I had a few people bugging me to make a post, so I’ve decided to acquiesce for a moment and indulge. I pretty much stopped posting due to a chronic health condition that I’ve mostly ignored for awhile, but is life-threatening if left untreated. Some things in life tend to put a lot of things in perspective, and as much as I love grand prix motorcycle racing, it’s not the most important thing to be focused on at times. That being said, Misano is as good of a race as any to drop in and leave some of my thoughts, for better or worse.
Mike Hailwood, Eddie Lawson, Wayne Rainey, and Kevin Schwantz.
Marc Marquez is simply an amalgam of the best qualities of those four men. He wins on everything; bike classes, tires, electronics, engines (inlines, V4’s, big bangs, screamers). He redefines the laws of physics by taking unwieldy and nearly unrideable [to world title] machines and rides them to titles. He uses his intelligence to put together a cohesive title campaign that does not look at races as separate entities, but views them as interwoven pieces that when fully assembled can result in a world championship being lifted at the end of the season. A lesson no doubt learned in the steep failure of the 2015 campaign. Along the way, he does it by simply being spectacular in every facet of riding. You cannot take your eyes off of him because you know every corner, ever lap, there is always the possibility he is going to do something so outrageous that you’re going to sit there dumbstruck, thinking, “Did he really just do that?” The near overtake he made on Dovizioso at the Red Bull Ring was as audacious as any of the brilliant overtakes we saw over the years out of Kevin Schwantz. There was a saying I heard once from a racer many years ago that always stuck with me where he told me, “Don’t fear risks, ride them.”
Dovizioso may very well win the championship this year, and if he does, kudos to him. But it’s not going to be because he did anything truly special. It’s going to be because he played defense the entire season. People here are taken with the romanticism involved with Ducati and the idea of Dovizioso becoming world champion because he is a nice and genuinely likeable guy. But really, if that is the standard for why someone deserves to be world champion, it’s time to take up another hobby/personal interest. Dovizioso’s title challenge is not a product of him suddenly learning how to challenge, it’s a product of nothing more than the performance-leveling tires. His first two wins of the season were notable for the races being about not being able to ride 10/10ths and to engage in tire management for the entire race. Remember the Brno when Marc didn’t have to worry about overheating the tires after he switched bikes? That is what he would do at every race if the tires weren’t designed with performance-leveling in mind. The Red Bull Ring win that everyone was probably gaga over, time for me to put a pin in that bubble. 2016, the circuit was a Ducati dragstrip that watched the Desmosedici out-horsepower every other bike on the grid. They were expected to do more of the same in 2017. Instead we watched Marc cut a massive Ducati advantage into mere tenths of a second. Everyone can oooooh and ahhhh over that defense at the final corner, but that misses the larger picture of Marquez and HRC coming up with a setup that didn’t allow Dovizioso to disappear off into the distance the way he had on the Honda the prior year. Sure he made a great calculation of what Marquez was going to do, and made the right adjustment to plan for it. I felt MM showed his hand too early with the overtakes in the double left-hander section earlier in the race as he had far more corner speed through that section than anyone else. Had he been able to make an overtake there instead of waiting for the final corner, he would have been in a greater position to win that race. Silverstone was what it was. If MM’s engine doesn’t blow, you would have gotten a titanic battle towards the end between Marc and Dovi. Marc was pacing Dovi that entire race before the engine decided to expire on him.
This is all extremely important because it set the stage for Misano perfectly. You could be forgiven for thinking Marc was much further behind in the points than he was given the breathy media stories, and the even breathier fan takes across the various media/social media platforms. Rather than rehash the race and all of that, I’ll just focus on a few things. Before the race started, I was thinking to myself that MM was overdue to give us a true full wet weather victory that would be something special to watch. I just didn’t know if this would be the race, or if it would have to wait for another time. The conditions were simply ghastly out there, and I’d put his ride up against Vale’s at Donington in 2005 quite easily because of the fact that MM is locked into a title battle, and had far more to lose should anything have gone wrong. MM made save after save in a way that could only be described as Lawson-esque. This picture perfectly sums up how fine the line between success and failure was Sunday.
Petrucci made some mistakes as well, but it shows the difference between the two riders in that Petrucci’s mistakes were enough to cost him the race ultimately as he made them all at the absolutely worst possible times. That is all it takes for MM to have a chance to capitalize on them. But what was really something was the corner exit Marquez had coming out of turn 16 before the start of the final lap. When he needed to get maximum drive out of the corner, he did just that. I have rewatched that corner exit a number of times, and still am amazed that he got better drive out of the corner than the Ducati did. That is no small feat given how great the Ducati is with accelerating out of corners. Sure Marc took a risk to win that race, but it was a calculated risk. Dovi made the decision to settle for third, which was the smart move. But I can’t help but wonder how this will play into the final five grands prix. I expect Dovizioso to do well at Motegi and Sepang, but if he finds himself in a situation where he must take risks, is he going to be willing to do so? He is not a rider who rides to risk, and I believe that is his ultimate weakness. Is he going to be willing to go that extra yard that we know Marquez will be willing to go? Possibly, but what you see with Dovi is what you get. At this stage of his career, you do not suddenly develop that killer instinct for being willing to take risk that Marc has had since day 1.
For those who were sorry to see Petrucci miss out on his maiden grand prix victory, to that I say, good, .... him. Don’t forget this is the guy who rode off the circuit to cede position to Rossi at Valencia ’15. And then he has the gall to talk about ceding position to Dovizioso as being bad for the sport? Please, you have no leg left to stand on to talk about what is good or bad for the sport after the Valencia ’15 move you made. It’s amusing how the clowns who didn’t want to get involved with a title battle then are more than willing to do so now, which tells you that there is no unwritten rule of getting involved in championship battles if you yourself are not a contender. It was fairytale horseshit that was thought up by Rossi and the rest of his sycophantic brigade. Capirossi’s buddies know all about getting mixed up in title battles that didn’t concern them. Petrucci doesn’t deserve to ever win a ....... race in his life in the GP class.
Misano also highlighted the need for Dorna to start preparing for life without Rossi. The sport is infinitely better when Rossi is not involved on the grid. When it becomes a full-time reality that he is no longer riding, it will be a beautiful day. Hopefully the grandstands will be devoid of the custard yellow when that day arrives. It’s a shame Dorna burned every single rider who beat Rossi because as I stated numerous times in the past, they have no real succession plan now. All the heirs to the throne can’t take the throne since Rossi threw all of them under the bus. Letting your commercial success be dictated by a 38 year old rider coming on retirement is as short-sighted as it gets. Marquez should be the face of GP now, and he’s not all because Rossi needed to blame someone else for his own gag reflexes down the stretch two years ago. I do suspect strongly Rossi will re-up for two more seasons next year if for no other reason than to give himself an even twenty seasons (2000-2020) in the premier class. Quite an accomplishment if nothing else, but will hopefully be dwarfed by Marquez stampeding all over every single record of his indefinitely.
As stated, Dovizioso winning the title may be attractive, but everyone should be hoping for Marquez to win because it means we are one step closer to him permanently erasing Rossi’s name from the number one spot in the record books. Misano was MM’s finest wet weather win ever. Aragon will be interesting if nothing else.
Be well everyone, will drop in where I can. Enjoy the upcoming races.
-JPS
