@ForwardRacingGP's @texastornado5 waves to the fans at @IMS in last weekend #IndyGP .. (Pics Tony Goldsmith) @MotoGP pic.twitter.com/8AM816TniX
— Abied (@fi_sonic) August 15, 2014
Much of professional motorcycle racing at the world championship level is about advertising and public relations. The sheer quantity of cubic dollars it takes to keep the burners lit on MotoGP bikes and moving the team around the world means that teams are in constant search of sponsorship dollars, and as David Emmett of MotoMatters.com described so well in a recent article, that task is getting harder. It’s not just about slapping a sticker on a fairing. It’s about burnishing a brand, letting a little of the glamor and excitement of MotoGP rub off on your company. It’s about having the opportunity to host important clients or business partners at a big-time (especially outside the United States) sporting event.
That’s why MotoGP sponsorship is about public relations. So when a team does something that will leave a sour taste with many fans and people in the industry, it better have a good reason and have calculated the costs and benefits very well. That’s also why, in the final analysis, I think the decision by Forward Racing to dump Colin Edwards in the middle of his farewell tour has to be categorized as a mistake. Not a disaster, mind you, but surely a mistake.
Both Edwards, in his last year of MotoGP racing, and Josh Herrin, in his rookie year in Moto2, were dismissed in mid-season, leaving a wounded Nicky Hayden as the only U.S. rider left in the top world championship motorcycle roadracing series. Both Edwards and Herrin were done in by teammates who proved the bike could be ridden a lot faster: Aleix Espargaró at Forward Racing and Johann Zarco at Caterham. When a teammate on an identical bike is racing at the front, and you’re languishing in mid-pack or lower, you’re out of excuses as a rider.
From the beginning, Espargaró showed the potential to run up front. When it was clear the 40-year-old Edwards couldn’t find the same key to unlock that potential performance in the Yamaha, he quickly announced that 2014 would be his last season. Unfortunately, his season effectively ended in August with the race at Indianapolis as the team replaced him with Alex de Angelis.
At the Caterham team over in Moto2, both Herrin and Zarco had disastrous starts to the season, but Zarco turned it around and finished on the podium four times, while Herrin rarely cracked the top 20. Herrin’s inability to master the Moto2 bike in an intensely competitive class only cemented the prejudices against him when he moved up to the world level after winning the AMA Superbike title in 2013. The AMA series had fallen so low under Daytona Motorsports Group’s management that it is no longer well respected as a source of talent for the world championship level. It also didn’t help that some saw Herrin’s championship as partly the result of a points system that rewards finishing too much and winning races not enough.
So both teams took the rather drastic step of replacing a rider in mid-season, and while there’s likely little fallout for replacing Herrin, the decision to replace a very popular rider such as Edwards, a former World Superbike champion whose comeback duel with Troy Bayliss was one to remember forever, is not the kind of decision to make lightly.
Now that the season is over, let’s take a look at the numbers and see what the two teams gained by their mid-season changes.
| # races | Points/race | Best finish | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fast teammate | Aleix Espargaró | 18 | 7 | 2 |
| U.S. rider | Colin Edwards | 10 | 1.1 | 9 |
| Replacement | Alex de Angelis | 8 | 1.75 | 9 |
| Fast teammate | Johann Zarco | 18 | 7.94 | 3 |
| U.S. rider | Josh Herrin | 10 | 0 | 16 |
| Replacement | Ratthapark Wilairot | 7 | 0 | 19 |
It’s noteworthy that neither replacement rider was able to finish higher than the ousted rider had. And while nobody’s suggesting that it’s easy to come into a team in the middle of the season and compete with riders who have a big head start, the bottom line is that neither Forward Racing nor Caterham improved their position significantly by taking the rather radical step of sacking a rider halfway through the year.
Considering the importance of the public relations factor in racing, did the extra 0.65 points per race that de Angelis won make up for the negativity of publicly dumping a popular rider? You can come to your own conclusions, but in my personal cost-benefit analysis, that’s too much cost for no measurable benefit.
Yeah its like here Colin, here’s a nice video for you, now get lost and go fishin or something. They shoulda let him finish the season.
Herrin always was the second fastest Josh in AMA. His title was a fluke. The sad part is that someone like Cam Beaubier might not get a shot because the Moto2 teams will be gun shy about American racers.
In Herrin’s defense, Moto2 is one hell of a tough class. Just to take the last race at Valencia as an example, a rider exactly one second off the pole time in qualifying would start the race in 20th position. It’s a tightly competitive class.
One second is easy to lose, when you’re going from a Superbike to a 600, to different tracks, to foreign countries, and when you’re injured and miss two races early in the season. Herrin faced all that.
I first saw Herrin race when he was still an amateur and thought, “There’s a kid to watch in a few years.” A month or so later, he turned 16, turned pro, and was on the podium at an AMA Pro Supersport race. The talent is there. I hope he gets a good opportunity to revive his career.
News update: Herrin will be racing in the Supersport class in the U.S. in 2015. The Superbike champ of 2013 races the lesser class in 2015, but at least he has a ride.