photo by my good friend, John Stanley
The racing season may be over but you can trust the personalities and companies involved in the sport to keep it before the public eye with all sorts of publicity, press releases and speculation. So, here’s some of it.
1. Maverick Vinales signs for LaGlisse. Someone must have a fair bit of money around the Vinales neck of the woods. Having signed a 2 year contract with his current Bluesens team, MV25 spat the dummy at Sepang a few weeks ago and said that he was leaving because the team couldn’t supply him with a competitive bike. Now, I was a bit disappointed with this, especially since he was running 2nd in the title chase at the time and had a mathematical chance at least of still winning the title. I was also a little nonplussed that he could blame the team when several unforced errors (Indianapolis, for one) had contributed to his perilous state and these had nothing to do with deficiencies of the bike or the team. MV25 snuck back at PI with his tail between his legs and rode out the season for the team after issuing a detailed apology to all concerned, as was fitting.
Of course, as Gilbert and Sullivan said in HMS Pinafore, “Things are seldom what they seem. Skim milk masquerades as cream…” well, you get the idea. In terms of his criticism of the bike, Vinales WAS correct that the Honda-engined bike HAS been noticeably slower than the class-leading KTM-powered machines. Indeed, it was only his super riding that kept him in the hunt most of the time. But most of us suspected at the time, and it has now been confirmed, that his departure had a great deal more to do with trying to leverage himself out of his contract for 2013-2014 than anything else and so it has proven to be. In order to win a world championship, Vinales has reckoned that you have to be on a KTM. And that is what has happened. Word out yesterday that Vinales has left Bluesens and signed with the LaGlisse team on, guess what? A KTM. Actual terms have not been announced, nor will they be, (rumours of 500000 Euros are floating around) but you can bet that MV25 and his handlers/sponsors have paid through he nose to get him out of the contract so he can change teams. The good news for him, though is that, in a private test at Almeria race track on Tuesday, Vinales smashed the existing lap record on his first time on the new bike.
In an interesting twist to the story (isn’t there always one?) it seems that MV25’s team-mate at LaGlisse next year will be a 15 year old GIRL racer, Ana Carrasco about whom I know precisely nothing. As always, watch this space.
2. Bye-bye Filippo. Speculation has been rife for some weeks that Ducati’s MotoGp boss, Filippo Preziosi was going to be made the scapegoat for Ducati’s abject MotoGp performance since the departure of Casey Stoner at the end of 2010 and it has been confirmed. Filippo is out, “moved sideways” I believe is the correct terminology, his place to be taken by German heavyweight (Ducati is owned by Audi, remember?) Bernhard Gobmeier. Now the Ducatisti are foaming at the mouth about this, of course, citing all manner of reasons why THEIR Italian candidate should be replaced by, of all things, a German. And they do have a point, although, since Audi is paying the bills, I guess they have the right to chose the staff. HOWEVER, a closer look reveals a perplexing anomaly. The said Herr Gobmeier is the very same person who has presided over BMW’s singularly underwhelming WSBK campaign for the last three years. Changing cabins on the “Titanic”? Time will tell, I suppose.
3. “Do something to earn your keep” This weekend, at Motegi in Japan, MotoGp star, Dani Pedrosa and MotoGp star-in-the-making, Marc Marquez will have the opportunity of repaying some of HRC’s faith in them as the faithful gather for the traditional “Honda Racing Thanks Day” The event will celebrate Honda’s 12 MotoGp victories this season as well as its winning of the Constructor’s Championship (the only one that REALLY matters or has EVER mattered for Honda). Also taking part in the event will be Hiroshi Aoyama, Takaaki Nakagami, Yuki Takahashi, Kousuke Akiyoshi Takumi Takahashi, Tatsuya Yamaguchi, and also former Honda riders Shinichi Itoh, Shinya Nakano and Tadayuki Okada. (I cut and pasted that last little bit so that I didn’t mis-spell all those Japanese names) 🙂
4. Testing, testing. Honda will be testing at Sepang from the 26th-28th November (next week) and are hopeful that better weather will allow MM93 more dry weather track time. Dani Pedrosa will not be in attendance. The next official test is at the same circuit in late February as everybody gears up for the 2013 season.
5. Bradl operation. Rookie of the Year, Stephan Bradl, will enter hospital this week for an operation for compartment syndrome (arm pump). It is hoped that this will allow him plenty of time for recuperation before testing begins in February (see above)
6. Working, working. Three days work this week for me, and I’m knackered. Let there be no misunderstanding about it, teaching may not be a highly demanding game from a physical point of view (though it gives my bung leg a workout) but it certainly drains you in other ways. Still, by carefully choosing my schools, at least I get to work with nice children and supportive staff.
7. Freebies are always good. I rarely win anything; I think I mentioned before that, if I bought all the tickets in a lottery, they’d still find a way of making sure I didn’t win. Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised when I won a competition last week, a 3-day double pass to the Tasman Revival Meeting at Eastern Creek Raceway this weekend. I remember the Tasman Cup races of the 60’s and 70’s well. Overseas Formula One drivers would forsake the northern winter and bring cars down here and race them against the locals. Three races (including the NZ Grand Prix) in New Zealand and three races here (including the Australian Grand Prix). They were great fun and they gave us plebs the opportunity to see the greatest drivers of the era, close up and personal (remember, there was no telecast of F1 races back then). Clark, Hill, Stewart, Brabham, Rindt, Amon, the list of overseas luminaries was endless. Add to that the Aussie/NZ lineup of Mildren, Gardner, Bartlett, Stewart, Brown, Matich and the great tracks of Warwick Farm, Lakeside and Longford and you had a recipe for weeks of entertainment. Now the Revival meeting brings back the cars and many of the personalities and allows old fogies like me to relive the glory days. Unfortunately, I can only go on Friday and Sunday as I have the NSW Wingless Sprintcar title meeting at Nowra Speedway on the Saturday and I have to work there. It’s going to be a great weekend.
I hope yours is just as good, if not better.
jeffb says
Thanks again for the updates , Phil. Love your write-ups. Don’t know if my weekend (riding with IR Snowy trip) will be better than yours but it will be great nonetheless. Looks like you lucked in with your tickets to SMP. Enjoy – still, would have loved to see you joining us on the ride. Jeff
Phil Hall says
Believe me, mate, SMP is 2nd prize compared to the Snowy run. Next year I’ll be fit enough. Enjoy the ride, mate, I know you will.