Posts
516
Joined
8/18/2008
Location
Spring Grove, MN
US
Edited Date/Time
1/26/2012 12:34pm
LINK
Money quotes:
Racer X: I know this is sort of starting on a downer, but you won that moto, but you killed Shorty. What happened there? What was the story with that?
Ben Townley: I was going for it. I wanted to win.
Did you think you would hit or did you think he would let off?
I thought he would let off, yeah. Maybe he didn’t know I was there. I don’t know, it’s racing. It’s motocross. It happens and I don’t know what else to say.
Somebody asked me right afterward why you would do that, and I said, "Dude, I would take out my mom to win a moto at the MXoN."
Without a doubt. I wanted to win. For me, it’s important to get back to that level that I know I can be, and I think I proved that once I got to the front. That little German f&#$er is a fast one...
Kind of refreshing to hear some brutal honesty, IMO.
always been a big fan of BT
The Shop
Not really a criticism, though: it's human nature, for better and worse, to see one's own actions as fair and other people's actions that affect you as unfair.
My take is (1) the MXdN incident was indeed just a racing incident as BT says, and (2) when, at the time of his choosing, Shorty decides to punt BT off the track it will also be just a racing incident. I personally hope Shorty gets his moneys worth.
"He was gonna let off" "It was aggressive". Um no, I center punched him, and knocked him off his bike and on the ground. Period. And yes I will not cry when he dishes me mine in the future.
It's alright to sit here and say "Yeah right on Ben" etc etc, but you've got to stick yourself's in Andrews postion. It isn't so fun then.
Of course bashing bars is a part of racing and sometimes mistakes happen and that's understandable. But purposely removing someone from their motorcycle or riding in a wreckless way that is likely to cause an incident, is going too far. I know he didn't say that exactly but you can sort of tell in that interview he didn't really care one way or the other whether Shorty stayed up.
As FreshTopEnd said, an interesting contrast in comments between that and Glen Helen.
if shorty was passing ben and put him down this place would be completely behind him for it. more of it has to do with the race than the racers imo.
The Townley/Short incident didn't look pre-determined to me, whereas Alessi's seemed to be.
Pit Row
I have always thought that if Short rode his own race he would be better off. Instead, he gets a killer start and blocks like crazy until the dam breaks and then he gets blitzed by the next 5 guys.
Maybe those 5 guys would have passed him anyway.......but pumping his arms up and putting his mind in a frenzy doesn't help.
Face it, none of these guys hold a candle to early Carmichael. RC absolutely demolished people. Geoff's right, too, GP banging in the 70's, early 80's was vicious.
Ben's comments after GH:
Can you talk about what happened between you and Alessi in the first moto that ended your run up front, more or less?
It’s just Mike being his usual self... You know, I passed him around the outside, and I was in front of him, and out of nowhere, he squared the turn off... To be fair, because of the way I passed him, I didn’t quite hit my turn right, and he had every right to come up the inside of me, but I was going in one direction and he was going in almost the opposite direction of that; we were doing a left-hand turn, and he was sort of veering off to the right, so... It’s just him. Nothing more to say about that. Did you see me go out off the start line [for the parade lap before moto two] and just roost the hell out of him? He was going up on the side of me, and I jumped my back wheel off the ground and just f@#%in’ showered him... [Laughs]
http://www.racerxonline.com/article/monday-conversation-ben-townley-5-31-10.aspx
your a journalist, not a spin doctor working for an american politician. lol
the BT/AS deal... saw it live, saw the live replay, saw the different camera angle. Agressive, yes. A tbone or punt, no. They came together, it happens. I agree, I would take out my mom to win the moto in the o'Nations. And Im a huge Shorty fan! Hes a big boy, hes done the same to others, had it done to him, just caught him off guard. Its racing.
Hannah would take one look at it and say you had a clean track in front of you, dont let him get that close to Shorty. To BT he would have said, why was he able to pick his bike up? If youre going to do it, do it right BT.
i've read the one with him and alessi a few times and don't see it.
maybe some of you guys are just so damned sensitive that it doesn't matter what he says your opinion will stick. pretty short sighted no?
Post a reply to: BT101 tellin' it like it is