What a disaster at Assen. At the World Superbike race, where British riders dominated. Both rostrums were filled with regional accents and true blue bulldogs: Rea, Toseland, Camier on the first one; Rea, Haslam and Toseland on the second. Wow.
It happened the same weekend of the Japanese GP at Motegi. Actually, the Japanese un-GP. The feisty little 800 prototypes were ready and waiting. The riders were earthbound in Europe, by a cloud of deadly volcanic ash that, it later transpired, was largely imaginary.
Even if the race had gone ahead, it would only have been the second round. The Supers (and F1) were by now up to the fourth, with some good stuff already in the history books. Making MotoGP look rather effete, with its restricted six days of testing, and lots of days at home before the desert gem at Qatar.
That, like several of the preceding Superbike rounds, was a damn good race ... once Stoner had fallen off out of a massively dominant lead. But it was precious little to keep the fans satisfied, having already starved for almost six months.
Then the disaster of Motegi, and the catastrophe at Assen.
A catastrophe for the successful riders, for British bike racing as a whole. And for MotoGP.
For the riders, along with their old muckers back in British Superbikes, it will entrench them deeper in a second-string series, from which it is historically difficult to escape successfully.
For MotoGP, it means that British bike fans will desert the grand prix series in droves. The GP moves to Silverstone at the end of June this year; the Superbike round is at the same track some six weeks later. Any betting which will get by far the biggest crowd?
This is a repeat of the Foggy years, when GP racing all but died in Britain, while the air-horns blared for the Lancastrian hard man who dominated Superbikes with grim fury.
Disastrous? That’s how you have to read it, if you believe that MotoGP is the pinnacle of bike racing.
And surely it still is? The riders think so, pretty much to a man. And watching Toseland fight his way to a pair of great rostrums when he could finish no higher than sixth last year in MotoGP and usually much lower, you’d have to think that Rossi, Stoner and Co would be kicking some butt there.
At the same time, Dorna is planning to bring in rev-limited 1000cc engines, and even production-based engines for privateers. Dumbing down, to save money and build up grid numbers from the present minimalist 17. This further reduces the distance between the two series.
By starting late, and then getting caught out by circumstances, MotoGP has been caught on the back foot in general, and suffered a giant blow to its prestige in Britain, compared with SBK. And this time round, when the question comes up as to which of the two series is senior, the answer is a little less obvious than in the Foggy years.
Stoner showed us everything in Qatar – including his down side. Literally so. Having pinned his rivals to the wall like so many prize butterflies in testing and practice, he forced his way into the lead starting the second lap of the opening round, and just scorched away into the far distance.
And then fell down.
The naysayers were not surprised, at least in retrospect (they never are). It wasn’t that long ago, in his first MotoGP season of 2006, he was nicknamed Rolling Stoner; and he has several times shown himself fragile under pressure. After a pretty flawless title win in 2007, he crashed out of consecutive races the next year while battling Rossi, after running off the track at Laguna.
Along with his headlong warm-up-lap tumble at Valencia last year, some think this gives them the right to question his overall strength.
I think they’re right to. I believe the year ahead will see Stoner build up his score in race-winning 25-point chunks, with the potential for zero-score crashes ever present. Rossi will rack up consistent second and third places in between times. And by precedent, consistency will win in the end.
It should be quite a struggle. And I’m getting quite excited just thinking about it. Carry on like this, and MotoGP will be almost as good as World Superbikes!
