We’ve tracked the recently-turned
61 year old down between flights
and the exodus from Termas de Rio
Hondo to Buenos Aires and onto
the USA where MotoGP will land
in Austin, Texas in two weeks time.
Poncharal is staying Stateside until
the next dash at COTA, and with his
utterly impeccable English is only
too happy to ruminate on several
themes pertinent to his Tech 3
set-up that celebrates twenty-eight
years of existence this season and
is very much a model example of a
tight and well-run satellite team in
Grand Prix.
New horizons with KTM from 2019
aside, Poncharal has good reason
to be chipper: Zarco was again a
major protagonist in Argentina while
placing a large ‘bundle of chips’
on outside bet Syahrin as the first
Malaysian racer in the premier class
has proven to be a masterstroke.
Poncharal has also watched old
‘employees’ Andrea Dovizioso
and Crutchlow own the first two
fixtures of the campaign; the latter
becoming the first Brit to lead the
championship standings since
Barry Sheene smoked, gagged and
shagged his way to glory at the end
of the 1970s.
If Herve was not enough of a
paddock figure and personality
as it is – and the likeable Team
Owner and IRTA honcho has hardly
missed a Grand Prix in more than
a quarter of a century – then he is
having even more impact on the
sport through influences past and
present.
54 | FreestyleXtreme.com
Give me an impression of how
things have been considering
the drama and Jonas Folger’s
last minute withdrawal at the
beginning of the year? It seems
to have turned out quite well so
far…
It was very tough to hear Jonas
Folger telling us just a few days
before heading to Malaysia for
the first test of the 2018 season,
that he was not only missing the
test but also the whole year. You
can imagine that at this time all
the riders with the level to be on
this type of bike were already
contracted. We basically had a one-
rider team and the other guy would
be there to make up the numbers
on the grid.
We were thinking, thinking, thinking
and we tried Yonny Hernandez
in Sepang just have to someone
on the bike and to give him a
chance. While we were there I
was walking through the paddock
with the weight of the world on
my shoulders and I came across
Razlan Razali, who is the CEO of
the Sepang International Circuit.
We were chatting and an idea
popped into my head and I said
“Razlan, what about Syahrin on a
MotoGP bike?” He replied “Yeah!
How much?” and I said: “It’s free!
But I know you have a Moto2
programme” but he said any kind
of MotoGP deal would be great.
From that moment on I started to
get excited again. It was a tough
mission to convince the partners
but we made it happen. u
£ The Tech 3 team
was founded in
1990 by Poncharal
along with Bernard
Martignac and
engineer Guy
Coulon. They
opperated in the
250cc class, taking
a 1-2 in the 2000
championship after
partnering with
Yamaha. They moved
to the MotoGP in
2001.