Fabio Quartararo leads MotoGP at the halfway mark of 2022

Fabio Quartararo holds a 34-point advantage over Aleix Espargaro at the halfway mark of the MotoGP 2022 season in the senior class with Celestino Vietti ahead of Ai Ogura by only six in Moto 2.

In sixth, Joe Roberts is the highest-ranked American rider in Moto 2 with Cameron Beaubier in 15th and Sean Dylan Kelly 29th.

Quartararo got off to a slow start in 2022 with only one podium finish, a second in the Indonesian Grand Prix, in the first four races. Following the United States GP, Quartararo was mired fifth in the standings, but his win in Portugal the following round, second-place finishes in Spain and Italy, and back-to-back victories in Catalunya and Germany gives him a substantial lead through 10 of 20 rounds.

Espargaro owes his second-place position in the standings to consistency. He won the Argentinian GP and finished third in four consecutive races from Portugal through Italy. A fifth-place finish at Catalunya and fourth at Germany in the last two rounds account for a big part of the lost ground to Quartararo.

Meanwhile, third-place Johann Zarco is in danger of completely losing contact with the leader. Zarco is 61 behind Quartararo and in a series that awards 25 points to the winner, that means he trails by more than two full races with 10 rounds remaining.

The race is much tighter in Moto 2.

Vietti has three wins and podium finishes in half of his starts this year. Four of these strong runs came in the first five rounds, however, and he has slowly been losing his advantage with only one top-five finish since. The good news is that he won at Catalunya as his closest competitor in the championship standings, Ai Ogura finished seventh.

Ogura has one win on the season. His victory in the Spanish GP is one of four podiums finishes in 2022. His last two races have not been very productive, however, with that seventh at Catalunya being followed by an eighth in Germany.

Augusto Fernandez is only 11 points behind Vietti in third. Most of his gains have come in the final four rounds as he failed to podium in the first six. Victories in France and Germany, added to a third-place finish in Catalunya, makes him the hottest rider in Moto 2 as the series heads to the TT Assen circuit this weekend.

Five points further back, Aron Canet also has a chance to catch the leaders.

Joe Roberts may be deeper in the standings than he wants, but he has a career-first win at Portugal that provides hope for the second half of the season. Two weeks after that victory, he finished second in the Italian GP, but he is going to need for the riders ahead of him to stumble to get all the way to the top of the chart.

Vicki Golden has earned a career worthy of a thousand stories and 805 Beer tells at least one of them, as “Inverted Perspective” premiered March 30 on the company’s website and YouTube channel.

Golden did more to break the glass ceiling in SuperMotocross than she ever thought possible. She knows this because riders have never felt the need to explain any of her accomplishments with the disclaimer, “for a girl”.

At this point in Golden’s career, she’s been the first woman to finish top 10 in AMA Arenacross Lites, the first woman to qualify in the Fast 40 in Monster Energy AMA Supercross and the first woman to compete in freestyle Moto X competition, earning a bronze medal by doing so.

Her love for moto came from childhood while she watched her dad and brother ride. By seven she was on her bike and making waves throughout Southern California.

Golden, 30, is still madly in love with the sport and has no plans on moving away but her career is already one to talk about. 805 Beer’s film series wanted to do exactly that.

“I’m taken aback by it all,” Golden told NBC Sports about the documentary. “It’s just crazy to see your story, it’s one thing to live your life and battle everything that comes about but it’s another to just sit there and talk about it.”

805 approached Golden about the feature by asking, “Do you even realize that what you do, and your story is special?”

Golden took the question as a blank canvas to map out the highs and lows of her career and life.

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The title “Inverted Perspective” came from a brainstorming session with Dominick Russo and it highlights Golden’s outlook on the sport of SuperMotocross and her life in general.

“My whole life, my whole career was thinking differently and looking at things that shouldn’t be done and aren’t there, while being able to make a place for myself, where no one thought there should be a place,” Golden said. “It’s inspiring someone to think in different ways. It sums up my life.”

*Vicki Golden is not “fast for a girl”; she’s just fast. – 805 Beer*

While Golden is no stranger to the spotlight, this was the first time she’s been fully involved with the storytelling and creation of a feature about herself.

“It’s not like a full new experience,” Golden said. “Obviously, you get your standard questions about your upbringing and accomplishments, but I’ve never really put into perspective things that happened in my past with my dad and putting that to light. Also, certain other things that maybe got overlooked in previous interviews or films. I wanted to touch on these and Dom wanted to create a story. It’s just cool to see it come to light, it’s a nearly impossible thing to tell somebody’s life story in 40 minutes.”

Golden’s father was left paralyzed after an ATV accident, robbing him the opportunity to ride again. This happened a few months before the father-daughter duo was set to compete in the Loretta Lynn’s Amateur Nationals when Vicki was 12. While she might have been unable to grasp the severity at the time, it’s something she carries with her. Golden continues to ride in his honor.

Years later, an accident in 2018 nearly sidelined the then 25-year-old Vicki when a freestyle accident almost resulted in the amputation of her lower leg.

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Golden 805 Beer — *Vicki Golden has ridden a variety of disciplines in SuperMotocross, which gives her a unique perspective. – 805 Beer*

“Inverted Perspective” highlights her father’s diligence in helping Vicki continue with her career and the kindness and strength he carried while fighting his own battle.

“My dad was the entire reason that I started riding in the first place,” Golden said. “So, to honor his memory and to honor what we went through and how hard he pushed to keep our dream alive and keep everything going – in that sense then, it was really special to be able to honor him and talk about him.”

The 40-minute feature was filmed entirely in black and white, a stark contrast from the oversaturated world of motocross where the brighter the suit the easier it is for fans to find their rider and follow him in the race. By filming in monochrome Russo and Golden had the chance to focus on the race and track from a different perspective.

“It was cool to be able to film it differently,” Golden said. “It created a challenge in the sense of what was going to be more visually impactful for the film.

“I couldn’t be here without the companies that back me but at the same time, it’s not like the logos or colors disappeared, it’s just different lights shed on different spots. It’s just a cool way to do it and to take color away and still be impactful. When you think of black and white, you think of old school, the OG way of doing things.”

Fabio Quartararo leads as MotoGP hits the halfway mark of the 2022 season

Vicki Golden and 805 Beer tell a unique story from an Inverted Perspective

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