Cycle News

VOL. 53 ISSUE 28 JULY 19, 2016 P121 blacked-out windows of his enormous motorhome, which can from time to time be seen to be throbbing and emitting loud thumping noises late into Sunday night. It was not ever thus for him, and also a symptom of the times—less the result of their respective characters than the influence of their media man- agement teams. Along with the requisite youthful days and weeks spent dragging round and round dirt tracks to polish riding skills and race craft a modern racing star is also schooled in PR skills, seemingly by people who think blandness is the key to popular success. Rather, I think, missing the point. Win a race? Then thank your sponsors, pay tribute to your team, perhaps mention the support of your family— and then shut up. Any ebul- lience to be limited to throwing your gloves to the crowd. Even Rossi, who once marked every win with some sort of crowd-pleasing pantomime performance, has joined this movement. Of course, having a vibrant and attractive personality is not in any way important for success in motorcycle rac- ing. Or even a quietly attrac- tive personality. There are many precedents that prove this rule, including some with deeply unattractive personali- ties. But it doesn't mean that all personality should be con- cealed, subsumed beneath a veneer of cheap multi-pur- pose polish. In the long years I have been involved in racing, there is one obvious and shining example of a rider who understood this better than anybody. I shall probably be reviled for say- ing this, but Barry Sheene was not, overall, a very nice or kindly sort of man. He was brutally beastly to his teammates and ruthless to his rivals (shades of Rossi in both of these), and trampled roughshod over womankind. It can be summed up by saying that he didn't so much like to win but that he liked to see the other fellow lose. But Barry was the consum- mate public performer, a great wit, master of the sound bite— and even able to find amusing ways of thanking his sponsors without sounding like a creepy automaton. And he knew how to cel- ebrate in a sharing kind of way. So too many of his suc- cessors. I am no advocate of wanton drunkenness, and all too aware that alcohol and petrol don't mix, but there's a time and a place for every- thing, and getting pissed in public is one measure of a sharing celebration. I have seen, among others, Roberts (Senior), Schwantz, Rainey, Doohan and, in his early years, Rossi perform this im- portant duty, sometimes very extravagantly. And, to be fair, a tiny and very youthful Dani Pedrosa, downing a glass of red wine almost larger than himself in a restaurant in Brazil, after winning the 125 title in 2003, with a hysterical Rossi egg- ing him on. I think Dani fell over directly afterwards, but he was so small at that time it was hard to tell. Even without liquor, there are ways of demonstrating unbridled joy. Even at the risk of looking human. I am waiting, as I write this, to see who will win the Ger- man GP. And hoping it will be Jack again, just for the fun of it. If not him, then Crutchlow, another old-school racer. Maybe one of the Espargaros. Or the reliably humorous and deservedly popular Danilo Petrucci. Or that if it is one of the usual gang, that he will for once forget the lessons of a lifetime, and let it all hang out. Just for once. CN

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