Cycle News

CN III IN THE PADDOCK P112 BY MICHAEL SCOTT KING TAKES KING AT START OF NEW ERA N ever ignore the obvious. It's as foolish as counting your chickens before they have hatched. Bearing both of those things in mind, I think it is time to greet a new era of racing. It was the special factoryteam tests at the new Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Texas, that cut the ribbon. Until Austin, Marc Marquez had simply been astonishingly quick. His lap times were right up with the big guys, even as he was getting to grips with double the horsepower and quadrillion times the electronics he was used to in Moto2. Tests at CoTA were high-end only: two factory Hondas plus satellite rider Stefan Bradl, and two factory Yamahas: Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi. All were equal in that there was no prior circuit knowledge, and no data or settings. It was ground zero. And the kid with the choirboy looks whopped them all. Marquez was fastest from the get-go to the final sunset on day three. By then the Yamahas had gone home and teammate Dani Pedrosa had taken an early bath, complaining of a pain in the neck that had now become literal as well as figurative. We may have seen it coming, as Marquez elbowed and bullied his way to the front in 125s and Moto2 (he also rode faster than anyone else, but it was his tactics that earned him the nickname "Merciless," as well as several official sanctions). The scale of his early success in the premier class remains astonishing. Even among a parade of whizz-kids over the years, he appears to be exceptional. Remember when Rossi turned up in MotoGP? On a factory Honda, in his own independent team. He was 22, just, and already a two-time World Champion. He would win a race in his first topclass season, his first title next time. As with Marquez, we already knew Valentino's track record. Racing with glee and in those days plenty of aggression, he'd likewise cut a swathe through the junior classes. We already knew it was the start of something big. And it last- ed, or he lasted, as the giant of the sport for 13 years, even after he started getting beaten. Now he is about to be deposed. The king is dead. Long live the new king. Giants come and giants go. Likewise shooting stars, flaring up then fizzling out, for one reason or another. Like Kevin Magee; who arrived at speed and won a GP in his first season, only to run into unexpectedly strong undercurrents out there in the deep end, before a crash cut short his dwindling hopes. Marquez likewise might prove a shooting star. Or to be a shortlived phenomenon like Freddie Spencer, who also arrived and won immediately, aged just 21. He defeated fellow (but much older) maverick Kenny Roberts, who also won at his first attempt,

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