Ant West

I must agree with you TD. Marco, Loris and Ant have all struggled to come to grips with their bikes. Loris changed bikes, and is now doing much better,(apart from his injury). Nakano was fast on the Kwak, running on Bridgestones then had a year of hell riding on Michelins. Nakano is now doing much better. Is it the tyres, the bikes, or a combination ? I think all the riders mentioned, have race winning potential, but getting everything right on the day, is the key, as well as making sure the riders are comfortable with the package as a whole.

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Originally Posted by T-D

i find it shocking. just shocking that hopkins with 5 years experience advantage in motogp would be faster than ant west.

ant west proved last year that he was a capable motogp rider. now with a sh!t bike, he is lost.

it happens to the best of them: see melandri and capirossi at ducati, for example.

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Just remind me again, how long has Ant be racing GP bikes?

I believe Ant is also 12 months into MotoGP.

The bike remains pretty much unchanged from the bike last year which was sold as a possible winner.

Perhaps the competition has stretched out a bit, but Ant needs to compete with his team mate!

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Originally Posted by Mach24

Just remind me again, how long has Ant be racing GP bikes?

I believe Ant is also 12 months into MotoGP.

The bike remains pretty much unchanged from the bike last year which was sold as a possible winner.

Perhaps the competition has stretched out a bit, but Ant needs to compete with his team mate!

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that bike appears to be radically different from last year's bike in it's handling (or lack thereof--specifically rear traction).

i do recall jeremy burgess stating that the kwak had race wining potential--all it needed was a top notch rider. so kwak signs a top notch rider and...the bike is nowhere close to the front. :(

there are many other things that we were sold on that have not borne themselves out: marco on a ducati would compete for a championship. loris on a suzuki would slide down the grid. and on and on and on...

i'll trust my eyes before listening to the experts, methinks.

i was watching "Faster" the other day and remember how highly praised Hopkins was when he came into motogp. he was hailed as a future champion.

does anyone believe he will ever win a championship on a kawasaki?

Supposedly the Kwak was the fastest accelerating bike on the grid last year but lacked corner speed

In trying to find corner speed they have seemingly lost the thing that made the bike work last year as it's now one of the slowest through the speed traps and it still doesn't handle and has no traction out of corners

That aside doesn't explain why Ant is often over 2s or more slower than Hopper - even when Hopper is injured.

I think I've put this forward before, but you could argue that Suzuki and Kawasaki were somewhat flattered last year by the majority of Honda and Yamaha riders struggling - certainly compared to how they're doing this year.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Gr..._racing_season

Tech 3 were backmarkers last year with Sylvain and Makoto Tamada, and now with Michelins and Colin and JT on board they're consistent top 6 contenders.

Jorge Lorenzo has scored three-quarters as many points in 2008 so far as Colin did in the whole of last year on the second factory bike, even including a DNF and a DNS.

Two of the satellite Hondas in 2007, Nakano for JiR (now the Dovi bike, doing well in 2008) and Checa for LCR - still struggling with Randy de P - had a woeful time throughout 2007. Nicky struggled massively in 2007 until Assen - more so than this year arguably. Toni Elias had a bunch of crashes and injuries for Fousto Gresini's team which ruled him out of any contention.

All of that left only Valentino, Dani and Marco doing it for Honda and Yamaha in 07 and chances for Suzuki, Kawasaki and D'Antin to do quite well. In 2008 there are three more fast Yamahas at the front and a couple more Hondas near the pace, which will have knocked the Suzukis and Kawasakis back about four spots in the order, even if their time gap to the top has stayed constant. Loris is riding pretty well but is at the lower end of the top ten, and Chris V hasn't suddenly started riding badly (in 11th this year vs 6th overall last year). That would seem to bear out that things have got more difficult for the smaller teams.

With the best will in the world, I don't think the Kawasaki was a potential winner last year - it hasn't been at any stage since they re-entered in 2002. With Hopkins on board, it's still about as close on pace as Randy was this time last year (although both were/are not consistently on the pace) - the problem being that Westy is now a fair bit slower by comparison which seems to be down to confidence and not being able to get a satisfactory setup. It's the age-old 'thin line between clever and stupid' thing (see also M. Melandri & Ducati).

There's probably a point to this post, but I don't know what it is... :p

S**t Happens perhaps ?

Something like that yeah John.

Maybe more of an observation that saying you'll move up the grid is one thing, but doing it is quite another when everyone else on the grid is doing the same...

That is a great way to summarize where Kawasaki are sitting at the moment Pat. They don't just need to improve their package they need to achieve a greater improvement than their competitors.

Bottom line is that the combination of Ant West and Kawasaki are just not competitive. I personally doubt that Ant has what it takes to compete at this level regardless of what bike he has under him. Despite having some very dedicated fans I don't see what he has done to deserve his ride. It is a big step up from riding WSS to MotoGP and even 250cc to MotoGP. Being competitive in a lower class simply does not mean you have what it takes to run with the best.

Kawasaki and Suzuki may do well to put together their own satelite teams and get more people riding, testing and developing.

Spot on Ryan, I must say that a satelite team for both Kawasaki and Suzuki would be a step in the right direction. Shwanz is keen to run a Suzuki team, how about if Kawasaki approached Sito Pons to run a satelite team, that would help developement for both manufacturers. As for Westy, the judge is still out IMO

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Originally Posted by Mach24

Are you suggesting no one will ride the Kawasaki?

Oh and by the way Brendan Roberts won the SST race and is now second in the championship.

There was an article recently where Francis Batta suggested Suzuki MotoGP were unhappy with Chris and wanted to move him on to fit in Beni Spies.

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Dont get me wrong I rate Brendan but now is when decisions are being made so the pressure is right on. The race I refer to in Assen he had made one blue whilst leading shunting him back to 4th or 5th and then a lap or 2 later he chucked it, and it was still early in the race..... maybe we need to put an old head on his young shoulders :)

Interesting facts after Nurburgring......

HAT-TRICK - Pole, win and fastest lap for Brendan Roberts in the Superstock 1000 race. This is the second time in four races that the Australian has managed to record a hat-trick. Roberts currently stands at four wins, third overall in Superstock 1000 history, while Ducati scored their tenth win overall.

ROLL ON THE SILLY SEASON