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Japanese Grand Prix | ‘Operation Motegi’: 380,000 kilos of material, 4 Boeing 747 and three sleepless nights

The Motorcycling World Championship has once again made balances on the ground and in the air in order to comply with a calendar that seemed impossible. Of Alcañiz (Aragon) to Motegi (Japan), more than 10,000 kilometers from one location to another. And they have arrived on time after three days and nights working tirelessly. Of course, he has had to sacrifice, at the very least, one of the two training sessions for the Japanese Grand Prix, which is being held this weekend at the Motegi circuit, owned by the Honda firm, which is going through one of the potholes and deeper crises of his successful sports life. The sacrifice has not been, no, because the equipment of the teams, that is, the bikes have not arrived at the Motegi pits on time, but because it will be impossible to complete the television wiring of the entire track before tomorrow, Friday.

Historical fact

The activity in the Motorland circuit, Alcañiz, once the races of the Aragón Grand Prix had concluded, was frenetic, never seen before. Dozens and dozens of workers, including the 2,000 people that make up the paddock family, the members of the different teams of all categories, had to collect all the material against the clock and put it in their corresponding boxes so that they could be moved, immediately, to Zaragoza airport.

And it is that, in MotorLand Aragón, a historical fact was experienced since it is the first time in the MotoGP World Championship that the circuit itself has been used to prepare the entire device to directly ship the material from the circuit in the planes destined for Japan. A job that began as soon as the races finished and did not end until Monday morning.

The entire process was supervised by a private company certified by the AESA (State Aviation Safety Agency) to check and verify all the material that was subsequently put into the four Boeing 747 aircraft, two from Qatar Airways and two from Cargolux. , of great load that were waiting in Zaragoza. In this way, all the material was inspected in the circuit itself, it was taken to a clean area without external inserts and all the material was palletized so that, after putting it on the trucks and certifying that everything was correct, it could be transferred directly to be loaded into planes at Zaragoza airport. An absolute control of the load with the aim of shortening the deadlines to arrive as soon as possible in Japan.

The boxes with the motorcycles, ready in the ‘paddock’ of Motorland. MOTOGP.COM / DIEGO SPERANI


Throughout this process, three large work areas were scheduled: the ‚pit lane’, the ‚compound’ TV area and the pit area (from 25 to 36). Thus, the ‚pit lane’ was the first thing that was emptied to make way for the trucks (17 in total those who passed through the ‚pit lane’ to load in this first run) and thus organize themselves to be able to receive the different materials that They would transfer to Zaragoza airport, which became, logically, the base to transport the material.

a truck aisle

On the other hand, in the area of ​​the TV‚ compound’ (within the ‚paddock’ of MotorLand) another race also began to collect all the wiring, antennas and different material used by televisions to be able to broadcast the races. Lastly, boxes 25 to 36 were also used as truck loading areas. At the same time, another 7 extra trucks were located in another area of ​​the circuit, ready and waiting for the call to load materials.

The boxes of the Suzuki team, at Motorland. MOTOGP/DIEGO SPERANI


In addition, there were another 7 trucks rotating between circuit-airport-circuit to transport everything. Thus, the activity from Sunday at 5:00 p.m. and until dawn from Monday to Tuesday went against the clock and with a laborious work plan well planned by Dorna. First the teams with the dismantling of the material in each of the boxes; second, the controls of all the materials (tools, spare parts, equipment, material…) for, later, palletizing and packing to be able to put it in the different trucks, completely seal them and head to Zaragoza airport; Once there, put the cargo directly into the planes and return to the circuit to carry out the same procedure again.

The four large planes finally arrived at Tokyo’s Narita airport, two on Tuesday at noon and the other two on Wednesday at the same time. The 380,000 kilos of material still had to be transferred to Motegi, among which were the 96 motorcycles to compete, which meant, once again, a long line of trucks traveling the 150 kilometers that separate the main airport of the Japanese capital from the beautiful route of Sling.

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