Christmas Wrapping

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 821 for December 19th, 2025.

Merry Christmas episode. I can't have an episode without my good co-host and friend Richard Jowd. Richard, a Merry Christmas to you, sir, over there a little early. What can I say? We are that close.

I get fingers up to the end of the year. Yeah, Merry Christmas to you and Merry Christmas to all the listeners. I know Christmas varies in terms of its relevance and intensity depending on where you are in the world. It's obviously a really big thing here in Great Britain and across the UK. So yeah, we're really looking forward to it.

I've kind of sort of finished work today, although I'm probably going to be doing stuff on Monday and Tuesday as well because stuff comes up. But yeah, I'm trying to get into Christmas mode now. So yeah, it's nice to do a quick pre-crimbo, in principle quickish show, he says, and then two hours later we'll still be going probably. No, we mustn't. With a few sort of things that we'll get into planning wise in a minute and just a few random thoughts that came to mind on a few things that we were kind of top three-ing in our heads over the last 24 hours.

Yep, for sure. So with that, folks, remember, we can't do the show without your support and your support's greatly appreciated. I want to thank everybody who is supporting. You can go to the website to support us at www.modopodcastalloneword.com. There's links to PayPal, Patreon.

You can donate for as little as two dollars a go. We just got to say Gareth Locke, Jacob Neuerkro, Carl Hun, Nori Ita, Nick Saban, Alan Fleming, Michael Callan, Brent Edwards, Scott Baldwin, Ollie, Dennis Kending, Jeremy Burnish, Jacob Rowler, Paul Lang, Gary Schwiet, and Steve. And with all you guys, we want to be sure that even if you can't subscribe or donate to the show, make sure you tell everybody about the pod. Tell your friends, share us on social media, and do give a review, which would be very good for all of us. So Rich, this is the Christmas show, and I think we need to sort of talk about what we want to do here and how we want to do things coming into the new year.

And you have the floor, sir, for right now. I will interject as necessary. Oh, thank you. That's very kind of you. Well, yes, I'll just echo the name checks that you gave to our very kind monthly subscribers or contributors financially to the show, at least through PayPal and Patreon.

So thanks, guys. Obviously, the ongoing support is massively appreciated and totally necessary because we do have some costs in the background to keep the show up and running. I would also just say that if there's anybody that listens, well, all the other people that because we do have a lot of downloads for every episode that we put out pretty much. So if anybody else out there is kind of unable to do the monthly thing, which we totally get, life never seems to get any easier, particularly from a financial standpoint. But if anybody's feeling a little bit generous and wants to do a kind of a one off Christmas bonus for the show, that will just help us to do a few other things possibly.

So if anybody can do that, that would be really great. Obviously, Jim, you just mentioned the website where people can go and attach themselves to the PayPal or the Patreon link. But with 2026 in mind and this kind of little fallow period, although it seems to get shorter every year, doesn't it, as the calendar increases in size. But we're kind of having some thoughts around stuff that we've been talking about for a long time. And in fact, I've had conversations with a couple of guys over on this side of the water over the course of the last 12 to 18 months, probably.

As usual, life and work gets in the way of kind of following up on some of these things. But anyway, for 2026, I personally and Jim, we've been talking about it and you agree. We would like to continue to focus you and I on the MotoGP side for sure. Because as much as I call the other series MotoGP is really where my heart is. But I'm conscious that World Superbike is great.

BSP is great. MotoAmerica is great. I haven't seen any MotoAmerica at all this year, which I'm a bit obsessed about. And I'll try to rectify that probably through YouTube over the winter period. But I think the time is right for us to sort of consider whether or not we could get a couple more people on to the show as regular hosts, but to focus on the World Superbike and the BSP side and then as well potentially on the MotoAmerica side.

Obviously, Scott does some MotoAmerica content for us from time to time. All these years are great and they are generally getting busier, I think, and the content is great. So they require some dedicated input, I think. Now, we can't we just can't add that in as a regular thing to our schedules. Obviously, Jim, can we?

Because we're sort of flat out. And as I keep apologizing to people, I've still got some interviews from the summer, which I need to edit out and put out. It's just very hard to get all this stuff done. So if there are some people that want to do like I did and you did years ago, Jim, sort of stick their hand up, write in on the email address and say, yeah, you know, we'd like to come in and I'm talking about people and we might interject from time to time. And it will take part from time to time.

But people to record shows together, do the editing work, get to some races, do some interviews, which is easy to do. It's quite hard to organize and takes a bit of work and time as well. But it's good fun when you're there and you're doing it and then perhaps do some subbing for us. If we're off on holiday or traveling with work, I'm likely to be traveling a bit more next year and your life isn't going to get any easier work wise. I don't believe Jim.

Not really seems to be always the case. So, yeah, let us know if you're interested in terms of show hosting, which, you know, it is a little bit scary when you start off. I can remember that. And it's certainly a little bit scary when you go off and do the interview work. And that remains the case when I do it.

But it's a bit of a buzz and it's good fun to do and one thing and another. So, yeah, I like to go back to when I first started listening to the show. And that those few years where you had Martin was involved, Jim Race was there at that point. You had Jules, then Dave sort of came along and Harry, that kind of. Perhaps I shouldn't call it a golden period, but there was quite a few people involved in the show around that time.

And you got different hosts coming in at different points and people kind of specialised in certain areas in terms of the different series. And I think that would be quite nice to go back to that. But the next point on my list is that alongside that and perhaps in a slightly more silent way, if somebody's out there that could do this, we definitely need to be better with the social media stuff. You know, you cannot you cannot get traction in this busy market without the social media side being covered as well. And whilst my daughter has helped out on that over the last couple of years, she's starting full time work in the legal profession in April next year.

So I'm just not going to be able to call on her to do that. And we do need to be posting stuff on maybe not on X so much, but certainly through Instagram and maybe threads. That's the other one, isn't it? Perhaps a bit of LinkedIn stuff. I mean, I do it sporadically.

But again, you kind of want somebody that's beavering away at that in the background, doing it in a bit more of a structured way. And I think that would help us to grow the show. Len Padilla, who people will remember the name, he's still beavering away in the background, you know, looking after all of the systems and the IT side. And Len's spent a lot of time over the last few weeks doing some housekeeping on all of our IT, changing some of our subscriptions, getting rid of some old stuff. We've moved across to a web hosting platform called Podbean now, which gives, for my money anyway, much better show analytics in terms of downloads and stuff.

So I think if we do some of this stuff, if we increase content, be more structured around BSP, Moto A, obviously Moto GP as it is, and World Supers. And we can supplement that with some other social media stuff. And I hope that would be reflected and much easier to see and track through the analytical information that comes back through Podbean in terms of show downloads and engagement and retention and all this kind of stuff. I quite like the geeky side of that. But it's another thing to look at and another thing to do.

So hence this kind of long ramble, really. So and then the other thing which has disappeared temporarily because of what we've changed with the website hosting and whatnot. But we did have a few articles up as kind of blog pieces, which I had written two of them. And then another one was based on some listener feedback that had come in. I'd really like to do a bit more of that.

And I would very much welcome contributions from the listeners, you know, write some stuff down, email it in and we can put it out as a blog piece. And then if we've got somebody churning the social media as well, we can we can do stuff around there. So all aimed at just trying to keep the show up and running and getting more paid subscribers on because the more we've got, the more we can do. But we do need help in terms of the resources, Jim, in terms of the time and the energy that goes into this. If that is what people want, if that's what they want to hear.

So I think that's kind of everything that was on my list. And I guess you've got a few things that you might want to add there, Jim. Yeah, I just want to say I would like to find somebody in the US to cover Moto America. I can probably watch a highlight reel and co-host with you, but you're going to have to edit, push, put those Moto America stuff up. I will say that Moto America is this past year and Skylar and I want to talk about Moto America.

It was much better. It was good racing. I unfortunately didn't see very much of it at all. So that kind of hurts somewhere. But I have to admit, if you go to the racetrack, it's easy with Moto America to get a press pass and have access to the paddock and talk to all the guys there.

It does seem intimidating and it does seem a little scary, but it's that buzz that you had from riding a motorcycle is just now you're on your feet talking to Jay Gagne or to Josh Hayes or to Cam Bovie. Right. Those guys are as normal as you and I are. And they want to talk about racing as much as you want to talk about racing. And they'll give you the time.

So we can help you get those passes and get you not get you there. But if you can attend a race, get some interviews and what not content. But basically, you're going to be that beat reporter for that. And hey, probably by the way, you're probably watching Moto GP. So if Rich is traveling and the time zones aren't working, well, hey, you could jump on with me.

We can do a Moto GP thing. Same thing for me. Sometimes I've got to travel and it's a little difficult for Rich to get a hold of me or me to get a hold of Rich. Just time zone differences. You can maybe hop in with Rich and do that show.

So it's fun. It's exciting. It's another way to be involved in racing. And, you know, I don't regret sticking my hand up saying I want to do this. And when Skyler asked for a co-host.

So that being said, if you're out there and you want to let us know. So just write us MotoPod, MotoPodcast.com. Put host in the subject line for the email and Richard, I will try to get in touch with you. OK, absolutely. Yeah.

And I would also add, Jim, that, you know, I really enjoyed doing the show. You know, I've always had quite lofty ambitions to try and kind of keep keep kind of not reinventing it exactly, but, you know, going back to how it was in the glory days when there were a lot less podcasts around and social media was not as big as it is now. So I think we're just kind of in that tricky position where because you and I don't do this as a full time thing, we don't obviously have any money out of this. This is just pure fandom and live in a kind of another life, really, from time to time. But it's very easy to get lost in the crowd.

And as you said, on the other point, I think what you said is important, Jim. I mean, I know getting to all the Moto America races is probably is not feasible because America is a very big country. But if I take BSP as an example, I mean, that is much easier because obviously the UK is quite small by comparison, very small. And the good thing is, is if you can go to quite a few of the races, as you said, with Moto A, the riders are pretty accessible and the teams are very friendly. But the more you can be there, the more you'll just get ingrained into that that whole thing.

You know, and I think that's really important as well, whereas I'll rock up to one or two races a year and you kind of always starting from scratch with people, because obviously the press people come and go and the PR people come and go. It's just normal. So you need to be boots on the ground more regularly if you can. Now, with World Superbike and obviously with Moto GP, that's a whole different cat of fish. But World Superbike is inverted commas easy to get a press pass.

Well, I've not had an issue where the UK round has been concerned and Dawn are on that side of the fence. A pleasure to deal with. I won't go off on a rant, less so on the Moto GP side. I think we can all agree. But again, that comes back to the amount of downloads that we get and the amount of engagement and presence that we have.

If we can tick some more of those boxes or get those ticks in the boxes bigger, then we'll get back in with Dawn again. I mean, it's a numbers game with them. And again, you know, they in fairness to Dawn, they have the problem of probably thousands of people banging on our door saying, can I have a press pass, please? And, you know, they have to draw the line at a certain point. So that's just kind of where we've landed, really.

Now, if the cases that people just want us to talk about races, as we've always done and as always has been the format of the show, then that's fine. But if we want to sort of get in and interview people, which I think is great content and brings a lot to the party in terms of context, then, you know, we've got to do better, really. But we can't do it on our own. So that's kind of where we are. So I'm hoping I mean, I've had some chats with Carl in the past about some BSP stuff and a couple of other people that I've met.

The guy I met on my holidays this year, who goes to a lot of races, road races as well. So as you say, Jim, there's bound to be a couple of people in different bits of the US that could potentially help out depending on geographically where they are. So, yeah, I'm just in this quiet period, he says, talking nonstop. It would be interesting rather than, you know, the listener engagement around what happened in the race last weekend. Perhaps we need some listener engagement now about what they like about the show, what they don't, what they want, what they don't want.

So that we can just sort of take that on board whilst we've got this little lull before things kick off big style again in March, April next year and see what we can do to enact some of this stuff. And hopefully for the betterment of the show and the content, which is what this is all about. I agree. Well said, sir. With that, because you have a time constraint, we need to move into the news.

So, again, if you're interested, if you want to try Motopod at motopodcast.com, host in the subject line. All right. To the news. What little news there is in this offseason. Here's a few things that we found.

One, Don Rosandemont, Don Ross. I get this wrong all the time, Rich. It's a tricky one. Yes. Ross Amando is stepping down as the chief communications officer of MotoGP and will leave the organization in January of 26.

Now, I thought he was a pretty cool guy. I got to talk to him at Kota one year. He was very big into it. I mean, he was into it. His kids were into it.

It was amazing to see all that. He was thrilled that they got some action on TNT. He seemed as though he was the right guy to be in the chair. But apparently he either has found greener pastures or Liberty wants somebody different in that chair. Take your pick.

I reached out to somebody that I know who kind of knows stuff. And the sense I got back whilst respecting some privacy around this issue was that I think just the scale of the job in terms of the global travel and the time away was proving a bit more of a challenge than envisaged. I think that's with young families and stuff. It's not easy when you're away two thirds of the year, which I guess is what that job entails, along with just the normal stress and strain of doing a big, big job like that. So I think it's more of a personal thing.

Just wanting to sort of recenter a little bit. And obviously, he's come from a US media background anyway, sort of been used to being US based, which again is not exactly like the UK. Or, you know, Lichtenstein or something like that. It's a big place, but the world is even bigger. I was trying to think of a really small random place.

Apologies, anybody from Lichtenstein that's listening. So I think that's behind it. But I have lots of criticisms, as lots of people do about Dorna. But there's a lot of good stuff that they do as well and a lot of good stuff that's happened under their watch. And I have to say, I thought the sort of the rebrand of the sport was was pretty good.

I liked some things I don't like the funny sort of music thing that happens every time just before the race starts. Save that for save that for the Liberty Media. Yeah, well, coming in the New Year. Exactly. God knows what's coming down the tracks literally on that one.

So I think a lot of that anyway is attributable to, you know, to Don or Dan, rather than Rosamondo's influence and experience. So it's a shame that he's going. I think he transitions out towards the end of January from there is a sort of a discreetly hidden away news article on the MotoGP website, but clearly not something that they wanted to publicize because it's a bit of a loss, really, in my in my opinion. And you met the guy, Jim, and I remember that interview and he was super enthusiastic. And we needed I'm sorry to say it in this way, but I'm going to say it anyway, because what so what we needed that non-spaniard at the top of the table.

And having an American was particularly good, you know, because America is such a big market and Americans now had to do the Rasmus Towers a bit, you know. We have Vegas. That's how we get it can get a bit out of hand. It's true, but that was a valuable change that came along and it's a shame it's not lasted any longer than it has. But anyway, let's see what comes next.

And obviously then there's the whole Liberty thing, Jim, which we'll get into on another show. The one thing I'll say about about Don, I found him to be a fascinating individual. He you know, here's a guy who didn't really know anything about the sport, fell in love with it because somebody took him to the racetrack, which is how we all wind up getting involved in this thing. But the key of it was, as you said, he was not Spanish. He understood the American market.

He understood what Americans wanted to see or the taste of Americans. Right. You are always going to be last. Motorcycle racing in America is always going to be last in the list of sports that are there. Right.

I mean, NFL, the National American Football, the National Football League is the oblong ball for those of you, for those of you in Europe, is the king. It is the it is the elephant in the room. It is the dominant factor that's there. And, you know, what he understood was that people like the action and the American taste is this super small little chunky little bit of like, wow, there's a lot of action, a little downtime action downtime, which is kind of how NFL football is played. They kind of run play.

It runs, let's say, 30 seconds. I don't know. I'm not a football fan. And then, you know, hey, there's a time out basically. Hey, catch your breath.

And we lined up. We tried again. And I think he understood that concept of how you how you give these little cool, crazy bit pieces and you distributed out to the American public like, hey, this guy just fell off his motorcycle at 180 miles an hour, tumble through the gravel trap, looked at his bike, said that thing's trash and runs back, grabs a scooter. And next thing you know, he's out on a second bike turning laps. Now, that's that is a that's a cool bit.

And you've you've seen that meme on Instagram and stuff everywhere. Moto GP has gotten much better with their Instagram account at showing little snippets of intense action that makes you sort of say, wow, well, I wonder what else there is other than this little 15 to 20 second reel. That you're watching. And Dan understood that. Now, I don't know.

I can't tell you. Rosalind Mando was the guy who was doing all that. I don't think so. But he understood the point was a long way around. Took way too long for this.

He just understood American culture and what Americans like and dislike. And so what he did is, you know, not having somebody, you know, it depends on what liberty is going to do with this, right? To see what they're going to do. But anyway, that's a whole nother show. Well, let's move on to the second thing I found.

This one is it's there, but it's just a weird exercise and thought, I guess, more than anything else. The Mark Marquez has not signed a contract for twenty twenty seven. He's not re-upped his contract with you, Cotty. Supposedly, they've been in talks to have negotiations to sign contracts to do what to get him to ride for twenty seven. Now, Mark, supposedly it's a money thing.

They can't decide on the number that's supposed to be on that check. Well, if Mark does decide to walk away from it, which is unlikely, I don't think he's going to go. But there is that possibility. You have to believe that Honda, with their big checkbook, is standing there going, hey, our bike was really good and we got rid of all the gizbang, whizbo things that don't work right. What if we just roll that 2014 bike back out and throw a different motor in it for you, buddy, and come ride with us?

Yeah, they might be offering him back that twenty five million he gave up when he left. I think they probably would. Ducati are not renowned for paying large salaries, let's remember either. They pay a lot of bonuses, so Mark won't have done badly there. But yeah, I mean, I don't know.

I think he'll stay. I think he's going to do. Cotty, I mean, here's the thing. We have one more year of the current rules of the all singing, all dancing, all everything motorcycle, essentially to use a Formula One analogy, it is the Williams FW15 that Adrian Newey built in 1992, which was active suspension, anti-lock brakes, automatic transmissions. You know, it was the all singing, all doing, all everything of a Formula One car.

And basically now you're back. You have MotoGP bikes that are sort of in that same vein, right? And now they're going to cut back and say, look, we got to get rid of all these. Rider aids. And go back to more of a pure what is how good is the guy riding it with his right hand and how much fuel does he have?

Well, I think we all know that there's probably really maybe only two guys on the grid. You have insane feel for a motorcycle. Marquez is the obvious one in that list. You've got three. OK, number two.

Number two, I think, is Quattraro. Now, who's your third, Rich, because I really don't have a third here. Well, I would put Acosta in there. I mean, I think if you're talking, let's use alien as the term that we used to love to or used to hear a lot. I think I think Pedro's in there, really.

But I agree. I agree. If you want if you want to if you want to call if you want to look at three guys who have ungodly talent and he will ride the absolute wheels off of a motorcycle to get to do it, then those are the only three. Currently, yeah, yeah, there are these other those three are in a class. Among themselves, and then there is the.

It sounds weird, but sub alien category. Yeah, no, I agree with that. I mean, and one of the things that Mark sees people in particular, I think is the speed at which they get very quick on the big bike. So if you think Mark bang straight on it, Quattro. OK, he came in on the Petronas Yamaha, which was not top line machinery, but he was immediately doing things and raising eyebrows because if you remember, most people thought he didn't deserve a seat in the seat, a ride in Moto GP based on his Moto 3, Moto, particularly the Moto Tigria that he'd had to that point.

And yet bang, he's immediately, you know, for the works ride. So and then Pedro. OK, I know he hasn't won a race yet, but I mean, he was super quick when he when he got on that Tech 3 bike. He was just straight out of the gates. He was quick and he's had a really strong second half this year after being a bit sulking, you know, petulant about things in the first half of the season.

So, yeah. And the other point, I think, which is pertinent about 2027, Jim, obviously, it'll be a clean sort of sheet of paper. You don't know which manufacturers are going to get that right and wrong relatively. But with the bikes being, let's say, a bit purer in the sense of less of this gizmo stuff, it will only make the aliens stand out more. Oh, yeah, for sure.

So you can take somebody like and this is no slight. I'm just using him as an example. You could take a Marco Bizecki. And his great test will be to maintain that level of performance on a 2027 bike, because what he's done is he's come up, you know, spent several years of MotoGP, getting used to these bikes, which have a lot of complexity to them. I do appreciate that.

But he's taken a long time to get to here. That's my point, I think. And these bikes do a lot of stuff, whereas if you go back to something that's a bit more stripped back and a bit more rider focused. That's a real test, I think. And I would certainly expect Marquez, whatever he's riding, I mean, he could be riding the bloody tricycle and he'd be quick.

Pedro and Fabio, who's unlikely to be on a Yamaha, I think, in 2027. But that's another story for another day. Those guys will be quick, straight away, I think. And the challenge will be for, you know, something like Fabio DiGiantonio. Again, he's steady and he's very quick on his day.

But will he, you know, stand out in that category when it comes along in a year or so's time? Don't know. Maybe. But we'll get a bit of a shake up. And I'm looking forward to that.

That started off with Mark May or May not stay at Ducati, didn't it? And went off on a bit of a tangent. Was that about the short show? Oh, wait a minute. Excuse me.

Yeah, good luck. Another bit of news. I'm sure that everyone will agree with this. Phillip Island is one of the best racetracks for MotoGP. Bar none.

It is at the top of the list. It's with its iconic with Mugello. I think that's there. I mean, you oh, gosh, what would you would you throw another one in there, Rich? Like one more iconic.

It's like there's really not really another really super iconic one. But you think of Mugello, you think of. Phillip Island. Yeah, I don't really think you don't think there's another one that really jumps off the page. Certainly not in terms of something that's on the current calendar.

I mean, I would certainly throw Suzuka in there, but we don't race. Zzik you can't race it. But anyway, we all heard that PI was under threat of not having a race and they were going to move it to another another location in Australia and all that good stuff. So there is a petition now that has been put out by the people by the people in Australia. Not sure exactly who's doing this.

It doesn't require any any money. It doesn't. It's not. All it is, is you putting your name saying, hey, look, all of us want you to do something, being the government. I think it's the government of Queensland.

I don't remember. This is like months ago that I saw this or about a month ago that I saw it. That they want the Queensland government to work to save the race and leave it there at PI. You can go there and you can sign the petition. It is located at save our race, all one word, dot good dot D.O.

So if you want to, you can try to put a link in the show notes that you guys can go there. All it takes 30 seconds to say that you agree that Philip Island is one of the greatest racetracks for motorcycles in the world and that we would like to have the race and we want the government to help keep the race at Philip Island. I think it's a worthy cause to put your name on it. I put my name on it. Like I said, it's not going to cost you anything.

It doesn't appear to be that much of a scam or whatever. I got it from Simon Patterson's thread and looked at it as like, OK, yeah, I'm going to do this. So if you can go, go help the keep Philip Island, Philip Island. And hopefully we can keep the bikes there because I mean, again, we talked about this verse, there was other there's all those other tracks that are potentials and whatnot. But it's just just they're not going to be the island.

I'm sorry. No, it's a singularly beautiful ribbon of tarmac. I mean, there's no other way of thinking of it as far as I'm concerned. Hallish Hallish is a spectator on occasion and not easy to get to. I think that was another problem.

But right as a racetrack and a place that generates racing and excitement. Hard to beat. Hard to be. Yep. Talking of Australians.

Yes. Or was he from New Zealand? Oh, dear. Better better not get that wrong. Yeah, really.

Pretty sure he's Australian. I was pleased to see, I think, on Instagram this morning, Jacob Rulston, ex of Tech 3 Moto 3 fame this year, has landed himself a ride in the, try and get this right, the. FIM Junior Moto 2 championship. So this is not mainline Moto 2, this is kind of the. The other one that runs where where Fermin Aldegar came up from, if you might recall, not a bad route to come, actually, because Jacob is actually one of the taller riders.

So he's kind of outgrown the Moto 3 bike a bit anyway. Obviously, I had that really bad neck injury from a crash at the beginning of the season, which then to this season. And I had a few bike failures through the through the course of the season, if you recall, and obviously a few crashes and stuff. And just, yeah, I was left without a ride. So I'm pleased to see that he stays in Europe on a Moto 2 bike, which is good, given where he's at physically and stuff.

And let's hope that he can continue his career progress there and find his way actually up into Moto 2 proper. I'll call it proper, you know, you know what I mean? And see if that's a career route that works for him, because it has certainly worked for some others. As I say, and Fermin Aldegar would be the primary example of that. Somebody else came out of that Junior championship that's in Moto 2 right now.

There's probably a few, to be honest. Balthus did, didn't he? He very well, I don't remember him in Moto 3 particularly. Yeah, I think Balthus is the other guy who came out of that Moto 2 European Junior championship. And yeah, it's been had different names over the years.

But I think it's called the FIM Moto 2 Junior championship or something now. Well, OK, because it's like that does the equivalent for Moto 3, which used to be called the CEV, if you remember. And it's not called that anymore, I don't think. Yeah. So they play around with the.

Yeah. What's the term? The nomenclature of the nomenclature. Yes, constantly. But anyway, good news for Jacob, because I was particularly embittered on his behalf that he was out of a ride in Moto 3.

But I think going to the Moto 2 bike is probably a good move for him. All right. Well, last thing for news is that this is Yamaha's last chance to keep Fabio Quattraro. The V4 must be right. There was a article I read that Yamaha's one of the bigger bosses at Yamaha essentially apologize to Fabio that the quality of bike that he had and that they were working essentially flat out to solve the problems and make this work so that they could keep him.

I mean, if Fabio has another season like he had this year, you've got to believe that his sights are set to go someplace else. In twenty seven, which, you know, I what a lot of riders, twenty sevens are are not settled. So there's going to be a lot of guesswork about who is going to have the right bike. I mean, there could be people moving all around and thinking that they've made the right decision. And, you know, it could be a real domino effect, right?

Because you could think and again, speculative that Jorge Martin may not get along with that Aprilia next year, because I think he's just I think it's in his head that that bike wants to kill him. Yeah, I agree. So, OK, let's let's assume just for fun right now, just the thought experiment. Let's say Martin leaves. So then who goes where?

Well, Quattraro's bike sucked again in twenty seven or twenty six. He's going to want to look at that Aprilia more than likely, and Aprilia probably would want him. So then that's but that's just a direct swap. But no, maybe. But Martin may then go to Honda.

If Marquez isn't at Honda, then that would be a go to Yamaha. Maybe, maybe not. You can just see how this spirals out of control. I'll tell you what, though, Jim, if if Martin has another year. In twenty twenty six, we're not quite there.

Are we? Like he had this year, you know, his star has waned big time. Yeah. And part of the problem with for him, I think, and I'm not going to mean. Well, that was definitely a problem when he was on the Ducati.

But. I mean, a big part of his problem, I think, is the fact that he's done very poorly as soon as he stepped off of Ducati, which kind of gives impression. And I'm not saying this is the case, but it gives the impression, at least, that his success was down to the fact that he was on a Ducati. So it was the bike, not the rider. So you he might become of less interest to people as time goes on.

If he has another shocker, which I hope he doesn't. And he certainly cuts a very different figure in terms of the way he presents himself compared to, you know, a little over a year ago. Yeah. This is a guy that had a near death experience, let's not forget. And I've been totally serious to say that in terms of Qatar, because he really, really bashed himself up and was in serious, serious trouble.

There. And if you remember, was in hospital for weeks and weeks as a result of, you know, the collapse lung and God knows what other internal injuries he gave himself. So that was a big one. And I think that's kind of shocked him a little bit as well. So this is a big year for Paul Hay Martin.

Agreed, agreed. I mean, I think his his value has has slid. Right. Yeah. If you want to use a monopoly analogy, he is not Park Place or Boardwalk.

He's maybe one of the railroads. He's maybe already railroad or at St. Charles or something like that on the board. So he, you know, he runs the risk of being odd man out through all of it. Doubtful.

Right. But again, you're right. He only looks like he only looks like he's good because he did it with the Ducati. He's not really been fast on any other bike. And his Moto two career was he was really outshone by Brad Bender.

If you think about it now, I will give you that that was the year that KTM had a god awful time with their frame that they made for the Triumph Moto. Right. And, you know, Bender could sort of ride around it or it. The modifications that they made were being made for Bender. And so Bender, you know, almost won the championship that year.

He did not. Right. But Martin was nowhere to be found in that whole dilemma. And he never really then is like, oh, wait a minute. He's going to be on a Gersini.

And then he started looking like magic. You know, again, it's like kind of like we said with Quattraro, then you had a flash in the pan couple of race wins on a Moto two bike. And now suddenly, whoa, you got this Moto GP right. I saw the talent Quattraro. I was like I had told Skylar if I was picking anybody, I'd throw one at I'd throw a line at to Quattraro, like try because I think he's got something.

He's got I don't know what the it is, but he's got that it. You know, I don't know. Oh, yeah. You know, Martin, it was sort of an alien is kind of an alien, but he's just battered himself so bad. Can he mentally come back from that?

I don't know. You see, I'm not quite sure. I at this point, I don't think I do put Martin in the alien territory. I mean, the reason Quattraro is, though, is he's putting that Yamaha on pole positions. He can't do anything with it in the race, but give him a lap.

And he you know, what do you get through for pole positions this year? With that bike? Yeah, I had no business being in pole position. None. So that's why I think Fabio and let's not forget he spent an offer from Aprilia for a much bigger paycheck to stay with Yamaha.

I don't think he'll make the mistake the same mistake again. And if I was Yamaha. I mean, part of the reason why they've retained Miller, of course, is because they need that experience because they know really that Rins for whatever reason just just can't find his mojo on that bike and is probably unlikely to do so. And if Fabio Quattraro leaves them, they're in a bit of bother then. So they probably would go for youth, I would imagine.

Let's be honest, there's a, you know, a fountain of youth coming up through Moto 2 at the minute. And, you know, they're going to need time to develop that V4. They won't do it quick enough to keep Fabio Quattraro around. I'm I'm fairly sure of that. So they probably their best play them would be to go long game and, you know, get, I don't know, with David Alonso or, you know, Hulgado, something like that, up in and onto the big bike as soon as possible and give them a bit of time to learn it.

The other bit of sneaky, cheeky news. Well, it's not news, it's speculation, but there's a bit of chatter around about the fact that Pedro Acosta signed for Ducati already. For VR 46 or? No, next to Mark. That's a dream team for you, Jim.

Hmm. The master and the pupil. Pretty much. Yeah. Paco dropping down to VR 46.

With Frankie Morbidelli making way. That's tasty. You can see some of these cards falling into place. I mean, KTM will be desperate to keep hold of Acosta, but I suspect they'll struggle, to be honest. And as I say, a few people suggesting that he's signed an agreement of some sort already to go and Mark hasn't signed because he doesn't need to.

He controls the market at this point. So so is Acosta's contract up and he needs a new one for KTM for next year? Or not for next year? No, no, for 27. OK, sorry.

Yeah. There's a year in between there. Sorry. Yeah. OK.

Hmm. Yeah. Oh, and that's a tasty prospect, isn't it? Oh, although who's to say Ducati get the 850 right? I mean, there's a lot of change.

They got the 800 right? Well, they did. They did. And you wouldn't bet against them, but you never know. I wouldn't bet against it, but I also wouldn't.

You know, there's also times in my life I say I wouldn't bet against Honda. And honestly, if you if you told me that they were going to go to a smaller displacement motor, I would have never thought Honda would have screwed it up like they did. Like I just everybody makes a mistake. I get it. But wow, that was like, huh?

And, you know, especially because, you know, prior to that, what it was all nine nineties, right? And Honda came out of the box with like, you know, show up with a V5 like what? Hold on. Is that legal? You know, well, they looked at it.

The rules and the weights made sense. So they so, you know, what did that allow them to do? Well, if you had more cylinders at the same capacity as everybody else, that means you can make each cylinders got to be small. It has to be technically you don't need as much bore or stroke. So you can have the board, but then you shorten the stroke.

If you shorten the stroke, you can rev it higher. That's that's free power. Guys, you didn't see this one coming now. I mean, you can say what you want about that. But it'd be there's at times where Honda is like incredibly ingenious.

And then there's times where you look at him and you just want to whack, smack him upside the head like, huh? What were you doing? What were you thinking about all that? Right. Oh, isn't there the speaking of Honda?

Because I just I always now think of Honda. I think of Repsol Repsol is now going to be what the official lubricant and fuel supplier to Moto two. Yes. And they're going to have presence at all rounds, I think, in terms of marketing, marketing, sponsorship, billboards and what not. So, yeah.

So well, there's a lot. Yes. So let's move towards the three to our three things, things which we've already we're we're we're we're pretty good so far. And we got to go quick. You got to go quick here.

So we had like a that it was like three things. So it's like what three things would we think about or what three things are like the big overarching ideas from the year? So let's start with Moto three. So I think one of the first things is is the is the rise of. One Max Keely's in the class followed on the converse as the downfall of one and Angle Picaras, because then you and I both picked, hey, Picaras is your world champion without a doubt.

Yet we completely blew off Rueda, who then went to the championship. Right. Like both of us looked like idiots on that one, which is normal, because we've showed you what we know sitting here. We're not not on form from the previous season, particularly. I think I can defend this a little bit there because Picaras did look like the guy that was going to go into this season just finished as the form man.

And Raid had been sort of like injured all year and one thing and another. So he just completely fell out of my reckoning. Well, and yours so more for us. But so it wasn't quite as black and white as that, I think. And he says furiously trying to defend his bad decisions.

Yeah. But on the flip side, Picaras or not because but Max Keely's. This is a kid that came out of the world juniors or whatever. He's palling around with the Marquez brothers. So obviously they must think this kid has talent.

He was a rookie. He won races. He hurt himself. And, you know, again, we talked about this a lot. But his points percentage per race is better than anybody's.

Yeah. Yeah. Which is what's crazy. I mean, you know, is he the odds on favorite for a world champion next year? I don't know.

But I think Munoz is going to have something to say about it. At least for the beginning, until I settled it out. There's a few people in that discussion. Yeah, there's a few people in that discussion. So that was like the killer is going to be up there.

Oh, 100 percent. 100 percent. You know, so the next thing out of I think that was like the up and the downs kind of three things to talk about was the whole big, super scary crash at Malaysia with Rueda and Noah Detweiler. Now, thank God they're they're all recovering and healing and they're going to be OK. But it it showed the glaring need of the stupidity, I think, of removing the morning warmup sessions from Moto 3 and Moto 2 to put Moto GP riders on some form of truck slash wagon slash trailer slash whatever and dragging them around a track where nobody could see them anyway.

Well, they, quote, wave to flans, wave to fans and do. Instagram live stuff. I I'm sorry, I just didn't understand that. And could this have been prevented? Probably right, because it would have been more a warm session would be more race intense.

So I think people would have been maybe paying a bit more attention than, quote, unquote, one siding lap. To take your bike to the grid. And most of all, I just think it's just unfair to these kids now. Do they have an immense amount of racing experience? Yes, they do.

But they do not. A lot of them do not have experience if they go to Motegi in Japan or if they go to Philip Island or if they're going to. Who, you know, anywhere outside anywhere outside of Europe, right? Or Spain, right? They don't they generally don't have a lot of track time on those tracks.

And yeah, the idea is you're supposed to be good enough that you actually can learn the track very quickly and be fast at it. But just having a few extra minutes to try a setup that you may or may not want to use for the race is important. Like essentially, they don't get that opportunity or they're taking big gambles. And I'm surprised we didn't see as much of a bigger swing in the top guys. But I mean, you know, you got the top bikes and factory.

They're going to be good, right? Regardless, no matter what they do, what they want to do. But those are like my three things I came up with for for Moto3, Rich. Yeah. Are you doing this Moto3, Moto2 and Moto3?

I was going Moto3, Moto2, MotoGP. Because that's cheating, Jim. That's nine things. Sorry. You know how I am about this stuff.

I mean, I don't have a Moto3 thing on my list. I get a little anorak. I get a little anorak-y sometimes. Well, I do have one Moto3 thing. And from a purely selfish British point of view, very pleased to see how well Kasey O'Gorman did with his few rides.

He's Irish. OK, that's true. That's true. But it's a sort of, yeah, from my neck of the woods person, which is a bit of a rarity. I know we've got Scott Ogden and we've had a few other guys, you know, at various points, but.

In a sea of, you know, certain nations being very overrepresented, it's good to see some other flags appearing. And, you know, Kasey did really, really well in difficult circumstances, because obviously it's not full time in the championship and, you know, jumping onto different bikes and stuff. So, yeah, I'm looking forward to seeing how he does. He's in the Simencani team, I think, next year, isn't he? So I believe so, yes.

Or the 6. 658 Corsa. Yeah, so that would be my little honorary Moto3 mention. I didn't mention the third one for me. The third one would be the strange case of Joel Kelso.

He started well. He then fell off the wagon. Then he came back with some poles. He had some he had a couple of podiums, still never got that win. But then it fell off again.

It's just he runs hot and cold. And it's like just there's a real good amount of talent there. But he's he goes to goes to Michael Laverde's team next year, which is a Honda based team that he haven't decided to change to KTM. As far as I know. No, I believe that still on Honda's.

Yeah. So they're going to be on Honda's. That's going to be interesting. But I can't imagine, you know, what's Honda going to do with their bike? Who knows?

Right. But anyway, that's three things there. So Moto2 quickly to get this done. Moto2, one of the first things I thought was the rise of the rookies. I mean, look at Helgaardo won races.

Alonso won a race. You had it was just insane. The rookies and how well they did even by the end of the year. Or Tola. Colin Vier looked good for the like the last two or three races.

He's finally like the light switch turned on. Right. Yeah. And he was looking really, really good in that. And, you know, I think.

That Moto2 kind of got stale because we were always used to the same people racing in the class and the same people were winning, you know, or the same names were always there. Just but that means, you know, especially this year, we found out that the old guard, if you will, you know, Jake Dixon, Aaron Kinnett, they're leaving the paddock. They're going to World Superbike, which, you know, good for Jake. I mean, he gets a factory Honda ride. I mean, and given the way the schedule is with like, I think what?

There's one race outside of Europe and that's it. I think he gets to be a backup rider for the MotoGP teams as well. Oh, tasty. I think I'm not sure about that. I've seen a couple of things online, some of which is, you know, these gobshite sort of useless make stuff up to get clicks.

Yeah, I hate it. It would make a lot of sense for Jake to do some work for the MotoGP teams as well. Yeah. So that's the first one for that. I had was that the rise, you know, the rise of the rookies and sort of like the changing it was a very like towards the end, like after Hungary, you really felt like there was a a very distinct changing of the guard about who was out front.

Most of the guys that were out front in the second half of the season were all one, two year removed Moto3 guys. Yeah, I mean, obviously, we that we were attention was focused on the Gonzalez Marrera showdown for the title. But again, Marrera has not been in Moto2 for that many years now and underperformed, if anything, in Moto3. So agreed. But I agree with you, Jim.

I mean, a trickle became a bit of a tidal wave by the end of the year with the yeah, the obvious talent of some of those guys that had come up before that we've mentioned in particular. And again, I would highlight that Ivan Ortolla was looking good towards the end of the season as well. And as I always say, if they start to look good within that first season, then the likelihood is they're going to go on and do really, really well. So it will take them so long that they might not actually get to that point of fruition where somebody like Ethan Gravara is very lucky because he suddenly came on at the end of the season. But that's three, if not four seasons that it's taken him.

He would have been out before much longer if that carried on. Sure. So the other thing is that Moto2 gave us our first South American champion in Diego Marrero, which is also interesting because he overcame like a 61 point deficit to Gonzalez. And part of all that is the amazing consistency of Marrera against the absolutely massive debacle that happened with all kinds of bad luck, unfortunate circumstances and everything else that was going on for Gonzalez. I mean, the rock in the radiator by your teammate doesn't help your cause no matter what, right?

But it seemed as though that once he was rejected for the MotoGP ride that Gonzalez just was like, wasn't himself. And then the pressure, I think, sort of got to him at some point, right? And he just couldn't perform. Seemed that way. It seemed that way.

Now, we are on the outside looking in at this, but the guy who was winning races and making it look easy at the beginning of the year suddenly couldn't buy a podium if he had to. Yeah. Marrero, that's just the way the cookie crumbles sometimes. And it's such a kind of mental, you know, form game, isn't it? All sport is like that.

And it just felt like his shoulders just kept sort of dropping at the same time when Marrero was sort of starting to surge forward. And that momentum just carried him through at the end of the season. And then obviously, you know, you had that. I mean, Vaneche just was the cramming turd in the water pipe, really, as far as he's concerned. So, yeah, I mean, hopefully he'll have a good season.

I mean, he didn't have a bad season. He finished runner up in the championship, for goodness sake. But, you know, he would have expected to win it by the time he was at mid season. So in that sense, he will be very disappointed. But he should go into this season with a lot of hope.

But equally, a lot of fast, well, not rookies anymore, but a lot of guys that have really woken up our attention in terms of next year. And Nomoto too will be another very interesting championship again, because it's going to be hard to call between. What do you call people in their second year? I always forget it begins with S. Sophomore, thank you.

Yeah. Those guys are going to be hard to contain. Yeah. Yeah. I think the other the last thing I got for Nomoto too is the idea of that we may or may not see those classes traveling the world, or at least being on a very reduced schedule, which I don't think is good show, because, you know, selfish.

We need to start another another online petition, Jim. Yes, because that is not that. And that's that is the first signs of big trouble coming from Liberty Media. Uh huh. And I am very, very much against that.

Right. I mean, if Liberty Media is going to do a good job at promoting the sport and generating more revenue, then some of that revenue should go to the teams so that they can do the travel. 100 percent. I'm afraid like what are what if I go to Koda? What am I going to see?

Because I'm not going just to watch Moto GP. If that's the only class that's there, that's not value for money for the fuel burn that I've got to get there for the ticket itself. You know, whatever. 100 percent. Right.

So but I mean, so what are you going to do with it? Or what are you going to tell me? You're going to run Moto America with it? Moto America doesn't want to be there with you because they don't get any of the gate. Yeah.

So they're not wanting to do. They're not wanting to be there by them, you know, as your sidekicks. Right. So what are you going to do? How you how do you feel that?

You know, that that that that just card, you know, the the schedule, how do you feel the schedule? Yeah, yeah. You know, it's like, I mean, OK, so we're going to have Moto GP practice. And then what? We're just going to watch an empty racetrack.

And that's not ours. That's not going to fly. No, that is not going to fly. It's not good TV either. No, there's no TV, isn't it?

That's what it is. So, right. You know, you don't build the house by ripping out the foundations. So I do not understand if that is true, what they're thinking about. I know they want to put all the focus on Moto GP or really focus on Moto GP.

And of course they do. It's the premier class. But but you don't do that to the, you know, the expense of the formulas where the stars of next year and the year after that come from for God's sake. You know, and if that if that is genuinely what somebody's considered. Well, I think Liberty is stuck in the fact that they look at Formula One.

Right. If you think about Formula One and when Formula One travels outside of continental Europe, for the most part, Formula Two does not go with them. Yeah. So like, I know that's where this is coming from. I think I think so.

I think that's what Liberty is looking at. Wait a second. Hold on. That's the most watched motorsport in the world. I Formula One.

But their subcategory doesn't go with them when they're flying, when they go to Canada. I know for certain F2 does not run in Canada. They have some sort of Ferrari challenge cars. They have some kind of GT3 race. And there's there's something else.

I think there's a there might be another Formula Type car that runs. I'm not sure what. But yeah, there's not Formula Two. And so I think Liberty is looking at like, what do you mean, Dornie? You were paying for all these teams to travel with all their gear to go race over here.

These are the people that are making you the money, which I is MotoGP. But damn, the racing is so good in Moto2 and Moto3. Why are you going to not treat the spectator properly? This is where Liberty have to be extraordinarily careful in making rapid changes that they kind of make in haste and repent at leisure. Because the I'm going to go out on a bit of a limb, but I think I'm old enough and have been to enough car and bike races now to have a view on this.

Although the majority of those have been in Britain and the British crowds, whether it's two or four wheels are pretty full on, it must be said. But I would venture that people like us, but we'll watch Moto3, Moto2 and MotoGP. You know, we will always watch all the races. I bet you a decent chunk of percentage of the people that turn up to Silverstone for the F1 race don't bother watching, you know, the women's championship and they don't watch the F3 race if there is one, and they might sort of have a passing interest in the F2 race, but because it isn't the Formula One. I mean, Formula One is just the great big thing, isn't it?

Yeah. Bike racing is not like that. We're much more hardcore as a bike racing community and as a trackside fan base. We want to watch everything, which is why we want the bloody warm ups back. Because I like watching bikes on track.

As well as the whole obviously the the whole argument around safety. That's the fundamental reason for having it back. But if you're sitting trackside, like you said, you don't want to be watching an empty track with no noise. And, you know, an attractor pulling some people that couldn't care less whether they're there or not going by for a fleeting moment. That's not of any interest to us.

So again, we'll have to talk about the Liberty thing another time. But yeah, that's not going to be helpful if they do that. No. You got anything for Moto2-esque or whatever? No.

OK. All right. So we'll move to MotoGP sort of the three three big things are one. Mark Marquez's incredible season. Let's be honest.

Did you see him dominating the way that he did? I didn't. I would have especially at the beginning of the year. He had his little troubles. He threw away an easy win at Kota on the track that he loves the most.

Although he did have it, although it was a brilliant strategic move to go to the slick tires and cause chaos. And then, you know, you hit the curb and do something stupid. I think you might be slipping into selective amnesia, Jen, because you and I both said we didn't think anybody would see which way Mark went once he was on the red light. That's true. And that is what happened.

Yeah. I tried to make it sound better than it was. No, I mean, we all knew he was going to win the championship. I think it was a foregone conclusion that you had to put you had to put your money on Mark to have that championship. I know what you what I did not have on the bingo card was the absolutely horrible, incredibly horrific, disastrous season that Peco Boniakio had on a red bike.

I mean, if you would have told me that he'd win one race and that would be Motegi, I would have laughed at you. Yeah. Um, I was looking forward to to the to the inter team rivalry between Mark and Peco. I thought Peco was going to at least give Mark some trouble. The person who actually gave Mark the most trouble was his brother.

Yeah. On a year old Ducati, the bike that Benyai would desperately want to be on and couldn't be on for whatever reasons. Yet alone, they couldn't fix the problem, which is the most bizarre thing to me that they couldn't fix Pecos bike. They brought Casey Stoner and Casey Stoner looked at him and said, why haven't you done that for him? And then suddenly everybody's all it's really going to be good.

And then it wasn't good. Then he showed that, well, we think we found the magic again because we didn't do worth the crap at wherever they were first, where they were. They went. Where's the end of the season? Yeah.

Thailand, Thailand. And then, you know, then they went to Motegi and it was like, oh, and then Benyai is like, oh, we got to figure it out now. The ups and downs, the lows. And then, you know, I mean, I thought not that it was fitting, but it was just the way you expected a season to end, you know, Valencia off in the gravel trap by his not his own making and tips over. I'm done.

He I think Benyai actually just he probably could have started and finished at the back, but then he probably said why. But there was so many wrecks that he had where the front end just disappeared on him. At times like a was a port de Mayo. The fast the fast left hander. Or is it right to get right?

It just the front was gone instantly. Usually there's a warning. There's a little bit of skid check. There's some feel he had known. It's just gone.

And it's yeah. And I don't think the thing of it is, is I think Mark was ready and was prepared to play. An insane amount of mind games with him, right, because at Kota was like the third race of the year. He played mind games with him, with whether they were going to be on wets or whether they're going to go to drives. And I expected to see all kinds of mind games in that in that regard, that look, you know, the tactical decision changing at the very end for anything, whatever it could have been, whether it would have been from a medium tire to a soft or vice versa, just little things like that, that we're just going to absolutely screw with Benyai's brain.

But it didn't matter. He just simply couldn't handle any of what Mark had. And he's like, whatever. If you remember, Jim, I mean, he was finishing third pretty much every race sprint and main race for the first third of the season. His problem was he was getting beaten by Alex on the bike that he wanted to ride.

I think that started to mess with him. And by the time you got to the second half of the season, he was so far behind. Mark was just so effortlessly quick and he was still getting whooped most of the time by Alex as well. I just think he's started to push on. And that's something that's just occurred to me.

This really revealed a kind of a weakness, I think, structurally within Ducati in terms of managing two riders and two bikes. Think back to all the riders whose careers were ruined when Casey Stoner was winning constantly on the thing. Nicky Hayden's, Nicky Hayden, Mark and Melandry, like Mark and Melandry, even Loris Caparossi, who was there when when Casey arrived. I mean, none of them could really do it. And Ducati either couldn't or didn't want to be bothered.

Well, not be bothered, but just they had somebody who was winning. And that's that was what they wanted. You know, and the other side of the garage kind of just went for Burton, really. I don't know. I mean, obviously, we're talking fundamentally different periods now, but it's not without precedent.

And it may be that such a catty thing. Yeah, sort of like a Honda thing, which makes you wonder what the hell would happen if Costa and Marcos were there all together. Oh, because both those are both mentally tough enough that it doesn't matter what mind game was being played, they survive. Yeah. I mean, arguably, Acosta is mentally even tougher than Mark, which is a scary thought.

Yeah, I can argue that. I could argue that nothing seems he doesn't give give to what's it's about anything really across the currently. Yeah, which is great. I mean, I love that kind of devil may care attitude of his. He's you know, he's a bit naughty, isn't he?

And I like that. Well, let's talk about other things. You know, I think the other thing in the season was just how horrible the season the Jorge Martin had. Right. It didn't have a season, did it?

Didn't have a right. Yeah. Well, the unseason, how about that? The other season of the way it works, because he got pitched off the bike in preseason testing is a pang broke, whatever. Came back too soon.

Wound up having a hoard crash, horror crash, horrible, horrible crash at Qatar. Yeah. To which he was lucky that. You like you said, I'll go with you. I agree.

It was near death. He was he was lucky to survive. He was lucky to he got out of it. Right. Yeah.

Yeah. And you're like, OK, wow. You know, so I mean, him to have an unseason was like what, you know, but conversely was how good was the Aprilia because Bez made it look great. Once Bez figured it out, he was on a tear. Now, granted, by the time he was on a tear, Marquez already had this championship in his pocket.

And you have to admit that, OK, we spent the last five grand prese without Marquez in it at all. Yeah. But Raul Fernandez won on an Aprilia at Phillip Island. Yeah. Proving how good that bike is.

Right. It's it really is good. Now, as long as they don't muck it up when we get to next year, they've got a really fighting shot at someone in the team being world champion. You got to think that no one's going to beat Marquez on Ducati again next year. It would be a lot of work to be able to do it because.

But I think that Marquez is just as hungry, will be just as hungry next year to win the title, because then that's his argument about being the goat and being better than Rossi is valid. Yeah, that's what it's all about. I think at this point, it's the same as a numbers game kind of under values and under values. What he's doing. But he just wants that kind of almost unreachable thing, don't they?

And if he could, I wonder how close he is to Agostini's wins. I don't remember. I don't remember. Because Rossi got close, didn't they? But didn't didn't quite surpass Igoe.

Yeah, I didn't know when wins category. So but that could happen at some point over the next season or two for Mark, I would imagine, and that won't go down well into Velier either. No, not by a long stretch. Oh, let's see. Is there any other big ticket item out of MotoGP for this season?

I will say this. I think this is sort of an overarching one. There's too many races. I agree. I'm sorry.

Just because Formula One has a sprint race does not mean you need a sprint race. And again, you're trying to pacify the appetite of people who who are not of our generation, the people behind us, who everything is a 30 second clip on YouTube. All right. That's what a sprint race is. It's a he's like, Jesus, Pete's MotoGP races of sprint to begin with, people, let alone anything else.

Right. Yeah. So if you wanted to do sprint races, perhaps maybe at some of the tracks. I mean, even Formula One is backed off and decided that they're not at every race track. They're at selected tracks.

But 22 rounds is too many. There's no offseason now. There's too many tracks. You're doing 44 times. You're going out on a MotoGP bike, which is the most snarly, nasty, want to kill you type motorcycle that you can possibly think of.

You don't think that, you know, and it showed by the injuries like everybody had some injuries that they were dealing with all season long. You can't expect this to continue without somebody being severely hurt just because the percentage of risk has increased by the number of races that we are running. So it's like, do you really have to be at 22? I don't think so. What's the right number, Rich?

I don't know. I'll throw it out there. I think anywhere between 18 and 20 is satisfactory. What I was going to say, 18, I think, would be. Extensive enough to cover a lot of the globe for a decent chunk of the year.

You know, have a couple of decent three or four week breaks in there to allow. I mean, obviously, the riders from an injury point of view, which is obviously is always an issue, but the teams, I mean, these people, I mean, they're just constantly away from home. So and I know it's true, it's kind of a choice, but year after year after year, it must be very, very, very difficult. So, yeah, like you, I think there's just far too many. And with the sprints thrown in as well, it's just it's just a bit too much.

And, you know, increasing the count and they even talk about wanting to go to 23 or 24, aren't they? While simultaneously saying we're going to cut like Moto 3, Moto 2, because they can't afford it. Well, I just think that's fundamentally bad for the long term, health of the sport, really. So that would be the totally the wrong direction to go in. Yeah.

I again, I don't don't know what's the right one, but it's too many. It's, you know, every other weekend. You know, I'm not a big fan of back to back weekends. No, I'm not. I mean.

Yeah, I get it. It works out that way. But yeah, it's just one or two for logistical reasons. You kind of get that. But I don't see the need for, you know, triple headers.

I just think is. Yeah, they didn't do that this year, thankfully, because triple headers have been horrible to do. But again, you know, it's it is what it is. And we're all going to have to deal with what they do. But.

Oh, well, yeah. And the final thing. After all these years, Herve Pontreal will no longer be a figure in the Moto GP paddock. Well, I hope he's still around making us all laugh with his very entertaining and witty, unforgettable kind of humor and insight and experience. I guess he's being kept in a, you know, the old thing that they were saying, a sort of an advisory role.

Yes. Yes, that's a real loss, isn't it? If he does sort of, I mean, obviously, he has to finish at a certain point. He's not a young young man anymore, although he's a bloody young for his in his attitude and his, you know, approach for somebody of his age. And I don't know precisely how old he is, but there's not a young man anymore.

So fair enough, he has to wind it down at some stage. But to sort of swap him for the sweary German is not a good trade. As far as I'm concerned. No. Yeah, I could do without.

We should he should have been banned from being able to buy a team. Yeah, we might see a bit more of this going on with the sort of the liberty sort of drive to survive the type approach. Yeah, but didn't they now make they're making all the teams essentially equal. And that allows other people to invest in teams as an inequality, which is essentially the liberty saying, sorry, we're not supporting the smaller teams anymore. You're going to have to find that money on your own, which I think is really weird considering you need the teams because they're the people that are putting the bikes on on the circuit.

You know, so yeah, again, we'll save all that for a Liberty media show, which will he better buckle up for that people are going to be talking about. That was a long one. It's going to be a bloody long one, man. Yeah, but that's all I really got for sort of a Christmasy thing theme. Rich, if you get something else laid on me.

Well, yeah, I've got to go in a couple of minutes, but my top three is really overlapped with yours. So in very quick order, I had, you know, Mark Marquez, the comeback king. You know, I've kind of become a bit of a Mark Marquez fan because he switched brands. You know, I really admire that in people and to come back from the injury. I think, again, is he the go?

I think if he puts another one or two titles onto his resume, then I think that becomes a bit of a settled argument, to be honest. But he made a big step towards that claim this year. It's a hell of a comeback. Great story. The second thing is.

Top rack winning the third championship, second for BMW and World Superbike. Brilliant coming to MotoGP and now coming rather too late, it must be said. And I'm not expecting him to do sort of set the world on fire. MotoGP next year is a learning year really for him. But, you know, if he got a top six once or twice.

Could happen. I mean, you know, when you've got Fabio Quattro, who can barely podium the bike, then you have to keep your expectations in check. But who knows what the 850 will be like that they turn out. It might be brilliant. You know, you just don't know.

But and again, a great achievement to win on the BMW, because that bike was in all sorts of trouble at the beginning of the season, and they worked very hard to develop it so that he could go back to riding it how he likes to ride. And if he can do anything even remotely like that on the Yamaha MotoGP, that is going to be great for him. It's going to be great fun to watch. So that was a number two for me. And then number three, again, you've already touched on it, but the sleeping giant Awakes.

I mean, HRC. I can't wait to see how they continue to progress. OK, they've lost some of their concessions, but that just goes to show what a good year they had, because let's not beat about it. They were kind of in the same suburb as Nowhere City really for the last five or six years, weren't they? So to come back in the way that they have they've got Romano Albasano, is it, who was the Aprilia guy that came over.

Obviously, they brought Alasho over as a test rider, Grand Prix winner. They've done all the things that they should have done years ago. So belatedly, but they've done them. And, you know, the the old monster is starting to crawl out of the ground again, Jim. And let's let's see if that prediction of a Honda winning the championship in the final season of the current ruleset comes about.

Let's see if Mr. Neal Spaulding, the squire, is correct in his assertion that that could happen. I'd love to see it. I'd love to see it. But I'd love to see it.

I just can't see it happening. Not with the riders that they have. Sorry. I'm skeptical, but stranger things have happened. So it's another piece of intrigue for us to look forward to in 2026.

So, yeah, that was just my three things very, very quickly. And because we won't talk again this year, just a quick sort of remembrance thing for Owen Jenner, Shane Richardson and Borka Gomez, who lost their lives in racing accidents during the season. And thankfully, we didn't add Jose Maria Rueda and Noah Detweiler to that list. So we should always remember the guys that that didn't make it through the year. So just as a sort of a little end of the year in memoriam thing, I probably missed a couple of people off that list.

I'm sorry if I have. Those are the ones that sprang to mind immediately from BSB. And while Borka Gomez was in one of the junior championships and was on a test day in Manny Call, if you remember, and I just know better not say what happened in case we get sued. But there are there are cases to answer around negligence in what happened there. But anyway, so just to keep those guys in our minds.

All right. Well, I think that's everything, Rich. Yeah, we are out of here on this one. We'll be back in the new year with the Liberty Show, a goat show, you know, probably some other stuff. What happened at Ducati show?

That would be a good one. Yeah, that would that would take a while. But with all that said, I want to I wish I'd be out there a Merry Christmas Kwanzaa Hanukkah, whatever it is that you do for the holiday season. And as always, people write safe. Yeah.

Merry Christmas, everybody, and a happy new year. And we look forward to talking to you in twenty twenty six.