In 30 years of presence in the Grand Prix paddock, we have accumulated anecdotes. There are moments of joy, difficult moments and there are also unusual passages. To experience them, you need pilots with a particular character, capable of provoking them. In his lair, Hervé Poncharal admits that he knew two of them, and that they were even teammates. The proof…
Hervé Poncharal gives us an insight into the history of Tech3 Racing, which celebrates season number 30 of the World Competition Championship in 2020. After recalling the beginnings, regretted one of the worst moments with the death of the Japanese driver Nobuyuki Wakai, this time he dwells on the most refreshing episodes of his journey and that of his troops: “ I know some good and bad moments, it's really hard to choose the funniest ones » begins the Frenchman who, however, finds his selection: “ I don't know THE funniest moment, but I can tell you something about the guys I had the most fun with. A specific time is hard to say, because you don't want to talk about something that isn't 100% professional. But clearly, if I think of the drivers I had the most fun with and the craziest moments to share, I would say Colin Edwards. »
« Colin is a really funny guy and a really crazy guy. He's not afraid and he's not politically correct, so we had a lot of incredibly funny moments with Colin, which I loved! The other one, and they were teammates for a year, is Cal Crutchlow. Cal is also very crazy and isn't afraid to make amazing jokes, even if they aren't politically correct. With these two guys we shared incredible moments in the MotoGP category. »
« What I like about them is that they are very professional, they were top pilots, but they have a kind of distance from certain political things and they can be real. Sometimes during interviews or debriefings we laugh a lot. The Japanese engineers, at the time of Yamaha are very serious in their work and sometimes during the debriefing it was just amazing with these two. »
The John Kocinski case who talked about fish and saw bears…
« If we go back in time, I would also say that with John Kocinski in 1993 on the Lucky Strike Suzuki we experienced great moments. When John came back to the box and did his debriefing with part of our team and the Japanese engineers, he would sometimes say “ There are fish on the trail“. We open our eyes and wonder what he is talking about, but it was his way of explaining to us that the track is slippery.
Or " There is a bear on the pitchfork" , a bear ! This means that the front fork is not working properly or “ In the third turn I saw God“, which means “I had a very scary moment and I thought I was going to die.” He had incredible expressions, but when he spoke he was very serious, so we didn't dare laugh and then, what made me laugh a lot, but inside of course, it was the face of the Japanese engineers, who were completely shocked. John was a big name and they wanted to show him respect, so they always said, "Ah, okay, fish on the track." Bear on the front fork, ok.” When we went to lunch after the debriefing, for example, we laughed a lot. » The Frenchman finishes: “ anyway, the guys we laughed the most with were Colin and Cal. They were real actors »
