On-Track Off-Road issue 199

#GETD SHARPER

KTM 890 DUKE R The KTM 890 DUKE R delivers exactly what you’d expect from its R-rating. An aggressive, track-ready seating position, race-bred WP suspension and a blistering 121 hp compel you to slice through apexes with laser-like accuracy.

Please make no attempt to imitate the illustrated riding scenes, always wear protective clothing and observe the applicable provisions of the road traffic regulations!

The illustrated vehicles may vary in selected details from the production models and some illustrations feature optional equipment available at additional cost.

DUKED Photo: R. Schedl

MotoGP

NOT TOO

BLUE

The only factory to offer a glimpse of how MotoGP rider interaction with media is likely to occur for the opening half of the proposed Grand Prix schedule were Suzuki with several busy Zoom calls. Team Suzuki Ecstar had contract renewals with their riders Alex Rins – star of a feature in this issue – and Joan Mir to discuss but Team Manager Davide Brivio also explained some of the potentially radical cost-cutting measures in the series; one of which might be a shortened MotoGP weekend.

“Another way we considered – in the future – to save costs is a shorter weekend and spend less time away,” the Italian said. “Also, less time away would be a health issue: the more time you stay outside and more people together then the risk increases. We didn’t really come out with a precise proposal yet…but I think after stopping [technical] development we are all open and available to consider any solution.” Although Dorna Sports told us at the end of 2019 that such a way to trim MotoGP was not part of the plan it seems the reverberations of COVID-19 could still alter the shape of the sport.

Photo by CormacGP/Polarity Photo

FEATURE AMA-SX

7 GRAINS OF SALT Only days away from the extreme end to the AMA Supercross series means most teams and riders will be on their way to ‘isolate’ in Salt Lake City for the rapid-fire clutch of races to determine the outcome of the 2020 contest and, in particular, the close chase between Ken Roczen and Eli Tomac for the 450SX crown (both looking to be firsttime champions in the class). When it came to creation of the closed-door affairs at the Rice-Eccles Stadium, Feld Motorsport’s Director of Operations Dave Prater took a press conference call last week to explain. “Getting the season done; that was our goal and most of all to do it for the fans. The plan is to control what we can control and our biggest concern is the health and safety of everyone involved. That’s our top priority.” Like most sports, Feld say they “rely heavily on fans for the revenue stream” so SLC – chosen for the relatively low number of cases and availability of the facility (“there will be a frenzy for venues in the fall when this thing starts to loosen,” says Prater) – represents a big outlay for the organisers and their ambition to fashion seven different tracks in three weeks. “We wanted to give the teams ample time – at least two weeks – to adapt from supercross to motocross so we always had seven as the goal.”

Supercross was last active twelve weeks ago.

Photo by James Lissimore

FEATURE MXGP

RUNNING STORY Silly season rider transfers would appear to be extra ‘silly’ at this current time but there is no doubt which athlete is at the top of the list when it comes to contemplation of MXGP in 2021. Red Bull KTM already have 19 year old Jorge Prado on a multi-year deal and 25 year old Jeffrey Herlings recently committed to another three seasons on the works 450 SX-F. What does that mean for their most decorated racer in the premier class: Tony Cairoli?

The Sicilian has spent almost his entire GP career with KTM Team Manager Claudio De Carli and the same tight crew from Rome. The operation is now successfully guiding the career trajectory of double world champion Prado. Cairoli will be 35 in September but is now into his eleventh season in orange and it was only last month that he passed the tenth anniversary of his first KTM win: with the 350 SX-F at Mantova. There is little doubting Cairoli’s enormous stature within the walls of the Munderfing Race HQ but can the Austrians field three big hitters again in 2021? Perhaps the contract is already being prepared as Cairoli has not voiced a single concern about walking away from MXGP just yet. It is also difficult to imagine #222 in any other colour. With 89 GP wins and 9 world championship Cairoli is just 11 triumphs and 1 title away from the all-time records held

by Stefan Everts.

Photo by Ray Archer

WHERE’S THE BUZZ? ALMOST TEN YEARS AGO ELECTRIC BIKES WERE OPTIMISTICALLY TOUTED AS THE FUTURE OF OFF-ROAD RACING. MotoGP CHARGED AHEAD WITH MotoE AND THE ISLE OF MAN DABBLED WITH TT ZERO BUT MOTOCROSS AND MXGP HAVE YET TO SEE ANY SIGNIFICANT COMPETITIVE SERIES OR EVENTS COME TO THE FORE. WHY?

By Adam Wheeler Photos by KTM/S.Romero/Christophe Desmet/Sur-ron/E-Scape/Event Park

FEATURE

B

ack in 2012 when KTM unveiled their FreerideE concept (eventually arriving in dealers in 2014) it was seen as both a travellator to the future and a problemsolver in-one. The high cost of the motorcycle and speculative battery life were the main downsides against the sizeable benefits of low maintenance, ease-of-use, zero emissions and negligible noise: the last two issues were (and still are) heavily affecting the status of off-road racing, particularly in Europe with track closures and environmental concerns narrowing potential and threatening the sport.

Smaller brands were already on the market - like Quantya and Zero - or would soon emerge such as the nowdefunct Alta – and curious fixtures sprung up such as the Ride Green Eco Enduro (2009) and the FIM sanctioned E-MX at the Zolder circuit in Belgium in 2013 that ran until 2016.

Midway through the decade MXGP promoters and organisers Infront Motor Racing insisted they were “ready and waiting” to help establish an electric bike category as a support class at Grands Prix.

But a serious approach from manufacturers never materialised. While Alta turned heads with effective exhibition appearances in Supercross

and the E-MX drew big names such as contemporary MXGP racers and ex-world champion Stefan Everts, the expected growth and influence did not occur. Electric vehicles blossomed through new companies and flowed into urban mobility and ‘runarounds’ such as powered scooters but off-road stalled. The fact that the bikes weren’t - or

couldn’t be - raced was damning. There were concerns that caused initial optimism to wane like a rapidly depleting cell.

“We saw that the motorcycle market was unwilling to pay big money for the relatively restricted durability or energy in the power pack,” says KTM’s OFFROAD

“OFF-ROAD MIGHT LOOK TO THE ASPHALT FOR ENCOURAGEMENT. DUCATI, YAMAHA, KAWASAKI, HONDA/MUGEN AND HARLEY DAVIDSON HAVE ALL JOINED ZERO AND ENERGICA – TO NAME BUT TWO – IN PUBLIC DECLARATIONS OF THEIR ELECTRIC BIKE CONCEPTS AND SPECULATION. COMPARED TO CARS AND HYBRIDS, BIKES ARE STILL SCARCE ON THE STREETS...”

WHERE’S THE BUZZ? ELECTRIC BIKES

Product Manager Joachim Sauer, specifically on the company’s Freeride-E product that spawned Enduro, Motocross and then a Supermoto model in 2014, followed by a second generation in 2018. “An off-road motorcycle is not the ideal vehicle for electric drive because the customers would like to have autonomy; at least an hour on a motocross track or to make 200km on road

FEATURE

and trails. If you wanted to achieve this then you’d need a big block of battery, and even with the latest cells on the market capacity is always limited. You’d need an even bigger block than we have on the Freeride-E and that’s heavy and very expensive. If you put a lot of work into such a vehicle then it just raises cost.

This is the current conflict between mileage and price.”

The Freeride-E gained good reviews and plenty of attention but only the Enduro

version remains in the current KTM catalogue. None of the other major motorcycle manufacturers have tackled the segment.

“Electric just seems to be ‘potentially’ superior to petrol: no gears, bags of torque but it has to be housed in a chassis that rides well,” points out Stuart Rutter, Managing Director of the UK E-Scape riding facility for the last six years and working in e-motorcycling since 2005. “Too many electric manufacturers

Cumbersome models gave way to lithe, ‘bicycle-esque’ creations. The Chinese SurRon has apparently been popular in the UK and has provided hope that the fuse has not totally blown for offroading. “We are seeing that more people want real power and that’s the beauty of the product because you’re talking about 7kW at 52kg which gets people from 0-47/48 really quickly; it’s about the same as a 200cc two-stroke,” remarks Jamie Masterman, UK Sales Director. “Other brands try to replicate their dirtbikes but that’s not what electric is all about.”

Sur-rons have been used and tested by the renowned Nitro Circus live action sports show.

“We have dealers using them for enduro and trial and

getting on tracks where they can get three hours of use out of it,” Masterman claims.

“There is interest and demand for the bikes. We were at the 2019 Goodwood Festival of Speed and we did more than 450 tests across the four days.”

“We are seeing motorcyclists that were avid enduro riders or greenlaners and were tired of a) the lack of places to ride and b) having to load up the van, take the bike to a track, pay the fees and come back and do it all over again,” he adds of the clientele. “With electric they can be far more discreet and realistic about where and when they want to ride.”

One boon that didn’t quite materialise were urban e-bike ‘parks’: inner town/city facilities where the products could have been ridden and raced.

On KTM’s RIDEKTM website there are thirteen facilities listed through Europe; five in Austria. The sites provided valuable R&D data in the initial development cycles for the Freeride-E. “That was something that was important in the beginning and we had some projects where we gave prototype models to the parks for experience and feedback from customers and form a durability test,” says Sauer.

“Today, there are not many new things coming back.”

WHERE’S THE BUZZ? ELECTRIC BIKES

(in the past, as they have all gone bust) tried to seduce the customer by the fact that their product was ‘electric’ and forgot that it has to actually ride well. The one bike that looked like it was going to really deliver on all fronts was the Alta - but they too went bust. This is the problem. We have one manufacturer, KTM, who are producing a credible bike - but that bike costs over £10k. Aside from Sur-Rons efforts, (and yet to be fully evaluated), the off-road scene has been abandoned by the main players.”

FEATURE “The bikes are ideal for such an activity but for the majority of park owners it’s not a positive business case,” he adds. “We give them special conditions for buying those bikes but during the season if you buy ten then you need the support equipment involved and, for the majority, it simply wasn’t a big enough business case. It’s shame because you could easily have mini-cycle

Rutter explains the logistical and practical – even cultural - realities of operating such a set-up. “We only run on Thursday, Fridays (mornings only) and Saturdays and limit the numbers for safety,” he explains. “We try and keep each class to no more than 14 riders, so in total about 70 taking part in classes per week and then members who just come in and ride will add

electric components. Running all through the winter, as we do, poses some problems for the bikes such as additional power washing but we still run a normal schedule all year round.”

races in parks in city centres.

These parks – the ones that are professionally run – make a small profit from them but some others had to give up the idea.”

another 30-40. So around 350 a month.”

a commercial return. With so few options in terms of adult bikes, the investment is high, the repair and damage to bikes is also high. The insurance and liability implications put many people off as they don’t realise what they are letting themselves in for.

Go-Karts are often cited as a similar activity: it’s not. You

Despite steady attendances that sees E-Scape (that use Freeride-Es) as one of the few venues bucking the trend,

“The limitation is also based on bike numbers and keeping classes manageable,” Rutter adds, “We often have three or four bikes out of action. The other factor is wear-and-tear on the bikes and gear and the somewhat fragile nature of the

“Generally, they [e-bike parks] are not commercially viable,” he opines. “Urban area land is more expensive than greenfield land - so there has to be

minimum being sixteen years old,” she says. “Many are inexperienced riders but also experienced ones who find it fun to try electric.”

spout on about being a great rider are usually terrible and a massive liability.”

continues. “In Denmark, cross lanes around the country are closed due to noise and the environment: with the conversion to electricity, these lanes and circuits could be preserved.”

Heidi Friis works at the immaculate Event Park in Løsning, central Denmark. “We hold events for all types of people, often corporate events where there are both sexes and for all ages, however, the

“I think the reason there are no more electric ‘cross circuits’ is that it has a huge financial cost to build it up, and then I still think the population is a little ‘scared’ of the electricity segment,” she

Back in the UK Rutter sheds some light on the bureaucratic hoops and hassle as-

sociated with establishing an e-bike park. “I used an electric prototype to convince my local authority to allow me to open a track in the centre of a village in Cheshire. Of course, noise was the main concern and we eliminated that but still had to provide a £3000 noise impact assessment. It then took another 4 years of ‘planning’ argument to allow it to be approved as both the

local authority and the locals were against it. I am a qualified Town Planner so it was only through my persistence and keeping costs down by doing all of the Planning Applications myself that made it viable. Otherwise I would have been at least £30k into Planning Consultant fees. It was complex.”

WHERE’S THE BUZZ? ELECTRIC BIKES

are safe in a Go-Kart. You are not safe on a bike, so that is why we have to train all riders before they get to ride on our track - regardless of their claimed previous riding experience. Some thank us and say they had never realised how to ride off-road. Others resent it and they are the first to crash and hurt themselves.

It’s like the first rounds of the ‘X-Factor’ here: those that

FEATURE Away from the lights of a town, there should be much more liberty with an e-motorcycle, whether it’s around a track or on private land.

However, the big box of fizzing mass between both wheels remains a sticking point. Street models might have a problem with reachable and available charging stations but offroad bikes have even more necessity for battery life. “There is a lot of enthusiasm to ride the motorcycle because you have such a torquey motor but we still suffer on the limited capacity for mileage,” says KTM’s Sauer. “I see progress though because the energy in the cells is getting better year-to-year. In the last model of the Freeride-E we put in a cell that was 50% better and it meant an hour on the track became an hour-and-a-half but the problem remained that these particular cells were even more expensive, so the price of the bike went up.

I don’t see a big market for motocross yet. If you have a fast rider on such a bike then you’d need a big block of battery in order to make half an hour of laps. For the majority that would not be enough.”

According to Masterman when it comes to the Sur-Ron range as well as his experience with Czech brand ‘Drill’, battery tech has been advancing to the point where significant gains will soon be felt. “It had

been steady,” he claims “but this year we saw a big change in the performance of the cells and much further range at a better cost. In three-months time, we’ll see another model with 30% more capacity but for only 100 pounds extra.”

In MotoGP MotoE initially attracted criticism when the Energica cells permitted short 5-lap sprints. The duration meant the championship, which has only been in existence one year, kept a firm status as a novel support class, but the tight racing, speed and novelty soon hushed the doubts enough to hear the distinctive shrill and whoosh of the bikes themselves. Road bikes – although much heavier, bigger and different animals to their offroad siblings – are seeing similar strides with battery performance, all driven by the R&D of industry peers like Tesla.

The electric American car giants made almost 400,000 cars in 2019 and saw their share prices increase thirty times in a period of ten years.

Tesla have their own technology and recently announced an innovation based on a new cheaper and longer “single crystal” NMC 532 cathode cell. The engineering could help them reach the ‘millionmile’ barrier and apparently, according to Forbes, the cost of their batteries has halved in just three years. Motorcycling

is some distance away in the dust but could be poised to follow suite. However it would still be folly to focus all energy on the energy.

“Yes, the battery is a limitation but not a major one,” Rutter offers. “For a 20-30 minute hard MX riding session the bikes still have plenty of charge left in them when the rider is totally knackered but for broader uses such as trail riding or three-hour Hare and Hound races, then currently it’s a non-starter. The chassis has to be a credible off-road spec. Manufacturers try and skimp on suspension especially and it’s just a false economy. They aim for a lightweight chassis to maximise the energy efficiency of the bike but can undermine the robustness when used in ‘proper’ off-road conditions.”

Offroad might look to the asphalt for encouragement.

Ducati, Yamaha, Kawasaki, Honda/Mugen and Harley Davidson have all joined Zero and Energica – to name but two – in public declarations of their electric bike concepts and speculation. Compared to cars and hybrids, bikes are still scarce on the streets.

“The issue, generally, is that there is no big advantage for the end consumer,” explains KTM’s STREET Product Manager Adriaan Sinke. “Unless there are significant tax

WHERE’S THE BUZZ? ELECTRIC BIKES “AWAY FROM THE LIGHTS OF A TOWN, THERE SHOULD BE MUCH MORE LIBERTY WITH AN E-MOTORCYCLE, WHETHER IT’S AROUND A TRACK OR ON PRIVATE LAND. HOWEVER, THE BIG BOX OF FIZZING MASS BETWEEN BOTH WHEELS REMAINS A STICKING POINT. STREET MODELS MIGHT HAVE A PROBLEM WITH REACHABLE AND AVAILABLE CHARGING STATIONS BUT OFFROAD BIKES HAVE EVEN MORE NECESSITY FOR BATTERY LIFE...”

FEATURE breaks or we’re talking about a city-resident who faces large congestion charges then – aside from environmental consciousness - there is not a lot of incentive to go electric.

Cars are taxed more heavily than bikes but, in some territories, running a conventional combustion engine is just as cheap. Having a company car can be just as cheap as having an electric one. When you take a e-bicycle then, in contrast, then there is a massive benefit for the end user and the popularity and usage is only growing.”

Any visitor to a cycling path, downhill mountain bike track or bicycle dealership in the last half a decade won’t have

failed to notice the proliferation of electricity. One of the top brands in cycling, Scott Sports, currently has 74 eRIDE models in their range, almost 30% of the total for the UK market. In 2015 they had 15. Scott uses Bosch battery power and the march of lighter, smaller and more forceful cells integrated into the bicycle design has been starkly evident. Don’t expect premium material for a fee much less than a traditional motorcycle.

“We’ve always driven innovation, technology and design, which allows us to offer our eRIDE range across numerous price points,” comments UK Marketing Manager Jake Gray.

“I would personally suggest that SCOTT eRIDE models are

more accessible than ever: our range extends from electric mountain bikes, trekking e-bikes, hybrid electric bikes to urban electric bikes. There are models for men, women and even kids.”

In a racing sense, bicycles were even quicker to infiltrate Grand Prix motocross, with the experimental FIM E-Xbike World Cup at Imola for the Italian round of MXGP last summer. Although the results were mixed as a spectacle (too few participants, a long race time and large gaps between the riders) the EXBGP class was won by Slovenian Anze Svetek on a Quibix; a cycle that seemed more dependent on battery

to tune and improve their Surron models and Drill,” Masterman claims.

The smart money for the future of e-motorcycling rests on urban transport and scooters – rather than sports and performance - especially in Asian markets and to suit policies like anti-pollution laws in China. In Europe a model like BMW’s C evolution with its 160km range is a fine example of a bike at the top end of the scale while cities like Barcelona are already home to hire-by-the-minute goers like Cooltra, Silence and Yego.

“In an urban setting then there are a lot of benefits: emissions, noise pollution, lower

maintenance and fuelling. If there is a smart infrastructure system for charging and permitting good range then it get very convenient to have one.

It’s a much cleaner type of ride,” comments Sinke. KTM unveiled a concept scooter at the Tokyo Motor Show almost ten years ago, have released details of their E-Speed and the firm used to produce town bikes like the Mirabell and the Mecky in the first decades of their existence.

“In London the average speed is 11mph - up to 20 in certain zones - and electric means no congestion charge, no tax, no hook up charge,” says Masterman. “It will be interesting to see where off-road goes

WHERE’S THE BUZZ? ELECTRIC BIKES

rather than pedal power. For Jamie Masterman the advantage of the electric motorcycle over the bicycle is related to speed and costs are virtually equal, with models like the Sur-Ron cheaper than some premium brands in the pedal world. “Sales of electric bicycles are bringing interest, but the prices are huge even for basic models,” he states.

“Off-road electric motorcycles with more power and several thousand pounds cheaper represent really good value.”

Apparently, the upcoming SurRon Storm will offer a staggering 23kW (30hp) of output meaning speeds up to 70mph.

There are even signs of a cult custom movement. “We are now finding people that want

FEATURE

because – going forwards – the way is not to copy a 300 enduro or motocross bike. In three-four years I think it will take 70% of consumer petrol market – without a shadow of a doubt.”

The ‘camino’ could still be bumpy. Alta Motors entered a high-profile association with Harley Davidson only for the deal to breakdown after six months and the company was eventually bought by Canadian powersport vehicles specialists (marine, snow, general mobility and karts) BRP. “BRP has been working for some time on how to create e-vehicles to bring new experiences to potential and existing riders. As we’ve said, it was never a question

of “if’’, but “when’’. We are truly excited about electric and see it as a potential opportunity for our business,’’ said Denys Lapointe, Senior Vice-President, Design, Innovation and Creative Services in a press release last year. Another press text said the acquisition of certain elements of Alta ‘includes certain intellectual property, patents and some limited physical assets from the former all-electric motorcycle design and manufacturing company. It is an opportunity for BRP to complement its ongoing research and development into this burgeoning area of expertise. BRP has no interest in restarting operations of Alta Motors and assumes no liabilities.’

“I get a bit tired of people who seem to have only just discovered this [offroad e-motorcycles] and tell me how great it all is when the reality is very different,” says Rutter. “When I exhibited the Blade T6 back in 2005 and people said ‘oh, it’s definitely the future’ then by 2020 I would have expected that future to be here. Sadly, it is not. We have not progressed much at all in those fifteen years and it doesn’t look like that ‘future’ is going to be here any time soon.”

KTM have instead decided to take the fork in the road to a smaller capacity, especially with their junior SX-E 5, presented last year. “The main focus, currently, is on low power

WHERE’S THE BUZZ? ELECTRIC BIKES

vehicles up to 5kw,” says Sauer. “So, there is the SX-E 5 and in the future we will work on 65 and 85 equivalents with electric drive and maybe options for the road but for urban use and not too much for pure competition.” The same philosophy has drawn success for mini bike/junior brands such as Oset and YCF. “For this vehicle I’m convinced electric drive is ideal way to go,” Sauer says. “The major advantage for small kids is that you have so much more control over the power. You can adjust it from walking speed up to ‘50cc’ and 50kmph and adapt the power delivery for the newcomer or for someone

with the first contact with a two-wheeler. But it can also do races. The advantage is that the bike can ‘grow’ with a kid from 3 to 10. With the right calculation and the right attitude to green energy then it’s logical and a good business case if it last five-six years.

What I hear from the market is that it [the SX-E 5] is very positive although you could always use more battery life. Another thing to remember is that if kids start riding electric bikes and get used to that power and have that attitude to ‘green’ biking from an early age then this is also important for the culture of e-mobility and motorcycles for the future.”

If there is a brand that knows racing then it’s the Austrians from Mattighofen. The company already boast more than 300 FIM World Championships across almost all motorcycle competitions. The Freeride-E might not have had the chops to make a gate in motocross or enduro but there was some talk of the SX-E 5 doing so. A promo series for kids at MXGP – an electric version similar to their KTM JNSX scheme at Supercross – was discussed.

“In reality it would be hard to make because the young kids would be lost on a GP track and a lot of adaption would be needed. In the end we gave it up,” comments Sauer.

FEATURE

Efforts to get kids racing electric continue though. “I had been in talks with a lot of federations, especially in Germany, and our subsidiaries to contact their respect federations and currently the SX-E 5 is allowed to be raced in most countries together with a combustion bike. A factor is that there are not enough bikes yet on the market to make a series! But I see in the near future – say two-three years and when other competitors enter the market, particular in the USA with people like Cobra wanting to be at Lorettas and pushing to have an electric class – I think we’ll have similar outings in more countries.”

Not all federations and governing bodies are open-minded to electric minibikes. “Believe it or not, the ACU were reluctant as electric was seen to have some advantages such as 0-30 acceleration faster than a geared petrol bike so we had to agree some limits on power and so on,” says Rutter of his plight to promote in the UK. “I think seeing top class electric offroad racing is possible, but it won’t happen - not for a

long time,” he adds. “Organisations and clubs don’t really give a toss about electric despite what they might say for public consumption and until they are forced to, they won’t give up the ’traditional’ ways of doing things. Also…there are no bikes out there! There aren’t many manufacturers so there is no commercial incentive to get bikes on a start line to prove a point.”

Again, the tools are simply not right for the job. “The product hasn’t been fit for purpose,” says Masterman. “They didn’t have the range of an enduro bike, were not cut out for motocross and were too big and unwieldy for entry level.

The bikes we are dealing with now are lightweight, low to the ground and are like a mountain bike on steroids in Sport mode.”

“For racing and whether we’ll see something like MotoE in off-road: it’s hard to predict,” surmises Sauer. “If you had asked me five years ago, I would have said ‘inside ten years’ and my answer now is that it will happen…but still within eight-ten years from now. We need several manufacturers to offer such

a vehicle. Honda showed their concept last year but it was more-or-less a modified CRF and this is not the way it should go. For a successful solution you need to start from zero, from scratch and it should be independent from any other existing vehicle.

Off-road does not play a major [commercial] role for many manufacturers. For KTM and competition - and considering the high-price and the overall demand - we don’t see the priority in this segment yet. The customers are not willing to pay the price that we’d need to charge.”

WHERE’S THE BUZZ? ELECTRIC BIKES

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FEATURE

WHAT ABOUT ALBERTO? IS THIS THE MOST EXCITING NEW RIDER IN MXGP?

By Adam Wheeler Photos by Ray Archer

I

t’s late March 2019 at Matterley Basin and a pleasantly bright British Grand Prix for the second round of MXGP. Sunday afternoon in the Media Centre and the press conference for the premier class is over. People loom in preparation for the MX2 podium finishers and support class race winners to take their seats behind the mics. Hovering alone to one side is a tall and stocky individual wearing scruffy tracksuit bottoms, a Husqvarna jacket and…a straw, feathertipped trilby. My first thought is one of slight admiration for the race fan who managed to dodge security to get a selfie with either Tony Cairoli, Tim Gajser or Gautier Paulin.

Alberto Forato then surprises me by sitting down at the table; his large grin appearing and impressive English spewing forth.

Implausibly, given his size, Forato – who’d recently turned 19 - has just dominated the opening round of the EMX250 European Championship (GP’s ‘feeder’ division) with a 1-1 moto haul: his bustling, flamboyant and confident style on

the Maddii Racing FC250 at total odds with the unconventional aspect he sports in the paddock.

Forato’s results were a blitz from the leftfield. An unexpected sight, considering his relatively low-key presence (just eight top ten moto results) in 2018 EMX250 with Honda. By the end of 2019 he’d had a much bigger profile: almost winning the Italian

TRAVERSINI: “I SAW HIM RIDING AN 85 AND TOLD EVERYBODY THAT THIS WAS THE BEST [YOUTH] RIDER ITALY HAD. THEY WERE LAUGHING AT ME THEN, NOW THEY ARE EATING THEIR WORDS...”

WHAT ABOUT ALBERTO?

national series, missing out on the EMX250 crown by just 11 points (another emphatic 1-1 coming at his home round at Arco di Trento) and an eyecatching and entertaining debut appearance for Team Italy at the Motocross of Nations.

eccentricity mean he won’t be judged seriously? (Do we – as motocross fans – even want someone who evidently breathes for the joy brought upon by their passion and vocation to be taken seriously?!).

Is Forato a bolt from the blue?

Is he yet another promising Italian talent that will shine but then falter in the steep step to Grand Prix? Will his sense of humour and outward

Forato, now just 20 and in his first year of MX2 Grand Prix, wasn’t a shock. “I knew about Alberto for a long time and he was actually one of the guys that I was keeping an eye-on

because I could see he was coming-up like hell,” says Italian Federation Motocross Technical Director and former GP rider (as well as Italian Motocross of Nations Team Manager) Thomas Traversini.

“Any bike, any condition he was so fast in the corners. He has always been a heavy guy though, and after doing well at Italian 85cc level he then moved up and was struggling in championships. Together with my colleagues we could

FEATURE

see Forato’s corner speed and we made a bet that if one guy could come out of the youth racing then it would be him.”

and we follow them more than any others,” he explains.

Forato’s first international season in 2018 came through the Italian Honda AssomoTraversini pushed for Forato tor team but differences of to be installed in the ‘Talenti opinion over his 250 and 450 Azzurri’ scheme run by the riding caused the relationship FMI which began in 2017 and to break down. “We struggled currently assists more than 70 a lot in the first year for the riders in 50 different chamnew Honda CRF and it arrived pionships. “They get some with the team pretty late,” benefits from the Federation Traversini recalls.

A lifeline came from renowned motocross figure Corrado Maddii and his son Marco – the duo responsible for the fast emergence of 2019 EMX125 champion Mattia Guadagnini, Forato’s current teammate and another rising star for Italy.

“He had a season with Honda that was not so good and towards the end of 2018 we started to speak,” Marco recalls. “Not many companies or teams were interested in him anymore but we were excited because we believed he had a lot of potential. After we did a good job with Guadagnini we wanted another challenge and that was Alberto for 2019. We started working with him and realised we’d made a good choice because he

Despite the adversity in red Forato was taking his chances to impress when he could. “In the summer of 2018 I took him to Belgium for a training camp and he was unbelievably fast, and non-stop!” says Traversini.

“He wanted to ride every day and do more and more. I was the guy who had to say “relax!” and normally it’s the opposite: you have talented kids that don’t want to work and train.”

2019 was Forato’s first campaign under real scrutiny. In EMX250 he was an undoubted protagonist but then made four Grand Prix appearances on the stock Husqvarna that further raised his stock. 7th position in the second moto through the sand of Valkenswaard in Holland for the third GP of the year marked a strong debut. The combination with the Maddii family was paying-off and a

relocation helped. “He moved from north to central Italy and the plan was that he’d head back-and-forth but he felt so good that he stayed,” Marco says. “He spent much more time than we thought.”

Italian media were also taking notice. “A lot of Italian riders with talent with good opportunities in good teams have not produced the results we were expecting,” comments journalist Lorenzo Resta. “I think Alberto has good potential but his performances were a bit up and down. He was riding like a beast in the first rounds of EMX but lost out to Roan Van De Moosdijk.”

So were some of the Italian motocross establishment. “I now have Alex Puzar [former world champion] around me, as well as a doctor; overall we are a close group and we work well,” Forato tells me after the 2020 British Grand Prix and the first meeting with #303 as a fully-fledged FIM World Championship rider.

“Alex helps me on the bike but also with my head. He’ll call me ten times a day! He called me after the first moto here in Britain and asked me how it went. I said the speed felt OK, not bad, and he said “right, now we need to keep working; we have some speed and we can win races. We need to work on it”. I said “OK!”. It’s crazy.”

WHAT ABOUT ALBERTO?

rides so well. Before he’d been largely left to do things himself, but he was just a kid and he needed people to help him and give him confidence.”

“When I told people how fast Forato was at Lommel nobody would believe me but then at Assen for the final race of the European Championship he crashed at the start and came from dead-last to 3rd.

He then crashed again and finished 4th-5th but he was flying on the track. Corrado came to me and said “f**k, you’re right! This guy is really fast: if he lost ten kilos and had a better bike he might win the championship!” That’s how Forato started with Corrado and after a good winter last year he was really strong at the beginning of the 2019 season. It’s a shame he had some stupid small run-ins with [Michele] Cervellin in the Italian Championship where he lost his mind and picked up a small injury and lost riding time. After the same summer camp in Belgium in 2019 he came back strong but the season…had already escaped him.”

FEATURE

Traversini smiles at the Puzar link: “It is a good TNT combination!” he laughs. “I’m a bit scared because it could be a bomb squad: Puzar liked the parties and of course was famous for being so talented but not really wanting to change. I have a good relationship with Alex and we had a lot of laughs together. Alberto has Corrado and Marco and good people there in the team that know what to do. Forato knows how to ride the bike so now he just needs to show it.”

Demonstrating some of that burgeoning ability and confidence will be a tough task in MX2. Forato positively dwarfs rivals like Red Bull KTM’s diminutive Tom Vialle. Although there are other tall racers in the class like Thomas Kjer Olsen and Ben Watson, ‘Alby’ has bulk.

Or, at least, he did. Recent posts on Instagram show that he’s taken advantage of the forced MXGP hiatus to trim the

WHAT ABOUT ALBERTO?

weight. It still begs the question as to whether he’d be better suited to the 450.

“I was pushing from the beginning for him to ride a 450,” Traversini says. “He has lost a lot of weight but he is still 95kg and cannot lose any more. To fight for a really important position in MX2 you need to get a start, and when you are competing with 90% of riders that are between 60-75kg then you almost need a 350! You won’t have a chance, and if you don’t have a good start then you have much more complicated races where you need to pass quickly, take risks and be closer to crashing. I suggested MXGP to Corrado, and Alberto was pumped about it but Corrado and Marco were thinking from a different direction – and it was not a bad idea…”

“He rides very well with the 450 but he doesn’t have enough experience for the MXGP class and the level is very high,” Marco Maddii explains of the scheme for 2020. “So, we planned to use the 450 in the Italian Championship and get him to the point where he might be able to fight for some top positions or top ten in MX2. Riding between 15th and 20th in MXGP: that was not the best choice for him. In MX2, on a good track he likes I think he can be top five and that gives much more motivation and gives more confidence, allowing him to grow.”

Plus, Forato has time on his side. If he can work/diet/train enough then MX2 could be a ripe hunting ground for 2021, 2022 and 2023.

“To go from 15th to 10th in MXGP you have to be really, really fast,” says Traversini. “When you are running from 15th to 20th then it’s much harder to get recognised and to get

FEATURE sponsorship. So, the plan to do MX2 for the first year in the world championship was a good one because there are many guys who have to move up to the top class due to their age and there was the chance for him to be top ten in the world. It would be a good ‘business card’ for the second year and maybe some support from a factory.”

MXGP has not been too favourable to riders jumping straight into the premier class. Only Joel Smets, Ken De Dycker and Clement Desalle were able to do so with any degree of success. Despite the temporary ‘deadend’ with the 450 Forato has not been deterred. He actually used a FC450 for the majority of his winter training for 2020 and after recovering from a broken leg; the story of which reveals some of his happygo-luck character. “During a race last winter I landed hard, the front wheel slipped and I put the leg out,” he describes.

“I didn’t crash and actually finished the lap. I said to the doctor ‘this is painful’ and he said, ‘try to stand on one leg’ and I said ‘how?!’,” he laughs.

“We went to the hospital and they confirmed the break. It was one month-and-a-half and I started riding again on December 20th.”

“My training was almost the same, but I used the 450 a lot; I think I only started on the 250 a few days before coming to Matterley! I enjoy that bike so much that I decided to race the Internazionali D’Italia – those three pre-season races – with the 450. We discussed with the team and we went for it, but only after making some tests and sessions with the 250.”

He is fully aware of the handicap out of the start gate and the same issue that affects brandmate and title favourite Kjer Olsen. Holeshots have been the domain of KTM lightweights like Jorge Prado and Vialle for the better part of two years. “Sure, I’m heavy,” he grins.

Forato smiles a lot. It’s like his predilection for fancy headwear; another outward sign of a youngster that is visually energised by what he does and likes to celebrate the fact that he is – so far – on an upward curve in his sport. In contrast to many straitlaced peers that show little of themselves or their emotions, Forato seems very transparent. It makes him endearing but also easier to be judged: is he a class act or clown? It sounds like a moot point, but appearances and perceptions can often be key, especially when it comes to signing a possibly lucrative factory contract.

“Everybody has their own character and attitude and I think you more or less have

this for the rest of your life, but Forato is pushing hard to succeed,” Traversini states.

“He likes to play and is friendly with everybody. He listens to many people and gives his time. He has a good character and such a nice guy to be with. He’s very normal. If there is a possible problem then maybe it’s some of the people around him that let him feel like a superstar already…and this is sometimes not too good.”

“I think it is a generational thing as well,” offers the benchmark for all Italian GP riders (and every other nationality), Tony Cairoli. “I think young guys show a lot of themselves on social media with Instagram and TikTok – it’s like everybody is a ‘star’ – so it depends on what they are like when they are normal and away from all that.”

“I sometimes say to him that he needs to control himself a bit better because he is now a professional rider: I think the top teams, the factory teams, will sign colourful guys…but also ones that they feel will represent the company well,” says Maddii. “He is still very young, only 20, but needs to control that side a bit more.

I don’t think he will ever be a ‘serious’ guy though, always a bit crazy because that’s him! I think he needs to be a bit free and wild.”

“He is on a team now that is not ‘factory’ but they know how to do things and take care of a lot of details,” adds Traversini. “He’s been told how to do things. He doesn’t wear the hats and other kind of stuff because he’s an asshole…but because he doesn’t think it’s important. He’s a simple guy but one that learns quickly. For example, he was always using Sidi boots and is friends with the owner of the company and would take Sidi clothing for cycling. This year he is sponsored by Gaerne and I saw he had changed the gear for the bicycle also. He said to me he knew Gaerne would not be happy otherwise: last year he wouldn’t have thought about that or given it any importance.”

Guadagnini is arguably on the faster track to stardom and has the championship pedigree to match but he doesn’t yet have Forato’s easy appeal or sense of identity. Alberto has yet to walk a grand prix podium although he’s appeared on MXGP social media channels, has a healthy online following where he’s rubbing shoulders with MotoGP Ducati ace Danilo Petrucci and has been the subject of a feature in one of Europe’s leading (and few remaining) motocross print magazines ‘Cross’ in Germany. “I am pretty sure that MXGP will benefit from a rider like him,” Resta

WHAT ABOUT ALBERTO?

CAIROLI: “FOR SURE HE IS A RIDER WITH A LOT OF TALENT BECAUSE HE LOOKS LIKE HE HAS A ‘LIGHT’ STYLE AND IS PLAYING A LOT WITH THE BIKE DESPITE HIS SIZE AND THAT’S NOT EASY...”

advocates. “He’s a funny guy but a serious worker which means he is not a clown. He has these little moments of craziness that maybe MXGP needs sometimes. There are a lot of good riders like that to work and excel but they don’t bring any colour to the show.

Having a rider with character, who is funny and who can play is a plus for the championship.”

Guadagnini tackles EMX250 in 2020 and Forato is in MX2 although career plans for almost every Grand Prix athlete are now less clear until racing resumes. Maddii sits in control of two vibrant hotshots that could try to achieve something – anything – in

Cairoli’s wake. Their ‘arrival’ would also be timely after others such as Gianluca Facchetti, Cervellin and Morgan Lesiardo did not quite make the breakthrough to GP prominence. “I think he can make it. I think he can win a GP… but he needs to work a lot, so it all depends on him,” is Maddii’s verdict. “It is always hard to say if a rider can do it…but he has that potential.

Fortunately, Alberto is a hardworking guy and he trains a lot. I see every day that he gives everything he has, and those are the ingredients you need to win a GP. He is still young and in some ways he’s not ready yet. He can be really fast, but he’s not consistent every weekend.”

“I think he has the potential to be a good GP rider,” says Traversini. “I could be wrong, but it looks like I was not wrong when I saw him riding an 85 and told everybody that this was the best [youth] rider Italy had. They were laughing at me then, now they are eating their words. But, how many times do you see people with so much potential on the bike who never quite make that final step?”

For the people getting to know Forato then there are already marks of distinction. “I like his spontaneity and that fact that what you see is what you get,” comments Resta. “He comes from an area of north eastern Italy where a country boy

2020 will be telling. The kid is undaunted. “The only one who can put pressure is me,” he says, momentarily serious in our five-minute chat.

“All I have to do is put-in 100% every time if I am on the track: if that’s 20th or 1st place then, in a way, it’s the same. That means you don’t have any pressure. Any from the fans? I really don’t know.

At the moment it’s OK!” And what about an evaluation from the ‘reference’ himself?

“For sure he is a rider with a lot of talent because he looks like he has a ‘light’ style and is playing a lot with the bike despite his size and that’s not easy,” assesses Cairoli. “If he keeps a good training programme and focussed then he will do well in MX2 and will win some races. I don’t know if it will be possible this year – normally – but he has potential to be top five very quickly.”

WHAT ABOUT ALBERTO?

really is a country boy! People like and respond to him. He is not scared of anything and that is a bonus and perhaps something also different to some other racers. He has something ‘more’.”

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MXGP SBK BLOG BLOG

TITULAR TITULAR A GRAND PRIX BLUEPRINT? One-day MXGP events in 2020: could - or should - they exist beyond the currently interrupted season? Opinions seems to be split.

When Infront Motor Racing recently contacted Grand Prix teams with a message of reassurance and several suggestions for making the FIM world championship easier to achieve in 2020 they demonstrated flexibility. As is the case with many sports, restarting and then finishing the existing campaign is a desperate goal to pay invoices and to achieve a degree of normality ahead of the next one. One of their proposals to make what could be a busy autumn/winter schedule simpler and cheaper involved a scheme that has been talked about before (but was swiftly dismissed) – single day Grands Prix - while the other was more fanciful and potentially more complicated: awarding world championship points at the Motocross of Nations.

When it comes to pushing MXGP to solely Sundays (which could be the case for all European fixtures, meaning the trips to China, Indonesia and Argentina will be all-weekenders) then the reasons are two-fold: savings and logistics. The same motivations hovered around the paddock in the past, when teams were looking to offset rising costs to complete a full series that has risen from 15 to 20 events in eight years. Practice, timed practice and two motos on Sundays would mean following a similar format to the Lucas Oil AMA Pro Nationals (that have been run on Saturdays for the last eleven years) and signify a day less of travel expenses. The notion was understandably dismissed by Infront on the grounds that ticketing potential for the clubs, circuits and organisers that stage Grands Prix would take a

substantial hit. MXGPs mean more than three days of implementing infrastructure, security and provisions but venues make money from weekend and camping entry fees. They also cited tradition. President Giuseppe Luongo had stated that GPs have always been two-day affairs and would remain so for the foreseeable.

Racing for one-day provided relief for the teams and marginally less wear on parts. For the riders it was even more beneficial. The rise of support classes at GPs in the last decade meant more and more track sessions, sometimes running from as early as 07.00 and culminating past 18.00.

MXGP and MX2 runners would often have large gaps between practice sessions and would deal with oddly shaped terrain and lines as a consequence of fielding 65, 85, EMX125,

CREATED THANKS TO

BY ADAM WHEELER

BY ADAM WHEELER EMX250, WMX, Veterans and Yamaha YZ Cup races. Saturday’s Qualification Heat race offered good value to the trackside spectator as a way of determining the order of the gate on Sunday but was seen as another risky episode; hiking the amount of starts from 40 to 60 in a season. It lost even more relevance when the metal floor mesh became standard practice in MXGP from 2016.

Infront have not been shy or reluctant towards change or experimentation. The tried the Superfinal concept for the flyaways GPs in 2013 (it was shelved after the confusion in determining overall classifications and the concerns over speed and jump-clearance between 250 and 450cc machinery). They also trimmed the lengthy forty-minute GP motos (35 minutes+2 laps) down to thirty-five (30 minutes+2 laps), although their rigidity over modification to

the polemic 23 age limit for the MX2 class has stayed firm and the ruling remains one of Grand Prix’s most controversial pillars.

“THE BIG QUESTION IS WHETHER THE FANS WANT IT. A QUICK SKIM THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA REVEALS THAT MANY WHO ATTEND MXGP ARE VERY MUCH IN FAVOUR OF SEEING MX2 AND MXGP ON TRACK FOR BOTH DAYS.” The one-day shift for 2020 comes through necessity, and Infront were quick to state it was solely for this year.

Seeing as GPs cannot be run without an attendance – some countries have already blocked public events until September – then the need to get teams into facilities, the motos run and registered and everybody out and onto the next circuit as quickly and easily as possible becomes

paramount. And that’s without any Health and Safety protocol considered. Persuading authorities to permit large gatherings for one day as opposed to two might help with any red tape; even though full EMX and WMX programmes are planned for Saturdays.

I’ve blogged several times before about MXGP and EMX splitting their timetables in a weekend. Small details such as varying track maintenance and layout between the kids of EMX and the elite of MXGP - is just one example of how the distinction could work (currently impossible with all the classes mixed).

There is also the potential use of Saturday as a ‘promo’ or ‘fan’ day where the GP riders could be put to use by sponsors and partners that arguably now need more return on their investment than simply a hurried 15 minute autograph period wedged into the schedule.

MXGP SBKBLOG BLOG

MX Sports had their hand pulled towards the one-day itinerary for the Nationals through the relentlessness of supercross. MXGP does not have that looming shadow and there is more room for manoeuvre.

The big question is whether the fans want it. A quick skim through reactions on social media reveals that many who attend MXGP are very much in favour of seeing MX2 and MXGP on track for both days.

This feedback means a hefty nail in the concept for the future, even if European spectators will probably have to endure one-dayers in 2020. Those who would eagerly like to see MXGP revert to just Sundays beyond 2020 would do well to mobilise when (if?) the chance emerges to test the timetable this season. If the show is undiminished and circuit weekend visitors feel they still get value for money (through more fan activations) then their slimming argument could still be strong and MXGP might still have an alternative blueprint.

Now, just to pull that 23-rule to 25‌

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FEATURE

A TOOL LIKE NO OTHER THE STORY BEHIND THE MOTORCYCLE THAT CREATED ONE OF THE GREATEST EVER RACE VICTORIES

Words & Photos by Roland Brown

FEATURE

C

hoosing the greatest ever motorcycle race victory is impossible. Riders have been competing on powered bikes for over a century – in numbers from two to thousands, in countries all around the world, and on surfaces from wood to tarmac via dirt to ice.

Even attempting a short-list would be incendiary.

So let’s just agree that Kenny Roberts’ win on a Yamaha TZ750 at the 1975 Indianapolis Mile – 45 years ago this summer – was, if maybe not the greatest ever victory, then at least a unique and brilliant achievement. The man they call King Kenny regards beating Harley-Davidson’s factory flat-trackers on a four-cylinder twostroke as the finest ride of his spectacular career.

ROBERTS, YAMAHA , 1975

And the bike on which he did it, if not in contention for any best racebike awards, has got to be one of the most outrageous and unlikely machines ever to take a chequered flag.

As well as one of the most short-lived, given that the Yamaha was rarely raced again before being banned from dirt-track for good.

The TZ tracker was born out of desperation. In ’75, 23-year-old Ken Roberts was Yamaha’s ace rider and the reigning Grand National champion, but struggling to defend his crown. The TZ750 four was a weapon on tarmac but Yamaha’s ageing four-stroke parallel twin was outclassed by Harley’s XR750 on the dirt tracks that dominated the calendar.

The idea for the TZ tracker had come from Yamaha’s Canadian star Steve Baker and his mechanic Bob Work in 1974. Driving through California with a new TZ700 road-racer, they discussed the possibility of using its engine in a dirt-track chassis. So they called in on Doug Schwerma, boss of race-chassis firm Champion Frames, who built a frame using the same steel tubing and dimensions as his normal twin-cylinder chassis.

Champion-sponsored rider Rick Hocking debuted the bike in a half-mile race at Ascot Park, and was encouraged, although one engine bolt and the rear axle were bent by the motor’s power. Producing over 100bhp, the TZ was in a different league to Yamaha’s parallel-twin unit and Harley’s XR750 V-twins.

The frame design was strengthened before five more were built: one each for Baker, Randy Cleek, Skip Aksland, Don Vesco (who never built his bike) and Roberts.

Roberts’ bike, built by his regular mechanic Kel Carruthers, was light, at around 145kg, and narrow despite its in-line engine and row of protruding air-filters.

On the right of the wide, curved handlebar was a tacho, redlined at 10,500rpm. On the left bar was a button wired to kill one cylinder, so power could be moderated in the corners. The right bar had no lever – flat-track regs prohibited a front brake.

The left footpeg was rearset; the right was set low and forward, to allow operation of the gearlever and rear brake.

The TZ’s first mile race was at Indianapolis, where the motor’s tyre-spinning power was too much for Baker, Cleek, Hocking and Aksland, none of whom could get on the pace. Roberts had not seen the bike before practice – which, he later recalled, was exciting. “It became immediately clear that someone was gonna die riding such a bike, or cause someone else to die. I was at the top of my game in those days, but I really began to wonder what I’d gotten myself into.”

In his heat race Roberts found so little traction that he was last off the line and nearly failed to qualify, so started the main event on the back row. “It would spin anywhere above idle,” he said.

“Lap times varied by two or three seconds a lap; it all depended on trying to get it to hook up.”

FEATURE Harley’s Rex Beauchamp, Corky Keener and Jay Springsteen diced for the lead in the 25-lap main. Further down Roberts had taken to riding not on the compacted groove like all the others but out by the fence, his sliding rear tyre clipping the straw bales. Slowly it dawned on the crowd that he and the howling TZ were gaining ground.

Keener and Springsteen were dicing at the front but Roberts was coming fast, the Yamaha slithering and snaking beneath him. By the final lap he was upon them: somehow finding some traction high up on the cushion, winding-up that mighty engine out of the last turn, then blasting past the XRs to win by inches. “The place went nuts – totally insane,” he recalled. After two laps of celebratory wheelies he parked the TZ with the immortal words, “They don’t pay me enough to ride that thing.”

Even Roberts couldn’t make the TZ find enough grip to work in subsequent races at Syracuse and San José. Tyre problems at the latter meant a DNF, handing the title to Harley-riding Gary Scott. At the end of the season the AMA limited bikes to two cylinders. Roberts didn’t complain. The TZ750 tracker, he said, “was spectacular, for sure. But it was just too crazy... really, really dangerous… I’m just glad I lived to tell the story.”

And the story wasn’t quite over. In the Nineties, collector and author Stephen Wright acquired and restored first the ex-Baker TZ, then the ex-Roberts bike, which he showed to the impressed KR at Laguna Seca in 1994. And in 2009 Roberts, aged 57, was back on the bike at Indianapolis – power-sliding the stroker around the dirt-track course on a demo lap before an appreciative MotoGP weekend crowd including Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards.

“ROBERTS WAS COMING FAST, THE YAMAHA SLITHERING AND SNAKING BENEATH HIM. BY THE FINAL LAP HE WAS UPON THEM: SOMEHOW FINDING SOME TRACTION HIGH UP ON THE CUSHION, WINDING-UP THAT MIGHTY ENGINE OUT OF THE LAST TURN..”

ROBERTS, YAMAHA , 1975

Yamaha’s YouTube video (www.youtube.com/watch?v=8k8hJWKIVNs) is well worth a watch. Greatest ever race win or not, that Indy victory of 45 years ago will never be forgotten.

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SX BLOG

THE FINAL 7...

As you may have heard, the 2020 Monster Energy Supercross series is resuming next weekend! Yay for us and the series in general!

The COVID-19 shutdown of professional and amateur sports, heck the whole world, is slowly withering away and were trying to get back to some normalcy.

Now, where you stand on this whole thing and whether or not it’s going to cause another outbreak doesn’t really matter all that much, the people and government have spoken over here in America and the re-opening is going to happen, outbreaks be dammed.

As far as our sport is concerned, the initial plan of finishing the seven rounds of supercross in the fall was scrapped after some pushback from teams and we’ve got a venue that works. All seven of the final rounds will take place in Salt Lake City, Utah on Sunday’s (day races) and Wednesday’s (night races). It seems to be an incredible feat by Feld Motorsports, the promoters

of the series, to pull this off and they’re certainly paying many respects to the COVID-19 virus.

Only preapproved team personal, sponsors, media are allowed to be there and everyone has to take a COVID-19 test (and be cleared) before they’ll be allowed in the stadium. If you leave the state of Utah, you have to re-test before coming back to the stadium.

Everyone has to stay in approved hotels, Air BNB’s and the riders motorhomes are also secure. The media will not interact with the teams and the riders and the teams must not interact with each other. Every segment of the sport is considered a “bubble” and each “bubble” is ok

to interact with each other but outside of that, it’s not encouraged. Facemasks are mandatory everywhere and of course, there will be no fans.

The field will be set at 40 riders so there will be no qualifying to get into the night show program and Feld seems confident that they will fill all the gates but it says here that there won’t be that many riders heading to Utah that don’t stand much chances of getting into the main event. Maybe at round eleven they’ll be enough riders but round 16 or 17? That should be interesting, it’s not cheap to stay on the road for riders that don’t have much at stake here.

CREATED THANKS TO

BY ADAM WHEELER

BY STEVE MATTHES The fact that the entire SX industry is going to sequestered up in Utah for a month is probably enough to make a reality TV series as well.

plenty good enough. Still, some people have grumbled about the conditions that we all have to endure and I get that as well.

The promoters have gone on record as saying this isn’t going to be financially easy on them either, they’ve announced that series ending money and individual race purse money has been cut by an average of 20% and even though they’ll collect on some NBC Sports TV money, all in all this has to be costing them something.

We have to start getting back to normal at some point and it seems that this is being done the right way. There will be temperature checks at the stadium, everyone will be tested and not much interaction with each other so in a sense, I myself feel pretty secure about the way this is going down. If a star of the sport does contract the virus though, it will be interesting to see how it all plays out.

Where you stand on the series coming back is an interesting one, it does seem like the stats for the infected are going down but then again, there have been flare-ups in some states over here that may have opened too soon.

I’m looking at you Florida and Georgia. The lengths that Feld is going to in order to keep everyone safe seem to be, in my view anyways,

I know that the hope for some people in the sport is that coming back to racing, when there is no baseball, hockey or basketball, might be the push that gets more eyeballs on the sport but call me skeptical on that. We’ve had plenty of people put plenty of eyeballs on our little niche sport and it’s never

blown up, I think in this case the general public might roll their eyes and wonder why our sport is taking this risk if I’m honest. I certainly don’t expect supercross to all of a sudden have a spike in popularity but that would be nice.

The race to crown some supercross champions is on, and whether or not it breaks into someone getting something and becoming a serous situation remains to be seen, for now though, let’s cross our fingers and go racing.

FEATURE

'WHY NOT PLAY DREAM...'

ALEX RINS’ SHY DEMEANOUR CAN BE AT ODDS WITH HIS FEROCIOUS BATTLING INSTINCTS. WE RECENTLY CAUGHT UP WITH THE SPANISH STAR TO FIND OUT HOW HE’S DEALING WITH LOCKDOWN FRUSTRATION, WHY HE’S STAYING WITH SUZUKI UNTIL 2022 AND WHAT IS REQUIRED TO OVERCOME THE FORCE THAT IS MARC MARQUEZ.

By Neil Morrison Photos by CormacGP/Polarity Photo

FEATURE

I

s there more of an enigma in the motorcycle racing world than Alex Rins?

Should MotoGP get underway in the month of July, the ever-smiling Suzuki star might just be a name to push Marc Marquez hardest. But bushy haired and softly spoken to the point of being benign, the 24-year old Spaniard who resides in Andorra appears about as likely to rough up the best of them as a kid with a lunchbox and backpack.

Through the smiles and politeness, Rins has sharpened his competitive instincts over the past two years. From a breakout performance at Assen in 2018, he has quietly become a force of his own on track, notching up two wins in the premier class and producing a string of stirring fight backs from lousy grid positions.

2020 is poised to be Rins’ best season to-date. Aware of the challenge posed by his rapidly improving upstart team-mate Joan Mir, testing performances were strong all through the winter. Aided by his guidance, Suzuki’s well-balanced GSX-RR had improved in braking and acceleration and looked capable of building on his 2019 haul of two race wins and a further podium. As team boss Davide Brivio said earlier in the year, “Why not dream?”

Rins is speaking to us from the comfort of his home in Andorra, where he has spent all of the lockdown (with the exception of a recent unwarranted trip across the border to Catalonia to test at the Circuit de Barcelona). A week before our call he had greeted assembled journalists on a Zoom call and explained his reasons for extending his stay with Suzuki amid interest from Ducati.

HIS ABILITY TO QUICKLY GET UP TO PACE ALWAYS MARKED HIM OUT IN MOTO3 AND MOTO2. RINS’ MID-CORNER SPEED WAS SO MUCH FASTER THAN ANDREA DOVIZIOSO IN QATAR LAST YEAR THE ITALIAN ADMITTED IT WAS “EMBARRASSING”.

“The first week [of lockdown] there was a lot of frustration because you are training to be at one point,” he says. “Then they say you need to be at home during the lockdown.

Then in the third or fourth week I was like, there’s nothing to do. We didn’t know when we would be on track, or why I needed to keeping working in the gym at home. But from the fourth week until now it’s been like normal life. I’ve been doing my normal routine, just without going out on the street. I’ve enjoyed it, talking with friends via video chat.

I’m excited to start the season again whenever that will be.”

“I signed with Suzuki because in the end now it’s the team that I want to be with, the same people, same mechanics… When I go racing it’s not difficult for me because they are like my second family,” he explained. “The relationship is so nice. So this is one thing.

The other is because they are growing up. For 2020, what I tested in preseason, the things that I asked them to do, to develop, they did. So I’m quite happy about this.

“We started to talk with Suzuki in Argentina 2019. There we started to talk about the next two years and the final

ALEX RINS

And while the COVID-19 pandemic has delayed the 2020 season to a July start, lockdown hasn’t been bad to Rins. In March he announced his engagement to long-term girlfriend Alexandra Perez. A month later a two-year contract extension with Suzuki that keeps him in sky blue until 2022 was confirmed. In the wider context of the world, there is reason for cheer moving into the summer.

FEATURE

But his Saturday showings often let him down. “I would say 80-85% of circuits we could be competitive, potentially on the podium,” Brivio said recently of last year. “But the starting position wasn’t good.”

Rins’ qualifying record - just two MotoGP front rows, one of which came last year – tells its own story. At times (Jerez, Mugello) his early charges were inspired, showing off his fighting instincts. At others (Aragon) they were erratic, underlining the need for both man and machine to get more out of new rubber over a single flying lap. contract we signed [in early April 2020]. One because we need to wait because the Japanese factories have many people that need to say ‘okay’.

Also the Covid-19 changed things because I would like to announce the continuity with Suzuki at a race, if it was possible after a podium. But this is the situation now.”

His reasons behind trusting the Hamamatsu factory are clear. He mentions the “family” atmosphere twice in our chat, an open, laid back

environment that has taken him and Mir (and Maverick Viñales previously) from wide-eyed rookies to MotoGP front-runners. There is also the bike: the GSX-RR appears tailor made for Rins smooth, laconic style. A wayward 2017 aside, Suzuki has made incremental gains each year, producing a package on a par with MotoGP’s best in the past three campaigns.

Second place in last year’s championship was there for the taking.

“One of the problems I had last year was that I didn’t adapt to the new tyre,” Rins explains. “I was pushing, pushing but not controlling the new tyre. But the rhythm was there. In the race I was trying to be at 200 percent focus for the start of the race to arrive at the leading group.”

Analysis doesn’t seem to be Rins’ forte, at least in public. His interactions in media debriefs often follow a similar pattern: warm and open initially before gradually shutting down and offering only the

ALEX RINS

Had it not been for crashes from podium places at Assen and the Sachsenring and a late season lull that he could never fully explain, Rins was a match for anyone bar Marquez over 19 races.

FEATURE narrowest of insights. One seasoned hack even christened him the ‘New Pedrosa’ for his unwillingness to open up. Fair enough.

Talking about yourself or your feats isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. But what he lacks in that regard, he more than makes up for in talent.

His ability to quickly get up to pace always marked him out in Moto3 and Moto2. His mid-corner speed was so much faster than Andrea Dovizioso in Qatar last year the Italian admitted it was “embarrassing”.

Along with showing sound development direction as a factory figurehead, Rins’ chief strength is an ability to manage the rear tyre, his throttle control as smooth as his movements as he dances across the bike.

“THIS CHAMPIONSHIP THIS YEAR WILL BE DIFFERENT TO THE OTHERS. THIS IS MORE LIKE A ‘QUALIFYING’ CHAMPIONSHIP. RACING EVERY WEEKEND ISN’T A PROBLEM. BUT FOR SURE WE WILL DO OUR 100 PERCENT.” He might not be at Marquez’s level. But 2019 taught us Rins isn’t a million miles away. And even on occasion he wasn’t averse to getting one over the reigning world champion (after almost coming to blows in qualifying at Brno, his last-gasp win at Silverstone was a season highlight).

So what would it take to beat Marquez over a full season?

“I need to be competitive and constant,” he says. “I think in a normal situation 2020 could be a good year because our bike has improved. I’ve improved by myself also.

But we’ll start a different championship.

It’s a new situation for everybody. Maybe some new riders will appear at the front.

But to beat Marc we need more consistency.”

Another topic that elicits fire in Rins’ eyes is his team-mate. Not only is Mir the same nationality; he is two years his junior and was able to secure a world championship title in 2017, while Rins was frustrated with runner up medals in both Moto3 (2013) and Moto2 (2015). Mir’s fairly rapid progress through 2019 also merited a two-year contract extension. Testing suggested he is in line to step out of Rins’ shadow in the months to come.

There is no love lost between the pair.

There were loaded comments in February that may have been intended to wind his young compatriot up. “I would like to have a partner with more experience,” Rins told onlookers at a presentation for Nolan, his helmet supplier, in Milan. “[Joan] is very strong … but I would like someone who can push me more.”

It’s remarkable how similar their rookie MotoGP campaigns were. Rins scored a best finish of fourth in 2017 while Mir’s rode to an accomplished fifth in Australia last October. Both campaigns were blighted by injury, but both came good right at the end. And Mir is poised to kick on if preseason was anything to go by. Rins has become a good deal more wary about sharing data than at this point in 2019, according to one well-placed source. And his actions at February’s Qatar test – Mir was fastest with ten minutes remaining on day one, leading Rins to take to the track in a frantic bid to demote his countryman – was a portent of the upcoming scrap for Suzuki superiority.

And what of the proposals for 2020, with only ten to twelve races, two of which may come at the same track? “I don’t believe we should do two races in one track. Our championship is one race per track for a reason,” Rins says. “But if we’re racing [it means] I won’t be at home [as much] so I will do it!

“This championship this year will be different to the others. This is more like a ‘qualifying’ championship. We’ll need to be at 100 percent every race. Racing every weekend isn’t a problem. But for sure we will do our 100 percent. If our bike is adapting to these tracks, I’ll push it to the limit. The pressure will be there.

But it’ll be there for me and the rest of my rivals, not to do mistakes. It’ll be very different. We need to be prepared.”

Should racing get underway in July, measuring Rins’ progress against Marquez while staving off the threat from across the garage promises to be one of 2020’s more intriguing storylines. And on the evidence of his and Suzuki’s preseason, perhaps Brivio was onto something.

Why not dream?

ALEX RINS

But speaking now, Rins is insistent the factory did right by re-signing Mir. “For sure it’s a good thing. Joan is a good rider, fast. In his first year he was there in some practices. It’s normal when you are a rookie without experience.” But then comes the reminder of his own achievements in his second season: “Let’s see this year! In my second season I did five or six podiums. Let’s see if he can do this step and what he brings with more experience.”

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MotoGP BLOG

TALENT-SPOTTING MADE DOUBLY D In a normal year, we would be six races into the MotoGP season, recovering from the spectacle at Le Mans, the second race in Europe, and preparing for Mugello.

Speculation on which riders are going to be riding where in 2021 would be ramping up, as team and factory managers start to think seriously about their riders and negotiations would be beginning in earnest.

But, of course, 2020 is not a normal year. 2020 is the year of COVID-19, and so the only racing we have had is a full weekend of World Superbikes at Phillip Island, and the Moto2 and Moto3 classes at Qatar. No MotoGP races so far, thus no sense of who has improved, who has stagnated, no clear idea of which Moto2 riders are favourites to make the jump up to MotoGP next season.

As a result, things have been rather quiet on the Silly Season front. There was the initial preseason excitement of Maverick Viñales signing on early, Yamaha confirming Fabio Quartararo’s promotion to the factory team, and Marc Márquez’ recordbreaking four-year deal with Repsol Honda – a smart move on both sides, as Honda have shown they are willing to give Márquez the control he wants, and Márquez is the closest thing to a guarantee of a championship currently available. A mild uptick in interest followed later, when Suzuki announced they had extended the contracts of Alex Rins and Joan Mir. The contract situation hasn’t gone away, of course. Despite the 2020 MotoGP season being severely curtailed, at best, most current MotoGP contracts end on 31st December (the exceptions being Viñales and Quartararo, Rins and Mir, Márquez, and Tito Rabat at Avintia. Valentino Rossi also has the guarantee of a Yamaha if he races in 2021.)

Choices will have to be made, and the longer the year goes

on, the more urgent the need to make them.

Signing a rider is always a gamble. The usual rule of thumb says that a rider who wins early and often in Moto3 and Moto2 will succeed in MotoGP. Rossi, Márquez, Viñales, Rins, all scored a podium at least in their debut Grand Prix seasons and won quickly in each class they progressed through. Signing a rider who was successful in their first terms in each class looks like a safe bet.

Stick to this rule, however, and you might miss out on something special. Casey Stoner’s best finish in 2002, his first year in Grand Prix, was fifth. Through his years in 125s and 250s, he looked fast but flawed, inconsistency a bugbear. 2006, his first year in MotoGP, merely confirmed that impression, despite a podium at Istanbul Park. Then 2007 happened. Stoner was clearly something special.

Or take Fabio Quartararo. Petronas Yamaha signing the Frenchman caused a lot of raised eyebrows; Quartararo had faded

IFFICULT into semi-obscurity after winning the CEV title and getting on the podium in his second Moto3 race. But Wilco Zeelenberg saw talent there and signed him.

The Frenchman came within a whisker of victory in his debut season on two occasions, and is now seen as the rider to end Márquez’ hegemony of the MotoGP class.

By contrast, sure-things can turn out to be less than certain. After his outstanding debut season in MotoGP, KTM signed Johann Zarco to a two-year deal from 2019. The Frenchman didn’t make it to the flyaways in his first season. Pecco Bagnaia was superb in Moto3 on the inferior Mahindra, and won the Moto2 title with apparent ease. But the Italian’s first year in MotoGP was mediocre, finishing third of four rookies, on the bike which had been runner up in the championship in 2018.

So, what do team managers do?

They have a sample size of one race in 2020 to judge the current crop of Moto2 riders, before falling back on what happened

in 2019. That puts riders with a vibrant track record, like Jorge Martin, Jorge Navarro, and Lorenzo Baldassarri, in a strong position. But what about Joe Roberts or Remy Gardner? Were their performances just luck of the draw, or a sign of something much better? Is it worth taking a punt on Tetsuta Nagashima, or was his win at Qatar an anomaly?

Of the riders currently in MotoGP, Jack Miller looks a cert for a factory Ducati seat. But will the Australian’s progress continue in 2020 and 2021? Will Zarco redeem himself on a year-old Ducati, and show his true worth?

Will Bagnaia live up to his potential at last? Will the gamble on Iker Lecuona pay off?

Success is a mercurial mix of many factors. Identifying talent is hard enough but understanding whether a talented rider will thrive in the particular circumstances of your own factory or team is a mammoth task made almost impossible in a lost season. I’m glad I’m not the one having to make those choices.

CREATED THANKS TO Moto3’S NEWEST RACING TEAM

BY DAVID EMMETT

FEATURE

OUT OF THE BLUE

By Neil Morrison Photos credited

FIVE MotoGP SEASONS THAT SWUNG ON A MOMENT It’s fair to say the past two months haven’t quite gone to plan. Any suggestion in mid-February that we’d be approaching June without any MotoGP racing on the board would have been greeted with a shrug and dismissal. But history has taught us that racing doesn’t always play out as expected. So what better time to reminisce about seasons gone by that veered wildly from the script?

FEATURE

1973: SAARINEN’S TIME TRAGICALLY CUT SHORT 15 grand prix wins and a single world championship may not be the kind of numbers you associate with sporting greatness. But in three and a half seasons, Jarno Saarinen didn’t only achieve considerable success; he was an innovator, honing a riding style so cutting edge it would be studied by none other than Kenny Roberts Senior.

1973 was destined to be his year. In light of his success with Yamaha in the 250cc championship the season before, the Iwata factory deemed the Finn worthy of spearheading an attack on the 500cc class with its all-new water-cooled, two-stroke, fourcylinder YZR500. MV Augusta’s four-stoke 500cc hadn’t been defeated over a full season since 1957, 15 years before. As brief as it was, Saarinen and Yamaha breathed fresh air into what had become a stagnant category.

His had been an unconventional path to the top. Raised on ice ovals in his native Finland, Saarinen was perfectly happy with his bike moving beneath him. An engineering graduate, he was constantly on the lookout for any advantage going. He famously pointed his handlebars at steep angles to lower his torso and thus his centre of gravity.

Pre-Saarinen no one had arched their knee outward and been as comfortable grazing it along kerbs and tarmac as Jarno did then.

And he rode hard. Phil Read, already a fourtime 250cc world champion at the time, saw a rare trait he had only noted in a handful of other competitors. “That was the big thing about racing against Jarno. There just couldn’t be any holding back” he wrote in

Phil Read: The Real Story. “[Some] might go to the limit for a spell… But Jarno, like Mike Hailwood – and Bill Ivy, too – would ride to the limit all the time.”

It wasn’t just that; the then 27-year old was so likeable and at ease with himself he carried an aura. His mere presence on the grids at this time was often enough to psych out experienced rivals. “When you go into a race with any rider other than Jarno you always know you’ve got a chance,” said Chas Mortimer, an able 250cc competitor in his day. “But Jarno was so incredibly confident he had you psyched out before the race started.”

The writing was on the wall from that year’s first race. Saarinen took Yamaha’s liquid cooled TZ350 Yamaha twin to a 38 second win at the Daytona 200, a first European triumph on American soil. That was swiftly followed by two dominant wins at the Imola 200. World championship success looked inevitable.

So it proved. Saarinen cleared off in the season opener at Paul Ricard while Agostini crashed trying to keep up. Another win came easily at the Salzburgring next time out and only a broken chain denied him at Hockenheim two weeks later.

But events at that year’s Nations Grand Prix at Monza will forever be remembered as one of the sport’s darkest moments. Saarinen and Renzo Pasolini were both killed in a multi-rider pile up early into the 250cc race.

A legend was fallen. In his absence, Read kept MV’s run going, riding to the first of his two premier class crowns.

MotoGP SEASONS THAT SPUN ON A MOMENT

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FEATURE

1986: FREDDIE’S FAST FALL FROM GRACE It took just over half of the first race of 1986 for the grand prix world to fall of its axis. In those the opening ten laps at Jarama, the scene of round one, Freddie Spencer was slaughtering his opponents much in the manner as he had done during the previous twelve months.

For a man who arrived in Spain dogged by niggling injuries, a lack of preseason testing, and rumours that he was at war with the management of his Rothmans Honda team this was an astonishing feat.

Spencer was making a mockery of Yamaha’s winter advances as he eased away from Eddie Lawson and new team-mate Wayne Gardner from the flag in that slick, serene way that had become oh-sofamiliar in 1985.

But from lap eleven, Spencer’s ten second lead started to come down. Five laps later and he had parked his NSR500 in the pits, complaining of numbness in his right wrist that was to have disastrous consequences on the remainder of his career. From there, not only the course of 1986 was forever changed; we would never see ‘Fast Freddie’ working miracles in such a way again.

What most of the world wasn’t privy to at the time was the physical toll Spencer’s efforts the previous season had taken on the triple world champ. He had broken a hand and burst his knee open in 1985, all the while fighting omnipresent pain in his feet from crashes earlier in his career.

Crucially he had also begun to question the meaning of it all after winning both the 500cc and 250cc races in stunning fashion at Mugello. “Is this all there is [in life]?” he posited in his autobiography Feel.

Those feelings only intensified over winter. Freddie found it tough to summon the strength to sign a set of limited edition prints at the NEC show that November.

He was in no shape to test at all during preseason. “I was just drained, mentally, physically and emotionally.”

Relations with Honda soon became strained. Japanese bosses couldn’t comprehend why their star rider was not available to test. Worse than that, he struggled to communicate why. In Freddie’s eyes there was little empathy for his situation. After winning three championships in as many years and winning the firm’s first 500cc title, he felt like “just an

MotoGP SEASONS THAT SPUN ON A MOMENT

Henk Keulemans

automaton” to sit in the saddle.

He missed all of preseason bar a brief test a week before the opening GP. All the while the press was rife with rumours Freddie was on the verge of retirement.

According to them, he hadn’t tested due to disagreements over money. Yet he still summoned a performance from the gods for those ten laps at last.

But repeated attempts at a comeback from injury came undone. His team and bikes were ready and waiting at the next GP only for Freddie not to show. His personal PR manager ‘Mac’ Mackay told Motocourse’s Peter Clifford “Freddie’s out there practicing,” during Friday’s session at the following grand prix at Monza.

Spencer hadn’t even made the plane out of the US. In the weeks that followed his team was the last to know.

Freddie eventually opted for surgery in the next month, putting a halt on his season. Meanwhile Lawson and his much-improved Yamaha package hit new heights on the way to eight wins and a second 500cc title. While some kind of derailing was on the cards prior to Jarama, the extent to which Spencer struggled to rekindle that early magic could not have been foreseen.

FEATURE

Henk Keulemans

1992: DOGGED DETERMINATION SEES RAINEY TRUMP DOOHAN Such are the advances in circuit safety, tyre technology and rider aids and electronics, long-term injury related absentees are thankfully fairly uncommon in today’s grand racing world (give or take some shoulder complications).

As Japanese manufacturers wilfully added HP to their ferocious 500cc twostroke engines in the early nineties on the back of tobacco companies’ deep pockets, chassis, brake and tyre technology struggled to keep up. Injuries were commonplace and often played their part in deciding a championship.

1992 would be a year remembered for a whole litany of ghastly scrapes and the resulting acts of heroism. To view the year simply, Wayne Rainey was handed the title in fortuitous circumstances as

rival Mick Doohan came undone at the seams, breaking his right leg in a qualifying crash at Assen.

Until then the Australian had been untouchable, easing to win the first four races of the year on Honda’s all-new ‘bigbang’ V4 engine configuration. When he wasn’t first, Doohan finished second before slaughtering the opposition at Hockenheim to win by a colossal 25 seconds. With Rainey overriding his package to the point of crashing and injury, Doohan’s first world championship was a mere formality.

Unquestionably the season turned in Holland. Doohan had led Kevin Schwantz by 53 points and reigning champion Rainey by 65. But such a view is to criminally overlook Rainey’s role in this all. Coming into the year struggling for fitness as a result of a spill at the tail-end of the

To be ready for Suzuka in April, team trainer Dean Miller would regularly administer an epidural just so Rainey could work on bending a left knee that was shattered when practicing for the previous year’s inaugural Malaysian Grand Prix. “We knew we’d be fighting Wayne’s leg for half a season,” team boss Kenny Roberts Senior said that year.

Then there were machine problems, too. Roberts Yamaha had switched from Rainey’s preferred slip-sliding Dunlops to Michelin rubber over the offseason, distorting his YZR500’s handling. With the reigning champion sidelined over winter, development fell on the shoulders of teammate John Kocinski. “Boy did he make a mess of it,” Rainey later said.

He couldn’t hold on to Doohan in the first

four races, leaving him increasingly desperate. A practice crash at Hockenheim reinjured his leg and forced him to sit out the next two races. But the events at Assen handed Rainey a reprieve. Unknown to the world, surgery on Doohan’s leg had gone badly wrong. Soon bits of flesh around the wound were dying and Italian doctor Claudio Costa performed further surgery, sewing both his legs together to revive the blood flow in his right joint.

All the while Rainey relentlessly whittled down the deficit. The Australian was forced to return to action in Brazil after a fourrace absence. Sullen, yellow, and miles off full-strength, he was a shadow of the rider that had dominated the early part of the year. The fact he had the championship snatched from under his nose at the year’s finale in South Africa only strengthened Doohan’s resolve. He came back to put the record straight – and did so five times.

MotoGP SEASONS THAT SPUN ON A MOMENT

previous season, the Californian was forced into taking his renowned determination to new levels.

FEATURE

1999: MIGHTY MICK’S REIGN COMES CRASHING DOWN Max Biaggi couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Believe me, Doohan can’t be beaten. He’s too strong.” The year was 1997 and the Italian was sat opposite Alex Crivillé in a hotel bar on Phillip Island. It didn’t end there. “He doesn’t let you breathe for a moment,” said the Spaniard. “In practice, qualifying, races, he’s always there, every Sunday, on any track. It really is a tough nut to crack and the proof is that it has been practically unbeatable for four seasons.”

Crivillé had scaled new heights in the mid-90s as Doohan’s team-mate, even beating the tough Aussie on occasion in ‘96. But Spain’s inaugural winner in the 500cc class came mentally and physically undone the following year. His frank assessment left Biaggi flummoxed. “I hardly believed my ears,” Biaggi wrote in his autobiography ‘Oltre’. “Listening to him gave me some nerves. It seemed impossible that a rider can talk like that about his first opponent: his teammate.”

And while Crivillé and Biaggi used the change in unleaded petrol in the 500cc class to push Doohan harder than ever in 1998, Mighty Mick’s performances in the final four races left no one in any doubt that he was still operating on another level altogether. At the time, no one bar Agostini had won more.

So it came as no surprise that few foresaw the Australian encountering too many obstacles on his way to a sixth straight crown in 1999. Biaggi had moved to Yamaha. And Suzuki had pulled off a shrewd signing in Kenny Roberts Junior.

But Doohan could still turn it on, even if

Henk Keulemans

he was miffed at Honda’s minimal changes to his NSR500 over the offseason, sitting out one preseason shakedown because “there was nothing new to test.”

Even so, change was in the air at race one. Roberts Junior stole away from the pack for a famous first win while Doohan trailed Crivillé to finish fourth. The American backed that up by beating the reigning champion in a head-to-head at a sodden Motegi two weeks later. Understandably all eyes were on Doohan to respond at Jerez and the commencing of the European slog.

But there would be no fight back. For once, Doohan’s compulsion to stamp his authority all over a meeting was his undoing. In a damp Friday session, the five-time champion was pushing for a lap time when he clipped a wet white line on the exit of turn four at 135mph. Fractures to his left wrist, right shoulder and right leg – the same one he broke at Assen seven years earlier – would bring his career to a halt.

In his absence, race speeds were slower at almost every round (Carlos Checa likened it to “playing in an orchestra with no conductor”). And Crivillé thrived, notching up six wins on the way to Spain’s first ever 500cc crown.

MotoGP SEASONS THAT SPUN ON A MOMENT

WHILE CRIVILLÉ AND BIAGGI USED THE CHANGE IN UNLEADED PETROL IN THE 500cc CLASS TO PUSH DOOHAN HARDER THAN EVER IN 1998, MIGHT MICK’S PERFORMANCES IN THE FINAL FOUR RACES LEFT NO ONE IN ANY DOUBT THAT HE WAS STILL OPERATING ON ANOTHER LEVEL ALTOGETHER. AT THE TIME, NO ONE BAR AGOSTINI HAD WON MORE...

FEATURE

All pics from Ducati Corse Press

2007: STONER’S ROLL INTO THE RECORD BOOKS As Ducati searched for a replacement for the retiring Sete Gibernau midway through 2006, a list of potential candidates was drawn up. Initially hoping for a double-pronged home born attack, Marco Melandri featured at the top of its wish list. John Hopkins was a target.

Even Nicky Hayden, still fighting to win a title for Honda, was contacted near that season’s end.

It was only after those three politely declined that Casey Stoner was contacted – a quite ludicrous fact in light of what played out in the six years since. But back then the Australian was as blindingly fast as he was unpredictable. No one surpassed his tally of 17 crashes throughout 2006 as he grappled with Michelin’s front tyre. He suffered a similar fate in his final 250cc season the year before –

fast, but loose and prone to a fall.

It was, therefore, with good reason Stoner came to the curtain raiser in Qatar as an outsider for race wins never mind a title push in the first year of 800cc machinery.

His chances weren’t helped by a winter operation to correct an old shoulder injury, forcing him out of early preseason tests.

With Valentino Rossi and Dani Pedrosa dominating the offseason, this was billed as the apprentice taking on the master. It worked out this way, just with a different name taking on Rossi.

Few saw Stoner’s performance in Qatar coming. Ducati’s top speed advantage was undeniable. But so too was his ability to harry it around the corners with Bridgestone’s front tyre and withstand a full race’s worth of Rossi’s pressure.

OK, pretty good. But what about when we went to a track without a long straight? And can he keep it up for a full season? Even then Stoner wasn’t anticipating much more.

“I genuinely wasn’t expecting to win any more races,” he wrote in his autobiography.

“I guess Valentino didn’t either and he was quick to congratulate me, all smiles and handshakes.”

The Spanish Grand Prix hinted at a return to normalcy with Rossi securing a comfortable win. But that pesky red bike just wouldn’t let up. Stoner amassed victories in Turkey and China before the moment it dawned he was here for real: that season’s Catalan GP. There a race-long slug with Rossi and Pedrosa resulted in a triumph that showed he could duck, dive and scrap with the best of them.

By midseason the title was almost his and Casey wrapped it up with three races to spare. From serial crasher to the golden boy who won ten races, put points on the board at every round and seemed incapable of putting a foot wrong, Stoner’s revival was nothing short of astonishing.

MotoGP SEASONS THAT SPUN ON A MOMENT

Astonishingly he smashed the race record by a full 20 seconds and broke the lap record on the final lap.

MotoGP BLOG

MILLER ON THE MOVE? Well Danilo. Thanks for the win. Your brevity was nice while it lasted. Enjoy this year but don’t let the door hit you on the way out in November...

Motorcycle racing has always been a cut-throat world, a facet of which Danilo Petrucci was only too aware even before eyeing the recent news cycle, in which both his current (and former) boss talked up the chances of a certain Australian stepping up and into his team.

Francesco Guidotti, currently managing Jack Miller in the Pramac Ducati Team, confirmed his rider is in advanced negotiations with the factory to follow in the footsteps of countrymen Troy Bayliss and Casey Stoner by representing the factory team at MotoGP level. “From both parties there is an intention to do the deal,” Guidotti told motogp.com.

“I think it’s close.”

With Ducati and Miller expected to reach an agreement soon (even factory team boss Davide Tardozzi recently told BT Sport, “We’re very close to making a decision”), it poses the question of who will sit opposite him?

KTM appeared a realistic option for Andrea Dovizioso for a MotoGP swansong. But Pit Beirer’s recent assertion to Crash.net’s Pete McLaren that its “four riders will get a proposal for next year … our priority is to keep the team exactly like it is,” pours a certain amount of cold water on that possibility. Petrucci will more than likely get the chop despite having just a single season with a factory behind him.

Is this a solid move? As it will more than likely be confirmed before the lights go out at race one in July, there is a certain degree of risk. Miller’s preseason was strong and consistent, even in light of the sizeable testing duties that come with being Pramac’s lead rider. But whether he can kick on from a strong second half of 2019, when he was regularly sparring with Dovizioso, remains to be seen.

But clearly Ducati management has seen enough to trust in his ability. Viewed as a whole, Miller’s 2019 was impressive, a considerable step up from his four previous MotoGP campaigns. There was the occasional hiccup and disappointment, a few expected podium challenges that faded without explanation.

Overall the Aussie has established himself as one of six or seven leading contenders.

Miller totted up 95 points in the season’s final ten races, a number that would have been considerably higher had he not crashed in Austria while third or hit the kill switch on the grid in Thailand when sixth. Crucially he scored 40 more points than Petrucci in that time, helped by stirring podiums at Brno, Aragon, Phillip Island and Valencia (each one more impressive than the last).

And his final points haul of 165 was a marked improvement on any of the four previous years, when his previous highest was 91. There’s no doubt he’s getting there.

It seems like he’s been around forever, but Miller – four years Petrucci’s junior – only turned 25 this January. Should he continue in the same vein of late, you’d be inclined to think he has at least another five or six years scrapping at the front of the class. In him, Ducati has a regular podium threat (if not more) for that time.

A quick look at the 2021 line up of Ducati’s main rivals and youth is very much in vogue. Honda (if they continue with Alex Marquez, will boast an average age of 26 in its factory team), Yamaha (an average age of 23) and Suzuki (24) will back up an established contender with an up-and-comer, be it Marquez junior, Fabio Quartararo or Joan Mir. The next contract he signs will surely be 34-year old Dovizioso’s last.

Miller is a chance to inject youth and fresh energy into its project.

True, he can no longer be seen as one of the class’ younger lights. But this was reflected in a more mature temperament last year. Not every rider would have maintained their composure as well as he did in the wake of ‘Spielberg-gate’, when Ducati’s

infamous plot to re-sign Jorge Lorenzo in his place came out and into the open. The Australian handled himself with dignity, his results getting better from there.

And not just that; many would have understood if Miller had taken KTM up that weekend on its eye-watering offer to replace Johann Zarco at the end of 2019.

“In this paddock if you get butt hurt from everything that goes on like that you’re not going to be here very long,” he told us in England, one race later. “I am more of a sweep it under the rug kind of guy. Push the shit under the rug and leave it there.” He put emotion aside and recognised his best chance of upping his level to race winner was to stay put, even if that meant continuing to work alongside a figure (*cough Gigi Dall’Igna cough*) who was secretly plotting his exit over the summer break. A 22-year old Miller wouldn’t have handled the matter with such assurance.

Greater experience and added maturity is notable inside the garage, too.

CREATED THANKS TO Moto3’S NEWEST RACING TEAM

BY NEIL MORRISON

MotoGP BLOG

“He’s arriving,” said Miller’s crew chief Cristian Pupulin last October. “He’s learning new things every race. He’s improving his behaviour during the race. He’s using more his mind more than his talent. That is important. OK, he’s not 100 percent consistent but he’s young and he can improve that last step that he needs to do. “[2018] was quite different. He was trusting 100 percent in his talent and not working so much in other areas. In MotoGP in these years you have to manage the tyres, to not ruin them in the first laps, the first part of the race to be patient and calm to have something more at the end.”

Only in exceptional cases do riders reach MotoGP and have the whole deal – riding style, working method, training regime – worked out from the get-go.

Miller has certainly come a long way from the beginning of his

rookie campaign five years ago when he arrived at the Sepang tests podgy and nearly unrecognisable from the previous year.

Since then he’s relocated to Andorra, made incremental gains and found a level of stability and intensity in his preparation that had been missing before.

Personal manager Aki Ajo recently told motogp.com’s ‘Off The Racing Line’ series, “I’ve not seen many people in my life that have changed their lifestyle so much just because they want to do well in their job and win races in the future. Year by year we see that he’s more ready.”

Has Petrucci had a fair crack at the whip? Probably not. But the truth of the matter is factory teams rarely accept form-slumps that last for ten races. And when has the world of MotoGP ever been forgiving or fair? Miller, meanwhile, has put forward a strong case for his own hiring over the past twelve months.

And with Honda, Yamaha and Suzuki recently tying up their most valuable assets on lengthy deals, the Australian represents the Bologna factory’s brightest hope in the long-term. No one can say he hasn’t earned it.

Polarity Photo

PRODUCTS

www.alpinestars.com

ALPINESTARS The Atem V4 leather suit (1200 euros) is Alpinestars’ offering for a strong and welldesigned track or sport riding product.

Made of bovine at 1.3mm thickness, CE-certified and combined with an intricate web of stretch panels, the suit is chiselled for the best durability and comfort. An example of which being the ‘aramidic knit inner reinforcement on seat, shoulder, elbow and knee for additional levels of abrasion resistance.’

There are also inner leather reinforcements on the seat area, shoulder, elbow, knee and shin for extra resistance.

A suggestion for gloves would be the GP Plus R V2 (perhaps the naming could be a little simpler) at 180 euros and Alpinestars describe the product – with patented fingerbridging for extra protection and security as: ‘With a fully updated ergonomic shaping and design details, the GP Plus R v2 glove gives the most demanding sports riders protection, feel, flexibility and comfort. This innovative and protective leather and multiple-material construction affords a secure and precise fit.’ To complete the set then there’s the SMX Plus V2 boot (340 euros); we recently featured SMX and still rate it as the most comfortable we’ve tried.

WorldSBK BLOG

REALISTIC DATES...

As it stands the world of WorldSBK is pretty much in limbo.

The latest calendar that was issued in mid April is still more or less in place. The only change could be that there will be a race in Jerez at the start of August. However, the information released so far is that there is a proposal for this event but no further official advice. So effectively I am still aiming at resuming work at Donington Park on Thursday July 2.

Except that I am not actually.

The UK government have just introduced new guidelines that anyone arriving into the country after June 8 will have to self quarantine for 14 days. That would mean all teams and staff travelling to Donington arriving in the UK on June 17.

That’s not going to happen.

If this race goes ahead, have your feather ready.

The Dutch government have also said that there will be no outdoor events until after September 1. So the current WorldSBK calendar date of August 24 is, in my mind, out of the question as well.

There have been several stories in various media outlets suggesting what could happen, if that proposal was accepted, and if this-or-that was allowed, etc. I don’t feel it is my place, and indeed I have no appetite, to add anything to that conjecture.

“THE ONLY ‘GOSSIP’ THAT HAS BEEN AROUND RECENTLY HAS BEEN THE PERENNIAL DEBATE OF WHETHER JONATHAN REA SHOULD BE RIDING IN MotoGP....”

I have also read that whatever events are able to be scheduled and then run there will in all likelihood be no media in attendance aside from essential TV crews to help with the broadcast and online streaming. So yours truly might not event have an opportunity to get back to work. There goes that word ‘might’ again but in all honesty I just don’t know.

If and when the call does come, and if and when I am allowed to work at a race it will be a bit of a mad scramble to get everything ready to attend the events. Travel will be the first thing to arrange. I have been monitoring the options for various months and at the moment the options are few and far between. Obviously all the budget airlines are currently grounded at the moment but looking at the various

BY ADAM WHEELER

BY GRAEME BROWN national carriers, routes that were once served by four or five flights a day now see at most one flight a day and sometimes every other day. Ferries seem to be in a similar position as many passenger services are not taking bookings at the moment. Even if races do take place, getting to them, on the face of it, will be difficult.

Then there is the question of coming home and having to quarantine for 14 days before travelling again.

I honestly don’t have much more to say this time round as the only ‘gossip’ that has been around recently has been the perennial debate of whether Jonathan Rea should be riding in MotoGP. I think enough keys have been bashed on that one without me adding anything to the debate, again.

So after a Bank Holiday weekend in the UK it’s back to full-time homeschooling

and part-time gardening, painting and decorating and any other DIY chores I can think of. All the while I am keeping a weather eye on the horizon for any worthwhile news on the future. However, there is a lot of flotsam and jetsam in the way.

Stay safe.

PRODUCTS

TRIUMPH James Bond and the new ‘No Time to Die’ movie had been placed on inactive duty from spring of this year to a winter date and that has only increased curiosity around the motorcycle scenes made using Triumphs.

The company have released a 1200 Scrambler Bond limited edition in recognition and the model is limited to just 250 units. The 89HP @ 7,400rpm bike is based on the Scrambler 1200 XE but comes with a glut of cosmetic markers such as the sapphire black paint scheme, 007 branding (on places like the number board, the lower side panel and premium leather seat) and unique Bond TFT start-up. There is also a host of blacked out components (forks, mudguard, engine badges, swing arm, grabrail and sump guard). As is customary with special models, the Bond Edition has other minor and exclusive add-ons like a handover pack. The last Bond film to feature bikes was ‘Skyfall’ when Robbie Maddison substituted Daniel Craig in a rooftop chase on Hondas.

No details on pricing but get to a Triumph dealer quickly if you want to show some 007 fandom.

www.triumphmotorcycles.co.uk

BACK PAGE

Another year in 2021? Photo by CormacGP

ON TRACK OFF ROAD

‘On-track Off-road’ is a free, monthly publication for the screen focussed on bringing the latest perspectives on events, blogs and some of the very finest photography from the three worlds of MXGP, the AMA Motocross and Supercross series’, MotoGP, WorldSBK as well as the latest bike tests.

‘On-track Off-road’ will be published online at www.ontrackoffroad.com on the last Wednesday of the month. To receive an email notification that a new issue available with a brief description of each edition’s contents simply enter an address in the box provided on the homepage. All email addresses will be kept strictly confidential and only used for purposes connected with OTOR. Adam Wheeler Editor and MXGP/MotoGP correspondent Ray Archer Photographer Steve Matthes AMA MX and SX correspondent James Lissimore AMA SX Photographer Cormac Ryan-Meenan MotoGP Photographer www.cormacgp.com Rob Gray MotoGP Photographer David Emmett MotoGP Blogger Neil Morrison MotoGP Blogger & Feature writer Graeme Brown WSB Blogger and Photographer Roland Brown Tester/Columnist Núria Garcia Cover Design Gabi Álvarez Web developer Hosting FireThumb7 - www.firethumb7.co.uk Thanks to www.mototribu.com for the share PHOTO CREDITS Ray Archer, CormacGP, Polarity Photo, GeeBee Images, James Lissimore, Cover shot: Jed Beaton, Rockstar Energy Husky MX2 by Ray Archer This publication took a lot of time and effort to put together so please respect it! Nothing in this publication can be reproduced in whole or part without the written permission of the editorial team. For more information please visit www.ontrackoffroad.com and click ‘Contact us’.