Remembering 2011

The 2011 MotoGP season will be remembered for 2 things:

1. Casey Stoner winning the 2011 Motogp Championship in dominating fashion
2. Death of Marco "Sic" Simoncelli

Let us start with Casey Stoner. A lot of critics said that Casey won the 2007 Championship because Casey was riding the best bike which was a Ducati and using the the best tire "Bridgestone" in 2007. This was the year when Motogp decided to go down to 800cc from 990cc, the reason behind the reduction of cc was due to the World Economic Crisis that was affecting the motorcycle industry. So claimed the Motogp Organizers.

Ducati came out fighting in 2007, they go the whole package right and they had a future world champion riding for them. Tires were another story. Majority of the riders during the 2007 season were using Michelin tires since it was very successful when Rossi was using it from 2004 to 2006. However, things drastically changed (we will never know what Bridgestone did to improve their tire) with Bridgestone. It was the tire choice of everybody beginning 2008. Good tires equals good grip, good grip equals race wins!

The last year of the 800cc's 2011, Honda went all out to win the Championship. Hiring 1 of the 4 aliens to pilot their RCV to the championship, Stoner was Honda's man to deliver the goods. The picture above is a picture that tell's you "ACTION SPEAKS LOUDER THAN WORDS". Close your eyes and imagine the front straight of any Motogp track, going up to speeds of excess 300 KMH then you downshift from 6th gear to 2nd gear in 1 to 2 seconds to prepare for the first corner. It looks like Stoner looks out of control but truth be told, this is the way Stoner rides, all out every race weekend. With all the technology in motorcycle racing (traction control, slipper cluth and others) you can not fight physics. The back will always slide if you are coming in too hot. To Stoner, this was a normal feeling. He proved that every 2 weeks during the Motogp season. No critic can take away his 2011 title, there is no excuse they can use. Stoner dominated the whole of 2011 and he deserves to be the Champion. Nobody can take away his 2011 Championship, the critics ran out of excuses to deny him the win.

Second is the passing of "Super Sic" at the Malaysian Grand Prix in Sepang on October 23, 2011. This is was a sad day for the Motogp family. I will not dwell on the details for I do not like remembering it. I will let the picture below tell the story itself.

  Picture taken from Cyclenews.com