Paddock Pass Podcast

With the WorldSBK season coming to an end under the floodlights in Qatar, Steve English and Gordon Ritchie sat down to look at the last weekend of World Superbikes, to look back, and to look forward.

Steve and Gordo start off with a look at Race 1 on Friday, in hotter conditions than either of them expected. Then they go on to take a longer look at the motivations of all concerned in the battle for third in the WorldSBK championship, with Alex Lowes, Toprak Razgatlioglu, and Michael van der Mark all having their own particular reason for wanting to finish third. (In the end, Lowes took it by a 14 point margin).

The WorldSBK round in Argentina skirted with disaster, as the newly-resurfaced San Juan Villicum circuit caused a rider revolt, with the WorldSBK riders judging the track too dangerous to ride on. Despite that, race 1 went ahead anyway, causing much bad blood.

Steve English and Gordon Ritchie were there on the ground, and saw it all at first hand. So in this episode of the Paddock Pass Podcast, Gordo talks us through exactly what happened in Argentina, what went wrong and why. As the only WorldSBK journalist on the ground at San Juan Villicum, he has a unique and full insight into events.

The latest episode of the Paddock Pass Podcast is out, and in it, Neil Morrison and David Emmett talk about the Buriram MotoGP round in Thailand. There was of course plenty to talk about, most of all, about what Marquez' victory and sixth MotoGP championship mean for the future of the series.

Naturally, Marquez wrapping up the title is the main subject of discussion. Neil and David discuss how he did it, just how determined Marquez was to clinch the title with a win, and whether this is as close to perfection as you can expect to see in a MotoGP season. We also take a deep dive into some of the background, including Neil and Peter McLaren's interview with Takeo Yokoyama, HRC Technical Director, on the development of the RC213V, and a reminder that Marquez had major shoulder surgery at the end of the 2018 season, and was a long way from being fit at the start of the season, a subject which Neil discusses in some depth here on On Track Off Road.

In the latest episode of the Paddock Pass Podcast, Steve English and Gordon Ritchie give their view of events after the first race of the French round of WorldSBK at Magny-Cours. With Toprak Razagtlioglu winning his first WorldSBK race, and Jonathan Rea about to wrap up his fifth WorldSBK title in a row, they had plenty to talk about.

Naturally, they start off discussing the race, and how the loss of due to the weather impacted the race on Saturday. That prompts Gordo to launch a Cunning Plan to improve the racing, which involves dropping practice on Friday altogether. Steve and Gordo talk how Toprak took his first win, by taking Rea by surprise.

On Monday morning after Misano, Neil Morrison and David Emmett sat down at a cafe in Borgo Panigale to discuss the events of the Misano round of MotoGP. As always, there was a lot to talk about. The big story was of course Fabio Quartararo and Marc Marquez, and the rekindling of the rivalry which has enlivened the 2019 season. So naturally, we had a lot to say on that subject.

There was plenty more to talk about, including the rekindling of a much older rivalry between Marc Marquez and Valentino Rossi. There was the fact that Yamahas handled the extremely low grip conditions of Misano better than any of the other manufacturers, contrary to previous races. There was the Ducati riders making do with a miserable finish. And there was controvery on the last lap of the Moto2 race, and how Race Direction handled that.

World Superbikes returned after their long summer break, and that means that Steve English and Gordon Ritchie had time to sit down and discuss the state of play of the series at the Portuguese WorldSBK round at Portimao.

As always, there was plenty to talk about. Silly Season is in full swing in the WorldSBK series, which means everything is still up in the air and riders and riders' managers are all hard at work trying to nail down the best offer for next year. Naturally, they have a long chat about what Honda are doing for 2020, and whether Alvaro Bautista will be riding for HRC on a new bike, but they also run down the other rumors and gossip about who goes where for next year.

The Silverstone edition of the Paddock Pass Podcast was something a little bit special, and not just because we had three of the regulars on to talk about MotoGP. On Sunday night, Steve English sat down with Neil Morrison and David Emmett to talk over the thrilling MotoGP race at Silverstone, which culminated in that breathtaking last-lap pass.

But not only did we talk about the subjects we chose, we took questions before the show on Twitter, then streamed the whole show on Periscope live as we recorded it, taking more questions. Questions we answered included whether the Suzuki will still handle as well when it gets more horsepower, what we would do if we were Jorge Lorenzo, whether Marc Marquez is focusing more on the championship than on winning races, and much more.

The latest episode of the Paddock Pass Podcast is something special. Friend of the show and Israeli TV MotoGP expert Tammy Gorali was at the first ever Women In Motorsports conference, organized by the FIM and the FIA, and there, she gathered a fascinating and diverse group of women to talk about how they view motorcycle racing, their role in it, and the challenges they face and the opportunities they see in racing.

Tammy had journalist and former team manager and PR officer Vanessa Guerra, FIM Women in Motorcycling Commission Director and former snowmobile racer Nita Korhonen, MotoAmerica racer Shelina Moreda, and MotoE and WorldSSP racer Maria Herrera on the show to give their perspective on both the conference and racing.

The morning after a thrilling and intense battle at the Red Bull Ring, Neil Morrison and David Emmett sat down in a garden in Austria to review the race and the drama which surrounded it. There was a lot to talk about.

The scale of the drama at the race meant we had to tackle the off-track stuff first. The huge news came on Sunday night, that Johann Zarco asked to be released from his contract with KTM for 2020, and will not be riding the bike next season. We talk about how Zarco came to his decision, what changed his mind, what his options are, and what KTM's options are for replacing him.

On Tuesday after the Brno round of MotoGP, and after the test on Monday, Neil Morrison and David Emmett sat down to record another episode of the Paddock Pass Podcast. Marc Marquez extended his lead with a dominant performance at Brno, building on a win at Sachsenring to take an advantage of 63 points in the championship. In fact, Marquez has extended his lead after every race since taking the championship lead at Jerez.

Taking all this in consideration, we take a long look at the state of the MotoGP championship, and ask whether Marc Marquez is making the racing boring. Is there anyone who can challenge Marquez, and if not, why not? We discuss what has changed after last year's scintillating races, and how the 2019 Honda allowed Marquez to change his approach and dominate from start to finish.