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/128391
By IN I'HE PADDOCK MICHAEL SCOTT There's No Stopping Them T here's a grand tradition in motorcycle racing of riders who try too hard, for whatever reason. In some cases, it's an excess of determination over natural talent. I'd be wary of putting Wayne Gardner in this category, but you know what I mean. Kevin Schwantz was another. He did so out of natural inclination, and also because his Suzuki tended to be the poor relation, technically, among the Hondas and Yamahas of his 500cc two-stroke rivals. He rode the wheels off the thing, because a two-stroke gave you that latitude, and because he had to. And in the end, he didn't know any other way. You might think also of Mick Doohan, who bristled when accused of trying too hard when he had his terminal crash at Jerez. The fact remains. It was only a practice session. There's plenty bf the same spirit on the tracks right now. It almost goes without saying in the 250cc classes - step forward Randy de Puniet? Alex de Angelis? Jorge Lorenzo? Which is why the collected Danny Pedrosa looks so good. Somehow it's scarier and more serious when it moves up to the big class. It was the sight of John Hopkins on the grid at Germany that triggered those same old thoughts. Poor guy looked distinctly dingy as the cameras zoomed in. Two days before, he'd paid the price of his Bridgestone's wavering sidegrip, with a hard, fast and heavy highside crash on the "waterfall" downhill section of the Sachsenring. Bravely, he was back to race, but his eyes were far away. He looked high on painkillers. There was a frisson of fear. With a fractured foot and a chipped tooth, and well beat up pretty much everywhere in between, you had to wonder just why he was out there. We've been watching Hopkins override the Suzuki for a couple of years more than a year now, and my fears for his safety had redoubled ever since watching him fall victim again at Estoril to his truly epic angles of lean. It was in qualifying, where his attack was at its most blatant. His Suzuki is slower than the other bikes - though not quite so badly as last year. More crUcially it lacks midrange grunt for those assured corner exits. The rider has to make up for it by running a higher corner speed - high-risk strategy, especially at any point when the tires are no longer all new and hunky-dory. Hopkins has two options of how to respond. The first would be to follow the example of teammate Kenny Roberts Jr., the last person to win a title on a Suzuki. Roberts runs fast laps now and then when conditions and tires suit the bike, is ready to pick cherries when the weather's really bad (as in China and Britain), but declines to take excessive risks trying to force the bike to unnatural levels of performance (like being competitive) for the rest of the time. Roberts is a very rational racer, and eschewing big risks for small gains is nothing if not logical. It doesn't excite much admiration among the fans, mind you. The second would be to just keep going at it like a bull in a china shop, refusing to slow down just because the bike can't keep up with him, accepting the extra risks as part and parcel of the contract. Hopkins is a charger of the old style. Naturally, he chose the second option. So there he was on the grid, full of painkillers, his left foot not only numbed with Dr. Costa's Special Brew but also stiffened with bandages. His gearshift foot, by the way. Off they go. Hopkins has said he'll only go for some points, but he's charging like usual in the early laps. One problem is that left foot - he can't feel it. So, he can't feel when he nudges the gearlever down from third to second, in the middle of a corner. He 'certainly felt the subsequent slamming highside, which beat him up all over again, and this time smashed the foot even worse. Hopkins is pure. racer. His major reaction to the whole affair will be to thank the fates it happened before the summer break. He has a chance to regain strength, to come back and ride the wheels of that Suzuki again for the next round. We outside observers now have two possible responses. One is to admire the courage of the rider in the same way that we wonder at the motivation of his teammate - or his spiri- tual predecessor Luca Cadalora, another title winner who was prepared to pull in and go home if things weren't running to his satisfaction. The other is to wonder why he was allowed to get to the grid, when the facts showed he was in no fit condition to race. You can't blame Hopkins for wanting to race. It's what he knows how to do. It's his reason for living. You might question the wisdom of his team for letting him go out in that condition. The risk they took is plainly obvious with hindsight, and surely they have some duty of care. Because the risk endangered other riders as well as their own. But let's understand them as well - they too are in the end afflicted with the racing disease. So who is to stop him? Nobody down at Dr. Costa's clinic, that's for sure. Costa's Clinic does exactly what it says on the box and gives the racers exactly what they want: scary miracle-fix treatment that gets them back out against the stopwatches just as soon as possible. Several times we have seen that this was too soon sometimes because of long-term problems with injuries that did not heal correctly at the time, ala Schwantz; sometimes because the rider crashes again. But to be fair, Costa is only doing what Costa does - there's no pretence at anything else. And, quite clearly, nobody in race control will help. Not the race director. Nor the official medical representative. He once told me, asked what was his criterion for allow- ing injured riders back out onto the track, that he was much guided by what the rider himself said, since they were professionals and able to make the best judgement. (Since some of these hardened professionals in the I25cc class are but 15 years old, you might think their mothers would prefer the doctor to fill the role of being professional and making the best judgement.) It's clear in retrospect that somebody should have stopped John Hopkins from racing at the Sachsenring. It's also clear that the machinery to do so simply doesn't exist. This is an ugly and potentially disastrous weakness. Remember those teenagers, who are running higher corner speeds than the big bikes. Dr. Peter Richards, who filled the role of truly independent medical assessor for IRTA some years ago, was only half joking when he suggested a Simple way of deciding. Riders with arm or upper body injuries who wanted to race should be required to do 10 clap push-ups then and there; ankle or leg victims would be reqUired to jump off the consultancy room table, landing on their bad leg. That would soon sort out whether they were strong enough to control a raging MotoGP bike. Sadly, IRTA let control of this crucial area pass from their hands. They, or Dorna, should do something about it before an injured rider causes or falls victim to some really serious consequences. eN CYCLE NEWS • AUGUST 17, 2005 83