Geoff May and a factory ride

[GSXR RACER MIKE]

It's no longer Safety First Racing.  We are simply going by the code name "The J-Team"   8) 8)

Maybe Mr. T could be our mascot and just become Mr. J.

LOL ;D

Trying to remove the thought from my head of Mr.T as your umbrella girl in high heels, short shorts, and a tube top ! :o :o :o ;) :) LMAO!

[addicted]

If you are to get a factory ride you also have to have some impressive results in most cases.Geoff although a good rider and finished well in Superbike standings this year did not have any really impressive races at the Pro level.

I was rather impressed with Geoff this year as I attended my first motorcycle racing event ever.  I saw him at a club race here in WI at Road America.  He smoked everyone that weakend!!!  

I had another opertunity to see him this year at an AMA race later that year.  The month previous, he was in Colorado where he blew 2 motors up and finsihed 10th on a loaned bike from David Bell.  That's pretty impressive considering he had no time to set the bike up or test it out.

On to WI.  He blew 3 motors while he was here. Motor 1 blew in 1st practice in SS.  Motor 2 blew in SB practice and the 3rd in SS qualifying 1hr 30 min before the race.  Geoff and his mechanic had to work his ass off to get ready the bike ready.  David Bell had loaned him his bike, which allowed them to setup their suspension on David's bike.  He place 8th & 9th with a good run of bad luck.

My point is simple.  He has performed to the best of his ability on inferior equiptment.  When he comes out a corner ahead of  Eric Bostrom and gets smoked in the straight away, thats not riding!!  Thats horsepower and superior equiptment.  I'd like to see what you have to say after somebody puts Geoff on a factory bike IE Honda, Suzuki and runs in the top 4 1-2 seconds off of the leader.

Given crappy equiptment, finishing 5th overall says a hell of a lot about his ability.  This is just an opinion from a casual observer

[Super Dave]

Wasn't that like 12 years ago?

No, it was in like 1996, I think.

Still in the age of manufacturer teams winning.

It was a heads up win against Miguel et al at Road America, I think.

[Super Dave]

Given crappy equiptment, finishing 5th overall says a hell of a lot about his ability.  This is just an opinion from a casual observer

Ok, your observations don't seem to be casual.

But if we want to talk more about it.

You're claiming that it's the HP...

At Daytona, the bike that qualified fastest did a lap time of 1:46.835, with Eric Bostrom.

Geoff May, a very good racer, did a lap time of 1:51.864 on his GSXR1000.  A machine that has probably an easy 150 to 160 HP.  

Do we assume that Eric had 200 HP with is bike?

Anyway, Jason DiSalvo qualified at a 1:50.998 on his Yamaha...in 600 Supersport.  Yeah, that was an outstanding time, but the Yamaha 600 factory bike makes, what, 120 HP?  My R6 doesn't make that much, but if we want to make the HP the issue...

Then we have to have something to back it up....

At VIR Geoff's qualifying time was a little more than 2.5 seconds off the pole and only 0.10 and 0.2 seconds behind the Factory Ducati's.

Opportunities....

Did it change the result?

That Valentino guy had a bike that had less HP...I think I said this once before...but he won races.

If it was all about HP, we could just have a dyno shoot out and be done with it, but each rider and crew still has to go and select the tire, the suspension set up, etc...then ride it.

I think Geoff is very good.  I think he'd be a good addition to a B team for a start.  Is that how Suzuki has him set up now?  Might be.  So, what can he do next to go faster?  You've constantly got to look for that.

At Road America, in Race One, Geoff's trap speed was 175.20, the same as Aaron Yates.  Mladin's was 176.87.  Mladin finished second, three MPH down from DuHammel.

Interestingly, Geoff's trap speed was faster in race two at Road America at 179.11, fourth fastest, only 0.75 MPH down from the fastest trap speed, and winner.  That put him more than three MPH faster than Mladin who finished third.

In race two, Geoff finished ninth.  In tenth, Eric Wood finished the race with a top speed of 168.11, well down from Geoff.

[G 97]

I was rather impressed with Geoff this year as I attended my first motorcycle racing event ever.  I saw him at a club race here in WI at Road America.  He smoked everyone that weakend!!!  

I had another opertunity to see him this year at an AMA race later that year.  The month previous, he was in Colorado where he blew 2 motors up and finsihed 10th on a loaned bike from David Bell.  That's pretty impressive considering he had no time to set the bike up or test it out.

On to WI.  He blew 3 motors while he was here. Motor 1 blew in 1st practice in SS.  Motor 2 blew in SB practice and the 3rd in SS qualifying 1hr 30 min before the race.  Geoff and his mechanic had to work his ass off to get ready the bike ready.  David Bell had loaned him his bike, which allowed them to setup their suspension on David's bike.  He place 8th & 9th with a good run of bad luck.

My point is simple.  He has performed to the best of his ability on inferior equiptment.  When he comes out a corner ahead of  Eric Bostrom and gets smoked in the straight away, thats not riding!!  Thats horsepower and superior equiptment.  I'd like to see what you have to say after somebody puts Geoff on a factory bike IE Honda, Suzuki and runs in the top 4 1-2 seconds off of the leader.

Given crappy equiptment, finishing 5th overall says a hell of a lot about his ability.  This is just an opinion from a casual observer

Wow, you sure are up to date and in touch with a lot of specific information for being such a casual observer.  ;)  

I don't think anyone is debating that May is a superb racer and had some very good finishes relative to the other privateers and in the course of compiling those results the deck was stacked against him when compared to the factory teams – both in equipment and resources as well as, to some degree, the individual racers themselves.   I think most would agree to that.  

I hope he gets an opportunity.  He has a fan here.


On a seperate note.  According to an article from Superbike Planet Ben Bostrom is facing a simular situation as touched on earlier in this thread with regards to bringing money to the table for a ride.

Good numbers Super Dave, very interesting and it really sheds alot of light on the situation.  :)

[Super Dave]

Thanks, Garth.

I'm a May fan too.

I like a lot of the guys, really.  Yeah, it would be good if there was more support further down so that more guys could train for AMA Superbike racing.  Additionally, I'd like to see some pieces be available to more teams so that we had a little better mixing of the riders.  As it is, hey, you can count on one hand which riders are probably going to win before qualifying starts.

Try doing that in NASCAR.  Good luck.  

F1?  Well...no.

So...I say go Jesse.  And let's have some ice to go ride on.

[khanson]

Lets see how long we can split hairs over a few words.

I don't think anyone has ever said Geoff wasn't a good rider.

The argument seems to be over everyones interpretation of the word impressive.

It's up for subjective interpretation.  What's impressive to one person may not be as impressive to another.  Someone with many years of AMA experience may think of it differently from someone who has less experience or even no experience inside the industry or somone not even a racer reading this board.

Mmmm......communication...it's how the world works.

I wonder how long this post can last?

[Super Dave]

We can keep this up forever.

I personally think that Uma Thurman is impressive.  But my wife thinks she's ugly.

She married me, so what does she know? 8)

[Dawn]

I personally think that Uma Thurman is impressive.  But my wife thinks she's ugly.

She married me, so what does she know? 8)

LOL!!!!

 ;D

[OmniGLH]

WOW this thread is STILL going???

The same holds true for racing as it does anywhere else - it's not WHAT you know, it's WHO you know..  I wouldn't have had any of the sponsorships I've had if it weren't for the contacts my teammate had.  We had several 'A' level sponsorships from a few motorcycle-industry sponsors as amateurs.  Some of it was due to our nice resume... but some of it was due to our contacts.

And I'm sure we can ALL attest to the fact that it takes money to go somewhere.  Some of the prices that have been asked for a support contract seem crazy.  But hey, what do I know.

Jim and HD - not taking sides, but you're BOTH digging yourselves holes here.  Jim this might be a time to turn on your mental internet feature that you told me you often use when reading CLSB  ;)

[Super Dave]

It all goes both ways, Jim.

Yeah, who you know....

Can help.

What you know can too.

But what's really better?

Do you think that Larry Denning, as an example, has been offered some rides for teams?  

Would it pay the same as what he can make on his own?

Would it offer the independence that he has now?  

There's always more there than meets the eye.

[ekraft84]

Guys, HP and suspension play a part, but it's really the tires ..