Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/720681
VOL. 53 ISSUE 34 AUGUST 30, 2016 P123 Crutchlow later. Riders who hadn't done so "were wimps." In not being wimpish, Crutchlow became the first Brit- ish rider to win a premier-class grand prix in 35 years, ending a dry spell that followed the once- dominant nation's last champion, Barry Sheene. suspected. This was achieved over a period of years, and with a gamble of his own from Dorna chief Carmelo Ezpeleta. When the factories declined to play ball, he introduced the dreaded grid-filling production-based CRT bikes, in what became a The true meaning seems to be that Dorna's much-derided war against factory domination is showing the first signs of bearing fruit. now 18 chances a year, whereas in the 1960s only 10 or so. They go like this: Marquez 13 (2014), Doohan 12 (1997), Rossi 11 times three (2001, 2002, 2006) and Agostini 11 (1972). This year, 11 races in, we have already had six different winners, and three of them have been first-timers. Along with the usual suspects, Marquez, Lorenzo and Rossi, we can add the new names of Jack Miller, Andrea Iannone and, as of last week- end, Cal Crutchlow. Each of these involved some- thing a little freakish, to be fair— mad weather and mad bravery for Miller, and a bold and clever tire gamble for the other two. But they still had to ride the bikes. Each also has made some kind of history. Jack was not only the first Australian winner for four years, but also the first non-factory rider since Toni Elias beat Rossi by 0.002 of a second in Portugal in 2006. Iannone's Ducati win was the first for the Italian marque since Stoner's Phillip Island victory in 2010. The most resounding his- tory happened at Brno, where Crutchlow second-guessed the changing state of the track and went not only for a hard rear wet Michelin (as did four other rid- ers), but also the hard front. So too did Loris Baz, who scored a resounding fourth place. If you went for the rear, you also needed to go for the front, said The time scale comes into focus when you note that on the day Sheene beat Dutchman Boet van Dulmen by less than a second at Anderstorp, Cal was still four years away from being born. That's not the main point, however much the Union Jack brigade might be slobbering into their lukewarm beer. Nor does it necessarily signal a revival in the fortunes of the nation that gave us, among others, Mike Hailwood. The true meaning seems to be that Dorna's much-derided war against factory domination is showing the first signs of bear- ing fruit. Not just with Miller and Crutchlow, but also with (for ex- ample) Hector Barbera, who has been able to show himself this year as a much better MotoGP rider than anyone had previously dual-level premier class. And threatened to give the whole premier class over to them—an act of debasement that shocked the Japanese into cooperation. Of course, all my original objections remain valid. Clipping the wings of the factory R&D engineers reduces the potential of grand prix racing to play a useful role for motorcycling in general. Minimizing the best of all reasons to go racing in the first place. But real race fans will go rac- ing anyway, requiring no further validation than the stopwatch, and Dorna's dumbing down may just have made it all that much better. For me, as a consistent critic of this policy, it may be time to eat my words. Now there's another little piece of history. CN