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*Liam's Wild Ride*

Very cool and inspiring story Liam - reading it helped me get over some long days in December while I recovered from a surgery. Thanks for putting in all the effort to keep us regularly updated on your adventure.

:applause
 
Question, given the rumours about Fiat sponsoring Yamaha and/or Rossi, isn't that a sort of conflict of interest given how Alfa Romeo sponsors Ducati? (FIAT owns Alfa Romeo as well as Ferrari and Maserati)

I'm a bit confused here.:confused

Anyways, thank you so much on the updates and various podcast contributions Liam.

Randomness:

:teeth Do you by the way have a relative that works for CNN ? I remember watching a news segment a while ago (international edition) where there was a female correspondent I thought had some features I've seen a million times before before (who can forget your smile!?:teeth ) I saw that her last name was Schubert as well.
 
Hey Stuff,

I know the CNN girl you're speaking of, but no, we're not related (that I know of). My father did travel extensively throughout the world when he was a younger man, so anything's possible :)

As for Fiat and Alfa being competitors, it's a similar situation to Gauloises and Fortuna (Altadis being the parent company, or was that Camel? Can't remember right now). Each brand is so unique and carries it's own identity, that I don't think it's much of a problem if they want to get involved.

As for the podcasts, there's a lot of great material being edited right now, so expect some more good things, particularly a great talk I had with Chuck Aksland, team manager of Team KR!

Grunz, thanks for taking the time to read through everything, I'm glad you enjoyed it :)

Sorry I can't write more, I had a 15 hour day at the track and I just returned back to the hotel Moevenpick. I'm beat. One day left to turn things around and get a grip on things in Qatar before we get ready for the IRTA test in Jerez next week. I wish I could clone myself.
 
MotoLiam said:
Hey Stuff,

I know the CNN girl you're speaking of, but no, we're not related (that I know of). My father did travel extensively throughout the world when he was a younger man, so anything's possible :)

As for Fiat and Alfa being competitors, it's a similar situation to Gauloises and Fortuna (Altadis being the parent company, or was that Camel? Can't remember right now). Each brand is so unique and carries it's own identity, that I don't think it's much of a problem if they want to get involved.

As for the podcasts, there's a lot of great material being edited right now, so expect some more good things, particularly a great talk I had with Chuck Aksland, team manager of Team KR!

Grunz, thanks for taking the time to read through everything, I'm glad you enjoyed it :)

Sorry I can't write more, I had a 15 hour day at the track and I just returned back to the hotel Moevenpick. I'm beat. One day left to turn things around and get a grip on things in Qatar before we get ready for the IRTA test in Jerez next week. I wish I could clone myself.
Click to expand...

need a lowly assistant, good in spanish, english and the international language of motorcycles? willing to go for cheap to nothing! :teeth

enjoy all the updates, insight and photos. kick ass man. didn't get a chance to say hello at Laguna last year, cause I saw you busting ass in the pit area. :thumbup
 
Yee-Haa! Ride 'em Camel!

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:rofl
 
Hey Liam! D'antin is really doing great this season (amazing how much improvement a got set of tires can do for ya). I noticed a few of the last pics dont have your water mark, but others like andrea(R) and elder(R). YOu got your personal photographer now :laughing

Keep up the good work at Jerez.

P.S. My friend would get a crack at the "shocking" Optimus
 
afm956 said:
...He's been around a long time, sheesh hard to believe he was once teammates with Kevin Schwantz on the RGV500...
Click to expand...
That should read: "hard to believe he was once teammates with Randy Mamola on the Cagiva as an 18 year old, in 1989!
 
Bikerx260 said:
That should read: "hard to believe he was once teammates with Randy Mamola on the Cagiva as an 18 year old, in 1989!
Click to expand...

It was 1990 not 1989. Still, Barros has been in the game a loooong time.

Looks like Hoffman is turning some heads lately, yowza he is going well on the 800.
 
neat stuff

You know, I have a nice photo of Barros running on the Cagiva, and when I mentioned it to him, he immediately asked me what color the number plate was - so he remembers quite a bit about his formative years. Speaking of formative years, I was on the plane with Toni Elias last week, and we talked a bit about Barros. Turns out Barros used to stay at Toni's grandma's house when he was just a kid, when he first came to Europe. Toni was 4. He remembers him coming home one day all excited because he had just gotten his racer's license and was legal to compete . . . . in 80cc Grand Prix. How cool is that? When Toni was in 250's he used to call Alex every weekend to ask him about set-up, and what changes would result from altering this or that on the bike. It's pretty cool hearing this kind of stuff straight from the source, and later, after Toni moved to MotoGP with Yamaha, Barros went over to him after a race and told him to cool it on the opening laps, because Toni used to come flying out of the gate and he was "going to crash or knock someone out of the race sooner or later". I mean, not like it happened at Jerez last year or anything, haha, but they have a good relationship, and it will ne neat to see if they talk during this season now that Barros is back to play.

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hmmmm, anyone else notice the FIAT in that photo ^^^^

Anyway, I'm back in BCN for almost two days, and they lost my luggage again, 2X this week. Bah!

Here I am making friends as usual.

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Somewhere in a box in the closet, I have a few hundred photos of the USGP's from the late 80's. I remember Barros from back then. He didn't look so much the ghost. ;)

-jim
 
danc79 said:
I noticed a few of the last pics dont have your water mark, but others like andrea(R) and elder(R). YOu got your personal photographer now :laughing

Keep up the good work at Jerez.

P.S. My friend would get a crack at the "shocking" Optimus
Click to expand...

Hiya Danc,

Yeah, it's not so much that I have a personal photographer, but I think a bunch of the guys around the paddock have always taken pictures and they've never had a way, or a reason, to put any of them out there on the web. I don't know if the US is a little ahead of the game concerning blogs/websites, but I've noticed that a lot of Euros are mystified by the whole process and this could be because computers/laptops are still regarded as a luxury item in parts of Spain and Italy. I didn't want to step on anyone's toes, so as a way to say thank you for the pictures, I list their names on photos they've taken and given to me. After all, it's not my work, and Andrea is a great guy. Plus, since I've been so busy lately, and my camera is sometimes on the fritz, it's nice to be able to fall back on someone else and holler out, "Hey Andrea, grab a shot of this, thanks," if he's got his camera out. And "Elder" is Mark Elder, the Marlboro Ducati Americano. He has been a great source of advice and comfort for me because he's been on the international scene since '02, with Ben Bostrom, and he understands quite a bit about how the Italians play the game.

Mark captured me at work swapping wheels with Q's at Phillip Island two weeks ago (was it that long/short ago?)

2981257-ml2201.jpg
 
But it was just a ploy to take goofy pictures of Pierro, former world champion Enduro rider, and master of a really strange dialect of Italian that most Italians can't understand at all. Pierro is a real character, and he's in phenomenal shape, always running and cycling. He gets in to all kinds of mischief, and I hope I can be like that when I grow up one day.

2981258-ml2202.jpg
 
Another thing is that some people don't like having their pictures taken, and I've posted quite a few pictures of my teamates on the internet - which is akin to the pandora's box. . .

Usually the first thing I hear from one of my cheap-a$$, errr, I mean, frugal teamates, is how much am I going to pay them for posting the photo. It's a balance of not wanting to take advantage of any situation, and be respectful throughout. I think they all know that I'm not making much money out here, hahaha, so it's more a way to continue poking fun at one another. I'm not out here to get rich, I'm here to learn and establish myself in the international racing community, and I've met a heck of a lot of great people along the way. I'm here to have a good time, too!

I think it's critical to maintain a level of "fun" at the races. It's soooo serious all the time. It revolves around so much money, that most people lose sight of why we're here - and for me, it's to have fun racing motorcycles. At the end of the day, it's just motorcycle racing. I work my butt off, like everyone else, but I think my team especially, really tries to have a good time while we're doing it, if possible. This is totally frowned upon by other teams, because we're seen as less professional, but dammit, we're going to get some of that Respect back this season if we get the chance. We've already embarassed the crap out of a lot of Factories at the last three tests - and don't think they don't know it. It's one thing to be beaten by Gresini, but if you had to tell HRC that they would get shown up by D'antin's crew. . . . hell, the sun is falling out of the sky! I am NOT trying to play up the preseason, because we're well aware that you get no points in practice, but you have no idea what a shock it was for some people to see our name on the top of the boards at P.I., for two days in a row, or to find themselves chasing Hofmann (yes, it's spelled HOFMANN) the final day in Qatar when most people were running Q's, it's like WHOA!

This team. . . the Black Sheep Squadron . . . . we come to run like we always do, and when we have everything in place, we run with it! But, and this is the biggest issue I think we might face this season, who knows how it will go when the real racing starts?

Questions remain, but until then, I'll just keep on pushing. Actually, I'll probably keep on pushing, regardless. We all will.

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