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If riders had hit the deck because they were<br />
a little overeager, then fair enough. But this<br />
pile-up wasn’t that; it was riders caught out by<br />
the weather.<br />
Some might argue that not everyone crashed,<br />
and those riders who stay upright should be<br />
rewarded. That would generally be true, but<br />
most of the non-fallers saw the chaos ahead<br />
of them and slowed down or slowed down<br />
for the red flag. Essentially, the riders that<br />
crashed played martyr to those that didn’t.<br />
Then they have the argument for Bad Luck. Indeed<br />
it is a good argument because Bad Luck<br />
does happen – a rider could have a technical<br />
fault, or slip on oil caused by a rider with a<br />
technical fault, or get hit by a rider with a brain<br />
fault; either way, this is legitimate Bad Luck.<br />
Where I have a problem is when the rules say<br />
Bad Luck. That sort of defeats the purpose of<br />
rules – to keep things safe and fair. How does<br />
stopping riders who were the victims of Bad<br />
Luck from restarting make things safer and<br />
fairer?<br />
However, rules are rules. They have to be<br />
enforced. Right?<br />
Russian soldiers are shooting innocent people<br />
in the Ukraine because their rules say they<br />
have to. Rules are rules, but that doesn’t make<br />
it right.<br />
Every rule in the MotoGP rule book should be<br />
subjected to the clause: “or under the stewards’<br />
discretion.”<br />
If that were the case, we could be assured that<br />
more than just 19 riders made it to the restart.<br />
And the world would be a better place.<br />
Making America great again<br />
With that, we should make an honorary mention<br />
of the eventual race winner, Joe Roberts.<br />
His first GP win will go down in history with an<br />
asterisk on it but I’m glad an American won.<br />
Things in America are bigger and better. If<br />
you don’t believe that, consider this – in 2007,<br />
Casey Stoner became MotoGP Champion and<br />
therefore was declared the best rider in the<br />
world’s premier motorcycle racing class. That<br />
year, though, he was just the third highest-paid<br />
Australian motorcycle racer globally. Second<br />
was Matt Mladin, who won the AMA Superbike<br />
Championship in America and the biggest<br />
Australian motorcycle earner of 2007 was<br />
Chad Reed, who raced in the AMA Supercross<br />
Championship in America.<br />
Think about that for a second – two guys<br />
racing in domestic championships cashed in<br />
more than the world champion of the premier<br />
motorcycle championship. Welcome to<br />
America.<br />
It would be great if more Americans won; more<br />
American winners means more American<br />
viewers and, therefore, more American money<br />
making the sport we love bigger and better.<br />
Next time, hopefully, he can win against a full<br />
grid without bureaucracy.
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