Moto News Wrap for September 8 by Darren Smart
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Australasian News
Troy Bayliss Invitational at Phillip Island Moto GP: Troy Bayliss has put together a star-studded line-up for the invitational race that will be part of the Australian MotoGP weekend entertainment. The purpose built dirt-track is located in behind the iconic Lukey Heights and all MotoGP ticket holders will be able to watch all three days of action at no extra charge.
Confirmed rider line-up: Jared Mees (USA) – Jason Crump (AUS) – Jake Johnson (USA) – Troy Bayliss (AUS) – Joonas Kylmakorpi (SWE) – Paul Caslick (AUS) – Michael Kirkness (AUS) – Jared Oram (AUS) – Troy Herfoss (AUS) – Marty McNamara (AUS) – Luke Richards (AUS) – Matt Davies (AUS) – Josh Hook (AUS) – Damian Cudlin (AUS) – Alex Cudlin (AUS) – Ian Hamilton (AUS) – Dan Reardon (AUS) – Jared Brook (AUS).
Strang Out Of ISDE: Glenn Kearney has been the last minute replacement for Josh Strang after Strang’s travel papers were held up in red tape – here is what Josh posted on his FB page: ‘Well my ISDE finished before I could even get started. Have been waiting on my green card to show up so I can travel and it just didn’t work out. So bummed but there isn’t much I can do about it. Thanks @gjkearney for taking my spot on such late notice and a big thanks to Motorcycling Australia for understanding the whole deal. Wish all the Aussies luck!’
Ham In for 2015 Australian SX: Almost ten years after his last race as a professional, 37 year old Danny Ham has entered in the 450 Pro Class for the 2015 Australian Supercross Championship that kicks off in Bathurst of the 10th of October.
The former factory Suzuki and Yamaha rider will compete ‘for fun’ as a privateer and at the time of writing is spending every opportunity to ride and train between his day job as a heavy machinery operator in the Hunter Valley. Funnily enough, all of us former pro riders think about doing something similar at some stage of our lives but ‘Hammy’ has the balls to actually go out and make it happen so good luck to him, I know he will be a big hit with the fans one way or another.
2015 Australian Classic Motocross Championships: Motocross racers have been making the treck across to WA since the 1950s but it is obvious that the novelty has worn off for some of the older heads with many classes fielding only a handful of riders at the Australian Classic Motocross Championships held a Southern Capes last weekend.
One class that had a strong showing was the Pre 1978 Solo 250cc class and it was South Australian legend Andy Haydon took the win from Nathan Trigg, Brad VanBarrelo and Jason Dunstall and that is the exact order these riders finished in the Pre 1978 Solo 263cc & Over class while Tristan O’Hehir took out the Pre 1978 Solo 125cc class ahead of Ben Mayne and Jason Cook.
There were 25 Pre 1975 classes on show over the weekend. A report with some images from the event is here.
MX Nationals Privateer Awards: KTM mounted Daniel Banks and Dylan Wills have taken out two of the most prestigious MX Nationals awards last weekend with Banks taking the MX1 Privateer Andrew McFarlane award and Wills landing his name on the MX2 Jono Porter trophy.
American News
Chad Wins on his Yamaha: Former factory Yamaha teammates Chad Reed and Tim Ferry raced at the Dade City MX meeting in the 25+ and 30+ classes last weekend and on his new 2016 YZF450 Reed took the win over Kawasaki mounted Ferry.
USGP News: The starting gate area at the Glen Helen facility is being brought forward 37 feet to accommodate the staging area for the final round of the World Motocross Championship being hosted by the iconic facility. Glen Helen has one of the longest starting straights in the moto world anyway so this won’t be too critical to how the super fast first corner plays out.
The Baja Brawl: The annual Baja Brawl was held last weekend and Austin Faulkner won the 250 Pro-Am class ahead of Marshal Weltin and Dakota Kessler then Faulkner back that up with the win in the 450 Pro-Am class ahead of Weltin and Timmy Badour.
AMA Pro Flat Track: In an epic finish that came down to the final lap, Bryan Smith double drafted past Jared Mees and Jake Johnson to capture his sixth GNC1 victory of the 2015 season which puts the Kawasaki rider one point shy of defending GNC1 champion and current point leader Mees with three rounds remaining.
Euro News
ISDE Day One News – Day One – USA Take World Trophy Team Lead: At the end of the first day of competition at the 90th edition of the FIM International Six Days Enduro (ISDE) in Kosice, Slovakia the USA team have taken the early lead in the World Trophy team competition, just one-minute and fourteen seconds ahead of Australia while France placed third after Mathias Bellino was hit with a one-minute penalty having accidentally started his bike prematurely on the start ramp.
Kailub Russell is leading the event outright and an ISDE report with images from day one can be read here.
Spain confirm dates and details of 91st edition of ISDE – Using the opportunity of the current edition of the FIM International Six Days Enduro (ISDE) taking place in Kosice, Slovakia the 2016 joint promoters Alkamel Systems and BaSSella confirmed details of next year’s ISDE to be held at the Circuito Navarra, Spain during their recent presentation to media and teams.
Unusually the 91st edition of the ISDE will take place Tuesday to Sunday and not Monday to Saturday as is normally the case with the competition starting on 11 October and ending 16 October 2016. The opening parade will follow a famous route through the town of Los Arcos before the following six days of action will use the terrain around the Circuito Navarra before closing with the final motocross test taking place beside the permanent tarmac track.
Next year’s event will include the first ever FIM Enduro Vintage Trophy*, which will take place during the last two days of the 2016 ISDE. This will consist of the following programme – Saturday – course, test and acceleration test and Sunday – cross final. International vintage riders from all over the World will be invited to join this first edition, so that the historical motorcycles from over thirty years ago will ride again as part of this prestigious event.
Belgian Motocross Champion Crowned: Jeremy Van Horebeek has won the latest round of the Belgian championships and in doing so has been crowned the Belgian MX1 champion. The Yamaha factory rider finished with 3-1-3 results for the victory. Second overall was Australian Dean Ferris (4-3-2) ahead of Steve Ramon and Ken DeDycker who was having his first ride back from injury.
British Motocross Championships: Shaun Simpson and Max Anstie have dominated the MX1 and MX2 classes respectively at latest round of the British Motocross Championships by winning every moto on the day. Simpson wrapped his second British MX1 championship in a row.
Swedish Motocross Championships: Filip Bengtsson has won both motos at the final round of the Swedish motocross championship held in Uddevalla last weekend but it was Jesper Jönsson who won the championship by five points over Rasmus Sjöberg.
ADAC German Cup: The eighth and final round of the ADAC German Cup was held at Gaildorf last weekend and it was Nathan Watson who took out the win over Jeremy Seewer and Dennis Ullrich while Max Nagl was forced out of the opening moto with a rear brake problem before winning the final moto of the series.
Glenn Coldenhoff had already won the championship and didn’t show for the final round so it was battle between Jeremy Seewer and Dennis Ullrich for second in the series with Seewer getting the nod by two points thanks to his Gaildorf result.
Coldenhoff to KTM: KTM Motorsports have announced that Dutch motocross champion Glenn Coldenhoff will replace Ken DeDycker as Antonio Cairoli’s teammate in 2016 on the Red Bull KTM Factory Racing KTM 450 SXF.
Coldenhoff’s Factory Bikes Stolen: Two of the Glenn Coldenhoff’s factory RM-Z 450s were stolen from the team van at their hotel in Thionville, France earlier this week. The same thing happened to Shayne King during his 1996 World Motocross Championship campaign and the bikes were never recovered.
DeDycker In for MXoN: Despite just recovering from an injury Ken De Dycker will replace the injured Kevin Strijbos and join Jeremy Van Horebeek and Julien Lieber in representing Belgium at the MXoN later this month. It appears the tall Belgian hasn’t lost any speed after winning the opening moto at the final round of the Belgian champs last weekend.
KTM Dominate Atacama Rally – Toby Price Penalised: KTM riders have taken the top four positions in the Atacama Rally that was run among the amazing landscapes of the Atacama Desert in Chile and it was Pablo Quintanilla on the top of the podium with Matthias Walkner and Sam Sunderland earning second and third while Jordi Viladoms finished in fourth.
Australian Toby Price incurred a one hour 45 minute penalty during the second stage but fought back to 11th outright. “I should have backed it off as the road book was very inconsistent today. I was hitting things early and ended up with 22 speed zone fines. That’s probably some kind of a record.”
Price’s next outing will be at the final round of the FIM World Cross Countries Rally Championship which is the OilLibya Rally in Morocco (October 3-10).
Megawatt Hard Enduro: Red Bull KTM Factory Racing’s Jonny Walker has picked up yet another victory at the Red Bull 111 Megawatt Hard Enduro held in Poland last weekend and once again Graham Jarvis had to settle for second place while Sweden’s Joakim Ljunggren finished a more than respectable third.
Mika Musquin Injured: Marvin Musquin’s brother Mika is laying in Bordeaux hospital with spinal injuries after crashing at a supercross race in Chaumont. At the time of writing Mika has no feeling from the neck down.
Speedway GP Challenge: The annual GP Challenge was held in Rybnik last Saturday night and it was the Polish duo of Bartosz Zmarzlik and Piotr Pawlicki as well as GP veteran Chris Harris who earned their positions in the 2016 SGP championship. The top eight from the 2015 series are automatically drafted in the 2016 series and this meeting was a way for riders outside the top eight to cement their spot.
R.I.P Mueller: 55 year old former Sidecar Cross World Champion Stefan Mueller has died in an accident during the practice session of the European Sidecar Championship in Hertingen (Germany). Karl Keil and his passenger Mueller were in the second lap of practice when Mueller fell on the track and was hit by the following sidecar.
