Jorge Lorenzo is certain of being on the grid for his final race as a Ducati MotoGP rider in Valencia, having missed the four previous grands prix due to injury.

Lorenzo injured his foot in a major highside crash at the start of the Aragon race in September, but was back on his Ducati Desmosedici just two weeks later in Thailand.

But the Spaniard suffered another big crash in practice there, which resulted in a fracture to his left wrist and ended his weekend early.

He tried to ride the following weekend at Motegi, but ceased his participation after just two practice laps.

Lorenzo then skipped the Phillip Island round entirely and withdrew from Sepang after Friday practice.

Asked ahead of the season finale in Valencia whether he was confident of taking part in the race, Lorenzo said: "Yes, I will be riding on Sunday. I think I'm quite well to be able to ride.

"In Sepang I wasn't [well enough] - or, I wasn't able to fight for something important, top 10, even top 15, I was too slow.

"Luckily the injury improved so much in the last 10 days, every day was important and every day I feel better.

"So now I feel enough good to try to achieve the best result possible for the team."

Ducati works rider Andrea Dovizioso, whose relationship with Lorenzo became increasingly fractious in their time as team-mates, referred to Lorenzo's Malaysian GP absence as "strange" later that weekend.

It was a comment that subsequently angered Lorenzo.

The Valencia Grand Prix will be the end of the three-time world champion's time at Ducati, with Lorenzo moving to Honda next year.

Lorenzo's struggled badly alongside Dovizioso initially in 2018 but scored three wins after a mid-season breakthrough.

The departing Ducati rider said Valencia will be "a very emotional race" as it will "close an important chapter in my career".

"The good moments were very good, I enjoyed a lot," Lorenzo said of his Ducati tenure.

"So I would like to give them [the team] the last present of making a good race."

Lorenzo is not yet fully fit and he is hoping that the wet weather forecast will help him ride around his injury.

"Probably the rain will help me a little bit to not stress so much the injury, which is still in the last part of recovery.

"So, [I'm] looking forward to jump onto the bike."

When Harley-Davidson celebrated its 115th anniversary with a party in Prague earlier this year, it invited a select few builders to present a custom Harley each. And with a remarkable three AMD World Championship podiums to his name, Julian von Oheimb was an obvious inclusion.

The German builder—who operates as One Way Machine—has a knack for turning Harleys into subtle, tasteful customs, and his anniversary build is a stunning example. Called Quartermile, it’s a dark and minimal cruiser imbued with drag bike style.

Despite the low-slung ergonomics and race slicks, it’s not actually a race bike. The visual cues come from an idea Julian’s had buzzing around in his head for years—since he fell in love with a Billy Lane Knucklehead with slicks.

It’s also a bike that Julian didn’t have to build. Harley-Davidson gave all the invitees the choice of bringing an existing bike, or building something fresh.

Even though the show was less than four months away (a OWM bike usually takes well over a year to deliver), Julian was dead set on creating something new.

All he needed was a suitable donor. Luckily, Julian’s dad had a 2007 Heritage Softail, imported from the US years before. The two of them were scheduled to go on a road trip across the Midwest around the time of the Harley event, but had to postpone due to dad’s health.

The focus went onto Prague.

With the base bike decided, it was time to refine the design. Julian dug through his desk drawers and pulled out some old drag bike concepts he’d sketched.

He cherry-picked his favorite design cues, then adapted them to work with a Heritage Softail—on the street, rather than the drag strip.

“OWM customers are usually busy businessmen who invest money to have a perfectly designed and drivable bike for weekend trips,” explains Julian. “This means that road legality is a must. So the slick tires are swapped for Avon tires after shows.”

Julian started by stripping the Softail down, then cleaned up the frame and swing arm. All unnecessary tabs were stripped off, along with the fender struts. Julian lowered the bike too, using a lowering kit that works with the stock suspension at both ends.

Rounding out the rolling chassis is a pair of TTS rims: 2.15 x 21 in front, and 3.5 x 18 out back. The front slick is from Vee Rubber, with an M&H Racemaster at the rear. Julian’s also converted the Softail from belt to chain, and installed new brakes: a Beringer inboard setup at the back, with a Beringer disc up front.

He didn’t mess with the motor much though, opting to leave it mostly stock. It’s got a new primary cover from EMD, an air cleaner from Speed Dealer Customs, and an exhaust system from BSL. (BSL had a setup that matched Julian’s vision to a tee, saving time in the rush to get the build ready for the show.)

Julian always gets the lines of the bodywork to look just ‘right.’ This time, he’s taken a Sportster Custom fuel tank, then edited it to fit the Softail’s frame.

He’s modified the oil tank too, and topped both off with caps from KustomTech. Items like the rear fender, fender bracket, license plate bracket, battery cover and fork shrouds were all made by hand, from scratch.

Finer details include a set of One Way Machine handlebars, Beringer controls and a Motogadget MST speedo. Julian also modified the stock foot controls a little, and built one of his signature headlight installations.

BK-Lack GmbH and Coco Breezé Art Works were called in to paint the bike. It’s now sporting a sublime silver and black scheme, punctuated with discreet flashes of gold—like the elegant tank badges). Spirit Leather jumped in to upholster the bare-bones perch.

After H-D’s 115th in Prague, the bike went off to the Custom Summer Days in Mannheim. It stole the show, quite literally, with a ‘Best of Show’ award. Right after that, Julian handed it over to its new owner—a businessman from the Lake Constance Region who already owns two OWM bikes.

Julian describes the OWM ethos as “perfect design, maximum surface finish and good ridability.”

We’d say he’s accomplished that, wouldn’t you?

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With second-year driver Tanner Gray having all but locked up the NHRA Pro Stock championship, one might think five-time Pro Stock champ Jeg Coughlin Jr. might not have much left to race for in this weekend’s season-ending Auto Club Finals in Pomona, California.

Coughlin, who was Pro Stock champion in 2000, 2002, 2007, 2008 and 2013, as well as was runner-up in 1998 and 1999, says that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Gray holds a commanding 140-point lead over second-ranked Coughlin in the Pro Stock rankings (teammate and two-time champ Erica Enders is right behind in third place, 149 points back).

With a maximum of 191 points available to be won in the season finale at Auto Club Raceway, Gray would have to lose in the first round of eliminations, while Coughlin would need to qualify No. 1, win the race and set at least one of two speed or elapsed time national records to even have a shot at overtaking Gray for the Pro Stock crown.

But instead of worrying about “ifs,” Coughlin is going to go out this weekend doing what he’s done his entire career: not worry about the driver in the other lane, not worry about points and just be concerned with doing the best possible job he can do.

And if Gray wins the championship, so be it, and Coughlin will go over and congratulate the young driver for an outstanding 2018 season.

“Pomona is going to be an important race for us as a team,” Coughlin said in a Jegs.com media release. “It’s a big positioning race for us to figure out really who will finish two through seven. It’s very open right now.

“Not only do we want to qualify well and win four rounds on Sunday, we would like to finish as high as No. 2 in the points standings. But even though we’re there going in, it’s going to be a fight to stay there. We are just going to focus on that.”

Coughlin has three wins and two runner-ups in the first 23 races of the 24-race NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series schedule.

He’s also qualified No. 1 three separate times during the first five races of the six-race NHRA Countdown to the Championship playoffs (and has qualified No. 1 five times overall this season).

Coughlin and the fabled Pomona track have a long and successful history, with the Ohio native having won there six times in his Pro Stock career, including four times in the season-ending race (1999, 2001, 2005 and 2007).

“It’s Pomona, the final race of the season, and emotions are high,” Coughlin said. “I’m excited on many levels and for many reasons.

“There’s just a lot of neat stuff going on and we still have some ambitions of our own at a track where we’ve had great successes in the past. It’s going to be a big race for us as a team as we try to continue some great momentum and end the year in style.”

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