Innholdsfortegnelse for Vol 65 Issue 15 i Australian Motorcycle News

ALTHOUGH DELAYED BY the demise of development partner Eric Buell Racing, all indications are the Hero HX250R sportsbike is set for an imminent launch. New import documents show no fewer than 21 prototypes for the 250cc single have just been shipped from America to India where Hero will be producing the bike. The development has been undertaken in the USA; EBR initially did the work, however, when the company folded last April, Hero stepped in and bought the engineering consultancy arm of the company so it could continue to work on the HX250R. Frame numbers of the 21 bikes shipped to India suggest that there may actually be more than one model, since they carry four distinct sets of codes. And beyond that the same documents show four 125cc single-cylinder…

FIVE-TIME AUSTRALIAN Short Circuit Champion Keith Davies, the man nicknamed King Dirt, will pull on his leathers at the 2016 Penrite Oils Broadford Bike Bonanza on 26-27 March 2016. Davies won three-consecutive Unlimited Championships – 1973 (Seymour, Victoria), 1974 (St Kilda, SA) and 1975 (Griffith, NSW) – as well as two 500cc titles in 1972 (Amaroo Park, NSW) and 1975 (Griffith, NSW). He also won seven state titles. All three Unlimited titles were won on Godden machines and Davies will ride his fully restored 1975-winning Godden Weslake, now owned by Rod Dunn. “I won my 1973 title at Seymour, which is just down the road from Broadford, so it will be a nostalgic trip back there at Easter, “ said Keith. “Rod Dunn has the Godden looking good and it…

TEST AND PHOTOGRAPHY KELLIE BUCKLEY If any other manufacturer tried a styling stunt like this we’d never see it “HARD, RIGID, CANTANKEROUS and bloody beautiful,” was my response when a friend sent a text enquiring what the Brutale Dragster was like. “I love it.” That’s not to say that here in 2016 MV Agusta bikes are still suffering from poor fuelling and jerky throttles — they’re not. Software improvements to the ride-by-wire have ironed those traits out, but not to the point of losing that brash immediacy of the oh-so-MV triple-cylinder grunt, of which the Dragster has bucketloads. This was the third and most extremely styled of the 798cc triple-cylinder nakedbikes from MV when it made its debut in 2014. Following on from the standard Brutale and the motard-esque Rivale,…

Nothing else in the global panoply of motorcycling sounds like this Not many men have turned down the chance to race for the works Suzuki GP team, forfeited a ride with the Honda factory squad, and declined an offer to work as a designer for Yamaha. But for reasons of either patriotism or loyalty, Peter Williams did all of those things. Except for a brief link with MZ – with whom he scored the DDR/East German factory’s final GP race victory in 1971 – he raced exclusively aboard British bikes during his 10-year career. That ended in 1974 with his huge Oulton Park accident when the one-piece seat/tank unit came loose on the spaceframe version of the F750 John Player Norton, causing severe injuries which have sadly prevented him from…

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Rumours abound of Rossi already having decided to retire from MotoGP at the end of 2016. They sound very similar to the post-Valencia rumours which told us he had decided to quit with immediate effect. In other words, don’t believe a word of it. Rossi only races for enjoyment – because he loves the whole game, from riding to working in the pits to his deluxe gipsy lifestyle – so he will only walk away from the MotoGP grid once he stops enjoying himself. Last season he was competitive and happy. If he is still fast and still having fun during 2016 it’s difficult to see him wanting him to stop next November. As he said after Valencia, “I will try again next year, then I will decide my future.”…

HENTY’S WINGMAN PACK is a beaut example of Aussie ingenuity. A couple of professional Taswegian blokes who prefer to cycle to work needed to find a practical and efficient way to arrive with their newly laundered suits clean and wrinkle free. After two years of development the Wingman backpack was born. It’s a clever two-part cylindrical bag that essentially has you stashing all your everyday bits in the centre and rolling all of your important grown-up clothes around the outside. The internal cylinder comes with its own strap so it can be used independently of the wrap-around suit bag and the whole shebang is constructed from heavy-duty fabric which looks like it’ll last for years. There are two external pockets, one for the things you use regularly and one for…

1 Carbon Slip-on Gas Imports $890 (03) 8331 0300 gasimports.com.au This carbon-fibre slip-on to suit Honda’s CBR500 is claimed to offer improved performance as well as a unique Akrapovi sound. Akrapovi says the slip-on offers a great balance between price and performance, and this example is beautifully crafted and lightweight. 2 More Air For R3 CTA Australia $97.95 (02) 9820 4444 ctaaustralia.com.au K&N has developed a new reusable and washable air filter to suit the Yamaha YZF-R3. The deep-pleated cotton media is designed to offer a large area for optimum filtration and airflow. As a result, K&N says the filter provides increased throttle response, power and torque. It fits the standard airbox. 3 Better Braking Sportsbike From $665 (02) 8338 8813 sportsbike.com.au Beringer claims to offer better braking via its…

Classic roots Yamaha FJ1100 The 2016 Island Classic gave us the chance to admire historic bikes – and reflect on their modern-day descendants. Top Team USA racer Pat Mooney was riding on a Harris-framed FJ1100, originally from 1984. The FJ1100 made a big impact on release as one of the most powerful bikes on the market, with revolutionary (at the time) fairing, monoshock suspension and anti-dive fork. The four-cylinder 1097cc DOHC engine was air cooled, and put out an impressive 91.1kW and 86Nm. Importantly, the FJ1100 also had the handling to manage all that mumbo. But while it possessed the specs of a sportsbike, the package also contained some endurance racer DNA and lent itself more towards sports-touring. This became more pronounced with the FJ1200, which appeared in 1986. The…

JOSH BROOKES LINED up alongside teammate Karel Abraham for their first pre-season test on the 2016 WSBK S1000RR BMW at Jerez last week. The Milwaukee SMR BMW team showcased the bikes, complete with carbon fibre bodywork, that they had recently built with input from BMW. Despite some minor technical issues, Brookes still finished 10th fastest at the end of the two-day test, clocking a fastest time of 1m41.826s – just two seconds off the fastest time of the quickest man, Tom Sykes. Unlike Sykes and many of the riders ahead of him in the rankings at Jerez, Brookes did not use qualifying rubber. But he did feel he made good progress with his S1000RR and in his understanding of it. “We made some really good improvements at the end, not…

FACTORY YAMAHA RIDER Chad Reed pushed Ryan Dungey (Red Bull KTM) to the limit in his quest to rack up a ninth win in the 450cc class at Round 3 of the AMA Supercross series at Anaheim on 9 January. Despite a formidable performance, Reed was forced to settle for second place as Dungey reeled off lap after perfect lap in the 20-lap main event to take his second round win in a row. Third place was hotly contested with Factory Suzuki rider Ken Roczen eventually taking out the final spot on the podium. Australian Lawson Bopping put in a strong performance and rode his DPH Motorsports Yamaha to 18th in the main. Star Racing Yamaha’s Cooper Webb took his third straight win in the 250SX class followed by Zach…

Australian Supercross Champion, Dan Reardon has signed up to contest the 2016 motocross and supercross championships with the CDR Yamaha team for a second time. The 28-year-old stunned fans with a dominant comeback season aboard the YZ450F in 2015 and will now line up alongside Dean Ferris in an attempt to achieve back-to-back wins. “I’m just motivated to go racing again and I didn’t want the 2015 season to end,” said Reardon. “The CDR Yamaha team took a chance on me and believed in me, so I’m glad I will race with them again in 2016 and continue this amazing chapter in my life. Winning both the motocross and the supercross championships isn’t out of the question,” he added. The first official outing in Australia for Reardon and the CDR…

You won the 500cc class in the 1972 Castrol Six Hour with Les Kenny. That was a big deal We were trying to get bikes out of Yamaha, but they were all set with Ron Toombs and Bill Horsman. Then Don Bain at Tom Byrnes offered us a Kawasaki 500 – well I should say six Kawasakis! They gave Les and I one each to ride around the streets to get the hang of it, then two practice racebikes, a racebike and another one for parts. It was the golden era of production racing, there were plenty of bikes being sold and dealers and distributors were spending lots of money. Tell us about travelling up and down the coast to far-flung meetings in the early 70s. We had my dad’s…

THE 2013 TURBOCHARGED Recursion concept bike will become the template for a range of boosted machines in the firm’s future line-up – we could even see the first production fruit of forced-induction before the end of this year. But while it will be heavily influential, the concept bike won’t turn up in showrooms as is. Ever since its first unveiling at the Tokyo Motor Show in 2013, the Recursion has been a hot topic. A constant stream of patents over the subsequent months and years revealed it was far more engineered than the average, purely cosmetic, concept bike. Details including its engine design and the layout of its turbocharging system and intercooler were all subject to patents, but despite that, those are among the elements set to change before we…

AMCN SCOOPED THE styling and details of Victory’s new water-cooled cruiser well over a year ago and now the firm has released a teaser video that shows we were bang on the money. The latest information we have from Victory is that the previously unnamed bike will be called Octane and will be officially released on 19 February. What do we know about it? Well, the engine’s bottom-end is based on the motor used in the new Indian Scout, but the design has been revamped with new cylinders and heads for far improved performance. It’s a DOHC water-cooled engine, which the firm hopes will have ‘class-leading’ performance. Given that the class arguably includes Ducati’s Diavel, that might be interpreted to mean it pumps out in excess of 119kW, but even…

REMEMBER THE AYRTON Senna MV Agusta F4 models from 2002 and 2006? Well now the Italian brand has dedicated a Brutale Dragster RR to Formula One’s current world champ Lewis Hamilton with a limited run of just 244 bikes. Using the champ’s initials and race number as the bike’s moniker, the Dragster RR LH 44 is a mouthful to say but, according to the brand, Hamilton had input on the colour, the graphics (taken from his race helmet) and the accessories. The bodywork is all carbon fibre, it features an Ergal handlebar, brake lever, fuel filler cap and master cylinder with anodised red finish on the logos, frame, pegs and spoked wheels. “I have a huge passion for bikes, so the opportunity to work with MV Agusta on my own…

UNTIL NOW, SAFETY enhancing electronic rider aids have all been focused towards the motorcycle and the consequences of rider’s actions. For example, if you squeeze your front brake lever too hard, the electronics will ensure your front tyre won’t lock. Or if you’re a little ham-fisted on cold tyres, the electronics cut the power and solve the problem before you’ve even felt the rear tyre lose traction. At the late-2015 EICMA motorcycle expo in Milan, Bosch unveiled an electronic rider aid that, for a change, aids the rider rather than the bike. Ladies and gentlemen, we present the first-ever motorcycle-specific Side View Assist. How it works It’s simple, really. There are four sensors mounted on the four corners of the motorcycle, two at the front at the bodywork’s left and…

In June 1973, Geoffrey Leonard Perry had the world at his feet. The 23-year-old Aucklander had just won his first ever AMA national, defeating Kel Carruthers by half a metre at the sinuous Road Atlanta circuit and claiming a new lap record. The Suzuki rider headed back to America for the round at Laguna Seca on 28 July in a buoyant mood. As the form road racer in the AMA championship, he was scheduled to test with Team Kawasaki USA. It was a journey he would never make. Standing just 168cm tall, Geoff Perry had the perfect pedigree to become a top road racer. His father Len was a legend of New Zealand racing in the 1950s and 60s. His promising son started competing at 16 on a modified Suzuki…

“The visuals of the motor just scream testosterone” LIKE MANY YOUNG kids with parents who were into motorcycles, Harley-Davidson’s current Chief Stylist Ray Drea got an early start on two wheels. One advantage he had was an older brother who was into customising. In 1972, at the age of just 10, Ray was working with him in the garage, and within two years he was doing base paint and flame jobs on Sportster tanks. He quickly added pinstriping and lettering to his skills, and by the time he'd turned 14 Ray had an after-school job at a conversion shop, painting murals on vans. As a teenager, he was juggling this job with freelance paint projects on bikes at his home. In art class during Ray’s first year of high school,…

Engine The cylinders measure 73 x 89mm, for an engine capacity of 746cc. The powerplant was built for the partners by Mick Hemmings, who needs no introduction to twin-cylinder Norton owners. It has Venolia pistons, and produces 56.7kW at 7200rpm at the crankshaft. “It’s got the large inlet valve and my PW3 camshaft,” says Peter Williams. “The PW3 camshaft actually accelerates more slowly than the Norton SSS one, but while it opens quicker, in fact the duration is shorter than the original, so it gives super torque.” Chassis The PWM team manufactures the actual monocoque chassis themselves in house, rather than sourcing it elsewhere. The original frames each took the equivalent of 12 man-weeks to construct, but Peter Williams says the replicas now go together much quicker thanks to CAD-CAM…

It’s difficult to put a finger on just who Ducati’s Diavel muscle cruiser is aimed at. Since its release in 2011 I have watched the number of Diavels on our roads steadily grow, and made note of the wide variety of riders enjoying the booming beastie. I have spied old and young from both sexes enjoying the torque-filled riding experience of the big V-twin – great news for Ducati as it prepares to launch its new XDiavel cruiser next month. While the Bologna-based motorcycle manufacturer worked on the XDiavel in secret, it released a limited run of 500 more muscular, limited edition Diavels cloaked in the exotic aerospace metal titanium. When unit number 496 arrived on our shores, Australian Ducati importer Fraser Motorcycles asked if we would like to have…

Rossi isn’t stupid; he knew he wasn’t fast enough last season, especially in qualifying Valentino Rossi has failed before, but never as agonisingly as last season, when he held a 10th world championship in the palm of his hand, only for it to slip from his grasp in the last couple of rounds. Many racers aged 36 would have decided to call it a day and hit the beach after such a bitter episode, but we already know that Rossi isn’t like most racers. He may have been defeated in the title battle, but he is anything but defeated psychologically. As another all-time great, King Kenny Roberts, once put it: “If it doesn’t kill you it’ll make you stronger”. Rossi will no doubt turn the burning pain and anger of…

You’re sure to have heard about some of the crazy races that went on in years gone by. Club elders are often heard talking about ‘back in the day’ when hill climbs, sand dune races and other mythical events that no longer exist were commonplace. Well believe it or not, a couple of those events are still going strong today. I was lucky enough to spend time in Mackay, Central Queensland recently, and I can tell you that the lunacy lives on.The local Beach Races would have to be one of the oldest races in Australia, having started back in 1927 – yep, that’s almost 90 years of madness. It has moved around to a few different areas in the region, but recently it found a home at the gorgeous…

HARLEY-DAVIDSON HAS sent us a new FXRG Helmet to use on our long-term 883 arriving shortly. First impressions are that it looks good, oozes quality and feels super light. It also has some really cool glove-friendly ventilation systems going on. The visor has a unique central one-touch open/ close locking system. There is also a separate Pinlock fog resistant lens, which I hear is very good. I’m looking forward to the 883 arriving so I can give it a real road test rather than just wearing it around the office. Keep an eye out for the full report in the next few issues. Harley-Davidson FXRG helmet Sizes: XS-XXL $719.83 Harley-Davidson Australia (02) 9886 0600 www.harley-davidson.com.au…

The last words I recall before the drugs hit were ‘serious’, ‘lungs’ and ‘Mount Isa’ WITH THE REINCARNATION of Honda’s Africa Twin, adventure riding has come full circle; there’s now more variety of adventure bikes than golf clubs. Plus GPS programs that will track you across the most isolated regions of Australia. Just hit the web and dial up the latest on where to go, how to get there, what to see, and how to create that David Beckham in Gore-Tex image on your very first foray across the Great Dividing Range. So far though, no one has raised the subject of what can happen when your adventure goes pear shaped. So here is my step-by-step guide based on I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here, but written for…

CASEY STONER IS shaping up to be Ducati’s secret weapon as the red team looks to end its long MotoGP losing streak. Stoner delivered Ducati’s only MotoGP world championship way back in 2007 and the team has not won a race since 2010 – Stoner’s victory at Phillip Island. Now the Stoner-Ducati love affair is back in full swing after Australia’s double world champion ended a five-year stint with Honda. Stoner rode his first laps on a Ducati Desmosedici GP15 at Sepang last Saturday and he hopes to play a key role in the rejuvenation of the team. “The reception from Ducati has been fantastic, everyone is happy to have me back and I’m happy to be back,” said Stoner after the test. “It is really motivating for me. I…

THE NEW YEAR started with a bang for the Australian National Drag Racing Association thanks to the running of the 2016 ANDRA Australian Nationals at Calder Park Raceway on 23-24 January. It was the first time in 15 years that the Nationals returned to its spiritual home of Melbourne and over 250 racers were ready to put on a show for the eager spectators. The nitro-burning motorcycles are always a crowd favourite and with former Aussie champions Chris Porter and Chris Matheson in the pits, the fans were in for a treat. Matheson qualified first and powered away to a 6.587s at 178.26mph against a 7.05s at 169mph from Porter in the final. After two rounds Porter leads the ANDRA Top Fuel Motorcycle championship with a 17-point margin over Matheson.…

TYE SIMMONDS TOOK his second consecutive victory at the Scope Building Deep Well MX event in the Northern Territory on 24 January with a dominant performance aboard his KTM 500 EX-C. The event, run by the Alice Springs Motorcycle Club, is held at Deep Well Station annually and is renowned for its unforgiving sandy conditions and extreme temperatures. “We were pretty lucky again with the weather. I think it was only 36 or 38 out there, not 40 or 45 degrees like it normally is!” said Simmonds after scoring three wins from three starts and scoring 105 points ahead of Honda-mounted competitors Daymon Stokie (94pts) and Jack Dooley-McDonnell (92pts). Simmonds finished runner-up in the Finke Desert Race last year and followed on from the Deep Well win with a few…

FOLLOWING THE SUCCESS of reintroducing local clubs into the running of the 2015 ASBK series, Motorcycling Australia (MA) affiliated clubs will again play a major role in the 2016 national superbike championship. Hartwell Motorcycle Club (Winton), Motorcycle Racing Club of WA (Wanneroo) and Motorcycle Sportsmen of Queensland (Morgan Park) will return to host rounds of the series in 2016. They will be joined by the St George Motorcycle Club (Sydney Motorsport Park and Wakefield Park) which will see five of the six round series (2-6) hosted by MA-affiliated clubs. The series gets underway at the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit as a support event to Round One of the SBK World Championship on 26 February. The partnership between MA and its clubs will allow each host to nominate a category…

OVER THE LAST year Honda has filed a host of patents suggesting the next-generation Goldwing will gain an unusual leading-link front suspension system, but this is the first patent we’ve seen that shows an entirely new chassis designed to suit it. While earlier patents around the suspension showed it fitted to a conventional-looking beam frame, this new one reveals a radical two-part chassis that uses the monstrous flat-six engine as a key structural component. The front section is bolted to the top of the engine and obviously designed with the radical front-end suspension system in mind, offering all the mounting points. The suspension itself is like a hybrid of a leading-link and a Hossack-style fork, with a lower wishbone that carries a single shock absorber and pivots at the frame…

Best race weekend of 2016 I’m gonna go early and call it. The best race weekend of 2016 has been run already – and many of you missed it. Of course I refer to the Island Classic. Plus, as a volunteer Race Marshall I had the best seat in the house. Those that pooh-pooh historic racing and don’t believe that the riders take it seriously have obviously never been to the Island Classic. In the International Challenge the top three were separated by bugger all: Beau Beaton (Irving Vincent, two wins, one DNF, one third), Jeremy McWilliams (Yamaha Harris F1, four seconds) and Jed Metcher (T-Rex Honda Harris F1, two thirds, two wins). There was plenty of hard but fair racing. On Sunday I had the best seat in the…

Cruising at 120km/h plus on the Strzelecki Track or nailing the whoops and trenches of the Old Gunbarrel Highway is where this bike shines ON CONCEPTION, TRAIL bikes were clones except for the colour: red, blue, yellow or green. It was here in the land down under that these machines first met the outback. The Honda XL600 sprouted a small screen and became the Dominator, the Yamaha XT600 became the Ténéré and grew a cult following. The Suzuki DR650 and KLR650 just kept on keeping on. But all became known as adventure bikes. Then along came the real thing. Weighing in at 160kg with a 26-litre fuel tank and 300mm of suspension travel the KTM640 Adventure provided off-road performance way above the competition – with a seat height to match.…

The purpose of a motorcycle is in the mind and imagination of the key holder Aprilia is no strangers to adventure sport, and its experience in producing off-roaders spans right back to the early seventies, when Aprilia motocross bikes won Italian championships and even had some success in world championship motocross grands prix. In 1992, the same year Alessandro Gramigni won Aprilia’s first 125cc Road Racing World Championship, the still very small company from Noale in Northern Italy also won its first off-road world championship title with Aprilia factory trials rider Tommi Ahvala. Another world title followed with the indoor series in 1993 before Aprilia ceased production of the Climber trials machines. Add to these successes the three individual and four manufacturer world supermoto titles and highly competitive performances in…

See and be seen Highly effective LED riding lights are mounted to relatively light-duty crash bars Wisely spoken Tubeless spoked wheels take the sting out of rough roads and are built for abuse Wind break Tall adjustable windscreen gives good protection from noise and the elements Underbelly Tough aluminium skid plate protects the most vulnerable parts of the Caponord’s anatomy Pack’n it Hard panniers are equal in volume and can be opened without dumping all your gear Get a grip Serated off-road friendly footpegs have a removable rubber insert for road touring comfort…

“OUR REASON FOR making these JPN Replicas is because Greg Taylor and I have had to accept that we’re never going to get the finance required to make a proper monocoque streetbike unless we underwrite it ourselves,” says Peter Williams. “So we’re making these replicas in order to raise the capital to go one stage further in making the monocoque streetbike concept feasible. Next we’ll make replicas of the Arter Matchless G50 Wagonwheels single I raced in the Senior TT and other 500GP races, and we’ll hopefully sell a few of those. Then we’ll make a minimalist modern roadbike that doesn’t have lashings of fake carbon fibre all over it, but is a pleasure to ride. “We’re looking at using the Honda CBR500 engine at the moment – it’s a…

THE ORIGINAL DIAVEL was released in November 2010 as a 2011 model. The engine is a retuned version of the 1198.4 cc (73.13 cu in) Testastretta from the 1198 superbike, renamed the Testastretta 11° for its 11° valve overlap (reduced from 41°). The uniquely styled bike was the brainchild of Pierre Terblanche, who eventually left Ducati to take up a position with Confederate before moving on to Royal Enfield. When Ducati’s XDiavel and XDiavel S arrive in February the Diavel family will grow to five models. Diavel Dark Weight 239kg (wet/claimed) Price $24,990 (+ ORC) Diavel Carbon Weight 234kg (wet/claimed) Price $30,490 (+ ORC) Diavel Titanium Weight 234kg (wet/claimed) Price $39,990 (+ ORC) X Diavel Weight: 247kg (claimed) Price $27,490 (Standard) Price $32,490 (S)…

IN JULY 2014 Valentino Rossi signed his latest Yamaha contract for the 2015 and 2016 seasons and explained that he wanted to keep going into next year because he is curious about how the bikes would change. The latest rewrite of MotoGP’s technical regulations – most significantly Dorna electronics and Michelin tyres – gives us the greatest transformation of premier-class technology since the big four-strokes took over from 500cc two-strokes in 2002. It is still too early to predict exactly how things will change, but engineers and riders are already working hard on adjustments to machinery and riding technique. The big question is which bikes and which riders will work best with the new kit from the start of the 2016 season. In theory, Rossi could profit from the changes.…

Draggin Twista jeans have finally come up with the answer for riders who want protective jeans, but still want an element of style to their outfit. Like many riders, I to used to own protective jeans that were too big, too baggy and too uncomfortable. Twista jeans are the answer, with no visible stitching or seams, so they look like any other normal jeans in your wardrobe. As with all Draggin jeans, they feature an extensive Kevlar lining in the bum, hip and thigh area, and along the full length of your leg. For even more protection they’re lined with a material called Dyneema, claimed to be the world’s strongest fibre. Dyneema also improves abrasion resistance by a claimed 70 per cent, so it’s pretty tough. With all this protection…

where most H-D ‘Big Twins’ are calling it quits, the V-Rod surges urgently on 1 Hefty 270kg dry weight is carried low enough to not be a real issue 2 The V-Rod’s water-pressure formed steel perimiter frame was a first for Harley Davidson 3 Chrome slash-cut exhausts are a big part of the V-Rod’s modern take on the cruiser look 4 Three 292mm four-pot brake discs (two at front) rein in the bike’s performance effectively Harley-Davidson broke serious new ground with the V-Rod power cruiser – a cutting edge, new-era bike for the new millennium. The factory’s usual fondness for multi-letter tags sees it officially labelled the VRSCA. This translates as: V-twin Racing Street Custom (A = first version). The VRSCA is long and low and cleanly styled, with much…

Rooted, dacked, dudded, freckled, shagged. Team Australia was flushed down the dunny in the Mitchelton Wines International Challenge. Forget last year’s 42-point defeat. This year the Poms took to the Aussie attack with the rough end of the pinapple. The winning margin of 99 points even coincided with Jeremy McWilliams’ race number. Fair suck of the sav. Maybe Jeremy McWilliams, the UK team’s top rider, was understating it when he said after Race 4: “The Aussies have lost a bit of depth.” The home team came up a few stubbies short of a six pack on this one, no worries. So what happened? Both teams were chockers with talent but when push came to shove the Poms made us look like a bunch of grommits. How come? The Poms came…

MOUNT GAMBIER MOTORCYCLE Club (MGMCC) hosted its annual 6 Hour Scooter race at McNamara Park in SA on 17 January for a third consecutive year. Once again entrants from far and wide ventured to the highly technical circuit to pit their 50cc machines against one another in both the ‘standard’ and ‘modified’ categories. Levi Day’s previous lap record tumbled, as did the record for number of laps completed during the event – 192 in 2016 vs 184 last year. The event kicked off in style on the Sunday morning with 25 teams lining up on the front straight to scramble for position in a classic Le Mans start. With names like ‘Team Wizard Sleeve’, ‘Nucking Futs Racing’, ‘3 strokers, and ‘Ya Mum’, it was clear that the primary agenda on…

HOLDER, KNOWLES AND Gilmore – remember the names. They were the standout performers across four Australian Speedway Championship meetings in as many nights for Under 21 and Under 16 riders that were recently staged at two venues in Adelaide. While these meetings might not be everyones’s idea of highlights of the summer, you only have to look at the honour roll of previous winners of these championships to realise just how significant they are to the sport. The CBS Bins Australian Under 21 Solo Championship was staged at the Gillman Speedway on 23 January and with three of the top seven having competed at the recent senior title, it was no surprise they dominated. The final outcome, however, was unexpected. Jack Holder belied his seventh-place finish in the senior title…

IT’S BELIEVED funding to MA from the Australian Sports Commission (ASC) has been slashed for the 2016-17 financial year from $394,000 to around $100,000. It appears that the ASC allocates funds based on our performance in MotoGP. If this is correct, it dismisses the efforts of newly crowned Dakar winner Toby Price, Australia’s stellar performance at the ISDE, as well as the performances of Cameron Donald and Dave Johnson at the Isle of Man. Add to this the publicity Australia’s Robbie Maddison has bestowed on Australian motorcyclists. No, as far as the ASC is concerned, unless we’ve a Casey Stoner showcasing our two-wheeled talents on the world stage our sport can be ignored; never mind the fact that without his dirt track experiences, Stoner would never have graduated to the…

“You had to ride ten tenths to beat them” WHEN FRANCESCO PONS landed in Port Melbourne in 1966, the 18-year-old son of a Majorcan policeman didn’t speak a word of English. Sent to the immigration camp at Bonegilla near Albury, he heard the rumble of machinery roaring against the rural quiet. Francesco was drawn to this and strode up a rise to see dozens of motorcycles rumbling around a track. “It was Hume Weir, the first time I had ever seen racing motorbikes,” remembers Frank, speaking from his Biketek workshop 50 years on. “I thought, ‘I’d like to get involved in that’.” Francesco took himself out to Wee Waa, 560km north-west of Sydney. “I figured that living in the country was a great way to learn the local lingo,” Frank…