Paddock Pass Podcast

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.

The Suzuka 8 Hour race turned into one of the most exciting races we have seen in any series in the past couple of decades, with three teams fighting for the lead for lap after lap for the full 8 hour duration. Or nearly the full 8 hours: the last 10 minutes of the race supplied enough drama to fill an entire bookcase.

The day after the race, as the dust was starting to settle, our man on the ground, Steve English, got on the phone to Jensen Beeler to talk through a momentous race. There was a huge amount to discuss, including those closing minutes, the confusion over the rules, and the chaos and confusion over who would eventually emerge victorious.

With the legendary Suzuka 8 Hour race due to start in a few hours time, there's a chance to get up to speed on the movers and shakers of the event with the Suzuka preview edition of the Paddock Pass Podcast. Steve English and Jensen Beeler sit down to discuss what to expect at the race.

Laguna Seca saw the pendulum swing even further in Jonathan Rea's favor in the World Superbike championship. With Bautista posting three DNFs in all three races at the US circuit, Rea took a commanding, and possibly insurmountable lead in the title chase.

As always, Steve English sat down with Gordon Ritchie to discuss the events at the US round of WorldSBK. What has happened to Alvaro Bautista? How has Jonathan Rea gone from underdog to holding a commanding lead? And has Chaz Davies finally cracked the secrets of the Ducati Panigale V4R? Steve and Gordo discuss all this and more.

The Donington Park WorldSBK round turned out to be something of a turning point. Jonathan Rea took over the lead of the championship from Alvaro Bautista, after the Aruba.it Ducati rider had seemed unbeatable in the first part of the season.

To discuss this momentous point in the championship, WorldSBK experts Steve English and Gordon Ritchie sat down on Saturday at the UK round of WorldSBK at Donington Park. They obviously spend a lot of the podcast talking about where Alvaro Bautista lost out and how Jonathan Rea managed to take over, and how they expect to see this play out in the rest of the season. 

On Monday morning, before heading home and then on to the Sachsenring, Neil Morrison and David Emmett sat down with Adam Wheeler of On-Track Off-Road to talk about the Dutch TT at Assen for an episode of the Paddock Pass Podcast.

There was plenty of stuff to talk about. Naturally, we talked about how the Yamahas were dominant, with Maverick Viñales taking a well-deserved win. We discuss the performance of Fabio Quartararo - two poles and two podiums in two consecutive races - and how arm pump surgery affected the way the Frenchman rode the bike. We discuss the difficulty the Yamahas had getting past the Honda of Marc Marquez, and how the different bikes make their lap time in different ways.