Momentum Swings!

Motopod, proudly supported by Road Skin, a UK label specializing in protective outerwear for motorcyclists. Modern biker clothing that you can wear all day long and engineered to save your skin. For the road, for life, visit roadskin.co.uk. Hello and welcome to Motopod, the Internet radio show all about motorcycle road racing. This is episode number 745 for October 17th, 2023.

I'm your host, Jim McDowell. Joining me tonight, only three time zones away from me, the closest I think we've ever been and actually done a show, Rich, is Richard Jallett. You are in British Columbia, correct? I am. I'm in the fine city of Vancouver.

Yes. And having a very nice time, although I brought the British weather with me, it's absolutely chucking it down here this week. So that bit's not so great. But Vancouver, yeah, as anybody that's visited will know, is an absolutely superb place. I'm very happy to be back here.

Yeah, I've never been. I would love to go. I mean, the closest I think I've been is Seattle. Okay. And I did.

I did enjoy Seattle. So but hey, there was racing that took place from Vandalica, which is the Indonesian Grand Prix. That's what we're here to talk about. We'll go through that and whatnot. I think we're just going to go straight to it.

Let's get into qualifying for there was not much going on in Moto3 qualifying. We'll just quickly figure out what happened to Toba Weier, Rossi Artigas, Feroli and Ferrasado all in that first session. Weier gets through with Ferrasado. Adrian Fernandez, that was kind of a shock and Watley all come out of there to get to the second qualifying session. A second qualifying session.

It just wound up with Marrera on pole followed by Masiya and David Alonso sharing the front row. Colin Weier on fourth, then Anshu and Ferrasado. So two of the guys coming out of Q1 go to the second row for that. But I think there's not much else in that qualifying. Boring very much for those guys there.

But there is a little bit of news we should talk about. It's Moto3 related. So we'll talk about it here before we go into the race. We had found out on race day that Suzuki had been asked to step down for two races, set aside. He did so and then promptly said, I quit the team.

So he'd left Leopard. That brought Adrian Fernandez into the fold to replace him there. And everyone doesn't need to feel sorry for Suzuki because he then turned around and immediately signed a contract to ride for the Liquid Mali Husqvarna team next year. The only reason he could sign that contract is because one, Sasaki has signed a contract to race in Moto2 with the VR46 Yamaha squad. Lot of speculation there that Sasaki is being lined up for a satellite Yamaha ride in MotoGP in 2025.

So that's good news that Yamaha is at least thinking about potentially putting two more bikes on the grid. What team? We don't know because the last two spots on the grid are for a factory team and not a satellite team. So who's going to take the bikes? I have no idea, but I'll take it as a positive.

Again, rumors as they always are. So that was how we started off the day of racing. Interestingly, it was hot and it was only going to get hotter throughout the day in Mandalayka. But when we started off in this Moto3 adventure, Murero took off from the lead with Alonzo and Vier behind him, followed by Ortola, Holgardo, Forasato and Masiya. Sasaki actually had a crash on the siting lap as they went to the grid, which I forgot to mention.

Shame on me. It's late here on the East Coast. This is what you get. That was spotted by one Simon Krayfar who said that the team had jumped all over the bike and was trying to fix whatever was wrong with the bike there. I never saw footage of what Sasaki did to fall off.

They did show it. Yeah. Okay, I don't remember it. Let's put it that way. I think he just took a bit too much kerb, Jim, and the front just went on him.

They tend to go around a little bit slower, I suppose, and they wouldn't be on a fully up to temperature tire on the siting lap. But you do occasionally see it, but it's quite rare to see somebody bin it on that first lap round to the grid, isn't it? So a bit embarrassing, but it happens from time to time. Talk to Casey Stoner about it because I think he was the last guy to lose it on a siting lap. That might have been a warm up lap.

Either way, I was like... Yeah, well, Jake Dixon lost it in Kocher on the warm up lap, didn't it? It wasn't the siting lap, I think. So yeah, these things do unfortunately happen and it really did cost Sasaki this one. Yeah, it did because Sasaki winds up being absolutely positively last into the first turn.

From there, we find out that Ortola had a jump start, so he gets the double long lap of inconvenience and he'd go to that. Holgardo would go to the front with Weier and Morera. Masiya lurking as he seems to do in these races in that 4, 5, 6 range with Alonso and Munoz as well. Munoz finally at the front end of the grid instead of coming through at the very end of the race. So that was a pleasure to see there as well.

It's a tight, nasty little race. Holgardo, Weier, Masiya, they're all there. Coros, Anna Carrasco, had a nasty little high side that happened at turn 10. She got that all wrong and it was like front gone, save it, back end goes around, flipped her over the top end. She went to the medical center for checks.

She was released. It was a nasty bump on the head. She sort of came down on the shoulder, head, more maybe the back of the head. They're definitely one of those ones where you need a new helmet because that one has been used up as they like to say. The front four kind of got away a little bit and then they started fighting again.

And so then the second group of guys sort of caught back up again, kind of typical Moto 3 as we've seen. With Tendigo, Holgardo was at the lead with Weier and Marrera. Munoz was there along with Masiya and Alonso and Ancho. All these guys now were pulling away from everybody else. This was going to be a fight between these six to get to the end of the race.

The only thing that really happens in this whole thing is that Ogden goes down with a low side or high side. I didn't write it down on my notes for that one, but it gets interesting now. This is like essentially, I think they bottled up all their energy and decided that they would have full chaos at the end of the race. We haven't seen one of these Moto 3 races like this in the last few races. They've been sort of subdued in a way.

I don't know if it's the travel time zones. These guys' body clocks aren't correct yet, but boy, oh boy, did things go crazy all the sudden. With 7 to go, Holgardo cuts the course at that, I think it's the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 area. I mean, he's way off riders' right. At first I thought he was...

He's not even on the green, Jim, isn't he? He's kind of built even that. He's completely making his own racetrack at that point. It was amazing. I was like, oh, surely he's going to have to get a penalty for this.

You can't literally go that far over there. I thought, well, he hasn't gotten no track limits warning yet, but I guess if it's egregious, it was. Then I thought, well, no, wait a minute, maybe we're not seeing this properly because it was from the helicopter and it was kind of hard to see what happened prior to him going off. I thought, well, maybe he got shoved over there. Maybe Viard knocked him over there or maybe he had a pseudo high side.

He came out of the seat, let's say, and needed to run into that space to actually correct himself. Apparently, it was none of those as immediately race control says, you have a long lap, to which he then simply dropped into that on the very next opportunity that he was able to get in. He goes in there. Alonzo Masia, Viar Munoz and for Asado and Marrera fighting it out. But boy, did that kid, Hulgardo put the bit between his teeth.

I think he was something like a second and a half or a little bit more, maybe closer to two seconds off of the pack in front of him. He just turned off some blistering, like fastest laps to basically race his self all the way back into the pack by three laps together. So taking two laps after having taken the long lap penalty to get back into the lead group, if you will. Now Masia at this point start to assert his dominance that we've seen over the last few races. He has come to four and he's leading over Alonzo and Munoz.

Now Marrera seems to be very close to it. And you're wondering if the kid's going to suffer arm pump. It's a well known thing that he is prone to the arm pump. I do not think he's had surgery to correct the arm pump yet. I think they're trying to work it out with physical therapy, treatment, strength training, things of that nature.

But I'm willing to bet he probably goes under the knife after the end of the season. So it was good to see that he was still hanging on there. Hulgardo is at the end of the group, but then he races himself towards the front, but he does it by cutting the course again. So now he receives another long lap penalty because he took the shortcut at turn nine. So Hulgardo then basically doesn't respond to that call to the long lap, which given that there was like two laps left in the race was maybe a good call because you're going to get a time penalty for not having taken it.

So why not try to see what's going to be there? And you know, conspiratorially, because I like it, you know, Hulgardo seemed to try to do whatever he could to mess up Masiya in the last two laps. It was like, well, my race is ruined. I'm going to ruin your race too, buddy. And I don't think he did that.

I think there's red mist that's there and all of that. Rich, do you think he was trying to do it on purpose? No, I'm more inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt as you just did, Jim, and just say he was so kind of focused on trying to recover something. Although this must be said, this was all totally self-inflicted. But I mean, it was a, was it on the penultimate lap?

I think he put that really hard move on Masiya and really pushed him out wide and that really did Masiya no favors whatsoever. And he couldn't really recover from that. I'm surprised. I don't know. I haven't really been able to see because I was traveling to Canada, of course, over the weekend and stuff.

But whether he would have got a penalty that he might have to serve this weekend in Australia for that move on Masiya, I'm not sure. He didn't knock him off. He didn't, I don't know if they touched, but he certainly sent him very, very wide with what was a pretty ambitious move. But yeah, I agree with you. I think it was just a red mist thing.

Yeah. I have not heard of him having to serve a penalty yet. I've not found anything official for that, but it is possible that he will get that. So with Elgardo basically leading and it doesn't really matter because he's not there. You go to the last lap.

And again, that was his last chance to take the long lap, but he chose not to. And again, and this is a good point. I think Simon Krayfar may have said it on the, on there. It was Matt Bird maybe. Hey, with all the crazy that was going on, and trust me, this is a fantastic, crazy race that's happening.

Maybe he didn't even see his dash saying he had a long lap. Now they were saying that there is like a LED board or something at the start finish line. I mean, you've got so much to look at as far as your lap board. You're looking for your pit board, trying to find it, read what's there, digest that, look at the dash, not miss a gear, keep yourself on track. I don't know if you could look up and see that your numbers on the board.

And if you did, you may not know what it was for. So he may have just not understood that he had another long lap penalty. So like at Olympia, he was leading through the last lap, but they did kind of surpass him and go through. It goes all crazy to the end, but Marrero does wind up winning the race with Alonso second and then Munoz. Vier has, I think a career best fourth in the class.

I mean, he is the guy for next year. I mean, yeah, he's really coming on strong. Yeah. Vier is coming on strong. It was Jose Antonio Rueda in fifth.

Mossi would drop to sixth as a result of the incident you mentioned, Rich, where he was stood up hard by Holgardo and he just could not get it back. I mean, the track is very dirty offline there in Mandalica and it is very slippery and dusty. And I just wonder if it just kind of cooked Mossi's tires and they're just, he couldn't the dirt, the dust, the clag off the tires to get back to that racing form. And there's so much about rhythm as well, isn't it Moto3? Because they race so close and so hard and you sort of, you can tell that they get in a groove and I think it happened on the penultimate lap.

So say with a lap and a half to go and haven't been pushed out like that, dirty tires, as you say, Jim, and then kind of rhythm gone. All the plans for the last lap, the last kind of couple of corners gone. He just wasn't able to recover. And it was, yeah, it was a bit sketchy that move, I think that Holgardo put on him, but I guess that's Moto3. Every move is a sketchy move in Moto3, I think.

So that is how they finished in the race. It does shake the championship up slightly because, oh gosh, where did Sasaki finish? I didn't even have... I think he was out of the points. Yeah, he was out of the points.

Yes. So I don't have it because he was out of the points. Of interest, if you're wondering, Holgardo having gotten the three second penalty, which was the equivalent time penalty for going through the long lap, dropped him all the way to 14th, giving him two, what may or may not be very precious points in the championship. With the championship standings, Mossias still leads, but he only leads on 209 points. That means Sasaki was able to vault over top of Holgardo and be only 16 points behind having him not scored any points at all in the race.

Holgardo falls to third in the championship, 17 behind Mossias and only one behind Sasaki. Then it's Devadolonzo, Anshu, and Ortola, Morera, Rureda, Monyas, and Nepas, the championship stands. It is a clearly, John Mossias championship to lose. Oh, without a shadow of a doubt. I don't think Sasaki or Holgardo have anything for him, but it's Moto3 and all it takes is one bad race.

Somebody does anything remotely stupid and puts you on the ground and that championship chase is crazy. It can, again, considering we are going to go to Australia next and then we will get week off and then we will run the final three races. No, no, we're on a triple header. Are we in the middle of the triple? So we had just had Indonesia, then we got Australia, then we're into Thailand.

Yes, sorry. We've got to get through Thailand. So we're going to get to Australia where it'll be much cooler and then we will go to Thailand. So this is going to be brutal on teams. It's going to be brutal on us.

It's going to be brutal on the riders. It is going to be probably the most horrifying six races, five races now in a time span to win a world championship for all these guys. It's just absolutely crazy. So that is the crazy that was Moto3, Rich. Anything else that we want to talk about there?

I think that pretty much covered it all. Well, I think we should just make note of the fact that it was first pole and first win for Diogo Marrera, who's been a long time coming to this result. You might recall last year when he was a rookie, he was tipped for the championship by one Maverick Vinales when they were all last at the beginning of last season. So he's highly rated and he's had flashes of brilliance held back by this arm pump trouble that you mentioned there, Jim. So nice to see him get a win on the board at long last.

I think he might be going straight up to Moto2 next year. I think he did have a Moto3 ride. Yeah, we have to check on that one. We're going to have to do a very long in-depth dive of where everybody's going after the season. We know where everybody is.

The only other comment really is on the face of it, you'd think sixth is a bit of a disaster for Massey, but it's not because Hulgado dropped to 14th with the penalties and Sasaki didn't even get a point because of his sighting lap crash. So it was a bit of a let off for Massey because Massey didn't really do anything wrong, but not a great result for him. But nevertheless, he still extended his championship lead and everybody else, as you say, I think is really relying on him hitting bad luck. We had a mechanical back in Austria, if you remember, the bike just kind of stopped. So you never know what's going to happen in Moto3.

And as you say, this next series of races is brutal in terms of what it's going to take out of everybody. So there's still a long, long way to go in all of this. So I think that's probably pretty much everything to say, but it was a great race. But absolutely the last few laps were just sensational really, but that tends to be the way with Moto3, doesn't it? Quite what Hulgado was thinking when he did that massive course cut and then didn't voluntarily drop the time because he would have been fine had he sort of dropped to the back of that pack.

Not to say he wouldn't have got a track limit warning and a long lap towards the end as he did, but yeah, craziness. I mean, I just wrote Hulgado madness on my notes because there's no way he didn't know what he'd done. And he must know that rule. I mean, you must know that if you cut a course to that degree, I mean, he wouldn't have even triggered the sensors because there aren't sensors out where he went. So I mean, that's how far off the track he was.

So it was a bit of a head scratcher, really, that one. Yeah, those last seven laps or just classic Moto3. And we have been missing that the past few races and those tracks that we've been at, they seem to throw up weird races. India was going to be different. We haven't ever been there before.

Japan seems to produce. Doll racing. I really hate to say that, but I think most of the races there are doll. There's been some good Moto GP races. I'm not going to lie, but they are few and far between as far as I can tell.

But it was great, as you said, to see him get the win, Marrero to get the win. And you know, it's going to be crazy going into this. And I guess we have to look forward to that. We have that to look forward to. That is the crazy of Moto3.

We'll go to Moto2 very quickly, quickly through qualifying. Jake Dixon is in Q1 again with Ogura. So those are two really big names who shouldn't be there. They were joined by Lopez and Gulvara and Baltis. There's different people there.

But Dixon got through, Lopez got through, Jermy Okoba did, and so did Bo Van Schneider. So Ogura never even makes it into Q2 in Moto2, which is just given Ogura's form of late, that kind of shocked me. I wasn't really expecting that. I'm like, OK, yeah, him and four guys are going to go through. Dixon and Ogura are probably going to make it.

They did not. The second qualifying session was essentially a letdown. There was nothing going on. It's sort of everybody went out at a time and it sort of stood and didn't go anywhere. Sort of like we saw a long time ago where Moto2 was qualifying late in the afternoon in that 2.33 o'clock area and the track was super hot and they could never go any faster than what they did previously.

But now since the schedule has changed and you have MotoGP sprint in the afternoon, those guys are running earlier in the morning. And so the times are definitely different. Kinet, who had been fast the whole time in practice, he'd been very fast throughout it, went to pole, followed by Gonzalez, then Solache. Pedro Acosta would qualify on the fourth row. He had a couple of laps going that would have maybe put him on the middle of the front row, maybe third, but he couldn't put it together.

Victim of a yellow flag with Arbolino going down, victim of his own running off course and having a lap scratched, those kind of things that tend to happen to you as you go along in this qualifying. But everybody thought that Acosta would have race pace. He was followed, sorry, I should say he was joined with Aldeguer and Chantra on that second row. Dixon would be seventh as a notable and Arbolino not having a great time in Moto2 right now would start the race from 10th. Now, interestingly, at the beginning of the race, Simon Crafer was talking with the guys from Dunlap and Dunlap strongly encouraged you to not use the soft Dunlap tires and that you should be on the medium or the hard compounds because of the heat.

What were they saying, Rich? They were getting something close to 60C on the track. Yeah, I could imagine. Crazy. Again, from, you know, again, I think this is the second time we've been here now and this time it wasn't raining and nasty.

So you got to see a lot of helicopter shots. It's in a very beautiful location. It is if you think Phillip Island is by the sea, people know that's not even close. This one is literally at the sea, which was quite entertaining to watch those those those shots. But the thing is that from the helicopter, you realize there was no clouds.

There is no shade. There is no anything. And the track was just getting beat down on. So this is going to become a theme with tires that, hey, recommendations are going to be made. And some people are going to heed those recommendations and some people aren't going to heed those recommendations and craziness can ensue by that.

At the start of the 22 lap race, Kinet got a whole shot, but Pedro from the second row, of course, he's sort of starting on what I would call the more clean lines. The traction is much higher there than it would have been if he was starting in the middle of the row or to the inside or to the inside just because of them coming back across the set up for the first turn. He happened to be in a prime spot to be rubber on rubber, much like a drag racer, to get the ultimate grip to go down there. He led into turn Pedro that is led into turn one, but Kinet wouldn't right back by again. Arbolino sprinted from 10th to go fourth.

And in the back, we had a crash that involved Lopez and Sora at turn one. And eventually, Jeremy Alcova was issued a double long lap penalty for having caused it. Now, if you go back and watch it as we did much, much later on during the race, because there was really plenty of time for us to go back and see things that happened earlier. So, again, Jeremy sort of needs maybe a talking to you because there's some overly aggressive riding by him and he has been the root cause of several big accidents at the beginning of a Moto 2 race. So I think maybe an adjustment of attitude might be required.

He didn't exactly sharing himself in glory in Moto 3 either. If you also I mean, in fairness to the guy on this particular occasion, Jim, I mean, it's always a little bit hard to pick out the fine detail from the helicopter shots, but he did appear to get a bit squeezed and a bit stood up going in. And that kind of set off a bit of a chain reaction. But I think at this stage, race direction came down quite hard just because he's always involved in this stuff on the first corner of lap number one. So you'd have to say that even though it might have been a bit of a harsh penalty on aggregate with everything else that's gone on this year, probably well deserved.

Yeah, you are being served a penalty for your prior transgressions as well. Yeah, so it had that feel about it, didn't it? Yes, the judge has not looked kindly upon you because you have a list of priors that's quite lengthy. Yeah, so Canett and Acosta have a little bit of a ding dong back and forth at the beginning of it. Arbolino is in fourth, as we said, so he's trying to do damage control, having started in 10th.

Chaunch is right there. Dixon had made it into the top six. Now Slatch crashed. He got nerfed by Ayagura and Ayagura got the long lap. Now, I will say this about race control and penalties for aggressive riding and whatnot.

It seems as though we sort of settled upon a consistent pattern. Finally, if you make a move on another rider and you cause that rider to go down and you yourself do not go down. Ninety five percent of the time, you're going to receive a long lap penalty for having rough riding or irresponsible riding, I believe, is a term that they actually use. However, if the two bikes go down together, it seems as though race directions cause it a racing incident and we move on. So as much as we have been talking about this all year long, some consistency by them should be applauded.

And I am going to stand here and say, at least I think race control has at least got a consistency thing going, which is better than the no consistency. Things have improved without a doubt in recent races because we haven't really been, although we've been told not to do this too much and understandably so, because we and I in particular would go off on a bit of a rant about this. The last few races, there haven't really been any incidents, I think, that really kind of got my ire up anyway. So, yeah, I think and that clarification on why certain things get a penalty and others don't. And again, this was mentioned, I think, by Simon Krayfar, makes a lot of sense to me.

I'm sure if you both go down and it's because you torpedoed somebody, then for that kind of an incident, you would get a penalty. But if it's just a racing incident and you both go down, then penalty served in a way. And I think that's about right. Yeah, I agree. I think you're right.

I think if you torpedo somebody, you're getting a penalty. But if you're in there deep in the front end collapses because you went in late, that's a racing incident. That's the risk that you take by going up the inside. And it's the risk that the guy on the outside is taking because he's hanging there with you. So, yeah, fair play to that.

So, again, I think when you do well, you should be commended for it. And I do believe race direction has been very good of late. So I will mention it just for that reason. I completely agree with you on that. Oh, Acosta is now pulling away.

Unfortunately, no one is going to see Pedro Acosta at all for for the rest of this particular race. He is gone. He just puts down a blistering pace the rest of the way. Canette is trying to go with him. And there was a lot of hoopla, especially from Cito Pons, that Canette was going to get break the duck.

He was going to get his first win. They had race pace. Not the 19 year old had you covered, but sorry. And that's kind of how it went. Canette would be slightly closer on a lap here and there, and he would cut the lead by a tenth.

Acosta would simply look at the pit board and go, OK, I need to go a tenth faster this lap. And he would. It was a very controlled and measured race by Acosta to get to the end. People were thinking that tires were going to fall off. Blistering could have been potentially a problem.

It did not seem to be a problem at all for Acosta. He simply would throw down a fast lap whenever he needed it to get back in there. Now, with that having been said, that that's what's happening up front. Dixon and Arbolino had quite a battle that we got to watch a good part of it. Good portion of Dixon was wide into the wide into turns and then would run off.

And then he would go back by Arbolino. You know, they and Dixon would go by one time, I think, pointing to the rear tires. Maybe he had tire trouble. I never found out that if he did. I'm not sure if you know, Rich, if they said anything that you may have caught that I might have missed.

No, I didn't really pick up on anything at all, Jim. It might have been because I was asleep. Because this was not a race to really keep you awake, was it? But no, no, there's like I said, there's really nothing there. I did think that the Dixon Arbolino battle for the for three or four laps that we had in the middle of the race was pretty entertaining.

And until Dixon did run wide and then he came by pointing at the rear tire, you know, was it tire trouble? Was it something else? I'm not sure. Was he just saying, hey, why don't you just follow me and we'll try to catch the guys in front? Not sure.

I was some sort of it might have been tire trouble due to the heat and recommendations that have been made by Dunlap for the tires that they should be on. Outaguer at the very end throws a little bit of interest into this now. Acosta's gone. He's done. He's going to win this.

He's broken the back of back of Canet. But Outaguer had things going at the end and on a track that with the way it is very flowy should favor the Bossa Cora chassis. And it did seem as though Outaguer had the speed at the end of it. He may have even gotten by Canet if the race had been a lap or two longer. Alas, he would he would not get by.

And the race would end with Acosta winning Canet being second. Outaguer third. Dixon would ride home in fourth and lo and behold, Manuel Gonzalez in fifth. Mr. Fifth.

And Dixon got him on the last lap, I should say. It was a incredible last lap by Dixon that we did not get a chance to actually see, but he did run down Gonzalez. Gonzalez may have had a bit of trouble. Tire trouble. He may have ran the tire down a little bit and that allowed Dixon to get there.

But still heads up by Dixon to keep his head in it and not settle for anything. And he went to get to get fourth as well. Arbolino would finish in sixth, which helped his championship chase in there. So that's your top six in that one. We should look at the points in this one.

Acosta is leading now by 65 points over Arbolino. Acosta has gotten stronger and stronger as his championship has gone on. And I think we saw him sort of flounder a little bit in the midseason, if you will. Maybe a bit of distraction because of the are you going to MotoGP? I have a contract that says I go to MotoGP because once that sort of got settled after And I think he knew where he was going after or at Silverstone, which was a summer break, right?

First race after summer break. I think he knew because from there on, Acosta has just been stronger and stronger and stronger. And he may not be qualifying on the front row, but he's in the first two rows. And that's important to win in Moto too. And the kid has shown consistency and he can just put his head down and go.

And it is pretty impressive to watch. It reminds me a lot of Marc Marquez when Marc Marquez was in Moto too. And he would just lay down the laps after lap after lap. It just dominate you. It seems eerily similar to my eye.

It would suggest as well, Jim, that with a team like IO, which we know is a top team, if not the top team in Moto too, it's fair to say. But the fact that Acosta, as you say, doesn't put it on pole, but is so good in the races, does suggest as well that he is good with bike setup. Okay, team around him to help him with that. But he always seems to have race pace and that's what wins you championships. And so if he carries out forward into Moto GP, once he's got a bit of experience under his belt, that will be interesting to watch.

I don't know if he's good technically. I mean, obviously we just don't know that, but it suggests that to me. Smart observation, Rich. I think you're right on the button that the kid obviously has some setup skills. I think we kind of talked about that when he's in Moto 3, just the way he could ride on the front end.

That setup is unique to him in what he wanted to do. The other thing about Acosta here that I like is he's sort of on the Rossi plan. Rossi came into 125s, spent a year learning, won a world championship. Moved to the 250s, spent a year learning the bike, the tracks, won a world championship. And when he won his 125 title, dominant fashion.

When he won his 250 title, dominant fashion. He moved to 500s and spent a year learning how to ride that bike and then dominated the last year 500s. So Acosta seems to my eye doing sort of the same thing. Again, great team, IO, but you still have to be able to get, I think at that level you really can't jump on and ride a bike and be as successful as Acosta is if you aren't good at the setup. Or conversely, maybe you are very good at communicating what the motorcycle is doing to your crew chief.

Your crew chief can make very intelligent decisions about what to do with the suspension or what to do with gearing or maybe chassis length, moving the rear tire back in the swing arm, dropping the forks and the triple trees. Something of that nature. And we know he has unbelievably good feel from what he was doing on the Moto3 bike and that has translated through now to the Moto2 bike. And he doesn't crash very much. He did in the first half of his first season, but that was the learning phase as he understood what to do.

So feel, technical capability and support and communication. It's a lethal combination and that's why he's six job points up the road now. Yes, it's a lethal combination when you have all that stuff clicking together and everybody's functioning on three cylinders. Yeah, nicely done. Yeah, thank you.

Oh, so that is Moto2. I don't think there's anything else to cover there, Rich. It was a snoozer. Well, yeah, I mean, I hinted at it a minute ago. I mean, if you do suffer badly from insomnia, then I recommend popping this on and it might well cure you.

But other than that, I mean, yes, there was a little bit of racing going on with Dixon and Aldegaard was good. But Konec, sorry, Acosta just was making everybody look a little bit ordinary at the moment. Yeah, but more power to him. Yeah. Hey, that's what your job is to do.

That's what he's paid for. Yeah, it's what he's paid for. That's why he is going to be on a MotoGP bike. I think it would be shameful if KTM didn't figure out a way to put him on a MotoGP bike just for the fans. Yeah, yeah.

Well, we know he is on one now. So I mean, that's done deal, isn't it? So yeah, something very much something to look forward to. Yes. So let's talk MotoGP qualifying is interesting for me.

There's a lot of good goes on in this one. First of all, we have to understand that Benyaya is in the first session. So your championship leader is in that first session. And if you watched any of the practice sessions or just highlights of the practice sessions, you kind of got the impression that Benyaya could not come up with a setup that worked for him. Whether it be electronics and how much engine braking we're using into turns, if it was a setup, I think that the flowing nature of this circuit requires the Ducatis to be set up in a different way than their sort of base stock setup to get the maximum out of them.

Because I think the Ducati is very much more a point and squirt kind of bike. Admittedly, I think 80% of the circuits are a point and a squirt kind of type of configuration. With that said, we had Benyaya in the first one along with Nakagami, Pol, Augusto Fernandez, and Marini who had his shoulder, had his collarbone plated as we spoke about last episode. So they're halfway through Benyaya was third and it was Zarco and Morbidelli who were going to go through, the Omaha looking good. The question came out, was Benyaya on his second run on a used soft?

Now that's what was said initially. I couldn't believe that he would even remotely think about going out there having been third fastest and be on a soft tire. It was later confirmed that he did go with a new soft that was there. So he at least had a fresh rear in there. Marini would take a track record and he would go on to take the first place to get out of there.

There was no Benyaya. He did not get through. And Zarco, who had a chance to go through, basically fell at the fast turn 11 in what was a very fast crash, which resulted in the bike flipping through there, which was crazy that Benyaya did not go through. He could not go through. He got jipped on it.

And it was just crazy that he couldn't go through. I was shocked. Although I didn't see qualifying again because of the travel and it was on super early in the morning in the UK, I did see a few clips from the practice sessions across the Friday and stuff. And you see this with Benyaya a little bit. I mean, well, there's two things.

First of all, this kind of rear skipping problem was back and he's been suffering with that. Clearly the Ducati uses the rear a lot to slow down and he seems to have been suffering. And it does seem to be him rather than anybody else with the rear off the ground, but almost like a rear chatter in a way. I mean, it's not that, but can't quite get the rear to contribute to slowing the bike down. So he was going wide a lot and plus it was very slippy offline.

And he has this kind of, although he's the world champion, he does have this tendency to kind of look as if he's unraveling a little bit. So going in and you can see people sort of backing off him when he walks into the pits, which is a bit of a problem really, because at that point you need to be sort of galvanizing together and trying to figure out what the problem was or is. So there was a lot of that going on. So it seemed through Friday and Saturday. And I mean, I mustn't jump ahead to the MotoGP sprint, but by the end of Saturday, you just you were starting to think this guy might well be out of the championship at this point because he looks as if his head's gone.

I mean, obviously more for us to sort of jump ahead, but because things can very easily turn around. But so, yeah, he was in all sorts of sort of strange trouble through the practice days and through qualifying. Yep. So the pendulum of momentum sort of swung towards Jorge Martin. There's a lot of cameras on Martin when Benyai did not go through that next session.

Martin has sort of been the king of qualifying. He's sort of the king of the sprint. You're thinking the track that's very one line. This is going to be difficult for Benyai to get to the front. And well, holy heck, let's at least figure out what's going to happen here.

Now, Buzeki had a crash in the second session at turn 16, and then Martin went down. So, wow, here in the span of roughly 18 to maybe 20 minutes, you had this up and down roller coaster of momentum that now had swung back because with Martin having crashed, he sort of just went wide on the curb, which everybody, both Martin and Benyai both had very distinct problems at that turn, at the turn 16 and the tricky turn 10. They both of them, again, like a great description that you use, Rich, the almost rear end type chatter that both of them, although Benyai is more with the rear chatter, Martin is more of the front end not wanting to stay planted and tends to fold under him as he goes down. Marquez fell down at turn 16. This is a crazy session that eventually left us with Marini with another sub 130 lap with a broken collarbone.

Superhuman effort to be on pole. Vinales looked very good and he would be second quick. Alais would be on the front row. That was like my tip to who was going to win because, wow, Alais there and looking fine throughout practice and race pace as well. And Vinales having race pace as well.

I was like, wow, this could easily wind up being a one to a previous show here. But Quattroraro snuck in there for fourth, showing that if the track is fast and flowy and there's nobody in front of him, he can do the business with a bike that has no business being anywhere near where it is. For reference, Morbidelli came out of the first session to get into the second session and he was 15th fastest. Brad Bender would be fifth. Martin would come down, get on another bike.

He didn't have any soft fronts left. Since he had to go to his other bike, he didn't have a soft front to be on that bike as a better way to say it. He had a hard front for qualifying, which made his life difficult, leaving him there in sixth. He's on the front two rows. Things are probably going to be pretty good for him at that point.

That's qualifying. Again, kind of lengthy for qualifying, but there was so much momentum going back and forth between the two. I felt like it needed a little bit of a bigger discussion there. We must go on to the sprint. At the sprint, Marini would get the whole shot.

And then followed by Vinales, Marquez having a good start along with Quattrora and then Bender. Of course, Marquez would fall off at turn 11. This is a theme that we seem to have going for him. Quattrora was a rolling roadblock. I think everybody had lined up behind him, but Martin got by and was starting to assert his dominance.

He chased down Alesh and Bender. Brad Bender are down. Alesh folded the front and then he just went right into Bender and they both went down at that point. Again, there was no long lapse given to anybody. Racing incident, correct call, moving forward.

Vinales took some time at the front with Marini and Quattrora in fourth. Martin got by Marini and question is, could he have caught Vinales? Well, it took a little bit of time. It took a few laps to get there, but Martin showed some patience, worked his way by and basically waited for Vinales to go into tire trouble, which he had. Martin got by him and Vinales was definitely in trouble.

He was slowing down as he was going along in the sprint and wasn't maintaining. But it finished off with Jorge Martin inflicting basically the maximum amount of damage he possibly could on Pekka Benyaya by winning. Marini for VR46 having lasted half a race distance with a freshly plated collarbone and then Marco Bizecki finishing on the podium in third with a plated right collarbone. I think Marini's is the left. Either way, they have one functioning collarbone between them according to Simon Kreyfarr.

A fabulous ride by Bizecki. I mean, the pain's got to be through the roof with that. Vinales fell back to fourth because of the tire troubles that he had. Quattrora fifth, then DG Antonia Bastianini who passed Benyaya with like one lap to go, I think, or at the very end of it to get the to push his teammate back. And then Miller was ninth and that's as far back as we have points.

At the end of the sprint, the points are Martin at 328, Benyaya at 321, and it's a seven point swing. Momentum, Jorge Martin. We go to the race on Sunday. Michelin, the riders are urged to use a medium or hard rear tires for the race to avoid a blistering or performance drop off. Or they said if you had scrubbed in a set of softs that were used for maybe one or two laps in qualifying, use those softs because they've had a heat cycle in them and then they should be OK.

Alais would start on the soft in the race to see what would happen. He took a punt, right? Just to see what could happen. Martin got a whole shot. Like that whole shot device was crazy.

That new one is wicked. And he had a whole shot and ahead of Vinales, Quattrora and Marini, Binder and then Benyaya had moved up to seventh from his lowly 13th starting position. So Benyaya had to be aggressive. He was going to have to try to get to the front and he did very well to get as many places as he could on at the start. When two laps, Benyaya had murked his way to third as he had gotten by Quattrora.

The power of the Ducati is going to help you do those kind of things. But it was quite impressive how Benyaya put his head down and fought tooth and nail for every position that was there. He did a big dive into 10. I think he passed both Binder and Marini there at 10. He was way to the inside and he somehow got it stopped, somehow got it turned.

I mean, he was on the dirty line and he was able to stop it and make it go. Stop and then go. And I was really impressed by that. I'd be fascinated to know, Jim, did he just have an extra portion of something for breakfast? Did somebody give him a bit of talking to?

I just wonder how that Peco Banyaya on Sunday turned up as compared with the one that we saw across the rest of the weekend. A completely different rider. I mean, you would not think it was the same person. So I'd love to know. Obviously, we won't know.

But yeah, did he just have a good night's sleep? Did he talk to himself in the mirror? What did he do to sort of sort himself out? Because he just looked completely different rider. I mean, maybe they changed something settings wise on the bike as well.

And he felt more comfortable. I didn't see what happened in warm up. It's not a very long session, but perhaps they found something. I think they corrected the electronics and gave him what he needed. A happy rider is a fast rider.

A comfortable rider is a wickedly fast rider. And I think they found comfort. And that's all it takes sometimes. Yeah. Oh, Marquez would go down and turn 13.

So the theme continues. Falls off the Honda continually. Oh, Bender and Olivera, they get together at turn two. Olivera runs off. Bender loses a wing in that.

And then Bender would get a long lap penalty for that because he did. He did not. He did aggressively knock Olivera off of the circuit. It was a deserved penalty. He took it and we go on from there.

Then high drama appears with 15 to go. Martine crashes. He was gone. Martine had this in the bag and he crashed. Now it's a tricky circuit.

It was a small mistake. It was millimeters of difference. Front end folded up. Down he went. Done.

Jorge and Martine out. He had a three second lead. He did start on a soft front where Benyaya and the others were at least on a medium or, in Benyaya's case, a hard front. Given the temperature, right or wrong, we'll never know. But it doesn't matter.

Martine's out of the race. I have got a comment to make on this, Jim. I mean, all of the body language, all of the signals from Martine were that, you know, he just made a mistake. And so I'm not saying that there was a bike issue. But from the way I looked at the incident, and I perhaps would need to go back and look at it again in terms of the few different angles, but he did appear to be a good half a foot offline when he tipped it into that right-hander.

So, I mean, maybe it's just a tad dirtier out there or whatever reason. But I think what I can't quite understand is why he was offline like he was. Now, it might just been just a mistake. Was it something, you know, electronic that pushed the bike a bit wide? His reaction afterwards would suggest not because he, as I said a minute ago, he looked like a guy that was just beating himself up because he knew he screwed up.

But that was a really, really weird crash, particularly so because we haven't seen... This used to be his big weakness, didn't it? And we haven't really seen this for quite some time from him. So, yeah, curious one that, but you just never can tell, can you? Yeah, it was hot.

Martin, this time having been through India and being extremely high, extremely, I'll get it out, extremely dehydrated, was running the tube in the bottle up to the helmet. Yeah, I am wondering because it's from 10, the hard breaking kind of a squirt over to 11. I'm wondering if Martin was trying to get a drink. The race is, you know, about eight laps in or so, six, nine. Yeah, it's a few laps in.

So seven, you know, we're close to halfway at 15. I'm wondering if he was wanting a drink. And that was just that little bit that got him offline. Just a bit of a distraction, just a little bit. If he wasn't trying to get a drink, is it just the heat?

Is he just distracted that little bit? I mean, if it's that hot and you're sweating and you happen to get a sweat bead that forms on your forehead and rolls down into your eye and you got to blink it out one or two, that's going to put you off. It's these little things like that that I wonder about what may or may not have happened. I think that's why like Bizeki, Benyaya, they sort of have like that sweat band kind of a thing that they use before they put their helmet on. A lot of riders have that or use it when it's very hot.

Martin doesn't, but you know, it's everybody's preference about how you're comfortable or whatnot. I'm speculating, but those are things that I know that I've been through. Just, you know, the sweat, sometimes it's really hot. You just can't blink. You can't get your eyes to your eyes become dry very quickly.

It's just one of those things and just a momentary blink longer than you want because you're thinking like, I got to clear that vision and you just miss where you are. Yeah, because it wasn't one of those crashes, Jim, where, you know, the riders kind of looking bewildered because they've gone through the turn, like they've been through it every other time on that race and it just goes, you know, he was, I'm sure of it. And perhaps a few listeners will kind of chip in with their comments in one form or another. But he did look, you know, a good few inches offline to me. So yeah, your distraction theory, drinking bottle thing.

That's a good one. I'd again, we'll never know. But yeah, be fascinating to know if that was the cause of it because something clearly happened. So you put him out there and then the minute you're out offline like that, that track in particular, you're going down and you know, that bike went down hard. Yeah.

Yeah. I felt sorry for the bike. That's for sure. Zarco then went down a few laps later at turn 11, sort of a very similar crash to what he put down in qualifying. So he hadn't learned his lesson there, I guess.

Vinales was getting closed down, was leading and being closed down very quickly by Vinales. Now Vinales seemed to have the bit between his teeth, sensing that the fact that his pit board and he saw Martin crash, that he had now a chance to inflict maximum pain on Martin in the championship. Quattrarra was hanging on to a podium at this point, being followed by Miller, DG and Tony with a great ride and then Bezeky, the walking wounded, if you will, there at the end. With eight laps to go, Benyaya would get by Vinales. Quattrarra was closing in on the both of them.

I think Benyaya kind of forced the issue with Vinales because they were being closed down on by Quattrarra and Quattrarra was coming very quickly. Pit boards went out, I'm sure dashboard messages went out to Benyaya, hey, you need to dispense with the Aprilia and get on with this. And he did. Benyaya would go on then to win the race. Vinales would hold off Quattrarra to take the second spot.

It was close, but Quattrarra was able to hold on to it. After that, it's DG and Tony fourth because Vinales, I thought, was going to get nipped by Quattrarra there at the end. He didn't. It was a great last lap. Quattrarra tried everything, but that's just how it goes.

Bezeky, the walking wounded, would be fifth. Then Bender had recovered from his long lap penalty to sixth. He beat his teammate Miller and then Bastianini, Renz and Asparguero, finishing out your top 10. This then shakes up the championship again because in the course of about 24 hours, Benyaya went from being down seven points to being up by 18 points. It was fascinating.

Benyaya is back on top at 346, Martín 18 behind, Bezeky 63, he's done. This is a two-horse race for who's going to be there. Bender, showing how good the KTM is in fourth, he is 135 points behind. I don't know if Bender needs to be more consistent or if KTM needs to find just that little bit more to allow Bender to be on the podium or be at the front. Or if it's a combination of all of that plus maybe better qualifying that Bender needs to do.

But KTM now has, I think, a better chassis with the carbon fiber one. Bender likes that chassis and I do think it does give them a fair bit more edge grip, which is what he's looking for. I'm hoping Bender could next year be a little further up in the championship. Maybe not necessarily be higher than third or something like that, but at least be closer to the front than the 135 points that he's behind right now. Alessia is there in fifth and then his teammate Vinyals is in sixth.

It is a two-horse race, Rich, and I'm telling you, this is going to get wild and crazy when we go to Thailand. I think we're going to see ups and downs again. I just think how much I opined about how much the sprint race is going to suck. It is. It hasn't.

There have been boring sprint races. I'm not going to lie, but this is extra points paid out in every sprint has helped Jorge Martín in a way that I did not see possible. It has proved that turned this championship into a very close and tight championship. One of the closest ones we've had this late in the year in MotoGP. I'm going to go with almost a decade, if not maybe a little bit longer.

You can foresee that this will go all the way down to Valencia in November in terms of who's going to win this championship. I would predict at this point because it is very much punch-counterpunch kind of territory at the moment, isn't it? Generally speaking, they're both finishing top six. It's just a question of who's ahead of the other. Obviously, the big change here was that Martín binned it, so hence there's been a big point swing.

Anything could happen in Australia. I mean, this time of year, I think it's back end of the summer there, isn't it? It can be pretty chilly and it can be a bit wet at Philip Island at this time of year. Weather will become a factor in some of these races as well. That will clearly be a risk factor in Thailand where it can be sort of monsoonal kind of conditions as we saw last year.

Valencia itself is going to be potentially pretty chilly and could be quite damp or wetter than that. So there's all sorts of jeopardy ahead. So this one's not going to be over till the very last lap, I don't think. Yeah, this one's going to go down to the wire. I was trying to think back and I think I'm right that the last time we saw a Moto GP championship settle at the last race was 2006 with Hayden and Rossi, or was there one in between in there somewhere?

Because I was thinking, I was trying to think about Stoner's 2011 championship, whether he did it on the last race or was it the race before? I can't remember that one. I was thinking there might have been a Rossi one in there somewhere that was the last race between like took him and him and Lorenzo. Yes, that was definitely one. I think there's a 2015 one or something.

So maybe 2015 is the last one. Did the last race of 2020, which Mir ultimately won the championship, did he have to finish sort of somewhere in a points-paying position to win it? You could be right. I think you might be right on that one. Did go to the last race.

It wasn't terribly exciting, but I think Mir had to finish like ninth or something like that and it was tense. I'm pretty sure that one went down to the last race. I think it has happened more recently than you're thinking, but I don't have a great memory for this sort of thing. No, neither do I. I mean, because I sort of remember the Marquez years where he won by like 150,000 points.

And I thought, well, I tend to remember Hayden's championship in 2006 just because it's an American in there. And then I'm like, oh, well, there's got to be something in between. I was thinking, well, there's got to be like a Lorenzo slash Rossi. That's probably the last one. But I think what's going to make this one different is that they're going to have to really fight for the win because it isn't going to be one of those things where, oh, hey, I just got to finish fourth or I got to finish fifth.

This is going to be who finishes in front of who type style stuff, which I think is going to make it to be very interesting. I would also add to that, Jim, that, you know, Martín is on a satellite squad. Okay. He's done a works bike and we know he's got the bang up to date whole shop device, for example. So he's not on any sort of machinery deficiency.

I don't think. But there's a lot of bragging rights to be had here. If he was to win over the works entry, I mean, that would be a pretty unusual happening. So. There's a lot of pressure on Banyar and the work, Jukati squad, because although we didn't really touch on it in the sprint, the fact that Bastionini finished in front of Banyar could potentially be a bit of an own goal later in the season.

I'm not advocating for team orders because I don't think they have any place in racing of any form and certainly not motorcycle racing. But, you know, in a championship this tight, it wouldn't have been hard to foresee Jukati trying to get Bastionini behind Banyar. And it didn't happen, obviously. And those sorts of points, there might only been a couple, but they can be crucial when they do the final ad nap at the end of the season. So, yeah, we'll see.

See how it all transpires. Yeah. Everybody needs to sort of kind of calm down on the Martin on the Indy team being a world champion in the premier class. It has happened before. Kenny Roberts in 78.

That was the US Yamaha team. It was not the Japanese factory Yamaha team, although Yamaha did start to support Roberts late in the year and give him updated kit and equipment to win that title. Eddie Lawson did it in 89 with Irv Cantemoto on a privately entered NSR 500. And most recently would be Valentino Rossi winning the last 500cc championship on that Nostro-Azura bike. But HRC did start to give Rossi parts and pieces at the end of the year.

It would be in the MotoGP era. It would be the first time a satellite team won a championship over the factory, which I'm not trying to take anything away from that accomplishment whatsoever. It's just it has happened before. Oh, yeah. No, I wasn't suggesting that it's never happened before, but it's certainly unprecedented in the modern era.

Yes, in the modern era. So there is just another thing that's there that creates pressure and antagonism. And there's the whole Martin. Maybe I think probably the chip has gone off the shoulder now that he didn't get the works ride and Bascinini did because he's got the bragging rights over Bascinini as well, who has been injured for most of the season. It's true.

But Martin is certainly the one that everybody's talking about. So from his point of view, that's a good place to be, isn't it? Yeah, I know this one. We've talked about it before. Is it better to be the better be the leader or be the guy following?

I think they're both going to take turns chasing each other. So I think that's what's going to make this even more interesting. This is the time where I really feel for the crews because this is brutal. No, it's brutal on them. I mean, the rider has some control over what happens in some way, but you're sitting there as a mechanic.

Just my God, you start doing really weird stuff. It's a new chain every time the bike leaves. Right. You're like checking the chain 5,000 times before you ever let the bike out. You do a wheel change and you're torquing the rear axle like six times just to be sure that you did it, to be sure that nothing's wrong.

Those guys, you think it's pressure on the riders and I think people tend to overlook that the guys that wrench on these bikes are under an enormous amount of pressure. They're going to be sleep deprived because these guys aren't like the bike riders themselves. Where you're changing time zones, but you get to sleep in a hotel. Yeah, okay, that's tough. And I admit it's hard.

You know, Rich, you've been flying around. I've flown to Europe a couple of times. We know what jet lag can do to you, but these guys get back up that next morning on very little sleep, uncreate everything, set up a pit box, put the bikes together because they're pretty much one together, but there's bits and pieces that still need to be put together, put on them. They got to set two bikes up. They got to go through all that stuff, get it all done, have it ready for practice.

And then anything that happens, they have to fix it. It's a long night. Then they leave, go to the hotel, rinse, wash, repeat kind of a cycle. And these guys are going to be under the pressure cooker. And it just shows you what kind of well-run teams that these guys are, because I would say, eventually guess that there's no way that any of these bikes are going to fail from a mechanical reason because somebody didn't do something along the way.

I think, you know, if I'm running that team, if I'm running PreMac, or even if I'm at the Ducati factory team, my guys that are taking care of Bastionini's bike, my guys that are taking care of Zarco's bike, hey, they need to have a helping hand in looking over the guys that are working on Martin's bike and on Benyaia's bike. Hey, did you get this? Did you remember that? Did, hey guys, this is over here, that kind of thing. And you work as a team to accomplish that.

And that's one of the things I love about motorcycle racing is that even though there's two separate teams inside of a garage, the other side will help at every moment of every time. And that's how they're going to get through all of it. But yeah, I don't have anything else for this one, Rich. We'll keep this one as short as possible because we're in the middle of these triple headers. And I know you probably still got to get dinner yet tonight and long day and still be longer there.

So with all that, folks, remember to email us, Motopo. Oh yes, Rich has something, please. So it's just sprung into my mind, Jim. And I can't let this one go. I mean, I'll touch on this in more detail on a future episode.

But Tommy Bridewell won the British Superbike Championship at the weekend. Excellent. First time he's won the BSB title. I mean, I live a soft spot for Tommy, a bit of a sort of chalk and cheese or Marmite characters, we say here for many people, but well deserved win. Won it by half a point and he won it on the last lap.

Now that's what we're going to have to have a further discussion upon. I might have to go find that race and watch it so we can talk about it even more. I mean, BSB, as it's done over recent years, they had this new point system this year, but it's been, you know, just a matter of a few points between Bridewell and his teammate, Erwin, for the last few rounds has been some intra team, I think is the word, isn't it? Rivalry sort of amping up between the two with a bit of a war words in the public and stuff. It's got a bit, a little bit silly at times, if I'm honest.

And both have contributed equally to that, I would say. But yeah, that last race was tense. Yeah, really, really tense because they were so close. And as I say, on the last lap, Bridewell was in third spot and was going to lose the championship. He just had to get into second.

Erwin was in the lead and did win the race, final race of the season. But because Bridewell got past Carl Ride on the last lap, and this is at Brands Hatch, one of the greatest circuits in the world. Yeah, he took it by half a point. They couldn't have wanted that to end any better from the point of view of publicity and whatnot. So yeah, fair play to Tommy Bridewell.

I mean, I love that guy. People with longer memories will remember his brother who lost his life at a BSB round back in probably somewhere around about 2007, maybe. So you'll see Tommy sort of pointing at the sky when he's on the grid before a race and stuff. So yeah, a lot of people will have liked seeing the fact that he picked up the championship this year. I mean, hopefully Glenn will get a chance to win it in a season or two's time as well because he deserves it as well.

But yeah, just wanted to make a reference to the fact that excellent last round at Brands with a BSB and Bridewell winning the championship. All righty, folks. If you've got questions, comments, concerns, anything, email them to us at motopod at motopodcast.com. If you want to reach out to Rich or myself, you can do that by finding at Richard Jalot Instagram, X and threads, I am MotoRGV, Instagram, X and threads as well. And go check out roadskin.co.uk.

Get yourself some nice gear that's fashionable and ride safe.