Why travel to Cartagena in southern Spain to attend a pilot training session? MotoGP Johann zarco on a production motorcycle? A priori, the journey is long, tiring and expensive, and riding, on a production motorcycle subjected to draconian sound standards due to the recent closure of the circuit, much less spectacular than on his usual Honda RC213V of the Castrol LCR team. So why?
Because precisely, we are at the opposite end of the spectrum from Grand Prix, whose hectic timing naturally often tends to make riders both stressed and eager to cut short media encounters. Better still, while MotoGP is by definition a completely individualistic sporting discipline, The ride in Cartagena was, on the contrary, a magnificent initiative by Johann Zarco. who did not hesitate to put his own money and take his time to help other French-speaking pilots.
So, if we were able to see some very nice fights between number 5 and Barry Baltus, we particularly enjoyed seeing John Zarco dedicate time, a lot of time, not only to give advice to young French hopefuls, but also to follow them on the track, either by being behind to study their driving, or by being in front to show them the right trajectory. It should be noted that this very beautiful and rare attitude was shared by Lucas Mahias who, for example, particularly helped Bartholomé Perrin.
Gentlemen, quite simply " hat ! ", and a big thank you for being able to share these moments with you, including the evening at the restaurant where all the pilots were present and were able to deepen their exchanges in a very friendly atmosphere. We will therefore do our best to report in our columns the words of each of the participants through a very long series of interviews, embellished with a few surprises…
To each lord, all honor, and we begin today with the explanations of Johann zarco on the motivations that led to this very beautiful experience. Obviously, many other facets will follow, both of this Spanish experience and of the news of the MotoGP rider.
Johann, we are here in Cartagena, where you rented the circuit, and where you invited about fifteen French drivers. It's a great initiative, a great gesture, so why?
Johann zarco : “Yes, it’s a great gesture, but actually I was looking for some rolling before Christmas, there in the south of Spain, because I wanted to ride the CBR. I know that this CBR 1000, it gives me good sensations, and I manage to work a little, the relaxation, and look for things at high speed anyway, because in terms of training bike, it is the one that goes the fastest, like what the Panigale was at the time of Ducati. And looking for rides, I see that I do not find what I want on the dates when I am available. I sent an email because I knew that Cartagena is an affordable price to rent the track just for me. And suddenly, I get a quality workout where I have the track free in the hours I want. I don't need to drive 15 minutes, or if there is a red flag you drive 12 minutes and then you wait an hour and a half. Well, I do it from time to time but it's not very qualitative.
There I said to myself “It’s winter, there is at least hours of sunshine to take. So, I ride when I want”. And when I did this to myself, I said to myself at first “Oh well, that’s cool, I was able to rent the track.”. They replied to the email and the prices were really fair, huh, it was 3500 excluding tax per day, with the medical staff and everything: it remains very correct, and that's why in fact, if you take a day and then you make people pay, let's say 200 € per day, you quickly find yourself on small tracks like that. Jerez, it will be much more expensive and I know that Mugello, it can reach 40 per day sometimes. So from 000, you go to 3500 (laughs). Yes, but that already gives you an idea of what it can be, and I said to myself “Well, I’m treating myself to this, to give myself a good quality workout.”. And then I said to myself “Well why not please the JZ5 team?” Once we did it in Brissac, I made the Supermotards available to them, all that. We were able to ride together and we had a great day. And then, I said to myself “We do the same, but with the biggest bikes, or even we take down the Supermotards”. And then, seeing everyone's availability, I said to myself “Well, I’m also going to share this with French pilots.”, Honda or not.
Honda riders in particular, no doubt, but those I like and those who told me “Hey, it would be nice if we could ride together sometime.”, gender Martin Renaudin, whom I really like. He told me “It might be cool if we can train a little together to boost me up.”. And I said "My pleasure". So, there I said to myself “Well, now is the time.”, but unfortunately, he didn't have a motorbike, he couldn't come. Afterwards, it also allowed to boost riders like Hugo De Cancellis et Corentin Perolari, who are, let's say, my two pilots that I try to help. But in the end, they weren't available either, because Corentin is in Japan with Alan Techer to do a test with the FCC, that's very good, and Hugo is in the process of getting his state certificate, I think, to be able to be a motorcycle trainer, so he was busy.
Alors We started to send a little information, for the young pilots of the federation. Afterwards I said "I would like to know the driver who will do the Rookies Cup, David Da Costa", to maybe try to create a link, see him more, because I know that with the French drivers of the Rookies Cup, I never had a link during the Grands Prix. Afterwards, I am very very busy, but maybe if I have already created a link, if I see things, I can help give clues during the 2025 season. So, we'll see. And there, it was Seb (Sébastien Moreno) who managed that, and I think we could have had 25 drivers available here on the circuit. We said to ourselves “If there are fifteen of us, that’s good.”, and finally, yes, there were 10 who were able to come.”
To be continued very soon…
Johann Zarco Cartagena
Johann Zarco Cartagena
Johann Zarco Cartagena
