Well, I suppose I'd better comment on the Nicky Hayden / Dani Pedrosa crash at last weekend's Portugese round of the MotoGP championship. In some ways I'm loathed to do so, because it is so abundantly clear what happened and who is to blame. In addition, a look at some of the main motorcycle racing websites will find many editorials on the topic - try here, here and Toby Moody's page at Crash.net.
The one thing about this situation that I've always felt is that I don't believe Honda have ever been 100% behind Nick Hayden. The got him in the beginning because they didn't want Yamaha to get him. Since then he's ridden in the shadow of Valentino Rossi, then wallowed in a couple of seasons with average team-mates and a slightly below-par bike. Then he had to ride in the (tiny) shadow of the sponsor's golden boy. Even though Repsol's sponsorship is merely pocket money for Big Red, Honda has never assigned a role of subservience to Pedrosa despite his inexperience, flaws and questionable demeanor. Given that behavior by the team, what happened on Sunday was inevitable.
Let me put it this way:
Some parents of teenagers believe that it's not possible to lay down the law with their children. They feel that the rebellious temperament means they're going to do what they want anyway, so better to stay friends with the kid than alienate them AND have them break the rules. The theory goes that it's better for them to learn from their mistakes than from the words of their parents.
Then there are parents who are willing to be the bad guys, who are willing to threaten the kids with being grounded for a month if they borrow the car without asking. Sometimes the threats will work, the kid stays home and perhaps it's during one of those times that the kid might otherwise have taken the car and gotten killed by a drunk driver at 2am in front of a 7-11.
It's a nice idea, that of self-governance. But people are stupid, and when you remove the rules that stupidity has some extra room to show itself.
That's about all I have to say.
Actually, one more thing: although we need Dani to be in tip-top form to ride for second place behind Nicky and ahead of Vale at Valencia, I'm hoping that once the season is over he contracts a really bad case of that African disease where river worms breed underneath your skin. Or that he accidentally talks to the girlfriend of a steroid-popping wrestler in a bar and finds himself with a pair of black eyes and cracked ribs. Or that he has one of those infections that makes you need to pee all the time, and when you go it burns really bad. Nothing serious, just some discomfort to make up for the sleepless nights Nick Hayden is probably having in the run up to this weekend's race.
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
300 million Americans agree: Dani Pedrosa's a little bitch
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3 comments:
Nicky has a nice response on the front page of his website regarding all of this. Graciously, he didn't throw punches at Dani but certainly, you can tell he doesn't care for the guy. Can't wait for the next one. By the way, Nicky message posted Oct 18.
After this happened, Dani helped Nicky win the championchip the next race, so he is not a little bitch. He make a mistake, like all humans do. Obviously it was not his intention to crash, and it's really unfair to judge a rider and aperson like that, and insult him just becaus eof a mistake. He apologized, and he helped Nicky at Valencia GP, Dani could have won that race, but he let Nicky overtake him, and stayed after him all the race, when he had a much faster pace and could have won, like he showed next year (2007) with his stunning win. So Pedrosa sacrified himself for Nicky. There is not need to be disrespectful with him.
He is a great rider, and a very nice person when you meet him in real life during a GP, so don't judge if you don't really know him.
I found this after googling Pedrosa. I went to my first motogp race yesterday at Laguna Seca and it was AMAZING! Anyway I had a pit pass and got a lot of autographs (Rossi, Edwards, Wayne Rainey...) I never really thought much of Pedrosa but I have to say, he was the NICEST rider I met there. Edwards was funny and Rossi was nice too but Pedrosa was EXTREMELY polite to everyone and extremely patient as well. He's very quiet and softspoken but he waited forever for me to snap my picture brcause my stupid i-phone was acting up. He took pictures with everyone that asked him and just didn't seem to mind at all how long it took. Just the nicest most humble person you can imagine.
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