Honda Road Racerhead #40

Welcome to the first Road Racerhead of October, which finds us exactly four-fifths of the way through 2009, and while the world is rocked by earthquakes in Indonesia and typhoons in the Pacific, the international road racing season continues. This weekend, for example, MotoGP visits Estoril in Portugal, while World Superbike hits Magny-Cours in France (while the Motocross of Nations—that genre’s version of the now-defunct Transatlantic Match Races—happens in Italy). The former road race is obviously higher-profile, but the latter is arguably more important since only one WSBK race—the September 25 finale in Portimao—will remain after this Sunday.

That means title contenders Noriyuki Haga, Ben Spies, and Michel Fabrizio will have three weeks to think about whatever goes down this weekend, as compared to the one week that Spies has had to contemplate the loss last Sunday at Imola of his short-lived points lead. That round was dominated by the home country, with Italian bikes (Ducati and Aprilia) taking every podium spot in both races and Italian riders (Fabrizio, Max Biaggi, and Marco Simoncelli) taking four of the six (Japan’s Haga took the other two, and he has lived in the country enough—he even speaks the language—that you could almost consider him to be an Italian as well).

Imola is just down the track from Bologna, so it was definitely Ducati’s home race. Meanwhile, Spies and his Yamaha team just didn’t have it in Italy (that team’s home race is Monza), and the Texan spent much of his time dodging other riders unintentional attempts to torpedo him. Just as Yamaha confirmed that the American is in fact headed to MotoGP next year—presumably shutting the door on Spies making a second WSBK title attempt were he to come up short this year—he now finds himself three points down on Haga.

Not that it’s necessarily a big deal. I don’t know if Haga will fold in either of these last two races—his coming back from injury to have that stirring Imola performance was impressive—but any AMA Superbike fans who saw Spies go toe-to-toe with Mat Mladin from 2006 to 2008 is confident that #19 won’t. The bottom line is that with two rounds left, it really is on. Haga and Spies will go at it with their gloves off, while Fabrizio lurks in the background, 50 points behind Ben. The races air on Speed Sunday at 3 and 4 p.m. EST, and I don’t intend to miss them. Same goes for the 250cc Grand Prix contest (5 p.m. EST) and the MotoGP race (6).

(That said, I did miss last Sunday’s Imola airing—I was in the wilds of Utah and had to catch them after the fact—so I didn’t get to try out the live-streaming video from the Ducati Xerox garage. I heard from a reader that it didn’t work here in the U.S., but haven’t been able to confirm that.)

In today’s qualifying session, Fabrizio was fastest, followed by Jonathan Rea, Haga, and Spies (in his first visit to the track), with all being within just a couple of tenths of one another. Oh, and over in World Supersport, sub rider Chaz Davies—after a strong fourth-place debut with ParkinGO Triumph BE1 last week—was down in fourteenth after today’s free-practice session.

As I alluded to above, Yamaha this week announced the rider lineups for its 2010 MotoGP and World Superbike efforts, and while Monster Yamaha Tech3 will be “Team Texas” with Colin Edwards and Spies, their SBK effort will be “Team England,” with James Toseland and Cal Crutchlow.

Oh, and MotoGP Matters’ David Emmett, who’s in Estoril, just tipped me off that Chris Vermeulen signed today with Kawasaki for World Superbike next year. That sure seems like an odd choice—in line with his signing with Suzuki in MotoGP five years ago, now that I think about it—but he explained the decision to Motor Cycle News’ Matthew Birt in this story: “WSB is going to be [Kawasaki’s] main project,” he said. “They’re pulling out of MotoGP, and they will not be running an AMA team nor a team in the Australian SBK championship—this WSB program is where all their engineers and budget will be focused. They haven’t won in WSB for a long time, and they really want to win races. The financial backing and resources is very good for this project.”

So in a way, it looks like Kawasaki’s pulling out of AMA Pro Road Racing’s American Superbike class prior to this season—plus their withdrawal of Hayate Racing from MotoGP next year—is benefiting World Superbike.

Kawasaki, then, joins Aprilia and BMW as manufacturers who are using WSBK as their main road racing outlet, and KTM looks like another manufacturer to go that route. The Austrian marque obviously abandoned MotoGP some time ago, and they dropped out of the 250cc division this season. Today comes official word that they’re also leaving the 125cc class (in which they’re supporting Marc Marquez and American Cameron Beaubier this year), and preparing to enter World SBK. (If you’re keeping score, that will put eight different manufacturers on the World Superbike grid next year, plus a ninth in the Supersport class; MotoGP, meanwhile, will be at just four unless the Ilmor returns to the paddock in 2010.)

Fortunately, KTM will continue to support the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup, which Americans Cameron Gish and Ryan Matter are attempting to make.

Meanwhile, 1,050 miles southwest in Portugal, Jorge Lorenzo was the quickest in today’s single MotoGP practice session, who Emmett reports put in a string of 1:37s, which is a pretty scorching pace. He was followed by fellow countryman Dani Pedrosa, teammate Valentino Rossi, and Casey Stoner (the first three within about four tenths, Stoner a few more tenths back), which means the fabulous four are now back intact.

That’s because Stoner has returned following a self-imposed three-race absence which—given the rabid nature of the European road racing media—meant you just knew his return press conference was going to be dramatic. Emmett has a good account of it here, and he’s been kind enough to pitch in with some Road Racerhead content today:

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Here’s my impression of Stoner: He looks well, better than the last time I saw him, at Donington. He also looks more relaxed than I’ve seen him in a while, but I haven’t been in the paddock long enough to see his usual healthy demeanor. At the press conference, he spoke calmly and clearly, and it was obvious that he had really hated being away. He spent a lot of time dismissing rumors that he wanted to retire, and made several carefully aimed digs at the assembled media.

On Thursday, he said he wasn’t sure how he would hold up during practice, but this afternoon, the answer had to be “pretty well.” He went out for one lap as the session started, then came straight back in to adjust the footpegs and handlebars. The new fairing—actually, it’s almost completely new bodywork—meant that the seat pad at the rear was a little too thick, and it was pushing him too far forward.

Once they got that fixed, Stoner was out again and fast. Despite finishing the session only fourth, Stoner was very pleased. He had held up much better than he expected—better than at the last few rounds he raced—and was feeling and looking remarkably fit. He had avoided pushing too hard, for good reason:

“If you overdo it, you can get arm pump which takes three or four days to recover from,” he told the press. “I didn’t want to do that. I got a bit of arm pump, but I’ll get some treatment for that this evening, and we’ll see how it goes tomorrow.”

Where Casey Stoner was looking remarkable cheery, Ducati Marlboro teammate Nicky Hayden was much more despondent. He had been on the pace early in the session, but failed to improve as he hoped. He wasn’t desperate yet, though: “We’ve been slow on Friday before and found something on Saturday,” Nicky said in the press debrief. He also commented on the imminent arrival of Ben Spies in the MotoGP paddock. “He belongs in MotoGP,” he told the press. “MotoGP is where the best riders in the world are; that’s why everyone wants to come here.”

Hayden also made the comparison between Marco Simoncelli’s replacement ride in World Superbike last week and Michel Fabrizio’s cameo MotoGP performance at Brno. Simoncelli, Hayden pointed out, had been on the podium, while Fabrizio had run around at the back of the pack. “Fabrizio was three seconds off the pace,” Hayden said. “In World Superbikes, he runs at the front every race.”

Both the Fiat Yamahas have a special livery at Estoril, a white and gray color scheme to mark the launch of the Fiat Punto Evo, a compact car popular in Europe. Lorenzo has topped that with a helmet made up to look like a replica of the Apollo space suit helmets, and it’s pretty effective. At the end of the practice session, Jorge mugged for the cameras, closing his black visor and moving slowly as if he was under lunar gravity. It was remarkably convincing. Lorenzo has supposedly abandoned plans for an acting career, but judging by this display, he could always go back to it

The wildest rumor currently circulating in the paddock is that Spies will put in a wildcard appearance at Valencia. Everyone I asked about it denied any knowledge of it, but equally, everyone stopped, scratched their heads, and pronounced it an excellent idea. With testing severely limited, what better way to get some extra seat time, especially as the World Superbike season will be over and done with.

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Wow! Thanks, David. Personally, if “Super Sic” is till in the hunt for the 250cc title by that point, I think Ben should drop down to that in Valencia and get revenge for Simoncelli’s affecting the SBK points chase (I kid, I kid).

If you have our new issue (October/November), then you may have read Nicky Hayden’s “Ask Nicky” column, in which he mentioned that he hadn’t yet received his replica Ducati 848. Well, he recently took delivery of his new toy in Owensboro. Pretty cool, buddy, but throw on a jacket and long pants next time! (I know a MotoGP rider isn’t likely to throw away an 848 in his driveway, but remember we’re sending messages here.)

In other off-track news, Dani Pedrosa followed his recent ascent of Mont Blanc with a ride in a Red Bull Air Race plane this week. Pedrosa has a reputation for eschewing PR stuff like this, and I think the fact that he’s doing more of it now could be helpful for his image.

Oh, and in what has to be the most overdue PR move in a generation, Vale finally got a website! That’s right, as of yesterday, www.valentinorossi.com is live. It may be late, but it’s pretty darned cool, with some nice bells and whistles, plus intimate images by Italia shutterbug Gigi Soldano. By the way, that intro music is by Vasco Rossi, an arena rock star who’s almost unknown in the U.S. but is huge in Italy. He’s a persona friend to the racer whose name is so similar to his, and he even used to sponsor a support-class Aprilia Grand Prix team. Anyway, check out the site, but as the press release says, “They’ll be a lot of you, hope the internet gigler doesn’t get all blocked up.”

Boy, me too.

Riders for Health was in the news this week. Bellevue, Washington’s Daily Tell has this story about a new partnership between

Riders, Stanford University, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Mark “Backmarker” Gardiner tipped me off to a Barry Coleman quote in a New York Times story.

Over at www.rumblestrip.net, Eric Trytko has a couple of interesting editorials up here and here.

There’s also an interesting youth road racing movie up here.

Have you seen Honda’s digital publication? They just posted the 50th anniversary racing issue, which includes live links to videos and photo galleries. Sign up for free and check it out at www.hrca.honda.com.

That will do it for this week. Thanks for reading, and have a great weekend.