His name is Martin Renaudin, he is nice, and there are at least two other reasons to be interested in him: On the one hand his results in the French FSBK Superbike championship place him directly in the middle of the much more seasoned riders such as Valentin Debise, Kenny Foray, Mathieu Gines, Alan Techer, Axel Maurin, Valentin Suchet, Gregory Leblanc and David Muscat, and on the other hand it is supported by a particularly active community on social networks.
Better still, he leads the Superbike Challenger category, and yet, all is not rosy…
We therefore gave him the floor to try to understand the difficulties that a private pilot encounters today, as well as his future aspirations.
Martin, can you introduce yourself to the general public who don't know you?
Martin Renaudin : “My name is Martin Renaudin. I am 23 years old. I was born in Le Mans. I've been riding motorcycles since I was three and a half years old since my dad had the good idea to put me on a PW (laughs). I started competing at seven years old then I competed in the French championship 50, 80, 125, 600, and here I am now in the 1000 Superbike Challenger fighting with the big guys. This year, we had a good start to the season and we are able to fight with the best in the category. »
Indeed, your name is starting to emerge very regularly in the official press releases of the French championship, but what also interests us is that this is the first time where there has been such a large-scale communication operation, since Yann Marian and Alexandre Huez decided to help you with their community Moto&GPaddict. Can you tell us more in this area?
“Yes, it's a first and I'm very, very proud of it, because it remains a very small family team, and with very little budget we manage to fight against the official teams and the big names in the category. Yann's visibility allows me to make myself known in the racing world to highlight what we are capable of doing. Afterwards, everyone thinks it changed our lives financially, but not at all: currently, I am not capable of finishing the championship financially! People don't know that, because social media is a bit misleading. We're trying to get the message across because it's hard for everyone and we continue to fight, but for now we can't finish the championship. »
However, there are many people who follow your adventure: How many are there?
“On Moto&GPaddict’s social networks, there are almost 100 subscribers on Facebook and 000 on Instagram. Last year, we had close to 14 views, so that’s still a bit of visibility! Now, my social networks are starting to rise well and there is a certain enthusiasm because people are more and more interested. »
Having a community is very good, but is it financially supportive?
“At the start of the season, there was a raffle which was set up for the two young people of the team, Livio Mirabel and Hugo Robert, and we divided part of this sum to, for example, finance the payment of the box and the deco kits for all motorcycles. We try to make all our partners work and at the same time, that the people who participated in the raffle can also have prizes in return. »
You are therefore fighting on two levels, on the track on the bike and financially to finalize your 2022 budget and to be able to prepare that of next season, since we imagine that you want to return in 2023...
“Yes, but I would like to avoid starting again in the same conditions. My father is 63 years old and works on the motorcycle every day, we take the motorcycle around the house, we both do everything and we both go training with our truck: it's a lot of energy and people don't realize that to keep up with those in front, we have to do even more! Trying to continue motorcycling in better conditions would be really great. »
So if a big FSBK team contacted you to find a solution, would that be ideal?
" Exactly ! »
Are you hopeful?
“Yes, otherwise I wouldn’t be here (big smile). And if we don't have hope, we have to stop everything, it's part of life. »
Despite the difficult and abnormal situation in which he finds himself, Martin Renaudin is repelled by the ease of creating a kitty on the Internet. A priori, he is thinking more about selling T-shirts so that everyone gets something for their money. If this idea is confirmed, we will let you know... because he deserves it!
