Ant West

[NinjaMaster]

Yeah, so?? You make it seem like he is the most unlucky rider ever to ride in the 250s or MotoGP. Everyone has bad to worse situations, a rider's talent lies in the ability to work around them and overcome those obstacles. Only then do they achieve glory, not by whining and complaining about it and then giving up.

Not even the likes of Rossi, Doohan or Stoner can overcome an underdeveloped, unreliable bike that pitches them down the road at full noise down the straight. And they'd have every right to complain about it. In fact, from those three, the toys wouldn't just be thrown out of the cot, the cot would be thrown on it's side and set on fire. Racing is dangerous enough without having a bike that dangerously breaks consistently which is why Bimota did the right thing and pulled out of WSB when their bike threw Anthony Gobert down the road at Sugo. KTM didn't get the hint that quickly.

Well, I already know the answer to that. "Because the bike was setup for Hopkins." Or the bike the year before was made for De Puniet? I'm sorry but those are just excuses.

They are somewhat excuses but they carry some weight as well. In 07 Ant joined mid-season after 1 test whereas RdP had already had a year and a half on the bike. I wouldn't expect Rossi to be able to get on the Ducati mid season and just beat Stoner straight away.

A nice guy, decent rider, but NOWHERE near as talented as he is made out to be on this forum. One and a half season in MotoGP was more than enough for him to prove his skills, even on a crap bike, because great riders shine on crap bikes. Melandri got even lesser time than him on the Duc to prove his worth.

Marco was lucky to last the season given his teammate was winning races. Ant's half a year was very impressive on a mid-pack bike given he was thrown in at the deep end. This year was highly unimpressive, especially early but by season's end he was generally matching his teammate showing the bike wasn't capable of much in anyone's hands.

And please, nobody in their right mind would compare WSS to MotoGP in terms of competition and level of difficulty. A whole different ballgame. WSS can't even be compared to WSBK. Look at Kenan Sofuoglu, he dominated WSS in 2007 and struggled badly in WSBK this year.

Muggeridge would be a better example than Sofuoglu. I don't think anyone would shine with Kenan's position of personal tragedy suffered during the year.

Maybe if West wins the WSS championship next year, and gets to WSBK, gets some good results, maybe he may return to MotoGP, but I highly doubt it. Game over for Anthony West, as far as MotoGP goes.

One thing I agree with. West is 27 so in 2 years he will be 29 (Wow, amazing maths skills!) trying to re-enter a youth focussed GP series without the weight of sponsors or connections to get him a ride. MotoGP is a long shot now but WSB looks promising and the way MotoGP is heading, perhaps that is a good thing.

Why would Kawasaki design or setup a bike keeping Hopkins in mind? Does it mean that West doesn't know how to get the team and engineers behind him?

There's a couple of million good reasons why Hopkins was preferred by Kawasaki. He was their big name signing who brought with him their biggest sponsor. Far more important to make him competitive than no-name West. If Ant fails then (relatively) no-one cares. Hopkins fails and there is significant egg on Team Greens face.

Like somebody said in this thread, it's his inability to develop a bike for himself that's his wrongdoing. He is a good motorcycle racer, but if he is incapable of developing a bike, then he simply doesn't belong in MotoGP. Probably he'd do much better in a stock bike championship.

A rider cannot develop a bike if the engineers don't listen to his feedback. West was praised and subsequently hired for the feedback he gave the engineers last year but when Hopkins came in Ant's views were basically ignored.

*sigh*

I really wish it was your business, but you havn't followed Ant from 1998, when he made his debut at Phillip Island aboard a 125cc machine..

99/00 saw the emergence of a real talent, claiming seventh in the 250cc standings in 2000..

He was promised a factory ride by APRILIA for 2001, instead he got shafted and had to quickly search for a ride aboard a 500cc privateer machine, v-twin, which saw him regularly struggling..

However, he did beat the likes of Crivile, Roberts, Checa on occasions who were aboard 4 cylinders mind you.. Loved seeing that..

2002 he was promised a factory 250cc ride from HONDA this time around, the team never showed up for testing and Ant was left without a ride for the entire 2002 season..

2003 Aprilia again came to his aid with more promises and the 'lure' of high quality equipment. What does he get? A bike that would have barely been competetive when he was riding in 99/00... Ant took several dry podiums and a famous race win that year, finished sixth in the standings ahead of SEVERAL factory machines and easily top privateer (something he did alot) ..

2004 after showing what he could do aboard crappy machinery Ant again fell to the mistake of believing Aprilia would provide him with a factory bike..Ant arrived at his first test expecting to see a shiny new top of the range Aprilia, instead, it's the exact same rusty, old, dated machine that he battled so hard on the year previously... Ant tried his best for 04, fighting against the riders who received the bikes he was promised, but could only do what his team and machinery allowed.. This shoddy machinery nearly killed him at Phillip Island in 04, crashing at turn one while trying to force every ounce of performance from the bike.. This crash had long lasting effects on Ant..

2005, it was here! FINALLY, Ant was promised a factory bike by KTM and they WOULD actually deliver it.. He only had to wait until deep into the second half of the year to ride it.. When he did, he took it to a podium placing in its debut race, an AMAZING feat.. From there on out however, the KTM 250cc machine regularly spat him off at over 200kmph, the un-tested, volatile and unreliable nature of the early KTM engine seized regularly and once again put Ant's health at risk..

It is believed Ant had a bust up with Harold Bartol after one of these such life threatening incidents, Harold assured Ant all was forgiven and KTM would give him a chance to campaign the bike for a full year in 06.. Weeks later his contract was terminated..

2006, back to square one.. aboard a privateer Aprilia that would have struggled to be competetive when he was racing in 03.. He battled, tried hard but achieved little success..

2007, repeat performance from Aprilia.. They provided an LE kit bike, somewhat of a step up from 06 but no-where near competetive.. Ant WASN'T PAID by 'Team Mafia', i mean Sicilia and had to scrape and scrounge to live, let alone race.. He still regularly beat the KTM factory bikes however, that made him smile.. After finally getting fed up with his dodgy teams inability and his machine's inferiority, Ant decided to make a move that perhaps he should have made three, four years earlier.. He took a WSS ride and rode in three races, he took three podiums, including two wins.. Two of the podiums were IN THE DRY... One was a majestic wet weather ride where he destroyed the field at a track he'd never raced on..

2008, Big opportunity, after testing the KWAK in 07 and campaigning quite competantly for the second half of the 07 season, big things were expected.. However Kawasaki failed to deliver.. Leaving himself and Hopkins struggling horribly.. In the end they fail to give Ant clarity on his future while allowing Melandri to test the bike in sectet... Ant found out about this test from Melandri himself, real good Kawasaki, real nice..

09, WSS Champ 2010, WSBK Champ

Call it the love of the underdog, or just an attachment to a certain rider after following his progress for so long, i don't know.. But i believe Ant has the talent that Stoner, Vermeulen etc posses and i believe given the right package, he could run at the front in MotoGP...

I believe he will dominate in 2009, providing Stiggy keep up their form.. And then he will move onto bigger and better things in 2010, in a paddock that im sure suits his lifestyle a whole lot more.. Lets just hope he's getting paid..

*rant over*

Very, very good, well reasoned post Jake. I would disagree that Ant is of the calibre of Stoner, Rossi and Pedrosa (possibly Lorenzo and Dovizioso as well) but I think he's definately the equal of the rest of the field. Here's hoping for the 09-10 WSS-WSB champ double.