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Most likely he thought oh shit i better get inside on this corner or im gonna get taken out and didnt realize zach was on his fender. No sane rider cross jumps like that with someone that close because as we saw they both almost got taken out. Thats why i lean towards he got scared that zach was about to be inside of him so he tried to get there first but zach was closer than he thought and it lead to the crash. I mean stop and think about it for a sec....nobody cross jumps to take someone out because your probably going to get destroyed. He was trying to get to the inside line. Theres 100 better ways to take someone out than risking your entire season/career by throwing yourself sideways in front of someone over a jump.
Osborne, aggressive yes, dirty no.
Forkner, could have been a accident. I will take him at his word.
Both guys are studs.
I see some of you questioning AF controlling the track and guarding the line that Zack would've otherwise used to pass him. Zack has proven that if you give him the chance to clean you out...on occasion he'll take it! What about Zack making the mistake of committing to a pass on the inside of the take-off of a triple which had an immediate 180 degree turn upon landing?...and if you don't think it was a mistake, take a look at the results and ask Zack how his nose feels.
If you're in the air it's cross jumping. Simple as that.
If you want to argue whether it's intentional or not, fine... but no one would be happy with it happening to them, including Forkner.
We have recently seen Grant and Malcolm get into it for exactly the same thing and Grant reacted like most would, and that was a legitimate cross-rut situation.
TM
Forkner was in the wrong and I would say he admitted it in his statement above. Osborne needs to clean up his act because as it stands almost every rider owes him a payback, some will never return the favor and some will do stupid things like cross jumping. Osborne has made his bed and now he has to sleep in it.
If I am am riding in a main and Dungey is coming up on me, I am not going to immediately get aggressive and try blocking him to stop a take out on me, Bambam on the other hand, I'll take a different approach. How you play with others is how they play back at you. Race craft is also race wisdom.
Pit Row
Zach has a right to be annoyed, irrespective of the rights and wrongs of his riding elsewhere on the track i.e the arguably over aggressive block passing into corners etc.
With all that said, there IS a difference between something being due (or exacerbated) by a mistake vs pure malicious intention... And since no one can claim to have a window into Forkner's soul, I personally am willing to put it down to his version of events on this occasion.
Anybody who thinks he's a punk or an idiot just doesn't know what they are talking about. The whole family are very good, hard working people. Top of the line.
My fear with Austin was that he would be a little too timid this year, especially after his injuries. I'm glad to see he has proven me wrong. He seems both physically and mentally tougher this year than last. Kind of like John Wayne toilet paper, rough and tough and ain't gonna take no crap off nobody. It was also wise to stay away from Zach after the race. That had a better chance to go bad than good.
I also am a fan of Zach. I had no problem with his pass on Savatgy, it actually looked to me like Joey didn't realize he was there and turned down into him. Zach IS very aggressive and is not afraid to ride close and risk a little contact. Although I see the point about the "last lap title is on the line" stuff, a point or two at the first of the series can have just as much impact as on the last lap of the last race. I think he is actually a bit more aggressive this year than last. I thought his takeout of Austin was more aggressive than what he did to Savatgy, but it's his style, and he will have to accept when its done to him as well.
As far as this incident, that whole thing looks a little strange to me. I watched it several times, and it looks like Austin was fairly straight when he left the jump, although even by his own admission he was moving a bit to the left. But I think he went farther than intended, because when he landed, it looks like he's trying to correct to the right, or at least straighten it up. But this also goes back to Zach riding so aggressive and close.
This was just a racing incident in my opinion, with no ill intent by anybody.
As far as cross jumping, it looks to me like everybody does it more than they used to. I think its developed because of the smooth power of the 4strokes. On a 250 2stroke if you are hammer down and turning on the face of a jump, things usually don't turn out too well, but these 4strokes do it all the time.
Don't really have much of an opinion on the matter, that's just an interesting stance in this debate. I take what you're saying to mean that you're OK with a rider cross-jumping someone else, intentional or not (that's not really the question) and putting that rider in honest danger of being taken out mid-air in a technical/dangerous rhythm section, but only if that 2nd guy has made some mean block passes in the past...
anyone who thinks it was malicious has no place watching/racing anything related to dirt bikes
Seriously...after reading some of the comments on here I think there's a group of people who should really consider another sport to be a part of. Maybe something like figure skating or perhaps Tennis??? Hopefully people aren't too aggressive for you there.
Racing incident. Zach has done worse in his time...probably the reason he's been pretty quiet about it.
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