Cloudy with a Chance of Great Racing!

The Internet Radio Show all about motorcycle road racing. This is episode number 740. With me today is Richard Jodd from the UK. Richard, how are things there in the UK? Because it was bank holiday last weekend, right?

Last weekend, yes. Well, first of all, happy Labor Day to you, Jim, and to all your North American colleagues. Canada, I think, has Labor Day as well. Yes, I believe they do. Happy holidays to all of you North American brethren.

Yes, all good here. Thank you. We're enjoying an Indian summer, as we call it here. The temperatures are mid-20s for the next week or so. Happy days.

We are in the same thing. Indian summer has arrived early this year. It has cramped up into the mid-90s today. It's been three days of mid-90s. Rain moves in tomorrow, and then the temperatures plummet back into the 70s.

There we go. Summer's got to end sometime, although I question whether it actually began. Hey, the good news is that we're getting back on top of things here. Yes. Day after the races, so we're making up for lost time.

We have to. With 10 races in 13 weeks, they will come fast and furious as we blow through the rest of the season and get done ending in Valencia. So that's kind of a good way to segue because we have somebody who wants to talk about why races ending in Valencia. That would be Scott Baldwin. Scott Baldwin has written in, and he had some things to say.

He was saying that basically the reason we end in Valencia is because that's where all the wives of Dorna, I guess the wags, wives and girlfriends, isn't that what they say of footballers, something like that? Correct. They love the shop in Valencia. They have all the nightlife. They have everything there that they want and therefore the end of season party keeps them there.

He has a belief as well that that's part of the reason Laguna Seca stayed on the schedule as long as it did because of all the great shopping in Carmel. Now, I've never been to Carmel. I'm assuming it's fantastic shopping. I have no idea. I guess there's some truth to it.

I think Laguna was always long in the tooth. I'm a little worried about Cota myself, really, in the longevity of it. Ever since the rise of popularity of Formula One, people have gone away from that Moto GP weekend in the time that I've been there at seemingly becoming less and less people, but more and more people going to Formula One. So sustainability of the track is there, but are they willing to pay whatever the sanctioning fee is to keep that race? I have no idea.

Really, there's not another circuit in the US that they could go to without some serious modifications to the circuit in an effort for safety or just to be at the grade level of anything from the FIA. Your thoughts? Do you really think that the WISE hold all that power, Rich? Well, I don't know. I've always had a real sort of antipathy towards Valencia as a track and particularly as an end of season track.

I just don't really get it. I just don't think it's suitable for Moto GP in particular. Is it kind of the Spanish connection? I think without wishing to be too controversial, I think it is. There is some suggestion I had spoken over the weekend about, or possibly on another podcast, about the possibility of some of these Spanish tracks rotating so that we get maybe two or three rather than four, but they alternate between different tracks, which I think would be a more equitable thing, particularly as Moto GP looks to go to further afield in terms of other tracks getting a look in.

I mean, it's a real problem for me that we don't go to Kailami, for example, given the binders and Africa isn't represented at all and Kailami is a good track. So happily, no offence to the Spanish listeners, because most of the tracks in Spain are great. I don't think Valencia is particularly brilliant, but I trade one of the Spanish races for Kailami any day of the week. So whether it's to do with shopping, I don't know. It's a convenient end point, I suppose.

Laguna, I can't really comment. I've never been there, unfortunately, so I don't know. I mean, Laguna, there's concrete way too close to the racetrack. It is very tight and twisty. It's the Valencia of the US, in my opinion.

A lot of money was spent by Yamaha to get the race to come back there and it was eventually just going to outgrow it. I went there for the first race in 2005 and it was over four hours to get in and over eight and a half hours to get out. I mean, since then, they have changed it. They've got buses that run in and out, but it's not accessible. It's not easily accessible.

There isn't a major highway that's one exit up or three or four minutes from you to get to there to disperse the traffic. So it was always going to be there. I guess you could kind of almost say the same thing about Austin, but there are several different ways that you can get around there for that. Anyway, to continue on with what Scott says, he's talking about Honda and the problems they have. He said the problem is Honda does not listen.

Now, that is a true statement. I remember back, McDune would tell them that he wanted something changed on the bike and they wouldn't do it. It took doing quite some time to convince them to remove the Big Bang engine from his Honda and put a screaming engine back in so that he could ride it, which he finally got. Stoner said he quit being a test rider for Honda because they wouldn't listen to anything he had to say. Supposedly, I don't know if this one's true or not because I don't remember it, but it could have been that Marquez wanted things changed on the bike when he first started riding it.

They said, nope, we gave you a championship winning bike. Just learn how to ride it, which is always possible. I think there's some truth to that. Yeah, I'm trying to think about the word. Is it hubris?

I think possibly part of the issue for Honda in particular is that because they have always been and remain, of course, but such a stellar engineering company, they basically pretty much dominated for decades in the sport, didn't they? Okay, there were blips when Yamaha popped up or Suzuki popped up or whatever, but pretty much Honda's been the constant. So perhaps in a case of arrogance is not the right word, but if you're winning all the time, perhaps you just think it's because you're just the best at engineering the bike and occasionally things go awry. And obviously more recently, things have gone awry pretty badly. And they're now on the path, the slow path, hopefully to building back up again and bringing the fight back to the European factories as per the kind of field of play that we see in 2023.

So did they ignore their riders? Probably, but you might argue that they were in a position to do so at the time. And they just went out and bought the best rider and told them to ride the bike that they had. We know the whole Rossi thing while he left and all the rest of it. And perhaps he left them with some egg on their face over that.

So, Stone, I don't know. Yeah, I mean, it's a good point, but they did rule the race for a long, long time. So perhaps they were in a position to have that kind of attitude. Yeah, I think they are that way, to some extent. They've got a plan.

But Ducati had that same problem. When Rossi went there, they ignored him. They literally, nope, this is the data from the bike and this is what it should be doing. And you just, for lack of any better words, they told him you need to learn to ride it as well. Right.

I mean, this is Valentino Rossi. So it's kind of hard that they're going to say that, you know, our bike is so good and you can't ride it. That's a bit presumptive. But Scott finishes up by saying that just Yamaha just is super slow to react. And they are.

They completely are. I mean, I remember vividly back in the 90s when Rainey was winning titles on the 500. He would come in and complain viciously to Kenny Roberts about how bad this bike was. And Kenny looked at him and said, if you keep winning on it, they're not fixing it. It's a classic Ferrari thing, right?

If it's not a broken, I don't want to fix it. And I don't think Yamaha has the engineering resource or the monetary funds that Honda have to play with. And, you know, I mean, we shall see what happens. But I do appreciate the kind words at the end, Scott. And with that, let's get into silly season news.

Yeah, some more things have been here. Well, mostly Moto2 stuff here. But there's a few MotoGP things. So first off, Joe Roberts will return to the American Racers team for 24. A bit of a homecoming for Joe.

But that means that SDK is out at American Racers. Now, from what we learned over this weekend, there is a big argument that they had over arm pump surgery and the recovery of said arm pump. Now, this one's interesting because Simon Kreyfara was talking to the head of the American Racing team. And they were saying that Sean Dillon Kelly, SDK, did have arm pump. And over the five week break, he went under the knife to have that fixed.

His recovery stalled. And he had to go back in and get another operation to fix something in there. So something in the first surgery didn't either work correctly or there was something that was botched that needed to be fixed. So he goes back under the knife again. His idea was to return and was to ride at Silverstone, to which the team said, no, you need to sit and recover.

And we would prefer if you didn't get back on the bike until we get to India, the Indian GP, which would be after Mizano. I think India is right after Mizano, if I remember correctly. But Sean Dillon Kelly is saying, look, I'm riding a supermoto, I'm riding motocross. Everything's fine. I want to be on the bike.

The team's like, no, you're not going to be on the bike. So now they have essentially agreed two part ways. And I'm not sure where SDK is going. Doesn't appear that he's got a spot in the Moto2 paddock. I can't see him getting like a Moto3 ride.

The kid is fairly tall. So fitting on a Moto3 bike is not going to be his best option. You almost got to think that he's coming back home. Now, admittedly, a world super sport ride potentially exists. And you could maybe argue that there's a world super bike ride potentially out there somewhere.

But I think Sean Dillon Kelly's headed back to the US. Personal opinion, don't know if it's true or not. That's just the way I see it going through. So any thoughts on the American racing squad for next year? Well, I mean, there's obviously a lot more going on behind the scenes.

Even though the discussion you were referring to that Simon Cravel had with the head of, and I'm sorry, I apologize. I forget his name off the top of my head. But it sounded as if there was some ructions in the background. That's how it came across to me because I heard the same thing that you heard, Jim. Quite why, I mean, SDK was making some progress this year.

So maybe incremental steps and whatnot. And obviously the arm pump thing was a problem. And we didn't have a particularly stellar first year. I think that's fair to say. But Moto2 is a hell of a class to come into, particularly when you haven't come up through the European system and then through Moto3 and so on.

So he was making good progress. And we had signaled out a few times in recent races that he'd had some pretty decent either qualifying performances or some race performances. And so it was a great shame when he went off of this protracted arm pump thing. So clearly something's going on behind the scenes there. But as to what he does next, I agree, Jim, I think probably all roads lead back to Moto America, don't they?

Because I can't see another Moto2 team taking him on unless he had a huge pot of cash to bring in terms of sponsorship, which I doubt. Moto3, no. World Super Sport, well, I think he's just a bit of an unknown quantity probably. So he's likely to go back to where he's known and respected and has done very well in the past because he's got a good record in Moto America. But I feel sorry for the guy actually because he was starting to make steps.

And it's a shame to see that cut short. Joe Roberts coming back, that's logical. He's not had a good time at Iltao Trans. Rory Skinner, a bit like SDK really, having a bit of an anonymous first season in Moto2. But then coming in from a super bike to a Moto2, look at Jake Dixon.

And it's taking him, what's this, his fourth or fifth season in Moto2 now? Now we're starting to see the kind of rider that he is, but it takes a long time to get there unless you're kind of alien territory, like one or two people that are in Moto2, but they're the exception, not the norm. So I feel sorry for SDK. I won't keep going on about it, but yeah, it's a shame what's happened really. But yeah, I think Moto America is where we'll see him next year.

So Aaron Kinnett is going to leave Ponds Racing to race at Frantic Racing next year. So that's where Kinnett's going. This one's a wild one. Vietti is rumored to be going to KTM I.O. I personally am shocked by that one, but I.O.

has a reputation of pulling people to that team that we would look at and go, no way, and they turn them into superstars. So it's possible. I have not heard it to be confirmed. I just know it as a rumor. It makes a lot of sense really to me because Vietti, you know, the first half of last year, we thought he was a champion, but then everything just unraveled.

And then he's been anonymous this year, then he wins in Red Bull Ring. And then this weekend, well, okay, he didn't have such a bad result in the end as we'll come to, but again, not really the rider that we saw in Southampton. A week or so ago, but you just think, you know, clearly he has massive class and does he need that I.O. touch just to bring out the best? Now it hasn't worked for Albert Aranas, who's the guy that's heading out of that team.

We assume that Acosta is out of the team as well, assuming he goes up to MotoGP. So potentially two spots to be filled, but I kind of get the Vietti thing. The Kinect one, yeah, I mean, that's a bit more kind of surprising. He came second this weekend, as we're going to talk about. He's got all the potential, but it's just wildly inconsistent, isn't he?

So let's not forget that the Pons team won't exist next year because Cito Pons has effectively sold that team to the, let's try and get this right, the MT Helmets Moto3 team will take on that Moto2 operation. So it remains to be seen who ends up there, but yeah, lots of moving in Moto2, which is good. I mean, I like a bit of a shakeup in the order. Yeah, I mean, I get your point with Vietti at I.O., but so maybe it will work out, but I would have been less shocked if Cinect would have went to I.O. Well, you kind of feel that that, well, who's to say, well, where did you say he's off to?

He's guaranteed to be moving to Fantech. Fantech, yeah. Or MT Helmets. Fantech or Frantic? Fantech, I think it is.

Fantech, okay. Yeah, I thought it was Frantic. I obviously can't listen properly. That might be because Garcia is staying in that team, isn't he? It'll be branded under this MT Helmets, I believe.

That's what's going to happen. So yeah, Cinect would do well in the I.O. team, I suspect. It's a bit of a shame in a way, as an experiment, that that's not what's going to happen. But well, I mean, maybe I.O.

considered him and thought, no, that's not the guy for us. Who knows? Yeah. So as Rich has alluded to, Cito Pons has sold his squad, his Moto2 squad, to the MT Helmets Moto3 squad, who will now run in Moto3 and Moto2. Along with that, as Rich has correctly said, Garcia is staying at the Pons team, which is now the MTI team.

The question is, who's partnering him? That's the question that we have. We don't know who will be in there with him. But the big rumor is that Ogura is going to move to MTI and leave the Team Asia squad and partner Garcia. Now, I think this to be a done deal, although I'm going to sit on the fence with this one because I'm not really sure.

But I believe that it's a done deal because Ogura wants a different challenge and he needs motivation to move forward. Either way, if Ogura goes there, that's a huge bump in the Honda road that Honda doesn't need. And also speaks to the desperation that their MotoGP team is in if the second son of Japanese Moto sport says, yeah, I'm going to swerve over here. So that one's a bit of a conundrum there for me. I almost fell off the chair when I heard that one, to be honest.

I mean, that is unless there are deals being done in terms of parking somebody in a temporary spot before they go somewhere else. I mean, I would be absolutely staggered if the kind of the close linkage to Honda is severed as part of that move. I just cannot believe it, Jim. I really can't because Ogura, OK, he's not had a good year, but he's been coming back gradually from a terrible wrist injury. And we got a glimpse, you know, backing it in everywhere this weekend on that bike.

I mean, he's a real talent Ogura and the kind of guy I mean, if it were me, obviously, we don't know what Ogura thinks himself and his management. But if I were Honda, I'd be wanting to stick him in place of Nakagami, to be honest with you, in LCR, because they need a fresh, young talent to go in and just ride the bike as it is. Because, you know, as we'll come to, I mean, Honda in all sorts of woes still. And that's not going to change. Obviously, it's going to take them a lot of time, although there are seeds of progress here and there.

But yeah, that's a really surprising move, that one with Ogura. So I'd be fascinated to find out, which I'm sure we will do in the fullness of time, quite what the contractual arrangements are there, because I cannot believe that Honda are letting him go. No way. Yeah, there's some something somewhere is amiss, and we'll find out. All right, the final Moto2 rider announcement, Dixon reassigned with Aspar to ride in Moto2 again.

Although there's still this persistence that he has an option to ride a Ducati next year, I think Jake's going to stay. Do you agree? Disagree? Well, the announcement is that he's with Aspar again in Moto2 next year, alongside Yvan Guevara, who's been largely, you know, invisible this year. But it's a tricky transition.

Some people make it quickly and others take a bit of time. So perhaps Guevara will have a better year next year. But well, as we'll come to, somewhere in my notes later on, I've written, what a crying shame, Jake's not going up to MotoGP next year. Because I think this weekend of all weekends really proved that probably that is the right move for him to make now, not in a year or two's time if that opportunity comes back to him. So yeah, surprising, because he is a big bike rider, as I've said many times, and he did really well in BSP for several seasons.

So he knows his way around. Okay, BSP bike is different to MotoGP bike. And it's taken Jake quite a time to get comfortable on the Moto2 machine. But this weekend, in particular, we saw a kind of a rider that thought his way to the win. And that's perhaps not the rider that we've seen up until now.

We've seen glimpses of it, but not quite this polished. So again, fascinated to see what happens as the year goes on. I mean, not every weekend will turn out like this one, of course, because every race is different. But I think that old adage about once you've won your first race, things get a bit not easier, but the pressure shifts, doesn't it? And he looked really assured at the weekend.

And I don't know what you thought, Jim, we'll come to it. But when he dropped back, I thought, yeah, he's just kind of he's just biding his time. He's keeping his tire alive. And a couple of people around him who have arguably higher pedigrees, allegedly, didn't quite manage the same trick. So, you know, he wrote a really great race.

Yeah, well, we'll talk about that when we get to Moto2. I think there's a lot to be said about that. We need to dissect it some Moto GP signings. Bizecki signs with Mooney. I think we all knew this was going to happen.

His flirtation with the Pramac second seat was always flirtatious. He was always going to stay with Rossi. Well, when you stay with Rossi, I would. Right. I mean, kind of if you're going to hit your horse to something, hit you to Rossi and see where it takes you.

And it's a solid, solitary lesson in the Bastianini that the worst you can be squad in amongst all of this as well, isn't there? In the sense that sometimes if you're comfortable somewhere and you're doing well, well, not necessarily a great idea to upset the apple cart, as we say over here. So I think he's made the right decision. Yeah, he's on a year old bike, but let's be honest, it's a Ducati. So he'll get the most out of it.

He will. So Pekka and Bastianini stay together at Levano Ducati. So the rumors of Bastianini was going to lose out. That didn't happen, didn't pan out. To me, that's the right thing, only in the sense that Bastianini is a supreme talent and he had unforeseen issues.

He got clotted in Portomayo and broke his shoulder, which is difficult. And then he really hasn't had his feet back under him. And then, well, he has problems this weekend as well. So we'll get to that when we cover the MotoGP side of things. But a lot of the pieces are now starting to come together, like who's where and why in MotoGP and where they all are.

Except for there is still that one seat open at that one team and there's one former world champ who is said to be eyeing that seat. We all know who that is. What, the 93? I think so. Which there, I mean, if you're willing to dive into ex-knee Twitter and you're willing to sit wait into that way, that says pull without waiters on, you will see that there are many people who say that if Marquez does leave Honda, Repsol's gone because Repsol will simply follow him because he's a Spanish juggernaut of sponsorship.

I don't know that to be true. Even if it did happen, Honda's not going to stop racing in the top class. They will simply fun it themselves. And we may have the one bike that I think was the most beautiful Honda ever. And that was with McDoone race in HRC colors in 94.

Well, Bradle used to bring out the HRC colors from time to time with his wild cards. Doin's bike was super. I think it was 95. It was a 95 bike. That Honda was something special as far as paint.

I really thought that was one of the best paint jobs on a race bike ever. So we'll shall see. So with that, we only have some World Superbike and BSP news. So why don't you finish us up with that, Rich? Yeah, just very quickly on the news.

So I think this is official. I quickly jumped onto Facebook, which I hardly ever go on to, but it just popped up on my kind of notification thing on my phone literally half an hour ago, which was a long statement from Jonathan Ray to say that he is leaving the Kawasaki racing team, despite the fact that he has a contract next year. But obviously contracts are there to be broken. So no announcement on where he's going to go. But I think we can say with almost certainty that he will be replacing inverted commas, top rack, Razz Gattioglu, the Yamaha, Patti Yamaha team next year.

So yeah, that's a big, big old bit of news really in terms of World Superbike, probably we're not going to do it justice it deserves, but that's the news there. And quite a few things going on in BSP. But well, just very, very quickly, Jason O'Halloran is moving across to the Kawasaki team in BSP because the McCams Yamaha squad are pulling out basically at the end of this season after many years of success. So that was a quick bit of news there. The main piece of news regrettably and very unfortunately in BSP is the very sad news over the weekend that Paul Bird, boss of the juggernaut is the only word you can really use to describe the PBM Gucati team.

Years and years, I mean, I forget how many championships they've pulled, but seven or eight, I think, BSP titles. Paul Bird very sadly succumbed to a short illness in hospital and died some point over the weekend. I mean, I mean, it is a tragic thing. I mean, he was not an old man. A colourful past, certainly, and quite a colourful character, but an absolute, well, I don't know what the word is really, an absolute behemoth really in the BSP paddock, quite how the championship gets over this one.

I don't know. I mean, hopefully the PBM team continues. I think they're kind of first and third or first and second in the championship at the minute. They've certainly up there. Tommy Bridewell in that team is leading the championship at the moment.

Yeah, just really, really sad news. So we took a tweet out at the weekend just to give our condolences to the family, the team, all the fans, the riders, etc. I mean, the history of that team is immense. So we cannot underestimate the significance of that guy's passing, Jim. So Alton Park in a week or so's time is good, or two weeks from now, is going to be a pretty sombre affair.

I'm sure Stuart Higgs and the team at BSP will do a magnificent job, as they always do, of recognising, you know, towering talents that are lost to the sport. They've done it many, many times and I'm sure they'll do it again. So yeah, our deepest condolences to everybody concerned and that's really all there is to say on the matter. But yeah, sad news in BSP. Very sad news.

But we have happy news. We have happy things to talk about and that's the racing that came, Kersi, at the Circuit de Catalunya. We'll start with Saturday's MotoGP sprint race. The front row consisted of Ben Jaya, who qualified with an all-out track record of a 1.38-6.39. So in the cooler, over-class, cloudy conditions that were existing on Saturday, he wound up having a record run.

Then it was the Aprilias that showed well after that, Alessio Spargaro, Olivera, then Yalas, then Jorge Martín and Johan Zarco on the first two rows for the sprint race. And that's how they'll line up for the race on Sunday. But in the sprint race, Ben Jaya gets a great hole shot. He gets out in front of Martín. Then Yalas then blows by Martín.

Pizzecki was 10th and then he shot all the way up to 5th. And O'Overa, he just simply decided to go backwards in this race. Alessio would wind up moving his way up from his starting spot to get to 2nd. He had fallen back, I think, like 4th or 5th at the beginning of that. And then he wrote his way up to 2nd after a couple of laps.

Martín blew off turn one. A lot of people were going way late, way deep into that. He was amazing that he actually slid between the Aprilias and didn't hit anybody or take anybody out. But he did tumble down the order there for a little bit. Polo Spargaro would fall off during the race.

But Bagnaia and Alessio Spargaro were having a good go, were having a good go at each other. They were definitely hooked up and they were pulling away from Yalas about halfway through. They had pulled a pretty good gap. Then it was like, you realize the race is going to be between Bagnaia and Alessio to see what was going to happen. Alessio kind of tries to get by at turn one, but he can't quite get it pulled off.

He keeps trying it again. Bagnaia is very good on the brakes. He gets very late with the brakes. The Ducati is one of the more stable, if not the most stable bike on the brakes heading into that turn one. But with only six laps to go, Alessio does finally get by at turn one.

He makes the move finally stick. Then after Bagnaia, it was Vinales, Binder and Oliveira. Binder having now raced his way up. Binder being a Sunday man also is a Saturday man when it comes to sprints. He was moving forward on KTM as well.

Alessio has the pace. He had half a second on everybody as it was going through. Basically, Alessio checked out at the end of this one. Alessio would win but there was a great last lap battle that took place with Vinales and Binder, Martín and Oliveira. That battle was great between Bagnaia and Vinales, but it did turn off that way.

The podium was a Lace, then Binaia, Binales, Binder, Martín, Oliveira, Zarco, Bizecki, Basini, Alex, Marquez being the top 10 in the Moto3 race. It was great to see the Aprilias having form, Rich. Not just the two factory Aprilias, I think having three Aprilias with form was interesting. Although Oliveira was hot and cold, although we must admit that Oliveira did have a very nasty crash on Saturday morning that destroyed his primary bike. Maybe the secondary bike, despite being the same thing, there are always just that fractionally different.

You could have two frames welded up with the same guy and the same jig on the same day and they will not handle the same 2.8. Very dedicated, precise feeling talent that these guys are in MotoGP. They will know the difference between the two bikes and maybe that was just what his problem was for that day. I thought it was a decent sprint race, not one of the most exciting sprint races that we've seen so far, but definitely a good race that had happened. There was the good battle early between Olatian and Vinales and then you did have Olatian and Vinales having that real good little tussle or decide who was going to be in there.

I also thought that that was kind of cool that they had the sprint podium up in the fan zone. These guys were taking off on their MotoGP bikes and running up the back roads on the inside of the track to get to where all the fans were, which I thought was rather cool. If you're going to do that, that was probably one of the coolest ones I've seen so far as opposed to just being on the front stretch or in the same area as in the pits or whatever. This I thought was different and unique, although it was a little bit weird seeing these guys ride their bikes on a street, if you will, with all the cars and everything else used. Your thoughts on the sprint race, Rich?

A good point about the podium, I just wonder if this is the first little inklings of Dan Rosamundo. I think his name is the guy who's come from the NBA, knows about fan engagement. I don't know what you had to do to be down in that little pit because clearly that was not a huge number of people compared to the crowd size. Nevertheless, nice to see a little bit of closer engagement between the riders, the teams and the actual, well, let's say, day paying fans that were there. Lots of youngsters in the crowd as well.

So yeah, signs in the right direction. I mean, as you say, Jim, interesting race, nothing too spectacular. The thing that really caught my attention a couple of times was with the, I don't know, helicopter or drone overhead shots really emphasized how good the Aprilias were coming off the turns, even against the Ducati. Ducati we know is a weapon down the straight, but it's all about coming off the turns as well. And Barcelona being the track that it is, there are some long straights with fastish turns before them.

And you could really see that that Aprilia or those Aprilias were working very, very well coming out of the fast turns and making up a lot of ground on Banyaya. So that bowed it well for the next day. But yeah, nice to see Aleix doing the biz and making up for some of the disappointment, 12 months or 14 months, whatever it was prior. He did take it to heart though. He did have on his helmet, one more lap, which I thought was, what are you going to do?

Embrace it, right? You made it, embrace it, put it behind you. So he at least got there. And he did finish with a very fantastic standup wheelie. For those of us who actually liked that sort of thing, I thought that was pretty impressive.

At the speed he was going at. I wouldn't even try that because I would be, yeah. That's what makes it even harder to me is like you have wings on the front, which are dedicated to the idea of pushing it onto the front, to pushing it down. And I mean, it isn't like, there wasn't any aerodynamic effect by it, but there would have been yet. He still just rode right on through with it.

So maybe he gets, maybe the hard part is just getting above the angle of attack of the wing and you then stall the wing like you would in an aircraft. And it holds you up there. Yeah. It has no effect to it. Right.

So who knows? But it is, it is, and was interesting. So we come back on Sunday. Again, it is cloudy. Did you notice how they seem to talk all the time about how it was cloudy?

That was like an overriding theme. It's cloudy. I guess it's, I guess it's sunny Spain on the Mediterranean coast, but they just sort of pounded it. It was still hot. It's just seem to be like, that's cloudy.

It's cloudy today. Cloudy, cloudy, cloudy. All the talk going into the weekend, Jim, was it was going to be torrential rain and it never really kind of came back, did it? If anything, probably the conditions were better being a little bit cooler for a lot of the bikes, not all of them, but yeah, it was not quite the downpour that we were led to believe, but yeah, I never believe a weather forecast. No, do not.

Yeah. It's like, I know here, I think here in the U S they have some weird thing that they do. Like if they say that there is a 60% chance of rain, it means that like in the area that they predicted, it will be 60% chance. It has nothing to do with being straight up. Hey, on this day, there's a chance of rain falling.

No, it's like, you got to multiply it by some other factor of this area. It's weird. Anyway, I'm not a meteorologist, but don't do anything. That's certain about a forecast is it's wrong. It's just how long it is.

So let's get back to the racing on Sunday. We'll start with the Moto3 race. Interestingly, Helgardo who has shown good form did not, did have problem of being in Q1 for Moto3. He of course got through when they take the top four. It wasn't that bad of a deal, but in the final qualifying session for Moto3, this long straightaway at Barcelona, you know that it's very important that to have that toe all the way down that front straightaway when you're starting the last lap that you're going to get in qualifying.

A lot of people seem to get it time just right because everybody was turning a red sector with no time on the clock, but it would work out to be that Ortola would have the pole position. Anci would be second, Kelso with a fantastic third, then Masi, Bertolini, and Suzuki or Sasaki. Sasaki or Suzuki? I forget. Sasaki.

So that was how they would get, that's how they would start here. Now, unfortunately, Colin Vier had a chance to be like the first Dutchman to have back-to-back poles, but he did crash in the qualifying session, which also broke his foot. We didn't see the crash. I didn't see the crash. Maybe somebody's seen it somewhere.

I have not seen anything about the crash, but it looked like, you don't know how he did it, but apparently he did break his foot because he was then declared unfit for the race on that Sunday morning. So unfortunately, we didn't have Colin Vier to see what he could do in this race. The crash was actually shown. I don't remember seeing it, but then again, I was going to say it's the kind of crash you don't see anymore, particularly MotoGP or the welcome to that. But yeah, with these little skinny tires that the Moto3 bikes have, it doesn't take much for them, despite the fact that they're quite relatively underpowered.

But is it the tight little downhill left-hand turn five? Yeah. That natural little turn. Yeah. He just lit it up and yeah, it did spit him up pretty high and it did come down hard.

So he did go out again, actually. He tried to turn a lap, but obviously at that point, I didn't know what the injury was. So yeah, as you say, broken foot, which ruled him out. Yeah. That's unfortunate.

I did not see a replay of it. Because he'd been like really quick on the Friday. So yes, he was making good on all the promise that we've seen. So he'll be back. Yeah, it'll be fine.

It's not a problem. Ah, at the start, Anshu got a great hole shot, followed by Ortolo and Kelso, then Massia, Bertoli and Rueda. Now, Horgardo would wind up being 15th at that start. Massia, Anshu and Kelso would have a great little tussle at the front and bit players would show up here and there. Like Alonso would race to the front.

He'd have a lap. Then sort of Massia would go back in front. Then Alonso would run in front again. Anshu was now starting to run sort of in that three, four, five part of the group, which I thought was interesting because most of what Anshu has done in the last couple races, especially the races that he's won, he's laid back and timed it to perfection at the very end. I'm thinking, well, maybe Alonso or Anshu is just going to ride around, follow Alonso, follow Ortolo, just keep himself in that top kind of three, four places and ride this one out and snag a victory here again.

But Horgardo had some different thoughts because he made his way from 15th to like fifth. He actually went to the front for a little bit as well. So again, we know in Moto3, long straight away, it really doesn't quite matter where you start on the grid. It just helps to be in the front train. But then at one point, I think they said they had 23 bikes that were covered by a second or a little bit more than a second.

It was a huge group of 23 at the front of this thing. And basically the entire field. Yeah. Now I was impressed because I have been on this soapbox many a time about the Moto3 guys whipping it into the pit entry, the pit lane exit area and crossing over that area of the triangle painted area there. And I've been on about that, that I don't like it.

I hate it. I just think it's recipe for disaster. They all have behaved themselves quite well. I think they may have made it that you're not allowed to cross the yellow because it was a very bright section of yellow paint that nobody was touching. And we know from previous races that everybody has gone there.

So I don't know officially if there was a, hey, you can't cross this, but they seem to definitely be paying attention to more of staying inside the track. Now there were some that were kind of floating out there here and there, but sometimes you have to go with that because the draft will pull you along and do things that you just do not understand that will happen on a motorcycle. I know the first time I was at Road America and I'm heading into turn one, I'm getting towed by two guys. I knew the draft would have an effect of my braking power. So I said, I'm going to brake earlier.

And even then it felt like I had no brakes in the motorcycle whatsoever because I was being pulled along inside of that vacuum. So I can understand that sometimes you just got to go there. But all in all, I thought the guys did a really good job of staying out of that pit entry lane and they're all racing for it. Anchi would bounce back to the front. Mossy would take a turn to the front.

Mossy did a lot of donkey workout front. Mossy on that Honda was pretty quick because there isn't any stop-start point to this track. It's very much a flow track with a long straightaway. Plus you get those three corners in succession that are all right-handed, just right, right, right again, and you're building speed the whole way. So the Honda's all seem to be well, at least Mossy's Honda seemed to be working quite well in all this.

Rurata was up front too and Ortola, by a little over halfway, it started to fall backwards. At one point he was 11 and then he just sort of kept on falling. And it was pretty, pretty, what's the word I'm looking for? Stunning that Ortola who was on pole would fall backwards like he was. Now there was Rurata got a track limit this morning and somewhere along the way with about five to go, Horgado, Anchi, Munoz who had raced his way to the front show up and Mossy is there.

And now this becomes a, I want to call it a free-for-all rich because it was pass you, pass back, pass me, I'll pass you. I think at one point we saw Alonso go from like fifth to first into the first turn, effect of a tailwind that was pushing everybody down the front straight away because it blew pretty hard all race day there. But that was the chaos that was the first couple of turns was nothing compared to the chaos that we were going to see on the last lap of this race. It was quite amazing as they went to it on the last lap. Horgado was leading Alonso, Masi, Anchi and Munoz.

Then Masi was went to the front around Alonso, around Munoz. Horgado was back to fourth or fifth. Then Anchi went full send at turn 10. Anchi went up the inside, threw it in there. And so as they all came out of that Munoz led but we had lost Horgado.

Horgado had fallen at 10 which was kind of the original picture. He was out of our realm of vision on it but he had fallen. It was later determined it was his own crash. He simply was in deep, the back was light. He let the back end come around on him and he winds up low siding it there.

Meanwhile Alonso had gotten past Masi and they were flying at each other getting ready to go to the last turn. So Alonso decides to go up the inside which causes a chain reaction that puts Munoz outside but then here comes Anchi full chat and the two of them converge into each other. It knocks Munoz off and so originally as they finished Anchi would be third. So Alonso wins the race in a crazy last lap. Masi would be second.

Then Anchi was actually third but I'm like you know that somebody's gonna have to ruin this party because somebody's gonna not like this this incident and sure enough the stewards came back saying that he deserved a double long lap penalty which he could not serve because this happened on the very last lap. So they gave him the equivalent time penalty to going through the long lap of the inconvenience twice which gave him a six second penalty which dropped him down the way. So we'll finish off where everybody is and then we'll dissect this accident and talk about the penalties and everything else. So Alonso wins the race. It's his second win.

So the Colombian is on song looking very good. Masi is second. On the podium then is Rueda. Then it's Sasaki, Nepa, Rossi, Toba, Suzuki, Yamanaka, Ortola, Bertelli and Anchi finishes 12th because of the six seconds that they add to his time. Now my thought on this with Anchi is that penalty did not fit the crime that was that Anchi committed.

I contest that that is pure racing incident. Munoz got pushed out there. Anchi is on the gas and now a Moto3 bike you have to commit to the line of that corner. Anchi is on a trajectory that he really almost can't control because he's flat chat through that corner. He's also hanging off the left side of the bike so he can't see over the bike.

The person who's coming at him from his left is Munoz who can see or should be able to see feel or hear that something is going to be there or in the very least he should be under the knowledge that somebody's going to be underneath of him there or at least attempting to but he wanted to try to get back to the draft and save what he could and perhaps maybe finish third. That's where his mind is. The two of them again like I said it's a converging two lines and essentially boom they go together and unfortunately Munoz goes down. Now looking back I kind of think about it it was a bit ambitious by Anchi but then again the door is open so why wouldn't you go for it but if they gave him a single long left penalty and only gave him a three second penalty I would have been more happy with that. Rich you got thoughts because I can tell how you're I can see how you're looking there and he's got that smile folks which means Rich has got something to say.

Oh well I'm not going to go for minutes and minutes bitching a moment about this but I just thought that was the most one of the most ridiculous decisions I've ever ever witnessed in my entire life because I mean you summed it up Jim there's a little melee in that front three which pushes David Munoz you might say not particularly through his own fault but that's besides the point you know they have a little tussle Munoz goes wide okay he's cutting back to the line because it's the last corner on the last lap meanwhile Anchi let's say hanging off the right side of the bike so somewhat unsighted as to what's going on behind and I mean it looked like he had like the turbo pressed didn't he or the nitrous oxide because he came through that turn so flipping fast but I suppose that was partly because the guys had kind of tangled with each other so it slowed them up so he was coming in at a rate of knots but he was on his line at racing speed whereas the others are tussled and yeah I mean he and Munoz collided but quite why that was judged to have been Anchi's fault is absolutely beyond me I mean it was 100% a racing incident tough on Munoz yes but I just don't understand why that was Anchi's fault I mean he was simply going through on his race and I don't think he did anything wrong and he should have been third I completely agree that's all I got to say on the matter I will add one more thing to this if this had happened at say Argentina or let's say it happened that maybe Kota or let's say it maybe happened at Mugello through you know one of the turns there like the last turn at Mugello I think there would have been no penalty and it would have been called racing incident I think this had the ire of the stewards because there's very little gravel trap at a high rate of speed and an immovable object i.e. the fence there I think that just because of the track the layout of the track and and there being the proximity of an immovable object caused the stewards to want to throw the book at Anchi for his indiscretion personal opinion because I think if this same thing would have happened in Austria they would have been doing the same thing but again we get into that whole thing of there's precedent of what they're trying to do and I understand where they are but we can't nanny state this because I'm telling you I did it of my own free will I got on a bike and raced as hard as I could these guys gonna like race as hard as I could you know that's what they do it's just the makeup right they know that inherent risk that they're willing to take to do it and for the benefit of our entertainment right I mean you go back to the Knights of Old and Jousts and night tournaments and the crowds roaring for their approval it's the same thing right we just are sitting in the same room and Coliseums just they happen to be all over the world have to be motorcycles there so if it's anywhere else other than here or Austria I don't think that I don't think it gets a penalty or it only gets a three second penalty my take I mean I just think we've arrived at a point where if two riders come together and one goes down somebody has to get a penalty it's not a question of whether it's a racing incident anymore it's like somebody has to pay a price for that so I mean I if you take this to its logical extension what is on to supposed to do in that situation is in fourth place going into the last turn is he to hold back just in case something happens in front of him in which case he won't finish on the podium and so why is he even there I mean he's there to win so I don't know I just just I know we keep going on and I'm sure the listeners get utterly sick of it but and I'm sure most of the listeners think exactly as we do that this is just ridiculous really it was hard on Munoz but you know he dished out some pretty tough moves during the course of that race himself I mean this is not a young lad who is famous for his politeness on a racetrack so you know what goes around comes around and he was just in the wrong position at the wrong time you know it's just that's racing so to give onto any sort of penalty was I think a bit too much for him to be able to I think a bit tough and to give him a double long lap lap penalty equivalent of what was it six seconds was just six seconds utterly bonkers so yeah I'm really really disappointed by that and yes I am a bit of a Donis Donis onto you fan I hold my hands up I've got no reason to be I mean I've been to Turkey once nice country I don't have a Turkish wife you know nothing about Turkey is anything to do with me I just like his attitude and I like the way he goes about doing what he does and David Munoz for that matter and I suspect probably Munoz thought that was a pretty tough penalty on onto you as well so I mean I'm pleased for Rueda he had a great race to get into you know and ultimately he finished third as a result of that but yeah no that was that was not correct for me all right we'll leave that as the final word on that incident and we'll look at the championship standings here in moto 3 Helgardo now has a third only a 13 point lead over Sasaki who was sort of absent all weekend to be honest he wasn't really anywhere you know Sasaki's name was not really mentioned anywhere so he is a whole guard oh that is is a further 32 points ahead of Joel Massey Aunchu is fourth in the title fight followed by Ortolla Alonzo Marrera Rueda NEPA and Artigas it is Helgardo's to lose although Sasaki is going to make this interesting I do not think Masa I think the fight for third and fourth between Anju and Masia will be interesting to watch but I don't think those guys have what it takes to run with Helgardo and Sasaki for the championship stranger things have happened there's a lot to go here but that's a I don't know Jim I mean 20 20 points Kevin the top four with a lot of seasons still to go I mean a whole guard oh starting to have a couple of these off weekends I mean Asun so did it get to the costa yeah well it's yeah I mean it's a wobble midseason wobble not the first person to have it but you know there's a couple the thing is that Sasaki Masia and Anju by comparison to Holgardo who is a stellar talent let's be clear but those three guys have a lot of experience they've been through this championship a lot of times so they'll dig in for this very very hard run through to the end of the season now I mean this is like a super super series of races coming up now so 20 points yeah I still think it's anybody's despite Holgardo's great year so far but you know these little issues like falling off on the last lap they bound to niggle away at the back of his brain a little bit yeah unlucky for him really but you know Anju I mean Masia was second so he's caught up a fair bit Sasaki as you say Jim was kind of a little bit kind of absent all weekend but still finished fourth I mean that was a great result all things considered and Anju well very very unlucky to be penalized by the idiots in race control because that was just the most one of the most egregious things ever but enough of that but although I'm going to be on a rant again later on because there's another one coming but anyway Moto 2 I suppose is what we're heading to next oh yes we shall move to the Moto 2 so Moto 2 still cloudy you know windy we always got to be they were very very curious about how they kept talking about that but they were there if we look at it from the standpoint of what was going on here we had Dixon who would start in the pole position followed by Agura now that was great of Dixon because in free the last free practice he put four tenths on everybody so that was a stellar feat of speed that he had but he was able to take it and carry it forward into pole which was great to see from Jake then you had a girl but you had this kid called Alonso or not Alonso sorry Acosta who had a great lap going in qualifying and he goes through seven a little wide which takes you to the which is the left hander which takes you to the right hander of eight which everybody's always on the curves in that corner anyway he misses it by oh I don't know what a millimeter if not less to which he was I won't say Acosta was headed for pole position but I will say Acosta was guaranteed to be on the front row if not the front he was definitely going to be heading up the second row because it was a stellar lap that Acosta was putting in when he couldn't really make anything work but of course he gets zapped that lap because oh yeah you ran over the curves and touched the micro amount of green that happens to be there and to me this one hurts only because if that was grass that was there because we always talk about how look we put grass there to be okay if he had been there on with grass it wouldn't have slowed that bike down one iota he had so much rubber left over on the curb that it wasn't going to change what was going to happen in that lap so if we decide that we're going to make these changes if you will and say well the limit's the limit and because we don't want to derive anybody getting any more out of it and the whole argument like well if it was grass there then he would have suffered his own penalty he would know because there was enough meat of the tire still on the road to keep him driving forward but anyway I'll leave that I'll leave that there so that lap gets nullified so that meant that it was Gagnola Gonzalez Areno and Alonso all then filling in the parts as you as you slipped across the down to I think he started ninth on the grid or somewhere thereabouts for the moto 2 race do you want to have a go at track limits there Richard you want to save it we've been left many times after you know let you at least have a try at that one when this race starts I think this race really winds up like in three distinct parts there's like three distinct races I think actually happened in this one the first part of the race is like Dixon gets out in front of Gonzalez with Agurra and Kinnett and you're that front race there is you're trying to figure out who's going to do anything Gonzalez was doing so much work to get around Dixon which he eventually finally does and Agurra was kind of keeping pace but Kinnett then sort of rode up to the front of the race and it was Dixon kind of fell back into that third fourth fifth part and you sort of had Gonzalez kind of doing the race and leading there but along the way Mr Acosta had gotten himself free of the chasing pack and cue the Jaws music because he just started running everybody down he wasn't doing it at a great clip but it was a tenth here a tenth there and there's plenty of time and we're all worried about rear grip here at Catalonia anyway especially with the moto 2 bikes is they like to back them in and they do spin them up coming out because they've got that nice power curve off of the Triumph and so as we get to it we have Acosta getting by with about 12 laps to go and he does put the move on at turn one Acosta was getting great drive out of the last turn was able to take advantage of the braking stability that he has built into his K-Lex and his trust in the front and basically we wound up with Acosta being at the front of the pack and in fact Acosta would start to slightly pull away from everybody else you sort of thought I did I thought well this one's in the book just let's knock this one up and oh by the way since Arbolino couldn't get out of first qualifying session and in the on Saturday he was running like up at 11th but had fallen his way back to 17th and Arbolino was not going to do to have any points whatsoever so wow you're thinking Acosta has got the dagger out he's getting ready to stab Arbolino right in the heart and this championship is going to get broke wide open but there was a certain Brit who had a different idea of what to do about this now Dixon starts to now come on here in the last part of this race he kind of moves up from his third his fourth fifth spot to third he kind of dispenses with a girl and he kind of gets on by Gonzalez and then he slides up to get to near Acosta now Acosta was starting to get into tire trouble because it was evident that pegs were feet were leaving pegs on the exit of several of the what is the the over the brow turn was 14 is the last one so 13 like 12 I think it is over the brow Acosta was like losing a peg here he was losing he was losing his foot other places like this doesn't look good because now Dixon was doing the 10th here 10th there 10th here 10th there kind of a thing to which he winds up he winds up running down with Canet they runs down Acosta Acosta then just hit the cliff with his tire he also had a track limits warning and I think Acosta was like you know again that was one of those ones that was marginally best for track limits but okay you get three calls in a race to get it and he Acosta seems to be one of these kids who rides it right to that ragged edge because it seems like almost every weekend when there's high speed directional changes he's always at or near or getting a track limits warning I think he knew that Arbolino was way back in the pack so I think Acosta decided to pack it in at this point and was just going to be willing to ride at home whenever wherever he was going to finish he was just going to ride at home he was guaranteed to be sort of in that top top six which was going to be good points so he kind of packed it in but then Canet came to play with this as well he gets sort of back by Dixon they're having a great pack and forth the rain is had rode his way to the front now Aranis had a strong qualifying session had a strong weekend going but he looked even more impressive than Acosta did on the io squad and you know there with five or so laps to go you kind of thought Aranis was the best chance for io to take a win in this one but that wouldn't pan out as Dixon basically carved out a lead and he wound up well because on the last lap he he can it tried to go by Jake at turn one it didn't happen he tried again at 10 but that didn't work and it was it was he was so close to losing it that he basically had to let Dixon go ahead and win so Dixon beats Canet Aranis gets his first podium in the class moto 2 Garcia has a great ride to be third then it was Gonzales Acosta slid to sit Gonzales and Acosta slides to sixth then it was Aguero Lopez Lowe's and Chelsea Ovietti rounding out the top 10 that was a great moto 2 race there was a lot of passing back and forth among the top guys tire wear played a great effect in this race the whole way through Dunlap tires are great don't get me wrong it's an abrasive surface very abrasive surface and we always seem to have tire trouble there with rears and stuff but I thought this was one of the best moto 2 races I've seen probably since the beginning first couple of years when this thing was a serious axe murder class as Jim Race liked to say what did you think Rich I know you had to be stoked that Jake won another one well yes I mean without wishing to be too sort of partisan about it obviously delighted to see Dixon not just winning the race but the manner in which he went about controlling his race and ultimately prevailing I mean I think that was really the takeaway for me but also kind of interesting it kind of shone a light I think perhaps on something that we don't necessarily talk about very much in any of the classes and certainly not moto 2 which is probably to do with bike setup because we know Barcelona is a very abrasive track so and also the the last kind of 10, 5 laps or whatever is crucial in terms of tire life particularly rear so Dixon started from pole led the early laps and then kind of dropped back to fourth in that middle part of the race whereas by contrast let's say Acosta who had started what was he seventh or eighth or something I think he started ninth I think okay so he sort of came forward he didn't have to make up any great big gaps it's not like he was having to sort of bridge a five second gap at any point in that race but he sort of gradually came to the front and then suddenly his tire quite evidently as you said because his feet were coming off the pegs and he was clearly spinning up he kind of lost his rear tire whereas at that almost at that exact moment Dixon decided to push forward again and clearly had the tire so there's something about managing the race and managing the tire in there which is for a scientific engineering brain much bigger than mine but I think we could conclude that that was kind of the deal that happened and whether that was Dixon's and Aspar's team's game plan we don't know but certainly he rode a excellent race Jake Dixon did I mean I have to feel very sorry for Aaron Konek and second again not to say I didn't want Jake to win because I absolutely did but I would have loved to see Aaron Konek win a race I'm sure he will at some stage in Moto2 but you know you have to feel sorry for him getting the runner-up spot again so that was my main takeaway and also interesting I suppose my final point really just as a general thing is interesting that Albert Arenas has his best weekend in Moto2 after being dropped by the IO team is that the pressure release thing going on or is it just right I'm in the shop window probably a bit of both but it's probably more just you know he knows he's not in that team anymore that's what we were led to believe from a couple of the commentators anyway saying that he's not there next year and he turns up his best result so just interesting the psychology of how all this works really yeah there's something to be said about bike setup and preserving the rear tire especially here in Barcelona right I mean if it would have rained that throws it all out the window right it would have been a rain race or what race or whatever it would have been completely different and whatnot but you know it you can to me what I think is interesting is if you if you look at how Jake Dixon rides and you look at how Acosta rides the two ride completely different Acosta is very much a more of a pointy need the weight on the front end kind of a thing which then tends to make you sort of spin up a little bit in the back you use more of the rear to propel yourself forward because you don't have that weight transfer if it is transferring it's going later right it takes a while for that momentum change to move the weight to go back to the rear Jake is not and Acosta has always sort of got the back end sort of light and it's sort of wiggly and whatnot Jake seems to have it more planted he I think he'd do really good on the moto gp bike because of the Michelin being really grippy on the rear and we don't see that back end wiggling around in space so much and Dixon sort of straight lines it right into the corner and if you do that you're putting more even wear on both tires you're not you're not having to wait for that weight transfer either way but it does make it a little not as quick to turn or react to what you're doing which Acosta seems to like a nervous bike that way which are things that we tend to not think about and in motor too because everybody's sort of on the same motorcycle and you know Dunlap's the single supplier and they don't have as many compounds really to choose from as what like moto gp has and everybody sort of settles towards the same tire mainly I think because Dunlap recommends that tire and you know some of the guys who've been there long enough can kind of go off script a little bit but most of them haven't been there that long especially now with that size Dunlap and they tend to just skew towards what Dunlap says to do I think this is going to be really wild to watch next year when we go to Pirelli I think you need to remember how all these bikes looked and reacted when they're on Dunlaps and then when we put them on Pirelli's next year this is going to be an even more fascinating thing to watch because the Pirelli is nothing like a Dunlap in the way they are and the bikers are going to have to be completely set up and go a completely different direction for tire life and stuff like that and it's going to be fascinating and fun to watch so with that I think we should look at the point situation coming out of the race here Acosta leads now by 22 points over Arlino thanks in big part to Arbolino not scoring any points Acosta had that chance to really pound a nail in the coffin of Arbolino for the world championship he didn't get that opportunity but you know it's only a 22 point lead we've seen Acosta make mistakes we've seen him be nervous on the front end if he gets another race of tire trouble I think India is a huge I don't know what's going to happen event because we've never been there with a bike with MotoGP bikes at all that track has been sitting for a long time I don't think there's it's in use very much so that's going to be a real wild card in this championship so I'm looking forward to that round to see what happens here because it could easily be you know one small crash one small tip Arbolino finds form and it's there but it is definitely I think a two-horse race although I think you would contest that Jake would have a chance only being 44 points out but I just think that Acosta and Arbolino are just on a different level right now than than everybody else that's chasing yeah no I think Jake's too far behind now and also I think and again without wishing to get too sort of psychoanalytical about things but it just kind of feels like the wins of Arbolino sells a little bit you know he's does a couple of off weekends the MotoGP Grissini thing hasn't panned out whereas Acosta's in the ascendancy you know we expect him to be in MotoGP next year it just has that kind of feel about it to me Jim yeah yeah yeah it does have that uh anyway Kinet is fourth Alonso's fifth V86 Altegr's seventh slash eighth Chanchi ninth Lowe's is tenth in the championship and with that let's finish up with the final race of the day and that being the MotoGP race now this one was interesting because they were talking before the race about the front tire not la the medium front tire not going to distance on this race and everybody being very um sensitive to the tire wear that's happening in the front so it was interesting Simon Krayfor is talking to the guys from Mission they're saying well you have to understand everybody went with a soft rear for the sprint race and that provided way more grip on the back which means that the front end is now plowing or understeering so they were seeing a lot more wear on the front than they normally would when they told the guys they needed to work on their balance of their bikes and they needed to probably run the medium medium for the race distance which everybody was going to go to well if the medium rear isn't as sticky as the soft rear then you're not going to push the medium front as hard are you so it was interesting to talk about hear them talking about this balance this understeer that was there it was really good technical stuff from Simon which I'm really starting to enjoy the the technical aspects that Simon is like cueing us into I think us anorak type people who are really involved in the sport love those little technical nuggets that are coming out that Simon's doing so for that one I thought was really great so that's how they're going to start with almost everybody on the entire grid was running medium front medium rear we take off again we got the same lineup in there if you hear my dog I'm sorry apologize for that but we start off then Yaya has the whole shot that is just absolutely wicked oh and did you also hear how I think it might have been on Saturday Simon was saying that he says not only do we have an aerodynamic war we have a clutch war going on too because we're talking about setting bite points and potentially using apparatus to set those bite points and everything so I was kind of right there with that one with the KTMs and how their launches have worked now sort of I think Ducati's kind of caught back up because you know here at least the last couple races the Ducati's have been almost equal to the KTMs off the line if not maybe just a skosh better but we go running off into turn one and we have a tremendous pile up of about six riders in the first turn it happens in the mid pack and it's started by one Bastianini Bastianini is way way too deep on the inside heading into that first turn and he winds up bumping into who did he bump he bumped everybody pretty much okay everybody that's that works everybody yeah he had bumped into he had bumped into it he then wound up bumping into I think Bastianini Bastianini who then bumped into Zarco that bumped into Gigi Antonio bumped into like Alex Marquez who banged into Bizeki and they all six of them go tumbling I mean it was Skittles it was bonkers it was crazy that like you know I think they figured out somewhere that was like eight Ducati's or something were in this accident or something the whole Grissini team was there Zarco all this stuff but what we don't see happening because we're focused on everybody that's in the gravel trap we miss the wild and absolutely crazy moment that Peco Benyaya has as Benyaya comes out of two and from the brief little onboard cameras that they showed he simply has the gas on and he looks like a true dirt tracker here in America just got it lit up sideways coming out of this turn and then the inevitable happens when on a road racer it just goes too far to which there's suddenly get to be that change to the other side of the tire and it slips grips and poor Benyaya is just flung old school 500 high side off the bike and of course he is leading the race now it is chaos ensuing behind him and the man most blinded by it all was Bender who was falling he was running second at that time I don't even remember he was in second place there I think it might have been maybe Vinalas who then was cited by the accident was able to then avoid the fallen and spinning Peco Benyaya and Bender's left with this moment of decision and instantaneously Bender makes a great jink to his right to avoid hitting Peco anywhere in his chest or in his upper torso area and does get his legs he ran square over both of Pecos legs I feared the worst that Peco was going to have at least a broken tibula or fibula will cause a 350 pound motorcycle hitting you at that speed is not going to be fun or pretty Peco was down he you knew he was conscious because he tried to get up and when he tried to get up and he couldn't get up I really thought his leg was broken at that point it was a very vicious high side is a very vicious crash it was a crazy first corner have I missed anything rich in this synopsis well it's hard to unpick it all really it is it was yeah a lot went on in 20 seconds didn't it but yes well look Bastionini I don't know very reminiscent of what happened the year before with Nakagami who caused a very well let's say similar I mean he went in too hot collected several riders if you remember that I think he took out well he certainly took out Alex Rins who had a broken wrist I think as a result of that last year yes I believe so so it's the typical turn one Barcelona crash isn't it something just goes in a bit too hot it's just that kind of a corner really and if you go down or you clip somebody you're going to take a lot of people out so kind of that's what happened I mean Bastionini had a funny little look down at his dash just moments before he kind of ran out of road I don't know if he spotted that so I don't know if he kind of knew he was in trouble or whether there was a bike problem I'm not sure I mean as as we're going to find out Bastionini from an injury perspective has actually come out of this worse than Bagnale has although they were separate incidents so yeah let's talk about that I feared when he looked down that the whole shot device hadn't released so the bike couldn't react the way that he wanted it to now I don't know that for certain but that was what thought I had in my head because you there really wouldn't be anything on your dash you would want to look at at that point in the race I mean there's nothing to be gained you why would you say anything on it in the first three seconds of the race anyway so I was thinking it was more along the lines that the whole shot device didn't disengage like he thought it was going to which makes it still be like a chopper which means it would have been sort of really squiddly to try to like stop without having the weight transfer properly to the front of the bike which is what I think may have happened with that one well let's talk about the injuries let's talk about Benyaya's injuries first because Bagnale was treated on the scene by the medical car by the doctors in the medical car that's why they follow them at the start of the race to be able to do this he was taken in they thought he may have broken a leg they had to go do a cat scan he had consciousness the whole time his whole entire upper torso was fine there was nothing wrong there whatsoever but he did potentially have a break in his leg which required a cat scan because he didn't know whether it was an old injury that hadn't healed quite yet or what it was from my understanding as of right now that has been sussed out that he has no fracture in his leg and potentially will be allowed to ride in Mizano maybe not 100% fit because you've got to guarantee that that's been bone bruised and that is going to take some time to be able to put pressure on it depending on which one it is I'm assuming it's his is it the fibia is in the front I believe of your it's like your shin right I think it is the fibia tibia I think is in the back I may have it backwards guys I don't do biology well I'll have to ask my wife I forgot to but she's off doing other things today playing in a band somewhere but if that is true your ability to push that bike left to right and use your feet like you need to counter steer is going to be hard especially at Mizano because since it's his is it his right or his left that's injured I don't know which one I'm not sure I'm not sure to be honest I'm trying to think which way he was spinning I'm gonna guess it was his right yeah that's what I was thinking which means at least the pressure wouldn't be there when he goes through the high speed kink at Mizano so you still have your left to push yourself back up off that side of it now I do not know the extent of Bastianini's injuries because I know he was on a scooter and he rode into the medical center on the scooter rich fill us in on where Bastianini's injuries are or what they are well my understanding and again I might be a little bit off base with this but my understanding is that he's got the damage to his foot and to his wrist because he was run over as well yeah because it was just it was chaos wasn't it wasn't DG's bike that was sort of on top of him kind of possibly there were lots of bikes in there but he did get kind of run over which is always you know a gnarly situation all things considered I mean it's but in terms of both incidents it's been quite a big let off really so Bastianini's kind of troubled season continues really because yeah as I say probably physically he's in worse shape than Bagnari is amazingly because Bagnari's was by some stretch the more spectacular looking collision but yeah it sounds as if he's got off relatively lightly which is you know obviously very very good news if that had happened just 20 years ago I'm sure Benyaya would have had broken a collarbone maybe cracked a rib somewhere it goes to show you how awesome the airbags inside the suits are being able to recognize that Benyaya is airborne and in trouble and inflate him to be the Michelin man so that that impact is at least absorbed in somewhat one last thing I'll add to the crash was they cut to a quick scene of Peco's girlfriend and Tardazzi and she's shaken up which if you see someone that you care about deeply involved in that and from the pits where you are it was harrowing to watch very scary to see she's upset rightly so right and then there's Tardazzi you know he's okay he's conscious he's you know he he's everything's okay there he's just mad he has a broken leg and trying to I thought it was a sweet little moment it only just happened just for a brief second in the feed and they took it away but it shows you that they're how real and raw emotion can be in racing and in sports when you have something like this that happens and we don't see this very often because you kind of almost think that these guys are robots and the people around them are sort of robots too because it's a very structured mythological thing and then you know you get this moment of humanity which was interesting to see and you know thank goodness it's not a serious injury that he's obtained you know it's not a life-threatening injury of any kind whatsoever so good on that. So Jim I want to ask you I want to ask you a question there because I'm probably a little bit more old school like you are and probably like a lot of our listeners are and I'm kind of fascinated to know with a bit of feedback if we can get it from the listeners what their take on us is because like you I mean racing incidents it's part of the sport we don't want to see people getting hurt and seriously hurt of course we don't that's not what we want clearly MotoGP as a commercial promoter and whatever of the sport wants to generate as much thrills and spills and action as it can I'm kind of interested in this and it's a real area of nuance because Twitter with a few people that we often reference on the show kind of Twitter or X sorry whatever you have to call it this week lit up with people being very upset about some of the coverage and I will agree that I thought some of the replays before we knew exactly what was going on were pushing the boundaries a bit even for me and I'm not particularly one of those people that thinks that you should not see I mean cards on the table you know I like my bike racing I've been around a long time we've seen lots of stuff going on over the years I would I like to see what's happened I want to analyse it and understand it you know I understand that there are people involved and you don't want anybody to be hurt and seriously hurt certainly not but at the same time not being allowed to see anything I think is almost quite distressing to us as well in a way as race fans because we follow the riders and we follow the series and stuff so I get it's a really fine line homing in on the ambulance turning up and people kind of around the ambulance and then like the girlfriend who was distressed I think we're on a tightrope there in terms of invasion of privacy but Dawn is you know fighting against Formula One that likes to create drama I mean we don't need to create drama in MotoGP we've got plenty of it naturally perhaps somewhat unlike Formula One a lot of the time so I don't know it's a kind of an interest in what do you do for the best you know I think probably the TV direction I'm not blaming Dawn I mean I don't know who ultimately who's in charge of what actually goes out live I think they possibly pushed a bit too far on Sunday in terms of the constant replays before we knew quite who was okay and who wasn't particularly with reference to Bagnara of course I thought it was a bit distasteful kind of focusing on on his sister who's obviously his assistant in the pit every race and his girlfriend who was obviously very upset because she didn't know how badly injured he was at that stage so I don't know it's just an interesting facet of the sports to me in terms of how much do you show before it becomes too invasive too kind of much of an invasion whilst at the same time allowing those that want to understand what's unfolded in terms of the whole mechanics of how a crash happens and so on do you know what I mean it's a really hard balance to to find I okay wow um a lot in there so okay for me I agree I want replays and I want replays from every angle because I want to know were they on the gas too soon was the tire not warmed did something break on the bike etc etc etc um what we don't know is is they did kind of show a replay of rather quickly because we kind of knew everybody was up in the gravel trap and then we had realized that Benyaya was down but that coverage had not been shown because the director stayed with what happened in the gravel trap then we got a replay to go whoa that was like wow and then it it went away but in that time of all that time taking that obviously the medical car was there and they were with Benyaya very quickly now I would guarantee you that Dorn has got to be listening to the medical feed about what they need back and forth so I think they would have known at least that Benyaya was conscious and that if he had injuries it would not believe to be life-threatening so maybe then they can go they're okay in the clear to show us replays of that accident then again um chasing the ambulance up the track into the medical center and whatnot I thought got to be a bit much like I like I don't need to know that the ambulance is there I know that the ambulance is going there you've told us that I thought that was a bit of um we call it ambulance chasing here in the states you know um so so I thought that was a bit much um it's that's an interesting take on the privacy part of of what you said in there I'm not 100 sure that I know what's right or wrong there um no neither neither do I I mean it's a very very fine line yeah I what's informative and what's voyeuristic is a is a really difficult balance to strike I mean to me I didn't think they were out of line with Peko's girlfriend because it was a few seconds and it to me it showed the family that a team is and the concern that everybody had it wasn't like she was left to wonder what was going on no Tardazzi was there talking with her and trying to calm her down but I but and I I that's just what I thought instantly until you say this to me now I'm going and rethinking my thought going maybe that is a bit over the line too far but I I would have to suspect that you are willingly dating him you know he is a star of a world championship event you are going to be looked at in a different microscope than anyone else which is why some you know some people they prefer to stay in the in the motor homes behind the garage or deep in the garage or something like that um I guess you kind of I mean that's I mean I don't know where you draw that line because you could show people in the stands having a reaction to something that happened that's very bad on it and you can show that again is that invasion of the privacy of the people in the stands I don't know I have a ticket and I gave up all my rights to my images and everything else on that ticket by entering so I I don't know I really don't but I would love to know what everybody else wants to write us motor genuinely interested to know what people think I am too this is really interesting because I never thought of it from this perspective so yeah write us motopod motopodcast.com let us know I is it too far are we pushing a boundary here I don't know so well I mean there's obviously there's a lot of cameras everywhere these days so it's it's kind of the thing and I'm gonna have a little bit of a dig at formula one I suppose is the kind of thing that I suspect in formula one if they had an accident okay it's different for cars but take my point where there was jeopardy and people that were distressed that were close to say the driver I suspect they wouldn't show it I don't think they would show it live now but certainly if the driver was okay it would certainly make its way into drive to survive as part of the amping up the tension and the drama thing whereas Dorna or whoever was in control of the pictures on Sunday took the decision to throw it out live which is you know quite risky because you don't know I mean think about say I'm going way off to people that are even older than I am now but you know Ronnie Peterson at Monza yeah said well well the thing with Peterson was that he was involved in a big crash at Monza in what 78 79 I guess it would have been before bit before my time but he was quite badly injured in that accident but he actually died as a result or on the operating table because he had a blood clot that formed I think that's correct so he kind of died as a result of the crash but not directly because of the crash if you know what I mean fine line and you know when you get a leg injury if it's a bad one or any injury you don't know what's going to happen if you have to go under the surgeon's knife now happily Banyan I didn't I think it's just kind of like really severe bruising as you said Jim but so you don't never quite know how these things are going to turn out to you know one two three four five days later on so it's a it's a tricky line to tread that's the point that I'm making and I'm not criticizing them for what they showed because for me it was okay but I'm a bit older I can take it and I kind of like you I want to see and understand what happened but as I say X was lighting up with a number of well-known voices some of whom we've spoken to on this show who were very very upset about the coverage and to a degree that I think was possibly a bit for me over the top but then as I say I'm perhaps my sensibilities are a bit different to other people's and that's fine I mean we're all different but yeah just interested to know what people think hmm interesting con interesting questionnaire very like I said I I well I have to think about that some more oh let's go back to the race yeah there's a race the whole race to get through yeah the main the luckiest person on the planet was alleged because he barely missed being part of the the skittles effect uh in turn one he was the last guy to get through yeah millimeters between yeah yeah yeah yeah so definitely he was there so uh the other part and this is the one that I'd like to hear people's thought about was the you have five minutes to get back with your motorcycle to the pits to be able to make the restart so everyone was trying very hard to restart their bikes to get around the track to get to that spot several corner workers were falling when bikes started and stuff like that which nothing happened to them but again they're volunteer you could easily have one bike into the other because one zarko was trying to start he turned around into the path of somebody else the cleanup was chaos as well so I'm wondering if everybody is all still for this five minute rule to get back or not let us know I am not I would prefer something along the lines of if the rider himself because we have two bikes in moto gp if the rider himself can get himself back within five minutes or 10 minutes those guys could have left those bikes they could have ran back up the pit lane and got back in and that that would be fine and for me and my own personal take on it is it takes a little bit for the adrenaline to wear off you may not know you're actually hurting that bad when because of the adrenaline I myself experienced that I was hurt pretty bad one time I had no clue that I was just because my adrenaline was going and it was only about seven or eight minutes after the accident happened that I realized that man I my arm really hurts so I mean martin brundle if you've ever read his book working the wheel he talks about a crash that he had that he had a concussion to where he goes to leave the pits and before he does is do we turn right or left out of the box because he didn't know where he was so all adrenaline you know he ran all the way back up the pit lane I think it might have been Barcelona too to be honest with you but I don't remember that but you know to me I think it was Adelaide was it Adelaide sorry Melbourne he had that monster crash whichever but it's one that's doesn't matter does not matter the team owner said to Martin are you sure you're okay to drive says yeah yeah yeah which truck am I at that's it yeah something that's a great story right I mean it's true but that's what adrenaline can do to you so to me I'm a little weary of this five minutes to get back thing again I don't like the one bike rule in moto 2 or moto 3 I understand where they're coming from with it but I think you should be allowed to have one sitting in the garage you can't use it and that's what moto america's done they've gone to the idea you can have one there built up and then you can then if your bike is completely damaged you then take that bike to tech that bike gets tech and then you use the other bike I think they should do the same thing with moto 3 and moto 3 and moto 2 but I'm but I'm worried that we're going to get people your mind just doesn't work right sometimes after a crash there's adrenaline concussions are a real thing you you're not going to realize that you hurt and I'm afraid we're going to get people more hurt if we got a you know a silly rule saying you got to get back in five minutes you know so anyway continuing on because we're never going to get this done unless we start with it basically the brace restarts then y'all just takes off and he's out front followed by martin and his teammate alesh and olivera then zarko and bender bender has to go onto a hard front because he has no more mediums eventually did bender did bender crash or just retire the bike I can't remember because they said he had a bike failure hit a bike fell I think yeah the front wasn't working he couldn't make the front work with the heart or whatever and he immediately went to go see peck out after that which shows you the kind of character that you know brad bender has I mean that was absolutely top-notch you know great bloke kind of stuff there yeah absolutely yeah but this race plays out to where it's basically it's alesh versus vinales it's like which which aprilia is going to win because half you know eight tucatis are missing from the field there was nobody was really going to want to run with them you know except for maybe the the pre-mac boys who could potentially do it but they really they really didn't do that well but alesh would win in barcelona stones throw from the track home the hometown hometown boy of it all wins his race that he's one that he's dreamt about great to see vinales was trying to be the first guy in the modern four-stroke era to win on three different bikes which would have been interesting gary would have been acro-flectic uh shout out gary and then uh martin we would race to the podium beating alavara as alavara's bike I you know it just didn't quite have the umph there at the end I don't know if alavara just couldn't get the tires to work or last but alavara did have a fourth which was a great uh spot for him I said actually to be honest with you he did get overtaken by zarko on the last lap so alavara felt the fifth which is still a great finish yeah for the team and then you had alex marquez quattro and seventh then miller augusto fernandez dg antonio um I think 11th was mark marquez who was had some very crazy arrow on the bike that honda's obviously trying to to add to it so they're working on that part of it uneventful after we got through the massive craziness of the first turn um I thought it was great to see alash win new thoughts rich yeah no it was absolutely and backing up what he did on saturday really I know it was the sprint but well deserved and battling through both the pralias as we saw on the super slow most some pretty secondhand looking front tires yes by the time they were into the last few laps of the race so yeah no good job I mean it must be said that binda was one of them I think he had a mechanical failure but a number of riders I think marquez and certainly marco besecki compromised by the fact that they had to start on tires that they didn't want to ride on but they didn't have any of their first choice tires left because they'd used up their allocation through the weekend and because bikes were wrecked in those first lap incidents they couldn't they had to go out on either soft or hard iterations of the tire so with that in mind I suppose but besecki where did he finish top 10th 11th I think it's a bit of a disaster really it was in the top 10 I know that but he had right on the soft front he didn't have the tire he wanted massively compromised so um yeah I mean it's a little bit after all the well excitement inverted commas it's not really the right word of the first lap on the original start yeah it was a an interesting race but perhaps it got a bit spread out one thing and another I just have to go off on a very short rant I did promise because bastionini was given a long lap or possibly even a double long lap penalty for causing the first corner crash and I'm thinking well nakagami did the same thing last year effectively okay didn't take out five or six bikes but he did take out three and one of whom was had a broken wrist and he didn't get a penalty at all last year so I'm thinking yeah there we go with the consistency again anyway I won't go on any more than that there's just you know really bizarre kind of it's almost like they at least the moto too they want to keep giving a cost of long laps just because they're trying to keep this championship close almost it really like if I was a cost I'd be thinking it but I don't think anything really bothers that kid to be honest with you I think he's he's there to you know race motorcycles win races and that's pretty much it but yeah the consistency about how the stewards decide things is becoming laughable now at this point let's uh look it's been all over the place for a long time hasn't it but they really do need to get a grip of this one because it it puts people the problem is is it will put people off because you don't really ever quite know what's what and for us okay we can sort of take it on the chin although obviously we moan about it massively I do but for the casual viewer it must be terribly confusing really and that's not how you grow the sport up so I hope in the fullness of time but strong heads prevail on this one and you know let him race and okay crashes will happen you know as we've said often and I constantly gone about if it's ridiculously I mean I don't think what Bastionini did on Sunday was reckless he just kind of for whatever reason maybe his whole shot device I mean he's been given a penalty we don't even know if it was a whole shot device I mean if it was I mean Raul Fernandez pulled out in the race because his whole shot device was locked in place so who's to say in which case he shouldn't get a penalty at all they should change the rules around whole shot devices perhaps that might be a better solution it gets to go back to normal suspension which is more predictable I don't know but but my point is that you know these quick judgments on things they're either the wrong decision or they don't take full account of everything that should be taken into account and so we don't know with Bastionini but even saying that it was a tiny mistake with a big consequence but does he need to be penalized for it well no because what goes around comes around in racing that's my view I mean people may take a different view and they can let us know about that anyway I'll say this I think it's very easy to see see it when it's egregious and I think if it's egregious let's penalize it but if it's not egregious let's let him race yeah agreed okay the championship well nothing's really changed other than Benyaya's lead is now only 50 points over Jorge Martin he's 71 ahead of Bizeki so Benyaya could take the next two races off and if Martin happened to win both of those races Martin would only simply tie him for the lead Benyaya we're getting to tracks that the Ducati likes we saw Benyaya go on our absolute tear through Australia Malaysia even Buriram there so they're going to India they're going to Mozano next Benyaya doesn't ride no big deal I think he's going to try I just don't want him to hurt himself a la Marc Marquez riding with an injury but I think he's going to try I mean he's got roughly four days before he's got to get back on a bike I think if he's got any amount of pain in their pocket you have a big championship and you're probably more tied to winning it than to losing it and if you simply would take and take a full two weeks of rest before heading to India I think you're probably a smart man I would in his position but I'm not him and I don't get paid to ride a motorcycle I get paid nothing to talk about right riding motorcycles racing motorcycles so there's that Bizeki is third as we said Bender now fourth then it's Alay she jumps up to fifth then Zarco, Marini, Vignales, Miller, Marquez, Alex that is Quattraro and Morbidelli is your top 12 in the MotoGP championship with that I think that's it Rich I mean we've covered it all talked about it all and I see nothing else for us to do but get out of here yeah well we've got Mizano coming up next weekend haven't we so we're kind of on a run of quick successions now so we'll try and do our best to keep on top of it can I just say one thing Jim that I didn't mention to you in our pre-recording chat and that's just a mention to the listeners that we're going to start to introduce our show sponsor from here on in Road Skin hopefully a few of you if not all of you so far are following the Instagram feed so you'll see that we've got a bit of Road Skin MotoPod gear going we're going to ramp that up and do a few things over the off season probably so we're going to pop a couple of little short adverts into the show going forward because that's what we need to do to take the show in the right direction so yep look at Road Skin but we'll start to amp that up going forward from here so that's all I'll say for now but hopefully there'll be some benefits to the people that subscribe to the show and support the show financially certainly as we get on into the off season and into next year no better way to say it now but now you can ride safe with the Road Skin absolutely thanks everyone