Following the opening round of 2017 MotoGP in Qatar, Team Suzuki’s Ecstar’s Alex Rins suffered a broken ankle during a motocross-training crash.The 21-year-old Spaniard, who finished ninth in Qatar, underwent further checks this week at University Hospital Dexeus, and doctors cleared him to ride this week’s Argentina MotoGP.
Suzuki says Rins can “lean on his foot with some discomfort, and despite the mobility of his ankle not being 100%, he can try to race in Argentina.”Suzuki’s Alex RinsThe Suzuki GSX-RR pilot will continue physiotherapy and will be monitored by doctors at Termas de Rio Hondo circuit“My first race in Qatar had been a very exciting experience and honestly left with me the feeling that it all went too fast and was too short,” the MotoGP rookie says. “I can’t wait to experience again all the emotion of MotoGP. The Argentinian circuit is one I like. I believe I will really enjoy the acceleration with the GSX-RR and I’m expecting the straight to seem to be a lot shorter compared to last year’s Moto2.“I had this injury while training last week. It’s not a bad injury but will require some time to recover. I really hope it won’t bother me too much with the pain, as I’m excited to continue learning in this class with my Suzuki.”About the Termas de Rio Hondo Circuit (courtesy of Suzuki):The Termas de Río Hondo Circuit is located 6km from the city of Rio Honda, in the Province of Santiago del Estero. It was built over a 150 hectare area and was officially inaugurated on May 11th, 2008 during the visit of Argentina’s Touring Car Racing Championship. In 2012, the reconditioning, enlargement and modernization of the circuit began, with the purpose of turning it into Latin America’s most modern, safe and vibrant circuit. It is 4,8km in length (2.99 miles) and has five left-hand corners and nine right-hand turns. The longest straight measures 1076 m (3530.18 ft) and the race will be run over 25 laps; a total distance of 120.2 km (74.8 miles).
Hello everyone and welcome once again to the Ultimate Motorcycling podcast—Motos and Friends. My name is Arthur Coldwells.
Motos and Friends is brought to you by the Yamaha YZF-R7—Yamaha’s awesome supersport machine that is as capable on the racetrack as it is on the street. …and it’s comfortable too! Check it out at at your local Yamaha dealer, or of course at YamahaMotorsports.com.
In this week’s first segment, Senior Editor Nic de Sena rides the BMW K 1600 GT. This is the sporty bagger version of BMW’s K series of machines, those are the models with the awesome 6-cylinder engine. The GT has been given a little makeover for 2023, and Nic gives us his take.
In the second segment, I chat with one of my all time heroes—three-time World Champion racer ‘fast’ Freddie Spencer. I’ll do my best not to come off as too much of a fanboy here, but frankly it’ll be tough!
In my humble opinion, Spencer is a contender for the GOAT—greatest of all time. Sure, his career was a little shorter than some, and his number of championships falls behind the likes of Lawson, Doohan, Rossi, and of course Marquez. But at the time, Freddie literally changed the way motorcycles were ridden. 30 years before Marc Marquez, Freddie was able to push the front wheel into a slide, corner after corner, lap after lap in order to get the bike turned faster than anyone else. Freddie took completely different lines and was able to get on the throttle so early he could out accelerate anyone off a corner.
In the modern era, of course Freddie is the chairman of the FIM MotoGP Stewards panel. This is the panel of referees for all three classes of Grand prix racing. I talked to Freddie about his task there, and although for contractual reasons with Dorna and the FIM he cannot talk about specific riders, teams, or events, nevertheless his explanation of the job makes for interesting listening. It’s a tough job, and frankly I wouldn’t want to do it!
At any rate, Freddie’s new book ‘Feel’ is available on Amazon—I’d highly recommend you reading it whether you’re a fan of Freddie or not, even whether you’re into racing or not; every rider has something to learn from his mental approach.
Actually—Ultimate Motorcycling is giving away five copies of the book—signed by Freddie himself—to the first five listeners who contact us with the correct answer to the question: How many national AMA championships did Freddie win, and which years were they?
Please email your answers to producer@ultimatemotorcycling.com and we will contact the winners and send you a signed copy of Feel. Those five winners will be announced on a future episode. Unfortunately for legal reasons this offer is ONLY open to US residents.
So, from all of us here at Ultimate Motorcycling, we hope you enjoy this episode!
