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To me it sounds like the clutch had a "spent" or "burned up" feeling to it. In other words, no power was getting to the ground. I dont think this was a case of him just not being able to disengage the clutch when going into a corner.
I could be wrong, I have no fucking idea as I was sitting on my couch watching it on my TV.
Pit Row
The clutch wasn't working for what ever reason, simple as that. No fucking conspiracy theory.
If anyone honestly things James is scared to race some one, you have your head so far up your own ass you obviously missed the years he raced RC.
Mechanicals happen. Don't know why some of you guys cant comprehend that. Its like its unfathomable or something.
The team is renown amongst the elite as one of-if not the best to race for.This is why guys choose to race the RMZ (for significantly less financial return)for the factory Suzuki team as its simply the best bike for that level of rider.period.
Ive worked for Mike Webb and factory Suzuki and im good personal friends with Lee so i know the effort these guys put in,trust me theyre 100%,be in no doubt about that.
There was obviously something broken that was simply not able to be fixed in the 2 mins you have,and with the distance to the pits your'e dealing with there only compounds the problem.
I DO NOT KNOW what happened but as a pure guess i'd say either the actuating arm (the piece the bottom of the cable attaches to) has broken or the bearing on the clutch pressure plate let go-both things are impossible to repair in time and impossible to foresee a failure like that.............shit happens i guess.
Why Lee wasn't on the line?I would GUESS James prefers his dad to be able to pep talk him before the race,there's no more to it than that.
Roger is a great team leader,of course- i worked with him for a year so i know that first hand but Mike Webb is also 100% committed and very knowledgeable without being self important at the same time.In my experience i wouldnt like to say one is better than the other if im honest and ive been a mechanic for both of them.
The other mechanicals,.....lets not forget these bikes are running at the very top of their capability's due to the production rule theyre not hand made specials for the pro guys but the same main components that anyone can buy and things fail,its the nature of the game and at the end of the day "its racing"
To me it seems so amateur to have the Dad there. This isn't Hillbilly raceway on a Sunday afternoon. If the rider isn't motivated 30 seconds before the gate drops then he needs to look at himself, rather than replacing his mechanic with Daddy. Stewart is close to retirement, it's not his first race on a PW FFS.
Me personally?i would prefer to be on hand as i think most mechanics would prefer to be there,i spent a lot of seasons on the line-15 as a mechanic and 11 as a goggle guy but its not un-common for the rider to prefer his father,brother or even manfreind to be there with him,
Its usually that they have a stronger bond with the manfreind or father than the mechanic-they know if the guy needs firing up or calming down-especially i feel since the box-van days its less the "its you and me versus the world" attitude than nowedays when youre all working out of a semi and its a way more corporate feel to it all...the rider mechanic bond isnt as strong in my opinion.
the rider flies in,does the race usually hanging out in his motorhome and spending the days with his entorage then flies home and spends the week with his trainer and practice mechanic,a lot of days even the race mechanic wont go out testing with a rider if there's race bikes to build and the team have practice/back up mechanics to swap and change stuff at the test tracks-all the time i feel it dilutes the rider/mechanic bond.
Id guess leeroy wasnt far away,its not like he would have been sitting in the stands having a beer.
They weren't frantically trying to fix it because he said a clutch is not something they bring to the line. They would have had to take it apart, run to the truck, run back, put it back together, fill it with oil all in about 5 minutes tops.
It was way more serious, and on a much higher scale, than anything I've dealt with.
Just read a little farther into the thread and you wouldn't have had to type out this post.
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