The thundering engines and fanfare of the Australian Superbike Championships rolled into The Bend Motorpark in South Australian to cap off its 2022 season. But it was the roar of one particular bike – and its rider – that drew the most attention. Once again, Australian Moto GP superstar Jack Miller made his return to Superbikes for the final round for a second year in a row. And like 2021, he did it representing the Cat® brand in a highly visual way.
This year upped the ante in every regard, however, with Jack riding a singular all black and yellow Ducati Panigale V4 S, emblazoned with Cat decals. “It’s awesome to have this sort of freedom and play around a bit with the bike, the leathers and what not to really make it how you want to envision it,” he said. “We dipped our feet in the water last year a little bit, and this year it’s come up tops. “It’s nice to be able to have that freedom to make it look cool, that’s a big part of it. It’s also about being proud of it too.”
For Caterpillar® Marketing Manager Cameron Balzat, having the multi-year partnership with Jack take another step further like it did was fantastic to see. “It’s a great opportunity to showcase the Miller and Caterpillar partnership to our customers in a very different way,” Cameron said. “We know many Cat owners are machinery enthusiasts, for one thing, but being enthusiasts, that translates over to motorsports, in any form.” Jack’s ride for the Superbikes was well and truly one of a kind. The bike rocks a hexagonal grill mesh detailing and a colour palette akin to other Cat machinery. It even sports ‘JM43T’ – Jack’s team and number in the make/model design you’d find on other Cat machinery.
It’s practically part of the fleet, except it can go about 200km/h faster. “When we designed that bike in conjunction with Jack’s team, we wanted it to represent a Cat machine on the track,” Cameron said. “Obviously, we don’t make two-wheeled bikes, but we wanted it to look like it came from our Cat factories, so to speak, even down to Cat Bolt-head decals to complete the impression of a Cat machine.”
Mate’s rates
There was also something special about Jack’s pit crew during the weekend, with many of his mates from Townsville making the trek to lend a hand. This included Adam Franklin, who used to race against Jack when he was younger in motocross.
Adam’s brother Frank helped assemble Jack’s bike from scratch, but Adam brought his own expertise from his work as a diesel mechanic and racer. “It’s awesome, I loved the hands-on stuff and this racing experience is awesome,” Adam said. “Not too many people get to do it. It’s a good weekend with good mates and a lot of fun.” Adam was helping in the pits with Jack’s German racing mate Marcel Schrotter, ensuring his bike was up to snuff before races and during stops.
“It’s hard coming from a couple of racing aspects, and having raced myself, you sort of get used to it,” he said.
“It’s all about just having a go, we’re all just here trying to have fun and do our best and make sure everything’s safe for the boys.” Adam races pro dirt buggies, riding in a built chassis two-wheel drive beast.
While racing is his passion, his work as a diesel mechanic also gets him excited. Adam works for Nortrans – a smaller family-operated business based in Townsville. There, he does work on large commercial trucks for a variety of freight and transport companies.
“Dad used to drive trucks, so it sort of came from there. That’s what I wanted to do and nothing was gonna stop it so I went with it and I’m loving it,” Adam said. There’s plenty of differences between a massive Mack semi and a much smaller Ducati, but Adam said each toy was plenty of fun to work on.
“Everything’s quite a bit smaller, and a lot more expensive,” he said. “It’s just all about the size of everything. The bikes are a bit more fiddly. Racing’s a much faster pace and there’s a pressure to get stuff done than with the trucks, but I like it.”
Two-way fandom
The partnership between Jack and Cat didn’t start like your typical sponsorship signing. It was Jack’s love for Cat machinery
that had him enquiring about buying some earthmovers for his property near Townsville. “Jack came to us wanting to buy a tractor from us,” Cameron said. “That started the discussions, he ended up buying a D3 dozer. “He’s got that working on his property up at Townsville … a year later he bought a second Cat machine, a 259D3 Compact Track Loader” When he’s not dominating the track for Moto GP or Superbikes, Jack’s roaming his land aboard his collection of Cat machines. “I love having those machines there, if we do need to make some drastic changes then we get out the D3 and push around some serious dirt,” Jack added.
“It’s awesome to have that Cat machinery there to work with at home, it’s something I’ve dreamed of. “It’s pretty hot up there, so that aircon definitely comes in handy.” Cameron said this connection made the partnership all the more deeper and translated well in the pits and on the track. “It’s not just Jack representing CAT, he owns our machines and he loves what they do for him and what his Cat dealer Hastings Deering does for him,” he said. “We feel that’s a great connection with Cat Machinery owners and operators alike.”