On-Track Off-Road Issue 5

May 2011 no 04May 2011 no 04May 2011 no 05

Human after all...Whips like this demonstrate why Ken Roczen is becoming the standout star of world motocross and some of the fans next to the finish line at Indaiatuba in Brazil show their appreciation. The German was however undone by his team-mate Jeffrey Herlings at the Brazilian Grand Prix. From eight motos so far in the four rounds of the 2011 GP series the teenager has yet to finish lower than second Photo by Ray Archer

MX

Any extra edge…Le Mans is a compact and demanding circuit with some of the tightest chicanes on the calendar. The World Champion uses all the track and then some to stay ahead of Andrea Dovizioso but the eyes re-veal that Lorenzo is already out of this tiny margin of grip and has his sight set on the next section of the Bugatti course Photo by www.yamahamotogp.com

MotoGP

Hanging in Hangtown...The punishing AMA off-road motorcycle racing cal-endar clicked into its second phase last weekend with a hot and dusty first round of the Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Nationals. Supercross settings were boxed away for the next five months as the fastest guys in the USA gathered in Sacramento. Chad Reed and Blake Baggett ran out winners in the opening sortie of twelve… Photo by Steve Cox

AMA-MX

MX hondA GrAnd PriX of BrAzilMX1 winner: david Philippaerts, YamahaMX2 winner: Jeffrey herlings, KTM

indAiATuBA · MAY 22nd

David Philippaerts on his way to a first victory of 2011 and the third different winner from four events

brazilian grand prix brilliance

By Adam Wheeler, photos by Ray Archer

The Grand Prix of Brazil, the fourth round of the FIM Motocross World Champion-

ship, was satisfyingly mad, wholly typical and a fantastic example of the diversity of the series where the longest track on the calendar one week can see a switch to one of the most compact, twisty and spectator-laden the next. For the first time this century the Grand Prix

paddock endured back-to-back flyaways and the events in the USA and Brazil contrasted in practically every way: weather, atmosphere, track and reception of the sport.

The standout elements from the permanent and undeniably impressive Indaiatuba facility north of Sao Paolo were plentiful:

Frossard, Cairoli and Philippaerts put on the show of the season so far in Moto1

1) MX1 served up yet more unpredictable and captivating action that makes the 35 minute and 2 lap motos seem only half the duration. 2) Ken Roczen was again brilliant but his two falls – one while leading effectively giving the MX2 class to Red Bull Teka KTM team-mate Jeffrey Herlings – revealed a ‘human’ side that added more value to a category that has

been a KTM ‘orange’-wash in the four meetings to-date. 3) The rough and jumpy track offered lines and opportunities ‘we were always turn-ing-jumping, turning-jumping so it was tough,’ said Ken De Dycker who, with seventh overall, was Honda’s highest runner at a race that was heavily backed by the juggernaut that is Honda Brazil.

Clement Desalle gets ready for a ride in the dipping sun. A very tricky second moto lay in store for the MX1 field

4) The fans. The smallish circuit was packed with grandstands and the clamour of the spectators for rider’s flamboyance over the table-tops, attention and souvenirs and a cheeky propensity to get as close to the track as possible created a boisterous and lively (and sometimes edgy) ambience. 5) Indaia-tuba. The sun-kissed former GP and Motocross of Nations host site is a Honda Traffic School

(one of five in the country). ‘It has been such a good event because the infrastructure here is like nothing else in the world and in my opin-ion there is nothing better in world champion-ship motocross,’ said Bike it Cosworth Wild Wolf Yamaha’s Zach Osborne, the American finished fifth overall in MX2 despite an injured right wrist.

Much of the Brazilian MX2 motos can be summarised from this start picture. The KTMs out front and Paulin making the top three for the first time

‘I think it should be a model for GPs and has everything as a racer wants to see when you come to a grand prix. There were so many people and it cool to race in front of a crowd like that; we were doing whips on the sighting lap and they were going crazy.’The first MX1 moto chase between Monster Energy Yamaha duo Steven Frossard and David

Philippaerts – a deserved overall winner for the first time since France in June 2010 – with Red Bull Teka KTM’s Tony Cairoli was the pick of the races all day as the triplet failed to ease off the gas for the entire distance; Frossard just fading back with some pain in hand as a result of his prang in California the previous week.

Monster Energy Yamaha were the dominant force in Brazil with both riders tussling for MX1 victory

Clement Desalle was uncharacteristically care-less on his works Rockstar Suzuki. Crashes on Saturday, an off-track excursion in Moto1 after he had done brilliantly to close up to the lead-ing three and then another slip while leading Moto2 ended a frustrating weekend. The final podium slot was not much consolation but the Belgian retains the red plate from Max Nagl (subdued but nursing a sore back) and Cairoli.

The World Champion was beaten by virtue of Philippaerts’ run to the chequered flag in the second race. The Italians took the same points as they had at Campo Grande in 2010 but in this case they swapped rostrum steps.

MX2 was another Roczen-Herlings showcase with the German taking a pair of holeshots.

The Brazilians lapped up the showing-off and the likes of Roczen, Osborne and co loved it

Honda’s Grand Prix did not go too smoothy for the factory team

They shared motos but Roczen presented Her-lings with the GP. Monster Energy Yamaha’s Gautier Paulin broke into the top three for the first time in 2011 on his prototype YZ250FM and indeed disrupted the same podium cer-emony that had been played at each round so far with CLS Kawasaki’s Tommy Searle fighting back from last in the gate to fourth after being disqualified from the Heat on Saturday for out-

side assistance. ‘I feel f*^*ing robbed because, yeah I made my own mistake, but I was one of the fastest guys all weekend,’ he said. ‘On Sat-urday I let someone help me start the bike and I went from ninth to last. For sure I would have been in the top three if I could have started from something like ninth. It is disappointing to miss the podium and I feel that my weekend was tougher than anyone else’s.’

Half a second away. The board epitomises the MX1 motos nicely

Elit nit utating estio odolorper alit essecte dolorperit

Low sun and red dirt...can only be Brazil. Here Desalle tries to avoid Cairoli’s roost but the Belgian ate more than his fair share of soil over the weekend

Samba and Tequila: mexico in 2012I sit here writing this in Brazil slightly brain-

frazzled for the second Grand Prix in the ‘Americas’ and with the teams housed in (an admittedly impressive) temporary structure at Indaiatuba. It seems hard to believe that in 2012 we will still have another round and week of travelling to go after Youthstream ef-fectively announced last week at Glen Helen an extension to the current overseas trip with the Grand Prix of Mexico.

The promoters are following the terms of a gentleman’s agreement with the teams in re-gards to the increase of overseas races and will run three outside of Europe in ‘12, four planned for ’13 and reach the desired total of five in 2014. Ex-world champion Seb Tortelli is part of the organising group in Mexico and claimed in the press conference that three locations were being considered but the GP will be close to international airports, in safe areas (the last day of the 2010 ISDE was cancelled due to criminal activity) and possibly near the beach.

He also joked: “If you take a wrong turn in LA then you can get shot too!” FIM CMS President Wolfgang Srb commented: “Mexico will be a wonderful addition to the calendar.”

At the same conference Youthstream Presi-dent Giuseppe Luongo stated it was too early to know if the 2012 Grand Prix schedule will inflate to sixteen rounds or stay at fifteen. Youthstream hoist Mexico as an example of a developing market and after Tortelli’s role in the World Celebrities spectacle at Guadalajara last year the Mexicans are ready to step into the international spotlight for the first time.

Three races and three weeks on another conti-nent will mean a price hike for the teams that are already spending upward of 25,000 euros to contest both the USA and Brazil but it does open the scope of the series and gives it extra international emphasis and flavour. Now just to conquer the jet-lag.

nEWSMX


For the third year in a row surf-wear com-pany Mormaii pushed the boat out for a

pre-GP media gathering in Brazil. An attend-ance of around twenty Grand Prix riders (Roc-zen, Cairoli, Searle, Herlings, Bobryshev, Kul-las, Nagl, Paulin, Frossard and more) and press travelled to the luxurious hotel/retreat of Hotel Dona Carolina, an hour from Indaiatuba.

The best thing about these types of events is the chance to see and watch the racers outside of their ‘natural’ environment of the circuit, and their activities and hi-jinks normally make for some curious promotional material, espe-cially for the local press.

At Dona Carolina Honda World Motocross team’s Rui Goncalves translated a guided tour

of the scenic Cachaca factory where local sugar cane begins a three-year process from chopped crop to bottled booze.

Only a few brave individuals downed the neat samples in the bar afterwards but maybe it had an effect as Roczen, Herlings, Bobryshev, Kullas and Max Anstie then decided to zip-wire across the resort’s lake.

Ken De Dycker proved that he has a good foot-balling touch for a big man and then a panel of riders judged nine buxom Brazilian beauties in a bikini contest; the winning ‘model’ becom-ing the Mormaii girl at the Grand Prix over the weekend. Roll on 2012…

cachaça and bikiniS: brazilian media evenT

hoT STuff...In the end the teams were making fences

out of whatever they could find. Indaiatuba hosted the third Brazilian Grand Prix in as many years and although the mania of the fans is not an unfamiliar phenomenon the thirst of the Brazilian public for motocross seems to catch the Grand Prix paddock on the hop.

At 8.30am on Saturday morning, one hour before the first free practice session, specta-tors were already queuing to enter the track. The paddock was intensely populated all day, as were the surrounding grandstands where the majority of the 9000 tickets sold in ten days were located. The temporary structure for the teams erected in a modern and impres-sive venue (a Honda traffic school complex constructed in 1998) needed some degree of control, especially after the clamour of Campo Grande for riding gear or souvenirs last year.The fervour in Brazil was the antithesis of what

people had seen in the USA last week and for that it was utterly refreshing; I doubt even this level of enthusiasm is match in European GP hotspots of France or the UK. Perhaps the combination of the sun and the fascinating racing in MX1 between Philippaerts, Cairoli, Frossard, Desalle and Ramon had helped tip them over the edge.

Even I felt in awe of the three riders in the post-race press conference for the display of competition and guts they had just provided. After eleven years following the FIM World Championship to places as diverse as Moscow, Nelspruit and Kegums there is something spe-cial about Brazil and even if the cost of living seems to be horrendously expensive (Brazil-ians can pay for a pay of Nikes in instalments) there is always a buzz about the event. I hope somewhere as able as Indaiatuba makes it on the calendar for ’12.


MX1 OverAll resultriders 1 David Philippaerts, ITA Yamaha

2 Tony Cairoli, ITA KTM

3 Clement Desalle, BEL Suzuki

4 Steven Frossard, FRA Yamaha

5 Steve Ramon, BEL Suzuki

MX2 OverAll resultriders 1 Jeffrey Herlings, NED KTM

2 Ken Roczen, GER Yamaha

3 Gautier Paulin, FRA Yamaha

4 Tommy Searle, GBR Kawasaki

5 Zach Osborne, USA Yamaha

MX1 WOrld CHAMpiOnsHip stAndings (After 4 Of 15 rOunds)

riders points 1 Clement Desalle 164

2 Tony Cairoli 153

3 David Philippaerts 151

4 David Philippaerts 138

5 Steven Frossard 132

MX2 WOrld CHAMpiOnsHip stAndings (After 4 Of 15 rOunds)

riders points 1 Ken Roczen 191

2 Jeffrey Herlings 177

3 Tommy Searle 156

4 Zach Osborne 122

5 Gautier Paulin 120

claSSificaTion & World championShip

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place your adverThere!For publicity opportunities contact us at [email protected]

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come TogeTher...


Among all the judgements, opinions and off-track bench racing at Glen Helen, the

meeting between the MSMA (Motorcycle Sport Manufacturers Association), FIM, AMA and promotion groups of MX Sports, Youthstream and Feld (SX) on Friday was perhaps the sub-ject that got most tongues wagging. The union was significant on its own after some frosty relations between the promoters in recent years but the agreement to ‘level’ the technical rules brings American motocross closer in relation to European/World moto-cross and this opens interesting possibilities.

The most obvious is a more practical entry for AMA teams and riders to the Motocross of Nations (the 2011 edition of which at St Jean d’Angely in France will see the introduction of the new regulations for the first time) and any American-based FIM world championship events of which they could now be more.

So what are the changes? The FIM will meet the AMA guidelines on weight (meaning MX1 bikes can lose another three kilos, although one team manager said this would be difficult to do with fuel injection and without spend-ing more cash on things like lighter seats and wheel hubs) and allowance for fuel variation.

The Americans will adopt the FIM’s 2mMax sound test from the beginning of the 2012 AMA Nationals, which is bound to mean qui-eter machinery in the United States. This is an entirely positive move but will mean some extra work for AMA teams in the same way the

GP guys had to tune their motorcycles in 2010 and this year.

The FIM World Championship will also keep ‘prototype’ status but with the bikes now ‘simi-lar’ this does fudge the definition somewhat. The production rule in America apparently means no alterations to engine cases, swing-arms, fuel tanks, bore and stroke and chassis geometry among others. Keeping Grand Prix a ‘prototype’ series – where experimentation with components like these - is essential for the interest and participation of the manufac-turers.

“We have broadened the rule book to make it wider and the idea is to have ‘one bike for the world’. We hope it will be happen soon but this kind of scheme cannot be built in a day,” com-mented the FIM’s Wolfgang Srb.

After news had leaked about the meeting pad-dock experts were already ruminating about a Grand Prix/AMA National amalgamation race with riders scoring points for both series.

‘It is an interesting idea and probably more possible now that we are working together,’ said MX Sports Davey Coombs ‘but it would have to be at one of our twelve National tracks’.

Keeping grand prix racing prototype is essential...

BloGMX

hAnGToWnSAcrAMEnTo · MAY 21st450 winner: chad reed, honda250 winner: Blake Baggett, Kawasaki

AMA-MX

Words and photos by Steve Cox

reed nailS honda naTional debuTWords and Photos by Steve Cox

The Hangtown National is always one of the most anticipated races of the year because

the industry in general is usually sick and tired of supercross by this point and everyone needs a change of scenery.But even though the change of scenery was desired, there weren’t many people who

would’ve picked Chad Reed – who only com-mitted officially to the series about a week be-fore round one – to win the opener. And even fewer would’ve predicted that he would do it like he did, coming from behind and passing his way past the young bucks to go 2-1 and take the 450 overall.

Defending 450 Champ Dungey took Moto1

Sure, he won Hangtown last year, too, but that was on a well-tested KX450F, and it wasn’t nearly the same kind of performance, as he went 1-4 for the win.Indeed, if asked, undoubtedly most would’ve said that Ryan Villopoto was going to win at Hangtown. After all, he is coming hot off his

first-ever 450cc supercross championship, and most consider him an outdoor specialist, as he went undefeated in his Lites (250) career outdoors for championships and couldn’t do the same thing indoors, losing two of his three Lites SX title attempts.

Villopoto was hot but not 100% at Hangtown

However, prior to Hangtown, believe it or not, Villopoto had only really raced one 450cc National MX race. In 2009, he contested the series opener at Glen Helen and absolutely dominated the event but then blew out his knee before round two at Hangtown. Although he still attempted to race, only part of the first moto, that was it for him. Since that meeting

he hasn’t raced outdoors at all. On top of that, he was sick for most of the two weeks between Las Vegas and Hangtown and he said he defi-nitely wasn’t 100-percent for round one.So, knowing all of this, a 3-3 score is actually pretty good, regardless of whether or not he was favored prior to the gate drop.

Moto winner and immediate title contender Dean Wilson was second on the 250 box

Perhaps the biggest surprise is the one thing that shouldn’t have been, as many people claimed that Ryan Dungey only won the title in 2010 because Ryan Villopoto wasn’t there, James Stewart wasn’t there, Chad Reed was sick, etc. However, with Reed healthy and haul-ing, and Villopoto as prepared as he could be under the circumstances, Dungey went out

in the very first moto of the season and put a hurt on the other thirty-nine guys on the starting line, winning the race. He put himself in position to win the second moto, too, but Reed had other plans for him. Suffice it to say, though, that Ryan Dungey is going to be a contender provided he stays healthy and the naysayers are likely to have to eat more crow.

Pourcel in Blue.Promising start with 8th overall but can (and will) do better

After missing the SX season Jake Weimer tries to tame the KX450F. 6th in the second moto hints at more to come

AMA-MX nEWS

honda helperSWith Trey Canard out until at least the third

round of the Nationals but more likely to be round five or so, and Josh Grant just get-ting clearance to get back on his dirt bike the same weekend as Hangtown, Honda needed to get bodies on their motorcycles outdoors. In comes Kevin Windham. Windham filled in for injured Davi Millsaps for Honda during the nationals last year and near the end and won Steel City. Now, he’s filling in at the start of the series and if he’s competitive he might even

stay for the entire schedule. And he’s not the only one. Chad Reed is also getting significant support from Honda, just like he was getting near the end of the supercross season, and he’ll be heading outdoors to take on the rest of the guys as well. There’s a rumour that some-one will straddle a second CRF next to the Aussie. Add those two into the mix with Ryan Dungey, Ryan Villopoto, and the rest of the field, and it should be a good campaign.

Chris Pourcel made his return to the track at Hangtown and he was fast enough to be

competitive right out of the gate, so to speak, on his factory-backed Motoconcepts Yamaha YZ450F.

However, his lack of action over the past nine months definitely took its toll, as he had a tough time lasting through both long motos on such a rough track. Racing in the 450 class takes a different kind of fitness than racing in the 250s, and Pourcel is going to have to ‘race himself’ into shape.

But even when he was tired he showed the same inventiveness with his line choice as always, looking downright slow in some spots, even though he was not losing any time to any of the riders around him.

Within a couple of hours of setting the fastest time in the first practice session

at Hangtown on his KTM 450SX-F, Mike Alessi went down and hit his head – again.

He just had a concussion about three weeks earlier when he crashed in Salt Lake City. Ini-tial reports were that he would return at round two in Texas but that simply can’t happen. He has had two concussions in less than a month, and there’s no way he’s going to be back in one week.

They’re saying now that for sure he’ll return by High Point, but honestly, I don’t see that happening, either. Head injuries are no joke, and he’ll be back when he’s ready to be – no sooner.

chriS-croSS

aleSSi - ko??

Rockstar/Makita Suzuki’s Brett Metcalfe should’ve won at least one moto last sum-

mer in the 450cc class, holding off team-mate and points leader Ryan Dungey until about five turns left in the race at Southwick before his

CRF ran out of fuel. He had to miss a lot of the supercross series because of some nagging injuries but he’ll be back and flying for the outdoors starting at Hangtown; yet another top racer to the fray.

meTcalfe reTurnS


AMA 450 OverAll resultriders 1 Chad Reed, AUS Honda

2 Ryan Dungey, USA Suzuki

3 Ryan Villopoto, USA Kawasaki

4 Kevin Windham, USA Honda

5 Brett Metcalfe, AUS Suzuki

AMA 250 OverAll resultriders 1 Blake Baggett, USA Kawasaki

2 Dean Wilson, GBR Kawasaki

3 Tyla Rattray, RSA Kawasaki

4 Eli Tomac, USA Honda

5 Marvin Musquin, FRA KTM

AMA 450 stAndings

(After 1 Of 12 rOunds)

riders points 1 Chad Reed 047

2 Ryan Dungey 047

3 Ryan Villopoto 040

4 Kevin Windham 033

5 Brett Metcalfe 032

AMA 250 stAndings

(After 1 Of 12 rOunds)

riders points 1 Blake Baggett 047

2 Dean Wilson 045

3 Tyla Rattray 038

4 Eli Tomac 038

5 Marvin Musquin 033

ama-mx claSSificaTion & World championShip


race around The clock


AMA-MX BloG

The U.S. GP is good for the GP paddock, and maybe even for the motocross in-

dustry, which in the USA is based nearby in Southern California but for AMA racers, it’s more of a nuisance.

This is when people begin heckling them to race an event that they’re not paid to race and which takes place prior to the start of a series they are paid to race, meaning if they get hurt, they lose a lot of money and bosses get mad.

It’s also a bit of a nuisance for us journalist types because this would be the one weekend we got off prior to the start of the AMA Na-tionals but as many of us are also based in So-Cal, we end up spending not just one but two days (the AMA Nationals are one-day affairs, on Saturdays) out in the dirt.

It is our job but after seventeen rounds of su-percross in eighteen weekends a weekend off would’ve been really nice. As it sits, though, it’s not far off. We have Hangtown followed by the Texas National, which will hopefully not include a heat index of 115 degrees Fahrenheit this year like it did in ’10.

Then, to start June we do get a break, followed by four more races running in succession.

There are fifteen Grands Prix in a season and I know many of the racers and journalists also cover national series in Europe but I don’t think anyone has the schedule of a full-time journalist/photographer in the USA who at-tends every round. With the upcoming US Open event in October, and the Motocross of Nations in France in September, that’s thirty-

one races in one year, thirty of which happen by mid-September.

And while I can sit here and whine about the schedule, the 450 racers do just as many races – if they stay healthy – and obviously racing is going to take a bigger toll on those guys than it does on me.

But next year, the AMA contingent may have one more race on the schedule, as they may take part in the US GP, since the AMA and FIM have come to agreement on sound, weight and fuel regulations, which means the AMA teams won’t have to prepare anything special for the event if they want to take part.

MotoGP MonSTEr EnErGY GrAnd PriX dE frAncElE MAnS · MAY 15thMotoGP winner: casey Stoner, hondaMoto2 winner: Marc Marquez, Suter125cc winner: Maverick Vinales, ??

caSey TurnS iT around By Matthew RobertsPhotos by Honda Pro Images, Monster Energy/Milagro www.yamahamotogp.com

MonSTEr EnErGY GrAnd PriX dE frAncE

Jorge Lorenzo may still sit comfortably at the top of the MotoGP World Championship but

Casey Stoner’s indomitable performance at Le Mans took a huge bite out of his points advan-tage that will have also left an indelible scar on the Spaniard’s confidence as the series heads to his homeland and the Grand Prix of Catalu-nya next weekend.Throughout the entire meeting in France the Australian was back to the kind of unerring

domination that he showed in the opening round at Qatar but unlike the Losail circuit Le Mans is not a ‘Stoner track’.

In fact it was one of only five on the calendar that he had never won at in MotoGP (the oth-ers are Jerez, Estoril, Silverstone and Indianap-olis) before last weekend but victory looked in little doubt from the moment he took the lead.

Dani Pedrosa went from the high of victory at Estoril to the low of another broken bone (right collarbone) in France. He also cancelled his membership of the Simoncelli Fan Club.

Whilst a 14 second advantage over team-mate Andrea Dovizioso at the line was an exagger-ated winning margin due to the controversial clash between Dani Pedrosa and Marco Si-moncelli and resultant ride through penalty for the Italian, the fact that Lorenzo was a jaw-dropping seven seconds further back in fourth place represents a serious problem for the Spaniard and the Japanese factory.

The fact is that Le Mans has always been regarded as a Yamaha track. The flip-flop chicanes traditionally suit the light handling of the YZR-M1 and the YZR500 before it, allowing them to take victory for the past three seasons and a series of famous ‘one-twos’ with Lorenzo and Rossi in 2010, Rossi and Lorenzo in 2008 (with Colin Edwards on the podium) and Max Biaggi and Carlos Checa way back in the final year of factory two-strokes in 2001.

Jorge Lorenzo keeps a clear view of the 2011 title chase but was frustrated at Le Mans

Success at Le Mans is part of Yamaha’s DNA and clearly something is not right. Ben Spies, who is enduring a torrid start to his first sea-son as a factory rider and struggled to win his own personal battle with Nicky Hayden in France, had commented on the eve of the race that if Lorenzo could finish in the top five he would deserve a medal.

Ironically, it was only the antics of the much-maligned Simoncelli – heavily criticised by Lorenzo in recent weeks - that saved the World Champion from further embarrassment at a circuit where he had celebrated victory for the previous two seasons.

Another small piece of history for Valentino with his first podium for Ducati. It was also the first trophy of the season for the Desmosedici GP11. Rossi now has walked the box with three brands in MotoGP

The truth is not that Yamaha have taken a step backwards but that they have yet to match the gargantuan leap taken at Honda, whilst the inevitable progress at Ducati must also be a concern. Both Lorenzo and Spies lapped a sec-ond quicker at Le Mans than their best effort in the 2010 race but Stoner and Pedrosa were the best part of another full second faster still.

Yamaha may have announced that they will run a special livery at Assen and Laguna Seca in celebration of half a century in World Cham-pionship racing but those bikes need more than a new paint job otherwise their 50th year might not be so memorable.

Stoner’s win now takes him to 25 in the premier class. The same as Kevin Schwantz and one more than Wayne Rainey. He needs 22 more to equal the career total of Mick Doohan, the most successful Aussie in GP racing

Monster Energy went big for their premier European event and the French fans responded

2010 125cc World Champion Marc Marquez earned his spurs in Moto2

No podium for Colin this year but this shot gives a cool perspective of a MotoGP grid

The ride-through penalty that Marco Simoncelli felt was punishment for previous alleged indiscretions

Line astern. It is amazing the narrow contact patch those Bridgestones permit. Here Rossi is inches from Dovizioso and Lorenzo

MotoGP nEWS

pedroSa laTe fiTneSS TeST

Of all the conflicting emotions from the French Grand Prix the overriding feeling is

one of sympathy for Dani Pedrosa, who after a few days of careful consideration decided to undergo surgery to fix a titanium plate to his broken right collarbone having only just had one removed from his left side.

The same injury that ended his 2010 title challenge at Motegi last October and led to complications and surgery at the start of this campaign means his championship hopes are left parked at the door of the Clinica Mobile for the fourth season in a row.

In 2009 he was hindered throughout the year with hip and knee problems whilst in 2008 he crashed out of the race and championship lead at Sachsenring and fractured his wrist.

Second place at Le Mans would have given Dani the championship lead going into his home race in Barcelona, third and he would have been tied at the top with Jorge Lorenzo. Now he faces an all-too-familiar race just to be fit and with six races in seven weeks over the months of June and July this is the worst possible time of the season to be anything less than 100% fit.

Mr Roberts gets acquainted with an 848 at Silverstone


pedroSa laTe fiTneSS TeST

HRC travelled from Le Mans to Jerez to carry out a pre-arranged test with their

2012 1000cc prototype with Casey Stoner, although they opted not to replace the injured Pedrosa with the third Repsol Honda rider An-drea Dovizioso.

The fact the Japanese factory had only planned to let both Pedrosa and Stoner ride the bike would already have been of concern to the Italian rider and his management; the fact they left him at home regardless of the Spaniard’s absence and used veteran test rider Shinichi Ito instead is a further kick in the teeth.

As for the test, Stoner completed a total of 75 laps over the two days, using the current Bridgestone tyres and new spec designed specifically for the new engine capacity. ‘The braking point seems to be stronger, stability in the front going into the corner seems to be very good, and of course we want to under-stand how the power delivery is, and it is very smooth so no problem,’ reflected Stoner.

‘In general, we haven’t changed too much from the set up we have on the 800cc right now and the feeling is very similar, so it’s pretty good.’

dovi in hrc cold??

Last weekend I had the pleasure of riding at what can now be considered one of the

world’s truly great motorsport venues. I had two days on track at Silverstone with Ducati UK, riding everything from a Monster to a Diavel, and can honestly say that not only is the track layout up there with anything on the planet but so are the facilities (not to mention the bikes!).

Valentino Rossi himself had been there just a few days earlier for the official opening of the stunning new pit and paddock complex and completed a few laps on an 1198 Superbike be-fore it broke down. A local dealer rushed over with a street version of the same bike, with road tyres, stock settings, registration plate, indicators, the lot and I’m told he was only six seconds off the pace.

‘I really had fun,’ said Rossi. ‘The track is nice - difficult and very technical. It makes you work hard because there are very fast sections where having the right trajectory is important, and others that are very narrow where you have to have good grip under acceleration. The first turn is completely blind, and you must hold a very precise line, and in general the entire first section is really great.’

The circuit organisers have are also going the right way about getting the fans in: tickets start at just £16.

uk haS World claSS venue

Welcome To The jungle‘It’s pretty f*cking exciting!’

Slash’s liberal use of French to describe MotoGP on the grid at Le Mans may have summed up what we all think about the sport but you could say that it wasn’t the most suit-able lunchtime viewing for a BBC2 audience! I suppose I was wrong to expect anything less from a true legend of rock but there was no way I was not going to stick my microphone in front of the only hairstyle out there more rec-ognisable than that of Marco Simoncelli!

I actually had to hold my tongue myself throughout the show in France due to a host of technical problems that meant Azi and I lost all contact with the gallery and each other dur-ing the grid walk. It was a shame because we missed the opportunity to hear from Randy de Puniet about that incident with Casey Stoner

during warm-up and also missed out on a chat with Sebastian Loeb, who Azi had managed to grab for a quick word. It just goes to show the important part played by the production team during a live broadcast because without their direction we are virtually walking around blindfolded.

I should say thanks again to Captain Steve Parrish for allowing me on board Plummet Airways, his own personal four-seater Cessna 182 plane which he flies to most of the races in northern Europe. Steve’s girlfriend Michelle also got into the spirit of things by dressing up as a stewardess and providing us with a packed lunch, although I’ll be a little more wary of the contents next time. Her ‘hand-made sweets’ were actually dried mealworms dipped in dark chocolate. I shudder to think what the mini scotch eggs might have been...

claSSificaTion & World championShip

125cc resultriders 1 Maverick Vinales, SPA Aprilia

2 Nico Terol, SPA Aprilia

3 Efren Vazquez, SPA Derbi

4 Hector Faubel, SPA Aprilia

5 Johann Zarco, FRA Derbi


Moto2 resultriders 1 Marc Marquez, SPA Suter

2 Yuki Takahashi, JPN Moriwaki

3 Stefan Bradl, GER Kalex

4 Julian Simon, SPA Suter

5 Thomas Luthi, SUI Suter

Moto2 CHAMpiOnsHip stAndings (After 4 Of 17 rOunds)

riders points 1 Stefan Bradl 077

2 Julian Simon 049

3 Andrea Iannone 048

4 Yuki Takahashi 047

5 Thomas Luthi 047


Motogp result riders 1 Casey Stoner, AUS Honda

2 Andrea Dovizioso, ITA Honda

3 Valentino Rossi, ITA Ducati

4 Jorge Lorenzo, SPA Honda

5 Marco Simoncelli, ITA Honda

Motogp CHAMpiOnsHip stAndings (After 4 Of 18 rOunds)

riders points 1 Jorge Lorenzo 078

2 Casey Stoner 066

3 Dani Pedrosa 061

4 Andrea Dovizioso 050

5 Valentino Rossi 047

125cc CHAMpiOnsHip stAndings (After 4 Of 17 rOunds)

riders points 1 Nico Terol 095

2 Sandro Cortese 059

3 Johann Zarco 053

4 Jonas Folger 052

5 Efren Vazquez 046


poinTing fingerS


The knee-jerk reaction from Race Direction to give Marco Simoncelli a ride through

penalty for his over-ambitious move on Dani Pedrosa at Le Mans has polarised opinion and caused a furore that will rumble on until the paddock reconvenes at the Catalunya circuit.

Whilst there is a school of thought that Pedro-sa could have done more to prevent his own downfall, there is no denying that Simoncelli was at fault. Indeed, at a time when the for-mer 250cc World Champion has been under fire from his contemporaries for his aggressive riding, even his most vocal ally Valentino Rossi was forced to admit that ‘this time, Simoncelli was too hard.’

Ben Spies called it a ‘pretty dumb move’, while Lorenzo, who was banned for a 250cc race after wiping out Alex de Angelis at Motegi in 2005, felt the punishment should have been even harsher: ‘The most logical thing (and equivalent to the damage caused) would be to not let him race until Pedrosa is 100% fit again,’ he tweeted.

The most scything condemnation came from Pedrosa’s personal manager Alberto Puig, a man not best known for expressing considered opinion: ‘I think Simoncelli is a total ignora-mus, the kid needs to be locked up. He has ruined our season,’ he blasted.

Citing moves made by Simoncelli earlier this season on Dovizioso and Stoner in Qatar and Portugal respectively, the impartial Suzuki Team Manager Paul Denning said that if Si-moncelli was in his team he would accept the punishment – particularly since the rider had been hauled in front of Race Direction earlier

in the weekend following an official complaint made jointly by a group of riders including Lorenzo, Stoner and Hector Barbera.

However, in my opinion arbitrarily imposing a ride through penalty smacks of victimisation. Lorenzo made a rough pass on Dovizioso ear-lier in the race, which he has admitted was a mistake and almost took them both out, yet no action was taken. Rossi knocked Stoner off at Jerez but was able to remount and finish the race without punishment. To my knowledge neither rider has been warned about their future overtaking etiquette. Was Simoncelli’s mistake really any worse than either of those examples? Yet, as far as I have been able to work out, this is the first time in the pre-mier-class that a rider has been given a ride through penalty for an ‘illegal manoeuvre’.

It may not be an ideal solution, especially for the fans watching the race, but a retrospective time penalty would at least give Race Direc-tion an opportunity to match the severity of the punishment to that of the perceived crime.

In 2003 Valentino Rossi was given a retro-spective ten second sanction for overtaking under yellow flags at Donington Park, handing his victory to Max Biaggi. Later that season he was given the same penalty for the same crime but was informed of the decision dur-ing the race, allowing him to respond with one of his greatest ever performances to win by 15.212 seconds.

Precedents are set but rarely are they re-spected and that, as opposed to the validity of Simoncelli’s riding style, is the big issue.

MotoGP BloG

Feature

malcolm SmiTh: born To ride Photos by Ray Archer

Malcolm Smith is seventy years old and still rides a motorbike. For a man who oversees a renowned motorcycle dealership in southern California and

is regarded as a doyen of American off-road bike racing then it is not much of a surprise. Many fans of two-wheels outside of the USA will recognise Smith as one of the three protagonists – Steve McQueen and Mert Lawwill the others – of the memorable 1971 Documentary ‘On Any Sunday’. Smith’s legacy is tied up in an era of bravery, adventure and added glamour thanks to the success of the film and the once-thriving Californian Baja/Rally scene. An icon of bygone days, Smith talks slowly the thoughtfully and although he must have spoken about ‘On Any Sunday’ a million times is still happy to reminisce and chat about his life on the gas…

Malcolm it seems that motorcycles remain such a big part of your life…Absolutely, ever since I discovered them at thirteen years old. It is still such a thrill when I twist the throttle and go again.

Malcolm Smith Motorsports here at Riverside is a huge set-up…It is a lot of work and especially over the last couple of years. I had no idea the business would end up this big. It grew and grew a little bit at a time. We try to treat people as we’d like to be treated and do business a little conservatively. Habits of the customers have changed and price is more important now than it ever used to be. I have not experienced a non-profit time before and it is quite shocking to then be losing a lot of money. Three years ago we had 100 people working here and we had to trim that to 50 while doing the same amount of work but that was the only way so that the costs didn’t go up for the customer. It is brutal; I haven’t had a pay-check in three years and employees had to take pay cuts but now it is starting to come back.

What is your day-to-day role?I keep active but I do what interests me. For example for a week or two I’ll be in the repair shop seeing how efficiently the things are running there, then maybe the machine shop. I’m more interested in the mechanical side than being a sales guy. The money here comes through motorcycle sales and I can talk to people who want to buy a bike but I can’t close the deal. I was a service manager at Can-Am Motorcycles and that was the original MSR. I enjoy making engines run really well. My nickname in the old days was ‘Dr Motor’ because my BSA Gold Stars or Matchless four-strokes always went a little faster than anyone else’s.

You have a small museum on the second floor. Do those old bikes still provoke emotion?Yes, a few of them, especially like the bike I built for a Hill Climb in 1982 and whenever I go by it the memories come very easily. That old Matchless engine out there was from my very first motorcycle and I got it back fifty years later from the guy I sold it to. People will come into the shop and say ‘we know you like old Husqys, take this’ and give me stuff. Which one would I grab first in a fire? Boy…I think they’d all burn first before I had a chance to think! I think the one that I never had when I was racing is that Velocette 350. I have a lot of old Husqys in other buildings but that black Velocette is rare. It would be that or the ’66 Husqvarna 250.

So the entire bike collection must be bigger than that…I have about double what is out there in different places. I work on them at home. I get up early each day and restore them. Downstairs there is a ’67 on the wall that looks brand new and I restored it in six months from an old rust-bucket. We had a customer who is an ex-Navy Seal, he was on a TV show, I don’t remember the name – if you restore bikes then you don’t watch too much TV – anyway, he wanted to race the Baja 1000 like I did in ’71, but I wouldn’t sell him my bike so he had a guy in New York build him one and send it out here. He had paid 10,000 bucks for it to be race-ready but it would not run! There were so many things wrong with it so we had to take it all apart. I went to test-ride it after we were done and I had forgotten how good the engines are. Everything else, the suspension and the brakes, were horrible. I think the biggest improve-ment every time a new bike came out was with the brakes.

What is your take on modern bikes?To me an old bike is last year’s model. My bike is a 2011 250EXC KTM two-stroke. They are six-speed now, 210 pounds and the engine runs like a dream. I cannot find anything wrong with the motorcycle.

Do you still find that there is a lot of good will out there towards you?Oh yeah. I get a lot of pictures, posters and items in the mail to sign. It seems like there are two or three things every day and I am honoured to do it.

What about being recognised more for the films rather than racing?I don’t think about it. I was lucky that Bruce Brown [On Any Sunday Producer and Director] picked me. I got a lot of publicity and it is funny to think now that I almost didn’t do the movie. I had a repair-shop at the time. Bruce said he wasn’t ready to do the film and I had bought Can-Am Motorcycles and was going through the accounting. He then called and said he wanted to shoot and I said I couldn’t because I had too much on my mind. He replied that they were a few weeks away from filming so he would call me back. He got in touch again one day before starting and asked if I had things figured out and I said ‘yeah, let’s do it’. I thought I would be in the film for only a few seconds. I didn’t know I’d be a featured guy.There was a twenty-year period when I didn’t see the movie. I don’t know why but then one day my kids got hold of it and put it on and I’d forgotten how good it was. It got me excited about riding. I think my life would have been pretty bor-ing if I hadn’t discovered motorcycles.

Interesting to see how Steve McQueen has become a brand over the years?I think it is great. Steve was a really nice guy when you got him away from his Hollywood cronies. He was always really competitive. He always wanted to be the leader whether it was at filming or racing. Steve had a house up on a moun-tain in Palm Springs, really nice with a swimming pool. He was married to Ali MacGraw at one time who was very attractive. He’d call about going riding in the desert and he’d ask whether we’d meet at the sand dunes or his house and we always said ‘his house’ because she was usually out by the pool sun-bathing! It was amazing. We’d be in a restaurant and women would always come up and ask for a picture. He never acted like he had a lot of money and to be with him was like seeing a different world.

MX1 winner: clement desalle, SuzukiMX2 winner: Ken roczen, KTM

MonSTEr EnErGY GrAnd PriX of uniTEd STATESGlEn hElEn · MAY 15th

MX

deSalle The deSTroyer in uniTed STaTeS

MonSTEr EnErGY GrAnd PriX of uniTEd STATES

deSalle The deSTroyer in uniTed STaTeS By Adam Wheeler, photos by Ray Archer

The Grand Prix of the United States was, for 2011, backed and shaped by the might of

motorsports’ current proactive benefactors, Monster Energy, but (sadly) remains one of America’s best little motorcycle racing secrets.

A sparse crowd across the hills of Glen Helen, east of LA, seemed ‘up’ on 2010 but was still nothing near the packed enclosures seen at Thunder Valley for the Motocross of Nations or perhaps close to an AMA National attendance. As well as the partially understandable (but not entirely excusable) diffidence of any Ameri-can riders to the event the freak weather was a contributing factor. The cold and rain of Sunday morning had many Europeans grumbling but the California sun made a belated appearance on Sunday afternoon. The wind helped dry the longest track on the calendar (almost a three minute lap compared to the usual sub-two minutes) and created two different motos.Factory Rockstar Suzuki’s Clement Desalle was imperious despite the best efforts of KTM duo Tony Cairoli and Max Nagl who both drew up to the back of the Belgian in the closing stages of each race to create a set of tense finales. Cairoli was denied a chance to repeat his American success of 2010 after a mistake that also collected the warring Steven Frossard on the first lap of the second moto.

The speed and bumps of Glen Helen (the tech-nical demands exaggerated after the weather) punished the smallest slips with Cairoli, Ra-mon, Guarneri, and Frossard just some to suffer the consequences. Nagl was able to rise to the podium for the second time this season and admitted the 350SX-F was helping towards a more consistent approach that could place the German into genuine contention for the ’11

crown: ‘With the 450 we found in some places it worked very well and in others it didn’t, the 350 is slightly better for me to be consistent’. He was followed onto the box by a dumbstruck Evgeny Bobryshev who only learned of his maiden trophy – and of defeating an impres-sive Kevin Strijbos - upon crossing the finish line.

A popular podiumee, ‘Bobby’ picked up a historic trophy in Glen Helen

‘You might have to pinch me because I feel like I’m dreaming,’ said the popular and humble Russian afterwards (the first rider from his country to earn a podium finish in the history of MX1).As Desalle was peerless at the front in MX1 so was Red Bull Teka KTM’s Ken Roczen in MX2 in what the German was calling his ‘second home grand prix’. As in Bulgaria Her-lings was a frustrated observer in second and

for the third time in three events the same trio sprayed champagne as Tommy Searle recov-ered from an erratic and error-strewn first race to seal third overall.Best American and winner of the Marty Moates Cup for the second year in a row was Zach Os-borne; the Virginian rousing the partisans with his run to fifth overall.

Last year in the USA Marvin Musquin was looking behind him for the competition. Not this time. Although Glen Helen was the Frenchman’s first major race since Bercy. He was 6th in Moto2 and crashed in the first

The sandy section at Glen Helen was a novel addition but the change of terrain did not affect Desalle who had previously been so cautious in Holland three weeks before

Ken Roczen only had eyes on the prize for win number two from three

It was impossible not to be impressed by the Monster Energy presence in the USA...

STarS and exTra STripeS

Attending the U.S.GP was a strange experi-ence. On Saturday it felt odd seeing world

championship riders and even the returning 2010 MX2 number one Marvin Musquin circu-lating an impeccably organised and present-able race circuit – one of the most daunting on the calendar – that was empty. It was like being at a club race, devoid of atmosphere, and you couldn’t help but feel the series and the effort made to bring the event to a fantas-tic stage like this deserved better.

There was a good industry turnout and a generous smattering of fans now used to the one-day National schedule did brave the crap weather on Sunday to turn-up. The lack of American riders was a notable factor, one that will hopefully be fixed for 2012 if Glen Helen runs the Grand Prix again. A last-gasp reaction

appeared two days before the race with the offer of a 100k for an American overall winner in the MX1 class while a more serious move for the long-term prospect of international meet-ings in America occurred on Friday with an effort towards a amalgamation of FIM and AMA technical rules. This bodes well for the future.

While I struggle to remember being any colder at a Grand Prix in the press room late on Sunday night, it was a privilege to see Desalle and Roczen both smooth and terrifying on the Californian hills earlier that afternoon.

The long and fast triple into the uphill double is still one of the most spectacular sections in Grand Prix motocross and it is a thrill, plus worth the entry ticket alone, to witness the rid-ers sailing close to 100ft through the air.

Max Anstie showed what he has got for the MX2 class at Glen Helen

The Monster Energy athletes came together for a karting evening in Corona. The race was won by David Philippaerts

Photos by Monster Energy/Milagro


MX1 OverAll resultriders 1 Clement Desalle, BEL Suzuki

2 Max Nagl, GER KTM

3 Evgeny Bobryshev, RUS Honda

4 Rui Goncalves, POR Honda

5 Kevin Strijbos, BEL Suzuki

MX2 OverAll resultriders 1 Ken Roczen, GER KTM

2 Jeffrey Herlings, NED KTM

3 Tommy Searle, GBR Kawasaki

4 Max Anstie, GBR Kawasaki

5 Zach Osborne, USA Yamaha

claSSificaTion

Honda’s Rui Goncalves continues to impress in his first season on the 450

BackPaGe

Working overtime...The employees of Pro Circuit have probably never been so distracted. The fetching Natalie climbed aboard this historic Harley in the depths of the company’s workshop in Corona and for a moment bystanders were concentrating on something else other than the tuning of the numerous bikes lined up at the impressive facility. See more of Natalie on www.mxlife.tv Photo by Ray Archer

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‘On-track Off-road’ is a free, bi-weekly publication for the screen focus-sed on bringing the latest perspectives on events, blogs and some of the very fi nest photography from the three worlds of the FIM Motocross World Championship, the AMA Motocross and Supercross series’ and MotoGP.‘On-track Off-road’ will be published online at www.otormag.com every Tuesday. To receive an email notifi cation that a new issue available with a brief description of each edition’s contents simply enter an address in the box provided on the homepage. All email addresses will be kept strictly confi dential and only used for purposes connected with OTOR.

Adam Wheeler Editor and FIM MXGP correspondentRay Archer PhotographerSteve Cox Photo-journalist and AMA MX and SX correspondentMatthew Roberts Television Presenter and MotoGP correspondentNúria Garcia, Paula Mastrangelo & Tactilestudio DesignGabi Álvarez Web developerwww.ribitsolutions.com Hosting

PHOTO CREDITSwww.yamahamotogp.com, Monster Energy Europe, Honda Pro Images, MilagroCover shot: Motocross from Brazil By Ray Archer

This publication took a lot of time and effort to put together so please respect it! Nothing in this publication can be reproduced in whole or part without the written permission of the editorial team. For more information please visit www.otormag.com and click ‘Contact us’.

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On-Track Off-Road Issue 5