'Til Next Year: World Champion 250cc Honda rider Hiroshi Aoyama of Japan
(left), World Champion MotoGP Yamaha rider Valentino Rossi of Italy (center),
and World Champion 125cc Aprilia rider Julian Simon of Spain pose on the
finish line following the last race of the Motorcycle Grand Prix season, at the
Valencia Circuit, Spain, Sunday Nov. 8, 2009. (AP Photo/Alberto Saiz)
It may be the end of just another season to some. To others, though, it can get quite lonely during MotoGP's off season.
There was a time, I must admit, that I didn't know about the premier class of motorcycle racing. (We all have skeletons.) What can I say, I'm from a small town in Oregon where cable has only recently become standard. And let's face it: Americans just don't have the legacy of motorsport knowledge like the rest of the world. C'mon, Australian grandmothers know the name Casey Stoner, Italian children knowingly scribble yellow across the 46 plate in their Vale coloring books, but for the most part, you'd be hard pressed to find average American Joes who know stats on The Kentucky Kid. But I digress.
After returning from a seven-year sabbatical in Japan, I landed a job as Editor in Chief for Kawasaki's owners club mag. And it was then that I started picking brains about Tommy and RL Hayden, who both rode for Kawi at the time, and their then-sparkling results in the AMA. One day, while trying to figure out how to get more racing info into the mag, I happened upon an old British bloke named Martin down in "The Cage." (The Cage, located in Kawasaki's warehouse, is a magical place, if I do say so myself, where Ninjas et al., sit row after row, waiting to be worked on or tested or sent away to find loving homes.) Martin was always willing to help me out, answering any and all questions I had; he knew more about bikes, the races and their racers, than anyone I'd ever met. After discussing at length the AMA, the Haydens and how we could spin stories around them, he said to me, "Well, then there's Nicky."
"Who's Nicky?" I said, wide-eyed and curious.
That weekend was probably the third race of the 2005 season. Germany, it was, I remember because I had a devil of a time trying to pronounce: Sachsenring. And because I was still getting established in my new American apartment, I didn't have the mac-daddy cable set-up yet, so I asked the owner of an Irish pub down the street if he'd let me watch the Speed Channel on his floor-to-ceiling screen, Sunday at 10 a.m.
Now, I loved my job at Kawasaki. It was actually a DREAM job seeing as how I had no idea what I wanted to do after teaching writing to a bunch of stoned 19-year-old Japanese uni kids. But the culture shock upon returning to America after almost a decade abroad was, need I say, incredibly harsh. I never could have imagined it would be so difficult. My kid was having a hard time of it as well and kept whining that he wanted to go back to the land of the rising sun. Life sucked.
I got to the pub bright and early to make sure they would have the TV on and ready to go. They had just opened, though, and the chick who offered to help get me set up couldn't find the remote control. I started to get annoyed. I missed the opening credits, but she got me situated just before they dropped the flag . . . and I will never forget that moment as long as I live. The lights. The holeshot. Those first couple corners. The absolute gorgeousness of the bikes. The sound. Ah, the sound!
Some people find god. I found MotoGP. The light came through the windows of that dark pub that Sunday morning, and I believe I heard a couple angels get their wings--even over the roar of the bikes. I know it sounds incredibly dramatic, kids, but MotoGP saved my life.
So at the end of each season, maybe you don't notice so much. But, for me, the cold sets in (yes, even here in Cali), the days grow dark and life slows to a dull throb of almost numbing monotony. Spring will come--I know, it always does. And let me tell you: It's that single ray of hope that keeps me hanging on until the baddest boys on the baddest bikes are back on track and all seems well with the world once again.
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