THE OXLEY INTERVIEW: SAM LOWES
On the brink of specialness in 2021.
Sam Lowes has been living his childhood grand prix dream since he switched to Moto2 after winning the 2013 World Supersport title.
‘I could’ve gone to WSB with a good deal, earning more money at that point, but I’d never have known if I could’ve won a GP race,’ says the Lincoln-born 30-year-old, whose twin-brother Alex rides for Kawasaki in WSB. ‘I’m proud to have won a few GPS, because winning a GP is a big thing for someone coming from World Supersport.’ Both brothers – Sam is the oldest, by two minutes – grew up watching Valentino Rossi carve his way through the 125cc, 250cc, 500cc and Motogp world championships, dreaming of one day following their idol. In Briton they raced Honda RS125 GP bikes with some
success. The next step was the CEV championship in Spain, gateway to GPS, but mum and dad couldn’t afford the £350,000 required to buy their sons CEV rides, so they bought them a CBR600 each instead. From BSB Supersport they graduated to World Supersport and then to World Superbike. Or at least Alex went to WSB. Sam decided to take the risk that few Britons take and move from road-bike racing to GP racing. Only one problem, he had a 2014 WSB deal with the Yakhnich squad. His desire to do GPS was so strong he paid the team £230,000 to get out of the Yakhnich contract. Then he went and found a Moto2 ride. The move was a gamble. In the spring of 2014 Lowes joined a whole new championship, racing with people who had been circulating GP tracks since their teens, learning every grain of asphalt.
During his first six seasons in GPS Lowes won three races. Last year he won three in three weekends and led the Moto2 world championship. In the end he lost the title by nine points due to two minor incidents: a low-speed crash during preseason testing, which broke his right shoulder, and another during the GP of Europe, caused by a throttle-blipper issue. That’s why he believes he can win the crown in 2021. ‘After being that strong in 2020 I can realistically say I can fight for the championship in 2021,’ he adds. ‘If I’d said that this time in 2020 people would’ve gone, “yeah right, whatever”.’ Lowes has always had the speed. What he lacked was consistency, or, to put it bluntly, the ability to stay on two wheels. In recent years he has topped Motogp’s crashing league on three separate occasions, averaging 24 tumbles per season, out-crashing even Marc Marquez and Cal Crutchlow. He attributes his transformation from win-it-or-bin-it merchant to title contender to several factors, including his adoption of a sports psychiatrist and a scooter-type rear brake. Everyone in GPS is wildly quick, so it’s the details that make the difference.
‘I’ve been working with a guy called Craig Muirhead [of Camino Coaching] on something called flow, which is about trying to get your brain in the zone. Maybe before I wasn’t 100 percent focused on every point, so that’s helped a lot.
‘Before I get ready to go out I do a bit of meditation – I don’t sit in a room like a Buddha – but I have a machine called a Muse and I use some breathing techniques, so now I feel more relaxed approaching sessions and races. This also helps me give better comments to my guys when I come back in the garage, so I don’t come in and say, “The bike’s shit!”, just because I’m nervous.’
When Lowes is out on track the hand-operated rear brake helps him to be smoother, safer and faster. ‘It sounds like a small thing but it’s changed my riding a lot. I release the front brake quite fast, so I get a lot of transfer to the rear, which is why I was always losing the front [because the load comes off the front tyre, shrinking the contact patch and reducing grip]. With the scooter rear brake I can control that transfer a lot better. That helps me crash a lot less, so I’m more confident.’
Another big change for Lowes is riding for one of the best teams in Moto2 – the Belgian-based Marc VDS squad, funded by Marc van der Straten of the Stella Artois dynasty.
‘Signing for them last year was a massive thing – the way the whole team gets behind me, their way of working and their way of making me feel good on the bike. Gilles Bigot is the best crew chief I’ve had. He’s flatline – whether I’m first or 15th in a session he has the exact same reaction. In some teams everything is mint when you’re going good, but you have one bad session and everything is shit, so your crew chief has that pressure to keep changing the bike, because he’s searching for something. Now with Gilles, once we’ve got a base setting we change very little, so I know the bike better.’
Bigot has worked in Motogp for decades, most famously winning the 1999 500cc world title with Alex Crivillé. The Frenchman fully understands that small things make a big difference in GPS. The fastest 20 riders on the Moto2 grid are often covered by only half a second, a difference of around three hundredths of a second per corner. That’s why Lowes, Bigot and their Moto2 rivals spend all day, every day looking for hundredths and thousandths of a second.
‘Gilles always gives me things to work on. He’ll say something like, “There’s no one faster than you through Turn 12, so keep doing what you’re doing through there.” Then when he says, “But you need to work on this or that at Turn Two”, you take it on board a lot more than you would if someone tells you, “That’s shit, that’s shit and that’s shit!”. It sounds petty but it rubs you up the right way and you take confidence from that.’
This season will be Lowes’ second with Bigot and his eighth in GPS, so now he really knows every circuit in detail, but he’s still working to improve other areas of his riding for the 2021 season.
‘I’ve got more knowledge and I’ve improved my riding. I was fast when I was young, so it was alright and I didn’t think I needed to work on it. Then you hit a wall with your riding and you start crashing. If you keep doing the same thing you’re going to get the same results, so with some good input from good people, like Giles, I’m riding better and faster. ‘From a riding technique point of view the big thing I’m working on for 2021 is using my knees on the fuel tank to pick up the bike quicker. My riding style differs a lot from the guys coming into Moto2 from
‘Lowes has always had the speed. What he lacked was the ability to stay on two wheels’
Moto3, who sweep through the corners. I make corners more triangular – I come in quite fast, stop the bike, then I’m quite hard in acceleration – so if I don’t get the bike picked up quick on the exit I lose there. I’m also working on my throttle traces [the data traces that reveal throttle opening]. Everything I did before was too aggressive, so I’m smoothing it out.
‘Changing direction is another thing. I used my arms too much, which got the bike moving around too much going from one side to the other, so now I’m trying to work more with my legs.’
Lowes almost always trains with brother Alex. In fact they’re together all the time, just like they’ve always been – brothers in arms, rather than sibling rivals.
‘We never argue or fall out. We enjoy the same stuff, we’ve got the same friends, we just get on really well.’
Of course they do have their moments.
‘Before we were making money from racing we worked for my dad. He’s an industrial electrician, so it was working in big quarries and concrete plants, heaving big cables around. We got electrocuted all the time and I electrocuted Alex on purpose once. We were on the walkietalkies, “Sam, have you turned it off?” ‘Yeah, mate, it’s off.’ Zap! “You fucking dickhead!”’.
‘Sometimes dad would turn up and he’d go mental. He used to have this red van and I’ve seen him go redder than the van. He’d be on the limiter. He used to really give us one, but we know we owe him everything. Mum and dad probably spent half a million quid on us going racing. They put in everything they had, including the house.’ Many of the twins’ racetrack rivals have been professional racers since before they left school. This is a huge advantage in many ways and explains why Lowes is in his thirties, while most of his Moto2 rivals are in their early twenties. But Sam believes his upbringing makes him stronger on track and more aware of what goes on in the real world. ‘When me and Alex were working for dad we always worked six days a week, starting at 6.30 in the morning, then we’d go training after. One hundred per cent that makes me put more into racing – I’ve seen that side of life and I’ve seen this side. ‘I don’t take anything for granted because if I wasn’t racing I’d be working my arse off five or six days a week, earning maybe 25 grand. That really helps when I’m having a bad day, when I’m struggling. I think I can put it all into perspective easier than some.’
This is why Lowes isn’t your normal 21st century GP star. He’s more grounded, more approachable, more easy-going than most. Of course he takes racing deadly seriously, but he sees outside the closed world of racing which makes him different to riders who have only known life inside that exclusive bubble.
‘You hear some riders talk about their latest helmet deals. Like, “Ahh, I suppose 50 grand is okay…” Wow, 50 thousand pounds to put a helmet on your head?!’
Both brothers certainly earn good money from racing, but who makes the most?
‘Alex’s salary is a lot bigger, nearly triple mine, but last year I probably made more because he has to pay out a lot. His factory contract means he’s obliged to have a helper, a motorhome and a riding coach, so his expenses are quite high.’
Lowes goes into the 2021 grand prix season – which starts in Qatar 28 March – as a favourite for the Moto2 crown. If he does win the title he hopes he might get another shot at Motogp – you’ll, no doubt, remember that in 2017 he had a Motogp ride with Aprilia, but the season turned out to be a disaster, with the factory showing little interest in their rookie signing.
‘What I will never fully understand is that they signed me and then they didn’t want me on their bike. That will doubtless puzzle me for rest of my life.’
If Motogp doesn’t come calling again Lowes will either stay in Moto2 or go to World Superbike, so finally we may get to find out which brother is fastest.
‘That would be cool – go to WSB and try to beat Alex!’
‘… you hit a wall with your riding and you start crashing. If you keep doing the same thing you’re going to get the same results’