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Cormac Shoots Lombok: MotoGP Memories Of Mandalika

By David Emmett |

 
The setting for Mandalika is second to none: on the edge of a tropical beach

 
Crash on Saturday, win on Sunday, leave Mandalika having lost only 3 points. Not a bad weekend for Jorge Martin

 
Given how bad Fabio Di Giannantonio's shoulder is damaged, he performed extremely well in Mandalika

 
The riders went out on used tires and then swapped to new fronts on the grid. Here's a VR46 mechanic handing back a used soft front

 
The heroes that make racing possible also spend most of their weekend in the blazing hot tropical sun on Lombok

 
New aero and a new swingarm have given a real boost to Honda, with Johann Zarco making a big step forward the last few races

 
A win and a third for Pecco Bagnaia. Unfortunately for him, the win came on Saturday, third on Sunday, so he barely gained on Jorge Martin at all

 
There are now so many ancillary attachments to front wheels - aero parts, brake heat shields, brake coolers, fenders - that occasionally stuff spontaneously drops off. Every update seems to add more work for the mechanics.

 
Enea Bastianini has many things, including impeccable speed. But he doesn't appear to have the ability to not make mistakes.

 
A marshal post with fire extinguishers. The damage done to Marc Marquez' Gresini Ducati meant we were talking about fire extinguishers more than normal.

 
Takaaki Nakagami finally got the new aero for his LCR Honda Idemitsu RC213V, but that meant a lot of recalibrating the bike and his riding

 
Nakagami still has the most exquisite helmet on the grid

 
Pit lane

 
Warming Jorge Martin's Pramac Ducati up.The leaf blower being used to blow cool air into the engine intake has become standard equipment for MotoGP teams. A sign of how reliant the bikes are on forced air induction

 
Pedro Acosta gets ready on the grid. A new frame helped KTM turn the corner this weekend

 
Chasing past the hillside

 
From above: Fabio Quartararo's Yamaha M1

 
When bikes break down (and they do break down) the mechanics really earn their pay. Nobody wants to be pushing a bike down pit lane in the tropical heat of Mandalika

 
Modern MotoGP bikes look like dragster. The Hondas too, though the two Repsol Hondas here are clearly still a few cm higher above the ground than some of the Aprilias and Ducatis

 
Behind the leaders, chaos reigns after the start. Jack Miller found himself getting tangled up with Aleix Espargaro, Luca Marini, and Alex Marquez in the Sunday GP

 
Alex Rins is still partially anonymous. But he too is making progress

 
There were fans at Mandalika. But not as many as people had hoped. Which is why the future of the race is uncertain

 
Which is a shame. Because Indonesia genuinely deserves a MotoGP round. And Mandalika's a great circuit

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PhotoPage
CormacGP
MotoGP
Mandalika, Indonesia
Aprilia
Ducati
GasGas
Honda
KTM
Yamaha
Alex Marquez
Aleix Espargaro
Enea Bastianini
Fabio Di Giannantonio
Fabio Quartararo
Francesco Bagnaia
Joan Mir
Johann Zarco
Jorge Martin
Luca Marini
Pedro Acosta
Takaaki Nakagami

"There were fans at Mandalika. But not as many as people had hoped."

I noticed this too, and it's not something I usually pick up on so it must've been pretty bad. For all the endlessly effusive praise by Birty (as usual) about the love of MotoGP by the locals, the stands told a different story. My first assumption is promoters got a bit greedy and priced out locals but that's wild speculation on my part. But it has to be something like this, we know how big the fanbase is yet during the sprint race it looked like a local dirt track's worth of fans.

I don't know about this year, but last year a Sunday General Admission ticket was about $40, the average monthly income in Indonesia is in the $300-$350 range so tickets aren't heinously expensive in isolation.

But, the track is on the wrong island. Lombok is relatively hard to get to from Java and Bali, depending on the route and weather a ferry from Bali is anywhere from 1.5 to 6 hours and another $30 each way. The inconvenience and cost of that alone must put a lot of local fans off, before you think about somewhere to stay, eating etc.

If the track was on Java the legions of Westerners on Bali could get there easily, ferries from Bali to Java go every 20minutes, take 40minutes and there's plenty of transport at either end. At the same time it would be much easier for locals too.  It would be a huge shame if Indonesia loses the race, they really are crazy about motorbike racing over there. But building it on Lombok was a huge own goal.

 

From David's Mandalika preview

...the surrounding infrastructure is both insufficient and aimed primarily at rich western tourists. What this means is that the limited hotel rooms that exist around the circuit are unaffordable, even for some of the people involved in the paddock. And that Indonesians, who are probably the most passionate people on the planet about MotoGP, can neither afford the tickets, nor a place to stay.

General admission tickets for Mandalika are US $30. Which sounds cheap, until you realize that that represents about a week's wages for people on minimum wage in Lombok. For comparison, GA tickets for the Sachsenring in Germany are just over €100, which is a day's work on minimum wage there.

I thought I remembered the surrounding hills having a lot more trees on them last year when watching. The cynic in me thinks that it was clear cut for profit, typical stupid human thing to do. No long term thinking, but business rarely thinks that way. Agent Smith was correct in saying that the Human race is a virus on the planet.....

.. I was thinking that too.  Take the sea out of the background and most of it looks more like Laguna Seca or Aragon.  Did they totally clear the land when developing the resort area or is it naturally a bit desolate like that?  Maybe they cleared it for replanting in some sort of curated way and it will all bounce back in a few years as things tend to do in the tropics?

It won't bounce back.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deforestation_in_Indonesia#:~:text=Large%20areas%20of%20forest%20in,demand%20from%20China%20and%20Japan.

Not just Indonesia but everywhere there is a buck to be made. 

Part of the cost of capitalism crisis that is cleverly referred to as the "cost of living crisis."

We are all in it.

But, hey, there's a race to look forward to on Sunday.

Gresini have to buy a whole new bike because the track used the wrong fire extinguishers.
Does the track cover some of those costs?
Does Dorna since they OK'd the track?
"Opps I'm sorry, eat 5 million euro" is not going to be an acceptable answer.

Well done Indonesia 🇮🇩 !

On the positive side; the circuit has actually been built. Races have been run. Both MotoGP & SBK have had good racing at Mandalika. The layout is unique. Good in general. The surface is good enough.

On the minus side; the surface was falling apart at times.

People are more aware of the environment. Rather than sensitively clearing just what was needed. Preferably transplant as much as possible into the garden/ landscape. The decision was Bulldoze the lot. Could have been done better. I've heard the development has had some bad press and legal issues. Should obviously Consult the locals and the motorcycle community.

Location, location, location! Not appropriate for Bali. God no! Java is where millions of fans are. Beats me.

Indonesia can afford to build a new capital city from scratch. So I believe that the idea is to bring tourists to Lombok. Which means they will have to support the event financially until it's viable. If ever. Maybe free ferry rides with every ticket?

Not looking to be argumentative but I’m not sure I’ll ever see building a racetrack on Lombok as a good thing. It’s too much of a stretch to believe it will ever benefit local people. I’m not even convinced it will ever attract enough foreign spectators to be viable. Personally, I’d love to do another trip to Indonesia but even for me, attending a race on Lombok wouldn’t be on the wish list.

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Comments

"There were fans at Mandalika. But not as many as people had hoped."

I noticed this too, and it's not something I usually pick up on so it must've been pretty bad. For all the endlessly effusive praise by Birty (as usual) about the love of MotoGP by the locals, the stands told a different story. My first assumption is promoters got a bit greedy and priced out locals but that's wild speculation on my part. But it has to be something like this, we know how big the fanbase is yet during the sprint race it looked like a local dirt track's worth of fans.

I don't know about this year, but last year a Sunday General Admission ticket was about $40, the average monthly income in Indonesia is in the $300-$350 range so tickets aren't heinously expensive in isolation.

But, the track is on the wrong island. Lombok is relatively hard to get to from Java and Bali, depending on the route and weather a ferry from Bali is anywhere from 1.5 to 6 hours and another $30 each way. The inconvenience and cost of that alone must put a lot of local fans off, before you think about somewhere to stay, eating etc.

If the track was on Java the legions of Westerners on Bali could get there easily, ferries from Bali to Java go every 20minutes, take 40minutes and there's plenty of transport at either end. At the same time it would be much easier for locals too.  It would be a huge shame if Indonesia loses the race, they really are crazy about motorbike racing over there. But building it on Lombok was a huge own goal.

 

From David's Mandalika preview

...the surrounding infrastructure is both insufficient and aimed primarily at rich western tourists. What this means is that the limited hotel rooms that exist around the circuit are unaffordable, even for some of the people involved in the paddock. And that Indonesians, who are probably the most passionate people on the planet about MotoGP, can neither afford the tickets, nor a place to stay.

General admission tickets for Mandalika are US $30. Which sounds cheap, until you realize that that represents about a week's wages for people on minimum wage in Lombok. For comparison, GA tickets for the Sachsenring in Germany are just over €100, which is a day's work on minimum wage there.

I thought I remembered the surrounding hills having a lot more trees on them last year when watching. The cynic in me thinks that it was clear cut for profit, typical stupid human thing to do. No long term thinking, but business rarely thinks that way. Agent Smith was correct in saying that the Human race is a virus on the planet.....

.. I was thinking that too.  Take the sea out of the background and most of it looks more like Laguna Seca or Aragon.  Did they totally clear the land when developing the resort area or is it naturally a bit desolate like that?  Maybe they cleared it for replanting in some sort of curated way and it will all bounce back in a few years as things tend to do in the tropics?

It won't bounce back.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deforestation_in_Indonesia#:~:text=Large%20areas%20of%20forest%20in,demand%20from%20China%20and%20Japan.

Not just Indonesia but everywhere there is a buck to be made. 

Part of the cost of capitalism crisis that is cleverly referred to as the "cost of living crisis."

We are all in it.

But, hey, there's a race to look forward to on Sunday.

Gresini have to buy a whole new bike because the track used the wrong fire extinguishers.
Does the track cover some of those costs?
Does Dorna since they OK'd the track?
"Opps I'm sorry, eat 5 million euro" is not going to be an acceptable answer.

Well done Indonesia 🇮🇩 !

On the positive side; the circuit has actually been built. Races have been run. Both MotoGP & SBK have had good racing at Mandalika. The layout is unique. Good in general. The surface is good enough.

On the minus side; the surface was falling apart at times.

People are more aware of the environment. Rather than sensitively clearing just what was needed. Preferably transplant as much as possible into the garden/ landscape. The decision was Bulldoze the lot. Could have been done better. I've heard the development has had some bad press and legal issues. Should obviously Consult the locals and the motorcycle community.

Location, location, location! Not appropriate for Bali. God no! Java is where millions of fans are. Beats me.

Indonesia can afford to build a new capital city from scratch. So I believe that the idea is to bring tourists to Lombok. Which means they will have to support the event financially until it's viable. If ever. Maybe free ferry rides with every ticket?

Not looking to be argumentative but I’m not sure I’ll ever see building a racetrack on Lombok as a good thing. It’s too much of a stretch to believe it will ever benefit local people. I’m not even convinced it will ever attract enough foreign spectators to be viable. Personally, I’d love to do another trip to Indonesia but even for me, attending a race on Lombok wouldn’t be on the wish list.