ON TRACK OFF ROAD

Feature
It was hard to miss Marc VDS at Valencia,
much like it had been for the Moto2 field and
MotoGP fans throughout the season on the
track. The paddock rig was home to a live rock
band and some ‘vibrant’ karaoke as well as a
shared party vibe with the Estrella Galicia beer
tower next to them after the announcement
of their MotoGP sponsorship association that
same weekend.
The staff of the Belgian team, formed only five
years previously, conveyed a relaxed and satisfied
air only two weeks after toasting their first
Moto2 crown with Tito Rabat in the humidity of
Sepang, Malaysia. The hospitality unit where
we met and spoke with the likes of Team Manager
and lynchpin Michael Bartholemy, Rabat’s
Crew Chief Pete Benson and PR Manager Ian
Wheeler was consistently rammed across the
four days of the eighteenth and final appointment
of the 2014 season.
Marc VDS came close to top spoils in 2013
with Scott Redding before a broken wrist
dashed the Brit and team’s hopes. In 2014 they
were unstoppable, owning ten rounds and seeing
both riders on the podium together at least
six times. Rabat jumped over the parc ferme
wall in celebration on seven occasions while
veteran Kallio took three and kept his Catalan
team-mate ‘on point’ through the run from
Qatar to the Ricardo Tormo.
As with any sport or competitive environment
there is bound to be jealousy and resentment
with such attainment. In some of the other interviews
OTOR conducted around the paddock
this was evident and mainly in reference to the
team’s namesake and benefactor Belgian entrepreneur
Marc van der Straten. As expected
there was more to the VDS set-up that just a
large bank account in the background.
“I think the concept we’ve had for a few years
now of having a team set-up like a factory
crew and all the resources we have going into
the racing results has been a big difference to
many other teams,” says free-flowing talker
Bartholemy. “We can make things that maybe
other people cannot…not because we have
more budget but because we are maximising
all of our budget to go racing. I push hard for
the results because we are here to make them,
not run for tenth position.”
VDS’ beginnings might have been rushed (see
separate account by Bartholemy) but the base
of the set-up is certainly not green. Sort of. The
crux of the team came from the ashes of the
factory Kawasaki MotoGP squad and meant a
(much needed) shortcut in terms of setting up
an effective initial working process. “It was the
same situation like we had at Kawasaki when
they took the team away from Harald Eckl in
2007 to run it from Holland by themselves,”
recounts Wheeler, who had been with Kawasaki
since 2002 and is now responsible for a sharp
and frequently witty marketing profile for VDS.
“We had to start up without a spanner between
us and get the infrastructure quickly into place
in order to go testing in Sepang. It was similar
with Marc VDS. It was the same people with
the same time constraints but we got it together
and new people came in like Pete from
Honda to crew chief for Scott for the first year.
We were a Moto2 team racing in that championship
but the reality was that we were essentially
a MotoGP team racing in Moto2. The
atmosphere in the team is good and the way to
work also.”
The Gosselies-based unit have come to define
the image of Moto2 by heading a packed grid
full of Moto3 graduates with elbows flying and
rear Dunlop rubber abuse. They are also a