The opening race of the 2005 MotoGP season is this weekend at the Jerez Circuit in the Andalucia region of Spain. The final IRTA test of the season was held at Jerez a couple of weeks ago so all the teams have some recent test time there under their belts. This is in marked contrast to past seasons where the opening race has been held in South Africa, a track that is at high altitude and where the teams rarely test. As a result, all the teams should have their bikes dialed and their riders confident when the flag drops this Sunday.

The whole galaxy of MotoGP enthusiasts are, like last year, orbiting around Rossi. He has been such a force in Grand Prix over the past eight years that every conversation starts with him. Well, I can be different. I can talk about the other bright stars in the MotoGP universe. I can but I’m not. I mean really, you have to start the 2005 MotoGP with the assumption that Rossi will win since he’s spent the past few years steadily surpassing every doubt people have had about him.

So, with that excuse out of the way, on to talking about Rossi (again). The one thing that is still obvious, after all the laps of winter testing, is that Yamaha look set for another good year. The pairing of Rossi and Edwards on their factory bikes, without a question the two best development riders in the world and both very, very similar in riding style, means they have put together a solid test plan for the winter and executed it without a hitch. Sure, the new version of the M1 appears to have some of the same chatter problems that plagued the Hondas last season but Yamaha appear to have worked through them. As some of the expert journalists like Julian Ryder, Toby Hirst and Dennis Noyes have pointed out, Rossi and Edwards ride their bike the same way. As a result, they could split their winter testing program so that Edwards could focus on testing tires for Michelin, something perfect for him given his longstanding relationship with the French company, while Rossi could focus on going through bike testing as Yamaha released new parts. For any other pair of riders this would be disastrous because the tires wouldn’t fit the bike when the two were combined. Yet with these two, they could both return to cutting fast laps when the testing was done and both have a bike that suited their style.

The secondary Yamaha team of Xaus and Elias have struggled all through testing. Ex-250 racer Elias has to adapt to the big four stroke and Xaus is just too big for the bike. Still, Xaus’ experience in MotoGP is undoubtedly being passed down to rookie Elias and Elias’ setup information has surely helped Xaus, since the lanky Spaniard missed the first two test sessions with butt injuries from squeezing onto the tiny M1. Neither rider is on the pace of the lead Yamaha team, nor the Hondas, but both have the talent, team and bike to pick it up as the season progresses.

In contrast, Honda has seven amazing riders but with one possible exception, also has seven seperate test programs going on simultaneously. There is certainly no love lost between Hayden and Biaggi and their riding styles can’t be more different. Gibernau is probably willing to share setup information with his teammate Melandri but Gibernau is rumored to be on full factory tackle while Melandri works with the “b” level bike. A lot of Sete’s setup information probably isn’t valid for Marco. Tamada, unquestionably a superb rider, is in a team by himself so the information that has been gathered from his fast laps isn’t going anywhere. That leaves the Pons team of Barros and Bayliss. They are probably willing to share information but both have generally been off the pace and both have opposite riding styles. What’s the point of sharing data if it isn’t the right info? Despite these hurdles, it appears that Honda’s isolated development efforts have born fruit since many of their riders have topped the timing charts at the tests and have put in consistent race-speed laps when doing race simulation tire tests.

The other big topic has been the end-of-testing speed shown by the Suzuki. Its only been at two tests that Suzuki have performed well, so its really to early too say, but at least at this time they appear to have finally found the direction to go with their bike. While I doubt Hopkins or Roberts will fight for the win, and probably not even for the podium, at least they appear to be pulling a gap on the backmarker teams.

Kawasaki has taken a bold approach in completely changing their engine, like Yamaha did, to have a “Big Bang” format but haven’t impressed anyone with any new found speed. After having such a spectacular year in 2004, it seems they haven’t leaped forward as fast as some of the other teams. Their target last year was the podium, something they achieved multiple times, but this year I think they’ll simply be trying to beat the Suzukis and Ducatis.

Speaking of Ducati, it looks like they have slipped up the most. 2004 was a step backwards from their freshman year and it seems they haven’t gained much in the off season. Like Aprilia before them, Ducati seem to be trying out a lot of fancy electronics to tame their always fast but usually brutal Desmosedici. These gizmos seem to be getting about the same reception from the riders as they did back at Aprilia with Checa and Capirossi both having crashes rumored to be caused by the new equipment. We’ll have to see if during the first few races they can recover the test time they lost in trying out spiffy electronics and become competitive again. I’m guessing no…

That leaves the others…Blata-WCM, KTM-Roberts and D’Antin. The least dim star here should be the KTM powered, Roberts framed bike with Byrne at the controls. The bike is unlikely to run with the Japanese but should better the others. With only one rider, development goes half a fast but at least they seem to have a solid starting point and good tires. D’Antin, with last year’s Ducati in his hands, would look best in this regard but he has a MotoGP rookie in Rolfo (a talented GP rookie with past 250GP success…but a MotoGP rookie nonetheless) on the bike, crap Dunlop tires, only a single rider and perhaps a smaller budget than even KTM-Roberts. The struggles this team will face would make a fan cringe were it not for Blata-WCM having an even bleaker future. As forecast, they have been unable to build their v-6 GP bike fast enough to make the first race of the season. Instead, Ellison and Battaini will start with last years inline-four bike. This bike could barely run fast enough lap times last year to qualify for races and, with the step forward made by other teams, may not even make the grid this year. What they have to look forward to is a humiliating start to the season, followed by trying to frantically build and develop a brand new bike while racing it. Just ask Team Roberts about how well that works out.

This huge gap between the top four or five teams and the last three, along with losing two teams from last year, signals that the costs required to race at the MotoGP level may finally be reaching a watershed moment. Even Suzuki, Kawasaki and Ducati are struggling to spend money as fast as Yamaha and Honda, so that gap between the top two and the mid-pack bunch may continue to grow as well. In the end, I believe that the ever increasing financial requirements to race prototype four stroke motorcycles will kill off half the grid, will prevent companies like BMW or KTM from joining and will eventually boil down to a struggle between the two giants of Honda and Yamaha.

In that vein it looks to be another Honda versus Yamaha year, with Yamaha the pre-season favorites. At the last test session in Jerez, there was a lot of talk about how some of the youngsters like Hayden, Melandri and Hopkins were the top names on the timing charts. While I’m glad to see these guys getting press and I do hope they all prove worthy of the faith people are putting into them, I personally didn’t read too much into these fast times. Any time the top guys in the class, namely Rossi, Gibernau and Biaggi aren’t topping the charts I’m willing to bet there is a reason. In this case, I believe its a sign of their experience in the series. They had one final weekend to cram before the start of the season. As a double incentive, the first race would be held at Jerez, the location of the final test. I think these teams were smart enough to put away the qualifying tires, ignore the time sheets and spent those last critical hours making sure their bike was ready for the first race.

Things are very interesting in the 250GP class, where experience also seems to have the advantage. Reigning class champion Pedrosa has been fast in testing but has generally been matched in pace by his rival from last year, the Argentinean Porto. With the first race being run on Spanish soil, Pedrosa will have the home field advantage but will have more than just Porto to worry about. Also returning from last year will be fast guys like de Puniet, Aoyama, West and de Angelis. Newcomers joining the class include last years 125 GP champ Dovizioso and 125 stars Vincent, Locatelli, Stoner, Barbera and Lorenzo. Given the relatively weak field of the 250GP class last year, this should be a much more exciting season. I think Pedrosa, Porto and de Puniet will be the ones to watch but I’m not willing to predict a champion.

The 125 GP class is full of new talent this year and with Dovizioso moving to the 250GP class there isn’t a defending champion to be the odds on favorite. The 125 class always provides close racing, perhaps the most exciting class at the GP level, and this year’s new faces mean it should be even more fun since we’ll get to watch the cream of the crop rise to the top. My best guess is that past champion and ex-250GP rider Poggiali will be the one to beat, if only because he has more experience that anyone else. He also has great motivation because if he’s not at the top, given his abysmal performance in 250s last year, he’ll be out of a job next season.

So when the green flag drops on Sunday, I hope to see a big group fighting for the lead in every class and I hope that continues throughout the whole 17 race series. But in the end, I think the earth would have to move before the bright star that is Rossi will be eclipsed. The 250s should be excellent given its depth of field and I’ll got out on a limb and say Porto will take the first race. In the 125 class, I’ll take Poggiali but it will probably be a tight pack all the way to the finish. Whoo hoo, its GP racing time again!

[image from the Italian Rai Sport web site.]

The last two Supercross races have brought two of the most visible racers back to the series after recovering from injuries and had two completely different results.

First, the bad news. As many, including myself, predicted Travis Pastrana’s return to the Supercross season was short lived. Very short lived. In fact, he made it through morning practice but crashed on the second lap of the first heat and injured his right leg. He came back a little later to win his semi-final and earn a spot on the gate for the 250 main but a gash in his leg, general body bruising and that all too frequent sense of deja-vu meant he didn’t make the race. Now I know that accidents happen and I know that Travis has sometimes been taken out in the past by other riders but really now, how many times does someone have to miss most of a season with injuries before he gets bounced off his factory ride? Sure, Travis is a PR and Marketing gold mine but if he’s on Suzuki’s insurance policy, he’s already cost them more than they would have spent just giving people free bikes. Ultimately, Travis seems to lack focus. Maybe he wants to race Supercross, maybe he wants to do Freestyle, maybe he wants to race Rally cars, maybe he wants to race SCCA cars, maybe he wants to race beach races, maybe he doesn’t know what he wants. I don’t know either. I do know the guy is talented but in the end the history books only list the folks with championship titles, not the ones that had a big fan base for a couple of years. Suzuki has given Travis more than enough chances…he isn’t spending much time on the SoBe Suzuki so give it someone with the will and focus to win.

But Travis crashing, yet again, is such small news compared to the bombshell of the Dallas SX that it is hardly worth mentioning. The real headline news was James “Bubba” Stewart. After his impressive showing at Orlando, which lead to his third crash in three races, there was still a big question mark in the air about whether Bubba could get it together. Well, consider those concerns were well and truly squashed.

Let me back up a second and give a quick re-cap of the season up until the Dallas round. Basically, the AMA Supercross season had boiled down to two riders: Ricky Carmichael and Chad Reed. In fact, it didn’t really boil down to that, it boiled down to Carmichael consistently stomping the field with Reed struggling to find the pace. Periodically, Reed would surge and get the job done but mainly it looked like RC had the whole season under control. In the last few races, RC started having uncharacteristic front end problems, leading to crashes, but generally he still seemed to be able to run a faster pace than Chad and certainly faster than anyone else. Summary: Ricky Carmichael is the best Supercross rider on the circuit. That has been the case in both SX and MX for the past few years.

Now, lets catch back up to this past weekend and Stewart’s performance. After crashing out of the lead in Orlando, Bubba apparently had that mystical moment of transcendence. All was clear and Stewart came to Dallas full of confidenceand ready to race. He then put on a showing that surely shocked everyone. From the first lap of practice he was fast but it was in the races that he really blew everyone’s mind. When the gate fell in his heat race, he pulled three bike lengths in the sprint race to turn one…that is amazing enough but Ricky Carmichael was in that heat not just a bunch of mid-pack guys. Eye opening! Within three laps, Bubba had a *six* second lead. A six second lead over the person that has demolished the Supercross field. Carmichael tried to pick up the pace and run with Stewart only to crash. Twice. Okay, so maybe RC had a problem. You can’t judge a man on one race alone.

Well, then it comes time for the main. Before the start, Bubba explained in an TV interview that he realized in Orlando that he could slow down and still win races. Whew, that’s confidence! Stewart, Carmichael, Reed, Windham and everyone else lined up for the main with all the anticipation originally built up for the opening race at Anaheim last winter. The gate drops and *boom* there goes Stewart with another two bike lead going into the first corner. Three laps later, its another six second lead this time over Reed. He pulls out to an eight second lead by mid-race, then cruises for awhile. Reed and Carmichael give chase but aren’t really getting close to the incredible lap times thrown down by the Kawasaki rider in the opening laps. With a few laps to go Bubba cranks it up again and wins easily. In the end, James “Bubba” Stewart gets his first 250 Supercross win. Reed gets taken out by a back marker and RC gets second to extend his points lead in the championship. In the post-race interview, Bubba explained that he lost his front brake after the first lap and ran the entire race without it. Wow.

What does it all mean? Well, it means that Stewart is truly an awesome rider. He’s another Galileo showing the earth isn’t flat…before this weekend everyone thought that Carmichael was the best Supercross rider in the world. Now Bubba has shattered that belief. I’m still in disbelief over what I saw. It also means that, for the first time, Ricky Carmichael’s mental strength is going to be challenged. He came apart in his heat race in Dallas so we’ll see how well he responds to this pressure for the rest of the season. As for Chad Reed, I didn’t think I could feel any more sorry for the guy but he was again a sad case after Dallas. He’s taken a beating from RC all season and dug deep to rebound again and again. Now the pressure has been ratcheted up again. How will he respond this time? And the big picture? Well, its too late for Bubba to win the SX title this season but when the outdoor Motocross season starts this summer, he could be re-writing record books every weekend.

As a final note, I do want to again commend Ricky Carmichael on his sportsmanship. When he’s been beaten this season by Chad Reed, he’s always publicly congratulated him and lauded the accomplishment. When he got trounced by Bubba at Dallas he again showed what a fantastic representative of the sport he is by being the first to congratulate Stewart and even going so far as to hold Bubba’s hand in the air. RC is not only full of talent, he’s full of class too. Bravo!

[image from the MX Large web site.]

The second World Superbike event of the season went off this past weekend with a few notable highlights.

First, the continued dominance of the Suzuki GSXRs in the hands of Troy Corser and Yukio Kagayama. In both races, the two Suzuki’s held a commanding lead over all the other bikes. For a short time in the second race it appeared that factory Ducati rider Regis Laconi had a shot at second place finish but the rain stoppage and mixed conditions restart sent him into the kitty litter rather than onto the podium. Meanwhile Corser was untouchable and Kagayama was again spectacular. In the first race, it was the Corser of old: A blazing start followed by fast laps early on while the other guys were waiting for their tires to warm up and their fuel load to go down then controlling his pace till the end. While other guys were sliding around and spinning up their tires, Corser was smooth and perfect lap after lap.

In the second race, things got more interesting. Not only did the torrential downpour reshuffle the deck taking riders like Laconi, Pitt, Neukirchner, Vermeulen and Abe out of podium contention it also gave some folks on underpowered bikes a chance to shine. The best example of this was Chris Walker who actually led on the track (though not on corrected time when combined with the times from the first leg) on the ZX-10R before overdoing it and tossing the bike down the track. Likewise, Ben Bostrom was able to move his privateer Honda into the top ten for a short time before falling back to 11th by the finish. Nieto, who didn’t finish the first race, was suddenly able to get into the top 5 in the wet race two and Corradi came from nowhere to get sixth. These are not guys we’ve seen this high up the running order so far this season.

The most fascinating detail in the second half of the second race was watching the psychological battle between Corser and teammate Kagayama. (As an aside, WSBK race announcer and racer James Haydon jumped all over this which was much better journalism that past TV announcers have offered during races. Good show, James!) Anyway, for three laps Corser and Kagayama pushed the pace faster and faster, despite the damp track, passing and re-passing each other. At one point the TV camera panned to team owner Francis Batta and he looked downright nauseous. These two know they are the class of the field right now and both were trying to get that mental edge over the other by showing they were willing to push just a little more in these tricky conditions. In the end, Kagayama went fastest but Corser still won the race based on aggregate times…this time it was another draw. Fascinating stuff to watch.

The second interesting thing highlighted by this second WSBK weekend is that they were again racing at a track which is visited by the MotoGP series. In fact, the GP boys had used Phillip Island as one of their pre-season test tracks in mid-February so there were relatively recent times available for comparison. As with Qatar, there is a contributing circumstance which means a direct overlay of times isn’t revealing the whole truth…that factor was the weather. For the WSBK weekend it was raining on and off which means that even when the track was dry, it was green without any rubber to increase traction. Nonetheless, the fastest times from both series show that there is still a big difference between the two classes of bikes.

At the February MotoGP test session, the fastest lap was a 1:29.68 thrown down by Rossi. This lap probably used a Michelin qualifying tire though its hard to know since those details aren’t always released. The fastest qualifying time for the WSBK guys on their Pirelli tires was a 1:33.24 from Kagayama. Obviously, Rossi could be a special case so looking further down the time sheets from the MotoGP session you will see that every rider ran a fastest lap under a 1:33. In fact, the slowest fastest lap time from the MotoGP test, turned in by Tony Elias on the Yamaha, was a 1:32.9 and he was supposedly slowed by physical exhaustion from the recent tests.

Just like Qatar, the lead MotoGP riders appear to be three or four seconds faster than the fastest of the WSBK riders. I’d hope that this would sink into the heads of the folks who continually question whether Troy Corser or Mat Mladin would do better on the MotoGP bikes than Roberts or Hopkins who currently hold those seats. The fact is that a production based GSXR Superbike can turn a fastest lap, with qualifying tires, of 1:33.2. The Suzuki MotoGP bike, on the other hand, turned a 1:30.8 at the hands of John Hopkins. Even Nobuatsu Aoki, the Suzuki test rider, turned a 1:32.4 on the GSV-R while testing parts (and presumably not using a qualifying tire)making him the slowest of the Suzuki MotoGP riders at the test. Also for comparison, the fastest race time from this past WSBK weekend was a 1:34.92 from Corser in the first race. Lets face it, the multi-million dollar GP bikes have a definite advantage over the production bikes, no matter how much money is thrown at the GSXRs and no matter who is sitting in the seat.

But within the context of the World Superbike series, this weekend shows that the GSXR is the most amazing bike on the track and that Corser rules the top seat of the points table. Combine this with Mat Mladin’s dominance at Daytona in the AMA series and their dominant win in the first event of the World Endurance championship and it seems like Suzuki will be selling a lot of bikes on Monday based on how well they have been performing on Sunday. Perhaps I should have called this entry “Suzuki rules…”

[image from the Suzuki web site.]

Since I left for Europe the morning after the big race day at Daytona, I didn’t get a chance to post anything on the blog about the Superbike race or the Daytona 200. They’ve been thoroughly covered on all the other sites but nonetheless I’ll say my piece…

First, the Superbike race picked up right where it left off last season with Mladin controlling the race from the first lap to the checkered flag. In the past, Suzuki has had to work fast to get their GSXR ready for the race season due to domestic test sessions being washed out by rain. Suzuki took the first step three years ago by sending the US Yoshimura squad over to Malaysia early in the year to get in some setup time before the first race. This season they went one better by heading over to southern Asia immediately after the last race of 2004’s champagne went flat. The affect has to be demoralizing for the other teams since Mladin showed up at Daytona after heading all the pre-season tests and showing dominating form from the first lap of practice. Everyone else’s best efforts were still nearly a second a lap slower than Mat. That’s a harsh start to the season for the other racers.

Every other story from the Superbike race is a bit of a stretch to make sound interesting.. The closest story worthy of some bits and bytes was Neil Hodgson’s performance. The ex-World Superbike champ learned the tricky Daytona track faster than I’m sure anyone expected and was clearly the second best person on the track. His performance highlighted one other issue, that being just how bad his teammate Eric Bostrom is struggling with the odd handling Duc. Neil was faster than Eric from the first lap, despite EBoz being a past Daytona pole sitter and having the previous year’s experience on the bike. If Eric doesn’t get something figured out soon, his stock back in Bologna will drop faster than an Italian bike manufacturer can go bankrupt. Neil, on the other hand, is showing that the Ducati 999 isn’t a complete dog which is perhaps the best the red bikes can hope for based on the thumping Mladin seems ready to hand out.

Mladin’s teammates Yates and Spies showed that the GSXRs may well sweep many races this season by consistently setting fast laps in Superbike. Continuing this trend, the customer Suzukis from Team Jordan and Team M4 finished top 10 as well. The Hondas, meanwhile, showed that they should probably have done some time Malaysia this winter since they are way behind compared to their historical trend of heading the speed gun measurements at Daytona. Their decision to bring Superbike development in house may pay rewards in the future but they have to make some huge strides before the second race at the end of April if they are gonna have a chance of slowing Maldin’s march to a sixth title or stop Suzuki from ruling the podium all season.

So with that bleak outlook off my chest, how about a review of the Daytona 200? Well, I’m afraid the news there isn’t much better as it was even more predictable than the Superbike race. As expected, all three podium spots were filled with the Hondas. Duhamel was the commanding winner with Roberts and Zemke completing the rostrum. Perhaps the biggest surprise was that the forth Honda of Alex Gobert was outside the top ten. The only interesting part of the Daytona 200 was watching the three youngsters of Eslick, Peris and Perez go through their trials of Daytona 200 crashes and pit stop fiascoes to card respectable finishes. Like in years past, the Daytona 200 was an interesting race up until the first pit stops, then changes in pit strategy and problems lapping slower riders strung the field out. Roberts and Duhamel actually put on an entertaining show for the first 10 or so laps. Nonetheless, Duhamel does deserve credit for putting a fifth Daytona 200 trophy on his mantle despite the criticism raised by others. No matter how much people try to downplay his achievement, winning the 200 is a trial of man and machine as much as a competition against other racers. Being able to race hard for two hours is reason enough to garner respect.

In my opinion, Saturday at Daytona lived up to expectations but that is only because the results were generally predictable and the expectations rather low. The classes were still confusing and not having all the factories competing in a single class just amplified that. Thankfully, also as predicted, there weren’t the tire problems that the past years have demonstrated so now its a matter of putting the excitement back into the premier class (or classes). Otherwise, the “support” classes will gain more popularity since both of those races were exciting and unpredictable. Lets hope the AMA Superbike and F-X seasons turns out to hold some big surprises…

Finally, I wanted to at least acknowledge that I’ve been pretty monotonous in using photos of guys doing big burn-outs in my blog entries. As penance I’ll say ten hail Rossis and try to find some different cool photos for future write-ups.

[image from Tim Huntington’s Web Page.]

An old wedding adage starts with the phrase “Something old, something new…”. Well, it isn’t exactly nuptials but the joining of the AMA and the reconfigured Daytona circuit has a few folks celebrating tonight. It was an exciting first day of racing at Daytona with some qualifying sessions sprang on the teams with little notice, some fast laps put in today including a last gasp stunner, a few shows of dominance, a surprise winner in one race and a disappointing DNF in another. An excellent way to start the season…

First, the AMA reversed yesterday’s decision about griding the Superstock and Supersport races by last year’s finishing order. Instead, they decided to use this morning’s practice sessions as a qualifying session. This change caught some of the teams by surprise but ultimately it made the grid fairer for everyone. A good call by the AMA in my opinion.

Supersport qualifying was first up this morning on a track still damp from yesterday’s rain. Things were further complicated because there wasn’t time to split the Supersport field into two separate sessions, so the whole swarm of them where sent out at once. Getting a clean lap became the secret to pole, rather than bike setup or tire choice. In the end, it was a case of “the more things change, the more they stay the same”. Tommy Hayden was slated to be on pole due to his winning last season’s championship and when things went back to a qualifying setup he bested all comers to retain that pole position with a 1:43.511 lap time. Ben Spies, Jamie Hacking and Jason Disalvo filled out the front row, though only Spies was on the same second as Hayden with a 1;43.905. The rest of the grid was surprisingly similar to yesterday’s grid based on 2004 results, with only a single row change forward or backwards for those affected.

Next up was the Superstock qualifying session which, unlike the Supersport situation, made for a drastic turn-around from yesterday’s list which featured a front two rows filled with Yamahas and Kawasakis. When the checkered flag few on the Superstock session, it was Suzuki that came out the big winner. Aaron Yates threw down blazing 1:39.667 lap time which bested even teammate Ben Spies fastest *Superbike* practice time from yesterday. Only Yamaha’s Jason Disalvo could stay near Yates with a 1:39.910 while the rest of the grid was nearly a second off the pole time. Yates is back… Another big winner in the qualifying session was Jason Pridmore. He finished 11th in last year’s Superstock class but pulled out a front row starting position during qualifying. M4 Suzuki teammates Vincent Haskovec and Geoff May leaped forward from 12th and 17th based on 2004 results to 7th and 8th based on this morning’s qualifying. The changes swept through the privateer ranks as well. Lee Acree was able to jump from 24th to 12th while Brent George and Jason Perez also jumped into the top 15.

Yates was also back on the bike immediately after Superstock qualifying to lay down some fast times on his Superbike. However, qualifying was all about Mat Mladin as he smashed the field, nearly a second faster than anyone else. As Ben Spies predicted yesterday, the Superbike qualifying times were into the 1:38s as Mladin blitzed the clocks with a 1:38.232. Spies stayed true to his word with a 1:38.963 to grab second. Neil Hodgson showed he is quickly adapting to the new tracks with a 1:39.884 to head a group which included the final spot on the front row taken by Aaron Yates. The second row had a surprise since Geoff May put his bike into fifth. Miguel Duhamel, Jake Zemke and Josh Hayes filled out the second row. A few other factory or factory supported riders were expected to be on the second row but ended up further back: Eric Bostrom (9th) and Kurtis Roberts (13th). However, Mladin had them all covered with his blazing lap time, so they’ll all have to step up come race day no matter what their starting position.

The final qualifying session was the Formula Xtreme bikes trying to sort out their positions for the Daytona 200 on Saturday. As expected, the factory Honda’s dominated FX. The best news from this qualifying time is that the pole sitter was able to better the Supersport bike’s times which prevented the embarrassment of having the Superbike spec 600s getting spanked by a less modified bike. The big drama wasn’t in the time but in how pole was determined. Jake Zemke appeared to have pole set with a 1:42.599 but Miguel Duhamel went out with just a few seconds left and threw down a flying 1:42.593 which just pipped Zemke and earned him the pole sitter’s Rolex. High drama and it was caught on TV in the pre-Superstock race coverage so hopefully that will get a few more people interested in qualifying. The rest of the grid was made up of third place Josh Hayes and forth place Kurtis Roberts. The rest of the grid was 1.5+ seconds behind pole, so the factory Hondas have a definite advantage for the race Saturday.

With qualifying out of the way, it was time for the first AMA race of the weekend as the Superstock bikes lined up for their 13 lap final. Now in yesterday’s blog entry and in an article I wrote for Roadracer X magazine’s web site, I predicted that the factory Yamaha and Kawasaki bikes would dominate Superstock. Oppps… from the time the green flag flew, it was obvious that the Suzukis were the bikes to beat. Yates, Pridmore, Disalvo, Hacking and Haskovec shot off from the rest of the pack with Yates and Pridmore swapping the lead over the first few laps. Reigning champ and nice guy Aaron Gobert had a mechanical DNF and wouldn’t factor into the race. Also obvious was that Yates has some serious power as he pulled away from Pridmore exiting the chicane nearly ever lap. This despite Pridmore’s bike supposedly being built to the same spec as Yates’ GSXR by Yoshimura. Hmmm…. It appeared that the two Yamahas were struggling to hold the speed of the Suzukis and eventually Haskovec moved past them and then, with a few laps to go, railed around Pridmore and Yates to take the lead. At the same time, Hacking and Disalvo succumbed to the pressure with both temporarily running off track and dropping out of the draft. On the last lap it seemed like Yates was in the catbird seat being behind Haskovec but the Czech rider was able to up the pace and actually pull away from Y
Yates’ rocket ship. Pridmore couldn’t gain anything, despite Yates tires sliding around, so the finishing order was Haskovec, Yates and Pridmore. This was definitely an upset having Haskovec, riding for the factory supported M4 Suzuki team on Pirelli tires, besting the favorites of the factory Yamahas, the factory Kawasakis and even the factory Suzukis. The highlight of the entire day was seeing the enthusiastic Haskovec’s podium interview which so plainly showed his joy. After years of pre-planned podium speeches, it is great to hear an underdog having an opportunity to express his happiness. This was the “something new”.

The second and final race of the day was the 22 lap Supersport final. Some of the riders had already ridden two qualifying seessions and a race so far today, so this was an endurance race as much as a sprint race. As it was, Tommy Hayden got the jump off the line which was good since there was almost a turn one pile-up. I’ve always felt that Jamie Hacking and Jason Disalvo were “rough” racers that tend to push other riders around. It was ironic, then, that the two of them seemed to lean on each other going into turn one which almost caused an accident. Meanwhile Ben Spies pulled an amazing move around the outside which had me puckering up in my chair. Spies then went to the front with Hayden and Hacking in pursuit. After a few laps, Hayden and Hacking upped the pace and Spies started drifting backwards. Rog Hayden, riding injured after a couple of accidents, started to move forward passing Gobert, Disalvo and Spies to move into third. The Hayden brothers and Hacking pulled out a gap to break the pack but then Tommy had the the field covered power-wise and upped the pace yet again. Rog passed Hacking and appeared to go with Tommy, leaving Hacking for a lonely third. With one lap to go Rog’s bike let go almost putting him on the ground while Tommy rode another perfect lap to win Daytona with a 3+ second break-away, something very rarely seen in the recent history of Supersport racing at the Speedway. Rog’s DNF was heart-breaking as he had ridden such a great race especially considering how beat up he was. Tommy Hayden, the 2004 Supersport champ, showed he and his ZX-6RR are the bikes to beat again this year making this news “something old”.

A toast: Congrats to the winners, condolences to the losers and good luck to those with races yet to be run.

[image from the SpeedTV web site.]

The opening salvo has been fired at Daytona…The AMA was able to get in a full morning of practice before rain called a halt to the proceedings around noon. The rain prevented qualifying for the Supersport and Superstock races but the practice times offered up a few surprises..

In Superbike practice, it was the Suzukis that dominated the session with Ben Spies clocking the best time by laying down a 1:40.505. Mladin was nearly a half second back in second with a 1:40.933 and Yates followed his two teammates with a 1:41.166. It is hard to read anything into practice times, since you never really know who is still working on a setup and who has already found the setup. Still, the guys that can setup their bike while running fast times are often the ones that can run fast times later in the weekend. Clearly the Yosh crew will be strong come race day.

The real surprise, at least among the big bikes, is that Jason Disalvo turned a 1:40.621 on his Superstock Yamaha R1. That makes him the second fastest rider circulating at Daytona today. Clearly the kid is serious and the bike is fast. Spies feels that the Superbike pace will drop into the 1:38s, if they do their qualifying on a dry track, so we’ll have to see if the Superstock guys have anything left or if DiSalvo’s time shows the high water mark for the Superstock bikes. For the moment, the gap between Superbike and Superstock, at least at Daytona, is looking pretty slim.

With the smaller bikes, the situation is even more clear though not necessarily as surprising. Like last year, the “stock” Supersport bikes are actually lapping on the opening day faster than the “built” Formula Xtreme bikes. FX only had one practice session while most of the Supersport bikes used the first Daytona 200 practice (since the 200 is running Formula Xtreme bikes this year) for extra track time in addition to their own morning practice. When the Formula Xtreme practice was called to an early halt due to rain, it was the Supersport bikes which dominated the top of the time charts. The fast Supersport bike was Jason Disalvo with a 1:44.242. The fastest FX bike was Josh Hayes a half second back in forth with a 1:44.646. The next FX bike was a full second off Disalvo’s time. Another eye opener was that the factory Hondas, the only true factory bikes racing Formula Xtreme, finished the morning practice in 8th and 16th. Ouch! Clearly the Formula Xtreme bikes find themselves once again struggling to turn the laps of the stockers.

It is possible that the reason for this gap is that the FX bikes have to go 68 laps while the Supersport bikes only have to churn out 22. Or maybe the FX bikes will improve their numbers when they get more track time. However, it is just as likely that the majority of the factories have chosen Supersport as the arena to duke it out with 600s and thus aren’t putting the development (or riders, or crew) into FX teams. Whatever the cause, if the AMA is ever going to realize its apparent goal of having Superbike spec 600s replace the current liter size Superbike class, they need to see a lot more performance and a lot more buy-in from the other factories.

Because of the rain today, the grids for the Supersport and Superstock races tomorrow will be grided based first on a rider’s finishing order in last season’s series and second based on the order of entry form for this year. This is really going to help some of the riders like Kawasaki’s Roger Lee Hayden who crashed today and would normally be gridded at the back of Supersport but now gets the #2 spot. Conversely, it is going to crush other riders like Aaron Yates, Pascal Picotte, Jason Pridmore and Geoff May who either didn’t run Supersport/Superstock last year or who are on more competitive machinery this year than last. It will also be a set back to privateers that were hoping to make a good showing during a one-off ride at Daytona but now find themselves stuck near the back of grids with 33 (Superstock) or 61 (Supersport) riders.

What is clear from the practice times in both Supersport and Superstock is that the front runners will likely be the same as last year: the factory Yamaha and factory Kawasaki riders and they will be gridded at the front anyway. The lack of qualifying may change some finishing positions but it won’t likely affect the podium.

Despite the first day’s drama, it should still make for some super racing tomorrow.

[image from the Daytona International Speedway web site.]

We’re just a day away from the start of the first AMA road race of the season and the beginning of another season of Superbike racing. I did a blog entry two months ago detailing who would be racing in the AMA series this season. What I haven’t done is list all the big name crew chiefs and lead mechanics which will be in the series this season. Many times the guys spinning wrenches and managing laptops are the unsung heroes of the Superbike series. This coming weekend’s visit to Daytona International Speedway may be the best example of this in years. The new track layout means there are now slow first gear turns in the infield, along with the WFO run on the east banking. The track surface continues to degrade and is made trickier because of the transition from the new track surface onto the banking which supposedly add a pretty big bump. Many of the factory teams actually build their bikes in their US shops rather than having trick parts shipped in from true factories. The tuner’s job this year will be tougher than ever before and the folks that win races may well be thanking their crew even more than in the past.

The list of stars behind the scenes in the paddock this year may be the best in years. Al Luddington, Ray Plumb, David McGrath and Merlyn Plumlee fill out the always impressive Honda factory crew line-up. Over at Erion, the pairing of Kevin Erion and Rick Hobbs lead the list of names of people with a successful history in the AMA series. Even the privateer teams like the new Hotbodies Honda team has big guns since their crew will include Mike Velasco, one of the most famous tuners in AMA history. Yoshimura Suzuki has an amazing crew with Don Sakakura, Peter Doyle, Reg O”Rourke, Katsu Yanagawa and Tom Houseworth. Michael Jordan’s Suzuki crew has ex-Mladin crew chief Amar Bazzaa and the ex-Harley Superbike squad from Gemini racing supporting their effort. M4 Suzuki will have WERA legend Keith Perry handling their wrenches. Ducati has AMA regular Gary Medley and many of the factory Ducati mechanics that worked with Hodgson in World Superbike. Kawasaki returns with Mike Preston and Joey Lombardo as their big names, while factory supported Attack Kawasaki has Richard Stamboli and Jerry Daggett for their name dropping. Finally, Yamaha has a less famous crew of wrenches but they are headed by Tom Halverson who has been a powerhouse behind Yamaha for ages. That is an impressive list of talent lined up behind the factory riders in the AMA.

But one name is once again missing from that list of tuning talent in the AMA paddock, that of Victor Fasola. Fasola has towered over the AMA scene for over 20 years (both figuratively and literally…the guys is something like 6” 8″ tall!) and he has tuned or handled crew chief duties for winning riders like Scott Russell, Tom Kipp, Tripp Nobles, Doug Polen, Aaron Yates and Anthony Gobert. He has worked with the Kawasaki, Ducati and Suzuki factories and helped bring them championships in Superstock, Supersport, Superbike and World Superbike. He has also tuned for many of the fast “local guys” in the Atlanta area in both WERA and CCS and even tuned on some seriously fast street bikes. An impressive list of accolades…

Vic has been in and out of the AMA paddock for the past few years. His last visit was in 2003 as the crew chief for the Ducati Austin Superbike team with riders Anthony Gobert and Giovanni Bussei. Unfortunately, that season was plagued with rider-team conflict, which resulted in Gobert being fired. The end of the season brought an announcement about Eric Bostrom being signed as lead rider and a bigger commitment from the Ducati factory, definitely exciting news for any crew chief. Sadly, Vic’s wife passed away in the Spring of ‘04 and Vic resigned his position with Ducati Austin to spend time with his son, extended family and friends. By the end of the summer of ‘04 Fascola’s name again appeared in the AMA paddock this time as the crew chief of an Aprilia Superbike team that was being formed with riders Mike Hale and Matt Wait. The team made a big PR splash announcing their intention of running a few races in ‘04 and the full ‘05 AMA Superbike season. Vic headed off to Italy to work with the factory race department in building the bikes and the two riders showed up at a couple of AMA races to get everyone psyched for their first race. Then the team suddenly imploded when the team owner failed to raise the needed money and Fasola was out of work again.

Fasola is currently working in the car racing arena but he’ll definitely be missed in the Daytona pits this coming weekend and I hope he can get back into motorcycle racing in the near future.

[image from the Ducati web site.]

I’ve long been a fan of one marque race series at the regional and national level. Having a race class which is focused on a single brand and model of motorcycle helps keep racing affordable especially when the rules require few modifications. The most famous of the spec racing classes is the famous Suzuki cup series which focuses on various models of Suzuki bikes including the GSXR line and the SV line. However, there have also been race series based on the BMW R1100S, the Harley 883 Sportster, the Aprilia RS250, the Triumph Speed Triple and the MZ Skorpion. All of these race classes have provided affordable, competitive racing for beginners and in many cases have had better contingency support than other support classes like the AMA’s 250GP, Pro Thunder and even Formula Xtreme. The Suzuki Cup and Harley 883 series ended up being feeder classes in which many famous racers like Kevin Schwantz, Doug Polen, Scott Russell, Aaron Yates, the Bostrom Brothers, the Wait brothers and many others.

Not all single marque series were that successful. Series like the MZ Skorpion cup and the Triumph Speed Triple both struggled. The Speed Triple Challenge in the mid-90s started off with a lot of support from racers but was quickly criticized because of reliability problems with the bikes. Specifically, it appeared that the oil passages in the head were too small to deal with the quantity of oil that was needed at high rpm. Since internal engine modifications weren’t allowed, this meant engines failed spectacularly and expensively. Racers either made the essential oil passage expansion necessary to maintain reliability and risked disqualification, or hoped they could win enough in some races to offset the frequent engine rebuilds to deal with the wear ‘n tear. Triumph didn’t offer a fix and these problems eventually eroded the popularity of a series popular with racers. The old AMA Supertwins race series, using Harley 883s, also suffered from mechanical failures since the exhaust valves on the rear cylinder of the air-cooled motor frequently failed but the series organizer altered the rules to allow different valve, valve seat and valve guide materials. This meant racers would work around the problems (even though the front runners were still replacing rear heads during race weekends) and kept the series popular for nearly a decade. Perhaps if Triumph had worked with the racers that series would have done better.

The MZ Skorpion Cup also started off with lots of buy-in from racers but that series also quickly waned mainly because the performance of the Skorpion bikes was less than expected. Since AHRMA, who oversaw the Skorpion Cup, also ran two different Sound of Singles race series it meant there were time when “built” singles were racing against the Skorpion Cup bikes. After the first few times that the Skorpion bikes were lapped by the other single cylinder bikes riders tended to abandon the Skorpion Cup series and start building Sound of Singles bikes. Suzuki’s SV 650, run successfully as part of the Suzuki Cup, aren’t particularly powerful either but WERA who oversee the Suzuki Cup don’t run the SVs at the same time as more powerful bikes like the GSXR600s. As a result, the SVs stay an attractive series and due to the low cost continues to gain popularity.

Now comes that latest single marque race class with the Triumph Thruxton Cup being run this year as part of the AHRMA roadrace race series. The bikes are the Thruxton version of the Triumph Bonneville line which features a 900cc parallel twin good for around 70hp. There are limited modifications allowed, basically just an exhaust system and jetting. The frame, suspension, brakes and wheels must be stock. No slicks are allowed, so tire costs will be cheaper. The stock bodywork is required, so the class will have a strong visible connection to the stock bike. Finally, Triumph is ponying up the bucks in contingency for the class and discounts for people buying the bikes to race in the class. All this should add up to a series which will be appealing to racers and provide close racing for the spectators. Whats more the race series should prove attractive to folks who want to race a vintage style bike but don’t want to deal with the reliability problems commonly encountered when racing old Triumphs.

The first race was this past weekend in South Carolina. Entries were sparse with just 17 bikes making the grid but the racing was supposedly good. In an effort to increase interest in the class, both among racers and fans, AHRMA has drafted ex-Superbike star Doug Polen to race the Triumph Thruxton Cup race this week at Daytona. There are another eight races after Daytona in the AHRMA series so hopefully the class will grow. Lets also hope that Triumph does a better job of supporting the Thruxton Cup series than they did with the old Speed Triple series and that AHRMA doesn’t stick the Thruxtons on the track at the same time as more powerful bikes like the Battle of the Twins or Sound of Thunder bikes.

I think the Thruxton is a great bike and the Thruxton Cup seems to be great series. I’m looking forward to September 11th when AHRMA will visit Colorado so I can watch the bikes in person…

[image from the web Bike World web site.]