David Emmett's blog

It has been a strange time. Not just for the MotoMatters.com website, or for motorcycle racing, but for the entire world. The COVID-19 pandemic put everything on hold, in many ways. Most of them bad.

In March, the world ground to a halt in an attempt to deal with the pandemic. Three months later, things are slowly stirring into motion again. The pandemic has been largely contained in Europe, and the authorities have deemed it safe for sports, including MotoGP, to start up again. On July 19th, MotoGP returns at Jerez, followed two weeks later by WorldSBK.

These have been strange times. The outbreak of the SARS-CoV2 virus and subsequent global COVID-19 pandemic has been a roller coaster, turning the world on its head as countries around the world do their best to contain the outbreak.

Four months ago, it seemed like a distant problem that would barely affect us. Three months ago it looked like a serious problem which might affect racing at some point. Two months ago, as the pandemic grew, the scale of the impact was starting to become clear.

Normally this morning, you would be reading a story here which would seem plausible but surprising, and wondering if it was true. I, in turn, would be wondering how long it would take for readers to cotton on that the story was just an April Fool's gag.

But not this year. As I sat trying to think up a story which was just about credible, I was overtaken by a feeling of sadness. There is not going to be any racing any time soon, and anything I might concoct might end up giving someone false hope, and make the wait for racing even more unbearable than it has been so far.

With the COVID-19 outbreak having paralyzed racing for the next month, at the very least, I thought it might be useful to provide an update on what you can expect from MotoMatters.com until we start racing again.

The short version is that there will be plenty of content coming on the site over the next few weeks, but that I will be taking weekends off. We will be publishing articles and photo galleries throughout the week, but no new content will be added to the site on Saturdays and Sundays, unless some dramatic development happens during the weekend.

The Sepang MotoGP test ended a week ago, and we have already published a bunch of articles on what we saw at the test. But now it's time to open up the floor to you, our subscribers. Do you have any questions about what went down at the Sepang test, or what we learned? Want to know about a particular rider or bike?

As the holiday season approaches, it's time for me to take a break. MotoMatters.com will be shutting down for between Christmas and New Year, and returning again in 2020. But before I do take a much-needed break, I have a few things to say (some of which will explain why the break is much needed...).

First and foremost, thank you to everyone who reads MotoMatters.com. Even after 14 years, it is still remarkable to me that so many people read and enjoy the website. It is still hard for me to think of it as anything more than me posting my ramblings from my spare room.

With the holidays coming up and no racing on, most people will have a little more time on their hands to do a bit of reading. If you are looking to read about motorcycle content across all disciplines with a focus on racing, then On Track Off Road magazine is the best possible way to pass the time. I have been proud to write a column for Adam Wheeler's magazine for the past four and a half years, adding my bit of MotoGP insight. You can find me alongside such fantastic writers as Neil Morrison, currently the best writer on MotoGP, stellar WorldSBK photographer Graeme Brown, WorldSBK guru Steve English, AMA specialist Steve Matthes, and Adam Wheeler, a man who has forgotten more about MXGP than I will ever learn.

As we missed out a couple of months over the summer, we will be giving away prizes to two of our loyal subscribers this month. We have a selection of Suzuki swag, including a cap, bag, wallet, and keychain, and a Marc Marquez championship t-shirt, commemorating his 2016 MotoGP title.

The drama over this weekend - Jorge Lorenzo's flirtation with Ducati, and now Johann Zarco's precipitous split from KTM - together with travel plans post-race have caused a few logistical issues with producing the Subscriber Notes for the Austrian round of MotoGP. 

The first part of the subscriber notes should be online some time this evening, with the second part to follow on Tuesday. Apologies, especially to subscribers, for the delay. 

It's time to be handing out rewards to our loyal site supporters again, for helping to keep the site running and thriving. This month's raffle prize is some memorabilia from last year: a Ducati Corse cap signed by Jorge Lorenzo and Andrea Dovizioso.

It's Subscriber Raffle time again, and another prize is on offer for MotoMatters.com site supporters. This month's prize is a set of Repsol Honda bluetooth earbuds, given to us at this year's launch of the Repsol Honda team, to commemorate 25 years of the partnership between Honda and Repsol. The charging box containing the earbuds has the Repsol Honda team logo on it, and a 25 years logo on the reverse. 

It is subscriber prize draw time again! With the 2019 season about to start, and the dawn of a new era in Moto2, with a new engine supplier and new electronics making their debut, we have a fitting prize for the month of March. 

The winner of the subscriber draw this month will win a Triumph T-shirt and Moto2 goodie bag, from the launch of Triumph's Moto2 program in June 2017. The prize consists of a T-shirt, wristband, and case, in a Triumph-branded bag.

I do not make a habit of marking the birthdays of motorcycle racers, but Valentino Rossi's 40th is worthy of an exception to my self-imposed rule. His 40th birthday is clearly a milestone, though any birthday can hardly be regarded as an achievement. To reach his 40th birthday, all Rossi had to do was keep living.

But of course, the fuss being made of Valentino Rossi's 40th birthday is not because of the age he has reached. It is because he reaches the age of 40 a few months after having finished third in the 2018 MotoGP championship, racking up five podiums and a pole position along the way. It is because the media, his fans, and Rossi himself regard that as a disappointing season.

It is because he enters his 24th season of Grand Prix racing, and his 20th in the premier class, the first year of a two-year contract which will see him racing until the age of 41 at least. It is because he is one of the leading favorites to wrestle the MotoGP crown from reigning champion Marc Márquez (15 years younger), along with Jorge Lorenzo (9 years younger), Andrea Dovizioso (8 years younger), Maverick Viñales (16 years younger).

The start of the new year has released riders from their previous contracts, and freed them to talk. For some, though, the new year also places new restrictions upon them. So in a fascinating interview with the Spanish sports daily Marca, Dani Pedrosa is forced to refuse to talk about his role testing for KTM. "I'm not allowed to say anything about this, but I can say that I love the work I am doing with KTM, because for me, the challenges never stop."

One of the more interesting things Pedrosa does talk about is the reason he left Honda. That had nothing to do with the tension which had existed between himself and team boss Alberto Puig, Pedrosa said. In fact, the decision not to keep Pedrosa on as a test rider came from higher up in Honda.

There are many benefits to supporting MotoMatters.com with a subscription: access to our exclusive interviews and background articles, full-size photographs by our ace snappers such as CormacGP and Scott Jones, and perfect marriage of full-sized technical close-ups by Tom Morsellino with explanation by Peter Bom.

From this year, there is another benefit: all of our paying subscribers will be entered into our prize draw, where they can win a range of MotoGP-related goodies. The draws will be held once a month, with winners drawn at random from among active subscribers.

To kick things off, we have two grand prizes for subscribers. First prize is an exclusive object indeed: the media pack handed out at the official launch of Honda's RC213V-S street bike at the Barcelona round of MotoGP in 2015.