After an update on the condition of Gino Rea🗹, who suffered serious injur🍸ies during practice for the Suzuka 8 Hours, the first part of the show focusses on reaction to last week’s episode on the low Silverstone crowd.

“We had hundreds of comments and tweets,” said Podcast host Harry Benjamin, “🌠and a lot of them mentioned the same things:

“’Silverstone is not the right track to watch bike racಞing, the money side - not just the cost of living, but tickets, parking, the cost of a 🅷burger - not having any British riders in MotoGP class, the promotion of the event…’

“Everything we kind of predicted last week but it's worse i🔜n a way isn't it Keith, because it’s not just one probl🅰em?”

“I think you're right Harry. I won't say it's a problem, but I think it's a smorgasbord of things that need tweaking,” replied former Grand Prix rider and British champion Keith Huewen. “I think we have to be positive, the overallౠ event was great: The British Grand Prix under the sun at Silverstone. And they put on lots of entertainment.

“I think the questions are mostly over, to start with, the parking prices. It's a bit like if you buy a television and then got𒁏 charged by the same shop for parking as well. No꧂body likes those extra charges.

“As far as the beers, burgers and so on, I assume the vendors are paying Silverstone to be on-site and then setting the prices. Could tဣhose be controlled more? Maybe no more than a 20% rise over what you would pay in a pub would be acceptable, considering someone has to drag their bar to Silverstone, set it up and take it away again afterwards.

“Silverstone did a lot of things right, but I thin🍌k there were things that antag൲onised people into not going, and I think that is reflected in our mailbox.

“Some people you will never please, the Donington vs Silverstone thing just gets on my nerves! Donington is a good racetrack, the facilities are better since Jonathan Palmer took up the lease but not as good as Silv🔯erstone.

“The biggest thing I think is that we need a home MotoGP race winner. This weekend we had a ho♕me winner at the British Grand Prix… Speedway at the Principality stadium in Cardiff. Dan Bewley. You’ve never heard a roar like it inside that stadium! Just imagine if it was happening in MotoGꩲP? We need that situation.

“The mainstream British media were also not behind the MotoGP like they w💞ere for the F1 Grand Prix, where it was in every 𝔍newspaper and magazine.

“The answer is - and I can see you both looking very stern! - the cost of seeing racing on the Sunday was, deep breath, not the best value for money. £90 plus the car parking, for three races and the British Talent Cup, for me it wasn’t enoug𒊎h track action.

“Our market in Britain is different, our fans are different, our expectations are slightly different... We won’t go! It’s not a case of going just because it’s the🅘 British MotoGP, it’s still got to repr✃esent value for money. Whatever that is.

“But where do we find that h꧟appy medium? Less entertainment on stage and knock £15 off a ticket?

“Parking, in myಌ view, should always be part of the deal. I heard a rumour along the lines of, the reason why they were charging for parking was to encourage people to go on motorbikes. Now only a car bloke could think of that!

“The other thing was that there’s not enough room for all the cars. Hang on a second, you had 140,000 race day fans for the F1 Grand Prix. They all came in cars๊. I don’t understand some of the contradictions.”

ltxcn.top MotoGP editor Pete McLaren added: “I do think it comes down to the perception of value for money, as well as the actual cost. Do people feel what they're getting back is wo♒rth what they're paying?

“I also think that on Friday f♉or example, and you ofte⛎n see this kind of thing at some of the flyaways, why not have really cheap tickets to boost attendance and allow virtually everyone to afford some kind of MotoGP trackside experience. Especially new fans.”

Responding to a comment from a listener about empty grandstand🐷s, McLaren said: “You’d have to imagine the grandstands would have been left in place from the F1 anyway, so why not lಌet people use them?

“I also think you need to adjust the ticket pricing to reflect the situation on a yearly basi♌s, depending on the circumstances and taking into account the factors Keith has mentioned. How popular is the sport in terms of viewing figures in the UK? Is there a ho🐲me rider doing well in the top class? How much disposable income do people have relative to previous years?

"I don’t think you can just charge a blanket rate year in, year out on the assumption that peop🐟le will automatically keep coming back.

“People𝓀 have other choices, including WorldSBK and BSB, and I think they will look at the British MotoGP each season an🌠d decide, is this good value for money? Given all the financial pressures people are under now.

“As far as the organisation of the event, we should give credit to ꦇSilverstone. We've all been in massive queues getting in or out of Grand Prix circuits in the past and, for me at least, that side of it ran like clockwork all weekend.

“But there’s no doubt you need to get mor🦂e fans to attend.”

The trio then go on to debate the impact of free-to-air TV versus pay-per-view and how to attract new fans to the sport, plus potential improv﷽ements to the trackside experience itself.

Silverstone is listening…

Addressing the listeners directly, Huewen concludes: “Keep getting in touch and leaving your opinions because we don’t ignore them and the fact of the matter is, manag🍸ing director Stu✅art Pringle - and one or two others at Silverstone - were among those listening to last week’s podcast.

“I’ve had a couple of emails from Silverstone since regarding our podcast and the ideas that came up. They will be looking at our timeline as well. So your comments are being picked🎃 up by Silverstone and by anybody that's interested in giving the trackside fans something more. They are listening.”

New Austria chicane looks like it’s drawn by a 2-year-old!

Attention t♚hen turns to this weekend’s Austrian MotoGP, which will fe🎐ature a new ‘Z’ shaped chicane inserted at Turn 2 of the Red Bull Ring circuit, in response to the huge accident for Johann Zarco and Franco Morbidelli in 2020.

“They've put this zig-zag in now, halfw𒁏ay down the hill towไards Turn 3,” said Huewen. “I just wonder if there was a 2-year-old that squiggled on the piece of paper that Tilke was working on!

“I really don't get it. Yeah, they've done what they needed to do to slow things down I suppose. It’ll be interesting to see what the riders a🐷ctually make of it. I'm sure they'll just bite t🐲heir lip and get on with it.

“But it just looks horrendous. Literally, the mark of Zorro. A zig-zag… As you can tell, I'm not really a fan! But that's me looking at a piece of paper, not riding it. Let's see how the꧒ riders get on in the first practices.

“It’s a stop-start chicane at the end of the day, they co🦂uld hꦺave had something so much nicer than that.”

“Quartararo said at Silver𒀰stone the new chicane also looks a bit dangerous,” McLaren added.

“The original track layout ✨still exists, and is still used by F1, and if a rider loses control on the way into the new ch🌳icane, they could potentially come into contact with riders ahead as they cross the original track.

“I’m sure Quartararo is not the only one looking at that chicane and wondering, is this solving one problem and ma꧒ybe creating another?”

Bastianini or Martin - Ducati’s big decision

This weekend’s event should also be the last before Ducati makes its decision on whether Enea Bastianini or Jorge Martin joins Francesco Bagnaia at the factory🅷 tea𝄹m next season.

“If you📖 look at it on paper, Bastianini has three wins and Martin no wins this year. But then if you look at the last five races, Martin has scored more than double the points of Bastianini,” McLaren said.

“Martin also had the hand operation earlier in the season, and most importantly they are riding different spec bik⛦es, which makes direct comparisons difficult.

“But there's no doubt Bastiani🎐ni was back on form at Silverstone, only 1.6s💮 from victory with a broken wing. Without that it could well have been Bastianini, rather than Bagnaia, who took his fourth win of the year.

“I think it might be easier for Ducꦛ𒊎ati if Martin was the clear favourite because he's already at Pramac and so a bit further up that ladder towards the factory team. But Bastianini is making it a really difficult decision for them...”

Huewen said: “I fancy Jorge for that [factory] place and I think Bastianini at Pramac will be the right call. But that's based on looking from where I am, not l🎐ooking from where they are.

“This will be a decision based ไon the overall picture. Gigi’s no fool and he will make the right call for the team, and I don’t think Bagnaia will be affected by whoever they put alongside him.”

The trio f🌺inish by making their top three predictions for this weekend’s race, which current weather forecasts warn could see wet weather on all three days.

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