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With large starting grids and nobody able to find technical advantage, the racing is very close and very exciting. Riders are supplied with (in Britain must purchase) identical motorcycles.
MOTOGP CHAMPIONS SERIES
The latest and youngest, launched in 2021, is the MiniGP series, with riders aged from ten to 14 on purpose-built Ohvale 150cc racing minibikes on kart tracks.Īpplications for these series vastly exceed capacity. In recent years, Dorna’s “Road to MotoGP, Dorna has supported and formalised other junior championships, with “Talent Cups” in Britain as well as Europe and Asia. Several, including Brad Binder, Joan Mir, Jorge Martin and Enea Bastianini, have since won world championships. The trend began in 2007 with the Red Bull Rookies Cup, with riders as young as 13 racing identical bikes at GP meetings. The Spanish Moto3 championship even assumed the title “Junior World Championship”.ĭorna is aware of the need for international strength. It started with well-sponsored national championship series for teens and pre-teens, and continued so that now the national championships have been boosted in importance, taking over from the FIM’s European championships. Spanish company Dorna took over the commercial rights of grand prix racing from the Swiss FIM (Federation Internationale de Motocyclisme) back in 1991, and since then have engaged in a highly effective campaign to establish Spain as the centre of world bike racing. It has everything to do with going to Spain, however, whether you were born there or not. Racing is an individual sport, and while it might gladden the national heart to have somebody doing well at it, it really has nothing to do with national character. Secondly, that Quartararo had to go to Spain as soon as he became a teenager, to get on the ladder that would take him to the top. Since Sheene in the 1970s only one rider has even won a race – Cal Crutchlow, who took the first of his three in 2016. But before you get too blimpish and xenophobic, consider two facts.įirstly, the last British champ, in a sport we once dominated, was 45 years ago. If you think the nationality matters, then this compares poorly with Britain, which has fielded – from Les Graham to Barry Sheene – no less than six champions.