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/1497874
VOLUME 60 ISSUE 16 APRIL 25, 2023 P131 This low-end showbiz has been a growing tendency for Dorna, begun some years ago with the introduction of "social media" moments at pre-race press conferences. These are nowadays less cringingly embarrassing than at first, when Dorna posed silly questions sent in from fandom, at the level of "what pizza top - ping would you prefer to be?" The spectacle of world-cham- pionship racers trying to decide whether they saw themselves as donuts or lobsters was deeply embarrassing all around. Nowadays the "social media" moment has grown up a bit. Riders take part in kind of party games and quizzes, which are at least good-natured and not actually humiliating for all con - cerned. Harmless fun, although still a worrying development. Will riders have to polish up their party tricks—reciting Ozyman - dias backwards, perhaps, while balancing plates on their nose? Is snappy backchat more impor- tant than braking prowess or tire preservation? At least this takes place on Friday, rather than an hour or so before they climb on board the beasts. But the mandatory perform - ing-monkey duties go on all the way through Sunday. When they are more than just an unwel- come distraction, since this year's rescheduled program already robs teams and riders of priceless setup time. This is the result of the Sprint race on Saturday afternoon, leaving just two Friday practice sessions necessarily devoted to getting a fast single lap time for that crucial grid position, and one Saturday free practice of just 30 minutes to work on race setup and prepare tactics. An entire session has gone miss - ing—and even last year riders were complaining of a lack of preparation time. It seems the promoters have forgotten that high-level sporting enterprise is as much a mental as physical exercise, so that they have robbed riders of thinking time. And instead put them in the shop window, whether they like it or not. Motorcycle racing is in gen - eral a broad church. Riders come from a wide spectrum, both social and otherwise, and range from the articulate to the tongue-tied, the humorous to the dour, the friendly to the reserved. What they have in common, at world championship level, is almost incomprehensible will - power and determination. It is this that makes them interesting and exceptional, and it is their sporting and technical ability that makes them admi- rable and heroic. This doesn't rule out riders having personalities, nor milk- ing celebrity status to maximize earnings in what is of necessity a rather short (sometimes very short) career. Any one of them wanting to work up their virtual impact is at liberty to become any sort of social "ME"dia monkey they like. Although it is still their racing prowess that really matters. But for Dorna to do it, compul - sorily, to boost company earn- ings robs them of individuality and respect and impinges on their ability to race. It is understandable that the promoter squeezes every angle in search of promotion, but please preserve their (and our) dignity. And above all when the racing is in progress, let them concentrate on the job. For their own safety, apart from anything else. CN Is snappy backchat more important than braking prowess or tire preservation? It seems the promoters have forgotten that high-level sporting enterprise is as much a mental as physical exercise, so that they have robbed riders of thinking time.