Cycle News

Cycle News 2017 Issue14 April 11

Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles

Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/809757

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P122 CN III IN THE PADDOCK BY MICHAEL SCOTT T here was a signal demon- stration of the truth about modern racing in the desert night at Qatar. No, not the sheer hubris of running a race in the desert, unnecessarily at night, in a coun- try where local interest runs at somewhere between zero and zilch, and that the big race came within an ace of cancelation. Nor Dorna's trousering of masses of Qatari cash. Well, all those things, too. But also a revealing side show. It was a product launch in the VIP area at the track—one of very few places in Qatar that one could get a glass of beer, which, to be frank, was the major factor in my own attendance. The new MotoGP version of an existing cash-back card did not itself quicken the interest. It began with a feel-good film, which felt hours long—youths surfing, girls shopping, women at the workout parlors, third- world mothers embracing ba- bies, all grinning maniacally. You know the sort of thing. Then we moved on to the meat of the occasion: The new DARKNESS, MONEY AND MISSING THE POINT OF RACING

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