Cycle News

IN THE WIND P28 At this stage probably Daytona is the last race. I wanted to stay on right through until they were up and running, ready to run for the season. And you know the doors left open on both sides. But at this stage I need to be back here [Australia]." The new position with Motor- cycling Australia is not a full-time job, but for Doyle it was an op- portunity to stay involved with the sport without having to change to another manufacturer or team. "There was an opportunity there with these people, Motor- cycling Australia - the regulatory body - to get in there and try and pass on some knowledge and experience to those guys," Doyle explained. "And it covers all disci- plines by the way… I think some- one said it was involved with Superbike, but actually it's mo- tocross, supercross, road race, everything. "They already have road race commissions set up for mak- ing rules, so I'll be working with them, and working with the technical people at the race- tracks, and working maybe with the manufacturers. Also, I'll be looking at noise control areas, because there's big issues here in Australia with noise. And they fairly much follow the FIM here in noise control regulations, but they've also got problems out- side of the pro level of racing with noise as well. So they've got a number of issues that involve the technical side of it, not just road racing. So, yeah, I'll look forward to it. It's something different. I'm used to being on the other side where you bend the rules." Doyle brings a wealth of ex- perience to the position, not just from his time in the AMA series, but World Superbikes as well where he was part of Scott Rus- sell's World Superbike Champi- onship with Kawasaki. But he is best known in the U.S. for his time as crew chief for the win- ningiest rider in AMA Superbike history – Mat Mladin. During his tenure at Yoshimura he's been a part of seven Super- bike Championships, multiple race wins - including after Mla- din retired with Blake Young and Martin Cardenas – there's a lot of memories to draw from. Was there a few that stood out for Doyle? "I think two things that hap- pened sort of stood out," Doyle said. "One not so much anything to do with me at all, I mean I was working there, but Mladin winning the 2001 Daytona on a 750 and the championship. The bikes, at that time, the 750s were typically out classed. Much more than people ever probably knew. Just to go to places like Daytona and the big V-twins - the Hondas and the Ducatis - they just had supe- rior advantage. And the guys, the people that ran the 754's back then, they really had to work hard for the race win. "But I think winning in 2004, when Mat won with the extra tire change, from a team point of view, that was really going to change the face of that race. Un- fortunately the AMA changed it anyway. But had it stayed 1000cc that was a defining moment. We should have never won that race. We were so far off the pace with the regulation changes. In '03 the bike was good, fast, but when they choked them down with stock throttle bodies and stock air boxes in '04… I think there were a few new models, including the Honda, that again, they had a huge advantage over us. We were way down on per- formance. But we managed to be able to win that one. And so there was a couple highlights there, but look it was all good." Andrea Wilson DUNLOP UNVEILS NEW MX32 AND MX52 TIRES D unlop invited the media to Milestone MX Park in Riverside, Cal- ifornia, last week to unveil its brand new Geomax MX32 and MX52 line of motocross tires. Incorporating Dunlop's latest knobby technology, these two tires will replace the MX31, MX51 and MX71 Geomax versions while covering a significantly wider range of terrain than the previous three.

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