Innholdsfortegnelse for Vol 71 issue 20 i Australian Motorcycle News

WHAT A HUGE weekend of racing that was, especially for Ducati fans! It’s early Monday morning and I have just watched Jack Miller race to third in the MotoGP race at COTA (Circuit of the Americas). Having led for most of the race, Jack had me on the edge of my seat, but in the end Enea Bastianini proved too strong, taking his second win of the season and the championship lead. Alex Rins also snuck through on Miller to pinch second on the final lap. Nevertheless, it was a great turnaround for Jack after his frustrating race in Argentina last time out. The Beast’s win wasn’t the first for Ducati over the weekend just passed, with Danilo Petrucci taking his maiden MotoAmerica Superbike win in front of his former…

A FINALIST IN RE’s recent Busted Knuckles Build Off has produced what AMCN reckons is a blueprint for a street scrambler version of the Interceptor. Perth’s MotoMax, a RE dealer since 2015, fitted enduro-type wheels and tyres, a sump guard, and classic ‘Bates-style’ headlight and handmade seat. This very clever, clean design points the way forward for RE and we can only hope they put this into production, as well as using the parallel-twin engine in a more hardcore version of the Himalayan adventure-tourer.…

Ride on! The York Motorcycle Festival, WA’s biggest biker love-in, which has massive corporate support, has just marked its 10th anniversary. Helping hands Major motorcycle companies, including Honda and Yamaha, are donating millions of dollars in humanitarian aid to the civilian population of war-torn Ukraine. E-scooter shocker E-scooters, now popular in most of the world’s big cities, have a higher injury rate than motorcycles, according to a study by American medical researchers. Sales sink After an unexpected pandemic-led recovery, motorcycle sales for the first quarter of 2022 have slumped nearly 11 percent.…

GOBERT DOOHAN IT While Mick Doohan confirmed that his injuries were holding him back from a return to GP racing, Anthony Gobert was getting primed to return to GP at the Australian round at Phillip Island. The MuZ Webber team approached the wild man of Aussie racing to ride one of its V4s. Gobert’s previous GP ride was in 1997 for the factory Suzuki team but he was sacked for failing a drug test. SO MUCH FOG Ducati’s Carl Fogarty had just claimed his fourth WorldSBK title as we went to the printers. The 33-year-old 996 pilot dominated the 12 September round in Hockenheim, claiming a first and second and building an unassailable lead ahead of the final round in Japan. The 1999 title added to his WorldSBK titles in…

Facebook Post of the issue The price of the Aprilia Tuareg raised the angst of some AMCN readers Instagram Don’t Forget #amcn_mag Comment of the Issue Bert Furmston is not a fan of shape shifters, despite the obvious benefits “I was hoping for a bolt-on upgrade for my DR650 flowing on from this development in MotoGP!” Reaching out Want to see your pride and joy featured in AMCN? The only thing we love more than writing about bikes is looking at your bikes. Tag your social pics with @ aumotorcyclenews on Facebook or @ amcn_mag on Instagram, or fire them off in an email to amcn@amcn.com.au And don’t forget to tell us why you love it. Get it off yer chest! Got something funny, new, old or wise to say…

The roar of dozens of British motorcycles heralded an event that is still etched into the minds of police officers on duty in Palmerston North, New Zealand, on Easter Saturday 1972. In his book of Manawatu police history Beyond the Call of Duty, the author Ray Carter wrote: “It would be without doubt the worst day Palmerston North has ever experienced.” Back in 1972 Carter, although a police officer of seven years’ experience, was unprepared for the events that unfolded in front of him. “I was totally overwhelmed by the mass of bikes and hardened-looking characters with their patches,” he told a reporter at the launch of his book in 2016. Tension had been building for many months between the Mongrel Mob and bikers in the lower part of the…

ONE OF THE great things about being a bike journo is playing with products you normally wouldn’t buy. Well, you might, but if the aftermarket industry had to rely on me, we’d all be in trouble. I like to cobble my old stuff until it falls off. Hey, I was in my 30s before I had a real job. You get used to running on lean. Hence Hilda’s debut at Bathurst in 1984 running straight-thrus welded up from bits of old Holden exhaust pipe. She sounded great. Had all the class of an outback dunny though, topped off with a coat of baby-shit yellow sprayed from a makeshift gun hooked to our mining compressor. Worked great. Nothing like six cylinders of Deutz diesel pumping 200 cubic feet per minute to…

A WEIRD AND wonderful round in Argentina was a weekend of firsts: the first time a MotoGP round was in peril due to serious delays with its freight containers. The first time Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia Racing) won a race in 284 grand prix starts. And, after making its debut in 1994, the first time Aprilia triumphed in grand prix racing’s premier class, thanks to a hard-fought win. This was no walk in the park. Not only did the elder Espargaro brother have to deal with the pressure that comes with being the clear pre-race favourite ahead of the season’s third contest (his rhythm through free practice more than merited that accolade), he faced late-race pressure from rising star Jorge Martin (Pramac Ducati). In some ways it was surprising to see…

THE OPENING CHORDS of the 2022 WorldSBK thrash metal tour were played at full volume, demanding attention even on a weekend with MotoGP doing its country music thing over in COTA. With new WorldSBK king Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pata Yamaha with Brixx), the old king Jonathan Rea (KRT) gunning for his seventh title and the man who should have been king in 2019, Alvaro Bautista (Aruba Ducati), back on the Ducati factory court, there is the prospect of an even closer three-way fight for the championship in 2022 than even last year. Superpole qualifying went to Razgatlioglu who set a new record of 1m48.267s. Bautista was second, Rea third, all on the new SCQ rear tyre. The first 18-lap WorldSBK race of the season blew the mind and stirred the soul…

AUSTIN WOULD ALWAYS be the ultimate test of the weird and wonderful start to this year’s MotoGP season. If the Circuit of the Americas as infamous for its predictability over the years could throw up a surprise, then this year’s title race really is wide open. COTA duly obliged as Enea Bastianini (Gresini Ducati) showed his early season success in Qatar was no fluke. On a weekend in which the silly season rumour mill went into overdrive, here was his reminder for the watching factory bosses. Around a track that has routinely served up dull racing in the premier class, the MotoGP event was a cracker in keeping with recent events. That was partly due to a “technical issue” for Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda) – the man who won seven…

WE ALL EXPECTED it to take some time for new BMW rider Scott Redding to get to real grips with an inline four engine format and new manufacturer that has only one damp race win in recent times, but the entire experience of Redding at Motorland was woeful. It was especially so as Alvaro Bautista won two races on the Ducati Redding vacated at the end of last season. He did not speak to the media on Sunday, although many reporters asked. For a big-budget experienced set-up, the BMWs simply did not look ready to take on the first round, as the results showed. A best of seventh for Bonovo Action rider Loris Baz was a good ride from the Frenchman, but with Michael van der Mark injured, it was…

THE FIRST RIDER to win outright in the Australian Off-Road Championship on a 250cc in the current era, Tasmanian Kyron Bacon, surprised everyone with his speed in the opening rounds. “It was rough and wet, similar to home, so while I was pretty comfortable at Cherrabah, I was really shocked by the win,” the 19-year-old said. At Rounds 3 and 4 of the AORC held in Mackay, Andrew Wilksch, recently back from a successful season in Europe, dominated Saturday’s Sprints ahead of Josh Green and Bacon. However Bacon bounced back on the Sunday to consolidate his outright lead, and dominance of the E1 Class. In the Women’s Division, Jessica Gardiner looks set for her fifth consecutive AORC Title, while in the Juniors, only two points separate Riley, Mc Gilliveray, Billy…

IT WAS WHILE fighting alongside one another during the first world war, three Italian mates hatched a plan to launch a motorcycle company. And it was a pretty good plan, too. Carlos Guzzi, with an engineering background, would design the bikes, Giorgio Parodi would source the funds through his wealthy ship-broker father, while Giovanni Ravelli, a successful and popular racer, would look after the testing and the marketing. Two of the three founders were members of the Italian Air Force. When Ravelli was killed during a test flight on 11 August 1919, instead of shelving the idea, the remaining two men decided that, in memory of their friend, the image of a spreadwinged eagle that adorned the pilot’s uniforms would form the perfect logo for the new brand they remained…

HONDA, YAMAHA, KAWASAKI and Suzuki have combined with oil company ENEOS to launch a battery-sharing system in Japan. Similar to Australia’s Swap’n’Go BBQ gas bottle exchange, it eliminates range anxiety by ensuring a ready supply of fully-charged cells is on hand whenever a rider needs them. Taiwanese company Gogoro has already proved the idea can work, making its battery standard available to other manufacturers so multiple bikes can use the same, swappable packs. The growth in the number of battery-swap stations is such that their numbers are predicted to overtake the number of petrol stations by the end of 2022. The new Japanese alliance goes by the name Gachaco, Inc. ENEOS owns 51 percent and Honda 34 percent, with Yamaha, Kawasaki and Suzuki five percent each. The batteries used in…

PEUGEOT IS JOINING a trend towards adventure-styled scooters started by Honda’s X-ADV and similar offerings from Kymco, with the Italian brand the next to jump on that bandwagon. It has filed design patents for a gutsy kerb-hopper featuring the 399cc single-cylinder engine from its three-wheeled Metropolis 400i. That’s bolted to a new, two-wheeled chassis that has a chunky inverted fork, an unusually long wheelbase, dual radial brake calipers and large, tubeless, wire wheels. Meanwhile, Deano is readying his adventure gear for a quick spin on Kymco’s DT X360 in the coming weeks, so keep an eye out for that.…

MY FIRST BIKE was a CZ 175 that I rode around the family dairy farm in 1964-65 with my brother Craig. The CZ had a rigid rear-end, it was a hoot sliding the thing out of control. You knew how good your solders were riding it has hard as we did! After the CZ, I had an OHV Triumph 150, so I was into bikes from an early age. In 1970 I was 19 and studying mechanical engineering at Wangaratta Technical College. My father unfortunately had a fall from a tree and broke his back. As the only son still at home, I had to juggle milking around 110 cows twice a day, among other farm duties, and still try to keep up my studies. This was a pretty heavy…

HARLEY HAS GIVEN the ST treatment to three models in its line-up for 2022; the Street Glide and Road Glide tourers and has even turned it’s Low Rider S cruiser into a quasi-bagger with the release of the Low Rider ST. The biggest news for the two tourers is a sleeker, blacked-out look and all three get the new 79kW, 168Nm Milwaukee-Eight powerplant with forward-facing heavy breather intake. The Low Rider ST also receives hard panniers as standard, and a new frame-mounted fairing. The 117 Milwaukee-Eight has been the exclusive domain of CVO bagger models until now so it’s interesting to note that Harley has also chosen to fit the 117 into the Low Rider S as well. It is a totally different kettle of fish to the two baggers…

01 MotoGP, Rd5 Portimao, LIVE Videopass, Kayo, Foxsports 24 APRIL 8pm With the GP circus finally heading back to Europe, you can stay up late rather than get up early to catch all the action live. Moto3 starts at 8pm, Moto2 at 9.20pm and MotoGP race at 11pm. Videopass, Foxsports or Kayo. 02 WSBK Rd2 Assen, LIVE Videopass, Kayo, Foxsports 23-24 APRIL 10pm WSBK Race 1 is scheduled for 10pm AEST Saturday followed by WSS Race 1 at 11.15pm. WSS Race 2 is on Sunday 8.30pm and WSBK Race 2 at 11.15pm Sunday. Catch it live on Videopass, Foxsports or Kayo. 03 ASBK Rd3 Wakefield Park, LIVE SBS, ASBK On Demand 23-24 APRIL TBC All the action from Round 3 of the mi-bike Australian Superbike Championship will be aired live on SBS and…

THE LAST FEW years have been pretty hectic despite Covid, and I’ve spent most of that time racing in Europe in the world Supersport 300 Championship. Even though I was competitive right from the first test, being young and not knowing the tracks made it a real challenge. That first year was basically spent learning and I would be up the front and fast a lot of the time, but I had a lot of crashes. Over the next few years it was the same story. I crashed a lot and there were mechanical problems as well, but overall I think it’s been incredibly worthwhile for my racing career. Just racing at that cut-throat level of competition – even though it was on a 300 – it was so beneficial…

ALL PRE-RACE talk surrounded the dazzling feats of Fermin Aldeguer (Speed Up Boscoscuro), who, at 16 years and 362 days, made history on Saturday by becoming the youngest polesitter in intermediate class history. Sunday’s extended warm-up session suggested he could well become the youngest winner, and he duly broke clear to lead early on with Celestino Vietti (VR46 Kalex) just behind. By then Augusto Fernandez (Ajo Kalex) had ruled himself out of the victory fight by fluffing his start from second on the grid and then crashing out at the first turn. Seven laps in and Aldeguer was out of it, too. Vietti had run wide at Turn 13 and cut back onto the racing line, only to find the young Spaniard there. The Speed Up rider spun around his…

THE NEW WORLDSSP era, with much larger engined machines taking on the traditional 600cc four-cylinders, started with a bang, especially at the end of Race 1 when eventual winner Lorenzo Baldassarri (Evan Bros Yamaha) and the closely following 2021 champion Dominique Aegerter, only just avoided a nasty crash. Baldassarri almost fell off the inside of his bike and Aegerter almost smacked into his dangling outside leg. The incident in general caused the 2021 champ to run wide. Baldassarre won, with Aegerter second and Can Öncü third, on a Puccetti Kawasaki 600. The first ‘Next Gen’ bike was the Aruba Ducati Supersport team in fifth. The top 800cc MV was sixth and the best Triumph 765 seventh ensuring all five manufacturers were inside the top seven places at the first racing…

THE FIRST RACE of the day in a revised running order, the championship battle was blown wide open with the top three in the championship all crashing out in a dramatic first third of the race. Somkiat Chantra (HTA Kalex) took down Sam Lowes (Marc VDS) with a wild move at Turn 12 on the first lap before Celestino Vietti’s (VR46 Kalex) fall out of second at the sixth turn handed Aron Canet (Pons Kalex) a handy lead of 1.3sec. But the Spaniard would soon suffer a similar fate as he lost the rear through Turn 7 on the eighth lap. That handed Tony Arbolino (Marc VDS Kalex) total control, as he stretched his advantage over a battle for second, including Jake Dixon (Aspar Kalex) and Ai Ogura (HTA Kalex).…

ON THE ONE hand, things have never been better for Aleix Espargaro. Together with Aprilia, he has turned the RS-GP into a race-winning bike and they went to Texas leading the championship for the first time in their respective histories. But it’s not all celebrations and victory champagne. Talks have already started regarding extending the Catalan’s contract for 2023 and ’24. Yet both parties are far apart in terms of salary, so much so that Espargaro is being heavily linked to signing with a rival manufacturer. “I feel super strong, super fast,” he said. “I want to stay. I did not have any offer yet. “The first talks they have with my manager were really disappointing. I feel very sad because we are completely super far (apart). But there is…

THE AUSTRALIAN SPEEDWAY Sidecar Championship will be staged at the Gillman Speedway in Adelaide this weekend with the Qualifying Meeting on Saturday night (16 April) and then the Championship decider on Sunday night. For fans who cannot get to Gillman, both meetings will be live streamed. The last shakedown meeting was last Saturday when a championship-quality line-up contested the Gillman Championship where, yet again, Darrin Treloar/Blake Cox came out on top, ahead of Warren Monson/Andrew Summerhayes, Justin Plaisted/Simon Cohrs and Shane Hudson/Adam Constable.…

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. MotoGP is a bit unpredictable at the moment but even this caught our eye. In Argentina, the podium was Aleix Espargaro-Jorge Martin-Alex Rins. In Texas a week later, all three of those Spaniards found themselves having to go through Q1. Alex R beat Aleix in that session by one place and 0.2sec and went on to finish second in the race. Aleix was 11th. Tough business, eh?…

“IT WAS PROBABLY THE FIRST TIME IN MY LIFE I’VE DONE A RACE AND NOT PASSED ONE SINGLE RIDER” Jack Miller hits rock bottom after a frustrating 11th-place finish in the Argentinian MotoGP round on a recalcitrant Ducati. 200 Aleix Espargaro celebrates his 200th premier-class start by giving Aprilia its first MotoGP pole position, followed by its maiden victory in the big league. HERO LIDS Kawasaki has partnered with Shoei to offer the GT-Air II with a striking green graphic and the Kawasaki logo. Available only at Kawasaki dealerships for $1149.90. Meanwhile Aussie company Forcite has quickly sold out of its upgraded Mk1S Smart Helmet. Refined after buyer feedback, the improved design can be configured and ordered through Forcite’s 3D helmet configurator at forcitehelmets.com Mental Twisties The Miller addition wasn’t…

→MODEL 2019-21 Kawasaki W800 Street/Cafe →IMPORTER Kawasaki Motors Pty Ltd →NUMBER OF AFFECTED MOTORCYCLES 138 →ISSUE The wiring harness leading to the horn may not be durable enough and could break due to vibration at a certain engine speed range, preventing the horn operating →MODEL 2020-21 Yamaha Tricity →IMPORTER Yamaha Motor Australia Pty Ltd →NUMBER OF AFFECTED MOTORCYCLES 52 →ISSUE The ‘Stand Assist’ system, which keeps the Tricity upright when stopped, may not release immediately after deactivation as intended. This may prevent the rider from steering, resulting in a loss of vehicle control.…

Letter of the issue Rolling legend A story you may be interested in, my 75 years of motorcycling. I am 13 years old in the left-side photo on my 1920s Matchless 250cc side-valve. The right-side photo is me, 75 years later. At 88 years of age, my ride now is a 2015 Yamaha YZF-R3. In between those years I have had a small career of competition including accelerating trials, obstacle trials, hill climbs and beach racing. My preferred means of transport has always been my motorcycle. BSAs and Triumphs were always used up until the 1960s, then the trail-riding bug caught on so Bultaco, Ossa and then Yamahas filled my garage. My 1951 Triumph Tiger was a highlight for a few years, plus many years restoring and selling bikes was…

YOU WON’T FIND any Ulysses stickers and chrome eagle bedazzlements on the MotoAmerica King of the Baggers racebikes. The Harley-Davidson Screaming Eagle Team bikes are festooned with high-end race bling and carbon-fibre components. If fact, the more you gaze over what was once a standard Harley Road Glide you realise there isn’t much standard kit left at all, but they are kind of handsome in a dishevelled, Frankenstein kind of way. King of the Baggers is a seven-round race series that is held in conjunction with the MotoAmerica Superbike championship, with the first round having just been run and won at the Daytona International Speedway over 10-12 March. Harley-Davidson Screaming Eagle Team rider Kyle Wyman won the 2021 King of the Baggers title and lined up again in 2022 with…

IT’S BEEN MORE than 60 years since a race was last held there, but should you ever go to Daytona Beach, Florida and head south along the sand from the high-rise hotels and low-rise bars of the self-styled World’s Most Famous Beach, you’ll eventually come to the distinguishable remains of the old Beach Course, which hosted the running of the Daytona 200-mile race until 1961. In that year, the present-day Speedway with its famously steep 31° bankings came into operation, leaving the palmetto shrubs on one side, and the rolling Atlantic breakers on the other, to gradually erode a piece of American racing history. First used for motorcycles in 1937, the Beach Course’s North Turn is marked today by a weather-beaten hostelry aptly enough named the Old Timers’ Bar. There’s…

ON THE EVE of the Indonesian Grand Prix, Francesco Bagnaia did some back-pedalling after his emotional post-race outburst in Qatar, where his season got off to a dreadful start when he crashed, taking out fellow GP22 rider Jorge Martin with him. Blaming the factory for taking a single-minded development approach in the preseason tests, the Italian said he would only focus on fine-tuning race set-up over a weekend, rather than continuing with bike development. On Thursday in Indonesia, however, he acknowledged his words had been delivered in the heat of the moment. “The message that I passed on was that I didn’t want to do it again. But it’s not like this. It’s clear in a factory team you have to do it like this. My message was maybe because…

ROAD RACING MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP Rd5 24 April Portimao, PT Rd6 1 May, Jerez, ES Rd7 15 May, Le Mans, FR Rd8 29 May, Mugello, IT Rd9 5 Jun, Catalunya, ES Rd10 19 Jun, Sachsenring, DE Rd11 26 Jun, Assen, ND Rd12 10 Jul, KymiRing, FI Rd13 7 Aug, Silverstone, UK Rd14 21 Aug, Red Bull Ring, AT Rd15 4 Sep, Misano, IT Rd16 18 Sep, Aragon, ES Rd17 25 Sep, Twin Ring Motegi, JP Rd18 2 Oct, Chang International, TH Rd19 16 Oct, Phillip Island, AU Rd20 23 Oct, Sepang, MY Rd21 6 Nov, Ricardo Tormo Valencia, ES SUPERBIKE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP Rd2 23-24 Apr, Assen, ND Rd3 21-22 May, Estoril, PT Rd4 11-12 Jun, Misano, IT Rd5 16-17 Jul, Donington Park, UK Rd6 30-31 Jul, Most, CZ Rd7 10-11…

1 IRON FIST Ficeda Accessories $149.95 1300 437 711 ficeda.com.au Bering’s full-length Steel R Glove features a goat leather, Spandex and Amara outer construction, with hard knuckle protection and palm reinforcement. An articulation retention link reduces the likelihood of injury to the little finger and the cuff boasts a secure, double-fastening closure. 2 MADE 2 RAMBLE McLeod Accessories From $249.95 1300 300 191 mcleodaccessories.com.au The M2R HYBRID Dual Sport Adventure helmet features an injection-moulded ABS shell, four-piece, impact-absorbing EPS liner with dual density crown and an internal sun visor. It also has a removable comfort liner, an emergency safety removal cheek pad system and a UV-protected, scratch-resistant outer visor. 3 CUP OF OIL Link International From $32.90 (07) 3382 5000 Ipone.com.au Ipone Stroke 4 is a 100 percent synthetic, ester-based motor oil that…

DON’T ASK ME how that happened. Aprilia, I mean. From bottom of the class to the top of the podium, in one easy move. Well, perhaps not one… it’s actually taken seven years of dogged persistence in the face of serial humiliation. But it still seems to have elements of all-of-a-sudden. Aleix Espargaro’s win, the first-ever in the premier class for the other Italian marque, did not have any appearance, however, of a flash in the pan. It came after he had dominated the abbreviated practice sessions at the Argentine track, and claimed Aprilia’s first four-stroke pole (the last was by Jeremy McWilliams at Phillip Island in 2000, on the undersize ‘super-250’ 500-class twin). The win was achieved with patience and ultimate superiority. It may have looked as though Jorge…

SERGIO GARCIA (ASPAR GasGas) took a brilliant first win of the year in a frenetic last-lap fight with the Leopard Hondas. The Spaniard fought back from third with five corners remaining, thanks to rapid-fire moves on Tatsuki Suzuki at Turn 9 and then a beautifully precise one on Dennis Foggia at the final right. Garcia and fellow front-row starter Izan Guevara (Aspar GasGas) raced into an early lead, eking out 1.5sec over the rest by lap three. But by quarter race distance Jaume Masia (Ajo KTM), Andrea Migno (Snipers Honda) and Diogo Moreira (MTI Helmets KTM) had joined them. Foggia meanwhile made a slow start from his starting place of 11th. Yet by the ninth lap he headed the second group, and took little time in eradicating the 1.1sec ahead…

SEVERAL OF THE championship contenders in WorldSSP300 left at the end of last year and it told in the results. If not always in the way we expected. The very first WorldSSP300 champion Marc Garcia (MS Racing Yamaha) ripped away from his peers in the first race of 2022, having already taken pole position earlier on Saturday. His unstoppable race pace saw him finish 4.479sec ahead of Alvaro Diaz (Arco Motor University Team) and almost 10sec up on Lennox Lehmann (Freudenberg KTM Paligo Racing). The previously dominant Kawasaki riders were not represented in the first race podium, but filled positions from fourth to sixth. It was the same story in Race 2, when Diaz beat Garcia, but the Race 1 winner had to fight all the way to make sure…

ALL RUNNING IN free practice pointed to two men – Dennis Foggia (Leopard Honda) and polesitter Andrea Migno (Snipers Honda) – breaking clear. But the Moto3 grid encountered a strong head wind on the back straight, making slipstream critical, and bunching a lead group of seven riders together throughout in a thrilling contest. Brilliant rookie Diogo Moreira (MSI KTM) traded blows with Deniz Oncu (Tech3 KTM) in the early laps while the slow starting Foggia and Migno came to life. Jaume Masia (Ajo KTM), Ayumu Sasaki (Max Racing Husqvarna) and Xavi Artigas made up the lead group after Izan Guevara (Aspar GASGAS) served a Long Lap Penalty for jumping the start, and Sergio Garcia (Aspar GASGAS) was punted off at turn 16 by the wayward Dani Holgado (Ajo KTM). With…

EVEN IF THE top of the shop riders in WorldSBK were the expected three in the very first race of 2022, behind those exceptional suspects there were a lot of new and exchange packages that impressed all with their pace. Nobody expected both new ex-MotoGP paddock HRC Honda rookies to finishing inside the top seven places first time out. But there they were, in their first races on Pirelli tyres and on Superbikes, Iker Lecuona sixth and Xavi Vierge seventh, the latter with a relatively freshly broken rib to contend with. Right behind them, long-time BMW Endurance rider and three-time IDM champion, Ilia Mykhalchyk. A full-on WorldSBK rookie, he was the top BMW rider in his first race on the factory bike in eighth, ahead of Eugene Laverty, Loris Baz…

TWENTY-TWO AUSTRALIAN riders are in the teams to start the Premiership and Championship league competitions in the UK. Twelve riders – Max Fricke, Brady Kurtz, Jye Etheridge, Jake Allen, Jason Doyle, Troy Batchelor, Cameron Heeps, Josh Pickering, Jack Holder, Sam Masters, Ryan Douglas and Nick Morris – are spread across the six Premiership teams. Significantly, both Fricke and Doyle have chosen the UK as their ‘other’ league competition this year to satisfy the requirements for riding in Poland. They, as well as Brady Kurtz and Jack Holder, are the only riders from the 12 who will not also ride in the UK’s Championship league. Added to the other eight are Ty Proctor, Kye Thomsen, Connor Bailey, Matthew Wethers, Josh Macdonald, Ben Cook, Zack Cook, Zaine Kennedy and just two riders…

IT WAS ON 15 March 1921 that the company Società Anonima Moto Guzzi was constituted in the offices of the notary Paolo Cassanello in Corso Aurelio Saffi, Genoa, for “the fabrication and sale of motorcycles, and all other activities pertinent or correlated to the metalworking and mechanical engineering industries”. Moto Guzzi was a collaboration between three partners: Emanuele Vittorio Parodi, his son Giorgio and his friend Carlo Guzzi. More than 100 years ago this trio of pioneers could never have imagined the passion their now famous nameplate would inspire amongst those who have become obsessed with Moto Guzzi motorcycles. Like many of the heritage brands, motor racing was an important aspect of Moto Guzzi’s activities from the start, with the company recording its first victory in the prestigious Targa Florio…