BY MICHAEL SCOTT
PHOTOGRAPHY BY GOLD & GOOSE
H
ow long does it take to
make a racing legend? In
the case of Marc Marquez
at Motegi, 42 minutes, 22.897
seconds. Or is it a bit prema-
ture to use the L-word? After
all, he's only just begun. If
he follows the example of
Valentino Rossi, he has
at least another 14 years
to keep adding new
chapters.
Claiming the title at the
Honda-built and Honda-owned
circuit north of Tokyo was the
climax of a weekend that started
with a crash for the 21-year-old
Repsol Honda rider, who has
now taken two championships
at a younger age than the previ-
ous youngest-ever, 1983 500cc
World Champion Freddie Spen-
cer.
This in a weekend in which he
failed to qualify on the front row
for only the second time this year.
And a weekend in which a resur-
gent Jorge Lorenzo underlined
his belated return to his former
imperious form, with a second
race win in a row, and the Mo-
VOL. 51 ISSUE 41 OCTOBER 14, 2014 P37
Briefly...
Different brakes for different folks
– the hard demands of Motegi put
a new twist on the old cliché, with
different teams taking different ap-
proaches to the problem of stopping.
Optional last year, the larger 340mm
carbon front discs were made com-
pulsory for this track this year, after a
history of problems for some riders
with the stock 320mm units.
The Ducatis and some Yamahas, in-
cluding Valentino Rossi's, added fur-
ther cooling, with add-on vents feed-
ing the calipers. But Marc Marquez's
Honda crew chose a different game.
He went out with the discs shroud-
ed, to keep temperatures up. These,
however, lasted only for the first 10
minutes off the first free practice - un-
til he lost his brakes into turn five, ran
off, and had to bail out in the gravel.
It wasn't too much heat, but that a
major wobble on the exit of the previ-
ous corner knocked the pads back
into the calipers. "The lever came
back, and I had to pull again," he
said, having learned another lesson.
Next time he came out, the shrouds
had gone. His teammate Dani Pedro-
sa – the lightest MotoGP rider – set
a Grand Prix record with a stoppie of
more than 100 meters, back wheel
hugely airborne while braking down-
hill for the 90-degree corner at the
end of the back straight. "I thought
I was going over the handlebars,"
he said. The large discs were made
optional at other circuits earlier this
season, but the factory Hondas were
always the last to use them.
You heard it here first. And every-
where else, with a premature Twitter
announcement at Misano four weeks
ago... that Scott Redding will get a
continued on next page
World Champion
Again: Marc
Marquez gets
tossed in the air
by his Repsol
Honda team
after wrapping
up his second
successive
MotoGP World
Championship on
Sunday in Japan.
