07-18-2006, 11:45 AM
asteele2 Wrote:You could say that Hopkins is also an exception, also coming from the AMA, but his career has been pretty much a flop thus far.
You could say that. If you've never really followed MotoGP before yesterday. Hopper is a hell of a rider. He's on a shit bike on less than spectacular tires and he's managed to set a pole this year, run at the front of the pack repeatedly, and get pretty damn close to the podium. About the only thing you could call him is an idiot for staying with Suzuki but I bet they're paying him a hell of a large sum of money to do it.
.RJ Wrote:I wonder if the change to 4-strokes with big powerbands and lots of electronic controls (traction control, etc) favors the 250 riders coming in more than the superbike riders? With the 500 2-stroke, it was the other way around.
It doesn't favor anyone really. But remember, Superbike has traction control. In fact, it's either the Ducs or the Suzukis but they have rider-adjustable-on-the-fly traction control. According to Superman Rossi the MotoGP premiere class bikes can be ridden by anyone. The advantage of going large discplacement four stroke was an amazing increase in rideability.
G.Irish Wrote:As far as guys like Mladin, there's no real point in taking a gamble on a guy like him because he doesn't have a lot of years of racing ahead of him. Sure, if it was clear he could make an impact right away then it'd make sense but for the factory teams they've gotta think long term and long term someone like Pedrosa, Stoner, Melandri, Hopper, Nicky, et al is a better investment. One of the satelitte teams might have taken him but Mat probably didn't want to waste his time with that.
Mladin is paid more by Suzuki to dominate the AMA than any team in MotoGP would ever offer him. In fact, he's paid more than most of the MotoGP riders this year. Plus he's not nearly as light as any GP rider and he's already done MotoGP. He's a big fish in a small pond, he's not going anywhere.
Spies on the other hand will find himself in WSBK or GP very shortly.
And MotoGP still draws from AMA, only thing is AMA doesn't produce a lot of talent. Look at the AMA Superbike riders now:
Spies - he has a future outside of the AMA. I really think this will be his last year in AMA, regardless of whether or not he wins the championship.
Mladin - Huge paycheck, age is starting to make him the next Duhamel.
Duhamel - What is this guy? 50? He's never leaving AMA and he's never winning another championship unless Honda makes the CBR1000RR not suck.
Zemke - He's an "almost." Again, stuck on a CBR1000RR so he won't win much of anything. Kudos to him for winning at Miller, but even he said it (paraphrase) "We only won here because there are no switchbacks." Starting to get too old for MotoGP
Yates - just not good enough
Ben Bostrom - Not good enough
Hodgson - past his prime
Younger Haydens - Arguably not good enough. The youngest is 23, which means he needs to set the world on fire or accept AMA for life.
Remember Nicky was a 18yr old phenom. There's another 18 year old in AMA Superbike but I can't remember his name. If he gets a real ride he may have a future.
The easiest way into MotoGP Premiere class is to perform in MotoGP 250 or dominate WSBK. But you don't have to be the best, look at Hoffman. His best championship finish before being bumped to Premiere class was 12th in 250. But he made Kawasaki happy as a test rider and got to fill in occassionally in Premiere class before getting picked up full time by them and then getting a Ducati ride for this year.