[Webike News Chief Editor: Kenny Sagawa]

The MotoGP Japan finals have finished and results turned out to be just as we had all expected.

Marc Marquez of the Repsol HONDA Team made an overwhelming success throughout the season and won his fourth victory together with annual champion of this year. He also made a record to be the youngest racer to win world top class titles three times at the age of twenty-three.

The Motegi race was once again a “climax” with DUCATI’s Andrea Dovizioso in second position and SUZUKI’s Maverick Viñales in third position.

YAMAHA’s Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo Dropped Out

Rossi and Lorenzo were in the top group together with Marquez when the race started but they dropped out due to falls. It was disappointing, but aspects like these color the world’s top race with excitement and thrill.

It’s rare for two racers from one team to drop out. Despite the fact that each incident occurred singularly. I’m sure you’re anxious to now the reason why.

This year the MotoGP official tire supplier changed from Bridgestone to Michelin. As I have noted before, tire correspondence is very important.

Rossi made a fall at the “Hairpin Curve” and Lorenzo made his fall at the “V-shaped Corner” which are both low-speed corners. Motegi is well known for its world class braking circuit; most corners are square angled or even sharper and are difficult to enter using the front brake because they lack banked corners.

Rossi says that he’s not sure why he fell. Lorenzo said that it was the tires that caused it. A lot of other racers fell at corners as well which indicates that there may have been some kind of trouble with the circuit and tire.

My personal opinion is that the end grip of the front tire felt different with Michelin tires compared to Bridgestone tires.

Japanese Riders Made Good Results but didn’t Make it to the Podium

Among the Japanese racers, MotoGP Champion Katsuyuki Nakasuga came 11th and Hiroshi Aoyama who participated at short notice to stand in for Daniel Pedrosa (who couldn’t attend the race because he was injured), achieved 15th position. Takaaki Nakagami, fully participating in the Moto2 races came in 4th place, and regrettably missed the podium.

Shizuka Okazaki was the first Japanese female to participate in the world championship for 21years but ended up at 26th position. They all made their best but the podium seemed to be too far.

The most regretting attempt was by Hiroki Ono who had to drop out of the race due to offense.

He made it to the goal at third position and seemed to have made it to the podium, however at the vehicle inspection it became clear that the vehicle was under minimum weight (the rider and machine must weigh above 152kg) and was disqualified due to offences.

The Moto3 is a light weight battle between 250cc machines mounted with single cylinder. By lining up the engines, the machines have equal performance which means that the result of the race depends on the racer’s skill. The means of this race is also to train young racers to participate the MotoGP in the future.

For this reason, there is an age limit and strict rules for customizing so that the race is held on equal conditions. Strict rules are required because the weight of the machine has a great influence on the speed of the machine which only has small engine capacity.

It was only 400 grams light. That is just the same as a can of juice. I can image how disappointed Ono was when he was pulled down from the podium and ended up in the abyss of despair.

Recently, doping was argued at the Olympics. In that case, the athlete was taking medicine prescribed by the team doctor that happened to be illegal.

It is unlikely that Ono’s team cheated. However this case showed us the harsh reality that when rules aren’t observed, the team’s effort comes to nothing.

Wayne Gardner in Road-rage Incident

Another bad news was motorcycle racing legend Wayne Gardner’s arrest in Japan. The incident occurred on the morning of the final.

Newspapers say that Gardner was driving near the Twin Ring Motegi circuit and got into a heated dispute with three men after his car scratched their vehicle. He was arrested on charges of assault. Although, Gardner denied allegations, claiming he was only trying to disengage himself from one of the men who had grabbed his body.

Various sources show us that the accident occurred when Gardner was driving his son Remy Gardner to the Moto2 race that Remy was participating in. They were late for the scheduled time and were in a haste. The men in the other car thought Gardner was going to hit-and-run. There are also rumors that Remy was driving the car at the time.

In either case, it is disappointing that a former world class champion was arrested at the circuit. The circuit should be a sacred place for racers and the worst thing is that the championship was actually being held at the time. This news was covered on the front page of one of the newspapers and was bigger news than the results of the MotoGP Grand Prix.

It is a shame that it may make an impression to the public that “Motorcycle Champions are Thoughtless”.

People sometimes make mistakes but in cases like this, you may have to pay a high price in return.

The MotoGP is full of unscripted drama but this year’s Japan Grand Prix left a bad aftertaste.