Features 20 Aug 2014

Cycle Central: 33

A front row view of Australian road racing, presented by Alpinestars.

Hands up who wants to lead the Swann Series? That’s the topic we’re considering this week with another injury blow being dealt to current points leader Wayne Maxwell.

Maxwell has revealed he broke his collarbone in a motocross training crash close to home last week, and has already undergone an operation in the hope of a speedy recovery.

Ironically it was Team Honda stablemate Jamie Stauffer who led the series prior to Winton but relinquished the lead to Maxwell after breaking his ankle at the Suzuka 8-Hour. Maxwell had pulled 14 points clear of Stauffer after the Victorian event but now has less than a month to be back fit if he is to defend his lead.

Fingers crossed that Maxwell, one of star attractions of the series, is ready in time for Wakefield.

Unfortunately the incident has cost him a start at the Oschersleben 8-Hour this weekend where he was slated to ride again with the Monster Energy Yamaha outfit after a strong showing at Suzuka.

Image: Keith Muir.

Image: Keith Muir.

Disruptions to both Maxwell and Stauffer’s respective Swann Series campaigns leave the door ajar for Troy Herfoss to take advantage, with the Winton dual race winner in the best form we’ve ever seen him in on a Superbike. We catch up with Troy tomorrow to find out his thoughts on that and his recent purple patch.

Staying on the Oschersleben event for a moment, it is great to still see a strong Australian representation across the board in both the EWC and Superstock teams.

Broc Parkes returns to his seat at the Monster Energy Yamaha team, joined by Rick Olson on the YART entry, who will be eager to impress.

Gareth Jones will front up for Team R2CL Suzuki, Alex Phillis for Maco Racing Team Yamaha and both Ant West and Alex Cudlin are confirmed for the QMMF Superstock mount. In terms of the actual championship it’s a pivotal event, and we’ll bring you updates across the course of the race weekend.

Finishing with a look at MotoGP now and the intriguing Brno event which brought Marc Marquez steamrolling run to an end.

The odds of his streak being broken were becoming greater with each race, and from the start it was obvious that the reigning world champion was lacking that critical edge that we’ve come to see from him.

That was probably best illustrated by the fact that Valentino Rossi was able to reel him and actually displace him from the podium, his first time outside the top three in any race he has finished in the the premier class.

Source: Honda.

Source: Honda.

The relief for Dani Pedrosa was evident, with the Spaniard finally upstaging his teammate for the win.

It was more bemusement than relief for Jorge Lorenzo, with his best chance for a win yet slipping away. Second is still solid, but he was clearly outclassed by the Honda, a real indication of how this season has played out.

And of course we learned of the bad news for one of our world championship regulars Arthur Sissis, who has been replaced at Mahindra after a fairly tough slog this season. It’s been a tough year for the South Aussie who is now focused on a return to Speedway racing.

It’s easy to forget that he had only a relatively small amount of actual road racing experience before being thrust into Moto3, and to have come away from that time with a podium is no mean feat. We wish Arthur the best of luck at this crossroads – hopefully we’ll see him in action when Australia hosts a Speedway Grand Prix next year!

That’s all for this week. Keep up to date with all of the news by following CycleOnline on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

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