Alanf's blog...

Last year I built a combined road race calendar for 2005 (with race dates for AMA Superbike, AMA Supermoto, World Superbike and MotoGP, as well as local races like the MRA, the local round of the AMA Supermoto series, the local round of the AHRMA series and the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb). I found it really useful so I decided to do it again for 2006. Here is the current road race calendar for this year:

February:

25 - WSBK @ Losail International Circuit; Doha, Qatar

March:

5 - WSBK @ Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit; Phillip Island, Australia

11 - AMA SBK @ Daytona International Speedway; Daytona Beach, FL

26 - MotoGP @ Circuit de Jerez de la Frontera; Jerez, Spain

April:

8 - MotoGP @ Losail International Circuit; Doha, Qatar

23 - WSBK @ Circuit de la Comunitat Valenciana Ricardo Tormo; Valencia, Spain

23 - AMA SBK @ Barber Motorsports Park; Birmingham, AL

29 - AMA Supermoto @ California Speedway; Fontana, CA

30 - MotoGP @ Istanbul Park; Istanbul, Turkey

30 - AMA SBK @ California Speedway; Fontana, CA

30 - MRA @ Pueblo Motorsports Park; Pueblo, CO

May:

7 - WSBK @ Autodromo Nazionale Monza; Monza, Italy

14 - MotoGP @ Shanghai Circuit; Shanghai, China

21 - MotoGP @ Bugatti Le Mans Circuit; Le Mans, France

21 - AMA SBK @ Infineon Raceway; Sonoma, CA

28 - WSBK @ Silverstone; Silverstone, UK

June:

3 - AMA Supermoto @ Road America; Elkhart Lake, WI

4 - MotoGP @ Circuito del Mugello; Mugello, Italy

4 - AMA SBK @ Road America; Elkhart Lake, WI

4 - MRA @ La Junta Raceway; La Junta, CO

10 - AMA Supermoto @ USA International Raceway; Shawano, WI

17 - AMA Supermoto @ Miller Motorsports Park; Salt Lake City, UT

18 - MotoGP @ Circuit de Catalunya; Catalunya, Spain

18 - AMA SBK @ Miller Motorsports Park; Salt Lake City, UT

24 - MotoGP @ TT Circuit Assen; Assen, Netherlands

25 - WSBK @ Circuito Internazionale Santa Monica; Misano, San Marino

25 - PPIHC @ Pikes Peak Hill Climb; Colorado Springs, CO

July:

2 - MotoGP @ Donnington Park; Donnington Park, Great Britain

8 - AMA Supermoto @ The Palace of Auburn Hills; Detroit, MI

9 - MRA @ Miller Motorsports Park; Salt Lake City, UT

16 - MotoGP @ Sachsenring Circuit; Sachsenring, Germany

23 - MotoGP @ Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca; Monterrey, CA

23 - WSBK @ Brno; Brno, Czech Republic

23 - AMA SBK @ Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca; Monterey, CA

30 - MRA @ Motorsport Park Hastings; Hastings, NE

August:

6 - WSBK @ Brands Hatch; Brands Hatch, UK

6 - AMA SBK @ Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course; Lexington, OH

13 - MRA @ Pueblo Motorsports Park; Pueblo, CO

20 - MotoGP @ Automotodrom Brno; Brno, Czech Republic

20 - AMA SBK @ Virginia International Raceway; Alton, VA

27 - MRA @ La Junta Raceway; La Junta, CO

27 - AMA Supermoto @ TBA; TBA, CO

September:

3 - WSBK @ TT Circuit Assen; Assen, Netherlands

3 - AMA SBK @ Road Atlanta; Braselton, GA.

10 - MotoGP @ Sepang International Circuit; Sepang, Malaysia

10 - WSBK @ Eurospeedway Lausitz; Lausitzring, Germany

10 - MRA @ Motorsport Park Hastings; Hastings, NE

17 - MotoGP @ Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit; Phillip Island, Australia

17 - AHRMA @ Miller Motorsports Park; Salt Lake City, Utah

24 - MotoGP @ Twin Ring Motegi; Motegi, Japan

24 - MRA @ Pueblo Motorsports Park; Pueblo, CO

October:

1 - WSBK @ Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari Imola; Imola, Italy

1 - AMA SBK @ Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course; Lexington, OH

8 - WSBK @ Circuit de Nevers Magny-Cours; Magny-Cours, France

14 - AMA Supermoto @ Music City Motorplex; Nashville, TN

15 - MotoGP @ Circuito do Estoril; Estoril, Portugal

22 - WSBK @ TBA; TBA, South Africa

29 - MotoGP @ Circuit de la Comunitat Valenciana Ricardo Tormo; Valencia, Spain

November:

4 - AMA Supermoto @ Queen Mary; Long Beach, CA

Well, it looks like I’ll be making a few trips to Utah in ‘06 since both the AMA has moved from the now deceased Pikes Peak International Raceway to the new Miller Motorsports Park near Salt Lake City. They have even thrown in a Supermoto event to make the event even more enticing despite the long drive. Then AHRMA moved their Fall event from the Pueblo Motorsports Park to Miller Motorsports Park as well. I already have my tickets for the combined MotoGP/AMA races at Laguna Seca in July so I will definitely be out there this summer. Finally, I’d like to catch some MRA races, since I try to support the local racers, but that will be pretty challenging this year since all of the races are so far away from the Denver metro area. Naturally, I will continue to watch everything on TV and do my best to provide some coverage here on the blog for all the races and in my WSBKPod podcast for the World Superbike races. Make sure to mark these dates on your calendar and watch some racing this year, preferably in person but if not then at least on the tube.

[image from the MotoGrandPrix.it web site.]

With the first World Superbike race of the ‘06 season scheduled for February 25, which is just a few weeks away, I better get my review of the 2005 season published. Last December I did a blog posting about the ‘05 WSBK line-up where I said that the the new found diversity on the grid was sure to generate excitement in a series that had previously become dominated by Ducati. Well, that certainly turned out to be an understatement as the four cylinder bikes completely reshaped the World Superbike series last year.

The excitement for the season actually started early in the pre-season. The Alstare Suzuki team of Troy Corser and Yukio Yagayama showed up at the first test at Phillip Island and immediately started turning laps considerably faster than any of the other riders. At the end of the weekend, Corser topped the timing sheets with a considerable advantage over everyone else. What made this interesting was the fact that Alstare didn’t have their 2005 bikes in time for the initial test. Instead, they pulled an old 2003 GSXR 750, previously raced by Gregorio Lavilla, out of storage and then put the new 1000cc motor in it. The fact that Troy could still put in the fastest laps on a two year old bike was a pretty clear sign that the four cylinder bikes in general, and Corser in particular, where back in World Superbike.

The second official test went much the same way. The Alstare guys showed up with their new 2005 bikes and then proceeded to dominate with both again topping the charts. In fact, the two Suzukis ended the test almost half a second faster than the other riders. Also impressive at the second test were the Yamahas with five of the top ten positions being posted by R1s. The big surprise was that the Ten Kate Honda team, who had fought for the title in ‘04, were turning in some of the slowest laps at the tests. Clearly there was a problem in the Honda camp.

Corser had looked threatening during testing but it was at the first race at Qatar where that message was really driven home. Race one was all about Corser with Kagayama running a strong second. Regis Laconi, who had shown solid speed at the second WSBK test, rounded out the podium. Race two started out the same but Corser’s pushed too hard, too early and wore out his front tire. From there it was all Kagayama as the Japanese rider stormed away to his maiden WSBK victory. Laconi, followed up his race one podium with another by getting second in race two.

When the teams returned to Phillip Island for the second race of the season, it was all Corser. The Aussie doubled by winning both races while his teammate continued his string of strong finishes by following his teammate across the line in both races. The excitement of the weekend became watching the battle for the final podium spot. In race one, it was Chris Vermeulen who showed a thankful return to his 2004 form while in race two it was World Superbike rookie Max Neukirchner who thrilled everyone on the way to his maiden podium.

The European leg of the series started at Valencia, Spain but still looked the same as Phillip Island with Corser again dominating and bringing home the double. Vermeulen made another step forward to bring home two second place finishes while the final step was again split. Kagayama continued his string of podium appearances in race one while a rapidly improving Walker took the spot in the final race of the weekend.

From Spain, the WSBK circuit moved to Monza Italy and the home of Ducati. As a result, the Xerox Ducati riders seemed to find a little extra. Still, it wasn’t enough to stop Corser who one race one, his fifth straight win, again followed home by his teammate. However, it was James Toseland on his Ducati who rounded out the rostrum in race one. Race two was a complete reshuffle with Vermeulen taking his first win of the season. Laconi represented the nearby Bologna based Ducati factory on the podium with a second and Corser was third.

Race five was held at the Silverstone circuit in the UK and for the first time all year a Suzuki didn’t win either race. It was Laconi, building on the momentum from his Monza podium, who won the first race ahead of Corser and Toseland. Race two switched up with Toseland winning over Corser. The final spot in the second race was taken by Noriyuki Haga. Despite the fast times turned in my Yamaha in the pre-season, the R1 riders struggled in the first races of the season but Silverstone seemed to mark the end of their troubles and the start of Haga’s return to competitiveness.

The series then returned to the boot with a mid-summer race at the Misano circuit in San Marino. I guess the Italian air really suits the Ducatis because Regis Laconi turned in a stunning double, winning both races. Vermeulen topped Corser in both races and gained enough points to jump into second in the championship chase.

Next up was the race at Brno in the Czech Republic. After not winning in the past five races, Corser turned in a crushing performance in the first race, running away to a commanding victory. The two Ducatis of Toseland and Laconi continued their strong runs by rounding out the podium. However, Haga made a strong statement in race two by starting slow but then charging forward to lead, and eventually win, the race over Corser. Vermeulen rounded out the rostrom.

A repeat visit to England was on tap for the eighth race of the season, this time to the Brands Hatch circuit. Corser was quick to retaliate, after losing a race at Brno, and did so by winning the first race after a fantastic battle with Haga. In fact, it should have been Haga’s race but his crazed riding shagged his tires and allowed Corser through in the last laps. Laconi finished a distant, and struggling, third. However, Haga learned from the first race and put that knowledge to good use with an authoritative win in the second race. Corser and Vermeulen both turned in strong rides but it was all Haga in race two.

Race nine was held at the Assen circuit in the Netherlands. This is the home circuit of the Ten Kate Honda team and the pressure was on Vermeulen to get focused after an impressive, though inconsistent, start to the season. As it turns out, the young Aussie did just that by doubling both races of the weekend. Toseland, who had struggled at Brands Hatch, came through for a pair of podium finishes with a second in race one and a third in race two. Haga swapped the two spots with Toseland between the two races. However, the real surprise of the weekend was Corser who, for the first time of the season, didn’t finish on the podium and thus broke his string of sixteen straight top three results.

Corser bounced back at the next race at the Lausitzring in German with a third place finish in the first race, being beaten by a dual Vermeulen and Haga. Race two was another barn burner but this time it was Lorenzo Lanzi, standing in for the injured Laconi, who stormed away to victory in race two. Vermeulen and Haga continued their battle but had to settle for second and third, respectively, after Lanzi dominated the race.

Coming into the penultimate race of the season at Imola, Vermeulen needed a double win to mathematically keep the championship alive. The stuck to his plan with another impressive ride and a win in race one but Corser did what he needed to do by finishing second. Haga finished out the top three finishers. Then came the rain and the officials had to cancel the race. This took away the points that Vermeulen desperately needed and thus handed the 2006 World Superbike Championship title to Troy Corser.

The final race of the year, at Magny Cours, was a fascinating race. Vermeulen, determined to show he could have won the title had all the races been run, won the first race. Meanwhile, Kagayama returned to his early season form with a strong second place finish. It was Toseland, also trying to make a point after a dismal season on the Ducati, who rounded out the podium. Race two was another exciting race with Lanzi taking his temporary factory Ducati to his second win. Kagayama again took home second after a great duel with his fellow countryman Haga.

When the points for the season were added up, it was Corser with 433 and the title. Vermeulen was 54 points back with 379. Haga was in third, over one hundred points down on Vermuelen, at 271. Toseland was fouth with 254 while Kagayama was just two points back in fifth sitting on 252 points. The second half of the top ten was headed by Laconi in sixth with 221 points, Walker with 160, Pitt just behind him with 156 and Lanzi just a few more back at 150. Finally, it was Chili who rounded out the top ten with just 131 points.

I think the major stories of the season were:

First up, the strength of the Suzukis. Of the 23 races run, GSXRs won 9 of them. Of the 69 possible podium positions, the Alstare Suzuki teammates carried 26 of them.

Second, from a slightly higher altitude, is that dominance of the four cylinder bikes. Of those same 23 podium positions, the inline fours took 17 of them. Of the 69 podium spots, a stunning 52 of them.

Third, the Pirelli tires continue to lack compared to the Michelin and Dunlops that pr0ceeded them. Lap times in 2005 were similiar to 2004 and still generally slower than 2003. Additionally, the tires were visibily sliding after the first third of each race. While the spec tire does level the playing field and put all the riders on an equal footing, I think the tires are actually holding the riders back and perhaps leveling things too much. Also, when these greasy tires do let go, it generally results in a nasty high side. Removing a competitive advantage is a good thing but decreasing the safety of the racing is another. Pirelli needs to step up to the plate in 2006 with a better tire.

Fourth, you can teach an old dog new tricks. Corser seemed washed up and ready for the retirement home after three years on the dodgy Foggy Petronas FP1 but he showed the world that he’s faster now than he’s ever been. His utter domination of the races in 2005 make him a worthy champion to carry the World Superbike #1 plate for a second time.

Finally, I do think that despite being dominated by one of the most experienced riders in the paddock, the series still showed a lot of hope for the future. Clearly Vermeulen backed up his incredible 2004 year with a second season of contending for the title. Likewise, it is hard to ignore the two wins by the young Lanzi as a sign that he will play a big role in the future of the series. Kagayama looked like a championship threat at the beginning of the season but faded in the middle before returning to form with strong finishes at the end. He is clearly someone who will help shape the future of the sport. Finally, Neukirchner’s initial podium pegged him as a future star but his five DNFs during the season show that he still has plenty to learn.

Alright, with the series review out of the way, let me take a second to rate my own predictions. As I mentioned at the top of this article, I did a posting before the 2005 season where I ranked each rider. I had some misses but I also had a few direct hits.

I forecast that Laconi would win the championship. Survey says “Baamp". However, I also said that if he didn’t win he would be out at Ducati and perhaps the series. He did get shown the door out of Bologna and nearly missed riding in ‘06 altogether until PSG-1 Kawasaki came up with a third bike.

I also predicted that Vermeulen would be the biggest threat for the championship. I hit the bulls-eye there, though it was Corser he challenged rather than Laconi.

As for Corser, I said that I thought he and Alstare would struggle getting the GSXR into WSBK trim. Oh, could I be more wrong. He not only booted the Ducati guys off the podium, as I’d hope, he nearly locked them out of the top step.

I won’t bother going through them all but I think I did a pretty decent job with my predictions. I certainly think I had a greater than 50% success ratio. I’ll do a similar preview for WSBK in a couple of weeks and then rate myself again at the end of the season to see how I do.

Alright, well, the 2005 season was a fantastic one for World Superbike. In fact, the return of the Japanese factories, even if it is only with back door help to their support teams, so completely reversed the previous trend of the grid being dominated by Ducatis that ‘05 may have been the most important season ever in the series history. With experienced big name riders like Corser, Laconi, and Chili being joined by ex-MotoGP guys in 2006 the competition will only improve. Then add in the young bucks like Lanzi, Neukirchner, Pitt, Muggeridge and Kagayama who are trying to dethrone the elders of the sport and you have a whole other level of excitement. 2005 was great and I expect even more to come in 2006. Tune in and enjoy!

[image from the Suzuki web site.]

Somehow, I always seem to get myself in over my head. A little over a year ago, I had a little too much time on my hands and decided to start a blog. It then proceeded to swallow my life for much of 2005.

Then, over the recent three day Martin Luther King, Jr Memorial holiday weekend, I again had a little extra time on my hands and thought “Hey, I should do a podcast". Well, the last three weeks have been a virtual haze of audio recording software, computer speakers, jumbled note pads and late nights talking into a microphone. I’m now convinced that I’ve finally gone completely over the edge and that I should be shot for starting a podcast. Nonetheless, sometime after midnight Tuesday morning the WSBKPod podcast was born.

With this podcast, which I hope to put out weekly (if not weakly) I will be covering the World Superbike series. I’ll be covering the pre-season tests, doing race results, talking about the riders and passing along rumors that I read and hear throughout the year. Why did I pick the World Superbike series you might ask? Well, there is already a podcast dedicated to the MotoGP series so that was unavailable. Additionally, there is another podcast which touches on the AMA Superbike series and a third podcast which focuses on privateers racing in America. Thus my choice was primarily me attempting to fill a vacuum. Nonetheless, the 2006 World Superbike season looks to be the best it has ever been so I think it will be a great series to cover.

I’ll admit up front that there will be a bit of overlap between some of my blog postings and what I put into the podcast. However, I will do everything I can to keep the two unique. I will also admit that the first episode of the WSBKPod podcast is a bit dry. I had a lot to learn in a short amount of time (not to mention getting over the mental discomfort of knowing I was being recorded while I spoke) As a result, I wrote up a script and the process of reading it dulled down a lot of the passion I wanted to inject. I’ll try to improve on this in the future, especially as I become more proficient with the software and more comfortable talking into microphone.

If you like podcasts, please give it a listen. I’m open to hearing whatever comments, suggestions, and complaints you might have so that I can work on improving this as the project progresses.

[image from my photo collection.]

So I, like most of the official motorcycle press, spent a lot of time last year heralding the new guys that were joining the sport of bike racing. Guys like James Stewart, Ben Spies, Max Neukirchner, and Marco Melandri got more than their fair share of bits and bytes at the beginning of the season. However, as it turns out, 2005 was a good year to be one of the old folks. Despite many current racers being considered near retirement age, the old guys generally stuck it to the youngsters last year. What is really amazing is that this trend was pretty consistent across all disciplines of motorcycle racing.

First off, the sports of Supercross and Motocross have always been considered a young man’s sport. They are two of the most physically intensive sports in the world and the combination of jumps, ruts and crashes can exact a harsh toll on the body. The top news story at the beginning of the 2005 AMA Supercross season was the 19 year old sensation James Stewart. However, at the end of the season, it was the seasoned veteran Ricky Carmichael, at 25 years old, who swept both premier AMA Supercross and Motocross classes. In SX, 23 year old Chad Reed was second overall but the runner-up in the outdoor series was Kevin Windham who is two years older than Carmichael. Impressive stuff for guys on the second half of their twenties but the real surprises are found just a little further down the championship points listing.

As I pointed out in a blog posting last season, old timer Mike Larocco embarrassed most of the factory teams by bringing his privateer Honda home in 5th place in championship. Not bad for a then 33 year old. Even 34 year old Jeremy McGrath turned in some strong riders in his one-off appearances in ‘05, showing that the King of Supercross can still teach the youngsters a thing or two.

Want to really blow your mind? Take a look at the AMA Motocross points table for 2005. Despite competing in the most physically demanding form of dirt bike racing, 40 year old John Dowd managed to snag 7th overall in the AMA Motocross division aboard his privateer Suzuki! This guy was born in 1965, turned pro in 1988 and was the 1998 West Coast 125cc Supercross Championship…the year Dowd start racing in the Pro ranks James Bubba Stewart was two years old and Chad Reed had just turned six. For a little perspective, remember that Reed finished the ‘05 season in 8th, 15 points *behind* Dowd, while Stewart finished up in 12th a staggering 135 points down on the vet. Lets all say it together now…"JD is the man!”

Alright, so the more experienced riders did well in the premier class. Surely the young guys made their mark in the entry level 125 classes. I mean, there has to be a whole hoard of teenagers out there just waiting for their chance to race with the twenty-somethings, right? Well, sorry to disappoint but the stats don’t bare that out either. The 125 champs, Grant Langton (1st in 125 SX East and 4th in 125 MX) and Ivan Tedesco (1st in SX West and 1st in 125 MX), are both already in their twenties. Langston was 23 last year and and Tedesco a year older. Not exactly ready to hand up their riding boots but not representative of a youth movement either.

Fortunately, things in the dirt world aren’t totally bleak. James Stewart looks to have turned around a miserable ‘05 and is riding strong this year and starting to live up to the hype. The teenage Alessi brothers seemed to have knocked the edge off their egos and are steadily improving as riders. Ryan Sipes, who had some strong showings in the 125 class last season, is just barely breaking the twenty mark. The two Ryans, Villopoto and Mills, are still in their teens and both are riding well so far in this year’s Supercross Lites class. Hopefully these are the guys that can step it up and run with the grey hairs. Frankly, I think they will have to if they want to justify their getting a factory ride in the year couple of years.

Okay, lets shift gears now and look at my personal favorite: Road racing. Its generally understood that road racing is an environment where older and more experienced riders can be competitive against the young up-and-comers. Still, the stats for 2005 have to be a little disappointing for the folks that are looking to the younger generation for the next big thing. Of the four championships crowned in the AMA series, three of them went to riders who are in their thirties. Matt Mladin won his *sixth* AMA Superbike title while at the same time celebrating birthday number 33. His 32 year old teammate Aaron Yates topped the ultra-competitive Superstock class to put a third championship trophy on his mantle. Miguel Duhamel, the elder statesman of the AMA series, brought home his seventh AMA title by winning the Formula Xtreme class despite being just a couple years shy of forty. Even Tommy Hayden, the relative spring chicken of the 2005 AMA champions, isn’t exactly representing the youth movement since he was 27 when he sewed up his second straight AMA Supersport title. This trend towards old riders is generally true across the entire AMA Superbike paddock with only a handful of riders under the drinking age and all of them eligible to vote.

Okay, lets look a little further afield. 2005 World Superbike Champ Troy Corser was 34 when he lofted the title trophy last summer. In fact, the WSBK paddock has more riders over the age of 25 than they have riders under that age and the series appear to be skewing their average even higher in 2006 with ex-GP castaways like Alex Barros, Troy Bayliss and Max Biaggi rumored to be racing there. It is nearing the point where WSBK teams should drop sponsorship from youth oriented companies like Corona or Koji and switch over to old foggie brands like Geritol and Metamucil.

Alright, since I mentioned the topic of MotoGP up there I’ll admit that things are looking better in the Grand Prix paddock. While seven time World Champ and 2005 title winner Valentino Rossi isn’t exactly a rookie at 26 he’s also a decade years younger than some of his competitors were in ‘05. Things really start to look up when checking the stats of second place Marco Melandri (23) and third place Nicky Hayden (24). The outlook is even brighter when checking the age of the new comers to MotoGP for ‘06 as Dani Pedrosa, Casey Stoner and Chris Vermeulen are all under 25. Finally, things are downright heartening in the 250 and 125 classes were the average age on the podium is regularly under 20.

Alright, how about a couple more quick examples of how old age and experience is overcoming the exuberance of youth? In the world of AMA Flat track racing, it has been Chris Carr who has dominated for the past half decade. The younger riders in series look up to him as a mentor and, at 37, its a good thing they do because he is old enough to be their father.

Finally, as a sign of respect, I’ve saved the oldest for last. Logic would dictate that a rider that is 44 years of age shouldn’t be able to win at anything in competitive motorcycle racing. Yet the legendary Jeff Ward did just that in 2004 by tying up the premier class in the AMA Supermoto series and it was only a stalled bike in the final round that prevented him from winning it in 2005 as well. In fact, the past three seasons have netted Ward one Supermoto championship and two second place finishes…not bad for a guy who won seven AMA Motocross championships in the 80s.

I want to see the various forms of motorcycle racing grow and thus I’m always looking at the young guys to see who will be the next big thing. However, for 2006, I have to say “Viva la Veterans!".

[image from the Motocross.com web site.]

So, it has been over a month since I posted my last entry. I guess I took a longer break than I’d anticipated after hitting the one year milestone on the blog. Well, all that time off hasn’t been completely wasted though it will take awhile for the full impact the break to actually bear any fruit here. On a more personal note, I also used that time off to take a relaxing holiday vacation to Savannah, GA, to catch up on some other aspects of my website that needed attending, to make a small dent in the large stack of books that had built up on my night stand and to watch quite a few movies that had been on my “must see” list. I’m now recharged and very excited about resuming the blog here in the new year. I hope all the readers had a good holiday and that you are excited about the upcoming year of motorcycling. Now, on to one of the backlog of topics I’ve been wanting to write up…

When the MotoGP class introduced 990cc four strokes in 2002 (after having been dominated by 500cc two strokes since 1975) it brought Grand Prix bikes to a new level of performance. It also opened the door for speculation that the racers of four stroke production based Superbikes could be the future stars of MotoGP rather than the two stroke 250cc GP riders which made up the traditional training ground of world champs. The most logical feeder series for MotoGP was seen to be the World Superbike series and by 2003 two of the biggest stars of World Superbike were sitting astride MotoGP bikes: Colin Edwards and Troy Bayliss .

However, a funny thing happened on the way to the 2003 MotoGP championship…the old guard continued to dominate aboard the new four strokes. Rossi won the title in ‘03 with Gibernau and Biaggi rounding out the top three. Young American Superbike champ Nicky Hayden was the top guy with previous production bike experience finishing out his freshman year in fifth just behind Loris Capirossi.

Despite other Superbike pilots like Neil Hodgson, Noriyuki Haga, John Hopkins, Ruben Xaus, Shane Byrne, James Ellison and Kurtis Roberts all giving the MotoGP bikes a go over the past few years, none have had much success against the more experienced Grand Prix racers in general and Valentino Rossi in particular. For 2005 there appear to be only two riders on the MotoGP who came up through the World Superbike ranks: Colin Edwards and Chris Vermeulen.

In contrast, half of the riders currently confirmed for the ‘06 World Superbike season have prior Grand Prix experience: Norick Abe, Alex Barros, Franco Battaini, Troy Bayliss, Max Biaggi, Pier Francesco Chili, Troy Corser, Michel Fabrizio, Noriyuki Haga, Regis Laconi, Fonzi Nieto, Andrew Pitt, Roberto Rolfo, Chris Walker and Ruben Xaus. Of these riders, eight are guys who came up through the GP ranks (Abe, Barros, Battaini, Biaggi, Chili, Laconi, Nieto, Rolfo) before moving into World Superbikes. This leads to the question of which is really the feeder series for which?

Granted, most of the riders moving from MotoGP to World Superbike are generally regarded as being in the twilight of their careers but that doesn’t make the depth of the field any shallower. In fact, given the number of riders over the age of 30 who have won titles in the past few years the whole idea that someone is beyond winning at age 35 is being seriously challenged. The MotoGP series is banking on younger riders, primarily those from the 250cc class, to carry their torch into the future and of the current MotoGP riders only six have previous world championships (Rossi, Edwards, Pedrosa, Melandri, Vermeulen, Capirossi). World Superbike, on the other hand, seems to have built a hugely competitive roster made up primarily of experienced riders of which ten have prior world championships (Corser, Bayliss, Biaggi, Iannuzzo, Foret, Gimbert, Fabrizio, Muggeridge, Alfonsi and Pitt). Clearly World Superbike holds the edge when it comes to bragging rights about their riders.

Now, I don’t think that any current rider would pass over a decent MotoGP ride for a World Superbike ride but I do think that the World Superbike series has taken a huge step forward in the past year towards becoming the premier world class motorcycle road race series. Depending on what happens with riders and teams in ‘07 when MotoGP switches to the 800cc bikes (and costs again take a big jump) there is still a chance for World Superbikes to surpass MotoGP in power, popularity and perhaps even prestige. In the meantime, MotoGP needs to hope some of their young riders can finally beat Valentino Rossi so they will deserve the reputation afforded GP racers.

[image from the Max Biaggi web site.]

Periodically this year I have done blog entries tracking the progress of American Nicky Wimbauer’s season in the World 600 Superstock series (which is a support class for the World Superbike series. Well, it has been a couple of weeks since the last World Superbike race of the season so it is time to give a final update on how Nicky did over the course of the season.

First, his ‘05 results:

Valencia - 8th
Monza - 23th
Silverstone - 13th
Misano - 12th
Brno - 14th
Brands Hatch - 6th
Assen - DNF (crash)
Lausitz - DNF (crash)
Imola - DNS (blown motor)
Magny-Cours - 14th

Final position in 2005 World 600 Superstock championship: 15th

Now I’m sure that fifteenth wasn’t what Nicky hoped for when he started the year but I think it is a quite respectible finish. This was his first full season racing at the world level which means he was going to have to learn the tracks, deal with all the difficulties of travel and fast track his skill improvements to be able to race at that level. He had the advantage of racing for the Moto 1 team which is a very professional privateer outfit running with factory support from Suzuki but the disadvantage of never having raced any of the European riders before while many of them had been racing against each other in their national series for years.

For a little perspective on that 15th place finish keep in mind that there were a total of 37 riders from 11 different countries who scored points during the ten rounds of the ‘05 season. Unlike the 600 Supersport series which has been dominated by Honda the past few years the level of parity among the bikes in 600 STK is amazing. All four of the Japanese manufacturers were represented in the top five positions of the 600 Superstock championship. The series was lead primarily by two riders: Italian Claudio Corti on a Yamaha and Frenchman Yoann Tiberio on a Honda. Only eight points separated the two riders at the end of the season, so it was a thrilling championship to watch.

…but back to the point of this article. Nicky Wimbauer went into the season with high hopes. In the end, I doubt he is happy with his performance but as a somewhat neutral outsider I think that he did well. He was consistent with top fifteen finishes in ever race were he wasn’t taken out by another rider or didn’t have mechanical problems. He learned all the tracks and was able to improve his lap times over the course of each weekend. He showed everyone that he was a responsible rider with talent and an desire to win.

With all that said, I think Nicky now has to focus on what to improve next. I’ll be the first to admit that luck plays a big part in racing but I also think a rider sometime has to made his own luck. Wimbauer, like Nicky Hayden during the first two years of his MotoGP career, has been struggling with qualifying. There is a huge amount of pressure when racing against the clock. The mental and physical effort required to turn a single fast lap during a qualifying sessions is intense. Still, three of Nicky’s DNFs have been because of first turn incidents where he has been taken out by another rider. If Nicky can improve his qualifying then he’ll be starting further up the grid and thus lessening the chance that a mistake by another rider is going to affect him. Getting knocked down by someone else’s crash is bad luck. Qualifying well enough that you aren’t there to get hit when a crash happens is making your own luck. Job one for next year is to improve in that regard.

It hasn’t been announced yet whether Nicky will have a ride with Moto 1 next year. If not, I hope that some team owner is willing to give him another shot in one of the world roadrace series. He has shown that he is willing to take on challenges head first and that he’s got the raw talent of a champion. I’m confident that he’ll be given another chance to show off those skills some more in ‘06.

Oh and in case you are just checking in, you can read my past postings about Nicky Wimbauer here:

December of ‘04 - pre-season preview

April of ‘05 - First race review

August of ‘05 - mid-season review

[image from the Nicky Wimbauer web site.]

Last weekend at the Magny Cours circuit in France the books were closed on the 2005 World Superbike season. I’ll do a full season review soon but here is my race review.

First of all, while this was the end of the season it was the start of better things for at least two riders: Chris Vermeulen and Lorenzo Lanzi.

Race 1: the Chris Vermeulen story. With rain at Imola ending any chance that the Australian had of bringing the World Superbike title to Honda this year the only thing left for the youngster to do was to win races. With the news out that Chris would be racing the last three MotoGP rounds in place of the injured Troy Bayliss it wasn’t really like he needed to impress anyone but that was clearly his goal at Magny Cours. Vermeulen absolutely destroyed all comers in Superpole to turn in a time nearly half a second faster than anyone else. When race time rolled around he did a repeat of that crushing performance. When the light went green in race one he simply checked out on everyone else. Suzuki mounted Kagayama ran fast enough trying to catch the Ten Kate Honda that he pulled away from the battle for third but was never a threat to Vermeulen out front. Therefore the focus of the race shifted back to a stellar fight between Toseland and Muggeridge. For the Ducati mounted Englishman it was an effort to convince the Italian company that he should be on their payroll in ‘06. For the Honda mounted Aussie, it was simply a chance to show everyone he is as talented as his spotlight grabbing teammate. Both proved their points but it was Toseland that made the last of the close passes shared by the two riders but even then the final outcome wasn’t clear until the last corner. Corser brought his Suzuki home in fifth, not exactly what he was looking for after claiming at Imola that he would win again at the final round to prove his championship wasn’t a fluke.

Race 2: the Lorenzo Lanzi story: In qualifying before the race, it was the up and coming Ducati star Lanzi who had been the fastest man on the circuit. He couldn’t quite match that performance in superpole but still found himself second on the grid. In race one, Lanzi had tire problems which held him back for an eventual ninth place finish. Race number two is actually two stories. The first, which only lasted to the first corner, is less about any particular rider and more about how dangerous motorcycle racing can be. When the lights went green the entire field stormed into turn one at around 90 miles per hour in third gear. Muggeridge had some sort of problem which sent him careening into the back of Pitt. This started a chain reaction that also took down Bussei, Martin and the French wildcard Da Costa. Muggeridge and Bussei were both transported with injuries. Pitt and Da Costa limped back to their pits and their backup bikes for the restart. Martin didn’t have a spare Foggy bike and was thus done for the day. The story of the second start was all Lanzi. In order to make up for his heartbreaking result in the first race, after building such high hopes in qualifying, Lanzi came out for the race two restart on a mission. Vermeulen got the holeshot at the light and actually pulled nearly a second gap over the rest of the field. Lanzi, however, was not to be denied. He used his factory Ducati motor loaned to his Caracchi team to its full potential and turned in a new lap record to close the gap back down. Lanzi’s speed also allowed him to pull away from the trailing scrap between Kagayama and Haga. They, in turn, pulled a gap over an equally fierce fight between Brits Toseland and Walker. After Lanzi closed the gap up front he seemed content to follow Vermeulen and look for a chance to strike near the end of the race. That opportunity was gifted to the Italian sooner than expected when the lead Honda’s chain jumped the sprocket on lap 18 and ended Vermeulen’s day. Lanzi, who now had a huge lead, maintained his pace and took his second win of the season. As the race wore on, Yagayama was able to break Haga to end the most spectacular tussle on the track and thus to secure a second place result. Haga held on for the final podium spot in third. ‘05 Superbike title holder Corser found some late race speed to pass the two Englishmen and nab a fourth place finish. The intra-country competition between Toseland and Walker was eventually won by the injured Kawasaki rider despite a spirited defense by the Ducati mounted ex-champ. Walker deserves that fifth place more than anyone given the amazing ride he put in despite still recovering from a broken elbow.

So it is the end of the year for Superbikes. As I said at the start of this article this weekend also marked two beginnings. For Vermeulen, this starts his internship in MotoGP as he will spend the couple of months racing the Camel Honda as a replacement for Bayliss. He’ll be racing at home in Australia this coming weekend, then at a track in Turkey that is new for all the riders and finally the season closer at Valencia. If Vermeulen can put in respectible performances aboard the RC211V then he will be assured of a MotoGP ride in ‘06. Its hard to get a better new beginning than that. For Lanzi, his win at Magny Cours has assuredly locked up his ‘06 ride on the factory Ducati. Having an Italian rider aboard the Italian bike is always a dream of both the company and it’s fans. Lanzi has put in some spectacular rides this season aboard a privateer Ducati and seemed to naturally fall into this position once Laconi was injured. His results speak for themselves in that regard. Whether the 999 can be competitive near year against the in-line fours is yet to be seen but they have a rider who is certain to add excitement to the series in 2006.

Congrats to both of these young riders for having such a strong finish for the season and best of luck to them as they take the next step in their respective careers.

[image from the motoring.co.za web site.]

This weekend the World Superbike paddock bids “Adieu” to another season. The closer is again the magnificent Magny Cours Circuit in France. The track is built to European Formula 1 car specs but is still a fantastic motorcycle racing venue. So much so, in fact, that the annual Bol D’Or 24 hour endurance motorcycle race was moved to the track from its original home at Paul Ricard. Unlike America, where endurance racing is barely a blip on the screen of even die hard motorcycle racing enthusiasts, the Bol D’Or is hugely popular in France and thus it says a lot that Magny Cours hosts the event.

The 2.74 mile long track has a bit of everything. Like most F1 tracks, there are chicanes and hairpin turns which slow the bikes down to first gear. There are a few of these which stand out. First is the Adelaide Hairpin about halfway through a lap where the bikes have to turn back practically 180 degrees. The second is the Imola Chicane where the bikes have to transition from right to left while very near top speed. This then leads into the third slow section which is the Chateau d’Eau Hairpin. Put all of these together than the bikes will have to run relatively stiff front end to deal with all the braking forces. Technically, the track is listed as having 14 turns but there are large number of little kinks around the tracks so that count is a bit deceiving. These same slight bends are what give the track a completely different character than the tight turns might initially indicate. The first quarter of the track from the time the bikes leave Estoril all the way through Golf corner and into the Adelaide hairpin is a long sweeping right hand turn. The front forks which have been set up to deal with major braking will now be too stiff for the fast sweeping corners. For the riders, it means finding a compromise on suspension and, in turn, deciding which part of the track they will be fast on and which they will sacrifice. It should be very interesting to watch the splits to see which riders made which choice.

In addition to the excellent track facilities there will also be the bike crazed French fans on hand. As with any home race, expect the native riders to put in noticable performances. In France, that means Regis Laconi and Sebastian Gimbert. Laconi is still recovering from his tendon injury and was visibly slowed by it last weekend at Imola. Only time will tell whether the energy from the French fans will help him over come his pain. Gimbert actually has two things going for him. First, is the fact that he is racing on home soil. Second is the fact that the former endurance champ probably has more laps around Magny Cours that any living motorcycle racer. Last year, Gimbert really showed his stuff at Magny Cours so keep an eye on him to do the same. Finally, another endurance racing star will be on hand, in this case it is David Checa who is making another wildcard appearance for Yamaha. Like Gimbert, Checa knows the circuit better than most since the Spanish rider has been racing in the World Endurance series for the past few years, so expect him to be further up the order that wildcards generally appear.

Still, the favorites this weekend have to again be Troy Corser and Chris Vermeulen. The two riders have been the class of the field over the past three or four weekends and I suspect they will continue that at Magny Cours. Both riders have something to prove: Corser wants to show that he was just playing conservative over the last few races and not that he was out classed by his Honda rival. Vermeulen, on the other hand, wants to show that he is the best rider on the track and that it was only bike problems early in the season that allowed his Suzuki counterpart to build up the insurmountable points lead.

There are a lot of riders that are still out trying to get rides for next season. James Toseland probably tops the list, although it isn’t clear whether this teammate Laconi is signed for ‘06 either. Likewise, Kagayama will be out to show that he deserves to be back in WSBK next year as his season as been inconclusive with early season success followed by a mid season slump. Most of the Yamaha riders are still looking for a job and riders like Pitt and Abe could go either way at this point. Both need to show they can do better than struggle for top ten finishes.

Also on the list of riders that will be hoping to end the season strong is the long list of guys joining Laconi on the injured reserve list. Ben Bostrom is still recovering from a back injury and if anybody needs a decent result to close out the season its Benny. The Kawasaki squad of Chris Walker and Mauro Sanchini are still recovering from elbow injuries so they will again have Fonsi Nieto on board as a wildcard in France. Gary McCoy is still out but Foggy has brought in test rider Andi Notman to ride the second Petronas bike.

Looks like the racing this weekend will make for a great way to close out the season.

[image from the eTracks web site.]

A storm has been brewing in the World Superbike over the three rounds as Ten Kate Honda’s Chris Vermeulen has been winning races and clawing back championship points in the battle against leader Troy Corser. With the World Superbike series winding down to just two weekends remaining the recent races at Imola where a watershed moment.

Coming into the race the pressure was on Vermeulen as he trailed Corser by 60 points at the start of the weekend. However, Vermeulen was looking good having won three off the last four races and coming in second behind Lanzi in the race he didn’t win. This streak meant he had been consistently out scoring his rival countryman and slowly closing the points gap. If Vermuelen could add to his string of victories at Imola then he could keep his title hopes alive until the final round at Magny Cours.

As early as the first practice it was obvious that both Australian riders came to Italy prepared to do what needed to be done. Both were among the fastest riders in the first practice and both were one-two in the first qualifying session with Corser holding a slim tenth of a second advantage in lap times when the sticky tires were mounted up. The two riders were again quick in the second qualifying round, again separated by little more than a tenth of a second, although Corser’s teammate Kagayama split the two for second on the provisional grid. When superpole rolled around Chris did what he had to do and turned in the fastest lap seen all weekend with a blistering 1:48.075 lap time. Corser ended up a half second back in third, the two kept apart on the grid by Ducati’s Regis Laconi. The second Ducati of James Toseland finished off the front row.

Speaking of the two Ducati riders, this is a good time to give a brief review of the state of the Superbike grid. Having both of the Ducs on the front row is amazing and a testament to how hard their riders were pushing to impress the team bosses with them racing so close to Bologna. Laconi was back for his first time on the bike after his Assen accident that damaged a tendon in his arm. Toseland, likewise, was racing injured having bruised his hand in a practice crash on Friday. Lanzi ended qualifying at the front of the second row on his loaner factory Ducati meaning all three factory bikes were in the top five. Given Ducati’s history at Imola this surely had the Italian bosses worked into a frenzy. Things weren’t quite so rosy over at Kawasaki where injured riders Walker and Sanchini were both recovering from broken elbows. Kawasaki brought in newly unemployeed Fonsi Nieto to ride a third bike but given his performance for Yamaha earlier in the season this didn’t necessarily look to improve their the green team’s chances. I’m sure there were long faces in the Kawasaki garages all weekend but this was especially so after qualifying where Walker was mired back in 16th with his two teammates further down the grid behind him. Another rider that was riding injured was Ben Bostrom who was flung off his Honda during qualifying. No major injuries but a general battering that wasn’t going to do him any favors. Missing completely from the grid was Foggy Petronas’ McCoy who was out with a broken coccyx. The Aussie is likely out for the remainder of the season.

The injury list aside there were a few other surprises when qualifying was over. The second row, as I’ve already mentioned, was headed by Lanzi followed by Haga, Kagayama and then the bombshell of Bostrom who turned in the eighth fastest time despite his aches and pains. Given how poorly he’s qualified for most of this year, maybe he needs to start highsiding during practice on a more frequent basis as it seems to actually improve his results. Another surprise was Frankie Chili who was down in 14th on the grid. He has been running closer to the front that than all season and I thought he would get caught up in the spirit of racing in front of his home crowd as he usually does at Monza. Just racing in Italy is usually good for a front row start for the Honda rider but apparently that wasn’t the case this weekend.

With the dark clouds gathering, both figuratively and literally, the riders lined up for race one. Before things could get started the clouds opened up with a brief shower that drenched the track. The marshalls decided to give all the riders a brief wet weather practice and then get things started under “wet race” rules. With the track damp but drying, most of the riders went with slicks but Vermeulen took a big gamble to go with an intermediate front. This meant he should have more confidence in the early laps but would risk destroying the tire should the track dry up during the race.

When the green lights came on it was Corser who made the leap off the line to the front of the pack with Vermeulen a close second. Half way through the first lap Chris put the grooved tire to good use to make the pass on Troy. Even as early as the first lap the wet conditions started to cause problems for riders. Chili and Silva crashed out immediately and Muggeridge retired with mechanical problems after overheating his clutch trying to get the slicks to hook up on the wet start. Within a few laps others would join the crashers with Abe, Kagayama, Lanzi and Pitt all dropping their bikes due to the wet surface. Pitt and Kagayama were both able to restart but both were outside the points by the time they returned to the track.

The race quickly broke into three main battles. Up front, the two championship leaders were stuck tight together with Vermeulen holding the tire advantage but Corser clearly with the horse power needed to force a pass despite his more tentative corner entries. A few seconds back was another dog fight, this one between Toseland and Haga. The third group, a few seconds even further behind, was a scrap between Walker, Martin, Neukirchner and Gimbert. In all three groups, passes were frequent but the most spectacular racing was between Haga and Toseland. Neither was willing to let the other lead and both were making risky passes given the mixed track conditions. Despite their antics, the battle for second place started to make up ground on the lead pair which made it look as if the fight for victory would boil down to a four bike scrap. However, two events happened almost simultaneously which changed all that. First, Vermeulen made another pass on Corser to retake the lead but then upped the pace to the same lap times being running by the chasing riders. Second, with six laps to go Toseland ran wide and allowed Haga past for third. With Toseland loosing valuable time and Haga stalled in his forward progress, the battle boiled down to just the two men in front.

Once Vermeulen went to the point position Corser seemed content to park on this rear wheel and wait for a last lap pass. This was probably a wise strategy, especially considering that the track had indeed dried up during the course of the race which mean that Vermeulen’s intermediate front tire was busy over-heating with each lap. It also looked as if his rear tire was taking a beating as well since he was drifting the rear each time he tried to get the Honda’s power to the ground. By the last lap, Chris was all over the track but despite his obvious tire problems his lap times weren’t dropping off. To the surprise of everyone, and no one more so that Troy Corser, the Honda rider was able to maintain his lead through the last lap, despite an attempt by Corser for a pass, and to hold on to win the race. This victory allowed him to close another five points on Corser and keep the championship storm rolling into the second race. Haga head on to third and Toseland recovered from his off track mistake to finish fourth. Martin made a last lap pass on the wounded Walker to close out the top five. The rain took its toll with only 16 bikes completing the race despite 34 bikes originally lining up for the start.

Unfortunately, Vermeulen’s dream weekend came to a rapid halt when the real storm intervened. While the riders were preparing for the second race another cloud burst soaked the track and this time it wasn’t likely to dry up. After some of the top riders were given a tour of the circuit in the pace car it was decided that the track was too dangerous to continue the event and the second race was cancelled. While it is always disappointing to have a race cancelled I applaud the race marshalls for making that decision. (This is especially true given how poorly the marshalls handled the rain storm that happened during the World Supersport race earlier in the day!).

With race two cancelled due to the rain, the math worked out that there weren’t enough points available at the upcoming Magny Cours rounds to allow Vermeulen to catch Corser. The sun broke through the proverbial clouds and shown down upon Corser as the cancellation made Troy Corser the 2005 World Superbike champion with a 55 point lead over Vermeulen. This marks the first ever WSBK championship for Suzuki and the second WSBK title for Corser. As I mentioned at the beginning of the season, Corser had a deep desire this year to show that his poor results over the past four seasons while he rode the Petronas were because of the bike he was on and not a lack of talent on his part. He has definitely proved that this year.

I remember watching Troy ride the Fast by Ferraci Ducati in ‘94 enroute to the AMA Superbike championship and knowing he was a spectacular rider. That opinion was reinforced in 1996 when he won the World Superbike title. I think this title shows just how much his talent was wasted in the years between 2002 and 2005. I think Corser could have given both Hodgson and Toseland runs for their money during their respective championships if he’d just had something decent underneath him.

Finally, congratulations to Troy Corser and the Corona Suzuki team for winning the ‘05 Superbike title.

[image from the Alstare Corona Suzuki web site.]

This weekend will be another one that is jammed packed with racing. Since there are a lot of racing I’ll just say a little about each one.

First up, the MotoGP guys return for their second ever race at the Losail circuit in Doha, Qatar. The race is being held on Saturday, in deference to the local Muslim population, which means the bikes, teams and riders have had to get from Malaysia to Qater in just four days to be ready for first practice on Thursday. The 3.36 mile, 16 corner track has a right hand bias with 10 of the turns heading in that direction. Like most of the new tracks built primarily for F1 the track surface is billiard table flat and the asphalt is almost perfectly smooth. In the the only negative thing that can be said about the track, because after all it is in the middle of a freakin’ desert, is that it is hot and sandy. This means that it will again be a race where tires may be the deciding factor. Because the track is so smooth and the circuit is so flowing the bikes can be set up with a relatively soft suspension. This is definitely a good thing because it will help the riders with all important front tire feel which is essential due to the heat and sand. It is especially true in turn 1 were the riders are slowing down from around 200mph for one of the slowest parts of the track. Last year this race was the most dramatic of the season with the now infamous penalty against Rossi’s team for their cleaning his grid position by doing burn-outs with a pit scooter. One of the repercussions of that was the Rossi “curse” which was placed on Gibernau forecasting that the Spainard would never win again. After Sete won at Qatar last year, that prediction has held true. If Gibernau could win at Qatar it would be an amazing turn of events. The favorite going in, other than Rossi, has to be Capirossi who has won two in a row on the resurgent Ducati. Biaggi desperately needs a good race to maintain his spot as #2 in the title chase. Melandri is still riding hurt after his foot injury in Motegi. Hoffman and Bayliss are still out. Jacque is riding the Kawasaki while Byrne is again subbing at Camel Honda. Finally, there should be some more silly season info leaking out this weekend so watch for that news.

Next up is the World Superbike race at Imola. This is the penultimate race for the WSBK series so the riders hoping to claw their way back into the championship points battle better be on the ball at the Santamonica track. Obviously, all eyes will be on the championship battle between Chris Vermeulen and Troy Corser. Both of the Australians will probably be at the forefront all weekend though both have histories of having championship runs fizzle at the end of a season. The other riders to watch at Imola will be the Ducatis. With Bologna only a short hope away, the riders of the Italian equipment will be under a lot of pressure to perform for the bosses. To add to that pressure, the four year history of WSBK coming to Imola shows Ducati have won five of the eight races and that every race has been won by a v-twin. Talk about big expectations! Toseland is probably looking for a job next year and thus needs to impress. Laconi is coming back from injury and needs to settle any lingering doubts among his bosses that he should be their star rider in ‘06. Superstar Lanzi is back with the privateer team but now armed with factory bikes. He’s looking to solidify his position as Laconi’s teammate at the factory next year. The field of honor for this weekend’s event is a historic track with a fantastic layout. The 3.01 mile long track has 16 turns with over half of those being of the left hand variety. Nearly half a lap at Imola is spent at high speed making flip-flop transitions through fast, flowing turns. There are three tight left hand turns and one right hander but otherwise its a high speed circuit. Add in a rough track surface and you have an event where the suspension guys will be earning their money. The always slippery Pirelli tires will get a workout so expect some guys to have tire trouble in the later stages of the first race unless everyone decides to run the hardest thing in the tire truck.

The big finale of the AMA Supermoto series is being held this weekend in Reno and it promises to be a hoot. Both the Supermoto and Supermoto Unlimited classes are yet to crown a champion, though Jeff Ward will almost certainly tie up the former but with double points being paid in the second race there is still a chance for second place Jurgen Kunzel to win the thing. The Unlimited class champ is anyone’s guess as three riders are all bunched within six points of each other: Darryl Atkins, Micky Dymond and Troy Herfoss all have a shot at the title this weekend. Even David Baffeleuf and Robert Loire still have a long shot chance being only 23 and 24 points back respectively. Mark Burkhart has already sewn up the Supermoto Lites championship. The track is a mix of really cool stuff and some pretty boring stuff. The 12 turn, 1 mile track has a small but technical dirt section and a interesting sounding banked turn that goes up onto the side of a building. Sadly, about half of each lap is a point-n-shoot style square going around a city block with three short straights connected by 90 degree right hand turns (why not turn the track around 180 degrees so these turns become left handers and thus give the dirt track guys an advantage?!?). Not exactly the most inspired layout in that sense but with this being in the middle of downtown Reno it is example of the philosophy that Supermoto racing can be set up anywhere. I *love* Supermotos so I suspect the track will prove exciting and the racing will be good. It bad enough that I can’t be there to watch but to add insult to injury OLN isn’t broadcasting the race until mid-November.

Finally, another series is coming to a close this weekend. With fall right around the corner here in Colorado this Sunday marks the season ending race for our local MRA club. As as been the tradition the past few years the final race of the season is being held at Second Creek Raceway out by Denver International Airport. As is typical of the tracks our club races at the place is small. In fact, it is only 1.7 miles in length but with 10 turns crammed into that short space. Despite its size the the layout is actually interesting and it makes for some great racing. Shane Turpin has already tied up the premier Race of the Rockies GTO title but needs to win this weekend to complete a sweep of every race for the season. Likewise, he has already locked up the Race of the Rockies GTU championship as well but a uncharacteristic fourth at Pikes Peak ruined any chance of him sweeping every Race of the Rockies event this year. I’m heading down on Sunday to watch the racing and to catch up with my buddies ‘05 SuperTwins GTO champ Jim Brewer and Modern Vintage GTU points leader Tony Baker.

[image from the Losail Circuit web site.]

Well, another page of my MotoGP calendar needs to be turned over and that means it is time for another of my monthly Odds and Ends “catch up” postings. September has been really busy, especially with both silly season and new bike announcements trickling out, so I’ll have to skip a few things just to keep this post from being too long.

First up, is a news item about newly crowned ‘05 MotoGP champion Valentino Rossi. No matter how talented the guy is on the track his real talent is his ability to constantly keep his name in the news. He has monopolized the headlines for most of September as people focused on what he was already doing in 2005, questioned his 2006 plans and speculated about what he would be doing in 2007. For 2005, he has been winning races but has also now had two controversial accidents. The season opener at Jerez with Sete Gibernau and now one with Marco Melandri at Motegi. I’ve covered all this in my MotoGP blog entries but the overriding message is that Rossi continues to keep people guessing. As for 2006, I covered Rossi’s re-signing with Yamaha in my August Odds and Ends posting so that isn’t new news but who will be sponsoring the Italian superstar’s Yamaha has been the topic of endless speculation. Rossi is currently sponsored at Yamaha by Altadis’ Gauloisis cigarette brand but has apparently asked to be run without tobacco sponsorship on this bike in ‘06. The most likely reason for this, other than a possible dislike of tobacco companies, is that he is still flirting with racing a Ferrari F1 car in the near future. The best way to avoid problems with Philip Morris, the long time sponsor of Ferrari, is to make sure he has no contractual obligations to a competing tobacco company. What colors Rossi will be running next year is yet to be decided but the rumors continue to pop up on motorcycle racing news sites. Finally, there is the constant speculation about Vale becoming a F1 driver in ‘07. Again, the flurry of rumors continued all through September. First, Ferrari sent out a press releases claiming Rossi was basically signed as a test rider in 2006 then Rossi responded with a harsh public statement saying no such thing had been signed and finally Ferrari sent out another message which back pedalled considerably from their earlier claims. Presumably Valentino’s manager has been frantically fielding phone calls from Yamaha, Ferrari, Altadis and Philip Morris all month long and I suspect the actual situation probably isn’t clear to any one of these people yet. All the while, Rossi’s popularity is growing ever stronger and his name is showing up in news reports the world over. We’ll see if October brings any answers…

The rest of silly season has been so completely dwarfed by the Rossi story that very little has made the news. It seems that most of the 2005 championship winners (or likely championship winners when you look at the two international series) are already tied up for 2006. In the AMA series, Mladin (Suzuki), Yates (Suzuki), Duhamel (Honda) and Hayden (Kawasaki) are all staying put for at least another year. The biggest news in the AMA paddock has been Eric Bostrom’s move from Ducati to a Supersport/Superstock ride with Yamaha which, in my opinion, seems like a waste of his talent. The MotoGP silly season has been excruciatingly slow to play out this year and many of the top riders are still unsigned for next year. Leading that list is Sete Gibernau who may be back with Movistar Honda or may be riding for Ducati. Max Biaggi will almost certainly stay with Honda but probably won’t be in Repsol colors. Whether he ends up with the Movistar or Camel team is probably dependent on where Sete ends up. Bayliss and Barros, both teammates at Camel Honda, are unsigned for next year as is Suzuki’s Kenny Roberts Jr. It also appears that Yamaha’s Ruben Xaus, Ducati’s Carlos Checa, Kawasaki’s Alex Hoffman, and all the smaller teams riders like Shane Byrne, James Ellison, Franco Battaini and Roberto Rolfo are without contracts for next season. It seems pretty late in the year for this many teams to be without a signed rider but that may be because the current season still has four races to go. I expect all of these riders to have clarification within the next month. As far as World Superbike goes, it seems certain that Corser will be back with Suzuki next year. However, both Ducati riders, Regis Laconi and James Toseland, appear to be up in the air. Likewise, most of the Yamaha riders (Haga, Pitt, Abe, Gimbert) are still looking for jobs. Honda is rumored to be moving Chris Vermeulen to MotoGP so that opens up a seat at Ten Kate, though presumably his teammate Karl Muggeridge will stay on another year. Who knows what is happening with Kawasaki. Again, I suspect a lot of the WSBK riders will be confirmed in the next month but in the meantime you can always follow who is going where on my silly season web page.

Speaking of the AMA series, a tentative 2006 race schedule has already been announced. Combine this early release of dates for next year with the long term commitment that the AMA Pro Racing board announced earlier this summer for the superbike class rules and you’d almost get the idea that they have been listening to the criticism that has been leveled at them for the past decade. These efforts to get things nailed down early and with more solidity mean that teams can better plan and prepare for the upcoming year. Even better than the AMA’s promptness in this regard is the content of the proposed ‘06 series: As late as February of last year there were only nine circuits listed on the ‘05 schedule while the tentative ‘06 schedule already shows 11. Only three ovals are on the list (Daytona, Fontana and PPIR) while the remaining eight rounds will be at true road race tracks. This year the AMA raced at the same three ovals (and eventually at VIR to make ten rounds) so I’m glad to see that the new addition to the schedule is a venue with a true road race track. Racing at more places that don’t just cram a flat infield into a NASCAR oval will help make the sport safer and will keep the racing more interesting. It is only a baby step but adding one new track is definitely a step in the right direction. Now if only they can find a series sponsor!

Speaking of the new road race track the AMA announcement shows a mid-June date for the inaugural Superbike race at the Miller Motorsports Park near Salt Lake City, Utah in 2006. Even better, this is currently slated to be a doubleheader round so it increases the races on next year’s calendar by *two*. I’m excited about this news for two reasons, the first of which is simply that its close enough that I can actually attend which means I should hit three AMA Superbike races in ‘06: Miller Motorsports Park, PPIR and Laguna. Second, the AMA adding another event in the Rocky Mountain region means that they can now seriously consider dropping PPIR event off the schedule in the future. Its a crappy track for road racing and losing it from the ‘07 AMA schedule wouldn’t be much of a loss. Lets hope the clock has started ticking on how much longer the AMA guys will have to suffer through going round and round the PPIR merry-go-round.

Another bit of exciting AMA Superbike news as the announcement at the Kawasaki dealer show that Team Green would be racing the ZX-10R in Superbike next season with Tommy and Roger Lee Hayden as their riders. This again is great news for the sport because it gets the premier superbike class that much closer to having full participation by all the major manufacturers. Additionally, it puts two of the most talented riders in the series into the top class in the series which again increases the excitement of the racing. Both riders deserve a shot at the top prize in AMA road racing and I’m thrilled to see they are getting their shot. Kudos to Kawasaki for taking up the challenge. Now if only Yamaha was so brave.

Also on the domestic front the AMA Pro Racing board made news this month when they handed down fines to motocross riders Mike Alessi and Matt Walker after the Tedesco/Alessi/Walker incident earlier this month at Glen Helen. At issue was an accident in which Alessi appeared to intentionally take out 125cc championship rival Ivan Tedesco but ended up taking himself down as well. Alessi then stood on Tedesco’s still running bike to prevent him from being able to continue the race. Meanwhile Tedesco’s teammate Walker doubled back on the track to knock Alessi of the Kawasaki so Ivan could get back underway. The AMA decided that because of his actions Alessi needed to take a $5,000 hit to his wallet, as well as a disqualification from the entire Glen Helen round and a 12 month probation. Finally, and perhaps the most painful, is that Alessi is also taken out of the running for the AMA Pro Racing Rookie of the Year award. Walker was deemed to have also acted in a way that negatively affects the sport and was given a $2,500 fine, a disqualification from the second moto at Glen Helen and a was put on probation for next year’s Supercross and Motocross seasons. I have mixed feelings about the reprimand for Walker but I’m thrilled to see Alessi get such a heavy penalty after acting so immature. Bravo to the AMA for taking action on this.

Shifting gears completely, let me mention two completely unrelated things to close out this month’s Odds and Ends.

First, Yamaha did an initial announcement of their new bikes earlier this month and included in that a quick photo of the ‘06 FJR1300 sport touring bike. Then all the info associated with the FJR was removed from their web site which caused all sorts of rumors to start flying around the net. Well, at the Paris Motorcycle Show today the European model FJR was officially announced and the mystery was finally revealed: the 2006 FJR will be released with a semi-automatic transmission. This means it will have a conventional gearbox but will use electronics to handle the shifts without the rider having to use a shift lever. It remains to be announced if this auto tranny will be available on US models or not. This will be the first production street bike since the old Hondamatic and Moto Guzzi Convert to have an automatic transmission so this is pretty big news from a technology stand point. However, as a rider I have zero interest in such a thing as shifting gears is a fundamental part of the motorcycle experience for me.

Finally, I wanted to mention that a new motorcycle movie about New Zealander HJ “Bert” Munro has been released Down Under called The World’s Fastest Indian. I doubt this movie will make it to US theaters but it should eventually be available on DVD some time next year. If you haven’t heard of HJ Munro he build Indian motorcycles in the pre-WWII era as land speed racers. Like John Britten, who came along much later, Munru hand build most of his bike’s parts in a little shed in on the south island of New Zealand and was a real innovator at a time when the application of technology to motorcycles was still at a relatively early stage. His story is a fascinating one to anyone interested in the people who pushed the limits of motorcycles during the infancy of the sport. I think it will make a nice addition to my library of motorcycle movies so I hope the DVD does make it to the US so I can buy a copy. Maybe it will inspire me to finally buy that welder for the garage I’ve been dreaming out…

That’s it for this month. Thanks for reading.

[image from the Drive.com.au web site.]

This past weekend the World Superbike series had its most exciting race to date, which is saying alot considering how fantastic the racing has been so far this year. All this excitement is primarily because of four men, so I am dubbing them the Lords of the ‘Ring. Those four are: Troy Corser, Chris Vermuelen, Noriyuki Haga and Lorenzo Lanzi. What makes this particularly exciting is that these four all represent different manufacturers which shows that WSBK has not only overcome their “Ducati Cup” reputation but they have also become the most competitive motorcycle road racing series in the world. Impressive. As for the riders, their weekend adventure goes like this:

Troy Corser - The Suzuki rider’s job for the weekend was simple. Play it safe, gain some decent points and let the season wind down. So long as Corser finishes in the top five at every race for the remainder of the season, he will win the 2006 World Superbike title. An easy job, right? Well, for race #1 of the weekend it certainly looked that way. Troy got a good start, ran at the front and basically kept fellow Aussie Vermeulen and Japanese ace Haga honest. At the end of the day Troy had a respectable third place finish. His second race started out the same, with another phenomenal start, but went south quickly when he crashed in turn one on the second lap. He got the bike back on track but could only salvage a thirteenth place finish. While any points are useful, he must be disappointed that he crashed while leading when a more conservative approach may have netted him more points. The crash cost him valuable points, something he can’t afford to do against Vermeulen who is on a late season charge that has seen him cut Corser’s points lead in half. I think Corser is so enjoying being on a competitive bike again and being in a position to actually fight for the lead that he can’t restraint himself the amount necessary to just think championship.

Which brings me to Chris Vermeulen - What an amazing kid and what an amazing streak. (Were it not for Colin Edwards memorable 2002 late season charge, I would declare Vermeulen’s current trend to be miraculous.) Chris has won three times in a row, including an amazing race one victory over Haga, to take a big bite out of the points lead that Corser enjoyed before the mid-season break. While it is still a long shot that he will win the title, his impressive riding over the past month should really have the Honda bosses looking for a factory GP ride for the kid or at least build a full factory World Superbike team around him. He slides the bike as comfortably as Haga but doesn’t seem nearly has hard on this tires. He’s been able to deal with pressure from Corser and Haga in recent races without making mistakes and doesn’t seem the least bit intimidated by aggressive riders. He is nearly guaranteed second place in the championship and still has a shot at winning the whole thing. Amazing.

Noriyuki Haga - Yamaha’s Nitro Nori also continues to impress after a first half the season that looked really disappointing. His team has publicly stated that getting a single win for the season was their goal for ‘05 while they developed the bike with only minimal support from the factory. Well, Haga has already won twice for them this year, once at Brno and then again at Brands Hatch, and has been on the podium seven of the last eight races. As I’ve mentioned in all my WSBK reviews so far this season, it is vitally important for the series that the Yamahas become competitive and that definitely appears to be the case. Haga still has some setup work to finish up so that they can get the R1 to run the pace without chewing up tires but he’s able to ride fast and loose, just like he likes it. His recent battles with Vermeulen, Corser and Toseland show that the Samurai of Slide is definitely back.

Lorenzo Lanzi - The Italian was the single biggest story of the weekend. He was called up by the factory Ducati team at the last minute to stand in for the injured Regis Laconi. He then surprised everyone by immediately putting the Xerox Ducati on the pole. In race one he got pushed wide in the first corner and came back in a questionable position. This was clearly against the spirit of the rules as he gained a few spots in the process and was thus called in for a ride-through penalty. Before making his mandatory visit to the pits, he proved a point by moving into the lead. Point made, he took his punishment and then charged back through the pack to an eventual eighth place finish…a performance that certainly raised some eyebrows. It bettered this in race two by staying on track through turn one and then moving forward to lead the race. He had a fight with Haga in the middle portion of the race that made it look like he was a seasoned pro rather than a first year superbike rookie. He then broke away for a convincing victory. Surely we will see the young Italian on a factory bike…probably a Ducati…in 2006.

The Lausitzing ring shows that the season is now at the point where the primary news is focused on the top three and then emerging new talent. There are some amazing riders that are mired outside this spotlight, including reigning world champ James Toseland, early season phenom Yukio Kagayama, elder statesman Frankie Chili, perennial top ten finisher Andrew Pitt and the consistently inconsistent Max Neukirchner. Don’t expect to hear much about these guys until the season wrap-up. The Lords of the Lausitzring were defiintely Corser, Vermeulen, Haga and Lanzi.

[image from the Ducati web site.]

This weekend offers up quite the contrast when it comes to racing motorcycles. At the ultra-modern EuroSpeedway track in Lausitz, Germany the World Superbike regulars will be racing their ultra-modern sport bikes. Meanwhile, at our local Pueblo Motorsports Park in Pueblo, CO the AHRMA guys will be racing their vintage bikes. Both are equally fascinating though they are such completely different experiences to watch.

First, the World Superbike event in Germany… This will be the third to the last race weekend of the series and probably the first chance for Troy Corser to lock up the title (assuming he gained the maximum 50 points by winning both races and Chris Vermeulen failed to gain a single point). This is an unlikely scenario so expect the title fight to continue into the penultimate weekend at Imola in three weeks. For this round, expect Chris Vermeulen to continue to ride hard and expect Corser to continue to balance conservative riding with opportunistic grabbing of points. Regardless of the championship’s status, the track is bound to throw a wrench into many of the riders’ plans. The 2.6 mile long track, placed inside a huge Indy car oval, is a series of fast straights which are tied together with 13 curves many of which are slow first and second gear corners. Things are further complicated by the fact that the relatively narrow track and the tightness of the turns means that passing in very, very difficult. Expect the race to turn into an hour long series of drag races as riders attempt to get their bikes upright exiting turns and try to pull up along side other riders before slamming back down through the gearbox for the next turn. I think that aggressive riders on bikes which accelerate hard from low speed will be the ones to watch. I think this will favor the Suzuki GSXRs, as they seem to have massive power *everywhere* along with riders like Vermeulen, Haga and Toseland who have proven themselves very aggressive over the past few races. Also interesting in that Lorenzo Lanzi will be stepping up from the Scuderia Caracchi privateer Duck to fill in for the injured Regis Laconi. Since Scuderia just fired their other rider, Fonsi Nieto, it will be interesting to see who they have on their bike this weekend.

At the other end of the spectrum are the old bikes, and often old riders, who will be joining the American Historic Racing Motorcycle Association (AHRMA) for their annual visit to the American south-west. In this case, they are visiting Pueblo Motorsports Park which, in my opinion, has the most interesting layout of any of our Colorado area tracks with its 2.2 mile long, 10 turn road race configuration. The track surface isn’t the greatest, something that will be particularly noticeable on the poorly suspended vintage bikes, but at least it has a mix of straight aways, fast turns and slow turns. I find all the AHRMA road racing classes interesting but the one I’d most like to see is the modern Triumph Thruxton Bonneville bikes being raced in the Thruxton Challenge. These nearly identically prepared bikes have all the right look for a race series tied to a vintage organization but have the added benefit of running more reliable engines in more modern chassis. Since this is a spec class, the racing should be close and the winner’s advantage should clearly be in skill rather than machinery. As a final incentive, some of our local MRA racers, including the guys at Foothills BMW/Triumph, where I have my Beemer serviced, will be there. Unfortunately, I’m out of town this weekend and won’t be able to catch the races…definitely my biggest motorcycle racing disappointment of the year.

Old bikes or new bikes, Multi-million dollar international race circuits or modest local tracks, world champs or aging enthusiasts…either way watching motorcycle racing is good stuff.

[image from the 2WF web site.]

“Bip, bomp, bam alakazam
But only when you’re grooving
With the Double Dutch Man
Put on your skates don’t forget your rope
Cause I know I’m gonna see you
At my Double Dutch Show”
– Frankie Smith, Double Dutch Bus

Back in April, during the early rounds of the ‘05 World Superbike series, I did a blog entry about how Aussie rider Troy Corser ruled at Philip Island. Well, there is now another Australian rider ruling at his home track (even though its not down under). I mentioned on Friday that Chris’ Ten Kate Honda team is based in Holland but I didn’t point out that his grand parents are also from Holland. That makes two reasons for Vermeulen to do well at Assen and he backed it up with double wins at a track known as the “Cathedral of Speed".

Not only did Chris win twice at Assen but he did it in two completely different ways. During both practice and qualifying, the Honda rider was incredible turning in laps nearly a second faster than anyone else. In the one lap dash that makes up Superpole he was able to turn a 2:04.179 to earn his first ever pole position. On Friday, I also commented that two riders needed strong rides at Assen, Chris Vermeulen and Regis Laconi. With pole position secured, Chris was doing his part but Regis went the opposite route. The Frenchman got pitched off his Ducati twice on Friday and the second off was a nasty highside which resulted in a damaged arm which ruled him out for the weekend and dashed any hopes he may have had for a top three finish for the season.

In the first race Chris got a good start and quickly moved to the front ahead of Corser, Haga and Toseland. One thing Assen is known for is close racing mainly because the track’s majority of high speed bends allows for a flowing riding style that isn’t interupted by a lot of stopping and accelerating. Apprently no one told Vermeulen that racing at Assen had to be tight because once he got to the front he proceeded to turn in lap after lap that was half a second faster than anyone else. With the Honda disappearing out front, the Yamaha of Haga, the Ducati of Toseland and the Suzuki of Corser started scrapping for the left overs. Corser eventually took an uncharacteristically conservative approach and appeared to concede the podium spots to the mix of bikes ahead of him. That meant the only battle to watch was the Haga-Toseland fight and fortunately it didn’t disappoint. Toseland and Haga traded places at least once a lap, usually with daring passes in the amazingly fast flip-flop bends. Toseland seemed to have the advantage, making the majority of his passes in the final turns before the finish line and this proved to be pivotal. With Vermeulen out front by 3.5 seconds, Toseland was able to make the definitive pass and hold on for second over Haga. Corser came home in forth.

With an easy win from the front under his belt the Ten Kate rider decided to shake things up the second race. He got off to a slower start, ending the first lap in sixth place, but was able to move forward after multi-lap dices with Kagayama, Corser, Pitt and Toseland. Around half-race he finally made the pass for the lead and then spent the majority of the remainder of the race in a titanic struggle with Toseland and Haga. Unlike race one, in the second event Vermeulen couldn’t check out and was hounded by Haga for the last three laps while Toseland slipped back by around a second from the two leaders. On the last lap either rider looked capable of winning but in the first few turns the Aussie made the final pass and then cranked up the speed to hold off his Japanese rival for the remainder of the lap. The margin of victory at the line was only 0.085 second. Toseland came home in third and Corser again rode to a steady forth.

Vermeulen did what he had to do in order to keep his championship hope alive. Chris took back 24 points this weekend, so with three rounds (six races) left to go in the season Corser holds a 86 point lead over his countryman in the title chase. With 25 points available per win, there are still 150 points left in the season, it is unlikely a champ will be crowned this coming weekend at Lausitzring but it also means that Troy would have to have finishes worse than forth (assuming Chris can sweep the rest of the races) before he would jeopardize his championship lead.

While Vermeulen was definitely the big news for the weekend, it wasn’t the only news. Also notable were some events that will impact the rest of the season: As I’ve already mentioned Laconi was out before the race even started with his highside. He will be having surgery this week to repair ligament damage but will likely miss some, if not all, of the remaining races. Then in race one, an accident sent Chris Walker to the hospital with a broken elbow probably taking him out for the year. Race two saw the other PSG-1 Kawasaki rider crash while still recovering from his own broken elbow. Time will tell if he can race in Germany this coming weekend. Finally, Fonsi Nieto won’t be riding his Scuderia Caracchi Ducati any more this season but not because of injury. Instead, he was sacked by the team during the first day of practice because of his poor results this year. Sadly, it appears that Fonsi’s career has continued to self destruct after he came so close to winning the 250GP title in 2002.

This weekend, like the season as a whole, seems to indicate that the Aussies do in fact rule in World Superbike.

[image from the Ten Kate Honda Team web site.]

This weekend servers up a three course meal made up of double shots of production bike racing. First, the World Superbike series lines up for their ninth weekend of a twelve race season in Assen, Holland. Then the AMA boys take a visit down south for their final race of the season with a double header at Road Atlanta. As if four superbike races weren’t enough for one weekend, the local MRA club has their first ever double header weekend at PPIR. Regional, national or international, this Labor Day weekend has you covered.

First up, lets cast our eyes on the International stage. The World Superbike series is entering the final quarter of their season with this weekend’s race at the famous Assen TT Circuit. With Troy Corser on top by 110 points, it seems unlikely anyone will be able to win the title without the Aussie having some sort of problem but since they don’t give out the trophies until the final checkered flag it is still a bit early to declare him the champ. The riders that will have to step it up here at the end of the season to even keep their hopes alive are Honda’s Chris Vermeulen and Ducati’s Regis Laconi. Unfortunately, Laconi threw his Duc down the track in practice this morning and ripped a few holes in his body. At a time when he needs to be at his best, he may be at his worst. I think today’s highside has ended the Frenchman’s ‘05 championship run. So that leaves Australian Vermeulen as the great hope if the Superbike championship battle is to stay exciting for the last four races. Fortunately, his Dutch Ten Kate Honda team are on home ground this weekend which may be enough of an advantage to tip the balance in Chris’ favor. Chris has been consistent over the last three rounds with four podium appearances in six races (two 2nds, two 3rds) but hasn’t won since the second Monza race back in June. He needs to get back to his winning ways this weekend. Haga, on the other hand, has won two of the last four races but with him mired down in fifth in points he is just racing for pride at this point. Vermeulen doesn’t need to crash but he does need to maximize his points. Haga, if he continues with his current form, is going to hamper that goal as he may well take much needed points away from the Honda rider this weekend. As with the MotoGP guys earlier this summer the World Superbike guys are visiting this Assen track for the last time before a major construction project dramatically changes the layout and just like the GP riders the WSBK riders are already bemoaning the changes to the track. Lets hope this weekend’s race is a good one and that it doesn’t end up going down as the last of the great Assen motorcycle races.

Closer to home, the AMA Superbike series has their last race of the year this weekend. What isn’t unusual is that Mat Mladin comes in as the clear favorite to win the championship having won 10 races so far this year. What is unusual is that the now traditional Rd. Atlanta double header is closing out the season where normally it is held earlier in the year. Strangely enough, despite the event being the last on the calendar all four AMA classes come to the Georgia track without a champion in any of them having already been decided. Thus all the races this weekend will be closely watched to see who is crowned but none of them will be more highly anticipated that the two Superbike races. Mladin leads teammate Spies by a scant 21 points after his double wins at VIR last weekend. As with the World Superbike points race, Mladin has the upper hand and only a crash or a bike problem will keep him from earning his 6th AMA Superbike title. However, problems have often found Mat at this track including his spectacular rear tire failure in ‘03 and his nearly running into an ambulance in ‘99. Since Mladin opened his weekend at Road Atlanta by turning laps a second faster than anyone else, the odds are clearly in his favor even considering his infrequent bad luck on the back straight. With the other Yoshimura riders also riding well at Road A, another pair of Suzuki podium sweeps may be likely. This morning, Honda’s Miguel Duhamel and Ducati’s Neil Hodgson were also fast so expect them to be involved in the fight for the final podium spot.

Finally, the MRA is heading down to southern Colorado to knock out a double header weekend at Pikes Peak International Raceway. This will be the seventh and eighth of the ten round season and the points earned this weekend may well lock up the premier Race of the Rockies titles…in practice even if not in points. Shane Turpin has trounced the competition this season having won every RoR GTO race. The only reason he hasn’t already tied up the title is that second in points Dan Turner has been nearly as consistent only failing to finish second on one occasion (when he finished forth). Turpin currently holds a 28 point lead over Turner with Rich Demming a further 14 points behind. Turpin also leads the RoR GTU class with a 31 point lead over Marty Sims and a 45 point lead over Greg Greenwood. It seems nearly certain that Shane will be the double #1 plate holder for the MRA in ‘06. The MRA has 28 different classes so there will be lots of racing this weekend and plenty of excitement for those following the points battles. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m not a big fan of PPIR. However, I do hope people will turn out for the races this weekend, not only because I want to see people support the MRA but I think PPIR deserves a little as well after they supported the Racing 2 Save Lives event earlier this summer.

Alright, so I’ll admit that all the major title chases have lost the majority of their interest. Suzuki seems to be ruling the production bike roost and the points leaders have seemingly insurmountable leads. Still, the racing in all three series is fantastic and the competition seems to be working hard to close the gap on the GSXRs. There may yet be a surprise or two in store for us fans. I plan to spend at least a little of my Labor Day weekend watching racing and hopefully you will too.

[image from the Road Atlanta web site.]

Back In December of last year I did a blog entry about how young Nicky Wmbauer had gotten a gig racing for Moto 1 on a Suzuki GSXR 600 in the World Superstock 600 Championship. I did a followup post in April after the first race at Valencia but haven’t had a chance to give an update since then…now is the time.

So this past weekend Nicky was racing at the Brand’s Hatch circuit. As I mentioned in my preview for the WSBK races at the UK circuit, it is a very tricky track. Fast in places but technical in others. The elevation changes mean getting a good suspension setup is difficult and it is all that much harder on the Superstock 600 bikes like Wimbauer rides since they don’t have the high dollar forks and shocks like the superbikes. Despite these challenges, Nicky scored his best finish of the season…but before I get to the details of that let me give a quick review of what has happened over the first five races of the year.

As I mentioned after the Valencia race, the ex-Colorado based rider scored an excellent eighth place finish at the first race of the season. The second race of the season was at the Monza circuit but didn’t go so well as he was collected in a turn one pile-up. Despite the crash, he returned to the pits to get the bike fixed up and then returned to the track for the track time. While his 23rd place finish doesn’t sound like much, the fact that he had the work ethic to use the rest of race as a learning opportunity speaks volumes about him. Next up was the Silverstone round where he was doing double duty not only racing the Superstock 600 race but also riding as a wild card in the European GSXR-750 cup race. He carded a pair of thirteenth place finishes in the two races. He bettered that by one with a twelfth place finish at the next round in Misano, Italy. The final round before Brands Hatch race was the the complex Brno circuit in the Czech Republic. Wimbauer found the going a bit tougher but still brought home a fourteenth place result.

Prior to Brands Hatch, Nicky seemed to struggle with qualifying. However, this weakness highlighted one of his strengths which is his ability to be aggressive on the track in the heat of battle. In most of these races, he was starting outside the top 15 but has earned finishes inside that range in every race. Clearly he shines when it comes to the actual racing. I think its ultimately easier for a rider to learn how to turn in single fast laps in qualifying than it is to get the skills that come naturally when dicing with other riders. Its good to see that the Suzuki rider is already getting that critical experience. Another thing that impresses me about Wimbauer is his history of getting faster with each lap on the track. If his team’s press releases are to be believed, Nicky is regularly faster on the final laps of a race that he is in the earlier laps. As long as the limit to his speed is his lack of track knowledge, then the chances of him being able to close the gap to the front runners in the class are very good. Finally, the fact that the 17 year old could jump on an unfamiliar bike of larger displacement on an unfamiliar track and still earn a top 15 finish would also indicate that he has not reached the limits of his talent yet.

Alright, so with all this talk out of the way I think that the race at Brands Hatch is the right time to check back in with with Nicky’s Superstock season. First and foremost, Nicky finally put in a top ten qualifying effort allowing him to start the race from the second row in seventh place. Things improved even more once the green flag flew because Nicky was able to run with a group of riders who were all fighting for a top five result. When the checkered flag flew, Wimbauer crossed the line in an fantastic sixth place, 14 seconds down on the winner but racing in a tight pack with the fourth and fifth place finishers. He also turned in the 4th fastest lap of the race while closing the gap on the front runners after being slowed dicing with another rider in the early laps. Impressive stuff.

The final bit of news is that he is now up to 10th place in the championship battle. While he is 109 points behind the leader, he is only 7 points down on sixth place. A top five finish will be tough but isn’t completely beyond his reach. Hopefully his performances for the remainder of the season will continue to improve and that some team manager is ready to move him a rung up the ladder for next season by putting him on a Supersport or Superbike.

[image from the Nicky Wimbauer web site.]

Back in May I did my write up of the Silverstone round of the World Superbike Series by comparing various riders with some famous Winston Churchill quotes. I’ve decided to do something similar for this past weekend’s Brands Hatch round but using J.R.R. Tolkien quotes as the jumping off point.

“From the ashes a fire shall be woken, A light from the shadows shall spring; Renewed shall be blade that was broken: The crownless again shall be king.” - Troy Corser - Alright, so this quote has more to do with the season as a whole than the specific race at Brands Hatch but there is no doubt that Corser personifies the reforged sword. Corser was “The Man” aboard the factory Ducati in the late 90s but then went into the dark years when he signed a four year contract with Fogarty to help develop the Petronas. Now, springing forth from the shadows, the Aussie is again shining brightly. At Brands he fought tooth and nail (and probably needlessly) with Haga in both races. The Yamaha Japanese ace is well back in the points and thus isn’t a threat for the championship but the veteran Suzuki man went for the wins anyway. He looked the faster rider displaying his trademark smoothness while holding enough in reserve to make a last lap pass in both races. The rope-a-dope tactic worked in race one but an uncharacteristic mistake after his masterful pass in race two put him back to second (and nearly into the gravel). The 1-2 finishes extended his points lead in the title fight to an incredible 110. Look for the 1996 champ to be re-crowned at Assen in three weeks.

“All that is gold does not glitter; not all those that wander are lost.” - Noriyuki Haga - So Haga is not taking home championship treasure this season…he is currently fifth in the title hunt and a staggering 177 points down on Corser. However, he has glittered blindingly strong the past two race weekends. The Yamaha team seemed lost for the first half of the season but apparently found their way at Brno. Whatever the equipment change, Noriyuki looked like the “Nitro Nori” of old at Brands. He was on the edge every lap, either a sign of his confidence on the bike or a clear indication that all the R1’s demons haven’t yet been exorcised, with the rear lighting up at each corner exit. This looks like the Haga of 2000 who rode (and at times crashed) his Yamaha into every fan’s consciousness. Haga seemed determined to lead and most of his laps where about a half second faster than nearly everyone else on the track (the exception being the calm, cool and collected Corser). Despite being passed for the lead in both races, and basically being handed the race two win after Troy out-braked himself) Haga looked like the World Superbike superstar he has been for nearly a decade. At one time, Haga was the most popular motorcycle racer in England and his showing this past weekend will have put him on track to regain that title.

“Little by little, one travels far.” - Chris Walker - If Yamaha went from mid-pack to leading races in just one quick Czech weekend, the Kawasaki squad has chipped away at it all season. They started off squarely mid-pack, then moved up among the front runners at Valencia, then faded a bit and have now come on strong again since Brno. How much of this can be credited to the bike and how much to Chris’ riding is debatable but Brands certainly gave some credence to the rider portion of that equation. Walker seemed to be grabbing the ferocious Kwacker by the scruff of the neck and physically forcing it to his will. Perhaps his dual fourth place finishes should earn him a rodeo belt buckle because he rode the ZX like it was an angry bull. Rarely would I say that just missing the podium two times in a row qualifies as a brilliant weekend but Walker did an amazing job to show so well in front of his home crowd. Perhaps he should be given a shot at the evil handling Ducati MotoGP bike (instead of Checa) since it would obviously suit his riding style…

“Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens.” - Chris Vermeulen - The Ten Kate Honda rider has sat second in points for most of the year but a poor qualifying session had him starting both races in eighth. His forth place finish in race one was an excellent job of damage control but was really enhanced by his third in race two. It is debatable whether the Aussie would have had the speed of Haga/Corser in the second race but he was definitely faster than everyone else once he worked his way through the pack. His 4-3 finishes allowed him to keep a faint glimmer of hope alive in the championship race. He may well have to focus on defending against third place Laconi now as much as chase first place Corser…

“It needs more to make a king than a piece of elvish glass, or a rabble such as this.” - Regis Laconi - Ducati continues to pin its hopes on the Frenchman Laconi but it seems that no matter how hard he rides, and he rides very hard, it doesn’t seem that the bike can quite give him what he needs. After his wins at Silverstone and Misano, it looked like Ducati had turned a corner but at Brands they seemed to have taken a step back. Regis’ 3-4 finishes may not seem like a sign of impending doom but watching how hard Laconi had to push just to stay on the tail of the Haga/Corser battle shows that the big v-twin doesn’t have the acceleration, especially off the side of the tire, that the Suzuki and Yamaha could deliver. Ducati’s Superbike weapon has evolved from a bike renowned for its mid-range grunt to a high speed, high rpm rocketship that does best when it can stretch its legs. Fortunately, the flowing Assen circuit may play back into the Duc’s strong points.

“His head was swimming, and he was far from certain even of the direction they had been going in when he had his fall. He guessed as well as he could, and crawled along for a good way, till suddenly his hand met what felt like a tiny ring of cold metal lying on the floor of the tunnel. It was a turning point in his career, but he did not know it.” - Karl Muggeridge - Karl had a mixed weekend, at least on paper, with a sixth in the first event and a crash in the second. However, for a Superbike rookie the sixth was a great finish and the fact that he ran with the front runners for a while in both races shows he’s taken another step forward, perhaps his biggest since his 4-6 finishes at Monza earlier this season. Muggas is proving that Ten Kate was right putting the historically crash prone Aussie on their superbike this year.

“It’s like things are in the world. Hopes fail. An end comes. We have only a little time to wait now.” - James Toseland - Sadly, Toseland only has a little time to wait until he has to relinquish his 2004 superbike crown. Despite some strong rides at Silverstone, Misano and Brno, the Brit’s hopes for a repeat title have definitely diminished. The final blow was having his bike quit in race one leaving him to make a long, sad walk back to the pits. Even in race two, he started strong but then faded back as one by one the other front runners passed him and pulled away. Last season, Toseland constantly showed his optimistic attitude and worked harder and harder to take the title over his star teammate. I hope this season’s misfortunes don’t dampen to much of that spirit as he’s a much better rider than his sixth place in the championship shows.

“The burned hand teaches best.” - Andrew Pitt - For the first races of this season, the best performing Yamaha wasn’t Haga or Abe or Nieto or Cardoso or Gimbert but was instead the quiet Aussie Andrew Pitt. However, the hallmark of his rides was that he would qualify strong, blitz off the line into the leading pack and then hold up the other riders as they slowly worked their way past. When Pitt wasn’t going in reverse, he was tossing the R1 into the gravel. Well, it seems that all this trauma has been a good teacher as Pitt carded 7-6 results at Brands. The one thing he still has to learn would appear to be controlled aggressiveness as Laconi and Walker looked much more assertive in their race two battle with Vermeulen and Toseland than did Pitt. In fact, Pitt looked content to follow for most of the race. Nonetheless, to see Pitt actually make a pass on someone else, as he did to Toseland, shows that he’s still improving.

“Still round the corner there may wait, a new road or a secret gate.” - Lorenzo Lanzi - One rider that deserves more press than he’s gotten thus far is Ducati’s chosen son Lanzi. He started the season on the privateer SC Caracchi Ducati and was finishing mid-pack. Over the past three or four race weekends he has continually improved and has scored six straight top tens, including a pair of eighths this weekend. Don’t be surprised if Lanzi travels a new road aboard a factory Ducati next season. In the meantime, he has definitely proven himself to be the best privateer in the series this year.

“Courage is found in unlikely places.” - Yukio Kagayama - Okay, so maybe it isn’t unlikely that the gritty Japanese rider would show courage, after all he came back from a horrible injury last year to win races in the British Superbike Series. Kagayama definitely showed the lion’s share of bravery at Brands riding to double ninth place finishes after a monster high-side in practice on Friday. The crash broke some ribs, generally battered the Suzuki rider and may have earned him enough air time to qualify him for a pilots’ license. Despite the painful injuries, Yukio did Superpole on Saturday and, after having his rib cage bound to restrict movement, went on to race in both events on Sunday. Gritty indeed!

“It must often be so, Sam, when things are in danger: someone has to give them up, lose them, so that others may keep them.” - Frankie Chili - Chili definitely had to give something up at Brands, mainly his streak of top ten finishes this season and his history of strong races at the Kent circuit. Unlike last year when he challenged for the lead, this year the popular Italian was mired well down the field. He had a bike problem in race one and finished unlucky thirteen in race two.

“It’s a job that’s never started that takes the longest to finish.” - Ben Bostrom - For whatever reason, the Renegade Honda team and their rider Benny B have never really gotten started this season. Whether this is a machine problem, a rider problem or a combination of the two may never be known but any time a rider of Bostrom’s talent has a weekend with 12-10 finishes you know things aren’t right. At the moment the team is an abysmal 15th place in the championship, the most disastrous season in their history. We can only hope that BBoz has another year left on his contract and that Renegade can make the same breakthrough with the CBR as the Ten Kate team have done.

“He should not vow to walk in the dark, who has not seen the nightfall.” - Garry McCoy - McCoy’s downward spiral continues, both in the macro view of the entire season and the micro view of this particular race weekend. The Aussie was once the golden child of the GP paddock but faded from glory there. He had brief moments of success on a privateer Duc in WSBK last season but this year moved to the star-crossed Foggy Petronas team with predictably poor results. In race one, he earned his tenth DNF of the season and then was the last place finisher in race two for an 18th place result. While much of the blame can be firmly placed on the machine there is also the question of whether McCoy knew the FP1 was this bad before signing on for the season. The Sultan of Slide is rapidly slipping into obscurity.

“It’s a dangerous business, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, theres no knowing where you might be swept off to.” - Pere Riba - Spaniard and ex-GP rider Riba got the phone call to replace the injured Mauro Sanchini as Walker’s teammate on the PSG-1 Kawasaki squad. Riba scored a fourteenth in the first race and a twelfth in the second, putting him in points earning positions in both races. Certainly an acceptable weekend from a rider that hasn’t race since June of last year and one on par with the results put in this season by the man he is replacing.

“A star shone at the hour of our meeting.” - Fonsi Nieto - Unfortunately, it turned out to be a bad moon rather than a lucky star. Just a couple of years ago, Nieto was on the verge of winning a 250GP title and was the great hope of the Spanish moto-journalists. Crashes ruining that shot at a 250 championship and the repercussions were felt for the next two seasons. This year it seemed he had a chance to step back and regroup but has instead gone from GP disaster to WSBK disaster. His dual DNFs this weekend were his seventh and eighth of the year with the only highlight of the season being a fifth at Phillip Island. Nieto may be the best test case yet for whether Spanish nationality alone is sufficient for a rider to keep their ride despite dismal results…

“This thing all things devours: Birds, beasts, trees, flowers: Gnaws iron, bites steel: Grinds hard stones to meal: Slays king, ruins town, And beats high mountains down! Time.” - Ducati - This weekend was, in my opinion, the final nail in the coffin for Ducati’s chances of claiming their 14th manufacturer’s title and their 12th rider’s title. Time has marched on and the dominance of the v-twins from Bologna may be at its end. If WSBK, like so many of the national superbike championships, commits to freezing the rules for a few years then the big red machines may struggle more and more against their four cylinder competition. Only time will tell if Ducati introduces a Superbike version of their V-four MotoGP bike (especially when GP rules go to 800cc in 2007) or if a more competitive v-twin can yet be built.

[image from the Yamaha Racing web site.]

Despite the June WSBK race at Silverstone officially being called the “European round", this weekend actually marks the second time this season the World Superbike guys have come to the UK to race. (Hopefully, they will get better weather than the torrential downpour that greeted the MotoGP guys three weeks ago at Donington Park). With 70,000 fans flooding into Silverstone for the WSBK race in May and 75,000 showing up for the drenched MotoGP race at Silverstone last month, anticipating a large turnout at the Brands Hatch circuit should be a foregone conclusion especially considering its proximity in Kent putting it so near London.

This is the eighth round of the twelve round series, so we’re at the 2/3 mark for the season. After this, the riders get nearly a month off before returning for the September race at Assen. As such, all the riders would like to go into the break with a good pair of results. With silly season in full swing, the motivation is that much higher. Finally, the two brits of Toseland and Walker, along with the British based Renegade team, would all like to do well in front of their home crowd so expect that little bit extra from them.

The track itself is a great one. Brand’s Hatch has been on the WSBK calendar since 1993 and as mentioned above has been one of the best attended throughout that time. The circuit is 2.62 miles in length with 9 (or 11) turns depending on how you measure it. The track has a few “straights” that actually contain a kink so these sections are particularly fast (as well as confusing when tallying the curves). In addition to the fast turns there is also a lot of elevation change around the circuit, so suspension setup becomes particularly tricky. The fast corners need some plushness to the suspension to keep the tire from lighting up over small bumps while the elevation changes require a stiff suspension to avoid bottoming. Expect to see different riders make different choices and thus have bikes that react differently in the various parts of the circuit. Another feature of the track is the difference in safety between the old classic track and the newer, faster “new” portion of the track. The new section runs through the woods making it both scenic and a bit more dangerous in the event of an accident.

Another unique aspect of the track is it’s history. Only two brands have ever won at Brands, Ducati and Honda, despite having hosted 22 superbike races. Even odder, of the 11 rounds held at Brands, 7 have resulted in double wins as Falappa, Foggy, Edwards x2, Bostrom, Byrne and Haga have all “done the double” here. Of the riders currently in the series Chili, Bostrom and Haga have all had good results at this track. Last year, the race was dominated by Haga with double wins on his Renegade Ducati. Equally memorable was the vicious race one highside experienced by Chili while leading the race. He rebounded to an amazing second place finish in race two. Laconi also had a mixed bag last year with a second place in race one but then a crash in race two. The final memorable ride was Corser who brought home a fifth on the Petronas, one of their best finishes ever. Unfortunately, he DNF’ed race two, keeping at least part of the FPR reputation alive.

This year, things are looking much better for Troy Corser. First, he comes into Brands with a 94 point lead in the championship. Second, he starts the weekend a new father as his wife Sam just gave birth to their second child, a baby girl, last week. Third, he won three weeks ago at Brno, his first win since race one at Monza, which shows that the early season speed of the Suzuki hasn’t been completely eclipsed by the Ducatis, Hondas and Yamahas. Finally, he grabbed provisional pole position in qualifying today. If he can follow that up in Superpole it will be his third straight pole, which will net him his 34th career pole position and 72nd front row start (out of 217 races…that is a staggering 33% ratio of front row starts in his 13 year WSBK career). The man is a machine when it comes to qualifying!

So, who (other than Corser) should you watch? Well, most of the riders had inconsistent results at Brno so its tough to tell. Haga won race two but was down in seventh in race one. Vermeulen carded a third in race two but was behind Haga in eighth in race one. Likewise, Laconi was third in race one but sixth in race two. Even Toseland (2/8), Walker (4/10) and Abe (9/4) were a little schizophrenic in the Czech Republic. Only Corser really shined with his first and second place results.

If you look elsewhere for a sign, the Silverstone races in June casts things in a different light. In front of the English fans, it was Toseland that “came good” with a third and a win. Laconi also looked strong with a win in race one but a crash in race two. Haga showed flashes of improvement with a third in the second race to bounce back from a crash in race one. There was a lot of consistency just off the podium as Vermeulen earned a pair of forths, Chili was fantastic with double fifths despite a broken collarbone and Walker wrestled the Kawasaki home for twin sixth place finishes. Corser, naturally, finished the doubles by getting second in both races to extend his points lead over Kagayama. Silverstone was the first sign of trouble for the Japanese WSBK rookie as he was eleventh in race one and seventh in race two. The British track was the beginning of the end of Yukio’s challenge of Corser for the WSBK title.

So first and foremost I’ll be watching the Brits. Toseland seems to find that extra little bit when racing for his fellow countryman so expect something special from him. Likewise, Walker did well at Silverstone and the Kwack is improving every race so he should be able to run closer to the front. Laconi seems to run well at Brands, when he isn’t crashing, and his past few races show a “win it or bin it” attitude. Given the addition of some animosity with his teammate, if Toseland runs up front I suspect Laconi will as well since he seems to believe in the “beat your teammate first, everyone else second” philosophy. Corser, naturally, should be at the pointy end though that 94 point championship lead means he can play it safe if things get too hairy. Finally, Chili is perhaps more popular in Britain than the British riders. He has had many spectacular rides at Brands over the past 12 years and if he can keep it on two wheels expect him to be at the front. Finally, I really want a Yamaha to challenge for the podium to prove that Haga’s Brno win wasn’t a fluke. The series *needs* a competitive Yamaha R1 to go with the GSXRs, CBRs, and 999s.

[image from the Official Brands Hatch Circuit web site.]

“Age and experience will always beat out youth and inexperience.” —Tonny Robbins

Its been a week since the World Superbike races at Brno but I’m just now getting caught up enough to comment. Consider this late posting a little case of time travel going back a week. For another instance of time travel, just watch the races…

Race one looked like the calendar had rolled back to the first races of the season. Troy Corser took his Corona Suzuki to the front on the first lap and never looked back. Just like the early races, Corser was untouchable. The battle for second, on the other hand, was much more contemporary with the Ducati’s maintaining their recent return to form. Even more exciting, Chris Walker had his Kawasaki in the mix, meaning that perhaps the green team has made a step forward with their bike. In the end, the two Ducati teammates seemed to have burned the last vestiges of their friendship which resulted in some harsh passes. Eventually, it was Toseland that handed out the last harsh pass over Laconi and thus earned the middle step on the podium. Walker trailed behind for forth and Chili charged through the field for an eventual fifth place finish. Impressive stuff considering this was his fifth top five finish of the season. In fact, except for his DNF at the first round, the 40 year old Italian has finished in the top 10 at every race.

The second race was exciting from the beginning as Laconi hit the front and started pulling a lead only to have the race red flagged after someone’s bike lunched it’s motor and sprayed oil on the track. On the restart, it was Corser who returned everything to its normal order by again getting to turn one first and leading the race. It was another flashback, this time to race one, as Corser started to pull away while the Ducati teammates again went at each other, this time slight further down the order. Then the surprise of the season…Haga, on his under-performing Yamaha, suddenly charged forward to lead Corser after starting from 18th on the grid. Not only did he lead but he actually pulled away to win. This performance perhaps indicates that Yamaha has finally made the changes necessary to become competitive but it remains to be seen if this win will give Haga the confidence to run at the front for the remainder of the season. Given that Nitro Nori was expected to be a challenger for the title this year, his performance thus far has been abysmal with only one other podium appearance and only three other top five finishes this season. As for the rest of the finishers, it was Corser who cruised home for second and continued to extend his points lead over Vermeulen and Laconi. Third was a determined Chris Vermeulen who is still grasping for the rapidly vanishing chances of a Superbike championship. Forth a surprisingly strong finish by Norick Abe, again perhaps indicating that Yamaha has turned a corner. Continuing his trend, Chili turned in yet another top five finish. Go Frankie!

The best news: with both Kawasaki and Yamaha having strong performances at Brno the final ingredients may finally be falling into place to boost the WSBK series into the best motorcycle racing series on the planet. A little bad blood between the Ducati teammates will crank the intensity level to 11. Having guys like Walker and Abe up front with their over-the-edge riding style is the final icing on the cake. Why, oh, why can’t we just fast forward two weeks to the upcoming Brands Hatch round?

But ultimately, it was seeing old guys Corser, Haga and Chili up front that made Brno seem more like 1998 that 2005. These guys are the legends of the WSBK championship and it is awesome to see them still on the bleeding edge of superbike racing. Hopefully, the young guys like Vermeulen, Muggeridge, Neukirchner, Pitt and Lanzi can learn from these guys.

[image from the Motorcycle News web page.]

Racing this weekend comes courtesy of the country that is short on vowels but long on motorcycle enthusiasm: Brno, Czech Republic. The World Superbike regulars are returning from a three week break but its been nine year gap the track last saw racing from the world class production bikes. As a result, only two riders have any previous experience racing Superbikes at the track: Chili and Corser. However, quite a few other riders raced there more recently in the Grand Prix series: Abe, Haga, Laconi, Walker, Nieto, McCoy, Cardoso and Pitt. As a result, this could be a place were some unexpected riders move to the front early and get a better setup than some of the traditionally fast riders who may have to learn the track in the early practice sessions.

The track itself is a great one. The 3.4 mile long circuit has two particularly impressive features. First, the track is very fast and flowing. Of the 15 turns on the track, all are taken in second, third or even forth gear. Expect this constant series of high speed bends, not unlike Assen, to favor riders who have the huevos grande necessary to keep the throttle cranked while rubbing fairings with other riders. The second feature is that the track is very wide. This allows multiple lines through corners so both the brave and the foolhardy can try to make passes which wouldn’t be available on other courses. There are four short straights at the Brno circuit so while top speed can’t win the race, raw horsepower can certainly be useful when it delivers strong acceleration between corners. Finally, it is a bumpy circuit so it will take excellent front end setup to deal with the hard braking for the various turns without upsetting the chassis and ruining the high corner speed that will be so important for a good lap.

I think the biggest story of the weekend will again be Troy Corser. He knows the track, in fact he was the double winner at the last WSBK race at Brno in 1996, so shouldn’t have too much difficulty getting the GSXR setup out of the way in the early practice sessions. However off the bike he now has a 73 point lead in the championship over Vermeulen so he doesn’t need to stick his neck out for a win. That said, the Hondas and Ducatis have been coming on strong lately with five straight non-Corser wins, the last four of those being won by the big red Italian v-twins. With twelve races left in the season and 25 points per win, Corser can’t relax too much too soon. It would take a miracle or a mistake for someone to catch Troy in the points battle but as 2002 proved the unexpected can happen.

The second thing to watch are whether crashes determine the outcome rather than fast laps. Given the aggressiveness that Vermeulen, Toseland and Laconi have shown over the past few races, Brno should provide them with ample opportunities to generate some mid-corner excitement. Throw in some nothing-to-lose riders like Haga, Neukirchner, Walker or Muggeridge and plan on some over-the-top passes…some of which may end in the gravel traps.

Finally, I hope that the Czech race will reveal that Yamaha and Kawasaki have finally decided to join the championship party. The WSBK series has made a remarkable rebound in popularity and excitement compared to the past two seasons when it was dominated by a single marque. With Suzuki, Honda and Ducati all showing competitiveness in the first half of the season, all that remains are for the other players (well, except the perpetually slow Petronas) to make the leap to the front. If there were really 10 or 12 evenly equipped factory riders duking it out for the WSBK title, World Superbike would easily surpass MotoGP as the most popular form of motorcycle racing in the world. Lets hope we get to check out a little of that progress from Yamaha and Kawasaki at Brno.

Oh, and my bitch-of-the-week: I won’t be checking out that progress on Sunday as SpeedTV has again decided to tape delay the World Superbike races until Tuesday. Looks like Champ Cars and Touring Cars are what get the air time on Sunday. Sigh.

[image from the Suzuki web site.]

Misano is a Ducati circuit. Every race run at the San Marino circuit for the past four years has been won by a booming v-twin from nearby Bolgona. In fact, of the 28 races run at the Misano track before this past weekend, Ducati have won 22 of them. Its also a track which tends to produce double wins during the World Superbike race weekend. Of the 14 previous double headers, 9 of them have been had the same winner. So it shouldn’t be a surprise that a Ducati rider won both events on the series latest visit to the track. But given the trend so far this season, predictions for a Ducati double were few and far between. Troy Corser has won 6 of the 10 races leading up to Misano. However, the last three races have been won by three different riders showing the winds of change may have finally started blowing.

It was Frenchman Regis Laconi that blew them away at Misano this past weekend. I appears that Laconi’s race one win at Silverstone, combined with a re-emergence of Ducati competitiveness after the Italian races at Monza, re-ignited his desire to win a World Superbike title. Laconi was the favorite to win the championship last season but crashes handed the #1 plate to his teammate Toseland. Laconi started out this season with good finishes but then suffered for a couple of rounds before returning to the lead pack at Monza. That early season “dip” has hurt his chances of winning the title this season as he is currently 92 points behind championship leader Corser. However, with the past five races going to someone other than the Suzuki rider, the door may yet be open for a fantastic comeback from one of the other riders. Laconi certainly looked confident at Misano and hopes to be that miracle story…

Another rider that looked strong on Sunday was Honda mounted Chris Vermeulen. Just as Laconi did a double win, Vermeulen was the double runner-up. Those finishes earned the young Aussie enough points to jump into second place in the championship. Vermeulen continues to look strong and got the better of Corser after a ferocious battle in race 2. The Ten Kate Honda also showed incredible speed indicating that Vermeulen’s CBR is now on equal footing with the Corona Suzuki of Corser. Vermeulen is 73 points behind his countryman in the title run so, like Laconi, he’ll have to make up a lot of points over the final 12 races to have any hope of hoisting that WSBK #1 plate.

Despite two third place finishes, Corser was still the big winner at Misano. Coming into the race weekend, teammate Kagayama was the most likely challenger to Corser for the WSBK trophy. With a DNF in race one, Kagayama lost major points and may have taken himself out of contention. While Vermeulen and Laconi gained points on Corser they were coming from well back so aren’t an immediate threat. If Corser can continue to finish on the podium for the rest of the season he will win his second WSBK title and as a result he doesn’t have to go all out for the win in individual races. That wasn’t obvious in race one as he battled with James Toseland for third on the track (a red flag split the race into two segments and Corser had a three second lead over Toseland based on aggregate time. The battle for position was strictly for honor). I think this tussle with the Brit was just so Corser could get a little experience battling with other riders after winning most of the early races this season by large margins. Expect Troy to play a strategic points game for the remainder of the year.

Keeping the repeat finish trend going, James Toseland was forth in both races, his fifth and sixth top five finishes over the last six races. The Ducati rider looked very strong in his battles with Corser, Haga and Chili during the weekend so he definitely has re-gained the confidence that earned him 3 wins and the title last season. He is currently fifth in the championship race but 130 points down on Corser so it is unlikely he will be a repeat WSBK champion.

Finally, my personal favorite rider is Klaffi Honda’s Pierfrancesco Chili who had another strong weekend with seventh and fifth place finishes. This moves him up to eighth in the title fight, one point behind Chris Walker and two points behind Noriyuki Haga. Considering he is 40 years old, and that he missed both Phillip Island races due to a broken collarbone, the Italian continues to defy expectations and thrill his fans.

Less thrilling was Chili’s teammate Max Neukirchner who crashed out of both races. Max was a revelation in the first few races with strong finishes but has since suffered DNFs. The German rider needs to rebuilt his confidence with some decent finishes in the remainder of the series. He is young and has plenty of time to make a name for himself without going into “Win it or bin it” mode this season.

Finally, the Yamahas inexplicably continue to struggle. Haga was the top Yamaha finisher this weekend with double sixth place finishes. But Pitt, Abe and Cardoso all finished outside the top 10. With Ducati and Honda both stepping up to challenge Suzuki, it is now time for Yamaha to do the same. It seems unlikely that riders like Haga and Abe are to blame for the poor finishes as both are spectacular riders. Lets hope we can see Haga capable doing another double at Brands Hatch later this season, as that appears to be a track whose history favors him.

[image from MotoGranPrix.it web site.]

The racing this weekend promises to be one of the best weekends of the year with racing in both Holland and Italy.

First is the MotoGP race at Circuit Van Drenthe in the Netherlands. This race takes place on Saturday but is being televised on SpeedTV on Sunday. Assen is truly one of the great road racing tracks in the world and it is the one with the longest running tradition of Grand Prix racing. This year marks the 75th Anniversary of the Assen circuit and the 59th Grand Prix race held at the track. In fact, there have been GP races at the Circuit Van Drenthe continuously since 1949! It has been around so long and has such a honored place among the race circuits of the world that it is referred to as the “Cathedral of Motorcycle Racing". With a title like that, you can imagine how popular the Assen circuit is both with riders and fans. The track regularly boasts attendance figures of 100,000 and in 1990 actually had double that number show up. The experience of watching a race at Assen is supposedly right up there with the Italian and Spanish race tracks which means the atmosphere for the riders is electric. As if the crowds aren’t enough, the track itself really allows riders to shine. The original Assen track was laid out on public roads and thus has severe camber changes over the course of a lap. Additionally, it isn’t a track with a lot of tight turns or long straight aways. Its lack of elevation changes and its gentle bends (with the exception of a new chicane added this year) mean that throttle control and ease of direction changes are the key to a fast lap. This isn’t a track where high horsepower equates to fast laps. Even as the track has been converted to a dedicated track over the years the two defining characteristics remain the crowned track surface and the flowing nature of the track. Expect the Yamaha’s light handling traits to really shine around the 3.7-mile circuit. As a result, Rossi has to be the favorite coming into this weekend. Since he won at Assen last year, he is shooting for two in a row. Gibernau won the 2003 MotoGP race at Assen and is again likely to be the biggest challenger to Rossi. (Assuming he has bounced back from the psychological beatings he has taken over the past few weeks at Mugello and Catalunya). Another factor that was highlighted at Catalunya was the tire issue, with Bridgestone riders suffering in the hot Spanish sun. If the temperatures are high in Holland, expect the Michelin riders to again set the pace and the Bridgestone riders to struggle. Finally, it seemed like Ducati found something between Mugello and Catalunya. This weekend will show whether their showing outside Barcelona was a fluke or if they are really back to being contenders. Then again, since they are on Bridgestones it may tell us nothing new at all…only time will tell.

The second race of the weekend will be the World Superbike races at Misano. As with all racing in Italy, thousands make the pilgrimage to the coast to watch the races. In addition, perhaps as many as a million Italians will tune in via TV. Sadly, SpeedTV decided that a bunch of car races are more important that World Superbike, delaying the broadcast of the Misano races until Tuesday and denying us Americans that same privilege. Argh! Misano, like Assen, is a very challenging circuit. In fact, with its own multitude of camber changes, Misano is a bit like a twistier, tighter version of the Dutch circuit but with one section straightened out. The most spectacular feature at Misano is the Curvone which is a long multi-apex left-hander which leads onto the straight. Not unlike Monza, this curve allows the riders to really spin up the tires and slide the bike making for spectacular racing. If this weekend provides a typically hot Italian day, expect the Pirelli tires to help that sliding whether the riders want it or not. Like the situation with the MotoGP race at Assen, the series front runner in WSBK is also the biggest threat at Misano. Troy Corser has a spectacular record at the Adriatic coast track, including double wins in 2000 and nine other podium finishes over the six years the World Superbike series has raced there. Given his performance so far this season and his trend at Misano, it would be foolish to beat against him. If anyone is going to step up and challenge the Suzuki mounted Aussie it will probably be the factory Ducatis who have scored podium finishes in both the previous doubleheaders at Monza and Silverstone. Both Laconi and Toseland have a lot of work cut out for themselves if they are going to challenge Corser for the championship but either can pressure Suzuki mounted series rookie Kagayama who has been struggling lately. All the Honda and Yamaha riders need to make a huge leap forward as they have been inconsistent so far this season. Finally, I expect Chili to do well as racing in front of the Italian crowds always seems to energize this elder statesman of racing. Hopefully he can contain his enthusiasm enough to keep his Honda on two wheels.

So the dilemma for me is whether to check the web on Monday and Tuesday, knowing I’ll end up reading the results from the WSBK race, or to avoid computers until I can watch the race on TV so I will be surprised by the winner. If I don’t have a new blog posting on Monday and/or Tuesday, you’ll know why…

[image from the Assen TT web site.]

This past weekend’s “European” round of the World Superbike races at the reconfigured Silverstone circuit was actually quite interesting. The “International” layout included some chicanes which slowed down the race pace but also removed most of the passing zones. The difficulty passing meant the race was more processional than action packed. While the racing wasn’t particularly exciting the results do lend some hope for those of us who don’t want the 2005 World Superbike season to be a complete romp. Despite this being called the European round, its really the first of two visits by the WSBK series to the UK. I’ve recently been reading some Winston Churchill writings, so I’m going to tie the two things together by giving one quote from the old curmudgeon and then use that to describe the performance of one of the riders.

“Never give in–never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.'’ – James Toseland - Toseland was definitely the star of the weekend. After sucking earlier in the season, the reigning champ started to regain his winning form at Monza and then went on to do a private three day test with Ducati at Mugello. The result was serious flexing of muscles at Silverstone where Toseland netted a third in the race and a win in race two. In both races Toseland was in contention for the victory and took control of race two for a convincing first place. Perhaps Toseland, and Ducati, may yet emerge as a rival to Troy Corser. What is certainly true is that he hasn’t given up.

“Today we may say aloud before an awe-struck world: We are still masters of our fate. We are still captain of our souls.” – Troy Corser - Despite going winless for the weekend Corser was really once again the ultimate winner. His twin second place finishes continued to grow his points lead over second place Kagayama to the tune of a total 78 points. This means that Corser could take off the next weekend and still have a one race win lead in the championship. I hesitate to say that Corser could have won either race but he was definitely running with the leaders in both legs and didn’t *have* to beat either one based on the two Ducati riders since they were forth and sixth in the championship race coming into the weekend. He finished exactly where he needed to…

“Although prepared for martyrdom, I preferred that it be postponed.” - Regis Laconi - Toseland’s French teammate started the weekend in great form, also continuing where he left of at Monza. Laconi looked unstoppable during the first race as he pushed his way through to the front. Corser kept him honest but no one else really seemed to have the pace that these two pulled out. Fame is a fickle mistress, though, and Regis went from hero to zero in race two with an early crash. While Laconi isn’t completely out of the title hunt, he is only hanging on by the faintest of mathematical hope at this point.

“I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.” – Noriyuki Haga - Despite being let down by both bike problems and tires, Nitro Nori still gave his English fans something to cheer about by running in the top three during both races. A fuel pump problem ended his podium appearance n race one but he hung in during race two despite tire degradation that had him a second off the winning pace during the last few laps. Haga, through sheer force of will, kept his popularity (if not his title hopes) alive.

“This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.” – Yukio Kagayama - An odd off weekend for the Japanese ace stunted his championship run against teammate Corser. Kagayama’s 11th and 7th place finishes could be the beginning of the end of his dream of being the 2005 World Superbike Champion. Suzuki, however, are probably more interested him maintaining his second place so that they have a chance of a one-two sweep if Corser brings home the crown this season.

“It’s not enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what’s required.” – Chris Vermeulen - Vermeulen brought his Honda home in forth place in both races showing he is still talented beyond his years. Chris showed he had the pace of the front runners in race two but a poor start meant he couldn’t fight for the win. What he did gain was enough championship points to bring him within three of second place Kagayama.

“Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path. You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb.” – Frankie Chili - Chili has continued to heal from his broken collarbone and brought home two fifth place finishes to show for it. He continues to show that he is one of the most talented men to over throw a leg over a Superbike and to show that Ducati were foolish for ever removing him from their factory team.

“You can always count on Americans to do the right thing—after they’ve tried everything else.” – Ben Bostrom - Unfortunately, Bennie took another back slide after showing a glimmer of hope at Monza. He pulled out of the first race with bike problems and then struggled to a 14th place finish in race two. Saying the team needed track time to improve the bike was a valid excuse for the first few races of the season but that is rapidly failing an explanation for their lack of results. Bostrom really has to start moving forward for the American to get some respect.

“We shall fight on the beaches. We shall fight on the landing grounds. We shall fight in the fields, and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender!” – Chris Walker - Walker also followed up his excellent Monza results with a strong showing at Silverstone. Despite having a bike that appears to be a handful, the Stalker still pushed he bike through to dual sixth place finishes. For years fans have felt Walker shouldn’t have gone straight from the UK Superbike series to WSBK on a Kawasaki in 2001. His results seem to lend credence to that theory. Its good to have Walker back on the green machines.

“We have sustained a total and unmitigated defeat, and France has suffered even more than we have.” – Foggy Petronas riders Steve Martin and Gary McCoy - In race one, both Petronas riders DNF’ed giving them an embarrassing start to their home races. They fared slightly better in the second race with 13th (McCoy) and 20th (Martin) finishes. At least their results improved between race one and two, unlike Laconi who started on the podium and finished in the gravel.

“For myself I am an optimist - it does not seem to be much use being anything else.” Yamaha France riders Norick Abe and Gimbert - The Yamaha France team had a tough weekend. Sebastien Gimbert crashed in race one breaking his ankle and missing the second race. Norick Abe had a clutch problem in the first event, giving Yamaha France two DNFs to start the weekend. Abe rebounded with an eighth in the final race. Good for the team but still far short of what was expected of the ex-GP start.

“Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.” – Fonsi Nieto - Nieto, another ex-GP star, was originally thought to be another ride who would challenge for the championship but has failed to live up to that expectation. This was particularly true at Silverstone where Nieto ended up retiring in both races. The SC Caracchi team has surely suffered after their glory days with Bostrom and Chili as their riders.

“It is a mistake to try to look too far ahead. The chain of destiny can only be grasped one link at a time.” – Giovani Bussei - Fan favorite and winner of the 2004 sportsmanship award is steadily improving as he comes to term with his Kawasaki. He had an eighth in race one and a sixteenth in race two. He needs to continue to get championship points this season to show everyone that he deserves to be in the series not just because he is a nice guy but because he is a talented rider.

“It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations.” - me - When all else fails, use other people’s words so you look smart. Hopefully this contrast of historical quotes and rider reviews has made some small progress in that regard.

[image from the Silverstone Circuit web site.]

The only road racing this coming weekend will be the World Superbike series event at the old airfield track of Silverstone in England. This very fast circuit, also used for Formula One racing, has been on the calendar since 2002 but was reconfigured this year to remove it’s fastest straight. As a result, the only rider that has seen his configuration before will be Suzuki’s Yukio Kagayama since he raced the British Superbike series for the past two seasons and this layout was apparently in use for their races. Unfortunately for everyone else, it means that Suzuki again holds the upper hand coming into this race weekend.

So its the same question this week as every other week for the past couple of months…can anyone stop the Suzuki steamroller? More specifically, can anyone stop the Troy Corser steamroller? Last year three riders dominated Silverstone: Haga had a great race weekend last year with two podium finishes so this could be a good time for him to get things right again. Sadly, he has suffered from setup and tire problems all season so it will be a big leap for the Yamaha rider to make.

Another fan favorite in the UK, Frankie Chili showed great form at Silverstone last year but a qualifying snafu mean he had to charge through the pack in both races. He made it onto the podium with a third in the first race but then had a massive highside in the second race. He has had top ten finishes at the last two races, despite having a broken collarbone, so hopefully he will be healthy enough to fight for the lead in this race.

The person that really dominated at Silverstone last year was Chris Vermeulen. In fact, it was his performances as the UK track that propelled him into championship contention. He rode great in the second race at Monza and his win there makes him the most likely candidate to challenge Troy Corser. Unlike both Chili and Haga who have had machine and/or health problems, Vermeulen has been steadily improving this season. It seems like the Winston Ten Kate Honda is gaining speed with each round and the young Australian is again proving to be a rider capable of winning races (and championships).

Another rider on my watch list for this weekend is Ducati’s Regis Laconi. Like Chili, he had a mixed result at Silverstone last year despite some great rides. He crashed out of race one while running at the front and then came back with a third in race two. But what shows that Laconi’s strength is on the rise was his performances last weekend at Monza. A forth in race one, after battling with the lead group for the whole race, followed by a second in race two. It appears that the Ducati does well at a fast, flowing circuit like Monza (just hope it doesn’t only like fast, flowing *Italian* circuits) and it also appears that the Bologna based team have found a setup that works for the bikes since Toseland was up front at Monza as well.

The British riders always seem to step up a bit when they are back in the motherland so I think both Toseland and Walker will ride well. Toseland showed an awakening at Monza and if he can continue with that improvement should run with the leaders. Walker had a great race two at Monza but I think it will be a stretch for him to do that again at Silverstone. I expect him to be near the front but not dicing with the leaders.

Finally, the wildcard British Superbike riders usually make an impact but the Pirelli spec tire rule means that the front runners in BSB can’t race the WSBK round. There are only two BSB riders entered as wildcards and neither are likely to make an impact in the top 15.

If anyone is going to stop Suzuki, its probably going to be Honda and Ducati. If anyone is going to stop Troy Corser, it is probably Yukio Kagayama, Chris Vermeulen and Regis Laconi. The rest of the race should be a big battle between the gaggle of Yamahas (Haga, Pitt, Abe, Gimbert, Nieto, Cardoso), the herd of Hondas (Chili, Neukirchner, Muggeridge, Bostrom), the smattering of Kawasakis (Walker, Bussei) and the pair of FPR bikes (McCoy and Martin). Should be an exciting couple of races this weekend…

[image from the Silverstone Circuit web site.]

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.]

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.]

Yamaha and Honda both lay claim to the title of best motorcycle company based on their engineering prowness in the battlefield of the MotoGP series. For the past two seasons, it has been obvious that these two companies can out research, out design, out innovate, out test and out spend all the other manufacturers in their quest to build the fastest prototype racing motorcycles in the world. The Honda RC211V and Yamaha M1 have dominated for two years and look to continue that in 2005. However, if the yard stick for measuring a motorcycle company’s success is production racing, then this year it appears Suzuki has all comers covered.

This weekend there are three different major Superbike races: World Superbike at Valencia Spain, AMA at Barber Motorsports Park in Alabama and British Superbike at Mallory Park. In two of those series the Suzuki GSXR 1000 has already stamped its authority in just the first few rounds. In the third, the chances are good that Suzuki will soon flex its muscle. As I said in a posting last month about Suzuki’s strong showing early in the year the Marketing department at Suzuki is set to have a busy year.

Lets start with the bad news: The British Superbike Series. After being the fastest guy at the first pre-season test for the BSB series, Suzuki rider and defending champ John Reynolds had a serious crash which resulted in a shattered right leg. Amazingly, he has come back in an amazingly short time and ridden at the first races of the season but he has been in such a poor state of fitness that he couldn’t hang with the front runners. With each passing day, his leg is mending and he will soon be back to fitness. Whether he will be able to challenge the current season’s undefeated race winner, Honda’s Ryuichi Kiyonari, this weekend at Mallory Park remains to be seen but you can be sure JR will run up front once he’s healthy. Reynold’s young team mate, Scott Smart, still has some learning before he’ll be a title contender but what better teacher than a two time BSB champion? Expect the Suzuki name to be back on the podium later in the season.

In World Superbike action the races have been a Suzuki ad as the two Alstare Corona riders, Troy Corser and Yukio Kagayama, have lead every race by a proverbial mile. The dominance of the GSXR1000 is shocking, considering that World Superbike has been the property of Ducati for so long. That the new bike can not only be competitive but actually monopolize the results has to shake the series faithful to the core. Suzuki and Alstare team owner Francis Batta have put a huge amount of effort into this series because if you want to get your new bike noticed in the show room, having it reign at the race track is a good start. Expect the two GSXR riders to continue this trend this weekend in Spain.

Finally, there is the AMA series where the three Suzukis have been in the top four fastest in every test session and during the race at Daytona. Mat Mladin has topped everything at every track. No matter what your opinion of the guy’s personality, there is no getting around his riding prowess. The force he wields over the AMA Superbike field is incredible, both with his equipment, his skill and his psychological warfare. Last year Suzuki had a GSXR1000 Mat Mladin replica for sale, showing just how confident they were that Mladin’s win on Sunday would translate into sales on Monday. Mladin was consistently the fastest guy, sometimes by over a second, at the recent AMA test at Barber. Just like Daytona, I think Mladin will use that speed to pull away early and control the race from the front. That’s just the image Suzuki wants in people’s minds…

While Suzuki’s GSV-R MotoGP bike is getting is ass handed to it by Yamaha and Honda, they have found a different way to showcase their engineering strength and its a method that probably gets more potential buyers into showrooms. If Suzuki can sell more bikes by focusing on Superbike racing, do they really care if they stand atop the MotoGP podium?

The rest of the teams stack up like this:

BSB - Honda has kept a perfect win record so far, with Kiyonari and has captured second place two times in four races thanks to Michael Rutter’s performance. The only rider to put pressure on the two Hondas thus far as been Ducati mounted ex-WSBK star Gregorio Lavilla.

WSBK - The Hondas, Yamahas and Ducatis are all a half-step behind the Alstare squad but it looks like Ducati mounted Regis Laconi has the best chance of bridging the gap. There are a lot of young riders in WSBK this year (Muggeridge, Vermeulen, Neukirchner, Pitt, Lanzi), so maybe those guys still have some growth left in them as well.

AMA - I think Ducati’s Neil Hodgson is the only guy that can challenge the three Yoshimura Suzuki riders at this point. Honda are still struggling to build their bikes, Eric Bostrom is still trying to figure out the front end of the 999 and the Jordan Suzuki team is still trying to gel.

[image from the Powersports Network 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.]

In addition to kicking off the road race season a few weeks early, having the World Superbike teams racing in Qatar this past weekend accomplished something else…it gave us race fans an early glimpse as to the difference between the current production based Superbikes and the current MotoGP dedicated race bikes. The March WSBK race weekend ended on Sunday and then on Tuesday some of the MotoGP teams showed up for some pre-season testing.

A true apples to apples comparison will never be possible and, because of freakish weather last weekend, is even less meaningful. However, its rare for both series to visit the same track so we’ll have to work with what we have. The times that have been released so far do back up the fact that there is a big difference between a production based series on spec tires and a “clean sheet” series with trick, unobtanium tires. During qualifying for last weekends WSBK race, held on a semi-wet track, the fastest time in Superpole was laid down by Ducati mounted Regis Laconi with a 2:01.5. The fastest time laid down by any of the riders during pre-Superpole qualifying was a 2:01.2 by Troy Corser in the first qualifying session. These times were presumably set using a qualifying tire or, if those are not in use, by the softest available race tire. The fastest race time, set by Yamaha mounted Sebastien Gimbert, was a 2:01.8.

Now fast forward 48 hours and the MotoGP teams hit the now dry Losail Circuit for some laps. At the end of the first day, Nicky Hayden and his Honda RC211V have turned a best lap of 1:58.3. After another 24 hours, Ducati’s Loris Capirossi has chopped off nearly another second with a 1:57.6. It isn’t known for sure (or at least not by arm-chair journalists like me) whether these guys were running qualifying tires or not but I’d say its highly likely. Even more likely in the case of Capirossi’s time since a) Bridgestone is known to have excellent qualifiers, b) Capirossi’s fast times from Sepang were using the Qs and c) everyone has to test for qualifying runs and race distance. All this after just two days at the track so times from tomorrow will likely be even lower.

So, a little quick math here (ummm…two point oh…errrrr…carry the one…convert to seconds…ah ha!) shows that the MotoGP bikes are lapping over three and a half seconds faster than the WSBK bikes. That’s pretty significant. Even more significant is that the slowest of the full factory bikes at the MotoGP test is 9th fastest Troy Bayliss with a 1:58.6, only a second slower than Capirossi. Rewind back to that first (and dry) WSBK qualifying session. Ninth was Nori Haga who turned a 2:02.6 aboard his Yamaha R1, almost a one and a half seconds slower than Corser’s 2:01.2. Clearly the further down the field you go, the bigger the gap.

So what does this mental masturbation and meaningless numerology really mean? Well, for one, it shows that the extra 40hp available on the purpose built MotoGP bikes has some real measurable benefit. Second, it shows that having major tire manufacturers fighting for lap times makes a better tire than having a single spec tire. Third, it shows that having a pre-season test on a dry track is better than having a race weekend with mixed conditions. Finally, it shows that the depth off the field in MotoGP, at least through the top ten, is closer than in WSBK.

Other than reaffirming what we already knew, there hasn’t been any real shock. Still, I think its freakin’ cool that you can watch some fantastic riders on unbelievably powerful bikes race around a world class track and then just a couple of days later see every factory MotoGP rider *smash* the previous weekend’s race times like they were made by novice racers. It makes me giggle like a school kid. Damn those MotoGP bikes are *cool*.

[image from the Nicky Hayden web site.]

The 2005 road race season started this past weekend with the WSBK opener in Losail, Qatar. Maybe its has been the long winter drought or maybe its the rules changes but it turned out to be a great race and has really whetted my appetite for more.

The big winner this past weekend was the Alstare Suzuki team, as their riders Troy Corser and Yukio Kagayama split the two victories. After Alstare Suzuki struggled for years with their underpowered GSXR-750 against the full might of Ducati, this past weekend had to be a long overdue compensation for all their hard work. What’s more, their rider’s battle with Ducati mounted Regis Laconi showed that the team’s GSXR-1000 has the power to hold off the Duc even giving it the benefit off the draft. That has to have Francis Batta and the entire Alstare Corona Suzuki team dancing in the streets. They have dominated pre-season testing and now swept the first race of the season.

This will also have filled the sails of Troy Corser. This first race win was the final reward for his four miserable seasons with the Foggy Petronas team. He has been saying for years that he had the talent and desire to win races but not the bike. He is certainly backing that statement up already aboard the Suzuki. It fact it was downright eerie to see how he immediately returned to his pre-Petronas style of jumping out early in the race, showing his trademark smooth riding and then turning quick consistent laps until taking the checkers for a win. He seemed on track for a repeat in race two but was slowed by a worn front tire.

Kagayama somehow managed to surprise even more than Corser. He took his maiden World Superbike win in only the second race of the season and looked untouchable for the second two thirds off race two. He was also a stark contrast to Corser. Where the Australian has always been deceptively smooth on the bike, always looking much slower than the stop watch actually reveals, Japanese rider Kagayama seemed to be on the ragged edge from the first corner till the finish line. He was visibly pushing the front tire into the faster corners and every corner exit was a near-highside with the bike violently bucking and weaving as the rear tire repeated broke loose. The British motorcycling press have long heralded Yukio’s wild riding and our first glimpse certainly backs that up. I think it will be impossible for Kagayama to maintain this for the entire season without a crash, like the one that put him out of the British Superbike Series title hunt, but has plenty of time to learn how to keep the speed and loose the recklessness. Haga had the same out of control look for most of his first Yamaha tour of duty which resulted in some spectacular accidents. Whether he crashes or not, its obvious from day one that Yukio will be one to watch this season.

What about the others? Well. Laconi showed he can dig deep and race for the win. I think he started last season overly confident and his missing the 2004 WSBK title seems to have given him focus. He was the only person anywhere near the pace of the two Suzukis. Toseland, on the second factory Ducati, fought hard but wasn’t quite on the same pace as the front three. The hoard of Yamahas also appeared fast but seemed to be just a little down on the leaders. Haga was surprising slow over the weekend while his teammate Pitt was surprisingly fast. Abe, one of the few riders with prior race experience on the circuit, made a better than expected showing while his teammate Gimbert turned a solid qualifying run into a dismal race results, again a surprise. Crowd favorite Chili continued his inconsistent record by having a mechanical failure in race one and then a fantastic fifth in race two. The 41 year old continues to stick it to the young guys. Honda’s only other notable finish for the weekend was Vermeulen’s forth in the same race. For those, like myself, who forecast that Vermeulen would fight for the title this year it wasn’t a particularly auspicious start. Hopefully the two Ten Kate riders are still recovering from last week’s flu. The biggest disappointment for Honda had to be Ben Bostrom. After crashing his only bike in practice he had to ride a near-stock bike in the races to a finish outside the points in race one and a DNF in race two. The Renegade team will have a lot of work to do before the next race weekend. Kawasaki also showed they still have a big step to make as their riders struggled to get into the top ten. Sounds like they need some of the same magic growth potion that they put into their MotoGP effort last season for their two WSBK teams this season. Finally, the Foggy Petronas boys of McCoy and Martin showed that they will be doing rain dances all season. On even a semi-dry track, they are so badly outclassed they were luck to qualify. Its going to be a long season in that pit.

The teams now have a month to learn from Losail and prepare for their next race at Phillip Island in April.

[image from the Team Suzuki Racing web site.]

My buddy Jeff today was complaining that no one had put out a combined road race calendar for 2005 (with race dates for AMA, WSBK and MotoGP). Since I keep all those dates anyway, as well as the dates for the MRA, our local road race series, that seemed like a good topic for today’s blog entry. Without further ado, the current road race calendar for 2005:

February:

26 - WSBK @ Losail Int’l Raceway; Doha, Qatar

March:

12 - AMA @ Daytona Int’l Speedway; Daytona, FL, USA

April:

3 - WSBK @ Phillip Island; Phillip Island, Australia
10 - MotoGP @ Circuito Permanente de Jerez; Jerez de la Frontera, Spain
17 - MotoGP @ Estoril Circuit; Estoril, Portugal
22 - AMA @ Barber Motorsports Park; Birmingham, AL, USA
24 - WSBK @ Comunitat Valenciana; Cheste, Spain

May:

1 - MotoGP @ Shanghai Circuit; Shanghai, China
1 - AMA @ California Speedway; Fontana, CA, USA
1 - MRA @ Pueblo Motorsports Park; Pueblo, CO, USA
8 - WSBK @ Autodromo Nazionale Monza Circuit; Monza, Italy
15 - MotoGP @ Le Mans Circuit des 24 Heures; Le Mans, France
15 - AMA @ Infineon Raceway; Sonoma, CA, USA
15 - MRA @ Pikes Peak Int’l Raceway; Fountain, CO, USA
22 - AMA @ Pikes Peak Int’l Raceway; Fountain, CO, USA
29 - WSBK @ Silverstone Circuit; Silverstone, Northants, Great Britain

June:

5 - MotoGP @ Autodromo Internazionale del Mugello; Mugello, Italy
5 - AMA @ Road America; Elkhart Lake, WI, USA
5 - MRA @ Second Creek Raceway; Denver, CO, USA
12 - MotoGP @ Circuit de Catalunya; Barcelona, Spain
19 - MRA @ Continental Divide Raceway; Mead, CO, USA
25 - MotoGP @ TT Circuit Assen; Assen, Netherlands
26 - WSBK @ Autodromo di Santamonica; Misano, San Marino

July:

10 - MotoGP @ Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca; Monterey, CA, USA
10 - AMA @ Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca; Monterey, CA, USA
17 - WSBK @ Automotodrom Brno; Brno, Czech Republic
17 - MRA @ La Junta Motorsports Park; La Junta, CO, USA
24 - MotoGP @ Donington Park; Donington, Derby, Great Britain
24 - AMA @ Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course; Lexington, OH, USA
31 - MotoGP @ Sachsenring; Sachsenring, Germany

August:

7 - WSBK @ Brands Hatch; Fawkham, Kent, Great Britain
14 - MRA @ Pueblo Motorsports Park; Pueblo, CO, USA
28 - MotoGP @ Automotodrom Brno; Brno, Czech Republic
28 - AMA @ Virginia Int’l Raceway; Alton, VA, USA

September:

4 - WSBK @ TT Circuit Assen; Assen, Netherlands
4 - AMA @ Road Atlanta; Braselton, GA, USA
4 - MRA @ Pikes Peak Int’l Raceway; Fountain, CO, USA
5 - MRA @ Pikes Peak Int’l Raceway; Fountain, CO, USA
11 - WSBK @ Lausitzring; Lausitz, Germany
18 - MotoGP @ Twin Ring Motegi; Motegi, Japan
25 - MotoGP @ Sepang Int’l Circuit; Sepang, Malaysia
25 - MRA @ Pueblo Motorsports Park; Pueblo, CO, USA

October:

1 - MotoGP @ Losail Int’l Raceway; Doha, Qatar
2 - WSBK @ Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferreri Imola; Imola, Italy
2 - MRA @ Second Creek Raceway; Denver, CO, USA
9 - WSBK @ Never Magny Cours Circuit; Magny Cours, France
16 - MotoGP @ Phillip Island; Phillip Island, Australia
23 - MotoGP @ Istanbul Circuit; Istanbul, Turkey

November:

6 - MotoGP @ Comunitat Valenciana; Cheste, Spain

Nothing beats watching a race in person. I’ll definitely be at the AMA Pikes Peak race in May and the combined MotoGP/AMA weekend at Laguna Seca in July. I’ll also make about half of the MRA races. I’ll also watch all the MotoGP, WSBK and AMA races that are televised and will probably give my views on each here on the blog. Our support can you all the support it can get, whether that is by buying tickets to see races live or tuning to watch the race on TV, so make sure to mark these dates on your calendar and watch some racing this year!

[image from the Motorcycle-USA web site.]

This time last year, the motorcycle racing community was bemoaning the 2004 World Superbike series as the “Ducati Cup” thanks to the majority of the MSMA (Motorcycle Sport Manufacturers Association) having left the series over disagreements about the rules. The factory Ducati team, the dominant team in the series over the past decade, stuck around and were expected to sweep the title. Whether the MSMA members really left because of the rule or to offset the drain on their racing budget caused by the ultra-expensive four-stroke MotoGP series can be argued but the affect their leaving had on the WSBK series cannot.

Thankfully, Ten Kate Honda’s Chris Vermeulen kept everyone wondering what would have been had the Japanese factories stayed in the game. In fact, privateer Ducati riders like Nori Haga and Pierfrancesco Chili helped turn the season into one of the most exciting in recent history, despite the lack of manufacturer diversity on the grid, so although the factory Ducati riders finished on-two it wasn’t the sweep most predicted. What didn’t make any waves was the latest iteration of Team Foggy Petronas FP-1 and riders Chris Walker and Troy Corser. With such a seemingly weak grid, last year appeared to be the best chance for the underdog team to challenge for a championship but lack of engine performance once again held back the two great riders.

Fast forward to this year. The MSMA has reversed their ban of World Superbike and the factories, at least via heavily supported semi-privateer teams, are back in droves. Suzuki has a two rider team, Kawasaki has a two rider team, Yamaha has a two rider team and, most surprisingly, Honda has three teams totaling four riders. Honda rarely hands out back-door support so their strong presence for 2005 shows just how much they’ve changed their attitude and how much they want Hondas on the WSBK grid. There are even rumors off Aprilia, Bimoto and MV Agusta joining the fray. Having the manufacturers back in WSBK has marked a tremendous turn-around for the series. It kept its head above water last season due to close racing and a variety of possible race winners and looks to build on that this year with a new explosion of interest.

The WSBK grid probably contains the strongest collection of exciting personalities of any race series. MotoGP has unique characters in Rossi and Biaggi but the rest of the grid seems mostly bland. WSBK, on the other hand, has riders like Noriyuki “Nitro Nori” Haga, Pierfrancesco Chili, Ben Bostrom, Chris ‘Stalker” Walker, Giovanni Bussei and Norik Abe all of which seem to attract press like birds to a feeder. Any series on earth would be proud just to have the Australian contingent from WSBK, because they are such PR dreams: Garry “King of Slide” McCoy, Chris Vermeulen, Karl Muggeridge, Troy Corser, Steve Martin and Andrew Pitt. McCoy, for example, has gotten more press in the last two years despite a general lack of results than many of the podium regulars in MotoGP. Keeping him in the WSBK series for the press coverage alone has given a boost to the series.

And speaking of Australians, what about Troy Corser?!? Despite riding on the doggy FP-1, he’s always kept himself in the eyes of the race fans by periodically putting in near-miraculous qualifying or race performances. Despite being, along with Chili, one of the elders on the grid, he has continued to show that his talent and desire to win haven’t waned with age. Those memorable rides paid off because the second his four year contract with Foggy expired Suzuki was waiting in line to snatch him up. This puts him on what may be the most powerful bike in the paddock and he is already repaying Suzuki’s faith in him by topping the timing charts at both of the preseason tests. Clearly Corser wants to rise like a phoenix from the apparent ashes of his career. Chalk up another reason for motorcycle journalists and race fans to watch the series.

So time may not heal all wounds but it certainly appears to have stopped the bleeding for WSBK and put it back on the path to being a healthy and interesting world series. I can hardly wait for this coming weekend to watch the opening race!

[image from the Troy Corser web site.]

So the only real motorcycles news this week has been the various MotoGP and World Superbike teams announcing their official line-ups, news that has been known unofficially for months now. Ho-hum, its a slow news week.

There have been a couple of items in those announcements that I think deserve a quick “word up".

First, the Xerox Ducati World Superbike team of James Toseland and Regis Laconi where announced today with a big webcast splash. Same team, same riders, yawn. But Ducati does deserve the credit for having cultivated a multi-year sponsorship agreement with a company that is neither involved in the motorcycle market nor part of the tobacco/alcohol money monster. With worldwide political pressure steadily restricting tobacco and alcohol advertising, those companies which have historically propped up the bulk of motorized competition, are scaling back their support. For Ducati to bring in Xerox as the title sponsor of their World Superbike effort (Xerox was already involved with Gary McCoy’s privateer team in 2004) is something worthy of a news splash. Better yet, Ducati is showing continued success at bringing in outside money since they have had Fila and Sony as their title sponsors in the past. Lets hope the other World Superbike teams can have such success. That outside money is the holy grail of both race teams and race series and an infusion of dough is something all series could use to help them grow.

Its not just in WSBK either. Gone are the days when big cigarette companies virtually funded Grand Prix racing. Ducati still has Marlboro money and the Yamaha teams still have their Fortuna/Gauloises backing but its rumored that Yamaha may run self-sponsored machines in 2006, partly at Rossi’s insistence since he *hates* tobacco sponsorship. Oddly enough, Rossi has no such problems with alcohol money, since his favorite sponsor is Italian beer company Nastro-Azzuro. Anyway, there is bright news in the MotoGP world as well, as Makoto Tamada will be sponsored by Minolta this coming season. Just as with WSBK, having a company not traditionally associated with motorcycles willing to fork out cash to a team means the sport’s growing in status. If other companies can successfully court big companies, they may yet weather the bad financial times that have been forecast when tobacco sponsorship dries up completely.

Bravo to Honda and Ducati for leading the way…

[image from Ducati web site.]

With the announcements over the past couple of weeks from Honda, Yamaha and Ducati, it certainly looks like the World Superbike series is making an astounding comeback from last year’s stories of doom and gloom.

First, Honda announces that both Ben Bostrom and Frankie Chili have found rides with factory supported teams for next year. Yamaha has officially announced Norikuki Haga (as rumored for the past month or so) will be on their factory superbike team and also announced that ex-GP star Norick Abe will be racing in WSBK on a factory supported team. Then, to make things better, NCR Ducati announced today that ex-250 GP star Fonsi Nieto will riding one of their superbikes.

Not only are the Japanese factories making a splash by returning to World Superbike competition but MV Agusta is rumored to be running a factory supported team in 2005. Its not too far a stretch to think that Aprilia may return as well, if not this year than next, now that they have pulled out of MotoGP.

I didn’t include Abe or Nieto in my 2005 WSBK Line-up posting and I think both of them will be a good addition to the series. Abe struggled with the four strokes in MotoGP but to run mid-pack in that star-studded field still shows amazing talent. If the Yamaha is a strong bike, I think Abe will run with Haga which means near the front and that will add big excitement. I don’t think that Nieto will prove so promising based on the depth of the WSBK field, the performance of the NCR Ducati and Fonsi’s inconsistent performance in the past two seasons 250GP. What Nieto does bring is MotoGP levels of sponsorship which will be great for the series.

[image from the Motorcycle USA web site]

After I moved to Colorado I started watching the local MRA races and noticed a young kid racing a 125GP bike. I thought it was cool that a guy was giving his son a chance to race and thought that was a pretty neat way to get in some father-son bonding as the father was clearly proud to have his son with him at the track. Over the next few years I was happy to see the kid was doing well. In 2002, he went into what I believe is the best possible training ground for young riders: The WERA National Endurance Series. He raised some eyebrows there by helping his team win a few races, probably a better performance than expected from a kid that wasn’t in high school yet.

Well, the kid’s father, Jurgen Wimbauer, moved them to Germany and the kid picked up where he left off by racing in a couple of the European national race series. The next time I heard about the guy, he was doing some wild card races in the World Supersport series on a factory Yamaha R6, with a best finish of 16th at Misano.

Well, now the news is out that 16 year old Nicky Wimbauer has signed with a factory supported Suzuki squad to race a GSXR in the European Superstock Championship, which is one of the support classes for World Superbike. I guess that little kid from Colorado has shown he has what it takes to race on the world stage, something that will make more people than just his father Jurgen proud. Bravo to the Moto 1 team for hiring him and best wishes to Nicky Wimbauer for a great season in 2005.

[image from Team Trasimeno web site]

Fire one up, dude!

At the beginning of last year, things probably seemed pretty good for Michelin. They still had a virtual lock on MotoGP and were part of a full factory effort by Ducati to win the AMA Superbike series after a ten year shutout. I’m sure they were still hurting from World Superbike’s decision to become a Pirelli only series but at least that affected all the tire manufacturers equally. By March, they had taken pole at Daytona, Rossi had put the hammer down in South Africa and the lap times being turned by World Superbike riders were almost two seconds off those set by Michelin riders the previous year. 2004 was going to be a sweet year.

Now fast forward 10 months. With last month’s press release that the factory Ducati MotoGP team would run Bridgestones , this week’s announcement that the Austin Ducati AMA team would run Dunlops and the requirement that the Fila SBK squad use Pirellis, the long-standing image of Ducati’s rolling on Michelin tires has been obliterated.

In fact, with Aprilia seemingly out of MotoGP and Ducatis defection Michelin has lost four Grand Prix riders while only gaining Tamada whose Honda will apparently use the French tires. Another black eye for Michelin was the clear superiority of the Bridgestone qualifying tires in MotoGP as Tamada, Roberts, Hopkins and Nakano all had impressive qualifying times during the previous season. It was even rumored that the Bridgestone rain tires were better but its much harder to quantify that since rider skill, race strategy and bike setup are so much more difficult to separate out during a wet race. (Bridgestone’s highest achievement though was their win at Motegi where a Japanese rider Makoto Tamada on a Japanese Honda motorcycle won the race using the Japanese Bridgestone tires.)

In the AMA, the Michelin tires were a clearly less developed tire compared to the Dunlops which have ruled American road race tracks for almost a decade. It is likely that some of the factory supported teams, like Valvoline Suzuki, will continue to run Michelins in 2005 but none of the factory teams will be providing the much needed technical feedback so the tire R&D can catch up to Dunlop.

Even though the Pirellis were slower at every World Superbike round, the politics of that series mean that they are unlikely to return to the former rules allowing factory teams to run their own tires. Hopefully, with so many riders helping with development, the Pirellis will become a better tire so all those lap records set on Michelin tires will eventually fall as well. On the other hand, if the Pirellis don’t improve their grip then the vicious highsides caused by lots of power and hard tires will result in so many rider injuries that another brand may be brought in to replace them in the name of safety…

Is Michelin going up in smoke? Doubtful but it does appear they’ll have to work that much harder to regain some of the ground they’ve lost for 2005.

[image from www.superbikeplanet.com]

WSBK made for some great racing last season but I think everyone was disappointed that so much of the grid was filled with customer Ducatis, rather than a mix of factory teams. It appears that things are turning around in ‘05 with a lot of non-Ducati factory-supported teams. Diversity on the grid is sure to generate excitement…

That said, I think the Pirelli spec tire rule will still be controversial. While there is no doubt it provided closer racing in 2004, it also provided slower lap times and spectacular (rider injurying) high sides as the power of the bikes overwhelmed the traction of the rear tires. MotoGP went through this (witness the injuries to Rainey, Schwantz, Doohan, et al) and WSBK doesn’t need to as well.

• First, the kings of World Superbike, the factory Ducati squad:

So, for 2005 we have:



1a) James Toseland - James had what is perhaps the most unconvincing championship season in years. At a time when the Fila Ducati squad had about three times the budget (and access to the only factory bikes) of anyone else on the grid, Toseland failed to dominate. This is only excusable because of the complete mess his pre-season favorite team-mate made of it. I think another year, and one with a lot more competition, in WSBK will help him continue to step it up as a rider. If he can dominate in 2005, then he’ll be able to hold the title with pride since he’ll have beaten a exponentially more talented field to do it. But I don’t think he’ll do it and will end up third or fourth.

1b) Regis Laconi - Jeez, what happened to him? Last season he came unglued like a cheap paperback book. Regis has spent the off-season riding a mondo-powerful GP bike, so hopefully that will help him make the factory 999 a better bike. I think it will also give him a lot more focus because he will know what the Ducati ride can offer in the future if he can bring home the bacon now. I think he’ll win the title in 2005, like he should have in 2004. If he can’t he’ll be out of a Ducati ride and maybe out of any ride. If he does win, expect him to pack his gear for a Ducati GP ride in 2006.

• Second, Ten Kate Honda, who nearly pulled out a championship last year without any major factory support:

1a) Chris Vermeulen - Whoo hoo, what a star this kid turned out to be. With the power of Ten Kate’s engine builders behind him, he put a bitch-slapping on Ducati that hasn’t been done since Colin Edward’s thrilling 2001 WSBK championship. In fact, it may actually be a mistake for Honda to officially help Ten Kate since their underdog status in 2004 made them an instant fan favorite. I think Chris, especially if HRC starts helping the team, will be the biggest challenge to Fila Ducati for the championship.

1b) Karl Muggeridge - Carl has loads of talent, as his Supersport championship shows, and he’ll be on a rocket of a bike. Still, I don’t think he’ll be able to pull it off in his first season, if only because his teammate already has a year of WSBK under his belt. Additionally, Muggy spent a lot of time crashing in Supersport before putting it together for a season and I think he may have the same over-enthusiastic throttle hand his first year on the big bike. Either way, expect the two Ten Kate bikes to be spectacular…

• Third, the Foggy Petronas team with all new riders:

1a) Garry McCoy - If McCoy couldn’t get it done on a customer Duc, he ain’t gonna get it done on the Petronas. In fact, I was hugely disappointed in McCoy in 2004, since at early rounds it looked like he was going to regain the form he’d lost after getting punted off the WCM 500 GP bike for two straight seasons. Sadly, that didn’t happen and he spent most of his WSBK season fighting with people he should rightfully have spanked. Now he’s on the finicky Petronas and riding for Foggy, neither of which I think will improve his results.

1b) Steve Martin - Its a worse disappointment that Martin is on the Petronas that McCoy, as Steve showed impressive tenacity all during the 2004 season. Sure, he had the advantage of being Pirelli’s WSBK development rider for the past two seasons but with things more on an equal footing he also showed he could dice for the podium. I think he’ll slip backwards in 2005 because of the bike. 2004 may have been his career high water mark…

• Alstare Suzuki steps back into World Superbike with:

1a) Troy Corser - This is the best new development for the series. Alstare is back and this time with a rider that has more hunger that anyone. After languishing for years as the lead development rider for Petronas, Corser knows he only has one season to restore his reputation before he’s sent packing for the old folk’s home. He’s perhaps the most talented rider on the grid and probably the most determined too. Unfortunately, I think Suzuki will struggle getting the GSXR into WSBK trim and learning the Pirelli tires and that will ultimately spoil Corser’s season. Still, I’d love to see Corser, along with the Ten Kate boys, booting the Fila guys off the podium for a season.

1b) Yukio Kagayama - Yagayama had a up and down season in the British series. He was often winning and always spectacular but also managed to get hurt when his wild riding went a little too far. Sadly, I think he’ll suffer the same fate in 2005, though I suspect his on-the-edge riding style will get plenty of camera time but his Pirelli inspired highsides will probably be what make the Sunday footage highlights.

1c) Gregorio Lavilla - This hasn’t been announced but I’d guess that Lavilla will get a go aboard the GSXR. He was Suzuki’s development rider in 2004, including a couple of wild card rides in MotoGP, but that roles has been taken by Nobuatsu Aoki in 2005. He’s the last person to ride a factory supported Suzuki in WSBK, gets on well with the Alstare guys and is sitting around without a ride. Besides, he’s Spanish and any rider from Spain with a pulse can apparently bring in buckets of sponsorship cash. If he can find the fire he had in 2003, he could be a contender but I doubt it will happen quickly enough for him to be in the hunt.

• Zongshen may be back with their re-badged Suzukis and riders:

1a) Norwick Nowland - Talk about a let down! Prior to the Valencia race last season, a lot of PR material was spewed out about how the 2003 World Endurance team was coming to WSBK and would be a force to be reckoned with. Well, I reckon they wasted a bunch of yen, cause the Chinese team was nowhere to be seen in 2004. In 2003, they claimed they’d have their own bike in 2005 but I’ll be surprised if the come back at all. Then again, they claim to be working on a MotoGP bike, so they better learn to swim in the WSBK waters before going where the monsters be in MotoGP.

1b) Piergiorgio Bontempi - Well, he barely made the top 15 last season. At least these guys make the Petronas team look good. The Zongshen team couldn’t convert World Endurance experience into World Superbike wins last season and if they’re back in 2005, they’re gonna get hammered even worse as the level of talent and equipment has jumped considerably.

• Kawasaki is back in the mix with PSG-1 and riders:

1a) Chris Walker - This would have been exciting news, if it had happened after Walker was sacked from the Honda Shell GP squad in 2001. The Stalker on a 1000cc version of his beloved Kawi in World Superbike?!?!? But after his 2002 season fighting the underpowered ZX-7RR and now two years struggling on the Petronas, its too little too late. Instead of signing with Foggy, perhaps he should have gone the Hodgson route and returned to the British Superbike series to regain his confidence and hone his skills. I think he’ll improve Kawasaki’s showing but won’t be able to challenge the Duc, Honda and perhaps Suzuki and Yamaha for the championship.

1b) Mauro Sanchini - I think Sanchini has been racing Kawasakis in WSBK for so long that the factory couldn’t dare let him go now that they are coming back…I think he’s done remarkably well for someone who’s background was racing scooters but I don’t think he’ll beat his teammate, much less win races. Then again, maybe I’m just bitter than PSG didn’t hire Chili.

• Yamaha are also back in the World Superbike arena with riders:

1a) Noriyuki Haga - Like having Walker on a WSBK Kawasaki, this is total “Back to the Future” stuff. Wasn’t Haga supposed to be aboard a factory Yamaha in WSBK last season? Anyway, never ever underestimate Haga. His success aboard the Renegade Ducati, not to mention the PR effort brought on by his association with graffitti artist Koji, has to have Yamaha officials salivating. However, I think they probably busted their racing budget on their MotoGP “dream team” of Rossi and Edwards and won’t have the money to build a WSBK effort that can equal Ducati. That means Haga will, like last year, be fighting with second tier equipment. I think he’ll get a top 5 in ‘05.

1b) Andrew Pitt - Pitt has landed in WSBK after his MotoGP outings on the Moriwaki and that experience is bound to help the 2001 Supersport champ out in ‘05. Still, I think he’ll be the “B” rider on the team and that’s going to hold him back. Then again, Yamaha will fight the same daemons as Suzuki in getting their R1 into WSBK fighting trim and figuring out the Pirelli tires…Expect him to fight a season long battle with Muggeridge and Walker.

Rumors are still flying and they involve a few big names:

1a) Frankie Chili - What has the guy got to do? For the past two season’s he has amazed everyone by winning races and being in the championship hunt while aboard a second tier customer Ducati. Hell, in 2004 he even did it on a 2003 998. He is a media darling, he has a bigger fan base in England that Toseland and probably a bigger fan base in Italy than some of the MotoGP riders (excepting Rossi and Biaggi, of course). In what parallel universe must I exist in which this guy can’t have a ride for 2005?

1b) Ben Bostrom - Rumors of a second Honda team, including BBoz, continue to bubble up here and there. Personally, I don’t see it happening because Honda is always so stingy with their bikes. Ducati? They’ll sell to anyone with a check book. Suzuki? Just say Corona is involved and you’ve got a bike. Even Yamaha seems willing to provide bikes to privateer teams. But Honda? No friggin’ way. However, if the earth moves and hell gets frosty enough for Benny to get a Honda, I still think he’ll struggle. Maybe a year of Supermoto would build his confidence or another year of being fleeced by Mladin would get him focused but gifting him with another WSBK season isn’t gonna light his fire.

1c) Giovanni Bussei - Alright, so technically Bussei doesn’t have a 2005 ride but after the show of sportsmanship he showed by giving title-contender and Honda rider Vermeulen a lift after his crash at Imola, he certainly deserves one. In fact, if Ducati severs its long standing support of Bussei because of the Imola incident, they should get the collective finger from the other riders. That said, Bussei hasn’t shown much spark as a 749R or a 998RS rider so won’t factor in the championship either way…

1d) Sebastien Gimbert (Yam R1) - Gimbert made a big splash at this past season’s Magny Cours race and is expected to perhaps run as a privateer full time in 2005. Then again, he is the 2004 World Endurance champ and was riding on his home track so maybe it wasn’t such a big splash after all. I’m sure he’ll again be a force if he races the French tracks in 2005 but will probably be duking it out with Sanchini and the other wild cards at other race tracks.

[image from motorcycle-usa website]