1985. The year that Marty McFly went ‘Back to the Future’, the Live Aid charity concerts were h𒆙eld in Philadelphia and London, and💎 Freddie Spencer completed a unique 250 and 500cc title double.

It was also the last time a motor𒊎cycle grand prix took place without Herve Poncharal at the track. The start of a record run that finally came to an end, almost 40 years later, at Mandalika last October.

Having promoted Nicolas Goyon to the role of Tech3 team manager at the start of last season, Poncharal predicte🎐d his perfect Grand Prix attendance would come to an end at some stage.

B🏅ut it still took until round 15 of last season and, ultimately, the cause was racing-related.

The Frenchman remained at the team's Bormes Les Mimosas base partly to conclude a new 🔴sponsorship deal with Motul, after the surprise news that Elf was not renewing its contract.

The result was that Poncharal tuned in at home in the early hours of Friday, Saturday and Sunday for the Mandalika, Phillip Island and Buriram triple header, watching 🧔Tech3 from the outside, rath🥀er than being at the centre of the action.

“I don’t know exactly how many races I’ve been to since 1985,” Poncharal said, during an exclusive interview with mahbx.com.

“Paul Butler [who retired as MotoGP Race Di🦄rector at the end of 2011] was keeping track and always telling me ‘You have the record of consecutive races, by far’. And that was before he left!

“You can look at these kinds of statistics either way, they can sound impressive from one side but reall🙈y, they are worth nothing! Nonetheless, for me, it was a tough decision not to go to those races.

“But I’d received an email during the night, Saturday to Sunday, at the Indian Grand Prix from Total-Elf telling me, ‘we are out’. It was a hu🎃ge shock because I thought they were going to carry on and everything seemed ready to extend the contract.

“I went straight to the next race in Japan, then I got in contact with [points to 'Motul' on his shirt]. And as the discussions progressed, I decided to fly home and skip the next Indonesia-Australi🅰a-Thailand triple header.

“So there was a good reason to be absent and I have to admit when I saw all the travel my team had to do just to get to Mandalika, I didn’t miss that part too much: Drive to Nice, fly to Amsterdam, 6-7 hours wait, fl🦂y to Singapore, 3 hours wait, fly to Jakarta, 4 𒁃hours wait, fly to Lombok... It was around 40 hours by the time they arrived at their hotel rooms!

“But hon♎estly, I was not happy being at home. You want to be there. Even if my team is now big enough to run without me. I have Nico Goyon as a team manager. We have a lot of support from our manufacturer [KTM]. I know everybody in IRTA, Dorna, so I can work from home. And if there is a problem, I’m always at the other end of the phone.

“Bu🍷t it was the weirdest feeling. I felt like a soldier hiding from the front line and avoiding the battle. Because my team were there, and I was not with them.

“All my life I've been trying to be at the front. And when I saw my fellow team managers or team owners in their pit box, cong🌺ratulating their riders and team, or angry after a crash, I thought, ‘And I’m here watching on my sofa’.

“Carmelo [Ezpeleta]𒆙 called me and said, ‘Herve, we mi𝓡ss you! Why are you not here?’ I wanted to be there like crazy.

“It's important to be with your ‘troops’. To continue the analogies, if tꦓhe boat is sinking, the last one to leave is𝓀 the captain. The boat wasn’t sinking but I was not even on it!

“So the feeling wasn’t good. Also, Dani [Holgado] was leading the Moto3 championship but losing ground, makౠing some mistakes and he got injured in Australia. I thought, ‘I should be there. Maybe I would have said something useful’.

“I didn't want to call 🦩the team and disturb them all t𝐆he time. But I have to say those races were probably the weeks when I slept the least in my entire life!

“I was following everꩲything - Moto3 and MotoGP - from FP1 until the end of the races on Sunday, but then also awake during the normal European daytime.

“Anyway, it was an experi🌄ence - that I didn't really enjoy - ꦦbut nobody is irreplaceable. And certainly, I’m not.

“The good thing is I managed to c🌜onvince my friends from Motul to come back with us, which is helping a lot for the team’s future because it’s almost a four-year deal. So it was wo🅰rth it.”

You mentioned the soldier 𝄹analogy, were you still wearing your 'uniform' at home?

“[Laughs] No… I have to be h𒀰onest. I’m not quite that crazy! Also, because I was j𒊎ust watching on my own.

“But I like the question 🌸- you know I could almost do it! If the꧋re had been a camera, I would have done it!”

‘In 1985 it was almost impossible to know the race result’

Back in 1985, it wasn’t normally possible to watch race🧸s on TV, a far cry from the current live coverag🍷e of every track session.

“When we created IRTA in 1986, we wanted our sport to grow. And to grow you need to show it to more people,” said Poncharal📖, who is also president of teams' association IRTA𒁏.

“The only media to do that at the ♍time was television. But we had almost zero TV coverage. So it's one of the major things that has changed since the🐠 mid-‘80s.

“In France, there was nothing on the TV bꦅack then. It was almꦰost impossible even to know the race results on a Sunday.

“L’Equipe [French sports paper] would sometimes have it the following day, but sometimes we had to wait for Thursday when Moto Journal and Moto Revue were published.

“Some of my friends were photographers and to get pictures back from the track they woul🦄d drive or ride to an airport and give the film reels to Air France pilots they knew. Then somebody would meet the pilots in Paris to pick them up and develop them!

“🧔For the journalists, they either needed to find a Telex or make a phone call back to their office and dictate their stories to get them published quickly. But even that was not easy because phone connections were not like now ꩵand it was so expensive.

“Otherwise, they would have to file their reports after they arrived back home. So someti💞mes we only knew the full race results and what had happened on a Thursday. A completel🐬y different world!

“In the pits, we watch the same live TV imagওes as the fans, so it was really only the commentary side that was new for me♏ at home. I watched Canal+, which is the French MotoGP broadcaster, and also the Dorna feed. I think they are doing a good job, honestly.”