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MotoGP 2023 Round 13–India

September 24, 2023

Pecco opens the door for Martin and Bezzecchi

As expected, this weekend’s Grand Prix of India was hotter than a freshly f**ked fox in a forest fire. Rather than thinking of it as the hottest race weekend ever, it might make more sense to view it as the coolest Indian Grand Prix of the next ten years. How hot was it? Prima Pramac Ducati pilot Jorge Martin, with the conditioning of a triathlete, was unable to drive his Desmo to Parc Ferme, having to get off at his garage. His team poured ice water into his leathers, on his neck, removed his helmet, and tended to him as he sank to his knees. There is some confusion as to whether he actually lost consciousness. Suffice it to say that, with 7 races (plus 7 sprints) in the next 9 weeks, this is a scene we are going to see again and again. Carmelo Ezpeleta and his minions at Dorna want to squeeze every last dollar out of this series. Their efforts may yet result in a rider losing his life. With Kazakhstan and Aragon getting added to the 2024 calendar, the squeeze will continue.

Jorge Martin, flirting with disaster in the Indian Grand Prix

The Tissot Sprint on Saturday was a bit of a cluster, as Luca Marini barged into teammate Marco Bezzecchi in Turn 1 of Lap 1, with Pol Espargaro, Stefan Bradl and Augusto Fernandez getting caught up in the ensuing fire drill. Bezzecchi and Fernandez would continue, but Marini broke his collarbone, causing my fantasy team to take a hit. Bezzecchi laid down a vapor trail from the back of the pack and ended the day in P5, foreshadowing what would occur in Sunday’s main event. Pecco and Marc Marquez–remember him?–claimed the second and third steps of the podium behind race winner Jorge Martin.

In Sunday’s race, Bezzecchi once again was in a league of his own, taking the lead in Turn 4 of Lap 1 and riding off into the smog. He was pursued by Bagnaia, Martin and Marquez. On Lap 6 Marquez slid out, dropping from P4 to P16 before climbing back up to P9 at the flag. Pecco did the world a favor by hitting the deck on Lap 14 while running second, causing his team and Ducati management another epic case of heartburn.

Once Bagnaia left the building, Martin and Fabio Quartararo–remember him?– took up the chase. Fabio, aboard the woeful Yamaha M1, did not appear to present any kind of threat to Martin until late in the last lap, when Martin inexplicably went walkabout, doubtless due to his fighting heat stroke inside his leathers and helmet. Suddenly, #20 and #89 were in a fight for P2, with Martin desperate for the four extra points that would come his way if he held on against the Frenchman and literally passing out. He was able to lunge inside #20 late and stand him up, hold on to P2 and avoid mayhem, but this episode is a harbinger of things yet to come in Indonesia, Thailand, Qatar and Malaysia.

Assuming Martin will not get penalized for unzipping his leathers during Sunday’s race, the championship heads to Japan next week with Bagnaia holding a 13 point lead over Martin and clear of Bezzecchi by 56 points.

Elsewhere, my boy Jaume Masia dominated the Moto3 race, pulling into a tie for the series lead with Daniel Holgado, with Ayumu Sasaki a single point behind the pair. (The 2023 standings are as close as most of the races in this, the most exciting division in MotoGP racing.) Pedro Acosta continued his domination of Moto2 winning easily today, on his way to MotoGP next season. The paddock was abuzz all weekend with the rumor, expected to be confirmed next week, of Marc Marquez’s defection to Gresini Ducati commencing next year, with the Marquez brothers riding together on the Italian Ducati satellite operation. Morbidelli to Pramac Ducati next year is now firm. Zarco to LCR Honda is now firm. Rins to the factory Yamaha team next year is now firm. Nakagami remaining with LCR Honda next year is now firm. The question left to be answered for 2024: Who will take Marquez’s seat on the factory Honda team alongside Joan Mir?

Footnote: Things in the cosmos have settled down now, as I have assumed my rightful place in our fantasy league, seizing the lead for the year with today’s result, despite the sorry performances turned in by Aleix Espargaro and Luca Marini. Don’t call it a comeback, bitches.

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Posted in Ducati, Fantasy MotoGP, Grand Prix Motorcycle Racing, Marc Marquez, Moto, Moto2, Moto3, MotoGP, Motorcycle Racing, Racing News | 3 Comments »

RIP Evans Brasfield

September 16, 2023

https://www.motorcycle.com/bikes/features/rip-evans-brasfield-44594668

Evans Brasfield became my editor at Motorcycle.com in 2018 upon the unfortunate departure of Kevin Duke to parts unknown, one of the radical staff reductions-in-force that have plagued industry publications during the past decade. I had read some of Evans’ work and was familiar with him by name only. He continued as my editor until early this month when MO published my mid-season review of the 2023 MotoGP season.

During these six years, I cannot remember a single time when Evans lost his temper or criticized me for anything undeserving of criticism. He agreed to my stipulation that my work get posted without much, if any, editing by Dennis or anyone else. He did his best to protect me from the Verticalscope suits in Toronto. He gave me utterly manageable deadlines and was entirely supportive of my efforts to enhance MO’s coverage of racing. He had clearly forgotten more than I ever knew about motorcycles, but was tolerant of my ignorance and complimentary of my writing style or lack thereof. He managed to get me paid out of a freelance budget that had shrunken dramatically. He was able to answer to his own corporate masters and the interminable bean counters without making me feel worthless. In short, he was every freelance writer’s dream editor.

Since 2008 when I took my first stab at covering MotoGP, I have reported to Joe Magro, Sean Alexander, Kevin Duke, John Burns (briefly) and Evans. I pitched Joe on allowing me to assume the role of MotoGP Correspondent before I had actually watched my first race. (When he asked me if I was a rider, I said yes because I thought he had said “writer.”) Throughout the years, my editors at MO have supported my efforts despite my being an old Hoosier who drives cars. They sent me to Malaysia on a junket in 2014, probably because none of the real editors wanted to go sweat their cojones off for a week on the equator, but it was a blast and I got to meet a number of folks in the business–Jensen Beeler, Marie Wilson and David Emmett, to name a few.

To me, Evans’ passing feels like the end of an era. I’ve been at this for 15 years, but am skeptical that it will continue now that my rabbi has left the building. Certainly whoever steps into his job will be looking for someone capable of bringing more to the party than dick jokes and actionable slurs. And even though I was never able to shake Evans’ hand in person, I join with hundreds, perhaps thousands, of riders and writers who will miss his even temper and thoughtful posts. Once again, we are shown the hand of God and are left to shake our heads and mumble about how the good die young. Happy trails, Mr. Brasfield.

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Posted in Moto, MotoGP, Motorcycle Racing | 9 Comments »

MotoGP 2023 – Round 12 Misano

September 10, 2023

Nothing but spoilers here

Moto3 was a four-man cage match. Deniz Oncu, my boy Jaume Masia, and teenagers David Munoz and David Alonso spent the second half of the race in a small, select group going very fast in close quarters. During the last two laps it looked as if any of the four could win. At the flag, Masia trailed Alonso by 4/100ths of a second in the best race of the weekend.

Moto2 was another master class by The Next Great Spanish Rider as Pedro Acosta led from wire to wire, followed at the end by Celestino Vietti and Alonzo Lopez. A parade, despite the breathless efforts of Matt Birt and Louis Suddeby to make it interesting. The only remaining question is where Acosta will end up next season in MotoGP, or rather whose seat he will take. KTM may have to break a heart or two or a few contracts to hold onto this guy, who has Alien written all over him.

MotoGP was interesting for a while this weekend, at least until the end of Q2, when Jorge Martin, Marco Bezzecchi and Pecco Bagnaia assumed the positions they would occupy in both the Sprint and Sunday’s main event. Grizzled veteran Dani Pedrosa made the most of his second wild card round of the year with P4 finishes in both races. During the last third of Sunday’s race, it looked like he could snatch the final podium spot from Bagnaia, but the Italian, seriously wounded in last week’s race in Barcelona, dug deep enough to hold onto his 16 points. Martin now trails Bagnaia by 36 points in the 2023 title chase.

Once again, all-time track records fell like bowling pins this weekend, the last European round until the season finale in Valencia. In two weeks, it starts to get real, as the flying circus enters the autoclave, eight races in ten weekends, most of them in equatorial heat. In two weeks the combatants will be in India, with daytime high temps well into the 90’s, foreshadowing what most of the next two months will look like. Thus far, 2023 has been, relatively speaking, all fun and games. The provisional calendar for 2024 includes 22 rounds, with Kazakhstan added to the calendar and Aragon making a comeback.

MotoGP is approaching critical mass, a Darwinian survival-of-the-fittest ecosystem which will test the limits of machines, men and the laws of physics. Stay tuned.

The start of your typical Moto2 race.
Dani Pedrosa returns in style.
A little local color.
A little more.
Luca Marini and the Italian Air Force.
Italian warplane loitering over the track.

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Posted in Dani Pedrosa, Grand Prix Motorcycle Racing, Marc Marquez, Moto, Moto2, Moto3, MotoGP, MotoGP Misano, MotoGP Results | 7 Comments »

MotoGP 2023 Round 11 – Catalunya

September 3, 2023

For Pecco, A Bad Time for an Injury

We have been banging on for some time about how quickly a solid lead in the 2023 championship can/could change, based upon a cramped calendar and venues with the climate of blast furnaces. Today, we may have seen what I’ve been talking about. This is about the untimely injury Pecco Bagnaia received in Turn 2 of Lap 1 of the Catalan Grand Prix, when he high-sided out of the lead in front of a harried group of riders with full fuel tanks and gritted teeth.

There was simply no way for Brad Binder to avoid striking the prone Bagnaia, running his KTM across the Italian’s legs. Luckily, this was not the crash that killed Marco Simoncelli at Sepang in 2012, when a bike ran across his neck, nor the fatal injury suffered by Shoya Tomizawa in 2010 when his chest was crushed in a 250cc race in San Marino. At the time this article was posted, doctors were saying nothing more than Bagnaia’s legs suffered injuries necessitating a CT scan to determine the extent of the damage. During the race, pit reporter Simon Crafar casually referred to Bagnaia’s injury as a mere “tib fib,” along the lines of the injury suffered by Alex Rins at Mugello in early June and which has kept him out of action since. HRC is hoping Rins will be fit for next week’s Misano tilt, which would mark three months since he was hurt.

If Pecco has a “tib fib” or two, his season is effectively over. The 66-point lead he enjoyed prior to today’s race will not hold up over the next 13 weeks. Everyone who knows this sport knows all it takes is the blink of an eye…If he somehow avoided a catastrophic injury today, he is likely out for two or three rounds anyway, meaning it is a brand new day in the premier class.

Lost in the sauce of today’s frightening events was the historic Aprilia 1-2, with Aleix Espargaro and your boy Cole Trickle (OKA Maverick Vinales) taking the top two steps of the podium after the restart, joined by Jorge Martin. The announcers spent the entire day rattling on about tire wear, which is getting terribly old. How is it that none of the big manufacturers can design racing tires that will hold up for 25 laps? Wouldn’t the proceedings be more interesting if we could focus our attention on something other than tires? Exhibit A in this conversation is this photo of Vinales’ front tire about halfway through today’s race.

Anyway, today’s race was most exciting for me owing to the changes I made to my fantasy team roster prior to the weekend, substituting Espargaro and Vinales for Bezzecchi and Binder:

Midway through today’s Moto3 race, there was a 25 bike lead group separated by around three seconds. Just let that sink in for a moment. It was riveting until the very end, especially since two contenders, series leader Daniel Holgado and up-and-coming teenager David Munoz, got bumped out of the race on the last lap. Race results:

2023 standings after 11 rounds:

Moto2 was fun to watch, as Pedro Acosta, Heir Apparent, moved from ninth place on the grid to take the lead midway, only to have his tires melt down, forcing him to a P6 finish. Always fun to watch Aron Canet and his tattoos finish in second place.

Moto2 standings after 11 rounds:

Finally, in MotoGP

Premier class year-to-date:

Next weekend on the Adriatic coast at San Marino. Our best wishes go out to Pecco Bagnaia for a speedy, complete recovery. You gave us a big scare today, dude.

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Posted in Aprilia, Fantasy MotoGP, Grand Prix Motorcycle Racing, Maverick Vinales, Moto, Moto2, Moto3, MotoGP, Motorcycle Racing, Racing News | 11 Comments »

MotoGP 2023 Round 10–Red Bull Ring

August 20, 2023

To the spoils go, um, the victor.

MotoGP announcer Matt Birt does, on the whole, a pretty impressive job calling races. He has an encyclopedic memory, working knowledge of the bikes themselves, an intimate familiarity with the various tracks, and mountains of facts and figgers at his disposal. He has literally forgotten more about the riders than you or I have ever known. The plummy British accent doesn’t hurt anything.

There are, however, two aspects of his announcing game that just grind me. The first is his reliable tendency (probably imposed by Dorna as a condition of his employment) to overhype every single aspect of the sport. As an example, given the fact that upwards of 99% of the people on the planet don’t give a rat’s ass about motorcycle racing, he uses the noun “glory” and its adjectival form way too much. He casually describes the outcome of, say, a Moto3 victory from 2016 as “his famous win…” On the other hand, I think MotoGP offers much more interesting racing than F1 and IndyCar, but he typically makes no effort to draw comparisons with 4-wheel racing, which is odd.

My second gripe has to do with Matt’s unceasing efforts at profundity. He doesn’t simply want to describe the action; he wants people standing around the virtual water cooler and commenting on online forums quoting his descriptions, which aspire to epic poetry. Occasionally he trips over his own metaphors. Which is what occurred (at least once) today when he got tangled up in mid-sentence, proclaiming in the post-Moto3 drivel that, “To the spoils go, (uh-oh) the victor.” It was clear he realized his gaffe in mid-sentence, but he was stuck. He couldn’t just say “ellipsis” and go on. He had stepped in it, had to scrape it off his shoe, and hope–probably with good reason–that no one other than a few journo-humps like me would notice.

As to the racing, most of the action in the premier class all weekend took place in the first ten seconds of the Saturday Sprint, when four or five riders got clattered in Turn 1. Readers will assess whether Jorge Martin or Maverick Vinales was to blame, but I think it was just the track layout itself, which funnels way too many big motorcycles with exaggerated wing things into a very tight space with everyone carrying full fuel and adrenaline loads. (One might argue that the beautiful track at Estoril, Portugal was taken off the calendar years ago due to an even more dicey first turn.) Bezzecchi, Oliveira and, eventually, Zarco would record DNFs as a result.

Some time later, the stewards decided to blame Martin for the event, after he had finished on the podium lol. This irked a number of riders whose day was ruined, although I’m not convinced it was exactly #89’s fault. He had to serve a long lap penalty on Sunday but still managed to score a handful of points on both days. Otherwise, it was all Pecco all the time on both days. One thing I can say without, as dad used to say, fear of successful contradiction is that Bagnaia will win most of the races out of which he doesn’t crash. His 62 point lead in the championship at the halfway point, while not insurmountable, is formidable. Martin and Bezzecchi look to be engaged in a cage match for the rest of the year and may become teammates at Pramac before all is said and done. Personally, I want to root for the skeletal Brad Binder and his KTM, as I am growing tired of the Ducati oligopoly.

Once again, the best race of the weekend was the Moto3 tilt. Heir apparent Pedro Acosta looked to be running away from the field in Moto2 until Celestino Vietti showed up late in the day to rain on his parade. Matt and Louis were anxious to proclaim that Vietti had, accordingly, been resurrected after a full year of whistling Dixie, but I’m not sold. Let’s see how he does during the Bataan Death March in September, October and November. Hell, let’s see how everyone does during the remarkably oppressive back nine. Dorna is probably going to discover, the hard way, that next year’s calendar needs more thought.

The photo finish from today’s Moto3 fight. The margin of victory was .005 seconds.

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Posted in Ducati, Grand Prix Motorcycle Racing, Moto, Moto2, Moto3, MotoGP, Racing News | 4 Comments »

MotoGP 2023 – Round 9 Silverstone

August 6, 2023

It always feels good when Aleix Espargaro does well

Aleix and his muscular Aprilia were fastest in the sunshine on Friday, slowest in the wet Q2 on Saturday morning, so-so on a damp track in the Saturday Sprint and good enough to win on a cloudy Sunday afternoon. At a track like Silverstone, wide and free-flowing, the Aprilia is at its best, and one can come from P12 on the grid to the top step of the podium. (The Noale factory also put three of its four bikes in the Top 5 today, as Miguel Oliveira and Maverick Vinales both had excellent outings.) Pecco Bagnaia took the lead from Jack Miller in the main race on Lap 2 and held it until the final couple of turns on Lap 20, settling for 20 points and extending his lead over Jorge Martin in P2 and Marco Bezzecchi, who crashed out of contention on Lap 6 and fell to P3 for the season. Bez also trashed my fantasy team, as I had used a Boost on him which worked out on Saturday but bit me in the ass today.

Marc Marquez has now failed to score any championship points in a grand prix since Sepang last year. His season of unabated misery continues, well, unabated.

The Moto3 race was, as usual, outstanding, with virtually everyone in the lead group during the first half of the race. At the checkered flag, it was rookie David Alonso (the first Colombian ever to win a GP), bridesmaid Ayuma Sasaki in P2 as is his wont, and series leader Dani Holgado in P3. My boy Jaume Masia crashed out of podium contention early in the race and will probably keep my season predictions from going three for three.

The Moto2 race later in the day saw Fermín Aldeguer win his first Moto2 race ahead of Aron Canet and wunderkind Pedro Acosta who, courtesy of Tony Arbolino’s curious P10 finish, took over the 2023 season lead on his way to MotoGP next season. He did not appear to break a sweat in what little I saw of the race today.

Alex Marquez won the Saturday Sprint and was looking strong in the main event before an apparent gearbox problem forced his retirement. The serious bumping and grinding which took place in the GP left a number of riders missing pieces and parts, lots of aero wings and Fabio Quartararo’s front fairing littering the track. Summer in Britain feels like fall in the US, setting the riders up for massive cases of cognitive dissonance as we get into October and November in the Asian blast furnaces. Repsol Honda didn’t even bother providing Marquez with a brolly girl, which is an editorial statement as much as a meteorological one. And was I hallucinating, or does it appear #93 is starting to grow a mustache? Hoping no one recognizes him during his last few months with Honda?

I’ve got stuff to do today, people to see, places to go, cats to kill. A leggy blonde waiting for me to take her to Menard’s and back to her place for dinner. Yeah, I know. The stature that comes with being a world authority on MotoGP gets you the pretty girls who like to spend an afternoon at Menard’s and Home Depot. There are different ways to get paid in this world.

Two weeks to the Red Bull Ring. Those of you attending the race should make sure to spend some time in the mountains before all the permafrost melts and they come crashing to the ground, filling the valleys, and making the rest of the world look like Indiana.

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Posted in Aprilia, British Motorcycle Grand Prix, Fantasy MotoGP, Grand Prix Motorcycle Racing, Marc Marquez, Moto, Moto2, Moto3, MotoGP, Motorcycle Racing, Racing News | 5 Comments »

MotoGP 2023 Mid-Season Report @ Motorcycle.com

August 3, 2023

https://www.motorcycle.com/bikes/professional-competitions/motogp-2023-mid-season-report-44593252

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Posted in Dorna, Grand Prix Motorcycle Racing, Marc Marquez, Moto, Moto2, Moto3, MotoGP, Racing News | 2 Comments »

MotoGP 2023– Round 8 Assen

June 25, 2023

Saturday

Marco Bezzecchi loves him some Assen.

Untouchable on Friday. Pole early on Saturday. Sprint winner on Saturday afternoon.

Marc Marquez had another train wreck of a weekend. Qualified in P17 after colliding with Enea Bastiannini in the morning warm up. Finished the Sprint right where he started. Looking utterly demoralized, hovering on the edge of the existential abyss, looking down. Says he is committed to the Honda project, but making it sound like an involuntary commitment, you know, like with a rehab facility or nuthouse. More of a sentence than a commitment.

Brad Binder had the pickiest long lap penalty ever very late in the Sprint, costing him a podium and elevating Fabio Quartararo–remember him?–to the bronze medal. Pecco had a nice race, taking the hole shot, giving up the lead to Bezz on Lap 2 but still collecting nine points on Saturday.

Sunday

The Moto3 championship race tightened considerably, as series leader Daniel Holgado screwed the pooch in qualifying and ended up starting from the back of the grid, from where he crashed out early and finished the day out of the points. Honda pilot Jaume Masia, meanwhile, my pre-season pick for the title, won another barnburner, holding off Sasai, Oncu. and Munoz, cutting Holgado’s lead from 41 to 16 points heading into the break.

Moto2 was refreshing, as Brit Jake Dixon won his first ever grand prix (then spoiled it by crying during Simon’s crappy post-race interview), ahead of the resurrected Ai Ogura and savant Pedro Acosta. During the race, Acosta had to serve a long lap penalty during which he clearly had both wheels in the green. Such an error would cause a mortal to have to repeat the penalty, but for an Alien-in-Waiting the stewards said, “nothing to see here.” Pretty blatant, IMO. Acosta and Toni Arbolino seem to have their tickets punched for MotoGP next year, but it remains to be seen for whom Acosta will be laboring. Gresini Racing has already sent signals it intends to sign Arbolino and jettison FDG.

Prior to the start of the premier class tilt, it was announced that Marc Marquez, for the fifth time in eight rounds, had been declared unfit to race, citing a bruised ego, a broken spirit and shattered confidence. Albert Puig tipped his hand in an interview in which he essentially said that if #93 wants to seek greener pastures next year Honda would not hold him hostage. Perhaps HRC has figured out that paying a rider $30 million a year to ride an unrideable bike doesn’t make much sense. After all, if the rider is going to end up in the gravel, it would be better if he were only working for minimum wage.

The race itself was okay, ignoring the eight riders who failed to finish and allowing Jonas Folger to build his points lead over Marquez. The Killer Bees–Bagnaia, Bezzecchi and Binder–led all day, trailed by Aleix and Jorge Martin. For the second time in 24 hours, apparently for the benefit of those who missed it yesterday, Binder put a tiny bit of his front wheel in the green on the last lap, incurring a track limits violation and dropping him from the podium. Yesterday’s beneficiary was Fabio Quartararo; today’s was Aleix. Bagnaia’s lead in the 2023 chase now stands at 35 points, and he is looking strong enough to take the hardware for the second year “on the trot.” lol. Bezzecchi and Martin are fast young guns and will be in the picture for years to come. Binder is fast off the line and, if the racing gig doesn’t work out, given the murderous KTM pilots on their way to the premier class from Moto2 and Moto3, could find work filming instructional videos on the rules of racing.

Now that interest in MotGP is peaking, after the June triple header, Dorna will let all the air out of the balloon by taking the next month or so off, staying out of the headlines and driving fans back to F1, soccer, MLB and NFL OTAs. I will attempt to assemble a coherent mid-season report for Motorcycle. com which should post in early July. 12 races will take place after the summer break, including two more triples: Indonesia, Australia and Thailand in October, Malaysia, Qatar and Valencia in November. Six races in seven weeks to close out the season. The Bagnaias and Bezzecchis of the world need to watch out for an injury in October which could cause them to record multiple DNSs and impact the title chase.

For everyone but Marc Marquez, life goes on.

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Posted in Dorna, Grand Prix Motorcycle Racing, Marc Marquez, Moto, Moto2, Moto3, MotoGP, MotoGP Assen, MotoGP Results, Motorcycle Racing, Racing News | 8 Comments »

MotoGP 2021 – Round 7 The Sachsenring

June 18, 2023

OK, it’s Father’s Day and I’m really busy. Wishing all the best to the dads out there. Quit watching motorcycles go round and round and spend the day with your kids.

All I got today is three spoilers. In Moto3, Ayume Sasaki led for 298 out of 299 laps before finally surrendering the lead, and the win, to Turk Deniz “The Meniz” Oncu. I missed the beginning of the race; there was some drama that may have rendered that last sentence inaccurate. I’m staying with it. Dani Holgado finished in P3 to extend his championship lead. As expected, the Turkish national anthem was, um, somewhat unusual.

Moto2 was a repeat of Mugello. Pedro Acosta led every lap, coasted to the win, followed by Toni Arbolino and Jake Dixon.

MotoGP was another two man show. Pecco Bagnaia led early, yielded the lead to Jorge Martin on Lap 3. Martin led a merry chase until Lap 21 when Pecco took it back. Martin stayed with it and chased the championship leader down again on Lap 24. Pecco stayed directly on Martin’s ass until the final turn on Lap 29, when he finally made contact with Martin’s rear wheel, lost a few tenths, and trailed the Spaniard at the wire by 6/100ths. Martin is making a case for the argument that Ducati chose, last year, the wrong rider to team up with Bagnaia on the factory team. Martin reminds me of a young Romano Fenati, only less psychotic.

Marc Marquez’ fifth crash of the weekend in the Sunday morning warm-up was sufficient to have him declared unfit for today’s race. Fabio Quartararo finished in P13. This illustrates the psychological and metabolic difference between the two riders, both of whom find themselves saddled (lol) with terrible bikes. Fabio has accepted the obvious and looks ready to play out the string until such time as he can secure a European ride. Marquez refuses to go quietly into the night and has become a hazard to himself and those around him. People who mildly disliked him in the past are now hating on him for what he has become. People who actively disliked him in the past now seethe at the mention of his name. Me, I just want to see him on a Ducati or KTM and get back to riding like a normal person and winning a few more titles. Sorry, John Burns, but I refuse to hate him. He really can’t help being who he is.

Next week is Assen. I hope to have enough time to do a proper job of this. The mid-season report on Motorcycle.com should appear in early July.

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Posted in Ducati, german grand prix, Grand Prix Motorcycle Racing, Marc Marquez, Moto, Moto2, Moto3, MotoGP, MotoGP Sachsenring, Motorcycle Racing, Racing News | 20 Comments »

MotoGP 2023–Round Six Mugello

June 11, 2023

Is it just me, or is MotoGP losing its appeal for everyone? I find myself having a harder and harder time getting stoked for race weekends. Ten years ago I used to salivate at the prospect of the Italian GP weekend, the Autodromo, the slipstreaming down the main straight, the clouds of yellow smoke, the Honda vs. Yamaha face-offs, the heated rivalries. Rossi and Stoner and Lorenzo snarling at one another, trading paint and profanities, the arrival of the New Kids in Town–Marco Simoncelli, Marc Marquez. The occasional competitive American OKA Ben Spies.

Today, what we have is Ducati Corse dominating the proceedings, occupying a third of the premier class grid, riders jostling for seats on the Big Red Machines or being relegated to Something Other Than. Blinding top speeds and suffocating downforce, with riders having to do the math around Win Or Endure Traction. Rossi’s academy producing a steady stream of fast young Italian riders with, um, bland personalities. Great masses of Latin riders in Moto3 between whom it is difficult to differentiate even with a program. Moto2 featuring 765cc engines almost as powerful as those powering the premier class a decade ago, with riders either barely old enough to shave or so old as to require help doing so. Data and electronics, electronics and data. Behind all of this, a pair of announcers with Mensa-caliber memories (“…almost identical to his overtake of so-and-so in Sepang in 2021…”) bombarding us with a constant barrage of overstatement and hyperbole.

For the past 15 years, whenever I would ask one of my kids if they had read my article on Motorcycle.com they would roll their eyes, as if to say, “Who does that?” I’m figuring out what they meant.

For the record this weekend, Pecco walked away with both the Sprint and the main event. Moto3 was effervescent, with five riders in the mix, shoulder to shoulder, for the entire race. One Dani Holgado won, stretching his lead in the2023 championship. Moto2 was a parade led by next year’s MotoGP NKIT Pedro Acosta, whose Pizzaria Acosta after the race was the most entertaining part of the weekend. The Honda RC213V claimed two riders, Joan Mir with a broken finger and Alex Rins, as thorough as usual, breaking both his tibia and fibula. Marc Marquez recorded his fourth consecutive DNF, a career first. And I made my fantasy team changes using my Firefox browser, meaning they were not saved.

Next week comes The Sachsenring where, if Marc Marquez does not record his 12th consecutive win, the die will be cast for his move to another manufacturer in 2024. You heard it here first.

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Posted in Ducati, Fantasy MotoGP, Grand Prix Motorcycle Racing, italian grand prix, Marc Marquez, Moto, Moto2, Moto3, MotoGP, MotoGP Mugellio, MotoGP Results, Motorcycle Racing, Racing News | 5 Comments »

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