Three days late and a dollar short In the early summer of 2024 I find myself almost completely incapable of penning my usual drivel about my favorite motorsport on Earth. I have bought a house and need to sell a house and am trying to cope with 50 years of accumulated memories and cargo. Not having moved for 40 of those years has been a blessing, but the chickens are coming home to roost these days. The players at this stage of the drama include two banks, the movers, an estate auction company, a ten-yard dumpster and a sizeable cleaning crew. On deck: a real estate agent and the drama surroun ..read more

Oh sure, it’s all about increasing competition As many of you know, MotoGP is making substantial changes to the competition rules commencing with the 2027 season. Smaller engines, reduced aero, fewer engines, all synthetic fuel, banning holeshot and ride height devices, etc. Read a bit of Dorna puffery on the subject: https://www.motogp.com/en/news/2024/05/06/welcome-to-the-future-of-motogp-new-bikes-in-2027/497238 The fact that Dorna is determinedly glossing how these changes will improve competition leads me to believe that they won’t improve competition. They will simply reduce speeds and ..read more

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Spending less time with MotoGP these days and more time schvitzing about my health. When one is staring down the barrel of a potentially life-threatening diagnosis, one’s attention starts to wander at the prospect of sussing out all these diminutive Spaniards and Italians and Joe Roberts. Thanks to daylight savings time–or perhaps in spite of it–I missed the Moto3 tilt entirely. As the winning margin was 4/100ths of a second I expect it was a good one, and I’m pleased to see David Munoz getting back in shape. I’ve been wondering what it is that Ducati Corse sees in Fermin Aldeguer. Yesterday’s ..read more

If You Like Rollercoasters… Friday and Saturday on the Portuguese coast saw relatively few surprises, if you ignore having both Yamahas passing directly into Q2. The Ducs and the #12 Aprilia were having things pretty much their own way. Contrary to recent history, the all time track record was NOT broken during qualifying, making my pole time prediction (1’36.986) look just plain silly. Enea Bastianini continued his personal reclamation project, capturing pole, joined on the front row by Top Gun Maverick Vinales–remember him?–and the resurgent Marc Marquez, who is going to win himself some rac ..read more

Welcome back, Qatar Here we go again. Swarthy miniature European jockeys holding on for dear life to grossly overpowered motorcycles. 20-some rounds all over the world between March and November. Six rounds in seven weeks to end the season, testing the mettle of riders and crews. Teenagers running wild in the lightweight Moto3 class; grizzled veterans seeking the top prize in motoracing in the premier MotoGP class. Half-length Saturday Sprint races on the big bikes making Saturdays on race weekends as exciting as the main event on Sundays. Saturday Jorge Martin is pretty much untouchable at sh ..read more

Jorge Martin has that look of inevitability about him After difficult weekends in Indonesia and Australia, Prima Pramac pilot extraordinaire Jorge Martin held off stiff challenges from KTM’s Skeletor Brad Binder and world champion Pecco Bagnaia to win the Thai Grand Prix in the fourth-closest podium scrap in history. His Thai weekend followed an increasingly familiar pattern: Win pole by setting an all-time track record Win the Saturday Sprint Win Sunday’s main event Martin now trails championship leader Bagnaia by a mere 13 points with three races left. It is a two-man race; Marco Bezzecchi ..read more

Bagnaia retakes the lead after Martin chokes By now, I assume everyone reading this has either seen the race or read about the results. Jorge Martin took over the lead in the 2023 title chase for roughly 24 hours, winning yet another Saturday Sprint before an unlikely/uncharacteristic/unforced error while leading comfortably on Lap 13 forced him out of the grand prix. Pecco Bagnaia overcame a P13 start to win the main event on Sunday after a two point Saturday. KTM tough guy Brad Binder knocked polesitter Luca Marini out of Sunday’s race, did the same to Miguel Oliveira some nine laps later ..read more

Awaiting the announcement from Gresini So, this week the shoe we’ve been waiting to see dropped finally got dropped on Tuesday, when HRC released a face-saving announcement that they and Marc Marquez were terminating their relationship upon “mutual agreement.” LOL. There is nothing “mutual” about this, with HRC having been unable to deliver a competitive MotoGP bike for three or four years, and Marquez practically getting killed trying to compete on what used to be the best bike on the grid. So, one of the great riders in MotoGP history is abandoning his 11-year affiliation with one of the wor ..read more

A race, a parade, and a cluster Psychedelia from the Japanese Grand Prix From my limited perspective–the kitchen table at my home in Indiana–it was an enjoyable last weekend in September/first weekend in October as MotoGP arrived in The Land of the Rising Sun. Something for every taste and budget, as it were. In the premier class, young Jorge Martin continued his assault on the 2023 title, elbowing his way to pole, another Sprint win, and being declared the winner of the red-flagged main event on Sunday. Somkiat Chantra led an Idimetsu Honda Team Asia 1-2 in an increasingly familiar Moto2 para ..read more