MotoGP
THAT LINE...
This seems like a simple photograph but there is a lot going on with Alex Rins’ Suzuki here. Note the positions of the front and rear of the bike and the rider’s position. The Catalan used his synergy with the #42 racebike and the sun-drenched Silverstone asphalt to dramatic effect and split second consequence. What a great racing line that was at the British Grand Prix to again leave Marc Marquez frustrated on the last corner! Photo by Tony Goldsmith
MXGP
TWO TIME CHAMP
Tim Gajser’s main rivals for MXGP history might have fallen by the wayside in 2019 but the Slovenian set a new personal bar for consistency. The Grand Prix of Sweden delivered his fifteen podium finish from sixteen rounds and further enforced the validity of his second premier class crown, celebrated only seven days previously in Imola Photo by Ray Archer
AMA-MX
ABOUT BLOODY TIME... Adam Cianciarulo’s outpouring of emotion at various stages of the Ironman National in Indiana and the culmination of a closely fought AMA 250MX championship with Dylan Ferrandis was totally understandable. After what seemed like a relentless series of career setbacks – both in the last five years and as little as three months ago in supercross – AC finally lifted that first Pro title. The Pro Circuit rider did it in style with a 100% podium presence (for the first time in the contest since 2013) and with the constant pressure of his French nemesis Photo by Kawasaki
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MXGP
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MXGP SWEDEN
GRAND PRIX OF SWEDEN UDDEVALLA · AUGUST 24-25 · Rnd 16 of 18 MXGP WINNER: GLENN COLDENHOFF, KTM MX2 WINNER: TOM VIALLE, KTM
SWEDISH FANCY Blog by Adam Wheeler, Photos by Ray Archer
MXGP
MXGP SWEDEN
MXGP FEATURE
MXGP SWEDEN
MXGP FEATURE
MXGP SWEDEN
MXGP FEATURE
MXGP SWEDEN
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MXGP SWEDEN
MXGP
GLENN COLDENHOFF: “IT WAS THE DAY OF MY CAREER” The Motocross of Nations takes place next month. In Imola for the MXGP of Italy, I had the chance to speak to Glenn Coldenhoff, who last year managed to pull off two impressive wins in the USA, and this year is hoping to do the same in front of his fans, representing his country. At the moment, Glenn is in good form and has managed to win two Grand Prix in a row, maybe he’s warming up for Assen in September! So the Motocross of Nations this year is in Assen. Do you think there will be the same level of excitement as 2018? I think so. I mean especially for me, as a Dutch guy, I think it’s very special to have it in our home country because the last time the Motocross of Nations was in Holand was in 2004 in Leirop. We ended up second for three years in a row. We’re still looking for that win and it would be nice if we could make it happen in Assen for sure but there still many good teams like Great Britain and the USA is coming early so I’m sure they will be good as well.
Of course France also, for past five years already. It’s going to be a good event for sure. Do you think Jeffrey Herlings will be fit to win again by then? He’s always ready for winning! For sure he’s not going for anything less. I saw him last week in practice before we went to Imola we were riding on the same day and he had already the same speed as me and I think I have a good speed at the moment in the sand! So I have no doubt he will be fit there. The only issue will be if he gets another injury. Do you think that you can pull off another RedBud performance? It would be something if I could do that again in Assen! There are a lot of good sand riders at the moment. [Tim] Gajser, who was strong in Lommel, will be there, so a lot of good guys. Last year was the day of my career and hopefully we can manage it again in Assen. By Alex Wheeler (aged 12), photos by Jordi Wheeler (10)
MXGP
MATTERLEY BASIN COULD STAGE 2020 PRE-SEASON INTERNATIONAL AND TESTING DAYS The disappearance of Matterley Basin from the 2020 MXGP provisional calendar provoked dismay within the sport. According to promoters Youthstream the removal of the British Grand Prix was due to unsustainable costs of running the event. Overseer of the part-time circuit and site, Steve Dixon – owner of the Bike it Kawasaki Dixon Racing Team – believes that the track could still entertain elite level motocross. Matterley Basin could even make a surprise return to the Grand Prix schedule with an amended agenda expected to be published next month. However if the British round remains unfeasible then Dixon is seriously contemplating a pre-season International with the possibility for world championship teams to also test around the popular Winchester-based course.
“I’ve looked at doing an International in March,” Dixon said exclusively. “The weather can be good at that time. If we look recently in the UK – in the heart of summer – it has been atrocious in some places.” “2019 was the first year that the grand prix was viable,” he revealed as Matterley hosted round two of the current campaign for what was a risky slot for the British climate on March 23-24. “The costs have come down a lot and different suppliers have come in. It is a lot more economical and running the event in March. We saved 30-40% with some suppliers. Winchester Council are now a lot more confident with us and have cut down their request for police and traffic control. They know we want a good show and not cut any corners for organisation.” “The formula is there for an International and there would be less requirements than a GP regarding security and other factors,” he added. “It could be run on a lot lower budget and provide good prize money and that’s what attracts riders. As well as providing some time for set-up, where teams could ride and test afterwards on a GP-spec track.”
Whether Matterley stages a Grand Prix or a non-championship meet (and Dixon typically only has a two week window per year for fixtures on account of planning permission) a decision will need to be made in the coming weeks. “Winchester contacted me last week in terms of event scheduling,” he said. “If we want a large scale meeting and they don’t have the resources available to monitor or advise then we wouldn’t be able to do it, so we’ll know within the next four weeks if there will be a GP offered or we go the international route.” With Matterley Basin potentially entering the British motocross landscape in an alternate capacity there could be ramifications for the Hawkstone Park International: a well established date on the Grand Prix pre-season agenda. Dixon believes the meetings could co-exist. “It would make sense for teams to do Hawkstone and Matterley and I don’t want to take away from Hawkstone but going back a few years we used to move from one French International to the next,” he says. “If the teams can benefit from a bit of time on the track as well as the race – either before or after – then it might be of extra value before flying away to somewhere like Argentina. That’s what I’d like to see.”
MXGP BLOG
CULTURE SHIFT... There was a bundle of emotions from Uddevalla: satisfaction for Prado, glory for Coldenhoff, shock for Tom Vialle, re-acclimatisation for Herlings and graduation for Van de Moosdijk (the appropriately named Dutchman succeeding as EMX250 Champion in Sweden). There was also pain and despair for Romain Febvre. Allegedly the Frenchman did not have much in the way of painkilling medicine until Sunday evening and the full extent of the damage to his left femur could be deduced. In an accident eerily similar to his championship-wrecking crash in Argentina at the start of the year, Febvre has now suffered breaks to both limbs and will have undergone surgery twice in the space of six months. It is the latest blow to MXGP and a series that has suffered hard in 2019. Apart from Tim Gasjer’s level of performance, Jorge Prado’s excellence and some boosted crowd attendances, the campaign has weathered an unstable and uneven calendar and not reached the narrative highlights of the Cairoli comeback of 2017 or the Herlings Happy Hour of ’18.
The watermark was undoubtedly the Gajser-Cairoli duelling in the first four rounds and it was desperately sad that the Sicilian would be one of five different factory riders to occupy a hospital bed shortly after. It is not surprising that the spate of injuries has prompted brands, teams, promoters and the federation to look closer at the safety aspects of the sport and issues such as speed and power. The truth is that there are simply far too many inconsistencies in motocross to seal it better. Youthstream – under the watchful gaze of the FIM - try to apply the best safety principles to each circuit with the means at their disposal but this can range deeply depending on the track, the club and the level of collaboration. Creating the ideal solution (in the riders’ eyes) for track prep and maintenance is almost an
impossible task due to the variety of the conditions and territories but, make no mistake, steps have been taken and the current system is an improvement on the past. I know the promoters are frustrated that riders risk harm and absence from the FIM World Championship through participation in national events that don’t match the level of a Grand Prix, or they practice and train on courses that are way below the spec and prep of an MXGP venue. A sword will always dangle over a professional motocross athlete. The ‘culture’ surrounding MXGP is perhaps to blame. By this I mean the constant limit-stretching that riders feel they need to take, not only for results but for contracts and employment. For most, motocross and racing is a way of life – something they have done since
By Adam Wheeler
they could walk and even to the detriment of their education (with Gajser and Jeremy Seewer the notable exceptions for balancing top flite competition and finishing their studies) – so it is not only about riches and spoils. Racers with GP winning experience and knowledge can find their careers entering a cul-de-sac either at the age of 23-24 or 31-32. They might be able to continue what they love and at what they excel but it could come at personal and financial cost. Never before has a rider’s ability to market himself and his backers, his capacity to test and provide technical worth outside of a race and the willingness and character to blend and meld a team together been as important for longevity (as much as results). 2020 could see a twenty-round calendar with treks from South America to Russia to Asia. MXGP has been moving in a globetrotting and ‘accommodating’ direction for a number of years now as Youthstream push to fill part of their remit by attempting to spread the sport to new eyeballs and potentially fresh fanbases but the mechanisms behind the show
– the teams and their resources – are still trying to catch-up to extent of the ambition. This means that competent satellite teams are at a premium, and saddles that are either desirable for high calibre experienced racers (that are not ‘done’) or youngsters that sense an opportunity for a genuine stepping stone to a chance with a factory squad are few-and-far between. It is the friendliest dog-eat-dog situation you can find. Darwinism complete: only the strongest (or best backed) and most adaptable will make it (or prosper). Boundaries are being tested throughout the pack whether for sporting gain or sporting survival. It’s nothing new of course. But the erosion of the privateer at the elite level – of whatever sport – means the margins for living and achieving as a Pro are arguably much tighter. That brings pressure and it becomes a sustained build-up as the window to succeed (or earn) never ceases to slim. I seriously doubt whether there is the money in the sport to empower a host of teams to provide permanent berths (as Dorna have
done to ensure a 22 rider grid, and they generate revenue thanks to TV rights and sponsorship) and the costs to compete a whole series will always be a determining factor. MXGP cannot trim dates as this would arguably present a backwards step but 360 sustainability should also be examined as much as horsepower figures and the metres allocated to track perimeters if the surge towards ‘desperatism’ can be curbed. Then there is always the thought: will competitive and driven individuals ever step away from the clichéd ragged edge of disaster?
FEATURE
TONY CAIROLI TALKS ABSENCE, RECOVERYANXIETY, BATTLING A PROTÉGÉ AND WHY HE’S NOT DONE IN MXGP AT 34…
THE RESENTFU By Adam Wheeler, Photos by Ray Archer
UL BYSTANDER
FEATURE The MXGP sage felt the first lurch of injury emotion back in 2008 when a crunched ACL in his left knee meant the champion was cast out of a third MX2 title defence and a tussle with Red Bull KTM duo Tyla Rattray and Tommy Searle. Cairoli returned fully fit in 2009 and laid waster to the FIM Motocross World Championship.
His vulnerability was only apparent again seven years later when a broken left arm ended his rout of the premier class. Then a pre-season crash in 2016 meant the KTM man was afflicted with short-term nerve damage that inhibited his training. KTM’s new 450 SX-F also negated any need for his otherwise superlative 350 SX-F and Cairoli was mired in career funk that had many assuming his better days had gone.
2017 delivered perhaps the finest of his nine world titles and an achievement that confirmed his place as arguably the greatest and most versatile of all the world champions. 2018 was about Herlings, dealing with the threat of a superior teammate for the first time and the realisation that he would still have to evolve to prosper at a job and lifestyle that he clearly adores. Cairoli is already an anomaly.
well documented but there is the feeling that Tony is reaching another career crossroads as he turns 34 in September. He will have to re-train and face an irked Herlings again in 2020. More importantly he’d also have to deal with More than ten years on from teammate, training companthat fateful day at the South ion and protégé Jorge Prado. African Grand Prix in Nelspruit The Spaniard will be the third when Cairoli knew a stay on member of the strongest mothe sidelines beckoned, #222 tocross grand prix team ever is back in the rehab and reassembled (fifteen crowns covery phase. The destruction and almost two hundred GP of his right shoulder and the wins between them at Red muscles and tendons has been Bull KTM) and while there are varying degrees of age, “FOR SURE THERE WILL BE SOME TENSION. THREE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP CONTENDERS IN THE SAME TEAM WILL NOT BE EASY. OF COURSE JORGE WILL DO WELL FROM THE BEGINNING BECAUSE HIS RIDING STYLE FITS WELL TO THE 450s” seniority and experience in the orange camp, Prado (only 19 at the start of next season) has the potential to target and better everything that both Cairoli and Herlings have achieved so far. It’s hard to consider the amount of interviews we’ve done with Tony since 2004 and those early years where his English was not the level it is today and his banter is now regularly on-point. A particular favourite was a slightly
edgy encounter on the eve of the calendar-opening Grand Prix of Qatar in 2015. Ryan Villopoto was all the rage and for the first time Cairoli was restricting his media obligations; obviously keen not to over-stoke the hype. During that long talk over a coffee in the opulence of the Four Seasons in Doha he offered the revelation that he rode and raced at “70%” to win the majority of his six MXGP/ MX1 titles. That knowledge of limits and the way he aims and cherishes consistency has been the bedrock of his success but it is an approach he might have to veer away from in 2020 (or embrace it more than ever and assess where Herlings, Prado and other potent threats like Gajser, Desalle, Febve and more will falter). We meet in the Red Bull hospitality at Lommel where Tony is visiting the paddock for the second time since shoulder surgery and the first weeks of a four month wait, and is working on promotion of his RACR brand among other obligations. He has time for some of the more pressing subjects around his status.
Tony, this must be a weird time for you… Yeah, it is not the best place to be. It is hard being here because it is one of my favourite
CAIROLI CATCH-UP
He has stayed at the peak of a sport well beyond 99% of other athletes; particularly of a motorsport so punishing and draining both in the act itself and the way it affects life and others around it.
FEATURE tracks. It’s a real shame for the [my] championship but I’ve already accepted it and the surgery is done so we have started ‘the way back’. I just hope there will not be too many problems in the future with this injury. It seemed like you hung on as long as possible this year, like you did in 2015… Yes – to the second part – there was a lot of fluid on the shoulder so I just had to wait for two weeks. I tried to ride before Indonesia and it was not possible and I knew something was very wrong at that moment. When I went back to Belgium we decided right away that it had to be fixed and that was it. You have raced for many years and you are a competitive animal and always seem to be busy, so what do you do in a time like this? Is it possible to relax or does every day carry some frustration? Frustration! I like to train and do things by myself and for three weeks I could do almost nothing. It was difficult. Now I can do more things and it is easier. I can also start to think about a plan for a comeback for next year. At least we have a lot of time now to prepare. We’re looking forward to that rehabilitation.
Have you thought about how lucky you’ve been throughout your career? You started Grand Prix in 2003 and although you made a point of not really pushing over your limit you were never a rider that crashed that much or suffered injuries… Yeah, in one sense I never really had the amount of injuries that others had. It was always more important for me to be safe on the track rather than super-fast. That was my thing, and consistency was key – we know this. I was never over the limit in those [title-winning] years. It was bad luck to have that crash and small injury in Russia; the problem was not too bad and it was unlucky with timing. If it had happened before the break where we had a month off then I would have been back like normal. As it was we only had a few days before Latvia and I wasn’t ready. I had to go though because we wanted to keep going for the championship. Most of the damage was because of that crash in Latvia. [pause]
I need to train and to ride or to do something always. As soon as the doctors let me after surgery I strapped the arm and started to do some exercise. I don’t want to lose conditioning because I know at this age that it is harder to get back in shape. I didn’t do much but just something so that when I can start a full programme then I won’t be that bad. Is the positive part of an injury like this the fact that it gives you time to focus on other things? A baby is coming, the RACR brand? Yes, that is a good thing. You don’t have pressure from the biggest part of your life and all the racing days. You can relax a bit and do some other stuff. I never had the feeling of much pressure from racing because I was able to handle that well and during the week I could switch off from that. To do something else is also quite nice after seventeen years of riding, training and focussing all the time. You said in the Czech Republic that waking up each day brings some pain. You had little problems from motocross but, as we said, no big serious setbacks. Is that just age?! Ha! It’s all the joints you hit throughout the years. All the wear. I find that when you stop the training and you start
to lose some of the muscle then you feel even worse. That’s another reason to work and to keep feeling better. Some people can feel quite lost when their main daily activity is taken away… Yes, but even when I’m racing normally and fighting for championships I was able to take days off. I try to make my life enjoyable and not always about the work that needs to be done. That’s the secret then… Yeah! Of course. I see other riders that stick so much to the programme and don’t move from it. I think you can do that for a couple of years but to do it for a long time is very difficult and you need a strong mind. Like Valentino Rossi, are you starting to get more and more questions in interviews about reaching the end of your career? People must be fascinated by your motivation and longevity… I know the sport of motocross and I know when you get over 30-32 then it gets more difficult for a lot of people. It is difficult for them to keep the pace they had when they were 25 but I feel I am still improving a little bit every year and I know that is something that’s not common in this sport. That gives motivation.
CAIROLI CATCH-UP
It’s a complex joint. Honestly: are you a little worried? They told me it is a very difficult injury and to recuperate 100% is difficult but possible. I will work as hard as I can to be as I was before, or even better. Let’s see how it goes in the next two months and then we’ll know more.
FEATURE
CAIROLI CATCH-UP “I THINK IT’S BECAUSE I ALWAYS HAD SOMETHING LEFT IN THE TANK. I HAD SOMETHING ELSE INSIDE ME. I TRAINED A BIT MORE THAN USUAL IN THE LAST TWO YEARS AND WITH MORE INTENSITY. THE MOTOS ARE SHORTER THAN THEY WERE SEVEN-EIGHT YEARS AGO AND THAT MADE A BIG DIFFERENCE ON THE PREPARATION THAT I USED TO DO.”
FEATURE
“I KNOW MOTOCROSS AND I KNOW WHEN YOU GET OVER 30-32 THEN IT GETS MORE DIFFICULT. IT IS DIFFICULT FOR THEM TO KEEP THE PACE THEY HAD WHEN THEY WERE 25 BUT I FEEL I AM STILL IMPROVING AND I KNOW THAT IS SOMETHING THAT’S NOT COMMON IN THIS SPORT.”
Rossi has harnessed the youth and energy of the VR46 Academy to help sustain his energy and ability to still improve in MotoGP. You’ve trained with Jorge Prado now for two years so has that helped? Would it be the same for you if he wasn’t there? I don’t know. Of course it nice to have someone to train with but I think I make him younger than he makes me younger! He was living in Belgium for five years and he came to Italy
with a different mentality. He is Spanish but he was like an old Belgian! Now he is going a bit more towards the Spanish/ Italian way and the results are talking for him. I think we’re a good match. You lived in Belgium for many years but the moved back to Rome and largely train at your track in Malagrotta. It’s impressive that you kept so fast despite moving away from that Benelux epicentre…
I think it is the lifestyle. You don’t forget to ride in the sand, even though it is very important to do it. I did a lot in the past, and recently a bit less. Now my plan is to do some more. We didn’t have many
ers get tired. The shift is that everybody is so fast now from the first lap and that meant a big change for my programme and I had to adapt. I found that I could do it and that meant I improved. I can still improve.
So how is it possible to stay so fast? How do you continue to set the bar? Are you watching Herlings and Gajser carefully? No, I think it’s because I always had something left in the tank. I had something else inside me. I trained a bit more than usual in the last two years and with more intensity. The motos are shorter than they were seven-eight years ago and that made a big dif-
Going back to Jorge: how do you see him in MXGP next year? With you, him and Jeffrey that is a daunting lineup... For sure there will be some tension. Three world championship contenders in the same team will not be easy. Of course Jorge will do well from the beginning because his riding style fits well to the 450s. I think he will be a contender straight away for GPs and maybe even the
ference on the preparation that I used to do. My base was made for longer motos and longer pace. I found that the races used to be slow in the beginning and then I could get faster and faster while oth-
championship. It will be very interesting to see how the season turns out. For myself I expect to be on the top; to win another championship is my goal and the first thing that comes in my mind. It will be
difficult, but if I can be on the podium every weekend then I will be very happy. 2018 was the first time you had a teammate at your level. Now with Jorge you could have two and one that is also training with you! If he starts beating you then that will be a new experience… For sure! That’s very possible. There are not many talents like him and with his skills set. It is very possible because he is young and has so much energy but I’m working hard to do my best to stay in front of him and everybody. I try to enjoy my racing and when that happens the results come. I’m not really worried. You’ve been an uncle for many years and see babies grow up now you are soon going to be a Dad for the first time and join at least six riders in MXGP who are also fathers… Yeah! It’s a strange feeling and one that doesn’t seem real at the moment. When the baby arrives I think it will hit me. It’s a super-nice thing of course and we’re excited to be parents.
CAIROLI CATCH-UP
sand races this year – not as much as the past, even Valkenswaard is not the sand track it used to be ten years ago, now it is a bit like Mantova – so there was not a big reason to move back there. Of course for young kids it is still very important.
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FEATURE
450s TOO FAST? TOO FURIOUS? MXGP SPEAKS
By Adam Wheeler, Photos by Ray Archer
FEATURE
450
cc engine power, torque, suspension technology, chassis performance, older tracks and the riders themselves: MXGP seems to have many elements that help the series stretch throttle cables a little more every year. A slew of injuries in 2029 and the fact that the Grand Prix of Russia at Orlyonok (a venue that saw Clement Desalle and Tony Cairoli effectively end their seasons after crashes, with lucky escapes by the likes of Ben Watson also noted) touched an average speed of 63kmph and invited questions about the pace of elite level motocross and the suitability of 450cc motors for 1650m circuits. The FIM rulebook states: ‘The course, if possible, should be of a type which restricts the average speed to a maximum of 65 km per hour (the average calculated for one complete race).’ Most Grand Prix venues hover between 40-mid-50s but the upper 50s can be touched quite often. In many cases the lap-times of MX2 veer close to MXGP; but this is discounting track degradation. Have 450s grown too uncontrollable for MXGP? Is the series too fast? Or is versatile suspension to blame? What about the technical and physical limits of the riders themselves? In a quest for answers - or at least some clarification - we asked a spread of personnel inside the MXGP paddock. Here is what they had to say on the subject…
“TONY CAIROLI: “I DON’T THINK IT IS A BAD IDEA TO REDUCE THE POWER OF THE BIKES BECAUSE THE 450S ARE ON A LEVEL [THAT IS VERY HIGH] ESPECIALLY FOR OUR TRACKS IN EUROPE.”
Tony Cairoli, Red Bull KTM: Sometimes when you ride in MXGP you don’t feel out of control or too fast but when you see the races from the outside then you see the bike is very strong. You cannot make mistakes and you have to react very quickly to stuff‌and that is not always possible.
Dirk Gruebel, Red Bull KTM Team Technical Co-ordinator & MX2 Team Manager: I think the average speed is too high. We have to see how we can get that down because you cannot hold back development of the bikes: frames have developed, suspension has developed and overall the bikes are capable of higher speed but how can you restrict it? You cannot do it if you have a 450, 250,
450s: TOO FAST?
The bikes, the speed
FEATURE 300… Jorge Prado is the fastest rider at a grand prix many times and that’s on a 250. The team’s job is to make the bike ‘faster’. There is no universal solution at the moment.
Gunther Geerts Technical Touch/KYB: I think they have so much power that they have come to a point with the 450 that they have to spread it all over the power band and that gives you a lot of options.
Rene Ebert, Chief Mechanic, Monster Energy Wilvo Yamaha: I can see from the dyno graphs over the last ten years that the bikes have become faster.
Francois Lemariey, Team Manager, Monster Energy Kawasaki: As a factory team we customise the power to get the best performance. The most important thing is to customise the power range to the riding style of our riders. It’s very important to have the right power for the start and to get out of the gate. It is not easy to get a good curve and a bike that is easy to manage, that the rider can control and do his job on the track.
Antonio Alia Portela, FIM CMS President: Everyone wants to go faster. In motocross if you combine speed with some hazards then it can be dramatic and drastic. Some manufacturers are producing better engines, there is better race fuel and more athletic riders: if you combine everything then you are heading towards a very fast sport. There has to be some places where they can recover a little bit, and that could be through more corners or a ‘strategic’ straight.
“ROMAIN FEBVRE: THE AVERAGE SPEED NEEDS TO COME DOWN ON SOME TRACKS AND THAT MEANS MORE JUMPS – BUT TECHNICAL ONES AND NOT JUST ANOTHER TABLE-TOP OR A DOUBLE.” Marc de Reuver, Rider Coach F&H Kawasaki, former MX2 & MXGP GP winner: The 250s have a limit. There is a point where that bike cannot make any more power but the 450s never stops! The powerband is so wide. Back in the day you’d slide out because there was a lot of power immediately. You had to be sensitive. Now? Wide open.
Wim van Hoof, Chief Mechanic, Standing Construct KTM: I think a rider could do the whole track in two gears. Our riders are doing that now and sometimes using three when it is high speed. For the rest you can build an engine that is smooth, strong but only uses two. Wilfred Van Mil, Racing Manager, WP Suspension: Riders learn from each other. A really talented guy like Tony or Jeffrey [Herlings] comes along and it means all the others are looking at them and their style. If you look generally at riding styles now compared to fifteen years ago then it is very different. All the youngsters look up to the big names and try to copy. Rene Ebert, Chief Mechanic, Monster Energy Wilvo Yamaha: Jeffrey Herlings came back in Latvia this year and the lap-times didn’t lie. I think it was 1.7 [ahead]. So what is it? The bike? The rider? And how do we get faster? Are the fitness levels reaching a limit? I don’t think so. The riders evolve just like the bikes.
Marcus Pereira De Freitus, Team HRC, Team Manager: I don’t think the 450 is faster than it is supposed to be. In some cases Jorge Prado is very close or even faster in terms of lap-times. It all depends on how that power is being put on the ground. Tim Gajser, Team HRC, 2019 MXGP World Champion: It will sound weird but sometimes I want even more power! I think it should be kept as it is. Every year brands are trying to make bikes faster and better - and I always want better and better - and I guess it is the same for every rider. Shaun Simpson, RFX KTM, MXGP: Next year is my tenth season racing 450s and I wouldn’t say they are becoming too fast. I don’t think there is much scope to make them faster because they still need to be rideable for forty minutes. Rene Ebert, Chief Mechanic, Monster Energy Wilvo Yamaha: In the winter we are always looking for ways to make the lap-times better. You cannot stop improving and everybody is pushing hard, so the bikes get faster and the riders need to be fitter and more capable to
450s: TOO FAST?
Gunther Geerts Technical Touch/KYB: As there are more races then there are more opportunities and more emphasis to be at that level longer. I think the 23 age limit for MX2 means that all the best riders have been pushed together and in MXGP there are so many good racers and that has the effect of increasing the level. It is not just the bike; all the factors make the speed go up and unfortunately there are maybe more injuries. Anything can happen in a sport if you go to the limit.
FEATURE
use them. The level of the fitness now has reached a point where even if they are sick or injured then they are way-off where they need to be. Marcus Pereira De Freitus, Team HRC, Team Manager: We don’t have any complaints about power and not for a few years now. It is about working from track-to-track. The work has been just as much about the balance, suspension and handling. All manufacturers of 450s have enough power right now and I don’t think there are many riders complaining that there is too much, which is different compared to a 250. Antonio Alia Portela, FIM CMS President: It is obvious that the factories are developing their engines to increase the speed so what we have to do from our side, as the FIM, is to make sure that the average speed of the races does not exceed the limit. How do we do that? Rui [Gonçalves] is working on the speed of the circuits to make them safer. The speed is increasing thanks to many factors and they are being pushed by the brands. We don’t necessarily want faster riders; we want skilled and healthy riders that can see out a season.
Dirk Gruebel, Red Bull KTM Team Technical Co-ordinator & MX2 Team Manager: We could pack much more speed into the 450 than the riders actually use. It is not the end of the line. If they want five horsepower more then we can give it. It’s just not necessary. A 250 is around ten horsepower less but it still goes the same speed on the track, so it is not about horsepower but how riders handle it and make the most out of it. The weight difference between our bikes from a 450 to a 250 is two kilos, that’s it. Not a hell of a difference.
The suspension, the frames Marcus Pereira De Freitus, Team HRC, Team Manager: I have the 2008 [Marc] De Reuver Honda in the workshop and I think if you put that bike on the track today then it would be upside-down. We are three generations on from that model and the CRF450R is now much more adaptable to the riders. Obviously the ’08 motorcycle is still a good bike but the difference is in the improvements in almost every area and how the weight is distributed, the link and swing arm.
Rene Ebert, Chief Mechanic, Monster Energy Wilvo Yamaha: Always handling, handling, handling. Tackling braking bumps, feel in corners, traction on acceleration bumps.
Tony Cairoli, Red Bull KTM: Suspension has made such a big step compared to a few years ago and it is so easy to ride the bike. I can see it in the amateur races I follow when I am in Rome or Sicily: everybody goes so fast and maybe they ride twice a month! They have a lot of power but the suspension now allows you to do crazy stuff. Gunther Geerts Technical Touch/KYB: You used to have compression and rebound on a front fork and a rear shock but these days you have low and high speed compression and rebound. The fine-tuning is so much more precise than it used to be. It even surprises me how the factory can come up with new
Dirk Gruebel, Red Bull KTM Team Technical Co-ordinator & MX2 Team Manager: There has been a lot of development suspension-wise because riders are not afraid of a jump now: they just hit them because they know the equipment will absorb it and won’t throw them off. I had a discussion with Joel [Smets] about the downhill double jump at the bottom of the hill at Loket [Grand Prix of Czech Republic] and he said in the past you’d come out of the turn, gas-it a bit but choose your line, close the throttle and then gas it on the take-off just to clear it. Now the kids don’t shut-off. The speed is down to riding technique, suspension and better preparation. Wim van Hoof, Chief Mechanic, Standing Construct KTM: If you look at a shock or fork from a few years ago then it is still a cartridge with shims and oil and springs. However the quality of the material is always better and better and they find new settings. The engine is the same: the angle of the valves, the compression. We’ve altered so much in the last years with suspension and chassis and engine that small steps have not stopped. It means a big step compared to years ago.
450s: TOO FAST?
things each year to get better acceleration or a better start. It is always small things because it’s been a few years since any big steps. Inside the technology there always seems to be a bit more performance or more comfort or more traction. Even if it seems that suspension on the outside doesn’t change inside they are looking at materials and systems.
FEATURE Wilfred Van Mil, Racing Manager, WP Suspension: I think development with suspension is always improving. It is not huge steps but there are always small things, and combined with frames and handling characteristics, then it all fits together. We make the riders as comfortable as possible on the bike and if that happens then he goes quicker. Every year we make a small step. It is the whole team’s job to make the rider go faster. They are many people working on that. Francois Lemariey, Team Manager, Monster Energy Kawasaki: With experience and calculations and different linkage ratio and the difference of factory suspension compared to production – although the systems are not so far away from each other the material is better quality – the Japanese can improve the flex of the bike. They do a lot of testing
with feedback from the riders and that’s part of our job: to make those reports so they can judge and modify their production material if necessary. It’s not good to have a bike that is too rigid and also not good to have one that flexes too much, especially on a sand track like Lommel. It is a compromise of balance and experience and engineering. Shaun Simpson, RFX KTM, MXGP: Suspension is something that is definitely getting a lot better than it was before; especially with electronics, ECU management and traction control; those sorts of things. You just have to look at HRC and I believe those guys have some serious electronics on their bikes. I’ve never ridden a bike like that but it’s clear to see that if the ignition can cut at certain points and handle bumps and work with the suspension and engine to create a
Marcus Pereira De Freitus, Team HRC, Team Manager: It’s complicated to find a good balance with the frame and that’s why the rider and his feedback is still so important. There are a lot of people and test riders behind the scenes helping to optimise that. Frame development has really come-on along and with the suspension has given a great balance. We test 4-5 times a year depending on the development and the rider’s concerns but basically it is the same dimensions as the production bike: it is just how you balance it all together. Our frame is the same that Jeremy [Van Horebeek] uses but then it comes down to how you work with the geometry and the suspension technician: to make sure it is working with the engine to get the power on the ground. Gunther Geerts Technical Touch/KYB: I think there is some truth to the claims about suspension and its responsibility for the speed but it is mostly the development of bikes in general because you cannot just talk about the hardware that we deliver but the combination with the frame and the motorcycle. The performance is really high now and that is normal evolution. The bikes are faster and the riders are faster.
Dirk Gruebel, Red Bull KTM Team Technical Co-ordinator & MX2 Team Manager: It is all about rideability. We have our reference tracks where we test in the winter and if you bring along an improvement that allows you to shave off a second or half-a-second then you have done a good job. We’re not stopping that! Everyone is doing the same, that’s our job. You have to get the power to the ground but it also needs to be a smooth delivery so the riders can easily open and don’t be hesitant on the gas or need to pay too much attention to it. The more they can concentrate on the riding and less on the bike then the faster they can go. Gunther Geerts Technical Touch/KYB: Racing is more professional now than it used to be and people are supported better. If you look at teams now then they almost all have their own suspension guy. You have more resources so development goes faster and if you have a good ethic then even faster still. The manufacturers are not the only one to blame…it is a combination of things. Rene Ebert, Chief Mechanic, Monster Energy Wilvo Yamaha: Riders can be smooth and want less power but then there are others that are aggressive and want more. Jeremy Seewer needs a smooth bike but also one with a strong third gear. Christophe Pourcel wanted to be in and out of the corner in third gear but without clutching! It’s down to corner speed and lap-times, lap-times, lap-times. MXGP has so many different riders. Romain [Febvre] likes a lot of top end and it sounds aggressive but the horsepower might not be that much. We are coming more and more to a compromise over power with smooth delivery and handling. The start is absolutely crucial so we need
450s: TOO FAST?
smoother and faster ride then this is an improvement. Before you just had ride by the seat of your pants and use your skill to determine which bumps you can hit and which ones you can’t. There is a lot of chassis work going on with different stiffness and length and things like engine mounts; everyone is looking for that slightly easier ride. I know for sure that when you get the feeling right then you can go a lot faster. When it’s not right then you have to ease-off otherwise it will bite you quite quickly.
FEATURE a lot of power for that and that’s why a lot of brands develop start systems that then cut-out after three seconds. You need it for the gate but not on the track. The window mappings for start strategies are huge now.
The tracks Romain Febvre, Monster Energy Yamaha: I don’t think the speed is too high, we just improved in many things and it is more about how we deliver the power. The tracks need to change. For many
years we have ridden at the same places and apart from a few take-offs and landings not much has changed. We could use some alterations to the layouts. The speed doesn’t seem to be a problem at big places like Argentina but in others like Russia it was a real problem. So I think it is more about the racing conditions than the power of the bikes. Argentina is fast but the size of the track means you can do that speed a bit safer. Russia is tiny, rocky and hard-packed with water on the top.
hit them full-gas. We should look into corners [layout] or laden turns where it is not possible to go that fast. It needs to be tested.
Wim van Hoof, Chief Mechanic, Standing Dirk Gruebel, Red Bull KTM Team Technical Construct KTM: It’s true that the bikes have Co-ordinator & MX2 Team Manager: Jeffrey made some big steps in the last ten years. mentioned at one point in the U.S. you canEverything has to follow, even the brakes when not go flat-out on a Sunday like in the GPs you get to a high speed but for me the tracks because the track has not been touched and have to be carefully looked at. The bikes are the lines are too deep: if you hit them flat-out quick but I think the tracks play a part. then you are gone. The riders know it and respect it because they get their warnings. Tony Cairoli, Red Bull KTM: The dirt is the [More] Jumps don’t help because the riders main thing. It must be good and make a lot of
450s: TOO FAST?
Shaun Simpson, RFX KTM, MXGP: It’s not the bikes, it is some of the track layouts or the way the surface is prepared that cause the speed to be higher.
FEATURE bumps. That would slow the speed and also produce line choice. At the moment if you ride somewhere like Russia or Czech Republic you really need to be aggressive to pass and being so fast [leaves less room for error]. Marcus Pereira De Freitus, Team HRC, Team Manager: The track preparation is something we are more worried about. We think there can be more consistency from the people working on them at the different tracks and the watering. I think it is the most important thing in terms of safety now. Tim Gajser, Team HRC, 2019 MXGP World Champion: Preparation can depend on the track. Everyone talks about Russia but it is a track that cannot be ripped that deep because of the stony ground and how it develops.
Romain Febvre, Monster Energy Yamaha: Everything has changed or developed…apart from the tracks. In MotoGP they have not changed the speed or the capacity of the bikes but the tracks are now safer and they have room to crash. That’s not always the case for us, in my opinion. Antonio Alia Portela, FIM CMS President: Track attention means more corners and extra care with grip. Perhaps more sand. If you have more table-tops then you need a straight to generate speed to get over it. We need to manage safety, skills and speed to have good races and a good show for TV. Wilfred Van Mil, Racing Manager, WP Suspension: From hard-pack to sand there are no big setting changes; it is more a balance thing and a couple of clicks but most of the time not even that. We do a lot of testing - that’s our big job in the winter - and we end up with one base setting that works more or less on all the GP tracks. We then just play a little with the fork line and the free sag and small details each weekend. It’s another reason why the rider becomes faster because he has the same bike every week. In the past they’d have vast setting changes from one track to the other track and the rider would have to get used to the bike again and have a feeling for it. These days the base set-up is so much better and they get more and more confident.
Tony Cairoli, Red Bull KTM: If you had a wider track with more lines and more bumps then you’d have safer riding because you’d slow down as it gets more physical. People will get tired, and you can make a difference over who is training and who is training hard. When the tracks are as flat as they are now then you don’t see the difference, as you used to before. Marc de Reuver, Rider Coach F&H Kawasaki, former MX2 & MXGP GP winner: There are purpose built banks and berms on many tracks now over the years and it means riders can go faster on the straights and just hit them to make the corner. There is no need to take care and measure a turn or to really look at a camber. Gunther Geerts Technical Touch/KYB: If we talk about Lommel the track was even faster in the past than it is today. I don’t think the tracks are to blame. They can be fast but they also put a lot of jumps and obstacles in there to make it slower. Some places are very quick – like Russia – but back in the day you also had really fast tracks. Francois Lemariey, Team Manager, Monster Energy Kawasaki: As we saw some years ago in F1 and MotoGP the tracks have to adapt to the ‘new’ level of performance. I think there
are some modifications to do on tracks, maybe reduce speed somehow with more obstacles and bigger safety areas and not arriving straight into the fence. Technology is better and so are the riders, so things around them need to move as well. Marc de Reuver, Rider Coach F&H Kawasaki, former MX2 & MXGP GP winner: Some more thought to the tracks. A waves section should start steep and end fast. In Latvia it started fast and ended f**king steep with that jump. The ambulance was there five times in one session because these guys – the best in the world – are crashing their brains out. I can see from the body language of riders like Cairoli and Herlings that they are having difficulty with it. Shaun Simpson, RFX KTM, MXGP: Most of all ground preparation. If you look at a wave section then this should be ripped and watered like the rest of the track. I also think take-offs and landings should be done. There is a fad in MXGP at the moment where there seems to be a lot of polished hard-pack on jump take-offs… and then they are watered. In America they rip and water them and then track-them-in with a bulldozer. They have deep lines but no real potential for kickers. The landings here are the same: usually rock hard and watered. So you come from something hard and slick into something – a rut - that is deep and watered. Romain Febvre, Monster Energy Yamaha: The average speed needs to come down on some tracks and that means more jumps – but technical ones and not just another table-top or a double. A ‘braking’ jump just to break the speed makes sense and maybe two of them a lap would help. Also the safety around the track needs to be looked at. At Assen if you run off the track then you are straight into a fence. I don’t think these are difficult things to improve or at least to think about.
450s: TOO FAST?
Gunther Geerts Technical Touch/KYB: We go testing at the start of the year in Sardinia in January. We see the WP boys there also. We establish a base set-up and also test it in the pre-season races. The range of that setting becomes so wide that whether it is sand or hard-pack you hardly have to change it, just a few clicks here or there or the position or balance of the bike, that’s it. You get comments like ‘the bike is good, I don’t want to change anything’. In the old days riders would have suspension for sand and for hard-pack but that’s all done away with now.
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Tim Gajser, Team HRC, 2019 MXGP World Champion: They are trying to make some elements on the tracks now to stop the speed, like braking jumps. But I think these things break the rhythm and it can be difficult find the flow. It might be more dangerous with them there because you don’t feel good on the track. You spend the rest of the lap trying to get the rhythm back, find it and then hit the braking jump again! It gets boring. The other guys will give you a different answer!
Shaun Simpson, RFX KTM, MXGP: There is a bit of inconsistency with what is ripped and what isn’t. Everyone can go through a wave section really fast if there are no lines or ruts in it. If there are lines, bumps and ruts then there is not easy and it gets technical. A wave section gets chewed up very fast on sand and it becomes one of the best passing places on the track. Of course it can be tough to adjust many tracks. Places like Loket cannot be ripped that deep, or any more than it usually is. Some of the newer places - and where it is
Antonio Alia Portela, FIM CMS President: If you step backwards in a sport like this then you can make mistakes. You have to go with the stream. Just reducing things or taking things away from riders is difficult. What we can do is get onto safer tracks…in many aspects. We have to figure out how to make the riders safer and that might mean moving areas inside and outside the track: A table-top that sends the riders too high and the landing is suspect is another problem. Injuries at this level usually mean broken bones.
The solution?
Rene Ebert, Chief Mechanic, Monster Energy Wilvo Yamaha: Electronics? A control ECU? I like this. If you get three or five ECUs and a rev limit on a 250 of say 14,500 rpm the costs would be much lower because of the engine service, so we can run longer and I think it would be fairer amongst the guys. I would also go back to having just one race bike. Everybody talks about budget but we carrying two bikes just as back-up for MXGP Timed Practice or if something happens on the Sighting Lap. When something breaks it is the engine and if a professional team cannot change an engine in less than an hour?! Maybe we’ll have more money for teams and riders but I guess some brands don’t want this. A 450 is not too much about revs compared to a 250 but a form of control would help. I don’t think it will happen though because some brands put a lot into development. It is all a competition.
Tony Cairoli, Red bull KTM: I don’t think it is a bad idea to reduce the power of the bikes because the 450s are on a level [that is very
Wim van Hoof, Chief Mechanic, Standing Construct KTM: A control ECU would help for sure. You can do a lot with that. We run GET
easier to move dirt around - then I feel there could be improvements on the way it is built. It is always difficult to get something that everybody is happy with but from a safety aspect the tracks I like are more about a 40-50kmph average speed and 60 is way-too high.
450s: TOO FAST?
high] especially for our tracks in Europe that are mostly very tiny narrow and not so many lines. They dry quickly and there is a lot of hard-pack. The 250 class is very good at the moment for the world championship because the power is so strong that is almost compares to my old 350. So to reduce the power in the MXGP class is not a bad idea and would mean fewer injuries.
FEATURE technology and there is a big menu. You can change a lot and in some parts we can control the power. Having a ceiling for revs could work but mostly for 250s because on the 450 you cannot go so high otherwise the engines would break. I think the 250s are already set at 15,000 while the 450s are 11-12,000. It’s not necessary or possible to go higher. The most important thing is controlling the power like the rider prefers. Marcus Pereira De Freitus, Team HRC, Team Manager: Development does not stop but I don’t think we’ll see proper traction control on motocross tracks for another three years at least. It is expensive, and there is no urgent reason to have it. We always think about rider safety and that’s the first priority for Honda and we know we are putting the riders on the bike that is safe in all areas: electronics, suspension, frame. Wim van Hoof, Chief Mechanic, Standing Construct KTM: I hear some rumours about lowering ccs. I don’t know if that’s necessary. The riders always want a bike that can go faster! We have to push the power in the correct way. I know there are some teams that give their riders one setting and they have to adapt. We start our season listening to the riders. We have one that says the power comes in too fast and wants more spread or higher RPM and when the rider is going easier on the bike and says he has more control then the race will come better and it becomes safer. If the bike is too aggressive or too much power in one spot on the track then it just increases the risk. I think it is more important to create control and to hit the exact preference for the rider. Wilfred Van Mil, Racing Manager, WP Suspension: Sooner or later they will downgrade the CCs. I think if development continues like this then inside ten years we’ll have a 250 that is stronger than a 450 at the moment. You can-
not get a sixteen year old on a bike like that: it will kill the sport. Tony Cairoli, Red Bull KTM: A 450 is a strong bike lately. I think reducing the power a bit would be a good idea.
Romain Febvre, Monster Energy Yamaha: If we reduce the power then you will get close to the power of a 250 and you’ll end up with just one class. It doesn’t make too much sense for me. Dirk Gruebel, Red Bull KTM Team Technical Co-ordinator & MX2 Team Manager: I don’t think capacity change will solve it. If they [FIM] told us next year that MXGP was down to a 300cc limit then we’d still do our best to be the fastest out there and I think it would end up being as fast as a 450 at the moment. Shaun Simpson, RFX KTM, MXGP: I don’t like the idea of a 350. I tried it, rode it, tested it and just prefer the idea of torque and usable power. Wilfred Van Mil, Racing Manager, WP Suspension: For suspension development it is about engineering and new techniques, small details like different pistons, shapes, overlaps and in the end it becomes a big thing. You cannot solve everything with just suspension; it has to match the frame and the engine behaviour. We do many tests where a change to the engine character has produced a change on the suspension as well. The 250 at the moment has the same amount of horsepower as a 450 from 2004. It won’t stop.
450s: TOO FAST?
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TURNING UP THE AC IRONMAN NATIONAL
IRONMAN RACEWAY, IN AUGUST 25th Rnd 12 of 12
450MX winner: Eli Tomac, Kawasaki 250MX winner: Dylan Ferrandis, Yamaha
Blog by Steve Matthes, Photos by Octopi/Monster, Cudby
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TIME OFF? The final round of the Lucas Oil Pro AMA Motocross Championships took place in Indiana this past weekend and as expected, Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki’s Adam Cianciarulo grabbed his first title by virtue of 2-4 moto scores. The other ‘green guy’, Eli Tomac of the Monster Energy Kawasaki team, cruised home with a win and no pressure having clinched his third straight 450MX title the previous Saturday. It was a good race, certainly made better by not having the rain we’ve seen at this last round almost every single year the track has been on the circuit. Good crowd, a great first moto in the 450MX class that saw Tomac, Honda’s Ken Roczen and KTM’s Marvin Musquin have a terrific three way battle all the way to the checkers with Musquin grabbing the win. So the twelve rounds of motocross are over as are the seventeen rounds of supercross. It’s grueling schedule for the riders never mind the teams. That’s something that I, as a guy that worked as mechanic for a couple
of factory teams and for eleven years total, really understand. The hours the team personal put-in are incredible and often at the expense of their home life. So it’s with great relief that many of them look to these upcoming couple of weeks as a bit of a break. Yes, you read that right. The teams generally start giving their staff rosters the weekends off now and many of the riders will take a few weeks away from the routine before gearing up for supercross 2020. Ken Roczen, who’s struggled with a virus for much of this year, has completely eliminated any racing from his off-season plans outside of the Red Bull Straight Rhythm which shouldn’t be too taxing for him.
In my experience the hamster wheel of professional supercross/ motocross never stops. You would think perhaps after the calendars are complete that there might be some serious downtime for everyone but nope, many years I was on teams the riders would be back out in Southern California the week after the last race to start riding supercross. As a mechanic you would be slowly building the following year’s test bike near the end of the motocross season and complete it the Monday or Tuesday after the last national. The supercross test tracks will have been rebuilt or in the process of it and the off-season preparation starts almost immediately. Part of the reason for the early jump on the supercross is that the Japanese OEM’s need a lot of lead-time to order parts.
By Steve Matthes
So after a week or so of riding, a team will often run through some suspension components, transmission gears and valve train parts. Once the riders settle on a preferable setting, the team places the order back to Japan and the wait to get the right parts gets started. Meanwhile, with camshafts and other easily available parts, the testing continues in the offseason, normally it’s every other week for a couple of days. Back in my day the riders would take their bikes and ride on their own but more and more I’m seeing the teams control the process by sending team people out to the track every time the rider gets on the motorcycle. Every lap is timed, the hours ridden are monitored and the practice bike is maintained to perfection. Not all teams do this but more and more are. It’s scary how little the sport as a whole takes time to smell the roses and relax. The championships are over, everyone moves on and there isn’t any real sort of celebration after the super-
cross or motocross contests are over. It’s just onto the next thing and for most (non-MXDN participants) people in the sport, it’s a case of getting back to work. The grind never stops.
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GOPRO BRITISH GRAND PRIX
SILVERSTONE CIRCUIT AUGUST 23-25
Blogs by David Emmett & Neil Morrison, Photos by CormacGP
MotoGP WINNER: ALEX RINS, SUZUKI Moto2 WINNER: AUGUSTO FERNANDEZ, KALEX Moto3 WINNER: MARCOS RAMIREZ, HONDA
The British Grand Prix started in spectacular and fiery fashion…and didn’t back-off. It was a gripping return. Marc Marquez may have been beaten by centimetres for the second race in a row but the champion continues to accelerate to the 2019 crown thanks to his eleventh podium from twelve. Silverstone was about Suzuki again though – after Maverick Viñales triumphed there in 2016 - and that Rins’ special at Woodcote.
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The British Grand Prix at Silverstone was the race that very nearly didn’t happen. The future of Silverstone itself looked in doubt after the debacle of 2018, when the new surface laid in February of that year started to ripple up and develop bumps in extremely inconvenient places, as well as failing to drain adequately. The water was the biggest problem, causing aquaplaning in heavy rain conditions which would not be a problem at other tracks. A bunch of riders crashed on Saturday, Tito Rabat was doubly unlucky, falling early and being hit by Franco Morbidelli’s Honda, shattering his femur. On Sunday, after the rain kept falling and the standing water wouldn’t clear, the race was cancelled, the first time in decades that a Grand Prix didn’t go ahead. The consensus was that Silverstone was unusable as a Grand Prix venue because it was unsafe in the rain. The circuit would only be allowed to the race if all of its problems were fixed. Preferably by resurfacing the whole track again.
Fast forward to 2019, and the entire track has been given a new layer of asphalt. The work has been done more thoroughly than ever before by Tarmac: the company actually named after the stuff used to surface the track. It was carried out under the watchful eye of Jarno Zaffelli’s company Dromo Studio, responsible for some of the great motorcycle race tracks of the world. Despite the complexity of the operation and the thoroughness with which it was approached, various sources say Silverstone got the work done at a surprisingly decent price. Did it pay off? The new tarmac (pun intended) received rave reviews from just about everyone. “I don’t think you’ll speak to another rider today who doesn’t have a smile on his face, because the asphalt is amazing, the grip is amazing,” Jack Miller enthused. Valentino Rossi agreed. “It’s a great pleasure to ride here in Silverstone because they make a very good job.
The new asphalt has good grip but the biggest difference is a lot less bumps, so you can push more and ride the bike more at the limit.” Ironically, the new surface created problems too. “You’re able to ride the track in a different way,” Miller said. “The setup changes because … every track demands something, but if you have really bad grip or a lot of bumps, you have to make a setup for that, to try to improve the biggest limit of the track,” Andrea Dovizioso said. “In the past here, we were struggling to get the tyres warm, absorb the bumps, it was very difficult. Now it’s about using the best potential of the track with much more speed, and try to have the best balance, to use the best potential of the track.” That meant rethinking race lines, and changing bike setup to suit. The new surface restored Silverstone’s position and status as
By David Emmett
well as its potency as a race track: fast, sweeping, challenging, terrifying, rewarding skill and bravery in equal amounts, allowing each bike and each rider to showcase their strengths and compensate for their weaknesses. There were bikes from four different manufacturers in the first five positions on the grid. There were three different bikes on the podium. The pole record and race lap record fell, and the race was 33 seconds faster than the fastest previous edition. Victory was decided by 0.013 seconds, by a thrilling and daring pass on Marc MĂĄrquez by Alex Rins. It was spectacular. And yet only 50,000 people turned up to witness it, despite three days of sun and blistering temperatures. This was only slightly down on 2018, when 54,000 had sat in the rain. Numbers are down from 2015 and 2016, when attendance hit 73,000, and roughly on a par with attendance at Donington Park, when the race was held there. For comparison: 104,000 turned up in Le Mans, 83,000 at Mugello, 91,000 at Barcelona, 105,000 in Assen, 91,000 in Germany, and
85,000 and 87,000 at Brno and Spielberg respectively. You would have thought that a nation of nearly 70 million people and a proud racing history would more willing to attend a MotoGP race. The relatively low attendance is not something I can readily explain, nor, from a cursory glance at the numbers, find a causal relationship with the success of Valentino Rossi or British riders. This, it appears to me, is the greatest threat to the future of the British Grand Prix, whether at Silverstone or elsewhere. Silverstone did everything asked of them to make amends for the disaster of 2018. They invested a lot of money, and vastly improved the track, and still the fans did not come. They never really have the huge numbers other countries manage to assemble. Dorna really wants to hold a Grand Prix in the UK, because of the sport’s history here. But if the fans don’t come, how will anyone be able to afford to organize one?
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THE SCIENCE OF THRILL
L E AT T. C O M
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CAUGHT OUT What a difference three weeks can make. At an overcast Brno at the start of the month Alex Rins broke from the norm and delivered an appraisal that left no one in any doubt of where he really stood. So often a shy, quiet figure when in the glare of the media spotlight, content to close lines of discussion down and keep analysis to a minimum, here he was fired up and ready to deliver a barb that meant headline writers could take the afternoon off. Memories of a heated qualifying session were still fresh: there was, of course, the indignation of watching chief rival and reference Marc Marquez take pole position by the ludicrous margin of two and a half seconds. But what really irked Rins was the reigning champion’s actions when he chased a time midsession. Marquez had messed up turn five, run wide and looked around. Jack Miller and Rins were fast approaching and after letting the Australian through, the #93 shifted back onto the dry line in front of the Suzuki.
“Sincerely he disturbed me,” an uncharacteristically animated Rins admitted. An entertaining on-track exchange followed, culminating in Rins rushing to enter pit lane ahead, pushing Marquez toward a pit lane wall at low speed, forcing the Honda rider to shut off. “I think he has no respect for other riders,” Rins fumed soon after. Soon, when reverting to his native tongue, he would add, “maybe his Moto2 crash [in 2011] made him lost his sight.” If you’re going all in, do it with conviction. But as if fearing a public backlash, Rins soon backtracked, apologising for his remark on Marquez’s vision via Twitter. Marquez barely blinked when his countryman’s comments were put to him. “I’ve won a title or two since then, have I not?” he shrugged. In their first public spat, the elder of the two had come out on top.
Perhaps that was one of the reasons why the outcome of Sunday’s astonishing British Grand Prix was so surprising. In his first year as a certified challenger Rins has endured a setback more than he’d care to remember. Like similar disappointments at Le Mans and the Sachsenring, Rins didn’t dwell on the Brno affair. Unquestionably this was his finest grand prix performance to date. There was no cowering at Marquez’s reputation here. He sprang from the middle of the second row, weighed up his rival and pounced not once, but twice to win the joint fourth closest premier class bow – 0.013s separated them both – in history. Miller paid Rins the highest compliment earlier in the year. “Every time I sit down with the team and make a debrief or a plan for the race, we always say Rins and Valentino [Rossi], they’re going to be there in the race. Doesn’t matter where they qualify. You know they’re going to be there.”
More than Europe’s largest MC store
Perhaps that was another. All weekend, the Suzuki’s pace was strong, an equal of the Movistar Yamahas of Maverick Viñales and Rossi. But Marquez and eventual first corner crasher Fabio Quartararo were a step ahead. But crew chief Jose Manuel Cazeaux works in a wily way, ensuring race readiness is rarely sacrificed for headline grabbing times. Session results can be deceptive. And Rins has yet to truly master the high-pressure, high-stakes art of qualifying. But with the exception of Le Mans and the Red Bull Ring, the 23-year old and Suzuki have honed consistency to a level almost worthy of a title challenge. So it proved at the resurfaced Silverstone. Rins knew a strong start and combative first lap – two of the veritable strengths he has added to his armoury this year – were essential to contending for the leading spots. “I knew before the start of the race that Marquez and Quartararo were the two guys to beat,” Rins later said. “If I was with them in the first part then in the end I was able to have options.”
By Neil Morrison
As it turned out, the man Rins replaced would be his greatest ally here. Marquez recognised Viñales’ own late pace as a concern and thus refused to relent when in front. Silverstone’s new surface offered up grip aplenty but track temperatures of 44 degrees, an abrasive surface and Michelin’s inexperience with it meant rear tyre wear was an issue. Marquez’s fear of Viñales joining in meant tyre management had to be forgotten. As he did at Brno, the strategy was “to make the front group smaller.” From his time in second, Rins could see the Honda’s drive onto the Wellington Straight would be his undoing if he stayed ahead. He was smart to Marquez’s game of letting him by on lap nine and knew he had to hold back for fear of getting caught out late on. “I was riding one lap in front of him,” Rins recalled. “But very quick I let him past because he was much faster than me on the acceleration from turns 14, 16 and 17. I didn’t want to show my weakness.”
It was an inspired move. And it soon became apparent he wasn’t just hanging onto Marquez’s lead on lap 17. A moment on the exit of Club gave the Honda rider breathing space, but come the start of lap 18 and Rins had closed back in. Then he dared where most wouldn’t. And not just once. Rins’ – and the Suzuki’s – ability to conserve the rear tyre has been a strength that was apparent from his rookie campaign. That was decisive as the race lurched toward its nail-biting conclusion. Marquez’s top speed advantage and braking prowess kept him ahead into the critical Brooklands-Luffield section. But his rear tyre was shot. On the final lap Rins was a full 7mph quicker at the apex of Woodcote as Marquez staggered for traction. Twice Rins tried at the final turn, conjuring up images of Barry Sheene, one of Suzuki’s former prodigal sons, 40 years before, by riding around the outside on the penultimate lap. Switching to the inside for the final time brought about one of the moves of the season.
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It was a coolheaded, combative display that would have made Marquez proud. ‘perfect’ and ‘fantastic’ were two words used by Brivio to describe the third Suzuki win on his watch in the aftermath – but not surprising, as experienced engineers at Suzuki are well aware of their rider’s ability. “The way he can take the bike to the limits without ever look like he’s close to it is so impressive,” reckoned Tom O’Kane, crew chief to Sylvain Guintoli, earlier this year. Brivio concurs. “Sometimes he does great things and he makes it look as though it’s easy for him; not easy, but natural,” he said at the end of 2018. For Marquez, Oscar Wilde’s phrase is applicable. To lose one race at the final turn of the final lap may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose two in as many weeks looks like carelessness. Only a rider of genuine class could show the seven-time champ up like this. This was a statement performance. And on this evidence only a fool would bet against Rins producing more of them in the coming months.
Photo by Tony Goldsmith
FEATURE
A DIFFERENT GAME By Adam Wheeler, Photos by Yamaha/Milestone
YAMAHA EXTEND FULL FACTORY TREATMENT TO THE DIGITAL WORLD WITH MOTOGP ESPORTS PUSH: THE WHAT, WHO, WHERE & WHY?!
FEATURE There is a lot of ‘E’ around MotoGP at the moment. The Motorrad Grand Prix Deutschland saw the launch of the very first ‘MotoE’ electric category and the burgeoning e-sports scene around the championship is building revs towards three live events later in the summer. The Monster Energy Yamaha factory team are not being left behind when it comes to the digital incarnation of their sport. Aside from striving to provide the best possible racing equipment and conditions for both Valentino Rossi and Maverick Viñales the multi-world champions have ‘signed’ Lorenzo Daretti (who goes by the digital handle of ‘Trastevere73’) the 2018 MotoGP E-Sport winner as their official representative for ‘virtual’ MotoGP.
“A MISCALCULATION BY ROSSI OR VIÑALES ON THE TRACK CAN RESULT IN A BROKEN BONE OR MUCH WORSE. FOR TRASTEVERE THE RISK MIGHT RUN TO A STRAINED FINGER. BUT THE STAKES ARE WHERE THE REAL AND THE VIRTUAL MotoGP COME A LITTLE CLOSER TOGETHER....” “It’s the beginning of a new path and I am not sure where it will take us twothree years down the line but having seen the development of E-Sports we believe it will take-off and be a sporting marketing phenomenon,” commented Yamaha Motor Racing MD and Team Principal Lin Jarvis “and we wanted to get involved as a brand and as a partner in MotoGP.”
Trastevere73, who is also a keen motorcyclist, was presented at the Jerez for the Gran Premio de España in May where the video game expert was given a MotoGP replica R6, full replica leathers and pride of place among the Yamaha MotoGP structure. “Our first ever ‘factory’ rider,” says Jarvis. “He’s the world champion but is also a real rider and racer on the track.” Using the 2019 version of the MotoGP game on PS4, PC and Xbox that was released in June, Trastevere73 is one of many hopefuls who will have to pass through six timed online challenges (the last culminating at the end of July) whereupon the 72 fastest gamers from across the world head into a Pro Draft. From there the 12 best racers then form the cast list for the three live face-offs to be staged at actual MotoGP Grands Prix; two of those being the dates at Misano in Italy and the finale at Valencia in Spain. MotoGP might have been a little cautious to acknowledge and react to the emergence of e-sports but the relevance and reach of the pastime is not lost on the paddock. “In 2021 there could be up to 6.1 billion plays and there are almost 500 million spectators of e-sports championships,” said Jarvis. “We want to get on the train. Right away we found interest among our partners and other sponsors and for the young their first interaction with MotoGP might be through video games.”
The games Competitive network gaming has been popular since the turn of the century (usually involving first-person shooters) and when the surge around organised
E-sports gathered more momentum when broadcasters realised there was a large audience willing to log-on and watch other people in action. It has since become a major video event with studiobased productions to rival the most popular of Saturday night TV entertainment shows. In some countries e-sports finales have attracted thousands to arenas, with a level of enthusiasm and fandom to rival the real version of the sport or activity. A story on Reuters website earlier this year predicted that revenue from e-sports would top 1 billion dollars in 2019. A world-renowned title like ‘Gran Turismo’ fanned the flames of motorsport competition for PlayStation owners and F1 launched their own ‘F1 eSport’ contest in 2017 – the same year as MotoGP – which now boasts a prize pool of 500,000 dollars. MotoGP had to mobilise to further expose the sport and the brand to a massive and predominantly young demographic. “This is the third year for us and e-sports and it began because of demand from sponsors, partners and teams and it was the start of a long learning process,” said Dorna MD Pau Serracanta. “Last year we tried to make it bigger with a live event and learnt that it was best to have a real championship with points, just like MotoGP. We ended up with 46 million video views and 5.4 million acts of
MotoGP, YAMAHA & ESPORTS
tournaments led to the creation of professionals who would earn a living from their proficiency. The vast improvements in connectivity, console speeds and graphics and the surge of online communities built gaming into a massive lifestyle phenomenon that penetrated the lexicons of everyday life.
FEATURE A ‘new’ rider But what does it mean to be a Pro gamer? “’Training’ is not the same every day but during, and in the build up to a competition it can be quite a lot,” Trastevere73 says. “During a competition it might be four-five hours a day; two hours in the morning and two in the afternoon. On a normal day it might be an hour of practice or not at all. If you play too much then it can be dangerous for your focus and concentration…and your brain. You have to train in the right way.” Daretti cannot stop smiling during his unveiling in the Monster Energy Yamaha presentation at Jerez. “I’m very happy today and it was a dream since I was young to somehow be part of this team,” the 20 year old Italian says. “It might sound strange but there is a connection between the two worlds because of the
engagement with an audience share of 15-24 year olds forming 50% of that.” “Now e-sports is a third ‘property’ for Dorna and the combination of MotoGP and gaming has a potential that is quite surprising,” he adds. Monster Energy Yamaha’s contract with Trastevere73 is the first high-profile move towards having official digital ambassadors. It could soon become a common sight. Factories and teams have employed MotoE racers to tackle the new electric series and a slew of Pro gamers might be next addition to staff rosters to ensure decent representation within MotoGP’s fresh ‘property’.
A miscalculation by Rossi or Viñales on the track can result in a broken bone or much worse. For Lorenzo the risk might run to a strained finger. But the stakes are where the real and the virtual MotoGP come a little closer together. In the same way that the MotoGP stars cannot afford misjudgement or indecision, Trastevere73 also has to perform when it counts. “Competitions are difficult but fortunately in my family they call me ‘The Ice Man’!” he grins. “You need a big ability to focus and not worry about what is going on around you.”
MotoGP, YAMAHA & ESPORTS
concentration needed and you can learn a lot about overtaking and strategy from watching real MotoGP races. The emotion when you are playing can be more or less the same as when you are watching.”
FEATURE “I’ve always used a PS4 but in competition I use a PC because it is for all the platforms and you can use a PS or Xbox joystick or controller,” he says of his ‘tools. “The PC has more power so we use that.”
MotoGP 2019 and the VR46 Academy When it comes to hardware and software (away from the multi-million dollar motorcycles) MotoGP is helped by the very thorough and impressive ‘MotoGP 2019’. Italian developers Milestone have exceeded their previous editions of the official MotoGP game thanks to radically new ‘artificial intelligence’; in other words the behaviour of computer-controlled rivals in the single player mode. “The new AI is important and the result of three years work with an external company for ‘machine learning’,” says Milestone Marketing Manager Andrea Loiudice. “It will be revelatory in gaming. Only a few strategy games have something similar. Through data the game learns by itself and has not been programmed by a human. It is much faster and much more ‘human’ after moving through 4 phases of learning behaviour.” A ‘Historic’ mode of old riders and circuits has been fleshed out and the graphics have been further hiked in terms of spec and being able to use the weighty crunching resources of a console such as the PS4. There are other upgrades, and Milestone have augmented the online capabilities for MotoGP 2019. “A big investment in a dedicated server to improve lag,” Loiudice adds. “I’m convinced this is the best MotoGP game ever and it has improved in every aspect. The graphics
E-sports is not some distant and speculative side project by the Yamaha team. Daretti has been fully integrated into the Monza-based set-up. He has made various promotional appearances and has been riding and playing at Rossi’s ‘Ranch’ training facility. Trastevere73 is well known among the VR46 Academy, especially the ‘senior’ head of the bunch. “Yeah, I grew up with the PlayStation but I am old!” jokes Rossi. “I like video games a lot but the strongest in the Academy is Pecco [Bagnaia, Pramac Ducati rider] he is the fastest and always faster than me but I will try to make some training with Trastevere and get some advice.” Bagnaia smiles knowingly when asked about his gaming ability. “We make competitions [in the VR46 Academy]…but not with MotoGP because the others are not very fast! So we are fighting on Gran Turismo.”
“I always try the MotoGP games and really like them. I think the latest version has made a good step because it’s very different. I’m a fan of Trastevere73 and I think he can win again. I make time attacks like them [Pro players] and online I can win some races but if I see the laps that Trastevere makes then it is too fast; more than a second faster and it is amazing how quickly they go. Maybe F1 is a step forward as a game but MotoGP has grown a lot in the last year and the tracks are very similar. You can use the tyres, make tests and change the riding style. The career mode is very nice.” Promotion opportunities and novelties are nothing new for Monster Energy Yamaha and one of MotoGP’s best-established and most prolific teams. But this time they have pushed ‘Start’ on a curious venture that hovers outside of the traditional grand prix racing model. “For my generation it was Space Invaders but the technology now is unbelievable,” says Jarvis. “We sell motorcycles at the end of the day and we wanted to bridge the real world with the digital and this seemed a good way to do it.”
MotoGP, YAMAHA & ESPORTS
and physics are better and we have made a lot of effort with that.”
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FEATURE
CRAFAR’S
THE FORMER GRAND PRIX WINNER TALKS REINVENTION IN MotoGP AND HOW RIDERS CAN POSSIBLE CHALLENGE MARC MARQUEZ By Adam Wheeler, Photos by CormacGP/Polarity Photo & www.motogp.com
CRAFT W
e last interviewed Simon Crafar back in 2001. He was dismantling a rear shock in the back of the Ohlins suspension truck after Jose Luis Cardoso’s Yamaha had barrelled through the gravel at a Yamaha test around the Circuit de Catalunya and seemed to thrive in the new technical role far from the pressures and expectations of being at the front of a race garage. “I was never a ‘difficult’ rider. I always got on well with my mechanics and team,” he said then.
“So making the adjustment to become a team member with a different role to play was never that tricky. I toyed with the idea of working for the media, but as a rider I didn’t enjoy the publicity side of the job. I’ve done some commentary before but generally felt uncomfortable being in the limelight or being the centre of attention. I always preferred to be one of the faces in the background rather than the main man out front who everyone is looking at and everyone wants a part of. After I made the decision to stop I then wanted to improve myself, to educate myself, learn something new and discover a new field. This was perfect.’
Fast forward to 2019 and Crafar is again a well-known face in the grand prix paddock. That initial reluctance to be near a camera resurfaced and prompted the arrival of a complex that had to be conquered but he has become an appreciated and erudite part of Dorna and MotoGP’s media team. It has been a long road to this point; where people are interested and reacting to the 50 year old’s words on elite level racing again. He suffered serious injury while at the Red Bull Romaniacs hard enduro event after establishing a new career strand as an informative instructor and tutor for fast motorcycling, forming part of the Motovudu video and book offerings on the subject.
FEATURE WorldSBK and Grand Prix loom large on his CV but Simon will always be best remembered due to that sensational and comprehensive exploitation of Dunlop tyre rubber to become the faster man in the world on two wheels at the 1998 British Grand Prix at Donington Park. Now, he’s once more calling the shots on the biggest stage. We asked him to talk us through the second journey to the top… From riding to Ohlins to teaching to disaster to publishing… I was never any good at school. I was always daydreaming about motorbikes
and getting out of school. By the time I left at fifteen I wasn’t at a high academic level. It was only after school and when I started travelling for racing that I started reading books and got better so I would never had believed that I could teach anything or be able to publish a couple of books! The thing about trying different jobs is how much you learn and then what can come up. Steve Plater, out of the blue, asked if I wanted to come and join them to teach on track. That was in 2008 and I thought ‘I’m getting paid to ride a motorbike again, great’ but the thing that really surprised me was that I was good at putting it into words so that other people would
know what to do: it becomes really rewarding when they go well and enjoy themselves. I then had the accident at the Red Bull Romaniacs and it took eleven months to walk again which meant a lot of time to think. I wasn’t proud of my time after racing. Basically I was lost and I wanted to find another way, and I was passionate about the teaching side and I knew about motorcycles. It did take about three years of teaching to learn how to do it effectively! I would watch somebody out on track, we’d come back in and say “don’t do it like that it’s dangerous” and they’d reply “well, how do you do it?” and I found that I had to go back on track and take notes of
It’s not always so easy to explain something that is almost second-nature… It’s not until you start to teach that you really break everything down. Once I had it, then I thought ‘I need to put it somewhere’ and that’s where the book came from. I needed help with that because there’s the obvious difference between the spoken and written word. Thanks to Julian Ryder and Guy Davies I was able to do it. Sometimes they would put a topic into words that read better but then it didn’t make so much sense to
a rider any more. The original English might be dodgy but it had to be relatable for a rider! Being in front of camera was another craft to learn… For sure it wasn’t easy. I’d watch a lot of it back sometimes and think ‘oh dear…’ I didn’t have any training and it would have helped a lot! I didn’t know any better and I should have. People seemed happy with the content though. So while I should have invested in it more, I didn’t. The MotoGP opportunity with Dorna came up. Decision time… I did a video for Dorna about the qualifying session at Assen in 1998 between Mick
Doohan and I. It was one of a set of historic videos. I helped them with that and apparently I made a good impression with how passionate I was about the riding and how that came across. They put my name on a list for a future position and when Dylan [Grey, Pitlane reporter & presenter] left my name popped up. They gave me a call. My only reservation was being away from the family. That was the only reason I left the job with Ohlins. I loved that job and the Ohlins guys were great. But I was away too much from what-werethen little kids. Now they have reached fifteen and eighteen and I checked with them and my wife and they said “you gotta do it, it’s an opportunity”
SIMON CRAFAR
everything I was doing and put it into words. It took quite a long time to get everything down in the right way.
FEATURE however I didn’t know what I was getting into. Everything around me is so professional and I hadn’t had any training so I struggled. When I say ‘training’ I mean that I had experience but it was about preparing for sessions, and the more prepared you are the better you can get things across. Also nerves create mistakes and not being able to think about the next step. So you need experience and preparation to calm the nerves so your brain can work. In the beginning it was a nightmare and I didn’t enjoy it at all. Anyway I got through that period and I’m really enjoying it now, especially thanks to the guys I am working with. But I would not want to go through that first six months again! Reporting was the hardest thing I’ve done… Without exaggeration. I just turned 50 so I was committing to a new career at the age of 49. I knew I had knowledge of the sport and the paddock but it was a totally different job. I knew nothing about journalism and still know only little. It was so hard, and took me back to turning up in this paddock in 1993 and that feeling of being totally out of your depth. I am proud to have survived. I’m a stubborn b*****d and I think you have to be as a racer but at the same time I’m proud of what we are talking about. I knew the paddock, I just wanted to
learn how to talk about it. I think I will look forward to my fourth year when I am settled and relaxed and have made the majority of my mistakes. I was worried about the travelling aspect again because I think that is something very tough if you are newly married or have young kids but my marriage is great and I’ve been with my wife for twentyfour years and the kids are bigger and kinda doing their own thing anyway. The travel has actually been easier than expected. In Malaysia last year I saw workmates blowing-up because they had been away from home too long but I didn’t feel that. I’m at a stage of life where my work life is a bit more important than my hobbies and that’s not always the way when you are in your thirties. I get so much pleasure out of my work and since my accident I focussed on family and the career. Horror stories and important moments… The one with Lin [Jarvis, YMR MD] was pretty good, and maybe he regretted that [informing Crafar on air during warm-up that the Petronas SRT riders for 2019 would be Fabio Quartararo and Franco Morbidelli for 2019] but a bad one would be the Qatar test at the beginning for ‘After the Flag’. I was told less that two hours before we were on air that Steve Day [commentator] had been snowed-in and
could not travel from the UK so it was just me and Matt [Birt]. I’d been interviewed many times of course but had never stood live in front of a camera for a broadcast. When you are being interviewed you just talk about yourself - so it is easy - but this was about getting across everything that was happening around Losail. Also the nerves. I got put in that position and just went for it, but couldn’t hear that well through the headphones and had Matt’s voice, the production crew’s voice as well as my own. It made it so hard. That factor and a bunch of other things from 2018 made me realise that the job is about handling all these elements and then everything going on around you. You can never expect everything to be right but you have to learn how to cope and make it as good as you can, otherwise you don’t have any value, certainly as part of a team. At the beginning I really was like a rabbit in headlights. You have to keep relaxed and know your content. When you manage to pull it off, well, I didn’t imagine it would be such a rush. It is like you have just stepped off your bike! I don’t think I have nailed the job yet but it’s very satisfying when you think some of it might have gone well. I’m still working on it.
SIMON CRAFAR People talk all the time about Marc now. It’s tough to beat someone like that, and I know well having faced Mick Doohan… There are certain tracks where Marc Marquez is simply amazing as a motorcyclist. Especially when there is low grip. He thrives in conditions where others are cautious and if you are on one of ‘his’ tracks then you are in trouble. As a rider you have to do your job the very best that you can – and I know it sounds obvious – but that’s how I’d look at it if I was Jack Miller, Dovi whoever.
If you analyse and push in every area of your work then there is a chance of putting pressure on him and the chance of a mistake. Also he might get a bad start and you might be able to hold him off. That’s how you must look at it. Everyone’s got a different style and Marc has some amazing front end slides…and on that note when the following generation see a sportsman doing something then they’ll all be trying! That’s how it’s always worked. I remember when we went to Imola. I’d never been there and during practice Mick
came past and – I’m sure it was on purpose – lit-it-up across the brow of a hill at the highest point – and I didn’t even know where I was going. It blew my mind. I thought ‘oh man, he’s on another level’ and it was disheartening! People have different styles and it doesn’t mean one is more unbeatable than the other. It’s about using that style to the maximum.
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PRODUCTS
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FEATURE
Takes a genius to explain a genius By BT, Photos by CormacGP & www.motogp.com
FEATURE
It’s late afternoon in the Race Direction office on Friday at the Circuit De Catalunya. Moto2 practice has ended an hour ago, and Freddie Spencer is preparing for his next meeting. His job is now to review on-track action and – if necessary - dish out penalties in the Moto3, Moto2 and MotoGP classes, acting as a referee, and allowing race director Mike Webb to get along with his other assignments. But even though Spencer is a busy man he is able to devote twenty minutes of his time to the analysis of another phenomenon. Along with data acquisition engineer and former crew-chief Peter Bom, we sat with the triple world champion (that 250cc and 500cc double
It seems one of Marc’s best attributes is being able to change his riding style and/or his racing strategy according to the circumstances such as tyre allocation or track layout? I haven’t been trackside this year but I’ve been watching Marc for many years, and one of his strengths and skills is his ability to adapt to the situation. That is such a positive and resourceful ability to have! That makes a difference, because the conditions are ever-changing: tyre grip levels, racing situations…and he basically has no weakness. Also what could easily be seen as something that he changes is really more the fact that he doesn’t get affected as much. In Marc’s very first session in the rain in Le Mans in 2013 he figured it out immediately. He was short shifting to get the grip outside of the Dunlop curve and so on. Were you a little bit like that? Oh, absolutely! I always say that ever since I was a kid, I would look outside of just doing laps or going fast. I always seem to be able to understand how adapting to situations would benefit me. Dirt-tracking: so many nights, so many races. You start out and there
is a lot of grip on the first practice and by the time you get to the heat races three hours later, the track is completely different. You go from being able to use the whole track to a very narrow groove. With a lot of leaning angle initially and by the end of the night you could barely lean it over because it’s so slippery. Marc does that every lap, and I could too. When I won in Silverstone in ‘85 in the pouring rain, in three or four laps, I was sixteen seconds ahead on the 500. It’s just because I was able to pick up on the situation. And certainly, I see that with Marc. There is also a rumour in the paddock - I don’t know if there is any truth in it - but it seems that Marc’s settings, with the bike sitting a lot on the rear, is impossible for other riders. What do you make of this? Kenny Roberts [senior] would ride with his engine very far back in the chassis because being a dirt-tracker, he really liked to have a lot of grip at the back. With the three cylinders, my bike [NS 500R] worked somewhat like that. I liked a lot of initial grip at a lot of lean angle because then I would manipulate it. Marc does that so well. On corner entry he can adjust his sliding and the pitch of the slide to rotate the bike. The more you can rotate it early in the
SPENCER ON MARQUEZ
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he careers of Freddie Spencer and Marc Marquez may be 30 years apart but they are two Grand Prix motorcycle racing pioneers in their own right. Now that both of them work in the same paddock Spencer as the FIM Chief of Stewards – it was a great an opportunity to ask the American for an analysis of what the current HRC wonder is getting so right.
win in 1985 remains a thing of unrepeatable beauty) to examine the skills of the best motorcycle racer of the planet.
FEATURE
turn, the more room you gonna have to accelerate. It’s a simple, simple thing, bike position wise. And you can take away lean angle sooner cause you don’t have to make as much of a turn towards the apex. The bike is already pointing to the exit. Out of four Honda riders, Taka Nakagami is doing well on last year’s chassis but Jorge Lorenzo and Cal Crutchlow seem to have had difficulties to adapt. Marquez is not a magician. He’s just doing everything better than everyone else…
Well he also has the skill to be able to manipulate the bike. That’s what I’m saying. And again, I can relate it back to me on the three cylinder. Not everyone could get to turn. It didn’t have a lot of front feel. I could use the rear of the bike to pivot it sooner and then it took some of that front load. It didn’t put that much expectation on the front to finish the corner. The thing is: that is a skill. Whatever you want to call it. Being a magician or whatever. But that is a skill. And absolutely, Marc does that exceptionally well
SPENCER ON MARQUEZ
Marc also has the intelligence to put it together and that makes him special… At this level everybody has talent. Just to get here. Some of them are unique. Some very specific. They are aggressive at certain tracks and in certain situations. And then you go to the next level and you have the consistently good or great riders that are competitive pretty much everywhere. On certain given days they are also pretty good at race management. And then the truly great riders where talent and work ethic enables them to know exactly what they can do. They figure out what the motorcycle needs and then, they have the ability to know what the other riders do. When you combine all that with the cleverness, which is what makes a rider special, it almost looks easy to some degree. The fact of consistently being able to do it in every situation I’ve always said is the best combination. Then there is belief. One of the great things I love about motorcycling is that it is the greatest combination of the practical and the methodical. Understanding how to apply your work ethic, your ability and the other riders and their weaknesses. I knew when I was racing what lap other riders would push on and what lap I could get them. You understand all that.
FEATURE
Combined with an incredible belief of skill makes the feeling part of it. What do you see as the biggest difference between your time and now? In motorcycling, to be a great rider, you have to trust that feeling. What makes Marc so good - and what I had too - is anticipate what’s gonna happen and believe and commit before the turn to get the speed into the turn. The ability - on the application lean angle - to trust. Even though you’re leaning the bike over the level of grip that there will be. It’s your plan and that’s how you can slide the bike. You put the bike into position forty metres before you start sliding. It was the same requirements when I was racing. How do you get the bike to slide? We don’t get on the brakes or anything. In fact, when you can do it right, the only thing that you do is apply lean angle and drift the bike. But you have to trust that
SPENCER ON MARQUEZ way to do it before it actually happens! Otherwise, when you try to slide the bike into the corner and you’re missing speed and lean angle then you can’t because it’s too late to have both. That’s belief and trust in your ability, your perception and commitment. That is a technique, and one of the great things we’re able to do, at that speed and level. What the riders have to do today is adjust to the electronics, and their part in the process of what happens. And I [usually] tell the story of when I did the Fireblade launch a couple of years ago in Portimao. I’m riding around
the track, Stefan Bradl is there, Tito (Rabat) is there, we do some laps together and then Nicky (Hayden) came. So I started to ride with journalists there. I go in, roll off the throttle a little bit and go back on it at a certain section. But with Tito and the guys, it’s basically flat out. So you go in, you go on throttle. The reason I can go flat out there is the electronics. So I have to trust that whenever the rear starts to come round, it settles and resettles the front too. It doesn’t transfer all that weight to the front. It took me three or four days riding around there because
I don’t ride at that level anymore. But it’s a perfect example of something that couldn’t have happened on a standard bike back in my day. Certainly not with the tyres we had at the time. There would have been a lot more movement. On the Fireblade, it was easy. So cool, but it is something you have to be willing to trust. And it’s basically something out of your control. And most riders, like Marc, they don’t know any different. Valentino had to make that transition, because he came from a 500. When electronics started to become more proactive - on the 2001 bike (RC211V), or
FEATURE the 2002 bike that him and I debuted at Motegi – with just a few laps I ran, then coming on the front straight, the rear broke loose and traction control kicked in: it was more re-active then. If you took me out of my era and put me there now then that’s the part of it that would feel most difference. All that control that you had to have, versus now, you have to trust the electronics to do something. I don’t say that all electronics make things easy. No. It’s just that moment when you have to trust it. The amount of technology you find on standard sportsbikes these days is amazing… That allows good MotoGP riders to come from different categories. They have very different riding styles. Everybody is under a microscope now. You can see the difference between the riders so well, even from one track to another. Ergonomics is the main thing now. Lorenzo started it all, and everybody’s on it. They are asking ‘how is the bike supporting me?’ And it comes basically because of two reasons: first of all, the G forces are higher than in your era and they’ve got more gripAbsolutely.
Did you ever think of ergonomics much when you were racing and maybe some of the advantages it might bring? I always focused on that. Even though I was not so much of a braker initially. But I would trail-brake really deep into the corner. My whole thing was all about getting the bike in a position to accelerate. My strength was mid-corner and exit speed and a lot of the so-called top speed advantage came from there. Back in those days, we didn’t have data acquisition and all that. But we had radar guns and I’d have them at the end of the straight to measure the gain off the corner (leading to that straight). So that is about positioning and keeping the upper-body relaxed. I understood that it was about lower body stability. That’s why they are really working on the tanks today - Jorge obviously - because for him it’s about mid-corner speed. So you were already doing it already in your time? We’re talking about how you can grab the tank and how your arms are not overstressed by braking force… I was doing that [putting sticky stuff on the tank to grip the legs and knees] to keep my lower body stable and my upper body relaxed. I’m not a counter-steering guy. I was all about feeling that front
Lastly, how was the experience of coming from the U.S. and jumping straight into the HRC/Japanese environment? The guy who helped me to make that transition was Erv (Kanemoto, who went on to become his crew chief in 250 and 500 GPs). We started in ‘78, and my dad helped me and talked to Erv. He said “my son’s pretty good, could you watch him? We hooked up ‘78, my dad stepped away in ’79. So Erv was acting as a filter between you and the Japanese mechanics…? Exactly. Then I sat with American Honda, got a couple of introductions and by 1980, when we started developing the three cylinder, I was ready to go. Even though I was only 19 in 81. I turned 20 in December 81 and Erv and I were ready (for their first season in 500 GP Racing). HRC was just starting, all the engineers. It was such a great time!
SPENCER ON MARQUEZ
and getting that front to turn in and that’s where we really worked. That’s one of the reasons why we got the NSR moving in the right direction so quickly. I really got them to work about the flex (of the chassis) to make it turn better.
PRODUCTS www.ktm-motohall.com
ktm motohall A number of years in the making (and thinking), KTM recently opened their state-of-theart ‘Motohall’ a short distance from the main factory in Mattighofen. The facility is a mix of museum, exhibition, learning centre, shop, restaurant and ‘hub’ for KTM’s story, products and activities. It has been created after comprehensive study of similar offerings by other brands and with an emphasis on interaction that should engage all members of the family: from kids eager to sit and twist the throttle of a dirt bike, KTM riders wanting to know more about the company’s heritage,
race fans who want to see some of the scope of the 300+ FIM World Championship earned by the firm and budding technicians who will want to know how the factory has expanded and how techniques like 3D printing have influenced motorcycle manufacture. The Motohall is open Wednesday to Sunday, a family ticket costs 25 euros, adult entry is 10 and under 14s are free. Food can be ordered in The Garage restaurant and there is parking on site. We’ll bring a full review of the Motohall experience in a future issue.
Photos thanks to: www.ktm.blog.com
www.foxracing.com
PRODUCTS
fox Fox have taken a ‘split decision’ approach to their new versions of the Flexair and 360 race wear which they claim ‘the Flexair gear combo continues to deliver the highest level of breathable mobility with strategic venting and premium 4 way stretch materials. The Flexair pant sees the most drastic improvements with a totally updated waist system, new saddle material and strategic placement of stretch & rigid materials to achieve perfect function on the bike.’ Flexair is now five years on the market and since the launch was aimed squarely at offering casual riders the same type of gear performance found at the highest levels of motocross. It’s all associated with airflow, fit and stretch, Fox have taken stock of the feedback both positive and negative to shape the lines accordingly and have stated ‘the all-new construction of Flexair also introduces a drop in price for 2020’. The 360 has been orientated more towards durability with the use of technical terms like ‘TruMotion zonal stretch materials’. As ever Fox retain that singular, market-leading design look as well.
SBK BLOG
EVOLUTION OR REVOLUTION WorldSBK got back to some form of action at the weekend with a two-day test in Portimao. I really do feel the extra long summer break is still one of the most detrimental aspects of the series at the moment but it would seem to be just a reflection of the fact that no one wants to hold a race in late July or August. It was always a tradition under the previous Italian ‘administration’ that most of August was cleared in the calendar as the country all but closes down for the month. However, since Dorna took control the slot in the calendar at the end of July/beginning of August has disappeared. Some say it is to avoid a clash of dates with the Suzuka 8Hr race but that never caused a problem before and the Bol D’or or Le Mans endurance races often clash with WorldSBK events during the season. I have said it previously that it may be time to look at running the WorldSBK season from September to July, like EWC and have a fuller calendar over the winter months of the northern hemisphere.
What it means at present is that this test, and the race at Portimao, seem like a distinctly separate part of the season. Many of the mechanics and riders had been doing nothing since 14 July. I had to cover the Suzuka 8Hrs race so it was August 3 before I stopped and got to take a holiday with my family. One week by the sea was not enough as it always takes a day or two to properly wind down and then, before you know it, you are heading home. Last week was a busy one as well as I was working from Monday till Wednesday, in Spain, and then flew home and back out to Faro on Friday. Whilst some of those in the paddock at the weekend were getting back into the swing of things after six weeks, I felt I hadn’t really been away from it.
WorldSBK testing in the middle of the season is always a bit of a strange affair. Because of the homologation rules for the production bikes there is really nothing new to test. Maybe a new fork or swing arm but other than that it is really more of a Pirelli development test. The sole tyre supplier for the series will bring some tyres with new compounds and/or construction and get each appointed factory team to test them back to back. Otherwise the bikes and the riders are all the same as they were in February. It can seem a bit of a futile exercise photographing the same riders, on the same bikes, at a track where we tested in February, and will race in two weeks time, but if you speak to the riders you will get a different story.
More than Europe’s largest MC store
The lack of in-season testing means that days like those can be the only time for the team to do meaningful, consecutive tests on chassis set up and electronic strategies. The last outing for the teams was back in May in Misano and on both those days it rained, so useful track time was limited. It was something Ten Kate Racing team manager Kervin Bos pointed out when I spoke to him. Having started the season mid way through, this was actually the first time that they had been able to have one full dry day of work, let alone two together. They, and Loris Baz, were really pleased with the information gathered and progress they had made testing the chassis set up, suspension, tyres, electronics and maybe even a new coffee machine, which was the first chance they had had since getting the bikes at the workshop in April/May. It was interesting that Kervin felt coming to Portimao and getting those two days felt that only now they could relax a little and start to focus on results. They genuinely want to see Baz on the podium before the end of the season and feel they are heading in the right direction.
By Graeme Brown
Does anyone fancy betting against a French tricolour being hoisted above the podium in Magny Cours? The interest in the test from those outside the paddock was less than negligible what with sharing the same weekend as the MotoGP race at Silverstone. It was noticeable in that myself and Gordon Ritchie were the only photographer and journalist present. We were joined by Dorna’s photographer and film crew, GSP Media who were filming for Kawasaki and Ian Wheeler, the Yamaha press officer. At one stage there were more curious tourists in the press office than anyone working. From a geek point of view I took the chance to do some testing of my own. When I started photographing motorsport in the mid 1990’s I was using Nikon F4 film cameras and manual focus lenses. This had been the go-to Pro kit for a number of years, but a revolution took place at the end of the 90’s when Canon introduced their EOS system. For the first time there was a viable option for an autofocus camera system
that worked at sporting events. It was still a film camera but it was so good that many photographers, including me, swapped from Nikon to Canon. We then entered the digital era not long after the turn of the century and in 2003 I stopped shooting film at races and only generated digital images. I was fortunate that Canon, along with Kodak, had developed the best digital system so there was no need to swap too much of my kit, just a couple of new camera bodies. Things stayed pretty much the same for seven or eight years until the introduction of the full frame sensor. Before, the image sensor on the camera was smaller than the traditional 35mm size and as a result the images were magnified. It meant that a 600mm lens actually had a focal length of around 800mm. With ‘full’ frame 35mm sensors, Nikon jumped ahead. They completely redesigned their Autofocus system and the D3 and D4 bodies were the best on the market. I was at a point where my kit needed replaced and so I swapped again, back to Nikon.
SBK BLOG
Now we are in the throws of another revolution: mirrorless cameras. These have no traditional shutter in the camera just an image sensor that sees through the lens all the time. It is technology derived from video cameras and allows the body itself to be smaller and lighter as it removes most of the moving parts. It’s noticeable that the revolution has been driven by electronics companies such as Sony and Panasonic, and former film manufacturer Fuji. The traditional camera companies of Nikon and Canon have been late to the party. There are a few motorsport photographers who are now using, and singing the praises, of the Sony system. I have a couple of Fuji cameras and this time last year I tried out their pro kit at the corresponding WorldSBK test in Portimao. My conclusion was that it wasn’t up to the job and I have stuck with my Nikon kit since. This weekend however I had the chance to try the Sony. It took half an hour or so to get used to the ergonomics and the various electronic systems on the camera but after I had worked it out I
shot away quiet happily and have to be fair and say that I was really impressed. I didn’t use the Nikon kit at all and produced all the shots that I wanted to and to the standard that I would expect. I am not sure I am just ready to get rid of all my Nikon gear and jump ship but the mirrorless digital revolution is clearly knocking down the barricades of traditional photography and when the time comes to renew my cameras this will be a truly viable option. So a two day ‘test’ ends up being valuable after all.
TEST
DEFYING SANDS OF TIME MOTO GUZZI LOOK TO KEEP CURRENT Words by Roland Brown Photos by Moto Guzzi/Andy Saunders
TEST
MOTO
Guzzi was so inundated with orders for the V85TT earlier this year that the firm’s old factory on the banks of Lake Lecco in northern Italy struggled to keep up. Such enthusiasm for a Guzzi adventure bike was unprecedented, given that the firm’s previous Stelvio 1200 made little impact and the more recent V7 Stornello, powered by a 744cc V-twin engine, was produced in tiny numbers. Perhaps one reason for the 853cc newcomer’s positive reception is that it combines the Stornello’s retro styling with a good chunk of the bigger, 1151cc Stelvio’s performance. Mid-sized adventure bikes are all the rage this year, with KTM’s 790 Adventure and Yamaha’s 700 Ténéré among the stars. The V85TT, with its chunky old-school look, also taps into the seam mined by Scrambler models from firms including BMW, Ducati and Triumph. Its twin headlamps and wide bars sit above the engine’s sticking-out aircooled cylinders. A high-level front mudguard, long-travel suspension and wirespoked wheels (with a 19in diameter front) give a suitably tough off-road image. The single shock is diagonally mounted on the right, opposite a high-level silencer. The V85TT’s pair of round headlights echo those of the Quota, an ungainly dual-purpose Guzzi that sank without trace in the early Nineties, when models like this were still called trail bikes. But the TT – whose initials stand for Tutto Terreno, Italian for All Terrain – is a more refined machine that works best as a pleasant and fairly versatile roadster.
It manages to have plenty of the Italian marque’s traditional quirky character, despite being distinctly more modern than it looks. That trademark aircooled, transverse V-twin engine, for example, shares its capacity with the previous V9 unit that powered Bobber and Roamer roadsters, and still opens its valves with pushrods. But a long list of updates including titanium inlet valves reduces weight and friction considerably, and increases peak output from 54bhp to a much more useful 79bhp. The chassis is also new, based on a tubular steel frame that uses the engine as a stressed member.
MOTO GUZZI V85TT
TEST
Suspension gives a fairly generous 170mm of travel at each end. Tyres are Metzeler’s road-biased Tourance Next for the singlecolour TT, and Michelin’s more off-road oriented Anakee Adventure for the twotone model, which also has a red frame, suede seat cover and slightly higher price (£11,099 to £10,899 in the UK). Some of the TT’s modern touches are clear immediately you throw a leg over a seat which, at 830mm, is only moderately high by adventure standards. There’s a USB socket alongside the colourful, if slightly small, TFT screen; and a choice of three riding modes (Road, Rain and Off-road), which automatically change the ABS and traction control settings. Thankfully Guzzi’s engineers haven’t made the mistake of chasing top-end power at the expense of lower-rev performance as they initially did with the Stelvio. The TT’s power delivery is flexible and well-controlled even in the sporty Road, and there’s plenty of urge through the midrange. The bike rumbles forward with enthusiasm, accelerating at an entertaining if not arm-straining rate, and cruising at 80mphplus with a reasonably long-legged feel, short of the top speed of about 120mph. The revised six-speed gearbox changes very sweetly, albeit without the option of a quick-shifter. The traditional shaft final drive, unique among mid-capacity adventure bikes, doesn’t intrude. The V85TT is respectably comfortable and practical, too. Its riding position is roomy, the screen and hand-guards deflect breeze usefully, and the seat is broad and fairly well padded. The big, 23-litre tank and fuel-efficient engine combine to give a range of well over 200 miles.
Roadgoing handling is very good, blending respectably light steering with stability, despite the big front wheel and generous suspension travel. Big bumps occasionally kick through the seat with spine-jarring force, but the Kayaba units generally do a sound job. The TT is over 20kg lighter than Guzzi’s old Stelvio, and notably more manageable. Brembo front discs and four-piston radial calipers mean there’s no shortage of stopping power. The reduced weight will be especially helpful off-road, where on slippery surfaces the bike will inevitably limited by its tyres, as well as its size – just like most rivals. At least the TT has more, and better controlled, suspension travel than some, as well as a sturdy aluminium bash-plate, to help cope with some gentle dirt-road adventuring. Potentially with a much longer and truly challenging trip, too, if the bike is kitted out from an accessories list that includes crash-bars and aluminium or plastic luggage, as well as Bluetooth smartphone integration.
MOTO GUZZI V85TT
TEST
MOTO GUZZI V85TT WORLDSBK POR
“ROADGOING HANDLING IS VERY GOOD, BLENDING RESPECTABLY LIGHT STEERING WITH STABILITY, DESPITE THE BIG FRONT WHEEL AND GENEROUS SUSPENSION TRAVEL. BIG BUMPS OCCASIONALLY KICK THROUGH THE SEAT WITH SPINE-JARRING FORCE, BUT THE KAYABA UNITS GENERALLY DO A SOUND JOB...”
TEST That’s a suitably contrasting selection of extras, from a bike that blends old and new in original and engaging fashion. Moto Guzzi’s presence in the adventure bike market might have been muted until now but the V85TT works sufficiently well, in its gentle, fairly relaxed way, that the enthusiasm for it makes plenty of sense.
MOTO GUZZI V85TT
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Photo by Ray Archer
ON TRACK OFF ROAD
‘On-track Off-road’ is a free, monthly publication for the screen focussed on bringing the latest perspectives on events, blogs and some of the very finest photography from the three worlds of MXGP, the AMA Motocross and Supercross series’, MotoGP, WorldSBK as well as the latest bike tests. ‘On-track Off-road’ will be published online at www.ontrackoffroad.com on the last Tuesday of the month. To receive an email notification that a new issue available with a brief description of each edition’s contents simply enter an address in the box provided on the homepage. All email addresses will be kept strictly confidential and only used for purposes connected with OTOR. Adam Wheeler Editor and MXGP/MotoGP correspondent Ray Archer Photographer Steve Matthes AMA MX and SX correspondent Cormac Ryan-Meenan MotoGP Photographer www.cormacgp.com David Emmett MotoGP Blogger Neil Morrison MotoGP Blogger & Feature writer Matthew Roberts Blogger Graeme Brown WSB Blogger and Photographer Roland Brown Tester Núria Garcia Cover Design Gabi Álvarez Web developer Hosting FireThumb7 - www.firethumb7.co.uk Thanks to www.mototribu.com PHOTO CREDITS Ray Archer, CormacGP, Monster Energy, GeeBee Images, KTM Blog, www.motogp.com, Simon Cudby, Yamaha Cover shot: The MX2 World Champion by Ray Archer This publication took a lot of time and effort to put together so please respect it! Nothing in this publication can be reproduced in whole or part without the written permission of the editorial team. For more information please visit www.ontrackoffroad.com and click ‘Contact us’.