Looking back across races I covered in Moto GP, the one that really stands out is from 2004. Valentino Rossi had switched from Honda to Yamaha and everyone pretty much thought he didn’t have a cat in hells chance of being competitive on the new bike. Yamaha hadn’t won a championship in twelve years.
The season started at the South African Grand Prix at Phakisa circuit. Valentino went out and won the race. The image I have of him, sat on his bike after the race, with his race helmet still on, holding his head in his hands is forever etched in my memory. I’m sure everyone who was watching felt emotional at that moment and also wondered what was actually going on underneath that visor. I certainly did and I still do to this day. He said to me that he wasn’t crying but he just couldn’t believe he had won the race.
To go out and win on that bike was just incredible and the whole paddock were walking around with their mouths on the floor at what had just happened. It’s one of my all time favourite memories of Moto GP and bike racing. It just proved the man was bigger than the bike. It was right in the middle of the Valentino era, when he was in his pomp. I guess that is now coming to an end, but it was just a wonderful moment that always makes me smile when I look back, thinking about the race and the expectations before hand, how he completely surpassed everything anyone thought he could possibly achieve. It was just a wonderful moment and I think everyone there walked around with their eyes stinging from tears for a good while.
My interest in bikes came from riding them myself, being with a great group of people who were passionate about bikes and I used to go to watch races with them, took my bike test and really got into the whole scene. Bikes get in your blood. I loved watching the racing, it was the mid 90’s and Superbikes stood out at the time. One of the first races I went to see was the British Superbikes at Mallory Park and I headed along to Donington on several occasions, which is where I made the decision that I wanted to get into the industry.
I made a tape; it would be around 1996/97 interviewing some of the riders at Donington including Niall McKenzie, Jamie Whitham and Phil McCallum. It was all a lot more relaxed in the paddock then compared to what we see nowadays. I got a lot of help and support from the guys and I still appreciate that to this day.
Brands Hatch, 1997 was a massive moment in my life. It was the first race I presented on TV. I was working for Sky Sports and it was a six hour-long live broadcast! It’s fair to say it was a real sink or swim moment. I’d hate to watch it back now, I was probably rubbish! But it was just an incredible experience. I had to interview riders who maybe didn’t speak good English, there’s the noise of the pit lane going on behind you, you’ve people shouting at you over talk-back and you’re live on air! It was a baptism of fire to say the least, but in hindsight I think it was the best way of learning about live TV and learning about sport on television. In a way I’m glad it was so intense, it certainly was some introduction!
Over the years I’ve got to interview so many characters. Going back to World Superbike days, Carl Fogarty had a race face like no other, he was a very honest interviewee and would always tell you exactly what he thought, which made for some magic television moments and I loved interviewing him. Neil Hodgson was always good fun to speak with too. Colin Edwards was always a tease; he’d come up with something a bit cheeky and would always get away with it with his Texan drawl. He added a lot of fun into the whole mix of things. Pierfrancesco ‘Frankie’ Chili was just wonderful television, he was Italian and would mix up his words but you kind of knew what he meant, he would always make you smile, he was very handsome and debonair. He was also quite cheeky and forever playing practical jokes. Women loved watching Frankie and people always knew he would pull a prank on me. I remember walking down the grid at Brands Hatch one year and I felt something on my head. Frankie had snuck up behind me and plonked a great big tiger hat on my head whilst I was doing a live piece to camera! The King of characters was Valentino Rossi, he was amazing to interview and it was always a joy and privilege to speak with him. On several occasions he chose to drop bombshell exclusive pieces of news into interviews with me.
There is one race meeting I’m almost ashamed to admit that I’ve yet to go and experience and that is the TT. I was desperate to go this year but with all that goes into my new role in covering Formula 1, it just wasn’t possible to get across. It is right at the top of my must do list and I’m determined I will get there soon!
One Race, one circuit?
That’s a really tough thing to answer, to pick out one race at one circuit to watch, there’s been so many memorable races. I don’t know whether to go back to the heady days of Moto GP at somewhere like Jerez with Rossi and Gibernau battling it or Imola in the Moto days with Max Biaggi versus Mick Doohan or even Superbikes at Oschersleben or Hockenheim. It would certainly have to be a race where there was lots of battling going on.
Suzi Perry
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Memory added on October 10, 2013
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