Re: Can anyone explain this to me?

"Julian Bond" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Mark N <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> >> >Either they want more,

> >Geez, could this refer to anyone but Americans or AMA racers? Just to
show
> >that I'm paranoid, name another example.

> "Want more". It's a common refrain that people like Mladin can earn more
> in the AMA than just about any other championship. It also applies to
> the self belief and arrogance that says it's not worth competing unless
> they can get a competitive, potentially championship winning ride. Why
> leave a championship you can win for another where realistically you
> can't make better than 10th because that's all the ride you can get.

Ah, it is  "people like Mladin... in the AMA" then. That's not very
accurate, is it? I don't recall Mladin saying he "can earn more in the AMA
than just about any other championship". I do recall him saying you can't
get a ride in GP unless you're the right nationality, and at the time he was
saying that it was pretty much true, wasn't it? I do recall him saying that
it's not worth being in WSB unless you have a factory twin, and that's been
pretty much the truth, hasn't it? I doubt that Mladin has been offered a
ride on a good team in either WSB or GP, and that not only includes Honda
and Ducati, but Suzuki and Yamaha and Kawasaki as well. Why would he give up
a million dollar ride to take on a ride at Proton, for instance, or on a
two-year-old Ducati in WSB? Who has done that? Name some guys who have given
up anything in order to do the world championships on lesser bikes. Yes, I
know, there are Aussies all over the world trying to make a living at
racing, something they can't really do at home. And there are guys like
McCoy and McWilliams, who have been knocking around GP for years, but what
have they given up to do that? Can McCoy get a million dollar ride back home
in Oz?

Let's look at your BSB boys - Bayliss moves from a private team Ducati in
BSB to an AMA factory-supported Ducati in the AMA (and certainly a raise) to
a Corse ride in WSB (probably a raise again, at least in '01), to a Corse
ride in MGP. Hodgson moved from a privateer 500 effort to a Corse ride in
WSB, then fades back to BSB, then moves to WSB with his BSB team (no worse
than the same bikes and pay), then the Corse team in WSB and on to a
Ducati-supported ride in MGP. Walker turns down his BSB team in their
proposed move to WSB to take a ride on an NSR in 500 (an opportunity created
by Dorna in order to get a Brit into GP), then has to fall back to a ride
with the Kawasaki factory team in WSB, then on to take Hodgson's spot on the
#2 Ducati team in WSB, then on to Foggy's team next to ex-WSB champ Corser.
Toseland moves from a mediocre Honda ride in BSB to a seat next to Hodgson
in WSB when he moved over, and now moves to the Corse team in WSB. Byrne
moves directly from BSB to the Aprilia factory team in MGP, skipping the
Ducati WSB thing and taking the seat vacated by two-time WSB champ Edwards.
Yeah, they've really had to make sacrafices to move up the ranks...

The problem in the AMA is that the Japanese factories value top guys doing
the series because it's such a large market for them. So Mladin isn't given
serious consideration by Suzuki for a WSB or GP ride, because they're better
off keeping him in the AMA. Honda keeps Duhamel here and hires Fogarty,
Kocinski and Edwards for WSB instead, and wants Hayden to stay as well,
until it's clear that he's bailing for Yamaha in GP. Bostrom never gets his
shot at WSB or MGP with Kawasaki (given such a ride he probably would have
taken it, even for less pay). Ducati's situation is a bit different, so Ben
Bostrom and Bayliss both move up, but when they feel they need a bigger
presence in the AMA they try to get a good world guy to take the seat - it
would take one to win, until Bostrom becomes available. It isn't really
about greed and arrogance on the part of the riders, you know.