It’s not been an easy year for the Rizla Suzuki MotoGP team, although they’ve repeatedly bounced back from injury and technical problems to show signs and performances filled with great promise. And now the team looks ahead to a 2011 season with just one bike, following a decision by Suzuki themselves.
The man who presides over the strategy and operations of the GP squad, Team Manager Paul Denning hasn’t had it easy either – with his year complicated by his very own leg injury to add to the mix. Nonetheless, he’s a resilient and inspiring guy – and I was lucky enough to interview him at Valencia for BatiFans, and to chat about his background, his team, his riders and his management style…
What’s your background? How did you come to be here?
I’ve been involved in the motorcycle industry since I was a kid, and been involved with Suzuki in a racing sense since I got involved with racing myself in the early nineties. I went on to ride a season in the British Superbikes in ’96 off the back of our Suzuki dealership and soon discovered that my talents, for what they were, were better placed in sort of putting together commercial relationships and team rather than riding.
So as Crescent we own and operate a British Superbike team that’s run consistently every year since ’97, and in 2004, when Suzuki Japan decided to restructure things, we’d by then been looking after Yukio Kagayama for a couple of years in the UK which I think it helped in terms of that Japanese relationship. They asked me to put a pitch together for a Grand Prix team and that’s where we are now. Read the rest of this entry »
This has been going on so long it no longer feels like news to me.
Nonetheless it *is* news and it’s good news.
Say hello to VROOM Magazine – my latest web launch and a project that I have really enjoyed developing along with stv21 (that’s Tamara to you and me) – who helps run the BatiFans network of sites as well as her own blog, Sonrisa de Talavera.
VROOM Magazine has been in build since late 2009, and has been the subject to ongoing development, content backfilling and design tweaks to bring it up to a really spiffing launch standard. And of course that’s all well and good, but the key question is *what is it*?
There are plenty of websites out there dedicated to MotoGP (mainly the top class admittedly) and to bikesport in general.
VROOM Magazine was built because in running BatiFans it became apparent that fans who support one Spanish rider quite often support or follow or take quite an interest in others – often, many others, too. It’s not everyone of course – and we all have our likes and dislikes – but it has definitely been a genuine and widespread phenomenon.
And basically we thought it was worth exploring… Was it worth publishing a full-blown webzine whose mission is to focus solely on Spaniards? Read the rest of this entry »
Just wanted to put this up – a pic of me that I like (they don’t come round often…) – it’s me sitting, waiting in the infield of the Circuito Ricardo Tormo, Valencia, on the morning of Tuesday November 10th – watching for Alvaro Bautista for come out of the Suzuki pits where he was conducting his first tests on a MotoGP bike, immediately following the final race of the 2009 season.
Thanks to Michaela for the pic. Top job. :-)
Or at least there’s been tumbleweed on here… my bad.
Been stupidly busy trying to have the day job – coming to an end – and also to make inroads in setting up the new business and spending nights and weekends working on its first projects.
As a result I’m 1) failing to post here anywhere near enough, 2) failing to post on my favourite forums and 3) utterly and completely shagged out.
Still a couple of nice weekends coming up…
This Friday it’s off to Madrid to see El Canto Del Loco in concert at the Palacio de los Deports, which I’m giggly like a kid over.
And then the following weekend it’s the final race in the MotoGP season; the Valencia GP at Cheste. Repeat giggly behaviour. I’m there as Media for BatiFans, Team Aspar and the other VROOM sites, and also to try and chase some business if poss – as well as being booked in to meet with the Official Alvaro Bautista Fanclub Saturday and Sunday.
So, er…. not many posts here again, then…. ;-)
Back from Talavera de la Reina – possibly to be renamed Talavera de la Raina, following some proper Brit-style downpours amidst the baking heat. Nonetheless a brilliant time and a superb fanclub party with lots of friends old and new around to welcome us. Alvaro was of course there, and it was a cracking time.
There’s full reports on the Alvaro sites, and also a decent set of pics in the “Members Only” section of BatiFans.
For this page though, here’s a cool pic of some curiously and yet coolly mismatched tiles on the walls of the Basilica in Talavera.
If you fancy going to somewhere you might not have considered, *DO* go to Talavera; it’s a beautiful, tranquil, and wonderfully friendly place. Not hard to get to from Madrid, and with no shortage of nice food and drink, and of course the Roman archaeology and its famous ceramics. Totally worth visiting. Click here for general information and tourist information…
Can’t wait to go back…
