Racecraft
Overused term
Subjective at best, meaningless at worst.
Stoner raced to win races - that's what racing is. to go out and beat everyone else on the grid. If you want your name on a title at the end of the year and in the record books you can achieve that without winning a single race.
As a spectator I want to see someone ride the balls of a bike, wring its neck and twist it into submission (or the gravel trying) I want to see the bike bucking and weaving, sliding, drifting and whatever else they can make it do. Only settle for second if the guy in first is just too quick to catch. Settling for second because you don't want to get into a scrap in case you bin it, thinking of the championship - it's hardly wheel to wheel racing.
As someone who has competed for many years, I get enjoyment from watching professional do what I can only dream of, in any discipline of bike sport, or cars. Stoner provides that. Lorenzo rode superbly this year but who would I pay money to watch just ripping a bike around a track?
Only one.
Watching Stoner two wheel drift at PI this year - both wheels on the kerb ffs, and then letting it continue drifting onto the track with just a subtle change in body weighting and position - or watching him throw it over the kerb at Woodcote, Silverstone last year, both wheels off the ground - was about as good as it gets.
Who wins the tiles, who gets their names into record books - who cares
