The FIM Magazine - Ride With Us - N° 70

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T H E

F I M

M A G A Z I N E

WITH US!

VALENTINO ROSSI MY HARDEST CHAMPIONSHIP

RETROSPECTIVE

FIM ENDURANCE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

FIM REPRESENTED AT THE U.N.

U.N. FIRST MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE ON ROAD SAFETY

O F F I C I A L G E A R PA R T N E R

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NOVEMBER DECEMBER 09

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Editorial STANDINGS

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A Return to Greatness FIM MotoGP World Championship PADDOCK MOTOGP

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Valentino Rossi Interview FIM INSIDE RIDE

16-21 Publishing Director: Guy Maitre

Retrospective QTEL FIM Endurance World Championship STANDINGS

Chief Editor: Isabelle Larivière

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Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme 11, route Suisse – 1295 Mies – Suisse Tel : +41-22 950 95 00 – Fax : +41-22 950 95 01 @ : info@fim.ch website : www.fim-live.com

Dominant Spies FIM Superbike World Championship PADDOCK SUPERBIKE

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Photos: Photo Milagro/Yamaha David Reygondeau Stan Perec Roger Lohrer FIA Foundation Christopher Horne John Chaplin Kyoichi Nakamura Oliver Franke/IFMXF.com Juan Pablo Acevedo Frank Hoppen

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A Duel with Art & Method Double Interview Spies – Haga FIM INSIDE STANDINGS

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Crump succeeds Again FIM Speedway World Championship VINTAGE

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Lay-out & Printing: OIKO SERVICE srl via Po 74 66020 S.Giovanni Teatino Chieti - Italy

History of Track Racing TECH TALK

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FIM Magazine n° 70 Issued November-December 2009

IGOR AKRAPOVIC Europe’s Engineer of exhaust expertise GALLERY

Past issues available on request The articles published in this magazine do not necessarily reflect the official position of the FIM.

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The content of this publication is based on the best knowledge and information available at the time the articles were written.

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Blue is the colour!

Unforgettable year for Yamaha Motor Racing ROAD BOOK JANUARY/FEBRUARY

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editorial

Vito IPPOLITO FIM President

Dear Readers, The FIM is a family. In a family it is our concern to help others. Each year in road traffic collisions one million three hundred thousand people are killed worldwide.

As medical advances wipe out disease, it will soon be the main cause of early death.

Almost immediately after motorcycle sport started (110 years ago) protective clothing was developed. Sixty years passed before the modern safety helmet was developed with the revolution of the of the shock absorbing liner. But that is now fifty years ago!

Wearing leather clothing when riding on the street may not always be practicable, or affordable. But today low cost alternatives exist.

Reinforced clothing that looks exactly like ordinary denims, chinos or other regular clothing. Much death and injury would be avoided if all riders wore protective clothing and a helmet.

This is why the FIM supports the Asia Injury Prevention Foundation helmet campaign. This action (to be followed now in other countries after the example of Vietnam) is part of the United Nations, “Decade of Action” agreed at the UN Moscow conference in November. Our Chief Executive Officer M. Maitre attended the Moscow conference and a report is in this issue.

Now, I leave you to enjoy the magazine which includes Road Racing season reviews in words and images, interviews with some of the best riders of the world. You will learn more about Track Racing from its birth to the review of 2009 season and much more!

Even though 2009 had its share of economic difficulties, all the FIM family worked together to ensure a fantastic year and everybody worked hard to prepare the best possible future for the motorcycling community.

Congratulations and all my best wishes to all the riders and to all the FIM family. I wish you a successful and fruitful 2010!

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standings

From the start, there were the Famous Four; the human contest made it a fantastic season! ///

A RETURN TO GREATNESS MOTOGP’S FAMOUS FOUR MAKE A FANTASTIC SEASON WHAT A YEAR IT WAS. SOME There were four possible candidates: WERE E VEN WHISPERING ABOUT A NEW GOLDEN AGE. THE KEY INGREDIENT WAS THAT FOR THE FIRST TIME IN YE ARS, THE GR AND PRIX CIRCUS WOULD TURN UP AT A FAMILIAR RACE-TRACK ... WITHOUT ANY CLEAR IDEA OF WHO WAS LIKELY TO WIN.

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the supermen of the grid. Just like it was when Schwantz and Rainey vied with Lawson and Gardner and others in the late 1980s. But even after two of the four were eliminated the championship remained at peak tension. Two uneasy Yamaha teammates strove for supremacy, in another echo of some great battles of the past.

marked by some announcement of new regs, new proposals, new revisions. Testing was slashed and practice time likewise; long-life engines came in halfway through.

As well as this, a new single-tyre rule (Bridgestone) was in its first year, with just two tyres to choose (in advance) for every race, instead of the range of constant new developments riders had been used to.

It is certain that 2009 will be remembered as a classic championship year. A season in which riders made the difference, in spite of (or is it because of?) a general technical dumbing down. And the best rider perhaps o f a l l t i m e w o n h i s n i n t h Wo r l d Championship, and probably his best ever.

And after three years, the 800cc MotoGP motorc ycle s had won fe w f r iends .

Expensive and intricate, the machines were short on torque but long on electronics. A tendency had been growing for processional racing, where each rider found his ideal lap time, and then they would follow one another to the chequered flag.

Racing in 2009 took place under the shadow of the world financial crisis. Costcutting measures brought new rules and restrictions – almost ever y race was

In spite of all this, the human contest made it a fantastic season. From the start, there were the Famous Four.

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standings

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Dani Pedrosa (24) was now a mature talent on the Honda that had a point to prove: the Repsol-backed bikes had been lagging in the 800cc years.

2006 champ Casey Stoner (also 24) had been beaten for the title last year, but was as strong as ever, the only man who could tame the explosive Ducati Desmosedici.

And the Yamaha pair. Valentino Rossi had won in 2008, and was … well, he was Valentino Rossi. But team-mate Jorge Lorenzo was now in his second year, and was exceedingly threatening.

The contest was run over 17 rounds (the new Hungarian GP having been cancelled at the last minute, not to be replaced), and the Famous Four were soon whittled down.

Pedrosa had a massive crash in testing and started the year with an injured leg.

Another crash (on a bicycle!) hurt his other leg after just four races. He showed courage in dealing with each injury, but it was only late in the year that he was approaching full strength and fitness.

Dani’s other problem was a Honda chassis that didn’t much like the stif f new B r idge s tone s af ter gener ations on Michelins. The V4 was powerful and in his hands had devastating acceleration off the start line. But power was at the expense of smooth and predic t able engine response. He was soon out of the title challenge, and would win just twice – preserving a disappointing win rate that has been the same since 2006.

Stoner came out f ighting on the new carbon-fibre-chassis Ducati, winning the first race. He had claimed one more win and was still right up there on points when he was stricken by mysterious fatigue and other health problems at round six in Catalunya. Things would get worse until after the British GP he elected to take a ten-week three-race leave of absence. It was a controversial decision, but when he came back he soon killed any rumours that he had hit burn-out at the same age as scintillating predecessor Freddie Spencer … claiming two more wins in the last four

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races, and going faster than ever. Even an embarrassing crash on the warm-up lap at the final round in Valencia (he was on pole position, but out of the race) couldn’t dent his smiling return to full confidence.

This left the Fiat Yamaha pair, and their battle was fascinating. Lorenzo may have lacked some race-craf t, and he crashed out of four races. But often as not he was just as fast as Rossi, and now and then a bit faster. They clashed head to head most memorably at Catalunya. Lorenzo seemed to have the race won … until the Grand Master invented a brand new overtaking move on the very last corner.

Rossi won out almost every time they clashed head to head, but there were other occasions – as in Japan and Portugal – where Jorge was simply too fast for him to catch. The Portuguese race was salutary: the Spaniard and his crew chief Ramon Forcada had once again found a better bike setting than Rossi and the famed Jeremy Burgess, and Valentino was a yawning 25 seconds behind his young team-mate.

Valentino came back from every setback stronger than ever. But a couple of slips showed how much pressure he was

under. He fell in the wet at Donington in Britain (as did Lorenzo), though he was lucky enough to be able to get back on again. The big disaster was at Indianapolis, when it was his turn to crash out while his rival showed the way. “At times it was my hardest championship ever,” said Rossi, adding: “I have to say my team-mate has pushed me to new levels.”

He also had some hard words about Yamaha, suggesting he had earned more respect than that the factory should give the superb M1 Yamaha, a bike he has been instrumental in developing, “to my worst enemy”.

Lorenzo’s ominous comment spoke volumes of the age difference: 30 to 22. “I made some mistakes … but I am getting better.”

Stoner lost third overall to Pedrosa after his Valencia disaster; his Ducati once again proved to be a one-man bike: new Marlboro team-mate Nicky Hayden made a much better fist of it than predecessor Melandri, and made progress through the year, but still ended up a downbeat 13th overall. “Next year we’ll get to tracks and already have some data: that should help,” he said.

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standings

The final 250 crown was won by Honda-mounted Hiro Aoyama (28), Japan’s first World Champion since the late Kato took the same title in 2001.///

Colin Edwards was a popular fifth overall, the 35-year-old having his best-ever season on the satellite Monster Tech 3 Yamaha. He ultimately defeated new factory Repsol Honda rider Andrea Dovizioso (23) by one point, even though the Italian had managed a first win in the rain at Donington, after Lorenzo and Rossi both crashed. The evergreen Texan is still awaiting a first win, but will have another chance next year.

the battle was decided. He rode a wild card Yamaha at Valencia, finishing a strong seventh, then placing fourth overall in testing two days after the race.

Seventh to 13th overall were covered by just 11 points. The erratic Toni Elias (San Carlo Honda) emerged on top with a best of third at Brno, defeating team-mate Alex de Angelis by four points. The San Marino rider had a best of second after a season of solid improvement (but still a few too many hot-headed collisions), but both of them were looking for rides elsewhere at the end of the season, probably destined for the new Moto2 class.

250CC: RACING TO EXTINCTION

Loris Capirossi (Rizla Suzuki), Marco Melandri (Hayate Kawasaki), Randy de Puniet (LCR Honda) and Chris Vermeulen (Rizla Suzuki) were next, then Hayden. The Suzukis had struggled for pace all year, with a disillusioned Vermeulen depar ting for World Superbikes at the end of it. Melandri’s Kawasaki ran strongly at the start of the year, but without factory support the machine had been outclassed by the later races, and his results showed it.

With the title decided in Malaysia, there was one more thrill – the arrival at high speed of Texan Ben Spies. The Yamaha rider had taken a maiden World Superbike title to add to his collection of US AMA titles, but had decided to move to MotoGP even before

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He’s not the only exciting addition to next year’s grid: the top four in the 250 class also join MotoGP next year. Should be a good one.

The end of 250 two-strokes was inevitable, and it was put forward by a year during 2009, with the accelerated introduction of 600cc four-stroke Moto2 from 2010.

The heroes of the final season for the classic class, begun at the birth of the series in 1949, laid on a year of thrilling close racing and a title battle that reminded everyone of what they were about to lose.

In some respects, the series was showing its ill health: a grid of around 24 lacked strength in depth, but the fights up front made up for it. The battle for the final 250 crown ran right up to the very last race.

It was won by Honda-mounted Hiro Aoyama (28), Japan’s first World Champion since the late Kato took the same title in 2001.

With just one bike in his garage and a minimum of factory support, he defeated the might of Aprilia and Gilera. The irony was that Honda was a big factor in the death of the two-stroke class, but this was the only major title the company won all year.

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The last surviving classic class was full of beans in 2009. One rider rose head and shoulders above the rest; popular 22-year-old Spaniard Julian Simon clinched the 125cc World Title . ///

Aoyama won four races , but the consistency of scoring points at every round proved invaluable.

for the usual close and unpredictable racing, frequently with packs of up to ten riders disputing the lead.

His f inal rival, the charismatic defending champion Marco Simoncelli (22) on the factory Gilera, had won six, but started the year with two no-scores after a pre-season motocross testing injury. Then he crashed out three more times. The last was at the final round, where another zero score not only gave overall victory to Aoyama, but handed second overall to Aprilia rider Hector Barbera (23), who had scored three wins in his best season ever.

One rider rose head and shoulders above the rest: popular 22-year-old Spaniard Julian Simon, who had been demoted from the 250 class on joining Team Bancaja Aspar, the class leaders.

Early challenger Alvaro Bautista (24, Aprilia) was fourth. He joins Suzuki’s MotoGP team next year; Barbera goes to Aspar Ducati, Simoncelli to San Carlo Honda and Aoyama to a new Honda MotoGP team.

Plucky Mattia Pasini was fifth after an up-and-down year spoiled at the end when his team ran out of money. Class rookie Raffaele de Rosa (Honda) took sixth from former 125 champion Thomas Luthi; French riders Mike di Meglio (reigning 125 champion) and privateer Jules Cluzel both impressed, finishing eighth and 12th overall.

The two-stroke 250s became museum pieces as the chequered flag fell at Valencia. They had laid on a fine funeral.

125CC: EXPERIENCE DEFEATS YOUTH The last surviving classic class was full of beans in 2009. A volatile brew of experienced riders and burgeoning young talent made

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He won seven races. It would have been eight if he hadn’t celebrated one lap too early at home in Catalunya, and drew steadily clear on points. The only one to come close was his teammate Bradley Smith (18). The Briton won only twice, but four second places and three thirds secured him a clear second overall.

Spaniard Nico Terol (Aprilia, 21) just managed to hang on to third from up-and-coming 18-year-old compatriot Pol Espargaro, who took two wins to Terol’s one. Sergio Gadea, with one win, was fifth overall on the third Aspar bike.

Early points leader Andrea Iannone dropped back to seventh overall behind German Sandro Cortese; while a strong group of youngsters impressed, including Spaniards Marc Marquez and Efren Vazquez, and a couple of hot Germans, Jonas Folger and Marcel Schrotter, the latter joining later in the season in a team backed by former multi-champion Toni Mang.

There was a blow in the latter part of the season, when KTM announced its withdrawal from GP racing. This leaves the 125s much as the 250s were, relying almost totally on Aprilia for equipment … an ominous sign for the last two-stroke class.

by Michael Scott

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PAD D OCK

VALENTINO ROSSI INTERVIEW

Sporting heroes come in all shapes and sizes. Motorcycle racing gods likewise. The one for the new century has a very recognisable outline.

Valentino Rossi, his cheeky smile, his number 46, his trade-mark yellow and his multi-coloured nickname “The Doctor” – these are icons that go far beyond the limits of motorbike racing to touch the world beyond.

Rossi seems to have been at the top for so long now that we take him for granted. His stature is without question: Vale is right up there with Agostini, and Mike Hailwood. Yet this past season gave a powerful reminder, not only that Rossi is beatable, but also of just why he is what he is. Under more pressure than ever in his career, aged 30 and with nothing left to prove, Valentino fought back with an intensity that carried him to a classic ninth World Championship. “In some ways,” he mused, “it was my hardest ever.”

Rossi’s milestone of the year was his 100th grand prix win – a series that started back in the 125 class in 1996. It was up to 103 by the end of the year. Only Agostini has won more, with 122. The target is within sight, but not getting any easier, as Rossi now faces a crop of younger talent eager to knock him off his perch.

The worst of it, according to him, is that the greatest challenge comes from his own team-mate, Jorge Lorenzo, riding a bike that Rossi has been largely instrumental in turning from lame duck into the best on the MotoGP grid. (Yamaha’s creative engineers also deserve some credit, by the way.)

FIM: Valentino – is it more satisfying when you beat your teammate?

V.R.: For sure, on the track is a great satisfaction – more satisfying because you are on the same level.

But you know ... it is a different way to work in the team.

Usually the big manufacturers in the last years have just one top rider each. We are two in Yamaha, so this is a different strategy that can bring good result, but also big disaster.

I always try to make a great work for developing the bike, and I usually make the work just for me. But now I also make the work for my worst enemy.

Sincerely, I think I don’t deserve this, after what I do for Yamaha.

But this is the Yamaha choice.

FIM: You have a contract for 2010 with Yamaha, but after that?

There have been a lot of rumours about a move to Ducati.

V.R.: I have a good opportunity with Ducati, but first I have to decide about my future, before June in 2010. I think I will continue racing for ten more years, but not with motorcycles.

I have to decide next year first if I continue with motorcycles, then if I continue with Yamaha, of if I change …

Before, I thought I would never go out from Yamaha … but now with this situation with Lorenzo I think Yamaha will have to be a decision. But I don’t know also if I continue.

After that I will have some other years with the car, I think. But more relaxed. For sure the main career will be with bikes.

Valentino Rossi must try to finish on the top. When I understand it is too strong, too hard, and I have to fight for fifth place … why?

Is better to stop before that.

FIM: You have won in all classes, on all different types of bike: 125, 250 and 500 two-strokes, 990 and 800 four-strokes. Is your riding still developing and changing?

V.R.: Yes. Have to, because the bikes change a lot. I spent seven or eight years between 500 and 990, that were a different way to ride than 250. But now with the 800 with Bridgestone tyres

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PA DDO C K

and a lot of electronics, I have to come back to ride like a 250.

What I learned and the way to ride of the last years I have to throw away, and restart to modify another time the style, to use this type of bike at the maximum.

You have to ride more cleanly, and not slide. Especially you are a lot more on the edge compared to the past, because the grip on the edge is a lot better and the electronics on the bike help a lot for you to open the throttle also on the edge.

FIM: What is your strongest point of technique?

V.R.: Precision, I think. I have a precise riding style, and also I don’t throw anything away. Clean and precise.

FIM: Your half-brother Luca has started junior racing. What advice would you give him?

V.R.: Try to use the maximum of the bike and the track.

I think is very important the mind … concentration. When you

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are on the bike to be able to forget all the rest. You have to make your life out of the race-track different: stay quiet with not a lot of pressure, and try and fix all your personal problems before you go on the bike.

And for the rest: keep quiet. I mean, sometimes is possible you arrive in one track and you are very slow, and you are not able to ride like you want – don’t be desperate, because maybe next week all change another time. So don’t be very desperate when is all shit, and at the same time don’t be very happy when all is okay.

FIM: Concentration must be difficult – at the race-track you are always surrounded by fans and Press and people.

Everybody wants to speak to you.

V.R.: Always in my career I can arrive at the right concentration.

But every year is more difficult, for sure. You have to use your experience. You have to know what you have to do from Monday before the race to arrive on Sunday prepared.

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PAD D OCK

I don’t do any strange things, like ways to concentrate or work on my mind. I just try to arrive relaxed and not a lot of pressure from outside, you know.

Try to fix any problems – parking tickets, things to do in the house – before you start, and stay with your good friends, and pass the time with the people that you like … for me, if I am with the people that I don’t like I become more nervous.

So you make a good defence around yourself.

FIM: What about your rivals. Do you have to hate them? Do you hate Jorge?

V.R.: First you have to understand your rival. You have to know your enemy.

You have to know the good point of your enemy, and the bad point. You have to try to understand what your enemy thinks in that moment.

You have to hate your enemy, yes, but depends in which way. I mean, it’s possible to hate your enemy on the track but have a quite good relationship away from the track. Not a good friend, but civil.

This sometimes happens sometimes not. Depends on the behaviour of the two enemies out of the track.

On the track, it is something like the law of the jungle. If you try to kill your enemy is okay. If one time you don’t try, for sure your enemy will kill you.

FIM: Of your rivals, who was the most pleasure to beat?

V.R.: Sete Gibernau, always … because before we were quite good friend, and after we have some problem out of the track, so the enemy became bigger. The motivation.

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But ... everybody, in other ways: with Biaggi, with Capirossi, with Lorenzo, with Stoner … always great, great enemies. With Melandri also: was fun, and difficult for sure, but this gives me a great motivation always.

FIM: Are you so competitive in everything? What is it like to play cards with you?

V.R.: I am very competitive yes, but not too much. When I play cards or football or the table soccer that we play a lot in my house with my friends, I don’t like to make anything dirty. I want to make clean. I give all, 100 percent, and if I lose I am quite angry, but not something big. I lose quite a lot.

FIM: What about if you lose on the track?

V.R.: Depends a lot which way you lose. I am very angry for a period of hours. But after that, it is finished. The important thing is to try to understand why you lose.

FIM: But you still have to stand on the rostrum on the number two spot and smile.

VR: If you are on the rostrum on the second step, is not a disaster.

Is not comparable to winning, but is better than third, than a crash, than taking zero points. Because in the end the target is to win the championship. So is like … the battle and the war, you know.

FIM: What is your favourite way to relax?

V.R.: I like sleep, a lot. To relax, to take power. And I like to go to the gym. That is very relaxing for me in the last years. Stay with my trainer at the gym at night. Alone in the gym is good.

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Stay with my friends, play with the Playstation … I like to try to race something. Playstation with Gran Turismo, or soccer, or play cards. I like to race to relax.

FIM: Being so famous must make life difficult. Is the price of success too high?

V.R.: Is difficult, because … you know, when you work from maybe eight ‘o’clock to eight ‘o’clock, then you relax ... go out with your friends or your girlfriend to eat. For me, I have to work always.

So sometimes you are not happy, or you are tired, but you have to be fair. If you angry or treat the people badly, they say: “Yeah, Valentino Rossi is a dickhead.” So this is difficult.

You lose all the small things – like to go and buy a pair of shoes, or go to the beach, buy a newspaper, go to take the breakfast in a bar … no way. So it is difficult.

FIM: Do you still ever go out in disguise?

V.R.: More in the past – with a wig, a moustache, sunglasses. It was funny, but difficult … because if one recognises you, then Aah – Valentino!

Now I go more normal, I don’t want to fight this.

FIM: You are one of the world’s highest-paid sportsmen. How important is money to you? Is there ever enough?

V.R.: For my lifestyle, I think I have already enough money. I don’t race for money, but I am rich. I take a lot of money. That is very good for me. The important is don’t become too obsessed with the money.

I know how much money I have, and I like to manage my money,

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now especially in the last two years. And I am happy when I read how much money I have.

FIM: What is the best present you have bought yourself?

V.R.: My boat. We are growing up in a clever way. We take a small boat to start, we take bigger, a little bit bigger. Now the boat is good, is big. But we know how to drive it for two years. So I hope to improve myself also in the sea.

I like a lot cars, so I spend some money for cars. Last year for the championship I buy a good Porsche. What I need now is a good house that is my house. Because I spend a lot of time with my mother. I have another place, but I want to build one house from zero that will become the house for me and my family.

FIM: Finally, looking back over the season, how would you sum it up?

V.R.: In some ways, my hardest. Jorge pushed me to new levels.

So this year is a great performance but also some mistakes … a little bit too much. Two times because was strange conditions, with the slick tyre in the wet (Le Mans and Donington). At Indianapolis it was a stupid mistake. In reality there were four top riders and we were all on the limit all season. That is why we made some mistakes.

It is battles like this that make racing fun for the fans. And also very much for the winning rider.

by Michael Scott

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Fim inside

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ROAD SAFETY & PUBLIC POLICY NEWS NEW UNITED NATIONS RESOLUTION RECOGNISES MOTORCYCLE SAFETY!

Lord George Robertson, Greig Craft and Guy Maitre .///

FIM REPRESENTS MOTORCYCLING IN MOSCOW

FIM Chief Executive Officer Guy Maitre and Director of Public Affairs John Chatterton-Ross were in Moscow 19-20 November for the United Nations first Ministerial Conference on road safety. Opening the conference the President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev called for action on a worldwide crisis running at one million three hundred thousand road deaths every year.

President Medvedev called for action on road safety to match other global issues. “Road safety is one of the most serious problems of international development requiring immediate action.”

who now heads the Global Commission for Road Safety. In the run up to Moscow – as we reported earlier – FIM President Ippolito and CEO Guy Maitre, together with Achilles Damen as CMT President had already added their names to the call by Lord Robertson and his colleagues for a “Decade of Action.” The figures are staggering – as emphasised by Hollywood star and global ambassador for road safety Michelle Yeoh in her speech to the delegates from around the world. A successful programme could save five million lives!

He added: “We need coordinated international effort. – This is an issue on the level of the global recession and food security. The UN Decade of Action will coordinate activity. Like many countries, Russia would benefit from increased international cooperation on road safety if a Decade of Action was adopted.”

Other parts of the declaration adopted by the conference are equally practical in their focus as that quoted above. For example a requirement on the World Bank when financing infrastructure projects to take account of the road safety consequences in the design of new highways. – Simple things like pedestrian bridges across new roads to allow children a safe route to school.

The four page declaration includes specific action on vulnerable road users.

It reads: Make particular efforts to develop and implement policies and infrastructure solutions to protect all road users in particular those who are most vulnerable such as pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists and users of unsafe public transport, as well as children, the elderly and people living with disabilities.

Today we are at the tipping point where road deaths and injuries are set to become the number one killer of young people worldwide below the age of 25 years replacing diseases such as malaria. – Which has been combated so successfully by the efforts of doctors and scientists aided by generous donations of research funding from the public and leading foundations such as that run by American philanthropist Bill Gates.

Underpinning many of these efforts to get as far as the Moscow conference has been the work of the FIA Foundation which the FIM is pleased to support.

At the conference Guy Maitre took time to discuss the helmet project with Greig Craft and plans to roll this out to other countries using the successful model pioneered in Vietnam. None of us in the FIM would participate in any discipline of motorcycle sports without wearing a helmet. It is a simple message anyone can understand.

Across the world on a daily basis millions of children also ride on the family transport (the family motorcycle or scooter) without a helmet. Fixing that as has been done in Vietnam really is a “road safety vaccine.”

by John Chatterton-Ross

As well as the address by the Russian president other notable world leaders attending included former NATO Secretary-general Lord George Robertson

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RETROSPECTIVE 2009 QTEL FIM ENDURANCE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP LE MANS – 24 HOURS YAMAHA AUSTRIA TAKES ITS MARKS AT THE 24 HOURS OF LE MANS. THE YART WINS AFTER A PERFECT RACE AHEAD OF THE BEST TEAMS. THE AUSTRIAN YAMAHA TAKES VICTORY OVER TWO OFFICIAL TEAMS, HONDA FRANCE AND SUZUKI SERT.

Unusual podium in Le Mans: Yamaha Austria precedes Honda France and SERT Suzuki, nine times Endurance World Champion.

Yamaha Austria Racing Team (Igor Jerman, Steve Martin and Gwen Giabbani) begins the season with victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans - the first on the road to the 2009 title!

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The Honda France 111 of Sébastien Charpentier, Matthieu Lagrive and Steve Plater racing for victory. After two crashes, they have to be satisfied with second place…

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OSCHERSLEBEN - 8 HOURS IN GERMANY, YAMAHA AUSTRIA KEEPS GOING AFTER LE MANS AND TAKES VICTORY AHEAD OF THE YAMAHA AMADEUS X-ONE AND THE SUZUKI RT RACING TEAM MOTO VIRUS ON A RACE SHORTENED BY AN HEAVY THUNDERSHOWER.

After two victories at Le Mans and Oschersleben, YART leads the championship by 28 points.

Yamaha Amadeus X-One newcomer Ayrton Badovini gives a boost to the team which takes its first podium at Oschersleben with Paolo Tessari and Will Gruy.

RT Racing Team Moto Virus, fourth on Le Mans 24 H, takes third place on Oschersleben podium with David Morillon, Frédéric Jond and Jean-Louis Devoyon.

F I M MAG AZ I NE .7 0 /// NOVEMBER DECEMBER 2009

Second victory in a row for Yamaha Austria, but first podium for Amadeus X-One and RT Racing Team Moto Virus in the FIM Endurance World Championship.

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ALBACETE - 8 HOURS THIRD RACE AND THIRD VICTORY FOR YAMAHA AUSTRIA! IGOR JERMAN, STEVE MARTIN AND GWEN GIABBANI TAKE THE VICTORY AT THE 8 HOURS OF ALBACETE AHEAD OF THE YAMAHA FOLCH ENDURANCE AND THE SUZUKI TEAM 18 SAPEURS POMPIERS.

Fantastic race for the Team 18 Sapeurs Pompiers. The French Suzuki team, with Stéphane Molinier, David Brière and Jérôme Tangre, takes its first podium.

Difficult race in Albacete for Yamaha Austria who have to fight with Folch Endurance and strong competitors like Michelin Power Research Team, BK Maco Moto and Phase One Endurance.

As in Oschersleben, QERT enters two Suzuki and signs in Spain a solid one-two in the Superstock class. QERT 95 is the favourite for the 2009 FIM Superstock World Cup.

Third in 2008, the Spanish team Folch Endurance makes a fantastic comeback with David Checa, Daniel Rivas and Jose Manuel Luis Rita.

Another victory for Yamaha Austria. Folch Endurance is second, for Team 18 Sapeurs Pompiers, it’s the first time!

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SUZUKA - 8 HOURS AS FOR THE 2007 EDITION, YOSHIMURA SUZUKI MAKES AN IMPRESSION AND TAKES VICTORY ON HONDA’S TERRITORY. SUZUKI YOSHIMURA WITH JOMO WINS AHEAD OF THE KAWASAKI TRICK STAR RACING AND THE HONDA DREAM RT SAKURAI.

Unusual podium at Suzuka: Yoshimura Suzuki and Kawasaki Trick Star are on the two top spots of the podium ahead of Honda Dream Sakurai.

On the Yamaha BK Maco Moto Racing Team, Dani Ribalta and Jason Pridmore give pride to the Slovakian colours by finishing eleventh.

F I M MAG AZ I NE .7 0 /// NOVEMBER DECEMBER 2009

Igor Jerman, Steve Martin and Gwen Giabbani run a faultless race and finish 4th and put Yamaha first. YART got their best result ever at the Japanese round.

Fantastic race for winning team Yoshimura Suzuki with Daisaku Sakai, Kasuki Tokudome and Nobuatsu Aoki - also winners of the 2007 edition.

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BOL D’OR – 24 HOURS DESPITE FIERCE COMPETITION, THE SUZUKI ENDURANCE RACING TEAM TAKES THE VICTORY WITH VINCENT PHILIPPE, FREDDY FORAY AND OLIVIER FOUR. THE OFFICIAL SUZUKI WINS THE 73RD EDITION AHEAD OF THE GSR KAWASAKI AND THE SUZUKI TEAM 18 SAPEURS POMPIERS. SECOND PAST THE CHEQUERED FLAG, HONDA MICHELIN POWER RESEARCH TEAM IS DISQUALIFIED AFTER FUEL TANK CAPACITY TECHNICAL CONTROL.

The GSR Kawasaki takes revenge after suffering several crashes at Le Mans. With Kenny Foray, Kenny Noyes and Javier Fores, the official Kawasaki finishes second behind SERT. Perfect race for the Sapeurs Pompiers. Stéphane Molinier, Jérôme Tangre and David Brière are in the right rhythm from the beginning. They take a well-deserved podium after Michelin team disqualification.

A French rider waves the Austrian flag! Gwen Giabbani celebrates the YART victory in the 2009 Qtel FIM Endurance World Championship despite their 14th position in EWC.

With Vincent Philippe, Freddy Foray and Olivier Four, the SERT Suzuki recalls some intense battles with YART, Michelin Power and the Yamaha GMT 94.

Final podium for SERT Suzuki and GSR Kawasaki: Michelin is on the second step, but is later disqualified for a non-conforming fuel tank.

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DOHA – 8 HOURS YAMAHA AUSTRIA, VICTORIOUS, CLOSE A FANTASTIC 2009 SEASON! ON THE PODIUM, PHASE ONE ENDURANCE AND BOLLIGER SWITZERLAND TAKE REVENGE IN A DIFFICULT SEASON.

Yamaha Austria well deserves the 2009 crown. Already World Champion team since the Bol d’Or, Igor Jerman, Steve Martin and Gwen Giabbani are still focused on the same target in Doha: Team Bolliger Switzerland is rewarded for its efforts at victory!

Doha. Patric Muff, Horst Saiger and Eric Mizera take the third place on the podium

The Superstock podium is 100% Qatar with QERT, QERT Junior 1 and QERT Junior 2!

The Yamaha Phase One Endurance runs a perfect race with Pedro Vallcaneras, Glen Richards and James Ellison.

The British team takes its first podium in two years.

Final podium for World Champion team YART and QERT, FIM World Cup winner. The Prize-Giving Ceremony takes place in Doha on Sunday 15 November in Qatar, the day after the last round in Doha.

by Valérie Moreno / photos David Reygondeau.

F I M MAG AZ I NE .7 0 /// NOVEMBER DECEMBER 2009

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standings

DOMINANT SPIES DUCATI SHAKEN UP

IT HAS BEEN A BREATHTAKING END OF SEASON IN THE FIM SUPERBIKE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP: UNTIL THE VERY END, THE ARM-WRESTLING BETWEEN SPIES AND HAGA KEPT THE WHOLE PADDOCK SPELLBOUND. IN THE END, THE AMERICAN TOOK THE WORLD TITLE, THE FIRST WORLD CROWN WITH A YAMAHA IN THE CLASS, WHILE DUCATI REMAINED SHAKEN BY ITS LACK OF LUCIDITY.

It was therefore necessary to wait until the last race of the last rendez-vous of the 2009 season to know the name of the new World Champion. Ben Spies has succeeded Troy Bayliss in the list of World Superbike winners: Ben Spies, the American beginner; Ben Spies who had never taken a start in a World Championship before the race in Phillip Island on March 1st, 2009. This Texan, born in Memphis and living on the shores of Lake Como in Italy, really exploded the statistics. He is the first rider to have won the top title in his first season without ever having taken part in any race, not even as a wild-card rider, in the FIM Superbike World Championship. He is also the first rider to clinch a world crown in Superbike riding a Yamaha. It is a real achievement when one considers that the class has never been so dense (seven manufacturers were officially present) and the Superbike includes in its grid an impressive number of first rate riders.

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SPIES HELPED BY DUCATI? The end of the season was a real tight fight on a knife edge between Spies on the Yamaha and Haga on the Ducati. After a serious bad patch mid-season, the Japanese rider went back to his native country to recover from his injuries. At the beginning of September he went back to the N端rburgring on top form.

Unfortunately for the Ducati factory rider, racing facts would interfere, at first in Germany when he was clearly bumped into

by Jonathan Rea at the end of the long straight during braking.

On the ground, Haga abandoned while he was leading the second race.

In Imola, Haga could have clinched a double victory but, to the surprise of the spectators, Fabrizio overtook his leader in the second race and stole the victory from him and, more importantly, five points in the championship. Behind, Spies could not make it

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Ben Spies is the first rider to have won the top title in his first season without ever having taken part in any race, not even as a wild-card rider, in the FIM Superbike World Championship .///

F I M MAG AZ I NE .7 0 /// NOVEMBER DECEMBER 2009

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to the podium but remained in touch. In Magny-Cours Haga was very strong.

Despite a victory for the American in the first race, the Japanese took a maximum of points with a win and a second place.

He was ten points in the lead in the Championship on the eve of the last event on the Por timĂŁo circuit, in southern Portugal. It is well known that the Ducati is very much at ease on this track. At the end of 2008, Troy Bayliss was waving goodbye to competition after clinching a fantastic double win. But Spies was also very fast during private practice sessions.

The first key of the week-end was the Superpole. While the Yamaha factory rider added one more pole position to his files, going up to eleven out of fourteen possible, a record – Haga went through blank qualifying sessions and got stuck on the third row. Even if he is World Champion in holeshots, the Japanese did 24

not need this extra pressure. This probably partly explains his crash during the first race while he was chasing the leaders, principally Spies. The American did not let any one other than himself win the race. Ten points ahead at the start, fifteen points behind at the finish, Haga did not withdraw. Spies knows well the fighting spirit of his opponent. The second heat would be an action-packed race. The American quickly had difficulties with his tyres. Haga took advantage of this and went into the lead.

But the f inish lef t ever ybody astonished: once again his teammate Fabrizio was ahead of him. In the final classification Spies clinched the title with six points ahead. Haga, deeply disappointed, added a third runner-up title to his records. W ithout taking

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In Imola, Haga could have clinched a double victory but, to the surprise of the spectators, Fabrizio overtook his leader in the second race and stole the victory from him and, more importantly, five points in the championship. ///

anything away from the merit and talent of Ben Spies, the question of management in the Ducati team must be asked. In Imola and in Portimão Fabrizio finished twice ahead of his leader, taking ten points away from him in the contest for the title.

Haga lost the title to Spies for six points. Of course the Japanese crashed in Portimão but this is a racing fact. A teammate who is not fighting for the title but nevertheless precedes his leader who is fighting for the title, this is not a racing fact. Is it a error of strategy? The “resignation” of team manager Davide Tardozzi may be part of the answer, without doubt the only element which implicitly acknowledges that there was an error of strategy at Ducati at the end of this 2009 season.

But let’s forget these considerations and keep in mind the fantastic performance of Spies and of course that of Yamaha. The manufacturer is also on the top in the Supersport class with Cal Crutchlow. Besides the world titles of Rossi in MotoGP and the YART in Endurance, it is quite a harvest!

Haga lost the title to Spies for six points... ///

by Eric Malherbe

F I M MAG AZ I NE .7 0 /// NOVEMBER DECEMBER 2009

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PAD D OCK

DOUBLE INTERVIEW SPIES & HAGA A DUEL WITH ART AND METHOD

THE

C O N F R O N TAT I O N

BETWEEN SPIES AND HAGA FOR THE FIM SUPERBIKE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP TITLE WILL REMAIN AS ONE OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL DUELS OF THE 2009 SEASON: A VIRILE SHOULDER TO SHOULDER FIGHT ON THE TRACK THAT CONTRASTS WITH A GREAT FRIENDSHIP OUTSIDE THE CIRCUITS. WE RETURN IN THE COMPANY OF BOTH MEN TO THIS SURPRISING MEETING.

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FIM: How do you analyse this season?

Ben Spies: I had a certain naivety at the beginning of the season about my possibilities in the Superbike World Championship. In the end, I went beyond the objectives I had established for myself and this is a year I will not easily forget…

Noriyuki Haga: It was my first year with Ducati and it takes time to acquire experience with a new machine. Since the beginning of the season, Ben has been very strong and there have been great fights with him throughout the year. Each time I went to a race, it became harder. However, I made the best start of a season of my whole career and I have never dominated a Championship as much as this year. Much more than I had even anticipated! In terms of rostrums and victories it has been an excellent year. Unfortunately I lost the title in Portimão.

FIM: What is your best memory of this duel?

B. S.: We had many oppor tunities to confront each other on the track. I remember that in Germany we remained together during the whole race and it was great. But my best memory remains the race in Assen when I came back from behind and won.

N.H.: We have not really had so many oppor tunities to confront each other directly because either Ben or I was in front.

I keep a good memory, though, of Valencia and Kyalami where we fought together and each time I got a double win.

FIM: Was the last race in Portimão the most stressful of all?

B.S.: It might seem strange but I didn’t really feel much stress in Portimão. In the second race I was not worried at all. The

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PA DDO C K

first one was a bit more stressful because I did not have any choice, I had to win!

as the chequered flag had been waved, we left all these emotions on the track.

N.H.: I have always approached competition in the same spirit; take the races one by one, do my best and give 100% each time. I knew I had to be as regular as possible throughout the season. I did everything to get a maximum of points at each event. I arrived in Portimão with the same objective.

I had exactly the same pressure as during the first event of the season. This pressure was telling me I just had to win as I was riding Troy’s motorcycle and he won the 2008 title.

N.H.: I agree. One can really speak about respect between us. Even if we have been big rivals this year, Ben has always been a very clean guy and a very intelligent rider.

These are qualities one has to respect. He is also a talented and very fast rider. We meet outside the circuits and I think we will remain friends in the future.

FIM: After such a season, is there a great respect, sporting as well as human, between you?

B.S.: Yes, because Nori and I have enormous respect for each other on and off the track.

During racing it was ferocious, but as soon

F I M MAG AZ I NE .7 0 /// NOVEMBER DECEMBER 2009

FIM: What is the lesson from this season you would like to keep?

B.S.: Never give up…I was 86 points behind at one stage and I fought constantly to come back. I did it…

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is sometimes enough to keep you away from winning and you cannot do anything about it.

FIM: Do you think your duel this season will remain as one of the most intense in your career?

B.S.: It has certainly been the most fun and the most pleasant of my career for the time being, but not the most intense.

N.H.: Of course it was a very hard fight until the very last race. Sometimes, Ben won, other times I did; so yes, 2009 was one of the most hard-fought season of my career.

by Eric Malherbe

N.H.: It is a difficult question. We saw again this year that a rider cannot control everything. This is why it is so important for me to give 100%; one little grain of sand

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/ / / Fim inside

ALTERNATIVE ENERGY A NEW PAGE OF ENDURO HISTORY IS OPENED!

The first FIM Ride Green Eco Enduro took place at the same time as the COP15, the United Nations Climate Change Conference held on 11, 12 & 13 December. This international event was organised by Ivan Reedtz-Thott (World Champion Runner-up Rallies Quad - six entries (car) in the Dakar), Vivi Siig and Soren Clauding (owners of Scandinavian Racing Press), the Danish Motor Union (DMU) with the support of the FIM After three days of intensive race on different types of soil, the riders’ opinion is that the electric bike is now the close future of offroad disciplines!

Despite a shock treatment, no mechanical case was to regret for the Quantya bikes nor the single Zero Motorcycle of Tommy Heimberg from Switzerland, who received a special ‘fair play’ prize for having the courage to come to fight alone with an American motorcycle against Swiss motorcycles!

The Quantya team had a large specially equipped truck to recharge batteries - in a maximum of one hour, for a standard battery. During the race, the riders changed once to a pre-charged second battery, the swap taking only 25 seconds.

The FIM interviewed Annie Seel and Joël Smet after the race to ask about their feelings.

FIM: Why did you decide to participate in the FIM Ride Green Eco Enduro?

Annie Seel: Soren (the co-organiser) called me and suggested that I participate in this event and as I love new challenges, it was easy to say yes. Moreover, the Dakar is in two weeks, therefore I had the time to come. The other aspect is of course the fact that this race was on electric bikes and I wanted to test it. The organisers also wanted to have representative women attending this event as models for the future, and I like to race against men…

Joël Smet: For years I have been in new technologies, I was a pioneer for the 4-strokes in Motocross and I closely followed in the past months the evolution of electric bikes. Therefore when I received the opportunity to participate in this event, I said a big YES.

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FIM: What are your feelings riding these electric bikes?

A.S.: It was real fun! The racing feelings were almost the same as with a thermic bike and I found these Quantya electric bikes very easy to ride. It’s like a great toy!

J.S.: The position on the bike and the way to pass the obstacles are the same but the difference is the power in long straight lines. In any case, during this event, I just had a lot of pleasure riding it!

FIM: What were your expectations before this event and did your opinion changer afterwards?

A.S.: I have never been good in Enduro and therefore I didn’t have a lot of expectations but at the end, I managed to go everywhere and as these bikes were pretty small, it was easy to solve any problem met during the race. I would like to add congratulations to the organisers for the nice track!

J.S.: I had already positive feelings before coming to Denmark but these were reinforced after this great weekend. At the beginning, I was a little skeptical with the organisation but since the first minute in Denmark, I was surprised by their professionalism organisation, the number of media that attended and the very high level Enduro course built on this occasion.

FIM: Do you see a future for off road electric motorcycling events?

A.S.: Definitively YES! Of course, the sporting rules must be adapted and electric Motocross or Enduro events will also attract new people, beginners as the bikes are easy to ride. This kind of events will probably be also interesting in Indoor venues.

J.S.: I hope so. The electric bikes will resolve important problems that we met today, especially the noise issues that are affecting our sport.

More information on www.ecoenduro.com!

by Alex Goldenberg

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Life is a series of moments—nothing more, nothing less. At every instant we all have the choice: Seize the moment and let your spirit soar, or let it pass. If you ride a GSX-R1000, it’s clear where your heart is pointed: the ultimate experience, and the taste of victory that accompanies it. Introducing the next generation of the top-performing sportbike.

With superlative power, a lighter, more compact chassis, and more responsive suspension. Every moment from here on is more distance between yourself and every would-be competitor.

Victory is eeting, but all so majestic.

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CRUMP SUCCEEDS AGAIN “GOOD MORNING, THIS IS YOUR CAPTAIN SPEAKING AND THE CREW WOULD LIKE TO WELCOME ON BOARD THE NEW FIM SPEEDWAY WORLD CHAMPION, JASON CRUMP”.

These words from the captain of the Sunday morning flight from Bydgoszcz to London on October 18, were greeted with a round of applause from around 200 passengers and must have made sweet music to the ears of Crump and his family.

They were spoken only some 12 hours after Jason had secured his third world individual title at the Polonia Stadium, scene of the f inal round in this year’s Speedway Grand Prix but it had been a rocky road to the title as Crump’s solid early lead in the series was eroded through a combination of injury and the emergence of t wo contr as ting but for midable contenders.

The phrase ‘Prague Spring’ might revive some political memories from what is now the Czech Republic but these were far from our thoughts as, on a sunny April day in that beautiful city, established riders and new recruits gathered and the 2009 Speedway Grand Prix began. All riders are level at this stage with optimism high and amongst the newcomers selected by the SGP Commission was the young Russian Emil Sayfutdinov, a double World Junior Champion widely expected to be a future star at senior level. However his impact on the series was to be immediate; he won his first ever Grand Prix race then, incredibly, the Final to become the youngest rider to do so and the first on his debut appearance since the initial Grand Prix in 1995.

Another of the ‘young guns’, Fredrik Lindgren had claimed the yellow leader’s jacket by virtue of a better score in the qualifying races but as the series moved on to Leszno for the European Grand Prix it was time for the ‘old guard’ to stake their 30

Jason Crump secured his third world individual title at the Polonia Stadium, scene of the final round in this year’s FIM Speedway Grand Prix. ///

claim. With a combined age of 140 years the four finalists adjusted the age balance and by the end of the evening the series lead had been taken by Crump from Andreas Jonsson and Greg Hancock.

Surprises of this meeting were the failure of Lindgren to qualify for the semi final stage and the resurgence of Polish hero Tomasz Gollob who added an impressive 17 points to his total.

It was time to move on to the temporary tracks....

The Ullevi Stadium in Gothenburg has witnessed many dramatic races in its long history and the Final of the Swedish Grand Prix at the end of May will be remembered as one of them. A line-up boasting the t a l e n t s o f A n to n i o L i n d b a c k , t h e re-emerging Swedish hope and reigning

champion Nicki Pedersen, alongside series leader Crump and the young Sayfutdinov promised an eventful race, and so it was as all four riders exchanged positions over the first two laps. Then as Pedersen and Sayfutdinov challenged for the lead, the two clashed with the Russian falling and Crump having to lay down his machine to avoid him. It was Pedersen who was disqualified having been adjudged the cause of the fall and when the race was restarted it was Sayfutdinov who came from behind to take his second round of the series. Both Crump and Pedersen left the meeting nursing broken fingers as a direct or indirect result of the incident.

Parken in Copenhagen, now f irmly established in the GP schedule was host to the next round and a 29,000 nearFIM M AGA ZINE . 7 0 / / / NOV E M BE R DEC E MB E R 2 0 0 9

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///. With the competition approaching the half-way stage came the traditional break for the Speedway World Cup and leaders at this stage were: 1 Jason Crump (98 pts) 2 Emil Sayfutdinov (67) 3 Greg Hancock (59) 4 Tomasz Gollob (53) 5 Nicki Pedersen (52) 6 Andreas Jonsson (51) .

capacit y crowd saw another strong performance by the seniors with Crump, Hancock and Gollob taking the top places.

Home favourite Nicki Pedersen was again in the wars with a disqualification after taking out Sayfutdinov on the first bend of Heat 7 but the prospect of a rematch between these two in the Final disappeared as, first the Russian touched the start tape and then a punc ture eliminated Pedersen.

And so to Cardiff’s magnificent Millennium Stadium where the organisers had invested around £50,000 on new materials for the track and a much improved racing surface produced some exciting racing with Crump again taking the honours, this time from Lindgren, Hans Andersen and Greg Hancock. The 42,000 crowd included

F I M MAG AZ I NE .7 0 /// NOVEMBER DECEMBER 2009

Formula 1 driver Mark Webber and Freddie Williams, Wales’ only Speedway World Champion. Main talking points were Crump’s 24-point maximum and the impromptu boxing match bet ween Sayfutdinov and Scott Nicholls which won them both a fine from the FIM Jury.

With the competition approaching the half-way stage came the traditional break for the Speedway World Cup and leaders at this stage were: 1 Jason Crump (98 pts); 2 Emil Sayfutdinov (67); 3 Greg Hancock (59); 4 Tomasz Gollob (53); 5 Nicki Pedersen (52); 6 Andreas Jonsson (51).

In early August the competition moved to the Latvian city of Daugavpils but this time without reigning champion Nicki Pedersen who had sustained some serious friction burns in an accident during his

World Cup round in Denmark and his absence signalled the end of any reasonable hopes he may have had of retaining his title. Veteran Greg Hancock, the oldest rider on parade at 39 was the winner in an uneventful meeting, followed by the little Dane Kenneth Bjerre but with Gollob and Crump both making the final.

The Swedish Grand Prix in Malilla regularly seems to attract wet weather and this year was no exception. Tomasz Gollob another veteran at 38, used all his experience to take first place ahead of Crump, Andersen and Bjerre but it was a disappointing night for Pedersen returning from injury and for Sayfutdinov who was unable to master the rain-soaked track.

The Vojens Speedway Center, the brainchild of Race Director Ole Olsen has been absent from the SGP calendar for a

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Statistically, Crump needed 7 points from the last meeting in Bydgoszcz against the, not unlikely, possibility that Gollob could score a maximum 24 on a track where he has traditionally produced his best performances. ///

time but considerable investment and improvements to the facilities signalled the return this year of the Nordic Grand Prix on 29th August. The specially designed covers over the track were used for the first time and enabled racing to go ahead after heavy rain had delayed practice and threatened the meeting.

Nicki Pedersen renewed his rivalry with Emil Sayfutdinov and the pair had another ‘coming together’ with the Dane watching the restart from the pits having been adjudged the guilty party.

Referee Tony Steele had a busy meeting having to disqualify not only Pedersen but also Hancock, Gollob and Sayfutdinov during the evening but demonstrating why he is one of the most respected officials in the sport today. Andreas Jonsson took the top spot for the first time this year with Rune Holta’s 15 points moving him up to tenth place in the overall standings.

In Krsko the Slovenian Grand Prix was held for the 8th time at the Matije Gubca Stadium and the occasion was marked by a 24 point maximum from Sayfutdinov from Holta and Gollob.

Pedersen was again in the wars, losing his chance of a podium place after a clash with Gollob in the Final. Holta’s second place brought his total for the last two rounds to 34 and accelerated his rise in the standings.

With Crump in good form and now holding a lead of 26 points over his nearest rival it seemed likely that the destination of the championship would be decided in Italy where a new venue at Terenzano would host the next round. However disaster struck 32

in a routine domestic meeting at Belle Vue Manchester when Crump became the second rider this season to sustain serious friction burns. Skin graft surgery was performed on an area the size of a hamburger on his left bicep but there had been some damage to the nerves of his hand making clutch control more difficult. Less than two weeks after his accident he appeared in Italy and was passed medically fit to ride. Clearly in considerable pain but with great courage he struggled to score a mere 4 points in the meeting won by his great rival Gollob and opening the possibility of a home winner from the final round in Poland.

Statistically, Crump needed 7 points from the last meeting in Bydgoszcz against the, not unlikely, possibility that Gollob could score a maximum 24 on a track where he has traditionally produced his best performances. In the event Tomasz dropped 2 points to his opponents in Heat 12 and when Crump won the following race the world title for 2009 was secured; something of an anti-climax for the capacity crowd but the Crump team were jubilant and racing was suspended for a few minutes as family, rivals, officials and the media all clamoured to offer congratulations. Jason had recovered the World title he had won in 2004 and 2006 and his record shows that he has not been outside the first three in any year since 2001.

The Final was won by Nicki Pedersen, his first of the year, followed

by Leigh Adams in his last GP race and Sebastian Ulamek in his best performance of the year.

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There seems little doubt that, whilst the senior riders will continue to influence the results next year. ///

The final 2009 standings are: 1 Jason Crump (159 pts); 2 Tomasz Gollob (144); 3 Emil Sayfutdinov (139); 4 Greg Hancock (121); 5 Andreas Jonsson (116); 6 Nicki Pedersen (110); 7 Rune Holta (99), 8 Kenneth Bjerre (98); 9 Fredrik Lindgren (94); 10 Hans Andersen (91); 11 Leigh Adams (81); 12 Sebastian Ulamek (75); 13 Grzegorz Walasek (66); 14 Chris Harris (62); 15 Scott Nicholls (45).

The top 8 automatically qualify for the 2010 competition where they will be joined by the top 3 riders from the GP Challenge meeting and 4 permanent Wild Cards nominated by the FIM Speedway Grand Prix Commission and BSI Speedway, promoters of the Championship.

We may not look back on 2009 as a vintage season but there will be a number of memories to take with us as the chapter closes; the extraordinar y debut season for the 19 year old Emil Sayfutdinov, surely a champion of the future; the courage of Jason Crump to ride through pain in Italy to secure vital points and the late season recovery of a determined Rune Holta who clawed himself back from 12th position after Malilla to a final 7th place. Disappointments would include the erratic form of Fredrik Lindgren who missed out on a top eight place, the poor performances of the two British riders Chris Harris and Scott Nicholls who both finished at the bottom of the table and the injuries which undoubtedly affected former champion Nicki Pedersen in his attempts to retain his title.

F I M MAG AZ I NE .7 0 /// NOVEMBER DECEMBER 2009

In Bydgoszcz, Leigh Adams announced his retirement from SGP ending a career that has spanned 115 GPs since 1996. The popular Australian will be missed from the GP both on and off the track and will be remembered as one of the best riders never to have won the World title.

The season also ended with the announcement that Ole Olsen, Race Director since 1995, is leaving his post to take up a new position as FIM Speedway Director of Sport. Ole has masterminded the growth of the SGP series and its current success owes much to his dedicated and enthusiastic work. His new role will involve the development of speedway outside the current geographical areas. His successor as Race Director is Tony Olsson, a former rider and respected administrator and official.

There seems little doubt that, whilst the senior riders will continue to influence the results next year, the influx of a younger brigade will be playing a greater part in the progress of the Speedway Grand Prix in 2010 and onwards and we shall look forward to the exciting times that the future promises.

by Graham Brodie

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Fim inside

F I M MAG AZ I NE .7 0 /// NOVEMBER DECEMBER 2009

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HISTORY OF TRACK RACING THE FIRST VEHICLES CREATED AT THE END OF THE 19TH CENTURY WERE IMMEDIATELY PUT TO RUN ON ROADS OR – IF THEY EXISTED –TRACKS. THE FIRST MOTORCYCLES WERE NOT VERY FAST, BUT WITHIN A FEW YEARS STARTED TO REACH VERY HIGH SPEEDS.

The idea of using an oval track or an athletic track around a football ground or even, probably, a horse track, came very early.

Mentions made in California in 1902, in South Africa in 1907 or around a football ground in Ipswich (GBR) in 1904 are just a few of them.

But the first event, with a real structure, is generally considered to be the one held in Australia in 1923. Australians took everything off the motorcycle which was not essential, in order to reduce weight, and put the bikes for racing on oval grounds. The first real record of a dirt track meeting was on Saturday 15 December 1923 in West Maitland. The event was organised by John Hoskins, who is gener ally considered as the “ f ather ” of speedway competition.

Success came very fast, and within a couple of years other tracks were built in various cities all over Australia. News was sent from Australia to Great Britain and the idea came up to hold such an event there. It was first scheduled in November 1927 but permission was refused by the authorities. The event was finally staged on Sunday 19 February 1928 in High Beech. John Hoskins collaborated with the organisation.

The discipline spread quickly over all Great Britain. Events were raced with a mixture of scratch and handicap racing until 1929 when a league system similar to football was introduced – which definitely turned speedway into a professional sport. That same year the discipline was introduced in New Zealand. The introduction of this sport in other countries was not really successful at first, and within a couple of years, it was only strong enough in Australia, New Zealand and Great Britain; then it started in Denmark and Sweden, later in Norway and other countries.

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It was the ACU, in charge of the rules and control of this sport by the FIM since 1928, who proposed to organise a real World Championship in 1936, culminating with the first official World Final to be held in the Wembley Stadium in London on September 10. The FIM created a sub-committee under the aegis of the FIM International Sporting Commission, in charge of controlling Speedway.

Several finals had been staged in previous years, but were not officially recognised as World Finals. Participants were nominated by their own National Federation (or club): not surprisingly most of these riders were British. Sixteen riders qualified for the World Final. With the intention of rewarding the performances in qualifying events, riders had bonus points added to their Final points. Australian rider Lionel Van Praag won the first title, though he had lost the direct confrontation to his fellow countryman Bluey Wilkinson who won all his five races. American brothers Jack and Cordy Milne were also among the top riders, in 1937 both were on the final rostrum, Jack as World Champion and Cordy as third, while the runner-up was another American, Wilbur Lamoreaux. In 1938, it was the turn of Bluey Wilkinson to clinch the title, in front of Jack Milne and Wilbur Lamoreaux. The 1939 final was cancelled due to the outbreak of the Second World War. The best qualifier was Cordy Milne ahead of Eric Langton.

AFTER THE WAR

The following World Championship was held in 1949, but the qualifying bonus points were no longer added to the results of the Final. After the first Champion, Tommy Price (1949), almost all the riders clinched more than one title: Fred Williams (1950, 1953), Australian Jack Young (1951, 1952), New Zealander Ronnie Moore (1954, then 1959) and Peter Craven (1955, then

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Speedway racing comes to Britain. Riders at the first official meeting in England at High Beech, near London on Sunday, February 19, 1928. ///

1962). In 1956, came the first World champion from Sweden, Ove Fundin; after being runner-up for three years, he won again in 1960. In 1961 the World final was held for the first time out of Great Britain: it was in Malmoe, Sweden, where Ove Fundin won his third title (he then won again in 1963 and 1967). But another great Champion came up at the same time: New Zealander Barry Briggs, winner in 1957 and 1958, and then in 1964 and 1966.

Swede Bjorn Knutsson won in 1965, making an exception (it would be his only title).

At that same time, riders came from Eastern bloc countries, in particular Poland (where Speedway quickly became the most popular sport after football) and the Soviet Union. The first ones to take part in a Final was Mieczislaw Polukard (12th with 5 points) and Florian Kapas (reserve), both from Poland, which already had four riders in the Final in 1960. Then came the Russian Igor Pletchanov in 1961, who would twice be runner-up, in 1964 and 1965.

After Ove Fundin’s last title in 1967, another rider emerged from New Zealand called Ivan Mauger. He would put his name at the top of Speedway being the first one to clinch three World titles consecutively (1968, 69 and 70). In 1971, the first Danish World Champion came up, Ole Olsen, beating Ivan Mauger in Gothenburg.

Mauger took the title back in Wembley in 72, but in 1973’s final in Katowice, Poland, in front of a huge crowd, a Polish rider finally took the Speedway World title: Jerzy Szczakiel finished in front of Ivan Mauger and another Pole, Zenon Plech. In 1974, Mauger was second again, behind Swede Anders Michanek. Ole Olsen won again in 1975 and 1978, British rider Peter Collins in 1976, while Ivan Mauger added two more titles in 1977 and 1979, establishing a record of six titles.

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Sweden's Ove Fundin in action. ///

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Barry Briggs (left) and Ivan Mauger in action in 1969. ///

In the eighties, after Michael Lee won in 1980, the 81 and 82 individual titles went to American rider Bruce Penhall – in 1981 the three Speedway titles, Individual, Team and Pairs, were won by the Americans. It was also in 1981 that the World Final was held for the last time in the Wembley stadium. In 1983, German rider Egon Muller won his only title in Speedway – he had already been three times Long Track Champion in the 70s. Then the period for Denmark started: Eric Gundersen and Hans Nielsen won three titles each between 1984 and 1989. Swede Per Jonsson won in 1990, Dane Jan-O. Pedersen in 1991, British rider Gary Havelock in 1992, American Sam Ermolenko in 1993, and Swede Tony Rickardsson his first title in the very last World Final, in Vojens in 1994. As from 1995, the Grand Prix system was introduced by the FIM. Hans Nielsen won the first Speedway Grand Prix title that year. Then followed American riders Billy Hammill (96) and Greg Hancock (97), then Tony Rickardsson (98, 99, 2001, 2002 and 2005, equalling Mauger’s record of six titles), British rider Mark Loram (2000), the Dane Nicki Pedersen (2003, 2007 and 2008) and the Australian Jason Crump (2004, 2006 and 2009).

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Australia's 1938 World Champion Bluey Wilkinson in action in Australia ///

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Riders at the start of the first heat of the first official speedway World Championship at Wembley Stadium, England in 1936.

From the left: Wal Phillips (England), George Newton (England), Dick Case (Australia), Frank Charles (England). ///

OTHER COMPETITIONS Along with the success of Speedway in the 50s, the FIM decided to create more competitions on oval tracks. This is how the Sand Speedway appeared, and then the Team Speedway World Championship in 1960, which, surprisingly, crowned Sweden four times and Poland three times before Great Britain finally clinched its first title in 1968 (with the help of New Zealander Briggs and Mauger). In 1970 the Speedway Pairs World Championship was introduced, based on the system used in the British Championship, a formula which was adopted for the Team World Championship in 1993 (while the so-called Pairs Championship was dropped).

In 1988, the Junior Speedway competition became a World Championship. Long Track became a World Championship in 1970; most of its Champions are former Speedway top riders.

Finally, in Ice Racing, the Individual World Championship was adopted in 1966, and a Team World Championship in 1979. A large majority of titles were won by the USSR/Russia (except for a few won by Sweden, the Czech Republic, Finland and Germany).

by Marc PĂŠtrier

Riding the famous Wembley tractor, Barry briggs (New Zealand) wins his first World Championship in 1957. Behind him Sweden's Ove Fundin (runner-up) and England's Peter Craven (third). ///

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/ / / tech talk

IGOR AKRAPOVIC EUROPE’S ENGINEER OF EXHAUST EXPERTISE

THE IGOR AKRAPOVIC LIFE STORY COMES STRAIGHT FROM A HOLLYWOOD SELF - IMPROVEMENT MOVIE SCRIPT - EXCEPT THIS TALE IS TRUE.

AKRAPOVIC FACTORY VISIT AND IGOR AKRAPOVIC INTERVIEW • Exclusive in-depth profile of Europe’s exhaust engineering expert, Slovenian tube-bending guru Igor Akrapovic, with his own explanation of how and why.

• From impecunious road racer in Communist country about to slump into bitter civil war, to award-winning leader in performance and emissions - the full story.

• Akrapovic-equipped bikes have won World Superbike and World Supersport titles, as well as MX GPs, AMA Superbike races and the Daytona 200 – yet its acclaimed customer products are identical to those fitted to factory racers

• Company has cornered world titanium market, with Euro 10 million worth of Japanese-made precious metal stored as ribbon sheet in secret warehouse, before being formed into tubing in-house by Akrapovic.

• Detailed examination of three aspects of exhaust manufacture - hydroforming first, then tube-bending and TIG-welding.

• R&D department’s Superflow dynos comparo-test factory World Superbike contenders, resulting in top-level customer product further down line, and house intensive testing of MotoGP contenders.

• 60,000 exhausts made each year in ultra-modern new factory, more than one-third full titanium systems 45% lighter than equivalent stainless steel pipe.

To go from being an impecunious road racer in a Communist country on the point of imploding into a multi-front civil war stamped with the stigma of racial cleansing, to being acclaimed one-and-a-half decades later as the Entrepreneur of the Year in Slovenia, brightest of the Eastern Bloc newcomers to the European Union after emerging relatively unscathed from the break-up of former Yugoslavia, and the first to be permitted to join the Euroland common currency club, is by any standards a remarkable transformation. But 51-year old Akrapovic is a remarkable man, who’s earned his eponymous company’s soaraway success and A-1 Dun & Bradstreet business rating through a combination of hard work, commercial honesty, clever development, and an insistence on quality that’s made his name synonymous with excellence in exhausts, delivering added performance coupled with dependable durability. Almost too good to be true, you might think – until you try a bike fitted with one of his pipes or cans, and realise that, just this once, the label didn’t lie, and the reality lives up to the billing.

Yet it must have seemed improbable back in 1990, when Igor’s company was originally founded under the Skorpion name (that’s what ‘akrapovic’ means in Slovene), that a supplier from a tiny country struggling to make the transition to capitalism in the postCommunist era, would one day be recognized as the top manufacturer in the world of such a key performance and emissions component as the exhaust system. And even more remarkable that, just nine years later, the same supplier’s products should adorn every single Japanese factory entry on the 1999 World Superbike grid - or that at various times over the past eight years,

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there have been up to three rival MotoGP racers rubbing handlebars in the Akrapovic R&D shop run by Igor’s right-hand man Slavko Trstenjak, his partner in developing the motorcycle exhaust systems acclaimed as the finest in the world. The roll of honour they’ve earned on the racetrack, including World Superbike and World Supersport titles, and successive German Pro Superbike crowns plus AMA Superbike victories, including a slew of Daytona 200 race wins, says that’s what they indeed are – enough to deliver comparable aftermarket success in dealerships round the world, and to convince the Ford Motor Company to come calling, with the insistence that Igor change the name of his company to avoid confusion with their Scorpio car! “Ford’s lawyers obviously ran out of ideas how to justify their retainers,” says Igor sardonically, “so they made out Ford were getting upset that our hand-made titanium exhausts risked devaluing their mass-produced sedans.

We laughed a lot at that – and immediately changed the name to Akrapovic, to stop them getting any richer!”

But if you go to the little town of Ivancna Gorica which the Akrapovic company moved to eight years ago, set in the rolling wheatfields 45 mins. south of Slovenia’s capital Ljubljana, you won’t find any signs pointing the way to Igor’s institute of exhaust excellence. Instead, it was more by deduction than anything else that I rolled my Moto Morini Corsaro I was riding back home to Britain from its Bologna birthplace via a Slovene side-turning, up to the front security gate of the Akrapovic factory - an ultra-modern 7,000m² structure that was designed by Igor’s wife, one of Slovenia’s top architects. There to meet me was the boss himself, who after a cursory sniff at the Corsaro’s massive twin silencers,

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Igor Akrapovic’s company was originally founded under the Skorpion name (that’s what ‘akrapovic’ means in Slovene). ///

and the crude way the Italian exhaust manufacturer had visibly grafted in the catalyst needed to gain Euro 3 compliance – “We don’t go looking for business any more – but if Morini asked us, we could do the job properly!” - led me off on a guided tour of the temple of tube-bending, whose 205 workers (most of them locals) produce 65,000 exhausts each year, around 25,000 of them complete systems, the rest slip-on silencers.

“About 60% of the complete systems are made in titanium,” said Igor, “and since this weighs 45% lighter than stainless steel, that’s a worthwhile performance bonus just on its own. The latest grade titanium is as durable as stainless, thanks to the special alloys incorporated in it by our suppliers Kobe Steel in Japan - they supply it to us as flat-coiled ribbon, and we hold up to 10 million Euro of titanium in stock, which is enough for two years’ production at present levels. You have to buy it while you can, and smooth out fluctuations in the cost by ordering big and paying up front, because the price of titanium has doubled in the past seven years. Other companies are always trying to buy it from us, but we never sell it on – and if you thought our factory was hard to find, you’ll never discover our titanium warehouse! Race teams prefer titanium silencers to carbon ones, because carbon is only 5% lighter than the 0.05 mm thin titanium sheet we use for the silencer wrap, but the metal ones are more crash resistant, whereas carbon gets crushed easily - and they can also be repaired quicker. It makes it more cost effective, as well as more practical – in fact, we sell a lot of repair kits for titanium cans.”

After that Titanium 101 primer class, I was curious to see how the exhausts got made, so Igor led the way into the tube-

F I M MAG AZ I NE .7 0 /// NOVEMBER DECEMBER 2009

forming shop, explaining on the way how in spite of the practical advantages of titanium, the bling factor of carbon has positioned demand so high he’s established his own Akropovic carbon fibre manufacturing operation in a separate 1200m² factory nearby, where 45 more employees produce a host of black magic hardware, much of it like mudguards, covers and, soon, seats and fairings, unconnected with exhausts. “We’re expanding that market by focusing on the same quality levels as with the exhausts,” says Igor. “I think this is a sector that’ll expand a lot for us in the future.”

Considering that world production of carbon fibre motorcycle components originated in Slovenia back in 1989 as a Cold War peace dividend, somehow it seems appropriate that Akrapovic should get involved in this…..

By now we’d reached the massive Italian-made tube-forming machine, still the only one of its kind in the world, producing titanium tubing from 18mm up to 85mm in diameter, with a wall thickness of 0.8 or 0.9 mm. “This was a big investment for us,” declares Igor Akrapovic, “but it’s been a big advantage having total control of our tube material in terms of quality and availability, without being at the mercy of our suppliers. We’re the opposite of our competitors – we don’t spend money on sponsorship and advertising, and we never pay to put our sticker on a bike. We rather spend it on new machines, and the men to make the best exhausts in the world on them.”

Having produced the tubing, the next stage comes in shaping it, a task carried out by the British-made Addison tube-bender, or by the pair of hydroforming machines – one Swiss and one German one, using ultra-high water pressure to shape the pipes into the

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About 60% of the complete systems are made in titanium. The latest grade titanium is as durable as stainless, thanks to the special alloys incorporated in it by Akrapovic’s suppliers Kobe Steel in Japan. ///

often intricate shapes a modern system demands. “Nobody worked with titanium on a hydroformer before,” said Igor, “and we ran into a lot of problems doing so - but it’s OK now. This gives us the flexibility to make quite complicated designs for maximum performance, without accepting compromises for manufacturing reasons. But there’s still a big human element in exhaust manufacture, even with the hydroformers – one Kawasaki system, for example, has no less than 190 different parts. We can use machines to create those parts, but we need skilled workers to assemble them with the TIG-welder.” Turns out titanium is more difficult to weld than steel, because you can’t let air get into the metal, which turns blue if it does and becomes brittle. Having been assembled, each individual exhaust is then checked for dimensions and digitally calibrated, with its DNA stored on a database. This means that, should it be damaged in a crash, its owner can be sent the necessary replacement parts that are guaranteed to fit exactly.

Akrapovic systems don’t come cheap – but you sure get what you pay for, one reason that sales in the USA increased by 35% in the past year, as the word spreads…

However, before you can start volume manufacturing an exhaust for a given model, you have to figure out a design – which is where the Akrapovic R&D shop staffed by 26 engineers under the direction of Slavko Trstenjak comes into play. There are three Superflow dyno cells in constant use – two existing ones for bikes, plus a third recently added for cars – with a climate-controlled 22ºC ambient temperature at all times. “Working to an established baseline is really important,” declared Slavko. “Changing humidity or air pressure can bring big fluctuations in performance – you can lose as much as 19% horsepower with a variation in air quality, plus the guy sitting on the bike is very important. He can feel an alteration in throttle response that is very hard to measure, so feedback from an experienced operator is all part of the R&D package, and is one reason so many MotoGP teams come here.”

Kawasaki, Ilmor and Team Roberts are the only ones currently 42

running Akrapovic exhausts on their GP bikes, but others such as Honda have visited Slovenia in the past to work on R&D. “They send us complete bikes without running engines, and we then have to make a selection of prototype exhausts without knowing how the engine will run,” said Igor. “Then the engineers from the factory race department arrive with a real motor, and we decide together which prototype system to work on developing further. So then we start testing – and maybe 200 dyno runs later, we’ll have a race system that takes into account what the rider wants, and what the engineers think he should have. These are very demanding customers – but they pay well and get results.”

That’s a lot of dyno time – but is it really necessary any more, now that computer programmes can simulate so much, so effectively?

“So much – but still not enough,” answered Slavko. “We found from working with BAR-Honda [since re-branded as Brawn, 2009 Formula 1 world champions – AC] that even the best Formula One computer modelling and gas flow prediction systems only provide you with 95% of the data you need to design the ideal system. The last 5% comes with hands-on dynamic testing, making successive dyno runs each with detail changes, until you find the ideal solution.

But it takes a skilled dyno operator to make sure you don’t get misleading data. For example, on a rear wheel dyno like ours are, you must monitor wheelspin, and also tyre fling, where the carcass of the tyre expands centrifugally at speed, which can alter the horsepower reading by as much as ten horsepower. Even different tyre pressures and of course the tyres themselves can give different results – we use special Pirellis developed for speed record attempts, which have a strong carcass but not too much grip. But even at 240 bhp, which is the most we’ve seen on our dyno from a motorcycle, we didn’t have any.”

The tour of the factory over, we climbed the steps to Igor’s spacious, modern, office, and relaxed in one of his comfortable armchairs while sipping a cool drink. Having finally taken him up

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Having produced the tubing, the next stage comes in shaping it, a task carried out by the British-made Addison tube-bender, or by the pair of hydroforming machines – one Swiss and one German one, using ultra-high water pressure to shape the pipes into the often intricate shapes a modern system demands. ///

on his long-standing offer to come visit Europe’s home of excellent exhausts, I was curious to find out how he’d got here – and where does Akrapovic go from here? Maybe like others to manufacture in China, perhaps - to reduce costs? Here in his own words is Igor’s tale….

“I started racing in about 1977, first with a TZ250 Yamaha GP bike, and then with four-strokes in the 1000cc F1 Open class, before ending my career in Superbikes in ’88/’89. I must say that Yugoslavia was not as closed a country as some others in the Communist bloc, so you could still impor t a four cylinder Japanese bike, provided it was for racing, whereas we weren’t allowed to bring in a normal road bike. I went to Technical School, then worked for my father for six years in his injection moulding plastics company while I was racing - but then I retired from racing, got married and in 1990 star ted my own motorcycle tuning shop, with six of us working there. Of course, the exhaust is a big part of tuning, so rather than buy Western ones which were very expensive, or the socialist ones which were crap, we decided to make our own, and after about six months I got my first bending machine, which was actually made by a friend. From then I started full-time with exhausts, and after two or three years I had quite a good range, all developed and made in Slovenia, which by now was free of all that Yugoslovakia mess. In the beginning I worked with Giacomoto in Bologna, which was a big Ducati aftermarket shop – we focused on the 888 Superbike, where the factory race

F I M MAG AZ I NE .7 0 /// NOVEMBER DECEMBER 2009

exhaust wasn’t so good. The silencers were OK, just a bit heavy – but we did a lot with the headers, and that was the start of it, really. Next we made a good impression in 1996 with Kawasaki, who tested our exhausts and ended up completely fitting them on all their Superbikes. This was our first Japanese factory team, but by 1999 we had all four of them in World Superbike, plus almost all the teams in the German Pro Superbike series, too and the business was really expanding very fast.”

“We’ve had all the SBK factory Superbikes down below us here, sometimes all at the same time, which was obviously quite a delicate situation! It was quite interesting to see how much and what kind of power they each had – though our doing what amounted to comparison dyno tests in fact ended up helping everyone, because by understanding how each bike worked best with dif ferent solutions, we learnt many things that could benefit its rivals! This gave us an edge in developing Akrapovic customer products – because unlike some other companies, we really do sell the customer what we’ve developed for the factory team bikes, not just stick a fancy sticker on a soup can, and pretend it’s the same, when it’s not.”

“But I must say, too, that top power is not always reflected in race track performance. There’s an issue too of how that power is delivered, and the spread of power, too – we got taught this pretty early on by Honda. They always want to have a perfect power

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60,000 exhausts made each year in ultra-modern new factory, more than one-third full titanium systems 45% lighter than equivalent stainless steel pipe.///

curve, so if you have a dip somewhere, however small, and even if you’ve got strong power at the top, they won’t accept it. So we found that their Superbikes and GP bikes would work from maybe 6-7,000 rpm up to max revs without any dropoff in the torque, because they think it’s very important for the acceleration out of the corner and the controllability of the bike. And I think their results show this is right.”

“Of course, just recently exhaust design has become very important for the street, for emissions and noise. The new Euro 3 regulations are very strict on emissions, especially - you need special highdensity catalytic converters, with high-quality coating and very careful manufacturing, and these are both key influences in the result. But if you want to have a really good result in the emissions test, normally you lose something somewhere else, especially in terms of torque. Maybe top power is not so much affected, but torque often is. So this is why we use only metallic catalytic converters, not ceramic ones which are normally a little harder to work with, and have limited power. We try to make sure we get a very high level of manufacturing quality with the catalyst, which will give us a good result in maintaining the torque – mostly they come from Germany. Some manufacturers have two catalytic converters on their bikes, because sometimes if they cannot pass with one, they will use two. They usually need three heaters which heat the gases a little bit more than the original, to pass the catalytic converter. But if you have a very good catalytic converter you can get by with just one, if you put it in the right spot.”

“Enduro and Motocross bikes have a big problem now with noise – same as bikes like the new Yamaha R6 and Suzuki GSX-R1000 with short exhausts ending under the bike. It takes many, many tests to get round this without losing significant power, especially working on the headers, which are the key to the problem, not so much the silencer, as you might expect. We’ve even started working on scooter exhausts, now – but models like the 500cc Yamaha TMax, or the 250cc Kymcos, something with a sporty flair, which everything we work on must have.”

“We work with some manufacturers on homologated preproduction products, especially Aprilia, BMW and KTM – but I don’t see us moving more towards original equipment exhaust systems, because our materials and our production quality are

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generally too expensive for o.e. But I think all the factories realise that they can make good money on accessories, so they sell our exhausts as aftermarket products. Yamaha, Honda, Kawasaki, Aprilia, KTM, BMW - all of these offer our aftermarket exhausts on more than one model, plus Suzuki use Yoshimura for their fourcylinder exhausts, but come to us for their offroad singles. We figure about one-third of ZX-10R Kawasakis wear Akrapovic exhausts, mostly slip-ons but some complete systems, too, which shows how well the market works. But while bikes have accounted for our entire production so far, now we’re getting into cars – BAR Honda came to us for Formula One, and we now have all the facilities for running cars on a Euro 4 dyno, plus we’re also testing the special titanium we use for motorcycle exhausts to see if it works on cars. We have to check it out because the configuration is different. We’re also getting involved in snowmobiles and especially ATVs, now that KTM is getting into that market – we work very closely with those Austrian neighbours of ours. But for now I don’t see Akrapovic expanding outside of Slovenia to manufacture in other countries to reduce prices, because if you want to move to China or somewhere like that, then it’s hard to keep a good control on quality - and that’s what’s most important to us at the moment. That, and getting a proper exhaust on your Moto Morini!”

by Alan Cathcart

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PAD D OCK

BLUE IS THE COLOUR!

UNFORGETTABLE YEAR FOR YAMAHA MOTOR RACING THE 2009 RACING SEASON WAS ONE OF UNPRECEDENTED INTERNATIONAL SUCCESS FOR YAMAHA MOTOR RACING. NOT ONLY DID THEY SWEEP THE BOARD IN THE FIM MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP, TAKING THE TOP TWO PLACES IN THE RIDERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP AND COMPLETING A TRIPLE CROWN WITH THE CONSTRUCTORS’ AND TEAMS’ TITLES FOR A SECOND SUCCESSIVE TERM, BUT YAMAHA RIDERS WERE ALSO CELEBRATED AS CHAMPIONS IN ALMOST EVERY OTHER TWO-WHEELED WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP ON THE ASPHALT AND ON THE DIRT; ADDING THE FIM MX1, AMA SUPERCROSS, AN FIM WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP AND FIM FREESTYLE MOTOCROSS TITLES TO THOSE ACHIEVED IN FIM WORLD SUPERBIKE, FIM WORLD SUPERSPORT AND THE FIM ENDURANCE WORLD CUP. In the blue-riband MotoGP class it was the legendary Valentino Rossi who once again started out with the target on his back after recapturing the crown for a fifth time in 2008 following a two-year dry spell. The men expected to chase him hardest were the fast and ferocious young trio of Casey Stoner, Dani Pedrosa and Jorge Lorenzo but few could have expected that the strongest challenge would come from the latter - the Italian’s team-mate from the other side of the wall that has separated them in the Fiat Yamaha garage since the beginning of 2008.

Lorenzo had clinched the Rookie of the Year title in his first season on board the YZR-M1 and he backed up his growing reputation with an electrifying start to his second campaign. Two victories and a podium from the first four races gave the Spaniard an early points lead but Rossi returned to the top of the standings in Barcelona after producing one of the most memorable overtaking manoeuvres in the history of motorcycle racing.

Stalking Lorenzo over the final lap of an enthralling race in front of the Spaniard’s home crowd, victory seemed to have eluded Rossi when Lorenzo stoutly defended his position in what is regarded as the last overtaking opportunity on the Catalunya circuit – the lefthand hairpin at the end of the back straight. However, an audacious dive for the inside line in the middle of the final corner gave Rossi an incredible and implausible triumph.

Just as he had with Stoner in the ‘Corkscrew’ corner at Laguna Seca in 2008, the vivacious veteran had stamped his authority over the young pretender with a show of bravery and skill that only he seems capable of. And, in the same manner as the previous year, it proved to be the turning point to the championship, as Rossi regained the lead and never looked back.

As the races passed, the records tumbled. Rossi’s win at Assen made him only the second rider in history to take 100 wins in all classes, whilst victory at Brno saw him take the all-time podium record with an incredible tally of 160. Third place was enough to

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wrap up the championship in Malaysia with a race to spare, bringing the Italian level with Mike Hailwood and Carlo Ubbiali with nine titles in all classes. Only Giacomo Agostini, with fifteen, has more.

Every single one of Rossi’s 44 wins from the 102 races he has contested since joining Yamaha in 2004, and indeed every failure and malfunction in between, has helped hone the YZR-M1 into the most competitive and versatile machine on the grid. The proof lies in Lorenzo’s stunning season, which ended with a record of five pole positions, twelve podiums including four race wins and the runner-up spot in the championship, but also in the resurgence of Colin Edwards as the leading privateer on the grid. The veteran American rarely finished outside the top six as he clinched fifth place overall in the championship, ahead of Honda factory rider Andrea Dovizioso and Suzuki pair Loris Capirossi and Chris Vermeulen, and his second place finish at Donington Park, when Rossi and Lorenzo both crashed, added crucial points to the factory’s title-winning tally.

Whilst there was very much a familiar feel to the Yamaha challenge in MotoGP, a brand new face spearheaded the factory’s efforts in World Superbikes. Ben Spies joined the Yamaha family as he made his full international debut following three seasons of domination with Suzuki in the AMA Superbike series and a handful of MotoGP wildcard rides. Spies undoubtedly benefited from the versatility and performance of the production YZF-R1 machine, a genetic descendant of Rossi’s all-conquering prototype YZR-M1, as he made the swiftest of adaptations to the world stage.

Despite riding at circuits that were completely new to him, Spies set the pace from the outset, clocking pole position for the opening round at Phillip Island. He ran off the track on the first lap in race one but victory in race two made him the first American to win a WSBK race since Edwards, a fellow Texan, in 2002. His potential as a serious title contender was confirmed at the next round in

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PA DDO C K

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In the FIM MotoGP World Championship, Yamaha took the top two places in the riders’championship and completed a triple crown with the constructors’and teams’ titles for a second successive term. ///

Yamaha rider Remi Bizouard clinched the 2009 FIM Free Style Motocross World Championship title. ///

F I M MAG AZ I NE .7 0 /// NOVEMBER DECEMBER 2009

Cal Crutchlow also made a name for himself on the production series undercard, FIM World Supersport riding the Yamaha YZF-R6. ///

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PAD D OCK

Ben Spies undoubtedly benefited from the versatility and performance of the production YZF-R1 machine to win 14 rounds and the 2009 World title in the FIM Superbike World Championship. ///

Yamaha Austria Racing Team 7 of Gwen Gabbiani, Igor Jerman and Steve Martin took the FIM World Endurance Championship. ///

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PA DDO C K

James Stewart 2009 World Champion in the AMA Supercross, an FIM World Championship. ///

Qatar, where he again secured pole and followed up with a double race win, fastest lap and the circuit record.

More poles and wins followed and in his home round at Miller Motorsports Park a seventh consecutive pole broke the longstanding record of six set in 1991 by another Texan in the shape of Doug Polen. Four more poles gave Spies a new outright record and at the final round in Portimão, Portugal, his fourteenth victory of the season helped put the seal on the title and cleared the way for a move to join Edwards in the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 MotoGP team for 2010.

Not to be overshadowed by the bill-topping rookie in the World Superbike class, Cal Crutchlow also made a name for himself on the production series undercard, World Supersport. Riding the Yamaha YZF-R6 the British youngster took fourth place in the opening round before stringing a run of eight podiums together, including four victories. A gearbox failure whilst leading at Imola gave Honda rider Eugene Laverty the chance to move to within three points and set up a thrilling finale to the season but Crutchlow hung on to secure the championship in the final round at Portimão.

Ben Spies wasn’t the only famous American to join Yamaha in 2009, with James Stewart the marquee signing by top satellite team San Manuel L&M for their AMA Supercross campaign.

Widely regarded as the Valentino Rossi of the off-road world, the charismatic Stewart replaced Suzuki-bound Chad Reed on the YZ450F and a mouthwatering rivalry between the pair quickly materialized. The battle lines were drawn after just six laps of the opening round at Anaheim, when the two collided and crashed, with only Reed, who was leading at the time, able to remount and claim third place.

After sixteen combative races in fourteen cities across eleven states, the most intense and closely contested season in AMA Supercross history reached its climax at the Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas, with Reed and Stewart separated by just six points.

Extra spice was added to the event following a controversial penultimate round in Salt Lake City, where the pair had battled for the lead with Stewart’s team-mate Kyle Chisholm. An altercation between Chisholm and Reed allowed Stewart to escape, with Chisholm black-flagged for his overly-aggressive riding and

F I M MAG AZ I NE .7 0 /// NOVEMBER DECEMBER 2009

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Antonio Carioli 2009 FIM MX1 World Champion!. ///

consequently suspended from the final round.

It was an all-or-nothing last roll of the dice for Reed and Stewart in the fitting surroundings of the country’s gambling capital but in the end it was a relatively uneventful race that decided the title.

Ryan Villopoto dominated from the third lap to take victory ahead of Reed, who could do nothing to stop Stewart from picking up third place and the championship by just four points.

The famously useable power and straight-line stability of the YZ450F that allowed Stewart to take the AMA Supercross title in his first season with Yamaha were also huge factors in the success of Antonio Cairoli, who used the same machine to continue Yamaha’s traditional dominance of the international off-road scene as he took the MX1 World Championship at the first attempt.

Cairoli had his work cut out against his fellow Italian and Yamaha’s reigning MX1 World Champion David Philippaerts but it proved to be a largely frustrating 2009 for the latter, who suffered a series of injuries but kept in touch with the title chase thanks to the occasional flash of brilliance – not least his outstanding victory in Great Britain. Cairoli’s double moto victory in Turkey, followed by four wins from the next six attempts, put him in control of the championship at the midway stage but he was chased to the end

by Philippaerts and KTM rider Max Nagl, whose late season charge ensured a gripping finale. Victories for Cairoli’s team-mate Tanel Leok and factory rider Josh Coppins helped to secure the manufacturers’ title for Yamaha.

Whilst the Yamaha Austria Racing Team 7 of Gwen Gabbiani, Igor Jerman and Steve Martin took the World Endurance Championship with a round to spare at the Bol d’Or in September on their Superstock YZF-R1 machines, Yamaha’s final title of 2009 came in November as Remi Bizouard wrapped up the Freestyle Motocross World Championship for the second successive year on the YZ250.

It was the icing on the cake for Yamaha following a season of incredible achievement across all competitions and with the likes of Rossi, Lorenzo, Edwards, Spies and Stewart signed up again, the ingredients are in place for another feast in 2010.

by Matthew Roberts

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/ / / road book

J A N U A R Y/ F E B R U A R Y 09

23

31

20

Anaheim California USA

Anaheim California USA

Barcelona SPAIN

Indianapolis Indiana USA

SPEA FIM INDOOR TRIAL WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

SPEA FIM INDOOR TRIAL WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

SPEA FIM INDOOR TRIAL WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

Sheffield GREAT BRITAIN

Marseille FRANCE

AMA SUPERCROSS AN FIM WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

AMA SUPERCROSS AN FIM WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

AMA SUPERCROSS AN FIM WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

FIM INDOOR ENDURO WORLD CUP

Barcelona SPAIN

6

FIM INDOOR ENDURO WORLD CUP

AMA SUPERCROSS AN FIM WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

Vigo SPAIN

San Diego Qualcomm USA

10

FIM ICE RACING WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP-FINAL 1

FIM ICE RACING WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP -QR 1

Togliatti RUSSIA

Saalfelden NED

30

20-21

San Francisco California USA

Innsbruck/Olympiahalle AUSTRIA

30-31

27

Krasnogorsk RUSSIA

Atlanta Georgia USA

AMA SUPERCROSS AN FIM WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

FIM ICE RACING WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP-FINAL 3

FIM TEAM ICE RACING WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL

16

AMA SUPERCROSS AN FIM WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

Phoenix Arizona USA FIM ICE RACING WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP-QR 2

Sanok POL FIM ICE RACING WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP-QR 3

St Johann-im-Pongau AUT

AMA SUPERCROSS AN FIM WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

13

AMA SUPERCROSS AN FIM WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

Anaheim California USA

13-14

FIM FREESTYLE MOTOCROSS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

Berlin GERMANY

FIM ICE RACING WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP-FINAL 2

Saransk RUSSIA

28

FIM SUPERBIKE&SUPERSPORT WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

Phillip Island AUSTRALIA

50

FIM M AGA ZINE . 7 0 / / / NOV E M BE R DEC E MB E R 2 0 0 9

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