Those of you who are old enough to remember will recall a 1960’s show called, “Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-in” A pastiche of crazy comedy sketches linked together with stand-up routines by the hosts, the show had an absolute cult following in its day and can still be seen (I understand) on some syndicated networks. Apart from putting such phrases as “Sock it to me”, “Very Interesting – but stupid” and others into the lingua franca of the day, the show also featured a weekly award called “The Flying Fickle Finger of Fate” the trophy for the award shown above in the picture. The award was usually presented for some totally ridiculous reason (often politically-oriented) and the recipients never actually appeared to accept the award, for obvious reasons.
Well, last night’s MotoGp meeting from Assen could have seen this award presented to the winner of the main race who, without taking anything way from his brilliant win, benfitted greatly in terms of both race position and championship points by having his main competitor eliminated in a first corner incident that saw another rider use the side of his bike as his last braking marker in T1. So, like when the reverse was the case when the same rider was eliminated in similar circumstances last year at Jerez, he receives TFFFOF award for this weekend (along with a huge points boost)
Last night’s racing highlighted some other aspects that are worthy of comment. Firstly, the perpetrator of the above incident has been penalised for his accident (and that’s all it was, a racing accident) and will have to start next week’s GP from the rear of the grid. I mean, how stupid is that?
This penalty-prone mindset of the FIM is getting totally out of hand. Soon all races will be decided in the steward’s room rather than on the track. And, if the organisers were really serious about discouraging dangerous riding (and Bautista’s move was just stupid, there was certainly no malice intended) then they should have looked at the riding of Sandro Cortese in the Moto3 race. If ever there was a need for a rider to be sanctioned for dangerous riding, that was it, but it went (apparently) completely unnoticed and unreported by the Clerk of Course and the Chief Steward.
All in all, a champagne night of racing in all three categories with thrilling racing in the two lower categories whose results were only decided in the last corner (as is often the case in the Netherlands) and an intriguing MotoGp race that showed a depth of strategy that every race should have.
AND, what of the scrapping of the Rookie Rule? Well, what do you expect? It has cleared the decks for Marquez to go straight into the Repsol squad to replace Stoner. Give him one season and he will be the #1 rider in the team. It’s being reported that Pedrosa is being offered a contract for 2013 whose value is about a third of the one he presently enjoys. What did he expect? If he wants to be paid like a race winner, then he’d better start winning races and not just the START of them. Dani’s performance last night convinced me of that I have always said; Pedrosa is a great rider, but not a great RACER.
Speaking of which, I love hearing commentators put their foot in it (professional jealousy). Hearing them trying to boost the dismal performances of Ben Spies this year was a highlight of the MotoGp race. “Spies has traditionally gotten better as the race goes on.” was one of their gems. Oh, really? They must be watching different races to me. Spies currently lies in 10th place in the championship, ONE HUNDRED points behind the points leader after only 7 rounds. 7 starts, no podiums and on the same bike that the points leader is riding. Is it any wonder that the talk about him being swapped out for Dovizioso that was being spoken of behind peoples’ hands a few weeks ago is not being openly discussed on the TV broadcast?
That’s my rant for today, feel free to disagree if you wish, but I won’t take any notice….. (j/k)