Last night’s Austrian Motogp race promised to be a thriller and so it turned out to be. On a track that is fast, even by MotoGp standards, the riders raised the bar yet again when it came to spectacle, daring and skill. For the bulk of the race it was clear that Marc Marquez wasn’t really thinking about the championship; he was intent on erasing the memory of his narrow defeat at this track in 2017. However, his head kicked in late in the race when he realised that, while Honda have made significant advances in terms of bridging the power gap between themselves and Ducati, there was still a gap and trying to bridge that gap on the track last night was just not going to work. This year he had to give best to Lorenzo with Dovi having to pick up a disappointing 3rd on the day, but Marc leaves Austria with a more than healthy 59 point lead over Rossi and 70 points or so ahead of the Ducati duo. As a dedicated MotoGp fan it still stuns me to see the speed that these bikes do and the bravery of the riders who ride them.
On the subject of speed, it was good to see Ducati test rider, Michele Pirro, in the pit box last night, showing no apparent ill effects from his sickening get-off at Mugello earlier on in the year. As speeds go, it is probably fair to say that Michele’s accident was the fastest crash of a motorcycle where the rider survived. At the point just before it went horribly wrong, Michele was doing 356km/h (that’s 221mph in the old money). There used to be a list somewhere but I can’t find it now of the fastest survived motorcycle racing crashes. The four that I remember were American rider, Art Baumann who got off the Kawasaki at over 170mph and survived, drag racer, Russ Collins, who baled out of the Honda triple at Bowling Green, Kentucky at over 170mph and lived to tell the tale and Kiwi racer, Rick Perry who threw away the KR750 when the brakes failed after the last hump at Bathurst in 1979 doing well over that speed. The other was Barry Sheene’s sickening crash at Daytona while testing the new Dunlop tyres, again, at well over 170mph.
These four pale into insignificance when compared to the Pirro get-off and it says wonders for modern protective gear that he was able to survive with only relatively minor injuries (indeed, he checked himself out of hospital overnight and was back at the track on race day with his arm in a sling to support the dislocated shoulder)
If you have a strong stomach, here is Michele’s big “off”
And, still on subject of speed, I am over the moon to report that American racer, Danny Thompson last night became the driver of the fastest piston engined vehicle in the world, setting a new LSR for wheel-driven cars of 448.575mph at the Bonneville salt flats. In a car that was designed and built by his late father, hot rodding legend, Mickey Thompson over 40 years ago (though considerably updated of course), Danny’s trap speed at the last checkpoint was 450mph. I am so pleased for him and his team as I know a little of the struggle it has been to finally complete the job started by Mickey in 1960 (Mickey did a 405 in one direction but the car failed before a return run could be made.)
It certainly has been a “speedy” weekend.