Poisoning the Fuel Drum

The last race of the season has just gone to pass and it was quite the spectacle to behold.  After the incident at the last race in Sepang, there has been a flurry of buzz going on around the internet with differing opinions on what actually happened and how the punishment should have been carried out.  To be honest, regardless of my personal biases and whatever side people were taking, the buzz got me excited.  Never before had I seen so much excitement around MotoGP whether it came in the form of angry yet earnest posts by diehard fans on Facebook or the discussions held by curious minds by people on Reddit who had gotten wind of the incident, but weren't really fans of the series.  As MotoGP seems to have always struggled to get the fandom in the US that it has received internationally, I was happy with the amount of attention it seemed to be getting.  However, I feel as though the attention came in a bad light.

So I'll preface by stating that racing isn't fair.  I would go so far as to say racing is probably the least fair sport out there.  Whether it's because your competitor had a gear head as a father who gave him a 10 year head start on you or because of budgetary reasons or because you're on an inferior machine, there are a bunch of different factors that are brought into the equation.  However, at the end of the day your complaints about your competitors having some random advantage won't help you shave seconds off your time or put you on the podium.  All you can do is run what you brought, put your head down and do your best... or so I believe should be the spirit of any racer.

Jorge Lorenzo deserves every bit of this championship.  He spent the 2015 season dealing with various setup issues as his competition just kept getting faster and faster.  Despite a couple "off the cuff" actions he made against his teammate Valentino Rossi and what seemed like collaboration with rival Honda rider Marc Marquez, I can say that Lorenzo for the most part should accept the 2015 championship with pride and without any guilt.  Whatever alleged dealings people may be accusing him of are simply that, allegations without any true substance.  This brings us to the actions of Marc Marquez.

It's been pretty obvious that Dorna has been scrambling for a Rossi replacement.  In racing years, Rossi should technically be way past due. However, therein lies the problem as many people consider Valentino Rossi to be synonymous with MotoGP.  Who can blame them?  Rossi has done more for the sport than almost anyone else who has had the privilege to be on that starting grid. After riding through four generations of GP machines (not including his time in the 125 and 250 levels) and nine world championships, people were starting to wonder how much Rossi still had left. What Dorna needed was a young hot shot with extreme talent and charisma to try and take over for Rossi.  Enter Marc Marquez, the little shit.

When I saw Marquez at his debut in Qatar, I had to admit I was impressed.  When Marquez went to COTA in Austin, I was flat out amazed. Who was this rider who was fresh out of Moto2 and able to not only beat out the solid veterans, but do it with what looked like relative ease?  In some ways, his ability to man-handle the machine and plow it into corners like he was about to crash at any moment was reminiscent of Casey Stoner's wild style.  Then the incident at Jerez happened between Marquez and Jorge Lorenzo.  I remember thinking, "Wait, that bump didn't seem necessary.  He definitely shaved off enough speed to get the bike to turn there".  The incident was very reminiscent of what happened between Rossi and Sete Gibernau and I remember the announcers making a big deal of it.  The incident left a little skepticism in my mind, but I figured it was just an honest mistake and soon forgot it.  Then came Laguna Seca where Marquez obviously had way more speed than Rossi, but he seemed to be restraining himself for some reason and that's when he unnecessarily re-enacted the famous corkscrew pass in a very familiar way.  One time may be a coincidence, but twice?  Something about Marquez seemed fishy.  Why would he add such risky maneuvers at the cost of fellow racers for no good reason?  Well, it seems the reason would be to try and shove down our throats that Marquez was just another great.  What he fails to understand is that the greats forge their own paths and don't have to resort to imitation.

I forgot exactly when, but Marquez started making some minor mistakes and then the broadcasting director made the mistake of televising his little temper tantrums.  The image of the easy going kid who kept is cool and just loved to race was becoming unraveled.  Despite what personality issues any rider might have off track, I can usually look past them to appreciate anyone who can get on track and run an honest race.  I was a fan of both Stoner and Lorenzo despite all the stories I heard about how they behaved off the race track.  The only problem with Marquez is that he doesn't feel compelled to always run honest races and that became ever so apparent these last few weeks.  Looking into his history a bit, it would seem Marquez seems to have a bit of an issue with respecting other riders.  Close racing and taking risks is inherent to the sport, but Marquez seemed to show irresponsible behavior over and over again and he kept on getting what seemed to be a free pass.  Does this mean that Marquez is to be the new untouchable crowned prince of MotoGP?  It says a lot about an organization when a person like this is who they want to be an ambassador for the sport.  Anyone who has been on a race track knows how difficult it is to try and communicate while going around at pace and despite what may have actually happened during the incident at Sepang, nobody would argue that Marquez had adjusted his pace just to hamper Rossi and at the last race of the season he did his best to protect Lorenzo.  People assume some kind of conspiracy between Lorenzo and Marquez, but I believe it's nothing so intricate.  What we've seen these last few weeks are the acts of a petulant child who has incredible talent and was thrown into a halo position.  He's impatient and didn't want Rossi to add a 10th title to his career because Marquez knows there's no chance in hell he'll last as long.