Cycle News

VOL. 51 ISSUE 29 JULY 22, 2014 P125 that it was ex-motocrosser Marc Marquez who did it all the best, and later professed to have en- joyed it. After the race, however, when the adrenalin had abated, the same rider led a chorus of agreement from his rivals. It was fun, but both unfair and rather… er, dangerous. It came about when a quirk in the weather collided head- on with a paragraph in the ev- er-growing and ever-changing book of rules. It was in a section that has seen many changes over the last decade or more, trying to stop mid-race weather changes from messing with in- flexible TV schedules - a prob- lem ever since slick tires ar- rived in the mid-1970s. They are deadly in the wet. After several muddles, a sys- tem evolved whereby a race could be stopped and restarted, results taken on aggregate time. It was time wasting and hard to follow (the on-track leader might easily not be the winner). But it was safer, and importantly put the race-stop decision in the hands of the lead rider, who could raise his hand at any time that the track was becoming unsafe. For TV, however, it was disas- trous. And decisions about TV clearly couldn't be left to the rid- ers. Big money was involved. There followed a farrago of different plans. One idea was a pace car, allowing riders to stop to change tires while it circulated slowly. That didn't get past the first abortive try-out. Then race stoppage, quick turnaround, and a sprint for the remaining laps for the final re- sult. This actually worked fairly well, and is still used for Motos 2 and 3. Then for 2005 somebody had a better idea: flag-to-flag races over full distance. If conditions changed, riders could pit and jump on their spare bikes, to complete full distance. It did work out well, in many re- spects, and was certainly fun to watch, but was fraught from the start. The first time it happened in full anger was in Australia in 2006. In the narrow Phillip Is- land pit lane, collision avoidance was spectacular but successful. And the TV satellite slot was met. Everybody was happy. Since then, until Assen a couple of weeks ago, there had been only one other genuine weather-provoked bike-change race, at Le Mans. It remains a rare event. But it happens, and Germa- ny provided a fine example of the Law of Unintended Conse- quences. Heavy rain before the start had stopped; the track was dry- ing fast. Those eight back-of-grid starters, with nothing to lose, gambled on starting with dry bikes (slicks, stiffer suspension, carbon brakes). Front-row starter Bradl switched to slicks on the grid, on a bike otherwise set up for the wet. A blunder. The rest of the front five rows were on wets, and before half warm-up lap was done, it was obviously wrong. While Bradl and the back-row boys lined up on the grid, the rest dived into pit lane. All 14 of them. They'd chosen to sacrifice the penalty of a pit-lane start (about 10 seconds) in exchange for be- ing on proper full-dry bikes. Hard-won grid positions meant nothing as they massed at the pit-lane exit. Pedrosa had quali- fied second; now he found him- self behind the five who'd jostled onto the front row: Dovizioso, Rossi, Aleix Espargaro, Iannone and Marquez. The problem of cold brakes sent Rossi wide and Jorge Lo- renzo almost into the back of the pack. Lorenzo also pointed out the risks of cold tires. Pedrosa was further exercised by the unfairness of it all. But all shared concerns about the safety of sending a MotoGP pack out en masse. It was like motocross, with knives. It's a rare event. It took almost nine years for the problem to surface. But it will have to be ad- dressed. Race Direction had better order in some more paper, for some extra pages for the rule- book. CN

• Cover