Last weekend’s MotoGP race at the Sachsenring saw two Aussies competing in the Moto2 category. Anthony West, who seems to have made a life-long work of joining the wrong teams at the wrong time, is riding for the (former) East German team, MZ, a team whose headquarters are just down the road from the ‘Ring.
Unfortunately, Team MZ is very short on budget (where have we heard THAT before?) and this bike still runs with a tubular steel frame that makes it 18kgs heavier than its main competitors. The team did have a new, alloy frame on hand and Westie did practise with it but it still wasn’t quite right so Anthony had to revert to the old bike for the race. It must be so frustrating to be propping up the midfield when you know you have the talent to win.
The other Aussie on hand was the wild-card, Damian Cudlin. Showing what a difference it makes to be racing for a competitive team, Cudlin started 22nd and worked his way up to 4th position by half-race distance, but then tyre problems starting to affect him and he slipped back to 7th, still an amazing performance for someone who’s never raced that type of bike before.
These photos from the hondaproracing web site.