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Was it a split-second decision that could cost Jorge Martin the World Championship? Probably not, but it took a big chunk out of his Championship lead and planted some doubts when the raindrops started falling. Did that shower on the grid and then in the early laps give Marc Marquez a chance at the Championship? Again, probably not but never say never when the eight-time World Champion is involved. He is going to win more Grands Prix this season and so it is down to Martin and Pecco Bagnaia to make no mistakes at the front.

Since that very first flag-to-flag race at Phillip Island in 2006, good and bad decisions have been made in that split second. It must be a nightmare for riders who are rather busy at the time. Riding a 325 kph motorcycle is tough enough, but in modern times they have so many things to check and change even before checking just how hard the rain is falling on their visor

Sometimes it is a very easy decision. When the heavens open as they did in Motegi last year, your only thought is to get back to pit lane as quickly and as safely as possible to change bikes. When it is iffy it is a very different story. Who will ever forget Brad Binder’s ride of a lifetime at the Red Bull Ring three years ago? As the rain fell on the skating rink surface the KTM rider defied logic by staying out there on slicks as his rivals pulled in. I do not think I was the only person to hold my breath and marvel at his last couple of slipping and sliding laps.  It was a gamble that paid off, but it has not always been the case. In 2014 as the rain started to pour down at Aragon, Repsol Honda teammates Dani Pedrosa and Marc Marquez decided to stay out on slicks while Jorge Lorenzo pitted to change to wets. Both Pedrosa and Marquez crashed in the rain. Lorenzo was a comfortable winner, but Marquez went on to win the title. So, take heart Jorge Martin.

I am not sure if all riders like the flag-to-flag format but for race commentators it was a dream. I was rubbish at working out if the riders had completed the right distance when the rain started, or if we had to take aggregate times from two separate races. The crunch came at Mugello in 2004 when the original race was stopped when the rain arrived. The re-run was classed as a separate race and consisted of just six laps. It was rumoured that a television station announced the first race as the result, and closed their transmission before the shortest race in MotoGP™ history took place. The crowd at Mugello did not worry because Valentino Rossi won the 31.470 kms encounter.

Misano is situated on the coastline of the Adriatic. Perhaps the proximity of the water makes the weather a factor, because it certainly has played a part in my Misano experiences. In 1976, my very first assignment as a Road Racing reporter for Motor Cycle News was curtailed when sleet and rain persuaded Giacomo Agostini not to race and the meeting was called off. In 2007 when Misano returned to the Grand Prix schedule after a 24-year absence, torrential rain wiped out the first day of practice.

You could taste the tension in the air on the Misano grid as those spots of rain arrived from over the Adriatic Ocean. Those old bitter rivals, Valentino Rossi and Max Biaggi offered their advice but only one person could make that decision once the lights changed. Jorge Martin made the wrong one on Sunday, but he will not be the first or the last rider to make the wrong call in the heat of battle.

The very nature of the sport makes MotoGP™ a Championship of logic-defying comebacks, but was Marc Marquez’s amazing weekend the greatest in 75 years? The Gresini Ducati rider joined the likes of Mick Doohan and Barry Sheene, who fought back from terrible and in some cases life-threatening injuries, not only to race again but win Grands Prix and ultimately World titles.

Marquez had to wait 1043 painful, desperate, soul-searching days between his last MotoGP™ win in 2021 and his record-breaking weekend in Aragon. Phil Read had the longest wait of 3200 days between premier class Grands Prix wins but won plenty of other class races in between. Doohan and Sheene may not have had to wait so long, but their fight against pain, desperation, and their utter determination to return to the track stands them out from mere mortals.

In 1992, Mick Doohan was running away with the 500cc World Championship on the factory Honda. The Australian had won five of the opening seven rounds and led the Championship by 53 points when we arrived in Assen. He crashed in the accident-littered final qualifying session and snapped the tibia and fibula in his right leg. I was in the medical centre when Mick decided to have the leg operated on at the local hospital and hoped to be back in 15 days at the Hungarian Grand Prix. He had a successful operation with plates fitted to pin the broken bones, but then it started to go so wrong.

Mick knew something was very wrong when his foot started to turn black, and he could smell dying flesh around the wound. When talk of amputation was mentioned it was time to get him out. Legendary Grand Prix doctor, Italian Dr Costa, smuggled him out of the hospital together with Kevin Schwantz who had broken his forearm and dislocated his hip in a race crash. They flew to Dr Costa’s clinic in Imola. There was every chance that Mick was going to have his right leg amputated but treatment in Imola and America saved him. At one stage he had his two legs sewn together to try and restore circulation from one to the other. Despite hardly being able to walk he returned to defend a 22-point Championship lead at the penultimate round in Brazil, but eventually lost the Championship to Wayne Rainey by four precious points. It was another year before Mick won a Grand Prix at Mugello in 1993. A year later he clinched the first of his successive five World 500cc titles.

Sheene survived two big crashes. The first at Daytona made him a national hero in Britain. In 1975, I travelled to Daytona by Greyhound bus after flying to New York only to discover that Sheene had crashed in practice. A television crew had flown out to America to film him and typically Barry took full advantage. Lying in the hospital casualty department he told the camera he had broken his right femur, a broken right arm, compression fractures to several vertebrae and a great loss of skin. He then requested the customary cigarette. He became a national hero overnight when the film was shown. Barry was back in action just seven weeks later and won his first 500cc Grand Prix at Assen two months after that. Barry was crowned World Champion in 1976 and the following season.

Marquez is back to winning Grands Prix and is that ninth world title around the corner? It probably will not be this year, but opponents be warned the comeback has only just started.

The next two Grand Prix races are staged around Misano on the Adriatic coast of Italy, which is where Marquez’s record is just as good as it was in Aragon. Already seven wins around the 4.2km Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli, including his last MotoGP™ win in 2021 before Aragon.

Perhaps it is wrong to suggest any rider’s comeback is the greatest because every one of them is so special and a perfect illustration of just what Grand Prix riders are all about.

We thought at the start of the 2010 MotoGP™ season we would be visiting a brand-new circuit in Hungary but ended up somewhere so very different. The long-awaited opening of the Balatonring in Hungary never happened, and it was the reserve circuit on the Calendar that took over. The problem was I really did not know where Aragon was but what a gem of a circuit it turned out to be.

We were accustomed to visiting and enjoying the likes of Barcelona, Jerez, and Valencia. Coastal areas and great circuits; finding out just where Aragon was came as a bit of a shock. A different, less populated inland area of Spain with the nearest major city of Zaragoza nearly 100 kms from the circuit. And what about the circuit itself that was going to stage the 13^th round of the Championship? Designed by the legendary Hermann Tike it looked great on paper. A tremendous variety of undulating fast and slow bends and a mighty long straight looked perfect for MotoGP™ and that’s exactly how it turned out.

Getting there and finding somewhere to stay was never going to be easy but any inconvenience was overcome with the magnificent location of the circuit. Fly to Barcelona, drive down the coast and then cut inland at Reus. Drive through a succession of hills, vineyards through provincial towns, past the imaginary Meridian line that joins the North and South poles into a desert-like region. It’s easy to understand why they filmed some of the Spaghetti Cowboy films in the area. The imposing castle overlooking the town of Alcaniz gave an indication of the history before arrival at MotorLand Aragon situated by the side of the lake. Alcañiz had been famous for its street circuit on which cars and bikes raced and the tradition continued, as it has at many venues with the construction of a man-made circuit

The riders loved the track carved in the hillside and especially Casey Stoner. Those fast-sweeping bends leading up to the reverse Corkscrew. The magnificent long left-hander, not that he had time to admire the fantastic views, was made for his sliding style. On the brakes for the tight left and right-hand bends, which Nicky Hayden described as riding in his backyard at home, with the impressive massive stone wall the perfect background. The tight left-hander onto that long straight before braking for the all-important uphill left-hand bend onto the start and finish straight.

Stoner won that opening Aragon Grand Prix in his final Ducati season in 2010. The Australian won again in 2011 on his debut and Championship season for Honda. Then the Spanish riders took over. Following a Moto2™ win Marc Marquez went on to win five MotoGP™ races. Jorge Lorenzo won twice with Dani Pedrosa and Alex Rins grabbing single wins. More recently the Italians have fought back in the Spanish heartland. Franco Morbidelli won the Teruel Grand Prix three years ago with Pecco Bagnaia the winner in 2021, and Enea Bastanini the last MotoGP™ winner in 2022.

So what about Sunday? Surely another Bagnaia/Jorge Martin clash but do not rule out Aragon winners Marquez and Bastanini. Martin a Moto3™ winner, podium finishes in both Moto2™ and MotoGP™, will be desperate to retake that Championship lead with the juicy part of the season about to commence.

It is great to see Aragon back on the MotoGP™ Schedule this weekend. A proper racing venue that is absolutely made for the very best of MotoGP™. Also, I now know how to get there!

Twenty-three-year-old Ai Ogura signed up to the toughest job in MotoGP™ last week – to become the first Japanese rider to win the premier class World Championship. Despite all their enormous success in the Constructors premier class Championship, plenty of World titles and Grands Prix wins in the smaller classes, the highest accolade in the sport still awaits a Japanese rider after 75 years.

Just three days after the Trackhouse team announced that Ogura was joining their MotoGP™ team next year, he crashed and broke his right hand during Saturday morning practice at the Red Bull Ring. The five-time Moto2™ winner has won twice this season and still holds second place in the Moto2™ World Championship despite missing Austria.

It’s a tough road ahead for Ogura who won three Moto2™ races in 2022 and finished second in the World Championship, before an injury-hit 2023 season. He steps up to a MotoGP™ World Championship that last witnessed a Japanese winner two decades ago when Makoto Tamada scored a home victory for Honda at Motegi in 2004. Earlier that season Tamada also won in Rio and finished sixth in the Championship. The last Japanese rider to finish on the MotoGP™ podium was Katsuyuki Nakasuga who brought Yamaha second place at Valencia in 2012. Takaaki Nakagami, who finished 14th in Austria on Sunday, was the last Japanese pole setter at Aragon in 2020

The closest a Japanese rider came to that elusive title came in 1997. Tadayuki Okada came along at just the wrong time, right in the middle of the Doohan domination years. He finished second in the 1997 500cc World Championship behind his Repsol Honda team-mate Doohan. Two years later Okada finished third behind Alex Criville and Kenny Roberts Junior. He finished on the 500cc podium 21 times including four Grands Prix wins. In another era that would have been enough for the World title.

Nobody will ever forget Norick Abe. With that long hair flowing from the back of his helmet, he won three 500cc Grands Prix for Yamaha. The two at Suzuka in 1996 and 2000 were so special, with that massive smile and celebrations on the podium in front of the home fans. One of the most underrated Japanese 500cc grand prix riders was Toru Ukawa. I remember him fighting off Honda team-mate World Champion Valentino Rossi to win the 2002 Grand Prix at Welkom in South Africa. He finished third in the Championship that year, but it was his only 500cc victory.

Without a doubt Japan and Honda had earmarked the brilliant Daijiro Kato to bring that World title home. He won 11 Grands Prix en route to the 2001 250cc World title. He took two podium finishes on both two-stroke and four-stroke Hondas on his debut MotoGP™ season, eventually finishing seventh in the 2002 Championship. The stage was set for the big push in 2003, but it ended in tragedy. Kato was killed at the opening round at Suzuka. The dream died that dreadful afternoon and all we can do is imagine what those battles between Valentino Rossi and Kato would have produced. One thing for certain, Kato would have been right up there with all those MotoGP™ stars.

So, a massive two years ahead for the latest Japanese star to emerge from the smaller classes. In those last 75 years it’s been rare for a Japanese rider to compete in the Premier class on European machinery. It’s Aprilia for Ogura and he can take an optimistic glance at history. The first Japanese rider to both start and score points in the 500cc class was Fumio Itoh. He finished sixth at the 1960 French Grand Prix at Clermont-Ferrand riding a BMW. A good omen for the 23-year-old as he embarks on his journey to re-write the history books.

Don’t you just love it when a rider arrives on the scene to ruffle the feathers of the established stars? Pedro Acosta did just that at the start of the MotoGP™ season, while another former Red Bull Rookies star is blowing them away in WorldSBK.

My friends and journalistic colleagues had only one topic of conversation when they returned from the British round of WorldSBK at Donington Park last month. They could not wait to tell me just how impressed and excited they had been watching Toprak Razgatliogu in action around the historic venue.

The 27-year-old Turkish BMW rider simply blew the opposition away. A week later he repeated the dose at Most in the Czech Republic – that was his tenth successive WorldSBK victory. This weekend he had another clean sweep in Portimao and has won a record-breaking 13 consecutive races. He now the leads the super-competitive Championship by a massive 92 points.

If and when the Championship leader moves to MotoGP™, those lucky to witness him in action at Donington believe he is the rider to rewrite the history books. No WorldSBK Champion has won the MotoGP™ World Championship. Indeed, only two have won premier class Grands Prix. Injuries, bad luck and circumstances mean that only Ben Spies and Troy Bayliss have taken the chequered flag in MotoGP™.

American Spies always looked the most likely. Just two years after being crowned WorldSBK Champion he won the 2011 Dutch TT. Spies finished fifth in the World Championship that year, but injuries wrecked his MotoGP™ prospects and brought about a premature retirement. Australian Troy Bayliss returned for a one-off MotoGP™ ride at Valencia in 2006. The reigning WorldSBK Champion replaced the injured Sete Gibernau at Ducati. While the world focused on the Hayden/Rossi battle for the title, Bayliss pulled off a historic victory. With Loris Capirossi in second place, Ducati achieved their first-ever 1-2 Grand Prix finish.

That was that, and with only Colin Edwards coming close. The double WorldSBK Champion switched to MotoGP™ in 2003. In a career that spanned 11 years, ‘The Texas Tornado’ finished on the MotoGP™ podium 12 times, finished fourth in the 2005 World Championship but never won a Grand Prix – scant reward for such a brilliant rider.

I remember interviewing Colin in 2004 when the 2003 WorldSBK Champion Neil Hodgson was contemplating a return to MotoGP™. Colin urged Neil to return as soon as possible because he realised he had left it too long before switching Championships. Double WorldSBK Champion James Toseland moved into MotoGP™ in 2008. After an encouraging start, unfortunately, he was beset by injuries and never finished on the podium.

Some great WorldSBK Champions never made the move. Carl Fogarty and Jonathan Rea would have surely flourished but lack of suitable opportunities and machinery prevented them. Their performances as wildcards showed just what a threat they would have been to the established stars, but only on competitive MotoGP™ machinery. Switching from a Championship where you are the King, making a very comfortable living, has to be the correct move into the unknown.

Five times 500cc World Champion Mick Doohan won a couple of WorldSBK rounds in Australia and Japan before embarking on his title-winning premier class career. Cal Crutchlow won the WorldSSP title and WorldSBK races before switching to MotoGP™ in 2011. He won three MotoGP Grands Prix before retiring three years ago. The likes of 250cc World Champions and MotoGP Grands Prix winners Max Biaggi and John Kocinski made the reverse trip to win WorldSBK titles.

It is so easy to get carried away and this season in both Championships still has a long journey ahead before conclusion. However, a little bit of dreaming never did any harm, records are there to be broken.

The man regarded by many as the greatest-ever Grand Prix rider over the last last 75 years would have loved every minute of race day at Silverstone. A rider winning the MotoGP™ race wearing his replica helmet, a rare British winner in Moto2™ and just over half a second separating seven riders in a classic Moto3™ encounter. Stanley Michael Bailey Hailwood would have approved.

This was such a special race day to celebrate 75 years of Grand Prix racing, and nobody would have appreciated it more than Mike Hailwood in his home country. A nine-time World Champion in 250, 350 and 500cc classes. A winner of 76 Grands Prix across the 125, 250, 350 and 500cc classes. Mike Hailwood, awarded the George Medal for extreme bravery, and Mike Hailwood aged 39-years-old returning to the TT on the Isle of Man to win for Ducati. You could go on and on. The winner of all classes at the British round of the World Championship around the Mountain circuit at the TT races in the Isle of Man. A rider who won three Grands Prix in one day at the Dutch TT in Assen. At the time, he was the youngest rider to win 250 and 500cc World titles, the youngest rider to win 250 and 500cc Grands Prix and the first rider to win four successive 500cc World titles.

He would so have appreciated the double by Enea Bastianini on the Lenovo Ducati. The Italian wearing with pride a replica Hailwood helmet delivered the comeback of all comebacks. Hailwood returning to the Isle of Man in 1978 and winning the main race on the F1 Ducati. Nineteen years earlier, Hailwood had won the very first Grand Prix of those 76, riding a Ducati to victory in the 125cc race at the Ulster Grand Prix.

In those days, British riders winning their home World Championship event at the TT was a common occurrence. When the British round switched to the permanent circuits at Silverstone and Donington, the winning habit disappeared down the same black hole as Grands Prix wins and World titles. Jake Dixon’s superb win in the Moto2™ race on Sunday was the first since Danny Kent won the Moto3™ race in 2015. Kent went on to win the World title. The last Moto2™ winner at Silverstone was Scott Redding two years earlier. Only one other British rider has won at Silverstone and Donington. Ian McConnachie winning the 80cc Grand Prix way back in 1986.

Hailwood would have loved being involved in that fantastic Moto3™ race on Sunday, with just over half a second separating the first seven riders. He won two 125cc Grands Prix for Ducati and Honda before moving onto the bigger classes.

Hailwood’s great strength, that stood him apart from most, was his ability to ride any machine on any type of circuit. He won Grands Prix in 125, 250, 350 and 500cc classes on Ducati, Honda, MZ, MV Agusta and Norton machinery. Those wins came on circuits as diverse as the Sachsenring and Isle of Man to Assen and Daytona.

Typically, he told nobody when he returned to the pits at Kyalami after pulling Clay Regazzoni from a burning car when they both crashed in the 1973 South African Formula One Grand Prix. Later he was awarded the George Medal for extreme bravery.

Tragically, Mike Hailwood and his daughter Michelle lost their lives in a road traffic accident in 1981. Not only did that fantastic day at Silverstone celebrate 75 years of Grand Prix racing but also the life of Mike Hailwood. Thank you Enea, Jake and those seven Moto3™ riders for giving us the opportunity to remember a true great of our sport but my own personal hero.

Every picture tells a story and no more so than in the 75-year history of Grand Prix racing. Just one look sparks such personal memories of people, friends and history in the making over those seven decades of our lives. The different liveries of the bikes and riders reflect the contrasting eras in those 75 years and personal memories of our lives, both past and present.

The summer break has arrived. If the first half of the season is any indication, do not switch that phone off while lying on the beach. Never in the 75-year history of the sport has so much happened in the opening four months. Then check out what actually occurred on the racetrack, to realise just what an extraordinary first half we have witnessed.

We take for granted the on-track action and we have not been let down. The Sachsenring on Sunday summed it up perfectly. Jorge Martin joining that not-so-exclusive Turn 1 crashing club to hand Pecco Bagnaia the ideal wedding present – the World Championship lead. The battle of the Marquez brothers for second place, the fight for podium finishes behind Moto2™ winner Fermin Aldeguer and the battle for Moto3™ honours between David Alonso and Taiyo Furusato. It is what we have come to expect.

I suppose when Bagnaia and Fabio Quartararo signed their allegiance to their respective teams, almost before a wheel had been turned in anger, we realised this was going to be so very different

With so many riders’ contracts coming to a finish at the end of the season, it was inevitable. The media were revelling in the drama of where Marc Marquez and Jorge Martin were going next year, as much as they were reporting the races. I love announcements that arrive out of the blue and they came in great bundles.

Marquez to factory Ducati and Martin to Aprilia were a journalist’s dream but there was so much more to come. Out of the blue, Bastanini and Vinales to Tech3 KTM. Catch a breath because there was more to follow. Bezzecchi to Aprilia, Pramac switching to Yamaha and Aleix Espargaro joining HRC as a test rider all before the summer break.

Sometimes the switch to a rival team is the worst-kept secret. It wasn’t exactly an explosive press conference at Valencia in 2003, when Valentino Rossi announced he was joining Yamaha the next season. I remember Casey Stoner in deep conversation with HRC Vice President Shuhei Nakamoto in the Dresden airport hotel bar before the 2010 summer break. The following season he’d left Ducati to bring Honda the World title.

The switch that completely caught me cold and I think most others, came in 1988. My Phone rang very early on a December morning. A furious Wayne Gardner was on the line from Australia. Did I know that Eddie Lawson was leaving Yamaha and joining him at Honda the next season? As Media Manager for the Honda team, he presumed I knew, but I did not. It remained a secret until after I’d returned from California with videos, photographs and quotes from Eddie. He won the world title the next season and then returned to Yamaha, job done.

Sometimes a journalist can be caught in the crossfire. Barry Sheene rang me in January 1982 to say he’d turned down an offer to ride for Giacomo Agostini’s Yamaha team that season, but not to tell anybody else. Later that morning Graeme Crosby rang from New Zealand. He’d been controversially dropped by Suzuki and had no ride for the season. I told him to ring Ago. By the end of the week, he’d signed for the team and made his debut in Argentina two months later. He finished runner-up in the 500cc World Championship, but I never told Barry.

The first beer in the paddock after the summer break was always good fun. Sunburnt noses, stories from beaches and nightclubs flowed, but at Brno in 2002 it was far more sombre than usual. A message from Barry Sheene revealing he had cancer brought the holiday recollections to a temporary halt. Kenny Roberts rang him immediately and later in the evening we raised a glass of the glorious Brno beer. The stories flowed late into the night about this amazing person and great World Champion.

Enjoy your summer break because the tough part of the season is still to come. Eleven races in just over three months covering three separate continents. Remember, keep that phone switched on!

It may surprise you, but I really enjoy planning and researching my blog even before race day. Assen was no exception, but then it all went terribly wrong until along came Pecco Bagnaia to save the day. A masterclass of total MotoGP™ supremacy at the Cathedral. World Champion by name and action. No wonder the Italian has the outline of Assen tattooed on his right arm. For the last seventy-three laps of Grand Prix racing, he has not been headed. His sixth Dutch TT win and his third successive MotoGP™ win at the legendary venue. The last rider to win three in a row was there to applaud. Mick Doohan won five in a row between 1994 -1998.

It had all looked so simple. Fifty years ago, the Che-Guevara of Grand Prix racing had made his debut at Assen. In 1974 Kenny Roberts arrived in Europe and life was never quite the same. With fellow American Joe Roberts winning the Moto2™ race in Mugello last month, and lying second in the World Championship, this was the perfect time to remember the past and predict the future. The time is ripe for the revival of American riders in the World Championship and ultimately to return to the pinnacle, which they dominated for so long. With the surname of Roberts, how could you fail

Kenny took pole position for that first 250cc Grand Prix, crashed in the race but remounted to finish third. The rest is history. He was so passionate about Grand Prix racing. He led a revolution from the front both on and off the track. A sliding style, honed on the dirt tracks back home, had never been witnessed on European racetracks. Much to the chagrin of the Grand Prix regulars and World Champion Barry Sheene in particular, Kenny won three successive 500cc world titles for Yamaha. That was just the start. He took on the organisers and promotors who had shown so little respect for fellow riders’ safety and welfare. Together with journalist Barry Coleman they threatened, with the support of all the top riders, to form a rival World Series in 1980. It never happened, but the very threat brought a 500% prize fund rise and a massive increase in all aspects of safety.

Kenny had built the bridge across the Atlantic for the American riders to compete. So much talent arrived in the opposite direction to the Pilgrim Fathers. They loved those fearsome 500cc two-stroke rocket ships. World titles flowed for Freddie Spencer, Eddie Lawson, Wayne Rainey, Kevin Schwantz and his own son Kenny Junior. It was the golden age for America but slowly the source of talent started to dry up.  Nicky Hayden was the last American World Champion in 2006. Ben Spies was the last Grand Prix winner in 2011. For a while unbelievably there were no American riders in any of the Grand Prix classes, but then along came Joe Roberts. That second Moto2™ win gave him a competitive chance of winning the World title and a real opportunity to move up to the MotoGP™ class.

All my ideas were blown apart on Friday afternoon. The unfortunate Roberts crashed and broke his collarbone in Moto2™ practice. The OnlyFans American Racing Team rider was declared unfit, but hopefully will be back for the Sachsenring.

While walking my dog Candy, after watching the demolition of the Tissot Sprint race by Bagnaia, I had another inspiration. Later that afternoon Italy were playing Switzerland in the knock-out stages of the European football Championship. Compare the European Champions defence of their title to that of the defence of their World title by Bagnaia and his Lenovo Ducati team. At Mugello they switched from the traditional Ducati red to Azzurri blue to show their support to the national team.

Two hours later it was back to square one. Switzerland comfortably beat the Champions who were on their way home after a two-nil defeat. Pecco, your brilliance saved the day. I have got some ideas for the Sachsenring, but I think it is best I keep them to myself as I can’t keep relying on the World Champion.

It could only happen at the Cathedral, not once but twice. Imagine telling the Moto3™ riders lining up on the Assen grid on Sunday, that after this race you have to compete and win in the forthcoming Moto2™ and MotoGP™ races on the same day. The legendary Assen Van Drenthe circuit has rightly earned the title as the Cathedral of Grand Prix racing, for many reasons. Some are obvious, others not. Of course, it’s the only circuit remaining on the MotoGP™ calendar from that original 1949 schedule. Not so well known, is that Assen staged the closest ever 500cc finish in 1975 and two great World Champions won three Grand Prix races in a single day.

Six-time World Champion Jim Redman was the first to pull off this incredible feat of both skill and endurance. In 1964 he won the 125, 250 and 350cc Grands Prix riding the works Hondas on a rather busy Saturday June 27^th, 1964. Two years later Mike Hailwood, once again on Honda machinery, won the 250, 350 and 500cc races on the same day. Nine times World Champion Hailwood raced for over three hours on his 440-kilometre adventure. It’s a unique record that will surely never be equalled

I like to think, and certainly tell my friends, that I played a part in the outcome of that closest-ever premier class finish in 1975. Around 25 of us rather boisterous fans arrived in Assen on the Saturday morning to support our hero Barry Sheene. The Suzuki rider who had recovered from that horrendous Daytona crash earlier in the year. It was a scorching hot afternoon. The cold Dutch beer was welcome and fully consumed by the time the 16-lap race got underway. We flew a large Union Jack and cheered on Sheene as he shadowed Giacomo Agostini’s Yamaha until the very last corner of the race. The 135,000 crowd, led by us, was going wild.

Lap after lap Barry had feigned to go left in that final bend and then stayed in Ago’s slipstream. He moved to repeat the manoeuvres for the last time, Ago positioned the Yamaha to block him and Barry was through on the right. They crossed the finishing line absolutely side by side and nobody knew who had won. Barry’s Dad Franco was running up and down pit lane celebrating, trying to convince the finish line judges that his son had grabbed his first 500cc victory. We joined in at a much higher pitch of both noise and excitement. At last, the Tannoy announced what we all wanted to hear. Sheene was declared the winner although for the only time in Grand Prix racing the two riders could not be separated on time. Both riders were credited with a race time of 48.01.00s. A long night of celebration followed in Amsterdam en route to the ferry home. I’m sure our support of Barry and Franco made no difference to the judges, but it made a very good story and my very first News Editor always told me, never spoil a good story with the facts. It also summed up my love of such a special place.

My first ever Grand Prix visit outside the Isle of Man in 1973. Watching Phil Read win on the MV Agusta while enjoying the delights of chips with mayonnaise, cold beer at 8 am and so many bicycles and windmills. My first assignment as a Grand Prix reporter in 1980 was witnessing Jack Middleburg claiming the last Dutch home 500cc victory. Since then, great memories from the commentary box. The Rossi/Marquez battle at the final chicane in 2015. The Doctor’s last Grand Prix win in 2017. Jack Miller’s win and celebrations a year earlier. We all felt the bitter disappointment of Colin Edwards, when he crashed in the chicane with the chequered flag in sight in 2006. If anybody deserved a Grand Prix victory it was Colin.

Finally, I loved Assen because up to 2016 the Grand Prix was always held on a Saturday. I could get home for a rare Sunday lunch with the family.

The Cathedral is the greatest Grand Prix venue in the world, for so many different reasons.