Dorna Sports, the commercial rights holder behind the MotoGP World Championship, could be expanding its junior championship programme into the United Kingdom in a bid to help up-and-coming British riders into grand prix racing.
Britain has a glorious history in motorcycle grand prix racing. The first round of the World Championship back in 1949 was staged on the Isle of Man, and that maiden season was won by Briton Les Graham on an AJS Porcupine. In the years that followed, legends like Geoff Duke, Mike Hailwood, John Surtees, Phil Read and Barry Sheen have all proudly flown the Union Flag.
Unfortunately, British success in grand prix racing fizzled out in the 1980s – the extreme costs and the accessibility of production bike racing in the UK taking riders in another direction – and it hasn’t been until very recently that the country’s national anthem has been played during a podium ceremony. Scott Redding’s tilt for the Moto2 title in 2013 opened the floodgates, with Danny Kent becoming Britain’s first world champion in any class since 1977 in 2015.
Last season, Cal Crutchlow ended the 35-year victory drought for Britain when he sensationally won the Czech Grand Prix, and he backed that up with a second win later in the year at Phillip Island.
“There’s and idea to start to investigate and research the possibilities of expanding racing in the UK,” said former 500cc race winner and the man behind many a rider development programme Alberto Puig in an interview with motogp.com.
“We will probably try and make some sort of selection program this year, and the target will be to try and create some sort of British Talent Cup in the next year.”
Puig was responsible for aiding the careers of Dani Pedrosa and Casey Stoner, among others, and has recently overseen the development of Asian riders with the Asia Talent Cup. In such a short space of time the ATC has proven hugely successful, and as a result 2017 will see three riders from the series making their full-time grand prix debuts in Moto3.
2017 will also see a Dorna-backed Moto3 team contesting the season, fielding Czech GP winner John McPhee, and Puig sees this as a target for the next generation of British youngsters trying to ascend the ranks.
“If we want to expand motorcycle racing in England, we have to create a cup where kids can come and race,” he explained.
“Like we did in Asia and Spain – but also they must have some sort of target; a team where they can go and race. So a team will start this year, to be a reference for these kids, with John McPhee. From then, we’ll see how things go. Normally when we start a project we don’t know where we’ll get to, but we know where we’ll start. If we can replicate the success of the Asia Talent Cup riders then we’ll be happy, but at the moment it’s difficult to say.”
Puig has expressed his desire to bring on a rider coach from Britain with vast experience in grand prix racing, and he has one-time winner in the 250cc class and North West 200 podium finisher Jeremy McWilliams in mind for such a role.
“Our idea is to have someone who represents or takes care of the riders, and we were thinking about Jeremy McWilliams. He can help us a lot to develop not just this team but the future of racing and scouting kids in England.”
Though a mighty task lays ahead, Puig is adamant that a country doesn’t just lose its success and knows that it is just a matter of knowing where to look to find Britain’s grand prix stars of the future.
“The racing tradition is there, you just have to go and find it. If a country has been strong at something before, it’s hard to believe it’s over for them. What makes this sport important is the racing itself. If we have good riders, we’ll have the sport we have.”
Comments.
Loading comments…