WHERE'S THE TALENT?
It just isn't fair.Not only is Spain likely to produce (again) all the premier class world champions but one Spanish family, the Marquez clan, seems almost certain to have bred two of them, Marc and Alex. Only in tennis, via the Williams sisters, has this level of sibling success been achieved in recent years.
In a period where Britain has hardly distinguished itself on the world class sporting stage, not forgetting the world championships won by Tom Sykes and Sam Lowes and the exploits elsewhere of Andy Murray and Bradley Wiggins, with our teams returning from international duty with their tails between their legs, questions are being asked as to why we are so useless.
John Surtees, the only man to have won world championships on two wheels and four, celebrated his 80th birthday recently and also the 50th anniversary of his Formula 1 debut marked by the publication of his life story in pictures, an unmissable tome co-authored by Mike Nicks (see Thursday's Bikesport News for a taster).
Surtees was born into a motorcycling family and his first racing experience was in grass track racing as passenger to his father Jack. Pampered he was not. He had to do everything, except make the tea which was his Mother's job, and his father was a hard task master. This grounding, plus an apprenticeship at Vincent, gave him an invaluable understanding of the mechanics of motor cycle racing.
He was also prodigiously talented, honed by competing in fifty or sixty races a season while still holding down a full time apprenticeship. By his early twenties he was a British champion and competing in world championship events. He won the world 500cc championship when he was 22 years old.
What has all this got to with today! As with other sports we used to dominate, we have been overtaken by other countries and while acknowledging the success we are having in World Superbikes is it difficult to see us producing a MotoGP world champion from either WSBK or British Superbikes from the present crop. Even bright young teenagers like Kyle Ryde who, a year ago, we might have hoped would be a contender in Moto3 is, for reasons financial or otherwise, competing at Knockhill in Superstock 600.
The duty of governing bodies is not only to regulate but to ensure the survival, through growth, of the sport they regulate. As with many other sporting NGBs, we are not doing enough.
HANDBAGS AT 20 PACES
The spat between Kawasaki teamsters Tom Sykes and Loris Baz will no doubt have promoters Dorna rubbing their hands. The World Superbike series certainly needs all the help it can get and there is nothing better than fisticuffs between two riders in the same team to spice things up a bit.
Of course, it is all a bit unseemly and although it didn't quite get to violence it might be appropriate to rename the World Champion as Tom 'Chinner' Sykes. Opinion seems to be on his side that his young French team-mate was out of order in trying just too hard to get past on more than one occasion. It was left to Shakey Byrne, acting as a pundit on Eurosport, to remind everyone that any rider with a chance of winning a world championship, especially an ambitious 21 year old, was likely to make one or two aggressive moves even on a team-mate.
Of course, this is not the first time that rivalries between team-mates have developed into open warfare. Rossi and Biaggi had their moments with 'colleagues' and those of you with long enough memories will remember the feud which broke out between Yamaha teamsters Phil Read and Bill Ivy in 1968 on how the 125 and 250 world championships were to be carved up. A cosy agreement was bust open halfway through the season when Phil changed his mind!
SMARTY PANTS
BT is upping its game. Having got rid of Mad Mel - it's gamble on presenter Melanie Sykes having failed miserably, no Suzie Perry she - they hired the best anchor man they could find, Craig Doyle from ITV4. And to further confound the critics who had accused BT of being lightweight they invited one Scott Smart into the studio to add a bit of technical know how.
Now young (eh? - Ed) master Smart knows a thing or two. Apart from being the son of Paul, the nephew of Barry Sheene and a successful racer he also knows more about how racing bikes work, including (especially) the electronics, than most others put together which is why he was appointed the FIM's Technical Director for World Superbikes at the start of the season.
Racers aren't always the best people in stringing words together but two of the best are on the other channel, Eurosport, James Whitham, combining knowledge with Yorkshire humour, and James Haydon.
