Boost Mobile Ducati Interview | New bikes, team orders?

Boost Mobile Ducati Interview

Josh Waters recently raced the MotoGP support events in the Superbike class on the Boost Mobile Racing with K-Tech Ducati V4 R and cleaned up.

As a last-minute stand in for ASBK Championship leader Wayne Maxwell, who saw no point in contesting the non championship races, Josh Waters took the reins of the bike and put it straight to the top.

Subsequently Craig McMartin and the Boost Mobile with K-Tech squad have decided to field Josh Waters alongside Wayne Maxwell in the final two rounds of the Australian Superbike Championship.

How far are you along now with the new Boost Mobile Racing with K-Tech V4R bike build for Josh Waters?

Craig McMartin (Team Owner): “As I am sure you can imagine Trev a lot of the road gear is removed for racing in ASBK, and some of that gear goes deep into the construction of a modern motorbike. I’ve realised that taking it down to a bare engine and starting from scratch is the only way to be certain that everything is present and accounted for, as well as fastened correctly.

“The whole project takes an incredible amount of time, probably a solid week. The important thing from my perspective is to make sure everything is done properly, rather than allocating a set time that it must be completed in.”

Apart from seating position and bar/control tweaks, what are the most marked differences you can see on the data between how Josh is riding the bike at this early stage, in comparison to Wayne?

Do you think having the data from both riders is going to be an effective tool for the riders to tune their own approach to riding the motorcycle?

Adrian Monti (Crew Chief): “I don’t think any two individuals ride a motorcycle the same. At this level, trying to tell one rider to ride more like another is never going to end well either. (laughing)

“We’re focusing on the similarities, rather than the differences between Wayne and Josh, and working together as a team to improve both of their lap times.

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“They each have access to the others data and we will, of course, use this to try and make steps forward for both riders.”

No doubt you have been able to see where Josh could improve his approach, and have already made a few steps towards getting him and the bike in a place where they are working together well enough on Wayne’s bike to set a new ASBK lap record around Phillip Island…

Are you already identifying areas where Josh was quicker than Wayne, that could allow Wayne to go even quicker?

Adrian: “Josh did a fantastic job at Phillip Island both during his initial test and the MotoGP weekend, It was amazing to have Wayne there openly offering his knowledge and experience riding the V4R for the last few years, helping Josh adapt and get up to speed quickly.

“From a technical perspective we looked at how we could improve the bike for Josh after each outing and he worked on adapting to the characteristics of the Ducati V4R, and as the results proved, the whole team did an amazing job. To ride away from the best Superbike riders in Australia on only his second day on the bike was testament to the extraordinary effort of Josh, and everyone.”

Is the move to put Josh on the bike connected to helping Wayne’s quest to successfully defend his title? Presumably by putting Josh on a bike where he has already demonstrated race winning speed on, that should allow Josh to place himself between Wayne and Mike, if the cards fall that way where Mike is not already ahead of both of them, too early for team orders…?

Craig: “We’re thrilled to have Josh riding our motorbike and part of the team. He is there on merit and his performance at the MotoGP was fantastic as well as him fitting in very well.

“Wayne has chosen that this will be his final year racing in ASBK and as a team will do everything we can to help him win his fourth ASBK title.

“There’s still so much racing to come and we’re not getting ahead of ourselves or taking anything for granted. Our approach will be the same as it always is, we’ll treat each day as we have for the past three years and look to maximise our points verses our rivals.”

Do you intend racing the 2023 model V4 R next season? The engine looks even more special next year, with the ‘gun drilled’ con-rods, lighter pistons, more aggressive cams, and perhaps even more important for competition here could be the changes to the internal gearbox ratios…?

Craig: “We would of course like to compete with the 2023 Ducati V4R, it will be an updated model and we are sure that Ducati have improved an already fantastic motorbike.

“But that will depend on funding, still at the end of the day we are a privateer team buying motorbikes from a dealership just like anyone off the street. At the moment we have quite a large funding hole for 2023 and need that to be filled before we can even go racing.

“If there is anyone reading this that would like to see us on the grid next year, please get in touch with me, we’d love to discuss having you as a partner.”

Your team in particular were refreshingly quite vocal in support of a control MoTeC ECU for ASBK, despite having what is arguably the best electronic package available to you already through Ducati’s nominated Magneti Marelli package, thus potentially being actually disadvantaged by using MoTeC. Are their significant problems in the way the MoTeC package has been restricted in its capabilities by Motorcycling Australia via areas of functionality that are locked out in the mandated M.A. approved firmware allowed in the MoTeC

Adrian: “An electronic package on its own doesn’t win races, If it did the Ducati’s would have finished 1-2-3 at each race for the last two years.

“There have only been a very few people vocal about the ASBK Motec firmware being locked. One of these was Anthony (West), I spent a day with him at Phillip Island working on ECU settings and showed that the problem was not the firmware, it was the parameters that were in his ECU causing the problems. It’s my understanding that he also rode Daniel’s (Falzon) motorcycle recently and I understand he had a good experience with that as well. The locked complaint is now history.”

Outside of electronics, do you think the ASBK rules are in a pretty good place now, what would you want changed? Some have mentioned that allowing more affordable aftermarket rims and also opening up the restrictions on changing the radiator could be useful steps forward to help reduce overall costs. What are your thoughts on those proposals?

Craig: “That’s a great question Trev and something I feel strongly about, especially as we are a privately funded team.

“Most production radiators are not capable of maintaining reasonable temperatures when motorbikes are used in competition and there have been instances where various manufacturers engines have been replaced prematurely due to overheating.

“There is an expense to purchase a racing radiator, but it is far less than replacing an engine, or travelling all the way to Darwin and not finishing the race because your engine overheats.

“Wheels are similar, A set of genuine wheels for our motorbike is $6,979, a comparable set of aftermarket wheels made of the same material is $3,814. That is a 45 per cent cost saving per set, given the spares we carry this would add up to a saving of a little over $18,500. We could buy a few radiators for that.

“If both of these items were allowed together it would result in safer oil and water temperatures resulting in longer engine life as well as a cost reduction, it’s a win win.”

Thanks for your time guys, see you at the Island in a few weeks time then when it’s all run and done perhaps for a beer at The Bend.

“Hear, hear, thanks for reaching out Trev.”

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