What?
It was a sad day when Cal ‘Crutches’ Crutchlow called time on MotoGP and cancelled his ‘frequent patient’ loyalty card at the local bone-repair specialist clinic. His departure left a ‘gobby Brit that tells us how good he is before falling off’ gap in hearts…a gap that will only be filled once Jake Dixon is force fed into the series.
But, for this weekend only, the gravel-friendly part-scaffolding Englishman will be returning to action as a wildcard rider and is ready to tell us lots of stuff we didn’t want to know.
With who?
Crutches is Yamaha’s test rider so will be riding the latest YZR-M1 which is a slightly slower version of last year’s YZR-M1….which in turn is a slightly slower than a five year old customer Ducati.
Why?
Yamaha decided to use Cal to further confirm the universally known fact that their bike is terrible. The Japanese firm also cunningly selected the Motegi race to unnecessarily maximise the carbon footprint and ensure Cal arrives jetlagged and grumpy – arguably two of his finest and most likeable qualities.
Morbidelli?
Here’s where the interest comes. Cal, as a lowly test rider, at the time this was announced was expected to prop up the field riding enough off the pace not to ever feature or annoy any other rider. (See Stefan Bradl’s career for further details) But that all changed when super test rider Dani Pedrosa turned up a few weeks ago and almost landed a podium in both races. Suddenly the world was stunned with the realisation that test riders don’t have to be utterly pointless.
Pedrosa was so good that he beat the factory KTM riders – not just Jack Miller but the fast ones too. With that the microscopic Spaniard raised the bar giving us the enticing prospect that Crutchlow might actually also be half decent despite being a ‘lowly’ test rider. Failing that he might just beat Morbidelli.
Can he?
Like him or not Crutchlow was a fast MotoGP rider taking three wins, four poles and nineteen podiums in an era when there were true legends in the sport.
But will he?
Probably not. But it will be funny if he does.
What if he does beat Morbidelli?
A victory for Cal over Franco will be an embarrassment. Mainly for Morbidelli. But it will also cause a lot of head scratching next season if the Italian starts winning on the with Primark Ducati – affectively devaluing all the current Ducati riders.
If he does do well who else will it annoy?
Jorge ‘bitter’ Lorenzo. Which, again, will be very funny.