#79 Ai Ogura

[Rallolainen]

His debut MotoGP in Thailand was absolutely fantastic to watch.
Did not expect to see him passing both Morbidelli and Miller on the outside from start and putting pressure on Bagnaia.

Anyone else exited for the next one in Argentina?

 

[alex]

I felt he would do well but yeah that was outstanding. Raul may well get buried by him.

 

[MrSmooth]

I absolutely love the Gulf sponsor colour scheme on this bike, I went to the Trackhouse Racing website to see if I could buy a polo shirt to support Ai as I thought his racing in Thailand was outstanding too. Sad to report that so far there is no Gulf Sponsor themed Ai Ogura merchandise for us armchair enthusiasts to wear.... I want official gear, not rip-offs on other websites where Ai doesn't benefit. Anyone seen any official gear?

Update, just seen Ai wearing the Gulf Oil polo shirt on Instagram, so where can I get one?

 

[Rallolainen]

Just saw this, what the hell...
From Trackhouse:

"A technical error led to the installation of the wrong ECU onto the #79 race bike used for the Grand Prix of Argentina," Trackhouse Racing stated.
"Which the steward's panel deemed an infringement of the homologation rules after the race, and therefore disqualified Ai [Ogura] from the results.
"It is accepted that the error gave no performance advantage to Ai on track as the electronic setting on the bike was correct but loaded Ai's performance was flawless."

 

[alex]

Yeah gutted for him. It's one of those technical rules that is of no interest to the show, and overly punishes the rider. But it's a rule so, not personal.
It stemmed from having to rebuild the bike after a crash. They had to switch to a spare ECU that had been used in testing. Either their process was entirely missing or someone missed a step to update the firmware.