Cycle News

VOL. 51 ISSUE 31 AUGUST 5, 2014 P113 not far north of 50 horsepower. Around about a fifth of a mod- ern 1000cc MotoGP bike and, funnily enough, round about the same as a 250cc single-cylinder Moto3 bike. A GP starter ma- chine for teenagers, but much lighter and consequently much faster than the Manx. Not to men- tion the tires and suspension. How could you possibly com- pare? Mike Hailwood also raced a Norton, and by the way Barry Sheene finished his career, in the short years before his un- timely death, on a Norton, as a classic-race winner. So there is a comparison, then. A good rider is a good rider, no matter what he happens to be rid- ing. Not even Duke, Hailwood or Marquez could win on anything, however – a fact proved with un- comfortable clarity by Rossi, in his two-year Ducati sojourn. There is another way of com- paring… the statistics. In this way, Marquez is clambering rough- shod over the giants of both old and recent past, though he hasn't quite got to the top yet. Giacomo Agostini is still in the way. Here are some of the numbers. Having already broken all of Freddie Spencer's "youngest- ever" records, the Spanish strip- ling broke one of Mike Hailwood's when he scored his fifth of nine successive wins at Le Mans this year. Hailwood had been 22 when he claimed five in a row in 1962. Marquez's ninth came before the summer break in Germany, and he has only to win the next round in Indianapolis to be the first to win the opening 10 rounds since Ago, in 1970. But Ago set some targets that Marquez will find difficult. Nine races in a row? Pah – kid's stuff. MV-mounted Giacomo won 20 – yes, 20 in a row in 1968 and 1969. Meanwhile, Hailwood took 12 on the trot in 1963 and 1964; and John Surtees 11, between 1958 and 1960. The meaning of these num- bers, however, is blurred by an ever-changing matrix. Ago's wins (and Hailwood's) came effectively unopposed, when their multi-cylinder factory MVs stood head and shoulders above the plodding singles and twins of their track compan- ions. But to be fair, both of them achieved similar successes in the smaller classes, where the situation was a bit different. In another way it's easier to rack up the numbers now, with 18 races a year, where in (for ex- ample) 1960 Hailwood had only seven. In this way, other sets of num- bers favor recent riders. The longest points scoring runs, for instance – where Mick Doohan heads Colin Edwards and Wayne Gardner, 37/34/30. Or the total number of podiums, where Ros- si leads on 152. Mick Doohan's second place (95) is under threat from Dani Pedrosa, whose total of 91 has seen him this year out- rank Agostini's 88. Most particularly the number of races favors the tally of wins per season, where Marquez is climbing the ladder rapidly. Doo- han sits on top of this particular list with 12; while Ago and Rossi are tied on 11. Casey Stoner's to- tal of 10 is looking wobbly – just one to go and Marquez will be equal. What it all means is… nothing much, really. Who could say that Marquez or Rossi outrank Kenny Roberts, just because of a bunch of numbers? After all, Roberts was the last rookie champion before Marquez, but he did it as a genuine Grand Prix first-timer, seeing many of the tracks for the first time, while Marquez already knew them all intimately from al- most five years in the smaller classes. In the best of all possible after- worlds, they will all meet up on a celestial grid, and race it out. Perhaps they should all be on Manx Nortons. Until that happens, everyone will have their own favorite GOAT in GP road racing: Anglophones tend to go for Mike Hailwood, La- tinos for Giacomo Agostini. The Spaniards are just warming up for their bid – Marc Marquez. Better revise the classification for now, to GOTT – the great- est of their time. That should be enough for anyone. CN

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