing people, and as weird as it sounds, the quality of the racing surface is the absolute lowest priority at COTA. MotoGP and most of the riders don't even like the racing that they get at this track. The announcers brought it up repeatedly today, when they weren't talking about the "terrible" track conditions and the significantly smaller crowds than they're used to seeing here. Indy's road course might not be exciting, but it can produce good racing and doesn't have issues with the racing surface. They care about the surface, the racing, the racers, and the fans. COTA, not so much. Gotta build those T11 condos Their lack of give a shit is amazingly horrible, not sure if I mentioned it we went to the peppermint parkway before Christmas and my daughter wanted to ride the roller coaster. Well she ends up getting stuck due to a bag of popcorn wedging itself between the track and the car. One of the carnies comes up and told me to tell the track it was a bird..... Get this to get her down the operator climbed the track and was pushing on the car not tied off, no emergency personnel just trying to get the "situation" taken care of asap. All we got for out troubles were some cheap toys for the kids, I followed up with a call to discuss their lack of safety protocols and never heard a peep out of them.... Wow. Yep. That's classic COTA. I won't ever get on a ride owned by Bobby Epstein. No way in hell. On a related note Epstein did yet another fluff interview on KXAN the other day saying that COTA pulls 1.2 million visitors per year (lmfao) ,and said that they're going to build "an amusement park comparable to Six Flags" .............. between turns 19 & 20 lol. He said the 'construction' isn't moving as quickly as he'd like. What construction? There isn't any. Absolutely zero, and how many years has he been talking about this fabled 'amusement park'? Sounds desperate.
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Post by truenorth on Apr 18, 2023 6:12:46 GMT -8
What is the Peppermint Parkway? Do you think Epstein is witholding funds that could be used to resurface the track for plans to build an amusement park? Are there condos or is that another plan?
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Post by hairyscotsman on Apr 18, 2023 9:27:35 GMT -8
What is the Peppermint Parkway? Do you think Epstein is witholding funds that could be used to resurface the track for plans to build an amusement park? Are there condos or is that another plan? - Peppermint Pkwy is a Christmas thing where people pay to drive through COTA's trail of Christmas lights around the track, displays, etc. It's a little funny because Bobby is Jewish, and a little bit sad that people will pay that kind of money to just drive through a low-rent Christmas display. Zilker Park's Trail of Lights it is not, but the Trail of Lights has gotten very crowded with Austin's crazy growth, so ol' Ebeneezer saw an opoportunity. - Withholding funds? Like in an illegal way? Probably not illegal. How they get a large chunk of the funds is illegal, but that's a whole nother story. I'm just pretty sure - especially given that they've received more than $325 Million so far from the State, and given the great crowds at the last couple of F1 GPs at COTA - that they have the money to at the very least resurface the entire track at once instead of creating a half-assed, patchwork mess. With all the money Bobby says they're making, and with all the money we've given them and continue to give them ($35-40M a year now), why can't we have a track that's not an embarrassing joke compared to other F1 and MotoGP tracks? The track surface needs to be removed, the base and drainage system repaired, and the whole thing resurfaced properly - not with this low-bid bullshit done by local contractors. Turn 12 is a great example. It was repaved Feb 2022. A year later it's already a disaster. - Amusement park? He's been fucking that same chicken for several years now, and it's just not happening. It's smoke and mirrors to try to attract some idiot to buy COTA. There are 3 or 4 old carnival rides out there now, but he says he wants to put an amusement park comparable in size to Six Flags between Turns 19 & 20. If you've ever been to COTA and walked along there, you know that's a skinny area not even 1/4 mile long. Six Flags in San Antonio occupies an area 40-50 times that size. He says he has 25+ rides sitting somewhere waiting to be erected, and ... LMAO. Yep. Construction takes extra long when you never actually start it. I was there the other day. There's zero construction happening there, not even so much as a flag in the ground marking utilities or surveyor markings. It's all bs. Even if he had the room, there's literally not any sign of construction there, just like there's been none for the several years he's talked about it. Just like the hotel he said was going to be built at T6, etc, etc. He's lying, just like when he says 1.2 Million people come to COTA every year. Do the math. There is zero chance that's true, and I'd be absolutely shocked if even half that many come to COTA. I was told a long time ago by someone who worked closely with Bobby that the weirdest thing about the guy is that he just lies about everything imaginable, and that he lies even when there's no good reason to lie. Lie big. Then lie bigger. That's what he does, and he gets away with it. - Car Condos at T11? Maybe that will actually happen. I dunno. There are certainly enough stupid people with crazy money to blow in Austin these days. I see them every day, driving (poorly and slowly) all over town in their Ferraris, Lambos, etc. They have an internet page up trying to sell presales on the condos. No idea how that's going.
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Post by Sabrina81 on Apr 18, 2023 20:48:44 GMT -8
Motogp was insane.
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Post by truenorth on Apr 19, 2023 6:55:39 GMT -8
Thanks Hairy Scotsman. That's info I could never know from here. Much appreciated.
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Post by hairyscotsman on Apr 20, 2023 8:55:17 GMT -8
Oof. I just heard from a friend that the final COTA Sunday MotoGP attendance was about 22,000 people. Judging from the capacity of the stands in use (about 32K), how full the stands were, and the fact that they reportedly didn't sell GA, that sounds about right. I said earlier that if I was being generous, it was 30K, tops.
From what I've heard chatting with Mat Oxley and Simon Patterson on the twitter, COTA told them last weekend their policy is to not release numbers. Their immediate response was "You don't seem to have any problem releasing them for the big crowds". Oxley told me a few minutes ago that there were 10K on Saturday, so from what I can tell there might have been maybe 40K for the entire weekend.
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