Innholdsfortegnelse for Vol 70 Issue 04 i Australian Motorcycle News

WAS I WATCHING a NoShowGP, our fictitious race series we used to get our racing fix through the first Covid shutdown, or the real thing? One thing is for sure, you take out the King, and the fight to replace him is on. And invariably involves whole new players. Brad Binder hasn’t exactly come from nowhere Brad Binder hasn’t exactly come from nowhere, he has better credentials than Quartararo with a Moto3 title, but to leap from Moto2 to KTM’s first MotoGP win in just three races is a huge leap. Yes, the Ducati main men are struggling, Alex Rins is injured and Marc Marquez isn’t there, but his pace at the front, sheer aggression and mastery of that rapidly-improving KTM on a bumpy goat track of a circuit was…

SALES MAY HAVE BEEN sickening for Harley in the US but its Australian operation held its own in the first half of 2020. It led the combined roadbike category, despite a 10.7 percent drop in overall sales. H-D was 176 units ahead of second-placed Yamaha (4.5 percent drop overall) and 187 units ahead of third-placed Honda (down 13.3 percent). H-D had six models in the top-10 Cruiser segment, with its Street 500 leading and up 45.3 percent, the Low Rider S up 100 percent and the FXBB up 22 percent. The Street 500 was a winner for H-D, taking it to third in the Roadbike segment, despite being a long-running model. It’s obvious why H-D now wants to get into the popular Adventure market. Top 10 sales in this segment…

ENGINE Capacity 644cc Type Single-cylinder, SOHC, 4 valves Bore & stroke 100 x 82mm Compression ratio 9.5:1 Cooling Oil/Air Fueling Carburetted, Mikuni Transmission Five-speed Clutch Wet, multi-plate Final drive Chain PERFORMANCE Power 32kW @ 6400rpm (claimed) Torque Not given Top speed 160km/h (est) Fuel consumption 6.2L/100km (measured) ELECTRONICS Type Not applicable Rider aides Not applicable CHASSIS Frame material Steel Frame type Semi-double Cradle Rake 28º Trail 110mm Wheelbase 1490mm SUSPENSION Type KYB Front: 41mm fork non-adjustable, 260mm of travel Rear: Link-type monoshock with adjustable preload, 260mm travel WHEELS & BRAKES Wheels Aluminium spoked Front: 1.85 - 21 Rear: 2.5 x 17 Tyres Pirelli MT-21 Front: 90/90-21 Rear:…

For your $150,000 you don’t just get a motorbike. Oh no, new owners will have access to the SBK Experience which allows you to ride the World Superbike Ducati around Mugello. Yes, included in the price, is a few laps of Mugello on either Chaz Davies or Scott Redding’s works racer. If you want to splash out further, you can spend an additional $50K and get a ride on either Andrea Dovizioso or Danilo Petrucci’s Ducati Desmosedici GP20. But don’t think about it for too long; this opportunity is limited to just 30 applicants and you must be the ‘correct’ size. And if you really, really, really want to spend some money, Ducati is also offering colour-matched Dainese air-bag leathers and a carbon-fibre helmet from Arai. All of this is…

Born 4 January, 1993 Lives Malibu, USA 2003 4th European minimoto championship 2004 1st MiniGP 50 British champion 2005 1st MiniGP 80 Spanish champion 2006 7th 125 Spanish championship (Aprilia) 2007 2nd 125 Spanish championship (Aprilia) 2008 11th 125 world championship (Aprilia) 2009 15th 125 world championship (Aprilia) 2010 8th Moto2 world championship (Suter) 2011 15th Moto2 world championship (Suter) 2012 5th Moto2 world championship (Kalex) 2013 2nd Moto2 world championship (Kalex) 2014 12th MotoGP world championship (Honda) 2015 13th MotoGP world championship (Honda) 2016 15th MotoGP world championship (Ducati) 2017 14th MotoGP world championship (Ducati) 2018 21st MotoGP world championship (Aprilia) 2019 1st British Superbike champion (Ducati)…

> Dudley, Blake and Jenny Lister of Dudley’s Performance, Wyong, NSW > Mark Brigden Spray Painting, Condobolin, NSW > Alan Redman from Race Art Australia, Brisbane, Qld > Chris Jones from XXX Rated Suspension, Brisbane, Qld > Rad Chrome, Brisbane, Qld > Bathurst Motors, Bathurst, NSW > PPG, Bathurst, NSW > G Moto Imports, Seven Hills, NSW > Metal Resto, Smithfield, NSW > PROCoat, Wyong, NSW > Custom Upholstery, Gorokan, NSW > Mick Hone Motorcycles, Mont Albert, Vic > Craig Hallam, Tony Crowe and Derek Burgers None of the above were aware this article was to be written until after the bike was delivered to Wayne.…

1 Hood for the hills Kawasaki $69.00 1300 647 920 kawasaki.com.au Go team green with the RPM hoodie from Kawasaki. Constructed from a plush 340gsm cotton-polyester blend, it features a kangaroo front pocket, plastisol Kawasaki logos on the front, arms and back and a green drawstring. It’s available in sizes XS through to 5XL. 2 Man, oh man Cassons $1399.95 02 8882 1900 cassons.com.au Arai has honoured the Isle of Man TT event with the release of its new RX-7V IOMTT 2020 graphic featuring the famous three legs of man triskelion logo highlighted in gold against an outline of the 60.725km TT course. It is available now in sizes XS through to XL. 3 Challenge accepted Ficeda Accessories From $199.95 1300 437 711 ficeda.com.au Ixon’s Challenge Jacket is constructed from…

DORNA’S QUEST, THROUGH years of increasingly restrictive cost-cutting tech regs, was two-fold: to make the racing closer by hobbling the free-spending factory teams (succeeded) and as a corollary to attract more factories in (succeeded). Put the two together, though, and they don’t necessarily add up. Which is to say, just because you are a new factory in an easier level of MotoGP doesn’t necessarily open the door to success. Just ask Aprilia. What does succeed in racing? Wise former champion and later renowned Yamaha crew chief Kel Carruthers explained this to me years ago in typical matter-of-fact way. “It’s what succeeded last year, plus a couple of percent.” One MotoGP factory has been trashing this rule. KTM’s rate of improvement, since the orange Austrian bikes’ 2014 MotoGP arrival has been…

WorldSBK Jerez, Spain Round 2 Finishing positions Race 1 DNF T SYKES (GBR, BMW), M SCHEIB (CHI, KAW), L MERCADO (ARG, DUC), M VAN DER MARK (NED, YAM), F CARICASULO (ITA, YAM) POLE POSITION S REDDING 1m38.736s FASTEST LAP J REA 1m40.801s FASTEST LAP J REA 1m39.186s Round2 Finishing positions Superpole Race Round 2 Finishing positions Race 2 FASTEST LAP S REDDING 1m40.545s RIDER STANDINGS AFTER 1 OF 9 ROUNDS 1 S REDDING 98, 2 J REA 74, 3 A LOWES 72, 4 T RAZGATLIOGLU 68, 5 C DAVIES 57, 6 M VAN DER MARK 47, 7 L BAZ 37, 8 A BAUTISTA 37, 9 M RINALDI 30, 10 L HASLAM 28, 11 T SYKES 26, 12 M MELANDRI 15, 13 G GERFLOFF 15, 14 S CORTESE 14, 15 X…

A PERFECT START is an understatement to how Andrea Locatelli (BARDAHL Evan Bros. WorldSSP Yamaha) has begun his WorldSSP career, with pole at both rounds and now three wins – PI’s single and this Jerez double header. The weirdness of the returning weekend continued in having two races for WorldSSP at Jerez, with the same for the WorldSSP300 teams. With front running pace and only the experienced Jules Cluzel (GMT94 Yamaha) for company, Locatelli hardly put a foot wrong, scrapping with Cluzel in the opener but eventually winning with a comfort zone each time. “We did an incredible job today, also yesterday,” said Locatelli. “A really good weekend for us. Now we need to work because we go in another track, in Portimao, and I rode that only in January.…

Round 3 Finishing positions Race 1 POLE POSITION J REA 1m40.676s FASTEST LAP J REA 1m42.075s Round 3 Finishing positions Superpole Race FASTEST LAP J REA 1m41.371s Round 3 Finishing positions Race 2 DNF X FORES (SPA, KAW), A LOWES (GBR, KAW), M SCHEIB (CHI, KAW), L BAZ (FRA, YAM). FASTEST LAP J REA 1m42.819s RIDER STANDINGS AFTER 3 OF 9 ROUNDS 1 J REA 135, 1 S REDDING 132, 3 T RAZGATLIOGLU 103, 4 A LOWES 91, 5 M VAN DER MARK 82, 6 C DAVIES 75, 7 A BAUTISTA 55, 8 L BAZ 54, 9 M RINALDI 53, 10 T SYKES 47, 11 L HASLAM 36, 12 G GERFLOFF 22, 13 M MELANDRI 17, 14 E LAVERTY 16, 15 S CORTESE 14.…

Jack Miller MotoGP 9th “I made a good start but Nakagami decided to ride like a kamikaze pilot and nearly t-boned me. Then Oliveira did the same. It’s always fun when you’re back there on the first couple of laps! I had a big shake and lost the brakes at turn three on the second lap, dropped back to about 18th. After that I was able to plug away, pick off guys bit by bit. We walk away from this race pretty frustrated. I was behind Dovi and we were for fighting for 11th and 12th – last year it was for second and third. We need to analyse what’s happening. It’s certainly a head-scratcher, that’s for sure.” Remy Gardner Moto2 12th “It was always going to be difficult after…

Green milestone Jonathan Rea’s controlled WorldSBK race one win at Portimao was the 150th WorldSBK victory for Kawasaki. No one would have seen that coming in the year 2000 when they had only won number 34 with Hitoyasu Izutsu, on a 750 Ninja no less. Or in 2006 when they had only reached 35 all-in via Chris Walker’s amazing Assen wet race win on the old-style big Ninja. Or even in 2011, when Tom Sykes won the next one for the ZX people – the 36th Kawasaki and the first one for himself. GORDON RITCHIE Where’s it end? There was no official word on the final round of the 2020 season early in the Portimao weekend, but rumours still suggest there will be another European-based one, before the theoretically still-happening…

61 kg The amount of downforce Ducati’s V4Superleggera producesat 300 km/h,more than Jack Miller’s MotoGP racer! We ride it on page 38 SHOW STOPPER This sleek and futuristic-for-its-time 1929 Majestic from France is just one exhibit planned to be on show in November at Brisbane’s The Motorcycle Desire Art Design exhibition hosted by the Gallery of Modern Art. POTUS GANG Bikers for Trump is a US-based nationwide group of riders working to re-elect the POTUS, whose trade war with China has impacted Harley-Davidson’s business. Scott Redding describes his CV-19 lockdown before bouncing back in a double WSBK win. See our interview on page 60 “IT’S WRECKED MY MIND, BECAUSE I CAN’T JUST DO NOTHING” FOR SALE. ONE OWNER KTM is selling two race-prepared 2019 KTM RC16 factory MotoGP racers, as…

WE’VE BEEN TRACKING China’s emergence as a manufacturer of larger-capacity models and now here’s a power cruiser heavily influenced by Ducati’s Diavel. Revealed via design IP documents filed in China, this SOHC, 900cc, water-cooled V-twin from Motrac will be one of that country’s biggest-capacity motorcycles. Motrac already has a couple of convincing-looking 500cc parallel twins in its range. This bigger engine makes a modest 48kW and 75Nm of torque, so it’s more about style than performance. As Motrac has made moves to have an international presence, there’s an outside chance it may eventually be sold outside China.…

ENGINE Capacity 998cc Type 90º V4 Stradale, 16 valves desmodromic timing Bore & stroke 81 x 48.4mm Compression ratio 14:1 Cooling Liquid Fueling EFI, two injectors per cylinder Transmission Six-speed Clutch Dry, multi-plate, slipper Final drive Chain PERFORMANCE Power 165kW @ 15,250rpm (standard, claimed) 174kW @ 15,500rpm (race exhaust, claimed) Torque 116Nm @ 11,750rpm (standard, claimed) 119Nm @ 11,750rpm (race exhaust, claimed) Top speed 300km/h (est) Fuel consumption 8.5L/100km (measured) ELECTRONICS Type Bosch Rider aids ABS cornering EVO, traction control EVO 2, slide control, wheelie control EVO, power launch, quick shift up/down EVO 2, engine brake control EVO Rider modes Race A, Race B and Sport CHASSIS Frame material Carbon-fibre Frame type…

ENGINE Capacity 494cc Type Horizontally opposed twin, overhead valve Bore & stroke 68 x 68mm Compression ratio 8:1 Cooling Air Fueling Single 33mm Fischer-Amal carburettor Transmission Four-speed, hand shift Clutch Dry, single-plate Final drive Shaft PERFORMANCE Power 76hp @ 8700rpm (claimed) Torque 65Nm @ 4500rpm (claimed) Top speed 208km/h (measured, Rijeka 2019) Fuel consumption Not given ELECTRONICS Type Not applicable Rider aids Not applicable Rider modes Not applicable CHASSIS Frame material Tubular steel Frame type Twin-loop cradle frame Rake 27º Trail Not applicable Wheelbase 1434mm SUSPENSION Type Öhlins Front: Trailing-link fork with quarter-elliptic six-leaf spring Rear: Not applicable WHEELS & BRAKES Wheels Wire-spoked, aluminium Front: 19 x…

HAVING READ MICHAEL Scott’s race reports religiously throughout my adolescence, I had to pinch myself when I first found myself working alongside him. I did the same five years later when he told me he intended to take a step back from the grand prix paddock and put my name forward to take his place writing race reports for Australian Motorcycle News. It’s been fun making it this far. I first started writing seriously toward the end of 2012. Back then I was an English teacher working in South America, splitting my efforts between learning Spanish and not swearing in front of an audience of students, skills I’d call upon extensively later. I also worked part-time for a culture magazine, conducting interviews in a language I had yet to fully…

GOING RACING IN a global pandemic, with no crowd and only essential workers in the paddock, was otherworldly enough at the season restart in Jerez. To also do it in the middle of a heat wave – even by Andalusian standards in August – was surreal. But the racing on rack was very real, very entertaining – and a little historic. Scott Redding (Aruba.it Ducati) scored not just his first win in WorldSBK but his second one only a day later. Jonathan Rea (KRT) won the Superpole race as he had in Australia, but also slumped to sixth, probably his worst non-crash or breakdown result in recent memory, in the last race. He was again beaten by his new teammate and erstwhile championship leader, Alex Lowes. Even Michael Ruben Rinaldi…

WE SHOULD NOT be surprised by Jonathan Rea’s (KRT) impeccable three race wins at Portimao, especially at what is now his best track in terms of results. He has won 12 races here, and more podiums than anywhere else. Crucially, he also turned Aruba.it Racing Ducati rider Scott Redding’s 24-point advantage into a four-point deficit. Many were excited by Ducati’s overall performances in Spain and a new and genuine championship challenger in the popular and fast addition of Redding. But in Portugal, in hot but not hideously punishing conditions, Rea and his squad were at their very experienced best come the races. In qualifying, Rea took his first pole position of the year. He used his race starts to best effect but with three wins and three fastest laps in…

WE KNEW HE was good. But this good? Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM) wrote himself into the history books on Sunday, achieving a staggering maiden MotoGP race win – the first for both KTM and South Africa in premier-class history – in one of the most head-scratching, upside-down rounds in living memory. This was a weekend when the factory Ducatis limped home outside the top 10 and Repsol Honda scored a combined total of one point, all while there was a very real possibility of KTM scoring a 1-2 on Sunday. Meanwhile two unfancied satellite runners finished second and third. Was this really a glimpse of what a life without Marc Marquez would be like? If so then we best take in the sheer madness while we can, as the…

Bagnaia injured This really is turning into a war of attrition. Francesco Bagnaia, the revelation of Jerez, became the fourth MotoGP rider in three rounds to suffer a season-altering fracture. The Italian crashed at turn one at the close of FP1, fracturing the top of his right tibia when tumbling through the gravel. “Fortunately, the fracture did not involve the knee ligaments so recovery times will be faster,” the 2018 Moto2 World Champion revealed. He returned to Italy for an operation on Saturday, meaning he will miss both races in Austria. Covid scare There were worried faces at the track on Saturday when it was confirmed MotoGP had detected its first case of COVID-19 in the paddock. Over 5500 tests have been performed since the fortnight before the Spanish Grand…

PERHAPS IT WAS the frustration of witnessing its factory riders finishing so low down, but Ducati Sporting Director Paolo Ciabatti had a few choice words for the FIM stewards on Sunday evening after Johann Zarco was handed a long-lap penalty for contact with Espargaro’s KTM. “It was a totally wrong decision by Race Direction in our opinion,” said Ciabatti. “Pol made a mistake, because he knew obviously – it was the first corner after the riders cross the start and finish line, and the riders see the pit board. So he knew that Zarco was zero seconds behind him. And he made a mistake. “When a rider goes wide and has to come back to the normal line, he should look, because he’s not alone on track, and he saw…

JOHN VEVERS SPENT the early years of his adulthood road racing and chasing land speed records. ‘Jack’, as he goes by these days, is showing me around his aircraft hangar at an aero club he now presides over on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula. “This one will do 500km/h if you poke the nose down,” he grins, nodding towards the Russian-built Yak 52 plane powered by a 14L nine-cylinder radial engine. The Yak is just one of a handful of planes Vevers has collected over the years, ranging from historically significant aircraft built in the mid-1920s to modern examples which Vevers “just uses for work. It’s really fast, so I can get places quickly.” And getting places quickly is what Vevers has plenty of experience doing. In fact, the culmination of his…

OUR JAPANESE SOURCES say that the engine’s power is slightly reduced by its Euro4 retune, with a peak of around 85kW. That’s around 10kW less than Kawasaki’s 636cc, Euro4-compliant ZX-6R and a couple of kW under the peak of Yamaha’s YZF-R6. They also reveal that Honda currently considers the 2021 bike to be the CBR600RR’s swansong, with no further development scheduled. Aprilia’s upcoming 660RS parallel twin, based on half the RSV4 engine and loaded with Superbike technology, points the way forward for manufacturers looking to give buyers racetrack performance in a user-friendly road-going package.…

› MODEL 2017-20 Aprilia RSV4 and Tuono 1100 › IMPORTER PS Importers › NUMBER OF AFFECTED MOTORCYCLES 451 › ISSUE The front brake pad material may separate from the brake pad. › POTENTIAL HAZARD If the brake pad material separates from the brake pad, there is an increased risk of an accident and/or injury › ACTION REQUIRED Contact any authorised Aprilia dealer to book a brake pad inspection and any potentially faulty brake pads will be replaced free of charge. YIKES! With Brembo supplying so many manufacturers, this recall looks like being just the tip of the iceberg…

A NEW PATENT shows H-D is working on a variable-valve-timing V-twin likely to be used in a next-gen Sportster. True to Harley’s traditions, it’s air-cooled with overhead valves operated by pushrods from two camshafts set in the block. But it’s also going to use variable valve timing and a new four-valve-per-cylinder setup, along with a patented balancer system to help it achieve more revs and hence more power. The variable valve timing comes from a variator that works much like those on Ducati’s DVT models and Kawasaki’s GTR. It uses oil pressure to rotate the output side by a few degrees in relation to the input side when a solenoid opens oil passages to the variator. Harley’s patent doesn’t focus on the VVT, rather on the balancer, which is designed…

Price gets better The Royal Enfield Himalayan featured in our last issue is cheaper than we thought. Correct price is$6490 pluson-roadcosts Down but not out This year’s national Australian Historic Road Race Championships are off but plans are underway to hold it at Mac Park sometime next year Domestic ‘accident’ Marc Marquez’s Honda team manager Alberto Puig has been quoted as saying the MotoGP champ reinjured his broken arm, er, “opening a window” Covid kibosh The pandemic has forced the postponement of the popularpre-2000 OzVMX Resto Expo at Portland, in NSW Central Tablelands, until March next year…

The year was... 001999 Garry McCoy made a 500 class return at the Dutch GP at Assen on 26 June in about the most daunting fashion possible – coming back 10 months after he last rode a racing motorcycle for his first experience aboard a full-factory 500cc V4 machine. He landed the gig after the Red Bull Yamaha team gave MotoGP’s current pilane commentator Simon Crafar the flick. END OF AN ERA With the 20th century coming to an end, so was one of Suzuki’s most iconic (and a couple of not-so-iconic) models. The ’99 model GSX-R1100, RF900 and GSF600 Bandit were the last we saw in Australia. The much sought-after GSX-R1100 is fetching good dollars on the secondhand market, while RF900s can be had for sweet FA (and Bandit…

Has there ever been a better time to buy one? TIME WAITS FOR no bike and with new Australian regulations mandating all motorcycles over 125cc must have ABS coming into effect in November next year, the DR’s days could be over. Suzuki is yet to announce a decision on the future of the DR, but there’s really only three options available to the marque: retrofit an ABS system to the existing machine, release an updated version or discontinue the faithful old workhorse altogether. The latter would be a sad day indeed. There’s also the matter of emissions and with the super strict emission laws closing in, the DR’s carbureted air-cooled single might resign the DR to the history books, even if the ABS issue is resolved.…

Adding the race kit for the track reduces the weight even further, to 152.2kg. The race kit includes a complete Akrapovic titanium exhaust for racetrack use, open carbon-fibre clutch cover, carbon fibre swinging arm cover with titanium slider, headlight and tail light replacement kit, number plate removal kit, side stand removal kit, aluminium caps machined from billet to replace the rear-view mirrors, Ducati Data Analyser+ GPS (DDA + GPS), racing tank cap, brake lever protection, bike canvas, front and rear stand and battery maintainer.…

WITH THE STORY it’s had, I’m not sure that you can put a value on the Suzuki RG500. It’s sentimental value far exceeds the sum of the parts or the total of the bills paid to get it to this point, and it’s certainly not going to go up for sale while ever I’m alive. But the financial value is not the story of this bike. The way the bike community came together to help Wayne see his project completed and hear the RG500 sing puts any financial value to shame. This bike has been built by people with great big hearts and amazing talent. The workmanship and the determination to ensure Wayne got to see it completed is beyond amazing. Some will say that in the end I will…

MY NAME IS Sharni Pinfold and I have been road racing for three full seasons now. My racing career started in Australia, with the help from Derek Williams. I started on a Yamaha YZF-R3 and raced in local club events as well as a few random national rounds. After my first full season in Australia, I was given the opportunity to race an ex-GP KTM Moto3 machine in the British Superbike Championship’s Motostars series. This was a dream come true, so I quit my job, sold everything I had and bought a one-way ticket. Considering my limited racing experience and at club level, this was a big leap for me. To make the opportunity possible, I worked full-time for my team for no wage just to be able to race.…

Lachlan Epis WorldSSP Grid 21st, R1 16th, R2 17th “I feel like I have adapted as a rider over the past few years riding a Superbike, and I am a lot more mature. We have only had three days on the Yamaha and we are working step by step, but we were not prepared for how hot the track would be and we were just outside of the window on the settings. So I struggled a lot.” Tom Edwards WorldSSP300 Grid 12th, R1 DNF, R2 25th “I was a little bit unlucky in the qualifying, sitting in seventh until the red flag and then there was one lap after the red flag. I dropped back to 12th after that. I still felt fast enough for race one but my first…

WorldSSP300 Now running slicks, Superpole in WorldSSP300 went to Ton Kawakami (Yamaha MS Racing), with the race wins being taken by first Unai Orradre (Yamaha MS Racing) and then Bahattin Sofuoglu (Biblion Motoxracing Yamaha, WorldSSP legend Kenan Sofuoglu’s cousin, no less). New 300 rider, and recent Moto3 rider, Tom Booth-Amos, leads the championship on his RT Motorsports by SKM Kawasaki after scoring two podiums. From 12th on the grid, Tom Edwards DNF’d race one and finished 25th in the second, while Tom Bramich was unlucky not to qualify after being knocked off on the final lap of the Last Chance Qualifying Race. Scott’s Superpole The high temperatures and less than ideal track grip saw the track lap record survive the onslaught of first-time pole winner Scott Redding’s 1m38.736s. He made…

Lachlan Epis WorldSSP Grid 22nd, Race One 18th, Race Two DNF “Saturday was quite a trying day. We made a good step from free practice into FP3, but then unfortunately when it came to counting in qualifying we could not extract the maximum lap time out of the bike. In race one I made a great start and I was 13th on the first lap, but then I just got picked off one by one. I felt like I was stronger than everyone around me, especially on the entry to the corners, but on the exit I was just struggling for traction. I was not able to ride the bike how I wanted to.” Tom Edwards WorldSSP300 Grid 11th, Race One DNF, Race Two 7th “I came into the weekend…

WorldSSP300 Yuta Okaya was the pole sitter for the WorldSSP300 races, with Scott Deroue second and Mika Perez third. A complete lockout of the front two rows for Kawasaki was an unexpected outcome after Yamaha riders did so well in Jerez. The WorldSSP300 race one final 1-2-3 result of Ana Carrasco, Jeffrey Buis and Tom Booth-Amos, was another Kawasaki greenwash despite there being competitive Yamahas and KTMs in the field. WorldSSP300 race one was cut short when Bruno Ieraci (Kawasaki GP Project) clipped another rider and fell on the main straight, his bike laying on the entry to turn one, with the result called at that point. Make that four It had been a strong Superpole ‘win’ for Jonathan Rea (KRT) before his real race one win on Saturday, but…

Circuit length 5.4033km Race distance MotoGP 108.06km Moto2 102.657km Moto3 97.254km Honda’s black weekend Ducati Corse had a terrible weekend at Brno, but it was massively better than Honda’s. The defending champion in all three categories – Rider’s, Teams and Makes – have had a nightmare season. It was bad enough seeing its works riders Alex Marquez and Stefan Bradl start from the back of the grid, but the best-placed rider in the race was Taka Nakagami in eighth place – the same spot the LCR rider holds in the points. Apart from the recent injuries to Marc Marquez and Cal Crutchlow the lack of performance of the RC 213V is truly baffling. So far in 2020 no Honda rider has even finished on the podium in the first three…

RIDERS FROM ALL three classes of MotoGP were highly critical of the Brno track, which hasn’t been resurfaced since 2008. On Friday, riders found a severe lack of grip and the track’s notorious bumps had worsened, with turns 10 and 13 catching a host of names out in Moto3, Moto2 and MotoGP. Aleix Espargaro was the most outspoken. “For me it’s unacceptable to race here,” he said. “It’s very far from being at the level of MotoGP. It’s a disaster this tarmac. “Corner 13 is unbelievable. I’m braking in the middle of the straight and in the corner you are 10 degrees less than in a normal corner. In two or three places I was closer to a wet feeling than a dry one”. Several riders believe the series can’t…

Australian Motorcycle News road test photographs are posed for by skilled, professional riders under controlled circumstances. Attempting to imitate their actions may be dangerous. Australian Motorcycle News supports and endorses rider training and wearing protective riding gear. Especially if you’re Pol Espargaro, then we thoroughly endorse the largest protective face mask you can find. Cos not only did he get knocked off an almost guaranteed podium step, but it was with the help of his KTM nay-saying ex-teammate. He knows he was making erratic and desperate moves to try and stay with the rookie, and if wasn’t hard enough to hide his scowl from the many cameras in his face, he then had to watch his three-race old teammate take all the spoils he’s worked so hard towards for the…