Anthony and BARF in COTA

[budman]

Good race. Did of pick up any freebie positions. Points again. Good!!

Work to do on qualifying so he has the shot at a top ten. If anyone can grab the result sheet and post it I would like to see his times.

Overall :applause for the weekend. Points both races. Lots of coverage, interview at the track. Pic in the program. Mom and Dad can relax a bit now.

I know they are hitting the road soon. If you don't have a shirt and can afford to support them by getting one that would rock. ort

 

[budman]

Yeah. Cool deal on the guys numbers on his helmet. :thumbup

 

[DaveT319]

Just needs better qualifying, and a better start off the grid. Other than that, he seems to have good pace, and can certainly make passes.

 

[RaptorFA]

Yup, agree Dave. I cannot seem to find anything that shows a breakdown of lap times...

However, if the leader was running consistent low 2:23's, I imagine Anthony was in the mid-2:26's through the course of the race.

 

[Roadstergal]

Overall :applause for the weekend. Points both races. Lots of coverage, interview at the track.

Great start for sure - go Alonso!

 

[2nsane]

Nice Race Anthony! Keep at it:thumbup

wish the guy's would have given a little more attention to the guy's dicing it up mid and aft pack. I dont think they left the front 4 but for just a second or two

 

[FourDoor]

Just watched the race. Nice work Anthony on your first ever race weekend with the Rookies Cup! Some great camera time and LOL @ Ivan exiting camera left as soon as he saw the cam coming in.

 

[budman]

Sitting around wishing I was going to watch Anthony do it again.
Back to the real world for me of work tomorrow. Really hope that A's real world includes GP weekends for a long long time. :thumbup

 

[kelsodeez]

Sitting around wishing I was going to watch Anthony do it again.
Back to the real world for me of work tomorrow. Really hope that A's real world includes GP weekends for a long long time. :thumbup

only $1200 roundtrip to jerez :cool

 

[budman]

True, but my money is better spent supporting the families effort than my fun.

Just saw Anthony and Ivan at the airport. Antony was recognized and asked for an autograph by this couple. He signed in the program where his picture was featured.

Here is A and the couple.

 

[budman]

Here is the page featuring Anthony.

 

[budman]

Close up of the pic.

 

[budman]

Joe Roberts was featured too. Very cool to have the US kids featured.
This was below Roberts profile.

 

[Ducky_Fresh]

Anthony did great. We stayed and watched both races. Some of the best we saw al weekend.

My question is what are the kids at front doing that Anthony is or isnt? Do they ride moto3 bikes they bought that are similar? Do they understand suspension better? Who are their mentors?

AA was obviously off the pace, but there has to be lot that can be done to give him a better chance. He obviously has the talent.

 

[97rr]

Austin GP Race #2, still improving…

Anthony’s race was at the end of the day. This allowed us to go and hang out with Bud. He and his buddies had seats at T15 and we got to watch the Moto3 race from there.

For the second race, the qualifying positions from Friday remain, so even though he finished 14th in race #1, he still had to start 21st in race #2.

The race was interrupted by an accident on lap #1. Yui, the lone girl in the series had an accident entering the final corner before the back straight. Recent reports have her as being OK and without major injuries.

The race was cut down from 12 laps to 8 making it a true sprint race. In this race, Anthony improved his lap times and learned a bunch. He’s excited for Jerez, in two-weeks time.

Here are his thoughts:

youtu.be/RhvRw2zodNE

 

[97rr]

Thanks everyone for your support following this thread.

Ducky_fresh, you bring up good questions. The answers are quite simple, those kids race in Europe. In Europe, there are grids of 20 kids riding small bikes. They learn drafting, suspension, race craft, etc for SMALL bikes. Pace-wise, looking at his laptimes he was actually close to the pace of the lead group. The problem is at this level, closing the gap is very difficult.

Also, yes, some of the kids ride Moto3 bikes in their national series. We borrowed a Moriwaki, but a Moriwaki is not a Moto3 bike... trust me.

Finally, yes, back to Europe. This stuff is important in Europe. Most of them are coached. Mackenzie... well his dad is Neil. The turkish kid that finished on the podium in the second race, his dad is a national champion. Most of the Spaniards have coaches. Joe Roberts, the other American, coached by Keith Code (he was there). I can go on and on.

The level of competition is MUCH higher there than here, at least in the small bikes. I suppose I would liken it to AMA SuperSport. Large grids, similar machines, etc, except they start at 12, 13 years old.

That said, there is a bunch we have to learn. Like qualifying. If he can follow them around, he can learn a bunch. That is our #1 priority now.

Anthony also needs to improve his pace at the beginning. Those kids go fast right away and stay there. Lastly, he needs to learn to launch the bike. This bike has launch control, but you still need to learn to use it. I remember it took Anthony about 6 months to learn to launch his RS125 and we owned that bike. The KTM we get to see only at the race and he only gets 5 sessions on it per weekend (1 FP, 2 QPs and 2 races).

The good news is on the way back to the car we were in the same shuttle as Sandro Cortese, the 2012 Moto3 World Champion. Anthony approached him and asked him for tips on launching the bike (Sandro used a Factory KTM last year). He was very accommodating and even invited Anthony to his pit box for follow up tips. Hopefully, that pans out.

The bottom line is the level is high and Anthony needs to raise to it if he wants to be competitive.

If there are any pointers you (or anyone else) noted on the race, feel free to email me (ivan@alonso.tv). I'd love to chat with you about them.

 

[budman]

AA was obviously off the pace, but there has to be lot that can be done to give him a better chance. He obviously has the talent.

Anthony was only off the pace of a couple riders. The big deal was his qualifying. The kids in europe get to race with a basically higher level and raise their game because of that.

Anthony now has reached the level where raising his game is for real.

Ev we saw no one even close at AFM events and that included adults on 250's.
The young man is motivated and focused. He is also just 14 in a series that has kids 3 years older, kids who are sons of GP racers... Kids that have more support because this is a huge deal in Europe.

Anthony is up against it.. But right in it. Awesome to think he is in the elite 24 of teens around the world. Fricking awesome. It is crazy that this young elite athlete cannot get support to really do this right. Others are supported by airlines and Anthony gets a silly little website that over reaches to help.

A coach takes support unless they are just a cool dude. Keith helping joe is sweet. Keith rocks.

Anthony will raise his game. I know it just like I knew this kid had something special inside 7 years ago. He and Dad have a learning curve this year and likely he will have some outstanding performances. Next year ...watch out!!!

Want to help..buy a shirt...!!. Give me a contact to try to get some additional support. together barf has a pretty cool network, but to make it work folks have to try.

Really not bagging on you at all... Just facing up the reality of being one of the elite..and an American.

 

[budman]

Welcome to one year ago. Well next week.
Have to say it was a cool experience for me. It had to be the bomb for Ivan and Anthony.

A special moment in barf history. At lease for me :teeth

Will be thinking about it when I get back to my seats in T15.

Thanks for the ride Krazy Cid. :cool