Final weekend, MotoGP and World Superbike clashed in an Italian smackdown, with each occasions participating on the identical time in the identical nation inside a few hours’ drive of one another as a result of incompetence and stupidity of Dorna. Which race collection received this pointless and idiotic collision? Let’s examine:
Tracks
MotoGP staged the Emilio Estevez Grand Prix. Nevertheless, followers of his best film “Males at Work”* have been sorely disillusioned to find that this was merely a second spherical on the Misano racetrack. It’s a silly, improper approach spherical monitor the place the corners moronically tighten up on the exit, which ensures that actually everybody will get a monitor limits warning and the racing can be garbage.
[*Just kidding, Emilio’s greatest movie is obviously Repo Man.]
WSBK was held at Cremona, which baffled the Italian riders as they’d by no means heard of it, even those that grew up like an hour away. Even worse, it turned out to be a trackday monitor folded right into a parcel of land protecting so few hectares that you just couldn’t even match Jake Dixon’s ego inside it. So everybody was amazed when it turned out to be a enjoyable little circuit! There have been first rate overtaking alternatives, together with a terrific one the place riders may refuse to surrender their place and brazen it out aspect by aspect for two corners in a row. And the compact nature of the place meant that the followers have been packed in, giving it a terrific rock live performance environment. In different phrases, it’s principally a British Superbike monitor, however in Italy. (BSB monitor supremo Les Battersby ought to commerce it in for the bloody terrible Navarra goat path in Spain).
Winner: WSBK
Assist Races
MotoGP had the same old Moto3 nutter-fest, however this time the Moto2 race was completely watch-through-your-fingers unbelievable because the main group of chumps took it in turns to throw away the victory. It went to an exciting photograph end conclusion. Excellent stuff from the junior GP courses.
WSBK’s child sibling World Supersport (WSS) is all the time entertaining now that it’s developed from an irrelevant, 4-cylinder 600cc screamer class right into a loopy “run what ya brung” class that includes all the things from howling 4-cylinder Japanese 600s, to Triumph 765 and MV 800 triples, to the thundering Ducati V2 955, with their rev limits and engine mapping rigged by the authorities to make them roughly equal (Yamaha are getting ready to enter the brand new R9 in WSS subsequent yr, which is the sportbike model of their massively well-liked MT-09 900cc triple). WSS has principally became a collection that includes the “fairing and foot peg” race variations of all of the middleweight bare bikes that sellers are literally promoting today. In different phrases, it’s by far essentially the most road-relevant race collection on the planet proper now, and in addition some of the enjoyable to look at. The World Supersport 300 demolition derby didn’t race at Cremona, however there was a WorldWCR spherical, which is what they name the Girls’s World Championship. The Chicks Championship has principally two questions: Wherein order will the three proficient ones end on the rostrum, and which of the grid-fillers will get horribly injured and depart in an air ambulance this time?
Winner: MotoGP
Greatest Producer
MotoGP was totally dominated by Ducati.
WSBK was totally dominated by Ducati.
Winner: Lifeless Warmth.
Stewarding
MotoGP’s race stewards got here up with an actual doozy. Jorge Martin was minding his personal enterprise, main the race on the final lap when Enea Bestiality went full Ninety-Threetard and easily rammed the Spaniard off the monitor to overhaul for the win. Wait, what??? It’s OK to torpedo folks now? The stewards panel didn’t even examine, which implies they didn’t should state their reasoning. Was it as a result of it was the final lap? As a result of it was a sluggish nook? As a result of Venus is in Scorpio? A few seasons in the past, Zarco was getting lengthy lap penalties only for loitering within the basic neighborhood of any rider who missed an apex by greater than 6 inches, and now you’re allowed to Darryn Binder folks out of your approach? If you need to drop one place for going 3mm over the inexperienced paint on the final lap, however don’t even get investigated for doing a “Rossi-Gibernau”, then MotoGP is like San Francisco, the place you could be arrested for jaywalking however not for taking a dump on the sidewalk!
Right here’s hoping that when The Kiwi is chief steward subsequent yr, he’ll lastly brung some frugging consustuncy to thus shut. Within the meantime, radio communications ought to be launched as a matter of urgency in order that riders can telephone up and reserve a mattress within the Clinica Cellular when their pit board says “L1 P1 +0 MARQUEZ”.
WSBK had a dodgy scenario in Friday Observe when abrasive Aussie Remy Gardner was touring on line and compelled Danilo Petrucci to take sudden evasive motion in a flurry of obscene Italian hand gestures. The humongous Italian retaliated by intentionally getting in Gardner’s approach, forcing him right into a gravel lure at excessive pace in an answering flurry of Antipodean finger waving. The stewards metaphorically cracked their skulls collectively by giving them each 3-place grid penalties. (They wished to actually crack the 2 riders’ skulls collectively, however couldn’t discover a field sufficiently big for Remy to face on). The WSBK stewards additionally made the wise determination to red-flag Race One when all their screens went clean. (Presumably they have been watching on the Discovery Plus app, which is well the slowest and buggiest video streaming service to be sharted onto the web since about 1998).
Winner: WSBK
Race Victors
MotoGP’s reigning character vacuum Pecco Bananas received a dash race so spirit-crushingly tedious that it was instantly sued for copyright theft by the 800cc period. Nevertheless, he couldn’t make it a double. Within the characteristic race, Pecco had a looser and slippier rear hoop than a P Diddy celebration visitor. Amazingly, he discovered his rhythm, solely to go all “Lowes triplet”. (Watching on TV again in Cremona, Sam and Alex checked out one another in bafflement and mentioned in unison, “Maintain on, if I’m right here and also you’re right here, then which certainly one of us is on the telly doing our patented late-race lowside out of third place while lapping sooner than the fellows in entrance???”) The race was as a substitute received by Enea Bestiality, a man so cool and chilled that he falls asleep for as much as 4 or 5 rounds at a time, solely to get up with a begin and keep in mind that he’s some of the proficient riders on the grid.
WSBK noticed a shocking treble victory by all people’s favorite large, loveable galoot Danilo Petrucci, often known as Petrux. (His nickname is a mix of Petrucci and Electrolux, as a result of his unbelievable capacity to vacuum up bowl after bowl of pasta). The Superbike Sasquatch didn’t simply return from near-fatal accidents to win 3 races in a single weekend. He made historical past as the primary particular person ever to win races in MotoGP and WSBK and a stage of the Dakar Rally. (He’s additionally received races in MotoAmerica, however no one cares about that as a result of the present MotoAmerica expertise pool is about as deep as a freshly mopped ground). The Italian crowd went completely psychological to see their big teddy bear of a countryman do the treble, together with just about everybody not known as Remy Gardner.
Winner: WSBK
Verdict
World Superbike received this explicit face to face. Certain, solely MotoGP may give you a tedious procession of the world’s finest riders on the world’s stupidest and most costly 2-wheeled F1 vehicles with the world’s worst entrance tyres in a paddock with its collective head rammed firmly up its personal conceited crevice. However World Supers may give you cut-price leisure, a relaxed vibe and genuinely likeable winners. Now, let’s simply hope that such a profoundly silly MotoGP vs WSBK same-country smackdown by no means, ever occurs once more.
