Jorge ‘Aspar’ Martinez has confirmed that he’s taking all three of his teams to Motegi in October.
With Yamaha Tech3 having made their announcement at Brno, Aspar’s decision will be another blow to those riders who have been trying to get out of the Japanese GP, but have of late taken a softer stance at the idea of going to the Twin Ring circuit later this year.
Running teams in all three classes, the former 125cc World Champion turned team owner has a lot of clout and his decision will no doubt make other teams sit up and notice and help push them into making a decision in favour of the Japanese GP.
Aspar’s decision could also be based on the fact that Nico Terol is currently leading the 125cc championship and a no show by Terol would certainly make life more easy for Johann Zarco, who is at the present trailing the Bankia Aspar Team rider by just 12 points.
“Sometimes we talk too much without having all the information.
If being 120 km from the nuclear plant was that bad, people wouldn’t live there,” said Martinez.
“A month ago the Japanese championship was held at Motegi.
Companies and people are going to Japan every week and continue with their business.
If it were serious, and I’m not talking just about racing, many multinational companies would have slowed their commitments to Japan.
What we’ll do is shorten our stay.
If we normally stay for 6 or 7 days, then we’ll go for 5, the minimum”.
… “I don’t think that Dorna, Honda, or the most important companies related to our world would risk bringing people to a place where there was an obvious risk.
”Aspar continued, “First, there’s a report assessing the situation and secondly, there are contract obbligations that must be met, once they’ve told us that there is no risk.
The GP teams have a contract with Dorna, which forces us to go if the race is on.
If my people go I’ll lead group, and previously we held a meeting with an expert in the field that answered all the questions and doubts we had.
“