News in this morning is that DORNA are making some changes to their staff. Ex-racer, Simon Crafar, who does the pit commentary for the MotoGp broadcasts, has been promoted to a position on the Race Direction team, replacing 3 times world champion, Freddie Spencer. He will take over as Chairman of the MotoGP Stewards Panel.
There are two immediately obvious implications to this decision. The first is that, by removing Spencer from the position on Race Direction, DORNA will gain themselves some extra credibility. Now you all know that I am the world’s biggest FFS tragic but, the fact is, that some of his decisions as a part of the RD team have been perplexing in the extreme and have led to Race Direction not being treated with the respect that they deserve. Crafar’s commentary on contentious issues that have arisen during racing has always been balanced and in keeping with what we have been seeing on the track. Having Crafar on the team will lend a degree of balance that has not always been there.
But the second implication is that DORNA are going to be faced with a difficult problem of how to replace Simon with someone who will have the same degree of credibility that he has brought to the job. Despite many people bagging him in his early days (and some still do) the fact is that he has been a tremendous addition to the on-air team. As a commentator who has also been a Grand Prix rider and who remains an active rider away from commentary, Simon’s skill set is legendary. I can live with him finishing every second sentence with “you know”, (something that I was hoping they’d get him out of the habit of) because his technical knowledge is without peer and his ability to convey that on-air is exceptional. Simon also has the immeasurable advantage that he knows everybody in the game AND has their respect. Nobody can get the sort of commentary from riders, team managers and technical staff that he can.
So, yes, he will be missed and his shoes will be very big ones to fill indeed.
On another subject, the 2025 grid is filling with Trackhouse racing confirming overnight that Raul Fernandez will be staying with the team. There aren’t many seats left now and it is looking increasingly like Jack Miller’s time in MotoGp will be coming to an end.
On another subject I had the chance to do a group ride up to the Oaks pub for lunch yesterday. Here’s the Relive video of the ride.
https://www.relive.cc/view/vdOREArG2Kv
