On-Track Off-Road issue 194 by otormag

Dakar

TO STIR THE DUST At almost the same time that Anaheim 1 will be underway in California, the 42nd Dakar Rally – and the first to take place in Asia – will be launching from Jeddah. Once more full-strength factory efforts from KTM, Husqvarna, Yamaha and Honda will give extra credence to this popular race event. In this issue we were given a slither of insight into some of the demands of the 8000km two-week trek with Red Bull KTM’ Sam Sunderland: can the first ever British winner of the competition beat his teammates and a gathering of other potent rivals to rule again and bring the Austrians their nineteenth consecutive success? Photo by KTM/Sebas Romero

STARTING OVER

This photo was shot at the 2019 Oakland round of AMA SX, and the seventeen round stampede of supercross fixtures begins again in just over two weeks time. Red Bull KTMâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Cooper Webb wears the 450SX crown but who will be his nearest challengers? The Kawasakis of Tomac and Cianciarulo? The Huskys of Anderson or Osborne? Or will Ken Roczen remain healthy enough to finally bag the main prize? Of course A1 is bound to throw-up the traditional anomaly but itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s all rush from there on Photo by James Lissimore

MXGP

WAITING GAME Jeffrey Herlings was one of the first to post a story on Instagram in solidarity for Red Bull KTM teammate Jorge Prado after the news that the eighteen year old had broken his left femur during a training accident in Italy last week. Herlings knows only too well the pain and misery of snapping the hardest bone in the human body (and his 2014 championship loss is still one of the most dramatic Grand Prix episodes in recent memory). The recovery period for Pradoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most serious injury yet begins in earnest but â&#x20AC;&#x201C; perhaps thankfully - the pressure and spotlight will have dimmed appropriately for his delayed MXGP debut in 2020. Photo by Ray Archer

SOLD AT FINER DEALERS WORLDWIDE | TROYLEEDESIGNS.COM | @TLD_MOTO

FEATURE

ECRETS OF THE WORLDâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S TOUGHEST RACE (ON THE PENS AND TRAILS WITH SAM SUNDERLAND) By Adam Wheeler. Photos by Riki Rocket

By Adam Wheeler, Photos by Ray Archer/KTM

FEATURE

2019

FIM Cross Country Rallies World Champion Sam Sunderland throttles his Red Bull KTM Factory Rally 450 past my stationary enduro bike. I’ve stopped and parked to one side of a sunny Catalan trail a short distance outside the town of Igualada, west of Barcelona. I’d like to say I’m waiting for the Brit to catch up…but the truth is that he’s been helping a media colleague and I’ve been free to explore the path with my own version of a ‘roadbook’ mounted on top of the KTM 450 EXC-F: just one of the latest and smallest insights into what an athlete like Sunderland has to deal with in his day job. The 30 year old drifts around the following corner and disappears. He swiftly becomes nothing but an echo and a settling plume of dust. In 2017 Sunderland became the first British winner of the fierce Dakar Rally, an annual two-week 9000km chase that began in 1978 and is now heading to its third continent after a decade exploring the peaks, depths and vast topography of South America. In a matter of weeks, the factory Red Bull KTM rider will be in Saudi Arabia as one of the favourites for the contest that has claimed lives, limbs, machinery and souls.

The amiable and articulate athlete from Poole in Dorset, England (not too far from British MXGP venue Matterley Basin) is in the final phases of preparation but has offered the day to show some of the intricacies of rally riding; a discipline that can see more than 500km covered in one stage and often at speeds topping 100mph while taking navigational references from the paper scroll - the roadbook - mounted in a rudimentary plastic box above the bike’s handlebars. Sunderland not only has to be fast, talented and brave but also perceptive, analytical and mechanically ‘aware’. Not to mention boasting a freakish level of stamina and determination. Rally competitors are arguably the definition of complete motorcyclists. “As a rally rider I think you need to be really good at reading new terrain,” he says earlier in the day and before we’ve found the trails. “Imagine: 100% of the time it’s all new. Every time we come to a blind rise we need to anticipate if it is going left or going right. Does it look a bit gnarly? Can you see a little rain rut coming in from the edge that might be on the other side? You have to pick-up everything and almost have a sixth sense for it. You question everything while riding as fast and as safely as you can.”

“Now there is KTM, Husqvarna, GasGas, as well as Yamaha and Honda and they all have navigation trainers and big budgets where they will go to similar places to train,” he says. “The level has gone up and up, and it’s good! I like it. I like that it progresses. If you want to win Dakar you need to be more than perfect. You cannot afford to make navigation mistakes because fewer and fewer guys do things like miss a waypoint whereas in the past it was quite common.” The capability to throw a motorcycle quickly through sand, mud, rocks, dirt, water is just one facet of the job. Sunderland needs to be fit enough for twelve-hour stints in the saddle and cannot lose precious minutes from his overall race time through the stages. In the last three editions of

the Dakar the winning margin after two weeks of utter endurance (and great personal risk across a distance that twice covers the breadth of the United States) has been 32, 16 and just 9 minutes. We’ve given a glimpse into the physical side of his training regime. The day starts with a gruelling cross-fit circuit of rowing, lifts, squats and power-cycling stints. Sunderland completes the cycle, although it’s reassuring to see that it’s no cinch for him either. He wanders over when we’re still trying to catch our breath and, surprisingly, explains that intense gym sessions are not his basis of training for rally. “I think there is some relativity between training in the nature and rally,” he reveals. “Rally is about how fast you can read what’s in front of you and when I’m running in the mountains you have to study everywhere; where you are putting your feet and keep your focus. Compare that to running on a treadmill in the gym where you put your brain in a box and survive how long you want. Outside on foot or a bicycle you are dealing with the elements, you have to keep that concentration and always watch for one rock that can catch you out.”

DAKAR SECRETS WITH SAM SUNDERLAND

Sunderland also has to contend with the Dakar at a time when the opposition has never been stronger with multi-million euro efforts from other manufacturers vying for the top prize. Stage wins and overall success makes the evening news in many countries, especially southern Europe and the Benelux region. It’s a big business for brands that relish the extreme conditions for motorcycle development as much as marketing exposure.

FEATURE “When you want to start doing some specific things like getting your back a bit stronger – because you can have a sore back after a few days riding – then it’s beneficial to get in the gym,” he adds. “If you feel that your legs are not strong enough for some of the impacts then you can work on that. Honestly though, 9095% of my work for fitness is done outside. I like working in the rain and the snow and suffering a bit.” Suffering seems to be a common theme of chasing Dakar glory, but Sunderland’s preparation is not solely based on becoming a beefcake on a bike. “There is a big mental side to it with the navigation and trying to understand your strategy for the next days as well as the timings while you’re on the bike and on the move,” he says. “I like doing cognitive work while training.” He seems meticulous, as you’d expect from an athlete of his ilk. “There are a lot of variables in rally…they also change! There are always factors that you can control but a lot you can’t. So, for the ones where you have some influence then you need to have them perfect such as hydration packs, food, prep the night before a stage and constant routines. These are factors that should be beyond question.”

Sunderland is now somewhat seasoned at the Dakar and a challenge he first affronted as a 22 year old. His debut spluttered to a halt in 2013 due to a mechanical problem while two broken wrists delayed his second attempt. “The Dakar. First time: It was huge,” he says, puffing out his cheeks. “I was a motocrosser, and I got into rally because I was living in Dubai. The first world championship round I did was a five day rally in Abu Dhabi. I was young and raced as hard as I could every single kilometre. When you arrive to something like the Dakar you have to adjust that mentality to do the long-game. The sport has changed so much, now it is so fast.” The workshop of Red Bull KTM team manager and former Dakar podium-finisher Jordi Viladoms is located in Igualada and just around the corner from the gym. We walk in and past the immaculate form of the KTM Rally 450 that took Sunderland to the ’19 world title – an international five round mini series

of short rallies - and will soon be shipped to the Middle East. “I feel like I know my Rally bike really well, all its in-andouts, how it reacts and works under braking and traction. I don’t feel I miss much if I am not riding it,” he comments by way of explanation for how much bike mileage enters his training programme. Sunderland hones his feeling between throttle, wheels and dirt thanks to copious laps on a motocross bike and will soon embark on a ten-day riding ‘bootcamp’ in Dubai as the last surge of work before the Dakar. Viladoms enters the room. He concurs with Sunderland’s view on the evolution of the

Dakar. “For the old generation it was not ‘flat-out’ every day. Many times a group would come together at some point. You were all pushing but we’d arrive together, like cyclists, and nobody would push extra because everyone knew it would be so hard to breakaway. It was more about survival. Now from the first kilometre it is full-gas and 100% every minute until someone makes a mistake.” In the workshop Sunderland gives us the next insight to the demands of the Dakar. On the table before us is a scroll of paper. It’s a roadbook for a 35km course around Igualada. The roll spills out across the floor as we are given three

DAKAR SECRETS WITH SAM SUNDERLAND

“Once you arrive to the middle of the desert and a place like Merzouga in Morocco it’s not like you can just pop to the stock and buy what you need,” he stresses. “A lot of our stuff is quite specific. You just try to be two steps in front to lighten the workload.”

FEATURE

different coloured pens and have to make sense of a series of numbers, arrows, symbols and French acronyms. The paper is easily ten yards in length. Sunderland smiles; sometimes he needs to deal with a roadbook for more than 500km. “It is so big that it won’t fit in the bike, so you have to cut it in two…and make sure you don’t leave the second half in the camp.” Dakar competitors are given the roadbook before a stage and then colour co-ordinate or ‘paint’ the series of instructions for fast reference. “Everybody has their own system: green might mean ‘turn’, danger is ‘pink’, important information is ‘orange’,” he says. “The worse ones can take up to four hours of marking and work and you have to be superfocussed. We’re racing on the limit and if you don’t paint a danger 3 because you missed it through being tired or you were talking to your friend then it can be a really bad day. Painting is part of the accumulative fatigue. The roadbook is like your bible when you are racing. I don’t want anyone to paint for me; it’s my life out there. I want that on my shoulders.”

Good navigation is nigh-on essential for the Dakar. “The desert can be such a lonely place sometimes when you are lost,” laments Sunderland who first tackled the Dakar in 2011. It is also an element of racing in which that teams invest heavily. They train and use specialists. “Every team has a Google Maps guy. When we get the roadbook for a 500km stage then we plot it out on Google Earth and have a look. We know more or less where we are going but the stages are too long. You’ll remember so little when you start to set out.” But what are the basic mechanics of Dakar stage route-finding? “We have a GPS on the bike - but that is normally ‘closed’ - so we navigate through roadbook and kilometres and CAP [compass],” Sunderland says. “As soon as you get inside the radius of a waypoint marker [WPM] then it opens and guides you in with an arrow for the last 800m and then you validate it. So hitting a WPM is quite easy but in the last three-four years there have been more waypoint controls, WPCs, which has only a 300m radius and it doesn’t open, it just changes a small number in the GPS: so, you don’t know at which point you catch the ‘area’ before your

to a certain point and then take another CAP reading and look for another peak. That’s an ideal world.” The explanation sounds tiring already. “In a long stage with a lot of ‘off-piste’ then there can be up to a hundred waypoints,” he adds. “Dunes are so up-anddown and they look so similar. If you think you are near where you should be and there is no ‘opening’ on your dash then that’s the worst feeling ever, and you just want to start praying to every single god that there is.” next turn. You might be on the borderline of catching the next one through some horrendous terrain and it increases your chances of getting lost.” “You end up looking down and thinking ‘s**t, why hasn’t it validated?’ and you start to do a figure of eight looking for it. Then you start going backwards. The goal is to always ride with a good CAP. WPC to WPC is really scary because you don’t know where you are starting from. And there is no way to know. You just have to hope you have done good. Quite often you’ll use references. If you know you have a good CAP and you look left and see a big dune peak then I claim it as my reference and push like hell until I get

Frequently images of the Dakar show riders bunched within view of each other: surely through the sand there are tracks of rivals to follow? “The first guy that sets off in a stage, especially on sand, is at a huge disadvantage, in general, because he’s the first one to come across any situation and wherever he goes he leaves a little black line as a reference,” Sunderland admits. “But now the level is so high that there are many guys that can open a stage and almost be uncatchable. There is also a lot of strategy involved. There are some riders who are better than others at navigation and you can trust them more, so

DAKAR SECRETS WITH SAM SUNDERLAND

“YOU REDISCOVER HOW FAR YOU CAN GO TO SURVIVE [IN COMPETITION] AND IT IS NOT NICE BUT SOMETIMES YOU END UP IN THOSE POSITIONS BECAUSE YOU HAVE MESSED-UP OR MADE A MISTAKE. QUITE OFTEN YOU SEE WHAT YOU ARE MADE OF...”

FEATURE you see their tracks and just gas it. That’s why it is important to know who is opening the stage and to know how much confidence you can have.” “Sometimes people try and do sneaky things, like riding the wrong way and confusing the guys behind…but then it gets a bit tricky,” he grins. “The first guy opening a stage has the responsibility of the whole race on his shoulders in some way. Sometimes he can get lost. So, you constantly have to check and make decisions. If there are ten days in Dakar and stage four is sand and is really difficult then nobody wants to win day three!”

“I REMEMBER ONE DAKAR THERE WAS A REALLY LONG STAGE AND I MADE A NAVIGATION ERROR. I HAD BEEN RACING FOR SEVEN HOURS AND IT WAS FIFTY DEGREES. I HAD NO WATER AND I WAS BEYOND DESTROYED. I WAS SHIVERING DESPITE THE TEMPERATURE...” Sunderland has tasted the utter dejection of losing his way among a complicated process of hitting waypoint markers and controls. “In my first Dakar with KTM I won Stage 1, and Stage 2 was 470km and I was doing super-good but in the last 30ks of the stage I got lost for two hours. I was devastated. I arrived like a drunk person. You are dehydrated and you are mentally fatigued because you’ve been riding many hours and you are not as mentally alert as you should be. The urgency to try and get to the finish and not let the whole stage go downhill means you make rash decisions.”

Painted and coloured between warnings and directions my roadbook is wound into place through the box on the KTM and with the November sun working wonders, we start to ride. Concentrating on the road and path while electronically spooling the roadbook with my left thumb - thanks to a small switch under the handlebar - and interpreting the notes is a mind-boggling feat of multi-tasking. After about 10km it’s possible to get a bit of a rhythm. I spend less time looking down and become quicker with the winding. This swift blast is the equivalent of a run to the local shop for Sunderland. Conquering tiredness and fighting his own performance demons is another component of the Dakar. Thankfully it is an experience we don’t have to taste but our riding companion – who snapped his femur rallying less than three months before the 2016 edition and had to watch it from his sofa - is able to elucidate. “The team can do as much as they can and be absolutely perfect but from something like 3am until 4pm it’s all on you: ‘there’s your bike, have a good day.’ You cannot make any mistakes. You get so tired. The accumulative side is horrendous. You start slacking.” “The first three days always seem really hard, then once you get past day four – and as long as nothing has happened like picking up a small injury or suffering a drama – then you kinda get in the swing of it,” he shrugs. “Often it is the tough moments where you find out a lot about yourself,” he reflects. “I remember one Dakar there was a really long stage and I made a navigation error quite close to the finish. I had been racing for seven hours and it was fifty degrees. I had no water left in my CamelPak and

“In the end it’s about risk management because you are going so fast. How much do you want to push the boundaries and miss a moment of danger? Once you are in it then you are in a state of flow and focus where it is something you don’t have to think about. It’s really nice.” Despite the lengthy, drawn-out nature of Rally, in reality the stresses coupled with the pressure, expectation and spotlight for a rider of Sunderland’s status makes for a dizzying, intense and fraught existence. Then, of course racing is not the same as leading. “When I was leading the Dakar I found it even more difficult because I was trying to ‘manage’,” he says. “It’s funny, when you are second then all you are thinking about is how you can win and how you can get to the front. But as soon as you

DAKAR SECRETS WITH SAM SUNDERLAND

I was beyond destroyed. I was shivering despite the temperature and felt confused. I wasn’t really sure what was going on. In those moments you are not really sure what is good for you in a way. I could have stopped and called for help, but you don’t do that…it is the very last resort for a rider. I think in those moments you rediscover how far you can go to survive [in competition] and it is not nice but sometimes you end up in those positions because you have messedup or made a mistake. Quite often you see what you are made of. In Rally you are against the elements: It can be really hot, really cold, really high. You can be 5000m up in Bolivia and it’s -2 and then suddenly in 45 degrees in the Dunes in Argentina. You definitely pass through some rough moments that make you look at life quite differently in some senses.”

FEATURE are leading you start thinking ‘how do I not lose this?’ All these ideas come into your head of ‘this or that could happen’. It’s difficult then to stay on-point with the mental side and not have any doubts or worries. You are on your own all day. In the Bivouac you have your team and team manager and others around you that can reassure you. We human, not robots. There is this race that you have worked so much for and the team and manufacturer have put in so many hours and budget and effort. You feel pressure and responsibility and if you do something stupid then it’s ‘on you’.” “I remember feeling really tired when I was leading Dakar and that was from day five to fourteen; I was so emotionally drained. It was like I had this ‘baby’ I was trying to protect from danger. And everyone is watching you and people are looking out for the smallest mistake. If you enter the

time boards too early then bang! A penalty. If your mechanic hands you a water outside of the zone then it’s ‘outside assistance’. You try not to worry but you are in protection mode and any little mistake feels so much bigger than perhaps it really is.” Returning to base for lunch and Sunderland is chipper. He’s in good shape and Red Bull KTM are clearly the leading team at Dakar. His ’17 success is one of eighteen in a row now for the Austrians. Saudi Arabia is a new landscape for a race that becomes the centre of attention in the motorcycle racing community for a fortnight in January. “It’s a clean slate for everyone,” he enthuses. “I feel that South America has been discovered. This one will be tough on the bikes, tough physically, tough mentally and I hear we’ll have really long stages – 500-odd kilometres some days - it’s a good thing!”

So far, the recently overhauled ‘second generation’ of Fox’s Legion Enduro riding gear is some of the best I’ve worn on a dirt bike. The Americans’ released the initial Cordura-laced kit three years ago and pegged it towards the off-road user seeking extra resistant material but with the performance properties of motocross and more towards their featherlight FlexAir. The first Legion collection was impressive. It was light for the durability it offered (I remember scraping my way through trees and foliage at Dave Thorpe’s Honda riding school in Wales and was surprised by the lack of marks or deformation on the jersey arms in particular). The 2020 kit I used in Igualada is a step further towards FlexAir. It weighs barely anything, is still heavily mixed with Cordura and the fitting is sportier and less rigid compared to the first lines due to Fox’s TruMotion 4-way stretch material. I’ll admit to loving the original blue/ orange colourway – especially when combined with the same colours in the Instinct boot – and the 2020 black/grey jacket, shirt, pant and glove combo was too conservative if admirably neutral. The new Fluid tech V3 completed the look and even if the fit felt very narrow at first then the ventilation properties of the helmet were noticeably good; it was sunny but as the day neared dusk then the cooler air meant that our final blast back to the Viladoms workshop on the road was pretty chilly.

I was lucky enough to use the best goggles on the market - Scott’s Prospect – and a tinted lens with TruView technology meant it was a breeze to keep an eye on the loose gravel along the faster stretches of the trail. There wasn’t a single doubt about wearing any other eyewear; even Sam’s Oakley AirBrakes looked less capable than the Prospect.

DAKAR SECRETS WITH SAM SUNDERLAND

ALL THE GEAR....

PRODUCTS

www.leatt.com

leatt Not content with neck brace innovation, Leatt have applied their creative and pioneering R&D to helmets and knee braces in the last half a decade and have now produced the 5.5 Flexlock boot. The product has been three years in the making (meaning that Leatt are now a headto-toe brand) and prioritises comfort and protection; to the degree that the Flexlock is proven to provide 35% reduction of forces to the knee and 37% to the ankle. To find out how we asked Dr Chris Leatt himself. “The thing about motocross boots is that they are traditionally really rigid; the idea is that the more rigid the boot the more injuries it will prevent,” the South African says. “We looked at all the AMA accident statistics and lower leg injuries, knee injuries, hip injuries and the design of boots. We took one of every boot on the market and we went to a military test centre where they test seats for armoured vehicles when they go over IEDs. It is very high-impact velocity and involves a plate being accelerated upwards to the dummy in the seat. You can position the foot so that it flexes or inverts or has rapid deceleration. We put the products through a test and measured all the forces in the ankle and the forces in the knee. We compiled all the data and the problem we saw is that the

foot is not allowed to escape. The more rigid the boot then everything you are putting into the bottom of the boot will be dampened by the sole and will be transmitted up the leg.” “So, we ‘chopped out’ the middle of the boot just above the ankle and lo-and-behold fantastic results. It reduced the forces better than anything else on the market. That was the thesis: to make a boot so the foot can escape the initial impact but not be allowed to go as far as producing an inversion injury or allowing the ankle to twist in or out. Now we are left with a boot like the C-Frame knee brace that allowed you to change gears, feel the bike and it transmits far less force.” Other features include 3D-shaped impact foam over ankles, heel grip ankle design for stability when riding on your toes, low-profile toe-box for easy gear shifting, a DualZone hardness sole, an extended foot peg riding zone for arch and on-the-toes riding style, steel shank reinforcement, CE certified, a cool slideLock system, auto-locking, one-way sliding closure and forged aluminum, overlocking function buckles. The inner liner is made from breathable mesh 3D with antislip reinforcement for zero heel lift and the 5.5 Flexlock comes in three colour options. Expect to pay around 330 pounds in the UK.

FEATURE

UNQUENCHABLE THIRST AN AUDIENCE WITH MARC MARQUEZ ON THE PERSISTENCE OF OBSESSION By Adam Wheeler. Photos by Polarity Photo/CormacGP

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uesday. Day one of the 2019 EICMA motorcycle show. The late afternoon flight from Milan to Barcelona is somewhat star-studded with a smattering of jetlagged MotoGP riders having fulfilled promotional duties on the way back from Sepang and the Shell Grand Prix of Malaysia the previous weekend. In the seat directly behind me sits the 2019 World Champion.

He is showing friend and trainer/coach/fellow motocrosser Jose Luis Martinez a video on his iPhone of what sound like a dirt bike at full rasp. I turn around and that familiar smile-and-laugh pops up. “Motos!” he grins. For a 26 year old with so much success, so much acclaim, arguably the second biggest profile as a motorcycle racer and all the demands on his time (and physique, it would turn out, as barely

three weeks later and he’d be heading for his second set of shoulder surgery in a year) Marc Marquez is still the archetype ‘boy with a toy’. To the best of my knowledge (several interviews, occasional casual run-ins and numerous debriefs and press conferences) what-you-see is what-you-get with Marc Marquez. There is not too much mystery. The same rabid outward profile of riding aggression, pursuit and desperation

Marc knows how much power he has inside MotoGP, HRC and when it comes to contract numbers, but has also sampled some of the bitter taste that comes at the other end of the sporting spectrum (slithers of doubt, unpopularity due to his ability, being the adversary and the ‘other rider that is not Rossi’). For all the brash bravado and confidence there has also been signs of sensitivity (the various olive branches and conciliation to Rossi) and a desire to avoid confrontation. “THE CHAMPIONSHIPS AND THE STATISTICS ARE, OF COURSE, THE MOST IMPORTANT THING BUT I’D LIKE THAT THE PEOPLE REMEMBER ME – OR I GIVE THE IMAGE – AS A GUY WHO GIVES EVERYTHING ON THE RACETRACK.” His willingness to engage fans (I’m never seen him blast by a patient, waiting group in the MotoGP paddock) and to be aware of the impact and reach he has on peers, younger riders and his still-growing army of admirers is also unusual for an athlete of his stature and all the requirements of his time and energy. As we’ve written in these pages previously, Marc is a force of nature and physics as a sportsman and also a careful strategist and cultivator of

a winning team ethic at Honda, with a group of loyal and family-esque relationships around him in the garage. Toward the end of a term where he pushed his numbers up to eight world championships (six in seven years in MotoGP) and 92 victories in 12 years of Grands Prix (at least one a campaign for the past ten) and has banked a top three championship bonus every season since 2010 (not forgetting seven BMWs as the best MotoGP qualifier), Marc is treading a plateau. “I think this one is the best season for him in MotoGP together with 2014,” commented Valentino Rossi; the Italian speaking openly about his toughest and sometimes most antagonistic rival after spats in Argentina (two occasions), Holland and of course Malaysia easily recalled. “From the first season he was very fast but now he is in a moment of his career where he is still very young but also he has a lot of experience so he has reached the top level. After that I think the marriage and the feeling with the bike [helps explain]. It looks like that now he will win a lot of races but [he] always arrives in the top two…I think that this is very close to the perfect season [for him].”

MARC MARQUEZ & WINNING

for spoils is no shade of an act. He also takes the other side of the business lightly. That easyto-laugh demeanour – that has been parodied on Catalan daytime radio – is natural, and a consequence of a feted, decorated but partially grounded individual who is wholly committed to getting what he wants and is wholly accustomed to achieving it. Why wouldn’t he be joyful?

FEATURE How deep is his thirst to keep going, to keep striving? To continue to usurp Andrea Dovisiozo? To relish the last lap last corners slap-downs to the youthful affrontery by Fabio Quartararo and dish-out repetitive reminders to fellow Catalan Maverick Viñales that he still does not have the package to renew their rivalry from junior racetracks? Marquez evidently revels in victory. He now has 56 from 127 in MotoGP and all with Honda. He works and takes risks to retain the hairline-margin of superiority necessary in the series - in spite of the physical costs – and a vein of dominance that eventually caused a second teammate to crumble and curtail a career. Is his yearning to win and create a legacy still parched? It’s a theme that we sit down to talk about before the Grand Prix in Sepang. Time is tight but Marquez chats animatedly in English and devotes his full attention what is one of a habitual glut of media requests every weekend. He makes continual eye contact under the Red Bull cap; semigrinning expression in place. The answers are direct and enthusiastic, occasionally with those chiselled hands and arms rising to add gesture to his comments.

think any more about it. I try to learn from mistakes, but I also don’t [over] think what we are doing. Is that a big compliment for you? The way you are moving the boundaries of this sport…? The championships and the statistics are, of course, the most important thing but I’d like that the people remember me – or I give the image – as a guy who gives everything on the racetrack. Whether I lose or I win; every year I give what I have. The way to ride and the passion I give to bikes.

To want to do more than winning takes a lot of energy… Energy and a lot of priority. You need to make decisions all the time, especially in your private life. Many things. My main priority in life is my job. My passion is motorbikes and that means many times I have to say no to things and stay focussed. It is all about priorities: if you really want something then you have to say ‘no’ to many other things.

MARC MARQUEZ & WINNING

Do you feel like you are changing the game? Do you see the videos and sometimes think ‘is that me?’ Yeah! Two-three years ago, after some saves and comments from people about good things I was doing, it was strange. I did think ‘is that me?’ but more in the way of ‘can I do that again? Can I make it work next season? Am I just lucky?’ I had those question marks. Over the last three years we have always been quite competitive and always with the same riding style and philosophy and the way to win and approach the championship. Now I don’t

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MARC MARQUEZ & WINNING “THE BEST FUEL I HAVE IN MY BODY IS THE TASTE OF VICTORY. I SEE ALL THE EFFORT I MAKE DURING THE SEASON HAS A VERY GOOD CONVERSION: THIS IS THE BEST THING. PEOPLE SOMETIMES SAY ‘YOU WIN MANY TIMES…’ [MAKES A GESTURE OF BOREDOM] BUT THE FEELING IS REALLY THE OPPOSITE. I WANT MORE, MORE AND MORE...”

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Can it also be frustrating that in this social media fifteensecond-age people remember you for the dances, saves and other antics and not 27 laps of amazing performance…? Yeah: I had that a Le Mans this year. I did an incredible save on Friday but had an incredible race on Sunday and led every lap. I wasn’t even on the TV actually because I was at the front alone and there was no interest. After the weekend people were speaking more

about the save on Friday than the win on Sunday! That’s the way. I like that though. I love motocross and there are riders in that sport that win a lot but maybe their style is not ‘visual’. I think people really remember the visual stuff. Perhaps the problem with victory is that the memory is very much in the short-term present, especially when you win so much… If I struggle next year and

crash a lot and an opponent wins then what we did this year is quickly forgotten. I think people will remember more things like what we did in Qualification in the Czech Republic [taking a risk with slick

What degree of satisfaction or motivation do you get from key moments like that? I like to review and to check. I get proud and satisfied…but in the opposite way when I lose some of these battles it takes energy away. If you win and do the things well then I like that…but I find that I just want to arrive to the next ‘moment’. If you lose then you also lose more time to analyse what is

going on. I am proud of what I do but I do worry when something is not moving in a good way.

With mounting success does life get a bit harder every year? Judging by your Instagram account you never stop or are rarely at home… This is something that I had to learn about, and it is another type of experience. A few years ago I was doing something every single day. Now we do a calendar with my manager and my people and, for example, with the sponsor we put X days [for promotion] and we won’t do more than these days. Of course, if there is a very, very good opportunity then we will think about it but otherwise we have 3040 days for events and if we want to take another sponsor or compromise then we need to take something else out. In the end the personal life

is also important. So is taking a break. Three years ago I did not have a holiday at all. I was doing motocross races and dirt track events and it is my passion but I [later] saw that I didn’t start the following

season in the best way, with not the best energy. Again, you need to be able to say ‘no’. That can be hard because I like motocross, bicycle races and my friends are there doing it, but having a break is important. People ask me ‘is Marquez really like the guy we see?’ I say ‘yes, it doesn’t seem an act’ but there must be some part of it that’s image controlled… [shakes head] I’m like this because, in the end, I cannot act…and I think if you tried to play that game then sooner or later you will show your real face. I do try to put a limit though. Many times I’ve had people asking if they can make a report inside my house or follow me while I train. I’m always thankful but that’s [beyond] the limit. I do not want to show everything to the people. Are you really an animal for victory? Off the track you don’t carry that hard, ‘killer’ edge… Even when I was a kid, if I did not win on Sunday then we did not achieve our target. If I did not win then I was crying. If I lost a game on the PlayStation I was also crying! [pause] It is something I can control a lot more inside me now. I can understand that sometimes you need to lose some battles to win the war,

MARC MARQUEZ & WINNING

tyres on damp track in Q2] this year or the last corner in Thailand [beating Quartararo to take the championship with a win…two days after a massive practice crash]. It was important to win the title there but to take a lot of risk and overtake in the last corner? This is a different thing.

FEATURE the final battle. Everybody is waiting now for when I will lose or if I am beaten in a race. The way that some rivals celebrate beating me, like in Austria or UK this year, they do it in a championship mode! That’s good news. It doesn’t make me angry. It shows me that it was difficult for them to beat me. To always want to do that must, again, be tiring. Maybe it is something that will wane as you get older… Could be, could be. The moment will arrive when someone beats me [regularly]. I know that you can go up-upup in your career but then you get to a point where it starts to go down. That downhill can be fast or slow. You have to make it part of your job to have a slow downhill! You have to be aware that when this moment comes it is time to change the mentality because if not then you’ll be lucky to get through that period. You talk about passion but how long do you think that will last? How long will it keep you right at the peak of this sport and profession… It’s a lifestyle. Perhaps this is not the best word but it’s like a ‘drug’. In my holiday time I know I can be three weeks near a beach if I wanted to but I know this won’t make me happy. I won’t be relaxed. One

week is OK but by the second week I’ll need a bike, a ride. I will get to the first MotoGP test after the winter and while it is good to be riding [a Grand Prix bike] again I need to be racing. I joke sometimes with my mechanics that, for me, we can remove Friday [practice] from a Grand Prix! I want to go direct to Saturday because qualification starts to get the adrenaline running and then the biggest shot comes on Sunday. You and that Repsol Honda are a part of the furniture in MotoGP. What could possibly be next? Continue! The best fuel I have in my body is the taste of victory. I see all the effort I make during the season has a very good conversion: this is the best thing. People sometimes say ‘you win many times…’ [makes a gesture of boredom] but the feeling is really the opposite. I want more, more and more. When you win then you can do many events, lots of training and many kilometres on the bicycle and you don’t get ‘tired’. When you have hard moments then that’s where you feel it. It is different. The body is somehow happy when you win. Anything you want to do seems like a good idea! It is difficult to understand. But I feel good in Honda and my target is to continue here. And to continue winning.

MARC MARQUEZ & WINNING

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GP BEST NOLAN PORTUGUESE ROUND PORTIMAO · SEPTEMBER 15-16 · Rnd 10 of 13 Race one winner: Jonathan Rea, Kawasaki Race two winner: Jonathan Rea, Kawasaki

Blog by Graeme Brown, Photos by GeeBee Images

Blogs by David Emmett & Neil Morrison. Photos by CormacGP

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MotoGP PICS WORLDSBK POR

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MotoGP PICS

MOTOGP BLOG

WATCH OUT FOR MotoGP’S UNDERD So much happened at the MotoGP tests at Valencia and Jerez in November that it’s hard to know where to start. There was Marc Marquez’ heavy crash which saw his team advance plans for surgery on his right shoulder – the same surgery he had on his left joint at the end of 2018, though the right limb was nowhere near as bad as his left. Ducati and Yamaha brought new frames, which both seemed to work. The Ducati GP20 prototype turned much better than the GP19 did, finally addressing the bike’s biggest weakness. The Yamaha engine had a few more horsepower, and a lot more traction, giving it some of what the M1, Valentino Rossi and Maverick Viñales all craved. Both Suzukis were quick, Joan Mir continuing to catch Alex Rins, and appearing as though he will pose a severe challenge to his teammate next year. The battle for supremacy in 2020 started with no clear winners, which should mean we have a good year of racing.

Amidst all the excitement of Marquez’ shoulder, brother Alex’s debut on the Honda RC213V, shiny new frames on the Yamaha and more, events at KTM and Aprilia slipped under the radar. There is a lot happening at both factories though the changes at KTM are far more visible than at Aprilia. But, at heart, from where they will make gains is the same for both KTM and Aprilia: essentially the methodology of developing a racing motorcycle has changed, and that is what is making the difference. KTM brought two new frames to the tests, focussing on the first, a smaller step, at Valencia and a second, a much bigger step, at Jerez. The new frame looked rather different: instead of the circular steel tubes for the main part, the RC16 had a more beamlike tube, using a shape technically known as a ‘stadium’ (for the obvious reason that it looks like a sporting arena: two parallel lines with a semicircle at each end).

KTM had helpfully colour-coded the frames for us: the orange one was the MK1 version, the black one MK2. At least, that’s what they told us, as that is the kind of trick factories commonly use to distract attention from the bits they don’t want you to look at. The new chassis is the result of the way KTM changed their testing programme for 2019. With the arrival of Dani Pedrosa, the Austrian factory could streamline and focus their work much better. Mika Kallio has been testing suspension and durability, while Pedrosa concentrated on sifting the wheat from the chaff, assembling packages of parts to hand over to the factory riders to try at official tests. That process has eliminated a lot of the tedious work of trying to figure which combinations of frames, swingarms, suspension linkages, top yokes etc are most effective. That was badly needed, especially as Pol Espargaro has effectively had to carry the final stages of the entire testing

DOGS IN 2020 programme on his shoulders this year. The new frame package was a big improvement, making the RC16 lighter, easier to turn, and providing a bit more grip. “The chassis feels very good but I think the room to play with it is much better,” Pol Espargaro said. “It is much, much lighter and we are gaining a lot. There are only benefits.” After days of hearing “some positives, some negatives” from riders, such clear praise points to real progress for KTM. There were no new parts for Aprilia at either Valencia or Jerez, and yet Aleix Espargaro was remarkably upbeat. Sure, he would have to wait until Sepang for a chance to actually ride the new RS-GP, but the direction Aprilia had taken was very positive. “I don’t know if it looks very different from the outside, but inside it’s very different,” Espargaro explained, based on the drawings he had seen. “Part of the engine is already very different. The chassis is different, the electronics, the position of the rider.

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The bike is a small difference everywhere but everywhere is different.” The new bike is the result of radical changes instigated by new Aprilia Racing CEO Massimo Rivola. New engine and aerodynamics engineers have been hired, and the way the organisation works is very different. Communication has been vastly improved – inside the garage, the riders are working with headsets to talk to all the engineers at the same time, preventing the game of ‘Telephone’ which happens as information is passed down the chain. “The garage is ten times more professional than in the other seasons,” Espargaro said. “This year more engineers have arrived than in the last ten years in Aprilia!” The proof of the Aprilia pudding will be in the eating, of course, but after years of straggling behind, the Noale factory finally looks to be catching up. If MotoGP looked competitive in 2019, just wait until 2020.

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THE YEAR THAT WAS...

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At the close of another exceptional year of action, On Track Off Road assesses some of the names and moments that will ensure 2019 lives long in the memory. Man of the Year: Fabio Quartararo Never mind the fact he came into the premier class with just one win, four podiums and three pole positions to his name (Marc Marquez had notched up 26, 39 and 28 by that time), or the fact he now acts as a reference for the limits to which Yamaha’s M1 can be taken: Quartararo was comfortably the pick of the 2019 rookies and the man that pushed Marquez hardest in a dizzying campaign that exceeded all expectations. Pure natural talent, the grid’s most neutral bike and the ideal working environment (the combo of the new and the experienced at Petronas Yamaha SRT) propelled him to five podiums and six poles. Performances at Jerez, Misano and the Chang International Circuit left us all with the feeling he could be here to stay. And ‘us all’ includes some of the all-time greats. Wayne Rainey labelled his “pure speed” as “just electrifying – he’s got a feel for the bike, and you can see

riding gives him pure joy.” Best of all was no one saw this coming.

sport on his own terms in Valencia.

Surprise of the Year: Jorge Lorenzo If a host of preseason predictions were to be believed, 2019 would signal the start of a SennaProst in-house rivalry at Repsol Honda’s self-billed ‘Dream Team’. The problem was one side of the garage never got close. A combination of niggling injuries, a lack of motivation and an inability to gel with the tough-to-handle RC213V kept Lorenzo out of the top ten prior to his horror smash at Assen. Then a host of ignominies followed: chasing a move out of Honda, which came to the public’s attention in August; attempting to convince us all finishing 35 seconds behind a race winner represented a good result; and coming home last and a chastening 66 seconds off his team-mate in Australia. Thankfully Jorge didn’t prolong the suffering, leaving the

Race of the Year: Phillip Island, MotoGP We got it. Finally. After nearly three years of billing there was a Marquez-Viñales showdown to match the hype. And boy was it worth the wait. Having broken away from a chaotic leading group, Marquez hung in the Yamaha’s slipstream for the majority of the race, planning a late attack. To the surprise of no one, he managed it. But we didn’t foresee Viñales crashing out trying. How glorious to see a rider doing anything to avoid sharing a podium with his great rival. Throw in two Aprilias contesting the lead in the opening laps, Cal Crutchlow’s second at the track which nearly ended his career, and Jack Miller bagging a brilliant home podium and this was yet another ‘Island’ duel to savour.

By Neil Morrison

Must Try Harder: Johann Zarco The paddock doesn’t forget. Looking back on it, Zarco was naïve in the extreme to think the Repsol Honda seat was his after learning of Lorenzo’s retirement. For what had gone before was nothing short of disastrous. A wretched spell in KTM’s factory team was characterised by poor speed and regular dummy spitting. It was a structure crying out for fresh input and development direction. What it got instead was verbal shaming and a prolonged eight-month strop. By all accounts, the Austrian factory’s professionalism is second to none. So just how the double world champ reacts to his role as team leader at regular whipping boys Avintia Ducati will be one of next year’s points of interest. Medal of Valour: Brad Binder Usually reserved for those overcoming a troublesome injury, the elder Binder brother gets the nod for his spirited acceptance of his KTM chassis’ shortcomings in 2019 and consistently riding around them. Across all three classes no one was as spectacular to watch with his no-nonsense

style winning him few fans among his peers. But there were plenty of admirers. That Binder came so close to prolonging the title fight until the final race was testament to his unerring dedication. Riders regularly belittling their equipment should take note. Quote of the Year: Danilo Petrucci, Italian Grand Prix How often do we hear elite athletes admitting they were hopelessly out of their depth? But Petrucci is no ordinary athlete, a figure regularly filled with good humour and cheer. The dust had just settled on his first MotoGP win in a memorable four-rider brawl at Mugello when he opened up on some of the self doubt that was a fixture during his early years in the class. “Many times in the past [I nearly] quit my career because I said this is not my world,” he admitted. Well Danilo, with performances like this you found a place where you truly belong. Lap of the Year: Marc Marquez, MotoGP Q2, Czech Grand Prix Has there ever been a greater pole position in history?

Few – if any – match this effort, when, stung by a boisterous Alex Rins cutting him up in pit lane, Marquez exited pit lane onto a damp track as rain was soaking its final sector. On slick tyres. No one generates heat in the rubber like the hard-braking Catalan. Once up to speed it was all about precision. The first of two flyers put him 1s clear of the rest. The second? It had to be seen to be believed. Attacking turns 13 and 14 as if they were dry, the 26-year old barely flinched as he put 2.524s into the second fastest rider. The feat of no ordinary man. Shining Star: Sergio Garcia So young he couldn’t race in Qatar, the baby-faced Spaniard only turned 16 in late March. After the usual growing pains in Moto3, he was really up and running by autumn. Three top six finishes in the final four outings, including a debut podium at Sepang and then a first win at Valencia, pointed toward an extraordinarily bright future. Yet another Spaniard destined for the very top.

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Moment of the Year: Sepang, MotoGP Q2 A snapshot of the future? Let’s hope so. For three minutes Marquez took the term ‘shithousery’ to new heights as he slowed and toured behind new paddock golden boy Quartararo, hoping for a tow to pole. The Frenchman repeatedly motioned for his new admirer to move by, only for the reigning champ to blankly refuse. In the end there was comeuppance; the left side of Marquez’s rear tyre had cooled down so much it failed to grip as he pitched into turn two, flinging him somewhere near the earth’s orbit. He even had the cheek to later claim he came across the Frenchman by chance. One of the few moments when ego got in his way this year, this offered a glimpse of hope to the rest for 2020.

Photo: R. Schedl

#GETDUKED BEAST MODE ENGAGED 2020 KTM 1290 SUPER DUKE R The NAKED rulebook has been re-written. The KTM 1290 SUPER DUKE R is now leaner, meaner and even more menacing than ever before. Sporting an all-new chassis and suspension setup, the flagship LC8 V-Twin 1301 cc boasting brutal forward thrust, blinding acceleration and an advanced electronics package, the NEW BEAST is locked and loaded for battle.

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fly racing There are four different colourways for Fly Racing’s FR-5 boots (270 dollars) and for what is a very functional and affordable set of off-road footwear. Small details include additions such as the 3D moulded shift panel with extra grooves and texture to fight against premature wear. TPU medial and lateral elements of the construction, soft interior foam around the ankle and the ‘collar’ of the boot, TPR calf plate and textile lining. The FR-5 is CE tested and approved for impact resistance and has a one-piece plastic injected midsole. Biomechanical pivots provide increased ankle stability and the heat shield is made from rubber. The four quick locking aluminium buckles are solid and secure. In terms of styling the boot looks narrow, supple and modern, helped by the low toe profile. For the price and the list of specs the FR-5 is a very worthy option for those partial to the dirt.

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SOMETHING OUT OF NOTHING HOW BRITAINâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S LEADING MXGP RIDER IS BUILDING HIS OWN GRAND PRIX TEAM By Adam Wheeler, Photos by Mikey Rutherford/FXR

FEATURE

rounds of the 2020 FIM Motocross World Championship in seventeen different countries means sixty race starts (motos and qualification heats). Eight dates of the ACU British Championship adds another sixteen to the tally. Factor-in pre-season events and useful (lucrative and obligatory) other International fixtures and the competitive MX calendar starts to look daunting, costly and exhaustive. Friend of the magazine, Shaun Simpson, holds the distinction of being the last privateer winner of a premier class Grand Prix when he claimed the Benelux round at Lierop all the way back in 2013. For the 2014 and 2015 seasons Simpson ran his own operation inside the framework of what is now the decorated Hitachi KTM fuelled by Milwaukee team and reached the position of 4th in the world at one stage and added more MXGP silverware to the mantle. He was instrumental in creation of the fledgling RFX squad in 2019 and has launched boots-deep - into his own SS24 KTM MXGP structure for next year. 2019 ended on a bounce for the 31 year old, who helped Team GBR to their second Motocross of Nations podium appearance in the last three years, and an upward surge after struggling through an expectedly thrifty and wayward term with RFX. Simpson found extra speed through the slimy sand of Assen thanks to three weeks of dedicated technical development on the KTM 450 SX-F through the knowledge of father and former-racer Willie Simpson and renowned tuner John Volleberg – the same crew behind his plucky underdog efforts in ‘14/15 and now the basis for his 2020 push as one of just two remaining Brits in the MXGP division.

Simpson was able to use the buzz and profile-gain from the MXoN to generate interest around his new project. It is an alternative method of tackling the elite of the sport outside of the factory teams and the narrowing band of established satellite set-ups in MXGP. The story is interesting as the Scot – who splits his time between home near Dundee and a long-term base in Belgium – not only has to continually analyse his

whole new chapter in what has been a lifetime invested in the sport. With only days remaining until the end of the calendar year, Simpson insists he is close to the mark for SS24 KTM MXGP to throw the covers away. So we spent a good half-an-hour talking to the former British Champion, asking for insight to the process and the means to forge a motorcycle capable of competing in the FIM World Championship as well as fighting for domestic honours…

In previous years I’d already been quite hands-on… …with things like doing emails, talking to sponsors and helping the team. The two years at Wilvo Yamaha meant I stepped right back from that role but I was doing it again with RFX and had a lot of input. The difference now is instead of me saying “I think we should do this and that…” and someone going-out and doing it for me, I’m the one that has to come up with the ideas and see everything through; trying to get people signed up to different types of deals and cope with product delivery, numbers and supply. There are other important ‘new’ things like the details of working out how the set-up will be and opting to go for something different to a truck and then deciding how it will look.

Organisationally I have a pretty good idea of what numbers of parts are necessary to do a full season… …for example, it will take around 40 sets of grips. Sprockets: you’ll need one for every weekend and then there are different sizes. Then I’m working with Renthal and R Tech for the plastics and Enjoy from America with the stickers – which has to be planned in advance as they need to be shipped over. I’m trying to set time frames and get designs made. There is a lot of to-ing and fro-ing

MAKING AN MXGP TEAM: SS24 KTM

work as a Grand Prix rider and find a level needed to compete with the Herlings, Cairolis, Prados, Desalles, Febvres, Seewers but also manage the intricacies and demands of organising a supplied and viable structure ready to travel the world. There is no other venture quite like it in MXGP, and although it means the window for risk is that much wider for the veteran, it also places him in control and potentially at the beginning of a

FEATURE …but then there are days when you get so motivated. It is a bit like a wave effect. Sometimes the job list for a particular day looks daunting but then you start to see things come together on the bike and product starts to arrive, you renew relationships with contacts and partners and it swings back the other way. It has also been cool to see the social media buzz I’ve been getting about the project. The size of the workload can feel a bit overwhelming. There have been evenings when I’ve thought ‘we’ve achieved so much today…but there is still so much to do tomorrow’. By January 1st I want to be fully set so I can focus on my training and do what I normally do as a grand prix rider. It means putting the pressure-on up until new years eve and thinking of things like a flight crate – which we’ll source and then adapt. We’ll have the van and the bike ready to get some testing done.

which I didn’t have to do before. Instead of a design being pushed through two-three people before it gets to me, I’m instead swapping around forty emails to get it to the point where it is sitting on my bike in the workshop. Dealing with sponsors, trying to get sponsors on onboard and making a lot more correspondence. I’ve had to be more organised – and cope with more email threads than ever – but from the physical side I have been trying to hit my marks. I started training at the usual time and I’m trying to get as many miles on the bike as I can at this time of year and being weatherdependent. The buck stops with me; if I have a slack day or I’m a behind schedule then it is all my fault.

There were moments when I thought ‘I’ve bitten off more than I can chew here…’

Sponsors? After the Nations and the buzz of being on the podium there was a lot of interest and I thought ‘I’m nailing this…it’s a piece of cake’… …but that slowed down very quickly. I’ve learned that in some ways you are only as profitable as the size and strength of your contact book! I have a lot of experience in MXGP, and some of the people where you thought ‘I can definitely bank on them…’ could not commit for 2020 for their own understandable reasons personal and professional. But there were also things coming out-of-the-blue that then fill a hole. People or companies have set budgets, and if you are not quick enough or you are placed further back in the queue then you can miss some deals. The good thing about the team is that if we start the season strongly and a sponsor wants to come onboard - because what we are doing is pretty cool and I’m taking a risk on myself - then they can

thing else is dialled-in: engines, suspension, bikes, parts, tyres, spares, myself, my gym programme. In a way I am still running off the fumes of Assen because you are only as good as your last race. I’m not usually one to feed off that ideal but it has dripped into the winter. Another thing is that we’ve pushed ahead with the ‘Simpson Army’ fan club concept, which means that anyone can get involved and almost ‘crowd fund’ us to the level that they can or want. We put that all out on the website and social media.

I’m not being naïve and thinking ‘I can do this for forty grand…’ …I have set a realistic budget. I’m probably doing it differently compared to other people and have perhaps cut costs where other people blow their money – and I’ve seen it in teams before where I’ve thought ‘why have we just spent five grand on that when

MAKING AN MXGP TEAM: SS24 KTM

jump in. There is the freedom to change the designs and expand the portfolio. I’m satisfied where I am at the moment, but I would say I’m 30% short of where I want my total budget to be. I’d really like to sit in the gate at Hawkstone Park and the first race of the year knowing I have the full budget to finish 2019 in the same strong way as we start. My goal is not to be hoping and praying as the season goes on that everything will be OK. At the same time, we’ve done enough so I’m not super-stressed about going racing. There is a lot more work to be done and I’ll need a little stroke of luck here-and-there to get the final bits on board…but it won’t be for a lack of trying. Sponsorship saps up a lot of time: approaching companies, getting to the second level but then being refused. You need to know someone, who-knows-someone who has a motorsport interest. That’s still probably the biggest hurdle to get over, every-

FEATURE we could have put it into the bike?’ I’ve seen plenty of money wasted and I’ve learned from that. We’ll run a tight ship and with my Dad on board and his experience and the way I’ve been brought-up then we’ll do it frugally but we want the team to look right, feel right and for people to walk through our little hospitality area to feel at home and like they can have a coffee. We don’t want it to be too corporate or over-branded but also not ‘transit-van racing’. It’s a case of me going racing for myself and everyone who comes along to help me out will feel like they are a major part of this project.

As soon as you announce you’re setting up a team then there is interest from other riders… …whether it’s on the presumption that there is a load of secret budget or a trick being missed or the fact that it’s just another potential saddle. KTM were asking straightaway if there was the chance to put a young guy under the awning. In the beginning I entertained that idea and thought it might even be fun to help and even coach a younger rider to maybe reach the top of his class. But then I took a step back and thought ‘I could make this work for myself but then to put my balls on the line for someone else and have that extra responsibility – whether it’s for logistics, parts, travel, support…’ and came to the conclusion that it was a level where I was not ready to start. With the small group of people I have around me I thought the best move was to put 100% effort into myself and that means my own family, programme and technical set-up. I didn’t want to compromise at this point.

It is difficult to know exactly how much extra help we need… …the workload. The racing is the easy part. That’s the time to put on the show. Everything has to be set for that though, with the

spare engine, chassis, suspension and if there is a problem there is always a backup and the van is prepped. Nothing should come as a surprise and there is always a Plan B. The hard part is the bit that nobody sees: it is the practicing during the week, grinding out the motos when it’s wet and cleaning everything up and travelling all the miles. I don’t feel that we have a problem in the actual race paddocks, it’s more personnel during the week, speaking with sponsors, re-stocking the van, orders are made for

spares, making sure the engines are hitting their service schedules. So, we’re trying to work that out at the moment: what we have to do, when and who is the best people to count on. We’re simplifying things at the moment and I think we’ll have two races bikes close to ready and dialled by the first week of January when we’ll go to Spain for more testing. We can then evaluate about the help.

I’m not forgetting my own work as a rider, and I know everybody always has a ‘great off-season’… …but nine times out of ten – and this is talking from experience – everything will be going great, maybe differently, maybe varied but by the end of January you’ll find yourself in the same place mentally and physically as normal! You’ll have plans for tests, improved

MAKING AN MXGP TEAM: SS24 KTM

strength etc but then there is only so much you can do. So, I want to make sure I’m in my normal window of preparation by then. I heard [Jeffrey] Herlings say he will do less work this off-season compared to previous years – who knows if he’s playing a game or not but he knows it is such a long series and you cannot peak for one specific event or phase of the calendar. You’ll be prime at most points but then suffer at others. The key is to start steady. Be there, be fit and ready to go with the bike set-up but also prepared to go the whole year. This season I want to find the old ‘Mr Consistent’ again. I’ve started working with Kev Maguire from Step1 Fitness who I worked with in the past and his guidelines have been a big help. I don’t want to come-in all-guns-blazing, have a big get-off and then be nursing a sore ankle or something. I want to get back to solid results and the ‘old me’ where I’m riding around feeling comfortable, very fit and strong in the mind. Capable with what I have under me. With that I’ll gain momentum and aim to finish the championship with a decent top ten position, which has not been an easy task for most riders for the last few years.

FEATURE

MAKING THE SS24 KTM MXGP 450 SX-F KTM have given me a number of standard 450 SX-Fs, exactly what you can buy in your local dealer… ….to be totally honest a standard motorcycle out-of-the-crate is pretty good these days.

We definitely need to work on the engine and suspension but the rest is reasonably decent. KTM also give me a parts budget to work with and there is a limit but it’s enough to complete a season if used correctly. You have to watch carefully what you order: one bolt might cost 30 cents and another one that looks very similar is 5 euros. You have to really spend time at the beginning of the year and order parts you are going to use a

then he’ll try to find out! We did some testing before the Nations and we got it wrong three, four, five times but come Assen I finally had something I was really happy with. For this reason I’m not too worried about the bike at the moment. It was a dream to ride, even in those tough conditions in Holland, and we both have some ideas to make it even better. Right off the bat, coming into 2020, I think the bike can be really good.

There are a couple of important things you need to turn a stock bike into an MXGP racer…

Technically this is familiar ground for me, and I think we can see the results of someone like Jeremy Van Horebeek in 2019 to know that it can be done… …the bikes I’ve had before in similar scenarios were not mega-fancy but they were put together well and suited me. The engines were tailored by John Volleberg and he knows what I need. If I come off the track and I know the motor can be better or different then he’ll have an idea, or if he doesn’t

…first of all, an exhaust. The stock KTM pipe is very good but the HGS guys have been there for a very long time and, like KTM, have been good to me and always helped out. They were number one on my list and I spoke to them and they came up with the goods straight away. I’d used them this year and we had something that worked really well. So we had our exhaust system. The next thing would be upgraded WP Suspension. WP do a 48mm aftermarket fork and semi-factory shock which was based on the factory equipment from the last few seasons. It was something new from the mid-part of 2019. It was high on my list and I recently tried it. It was really impressive right out of the box without too much tweaking, so I’m looking forward to trying to get the maximum from it. Then wheels and tyres; rubber

MAKING AN MXGP TEAM: SS24 KTM

lot of but being aware that changing certain components all the time will work out as really expensive. It’s about looking at your budget and managing it well. It’s quite easy to blow it all in the first three-four months but we’re experienced from riding for KTM previously with privateer teams and we kinda know what we are doing. KTM have also put a bonus scheme together and gave me connections to Motorex and WP Suspension. That’s pretty much it, but it is also a major part of going racing: you need that backing from a manufacturer. It’s not just the physical parts but for them to be onboard with your idea, and they trust what you can do to the races and put-on a good show on-and-off the track. That’s motivating. As soon as you confirm that support and a van or transport then you are going racing.

FEATURE is important because you get through a lot. Dunlop and Pirelli already have so many teams that getting onboard and product from those guys is very difficult. I had a good relationship with the guys at Michelin this year and, in my opinion, they are trying super-hard to bring back a top-quality motocross tyre and are putting a serious effort into producing handmade tyres and compounds. There is a lot of testing going on. Being involved with someone that doesn’t only just throw product at you but actually wants to come to the races, give support and make a better product is great, so I decided to go with those guys. Another thing that ‘makes’ your race bike – and it is superficial – are the stickers. It’s quite a big thing for me because sponsors that want to get involved will have their space and logo on the bike. You go through a lot of stickers in a season! I’ve had a good thing with Enjoy over the years and they were ready to back me 100%. When the stickers go on then you really see your race bike coming together. They’ll never make you go faster but there is a feel-good factor and it was one of the things I wanted to cross off my list quite quickly. Presentation is a part of it. After that the ECU and the work with John was something I absolutely needed.

Mapping is a huge part of motocross these days… …but, without going into too much detail, I think we were that far-off with some of the basics during 2019 that the mapping did not help! So for the Motocross of Nations we needed to start from zero and build it up again; compression ratios, valve timing and all of those things needed to be sorted

Lastly, the whole show has to live, be stored and be carted around somehow… …lists are definitely my friend at the moment and my wife Rachel has spreadsheets open everywhere. I’m simplifying it. We’ve actually taken out one of the Cairoli accommodation/workshop facilities at Lommel. I didn’t get a deal on that! The reason is that you can literally turn up with a van and a load of stuff and start working on the bike. There is a power-washer, heater, washing machine, sleeping quarters, washroom, kitchen and so on. I have a great sponsor – Dyce Carriers – that will pay for that. John is only 45-50 minutes up the road and will be doing the main tuning of the engines there. It would have been ideal to work from his

premises but it’s a lot of pressure for all his other customer work as well. We then have the base in Scotland as well. There are quite a few companies that are prepared to give you a season’s worth of stock up-front or in January and that gets over a major hurdle. KTM spares have to be carefully watched and evaluated in terms of what you are using, we maybe do 4-5 KTM spares orders through the season. Plastics, tyres, stickers can be ordered in bulk which is convenient and nice to see them turning up because it gets stocked and stored. From fifteen products you might only have five you are dealing with on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. It will be a case of locking as much as possible down by the end of January and having that stock at the workshops. The WP Suspension could be a case where you get two sets immediately, two sets and bit later and then another two sets further down the line. They come in dribs-and-drabs but two sets are enough to get going. It’s about being smart and getting in early. Being ahead of the game and, so far, we are doing a good job.

MAKING AN MXGP TEAM: SS24 KTM

before we fine-tuned it with the mapping at the end. We will be working with a new company for 2020, a Dutch firm through John, that are a new ECU manufacturer and we are looking forward to testing with them and going through the motions with the schedule in January. I think we can make an impact on the market with a new ECU and delivering the kind of performance results we want as well. The bike has to be dialled-in for the track but also for the starts. You’ve heard many times that starts are so important in MXGP now and we’ll be working hard on that. Starts have not been my strong point for a couple of years and we want to get something that helps. When you sit on the line between two guys that might be a HRC Honda and a factory KTM then you know that you need to do something very special to even get your elbows on a par. You got to really gee-yourself-up for it. If you get squeezed out then you are eating roost for the rest of the moto. It’s good to get-in, get the elbows out and make top five starts week-in week-out. It will make the job a lot easier.

Photo: R. Schedl

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FEATURE

A QUIET LEARNER WHAT DID FORMER MX2 WORLD CHAMPION PAULS JONASS SEIZE FROM HIS DEBUT MXGP YEAR? By Adam Wheeler, Photos by Ray Archer

FEATURE

2019

MXGP will be remembered for Tim Gajser’s maturation, both as a racer who limited his mistakes and as a 22 year old that fundamentally changed his approach away from the track, Tony Cairoli’s worst career injury, Jeffrey Herlings’ slew of drama, Jeremy Seewer’s emergence as a world-class 450 rider, Glenn Coldenhoff’s sensational second season finale and big smashes that counted out the likes of Romain Febvre and Clement Desalle. A little further down the standings but still in a plumb sixth position was Rockstar Energy IceOne Husqvarna racing’s Pauls Jonass. The 22 year old Latvian – who could have pushed for a second MX2 world championship in 2019 but elected to jump into the premier class – was distinguishable for that bright Yoko riding gear on the works FC450 as much for his results that started to pick up in the second half of the season and deliver the likeable former Red Bull KTM athlete to the position of Rookie of the Year. Jonass was, of course, part of that entertaining KTM duel for the MX2 crown in 2018 that came to a crunching halt – almost literally – with the collision between #41 and then teammate Jorge Prado at the Grand Prix of Turkey. The accident in September would end up carrying heavy consequences for Pauls. Damage to the ACL in his right knee forced him out of the MX2 contest prior to the last round at Imola and then surgery ruined a winter of preparation for his debut on the bigger bike and in a division with no less than fifteen Grand Prix winners.

“THINKING BACK…I’M SURE THERE WERE SOME TRACKS WHERE I WAS DOING IT WRONG…BUT AT THE TIME I JUST THOUGHT ‘THAT’S THE WAY TO GO FAST!’...”

He survived the mire of Mantova at round five to bag his first piece of silverware – another mini landmark for his country in MXGP – but was posting consistent top six results by the end of the campaign when he picked up two more rostrum champagne bottles: one in Sweden and another in Turkey, nicely erasing any sour memories at Afyon twelve months earlier. Jonass’ progress was a boost for the IceOne team that had bounced from the stellar breakthrough by Max Anstie in 2017 to disappointment in 2018 as both the Brit and Gautier Paulin failed to disrupt the Grand Prix-winning race pace of the KTMs. Teammate Arminas Jasikonis struggled for the same impact but the reorientation by the team to focus on development rather than straight-up delivery of premier results had taken an upward turn. The results, form and capability also reinforced Jonass’ decision to change classes, teams, trainers and gamble from being an MX2 contender to an MXGP speculator. He now has exciting prospects for 2020 being one of the younger factory riders in the class and will again have to deal with Prado amongst all the heavy-hitters. Talking with Pauls is never dull. Loud of voice, free with opinions, quick to laugh and shrewdly self-analytical – all in impeccable English - he’s a worthy chat. So we quizzed him on the over-riding emotions, sensations, feelings, lessons and general ‘marks’ of 2019 and for what was a crucial transitional term.

PAULS JONASS & MXGP

Jonass was aware that Febvre (2015) and Gasjer (2016) had trounced MXGP in their maiden seasons and Herlings (2018) won the title at the second attempt but he was figuratively far behind the pack as they took their positions in the gate in Argentina. “Not even close,” he smiles at the recollection.

FEATURE

“TO A POINT THE FIRST MXGP PODIUM WAS A RELIEF... I THOUGHT ‘WE MADE IT, THAT’S GOOD’ BUT THEN THE EXPECTATION GOES UP AND PEOPLE KINDA EXPECT IT ON A MUCH MORE REGULAR BASIS...”

going fast but by hitting the lines correctly I can see I am doing it. An example was at the Nations on Saturday. In Free Practice I really pushed for the lap-time and was the fastest…but towards the end I concentrated on being smooth, hitting my marks and almost playing with the track and was just 0.1 away from that time attack! So, you know sometimes with the 450 you can hit your points and still go quickly. During training everything is fine because you have time to think about the lines and do everything correctly and shifting well…but then when it comes to racing and the gate drop as well as passing guys then it’s easy to start revving the bike and going in 1st and 2nd gear everywhere. After the race you look at the data and see I needed to shift up much more. Overall it was more difficult to put together than I thought. Trying to race the 450 correctly was tough. We also didn’t have the best starts at the beginning of the season and in such a stacked class it is hard to battle forward. Another factor is dealing with the opposition… For sure. I raced Jeffrey and Tim on the 250s but otherwise lot of them were new guys to race against. Both in the races and sometimes on training tracks it was interesting to see how they rode, how the bike

moves and to learn how they were reacting. That was an important learning tool. You mentioned checking data; things like that must have been a new experience in terms of set-up and work… Yeah! With the 250 you take the maximum power, set-up the bike and just ride with that. You don’t play so much with the engine configuration but with the 450 the testing – or the chance to improve almost never stops because you can do so many things. Also, the suspension is more important. On the 250 you can squeeze it and go-for-it sometimes but the 450 feels heavier and has more power, so the set-up needs to be better. To get to the top level you need to be looking at everything all the time to improve. Was the onus on you to develop even more as a tester? The basic bike was already very good but when it came to racing I was like ‘hmmm, I need something a little different’. I needed to improve my role as a tester but testing by yourself or with your teammate and then racing are like two different jobs. On your training bike you already have the mindset of how the race bike - or race itself - will be. For example, it’s nice to train with a very smooth bike but then when it comes to the GP

PAULS JONASS & MXGP

It’s interesting how some riders are able to adapt quicker than others to finding the limit with the 450. Your disadvantage was the lack of riding time before the season started. Can you talk about learning a new style while racing at the same moment…? Being on a 250 for such a long time meant a change of mentality for lines and riding style. Still even now I’m maybe revving the bike too much. You need to be quite high in the RPM to go fast on a 250, but the 450 is different and it’s about keeping momentum – you don’t need to carry so much flow in the corners. You don’t need to go so far to the outside and can chop into shorter lines. Anyway, it was pretty tough, especially when I only started to ride properly one month before the first Grand Prix. It was a new class and a new bike and a way to work. The goal for the season was just to improve and we did that despite a general lack of testing and being pretty unprepared! Thinking back…I’m sure there were some tracks where I was doing it wrong… but at the time I just thought ‘that’s the way to go fast!’ It might have been alright just for two laps and then I would have been done. We tested more halfway during the season and I began to understand the bike better and that helped me a lot. Sometimes now I feel that I am not

FEATURE then you end up needing something more aggressive. You just seemed to gas the KTM and learned much at the front of MX2. Were there more parameters to your racecraft in MXGP? It’s a different challenge but I would not say the mindset has changed. The focus is to win but I know I’m a bit off, so it means looking at everything that can be done better to be in contention. The 250 was all about winning and with the MXGP class I know I’m looking for the few percent more to reach that same level. Being one of the top MX2 riders in the MXGP category and also with the profile and all the resources at IceOne; was it a relief to get that first podium result? To a point it was a relief. I thought ‘we made it, that’s good’ but then the expectation goes up and people kinda expect it on a much more regular basis. It put a bit more pressure on my shoulders. I knew the season would be tough all the way through but I felt a positive push from the midpoint. I was battling for 6th-7th and on a good day I was going for the podium. It was also good that I didn’t swing from those 6th-7th positions to outside the top ten or somewhere further down. There was a bit of consistency.

You had some bad luck with your knee last year but did 2019 give you some insight as to how injuries can also easily be suffered with the 450? For sure you need to be stronger. In MX2 you have to be riding at your best to win but the demands feel much higher in MXGP because there are ten guys around you who are capable of taking that victory. In MX2 there are two-three who are realistically there all the time. In the past you could make a good start push for some laps and then just cruise around. In

“IN THE PAST YOU COULD MAKE A GOOD MX2 START PUSH FOR SOME LAPS AND THEN JUST CRUISE AROUND. IN MXGP YOU NEED TO PUSH EVERY SINGLE LAP...” and having that base in Lommel helps because it means a family feeling; it’s not like you only see your race mechanic at the races. Was there much more attention on you – particularly in Latvia – by being in MXGP compared to MX2? Hmmm, I don’t think it matters too much if you are still at the front battling. From the spectators’ side I think MXGP draws that much more attention because it is the premier class. I would say the level of media attention is the same…but I feel more from the fans because of being in MXGP.

MXGP you need to push every single lap: you need to be mentally and physically stronger. Based on 2018 and the end of 2019 Herlings currently sets the performance ‘bar’ in MXGP, so do you now know what to do in order to catch or beat him? Yes, and I know my training – the intensity – needs to be better. I need to hit my targets at 100% all the time and not save myself for anything. That’s one of the ways to come to the next level.

PAULS JONASS & MXGP

IceOne seemed to change philosophy for 2019 with two young riders: you appeared to have hit their target for the year… For sure. The main objective this year was to gain experience and confidence for 2020. We knew already that we’d missed the winter and it would be hard to battle for proper results…I think we reached our goal though with three podiums and sixth overall. Some days I was a bit off. But I know how to fix that for next year. I fit into the team right away. It is a hard-working team

FEATURE

THE HARD BREAKS #1: BEN WATSON By Adam Wheeler, Photos by Ray Archer/Monster Energy

Motocross is not a kind sport. The latest high-profile victim, Jorge Prado, will testify to painful and sudden reversal that a crash and injury can bring. Although somewhat macabre, the stories of the smashes and scars usually involve strong narratives of recovery, determination and discovery. Over the coming year we’ll be asking certain athletes for their tales of ravage to recovery, hopefully with a photo or two and some (occasionally grim) first-hand accounts of the anxiety that behind the life of an elite racer.

First-up, current factory Monster Energy Yamaha MX2 ace Ben Watson tells us about his accident in the formative stages of 2016. The 22 year old Brit broke his left foot at the Grand Prix of Argentina for what was round four of eighteen. The severity of the crash caused Watson to sit out the rest of the year and was by far the worst ailment of his career. It came at a crucial time when he was breaking into the top ten of the MX2 class. “I had made a solid start to the year and we came to Argentina,” he recalls. “I was good through Saturday

and then in Sunday morning warm-up I was trying to do a fast time. I came up to a single roller and just clipped the top of it. I cannot remember much from there. I hit my head and don’t have much recollection.” “We went to the hospital and they said I’d broken some metatarsals,” he continues. “I was put in a cast and told ‘four weeks’ – this was all through Google Translate! I came back to the UK and had some further checks and a CT scan revealed I’d shattered my navicular and three metatarsals. It meant the season was over. I had the first surgery one week after Argentina: that was to put a screw through the metatarsals and into the ball of the foot to hold it all in place. Some pieces of the navicular were screwed together with a plate that was wrapped around the bone; it was almost circular. I then had a bridging plate. Bones either side of the navicular were held apart so when the navicular was healing it did not set-to the others because the cartilage and ligaments around were so damaged that we had to stop it all fusing together. I was not allowed to put any weight through my foot for twelve weeks. I had the second surgery after twelve weeks and that was to remove the bridging plate and I could put some light pressure on it with an airboot.

BEN WATSON: THE HARD BREAKS XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXX XXXXX

FEATURE “I then progressed with physio and could eventually walk on it again.” Although ruinous to the point where it still affects his daily life, the most painful part of the experience for Watson was the arduous trip back from South America. “When I first did it they put the cast straight on,” he describes. “We thought I’d just broken metatarsals but getting to the Grand Prix in Argentina means three flights and one of those is fourteen hours so my whole foot was just swelling up in this cast on the way back. If they had seen the navicular break – I still don’t understand how they missed it - then I think I would have had a different cast or they wouldn’t have let me fly home so early. I remember on the plane my Dad took his car keys and run one up and down the cast until we had a line and we split it open because I was in absolutely agony. As soon as we had some relief in the cast then it was like freedom.” Like most youngsters faced with a sudden and dramatic jolt to their everyday life and routine, Watson had to balance the mental demands of rehab as much as the physical discomfort. “I had broken my collarbone before, but this was my first ‘real’ injury and the

first time where I’d been more than two weeks off the bike,” he explains. “I didn’t really know what life was like without motocross and being able to ride 3-4 times a week. Just sitting on the sofa and not being able to move much for all that time was the toughest part…but it was also nice -with hindsight - because it made me realise and appreciate what I normally have.” Watson recovered to become one of the stars of the MX2 class. He celebrated his first podium result in 2018, finishing 4th in the world, but was dealt a double-injury blow in 2019. 2020 represents his final term on the 250 and where he is expected to be one of the protagonists for the final top three positions in the standings. He’ll be challenging for more trophies, in spite of the still-deformed left foot. “It still gives me quite a lot of trouble on a daily basis now,” he reveals. “I cannot go running and if I have to run for some reason then I will feel it later that night. I still have metalwork in there. The broke can also be stress fractured and the ligaments aren’t great. So, any intense work means I can cause more damage. With my training I try to stay away from anything too heavy for my foot. With a motocross boot I don’t feel anything – even on big jump landings -

I don’t notice anything different compared to before the accident. I’m lucky with that.” “Overall it does bring some realisation to how dangerous the sport can be…but we all know that.”

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JASONANDERSON @ P R O T A P E R

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

MXGP BLOG

THE EYE-CATCHERS... MXGP 2019 is almost three months in the rear view mirror but what really stood out? If 2018 was an orange year, and arguably fostered a new level of athletic performance on MXGP then 2019 could be classified as a ‘what if…?’ kind-of-season. Among several narratives of excellence, survival and development (Gasjer, Prado, Geerts, Vialle) there were moments of drama (crashes, injuries, absence) that seemed to dilute the bigger painting of Grand Prix; like a harsh afternoon sunshine beaming unrelentingly onto the canvas. The people that ‘popped’ for me though? As easy as it would be to write-off 2019 as a magnificent disaster, Jeffrey Herlings still nudged that ‘bar’ a little higher in his fleeting appearances. His five outings in Russia, Latvia, Sweden, Turkey and China resulted in two victories and four moto wins. Of course his opposition were in a different stage of season-fatigue and strategy but that fact that Herlings could attack the elite

with such abandon and come out on top in spite of all the adversity, nerves and the weight of expectation (as well as literal kilos of metal in his foot) spoke volumes. I also want to credit Glenn Coldenhoff – Herlings’ friend, KTM brandmate and countryman - here. I’ve described him frequently as the definition of a ‘confidence rider’ but the 28 year old showed the power of sustained momentum and good feeling to reach a career high this summer. You could point to the collective waning energy of the class by the time Glenn was earning his five podiums and two wins in the final five rounds and he was dispatched by Herlings both in Turkey and China, but #259 still had to make the starts and run the laps behind at least three rivals who were also chasing the silver and bronze medals for the year (and the subsequent bonus payments those distinctions entail).

Tim Gajser’s title success was not wholly unexpected but there were two factors that makes 2019 stand apart from the Slovenian’s dizzying debut in 2016. Firstly, the radical change in his training and approach to races by maintaining a distance from his father was arguably the moment when he transitioned from ‘boy to man’. The independence created an even closer connection with HRC and could even be described as a more professional step: more direct accountability. The second aspect was the fact that, now fully fit, he clearly had worked to match the level of the Red Bull KTMs. Herlings and Cairoli had laid waste to MXGP in 2018 and there were initial fears Cairoli would have the series his own way after a 1-1 in Argentina but Gajser was ‘there’ and the only one competitive enough to force the Sicilian into rare mistakes. Their contests in Italy, Portugal and France were arguably some of the best action scenes of the season.

By Adam Wheeler

I’m still a big advocate of Jeremy Seewer. Why? Just look at the Swiss’ career trajectory: 10th, 5th, 2nd, 2nd – then into MXGP from MX2 and 8th to world #2 in two years, all the while remaining everpresent in the gate. Aside from being humble, approachable and intelligent (he completed his engineering studies in his first term in MX2) and a fantastic ambassador for any of his brands, he’s a hard and studious racer. The 25-year old has not been a perpetual Grand Prix winner but his knack for consistency and a high level of performance means he is a ‘long-game player’. The big question remains as to whether he can inhabit the same sphere of speed and results as Herlings, Prado etc but he certainly seems to have the same strategic nuance as Cairoli, and that could be critical in moving up the final position on the slippery world championship pole. His late transition to the factory Yamaha camp in Michele Rinaldi’s swansong year and the rate of trophies (six In total) accumulated is another one of the most shining achievements in 2019.

In truth there are fewer teams better equipped to cater for a rider’s wishes and demands that the outgoing and peerless Italian set-up (it still rankles that Sylvain Geboers’ benchmark-setting Suzuki team vanished so quickly when it was a similar level to that of Rinaldi’s). Seewer had the perfect and persistent second term and was just missing an overall victory to put the icing on the Swiss chocolate.

furore that surrounded Herlings in 2015 and instigated the initial ‘Herlings rule’ of a rider only being able to be crowned in MX2 twice. This probably has much to do with Prado laconic and economic riding style; something initially chiselled through sharing many hours of training time with Tony Cairoli and a radical departure from the flamboyance the Sicilian initially showed himself back in the mid ‘00s.

Initially I would have said ‘be afraid’ for 2020. MXGP could have quickly been in the grip of a nineteen-year-old and perhaps the dawn of another Cairoli or Evertsesque new era. Jorge Prado made MX2 a non-contest in 2019 despite the sniping of Thomas Kjer Olsen, Tom Vialle and Jago Geerts. To only lose two motos throughout the entire term means that the MX2 field was probably happier to get rid of the Red Bull KTM rider than Prado was to depart to MXGP. Amazingly, Prado had another five years of eligibility for MX2. There seems to be barely a fuss over his graduation to the KTM 450 SX-F compared to the

The news that he is now enduring a long recovery from a broken left femur throws the planning and the buzz to the reeds somewhat. Up until his unfortunate slip from the footpegs in the Roman rain last week Prado rarely made mistakes. In 2019 MX2 he barely looked anywhere near his limit and was rarely rattled or pressurised. And he is of course the best starter seen in Grand Prix racing in the modern era, with the statistics to prove it. When fit and ready he’ll feel a much warmer degree of competition in 2020 and continues his education in terms of racecraft and race scenarios but it is tricky to remember a more eagerly awaited

MXGP BLOG

premier class debut; maybe since Ben Townley in 2005 or Cairioli in 2009 (although #222 had provided us with that telling debut wildcard win at Donington Park in 2007). Question marks hang over the location of the 2020 Spanish Grand Prix but itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not hard to understand why Youthstream and native promoters are waiting and trying to capitalise on the second phase of the Prado story. I only hope the venue chosen is suitable for MXGP and can draw in the fans that have been patient for an authentic star since Javier Garcia Vicoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s eccentricity held such appeal at the start of the century (neither Jonathan Barragan or Jose Butron really inhabited a space at the peak of the elite like Vico did in the 500cc division and the highly elevated plinth on which Prado now crouches). For now, 2019 surrenders to time. In a matter of days 2020 cranks up with Dakar and Supercross. Next year weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll hit issue 200 of OTOR, a special little milestone. All that remains is to send a mas-

sive thanks to all the advertisers and partners that keep OTOR going and the brilliant contributors that help it look a little different to everything else out there. Thanks for reading and spread the word.

PRODUCTS

www.husqvarna-motorcycles.com

husqvarna A swift mention for the 2020 FC 450 Rockstar Edition: a truly sumptuous slate of a motorcycle. The 2020 model forms the basis for the bikes to be used by Jason Anderson, Zach Osborne and Dean Wilson in AMA Supercross shortly and will be honed for MXGP by Pauls Jonass and Arminas Jasikonis. New for this particular bike is WP XACT 48mm forks, an engine config that Husqvarna state has ‘CP forged box-in-box piston and PANKL conrod…providing reduced friction, the piston and conrod en-

sure the SOHC engine continues to offer the highest level of performance and reliability available in the market today’. An FMF 4.1 RCT Silencer, CNC Triple Clamps, easy offset adjustment come with a number of other upgrades both practical and aesthetic for the ‘factory’ look. Items such as REKLUSE clutch cover, D.I.D rims, carbon-fibre engine protector and a holeshot device. Husky fans wanting to go full bore can also dip into the revised clothing and apparel lines. The 2020 FC 450 Rockstar Edition is a limited edition, so those with a willing wallet had been order quick.

AMA BLOG

SWITCHING CAMPS... Happy holidays to all you guys reading this, lots to talk about when it comes to the racing over here even if there are no actual races happening other than the Geneva SX that has just finished. Speaking of that, let’s touch on Switzerland, KTM, Ryan Dungey and more in this ‘emptying’ of the big filing cabinet in my brain. First up Geneva SX, where Justin Brayton, now back on the factory Honda, took his sixth win there with 3-1 finishes over the two nights. Brayton’s returned to factory Honda for 2020, holding a spot for Chase Sexton and as usual, you have to think that Brayton will be solid all year long and maybe - when it comes to the Triple Crown format - a race winner. It will be interesting if he absolutely kills it this year and subsequently what then will Honda do with the deal with Sexton in place for 2021? Does he go back to his old team Motoconcepts? Does he get snagged by another factory? Brayton says that he can’t look at 2020 like his last year because then he won’t treat it the same way…so he’s deferring all talk until after SX.

It doesn’t appear that he has any future at Honda no matter what he does…but ‘never say never’ right?

Davalos has skills, and the mentality of the 450 class might suit him a little better. Potential sleeper for sure!

Martin Davalos should’vecould’ve-would’ve won Geneva if he hadn’t made a mistake while leading Saturday’s main event. Davalos won Friday night with a dominant performance and when he grabbed the holeshot and took off Saturday, it seemed like it was a forgone conclusion that the win would be his. But he crashed, Brayton and Justin Barcia got by and Marty was forced to take second. He rode very well though and after approximately 32 years in the 250SX class, he’ll be on a KTM with special parts under the Team Tedder truck for 2020 SX.

With the news that Marvin Musquin is out for the entire 2020 SX season due to knee surgery, the industry was buzzing about who would fill-in for him over at Red Bull KTM. Davalos would be a great choice but he’s already on a KTM (same bike as Blake Baggett and Justin Bogle) so ‘why steal him?’ is KTM’s thinking, at least that’s what I’m hearing. Chad Reed was a hot rumor because he did indeed call manager Roger De Coster lobbied, and tried to get some social buzz about it when Pete Fox, from Fox Racing, photoshopped some 22’s on a bike and asked everyone what they

By Steve Matthes

thought? Red Bull was on board with Reed taking Musquin’s place as well from what I hear. But the rumor mill also had the bigwigs at KTM in Austria shooting down Reed’s request and all is quiet now on the replacement rider front. Seems like there might not be anyone in line for that spot which is a bit odd. I know the people want to see Reed, heck the media wants to see Reed, but this isn’t going to end up as a fairytale. In what he’s announced as his final season, Reed’s going to be forced to go the privateer route on a Honda with some backing from a dealership out of Georgia. He’s not been riding a whole bunch due to getting a late start while he sorted out whether he was going to go back to JGR Suzuki or not and then he crashed at the Paris SX and hurt some ribs. Behind the scenes his team is getting a semi sorted, bikes and parts and Reed will go out in style.

One of the biggest things to happen off the track lately was the press release announcing that Ryan Dungey, multi-time SX and MX champion, had joined the GEICO Honda team as a co-owner. Yes, that would be the same Ryan Dungey that raced for KTM since 2012 and brought the brand to new heights over here in the USA. This deal sure came out of the left field and had riders and industry people texting me a bunch to chat about it. As a matter of fact, I went to Pro Circuit shortly after the PR dropped and that’s the first thing Mitch Payton wanted to talk about when I saw him. Dungey had been an ambassador for KTM since hanging up the boots but truthfully hadn’t been around that much. In talking to some people it was Ryan’s desire to have more at stake in the racing that led to this deal. It doesn’t hurt that one of the co-owners of the team, Jeff Majkrzak, is a long-time friend of Ryan’s from Minnesota as well. I had heard that KTM wanted Ryan at more races and that’s something he wasn’t down for, so

this way he’s got a built-in interest in racing but yet isn’t forced to go week in and week out. “It was a mutual thing, I’ve been spending some time with him and we looked at some options for him to invest in and out of the sport,” Majkrzak told me when I asked him how this deal came together. “He was looking to sink his teeth into something, I was advising him and this door opened up. We started taking about it, and as him and I were looking at long term planning for the team to me he represents the next generation.” “I see him working with the riders closely: I see that as his number one contribution. He won’t go to every race but I think he’ll be available to the guys when they need him. I would bet that we will see him at a third of the races but we’ll see how it all plays out.” So, yes, it will be weird to see Dungey in a GEICO Honda shirt and riding a Honda when he decides to go out, but I get it from

AMA BLOG

his perspective. He’s going to be right inside the team and have a hand and a say in whatever happens. So what about testing the GEICO Honda and helping out that way? Majkrzak says not so fast. “Specifically he doesn’t want to ride a supercross bike but I bet he’ll ride some outdoors and for some fun,” Jeff says. “He can also be a problem solver for us if we have some issues. He can throw a leg over a bike and help us. He’ll ride for fun and I expect him to ride a 250 when he does get back on a bike.” Having someone like Dungey in your corner can only help in my opinion and this is a real coup for the GEICO Honda team. It’ll be interesting to see how it plays out and helps the team. Stay tuned for that.

By Cudby/KTM

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troy lee designs A few prize pieces of outwear from the clothing section of the brand new Troy Lee Designs website (have a browse for a more modern and facelifted page). The TLD Adidas Rain Jacket (right) is pricey at 285 dollars but the use of the Adidas Climaproof technology will be familiar to anyone using the brand’s fitness wares and is premium stuff. The insulated version (Insulated Jacket Solid) uses PrimaLoft Gold for warmth without adding too much bulk. Expect to pay a similar price. The 2020 Dawn Jacket (175) is inspired by the KTM SX team and has 800 fill fibre for some of the best insulation found in a jacket of this ilk.

Interestingly TLD state the coat is made from ‘High-Tech “SUSTANS”, a sustainable filler made with “Dupont Sorona”, a renewable bio-based ingredient that has no dependency on oil and petrochemicals is used throughout. In fact, Sorona requires 30% less energy to manufacture and the process reduces GHG emissions by 63%.’. The Pit Jacket 2020 (139 dollars) takes the TLD KTM race theme further forward. It is built from a three layer soft shell, which is also Teflon coated for water resistance. The emphasis with the Pit Jacket is for warmth, dryness and that racing look. It comes in five different sizes.

COMMENT

WHEREâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S IT ALL GOING TO END? Words by Roland Brown Photos from respective manufacturers

COMMENT

ucati Streetfighter V4: 205bhp. Kawasaki Z H2: 197bhp. KTM 1290 Super Duke R: 177bhp. MV Agusta Brutale 1000: 205bhp. Top speed of all these four recently released hyper-naked contenders: over 180mph – or as fast as you can hold on, given that they all have sit-up-and-beg riding positions, and their sum total of wind protection is virtually zero. Contemplating this latest batch of 2020-model metal, recently unveiled at the EICMA show in Milan, I momentarily felt like some bemused old fellow with no grasp of what these modern bikes are or who they’re intended for. Then I realised, perhaps slightly worryingly, that their target audience is basically… me. After all, I currently own an Aprilia Tuono V4R – a 167bhp V4 that was arguably the original hyper-naked bike when launched in 2011 – so am in theory perfectly placed to be tempted by its updated rivals. And I am tempted, but perhaps it’s just that some of this latest bunch have topped the 200bhp mark that makes them seem, well, slightly excessive, even to this fully paid-up member of the hyper-naked appreciation society. That, and the fact that while the Tuono does actually incorporate a small but useful half-fairing and remains very much within the spirit of the un-faired hooligan class, of these latest rivals only the Kawasaki - with a tiny flyscreen - makes any attempt at breeze diversion. In a way it’s crazy. What’s the point of developing these amazing machines that are good for over three times the national speed limit (German and Manx readers excepted), when you can’t use the best part of that performance without having your shoulders dislocated or growing a neck like an NFL Linebacker?

But in another way, it makes perfect sense. Hyper-naked bikes aren’t primarily about going fast; if that’s your priority you can ride a superbike with clip-on bars and a fairing. Sporty naked bikes are appealing because their riding positions work at normal speeds, and you don’t feel you always have to wear full leathers to ride them. And because they feel fast – and the more you’re getting battered by the air, the more thrillingly fast they feel. Kawasaki’s Z H2 is a special case because its most important air isn’t even the stuff that’s smashing into your chest at speed, it’s the intake charge that is being forced into the engine by a supercharger. The Z H2 is the latest in Kawasaki’s range of blown bikes, following the faired Ninja H2 and H2R and sports-touring Ninja H2 SX.

COMMENT: HYPER NAKEDS

COMMENT

COMMENT: HYPER NAKEDS WORLDSBK POR

“OTHER MANUFACTURERS PRESUMABLY REASONED THAT PROVIDING ZERO WIND PROTECTION IS A MUCH SIMPLER WAY TO MAKE A HYPER-NAKED BIKE FEEL FAST. HARD TO ARGUE WITH THAT, THOUGH I’M NOT TOTALLY CONVINCED...”

TEST Forced induction is a tuning trick that has never made sense to me – going right back the turbocharged bikes with which all four Japanese firms wasted huge amounts of yen and development time in the Eighties. Back then, Kawasaki’s ZX750 Turbo, Honda’s CX500 Turbo and the rest had the incentive that many motorcyclists were desperate for more power than could be provided by a conventionally aspirated 750cc four, let alone a 500cc V-twin. But quick and capable as the ZX and CX Turbos were in their day, and convincing as the appeal of, say, 1000cc performance from a 750cc turbo-bike might initially sound, there’s a flaw in the argument: a forcedinduction middleweight producing litre-bike power needs a litrebike chassis, not a middleweight one. The ZX750 Turbo of 1984 confirmed that by being heavier and slightly less powerful than the simpler GPZ900R that arrived a year later to end the shortlived turbo craze. If forced induction made little sense back then - when we would have welcomed the extra stomp that a turbo GPZ900R might have provided - it’s even more unnecessary now. After all, Kawasaki could easily have enlarged and tweaked the Ninja ZX-10R’s 988cc engine to give much more than its current 200bhp. But that’s not really the point. Kawasaki presumably decided to add the blower instead after concluding that a hyper-naked’s appeal is not primarily about performance, it’s about sensation. The impact of the Ninja H2 and H2R confirmed they were right. Never mind whether a supercharger is the logical method by which to generate torque and power; if it makes a bike more fun to ride or just more rewarding to own, it’s doing a vital job.

Like its Ninja predecessors, the Z H2 has been designed to howl under acceleration and chirp when you change gear; to give owners technology to marvel at or brag about. The other manufacturers presumably reasoned that providing zero wind protection is a much simpler way to make a hyper-naked bike feel fast. Hard to argue with that, though I’m not totally convinced. I love my Tuono and I’m well-up for the idea of upgrading to the latest version, or one of its new rivals. A tad more shield against the elements would be welcome, though; perhaps it’s time to make hypernaked bikes a bit more useful. In the meantime, this latest batch is sure to provide strained shoulders and plenty of excitement.

COMMENT: HYPER NAKEDS

PRODUCTS www.motogpbook.com

2019 MotoGP season story Official review or Motocourse? Honestly, there isn’t much competition when it comes to a MotoGP yearbook but at least the officially licensed version has one of the best writers in the sport – Mat Oxley – taking care of the narrative and the contents. 2016 pages move across a technical review, the bikes, riders, races and support classes and the book went to press less than a fortnight after the season finale in Valencia, so it has been chronicled as the championship progressed. As per usual the MotoGP Season Story is a licenced product but the best thing publishers Motocom have done is keep the sharp, critical and analytical eye of Oxley onboard.

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WorldSBK TOP 5

JONATHAN REA KAWASAKI RACING TEAM

What can be said about Rea’s title winning season that hasn’t already? This was Rea at his best. He was relentless throughout the campaign. He was peerless when opportunities presented themselves. He was also riddled by doubt at times. Meeting him for a coffee at a motorway services outside Dublin in May left no doubts in my mind; Rea thought the title had slipped away. Ducati came out with the best bike we’ve seen for decades in WorldSBK. Bautista was a steam roller. Win after win for the Spaniard. Defeat after defeat for the Northern Irishman. It was weighing on his head. “I have to win in Imola and show him who I am” said Rea. From that rainy moment onwards he never left a weekend having been outscored by Bautista.

By Steve English Photos by GeeBee Images

WORLDSBK POR

Second in the championship. History maker. On paper Bautista’s debut WorldSBK season has been incredibly impressive. Racing however plays out on the asphalt, not on the statistics sheet. With that being so, Bautista’s collapse is one of the most stunning in memory. The riders below him didn’t plunge to the same depths on their bad days, but neither did they rise to the heights of Bautista at his finest. When I asked him about his season he said: “I never expected anything like this season. It’s been crazy.” Throwing away a 61 point lead was indeed ludicrous. How did it happen? In two stages, gradually and then suddenly. Suddenly, due to confidence and perhaps some SBK inexperience, Bautista was a title bystander.

ALVARO BAUTISTA DUCATI RACING

WorldSBK TOP 5

ALEX LOWES PATA YAMAHA Lowes spent the winter sticking to a mantra “Testing is about getting ready for a 13 round season, not Australia.” This was put to the test when Australia proved to be a tough weekend. But Lowes quickly established himself as a consistent challenger who had ironed out the mistakes and he was ready to make the step. Even though he didn’t add to his win tally in 2019, he was able to prove again that he has all the tools needed. Out-qualifying Michael van der Mark at all but two rounds showed his speed. When push-came-to-shove he dominated his rivals for third in the standings at the final round in Qatar. Mid-season he could have unravelled after the clash with Rea at Jerez, but instead of dwelling on the incident like he would have in the past, Lowes boarded a plane for three days of golf in Portugal. “It was what I needed. It reminded me that I love racing but you need to step back from it sometimes.”

WORLDSBK POR

TOPRAK RAZGATLIOGLU PUCCETTI RACING KAWASAKI The Turk showed his potential in 2019, which everyone knew was always there. Working with Phil Marron as his crew chief brought out the best in Toprak, and the rewards were there to see with two wins in France and thirteen podiums through the year. In Australia Marron spoke about having to calm his new charge to get the most from him. In Thailand it was about keeping him focused. From that point onwards, Toprak started to soar with podiums at eight consecutive rounds. A move to Yamaha for 2020 will bring new challenges, but don’t underestimate him.

The Dutchman rounds-out the list of top five riders in 2019, and with a win at Jerez and fourth in the championship there’s arguments to be made for him being higher on this list. Having been soundly beaten in qualifying by his teammate Lowes though, it also shows that there is room for improvement in 2020. Paired up with Toprak Razgatlioglu for next year, the inter-team battle will be as intense as ever. Having been in the fight for third until the last round of the year, van der Mark’s season petered-out and he’ll know that he needs to show sign of more progression next year. WorldSBK insiders have long said that if “Mickey worked half as hard as he is talented, he’d be unstoppable.” Collaborating with Andrew Pitt next year might unlock the final piece of the puzzle.

MICHAEL VAN DER MARK PATA YAMAHA

SBK BLOG

TIME FOR REFLECTION...

More than Europe’s largest MC store

In the last few weeks of the year most people take time to wind down, get ready for the Christmas holidays, and inevitably reﬂect on the year. For me it tends to be more a time to prepare for the coming year. 2019 is gone and I have to start arranging travel and accommodation for the first few races of the forthcoming season. However, I am now of an age that when I look back things become a bit of a blur. It seems like only the other day I was doing exactly the same thing and getting ready for another year on the road. 2019 was pretty eventful and like every year, despite doing more or less the same thing, it threw up a few curve balls that made it memorable. When we get started in January everything becomes super-condensed. With WorldSBK there is such a short time from the end of the testing ban in January until the cut-off date in February for the teams to have all the freight packed, ready for collection and transported to Australia for the final test and first race of the new season. I learned an interesting fact a few years ago at the press launch of the KRT team that they have ship-

ping containers that are simultaneously travelling around the world by sea. These contain the tool chests, pit box displays and the kitchen for the hospitality staff. This enables them to fill their freight allowance with Dorna with bikes, engines, and as many spare parts as they can fit in. It is also a cheaper option to have shipping containers travelling between Barcelona, Phillip Island, Thailand, California, Argentina and Qatar, than to pay for extra air freight to transport everything they need along with the bikes. Nonetheless the last weeks in January and first in February were jampacked with tests, studio shoots, team launches and then travel to Australia. Last year I was involved in the pre-season testing and studio photoshoots for both WorldSBK and MXGP and it meant three and a half weeks on the road that took me from southern Spain, to Portugal, back to Spain and on to Sardinia.

The season then started with a bit of a stutter. We are required to get a temporary work visa for travelling to Phillip Island which requires some specific paperwork from the circuit and Dorna to accompany the application. This wasn’t made available to the media until during that period when I was on the road and given my schedule it was a few days before I had time to sit down and fill the on-line application. It was still three weeks till I was due to travel, and in previous years it has taken as little as two days to be approved, but this time it never arrived in time. So after a few days of frantic phone calls and emails and about £1000 lighter in rebooked flights and rental car, with help from the staff at Phillip Island circuit, I finally got everything in place and was on the way. At that point I was filled with a bit of trepidation for the rest of 2019: is this year going to be one of hassles and travel woes? In the end it wasn’t so bad.

By Graeme Brown

The only other major drama was that our hotel in Imola unexpectedly cancelled our booking 3 days before the race weekend. They said it was because I hadn’t confirmed but I reckon it was because I had booked it on the off-chance of getting the date right back in October of 2018 (a benefit of the free cancellation facility on booking.com) and had a really cheap rate. After it was cancelled I looked again and guess what - it was three times more expensive per night over the weekend. It meant another afternoon spent on the phone and email but Booking came up with a solution and matched the price for us. One element of each year that you can’t predict is actually the elements. Some years you never see a drop of rain at a race weekend but in 2019 so much of the season was affected by the weather. It also caused a fair degree of tension amongst the riders that would carry right through the year until the penultimate round in Argentina. It really started in Assen when the Dutch spring weather turned a bit wintry. A harsh northerly wind blew over the flat lands of Drenthe and

brought really cold temperatures and frequent wintry showers. If you read back over the press releases you would think it was horrific with the term “snow storm” used in more than one. As a Scotsman I can safely say it was nothing like a snow storm, there were a few flurries that melted when they hit the ground but from a racing perspective the track temperature was so low that it was declared unsafe and race one on Saturday was cancelled. That was the first of a few rider debates throughout the season over whether racing should take place or not. As with any poll - or a group of people - you will get differing opinions and there were those that were adamant that it was not safe to race and others that wanted to just get on with it. We had an almost repeat situation at Imola at the following round when heavy rain disrupted the action on Sunday. Race two was cancelled as again there was a majority of riders who didn’t want to compete. It shone a light, once more, on a lack of robustness in race direction that we had groups of riders, discussing and debating the issue in pit lane with race direction, staff form Pirelli and the FIM Safety Officer.

It was all very public and on reflection not the best way to deal with the matter. I will happily be corrected but my understanding from the past was that the riders voted for a safety representative amongst themselves and that rider/s had a private discussion with the Race Director over these issues and a decision was taken and announced. In 2019 we had a situation where all the cooks were asked to add to the broth and inevitably it was spoilt. We had heavy rain again in Misano but the system worked and after a delayed start we got a good, dramatic race. The issue came to a head however in Argentina where the high track temperature caused an issue this time and we were once more met with groups of riders and officials standing in the paddock having an impromptu debate which gave rise to the now dubbed ‘San Juan Six’ and the first time that I have ever photographed an event where riders protested and refused to race. Whichever side you fall on in the argument I think everyone can agree that nothing good that came out of the debacle.

SBK BLOG

These pit-lane and paddock debates are one of my key memories of 2019 and I hope that some measures have been put in place to prevent similar scenarios in the future. Least of all so that I don’t have to stand out in the rain any longer than necessary. Back on the globe trotting, my big excursion of the year was in July when I travelled to Laguna Seca, back home and straight to Suzuka in Japan for the 8 Hours. I love both trips. I really like California as a destination and with only the WorldSBK class at the Laguna event it allows us to have a little bit of a more relaxed weekend. Suzuka on the other hand is a complete contrast. I wrote about this is in the summer but with no service road transport around the track it has to be covered completely on foot and after the 10 or so hours you are on the go on Sunday it is a tough shift, but I love it. I also enjoy travelling to Japan so whilst it is tiring barreling around 36,000km and crossing back and forth over 16 times zones, for me it is the best three weeks of the season.

WorldSBK is not visiting Laguna Seca in 2020 and I won’t know if I have work at the 8 Hours until later in the year so I will miss this trip. I suspect I won’t be sitting with my feet up however as Mrs GeeBee already has plans for me. If I look back over the racing the year it was definitely a cliched game of two halves. It harked back to 2002 when Troy Bayliss smashed the first half of the season only to be met with a rejuvenated and dominant Colin Edwards in the second half of the year, ending in that classic race at Imola to decide the title.

Ironically the races at Magny Cours were some of the best we had. The Yamaha pairing of Alex Lowes and Michael VD Mark were going toe-to-toe, fighting for third place in the championship, and always go well at Magny Cours. Alongside them Toprak Razgatlioglu had fully found his feet on his Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10RR and we got some good wheel to wheel and fairing bashing. Now that they have joined forces I hope the momentum that both Yamaha and Razgatlioglu gained towards the end of the season continues into 2020 and we get more of that same close action.

The little thing that was missing in 2019 was the consistency of the challenge of Alvaro Bautista in the latter part of the season. In the first half of the year when he was outstandingly dominant, Jonathan Rea was snapping at his heels all the way. However, after a couple of crashes and an unfortunate injury, Bautista was unable to sustain a similar challenge to Rea and we ended up at Magny Cours in France again with a JR championship win.

As always I have a lot of people to thank at this point in the year but chief amongst them are Jamie Morris and Vaclav Duska Jnr who push the buttons with me and keep GeeBee Images moving along each and every weekend. Also to OTOR and all the readers for indulging me in my ramblings each issue. I try to sail a steady course through the magazines and website posts but I occasionally veer off course and cause some disagreement and consternation…

but it is never intended and now is a good opportunity to apologise for any misdemeanors. All that is left is to wish everyone the very best for the Festive Season and every success and good health in 2020. See you next year.

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alpinestars A few pieces from the 2020 Alpinestars catalogue with Christmas so close and the final chance to get orders made before the 25th comes around. The Camo Neck Tube is made from soft 100% polyester microfiber and is seamless to ensure extra comfort. It comes in two liveries. Also available in two colours is the Domino Tech Hoodie. Alpinestars have created a garment that they describe as for ‘urban riding’ but this can also be fitted and user under a larger jacket. The product has a water repellent treatment (as well as waterproof pockets) as part of the soft outer shell, a fixed collar and hood, is pre-curved in a riding position, is well ventilated with back and chest protector compartments and level 1 lite elbow and shoulder protection. Stella WR-2 V2 Gore-tex are women’s touring gloves with high standard of insulation (Primalot Silver 80g on the top of the hand help guard against the elements) also with knuckle protection and finger bridge and a screen-ready fingertip. Lastly, and slightly more than a stocking filler, is the Supertech M10 Alloy. This helmet project from Asolo almost sums up Alpinestars’ values of offering safety but also innovation and style. Now on market for two years and a result of half a decade of development from a special helmet department in the Italian firm, the M10 is rammed full of appealing specs. The shell (in four sizes) is multi composite, with a 3K carbon outer layer for optimal strength and dissipation of impact. Ventilation through the peak, MIPS, a shell base profile to help protect collarbones, hydration tube compatibility and a lightweight 1240g for Medium size are just some of the reasons to look into the M10, there are plenty more.

FEATURE

a trium

mph?

Q+A TIME WITH STEVE SARGENT, THE CHIEF PRODUCTION OFFICER AT TRIUMPH MOTORCYCLES ON A MILESTONE FIRST YEAR AS THE Moto2 ENGINE SUPPLIER. By Adam Wheeler, Photos by Polarity Photo

FEATURE

t Valencia a handful of journalists sat down with CPO Steve Sargent to throw some questions in the evaluation of the first of three years with Triumph as the sole engine supplier to the intermediate class. MotoGP fans and viewers will be unianmous that the 765cc triple motor helped towards and closer, faster and more interesting Moto2 contest in 2019; a series that was won by Alex Marquez by just 3 points over Brad Binder – two very different riders on different chassis. The audible and lap statistics of Moto2 changed for the better in 2019 but what did Triumph make of their entry into the FIM World Championship? Did it really hit their goals? And did it whet their appetite for a stab at MotoGP? 2019 and the first year of Moto2: how has it been? Quite honestly we’ve probably exceeded our expectations. Obviously at the start of the year there was probably two main things that we wanted to demonstrate as a company. First was that we can produce a performance engine, and really deliver on a sporting level. Then obviously the other big piece was around reliability,and proving that not only can we produce an engine that performs but one

that’s durable and doesn’t give the teams any problems. So two boxes ticked, I think. How big of an issue was the reliability? We’ve had no issues at all, really. It’s an engine that we know really well. Obviously it’s developed from the 675. Everything we learned from racing the 675 has gone into the 765. So, a lot of years’ experience. We were pretty confident that we had something that was going to work as a package and something that was going to be durable but then you give it to these ‘lunatics’ to thrash around a race circuit and they do unexpected things with it! How close is the race engine to the road bike engine? How much work did you have to do on it? Did you have to do anything you weren’t expecting? Not really. In terms of what we’ve done, the 765 street triple engine does 123ps. These engines are putting out 140. So a lot of the development was not so much around the durability because we were confident that we had something that was pretty durable. It was really around getting that extra performance out of the engine. So, a lot of the changes that we made were in the top end, so in the cylinder head. That was really focused on getting the engine to breathe better. So

porting changes, for example, cam profiles, titanium valves because we’ve lifted the rev limit from the road bike engine. Valve springs, race valve springs. Then to get the engine spinning a bit faster, reducing inertia in the bottom end, so [we used a] race alternator in there rather than a standard alternator. Race clutch rather than a standard clutch. Then we’ve got different first and second gear ratios compared to the road bike engine. Then in terms of fueling, we’ve got high-flow fuel injectors in there, which are not standard on the road bike engine. But most of the rest is the same as the production bike. It was very much [as case of] tuning a road bike rather than actually going through component by component. The obvious reason for that is to keep the cost of the class down. In terms of Dorna attracting people into Moto2, it needs to be a package that is costeffective to go racing, but something that really delivers in terms of per-

You’ve had lap records and positive feedback from the teams and riders but in what way has Moto2 surprised you? Or what way has it maybe fallen slightly short of what you expected?

TRIUMPH & THOUGHTS OFXXXXXX Moto2 2019 XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXX

formance. So, it’s getting that balance really between cost, durability, and performance and trying to hit the sweet spot.

FEATURE Could Triumph have taken even more marketing exposure? You can never have too much marketing exposure, can you? I think we have exceeded our expectations. In terms of lap records, quite honestly when we started doing the development work we thought if we can get within a second of the existing lap records in the first season then that would be a decent performance. But from the ‘off’ at the first test in Jerez we were breaking lap records. It was like, this is going to be really good. Then I think we have fourteen lap records to date. Then top speed, we did over 300kmph an hour at Mugello. We topped that in Australia. So, 301.8 in Australia. So in terms of meeting expectations, I think we’ve gone beyond where we thought we’d be at this stage. Do you recognize the fact that this is like the ‘honeymoon period’? The longer the Triumph engine is in Moto2 the more it becomes like part of the furniture. It reached the point with Honda engines that there was almost kind of an apathy towards the platform… We’ve had a great introduction, I think, to Moto2. The riders have been super positive about what it allows them to do with the bike in terms of being able to pick different lines going into corners, being able to use the power, the

torque of the engine on the way out. So if you do want to outbrake somebody and brake later, you’re not penalized on the exit from the corner. So all of that stuff has been super positive for us. Quite honestly, I think next year we’ll go faster again. There’s a number of reasons for that. This year it was the first time that the riders have been to all of these tracks with this particular package. So they’ve got a season’s worth of data behind them. Next time they go to all of these tracks they’ll know what their base setup is already. We continue to work on the electronics package as well, so we’re working very closely with Magneti Marelli. All the stuff that they’ve learned this year and all of the data they’ve collected has

allowed them to continually refine the engine too. So I think next year all of the teams will come to the party with a better starting package. Then Dunlop have learned a lot. This is their first season with the triple engine. So they’ve got a whole load of data that they can take into next season as well. Quite honestly, I think next year we’ll continue to set some records. The Dunlop tyre change in the middle of the season: did that affect you? Did that make any difference? It affected some of the riders, I think, more than it affected us. If you look at the phases of the championship this year, [Lorenzo[] Baldassarri came out in the first three rounds

How has the process been with the chassis manufacturers? Have you learned from them? Or has it been very much: “here’s the engine, get on with it…”? We released the engine data to them - in terms of all the dimensions - quite early on so they could start developing their chassis. And then we’ve also been involved with supplying them with their own private test engines. Obviously the race engines they don’t get to take away with them. They get boxed up and sent to the next round. We’ve certainly been working with them in terms of supplying private test engines to use. Have we learned anything about chassis design? Only kind of anecdotally, really. I would say that the teams have all been very good at giving us feedback on stuff that they would like to see changed on the engine, which has really not been much at all. A lot of that has been around the electronics package more than the actual mechanicals of it. It’s interest-

ing to see what some of these guys do with their chassis designs. We obviously have our own R&D department. We have our own theories about what a good chassis is. I wouldn’t say we’ve learned too much on that side. I think if you look at the two engines between the Honda and the Triumph, the engine mount points are very, very different. So, it was always going to be a case that people were going to have to figure out what was the right amount of stiffness versus flex on their chassis. Inevitably in the first season, somebody was going to get that wrong at the start until they had got a little bit more miles under their belt. I think next season you’ll see that they’ve all learned something and it will be probably a bit closer. In terms of resources, everything that Triumph is putting into Moto2, is that stable for you as a company? Is it manageable? Can it be amplified even more? Yeah. We’ve got a three-year contract and we’ve got an option to extend that. We’ll start some discussions with Dorna fairly soon about what the options are. In terms of our budget, from day one we’ve known that we’ve got three years to make the most of it. We’re working as hard as we can to do what we can with that.

Could you give an example of some of the R&D work that’s gone back to the factory from Moto2? So, again, in terms of inlet port and exhaust full profiles, a lot of the gains that we made with the Daytona Limited Edition was about getting a freer flow. So we had a cylinder head but also through the exhaust as well. There are things that we’ve learned in terms of what these guys have done with exhausts and free flowing exhaust that have helped [us]. We’ve had some gains from some of the coatings on some of the internal components on the engine, so reducing friction. So that’s all positive stuff that can feed back in. Just to come back to your point, obviously the marketing piece is key. People generally go racing for two things: one to improve their R&D, and the other is to obviously get marketing exposure for the brand. I think where MotoGP and Moto2 is really important is that if you look at the average age of a MotoGP audience compared to the average age of motorcyclists generally, it’s slightly younger. I think as an industry we’re all struggling with how do we get more and more people into motorcycling? And how do we get people riding a Triumph motorcycle at a younger age than they currently do? Then this audience is absolutely perfect for that.

TRIUMPH & THOUGHTS OF Moto2 2019

really flying. We were all sat here thinking ‘this guy’s going to walk away with it’. I don’t think the tyre change did him a lot of favours. Some of the other riders struggled with it. Then obviously Alex [Marquez] got on with it really well. Started picking up wins and podiums and stuff and has been super consistent.

FEATURE Have you been able to measure the marketing impacts? Triumph seem to be much more prominently present than Honda ever were in Moto2… Yeah. Quite honestly that’s one of the reasons that Dorna were excited about us coming into the championship, because we do want to be proactive with it. Obviously we want to promote the Triumph brand, but we also want to promote Moto2 and get the excitement building around Moto2. So, every single round we do social media pieces around what’s going on. We see the social media reach that we get from that, and it’s impressive. That’s a big win compared to just putting out a standard piece about other stuff that’s going on. Can you take something like EICMA or Motorcycle Live as a gauge? Before people would flock to look at something like the latest Scrambler. Is there a sense that more people are interested in Moto2? Is there more enthusiasm around the sports side of the portfolio? Yeah. I was at EICMA. It was quite impressive to see the number of people coming over and sitting on the street triple. We also had the Daytona Limited Edition there. There was quite a crowd around that on the public days. So you get a sense of that. Where we really start to get a sense of it, I think, is when the selling

season starts in the spring. Obviously, we’ve just launched an update for the Street Triple that essentially uses the same engine that we’ve been using in Moto2. It will be interesting to see what deposits and what interests we start getting in the street triple update off the back of Moto2. From a British perspective and perhaps at a time when the UK is probably lacking some top-class riders coming through do you feel that Triumph is helping a little bit in terms of British exposure? Do you find any kind of pick up from the mainstream media? I think there’s that side to it in terms of getting exposure in the UK, but the other side is that when we’ve had discussions with Dorna, we’ve always been quite clear that - as far as we’re concerned - we want to see some Brits in the championship. As a British brand it’s quite important for us to have Brits. Obviously we sell globally [and] our ideal scenario would be a Frenchman wins in France, a Brit wins in the UK, a Spaniard wins in Spain! But certainly we’ve made it quite clear that it is important for us to have some Brits in there. Have you ever considered having a Triumph factory team in Moto2? Has that discussion happened? To be fair, Dorna were quite clear from the start that they

saw the engine supply as being separate from the chassis manufacturers. I guess as much as anything that’s to make sure that there’s a level playing field. I’m sure if we came into the championship from day one and said, “we’re going to supply the engine and the frame,” there would be a lot of teams going, “Whoa, hang on a minute. That seems a little bit unfair.” So that’s not really something we’ve considered doing. Is this also a way to dip your toes in the water of MotoGP maybe in four, five, six years’ time? Or do you think the cost of that would not outweigh the benefits? Cost is obviously massively different in developing a MotoGP bike and going MotoGP racing but I think what Moto2 has done has opened-up the eyes of people within the company in terms of what racing can do in getting your brand out there and creating exposure. So we’re not going to rule anything out. We review these things on a regular basis. We report back to the board every month what’s happened in Moto2, what kind of reach that we’ve achieved out of it and all those kind of things. Inevitably there will be discussions around ‘how do we do more of this kind of stuff?’ Whether that leads to racing in other championships, I think we’ll have to wait and see.

TRIUMPH & THOUGHTS OF Moto2 2019

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