Sebastién Tortelli speaks about the GP of Mexico

Here I am back from Mexico after a difficult and controversial GP. After all that has been said and done it is important for me to give you my perspective and clarify some points.

As you know, there are always two sides to a story so here is mine. Let's go back.

About 3 years ago I met Nico España, event promoter of SX, MX and freestyle. The idea then came to create the "World Celebrity MX Race", a friendly MX event that would gather tops retired and actives racers from the world.

In October 2010, this race was born with names like Stefan Everts, David Vuillemin, Damon Huffman, Doug Dubach, Jason Thomas, Sean Hamblin, Pedro Gonzales, Antonio Balbi ... and myself. The race was a success and all racers went back home happy after their Mexican weekend.

Then the idea of a GP of Mexico came. Mexico is a land still untouched in the field and thus represents a potentially lucrative market for the development and the growth of the sport. Obviously the challenge was big given the economic, social, cultural and geographical situation.

Organizing a GP is a year of work, preparation, planning, budgeting, ... therefore I did many trips to Guadalajara this past year.

For the final preparation I arrived on site 10 days prior to the event. There, I discovered a rather nice track while recognising that the circuit would be difficult, technical and physical. (5,500 feet in elevation, 90F.) The date of the GP was not ideal but again for logistical reasons with Brazil, this date was best suited for the riders and teams. I remind you that it is a World Championship and in order to keep is authenticity it must have exotic GP’s and go out of Europe!!

The biggest problem that we encountered was obviously the management of water on the track. When you hire locals for one week to water the track they show up the first four days but not the fifth one - not easy!!  Now let’s talk about the facts:

The Track: Yes, the conditions were not perfect and we had two very dusty corners (a water truck rolled over and another one broke down!) The FIM therefore gives us an extra 1/2 hour in order to fix the trouble area.

The crew worked hard and we solved the problem in the time allowed by the FIM. Meanwhile the riders had already made up their minds and put on their shorts without even bothering to do a sight lap to judge the state of the track which was at that time ridable and safe. (I personally rode during my career in worse conditions than those for a GP). If they want no dust or mud or ruts they should consider Moto GP!

YES the track was challenging (for the reasons already mentioned) but it’s a WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP!! Not every track can be to everybody’s liking but as a GP racer your job is to perform on any type of tracks and situations as long as your safety is not in danger (which in my opinion was not the case).

The Safety: Yes, there were 15 doctors and six ambulances all weekend, never would the FIM valid a GP without medical crew on site!!! This is a liability issue for FIM, Youthstream and the Organization, if not correct. FIM will not allowed a bike on the track until all medical personal are present.

So for those who believed those rumors you are obviously very naïve…

Yes, Mexico is not the safest place on earth so we had 60 security guards and armed police forces patrolling on site all week-end. But again, when you’re in such places you don’t do stupid things like some did!!!! Guys were complaining because they got robbed only to find out they left their backpack exposed with their passport inside on the back of their rental car!!!
Well, what do you want me to say to that? -"You’re stupid”!

TV coverage: Yes it was bad and poorly filmed, I agree it is really bad to miss any starts of the race. It was not the responsibility of the organization but rather the responsibility of the local TV.

Now the riders: The disappointing finding of an irresponsible and unprofessional attitude of the majority of them made the situation worse. Not one rider came to me to discuss the situation in an attempt to find a solution. Most of them know me, I never had the reputation of being irrational or irresponsible so I was very hurt that none came to me.

The MX2 lap times sessions were fine and the dust problem raised only for the MX1. The extra half hour that the FIM gave us was plenty of time to water the two corners and be ready for them. Instead they all went on strike ....

In conclusion: A second MX1 race the most disputed since the start of this championship, a headline on the National newspaper and National TV announcing the cancellation of the GP therefore a shy crowd showed up on Sunday.

The racers gave a bad image of the sport in a country that needed help to grow it, just like the French soccer team did when they went on strike at the last World Cup in South Africa!!!!

At the end of the day, the best racers won as usual because in order to become or to be a champion you must have the abilities to overcome what comes your way, either you like it or you don’t.

Some riders came to me Sunday night telling me the track was honestly fine (even if it wasn’t the best) but they had to stick with the group!!!!!!

The bottom line is that this GP was the perfect excuse to make a point of the different issues they are dealing with in this tough economy … but the show must go on!!!!!

Thanks for reading.

Sebastien Tortelli