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MOTOGP: Noyes Notebook: The Sound And The Fury
Are traction control and other electronic aids the devil when it comes to racing? Dennis Noyes says yes.
Dennis Noyes  |  Posted August 12, 2010   Barajas Airport, Madrid (ESP)
(Photo: Yamaha Racing)

PROGRAMMING NOTE: The Czech GP will air LIVE on SPEED on Sunday, August 15 at 8:00am EST.

My flight to the Czech Republic is delayed and I’ve got dangerously too much time on my hands so I guess it is time to show my true colors. Time for us 'Luddites' to stand up and be counted.

(The term 'Luddite' was applied in early 19th Century Britain to the members of a social movement who destroyed mechanized looms, which eliminated jobs in the textile industry and threatened their way of life. The original Ludd was Ned Ludd, a textile worker on Leicestershire, England, who destroyed two mechanized stocking frames in the village of Anstey, Leistershire in 1779.)

Actually calling those of us who oppose an overwhelming invasion of the nerds in MotoGP and professional motorcycle racing in general by the name of some rebellious textile workers at the dawn of the industrial revolution is silly. Would you oppose anti-gravity shoes in basketball or ball-seeking bats in baseball? I would.

Remember, spell-check and auto-correct technology is banned in spelling bees.

I forgot to ask Kenny Roberts, the true “King Ludd” and rebel with a cause regarding traction control and other technological advances that are watering down motorcycle racing, what he thought of the electric bikes that were whispering around Laguna Seca during eerily quiet intervals at the USGP. Having forgotten that the electrics were running, I thought that the silence meant the AMA had red flagged a practice. But then I remembered and went out, using my track pass to access the high inside of Turn 1 with a commanding view of Turn 3.

Clearly electric motorcycles, even if they manage to make them sound like Stuka dive-bombers, are not going to replace piston-driven racers in my heart, but maybe younger racing fans won't just see this as an ingratiating attempt to appear 'green.' Will these electric bikes bring new fans, people who don’t like conventional racing because they believe our sport is a frivolous squandering of valuable resources? I somehow doubt that because people who don’t like racing just don’t like racing regardless of the power source.


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