It’s over 7,000 miles from Potchefstroom, South Africa to the Principality of Andorra and it was in a small home nestled among the 7.990 inhabitants of the tiny nation on the Iberian Peninsula where World Championship Moto2 competitor Darryn Binder was packing a gear bag for for this weekend’s MotoGP Austrian GP at the Red Bull Ring The South African-born LIQUI MOLY Husqvarna Intact GP Moto2 team racer Binder has designs on utilizing the GP as a swift shove up the fiercely competitive Moto2 points table.
“Yeah, I’m really excited to get into Austria,” said Binder. “The first half of the season was pretty tough. We really only had one or two glimpses of some speed, so it was really a difficult start to the year. Coming back after the summer break now, we went into England last week and had a really good ride. After the England race, on Thursday we tested at Aragon, as well, and it was really positive. I’ve got really high hopes heading into Austria and hopefully I can have a strong second half of the year.”
Coming off a somewhat sluggish and inconsistent first half of the Moto2 campaign in which Binder’s best result was a sixth place at the British Grand Prix, he explained just how difficult it can be to find any sort of performance competitive edge in the Moto2 classification.
“It’s a number of things that make Moto2 so competitive, really,” he said. “This year we went to Pirelli tires and we changed from Ohlins to WP suspension. It just took us quite a long time to figure both things out. It was one thing to understand the tires and then we had to get the suspension dialed in. At every race we were just chipping away, but I feel like there is a really fine line of having a good feeling and being just a little bit off. Everything in Moto2 is so tight at the moment, when you’re just that little bit off, you seem to really struggle. It looked a lot worse than it was the first half of the year. I knew that as soon as we could get something to click that we’d be fine. It’s just these small things all of the time and just dialing it in, so I really feel like that if we can keep this up we can have a strong end to the year.”
Silverstone brought Binder’s best result so far this year on the Speed Triple 765cc, 160hp Kalex.
“At Silverstone I had a really good ride,” Binder said. “Unfortunately, we made a small mistake with the setup for qualifying. I started 18th and I managed to come through and I was fighting for the podium (so) I’m really feeling positive for the next round in Austria. Finding an edge in Moto2 is so difficult. I mean there has been this this year we have been 0.03s off and I’m down in 18th place and I’m like, ‘Jeez, I can’t catch a break. 0.03s is nothing.’ Yeah, it seems to be coming good and hopefully if I can just keep building on this now we can start fighting for a decent position.”
In his 10th year as a Grand Prix racer, having spent time in the MotoGP, Moto2 and Moto3 classes during his career, Binder sees a lot to love about the sport’s intermediate division.
“I really enjoy Moto2,” said Binder. “It’s just cool. First of all, everybody has got the same engine; 90 percent of us are on the same frame. I mean, it is just so tight. There are so many good riders in Moto2. You have really got to make the difference because there is only so much you can do with the bike. Once you get it dialed in, you really have to do something special to try and make the difference up. It’s a really cool class. I mean there is no electronics or anything like that. It really comes down to managing the tire and getting the right setup and racing as hard as you can.”
Austria launches the second phase of the 2024 Moto2 season, and Binder has a masterplan for it.
“I’m just going to try and keep repeating what I did at the last round, you know? The most important thing is to get straight through to Q2 on the Saturday, so that you are in the top 18 on the grid no matter what. The higher up you are, the easier the race always is. If I can be fighting up front for a podium, I’ll be fighting. The days where I’m struggling, I’ll just try to bring it home as close to the top as I can and just rack up some good points for the championship for the last part of the season. I want to just keep building every race.”
Yet to land atop the box in his two-year Moto2 stint, Binder hopes and plans on making that happen during this second half of the ’24 campaign.
“You always go with the mindset to win, so yes, I think our first step is that we need to try and get ourselves on the box and then from there hopefully we can fight for a victory,” he said. “That would be awesome.”
Dogged by a series of injuries throughout 2023 and finding his way back to form as the 2024 season has developed, Binder has been pleased with his physicality in the demanding sport.
“Yeah, this year I have been good. Touch wood. So far so good. Everything has healed up well and I’m finally back to my normal self. I’m feeling fit again. Training has been going well,” he related. “The second half of the year we’ve got a lot of overseas races, which I really enjoy. We get out of Europe and head over to Asia and all that. I really enjoy those away races. They’re a little bit different. These guys I race against ride in Europe on these tracks all of the time and when we go away to those away races it always mixes thigs up a little bit.”
Binder, along with his older brother Brad, a competitor in the premiere MotoGP division for KTM, genuinely enjoys all the globetrotting that comes along with being a world class racer.
“It’s awesome to do what we do,” smiled Binder. “I owe a lot to my parents for getting us over here and letting us live our dream. In the beginning it was really tough. There were a lot of sacrifices. I’m still just living the dream and doing what I love. I wouldn’t change it for the world.”
Happy though he is in Moto2, having spent one year in the top MotoGP class with Yamaha in 2022, Binder has designs in making it back on to the premier class starting grid as quickly as possible.
“100 percent, that is definitely the goal,” said Binder, zipping up a helmet bag for his trip to Austria. “I need to figure things out in Moto2 and put together a solid season with some good results and hopefully I can get an opportunity to jump back up to MotoGP again.”