// Si NOTE All the longer articles in the Akrapovič magazine include a text that will be marked with the // Si sign and placed in a special frame. The Akrapovič company is based in Slovenia and this is why we decided to keep this part of the text in Slovenian as well.
Appeal of endless motion
For as long as I can remember, weekends have been reserved for racing. Ever since my early childhood, my family would gather on Sundays, watching MotoGP, Formula 1, WorldSBK or other races and being impressed with the sound, speed and racing atmosphere. Motorsport simply takes you over. You quickly see that it is more than just a competition. It is an experience, the constant pushing of boundaries and search for perfection. Anyone who has heard the sound of a racing machine as it lunges towards the first corner, knows this is a world we not only see, but also feel.
I began my career at Akrapovič more than 10 years ago and, while playing a different role today, I still help bring the Akrapovič Lifestyle magazine to life. Every issue we publish is part of something bigger – another piece of the mosaic in the motorsport history of Akrapovič. When I find myself in the paddock nowadays and see our magazine in the hands of engineers, racers and visitors, I feel joy and pride. Not only because we are a part of this world, but because we use our content to spread the enthusiasm for motorsport among all who are, the same as us, part of the racing scene. I am delighted to have been given a chance to write a foreword for this particular issue, which includes an article on world championship racing for women, launched this year under the auspices of the FIM Women's Circuit Racing World Championship (WorldWCR).
Perhaps one of the women taking part will one day fight for the title of MotoGP World Champion and be a role model for numerous girls who are flirting with the idea of stepping onto the racetrack and leaving their mark on the racing world.
The number of women in motorsport is rising. Public relations, communication and marketing experts, who have been active in motorsports for several decades now, have been joined by engineers, team managers, strategists and others without whom team success would prove elusive. Knowledge, skills,
dynamism and dedication are the key elements for making it in this field. Akrapovič, too, has exceptional individuals in our ranks who push the boundaries with their work and passion. Foremost among them is Slavojka Akrapovič, Architect / Akrapovič's Corporate Image Designer, who developed and achieved top global recognition for the Akrapovič brand. The role each individual plays is like a piece of a puzzle. After putting all of them into place, we get a complete picture that tells the stories of speed, passion and an unstoppable desire to progress. The world of motorsport is a world in endless motion, and that is what makes it so attractive. I look forward to a future that brings new winners, new stories and new milestones. I also look forward to each issue of our magazine, which provides an intriguing behind-the-scenes look at this exciting world with its unique stories.
Come, join us on a journey through the pages of the autumn issue. I am sure its contents will serve as an inspiration to all who share our love for racing.
Nataša Novak Klemenčič Akrapovič Kreativa Managing Director
World Ducati Week 2024
Akrapovič was once again featured as one of the main partners at the 2024 World Ducati Week, which was held at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli, near the coast of the Adriatic Riviera. The three-day event, a must for any Ducati fan, attracted a record audience of around 94,000 Ducatistas, who were treated to a full programme that included an all-star race, a colourful parade of motorcycle s, and many display booths around the racetrack. Akrapovič used the event to demonstrate its ethos of Powerful Partnership for Every Ride with Ducati. The company’s prominent and popular stand featured many products from the collaboration between the two companies, all using technical knowledge derived from Ducati’s race-bred and world championship-winning machines. Speaking of racing, the Ducati Desmosedici GP 2024 of two-time MotoGP world champion Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team) and the completely new Ducati Desmo450 MX, were both on show. If you attended the event, you have surely also seen many racers signing autographs at the exhibition area of the Slovenian company.
Partnership extension
Akrapovič has extended its partnership with Honda Racing Corporation (HRC) with the announcement of a multi-year deal to collaborate with HRC in the FIM World Rally-Raid Championship. Slovenian company will be equipping the Monster Energy Honda Team CRF450 RALLY motorbikes with lightweight and performance-oriented exhaust systems, with these bespoke titanium systems being developed with HRC and Akrapovič engineers working together. Rallye du Maroc (6 to 11 October 2024) was the first rally for the partnership. “This collaboration will give us more confidence to achieve our goals and to continue to further develop the exhaust system for the Honda CRF450 RALLY,” Taichi Honda, General Manager of the HRC Two Wheels Division commented the news.
Return to the foot of the Alps
After two years of being held in the German capital, Berlin, BMW Motorrad Days moved back to its home in Garmisch-Partenkirchen in early July. For the 16th year in a row, Akrapovič also set up its exhibition area at BMW Motorrad’s premiere event, allowing visitors to admire the Slovenian company’s latest products, including the exhaust system and protection bars made from light and durable titanium for the new BMW R 1300 GS. Adding to the prestige of the area were the visits by racers Michael van der Mark (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) and Markus Reiterberger (BMW Motorrad World Endurance Team), who inspected the Slovenian company’s newest products, signed autographs and took the obligatory selfies.
Seventeen and going strong
Readers of the print and online version of PS magazine once again chose Akrapovič in their latest vote for the best motorcycle exhaust system brand. Winning convincingly for the 17th time in a row, the Slovenian brand received more than 80 % of the votes cast.
Back in Styria
The world-famous Red Bull Erzbergrodeo once again brought FIM Hard Enduro World Championship’s best riders, as well as numerous aspirants to the title, to the Austrian state of Styria. The 2024 edition of one of the toughest races on the hard enduro calendar, which was convincingly won by Manuel Lettenbichler (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing), is naturally a must-attend for Akrapovič. The company’s exhibition area allowed the visitors to explore the newest exhaust systems for off-road motorcycles as well as get up close and personal with purebred racing machines such as the GASGAS RC16 of MotoGP rider Pedro Acosta (Red Bull GASGAS Tech3), RallyGP Husqvarna FR 450 Rally of Luciano Benavides (Husqvarna Factory Racing), GASGAS TXT GP 300 of Jaime Busto (GASGAS Factory Racing) from TrialGP, and Letti’s KTM 300 EXC, all featuring Akrapovič exhaust systems of course. Erzbergrodeo is the perfect opportunity for the Slovenian brand to show that its products endure even the toughest conditions.
photography KTM Images/Future7Media
Harley-Davidson and AkrapoviČ
Akrapovič entered a completely new racing championship by becoming an official partner of Harley-Davidson Factory Racing, supplying full exhaust systems constructed from lightweight high-grade titanium for Harley-Davidson Factory Racing’s race-prepared 2024 Road Glide motorcycles that compete in the MotoAmerica Mission King of the Baggers road-racing series. The championship offers exciting competition between American V-Twin touring motorcycles prepped for racing and equipped with a fairing/ windscreen and saddlebags. “It is a great honour for us to be partnering with such an iconic brand in its own country, and we are looking forward to this new racing chapter for the Akrapovič company,” said Miha Jeraj, Director of the Akrapovič Racing Department, which has, in cooperation with Harley-Davidson Factory Racing engineers, developed bespoke exhausts with performance and light weight firmly in mind.
Inching towards 190
When Jorge Prado (Red Bull GASGAS Factory Racing) crossed the finish line for the last time this season at the Grand Prix of Castilla la Mancha on the final Sunday afternoon in September, he won his second consecutive world title in the premier class of the World Motocross Championship. While confirming that no one can beat him in MXGP at the moment, the Spaniard’s achievement also became the 180 th world title won by a racer with an Akrapovič exhaust system. Preceding Prado this year were three other racers on motorcycles venting their power through Akrapovič exhausts: Andrea Verona (GASGAS Factory Racing) became the FIM Enduro 2 World Champion, Max Ahlin (Team KTM Pro Racing Sport) beat everyone else in Enduro Junior, and Josep Garcia (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) rode to overall victories in two categories at the final meet of the Enduro World Championship – he became the FIM EnduroGP World Champion and the best in the E1 class. The number of world champions was raised to 181 in October by David Alonso (CFMOTO Gaviota Aspar Team), this year’s winner of the FIM Moto3 World Championship. The number of Akrapovič exhaust champions was further raised later this season by Ross Branch, who took his and Hero MotoSports Team Rally’s first FIM World Rally-Raid Championship title; Adrián Huertas (Aruba.it Racing WorldSSP Team), convincingly the best in the 2024 FIM Supersport World Championship; Toprak Razgatlıoğlu (ROKiT BMW Motorrad WorldSBK Team) as the new FIM Superbike World Champion.
The Slovenian company ended 2023 with a total of 175 world champion titles, while the final number for this season will only be known after this issue of Akrapovič Lifestyle Magazine has been printed. What we do know is that it will surely inch closer to 190! Or perhaps even beyond.
Adrián Huertas
David Alonso
Max Ahlin
Josep Garcia photography KTM Images/Future7Media
Andrea Verona photography GASGAS Images/Future7Media
Ross Branch
Toprak Razgatlıoğlu
Jorge Prado
Sexton crowned AMA Pro Motocross Champ
By winning at the final round of the 2024 AMA Pro Motocross Championship, Chase Sexton (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) confirmed his 450MX title. The first outdoor season with the Akrapovič equipped KTM 450 SX-F FACTORY EDITION was exceptional for Sexton, who won a total of seven out of eleven rounds.
Perfect podium
Hyundai Shell Mobis World Rally Team crews fully occupied the podium at this year’s Acropolis Rally. The extremely demanding rally was won by Thierry Neuville and Martijn Wydaeghe, followed by Dani Sordo and Cándido Carrera while Ott Tänak and Martin Järveoja finished third, all using the Hyundai i20 N Rally1 Hybrid with an Akrapovič exhaust.
Third time in succession
A total of 46 teams gathered on the grid for the Suzuka 8 Hours race this year, with the win going to Team HRC with Japan Post. Riders Takumi Takahashi, Teppei Nagoe and Johann Zarco on the Akrapovič-equipped Honda CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SP gave the Japanese manufacturer the third consecutive win at one of motorsport’s most iconic circuits.
Fast and bold
BMW M 1000 RR riders dominated the 2024 Isle of Man Tourist Trophy races for 1000 cm 3 motorcycles. It all started with the Superbike TT race win for Peter Hickman (Monster Energy BMW by FHO Racing), who secured his 14 th TT win overall, and continued with Davey Todd (Milwaukee BMW Motorrad by TAS Racing) who first won the Superstock race and then claimed victory in the prestigious Senior TT. All three races saw the first two steps of the podium occupied by BMW M 1000 RR with Akrapovič exhaust systems.
Ducati’s debut
History was made in the Netherlands this summer, with Ducati making its debut in the MXGP World Championship with the aid of Tony Cairoli, who returned to the scene after a three-year absence. The multiple world champion’s appearance in Arnhem served to allow Borgo Panigale technicians to collect important data for the development of the Desmo450 MX in anticipation of the 2025 MXGP World Championship.
What a week
The penultimate race of the FIA WEC season, held in Fuji, Japan, saw Raffaele Marciello, Dries Vanthoor, and Marco Wittmann (BMW M Team WRT) finishing second in the BMW M Hybrid V8, achieving the first overall podium for BMW M Motorsport in the history of the FIA WEC. Just a few days after the successful race at the 6 Hours of Fuji came a double victory at the IMSA WTSC championship, courtesy of BMW M Team RLL’s racing drivers Jesse Krohn and Philipp Eng finishing first while Connor De Phillippi and Nick Yelloly came in second. The double victory in Indianapolis was the first for BMW since it opened its GTP class campaign with a second place. Akrapovič is a BMW M Motorsport Official Partner.
EVOLUTION OF THE OFF-ROAD RACING REGULATIONS
QUIET, PLEASE WE’RE TESTING.
THEY SAY A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS, THOUGH THIS ARTICLE’S FEATURE PHOTO WOULD BE IMPROVED EVEN MORE IF YOU COULD HEAR IT TOO. THEN YOU WOULD DEFINITELY KNOW WE ARE TALKING ABOUT SOUND TESTING.
by Mitja Reven
photography Bor Dobrin, Ray Archer
Employees of Akrapovič’s R&D departments perform various types of tests on a daily basis, as the exhaust systems developed and manufactured there must, in addition to internal requirements regarding performance, weight, sound, and design, also meet specific regulations regarding emissions, including sound volume. With the latter becoming ever stricter, testing has to take place both on in-house dynamometers, outside on the company’s test track, and elsewhere, like in the case of the feature photo, at a motocross track. We decided to document loudness testing according to the ‘2 metre max’ method, with the aim of finding out from employees of Akrapovič Racing R&D and R&D departments why these measurements are even more important for offroad motorcycles and why 2025 will be especially eventful in this regard.
Sound plays an integral part in motorsport. The sound of engines flowing from the exhaust pipes at different frequencies, the screeching of tyres at their limit as motorcycles slide through the corner, the sound of brakes which defy the laws of physics as they slow down the bike before a turn and the engine’s solo performance coming out of the turn on the way to the next one... Some ears can also hear and distinguish the workings of individual bike components, like the gearbox or the clutch. Moreover, sound is another reason we come to the races as it complements the entertaining action on the track. But this same sound can also be disturbing, especially for residents living near the circuits who aren’t motorheads themselves. Noise-related protests against racetracks and their subsequent closures are not unusual, even if many circuits have been operating since the previous century. The International Motorcycling Federation (FIM) and its national federations, organisers of various racing series, motorcycle
manufacturers, and all others involved are well aware of this and have for several years been trying to reduce motorcycle sound volume, while retaining the attractiveness of racing. Among the most famous is FIM’s ‘Ride Quiet’ campaign, launched before the start of the 2015 season.
NEW OFF-ROAD LIMITS
While motorsport series are under the microscope, the biggest changes regarding loudness are happening in off-road motorcycle racing. From the first of January 2025, the Motocross World Championship (MXGP, MX2, WMX) and some other series will limit the maximum loudness to 111.0 dB/A (target 109.0 + 2.0 for the precision of the method) as measured before the race and to 112.0 dB/A (target 111.0 + 1.0 for the degradation of the muffl er). The current limits, in force since January 2022 are at 114.0 and 115.0, respectively. In the year after that, the same restrictions will apply in US Pro Racing, and a little later also in US amateur racing. The method for sound level measurement, introduced by the FIM more than a decade ago and known as ‘2 metre max’ will remain the same. According to the FIM, the method shows a very good correlation between the sound power level (LwA) emitted by motorcycles at full acceleration and the maximum sound pressure levels (LpA) measured in the vicinity of the same motorcycles when the engines are idling and rapidly reaching their maximum rotational speed. The FIM Sound Regulations also state that the method will measure the sound of the entire motorcycle rather than just the loudness at the exhaust muffler: “The ‘2 metre max’ method will consist in quantifying not only the sound level produced by the silencer of the exhaust, but the maximum global sound level achieved by the motorcycle
when the engine rpms are raised to the maximum engine speed, limited by a natural regulation (for 2 strokes) or rev limiters (for 4 strokes).”
This means that the entire package has to be addressed, as loudness can also be affected by other parts, from the mechanical sound of the engine, gearbox, clutch, all the way to the sound of the intake air. Some of these volumes can be at the same level or even louder than the sound coming through the exhaust muffler, so reducing the loudness requires that manufacturers of motorcycles and other components for possible aftermarket installation also do the same. Akrapovič has more than 33 years of experience in motorcycle exhaust systems, and is working with numerous factory teams in the 2024 World Motocross Championship: Fantic Factory Racing MXGP, Fantic Factory Racing MX2, Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MXGP, Monster Energy Yamaha Factory MX2, Monster Energy Triumph Racing, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing and Red Bull GASGAS Factory Racing all use the exhausts provided by the Slovenian company, as does the Ducati Corse R&D - Factory MX Team in the Italian Pro-Prestige MX1 Championship. Racing is an ideal laboratory for testing new
solutions, so cooperation between Akrapovič’s Racing R&D and R&D departments is key in allowing amateur racers to buy race-proven exhaust systems without having to worry about compliance with FIM sound level regulations. The proof of the company’s success is in the pudding; the pudding being more than 180 world championship titles won by racers riding to fame on motorcycles fitted with an Akrapovič exhaust system. Of these, more than 110 came in off-road racing, and include world championship titles in motocross, supercross and enduro. If Akrapovič exhausts hadn’t been built to be compliant, powerful and durable, these results certainly wouldn’t have been achieved. That Akrapovič has plenty of experience with exhaust systems for off-road racing is also confirmed by the fact that the company has been active in the class since the mid-1990s.
NEW GENERATION EXHAUST SYSTEMS
At the start of the decade, Akrapovič began developing a new generation of off-road exhaust systems to fi t onto the new motorcycle models. The first to receive Akrapovič’s new fi fthgeneration off-road exhaust system was the Honda CRF450R/RX in 2021. Since the start of development of exhaust systems for motocross and enduro motorcycles, both of which are used outdoors, the company put great emphasis on sound silencing, which mitigates the impact on the natural environment. The preparations for the upcoming tighter regulations are only part of the evolution of this new generation of exhaust systems, which neatly slot into the limited space dedicated to a motorcycle’s exhaust,
Racing is an ideal laboratory for testing new solutions, so cooperation between Akrapovič’s Racing R&D and R&D departments is key in allowing amateur racers to buy race-proven exhaust systems without having to worry about compliance with FIM sound level regulations.
are the result of intensive R&D by Akrapovič engineers, and combine the high performance and durability required in the unforgiving racing conditions with the visual appeal of a superbly designed product – as confirmed by two Red Dot Awards in the Product Design category for the Evolution Line (Titanium) Exhaust System for the Honda CRF450R/RX, which won accolades in the Vehicle Accessories and Innovative Products sub-categories.
When carrying out the ‘2 metre max’ measurements, as seen in the feature photo, Akrapovič employees use the same measuring equipment as used in the FIM MX and Enduro World Championship races, so nothing is left to chance. Sound volume reduction usually results in lower engine power, but Akrapovič has already proven with all of its off-road muffl er generations that it’s also possible to do otherwise – engine power can be maintained or even increased while meeting the ever-stricter maximum loudness regulations. However, sound reduction doesn’t only affect performance, but also increases the temperatures in the muffl er, making the durability of the exhaust system even more important. To maintain the latter, Akrapovič uses several technical solutions, some quite complex. But even more important is the choice of raw materials, where Akrapovič relies on the expertise of its own materials testing laboratory, all the other testing, and race data is provided by its partners. There is no shortage of development and challenges. Because of the love for motorsport and the wish to continue living in harmony with the society and environment.
PEDRO ACOSTA PORTRAIT
by Tina Torelli
photography Rob Gray, Polarity Photo
This is a story about the greatest expectations and a young hero who handles pressure like a seasoned general. A story about a teenager who went through the fire of initiation, learnt quickly and became one of the fastest guys on the track. Instead of growing up, Pedro Acosta keeps racing and creating a legend, lap after lap.
To maintain his dream, he wakes up at 7 a.m. every day, loads the van and hits the gym. “For me it’s important to always do the most diffi cult thing fi rst – I do it in the morning and then it’s done. After breakfast I’m already on the track and normally stay there until 3 p.m.
On Mondays and Wednesdays, I do a double session with the bike, on other days I rest. More is not always better, but it’s hard to stop when you love what you do.”
FROM MOTO3 TO MOTOGP
His dreams came true due to his rare talent, lots of hard work and a generous dose of stubbornness he inherited from the Acosta men, all fi shermen and all named Pedro. Aged 16, he burst on the Moto3 scene as a Red Bull KTM Ajo rider. His impact on the lightweight category was huge. He took second place at the opening round, followed by three consecutive wins; the most impressive one straight from a pit lane start at the Doha GP. After taking the Moto3 title, rumours quickly spread about him going straight to MotoGP. But much as he likes overtaking, Pedro opted for Moto2 and the same team. It paid off. He became the youngest ever Moto2 winner at Mugello in a challenging 2022 season and, after coming in as fi fth overall, fi nished the job in 2023, winning his second world title in three years. Now the 20-year-old from Murcia is about to
complete his fi rst season in MotoGP with Red Bull GASGAS Tech3 and is getting ready to wear the orange factory boots and his winning number – 37 – in the next. Even if MotoGP has been a challenge, the Shark (el Tiburón in Spanish) from Mazzarón adapted quickly and became the third youngest rider in history to claim a GP podium fi nish.
NOT QUITE THERE … YET
“I can’t really say why I’ve adapted so fast to MotoGP; one reason is that I’ve always felt very comfortable on big KTMs. The big change this season wasn’t the bike, it was the way MotoGP works. I suddenly had twelve people working on my performance and had to fi gure out who to get the most helpful information from. At the start of the season, I wanted to see what I was capable of and how much I could push the team. Now it’s time to take the next step. How is a million-dollar question, but I think I fi rst need to understand a little bit of everything. I’m young and still lack experience. The pressure has always been huge, so that’s not the reason I am not winning yet . Let me just say it’s not the drive that’s absent from my or the team’s side.”
LEARNING THE HARD WAY
We are concealed in a coffee shop at the Plaza España in Alcañiz, a day before the Gran Premio de Aragón. The charming old
town, not far from MotorLand, is vibrating with anticipation, but Pedro is relaxed and smiling despite the battle looming ahead. As exciting as it is to watch him on the track, it’s also thrilling to listen to his life story. “I was still a kid when I made it to Moto3. I was travelling the world with people who weren’t my family or friends, riding a KTM, wearing a Red Bull cap and feeling a massive responsibility. So many people helped me to get there! I needed to grow up fast to race well. I had an incredible Moto3 season, so going to Moto2 should’ve been a piece of cake, right? Well, no, I crashed like a thousand times! The pressure was eating me alive and I read all sorts of rubbish: how my star was fading, how I was looking for a seat in Superbike. When you are 17 and reading such stuff, it hurts. I decided to stop reading the opinions of people who I would never take advice from. I set a goal to improve every day, found the button for calmness and forgot about results – I was giving it all, so what more could I do?” Pedro explains. “Most people might think that my greatest win was Doha 2021; sure, it was lots of fun, but my favourite is Mugello 2022. Why? Because that season was really tough and made me look deep inside. We were superfast during winter testing. I told myself: Here we go! Nobody knows what happened next, but we somehow lost the way. I was crashing too often and didn’t know why. After the (more) lows than highs, I came to Mugello and made
“The best part of being a MotoGP rider is riding a MotoGP bike! There’s nothing else in the world that can give you the same feeling.”
“I instantly learnt how it works: the day you win, there are flowers everywhere, the day you come second, you better buckle up and grab your seat!”
the front row in qualifying. That was great, but I was so afraid of blowing it again that I just wanted to fi nish the race. It starts and I can feel the fl ow, the rhythm. Before realising, I’m leading with a 1.5-second gap! My fi rst instinct is to push even harder, but then I get this loud and clear message from a place deep inside myself to cool down and control myself.”
Pedro controlling himself was something new and different but also amazing. Even if the rest of the season didn’t go as well, Mugello signalled a turning point. Pedro learnt how things can go if he is calm. Obviously, his strongest trait is neither his supreme courage nor riding skills, but the mind. “You attract what you believe. If I say I’ll win, it sounds arrogant, but if I can’t say it, I can’t do it either. It’s impossible to always be up to the situation, but I am quite cabezón (pig-headed) and I believe it all the way, whether I am fl ying at the front or fi ghting from the back.”
RITUALS? NO THANKS
Rituals go hand in hand with this highspeed job, but Pedro wears no amulets or lucky socks. “I think rituals make you softer,
because they automatically mean more things that can go wrong. Imagine not everything going as planned on race day and you don’t have the time to do whatever you think will help you win. You then start to believe it’ll be a bad day and that means only one thing – it will be a bad day! Maybe my ritual was talking to Aki (editor’s note: Aki Ajo is the Team Principal of the Red Bull KTM Ajo team). He was my father in the championship and I honestly miss him; we had a good connection and good conversations about races and life. Now I’ve got more people helping me on the grid, so seeing my mechanic’s face at the start is what I need to feel that everything will be alright .”
KILLER MOVES – ON THE TARMAC
After the lights go out, Pedro releases his inner child, leaving his thoughts in the pits. “The worst thing you can do on a bike is think. The less you think the faster you are, because your mind is calm,” he says before sharing a laugh when we mention his shameless overtaking. “Overtaking is like dancing. It’s not something you can explain with words. You have to trust your instincts. I’m not much of a
dancer in real life, but I like to do some moves on a track.” Instead of dancing in a disco, Pedro, a smooth overtaker who confi dently breezed past a normal adolescence, is dancing on a racetrack. He wouldn’t use the word sacrifi ce, because that’s not what it was, nor does he miss partying. “I’ve never had many friends, to be honest. I’ve always been… not special, but strange. I chose a different path to get to where I am. I try to be a man most of the time, but many times the kid takes over and makes a mess.”
This very charismatic ‘kid’ whose presence on the track is almost more important than his results, is full of contradictions. He loves music, but he needs silence. He’s madly in love with the noise of the racetrack, but goes to sleep every night with the sound of rain. He’s grown up a lot in the last years but remained exactly the same: it’s still impossible to get him off a bike.
“Sometimes you need to accept that it is simply not the moment. Calm down, Pedro, I tell myself: Hard times will make you more competitive.”
by Primož Jurman
photography Graeme Brown, Korpmedia archive
Women’s Circuit Racing World Championship Speed is their passion
2024 will go down in motorcycle racing history as the inaugural season of the FIM Women’s Circuit Racing World Championship. The road to 2024 was long and, for the women who wanted to compete with their male colleagues, often thorny.
When England’s Beryl Swain wanted to become the first woman to compete in the 50 cm3 World Championship in 1962, the International Motorcycling Federation (FIM) put its foot down and banned women from motorcycle racing. The following years saw a clash of opinions and arguments both for and against women racing alongside their male colleagues. FIM has gradually relaxed the rules over the years, allowing Finland’s Taru Rinne to become the first woman to break through. After beginning her racing career in karting, where she successfully took on future Formula 1 stars Mika Häkkinen and Mika Salo, she switched over to two wheels and took part in international motorcycle races in 1987. She got a seat in the world championship in the 125-cm3 class in 1988, making history by fi nishing 14th and scoring points at the Le Castellet race. She went on to score a total of 23 points in the 1989 season, including two top ten fi nishes at Hockenheim and Assen. Taru was followed by Tomoko Igata, who raced in the same class between 1992 and 1995.
After honing her skills in the Japanese championship, she moved to the 125 cm3 World Championship. Following her maiden appearance at the Japanese Grand Prix in 1992, she competed throughout the 1994 and 1995 seasons. Another name worth mentioning is Germany’s Katja Poensgen, the first winner of Germany’s Junior Cup in 1995. Katja went on to win the European Supermoto Championship in the same year, before switching over to the German 125 cm3 class, followed by the Supersport, WorldSSP and European Superstock 1000 classes. In 2001 she made the jump to the 250 cm3 World Championship, where she fi nished 14th at the Italian Grand Prix.
“ROLE MODELS PLAY A VITAL PART IN INSPIRING FUTURE GENERATIONS, AND WHEN ANA CARRASCO WON THE SUPERSPORT 300 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP IN A MIXED CATEGORY, IT WAS A SIGNIFICANT MOMENT FOR THE SPORT.” Pippa Laverty
IMPORTANT MILESTONES
Female riders got their first all-female racing series at the top world championship flight in motocross in 2005, followed by enduro in 2010 – but road racing failed to immediately follow suit. Young Spaniard Ana Carrasco began competing in the Moto3 World Championship in 2013, before moving to the WorldSSP300 championship, where she regularly battled with her male rivals for the top spots. Her biggest success to date came in 2018 when she became the first woman to win a World Championship in solo motorcycle road racing! Alongside Ana, another name worth mentioning is María Herrera, who competed in the Moto3, WorldSSP, WorldSSP300 and MotoE classes. After the European Women’s Championship (initially Cup) got its first season in 2020, another milestone in the active participation of women in top-flight races came in 2022 at the Aragón Grand Prix, where María raced in the Moto3 class as a wildcard with an all-female team of mechanics and engineers.
NEW TIMES, NEW CHAMPIONSHIP, NEW CHAPTER
The road racing breakthrough fi nally came this year, when the FIM Women’s Circuit Racing World Championship (WorldWCR) was initiated by the FIM. With six races on the calendar this season, the female competitors will ride on Yamaha R7 models, equipped with two-cylinder 689 cm3 engines and based on the Japanese manufacturer’s road bike. This is another reason why the women’s championship takes place within the framework of the WorldSBK series. The championship features female competitors from 18 countries, including Ana Carrasco – the 2018 SSP300 World Champion, María Herrera, the 2023 Women’s European Champion Beatriz Neila, and Roberta Ponziani, who has already won races in the Elf CIV Women’s European Cup series.
But the person perhaps best acquainted with the world of female competitive racing is Pippa Laverty, despite not playing a direct role in WorldWCR. As the ACU Women’s Ambassador and a member of the FIM Women in Motorcycling Commission, her role is to promote, empower, and encourage women to get involved in the sport. “It took so long for women to have their own championship because, historically, female participation in circuit racing has been very limited. Although women have been competing in circuit racing for quite some time, their numbers have remained small, largely due to the challenges of securing financial support. The creation of the Women’s European Championship in 2020 marked a crucial first step towards giving women their own platform in the sport. It’s also important to recognise how difficult it is, even for the best racers in the world, to secure a seat in toplevel flights, such as MotoGP or WorldSBK. With such limited female participation at the grassroots level, it was even more unlikely to
see women reach the top ranks. Role models play a vital part in inspiring future generations, and when Ana Carrasco won the Supersport 300 World Championship in the mixed category, it was a significant moment for the sport, demonstrating that women can compete at the highest levels. National federations investing in grassroots programs is critical to this progress. In the past, it was rare to see girls participating at entry levels of the sport. Now, in many countries, the ratio is approaching 50/50, which is an encouraging step forward for the future of women in circuit racing.”
Asked about WorldWCR’s first season, she continues: “I’m really impressed with the championship. Yamaha, Dorna, the FIM, and all partners have invested a lot into making it a success. The coverage is exciting to watch, with the top women racers constantly swapping positions, making it very entertaining from a
fan’s perspective. The diversity of nationalities taking part is also impressive. I’m excited to see this championship continue to grow.”
Prodded further about the potential future of female racers in WorldSBK or MotoGP, Pippa remains optimistic: “I wouldn’t rule it out and I’d love to see that happen. Historical milestones for women in sports are being achieved all the time, proving that barriers can be broken. The Olympics has shown that athletes, whether men or women, come in all shapes and sizes, and success isn’t determined by gender. If we invest in grassroots programs, provide proper training, and inspire more people to race, there’s no reason a woman couldn’t someday compete in the bigger classes like MotoGP or WorldSBK. The challenge is that it hasn’t happened yet, but that doesn’t mean it won’t in the future. With the right support and opportunities, I believe we’ll see women racing at the highest levels.”
“WITH THE RIGHT SUPPORT AND OPPORTUNITIES, I BELIEVE WE’LL SEE WOMEN RACING AT THE HIGHEST LEVELS.”
Pippa Laverty
We also enquired what Yamaha thought of the women’s championship, with Yamaha Motor Europe Road Racing Manager Andrea Dosoli responding:
“Yamaha believes that motorsport should be accessible to all, regardless of gender or ethnicity and with our bLU cRU project aimed at young riders, this is what we strive for. But while we have many young women racing both on track and off-road with the bLU cRU, we are also aware that this is not particularly visible to young women, who at present, are maybe too young to start racing, especially road racing. This is a strength of WorldWCR, a championship dedicated to women and promoted by the FIM and Dorna. The platform given to this championship will increase visibility, which sends a very clear message to young women everywhere; there is a place for you in two-wheeled motorsport and you will be made welcome here.”
1. Taru Rinne was the first woman successfully competing in the World Road Racing Championship.
2. Beryl Swain’s plans to compete in the World Championship never came thorough.
Development and curiosity drive Akrapovič forward to keep looking for ways to constantly improve in all areas, from technology to products. “Development has no limits because technology can always be improved,” says Igor Akrapovič, owner of the company that bears his name and stays true to its racing roots. This strong racing pedigree is confi rmed with more than 180 world champions having raced to success on two and four wheels in various championships so far, using Akrapovič exhausts systems on their way to eternal glory. The passion for racing and shared belief that the racetrack is the ideal laboratory for developing cutting-edge motorsport technological solutions, encouraged Ferrari and Akrapovič to collaborate on innovation and development. This arrangement, which earned Akrapovič the Ferrari Hypercar Technical Partner title, will see close cooperation on technical aspects between the two respected partners, beginning with the Ferrari 499P, the Le Mans Hypercar, which is competing in the top class of the FIA World Endurance Championship. The fi rst part of the 2024 season could hardly have gone better for the partnership, as Ferrari repeated last year’s victory at the world’s most prestigious 24h race, the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen’s extraordinary triumph at the 2024 edition of the legendary event is now part of history. The speed and reliability of the Ferrari 499P racer with its four-wheel drive and hybrid engine delivering a maximum power output of 500 kW (limited by technical regulations, Ed.) to the wheels,
was underlined by the third-place fi nish of Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado and Antonio Giovinazzi.
Maranello – Ivančna Gorica
Between the two companies’ headquarters, Ferrari in Maranello and Akrapovič in Ivančna Gorica, different ideas are fl oating around, all with the same goal: how to make the 499P even better. With even more optimised parts and new solutions to support the project developed by the Prancing Horse, of course. The winner of two Le Mans 24 Hours races is a proven world-class Hypercar, but development never rests in racing. You always need to do better, be faster, endure more, even if you are at the top. “You have to consider that the 499P, fi rst revealed to the world at the Shakedown on 6 July 2022, has undergone meticulous optimisation,” said Giuliano Salvi, Ferrari Endurance Race Cars Race & Test Operation Manager, explaining the ongoing development of the racing car in dedicated on-line content created by the Maranello company to illustrate the team’s preparation before a World Endurance Championship race.
There are many reasons for this development, from the fact that the competition is not resting either, to the fact that a racing car can always get faster and better. In achieving the latter, Ferrari also relies on its technical partners. The evolution of a racing car is a long-distance effort,
which is almost invisible to an average race-goer – as is another aspect of racing; the preparation for the racing weekends itself. The process of preparation for a FIA WEC race, like the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, begins behind closed doors well before the engines fi re up on the circuit, starting with – in the case of Ferrari – engineers’ meetings in Maranello. Engineers are working in synergy, they share ideas and combine their expertise, data from simulator sessions, information from previous experience on the same track and feedback from the drivers. There is also preparation for tracks that Ferrari has no direct experience of with the 499P, as there has never been a Hypercar class race there, which is the case for the 6 Hours of São Paulo at the iconic Interlagos track on the outskirts of Brazil’s most populous city. Each track has its unique characteristics that have to be considered.
First comes the so-called ’Build’ phase, which starts approximately 20 days before the race, and where, as the name says, engineers decide the car’s ’build‘ – the best possible Hypercar confi guration for the upcoming race. Salvi explains: “A small group of people decide many aspects, from the 499P’s aerodynamic confi guration and the braking system to the specifi cation of the software and wiring.” Next is the so-called ’Pre-Event‘ meeting, taking place in Maranello eight days before the race, where some 40 Prancing Horse engineers working on the offi cial Ferrari cars number 50 and 51 discuss many aspects, including the aerodynamic set-up, activating 4WD in specifi c sectors, tyre selection, energy consumption management per stint and confi guring the car’s electronics and set-up to ensure optimal performance. In racing, and especially in the FIA World Endurance Championship, it’s not only the quickest who succeed, but also the smartest, although sometimes you have to be lucky to be in the right place at the right time. The meetings are also aimed at preparing strategies for the race. Disregarding the goddess of fortune, there are many factors involved, with one of the main ones being the type of asphalt, where you have to estimate the expected level of tyre grip and wear.
Defi ning and dealing with the race strategies is on the engineers’ daily menu, with one of the key meetings taking place at the track in the two days leading up to the fi rst free practice session, where the intense preparation work in the weeks between races is shared with the entire team, including the drivers. “Transferring data to the drivers, who will compete in the race, allows us to study every aspect meticulously. This ranges from determining the best racing line and optimal cornering speeds to fi ne-tuning the car’s setup to achieve the best possible result,” Salvi concludes. Work on the next circuit has only just begun, with engineers in Maranello already preparing for the next lap. Also over the route from Maranello to Ivančna Gorica.
Bike Stuff
Akrapovič exhaust systems are designed for riders who demand maximum performance from their motorcycles. They feature exceptional production quality, hi-tech materials, increased engine performance and all come with amazing sound and appearance as standard. The change is also visual, as Akrapovič mufflers perfectly fit the exterior line of modern motorcycles and add a clean racing image.
Honda CBR600RR
+ 1.0 kW (+ 1.4 hp) at 7,600 rpm + 1.4 Nm at 7,500 rpm - 1.6 kg (- 35.9 %)
by Mitja Reven
Ducati Hypermotard 698 Mono
+ 2.9 kW (+ 3.9 hp) at 10,000 rpm
+ 1.9 Nm at 6,800 rpm
- 0.2 kg (- 4.3 %)
Italjet Dragster 300
+ 0.5 kW (+ 0.7 hp) at 7,500 rpm + 0.8 Nm at 7,500 rpm - 1.5 kg (- 29.7 %)
Triumph Daytona 660
+ 2.6 kW (+ 3.5 hp) at 10,000 rpm + 2.5 Nm at 10,000 rpm
CFMOTO 450SR / NK
+ 2.1 kW (+ 2.9 hp) at 11,000 rpm + 2.3 Nm at 4,000 rpm - 2.7 kg (- 64.8 %)
- 3.3 kg (- 41.0 %)
Honda CRF1100L Africa Twin
+ 1.9 kW (+ 2.6 hp) at 4,500 rpm + 3.5 Nm at 4,500 rpm
Car Stuff
by Mitja Reven
Check out the latest Akrapovič aftermarket exhaust systems and optional carbon-fibre products for cars. By using only the best materials in combination with high-tech know-how and exquisite craftsmanship of Akrapovič employees, the company has created a package that stands out from everything else on the market.
Mercedes-AMG G 63 (W465)
+ 15.8 kW (+ 21.4 hp) at 5,950 rpm, + 25.3 Nm at 5,950 rpm, - 9.9 kg (- 45.0 %),
BMW XM (G09)
+ 7.6 kW (+ 10.3 hp) at 5,750 rpm, + 12.6 Nm at 5,750 rpm, - 11.4 kg (- 50.7 %),
Mercedes-AMG C 43 4MATIC (W206, S206)
+ 6.6 kW (+ 8.6 hp) at 6,650 rpm, + 13.5 Nm at 2,650 rpm, - 3.6 kg (- 26.5 %),
Porsche Cayenne Turbo E-Hybrid (536.2)
+ 4.0 kW (+ 5.4 hp) at 2,100 rpm, + 18.6 Nm at 2,050 rpm, - 11.9 kg (- 45.0 %),
RIDERS IN THE STORM
EVEN IN THE DRY, THE IMMENSELY POWERFUL MOTOGP MACHINES CAN ONLY BE HANDLED BY THE CHOSEN ONES AMONG THE RACERS. IF IT’S WET, IT FEELS LIKE RIDING A MISSILE, SO HOW CAN THE BEST RIDERS IN THE WORLD STILL DELIVER SUCH CLOSELY FOUGHT RACES IN THE RAIN?
The front wheel digs deep into the water, jets spray out of the tyre grooves and the underside of the fairing ploughs through like a boat keel. Nevertheless, the riders turn into the corners leaning at crazy angles, their knees brushing the tarmac. Anyone who has experienced how slippery wet asphalt can be on a motorcycle can only wonder – how do they do it?
If you take a closer look at the data, it gets even more amazing: the world’s best riders on MotoGP prototypes can lean at angles of up to 53 degrees in the rain, and their lap times are faster than what amateur racers achieve in dry conditions.
There have always been rain specialists. Austrian Rupert Hollaus lapped the entire 250 cm 3 fi eld at the 1954 Bern Grand Prix. Frenchman Christian Sarron made world champion Freddie Spencer look sluggish at the 500 cm 3 race at Hockenheim in 1985. German Ralf Waldmann won in the fl oods of Suzuka in 1995, although he crashed once. And just two years ago, Miguel Oliveira out-swam the entire MotoGP fi eld in Mandalika. What is becoming increasingly apparent, however, is that no one in the highest motorcycle racing class has any real weakness in the rain any more, and while the gaps used to be signifi cantly larger in wet conditions, we are now experiencing thrilling and closely fought duels on wet surfaces as well.
It’s all closer, even in the wet
The fi eld was brought together by developments in the highly competitive world of MotoGP. Riders have to train to overcome even the smallest of weaknesses if they want to survive in the royal class. Engineers work on every detail, no matter how small, and Michelin uses all of its experience to deliver tyres that meet the
by Imre Paulovits
// The world’s best riders on MotoGP prototypes can lean at angles of up to 53 degrees in the rain, and their lap times are faster than what amateur racers achieve in dry conditions.
photography Ducati Corse, Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP, Repsol Honda Team
requirements. “The biggest leap made in the rain was when it became possible to ride in the wet with carbon fi bre brakes,” explains Alberto Puig, Team Manager of the Repsol Honda Team. “Thanks to tyre and motorcycle development, the forces have become so great that they can get up to temperature.” Massimo Meregalli, Team Director of Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP, adds, “The aerodynamic aids and the ride height reduction help in the wet to the same extent as in dry conditions. The tyres are pressed into the asphalt and the lowering helps with braking.”
But the rain tyres from Michelin are the main culprits, even though it’s no easy task to create rubber that can withstand immense power, last throughout the 120-kilometre race and provide the grip that brings us such spectacular battles. “Finding the right balance is only possible through constant testing in different conditions,” reveals Michelin Motorsport Manager Piero Taramasso. “At 300 km/h, the rear tyre can displace four litres of water per second. But it must also be able to withstand up to 10 laps on completely dry asphalt under the load of a MotoGP motorcycle when the road surface dries out,” he explains the extreme requirements the tyres have to fulfi l in diverse conditions. Michelin provides the riders with two different rain compounds for the front and rear, with the harder one – medium – being asymmetrical at the rear to help them cover the distance on the side with more corners in the event of a drying track. “Below 25 degrees we recommend soft, above 25 medium,” says Taramasso. “Air pressure is also very important with rain tyres. If you want to generate temperature, you need more air pressure in the rain tyre. This infl ates the tyre, the contact area becomes smaller, the smaller area has to absorb the force and this generates more heat. More air pressure also makes the grooves in the tread wider and they displace more water. The correct air pressure is around 2.1 bar at the front and 1.8-1.9 at the rear. But when the conditions change, you also need to change the air pressure, and that takes a lot of experience.”
The chosen ones among the chosen ones
Rain specialists still exist today. “The big difference is how quickly a rider fi nds the actual limit under certain conditions,” reveals Cristian Gabarrini, world champion Francesco Bagnaia’s crew chief in the Ducati Lenovo Team. “Let me give you an example from the past. Casey Stoner had the gift of being able to feel the limit after just half a lap. Others needed fi ve laps. By then, however, he had already gained an unassailable lead.” The fact that Marc Márquez (Team Gresini Racing MotoGP) is still the master in this discipline today was impressively demonstrated by his victory at Misano.
“Today, no rain specialist from 30 years ago could win a MotoGP race in the rain,” says Davide Tardozzi, Team Manager of the Ducati Lenovo Team. “They had the ability, but not the fi tness of today’s riders, which is necessary to take a MotoGP motorcycle over this distance. Even if the physical strain in the rain is not as high as in the dry, the rider has to be top trained in order to be fresh for the responsiveness that is necessary in the rain. Today’s riders are also much better prepared mentally than back then.” His colleague Massimo Meregalli from Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP, adds another piece to the puzzle, “In the past, you could see big differences in the riders’ skills in the rain, but today the electronics have taken over a lot of
that. This is another reason why the differences have become smaller.”
The teams have a lot of data when setting up the motorcycles, so it is not difficult for them to find the correct rain set-up. “This is always related to the dry set-up for the respective track,” reveals Cristian Gabarrini. “It is softer in terms of suspension and damping, and softer in terms of electronics. But wet is not always wet, it depends on the temperature, amount of water and dirt, so we make further adjustments for this.”
Luck is part of it
Then there are the flag-to-flag races, when it suddenly starts to rain or the wet track dries out completely and the riders are allowed to change to the second bike with different tyres in the pits. “We discuss tactics with the riders,” says Alberto Puig. “We have more information in the pits and usually someone at the track to keep an eye on the conditions. But the rider ultimately decides, and he signals when he wants to come in.”
It can be precisely this decision that can create heroes, like Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing), who stayed out on slicks at the Red Bull Ring in 2021 and won, or unlucky riders like Jorge Martín (Prima Pramac Racing) this year in Misano, who came in, but the rain stopped. However, this unpredictability on the edge of madness is just another reason why MotoGP is so exciting.
Piero Taramasso (left)
Alberto Puig with Luca Marini
Francesco Bagnaia with Cristian Gabarrini
// It’s no easy task to create rubber that can withstand immense power, last throughout the 120-kilometre race and provide the grip that brings us such spectacular battles.
by Matevž Hribar
photograpy Andreas Juul-Hansen
Racing teams are usually not overly concerned with fuel consumption. Not that they enjoy having excessive gasoline injected into the cylinders, as extra fuel means extra weight and refuelling wastes valuable time, but performance always takes the biscuit. More power, better acceleration, and higher speed equal shorter lap times. But these are not what matters at the Shell Eco-marathon, where teams are given a litre of fuel and told to make it as far as possible.
The aim of DTU Roadrunners, a student project at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU), is developing extremely fuel-effi cient cars and taking them to the Shell Eco-marathon, where the team boasts a stellar history. In its 20 appearances at the Europe Regional competition so far, it has won, or stood on the podium, every single year in its category, the Urban Concept Car class. The original DTU Dynamo claimed the top spot at its very fi rst appearance in 2005! The current version has a carbon-fi bre monocoque, with the driver and the engine placed as close as possible to the centre of gravity. The gearbox sits directly on the rear axle and its drag coeffi cient (Cw) stands at about 0.14 – for comparison, the Tesla S has a Cw of 0.208. The engine, a 49 cm 3 three-valve single-cylinder four-stroke, comes from the Yamaha NEO’s scooter, but there is little of the original engine left. The students built or rebuilt everything from the transmission – it has three gears, with the fi rst being neutral – to the main shaft and clutch housing, the fl ywheel and the fuel injection control electronics. The engine runs on second-generation bioethanol (E100), which is made from agricultural residue that is no longer suitable as a food source. The engine
peaks at about 2.6 kW (3.5 hp) at 4,000 rpm and reaches its maximum torque of 3.7 Nm at 3,700 rpm.
Innovating with Akrapovič engineers
“The entire team has great respect for what Akrapovič is doing. Everyone wanted to see and hear our super cool new exhaust,” says Anders Eiersted Molzen, racer and electrical engineer, who was pleasantly surprised when the Ivančna Gorica-based company answered their call. “When the exhaust arrived at the workshop, we were very excited. For the last 10 days before going to France, we worked every day until two in the morning, some guys worked for 36 hours straight. We literally lived in the workshop.” Akrapovič’s titanium exhaust weighs in at about a kilogram (half the weight of the original part), which is quite a significant saving for a 120-kilogram vehicle. But even more exciting was the result of an innovation made in cooperation with Akrapovič engineers, namely a mixing chamber that provides optimum gas mixing and allows the lambda to capture much more accurate data. And there’s also the signature Akrapovič sound.
The team achieved an outstanding fuel consumption of 660 km/l in ideal conditions
on a completely flat track in the Netherlands, though consumption did rise a bit in France where the track has a height difference of six metres. The team also won a special ‘Data and Telemetry award supported by Schmid Elektronik’ this year for developing an advanced computer simulator that takes into account engine performance, vehicle telemetry and other factors. The software allowed the team to virtually test 1,000 different configurations before choosing the best one, which, according to Anders, gave a 20 % better result than simply guessing.
414 km on a single litre
This year’s competition took place in May at the Nogaro track in France and included two events: a ‘mileage event’ where the aim was to
The engine runs on second-generation bioethanol (E100), which is made from agricultural residue that is no longer suitable as a food source. The engine’s peak power is approximately 2.6 kW (3.5 hp) at 4,000 rpm with the maximum torque of 3.7 Nm at 3,700 rpm.
achieve the lowest fuel consumption possible, and a race between the best three teams from each category – electric, hydrogen and internal combustion. “The race also takes into account the results from the mileage event. The better you did there, the less fuel you got for the race,” Anders explains laughingly. In the ‘Urban Concept Internal Combustion Engine’ category, the DTU Roadrunners came out on top in a group of eight. Its best result? 414 kilometres per litre, beating the second-placed Swiss team by 99 kilometres! I wanted to know how important their innovations are for the automotive industry.
“I don’t know exactly,” replies Anders, “a student who developed the test bench is now part of a Porsche racing team that competes at Le Mans. I think that projects like ours plant a lot of seeds that will sprout in car manufacture or racing.”
Carmelo Ezpeleta
A MAN FOR CHALLENGES
Carmelo Ezpeleta is a driving force behind MotoGP. Despite his reserved and withdrawn style, he attends all the races, is keen to give interviews, and is as passionate about the sport now as he was on the day he became part of its legacy. The gentleman who has been at the top of world road motorcycle racing for more than three decades remains incredibly spry for his 78 years. He has been successfully steering Dorna, which runs the MotoGP show, and this year managed to close an exciting deal by selling off a majority stake to Formula 1 owners Liberty Media. Gaber and I have to admit that we and our photographer expected to meet a more ascetic and reserved Spanish official at the Red Bull Ring in Austria, but what we got was a long and exciting chat that overshot our planned interview slot by quite a bit.
by Gaber Keržišnik and Miran Ališič
photography Bor Dobrin, Rob Gray, Polarity
Photo, Carmelo Ezpeleta private archive
I promised Didi Mateschitz, the former owner of the Red Bull Ring, that I would wear this costume every year if we managed to bring a MotoGP race to this racetrack. I’m keeping that promise.”
I crashed a lot and realised that I am not the most talented person for riding on two wheels. Motorcycle racing is much more di cult than car racing.”
Let’s start with Austria. Why do you dress up in a typical Styrian costume, the trachten, every year before this particular race?
Simple. I promised Didi Mateschitz, the former owner of the Red Bull Ring, that I would wear this costume every year if we managed to bring a MotoGP race to this racetrack. I’m keeping that promise.
And how did you fall in love with motorsports in the fi rst place?
I attended a Formula 1 race in Barcelona with my father. Not at Montjuïc mind you, but in the Pedralbes neighbourhood on the famous Diagonal Avenue, where street races were held in the 1950s. I was fi ve or six years old. This was a big event for Barcelona at the time. It was a very fast track, shaped in a sort of a triangle along Barcelona’s roads and avenues. (It was the Spanish Grand Prix held on October 28, 1951, and won by Argentinean J.M. Fangio in an Alfa Romeo, ed.) There were six children in our family. I was the fi rst boy to be born after three sisters, so dad took me to the race because he was fl irting with the idea
that a boy might be interested in racing. He was correct: racing immediately won me over. The noise of the cars, the smell of fuel, then still castor racing oil... That characteristic smell and sound was something special. Afterwards I always asked dad to go to the races whenever there was one nearby. This is how we ended up at the 24 Hours of Montjuïc. Since Spain gets extremely hot during the day in the summer, we went to see the race at night. When I saw the bikes fl ying by with their headlights on, I knew that I wanted to try it one day.
Are we to suppose that you got a motorcycle soon a erwards?
It wasn’t quite as straightforward. My dad was a military engineer, so he was enthusiastic about engineering and machinery, not necessarily about letting his son race. Getting my own motorcycle was not an easy undertaking. Cars were very expensive and out of reach, and I was in a group of people who were passionate about cars, motorcycles and racing. I wanted a motorcycle. My father was afraid I’d drop out of school if I started
riding. There were a bunch of motorcycle manufacturers in Spain at the time, with fi ve brands coming from the vicinity of Barcelona. Montesa had a motorcycle shop near our house and a 250 cm3 model caught my eye as I passed by. It cost 25,000 pesetas, a ridiculously low price in today’s money, but very expensive back then. I was still studying at the time, earning extra money by tutoring in the afternoons. I was making around 500 pesetas a week and I calculated that by taking out a loan and living frugally, I could just about buy it. I deposited 5,000 pesetas and agreed to pay the remainder within two years. When signing the contract, they found out that I was only 18, as back then you came of age at 21. I needed my father’s consent and signature to buy the bike, but his answer was a fi rm “No!” I slowly brought the motorcycle closer to our house, fi rst parking it in front, then in the corridor, fi nally in front of the apartment door, so that my father would notice it. I let its engine run several times, with gases coming from the exhaust system; it wasn’t exactly an Akrapovič (laughter). I also placed it upright
so that oil leaked out onto the fl oor. Dad fi nally relented, but while he didn’t sign the purchase document, he told my mom to do so.
Did you then start racing with the bike?
I rode it for a short time on public roads, then took off the lights, replaced the exhaust – still not with an Akrapovič – and went off to my fi rst race. It wasn’t a success. I crashed a lot and realised that I’m not the most talented person for riding on two wheels. Motorcycle racing is much more diffi cult than car racing. There is no comparison. Today there are youth training programmes and cup competitions, back then there was nothing. Nobody explained anything to me. The only rule was to brake as late as possible before the turn, lean as much as possible into it, and then give it throttle as soon as possible as you exit.
Two wheels were not enough, so you tried four wheels instead, right?
The famous Spanish motorcycle racer Salvador Cañellas talked me into it. He won the Montjuïc race in 1968 on a 125 cm3 Bultaco. He was an all-rounder, profi cient both with bikes and cars. He said car racing would suit me more, and the very next year the Renault Cup with the R8 model was introduced in Spain. So I sold the bike and started racing cars in 1972. I did better there than on bikes, but there were a lot of us. Up to 100 drivers took part in the cup. We were divided into groups of about 30 racers with the top 36 making it to the fi nal race. The only real racetrack at the time was Jarama, near Madrid. Otherwise, we only raced on improvised street tracks. It was impossible to train, as Jarama was 600 km
from Barcelona, so I started thinking about constructing a racetrack nearby.
From racing, straight down to business. Your life is closely connected to the construction of the Calafat track…
My brother-in-law owned a large plot of land about 150 km south of Barcelona. The land lay between the hills and the sea. “If you raise enough money to build a track, I’ll give the land to you,” he told me. We founded an association. At the time, the project was estimated to cost an astronomical nine million pesetas. This would be about €150,000 in today’s money, but back then it was a gigantic sum. So how to get this money? I had an idea and we collected the entire sum from all the individuals and teams that wanted to race on the circuit. By contributing 25,000 pesetas for the construction, each donor gained the right to lease the track for racing or promotion. We reeled in about 270 investors in a year and a half. After it was built, it was only the second racetrack in Spain. I became its manager and quit my studies. This September marks 50 years since the fi rst race at Calafat.
There seemed to have been a lot of trust involved. No donor was guaranteed that the investment would actually result in a racetrack, right?
Correct. We didn’t guarantee anything. To this day I still don’t know why they trusted me. Apparently, I was honest and persuasive enough. I still maintain that it was the most diffi cult project of my life. I was 26 years old at the time. We were paving with asphalt, we had a couple of garages, a control tower and an old assembly stand donated to us by the
Automobile Club of Catalunya. It was enough to get started and we organised our fi rst race. We were doing well, the circuit was in the black, so the representatives of the Royal Automobile Club of Spain came by one day to ask what was our secret to making profi t. They knew how much it costs to operate such a track, because they had one of their own at Jarama, which cost them 25 million pesetas more a year than it earned. I answered them quite simply that we were in the black because we had no money to spend. If you don’t have the money, you can’t afford to spend it.
Did they try to convince you back then to take over the management of the Jarama racetrack? You did take on that role later. That’s when it started. They asked me to help them bring their business out of the red. I, on the other hand, wanted to stay in Calafat as it was my project. We managed to agree that I could do both. From 1974 to 1978, I was in Jarama during the week, and running the Calafat racetrack at the weekend. At fi rst I was a consultant at Jarama, but after only two months they asked me to become the manager. I was 28 years old at the time. And the challenge was huge, because the fi rst race we organised was a Formula 1 race.
Did you manage to cut costs?
Yeah, in the very fi rst year. While we didn’t make a profi t, we also didn’t incur a loss. The board was satisfi ed, and I immediately told them that I didn’t want to let go of the 25 million pesetas they had saved. As the racetrack was now operating in the black, I wanted that money to be diverted to training young talents and supporting successful racers. At that time, we started organising the Spanish rally, which counted as part of the European Championship. I was Jarama Circuit director between 1978 and 1988, which is when we founded the Ford-RACE team. Antonio Zanini was our fi rst driver, followed by Carlos Sainz. I meanwhile became the team’s leader.
But that’s not all. A while later you also took part in constructing the famous Catalunya racetrack near Barcelona.
I did. Representatives of the Catalonian Ministry of Sports came to me in 1988, and pitched the idea of building a racetrack. I thought the project was interesting, but I wanted to remain fair to the people who brought me to Jarama. I told them that the Catalans would build a racetrack with or without me. They would become our biggest competitor, as they will have a new and modern track. That would put Jarama in a tough spot, as it could only compete with the track in Jerez, because the Catalans would be out of our league. I told them to either invest into rebuilding Jarama whereupon I’d stay, or let me go to Barcelona.
You obviously le , despite the rivalry between Madrid and Barcelona being something quite special. This is true about football, but also social and even political life. You basically succeeded in doing the impossible, no?
Let me say outright that I am a Spaniard. Even though I grew up in Barcelona, I have always advocated for Catalonia as part of Spain. There is an eternal rivalry between Barcelona and Madrid in everything. That’s the case in many countries, and I think that for the most part it makes everybody a winner. In a way, such competition drives progress. Back to Jarama. The owners decided not to renovate and modernise Jarama, so I was able to return to Barcelona. I stayed there with my family until 1991.
Another turning point. An unknown marketing company, Dorna, acquired the television rights for motorcycle racing in that year. And they came looking for you. How is that?
FIM (International Motorcycling Federation) organised a tender for the sale of television rights for World Motorcycle Championship races in 1990. Dorna was an unknown company internationally, but I knew about them because they were strong in Spanish football, and had the Banesto banking group as a large stakeholder. We had just completed the track in Barcelona, we wanted to get a World Motorcycle Championship race, and during the fi rst conversation with Dorna it turned out that they had very little idea about motorcycle racing. They had the rights to, but no knowledge about the sport. The key moment was the fi rst meeting at the FIM headquarters in Geneva. I was there representing the ROPA association, together with the representatives of Dorna, the IRTA association and, of course,
FIM. The meeting was a complete disaster. There were arguments, yelling and screaming across the table. IRTA, then represented by Bernie Ecclestone, was against the sale of TV rights as envisaged by FIM. Ecclestone and I have always been on good terms, we were friends and on the same page. Ecclestone wanted to keep the TV rights under the auspices of IRTA.
So you were there as an ad hoc peace broker then?
Something like that. After that disastrous meeting, I got a call from Dorna asking me to help them with this project, to take over everything motorsport related. The circuit in Barcelona was fi nished, I needed a new
challenge. In the summer of 1991, I signed a deal with Bernie Ecclestone. My job was to convince the FIM to agree to our idea, while Ecclestone had to get IRTA’s agreement to merge the rights and thus control the TV rights for motorcycle racing. We signed the contract in September 1991, during the fi rst Formula 1 race at the new circuit in Barcelona. But we were not out of the woods yet. FIM did not take kindly to our partnership, so we had no choice but to give them an ultimatum. If they continued to disagree, Dorna and a company to be founded or proposed by Bernie Ecclestone, would set up our own championship. FIM tried to organise the championship themselves, but they only had the support of a single circuit, Assen. Everybody else took our side. That was in October 1991. Two months later we fi nally signed a cooperation agreement with FIM and began organising races as Dorna in 1992. You know the rest. (laughter)
Slovenia was still part of Yugoslavia, or on the path to its independence in those days, so the story of the cancelled Yugoslav Grand Prix in June 1991 at the Grobnik circuit near Rijeka is an interesting one for us. That was one of the defi ning moments for Dorna, wasn’t it?
Yes, of course. I remember it well. Sometime in early June 1991, Flamini Group, the company organising the Yugoslav Grand Prix, decided to cancel the race for safety reasons. An opportunity presented itself, as we needed a replacement. The Spanish Grand Prix was held in Jerez at the time, so I turned to Jarama, where I knew everybody. In less than two months we organised the European Grand Prix there with great success. This is also why relations between Dorna, FIM and IRTA improved. We were no longer doubted, we had proved ourselves and shown we had the ability and the know-how. 65,000 spectators showed up at Jarama, we earned so much money that we paid an additional premium to the teams from the surplus.
You’ve had a long and successful career with many twists and turns, changes, risks... You navigated skilfully through all of it, but it must have been di cult at times as well, no?
It’s always the hardest when accidents happen, when someone dies. Unfortunately, this is part and parcel of motorsport. From the very beginning, we’ve been striving for safety, which has always remained our priority. Perhaps even more so, because I was a racer myself and I know how dangerous the sport can be. I’ve always been in favour of building modern circuits, moving racing from the streets to a safer racetrack environment. Maybe my hardest decision came after the death of Daijiro Kato at Suzuka. We said we would only race there again if the circuit got renovated. Kato was a Honda racer and Suzuka was a Honda track. It was a risky move to go against Honda in Japan. But since the track has remained the same, we don’t race there anymore. After his death, we
I’ve seen a lot during my 33 seasons at the helm of MotoGP races. First, the dominance of the Americans ended. Everyone expected a downturn, but nothing happened. Then Mick Doohan retired from racing. Same story. Everyone thought the interest would die down. Maybe there was a bit of a break for a year or two and then Rossi appeared.”
established a safety commission, where racers decide on safety, which is why they trust me even more.
So you don’t see the future of motorcycle racing on street circuits, the direction that Formula 1 seems to be taking?
Not exactly. I’m not against street racing in principle. But I am against dangerous races and dangerous circuits. The race in Indonesia is a good example of how an improvised racetrack, which is partly actually a street or road, can be safe. In the future, it will be diffi cult to keep fi ve races on the Iberian Peninsula. We have additional demand for organising races across Europe, in Asia and also in South America. Our fi rst aim after becoming co-owned by Liberty Media is to improve our marketing and increase the visibility of motorcycle racing in the world, to introduce this wonderful sport to those who don’t follow it yet.
We’ve recently witnessed the departure of Valentino Rossi. Was that a major event? Has it le a huge mark? MotoGP’s popularity doesn’t seem to have decreased…
It hasn’t. Perhaps there was a bit of a ripple, but everything got back to normal. The wave subsided. I’ve experienced a lot during my 33 seasons at the helm of MotoGP races. First, the dominance of the Americans ended. Everyone expected a downturn, but nothing happened. Then Mick Doohan retired from racing. Same story. Everyone thought the interest would die down. Maybe there was a bit of a break for a year or two and then
Rossi appeared. We had quite a few good racers during Rossi’s career. Stoner, Pedrosa, Lorenzo, but they all retired before he did. Then Márquez appeared…
Something else makes you stand out. You used to be very good at playing the game that the Spanish call pelota and is known as jai alai in South America. Do you still play it? Or perhaps get on a motorcycle and go for a ride?
Oof… Pelota is a hard and fast sport. You can get hurt easily. I don’t play it much anymore. I prefer to hold golf clubs. I don’t even get on a motorcycle anymore. I recently discovered e-bicycles and you know what... It’s fantastic! I used to cycle a lot when I was young and I’m doing it again. I’m just sad I only discovered it so late.
From the very beginning, we’ve been striving for safety, which has always remained our priority. Perhaps even more so, because I was a racer myself and I know how dangerous the sport is. I’ve always been in favour of building modern circuits, moving racing from the streets to a safer racetrack environment.”
// Si
CARMELO EZPELETA: MOŽ IZZIVOV
Carmelo Ezpeleta, ki že več kot tri desetletja vodi svetovne cestne motociklistične dirke, je kljub 78 letom še vedno zelo vitalen. Uspešno vleče niti podjetja Dorna, ki upravlja motociklistični spektakel MotoGP. Motošport je vzljubil kot deček, ko je z očetom spremljal dirke Formule 1 v Barceloni. Dirkanje ga je takoj prevzelo; pri 18 letih si je kupil motocikel, s katerim ni dosegel dirkaških uspehov. Motor je prodal in leta 1972 začel dirkati v Renaultovem pokalu z modelom R8, a poslovna žilica je bila močnejša. Tesno je povezan z nastankom steze Calafat; letos septembra je namreč minilo 50 let od prve dirke na njej: »Še danes pravim, da je bil to moj najtežji projekt v življenju. Takrat sem bil star 26 let. Ker smo dirkališče vodili uspešno, so me našli upravljalci dirkališča Jarama pri Madridu in me prosili za pomoč. Med letoma 1974 in 1978 sem bil med tednom torej vodja steze v Jarami, ob koncu tedna pa sem vodil dirkališče v Calafatu. Izziv je bil res velik, saj je bila prva dirka, ki smo jo organizirali pod mojim vodstvom prav dirka Formule 1,« je med drugim povedal prvi mož Dorne. Od leta 1988 dalje je sodeloval pri izgradnji dirkališča Catalunya pri Barceloni, kjer je z družino ostal do leta 1991. Takrat je marketinško podjetje Dorna pridobilo televizijske pravice za motociklistične dirke, Ezpeleta je po spletu naključij prevzel motošportni oddelek Dorne in poskrbel za odlično pripravljeno nadomestno dirko v Jarami, ki so jo dobili namesto dirke za VN Jugoslavije na Grobniku, odpovedane zaradi vojne, zdaj pa že več kot trideset leti vodi motociklistični spektakel MotoGP, kamor je letos v solastništvo pripeljal ameriško podjetje Liberty Media, ki že nekaj časa upravlja tudi s Formulo 1.
FANTASTIC
FANTASTIC
by Alenka Birk
ARTIFACTS
Designed and published by ERG Media with Edition Porsche Museum, Artifacts is not just another art book. In partnership with Type 7, the result of this unprecedented exploration of the brand’s rich and fascinating history is a large-format coffee table book, spanning 356 pages of seldom-seen archive material that pays meticulous homage to many of the minute details that help tell the Porsche story. Its abstract, artistic perspective, characterised by dramatic lighting and high-resolution photography, carefully explores every subject in lavish detail, focusing on the textures, patina and history within.
shop.porsche.com
FOR FEARLESS LEADERS
Part of a unique collaboration between TAG Heuer and Red Bull Racing, this special edition stainless steel chronograph is ready to roar ahead and set the pace. Sporting a highly dynamic look, this fitting tribute to two highenergy leaders in their fields is a real challenger. Featuring an energetic blue dial with highlights in red and yellow, and a sturdy 43 mm steel case rated to 200 m, this timepiece is in pole position. Secured by a steel bracelet with TAG Heuer engraving and a double safety system, the exclusive packaging captures the essence of high-speed racing. Ready to race?
tagheuer.com
FLYING SCOTSMAN
Why not bring a touch of retro style into your ‘mancave’? Here’s an idea to quickly brighten up the wall in your favourite corner: motor racing art by Martin Tomlinson, featuring Ron Flockhart in the Jaguar D-type. In 1957, Flockhart, the ‘Flying Scotsman,’ and codriver Ivor Bueb became two-time Le Mans winners, finishing first in a D-type 1-2-3-4. An original painting and 25 limited edition fine art giclée prints are available, all signed by the artist. The original painting has been created in gouache on art board and is mounted and framed, ready to hang.
motorsportmagazine.com/shop
HIGH TECH VIEW
What happens when you combine style, tech and speed? Meta smart Ray-Ban for Scuderia Ferrari Wayfarer sunglasses – Miami Special Edition. The iconic sunglasses brand has released its very first Meta smart glasses in collaboration with Scuderia Ferrari. The specs come in a limited edition of 1,000 pairs in Garage Blue and Mirror, and feature Ferrari’s signature shield logo on the temple as well as coming with impressive high-tech functionalities: an ultra-wide 12 MP camera accompanied by a five-mic system, allowing for high-quality videos that you can share directly to Facebook and Instagram. Open-ear speakers let you seamlessly listen to music, calls, or your surroundings. During a video call, you can share the view you’re seeing through the lenses with other participants. Just say ‘Hey Meta,’ and Meta AI with Vision function will be at your service. The sunglasses are already sold out.
70’S VIBE
BMW M Motorsport and PUMA have unveiled a striking new collaboration: the BMW Art Car Capsule Collection, inspired by Alexander Calder’s iconic BMW Art Car from 1975. Calder, celebrated for his sculptures and mobiles, adorned the BMW 3.0 CSL with vibrant colours and sweeping designs, blending art, technology and racing passion. The collection features meticulously crafted apparel and footwear, each piece echoing the artist’s distinctive style. Highlights include the bold AC Shirt and AC Shorts with Calder-inspired prints, alongside two T-shirts, a stylish AC Cap and the iconic AC Sneaker Suede, commemorating 50 years of PUMA sneaker heritage. This vivid collection embodies innovation and artistic expression, inviting enthusiasts to embrace automotive history in contemporary fashion.
BEST SHAVER
Experience shaving artistry at its finest as the world’s first heated razor meets an automotive legend. This limited edition of the Gillette Heated Razor has been created in collaboration with Bugatti. Coming with the iconic car maker’s branding and including one of its signature colours, Agile Bleu, the high-tech razor heats up in a matter of seconds to deliver a warm towel-like shaving experience. Its magnetic charging unit also comes with matching blue accents. The Heated Razor by GilletteLabs activates and delivers instant warmth in less than one second at the push of a button, providing a noticeably more comfortable shave. It’s a great gift for a car enthusiast and the best shaver in town right now.
gillette.com
bmw.com
puma.com
ferrari.com
by Gerald Enzinger photograpy BMW
The 24 Hours of Le Mans with cars and motorcycles
Like night and day
The Le Mans 24-hour races are classics for cars as well as motorcycles, with both competitors and machines delivering top performances. While they are extreme for both categories, the challenge for drivers and riders is also completely different.
Le Mans is a place of pilgrimage, but in secular France this has less to do with the magnifi cent Saint Julien Cathedral in the city centre, than with the racetrack on its outskirts. This is where the 24 Hours of Le Mans, one of the most prestigious car races in the world, has been taking place for more than a century during which it has produced heroes, dramas and stories like no other. In 1978, motorcycles entered the fray and despite also competing for 24 hours, the differences for the racers are like night and day, or in the truest sense of the word: cold and hot.
Starting in both races
This makes it all the more impressive that a few brands and high-end technology companies are present on the grid at both races, ready to take on one of the last pure adventures in motorsport. One such brand is
BMW, which in 2024 entered its BMW Motorrad World Endurance Team - with riders Markus Reiterberger, Sylvain Guintoli and Ilya Mikhalchik on a BMW M 1000 RR - and later fi elded the BMW M Team WRT with two BMW M Hybrid V8s in one of the most exciting car races in Le Mans’s history, against incredibly strong and diverse competition. As different as these two highlights of BMW’s season are, there is one thing that the famous company from Munich, whose ’M’ in the name stands not only for engine (‘machine’ in German) but also for motorsport, relies on the same trusted long-term partner: Akrapovič, with its exhaust systems, has been the ideal partner for decades, not only able to conjure up the best performance in this high-stakes laboratory called the racetrack, but also gather an enormous amount of experience and data, which in turn allows for further quality improvements in serial production.
“Le Mans was unique for me. It was a gigantic weekend. Or rather a gigantic week. You can’t compare it with the other 24-hour classics like Spa or Nürburgring. It’s simply a different group of fans, there’s a lot on offer.”
Marco Wittmann
Transfer from racing to daily life
Marco Wittmann, one of Europe’s greatest racing drivers, is an important element in this transfer of knowledge from racing to everyday life as a BMW works driver and Akrapovič brand ambassador. Despite his wealth of experience, Le Mans 2024 was the first time he tackled the classic and at the same time proved how much and how quickly even a veteran champion can be smitten by the myth. “Le Mans was unique for me. It was a gigantic weekend. Or rather a gigantic week. You can’t compare it with the other 24-hour classics like Spa or Nürburgring. It’s simply a different group of fans, there’s a lot on offer. Being the starting driver here is a real privilege. It’s an incredible atmosphere when thousands of people are still standing at the grid and the tension is building up at the same time.”
But there is no pleasure without pain: “It’s a long week, the prologue on Sunday means you’re on site forever, and the pressure is enormous. All eyes are on you. And then there are special events like the parade in the city.”
A race of contrasts
Wittmann’s experience, which describes an emotional rollercoaster ride, shows that Le Mans truly is a race of contrasts, whether in a car or on a motorcycle. Sandwiched between the incredible hysteria at the start and the finish is the loneliness of the long-distance driver, who speeds through the laps in the deep black of the night, while the crowd goes wild – more intense than at almost any other sporting event. Pleasure and danger are close together, separated only by a wall.
One big difference between the two categories is the track. Car races take place on the endless straights of public roads, but motorcycles remain on the Circuit Bugatti, the smaller circuit in the infi eld. The difference in temperature is even more extreme. The motorcycle race takes place in April –sometimes with night-time temperatures close to 0 °C, wind, rain, fog and even snow – whereas drivers, strapped into their cockpit cages, often have to endure outside temperatures of over 30 °C in June.
“Endurance racing is a team sport. Everyone is almost equally important here. The entire pit crew can contribute to victory or defeat, and as a rider you also feel an enormous responsibility for the others in your racing team.”
Markus Reiterberger
Very demanding
Motorcycle ace Markus Reiterberger often longs for a straight, but there is no such thing at the small circuit: “You can’t recover anywhere, because the next corner is always right in front of you – and it goes on for more than 800 laps. At night, your brake fi nger almost freezes from the cold. You have to think about things like heating vests, or that the visor could tarnish, problems that you don’t normally have. And – this is in no way intended to devalue my colleagues in the car – I think the race is mentally and physically more strenuous and challenging on a motorcycle. Also because we don’t have a straight where we could get some rest, you have to pay a lot of attention to your vision, though that aspect has improved a lot with automatic visors.”
Every lap counts at Le Mans. “Riding here at night for the fi rst time feels really diffi cult – but with time, it becomes routine and the
processes work themselves out. My favourite parts are the start, because it’s just so exciting and action-packed and when the sun comes up, because that’s the fi rst time you see the light at the end of the tunnel and feel that the race will eventually be over. Before that, at night, you are sometimes really in a hole and some things seem hopeless. But luckily you’re so busy with racing that you don’t have the time to let yourself down.”
Team really matters
There is another very important factor – the team. “Endurance racing is a team sport. Everyone is almost equally important here. The entire pit crew can contribute to victory or defeat, and as a rider you also feel an enormous responsibility for the others in your racing team.”
“Of course, the races at Spa and Suzuka are more fun”, says Reiterberger.
But as much as you may have cursed all these dangers and stresses, there comes a moment for every racing driver, whether on two- or four-wheels, when this mystical place called Le Mans captivates them again and makes them look forward to it: to the cold and dark nights, to racing at the limit, to everything that makes this 24-hour ‘Tour de France’ at high speed so intense. It is the other ‘Tour of Suffering’ –condensed into one day and one night, intense and full of passion. A unique test for competitor and machine.
Akrapovič is official partner of BMW M Motorsport.
70 years of KTM
PLEASURE AND FUN
by Matevž Hribar
You might be a KTM motorcycle fan. These are perhaps not made for everyone, but mainly for those who want to move about with a little bit of, well, what? Is it simply about being quick, or sliding the rear tyre sideways through a corner or doing a wheelie at a supermoto? Or it can mean leaving a trail of dust behind a travel enduro bike somewhere far from a fuel station? We visited the well-known and popular KTM Motohall venue, located at an entrance to the centre of a small Austrian town, and spoke to one of the culprits for KTM’s unflinching attitude and its successful cultivation and spreading of the passion for, well, let’s call it, an exciting ride.
photography Jure Makovec
I fi rst visited Mattighofen as a journalist 15 years ago to see the birthplace of my LC4 and chase down some of the then current models. The 690 SMC was love at fi rst sight. How can it do a wheelie so effortlessly out of a corner? The second time my journeys took me north of Salzburg with a small group of orange lovers with whom we went for a Vienna steak – and, of course, a tour of the factory. Perhaps we were unlucky, because, as the second group at the time, we were assigned a pleasant young guide, but one who unfortunately didn’t know as many technical details about the Austrian
Eight years later, none other than Hubert Trunkenpolz shakes my hand in front of the impressive building. Not too shabby, eh? His surname starts with KTM’s middle letter and is due to his uncle Johann (Hans) Trunkenpolz, a mechanic who serviced and sold cars and motorcycles at the ‘Kraftfahrzeug Trunkenpolz Mattighofen’ workshop in his native Mattighofen in the 1940s.
motorcycle brand as our band of enduro and motocross riders and mechanics.
Eight years later, none other than Hubert Trunkenpolz shakes my hand in front of the impressive building. Not too shabby, eh? His surname starts with KTM’s middle letter and is due to his uncle Johann (Hans) Trunkenpolz, a mechanic who serviced and sold cars and motorcycles in the 1940s in his native town’s ‘Kraftfahrzeug Trunkenpolz Mattighofen’ workshop. When he also started making motorcycles after the Second World War –the fi rst model was the R100 – Ernst Kronreif joined the business and the company was renamed Kronreif & Trunkenpolz Mattighofen. After Ernst’s death in 1960 and Hans’s in 1962, the latter’s son Erich Trunkenpolz took over the management.
Family tree
“Hans was my uncle. He was much older than my father, by nearly half a generation. He was succeeded by Erich, whose sons are about my age. My roots at KTM grow very deep,” Hubert briefl y explains the family connection. “We rode motocross as children, and somehow invented supermoto in the empty parking lots around the factory during the summer holidays,” he recalls his youthful days with a mischievous smile. “That must have been somewhere around 1972. After Erich’s death in 1989, the company went bankrupt within three years. At that time, I knew Heinz Kinigadner (we interviewed him for our magazine in 2023, ed.), we both knew Stefan Pierer, and things just got better from then on. In 1998 I joined KTM professionally, being in charge of expanding into new markets in the sales department,” he adds. Since then, Hubert Trunkenpolz has had various duties and held several management positions aiding the company’s marketing and sales. Currently, he’s overseeing Pierer Mobility AG in motorsport, the X-BOW, and the MV Agusta brand.
Motocross, enduro and rallying are what KTM is best known for. It seems that, especially in enduro with all of its niche sub-genres, such as super enduro, hard (extreme) enduro and classic enduro, the Austrians have no real competitor. Make no mistake – of course some big rivals exist in the enduro and motocross worlds, but having brought Husqvarna and GASGAS under its wing, KTM’s dominance in racing and on many markets is hard to argue against. “KTM’s been more than just KTM for some time now. Husqvarna, GASGAS, now MV Agusta – is there any segment where you are not present but would like to be?” I inquire. “Not really,” says Trunkenpolz, “We are not interested in cruisers and scooters. What we are aiming for is more targeted positioning through the new brands, while KTM returns even more to its ready-to-race hard-core roots. As part of KTM, Husqvarna represents a more elegant, sophisticated mobility, GASGAS is there for the young and MV
Agusta to satisfy the needs of more prestigious customers. We truly have enough for now. We’re happy with what we’ve got.”
Over time, the company realised that off-road motorcycling comes with a limited market, so it made the move from mud to asphalt. Supermoto, adventure and subsequent naked models were a logical step, but a little more courage was needed to design the RC8, which Trunkenpolz believes is one of the most groundbreaking – and beautiful – motorcycles ever made.
From off-road to tarmac
“KTM’s roots are in off-road, so the fi rst milestones must be the world championship titles of Gennady Moiseyev and Heinz Kinigadner. Then I would say that the fi rst Duke, currently celebrating its 30 th anniversary, is also extremely important. It was a big milestone, as was the fi rst two-cylinder engine in the 950 Adventure, and a little bit later, the 990 Super Duke. But my favourite model remains the RC8. It was amazing then and remains amazing today. When we showed it at the exhibition in Tokyo, the Japanese were shocked.” The Japanese that is who today face fi erce competition from European brands, KTM included, in the MotoGP class.
Trunkenpolz is keeping his feet on the ground though, believing that the Japanese, who have been in the championship from the very beginning, will undoubtedly strike back. “And that’s a good thing, it means competition, and competition means development. You should never underestimate your competitors. We respect everyone, regardless of the fact that we want to beat them, be faster, better. The deck is forever being reshuffl ed, perhaps with the new rules for 2027, which will ban certain aerodynamic and electronic aids and reduce engine displacement to 850 cm 3 . Motorbikes reached speeds of up to 366 km/h at Mugello this year! There are problems with brakes, tyres... No spectator will feel disadvantaged if a bike passes by at 340 km/h, the difference is imperceptible. Everything will also be safer.” In a way, it seems that the Austrians are pioneering a similar course in MotoGP as they did in endurance rallying in the 1990s. The Dakar Rally played a vital role in the brand’s global recognition, and in the development of racing and, consequently, production motorcycles. KTM joined the caravan with a factory team in 1994, in 1998 they took all the spots from second to twelfth, and since 2001 they recorded an incredible 19 Dakar wins. Hubert is racing in the GT2 European Series with a four-wheeler X-BOW GT2, a KTM of course, which can be seen in the KTM Motohall. “I’m the team leader anyway, so instead of pacing up and down the pits, I race with our own product. I’m competing against Porsche, Audi, Maserati, Mercedes,
Lamborghini… We are very proud to be able to go toe to toe with these renowned brands.” I cannot imagine KTM building a small city car, but are there plans for any other new vehicles? “No! The wait time for the current model is more than half a year and we can make a maximum of 100 a year. We are happy with what we have, we will continue to develop it. It is a niche product and at the same time proof of what we are capable of.”
Asian connection at the right moment
Half of India’s youth, if you permit the exaggeration, rides around on Dukes. Because Duke is made in India – due to favourable manufacturing conditions and the country’s laws – KTM can compete on price with the local manufacturers. And around the world as well. “Bajaj was key for us to enter the developing markets. If you make small displacement bikes, you have to offer them at an affordable price. It was the only option and cooperating with Bajaj was an excellent decision. It’s been working smoothly, and is benefi cial for both companies. We manufactured a million bikes in India last year, with half of them sold around the world. Sixteen-year-olds could suddenly afford a KTM and it became the best-selling 125 cm 3 bike in Europe. A true KTM, capable and beautiful, but still affordable. Not cheap, it was never among the cheapest, but affordable. Without partnering with Bajaj, it would have been two to three thousand euros more expensive and no one would buy it. Young customers are important and we are well positioned here. I’ve just learnt that the average Super Duke customer in the US is under 30 years old. For the young, a motorbike means true mobility for the fi rst time. It means choosing where to go. It means freedom. Motorcycles are one of the few remaining products that give a sense of freedom and life. And if you are a motocross rider, you have a sense of success, you ride, you train... Even if you don’t win, you can prove yourself at every race, and that makes you feel better. You’re happy even if you’re tired.”
A place to really feel the brand
For a while, KTM has been nurturing the idea that guided factory tours are not enough. “We started thinking about a project, we negotiated with the mayor, the city... They offered us this area here. It seemed very suitable, it’s at the entrance to the town and KTM Motohall is an architectural extravagance that can be seen from afar. We have always known that we didn’t want a classic museum. We wanted a place where people can hang out and really feel the brand. They need to feel what KTM means, how we approach the product and the races.” KTM Motohall design began in 2014, construction in 2016, and the opening took place in 2019. I can confi rm that the
Akrapovič and KTM have been inseparable for a long time. It started, of course, with racing; KTM wanted lighter motorcycles, Akrapovič had a titanium solution.
building – and especially its interior – is truly inspiring, and visited not only by diehard fans of the three-lettered acronym, but also by other bikers, schoolchildren, even retirees. It showcases the current racing bikes and rare old models, which were donated by local vintage bike enthusiasts. “They called us saying, I have such and such bike, I don’t know where to store it... I’d be proud if you could make it part of your collection.” Perhaps also worth noting is that Mattighofen has a population of 6,500, with around 4,000 employed by KTM facilities. And one last thing to fi nish with. Akrapovič and KTM have been inseparable for a long time. It started, of course, with racing; KTM wanted lighter motorcycles, Akrapovič had a titanium solution. This is how Herr Trunkenpolz describes the cooperation: “After Red Bull, Akrapovič is the brand that is most often mentioned alongside KTM. We are very happy that Akrapovič has developed so much in the past two decades. You’ll be hard-pressed to see a racing KTM without an Akrapovič exhaust. This alone is a suffi cient statement of how important our cooperation has been through the years. Purity, performance, extreme, adventure. These are KTM’s beliefs and we can easily transplant them onto Akrapovič.”
With the brand celebrating its 70 th anniversary, I couldn’t resist asking where KTM will be in the next 70 years. “It’s hard to predict the future, but KTM is such a major brand that it will undoubtedly remain strong. We will make something that will bring people pleasure, excitement and freedom... Whatever that happens to be.”
UŽITEK IN ZABAVA
Obiskali smo KTM Motohall tik na vhodu v staro mestno jedro avstrijskega mesteca Mattighofna in spregovorili z enim od zaslužnih, da je KTM svetovna znamka. Pred veličastno stavbo nas je sprejel Hubert Trunkenpolz. Začetnica njegovega priimka je črka iz kratice KTM. Za T je kriv njegov stric Johann (Hans) Trunkenpolz, mehanik, ki je v rodnem Mattighofnu v štiridesetih letih prejšnjega stoletja servisiral in prodajal avtomobile in motocikle v delavnici Kraftfahrzeug Trunkenpolz Mattighofen. Ko je po drugi svetovni vojni začel motocikle tudi izdelovati – prvi model je bil R100 –, se je poslu pridružil Ernst Kronreif in podjetje se je preimenovalo v Kronreif & Trunkenpolz Mattighofen. Po Ernstovi (1960) in Hansovi (1962) smrti je vodenje prevzel Hansov sin Erich Trunkenpolz. Hubert se je leta 1998 profesionalno pridružil KTM; v prodaji je bil odgovoren za širitev na nove trge. Od takrat je imel različne zadolžitve in vodstvene položaje na področju trženja in prodaje, trenutno pa v koncernu Pierer Mobility AG bdi nad področjem motošporta, projektom X-BOW in tudi nad znamko MV Agusta. Motokros, enduro in reli so področja, po katerih KTM najbolje poznamo. Še posebej za enduro z vsemi podzvrstmi, kot so super enduro, hard oz. ekstremni enduro ter klasični enduro, se zdi, da Avstrijci nimajo pravega tekmeca, odkar so pod svoje okrilje vzeli še nekdanja tekmeca Husqvarno in GASGAS. Ob sedemdesetletnici znamke se nismo mogli upreti vprašanju, kje bo KTM čez naslednjih toliko let. »Težko je napovedati prihodnost, a KTM bo 100-odstotno še vedno močna znamka. Izdelovali bomo nekaj, kar bo prinašalo ljudem zadovoljstvo, zabavo in svobodo ... Karkoli bo že to,« je dejal Hubert Trunkenpolz.
by Alenka Birk
KTM X-BOW EXPERIENCE
MOTOR VALLEY
Explore Italy’s Motor Valley in Emilia-Romagna, where the excellence of motorised vehicles shines through names like Ferrari, Lamborghini, Maserati, Ducati and Pagani. This exclusive tour offers behind-the-scenes access to legendary factories and museums: Ferrari in Maranello, Lamborghini in Sant’Agata Bolognese, Maserati in Modena, Ducati in Borgo Panigale and Pagani in San Cesario sul Panaro. Immerse yourself in the rich heritage of motorised vehicles, guided by experts, and indulge in the region’s renowned cuisine. Mark your calendar for the next Motor Valley Fest from May 22-25, 2025. Experience the heart of Italy’s legacy of motorised vehicles firsthand!
motorvalley.it
The KTM X-BOW Experience at Austria’s Red Bull Ring is a must-do for adrenaline seekers. This event offers the chance to drive the KTM X-BOW, a highperformance sports car, on the challenging track known for its curves and straights. Choose from various programs including track days, coaching sessions and hot laps with instructors. Safety is a priority with professional guidance throughout. For an unforgettable day at one of Europe’s top racetracks, unleash your inner racer with the X-BOW.
redbullring.com
photography Philip Platzer - Red Bull Ring
Experience driving on ice in Sweden where you can pilot sports cars or rally vehicles on frozen lakes and snowy roads, offering a unique and thrilling experience. Perfect your driving skills in challenging conditions while being surrounded by breathtaking winter landscapes. Learn ultimate ice driving techniques such as braking, power drifting and car control. Whether you’re a driving enthusiast or seeking an adrenaline rush, Ice Driving in Scandinavia promises unforgettable moments on the ice. Embark on this icy adventure and experience the perfect mix of adrenaline and breathtaking winter scenery.
d-experience.se
Taste sparkling wine that has never been touched by light. Made from the finest Chardonnay, this special wine is harvested on moonless nights, handled with night-vision goggles and aged in darkness in centuries-old cellars. Bottled in dark glass and sealed in black foil, the wine is served in complete darkness, enhancing your senses. Why go to all that trouble? Because research into the impact of fluorescent lights – commonly used in stores – on the taste of sparkling wines, has shown that exposure to light decreases the intensity of citrus aromas and increases the development of its off-flavour. So come and sip on a sparkling wine that tastes the best it can.
radgonske-gorice.si
by Miran Ališič
photography Bor Dobrin, Ford
60 YEARS OF FORD MUSTANG
CANADIAN DETOUR
IN 2022 FORD UNVEILED ITS NEWEST MUSTANG, THE ULTIMATE AMERICAN SPORTS CAR FOR MORE THAN HALF A CENTURY AND CURRENTLY ONE OF THE LAST REMAINING MUSCULAR GASOLINE MACHINES FOR EVERYBODY. COSTING FROM €60,000 IN EUROPE, THE MUSTANG GT IS THE ONLY REASONABLY PRICED V8 ON THE MARKET WITHOUT TURBO BOOST AND WITH MORE THAN 328 KW (446 HP). BUT OUR TALE BEGINS DURING THE COLD WINTER MONTHS OF 1964 IN DETROIT, MICHIGAN, A STONE’S THROW AWAY FROM THE CANADIAN BORDER. WHY MENTION CANADA? BECAUSE CANADIANS PLAYED A VITAL ROLE IN THE STORY OF THE FIRST-EVER MUSTANG TO BE PRODUCED AND A SIGNIFICANT PART IN SHELBY’S HISTORY AS WELL. EVEN NOW, THE MOST AFFORDABLY PRICED EXCLUSIVE MUSTANG GTD CAN BE FOUND JUST NORTH OF THE USA.
At some point in February 1964, the first-ever assembled Mustang left the production line in Detroit, with the company planning to launch the new sports car in United States and Canada in April. The first pre-production cars were sent to every Ford dealership in the country to be displayed when sales commenced on the 17th of April. Here is where Stanley Tucker, a Canadian airline pilot who lived and worked in St. John’s in Newfoundland enters our story, after he saw the first ever produced white Mustang Convertible at the Ford dealership of George G.R. Parsons in St. John’s on 13th of April, he insisted on buying it and he got it for $4,300. The only precondition was that the car remain on display in the showroom for a bit longer. Harry Phillips, the dealership’s salesman, didn’t know that preproduction cars were for display only and were to be returned to Ford. As the white Mustang Convertible with the production plate and serial number 5F08F100001 didn’t come back, Ford started looking for it and fi nally tracked it to Newfoundland. So far, so good. But Tucker didn’t want to sell it until, at some point, Ford made him an offer he couldn’t refuse. Tucker agreed to relinquish his prize and accept the millionth Ford Mustang ever produced, so he traded in his model for a very special custommade Mustang in 1966. The first-ever built Mustang thus found its new home in the Ford
SHELBY CARS WERE MOREOVER PRODUCED IN VERY LIMITED NUMBERS, WITH A TOTAL OF (SHELBY AND FORD COMBINED) ONLY 7,100 CARS HAVING BEEN BUILT, MEANING THAT UNDISCOVERED SHELBYS ARE RARE AND MUCH APPRECIATED BY COLLECTORS AND FANS.
Museum, where it’s been on display ever since. Interestingly, Harry Phillips didn’t see the car again until Ford invited him to Detroit in 2019 – a whopping 55 years after he had mistakenly sold the famous car to the Canadian pilot. The second pre-production Mustang, a hardtop of which only three remain, was also bought in Canada in 1964 – and sold for $192,500 at an auction in 2019.
THE FIRST FORD SHELBY?
But there’s a third, much less known and recent Canadian connection with another famous Mustang, this time a Shelby. The highperformance Shelby GT350 was introduced in 1965 and remained in production until 1969. Special Shelbys – 11 pre-production models and 34 competition models – can now fetch more than a million US dollars at auctions. Shelby cars were moreover produced in very limited numbers, with a total of (Shelby and Ford combined) only 7,100 cars having been built, meaning that undiscovered Shelbys are rare and much appreciated by collectors
and fans. In April 2023, a very special red Shelby GT350 was found in Alberta, Canada. Having rolled off the production line on the 4th of May, 1967, it might just have been the fi rst Shelby produced after Ford took over the Shelby plant on the 27th of April that year. Its owners, a Canadian couple, have decided to sell it to a US enthusiast for a full restoration. The Mustang was in quite a poor state at fi rst glance, but the engine was fi ne – 1967 was the last production year of 4.7-litre V8 with 228 kW (310 hp) and this particular one came with a relatively low mileage of just above 31,000 miles (50,000 km). The then owner’s father stashed it partially dismantled in his garage for restoration in 1977 and never touched it again. All the removed parts were put inside the cabin and the vehicle was left alone for 46 years. Another important thing to note is that it was stamped with a ‘Z tag’ - a code signifying a Ford-produced car. All-in-all, it’s another fi ne example of Mustang history going back to the US.
A WORTHY SUCCESSOR
Ford sold many millions of Mustangs in the following years. While not all of the Mustangs that rolled off the production line were equally scintillating, and Ford recently also introduced the electric SUV Mustang Mach-E, the new petrol model shines brightly. The seventh iteration of the muscle car comes after more than ten million Mustangs were sold in the past sixty years. It drives even better than any of its forebearers, with Ford focussing on technology, ideas and attention to details and materials for its most recent addition to the stable. Perhaps the most important and emotional feature for me is the digital double round retro chrome tacho screen – like in the very fi rst Mustang Convertible, sold to Canada in 1964. And, of course, the six-speed manual gearbox. I would opt for the white one, even though our test car was a black hardtop with a 10-speed automatic transmission. But if you’re not happy with 343 kW (466 hp), there might be another option for you. If you had applied by the 19 th of July and were selected by Ford, you will receive a special limitededition Ford Mustang GTD. The D, of course, standing for Daytona.
THE ULTIMATE WILD HORSE
The brand-new Mustang GTD is a race car for the road. It’s designed for the circuit and has a road homologation. With more than 596 kW
(811 hp) and an 8-speed double clutch transmission, this Mustang makes you want to race it in the GT3 class. Maybe even at the 24 hours of Le Mans, but also at the Nordschleife, where a Mustang GTD is to complete a lap in under 7 minutes. Performance comes with a price; prepare to shell out more than $300,000 in America and between €360,000 and €560,000 in Europe. More than 7,500 Americans and Canadians have applied and also Ford received many applications from Europe. Among the model’s numerous exclusive features is an Akrapovič titanium exhaust system. The cheapest Mustang GTD can be found in Canada, where it’ll set you back $298,000. So, it might not come as a surprise when somebody finds a rare Mustang GTD in a very good condition there – some 60 years from now.
TUCKER AGREED TO RELINQUISH HIS PRIZE AND ACCEPT THE MILLIONTH FORD MUSTANG EVER PRODUCED, SO HE TRADED IN HIS MODEL FOR A VERY SPECIAL CUSTOM-MADE MUSTANG IN 1966.
Ford Mustang GTD
Road Trip Scotland
MUSIC, GOLF AND AMERICAN PRESIDENTS
by Graeme Brown
Scotland is a relatively small country, but over the years the Scots have given much to the rest of the world: Alexander Fleming in medicine; James Clerk Maxwell in physics; Adam Smith in economics; Robert Burns in poetry and songwriting, to name just a few. While this particular Scot cannot claim to have had any such influence on the world, he has been extremely fortunate in becoming a photographer in the FIM Superbike World Championship, a job that has taken him around the world several times in the last 25 years. It therefore seemed fitting that he should also explore a small corner of his homeland on a motorcycle that was created with transcontinental exploration in mind, an Akrapovič-equipped Yamaha Ténéré 700 World Raid.
photography Graeme Brown
64 65
The fi rst task was to get from Yamaha UK’s headquarters in Woking, England, to my home in Scotland, a 660-km trip. The Ténéré 700 World Raid is equipped with 23-litre dual fuel tanks giving it a range of up to 500 km, perfect for such a long jaunt. It’s designed to tackle any road it meets, thanks to the 230 mm travel of the KYB suspension, so crunching motorway miles on the long ride northwards is a breeze. Something that couldn’t be said for this creaky old photographer whose backside was happy to make it home.
Scotland draws in a huge number of tourists each year with more than four million visits in 2023, bringing in £3.5 billion (€4 bn) to the economy. I tend to head away from the crowds with my cameras, so I was looking forward to a few days of slowly winding my way through the parts of the country I shamefully haven’t visited in a long time.
I live just south of Glasgow, Scotland’s largest city. Sitting on the River Clyde, it was once the gateway to the rest of the world through the importation of sugar, tobacco and cotton and the export of steam locomotives, ships and manufactured cotton goods. It has enjoyed a renaissance in recent years, hosting world class sporting events and the COP26 UN Climate Conference.
Having spent a night in my bed, I set off heading south on the A77 in the direction of Ayr on the coast of the Firth of Clyde. I’m once
It’s nice to stop here and drink in the peace and tranquillity. From late January till November my life is spent rushing to and from airports and, in this digital world, rushing to deliver images from WorldSBK events to ever shorter deadlines. To stop for a while and do nothing feels like an absolute luxury.
again going in the opposite direction to the majority of tourists who gravitate to the capital Edinburgh or the Highlands in search of tartan, whisky and shortbread. I’m hoping for a more relaxed and peaceful tour by following the South West Coastal 300 route, a 300-mile (483-km) round trip that includes the best that the southwest corner of Scotland has to offer.
It’s not long before I get to Ayr and leave the main road and its morning commuter traffi c behind to visit the suburb of Alloway, where the poet and songwriter Robert Burns was born. Among many of Burns’s renowned songs and poems is Auld Lang Syne. Sung around the world every New Year, it is possibly the most popular song in the English-speaking world, apart from Happy Birthday. The home where he was born still stands and is a short walk from a museum and monument dedicated to his life and works. It takes me back to my youth, as Burns’s poems are taught in school in Scotland, and it’s a tradition to celebrate his birth date every January with the ‘Burns Supper’, an evening of poetry and song with a dinner of haggis, neeps (swede) and tatties (potatoes). Haggis, however, is a favourite dish in my house all year round.
There was no haggis but after a welcomed coffee and cake I continue the journey south, hugging the coast. The weather is pleasantly warm and sunny and it’s lovely to be rolling along soaking up the views across the Firth to the island of Arran.
I rejoin the busy A77 at Turnberry. Golf tourism plays a huge role in Scotland’s economy and a popular destination for foreign golfers is Trump Turnberry, the venue of arguably the greatest British Open Golf Championship match in history between Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson in 1977. Whilst it has been removed from the rota to host the British Open since the Trump organisation took ownership in 2014, the luxury hotel and golf courses still attract guests from around the world – though it’s not the only US Presidential link in the area.
Just before Turnberry, I stopped at Culzean Castle, the former home of the Clan Kennedy. In 1945 the Castle and its grounds were gifted to the National Trust for Scotland with a stipulation that one apartment be given to General Dwight Eisenhower in recognition of his role in the Second
World War. After becoming the 34th US President, records show that Eisenhower visited the castle on several occasions and the apartment is now available to book for visitors to stay at the castle.
The A77 is the major route south to Cairnryan and the ferry terminal that links Scotland with Northern Ireland. There aren’t as many opportunities to take in the views as the traffi c builds up so I decide to take a detour into the western hills of the Southern Uplands and within a few kilometres I am climbing away from the coast and the traffi c, fi nding myself all alone. The road ahead is like a piece of rope that couldn’t fi t its box, winding back and forward through hills clad in bright purple heather and commercial forestry plantations. The road demands concentration, but strangely I feel lost in the moment. Progress isn’t fast, but that’s not really the intention. It’s just me and the Ténéré. Rolling off the throttle between the bends elicits a satisfying pop and growl from the exhaust that brings a smile to my face. I spend the next kilometres pushing out of every bend just to roll off and induce that strangely satisfying pop, giggling to myself every time.
Progress isn’t fast but that’s not really the intention. It’s just me and the Ténéré. Rolling off the throttle between the bends elicits a satisfying pop and growl from the exhaust that brings a smile to my face.
Sadly, I reach Newton Stewart and another major route to a ferry port, the A75. As evening clouds roll in from the west, I am looking forward to getting near Stranraer and the quiet rural roads that lead down to the Mull of Galloway to play my little popping tune again. The landscape south of the A75 contrasts markedly from the route I took through the hills. It’s now more rolling and decidedly agricultural. The air is different as well. The humid smells of the pine forest have been replaced by a fresh, salty sea air.
I stop for a few nights in Isle of Whithorn, about halfway along the SWC300, a small sleepy fishing village that is not really an island at all. It is believed that the Christian Saint Ninian arrived here in the fourth century and introduced Christianity to the Pictish, now Scottish, people. The village has just one hotel which, in the past, also served as a departure point to the Isle of Man, 30 km across the channel to the south.
It’s nice to stop here and drink in the peace and tranquillity. From late January till November my life is spent hurrying to and from airports and, in this digital world, rushing to deliver images from WorldSBK events to ever shorter deadlines. To stop for a while and do nothing feels like an absolute luxury.
From here the SWC300 hugs the coast of the Solway Firth, a tidal estuary separating Scotland and England, along to Dumfries where it joins the A75 and then the M74. I take a detour again to avoid the busier roads and get back to enjoying the quieter country lanes into the Southern Uplands and the mining villages of Wanlockhead, Scotland’s highest village, and Leadhills, famous for the precious metals that have been mined here. Some of the purest gold was discovered here in the 16th century and was used to make the Scottish Crown Jewels at the time. Gold panning is still done today and as recently as 2015 one lucky resident found a 20-carat nugget worth more than £10,000 (€12,000).
This is the highest point on the route at 400 metres above sea level. It’s an enjoyable ride again as the road winds upwards into the hills. We are not far from the main arterial route through Scotland, but it feels very remote and isolated. Sheep wander freely across the road and the low clouds have an ominous feeling. It’s decidedly cooler when I stop at the museum cafe and after a pot of tea and an obligatory cake, I’m keen to get going again. As I head down the Mennock Pass I can see the sunshine caressing the rolling hills of Ayrshire in the distance.
I’m on the last leg of the route heading west and north back to Ayr, but it’s time to slow down again and enjoy the traffi c free country roads before I join the commuters on their frantic journey back to Glasgow. I can take time to refl ect on my little adventure in my own back yard and as the Ténéré and I play our happy little popping tune I start to think of where I could go next.
Maybe at Ayr I’ll turn left and go around one more time.
// Si
GLASBA, GOLF IN AMERIŠKI PREDSEDNIKI
Škota Graema Browna je delo fotografa v svetovnem prvenstvu v razredu Superbike v zadnjih 25 letih večkrat popeljalo okoli sveta, z Yamaho Ténéré 700 World Raid pa je raziskal tudi majhen kotiček svoje domovine Škotske; motocikel so izdelali za čezcelinska potovanja, opremljen pa je bil z Akrapovičevim izpušnim sistemom. Graeme se je s sedeža Yamahe UK v Wokingu v Angliji odpravil po 660 km dolgi poti do svojega doma južno od Glasgowa, največjega mesta na Škotskem. Ténéré 700 World Raid je opremljen s 23-litrsko dvojno posodo za gorivo, ki mu omogoča doseg do 500 km. Po zaslugi 230-milimetrskega hoda vzmetenja KYB je motocikel primeren za vsako cesto. Potem ko je prenočil v domači postelji, se je odpravil na jug po cesti A77 proti Ayru in obiskal še predmestje Alloway, kjer se je rodil pesnik in skladatelj Robert Burns, znan po pesmi Auld Lang Syne. Graeme je nadaljeval pot po obalni cesti proti jugu. Ustavil se je na golfišču Trump Turnberry, priljubljeni destinaciji tujih igralcev golfa, in malo pred Turnberryjem pri gradu Culzean, nekdanjem sedežu klana Kennedy. Grad in njegovo posest so leta 1945 podarili Nacionalnemu skladu za Škotsko, eno stanovanje v njem je kot priznanje za zasluge prejel general Dwight Eisenhower, kasnejši 34. ameriški predsednik.
THE ULTIMATE AUDIO
UbiqAudioLab comprises a unicum , a mighty driving force uniting three exceptionally passionate individuals: Igor Kante, Andrej Lakner and Igor Akrapovič, thereby merging three separate audio chronologies, visions, and mastery, augmented by four decades of high-end audio in all of its forms. Their similarly
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AND MUSIC GATEWAY
determined paths converged in the establishment of a small, ultra-high-end boutique manufacturer, envisioned from its very beginning to transcend the usual norms and expectations and focus solely on two major aspects: the ultimate in sound and music reproduction.
by Matej Isak photography Klemen Ilovar
Pushing the boundaries in every respect, the very essence of UbiqAudioLab encapsulates ultimate performance, similar to what Koenigsegg and Pagani stand for in the world of supercars.
It took decades of intensive research, development and investment to reach the point where all three agreed they had achieved peak performance and sound quality. Pushing the boundaries in every respect, the very essence of UbiqAudioLab encapsulates ultimate performance, similar to what Koenigsegg and Pagani stand for in the world of supercars. The same as those two cutting-edge brands, UbiqAudioLab products employ only the highest standards, both in materials and parts, alongside a singular, laser-focused determination to deliver a state-of-the-art music reproduction where money is no object. Only when you know your fi eld perfectly can something signifi cantly better be created that exceeds expectations. This is exactly what the
Slovenian handcrafted electronics deliver – a fresh breeze of innovation, made possible only by a highly specialised, boutique-oriented brand that freely pursues the creation of highend audio products of the highest calibre, designed from the ground up to meet the needs and expectations of demanding music lovers, audio enthusiasts and connoisseurs in search of a unique musical experience.
Ultimate power
In its quest, UbiqAudioLab looked back to the beginnings of the audio industry in the early 20 th century and to its very own Ubiquitous 300B hybrid preamplifi er which proudly incorporates the legendary Western Electric 300B, one of the fi rst and most iconic vacuum tubes. Made in 1938 by a company established in 1869, this tube was in continuous production for 50 years. It has recently been reintroduced using modern manufacturing standards and offering a powerful foundation for 21st century high-end audio reproduction. The Slovenian manufacturer doesn’t only pay homage to the most iconic, audio-specifi c devices, but treats hi-fi and high-end heritage with the same respect, drawing inspiration for all of its circuits from the best topologies from the past, extensively tested, and evaluated with
fanatical attention to detail. Building on this rich heritage, UbiqAudioLab has taken a few steps further with its exceptional, bespokecrafted electronics, reaching a level where music dictates the pulse, rather than vice versa. This was only possible through the ultimate refi nement of electronic circuits, fi netuned through numerous iterations over the decades. The engineers left no stone unturned by properly voicing and optimising the designs through extensive listening tests and lab-grade measurements, using only the best available measuring equipment and unmatched ‘golden ears’ of renowned high-end audio experts. The result stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the Ubiquitous 300B hybrid preamplifi er, a line of ultimate high-end power amplifi ers with proprietary VCCF modules (featuring the shortest possible signal paths) and enormous, oversized yet highly advanced power supplies, capable of handling the most complex loads and driving the best loudspeakers on the market, all while providing a fatigue-free, life-like, deeply engaging musical experience. These exquisite technologies mean nothing if they cannot deliver monumental musical power at all times and the UbiqAudioLab’s answer to the dilemma are the Ubiquitous and Ubicube state-of-the-art amplifi ers, capable of
delivering unprecedented power in abundance while avoiding any loss of peak performance, even when reproducing the most sophisticated music, such as orchestral compositions or complex electronic music.
Silky refinement
But that’s just one side of the coin. Correct music reproduction, especially at the upper echelon plane, requires more than just sheer power. Delicacy, transparency, resolution, incredibly fast attacks, and superb note articulation are essential to convey the true message of the music and ensure nothing is lost in translation. After years of sparing no effort, examining different approaches, and hands-on testing, UbiqAudioLab engineers settled on an ultra-minimalist hybrid preamp design that complements the exceptional micro/macro dynamics, transparency, and resolution of UbiqAudioLab power amplifi ers. The pairing of the company’s remarkable electronics (preamplifi er and amplifi ers) allows for eerie precision, instantly conveying and
revealing layer upon layer of aural magic. It reaches unexplored depths of sound while achieving extraordinary inner resolution, ushering in unforced transparency and unveiling the natural harmonic spectrum. Only such pivotal, symbiotic matching with the ability to handle the infi nite density of music can fully portray and refl ect the magic of live events, human vocals, acoustic instruments, and natural spaces in real-time.
Best of past and present
Similarly, the brand’s logo, a famous dragon from Ljubljana, the city of dragons, intimately symbolises power, might, and mystical transformation; qualities that UbiqAudioLab products embody throughout its product line. While honouring high-end audio artistry and achieving perfection through extensive research and development, UbiqAudioLab demonstrates out-of-the-box engineering and innovation, striking a perfect balance between classic pen-and-paper high tech designs and modern electronic advancements.
This immaculate blend introduces something truly unique: a hallmark of performance and effortless sonic delivery, encapsulated in products of timeless elegance and unmatched emotional resonance, drawing listeners into hours of seamless, captivating listening.
The second half of the 20 th century was marked by signifi cant technological and industrial development. In connection with it, there were three primary indicators of social status and having made it: the house, the car, and a hi-fi or high-end audio system. The last of the three remained strong and notable even in the ‘80s and ‘90s, before slowly fading, but is now making a comeback through brands like UbiqAudioLab, which reintroduces one of life’s true luxuries; music listened to at a level once impossible to achieve in domestic spaces.
70 71
UbiqAudioLab has taken a few steps further with its exceptional, bespoke-crafted electronics, reaching a level where music dictates the pulse, rather than vice versa.
Anish Kapoor
DON’T THINK, JUST DO IT!
Down the rabbit hole with Anish Kapoor, a magician with a compass and a hat full of red wax. “I don’t want to repeat what I’ve already done; I want to do what I don’t know how to do. What I know is of no interest to anybody – or me. It’s what I don’t know that really matters. So, I go to the studio every day and I do something, doesn’t matter what. Sometimes something unknown, something out of the ordinary, appears – the artist’s job is to recognise it and work with it. But the point is to go to the studio every day and work, work, work. There’s a saying in Zen: First idea – best idea, which in practice reads as Don’t think, just do it! ” the master of artistic intrigue freely shares his magic trick. We have attempted to try and better understand the artist who is seeking his inspiration between London and Venice.
by Tina Torelli
Cloud Gate (2006) – This site-specific sculpture made from highly polished stainless steel is located in Millennium Park in Chicago, weighs 110 tons and has been nicknamed The Bean.
I am Pregnant
Notorious for his enigmatic sculptural forms that transcend physical and psychic spaces, nonobjects and self-generating art, Anish Kapoor is undoubtedly one of the most original artists in recent decades. He’s always dragged us down the rabbit hole by playing with refl ections, dimensions, the darkest shades of red and the void. With his impactful works, he’s been proposing an honest refl ection not only on the objectivity but on the immateriality that is essentially who we are. He feels the urge to venture into other realms and to expose the world under the skin. By inviting us to embrace our good, bad and ugly wholeness, Anish Kapoor replaces the ‘ors’ with ‘ands’ and makes us question our identity.
Too much talk, not enough action
“Most of art made now has too much to say. I’m not interested in art that has a message. Great art sits between life and death, between meaning and no meaning. It emerges from the liminal space between polarities, it’s unthought and it’s unnameable,” explains Kapoor. On the other hand, he doesn’t hesitate to speak up against censorship, repression or ignorance. He marched for refugees, criticized the rise of exoticism and genderism in curatorial practices and dipped his middle fi nger into the pinkest pink to explain “that owning a colour pigment is about a very expensive technology,” but that’s a whole other story. Anish Kapoor actually owns Vantablack, the pigment with nano particles that was originally developed for the defence industry. The world’s blackest black, which absorbs 99.9 % of light, enables him to live out a childhood fantasy of “painting out the world and making holes into the space.”
Art with the smile of Mona Lisa Psychoanalyst and writer Christopher Bollas once wrote, “One senses that Kapoor, similarly, is as much a mystery to himself as he is to us. He is a dreamer we can entrust ourselves to, an informing intelligence that will always exceed whatever he or we will ever know.” In fact, Kapoor’s work doesn’t reveal much about him. He simply does what Leonardo always did – add mystery to everything he does. A firm believer that mystery is the first quality of timeless art, every piece Anish Kapoor
allowed to leave his studio, comes packed with questions and sealed with mystery. He sometimes even removes his hand from the artwork, avoiding any kind of self-reference, like for the instance in his works Svayambhu or Shooting into the Corner.
Three methods of working
At the evening talk before the exhibition at the Gallerie dell’Accademia, Homi K. Bhabha, Indian scholar and a great connoisseur of Kapoor’s art, provocatively alluded to the artist’s three methods of working: lying, sitting and standing. Anish Kapoor has been lying on a psychoanalytical couch for more than 30 years, and that’s his first – psychological rather than academic – method of working: fi shing deep in the sea of unconscious. The turbulence of the couch gave birth to the use of ritualistic materials, blood and earth, to represent symbols, allegories and epiphanies. Then comes the sitting in Buddhist meditation, as a method and Kapoor’s way of life. “To really sit is to let go, to look beyond of what I think, of what I care about. My obsession with non-objects, the dark objects, interior and the void comes from sitting in meditation. What do I know, what do I think? Who cares! It’s not what an artist does. I’m not looking to create a meaning, but to allow the meaning to emerge. If it must. It’s not essential at all. We feel art with our own
When
(1992) – Making art is itself an act similar to pregnancy, from idea to realisation. And even after that, Kapoor has a rule not to let his art works leave his studio for at least six months.
“We live in a fractured world, so I’ve always seen it as my role as an artist to attempt to make wholeness. What is this wholeness? Me and not me, some deeper me.”
Sectional Body preparing for Monadic Singularity, 2015
Leviathan, 2011
Svayambhu (2007) – His iconic Svayambhu, a Sanskrit term that means self-generated, is a monumental block of red wax squeezing through the doors of galleries, shaping itself in relation to the architecture it passes through.
C-Curve (2007) – A wall of reflective steel that curves around, almost reconnecting with itself, provides the viewers with an inverted reflection of themselves and their surroundings.
psychic space, we fill art with meaning, we just can’t do otherwise. For me, a great work leaves that space in question. As for standing, standing means but the hard daily work in the studio to grind out the ideas.” The ideas that emerge from Kapoor’s artistic sadhana - an ego-transcending spiritual practice - transcend our 3D world, struggle with defi nitions and hold space for new conversations.
Red
Back to basics: Kapoor’s universe is red and black – black as a non-colour and red as the colour of our insides. “The object is not described in its entirety by its physical presence,” the artist explains. “If I close my eyes, I know my interior is much vaster than my exterior. I explored the theme of infiniteness with void objects and black works as best I could, but looking inside you can’t help but come across blood, meat, the visceral stuff. My little adventure on this planet has taken me to colour and darkness, that is so fundamental for me. Red makes a darkness that is blacker, darker than black. And this is because we don’t see colour just with our eyes, but psychologically as well.”
Black
With his black works, characterised by the use of Vantablack, Kapoor questions the very idea of materiality. “The paint is used to make things appear. My mission is exactly the opposite, it’s dissolution of objects. There were at least two great innovations in the Renaissance – one is perspective that places the human being at the centre and the other, just as important, is the fold, again the idea of body and its essential matter. But if you put black material onto the fold, it disappears, you literally can’t see it. A black object is a four-dimensional/spiritual object. This is concurrent with my proposition of being and not being. At the end of the day, all art is illusionistic, that’s the game the artist plays, and I am very comfortable with the idea that it’s actually a trick. But isn’t all art fi ction? And doesn’t fi ction hold a deeper truth than the things we apparently call real?”
Kapoor’s art came before time, but just on time. It feels like this only apparent no-thingness that doesn’t pretend to be real or true, is something we need in this world oversaturated with stories, dogmas, meanings and information. We also don’t need just another storyteller, to tell us his story, but a mirror to see our own. In the end, this is a mirror-like universe we live in where the world is not as it is, but how we see it – sometimes red, sometimes black, but always ______ (fi ll in the space).
Non-Object (Spire) (2007) – The stainless-steel sculpture has a duplicity of form – one moment it looks like it’s fallen from the sky, another it’s spurting from the ground.
Marsyas (2002-2003) – The giant is considered Kapoor’s most celebrated work of art and one of his first massive scale sculptures. Made for the Turbine Hall of Tate Modern, it comprises three steel rings joined together by a single span of PVC membrane.
Sir Anish Kapoor – he was awarded knighthood in 2013 – is one of the most influential artists of our time. Born in Mumbai, India, in 1954, Anish has lived and worked in London since the mid-1970s. Currently he lives and works between London and Venice, home of his Foundation located in Palazzo Manfrin. His works are permanently exhibited in MoMA in New York, Tate in London, Fondazione Prada in Milan, Guggenheim Museums in Venice, Bilbao and Abu Dhabi. Anish Kapoor represented Great Britain at the 44th Venice Biennale in 1990, where he won the Premio Duemila with 16 sand blocks and pure blue pigment. In 1991 he won the Turner Prize and has since received numerous international awards. His public architectural projects include Cloud Gate in Chicago, Leviathan in Paris, Orbit in London, Ark Nova in Matsushima, Descension in New York and Naples Metro stops Traiano and Universitá Monte St Angelo.
Ne razmišljaj, samo naredi!
Sir Anish Kapoor – leta 2013 je prejel viteški naslov – je eden najvplivnejših umetnikov našega časa. Rodil se je leta 1954 v Mumbaju v Indiji, od sredine sedemdesetih let prejšnjega stoletja pa živi in dela v Londonu. Trenutno je razpet med Londonom in Benetkami, kjer v Palazzu Manfrin upravlja svojo fundacijo. Njegova dela so stalno razstavljena v Muzeju sodobnih umetnosti (MoMA) v New Yorku, Galeriji Tate v Londonu, Fondazione Prada v Milanu, Guggenheimovih muzejih v Benetkah, Bilbau in Abu Dabiju. Anish Kapoor je zastopal Veliko Britanijo na 44. Beneškem bienalu leta 1990, kjer je osvojil Premio Duemila s 16 peščenimi bloki in čistim modrim pigmentom. Leta 1991 je prejel Turnerjevo nagrado in po njej še številne mednarodne. Njegovi javni arhitekturni projekti so Cloud Gate v Chicagu, Leviathan v Parizu, Orbit v Londonu, Ark Nova v Macušimi, Descension v New Yorku, postajališči podzemne železnice Traiano in Università Monte St. Angelo v Neaplju. »Nočem ponavljati tega, kar sem že naredil; želim delati tisto, česar ne znam. Kar vem, ne zanima nikogar – niti mene. To, česar ne vem, je resnično pomembno. Torej, vsak dan grem v studio in naredim nekaj, ni pomembno, kaj. Včasih se pojavi nekaj neznanega, nenavadnega – umetnikova naloga je, da to prepozna in s tem dela. Bistvo pa je, da greš vsak dan v studio in delaš, delaš, delaš. V zenu obstaja pregovor: prva ideja – najboljša ideja, ki se v praksi glasi: ‘Ne razmišljaj, samo naredi!’« mojster umetniških spletk prostodušno deli svoj čarovniški trik.
// Si
HOW IT ALL BEGAN
With the MotoGP World Championship celebrating its diamond jubilee this year, it’s only right that we pay homage to the motorcycle that won the first MotoGP crown.
It goes without saying that the world was in a mess in the late 1940s. People wanted to get back to normal life and that included motorcycle racers. Racing resumed soon after the end of the Second World War and motorcycling’s first world championships got underway in June 1949 at the Isle of Man TT.
Four manufacturers contested the 1949 premier class: British brands AJS and Norton and Italian marques Gilera and Moto Guzzi, though some were more committed than others.
Gilera didn’t bother undertaking the arduous 1800-kilometre trip across war-torn Europe from Milan to the Isle of Man. Three months later, it lost both rider and constructor world titles by a single point!
The first MotoGP rider and constructor crowns thus went to AJS, an ancient marque based in London. AJS achieved these successes with rider Les Graham on an E90 500 cm 3 four-stroke parallel twin, nicknamed the Porcupine.
The Porc was an interesting motorcycle but not a very good one. AJS engineers had started working on the bike in the 1930s,
when Norton’s single-cylinder racers were struggling to keep up with a new breed of grand prix bikes: Gilera’s supercharged fours and BMW’s supercharged twins.
The first Porc engine was therefore supercharged, making around 52 kW (71 hp), not a bad number for the time. Then the unfortunate happened! Times were hard after the war, so supercharging was banned. AJS should have started all over again, but company management were too mean, so the engine had to be repurposed from a lowrevving, low-compression supercharged unit to a high-revving, high-compression naturally aspirated unit.
No great surprise then that the first remake was a joke: 21 kW (29 hp) on the dyno! By the time Graham lined up for the opening grand prix – the 1949 Senior TT – the number was closer to 38 kW (52 hp). Not great, but just about enough for the job.
Graham led the race by a mile, until a magneto shaft sheared two minutes from the chequered flag. This was miserly management again – AJS used cheap, lowquality proprietary components. Management wouldn’t even let Graham replace the bike’s standard rear shocks with something better.
And there was another problem. Power creates heat and the Porc soon had overheating issues. The bike got its nickname from the engine’s array of cooling fins and
by Mat Oxley
spikes, but even these weren’t enough to stop the engine from getting dangerously hot. In desperation, engineers wanted to cast the cylinder head in silver for maximum heat dissipation. You can imagine the management’s answer to that request!
Despite the Porc’s numerous faults, it had a great rider. Graham was a decorated World War Two pilot, a master of man/machine interaction. He scored two more victories to lead the points chase into the finale at Monza, Italy.
Graham seemed done for when Carlo Bandirola (nicknamed Bouncing Bandi), Gilera number-one Nello Pagani’s team-mate, knocked him off, but he took the title by the skin of his teeth. The 37-year-old still ranks as the oldest winner in the royal class and the Porc is the only twin-cylinder motorcycle to have won a MotoGP title.
Mat Oxley
Mat Oxley has been a motorcycle journalist for more than four decades, covering MotoGP full-time since 1988. During his own racing career, he won an Isle of Man TT race and took third place in the Endurance World Championship, scoring secondplace finishes in the Le Mans and SpaFrancorchamps 24-hour races. He is based in London, UK.
illustration Natan Esku
MotoGP’s unlikely first champion
STAYING ON TOP
Congratulations to Jorge Prado and the Red Bull GASGAS Factory Racing team for once again winning the FIM Motocross World Championship (MXGP class) title and confi rming that the GASGAS MC 450F equipped with the lightweight titanium Akrapovič exhaust system is the machine to beat.
#RacedByChampions
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