Pit Shadow

I must, of course, begin this month by wishing my best to Nicky Hayden’s family following the heart-breaking tragedy. I’m devastated, he really was a favourite among many. However the next thing I’m going to do is to stick two fingers up to some of the cretins in the GP press office, those same ones who for years slagged Nicky off, or more specifically, slagged his title win off. A lot. And often…

The issue is many are unabashed Rossi fan boys, who seem unable to separate work and passion, and leave whatever little actual professionalism they possess on the media room floor whenever the Doctor is under discussion. For years I listened to them spouting about Nicky’s ‘gifted’ championship, and now I listen again while they speak about him in ways they never did before. I find it sad that it takes something like this to make people realise they’re wrong about someone, but I guess it’s the way of the world. Anyway, RIP, Nicky, you were a true gent and will be sorely missed.

Yet the circus rolls on, and right now I’m still in utter disbelief at the state Honda have gotten themselves into. Only in BSB have they had anything to shout about recently, with the Fireblade somehow managing to make it on a podium. Right now it barely finishes a race in most other series, on the track or the road. The deficiencies in the bike, which appears to centre mostly around the throttle and gearbox, have caused no end of mayhem. A very famous ex GP racer, one still very active, described the throttle response to me as ‘utterly terrifying at times’, and this has been backed up by the FB boys in, I believe, this very issue. Then there’s the gearbox, which appears to have been possibly responsible for John McGuinness’ North West 200 crash (given what John himself said on TV), and very clearly had a hand in Guy Martin’s scary crash in the first TT Superbike race. Again, FB tell me their longterm bike was jumping out of gear a lot in their big test too, and finding false neutrals, and I’ve also read this from other quarters, too. It’s something Big H need to get on top of as quickly as possible lest the new bike (which I think looks beautiful) becomes tarnished. Even in WSB it gets a kicking every single weekend, too. Not good…

Then in MotoGP, I’ve never seen Marc Marquez look so lost, like, ever. He cut a sad figure at Mugello, with his bike not even fast enough to best Alvaro Bautista’s privateer Ducati on Mugello’s straight, on top of all the other issues he and the other Honda riders suffered from. Yes, both Pedrosa and Marquez have won a race this season, but that’s just papering over the cracks – they’re in real trouble. Last season it was Marquez who made that bike win but it would seem Honda have rested on their laurels yet again, and Marc is still apparently using a three-season old chassis, which now just seems desperate given it was developed for completely different tyres. Honda need to pull their collective fingers out I’d say, we all know they can do it, so hurry up already…