Ben Henry Interview
G’day Ben, I thought we were a little overdue for a catch up. Tell us what has been happening at your Cube Performance Workshop and DesmoSport Ducati HQ of late, away from the racing…
“Yes long time no speak.
“Cube Performance Centre is absolutely flat out, I literally can’t keep up with it all at the moment.
“I’ve got a few ads out right now for another person in the office and potentially another tech so if you’re getting over working in the media, give me a shout because I have a spot for you.
“I’ve just launched an e-commerce site cubemoto.com.au that is a split site between Ducati OEM, which is very cool, and done to ‘basically’ emulate what we see as dealers when we log on day to day direct to the public. It’s the best OEM Ducati site I’ve seen in OZ so far.
“Then it has the performance parts side of the site, which is basically a seperate site. It’s a site geared towards supplying the track and racing world with hard parts.
“Obviously I’m in the racing game and I’ve struggled to get parts over the last decade, so I’ve decided to go down this route.
“You get tired of spending your money on parts to find they are six weeks away and the seller has just taken your money to go buy the parts and then send them on.
“So I’m currently building a big mezzanine floor at Cube and stocking as many parts as I can.
“It’s currently a combination of parts I have in stock and parts other importers have in stock.
“Through racing for so long I have a lot of brands that have supported us, mainly Italian brands so I’ve done a few exclusive deals with a few of them and a few dealer deals with others.
“There’s just parts and deals going everywhere at the moment and it’s busy.
“The site was launched on the Thursday of the GP to coincide with CubeMoto selling all the merch in the Ducati activation tent, so everyone that bought from that tent, bought off Cubemoto and was given some info on it.
“It was super successful for us all and was really enjoyable.
“The site was a bit premature but to be honest, sometimes you just gotta start somewhere and for us, it was there.
“We are flat out trying to stock parts for the new Supertwins class because I think it’ll be a great class for everyone.
“On the race-bike side of things, fortunately the bikes haven’t been getting crashed so it’s not been too bad. Heavy maintenance as usual, they are Ducatis! But the search for speed and functionality never stops, it consumes my mind.
“I take them to every race with some sort of improvement, somewhere. I have grown up in that environment and it’s just in me.”
And now if we get on to the subject of racing, Broc’s debut in Queensland was quite spectacular, but he didn’t seem to be able to muster a comparable sort of pace at Phillip Island recently, what do you put that down to?
“In my opinion that is a very ‘on the surface’ point of view. Free practice, in the rain, never ridden in the wet on my bike, and he goes second quickest. Qualifying and first drying laps, he had to find his feet. His comment was, ‘I’ve never been over 300 and it’s just so fast’. Then a bike issue in race one DNF’d him.
“Saturday’s back to back races saw him finish with a PB on the last lap and taking time out of his two nearest competitors in big chunks. After looking at his data, I’m not too stressed about him and his potential for the WSBK round.”
And for your lead rider, Bryan Staring, I expect both you and himself would have expected to be a bit more competitive at the MotoGP support races?
“Yes there’s no denying that fact. I can be a racer dad for you if you like and give you the, we didn’t test and they did excuse, but when a guy like Josh rolls up and hoses everyone, including the bloke who usually rides the bike, in his first go, well it’s not going to go carry much weight.
“As a team we need to do better. Everybody in the team is very good at their prospective positions but as a team we need to get it right. It’s definitely possible and I always feel like we will, and everybody is positive leading into the races.”
With Josh Waters jumping straight onto the Boost Mobile Ducati and dominating, with only one day on the bike prior to the race weekend, I would imagine that might be a bit of a stick in your craw, so to speak, to get bested by them at Phillip Island? I mean, there is some rivalry between the two Ducati camps on the quiet, is there not…?
“For sure I don’t love it, I’m happy for Josh. I’ve known him from long before I was in racing and I’m happy to see him find his feet like that.
“Which carried on to him testing the Honda really well the following week. Josh is hot property and I’m happy for him.
“If I could take anything from it all. I’d say the bike is very good, I had been thinking to myself Wayne was just riding so incredibly well and that was a part of it all, but fortunately it’s just the motorcycle and lucky for me, I have a bunch of them in the shed.”
“No mate no rivalry….” (there was a wink from afar with that last comment I am sure…)
So what do you have on the planning board to reduce that deficit between here and the penultimate round back at Phillip Island on November 20, before we head to The Bend finale a week later?
“We have one more test and the plan is to move further in the direction that we went for the last race at Phillip Island.
“As a thinking person, you always feel like you just might have cracked it! I feel like we learnt plenty, in those two races on the Saturday. Both the lads liked the changes and both were more consistent over race distance.”
How do you think the horde of Aussie internationals coming back for The Bend finale might go this time around…? Are you building the bike for Jack again this time around? Outside of your own riders, whose bikes are you involved in prepping for the final round? We are going to be there before we know it….
“Some of the riders coming I know, and some I really don’t, so I can’t wait to see how they compare to the ASBK guys versus their normal championships.
“I’d like to say a massive thanks to Jack for wanting to come and race in front of the ASBK fans, it is a game changer for us as a series, and I just can’t tell you how appreciative I am of it, then to bring some other riders along is incredible.
“The Thriller Team thing, no, I’m not too much to do with it. I’ve given some advice here and there and helped them sort a few contacts out.
“Yes the bike will come to me from a delivery point of view and I was going to do a fair bit of the process for them to start with, but the bike is a bit late and it’s starting to get tight for time, when it does come I will probably do some programming on it for them and off they go.
“I have a new spare bike there ready to race, if they need it then no problem, if they don’t also, no problem. It’ll get a shake down at the test next week and what ever happens, happens.”
You think the ASBK rules are in a pretty good place now, what would you want changed?
“Yes the rules are in general really good.
“Changes need to be around practicality.
“In short, radiators. Pretty sure ‘most’ guys need them, or will as Euro 5 comes in, or basically is in once the new Ducati comes in.
“From my small understanding of it all, production bikes are made to run hotter now to try help meet emissions. They’re making more power, but the radiators are not getting bigger.
“The bikes are consuming parts, and get crazy hot at some circuits, they need to move with the times there.
“Then there is wheels. Most bikes except Yamaha are on Marchesini wheels stock. My buy price on them as a set is 5.5k, and I’m on a half decent deal. If aftermarket wheels were slightly regulated and introduced, we would save good money. It’s not imperative, but just an idea.”
Do you intend racing the 2023 model V4 R next season? The engine looks even more special inside 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…?
“Yes when it comes we will use it. My guess is after round three or so.
“For sure I’m looking forward to the gearbox side of it but the whole power thing is an old story. All we ever do these days is try and calm the things down with electronic support. If it keeps going this way I’m going to rip a plug lead off the thing.”
Thanks for the chat Ben, candid as always. See you in a few weeks at the Island and then perhaps for a beer at The Bend.
mi-bike Motorcycle Insurance
Alpinestars Superbike Championship Points Standings
| Pos | Name | Total |
| 1 | Mike JONES | 242 |
| 2 | Wayne MAXWELL | 213 |
| 3 | Bryan STARING | 189 |
| 4 | Troy HERFOSS | 170 |
| 5 | Cru HALLIDAY | 161 |
| 6 | Glenn ALLERTON | 160 |
| 7 | Arthur SISSIS | 156 |
| 8 | Josh WATERS | 136 |
| 9 | Anthony WEST | 117 |
| 10 | Daniel FALZON | 111 |
| 11 | Max STAUFFER | 76 |
| 12 | Lachlan EPIS | 66 |
| 13 | Broc PEARSON | 65 |
| 14 | Jed METCHER | 62 |
| 15 | Michael EDWARDS | 59 |
| 16 | Mark CHIODO | 58 |
| 17 | Aiden WAGNER | 47 |
| 18 | Matt WALTERS | 32 |
| 19 | Beau BEATON | 27 |
| 20 | Ben STRONACH | 25 |
| 21 | Nathan SPITERI | 22 |
| 22 | Chandler COOPER | 21 |
| 23 | Paul LALLY | 20 |
| 24 | Sloan FROST | 17 |
| 25 | Benjamin LOWE | 11 |
| 26 | Luke MACDONALD | 10 |
| 27 | Luke JHONSTON | 7 |
| 28 | Corey FORDE | 3 |
mi-bike Motorcycle Insurance
2022 ASBK Calendar
| Round 1 Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit, VIC 25 – 27 February |
| SBK, SSPT, SS300, R3 Cup, OJC, SBK Masters |
| Round 2 Queensland Raceway, Ipswich QLD 18 – 20 March |
| SBK, SSPT, SS300, R3 Cup, OJC, Sidecars |
| Round 3 Wakefield Park Raceway, Goulburn NSW 22 – 24 April |
| SBK, SSPT, SS300, R3 Cup, OJC, Aussie Racing Cars |
| Round 4 Hidden Valley Raceway, Darwin NT 17 – 19 June |
| * With Supercars – SBK Only |
| Round 5 Morgan Park Raceway, Warwick QLD 5 – 7 August |
| SBK, SSPT, SS300, R3 Cup, OJC |
| Round 6 Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit, Cowes VIC 18 – 20 November |
| SBK, SSPT, SS300 |
| Round 7 The Bend Motorsport Park, Tailem Bend SA 25 – 27 November |
| SBK, SSPT, SS300, R3 Cup, OJC |
| ASBK Night of Champions Dinner – The Bend 27 November |
