Talking Point: Barr’s bizarre exclusion from Ireland’s MXoN team!
Jonathan McCready: How’s that for respect, eh? The rider who has been a mainstay since he made his debut by holeshotting the Open class heat race at Ernee in 2005 at 17 years old and has at times carried the country on his back with memorable rides to get Ireland qualified or lead them to a brilliant result, has been unceremoniously dumped from the team for apparently no reason whatsoever. Barr has been replaced by Jake Sheridan who will race in MX2, a nice guy, and a good rider with a lot of determination – but he simply isn’t as fast as Martin Barr.
I have been to almost every MXoN Martin has raced at and trust me, this guy rises to the occasion and puts his heart and soul into that race. He is always under big pressure because it is usually on him to get the best result to give Ireland the optimum chance of qualifying the team on a Saturday. This isn’t an easy burden to bear in the biggest event of the year but it doesn’t go unnoticed to me and most other people watching, but clearly those making the decision don’t have a clue about what it takes to perform at the MXoN or respect the guys that deliver year in year out for them. Martin is known around the world, even to the American media for his MXoN performances!
Lets be clear, this decision is ridiculous, akin to dropping Ricky Carmichael for Kyle Lewis back in the day or Tony Cairoli for Alberto Forato in today’s terms, the replacement is good but simply not on the speed level of the talisman of the team! While Martin hasn’t had his best season due to injuries, he has still put it in the top ten of a very competitive MX1 class in the Revo British championship and the MX Nationals the last two weekends – he is still going fast with more to come and was second best Irish rider overall at Landrake – with all four of Edmonds, Meara, Barr and McCormick riding a fast pace at the minute. And yet somehow, two of those riders aren’t even on the team!
Glenn McCormick seems to be perennial reserve and while it looked like it should be him or Jason Meara in MX2 as they are both proven to be rapid on the smaller machine and have teams that can provide them with a fast 250f for the event, Glenn, even with Barr out, is still reserve behind a rider he has beaten for the vast majority of his career when they have raced! The whole thing is a domino effect of illogical disgraceful decision-making.
And let’s not forget Barr beat Aaron Plessinger in 2018 at Red Bud, and in case the MCUI haven’t noticed, Mantova is quite a sandy track with big jumps – right up Barr’s street! It’s a decision that will never be forgotten and warns every rider from now on that their effort for the team and risk they take for the country will not be appreciated.
It is clear now for all to see why Philip McCullough is no longer at the helm as team manager, when you can’t pick the three best riders from the country and two of four best are excluded from the three-man team, what is the point of your role?
Ireland had a chance of a good result this year with their A team with the speed shown by the leading four riders that should have been in contention. But now even for Jason Meara and Stuart Edmonds, two riders in the form of their lives, their chance of a great team result will be compromised because the chance of qualifying without Barr is unequivocally reduced (although not impossible) and the chance of getting the best possible team result in the A final denied by the selection process. Speed should be the only qualifying factor and nothing else, otherwise where is the value in getting selected?
The team should be Barr and Edmonds on the 450s with Jason Meara/Glenn McCormick in MX2 (that seemed to be the debate for the team manager a couple of weeks ago before this madness unfolded). And even then the rider that missed out will feel hard done by because both Meara and McCormick have shown some great speed this year but at least it would be three of the top four riders in the country getting to race!
Don’t play politics with sport.
Andy McKinstry: Before I get into this I want to make one thing crystal clear, I have no issues with Jake Sheridan, he’s a good guy, good rider but he can’t pick himself. I do have a problem with the people that put this team together. Whatever happened to picking riders based on merit? I don’t understand how Martin Barr who has saved this Nation time and time again, isn’t deemed good enough to be selected for this years event. Actually, I do understand – politics!
As a Motocross fan I love supporting Team Ireland and that won’t change but for me it’s embarrassing that Martin Barr has been left out. This is a guy who has done so much for the sport and puts everything into it. Let’s be clear, Barr isn’t making a lot of money and started his own team to continue racing because he loves racing at a high level, the easier option would have been to retire ages ago and open up his practice track as a source of income and fully focus on that.
Anyway, getting back to the MXoN, obviously this isn’t Martin Barr’s best year, I can understand that but even at his worst he was the second best Irish rider at the MX Nationals at the weekend – he’s not even fully fit and has five weeks to prepare for the event which means he’ll be in much better shape. The MXoN is heading to Mantova, if you had to pick a dream track for him it would be something like Mantova. It wasn’t that long ago he beat an AMA National Champion and this is the thanks he gets, unbelievable!
My team would have been Martin Barr and Stuart Edmonds on the 450cc’s with Jason Meara on a 250cc who could have easily got his hands on his team’s MX2 machinery. Glenn McCormick would have had a case and I could have understood him in MX2 but not to have Martin Barr – it’s a shocking decision.
Congratulations to Jason Meara and Stuart Edmonds who both deserve their call up’s so it’s not all that bad at least but it’s going to take me a while to get over this. Good luck to the riders racing this years event but those as part of the commission who put this team together – embarrassing.
Image: Raymond Thomson
