On Track Off Road No. 194

Dakar

TO STIR 

THE DUST 

At almost the same time that Anaheim 1 will be 

underway in California, the 42nd Dakar Rally – 

and the first to take place in Asia – will be 

launching from Jeddah. Once more full-strength 

factory efforts from KTM, Husqvarna, Yamaha 

and Honda will give extra credence to this 

popular race event. In this issue we were 

given a slither of insight into some of the 

demands of the 8000km two-week trek with 

Red Bull KTM’ Sam Sunderland: can the 

first ever British winner of the 

competition beat his teammates and a 

gathering of other potent rivals to rule 

again and bring the Austrians their 

nineteenth consecutive success? 

Photo by KTM/Sebas Romero

SX 

STARTING 

OVER 

This photo was shot at the 2019 Oakland round of AMA 

SX, and the seventeen round stampede of 

supercross fixtures begins again in just over two weeks 

time. Red Bull KTM’s Cooper Webb wears the 450SX crown 

but who will be his nearest challengers? The 

Kawasakis of Tomac and Cianciarulo? The Huskys of 

Anderson or Osborne? Or will Ken Roczen remain healthy 

enough to finally bag the main prize? Of course A1 is bound to 

throw-up the traditional anomaly but it’s all rush from there on 

Photo by James Lissimore

MXGP 

WAITING 

GAME 

Jeffrey Herlings was one of the first to 

post a story on Instagram in solidarity for 

Red Bull KTM teammate Jorge Prado after 

the news that the eighteen year old had 

broken his left femur during a 

training accident in Italy last week. 

Herlings knows only too well the pain and 

misery of snapping the hardest bone in 

the human body (and his 2014 

championship loss is still one of the most 

dramatic Grand Prix episodes in recent 

memory). The recovery period for Prado’s 

most serious injury yet begins in earnest 

but – perhaps thankfully - the pressure 

and spotlight will have dimmed appropriately 

for his delayed MXGP debut in 

2020. 

Photo by Ray Archer

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

FEATURE 

SE

CRETS 

OF THE WORLD’S 

TOUGHEST RACE 

(ON THE PENS AND TRAILS WITH SAM SUNDERLAND) 

By Adam Wheeler. Photos by Riki Rocket 

By Adam Wheeler, Photos by Ray Archer/KTM

FEATURE 

2019 Rallies 

FIM Cross 

Country 

World Champion Sam Sunderland 

throttles his Red Bull 

KTM Factory Rally 450 past 

my stationary enduro bike. I’ve 

stopped and parked to one side 

of a sunny Catalan trail a short 

distance outside the town of 

Igualada, west of Barcelona. 

I’d like to say I’m waiting for 

the Brit to catch up…but the 

truth is that he’s been helping a 

media colleague and I’ve been 

free to explore the path with 

my own version of a ‘roadbook’ 

mounted on top of the KTM 

450 EXC-F: just one of the latest 

and smallest insights into 

what an athlete like Sunderland 

has to deal with in his day job. 

The 30 year old drifts around 

the following corner and disappears. 

He swiftly becomes 

nothing but an echo and a settling 

plume of dust. 

In 2017 Sunderland became 

the first British winner of the 

fierce Dakar Rally, an annual 

two-week 9000km chase that 

began in 1978 and is now heading 

to its third continent after 

a decade exploring the peaks, 

depths and vast topography 

of South America. In a matter 

of weeks, the factory Red Bull 

KTM rider will be in Saudi Arabia 

as one of the favourites for 

the contest that has claimed 

lives, limbs, machinery and 

souls. 

The amiable and articulate athlete 

from Poole in Dorset, England 

(not too far from British 

MXGP venue Matterley Basin) 

is in the final phases of preparation 

but has offered the day 

to show some of the intricacies 

of rally riding; a discipline 

that can see more than 500km 

covered in one stage and often 

at speeds topping 100mph 

while taking navigational references 

from the paper scroll 

- the roadbook - mounted in a 

rudimentary plastic box above 

the bike’s handlebars. Sunderland 

not only has to be fast, 

talented and brave but also 

perceptive, analytical and mechanically 

‘aware’. Not to mention 

boasting a freakish level 

of stamina and determination. 

Rally competitors are arguably 

the definition of complete 

motorcyclists. 

“As a rally rider I think you 

need to be really good at reading 

new terrain,” he says earlier 

in the day and before we’ve 

found the trails. “Imagine: 

100% of the time it’s all new. 

Every time we come to a blind 

rise we need to anticipate if 

it is going left or going right. 

Does it look a bit gnarly? Can 

you see a little rain rut coming 

in from the edge that might be 

on the other side? You have to 

pick-up everything and almost 

have a sixth sense for it. You 

question everything while riding 

as fast and as safely as you 

can.”

Sunderland also has to contend 

with the Dakar at a 

time when the opposition 

has never been stronger with 

multi-million euro efforts from 

other manufacturers vying for 

the top prize. Stage wins and 

overall success makes the 

evening news in many countries, 

especially southern Europe 

and the Benelux region. 

It’s a big business for brands 

that relish the extreme conditions 

for motorcycle development 

as much as marketing 

exposure. 

“Now there is KTM, Husqvarna, 

GasGas, as well as Yamaha 

and Honda and they all 

have navigation trainers and 

big budgets where they will go 

to similar places to train,” he 

says. “The level has gone up 

and up, and it’s good! I like it. 

I like that it progresses. If you 

want to win Dakar you need 

to be more than perfect. You 

cannot afford to make navigation 

mistakes because fewer 

and fewer guys do things like 

miss a waypoint whereas in 

the past it was quite common.” 

The capability to throw a motorcycle 

quickly through sand, 

mud, rocks, dirt, water is just 

one facet of the job. Sunderland 

needs to be fit enough 

for twelve-hour stints in the 

saddle and cannot lose precious 

minutes from his overall 

race time through the stages. 

In the last three editions of 

the Dakar the winning margin 

after two weeks of utter endurance 

(and great personal 

risk across a distance that 

twice covers the breadth of 

the United States) has been 

32, 16 and just 9 minutes. 

We’ve given a glimpse into the 

physical side of his training 

regime. The day starts with 

a gruelling cross-fit circuit of 

rowing, lifts, squats and power-cycling 

stints. Sunderland 

completes the cycle, although 

it’s reassuring to see that it’s 

no cinch for him either. He 

wanders over when we’re still 

trying to catch our breath and, 

surprisingly, explains that 

intense gym sessions are not 

his basis of training for rally. 

“I think there is some relativity 

between training in the 

nature and rally,” he reveals. 

“Rally is about how fast you 

can read what’s in front of you 

and when I’m running in the 

mountains you have to study 

everywhere; where you are 

putting your feet and keep 

your focus. Compare that to 

running on a treadmill in the 

gym where you put your brain 

in a box and survive how long 

you want. Outside on foot or 

a bicycle you are dealing with 

the elements, you have to 

keep that concentration and 

always watch for one rock that 

can catch you out.” 

DAKAR SECRETS WITH SAM SUNDERLAND

FEATURE 

“When you want to start doing 

some specific things like getting 

your back a bit stronger 

– because you can have a 

sore back after a few days 

riding – then it’s beneficial to 

get in the gym,” he adds. “If 

you feel that your legs are not 

strong enough for some of the 

impacts then you can work on 

that. Honestly though, 90- 

95% of my work for fitness is 

done outside. I like working in 

the rain and the snow and suffering 

a bit.” 

Suffering seems to be a common 

theme of chasing Dakar 

glory, but Sunderland’s preparation 

is not solely based on 

becoming a beefcake on a 

bike. “There is a big mental 

side to it with the navigation 

and trying to understand your 

strategy for the next days 

as well as the timings while 

you’re on the bike and on the 

move,” he says. “I like doing 

cognitive work while training.” 

He seems meticulous, as 

you’d expect from an athlete 

of his ilk. “There are a lot of 

variables in rally…they also 

change! There are always 

factors that you can control 

but a lot you can’t. So, for the 

ones where you have some 

influence then you need to 

have them perfect such as 

hydration packs, food, prep 

the night before a stage and 

constant routines. These are 

factors that should be beyond 

question.”

“Once you arrive to the middle 

of the desert and a place 

like Merzouga in Morocco it’s 

not like you can just pop to 

the stock and buy what you 

need,” he stresses. “A lot of 

our stuff is quite specific. You 

just try to be two steps in 

front to lighten the workload.” 

Sunderland is now somewhat 

seasoned at the Dakar and a 

challenge he first affronted as 

a 22 year old. His debut spluttered 

to a halt in 2013 due to 

a mechanical problem while 

two broken wrists delayed his 

second attempt. “The Dakar. 

First time: It was huge,” he 

says, puffing out his cheeks. 

“I was a motocrosser, and I 

got into rally because I was 

living in Dubai. The first world 

championship round I did was 

a five day rally in Abu Dhabi. I 

was young and raced as hard 

as I could every single kilometre. 

When you arrive to something 

like the Dakar you have 

to adjust that mentality to do 

the long-game. The sport has 

changed so much, now it is so 

fast.” 

The workshop of Red Bull 

KTM team manager and former 

Dakar podium-finisher 

Jordi Viladoms is located in 

Igualada and just around the 

corner from the gym. We walk 

in and past the immaculate 

form of the KTM Rally 450 

that took Sunderland to the 

’19 world title – an international 

five round mini series 

of short rallies - and will soon 

be shipped to the Middle East. 

“I feel like I know my Rally 

bike really well, all its in-andouts, 

how it reacts and works 

under braking and traction. I 

don’t feel I miss much if I am 

not riding it,” he comments 

by way of explanation for how 

much bike mileage enters his 

training programme. Sunderland 

hones his feeling between 

throttle, wheels and dirt 

thanks to copious laps on a 

motocross bike and will soon 

embark on a ten-day riding 

‘bootcamp’ in Dubai as the 

last surge of work before the 

Dakar. 

Viladoms enters the room. 

He concurs with Sunderland’s 

view on the evolution of the 

Dakar. “For the old generation 

it was not ‘flat-out’ every day. 

Many times a group would 

come together at some point. 

You were all pushing but we’d 

arrive together, like cyclists, 

and nobody would push extra 

because everyone knew it 

would be so hard to breakaway. 

It was more about survival. 

Now from the first kilometre 

it is full-gas and 100% 

every minute until someone 

makes a mistake.” 

In the workshop Sunderland 

gives us the next insight to 

the demands of the Dakar. On 

the table before us is a scroll 

of paper. It’s a roadbook for a 

35km course around Igualada. 

The roll spills out across the 

floor as we are given three 


FEATURE 

different coloured pens and have to make 

sense of a series of numbers, arrows, 

symbols and French acronyms. The paper 

is easily ten yards in length. Sunderland 

smiles; sometimes he needs to deal 

with a roadbook for more than 500km. 

“It is so big that it won’t fit in the bike, so 

you have to cut it in two…and make sure 

you don’t leave the second half in the 

camp.” 

Dakar competitors are given the roadbook 

before a stage and then colour 

co-ordinate or ‘paint’ the series of instructions 

for fast reference. “Everybody 

has their own system: green might mean 

‘turn’, danger is ‘pink’, important information 

is ‘orange’,” he says. “The worse 

ones can take up to four hours of marking 

and work and you have to be superfocussed. 

We’re racing on the limit and if 

you don’t paint a danger 3 because you 

missed it through being tired or you were 

talking to your friend then it can be a 

really bad day. Painting is part of the accumulative 

fatigue. The roadbook is like 

your bible when you are racing. I don’t 

want anyone to paint for me; it’s my life 

out there. I want that on my shoulders.” 

Good navigation is nigh-on essential 

for the Dakar. “The desert can be such 

a lonely place sometimes when you 

are lost,” laments Sunderland who first 

tackled the Dakar in 2011. It is also an 

element of racing in which that teams 

invest heavily. They train and use specialists. 

“Every team has a Google Maps guy. 

When we get the roadbook for a 500km 

stage then we plot it out on Google Earth 

and have a look. We know more or less 

where we are going but the stages are 

too long. You’ll remember so little when 

you start to set out.” 

But what are the basic mechanics of Dakar 

stage route-finding? “We have a GPS 

on the bike - but that is normally ‘closed’ 

- so we navigate through roadbook and 

kilometres and CAP [compass],” Sunderland 

says. “As soon as you get inside the 

radius of a waypoint marker [WPM] then 

it opens and guides you in with an arrow 

for the last 800m and then you validate 

it. So hitting a WPM is quite easy but in 

the last three-four years there have been 

more waypoint controls, WPCs, which 

has only a 300m radius and it doesn’t 

open, it just changes a small number in 

the GPS: so, you don’t know at which 

point you catch the ‘area’ before your

“YOU REDISCOVER HOW FAR YOU CAN GO TO SURVIVE [IN 

COMPETITION] AND IT IS NOT NICE BUT SOMETIMES YOU END 

UP IN THOSE POSITIONS BECAUSE YOU HAVE MESSED-UP 

OR MADE A MISTAKE. QUITE OFTEN YOU SEE WHAT YOU ARE 

MADE OF...” 

next turn. You might be on the borderline 

of catching the next one through some 

horrendous terrain and it increases your 

chances of getting lost.” 

“You end up looking down and thinking 

‘s**t, why hasn’t it validated?’ and you 

start to do a figure of eight looking for it. 

Then you start going backwards. The goal 

is to always ride with a good CAP. WPC 

to WPC is really scary because you don’t 

know where you are starting from. And 

there is no way to know. You just have to 

hope you have done good. Quite often 

you’ll use references. If you know you 

have a good CAP and you look left and 

see a big dune peak then I claim it as my 

reference and push like hell until I get 

to a certain point and then take another 

CAP reading and look for another peak. 

That’s an ideal world.” 

The explanation sounds tiring already. 

“In a long stage with a lot of ‘off-piste’ 

then there can be up to a hundred waypoints,” 

he adds. “Dunes are so up-anddown 

and they look so similar. If you 

think you are near where you should be 

and there is no ‘opening’ on your dash 

then that’s the worst feeling ever, and 

you just want to start praying to every 

single god that there is.” 

Frequently images of the Dakar show 

riders bunched within view of each other: 

surely through the sand there are tracks 

of rivals to follow? 

“The first guy that sets off in a stage, 

especially on sand, is at a huge disadvantage, 

in general, because he’s the first 

one to come across any situation and 

wherever he goes he leaves a little black 

line as a reference,” Sunderland admits. 

“But now the level is so high that there 

are many guys that can open a stage and 

almost be uncatchable. There is also a 

lot of strategy involved. There are some 

riders who are better than others at navigation 

and you can trust them more, so 


FEATURE 

you see their tracks and just gas it. That’s 

why it is important to know who is opening 

the stage and to know how much confidence 

you can have.” 

“Sometimes people try and do sneaky 

things, like riding the wrong way and confusing 

the guys behind…but then it gets a 

bit tricky,” he grins. “The first guy opening 

a stage has the responsibility of the whole 

race on his shoulders in some way. Sometimes 

he can get lost. So, you constantly 

have to check and make decisions. If there 

are ten days in Dakar and stage four is 

sand and is really difficult then nobody 

wants to win day three!” 

“I REMEMBER ONE DAKAR THERE 

WAS A REALLY LONG STAGE AND I 

MADE A NAVIGATION ERROR. I HAD 

BEEN RACING FOR SEVEN HOURS 

AND IT WAS FIFTY DEGREES. I HAD 

NO WATER AND I WAS BEYOND 

DESTROYED. I WAS SHIVERING 

DESPITE THE TEMPERATURE...” 

Sunderland has tasted the utter dejection 

of losing his way among a complicated 

process of hitting waypoint markers and 

controls. “In my first Dakar with KTM I 

won Stage 1, and Stage 2 was 470km and I 

was doing super-good but in the last 30ks 

of the stage I got lost for two hours. I was 

devastated. I arrived like a drunk person. 

You are dehydrated and you are mentally 

fatigued because you’ve been riding many 

hours and you are not as mentally alert as 

you should be. The urgency to try and get 

to the finish and not let the whole stage go 

downhill means you make rash decisions.” 

Painted and coloured between warnings 

and directions my roadbook is wound into 

place through the box on the KTM and 

with the November sun working wonders, 

we start to ride. Concentrating on the road 

and path while electronically spooling the 

roadbook with my left thumb - thanks to 

a small switch under the handlebar - and 

interpreting the notes is a mind-boggling 

feat of multi-tasking. After about 10km it’s 

possible to get a bit of a rhythm. I spend 

less time looking down and become quicker 

with the winding. 

This swift blast is the equivalent of a run 

to the local shop for Sunderland. Conquering 

tiredness and fighting his own performance 

demons is another component of 

the Dakar. Thankfully it is an experience we 

don’t have to taste but our riding companion 

– who snapped his femur rallying less 

than three months before the 2016 edition 

and had to watch it from his sofa - is able 

to elucidate. “The team can do as much 

as they can and be absolutely perfect but 

from something like 3am until 4pm it’s 

all on you: ‘there’s your bike, have a good 

day.’ You cannot make any mistakes. You 

get so tired. The accumulative side is horrendous. 

You start slacking.” 

“The first three days always seem really 

hard, then once you get past day four – 

and as long as nothing has happened like 

picking up a small injury or suffering a 

drama – then you kinda get in the swing of 

it,” he shrugs. 

“Often it is the tough moments where you 

find out a lot about yourself,” he reflects. 

“I remember one Dakar there was a really 

long stage and I made a navigation error 

quite close to the finish. I had been racing 

for seven hours and it was fifty degrees. 

I had no water left in my CamelPak and

I was beyond destroyed. I was shivering 

despite the temperature and felt 

confused. I wasn’t really sure what was 

going on. In those moments you are not 

really sure what is good for you in a way. 

I could have stopped and called for help, 

but you don’t do that…it is the very last 

resort for a rider. I think in those moments 

you rediscover how far you can go 

to survive [in competition] and it is not 

nice but sometimes you end up in those 

positions because you have messedup 

or made a mistake. Quite often you 

see what you are made of. In Rally you 

are against the elements: It can be really 

hot, really cold, really high. You 

can be 5000m up in Bolivia and it’s -2 

and then suddenly in 45 degrees in the 

Dunes in Argentina. You definitely pass 

through some rough moments that make 

you look at life quite differently in some 

senses.” 

DAKAR SECRETS WITH SAM SUNDERLAND 

“In the end it’s about risk management 

because you are going so fast. How much 

do you want to push the boundaries and 

miss a moment of danger? Once you are 

in it then you are in a state of flow and 

focus where it is something you don’t 

have to think about. It’s really nice.” 

Despite the lengthy, drawn-out nature of 

Rally, in reality the stresses coupled with 

the pressure, expectation and spotlight 

for a rider of Sunderland’s status makes 

for a dizzying, intense and fraught existence. 

Then, of course racing is not the 

same as leading. 

“When I was leading the Dakar I found it 

even more difficult because I was trying 

to ‘manage’,” he says. “It’s funny, when 

you are second then all you are thinking 

about is how you can win and how you 

can get to the front. But as soon as you

FEATURE 

are leading you start thinking ‘how do I not 

lose this?’ All these ideas come into your 

head of ‘this or that could happen’. It’s difficult 

then to stay on-point with the mental 

side and not have any doubts or worries. 

You are on your own all day. In the Bivouac 

you have your team and team manager 

and others around you that can reassure 

you. We human, not robots. There is this 

race that you have worked so much for and 

the team and manufacturer have put in so 

many hours and budget and effort. You feel 

pressure and responsibility and if you do 

something stupid then it’s ‘on you’.” 

“I remember feeling really tired when I was 

leading Dakar and that was from day five 

to fourteen; I was so emotionally drained. 

It was like I had this ‘baby’ I was trying 

to protect from danger. And everyone is 

watching you and people are looking out 

for the smallest mistake. If you enter the 

time boards too early then bang! A penalty. 

If your mechanic hands you a water outside 

of the zone then it’s ‘outside assistance’. You 

try not to worry but you are in protection 

mode and any little mistake feels so much 

bigger than perhaps it really is.” 

Returning to base for lunch and Sunderland 

is chipper. He’s in good shape and Red Bull 

KTM are clearly the leading team at Dakar. 

His ’17 success is one of eighteen in a row 

now for the Austrians. Saudi Arabia is a 

new landscape for a race that becomes the 

centre of attention in the motorcycle racing 

community for a fortnight in January. 

“It’s a clean slate for everyone,” he enthuses. 

“I feel that South America has been discovered. 

This one will be tough on the bikes, 

tough physically, tough mentally and I hear 

we’ll have really long stages – 500-odd kilometres 

some days - it’s a good thing!”

ALL THE GEAR.... 

So far, the recently overhauled ‘second 

generation’ of Fox’s Legion Enduro riding 

gear is some of the best I’ve worn on a 

dirt bike. 

The Americans’ released the initial 

Cordura-laced kit three years ago and 

pegged it towards the off-road user seeking 

extra resistant material but with the 

performance properties of motocross 

and more towards their featherlight 

FlexAir. The first Legion collection was 

impressive. It was light for the durability 

it offered (I remember scraping my way 

through trees and foliage at Dave Thorpe’s 

Honda riding school in Wales and 

was surprised by the lack of marks or deformation 

on the jersey arms in particular). 

The 2020 kit I used in Igualada is 

a step further towards FlexAir. It weighs 

barely anything, is still heavily mixed 

with Cordura and the fitting is sportier 

and less rigid compared to the first lines 

due to Fox’s TruMotion 4-way stretch 

material. 

I’ll admit to loving the original blue/ 

orange colourway – especially when 

combined with the same colours in the 

Instinct boot – and the 2020 black/grey 

jacket, shirt, pant and glove combo was 

too conservative if admirably neutral. 

The new Fluid tech V3 completed the 

look and even if the fit felt very narrow 

at first then the ventilation properties of 

the helmet were noticeably good; it was 

sunny but as the day neared dusk then 

the cooler air meant that our final blast 

back to the Viladoms workshop on the 

road was pretty chilly. 

I was lucky enough to use the best goggles 

on the market - Scott’s Prospect 

– and a tinted lens with TruView technology 

meant it was a breeze to keep an 

eye on the loose gravel along the faster 

stretches of the trail. There wasn’t a 

single doubt about wearing any other 

eyewear; even Sam’s Oakley AirBrakes 

looked less capable than the Prospect. 


PRODUCTS 

www.leatt.com 

leatt 

Not content with neck brace innovation, Leatt 

have applied their creative and pioneering 

R&D to helmets and knee braces in the last 

half a decade and have now produced the 

5.5 Flexlock boot. 

The product has been three years in the 

making (meaning that Leatt are now a headto-toe 

brand) and prioritises comfort and 

protection; to the degree that the Flexlock is 

proven to provide 35% reduction of forces to 

the knee and 37% to the ankle. To find out 

how we asked Dr Chris Leatt himself. 

“The thing about motocross boots is that 

they are traditionally really rigid; the idea is 

that the more rigid the boot the more 

injuries it will prevent,” the South African 

says. “We looked at all the AMA accident 

statistics and lower leg injuries, knee injuries, 

hip injuries and the design of boots. We 

took one of every boot on the market and we 

went to a military test centre where they test 

seats for armoured vehicles when they go 

over IEDs. It is very high-impact velocity and 

involves a plate being accelerated upwards to 

the dummy in the seat. You can position the 

foot so that it flexes or inverts or has rapid 

deceleration. We put the products through a 

test and measured all the forces in the ankle 

and the forces in the knee. We compiled all 

the data and the problem we saw is that the 

foot is not allowed to escape. The more rigid 

the boot then everything you are putting into 

the bottom of the boot will be dampened by 

the sole and will be transmitted up the leg.” 

“So, we ‘chopped out’ the middle of the 

boot just above the ankle and lo-and-behold 

fantastic results. It reduced the forces better 

than anything else on the market. That was 

the thesis: to make a boot so the foot can 

escape the initial impact but not be allowed 

to go as far as producing an inversion injury 

or allowing the ankle to twist in or out. Now 

we are left with a boot like the C-Frame knee 

brace that allowed you to change gears, feel 

the bike and it transmits far less force.” 

Other features include 3D-shaped impact 

foam over ankles, heel grip ankle design for 

stability when riding on your toes, low-profile 

toe-box for easy gear shifting, a DualZone 

hardness sole, an extended foot peg riding 

zone for arch and on-the-toes riding style, 

steel shank reinforcement, CE certified, a 

cool slideLock system, auto-locking, one-way 

sliding closure and forged aluminum, overlocking 

function buckles. The inner liner is 

made from breathable mesh 3D with antislip 

reinforcement for zero heel lift and the 

5.5 Flexlock comes in three colour options. 

Expect to pay around 330 pounds in the UK.

FEATURE

UNQUENCHABLE 

THIRST 

AN AUDIENCE WITH MARC MARQUEZ ON THE 

PERSISTENCE OF OBSESSION 

By Adam Wheeler. Photos by Polarity Photo/CormacGP

FEATURE 

Tuesday. Day one of the 

2019 EICMA motorcycle 

show. The late afternoon 

flight from Milan to Barcelona 

is somewhat star-studded 

with a smattering of jetlagged 

MotoGP riders having fulfilled 

promotional duties on the way 

back from Sepang and the 

Shell Grand Prix of Malaysia 

the previous weekend. 

In the seat directly behind me 

sits the 2019 World Champion. 

He is showing friend and 

trainer/coach/fellow motocrosser 

Jose Luis Martinez a 

video on his iPhone of what 

sound like a dirt bike at full 

rasp. I turn around and that 

familiar smile-and-laugh pops 

up. “Motos!” he grins. 

For a 26 year old with so 

much success, so much acclaim, 

arguably the second 

biggest profile as a motorcycle 

racer and all the demands 

on his time (and physique, 

it would turn out, as barely 

three weeks later and he’d be 

heading for his second set of 

shoulder surgery in a year) 

Marc Marquez is still the archetype 

‘boy with a toy’. 

To the best of my knowledge 

(several interviews, occasional 

casual run-ins and 

numerous debriefs and press 

conferences) what-you-see is 

what-you-get with Marc Marquez. 

There is not too much 

mystery. The same rabid outward 

profile of riding aggression, 

pursuit and desperation

for spoils is no shade of an act. 

He also takes the other side of 

the business lightly. That easyto-laugh 

demeanour – that 

has been parodied on Catalan 

daytime radio – is natural, and 

a consequence of a feted, decorated 

but partially grounded 

individual who is wholly committed 

to getting what he wants 

and is wholly accustomed to 

achieving it. Why wouldn’t he 

be joyful? 

Marc knows how much power 

he has inside MotoGP, HRC 

and when it comes to contract 

numbers, but has also 

sampled some of the bitter 

taste that comes at the other 

end of the sporting spectrum 

(slithers of doubt, unpopularity 

due to his ability, being the 

adversary and the ‘other rider 

that is not Rossi’). For all the 

brash bravado and confidence 

there has also been signs of 

sensitivity (the various olive 

branches and conciliation to 

Rossi) and a desire to avoid 

confrontation. 

“THE CHAMPIONSHIPS AND 

THE STATISTICS ARE, OF 

COURSE, THE MOST 

IMPORTANT THING BUT I’D 

LIKE THAT THE PEOPLE 

REMEMBER ME – OR I GIVE 

THE IMAGE – AS A GUY WHO 

GIVES EVERYTHING ON THE 

RACETRACK.” 

His willingness to engage fans 

(I’m never seen him blast by 

a patient, waiting group in the 

MotoGP paddock) and to be 

aware of the impact and reach 

he has on peers, younger riders 

and his still-growing army 

of admirers is also unusual for 

an athlete of his stature and 

all the requirements of his 

time and energy. 

As we’ve written in these 

pages previously, Marc is a 

force of nature and physics as 

a sportsman and also a careful 

strategist and cultivator of 

a winning team ethic at Honda, 

with a group of loyal and 

family-esque relationships 

around him in the garage. 

Toward the end of a term 

where he pushed his numbers 

up to eight world championships 

(six in seven years in 

MotoGP) and 92 victories in 

12 years of Grands Prix (at 

least one a campaign for the 

past ten) and has banked a 

top three championship bonus 

every season since 2010 (not 

forgetting seven BMWs as the 

best MotoGP qualifier), Marc 

is treading a plateau. 

“I think this one is the best 

season for him in MotoGP 

together with 2014,” commented 

Valentino Rossi; the 

Italian speaking openly about 

his toughest and sometimes 

most antagonistic rival after 

spats in Argentina (two occasions), 

Holland and of course 

Malaysia easily recalled. 

“From the first season he was 

very fast but now he is in a 

moment of his career where 

he is still very young but also 

he has a lot of experience so 

he has reached the top level. 

After that I think the marriage 

and the feeling with the bike 

[helps explain]. It looks like 

that now he will win a lot of 

races but [he] always arrives 

in the top two…I think that 

this is very close to the perfect 

season [for him].” 

MARC MARQUEZ & WINNING

FEATURE 

How deep is his thirst to keep 

going, to keep striving? To continue 

to usurp Andrea Dovisiozo? 

To relish the last lap last corners 

slap-downs to the youthful affrontery 

by Fabio Quartararo and 

dish-out repetitive reminders to 

fellow Catalan Maverick Viñales 

that he still does not have the 

package to renew their rivalry 

from junior racetracks? 

Marquez evidently revels in victory. 

He now has 56 from 127 in 

MotoGP and all with Honda. He 

works and takes risks to retain 

the hairline-margin of superiority 

necessary in the series - in 

spite of the physical costs – and 

a vein of dominance that eventually 

caused a second teammate 

to crumble and curtail a career. 

Is his yearning to win and create 

a legacy still parched? It’s a 

theme that we sit down to talk 

about before the Grand Prix in 

Sepang. Time is tight but Marquez 

chats animatedly in English 

and devotes his full attention 

what is one of a habitual glut of 

media requests every weekend. 

He makes continual eye contact 

under the Red Bull cap; semigrinning 

expression in place. The 

answers are direct and enthusiastic, 

occasionally with those 

chiselled hands and arms rising 

to add gesture to his comments.

Do you feel like you are 

changing the game? Do you 

see the videos and sometimes 

think ‘is that me?’ 

Yeah! Two-three years ago, 

after some saves and comments 

from people about 

good things I was doing, it 

was strange. I did think ‘is 

that me?’ but more in the way 

of ‘can I do that again? Can 

I make it work next season? 

Am I just lucky?’ I had those 

question marks. Over the last 

three years we have always 

been quite competitive and 

always with the same riding 

style and philosophy and the 

way to win and approach the 

championship. Now I don’t 

think any more about it. I try 

to learn from mistakes, but I 

also don’t [over] think what 

we are doing. 

Is that a big compliment for 

you? The way you are 

moving the boundaries of this 

sport…? 

The championships and the 

statistics are, of course, the 

most important thing but I’d 

like that the people remember 

me – or I give the image – as 

a guy who gives everything on 

the racetrack. Whether I lose 

or I win; every year I give what 

I have. The way to ride and 

the passion I give to bikes. 

To want to do more than 

winning takes a lot of 

energy… 

Energy and a lot of priority. 

You need to make decisions 

all the time, especially in your 

private life. Many things. My 

main priority in life is my job. 

My passion is motorbikes and 

that means many times I have 

to say no to things and stay 

focussed. It is all about priorities: 

if you really want something 

then you have to say ‘no’ 

to many other things. 


FEATURE

“THE BEST FUEL I HAVE IN MY BODY IS THE 

TASTE OF VICTORY. I SEE ALL THE EFFORT I 

MAKE DURING THE SEASON HAS A VERY GOOD 

CONVERSION: THIS IS THE BEST THING. 

PEOPLE SOMETIMES SAY ‘YOU WIN MANY 

TIMES…’ [MAKES A GESTURE OF BOREDOM] 

BUT THE FEELING IS REALLY THE OPPOSITE. I 

WANT MORE, MORE AND MORE...” 


FEATURE 

Can it also be frustrating that 

in this social media fifteensecond-age 

people remember 

you for the dances, saves and 

other antics and not 27 laps of 

amazing performance…? 

Yeah: I had that a Le Mans this 

year. I did an incredible save 

on Friday but had an incredible 

race on Sunday and led 

every lap. I wasn’t even on the 

TV actually because I was at 

the front alone and there was 

no interest. After the weekend 

people were speaking more 

about the save on Friday than 

the win on Sunday! That’s the 

way. I like that though. I love 

motocross and there are riders 

in that sport that win a lot 

but maybe their style is not 

‘visual’. I think people really 

remember the visual stuff. 

Perhaps the problem with 

victory is that the memory is 

very much in the short-term 

present, especially when you 

win so much… 

If I struggle next year and 

crash a lot and an opponent 

wins then what we did this 

year is quickly forgotten. I 

think people will remember 

more things like what we did in 

Qualification in the Czech Republic 

[taking a risk with slick

tyres on damp track in Q2] 

this year or the last corner in 

Thailand [beating Quartararo 

to take the championship with 

a win…two days after a massive 

practice crash]. It was 

important to win the title there 

but to take a lot of risk and 

overtake in the last corner? 

This is a different thing. 

What degree of satisfaction 

or motivation do you get from 

key moments like that? 

I like to review and to check. I 

get proud and satisfied…but in 

the opposite way when I lose 

some of these battles it takes 

energy away. If you win and 

do the things well then I like 

that…but I find that I just want 

to arrive to the next ‘moment’. 

If you lose then you also lose 

more time to analyse what is 

going on. I am proud of what I 

do but I do worry when something 

is not moving in a good 

way. 

With mounting success does 

life get a bit harder every 

year? Judging by your 

Instagram account you never 

stop or are rarely at home… 

This is something that I had 

to learn about, and it is another 

type of experience. A 

few years ago I was doing 

something every single day. 

Now we do a calendar with my 

manager and my people and, 

for example, with the sponsor 

we put X days [for promotion] 

and we won’t do more than 

these days. Of course, if there 

is a very, very good opportunity 

then we will think about it 

but otherwise we have 30- 

40 days for events and if we 

want to take another sponsor 

or compromise then we need 

to take something else out. 

In the end the personal life 

is also important. So is taking 

a break. Three years ago I 

did not have a holiday at all. 

I was doing motocross races 

and dirt track events and it is 

my passion but I [later] saw 

that I didn’t start the following 

season in the best way, with 

not the best energy. Again, 

you need to be able to say 

‘no’. That can be hard because 

I like motocross, bicycle races 

and my friends are there doing 

it, but having a break is 

important. 

People ask me ‘is Marquez 

really like the guy we see?’ I 

say ‘yes, it doesn’t seem an 

act’ but there must be some 

part of it that’s image controlled… 

[shakes head] I’m like this 

because, in the end, I cannot 

act…and I think if you 

tried to play that game then 

sooner or later you will show 

your real face. I do try to put 

a limit though. Many times 

I’ve had people asking if they 

can make a report inside my 

house or follow me while I 

train. I’m always thankful but 

that’s [beyond] the limit. I do 

not want to show everything to 

the people. 

Are you really an animal for 

victory? Off the track you 

don’t carry that hard, ‘killer’ 

edge… 

Even when I was a kid, if I did 

not win on Sunday then we 

did not achieve our target. If 

I did not win then I was crying. 

If I lost a game on the 

PlayStation I was also crying! 

[pause] It is something I can 

control a lot more inside me 

now. I can understand that 

sometimes you need to lose 

some battles to win the war, 


FEATURE 

the final battle. Everybody is 

waiting now for when I will 

lose or if I am beaten in a 

race. The way that some rivals 

celebrate beating me, like in 

Austria or UK this year, they 

do it in a championship mode! 

That’s good news. It doesn’t 

make me angry. It shows me 

that it was difficult for them to 

beat me. 

To always want to do that 

must, again, be tiring. Maybe 

it is something that will wane 

as you get older… 

Could be, could be. The moment 

will arrive when someone 

beats me [regularly]. I 

know that you can go up-upup 

in your career but then 

you get to a point where it 

starts to go down. That downhill 

can be fast or slow. You 

have to make it part of your 

job to have a slow downhill! 

You have to be aware that 

when this moment comes it 

is time to change the mentality 

because if not then you’ll 

be lucky to get through that 

period. 

You talk about passion but 

how long do you think that 

will last? How long will it 

keep you right at the peak of 

this sport and profession… 

It’s a lifestyle. Perhaps this is 

not the best word but it’s like 

a ‘drug’. In my holiday time 

I know I can be three weeks 

near a beach if I wanted to but 

I know this won’t make me 

happy. I won’t be relaxed. One 

week is OK but by the second 

week I’ll need a bike, a ride. 

I will get to the first MotoGP 

test after the winter and while 

it is good to be riding [a 

Grand Prix bike] again I need 

to be racing. I joke sometimes 

with my mechanics that, for 

me, we can remove Friday 

[practice] from a Grand Prix! I 

want to go direct to Saturday 

because qualification starts 

to get the adrenaline running 

and then the biggest shot 

comes on Sunday. 

You and that Repsol Honda 

are a part of the furniture in 

MotoGP. What could possibly 

be next? 

Continue! The best fuel I 

have in my body is the taste 

of victory. I see all the effort 

I make during the season 

has a very good conversion: 

this is the best thing. People 

sometimes say ‘you win many 

times…’ [makes a gesture 

of boredom] but the feeling 

is really the opposite. I 

want more, more and more. 

When you win then you can 

do many events, lots of training 

and many kilometres on 

the bicycle and you don’t get 

‘tired’. When you have hard 

moments then that’s where 

you feel it. It is different. The 

body is somehow happy when 

you win. Anything you want to 

do seems like a good idea! It 

is difficult to understand. But 

I feel good in Honda and my 

target is to continue here. And 

to continue winning.


FEATURE 

otoG B

WORLDSBK POR 

P EST 

NOLAN PORTUGUESE ROUND 

PORTIMAO · SEPTEMBER 15-16 · Rnd 10 of 13 

Race one winner: Jonathan Rea, Kawasaki 

Race two winner: Jonathan Rea, Kawasaki 

Blog by Graeme Brown, Photos by GeeBee Images 

Blogs by David Emmett & Neil Morrison. Photos by CormacGP

FEATURE

WORLDSBK POR 

MotoGP PICS

FEATURE

MotoGP PICS

MOTOGP 

BLOG 

WATCH OUT FOR MotoGP’S UNDERD 

So much happened at the MotoGP tests at Valencia and 

Jerez in November that it’s hard to know where to start. 

There was Marc Marquez’ heavy 

crash which saw his team advance 

plans for surgery on his 

right shoulder – the same surgery 

he had on his left joint at the end 

of 2018, though the right limb was 

nowhere near as bad as his left. 

Ducati and Yamaha brought new 

frames, which both seemed to 

work. 

The Ducati GP20 prototype 

turned much better than the GP19 

did, finally addressing the bike’s 

biggest weakness. The Yamaha 

engine had a few more horsepower, 

and a lot more traction, giving 

it some of what the M1, Valentino 

Rossi and Maverick Viñales all 

craved. Both Suzukis were quick, 

Joan Mir continuing to catch Alex 

Rins, and appearing as though he 

will pose a severe challenge to his 

teammate next year. The battle for 

supremacy in 2020 started with 

no clear winners, which should 

mean we have a good year of racing. 

Amidst all the excitement of Marquez’ 

shoulder, brother Alex’s debut 

on the Honda RC213V, shiny 

new frames on the Yamaha and 

more, events at KTM and Aprilia 

slipped under the radar. There is 

a lot happening at both factories 

though the changes at KTM are 

far more visible than at Aprilia. 

But, at heart, from where they will 

make gains is the same for both 

KTM and Aprilia: essentially the 

methodology of developing a racing 

motorcycle has changed, and 

that is what is making the difference. 

KTM brought two new frames to 

the tests, focussing on the first, 

a smaller step, at Valencia and 

a second, a much bigger step, 

at Jerez. The new frame looked 

rather different: instead of the 

circular steel tubes for the main 

part, the RC16 had a more beamlike 

tube, using a shape technically 

known as a ‘stadium’ (for the 

obvious reason that it looks like a 

sporting arena: two parallel lines 

with a semicircle at each end). 

KTM had helpfully colour-coded 

the frames for us: the orange one 

was the MK1 version, the black 

one MK2. At least, that’s what 

they told us, as that is the kind 

of trick factories commonly use 

to distract attention from the bits 

they don’t want you to look at. 

The new chassis is the result of 

the way KTM changed their testing 

programme for 2019. With 

the arrival of Dani Pedrosa, the 

Austrian factory could streamline 

and focus their work much better. 

Mika Kallio has been testing suspension 

and durability, while Pedrosa 

concentrated on sifting the 

wheat from the chaff, assembling 

packages of parts to hand over to 

the factory riders to try at official 

tests. That process has eliminated 

a lot of the tedious work of trying 

to figure which combinations of 

frames, swingarms, suspension 

linkages, top yokes etc are most 

effective. That was badly needed, 

especially as Pol Espargaro has 

effectively had to carry the final 

stages of the entire testing

OGS IN 2020 

More 

than Europe’s 

largest MC store 

By David Emmett 

programme on his shoulders this 

year. 

The new frame package was a 

big improvement, making the 

RC16 lighter, easier to turn, and 

providing a bit more grip. “The 

chassis feels very good but I think 

the room to play with it is much 

better,” Pol Espargaro said. “It is 

much, much lighter and we are 

gaining a lot. There are only benefits.” 

After days of hearing “some 

positives, some negatives” from 

riders, such clear praise points to 

real progress for KTM. 

There were no new parts for Aprilia 

at either Valencia or Jerez, and 

yet Aleix Espargaro was remarkably 

upbeat. Sure, he would have 

to wait until Sepang for a chance 

to actually ride the new RS-GP, 

but the direction Aprilia had taken 

was very positive. “I don’t know 

if it looks very different from the 

outside, but inside it’s very different,” 

Espargaro explained, based 

on the drawings he had seen. 

“Part of the engine is already very 

different. The chassis is different, 

the electronics, the position of the 

rider. 

The bike is a small difference 

everywhere but everywhere is different.” 

The new bike is the result of 

radical changes instigated by new 

Aprilia Racing CEO Massimo Rivola. 

New engine and aerodynamics 

engineers have been hired, and 

the way the organisation works 

is very different. Communication 

has been vastly improved – inside 

the garage, the riders are working 

with headsets to talk to all the engineers 

at the same time, preventing 

the game of ‘Telephone’ which 

happens as information is passed 

down the chain. “The garage is 

ten times more professional than 

in the other seasons,” Espargaro 

said. “This year more engineers 

have arrived than in the last ten 

years in Aprilia!” 

The proof of the Aprilia pudding 

will be in the eating, of course, but 

after years of straggling behind, 

the Noale factory finally looks to 

be catching up. If MotoGP looked 

competitive in 2019, just wait until 

2020.

FEATURE

MotoGP PICS

BLOG 

THE YEAR THAT WAS... 

More than Europe’s 


At the close of another exceptional year of action, On 

Track Off Road assesses some of the names and moments 

that will ensure 2019 lives long in the memory. 

Man of the Year: Fabio Quartararo 

Never mind the fact he came 

into the premier class with just 

one win, four podiums and three 

pole positions to his name (Marc 

Marquez had notched up 26, 39 

and 28 by that time), or the fact 

he now acts as a reference for the 

limits to which Yamaha’s M1 can 

be taken: Quartararo was comfortably 

the pick of the 2019 rookies 

and the man that pushed Marquez 

hardest in a dizzying campaign 

that exceeded all expectations. 

Pure natural talent, the grid’s most 

neutral bike and the ideal working 

environment (the combo of the 

new and the experienced at Petronas 

Yamaha SRT) propelled him to 

five podiums and six poles. Performances 

at Jerez, Misano and 

the Chang International Circuit left 

us all with the feeling he could be 

here to stay. And ‘us all’ includes 

some of the all-time greats. Wayne 

Rainey labelled his “pure speed” 

as “just electrifying – he’s got a 

feel for the bike, and you can see 

riding gives him pure joy.” Best of 

all was no one saw this coming. 

Surprise of the Year: 

Jorge Lorenzo 

If a host of preseason predictions 

were to be believed, 2019 

would signal the start of a Senna- 

Prost in-house rivalry at Repsol 

Honda’s self-billed ‘Dream Team’. 

The problem was one side of the 

garage never got close. A combination 

of niggling injuries, a lack of 

motivation and an inability to gel 

with the tough-to-handle RC213V 

kept Lorenzo out of the top ten 

prior to his horror smash at Assen. 

Then a host of ignominies 

followed: chasing a move out of 

Honda, which came to the public’s 

attention in August; attempting to 

convince us all finishing 35 seconds 

behind a race winner represented 

a good result; and coming 

home last and a chastening 66 

seconds off his team-mate in 

Australia. Thankfully Jorge didn’t 

prolong the suffering, leaving the 

sport on his own terms in 

Valencia. 

Race of the Year: Phillip Island, 

MotoGP 

We got it. Finally. After nearly 

three years of billing there was 

a Marquez-Viñales showdown to 

match the hype. And boy was 

it worth the wait. Having broken 

away from a chaotic leading 

group, Marquez hung in the 

Yamaha’s slipstream for the majority 

of the race, planning a late 

attack. To the surprise of no one, 

he managed it. But we didn’t foresee 

Viñales crashing out trying. 

How glorious to see a rider doing 

anything to avoid sharing a podium 

with his great rival. Throw in 

two Aprilias contesting the lead in 

the opening laps, Cal Crutchlow’s 

second at the track which nearly 

ended his career, and Jack Miller 

bagging a brilliant home podium 

and this was yet another ‘Island’ 

duel to savour.

By Neil Morrison 

Must Try Harder: Johann Zarco 

The paddock doesn’t forget. Looking 

back on it, Zarco was naïve in 

the extreme to think the Repsol 

Honda seat was his after learning 

of Lorenzo’s retirement. For what 

had gone before was nothing short 

of disastrous. A wretched spell in 

KTM’s factory team was characterised 

by poor speed and regular 

dummy spitting. It was a structure 

crying out for fresh input and 

development direction. What it got 

instead was verbal shaming and a 

prolonged eight-month strop. By 

all accounts, the Austrian factory’s 

professionalism is second to none. 

So just how the double world 

champ reacts to his role as team 

leader at regular whipping boys 

Avintia Ducati will be one of next 

year’s points of interest. 

Medal of Valour: Brad Binder 

Usually reserved for those overcoming 

a troublesome injury, 

the elder Binder brother gets the 

nod for his spirited acceptance of 

his KTM chassis’ shortcomings 

in 2019 and consistently riding 

around them. Across all three 

classes no one was as spectacular 

to watch with his no-nonsense 

style winning him few fans among 

his peers. But there were plenty 

of admirers. That Binder came so 

close to prolonging the title fight 

until the final race was testament 

to his unerring dedication. Riders 

regularly belittling their equipment 

should take note. 

Quote of the Year: Danilo Petrucci, 

Italian Grand Prix 

How often do we hear elite athletes 

admitting they were hopelessly out 

of their depth? But Petrucci is no 

ordinary athlete, a figure regularly 

filled with good humour and cheer. 

The dust had just settled on his 

first MotoGP win in a memorable 

four-rider brawl at Mugello when 

he opened up on some of the self 

doubt that was a fixture during 

his early years in the class. “Many 

times in the past [I nearly] quit 

my career because I said this is 

not my world,” he admitted. Well 

Danilo, with performances like this 

you found a place where you truly 

belong. 

Lap of the Year: Marc Marquez, 

MotoGP Q2, Czech Grand Prix 

Has there ever been a greater pole 

position in history? 

Few – if any – match this effort, 

when, stung by a boisterous Alex 

Rins cutting him up in pit lane, 

Marquez exited pit lane onto a 

damp track as rain was soaking its 

final sector. On slick tyres. No one 

generates heat in the rubber like 

the hard-braking Catalan. Once up 

to speed it was all about precision. 

The first of two flyers put him 1s 

clear of the rest. The second? It 

had to be seen to be believed. Attacking 

turns 13 and 14 as if they 

were dry, the 26-year old barely 

flinched as he put 2.524s into the 

second fastest rider. The feat of no 

ordinary man. 

Shining Star: Sergio Garcia 

So young he couldn’t race in 

Qatar, the baby-faced Spaniard 

only turned 16 in late March. After 

the usual growing pains in Moto3, 

he was really up and running by 

autumn. Three top six finishes in 

the final four outings, including a 

debut podium at Sepang and then 

a first win at Valencia, pointed 

toward an extraordinarily bright 

future. Yet another Spaniard destined 

for the very top.

BLOG 

Moment of the Year: Sepang, MotoGP Q2 

A snapshot of the future? Let’s hope so. 

For three minutes Marquez took the term 

‘shithousery’ to new heights as he slowed 

and toured behind new paddock golden 

boy Quartararo, hoping for a tow to pole. 

The Frenchman repeatedly motioned for 

his new admirer to move by, only for the 

reigning champ to blankly refuse. In the 

end there was comeuppance; the left side 

of Marquez’s rear tyre had cooled down 

so much it failed to grip as he pitched into 

turn two, flinging him somewhere near the 

earth’s orbit. He even had the cheek to 

later claim he came across the Frenchman 

by chance. One of the few moments when 

ego got in his way this year, this offered a 

glimpse of hope to the rest for 2020.

Photo: R. Schedl 

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FEATURE 

SOMETHING 

OUT OF NOTHING 

HOW BRITAIN’S LEADING MXGP 

RIDER IS BUILDING HIS OWN 

GRAND PRIX TEAM 

By Adam Wheeler, Photos by Mikey Rutherford/FXR

FEATURE 

20 

rounds 

rounds of the 2020 FIM Moto- 

cross World Championship in 

seventeen different countries 

means sixty race starts (motos and qualifi- 

cation heats). Eight dates of the ACU British 

Championship adds another sixteen to the 

tally. Factor-in pre-season events and useful 

(lucrative and obligatory) other International 

fixtures and the competitive MX calendar 

starts to look daunting, costly and exhaus- 

tive. 

Simpson was able to use the buzz and pro- 

file-gain from the MXoN to generate interest 

around his new project. It is an alternative 

method of tackling the elite of the sport 

outside of the factory teams and the narrow- 

ing band of established satellite set-ups in 

MXGP. The story is interesting as the Scot 

– who splits his time between home near 

Dundee and a long-term base in Belgium 

– not only has to continually analyse his 

Friend of the magazine, Shaun Simpson, 

holds the distinction of being the last pri- 

vateer winner of a premier class Grand Prix 

when he claimed the Benelux round at Li- 

erop all the way back in 2013. For the 2014 

and 2015 seasons Simpson ran his own 

operation inside the framework of what is 

now the decorated Hitachi KTM fuelled by 

Milwaukee team and reached the position 

of 4th in the world at one stage and added 

more MXGP silverware to the mantle. He 

was instrumental in creation of the fledg- 

ling RFX squad in 2019 and has launched - 

boots-deep - into his own SS24 KTM MXGP 

structure for next year. 

2019 ended on a bounce for the 31 year old, 

who helped Team GBR to their second Moto- 

cross of Nations podium appearance in the 

last three years, and an upward surge after 

struggling through an expectedly thrifty and 

wayward term with RFX. Simpson found 

extra speed through the slimy sand of Assen 

thanks to three weeks of dedicated technical 

development on the KTM 450 SX-F through 

the knowledge of father and former-racer 

Willie Simpson and renowned tuner John 

Volleberg – the same crew behind his plucky 

underdog efforts in ‘14/15 and now the basis 

for his 2020 push as one of just two remain- 

ing Brits in the MXGP division.

work as a Grand Prix rider and find a level 

needed to compete with the Herlings, Cairo- 

lis, Prados, Desalles, Febvres, Seewers but 

also manage the intricacies and demands of 

organising a supplied and viable structure 

ready to travel the world. There is no other 

venture quite like it in MXGP, and although 

it means the window for risk is that much 

wider for the veteran, it also places him in 

control and potentially at the beginning of a 

whole new chapter in what has been a life- 

time invested in the sport. 

With only days remaining until the end of 

the calendar year, Simpson insists he is 

close to the mark for SS24 KTM MXGP to 

throw the covers away. So we spent a good 

half-an-hour talking to the former British 

Champion, asking for insight to the process 

and the means to forge a motorcycle capable 

of competing in the FIM World Championship 

as well as fighting for domestic hon- 

ours… 

In previous years I’d already been 

quite hands-on… 

…with things like doing emails, talking to 

sponsors and helping the team. The two 

years at Wilvo Yamaha meant I stepped right 

back from that role but I was doing it again 

with RFX and had a lot of input. The differ- 

ence now is instead of me saying “I think we 

should do this and that…” and someone go- 

ing-out and doing it for me, I’m the one that 

has to come up with the ideas and see eve- 

rything through; trying to get people signed 

up to different types of deals and cope with 

product delivery, numbers and supply. There 

are other important ‘new’ things like the 

details of working out how the set-up will be 

and opting to go for something different to a 

truck and then deciding how it will look. 

Organisationally I have a pretty good 

idea of what numbers of parts are 

necessary to do a full season… 

…for example, it will take around 40 sets of 

grips. Sprockets: you’ll need one for every 

weekend and then there are different sizes. 

Then I’m working with Renthal and R Tech 

for the plastics and Enjoy from America with 

the stickers – which has to be planned in ad- 

vance as they need to be shipped over. I’m 

trying to set time frames and get designs 

made. There is a lot of to-ing and fro-ing 

MAKING AN MXGP TEAM: SS24 KTM

FEATURE 

…but then there are days when you get 

so motivated. It is a bit like a wave effect. 

Sometimes the job list for a particular day 

looks daunting but then you start to see 

things come together on the bike and prod- 

uct starts to arrive, you renew relationships 

with contacts and partners and it swings 

back the other way. It has also been cool to 

see the social media buzz I’ve been getting 

about the project. The size of the workload 

can feel a bit overwhelming. There have 

been evenings when I’ve thought ‘we’ve 

achieved so much today…but there is still so 

much to do tomorrow’. By January 1st I want 

to be fully set so I can focus on my training 

and do what I normally do as a grand prix 

rider. It means putting the pressure-on up 

until new years eve and thinking of things 

like a flight crate – which we’ll source and 

then adapt. We’ll have the van and the bike 

ready to get some testing done. 

which I didn’t have to do before. Instead of 

a design being pushed through two-three 

people before it gets to me, I’m instead 

swapping around forty emails to get it to 

the point where it is sitting on my bike in 

the workshop. Dealing with sponsors, try- 

ing to get sponsors on onboard and making 

a lot more correspondence. I’ve had to be 

more organised – and cope with more email 

threads than ever – but from the physical 

side I have been trying to hit my marks. I 

started training at the usual time and I’m 

trying to get as many miles on the bike as I 

can at this time of year and being weather- 

dependent. The buck stops with me; if I have 

a slack day or I’m a behind schedule then it 

is all my fault. 

There were moments when I thought 

‘I’ve bitten off more than I can chew 

here…’ 

Sponsors? After the Nations and the 

buzz of being on the podium there 

was a lot of interest and I thought 

‘I’m nailing this…it’s a piece of 

cake’… 

…but that slowed down very quickly. I’ve 

learned that in some ways you are only as 

profitable as the size and strength of your 

contact book! I have a lot of experience in 

MXGP, and some of the people where you 

thought ‘I can definitely bank on them…’ 

could not commit for 2020 for their own 

understandable reasons personal and pro- 

fessional. But there were also things coming 

out-of-the-blue that then fill a hole. People 

or companies have set budgets, and if you 

are not quick enough or you are placed 

further back in the queue then you can 

miss some deals. The good thing about the 

team is that if we start the season strongly 

and a sponsor wants to come onboard - be- 

cause what we are doing is pretty cool and 

I’m taking a risk on myself - then they can

jump in. There is the freedom to change the 

designs and expand the portfolio. I’m satis- 

fied where I am at the moment, but I would 

say I’m 30% short of where I want my total 

budget to be. I’d really like to sit in the gate 

at Hawkstone Park and the first race of the 

year knowing I have the full budget to finish 

2019 in the same strong way as we start. My 

goal is not to be hoping and praying as the 

season goes on that everything will be OK. 

At the same time, we’ve done enough so I’m 

not super-stressed about going racing. There 

is a lot more work to be done and I’ll need a 

little stroke of luck here-and-there to get the 

final bits on board…but it won’t be for a lack 

of trying. Sponsorship saps up a lot of time: 

approaching companies, getting to the sec- 

ond level but then being refused. You need 

to know someone, who-knows-someone who 

has a motorsport interest. That’s still probably 

the biggest hurdle to get over, every- 

thing else is dialled-in: engines, suspension, 

bikes, parts, tyres, spares, myself, my gym 

programme. In a way I am still running off 

the fumes of Assen because you are only 

as good as your last race. I’m not usually 

one to feed off that ideal but it has dripped 

into the winter. Another thing is that we’ve 

pushed ahead with the ‘Simpson Army’ fan 

club concept, which means that anyone can 

get involved and almost ‘crowd fund’ us to 

the level that they can or want. We put that 

all out on the website and social media. 

I’m not being naïve and thinking ‘I 

can do this for forty grand…’ 

…I have set a realistic budget. I’m probably 

doing it differently compared to other peo- 

ple and have perhaps cut costs where other 

people blow their money – and I’ve seen 

it in teams before where I’ve thought ‘why 

have we just spent five grand on that when 


FEATURE 

we could have put it into the bike?’ I’ve seen 

plenty of money wasted and I’ve learned 

from that. We’ll run a tight ship and with my 

Dad on board and his experience and the 

way I’ve been brought-up then we’ll do it 

frugally but we want the team to look right, 

feel right and for people to walk through our 

little hospitality area to feel at home and 

like they can have a coffee. We don’t want 

it to be too corporate or over-branded but 

also not ‘transit-van racing’. It’s a case of me 

going racing for myself and everyone who 

comes along to help me out will feel like 

they are a major part of this project. 

As soon as you announce you’re 

setting up a team then there is 

interest from other riders… 

…whether it’s on the presumption that there 

is a load of secret budget or a trick be- 

ing missed or the fact that it’s just another 

potential saddle. KTM were asking straight- 

away if there was the chance to put a young 

guy under the awning. In the beginning I 

entertained that idea and thought it might 

even be fun to help and even coach a young- 

er rider to maybe reach the top of his class. 

But then I took a step back and thought ‘I 

could make this work for myself but then to 

put my balls on the line for someone else 

and have that extra responsibility – whether 

it’s for logistics, parts, travel, support…’ 

and came to the conclusion that it was a 

level where I was not ready to start. With 

the small group of people I have around me 

I thought the best move was to put 100% 

effort into myself and that means my own 

family, programme and technical set-up. I 

didn’t want to compromise at this point. 

It is difficult to know exactly how 

much extra help we need… 

…the workload. The racing is the easy part. 

That’s the time to put on the show. Every- 

thing has to be set for that though, with the 

spare engine, chassis, suspension and if 

there is a problem there is always a back- 

up and the van is prepped. Nothing should 

come as a surprise and there is always a 

Plan B. The hard part is the bit that nobody 

sees: it is the practicing during the week, 

grinding out the motos when it’s wet and 

cleaning everything up and travelling all the 

miles. I don’t feel that we have a problem in 

the actual race paddocks, it’s more person- 

nel during the week, speaking with sponsors, 

re-stocking the van, orders are made for

spares, making sure the engines are hitting 

their service schedules. So, we’re trying to 

work that out at the moment: what we have 

to do, when and who is the best people to 

count on. We’re simplifying things at the 

moment and I think we’ll have two races 

bikes close to ready and dialled by the first 

week of January when we’ll go to Spain for 

more testing. We can then evaluate about 

the help. 

I’m not forgetting my own work as a 

rider, and I know everybody always 

has a ‘great off-season’… 

…but nine times out of ten – and this is 

talking from experience – everything will be 

going great, maybe differently, maybe varied 

but by the end of January you’ll find yourself 

in the same place mentally and physically as 

normal! You’ll have plans for tests, improved 

strength etc but then there is only so much 

you can do. So, I want to make sure I’m in 

my normal window of preparation by then. 

I heard [Jeffrey] Herlings say he will do less 

work this off-season compared to previous 

years – who knows if he’s playing a game 

or not but he knows it is such a long series 

and you cannot peak for one specific event 

or phase of the calendar. You’ll be prime at 

most points but then suffer at others. The 

key is to start steady. Be there, be fit and 

ready to go with the bike set-up but also 

prepared to go the whole year. This season 

I want to find the old ‘Mr Consistent’ again. 

I’ve started working with Kev Maguire from 

Step1 Fitness who I worked with in the past 

and his guidelines have been a big help. I 

don’t want to come-in all-guns-blazing, have 

a big get-off and then be nursing a sore 

ankle or something. I want to get back to 

solid results and the ‘old me’ where I’m rid- 

ing around feeling comfortable, very fit and 

strong in the mind. Capable with what I have 

under me. With that I’ll gain momentum 

and aim to finish the championship with a 

decent top ten position, which has not been 

an easy task for most riders for the last few 

years. 


FEATURE 

MAKING THE SS24 KTM 

MXGP 450 SX-F 

KTM have given me a number of 

standard 450 SX-Fs, exactly what you 

can buy in your local dealer… 

….to be totally honest a standard motorcycle 

out-of-the-crate is pretty good these days. 

We definitely need to work on the engine 

and suspension but the rest is reasonably 

decent. KTM also give me a parts budget to 

work with and there is a limit but it’s enough 

to complete a season if used correctly. You 

have to watch carefully what you order: one 

bolt might cost 30 cents and another one 

that looks very similar is 5 euros. You have 

to really spend time at the beginning of the 

year and order parts you are going to use a

lot of but being aware that changing certain 

components all the time will work out as 

really expensive. It’s about looking at your 

budget and managing it well. It’s quite easy 

to blow it all in the first three-four months 

but we’re experienced from riding for KTM 

previously with privateer teams and we kin- 

da know what we are doing. KTM have also 

put a bonus scheme together and gave me 

connections to Motorex and WP Suspension. 

That’s pretty much it, but it is also a major 

part of going racing: you need that backing 

from a manufacturer. It’s not just the physi- 

cal parts but for them to be onboard with 

your idea, and they trust what you can do to 

the races and put-on a good show on-and-off 

the track. That’s motivating. As soon as you 

confirm that support and a van or transport 

then you are going racing. 

then he’ll try to find out! We did some test- 

ing before the Nations and we got it wrong 

three, four, five times but come Assen I fi- 

nally had something I was really happy with. 

For this reason I’m not too worried about 

the bike at the moment. It was a dream to 

ride, even in those tough conditions in Hol- 

land, and we both have some ideas to make 

it even better. Right off the bat, coming into 

2020, I think the bike can be really good. 

MAKING AN MXGP TEAM: SS24 KTM 

Technically this is familiar ground for 

me, and I think we can see the results 

of someone like Jeremy Van 

Horebeek in 2019 to know that it can 

be done… 

…the bikes I’ve had before in similar sce- 

narios were not mega-fancy but they were 

put together well and suited me. The en- 

gines were tailored by John Volleberg and 

he knows what I need. If I come off the track 

and I know the motor can be better or differ- 

ent then he’ll have an idea, or if he doesn’t 

There are a couple of important 

things you need to turn a stock bike 

into an MXGP racer… 

…first of all, an exhaust. The stock KTM pipe 

is very good but the HGS guys have been 

there for a very long time and, like KTM, 

have been good to me and always helped 

out. They were number one on my list and 

I spoke to them and they came up with the 

goods straight away. I’d used them this year 

and we had something that worked really 

well. So we had our exhaust system. The 

next thing would be upgraded WP Suspen- 

sion. WP do a 48mm aftermarket fork and 

semi-factory shock which was based on the 

factory equipment from the last few seasons. 

It was something new from the mid-part of 

2019. It was high on my list and I recently 

tried it. It was really impressive right out of 

the box without too much tweaking, so I’m 

looking forward to trying to get the maxi- 

mum from it. Then wheels and tyres; rubber

FEATURE 

is important because you get through 

a lot. Dunlop and Pirelli already have 

so many teams that getting onboard 

and product from those guys is very 

difficult. I had a good relationship with 

the guys at Michelin this year and, in 

my opinion, they are trying super-hard 

to bring back a top-quality motocross 

tyre and are putting a serious effort 

into producing handmade tyres and 

compounds. There is a lot of testing 

going on. Being involved with someone 

that doesn’t only just throw product at 

you but actually wants to come to the 

races, give support and make a better 

product is great, so I decided to go with 

those guys. Another thing that ‘makes’ 

your race bike – and it is superficial – 

are the stickers. It’s quite a big thing 

for me because sponsors that want 

to get involved will have their space 

and logo on the bike. You go through 

a lot of stickers in a season! I’ve had 

a good thing with Enjoy over the years 

and they were ready to back me 100%. 

When the stickers go on then you re- 

ally see your race bike coming together. 

They’ll never make you go faster but 

there is a feel-good factor and it was 

one of the things I wanted to cross off 

my list quite quickly. Presentation is a 

part of it. After that the ECU and the 

work with John was something I abso- 

lutely needed. 

Mapping is a huge part of 

motocross these days… 

…but, without going into too much 

detail, I think we were that far-off with 

some of the basics during 2019 that 

the mapping did not help! So for the 

Motocross of Nations we needed to 

start from zero and build it up again; 

compression ratios, valve timing and 

all of those things needed to be sorted

efore we fine-tuned it with the mapping at 

the end. We will be working with a new com- 

pany for 2020, a Dutch firm through John, 

that are a new ECU manufacturer and we 

are looking forward to testing with them and 

going through the motions with the schedule 

in January. I think we can make an impact 

on the market with a new ECU and deliver- 

ing the kind of performance results we want 

as well. The bike has to be dialled-in for the 

track but also for the starts. You’ve heard 

many times that starts are so important in 

MXGP now and we’ll be working hard on 

that. Starts have not been my strong point 

for a couple of years and we want to get 

something that helps. When you sit on the 

line between two guys that might be a HRC 

Honda and a factory KTM then you know 

that you need to do something very spe- 

cial to even get your elbows on a par. You 

got to really gee-yourself-up for it. If you 

get squeezed out then you are eating roost 

for the rest of the moto. It’s good to get-in, 

get the elbows out and make top five starts 

week-in week-out. It will make the job a lot 

easier. 

Lastly, the whole show has to live, be 

stored and be carted around 

somehow… 

…lists are definitely my friend at the mo- 

ment and my wife Rachel has spreadsheets 

open everywhere. I’m simplifying it. We’ve 

actually taken out one of the Cairoli accommodation/workshop 

facilities at Lom- 

mel. I didn’t get a deal on that! The reason 

is that you can literally turn up with a van 

and a load of stuff and start working on the 

bike. There is a power-washer, heater, wash- 

ing machine, sleeping quarters, washroom, 

kitchen and so on. I have a great sponsor – 

Dyce Carriers – that will pay for that. John is 

only 45-50 minutes up the road and will be 

doing the main tuning of the engines there. 

It would have been ideal to work from his 

premises but it’s a lot of pressure for all his 

other customer work as well. We then have 

the base in Scotland as well. There are quite 

a few companies that are prepared to give 

you a season’s worth of stock up-front or in 

January and that gets over a major hurdle. 

KTM spares have to be carefully watched 

and evaluated in terms of what you are us- 

ing, we maybe do 4-5 KTM spares orders 

through the season. Plastics, tyres, stickers 

can be ordered in bulk which is convenient 

and nice to see them turning up because it 

gets stocked and stored. From fifteen products 

you might only have five you are deal- 

ing with on a weekly or bi-weekly basis. It 

will be a case of locking as much as possible 

down by the end of January and having that 

stock at the workshops. The WP Suspen- 

sion could be a case where you get two sets 

immediately, two sets and bit later and then 

another two sets further down the line. They 

come in dribs-and-drabs but two sets are 

enough to get going. It’s about being smart 

and getting in early. Being ahead of the 

game and, so far, we are doing a good job. 



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M 

FEATURE 

A 

QUIET 

LEARNER 

WHAT DID FORMER MX2 

WORLD CHAMPION PAULS 

JONASS SEIZE FROM HIS 

DEBUT MXGP YEAR? 

By Adam Wheeler, Photos by Ray Archer

FEATURE 

2019 

MXGP will be 

remembered 

for Tim Gajser’s 

maturation, both as a racer who limited 

his mistakes and as a 22 year old that 

fundamentally changed his approach 

away from the track, Tony Cairoli’s worst 

career injury, Jeffrey Herlings’ slew of 

drama, Jeremy Seewer’s emergence as a 

world-class 450 rider, Glenn Coldenhoff’s 

sensational second season finale and big 

smashes that counted out the likes of 

Romain Febvre and Clement Desalle. 

“THINKING BACK…I’M SURE 

THERE WERE SOME TRACKS 

WHERE I WAS DOING IT 

WRONG…BUT AT THE TIME I 

JUST THOUGHT ‘THAT’S THE 

WAY TO GO FAST!’...” 

A little further down the standings but 

still in a plumb sixth position was Rockstar 

Energy IceOne Husqvarna racing’s 

Pauls Jonass. The 22 year old Latvian 

– who could have pushed for a second 

MX2 world championship in 2019 but 

elected to jump into the premier class – 

was distinguishable for that bright Yoko 

riding gear on the works FC450 as much 

for his results that started to pick up in 

the second half of the season and deliver 

the likeable former Red Bull KTM athlete 

to the position of Rookie of the Year. 

Jonass was, of course, part of that entertaining 

KTM duel for the MX2 crown in 

2018 that came to a crunching halt – almost 

literally – with the collision between 

#41 and then teammate Jorge Prado at 

the Grand Prix of Turkey. The accident in 

September would end up carrying heavy 

consequences for Pauls. Damage to the 

ACL in his right knee forced him out of 

the MX2 contest prior to the last round at 

Imola and then surgery ruined a winter 

of preparation for his debut on the bigger 

bike and in a division with no less than 

fifteen Grand Prix winners.

Jonass was aware that Febvre (2015) and 

Gasjer (2016) had trounced MXGP in their 

maiden seasons and Herlings (2018) won 

the title at the second attempt but he was 

figuratively far behind the pack as they took 

their positions in the gate in Argentina. “Not 

even close,” he smiles at the recollection. 

He survived the mire of Mantova at round 

five to bag his first piece of silverware – 

another mini landmark for his country in 

MXGP – but was posting consistent top 

six results by the end of the campaign 

when he picked up two more rostrum 

champagne bottles: one in Sweden and 

another in Turkey, nicely erasing any sour 

memories at Afyon twelve months earlier. 

Jonass’ progress was a boost for the 

IceOne team that had bounced from the 

stellar breakthrough by Max Anstie in 

2017 to disappointment in 2018 as both 

the Brit and Gautier Paulin failed to disrupt 

the Grand Prix-winning race pace of 

the KTMs. Teammate Arminas Jasikonis 

struggled for the same impact but the 

reorientation by the team to focus on 

development rather than straight-up 

delivery of premier results had taken an 

upward turn. 

The results, form and capability also 

reinforced Jonass’ decision to change 

classes, teams, trainers and gamble from 

being an MX2 contender to an MXGP 

speculator. He now has exciting prospects 

for 2020 being one of the younger 

factory riders in the class and will again 

have to deal with Prado amongst all the 

heavy-hitters. 

Talking with Pauls is never dull. Loud of 

voice, free with opinions, quick to laugh 

and shrewdly self-analytical – all in impeccable 

English - he’s a worthy chat. So 

we quizzed him on the over-riding emotions, 

sensations, feelings, lessons and 

general ‘marks’ of 2019 and for what was 

a crucial transitional term. 

PAULS JONASS & MXGP

FEATURE 

“TO A POINT THE FIRST MXGP 

PODIUM WAS A RELIEF... 

I THOUGHT ‘WE MADE IT, 

THAT’S GOOD’ BUT THEN THE 

EXPECTATION GOES UP AND 

PEOPLE KINDA EXPECT IT ON A 

MUCH MORE REGULAR BASIS...”

It’s interesting how some riders 

are able to adapt quicker 

than others to finding the limit 

with the 450. Your disadvantage 

was the lack of riding 

time before the season started. 

Can you talk about learning 

a new style while racing 

at the same moment…? 

Being on a 250 for such a 

long time meant a change of 

mentality for lines and riding 

style. Still even now I’m maybe 

revving the bike too much. 

You need to be quite high in 

the RPM to go fast on a 250, 

but the 450 is different and 

it’s about keeping momentum 

– you don’t need to carry 

so much flow in the corners. 

You don’t need to go so far to 

the outside and can chop into 

shorter lines. Anyway, it was 

pretty tough, especially when 

I only started to ride properly 

one month before the first 

Grand Prix. It was a new class 

and a new bike and a way to 

work. The goal for the season 

was just to improve and we 

did that despite a general lack 

of testing and being pretty unprepared! 

Thinking back…I’m 

sure there were some tracks 

where I was doing it wrong… 

but at the time I just thought 

‘that’s the way to go fast!’ It 

might have been alright just 

for two laps and then I would 

have been done. 

We tested more halfway during 

the season and I began to 

understand the bike better and 

that helped me a lot. Sometimes 

now I feel that I am not 

going fast but by hitting the 

lines correctly I can see I am 

doing it. An example was at 

the Nations on Saturday. In 

Free Practice I really pushed 

for the lap-time and was 

the fastest…but towards the 

end I concentrated on being 

smooth, hitting my marks and 

almost playing with the track 

and was just 0.1 away from 

that time attack! So, you know 

sometimes with the 450 you 

can hit your points and still go 

quickly. During training everything 

is fine because you have 

time to think about the lines 

and do everything correctly 

and shifting well…but then 

when it comes to racing and 

the gate drop as well as passing 

guys then it’s easy to start 

revving the bike and going in 

1st and 2nd gear everywhere. 

After the race you look at the 

data and see I needed to shift 

up much more. 

Overall it was more difficult to 

put together than I thought. 

Trying to race the 450 correctly 

was tough. We also didn’t 

have the best starts at the 

beginning of the season and in 

such a stacked class it is hard 

to battle forward. 

Another factor is dealing with 

the opposition… 

For sure. I raced Jeffrey and 

Tim on the 250s but otherwise 

lot of them were new guys to 

race against. Both in the races 

and sometimes on training 

tracks it was interesting to see 

how they rode, how the bike 

moves and to learn how they 

were reacting. That was an 

important learning tool. 

You mentioned checking data; 

things like that must have 

been a new experience in 

terms of set-up and work… 

Yeah! With the 250 you take 

the maximum power, set-up 

the bike and just ride with 

that. You don’t play so much 

with the engine configuration 

but with the 450 the testing 

– or the chance to improve - 

almost never stops because 

you can do so many things. 

Also, the suspension is more 

important. On the 250 you can 

squeeze it and go-for-it sometimes 

but the 450 feels heavier 

and has more power, so the 

set-up needs to be better. To 

get to the top level you need 

to be looking at everything all 

the time to improve. 

Was the onus on you to 

develop even more as a 

tester? 

The basic bike was already 

very good but when it came 

to racing I was like ‘hmmm, I 

need something a little different’. 

I needed to improve my 

role as a tester but testing by 

yourself or with your teammate 

and then racing are like 

two different jobs. On your 

training bike you already have 

the mindset of how the race 

bike - or race itself - will be. 

For example, it’s nice to train 

with a very smooth bike but 

then when it comes to the GP 

PAULS JONASS & MXGP

FEATURE 

then you end up needing something 

more aggressive. 

You just seemed to gas the 

KTM and learned much at the 

front of MX2. Were there more 

parameters to your racecraft in 

MXGP? 

It’s a different challenge but I 

would not say the mindset has 

changed. The focus is to win 

but I know I’m a bit off, so it 

means looking at everything 

that can be done better to be 

in contention. The 250 was all 

about winning and with the 

MXGP class I know I’m looking 

for the few percent more to 

reach that same level. 

Being one of the top MX2 riders 

in the MXGP category and 

also with the profile and all the 

resources at IceOne; was it a 

relief to get that first podium 

result? 

To a point it was a relief. I 

thought ‘we made it, that’s 

good’ but then the expectation 

goes up and people kinda expect 

it on a much more regular 

basis. It put a bit more pressure 

on my shoulders. I knew 

the season would be tough 

all the way through but I felt 

a positive push from the midpoint. 

I was battling for 6th-7th 

and on a good day I was going 

for the podium. It was also 

good that I didn’t swing from 

those 6th-7th positions to outside 

the top ten or somewhere 

further down. There was a bit 

of consistency.

IceOne seemed to change 

philosophy for 2019 with two 

young riders: you appeared 

to have hit their target for the 

year… 

For sure. The main objective this 

year was to gain experience and 

confidence for 2020. We knew 

already that we’d missed the 

winter and it would be hard to 

battle for proper results…I think 

we reached our goal though with 

three podiums and sixth overall. 

Some days I was a bit off. But 

I know how to fix that for next 

year. I fit into the team right 

away. It is a hard-working team 

You had some bad luck with 

your knee last year but did 

2019 give you some insight as 

to how injuries can also easily 

be suffered with the 450? 

For sure you need to be stronger. 

In MX2 you have to be riding 

at your best to win but the 

demands feel much higher in 

MXGP because there are ten 

guys around you who are capable 

of taking that victory. In 

MX2 there are two-three who are 

realistically there all the time. 

In the past you could make a 

good start push for some laps 

and then just cruise around. In 

PAULS JONASS & MXGP 

“IN THE PAST YOU COULD MAKE A GOOD MX2 

START PUSH FOR SOME LAPS AND THEN JUST 

CRUISE AROUND. IN MXGP YOU NEED TO PUSH 

EVERY SINGLE LAP...” 

and having that base in Lommel 

helps because it means a family 

feeling; it’s not like you only see 

your race mechanic at the races. 

Was there much more attention 

on you – particularly in Latvia – 

by being in MXGP compared to 

MX2? 

Hmmm, I don’t think it matters 

too much if you are still at the 

front battling. From the spectators’ 

side I think MXGP draws 

that much more attention because 

it is the premier class. 

I would say the level of media 

attention is the same…but I feel 

more from the fans because of 

being in MXGP. 

MXGP you need to push every 

single lap: you need to be mentally 

and physically stronger. 

Based on 2018 and the end of 

2019 Herlings currently sets the 

performance ‘bar’ in MXGP, so 

do you now know what to do in 

order to catch or beat him? 

Yes, and I know my training 

– the intensity – needs to be 

better. I need to hit my targets at 

100% all the time and not save 

myself for anything. That’s one 

of the ways to come to the next 

level.

FEATURE 

THE 

HARD 

BREAKS 

#1: BEN WATSON 

By Adam Wheeler, Photos by Ray Archer/Monster Energy 

Motocross is not a kind sport. 

The latest high-profile victim, 

Jorge Prado, will testify to 

painful and sudden reversal 

that a crash and injury can 

bring. Although somewhat 

macabre, the stories of the 

smashes and scars usually 

involve strong narratives of 

recovery, determination and 

discovery. 

Over the coming year we’ll 

be asking certain athletes for 

their tales of ravage to recovery, 

hopefully with a photo or 

two and some (occasionally 

grim) first-hand accounts of 

the anxiety that behind the life 

of an elite racer. 

First-up, current factory Monster 

Energy Yamaha MX2 ace 

Ben Watson tells us about 

his accident in the formative 

stages of 2016. The 22 year 

old Brit broke his left foot at 

the Grand Prix of Argentina for 

what was round four of eighteen. 

The severity of the crash 

caused Watson to sit out the 

rest of the year and was by far 

the worst ailment of his career. 

It came at a crucial time 

when he was breaking into the 

top ten of the MX2 class. 

“I had made a solid start 

to the year and we came 

to Argentina,” he recalls. “I 

was good through Saturday 

and then in Sunday morning 

warm-up I was trying to 

do a fast time. I came up to a 

single roller and just clipped 

the top of it. I cannot remember 

much from there. I hit my 

head and don’t have much 

recollection.” 

“We went to the hospital and 

they said I’d broken some 

metatarsals,” he continues. 

“I was put in a cast and told 

‘four weeks’ – this was all 

through Google Translate! I 

came back to the UK and had 

some further checks and a CT 

scan revealed I’d shattered my 

navicular and three metatarsals. 

It meant the season was 

over. I had the first surgery 

one week after Argentina: that 

was to put a screw through 

the metatarsals and into the 

ball of the foot to hold it all 

in place. Some pieces of the 

navicular were screwed together 

with a plate that was 

wrapped around the bone; it 

was almost circular. I then had 

a bridging plate. Bones either 

side of the navicular were held 

apart so when the navicular 

was healing it did not set-to 

the others because the cartilage 

and ligaments around 

were so damaged that we had 

to stop it all fusing together. 

I was not allowed to put 

any weight through my foot 

for twelve weeks. I had the 

second surgery after twelve 

weeks and that was to remove 

the bridging plate and I could 

put some light pressure on it 

with an airboot.

BEN WATSON: THE HARD BREAKS 

XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXX XXXXX

FEATURE 

“I then progressed with physio 

and could eventually walk on 

it again.” 

Although ruinous to the point 

where it still affects his daily 

life, the most painful part of 

the experience for Watson was 

the arduous trip back from 

South America. 

“When I first did it they put 

the cast straight on,” he describes. 

“We thought I’d just 

broken metatarsals but getting 

to the Grand Prix in Argentina 

means three flights and one 

of those is fourteen hours so 

my whole foot was just swelling 

up in this cast on the way 

back. If they had seen the 

navicular break – I still don’t 

understand how they missed 

it - then I think I would have 

had a different cast or they 

wouldn’t have let me fly home 

so early. I remember on the 

plane my Dad took his car 

keys and run one up and down 

the cast until we had a line 

and we split it open because 

I was in absolutely agony. As 

soon as we had some relief in 

the cast then it was like freedom.” 

Like most youngsters faced 

with a sudden and dramatic 

jolt to their everyday life and 

routine, Watson had to balance 

the mental demands of 

rehab as much as the physical 

discomfort. “I had broken my 

collarbone before, but this was 

my first ‘real’ injury and the 

first time where I’d been more 

than two weeks off the bike,” 

he explains. “I didn’t really 

know what life was like without 

motocross and being able 

to ride 3-4 times a week. Just 

sitting on the sofa and not 

being able to move much for 

all that time was the toughest 

part…but it was also nice 

-with hindsight - because it 

made me realise and appreciate 

what I normally have.” 

Watson recovered to become 

one of the stars of the MX2 

class. He celebrated his first 

podium result in 2018, finishing 

4th in the world, but was 

dealt a double-injury blow 

in 2019. 2020 represents his 

final term on the 250 and 

where he is expected to be 

one of the protagonists for the 

final top three positions in the 

standings. He’ll be challenging 

for more trophies, in spite of 

the still-deformed left foot. 

“It still gives me quite a lot of 

trouble on a daily basis now,” 

he reveals. “I cannot go running 

and if I have to run for 

some reason then I will feel 

it later that night. I still have 

metalwork in there. The broke 

can also be stress fractured 

and the ligaments aren’t great. 

So, any intense work means 

I can cause more damage. 

With my training I try to stay 

away from anything too heavy 

for my foot. With a motocross 

boot I don’t feel anything – 

even on big jump landings - 

I don’t notice anything different 

compared to before the 

accident. I’m lucky with that.” 

“Overall it does bring some 

realisation to how dangerous 

the sport can be…but we all 

know that.”

#GO 

ADVENTURE 

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JASONANDERSON 

@ P R O T A P E R 

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

MXGP 

BLOG 

THE EYE-CATCHERS... 

MXGP 2019 is almost three months in the rear view mirror 

but what really stood out? 

If 2018 was an orange year, and 

arguably fostered a new level of 

athletic performance on MXGP 

then 2019 could be classified 

as a ‘what if…?’ kind-of-season. 

Among several narratives of excellence, 

survival and development 

(Gasjer, Prado, Geerts, Vialle) 

there were moments of drama 

(crashes, injuries, absence) that 

seemed to dilute the bigger painting 

of Grand Prix; like a harsh 

afternoon sunshine beaming 

unrelentingly onto the canvas. 

The people that ‘popped’ for me 

though? 

As easy as it would be to write-off 

2019 as a magnificent disaster, 

Jeffrey Herlings still nudged that 

‘bar’ a little higher in his fleeting 

appearances. His five outings 

in Russia, Latvia, Sweden, 

Turkey and China resulted in two 

victories and four moto wins. Of 

course his opposition were in a 

different stage of season-fatigue 

and strategy but that fact that 

Herlings could attack the elite 

with such abandon and come out 

on top in spite of all the adversity, 

nerves and the weight of expectation 

(as well as literal kilos of 

metal in his foot) spoke volumes. 

I also want to credit Glenn 

Coldenhoff – Herlings’ friend, 

KTM brandmate and countryman 

- here. I’ve described him 

frequently as the definition of 

a ‘confidence rider’ but the 28 

year old showed the power of 

sustained momentum and good 

feeling to reach a career high 

this summer. You could point to 

the collective waning energy of 

the class by the time Glenn was 

earning his five podiums and two 

wins in the final five rounds and 

he was dispatched by Herlings 

both in Turkey and China, but 

#259 still had to make the starts 

and run the laps behind at least 

three rivals who were also chasing 

the silver and bronze medals 

for the year (and the subsequent 

bonus payments those distinctions 

entail). 

Tim Gajser’s title success was 

not wholly unexpected but there 

were two factors that makes 2019 

stand apart from the Slovenian’s 

dizzying debut in 2016. Firstly, the 

radical change in his training and 

approach to races by maintaining 

a distance from his father was 

arguably the moment when he 

transitioned from ‘boy to man’. 

The independence created an 

even closer connection with HRC 

and could even be described as 

a more professional step: more 

direct accountability. The second 

aspect was the fact that, now 

fully fit, he clearly had worked to 

match the level of the Red Bull 

KTMs. Herlings and Cairoli had 

laid waste to MXGP in 2018 and 

there were initial fears Cairoli 

would have the series his own 

way after a 1-1 in Argentina but 

Gajser was ‘there’ and the only 

one competitive enough to force 

the Sicilian into rare mistakes. 

Their contests in Italy, Portugal 

and France were arguably some 

of the best action scenes of the 

season.

By Adam Wheeler 

I’m still a big advocate of Jeremy 

Seewer. Why? Just look at the 

Swiss’ career trajectory: 10th, 5th, 

2nd, 2nd – then into MXGP from 

MX2 and 8th to world #2 in two 

years, all the while remaining everpresent 

in the gate. Aside from 

being humble, approachable and 

intelligent (he completed his engineering 

studies in his first term in 

MX2) and a fantastic ambassador 

for any of his brands, he’s a hard 

and studious racer. The 25-year 

old has not been a perpetual 

Grand Prix winner but his knack 

for consistency and a high level 

of performance means he is a 

‘long-game player’. The big question 

remains as to whether he can 

inhabit the same sphere of speed 

and results as Herlings, Prado etc 

but he certainly seems to have the 

same strategic nuance as Cairoli, 

and that could be critical in moving 

up the final position on the 

slippery world championship pole. 

His late transition to the factory 

Yamaha camp in Michele Rinaldi’s 

swansong year and the rate of 

trophies (six In total) accumulated 

is another one of the most shining 

achievements in 2019. 

In truth there are fewer teams better 

equipped to cater for a rider’s 

wishes and demands that the outgoing 

and peerless Italian set-up 

(it still rankles that Sylvain Geboers’ 

benchmark-setting Suzuki 

team vanished so quickly when 

it was a similar level to that of 

Rinaldi’s). Seewer had the perfect 

and persistent second term and 

was just missing an overall victory 

to put the icing on the Swiss 

chocolate. 

Initially I would have said ‘be 

afraid’ for 2020. MXGP could 

have quickly been in the grip of a 

nineteen-year-old and perhaps the 

dawn of another Cairoli or Evertsesque 

new era. Jorge Prado made 

MX2 a non-contest in 2019 despite 

the sniping of Thomas Kjer Olsen, 

Tom Vialle and Jago Geerts. To 

only lose two motos throughout 

the entire term means that the 

MX2 field was probably happier 

to get rid of the Red Bull KTM 

rider than Prado was to depart 

to MXGP. Amazingly, Prado had 

another five years of eligibility for 

MX2. There seems to be barely 

a fuss over his graduation to the 

KTM 450 SX-F compared to the 

furore that surrounded Herlings 

in 2015 and instigated the initial 

‘Herlings rule’ of a rider only being 

able to be crowned in MX2 twice. 

This probably has much to do with 

Prado laconic and economic riding 

style; something initially chiselled 

through sharing many hours of 

training time with Tony Cairoli 

and a radical departure from the 

flamboyance the Sicilian initially 

showed himself back in the mid 

‘00s. 

The news that he is now enduring 

a long recovery from a broken left 

femur throws the planning and the 

buzz to the reeds somewhat. Up 

until his unfortunate slip from the 

footpegs in the Roman rain last 

week Prado rarely made mistakes. 

In 2019 MX2 he barely looked anywhere 

near his limit and was rarely 

rattled or pressurised. And he is 

of course the best starter seen in 

Grand Prix racing in the modern 

era, with the statistics to prove 

it. When fit and ready he’ll feel a 

much warmer degree of competition 

in 2020 and continues his education 

in terms of racecraft and 

race scenarios but it is tricky to 

remember a more eagerly awaited

MXGP 

BLOG 

premier class debut; maybe since 

Ben Townley in 2005 or Cairioli 

in 2009 (although #222 had 

provided us with that telling debut 

wildcard win at Donington Park in 

2007). 

Question marks hang over the 

location of the 2020 Spanish 

Grand Prix but it’s not hard to 

understand why Youthstream and 

native promoters are waiting and 

trying to capitalise on the second 

phase of the Prado story. I only 

hope the venue chosen is suitable 

for MXGP and can draw in the 

fans that have been patient for an 

authentic star since Javier Garcia 

Vico’s eccentricity held such 

appeal at the start of the century 

(neither Jonathan Barragan or 

Jose Butron really inhabited a 

space at the peak of the elite like 

Vico did in the 500cc division 

and the highly elevated plinth on 

which Prado now crouches). 

For now, 2019 surrenders to time. 

In a matter of days 2020 cranks 

up with Dakar and Supercross. 

Next year we’ll hit issue 200 of 

OTOR, a special little milestone. 

All that remains is to send a massive 

thanks to all the advertisers 

and partners that keep OTOR going 

and the brilliant contributors 

that help it look a little different to 

everything else out there. 

Thanks for reading and spread the 

word.

PRODUCTS 

www.husqvarna-motorcycles.com 

husqvarna 

A swift mention for the 2020 FC 450 

Rockstar Edition: a truly sumptuous slate of 

a motorcycle. 

The 2020 model forms the basis for the 

bikes to be used by Jason Anderson, Zach 

Osborne and Dean Wilson in AMA 

Supercross shortly and will be honed 

for MXGP by Pauls Jonass and Arminas 

Jasikonis. New for this particular bike is WP 

XACT 48mm forks, an engine config that 

Husqvarna state has ‘CP forged box-in-box 

piston and PANKL conrod…providing reduced 

friction, the piston and conrod ensure 

the SOHC engine continues to offer the 

highest level of performance and reliability 

available in the market today’. An FMF 4.1 

RCT Silencer, CNC Triple Clamps, easy offset 

adjustment come with a number of other 

upgrades both practical and aesthetic for 

the ‘factory’ look. Items such as REKLUSE 

clutch cover, D.I.D rims, carbon-fibre engine 

protector and a holeshot device. Husky fans 

wanting to go full bore can also dip into the 

revised clothing and apparel lines. The 2020 

FC 450 Rockstar Edition is a limited edition, 

so those with a willing wallet had been order 

quick.

AMA 

BLOG 

SWITCHING CAMPS... 

Happy holidays to all you guys reading this, lots to talk about 

when it comes to the racing over here even if there are no 

actual races happening other than the Geneva SX that has 

just finished. Speaking of that, let’s touch on Switzerland, 

KTM, Ryan Dungey and more in this ‘emptying’ of the big 

filing cabinet in my brain. 

First up Geneva SX, where Justin 

Brayton, now back on the factory 

Honda, took his sixth win 

there with 3-1 finishes over the 

two nights. Brayton’s returned to 

factory Honda for 2020, holding 

a spot for Chase Sexton and 

as usual, you have to think that 

Brayton will be solid all year 

long and maybe - when it comes 

to the Triple Crown format - a 

race winner. It will be interesting 

if he absolutely kills it this 

year and subsequently what 

then will Honda do with the deal 

with Sexton in place for 2021? 

Does he go back to his old team 

Motoconcepts? Does he get 

snagged by another factory? 

Brayton says that he can’t look 

at 2020 like his last year because 

then he won’t treat it the 

same way…so he’s deferring all 

talk until after SX. 

It doesn’t appear that he has 

any future at Honda no matter 

what he does…but ‘never say 

never’ right? 

Martin Davalos should’vecould’ve-would’ve 

won Geneva if 

he hadn’t made a mistake while 

leading Saturday’s main event. 

Davalos won Friday night with 

a dominant performance and 

when he grabbed the holeshot 

and took off Saturday, it seemed 

like it was a forgone conclusion 

that the win would be his. 

But he crashed, Brayton and 

Justin Barcia got by and Marty 

was forced to take second. He 

rode very well though and after 

approximately 32 years in the 

250SX class, he’ll be on a KTM 

with special parts under the 

Team Tedder truck for 2020 SX. 

Davalos has skills, and the 

mentality of the 450 class might 

suit him a little better. Potential 

sleeper for sure! 

With the news that Marvin Musquin 

is out for the entire 2020 

SX season due to knee surgery, 

the industry was buzzing about 

who would fill-in for him over at 

Red Bull KTM. Davalos would be 

a great choice but he’s already 

on a KTM (same bike as Blake 

Baggett and Justin Bogle) so 

‘why steal him?’ is KTM’s thinking, 

at least that’s what I’m 

hearing. Chad Reed was a hot 

rumor because he did indeed 

call manager Roger De Coster 

lobbied, and tried to get some 

social buzz about it when Pete 

Fox, from Fox Racing, photoshopped 

some 22’s on a bike 

and asked everyone what they

By Steve Matthes 

thought? Red Bull was on board 

with Reed taking Musquin’s place 

as well from what I hear. But the 

rumor mill also had the bigwigs 

at KTM in Austria shooting down 

Reed’s request and all is quiet 

now on the replacement rider 

front. Seems like there might not 

be anyone in line for that spot 

which is a bit odd. I know the 

people want to see Reed, heck 

the media wants to see Reed, 

but this isn’t going to end up as 

a fairytale. 

In what he’s announced as his 

final season, Reed’s going to be 

forced to go the privateer route 

on a Honda with some backing 

from a dealership out of Georgia. 

He’s not been riding a whole 

bunch due to getting a late start 

while he sorted out whether he 

was going to go back to JGR Suzuki 

or not and then he crashed 

at the Paris SX and hurt some 

ribs. Behind the scenes his team 

is getting a semi sorted, bikes 

and parts and Reed will go out in 

style. 

One of the biggest things to 

happen off the track lately was 

the press release announcing 

that Ryan Dungey, multi-time SX 

and MX champion, had joined 

the GEICO Honda team as a 

co-owner. Yes, that would be the 

same Ryan Dungey that raced for 

KTM since 2012 and brought the 

brand to new heights over here in 

the USA. This deal sure came out 

of the left field and had riders 

and industry people texting me a 

bunch to chat about it. As a matter 

of fact, I went to Pro Circuit 

shortly after the PR dropped and 

that’s the first thing Mitch Payton 

wanted to talk about when I saw 

him. Dungey had been an ambassador 

for KTM since hanging 

up the boots but truthfully hadn’t 

been around that much. 

In talking to some people it was 

Ryan’s desire to have more at 

stake in the racing that led to 

this deal. It doesn’t hurt that one 

of the co-owners of the team, Jeff 

Majkrzak, is a long-time friend of 

Ryan’s from Minnesota as well. I 

had heard that KTM wanted Ryan 

at more races and that’s 

something he wasn’t down for, so 

this way he’s got a built-in interest 

in racing but yet isn’t forced 

to go week in and week out. 

“It was a mutual thing, I’ve been 

spending some time with him 

and we looked at some options 

for him to invest in and out of 

the sport,” Majkrzak told me 

when I asked him how this deal 

came together. “He was looking 

to sink his teeth into something, 

I was advising him and this door 

opened up. We started taking 

about it, and as him and I were 

looking at long term planning for 

the team to me he represents the 

next generation.” 

“I see him working with the 

riders closely: I see that as his 

number one contribution. He 

won’t go to every race but I think 

he’ll be available to the guys 

when they need him. I would bet 

that we will see him at a third of 

the races but we’ll see how it all 

plays out.” 

So, yes, it will be weird to see 

Dungey in a GEICO Honda shirt 

and riding a Honda when he decides 

to go out, but I get it from

AMA 

BLOG 

his perspective. He’s going to be 

right inside the team and have 

a hand and a say in whatever 

happens. So what about testing 

the GEICO Honda and helping 

out that way? Majkrzak says not 

so fast. 

“Specifically he doesn’t want to 

ride a supercross bike but I bet 

he’ll ride some outdoors and for 

some fun,” Jeff says. “He can 

also be a problem solver for us 

if we have some issues. He can 

throw a leg over a bike and help 

us. He’ll ride for fun and I expect 

him to ride a 250 when he does 

get back on a bike.” 

Having someone like Dungey in 

your corner can only help in my 

opinion and this is a real coup 

for the GEICO Honda team. It’ll 

be interesting to see how it plays 

out and helps the team. Stay 

tuned for that. 

By Cudby/KTM

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troy lee designs 

A few prize pieces of outwear from the 

clothing section of the brand new Troy Lee 

Designs website (have a browse for a more 

modern and facelifted page). The TLD Adidas 

Rain Jacket (right) is pricey at 285 dollars 

but the use of the Adidas Climaproof 

technology will be familiar to anyone using 

the brand’s fitness wares and is premium 

stuff. The insulated version (Insulated Jacket 

Solid) uses PrimaLoft Gold for warmth 

without adding too much bulk. Expect to 

pay a similar price. The 2020 Dawn Jacket 

(175) is inspired by the KTM SX team and 

has 800 fill fibre for some of the best insulation 

found in a jacket of this ilk. 

Interestingly TLD state the coat is made 

from ‘High-Tech “SUSTANS”, a sustainable 

filler made with “Dupont Sorona”, a 

renewable bio-based ingredient that has no 

dependency on oil and petrochemicals is 

used throughout. In fact, Sorona requires 

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process reduces GHG emissions by 63%.’. 

The Pit Jacket 2020 (139 dollars) takes the 

TLD KTM race theme further forward. It is 

built from a three layer soft shell, which is 

also Teflon coated for water resistance. The 

emphasis with the Pit Jacket is for warmth, 

dryness and that racing look. It comes in 

five different sizes.

COMMENT

WHERE’S IT 

ALL GOING TO 

END? 

Words by Roland Brown 

Photos from respective manufacturers

COMMENT 

Ducati Streetfighter V4: 205bhp. Kawasaki 

Z H2: 197bhp. KTM 1290 Super Duke 

R: 177bhp. MV Agusta Brutale 1000: 

205bhp. 

Top speed of all these four recently released 

hyper-naked contenders: over 180mph – or 

as fast as you can hold on, given that they all 

have sit-up-and-beg riding positions, and their 

sum total of wind protection is virtually zero. 

Contemplating this latest batch of 2020-model 

metal, recently unveiled at the EICMA show in 

Milan, I momentarily felt like some bemused 

old fellow with no grasp of what these modern 

bikes are or who they’re intended for. 

Then I realised, perhaps slightly worryingly, 

that their target audience is basically… me. 

After all, I currently own an Aprilia Tuono V4R 

– a 167bhp V4 that was arguably the original 

hyper-naked bike when launched in 2011 – so 

am in theory perfectly placed to be tempted by 

its updated rivals. 

And I am tempted, but perhaps it’s just that 

some of this latest bunch have topped the 

200bhp mark that makes them seem, well, 

slightly excessive, even to this fully paid-up 

member of the hyper-naked appreciation society. 

That, and the fact that while the Tuono 

does actually incorporate a small but useful 

half-fairing and remains very much within the 

spirit of the un-faired hooligan class, of these 

latest rivals only the Kawasaki - with a tiny 

flyscreen - makes any attempt at breeze diversion. 

In a way it’s crazy. What’s the point of developing 

these amazing machines that are good 

for over three times the national speed limit 

(German and Manx readers excepted), when 

you can’t use the best part of that performance 

without having your shoulders dislocated or 

growing a neck like an NFL Linebacker? 

But in another way, it makes perfect sense. 

Hyper-naked bikes aren’t primarily about 

going fast; if that’s your priority you can ride 

a superbike with clip-on bars and a fairing. 

Sporty naked bikes are appealing because 

their riding positions work at normal speeds, 

and you don’t feel you always have to wear 

full leathers to ride them. And because they 

feel fast – and the more you’re getting battered 

by the air, the more thrillingly fast they 

feel. 

Kawasaki’s Z H2 is a special case because its 

most important air isn’t even the stuff that’s 

smashing into your chest at speed, it’s the 

intake charge that is being forced into the 

engine by a supercharger. The Z H2 is the 

latest in Kawasaki’s range of blown bikes, 

following the faired Ninja H2 and H2R and 

sports-touring Ninja H2 SX.

COMMENT: HYPER NAKEDS

COMMENT

“OTHER MANUFACTURERS PRESUMABLY 

REASONED THAT PROVIDING ZERO WIND 

PROTECTION IS A MUCH SIMPLER WAY TO 

MAKE A HYPER-NAKED BIKE FEEL FAST. 

HARD TO ARGUE WITH THAT, THOUGH I’M 

NOT TOTALLY CONVINCED...” 

COMMENT: HYPER 

WORLDSBK 

NAKEDS 

POR

TEST 

Forced induction is a tuning trick that has 

never made sense to me – going right back 

the turbocharged bikes with which all four 

Japanese firms wasted huge amounts of 

yen and development time in the Eighties. 

Back then, Kawasaki’s ZX750 Turbo, Honda’s 

CX500 Turbo and the rest had the incentive 

that many motorcyclists were desperate 

for more power than could be provided by 

a conventionally aspirated 750cc four, let 

alone a 500cc V-twin. 

But quick and capable as the ZX and CX 

Turbos were in their day, and convincing as 

the appeal of, say, 1000cc performance from 

a 750cc turbo-bike might initially sound, 

there’s a flaw in the argument: a forcedinduction 

middleweight producing litre-bike 

power needs a litrebike chassis, not a middleweight 

one. The ZX750 Turbo of 1984 

confirmed that by being heavier and slightly 

less powerful than the simpler GPZ900R 

that arrived a year later to end the shortlived 

turbo craze. 

Like its Ninja predecessors, the Z H2 has 

been designed to howl under acceleration 

and chirp when you change gear; to give 

owners technology to marvel at or brag 

about. The other manufacturers presumably 

reasoned that providing zero wind 

protection is a much simpler way to make 

a hyper-naked bike feel fast. Hard to argue 

with that, though I’m not totally convinced. 

I love my Tuono and I’m well-up for the 

idea of upgrading to the latest version, or 

one of its new rivals. A tad more shield 

against the elements would be welcome, 

though; perhaps it’s time to make hypernaked 

bikes a bit more useful. In the meantime, 

this latest batch is sure to provide 

strained shoulders and plenty of excitement. 

If forced induction made little sense back 

then - when we would have welcomed the 

extra stomp that a turbo GPZ900R might 

have provided - it’s even more unnecessary 

now. After all, Kawasaki could easily have 

enlarged and tweaked the Ninja ZX-10R’s 

988cc engine to give much more than its 

current 200bhp. But that’s not really the 

point. 

Kawasaki presumably decided to add the 

blower instead after concluding that a hyper-naked’s 

appeal is not primarily about 

performance, it’s about sensation. The impact 

of the Ninja H2 and H2R confirmed 

they were right. Never mind whether a supercharger 

is the logical method by which 

to generate torque and power; if it makes a 

bike more fun to ride or just more rewarding 

to own, it’s doing a vital job.

COMMENT: HYPER NAKEDS

PRODUCTS 

www.motogpbook.com 

2019 MotoGP season story 

Official review or Motocourse? Honestly, 

there isn’t much competition when it comes 

to a MotoGP yearbook but at least the 

officially licensed version has one of the 

best writers in the sport – Mat Oxley – 

taking care of the narrative and the 

contents. 

2016 pages move across a technical review, 

the bikes, riders, races and support classes 

and the book went to press less than a 

fortnight after the season finale in Valencia, 

so it has been chronicled as the championship 

progressed. As per usual the MotoGP 

Season Story is a licenced product but the 

best thing publishers Motocom have done is 

keep the sharp, critical and analytical eye of 

Oxley onboard.

WWW.24MX.CO.UK 

6

24mx is not liable for price changes, tyop’s or changed availablitly of products in the ad

WorldSBK TOP 5 

1 

JONATHAN 

REA 

KAWASAKI RACING TEAM 

What can be said about Rea’s title winning 

season that hasn’t already? This was Rea 

at his best. He was relentless throughout 

the campaign. He was peerless when 

opportunities presented themselves. He 

was also riddled by doubt at times. 

Meeting him for a coffee at a motorway 

services outside Dublin in May left no 

doubts in my mind; Rea thought the title 

had slipped away. Ducati came out with 

the best bike we’ve seen for decades in 

WorldSBK. Bautista was a steam roller. 

Win after win for the Spaniard. Defeat after 

defeat for the Northern Irishman. It was 

weighing on his head. “I have to win in 

Imola and show him who I am” said Rea. 

From that rainy moment onwards he never 

left a weekend having been outscored by 

Bautista. 

By Steve English 

Photos by GeeBee Images

WORLDSBK POR 

Second in the championship. History 

maker. On paper Bautista’s debut 

WorldSBK season has been incredibly 

impressive. Racing however plays out on 

the asphalt, not on the statistics sheet. 

With that being so, Bautista’s collapse is 

one of the most stunning in memory. The 

riders below him didn’t plunge to the same 

depths on their bad days, but neither did 

they rise to the heights of Bautista at his 

finest. When I asked him about his season 

he said: “I never expected anything like this 

season. It’s been crazy.” Throwing away a 

61 point lead was indeed ludicrous. 

How did it happen? In two stages, gradually 

and then suddenly. Suddenly, due to confidence 

and perhaps some SBK inexperience, 

Bautista was a title bystander. 

2ALVARO BAUTISTA 

DUCATI RACING

WorldSBK TOP 5 

ALEX LOWES 

PATA YAMAHA 

Lowes spent the winter sticking to a mantra 

“Testing is about getting ready for a 13 

round season, not Australia.” This was put to 

the test when Australia proved to be a tough 

weekend. But Lowes quickly established 

himself as a consistent challenger who had 

ironed out the mistakes and he was ready 

to make the step. Even though he didn’t add 

to his win tally in 2019, he was able to prove 

again that he has all the tools needed. 

Out-qualifying Michael van der Mark at all 

but two rounds showed his speed. When 

push-came-to-shove he dominated his rivals 

for third in the standings at the final round in 

Qatar. Mid-season he could have unravelled 

after the clash with Rea at Jerez, but instead 

of dwelling on the incident like he would 

have in the past, Lowes boarded a plane for 

three days of golf in Portugal. “It was what 

I needed. It reminded me that I love racing 

but you need to step back from it 

sometimes.” 

3

WORLDSBK POR 

4TOPRAK RAZGATLIOGLU 

PUCCETTI RACING KAWASAKI 

The Turk showed his potential in 2019, 

which everyone knew was always there. 

Working with Phil Marron as his crew chief 

brought out the best in Toprak, and the 

rewards were there to see with two wins in 

France and thirteen podiums through the 

year. In Australia Marron spoke about 

having to calm his new charge to get the 

most from him. In Thailand it was about 

keeping him focused. From that point 

onwards, Toprak started to soar with 

podiums at eight consecutive rounds. A 

move to Yamaha for 2020 will bring new 

challenges, but don’t underestimate him. 

The Dutchman rounds-out the list of top five 

riders in 2019, and with a win at Jerez and 

fourth in the championship there’s arguments 

to be made for him being higher on 

this list. Having been soundly beaten in qualifying 

by his teammate Lowes though, it also 

shows that there is room for improvement 

in 2020. Paired up with Toprak Razgatlioglu 

for next year, the inter-team battle will be as 

intense as ever. Having been in the fight for 

third until the last round of the year, van der 

Mark’s season petered-out and he’ll know 

that he needs to show sign of more progression 

next year. WorldSBK insiders have long 

said that if “Mickey worked half as hard as he 

is talented, he’d be unstoppable.” Collaborating 

with Andrew Pitt next year might unlock 

the final piece of the puzzle. 

5MICHAEL VAN DER MARK 

PATA YAMAHA

SBK 

BLOG 

TIME FOR REFLECTION... 

More than Europe’s 


In the last few weeks of the year most people take time to 

wind down, get ready for the Christmas holidays, and inevitably 

reflect on the year. For me it tends to be more a time to 

prepare for the coming year. 

2019 is gone and I have to start 

arranging travel and accommodation 

for the first few races of the 

forthcoming season. However, I am 

now of an age that when I look back 

things become a bit of a blur. It 

seems like only the other day I was 

doing exactly the same thing and 

getting ready for another year on the 

road. 2019 was pretty eventful and 

like every year, despite doing more 

or less the same thing, it threw up a 

few curve balls that made it memorable. 

When we get started in January everything 

becomes super-condensed. 

With WorldSBK there is such a short 

time from the end of the testing ban 

in January until the cut-off date in 

February for the teams to have all 

the freight packed, ready for collection 

and transported to Australia for 

the final test and first race of the new 

season. I learned an interesting fact 

a few years ago at the press launch 

of the KRT team that they have shipping 

containers that are simultaneously 

travelling around the world by 

sea. These contain the tool chests, 

pit box displays and the kitchen for 

the hospitality staff. This enables 

them to fill their freight allowance 

with Dorna with bikes, engines, and 

as many spare parts as they can 

fit in. It is also a cheaper option to 

have shipping containers travelling 

between Barcelona, Phillip Island, 

Thailand, California, Argentina and 

Qatar, than to pay for extra air freight 

to transport everything they need 

along with the bikes. 

Nonetheless the last weeks in January 

and first in February were jampacked 

with tests, studio shoots, 

team launches and then travel to 

Australia. Last year I was involved 

in the pre-season testing and studio 

photoshoots for both WorldSBK and 

MXGP and it meant three and a half 

weeks on the road that took me from 

southern Spain, to Portugal, back to 

Spain and on to Sardinia. 

The season then started with a bit 

of a stutter. We are required to get a 

temporary work visa for travelling to 

Phillip Island which requires some 

specific paperwork from the circuit 

and Dorna to accompany the application. 

This wasn’t made available 

to the media until during that 

period when I was on the road and 

given my schedule it was a few days 

before I had time to sit down and fill 

the on-line application. It was still 

three weeks till I was due to travel, 

and in previous years it has taken 

as little as two days to be approved, 

but this time it never arrived in time. 

So after a few days of frantic phone 

calls and emails and about £1000 

lighter in rebooked flights and rental 

car, with help from the staff at Phillip 

Island circuit, I finally got everything 

in place and was on the way. At that 

point I was filled with a bit of trepidation 

for the rest of 2019: is this 

year going to be one of hassles and 

travel woes? In the end it wasn’t so 

bad.

By Graeme Brown 

The only other major drama was 

that our hotel in Imola unexpectedly 

cancelled our booking 3 days before 

the race weekend. They said it was 

because I hadn’t confirmed but I 

reckon it was because I had booked 

it on the off-chance of getting the 

date right back in October of 2018 (a 

benefit of the free cancellation facility 

on booking.com) and had a really 

cheap rate. After it was cancelled 

I looked again and guess what - it 

was three times more expensive per 

night over the weekend. It meant another 

afternoon spent on the phone 

and email but Booking came up with 

a solution and matched the price for 

us. 

One element of each year that you 

can’t predict is actually the elements. 

Some years you never see a 

drop of rain at a race weekend but in 

2019 so much of the season was affected 

by the weather. It also caused 

a fair degree of tension amongst the 

riders that would carry right through 

the year until the penultimate round 

in Argentina. 

It really started in Assen when the 

Dutch spring weather turned a bit 

wintry. A harsh northerly wind blew 

over the flat lands of Drenthe and 

brought really cold temperatures 

and frequent wintry showers. If you 

read back over the press releases 

you would think it was horrific with 

the term “snow storm” used in more 

than one. As a Scotsman I can safely 

say it was nothing like a snow storm, 

there were a few flurries that melted 

when they hit the ground but from a 

racing perspective the track temperature 

was so low that it was declared 

unsafe and race one on Saturday 

was cancelled. That was the first of 

a few rider debates throughout the 

season over whether racing should 

take place or not. As with any poll 

- or a group of people - you will get 

differing opinions and there were 

those that were adamant that it 

was not safe to race and others that 

wanted to just get on with it. 

We had an almost repeat situation 

at Imola at the following round when 

heavy rain disrupted the action on 

Sunday. Race two was cancelled as 

again there was a majority of riders 

who didn’t want to compete. It shone 

a light, once more, on a lack of 

robustness in race direction that we 

had groups of riders, discussing and 

debating the issue in pit lane with 

race direction, staff form Pirelli and 

the FIM Safety Officer. 

It was all very public and on reflection 

not the best way to deal with 

the matter. 

I will happily be corrected but my 

understanding from the past was 

that the riders voted for a safety representative 

amongst themselves and 

that rider/s had a private discussion 

with the Race Director over these 

issues and a decision was taken and 

announced. In 2019 we had a situation 

where all the cooks were asked 

to add to the broth and inevitably it 

was spoilt. We had heavy rain again 

in Misano but the system worked 

and after a delayed start we got 

a good, dramatic race. The issue 

came to a head however in Argentina 

where the high track temperature 

caused an issue this time and 

we were once more met with groups 

of riders and officials standing in 

the paddock having an impromptu 

debate which gave rise to the now 

dubbed ‘San Juan Six’ and the first 

time that I have ever photographed 

an event where riders protested and 

refused to race. Whichever side you 

fall on in the argument I think everyone 

can agree that nothing good 

that came out of the debacle.

SBK 

BLOG 

These pit-lane and paddock 

debates are one of my key memories 

of 2019 and I hope that some 

measures have been put in place 

to prevent similar scenarios in the 

future. Least of all so that I don’t 

have to stand out in the rain any 

longer than necessary. 

Back on the globe trotting, my big 

excursion of the year was in July 

when I travelled to Laguna Seca, 

back home and straight to Suzuka 

in Japan for the 8 Hours. I love 

both trips. I really like California 

as a destination and with only the 

WorldSBK class at the Laguna 

event it allows us to have a little 

bit of a more relaxed weekend. 

Suzuka on the other hand is a 

complete contrast. I wrote about 

this is in the summer but with no 

service road transport around the 

track it has to be covered completely 

on foot and after the 10 or 

so hours you are on the go on Sunday 

it is a tough shift, but I love it. 

I also enjoy travelling to Japan so 

whilst it is tiring barreling around 

36,000km and crossing back and 

forth over 16 times zones, for me 

it is the best three weeks of the 

season. 

WorldSBK is not visiting Laguna 

Seca in 2020 and I won’t know if I 

have work at the 8 Hours until later 

in the year so I will miss this trip. I 

suspect I won’t be sitting with my 

feet up however as Mrs GeeBee 

already has plans for me. 

If I look back over the racing the 

year it was definitely a cliched 

game of two halves. It harked 

back to 2002 when Troy Bayliss 

smashed the first half of the season 

only to be met with a rejuvenated 

and dominant Colin Edwards 

in the second half of the year, 

ending in that classic race at Imola 

to decide the title. 

The little thing that was missing 

in 2019 was the consistency of the 

challenge of Alvaro Bautista in the 

latter part of the season. In the 

first half of the year when he was 

outstandingly dominant, Jonathan 

Rea was snapping at his heels all 

the way. However, after a couple of 

crashes and an unfortunate injury, 

Bautista was unable to sustain 

a similar challenge to Rea and 

we ended up at Magny Cours in 

France again with a JR championship 

win. 

Ironically the races at Magny Cours 

were some of the best we had. 

The Yamaha pairing of Alex Lowes 

and Michael VD Mark were going 

toe-to-toe, fighting for third place 

in the championship, and always 

go well at Magny Cours. Alongside 

them Toprak Razgatlioglu had fully 

found his feet on his Kawasaki 

Ninja ZX-10RR and we got some 

good wheel to wheel and fairing 

bashing. Now that they have joined 

forces I hope the momentum that 

both Yamaha and Razgatlioglu 

gained towards the end of the 

season continues into 2020 and 

we get more of that same close 

action. 

As always I have a lot of people 

to thank at this point in the year 

but chief amongst them are Jamie 

Morris and Vaclav Duska Jnr who 

push the buttons with me and 

keep GeeBee Images moving 

along each and every weekend. 

Also to OTOR and all the readers 

for indulging me in my ramblings 

each issue. I try to sail a steady 

course through the magazines and 

website posts but I occasionally 

veer off course and cause some 

disagreement and consternation…

ut it is never intended and now 

is a good opportunity to apologise 

for any misdemeanors. 

All that is left is to wish everyone 

the very best for the Festive Season 

and every success and good 

health in 2020. 

See you next year.

PRODUCTS 

www.alpinestars.com 

alpinestars 

A few pieces from the 2020 Alpinestars catalogue 

with Christmas so close and the final 

chance to get orders made before the 25th 

comes around. The Camo Neck Tube is made 

from soft 100% polyester microfiber and is 

seamless to ensure extra comfort. It comes 

in two liveries. Also available in two colours 

is the Domino Tech Hoodie. Alpinestars have 

created a garment that they describe as for 

‘urban riding’ but this can also be fitted and 

user under a larger jacket. The product has a 

water repellent treatment (as well as waterproof 

pockets) as part of the soft outer shell, 

a fixed collar and hood, is pre-curved in a 

riding position, is well ventilated with back 

and chest protector compartments and level 

1 lite elbow and shoulder protection. 

Stella WR-2 V2 Gore-tex are women’s touring 

gloves with high standard of insulation (Primalot 

Silver 80g on the top of the hand help 

guard against the elements) also with 

knuckle protection and finger bridge and a 

screen-ready fingertip. Lastly, and slightly 

more than a stocking filler, is the Supertech 

M10 Alloy. This helmet project from Asolo 

almost sums up Alpinestars’ values of offering 

safety but also innovation and style. Now 

on market for two years and a result of half a 

decade of development from a special helmet 

department in the Italian firm, the M10 

is rammed full of appealing specs. The shell 

(in four sizes) is multi composite, with a 3K 

carbon outer layer for optimal strength and 

dissipation of impact. Ventilation through the 

peak, MIPS, a shell base profile to help 

protect collarbones, hydration tube compatibility 

and a lightweight 1240g for Medium 

size are just some of the reasons to look into 

the M10, there are plenty more.

FEATURE 

a trium

ph? 

Q+A 

TIME WITH STEVE SARGENT, 

THE CHIEF PRODUCTION OFFICER 

AT TRIUMPH MOTORCYCLES ON 

A MILESTONE FIRST YEAR AS THE 

Moto2 ENGINE SUPPLIER. 

By Adam Wheeler, Photos by Polarity Photo

FEATURE 

At Valencia a handful of 

journalists sat down 

with CPO Steve Sargent 

to throw some questions in 

the evaluation of the first of 

three years with Triumph as 

the sole engine supplier to the 

intermediate class. 

MotoGP fans and viewers will 

be unianmous that the 765cc 

triple motor helped towards 

and closer, faster and more 

interesting Moto2 contest in 

2019; a series that was won by 

Alex Marquez by just 3 points 

over Brad Binder – two very 

different riders on different 

chassis. 

The audible and lap statistics 

of Moto2 changed for the better 

in 2019 but what did Triumph 

make of their entry into 

the FIM World Championship? 

Did it really hit their goals? 

And did it whet their appetite 

for a stab at MotoGP? 

2019 and the first year of 

Moto2: how has it been? 

Quite honestly we’ve probably 

exceeded our expectations. 

Obviously at the start of the 

year there was probably two 

main things that we wanted 

to demonstrate as a company. 

First was that we can produce 

a performance engine, 

and really deliver on a sporting 

level. Then obviously the 

other big piece was around 

reliability,and proving that 

not only can we produce an 

engine that performs but one 

that’s durable and doesn’t give 

the teams any problems. So 

two boxes ticked, I think. 

How big of an issue was the 

reliability? 

We’ve had no issues at all, 

really. It’s an engine that we 

know really well. Obviously it’s 

developed from the 675. Everything 

we learned from racing 

the 675 has gone into the 765. 

So, a lot of years’ experience. 

We were pretty confident that 

we had something that was 

going to work as a package 

and something that was going 

to be durable but then you 

give it to these ‘lunatics’ to 

thrash around a race circuit 

and they do unexpected things 

with it! 

How close is the race engine 

to the road bike engine? How 

much work did you have to do 

on it? Did you have to do anything 

you weren’t expecting? 

Not really. In terms of what 

we’ve done, the 765 street triple 

engine does 123ps. These 

engines are putting out 140. 

So a lot of the development 

was not so much around the 

durability because we were 

confident that we had something 

that was pretty durable. 

It was really around getting 

that extra performance out 

of the engine. So, a lot of 

the changes that we made 

were in the top end, so in the 

cylinder head. That was really 

focused on getting the 

engine to breathe better. So 

porting changes, for example, 

cam profiles, titanium 

valves because we’ve lifted the 

rev limit from the road bike 

engine. Valve springs, race 

valve springs. Then to get the 

engine spinning a bit faster, 

reducing inertia in the bottom 

end, so [we used a] race 

alternator in there rather than 

a standard alternator. Race 

clutch rather than a standard 

clutch. Then we’ve got different 

first and second gear 

ratios compared to the road 

bike engine. Then in terms of 

fueling, we’ve got high-flow 

fuel injectors in there, which 

are not standard on the road 

bike engine. But most of the 

rest is the same as the 

production bike. It 

was very much [as 

case of] tuning 

a road 

bike rather 

than 

actually going 

through component by component. 

The obvious reason 

for that is to keep the cost 

of the class down. In 

terms of Dorna attracting 

people into 

Moto2, it needs 

to be a package 

that is costeffective 

to 

go racing, 

but something 

that 

really 

delivers 

in terms 

of per-

formance. So, it’s getting 

that balance really between 

cost, durability, and performance 

and trying to hit the 

sweet spot. 

You’ve had lap records and 

positive feedback from the 

teams and riders but in 

what way has Moto2 surprised 

you? Or what way 

has it maybe fallen 

slightly short of 

what you expected? 

TRIUMPH 

XXXXXXXX 

& THOUGHTS 

XXXXXXXX 

OF 

XXXXXX 

Moto2 2019 

XXXXX

FEATURE 

Could Triumph have taken 

even more marketing 

exposure? 

You can never have too much 

marketing exposure, can you? 

I think we have exceeded our 

expectations. In terms of lap 

records, quite honestly when 

we started doing the development 

work we thought if we 

can get within a second of the 

existing lap records in the first 

season then that would be a 

decent performance. But from 

the ‘off’ at the first test in 

Jerez we were breaking lap records. 

It was like, this is going 

to be really good. Then I think 

we have fourteen lap records 

to date. Then top speed, we 

did over 300kmph an hour at 

Mugello. We topped that in 

Australia. So, 301.8 in Australia. 

So in terms of meeting expectations, 

I think we’ve gone 

beyond where we thought 

we’d be at this stage. 

Do you recognize the fact that 

this is like the ‘honeymoon 

period’? The longer the Triumph 

engine is in Moto2 the 

more it becomes like part of 

the furniture. It reached the 

point with Honda engines that 

there was almost kind of an 

apathy towards the platform… 

We’ve had a great introduction, 

I think, to Moto2. The 

riders have been super positive 

about what it allows them 

to do with the bike in terms 

of being able to pick different 

lines going into corners, being 

able to use the power, the 

torque of the engine on the 

way out. So if you do want to 

outbrake somebody and brake 

later, you’re not penalized 

on the exit from the corner. 

So all of that stuff has been 

super positive for us. Quite 

honestly, I think next year 

we’ll go faster again. There’s 

a number of reasons for that. 

This year it was the first time 

that the riders have been to 

all of these tracks with this 

particular package. So they’ve 

got a season’s worth of data 

behind them. Next time they 

go to all of these tracks they’ll 

know what their base setup is 

already. We continue to work 

on the electronics package 

as well, so we’re working very 

closely with Magneti Marelli. 

All the stuff that they’ve 

learned this year and all of the 

data they’ve collected has 

allowed them to continually 

refine the engine too. So 

I think next year all of the 

teams will come to the party 

with a better starting package. 

Then Dunlop have learned a 

lot. This is their first season 

with the triple engine. So 

they’ve got a whole load of 

data that they can take into 

next season as well. Quite 

honestly, I think next year 

we’ll continue to set some 

records. 

The Dunlop tyre change in the 

middle of the season: did that 

affect you? Did that make any 

difference? 

It affected some of the riders, 

I think, more than it affected 

us. If you look at the phases 

of the championship this year, 

[Lorenzo[] Baldassarri came 

out in the first three rounds

eally flying. We were all sat 

here thinking ‘this guy’s going 

to walk away with it’. I don’t 

think the tyre change did him 

a lot of favours. Some of the 

other riders struggled with 

it. Then obviously Alex [Marquez] 

got on with it really well. 

Started picking up wins and 

podiums and stuff and has 

been super consistent. 

How has the process been 

with the chassis manufacturers? 

Have you learned from 

them? Or has it been very 

much: “here’s the engine, get 

on with it…”? 

We released the engine data 

to them - in terms of all the 

dimensions - quite early on 

so they could start developing 

their chassis. And then we’ve 

also been involved with supplying 

them with their own 

private test engines. Obviously 

the race engines they don’t 

get to take away with them. 

They get boxed up and sent 

to the next round. We’ve certainly 

been working with them 

in terms of supplying private 

test engines to use. Have we 

learned anything about chassis 

design? Only kind of anecdotally, 

really. I would say that 

the teams have all been very 

good at giving us feedback on 

stuff that they would like to 

see changed on the engine, 

which has really not been 

much at all. A lot of that has 

been around the electronics 

package more than the actual 

mechanicals of it. It’s interesting 

to see what some of these 

guys do with their chassis 

designs. We obviously have 

our own R&D department. 

We have our own theories 

about what a good chassis is. 

I wouldn’t say we’ve learned 

too much on that side. I think 

if you look at the two engines 

between the Honda and the 

Triumph, the engine mount 

points are very, very different. 

So, it was always going to be 

a case that people were going 

to have to figure out what was 

the right amount of stiffness 

versus flex on their chassis. 

Inevitably in the first season, 

somebody was going to get 

that wrong at the start until 

they had got a little bit more 

miles under their belt. I think 

next season you’ll see that 

they’ve all learned something 

and it will be probably a bit 

closer. 

In terms of resources, everything 

that Triumph is putting 

into Moto2, is that stable for 

you as a company? Is it manageable? 

Can it be amplified 

even more? 

Yeah. We’ve got a three-year 

contract and we’ve got an option 

to extend that. We’ll start 

some discussions with Dorna 

fairly soon about what the 

options are. In terms of our 

budget, from day one we’ve 

known that we’ve got three 

years to make the most of it. 

We’re working as hard as we 

can to do what we can with 

that. 

Could you give an example of 

some of the R&D work that’s 

gone back to the factory from 

Moto2? 

So, again, in terms of inlet 

port and exhaust full profiles, 

a lot of the gains that we 

made with the Daytona Limited 

Edition was about getting 

a freer flow. So we had a 

cylinder head but also through 

the exhaust as well. There 

are things that we’ve learned 

in terms of what these guys 

have done with exhausts and 

free flowing exhaust that have 

helped [us]. We’ve had some 

gains from some of the coatings 

on some of the internal 

components on the engine, 

so reducing friction. So that’s 

all positive stuff that can feed 

back in. Just to come back 

to your point, obviously the 

marketing piece is key. People 

generally go racing for two 

things: one to improve their 

R&D, and the other is to obviously 

get marketing exposure 

for the brand. I think where 

MotoGP and Moto2 is really 

important is that if you look at 

the average age of a MotoGP 

audience compared to the 

average age of motorcyclists 

generally, it’s slightly younger. 

I think as an industry we’re all 

struggling with how do we get 

more and more people into 

motorcycling? And how do we 

get people riding a Triumph 

motorcycle at a younger age 

than they currently do? Then 

this audience is absolutely 

perfect for that. 

TRIUMPH & THOUGHTS OF Moto2 2019

FEATURE 

Have you been able to 

measure the marketing 

impacts? Triumph seem to be 

much more prominently 

present than Honda ever were 

in Moto2… 

Yeah. Quite honestly that’s one 

of the reasons that Dorna were 

excited about us coming into 

the championship, because we 

do want to be proactive with it. 

Obviously we want to promote 

the Triumph brand, but we also 

want to promote Moto2 and 

get the excitement building 

around Moto2. So, every single 

round we do social media 

pieces around what’s going on. 

We see the social media reach 

that we get from that, and it’s 

impressive. That’s a big win 

compared to just putting out 

a standard piece about other 

stuff that’s going on. 

Can you take something like 

EICMA or Motorcycle Live as 

a gauge? Before people would 

flock to look at something like 

the latest Scrambler. Is there 

a sense that more people are 

interested in Moto2? Is there 

more enthusiasm around the 

sports side of the portfolio? 

Yeah. I was at EICMA. It was 

quite impressive to see the 

number of people coming over 

and sitting on the street triple. 

We also had the Daytona 

Limited Edition there. There 

was quite a crowd around that 

on the public days. So you 

get a sense of that. Where we 

really start to get a sense of 

it, I think, is when the selling 

season starts in the spring. 

Obviously, we’ve just launched 

an update for the Street Triple 

that essentially uses the same 

engine that we’ve been using 

in Moto2. It will be interesting 

to see what deposits and what 

interests we start getting in 

the street triple update off the 

back of Moto2. 

From a British perspective 

and perhaps at a time when 

the UK is probably lacking 

some top-class riders coming 

through do you feel that Triumph 

is helping a little bit in 

terms of British exposure? Do 

you find any kind of pick up 

from the mainstream media? 

I think there’s that side to it in 

terms of getting exposure in 

the UK, but the other side is 

that when we’ve had discussions 

with Dorna, we’ve always 

been quite clear that - as far as 

we’re concerned - we want to 

see some Brits in the championship. 

As a British brand it’s 

quite important for us to have 

Brits. Obviously we sell globally 

[and] our ideal scenario 

would be a Frenchman wins in 

France, a Brit wins in the UK, 

a Spaniard wins in Spain! But 

certainly we’ve made it quite 

clear that it is important for us 

to have some Brits in there. 

Have you ever considered having 

a Triumph factory team in 

Moto2? Has that discussion 

happened? 

To be fair, Dorna were quite 

clear from the start that they 

saw the engine supply as being 

separate from the chassis 

manufacturers. I guess as 

much as anything that’s to 

make sure that there’s a level 

playing field. I’m sure if we 

came into the championship 

from day one and said, “we’re 

going to supply the engine and 

the frame,” there would be 

a lot of teams going, “Whoa, 

hang on a minute. That seems 

a little bit unfair.” So that’s not 

really something we’ve considered 

doing. 

Is this also a way to dip your 

toes in the water of MotoGP 

maybe in four, five, six years’ 

time? Or do you think the cost 

of that would not outweigh the 

benefits? 

Cost is obviously massively 

different in developing a MotoGP 

bike and going MotoGP 

racing but I think what Moto2 

has done has opened-up the 

eyes of people within the company 

in terms of what racing 

can do in getting your brand 

out there and creating exposure. 

So we’re not going to rule 

anything out. We review these 

things on a regular basis. We 

report back to the board every 

month what’s happened in 

Moto2, what kind of reach that 

we’ve achieved out of it and 

all those kind of things. Inevitably 

there will be discussions 

around ‘how do we do more 

of this kind of stuff?’ Whether 

that leads to racing in other 

championships, I think we’ll 

have to wait and see.

TRIUMPH & THOUGHTS OF Moto2 2019

BACK PAGE 

Triumph’s James Bond ‘No Time to Die’ motorcycle

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