VOL. 52 ISSUE 33 AUGUST 18, 2015 P77
Briefly...
the season. The official line was a
vague statement, saying, "…we will
be back from the Brno GP." But un-
officially the current plan extended
only to the forthcoming British and
San Marino GPs, with the following
round at Aragon and then the three
flyaway races in Japan, Australia and
Malaysia in doubt.
Bradley Smith got a rap on the
knuckles after his comments a week
ago at Indianapolis, where he said
he had made his desire to stay with
Yamaha and the Tech3 team clear
from the start of the season, but
there had not been "the same enthu-
siasm" coming back the other way.
This was in the wake of victory at the
Suzuka 8 Hours with teammate Pol
Espargaro, and after Yamaha had
announced that the latter's contract
would be renewed. Now it seems
that Smith spoke too soon, and that
he too will be retained, with an an-
nouncement expected at his home
GP at Silverstone in two weeks. At
the same time, it became clear that
Yamaha has its eyes on current top
Moto2 rookie Alex Rins for 2017.
Fears that this would be the last visit
to the popular Brno circuit—host to
the Czech Republic's biggest sport-
ing event—were laid to rest on race
morning, with the announcement
that the race would be on the
calendar for 2016, and four years
beyond that. This year's race had
been in doubt until the end of June,
with a major threat of withdrawal of
local government financial support.
A meeting this weekend between
Dorna chief Carmelo Ezpeleta and
those officials had a happy outcome,
at least for next year. With race-day
Jack Miller
doesn't have
much to
celebrate this
year, but he can
pull a wicked
stand-up!
continued on next page
