Last weekend local television gave us a peek behind the scenes on the life and career of five-time world champion, Mick Doohan. You can make up your own mind about the merits or otherwise of the interview by looking for a link on the internet. It’s apparently not setup so that it can be copied into a blog. . Personally I found it to be very “plastic”, typical of our media’s inability to even begin to grasp what motorcycling is about. It embodied all the boring cliches and effects that only mainstream media can muster and, in the process, far from being an uplifting experience, it was depressing. It was cheap, tawdry and tacky, a disgraceful piece of so-called journalism. It demeaned Mick and all that he has done and stood for, reducing him to a flashy reality TV caricature. It was like the Kardashians meet motorcycles.
Mick has undoubtedly used his position and his success to ensure that he has a ridiculously comfortable lifestyle for the rest of his life and good on him for doing so. But against that, at the other end of the spectrum, if you wish, what about the average racer, what does he/she do when their racing career comes to an end?
The other week on Facebook there was a posting from a very well-known Aussie racer whose career has been one that I have been following. In it he very honestly and openly revealed that, now that he had stopped racing, he didn’t have anything on which to fall back where he could earn a living and get on with his life. He admitted that racing had been his all-consuming passion for the last ten years or more and that, with multiple injuries taking a toll of his body and with younger riders moving in to the sport, his ability to earn a living doing what he loves best is now no longer there.
So, what was he to do? A tradesman by profession before he went racing he admitted that the avenue was closed to him because the demands that his job would place on his battered body would mean that he would not be able to go back to it. Many expressed sympathy and made what they thought were helpful suggestions, but no real resolution emerged from the discussion. It was a very confronting discussion and I felt tremendous sympathy.
I sincerely hope that this personable and accomplished rider finds a career path that will enable him to be satisfied and fulfilled in the years to come, but you can see where this is heading, can’t you?
What DOES a retired road racer do with their life when they finally hang up the helmet?
Firstly, it must be said that, unless you scale the heights of a Mick Doohan,a Wayne Gardner or a Casey Stoner, you are not going to be able to afford a palatial house on the Gold Coast and a helicopter in the garage. In these days of “pay to ride” (see my previous article) the average rider makes little or no money which can be used as a nest egg when they retire. In most cases, the racer retires from the sport poorer than he was when he entered it.
Secondly, it must be said that, with riders starting out in the sport at an increasingly young age, the concept of returning to your trade or profession once your racing days are over is also a thing of the past. Most modern riders don’t have one.
Thirdly, what sort of a profession could possibly be a substitute for racing or provide the buzz and excitement that it does? Where else in everyday life can the skill set of a motorcycle racer be applicable?
All of these and other questions remain unanswered for the moment.
There was a time that a retired racer would find a valuable niche working in a motorcycle dealership, wrenching, providing advice to customers and being a banner employee for the dealership. But, with riders spending next to no time actually working on their bikes themselves and with the increasing intrusion of electronics in the tuning process, a lot of riders don’t have the skill set necessary to fill in a position like this anyway. Some ex-racers turned to other “thrill-seeking” avenues, like flying (which takes a lot of money) or other forms of racing where it doesn’t hurt so much if you get it wrong, like speedboats for example. But, in the end, this is really only shifting the deck chairs on the Titanic because, with our average life span getting longer and longer, doing something like this until you are 40, for example, still leaves you another 25 or so years to do something before you can apply for a pension.
Others have suggested positions where the riders’ skill sets can have an application, advanced riding academies, training facilities and so forth. Again, this is a good idea. It hardly provides the buzz of racing but it keeps you around the bikes and enables the rider to pass on valuable tips and experience. But how many of these businesses need staff and how much staff do they need? It is possibly a case of over-supply and limited demand. In any event, many riders who are very good at what they do struggle to pass their skills on because their focus has been on racing not on analysing what they do and thinking about how they could pass those skills on in a cogent and understandable way. The other “hitch” here is that the racer’s specific experience has been in going very fast and very hard, not a situation that the majority of riders who turn up for rider training really need.
Please understand that I am not sure myself what the answer is to this dilemma; I am merely pointing out an issue that is becoming a thorny one.
There is, however, a light at the end of the tunnel. In the same way as we wouldn’t send a child out into the workforce without an education and a training for what they are likely to encounter, the days of riders making their way into the sport without some thorough preparation are disappearing rapidly. Thankfully. Organisations like the MRRDA are making it their business to train the next generation of road racers (and I must add that the same issues that affect road racers affect lots of other sports too) in not just road racing but all the aspects surrounding it. Indeed, Paul Edwards and his crew like to look on what they are doing as LIFE training. They acknowledge right from the outset that, training a child to become a road racer is only training them for a very limited time span compared to how long their whole life is going to be. Life training, therefore, embraces a great deal more than gearing, braking markers and sponsorship. While the specifics of racing are thoroughly and assiduously taught, at the same time the kids are given training in media, how to conduct yourself at an interview (surely there is a life skill that has application way beyond racing), personal grooming and preparation, approaching tasks methodically and carefully, planning and a myriad of other skills that are primarily applied to racing but which have a much broader application in life in general.
The end result of this process will be not only an accomplished RACER but an accomplished PERSON. And, if the skills learnt are then taken and applied in other areas, such as job seeking, management and public relations, to name just a few areas, then the rider is going to find that what they thought was a very specific set of disciplines and skills, was, in fact, a wide-ranging acquisition of life skills that will remain with them for the rest of their life.
As the shampoo ad used to say, “It won’t happen overnight, but it will happen.”
There IS life after racing but you have to start planning for it at least WHILE you are racing, but preferably even BEFORE.
James Boelens says
Great article Phil! Unfortunately, so true for 98% of even successful riders.
Doohan, Gardner, Stoner and others were fortunate enough to do their thing in an era where salaries were getting very large.
Remember 1982 when Lucchineli was paid the outrageous sum of 1 Million USD to sign with Honda for 2 years? I guess Rossi would not even get out of bed for that…..
I personally know Laurent Naveau, once rumored to become Doohan’s teammate. His career ended some 13 years ago, and he is still paying of debts from his GP time.
I happen to know a couple of former GP riders, and all of them are, and were back then , struggling financially.
If you struggle for money during your career, chances are, it’s not going to get better when that career ends…
On top of that, as you describe in your article, they have a very limited, if any at all, professional skill set.
The clever ones never gave up their daytime jobs. If their employer allowed to go racing at all. Which is another problem.
Most bosses don’t want their employees doing dangerous sports, increasing the chances they will be injured on Monday when work starts again. Can you blame them?
Phil Hall says
Very valid points, mate. As I said in the article, I don’t know what the answer is, but the situation isn’t going to improve by itself, that is for sure. I know for a fact that Ray Quincey was never paid a cent by the Italian team with whom he had a contract to race back in the late 70’s. Not only that, but, when he was made a paraplegic in an accident while racing for them, they never contributed a cent towards his medical bills either.