This past weekend’s race at Monza, Italy lived up to the track’s history of great racing and surprise finishes, especially in Sunday’s second Superbike race. As always, racing in Italy brought that special something to the Italian bikes and the Italian riders.

Race one started out looking like more of the same with the two Corona Suzuki teammates of Troy Corser and Yukio Kagayama immediately running one-two. But rather than scampering away from the pursuing pack as they’ve done at every other race this year the Ducatis of Regis Laconi and James Toseland started closing in on the leaders starting at the mid-point of the race. As the laps wound down, the two booming Ducs were mixing it up with Yukio and looking like a real threat to win the race over Troy. It was on the last lap, with Kagayama’s tires begging for mercy, that Corser managed to pull a few bike links out and cement his chances for a fifth straight win. Kagayama’s toasted tires actually allowed him to finish second, not because they were hooking up but because they were so badly wasted that at the middle portion of the wicked fast Curva Parabollica the tire just refused to find traction and instead spun up. This sudden slowing in mid-corner meant that Toseland, who was parked on the Suzuki’s rear fender anticipating a draft pass, suddenly had to back out of the throttle to avoid an accident. When they both got back on the gas the Suzuki’s wicked motor gave Kagayama the edge in the drag race to the finish. Toseland got third with his teammate Laconi just missing the podium in forth.

With Suzuki again one-two in the first race, the second race results surely seemed like a forgone conclusion before it even got started. Well, the old Italian magic seemed to be growing back in the garage, because both Ducati riders came out swingin’ in race two. The race was slightly delayed when Chili’s bike was found leaking (Perennial good sportsman Giovanni Bussei pointing out the leak and saving Chili from an unpleasant incident) Once Chili’s bike was repaired the green flag flew and for the first time this season there was something other than a Corona Suzuki out front and, amazingly enough, it stayed that way for the entire race. Both Corser and Kagayama ran inside the top five for most of the race but it was two other sets of teammates that grabbed most of the attention: The Xerox Ducati pair of Toseland and Laconi and the two Winston Ten Kate Honda riders of Chris Vermeulen and Karl Muggeridge. All six bikes were sliding after just a few laps, again proving that the tires equalize the racing but also hold many of the riders back. The scenes of all six riders sliding through Curva Parabollica and Lesmo were spectacular, if only the TV cameras had been focused there more often especially late in the race where the bikes were smoking up the rear tires the entire way through both corners. With just a few laps to go, Kagayama blew the entrance to Lesmo and torpedoed his Suzuki into the gravel trap. That accident slowed Toseland up just enough that he lost the tow of the third place battle between Corser and Muggeridge. Up front, it was Laconi leading but with Vermeulen clearly anxious to make the pass. His chance came at the start of the final lap where he put a slick move on the Duc at the Variante della Roggia chicane to take the lead. The Australian immediately pulled out a few bike lengths over the Frenchmen so clearly the Honda rider had a little something in reserve, whether it was tires, power or just adreneline I don’t know. Going into Parabollica for the final time Corser got the Suzuki up the inside of Vermeulen’s teammate Muggeridge to claimed the final spot on the podium. Toseland finished in fifth.

In the end, Corser managed to grow his points lead over Kagayama, so it was more of the same in that respect but it was fantastic to see a resurgence from both the Honda and Ducati riders. Hopefully they can carry this momentum into the next round at Silverstone and finally put some pressure on the two Suzukis.

In other news, Frankie Chili managed two seventh place finishes at Monza despite still racing with the broken collarbone. While Frankie isn’t racing for race wins this year, like he has in years past, it is still great to see the Italian maestro putting in such amazing results aboard a privateer bike. Seeing what fellow racing elder Corser is accomplishing this year has to make you wonder what 40 year old Frankie could have accomplished the past three years had he been aboard a full factory bike.

Also of note this past weekend was the performance of Gianluca Nanelli who was standing in for the injured Lanzi on the privateer SC Caracchi Ducati. After the first day’s qualifying, Nanelli was *forth* on the grid ahead of both factory Ducatis, this despite the fact that he was racing in both Superbike and Supersport classes at Monza. By the time final qualifying and Superpole were finished he was down in 12th but then came back with noteworthy rides in both races to finish 9th and 10th, respectively. His second race finish of 10th is particularly special since he started the race dead last from pit lane due to a bike problem on the warm-up lap. While other riders were futzing around racing for 20th Nanelli carved through them all and worked his way into the top ten. Excellant!

So that Italian spirit worked its magic in the second race to shake things up a bit. For whatever reason, when racing comes to Italy the Italians always step up a little bit more than usual. Gold stars this week should be awarded to the Xerox Ducati team for finally getting back into the championship, to Corser for continuing to do what he needs to do to win the championship, to Vermeulen for getting his first win of the season, to Chili for showing true grit in soldiering on despite injury and to Nanelli for showing that a passionate and skilled rider can move to the front no matter how bad the odds are stacked against him.

Bella!

[image from the Ducati web site.]

For the past few weeks I’ve used my blog space on Fridays to preview the upcoming weekend’s races. This usually means I talk about the riders and their chances of success in the race. However, this time I’d like to focus on the circuit where the races will take place rather than the riders involved and that circuit is the amazing Autodromo Nazionale di Monza in Italy.

The Monza track is one of the classic European road race tracks, if not *the* classic track. It was built in the early 1920s and was one of the premier venues for car racing for two decades in the fabulous “between the wars” years when so many amazing factories and so many amazing racers pushed the borders of insanity on the steeply banked track. In addition to cars, motorcycles have raced on the historic track since the early days and for the past fourteen years it has hosted the World Superbike series.

Another fascinating aspect of Monza is that the motorsports complex is located in the middle of the city of Monza. I don’t mean near the city, like so many tracks in America, but *in* the city. In fact, the park that contains the famous track is just a few blocks from the city center. People who have visited the track always come back amazed at how revered the place is. With Italian’s passion for racing, Monza is treated as hallowed ground and the Italian crowds that come to watch racing at Monza are among the most passionate of anywhere in the world.

The fourteen years of Superbike racing, along with the tracks pedigree and fanatical crowed, give this weekend’s WSBK races a historic and emotional flair that no other track on the calendar can match. In addition to the track’s monumental past, it has been the fastest track on the WSBK calendar since Hockenheim was dropped from the schedule in 2001. The track layout has both long straights and high speed sweeping curves but the icing on the cake is that it contains two of the most amazing turns on any track that hosts the World Superbike series: the Varieante Ascari chicane and the Curva Parabolica. Both curves are entered at incredibly high speed and both are stunning places to watch racing motorcycles do their magic. The Parabolica, in particular, is a highlight for spectators because the powerful superbikes are going so fast through the sweeping right-hander that their rear tires are spinning the entire way around the turn and onto the finish straight as they try to accelerate while fighting all the air resistance at such high speeds.

When riders come to Monza, they bring lots of horsepower with them. Historically, Ducati, Honda and Kawasaki have done best here thanks to all three companies building superbikes with prodigious amounts of top end speed. It is rumored that Honda would even build special “Monza motors” to make sure their superbikes would perform well there. The long straights allow for drafting so races often come down to who can get the best drive out of the Curva Parabolica and many famous races have been won or lost there.

My personal favorite was the 1998 World Superbike event and it was just such a race. The most famous incident from that weekend was Akira Yanagawa’s fiery crash at the Ascari chicane during race one where his bike went flipping into the gravel trap and then exploded in an incredible fireball that was caught on TV. But the real reason that weekend was special was the battle between Castrol Honda teammates Colin Edwards and Aaron Slight. Colin was considered the “B” rider within the team and Aaron Slight was considered to be the one contending for the title. (Not an unreasonable assumption, given that the likable Kiwi had finished in the top three for five straight years, while Edwards had finished 12th the previous season). That weekend at Monza was the break through race for the tall Texan. He raced a tough race, constantly pressured by Slight, but hung on to win race one. Race two developed as a classic drafting battle between the two Castrol RC-45s with the riders swapping positions regularly on each lap. Then, just as fast as the battle reached its crescendo, it ended in dramatic fashion as Slight’s motor let go on the fast front straight leaving the bike trailing a long trail of smoke at triple digit speeds while he fought to get the bike stopped. The end result was a second win for Edwards and his first sweep of a WSBK weekend. The weekend may well have been a turning point for both riders. Edwards ascended to become one of the greats of World Superbike. Meanwhile that DNF cost Slight the 1998 championship as Fogarty beat him to the title by 5 points. That second place during race two at Monza would have given him 20. This was the last year Slight finished in the top three of the series and he only raced for two more years before being forced to retire due to a burst blood vessel in his brain.

Its hard to believe that race was seven years ago as I remember it like it was last season. Whether this weekend’s race will be another of those classic races remains to be seen but it may well be another battle between two teammates on incredibly fast motorcycles. I’m certainly looking forward to finding out!

[image from the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza web site.]

Just a quick follow-up to a post I made in February about Mike Larocco. For the first fourteen rounds of this sixteen round Supercross season, Mike Larocco has been stunning. He’s only been out of the top five four times. He’s been on the podium four times, had three straight fifth place finishes and, other than the second race of the season, has been in the top ten every race. Coming into the penultimate round he was forth in points behind Carmichael, Reed and Windham. He’s just flat sticking it to the young guys which is freakin’ awesome!

Sadly, this amazing streak ended last weekend in Houston when Larocco had a bad crash during his heat race, the crash happening when Larocco came up short on a triple. He got bounced off in the landing and slammed into the face of the following jump. The impact resulted in a bad concussion and a injury to his shoulder. Perhaps the most lingering affect will be his falling down one spot in the championship battle, with his final ranking likely to a fifth behind Vuillemin. Still, he will almost certainly finish the season ahead of factory riders like Ferry, Tortelli, Fonseca, Voss, Byrne, Pastrana and probably even the super star of Bubba Stewart.

I’m sure Larocco is disappointed with his season because racers race to win not come in fifth. Being the best of the rest, given that the top four of Carmichael, Reed, Windham and Stewart have dominated most of the races, won’t be consolation to someone with the racer’s drive to succeed, no matter what their age or how good their equipment. But I hope that Larocco can have some sense of perspective and see just how good his performance this season has been. I suspect all the factories will continue to look for fresh, young blood for their factory bikes in the hopes of signing the next Ricky, Bubba or Chad. Hopefully Honda will continue to see the value in having an incredibly fast veteran like The Rock out there to show the younger riders the ropes and also to keep the team managers casting a critical eye at the performance of their young rookies. The young kids have to know they better be able to beat the old guy, if they ever hope to beat the other talented young bucks they’ll race against the rest of their careers.

Best of luck to Mike Larocco in his healing and a hearty “Well done” shout out for his performance in 2005.

[image from the AMSOIL web site.]

There are people all around me that spend their entire lives fighting horrible addictions, some more successfully than others. I know people who are addicted to drugs, others who are addicted to alcohol, many who are addicted to cigarettes, others addicted to sweets. It could even be argued that many of my friends, myself included, are addicted to motorcycles. I’ve known people brave enough to fend off one addiction and then fall hopelessly into another. I even know people right now that are so addicted to healthy things, like exercise and dieting, that it becomes unhealthy. Addiction is truly a complex and dangerous thing.

Well, no matter how much I’m obsessed by motorcycles, my true addition is to motorcycle racing. My wife recently saw a trailer for the movie Fever Pitch, a movie in which a woman’s fiancee is addicted to the Boston Red Sox baseball team, and immediately said “Hey, that’s like you and motorcycle racing”. Uh oh, the first sign you have a problem is when other people are pointing it out…Should I be on the lookout for an intervention soon?

Well, the strongest sign that I’m addicted to motorcycle racing is to look at the massive pile of video tapes I have stacked up in my living room. This pile of approximately 120 eight hour VCR tapes contains every motorcycle race shown on SpeedTV (and many shown on OLN and ESPN2) over the past five years. The fact that I have that many video tapes is staggering to most people. Then I drop the real bomb on them…these only represent the unlabeled tapes (Getting married gave me enough of a life that I couldn’t keep up with both recording, watching and labelling the tapes each week). There is a Rubbermaid storage box in the basement with around another 100 tapes which are already labelled.

“Really”, my friends ask, “do you ever intend to go back and watch any of these tapes?”. Well, I can only answer with a definite…uhhh…maybe. While I realistically know that the chances of me actually digging out a tape from 1997 to rewatch a Grand Prix race and see Doohan give the smackdown to Criville and Okada is slim its just the fact that I *could* that makes me hang onto them. And how can I possible destroy a tape that may have some spectacular race on it like the famous Eric Bostrom, Jamie Hacking and Kurtis Roberts incident from Willow Springs in 2000 or the brilliant Colin Edwards/Troy Bayliss WSBK Imola race in 2002?

I have decided to take one bold step. No, I’m not getting rid of the tapes but I am starting to go through the five year backlog and label them. I work in the television industry, so I have a TV at my desk. Last week I bought a cheapo VCR and hooked it up. Now I bring one unlabeled tape in to work each day, throw it in the tape player and write down the contents as they play during the day. Then I label the tape, bring it home and put it in the storage box. Slowly but surely I’ll reduce the size of the stack in the living room so its no longer an eye sore.

In the big picture, I try to explain it to my wife this way…there are people out there whose spouses are addicted to crack. Me? My addiction costs around $1.50 per tape and the worst thing it can do to our marriage is take up storage space in the basement. Beyond that, its just an irrational thing like chewing finger nails or eating bon-bons until you throw up. Besides, I can quit any time I want…

[image from my photo collection.]

This past weekend brought about two big firsts, one for a series rookie and another for a series wildcard. Bravo to both for their successes. The other news was the exact opposite by being more of what followers of the series have come to expect.

First, the inaugural MotoGP race at the new Shanghai Circuit in China. The weather made things interesting by raining most of the weekend meaning that riders got their first shot at comparing the rain tires from Michelin and Bridgestone. In practice and qualifying, Valentino Rossi seemed to show and unexpected weakness in his armor, generally being mid-pack. The Hondas and Ducatis, presumably taking advantage of their power down the long straight, rose to the top. But some race time, things were different. The first surprise was the two Suzukis which both took turns leading the sodden race. After a few laps, however, things returned to normal as Rossi worked his way to the front and steadily pulled out a seven second gap. Behind him, the Honda teammates of Gibernau and Melandri seemed to settle into the final rostrum spots. But two riders soon started to charge forward…Kawasaki wild card Olivier Jacque (replacing Hoffman) and Honda wild card Jurgen van den Goorbergh (replacing Tamada). Since neither rider is racing the entire series, both were able to take risks that the other riders may not have been willing to take. Olivier Jacque ended up turning the fastest laps of the race and actually passed the Gresini Honda riders and close down the gap to Rossi. In the end, Rossi could undoubtedly have turned up his pace if he’d really felt threatened by Jacque but the fact that the Frenchmen closed the gap down to almost 1 second by the checkers was amazing. Sete appeared to have bike problems and slipped behind Melandri. Other riders to have bike problems were Nakano and Roberts. Hopkins ran off the wet track but stayed up right. Checa threw the Ducati away and Bayliss followed suit with his Honda. van den Goorbergh came home a credible sixth for the Minolta team. The final order was Rossi, Jacque and Melandri. The second podium finish for Melandri was great but Jacque getting his first MotoGP podium ever was even more spectacular. Jacque raced the big four strokes for two years without getting on the podium so it was an emotional moment. With Jacque also filling in for Hoffman at the French GP in a week, this had to be a fantastic boost to his confidence and a nice way for Kawasaki to offset the disappointment of Hoffman’s injury and Nakano’s mechanical.

The AMA doubleheader at Fontana California was similar but the thing which shook things up there wasn’t the weather but a series of red flags. Mladin and this all conquering Suzuki again led all the practice and qualifying sessions, usually nearly a second clear of the rest of the field. The two Ducatis both seemed to “come good” with Bostrom and Hodgson qualifying well. The Hondas were all still mired back in the pack, showing they still have a lot of work to do. And so it was the three Suzukis leading the way again. In race one, Mladin checked out, leaving his two teammates and Hodgson to battle it out for the podium. Then the race was stopped with a red flag. On the restart there was another crash and thus another red flag. With the clutches on the Superbikes not ready to take a third round of 200hp abuse, the mechanics had to do some hasty clutch replacements before the next restart. On the third waving of the green flag, it was again Mladin who pulled away and again the Ducati/Suzuki battle resumed for the rest of the podium spots. But with a few laps to go, both Spies and Mladin appeared to have bike problems. Spies momentarily slowed but then picked up again. Mladin, on the other hand, appeared to have a severe clutch problem and eventually rolled to a stop. That DNF left Spies and Hodgson unexpectedly fighting for the win. Hodgson made a mistake in turn one on the last lap and gifted the lead to Spies. Yates also passed Hodgson, making for a Suzuki 1-2 finish. The Brit got things back under control to fill out the podium. This first Superbike win for Spies was a fantastic result. For anyone to win at this level, against the dominant Mladin, in only his forth Superbike race is simply excellant. I’m sure this is just one of the many which are still to come for the talented Texan. In addition to the win, Spies also moved into the series points lead, so it was a double whammy.

In the second race, Mladin went about setting things straight. He pulled out a commanding performance, taking off from the flag to win by a substantial margin. As I predicted, there was a Suzuki sweep in one of the races and it was race two as Spies and Yates came home two-three. The two Ducatis came home in forth and fifth but with Bostrom leading a flu stricken Hodgson home in race two. Duhamel crashed in the race and finished outside the points, dropping him down in the points chase. At the end of the weekend, Spies still leads the Superbike series by three points. Yates is nine points back from Spies with Hodgson three behind Yates. Mladin’s DNF has really closed up the points battle, mainly because of the consistency of the other three riders.

My big winners for the weekend? Jacque and Spies, both breaking into the big time with a podium for the Frenchman and a win for the Texan. Both rode hard races and are plenty deserving of getting to spray some champagne.

The 250GP, Superstock, Supersport and Formula Xtreme races weren’t televised on Sunday to I’ll try to report on those later.

[image from the Superbikeplanet web site.]

This weekend will be a great weekend of racing. For the first time this year, there will be three different race series I can watch in one weekend:

First, the MotoGP season holds its third round at the new Shanghai Circuit in China. This track promises to make for some exciting racing for a few different reasons. For one thing it has the longest straight of all the tracks on the MotoGP calendar at nearly 3/4 of a mile in length. The long length of tarmac will mean everyone better bring their horsepower to the 3.3 mile circuit. Honda probably has an advantage in this arena. However, the teams can’t just focus on going fast because the designers threw in four 180+ degree tight turns including one that is nearly a full 360 degrees. Some of these turns are long enough that the bikes stay leaned over on the right side of the tire for a long time. The fourteen turns on the track mean that a good handling bike, like the Yamaha, may have an advantage. Finally, this is a new track so the teams will have to figure out tires (Michelin is basically bringing one of everything since they don’t yet know what the tire wear will be like), suspension settings, fuel usage, gearing, computer settings and lines around the track. The team that can get all these myriad details sorted out the fastest will have an advantage. This may be a place where teams like Suzuki, Kawasaki and Ducati can shine. I doubt they’ll close the gap to the top Honda and Yamaha teams but they can show their stuff within their own competition to be the best of the rest. It will be very interesting to see which riders are the fastest after the first practice and whether those same riders are still among the fastest in the last practice session, as it will show whether riders are slowly and methodically building their speed or if they get up to their max speed relatively quickly and then just fine tune. Any rider that can get up to speed quickly will then be making tire, gearing, suspension and computer changes that match the speed they are likely to run in the race. Everyone else will tune as they go and may well find new problems showing up if their race time is faster than their final practice time.

A more predictable situation will present itself this weekend when the AMA series returns to California Speedway in Fontana, CA. Unfortunately for the rest of the field, Fontana has been the sole domain of Mat Mladin for the past two years. With Mladin coming off two devastating victories at Daytona and Barber, things don’t look good for anyone hoping to break Mladin’s streak at California Speedway. Despite being built in the middle of a NASCAR oval, California Speedway is a reasonably interesting track…at least as interesting as a flat, concrete wall lined bull ring can be. The track designers managed to squeeze 21 turns into the two mile NASCAR track, including some high speed left hand sweepers that give the gutsy riders a chance to show their stuff. From what we saw at Daytona, this is going to favor the Suzukis, so I predict another Suzuki sweep in at least one of the two races. Those fast sweepers put a premiun on a rider’s ability to trust his front tire and that is a weakness for both the long wheelbase Ducati and the still developing Honda.

The final race of the weekend is the series opener for our local MRA roadrace series at Pueblo Motorsports Park in Pueblo, Colorado. Of the tracks in Colorado, Pueblo may be the most interesting. It is among the longest of our tracks and has the longest straight. The track is actually part of a motorsports complex which means that in addition to watching roadracing, you can ride dirt bikes, camp and even watch drag racing in the evenings after the racing. As for the races themselves, the usual suspects should dominate: Shane Turpin, Ricky Orlando, Dan Turner, Mike Applegate, Jon Glaefke, Jim Brewer, Dennie Burke, Mark Nudelman, Marty Sims and Rich Deeming. While there have been some impressive new riders joining the series in the past couple of years, no one has yet been able to step up in the premier Race of the Rockies class to challenge the veterans like Shane Turpin, Ricky Orlando and Dan Turner. In addition to the weekend’s MRA road races, the MRA also has a Supermoto class which runs on Saturday afternoons once the morning practice is over, which makes for an even more interesting race weekend. ‘Course all this assumes that our unseasonably late snow fall doesn’t force the cancellation of the event.

Because of the weather I won’t be driving down to Pueblo for the MRA races. Instead, I’ll be spending Sunday curled up on the couch with two foot of snow outside and the TV tuned to Speed….

[image from the Shanghai Circuit web site.]

This coming weekend will be another session of fighting with the big, round, black deamon from hell. Yes, its true, no sooner than I got all my tires mounted back in February I walked out one morning to find the front tire on the DRZ was flat.

Specifically, I found that the last time I rode the DRZ I ripped the valve stem out of the tube in the front tire. I remember that I was practicing stoppies on the dirt road leading to our house but a couple of things still make this flat tire surprising: 1) I was trying to brake hard on a loose dirt road so I’m surprised it generated enough stopping power to slip the tire on the rim and 2) I suck at stoppies so I’m surprised I was able to apply that much braking force without falling down.

Nonetheless, when I went to put air in the flat front tire, I heard the tell-tale sound of air hissing out into the rim rather than filling up an inner tube. This past weekend, I broke the bead on the tire and fished out the tube to find that, sure enough, the valve stem was no longer attached. Now I’ll have to completely remove the tire so that I can extract the stub of the valve stem. While I have the tire off, I’ll see if I can install a rim lock as the front tire on the DRZ400S doesn’t have one (that lack of rim lock no doubt contributed to the ease with which the tire rotated on the rim).

In addition to spending even more time fighting with tire irons I’ll get to add to that pleasure the delicate task of trying not to pinch the inner tube. The one bonus is that when I’m finished installing the new tube and remounting the tire I’ll get to try static balancing the tire on my new Rod Neff tire balancing stand which is shown in the background. (Don’t worry, I’m aware the balancing a dirt bike tire is overkill but I’d like to get some practice before I start doing tires where balancing is important.) I bought the adjustable stand that can also be broken down flat for easy storage. Its a well made unit and, assuming I get around to buying the $BMW$ adaptor for my GS wheel, I should be able to now mount and balance the tires on all the bikes in my garage. My buddy Jeff just bought a motorcycle tire changer from Harbor Frieght which I need to go check out to see if it will fix the problem of trying to juggle three tire irons while holding a tire flat and without bending the expensive brake rotors…as if I don’t have enough toys in the garage!

Ultimately, I’m just trying to find a way to make tire changes more interesting because at the moment I’m tired of fighting with the damned things and summer is just beginning!

[image from my photo collection.]

“I still think that riding motorcycles is much, much more than a sport; pretty close to religion.”
– Keith Code

This past weekend was the American debut of a documentary film made in Canada about multi-time AMA champ Miguel Duhamel. The film Adrenaline Rush, as with many other religious functions, was shown this past Sunday on SpeedTV.

The primary focus of the film was the 2003 AMA series, the year in which Miguel won his 41st AMA Supersport race at Brainerd. As if winning 41 of anything isn’t impressive enough that race win emphasized what a determined racer Duhamel is since a crash at Infinion Raceway six weeks earlier had broken his left collarbone in three places. The fix for the shattered collarbone was to insert a pin to strengthen the bone while it healed. The pin didn’t stay in place and by mid-season was protruding out of the bone enough to pierce the skin. After an attempt to hammer the pin back into place failed, Duhamel just taped foam over the pin, took antibiotics to prevent an infection and raced anyway. Taken as a second chapter to his stunning 1999 Daytona victory after a crash at Loudon the previous season left him with a crushed left femur, the collarbone stories shows just how much Duhamel wants to race and to win. Looking at his record: 32 career Superbike wins, 5 Daytona 200 victories, 41 Supersport wins, 9 Formula Xtreme wins, 1 Superstock win, the 1995 Superbike championship, five Supersport titles (1991, 1993, 1995, 1996 and 1997) and his being the 2004 Formula Xtreme champ shows just how successful he’s been.

This is basically the story that is told in the biographical film. There are home movies of a young Miguel riding mini-bikes with his siblings, race footage from many of the key races in 2003 and 2004, interviews with family members and friends and one-on-one interviews with Miguel himself. Some of the film footage, like the post race film from Barber in 2004 where he was taken out in a multi-bike accident with Ben Bostrom, shows the less glamorous side of Miguel. It clearly shows how he tried to force a red flag after the crash in an attempt to get back into the race. While this is understandable from the viewpoint of a racer, its of questionable ethical value when considering those still in the race. This film clip also shows how that very personal decision on Duhamel’s part affects both his girlfriend and mother who were watching the race.

Ultimately, these personal glimpses are what really make the documentary a decent film. Duhamel’s personality is entertaining and getting this view into the man behind the visor makes many of the trials and tribulations that much more human. Finally, I doubt a film about a less charismatic rider would be nearly as enjoyable to watch, and it would be very difficult to find a rider that has experienced as many highs and as many lows as Miguel has during the course of his career. Both of these factors make him the perfect candidate for such a film. While this isn’t the greatest motorcycle documentary ever made, that honor is still held by On Any Sunday, it offers some great insight into motorcycle road racing in particular and into one of the AMA’s greatest in particular.

For the moment, a trailer for the movie is available online. Check the SpeedTV program schedule to see if the program will be broadcast again.

[image from the Daytona International Speedway web site.]

Back in December, I did a blog entry about an ex-Colorado racer named Nicky Wimbauer who has gone on to race this season at an international level in the newly created World 600 Superstock championship. This class, along with World Supersport and World Superstock, are support classes for the European rounds of the World Superbike series. It is a more “stock” class when compared to the well established World Supersport class (which are stock framed and “superbike” engined 600cc bikes) and was specifically created to bring new talent into the series by giving young riders under the age of 21 that have risen to the top in their national series an arena for further competition. What makes this particularly exciting is that some of the existing World Superbike and World Supersport teams have already started to support the new class. Belgian based Moto 1, a successful Suzuki supported team in World Supersport, picked Nicky as their rider in World 600 Superstock and have thus given him a great opportunity to join the WSBK circus aboard a competitive bike.

This past weekend was the first race of the class as the World Superbike series opened its European dates with a race in Valencia, Spain. Wimbauer had some challenges in qualifying and ended up 17th on the grid for the start of the race. Once the green flag fell, he showed why Moto 1 put such faith in him by charging his way through the pack to finish eighth roughly 20 seconds down on the leader. The field ahead of him consisted of two Frenchmen, two Spaniards, a German and two Italians most of whom were older than the 17 year old Wimbauer. If he continues to ride smart, finish this well and to learn at each race you can be sure we’ll see him on a Superbike very soon.

You can follow the series and Mr. Wimbauer’s results on the Official World Superbike web site.

[image from the Nicky Wimbauer web site.]

This past weekend’s superbike races would seem, at first glance, to have been a story of old timers sticking it to the youngsters. In both the World Superbike and the AMA races, 30+ year old veterans won handily over a field that included both series regulars and bright young stars. Likewise, both riders took early commanding leads in two races each and those double wins put both in positions atop the points table with large enough margins to miss a race without threatening their advantage. Impressive stories to be sure. However, I found that the race reports show an equally interesting development further down the podium.

…but first, the race reviews:

In World Superbike, it was another Troy Corser weekend. As in the first two rounds, TC was unbelievable all weekend. In both races, he jumped out to an early lead and held that till the finish. The focus therefore shifted to what was happening behind him. In race 1, that was highlighted by a crash-fest. It all started before the race when Ducati mounted title contender Regis Laconi crashed in morning practice and was too concussed to race. In the race, nearly all the Australian riders, with the exception of Corser and Vermeulen, visited the gravel including Pitt, McCoy and Martin. German Neukirchner had a particularly nasty highside on his Honda early in the race that sent Muggeridge and Lanzi off track with Italian Lanzi breaking his collarbone. The later stages of the race boiled down to a fascinating battle for second between Honda’s Vermeulen and Yamaha’s Abe. The Pirelli tires appeared once again to be crap and in the second half of the race all the riders were sliding everywhere. This finally bit Abe and sent him down the track, handing third place to Suzuki’s Kagayama. Another notable finish was Frankie Chili crossing the line in seventh just two weeks after breaking his collarbone in Australia.

The second WSBK race started as a mirror of the first with Corser clearing off early. Vermeulen put up a better fight and stayed a little closer but it still seemed TC could manage the gap, upping the pace if necessary. Once again the focus turned to the Australian youngster in second place this time because Kawasaki’s Walker made a surprise appearance at the front. As with Abe in Race 1, Walker put a tremendous amount of pressure on Vermeulen. Also as in the first race, it appeared that the Honda used up the rear tire sooner than the following bikes which made Vermeulen’s job of holding off Walker all the more difficult. In the end, the talented Honda rider did just that to take home another second place trophy. Walker performed brilliantly to get onto the podium after struggling in the early races of the season. The other big surprise for race two was Ben Bostrom’s fantastic sixth place. It appears the Renegade Honda rider may finally be getting the new bike sorted out.

In the weekend’s AMA Superbike races, the headline was Mat Mladin’s continued romp towards a sixth title. In just the second race weekend of the season, Mladin has already pulled a 22 point advantage in the points chase. This is shades of seasons past where Mladin creams ‘em early in the season and plays it smart in the second half, while others come apart under the pressure. In both races, Mladin lead immediately and just pulled away throughout the race, turning laps a second a lap faster than anyone else. The trailing pack was limited to Suzuki teammates Yates and Spies, as well as Ducati’s Hodgson. Yates was easily the second fastest guy of the weekend, able to gap the following riders but not catch Mladin. The race for third in the first race boiled down to a wonderful battle between the ex-World champion Hodgson and the superbike rookie Spies. At the end, Spies threw down an amazing move through traffic and clinched the final podium spot.

The second day’s Superbike race at Barber Motorsports Park started with another rocket maneuver from Mladin. Second was briefly a battle between Yates and Hodgson with Yates eventually pulling a gap but then having a rear tire vibration which forced a pit stop, handing second place to Hodgson. The focus then trailed back down to Spies who was in a see-saw battle with Honda’s Duhamel. This fight came down to the last lap, when Duhamel pulled a brave last corner pass but was then pushed wide allowing Spies to sneak back underneath for the win. Another exciting race for the rising star from Texas.

The only AMA support race that was televised, the 600 Supersport race, was a thrilling race as well. Yamaha’s Jamie Hacking was on fire all weekend and took off from pole position (both times actually, as there was a red-flag induced re-start) with Kawasaki’s Hayden brothers in close pursuit. The race pace was very fast which eventually caught Roger Lee out causing him to run off the track and lose touch with the two front runners. Tommy kept pressure on the Yamaha and finally made a run at him on the last corner of the last lap but came up a little too short to make the move. Jamie’s victory ties up the points battle. Particularly noticeable in the race was how slow the Suzuki GSXR600s are this year. Despite some hard riding by the racers, the first Suzuki was in 10th place. Yamahas and Suzukis filled the first nine positions. Its time for Suzuki to put some of its GSXR1000 engineers to work on the smaller bike. Mention should also be made of Yamaha mounted privateer Robert Jensen who finished seventh. That is a phenomenal placing for a privateer in a class so loaded with factory backed talent and it definitely highlights the guy’s riding skill.

With all that out of the way, my focus will be on the two young stars that showed their metal through some extremely tough races. On the World Superbike stage in Valencia, Spain that star was Chris Vermeulen. While he didn’t quite have the speed needed to challenge Troy Corser, he survived two grueling race long battles with more experienced racers. In race one, it was ex-GP winner Norik Abe and in race two it was ex-GP racer Chris Walker. Both racers applied considerable pressure and in both cases, appeared to have tires in better condition and thus better mid-corner speed. Despite these advantages, Vermeulen kept his wits and rode a superb race to beat both of them. I’m sure his previous World Supersport experience really helped here since that class is all about racing in a tight pack. I also believe that him continuing to get this experience, as he did last year in Superbike, will forge him into a better and better racer. The guys that lead races from the front may become better technical racers but its the guys that know how to fight it out that build a skillset that helps them in the long run. Expect Chris V to be replacing one of the under-performing MotoGP riders next season.

In the AMA Superbike series, this same kind of performance was turned in by Ben Spies. He was able to go to school with ex-WSBK champ and ex-GP rider Neil Hodgson and then in race two do the same thing with multi-time AMA champ Miguel Duhamel. Both of these riders are smooth, precise and smart. All attributes that, should they rub off, will be useful to Spies throughout his career. The fact that the Suzuki rider bested both veterans in their respective races shows he is a quick study and that he has bucket loads of talent. If anyone is going to be able to step up and challenge Mladin this season, it may well be Spies as he continues to grow as a rider.

Bravo to both these riders, as well as the two old guard masters who should be their targets.

[image from the Italian Motorsport web site.]