Cycle News

VOL. 51 ISSUE 50 DECEMBER 16, 2014 P75 inside him. "I was thinking, you're either tricking me or you're going to open up a hole," Noyes said. It was the latter, and the Barcelona-based American seized the lead. Márquez and Mees chased him down and passed him by the halfway mark, before leaving Noyes behind. Mees chased Márquez hard, but couldn't make up the ground he lost at the start. Though the first-corner inci- dent cost him dearly, he refused to make excuses. "Today I kind of kept my eyes on [Márquez] too long re- ally," Mees said. "He was making a mistake, then I was–it was like a chain reaction. I wanted to get through the guys as quick as I could, because I knew he was going to be faster and I didn't want him to pull away." The crowd was delighted. This is what they had come to see, and they had not been disappointed. The Super- prestigio had been billed as the Marc Márquez show, and that's exactly what it had delivered. Off of the racetrack it was the Márquez show in more ways than one. It had started with that conversation with Algersuari, who had organized the first Superprestigio in 1981 at the dog track on the outskirts of Barcelona, fea- turing the cream of Spanish racing. When Algersuari re- vived the race in 1990, he had the help of Dennis Noyes, a former dirt tracker and journalist working for Algersu- ari's Solo Moto magazine. Noyes used his connections Briefly... that Marc Márquez was using a trac- tion control system on the engine specially prepared by Italian moto- cross team Martin Racing. "He's got a lot of buttons on the handlebar," observed Jared Mees. "But if he does, more power to him." The 450s used by everyone at the track were a great equalizer, added Mees. Ken- ny Noyes put Márquez' advantage down to set up and skill, rather than the engine. "Here, it's more about grip than punch. Where you're see- ing Marc's bike being faster, it's more about him getting the bike to hook up," Noyes said. There was no doubt that Márquez was taking the Super- prestigio seriously. He was joined by his crew chief Santi Hernandez, as well as a couple of his MotoGP crew at the race. But HRC were watch- ing this keenly as well. "This morn- ing when I woke up I saw a mes- sage from Honda: We are waiting for your race. We are watching you," Márquez said. Kenny Noyes was sympathetic to Márquez' approach. "If I were Marc I'd have everything there was," said Noyes. "It's amazing because the whole team got behind him too. I mean Honda called him! When's the last time Honda called a dirt tracker?" For most AMA flat trackers, travel- ing abroad to race is completely unheard of. The shock of finding themselves immersed in a foreign culture and surrounded by a foreign language took some getting used to. When he returned home after Janu- ary's Superprestigio, flagman Kevin Clark faced a lot of questions about the experience. "I try to explain stuff to people back home, who ask me, what's it like? I say, it's different. Is it good? It's great, but it's different. slide the front end," Bayliss said. "On the oil, you slide it a tiny bit, but here, you slide the front much more. Because we're always on the front brake at our track, so if you lock the front, you crash like a road racer, whereas here, you roll in, and you've got to have the back sliding first, but you can slide the front as well. Anyone can slide the rear, but to slide the bike, you've got to get both wheels drifting at the same time. And in these conditions here, to master it is an art." Mees (1) and Marc Marquez (93) working their way back through the pack after the first-turn hiccup. continued on next page

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