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It was a day we had been looking forward to for a long time: March 14th was the day that MotoGP Unlimited was to be launched on Amazon Prime. The series was due to be available in 170 different territories around the world.

As midnight passed in Europe, social media lit up with responses to the series. And unfortunately, those responses were very far from positive. Not because of the content of the documentary series, but because of the editorial decisions apparently made by Amazon Prime.

In the UK and US, the only version available was the dubbed version, where actors have voiced over everyone speaking in their own language. In Australia, India, and some Southeast Asian countries, MotoGP Unlimited was not available at all.

The problems reported seem to be a result of decisions taken by Amazon, rather than either Dorna or The MEDIAPRO Studio, the producers of the show. But the process by which these decisions were made is very hard to fathom.

On the coattails of the success seen by Netflix’s “Drive to Survive” series, which follows the car world’s Formula One World Championship, MotoGP has finally decide to allow a series of its own.

Titled “MotoGP Unlimited” and produced by The Mediapro Studio, the eight-episode docuseries will be streamed on the Amazon Prime service (and also available on MotoGP.com for its subscribers).

This premiere series will follow the 2021 MotoGP World Championship, and aims to cover the stories behind the races.

There was a period during the previous decade where Formula 1 was steadily losing ground to MotoGP.

While Bernie Ecclestone had made four-wheeled grand prix racing successful in the era of TV and print media, his dismissal of social media, combined with processional racing, saw the ratings of the sport decline.

Dorna, after a similarly difficult start, finally embraced social media in the middle of the last decade, and that attention to the benefits of Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram helped build the profile of the sport.

If we weren’t living in the time of COVID, we would be wrapping up our coverage of the Isle of Man TT right now, but instead the iconic race sees another year of canceled races because of the global pandemic.

The Isle of Man government has been busy planning for the iconic race’s return though, with a plethora of changes and announcements made for the 2022 edition and onward.

The biggest news is the live video package that is planned, but there are also a number of rule changes to the Lightweight TT and Sidecar TT classes, in addition to more races and more races days.

Jorge Lorenzo’s announcement at Valencia that he would be retiring at the end of the 2019 MotoGP season came as a shock to the paddock.

In the immediate aftermath, attention focused on who would take his place in the Repsol Honda Team, speculation reaching a crescendo when HRC announced it had signed Alex Marquez to ride alongside brother Marc in the factory squad.

With MotoGP testing out of the way, and Jorge Lorenzo returned home to Switzerland after his hard-earned extended vacation in Bali, Indonesia, talk has now turned to Jorge Lorenzo’s future.

If you haven’t heard of “On Two Wheels” then you have been missing out on one of YouTube’s best motorcycle shows. The hosts Ari Henning and Zack Courts are some of the best riders in the business, and the show takes an informative and fun approach to talking two wheels.

Graduating to the big leagues now, Ari and Zack are headed to the Motor Trend Group (self-described as the largest automotive media company in the world), with a new show that will be featured on the Motor Trend On Demand streaming service, as well the Motor Trend Network TV channel that will debut in the fall.

The new show, which is using the working title of “Uncaged” (a nod to Motor Trend’s car-heavy content) is expected to continue the “On Two Wheels” formula, with Ari and Zack doing their usual moto-adventures and reviews – Spenser Robert also continues the adventure, in his role as showrunner.

We expected practice at Termas De Rio Hondo to be dominated by the weather, and we were right, though not in the way we expected.

Rain had been forecast for all of Friday, but it largely held off except for the odd wayward shower which caused more of a nuisance than any real disruption.

But a combination of a dirty track and strong and gusty winds made conditions difficult at the Argentinian round of MotoGP. It turned the field on its head: Andrea Dovizioso, the man who had won the previous race at Qatar, finished FP2 as 24th and last on Friday in Argentina.

The track played a big part in making life difficult for the riders (or more accurately, everyone not called Marc Márquez). The resurfacing had been a major improvement, removing the worst of the bumps, but the new surface didn’t really have any extra grip, the riders said.

“It’s positive about the bumps,” Andrea Dovizioso said. “Apart from Turn 4 all the other corners are much better, almost perfect. The grip is not good like the old one, maybe it’s worse, maybe it’s too new, I don’t know when they did.”

Valentino Rossi agreed. “The new surface is a bit better because we have less bumps,” the Italian said. “I think Michelin was a bit worried about the level of grip because they bring more tires. At the end the level of grip of the new asphalt is the same as the level of grip with the old asphalt.”

The real problem was the track still being dirty, and not being rubbered in, Marc Márquez explained.

“It’s good. In terms of grip, very very similar the new and old, you cannot feel the difference, because there is no rubber, it’s just dirty. But it’s so good about the bumps. Last year it was at the limit, quite dangerous with big bumps, but this year it’s completely flat,” the Spaniard told reporters.

There has been a trend over the past decade for rider contract negotiations to get earlier and earlier.

Where once, talks about new contracts would start sometime in June, and agreements finalized and signed during August, now, initial discussions start at the Valencia Grand Prix the year before a contract is due to end, and deals are signed in the first few races, or as in the past two contract cycles, before the season has even begun.

The underlying causes for this trend are numerous, but at its heart, it comes down to the glut of talent that is in MotoGP these days, both in terms of riders and in terms of bikes. The best riders have more choice of competitive machinery, and there are more talented riders for the factories to choose from.

This has forced the factories into pursuing and signing up the riders they want as early as possible.

As former HRC team principal Livio Suppo told ace French journalist Thomas Baujard, “In the MotoGP class, the manufacturers are the slaves of the top riders.”

Face it. When it comes to exposing motorcycles to the masses, and making a two-wheeled life “look cool” the motorcycle industry’s biggest assets are shows like American Chopper and Sons of Anarchy.

With this thought in mind, we suppose then that it is good news that FX plans to create a spin-off of Sons of Anarchy, bringing the male melodrama back to the small screen, with a new show called Mayans MC.

Mark your calendars, because the 2017 Superprestigio flat track event is this weekend. But if you’re like us, you likely won’t be in the Barcelona over the weekend, which means you need a way to watch some of motorcycle racing’s top riders battle it out on the dirt oval.

No worries, the folks at FansChoice.TV have your back on this, offering a livestream of the Superprestigio flat track race to American viewers.

Commentary will be handled by American Flat Track’s very own Chris Carr, who knows a thing or two about going fast in the dirt. Coverage on FansChoice.TV will start at 9am PST, with racing expected to stat around 9:30am PST.

The time schedule for the 2018 round of MotoGP at Qatar is to undergo a radical shake up. As we have previously reported, from next season, the time slots are to be moved up much earlier, with most of the action taking place during the day, and only the MotoGP race to take place completely at night.

The change has been made to address a range of problems at Qatar. The 2017 race came under threat when rain started falling between the end of the Moto2 race and the planned start of the MotoGP race.

Fortunately, the track dried sufficiently for the race to start with a 45 minute delay, but the later start pushed the race right into the time period during which the dew usually starts to settle on the track, rendering it treacherous. 

The dewpoint at the track has caused problems ever since the race switched to being held at night. As temperatures drop during what is the most humid (a relative term, admittedly) part of the year in Qatar.

That part of the year is also the time at which rain is most likely to fall, despite still being relatively rare. In 2017, rain caused the loss of qualifying for all three classes.