Interview with Ben Henry, owner of DesmoSport Ducati Team

Interview with Ben Henry

G’day Ben, I think we’re a little too late to catch up. Tell us what happened at your Cube Performance Workshop and the DesmoSport Ducati HQ at the end of the hour, away from the race…

“Yes, long time no say.

“Cube Performance Center is completely down, I can’t really keep up with it all at the moment.

“I have a few ads for someone else in the office right now and potentially another technology, so if you’re working too much in media let me know because I have room for you. .

“I just launched an e-commerce site cubemoto.com.au it’s a Ducati OEM split site, very interesting and made to ‘basically’ emulate what we see as dealers as we log in on a daily basis directly to the public. It’s the best OEM Ducati site I’ve seen in OZ so far.

“Then it has the performance part of the site, which is essentially a separate site. It’s a website geared towards providing hard parts for the track and racing world.

“Obviously I’m into the racing game and I’ve been struggling to get parts for the past decade, so I’ve decided to go this route.

“You get tired of spending money on parts to find them six weeks away and the seller just takes your money to go buy the parts and then ship them back.

“So I’m currently building a large mezzanine at the Cube and stocking up on as many parts as I can.

“It is currently a combination of parts that I have in stock and parts that other importers have in stock.

“Throughout racing for a long time, I have a lot of brands that have backed us, mainly Italian brands so I have done a few exclusive deals with a few of them and some agency transactions with others.

“Just parts and deals going on everywhere at the moment and it’s busy.

“The website launched on GP Thursday coincides with the time when CubeMoto sells all the merchandise in the Ducati trigger tent, so everyone who buys from that tent, buys Cubemoto outright and is given some information. about it.

“It was super successful for all of us and really exciting.

“The site is a bit early but to be honest, sometimes you have to start somewhere and for us, it’s already there.

“We’re trying to stock up on parts for the new Supertwins class because I think it’s going to be a great class for everyone.

“In terms of cycling, thankfully the bikes didn’t get hit so it wasn’t too bad. Heavy maintenance as usual, they are Ducatis! But the search for speed and functionality never stops, it consumes my mind.

“I take them to every race with some kind of improvement, somewhere. I grew up in that environment and it’s just me. “

And now if we turn to racing, Broc’s debut in Queensland was pretty epicbut he can’t seem to muster an equivalent speed at Recent Phillip IslandWhat do you put it down for?

“In my opinion that is a very ‘superficial’ point of view. Practice for free, in the rain, never ride in the rain, and he’s second fastest. Eligible and the first round of drying, he must find his feet. His comment was, ‘I’ve never been more than 300 years old and it’s too fast’. Then a bike problem during a DNF race happened to him.

“Saturday’s back-to-back races saw him finish with a PB in the final lap and give time to his two closest competitors in the grand slams. After reviewing his data, I am not too stressed about him and his potential for the WSBK round. “

And for your lead racer, Bryan Staring, I suppose you and he both expect to be a little more competitive at MotoGP powered races?

“Right that fact cannot be denied. I can be a racer dad for you if you like and for you, we didn’t test and they made excuses, but when someone like Josh rolls up and hunts everyone, including Even the man who usually rides a bicycle, the first time he rides it, it won’t carry much weight.

“As a team, we need to do better. Everyone on the team is very good at their potential positions but as a team we need to get it right. It is certainly possible and I always feel like we will, and everyone is actively leading the race.“

With Josh Waters jumping straight onto the Boost Mobile Ducati and dominating, with just one day on the bike before race weekend, I would imagine that can be a bit of a pain in your crawl , so can say, to pass them at Phillip Island? I mean, there’s some rivalry between the two Ducati factions about quietness, right…?

“For sure I don’t love it, I’m happy for Josh. I’ve known him for a long time before getting into racing and I’m delighted to see him finding his feet like that.

“That further led him to test the Honda really well next week. Josh is hot asset and I’m happy for him.

“If I could take anything from it all. I want to say the bike is very good, I thought to myself Wayne drove it well and that was part of it all but luckily it was just the motorcycle and luckily for me I have some who among them warehouses.”

“Without a mate, there are no rivals….(There was a wink in the distance with the last comment that I’m sure…)

So what are your plans to reduce that deficit between the game here and the penultimate round back at Phillip Island on November 20, before we head to The Bend finale a week later?

“We have one more test left and the plan is to go further in the direction we went for the final race at Phillip Island.

“As a thinker, you always feel like you could have cracked it! I feel like we learned a lot, in two races on Saturday. Both boys love the changes and both are more consistent in race distance. “

How do you think the international Australian crowd back for The Bend finale might play out this time around…? Are you rebuilding Jack’s bike this time? In addition to your own riders, what bikes do you participate in to prepare for the finals? We’ll be there before we know it….

“Some riders come in that I know, and some I really don’t, so I can’t wait to see how they compare to ASBK’s guys compared to their usual championship.

“I want to say a huge thank you to Jack for wanting to come and race in front of the ASBK fans, it’s been a game changer for us as a series, and I just can’t tell you. That’s how much I appreciate it, then to bring some other riders with me is unbelievable.

“Which Team Thriller, no, I don’t overdo it. I gave some advice here and there and helped them sort out a few contacts.

“Yes, the bike will come to me from a delivery point of view and I will do a little bit of the process to get them started, but the bike is a bit late and it starts to get tight on time, when it I have Will probably do some programming on it for them and they’ll go.

“I have a new spare bike there ready to race, if they need it no problem, if they don’t have it no problem. It will drop in the test next week and what will happen, will happen. “

You think the ASBK rules are in a pretty good place right now, what would you like to change?

“Having the rules is generally really good.

“Changes need to revolve around practicality.

“In short, the radiator. Pretty sure ‘most’ people need them, either when Euro 5 arrives, or basically when the new Ducati comes out.

“From my little understanding of it all, production bikes are built to run hotter now to try to help meet emissions. They are generating more power, but the radiator is not bigger.

“The bikes are consuming parts, and get crazy hot in some circuits, they need to move from time to time there.

“Then there’s the wheel. Most bikes except Yamaha have Marchesini wheels available. My purchase price on them as a set was 5.5k, and I’m at a decent deal. If the aftermarket wheels were tweaked and introduced a bit, we would have saved a decent amount of money. It is not mandatory, but just an idea. “

Do you intend to race? 2023 V4 model CHEAP next season? The engine looks more distinctive inside next year, with ‘drill’ control rods, lighter pistons, more powerful cams, and perhaps more important for the competition here could be changes. as for the gear ratio inside…?

“When it comes, we’ll use it. My prediction is after round three or so.

“Certainly I’m looking forward to its transmission but the whole power issue is an old story. All we usually do these days is try to calm things down with the help of electronics. If it continues this way, I will remove the plug from it.“

Thanks for the conversation Ben, candid as always. See you in a few weeks at the Island and then maybe have a beer at The Bend.

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