Who is Garry McCoy?

[bobdrummond]

Who the hell is Garry McCoy???
Where did he come from?
How long has he been racing GP?
Was it a fluke?

[Crash Test]

Well he raced in 125s for many years with a fair degree of success. He then moved up to the 500s for the last 10 races of last season with a best finish of 3rd. I hope it is no fluke, but time will tell. He beat so many well established riders last night....will definately be one to watch

[bobdrummond]

I posed my question above having heard the result but without having seen any of the race. I've since seen it on Eurosport and....My God! The 'bike control of the guy in the latter stages of the race was incredible. I'm a relatively casual MGP viewer (preferring the CART series), and so "backing the bike into the corner" was completely alien to me. I think that Carlos Checas' loss for words at the press conference spoke volumes!
Superbikes in Australia last year with Haga and Fogarty has been my favourite race I've seen, but it's got closer competition now.
Question: The use of a 16.5" rear wheel has received a lot of credit for McCoys victory. In what way does it affect handling/speed, and what are the alternative size(s)
Thanks

[marcus]

I dont know how much the trye effected his performance but McCoy is an absolute legend..he started in GP's back in 92 on a 125...raced them for several years and won 2 gp's..he moved to 500's in 98 on a v twin..the bike wasnt that good and in the Check GP during the morning warm up he ran into Mick Doohan fell off and broke his leg...he returned for the last race of the year...in 99 when Simon Crafar was dropped by the red bull yamaha team he was the replacement rider and did very well taking a podium at Velencia (I think)..now he has won his first 500 race in stunning fashion and hopefully will do really well for the rest of the year...his riding style comes from his dirt days..he used to race motorcross and speedway and has transfered that syle to road racing and loves the bike moving around like that and it seems to work very well for him..

ON YA GARY !!!!!!

[elephino]

Yep, Valencia in the rain where his teammate Laconi won. Mainly because of using a wet front and a dry rear tyre (which when I saw the amount of rain, I thought would be a good choice but didn't think anyone had taken it). McCoy's bike control was even more obvious then. He did win 2 races in 125s, but could have won more if not for bike problems and an error early on at Eastern Creek where he was running away with the race within half a lap or so.

[KC]

He definitely humbled his two podium mates. I don't think they had ever seen anyone back a bike in like that. I haven't seen anyone do it that much without crashing since Scott Russell won Daytona. Proves that racing bikes on dirt is the best teacher.

[elephino]

Gobert could do it on the Kawasaki, especially around Philip Island.

[Rache]

Did you see him sliding the back end out of those corners, wow......Doohan eat your heart out!!

[allan quirk]

Garry McCoy's race win has brought the 500cc bike class back to life. I thought it would be lacking something with the loss of Doohan. By the way, I can remember people asking 'who is this Doohan?' when he came into GP's!

[elephino]

People asked who is Rainey, who is Spencer, who is Agostini. It always happens and always will. At least people do find out about them.

If you look at the previous few years, the battles for second were actually quite good at times. The difference is now it is for first.

[Crash Test]

"Garry McCoy's race win has brought the 500cc bike class back to life."
- How about Rossi Vs Biaggi?? I think that will be interesting...GO ROSSI!!