Cycle News

VOL. 53 ISSUE 26 JULY 6, 2016 P95 ulation nor the soft soap was entirely misplaced, given the progress achieved over the past 25 years. Some began even before Dor- na arrived, in the five-odd years after IRTA grew up from a sort of rider's/teams' union to a serious management corps. Poncharal picked out several milestones, ranging from unification of TV contracts to the introduction of electronic timing. Plus the first steps in on-bike cameras; a beginning from which Dorna has developed truly superb TV coverage. Perhaps the most significant is safety, one matter on which (as Poncharal said—the most telling of his statements) "Dorna has never compromised." So without rehashing the feel- ings in the wake of the first fatal accident in more than five years, what else have Dorna and IRTA managed, even while that old atmosphere of camaraderie has been so badly eroded as to be little more than notional? Good things there are aplenty. Financially most certainly. One might point at the accusations of tax fraud hanging over Ezpeleta and some of his Dorna associ- ates as the trappings of personal success—almost a badge of honor carried by many possibly (or at least technically) quite blameless successful tycoons. But Dorna has not trousered all the money. Over 25 years, in increasing amounts, they have not only maximized the financial yield of grand prix racing as a business, but shared the profits among the teams. This was, of course, partly self-interest. If they hadn't done so, then GP racing would have been hard pushed to survive the loss of the tobacco millions, as cigarette advertising was banned in domino fashion eventually pretty much worldwide. In any case, most of the dirty cig money went to the factory teams. Private teams were worse than beleaguered. They were becoming extinct, and desper- ately needed help. This was not only financial. One of Dorna's boldest and riskiest initiatives was to take the factory teams down a peg or two. This was done by the introduction of production-based CRT bikes, and the threat that the whole MotoGP class would be turned over to the street- bike clunkers if the factories didn't step into line, not only toning down their own price-no- object technology, but making bikes available to independent entrants. Thankfully, a proddie- based series never came to pass. Ezpeleta's threats bore fruit; his gamble that Honda et al would go racing anyway paid off. And lesser manufacturers—April- ia and KTM—are joining in too. The new five-year agree- ment—2017 to 2021—further boosts money to non-factory teams with an extra two million euros per entry, while capping cost of lease bikes at two million euros. Yet it is still more usual than otherwise for riders in the small- er classes to have to buy their seats, one of several remaining blots on racing's landscape. The other is the nature of Moto2, and no amount of blus- tering brimstone (Ezpeleta's spe- cialty) can disguise the fact that it is a down-market one-make farrago that dulls the luster of an otherwise satisfactorily elevated championship series. Even Moto3, supposedly the poor relation, can call itself a proper prototype grand prix class. Moto2 fields porky pro- duction engines with fixed-ratio gearboxes and sub-production- level electronics. The chassis are okay, but there is effectively only one manufacturer involved. It's the riders I feel sorry for, battling away in a talent-sapping elbow-banging contest. It's kind of fun for fans, in the same way that club-level one-make series are knockabout fun. But this is grand prix racing, the World Championships. Moto2 is not so much a finishing school for would-be premier-class jockeys as a holding pool for sacrificial victims. Please, Dorna and IRTA, use the next five years to do some- thing about it. CN

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