British Superbike Championship -- This is racing!!!

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The passport thing works both ways. My mother was told she could not have English on hers. She was born and raised in London though her mother was from County Kerry.
 
Jia said:
Ah I see, then what's up with Rea, is he one of those Irish who does not want to self identify as Irish, rather, a British? (do those exist..pro Brit Irishmen?) [excuse my ignorance, trying to learn!]
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It's kinda messed up but here's my best shot at explaining it.

They exist so do Brit Scots, Brit Welshmen and Brit Englishman, everyone who lives in the U.K does so under the Queen's rule.

Indiviudually though and given the choice, a Welshmen would fly a St David Flag over the Union Jack, A Scotsman would choose the St Andrew cross and the Englishman the St George's cross.

Rugby and Motorsports seem to be the only ones which are an exception to the Great Britain/U.K flag ruling.

David Coulthard another former F1 driver now that i think about it always had the St Andrews cross beside his name. But when he is on top of the podium God save the Queen is played and the Union Jack is raised.
 
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Maybe hate is too strong of a word but put mildly.

Scots, Welsh and Irish hate the English.

Northern England hates the South.

Somehow they manage to co-exist with a little help from Beer, Darts, Snooker , Football and Page 3 girls.
 
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Originally Posted by mxs
You are asking too much of people tied up with family stuff, to go in person several times a year to Shannonville or even further is not feasible. Put it on TV and I will watch it for sure. No TV, no watching .... I am not sure advertising would help in any way, because again, I will not have time to go anyways. It's that simple.
I'm talking National here.

I don't think that I'm really asking all that much, considering that many of the people on this board are young and single. It's also not all that far to go out to Mosport, where the National concluded this year. That's one trip to Shannonville, for the one National that ran there. Admittedly it's a fairly long drive, for a day trip, but it's a whole day of entertainment.

Now if only I could just convince Shannonville to drop the gate.


This year was the first year I have been to any races, I went to CSBK at Mosport. I watch sbk and motogp online but to see it in person is really an experience I would recommend to anyone! I spent the weekend there and by the end I was trying to figure out how I can just live on tracks and race motorcycles for the rest of my life lol When you see it in person you really appreciate the skill of being able to turn that corner......It was a head to head race between McCormick and Szoke.....we knew that if szoke didnt win race 6 he couldn't win the master in the csbk... he lost race 6 to McCormick by 0.053s and szoke won race 7....where McCormick crashed in the last lap....the track was soaked from the rain :( But McCormick is the 2011 CSBK Champion :D Its more than worth the day or two you would take to do it! And considering how far other ppl have to go to see a national races we are lucky we get to have two big events in Ontario especially the finals!
 
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Fizzr said:
This year was the first year I have been to any races, I went to CSBK at Mosport. I watch sbk and motogp online but to see it in person is really an experience I would recommend to anyone! I spent the weekend there and by the end I was trying to figure out how I can just live on tracks and race motorcycles for the rest of my life lol When you see it in person you really appreciate the skill of being able to turn that corner......It was a head to head race between McCormick and Szoke.....we knew that if szoke didnt win race 6 he couldn't win the master in the csbk... he lost race 6 to McCormick by 0.053s and szoke won race 7....where McCormick crashed in the last lap....the track was soaked from the rain :( But McCormick is the 2011 CSBK Champion :D Its more than worth the day or two you would take to do it! And considering how far other ppl have to go to see a national races we are lucky we get to have two big events in Ontario especially the finals!
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People who haven't been, just can't understand the atmosphere around the Superbike races, especially the Mosport round. People who don't go to any other, will go to Mosport. You've got band, test rides, stuff to buy, and the pits to walk so that you can actually meet, and talk with the racers.

Oh, right, and the races. It's a big party, especially so if you bring a half dozen friends along with you.
 
Rob MacLennan said:
People who haven't been, just can't understand the atmosphere around the Superbike races, especially the Mosport round. People who don't go to any other, will go to Mosport. You've got band, test rides, stuff to buy, and the pits to walk so that you can actually meet, and talk with the racers.

Oh, right, and the races. It's a big party, especially so if you bring a half dozen friends along with you.
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Agreed i'm going to try and hit up as many races as I can next year! It really was an experience every rider should have! Its sweet how you can meet the riders but it really was the races that got me hook, there is nothing better than having your tent right beside the track and being woken up in the morning by the sounds of a 1000cc Track bike speeding past u doing 200km! Amazing!
 
mxs said:
They really should considering the limited number of viewing spots and the age of the whole facility.
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Shannonville has better sight lines than Mosport. You can see virtually the entire track. If you set up along the Fabi slip road, then you can see the whole track. I'm talking about reducing the gate so that driving a couple of hours, from Montreal or Toronto, becomes more attractive for a day trip. Burning $50.00 in gas, then another $30.00 at the gate per person, isn't very attractive.

Make it $15.00 per adult, $8.00 per child (max 4 accompanied by an adult)* and you might start getting locals out. As long as they advertise, that is, because I've talked to dozens of people in Napanee, over the last few years, none of whom knew that there was even a track 15 minutes from their front doors.

*For a regional round. More for a national.
 
First off they have to clean that place up, if you are charging ppl $30 a head to watch a race at least have some half decent facilities to go along with it. Every time i go to Shannonville it's like going into a time warp from the 60's, I fully expect one of these days to see Austin Powers strolling along the pits.

It's not the locals from Napanee they need to be attracting, it's the GTA folks that they should be going after.

If someone in the racing world was go to GP Bikes, Kahuna, Snow City and what ever Power house in the GTA that is still in business and start promoting tickets with reduced ticket (ala toronto motorcycle shows) pricing to their customers i'm sure you would be able to fish a few spectators from that.
 
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Englishj said:
First off they have to clean that place up, if you are charging ppl $30 a head to watch a race at least have some half decent facilities to go along with it. Every time i go to Shannonville it's like going into a time warp from the 60's, I fully expect one of these days to see Austin Powers strolling along the pits.

It's not the locals from Napanee they need to be attracting, it's the GTA folks that they should be going after.

If someone in the racing world was go to GP Bikes, Kahuna, Snow City and what ever Power house in the GTA that is still in business and start promoting tickets with reduced ticket (ala toronto motorcycle shows) pricing to their customers i'm sure you would be able to fish a few spectators from that.
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Locals are an easy sell. People who are 2+ hours away, not so much. From the track's standpoint a customer is a customer. The money spends the same. You have to start somewhere.

But your point about hitting dealerships is a good one. Where else do you get the word out, to the community, but places that the community frequents? Shops are one. Places like this forum are another.
 
Sushii said:
2. How come it looks like one of the guys is about the crash in almost every turn? Wobble Wobble.
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He was being ultra aggressive on the throttle coming out of the corners to try and set up a pass for the next corner. In doing so he overpowered the rear tire a bit too much at some points, which caused it to slide out from under him a little. Basically, it's visual evidence that he was testing the limit performance as much as he could.
 
Speaking of wobbles.

[video=youtube;1xK8KaicZ6E]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xK8KaicZ6E[/video]
 
Thanks for posting...some incredible racing in only a couple minutes..very edge of seat to be sure. Was very clean too, pretty classy guys.
I really love the British announcers. They get so frig excited. The one guy almost loses his voice in the 2nd one..lol
 
Jia said:
I've always been curious, why is Eugene Laverty referred to as an Irish and his flag beside his name is the Irish flag (even though his family is from Northern Ireland), but Rea flies the Union jack beside his name? Is this Laverty's request (and therefore political standpoint), with the same being said for Rea (perhaps on the other side of the Ireland standpoint)

It's apparent that Laverty is much more openly proud to be Irish (just look at his website) than Rea.

But yea BSB provides awesome racing.
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Long post, but it appears that some of you are interested in the history, and how it relates to BSB and SBK racing and Irish racers.

The Welsh, Scots and Irish tend to "not like" (hate is a strong word) the English due to centuries of harsh British rule. England seems to like to rob people of their cultures and identity. This was their pattern as a super-power throughout history. The Welsh, Scots and Irish don't identify with the monarchy. The anger towards England runs deeper with the Irish as during the 1800's, their was a famine in Ireland, and a then (under British rule) Ireland was starved out and many of Ireland's people starved to death as England watched. Also, the British army was called into help the Catholics back in the 1970's. The Catholics were being overrun and killed by the Protestants who (then) held a greater population in Northern Ireland. Then the British army made a grave mistake that to this day has been the subject of movies, documentaries, and songs. The British soldiers opened fire on a Catholic demonstration parade killing thirteen unarmed men. This would later be named "Bloody Sunday" (you've heard the U2 song). From that day on, it was "on." The IRA went after both the Protestants and the British army and England, and all hell broke lose. That's a taste of the history, there's much more.

In motorcycle racing this deep history of conflict presents a problem for Irish racers of which there are many. And as you see, they tend to do well. Johnny Rea and Eugene Laverty are both Catholic Irishmen. Flying the Union Jack is unheard of for an Irish Catholic as Catholics want Ireland to be Ireland. They want the British out. The Protestant's in Ireland won't even refer to Ireland as Ireland, they refer to it as "Ulster." The Protestants are loyal to Britain and the monarchy. They want to be part of Britain. This conflict has gone on for 700 years, and its a three-way fight, and as such no sides would ever budge. It wasn't until the Bill Clinton/Tony Blair era that a crack appeared for a glimmer of hope for peace in Northern Ireland. The Irish liked and trusted then President Bill Clinton (an Irishman himself), and they didn't mind Tony Blair either who proved to be a fair man and one of England's greatest Prime Ministers. So, Clinton/Blair managed to do the unmanageable and influenced/brokerd a "deal" (of sorts) where the IRA (Irish Republican Army (Catholic)) would dismantle, and stop it's war against England. The peace talks then began and the "Good Friday Peace Accord" was drafted, and both Catholic and Protestant's shook hands (sort of) and Northern Ireland formed its own Government free of British influence. Back to racing, Johnny Rea and Eugene Laverty are soon to be WSBK world champions...it's only a matter of time. What I've read is that Johnny Rea having his start in motocross and then moving on to British Superbikes has to be loyal to his British sponsors and fly the Union Jack. Eugene Laverty started with Irish sponsors, and thus refuses to fly the Union jack...he will only race under the Irish flag. These two racers are neighbours in Ireland, and are racing under two different flags. To make matters even more complicated, Eugene Laverty's brothers are also in BSB, yet they fly the Union Jack. What does all this mean? Money. To do well, they [Irish Racers] have to be loyal to where the money comes from - sponsors. They leave politics out of racing. I would imagine as both of them make their way to MotoGP, it's only then (when in demand) that they can both fly the Irish flag without controversy.
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