Late-Braking MotoGP

Jorge Martin has that look of inevitability about him

After difficult weekends in Indonesia and Australia, Prima Pramac pilot extraordinaire Jorge Martin held off stiff challenges from KTM’s Skeletor Brad Binder and world champion Pecco Bagnaia to win the Thai Grand Prix in the fourth-closest podium scrap in history.

His Thai weekend followed an increasingly familiar pattern:

• Win pole by setting an all-time track record
• Win the Saturday Sprint
• Win Sunday’s main event

Martin now trails championship leader Bagnaia by a mere 13 points with three races left. It is a two-man race; Marco Bezzecchi is still in it, mathematically, but in no other way. Binder, whose track limit violation on the last lap dropped him from P2 to P3, has a bright future, but his present is reduced to trying to win races rather than a title. Everyone else has now fallen by the wayside. And although hope springs eternal in these parts, the grid’s view of 2024 is jaundiced by the prospect of having to deal with Marc Marquez on a Ducati commencing next spring. There may be more industry people watching the post-Valencia test on that late November Tuesday than the race on Sunday.

Those of you who follow me and/or Motorcycle.com, where I toiled as a freelancer for a dozen years, are aware of the passing of Evans Brasfield at the hands of a hit-and-run automobile driver, who was my editor and cheerleader for the past few years. I doubt I will get asked to work for my Canuck friends in the future. As such, I have decided that now is the time to change hats, from journalist to fan. I have some increasingly wonderful distractions occurring in my personal life and have found it difficult to devote the time and mental energy necessary to make these reports worth your while. I have also been saddled with very lame commenting software, both on my blog and on the Motorcycle.com site.

I realize that a number of you are determined Luddites who break out in hives at the mention of social media sites like Facebook. FB is not for everyone. But for my purposes, it is ideal going forward. It is dirt simple to post words and pictures, is amenable to brief observations rather than long essays, and has a robust commenting platform. It allows for discussion between readers, something I truly have missed since my days as a regular on MO ended. I hope most of you will at least visit my Late-Braking MotoGP (https://www.facebook.com/motogpfordummies) page on FB before consigning me to the proverbial dustbin of history. Kevin, I’m speaking directly at you.

One week off before the season-ending triple header in Sepang, Qatar and Valencia. Otherwise, I will close this week’s column by pointing out that I used the second of my three boosts on Fantasy MotoGP on Martin this week, which kept me in the hunt for the league title this year. A few of you will be disappointed to read that I’m stepping back from the greatest show on wheels. Rest assured that we can still exchange ideas and barbs going forward during what remains of this season, and during The Second Coming starting next year. Peace.

Tags: brad binder, Buriram, Chang International Raceway, Ducati, jorge martin, KTM, Marc Marquez, pecco bagnaia, Thailand Grand Prix

This entry was posted on October 29, 2023 at 10:12 am and is filed under Ducati, Fantasy MotoGP, Grand Prix Motorcycle Racing, Marc Marquez, Moto, Moto2, Moto3, MotoGP, MotoGP Buriram, Motorcycle Racing, Racing News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.