Mat Oxley

1 week ago | motorsportmagazine.com | Mat Oxley

Bajaj’s takeover of KTM – finalised last week as the brand’s MotoGP teams were setting up at Silverstone – keeps the troubled Austrian brand safe for now. But does KTM’s new owner think that racing, and MotoGP in particular, is worth it? Bajaj is one of the world’s biggest manufacturer of motorcycles, annually producing around seven million two-wheelers and three-wheelers, including smaller-capacity machines for KTM and Triumph.

1 week ago | motorsportmagazine.com | Mat Oxley

Will Aprilia’s first MotoGP victory of 2025 convince reigning world champion Jorge Martin to stick with the Noale manufacturer? Maybe but possibly not, because everyone knows Silverstone is the RS-GP’s happiest hunting ground – the bike scored its first podium there in 2021 and its second win there two years later – so success at the British track doesn’t mean it’s suddenly turned a corner in development.

2 weeks ago | motorsportmagazine.com | Mat Oxley

MotoGP dominator Giacomo Agostini knew the writing was on the wall. When Yamaha‘s first 500cc two-stroke arrived in Europe in April 1973, MV Agusta‘s Italian superstar was prepared to do anything and everything to beat Yamaha’s Jarno Saarinen and his 0W19 at the season-opening French Grand Prix at Circuit Paul Ricard. Trouble was, anything and everything weren’t enough.

3 weeks ago | motorsportmagazine.com | Mat Oxley

Lessons learned racing around the Manx roads helped British manufacturers build better motorcycles than the French. So too did Brooklands, the world’s first purpose-built racetrack, built specifically to help the British automotive industry catch up the European industry. Brooklands opened just a couple of weeks after the inaugural TT took place. Racing motorcycles around velodromes became a big thing in France until bikes outgrew the wooden or concrete ovals.

3 weeks ago | motorsportmagazine.com | Mat Oxley

They say that winning your home grand prix is like scoring the winning goal at the World Cup final, but only one person on this planet knows what it’s like to win your home MotoGP race at Le Mans. Because there’s nowhere better to do that than Le Mans, thanks to the vast and noisy crowd thronging the vast grandstands, built to accommodate the crowd at the circuit’s 24-hour car race.