Why Repeat Champions Are Sometimes a Good Thing

By The Merchant

I've heard the complaints about repeat champions for as long I've been watching motor sports: God, can't anybody but this guy win; This asshole is ruining the sport; On track battles for the win make great racing...and on and on. In many cases the complaints are valid. But I believe that as long as a champion is challenged periodically, then a racer beating the field year after year can actually be a good thing.

You would think it wouldn't be. You would think that the complainers out there clamoring for a hotly contested series would represent the majority of viewers. But the popularity of Valentino Rossi and Michael Schumacher (and the relative health of their sports during their heydays) tells another story.

That famous chin.

Seemingly laid back, Rossi is a vicious competitor

No doubt, having a singular force in any sport - a racer so consistent and so dominant that his skills seem preternatural - turns some fans away from watching. Who wants to see someone run away from the field race after race? But when the wins and losses are tallied and the histories written, who do we revere? Michael Schumacher, Alain Prost, Valentino Rossi, Giacomo Agostini, Mick Doohan...the very same men accused of making their sports "boring" by winning too much.

Just scan the stands of any current MotoGP race and you'll see a sea of yellow "46" flags lauding Rossi's skills and his nine total world championships, including seven in the premiere class. Were there years when I personally wanted someone, anyone, to beat him? Yeah. And that made me watch more because I was determined to see him fall at the hands of a worthy competitor. That polarization of the fan base--some for, most against--is good for the sport as long there willing and able competitors to challenge the champion.

Legends serve a dual purpose: they awe the fans with their skills, drawing some into their fold and push others to root for a field that is packed with perennial underdogs. It might seem counterintuitive but having a championship where anyone can win at any given time actually diminishes the prestige of the series in many cases.

Right now the MotoGP field is as strong as it's ever been with four MotoGP world champions participating: Casey Stoner, Valentino Rossi, Jorge Lorenzo and Nicky Hayden. They are challenged by racers holding WSBK, AMA SBK, Moto2 and 125cc titles. Going into the 2011preseason it seemed as though every race would be a caldron of aggressive passing with a revolving door of winners climbing the podium. But the transition from Rossi's dominance to Casey Stoner's utterly complete performance in 2011 had website commenters crying foul and complaining that MotoGP had become the new Formula 1. But they kept watching.

When a champion wins on points, with few strong victories to his name--as Nicky Hayden did in 2006--he's not held in the same regard as a rider who utterly dominates the field. And it's only when a new rider takes down a dominant champion that he is elevated to legend status.

Even competing closely with a legend can cement a rider's reputation as one of the best of all time. Kevin Schwantz took one title in 1993 after Wayne Rainey was paralyzed mid-season. His ability to compete with riders such as Rainey, Eddie Lawson and Mick Doohan made him a fan favorite though and he's still revered today. And every Sunday, millions of fans tuned in with the hopes that Schwantz to slay the giant in Wayne Rainey. After all, Rainey won three world championships back to back but no one today complains that he made racing boring.

Standing above and apart from MotoGP, Formula 1 is the most lauded championship in motorsports and the sport's champions are celebrated like no other. During Michael Schumacher's run of championships between 2000 and 2004, when he utterly crushed his competition, many complained that the season was over before it started, and that Formula 1 was losing fans because there was no real competition. But I believe that fans rooting for other competitors root harder when their favorite driver is facing down a seemingly invincible champion. Victory, or the possibility of victory, is that much sweeter because of how difficult it is.

Schumacher showed what was possible in a Formula 1 car. He raised the bar to new heights and as much as some hated his winning streak they couldn't help but marvel at what he was doing. Every viewer knew he was watching history and each had to admit deep down that they wished their favorite driver was doing the exact same thing.

In fact, Schumacher's return to the sport in 2010 was telling. He isn't competitive in the new Mercedes and while some fans sneered at him running mid pack, most were sad to see him down in the field. He belongs at the front because that is where he lived for so long. It isn't right that he's now just one of many instead of a singular champion.

I won't argue that complete domination can hurt a series. Case in point was the AMA Superbike series during Mat Mladin's run of championships. The Yoshimura team he rode for won 53 races in a row between Mladin and Ben Spies and because no other team stepped forward to consistently push them it made the field, and consequently the series, look weak. But I guarantee you that 20 years from now when people look back at the legends of AMA Superbike racing they'll have to first say, "Mat Mladin," and that as they say it they'll remember rooting against him every weekend.

For Rossi It's Win With Ducati or Not at All

Rossi and the ill-fated GP11

By The Merchant

Ducati's 2011 MotoGP effort was hard to watch for any fan of the brand and in particular for fans of their factory riders, Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden. Honda sounded the alarm bells as early as the preseason testing in Malaysia, where their RC212V, a true weapon, dominated from the start. Rossi and Hayden were on their heels from the off and fielding questions about why their times were so far afield from Casey Stoner's. Rossi in particular had to answer questions about his performance on the GP11 when he finished the tests more than a second behind Stoner. The rest of the season is history but suffice it to say that watching Ducati scramble to provide the Italian legend a bike to carry him to the front was painful for any fan of MotoGP.

Time and time again, with desperation seeping from their pores, Ducati and Rossi couldn't answer the challenge from the Hondas and the seven-time world champion suffered the double humiliation of having his predecessor on the Ducati run away with the championship while revealing through his own poor performance that even his prodigious talents are limited. And now a man who five years ago could have gone to any manufacturer in the paddock and demanded his weight in gold is out of options. He's wedded to a mistress that seemed from afar a perfect fit.

When one door closes, another opens. At least that's the theory, but for Rossi the opposite proved true. When Stoner jumped to Honda, the door opened at Ducati and Rossi saw a way out of Yamaha and away from 2010 World Champion Jorge Lorenzo, a strong competitor and wannabe Rossi clone. But as the marriage to Ducati soured and his efforts with Jeremy Burgess to right ship bore no fruit, the doors around Rossi were beginning to close.

Three things happened to eliminate all options (other than retirement) for Rossi: The continued collapse of the world economy, the ascendance of brilliant young riders in his stead at Yamaha and Honda, and finally the move to the CRT format in MotoGP.

Rossi is a brilliant rider by anyone's standards. He is also an expensive rider-the most expensive rider by a huge margin. That means only a few factories/sponsors could afford his services in the best of times. With the economy continuing its decline even the established factories (Yamaha especially) are struggling to find the same sponsorship dollars available just a few years ago. Though Rossi can likely bring money with him to any team he chooses, which team could he actually choose? There are only three factories left in MotoGP and he's ridden for two of them and is currently with the third.

Even should Rossi desire a return to Yamaha or Honda in 2013 (assuming his 2012 campaign with Ducati is a failure), would they really need him back? In marketing terms he is a juggernaut but the factories want above all else to win. With Stoner and Pedrosa, Honda have their men. They would have had three contenders were it not for Marco Simoncelli's death in Malaysia. Yamaha has both Lorenzo and rising star Ben Spies on board and Rossi would be unlikely to rejoin a team with his hated rival. So it's Ducati or a privateer team, but even that would be impossible because each of the privateer teams seems headed for the CRT bandwagon, Aspar being first among the established teams to embrace the model over leasing factory Ducatis.

With Dorna CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta throwing all financial support behind the CRT teams, the future of the sport is up in the air. Rossi admitted during the recent Monza Rally that he didn't like the idea of the sport going entirely to CRT bikes but said to La Gazetta Dello Sport, "It's a little sad and it's clear what we must use less expensive bikes and if this is the only way I wouldn't have problems riding a CRT, although no one is excited by this."

It's clear though that Rossi would have problems riding a CRT. He needs to win, and soon, and a CRT team is never going to give him that chance unless all of the riders on the grid are on CRT bikes. He has to beat Casey Stoner in a head-to-head race in good weather for his time at Ducati to have been worth it. For better or for worse, he is stuck with the only remaining factory committed to his salary demands and in need of his talents.