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2010 Spanish Grand Prix – Repost

April 26, 2023

I attended the Jerez round in 2010, wrote a couple of my favorite articles while there under the influence of vino tinto. This is the first of those pieces.

Getting to the Spanish Grand Prix is half the fun

For a couple of gringos, the road to MotoGP Jerez is a blast

Last January, four of us decided to take a family vacation to southern Spain in early May.  I worked out a deal with my editor at Motorcycle.com to pay me handsomely to cover the Gran Premio bwin de Espana, subject to my securing press credentials, providing some extra copy and photos, and giving them way more than my usual vapid kitchen table rant.  In mid-April, after reserving and paying for airfare, hotels, rental cars, etc., it became fully clear that Dorna, the Spanish company that owns the rights to MotoGP, was not going to sully their pressroom by credentialing the likes of me.  What had started out as a slam dunk junket had become a longshot.

Four of us left for Spain from O’Hare on Friday afternoon.  I/we were lacking several of the necessities for most respectable journalists:  press credentials, tickets for the race, journalistic skills, and/or a clear idea of where the track was actually located.  When I say “we”, I’m including my intrepid son-in-law and budding photojournalist, Ryan Collins, who had the good sense several years ago to marry my youngest daughter Cate.  Ryan, who knows even less about motorcycle racing than I do, told me he was pretty much up for anything, up to and including trying to find the track, trying to get into the facility, and trying to provide some semblance of “covering” the race, as opposed to just missing a day on the beach, and instead sitting around with 130,000 drunk Spanish racing fans under a hot sun for eight hours.

Ryan and I set out from Cadiz, a jewel of a town that sits on the southern coast of Spain where the Mediterranean meets the Atlantic, on Sunday morning.  [By this time we had missed Friday practice and Saturday’s qualifications.  We had also survived a monstrous case of jetlag and the drive from Madrid to Cadiz in which I came uncomfortably close to getting us included in Spanish highway fatality statistics not once, but twice.  And although we missed the action at the track on Saturday, we caught the action on the strip in Cadiz on Saturday night, eating tapas amongst a bunch of riders and listening to the music of big bikes turning high RPMs on the seaside street in front of the restaurant all evening.]

Cadiz sits about 25 miles south of Jerez, and we had passed several Jerez exits on the drive down from Madrid on Saturday.  Once we cleared Cadiz on Sunday, the task of actually finding the track became pretty simple:  stay with the hundreds of bikes on their way to the race that morning.  Which sounds easier than it actually is, in that these bikes were mostly traveling in excess of 100 mph while the Guardia Civil politely turned a blind eye.  Finally, we were one of a handful of cars in a veritable sea of motorcycles, and getting to the parking lot was a breeze.  The way getting from point A to point B in a mosh pit is a breeze:  make no sudden movements, don’t resist, and go with the flow.  

Problem #1 solved.

Problems #2 and #3—no press credentials, few journalistic skills—weren’t going to get solved this day.  This left Problem #4—no tickets to a sold out race.  On the walk from the parking lot to the track itself, I kept an eye out for ticket “vendors” on the street, and was finding none.  Plenty of guys and ladies selling a lot of other junk—Spanish flags, food, water, trinkets, belts (?), etc., from little improvised roadside stands.  No guys holding tickets in the air yelling “Got Four!” in Spanish and looking furtively over their shoulders for the aforementioned Guardia Civil who, one suspects, take a less generous view of ticket scalpers than they do speeders they’re unable to catch anyway.  A mile in and it was looking bleak, when we noticed a trailer set off on a little side “street” with a big sign on it reading “Taquillas”.  Ryan, my interpreter, said he had no idea what a taquilla is.  I, by this time, was hoping it was Spanish for “tequilas”, as I was ready to give in and spend the day drinking shots and eating limes.  It occurred to me that “tequilas” is already a Spanish word, and one very rarely used in the plural, but I shook off this notion.

We approached the trailer, and people were, indeed, stepping up to a window and purchasing SOMETHING, but we couldn’t really tell what.  Apparently, by this time Ryan and I were looking fairly furtive ourselves, for it was at this moment that a guy in a Lakers shirt approached me and asked, in pretty good English, if we needed tickets.  He, it turned out, was getting comped by Repsol (a friend of a friend of a friend…) and was going to stand with the great unwashed in the Pelousse, the fans’ and riders’ favorite section of the Jerez track, between Turns 10 and 11, where the crowd gets right on top of the riders.  We negotiated a mutually satisfactory price for his tickets and, suddenly, Problem #4 was solved.

We still don’t know what folks were buying at that trailer; I’ll try to report back on that later tonight.  We do know that we sat high in the stands between Turns 12 and 13 with a great view of the race.  We spent plenty of time wandering around the facility mingling and taking pictures of a few of the gorgeous women you find in quantity at these events.  We watched one helluva Moto2 tilt and a premier class event that was a procession for the first 22 laps and a heart-stopping thriller for the last three.  We made it back to the parking lot and thence our hotel in one piece without dying of dehydration or getting T-boned by any of the nutjobs they issue drivers licenses to in Spain.  And we captured the story; a beautiful day spent 4500 miles from home in a second language, with a manual transmission, on the road to Jerez.

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Posted in Grand Prix Motorcycle Racing, Jerez, MotoGP, MotoGP Jerez, MotoGP Results, Motorcycle Racing | 5 Comments »

MotoGP 2023 – COTA, Round 3

April 16, 2023

Practice and Qualifying

Before I forget, I want to salute Jack Miller, waxing euphoric about the KTM during one of the incessant time-filling videos, then going out and crashing five times before the Sprint race.

Friday was indicative of the New World Order in MotoGP, in which the last shall be first and the first shall be last. Pecco Bagnaia finishing first in Portimao and 16th in Argentina. Alex Marquez being unable to find his ass with both hands and a flashlight for three full seasons on the Honda suddenly becoming A Force to be Reckoned With in year four on a used Ducati. Marco Bezzecchi winning in the rain at Rio Hondo before having to go through QP1 (which he did) in Texas. At the end of the day the results looked like this:

Here’s a couple of dispatches from our trackside reporter Buzz:

Update #1.

The wife and I decided to walk around a bit and Shazam! Two vans pulled up to our hotel and a bunch of Mooney VR46 team members were checking in to our hotel! I didn’t see Luca or Bez (not that I would have recognized them immediately) and certainly the legend himself isn’t staying here or even in Austin with a pregnant woman at home.

I’ll keep my eyes open. Gonna spend the rest of the evening digesting my mound of meat from Terry Black’s BBQ.

Day 1. I’ll let you read the inter webs for a report on how today’s action unfolded. My behind the scenes look at the action was pretty incredible today.

Update #2

We met a British couple at the hotel bar last night and they are here for the race as well; first time in Austin. I told them I would show them around the track since I’m a vet and they offered a ride in their rental car. In addition, they happened to meet a man on the flight over who handles all the awesome camera technology like the bike cams, shoulder cams, etc. He offered a behind the scenes tour.

After marching them all over the track and walking 8 miles according to our Apple watches, they were contacted by camera guy, and he invited us all back. We were given security credentials and walked through the paddock back to the tech area. He showed us how they use all the camera technology and how most critically, they managed bandwidth. With all the cell technology and other demands for wireless, it is a huge part of the job.

We returned to the stands to finish watching practice and walked back to the paddock once it was over to return our credentials. At that point all the riders started moving from the garage to the paddock offices. It’s a gauntlet of fans with paddock access and was pretty fun watching people run back and forth seeking autographs when a rider would appear. Personally, I got a fist bump with Pecco, a high-five with Jack Miller and helped others get photos with Fabio and Cole Trickle. I also said hello to Brad Binder. Total fun! Wife was overwhelmed.

Saturday

Bezzecchi and Zarco made it through Q1. Jorge Martin, he of the new all-time track record at COTA, crashed twice in Q2, leading to the first four rows of the grid, as follows:

The Sprint was pretty much of a snooze. Bagnaia got his mojo back, took the lead on the first lap and was never challenged. Alex Rins, making the LCR Honda look, well, competitive, chased the Italian for 10 laps but was never a threat; his nine points were a sigh of relief for HRC, as nobody else went anywhere. Poor Fabio over-rode his Yamaha into the gravel on Lap 5; it’s going to be a long year for the former world champion, Martin moved his Desmo from P12 to P3 to capture the final step on the podium. Aleix dogged him after getting passed on Lap 7 but couldn’t track him down. Alex Marquez came back down to Earth, sliding out on Lap 7 after throwing up in his helmet OMG. The Mooney boys finished sixth and seventh behind Brad Binder. And that was that.

Sunday

This was one of those race days when I should have been covering Moto3 or Moto2 instead of MotoGP. Moto3 was incredible, four young riders battling on the absolute limit over the entire race. The eventual winner, Ivan Ortola, somehow avoided an excruciating high side at Turn 2 of the first lap, dropped back to around P23, then sliced his way through the field to engage with Jaume Masia, Xavi Artigas and Diogo Moreira before taking the checkered flag in P1, as good a win as you’ll ever see in racing, two wheels or four. Even horses. The ultimate order of finish was kind of random, as each rider performed well enough to have won on any day. Ortola, it seems, is the Next Next Next Great Spanish Rider, behind Pedro Acosta and Izan Guevara.

Moto2 provided another nailbiter, as Tony Arbolino and Pedro Acosta put on a terrific show, with Acosta eventually prevailing, and Arbolino declaring in Parc Fermé that “this ain’t over.” Both riders are slated for MotoGP next season, where they will pay dues for a season or two before raising the level of competition yet again.

MotoGP on Sunday was, in a word, terrible. Eight riders crashed out, leaving 14 on the track to see the chekered flag. Here’s how bad it was: Jonas Folger scored three (3) championship points subbing for Pol Espargaro. Rookie Augusto Fernandez scored five (5) points. Pecco Bagnaia, putting the screws to everyone who had him on their fantasy team, crashed out of the lead on Lap 8 under relentless pressure from LCR Honda pilot Alex Rins, who went on to win on the only Honda to finish the race. Luca Marini found the podium on his Ducati, as did Fabio Quartararo, who was giving up amazing yardage on the long back straight, then gaining some of it back on the twisty parts of the track. Rather than summarizing the results, let’s just look at the dunnage:

Lap 1: Jorge Martin shits his pants and takes Alex Marquez out with him in Turn 1, while Aleix slides off and out at Turn 12.

On Lap 4 my notes read, “When will Jack Miller crash?” Answer: Lap 7.

Pecco threw it at the scenery on Lap 8. Raul Fernandez retired with a mechanical around the same time

Joan Mir crashed, again, on Lap 9.

Brad Binder crashed on Lap 11 and remounted, ultimately gathering two championship points, which is an editorial statement in itself.

Takaa Nakagami crashed on Lap 12, as if anyone cares.

Stefan Bradl, subbing for #93, crashed on Lap 19 in order to get mentioned in this article.

A brutal day in the premier class. Alex Rins, it says here, will not factor into the 2023 championship on his execrable Honda. Nor will Fabio on his equally bad Yamaha. At the end of the day–who doesn’t hate that phrase?–the championship top ten looks like this. Bagnaia has thrown away 45 points in the last two rounds, making the chase look more competitive than it really is. Vinales had another terrible start before climbing back into P4 at the finish. And anyone who doesn’t have Ducati as their choice for the constructor in Fantasy MotoGP is dreaming.

Two weeks until the flying circus arrives in Europe, at Jerez, when things start to get real. Let’s hope that today’s MotoGP spectacle doesn’t get repeated. Personally, I may shift my attention to the undercards where there is real competition and not every rider scores points.

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Posted in Grand Prix Motorcycle Racing, Moto, Moto2, Moto3, MotoGP, MotoGP Results, Motorcycle Racing, Racing News | 12 Comments »

MotoGP 2023 – Portimao Results

March 26, 2023

Round One of the 2023 MotoGP season produced a dominant performance by defending world champion Pecco Bagnaia, who took the inaugural Sprint race on Saturday followed by a wire-to-wire win on Sunday. He has confirmed the predictions of many followers who pegged him to successfully defend his 2022 title. But Marc Marquez, once again, will be the main topic of conversation this week after a mistake on Lap 3 clobbered Miguel Oliveira and ruined the day for Portuguese racing fans.

Pretty much everyone knows that Marquez, the most talented rider of the last decade, has an albatross of a bike in the 2023 Honda RC213V, described by the knowledgeable Simon Crafar as having no redeeming qualities whatsoever. In order to be remotely competitive on a grid teeming with fast, agile Italian bikes, he must over-ride for every moment of every race. He must take risks most other riders would eschew. His temperament doesn’t allow him to back down; “go hard or go home” is in his DNA. On Saturday, we witnessed what happens when his luck holds–an all-time track record in qualifying followed by a podium finish in the Sprint. On Sunday, we saw what happens when it runs out–he makes contact with another rider (in this case Jorge Martin, whose day was also ruined) which leads to a dangerous crash and collateral damage for an innocent bystander, in this case Aprilia pilot Miguel Oliveira. If Oliveira is not seriously hurt, it is only because of his leathers, his airbag, his helmet, and his superb musculature.

We will not pile on Marquez here, leaving that for others more inclined to journalistic histrionics. Marquez will receive a major penalty next week in Argentina which he will serve on behalf of his employers. Little brother Alex is demonstrating what happens when a Honda rider climbs aboard a Ducati Desmosedici and goes from utter irrelevance to podium contention. Today may be the day on which Marc Marquez decided to cut the cord with Honda moving forward and defect to Borgo Paginale. Put him on a (new or used) Ducati, and he could easily win a dozen races per season. He could also avoid the regret and embarrassment resulting from crashes such as occurred today.

What About the Race, You Nimrod?

Right. Oliveira took the hole shot and led after the first lap, followed closely by Bagnaia, Martin and Marquez. Bagnaia went through on Lap 2 for the duration. It was on Lap 3 that Marquez attempted to go through on Martin, misjudged the angle, and made contact with the Pramac pilot. His Honda lost contact with the tarmac and plowed into the hapless Oliveira, with both riders going ragdoll and both bikes left in tatters. Martin recovered in, like, P15 while Pecco left the chaos well behind him. The crash opened the door for Maverick Vinales, Jack Miller, Marco Bezzecchi and Brad Binder.

The rest of the day saw the resurrected Vinales furiously dogging Bagnaia on his way to 20 points. Bezzecchi went through on Miller’s KTM on Lap 5 and finished the day on the third step of the podium. Behind this trio was some great racing, as Miller, Alex Marquez, Brad Binder and, late in the proceedings, Johann Zarco mixed it up. Zarco had been riding in P9 early in the race and was still in P8 at the end of Lap 21 before mounting a huge charge over the last four laps on his way to 13 points. I seem to have underestimated his prospects for the season. He seems to be shaving more frequently than in years past. And how nice was it to see young Alex Marquez fighting near the front and enjoying life on a 2022 Ducati. Miller and Binder seem capable of winning somewhere other than Red Bull Ring. And Bezzecchi, heir apparent to Marco Simoncelli, at least in his coiffure, may prove to be the best of the young Italian riders making their way up from Moto2.

Along with the shredding of track records came attrition unseen since the gruesome days of Paul Bird and CRTs. With Pol Espargaro and Enea Bastiannini (fractured shoulder blade) recording DNSs, there were only 20 bikes on the starting grid. Exit Marquez and Oliveira; a thoroughly miserable FDG retired on Lap 11; Martin crashed out on Lap 20 trying like hell to get back in the points; Luca Marini threw it at the scenery on Lap 22, followed by Raul Fernandez on Lap 24, leaving 14 bikes to take the checkered flag. This was great news for the suppurating Franco Morbidelli, who is now assured of scoring at least two (2) points in 2023. No wonder Lin Jarvis looks like he swallowed a fish hook, with Fabio Quartararo having become a second division afterthought and Morbidelli turning green.

The Undercards

Moto3 is back to its usual frenetic self. Today’s race was wicked awesome, with more lead changes than you can count, and seven or eight riders jousting for the win. Sensational sophomores Daniel Holgado, my boy David Munoz and Brazilian teenager Diogo Moreira landed on the podium, celebrating with non-alcoholic magna of the obligatory prosecco.

Moto2 offered, unfortunately, a preview of what could very well be one of the dullest seasons in recent memory, in which Pedro Acosta, KTM’s Next Great Spanish Rider, led Aron Canet on a lonely, fruitless chase all day on his way to the first of what promise to be numerous wins and the 2023 title in advance of his inevitable promotion to MotoGP in 2024. Canet has become the poster child of a racing bridesmaid, with ten second-place finishes and no wins in his career. With Canet, it’s always something, or someone, or two KTM guys, standing between him and success. I can’t help being put off by the extravagant ink on his neck. Call me old-fashioned.

On to Argentina

Back-to-back weekends start the season as the flying circus heads to South America for Round Two. Michele Pirro will undoubtedly fill in for Bastiannini on the factory Ducati. With any luck, we’ll get to see Jonas Folger or Mika Kallio or–be still my heart–Dani Pedrosa subbing for Little Brother on the GasGas entry. We will return on Saturday with Sprint coverage and the usual slanderous blah blah blah.

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Posted in Marc Marquez, Moto, Moto2, Moto3, MotoGP, MotoGP Portimao, MotoGP Results, Motorcycle Racing, Racing News | 17 Comments »

MotoGP Portimao – Saturday

March 25, 2023

The first Saturday of the 2023 MotoGP season left me shaking my head in wonder. All-time track records fell like tenpins. Ducati Desmos were casually flexing their muscles all day. HRC has reduced Marc Marquez from the dominant force in the sport to playing the role of the wily veteran, having to rely on tows and wizardry to stay in the chase. Jack Miller appears to have found a home with KTM. And the first ever MotoGP Sprint was frantic, and breathtaking, while sowing seeds of doubt upon its ultimate effect on Sunday racing. In short, there was something for every taste and budget.

Premier class qualifying was as exciting as ever, with four manufacturers ending up on the first two rows. Marquez and homeboy Miguel Oliveira made it out of Q1, with #93 laying down a vapor trail early in his first run, allowing him to ignore the last seven minutes of the session, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. He then spent most of Q2 lollygagging in P12 until a last lap tow from EBas slingshotted him into a new track record and onto pole for the 64th time in his premier class career. Even on the atrocious RC213V, you still don’t want him on your tail late in the game, as we would see again later in the day.

Pecco Bagnaia and Jorge Martin (for whom the Sprints seem to have been specifically designed) filled out the first row. Oliveira, an ecstatic Jack Miller and disgruntled Bastiannini ended up in Row 2. Cole Trickle captured P7 followed by the dangerous VR46 kids. Row four contained a suicidal Fabio Quartararo and two senior citizens, Johann Zarco and Aleix Espargaro. (Pol Espargaro would miss the weekend after getting folded, spindled and mutilated in a bad crash on Friday.) The stage was set for the debut of The Sprint.

Marquez took the hole shot from pole, but was soon swallowed up by Pecco, and Martin, and Oliveira, and Miller, who held the lead for a few seconds on Lap 7. Otherwise, it was mostly Bagnaia and Martin, with the Pramac pilot appearing to hold the upper hand. A five bike lead group became seven around Lap 8 when both Vinales and Espargaro appeared on the scene. Earlier in the race, rookie Augusto Fernandez threw it at the scenery, and Joan Mir Honda-ed himself for not the last time this year, causing Fabio to fall to around P19 on a humbling day for the 2021 world champion. Luca Marini skittled EBas and Marco Bezzecchi took some soil samples, making my fantasy pick of the Mooney team look ridiculous. The plot would thicken for the last three laps.

Bagnaia went through first on Miller, then, on the last lap, on Martin, who had run wide. In between the action, on Lap 11, Oliveira and Miller were enjoying a close encounter when Marquez, who had been keeping his powder dry in P5, ordered up a double, going through on both riders on the way to the podium and seven points, clearly the best overtake of the day. Oliveira got over-excited on the last lap, dropping from P3 to P7, and taking the air out of the crowd. In the end, it was Pecco, Martin and, yup, Marquez on the podium.

The sprint format allows riders the luxury of not having to conserve either fuel or tires, allowing young fast movers like Martin to go balls out and rendering the skills of more experienced rides moot. It places even more emphasis on qualifying than was already the case. It opens up the opportunity for, say, an Enea Bastiannini to get nicked up, harming his prospects for Sunday’s main event. But it IS cool, and bolsters the arguments of some fans who strongly disapprove of the pace-reducing effects of tire and fuel conservation and the always dreadful processions that can occur on Sundays.

Allow me to crow for a moment over the fact that the first four rows this weekend include 12 of my 14 top picks for the season. I’m probably wrong about Miller, Alex Marquez, FDG and Binder; we’ll find out more as the season progresses. Today gave credibility to Simon Crafar’s observation that Italian bikes are likely to dominate 2023. See y’all tomorrow.

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Posted in Marc Marquez, Moto, MotoGP, MotoGP Portimao, MotoGP Results, Motorcycle Racing, Racing News | 4 Comments »

MotoGP 2023 Season Preview

March 20, 2023

Ready for Takeoff

Grand prix motorcycle racing—MotoGP to aficionados—is a Eurocentric parlor game for the rich and not-so-famous. It involves undersized riders holding on for dear life to 1000cc bikes with astonishing power-to-weight ratios on road courses at venues on four continents, several of which are in countries one is not anxious to visit. It is almost impossible to find on American television. Riders receive trophies for finishing third. It is the little brother of F1. It is NASCAR’s mentally challenged foreign cousin.

However, for the few of you still reading, at its best, MotoGP is the best racing on the planet, a series of hair-raising encounters between riders and machines traveling at well over 100 mph in unbanked turns, separated by inches, with the difference between winning and not winning often measured in a few thousandths of a second. (By comparison, the autonomic blink of an eye takes around 100 milliseconds.)

These guys are fast. Ridiculously fast. Incomprehensibly fast. The engines on the big bikes retail for around a million dollars per, rotate at, like, 17,000 rpm, and are built to tolerances that defy description, at least with the few words in my vocabulary. The noise they make is equally difficult to describe, resembling, in my mind, the sound a nuclear-powered pencil sharpener might make.

Round One of 2023 lifts off this weekend in Portimao, Portugal. Let the games begin.

A Look Back at 2022

2022 was the year Italy completed a hostile takeover of the premier class. Italian manufacturer Ducati Corse won its first world championship since 2007. An Italian rider, Francesco (Pecco) Bagnaia, won it all for the first time since the legendary Valentino Rossi in 2009. Ducati won the constructor’s title for the third consecutive year, in part because they had more bikes on the grid—eight out of 24—than any other builder, placing five of them in the top nine. Bagnaia, left for dead in mid-season, trailing defending champion Fabio Quartararo by 91 points, mounted the largest comeback in history for the title, sealed at the season finale in Valencia. It was the most competitive, most compelling season in recent memory.

Moto2 is, in layman’s terms, the junior varsity in MotoGP. All the bikes are powered by 765cc Triumph triples, with teams providing the rest of the components from various manufacturers. Spaniard Augusto Fernandez took the 2022 championship in Austrian monolith KTM colors, ahead of Japanese rider Ai Ogura (Idemitsu Honda Asia team) and Spaniard Aron Canet (Flexbox HP40 team). Fernandez was exceptionally strong in mid-season, at one point winning four races out of six. Ogura, his main challenger during the final two months, choked at season’s end, scoring five (5) points over the final three rounds. Fernandez was the only Moto2 rider rewarded with a promotion to MotoGP for 2023. He will ride for the #2 KTM (GasGas) team, ensuring a second division finish.

I forgot to mention Pedro Acosta, the young Spanish fast mover who will, according to my forthcoming prediction, take the Moto2 title in 2023 and graduate to MotoGP in 2024 where he will soon become A Force to be Reckoned With.

Torturing the analogy, Moto3 is, like, the MotoGP freshman team, although the 250cc bikes are fast and loud. Lap times are a few seconds slower than Moto2, which are, in turn, a few seconds slower than the premier class MotoGP bikes. Moto3 is annually populated by a cadre of upwardly mobile teenagers and a roughly equal number of grizzled veterans who have embraced The Peter Principle and who will never see the saddle of a MotoGP machine. The 2022 title was won by Spanish teenager and rising KTM star Izan Guevara, who will turn 19 this coming June. The Next Great Spanish Rider soundly beat teenaged teammate and countryman Sergio Garcia and Italian Dennis Foggia (Honda) for the title. All three were promoted to Moto2 at season’s end.

2022 Moto3 rookies who had notable seasons include Daniel Holgado, who turns 18 in April, and my personal favorite, David Muñoz, who will turn 17 this year and may be the Next Next Great Spanish Rider.

Premier Class Teams and Riders

For 2023, moto-social Darwinism and economic constraints reduced the number of teams from 12 to 11 and, accordingly, the number of riders from 24 to 22. The riders and teams play musical chairs every year in MotoGP. A few get promoted from the underclasses, others change teams, seeking greener pastures, and the dregs get consigned to the rubbish heap. This year, mixing metaphors, the deck was re-shuffled more than usual due to the demise of the factory Suzuki team. And while only one rider, Augusto Fernandez, had his ticket punched from Moto2 into MotoGP, a larger number than usual headed for the other side of the hill, as follows:

  • Yamaha shut down their hopeless satellite team and Aprilia added a hopeful one. Yamahan Darryn Binder was shown the door, while Andrea Dovizioso retired. Aprilia recruited former KTM pilots Raul Fernandez and Miguel Oliveira, to rep their new #2 team. The two riders’ prospects appear to have improved with the switch. Aprilia, having recovered from the loss of Gigi Dall’Igna to Ducati ten years ago, is an ascendant program of late.
  • Rookie Augusto Fernandez will team up with veteran Pol Espargaro, late of the factory Repsol Honda team, on the #2 (KTM) Tech 3 GasGas team, under the careful supervision of jovial French guy (pronounced ghee) Herve Poncharal. Aussie Remy Gardner was advised he was “insufficiently professional” (read: insufficiently Spanish or Italian) and made his way, with a pocketful of sour grapes, to the tacitly less professional World Superbike championship series.
  • Joan Mir, 2020 World Champion with a couple of asterisks, was left without a seat when Suzuki folded their tent and chose to join the Repsol Honda team alongside Marc Marquez. Exhibiting questionable decision-making skills, this compares to an infant leaving a comfortable bassinet, complete with mother’s milk, to ride alongside Mad Max in the Thunderdome. Former teammate Alex Rins, also revealing impaired judgment, moved on from the comfort of the smooth-riding Suzuki to LCR Honda, whose version of the RC213V is as difficult to ride as the Repsol bikes but slower. His teammate there will be Mr. Cellophane, Takaa Nakagami. It promises to be a long year for Mir and Rins. It is always a long year for Nakagami.
  • Australian veteran Jack Miller, realizing his own pedigree was insufficiently Italian, chose to leave the factory Ducati team on his terms rather than theirs, and landed squarely on the factory KTM team, joining skeletal South African mercenary Brad Binder on the only entirely Anglo team on the grid. Miller’s initial bubbly optimism about the move lasted until the first test in Sepang. Such is life.
  • In a classic MotoGP three-way, once Miller vacated the factory Ducati crew, Enea Bastiannini got promoted from Gresini Ducati to replace him alongside world champion Pecco Bagnaia, and Alex Marquez escaped from LCR to Gresini, where it is thought, at least here, he will scout the Ducati ecosystem as an advance man for his brother Marc, who has only so many years left to await Honda’s return to respectability. Alex will be welcomed by returning Gresini up-and-comer Fabio de Giannantonio, who is singlehandedly causing a shortage of lower-case Ns amongst the journalists covering the sport. (We decided last season to refer to him as FDG to conserve consonants.)
  • The remaining four teams made no changes in their rider lineup this season. Aprilia #1 with a resurgent Maverick Vinales and Aleix Espargaro. The hobbled Yamaha team of Fabulous Quartararo and an enigmatic Frankie Morbidelli. Rossi’s Mooney VR46 Ducati team with Luca Marini and Marco Bezzecchi, and Pramac Ducati with whiz kid Jorge Martin and aging Frenchman Johann Zarco. If I had to make a prediction for 2024, I would expect Morbidelli and Zarco to exit the premier class stage after this year, followed soon thereafter by Aleix.

Sprint Races? C’mon, Man

In the face of declining fan interest in the sport, The Powers That Be decided to put on flattering imitations of the sprint races found in World Superbike and, on occasion, F1. Essentially, these will be half-length tilts run on Saturdays in the place of the execrable FP4 sessions. In the past, cumulative fast times in the first three practice sessions determined which 10 riders would pass automatically into the QP2 pole shootout, with the remnant having to slug it out in QP1 for the top two slots which would then pass GO into QP2. As of 2023, these determinations will occur after FP2, throwing a real sense of urgency into Fridays. That’s the good news. The results from QP1 and 2 will determine starting positions for both the sprints and the full distance races on Sundays.

This year, the last event on Saturdays will be premier class sprint races. The top eight finishers will score points–9, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1—while the other 14 will put hours on their engines and chew up a set of tires. No changes have been made in engine allocations, despite the fact that the number of race laps the engines will have to complete will increase by half. Look for penalties to be assessed late in the season as teams run out of operational engines.

While the fans, at least those still sober at 3 pm, will get to see riders competing in anger on Saturdays, the pilots and crews will pay the price, especially in the autoclaves of Thailand, Malaysia, India and Indonesia. (I’m torn between using “autoclave” and “blast furnace” to depict the hellish conditions in these places.) The older riders—notably the Espargaro brothers and Zarco—will suffer more, despite the chilling effect of 200 mph headwinds. And nobody gives a hoot about the brolly girls and what they will have to endure, in full pancake makeup and leather trousers.

Personally, I get the feeling that the sprint races, as currently configured, will be a full-blown cluster, most notably in October, with three races in three weeks, including Indonesia and Thailand. I also get the feeling, for the record, that the Indian Grand Prix will not make it onto the final calendar due to construction issues, that the 21- round season will eventually be reduced to 20. Just sayin’.

The Big Questions: Will Borat Attend the Kazakhstan Grand Prix? And Where Can We Find His Sister?

Tranches

One has to be a moron to try to predict the eventual 2023 MotoGP standings when there’s still snow on the ground. Undeterred, and using my proprietary and well-worn SWAG (Sophisticated Wild Ass Guess) predictive software, here goes:

  1. Pecco Bagnaia. A formidable combination—the second coming of Jorge Lorenzo on the best bike on Earth, the 2023 title is his to lose.
  2. Enea Bastiannini. Young, smooth, easy on tires and fearless. The teammates appear ready to dominate the season the way Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello did F1 in 2002.
  3. Marc Marquez. #93 is, for the moment, 100% healthy. Despite being stuck with the crappy Honda RC213V, he will finish the year on the podium. At age 30, his days of dominance are numbered. But, as Nick Harris used to say about Valentino Rossi, “Ignore him at your peril.”
  4. Maverick Vinales. Going out on a limb here, Pop Gun showed a few flashes of his old form last year, and the Aprilia has become a credible contender. He will finish ahead of aging, arm-pumping teammate Aleix Espargaro.
  5. Fabio Quartararo. As gifted as Fabulous is, the Yamaha doesn’t appear yet to provide him with enough grunt to compete for a championship. This is his final contract with the Iwata factory. As for the rest of the field, I’ll just let the software do the predicting:
  6. Jorge Martin
  7. Aleix Espargaro
  8. Marco Bezzecchi
  9. Brad Binder
  10. Luca Marini
  11. Fabio di Giannantonio
  12. Joan Mir
  13. Jack Miller
  14. Miguel Oliveira
  15. Johann Zarco
  16. Alex Rins
  17. Pol Espargaro
  18. Raul Fernandez
  19. Alex Marquez
  20. Franco Morbidelli
  21. Takaa Nakagami
  22. Augusto Fernandez

And the 2023 Winner Is…

Moto3:    Jaume Masia

Moto2:    Pedro Acosta

MotoGP:  Pecco Bagnaia

For Those of You Who Think I Don’t Know What I’m Talking About

No argument here. You will find more informative articles on any number of other sites. We’re willing to settle for cheap laughs, mostly at the expense of the authority figures in a sport that seems to take itself way too seriously. Most of you reading this drivel are riders who view the statement, “I want to grow up and be a motorcycle rider” as a choice. The punchline is you can’t do both.

Having made your decisions, I’m here to give you the opportunity to express yourself. Reader engagement is the currency of life on the web. We hope you will take the time to share your opinions without dropping a lot of F-bombs, as we jealously protect our PG-13 rating.

I will post results from each of the 21 rounds this year.

Keep the shiny side up.

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Posted in Grand Prix Motorcycle Racing, Moto, Moto2, Moto3, MotoGP Portimao, MotoGP Preview, Motorcycle Racing, Racing News | 36 Comments »

MotoGP 2022 Round 19 – Sepang

October 23, 2022

Bagnaia wins again; Quartararo on life support

The muffled, rhythmic, pneumatic sound you hear in the background comes from the equipment keeping Fabio Quartararo’s 2022 MotoGP title hopes alive. Mathematically speaking. People with a dog in this fight will tell you the championship is now down to an exciting shootout in Valencia, despite Quartararo’s indisposition. As if. Young Pecco must now endure another two weeks of nightmares, in which, being dogged by Quartararo, he crashes late in Valencia, and lies there in the gravel watching the Italian punk him and win the title. Whereas Fabio has had to endure a long late-season decline, Bagnaia’s deep set fear must be choking in his One Shining Moment.

Saturday

I was working my grandson like a field hand in the yard most of Saturday–paid him handsomely and fixed his lunch, gave him a few free secrets of life etc.–and so missed most of the action from the track. I’m now ignoring Moto3 and can’t stand the suspense of Moto2, so I’ll focus on the big bikes this week. This is, after all, where Fabio Quartararo’s dream of repeating as MotoGP world champion was going to go up in smoke, courtesy of a miserable second half of the season, a hand injury at exactly the wrong time, and the blinding dominance of the bikes manufactured by Ducati Corse. Marquez said after qualifying he is losing 3/10ths to the Ducatis in the main straight. The Yamaha is losing 3/10ths to Marquez. The writing has been on the wall for some time in the premier class. Fabio will not repeat as MotoGP champion in 2022.

Qualifying was another master class by two riders clearly at the top of their respective games, Marc Marquez once again, Pecco Bagnaia at last. My favorite interviewer, Simon Crafar, was in the booth today, observing that the Honda RC213V does not have a single winning characteristic, yet there goes Marquez, putting it in places no other rider can even conceive of, ending up in P3 for the start of the race. In Q1 with double zeroes on the clock, he steals a ticket into Q2. Afterwards, he is surrounded by the resurgent Alex Rins avec his soon-to-be-extinct Suzuki GSX-RR and another quartet of the damned Italian engineering marvels, starting in P1 where Jorge Martin calmly set an all-time track record (by 6/10ths!) in Q2. EBas sits in P2 looking frisky, with Rossi’s wild boys, Bezzecchi and Marini, sitting pretty on Row 2. Marquez gives the impression of being close to 100% again. His bike gives the impression it needs to be taken back behind the garage and shot.

For those of you keeping score at home, the top three contenders for the 2022 MotoGP title–Pecco Bagnaia, Fabio Quartararo and Aleix Espargaro–would be starting Sunday’s race in P9, P12 and P10 respectively. Disrespectively. How this happened would take a while to explain, but my theory of untimely crashes is coming into clear focus. I’m looking forward to writing the season recap, as events seem to be unfolding as expected, other than Aleix is probably doomed. Oh, and the fact that the north star of my predictions, and worldview, is on its way to being proven exactly wrong.

Sunday

There were moments in the middle of the race in which the tension was absolutely superb, moments which offered us a glimpse of the immediate future–Bagnaia and Bastiannini dominating the 2023 championship season–as well as my own vision of the future, in which Ducati Corse makes the decision to stop supporting all these random teams and simply becomes the engine supplier for the premier class, the rest of the OEMs reduced to Moto2 status, building their brand entries around a single engine. The superiority of the Italian machines is occasionally blinding and was on full display at Sepang after taking six of the top eight spots in Australia a week ago (minus the top two, for whatever reason.) Today a podium closeout was shaping up until Jorge Martin, who had destroyed a longstanding track record during QP2, casually crashed out of a comfortable lead on Lap 7, doing a reasonable impression of Warren Zevon’s “Excitable Boy.”

For me, the most interesting part of the race occurred during laps 9 through 14 when Bagnaia and EBas were arguing over the lead and young Marco Bezzecchi, spawn of the Valentino Rossi clan, suddenly appeared on Quartararo’s tail. The sitch at the time was if Bezzecchi could overtake Quartararo and Pecco hold on to win, the championship would be over. The announcers theorized that MB’s tires were going off. My own thought was that he was thinking, “Step three on the podium, or make the factory bitch win it on his own in Spain?” To me, it looked like he backed off, but that’s just me. Same way I looked at Martin’s off–my notes read ‘team player,’ promoting Bagnaia to the lead. Silly.

My new favorite metaphor for crashing out of the race came courtesy of Louis Suddaby, describing Bastiannini’s decision “not to throw it at the scenery,” a phrase which is bound to show up in future articles…By Lap 2 it looked as if we were going to see an electric face-off between Quartararo in P5 and Marquez in P4, but it never took place. Quartararo went through early while Marquez faded, as expected, ending his day in P7. It was a set-up ripe for controversy, had the two mixed it up while the Ducati contingent was busy getting away. Maybe next year.

Thinking about how Ducati has seemingly found a way to solve the economics of MotoGP, compared to the quandary endured by Suzuki, having experienced recent success but unable to make the numbers work for even a single team…Brad Binder, with his skeletal air, his shaved head and beard looks like one of the South African mercenaries so often found in modern action films. Don’t mess with him on the track… I had to post the photo of Carmelo Ezpeleta and Sultan Somethingorother, Carmelo, the Big Cheese of MotoGP, doing an excellent job of not sweating through his trousers, while the Sultan, Grand Gouda of the locals, looks cool as a cucumber in the equatorial steam bath…The rain expected by the announcers never materialized, to the dismay of fans like myself who love the entropy of flag-to-flag tilts…

On to Valencia

Before Round 18 at Phillip Island, there were five combatants–Pecco, Fabio, Aleix, Miller and EBas.

Before Round 19 today, there were four–Pecco, Fabio, Aleix and EBas.

Heading to Round 20 in Valencia, there remain but two contestants. The Italian holds every card in the deck; the Frenchman, with a broken finger on his left hand, can’t even hold the few cards he has. The Italian, with his fellow Ducati teams, will have, in effect, up to seven wingmen watching his six should the need arise. The Frenchman is all on his own, his teammate mired in the muck all year, the satellite guys ready and willing but unable to help fend off the swarm of Desmos. On paper, it looks to be no contest, Pecco riding the last two laps with one hand on the handlebars and the other blowing kisses to the irritated fans, who want, above all, to see a Spaniard on the top step and hear their beloved anthem one more time in 2022. This November, the contest writ large will not involve a Spaniard, not that the fans care that much. The rumor expected to be circulating in the stands at the finale will assure all those in attendance that, like the swallows to Capistrano, #93 will be back next year, and the anthem is likely to get a good workout once again.

See you in two weeks.

Brolly #1
Brolly #2
Sepang
These Frenchmen are incorrigible. Don’t do it, Johann.
Big Cheese and Grand Gouda.
Then there were two…

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Posted in Ducati, Grand Prix Motorcycle Racing, Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix, Marc Marquez, Moto, MotoGP, MotoGP Sepang, Motorcycle Racing, Racing News | 7 Comments »

MotoGP 2022 Round 18 – Phillip Island

October 16, 2022

Fabio’s downfall continues; Bagnaia seizes series lead

MotoGP fans around the world enjoyed a feast of two-wheeled drama in Australia today as the 2022 championships–Moto3, Moto2 and MotoGP–approach the last dance in Valencia next month.

  • Moto3 crowned its latest Spanish racing savant as 18-year-old Izan Guevara sealed his first grand prix championship in fine style, battling Garcia, Sasaki and Dennis Oncu the entire way. Guevara showed the world what he’s made of by riding his ass off for the win when he didn’t need the win to seal the championship.

In doing so, Guevara was able to avoid the awkward podium scene we saw back in 20?? involving your boy Jorge Lorenzo and one Marc Marquez. In the race, won by Lorenzo, Marquez had clinched the championship. During the podium celebration, Lorenzo was blowing celebratory gaskets, flexing and yelling about his nice win. Marquez, on step two, stood by, quietly watching The Lorenzo Show. After the anthem, Marquez and his team celebrated their most recent world championship. This was not a scene young Izan wanted to see repeated.

  • The reborn Alonso Lopez won Sunday’s Moto2 tilt by laying down a vapor trail around Turn 6 of Lap 1 and was never challenged, despite having to serve an Australian long lap penalty–similar to just going wide at a number of tracks–on Lap 3. The real action, involving the last two riders standing in 2022–Augusto Fernandez and Ai Ogura–showcased the volatility inherent in motorsports. Late in the day, Fernandez was cruising in P2, looking to put Ogura away while the Japanese rider was stuck in the mud in Single Digit Point Land. Suddenly, without warning or need, Fernandez lost the front and slid out of nirvana, while Ogura, limping home in P11, took over the series lead. For Fernandez, what should have been a 16+ point lead heading to Sepang is a four point deficit. Let Valencia decide.

MotoGP

  • The main event at Phillip Island in 2022 was exhausting, exhilarating, enervating and enduring and will likely be mentioned in conversations about the best races ever for years to come. My notes look like a process map for a Rube Goldberg device, arrows pointing up, down, and right, square boxes around crashers, deltas where standings were changing. When the smoke cleared and the cheering died down, Fabio Quartararo had surrendered his series lead to the increasingly inevitable Pecco Bagnaia (P3), who kept his composure while those around him were losing theirs. Let’s discuss. PS–Suzuki, with Alex Rins riding like a banshee, won the race today. One more turn of the screw piercing our sense of right and wrong, that such an ascendant program as Suzuki’s would be unable to continue their participation.

While the riders waited for the red lights to go out, Fabio led Bagnaia by two points; the Frenchman possibly distressed over the memory of leading Pecco by 66 points after Catalunya. The second half of the season has seen a steady erosion of El Diablo’s dominance; he has failed to score points in half of the last eight races. We are happy to speak of, and unhappy to observe, young Fabio’s descent into mortality, as we (and others) have seen it coming all year, #20 trying to milk all he can from an under-powered Yamaha M-1. He has been over-riding all year, holding on for dear life, trying to manufacture a winning recipe of his riding style with the bike’s strengths, but it has appeared to be a losing battle since mid-season. One fears that during the next two seasons, Fabio Quartararo will learn the lessons learned by all those who married for money.

Once again, for the third round in succession, Marc Marquez appeared ready and able but unwilling to challenge seriously for the win. In Motegi it was a mostly relaxed P5. In Buriram it was a rather leisurely P4. Today, he was firmly ensconced in the lead group all day, yet it appeared he was hovering or hesitating, resisting opportunities to go through on opponents he would have gleefully seized three years ago. Today, with a credible P2 he achieved his 100th grand prix podium. He tells us the new aero package in development for the RC213V is the way to salvation, intimating he will be back in full fighting trim next season. I, for one, would be glad to see it.

Alex Rins had one of those days riders dream about, in which he had the best bike on a fast track with the sun shining and the wind blowing and it all just worked out and he fought his way from mid-pack at the start into the lead group and finally into the lead and the win with a remarkable performance. It was one of those days riders might think of as easy, as if anything is really easy on two wheels at 200 mph. My friend Don tells me that 60 mph equates to 90 feet per second. Ergo 180 mph equates to 270 fps. So the guys can travel the length of a football field in a second, give or take. For me, simply breathing at 180 mph would be a serious challenge. We are glad to see Rins enjoying himself during a year in which his house came down around his ears.

Elsewhere in the top five, Bastianini struggled all day before finishing an uninspiring P5, still alive mathematically but dead in every other respect. His future, however, remains so bright he’ll need shades. Frightening to consider how good the factory Ducati team could be next year… Aleix’s late season fade continues, his seven points today not feeding the beast… Jack Miller got hammered by Alex Marquez on Lap 9, putting an end to his faint championship hopes, but allowing him an opportunity to jump the fence and party with his friends at the brand new Jack Miller Corner…Valentino Rossi’s two young guns, Marco Bezzecchi and Luca Marini, continue to impress during the second half of the season. Bezzecchi claimed P4 and Marini P6 today. This was Bezzecchi’s first visit to Phillip Island on a MotoGP bike and he was mostly sensational during the last half of the race, wearing his big boy pants, grinning at the veterans as he went by.

A lot of other stuff went on and you can read about it almost anywhere. Here at Late-Braking MotoGP we are looking for meaning, trying to find our place in the universe, seeing things through our little out-of-round lens. For us, Fabio is a one-man passion play, a champion and an underdog at the same time whose obvious virtue and competitive spirit are not enough to overcome the voracious appetites of the suits at Ducati Corse. Pecco is handicapped by his inability to recognize life-threatening situations, the result being that he either wins or gets helped to his feet by the marshals. When he retires, he should go into advertising. Aleix should be sprawled on the floor in a corner of his garage with a guitar, singing, “Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up To Me.” After years of struggle, he once again allowed his heart to get the better of him, believing in mid-season that he had a legit look at the championship. ‘Tis better to have loved, and lost…

So, we’re down to it now. One championship decided, two to go. Moto2 is anyone’s guess, but I’m staying with my mid-season pick of Fernandez to finish on top. I was jocking Aleix during the summer break, just as my own sentimental favorite. Today, you have to believe Bagnaia will be the 2022 champion. He is likely to eat Sepang for lunch (while Quartararo struggles) and render Valencia meaningless once again.

We look forward to your comments and constructive criticisms. lol

 

 

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Posted in Grand Prix Motorcycle Racing, Marc Marquez, Moto, Moto2, Moto3, MotoGP, MotoGP Phillip Island, Motorcycle Racing, Phillip Island, Racing News | 5 Comments »

MotoGP 2022 – Aragon Round 15

September 19, 2022

Fabio crashes, the championship tightens up, and Marc Marquez is getting flamed

Looking back over the season this coming winter, (I know, right?) one may conclude that Round 15 was the decisive race in a terrific season in which, with five rounds to go, there are still four riders with a genuine chance to title. My original thesis this season–that consistency (not crashing) would be the determining factor–is proving true. Almost. Somehow, somewhere, the law of averages is beavering away, tagging each rider with the “likely to crash again” label, others with the “hasn’t crashed enough, is long overdue” tag. Yes, that means that the law of averages is of absolutely no help in predicting the 2022 champion.

The race itself, in a nutshell, went something like this. Aleix, a few of the Ducatis, and rugged KTM pilot Brad Binder got off to quick starts. Marc Marquez, in his latest return to racing, failed to make it out of Q1, starting in P15. When the lights went out, #93 decided to damn the torpedoes and head for the front, carving up the field, elbows out, narcissistically unconcerned about the fortunes of the riders actually competing for the championship. (This is early on Lap 1, friends, with a full tank and cold tires.) In the thick of things (P7) surrounded by contenders, Marquez had a moment which resulted in championship leader Fabio Quartararo piling into the rear of his bike, parting company with his YZR-M1, going boom on the asphalt, down and out.

Poetic justice saw to it that the collision would render the #93 bike unrideable by Lap 2. Marquez discovered an issue involving his rear tire and a crumpled fairing by clattering Takaa Nakagami out of the race later in Lap 1. Having knocked Quartararo off his safe perch in the title chase, with virtually nothing to gain, he retired from the race, changed into regular clothing, and returned to the pits, to the catcalls and jeers of everyone not wearing Repsol black, red and orange.

Anyway. Most of the race had Pecco Bagnaia blazing the trail, with EBas, Aleix and the gritty Binder in hot pursuit. Mostly processional until the last two laps, when the prospect of the two fastest riders in the game on the fastest machine in the game becoming teammates next year came into sight, the 2023 team championship having become a foregone conclusion. With both riders able to summon fast laps late in the race, both able to conserve rubber at full race distance, MotoGP 2023 is looking a lot like F1 back in the day when Schumacher and Barrichello owned the world. Italian engineering on full display.

Essentially, Bastianini calmly put Bagnaia in his rearview midway through Lap 23 after dogging him all day. Aleix and his Aprilia passed Binder for the final podium spot on Lap 22. Bastianini, it seems, likes the effect he has on other riders when he’s on their rear wheel with two laps left. Pecco is as fast as fast gets, the second coming of Jorge Lorenzo in appearance and riding style. But he doesn’t seem to have the fire in the belly that his new teammate possesses. My money will be on EBas to win the 2023 title.

Here are the before and after shots of the 2022 MotoGP title, post Aragon:

Rider Points after Austria Points after Aragon 2022 DNF/DNS Manufacturer

Quartararo 211 211 2 Yamaha

Bagnaia 181 201 4 Ducati

AEspargaro 178 194 0 Aprilia

Bastianini 138 163 4 Ducati

All season long we have been saying, along with the entire Sioux nation, that Fabio would have to have what amounts to a perfect race every time out in order to repeat as world champion. And he has been riding the wheels off his vastly inferior Yamaha. But he faltered at Assen and got skittled yesterday, events which the Brits currently refer to as “wet lettuce.” Again, as predicted, we are sticking with Pecco Bagnaia as the 2022 world champion. Despite four DNFs, he has the wind at his back, while Fabio has contusions all up and down his torso from yesterday.

Looking at the upcoming tracks (not sure about Thailand) it appears the Ducati phalanx will enjoy Motegi (stop and shoot) as well as Phillip Island and Sepang, both long and wide. Fabio, being the Yamaha phalanx, may have a bit of an advantage at Buriram and Valencia. Unfortunately, I suspect that his performance in Round 20 will have little to do with the title. And then there’s Aleix, still in the hunt, still not having turned his RS-GP over after 15 tries. Overdue? Cautious? Blessed? A great dark horse for a wager if you’re into that sort of thing. If he maintains his season-long consistency, and both Quartararo and Bagnaia have another off between now and November, it could be an Espargaro wearing the crown in 2022. THAT would be fun.

I watched both races on the undercard. My only real interest these days is trying to identify future Aliens amongst the array of teenage prodigies toiling in the “lightweight” classes. In Moto3, I really like Izan Guevara, who is going to win the title this year and just turned 18 in June. Another fast kid is this David Munoz, #44, who just turned 16 in the spring and has begun terrorizing the grizzled veterans.

In Moto2 it was Vote for Pedro day again, as Acosta made a convincing case for returning to the presumptive Alien class in the foreseeable future. Despite breaking his femur at Assen, he has come back and, at least yesterday, looked again like he did in Moto3 last year, when he was tagged as a phenom. He will likely win the Moto2 title next year for KTM and get bounced up to MotoGP in 2024.

The first Asian flyaway rounds are coming up starting this week. Imagine having raced in Aragon and having five days to prepare/pack to travel to Japan and Thailand. Then a week off, then freezing at Phillip Island and, broiling at Sepang, where Pecco will clinch the title, before finishing, as usual, on the Spanish Mediterranean coast.

Damn, this is fun.

This from our mid-season report after Assen: The GasGas duo of Garcia and Guevara is, once again, putting a thorough Teutonic beatdown on the grid, same as Gardner and Fernandez did last year in Moto2. I fully believe Guevara is a future Alien and perhaps the most impressive of the impressive crop of young riders passing through the intermediate classes in the past 3-4 years. Young Izan should continue this trend, as it appears both he and teammate Garcia will graduate into Moto2 for 2023.

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Posted in Grand Prix of Aragon, Marc Marquez, Moto, Moto2, Moto3, MotoGP, Motorcycle Racing, Racing News | 13 Comments »

Rumors 5/8/2022–quick hitters

May 8, 2022

Motorsports.com reports that the Mir for Espargaro exchange is in the works.

https://www.motorcyclesports.net/articles/farewell-pol-espargaro-honda-opens-doors-for-joan-mir

Even better–Leopard Racing has made clear its intention to secure a two bike slot on the MotoGP grid, with Aprilia machinery, giving the world its much-desired Aprilia satellite team. This would fill the hole left by Suzuki’s departure at the end of the season. From motorsports.com.

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/sports/motorsports/leopard-racing-interested-in-replacing-suzuki-in-motogp/ar-AAWXhnc

At issue is HRC’s intention not to continue with the services of Pol Espargaro for 2023 and then create the conditions for a new rider to enter the team’s garage. The Spaniard is in his second season with Repsol Honda and, despite the improvement in his results compared to 2021, the truth is that the Catalan is still not impressing, with only two podiums and one pole position. 

Dubai Autodrome Racing bikes action as captured by KTdrones!

https://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/core/bridge3.513.0_en.html#goog_1557719161

00:00% Buffered

Espargaro, it should be remembered, signed for two years with a third option from Honda, but Gazzetta dello Sport reports this Friday that that clause will not be activated, leaving the rider free to choose his future in 2023.

At the same time, this situation opens the door to the entry of Joan Mir, a long time wish of Alberto Puig and who has already been in negotiations with the Japanese giant in the past. Mir was due to renew his contract with Suzuki, but an alleged decision by the manufacturer to pull out of MotoGP eliminated any chance of a renewal. However, now the window of opportunity has opened for the Mir/Honda marriage to finally move forward.

It should be remembered that Joan Mir is 24 years old and is one of the most hyped riders on the grid, much to the credit of the world titles won in 2020 in the premier class and in 2017 in Moto3, at the time riding a Honda.

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Posted in Aprilia, Grand Prix Motorcycle Racing, Honda, Joan Mir, Marc Marquez, Moto, Moto2, Moto3, MotoGP, Motorcycle Racing, Racing News | 8 Comments »

MotoGP 2022–The Grand Prix of Portugal, Round 5

April 25, 2022

Hello, MOrons. I’ve taken the offensive comment by Steve Day and moved it just below this one. Please rake a look and reply to his comment as appropriate. You guys are the best.

* * *

It’s now Saturday afternoon. All of the action from Friday and today is complete. As race day approaches, the weather is improving and the times are dropping. Friday was Crash Day for the Ducati contingent, as four of their six stalwarts ended up in the gravel. Marc Marquez set the pace on Friday in the wet, showing us again that he has a big pair. Alex Marquez and Luca Marini, of all people, passed from Q1 into Q2, leaving names like Martin, Bastianini, Rins and Bagnaia behind. Bagnaia was shaken, not stirred, by a big high side in Q1; it appeared he may have lost consciousness, and my guess is he will be declared unfit to race before the lights go out tomorrow.

Q2 was run in bright sunshine, the track almost completely dry. Plenty of yucks in the last few minutes. Alex Marquez, celebrating his 26th birthday, held pole with 4 minutes left in the session; he would end up in P7. In order, the pole sitter parade featured, Johann Zarco, then Quartararo for an instant, followed by Joan Mir, Zarco again, and Jack Miller. Pol Espargaro was left chewing asphalt with less than two minutes remaining; the yellow flag accompanying his off cost Quartararo, then Marquez, pole. Once the clock hit all zeroes, the fun really began, as Mir, then Aleix, then, finally, Zarco, put down fast laps, although none came close to challenging Bagnaia’s track record lap from last year.

Tomorrow’s race promises to be madness, with Zarco, Mir and Aleix on Row 1, Miller, Quartararo and Bezzecchi (?) on Row 2, the Marquez brothers and Luca Marini (??) on Row 3, and Pol Espargaro and the factory KTM boys on Row 4. Farther back in the pack and newsworthy are Jorge Martin (off the first row for the first time this year), series leader Bastianini in P18 (???) Lorenzo Savadori (what the hell is he doing here this week with both Aleix and Vinales running?) and Alex Rins, sucking canal water in P23. Perhaps Savadori is racing this weekend because the Aprilia team has been hoarding soft rears and had so many they decided to waste a dozen or so on the hapless Italian.

Despite the troubles they had on both Friday and Saturday, Team Ducati still placed four riders on the front three rows. Martin and Bastianini, both in the conversation for the title this year, will have their work cut out for them on Sunday. My Magic 8 Ball tells me to keep an eye on Joan Mir, #93 and Aleix, upon whom my money is riding for podium honors for Round

Sunday’s race saw Fabio Quartararo become the first two-time winner this season, having taken the lead from Joan Mir on Lap 4 and cruising to an easy 5.4 second victory over fellow countryman Johann Zarco, with Aprilia Boss Aleix Espargaro taking yet another podium in his happy season. The chase for the 2022 championship is tight as a tick after five rounds, Quartararo tied at the top with the suddenly formidable Alex Rins, who carved his way from P23 at the start to P4 at the end. Aleix sits pretty in P3, a mere 3 points separating him from the leaders, A suddenly mortal Enea Bastianini sits in P4, five points “in arrears”, as the Brits say, to Espargaro.

Buried in the footnotes to today’s race–

  • Pecco Bagnaia, who tried to break his collarbone on Saturday and came damned close, hanging tough on Sunday, starting from P25 and finishing in P8. He and Zarco were the sole bright lights for Team Ducati, Jorge Martin having crashed out around Lap 6 and Jack Miller, chasing a podium, sliding off the track on Lap 19 and collecting Mir in the process. Luca Marini did finish in the points, while Marco Bezzecchi, starting from P6, worked his way down to P15 at the finish.
  • Marc Marquez, starting from P9, got lost in the sauce early, worked his ass off all day, and just barely beat little brother Alex by 2/100ths at the flag for 10 points. What the hell is Alex Marquez doing fiddling around just behind the lead group(s)?
  • With Miller and Mir getting skittled late, everyone trailing them got promoted two spots. Marquez, who could have started on pole were it not for teammate Pol Espargaro bringing out the yellow flags in Q2, might as easily have finished in P8. He thumped his noggin on the asphalt again on Saturday, but his diplopia, which may be becoming chronic, did not appear.
  • The first 1-2 finish for French riders since the Earth cooled.
  • Miguel Oliveira, the Great Portuguese Hope, finished in P5 at his home crib, but his name was only called two or three times all day.
  • Fabio is starting to resemble former Yamaha pilot Maverick Vinales. He is dominant when running in clean air at the front, but unable to slice and dice his way through the field like Marquez, Rins and Bagnaia. Accordingly, I make him a long shot to take the 2022 title.
  • Valentino Rossi showed up at today’s race, the first time he has graced the paddock since his retirement at the end of last season.

Loyal readers of this column will notice a comment recently affixed (approved by me) to the post about Simon Crafar and Steve Day from last year, in which I cast some aspersion on both gentlemen. Simon, since then, has impressed me, especially when he is in the booth during practice sessions. But it’s Steve Day who took time out of his busy schedule yesterday to insult me and, by extension, the loyal readers who follow this column. This after getting tossed from the booth by Dorna or whoever. I expect you MOrons to respond to Mr. Day on my behalf, defending me from the slings and arrows, etc. Mentioning the fact that he resembles Flounder in Animal House would be helpful as well. If you choose to defend me, might as well do it below, rather than paging back through piles of gibberish. I hope Steve will see that he started a bit of a MotoGP shitstorm.

Next week Jerez. I attended the race there in 2010; it was one of those memorable Lorenzo moments.

Cheers.

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