Pro's Whining?

What's up with some of these AMA and MotoGp guys whining and complaining about their competitors at the races?  I was reading about Herrin vs. Eslick, and it just dawned on me that I read this type of thing alot.  Ben Spies was complaining about Espargo(sp?)balking him, Herrin complaining about Eslick and others punting him off the track, etc....  Is it just me or are these guys being babies?  I mean, racing is racing, and I come from an Enduro/Woods racing background where bangin' bars was just what happened.  I'm planning on racing my R6 next year and am starting to get the impression that there is alot of babies in the sport.  Not that I think it's cool to get rough or do things intentionally on the track, but like I said, racing is racing and it doesn't always go smooth.  

The difference between "bangin' bars" on the dirt versus the pavement of a roadracing circuit is that the result of a fall can be disastrous (or worse...try google-ing "shoya tomizawa misano" or "peter lenz indianapolis") on pavement, while a fall resulting from a collision in enduro or even motocross usually just involves brushing yourself off, picking the bike back up, maybe straightening the levers, and you're back in it. The vastly elevated speeds and high tire grip of roadrace bikes mean that the chassis are heavily loaded with kinetic energy, so any "bar banging" can cause the bike to quickly go out of control. Try searching youtube for the finish line crash of the Moto2 race at Catalunya, Spain (where two riders get together on the finish straight), and you'll see an example of what I'm talking about.

As far as Spies and others complaining of being balked, the difference is that on the dirt, unless it's dirt track, you don't have timed qualifying for grid positions. Intentionally balking someone on a hot lap during qualifying is like someone waiting for you and intentionally putting obstacles like logs and rocks in your path during an enduro; you wouldn't be very happy about that, would you?

There's a difference between aggressive riding and intentionally looking to take someone out during a race, and you might have a different opinion if you'd watched the race involving Herrin and Eslick.  

Yeah, I can see how roadracing's speed and consequences of a crash definitely play a role, but it just seems that when everyone in the race is trying to get thru a corner before the other guy, how can there not be any contact?  I didn't see the Daytona Sportbike race yet with Herrin and Eslick's antics, but I do watch a lot of races and even some qualifying sessions when Speedtv airs them like at Laguna and Indianapolis.  I have a hard time believing that someone would intentionally "balk" someone.  It seems to me that Esparago was probably just braking earlier than Spies and Spies shouldn't have been following right behind him.  To me it's just an excuse he used to explain why he couldn't go faster.  I do like Ben Spies though, I've been watching him for a while and it is great to have another American who is really promising.  As for Herrin and Eslick, I don't know who I like better.  I'm a Yamaha fan, but it seems like Eslick is the better rider.  

You need to go watch a MotoGP (as well as Moto2 and 125) qualifying session in person (or the live feed on motogp.com), not the incredibly abbreviated and poor coverage on Speed (in fact, the coverage they showed of qualifying for both Laguna and Indy was incredibly chopped up, with very little on track action, mostly talking heads discussing other things besides what's happening out on the track). Much of the latter half of the qualifying session is spent by riders looking for a clear track so that they can turn an unhindered hot lap (which, with the soft tires, only gives them a window of about two flying hot laps-- so only about four or five laps of tire life at the most-- before the tire's traction falls off considerably; and they are only alloted a certain amount of tires to use). Getting a good grid position on the first or second row is often crucial to a good result, especially with each row only consisting of three riders, and those first three rows often separated by less than a second (meaning you'll have a very difficult time making up that lost time by starting in the fourth or fifth row). All it takes to screw up someone's lap is to be on the racing line; in MotoGP, hundredths of a second count in qualifying. Balking a rider is cruising in the racing line (Spies consistently out-qualifies Espargaro by a second or more, so he really doesn't need excuses) means the closing speed is easily 20-30 mph-- meaning Spies wasn't "following too closely", otherwise he'd run into the back of them. If you "have a hard time believing that someone would intentionally balk someone on a qualifying lap," you need to get out and watch World Championship roadracing more. Try looking at Spies' history, and you'll see that he's probably the farthest from the description of a whiner; anyone who's had Mat Mladin as a "teammate" for three years cannot be a whiner, otherwise Mladin would've eaten him alive.

We're not saying that there absolutely cannot be any contact in roadracing. But again, as I said before, you might want to watch the Sunday Daytona Sportbike race at Barber to get an idea of the difference between incidental contact and purposely running someone off the track (or taking them out). In fact, Eslick even admitted in post-race press conference that he purposely "ran Herrin wide." See our coverage of the race in the news section of the site.  

That's what I saw - Eslick intentionally running Herrin wide in turn 4, and, on two other occasions, running it late into 5 to close the door on Herrin at 5a/6 - both of em coming out of the downhill Museum Turn (6?) with crummy drives as a result.  Coming off that hill, that's a turn where you really can't afford to come out slow.  

I used to like Eslick, but looking over your shoulder for the competition to come by so you can bump them out of the way is not racing.  It could end someone's career too.  

Point(s) taken!