There is a lot to love about motorcycle racing whether you’re in it for the all-action wheel-to-wheel competition, the technological wizardry of the machinery or the riders with their characters as colourful as a B&Q paint aisle.
Whatever it is, if you come to motorcycle racing for any of these, then you stay for the show of inch-perfect precision and sublime skill of what a human can do with an aerodynamic rocket between their legs.
However, while the likes of Marc Marquez, who flings himself around on the Repsol Honda with the agility of the ant he’s likened himself to, or Valentino Rossi with its akimbo legs under braking deftly perform their acrobats at speed, some riders - like WorldSBK champion Toprak Razgatlioglu - don’t even need to be going fast to be flamboyant.
Indeed, while Razgatlioglu’s confidence on the anchors and no prisoners approach to overtaking is a marvel to watch, it is his now iconic signature ‘stoppies’ that hit the mark with fans, with videos of him unicycling his way to a stop going viral every time he does it.
He’s got it down to a fine art of course, but that doesn’t make watching them any less enjoyable… check out this clip of him during pre-season WorldSBK testing, flicking it up over an impressive 110 metres stretch at Portimao last week. You know, just to make sure there wasn’t any rust to dust off on his return to action.
While we’d encourage you to leave such a stunt to the professionals, you can actually now try this at home (albeit not on a motorcycle…) with the official WorldSBK Mobile Game, which has been updated with full riders, teams and circuits from the 2021 WorldSBK season.
Within it there is a chance to ‘stoppie’ in style… just try to avoid it mid-race, it’s not the quickest way to beat Jonathan Rea!
