South Carolina Motorsports Racing News
Friday, July 23, 2010
Contents www.SCMSRN.com
Road Racer X
Honda Road Racerhead #30
Well,
it’s on. Six years after Grand Prix racing’s 2005 return to Mazda Raceway
Laguna Seca, the Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix is still going strong, and this year
it’s the halfway point in the eighteen-round MotoGP series. This weekend is
without a doubt the biggest of the year for us here at Road Racer X, and although
the bikes weren’t even on track yesterday, I was wide-open all day long. It was
a great start to what I think will be a special weekend, but since I know
things will be even busier today, I’m following my annual Laguna tradition of
staying up into the wee hours to get Road Racerhead posted early today. If I do
my job right, it’ll give you readers some fodder to get pumped up for the race,
and although I’ll be a bit tired for a while, my stress level should be reduced
significantly. Fortunately, there’s plenty to talk about, so let’s get started.
Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix
weekend started on Tuesday, with a Yamaha party at Jay Leno's garage. Between
them, these four guys have ten 500cc world titles! • CJ photo
Like I said, I have a special
feeling about this weekend, and I’m not sure why. The weekend really started
quite early—essentially on Tuesday night, when Yamaha hosted a memorable
evening with their MotGP and AMA Pro riders, as well as legends of yesteryear
including Eddie Lawson, Wayne Rainey, and Kenny Roberts at Jay Leno’s garage.
By now you’ve probably seen the photos,
and there’s not really a whole lot more to add, except that it was one of those
times when I feel fortunate to be scraping out a living in motorcycle
journalism. Thanks, Yamaha, and especially to Mr. Leno.
Yamaha has been a major
sponsor of this event since its ’05 return, and they still make a big deal out
of it. It’s classy and appreciated that they include some of their old-school
guys in the special activities, and even Rainey’s son Rex, who’s interested in
sports marketing and is preparing for college, is getting in the program this
weekend by helping out the Fiat Yamaha team.
Once
again, Yamaha perfectly combined coolness and humor with this ad.
Yamaha’s emphasis on this
race also explains the special skin you can see on either side of this column,
as well as the very cool (and very funny) ad that appeared in the new Cycle News and as the
opening spread in the official Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix program (which we
published, as we have since ’05). It was a humorous concept to begin with, and
the props were the perfect touch. I know some readers give me a hard time for
mentioning stuff like this, but although I’m firmly on the editorial side, I’m
not ashamed to say I appreciate the creativity that goes into good advertising.
Bob Starr and his crew really know how to get it right.
Dani
Pedrosa snuck in a surf lesson and an indoor-skydive session between the
Sachsenring race and the Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix. • CJ photo
Wednesday morning I loaded up
the family SUV and the wife and daughter, then hit the road (I used to ride to
this event, but I’ve always got so much crap to bring up that I’ve wimped out
the last few years and traveled by “cage”). Our first pit stop came pretty
quickly, as we pulled in to Hollywood’s Universal City Walk to watch Dani
Pedrosa partake in a bit of skydiving
in iFly’s vertical wind tunnel. By that point, the Spaniard had already
squeezed in a morning surf lesson with fellow Red Bull athlete Levi Siver, who
had flown over from his Maui home just for the occasion, and joining him in the
wind tunnel was San Francisco Giants Cy Young Award winner Tim Lincecum—yet
another Red Bull man.
It’s tough for guys like Dani
to make his way through the autograph seekers at the races (especially in
Spain), but it was kind of funny to see how he and Levi were semi-anonymous in
Hollywood, while it was obvious that Lincecum is a Very Big Deal in mainstream
American sports (hey, I’d even read stories about him). On the other hand, when
Rossi is featured in Wall Street Journal articles
(thanks for the link, Herod Lowery), it’s a good sign that MotoGP is doing okay
here in the U.S.
Colin
Edwards brought his kids on a visit with the military this week. Will he be in
World Superbike next season? • Courtesy Yamaha
Anyway, Pedrosa gets a lot of
crap from American fans—some of it from me, and some if it well-deserved—but
the truth is he’s a very decent guy who is extremely fast on a motorcycle.
Siver and Lincecum were also guys anyone would love to hang out with, as Red
Bull does a good job of picking their athletes.
Also on Wednesday, Dainese
hosted Marco Simoncelli at their very nice D-Store San Francisco. I couldn’t
make it up in time, but staffer Nick McCabe headed over, and he said there was
a very strong turnout. Meanwhile, Nicky Hayden visited with a young boy for the
Make A Wish Foundation this week, and Colin Edwards snuck in a visit to the
“Longknives” at Los Alamitos
Army Airfield. Props to all those riders for going the extra mile on
this stuff during the few days since last weekend’s Sachsenring MotoGP round.
On the Colin Edwards tip, the
hot rumor in the pits yesterday was that the Texan could be making a return to
World Superbike next year, possibly with the factory Ducati team. The Corse
effort is having a tough time of it this year, and perhaps the two-time SBK
champ is what they’d need to turn things around. It would be nice to get
another American in that series, especially on a top team.
Pramac
Racing riders Mike Kallio (left) and Aleix Espargaro were among those to
auction off items for Riders for Health yesterday, with the help of Randy
Mamola and Rich Oliver. • CJ photo
Anyway, to return to the
first-person perspective, after watching Dani get airborne in Hollywood, the
Jonnum clan jumped back in the car and headed north on I-5. This is the first
time my family has accompanied me on this trip, and I’ll be honest—about the
time we realized we hadn’t packed enough snacks for to outlast our daughter’s
hunger on a road that’s not known for having a plethora of roadside dining
choices, I was thinking it may be the last. Fortunately, a belated plate of
pasta in Monterey combined with a restorative slumber to put things right, and
I left them to the tourist beat yesterday morning and headed to the track,
where I hooked up with fellow staffers Laurel Allen, Scott Wallenberg, and Tim
Crytser, and we put our collective noses to the grindstone.
As I said, it was a pretty
full schedule even yesterday, and among the activities was Riders for Health’s
annual Day of Stars, which got a decent turnout this year. The lucky
participants got to go on a great ride in California wine country, do a lap of
the track, and hang out with legends like Rainey and Randy Mamola, and it was
all finished off with a live auction at which some nice rider memorabilia was
sold, with all proceeds going to a very good cause: using inexpensive
motorcycles to deliver healthcare and medicine to hard-to-reach places in
Africa.
Fiat
Yamaha is welcoming the Fiat 500 to the U.S. with a special livery for this
race. • Andrew Northcott photo
As the weekend proceeds,
there will be a host of additional special activities, including (but not
limited to):
• A Friday evening BBQ at the
Hyatt-Regency Monterey, which is RRX’s official
headquarters for the weekend.
• Leo Vince’s Movie Night
on Friday and Saturday night, when Mark Neale movies Faster and The Doctor, The Tornado & The Kentucky Kid will be shown, respectively. (I, for one, look
forward to seeing DTK at the same track where it was filmed.)
• A book signing with Lawson,
Rainey, and Roberts for Peter Starr’s new tome Taking It To The
Limit—20 years of Making Motorcycle Movies, on Saturday at 1 in the
Yamaha Marketplace (I got a chance to peek at the galley proof for this
beautiful book at the Indy show in February, and I definitely plan on owning a
copy).
RRX
photog Andrew Northcott points out his son Stirling on Jorge Lorenzo's fairing.
• Andrew Wheeler photo
• A Kevin Schwantz autograph
signing for Dainese on Saturday at 3 in the Cycle Gear booth inside Turn 3
(directly across from the RRX booth).
• A Spies-Edwards autograph signing
on Saturday at 4 in the Leo Vince booth inside Turn 3 (again, just down from
the RRX
booth).
In addition to special
events, this race typically inspires some special liveries, and that’s truer
than ever this time around. Fiat Yamaha unveiled theirs
yesterday afternoon, and it’s in honor of the Fiat 500 (that’s “Cinquecento,” not “five
hundred” coming to the U.S.). the liver features 500 different faces on it,
including those of Stirling and Henry Northcott—sons of RRX photographer
Andrew.
Dainese
has special leathers to match the Fiat Yamaha livery. • Courtesy Dainese
In addition, Dainese
announced their accompanying leathers
late last night, and word has it Dainese also has something special in store
for the aforementioned racing legends. The Pramac Racing team is running with
the Powermate
livery this weekend, recognizing the American brand that’s a part of
the Pramac family, and even Moto Forza is getting in on the program
as they welcome Miguel Duhamel back onto the AMA Pro American Superbike grid.
As for Pat Clark Motorsports,
they’re taking it a step further, not only running a special livery but also auctioning
the leathers and bodywork off on eBay next week to benefit research on Rett
Syndrome. The rare neurodevelopmental disorder affects the daughter of Yamaha
press manager Kevin Foley, a multi-time AMA Amateur National MX Champion who
started the Race4Rettmx
charity in 2006.
Monster
Yamaha Tech 3 boss Herve Poncharal poses with his two Texans and their special
livery for this race. • Andrew Northcott photo
Speaking of Pat Clark
Motorsports, while Ben Bostrom is racing on Sunday, his fiancée Nicki Hale will
be doing likewise—two hours north in the San Francisco
Marathon. Good luck on those hills, Nicki! And Ben, please get that
hideous thumb fixed as soon as this race weekend is over!
Monster Yamaha Tech 3 also
has special graphics and leathers that they showed off yesterday, which makes
sense considering both of their riders are not only American, but Texan. In
addition, Leo Vince will be covering the hillside outside Turn 2 with Spies and
Edwards placards on Sunday, converting the corner in to Texas Turn—a nice tough
along the lines of Mugello’s Rossi hillside and Ducati grandstand.
Nicky
Hayden is featured on this year's RRX souvenir sticker for this race. Stop by
the RRX booth (inside Turn 3) to pick up yours for free.
Edwards and Spies have been
looking forward to this race all season, as both go well on this track and have
a lot of fans. Spies has three wins here in American Superbike (plus one in
Formula Xtreme), including the one he got to finish out the 2007 season and
take the crown over Mat Mladin by a single point. In fact, this isn’t even
Ben’s first MotoGP race here, as he put in a wildcard ride for Rizla Suzuki in
2008, when he also raced AMA Superbike.
“That one was really tough,”
Ben recalled when I reminded him recently, “just because I got really sick
after that and was in the hospital with all the appendix problems. That was a
bad, bad weekend, but I’m looking forward to it this time. The crowd is a third
of an Italian GP crowd, but all those guys there are going to be rooting us
Americans on like hell—that means a lot. You never say ‘Win or crash,’ but if
the bike’s working good and I’m riding okay, if we start the race and are in
that time of being competitive, then the pin’s going to be pulled, and it’s
going to be everything I’ve got and not worrying about how it turns out ’til
it’s done. I’m probably not going to win the race, by any means, but my best
result better be there—that’s what the goal will be.”
(From
left) Valentino Rossi, Dani Pedrosa, Jorge Lorenzo, Nicky Hayden, and Ben Spies
mug after yesterday's pre-race press conference. • Andrew Northcott photo
Edwards didn’t get any wins
here in his short AMA career, but Nicky Hayden has one in AMA Superbike and
another in 750 Supersport. Like Colin and Ben, he’s also looking for big things
this weekend, and when asked if he wants to beat the other Americans here, he
smiled and replied simply, “I don’t want to be the last one!”
It’s a special opportunity
for these guys to get to race a Grand Prix in front of their home-country
crowds, and although Rainey and Lawson both know what it’s like, I sometimes
feel sorry for guys like Roberts and Mamola, as there was no U.S. Grand Prix
for them. On the other hand, they did get to take part here in the special
Champion Spark Plug 200, and old-school photographer Eduardo Soler made this
issue’s Speed of Life page with a stellar image of Kenny Roberts from the 1985 edition
of that race.
Laguna Seca has been hosting great races for years, as this 1985 footage of the
Champion Spark Plugs 200 reminds us.
Back then (as you may have
noticed in the video above), the track used to go around the lake instead of
inside of it, and Turn 2 used to be almost as frightening as Turn 1. For some
info on that and on the building of the Corkscrew, check out what track-builder
Jerry Blair had to say
during a recent chat with Laguna PR manager Jennifer Capasso.
Roger
Hayden is racing World Superbike, MotoGP, and Moto2--all in the same season! •
Andrew Northcott photo
As for whether we can ever
regain the dominance America enjoyed thanks to those heroes, I posed that
question to Mamola recently. “We definitely have some potential in terms of
talent,” he said, “and we have some possibilities—Nicky has shown that as
recently as 2006. Spies finished the 2009 season on the top step in World
Superbike, which is a good representation of our talent. The biggest difference
back then was that talent could sometimes outshine the product, meaning you
could take a bad motorcycle or tire—there were three tire brands back then—and
make it look good. The two-stroke really demanded an adaptable riding style,
but the modern bike puts such an importance on the product and the setup that
it’s hard to just rely on talent alone—it’s a much more complex motorcycle to
set up. Another way to put it is that if they were all riding Moto2 bikes, the
Americans would definitely have a chance of dominating, because there’s no
traction control and everyone is on the same engine. We have the talent, but
it’s whether or not they can get the right machinery underneath them.”
Of course there’s an extra
American racing this weekend, as Roger Hayden got the last-minute nod to
replace Randy de Puniet, who was unfortunately injured last week in Germany.
You may remember that Rog did his MotoGP debut here with Kawasaki in 2007, when
he finished tenth after being passed for ninth in the last corner by Alex
Barros. Although he didn’t get the opportunity to test the MotoGP bike this
time like he did back then, the Honda has proven to be fast, with de Puniet
having put in some impressive rides of late, and as Nicky pointed out, Rog’s
recent Moto2 test should be helpful for this weekend. Rog has had a tough year
and a half, but he kept trying hard and kept a good attitude; I’m pumped to see
things finally break his way.
Dakota
Mamola made the podium last week in the UK. • Photo by Ben Davies/SMARTFotos
RRX intern Jesse Cecil asked this week if any rider had
ever raced in World Superbike, MotoGP (or 500cc GP), and Moto2 (or 250cc GP) in
the same year before, and although I told him I’d track down the answer, I
still haven’t managed to do so. If anyone out there knows, please put it in a
comment at the bottom of this column. I’d be surprised if Rog isn’t the first,
but I’ve been wrong before.
Speaking of versatility, do
you know which rider has won at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in the most different
platforms? Keep reading, and you’ll find the answer later in this column.
The man who originally came
up with the idea of American Honda doing a Moto2 one-off at the Red Bull
Indianapolis GP—Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s VP of Operations Mel Harder—usually
makes it to this race, but he had to sit this one out. His track is hosting the
Brickyard 400 this weekend, which meant Mel had to stay home, but IMS will be
showing clips from this race on their big screens, as well as some cut-ins with
Nicky. You may know that this is the final on the contract for IMS and Dorna,
but when I spoke with him recently, Mel said both parties very much want MotoGP
to come back to Indianapolis, and that they’re talking about that and about
some exciting ideas concerning the race date. Hopefully, we’ll all be hearing
some good news soon.
Of course Roger won’t be the
only American racing Moto2 at Indy, as class-regular Kenny Noyes will be
enjoying his first home-country Grand Prix. Noyes made the new issue of ESPN the Magazine, in a
photo of the wild Turn 1 crash at the Catalunya Grand Prix.
The
RRX booth (inside Turn 3) will be better staffed than this over the weekend.
Stop by for subscription deals and free stickers. • Laurel C. Allen photo
Speaking of Americans doing
well overseas, big congrats to Jake Gagne, who not only won again at last
weekend’s Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup race in Germany, but took over the points
lead. JD Beach already showed that U.S. riders can win that championship, and
hopefully Gagne backs that up. Jake was considering racing AMA Pro SuperSport
this weekend, but now that he’s leading the title chase, he decided that he
doesn’t want to take that risk. If you missed the latest edition of the column
Jake does for us, be sure to check it out.
Oh, and yet another young American
who’s doing well overseas is Dakota Mamola. Last weekend, Randy’s son finished
second to Rob Guiver in the 125cc class during the Snetterton round of the
British Superbike series, despite having to come up from eighteenth on the
grid. Congrats, Dako.
Tommy
Hayden joined Nick in the mohawk ranks for this weekend. • CJ photo
Back to Nicky for a minute:
Yesterday, there was a bit of a dust-up when Italian sports daily Gazzetta dello Sport
hit, featuring an interview with the middle Hayden brother. The headline
included the words “Vergogna Stoner” (“Shame on Stoner”), in reference to a supposed
quote in which the American scolded his teammate for leaving for Honda. Nicky and
Ducati PR manager Federica De Zottis (who was present for the interview) both
swear he never said any such thing, and as an Italian speaker, I think it’s
very likely that the interviewer (Paolo Ianieri, not Filippo Falsaperla, who
actually covers the MotoGP races for Gazzetta) was confused by Nicky saying something along the
lines of “It’s a shame Casey’s leaving.”
Oh, and remember, there’s yet
another Hayden racing this weekend, as Tommy is in action in American Superbike,
the class in which he and Josh Hayes seem destined to take the title chase down
to the wire. Check out Chris Martin’s enlightening column
on the oldest Hayden brother.
Though this will only be
Rog’s second MotoGP race, he’s far from a freshman at Laguna—a track at which
he has traditionally gone well. In fact, he may well have a leg up on MotoGP
rookies like Hector Barbera, Alvaro Bautista, Aleix Espargaro, and Marco
Simoncelli, as well as Mika Kallio, who’s in his second yer in the class but is
also here for the first time after missing last year’s race with an injured
finger. Over the past couple of days, most of those guys have put in some laps
on scooters, and almost to a man, they report being shocked when cresting the
Corkscrew (it’s a sensation that really never goes away, as I was reminded
during yesterday’s run
with Kevin Foley and Tim Crytser). When Mamola was interviewing him at
yesterday’s Riders for Health auction, Aleix said that there’s nothing you can
compare to Corkscrew to anywhere else in the world. As for how he plans to
attack it, he said, “I cannot do nothing—just close my eyes and fly!”
Daytona
200 winner Don Emde (left, with Yamaha's Bob Starr) had this specially modified
YZF-R1 autographed by Valentino Rossi yesterday. It will be auctioned off later
this year for Riders for Health. • Andrew Northcott photo
Also trying out the track for
the first time will be Josh Waters, the Australian racer who is sitting in with
Rockstar/Makita Suzuki after Blake Young was injured in testing. Waters himself
suffered a severe concussion and a collapsed lung in a testing crash earlier
this month, but he’s going to take part in today’s American Superbike practice
session at 4 and then make the call on whether or not he can race. Josh heads
back Down Under on Monday.
A few paragraphs up, I asked
you to name the most versatile rider at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, and I think
that honor has to go to John Kocinski, who has won here in 500cc Grand Prix
(’93), 250cc Grand Prix (’89 and ’90), World Superbike (’96 and ’97), and AMA
250cc GP (’86 and ’87). Not only that, but Kocinski is the rider with the
longest span between his first and last USGP wins, at four years, 4.9 months
(his April 16, 1989 250cc Grand Prix victory and his September 12, 1993 500cc Grand
Prix win). That latter one was this week’s TGI Monday
trivia contest question, and among the correct answers we received was our
randomly chosen winner, Jeffrey Fillmore of Tempe, Arizona, who will be
receiving a Puma briefcase, belt, money clip, keychain from Ducati’s Wrooom
MotoGP team launch in Italy.
That information and more is
included in the Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix event program, which we published. The
107 page book
includes history trivia like that, plus tons of info on the MotoGP and AMA Pro
teams and riders, plus stuff like a very in-depth analysis of the track,
including width, elevation change, corner radii, straightway lengths, curve
bankings. Of course the program has practical information like maps and
schedules, and it comes with a free copy of the July/August issue of Road Racer X (which, in
turn, comes with a free National Guard poster of Jake Zemke)—not bad for just
$10.
Nicky
one-upped Tommy by having some etchings added to his mohawk. "You have to
go to the hood to get those," he explained. • Andrew Northcott photo
Those are available from the
track, and we’ve got special subscription deals at our booth, inside Turn 3.
Laurel is heading it up all weekend, and if you get within twenty feet of her,
she’s selling you sub—fair warning. Even in the unlikely event you manage to
get away from her without signing up, you’re still welcome to pick up a free RRX souvenir sticker
that’s only available at this weekend’s race.
I’m going to call this Road
Racerhead good before it hits 4,00o words, and grab a couple hours of sleep.
Hopefully, you’re on your way to the track by motorcycle (unlike me), but if
so, please ride safely and avoid getting pulled over—and if you do, don’t film it!
Have a great weekend. I sure as heck plan to.
Ó SCMSRN.com/Paul J Miller 3rd, 2000-2010