On-Track Off-Road Issue 186

SX

MAKING THE POINT

Well, two actually. Cooper Webb just needs to finish in the top twenty at the final round of 2019 Monster Energy Supercross in Las Vegas – regardless of whether closest rival Eli Tomac wins or not – to be the second Red Bull KTM rider to celebrate title success in the last five years. His victory in New Jersey last Saturday was his seventh of an amazing third term in 450SX. Photo by Red Bull Content Pool/Garth Milan

MotoGP

A DECENT FIRST The Valentino Rossi fans were left gnawing fists at what was the third occasion for the 40 year old to take a first MotoGP win in almost two years but the third round of the season firmly belonged to Alex Rins and the blue camp at a windy Austin. Just days away from Jerez, the microscope will be on the Catalan for his title credentials in Andalucia (and may Rossi can rule again at the circuit where he has already taken the chequered flag eight times in his career).

Photo by CormacGP

WorldSBK

ENJOYING THE VIEW WorldSBK Champ Jonathan Rea made a cool lifestyle photoshoot with Monster Energy in the Shangri-La Hotel some forty-five floors above London in the iconic The Shard tower. The 32 year old is in his toughest fight to keep the same lofty status over the Superbike series but could have another lift at the fifth round in Imola, Italy in two weeks.

Photo by Monster Energy/Ray Archer

AMA SX

AMA SX NEW JERSEY Blog by Steve Matthes, Photos by KTM/Monster Energy

A SURE BET IN VEGAS? EAST RUTHERFORD

METLIFE STADIUM · APRIL 27 · Rnd 16 of 17 450SX winner: Cooper Webb, KTM 250SX winner: Chase Sexton, Honda

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AMA SX SEATTLE

AMA SX

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AT THE SHARP POINT...

Just one round to go in the 2019 Monster Energy Supercross series and we probably just saw the spike being driven into the hearts of all the competitors hoping they could slow down Red Bull KTM Cooper Webb’s march to the title.

In a way the New Jersey round this past weekend was a bit of a microcosm of the way the entire series has gone: nobody seemed to want to win and Webb took advantage.

Meanwhile, Webb - either the third or fourth fastest rider out on the track on this night - used great starts and mistakes by others to take his seventh win of the year.

were doing something better but you don’t know what. So it was definitely a tough race, but it’s crazy how it all played out. Was able to get another win on the season, which was unreal.”

Webb’s teammate Marvin Musquin crashed in the beginning of the race and fought his way to fifth but he was out of it. Honda’s Ken Roczen wasn’t his usual self and struggled again - Kenny’s been searching to see what’s been medically going on with him. Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Eli Tomac was probably faster than Webb but he crashed twice and could only get a third. RM/ ATV MC KTM’s Blake Baggett was moving up and looking very frisky to grab another win but he washed his front end out. And finally, Rockstar Husqvarna’s Zach Osborne showed the most speed he’s had all year, passed Webb for the lead but then promptly almost flew over a berm.

“The track was difficult, so it made it hard. You want to charge forward but you also kind of want to ride in your comfort zone a little bit. It was a tough main event.

It was good to battle Eli at the beginning and then he kind of broke away a little bit and made a few mistakes,” Webb told the media afterwards. “He had a mistake, so it was a good opportunity for me. Then me and Zach, he actually got around me and then also made a mistake.”

Webb mentioned the breaks he gained so he seems to understand that he was fortunate to grab this win. But in the end, nobody will remember how, they’ll just see the win in the record books. With a 20th place or better this weekend in Las Vegas, they’ll also see a very unexpected (at the start of the season) but well earned 450SX title.

“Definitely got two gifts there, but it was tough to try to… You want to stay consistent and put in your laps but I felt that they were faster in catching me, so I knew somewhere on the track they

Tomac had won two in a row to keep his fading title hopes somewhat alive but once again, he had most of us shaking our heads when he had two small crashes in the whoops, almost in the same spot. The whoops were tough all day long and turned into jumpers, which confused Tomac and

By Steve Matthes

gave him fits. Outside of those two crashes, his speed was, as usual, amazing. You just can’t crash twice and hope to win a main event.

“I had to chuckle about it because I did the exact same thing twice and it was like, how do you even do that?” Tomac said after the race “We were going triple into the whoops there and then [I] just was leaning too far right and kind of cross-rutted. Then went into the same tuff block, same little tip-over. It was like replay. I could have maybe got away with one of those, but the second one really did me in.

Frustrating, but held onto third.”

Frustrating probably doesn’t even equate to what’s been going on behind the scenes at the Monster Kawasaki team. Yet again, for the third year in a row they’re looking to put 450SX behind them and try to get a third 450MX championship.

Roczen, Musquin and Baggett didn’t show up at the press conference but I imagine their comments were more of the

same that we’ve seen. Frustrating, felt good, we’ll go back and try to figure it out, etc, etc- that’s been the standard mantra each week while the #2 Red Bull KTM rider just keeps showing that no matter how he looks in practice, no matter what happens to him in the Main, he’ll make it work for him.

No excuses for Webb he just makes the results. In New Jersey, we saw more of the same from the previous 14 weeks. It was just all wrapped up into one 20 minute plus one main event.

Obviously with Webb on the verge of clinching this 450SX title he’ll follow off Jason Anderson winning the title for Rockstar Husqvarna last year and that was on the heels of Red Bull KTM’s Ryan Dungey claiming three straight 450SX titles. We know that Anderson rides a white KTM right? So it’s basically the same machine as Dungey and Webb and the KTM/Husqvarna alliance will have five straight 450SX championships which shows that the Austrians have things working out just fine.

*** I was talking to a ‘higher-up’ at a Japanese team and he was saying that he’s not a fan of what KTM has done which is buy Husqvarna and basically make them KTMs. The OEM’s share technology, share a program with trainer Aldon Baker and they’re winning over here almost as much as they are in MXGP. It’s an orange and white world these days and hey, racing is competitive and I understand the VIP not being happy. He, like the other rising sun companies, are getting their asses kicked a lot. Heck, Webb’s signing by KTM from Yamaha didn’t make much of a ripple when it happened but his remarkable rise can be partially attributed to how good the bike/ package is.

I mentioned to this VIP that hey, it seems to me that all you have to do is spend some money and try to beat them. KTM/Husqvarna field four factory riders plus the two riders on RM ATV/MC KTM. The bikes are all very, very close and the program where they ride and train together with

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Baker plus the fact they have internal competition with the teams seems to help them rise up. You look at the four Japanese OEM’s and there’s a clear A and B rider plus there’s just two of them. To me, money is a big factor for success and KTM is dumping a ton into it and seeing the results.

This person said that they wouldn’t or couldn’t do it, that the sport only cares about the winner and that they have their “A” guy to win. The support for other teams to have works equipment just isn’t there I guess. My response would be “scoreboard” because right now, the orange and white guys have something figured out and the other OEM’s are reeling. What they can do, or want to do, to try and stop this will be interesting to see.

They better not wait too long or it’ll be more of the same.

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FIND ROADS WITH NO NAME Photo: F. Lackner

PRODUCTS

ktm KTM are increasing the appeal of their off-road Powerwear for 2020 with some revised designs and by maintaining the excellent roster of partnerships with segment-leading companies.

For riding gear the AMA U.S. racing link with Troy Lee Designs means the SE Slash gear (made specifically for the Austrian firm) is the pick of the bunch and has quality in material and performance to match the look. More hook-ups with Scott Sports and Alpinestars means KTM-themed Prospect goggles (a fetching mix of orange and black) and Tech 10 boots on some of the best products in the business.

We’re less enthused about the link with Airoh for the helmets but KTM have branded Alpinestars’ Bionic Tech neck brace and Bionic 10 knee braces for what are just two of a small protective range.

The 2020 line-up is not only motocross but also a full offering for Enduro and includes the attractive Kini range. Hit the link to have a browse.

www.ktm.com/gb/ktmpowerwear

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FEATURE

THE (U.S.)

STATE OF PLAY

By Adam Wheeler

WITH MXGP FALLING VERY MUCH INTO AN ‘OFF-SEASON’ VOID DUE TO THE RESCHEDULING OF THE GRAND PRIX OF CHINA LEAVING A FIVE WEEK GAP IN THE CALENDAR, WE VENTURED OVERSEAS AND TO THE TAIL END OF THE MONSTER ENERGY SUPERCROSS SERIES. ROUND FOURTEEN VISITED NASHVILLE FOR THE FIRST TIME SO HERE IS A CLUTCH OF PAGES, INTERVIEWS AND STORIES SOURCED FROM THE SX PADDOCK AND BEYOND AS THE LAS VEGAS FINALE RAPIDLY APPROACHES.

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uriosity wrapped itself around the open confines of the Nissan Stadium across the river from Nashville’s endless partying downtown district. We heard the phrase ‘Nashvegas’ more than once in our 48 hour stop in the throb of Tennessee. Supercross organisers and promoters Feld Inc were both excited and relieved after intense showers and flaky weather seemed to be abating as Saturday approached. The track had been suitable dowsed to prevent riders completing laps for press day and there was a very vacant and relaxed atmosphere in the paddock on Friday; championship leader – Red Bull KTM’s Cooper Webb – passing time with little hindrance from the scarce public and media wandering around the facility.

The pits carried (what seemed like) a good spread of privateers hoping to crack the Main Event and take hope qualification and start money while the level of activities and interaction for the fans from the likes of Fly Racing, GoPro, Monster and other sponsors (a hanging pullup challenge? A one-arm hammer holding test? Virtual reality SX laps?) meant that it was well worth a stroll around what was a busy area on a hot Saturday.

Wanting to grasp an appreciation of where and how Supercross sits for those involved at a competitive and business level we sought some opinions and there was a common concern.

“I think it is successful and healthy on a lot of levels, on a few not so much,” voiced Fly Racing’s Jason Thomas. “The biggest hurdle and burden is TV viewership. The evolution of television Apps have helped a lot and MXGP have advanced with having live online broadcasts

accessed worldwide and that’s incredibly popular. NBC’s Gold App is doing the same. I think if they can stay on the forefront of the technology so people can watch it whether they are poolside at their house or even in and around the stadium or in the living room then this is where the young generation can be found.”

“The days of everyone gathering around the TV for the race in the evening is still there but it more about tablets and ondemand. We have to stay very engaged with that if we hope to create new customers and retain the ones we have is to make it as accessible as possible so it fits their needs-and-wants as opposed to putting everyone in front of a box. Just one live TV broadcast at one place is almost antiquated thinking.”

“I think they do a good job of trying to branch out with live TV, and it is tough to fill stadiums when what you can see on screens is just as good as what you see there,” commented Rockstar Energy Husqvarna’s Zach Osborne, keen to illustrate how the expertise of the Supercross television broadcast has progressed. “I think it is something that a lot of sport in America is trying to navigate right now. When live coverage is so good you’d rather sit at home and watch, especially if you have been to a race before. I think NASCAR is struggling a bit with that right now.”

In 2018 and the last year of Supercross appearing on Fox Sports network Feld claimed the TV viewership nudged record levels (the highest rate being the Salt Lake City round that pulled in almost 900,000 watchers for the live feed) with the Fox app helping expand extra digital leverage*. This year NBC Sports Network have picked up the baton and with Las Vegas dropping the curtain on a close and fairly unpredictable title dispute in the premier class, data on the 2019 reach should be made public soon.

Feld are not sitting still. While an abnormality like the Lime powder affair in the ‘submerged’ San Diego round furiously

FEATURE waved a red flag, they are otherwise pushing-and-prodding the race format (maintaining and streamlining the Triple Crown), promoting more Supercross Futures to embrace and highlight the next generations of talent (and appeal more to their young demographic of fans) and continuing to explore new territories.

“I think coming to new cities like Nashville is good and the Triple Crown deal is pretty cool,” offers Osborne. “I think we should have more of them, as many as eight or so a season. It is a lot of riding for us but it is a great format and provides a lot of racing for the fans.”

“NOBODY HERE ON THE STAFF IS EVER HAPPY. WE’RE NEVER CONTENT. WE FEEL THAT WE HAVE A GREAT PRODUCT BUT IT WILL NEVER BE – AT LEAST IN MY EYES – WHERE WE WANT IT TO BE. THE DEFINITION OF THAT? FULL STADIUMS EVERY WEEKEND, HUGE TELEVISION NUMBERS, GLOBAL AUDIENCES. WE’RE GONNA PUSH.” Catering for the paying punter is a priority that bounces from extremes for promoters and organisers. Some see every ticket sold as essential lifeblood and will provide a premium in terms of the experience in, out, at and around the main spectacle. Others will balance where the main influx of cash comes from to make the fixture happen: whether that’s through advertising, sponsorship or heaving financial backing from local councils and government schemes.

The turnout was very healthy at Nashville with roughly two-thirds of a 69,000 facility packed with public (and the rain hammered down through Sunday morning giving the inaugural race a near-miss with disaster) but Feld are fully aware of the importance of the fans.

“We are trying to open it up and make it more of a festival and an experience, almost to the point where you can enjoy that side of it without setting foot in the stadium and still walk away having had a good time,” says Director of Operations Dave Prater. “To marry the technology with the experience, so some kind of augmented reality through Apps that you can use inside the stadium as well as the Fan Fest. I think that’s the next step of evolution. That’s where we are looking in the near future.

Fans seem to want more of an experience instead of just coming, sitting and taking it in. That’s the goal and I don’t see why we cannot do it. We have to keep pushing and your limitation is your imagination.”

Despite many visits over the years, sitting through the opening ceremony and then witnessing the rate with which the night programme rattles through the Heats is always impressive. Supercross is still a vivid attack on the senses. “I tell people all the time that have never been that it’s a cool show,” advocates Osborne. “Even if you are not a dirtbike fan then it’s pretty sick to see it all. I watched Anaheim 2 from the stands and I was thinking ‘this is pretty cool’.”

Prater says efforts to simplify Supercross are never-ending. “Right now we are working on a way to identify the leader a little easier,” he outlines. “Whether that is an LED light on their number plate or whatever it might be…I think that is the number one thing we are getting requests about;

especially for new fans. Someone who comes to see Supercross for the first time usually loves it but also finds it difficult to find the leader. So we are working on that. Ten years ago I never thought we’d have an LED pylon out there that can do multiple things like run sponsor videos or show the running order. I don’t think there is a limit on what we can do.”

As an Englishman in Nashville there was one ritual subject with Dave Prater to tackle: the spread of Supercross and when it will again head international, fifteen years after the last attempt. “We haven’t given up on it and we are still diligently working on it,” he smiles. “I would say here on April 5th in Nashville Tennessee we are a lot closer than the last time you asked me at the Monster Energy Cup. It could be as soon as 2021.

We can’t promise anything but we are working on it.” Supercross has undoubtedly widened its international profile thanks to the streaming App, and any European adventure would surely stand more chance of success as a result. The problem is the crowded dirtbike racing calendar and where it could fit into the dates when Supercross already hits 17 rounds in 18 weeks and MXGP and the Lucas Oil AMA Pro Nationals also harvest the interests of what is a regarded as a niche sport.

It isn’t a simple affair for Feld on home turf even; nevermind the exploration overseas and the risk of investment to assure teams, athletes and sponsored largely homed into a U.S. market that an international dalliance would be worthwhile. “That’s one of the greatest differences compared, to say, even two years ago. I was just having this conversation yesterday actually and in the past we’d

FEATURE

call a place like CenturyLink Field in Seattle and say ‘we want to race there in 2020’ and they’d say ‘great, tell us what weekend’ and more than likely they’d have our choice open,” explains Prater.

“Now we need to get further and further ahead of the game because stadiums are almost like arenas when they’ll have something almost every weekend and will rarely be ‘dark’. It has been a challenge because our goal is to make a five-year plan where we have at least the base of the schedule - if not the entire one - fairly solidified in advance. Atlanta and Minneapolis both said to us last year ‘hey guys, we only have two dates in the first quarter available…’ so it means you are locked into those dates and you have to work the schedule around it and hope that other venues have other dates available. That wasn’t the case ten years ago.”

“Nobody here on the staff is ever happy,” Prater insists. “We’re never content. We feel that we have a great product but it will never be – at least in my eyes – where we want it to be and I don’t want it to ever get there because when I am happy and content then it will be time to retire. The definition of that?

Full stadiums every weekend, huge television numbers, global audiences. We’re gonna push.”

Concentration on refining the product is not doing Feld any harm at the moment.

Another inescapable and wholly commendable part of the fabric in Nashville was the adoption of the event as the first #thisracesaveslives initiative for the St Jude; an NPO Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis for cancer and lifethreatening diseases. St Jude had been adopted by Feld as one of Supercross’ unofficial charities through a t-shirt campaign for the previous two years. Nashville marked a significant step-up and former four times 450SX champion Ryan Dungey was the initial driving forcing behind the link.

“My first experience and touring the hospital made up my mind it led into the bike ride and the 5km runs,” the Red Bull KTM ambassador said in the depths of the Nissan stadium and in the company of friend Gabe Sharp, a nine year old recovering from medulloblastoma (a brain tumour and under treatment at St Judes since 2018). “Talking about it is one thing but to pay a visit and see the work that is

St Jude is run purely on donations and the cost to help the kids with serious illnesses runs into millions of dollars.

“They have a mission of ending children’s cancer,” said Feld PR Manager Sean Brennen, who had enthusiastically wandered the Nashville paddock accepting shirts and gear for auction and marvelled at the attempts by riders and teams to run decals and graphics highlighting the St Jude cause. “In the sixties the success rate was 20% and now it is up to 80%. [initially] We had the idea of the shirt and in the first year I think people were like ‘what’s this?’ but by the second year it was well known.”

“It began at Ryan’s home race in Minnesota and we had such an amazing response that we extended it to the last four races of the season,” he added.

“Everybody embraced it and we made 106,000 dollars last year. We want to go bigger, raise more funds and do things for the kids. We hope in the off-season we can make a bigger plan.” being done if life-changing, really. It was inspiring to be there. You think ‘what can we do?!’ but actually there is a lot we can do.”

“When I turned Pro I realised quickly that it was a huge platform and that I had an influence and could use it positively,” Dungey continued. “I always wanted to do something because life is bigger than all of us. It puts things into perspective; we get all stressed about a third position and sometimes we can be drama queens.”

Gabe’s mum, Andrea Sharp described the initiative at Nashville as a “happy moment from a hard situation”.

It was striking to see Dungey’s compassion and support for what is obviously a personal project and, while it was somewhat of a co-incidence, heartening to bump into Brennen to shadow his paddock tour to realise just how much the travelling supercross circus were rallying in support. Happily it looks as though Nashville or nearby SX rounds will not be the only St Jude flag bearer in the near future. *credit www.forbes.com

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Photo: Octopi Media

CHASE SEXTON WINS EAST RUTHERFORD 250SX @ P R O T A P E R

P R O T A P E R . C O M

FEATURE

A CONVERSATION WITH KEN ROCZEN

By Adam Wheeler

TALKING GRAND PRIX, COMEBACKS AND CULTURE CHANGES WITH THE MOTOCROSS SUPERSTAR Photos by James Lissimore

FEATURE

Ken

Roczen sits down with some sort of protein mix.

He’s wearing an HRC hoodie and cap with which he’ll repeatedly fidget over the course of a thirty-minute conversation. It’s quiet on Friday in the Nashville SX paddock; something of a contrast to the early round bustle of the AMA Supercross series in California and perhaps a sign of a long calendar entering the final weeks of the schedule.

We’ve been asked (very politely by HRC PR) not to dwell on Roczen’s horrendous pair of injuries. The German lost the rest of 2017 (and almost his left arm) after the fist-gnawingly bad crash at Anaheim 2 and then had to recover again from having his right hand chewed by Cooper Webb’s Yamaha in San Diego 2018. That Roczen is still riding and racing at the level to fend for AMA 450SX podiums is a testament to his character and ability (the following evening he was the fastest athlete through the Nashville whoops and should have been staring at his first victory since 2017 if he hadn’t ran into the back of a falling Joey Savatgy. “Cursed!” shouted American media colleagues in his direction after the tangle with the Kawasaki).

Understandably #94 is somewhat tired of the subject. It has overshadowed his accomplishments and haunts his current efforts like a vacant spectre that likes to rattle a chain when the HRC machine comes close to closing the chapter with a notable result.

Like it or not his protracted fight back from such adversity – presented in its full gruesome state on his Instagram channel tracked by 1.2 million people – is part of a startling career story in which Roczen has been one of the most adored, followed and

Part of the reason for wanting to get KR in front of an MP3 recorder was recognition that his story started exactly ten years ago. It was in 2009 that the fresh-faced kid from Mattstedt had to wait until round five of the MX2 FIM World Championship to make his debut on a Suzuki RM-Z250 as a fifteen year old and four races later a 2-2 meant his first Grand Prix win

came at Teutschenthal and his home event. Two seasons later he was world champion with Red Bull KTM, a Motocross of Nations winner and the USA beckoned. A 250SX West title fell, 450MX in his rookie attempt (and then again with Suzuki) and a high profile move to the now defunct RCH team. Monster Cup success, Anaheim 1 debut mastery, the HRC deal and the suit-and-tie combo, cosmetics endorsements, top billing with Fox and Red Bull, Florida residence and marriage to Courtney: It has been an authentic journey.

And he’s still just 24 (hitting 25 just as this magazine goes live).

Ken talks with rapid-fire intensity and with a bouncy American flection. I remember pigeonholing him as an archetypal example of the 00’s video star: a youngster who is well-versed with the interview process and happy to chuck out small, throwaway soundbites like confetti. I also recall that Grand Prix debut at Agueda. Portugal and how it was evident, almost immediately, that his ability to steer a motorcycle at speed was

KEN ROCZEN

feted racers of his generation: a world champion that has claimed every major dirtbike racing prize save for the 450SX title and MXGP.

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something special. He emerged the same time as Jeffrey Herlings and a shade later than Marvin Musquin: a ridiculous mini grouping of talent that left a sizeable footprint on tracks and stadium floors. One of his customary quotes that I loved was his claim that ‘there is always a place to pass’. It was a refreshing retort to a popular claim at the time that Grand Prix circuits were dated, restrictive and frustrating.

Roczen’s racing was injected with fun, infused with defiance and he did things his own way.

It’s reassuring to see he hasn’t really changed.

Ken is expressive, listens and fires out his thoughts in a stream of consciousness. After switching off the recorder we talk more: no hurry, no pressure and it wasn’t always like that as Roczen was arguably one of the most in-demand personalities in the Supercross paddock.

So, ten years…

[Smiles]. It’s crazy. A couple of years flew by for me just because of the injuries. I was thinking about this earlier and I’m turning 25 at the end of the month. It is nuts to think I was start-

You had to wait until round five of the 2009 season in Portugal before you could race. If you think back to that kid now - as a rider as much as a person - what comes to mind?

As a fifteen year old all I did was ride my bike, train and have fun. There was nothing else, and I guess that was quite normal [for responsibilities] because I was just a kid but also it wasn’t normal because most people don’t do GPs at that age and most are still in school. I was always in an environment where people were older than me and more mature and there was not a worry in the world. I think the biggest curveball was moving to the U.S. Now as an adult and having moved to another continent I have quite a mature perspective despite be-

KEN ROCZEN

ing GPs when I’d just turned fifteen. I was so young. If someone said in ten years time I’d be where I am now I’d have thought ‘yeah, right…’

FEATURE ing 24. I’m not 16, 17 or 18 any more and when I was in Europe everything was dialled: I was at home, we knew where to ride all the time and when to go to Belgium. It was all easy but coming here I went straight into an apartment and didn’t have much time to get set for supercross after zero experience of that in Europe. Even grocery shopping: all that kind of stuff was so new. It was a different culture. I wasn’t doing that well right away and there was a lot too learn. There were a lot of ups and downs during that time whereas in Europe everything was set-up and working. I don’t know if I would have had a completely different career but that was my home continent and moving around different countries and cultures was something I’m very familiar with. You can see it with Tony [Cairoli]: he has been in the game so long and knows what to do, where to go, what the series is about, who he will face. He has his programme, his schedule. Coming here even things like the oneday format and all the flying – I wasn’t used to that at all – and during the summer it was as hot as s**t: there is so much that gets thrown at you at once.

It was difficult.

Do you think racing for almost three years in GPs gave you an invaluable platform? You won a world championship…but maybe if you’d come here earlier…?

For sure it was huge…but I feel what I did in Europe was kinda thrown out the window in terms of how we raced.

Everything was a lot more fast-paced here and the setups are so different. I think back in the day the KTM bikes I had for Supercross were not the best and we pretty much started from absolute scratch.

The team was very new, I had to do all the testing, there was not much help with that and everything was thrown at once and it felt like what I’d done in Europe didn’t really help.

Do you feel that some of your billing changed when you came here? You were the young poster boy with a lot of potential, very bi-lingual, very marketable. Perhaps that wouldn’t have been the case if you’d stayed in the world championship…

I agree. I don’t know if Europe, perhaps, cares about that much and I don’t know how it is there even now but a lot of it here was about Supercross, the show, TV and different brands. There was a lot of other stuff that people pay attention to. I don’t think over there much of a deal is made about autograph signings on a Friday and dealership visits.

People pay attention to other stuff here. That’s the culture and motocross racing here.

So one of the very small positive things of your injury troubles the last few years must have been the chance to stand back and think: what else was my life about? That it isn’t just 17 races in 18 weeks…

Yeah, for sure. At one point I

was ‘over’ being away from racing but in the beginning my arm was a total mess and I didn’t know if I would ever ride again. At that point I took a breath. I thought ‘this is what it’s like…’ [not to be a racer any more]. Before the big injury I’d never really missed a race. In the beginning, for the first months, all I did was therapy morning and night. I was busy but I did not have to be anywhereCould you mentally ‘breathe’?

Yeah, the ‘family life’ was huge and it was something really nice to experience because our lives are so fast-paced here most of the time and it was something I don’t think you really can grasp until you are retired. When the season is over you normally have a couple of weeks but then you start riding supercross right away and you’re in California, looking at the Monster Cup and maybe the Nations. You never really have time to do anything.

Tony Cairoli is 33. Can you imagine doing another 8 years?

Dude! I would have been like ‘you are crazy!’

He’s still winning…

Tony to me is very special.

First-off as a human but also a friend and as a character. I talked to him a bunch yesterday. It might sound weird being a professional athlete and potentially being a competitor but I think he should be everybody’s hero-type-thing,

KEN ROCZEN

Were there times then when you wanted some of that more laidback, simpler approach to racing?

Oh, for sure. Like I said it was all-new at first but when I think back – and from what I see now – GP guys have it made.

Yes, they have a lot of races but it will be two and then a weekend off or one and then two weeks, three and then another two weeks. When I was there I never thought ‘man, I’ve done too many races and it’s getting tough’ whereas here fifteen-in-a-row boom! Flying on Friday…the flight to Seattle for example is six hours and most of the time on Saturday night we’re done late and I won’t sleep until 1.30 and will be up at 4.30 to catch the flight to go back home and repeat the entire week to do the same thing. It takes a lot more of a toll here mentally and physically if you know what Europe is like. If you’ve always and only known this – and I’ve raced Lorettas as well where it is still short intense races…It is more laidback in Europe and you have more time on the track and more time to learn a place.

FEATURE especially as a kid to see what he has done over the years and still does. Every time someone asks me about him I don’t have enough nice things to say. You just have to experience how he is as a person. And I think we are very similar; we both need to be having some fun and have a programme that we like. He is friggin bad-ass on a bike but – like me – needs something different than just motocross. I think that’s why we understand each other.

On the other hand do you think your career might have mirrored that of Jeffrey Herlings if you’d stayed in MXGP? He’s an athlete that has pushed to accumulate as much as he can and strived to set new levels in the sport?

Probably… No: for sure [because] like we said I knew the GPs. I’d gathered experienced. You can repeat every year because you know what to expect. That curveball of coming here flipped the world upside down for me and there were

If people see you on Instagram it seems like you have set this idyllic life in Florida with the house, boat, dog. Does your mind every wander to the next stage after racing? Not to talk

about retirement but can you see your life being in the U.S. for good?

I’ve thought about it, and my wife too and I think we’d love to do a couple of years in Europe but I have these next three years of racing here to go. [pause] I think in the next couple of years things will change a lot. My wife turns 32 this year; she’s a lot older than me and I’m a big family guy. I’d love to have a family. Right now that seems so far away. I’d love

KEN ROCZEN

so many little puzzle pieces to put together and figure out. I went from hanging out with my friends in my family house to that apartment and driving an hour to get to the track every day.

FEATURE to go back and do the GPs: I think it would be super-fun but right now I don’t know. In three years things can change a lot. I want to win championships and win [races], and that hasn’t happened in a long time but I have this wish to get a full season under my belt because that also hasn’t happened in a long time. I don’t know if a lot of people writeme-off – if that is the right way to say it – but they might be wondering ‘what’s going with him?’ and dude, I’m trying just as hard to get a sense of normalcy back. I want the races to seem normal to me because at one point it wasn’t. I would show up and I felt out of it last year because it had been a year since I’d raced! I wasn’t around. I’d basically secluded myself from the scene and I un-followed everyone on Instagram and didn’t want to know because I was so far out from riding and racing. It had been taken away from me just like that. Now I’m back into that routine and following schedules and I have this calmness.

This is my first supercross season back and I think in the next three seasons there is a lot of good things to come. I just need to stay healthy and keep doing what I am doing. I just want to finish each race, get better with everything and keep learning.

We didn’t get a chance to talk at the 2018 Nations at RedBud. You obviously came into that race after a hard AMA 450MX season and then the MXGP guys took control… what was your assessment?

That race was tough. They’d put a lot of sand down and I’d struggled with the bike in Outdoors and my hand: I still have problems with my thumb.

I still don’t know why I raced at Hangtown last summer because I’d only done parade

laps before then. I couldn’t hold on. It took a frigging 20 minute tape job before I could go out. By RedBud it was finally coming good but then I thought ‘this cannot be real!’ I’d switched suspension companies, which I perhaps shouldn’t have done but I didn’t feel right. Instead of taking it easy and working on myself and trying to get my hand better I was trying to search for something. I felt like I could win…but I wasn’t there and wasn’t feeling 100%.

Outdoors was tough because the tracks are really rough, it’s really hot and different types of dirt. A tough season and going to the Nations I tried the best I could but we were so lost with the bike back then. I was trying to figure some stuff out and those kinds of conditions made it worst too. But… those guys were…I know that weekend was not how it was supposed to go but at the same time what was I supposed to do after a year like that? I really wanted to do the Nations and it was almost good the way that it went because I was like ‘something has to change’ and we went to work and things are panning out to be a lot better. [pauses] Sorry, there is so much to talk about! I get a bit crazy. It must look like things are not too bad from the outside but I am not where I want to be. I have been struggling with my health at one point and it ruined me.

A virus?

Yeah, it stuck with me for so long and struck my lower extremities. I’ve been having some leg problems and my body felt so weak. We did a bunch of tests and I am still trying to figure things out.

Some inconsistent feeling. It hasn’t made things easy. I can still come out at the weekend pretty good but it is pretty crazy with how my weeks have been going and how I have been feeling. Sometimes I surprise myself with how I do but at the same time the weekends can be very up-anddown. I rode pretty good at Seattle and was second and then I won the first Main of the Triple crown but I felt like utter dog s**t all day. You might not be able to see it from the outside, especially during practice when it is just one-lap but…

I’m trying not to talk about it too much because it doesn’t help me. Every weekend the TV people come over and ask me how I am going but in my head I’m just thinking ‘please leave me alone’ because I’m not happy with where I am and talking about it is not going to make me any better. I also don’t really know what is going on. Obviously they need informationDoes it get tiring to always face a struggle? I think people always saw you as a personification of confidence but you must have had a hard reminder that you are not immortal…

KEN ROCZEN

Talking with some GP riders now their dream is just to make a podium or win a grand prix but you won your home round as a skinny fifteen year old. A career goal achieved before you can even vote. Do you have any memories of that weekend at Teutschenthal?

I do! Sometimes I like to find and watch some of the older races because it is interesting to me. It was so long ago.

I always tried to set the bar really high and that doesn’t always make it easier. When I got hurt I was at the top of my game and I felt like it was hard for anyone to touch me. I think Ryan [Dungey] was on his Agame but we were separating ourselves. It got taken away and I am trying to get back to that. It hasn’t got easier. I think the bikes are all better and closer, everybody trains hard and the differences are smaller.

FEATURE Well, with the crash and all that stuff I wasn’t thinking like that…but like you said it is tiring to always have a struggle. At the beginning of this season we needed to make some bike adjustments but I wasn’t going crazy, I was keeping calm and I was looking at the long run. I started picking up some serious pace at Arlington and Minneapolis. Before Arlington I started to get a bit ill and I made it through but then it started to go like that [gestures downwards]. During the week I felt awful. I was miserable in Detroit and the Triple Crown is the hardest on you as a racer. The ups-and-downs go on for so long that it gets frustrating.

Can you respect someone like Christophe Pourcel who had his crash in Northern Ireland in 2007 and then – to all intents and purposes – he never wanted to push over his limit again?

You cannot blame anyone who has had big-ass crashes. Breaking an arm you’d think ‘I’ll be back in six weeks’ but for anyone who has had serious injuries…it ain’t easy. For me there was a fear of crashing and jumping again in the beginning. Supercross is gnarly and it’s only recently that I am happy and comfortable with going on new tracks and jumping jumps that are difficult. But before that I didn’t have the timing and I was really restricted and even now I don’t have a whole lot of movement [show left wrist] I can go down but going up this is all I have [his wrist barely moves]. I had a lot of stiffness pain and I rode with these braces.

My arm went all-weird. It was tough to deal with the restrictions but now it is normal for me and I don’t think about it any more. Anyone who has had these injuries…it is really tough for someone who hasn’t gone through it. You might be mostly healthy with just minor injuries here-or-there and they are not in your head. My brother-in-law got paralysed and will hopefully make a full recovery but that stuck with me for a while. It happened early in the week and I was the first one there and was in

the hospital the whole time…that stuck with me.

I was always meditating in the mornings and I could not get the picture out of my head of how he was laying. It was frickin’…gnarly and we had to go to Anaheim 2 the next race. S**t man.

Everybody’s situation is different and there are some that might not have ridden and some who would have done better than I did. [thinks] There have definitely been some tough times. The last year was brutal. All I want is to stay healthy and if I can do my job I can get back to winning a lot.

I just need a bit of consistency right now.

Lastly it might be tough to answer but for every kid in Europe or around the world who wants to try and follow your example and career path: can you really describe what it is like to come here and experience the allure and glamour of supercross?

What’s crazy is that the first time I came over here what threw me off guard was the hype but then also details like being in the gate and all the bikes smelling very different! You are down there and it is very loud and you are not in an environment that you are used to. It is kinda funny to talk about it but the smell down there is very intense: an example of how different it is.

I didn’t have any Supercross experience – I rode the Dortmund SX once – and it is a different situation for most of the Frenchies. I have huge respect for Jeffrey [Herlings] and that is a reason for when you have s**t dialled in Europe then why come here and restart?

The appeal of Supercross is surely experiencing another level of the sport…

I think people know early on whether they want to come here or not. My goal – was to always come here. If you delay it then I think you lose it, the same for Tony, Jeffrey…

What about Jorge Prado? He’s in a similar scenario to you…

This is his third year? Again, why change it all?

You see it with Hunter Lawrence: a bunch of injuries and he hasn’t even started racing yet. That’s just through practicing. It is a big commitment

everything up. I know I still ‘have it’ in the sand. It will just take a few days. I think it is muscle-memory. I’m obviously going to watch some of the GPs and obviously the last races at Assen.

KEN ROCZEN

coming over here. It is a big curveball.

When plans are made and you are expected to come over here and smash-it then it’s a little different for sure.

Those winter motos at Lommel don’t seem so bad after all…

Oh! I miss it! I swear to you. I’d love to have a legit sand track here. For the Nations this year I’m going over as soon as possible. I really miss it. I need to set

FEATURE

By Adam Wheeler

HOW DO YOU SEEJUSTIN BARCIA

The charismatic and spectacular Yamaha rider might be missing from the final round of AMA Monster Energy Supercross this weekend but Justin Barcia is one of the essential members of the 450SX cast list and is a premium racer for the likes of Alpinestars and Scott Sports. In the first of two short, revealing catch-ups with #51 on his gear preferences we asked how he uses and adapts Scott’s popular Prospect goggle for Supercross and Motocross.

The Prospect boasts several segment-leading features such as the large field of vision, the innovative lens-lock system and

a new curved and light sensitive lens; the last two specs being the latest and most notable additions to a goggle that has become a standard for the market in terms of its performancefor-price.

Barcia, 27, has trusted Scott since he was a major hit in the amateurs and then again for the last half a decade for his Pro career; one of several high-profile athletes for the firm on U.S. soil. “Scott take care of me on the bicycle side as well which means I have the best of both worlds: the best goggles and sick mountain bikes and road bikes!” he smiles.

Are you picky about the face foam?

I honestly don’t sweat that much but I do like a good seal from the goggle. I have a good amount of foam but, honestly, I just run a normal stock Prospect.

some roost that might come through the helmet. I love rolloffs; when it’s a mud-race I get excited about that! Which is kinda weird I suppose! It means that MXGP is appealing because I’d get to use it most weekends.

What about set-up when it comes to roll-offs/tear-offs?

After all these years I’m not picky any more! If there is a lot of sand at a race then I like some Vaseline on the edge of the goggles to catch

Scott’s light-sensitive lens technology is a pretty big deal and an interesting development: what’s your take?

It’s definitely useful for Outdoors. In Supercross it’s usually a closed stadium and you don’t have to deal with those light differentials. Outdoors you’ll have trees and shade and the lens adapts to the light, which is – in my opinion – pretty awesome. It’s legit.

It’s not like switching a light on; it is a minimal change but enough to help when there is a lot of glare and it is very light but then gets dark quickly. It’s cool.

Anything that you wish they’d change about goggles generally?

It would be cool if somehow we could ditch tear-offs or roll-offs altogether. Some kind of magic that meant you never had to take your hands off the bars. I think the important thing with goggles it to make sure that they seal [to your face] well and Scott have been around for such a long time that they have it figured out.

JUSTIN BARCIA & SCOTT

Do Scott use you much for testing or for trying new things?

Of course. Having said that the goggles these days are so advanced: the biggest thing seems to be open vision and having as much of it as possible. We don’t do that much crazy testing because that standard is already really good but there are small things like foam changes and making it better in terms of tackling sweat. You can only go so wide with a goggle to ensure it fits the helmet.

FEATURE

u

los ultimos pasos ADAM CIANCIARULO ON BEING SO NEAR TO THE RECORD BOOKS AFTER HAVING BEEN SO FAR FOR SO LONG

By Adam Wheeler Photos by James Lissimore

FEATURE

Adam

Cianciarulo doesn’t take long to drain a large iced coffee in Starbucks. It’s a wonder that his drink has gone down much at all because – as usual – the 22 year old is in good and chatty form. An expressive and open character, Cianciarulo has much to feel buoyant about in 2019 so far. As we sit and talk – and as OTOR materialises online – ‘AC’ has been leading a close chase in

the 250SX West series and is closer than ever to the first of what should have been a plethora of supercross titles.

Instead the Pro Circuit ‘everpresent’ has been furrowing a browbeating pattern of injuryrehab-injury-rehab and was even in danger of fading away from the motocross map after a miserable succession of pain in 2015 and 2016.

“Oh god, I could go on forever,” he wide-eyes when quizzed about his list of woe.

“In my rookie year I did my shoulder and then on my second day back I broke my leg with the tib-fib. Got back on the bike and raced the Geneva Supercross at the end of 2014 and knocked myself out and did the shoulder again. Got back and raced five Outdoors and then did the other shoulder. Then going into 2016 I broke my ankle and my wrist. There are some sicknesses in there as well….” He trails off, the articulation of the journey

Regardless of what fate befalls Cianciarulo this weekend in Las Vegas (and perhaps he won’t want to think what Now, things finally look decent. happened the last time the By partially severing his FloridMonster Energy Pro Circuit ian roots and family and friends Kawasaki team went to the and committing to a fairly lonely Sam Boyd Stadium with a title existence in Murrieta – a short on the line) 2019 has been a distance from trainer and menturnaround campaign with five tor Nicky Wey – Cianciarulo has wins and six podium finishes. evolved from an occasionally Cianciarulo is almost there, brilliant, often erratic and mostly and it has been seven long luckless super-personality in the years in green waiting for this sport to someone who could final- moment “but it feels like four ly join Mitch Payton’s illustrious because that’s the amount of and lengthy list of PC champions. races I have done!” he smiles.

“2015 and 2016 you might as well just take them out of my career book. I basically didn’t race. In 2016 I got through Outdoors but I was re-building myself. I almost didn’t ride a dirtbike for two years. I really feel I restarted my career in 2017.”

“LAST SUMMER I HAD TO CHANGE SOMETHING BECAUSE I’D BEEN DOING THE SAME THING OVER AND OVER AGAIN. I HAD TO DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT. AND IN THE PAST I WOULD NOT HAVE HAD THE CONVICTION TO MAKE MY OWN DECISIONS.” There must have been part of you that really hated the sport in that time…

Oh, for sure. Growing up I had a lot of things go right for me. I was in a super-fortunate position, although I think

some people get confused because I didn’t start out with everything. I had the same as everybody else. I came from a middle class family and was able to do well by winning a lot of races. Going to the Pros I didn’t expect to dominate right away but I thought I’d do well and get the hang of it and Supercross went OK the first year but a few injuries later and you start asking yourself: “OK, what’s going on? This keeps on happening…” Looking back now I wasn’t very mature physically, not very strong. I was doing a lot of training and I was tired a lot of the time. One of my biggest attributes – that can also be one of my failings – is that I have this sense of urgency; like a lack of patience or more like a ‘want to…’ I have to do this, I have to win, I have to be the best guy. I think it was something that held me back mentally. I was getting hurt a lot and rushing back. I was getting too far ahead of myself and it would lead to some other mistakes. It was a tough little period.

Were you scared at one point to think you might have missed your ‘window’?

Yeah…but think I gained some perspective and learned a lot in terms of realising ‘this might be the worst it can be’. It takes pressure off. For example I’m in a tight championship battle right now and

ADAM CIANCIARULO

and all those hours of recovery a memory he’d rather not re-live again.

FEATURE two, three, four years ago I would have done anything to be in this position. I was at the bottom during that time and now I am back, I am one of ‘those guys’ and competing at the top level of the sport. So those moments allow you to realise that you are lucky to be able to do it.

But because of what you have been through do you feel a little panicky or edgy with it being so close for the championship?

I’m not going to sit here and say I would turn down a few extra points! In Supercross rarely do you see a championship won without some adversity here or there. It’s a great way to win it if it comes down to being close, and at Vegas as well. I’ve never been one to shy away from the pressure and I dealt with that a lot as a kid. It is almost second nature to me and some of my best races ever happened that way: if I felt my back was against the wall I was able to put some of my best performances forward. I do believe I’m the best guy so it [the dispute] is not something that is keeping me up at night.

When you see what happened to Joey Savatgy in Las Vegas a couple of years ago…it is never really in the pocket until the flag flies and it must be hard to ignore that fact…

Yeah, I have to be mentally

disciplined and all I can do is the maximum possible to be the best I can be. It’s that whole ‘one week and one race at a time’ and ‘look at it from an individual’ perspective. Instead of being on such broad terms as a championship. You have to isolate the race. If I go to an event and think ‘I need a win this weekend’ and take the points out of it then it just helps with confidence and belief. If I go there and think ‘well, what about the championship…and if I make a mistake and do this-or-that’ then it is draining. It’s a discipline, and I can tell you that the last two years I have gone into the final races 10-15 points down and I’d much rather be where I am than not having a shot at it at all.

Do some of those bigger picture thoughts come into play during the final moments of a race? Would it be stupid not to even consider what position you hold and what it means?

I think I’m a pretty ‘aware’ person in general and thoughts come into your head all the time but you have to know when to push them out. I’m not an idiot and I don’t just go out there and pin-it but there is a line where you can be thinking too much and it is about balancing that.

No offence but perhaps there are not too many observant

or analytical racers out there and when you are tenths of a second apart, using similar styles then it can appear a bit robotic, a bit samey. Like it is hard for anyone to make the difference…

Sure, there are lots of different dynamics that people don’t see and a lot going on inside our heads. A lot of the lack of transparency comes from riders wanting to keep ‘that status’ of people not looking at us as human beings and you want your competition to know that you don’t feel things. You are a robot! It can almost give you a mental advantage if people believe nothing can worry you.

The riders want to look a certain way to other riders as much as they might want to in the eyes of the fans. But the truth is that we’ve all been doing this our whole lives and it means a lot to us and I know that about everybody out there. We all liveand-die by it. You gotta own it.

Is the smoke screen necessary these days?

People can get such in-

ADAMXXXXXX CIANCIARULO XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXX

sight thanks to the videos and the social media‌ I think there are a lot of guys out there now that do a good job of getting their personalities across. Somebody like Dean Wilson does a decent job of giving himself to the fans or to show who he is and I think that’s cool. He has a big following. I think other riders are a bit quieter and just work

FEATURE and do their stuff. Some people embrace the media and others don’t. I think it is important to be open and show honesty. There is a fine line and you have to guard yourself sometimes. You have to have that bad-ass, tough-guy look a lot of the time.

It’s seems to be a relevant topic when you are punching at the top of the sport.

Take a rider like Eli Tomac who seems to be praised and criticised in equal measure.

Maybe some more transparency would help there…

Yeah, it definitely leaves a lot of stuff up for interpretation but maybe that’s just the way Eli is: a quieter guy and there is nothing wrong with that.

He is certainly criticised and praised a lot and does amazing things on a dirtbike and I honestly think he is content with who he is and that’s cool.

Just be you. If you try to fake it one way or the other then that’s when people can see through it. It happens in other sports as well and I think it is easy to see when someone is trying to pull a fast-one.

Pro Circuit has been a constant since you were twelve but you had the supportdynamic with your family, you tried the Aldon Baker regime and now you are working with Nick Wey. Have you finally found the green pasture you needed?

I feel like I am in a really good place right now and I could be for the rest of my career in terms of the people around me and what I am doing. It is crazy the growth I have had since I turned Pro. I have always been the type of guy that has deferred to people that I feel have more knowledge than me. I’ve never felt like I know it all or to be ‘that’ kid. There are so many examples of kids that said ‘screw everybody, I’m going my way’.

I was always the opposite, almost to a fault. I think I’m pretty smart and since my knee injury last year I reassessed my programme and really understood what is best for myself. I think I have surrounded myself with people

An example of a change or improvement?

Hmm, just being out here in California. I had been in Florida in a lot over the course of my career: I grew up there and obviously did the Aldon thing.

I felt I reached a peak with my technique last year and couldn’t go much faster or at least go that fast and be consistent without making some changes. In Florida we have a great facility, a great track and place for training but I don’t have anybody there saying ‘hey, do this with your feet or hit that line it’s a bit better’. Just because I have been doing this a long time doesn’t mean I don’t need a person like that. Maybe Ryan Dungey, with a few years to go in his career, was cemented and his technique was his technique and he was going to ride the same every day whereas I feel I am still developing and I had

a late start because of my injuries. I really identified that and said ‘right, I’m going to California’ even if everybody says that’s where the slackers go. I moved to within a couple of miles of my riding coach and really gave Nick the reins of my riding programme in terms of the schedule, the cardio, strength. It is all in one place and under Nick’s eye and he’s someone I really trust and believe in. He comes to the track with me every day and we are constantly working on stuff that can make me faster and more consistent and safer. I thought that was a big thing for me. It wasn’t easy to do. My friends are all in Florida and I have a small apartment close to here and I work, that’s it. I’m heading in a direction where I feel I can be in the elite, a championship contender and that’s all I wanted.

How has Nick made the difference? Is it just about chemistry?

Chemistry, and he has been through it. Maybe he didn’t win as much as he’d like to but just in the same way that I can tell you how to swing a gold club sweetly it doesn’t mean I can do it myself that well! I don’t mean that as a bash on Nick but he really knows his stuff. Another thing he has really helped me with is the mental side. He is super-level headed. This sport

means so much to me and I’m an emotional guy and in the past if a race has been bad or great then the emotions have been really low or really high. If I didn’t do well then I was ready to kill. I wore emotions on my sleeve whereas now it is much more the same whatever happens on the weekend. Sure, you have a bit more spunk if you win but I realised you cannot sustain a career at a high level being so emotionally up and down and Nick taught me that. If you have a bad race you still need to be ready to go again on a Monday and you cannot do that if you are still down in the dumps about the weekend.

The mental side has been the number one thing for me…and reacting to the rollercoaster that is racing in general.

People have seen you as funloving and outgoing so is this latest phase a case of getting more mature?

Yeah, I have always taken the sport very seriously and given my all every time I am out there and people can see that.

I think I have tried too much sometimes. I think you chose the right word there because it has been about maturing and putting my energy into the right things. You reach a certain point – and it is funny to say this because I am 22 and I have another year of eligibility – but if I want a 250 title then I have to win it now.

ADAM CIANCIARULO

now that I really believe in and trust. I’m in a good spot and I have improved so much. I was off the bike for effectively five months and wasn’t doing anything. It took me three months to train for supercross and I feel I am insanely better than what I was last year.

It took some time to trust the decisions I’ve made because I did defer to other people and it was moment I did some myself. I wanted some accountability. Whether it is good or bad I want it to fall on me.

FEATURE

That was my whole mentality last summer and I had to change something because I’d been doing the same thing over and over again. I had to do something different. And in the past I would not have had the conviction to make my own decisions. Nick writes my strength programme which co-insides with my cardio and cycling and riding and the laps I make. So we are not guessing about too much of this or that. It is super-organised and that’s what I wanted.

Did you ever have your head turned during the low moments?

No. Ever since I was a little I didn’t believe I was going to be the best motocross racer ever: I knew it. There was no other option. I still roll with that. At one point I was overwhelmed and wanted to be done, completely. I wasn’t eyeing up another sport but I was asking myself ‘what am I still doing here?’ You just feel bad because you have sponsors that have invested a lot in you and you’ve let everybody down. It can get you down in the dumps but you think back to those days now and… well, I am so far ahead now where I thought I would be at

this point. I didn’t have a like a ‘Kenny injury’ where it was super-publicised and - all the respect in the world to him for getting over that – but I had a bunch of medium-sized injuries in a row and people were like ‘we don’t know with him…’ I had doctors telling me I’d never ride again because of my shoulders and there were moments when I thought ‘I’m done’ so the fact that I’ve been able to get back here….I mean, there was a time when I wondered if I’d ever win again.

It is a feeling I still carry with me.

I will carry the same perspective. Don’t get me wrong I want to win more than anyone on the gate but I do know how lucky I am just to be out there.

I also understand that not a lot of people get to be in this position and with a chance of a championship. I feel very lucky. A championship battle is what you dream of as a kid. We’ll give it our best shot.

We’ll either win and be stoked or we’ll pick up and go again. I believe in myself and the team and we’ll try to get it done.

A noisy sound from the straw You should have had a pick in the cup. Cianciarulo walked of titles and it is finally now to the coffee shop from his so close so what will success little apartment and is now in Las Vegas finally mean to heading back. We watch the you? tall figure stroll across the A lot! It would be huge person- sun-kissed but windy car park ally because of those low days outside and despite the batterI mentioned. I thought my ing over the years some of the dream was over. Also for the old teenage swagger is startpeople who have supported ing to return. me, and Mitch [Payton] is at the top of the list. He has had my back through everything and I’d love nothing more than to repay him with a championship this year. Honestly two!

I want to win Outdoors as well and hell, go to the Nations also. It would mean the world….but, win-lose-or-draw

ADAM CIANCIARULO

PRODUCTS

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The company’s range of goggles (for motocross and also wintersports) feature anti fog and anti scratch lenses but one of the main advantages is the light weight of the slim frame without compromising durability or resistance. The goggles boast decent ventilation ducks, double lens, a outrigger system comes on the Sniper model, a carry-bag and

www.24mx.com there is a variety of design options. Available through 24MX across Europe and at very reasonable price points (expect to pay around 60 pounds for the Sniper and there are some great deals on the interesting Edge model – with the lens flush to the frame of the goggle). 24MX provide free shipping on orders over 50 pounds/100 euros, free size exchanges, a 60 returns policy and a lowest price guarantee. Click to see more.

FEATURE

JOINING THE PARTY:

By Adam Wheeler

TROY LEE DESIGNS CONTINUE TO GET SERIOUS WITH THEIR HELMET GAME

The words ‘troy lee designs’ and ‘crash helmets’ bring forth thoughts of art, personalisation, customisation and coolness. But the Californian firm has much more going on with their lid range than merely the best aesthetic on the market. With their MIPSequipped SE4 model (available in three different shell materials) ‘TLD’ are one of the firms pushing off-road motorcycle riding and racing head protection into new spheres of efficiency. Among the latest ideas on EPS and energy management emerging from a number of other companies looking to provide better protection for motorcyclists, Troy Lee Designs have ensured that the SE4 is a very worthy contender for anybody’s next purchase.

We’ve featured the SE4 in these pages before and look forward to learn of any developments for 2020 but there is a curious story as to why and how the invention and creativity of TLD would want to make sure their lids work as good as they look. So we spent some time at the wonderfully visual workshop/HQ/store in Corona, California and asked Director of Merchandising Jeff David for 15 minutes of his time.

FEATURE TLD made a big step with the performance of the helmet line and in terms of what they could offer consumers. Can you give a bit of background?

Was the motivation simply about having a better product or was there a big goal for safety?

For us the main objective was definitely safety. For all of us here – whether it’s moto, mountain bike or whatever – unfortunately we see injuries.

We have racers, kids [using the product] and there was an ultimate goal to try and make them safer. We looked at all aspects of the helmet and while nobody can determine how they will crash we were able to address wider aspects such as low, mid and highspeed types of crashes. We wanted to minimise the forces and trauma to the brain. So with all of the testing we did we found that EPS is still the best form of energy management material that you can use in a helmet to-date. We tested some other materials but we found the thicker the EPS in conjunction with other aspects of the shell really made a big difference in that minimisation of force. Obviously you cannot make the helmet that big and want to keep it a reasonable size, so it was a combination of that and working with different densities of EPS with different pieces of the helmet. We split the EPS into three parts

and we were able to fine-tune the density to different parts in relation to the thickness.

That was one aspect in terms of controlling linear-type impact to the brain and then rotational forces; that is another hot topic that everyone is interested in and rightly so.

There is a lot of brain trauma sustained in the first milliseconds of impact. We looked at MIPS and some others and we found through our tests and analysing MIPS’ test data that they were the best to manage that rotational type force.

It is an interesting time for helmet development, particularly off-road, with ideas and experiments going on. Is that tricky for the company because it can have big cost implications: do you follow your own theories or align with others? It can be an endless pit of R&D… Absolutely. It gets expensive testing all the helmets, and then with the factories that we have in Asia making all the samples, playing with the different shell materials and different thicknesses and the EPS density: there is a combination there. We have a lot of options we’ve tried with the factories and it does get costly but we feel that it’s our duty to do that. We want to be proud of every helmet and to say that we have done something good for safety

over our previous helmets and compared to what is on the market. There is linear impact, rotational impact and the breakaway aspect – we changed our visor screws to plastic now instead of titanium or aluminium because they shear-off easier – we also address impact to the chin bar area. That’s a thing we see in a lot of crashes and there is not much testing done on this part of the helmet so we kinda created our own test. We went to our local lab here in LA – the ATC Lab – and we did a lot of testing there. It was something above-and-beyond the usual testing standard that we were able to implement ourselves.

How does it work with the vendor and manufacturer in Asia? How close is that fabrication process?

We have been working with one of them now for over twenty years and the original D2 mountain bike helmet back in the days. So there is history and trust and we go there frequently to test and as part of our R&D. There are other brands over there in the same factory so we make sure we are very careful and do not divulge anything new we are working on. We respect that.

TLD helmets are always going to look great but the list of impressive tech specs now is almost essential if the prod-

uct is to stand out in a crowded market…

I think so. Obviously our brand is known for art and graphics and cool colours but for us we want it to be much more than that. Especially in the age today of increased research and the spotlight on concussions – not only in our sport but also in hockey and football – and I think people are much more aware of that now. As we learn more and the technology evolves we have to stay up with it. I think people are getting more savvy and smarter about what a product can do and they are not necessarily going to buy a helmet just for the looks and graphics, they’ll want something that is going to protect them and we feel that is very important.

What about the way to educate the rider and the consumer that Troy Lee Designs can actually offer much more than the latest eye-catching design? Can that be tricky?

Yes, it has been challenging and we have put a focussed effort on that. We have a slogan: ‘your safety is our priority’ and we really try to push that and get it across to the consumer with our marketing or advertising in conjunction with the art. We want them to know that it is the whole package.

FEATURE And being able to spread it through the range as well: I guess you don’t want to have just one high-end flagship helmet in terms of performance and then the rest doesn’t meet the same grade…

Yes, with our SE4 high-end carbon helmet we trickle the same technology with the thicker and varied EPS down to the lower-end helmets. So if you are paying less for a helmet we didn’t really want to give up any safety aspects of it. What you are paying less for is maybe things like different materials. Even with the injected plastic shell it still performs really well because of that EPS and the breakaway visor. For mountain bike it’s the same thing.

What’s your take on the helmet market?

As far as consumers go then, as we said, it is a challenge getting the message across because they receive get a lot of information and marketing from a number of brands and might not necessarily know what to believe about what they should buy. In general we see a trend for people wanting to be safer but, for us, we try to educate them with factual data and that’s why we feel strongly about the testing that we do and those done by a third-party accredited lab.

Ultimately that’s the truth and the verification right there.

It is good to see that other brands like 6D, Leatt, Fly and Alpinestars – to name a few – have all made offerings and upped the ‘helmet game’… even though it doesn’t make it as easy for you when the products are all there on the shelf…

It’s tough and there is a lot of competition but I do think it is great for the market that each of the brands are pushing one another or are trying to come out with better technology because it is making the consumer safer. If a rider is not buying our helmet but gets another that addresses some aspects of their activity that keeps them safer then that’s part of the big end-goal. From the last few years and what we are seeing now I think it is an exciting time because we are learning from each other but also other sports and brands where millions of dollars are going into concussion testing and research.

Ultimately it is pushing safety better and higher.

Where will it all go for TLD? Will you eventually devise your own system or is something like MIPS the standardbearer?

We are constantly looking at better ways to do things. For rotational forces we are working with MIPS quite closely and they have a lot of plans for the future and how they are improving their system.

We are looking at that with them and have our own ideas.

For the other parts of the helmet we are looking at other fields for different shell materials…things like Formula One racing and aerospace technology and things like that which could help us make new ground with energy absorption or shell performance.

FEATURE

RACING A 450 IN SUP AND TALKING ABOUT

PERCROSS...

IT ON A PODCAST: ENTRADETA ENTRADETA ENTRADETA ENTRADETA ENTRADETA ENTRADETA ENTRADETA ENTRADETA ENTRADETAENTRADETA ENTRADETA ENTRADETA ENTRADETA ENTRADETA ENTRADETA ENTRADETA ENTRADETA ENTRADETA ENTRADETA ENTRADETA

By Adam Wheeler, Photos by Ray Archer/KTM

ZACH OSBORNE EXPLAINS!

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T

imely stuff. We sat down with Zach Osborne at the Nashville Supercross three weeks ago and the Rockstar Energy Husqvarna rider bangsin his first 450SX podium result at East Rutherford only hours before this issue of OTOR hits the internet. [Note to other athletes: we’re always open to interview opps].

The 29 year old is no stranger to these pages thanks to a diverse career that has taken him from the lows of lonesome rehab sessions in Europe to the immaculate highs of multi-title success on American dirt. He is also one of the most popular racers on the scene with a fondness for other disciplines, a grounded and humble personality and a real appreciation for fans and the family life.

Such is Osborne’s profile that he is now the figurehead of a success Podcast series (Shifting Gears – find it HERE) and has vindicated his competitiveness for the premier class of Supercross despite the setback of an early season injury that forced him to the sidelines for the six rounds.

We were curious about the drift from 250SX championship glory (both in 2017 and 2018) to making the grade in the 450s, and in Osborne’s case the

ZACH OSBORNE, 450S & PODCASTING question is pertinent, as he’s ridden the machinery at the highest level for over ten years. Now his capability is under scrutiny: can he cut-it in another division?

Then there is the interviewing‌and how a rider can mix broadcasting and media duties at the same time as all that training and practice motos.

Describe the sensation of doing a 450SX Main Event compared to the 250s?

Obviously I was hampered by the injury press season because I was at a great level.

I think one of the toughest

things you can do it make up ground mid-season and then try to push forward, but, I am pretty happy. The biggest difference has been starting over at ground zero in terms of confidence and this-andthat whereas in the 250s I had a certain amount of form and dominance in the class. I knew I could go out and feel comfortable and fast on the bike and I was so at-home with the setting I had for the last two years. With the 450 every weekend I feel like I am starting-over and trying to find form and find my lines, finding the track and getting the whoops down. Finding

consistency has been the biggest challenge and the most frustrating part of the whole deal.

What about the riding itself?

Do you need another dimension of aggression and respect?

As far as the bikes go if you ride the 450 correctly then it is very simple. When I feel like I am forcing it, overrevving or pushing too hard into the corners and getting a feeling that the suspension is too stiff then all those little details feel magnified because of the weight and torque and what-have-you.

FEATURE

Do you ever miss the 250?

Yeah, I do. But at the same time the level I’d reached before my injury meant it was way-more fun on the 450. I do miss the 250 some days when I’m tired and would like to mellow out a little bit. But it’s cool to know that I can be that fast on the 450.

cram a bunch of stuff into thirty minutes that could have been three hours, especially with a guy like him. I find the actual Podcasting quite easy and obviously Steve [Matthes, of PulpMX/RacerX fame and OTOR contributor] helps me tons with the audio part and the packaging, posting.

For all those wins and memorable races on the 250 will a 450 podium eclipse all that?

I know when I get on the Perhaps it doesn’t apply too podium it will feel better or much to Supercross…but do at least just as good as when you have to adjust from ridI first did it on the 250. As ing 250 lines?

I said, I have to re-establish Yeah, there were a couple of my credentials all-over-again times this winter where that and at the moment I’m just happened. On the 250 I’d another guy in the class. It come out of the corner in sec- is one of those ‘deals’ where ond and shift into third right you have to take the ‘small on the first whoop just to get victories’ like two sixth places that ‘pop’ from of the turn.

– which doesn’t sound like On the 450 you can easily much – but it’s part of the ride third around the corner building process. The names and gas-up into the whoops. I around me don’t make too was tired, it was near the end much difference; maybe a of the week, and I gassed up little bit more respect when in second, hit third and was it comes to the first laps of way-too far into the whoops practice but in terms of being and had a big moment. It was intimidated then not really. an example of those times when your brain is on autopi- Er, shifting gears then, talk lot and you have to really pay about the podcasting… attention and remember more It’s not harder than I thought intently what you are doit would be: the hardest part ing. You can never take your actually is getting people to guard down with the 450. show up to do it! The first With a 250 you can get away one was very tough: It was with more things but this bike with [Ryan] Dungey, we were is no joke. crunched for time and I was nervous. It was like trying to

Has ‘Shifting Gears’ had the response you expected?

Maybe a little bit more than I thought. I didn’t know what to expect, it could have been a total flop but the feedback has been cool and that I was perhaps asking a couple of questions that people normally wouldn’t ask. This was the original goal: to make something a little bit different than ‘how was your weekend?’ It is more about the story of the people involved. I like that, and obviously my story is a little bit different to most.

With Tyla [Rattray] it was cool to hear the difficulties in coming from South Africa and reach the position of world champion. It’s intriguing to me. It’s getting more and more natural to do it.

What about the process of getting on the other side of the interview? You must have done hundreds and hundreds over the years so have an orientation for how you want to do it…

Yeah, I tell every guest before I push record if there is

ZACH OSBORNE, 450S & PODCASTING

There are easy and hard ways to do it. On the 250 I was always working so hard because I’ve normally been 160165 pounds and I’m racing kids like [Austin] Forkner and [Chase] Sexton that weight 130. I always felt like I had to fight for every millimetre. So it is nice to have something that has a bit more power and I can rely on my talent a bit more and enjoy the ride a little bit.

FEATURE

ZACH OSBORNE, 450S & PODCASTING anything they don’t want to answer or if there is anything they want to talk about that I haven’t asked then its all easy to edit or make a mark. It was good to put those boundaries in and I like to have those respected. Keep it more like bench-racing.

Lastly, who would be a top three of guests?

I’m super-into biathlon and there is a Norwegian guy called Johannes Thingnes Bø: I’d love to have him. I recently watched ‘Free Solo’

with Alexander Honnold who basically free solo-ed the biggest stone wall in America: him also. From our sport…I guess Mitch [Payton] because he is such an icon of this whole deal and everything we have done as a sport. He has been an intricate part. I’d like to get his thoughts on some stuff.

PRODUCTS

ktm MotoGP Fan Packages tend to be too exclusive or too expensive but KTM have made an effort to bring a very reasonable and alluring bundle to their offerings for the following remaining Grands Prix in 2019: Round Round Round Round Round Round Round Round Round Round

5: Le Mans, France (May 19) 6: Mugello, Italy (June 2) 7: Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Spain (June 16) 8: Assen, Netherlands (June 30) 9: Sachsenring, Germany (July 7) 11: Red Bull Ring, Austria (August 11) 12: Silverstone, Great Britain (August 25) 16: Motegi, Japan (October 20) 17: Phillip Island, Australia (October 27) 18: Sepang, Malaysia (November 3)

KTM say ‘typically one purchase delivers: Entry ticket, KTM grandstand seating (at selected rounds), a KTM bag, t-shirt, cap, lanyard and earplugs. There is also a dedicated KTM parking area at the factory’s home round in Austria.’ At the Red Bull Ring kids can go free and there is access to a special camping zone in the immediate vicinity of the grandstand. Prices for adults vary depending on each round. Follow the link to see the full gamut of provisions and costs.

www.ktm.com/fanpackage

MOTOGP BLOG

TRY CALLING IT NOW

More than Europe’s largest MC store

Three races in, and the 2019 MotoGP season is already putting on quite a show.

Three different winners on three different bikes, and four riders within nine points of each other at the top of the championship.

Ducati, Honda, Yamaha, and Suzuki all have bikes capable of winning again, and both Aprilia and KTM are far more competitive than they were last year. Marc Márquez looks like he will be caught in a four-way fight with Andrea Dovizioso, Alex Rins and Valentino Rossi.

Then there’s the drama going on behind. Maverick Viñales managed to convert a pole into a seventh place, get taken out in Argentina, then suffer a jump start caused by a dragging clutch.

He is 40 points behind in the championship, rather than near the top. Jorge Lorenzo’s transition to the Repsol Honda was complicated by breaking his scaphoid in January, and his season so far has been plagued by mechanical issues: a clutch glitch in Qatar, a handlebar grip slipping off in Argentina, and then an

electrical problem in Austin. Lorenzo’s move to Honda has so far been less than glorious. Oh, and we’ve had three jump starts in two races.

All the above has distracted from the performance of what we expected to be the best rookie dispute in several years. Reigning Moto2 champion Pecco Bagnaia came in and blew everyone away on the Pramac Ducati at the Sepang test, ending that outing second fastest behind factory Ducati man Danilo Petrucci.

Petronas Yamaha rider Fabio Quartararo repeated that shock at the Qatar test, finishing in second behind the factory Yamaha of Maverick Viñales. Joan Mir has been within a couple of tenths of his Suzuki teammate Alex Rins since he jumped on the bike. After a slow start, Miguel Oliveira has gradually come to surpass KTM’s new factory rider Johann Zarco, is providing stiff competition for the vastly more experienced Pol Espargaro.

With three races under their belts, a new hierarchy is starting to form among the rookies.

Where we were all expecting Pecco Bagnaia to come in and compete immediately after his showing at Sepang, the Italian rookie’s standing has slid a little.

Since racing started in earnest, he has been struggled toward the rear of mid-pack, unable to challenge for the top ten (or even top five) some had been predicting before the start of the season.

Bagnaia himself admits that the testing tracks flattered his results.

“It looks like we’ve been going backwards since the first test in Malaysia, but it’s just because Malaysia is a track where I have been fast as soon as I enter the track, in every category I have raced there,” the satellite Ducati rider explained. The Qatar race came after a three-day test at the circuit, making his job that much easier. So for Bagnaia, like all four MotoGP rookies, Argentina and Austin were the first real tests of

By David Emmett

their progress with the bike. They started from scratch, and had to find a setup which worked for the race.

Frenchman Fabio Quartararo has leapfrogged past Bagnaia and into the limelight. The Petronas SRT Yamaha rider impressed at Qatar, qualifying in fifth, but was forced to start from pit lane after stalling his bike on the grid. He burned his rear tyre up charging to make up for lost ground, but learned a lot. Since then, Quartararo has been excellent, scoring two top-eight finishes, and passing straight to Q2 at all three rounds.

Quartararo’s Yamaha M1, though basically a 2019 model, has reduced RPM and the cheaper version of the Öhlins forks, and is clearly a lower spec machine than the other Yamahas. Yet he is competitive, thanks in no small part to the tutelage of team manager Wilco Zeelenberg and rider coach Torleif Hartelman.

On the face of it, Joan Mir has been slightly disappointing but closer examination shows a huge amount of potential. Mir has struggled in qualifying, but then

so has factory Suzuki teammate Alex Rins. Both riders say they find it hard to squeeze the extra performance out of a brand new soft rear tyre which is vital for a good grid position, so this can’t be put down to Mir completely. And at Austin, after his ride through for a jump start, Mir had the pace to match the top eight. More is to come from Mir, for sure.

But I am probably most impressed with Miguel Oliveira. The fact that he is on a KTM makes it hard to compare his results to the other rookies however the Portuguese rider is already handily outperforming Johann Zarco, the rider KTM brought in to take the next step towards being competitive. Oliveira is within touching distance of Pol Espargaro, who is spending his third season the RC16. It looks like KTM’s future may run through Portugal and not France. And who would have predicted that at the end of 2018?

FEATURE

THE FINER

By Adam Wheeler, Photos by CormacGP & Petronas Yamaha

WILCO ZEELENBERG’S EXPANDING INFLUENCE IN MOTOGP AND HOW PETRONAS YAMAHA SEPANG RACING TEAM HAVE SPLASHED SO QUICKLY

WORLDSBK POR

NOLAN PORTUGUESE ROUND PORTIMAO · SEPTEMBER 15-16 · Rnd 10 of 13 Race one winner: Jonathan Rea, Kawasaki Race two winner: Jonathan Rea, Kawasaki Blog by Graeme Brown, Photos by GeeBee Images

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here shouldn’t be such a big element of surprise. Petronas Yamaha Sepang Racing Team rose from the ashes of the Marc VDS MotoGP ‘grid spot’ but the knowledgeable and well connected management from the Sepang International Circuit as well as raft of experienced MotoGP technicians meant they had an efficient basis to form the newest satellite team in Grand Prix last summer. What next?

There is the obvious benefits of an enthusiastic sponsor like Petronas – turning their heads from F1 and a glittering link-up with Mercedes – and then the year-old Yamaha M1s: a motorcycle that may have faced intense scrutiny through the efforts of Valentino Rossi and Maverick Viñales to win in 2018 but still a competitive tool for mixing at the top end of the class.

“The Yamaha is a very good satellite bike and you cannot underestimate that,” stresses Team Manager Wilco Zeelenberg. “If you want to be a rookie in this class then you’ll want a Yamaha… because you know it is a bike that is easy to ride and easy to find a limit.”

With Team Director Johan Stigefelt overseeing recruitment the appointment of Dutchman Zeelenberg – almost two decades with Yamaha and through Supersport, Superbike and all of Jorge Lorenzo’s championships in blue – was a vital cog to wind into the shiny new operation.

Together with Team Principal Razlan Razali the crew plumped for Franco Morbidelli’s clear potential and gambled on 19 year old Fabio Quartataro for their first exploration of MotoGP. The roster was shrewdly made with both impressing with their speed and results through pre-season tests and through the first three rounds of the calendar.

Morbidelli renewed his stock after the uncertainty of his debut term in VDS colours (also perturbed by injury) but the Italian was still Rookie of the Year. Quartararo’s status has rarely been higher; at least since he entered

“WE ARE PROUD ABOUT WHERE WE ARE AND WHO WE ARE FIGHTING WITH....”

Petronas Yamaha Sepang Racing Team have danced onto the asphalt at a merry pace. At the fulcrum of that momentum has been former GP winner Zeelenberg.

A veteran of almost ten years competing in the FIM World Championship the 52 year old spent a decade in the factory Yamaha team as a steady, analytical and pacifying force: a right-hand to Lorenzo’s feats in claiming three titles and

WILCO ZEELENBERG & PETRONAS YAMAHA

the Grand Prix paddock as arguably the most-hyped teenager in the last decade.

Morbidelli made a career-best finish of 5th two weeks ago in Austin while Quartararo reached the same distinction with his run to 7th in Texas and gave his team a bright introduction with that front row qualification performance in Qatar for the first round.

FEATURE rivalling Valentino Rossi’s clout, and then assisting Maverick Viñales transition from the blue of Suzuki to the darker hue of the M1. The 2018 shuffle that saw Tech3 abandon their long-established slot as Yamaha’s satellite wing in favour of KTM meant a hefty degree of pawn-moving in the halls of Iwata and the decision to lend support and effort to Razali, Stigefelt and Petronas. Zeelenberg saw a different door open and opted to stride towards it.

“You don’t leave a factory team so quickly because everything is organised very well and

there is a target and a mission to win races, championships and take titles but when Johann contacted me in Mugello last year it was also a big challenge and a big question: what do we want to achieve with this new team?

Winning is one thing but to be in the paddock with a new and fresh view is something nice,” he recounts.

“With the experience and the options I had and the decisions we needed I thought ‘wow, this is something that comes up once in a lifetime’. So I looked at it like that and went for it.”

“With a factory team this is not so easy because there is a lot of ‘hiding’ and a lot of questions that cannot be answered. There are politics, and this was something I wanted to change. We didn’t want to look only at the results – which everyone knows is still the most important thing – but in the background of a team like this there are many things happening.”

“I discussed our strategy for the team with Johan and how we wanted it to look and that we wanted to be very transparent, very open to the press and the fans,” he explains.

After just three races it is hard to deduce whether Petronas Yamaha SRT are yet offering something different. It might well take a full season to see if the camp can match the

WILCO ZEELENBERG & PETRONAS YAMAHA

There is a clear emphasis on youth and developing riders at Petronas Yamaha SRT (that extends through their Moto2 and Moto3 set-ups as well) but Zeelenberg is quick to state that the MotoGP team is not just about the chase of podiums and camera minutes. The way the crew want to work means a slightly alternative approach to the perception of a MotoGP racing project.

FEATURE

WILCO ZEELENBERG & PETRONAS YAMAHA ZEELENBERG: “THE TOP FIFTEEN AT THE MOMENT IS SO TIGHT...IT HELPS THAT THE RIDERS LISTEN TO WHAT YOU SAY BUT IT DOESN’T MEAN WE HAVE A LOT TO ADD. AS SOON AS YOU SEE SOMETHING THAT CAN BE BETTER THEN THEIR EARS ARE OPEN BECAUSE THEY ABSORB EVERYTHING. THEY ARE SUCKING UP OUR KNOWLEDGE AND THEY DO THAT QUITE EASILY AS WELL.”

FEATURE laidback and collaborative vibe of a team like LCR Honda or the raw rookie humility of Red Bull KTM. The atmosphere and the work of the team is also determined by the riders and their characters and willingness; to-date the wonderment of Quartararo and the unfazed happy-golucky air presented by Morbidelli has been an assist.

“It is going quite well,” Zeelenberg says of the formation of the team’s personality. “We get a lot of positive feedback from the paddock but also the fans, even about things like how the bike looks. We are a fresh team with some old faces and there are a lot of championships in our garage. We know what winning is, and it is very satisfying to start again with two young guys. We have 10-11 nationalities in one unit. We are going in the right direction and it gives us positive energy.”

Energy, in more than one sense, is provided by Petronas and arguably the biggest sponsor to enter MotoGP in recent years. The Malaysian company is just forty-five years old but has grown from a firm that started with twenty people into a Fortune 500 firm and a fifty-five thousand staff list. Razli, Stigefelt and Zeelenberg may have an alternative image in mind for their flagship push but there is no escaping the size of the partner whose logo they bear.

“Back in the 1990s we were involved with two wheels but not in MotoGP and we progressed a lot more in Formula One,” says Petronas’ Head of Brand Management Noor Afiza Mohd Yusof on the left turn from one motorsport to the other and the switch from F1 champions to MotoGP rookies.

“In Petronas we commercially provide the lubricant and fuel not just for the normal users but also develop it for the race team so the motorsport platform is very important for us, not only as a sponsor but also a technical partner. We have done that successfully with Mercedes for the last five years and we really hope to

replicate what we have learnt there to two wheels. Plus the two-wheel market, especially in Malaysia, is huge! This is the right platform to test the product. What we use on the race track goes into development for our customers.”

Petronas’ work with Mercedes led to a large role in the OEM’s stock offering and global market presence. They are now setting their sights on motorcycling and considering an F1 team’s operating budget is likely to be north of 300 million euros a year (with

sponsors normally covering a third of that) MotoGP is a lower spend, but still with hefty investment required.

“We need to learn about twowheels,” Ms Mohd Yusof adds.

“We put a lot of emphasis on the technology and the development. Number one is to supply the racing fuel and lubricant for the team. This requires a substantial amount of time and resources. We had great success in four-wheels but that does not guarantee success here. It is another challenge to ensure we develop that winning formula. It is about collaboration. We are not just a sponsor but a partner, so we have this constant communication with Yamaha.”

“F1 is an entirely different group, demographic and lifestyle. For us F1 is the epitome of technology and MotoGP is similar; it is the only category where we are able to develop the product.”

Zeelenberg thus has a few plates to spin: quite a change from his previous role solely looking after the lines and approach of one factory rider.

His standing within Yamaha and his connection with the Japanese (as well as the symbiosis with technicians like Ramon Forcada) cannot be underestimated but, perhaps, it is his work with the riding talent that will really make an impression.

WILCO ZEELENBERG & PETRONAS YAMAHA

“What we have noticed in the last few years is that MotoGP has become an emerging trend in terms of followers, compared to other sports.

That’s an important indicator.”

FEATURE His methods with Morbidelli and Quartararo already seem to be bearing fruit.

“He’s a former rider, he knows a lot and he has a lot of experience,” Franco said. “He’s a great guy. Very kind with us, and I find myself speaking with him a lot of time, about bikes and about settings and about stuff. It’s very good because he has a lot of experience. He’s carrying us on the right path and I hope he will continue to do that.”

“I’m happy that I have been able to adapt fast because that was one thing I was worried about in pre-season.

We know that we have just twenty laps per session on these bikes and it is not so much. He is the perfect guy for me because he gives a lot of advice and keeps me calm in the moments when I am a bit angry,” offers Quartararo.

“To look at good lines, tyre life and to not make mistakes that beginners normally do. It is early days but at the moment 10 out of 10.”

“The top fifteen at the moment is so tight that you need to be able to ride the bike…”

Zeelenberg understates. “It helps that the riders listen to what you say but it doesn’t mean we have a lot to add. As soon as you see something that can be better then their ears are open because they

absorb everything. I think we are quite lucky at the moment with Frankie and Fabio because they are sucking up our knowledge and they do that quite easily as well.”

Perhaps there is more weight on Morbidelli’s shoulders, even though he is less than twenty races into the MotoGP phase of his career. “Every track is new for me, let’s say, new bike, and I don’t know how it will react,” #21 says.

“So for me it’s a question mark on that [but] I’ll be ready to work very hard and to make a good job.”

“I think he [Wilco] knows it’s always difficult to tell a rider what to do. So he knows that.

But I understand that he tries to bring stuff without bringing it, you know what I mean? He tries to suggest but in a good way, and in a good manner.

This is his experience, and this is his knowledge, and I really love working with him.”

Quartararo is the live-wire. An unpredictable and expanding bubble of potential that threw-off the disappointment of failing to win a Grand Prix in Moto3 (and the injuries he suffered) and appears to be relishing his MotoGP chance.

“Even after the first test we knew [he had potential],” says Zeelenberg. “In the last few seasons he’d been struggling to find the right path to

Petronas Yamaha SRT have bedded straight into the top ten: no mean feat when Aprilia and KTM have been striving with new teams to reach the same kind of possibilities. But Zeelenberg is far too shrewd to left ambition fray any expectation.

“We need to stay realistic,” he states. “If you look at our position now then 8-9th is quite OK but then we are surrounded by factory bikes and it provides a different point of view. You always need to look and see who is around you and where the factory boys are.”

“I think we need more time, that’s clear. You saw in Qatar with Fabio stalling the engine: that is all nerves. The riders

will make small mistakes but the target is to be Rookie of the Year with Fabio and he is close with [Joan] Mir already.

Franco is fighting to be top satellite rider but that will take more time because coming from the Honda he’ll have to get used to the Yamaha.

That’s the reality but we are in the right way.”

Razli, Stigefelt and Zeelenberg - a Malaysian, Swede and Dutchman – each bring their own strengths to Petronas Yamaha SRT but it is the latter’s direct influence on the sporting side that could really see the team rushing their way to a first podium finish in their maiden term and for what will be a milestone for either rider. While a new multi-national, cross-continental team could wobble as working processes need smoothing, progress is evidently coming quickly. Zeelenberg sums up the perspective on 2019 best: “It’s very motivating!”

WILCO ZEELENBERG & PETRONAS YAMAHA

perform the way that people expected from him. At 14-15 he is quite something as a rider but then hits puberty and it’s a disaster – I’m not sure how you were at that age but many things happen with the body! Now he is quite calm and accepts everything that we ask of him. He is quite easy-going. We made the right decision, and we knew after the first test that he will be in MotoGP for a couple of years because he was so fast so easily. Anything can happen but [with] how he is performing so far then he’ll be here for the next ten years.”

MOTOGP BLOG

GOOD VIBRATIONS...

More than Europe’s largest MC store

The first time I met Alex Rins was a curious affair.

Holed up in one of Phillip Island’s ‘portacabins’ that offer riders and team member shelter from the elements and an enthusiastic home support alike, I was stationed in front of his ex-team boss Sito Pons conducting a hastily arranged interview on Maverick Viñales, a starlet that had previously run from his stable.

It was one of those days that is so typical on Australia’s schizophrenic southern coast. Blazing sun one minute. Icy sheets of rain the next. Conditions outside were such that it seemed half of Pons’ entire team was cramped into his office to avoid the kind of drenching that requires a first aid blanket and a hot sauna soon after.

Being one of Spain’s greatest exponents on two wheels, and possessing a steely stare, Pons had my complete attention. That was until his rider – then 19 years old – began hovering a tissue over my left ear. Then he moved it to the right. And back again. At first I thought it was a fly, a mosquito, or whatever passes for airborne

wildlife in that part of the world.

Looking ahead, I patted it away.

Then again. And again. Until the titters in the room made it clear Rins was taking the piss.

I looked round to observe the same rider we see in front of TV cameras and press conferences today: big hair, big grin, big laughs. Rins was happy-golucky, not taking life too seriously.

Pons shook his head, mumbling something about me seeing what he had to put up with on a daily basis.

The smiles weren’t so evident come the end of that weekend, however.

The year was 2016, a season in which Rins was touted as the man most likely to knock Johann Zarco off his Moto2 perch. There had been some spectacular performances along the way, not to mention some grit. But by late October his challenge was unravelling badly. There were untimely training injuries in the midst of it all, but a run of results during the

flyaways (20th, DNF, 14th) meant that particular challenge ended with a whimper.

Australia was in the middle of that dismal spell and it was tempting at that time to wonder whether Suzuki was right in placing its faith on him to replace the Yamaha-bound Viñales. No rider puts his bike on pole position in just his second ever GP, or climbs the podium in his second race in Moto2 without bucket-loads of talent. But did he have that unremitting concentration to lead a MotoGP factory and perform when the chips were really down?

Well, there are no such concerns now, after Rins confirmed his preseason of potential in what was somewhat fittingly his 34th MotoGP race. His win at the Circuit of the Americas was as assured as they come, observing Valentino Rossi up close before passing him and defending resolutely when the pressure was really on. The omens are good: not only was he the third rider to win a four-stroke premier class race for Suzuki;

By Neil Morrison

Rins has the highest points total of a Hamamatsu factory rider after three races since Kenny Roberts Junior’s championship year in 2000.

And if we are to take three of MotoGP’s leading four men at face value, Rins is a certified title contender. “I think Suzuki and Rins will fight for the championship,” opined Andrea Dovizioso, who leads the series ahead of the upcoming European slog. Valentino Rossi, second with three races run, agreed: “For sure he’s an opponent for the title, because it’s not one race. It’s from the second part of last season that he’s always in front.” And Marc Marquez, whose careless crash opened the door for Rins’ debut triumph, felt vindicated for his words earlier in the year. “He’s one of the main rivals … I already said it in Qatar.”

It’s certainly tempting to concur.

Qualifying aside, there appears to be very few chinks in the RinsSuzuki armoury at present. He confidently declared the GSX-RR “has no weaknesses” at the close of preseason, and there is an argument to be made that it is

among the most balanced bikes on the grid. Dovizioso described its well-documented corner speed advantage as “embarrassing” in Qatar. But Suzuki has made great strides in other departments, too.

Rossi commended Rins and the GSX-RR’s braking capabilities, and acceleration is also much improved.

For this, Rins deserves great credit. Team boss Davide Brivio has inferred the Spaniard was already leading development in the winter of 2017/’18, when the older, more experienced Andrea Iannone was his teammate. “In the winter we tested chassis, engines, swingarms and various parts with both Alex and Andrea,” said Brivio last October. “Alex made his own selection and he built up his own package.” It appears the factory, boosted by Sylvain Guintoli, engineer Tom O’Kane and the rest of its test team’s expertise, has made few errors of judgment since.

Yes, his first win was fortuitous, owing to Marquez’s minor mistake. But as Brivio noted, “it’s not just one race we’ve been there by

coincidence, it’s since Misano last year that we’ve been always close to the podium.” This was the 23year old’s tenth top six finish in as many races. In that time Rins has scored podiums in the heat of Sepang, Motegi and Austin, which contrasted the biblical rain of Valencia (he also just missed out on third place in the nighttime Qatar cool by 0.13s). “[We’re fast at] Bumpy tracks, long tracks, small tracks, tracks with long straights,” Rins explained in Austin. “I think we can fight in mostly all the tracks.

For sure with big straights like in Qatar we will suffer a little bit, but I feel strong. All the team are giving me good vibrations, so this is nice.”

Like the man he fought for his first win, he’s quickly developing a reputation for being a Sunday man. “Every time I sit down with the team and make a debrief or a plan for the race, we always say Rins and Valentino, they’re going to be there,” said Jack Miller, third in Austin. “It doesn’t matter where they qualify. You know they’re going to be there.”

MOTOGP BLOG

And going off recent evidence, few are better at managing the rear tyre than Rins. As Rossi said, “He rides very clever, in a clever way. He’s very smooth with everything and this is very important for save the tire in the second half of the race.”

How telling it was to see Rins angrily gesticulating in the immediate aftermath of missing the podium in Qatar. It’s clear he is now expecting to challenge for wins. And looking ahead, it’s difficult to foresee Suzuki not vying for the podium most weekends.

Even Brivio, basking in the factory’s first win since 2016, refused to rule out a title challenge. “The championship is a long way and we know there are very strong riders…” he said, showcasing trademark caution. “But we are there, why not?”

FEATURE

NEW BOOTS

KENNY ROBERTS APPEARED AT THE RED BULL GRAND PRIX OF THE AMERICAS TO BE PRESENTED WITH A LIMITED EDITION ALPINESTARS SUPERTECH R RACE REPLICA BOOT…AND HUMOURED THE PRESS WITH SOME OPINIONS ON MOTOGP, MARC MARQUEZ, THE FUTURE OF AMERICAN RIDERS IN GRAND PRIX

By Adam Wheeler, Photos by Alpinestars

S OF THE KING W

earing a fine cowboy hat the 67 year old California looked flattered and almost bemused to be taking delivery of his special Supertech R at the Circuit of the Americas.

Roberts joined Alpinestars staff in the small hospitality unit of the company whose presence was unmistakable around the confines of the sole American round on the Grand Prix slate.

The Supertech R is the Italian’s premier race/ street based footwear, and the flagship model for the firm founded

by Sante Mazzarolo in 1963 with its roots in motorcycling boots. Among a number of innovations and advancements in biking safety gear since the ‘60s Alpinestars take their original product output extremely seriously.

“As a rider your equipment was all about feel, and when he brought comfort then it was a big thing because the 500s at that time were very delicate,” Roberts said of the original link-up with Mazzarolo and Alpinestars in his tenure from the 1970s into the 1980s.

“Putting fibreglass in the toe was the moment when the duct tape started disappearing!”

Roberts was a key, first ambassador for the firm (hence the famous Yamaha U.S. yellow and black livery of the Supertech R, now in it’s 2019 form after first being chiselled and released to market in 2002) and aside from his wins and championships is an undoubted icon of the sport for his pioneering riding style, team ownership, technical advancements and for siring another premier class world champ in the form of son Kenny.

The three times 500cc title winner also proved to be something of a soothsayer.

When asked his opinion of Marc Marquez on the eve of the HRC rider taking a seventh

FEATURE

consecutive Pole Position at COTA and then sensationally crashing out from a seventh win while comfortably leading, Roberts had stated: “It is going to be him beating himself. Somebody is really going to have to step-up and put the pressure on him to make a mistake…”

KR did hedge his bets by also claiming: “right now I don’t see that happening.”

Marquez is just one of Alpinestars’ roster of racers in the MotoGP class who use the Su-

pertech R. The boot is made from a microfibre upper construction, ergonomic TPU shin protection that spreads and dissipate impact energy across the entire surface while remaining compact, a lightweight rubber sole and a replaceable polymer heel plate slider, that protects from impact and reduces friction in the event of a crash. There is a special ‘inner bootie’ chassis that basically encases the foot, ankle and lower leg but still affords a high degree of flex. It’s a seriously advanced offering and Alpinestars can deservedly say:

“Every component is meticulously engineered for high performance protection, precision and flexibility.”

Over the last few years the Supertech R has been regularly converted into limited edition ‘specials’ and now Roberts joins the list. “It’s brilliant, a beautiful boot,” he said. “I spend about a month a year in Japan doing highspeed touring and it will come in handy.” Here is what he also had to say…

Is there a new KR in MotoGP? Er, no. You could never ride as hard as they do with the equipment I had! If my ’80 bike – the first aluminium – had the grip that these bikes do they it would go whoop! ping! And be away.

Which it did a couple of times because with too much grip it would flex and spring back: you couldn’t ride the motorcycle. From my standpoint [Marc] Marquez probably comes closest to throwing the bike in and making it turn, which is what I tried to do. I wasn’t quite as good as he is!

Are you surprised by Valentino Rossi’s speed at 40?

Oh absolutely. He should be in the rocking chair. I was thinking about this the other day and I believe Wayne Rainey would have followed in those footsteps…but the bikes in those days were a little more violent and it took a bit more of a toll on your body. One

KR, ALPINESTARS & THE SUPERTECH R

What are your thoughts of MotoGP? Unbelievable. It has never been better. The talent of riders, the equipment: it is obviously the best show in the world. I love it [the aerodynamics] and they are finally up to NASCAR specs and for me that has always been a part of it. Why is there not more [innovation]? I was ahead of my time without enough money to make it work. We had one of our three cylinders designed by Lotus and it was 10mph quicker on the straight at Barcelona but it would not stop. We didn’t have the budget with Lotus to find out why it didn’t stop: we’d look at it and wonder why the back end was coming off the ground…but nobody knew.

There is a lot to it and now they [the current engineers] are just scratching the surface in my opinion. You can make the bike whatever you need it to be. It is just work…and setting the bike up; from the little bit I know.

The Japanese could not ride my motorcycles because the steering head was too steep. It would shake too much and they didn’t like it.

FEATURE thing about Valentino and his longevity [it] is because he is not hurt all the time.

That’s a main factor about aging and the continuing the pace he can run: from coming off a two-stroke originally and to a modern day GP bike and the lean angle they can run it is amazing they are able to do that.

What’s your view on the plight of young Americans getting into MotoGP? Well, they are trying with MotoAmerica.

It is a long road. They have gone for so long already without trying to build any young talent that it is going to be a long time before we are able to get somebody that not only wants to go [to grand prix] but has the talent. It is a tough sell at the moment. Before I went nobody wanted to go to Europe: why would I want to go there? They talk funny, eat funny…! It is that all over again.

KR, ALPINESTARS & THE SUPERTECH R

PRODUCTS www.matoxley.bigcartel.com

stealing speed: graphic novel Mat Oxley’s Stealing Speed account of Ernst Degner, Walter Kaaden, MZ and the proliferation of pioneering two-stroke technology in the early 1960s reads almost like a spy novel on wheels. The mix of post WW2 scenesetting, explanations of Kaaden’s ideas and circumstances and the enthralling Grand Prix racing stories of Degner and his plight to claim a world title makes for an authentic page turner. Oxley was approached by Christian Papazoglakis to make a graphic novel of the tale and the book has only recently come off the presses. We were intrigued as to how the narrative and the detail of Stealing Speed could fit into a comic/storyboard format and whether it would even be a worthwhile purchase for those who have enjoyed one of

Oxley’s best self-published books in an expanding and impressive portfolio. The doubts were allayed in the first pages of the 192.

Papazoglakis is somewhat a master of the form and transposes the atmosphere and detail of Oxley’s tome into an absorbing series of scenes and a virtual cinematic weave. It will appeal to fans of the art, motorcyclists and those who have already enjoyed Stealing Speed as it adds another dimension to one of the sneakier and darker episodes of GP racing in the late twentieth century. The book is available in English. More information can be found be clicking one of the images on these pages where ‘Stealing Speed ’ can also be easily ordered online. When is the film due?

BLOG

THOSE OMG MOMENTS...

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After freezing the tip of my microphone off amidst the Dutch snowstorms of the World Superbike round at Assen a fortnight ago, it was great to have sunshine and racing to warm the soul at Silverstone on Easter weekend as the new BSB season properly ignited in front of a 30,000 crowd that near enough filled the stands around the shorter national circuit layout.

There were blow-ups, bust-ups and balls-ups that kept the bumper holiday crowd entertained throughout the weekend – with Tarran Mackenzie wiping out McAms Yamaha team-mate Jason O’Halloran in a final-corner dice for the race 1 win and title favourite Josh Brookes’ PBM Ducati breaking down in both outings, amongst other big talking points. The biggest story of the weekend, though, was the emergence of OMG Suzuki’s Josh Elliott as a BSB winner in just the first race of his rookie Superbike season.

Elliott had already banked a certain podium behind O’Halloran and Mackenzie in third place when the teammates sensationally came together at Luffield, but by the time The O’Show had assessed the

damage to his leathers – not to mention his pride – a rueful Taz Mac had been hauled up before Race Direction to get his wrists slapped with a three-second penalty and the young Ulsterman found himself celebrating a dramatic first victory. An OMG moment indeed.

Back in the team’s garage a closeknit group of three friends went wild at the culmination of a shared dream born just over a year ago.

In December 2017, Chris Oscroft, Greg McPhail and Alan Gardner (OMG – get it?) were nothing more than bike-mad businessmen who decided to have a go at bridging the gap between the factory teams and the – as they put it - ‘father and son’ privateer outfits.

Gardner, with a successful background in media and television, outlined a remit that “dared to be different,” to further break down barriers between the sport and its fans. Some of their methods have been conventional – such as installing a fans’ viewing area in the garage – some not so much, like the team member dressed as the Easter Bunny at Silverstone, handing out some 200 chocolate eggs to kids around the circuit. The family-friendly atmosphere extends to the OMG garage, where a colourful ‘unicorn’ tent has been put up for team members’ children to hang out in and play alongside those of visiting guests.

Each team member has been carefully recruited - from former rider Paul Curran, an astute appointment

By Matthew Roberts

as Team Principal, to revered Crew Chief Ray Stringer and the exalted ‘Ginger Dave’, a convivial sheep farmer and mechanic from Wales.

All are keen racing enthusiasts with a common goal: “no politics, no nonsense,” as Gardner puts it. The Easter Bunny outfit is optional – presumably - but a disposition to enjoy the job is not.

An outfit that started out as a single-rider entry in 2018 has expanded for 2019 to three (Elliott being joined by Luke Mossey in Superbikes, with Billy McConnell in Stock 1000s), supported by a crew of 25 paid staff. The experienced and effervescent McConnell is a typical appointment – a quality operator with a team ethos. With no data to work from, the riders have been encouraged to work together on track throughout preseason and at Silverstone it all came together handsomely.

When news of his victory filtered through from Race Direction, Elliott wept on the shoulder of his father. Only a few years ago it was Josh that had been the kid in the corner of the garage, making his own entertainment (probably not

in a unicorn tent, one suspects) as he followed Julian around the Irish road racing scene, playing with the sons of fellow racing fathers Alan Irwin and Johnny Rea Senior.

Nobody knows what became of the other boys.

Maybe there was something in that Irish water but the seemingly sudden success of 24-year-old Elliott should perhaps not come as a complete shock. Clearly the genes are in place, but so is his racing education, in the form of the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies programme, the German IDM series, European Stock 600s and British Stock 1000s - which he won in 2015 - before flitting for a couple of seasons between the Stock 1000s and Superbikes without finding a permanent home.

After backing up that first win, albeit by virtue of Mackenzie’s mistake in race 1, a hard-earned second place in race 2 means Josh now shares the championship lead with the young Scot going into a tasty round 2 at Oulton Park this weekend. Meanwhile, a fourth and a sixth for Mossey at Silverstone means the OMG Suzuki team hold two of

the top four positions in the early standings.

On their website the team describe their approach as: “Having fun.

Winning races.” There is a long way to go in 2019, but you get the sense there may be a fair bit more of both before the season’s out.

TTH HRRIILL LL YOU R

SBK BLOG

APPRECIATING THE OTHER SIDE It’s been good to have a bit of a break from racing for a few weeks...Did I actually say that? What I really mean is it’s good to have a break from packing a suitcase, sitting on an airplane and working every weekend. Racing still goes on and things in the Brown household still stop for it.

Doing the job I do means that there are extended periods where I just seem to be travelling and working all the time. There is nothing wrong with that per se but it means I get encapsulated in the little bubble of whatever it is I am working on at that moment. In March and April I shifted between the MXGP and WorldSBK bubbles, which did offer a refreshing change, however, regardless of whichever bubble I am in I start to lose track of everything else that is going on, and there is some pretty cool stuff happening around the world.

Being away from a particular racetrack means I can reconnect with some of the other race series that I am interested in.

The weekend past was a busy one with WRC in Argentina, the UCI Downhill MTB World Cup in Maribor, F1 in Azerbaijan, one of the

monuments of cycling - LiegeBastogne-Liege - happening in Belgium and, top of the pile for me, it was derby weekend in Scottish speedway – home and away ties with Glasgow Tigers and Edinburgh Monarchs. Inevitably I didn’t have enough eyes or TV’s in my house to watch it all so I have a week of catch up ahead of me.

In very typical Scottish fashion, if you don’t like it wait five minutes, the weather on Friday afternoon turned on a sixpence and the heavens opened. It meant that the first leg of the speedway derby was postponed. However, Sunday was a different story and a quick 20 minute trip on the bike across the city gets me to Glasgow Tigers speedway ground. It’s really interesting to go to a race as a punter. It’s taken a couple of seasons but I have now found out how to park the bike right behind the grandstand.

We have our regular seats, and it’s the cheapest chips ‘n’ cheese I have come across.

When I am used to huge multimillion pound race tracks with my ‘access-most-places’ pass, there is something quite grounding about turning up at a run down old football ground with a shale track running pitch-side and joining 1500 other hardly souls cheering on your local team. I reckon speedway would be quite a good discipline to photograph but I honestly have no notion at the moment. I am really happy as a fan, enjoying the occasion with my son.

Tigers won 53-37 by the way #weareglasgow Over the winter I watched the Netflix series on Formula 1, Drive To Survive. From a professional viewpoint I found it really interesting.

More than Europe’s largest MC store

It was a cleverly conceived series, really nicely shot and edited and as a result got me engaged with all the characters and the overall narrative that they were able to spin. I found it was like one of those books you can’t put down whilst on holiday, I just had to jump on and watch the next episode right away. It was a shame that Mercedes and Ferrari didn’t consent to being included in the programme as that would have added a little extra bit of tension to it, but what they did capture was the essence of the inter-team and inter-personal rivalries and the utterly ruthless nature of everyone involved in the sport.

There was much talk on social media about it and from my perspective how it would be great to do one in MotoGP. It would indeed but narrowing it down to main own specific field of work I think it would be an even better tool to re-engage the public with WorldSBK. What I found really surprising about the Formula 1 series was that all the key players were mic’d up at key moments in the weekend. We got to hear exactly what was being said, from the corporate spiel in front of

By Graeme Brown

the camera, to the catty comments and oaths muttered under the breath. It was as real life as F1 can get.

A long time ago a team boss in WorldSBK suggested to me that the series needed characters, and specifically characters with a feud. Give the public a hero and a villain and they will flock to watch anything.

They have been doing so since biblical times and nothing has changed.

MotoGP already has it with Valentino Rossi and any one else who comes along and beats him.

What the F1 Netflix series was good at was making it accessible to TV viewers that weren’t necessarily F1 fans. That’s where WorldSBK needs to look. Motorcycle road racing fans are very tribal at the moment. It’s one or the other, GP or Superbike, and particularly one sided. If you are a GP fan then it goes without saying you think anything related to Superbike racing is worthless, at least that’s how it seems from the comments I read. Personally I don’t see it. In a niche sport you would think that fans would be happy to support any form of motorcycle racing.

Quick aside: The break has also allowed me to sit down and watch Bruce Brown’s ‘On Any Sunday’ and also Peter Starr’s ‘Take It To The Limit’ for the umpteenth time.

They are both about every kind of bike racing, filmed long before an auto-focus lens had been thought about let alone a drone or a GoPro. I commend them both to you if you haven’t watched them. But it highlights my own feeling. It’s racing a motorbike. Two wheels: good. No? Anyway, a fly on the wall, narrative style TV series about WorldSBK would surely introduce the series to a whole new audience. However, here is the problem. Would Dorna invest the time and budget in such a project and not spend it on their “premier class”? I very much doubt it. What is needed is a commercial entity to turn away from the easy bucks in MotoGP and invest in something different.

I see that in WRC, where almost every driver and team is sponsored to some tune by Red Bull. It is really conspicuous that the only team and drivers that have no overt energy drink affiliation are Gazoo Toyoto.

Everything else is backed by Red

SBK BLOG

Bull and the series has a really slick magazine show broadcast every night of the event on Red Bull TV. How cool would that be for a series like WorldSBK to get non-bike racing fans engaged in the sport, and who knows they might like MotoGP as well.

While I dream of a Netflix/RBTV style series for WorldSBK I am going to stick the kettle on and get down to my catch up. First is a re-run of the Downhill from Maribor before the final day of WRC. I’ve then got the cycling from L-B-L and a little birdy told me that the American Flat Track racing in Arizona at the weekend was pretty sweet so I will need to dig that out on line.

Current MotoAmerica Supersport champion JD Beach won his first race of the season which was a pretty epic achievement. I might not physically be at a race-track but I can’t keep away from it. I would have been rubbish at chess.

PRODUCTS

www.answerracing.com

answer Veering away from motocross for a moment Answer have some excellent off-road gear that is well worth your attention. The K77 jersey (below) is ‘the first hot weather riding gear on the market that goes beyond simple venting and incorporates reactive cooling materials. CoolCore® is a material that actively cools the body through the process of evaporative cooling. When the temperature spikes, perspiration activates the CoolCore® materials thus reducing body heat and allowing the rider to focus on the ride, not the conditions.’ The K77 pants feature the same system but the construction is tough and well engineered between 600 and 900

denier and three vents (two of which are opened via 15” zippers on the thighs). That grey design is pretty fetching as well. For the last vestiges of spring then the Taiga XC (left) strikes a balance between wind protection – with DryAR fabric - and breathability (thanks to vents on the shoulders, back and hamstrings to ensure you don’t cook) and is the ideal choice for a chillier climate. The jersey is beefed-up and abrasion resistant with 600 denier nylon oxford forearm and elbow panels. Answer also have a host of riding packs, hydration options, a cooling vest and specific gloves.

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Words by Roland Brown, Photos by Milagro

A DECENT SHAPE SHIFT

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MV Agusta is best known for its decades of grand prix domination and for exotic, expensive superbikes with red-and-silver liveries reflecting that rich racing heritage. But when global sales of road-going superbikes slumped following MV’s rebirth with the 750 F4 sports machine 20 years ago, the Italian firm knew it had to broaden its appeal.

This has proven difficult. Attempts to increase production considerably with cheaper mid-capacity models triggered a financial crisis, since seemingly resolved.

MV has now changed tack again, aiming to supplement its traditional hyper-sports and super-naked models with similarly exclusive but more versatile bikes – led by the Turismo Veloce, the “Fast Tourer” that expanded the range on its launch four years ago.

Hence the comprehensively revamped Turismo Veloce that is now reaching showrooms following its launch last year.

Alongside a host of updates, the higherspec Lusso or Luxury version of the 798cc triple introduces the Lusso SCS, its initials standing for Smart Clutch System.

This will be familiar to many off-road enthusiasts because it’s a version of the popular Rekluse anti-stall clutch, and was developed in conjunction with the Idahobased company. Operating as an automatic clutch to allow the MV to be ridden almost like a giant scooter, the SCS unit weighs only 36g more than a conventional clutch, and is visible through a transparent cover on the right of the engine.

Elsewhere the 12-valve powerplant is revamped to enhance refinement. A new cylinder head gives more consistent combustion, for smoother low-rev running, and the starter clutch system is redesigned to cure a long-standing flaw. The front engine mount design is changed from one long bolt to two shorter ones, increasing chassis stiffness.

MV AGUSTA TURISMO VELOCE LUSSO SCS

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Power output to the maximum of 110bhp is unchanged.

Styling is also retained. Although the Turismo Veloce is taller and less aerodynamic than MV’s other triples it’s a striking machine. Its riding position is very upright, with a wide one-piece handlebar, short fuel tank and fairly high seat. For a sports-tourer the bike feels very compact, at least for taller riders whose knees can’t fit inside the tank cut-outs.

The MV’s light weight (192kg dry) helps counter its relatively modest power output, and the Turismo is fast enough to justify the Veloce part of its name – and make it heaps of fun to ride. It can’t match the top-end charge of the firm’s more powerful Brutale triple. But it’s more flexible, kicking out 90 per cent of its maximum torque figure all the way from 3500rpm, and storming smoothly through the midrange, regardless which of its four riding modes is selected.

Even the aggressive Sport mode gives very crisp fuelling, with none of the snatchiness of some previous MV systems. The redesigned gearbox also works very sweetly, at least with the standard model, which swaps cogs flawlessly in either direction with the help of the standard-fitment quick-shifter. But the SCS model has a slightly heavier lever action, plus a tendency to find an occasional false neutral.

Payback comes in town, when the auto clutch means the left handlebar’s lever is not needed, even when the bike slows to a halt.

The clutch automatically engages as the revs rise, so you can simply crack open the throttle to pull away. It’s a real benefit in traffic although I’d have to do a lot of city riding to consider paying an extra ten per cent for the SCS model (which costs £17,950 in the UK, against the standard bike’s £16,350).

MV AGUSTA TURISMO VELOCE LUSSO SCS

TEST

MV AGUSTA TURISMO VELOCE WORLDSBK LUSSO SCS POR

“THERE’S CERTAINLY PLENTY TO LIKE ABOUT THE TURISMO VELOCE LUSSO, WHICH IS STYLISH, QUICK, SWEET-HANDLING AND VERSATILE. THE SCS OPTION ISN’T PERFECT BUT ADDS A USEFUL HIGH-TECH FEATURE. ...”

TEST Chassis performance is little changed, which is no bad thing at all as the Turismo Veloce is superbly agile for a sports-tourer. Both versions of the Lusso come with Sachs’ Skyhook semi-active suspension instead of the standard Veloce’s conventional Marzocchi forks and Sachs shock. The long travel means hard braking or acceleration generates some pitching but the semi-active system minimises this, especially in the stiffer Sport setting.

There’s heaps of grip and ground clearance, and Brembo’s radial front brake calipers ensure powerful stopping.

The Turismo Veloce works well in its touring role, although inevitably it can feel cramped and short of power with a big pillion on board. Its wind-screen can be adjusted easily with one hand, but the 60mm range isn’t sufficient to prevent turbulence. The TFT display is attractive but slightly cluttered.

Touring attributes include the generous fuel range of close to 200 miles, and useful features including centre-stand, USB socket, heated grips and sturdy grab-rail. The shapely panniers can each hold a full-face helmet, despite keeping the bike’s rear end narrower than the handlebars.

There’s certainly plenty to like about the Turismo Veloce Lusso, which is stylish, quick, sweet-handling and versatile. The SCS option isn’t perfect but adds a useful high-tech feature. There’s also no denying that both versions of MV’s sports-touring triple are expensive. But that’s only to be expected, now the glamorous Italian marque’s emphasis is once again on exclusivity and low-volume production.

MV AGUSTA TURISMO VELOCE LUSSO SCS

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