SEPTEMBER 21, 2022

(BMW images)
The BMW M Hybrid V8 was presented to the public in its racing colors for the first time at a launch event at the Petersen Museum in Los Angeles on Thursday (9/22). The first prototype developed by BMW M Motorsport in 25 years will sport an avant-garde livery that leverages the iconic BMW M colors when it competes in the GTP class of the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in 2023. The four core drivers nominated for the two BMW M Team RLL cars were also announced at the Petersen Museum. They are BMW M works drivers Connor De Phillippi (USA), Philipp Eng (AUT), Augusto Farfus (BRA) and Nick Yelloly (GBR). When the car makes its race debut at the 61st running of the Rolex 24 At Daytona (USA) on January 28-29, they will also receive assistance from IndyCar series driver Colton Herta. Guests at the event in Los Angeles included BMW M CEO Franciscus van Meel, Head of BMW M Motorsport Andreas Roos, IMSA President John Doonan, and the owners of BMW M Team RLL: Bobby Rahal, David Letterman and Patrick Lanigan. The Look? Like the camouflage livery that adorned the BMW M Hybrid V8 during the testing phase, the design of the livery for the 2023 racing season also comes from BMW Group Designworks under the program leadership of Michael Scully, Global Director, Automotive and Advanced Design. The works livery represents a future-facing coat of arms comprised of modern, bold, fractal blocks of the iconic M colors and the M logo. “These elements have been deconstructed to form what at first might appear to be an abstract triangular pattern across the BMW M Hybrid V8, but when viewed from the side, the M logo clicks right into place. – M reconstructed, if you will.” Scully explained. It looks good, needless to say.

(Photo by Chris Owens/Penske Entertainment)
Will Power and Team Penske stepped into the spotlight again as the 2022 NTT INDYCAR SERIES champions Saturday night during the Victory Lap Celebration at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum. Power clinched his second series championship with a third-place finish in the No. 12 Team Penske Verizon Chevrolet last Sunday at the Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca. He won his first title in 2014 with Team Penske. Australia native Power prevailed by 16 points over teammate Josef Newgarden, delivering Team Penske its record-extending 17th INDYCAR SERIES championship. Team Penske President Tim Cindric accepted the Championship Owner Award. Newgarden and Scott Dixon of Chip Ganassi Racing also were saluted for finishing second and third, respectively, in the standings. Power led the 2022 season with five NTT P1 Awards for pole, earning the NTT P1 Award as the best qualifier of the season. It’s the fifth time in his career he has won this award. Power also made history last weekend by winning his 68th career pole, breaking a tie with fellow legend Mario Andretti for the all-time INDYCAR SERIES record. Team Penske’s technical team also was honored with two awards. Kyle Moyer won the Team Manager of the Year Award for the fifth time. It’s the sixth time a Team Penske executive has won. Pennzoil presented Trevor Lacasse with the Chief Mechanic of the Year for the first time, the sixth time a Team Penske mechanic has earned this award. Power’s No. 12 Team Penske Verizon crew also won the Firestone Pit Performance Award for earning the most cumulative Pit Stop Performance Award points during the 2022 season. Team Penske drivers Power, Newgarden and Scott McLaughlin delivered nine of Chevrolet’s series-leading 11 victories this season, helping Chevy win the Manufacturer Award for the seventh time since it returned to the series in 2012 and the first time since 2017. Jim Danahy, U.S. vice president, Competition Motorsports Engineering for Chevrolet, accepted the award on behalf of his team. Christian Lundgaard was honored as the 2022 NTT INDYCAR SERIES Rookie of the Year. Lundgaard, from Denmark, scored one podium finish, two top-five finishes and seven top-10s in the No. 30 Honda fielded by Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. He edged David Malukas of Dale Coyne Racing with HMD by 18 points in the standings for first-year series drivers. (Thank you to INDYCAR Media)

(Photo by AE Special Contributor Whit Bazemore)
Enea Bastianini (No. 23 Gresini Racing MotoGP™) beat Francesco Bagnaia (No. 63 Ducati Lenovo Team) to victory by just 0.042 seconds in the Gran Premio Animoca Brands de Aragon, but that was just one talking point in an astonishing MotoGP™ race. Marc Marquez (No. 93 Repsol Honda Team) made his competitive return at MotorLand Aragon and the eight-time World Champion unwittingly set off what could prove a season-defining moment when Fabio Quartararo (No. 20 Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP™) crashed heavily on Lap 1. The current World Championship leader escaped serious injury but walks away from Aragon with a zero. In a small consolation for him, Bagnaia was unable to fully capitalize because of the exploits of his future teammate. The two Italians traded hot laps before Bastianini made his move on the 23rd and final lap and went on to score victory number four of 2022. Bagnaia closes to 10 points behind Quartararo at the top of the table – but it could have been just five with five races to go. Still, Ducati scored another 25 points towards the constructors’ championship – and it has now already won that title for another year. Watch the race highlights here. (Thank you to MotoGP.com)

The Black Hat is back…

By Whit Bazemore

Bend. First, let’s just cut to the chase here: Enea Bastianini won an incredible race over his future Ducati factory teammate and strong championship contender “Pecco” Bagnaia by just .042 of a second at the Aragon, Spain, MotoGP race. Bastianini trailed Pecco for essentially the entire 24 laps, then pounced half-way thought the last lap, denying Pecco the opportunity to pounce back. It was epic, and not unlike the last race in Misano two weeks ago, when the pair were also the class of the field and the winning margin (that time in Pecco’s favor) was similarly ultra-close at just .034 sec. This is today’s MotoGP. 

Until this weekend, however, “today's” MotoGP had been without its two biggest stars. While the racing is almost always as good as ever, fans also want to see the greatest heroes, the racers whose talent and personalities are so great, they are in a rare world no one else can even approach. 

Everyone knows that the great and largely irreplaceable Valentino Rossi finally retired at the end of last season. It had been expected and accounted for, of course, in the minds of the MotoGP stakeholders, but still, the “Valentino effect” (or soon to be lack thereof) was dreaded much like the end of life itself. Would interest in the sport wane without its biggest rock star? Probably, but the bigger question was “how much and for how long?” No one really knows. 

The naysayers were somewhat soothed by the fact that the sport still has so much going for it. And, the sport, like all major sports, is much bigger than just one person. Indeed. Plus, they argued, “we still have Marquez.”

Marc Marquez is the wunderkind who burst into MotoGP in 2013 by winning the Championship as a rookie. His talent is unbelievable, and you only have to watch him (preferably in person) to understand just what a talent he is compared to almost all the rest. Never in any motorsport can you so easily visibly discerne such ability, the consummate skill to race right-on-the-ragged-edge, lap after lap. This is just one reason why he is so important to the sport. He is a prodigious winner - having won a total of six MotoGP championships - and his racing a motorbike over its limit, but not always HIS limit, is entertainment rarely seen in any other form of motorsport. But more than that, Marquez is approachable, friendly, easy to talk to and, in the words of noted MotoGP journalist (and an Isle Of Man winner!) Mat Oxley “a smiling assassin.” His ruthless will to win is unquestionable. Marquez is the wearer of the black hat, simply due to his talent and uncompromising nature. 

MotoGP is highly, HIGHLY dangerous, and Marquez has had several near devastating crashes — it’s the price paid to be so quick and so uncompromising. The ruthless will to win can be a sharp, double edged sword. 

Eventually, such an approach catches up with you, and that moment came for Marquez near the end of the first race of the pandemic shortened 2020 season in Jerez, Spain. 

A broken right humerus at first seemed to be not so serious an injury, but to make a very long story short, one bad decision after another, including a return to racing just four days after the injury, a bent Ti plate, then an infection, a botched surgery, another botched surgery, another crash which resulted in an unrelated eye injury, all combined to make Marquez a part timer during each of the past three seasons, including this one. 

Finally, after competing for the first half of this year in considerable arm and shoulder pain, and unable to “ride the bike in my normal way,” it was determined that the humerus bone was “fixed” a full 30 degrees off of normal, making racing a MotoGP bike nearly impossible. After the Italian GP in June, Marc decided to end his season early, fly to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota to have the arm re-broken, rotated to the correct position, and repaired perfectly. It was, in his words, “The last and only chance to keep my career, otherwise, there is no way I can continue to race in such a compromised way.” 

Fast forward to this past weekend, 110 days after surgery, after a strenuous rehab program that included three notable bike tests, Marquez is green-lighted by his doctors to race again and was in the paddock to compete in Aragon. He is going to regain his race fitness the only way possible — by racing. At the same time, he must contribute to Honda’s testing and development of the 2023 bike, which needs much improvement over the difficult to ride ’22 machine. Qualifying was a challenge, and Marquez ended up a compromised 13^th.

Despite being far from race fit, Marquez is still Marquez. At the start, he does not disappoint, and by turn two has moved up to seventh — from 13th —incredible considering he hasn’t raced in almost three months! It is mesmerizing watching him ride around everyone else, including Championship leader and the new wunderkind, Fabio Quartararo, like they are stuck in first gear.

Fabio had started in 6th position — imagine his thoughts at the start of an already stressful Grand Prix — being passed by Marc Marquez, who was totally unfit, all the while knowing he started three more rows back. Imagine! I know the one word in Fabio’s mind at that moment. It begins with F and ends in K...

Marquez slotted in just ahead of Quartararo into T2, who was under ontense championship pressure since Bagnaia had won the last four races in a row and had slashed Quartararo’s once 91-point lead down to just 30 with six races remaining. Quartararo cannot afford a bad result. 

Into T3, with Bagnaia leading by many bike lengths up front, Marquez is a tiny bit wide (as are others) and Fabio is inside on a shorter line and exits just inches from Marquez’s rear tire. Inches. Exiting the turn, the ill-handling Honda of Marquez spins the rear tire a little, and steps out slightly. Marquez has to just breathe the engine a tiny bit to hook the tire back up, totally normal, but it’s enough for Quartararo’s front to hit and ride up Marquez’s rear tire. The resulting crash of Quartararo is frightening with both rider and bike flipping together (the worst possible scenario) amid the screaming field. As Marquez continues on, Quartararo slowly gets up, amazingly only shaken, but not stirred. 

Unbeknownst to Marquez, there is a piece of Quartararo’s fairing stuck in his swingarm, against the tire. Not good. Two turns later, and the piece lodges its self into the wheel, which tries to lock up, causing the bike to swerve left right into Taka Nakagami, who has no chance. Nakagami crashes into the middle of the field and again, luck was on the sport’s side as amazingly, no one hits him, although there are several close calls. 

Marquez stays upright, but retires, his three-turn comeback showing his brilliance, his winning instinct still fully intact after the three years of injuries, and his arm “fully fixed and working properly.” 

At the end of the race, Quartararo’s championship lead has been slashed to just 10 points over the second-place Bagnaia, while Bastianini puts himself into contention again with his fourth win of the year (although still far behind). The Ducati brass smile not well-hidden smiles, knowing they made the correct decision in promoting Bastianini to the factory team, and knowing that this Championship is looking the strongest since the last time they won it back in 2007. 

But fortune is fleeting in this sport, as Quartararo can attest. Like fame and fortune, there is a fine line between not only first and second, but really, first and last too. Championships can be won by finishing second, but finishing last? No way. 

Obviously, despite Marquez being well out of Championship contention, his presence on the grid for the rest of the year will continue to strongly influence the outcome. That is the only given. 

Editor-in-Chief's Note: Special AE contributor Whit Bazemore - the Renaissance Man and superb photographer - is continuing to give us updates and his insider's perspective on the MotoGP season. To have someone with Whit's talent share his visual art and deep knowledge of MotoGP is truly special for us, and we really appreciate it. By the way, you may recognize Whit's last name. Bazemore began making a living from drag racing when he was sixteen years old, and he is a two-time U.S. Nationals winner and still the fifth-fastest Funny Car driver ever at 333.25 MPH.-PMD

Editor's Note: You can access previous issues of AE by clicking on "Next 1 Entries" below. - WG