On-Track Off-Road Issue 198

#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

HURRY BACK When will MotoGP next surge through crowd blur? A hopeful first date for racing is hovering around the Austrian Grand Prix in August but it’s likely that the sport will restart in a very different way, without fans and minimal paddock presence Photo by CormacGP

FEATURE AMA-SX

EYES ON IT Ken Roczen wins the battle to grace the cover of OTOR this month but this image of Eli Tomac at Arlington was just a strong. The two rivals – split by just 3 points (and with Cooper Webb just 29 adrift) - are counting the days until the Supercross run-in can begin along with the quest to secure the weirdest championship in the record books Photo by James Lissimore

MotoGP

GROUND BREAKER A stunning Don Morley shot of the three times 500cc World Champion Kenny Roberts during the 1979 season, which was the American’s second in the FIM series. Check out our feature on the historic British Grand Prix tussle with Barry Sheene and an episode of Grand Prix history that was particularly turbulent Photo by Don Morley

FEATURE MXGP

STILL FLYING Full commitment here from Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Clement Desalle across one of the many large jumps at Matterley Basin. The Belgian turns 31 next month but his consistency and regularity of front-running speed means that this thirteen-year veteran of the premier-class is still a championship contender Photo by Ray Archer

FEATURE

THE MEMORY MAKERS 23 SPECIAL MOMENTS OR EPISODES FROM MXGP IN THE LAST TWENTY YEARS THAT MADE A RIPPLE IN HISTORY OR THE BLANKET OF THE SPORT

By Adam Wheeler Photos by Ray Archer

FEATURE

M

y first Grand Prix was the opening round of the 2001 FIM World Championship in Spain, at the Bellpuig circuit an hour west of Barcelona.

Jamie Dobb, Mickael Pichon, Fred Bolley, Pit Beirer, Stefan Everts and Joel Smets were title favourites across the 125, 250 and 500cc divisions for the first proper ‘triple class’ series to feature just one moto per class.

2003-2006

An unbroken run of 243 consecutive events across fifteen seasons lasted until the second date of 2016 – the Grand Prix of Thailand - and produced some forceful memories and stories. Here is a selection…

THE SIGHTS OF #72

The ultimate record-holder and a man who won a world championship every season and 50 of his 101 Grands Prix from 2001-2006.

Stefan Everts crested the sport and is arguably the biggest name in motocross to emerge from this continent; fittingly he created some outstanding sporting moments in that six-year phase. His pure supremacy at Matterley Basin and the 2006 Motocross of Nations for what was his final professional race appearance (where he also produced a healthy shock by popping out from behind a press conference screen to announce his defection to KTM as a team manager and test/development rider) was the perfect send-off. But before the UK there was the unforgettable afternoon at Ernee in September 2003 where he won 125, MXGP

and 650 motos all in one day for a Grand Prix clean sweep. Everts’ feat rounded-off a season where he’d claimed nine rounds of the MXGP class (renamed from 250cc, would become ‘MX1’ and then return to ‘MXGP’ in 2014) and seven of the 125 (which would become ‘MX2’) to classify 2nd to countryman Steve Ramon in that contest: the last time that Belgium would rule every division (Smets had the 650s). Fast forward three years and Everts – in full white get-up and golden wheel rims – would glide down the same Ernee hillside, victorious again to conclude his Grand Prix career just two weeks before that Matterley swansong.

There are some other, less celebratory, sights.

In that 2006 term Everts was denied the ‘perfect season’ by a vibrant performance from Josh Coppins at Desertmartin in Northern Ireland.

The Yamaha man had aced all twelve grands prix to that point and accumulated 22 motos in a row by owning the first race in the shallow Irish sand. Coppins took the second sprint however after a close pursuit, just one week after Everts had wrapped his tenth world championship and was clearly fatigued with the commitments that accompanied his success.

Stefan was also at the centre of a truly remarkable affair at the 2004 closer, the South African Grand Prix, in the temporary build of the Sun City leisure complex. As world champion he was seen as the instigator of the riders’ strike against the eradication of prize money for 2005 when the field refused to leave the waiting zone and delayed the start of the first moto by ten minutes. His clash and crash with principle rival Mickael Pichon on the first lap of the second moto then led to momentary madness as he walked to the adjacent corner and threw his goggles at the circulating Frenchman. Everts returned, remounted and hovered on track until Pichon and the leaders approached to lap him and tried to block the Honda rider.

MXGP: THE MEMORY MAKERS

I can remember trying to keep pace and gather some quotes from a serious and palefaced Belgian as he hotfooted from the FIM Stewards office to his car to start the trip back to Johannesburg airport. He carried a mix of worry and anger over already-mounting rumours that he’d face a ban for 2005 due to the ‘industrial’ action and then the Pichon prang. “Pichon made a really aggressive move on me which I also thought was really dangerous and I was so furious with him that as he came around for the next lap I threw my goggles at him.

For me the best Everts sight is not the time he moved father Harry to tears by winning the 500cc championship at a wet in Austria in 2001 and becoming only the second ‘Mr 875’ but his 2006 title confirmation in August of that year. He created an emotional - almost storybook – situation at Namur by sealing the tenth crown on home turf and arguably the most atmospheric and historic of motocross tracks. The champagne finish-line festivity of what was his 99th triumph has not been matched since. “As soon as I arrived on the Citadelle the tears came up,” he said at the

I know this was wrong and I should not have reacted like I did. Unfortunately, it happened and I cannot turn back time. I have been to the jury meeting and I made an apology for what I did.” That was all I could get out of him. Before the Motocross of Nations at Lierop both riders issued a public apology for the spat and Everts was fined 10,000 euros and given a two-year suspended sentence. Even legends can veer off the mark sometimes.

time and on a weekend where he actually watched Harry race again thanks to a Veteran’s contest. “The best day of my life was watching the birth of my child [son Liam] and nothing will ever beat that…but this is in the top three for sure. I never dared to dream of being World Champion in Namur.”

2009

FEATURE

MUSQUIN MAKES HIS PLEA

an explanation as to why the Red Bull crew had signed the MX2 championship leader from the privateer cashstrapped NGS team.

heavy financial penalties for Musquin if he attempted to race in Sweden for round eleven of fifteen. After initially contemplating an undesirable, messy and brief return to Honda for Uddevalla (that was followed by a three-week summer break in which the dispute could have been settled) Musquin elected not to compete with other administration hassles tied-up with his licence and entry through KTM. Youthstream’s Giuseppe Luongo first addressed the media to explain that the promoters were not in a position to arbitrate over contracts between manufacturers and riders and would not exclude Musquin from the Grand Prix despite the mess. “How can we turn away the leader of the championship? Contracts can be a crazy world, some riders can win GPs and be paid nothing and the other way around,” he said.

There have been some outstanding press conferences over the years. Youthstream President Giuseppe Luongo’s rant at the Bastogne for the 2012 Grand Prix of Belgium against the perceived negativity surrounding the sport was an extended outpouring of unscripted frustration. There was also Joel Smets’ scarily calm exposition while holding the microphone for the 2004 Grand Prix of Germany press call: the factory Suzuki rider ignored the question from press officer Pascal Haudiquert and threatened to take a can of gasoline and burn down the noisy beer tent that was preventing the riders from getting any rest. It was worryingly entertaining (for the record, Smets decided against vandalism and instead departed the Talkessel circuit and parked his camper in the nearby hamlet of Teutschenthal, reporting that he gained a much better night’s sleep).

“KTM’s CONTRACT WITH MUSQUIN WAS FINE OPPORTUNISM AND WOULD BEGIN A UNION THAT ENDURES TO THIS DAY BUT, IN THE PUBLIC’S PERCEPTION, THERE WAS A HINT OF BUYING THE MX2 RED PLATE...”

Perhaps the winner though is the conference called by KTM at the 2009 Grand Prix of Sweden. In the new but small media office at Uddevalla, Pit Beirer sat with Marvin Musquin; the Frenchman then only blessed with a passable level of English and embarked on

Musquin was leading the MX2 championship – the first time ever for Honda – and went on to dominate the next two rounds in Britain and France and won six of eight motos with the KTM. NGS and Honda launched a court case in France that would carry

First, some context. Musquin, a protagonist of the French SX Tour series and scorer of some noteworthy top ten results in 2008 with NGS in the first of a two-season agreement, had started 2009 in fine form with a podium and victory in the first two rounds.

By the sixth Grand Prix at Catalunya and after a torrid day in which he’d finished 11th overall amid rumours he was yet to be paid by the small French Honda crew and their working relationship had broken down, Musquin – accompanied by ever-present coach Yannick Kervella - left NGS to be picked up by KTM who plugged the 20 year old into the squad that had lost main rider Shaun Simpson to a broken leg.

Looking somewhat solemn, Musquin then sat next to Beirer and both parties gave their version of events. Beirer, who had faced a financial mess with the Vismara Honda team in 2002, then began a partially veiled tirade against the manufacturer for their vary-

MXGP: THE MEMORY MAKERS

ing degrees of support in the paddock and the interest they have in race teams and riders.

It was a ballsy and profane rant against another brand as Beirer barely contained his anger.

The Musquin matter was a complicated and rare scenario. KTM were in the distant aftermath of a notorious 2006 season where their attempt to field the dream team of Mickael Pichon and Seb Tortelli failed, and they were perceived to be throwing cash to acquire success (they subsequently worked very hard on their 450 SX-F in the following years). Their contract with Musquin was fine opportunism and would begin a union that endures to this day but, in the public’s perception, there was a hint of buying the MX2 red plate. Beirer had claimed he was talking with Musquin for 2010 long before the rider’s split with NGS. Honda said they had made a substantial and improved contract offer to Musquin towards the end of the summer in 2008 but were turned down.

Naturally, by the time of the court case they offered support to NGS team manager Bruno Losito and had a vested interest in Musquin reverting back to the CRF250R but clearly the situation could have been better managed.

Losito admitted he had not

paid Musquin because he couldn’t afford to.

Musquin, who had totalled 371 points, 184 of those with Honda, looked abject and troubled. His margin at the top of the MX2 table would tumble from 49 points to just 13 after Sweden. He would be spotted practicing at Lommel in Belgium on a stock KTM in the following weeks until the Austrians settled the matter out of court and he assumed his saddle on the Red Bull 250 SX-F. He would win 5 of the next 8 motos and the world championship at the final round in Brazil; perhaps the most controversial title this century. In 2010 the clouds had dispersed, and Musquin thrived: eight wins and eleven podiums saw him resist the green shoots of Roczen, Herlings and co before the USA beckoned.

2001

FEATURE

REED’S FIRST...

AND LAST Chad Reed tasted European soil figuratively and literally thanks to the French stones at St Jean D’Angely at the 2000 Motocross of Nations but it was in 2001 that he moved away

from Australia for his first international racing season and the initial significant chapter of a stunning career. Representing something of a gamble for Jan de Groot’s factory Kawasaki team and as a 19-year old rookie in a fast 250cc FIM World Championship field, Reed slowly built his confidence and showed his technique and versatility as the season wore on.

MXGP: THE MEMORY MAKERS By the time of the twelfth round of fourteen he’d totalled enough points to sit fourth in a series already won by Suzuki’s Michael Pichon (eight wins to that point) with Honda’s Gordon Crockard (twice) and Yamaha’s Claudio Federici being the only other victors that campaign of one-moto per class. The points were closely grouped. Reed had picked up his first podium around the excellent course at Spa Francorchamps (an event promoted by the late Georges Jobe and a track sadly never reused) and would obtain six in a row in the final part of the 2001 when he pushed ahead of the injured Mickael Maschio as the lead Kawasaki rider. “It’s such a bonus being over here and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to win - I believe that I can,” an already forthright Reed told me outside of his small camper in the Spa paddock. “A top five finish in the championship in my first year would be amazing and I don’t think it would be impossible. I’m making progress all the time.”

Reed was already acquainted with Dutch sand as the rain fell for a grim late summer affair at Lierop. He acclimatised himself with the sapping surface close to the German border and was 10th in qualification but on Sunday he profited from a moment of fatigue by the imperious Pichon. Riding goggle-less and with the world champion closing fast thanks to a second wind, Reed held on to win, surrounded by noisy appreciation from the damp crowd. “‘I had a problem with my goggles early on and they kept fogging-up so I threw them away and that made it a little difficult to keep with Mickael,” the Aussie said after the race. “When I passed him I kept telling myself that I could go on a win this, then approaching the last lap I knew I had it in the bag and gave it all I had for those last minutes to make sure. To actually win a World Championship round before I head to the US next year has been part of my dream and what I have worked so hard for this season.”

Reed had already announced his Yamaha deal for Supercross in 2002 despite the keen advances of De Groot and Kawasaki that firmly believed their star could be a 250cc title contender the following season. As he had said in Spa, Reed’s agenda for America had been firmly set. “I got to a stage where my SX was of a decent level and my MX needed some brushing up so my decision to move to Europe was also based on a need to develop more fully as a dirt rider,” he remarked.

“Now I have a factory bike, which is also an ambition achieved, and a real chance to get Chad Reed on the map, maybe even make an impression and contacts within Kawasaki for the US. I can’t stress how stoked I am with my situation.”

“This stage of my career is a stepping-stone for me,” he added. “I’m not saying that the European scene isn’t any good, but the US is the road ahead purely because they have Supercross. I think the technical elements [of SX] are really challenging and separate the guys with the skill for it and those who are maybe just aggressive or have a fast motorcycle. You can’t slack off for a second and not only to do you need technical skills to be fast in sections like the whoops but your timing has to be spot on. I really like it and it’s the kind of off-road riding I grew up with, it requires total commitment to be successful and not everybody can do it.”

Lierop was part of a six podium run that eventually pushed him up to the position of championship runner-up, sealed in the last laps of the season in Austria and to the fury of Crockard who had held the position since April and was narrowly nudged to third by just two points. The Karntenring would not be Chad Reed’s final Grand Prix appearance. An ill-timed return for the 2016 British Grand Prix saw him place 13th overall with a best moto result of 14th.

FEATURE

2001

MXGP: THE MEMORY MAKERS

Much was made of Jeffrey Herling’s 2018 dominance but Michael Pichon decimated the 2001 250cc championship. Often accused of being hot-headed and unpredictable, the then 25-year old was focused and almost unbeatable on the factory Corona Suzuki RM250. He scored 10 victories out of 14, gained 318 points from a possible 350, only finished off the podium once and cleared off from the next best rider by 228 points; a gap of 5 Grand Prix. The former AMA 125 SX Champion then doubled-up in 2002.

2007

FEATURE

COPPINS’ SAD ONE ARMED-RETREAT 2007. A warm day in the UK at the end of August. Donington Park is sampling its first taste of Grand Prix motocross with an ambitious track design on the infield adjacent to Goddards, the final corner of the road racing layout. It is the fourteenth race of fifteen on the calendar.

Walking though the paddock back to the media centre I’m overtake by factory Yamaha rider Josh Coppins motoring past on the

distinctive blue factory machine, his left arm slumped off the handlebar and body language as depressed as his faltering world championship bid.

The 30-year old New Zealander had just scored 14th in the first moto after taking the holeshot but his demeanour suggested the game was over.

The sight was a total contrast to the joy and jubilation at the start of the season. Coppins, signed by Yamaha to replace the retired Stefan Everts, began the campaign with a superior vein of form that the Belgian would have admired.

MXGP: THE MEMORY MAKERS

The title favourite racked five victories and nine podiums, and approaching the Grand Prix of Czech Republic at Loket (round eleven) had a 107 point gap with 250 remaining. He’d led the championship from the first flurry of action at Valkenswaard in the Netherlands and would stay at the top until Donington Park: fronting the premier class by more than twice the number of laps compared to anybody else.

At a dark and wet Loket the dream for the luckless Kiwi GP stalwart came to a crunching end. Coppins descended the notorious steep step-down in the second moto but found out his rear brake had failed when he needed to get set for the hairpin corner at the bottom.

The hefty thud into the dirt wall caused a twoinch fracture in his shoulder. Coppins – who had bizarrely suffered a DNF in the first moto because of a stone jammed into the braking system – left the Czech Republic with a 77-point advantage over Suzuki’s Steve Ramon and just 200 to go. Ramon, a placid and uncombative rider but smooth, fast and everpresent, started to chip away as a desperate Coppins experimented with several forms of treatment across a period of three-and-a-half

weeks to be in a position to race, gain points and resuscitate his bid.

At Donington Park Coppins valiantly tried to compete but was in pain and powerless. He managed just one lap of the second moto. Ramon, who was nursing a troublesome left wrist tendon, was 4th overall and assumed control by 14 points. Disconsolate, Coppins packed up and departed the East Midlands venue and also left behind his life’s ambition. The following week Ramon rode to 3rd at Lierop in Holland to confirm the crown by 33 points as teammate Kevin Strijbos jumped to 2nd in the standings over the beleaguered Coppins.

Ramon owned 2007 without a Grand Prix win (just two moto chequered flags and six podiums). Recognition for the Belgian seemed to be equalled if not outstripped by sympathy for Coppins. To-date his Lierop success is still Suzuki’s (and Belgium’s) last FIM World Championship. “It has been a strange season,” he said in Holland. “I have had some bad results but I also know that it is important to fight for every point. It has not been my best year but I’m still the champion.”

“I just could not deal with the pain,” Coppins said of his moment of truth at Donington.

“I kept telling the doctor to give me more [painkillers] but I had reached a limit. I was struggling for concentration and at one point I could not even lift my arm to put it on the handlebars or put on my goggles.” Speaking through the phone on Sunday at Lierop, Coppins had clearly tried to put a mental block on what would turn out to be his best chance to be world #1. “Now I just need to move on,” he said.

Donington Park 2007 – home of the 2008 Motocross of Nations – was not only notable for Josh’s disappointment but also for the passing of the baton in the premier class…

FEATURE

2007

Having aced the 2007 MX2 FIM World Championship (his second in three seasons) with three rounds to go, Tony Cairoli was a surprise wild-card entrant to the MX1 contest in the UK. Yamaha were keen to bolster their numbers to assist Coppins’ plight against the Suzukis and there was a healthy degree of curiosity as to how the slight Sicilian would handle the bigger motorcycle compared to the usual level of flamboyance and confidence on the 250.

The production 450s had only become a reference for the premier class from 2004 with fuel injection arriving in 2005 and 2006. Compared to the compact and lithe machines of today, the bikes then were heavy, hard and often unbearably powerful.

THE ARRIVAL OF CAIROLI Cairoli raced a stock YZ450F although there were rumours – unconfirmed by Claudio De Carli’s team at the time – that his motor had been heavily detuned. 12th in qualification hid Cairoli’s potential for Sunday where finishes of 2-1 heralded a sample taste of what was to come and further cemented his status as the most naturally talented and exciting rider in Grand Prix.

“I know that my physical condition is good and in the second moto I was again at the front and just did what I normally do in MX2,” he said after the surprise triumph. “I did not waste any energy in the first part of the race and pushed when I needed to in order to take the win. I had two different kinds of races today. I found the power the biggest difference with the 450; for one race it is fine but for the whole season it would be hard. I prefer my 250 because I really enjoy that bike and have so much fun.”

A week later at Lierop and Cairoli would go 1-1 back in MX2 and on his favoured YZ250F. Donington Park did not instigate the beginning of #222’s premier class ascension, however. Wearing arguably one of the best race liveries in modern day Grand Prix (Red Bull-injected Yamaha blue) he was part of a threeway title dispute for 2008 MX2 gold until his first serious career injury when a snapped left knee joint occurred at the South African Grand Prix at Nelspruit. Cairoli missed five rounds. His last MX2 victory had been at Uddevalla in Sweden, the race before the trip to the southern hemisphere.

Waving goodbye to the 250, Cairoli moved into MX1 for 2009 with a carefully crafted non-works YZ450F. He won by round three in Turkey and

would go on to beat KTM’s Max Nagl for the championship, the first of six in a row.

2009 was also the summer of Yamaha’s ‘Decca Records/ Beatles’ moment. Mainly forced by budget restrictions as a consequence of the global financial crisis, Yamaha Motor Europe could not offer De Carli’s Yamaha team further support for 2010, even though they were fielding the championship leader and undoubted rising star. The manufacturer had a lot invested in Michele Rinaldi’s works squad and the YRRD parts operation and could not retain both outfits.

Yamaha’s loss was KTM’s immediate gain as the Austrians moved to ink a deal with both De Carli and Cairoli and then sold the Italian pairing on the advantages of their radical 350 SX-F concept. The next six years were then set in place and Yamaha would have to wait until 2015 to rule again.

MXGP: THE MEMORY MAKERS

‘2009 WAS ALSO THE SUMMER OF YAMAHA’S ‘DECCA RECORDS/BEATLES’ MOMENT. THEIR LOSS WAS KTM’S IMMEDIATE GAIN AS THE AUSTRIANS MOVED TO INK A DEAL WITH BOTH DE CARLI AND CAIROLI...’

2015

FEATURE

VILLOPOTO’S FINAL BLAZER Such was AMA Supercross and Motocross legend Ryan Villopoto’s pace through the Qualification Heat within the impossiblyhot confines of the Nakhonchaisri circuit for the 2015 Grand Prix of Thailand and round two of the MXGP FIM World Championship, that the 26 year old Kawasaki Racing Team rider was asked if he might potentially make the premier class “boring”. Villopoto creamed the opposition around the rough-edged man-made layout to win by over 30 seconds; but those same riders were puzzled as to why the GP ‘rookie’ was pounding the laps in a Qualification dash.

On Sunday Villopoto caused another small tremor in MXGP by going 1-3 and winning the event; adding another small distinction to one of the best CVs in the sport. The expected domination did not arrive, however. He was 4-4 in Argentina, and then infamously looped out of the Grand Prix of Trentino – the condensed, scratchy hard-pack Pietramurata circuit a quintessential Italian GP venue and ‘another world’ for the American – whereupon a broken tailbone dissolved the career of one of the true greats.

MXGP: THE MEMORY MAKERS

For a period of months MXGP had been hit by what KRT called ‘the Villopoto effect’.

Rarely had the series basked in such hype, and the zeal of a prospective clash between the AMA Champion and six-times title winner Tony Cairoli. Ironically his Grand Prix debut at the Grand Prix of Qatar came in front of the smallest crowd of the season…but must have given the series its largest TV/ online surge in years. Villopoto was mobbed in Thailand and Argentina – Neuquen has not seen a crowd like 2015 since – to the point where he needed his own security

detail. If anything, his presence confirmed the international appeal of both the sport and supercross: if promoters could somehow combine championships, stars and disciplines then they would have a major, major show on their hands.

As a small aside, Nakhonchaisri produced one of the strangest occurrences. Temperatures were in the mid-30s with suffocating air. At the end of the first MX2 moto both Jeremy Seewer and reigning world champion Jordi Tixier crashed less than fifty metres from the chequered flag and

across a low ski-jump into the short straight to the table-top.

Neither rider could pick up their bikes and contemplate the short walk to the finish line. Seewer, who had been 6th, groggily walked and collapsed to the side of the track, almost under the race steward signalling the end of the race, while Tixier was taken to the medical centre for treatment of heat exhaustion. His aggressive response to doctors when he was not allowed to participate in the second moto led to an FIM fine and he sat-out the following Grand Prix of Argentina.

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ARMINASJASIKONIS

The 2014 Grand Prix of Mexico may have provided the tightest FIM World Championship finale in recent memory with Jordi Tixier clasping MX2 by just four points over Jeffrey Herlings but it wasn’t the only title settled in the last laps of a racing campaign. Six years previously Red Bull KTM saw the tension and war between Tyla Rattray and Tommy Searle decided around the compact hard-pack of Faenza in Italy…but the majority of the crowd’s attention that day was focused on MX1; also still be to be determined.

David Philippaerts had held the red plate for much of the 2008 season and for twelve of the previous fourteen races in what was only the second term for the strong and quiet Italian in the premier category. Philippaerts had won only two Grands Prix and secured seven podium finishes, and had to contend with a

2008

FEATURE

PHILIPPAERTS AT THE LAST

similar phase of consistency from reigning world champ Steve Ramon and his bustling teammate Ken De Dycker with the likes of Jonathan Barragan (Spain’s first GP trailblazer before Jorge Prado’s emergence), Sebastian Pourcel, Max Nagl and Josh Coppins all posting GP spoils.

At Lierop for the penultimate date the previous weekend he faced intense pressure for what should have been happy hunting ground for Ramon (the Belgian claimed the MX1 crown at the circuit the previous year) but keep solid and errorfree to finish 4th while Ramon classified 8th. It meant that championship went to Italy for the second time that year with three riders split by just 25 points and Philippaerts ahead of Ramon by only 14.

MXGP: THE MEMORY MAKERS

Despite a rainy climate, the atmosphere was charged, and the small circuit packed to capacity. Philippaerts could partially exhale after the first moto by finishing 3rd behind Nagl and De Dycker with Ramon labouring to 11th. In the second the fans seemed to be counting down the laps. Philippaerts rode on eggshells. At one stage De Dycker was closing and, fearing an aggressive bout of gamesmanship (tactics that the Belgian was not averse to employing), the Yamaha rider moved across to wave the Suzuki through. Ramon rode to 2nd place in a last rally but 9th for Philipaerts was enough to guarantee 5th overall and instigate immense jubilation and rejoicing across the thick mud of the Faenza start straight. “I had looked at Steve’s season in 2007 and I knew that consistency was the key to the title,” Philippaerts said after the longest delay until he could finally talk to the press.

“I wanted to take decent points at every GP and I only really believed that the title was in my grasp during that second moto today.”

Philippaerts was a rookie in the factory Yamaha team at that stage and began a bizarre streak of ‘first-time rider wonders’ for Michele Rinaldi’s crew. Steven Frossard joined in 2011 and promptly finished as championship runner-up, a feat repeated by Jeremy Van Horebeek in 2014, Jeremy Seewer in 2019 and, of course, Romain Febvre went one better in his maiden season in 2015. DP19 was also the first Italian world champion in the premier class since Alex Puzar in 1990 and the first of the MX1/MXGP era but would soon be usurped by the Cairoli chapter that began in 2009.

FEATURE

2011

In 2007 there was a lot of buzz surrounding a lanky French youngster who was about to be 250cc European Champion (in one of the final years when the development series was run apart from the FIM world championship) and who was firmly on the Honda train to Grand Prix. His skill and technique were plain to see in a revealing wild-card (halted by mechanical trouble) at the soaked and muddy Grand Prix of Northern Ireland.

Foregoing ‘red’ for 2008, Paulin decided to sign for the short-lived Molson factory Kawasaki team where a broken leg stunted his progress. A first Grand Prix win in some of the worst weather conditions in recent memory at Faenza in 2009 was gained on the BUD Racing KX250F and Paulin was soon on the works Yamaha radar. Michele Rinaldi and the YRRD technical crew innovated and advanced the company’s YZ250F with the Frenchman’s aid during 2010 and 2011 but the combination was rarely competitive to strike at the heart of KTM’s hegemony with Marvin Musquin and then the burgeoning presence of Ken Roczen and Jeffrey Herlings with Tommy Searle in the wings with the CLS Kawasaki.

PAULIN’S 450 ‘PREVIEW’

Lodged into 4th position in the MX2 championship approaching the final fixture of 2011, Paulin pushed for a wild-card appearance in the premier class. Circumstances were in his favour for the first trip to the steep hillside hard-pack of Fermo close to the Adriatic coast: teammate Steven Frossard was out of the action with injury and Yamaha were keen help the Frenchman guard his 2nd place in the MX1 standings. Paulin was also angling for 450cc saddle time ahead of the Motocross of Nations at St Jean D’Angely (where he would go on to win the second moto, two years after his shock ‘big bike’ success at the Italian edition of the event at Franciacorta).

The field at Fermo was somewhat depleted.

World Champion Tony Cairoli was nursing an ankle injury and had recently lost his mother due to illness. Frossard and Yamaha’s other rider David Philippaerts were also sidelined, as was Suzuki’s Clement Desalle; the first three racers in the championship missed the trip. Paulin was brilliant however. He dealt with the close attention of Christophe Pourcel, a competitive Kevin Strijbos and Xavier Boog to go 1-2 and announce his arrival in MX1 in admirable fashion. “I didn’t really know what I could expect for my first MX1 GP,” he said post-race. “With Monster Energy Yamaha we did something special today.”

Yamaha – who had seen three different riders succeed with the criticised new ‘reversed’ engined YZ450F that year – were satisfied with their achievement but the feeling was slightly bittersweet as Paulin had already agreed to return to Kawasaki for his first full season in 2012.

Interestingly, MX2 world champion Ken Roczen rode a 125cc two-stroke in MX2 at the same event - the last appearance of a KTM 125 SX in Grand Prix – and took 5th in the first moto before retiring from the second.

MXGP: THE MEMORY MAKERS

FEATURE

While Beirer – 1999 250cc runner-up - was part of a small group angling for the top three of the 250cc FIM world championship in 2001 with Yamaha (he eventually classified 5th) he was more competitive in 2002 with Honda. Beirer’s teammate that year in the dysfunctional Vismara squad was Josh Coppins and both clashed in races, notably Bulgaria [the very first Grand Prix run at the fateful Sevlievo facility] and Italy. The ‘Pitbull’, always so distinctive on track for his attacking style and that dayglo helmet peak, toasted his last win across the slope of Roggenburg in Switzerland in 2000 but his final spray of cham-

pagne materialised in front of his fans at Gaildorf for the tenth round of twelve in ’02. He took 2nd position to double world champion Mickael Pichon that day and after freak accidents to Chicco Chiodi (who chewed the old green trackside mesh fencing) and Johnny Aubert (who broke his rear shock, continued to ride and crashed heavily). The result was part of a season-long campaign that helped snare his fifth career topthree championship ranking, and he also claimed the German series before inking his KTM contract that winter to steer the factory’s relatively new and raw 250 SX. He would capture a best result of 5th in 2003 around Montevarchi in Italy before travelling to Bulgaria for the sixth round of twelve.

2002

Tenacity, courage and (often) utter conviction were hallmarks of Pit Beirer’s Grand Prix career and the German star used these traits at the helm of KTM’s racing department after taking over the role previously held by fellow former motocrosser Kurt Nicoll. The 47-year old has crafted and appeared in many championship and race-winning celebrations across a wide span of motorcycle racing disciplines since taking his place almost fifteen years ago and seventeen years after his accident at the 2003 Grand Prix of Bulgaria changed his life.

BEIRER’S FINAL TROPHY BEFORE THE SECOND CHAPTER

Gaildorf would provide another interesting footnote for German fans. Red Bull KTM’s Ken Roczen wrapped his MX2 title at the circuit in 2011; still the last time MXGP has visited the small venue and the last time a German has laid hands on a world championship.

2004

MXGP: THE MEMORY MAKERS

VICO & ‘THE WASHING MACHINE’ Before KTM rolled the dice with the 350 SX-F in 2010 perhaps the riskiest technical experimentation in Grand Prix was Aprilia’s MXV v-twin, part of famed engineer and race boss Jan Witteveen’s fourstroke movement in the Italian firm.

The bike was first shown in 2003 but it would not be ready for competition until the eighth round of the 2004 MX1 World Championship and both Javier Garcia Vico and Thomas Traversini failed to pick up a point on the gorgeous but robust

black motorcycle around the Gallarate hill at the end of the Milan Malpensa airport runway. An expensive and advanced piece of kit with an alleged 14,000 RPM limit, the MXV omitted a low and unimpressive ‘burr’ – much like a washing machine compared to the four-strokes of the day and would ultimately prove to be uncompetitive. Progressive electronics increased the potency as the MXV was slow coming to market but helped gather data for the Noale firm’s race tech division and the motor/model excelled in Supermoto, claiming numerous championships.

By the end of the decade the Aprilia was on its way out. Josh Coppins, by far the best rider to race and develop the bike, scored points in all but four motos in 2010 and was a permanent fixture around the top ten, marking two highest finishes of 7th in Brazil and Italy. Soon afterwards the FIM curbed the costs of racing by limiting Grand Prix bikes to single cylinder engine platforms. The MXV was out of MX1 after 2011.

2007

FEATURE

POURCEL’S ATLANTIC HOP 2007 was a pivotal year in the career and life of one of the most talented motorcyclists of his generation. Christophe Pourcel was at his most brilliant and baffling best for a period of months that saw him claim his MX2 World Championship in front of an enrapt partisan crowd at Ernee for the final round of 2006 and then head over to the United States for several wild-card Supercross appearanc-

“POURCEL WOULD RECOVER AND GO ON TO ENTER HIS NAME IN AMA RECORD BOOKS BUT FOR A SHORT PERIOD CRESTING 2006-2007 HE WAS THE MOST EXCITING NAME IN INTERNATIONAL MOTOCROSS...” es at the start of ‘07 for the Pro Circuit team where he revealed his acumen for the discipline by taking a podium finish at Anaheim 1 and then shocking the scene with victory in San Diego. The Jean-Michel Bayle comparisons flowed long and hard. A fractured shin at Anaheim 2 ended the episode and meant a rush to get fit for the start of a reluctant MX2 defence where he resumed war with a rapidly maturing Tony Cairoli.

Round two at Bellpuig in Spain produced a vintage duel between the pair. Pourcel, still less-than-100%, and Cairoli scarpered free of the pack by more than fifty seconds in the first moto and over thirty seconds in the next as they shared race wins: Cairoli had the overall. With Tyla Rattray, David Philippaerts and Marc De Reuver also having their say in the 2007 battle, Cairoli was the superior performer. By the time of the muddy Grand Prix of Northern Ireland at the new and temporary circuit of Moneyglass the Sicilian was close to his second title. Pourcel tangled with Tommy Searle and crashed upon landing on Nico Aubin’s prone Yamaha. He dislocated his shoulder and broke his lower spine, leading to temporary paralysis. It was a serious accident and the repercussions of which would dent Pourcel’s self of invincibility and affect his approach to racing.

Pourcel would recover and go on to enter his name in AMA record books (still the most successful Grand Prix rider this century to transition to the USA in terms of wins and championships) but for a short period cresting 2006-2007 he was the most exciting name in international motocross. In an interview with RacerX at the time he was already displaying some of the individualism and confidence that would go on to mark him as someone and something a bit different.

“Nobody,” he answered to the question regarding his motocross heroes. “It may sound arrogant, but I just want to be myself and not try to be like somebody else.”

MXGP: THE MEMORY MAKERS

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L E AT T. C O M

FEATURE Shaun Simpson’s first Grand Prix victory at Lierop in 2013 was notable for several reasons.

His 1-3 at the final round of the championship and across one of the toughest and best racetracks in the series was only the second for Great Britain in ten seasons of the premier class MX1 format. It was also the last time a privateer has conquered a race in the MX1/MXGP era.

2013

2013 was the third term for the-then 25-year old on a 450. Simpson had left the confines of Red Bull KTM in MX2 for a difficult union with LS Honda in 2011 and then bounced between Yamaha teams in 2012, receiving factory support at one stage when the works crew was beset by injury problems. He delivered some promising results, the highlight being a 5th place at the 2012 Lierop fixture.

SIMPSON’S SANDY MASTERPIECE

An ill-fit with the now defunct TM factory team dissolved by the midway point of 2013 and Simpson found himself begging and borrowing to mould a Yamaha in the small confines of the JK Racing SKS Gebben crew. Relying on help and advice from father and former GP rider Willie Simpson, engine tuner John Volleberg and brother and ex-mechanic Stefan now working for WP, Simpson – frustrated by two years of trying to find an optimal technical package - fashioned

MXGP: THE MEMORY MAKERS

a stock YZ450F to his taste. Top ten finishes in Belgium, Czech Republic and Great Britain hinted that the Scot was on the right path.

Approaching the season-finale Simpson entered Lierop on a shoestring, so much so that he packed his racebike in the back of his camper and wheeled it into the team awning on Friday for Technical Control. 3rd place in Free Practice and 2nd in the Qualification Heat unveiled his surprise competitiveness as he battled factory efforts from KTM’s Tony Cairoli and Ken De Dycker, Suzuki’s Kevin Strijbos and Clement Desalle and Honda’s Evgeny Bobryshev.

A first moto victory through the wet sand on Sunday seemed to animate everyone watching at the fences: it was a true underdog achievement, an inspiring bolt from the blue. Strijbos would win the second race but Simpson’s 3rd position was enough to bring the house down.

He gave Yamaha just their second Grand Prix win all year and an ecstatic JK/SKS Gebben crew their first in the blue ribbon division as well creating a small GP landmark that is likely to stand for some time, considering the stilladvancing high level of riding and performance in MXGP.

FEATURE

2002

In 2002 a baby-faced and wide-eyed Tyla Rattray had shown that he could master some of the worst Belgian mud when the 16year old South African rode to a shock 3rd position at the ninth Grand Prix of the year at Genk.

RATTRAY’S BELGIAN BOUNTY FROM VANGANI STOCK Rattray was part of the now-fabled 2002 Vangani KTM team assembled by Tinus Nel that year with irrepressible teenagers Ben Townley, Rattray and the ever-youthful Tanel Leok as riders. All three would go on to win Grands Prix and the first two would claim FIM world championships as well as a AMA 250 SX title.

Townley struck first at the season-opener through the Valkenswaard sand, and when Marc De Reuver’s Yamaha expired he was able to bag a stunning podium result in his first full season since following Josh Coppins’ lead in departing New Zealand for Grand Prix competition in 2001.

Townley took his third podium at the 2002 Grand Prix of Bulgaria. The winner that day?

33-year old Alex Puzar, who’d last conquered an FIM World Championship round threeand-a-half years previously and would welcome the last of his 23 on a Husqvarna at Sevlievo. As if to mark a change of the guard and bridge the generations, Townley would obtain the following round and the Grand Prix of Sweden shortly after. “I can’t believe the little rat won one before me,” Coppins said in good jest while watching the rostrum ceremony. The victory was the highpoint in what would be an otherwise crash-laden term for Townley. In less than two years he’d be the very first MX2 world #1.

Genk was all about Rattray. He watched Townley fall in the ooze and then glided to 2nd place ahead of Steve Ramon. The younger racer was Townley’s close friend as well as teammate and both Lommel residents absorbed as much guidance and advise as they could from older and willing athletes like Stefan Everts and Joel Smets.

A hard training programme accelerated their potential and the fertile Vangani team was one of the main attractions in the paddock and for a 125cc competition that was incredibly open in a short twelve-round campaign (the series was decided between Steve Ramon, Patrick Caps and Philippe Dupasquier only at the final round outside Moscow). In 2004 Townley and Rattray – then racing for Red Bull KTM – finished 1st and 2nd in MX2.

Rattray in 2004

Pic by KTM images/Hodgkinson

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Photo: R. Schedl

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2012

FEATURE

HERLINGS LAPS, LAPS LAPS Lierop again. In 2012 Jeffrey Herlings was rampant. The Dutchman, then 17-years old, was in the midst of an intense fight for his first MX2 FIM World Championship with Tommy Searle (still one of the closest, longest and bitterest of disputes in any class this century) and then entered into a phase of total dominance in 2013.

Considering the proximity of Searle’s challenge – Herlings was just 51 points ahead as the series travelled to Lierop in Holland for round fourteen of sixteen – the speed and vision of the Red Bull KTM man in his preferred sandy terrain was nothing short of staggering. Herlings not only won his eighth Grand Prix of the term but he annihilated the opposition: lapping up to 2nd position in the first moto (teammate Jeremy Van Horebeek was spared the embarrassment) and up to 4th in the second (Van Horebeek, Max Anstie and Searle given a reprieve on that occasion). “I loved this weekend,” he enthused at the time. “I kept charging and charging and I saw I was lapping some good riders and it was a case of ‘OK, just one more’. I rode almost the same pace for forty minutes and most of the other guys are fast in the beginning but then those lap-times drop by maybe over ten seconds. Mine dropped also but maybe not as much.”

“ALL TOO OFTEN HERLINGS WOULD EMBARK ON A WILD QUEST TO REPEAT THE 1-1 ‘SMACKDOWN’. HE BATTERED THE COMPETITION IN 2013 WITH 26 MOTO CHEQUERED FLAGS FROM 28...”

MXGP: THE MEMORY MAKERS

The triumph meant that Herlings would confirm the first of his three MX2 crowns at the following event in Italy but it also set a template, and deepened his thirst for victory. All too often he would embark on a wild quest to repeat the 1-1 ‘smackdown’ as often as possible. He battered the competition in 2013 with 26 moto chequered flags from 28 but was prone to hasty and ill-considered decisions. He broke his collarbone at Bastogne in Belgium. After missing the penultimate race and the British Grand Prix, he made the rash judgement to return and administer

another comprehensive beating as Lierop closed the 2013 calendar but a small tumble during the motos reaggravated the problem and forced his absence from the Motocross of Nations in Germany.

Herlings would continue to shock and dismay in the following seasons – his 2018 MXGP campaign of 17 wins and 2 runner-up finishes from 19 appearances will probably never be eclipsed – but Lierop 2012 represented arguably the most devasting effort in modern Grand Prix history.

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

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Photos: R. Schedl, KISKA GmbH

i t p i l e n

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MXGP: THE MEMORY MAKERS

2006

The sight of 16-year old Tommy Searle raising both arms after passing the Matterley Basin finish line after scoring a very popular maiden podium in his rookie Grand Prix season in 2006 would be repeated again six years later: in 2012 Searle beat Jeffrey Herlings for victory at the Winchester site for an incredibly popular home GP win. Back in ’06 however and Searle was the latest in a throbbing line of teenage talent to make his mark on the MX2 class from the outset. His connection with Matterley Basin began at what was the eighth round of fifteen that term and the very first British Grand Prix at the circuit that would host the Motocross of Nations in 2006 and again in 2007. Searle was brilliant on a 250 and became the UK’s most successful racer, with three championship runner-up positions. Injury and misjudgement cruelly prevented the Englishman from obtaining a podium finish in the premier class.

TOMMY, MATTERLEY AND THE TEENAGERS In 2006 Searle was guiding a Molson Kawasaki (in a season where the brand won their last world championship) and was by far the youngest and brightest prospect of a very strong category that had still to come under the grip of the 23-year age rule. Searle raced the likes of Cairoli, Philippaerts, Rattray, Marc De Reuver, Carl Nunn, Rui Gonçalves, Gareth Swanepoel, Alessio Chiodi, both Pourcel brothers and Billy Mackenzie.

He was not the first pubescent breakthrough star though. While champions in their teens had been crowned through the ages (Eric Geboers and Stefan Everts the most notable?) the new century pushed through an eclectic mix of youngsters: Kevin Strijbos, Townley and Rattray perhaps the most prominent names to obtain silverware before

their voices had broken. They were memorably trawled by Pourcel and the teenage terror of Roczen and Herlings around the turn of the first decade (Roczen in 2009 and Herlings from the start of 2010, both winners at 15).

Max Anstie, Tim Gajser, Pauls Jonass and then Jorge Prado – a podiumee on his first full-time GP at Assen at the ripe age of 16 years and 8 months – followed suit. The constriction of MX2 as the springboard into MXGP changed the demographic and the expectation of the category; careers could flower early, quickly and drift away just as fast (remember Dennis Verbruggen?) and the search for the ‘next Searle’ became even more frantic.

2009

FEATURE

ROCZEN TOPS TEUTSCHENTHAL Ken Roczen had been long hyped as a junior force-to-bereckoned with before he made his Grand Prix debut in 2009.

Feted, protected and honed by Suzuki, adopted early by Red Bull and bilingual to a degree that embarrassed much older and more experienced peers, the German had to wait until the Portuguese round at Agueda, the fifth event of ’09 before he reached the age by which Suzuki’s team in MX2, led by Thomas Ramsbacher, could field the first sighting of ‘94’.

The official RM-Z250 riders were Xavier Boog and Yohei Kojima but Suzuki were quietly optimistic about Roczen’s 15-year old potential, even though he’d be beaten in European Championship competition and had not shined at Loretta Lynns in the U.S. Roczen landed on the Grand Prix stage sprinting. At Agueda he classified 7th overall with a second moto finish of 4th.

At the next race in Catalunya he earned his first moto top three with a 2nd place. Roczen continued to learn in Britain

and France but then arrived to Teutschenthal and home turf. It was his first major test of ‘stardom’ and all it entails: the fans, media attention, the expectation, pressures on time and performance and increased nerves. Although he ended the weekend with a gaunt and exhausted expression, Roczen matched his outstanding natural ability with a zen-like degree of calmness and maturity. Steven Frossard and eventual world champion Marvin Musquin won the motos but Roczen mixed good starts with razor focus and went 2-2 to post his first Grand Prix win.

“I don’t know what to say; this is amazing for me,” he said after a meeting where country Max Nagl won the first MX1/ MXGP moto. “After my first two GPs I saw that the podium was possible. I always do my best and I hoped for a podium here, with a bit of luck, but didn’t expect the win. Towards the end I knew that second place would give the overall so I rode safe. All the attention has come quickly, and it isn’t always easy to give people what they want but I try to do what I can!”

Roczen’s life changed after Teutschenthal. He became a poster boy with real star quality. Roczen was slightly edgy, fun-loving, independent and wise beyond his years. His name began to rise out of motocross and into wider German motorsport circles. On the track he’d end 2009 with 5th place in the championship and straight into championship contention for 2010 and Motocross of Nations fame in the USA at Thunder Valley, but the season was soured by some mechanical frustrations with the Suzuki (never the most competitive machine in MX2) and eventually led to a fateful union with KTM for 2011. His last Grand Prix showing was at Teutschenthal in 2012 where he returned from the USA for a MX1 wild-card. His presence on the KTM 350 SX-F swelled the ticket booths at Talkessel and he was narrowly beaten

by Cairoli.

MXGP: THE MEMORY MAKERS

FEATURE The tight and compact nature of the Teutschenthal hard-pack rewards the brave and the fast-starting. The track has been a consistent home for the German round of the FIM World Championship for decades.

‘Bobby’, a former national road racing champion, had showed promise in MX2 with Yamaha but injuries stopped the immensely likeable athlete from rising to podium contention.

Some obscure results have emerged there over the years: Brian Jorgensen’s excellent double moto win for Honda in 2004, Ken De Dycker’s 2010 achievement in an otherwise dry year for Yamaha, David Philippaerts’ win in 2007 to become the second rider to grab MX1 and MX2 GPs after Ben Townley in 2005. In 2011 and the first year of HRC making inroads back into Grand Prix, 23-year old Evgeny Bobryshev excelled in his maiden term as an official rider on the CRF450R.

He was the last representative of the CAS Honda crew in 2010 for what was his initial dip into the premier class and seized a popular trophy at the Grand Prix of Latvia, paving his way into the works team with some key backing from a personal sponsor.

When he wasn’t hurt then Bobryshev showed his mettle, and on a warm July day he kept a roving Tony Cairoli at bay to go 1-1 in Germany.

2011

MXGP: THE MEMORY MAKERS

BOBRYSHEV’S RUSSIAN ADVANCE It was the first triumph for Russia in the modern four-stroke era and the first for thirty-one years since Vladimir Kavinov succeeded in 1980. It was the fourth podium from five that season for Bobryshev and although he’d add another fifteen rostrum appearances in the next few years and grab a career-best classification of 3rd in the world championship in 2015, Teutschenthal was arguably the highpoint of more than a decade in Grand Prix.

2004

FEATURE

RAMON OPENS THE NEW ERA In 2002 tall, thin and introverted Belgian Steve Ramon owned the opening round of the 125cc FIM World Championship at Valkenswaard.

It was the new KTM factory rider’s maiden success. In 2003 he did the same again in the Dutch sand (round two this time) to begin what would be the first of his two-world championship winning campaigns strongly.

For 2004 Ramon had been bumped into the new-look Red Bull KTM factory team for the very first year of the ‘MX1’ category with fellow four-stroke rookie Kenneth Gundersen as teammate. The 24-year old would circulate a sodden temporary sandy Zolder circuit and profit from uncharacteristic mistakes by Stefan Everts, Mickael Pichon and Joel Smets to own the inaugural chequered flag of the fresh premier class.

He wouldn’t gain the overall though. That honour went to another ‘rookie’ and another Belgian, Cedric Melotte, to mark a dream debut with the factory Rinaldi Yamaha.

Ramon, Melotte, Kevin Strijbos: any hopes that a new, younger wave of racer were

MXGP: THE MEMORY MAKERS

taking over would be scrubbed as Everts and Pichon took the ’04 fight to the penultimate round in Ireland, although Ramon – unspectacular, reserved but devastatingly fast - would classify 4th in the championship and would maintain a seven-season residency near the top of MX1/MXGP Grand Prix.

The FIM World Championship was moving into mysterious waters under the 2004 Zolder rain. 125, 250 and 500cc had become 125, MXGP and 650 in 2003 and were now simply

races and including territories such as Britain (missing from the series since 2000) and South Africa as well as reinstalling the two-moto format were countered by other measures. 2004 was the first alarm bell for the ongoing existence of the motocross privateer with the reduction of prize money limited to the top ten of grand prix standings. The scheme would be soon scrapped altogether much to the dismay to the contemporary generation, and the following eighteen months would see meetings, gossip,

“2004 WAS THE FIRST ALARM BELL FOR THE ONGOING EXISTENCE OF THE MOTOCROSS PRIVATEER WITH THE REDUCTION OF PRIZE MONEY LIMITED TO THE TOP TEN OF GRAND PRIX STANDINGS. THE SCHEME WOULD BE SOON SCRAPPED ALTOGETHER...”

MX1, MX2 and MX3. The big bore class would last only another four seasons as part of the Grand Prix scene, leaving just MX1 (now ‘MXGP’ again) and MX2.

strife, strikes and protests as Youthstream bided their time and the prominent voices from Smets, Coppins, Everts, Pichon and co eventually ebbed away from the scene.

2004 was the first year of Youthstream (renamed from Action Group that had the rights to the sport and sold them to Dorna between 20012003) and popular moves such as extending the calendar from twelve to fifteen Pic by KTM images/Hodgkinson

2009

FEATURE

OSBORNE RAISES THE FLAG The level of admiration and status that Zach Osborne commands in the sport must have seemed like an unachievable dream when he made his way to Lommel to ride for Steve Dixon’s UTAG Yamaha. com team in 2008. The then18-year old had lost his way in AMA competition and was thrown a lifeline in MX2

by Dixon’s team and advisor Ash Kane. The Belgian sand could not have been a harder baptism for a rider that was slightly accustomed to European travel thanks to a strong youth contract with the KTM factory and Junior World Championship outings.

A moto finish of 8th was solid stuff (he broke down while

holding a similar position in the other race). “The track was almost indescribable as to how deep, rough and hard it is to ride on,” he said. “I have never experienced anything like that or fought so hard for a race position.”

Nine months later and Osborne, ensconced with the same Yamaha squad that he’d stay with until the end of 2012, walked the top step of the sole Grand Prix of Turkey to take place outside the city of Istanbul and within the private Hezarfen airfield.

The event was incredibly well-attended but certainly rough-and-ready in terms of organisation; fans were lining the tops of the jumps in the second motos after skipping through the skeletal fencing.

Osborne had taken 10th place in Bulgaria for round two but excelled on the bizarre Turkish dirt. His spoils represented the first American success in MX2 and the first since Mike Brown. “When they played the national anthem that was pretty cool for me and one of the best moments in my life so far,” he said.

Two races later and a technical problem threw Osborne into the red Agueda dirt in Portugal and led to a broken left wrist. The mix of podiumand-pain marked the rest of his GP tenure until a return to the USA led to a career re-birth. Since then Thomas Covington and Ryan Villopoto have added their names to the relatively short American roll call in Grand Prix.

MXGP: THE MEMORY MAKERS

FEATURE

2004

MXGP: THE MEMORY MAKERS

SHARKY HUNTS ITALIAN WATERS By the time of the Italian Grand Prix at the accessible if tiny Gallarate circuit in 2004, Australian Andrew McFarlane was still trying to find his place and his form in the FIM World Championship. Since impressing at his home round at Broadford in 2000 and being snapped-up by Michele Rinaldi’s factory team for the 2001 500cc World Championship, the Queenslander had been a relentless performer on the GP stage but would bounce around three teams in three years. Riding for Bike It Dixon Yamaha he basked in an emphatic day in the sun around the Italian hillside in early June: his 1-1 meant he was only the third Australian Grand Prix winner after Jeff Leisk and Chad Reed and the first (and only) Aussie to win both motos until Dean Ferris eclipsed the feat at Bastogne in Belgium in 2013.

“I could not have asked for anything better of myself, the team and the race bike,” the 27 year old said. “I have been here in Europe for four years and it has been worth the wait to be one of the best riders to come from Australia, come here and work hard and eventually take a double GP and overall win. I will treasure that…

I feel that I have reached a turning point and can build on this win today.”

McFarlane did. He’d win another moto at Neeroeteren in Belgium before injury scuppered the rest of 2004 but he stayed with Yamaha (although switching to yet another team) as 2005 provided a peak and he won the British Grand Prix and finished runner-up to Tony Cairoli. Three years in the AMA led back to the Australian Championship and he was negotiating his final season in 2010 when disaster struck in practice at Broadford.

2007

FEATURE

MACKENZIE’S SUGO SPELL The FIM Motocross World Championship travelled to Japan and the Sugo circuit between 2005-2007. The Grand Prix was an eagerly anticipated trip for the series.

Sugo, close to the city of Sendai, was humble and small and would probably be deemed inadequate for a European fixture dealing with far more people and infrastructure. The Japanese factories brought their set-ups normally reserved for the All-Japan Championship and usually with the latest trick parts and ideas on the wild-card machines – sometimes for the bikes of the Grand Prix riders.

“A COMPLEX, OUTWARD, REBELLIOUS & INDIVIDUAL COMPETITOR, MACKENZIE CELEBRATED HIS FIRST CAREER WIN RIDING STEVE DIXON’S YAMAHA IN JAPAN IN 2005. SOMEHOW A RELAXED & NONCHALANT APPROACH TO THE MEETING PAID-OFF AGAIN IN 2006.”

It meant a walk around the paddock was essential for the eagle-eyed and technical minded. Away from the venue and the Sendai electronic stores were the best place to find racers and their crews, eager to capitalise on the latest gadgets for favourable prices. The handful of Italian restaurants in the city did a roaring trade for four days.

Sugo itself was a spectacular track, distinctive for its loose and loamy soil that bred lines like no tomorrow. Crowd presence would dwindle by the last edition in 2007 but generally the enthusiasm of the public, the novelty of the setting (heat, humidity, rice fields all around, extravagant opening ceremonies) and the chance to race across the Japanese terrain that was somehow different to anything else found on the calendar meant the Grand Prix was briefly an annual highlight in the midst of the schedule.

Although the FIM World Championship is no stranger to winning streaks at a particular venue (both Tony Cairoli and Jeffrey Herlings have long ties with the Grand Prix at Valkenswaard) the bond that Scottish racer Billy Mackenzie forged with Sugo is baffling. A complex, outward, rebellious and individual competitor, Mackenzie celebrated his first career win riding Steve Dixon’s Yamaha in Japan in 2005. Somehow a relaxed and nonchalant approach to the meeting (Mackenzie enjoyed raiding the downtown McDonalds while dealing with his jetlag and was photographed lying in the start gate contemplating the first turn) paid-off again in 2006. By the time he was a factory Kawasaki rider in MX1 in 2007 and raced to the team’s first win, the first for the KX450F that had been in development for three years (and the last for the ailing Jan de Groot who would pass away that summer) as well as the first for Great Britain in the premier class, I recall French journalist Pascal Haudiquert shaking his head at how Mackenzie could always be so brilliant at Sugo and then infuriatingly hit-and-miss back in Europe.

MXGP: THE MEMORY MAKERS

The 23-year old was a creature of habit.

“The first time I won here I was listening to ‘Insomnia’ by Faithless on my mp3 player and as we came to the start - I was not in the spotlight back then – I laid down at the back of the gate watching all the other riders,” he divulged. “I won that day for the first time, so every season we have been back I have done the same.

Yellow has been my lucky colour here, so Smith kindly sent me some bright goggles. That’s the routine and while it works I won’t change it. I can always say that I have won a GP in MX1 and MX2 now. I am racing against the best in the world here and to come out on top was awesome.”

Sadly, a factory Honda ride in 2008 was dented by a broken thumb ligament.

Mackenzie never won another Grand Prix and the FIM World Championship has yet to return to Japan.

2008

FEATURE

(SEBASTIEN) POURCEL GETS A CHOIR Before the Marquez brothers there were the Pourcels. Sebastien popped into consciousness first, riding to several top three moto finishes on a Kawasaki during the 2004 MX2 season as younger sibling Christophe also made some points-scoring appearances that term. Compared to the following decade France were not imbued with a flow of promising young talent in Grand Prix at the time.

Aside from Sebastien only Anthony Boissiere would figure prominently. Using the number #90, Sebastien’s 2005 was wrecked by a broken right arm after a podium at the opening round of the season at Zolder in Belgium. It required a plate and several screws.

Christophe stepped into the family breach and excelled further in 2006. The popular brothers raced together in the GPKR team co-managed by father Roger for an arrangement that sometimes seemed claustrophobic. The working dimensions were eased when Sebastien moved onto the 450 in 2007 at the age of 22 and finished 4th in the world (with a marvellous 1-1 at a furnace of an event at Faenza in Italy), instantly putting himself on the radar of factory teams.

While his brother enjoyed Supercross stadiums and then suffered his accident late in ’07, Seb was on the ascendancy and works Kawasaki backing in 2008 helped him create one of the most powerful and emotional home Grand Prix victories of recent times in mid-June at St Jean D’Angely. He deflected Josh Coppins in both motos, winning by less than two seconds on both occasions and the

MXGP: THE MEMORY MAKERS

tight climax of the second race – Coppins would have had the overall if he’d passed the Frenchman – drove the sun-kissed crowd to hysteria. On the podium Pourcel looked overawed by the joy his achievement had provoked. A rousing recitation of the La Marseillaise rang out around the valley setting.

Quiet, humble and often stoically accepting his self-admitted ‘second’ status behind Christophe’s talent, Sebastien created several of his own highlights in a world championship career that never really scaled the heights due to injury. The Pourcels also delivered for their country and the French fans. Seb would go 2-1 at Donington Park in the 2008 Motocross of Nations. Christophe almost delivered the French team’s second victory in 2011 at St Jean if it wasn’t for a delaminated tyre.

In 2006 Christophe would confirm his MX2 prize at Ernee. Sebastien had beaten him to Pole Position on Saturday by a thousandth of a second; still one of the closest qualifiers in Grand Prix history. Sunday was all about the younger Pourcel on a day where one of the all-time greats signed off. “I had to win ten World Championships to finally take a title in Belgium,” joked Stefan Everts. “Christophe has got only one and did it in France so I am a bit jealous!”

FEATURE

2010

Tony Cairoli stopped his KTM 350 SX-F on the steep ramp up to the podium at Campo Grande and a hot Brazilian Grand Prix and melted a long streak of Pirelli rubber onto the board, much to the amusement of the adjacent packed grandstand and a typically vocal and enthusiastic native crowd (the ritual auction that riders host for their kit post-GP in the paddock in Brazil never fails to amaze and is a strong money-earner for the athletes prepared to travel back to Europe with a much lighter gear bag).

CAIROLI & THE BRAZILIAN BURNOUT

It is late-August 2010 and Cairoli has watched Clement Desalle’s Suzuki develop an electrical problem and shudder to a stop while his Belgian title-rival was close to his third win. It is round thirteen of fifteen but the MX1 championship is over: Cairoli has his second crown in a row, his first with Red Bull KTM and the fetching 350 and the fourth of his career, making the 24 year old the best Italian rider ever and the four rider to register two back-to-back premier class championships with different brands after Joel Robert, Greg Albertyn and Stefan Everts.

Cairoli sealed his fourth GP in a row and the seventh of the season; a first term where new factory Suzuki rider Desalle had emerged as a verified MX1 front-runner. Crucially it was the first accolade of five for the 350 SX-F: a bike designed to provide the agility of a 250 with

MXGP: THE MEMORY MAKERS

engine grunt not dissimilar to a 450. Cairoli adapted and chiselled the 2010 frame to a point where he’d stay with the same chassis for the next five years.

Brazil however marked a special moment for KTM. Not only was it their first MX1 championship but it also validated the theorising by Pit Beirer, Stefan Everts and the Austria-based engineers that the 350 (with a link as opposed to the polemic PDS suspension) offered a competitive compromise compared to the demands of the 450s of the era. Cairoli’s corner speed and consistency of lap-times were impressive and what he occasionally lacked in starting prowess (the FIM were obliged to make an engine inspection at the 2015 Spanish Grand Prix, such was the disbelief at #222’s power out of the gate) he countered with late moto speed and a slew of exciting last lap overtaking moves on his peers.

“It is very special to win this championship with the 350,” he said in Campo Grande and before a well-oiled party in the downtown district. “A lot of people were wondering if it could work or not…but I believed the bike could do very well and, in the end, we did not have any problems so I must thank the team and KTM for making a fast motorcycle.”

By 2015 KTM had made massive strides with their 450 SX-F that made the role of the 350 somewhat redundant. Cairoli would swap between the machines in ‘15 and the 2016 seasons but claimed his ninth medal in 2017 with the 450.

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MXGP SBK BLOG BLOG

TITULAR TITULAR TIGHT FOR TEAMS? How will Grand Prix teams weather this very unstable climate with potentially dark clouds gathering on the horizon? We asked a few owners about 2020 and 2021 to gauge a feeling for the current malaise in MXGP. No racing, no travel, no outlay but also no results, no promotion, no momentum of competition. Grand Prix often lives in its own little box. For example, the vast limitations of the financial crisis of the previous decade were not always evident from the outside; teams existed, riders raced, events happened, and the calendar expanded from fifteen to seventeen dates only five years later. But even racing cannot withstand the widespread ‘halt’ that has affected global society. It proves that while spectator attendances may have been dwindling for the majority of sports (or it has been much harder for promoters to entice, maintain or increase numbers) they are still very much the lifeblood for the businesses that make the contest and entertainment happen in the first place.

Companies in racing are preparing and stumbling towards the resumption of championships. Even if promoters were able to have the luxury of staging a Grand Prix behind locked doors they would first need international travel opened to ensure presence in the gate and then try and preserve the health of the skeletal crews operating at the event. It’s a vast sliding puzzle; even without consideration of fans and public.

Like many firms and businesses race teams have downed tools. Riders cannot (and shouldn’t) be practicing thus no basic maintenance and everybody is twiddling thumbs. While other companies and industries can plan for a re-opening date with a new work protocol this contingency doesn’t exist for Grand Prix squads that have to be

ready to begin training and travelling at a moment’s notice and despite constant postponements. For instance, only last week teams were advised that championship freight movers, Sel, would be picking up race fuel to ship to Russia for the ‘third’ round of the series on June 6-7 even though some European countries will have their border sealed until early-mid May and large public events are being forbidden until the end of the summer in several territories. If visas and travel to the Black Sea can somehow be hastily arranged then MXGP has to be ready to race in the perpetual effort to create a championship, save agreements and jobs.

Again, like other ventures, teams have outgoings – mainly wages and general running costs but also contracts for things like suspensions

CREATED THANKS TO

BY ADAM WHEELER

BY ADAM WHEELER services – but with every free weekend that passes the likelihood of keeping their sponsorship and income becomes less and less. “Some sponsors already stopped paying the invoices due and some already asked for a reduction on the 2020 contract,” one owner of an MXGP factory outfit wrote to us. “The situation is really worrying because this will generate a loss of income for the teams and without budget they will not be able to continue with the championship when this will resume.”

“One significant sponsor was due to make another payment instalment last week but I received a call from their MD that morally he couldn’t make any future payments until things improved as he was paying-off staff,” another team principal in the MX2 class commented. “As we have had a long-term relationship with many of our sponsors, we have to always

work with them. A problem may arise when/if the season restarts again we find we are in a cash flow situation if the sponsor hasn’t/can’t pay.”

“QUITE RIGHTLY THERE IS A FORCE OF OPTIMISM TO GET A CHAMPIONSHIP IN THE BOOKS. “ I know of a few teams that looked on with interest at Dorna’s announcement earlier this month that the Spanish rights-holders to MotoGP would be assisting Moto2 and Moto3 squads financially to help ensure their survival.

MXGP and Infront Motor Racing simply doesn’t have the depth of resources (TV money and advertising) to implement the same initiative. Although, some shrewd diplomacy and constant dialogue between the two groups - whom have frequently butted heads in the past about fees and the

length and spread of the calendar - would be timelier than ever.

Accusing Infront Motor Racing of only prioritising their pockets at this time is pointless. IMR could have flogged MXGP and left long ago if they just wanted to make a buck and then sip cocktails elsewhere. Instead they tackle an annual headache of organisation. They struggle to keep half the people happy for half the time whatever they do, wherever MXGP goes or whatever track is raced. “I think it would be difficult for them to look after us, maybe they could waive the team fees and give them back but I guess it would be a huge dent to their income and they still have costs too,” said another team manager. “I think if we limit the races to 10 it will save a huge amount of teams whilst securing them for a solid 2021 season.”

MXGP SBKBLOG BLOG

Now, especially, this is the time to unite strongly with the OAT teams and to find common ground in the interests of preservation. We’ll never really know the business state of racing for various parties until there is a radically visual sign, such as a team not appearing in the gate for a round (or rounds) or a cull of staff that ends up diminishing the potential of the series.

Quite rightly there is a force of optimism to get a championship in the books. Even if it means an autumn/winter set of races and minimal downtime before 2021 can start to take a shape resembling something like normality (and that’s assuming COVID-19 can be kept under control). Teams are suggesting a much smaller 2020 schedule without overseas trips although the Indonesian double-header is likely to find better climate conditions than Europe for a date in, say, December.

But, of course, the most frustrating thing is the large question mark hanging over much of MXGP. It’s only natural that teams are starting to worry about their status and future

during a predicament they have never faced before. The makeup of the team ‘fabric’ in the paddock is a convoluted mix of wealthy benefactors, passion projects, shoestring operations dependent on every incoming euro, slick factory-backed efforts and others that are carefully and economically managed. As April turns to May and May will quickly feed into June it is also the time of year when contracts and perspectives for 2021 will be set: how can any of that predictive thought happen when wheels have yet to turn for 2020? “This [2021] will be the real test for ALL Teams in the paddock,” we were told.

“Sponsorship will be at a premium for 2021 for factory and private teams. For the sport, if teams don’t survive, then riders can’t compete, and championships will be diminished.

Now is the time for everyone to tighten their belts after many years of increased costs to compete at the highest level.”

The determination by IMR to get a season safely running, results posted and obligations fulfilled is the first objective.

Until a picture of 2020 appears then it means other doubts cannot be addressed, such as the polemic MX2 23 age limit restriction. Should riders who are about to age out in 2020 be given another year? Is it time to review and extend the ruling and perhaps use the current upheaval to extend it to 25? This wouldn’t be a bad move, considering the number of 30-something riders in the MXGP category and the notion that riders are lengthening careers and could reach their peak at a later stage. It would apply more breathing room to MX2 and attach more significance to EMX250 (why rush to get into Grand Prix when you have more development time in MX2 and can only consider the premier class and the few saddles available when you are fully ready to do so?).

“The biggest worry is that some manufacturers could decide not to take part to the 2021 championship, and this will be definitely the end for many teams,” stated another.

There is little in the way of answers or assurances…but I hope Grand Prix and teams (and even other groups like the humble media corps) can push through the mire.

PRODUCTS

www.evenstrokes.com

EVEN STROKES There are a several good locations for online shopping of gear and parts in the UK but the establishment of Even Strokes features some top quality brands with appealing prices. Run by the same people behind the relentless new website MX Vice, Even Strokes has the kit and components that offroad riders and motocross racers need and appreciate, therefore knowledge of the sport and the market carries some advantages.

Labels such as Alpinestars, Bridgestone, DEP, Motorex, DID, NGK, Rekluse, Renthal, Talon and more are highlighted and the motocross loyalty points programme is an interesting idea that could really pay back over time. Even Strokes are also promising to host events, ride days, product tests and competitions. Definitely worthy of a peruse.

PRODUCTS

PROTAPER Prone and static dirtbikes in garages, vans and lock-ups mean ample time for a little aftermarket TLC and anybody looking to sharpen the feeling and handling of their ride would do well to browse the offerings from handlebar specialists and innovators ProTaper.

Fuzion, Evo, Contour, and SE are some of the options for every make and model while the famous Micro bar is almost an essential product for kids. There are even pitbike kits. Perhaps the most eye-catching is the Fuzion. ProTaper claim ‘innovation’ as one of their brand markers and this adjustable and dependable handlebar is a fine example. In the Americans’ own words the Fuzion has ‘revolutionary flex locking design [that] allows riders to choose

between a stiffer, more controlled handlebar feel and a softer, more shock-absorbing one, depending on terrain conditions. Switching between the “Locked” and “Unlocked” settings takes only seconds. The handlebar itself utilizes ProTaper’s exclusive 2000 series T6 aluminum alloy with a computer-profiled 5 mm-thick wall design.’ The Fuzion is 1, 1/8” tubed at the clamping area and made from aerospace-quality polymer. It is also thoroughly race tested by factory Husqvarna and Honda teams. It comes in black and with six different bends. All handlebar products are light, strong and good value for money. Browse the website by clicking on an image.

PRODUCTS:

www.protaper.com

SX BLOG

A DIFFERENT AGE...

With life itself on hold for a lot of us these days and the sport of motorcycle racing seemingly looking pretty small in the grand scheme of things, we’ll reach back into the archives to bring you something that might take your mind off our current situation.

In the media game, we’ve got to come up with new ways to entertain you people stuck at home and that’s been challenging as well. Plus the usual podcast shows and such, what’s been interesting for me is to go back into the Cycle News archives and read about old races, old interviews and the like. Cycle News, for those of you not in the know, was a newspaper here in the USA that came out once a week, usually on Tuesday with all the latest results, news and gossip for all things two-wheeled.

(timely anyways) so you had no choice but to believe and trust their reporting. I found myself many times reading the stories about these races and wondering about a riders point of view but CN wouldn’t talk to the rider and we were just left with nada.

I’m sure the journalist probably tried to talk to the rider but they left the stadium before the reporter got there.

There were no press conferences back then and magazines were two months behind and didn’t focus on the minutia of a race so much.

Nowadays if a rider can come out and win a 450SX heat, like what KTM’s Justin Bogle did last year, there’s more talk about it, there’s more hype and that counts for something in today’s multimedia universe. Reading the old issues I would find riders that greatly outperformed their usual results in a heat or a main but it would be duly noted by the reporter and then nothing else. Heck, I would’ve spent an hour on a privateer winning a race like Honda’s Rick Ryan in 1987.

In the land before the internet, it really was the best way to get current info on what was happening. It also represents a time in the country where they were the only reliable news outlet

Times certainly have changed now, heck I can just text most riders right after a race to get a quote or two on whatever I need. Back then?

Not so much.

We didn’t really know the riders back then either.

Sure, we love the stories now of Rick Johnson and Ron Lechien fighting over the same girl, Jeff Ward and Johnson showing up at the

CREATED THANKS TO

BY ADAM WHEELER

BY STEVE MATTHES same practice track on 500’s and both riding until Ward (I think) ran out of gas and we love this stuff because we never heard about it back then. Nowadays we can see what Ken Roczen is eating for dinner if we follow him!

I recently had Jim Holley on the Pulpmx Show and he’s a former factory rider for Yamaha and a long-time privateer at that. As we suspected, some of the passes that would happen back in his day and nothing would happen would probably cause an internet melt-down today. Back then, Cycle News would say that “Holley put a hard pass on Whiting” and that would be it.

30 years later, Jim’s in my studio telling me that “hard” pass he put on Whiting almost started world war III back in the pits!

This isn’t a column about how the good’ol days were the better days or vice versa,

its just rumination on how different things were back then. We still had the best riders winning most of the time, we still had teams that had their s**t together and ones that didn’t…but it was the smaller stuff that just never saw the light of day.

And speaking of light, some very deserving riders never got the attention they deserved for some outstanding rides.

There’s not much about this downtime that’s good for racing but for me, it’s given me a whole new appreciation for the old days and for the job that the media had to do back then. They weren’t perfect but they were all we had.

I’m thankful for that.

PRODUCTS

KTM/ALPINESTARS 2020 KTM Powerwear time, and the company’s alliance with Alpinestars provides at least four attractive footwear offerings for the rest of this calendar year. First on the list are the S-MX6 V2 boots and a close relation of the Supertech R which is one of the most comfortable we’ve had the privilege to use while on the street. The S-MX6 V2 – quite a cumbersome name – is less ‘racey’ and therefore has more concessions towards ventilation in the ankle, heel and metatarsus.

There is open-pore foam cushioning and temper foam inserts for decent shock absorption around the foot, a compound rubber soul and 2-layer PU protectors around the shin, calf, ankle and toe. The S-MX 1 R boot is a low-cut alternative but still ‘high performing’ thanks to things like the TPU toe sliders and impact protection around the ankle. The rubber sole is entirely replaceable, the outer material is made from lightweight but hard-wearing microfibre and easy entry is helped by the side zips. KTM also say the ‘accordion flex zones made from microfibre fabric for greater comfort and better mobility when climbing on and off.’

On a different level for performance but hiking style and perhaps comfort to the fore is the J-6 WP shoes. Waxed uppers give decent water resistance, including a membrane for further chances of dry feet in the case of a spring or summer shower.

WWW.KTM.COM

The shoes have internal and external ankle protectors as well as reinforced toe and heel sections. There is also foam padding around the tongue and ankles and the foam foot bed can be switched-out in the case of wear.

As these are exclusive items for KTM so the aesthetic, including the colours and panels, mean these Alpinestars goodies can only be found in official dealers or through the Powerwear section on the KTM website.

MotoGP BLOG

THE RACE FOR EYEBALLS There are, at last, some signs of hope.

After weeks of being locked in our respective homes (more or less strictly, depending on where you are) it looks like countries are starting to get the outbreak of the SARS-CoV-2 virus under control. Death rates are falling in most countries, and there are sharp falls in the number of new cases. The world breathes a sigh of relief.

Governments are starting to look towards the future, and at ways of gradually lifting restrictions. On Sunday night, Italy laid out a plan to open up society in phases through the month of May. Spain is looking at allowing people outside again for exercise from the beginning of May. In Austria, Germany, and Belgium, more shops are being allowed to open, and in the Czech Republic, groups of up to ten people will be allowed to gather.

We are approaching the point where Dorna’s plans – and they have many, one for every conceivable scenario – might

actually be put into effect again, and racing might resume. There are still a lot of hurdles to clear: obviously, a world championship needs international coordination for it to happen. But Dorna CEO Carmelo Ezpeleta told UK broadcaster BT Sport that in the most optimistic case, the championship could start again as soon as late July. That would be behind closed doors, with no fans, and at a restricted set of circuits. But if it happens, it would mean we would have racing once more.

And therein lies the rub. Along with MotoGP, we would also have F1, which is planning to start some time in July. We might have World Superbikes, though the calendar for the WorldSBK series is empty for most of July and August. We might have other sports as well: tennis, perhaps NBA basketball or MLB baseball, cricket, horse racing. And of course, the big one: football.

Given that the English Premier League is losing hundreds of millions of pounds as a result of the coronavirus, there can be no doubt that they will want to start playing as soon as possible, to

start to stem the haemorrhaging of cash from lost TV revenue.

The same is true for the Italian Serie A. So, MotoGP will return to a very different (and crowded) landscape. Once sporting events are possible, there will be an explosion of sport on TV – and, most likely, only on TV – all at the same time. The battle for eyeballs, always a tough fight in a crowded entertainment market, will become an all-out war. TV broadcasters, especially those who rely on live sports, will be flooded with events, from big to small. Eurosport, BT Sport, Sky Sports, they will all go from reruns of last year’s events to being able to run live events pretty much 24/7. They, too, have advertising revenues to recoup, as audience numbers have dropped like a stone.

That leaves MotoGP in something of a bind. Dorna needs the racing to be on TV, as over a third of their income depends on TV broadcasting rights. But if they start racing at the same time as everybody else, their

prize product risks getting lost in a veritable tidal wave of sporting fixtures. MotoGP may be Dorna’s crown jewel – or perhaps more accurately, the goose which lays the golden egg – but its glitter may not be noticed amidst the flood.

And what will fans do? No doubt that once live sports return, viewers will spend the first week binging like a seven-year-old in a sweetshop. But once the sugar rush has worn off, what then?

Will fans still be as keen to watch every moment of racing they can (likely on weekends grouped together), or will they find themselves forced to choose as the demands of normal life reassert themselves? Can MotoGP be sure of winning the battle for eyeballs against football, tennis, F1?

Would it be better for MotoGP to wait, to hold off until the first surge of excitement at the return of sport – any sport – to our TV screens has subsided? Is the risk of MotoGP being drowned out in the general cacophony of sports too great? Is waiting to grab the

spotlights at a later date the better strategy? Or would MotoGP miss out on the opportunity to get in front of casual viewers, keen to watch any live sport while their personal favourite is still on hold?

The clock is also ticking for the rest of 2020 and thoughts of 2021.

These are easy questions to ask.

But we will only know what the right answer was after the fact.

And Dorna is not the only sports promoter asking themselves these questions, and wargaming the solutions. Every major sports authority in the world is engaged in the same quest: trying to work out when they can stage events again, so they can maximise their revenues and staunch their losses. The coronavirus outbreak has seen winners and losers during the lockdown. There will be more winners and losers once the lockdown ends. Fingers crossed motorcycle racing is in the group wreathed in laurels.

CREATED THANKS TO Moto3’S NEWEST RACING TEAM

BY DAVID EMMETT

FEATURE

THE RIGHT STAGE THE RIGHT DUEL THE RIGHT TIME

By Adam Wheeler Photos by Don Morley

AN APPRECIATION OF THE 1979 500cc BRITISH GRAND PRIX AT SILVERSTONE AND A SLICE OF AN ERA BY THOSE WHO KNOW BEST…

FEATURE

T

he race is a cult classic thanks to a duel between Barry Sheene and Kenny Roberts that was split by three-hundredths of a second after a 28-lap chase around one of the best and fastest circuits of the time. It was also a pivotal event in a time of a changing landscape for the fabric and structure of the world championship. Perceptive writer Barry Coleman, then editor of peerless Grand Prix annual Motocourse in just its fourth year, opened his report on Silverstone with the following passage: ‘When historians of the sport of motorcycle racing consider the dramatic developments during the course of 1979, their attention will inevitably be caught by the British Grand Prix at Silverstone. It will not be because there Kenny Roberts effectively won his second 500cc world championship; nor because the immaculate Kork Ballington there settled his third world title; nor because Barry Sheene was brilliant; nor because there was sensational worldwide television coverage. It will be because at Silverstone an overwhelming majority of the world’s leading riders stated simply that they were taking part in the grands prix for the last time.’

“The FIM was governed by the circuit owners who were not prepared to pay decent start money let alone decent prize money when they knew the riders HAD to enter to be able to score World Championship points,” recalls Coleman’s colleague and Motocourse photographer Don Morley. “There were also only thirteen GPs and not all of those ran a 500cc round. Kenny Roberts came into GPs quite late in his career and almost instantly disliked what he saw. Even by 1979 as reigning World 500cc World Champion he skipped Venezuela [the costly and disorganised opening round], started the breakaway move to a World Series, and called the Belgian GP boycott/walk out [at a remodelled, resurfaced and untested Spa Francorchamps] all before the 1979 British Grand Prix.”

1979 was characterised by turbulence. Not only was there dissatisfaction with start money, safety conditions and general treatment of the riders (Roberts publicly complained they were treated like “animals” at Jarama for the Spanish round of the series and refused to accept his race trophy on the podium) but there was a sense that the 500cc two-strokes at the end of the decade were starting to bite hard.

MXGPSILVERSTONE NETHERLANDS & ‘79

The factory elite all struggled with injury. Roberts from a pre-season testing crash in Japan that fractured vertebrae, a foot and ruptured spleen and meant he gingerly came back to action at the nerve-shredding Sachsenring for round two, Suzuki trio Wil Hartog (broken arm), Virginio Ferrari (a heavy Imola crash), Sheene (a smashed knee in Yugoslavia and elbow in Spain) and the emerging

Tom Herron lost his life at the Northwest 200 in the wake of breaking his wrist at Jarama.

Honda’s infamous four-stroke NR arrived for the last two rounds with fanfare but deflated rapidly like a balloon with mechanical problems, a Mick Grant fall at Silverstone and then qualification failure in France. It was a humbling re-entry to Grand Prix but set the seed for HRC to surge forwards and become one of the powerhouses only three years later.

The attrition caused parity in the 500cc standings, particularly with Roberts suffering a rear shock issue that dented his efforts at Assen and in Sweden while Sheene had mechanical or tyre trouble in four races and Ferrari, his second and last GP victory coming in excellent style ahead of Sheene in Holland, was uncompetitive in Sweden and Finland to effectively ease Roberts’ task of a title defence in Britain and France.

FEATURE Roberts, then 27 and in the second and final year of the Yamaha USA ‘bumblebee’ yellow livery, had already been sanctioned twice by the FIM in Spain and for the Belgian GP masswalkout but both punishments had been suspended. By the time of Silverstone he had a 7 point lead in the championship and his powers as arguably the top spokesman were at a peak. Political tensions were bubbling as the British Grand Prix presented a massive platform for the sport, forged by the profile and popularity of Sheene (perhaps only the fervour for Hartog and Boet van Dulmen at Assen created anything like the same home GP/ expectation vibe).

“Roberts was trying to float his World Series as a complete breakaway so during the Silverstone practice week he called a meeting between the top few 500cc riders (plus myself and Barry Coleman) suggesting as this was one of the very few televised races they should put on what in essence would be a staged show,” says Morley. Sheene was third in the world championship and 28 points adrift, so out of the picture. Silverstone represented his last chance of salvaging something from a miserable season. The BBC’s [rare] live coverage would ensure that the British race would enter more homes and reach more eyes than ever before.

Sheene and Roberts were united in the plight for better treatment but they were also vocal rivals. Roberts had his eye on Ferrari and Sheene was, by his own words, exasperated with Suzuki and what he felt were a dilution of their development efforts.

Silverstone was quick. Just eight corners in the original layout made of wide, airfield concrete.

By the mid-1980s F1 average speeds had reached 160mph. It was last used in its ‘79’ guise in 1985, by 1987 the British Grand Prix had switched to Donington Park.

“I THINK KENNY AND I BOTH KNEW THAT WE ONLY HAD EACH OTHER TO WORRY ABOUT,” REMARKED SHEENE YEARS AFTERWARDS IN A TV FEATURE. “WE’D BE TOGETHER, AND HE’D HAVE A REAL GO TO GET RID OF ME AND VICE-VERSA BUT WE BOTH REALISED THAT IT WOULD COME DOWN TO THE LAST LAP.”

SILVERSTONE & ‘79

Ironically the riders had tried and rejected the new section of the Spa circuit the previous month, blaming treacherously unused asphalt for the poor safety standard; forty years later and MotoGP riders would also abstain from a rain-soaked Silverstone on account of poorly laid tarmac.

The Marlboro British Grand Prix began with Roberts on pole and heading a very crowded front row that also included Sheene who had been having a nightmare trying to set up the Suzuki during practice. The then-28-year old had been 5th fastest and almost two seconds

slower than Roberts as he fought to sort out the unpredictable hydraulic suspension. A sign of the entertainment factor to come appeared from the first seconds of the race as the grid push-started and Sheene hiked a massive wheelie. Hartog (who had become the first Dutchman to win a premier class GP in 1977) led the early laps and when Sheene and Roberts dropped Randy Mamola and Ferrari they joined him. The trio were split by half a second and swapped positions in a tight contest. Eventually the tussle became a duel.

As Sheene and Roberts played their shadowing slipstream chase at top speeds near 170 mph in the closing laps, the crowd were held enrapt, both at the track and at home. “Roberts had already virtually secured a second successive title; Barry’s only chance at salvaging a bad season was a home win,” confirms long-time GP scribe, author of ‘Barry Sheene: A will to win’ and later Motocourse editor Mike Scott. “The race had everything – even light relief.”

“Barry’s cheeky ‘v sign’ behind his back to Kenny is still talked about today,” says BBC journalist and former friend of Sheene’s Nick Harris. “It was one of the few races shown live on BBC television and people in no way connected with racing still remember and talk about it.”

“Silverstone had everything going for it - a scarily close race, Sheene’s improbable V-sign and so on, plus it came at the peak of the British biking boom, when sales were going through the roof,” comments former racer and journalist Mat Oxley. “I was a punter stood at Stowe corner during the race. All I can remember is that the PA system was so rotten that we couldn’t even hear who’d won for some while afterwards.”

FEATURE “Early in the race Wil Hartog was up front,” says MotoGP statistician Dr Martin Raines.

“This was my first experience of the fanatical Dutch supporters as I was in the Woodcote stands and there was about 50 of them in a group just behind us and they went mad every time Hartog came around. But once Sheene and Roberts got to the front it was just a great race and also a great atmosphere there in the stand. I am sure both Kenny and Barry thought they had the other covered.”

“I think Kenny and I both knew that we only had each other to worry about,” remarked Sheene years afterwards in a TV feature. “We’d be together, and he’d have a real go to get rid of me and vice-versa but we both realised that it would come down to the last lap.”

“Roberts’s argument was that major TV coverage would be absolutely vital if they were to get the World Series off the ground, he also argued only the 500’s mattered and why thus bother in the future at all about classes such as the 50, 125s or Sidecars,” remembers Morley. “Finally, why risk lives via racing each other the full distance? He said - and the others agreed too - it was better instead to make it look good, ham it up for most of the race, then ‘everyone for themselves’ when it came to the last three laps.”

With the race building up to a climax the duo were cutting through the backmarkers.

Sheene has always insisted that his intention was to pass Roberts on the final Woodcote corner; perhaps similar to the mugging he

SILVERSTONE & ‘79

had performed on Giacomo Agostini four years prior at Assen for his first ever 500cc win.

When the pair entered the fast, right-handed bend on the penultimate lap, Roberts dove inside George Fogarty. Sheene had committed himself to the outside, essentially getting baulked as the corner opened up.

Sheene lost time and stared at 100 metre gap to his rival for the last minute and a half of the GP. Making up time into Stowe and Club, willed on by the crowd, he threw everything into a charge at Woodcote and finished half a bike length away at the line (famed commentator Murray Walker screaming “Sheene is gaining, gaining, gaining!”) which was on the cusp on the start straight. Sheene smashed the lap record on that concluding circulation.

“If the line had been another yard further on it would have been alright; I had the run but not the distance to do it,” he said.

“Barry always blamed Carl Fogarty’s dad, George, for baulking him at Woodcote while he was lapping him,” says Harris, “but his efforts to overtake Kenny on the last corner, with the wheels on the grass, summed up the determination and ability of the man.”

“Barry broke the record on the last lap (amazingly more than one and half seconds faster than his qualifying time) to challenge Roberts right in front of where I was sitting,” recalls Raines. “What a great finish to a great race but of course a great disappointment for all Sheene fans.”

Roberts took the flag, his fifth and last of that season, it is no exaggeration to say that the goal of creating a show was somehow superbly managed. ‘It was a magnificent race’ wrote Coleman in Motocourse.

“Silverstone may have been a bit of a watershed,” muses Oxley. “You didn’t get a lot of bike GPs on TV back then, despite Sheeney’s success, but it seemed like everyone saw that race. It was the kind of event that made good pub conversation for a while, even your granny mentioned it; the battle really caught the British public’s imagination.”

Sheene’s reputation had slipped a little after his defeat by Roberts in 1978 and his noises about his rivals and reliability problems in the press, but his profile soared high after Sunday August 12th 1979. His impact on British motorcycling and his role in transferring it to the mainstream for the first time during the mid-to-late seventies can be neatly summed up by the Grand Prix and everything good about bike racing and what it represented.

FEATURE “What Barry did for the sport was to drag it on his own coat-tails,” asserts Scott. “His personal ambition knew no bounds, his charisma and magnetism dragged almost everyone along with him. His was a powerful combination – a born entertainer, but at the same time ruthlessly determined to win.

Valentino Rossi shows of the same characteristics. Barry’s riding skills were obvious, but not transcendental. His courage and commitment, however, were unsurpassed, as well as his all-round understanding of the nature and value of success. He was an ambassador first and foremost for himself. It was to bike racing’s great benefit to be along for the ride.”

“I don’t think I have been as excited by a race since…or more disappointed at the result,” offers Raines. “Of course, now I am involved in producing statistics I know that the record books show this as the fifth closest race finish of all time in the 500s – but, as always, the record books do not give the full story.”

Silverstone ’79 has the acclaim but arguably Le Mans, a new venue for the French round and that season’s curtain-closer, provided an equally if not more rousing affair. “Sheene, Hartog, Ferrari and Roberts had all won 500cc GP races already and this meant that although Silverstone was seen as a great race, in fact THE race of the season was the French GP which was the final round as ANY and all of those four riders plus Mamola still had a mathematical chance of winning the overall title if they did well enough,” remembers Morley. “It was, for me at least, the race of the century with all five still locked together, then disaster as Ferrari failed to make the corner and was trapped between his sliding machine and the armco almost severing his arm. Fortunately, a quick-thinking fan jumped over the Armco to help who as it turned out was a highly qualified Doctor. That fan incidentally was Dr Costa who the grateful riders later persuaded to set up the famous and wonderful GP Clinica Mobile.”

Sheene gained the seventeenth win of his eighteen in the premier class by a narrow margin from Grand Prix rookie Mamola. Roberts would win another title and eleven races before he claimed Silverstone again in 1983, the penultimate success of a ground-breaking career. Crucially, the pressure applied by the solidarity of the riders in 1979 would lead to greater efforts by the FIM to raise payment fees and expel perilous circuits, although, strangely, the tree-lined fear-fest that was Imatra in Finland remained a Grand Prix venue for the 500s for another two years.

SILVERSTONE & ‘79

MORLEY:

“I WAS GOBSMACKED BY THE TALENT.”

Photographer Don Morley was a reference for Grand Prix during the 1970s and 80s. His work, especially the vast bank of images in the doctrinal editions of Motocourse, defines the era and the demand for his services saw him regularly commute to the USA where he was able to admire the depth of racing skill in Grand National competition: a surge of ability that would eventually go on to have such an impact in the world championship once Steve Baker and Pat Hennen had taken the first tentative steps.

“When the few [Americans] did come over to Europe they were mostly riding borrowed or second rate machines, the events were of little importance to them as well, other than as money spinners as they were paid top entry

fees whereas back home what mattered more was they had to be all-rounders for the AMA series, needing to score points Flat Tracking, TT Racing and road racing, but with far fewer American road races to ride or therefore to score AMA points in.”

“Roberts was THE most amazing and complete rider I ever saw. Forget all about statistics, Kenny was already long in the tooth when he came over and he was winning from day one and the Yamaha was much harder to ride. Even in the Robert/ Spencer era the Yams just would not change direction as easily. Frankly, as good as Barry had been I knew he had by far the best bike and until then little opposition, indeed had it not been for his terrible career ending TT crash I reckon [Pat] Hennen would very likely have beaten Roberts to the 500cc title the first year they came over.”

“Kenny drove me mad photographically. GP after GP he hardly put in any practice laps so I was not getting enough pictures even though he was riding in the 250 class as well! This seemed to make little sense given he had never seen the tracks before. Anyway, I went to his motorhome on one occasion when all the other riders were out practicing and said ‘What the hell’s going on? Why aren’t you out there? You only did one lap!” His reply was ‘No I have done thirty: one on the track the other 29 in my head’ and - believe me - he not only meant it, he also won both the 250 and the 500 races.”

“I also noted many times how he was not averse to psyching other riders out, and Barry especially. Time and time again at rider briefings after first practice someone would say something positive like ‘the track surface is great, terrific grip’ then Kenny quite deadpan something like ‘yes, I am really enjoying it other than that bit they have resurfaced on turn three; I very nearly high sided it there’. I got quite used to watching Kenny taking turn three or whatever it was at full bore but Barry and the others who previously had no worries about it were backing off.”

MotoGP BLOG

DOVI? UNDAUNTED INDEED...

A very minor upside to a global pandemic and the impending economic depression that will accompany it is the time to catch up. For years now my phone has been filled with lists titled ‘Read’ or ‘Watch’.

Somewhere on the latter was Andrea Dovizioso: Undaunted, an hour-long documentary on the Italian and Ducati’s failure to match Marc Marquez throughout 2019.

A very minor upside to a global pandemic and the impending economic depression that will accompany it is the time to catch up. For years now my phone has been filled with lists titled ‘Read’ or ‘Watch’. Somewhere on the latter was Andrea Dovizioso: Undaunted, an hour-long documentary on the Italian and Ducati’s

failure to match Marc Marquez throughout 2019.

I’ll be honest: it didn’t feature highly on my list of priorities.

Being a Red Bull Media production (one of Dovizioso’s personal sponsors is the Austrian energy drink giant), I discerned this was a smiley PR exercise to keep the sponsors happy. Having watched it during the recent lull in action I couldn’t have been more wrong.

While not exactly perfect, Undaunted is a pretty gripping tale of doubt, angst and frustration at the highest level of the sport.

For a start it seems odd that Dovizioso gave the OK on a warts-and-all documentary on his recent trials and tribulations. An introvert who keeps a low profile and loathes any peers pursuing cheap publicity, the 34-year old doesn’t strike you as a figure willing the court the camera. But as he outlines from the beginning, “the good thing that comes from making a documentary like this is it shows much more of the pain that is behind MotoGP.”

So that’s what we’re treated to: pain. Anyone familiar with similar sporting documentaries recently aired on Netflix and Amazon Prime will be aware it is this sensation that drives a captivating narrative, rather than unabashed success. And there was plenty of that in the Ducati garage in 2019. Even in the aftermath his brilliant race win in Qatar, Dovizioso can be seen offering his team a stern warning.

“Fuck, I’m pessimistic,” he says.

“It’s not only Marc that’s faster.

It’s the others.”

Considering how Ducati backer Phillip Morris keeps a close eye on brand image and media access, there is an impressive amount of behind the scenes footage captured by Italian director Paolo Novelli. It doesn’t shy away from conflict. And not only that; Undaunted goes some way to explaining the finer details of the dynamics within the Ducati’s garage once the shutters descend.

It has long been rumoured, for example, that Dovizioso and Gigi Dall’Igna do not see eye to eye.

That’s in plain sight here, with the factory’s technical wizard explaining to the camera how he’d “like to see [Andrea] more instinctive and less thoughtful in some race situations.” At times Dall’Igna can be seen looking on disconsolately, wearily even as his rider stresses those wellknown negatives of his Ducati hardware.

The most telling part of the film comes at last year’s Spanish Grand Prix. Having stalked Maverick Viñales in the final laps, Dovizioso opts out of a risky move, instead settling for fourth.

On the surface a good result at a track Andrea doesn’t love. But rather than receiving a warm welcome in the garage, there is a sea of forlorn faces mystified by his lack of bite. Why didn’t he at least attempt a late move on Viñales, he’s asked. “I was losing time in many corners,” comes the response. But the inquest doesn’t end there. Soon Dovizioso loses his air of assurance as he sheepishly defends his actions.

It’s here you come to understand the weight of expectation and pressure that is forever on these riders’ shoulders, their every move and decision being picked through and critiqued in minute detail. Soon Dovizioso acknowledges, “I should have tried it.”

And so the film shows the rider – and team – grappling with his thoughtful, and perhaps overly cautious, nature. Can he not, as company CEO Claudio Domenicali asks, occasionally add “that touch of madness that ‘Ducatisti’ would appreciate?” An earlier shot from Qatar shows Andrea asking the filmmaker, ‘does the camera get spoilt?’ before dousing him – and it – in champagne.

Even in moments of elation, Dovizioso thinks before acting.

There are other interesting observations. We learn, for example, exactly what Dovizioso thought of Danilo Petrucci’s turn one move that denied him a famous home victory at Mugello (“What pisses me off is he entered the corner without worrying. [That] shows you don’t care what happens to the others,” he tells a close group of confidants).

CREATED THANKS TO Moto3’S NEWEST RACING TEAM

BY NEIL MORRISON

MotoGP BLOG

Dovizioso is thoughtful and measured when talking to the press. But we see him petulantly throwing time sheets away in disgust and receiving stern instructions from personal manager Simone Batistella to calm it all down. Here is a title challenge unravelling before our eyes.

His vulnerability is on display, too, particularly when addressing the issue of whether he is getting the absolute most from his machine. “It’s annoying.

Very annoying,” he tells Batistella, referring to “some people at Ducati,” fans and other riders who believe he should be performing at a higher level. No matter how hard he tries to hide it, you see his human side. Criticism still stings.

It’s not only the drama that delivers; there are real artistic flourishes here (Andrea preparing his leathers on the morning of his home GP to the tune of Il Canto degli Italiani is a particu-

lar highlight). Its pace doesn’t relent, and the final product is impressive in how rigorously it’s been edited. No corny music, conflated sound effects or cheesy musings on life are to be seen or heard, a relief after watching Formula One’s watchable but rarely inspiring Netflix series Drive to Survive.

Still, Undaunted is not quite perfect. Yes, the level of intimacy is a pleasant surprise. But it leaves you wanting more. At just 57 minutes in length you feel there is at least half an hour of footage worth showing. Where is the footage from Le Mans, where Dall’Igna told reporters “we had the bike to win” after his riders finished second and third? Or why was Misano – the scene of Ducati’s season nadir – left out completely? The viewer is left to ponder many of the scenes no doubt left of the editing floor.

Even considering this, Undaunted remains a punchy, razor sharp look at the strains placed on those at the highest level of this sport. If you’re even a passing fan, seek it out on the internet, where it can be viewed for free. A handful of Dorna’s recent productions (in particular Jorge Lorenzo Guerrero and From Cervera to Tokyo) have been first class. But this stands above them all. It’s hard to recall any film on MotoGP as insightful as this.

PRODUCTS

www.scott-sports.com

SCOTT SPORTS A swift mention for the ‘Gogglesfordocs’ initiative by Scott Sports to get new or used ski or motocross goggles to healthcare workers for use in frontline care in treatment of COVID-19. It’s a cool and proactive scheme encouraging users to assist with PPE gear. So far more than 35,000 have been given to hospitals in the USA but Scott are trying to organise the deposit of almost 5000 more. There are over200 drop-off points, and Scott have constructed a special webpage with specific instructions for those willing to help. Simply click a photo to go straight there. As we’ve mentioned before, Scott are renowned for their market-setting tech behind the Prospect and Fury with first-class protection, field of vision, ventilation and comfort.

PRODUCTS

BELL HELMETS Bell Helmets’ Race Star Flex DLX is the flagship product from the American firm steeped in experience and history. The shell is made from carbon and the renowned Flex energy management interior has a three-layer impact liner to cope with potential blows at low, mid and high speed. 6D Helmets were complimentary of the Flex system, and that’s worthy praise from the innovators of ODS and some of the safest technology on the market. The Race Star Flex DLX count on triple density cheek pads (made with magnefusion for easy removal and maintenance) with added antibacterial comfort lining. Bell are also proud of their ProTint visor that reacts and changes with the quantity of UV light to cope with a variety of brightening or darkening conditioning.

The lid comes in five shell sizes, meaning the best fit possible is obtainable. There are seven different colours or liveries for 2020 and prices start at 735 dollars.

We’ve just taken delivery of a Race Star Flex DLX and it is impressive for weight, compact sizing and the fit. The visor is also reassuringly solid. When we can finally get out on the road then we’ll give the lid a more thorough test but signs are positive so far.

www.troyleedesigns.com

FEATURE

LAZARUS LIKE NORTON’S NEWEST REVIVAL

By Roland Brown Photos by Norton/R.Brown/Misc

T

he fortunes of Norton motorcycles took a dramatic upturn earlier this month with the bankrupt bike firm’s purchase by TVS. The giant Indian bike manufacturer has pledged to restart production, deliver machines including the V4 superbike to customers, and restore the famous old British marque’s once proud reputation.

Amid the coronavirus crisis the positive news seems extraordinary, coming less

than three months after Norton went into administration amid reports of unpaid tax, pension irregularities and payment being taken for exotic V4s that were never delivered. But such a twist is perfectly in keeping with Norton, whose 118-year history is bursting with drama and controversy.

This, after all, is the brand that was victorious at the inaugural Isle of Man TT in 1907, only five years after building its first motorcycle,

then went into liquidation just six years later following the ill-health of founder James Lansdowne Norton.

Ironically the TVS takeover came 95 years almost to the day after “Pa” Norton’s death, aged just 56, in April 1925 – less than a year after he had watched the revived firm’s bikes win two more TTs. Those early highs and lows set a pattern that would frequently be repeated, sometimes with added scandal.

FEATURE But the British bike industry was collapsing, and by 1977 production had ceased.

Norton resurfaced in 1987 with the 588cc rotary-engined Classic. Developed with police assistance and produced in small numbers, it led to a remarkable flamespitting, aluminium-framed rotary racebike on which Steve Spray thrilled crowds by winning two National championships in 1989.

Norton’s singles, many with the firm’s curly black logo on silver paintwork, were produced in large numbers for decades and won countless races, earning the tag “Unapproachable Norton”. Highlights included Geoff Duke’s three world titles aboard Featherbed-framed Manx singles in the early Fifties.

Norton twins including the Dominator 88 and 650SS were stars of the Fifties and Sixties. But the firm was taken over, its famous Birmingham factory closed. Production moved to south London, many Nortons by now merely Matchless models with different badges. Parent company AMC went bust but Norton survived, and thrived following the 750 Commando’s launch in 1968.

LAZARUS-LIKE: NORTON’S NEW CHAPTER

But Norton’s attempt to produce a roadgoing F1 replica was short-lived. By the mid-Nineties the company had collapsed again, several former directors had been convicted of financial irregularities, and hundreds of enthusiast shareholders had lost their money.

Even worse was yet to come.

In 1998 the marque’s Canadian owners unveiled a sleek prototype superbike, the Nemesis, claiming the 1500cc liquid-cooled V8 produced 280bhp and had a top speed of 225mph. The impossibility of such a futuristic machine being produced, let alone in six months’ time as claimed, did not prevent it generating

NORTON’S FUTURE SEEMED TO BE SHINING AS BRIGHTLY AS THE SUPERBIKE’S CHROMED FLANKS. THE REALITY WAS DIFFERENT – A MASS OF DEBT AND DECEIT. countless headlines before the inevitable demise.

Norton reached its centenary in 2002 with reputation at rock bottom. Then American enthusiast-engineer Kenny Dreer, renowned for his updated classic Commandos, unveiled a stylish prototype with a new parallel-twin engine.

Backed by an investor who consolidated Norton trademarks, Dreer planned production and claimed to have taken hundreds of deposits… but ran out of money before delivering a bike.

Enter Stuart Garner, a youthful entrepreneur who had made a fortune in fireworks. Garner bought Norton in 2008, spent over a year redesigning Dreer’s prototype, and began low-volume production of the Commando 961 at a factory at Donington Park in 2010. Gar-

ner was charismatic, driven and ambitious, announcing plans to enter MotoGP and produce a four-cylinder superbike.

Norton’s voyage was often choppy long before the storm that struck earlier this year.

Some Commando customers complained of long delivery times; an attempt to revive Norton’s racing at the TT in 2009 ended in embarrassment without a lap completed.

But Garner rode out the criticism, continued to develop and sell the Commando, and introduced stylish spin-offs including the Dominator SS, a café racer with spectacular polished tank.

Not everyone approved when Norton returned to the TT with an Aprilia-powered V4, but Garner’s vindication came with strong results.

FEATURE

“IT’S A TESTAMENT TO THE ENDURING STRENGTH OF THE NORTON BRAND THAT TVS SHOULD STEP IN WITH £16 MILLION TO BUY IT EVEN IN THESE TROUBLED TIMES. THE NEW INDIAN OWNER IS MAKING ALL THE RIGHT NOISES...”

And in 2016 he unveiled that promised four-cylinder superbike: a stunning 1200cc V4 that in limited-production V4 SS form sold out almost immediately, despite costing over £40,000. Shortly after it came the 650cc parallel-twin Atlas, powered by half the V4’s engine, that would provide the volume production and an entry to global markets.

The reaction was hugely positive, V4 deliveries began last year, and Norton’s future seemed to be shining as brightly as the superbike’s chromed flanks. The reality was different – a mass of debt and deceit.

Norton collapsed in January, generating reports that it owed over £14 million, had taken more than 450 deposits for bikes, and that over 200 people had lost pensions that had been converted to Norton shares.

It’s a testament to the enduring strength of the Norton brand that TVS should step in with £16 million to buy it even in these troubled times. The new Indian owner is making all the right noises, pledging to retain staff (excluding Garner, who may have serious charges to face); supply V4s to all who have paid for them; and keep Norton a low-volume, highquality marque with UK production, initially at its grand

LAZARUS-LIKE: NORTON’S NEW CHAPTER

Donington Hall base. It remains to be seen whether all that happens, but one thing’s for sure: the Norton saga is set to run and run.

PRODUCTS

www.unno.com

UNNO Mountain bikes might be one of the few forms of enjoyable exercise freedom at the moment and perhaps for the foreseeable, especially into the summer months. The wealth of choice of equipment on the market is vast but for almost-peerless technology and engineering then the expertise behind the brand Unno is the only option for those deadly-serious about their downhill, trail or cross-country riding. Based in Barcelona and with the knowledge of Cesar Rojo at the helm (a former Pro downhill racer, competent motocrosser and talented designer who has collaborated with KTM in the past) Unno offers five unique models made in very limited quantities.

They claim to have ‘created our own test standards, way more demanding and using the latest technology from our partners 2D Data Recording and HBM. Each bicycle receives its own development according to its use, doubling or even tripling the industry standards in some cases.’ We are talking about seriously sumptuous handmade carbon-crafted kit with a high rate of R&D that has gained rave reviews from specialist media titles and tryouts. Have a look at the website for more information and to see just how many resources and years of work has gone into the frames and bicycles on the whole.

Unno’s ‘Ever’, ‘Burn’, ‘Dash’, ‘Horn’ and ‘Aora’ won’t be easy on the wallet but we’re talking ‘Ferrari’ levels of cycle here.

FEATURE

KEEPING A CLEAR

HEAD

“THERE ARE SOLUTIONS BUT YOU WON’T FIND THEM IF YOU’RE ANGRY.”

By Steve English Photos by GeeBee Images/S.English

INSPIRATION CAN COME FROM MANY PLACES, AND FOR ELITE SPORTSMEN THE SETTINGS MIGHT CHANGE BUT THE CHALLENGE REMAINS THE SAME. STEVE ENGLISH TALKS TO ALEX LOWES IN HIS SECOND STORY ON THE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP RACING TWINS “There are so many young guys just nipping at your heals,” says the veteran. “It’s hard now because you see 21-year old kids coming through and they are so well prepared. They are mentally strong, they are training so hard, they are so ready to compete. As you get older it obviously gets harder, but you’ve got to keep working. I want to keep my job. I want to keep competing and those kids? They’ll have to work super hard to take my job off me!”

It’s not easy being an elite athlete and while it was Pablo Larrazabal, a Spanish golfer, making this comment during the recent Qatar Masters it could just as easily have been his playing partner Alex Lowes. The two were talking about the challenges they both face. Their working environments might be very different but the pressures are the same.

Pressure, internal and external, builds at every turn for a world class athlete, and it’s the ability to deal with that pressure that truly separates them. The need to win is huge and the pain of defeat is something that is hard to grasp for people outside the inner circle. At every round of WorldSBK, there is a referendum of who’s the fastest rider in the world on that given day. After a tough weekend the level of self scrutiny can be massive. Being able to draw on past experiences and successes is important, but understanding the hard times is even more critical.

FEATURE “I’ve found a lot of help has come from working with a sports phycologist over the last few years,” commented Lowes. “You need to examine yourself and understand yourself. There was a time when I was easily frustrated and I’d get angry, but now I’m a lot better at dealing with those emotions. Sometimes you need to vent but more often than not you have to try and stay calm. There are solutions but you won’t find them if you’re angry.”

In his early days in WorldSBK you would see Lowes bang the tank or throw his gloves against the wall of the pitbox. Now? You see him get his head down and get to work. The Englishman is very data driven, one of the reasons why he enjoys golfing, and taking that approach means sorting through data with his team and debriefing to understand what the bike is doing. It was

ALEX LOWES & HEAD GAMES

one of the biggest advantages that Yamaha found with the development of the R1 in recent years.

“I’ve always liked playing golf. It’s relaxing and fun to play with your friends, but it’s important for racing too. You can do everything right when you’re playing a hole of golf but still get a bad result. You need to understand this if you’re going to play well, and it’s important to remember what’s been happening throughout the day and adapt to that. You need a very good mentality to play well.”

For Larrazabal, the challenge of a tournament week is very similar to a racer’s weekend. Arriving before the event takes place, he does his version of a track walk; a practice round. If he’s playing at a new course this might involve playing the full course on Tuesday, but typically it’s nine holes to blow off the cobwebs of flying to an event.

Wednesday is Pro-Am day, where players are contractually obliged to play a certain number throughout the year.

“I’m a big fan of MotoGP and am friends with Pol Espargaro. Before the MotoGP race was cancelled in Qatar I was planning on going to the circuit for the race. To play golf with these guys is a lot of fun.”

Once the week begins, the pressure is felt constantly by Larrazabal. With four rounds making up the weekend, he needs to take his chances when they’re presented but more importantly not make a big mistake.

“During a tournament it’s a lot like racing for Pablo,” said Lowes who was watching on during the event. “If you miss an apex or run wide and cost yourself time it doesn’t end your weekend, but it makes it harder.

You might have to catch the group back up.

You’ve made a mistake and you know it, so

you have to keep calm. The goal isn’t to win the race at the first corner, it’s to make sure that you’re there at the end. When an opportunity to overtake comes up you have to take it.

“It’s the same in golf for these guys. They will get chances, they’re too good not to, but it’s about how many times you give yourself a birdie putt and how many you make. Sometimes in sports it’s about the shots you make when your back is against the wall. If a golfer misses a green can they get up and down to save a par, or will they lose a shot? If we make a mistake in a race it’s about how you react to it.”

But one of the biggest challenges for Larrazabal is staying injury free, or even having to play through the pain. The Spaniard badly injured his wrist last year and having gone to multiple specialists, who all advised surgery with an eight-month recovery period, he went to a man familiar to many in racing; Dr Mir. “An eight-month recovery period isn’t possible for a golfer. If I’m not playing I can’t earn any money. I need to be able to play. I went to so many different doctors looking for advice and it was always about surgery and a long recovery.

It’s very difficult for any athlete when they are injured.”

This meant the course of action Larrazabal took was non-invasive with a course of injections to let him continue playing, but for Lowes it was different. “In 2019 I was really struggling with mine. I was in a lot of pain and I needed to have surgery on my wrists. I knew that I would need both wrists to be done, but obviously for a rider to have surgery on their right wrist is a last resort because it controls the throttle and brake. I had surgery on my left wrist to make sure that I knew what to expect. It was successful and over the winter I had surgery on my right wrist.”

That surgery coincided with a switch to the Kawasaki Racing Team.

FEATURE With Kawasaki the pressure is high. The team has bathed in success for the last six-seven years with Tom Sykes and Jonathan Rea. Joining KRT means wins are expected. Dealing with this situation is crucial and throughout a winter punctuated with rain delays in testing, Lowes was certainly forced to find his inner calm.

By the time he arrived at the opening round of the season in Australia his crew chief, Marcel Duinker, estimated that they were 250 laps behind schedule. The opening round would be a big challenge.

During the two-day test, Lowes was off the pace and 14th on the timesheets. Pressure was mounting again. Questions were being asked and doubts were creeping in. With two crashes in the test, the talk was that Lowes was pushing too hard. The man that would go on to win a race and leave Australia leading the championship spoke calmly to the media after the test saying “we’ve been focused on race pace and managing the tyre. I’m not happy to be 14th on the times because you always want to be further up, but I’m sure that all this hard work will pay off during the races.”

It did pay off but it also took a lesson from another elite athlete. This time it was from Dave ‘Rocky’ Ryan - who also works as Lowes’ assistant at races. As an ex-Commonwealth boxing champion, the former super middleweight made a career out of keeping a cool head in the face of extreme pressure. The fight game isn’t just about the power of your body, it’s about the power of your mind. Keeping a cool head when punches are flying takes a lot of strength and this was an inspiration for Lowes.

“Before the races in Australia I was pacing the cabin where I get changed into my leathers and get ready. I was definitely taking a fighter’s mentality onto the grid, but it wasn’t about will power or looking to fight someone

“BEFORE THE RACES IN AUSTRALIA I WAS PACING THE CABIN WHERE I GET CHANGED. I WAS DEFINITELY TAKING A FIGHTER’S MENTALITY ONTO THE GRID, IT WASN’T ABOUT OR LOOKING TO FIGHT SOMEONE; A FIGHTER’S MENTALITY IS ABOUT BEING ABLE TO COME UP WITH A PLAN & STICK TO IT.”

ALEX LOWES & HEAD GAMES

like people think; a fighter’s mentality is about being able to come up with a plan and stick to it. I’ve learned that from Rocky over the years, because if you can get into a ring to fight someone you’re already brave. You know that you’re going to get hit and get hurt but you do it anyway. That’s the bravery of a boxer but not what makes them special.

“They come up with their plan and stick to it.

They’ve got to keep their emotions in check, even when they’re facing someone coming at them swinging punches, they need to react and understand what’s happening. On a bike you feel everything, you know what to expect from

the tyres and the fuel load dropping. You don’t know what to expect from the riders around you.

“In Australia it was crazy! The battle was intense and every time I tried to save the tyre a little bit at Turn 3 [the tyre eating fast right hander] I was suddenly barged out of the way by the other guys! I dropped back to eighth and then I had to remind myself about the plan and sticking to it. The race would come to me and that’s exactly what happened. I was able to keep my pace and when I got to the front I put my head down and tried to attack.”

FEATURE That final lap saw Lowes keep a very cool head in the final corners. With Jonathan Rea breathing down his neck and closing, closing, closing Lowes knew that he had an ace up his sleeve. Having gone two years without a win, he would have been forgiven for wringing every last inch from his bike.

Instead his race craft and a cool head came to the surface.

“I had been managing my tyre really well all week after spending so long working for the race in the test. I knew that I’d have an advantage but I also knew that Johnny would be coming fast. He’s a real competitor so he was obviously going to have a good last lap. Coming into the final corners it’s always easy to get out-dragged to the line. I could hear Johnny was close to me and on the exit of

the last corner, as I got on the gas I delayed it slightly and Johnny had to do the same.

He couldn’t get his run on the exit and it was enough to keep me in front.”

For a golfer, keeping a clear head is about getting rid of the distractions on the green and only seeing the line of a putt. Make the putt and you’re making money. For a boxer, keeping a clear head is crucial to have any chance of success. For a racer? It’s about keeping calm and sticking to a plan, and then using your experiences to give you a chance of success.

It doesn’t always work out for them but the more times you knock on the door, the more likely you are to give yourself a chance of winning.

Photo: R. Schedl

#GETDUKED 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.

PRODUCTS

LEATT Leatt’s innovative approach to knee braces meant that the company have looked at the fundamental issues surrounding design and have tried to offer effective solutions when it comes to areas such as weight, mechanisms and contact patch with the motorcycle. The layout of their three braces are handily described through the lettering ‘C’, ‘X’ and ‘Z’ frames. The C and X are made from carbon, while the Z is less stiff, less expensive and created from glass-filled nylon. The C Frame is lab-engineered with key fracture points and is CE certified for impact and as a ‘medical device’. It has ‘three-point force distribution with super stiff forged C-arm mono hinge construction.’ All three braces are forged to help combat ACL, MCL and Meniscus injuries.

www.leatt.com Leatt describe the X as ‘sporting asymmetrical hinges, the inner hinge is 40% slimmer, providing superior bike feel during riding, whereas the outer hinge’s durable metal gears offer precise movement. The X-Frame provides a comfortable fit with an easy strapping system, interchangeable hinge padding sizes, and a low-profile shin bone pad that fits inside all boots.’

Knee braces are an expensive and very personal form of protection, so it’s essential to try a set to see if the product fits and functions well (even if the possibilities for customisation are normally quite comprehensive). Leatt’s partitioning construction means that wore pieces can be re-ordered and swapped out so this helps with costs. Pants, socks and sleeves can also be purchased.

WorldSBK BLOG

ALL IN THE STARS...

I have to admit that when I came back from Australia and didn’t have to cover a race in Qatar I was looking forward to a few weeks at home to gather my thoughts and catch up on a few admin tasks that had been neglected throughout very busy months of January and February. However, now we are well into April and we have missed the WorldSBK rounds in Jerez and Assen, two of my favourite places, I am beginning to get a bit anxious as to what the future will hold.

At the moment my next photography assignment is scheduled to be the WorldSBK race at Donington on the weekend of July 4-5, with the Suzuka 8Hr two weeks after that. The remainder of the year will be jam packed as WorldSBK try to cram 12 races into 19 weeks. I really hope we manage to get something worked out to allow this schedule to take place but, as each day passes and governments announce extensions to lock down and social

distancing regulations, I fear that no racing will take place in 2020 at all. That is all just forecasting and one of the things that I have become increasing fed up with during the COVID-19 pandemic: hearing people’s opinions and speculation, be it through individual social media feeds or mass media outlets, all I seem to hear and see are the words ‘could’, ‘if’, ‘maybe’. I much prefer to hear factual information as opposed to someone’s own unfounded thoughts.

At the moment the facts remain that the next three WorldSBK races have been moved from the schedule.

I will not be travelling to Italy and Spain in May and June to cover races at Imola, Aragon and Misano but I have started to plan my travel and book accommodation for the rescheduled dates for the latter two, with the race at Imola being cancelled and no replacement date found.

I am, however, not looking forward to a race at Misano in early November. It has already proved difficult to find a hotel to book due to it being over six months distant but also I suspect, as many of the hotels will be closed at that time of year with the tourist season being over on the Adriatic coast.

I remember in 2004 WorldSBK visited Misano in mid April and again it was difficult to find a hotel that was open. In the end I recall staying in a place in Cat-

BY ADAM WHEELER

BY GRAEME BROWN tolica with a couple of other journalists and photographers and that was it. The restaurant in the hotel was closed, as were most of the bars and restaurants in town, and breakfast was a croissant and a cup of lukewarm, machine generated ‘coffee’.

It was also freezing cold and wet. Checking back on the results FP1, Superpole and Race 2 were all run in the wet at the temperature ranged from 12 to 17 degrees. I can only imagine it will be the same at the end of the year. However, needs must and I would rather be there, photographing a race, than doing nothing at all.

“I AM NOT LOOKING FORWARD TO A RACE AT MISANO IN EARLY NOVEMBER. HOWEVER, NEEDS MUST AND I WOULD RATHER BE THERE, PHOTOGRAPHING A RACE, THAN DOING NOTHING AT ALL.”

Having got through the admin tasks, I have started on the other major work around the house that needed to be done. I finally got around to lining the inside of my garage and shed with the sheets of plywood that had been gathering dust since they were delivered last summer. With some recycled shelving units and a couple of scaffold poles I now have some semblance of order in my garage with helmets, boots and riding jackets all neatly stored and hanging on rails.

The bicycles are all hanging on with spare wheels neatly stored as well. Like a man on a mission, last weekend I set about my shed and finished my workbench and have garden tools all swinging neatly in rows. It all feels hugely satisfying but also makes me feel like my retired dad. I’ll soon be gluing jam jars to the underside of the shelves and sorting into relevant

sizes the old screws and washers that we all keep for that ‘just in case’ little job.

As a family we are now all at home together. My wife is sharing/taken over my office, my son has been furloughed from his job (in the UK the government have initiated a scheme where companies can get funding to cover 80% of staff wages in the event of a forced shut down, so long as they undertake no work for the company) so he is at home perfecting his sim racing skills, and I am now retraining as a school teacher with my daughter.

I do have some work from some clients, preparing and researching archive features, and I am working on a couple of personal projects that I previously never had the time for. However, in terms of photography I have taken to photographing the birds I am seeing in the garden. Being in northern Europe we are really just getting into the

WorldSBK BLOG

heart of spring and the garden is full of Starlings, House Sparrows and another small bird called a Dunnock, as they prepare for their breeding season. Eventually I should see some Chaffinch, Great Tits and Blue Tits, so there is at least something to look forward to…kind of.

My other photography interest, astrophotography, is becoming difficult as well.

Again, being in Scotland the hours of darkness are getting noticeably less and less as we head into summer. With the current good weather we also have clear skies at night but the sky is not truly dark now till approaching 10pm and we start to see sunrise at around 5am so getting out to photograph the night sky is really a middle of a true nocturnal activity. Not being allowed anywhere restricts me to shooting in the back garden and the times I have gone out the rest of the household has moaned at me making a noise at 1am. So that is on the back burner as well. It’s impossible in the summer really; a few years ago I did a road test with a journalist who had the idea of visiting the Dark

Sky area in the south west of Scotland to photograph his bike. The problem was it was July and the sky never gets fully dark. At 1am we were out photographing with only a distinct patch of pale blue sky on the west and northern horizon.

At this time though I know I am fortunate living in Scotland. Whilst we have some degree of ‘lock down’ we are still able to get out daily for essential trips and to take some exercise. We have also been lucky to have a nice spell of settled weather. It means that I have been able to get out and ride my push bike most days and I have been using my scooter to do some shopping when I have needed to, all whilst adhering to the social distancing measures that are in place. It’s really all diversionary activities however and nothing replaces the satisfaction of doing my job, being at a racetrack photographing motorbikes.

I know that some people in other countries haven’t been allowed out of their house for over a month now and I can only imagine how difficult that has been. For those people I

have a huge amount of empathy over the amount of unfounded speculation circulating and it only adds to the frustration that they must feel not having solid, factual information to add even a small degree of certainty to their lives. Wherever we are, we all need to be able to see a way out of the current situation and that is why we need to focus on the facts as we have them. Aside from that, wherever you are and whatever diversionary activities you are managing to do I hope you remain healthy and safe. For those that have been affected

by COVID-19, either contracting or recovering from the virus, or sadly losing a friend or loved one, I include you in my thoughts and send my deepest sympathy. Whilst it is mine and many peoples livelihood, and a passion for many thousands of people, it is at the end of the day, only motorcycle racing that we are thinking about. It will return one day but, for now, we all need to be healthy and safe to enjoy our sport and our jobs to the full once more when the time comes. #stayhome #staysafe

PRODUCTS

DUCATI/LEGO Very cool this. Lego is often pricey due to the myriad of official licences and the quality of the bricks (try any imitation set and you’ll quickly discover why its unbeatable as a fun construction toy/tool) but in some cases the worth is clearly evident. Teaming up with Ducati, it’s now possible to get your hands on a Technic version of the company’s gorgeous Panigale V4 R, constructed from more than 640 pieces. According to Aurélien Rouffiange, Senior Designer of LEGO Technic, the 32cm (16cm in height and 8cm in width) Panigale is the first to feature a spinning V4 cylinder engine and a functioning gearbox. The box will cost 60 euros and can be found in Lego and Ducati stores as well as the online versions from June 1st. Tempting for bikers of all ages!

www.lego.com

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Pauls Jonass, Bell Helmets & Scott Sports. By Ray Archer

ON TRACK OFF ROAD

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

‘On-track Off-road’ will be published online at www.ontrackoffroad.com on the last 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 PHOTO CREDITS Ray Archer, CormacGP. Steve English, GeeBee Images, Norton, James Lissimore, Don Morley Cover shot: Ken Roczen by James Lissimore 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’.