• Welcome to the Two Wheeled Texans community! Feel free to hang out and lurk as long as you like. However, we would like to encourage you to register so that you can join the community and use the numerous features on the site. After registering, don't forget to post up an introduction!

MotoGP done for the year...

Tourmeister

Keeper of the Asylum
Admin
Joined
Feb 28, 2003
Messages
51,145
Reaction score
8,056
Location
Huntsville
First Name
Scott
Last Name
Friday
Well... It has been a wild year. All three classes have had great racing all season long! I can't wait for next year to begin.

I do have a few questions. If you watched the Valencia race, there was a lot of rain. In this day and age, there are few things I just cannot understand. WHY can they not setup the cameras to keep rain off the lenses or at least have someone that quickly wipes the lenses while particular cameras are not feeding the live feed? Even something like the plastic over bike cameras that rolls clear plastic over the lens when it gets dirty would be better than just letting the lenses be covered in water so badly that we can hardly see the bikes.

Wet tracks... why are they still using push brooms to clear the tracks of standing water?! Seriously, have these people never seen an NHRA drag racing event!? They have track conditioners that can very quickly scrub oil/blood and other fluids off the track between runs. They have trailers that have jet engines on them and the exhaust is used like a giant blow dryer to blow the water off the track and dry it at the same time. The FIM could stand to take some lessons. I attended an NHRA event in Baytown and a cold front came through, dumping a few inches of rain on us in about 30 minutes. Within about 15-20 minutes of the rain stopping, the racing resumed with record speeds! This could seriously cut down the time between a red flag for rain and getting a race restarted when the rain lets up.

Also along the lines of wet tracks, why can't they use the asphalt that is porous? They used it on I-45 down around New Waverly/Willis a few years back. The aggregate is large enough that it allows water to run down through it to the substrate and then drain off to the sides. This drastically cuts down on standing water on the asphalt unless it is just raining in torrents. Maybe the stresses on the asphalt on a race track are too much for this kind of asphalt?

Finally, so long to Dani Pedrosa. It's been fun :thumb:
 
:ponder:
maybe transporting a jet engine is pricey?
but the cameras, WTHeck, they have preset locations, can't afford a tin roof and wind break? probably cost less than a set of practice tires! But you know, we are just dumb yanks.
 
They should take a page from the Deadliest Catch camera crew, who mounted a spinning plastic disc in front of the lens ensuring the water spray didn't mess up the shot or freeze on the lens. At least I believe I saw that on a behind the scenes episode. Makes sense to me.
 
:ponder:
maybe transporting a jet engine is pricey?
but the cameras, WTHeck, they have preset locations, can't afford a tin roof and wind break? probably cost less than a set of practice tires! But you know, we are just dumb yanks.

These blowers are not massive and come in all sizes. Here is the company that provides them for the NHRA,

https://buffaloturbine.com/

and here are some of the regular smaller blowers

https://buffaloturbine.com/debris-leaf-blowers/tow-behind-debris-blowers

Even NASCAR uses them to clean their tracks.

It would seem they are not "jet" engines. When I first saw them, they said "turbines" on them and I thought that referred to having a jet engine, like something you might see in a helicopter. They are not real large. Apparently, it just refers to the use of a gas/diesel/electric powered turbine blade system for the blower nozzle.

I would think even a typical yard maintenance back pack blower would have to work better than the brooms? Or, imagine something like a leaf vacuum being used to suck the water up and blow it out away from the track, kind of like a snow blower for water. We're not talking high tech here :shrug: Maybe there is just something about the process I don't get? Maybe, it is just because that is how they have always done it? :-P

The NHRA had these other machines that looked like the ice conditioners used on hockey rinks. They basically cleaned a path about 8 feet wide on one pass. So any time an engine let go and oil was all over the track, these things would run out there, do a pass or two, and the track was good to go for the next run in a matter of a few minutes. I guess it just sucked up the oil into an internal tank and cleaned the surface somehow. It was fascinating to watch because they had this stuff down to a science! They wasted no time at all!
 
They should take a page from the Deadliest Catch camera crew, who mounted a spinning plastic disc in front of the lens ensuring the water spray didn't mess up the shot or freeze on the lens. At least I believe I saw that on a behind the scenes episode. Makes sense to me.

I never thought about that and I used to watch that show occasionally back when it first came out. But yeah, keeping water off the lens should not be an issue. It's not like this is some fly by night production crew covering backwoods amateur swamp racing or something... :doh:
 
You can get decommissioned turbines for relatively cheap. It would just make sense to mount one to a trailer and let it blow on the track.


You can get small turbines for around a grand.
 
Not exactly the discussion I thought I would find in this post. I watched Oncu win his first race on his debut in the moto3 class and he is the youngest winner ever at 15. He is without a doubt the next big deal in motogp. Ktm has a winner in this kid. His twin brother will join the team in 2020 also. They have traded wins this year in the rookie cup. Ktm got there first ever podium in the motogp class and won the moto2 race also.
 
Not exactly the discussion I thought I would find in this post. I watched Oncu win his first race on his debut in the moto3 class and he is the youngest winner ever at 15. He is without a doubt the next big deal in motogp. Ktm has a winner in this kid. His twin brother will join the team in 2020 also. They have traded wins this year in the rookie cup. Ktm got there first ever podium in the motogp class and won the moto2 race also.

Well, I was trying not to post spoilers for those that might not yet have watched the races :-P

But yeah, that race was crazy. The "moment" on the last lap was almost predicable. I am just glad he survived it! It is good to see KTM doing so well. I wish other manufacturers would get in on the game, but I understand it is a HUGE financial commitment! Imagine of Kawasaki, BMW, and Triumph fielded factory teams. Aprilia is a good example of the reality of that difficulty though. So hats off to KTM for their effort at all levels!! And let us not forget how well the Suzukis have been doing of late.
 
Well, I was trying not to post spoilers for those that might not yet have watched the races :-P

But yeah, that race was crazy. The "moment" on the last lap was almost predicable. I am just glad he survived it! It is good to see KTM doing so well. I wish other manufacturers would get in on the game, but I understand it is a HUGE financial commitment! Imagine of Kawasaki, BMW, and Triumph fielded factory teams. Aprilia is a good example of the reality of that difficulty though. So hats off to KTM for their effort at all levels!! And let us not forget how well the Suzukis have been doing of late.
Ktm has the money. They've got all yall drinking the koolaid! [emoji23][emoji1787]

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk
 
Mid Ohio had a really high tech setup for drying off the track. A bunch of tires roped together pulled behind a pickup truck across the track.
 
If it works... :-P

You did however bring up track surface material. Never understood why they used what they did at Mid Ohio. It was like one of two tracks IIRC that the AMA couldn't just switch to rain tires and go racing because the particular surface was, as my first computer teacher would say, slicker than snot on a doorknob. :rofl:

We sat around waiting forever for the rain to stop for race 2 and decided to bail. At home we watched them dragging tires around trying to get it dry enough. I think they ended up scrubbing some of the lower class races and squeezed in the suerbike race. We were disappointed but I was happy the next two days were rain free for me to take advantage of the CSS track days. :rider:
 
A few years ago, I was doing a track day in TWS in College Station. It rained during lunch so they needed to dry the track. They told all the riders to get in their vehicles and drive around the track for a few laps. Big Mistake. I have never seen so many crazy-*** fools in vehicles going around a track.....Including me. You have no idea how much fun that was in a Nissan Armada. Its a miracle I did not flip over. Top three moment on the track for me.....
 
Rain days at Fastline track events always meant big fun in our personal vehicles. I put a hitch on my Genesis 3.8 Track and towed my bike to rainy days, just in case.
 
Back
Top