Sito Pons (Barcelona, ??1959) is an active motorcycling legend. As a driver (1981-1991) he was the first Spanish two-and-a-half champion (1988-89), and as owner and team manager of Pons Racing he has been one of the main driver promoters, having accommodated in his structures more pomegranate, from Àlex Crivillé, Carlos Checa or Alberto Puig, to the Espargaró brothers, Fabio Quartararo or Maverick Viñales.
But now Sito closes the Moto2 beach bar and puts an end to 31 years of training. He changes the ownership of a boat to be a senior executive of someone else’s yacht: Pons will next year be director of resources for RNF Aprilia, the Malaysian MotoGP team.
But, what leads a main actor in the World Championship to abandon his formative task in Moto2? Basically, economic reasons and fatigue. “My initial decision was to stop, due to age, time and responsibility of so many years… but they offered me this opportunity”, explained the Barcelonan yesterday, with the illusion of the new stage. “It is a challenge for me to help improve and grow the RNF, to make it one of the best MotoGP teams”; a gigantic task, since it is a private structure that serves as Aprilia’s satellite and occupies the penultimate position of the 11 teams (only better than Repsol Honda).
The years –42 in the World Cup– and the sacrifices take their toll. Maintaining a team of intermediate displacement costs about 3 million euros, which, in times of recession, becomes difficult to cover. Sito had expressed last year the need to have the support of a manufacturer that would help him finance the project, “to be able to pay for the pilots, the equipment, the material and the travel expenses. Other Moto2 teams have that support ”, he explained in Speedweek.
Pons’ intention was to return to MotoGP – where the business is – with his own team, as he already had in his early days as owner (1992) with riders such as Crivillé, Puig, Checa, Kocinski, Barros, Capirossi or Biaggi. However, the door to the queen class was found locked…
Pons, who in December was acquitted of tax fraud (the Prosecutor’s Office asked him for 24 years in prison and a fine of 12.4 million), tried to occupy the position left by Suzuki in 2022, but Dorna opposed it, in his desire to reduce the grid of the queen class at 22 motorcycles (the current number). “We are ready to return to MotoGP, but they don’t give us the option to enter. It’s not that we don’t want to or that we don’t have a budget or knowledge: we have all of that. What we do not have is the place, and Dorna, who is the one who will give it to you, because he does not offer it to you ”, he confessed in Solomoto.
For all this, and at the age of 63, Pons has chosen to sell his place in Moto2 – which Teo Martín, master of the MT Helmets-MSI Moto3 team has acquired – and look for a new project in the World Championship, but as an employee. He will be a top executive of the RNF team. “I don’t set a final date, but at 70 I don’t see myself hanging around here… I like this challenge, that a team loves me and trusts my knowledge and my contacts,” he said proudly. “It is the passion for this sport that keeps me here.”
