come on give me a break man, so Marquez is a "complete punk" for making contact while racing, but now lorenzo does it and it's ok? dont forget that rossi is in the same club then as his passes havent always been w/o incident
simoncelli constantly rode over his limits, unfortunate what happened, but he's still a legend now.
why do ppl get their panties in a wad when there's some rubbing in motogp? watch some WSBK and stop being so sensitive when your racer doesnt win.
oh heck, dani had it coming for sooo long, 2006
off the soapbox
Let me clarify a couple of things. When I said I was glad to see Jorge giving it back, I didn't mean the bumping. I actually said to the TV when I saw that bump "don't stoop to his level." All I meant was that I was glad to see that they're fighting. Both JL and Dani. I was so glad to see Dani just wax the field. Like I mentioned, I was a big Marquez fan. I did want to see him do well and I was excited to see that he was going to be able to ride a factory bike as a rookie. (even if it pissed me off that they recalled a rule put in place specifically to keep Spies off a factory bike... that's a whole other discussion) I rooted for Marquez in Moto2. But the more and more I watch, the less and less I like his tactics and his attitude toward the whole field. He has no respect for his fellow racers out there.
You mentioned Rossi and Simoncelli. Not a Rossi fan, and wasn't a Simoncelli fan either. Big difference between Rossi and Marquez. The number of times Rossi has run it in like that on people added up through his MotoGP career
might equal the number of times Marques has done it in his rookie season. But even when he's done it, I don't like it. When he pulled the exact same move on Sete Gibernau back in 2005 or 2006, it was BS and he should have been DQ'd. The fact he wasn't was why I didn't think Marquez should have been either. My biggest pet peeve about officials is inconsistency. Punish the same act the same way, no matter who it is. But riding like that is not real racing IMO. That's knowing you're not fast enough on that day to beat him, so lets push him off so you don't have to. And the "it's the last lap" excuse doesn't cut it. It's no less dangerous doing it on the last lap than on the first. If you out brake yourself into a corner occasionally, fine, it happens to everyone. Hell it's happened to me on the track and on the street. But it's such a regular occurrence with him it's just dangerous. Bautista does it a lot too. Ask Rossi about that. He just hasn't been up at the sharp end of the field quite as far as Marquez and hasn't actually hit other riders as often, just run way wide in those corners.
As far as Simoncelli, yes it was a terrible accident. But lets not forget that up until that weekend, some of the riders were threatening to not race with him anymore. He was reckless, and dangerous. But incredibly fast and talented. He punted Dani off and broke his collar bone earlier that year, ending another championship fight of Dani's. He punted a lot of riders off the track, not just in MotoGP, but in the lower classes as well. Ironically, the accident that claimed his life wasn't one that where he was being reckless at all. He was simply trying to save a lowside, like they all do, many times a race, usually completely unnoticed, but in this instance it all went wrong. Yes he was dangerous, reckless, "exciting" and left us long before he hit his prime and before his time. I felt the same way about him that I do about Marquez. I'd hate to see Marquez cut down before he's able to mature into probably the greatest of all time. I do have a SuperSic58 sticker on my bike. Not because I was a fan of his. I already said I wasn't. I put it on there to remind myself that even the best riders in the world, on the best bikes, with the best protective equipment, are vulnerable when on a bike. How vulnerable does that make me?
You mentioned WSB. Just because another series has guys running into each other doesn't make it OK. (I don't get the only channel that's covering WSB this year so I haven't been able to see any of this season) This isn't NASCAR. (Even there I think it's BS the way those guys get away with the crap they do.) The whole "Rubbin's Racin' " crap is just that, crap. To me, racing is being fast, and being able to out maneuver your opponent, both on track, and with strategy, with
Clean, Respectful passing. American race fans and their "Have at it boys" attitude does nothing but add unnecessary danger to an already extremely dangerous sport. This is not a contact sport. No matter how exciting it may make it to fans, it is not.