Innholdsfortegnelse for Vol 67 Issue 05 i Australian Motorcycle News

Hear Ducati’s new V4! As is always the case, some onlooker with a mobile phone has gone and spoiled the manufacturer’s surprise, snaring a video of the all-new Ducati V4 testing – and it sounds great! In fact it perhaps sounds a little too great and you see very little, which leaves us cynics thinking it just may be a well-timed leak. Head to amcn.com.au  to have a listen. Early starter Ángel Nieto wasn’t yet a teenager when he started working for a local bike workshop. They entered him in local motorcycle gymkhanas and painted a baby's dummy on the bike's fuel tank. Read our tribute to the GP great on page 58. 1972 That’s the year the Ducati SuperSport can be traced back to – when Paul…

THE DEVELOPMENT AND adoption of electric-powered and hybrid bikes and cars may be on the rise, but all those wheels still require tyres – which are produced from fossil fuels, and have detrimental effects on the environment, starting from their toxic manufacturing process and continuing right the way through to decades after they’ve been discarded, usually as landfill. Ohio-based industry market research company The Freedonia Group predicts that world demand for tyres will rise to 3.0 billion units in 2019, with particularly high growth in demand for motorcycle tyres. That’s a whole lot of the filthy petroleum-based filler called carbon black; millions of tonnes of the stuff in fact, made by partially combusting petroleum oil. It’s dirty and expensive, and that’s without considering the sticky world of polymers, which bring…

Oxley ramblings I’m the old guy fairly new to bikes who wrote in a while ago (Vol 66, No 15). Thought I’d let you know how it’s all going. Essentially still the same, but better. Earlier this week I went to visit our daughter (the one who turned me on to AMCN) in Tamworth. I ride the Oxley every now and then, and each time it feels better. My riding has improved with experience. I don’t try to pretend I’m anything but a beginner, but I have to say this ride is the first time it almost all felt pretty right. There was only one moment when a B-double was aiming to hit the apex on his side, but from my side of the road, so I had to sit…

The SuperSport is forgotten no more. Ducati has come out fighting with the latest incarnation Ducati has always been a company that has concentrated on racing and has thrived on results gained in competition. As well as the rich heritage this has provided, new chapters are continually being added to the story thanks to the company’s participation at factory level in two major world championships: MotoGP and WSBK. While racing history is great, high-end sportsbikes alone won’t ensure financial success, and Ducati realised this a long time ago. It concentrated on making different models for different people and in recent times has invested more in its tourers and adventure-tourers, with the multi-tasking Multistrada just one of the newer concept models to make an impact in today’s marketplace. With all the…

Patience. It’s a virtue for any racer. For some, it’s the patience to wait another lap to make a pass, or settle for second place this time. Every racer must find some patience in order to reach the top. But only in land speed racing is that patience sometimes measured in years. For three long years, Mike Akatiff and his Top 1 Ack Attack team had been waiting to make a run on the Bonneville Salt Flats in their attempt to officially reach 400mph – a magical number, as well as a new world land-speed record. But for three years in a row the Utah locale was flooded, and the Speed Week event cancelled. With the salt at Bonneville in a steady state of decline, Akatiff and his team decided…

1 What’s all this I hear about back-to-front motors in MotoGP? FOR THE FIRST time in the history of premier-class grand prix racing, every motorcycle on the MotoGP grid now has a crankshaft that spins in the opposite direction to its wheels, and opposite to almost every production bike engine. But a counter rotating crank isn’t by any means a new phenomenon. Engine designers have argued the benefits and burdens of crank rotation in various directions since grandma’s scooter ran on steam. So why is there a sudden consensus at the pinnacle of motorcycle sport? Well, never before has there been so much power available as on modern MotoGP bikes, with so much grip to transmit it to the tarmac. And we all know what that means, kids – dirty…

NAME BEN CURRIE AGE 22 EVENT BSB SUPERSPORT BEN CURRIE HAD a memorable weekend at the recent British Superbike Championship round at Cadwell Park, scoring two podiums in the highly competitive Supersport class. Riding a Kawasaki ZX-6R for the Gearlink Kawasaki team, Currie converted his sixth place qualifying position into a second place finish in Race 1 and third in Race 2. After the race, the 22-year-old expat Aussie posted a screenshot of a Twitter message from fellow Aussie and ex-F1 driver Mark Webber, which read “keep working hard both on and off track.” Currie responded on Facebook by saying: “I honestly don’t know what’s better, a double podium or an Aussie legend sending you a message on Twitter!”…

Morgan Park is an interesting racetrack, and one that the series has only begun visiting in recent years. It does have a relatively new surface – completed only this year – but it is still a bumpy 3km circuit, particularly in the apex of the corners. The full circuit we use also has some tight and twisty sections, to the point where we actually have to use a shorter gearbox ratio. Once again, keeping the front wheel down is key here, particularly as we crest the hill at full throttle up the front straight, so we retain a ‘long’ set-up to create a bike that resists lifting the front wheel but retains the ability to react to changes in direction by having the firmer spring. In the fork, we move…

If you want to play a game of tactics, two things are important. Firstly, try not to pick Andrea Dovizioso as your rival. Secondly, make sure your engine doesn’t blow up. It remains arguable whether Marc Márquez would have been able to stop Ducati’s old/new superstar from taking a second successive win, and to have protected his recently acquired championship lead, although the Repsol Honda had set a new lap record at the mid-point – and even Dovi admitted post-race that others were quicker than him. But Márquez never got that far. In a rare display of mechanical susceptibility, Marquez’s RC213V couldn’t stand the pace. It blew up in a plume of smoke at the end of the long Hangar Straight, at the longest and one of the fastest circuits…

Big track, little bikes, huge pack. At half distance, there were still 23 of them in it, over the line within 2.8 seconds. When the red flags came out one lap early, the top eight were within seven tenths. Given that riders were all within touching distance, often four or five abreast, amazingly the crash that stopped the race involved only two of them: KTM riders Bo Bendsneyder and Juanfran Guevara. Neither was seriously hurt, but the latter was prone by the track, causing the race stoppage. This of course scuppered any race tactics and last-lap plans. Jorge Martín, for example, had planned with his team to start the last lap third. But the lap never finished, so the Del Conca Honda rider (bravely ignoring his still painful German GP…

A BOLD FRONT-RUNNING strategy by Valentino Rossi may have cost the Yamaha ace a chance of victory in the British Grand Prix, according to Suzuki icon Kevin Schwantz “I saw Rossi trying to lead that race from the front and when you are stressing your bike and tyres to stay ahead I might have thought to slow down the pace and drop back,” Schwantz said. “You don’t see Dovi making the running for a long time out front in a race, he goes up for a lap or two but often waits his chance. “At Silverstone it was perfect race craft by Dovi. He is a smart racer and he has really good feel for what’s under him and knows when to make his move. “And then Viñales, who didn’t…

“INCREDIBLE” IS HOW Mike Jones described his first World Superstock 1000 podium of the season, after finishing second to Aruba.it Racing Ducati teammate Michael Ruben Rinaldi at Lausitzring in Germany on 20 August. The 23-year-old Australian set the fastest time in practice and qualified sixth on the grid. His consistency and hard work paid off in the race, where he also benefitted from front-runners dropping out of contention in the final stages. The former ASBK champ said the 1-2 for the team was a dream result and that two days of testing at the circuit had helped the team’s campaign. “To make it on the podium is validation and proof that what you are doing is working,” Jones said. “It’s a good indication that you should keep working the way…

AFTER AN INCREASING number of riders getting in the way of other riders during practice or, even more frequently, waiting to get a tow, Race Direction brought in significant new rules at the Lausitzring WSBK round. They now state that if a rider is more than 110 per cent slower than his personal best time, in any sector of the track, he will be punished up to a maximum sanction of disqualification. Even deliberately running off the road in a bid to get back on track behind a faster rider will now be punishable.…

ITALIAN MOTOCROSS GREAT Antonio Cairoli now holds a 101-point advantage over his nearest rival and Red Bull KTM teammate Jeffery Herlings, with just four rounds left in the 20-round MXGP world championship. Despite finishing seventh overall at the Swedish Grand Prix on 20 August with a 9-7 scorecard, it was enough to gain four points on Herlings, whose 2-DNF pushed him down to 10th overall. Honda’s Tim Gajser took the round spoils with a 1-2 scorecard, ahead of Yamaha’s Romain Febvre (6-1) and Husqvarna’s Gautier Paulin (3-3). Suzuki’s Jeremy Seewer won the round in the MX2 category with two second-place finishes, from the KTM duo of Jorge Prado Garcia (1-5) and Paul Jonass (3-3). Seewer’s Australian teammate Hunter Lawrence ended the weekend in ninth overall with a 12-6 scorecard, a…

TWO POLISH RIDERS and one Russian are assured of places in the line-up for the 2018 Speedway Grand Prix series after they finished on the rostrum at SGP Challenge Meeting at Togliatti in Russia on 19 August. Przemyslaw Pawlicki beat home rider Artem Laguta in a run-off for top spot with Patryk Dudek finishing third. Dudek is currently entrenched in the top eight in this year’s series, and English rider Craig Cook will be hoping he stays there as Cook’s fourth place at Togliatti would then earn him a 2018 berth. A mix of other current and past SGP regulars came up short in their quest for a shot at the big time in 2018.…

I GREW UP in Manly and didn’t know much about motorcycles. Rugby league fans will know Brookvale Oval, but back then it was the Brookvale Showground, and that’s where I rode horses in gymkhanas. There was a farrier in Harbord Road, and I took one of my horses down to get shod, and out the back there was this 1948 Douglas Dragonfly, a 350cc horizontally opposed twin. I got hold of it, and that was the start of my love affair with bikes. It was the era of The Wild One and rock’n’roll. It was a magical time to be a young bloke. We wore leather jackets and the girls wore long skirts, bobby socks and tight sweaters. I started road racing in 1964 on a Triumph 650 in production…

JUST AS IT makes a high-spec, Öhlins-sprung SP version of the MT-10 (coincidentally, tested on page 50 of this issue), Yamaha is planning to unleash an MT-09SP for 2018. The firm has homologated the bike already, suggesting it will be launched soon. From the documents we’ve seen, we know it uses the same 84.6kW, 847cc, three-cylinder engine as the stock MT-09, suggesting that all the changes will be to the cosmetics and the suspension. It’s the same pattern Yamaha established with the R1M-based MT-10SP, which uses Öhlins’ semi-active suspension instead of the already-decent stuff on the standard model. While we haven’t seen the MT-09SP yet, it makes sense that Yamaha will follow a similar theme. The semi-active Öhlins kit is likely to be too expensive to make sense on an…

AUSTRALIAN BSB STAR Josh Brookes has won what many believe will be the first of many victories at the Isle of Man, with the Sydney-born rider claiming honours in the opening race of the 2017 Classic TT. Brookes rode the Team Winfield Paton 500cc to victory in the Senior Classic TT, beating Jamie Coward (Ted Woof Norton) home by a considerable 34-second margin. “My first board wasn’t updated and the second board had me at ‘P +0’ so I gave it everything I’d got and risked blowing the engine,” the 34-year-old Aussie said after the race. Brookes was filling in for the injured John McGuinness, who was on hand at the event to wave the Senior TT competitors off the start line. And despite McGuinness riding the Paton to a…

Retro to go More than meets the eye, man! Thanks for a great mag; bit of new stuff, bit of old stuff. However, it’s people like Poul (Vol 67 No 01) who will never be happy in life. I do understand how us more mature folk (59-year-old female) love the bikes of old. For me it is Triumphs, hooning around in the 70s on Bonnevilles, not a care in the world. Then one goes through a more sensible part of life, kids, dogs and mortgages. So, like Poul, I too am not a fan of Transformer-style bikes. Who cares? After looking at every bike for sale for some years, I finally found the right one. Yes, I remember the day well! Off to the supermarket for the weekly shop, idle…

READERS OF THE AMCN news pages will be aware that Benelli has been busy lately producing new models and targeting different markets. There’s the Italo-Grom TnT 125, due on our shores soon, the Leoncino scrambler, and the TRK 502 adventure bike, all hitting segments that are booming. One Benelli already on our streets is the BN302, which slots into another popular market – the 300cc nakedbike ring. This year it was updated with ABS, and that was a good enough excuse for us to take it for a ride. The bike makes a great first impression. There’s a Latin charm in the styling and the brand name and heritage is front and centre: on the cool silver clutch cover, on the leather seat panel with contrast stitching, and on the…

Yamaha’s grunt-packed MT-10 supernaked was one of the revelations of 2016. It burst onto the scene with a reworked version of the 998cc in-line four engine from the 2015 YZF-R1 and a mega bang-for-buck price tag of $17,999 (+ ORC), which saw it quickly attract a loyal fan base. With its YZF-R1 superbike sibling available in base and M variants, an up-spec MT-10 was always on the cards, and the MT-10 SP was duly revealed at Intermot last October. Now it’s available in Australia for $21,499 (+ ORC). Yes, you will need to raid your money box for an additional $3500 above the standard model, but as we discovered over a glorious month of riding, the extra bling makes the SP an almost irresistible step up. Before we get too…

Among the throng of speed junkies at this year’s Speed Week held 13-18 August was Jean-Paul Afflick and his dedicated Aussie/American AAA Land Speed Racing crew. Afflick had travelled all the way from the Northern Rivers region of NSW with his eyes fixed firmly on the 108.68mph record for the 100cc class. “Heading to Bonneville Speed Week our goal was to be the fastest 100cc motorcycle ever. We ran 116.2mph at the Australian Speed Week at Lake Gairdner just a few months ago, so we knew we were in with a good shot of resetting the record,” says Afflick. “At Bonneville you need to run the record twice to make it stand, so even though we had already gone faster than the record, it was yet to be an official…

Parts list Clubman handlebar $69.95 www.solinvictus.com.au Bitwell grips $29.95 www.solinvictus.com.au DEI header pipe wrap $99.95 www.solinvictus.com.au Re-upholstered seat $350 www.solinvictus.com.au LED tail light $45 www.solinvictus.com.au Rizoma Club and Club L indicators $120/$140 www.bikebiz.com.au Shinko E270 whitewall tyres $363 www.bce.net.au What’s next? Rizoma has sent us a pair of gorgeous Reverse Retro ’bar-end mirrors to replace the affordable EMGO units that I felt didn’t suit the bike’s style. Rizoma’s products are quality made in Italy, so buying the mirrors put a dent in our budget, but you can spot the quality. And, like the whitewall tyres, they’re an important styling cue. RIZOMA REVERSE RETRO MIRRORS $170 each www.bikebiz.com.au OUR JOURNEY ABOARD the Nemesis XY400 has taken us from totally geek to totally chic, and we have learned plenty during…

The vast Lausitzring facility in eastern Germany is a strange track in many ways, and it was a strange WSBK race weekend in lots of ways too. Maybe the strangest thing to witness was Chaz Davies and his Aruba.it Racing Ducati win not just the first race from sixth, after a poor qualifying, but also the second race, at an even faster pace. With teammate Marco Melandri out front for a time, and Jonathan Rea (KRT) starting well and leading early on as well, Davies had lots of ground to make up in the second 21-lap race. But make it up he did, imperiously. Davies is adamant that he is not about to embark on the kind of remarkable seven-from-eight winning streak he enjoyed after last season’s summer break. But…

If you want to know the true value of testing and getting up-to-date machinery in racing, ask WSS rider Sheridan Morais. The Kallio Racing rider finally got a 2017-spec Yamaha R6 for this round, and tested at the Lausitzring circuit before race weekend. And then won the race. Morais was fast in practice, Superpole winner for the first time, and although his first WSS race win in 33 attempts came with a degree of final fortune, he was a worthy winner in many ways. “It was really nice to be able to try to strategise in a race instead of just hanging in there,” said the South African. “I feel like the new bike and the team’s hard work have given us that possibility. “The new bike is a small…

“I think the Ducati will suit my style – braking late, picking the bike up, getting it out of the corner” Jack Miller is on the brink of a big adventure. Again. On the eve of the Austrian GP the news broke officially (AMCN Vol 67 No 04). The 22-year-old from outside of Townsville, Queensland, is to switch from Honda – who plucked him straight out of Moto3 three seasons back – to join the Pramac Ducati team. The decision dragged out over summer, as Jack weighed the options: stay with Honda and the Marc VDS team, but on the same 2017 machine, or take the plunge with Ducati. He actually signed the deal on Sunday evening after the Brno grand prix. “At about 6pm. I waited until I’d got…

MOTOGP RIDERS TESTED a new flag-to-flag procedure at Silverstone, and a generally favourable response saw a slightly modified version adopted with immediate effect … though warm and sunny race-day weather made its timing redundant. The new system came in response to problems at Brno three weeks before where Loris Baz knocked a mechanic over, and Andrea Iannone collided with Aleix Espargaró. From now on, rather than parking the bikes side by side, riders must enter their part of pitlane at 45o , stopping with their front wheel at the new bike’s rear wheel. The second bike is also parked at 45o ; and the rider’s exit is controlled by a pit crewman with a stop-go lollipop. Valentino Rossi is in two minds about the system: “It has something good and…

IT WAS ONE of the most thrilling weekends of British Superbike racing this season, with action from the first practice session to the final wave of the flag during round eight at Cadwell Park. JG Speedfit Kawasaki’s Leon Haslam and McAms Yamaha’s James Ellison shared the honours after two hotly contested races in front of one of the biggest crowds this year. Back in form, Haslam set his eye on the podium, taking pole-sitter Shane Byrne (Be Wiser Ducati) for the early race lead. In true BSB fashion, the lead changed frequently, but despite clinging onto the pack, and even getting his nose in front mid-race, Jake Dixon (RAF Regular and Reserve Kawasaki) couldn’t match the experience of Haslam, who led the freight train of Superbike riders across the line…

ANTIPODEANS JOSH BROOKES and Bruce Anstey have stolen the limelight in the two opening races of the 2017 Classic TT held at the Isle of Man, with Aussie Josh Brookes streaking to victory in the curtain-raising Senior TT, and Kiwi Bruce Anstey putting in a stunning performing to win the Lightweight TT. Deputising for the injured TT legend John McGuinness on the Roger Winfield-prepared 500cc Paton, Brookes rode to his first-ever win at the Mountain Course, beating second-placed Jamie Coward (Ted Woof Norton) to victory by a considerable 34sec. It was a lead that at one stage was over 40sec but got as tight as just 2.5sec as the Aussie rejoined the race after his pit stop. Only 32 of the 64 starters of the Senior TT reached the finish…

Downing and Brook tame Jamberoo THE NORTH WESTERN Victorian Motorcycle Club played host to the Australian Senior Dirt Track Championships at their Jamberoo Park complex over the weekend of 19-20 August, with frosty mornings not deterring crowds or competitors. The action was non-stop with the championships seeing the return of the 500cc sliders for the first time since 2004, as well as standout performances from Queenslanders Jarred Brook (KTM) and Kayden Downing (KTM) on a track that was expected to favour local knowledge. The Pro 450 class was tight after day one, Brook sitting equal first on points with Damien Koppe (Qld, KTM). The final promised to be a nail-biter, but Downing led the four laps from the gate to take the win by 0.599sec from Jordan Dall (NSW) with…

IN WHAT IT describes as its “largest-ever development project”, Harley-Davidson has revealed eight new models as it expands the Milwaukee-Eight engine to the Softail range. Next year’s Harley line-up looks significantly different. The old Dyna model family – defined by its combination of a twin-shock chassis and Harley’s big twin engines – is gone. In its place is an extended Softail line-up that now incorporates several models that were previously Dynas. An entirely new Softail frame was designed for 2018 to accommodate the Milwaukee-Eight V-twin. First released in the firm’s 2017 Touring line-Milwaukee-Eight engine. The ‘107’ is the base version, with 1745cc capacity (107 cubic inches, hence the name) that produces around 69kW – Harley doesn’t make official claims about power – and, more importantly, 145Nm at 3000rpm. If that’s…

TWO MONTHS OUT from the Australian round of the 2017 MotoGP world championship at Phillip Island, the Australian Grand Prix Corporation has released the schedule for the three-day event (20-22 October). The first opportunity to see and hear the world championship finery will be at 10am on the Friday when the Moto3 riders head out on track for their first practice session, followed by MotoGP at 10.55am. Moto2 is as hour later at 11.55am. MotoGP’s all-important FP3 session, which will determine the riders who go straight through to Qualifying 2, will get underway at 10.55am on Saturday morning. The 15-minute Qualifying 1 kicks off at 3.10pm, followed by Qualifying 2 at 3.35pm. For spectators attending only race day on Sunday, be sure to get to the track and find a…

THE 2017 INTERNATIONAL Six Day Enduro got underway on Monday 28 August, the same day Gas Gas Australia confirmed the 2018 EC 300 Six Days France special-edition will be available in Oz. And with the three Australian teams in with their best chance yet of an ISDE clean sweep, it couldn’t have come at a better time. While the Women’s team of Jess Gardiner, Jemma Wilson and Tayla Jones are hoping for a fifth consecutive win, both the Senior team and Junior squad are lining up as favourites. The 2018 Gas Gas EC 300 Six Days France is Euro 4 compliant and will carry a retail price of $12,490 (plus on-roads) and interested folk should contact their local dealer. Check back next issue to see how the Aussies held up…

Many will remember Kawasaki’s grand prix success in the late 1970s with Kork Ballington fending off teammate Gregg Hansford, then with Anton Mang’s incredible run in the early 80s. This trio won a staggering 73 grands prix from 1978-82 on Kawasaki KR250s and 350s, Ballington and Mang each winning four world titles for Team Green in its historic 250/350 dominance. But Kawasaki’s first taste of world title glory actually came in the 125s in 1969 through Englishman Dave Simmonds, a highly competitive and resourceful rider in the mould of Kel Carruthers, who was 250 world champion in the same year. Simmonds was born in Egypt to British parents in 1940. He lived in Kingswinford, Worcestershire, and was married to Julie Boddice, the daughter of former racer Bill Boddice and sister…

It wallops where it should wallop, yet allows casual commuter-GP wins from the lights Big bikes equal big smiles with Kawasaki, and some of my best motorcycling memories are tinged with green. Busting a sub-10 second quarter on a stock ZX-14R roadbike was one such smiley occasion. Riding AMCN’s rabid Project ZX-12R through a soggy World Superbike paddock as the thing tried to spit me off, in the very week I first started at the mag in 2001, wasn’t smiley for me, but it was for the drenched onlookers as they anticipated the crash that thankfully never came. Punching mega kays out the back wheel of a 1400GTR en route to Melbourne from Sydney, the back way – very, very smiley, in a teeth-gritted, snarly, determined sort of a way.…

Ángel Nieto once triggered two racetrack invasions in a day at Jarama, near the Spanish capital of Madrid. The first because he crashed trying to clinch the world 50cc championship, the second when he won the 125cc grand prix, and with it the title. Nieto was 24 and the man he beat for the crown was Barry Sheene, just turned 21, on a privately entered Suzuki. Nieto had crashed in the 50cc GP trying to keep pace with his rival for the title, Jan de Vries on the faster Van Veen Kreidler. He suffered a badly cut leg, but was stitched up in the local hospital without anaesthetic so he could continue racing that day. He returned to the track to beat Sheene and Yamaha rider Chas Mortimer to win…

 THE FIRST TOURING motorcycle to add a shot of adrenaline to the process of doggedly chasing the distant horizon was probably the BMW R100RS. Its 160km/h-all-day ability and top whack of around 200km/h added new zest to motorcycle touring. A generation later the ‘sports-touring’ category was well established, and Yamaha’s first FJR1300 arguably landed on the top rung of its competitive ladder. Given a fistful, the big four transforms from docile labrador to spirited rottweiler Sports-tourers like the FJR attract rusted-on supporters for good reason. Super-comfortable for long days in the saddle, they’re also up for a bit of action wherever the highway winds through the mountains or around the coast. Perhaps surprisingly, they also turn out to be good commuters, taking urban traffic challenges in their stride. The FJR…

IN BETWEEN A full roster of quick spins here in the Melbourne office, the CFMoto long-termer has been powering on – and continuing to impress. Next step will be to fit the slip-on Musarri muffler that recently arrived from Screaming Demon in Western Australia, but in the meantime I’ve been practising some basics of bike maintenance on the trusty NK. These are the little things that for many readers of this magazine will be second nature – part of the daily or weekly bike check. But, especially when you’re new to the game, when you hop aboard a bike a lot of your headspace is taken up by thoughts about where you’re going to ride, and how you’re going to do it based on the conditions. And then there’s the…

Limitation approaching How to make the WSBK rules more even for all is still the number one topic of discussion in the paddock, despite successful moves to make even the best technology in the class available and affordable for everyone. As well as the oft-quoted desire to bring in a single-make ECU – which seems certain now, unless the Motor Sports Manufacturers’ Association rejects it out of hand – the next tech proposal likely to see the light is a rev limit 500rpm above the normal redline of each individual roadbike. The setting of a reduced upper rev limit has long been asked for by some, who claim expensive levels of factory tuning will become less of a differential. And more teams would be able reach the same, lower, output.…

TED COLLINS (NEXTGEN Motorsports/Saint Unbreakable /Magnum Welders – Suzuki GSX-R 600) added two more wins to his 2017 haul to extend his points lead in the Motul Australian Supersport Championship. Collins didn’t have it all his own way in the lead up to the event, however, with several other riders showing considerable pace in the official test, culminating in Mark Chiodo (Repsol GAS Racing/Alpinestars/Bell Helmets/ Dunlop Tyres – Triumph 675) setting the fastest lap in qualifying with a daunting 1m15:560s. The start would be crucial, and Collins took the lead in Race 1 for the frantic opening laps, managing to hold off a rampant Chiodo and Tom Toparis (Cube Racing/Australian Outdoor Living/Motul/Pirelli/Sprint Filter – Kawasaki ZX-6R). The trio were pushing hard and established a slight gap over the rest of…

It started looking rather predictable, and ended up a thriller. Takaaki Nakagami’s first dry-weather win was under threat to the final corners, after several changes of lead and turns of fortune. Mattia Pasini (Italtrans Kalex) was his final challenger, coming within an ace of reversing a one-second lead in an epic last lap. Pasini had qualified on a third straight pole, with the Marc VDS Kalexes alongside, Franco Morbidelli second and Álex Márquez third. Morbidelli’s closest title challenger Thomas Lüthi (CarXpert Kalex) was in the middle of the row behind. It was Márquez who took off in the lead, at such a pace that the race threatened to be another Moto2 procession. Morbidelli was losing ground behind him, but pulling clear of fast-starting Luca Marini (Forward Kalex), who was ahead…

TWO CRUCIAL FACTORS have triggered the transformation of Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso into a serious MotoGP title contender. With a cleverly revised mental approach, Dovi has taken on-board a key piece of advice from Casey Stoner, Ducati’s 2007 world champion. Ducati team manager Davide Tardozzi says the dramatic turnaround in form is a tribute Dovi’s willingness to re-evaluate his approach to his racing. And four brilliant race wins this season – more than any other rider – has finally seen the intelligent Italian rid himself of the tag of journeyman racer. Prior to the Italian GP at Mugello in May, Dovi had won just two races from 165 MotoGP starts. In a stunning form surge he has won four of the past seven races to become the man to beat for…

KEY CHANGES HAVE been made to the 2018 WSBK calendar. The race set for Thailand in March, at Chang International Circuit, will go ahead even if there is also a MotoGP event there, but will occur later to fill the gap between the first round in Australia (February) and the third in Aragon (April). The unloved and bumpy Lausitzring in Germany is likely to be scratched and there is no obvious immediate replacement. The old favourite, Nürburgring, could possibly step in, especially if MotoGP goes there; it is currently being inspected. Brno in the Czech Republic looks a strong bet to return to the schedule next year while the track near San Juan in Argentina will most likely hold the penultimate round. The 2018 season, as usual, will kick off…

FORTY-SIX YEARS have elapsed since the birth of Australian cross-country racing in the mallee deserts of northwest Victoria. Now, three years after the unfortunate demise of the Australian Safari, the Sunraysia has risen again – a four-day, 16-stage, 2200km rally based in Mildura. Dakar veteran and two-time Safari Champion Rod Faggotter led out in subzero temperatures on Day 1, and was rarely seen again during the 1200km of timed competitive stages. One rider who almost had Faggotter in his sights was navigational rookie Toby Hederics, youngest son of all-time Safari legend John Hederics. “Navigational errors cost me 10 minutes on the first day,” said Toby, “then another 20 on the second day. Otherwise I might have made more of a race of it, particularly with Rod’s help interpreting the route…

TAI WOFFINDEN NOT only qualified for his first final of the Speedway Grand Prix series this year, he won it. But the big news for Aussie fans is that Jason Doyle is back on top of the championship standings after the Polish GP on Saturday 26 August. Doyle scored in all his races and finished third in the final behind Woffinden and Patryk Dudek at Gorzow, while Maciej Janowski surrendered top spot in the title battle after he missed the semis. Woffinden (13) and Emil Sayfutdinov (11) were the standouts in the heats, winning three each, while Doyle (10) and Fredrik Lindgren (10) were also ahead of a congested mid-order scorechart. At the bottom of the field, Chris Holder scored just two third placings and is now 14 points behind…