Our shot from the start of the first of three races in Brüx, as the small town in the north of the Czech Republic is called in German. It was the only race in which defending champion Alvaro Bautista (Aruba.it Ducati) would see the checkered flag, while Toprak Razgatlioglu (front left) took the third one-two-three victory.

Mixed impressions from the visit to the 6th WorldSBK round

During our visit to the Czech Republic, we were a little depressed to note that our positive words in the preliminary report on the Brüx round were perhaps a little too friendly. Although the organization of the event at the Autodrom Most seemed a little better to us this time than last year, there were still some worrying observations. The traffic chaos was at least as always and only those who arrived on motorcycles like us got through reasonably well and without long waits. In our case, as in 2018, as VIP guests in Brno, a motorcycle policeman even escorted our convoy to the entrance, past a huge column of cars that could hardly move forward. At least this time it was clearly signposted where to turn for the reserved parking spaces and we got almost directly to the paid motorcycle parking area on the track on Saturday and the following day without any stress. The price was fair in contrast to Italy, but on Sunday we had another unpleasant story. Many visitors were extremely annoyed that their ticket order was a fraud. Instead of being valid for both weekend days, as suggested by the official autodrome website, their ticket was only valid for one of these two days. In such cases, we always remember the words of a Czech engineer and friend who, with a grim expression, described his country as unfortunately completely infested with the mafia.

As you can see in this example, the tickets even had “Sa/Su” for Saturday/Sunday and “20./21.7.2024” printed on them, which is why many buyers were not suspicious and naturally assumed when buying that it was valid for the whole weekend and not just one of the two days – an absolute disgrace and an underhanded fraud from the customer’s point of view on countless Most visitors!
We needed both elbows to take this picture of the winner Toprak, after a group of Turkish fans had suddenly tried to push us and an official photographer away. The fact that we had already been waiting in this spot for 10 minutes did not seem to impress these people in the slightest.

Toprak’s “fans” – an ever-growing nuisance

Based on our observations and experiences at least in Assen, Misano and Most, we can more than understand the annoyance of many visitors and official photographers about their Turkish compatriots and their more than just strange behavior. With their huge flags and their hype about the new national hero Razgatlioglu, they are making fewer and fewer friends, see also the comment above on our photo of “El Turco”, as many now call him. Turkish groups that are behaving more recklessly are apparently celebrating themselves and their origins more than sport. Of all things, the flag of a country that most Europeans see as a symbol of a dictatorship not unlike Russia due to the human rights violations systematically committed by its president could also be celebrated more cautiously. As is well known, an overwhelming majority of Turks living abroad in Europe are among Erdogan’s convinced voters. A despot who acts like a criminal, like the Hungarian President Orban, for example. As long-time visitors, we had never observed such appearances by Toprak “fans” from 2018 until the pandemic, even though we were guests at almost all races. Consideration for others and genuine interest in racing seem to be foreign concepts to most of his compatriots who show up at the track these days.

Toprak’s ever-increasing number of fans are not sparing with the Turkish flags. If this bothers the other visitors and affects their view of the action, his Turkish fans unfortunately don’t seem to care. Our photo from the starting grid shortly before the start of the first WorldSBK race in Most shows a somewhat tolerable example.
We photographed Andrea Iannone (GoEleven Ducati) on his way to his Saturday podium. The soon-to-be 35-year-old man from Vasto, like his former MotoGP colleague Danilo Petrucci, also proved in Most how strong even the private Ducati Panigale V4R still is compared to the rest of the competition. Even the Pata Yamaha newcomer and exceptional talent Johnny Rea has to give it his all to beat them.

Advantages and disadvantages of the Czech round at Autodrom Most

Unfortunately, as with many other venues, the organizers seem to be primarily concerned with the wealthy VIP audience. There is no other explanation for the fact that there is only one tiny large screen for the countless visitors on the main and natural grandstands along the track. Only the spectators on the far left of the covered main grandstand really benefit from it. Given that tickets are horrendously expensive by Czech standards, this is simply a disgrace. It is now becoming increasingly clear that, as in MotoGP, rights holder Dorna and the organizers are primarily only interested in the big money of relatively less wealthy and therefore privileged VIP guests, for whom there is also a lot on offer, as we were able to experience in 2018 in Brno at the last WorldSBK event at the Masaryk Ring. However, both the VIP tickets (we paid just over 200 EUR) and especially the normal admission tickets were significantly cheaper there than today in Most. If we also take into account today’s con artists’ methods, we regret our far too positive preliminary report and may forego this event next year.

Anyone who spent a few hundred euros could look forward to absolutely preferential treatment at the Autodrom Most, as we were able to experience in Brno in 2018 when we bought a VIP package for just over 200 euros. The increasingly greedy organizers are increasingly interested in buyers of VIP tickets because they promise significantly higher profits than the much more numerous visitors with normal tickets.
Before the start of the WorldSBK race on the right main grandstand of the Autodrom Most, where you sit almost directly above the start and finish line. Far back above the bottom edge of the picture in the background is the only “large screen” for the thousands of visitors, which unfortunately the majority have absolutely no use for.

World Championship halftime score

Because Alvaro Bautista is only a shadow of what he was in the last two years, the little Spaniard’s factory Ducati rookie and teammate Bulega is increasingly stealing the show. The Italian has only won one race in Australia and is still well ahead of the reigning world champion in the interim rankings. A ridiculous 3 to 4 kilograms of extra weight due to the long overdue regulation change with a maximum weight for rider and machine seem to bring a supposedly sensationally strong rider like Bautista back down to earth. Although even Yamaha newcomer Jonathan Rea is currently fighting without a chance of making the podium and his former Kawasaki teammate Alex Lowes is making too many mistakes, as feared beforehand, Alvaro has only two victories to his name, one of which was only achieved in the Tissot Sprint Race. At the moment it does not look as if Ducati can seriously compete with the BMW ace from Turkey in the second half of the season, despite the still clearly superior engine performance. Toprak Razgatlioglu can probably only beat himself at the moment and even on the endless start-finish straight of the Autodromo do Algarve near the coastal town of Portimão, he no longer has as little chance on his M-1000RR as he did last year on the Yamaha R1, which means he even arrives in Portugal as the favorite.

Completely unexpectedly, after the two most one-sided years in WorldSBK, 2024 will also be almost monotonous in terms of the fight for victories, thanks to BMW’s new signing Toprak. Nevertheless, in this case it should be noted that it is now the pilot who makes the difference and not his machine. This is underlined by the position of “Magic Michael” van der Mark as Toprak’s factory teammate, who is anything but a nose-picker.
Our photo from the start of the first WSBK race at the Autodrom Most with on the left in the picture an irresistible Toprak Razgatlioglu (BMW M-1000RR), who was able to literally play with his opponents in the Czech Republic and won all three races without any serious resistance.

Unless otherwise stated, this applies to all images (© WorldSBK).