P122
CN
III IN THE PADDOCK
BY MICHAEL SCOTT
R
ace fans of my vintage
(often distinguished by
being bald for reasons
other than fashion) tend to waffle
on about The Golden Age.
Those marvelous years of loopy
500 four-strokes of Rainey,
Schwantz, Mamola, Lawson,
Gardner, Sarron et al, when
you would turn up on race day
without really knowing who was
going to win.
That's how it looks in the
memory, although the statistics
show that, in fact, the number of
potential candidates for victory
was not unlimited.
But it's a criterion anyway—not
knowing who is going to win.
Which means we will probably
one day look back on 2016 in
the same way. Looks like we are
living through a golden age. We
don't know who is going to win.
Before you think I've gone
soft, there are some facts to
bear in mind.
Never was GP racing quite as
sterile as when Giacomo Agos-
tini was at the height of his pow-
ers on the effectively unbeat-
able MV Agusta. His record of
20 consecutive wins in 1968
and 1969 is unlikely to be chal-
lenged. The closest, with 12,
was Mike Hailwood (1963-'64),
and John Surtees (1958,'60-'61
with 11). In more modern times,
Marquez and Mick Doohan
each clocked up 10. At the
height of Rossi's fame in 2002
he got seven in a row.
Then there are the records
of wins in a season, a statistic
helped by the fact that there are
HELLO, GOLDEN AGE?
