I am SO ticked off with OneHD. This is the second week in a row that their own online programming guide has shown the wrong times for the MotoGP telecast. Last night I missed the 125’s altogether and would have missed it ALL except for the fact that I checked the MotoGP web site just to make sure. The Moto2’s were just gridding up. Lesson. Don’t trust OneHD’s TV guide, check with the MotoGP web site to be sure. Grrr.
Anyway, to much more weighty matters. During the MotoGP telecast last night, unfortunately I missed some of the interview with DORNA CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta. But I DID hear the part that mattered most. Asked about whether the grid sizes would improve under the new arrangements for 2012, Ezpeleta said they would. He said that they are aiming at 22 bikes, and maybe, in the long run, 24. He said it didn’t need to be any more than that.
And then he let the genie out of the bottle. “It’s all about the show,” he said. He went on to say that the technological advances that racing had brought were all well and good, but it was just too expensive now. In effect, the time for them had passed.
Note this emphasis well, peoples. Here we have the boss of the sport admitting that the governing body’s emphasis has changed from it being a SPORT to being an ENTERTAINMENT. The RACING is no longer important, what IS important is putting on a good show. Developing clever technology no longer matters; it’s too expensive. Putting on a good show for the TV cameras and their networks that bring in squillions of dollars to DORNA’s coffers is what matters now.
Now, if this is so, and it must be because the boss said so, then we can look at a rapid degradation in the value of the technology and a rapid increase in the level of CONTROL over the bikes and peripheries so that the racing can be made artificially close and “the show” looks good on the box.
After watching his interview last night, it suddenly made sense to me why Moto2 was created. Yes, the 250’s had pretty much reached the end of the road, but they were technologically clever, albeit expensive. Moto2, the “lock down” formula, the “control everything” formula is much MORE than a replacement for 250, it is a PROTOTYPE for what DORNA intends MotoGP to become.
Mark my words, within 3 years, MotoGP will be a “control” formula just like Moto2. There will be no technological thrust; it will all be about “parity” and keeping the field close togather so that it looks good on the tube.
In 2009, Roger Edmondson, the President of DMG, the group to whom the AMA handed over complete control of road racing in America, let slip in a news conference these exact same words, “It’s all about the show.” At least HE had the courage to correct himself in case anyone would think that DMG wasn’t really interested in the RACING.
Of course, it is history now that, in order to improve “the show”, DMG presided over the effective death of manufacturer-supported road racing in the United States. Ezpeleta is heading down the same path.
I cannot even begint to tell you how angry I am about this. You read it here first.
I’m including this picture of Vito Ipolito (l), President of the FIM and Carmelo Ezpeleta (r), CEO of DORNA. You might like to blow it up bigger, paste it onto your toilet door and use it for darts practice.
As for the race itself, it is a pity that Senor Lorenzo’s massive ego has still not diminished enough for him to start “racing like Rossi”, something he has said he knows he needs to do. Sure, he was always going to win, but why not make the race interesting, like Rossi does?
