Rider of the Year: #43 Jack Miller
Photo Credit:
MotoGP.com
LMMRLLR
No, that's not some strange WWII era military code. And it's not morse. And it's not the result of me drunkenly smashing my head into the keyboard. It's actually a pattern, and if you can't recognize it then all we have to do is flip it vertically.
Lorenzo
Marquez
Marquez
Rossi
Lorenzo
Lorenzo
Rossi
That, ladies and gentlemen, is the list of race winners for the first 7 races of 2016. In fact, it might as well have been FFFFFFF, with F for Factory.
Some may have been caught unawares by any one particular rider's victory at a particular venue - was anyone really surprised that Marquez won on the American continent? Really? - but that can be strained at times. Ultimately, if you were seriously talking about race predictions then you were talking about three groups - the elite 4 with the absolute highest chance (some would say - correctly - the only chance) to win, the "in with a shot" 2nd tier factories (lookin' at you Ducati) and then everybody else. Call it what you will, but if you started watching MotoGP in the past decade you were raised to accept one incontrovertible fact: only the factory bikes win.
"What about wet weather? It's the great equalizer!"
Doesn't matter. Only factory bikes win.
"Well there's always mixed conditions. There's a chance for good strategy there."
Doesn't matter. Only factory bikes win.
"Maybe in the odd dry race then? You never know...."
Are you "touched in the head" or something? Read my lips: no new taxes. Oh, and only factory bikes win! Now shut up and go make me a sammich.
It was a cold, cold world out there for the 80% of the field who can't get a factory ride, as they fought for scraps. For anyone not flying the Repsol / Movistary / (not)Marlboro flag, the best that they could hope for is that one of the factory boys would clear off into the distance so that the camera crew would go hunting a little further afield for some action.
Then, in round 8 of the 2016 championship, under the torrential downpour in Assen that would claim more than one rider, Jack Miller turned that all on its head. He did something that just about everyone associated with MotoGP said, and probably believed, couldn't be done. He won on a satellite machine.
I could make the case that Miller deserves this award for winning, but he doesn't. Other have done that (see: the pattern mentioned above, first and second runner up, Dovi, Iannone, etc). I could make the case that he should be it because he won on a not-Repstar Yamonda bike, but then Call, Dovi, Iannone, Maverick.... Non-factory win? Cal! Which leaves a bit of a quandary. Why does Miller, who finished a lowly 18th in the championship after 18 rounds, deserve rider of the year? Taking a page from another poster's book, I'll say it boils down to this:
Performance under pressure.
To understand the magnitude of what Miller faced all through the race, you have to appreciate the deck stacked against him. He wasn't on the factory team (see all winners this year, last year, year before that, and before... you get the picture, except one), and he had no "factory ride" in a support team (and now that includes the one outlier). He had no big sponsorship, forget having all of the goodies and electronics. He didn't even have "new entry" concessions working for him like the Aprilia, Suzuki and KTM teams. With the weather gods weeping in anguish, all he had was his generations old RCV, his wits and the general lack of self preservation that would allow anyone to ride (and ride fast) in those conditions.
That moment, Round 8 in Assen of the 2016 MotoGP world championship, was Miller's once in a lifetime moment. And riders do not do very well in those conditions.
Take your pick of rider, with the pressure mounting, and you can see them fold. Rossi, in his one real chance for a win with Ducati. Marquez with the championship almost ready to be wrapped up and then scoring multiple DNFs. And on and on. The difference is that these riders always have the fallback of their factory steeds. They have a very good chance of recovering from those errors. With the laps counting down and Marquez - the child phenom and one of the greatest riders on track today - hounding him, it was a do or die moment for Miller.
He could easily have folded under the pressure, and there is no doubt that it had to be immense. There cannot be anyone more aware of how rare a win like his was that the riders themselves. Then possibly the only win that his might might have in their tenure at the class. Then, did we mention that multi-champion and record holder Marc Marquez was in #2 and closing? Many other riders would have pushed just that little bit too much in an ill-fated attempt to solidify their position... and regretted it.
Miller didn't. He just kept on keeping on, controlling the pace masterfully, and came up with the first non-factory win since 2006. And he did it as a true non-factory bike - no factory techs lurking in the garage, no factory spec bike but with support colors. Just a satellite rider on a satellite bike taking the victory.
So, for showing us that it can still be done, for riding past the odds and not folding like a used napkin on 25 cent hot wings night, for taking a win before even Ducati could, Jack Miller gets rider of the year.
