Road Racerhead v.2 #18
May 5, 2006
By CJ
Click here for a printer-friendly version
(All links open in a new window)

Bienvenido a un especial edición “Cinco de Mayo” de “Road Racerhead”! The fifth of May is not Mexico’s independence day, as many people think, but rather the day in 1862 that 4,000 Mexican soldiers defeated a French army twice that size in the city of Puebla, 100 miles east of Mexico City. I taught English in Puebla for two years, and I’ve liked the holiday ever since, although with all the controversy over immigration here in Southern California these days, I’m hoping today doesn’t erupt into another cinco de Mayo battle.

An Italian on an Italian bike at an Italian track: Lorenzo Lanzi should be a popular man at Monza. Photo courtesy of Ducati

If it does, I’ll likely miss it, as I’m about to hop on a plane to New York City for the weekend. For once, the trip is completely unrelated to motorcycles, although I hope to get permission from my wife to catch Sunday’s Monza World Superbike race on TV.

One guy who is sure to catch it is Road Racer X contributor and columnist Mark Gardiner, who is currently winging his way across the Atlantic for an MV Agusta press intro. The intro is early next week, but when Mark looked at his calendar and saw the Monza date, he booked his ticket a couple days early. I’m jealous, as I know exactly what I’m missing; I was lucky enough to attend Monza with some folks from Michelin a few years ago, and it was one of the coolest motorcycle happenings I’ve ever been a part of. The track is located in a city park; exit through one of the gates in the wall that surrounds it, and you find yourself on a busy city street, yet the woods in the park are so thick that you can’t hear the bikes when they’re on the other side of the track. Dandelion seeds float through the warm air, causing havoc with allergies, and fans walk through vegetation-lined trails to a variety of excellent vantage points. And then there’s the legendary, impossibly banked Parabolica curve, deserted yet majestic in the back part of the park. Anyway, I’m sure Mark will do it better justice in a future edition of “Backmarker,” so I’ll simply note that today in Monza, Noriyuki Haga was the fastest rider, followed by Troy Bayliss, Troy Corser, James Toseland, and Regis Laconi. For those keeping score, that's five manufacturers in the top five: in order, Yamaha, Ducati, Suzuki, Honda, and Kawasaki.

As a RRX employee, Laurel “Earl” Allen is not eligible to win the Hayden Look-Alike Contest. (Click for soul- patch detail!) LCA photo

Now, let’s start this column in earnest by talking about what went down last weekend in Fonturkey (the Fontana AMA Superbike race and the Turkish MotoGP round, each of which could fill up multiple editions of this column.

Before I go any further, though, just a reminder that you have only one week left to turn in entries for the Road Racer X/Kawasaki Hayden Look-Alike Contest. The prize is a perk-laden trip to the Kawasaki AMA Superbike Showdown at Infineon Raceway, and winning isn’t as hard as you might think. In fact, judging by what we’ve received so far, the winner will definitely not have to be a dead ringer. (Laurel Allen’s advice for Earl-wannabes? “Kind of dry off your front teeth so you can tuck your top lip in a little, then smile horizontally and don’t forget your soul patch.”) In this contest, entrants’ level of enthusiasm is much more important than perfectly matching the Haydens’ face structure. That said, you’ll have to do better than the entry sent in by Suomy’s Don Schmidt, who was playing on Rog’s old “Pork Chop” nickname. Entering is easy; to find out how, go here.

Not an acceptable Hayden contest entry.

I took a jab at Barber Motorsports Park last week in regards to Roger Lee Hayden hitting a wall (and breaking his leg). I stand by my statement—Barber is new enough that this shouldn’t have been possible—but Barber should also be commended for the things they’ve gotten right. When I interviewed him for this week’s “Tuesday Conversation,” I asked John Haner about his shoulder-injuring crash at Barber. Here’s what he had to say:

“I want to thank Mark Witt, who’s a gentleman who’s been working at Barber since the inception of the track,” Haner said. “We had a riders’ meeting the weekend of the test, about three weeks before the race, and there were probably 20 riders in there, including all your factory guys you can think of. We talked about different situations and went through each turn. At the end of the meeting, we started breaking down which situation was the worst, and everyone agreed that turn 1 was the worst. Mark went to work and ended up moving like 700 feet of guardrail about 50 feet back. I don’t want to think the worst, but [with the old situation], it could have been not standing, to death for me. Somebody got pictures of the wreck, and I’m doing a backflip where the wall was. You can see in the picture where I would have just been annihilated. I would really like to think Mark and all the efforts of everyone at Barber for all their help. It definitely made a difference in my career.”

John Haner underwent shoulder surgery on Monday. Murph photo

Haner went under the knife on Monday, and Laurel checked in with him this afternoon to see how he was doing.

“I’m sore, and it sucks, and I’m not taking the pain pills anymore because I hate the way they make me feel,” said the Texas KWS rider, who was sitting around watching MotoGP-related TV when I called. “It’s getting better—I can have my arm lay straight next to me now—but Dr. Ting said hopefully I can start working on my range of motion next week, so I’m looking forward to that.” When asked what his first race back is likely to be, Haner said, “Right now, it feels like it’s going to take a while. It’s not the pain, it’s that I just can’t get the thing [arm] to lift. I’d like to be back by Elkhart, but I’m not making any predictions today. It’s disappointing,” he added, “because racing with all those guys is what I love to do, and I can’t do it right now. But it’s just going to make me want it more when I get back. I’ll see guys who I know I can beat doing well, and it’s just going to make me want to beat them really bad.”

Like Barber, Infineon Raceway—the next venue on the circuit—is also supposed to be making some improvements, based on information gleaned in a riders’ meeting at the test there in March. The turn 1 berm is being reconfigured, more runoff is being added at turn 3, the wall and tire wall at turn 6 has been moved, and the wall near turn 7 will be moved back. Additional Airfence is also being installed, thanks to the raceway, the AFM, the Roadracing World Action Fund, and the AMA.

With four wins in five races, Ben Spies is the current top dog in AMA road racing. Andrew Northcott photo

Don’t look now, but we’ve got a new top dog in the AMA Superbike Series. Following his first-ever career double at Barber, it was still possible to doubt that Ben Spies was the man to beat, because Mat Mladin had a couple of problems. Last weekend at California Speedway, though, the champ was beat straight-up by the Texan. Even when Spies ran wide in the early going of race 1 and lost several positions, he fought right back to the front, reeled in Mladin, and pulled away. All this despite a flu that was bad enough that Spies was avoiding looking directly at people on Friday afternoon for fear of passing the sickness along. Yet by Sunday afternoon, Spies had a 19-point lead in the standings, and an autograph line worthy of a mini-Valentino Rossi. With the last round and the next round both being in California, Spies is spending the interlude in the Golden State, where he's doing some cycling with Kevin Schwantz and other riders.

Mladin has been pretty classy so far, saying he welcomes the challenge. It can’t be easy for such a winner to accept defeat, but apart from a quick snipe at moderator Larry Lawrence in the day-1 press conference, Mladin seemed able to leave it all on the track at Fontana. I saw him on Sunday night, away from the cameras and fans, genuinely laughing and playing with his young daughter, Emily. There are more important things in life than winning motorcycle races.

That said, no one expects Mladin to give up without a fight, and one wonders if he’ll have any new tricks in his bag at Infineon. Part of Mladin’s deal when he signed his new three-year contract toward the end of last season was that he had to help bring Spies along and prepare him to take over the reins. It doesn’t look like those lessons are going to be necessary. The reliable word is that Spies is using a new pressurized Showa fork that gives him great feel, whereas Mladin has stuck with his old fork. Will Mat try the new part at the next round? Time will tell.

Jamie Hacking is the new points leader in Supersport. Andrea Wilson photo

Kudos to Jamie Hacking for his win in the Pro Honda Oils Supersport race, and to Roger Lee Hayden for doing everything he could to try to compete just one week after breaking his leg. Ultimately, he, Team Kawasaki, and Dr. Ting all decided that it wasn’t worth risking it, and instead opted to focus on getting ready for Infineon.

The podium was completed by M4 EMGO Suzuki-sponsored veteran Michael Barnes—making the Supersport box for the first time since 1990, a record—and Matsushima Performance’s Danny Eslick, who was smiling so hard I thought his face was going to split in half. Congratulations, guys.

Hayden is now 30 points down on Hacking, but the championship is not out of reach. Eight races remain in the series; if Rog were to win every race from here on out and Hacking were to finish second, Hayden would win the title by two points, and that’s not counting bonus points for pole position and most laps led.

Danny Eslick was happy to make the podium at Infineon. And we mean happy. CJ photo

Props to Team Yamaha’s Eric Bostrom and Jason DiSalvo for topping the Lockhart Phillips Formula Xtreme and Repsol Lubricants Superstock divisions, respectively, in convincing fashion. I wasn’t exactly surprised to see those two win those classes, but I thought it would be the other way around.

Congratulations to Jason Pridmore, who recently finished runner-up in the 23rd Annual SCGA Mid-Amateur Championship at Murrieta, California’s Bear Creek Golf Club. The result earned him an exemption into the California State Amateur at Pebble Beach and in the SCGA Amateur Championships.

Fontana also hosted the opening round of the AMA Supermoto series, which went off Saturday evening, running like clockwork and finishing just before the sun went down. It was cool to be able to walk over and check out the action after the road racing had finished up, although I missed the first Supermoto final. Mark Burkhart seemed to be the fastest rider in the premier division, but crashes on his part meant that Graves Yamaha teammate Doug Henry had a perfect 1-1 day. KTM’s Benny Carlson topped the Unlimited final, and Troy Lee Honda’s Cassidy Anderson won the Lites race (in which Racer X’s very own Ping finished a strong fourth!).

Meanwhile, in MotoGP, what about the current points-leader? That’s right, none other than Kentucky’s very own Nicky Hayden! Trivia question: When was the last time an American stood atop the Grand Prix points standings?

The AMA Supermoto series kicked off last weekend, and Doug Henry was unstoppable. Eric Putter photo

Nicky has taken a beating by many critics since he joined the MotoGP series in 2003, and incredibly, the message boards were still hard on him after news hit that he’d climbed to the top of the points chase last Sunday. Critics say Nicky has taken too long to find success, and they point out that he’s still only won a single Grand Prix, and that one was on his home turf. I’ve got one word for those people: scoreboard.

Hayden is currently the top rider in the globe’s top road racing class, and the group of people who’ve been able to say that comprise a pretty small club. Yes, he’s on a very good team, but are we supposed to hold that against him? And the RC211V that Hayden is riding is definitely not the best machine on the grid. Despite being obligated to ride a bike with which he’s not completely comfortable, Nicky has consistently run at the front, and his third place in Turkey—while riding around brake problems caused by a tire warmer melting onto his rotor—marked his seventh-consecutive podium finish going back to last year. In addition, he currently holds the lead in the BMW M Award contest for the MotoGP series’ best qualifier. That includes last Saturday, when he earned the second spot on the grid—as well as the top Honda and the top Michelin rider—in the middle of a drenching rain. Hayden used to struggle in wet conditions, which is why he turned the foul weather at the winter tests into an opportunity, gaining valuable experience as he splashed through countless soaking laps.

Nicky Hayden sits atop the points standings in MotoGP. Andrew Northcott photo

While the other Honda riders are just making little preload adjustments and fine-tuning the bike at each track, Nicky is still developing the next-generation RCV completely on his own. Reliable word has it that Honda is having a hard time getting heat in the rear tire. Nicky’s bike is significantly lighter than the other Hondas, and the engine is moved forward. Honda is supposed to have some new stuff coming, although it apparently didn’t make it to Turkey.

By the way, Hayden has a new sponsor in Amp’d Mobile, the same company that’s currently the title sponsor of the AMA Supercross series. (For the latest on that series, which is as close-fought as MotoGP has been so far this year and is coming to a head this weekend at the Las Vegas finale, check out DC’s “Racerhead”—the original—over at www.racerxill.com.)

Speaking of wet races, remember last year’s inaugural Chinese Grand Prix? The MotoGP circus is heading back to that country next weekend, which means riders, team personnel, and journalists have been busy jumping through hoops in order to get their visas in time. I spoke with Colin Edwards this week while he was in the midst of getting his passport sorted out, and I asked him how it is that the Camel Yamaha YZR-M1—so dominant in off-season testing—had come to be such a collection of problems.

“A lot of that has to do with how Honda was really in the shit at the first couple of tests,” he explained. “They were struggling really bad and were way off the pace. We were running about the normal pace that we did last year. We had chatter problems at Malaysia and Qatar, but where we kind of screwed up was instead of going to the heart of the problem and changing the chassis or whatever we needed to change, we came up with all these other things to make the chassis work. The heart of the problem hadn’t changed, but we were just kind of making all these Band-Aids to fix a problem we already had.”

Valentino Rossi is still struggling with his Yamaha YZR-M1. Andrew Northcott photo

When Valentino Rossi qualifies in 11th place, you know there are problems with the bike. The fact that The Doctor finished fourth—and very nearly made the podium—with such a bike (and despite running off the track early on) says a lot about how good he really is. Vale languished back around eighth place or worse right up until lap 13, when everyone’s tires started to go off and riding skills began to play more of a role. From then until the final lap, the Italian steadily worked his way forward. That said, it’s worth noting that Rossi wasn’t the fastest rider on any of the race’s 22 laps.

“At the end, I was faster than the other guys,” Rossi said this week on Toby Moody’s www.crash.net radio interview, “but if I am in sixth place at six seconds from the lead, I’m not able to use this advantage.”

It’s tough, because all the riders are quick, and races are being won and lost by one-10th of a second per lap. Dennis Noyes has pointed out that because traction control makes bikes so much easier to ride—tamer than the old 500cc two-strokes, for example—Valentino’s extraordinary abilities aren’t always as evident as they might be. The bikes are getting easier to ride at 10-10ths.

Rizla Suzuki made quite a turnaround between Qatar and Turkey, with Chris Vermeulen earning pole. Andrew Northcott photo

When Moody asked Rossi if he was lacking motivation now that he might be nearing the end of his career, Rossi responded: “I don’t know if it’s motivation, but for me, the taste of the race is the same. When I arrive not first, for me, it’s always the same bad feeling.”

Despite his struggles, though, Rossi is still only 12 points out of the lead and one gets the feeling that he and Jeremy Burgess will get his bike sorted sooner than later. In the meantime, he has done a pretty good job of damage control.

Interestingly, Marco Melandri’s winning time was a full 10 seconds slower than his victorious time from last year’s Turkish GP—something that may be down to Saturday’s rain washing the rubber off the track (times were quick again in Monday’s test session). So far, only the Qatari Grand Prix had a faster time this year than last year.

It was cool seeing Chris Vermeulen grab pole position on his Rizla Suzuki, with teammate John Hopkins fifth on the grid. It was the first Suzuki pole since 2004, but it was the second pole in a row to go to an Aussie rookie. I spoke on the phone with Randy Mamola yesterday, and he mentioned a possible reason that the other bikes had a hard time passing the GSV-Rs in the early going (Vermeulen led the first lap, and Hopper held down second through lap six). “The Suzukis could out-brake the other bikes because they were going 10 mph slower on the straights,” he said, “which weren’t quite long enough for the other bikes to get by. Also, it’s really not a stop-and-go racetrack, so the Suzuki riders were able to carry corner speed, and they didn’t have their usual acceleration penalty.”

Casey Stoner almost tied Freddie Spencer as the youngest premier- class GP winner. Andrew Northcott photo

Makes sense to me. It was a shame that Hopkins had to pit for a new tire about midway through, but Bridgestone has still made some serious headway. Just a couple of years ago, the first two rows were regularly completely owned Michelin, with perhaps one Bridgestone in the mix on a good weekend. Last weekend, on the other hand, Nicky was the only Michelin rider in the first two rows. It’s also interesting that Bridgestone has two poles and one win this season, while Michelin has two wins and one pole.

And let’s not forget the extremely impressive Casey Stoner, who came extremely close to making history by winning the race. Why making history? Because he would have tied Freddie Spencer as the youngest rider ever to win a premier-class race, at 20 years, 196 days. In a video interview on www.motogp.com this week, Stoner’s mentor and boss, Lucio Cecchinello, said, “I believe that he has all the credentials and the potential to be world champion—very soon.”

The MotoGP contest was great, with four riders fighting for the lead near the end, but man, did you happen to catch the 250cc race? That was truly one of the most incredible races I’ve ever seen, with the riders in the lead pack dive-bombing one another mercilessly from start to finish. When Hector Barbera collided with Alex de Angelis at super-high-speed on the final lap, de Angelis officially became my new hero, making his way onto my Road Racer X MotoGP Fantasy Racer team for next week’s race. The Italian was knocked nearly off of his bike on the straight, but fought his way back into the seat and just kept his Aprilia from slamming into the trackside wall. Unfortunately, Alex found himself rolling along at a buck-fifty on wet grass on slick tires. Incredibly, he had the wherewithal to not make any sudden moves, but to instead patiently wait for the pavement runoff at the end of the straight, where he applied the brakes and brought the situation back under control. The helicopter view on television almost didn’t look real.

Alex de Angelis may have needed a change of underwear after his scary-fast off-track excursion. Andrew Northcott photo

I’m an ex-desert racer, and I’ve ridden off-road well into the three-digit range on a few occasions on Nevada dirt roads—the two best examples being once on a Honda XR628 in the Nevada Rally, and another time on a KTM 950 Adventure during a Dakar Rally training camp. On both occasions, I was using full knobbies, and I was a good 40 mph slower than what de Angelis was doing—and yet I was still in full-butt-pucker mode. I honestly can’t imagine what must have been going through de Angelis’ mind.

This is why we don’t put walls close to racetracks. “When you see something like that happen, you thank your lucky stars that we’ve been working for track safety,” Mamola told me when I brought up the incident. “That’s one of the latest racetracks we’ve gone to, China being the other one. It’s a part of this new wave of circuits that’s being built with Formula One in mind, in that they don’t need gravel traps as much as they need some asphalt at the outside of the curve, so they can stop. If they have gravel, it’s more dangerous, because the cars can start flipping. For us, we still need gravel in some places, of course, but [de Angelis] was lucky to have kind of like a runway strip there to give him time to slow down.”

In the end, Hiroshi Aoyama notched KTM their first 250cc win, 20 laps after younger brother Shuhei Aoyama knocked Jorge Lorenzo to the ground and out of the points lead.

Ducati fired the first 800cc salvo this week. Photo courtesy of Ducati

It looks like next week’s Chinese Grand Prix will see the return of Benelli to the grid! Well, kind of: According to Italian website www.motograndprix.it, Qiangjiang, the group that recently acquired the Italian brand, will field wildcard riders Wang Zhu and Li Zheng Peng in the 250cc class on Aprilia motorcycles painted in Benelli livery. Also expected to race in the class is the Chinese company Zongshen—though again, on Aprilia motorcycles.

Trivia question answer: The last time an American led a Grand Prix points chase was on the morning of April 8, 2001, when 2000 World Champion Kenny Roberts Jr. finished seventh in the season-opening Grand Prix in Suzuka, Japan, and Valentino Rossi scored the win.

It was cool to see Ducati being so public about their 800cc MotoGP test this week at Mugello. Guessing at how progress is going for the teams on their various downsizing projects will be keeping pundits busy from now until next spring.

Send your mail by motorcycle.

Did you see the news that AMA Sports has embraced youth road racing? The sanctioning body is allowing racers aged 10-16 into the Road Race Grand Championships at Lexington’s Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, September 22-24. The event will also serve as the qualifier for the World Mini Festival in Valencia, Spain at year’s end. U.S. MiniGP is also legal in WERA and USGPRU, all of which is great news not only for young road racers, but for those hoping for a strong crop of future American talent.

Oh, and the U.S. Postal Service recently issued a set of American Motorcycles stamps, recognizing the role of motorcycles in American culture. The four stamps feature digital illustrations of a 1918 Cleveland, a 1940 Indian Four, a 1965 Harley-Davidson Electra-Glide, and a circa 1970 chopper. I know how I'll be sending my mail.

Okay, time to head to the Big Apple. Thanks for reading “Road Racerhead.” Now here’s Miriam Deitcher’s dirt track poop:

**********************************

Cute couple Mees and Cheza. Miriam Deitcher photo

This week I’m coming to you from 30,000 feet above somewhere between Ohio and Nevada. I’m headed to Sin City for the season finale of the Amp’d Mobile AMA Supercross series. Since my employer is “The Official Insurance of Supercross,” I’m obligated to attend not only tomorrow night’s race (where I have the brutal job of supervising the “holeshot models”—similar to umbrella girls, but with 30-second boards instead of umbrellas), but also Sunday night’s end-of-season awards banquet at the MGM, where I’ll get to hobnob with the stars of supercross. Yeah, my job is rough—but somebody’s gotta do it.

Although Vegas will be cool, there’s no way it’ll top last Saturday night’s housewarming party at Jared Mees’ new pad in Clio, Michigan. Jared, whose place sits on several lush acres and is just a few miles down the road from girlfriend Nichole Cheza’s family home, threw an awesome party that rocked until the wee hours of the night.

Scott Parker knows how to liven up a party. Miriam Deitcher photo

The backyard gathering featured a huge bonfire (something that’s foreign to a city girl like me, but apparently commonplace in Clio) and drew an all-star Michigan Mafia crowd that included nine-time Grand National Champion Scott Parker with wife Wanda, Daytona short track winner Bryan Smith with his entire family, and the fun-loving Cheza clan.

While roaming around Jared’s house, I had the pleasure of meeting one of his most prized possessions—a snake. It’s hard for me to imagine having an emotional attachment to a reptile, but apparently Jared is quite fond of his slithery pet. Perhaps that explains why Jared was anything but amused when several of us rowdy attendees decided that the snake needed to leave his lonely cage and mingle with the guests. The look on Jared’s face tells the whole story.

Since reptiles make me queasy, I’m going to totally change the subject. Two things struck me as odd when I reviewed the results from last weekend’s AMA Supermoto season opener in Fontana. First, I was surprised that Henry Wiles was the only flat track regular to race. With the two-and-a-half-month hiatus in the flat track series, I expected at least a few guys to show up. Second, I wondered what happened to Wiles, who qualified an impressive 13th but failed to complete even one lap in the main.

Jared, the snake loves hanging with the girls. Miriam Deitcher photo

Turns out Wiles’ day was cut short when he ran into the back of Steve Drew in turn 1 on the first lap of race 1. “I got in there a little hot,” said a remorseful Wiles. “It was one of those deals that got tight really quick—like a three-lane merging to a one-lane—and I misjudged the whole thing and got into the back of Steve Drew. It was an unfortunate thing, and I’m real sorry because I messed up his whole deal. He was going pretty good there that day, and it was totally my fault. I ruined someone else’s race. That was the biggest bummer for me.”

Rest assured Wiles’ disappointing outing didn’t scare him away from Supermoto. There’s a good chance he’ll race in next weekend’s Nasmoto race in Circleville, Ohio, as well as select other AMA Supermoto rounds.

Joe Kopp, Johnny Murphree, and JR Schnabel are three riders who surprised me by not racing Fontana. Perhaps they were still recovering from their trip to Puerto Rico the weekend before, where they competed in the season finale of the Manufacturer’s World Cup Ice Racing Championship. Kopp won the race, but Murphree won the championship. Actually, there were supposed to be two races in San Juan, but for some reason (related to ticket sales, from what I heard) the second one was cancelled at the last minute. None of the racers I talked to seemed to mind though, since the race cancellation meant an extra day of sun and fun.

Smith, Mees, and Cheza drinking their breakfast poolside in San Juan. Cristal Morse photo

Speaking of cancellations, this week two races were removed from the AMA Flat Track schedule—Portland, Indiana and Rapid City, South Dakota. This brings the total number of series races down to 18 (11 Twins class and 7 Singles class). Why the cancellations? “Portland is a new facility that’s under construction. Some of the soil that was brought in was contaminated, so it needs to be removed before they can get back to building the racetrack,” said series manager Bruce Bober, who is hopeful the venue will be on the 2007 schedule. The South Dakota race, which was to take place during the Sturgis rally, was cancelled because sponsorship dollars didn’t pan out.

A company named Live I Sports is planning to provide live Internet video broadcasts of all AMA Flat Track races this season. I am thankful to Doug Stewart and his group for putting together what has the potential to be one of the most exciting things to happen to flat track in decades. Flat track has been looking for a “shot in the arm,” and this very well may be it since it has the potential to expand the sport’s reach in an incredible way. Chet Burks Productions will be producing the broadcasts, which means we can expect a top-quality show.

At the low cost of just $5 a race, Live I is going to need a very large number of viewers for the effort to pay out. My biggest fear is that not enough people will tune in to offset the costs associated with producing the show.

To promote the service, Live I Sports is providing people with the opportunity to watch footage from some past races. If you’ve never seen the Springfield Mile, you can watch the main event from May 2002 here.

The Hayden family celebrating on the day they made history at the Springfield TT. Dave Hoenig photo

This was one of Nicky Hayden’s last attempts at trying to win a Mile—something that would’ve put him in an elite group of racing legends who’ve won the Grand Slam (short track, TT, half-mile, mile, and road race). Hayden didn’t quite get it done that day, but the Springfield Mile is like nothing you’ve ever seen, and the footage is definitely worth checking out.

Also, you can watch the Springfield TT from the same year here.

This is the race in which Nicky (69), Tommy (22c), and Roger (34) made history by finishing 1-2-3. I’ll never forget the smiles on Earl and Rose Hayden’s faces that night.

If you like what you see, forward the links to a few friends so they too can check out flat track racing at its finest. And plan on signing up for the live Internet broadcast of the 2006 Springfield TT and Mile, both of which will run Memorial Day weekend.

Finally, the “Where in the world is Kevin Atherton?” saga continues. In the past week, I’ve heard more rumors then ever about Cupcake’s whereabouts and future plans. Kevin took off with his dog Yeti. Kevin is missing. Kevin is in California. Kevin is racing Springfield. Kevin’s racing career is done. I haven’t been able to reach Atherton to get to the bottom of the story, but I do have a message for him: Kevin, if you happen to be passing through Vegas this weekend, give me a ring. The All-You-Can-Eat Buffet is on me.

Bill Smiley photo