P108
CN
III IN THE PADDOCK
BY MICHAEL SCOTT
I
t was the ever-direct and con-
troversial Casey Stoner who
came up with the notion: the
2020 MotoGP series—well, it's
not really a World Championship.
He has a point.
First of all (like the USA's so-
called "World Series" in base-
ball), it doesn't span the world.
All 14 (rather than the planned
20) MotoGP races are in main-
land Europe. True, the opening
round in Qatar went ahead but
only for the junior classes. Eight
of the 14 are on the Iberian Pen-
insula, one of them in Portugal
and the rest in Spain.
Secondly, the main man isn't
there. With Marc Marquez on
duty, the perpetual question was
always: who will come second?
But Marc's AWOL, and now
seems certain to remain so over
the forthcoming final triple-head-
er. And it really isn't quite the
same without him.
Less of a championship.
The same is true, thanks to
the curtailments and cancella-
tions of Covid, of all the various
championships. They are mea-
surably reduced, with or without
the presence of a defending
champion. (And, by the way, with
Rossi also absent from the last
two rounds, there wasn't a single
former champion on the MotoGP
grid at Aragon.)
Does this make the winners
lesser champions?
This is not a view I would like
to put to Cameron Beaubier,
after his utterly dominant Ameri-
can season. Nor, for example,
to Aussie rider Josh Brookes,
unlikely to value his second BSB
crown less than his first, just
because of a shorter season and
no Showdown. Nor to Superbike
superman Jonathan Rea.
Try saying it to new Moto2
leader Sam Lowes who has in
the past three races come into
truly world-beating form, even if
only able to express it in Europe.
Nor would the ultimate Mo-
toGP Champion take kindly
RACING IN
SHADOWLAND
