Cycle News

VOL. 51 ISSUE 45 NOVEMBER 11, 2014 P119 book. Apply the same percent- age rule to the past, and how do these two serial winners of the last two decades measure up to the giants of then? Back when they had only 10 or 12 races to rack up wins? Or even, in the earliest days, only six or seven? Now Marquez and Doohan are cut down to size, some- what. Two of grand prix racing's titans have achieved 100 per- cent. Eight-timer Giacomo Agostini, of course, in the third of seven consecutive years of winning the title, thanks cer- tainly to the dominance of his factory MV Agusta, but also to his precise, fast and stylish riding, displayed to best effect in the much more competi- tive 350 class. In the last five of those years, Ago's average only once dropped below 80 percent, and was always better than Marquez's, even if the new boy does break the record at Valencia. The other? Not, as you might expect, Mike Hailwood, though, of course, he does figure large. His best was 87.5 percent, winning seven of eight races in 1963. It goes without saying that he too was on an MV Agusta. So also was the only other rider to win every premier-class race in a season: the mighty John Surtees—seven from sev- en in 1959. Surtees, of course, did something else none of the others have achieved: moving to four wheels and Formula One, to win the World Championship there, as well. Domination is of course awe- inspiring. All of the above are gi- ants of the sport, although Mar- quez at 21 is yet to achieve full stature. But exciting? That all de- pends on the opposition. Certainly the most memora- ble battles have come when the champion's win rate was much lower. Because there were too many other people also able to win. Look at four-times champ Ed- die Lawson's final title in 1989, the year of his unexpected turncoat move from Yamaha to Honda. Kevin Schwantz won six races that year, Eddie only four. Wayne Rainey was his closest title rival, and he won three. Ed- die's percentage? Less than 27. Does that make him more of a champion, or less? And Wayne Rainey: in 1992, Doohan was running away with it, with five wins, when he broke his leg badly at Assen. Rainey took the title with just three wins, of 13 rounds: 23 percent. A bit of a freak year, but in his previous two winning seasons, Wayne's hit rate was a compara- tively modest 40 percent. Not for nothing is that spell of racing remembered as a golden age. Look at it all like this, and it conspires to devalue what Mar- quez has done. But that in turn only underlines the nature of statistics. What they mean de- pends almost entirely on how you add them up. Nobody could suggest that he hasn't had classy opposi- tion this year. Not just from Lo- renzo and (now and then) his own teammate Dani Pedrosa, but a resurgent Rossi as well. (Whose percentages, in the three years that he won 11 rac- es, were between 64 and 69, by the way.) Many used to complain, dur- ing Doohan's display of utter superiority, that racing was bor- ing. Mick's disgruntled com- ment: "What do you want me to do? Slow down?!" One day, watching Marquez win and win might get boring. It hasn't yet. It has to do not only with the people he is beating but also the sheer exuberance he brings to the job. It is in the nature of sport that its practitio- ners always improve. Seldom is it quite as obvious as he makes it. But if there is the threat of te- dium in the future, don't worry too much. MV-mounted Ago apart, nobody has ever domi- nated for more than five years in a row. Unless, in 2018, Marquez is going to break that record, as well. CN

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