Road Racerhead v.2 #19
May 12, 2006
By CJ
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Happy Mother’s Day Weekend from “Road Racerhead.” If you’re a mother, make the most of it, and if you’re not one, then take yours out for breakfast, lunch, dinner, or a nice ride. She deserves to be spoiled; after all, she’s yo’ momma!

With some help from her daughter “Rose,” Nancy “Earl” Rogers is getting a great Mother’s Day present.

One mom who’s getting a great Mother’s Day surprise is Road Racer X reader Nancy Rogers. That’s because the Pottstown, Pennsylvania, resident is the winner of our Hayden Look-Alike Contest. With a last name like that, you’d think Nancy would have dressed up like the youngest Hayden brother, but she instead went for father Earl Hayden. Appropriately for Mother’s Day, Nancy had the ultimate costume accessory—her daughter—who made for a very convincing Rose. Thanks to the Rogers’ creativity, Nancy will be attending next weekend’s Kawasaki AMA Superbike Showdown at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California, where she’ll have access to the Kawasaki luxury suite, meet Tommy and Roger Lee Hayden, hang out with Road Racer X’s Laurel Allen, and ride new Kawasaki models on the racetrack. Congratulations, Earl—er, Nancy, and thanks to everyone who entered. To show our appreciation, we’ll be sending each and every one of you a Roger Hayden cover poster and some Tommy and Roger shield stickers, and we’ll be sprinkling “Road Racerhead” with some of the more interesting photos.

We’re also tossing in some random photos from a very cool event called The Legend of the Motorcycle Concours d’Elegance, which happened in California’s beautiful Half Moon Bay (north of Santa Cruz) last Saturday. I was on the other side of the country, but a friend of mine attended the happening , which was at the Ritz Carlton Hotel, and he was very impressed. “The event was hailed as the finest collection of vintage motorcycles in North America by a number of participants and media attendees,” he told me. “Some of the featured bikes on hand included a 1964 MV Agusta three cylinder machine once ridden by Giacomo Agostini, the Indian featured in the recent movie The World’s Fastest Indian, a number of Kenny Roberts dirt track and road racing machines, as well as a number of pre-WWI and WWII machines.”

Those who brought the nicest hardware to the Legend of the Motorcycle Concours d’Elegance got just what they wanted—more nice hardware!

In addition to a star-studded vehicle lineup, the event also featured Hollywood and Madison Avenue stars. From Hollywood, Ewan Macgregor, Peter Fonda, and Barbara McQueen (widow of Steve McQueen) were in attendance as concours judges. Also in attendance were Jesse James and Sandra Bullock. James brought along some cool iron, including a radical chopper with a radial aviation engine. As for Madison Avenue, the event boasted sponsorship from Bentley, Italy’s Riva Boats, and Cartier. It sounds like a successful debut event, and it will be interesting to see how founder Jared Zaugg ups the ante next year.

Italy was a great place to be for fans of two-wheel sport last weekend. Not only did bicycling’s classic Giro d’Italia kick off on Saturday, but World Superbike was in action at the beautiful, historic Monza circuit, and Xerox Ducati turned in a performance that pleased the home crowd. By once again doing the double, and getting some help from Alex Barros in race 1, Troy Bayliss put some more room between himself and defending champ Troy Corser in the points standings. Bayliss currently has a 31-point lead and has won the last four races in a row, out of a total of seven. Ducati is leading Suzuki by 22 points in the manufacturers’ standings, 151 to 129. Tell me again why we’re considering a bump up to 1,200cc maximum displacement for twin-cylinder machinery? It might be a way to get KTM or others into the class, but it sure doesn’t look like Ducati needs much help.

Interestingly, Bayliss did the double the last time he was in Monza as well, in 2002 (before his disappointing stint in MotoGP).

Troy Bayliss and Ducati are starting to walk away with the World SBK series. Photo courtesy of FGSport

For a very cool perspective on what it was like to be there in Monza, be sure to check out Mark Gardiner’s “Backmarker” from yesterday.

Considering how dominant the Italian manufacturer has been on the WSBK circuit, it’s weird how the AMA Superbike-spec Ducatis haven’t been able to do much over here. And considering how dominant Suzuki has been over here, it was interesting to see Corser getting so much trouble not only from Bayliss’ Duck, but also from the Honda of Barros and the Yamaha of Noriyuki Haga. And with all four of the weekend’s podium finishers being in their 30s (average age between them was 34.25), it’s also interesting to note that the Youth Movement of MotoGP hasn’t extended to World SBK. Meanwhile, in the most recent MotoGP race in Turkey, the average age of the podium finishers was just 23—the third youngest in premier-class history.

Meanwhile, this weekend is the fourth round of the MotoGP series in Shanghai, China, which means Valentino Rossi, Loris Capirossi, and Marco Melandri will have a chance to make it 13 races in a row (extending back to last year) to have been won by Italian riders. Or will the streak be broken at 12? The last non-Italian to notch a win was Nicky Hayden at last July’s Red Bull USGP, and he’d like nothing better than to book-end the impressive streak in China.

The MotoGP boys are in wet China this weekend. Andrew Northcott photo

Here’s a look at how il Tricolore has dominated road racing’s top class of late:

• July 24, 2005: British GP (Donington Park)—Valentino Rossi
• July 31, 2005: German GP (Sachsenring)—Valentino Rossi
• August 28, 2005: Czech GP (Brno)—Valentino Rossi
• September 18, 2005: Japanese GP (Motegi)—Loris Capirossi
• September 25, 2005: Malaysian GP (Sepang)—Loris Capirossi
• October 1, 2005: Qatar GP (Losail)—Valentino Rossi
• October 16, 2005: Australian GP (Phillip Island)—Valentino Rossi
• October 23, 2005: Turkish GP (Istanbul)—Marco Melandri
• November 6, 2005: Spanish GP (Valencia)—Marco Melandri
• March 26, 2006: Spanish GP (Jerez)—Loris Capirossi
• April 8, 2006: Qatar GP (Losail)—Valentino Rossi
• April 30, 2006: Turkish GP (Istanbul)—Marco Melandri

Trivia question: Which country holds the record for most consecutive premier-class GP victories, and how long was the streak?

Valentino Rossi and Jeremy Burgess—fastest in both of today’s practice sessions—may finally have things figured out on the M1. Andrew Northcott photo

Speaking of things Italian, word from www.crash.net is that Michael Schumacher might not make his decision on whether or not to keep racing Formula One in 2007 until the end of this season. “It could be quite late,” the site quotes the German as saying. “Ferrari is quite happy to wait until the end of the season.” That could prove problematic for Rossi, who has said he will probably have to make his decision by next month on whether to go to F1 or stay in MotoGP. Ferrari is also thought to have secured Kimi Raikkonen’s services for next season, all of which leads me to believe Vale may still be in MotoGP beyond this season.

Continuing the Formula One theme, it’s interesting to note that the durability problems Bridgestone’s GP tires displayed in Turkey, where John Hopkins had to make an unscheduled pit stop for fresh rubber, are not confined to two-wheel sport. The consensus in the car-racing world is that one of the main reasons Ferrari lost the F1 title last year was that in order to make their tires cope with the ’05 regulations (which didn’t allow for mid-race tire changes), Bridgestone had to make them so hard that grip suffered as a result. This year, F1 rules have been changed back to once again allow tire-changing, and Ferrari has been doing much better; five rounds into the season, Schumi is second behind defending champ (and Rossi foil) Fernando Alonso.

Among those on hand for the Legend of the Motorcycle Concours d’Elegance were (left to right) Barbara McQueen (widow of Steve McQueen), Ewan McGregor, and Peter Fonda.

But back to China: Over on www.redbullusgrandprix.com, you can find a special, extended episode of the Red Bull MotoGP Weekly Dispatch, in which I talk with Nicky Hayden about the close MotoGP race in Turkey, the crazy 250cc GP race, his tire warmer melting onto his brake rotor, the impressive Casey Stoner, what the vibe is like in China, and what it’s like to be leading the points standings for the first time ever. I also talk at length with John Hopkins about Rizla Suzuki getting the Turkish pole, Bridgestone’s impressive qualifying performance and dismaying race performance, Suzuki’s traction-control and powerband issues, and the Shanghai International Circuit. The boys also fielded a couple of questions from the site’s fan forum.

I had occasion to speak with Kenny Roberts Sr. this week, and while I had him on the phone, I asked about Team Roberts’ current situation (they started the season well, despite their mad rush to get ready, but have gone downhill in the subsequent two races). Here’s what he had to say:

Deals Gap’s Ben Steinberg’s Earl Hayden/Father Guido Sarducci getup.

“I don’t think we’re hitting on all cylinders. This going-to-places-outside-of-Europe stuff is kind of hurting us. We’ll have new stuff at Le Mans and also new stuff at the one after that [Mugello], but we have one bike and one rider—and there’s the only bike like that on the racetrack. Honda has six motorcycles out there, and four of them are virtually identical. For them to get through stuff in one practice session, they’ll get through six times more than we’re going to get through. With a new motorcycle on a racetrack that we don’t really know and have never been to—and if it rains half the time like it did in Turkey—we’re not ready. We’re just simply not able to put on the racetrack something that he’s [Kenny Roberts Jr.] comfortable with, and he’s going to race around a bunch of guys that are comfortable. It’s a struggle at this point. I’ve not got high hopes that China’s going to be much different. If we’re mid-pack, I’ll be reasonably relieved.”

Kenny’s point about the number of Hondas is a good one—having that many bikes on the track does maker the learning curve steeper, even if teams don’t share information. However, the strength-in-numbers approach has hurt them in another way, as David Emmett touched on in yesterday’s Shanghai GP Preview. With that many bikes, the Honda riders are once again stealing points from one another. Think of it this way: Nicky currently has a 1-point lead on Capirossi (52-51), but If you were to remove the satellite Honda riders from the grid, he’d currently be leading by 4 (61-57). How’s that, you ask? Well, by removing the satellite Honda riders (Melandri, Stoner, Elias, and Makoto Tamada) from the results, Hayden and Loris’ positions at the first two races actually wouldn’t have changed. But in Turkey (where Melandri and Stoner took the top two spots), Hayden would have won instead of taking third, and Capirex would have finished third instead of sixth.

Anyone who saw The World’s Fastest Indian should recognize this.

So the satellite boys are definitely taking points from the Repsol Honda duo, but then again, Tech3 Yamaha’s Carlos Checa hurt Rossi at the opener by finishing in front of the champ (who crashed in turn 1). Of course if you were to remove the eight satellite riders (four on Honda, two each on Yamahas and Ducatis), you’d also be left with a 10-rider grid! It’s a good thing those teams are in there, and here’s hoping for a deeper grid in 2007.

Which brings me back to the subject of Team Roberts. Kenny Roberts Jr. is not a satellite rider, as his Honda-powered bike uses a proprietary chassis that is different from that of the RC211V. In some ways, this is an arrangement that makes more sense for Honda than leasing out bikes to satellite teams—a point that Kenny makes in a story on the team in the current, May/June issue of Road Racer X. That’s because even if Junior were to catch a hot streak and start beating the factory Hondas, at least the in-house team could theoretically stand to benefit gathering different information; with the satellite teams, the information flow is pretty much only one-way.

Hopper was impressive in today’s wet Chinese practice sessions. Andrew Northcott photo

Team Roberts is supposed to have a new chassis in time for Le Mans in one week, but King Kenny didn’t seem optimistic that it would help immediately when I asked him. “I think the one after that [Mugello] might be more to our liking,” he said. “We’re doing quite drastic stuff, and somewhere along the line, we’ve got to get a package that’s comfortable to Junior when we unload it. We cannot start from ‘Man, it doesn’t do this or that, and there’s does’ on day one. We just can’t do it. We’re working with an animal that we’ve never worked with before, which is quite a bit different in engine characteristics—although the engine is bloody perfect, it’s still a different characteristic than we’re accustomed to. I’d have to say we’re doing about what I thought we would do the first race. But the first race was really good, so I thought, Man, we’re closer than we thought. Now we’re back up to where we should have been at the start of the season. It really takes four good sessions of dry practice for us to be making some inroads, and we just have not had that but one Grand Prix.”

Crashing is never fun, but John Haner is happy Barber moved the wall. Joe Melendez photo

It looks like China won’t be the place where Team Roberts (or anyone else) gets the dry practice time they need. I watched today’s second free-practice session live on www.motogp.com, and it was soaking wet. Moments before the end, it appeared that a Rizla Suzuki would again prove the Bridgestones’ strong wet-weather prowess, as John Hopkins was at the top of the chart, but on their respective final laps, Rossi and Capirossi snuck by him and to the top. Rossi also set fast time in the morning session, and at day’s end, he was mugging for the camera in the garage and slapping crew chief Jeremy Burgess on the back. Has Camel Yamaha finally gotten things figured out? I certainly wouldn’t want to bet against that possibility.

Diana Stanley had the right hair (and the ultimate accessory!), but the wrong team for this contest.

Here’s what the champ said in Yamaha’s press release: “In Turkey we were able to understand some of the problems we were having with the bike and we found some good solutions. The modifications we made using that data here this morning were really good and now I can ride the bike at 100 percent. Even though it was wet, the grip levels were very good; I was able to get a lot of lean angle in the corners and it was really good fun to ride as I want to. I’m really happy because I was fastest in both free practices today, and this is a good sign for the weekend. The bike is working well in the wet, but I think the solutions we have found for the setting will also work in the dry. Hopefully we will get the chance to find out tomorrow because the worst scenario would be to have another day of wet practice and then a dry race on Sunday.”

As luck would have it, that’s exactly what’s going to happen, according to the internet.

One more thing about my talk with King Kenny: I asked him how long he thought it might take to really get things on track with the new bike, and here’s what he said: “I would think by Laguna, we’ll have a pretty good handle on it. I thought mid-season, we would be able to be fairly close. Some racetracks are going to favor us more, and some are going to favor us less, but we’ve got to get start with better combinations so we can take the good or the bad.”

We’re not exactly sure which Hayden C.W. Smith was going for here.

Trivia answer: The USA holds the record for most consecutive wins in the premier class. The mark—an incredible 28—was set between 1982 and 1985, by Freddie Spencer (13 wins), Kenny Roberts (6), Eddie Lawson (5), and Randy Mamola (4).

I’m pumped with the general trend toward safer racetracks these days. Last week I talked about how the runoff in Turkey may well have saved Alex de Angelis from serious injury or worse, but even tracks here in the States are getting better. John Haner talked last week about how Barber Motorsports Park’s moving of a wall probably prevented him from sustaining something much worse than the shoulder injury he suffered at the second AMA Superbike round. Haner sent us this photo sequence of his crash, and the text of his email read simply: “Thank God they moved that wall!” No kidding! By the way, KWS has just announced that Lee Acree will be racing in place of Haner at Infineon next weekend.

The good news doesn’t end there, as racers are expecting to see some major updates to Infineon Raceway next weekend. Henny Ray Abrams’ “Chicanery” column in this week’s Cycle News justifiably applauded Jamie Hacking’s recent intensive and successful efforts to provide meaningful advice to tracks for making improvements, and the AMA issued a press release yesterday announcing that the brand-new Miller Motorsports Park is already making improvements based on information gleaned at the last AMA test there. (A guardrail at the entrance to the main straight is being moved, the front straight is being graded and widened, and the curbing on some turns is being lengthened and smoothened.) Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course is also undergoing a major facelift (including moving walls), and Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca’s major improvements ($9 million in two years) have been well-documented. This is all extremely good news, and the tracks should be commended for doing the right thing.

Christina Flores’ creative accessorizing made her Earl Hayden one of the more popular entries.

Speaking of Laguna Seca, some of the teams have made their picks for July’s Red Bull USGP. Picks for what? Umbrella girls, of course! Umbrella Girls USA’s Ann Asiano sent me a note saying that the Angelina Jolie-esque Janice will be shading Marco Melandri, and Camel Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards will be under the umbrellas of Amber and Shanya, respectively. Nicole and Leticia will be umbrella girls for the Ducati MotoGP and AMA teams.

Leticia has been getting some major ink lately. She’s the current Racer X wear girl, she appears with Nicole in the new issue of Road Racer X, and she even made the pages of Maxim! Congratulations, Leticia.

If you’ll be attending next weekend’s AMA race at Infineon Raceway, be sure to check out the charity auction that will be taking place there. Signed memorabilia from riders like Mat Mladin and Miguel Duhamel will be auctioned off on Sunday, with proceeds benefiting local youth organizations. This is the auction’s third edition, and the first two raised a total of $15,000.

Leticia forgot her Racer X wear when posing for Maxim.

I got the following email from a reader named Scott Lindauer: “I just want to give my props and jeers to several people at the AMA Superstock race at the California Speedway. First, to Ryan Elleby. He was the only one to help the rider pinned under his bike in that turn 1 crash. Elleby didn't care about the race once he saw another rider was pinned, that’s what should have been done by everyone around. The rider’s safety is more important that the race. Way to go Ryan! Second, to the jerk cameramen who stood there taking pictures of the crash, ____ YOU! You made no attempt to help Elleby pull the bike off of the rider who was obviously in pain. Those guys should be banned from photographing any form of racing. If those cameramen are associated with your magazine, no matter how awesome I think it is, you can cancel my subscription. When the pictures are more important than the safety of one of the riders, I want no part of it.”

Thanks for the email, Scott, and I echo your props for Elleby. As for the photographers, I’m not sure if they were shooting for us or not, but lensmen (and women) are strictly prohibited from venturing onto the racing surface, and they would probably be banned if they did so. That’s what corner workers are for.

Belated well wishes go out to Shoei’s Bret Milan, who was badly injured in a recent motocross accident. Fortunately, it looks like the likeable and lanky helmet-service rep will eventually be okay. Get well soon, Bret, and when you get better, we’ll have to do that track day I keep flaking out on.

Okay, that should do it for this edition of “Road Racerhead.” I’m going to try and beat the traffic out of L.A. as I head up to Three Rivers to visit my mother for the weekend. Now here’s a real-life mom—Miriam Deitcher—with this week’s dirt track content.

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Post-Vegas weeks are the worst. It’s been four days since the end of my Amp’d Mobile AMA Supercross season finale excursion and I’m still feeling like hell. Even worse, my brain is foggy—which makes things like grammar and spelling quite challenging. Hopefully folks will give me a break if there’s a dangling participle or two in the text to come.

I mention this because several of my cyber-followers cut me no slack after last week’s column

It’s true—Murray was at the Fontana Supermoto. Miriam Deitcher photo

when I wrote the following in reference to the Fontana Supermoto event: “I was surprised that Henry Wiles was the only flat track regular to race.”

Steve Murray was at the Supermoto in CA. Come on girl get it together.

David Richey
David, technically we’re both correct. Murray was at Fontana, just like Pastrana was at the Daytona short track—but he didn’t exactly race, unless you count the LCQ of the Unlimited class as racing. I’ll bet Murray was happy I didn’t write about how he qualified 25 th out of 27, making him one of three riders who failed to make the 24-rider main. Birthday wishes to Murray by the way, who turned 21 yesterday.

You know I do not get it? My (step)son Matt Burton, national #39 in dirt track, has only missed three main events in the premier AMA (Supermoto) class in the last three years and has made all three Red Bull finals at the end of each year against some of the best riders in the world, and yet he never gets any mention? He made two out of four GNC events entered in ’05—making the Peoria and Springfield TT mains, garnering a national number. For a 20-year-old involved in two series against the top riders of the world, I would or could expect a little notice for his results? It is like he is just lost in the middle? What do you think? Am I being unrealistic?

Matt Burton and his pup at last year’s Springfield TT. Miriam Deitcher photo

Rick Canode
Rick, you definitely did a great job raising Matt because he’s not only a talented rider, he’s a nice kid who’s always been super friendly to me in the pits. I’ll be sure to keep an eye on Matt and his results in both flat track and Supermoto going forward.

I can totally relate to Matt’s lack of recognition. Since my company is “The Official Insurance of Supercross,” I was invited to be a guest on the Vegas SX Live Webcast with Jason Weigandt and Jim Holley. The show is a pretty big deal, with more than 50,000 fans listening in. I was planning to weave a mention of the upcoming Springfield doubleheader into the conversation, but didn’t get a chance. The announcers (who are really funny and cool, by the way—so don’t take this the wrong way) hardly let me get a word in—presumably because they assumed I was a clueless marketing chick. If only they’d known I’ve been the voice of flat track for the past seven years, that I’m the one who broke the Pastrana-Daytona flat track story, that I write for CJ every week. All I can say is: poor Weege, who got an earful from me at the MGM bar later that night!

While I was living it up in Sin City, the flat track community wasn’t sitting idle. AMA Flat Track series manager Bruce Bober took girlfriend (and AMA Flat Track official) Kathie McCain on a romantic surprise weekend trip to Sedona, Arizona.

In Quebec, Canada, on Sunday, Canadian Dominic Beaulac won both the 450 and 750cc mains—beating out fellow countrymen Steve Beattie and Chris Evans, along with Yankees Jess Roeder, Ricky Marshall, Charlie Italia, Nichole Cheza, and others.

Johnson (14) and Varnes (89) are looking mighty fast in ‘06. Dave Hoenig photo

On the same day in Sedalia, Missouri, the Suzukis of Jake Johnson and Kevin Varnes finished up front—besting an all-star field that included: Kenny Coolbeth, Johnny Murphree, Rich King, Jared Mees, Robbie Pearson , and Joe Kopp. In his debut performance on a Suzuki, Bryan Bigelow separated his shoulder in a heat-race crash that sent him to the hospital. Luckily, Bigs will be healthy in time for Springfield.

When I heard that my flat track boys were racing a non-National at Sedalia, I totally wigged out. Last year’s Sedalia National—which thankfully isn’t on the 2006 schedule—was the scariest crash-fest I’ve ever witnessed, sending Johnson, AJ Eslick, and others to the hospital in terrifying crashes that had me in tears. If the track was so rough and dangerous during a National, I couldn’t even imagine what it would be like during a non-National. Well, it turns out last weekend’s race wasn’t on the rough half-mile, but on a short track that coincidently is located in the same rural Missouri town. Wow, what a relief.

On Wednesday, 52 riders got a sneak peak at this year’s Springfield TT track when the Illinois Motorcycle Dealers’ Association hosted a track test day. Although I haven’t seen the track, it sounds pretty cool. “The jump is pretty wide open coming off of the sweeper of one and two and it’s a little higher speed, so they’re definitely getting a lot more air [vs. last year],” Bober said. “Then there’s a little kicker jump that’s 6 to 8 feet wide, so you have an option of going over the jump or you can slide around it.”

Look for big air at this year’s Springfield TT. Dave Hoenig photo

All top series riders took advantage of the testing opportunity, except Bigelow (out with a separated shoulder) and Mike Hacker. Since transponders were not in use at the test, there’s no way to really know who was fast and who wasn’t. JR Schnabel, who has won five in a row at the facility (which runs a TT in the spring and a short track in the fall), will no doubt be the man to beat Memorial Day Weekend.

Also absent from the test were Pastrana, Ricky Carmichael, and the three Hayden brothers—all of whom I was secretly hoping would make a surprise appearance. Perhaps they skipped the test to save their stuff for race day. I know it won’t happen, but a girl can dream, right?

Okay, I’m off to Chicago to celebrate Mother’s Day with some family friends. Before I go, I’ll let you in a little secret: amusement parks are like ghost towns on Mother’s Day. This Sunday we’re hitting Six Flags Great America in Chicago’s northern suburbs. Hopefully my stomach will be fully recovered from Vegas by then.