Opinion: I actually quite like Saturday qualifying at TrialGP
By Anthony Sutton on 18th Jul 19
So erm, sorry to have to tell you this but I actually quite like Saturday qualifying at TrialGP rounds as the timing aspect quite often separates the inseparable.
Okay, the Portuguese round was perhaps a little bit too racy but the organisers worked with what they had to put on a show for the spectators.
At the end of the day Toni Bou set the fastest time so it cant have been a total crapshoot...
Many trials fans were less than keen on what they saw which opened up some debate as to how things could be better.
One of the more interesting suggestions was to create an impossible section and then base the result on how far each individual rider made it. That might work but I think youd tend to stop riders at certain points which still gives you that problem of separating the inseparable.
I suppose you could time how long it took them to reach their point of no progression but that brings that whole speed element back. I also wonder if there is such a thing as an impossible section especially where an anomaly like Bou is concerned.
Is there an answer?
Maybe, it wouldnt go down too well but what about running in order of series standing so instead of the last qualifier running first its the world championship leader who blazes the trail. This could be a positive because not only does it offer up the potential to stir things up somewhat but it also allows all the riders setting off behind, the opportunity to see how it should be done.
Perhaps wed even see a little gamesmanship involved with high ranking riders rushing through the early sections to try and break away from the prying eyes of the riders behind them.
Enforcing such a thing would possibly almost definitely cause a riders revolt (as the qualifying session did when Jake Miller implemented it at the dawn of TrialGP) but if a rule is made and stuck to then thats just the way it is the riders would have to suck it up and crack on!
In other news the MXGP of Asia took place at Semarang with 19 riders in MX2 and a whopping 22 starters in the premier MXGP class.
To be fair the track was pretty decent, although the racing surface offered less grip than buttered glass and so we saw some of the most random get-offs in the history of the sport. A doozie at the start of the second MX2 moto took out over 10 per cent of the field, although admittedly that was only two riders.
Now, it would seem that Youthstream feel the need to cater for the Indonesian motocross fans needs and I appreciate that but I think Ive come up with a solution that would keep everyone happy.
Rather than spending an absolute fortune to ship the MXGP series over to them, why not run it at a real track, somewhere in Europe (preferably Great Britain) which is in reach of the whole MXGP circus.
Then we could have them come to us where they can see a real grand prix with almost full line-ups and an actual crowd watching it. To be fair the cost of shipping a couple of thousand Indonesian fans (even first class) would be far less than everyone going to them too, so its a win-win all-round.
The FIM claim to be all about the environment and being green so it fits in with that too as the carbon footprint of the event will invariably be a lot smaller. Ill even plant a chuffing tree if that helps make it a reality.
One good thing about the GP being so far east was the fact that I could watch it live on Eurosport 2 while eating my breakfast you can eat a whole lot of grilled pork during an hour-long TV show let me tell you.
What was less impressive was the fact that we didnt get to see the second MXGP race live because they wanted to show us a recording of a World Superbike race from Laguna Seca instead. At least a British motocrosser won that one congrats Jonathan Rea...
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