Davies vs. Shimoda

Jo seems to be the outright fastest guy right now, so if he can keep starting like he did in moto 2, he’ll be hard to beat. 

It seems that Shimoda has a slight speed advantage, but the advantage the Star Yamaha has over the Honda HRC on power and starts is much more significant.

Shimoda was faster in moto 1 but still lost points on the day because of how underpowered he is off the start.

If Honda can find some HPs it should result in a lot more close battles between Davies and Shimoda.

Otherwise, I think Davies takes it given he hole shots pretty much every moto.

I think it’s more technique than power, because Hymas was second off the start in moto 2.

That’s fair, at the same time. We saw last year Shimoda was almost always top 3-5 off the start, so I think it is power related.

also Hymas has always been a great starter and aside from Moto 2 we really haven’t him seen him get a good start like he historically has which implies it’s less technique than power

It’s certainly going to be interesting and I’m here for it.

Jo needs to start qualifying better to give himself a better start to the day, and it’s hard to say if Cole is going to be consistently good or not.

I missed most of moto 2 today. Did Davies crash or did Jo catch and beat him straight up?

Poor Mitch... it was looking promising

Should be Shimoda, but I'm going to go with Davies as he is only going to get better I think

Jo caught him and dropped him , 

He sounded VERY tired on the podium, I think the heat etc. got to him in the last one.

Cole didn't seem bummed, so maybe he was playing the long game, knowing he had the win for the day?
 

cant get more straight up than the way he did it

yeah, the look back as soon as Jo passed him was pretty telling, he looked gassed, 

this would be the first hot and humid race days, so i think he will get better, 

Jo has been at this in the 250 class for a long time. He and Kitchen are the fastest guys. But at this point, I wouldn’t count on either one of them to string together a championship. I think Davies has a better chance to go the distance tbh

Jo has experience in his corner but will still do boneheaded stuff that boggles the mind. Catching and dropping Davies yesterday was a huge mental win for Jo but on the flip side Davies rode smart. Just want to see them both stay healthy and duke it out. 

im a big fan of Jo, he’s certainly my favorite 250 rider but I almost feel like Davies has a better shot of consistently managing the championship.

Shimoda’s only problem is passing. Once he’s up front he is good at staying there.

Jo has to win this season imo. We’re on year 7 in the 250s w/o a title. Would like to see him finally get one and shift focus to moving up.

It should be Jo. He has the experience, his elite fitness is always big late in the season/on hot days, he's much older, and he's raced all these tracks for years. The obvious advantages for Davies are that he's clearly improving every single week and his starts are better, but he's still a 'rookie' and I can see him having more mistakes or head scratcher motos 

It’s Jo time. If he got better starts he’d be dominating. I think his fitness and late race speed is going to get it done for him though. 

Jumping on the Davies train, Jo seems to be the fastest one week and the next you barely know he is on the track

I think it will be a bit track dependent on how things shake out. Jo struggles to pass on high speed tracks where you can move around,  but is the best in the field at moving forward in rough and gnarly conditions. I say he will go as the prep goes. 

I don't know if Jo is missing his shift points or his bike lacks torque, but the other bikes are leaving him down the start. Once he gets going by himself, he's great at carrying momentum.

I really want to put Kitchen in this battle too. I do think when he's "on" he is every bit as fast. Just the inconsistencies make it hard to do that. I'm not totally giving up on him though. That being said, Davies stepped up big this year. Shimoda tends to be a bit up and down too, even though he is looking good. I'd probably pick Davies, if I had to choose. Hopefully it's a good battle between those 2 (or 3,) for the rest of the year.

I saw it Fri thunder valley press day testing. The 2 Hondas riders were pulling up on the bars, etc to clear big stuff. Other bikes just greased it.  

Davies will have more consistency in the start which will win him the title over Jo 

I'm still picking Davies easily over Jo. 4 moto wins vs only 1.
I think the only way Jo beats him is if we have unusually many hot races. Red Bud moto 2 Cole easily wins if it wasn't for the heat. Looks like he's not handling heat well at all.
Hope I'm wrong as I'd love for Jo to finally get a title

Hopefully not. Heat stroke would wreck his season. JT caulked it up to drinking fluids too quickly after the moto

Most of these guys all live and practice in florida/georgia/ SC … not sure not being used to the heat and humidity are a valid reason anymore.