Honda Road Racerhead #41

I started off last week’s column by talking about how far into 2010 we were, and although that was obviously a mistake, it was also inadvertently appropriate. True, neither MotoGP nor World Superbike has yet crowned an ’09 champ, but for many riders, next season has already started. Not buying it? Okay, I screwed up. But still, take Ben Spies. While he’s still got plenty on his plate between now and October 25, when we’ll finally know who the SBK title goes to—Spies or Noriyuki Haga—Ben is already thinking ahead to next year, when he’ll be racing MotoGP for Tech3 Yamaha. At the November 8 Grand Prix season finale in Valencia, he’ll be making a wildcard appearance for the team—in Michael Jordan livery according to the BBC’s Matt Roberts.

As has been mentioned countless times over the course of the past week, it’s a solid move for both Spies and Yamaha. Yamaha Motor Racing Managing Director Lin Jarvis (who said at Estoril that Wayne Rainey putting in a good word for Spies didn’t hurt in the decision to move the Texan up for next year), says that 2010 will be a learning year for Ben, but even so, in light of the reduced testing time available over the off-season since the advent of the spec-tire rule, it will be nice for Ben to get in some laps in anger. In fact, several riders and teams who are already doing MotoGP full-time have admitted that they’re already in 2010 mode, focusing more on testing for next year than on their 2009 results.

Whatever the case, the Tech3 vibe should be interesting to watch in Valencia. Colin Edwards and James Toseland are already on the outs, and with the incoming Spies joining the party, one can’t help but feel some sympathy for JT. Speaking of which, when BBC’s Suzi Perry asked The Texas Tornado at Estoril if the wall would be coming down in the Tech3 garage, his response was, “I imagine.”

All of that said, Portimao will still be a big weekend for Spies—the biggest of his career, one would have to assume. Obviously, last weekend didn’t help matters—Spies won Race 1 but finished a distant fourth in Race 2, while Haga went 2-1 to take a ten-point lead in the standings—but it’s most definitely on for Portimao. The bottom line is that Spies is in control of his own destiny, which is about all you can hope for from the finale. If he wins both races and Nori finishes second both times, he and Haga tie on points, and Ben gets the tiebreaker by virtue of having more wins on the season. How likely is that scenario.

Magny-Cours (and even Imola, where Spies had taken over a shot-lived points lead) are two tracks at which Haga has traditionally gone very well. That’s not the case with Portimao. There’s only been one WSBK race at the track so far (last year’s finale), and Haga dropped out of Race 1 with a technical problem and finished fourteenth in Race 2. As for the Portuguese pre-season test there last January, Spies finished higher than Haga in almost every session and topped the Superpole session.

We can also look back to the 2007 AMA Superbike series, in which Spies went into the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca finale three points down on Yoshimura Suzuki teammate Mat Mladin but came out on top for his second of three titles.

Finally, Spies has proven this year that pulling an SBK double is well within his capabilities, as he already has three—Qatar, Miller Motorsports Park, and Donington Park—and is in fact due. Qatar was Round 2, Miller Round 7, and Donington Round 9, which means in his short World Superbike career, Spies has never gone more than five rounds without pulling a double. Portimao will be Round 14—or five rounds since his last double (and remember, the double will only be necessary if Haga finishes second both times).

You can probably tell at this point that I’m not playing the objective journalist here—I’m publicly rooting for Spies, just as I was pulling for Nicky Hayden landing the MotoGP title in 2006—but I admit that it will be bittersweet no matter who comes out on top. In fact, if it were anyone but Spies battling the Japanese veteran for the title, I’d be in his corner, as he’s definitely paid his dues. In that both contenders are likable guys who deserve the crown, the situation is very similar to Imola 2002, where American Colin Edwards finalized his come-from-behind season performance to wrest the crown from Troy Bayliss.

Come to think of it, the situation is also similar to the 2006 Valencia MotoGP finale, where Hayden tailed Valentino Rossi after losing the points lead at the previous round, when Repsol Honda frenemy Dani Pedrosa famously punted him off the track.

It’s appropriate that the title has come down to Ducati and Yamaha, currently the two strongest brands in international road racing—especially World Superbike, but also MotoGP (both also had slid AMA Pro Road Racing seasons). In fact, even if Spies were to come out on top, Ducati could take solace in having already clinched the constructors’ title and the Superstock crown. Meanwhile, Fiat Yamaha has already clinched the MotoGP team championship, and Yamaha leads the chase for the constructors title.

Yamaha’s SBK team will be totally new next year—they’re going with the all-UK lineup of James Toseland and Cal Crutchlow—but Ducati Xerox is standing pat. The rumor is that not everyone’s completely pleased about that, according to this report sent to me by RRX intern Jesse Cecil today:

“Never one to sit idly by, three-time World Superbike champ Troy Bayliss is back on track in the Australian V8 Supercar Championship, driving a Paul Morris-prepared Triple-F Racing Holden Commodore. Although Bayliss was scheduled to contend a Phillip Island event in mid-September, his co-driver suffered a mechanical failure on the formation lap, preventing Troy from ever participating in the race. At press time, Bayliss was set to make his debut at the October Bathurst 1000, but while at World SBK’s Imola round, he told Italian motorcycle weekly Moto Sprint that his V8 Supercar was uncompetitive and that he wants to race superbikes again. Having in fact approached Ducati Xerox team manager Davide Tardozzi at Imola about the possibility, Bayliss added that he was disappointed Ducati had already re-signed Haga and Fabrizio for 2010. Unbelievable as it may be, the 40-year-old Bayliss—who was previously adamant about never staging a road race comeback—is reportedly investigating other options within the series.”

Wow.

While SBK will have plenty of Brits next year, it may once again be bereft of American riders. Spies is obviously moving on, and according to Italian website GP One, John Hopkins (whose ’09 season was spoiled by injury and whose Stiggy Racing team has fallen on hard times) is being pursued by the nascent FB Corse Moto GP squad. Meanwhile, the American count in MotoGP goes back up to three with Spies’ addition, while there will be no UK representation in the class (and perhaps not even in Moto2, depending on what Bradley Smith ends up doing).

Though Toseland, who never seemed to get the hang of the Bridgestone spec tire this year, is obviously disappointed to being forced back into World Superbike, where he already has two titles, he will have the incentive of catching compatriot Carl Fogarty’s record of four titles in the class—something Fogarty has gone on the record saying he thinks JT is capable of.

MotoGP was also in action last weekend in Estoril, where Jorge Lorenzo showed dominance reminiscent of the Red Bull Indy GP, even pulling off a similarly stellar post-victory celebration. (I know Rossi is still the king in this field, and that Lorenzo’s skits can seem somewhat derivative, but in the case of both Jorge’s Indy fence-climb and Estoril astronaut moon-walk, you just know #46 had to be thinking he’d thought of that.)

Speaking of that topic, the Rossi-Lorenzo relationship should be interesting to monitor over the rest of the season. The Doctor already went on the record as being disappointed in Yamaha re-signing Jorge, and with his points lead cut from 30 to 18 in Estoril—and Lorenzo consistently posting one-second-faster lap times—he’s probably not feeling too amicable at the moment—none of which means someone would be well-advised to bet against Vale for the title. After all, Rossi’s crew missed the setup in Portugal, and it was the first time that he’s ever finished off the podium there.

Arguably as impressive as Lorenzo in Portugal was Casey Stoner in his return following a season of sickness and a three-race absence for recovery. Despite being generally unfit and out of practice—not to mention his still-unresolved health problems—the Aussie finished a strong second, and he was riding like the Stoner of old (did you see that head-shake/foot-dab on the exit of a fast right?!). More importantly, his lap times stayed consistent to the end, which is a good sign—as are his general good mood and less-scrawny appearance.

Presumably as a result of a jettisoned spring in that aforementioned “moment,” Stoner’s footpeg was periodically folding up for much of the race, which marks the second year in a row that Casey has been hampered by fluke equipment issues at Estoril (last year, it was a dangling on-board television camera).

So, could we be in for another Stoner home victory next week at Phillip Island? The new fairing that Ducati debuted last week—designed to work well in cross-winds—should certainly be more handy there than it was in Portugal.

Stoner still hasn’t gotten a concrete diagnosis for his ailment, but his performance went a long way toward showing up his doubters, which included Kevin Schwantz and even the Clinica Mobile—at least for now. With the title now out of reach, you may wonder why he didn’t just remain out of action. Apart from the danger of the Italian and Spanish press imploding in such a scenario, there’s also the point that I mentioned near the top of this column: Stoner needs to start gathering data for 2010.

There’s also the matter of Casey still being fourth in points, now only three points behind Pedrosa. Should he manage to overtake him by season’s end, it would mark the third year in a row that Dani has dropped a position in the standings (though he wouldn’t be able to follow his usual practice of making his number match his position, as #4 is already taken by his Repsol Honda teammate, Andrea Dovizioso).

Speaking of points, let’s remember to give full-props to Colin Edwards, not only for being the top-finishing non-factory rider in Estoril with a fifth, but for being the top non-factory rider in the points, in sixth. The Texas Tornado has a decent shot of moving by Dovizioso before season’s end, and he’s already ahead of three factory racers.

There’s not much to talk about in AMA Pro Road Racing at the moment, but Laurel Allen does have the following tidbit:

“Like a Shrinky Dink in a hot oven, the AMA Pro series gets a little smaller every time you look at it. Latest from this week’s rumor mill is that Yamaha—the only OEM effort that had hitherto looked undiminished by current events—will drop one superbike rider from its team … or rather put one of its Superbikes in the oven and pull out a 600cc machine, which will—considering the brilliant double-double-header victories with which Josh Hayes wrapped up the season—presumably be piloted by 2008 Supersport champion (and ’09 Yamaha superbike rider) Ben Bostrom. That’ll add up to one factory superbike and three AMA Pro Daytona SportBike machines—or just to one decent-sized rumor—but either way it about sums up the feeble info coming out of the AMA Pro paddock these days, which isn’t even generating enough of a pulse to support a healthy silly season.

“The fact that the AMA Pro 2010 schedule is more than a week overdue doesn’t help matters (at the final round, Roger Edmondson said it would be released by October 1). Companies like the series’ spec tire supplier wouldn’t mind a heads-up (although Dunlop ordered the series’ slicks well in advance—they had to, since the new Moto2 class will be using the same-size rubber as the U.S. series—the numbers for DOT classes need to shake down at some point). Also, the lack of itinerary definitely doesn’t help any teams or privateers trying to rustle up support for next season. (‘Where will you race?’ ‘Don’t know.’ ‘How many rounds will you race?’ ‘Don’t know.)

“According to AMA Pro officials, setting up the 2010 schedule is solely Roger Edmondson’s domain (Edmondson is at Homestead-Miami Speedway this weekend for a Grand-Am event but back in the office Monday), but one said today that the schedule is ‘Very, very close to being released.’”

Thanks, Laurel.

Okay, it’s beyond time to wrap this puppy up (sorry for the tardiness; we’re on magazine deadline). I’ll just close with a few odds and ends, including belated props to Chris Carr for retaking the motorcycle world-speed record two weeks ago. I was sitting on a mountain bike in Moab when Carr gave me the call with the good news from 375 miles northwest at the Bonneville Salt Flats. (Lacking a notebook, I wrote the info down on my leg, rode back to my hotel and posted a breaking-news report.) I had fun riding in Utah, but I think my ride was a it slower than Chris’.

Finally, thanks very much to superfan Chuck Forquer for the hook-up. My weekends suddenly got a lot better.

Oh, and here’s your chance to break that piggybank for a cool bike and a good cause: