Bad look for Christian Craig

You got his sequence times from last year to compare to this year, wow you've got shit nobody else has. Anyone with a brain can visually see hes allot slower in the whoops alone than last year. But I'm more interested in your timed data from last year vrs this years. Please post these sequence results.

When you're the worst rookie and the worst factory guy, it's a bad look.

He's not a rookie. He said he's not, and I believe they took away his rookie status eligibility. 

Well, if you're doing worse than the rookies when you are a vet then that's not good either. 

What does last years times have to do with anything? Sequence timing says he is often one of the fastest in the woops. 
 

CC took years to figure out the 250 class and won with Friese being a podium contender that same year. The "he was faster than this kid last year" argument doesn't work as younger guys are constantly developing. I expect a couple top 5's at most and 7-10 finishes. Still an amazing rider. Just not elite.

When you put almost your entire life on the internet, you have to deal with the consequences.

If they decided to put the vlog up every week and didn't understand the detractors would be there, that just confirms the extreme lack of perspective on the real world from the Craigs. 

He's an elite talent, yes. He's also an elite victim mentality guy. His title last year was earned, but it was earned battling Vince Friese. Anstie is on the podium now too, after struggling in the 450's. 

I do think he'd be doing better on the Star 450, BUT because it's mental, not because the Husky is a POS. RJ just won a damn heat race on it. 

Yeah. I believe the reason he's not eligible is that he had 11 450SX races under his belt with multiple top 5 finishes before this year, and all but 3 of his outdoor seasons were on the 450. I get that SX and MX are different, but that's still a lot of experience on the bigger bike.   

I think Christian is a head case, he has all the talent to be a perennial top 5 guy, but seriously lacks confidence. Once he gains confidence, he’ll move up, but he has to decide if he wants it or not. You could see it with his starts, and last night in the qualifier he rode scared and let those guys by, no confidence.  
 

 RJ is full of vinegar and piss and doesn’t care who is in front or behind, he’s going after them. 

Years of people telling him to move up. Moves up (despite having another year of 250 eligibility), gets top 10, and people are shitting on him like he’s failing to qualify for mains.

Lol. 

Husky is cursed after they let Zacho get away. 

when Bobby left*

Paige tells Christian; 'be careful'.

Saturday night ruined.

13th, 11th, 11th,11th, 10th, 7th, 8th, 10th 

= 8th overall in points.

vs. 
 

6th, 12th, 12th, 13th, 11th, 9th, 14th, DNQ.

=10th overall in points. 

Colt Nicholls is also a first year 450 rider on a Factory bike. Why don’t we see similar ‘hate’ for Colt as we do for Christian? 
 

it’s not about the results, otherwise Colt would be ‘gettin’ it too, right?!

Because when Colt got beat on a 250 he didn't video it all and complain about how the world is against him and if we only knew how much he's struggled, we'd appreciate how far he's come from working construction.

You're not wrong, it's NOT just about results. You don't want people to criticize your life and attitude, don't PUBLICIZE your life and attitude. 

Isn’t it a bit pathetic to be pretty much bullying him online for a silly video, recorded a year ago?

I mean, the producers will have really pushed him hard for a sob-story. We know the broadcast is more aimed at the ‘non-Moto’ viewer already and over-egging this angle makes for a heart wrenching sob-story which gets these non Moto folks engaged. 
 

For us proper fans, yeah it’s a bit sickly, but c’mon now the producers will have asked for it laid on thick. 
 

it’s time to forget the silly video and move on and focus on results. 
currently 8th in points is a good position- look at who is in front of him and ask yourself would you really expect him to straight up be beating them?

I'm not just talking about the video you're referencing; I mean the vlog the Craigs themselves put on YouTube.

That's entirely controlled and approved by them. It was pretty bad last year during his title run. Obviously that's just my opinion, but I feel a lot of people got turned off by those vlogs. Especially the ones dealing with the Friese stuff. There is a lot of entitlement in that camp. 

Watching him at Daytona there was zero push or will to keep his position. Seems like he is cool to be new Wilson just getting paid and be last Factory bike. 

Fans, insiders, journos etc has to start factoring the "Star 250" bump in performance to the results.

I find it strange that everyone keeps hyping the bike and the team (100% deserved and factual) but then not taking that into account when looking at the Star 250 riders results. The Star Yamaha is basically the closest we could get to PC Kawasaki at their peak.

Craig is an amazing rider and did well on the Star 250. But to expect that he would be comfortably inside the top-5 in a healthy 450 class is delusional.

And i don't think RJ's performance is such a bad look for Craig. It was a one off race.

1: I don’t think many people realistically thought he was a top 5 450 guy, did they?

2: why isn’t 8th overall thus far considered a great performance?? 
where is the cut-off between what fans think is doing well and doing poorly?

I can give you about 30 names of riders who wish they were 8th in 450 points right now..

I don't know why anyone would give a single shit about any of these pro rider's father-inlaws, kids, wives, family money, outside jobs, whatever. None of my business, the internet has made us all Gladys Kravitz. These riders are just paid to entertain us with their skills on the track, that's all I really give shit about. I have my own life to sort through, let them do them. Craig is an 8-10th place finisher, is riding a little stiff and clumsy, good enough to get paid though. If he has outside problems, why should any of us give a shit, are any of us related to him?

Christian Craig is overrated.

I'm not throwing shade at his wife, family, vlogs or any of that personal shit, mind you. I'm just saying that from a pure rider/results perspective, he's overrated.

Wow dude give the rookie detail a rest. It’s clearly not the point USA was trying to make, yet it’s the only detail you’re hung up on 

I have watched most of their vlogs this year and last year and never really got the entitlement/woe is me vibe. Maybe when he broke his leg in a championship fight he would come across pretty bummed that day (obviously). There is threads on here about the boring "hit my marks, we have a couple things to clean up" interviews but also threads complaining that Craig and Deegan are putting their life out there too much. 

I did think he would be about where he was results wise but I think he has a couple top 5s maybe podium in him at some point but will possibly need some mistakes from other guys but that goes for any of the riders. He does seem almost self leveling to 8th or so speed wise. Bad start, comes through pack ends up 8th, good start drops to the pack ends up 8th. Can be seen as a negative or positive I guess. 

I believe Colt has been nursing a knee issue.

I'm all over that, but on the local level...

Back to Craig, no question he and the team want better, but seeing as he just got back to 450's with a big change in manufacturer/chassis, I guess it's fair enough?

It beats him putting himself on the bench with an injury by riding over his head. Hopefully just needs to build the confidence to take the fight to the guys in front, and being a little thicker skinned won't hurt him either, seems easily upset or distracted (not talking about family at the races or any cans of worms like that).

I hear you man, and I agree...but he/they are the ones putting out the vlogs. Do we have to watch them? Of course not, but they are opening that side up for discussion and criticism once they choose to put it all out there.

It's all opinion, but I definitely get the entitlement/victim thing from them in those vlogs. Doesn't mean I want him to do poorly or crash out of the series. Just not a fan.

Go back to 2018 and CC was scoring top 10 as a fill in! You often see it these guys step up no pressure and put a good ride when they get to full season of 450 result it’s different ball game. But no doubt CC is not looking as good in the whoops on the husky same for Mookie

Just looked at the lap times from Saturday. Although only fastest lap, Craig would have only notched 5th in the 250 class on his 450. I think the fire down inside is missing. All the muff about depth of field for SX is a myth. Only Tomac/Webb/and on any given Saturday Sexton are going to win.