Tech Talk with McMartin Racing Crew Chief Adrian Monti
With Mark Bracks
We caught up with McMartin Racing Crew Chief Adrian Monti during the Sydney Motorsport Park ASBK Test.
Adrian Monti is the technical brains behind the McMartin Racing with K-Tech Ducati Team.
After two ASBK titles with Wayne Maxwell in the saddle, the team expanded briefly last year to include another three-time ASBK champion, Josh Waters.
Waters settled into the team with aplomb and quickly made his mark by taking out the three support races and a new lap record at the Australian Grand Prix. A couple of weeks later it was a repeat performance for the Mildura local including when he lowered his own lap record at the circuit.
With the retirement of Maxwell, Waters is now the sole rider in the team’s quest to reclaim the ASBK crown in 2023, and Monti is the man that is making the technical decisions to assist Waters in his quest.
Mark Bracks: Well Adrian, please talk me through the first day of season 2023.
Adrian Monti: “We had a really good day. We were here a couple of weeks ago at the St George night meeting where we ran through a few things and found some areas for improvement. We worked on those yesterday (Tues) and we have some direction and hopefully we can move forward today.”
Bracksy: You had a pretty good bike at the end of last year, however I know you are always aiming to improve. What was the focus for you here and what were the problems you were facing?
Adrian Monti: “It’s pretty much the same problems that every rider wants fixed; more grip and more feel, so we are just trying to work on different ways to achieve that. This is a different circuit, we haven’t been here for a few years, and the track was resurfaced in areas between the last time we visited and this test, so we’re just trying to understand what changes that requires to the motorbike.”
Bracksy: So is it turning okay and gripping okay, because from the two different surfaces, the new would have better grip than the old stuff?
Adrian Monti: “At the moment, potentially, it is smoother so I think it’s faster but I don’t know if it has more grip as there isn’t much rubber down. It got better throughout the day yesterday and I think the times were quicker because the track was smoother. I think today everyone will go faster because there is more rubber down each session.”
Bracksy: Where were your main improvements, as Josh said yesterday you had six stages to work through. What was the most satisfying?
Adrian Monti: “We found a little bit more grip. We had a little more braking stability and now we are just working to combine all those together and hopefully give him a bike that can do everything a little bit better than what it did.”
Bracksy: Can Josh be a bit aggressive on the bike and not let the Ducati work the way it wants, compared to the other brands of bike he has ridden?
Adrian Monti: “I wouldn’t say that, really. Josh is an extremely competitive individual and he’s always trying to give the maximum that he can, to give us the best feedback. So he was just riding as hard as he could, which I don’t have a problem with.”
Bracksy: How much have you had to change the bike compared to how Wayne was riding it?
Adrian Monti: “Last year was very very similar set-up wise for geometry – the electronics were completely different – but the geometry and chassis setting they were very similar.”
“We haven’t been here with Wayne properly so we don’t have a good setting for this circuit. We’re just trying other ways to get more out of the bike.
“Every year we review the previous year and see how we can improve – what areas of the bike we need to work on. We’re working on those, they are mainly grip and steering.”
Bracksy: When you said braking stability, is that the way you have it set up, is it pretty ‘nose-heavy’?
Adrian Monti: “Not so much that. We made a fairly substantial change running into The Bend last year and Wayne was able to make a lot more passing moves under brakes. We saw in the hairpins he could really attack everyone, so we’re trying to carry that forward but still maintain the same drive out of the corner and not lose the rear-end grip.”
MB: So Adrian sum up the two days?
Adrian Monti: “We had a really successful test. We came with some things to work on and we worked on those. We made improvements in all the areas we wanted to. We’ve still got some areas to improve upon. We’ve found some solutions. We’ve created some more problems so we’ll go back and look at the data, and review Josh’s notes and see where we can come back here for round two.”
MB: So did you tick all the boxes over these two days?
Adrian Monti: “I think we did. I’d say ‘yes’. We definitely achieved what we wanted to in these two days. For us to continually go faster, or maintain the quickest times we did as the track got worse. I think is all we can ask. The track got hotter, there was less grip and we still managed to do 29s in every session so…“
2023 ASBK Calendar
| 2023 ASBK Calendar | |||
| Round | Circuit | Location | Date |
| Test | Sydney Motorsport Park | NSW | Feb 1-2 |
| R1 | Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit | VIC | Feb 24-26 |
| R2 | Sydney Motorsports Park | NSW | Mar 24-25 |
| R3 | Queensland Raceway | QLD | Apr 28-30 |
| R4 | Hidden Valley Raceway | NT | Jun 16-18 |
| R5 | Morgan Park Raceway | QLD | Jul 14-16 |
| R6 | Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit | VIC | Oct 27-29 |
| R7 | The Bend Motorsport Park | SA | Dec 1 – 3 |
