Laguna Seca Moto GP

[TimF]

Good to see your a really Aussie Choppin down that tall poppy.

On to the soapbox I go.

I read an article that said "MotoGP is the number three televised sport in the world behind World Cup Soccer and Formula One auto racing. Approximately 320 million people watch each MotoGP race."

In 2006 Italian viewership of MotoGP surpassed that of soccer. When the race is shown on Italian Free-to-Air there is still advertising, but the tv station puts a small window in the corner showing the GP.

Yet I notice that MotoGP in Australia has sometimes been aired only after some tripe like Big Brother Uncut has finished showing. Or some retarded sports presenter compares the MotoGP bike lap-times at Phillip Island to Craig Lowndes' POS V8 touring car. And you can almost completey forget ever watching the 125s and 250s live on free-to-air.

As a country, we enforce rules that mean our very young talent have to move to UK/Europe to race on asphalt circuits. Then, when they make it through the ranks and compete and win a world championship we call them "whimp" or say they simply have a far superior bike and that they could only properly ride a traction-controlled bike etc.

Then we wonder why motorcycles have a low public profile. Enjoy your front number-plates.