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