Jaume Masiá Vargas (Algemesí, Valencia, 23 years old) had spent his entire life pursuing a dream reserved for a select few in world sport. The Spanish rider, with a victory at the limit of what was legal in the Qatar GP, managed to round off with the title of Moto3 champion the most important season of his career, which could be a full stop or a full stop. After seven years in the entry category to the competition, already a veteran in the small displacement with 110 grand prizes behind him, on the Qatari night he became the 25th Spanish champion in history, one of the ones who took the longest to win. to be able to claim victory.
“I’m young, but I’m not rich,” the Valencian commented in Malaysia, knowing the importance of having earned his continuity on the track and the long-awaited jump to Moto2. His family’s pockets were no longer enough to continue rowing in a world that increasingly demands more personal investment from pilots who do not have the support of the big brands to develop and succeed. “Here is the work of many people, and the love and encouragement of my family, my girlfriend and, most especially, my parents, whom I already want to hug. This title is more yours than mine,” commented the new champion after being crowned and crying uncontrollably on the fairing of his Leopard Honda.
In the Luxembourg structure, Masià found a human group that has believed in him as much as his family. After a first year together in 2020 that did not bear the expected results, the rider had the opportunity to sign for KTM Ajo, birthplace of great champions such as Pedro Acosta and Marc Márquez. Things didn’t work out there either, and this season he returned to Leopard Racing feeling that this was going to be his last chance.
His title does not come without controversy, and Masià drove like a man possessed in Lusail and even overtook and blocked his direct rival, the Japanese Ayumu Sasaki, on two occasions. His teammate, Adrián Fernández, also went too far to help his colleague with two other high-tension passes. The stewards decided to warn the Valencian and his team because of his aggressiveness at the limit of the regulations, although fortunately for him everything was a slap on the wrist and nothing more. “The feeling he had was that he would have fought 20,000 more laps and he knew he was going to get it,” the champion commented ecstatically. “Whether they like it or not, he has won a Spaniard and that’s what it is,” he added. In his survival campaign, the Valencian has been feeling for weeks that the race direction and the KTM army on the track were after him, the main reason for his final outburst.
With his fourth victory of the course, coming back from tenth on the grid, Masià focused from the first moment on winning. The victory was his catapult to his title, which he will celebrate with his team in Cheste, the cradle of champions where he grew up. His family did not want to travel to Qatar so as not to distract from the child they had spoiled since he was very young and he gained access to the World Cup as runner-up in the Spanish junior speed championship in 2017. That same year, with a substitution at the age of 16, he debuted with a ninth place and the fastest lap of the Austrian GP in Moto3 and he convinced.
Macaulias they called him because of his resemblance to Macaulay Culkin, that irreverent kid from the box office. Home alonebecame not long ago The blond when her mother went too far when she bleached her hair. As a child, he was so short and light that in the FIM CEV they had to weigh down his motorcycle with an additional 20 kilos of weight. He chose number 5 because in the cradle only the top five received scholarships, and he came fifth to ensure an opportunity to train and seek a path to the World Cup. At the time, Marc Márquez was captivated by seeing him there so often, as he once was before becoming a MotoGP reference and legend. Xavi Pérez, his first manager, as well as Julián Miralles and Emilio Alzamora later, were his supporters throughout his formative career, and his sporting reference was always the also small Dani Pedrosa. There was a time when even Karlos Arguiñano was interested in him and supported him to finance his career.
Masià arrived many years later in the intermediate category with 10 victories, 27 podiums, 10 poles and this first title in his record. His team’s policy of keeping the family away from the circuits and the introduction of working with a psychologist have helped her leave his irregularity behind. Although he has finally demonstrated his full potential, his slow confirmation and intermittent performance, capable of the best and the worst in a matter of weeks, will force him to live and ride to the limit if he wants to retain his status as a member of the elite of world motorcycling now. that comes to Moto2.
You can follow EL PAÍS Deportes in Facebook and xor sign up here to receive our weekly newsletter.
#Jaume #Masià #champion #limit #Moto3