Throwdown No.107 – Supercross Supercross Supercross

What’s this “Throwdown”? It’s a digital home for rumour, fact and innuendo, delivered on a weekly basis. Covering a broad spectrum of the off-road world’s news, the Throwdown will touch on everything from racing to trailriding; from industry tidbits to issues facing the sport. It’s about delivering you timely information all in one place so you don’t have to scour the internet looking for it.

TwoTwo Motorsports’ Chad Reed has returned to the track following six months of sitting on the sidelines, after breaking two ribs, his T6, tearing an ACL and fracturing his tibia and fibula during Round 7 of this year’s AMA Supercross Championship. Reed absolutely dominated a local motocross event near his home in Florida, going 1-1. If you haven’t seen it already, take a look at this video of Reed preparing for the 2013 Supercross season, which was released earlier this week.

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After taking two massive slams last week in his AMA Motocross debut, JDR Motorsports’ Josh Cachia will now spend time training with JDR’s American team, JDR/J-Star KTM, before returning home to Australia for the start of the Aussie Supercross series, which kicks off on October 13 in Dubbo.

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Get a load of DPH Motorsport Cheyne Boyd’s new private supercross test track, down in Sale, Victoria. With less than a month until the SX kicks off, things are starting to heat up!

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Surprisingly, Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) have re-signed their old rider, Justin Brayton, back to the team for 2013. Brayton rode for JGR in 2010 and 2011 before signing a contract with Team Honda Muscle Milk for the 2012 season. This week’s USA Insider from Jason Weigandt has the scoop.

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While the MX1 and MX2 champions have already been crowned in the FIM World Motocross Championship, the final round is yet to be run, and will take place this weekend in Teutschenthal, Germany. But if you’re thinking the champions, Tony Cairoli and Jeffrey Herlings, will be taking it easy this weekend, think again. With the Motocross of Nations in Belgium the following weekend, these riders will be looking for any leg up on the competition, and will give it their all at the final round to maintain their incredible speed and keep their skills sharp.

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While the European riders will be racing this weekend, the Australian MXoN team of Lawson Bopping, Luke Styke and Todd Waters should just be getting over their jet lag from the 24-hour flight to Belgium. The Aussie team flies out of the country today, and will spend the week in preparation for, what some call, the Olympics of Motocross. Do us proud, boys!

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Carton Dry Honda Thor Racing’s Team Manager, Yarrive Konsky, has confirmed that Honda have extended their contract to run Honda’s official MX/SX race team into 2013. Konsky also confirmed rumours that Pip Harrison was back involved with the team, and would be working on maintaining and improving the machine’s chassis and engine. And, the team has a new Commercial Manager, Travis Greenwood, who’ll be looking after existing sponsors and building their sponsorship portfolio. It looks like Konsky is really riding on the momentum of his team’s first championship, and, with the team already announcing Ben Townley and Ford Dale are signed for 2013, they’ve seriously stepped it up for next season.

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Speaking of Ford Dale, check out this clip put together by Russell Brothers Films, of the Carton Dry Honda Thor Racing rider reflecting on his 2012 MX2 Championship.

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Dean Wilson’s new “Brocal” style leaves something to be desired. Looks like Dianna Dahlgren will have to step in on this one, in Episode 5 of SX Ed with Miss Supercross.

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Beta Australia have released details and images of their 2013 enduro range, with the big news being their all-new 250 and 300 two-stroke capacity machines. The engines have a bore and stroke of 66.4 x 72mm and 72 x 72mm, respectively, and, unusually, has a 90-degree cylinder, which Beta claims moved the rotating mass closer to the bike’s centre of gravity. It’s got your standard carburettor set-up and sees many of the same componentry as its four-stroke brothers, but has a modified frame. With Beta’s focus on their two-stroke models you would have thought the four-stroke range would have been neglected. But that’s not the case! The Italian manufacturer worked on making the four-strokes lighter and more agile, with new wheels, hubs, rims and spokes, a new swingarm, shock, fuel tank and redesigned radiator shrouds. There’s currently no word on when we can see the new models in Australia, or an RRP, but we’ll keep you posted.

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A gruelling seven-day 3000km off-road event kicks off this Friday, September 21, and with 100 competitors challenging for the title over new terrain, it’s going to be a good one! Battling it out in the Australasian Safari moto category will be last year’s winner and runner up, Todd and Jake Smith, Yamaha Desert Racing’s Rod Faggotter and Shane Diener, CPW KTM’s Matt Fish, GHR Honda’s Warren Strange, Husaberg’s David Schwarz and Active8 Yamaha’s Duncan Benstead, just to name a few. Plus, with the introduction of the Dakar Challenge this year (the winner of the class gets a free entry into the 2013 Dakar), it has attracted a number of Internationals, including South Africa’s Brett Cummings and Glen Grundy, Dutch riders, Alex Van Ginnkel, Simon Schimmel and Melchior Van Heertum and USA’s Brett Cummings. But if they want to claim that ticket to the Dakar they’ll first have to get around reigning champion, Todd Smith, who’s not known to step aside quietly. It’ll be interesting to watch how it all unfolds!

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You’ll be able to meet all the Safari competitors (moto, auto and quad) this Friday at Hillary’s Boat Harbour for the ceremonial start of the event, which runs from 4-7pm and is followed by an official flag-off of vehicles.

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While Motorex KTM Off-Road Racing’s Ben Grabham won’t be competing in the Australasian Safari this year due to his ongoing recovery, he’s taken delivery of an all-white KTM 450RR Rallye Replica to prepare for the Morocco Rally in November, which will be followed by his Dakar debut in January.

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Watch how the HSE Motorex KTM Desert Racing Team took on the 2012 Finke Desert Race and won, in this tell-all documentary, titled KTM Finke Assault 2012.

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Husaberg Rallye Racing Australia Team Boss, Garry Connell, tells us that Grabham’s older brother, Damien, also won’t be racing the Safari this year, as his battered body simply isn’t ready. Apparently, an injury from a NSW enduro round shortly after the Condo 750 this year has done a real job on his already buggered knee. He plans to head to America in October to see if the advances in stem cell research can help his desperate efforts to revive the cactus meniscus in his knee(s). Specialists are doing a roaring trade from the Grabham family at the moment!

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Adding to the International flavour this week, the International Six Days Enduro kicks off on Monday in Germany. The majority of our 13-strong Australian team (Price, Hollis, Bussa, Phillips, Strang and Gardiner just to name a few) flew over to Germany earlier this week. Here’s a shot of Toby Price’s green and gold helmet that he’ll be wearing at the ISDE. Cool, eh?

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Mini bike rider, TJ Russell, has landed the world’s smallest Backflip on a motorcycle, all while the Nitro Circus crew were watching on. Travis Pastrana was even giving him pointers on his execution! Warning: don’t try this at home kids; we all know what you’re like…

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If you think your insurance is high, just imagine Red Bull’s after holding a competition where the winner got to do a tandem Backflip with Australian FMX star, Josh Sheehan!

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Australian distributor of Motul products, Link International, has released a moto care pack to help keep your bike and gear in tip top condition. The Motul MC Care Pack contains Wash & Wax, Moto Wash, Helmet & Visor Cleaner and Scratch Remover and retails for $49. Motul have also become a premium partner of the Aussie Supercross.

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Suffer from arm pump? Then it might be worth taking a leaf out of Australian Monster Energy Kawasaki team’s book. They’ve been testing the Arm Pump Prevention Wrap (APP Wrap) pre- and post-race to help prevent and recover from arm pump. It’s designed to reduce arterial pressure, swelling and tissue breakdown. While the benefit of the product certainly warrants attention, the $198 price tag is sure to turn all but professional racers away, for now. Find out more about the APP wrap on their official website.

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Tyre manufacturer, Pirelli (also distributed by Link International), has come onboard as a premium partner of the 2012 Australian Supercross championship. They’ll be involved actively at dealer and competition level and will have an on-site presence at each round. And the privateers in the Pro Opens and Pro Lites running Pirelli tyres will directly benefit, too. The top three privateer riders in both classes will receive $500, $300 and $200 ‘Link Dollars’, respectively, for use on their next purchase with Link International.

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More news from the Link factory; they’ve just been appointed Australian distributor of Italian performance parts manufacturer, Arrow Special Parts. Arrow’s main offerings include slip-ons and full exhaust systems, but they do a number of other performance parts as well. You can see the full-range via the Link International website.

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2012 will mark Toyota’s first year as the official vehicle and holeshot sponsor of the Monster Energy Cup. As part of Toyota’s commitment to the Monster Energy Cup, for the first time ever, they have created the “Toyota Holeshot Trifecta” award, which will award any rider who claims the holeshot in all three main events with a brand new Toyota Tundra! A nice incentive to hold it pinned out of the gate!

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Go behind the scenes at the 2013 Shift MX Catalog shoots with Jeff Emig, Josh Hansen, Blake “Bilko” Williams, Josh Hill, Ivan Tedesco, Myles Richmond & Carey Hart.

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Melbourne-based Monza Imports has been announced as the Australian Distributor for Bell Powersports. Monza Imports will officially kick off its efforts for Bell Helmets with a booth at the 2012 AirAsia Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix Expo, Octover 26-28 in Phillip Island, Australia. Monza Imports will have its full range of Bell products on display over the course of the three-day product expo, with initial stocks expected to arrive early November.

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A few astute readers have noticed that, in our October issue’s 2013 Husaberg range feature, there are some curious entries in the Specs table for the seven 2013-model bikes. We won’t point the finger at the clueless culprit here, but let’s just say that some genius forgot to carry the one and all the columns got completely out of whack, creating some very misleading stats. Anyway, here’s how that Specs table should have read.

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Sony have entered the Helmet Camera game, with their all-new Action Cam. Weekend warriors can use Sony’s Action Cam to capture high quality Full HD 1080p footage in a variety of situations, indulging in the benefits of Sony’s strong imaging heritage with exceptional lowlight, slow-mo and anti-shake capabilities. For more information on the Action Cam, click here. We might have to strap one of these bad boys to a lid and give it proper testing!

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