Race weekend has begun with a bang in Austin. The press conferences are about what you would suspect, ironically Jack Miller seems to be the most reasonable sounding of the bunch! Esparagaro is on the war path with Petrucci, which to my mind is as much about staying relevant in the class as it is about any real safety concern. Several of these guys are about to be ousted from the class by younger hungrier talent and it is showing. Espargaro brothers, Redding, Smith, Abraham etc are all wearing meat pants and the wolves are out!
Sounds like COTA tried to smooth the track by grinding off the bumps, but in doing so may have created more of a problem for everyone. The resulting grooves could tear the tires apart; this combined with the differing rubber compounds (Michelin and Dunlop)being laid down by the different classes, and questionable weather means we may see mandatory pit stops. Hope not, the last thing they need right now is more Argentina action. Hell the press center might melt down in the aftermath!
Randy Mamola is being inducted as a legend of MotoGP this weekend, much to the dismay of Johan Zarco. He is calling the powers that be out, as Mamola never actually won a championship. Mamola is definitely legendary but he and Pedrosa are likely the 2 winningest riders to have never won the big show.
Cota has done a pretty cool tribute to Nicky by putting large 69 Logo on the hillside at turn 19.
As for a favorite its going to be hard to bet against Marquez here. But I will do it anyway. I'll go with Dovi, just because Marquez and Rossi are more worried about one another than the race.