'We were full gas, fulfilling our dreams, trying to catch the uncatchable'

Hervé Poncharal is going to sell his Tech3 MotoGP team and retire after four decades in the paddock. He tells us how the championship has changed over the years, taking him from rusty mopeds to 225-mph (362-km/h) MotoGP motorcycles and Tech3 from a staff of five to 50

- Mat Oxley

WHEN HERVÉ PONCHARAL ARRIVED IN MotoGP in 1986, the winds of change were sweeping through the paddock.

The teams' association, IRTA, was established that summer to improve safety, organise the teams, and centralise television rights, which paved the way for the Spanish sports marketing company, Dorna, to buy the championship.

In 1990, Poncharal created Tech3 and was soon followed by Lucio Cecchinello and Fausto Gresini, founders of LCR and Gresini Racing. Three former racers starting teams from nothing, fuelled by nothing more than their love of motorcycle racing.

And now that Poncharal is selling up and retiring, the winds of change are blowing once again.

Dorna was recently acquired by multi-billion-dollar entertainment business Liberty Media, which also owns Formula 1. Poncharal has sold Tech3 to IKON Capital, an entertainment, media, and sports agency. The Trackhouse Entertainment Group recently acquired the independent Aprilia MotoGP squad. And there are rumours of F1 stars Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton buying stakes in MotoGP teams.

The times they are a-changin'.

Poncharal was a member of a dying breed within the paddock—the petrol head hippies that grew up in the 1960s and 1970s—but he is not crying. He is not a rose-tinted specs kind of bloke and knows very well that change is inevitable.

'It's the beginning of a new era,' he says. 'Clearly, the world of sports is much more competitive now, so either you stay at the same level, which means you will go down, or you fight with the other sports to be at the top.

'Before, the championship was owned by a pension fund [Dorna's biggest investor was the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board], who let Dorna do what they wanted, hoping their investment would increase.