MotoGP Phillip Island.

[BRG1200]

Wow, finally got to the recording without anyone blowing the result for me! Have to second everything said about the Island, great track, leading to a great race! Interesting to see how dominance of such a thing passes between countries, or as it is now, corporations. Hmmm, not sure if Dorna is good or bad but heartily sick of the spanish national anthem.

[ged]

Hmmm, not sure if Dorna is good or bad but heartily sick of the spanish national anthem.

Carmelo and his band off cronies have overseen a pretty serious decline in the quality of the sport (and the spectacle) over the past 15 years..... Australia was so very fortunate to have Barry Sheene as our expert TV commentator through much of the '90s and early noughties which was the era during which Dorna assumed control by snaring all the global television rights, and Baz warned us continually about what would happen. Which is pretty much how it has played out. Predominantly Spanish teams, Spanish sponsors, 3 or 4 Spanish rounds and Spaniards dominating the rider lists.

You've got to put the current situation into the context that the Spanish had never produced a 500cc World Champion until Alex Criville in ? 2000'ish.... So, 15 years ago they weren't even on the radar in terms of producing top 500 riders and yet these days dominate the top class and Dorna has to go promoting not ready youngsters, (like Jack Miller) from countries like Australia, so as to maintain some local audience interest.

I can't really (completely) blame Dorna for the replacement of the classic Grand Prix tracks with the boring, safety first tracks of the modern era, but they've certainly had a lot to do with it. The 4 Spanish circuits are all as boring as bat shit of course, and they have replaced rounds at tracks like Monza, Hockenheim, and even Suzuka. That said, the sport is safer than it's ever been and for that they should be congratulated.

If the replace Assen, I'll stop watching.

[BRG1200]

Yeah, I take your point, I was being polite.

[OzzyElsie]

I wouldn't be too critical or jealous of the Spanish success, they have worked for it and deserve it. And it has very little to do with commercial conspiracies.

Spain has a domestic regime of sport and development, races and schools, directly aimed at producing World Champion level road racers. I'm not sure of the detail but they start a road racing SERIES at about age 14 on 125 with even earlier development and racing. It is on-going, coordinated, focused and well supported.

(And now keep an eye on Italy - they have taken a leaf out of the Spanish book and are now producing results)

It is a hen and chicken style argument - they have the support of fans and sponsors because there is the success; they have the support of sponsors etc because there is the interest (audience/attendance). But there was a definite conscious orchestrated upturn in the activities starting more than 15 years ago.

What is probably more remarkable is the undeserved unstructured success Australia has had in the last 70 years - 'playing well above our weight'.

Australia has produced hard noised, focused, self contained Quiet Achievers for the last 70 years, car or bike racing, road race or speedway - Campbell, Bradham, Carthurers, Hansford, Willing, Gardner, Beatie, Doohan, Stoner, and now Miller. And many many lesser light separated more by opportunity than talent - Mal Campbell, Phillis, Van Muelan, Jordan, Mladin, McGee, The King of Slide Gary McCoy and those hard men of the '70's, Dennis Neil, Johnson, Dennison and so, so, many others.

Australia produces such hard nosed Quiet Achievers for two reasons 1/ few races and long distance to races. 2/ if you have ambition we have to travel o/s, if you travel o/s you are committed - break or break through.

With a few races and long distances and you turn up to race and it is a B grade day, with B grade equipment and you are feeling like shit, well you have got to get on with it. There's no good in whinging, parking the bike and doing it next w.e. 50 kays away.

At the moment it seems the participation in, the support of and the interest in racing (other than maybe Supercross) at all levels is going down. Where as in Spain it is the opposite (so get use to the Spanish anthem).

The Poms are somewhere between Spain and Australia and their result show it.

[ged]

Yeah, I would agree with most of that Ozzy but I'm not convinced that GP grids would be as dominated as they are across the classes by the Spanish if Donra didn't control the game. Superbikes don't share the same dominance for instance.

I don't begrudge the success of the current crop by any means. George (Jorje) would be a great rider in any era, but having assumed responsibility for the World Championship, Dorna have a duty to young riders from all nations to provide a path for the best to be able to rise to the top. Talent and ability are better reasons for elevation than just your nationality.

The situation in Australia seems to be pretty grave..... Virtually all of those guys mentioned above from the modern era, came up through 2 stroke proddie racing. All of them! That was the true feeder class of Aussie racing success and MA have somehow apparently let it die. Pretty lame stuff.

Interesting that you include Miller in that exalted company. Again, not knocking the kid. I always hope he goes well, but I'm not convinced yet that he rates.

Is that a copy of Don Cox's excellent "Australian Motorcycle Heros" that I can see on your bookshelf? You left Tom Phillis and Ken Cavanagh off the list too.

[OzzyElsie]

Again, I don't think there is a conspiracy as much as coincidence with Spain supporting GPs rather than the Supers. From my knowledge the Spanish riding population have never embraced R1's et al in the same way Australia, America and Germany. The Spanish and Italians have always been more orientated towards the 'pure racer' GPs - for whatever reason.

I can't explain the lack of interest in motorcycle racing in any of the disciplines. Those that do it seem to do at a high level with professionalism and intensity but the numbers are not there in any category. Small rider base, small event numbers, small sponsor interest all run together. The Golden Age of racing seemed to be feed from the grassroots up and that doesn't seem to be happening to the same extent as in the past, despite very race ready bikes on the market. MX'ers seem to sell but they are used for play racing and trail riding rather than race racing .

The other thing is the 250 proddies were feed from the junior dirt tracking - Corser, Mladin, McCoy, Jordan, Bayliss, VanMaulin, Stoner et al

The earlier generation, Dennison, Neil, Campbell, AJ et al went from street bikes to club racing on their street bikes, to 250 or unlimited proddies.

If you think Australia has issues look to America. They are similar to Oz but from a population 20 times greater they have not achieved what Oz has. Both in Oz and America there have been concerns expressed and some attempt to create a kindergarten but for nil result - which probably makes what the Spanish have done even more impressive.

(I don't need any stinking book - the names are from me head )

[hybrid]

Dirt track (flat track) seems to be making a little bit of a comeback lately. Lots of people seem to want to have a go - even wanting to get hold of a "slider".

I was always concerned about the switch to the Moto3 and Moto2 categories for the development classes. Particularly Moto3.

125's were relatively cheap to maintain and get decent performance out of. Can you imagine a small team in Australia able to run a Moto3 type 4stroke bike going?
What about the wildcard riders now?
They might jump off their 125 GP bike they've been riding in Aus, and then have to try and ride a Moto3 bike for a few days.

I can't see us being able to have anything like the same kind of development series that they can have in Spain/Italy.

I think that's why we rarely see mediocre Aussie riders in MotoGP. As Ozzy says, it's a long road for an Aussie, and only the best make it over there in the first place. You've got to be an exceptional talent for a Euro team to take you over a local.

[ged]

Yeah, considering how much change the sport has undergone over the last 10 years, I'm not sure that MA have managed it as well as they might to strategically position us for the future.

But, you can't really whinge too hard about volunteer organisations when you don't contribute anything other than criticism so I won't go too hard on them, but still it would be good to see some of those old competitors who've made their careers, reputation, businesses from the sport, contributing their expertise and helping to keep us in the game.