Throwdown No.192 – 05/06/14

—

That’s the second round of the 2014 Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Championship in the books. Red Bull KTM’s Ken Roczen proved that he’s the man to beat this year in the 450 Class, as he went 1-1 at the GoPro Hangtown Classic ahead of teammate, Ryan Dungey, and Team Honda Muscle Milk’s Trey Canard. He went 2-2 at Glen Helen behind Dungey, but he literally only missed going 1-1 by about two seconds in both motos. In the 250 Class, Yamalube/Star Racing/Yamaha teammates Jeremy Martin and Cooper Webb went 1-1 and 2-2 for the second consecutive week, proving that their YZ250Fs are a force to be reckoned with. The third round of the 2014 Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Championship is going down this weekend at Thunder Valley in Colorado. 

—

Australian Kawasaki-mounted riders, Brett Metcalfe and Chad Reed, continue to put forth solid results for this year’s Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Championship. Metcalfe, racing Villopoto’s KX450F for the Monster Energy Kawasaki outfit, went 6-9 for eighth Overall at Hangtown, after securing fourth Overall at Glen Helen. Discount Tire Racing/TwoTwo Motorsports’ Chad Reed finished in tenth Overall for the second consecutive week at Hangtown. We can only expect the boys’ results to improve as the series moves on. 

—

Overcast conditions loomed over the Cosy Creek circuit this past weekend in Western Australia, and with a slight bit of rain, the 2014 Manjimup 15,000 shaped up to take place in it’s typical rough conditions. KTM Motocross Racing Team’s Kirk Gibbs scored the Overall win at the event, ahead of Penrite Oil Honda Racing’s Ben Townley and Husqvarna’s Brock Winston. Detailed results from the event can be found here. 

—

As expected, a big crowd attended the French GP this past weekend but unfortunately they weren’t treated to the best of racing, as most of the four races were follow-the-leader affairs. Some uncharacteristic mistakes by Antonio Cairoli at the end of each race allowed Clement Desalle to win both motos and close the points gap at the top of the MXGP championship to just 20 points, so that makes things a bit more interesting as we head into Maggiora. Cairoli’s teammate, Jeffrey Herlings, continues to dominate the MX2 class. Read more in this week’s MXGP Insider column. 

—

What happened to Australia’s Luke Styke in France, we hear you ask? Well, he crashed on Saturday at St Jean D’Angely and broke his sternum, and collected a few more bumps and bruises free-of-charge. He hopes to be back racing within the next two weeks. Hopefully, we’ll see Australia’s Todd Waters return to the FIM Motocross World Championship soon enough, too.

—

The New Zealand MX community said goodbye to one of their rising Junior stars over the weekend, with Tauranga’s Trent Haywood succumbing to injuries sustained in a crash while competing at the famous Michael Godfrey Memorial Motocross event, held near Christchurch… Details can be found here. Rest in peace, buddy.

—

This week, KTM’s entire 2015 MX bike line-up broke cover, as did Honda’s 2015 CRF250R and CRF450R, as did Yamaha’s YZ and YZ-F line-ups! Click the hyperlinks to check out specific machines.

—

—

Hard on the heels of the news that 2012 Junior World Enduro Champion, Frenchman Mathias Bellino, has entered the 2014 Australian 4-Day Enduro (A4DE), Transmoto has discovered that American off-road legend, Mike Brown, will also join the Glenn Kearney-managed Husqvarna Enduro Racing Team for the upcoming A4DE. According to Kearney, “It’s been a great year for the new team during the first half of the AORC series. So to have both Mathias Bellino and Mike Brown join us for the 4-Day is great news. The 4-Day has often had an international flavour, so we’re happy to play our part in keeping that alive.” More news on Brown coming out to Australia for the second time this year can be found here. 

—

Speaking of Kearney, he’s been getting busy filming with Motology Films’ Adam Riemann. The latest techno-fueled, action-packed, cacophony of visual dirt bike action features GK roosting around the bush on his Husky FE501, while Adam chases him down on his KTM 500EXC. GK was the perfect choice for Riemann’s battle of the big-bores, as so far this season he is leading his E3 class by a comfortable 23-point margin over Stefan Granquist, and also holds equal second Outright with Josh Green – who are both chasing down Toby Price’s five-point lead. Clearly he knows how to handle the beast.  Don’t miss the cheesy Hugh Jackman-esque moment @ 1:51…

—

The 2014 Enduro World Championship (EWC) moves to Finland this weekend for the seventh and eighth rounds of the series. Send your best wishes towards Australia’s Matt Phillips, who’ll be gunning to secure a win in the Enduro 3 category.

—

The 2014 Tatts Finke Desert race is taking place in Alice Springs this weekend. All eyes will be on KTM Enduro Racing Team’s Toby Price, as he makes his much-awaited return to desert racing after sustaining serious injuries in the US last year. Other hot favourites to watch will be Price’s teammates, Ben Grabham and Ivan Long, GHR Honda riders, Todd and Jake Smith, as well as Active8 Yamaha’s Josh Green. The images you’re looking at below are of Pricey’s Finke helmet, custom-painted by Mark ‘Browndawg’ Brown, owner and operator of Browns Grafix. Punk looks sick, eh?

—

The eighth round of the 2014 Grand National Cross Country (GNCC) series will be taking place this weekend in Millfield, Ohio. Contesting the round will be Australia’s Josh Strang, who is now effectively sitting in second Overall in the XC1 championship standings, as FMF/KTM’s Charlie Mullins injured himself last week and will be out for quite a while. A few other Aussies are over in the US and will contest the round, too, including current AORC J3 class leader, Ben Kearns, who is taking advantage of Shane Watts’ DirtWise Ready to Race program. He impressively scored a 200A class victory at a round of the US National Enduro series over the weekend.

—

USA’s Quinn Cody will be heading Down Under later this year to contest the 2014 Australasian Safari aboard a CPW-prepared KTM 450SX-F. Cody was supposed to be a starter at the event in 2012, but injuries stopped him. He’ll be bringing with him another rider from the US, who will the using the Safari as a navigational tune-up before making their 2015 Dakar debut. Stay tuned.

—

KTM’s Jonny Walker claimed an emphatic victory at the 20th edition of the Red Bull Hare Scramble at the Erzbergrodeo over the weekend. “I believed I could win this race and that’s exactly what I set out to do from the off,” told an ecstatic Walker at the finish line. “I’ve trained my butt off since The Tough One. I felt ready and I gave it everything I had. Overall the race went well, I hardly made any mistakes and got the win. I’m so happy right now – I needed this!” Detailed results from the event can be found here.

—

Graham Jarvis – the rider widely regarded as the world’s number one Extreme Enduro racer – has officially extended his contract with Husqvarna Motorcycles, which sees the Brit as a factory-backed Husqvarna rider until the end of the 2016 season. Signing a two-year extension of his existing contract with Husqvarna Motorcycles’ Head of Motorsport, Robert Jonas, in Mattighofen, Austria on Tuesday, Graham will continue to lead Husqvarna’s efforts in Extreme Enduro competitions around the world.

—

—

Last year, Andy ‘Maddog’ Hensel went through what every freestyle motocross rider most fears; a very serious crash, that left him paralysed from the waist down. Andy has had his friends and family by his side the whole time, while his story has touched the hearts of the FMX community around the world. Read a little more about a pretty cool fundraiser that went down in Port Pirie, SA, in honour of Andy and all that he continues to strive to achieve, in this week’s FMX Insider column. 

—

There have been 863 Gold medals awarded since the X Games launched (as the Extreme Games) in Providence, 20 years ago. This weekend, as the X Games moves to Austin, Texas, six more Gold medals will be awarded in the Moto X division – Freestyle, Speed & Style, Step Up, Men’s Enduro X, Women’s Enduro X and of course, Best Whip. We’d like to wish all Australian athletes competing the best of luck: Rob Adelberg, Clinton Moore, Josh Sheehan, Jackson Strong, Blake ‘Bilko’ Williams and Chris Hollis (Men’s Enduro X).

—

Many may argue that last year, USA’s Josh Hansen threw down the biggest, baddest whip ever done on a dirt bike at Los Angeles’ X Games event. Many may also argue that Jeremy ‘Twitch’ Stenberg wouldn’t have won his Gold medal in 2012 if it wasn’t for Snoop Dogg telling his millions of fans on Twitter to vote for him. Many may also say that USA’s Brett Cue and Australia’s Jarryd McNeil not being invited to contest Best Whip at the X Games is very, very wrong… Who do you think has done the biggest, baddest whip on a dirt bike, and when did they do it? And who do you think is going to take home the Gold in Best Whip this year? You can check out highlights from the last five years of Best Whip competitions here!

—

—

Click here to find out what’s inside Transmoto Dirt Bike Magazine’s 2014 June Issue (#44), and be sure to grab yourself a print or digital edition.

—

Dream Racer tells the tale of thirty-something-year-old business consultant, Christophe Barriere-Varju, who is desperate to rekindle the glory of his youth as a teenage motocross legend on Africa’s Ivory Coast. Ad-man, Simon Lee, yearns to make a movie, but with a growing family, job and mortgage, his time is running out. The Dakar Rally offers both men the chance to fulfil their dream, but it’s a dream that wouldn’t come easily and an extreme undertaking that will etch itself irrevocably into these two very different men’s lives. For the first time in a feature length film, Dream Racer shows the legendary Dakar Rally in its purest form – no sponsors, no multi-million dollar team, not even a mechanic – just one rider, a motorbike, a film-maker and the world’s most dangerous motor race. Far more than just a motorcycle movie, Dream Racer is a call to arms for anyone who has ever dreamt of doing anything – a spine tingling antidote to the fear of life passing you by unfulfilled. You can purchase a copy of the DVD and check out the official trailer here.

—

Lusty Industries & Distributors has announced they are the newly appointed distributor of the Sony Action Camera and associated channel products. Click here to read more.

—

Ficeda Accessories has announced the addition of Vesrah brake pads and shoes to their family of quality products.

—

Motorcycling Australia (MA) is calling for applications  from riders to join the 2014 Australian Motocross of Nations (MXoN) team. There are three team places: MX1, MX2 and Open. There is no maximum age limit for the MX2 class. The Team Manager will once again be Gary Benn. This year the MXoN will be held in Kegums, Latvia on September 28. Speaking of the MXoN, it’s been confirmed that the 2015 edition will be held in Ernée, France.

—

The 2014 Australian Dirt Track Championship is taking place at the Taree Motorcycle Club this weekend. The rise of dirt track racing in Oz is evidential, as 48 entrants will contest the 450cc class. Below is a shot of the Husqvarna FC450 that 46-year-old Paul Caslick will be contesting the event aboard. Stay tuned for results and imagery.

—