British opinion was divided at Jerez when first-time winner Bradley Smith mouthed the words to the national anthem on the 125 rostrum. Some republicans suffered immediate kneejerk apoplexy; one English photographer admitted that he’d nearly cried.
Extreme reactions that show how unused our once-dominant racing nation has become to success.
Smith’s win was a strong one, a runaway at such speed that his only pursuer crashed while trying to catch up. That was home GP pole qualifier Julian (pronounced “Hooligan” by Dorna’s Press attaché) Simon. So hats off to Bradders, who has in the course of 50 GPs grown up from squeaky-voiced carrot-top to become a national ambassador with a neat turn of phrase.
“I’ve waited a long time for this... but I’m glad I waited,” he quipped in an interview directly after the race.
We already know Scott Redding – last year’s first British 125 winner in 35 years – is a talent to watch, and that Kentish kid Danny Webb is knocking on the door of similar success, too.
What with poor James Toseland adrift on a Sargasso Sea of despondency, it means Donington’s more jingoistic trackside fans will be paying more attention to the tiddlers than the boomers at the British GP.
Which begs the question, which British GP? And will there even be a race to watch?
The word inside racing is that the big race will go ahead at Donington Park as planned on July 26. No matter how unlikely that seems right now. Which is to say: very unlikely.
On the one side is the position of circuit leaseholders Donington Ventures Leisure Ltd, run by controversial Simon Gillett, whose £147million facelift plans and acquisition of the British car Grand Prix always did appear a little too grandiose to be realised.
Now Gillett has major problems with the council over licensing issues. And a £2.5-million lawsuit against him for unpaid rent from Donington owner Tom Wheatcroft. Plus rumoured disputes with the constructors currently ripping the place to pieces.
On the other side is the state of the track in the hands of said constructors. A new tunnel and other works have robbed Coppice and other crucial corners of the run-off required for racing. A recent car event was run with yellow flags held up for more than half the circuit. The bulldozer boys have promised to get it all chipper again by the end of May for the British Superbike round there. But if they’re not getting paid, they’re not going to do it, are they?
Since Rossi is going there anyway, perhaps they should move the whole British GP to the Isle of Man. How retro.
I don’t want to overstate the case, but the new Moto2 rules and the Honda contract to supply the engines means nothing less than the End of Racing As We Know It. Moto2 is the 250 class replacement. It has been rushed into existence for next year (what happened to the “two year’s
warning” rule for technical changes?) via a moving target of regulations.
They settled in a rush on a single engine, and equally quickly on Honda as the supplier – Yamaha had not offered enough horsepower, figuratively as well as literally.
Norton also made a bid, offering their rotary, which would at least have been something different from the one-size-fits-all, slightly hopped-up CBR600RR.
One innovation has been overlooked in the excitement (for it will doubtless be a class of very good racing): this is the first serious world championship in any class with a single-engine rule, on two or four wheels. Which means one of two things. Either it will rapidly become a not-very-serious world championship or, more likely, MotoGP will head the same way; one 1000cc production-based engine, control electronics and single tyres, slight differences in chassis. And elbow-bumping racing in which the show and the spectacle are everything, and the bike merely an inconvenient mechanical appendage. There will be about as much technical interest as there is in the specifications of a cup final football. Talk about taking the “motorcycle” out of motorcycle sport.
Never mind. Things can come back from the dead. Look at Marco Melandri, and his Hayate Kawasaki. Bereft of factory support, on a motorbike that will not be further developed, last year’s big-time Ducati loser has been wheeling the ZX-RR to some fast times and a couple of seriously hard-fought top-six finishes.
Considering that when it was painted green the bike could barely come last, and that when he wore red Melandri would be battling with the Kawasakis for that dishonour, it’s pretty amazing.
