Prominent guests at the final European tests of WorldSBK The WorldSBK starting field was joined in Portugal by various MotoGP riders, although they were on production machines. In addition to the MotoGP icon Valentino Rossi, who retired two years ago, his arch enemy and Gresini Ducati newcomer Marc Marquez, as well as Marco Bezzecchi from […]
GP year 1957 – Part 3
The last third of the season began in Northern Ireland with Round 5 A season with countless injuries and far too many deaths was coming to an end with the last two World Championship events. Traditionally, the smallest classes in Belfast were only very sparsely populated and if some pilots dropped out, it was not […]
GP year 1957 – Part 2
The second third of the season with round 3 of the World Championship After two of only 6 rounds since last year, the situation didn’t look particularly encouraging for all the defending champions before the TT continued on to Assen. Ubbiali had found a bitter opponent in Provini in the smallest class, who had already […]
Anthony Gobert – RIP
The sad end of a huge talent in two-wheeled sports His career never had the glamor of some of his illustrious compatriots like Troy Bayliss, Troy Corser or Casey Stoner. In retrospect, it is pointless to wonder whether he lacked sufficient hard work or tenacious will, or whether he was simply unlucky too often. However, […]
GP year 1957 – Part 1
Shrunken minimal edition with sparse participation Except for the drastically reduced number of manufacturers compared to the first from 1949 and the mid-1950s, one felt like one had been transported back to the early years of the motorcycle world championship. Mainly because the German factories and drivers were not allowed to take part in the […]
GP year 1956 – part 3
Return to Northern Ireland for the Ulster Grand Prix Not for the first time there was a race near Belfast in which not even all the points were achieved. The 125cc class was almost traditionally affected by this. For superstar and 500cc defending champion Geoff Duke, after two failures since Spa, the third race since […]
GP year 1956 – part 2
The second third of the season with the return of the superstar In the first part of the series about the 1956 season, we went into detail about why the best pilot of the first years of the World Championship was prevented from starting. Due to his officials, who were obsessed with their lust for […]
GP year 1956 – part 1
Return to minimalism With a calendar that only had six rounds, they finally responded to the unpleasantness that had been observed over several years, with numerous manufacturers not taking part in all of the events. In addition, this also eliminated the long overdue unpleasantness that, until before, many of the events had only advertised a […]
Nothing learned
Horrible WorldSBK ticket prices are a deterrent We still remember the situation in Imola when, after a price increase compared to 2018, there was a drastic decline in visitors the following year. Obviously not everyone learned from this. In any case, the organizer is now completely over the top with the WSBK event near Cremona, […]
GP year 1955 – part 4
Bad news before the last quarter of the season Shortly before the Ulster Grand Prix, which took place in the second week of August, came the sad news of the fatal accident of the Spaniard Juan Bertrand Elizalde (sometimes just called Juan Bertrán). The Catalan, who was born in Barcelona in 1927, was the best […]