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.]

It has been awhile since I posted a Box of Shame posting mainly because I have been running out of interesting parts to talk about. Well, I’m man of action. As someone who is always willing to do whatever is necessary to improve the blog, I decided to create a new item last week which I can add to the Box of Shame.

First, the background: Thursday night, a little over a week ago, I ended up being at work until late. I then got home late and was then up even later trying to get caught up on my back log of computer and blog duties. The bedside clock showed 2am when I finally staggered off to bed and that same clock wasn’t looked upon too warmly when it started blaring at me to get up at 7:30 the next morning. Even as I struggled out of bed on Friday, I told my wife that I was probably too tired to ride but since I needed to go into Denver that afternoon to watch the Iron Butt Rally checkpoint I decided to ride anyway. That faint sound you hear in the background is the ominous music portion of my life’s soundtrack starting to play.

Now I have a *great* commute into work each day. The first 17 miles are prime paved twisties which drop 3,000 ft of elevation from the town of Nederland to the town of Boulder. In addition to this route which I take nearly every day, there is an entire network of old dirt mining roads that criss-cross the area and offer alternative routes. This morning, despite feeling like I had a bag of cotton balls crammed between my ears, I decided to take an alternate route down one of these mining roads rather than the paved road that I know like the back of my hand. By the way, feel free to put in ear plugs right now if the ominous music is getting too loud.

Finally, I let the fresh morning air and the excitement of checking out the Iron Butt stuff get to me and I actually started having fun with the ride. Now don’t get me wrong I’m all for fun, especially on motorcycles, its just that there is fun and there is FUN. FUN often involves doing stupid things like riding too fast or taking unnecessary risks. Things that initially seem FUN might start with the famous “Hey Bubba, watch this…” intro. In a relatively short amount of time I went from having fun to having FUN on the big Beemer…on deserted dirt roads…while sleepy. Uh-oh. The end result is that after sliding the bike around a few turns, the FUN knob got turned up to eleven which resulted in the bike getting way out of shape around a gravel coated left hander. Despite doing everything wrong (panic, cuss loudly in helmet and chop throttle) I managed not to get high-sided off the mountainside but did get enough off course that I couldn’t gather things back up. I ended up bouncing along right at the edge of the road where the big rocks and gnarly ruts are located.

It was then that a very inconveniently placed 5 ft deep nettle-filled ditch called a halt to the proceedings. Dumping a 700 lb bike into a yawning abyss is not a good idea at the best of times. It is certainly not a good idea at 8am during a work week on an empty road in the middle of nowhere. The good news is that the mix of nettles, wild raspberry bushes and assorted other weeds which filled this drainage area where so thick they acted as a sort of spring mattress for the bike. The really good news is that an Aerostich riding suit offers equally good protection against thorn bushes as it offers against pavement rash. I would probably still be pulling stickers out of my butt if I’d been wearing jeans.

It took me nearly 45 minutes to disassemble the bike (remove the tank bag, remove the saddle bags, remove the tank) and drag it up the incline to road level. Since the bike landed upside down in the ditch I wasn’t sure I could muscle the thing back upright, even with the gas tank removed, when a somewhat baffled truck happened to drive along. The owner thankfully helped me make the “flip” and then I spent another 10 minutes reassembling the bike. I then had to tear into the right hand instrument pod since the throttle was sticking. What I found when I took the various covers off was that the mirror mounts to brackets built into the front brake master cylinder. When the bike landed on the right side mirror, it broke that bracket which jammed metal into the throttle housing. I pried the chunks of metal out and put it all back together. The only other noticeable issue was the ABS computer was reporting a fault. I had no fun (and certainly no FUN) continuing on into work but at least the bike was rideable…its the old “any landing you can walk away from is a good landing” theory.

Once I got to work I called the local BMW shop and ordered a new master cylinder. Its a little known fact but apparently the Germans have found that solid gold makes a better material for building bike parts than the traditional materials. I don’t know how they manage to make a precious metal look like common aluminum but based on the price of a BMW master cylinder it would certainly seem to be gold. I also downloaded the necessary instructions from the Internet BMW Riders web site on how to reset the ABS computer. This past weekend I replaced the broken master cylinder, reset the computer and tried to buff out the various scratches. Other than a few new beauty marks, the bike is remarkably unscathed.

No matter how much I complain about the cost of the GS, it is definitely a rugged bike. To get flipped upside down into a 5 ft deep ditch and come back out so lightly damaged is really amazing. The moral of this Box of Shame entry? Don’t have too much FUN, especially if your brain isn’t working at 100%. The second moral? No matter how clear your mental faculties, a 700 lb adventure touring bike is *not* a 200 lb dirt bike. I need to save the dirt track antics for the the DRZ.

[image from my photo collection.]

This past weekend was a great one for Suzuki as the brand tied up three championships: AMA Motocross (Ricky Carmichael), AMA Superstock (Aaron Yates) and AMA Superbike (Mat Mladin). Way back in April I did a blog entry that forecast Suzuki would have a banner year in production racing and with the GSXR1000 winning both AMA classes for which it is eligible and likely to win World Superbike as well, the Hamamatsu, Japan based company have a lot to be proud of this year. However, even more proud has to be the Mat Mladin family. Not only did Mladin do what he needed to do at Road Atlanta in order to tie up the 2005 Superbike championship, his *sixth* AMA Superbike title, but he also earned pole position which finalized his sweep of pole positions for the season. He did everything in 2005, short of a Carmichael-esque series sweep, to stamp his authority on the Superbike grid. Marty Craggill, the rider sponsored by Mladin, finished out the AMA Superbike season in 7th as the top privateer which is another phenomenal achievement for Mat. Finally, he goes into pre-season testing with a new three year contract with Suzuki meaning he can enjoy his time off and then come back for winter testing focused on how to keep him championship steamroller going in 2006.

But I’m getting ahead of myself…Mladin came into the Road Atlanta round with a relatively small 21 point lead over teammate Ben Spies. Despite Mladin having been dominant all season his two DNFs, along with consistent riding by Superbike rookie Spies, meant his seemingly insurmountable mid-season points advantage had been eroded to what is paid for a single win. If Mladin had bad luck in either of the Road Atlanta races then Spies could still snatch away the 2005 championship. This meant Mladin had to walk a fine line between conservative rides that wouldn’t risk a crash or mechanical while still riding hard enough to gain valuable points. Spies, on the other hand, needed to run the table: Get the single point for pole position, get the two points available for leading the most laps in the two races and finally get the full 72 points available for two wins. From the first laps of practice, it looks like Spies hopes were evaporating fast. Mladin was fast straight out of the truck and then threw down a stunning lap in qualifying to get pole by 1.5 seconds over Spies. (As a side note, this was the 47 AMA Superbike pole position for Mat, the final needed to sweep the poles for this year and the 1:21.685 time bettered the Road Atlanta lap record by nearly 1/2 a second. Impressive!)

When the riders lined up on Saturday for race one, Spies did what he needed to do off the start by grabbing the hole shot. Unfortunately, for him, Mladin also got off to a good start and Spies lead didn’t even last one lap. Mladin went to the front and slowly pulled away. However, it appeared that Spies luck may yet improve because the race was red flagged on lap 18 because Heath Small crashed and knocked himself into another realm of (un)consciousness. The riders were re-gridded for an eight lap sprint race which appeared to favor Spies…Mladin is rougher on clutches that his Yoshimura teammate. When the race was restarted, Spies again got a great launch and held it longer, this time a full lap, before being passed by Mladin. Unlike the first stint, Mladin didn’t pull a gap and was pressured by Spies for the entire eight laps. Meanwhile the two inched away from their third teammate Aaron Yates. With two laps to go, Mladin gained a little breathing room and Yates threw his GSXR into the turn 10 gravel trap. Mladin carded his eleventh win of the season and gained another six points over Spies in the championship hunt. Yates crash was particularly painful because not only did it end another potential all-Suzuki podium but it also ruined any chance of him overtaking Eric Bostrom for third in the championship battle…ruling out a Suzuki 1-2-3 in the title race. Ouch! Yates misfortune gifted Miguel Duhamel with the final podium spot which was a nice reward for the slow but steady improvement the American Honda squad has been dealing with all season with their CBR.

On Sunday, the riders lined up for the last race of the season and all eyes were on Mladin and Spies. At the start, Mladin rocketed to the lead but an immediate red flag called everyone back for a complete restart. As was seen in race one at VIR, Mladin’s clutch didn’t hook up well on the restart and he ended up mid-pack. Spies, meanwhile, got yet another holeshot and started to pull away. It took Mladin most of the race to conservatively work his way from 20th to 4th…high enough in the points to lock up the 2006 championship. Meanwhile Yates, sensing a win was his only chance to catch back up to EBoz for third overall, was on a mission. He caught, then passed and then pulled away from Spies. Yates took the win by over 6 seconds from Spies. Neil Hodgson bookended his 2005 season by ending on the podium (this time in third, in contrast to his second place in the season opener at Daytona).

When all the points were tallied, the top five in the championship battle were:

1 - Mat Mladin (536)
2 - Ben Spies (514)
3 - Eric Bostrom (431)
4 - Aaron Yates (414)
5 - Miguel Duhamel (392)
6 - Neil Hodgson (384)
7 - Marty Craggill (331)
8 - Steve Rapp (305)
9 - Josh Hayes (302)
1o - Lee Acree (301)

Mladin now has six AMA Superbike championships, twice the number of any other racer. Additionally, his 11 race wins this season pulls him well clear of Duhamel when it comes to the total number of AMA superbike race wins. Mladin now has a total of 43. Whether you like Mladin or not, there is no denying his unbelievable talent and his unstoppable work ethic. The raw stats show that Mladin is the best superbike rider the AMA has ever seen.

If Mat’s fellow competitors have anything to look forward to in 2006, its that those same stats may provide a small glimmer of hope. His six US championships have been spread over seven years broken into two strings of three years each: Mladin topped the points table in 1999, 2000 and 2001, then winning again in 2003, 2004 and 2005. Nicky Hayden sits in the middle of that streak as he took the 2002 title. Anyone believing in numerology may having something to look forward to…for the rest, there is always the fight for second place…

[image from the Motorsport.com 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.]

In an effort to stay at least a little current, I’ll get my review of last weekend’s AMA races posted today since the next and final round of the series is this coming weekend.

This year RPM took over the promotions duty for the VIR round of the AMA Superbike series. In doing so, they also resurrected their “Big Kahuna” title for the rider that earns the most points over the two races of the double header weekend (unfortunately, it appears they haven’t resurrected the old prize where the rider that gets the “Big Kahuna” award also gets a trip to Hawaii…).

No matter how you cut it, the Big Kahuna at VIR was obvious. Mat Mladin smashed the lap record to earn pole position and then convincingly won both races. Surfers know that the most important moment of any wave is that moment when the wave breaks. From then on, the surfer can ride the face of the wave all the way to the beach. Well, I think VIR was the break in the crushing wave that will eventually become Mladin’s sixth AMA superbike title. Mladin’s double win boosts him back to a 21 point lead over young Ben Spies in the championship battle. While this isn’t an insurmountable gap the twin victories may well have been the decisive results needed to break Spies’ drive for the title.

In the Saturday event, the reigning superbike champ initially looked like he would pull one of his patented run-away wins. When the race started Spies jumped to the front but within a few laps Mladin had comfortably made the pass for the lead but that same lap the red flags came out an called the race to a halt. On the restart, Mladin got off the line horribly and, with shades of Mid-Ohio, had to to start working his way up through the pack. Over the next ten or so laps, Mladin dispatched each rider in the field until he was back up to second. Then the race was stopped a second time due to another accident. Spies’ team did a frantic clutch change during the break but Mladin’s team, probably remembering the Fontana fiasco, opted not to make change to Mat’s bike. As a result, he got another lousy start when the race was again re-started and again had to work his way through the field. Mladin seemed more focused in the third leg and rocketed back to the front, quickly passing both of his Yoshimura teammates for the lead. At that point, Mladin held on for the victory while Spies and Yates filled out the other two steps of the podium for another Suzuki sweep.

With Mladin winning on Saturday, the pressure was really on Spies to rebound on Sunday to keep this title hope alive. Unfortunately, for the young Texan, Mat missed the memo and apparently ate an extra bowl of Wheaties for breakfast. From the green flag, Mladin was on a mission. He charged through to the front and then just disappeared. He turned in lap after lap at record speeds while everyone else struggled to try to match his speed. In the end, Mladin lapped all the way up to the top 10 and won the race by 11 seconds over Yates and Spies. This marked the fifth Suzuki sweep of the podium this season. Clearly the GSXR is the bike to beat this season and with his 10 wins so far this year Mat Mladin is clearly the best of the best.

For the rest of the racers, Duhamel was at the top of the non-Yoshimura Suzuki riders, bringing his Honda home to fifth and fourth place finishes across the two races. This weekend, when combined with his fourth and second finishes from Mid-Ohio, made if four straight top fives for the Canadian. While the American Honda developed CBR isn’t yet up to the level of the GSXR, it has improved into being the second best bike on the AMA Superbike grid. Duhamel’s teammate Zemke got a fourth in the first race but then had a DNF in race two to ruin his overall stats for the weekend. Still, the Honda’s consistently beat the Ducati’s at VIR so props to their riders. Speaking of the Ducatis, both riders struggled this past weekend. Hodgson crashed out of race one but then rebounded to a fifth in the second event. Bostrom was consistent with sixth and seventh results but after his wins at Pikes Peak, Laguna Seca and Mid-Ohio, two finishes outside the top five were far below what was expected. EBoz seemed to have found something after PPIR but has apparently once again slid to the back of the factory bike pack. If 6/7 finishes were disappointing for Bostrom, the opposite 7/6 results were excellent for Josh Hayes on the semi-privateer Attack Kawasaki. Now that the Attack squad’s early season mechanical woes are behind them they are again stealing points from the full factory teams. Their success can be measured not by how far they are from the front but how many factory guys are behind them. Hayes beat a factory Ducati in each race in Virginia which has to qualify as success.

So the story of the weekend is Mladin and his regaining control over a championship battle that momentarily seemed to be faltering due to the crash at Mid-Ohio. At VIR he stepped back up and put his stamp of authority on the title fight. With only the double header at Road Atlanta left in the season Mladin continues to churn out win after win. The #1 plate can’t be given to Mladin a week early but with 41 career superbike wins the stats would back up him carrying that number again in 2006. Perhaps now he can now just ride the season’s momentum through to Georgia where he can tie up the 2005 Superbike championship. Big Kahuna, indeed!

[image from the AMA Superbike web site.]

Time to do another catch-up, this time a few updates about what has been happening in August that hasn’t warranted a full length write-up.

I think the biggest bombshell for August was the news that Valentino Rossi has signed a one year contract to continue racing in MotoGP with Yamaha in 2006. After a summer of rumors and press leaks claiming that Rossi was going to make the jump to Formula One car racing with Ferrari, suddenly Rossi is solidified in MotoGP for another year. This is great news for Dorna and the FIM both of whom will have the greatest living motor sports personality in their series for another season. It is also great news for Yamaha who will have motorcycle racing world’s greatest rider with their brand name smeared across the side of his bike in 2006. In contrast, this is devastating news for the other riders who were either hoping to sneak in one more shot at a GP title in 2006 before retiring (Biaggi, Gibernau, Barros, Bayliss, Checa) or the youngsters who are hoping to get their big break (Melandri, Hayden, Hopkins, Elias, Pedrosa). Expect the news for the 12 months to again center around Vale.

Speaking of Formula One, immediately after announcing his MotoGP extension Rossi then spent two days testing the Ferrari F1 car. It appears that this is still a pretty serious interest for the Italian though obviously not for next year. Rumors have now shifted to a possible link between Rossi and Ferrari in 2007. Perhaps Rossi is hoping to get a gig with the Italian powerhouse in ‘07 either as a full time driver or a tester. If that happens it will be a birthday, Easter, and Christmas present for the prototype cage racing crowd as they have struggled with boring racing carried out by boring personalities for years. Rossi would make a splash in the F1 world like tossing a elephant into a kiddie pool. Whether he can be competitive a whole different story…he has only been a few seconds off the pace in testing but finding those last few ticks of the stop watch is the difference between a good driver and a race winner. Still, just imagine an Italian driver in an Italian car racing in Italy where F1 racing is tremendously popular…the only thing better would be having him race a Ducati in MotoGP…

Speaking of Italians, it seems as if yet another Italian motorcycle company is struggling. Over the past half decade we’ve had Ducati’s woes (before being bought by American company TPG), Moto Guzzi’s woes (before being bought by Aprilia), Laverda’s woes (before also being bought by Aprilia), Aprilia’s woes (after running out of money and then being bought by Piaggio), MV Agusta’s woes (after being rejected by Piaggio and bought by Proton) and Bimoto’s multiple woes (the latest being resolved after being purchased by a group including members of the Ducati family). Well, the latest Italian motorcycle company to take a dive is Benelli which has apparently shut down production of all their models. Benelli, one of the oldest of the Italian manufacturers, was out of business for a long time after going under in the ’60s but revived in the 1990s. Now it looks like they are again having money problems and unless they can pull out of their nose dive the awesome looking TNT naked bike and innovative Tornado Tre sport bike seem doomed. It is also unfortunate since Benelli is one of the few companies in the past couple of decades that has been willing to go head-to-head with the Japanese in World Superbike racing. Lets hope they somehow manage to resolve their financial crisis and that Benelli continue to make their interesting motorcycles.

One rescue that has already taken place is that of the AMA Supercross series which has found a new home with SpeedTV after being cut loose from ESPN2. This appears to be a move for the better since it seems that Speed is going to make Supercross their flagship motorcycle program as opposed to jamming it in between semi-pro volleyball matches and bass fishing. Supposedly this is a multi-year contract so hopefully this will keep Supercross’s TV status assured for the foreseeable future. It remains to be seen what will happen with AMA Motocross TV coverage which is currently being shown on OLN.

To continue with the TV thread, how about the three Hayden brothers (Tom, Nicky and Roger Lee) who have been making regular appearances on the boob tube. First, Nicky was on the Today show back in June. Then in August all three brothers were on Leno and this past weekend all three were showcased on NBC’s Jeep World of Adventure Sports TV show. With MotoGP growing in popularity world wide all of this TV exposure will hopefully help give the sport a shot in the arm here in the US. I think this is quite possible not only because the sport is incredibly exicting but also because I can’t imagine better spokes persons for the sport than the three Hayden brothers. All three are talented, all three are very professional and all three are just plain nice guys. Keep those cameras rollin’.

One sport that could use some more press is the AMA ‘05 Endurocross race which is scheduled for November 19th at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas. This sport is the bastard child of an unholy union between Enduro racing and Supercross. Its a fiendishly difficult track that includes many of the challenges commonly found in an Enduro race but built into a tight track that can be assembled inside a sports arena. In the same way that Supercross has shrunk the size and quadrupled the popularity of motocross the AMA is hoping the same will happen with Endurocross which brings the excitement of technical trail riding into a more physically concentrated location. Seems very cool to me and I’d love to see it get more press.

Rossi’s 2006 plans isn’t the only MotoGP news this month. Another bomb that was dropped was KTM suddenly deciding to drop their support of the Team Roberts KTM/Proton project. KTM had been supplying engines to Team KR, as well as footing the bill for the top spec Michelin tires and covering the salary for rider Shane Byrne. Their abandonment of the project has left Kenny Roberts and this Team KR squad up the creek. For Brno last weekend they rolled out last year’s hand built V5 and brought in hired gun Jeremy McWilliams but teething problems with the motor ended their weekend early. It will be a miracle if they can scrap together the parts and funding to run the rest of the season. I had been forecasting that they would certainly be out of MotoGP by 2007 since KTM would be unlikely to build the 800cc motor necessary to meet the ‘07 rules but it looks like things are fizzling out even sooner. If anyone has $20 million or so to invest I think keeping Team KR in the MotoGP game would be a great investment…

With the 800cc rule solidified in MotoGP all the manufacturers are starting frantic development on motors to match the new format. Hot on heels of the press release of the displacement change came rumors that Honda is planning to built a V3 for the 2007 series. As with most bike rumors, only time will tell if that is true. If it is true expect Honda to go all out with a V-5 engined, RC211V based production superbike bike so that they can get some real sales benefit out of their investment in their MotoGP program. If a Hayden replica will be made just point me where to put down my deposit right now.

In lieu of buying a MotoGP based V5 sport bike then I wouldn’t mind picking up something from an auction of 130 classic bikes previously owned by Gilbert Tiger which will take place in Colorado Springs, CO on September 16th. I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for 1960s era single cylinder bikes so the BSA and Ducati bikes in the collection look particularly nice. Still, I don’t think any of these will end up in my garage since I’m still struggling with the choices available for when I finally buy a new sport bike much less trying to get rid of something else to make room for a vintage bike…

My final August Odds and Ends item is the great news that money for a new motorcycle fatalities study has been tucked away in the 2005 transportation bill that was recently approved by the US Congress. Given that motorcyclists have been forced to use the ancient Hurt report which was done twenty five years ago as the basis for all discussions resolving around bike safety, a more modern examination of motorcycle accident statistics is long overdue. It will undoubtedly take many years to gather all the necessary data to get meaningful results but once this study is complete it promises to have far reaching impacts which will hopefully help with rider training, design of safety gear and a better focus of legislative action as it relates to motorcycles.

[image from the Team KR KTM/Proton web site.]

…comes mainly because of rain!

The recurring theme for the 2005 Iron Butt Rally has been water. The 1st leg bonus list was dominated by lighthouses from coast to coast, along with various other H20 related items like dams, hot springs and water falls. Prophetically, the riders that headed east encountered torrential rains both going and returning, meaning they undoubtedly had more water in the first third of the rally than they really wanted. Added to that was the dampening of their enthusiasm when the points were tallied and those long haul east coast visitors found themselves languishing outside the top ten while those that took the relatively conservative west coast loop earned almost double the points while riding a 1,000 miles or less that the east coasters.

The water theme continued in the second leg with the majority of the bonuses being various lakes from the southern edge of Canada to the southern states of the US. The riders only had two and a half days to get from Denver, CO to Portland, Maine so it would be difficult for riders to pick up many bonuses. Its a long way from the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic coast and it seems all that much longer when you’ve spent the past five days churning out the miles on a motorcycle. Every convenience store along I-70 was probably sold out of caffeine drinks and sugary snacks last weekend! The goal set for these riders was to leave Denver at 9am on Friday, grind their way through weekend traffic on the east coast while trying to pick a route that maximized their possible points but minimized their running late and arrive in Portland at 9am on Monday morning. For every minute after 9am that they arrived they would lose points from their total. If they arrived after 11am, they were automatically disqualified. This is a nerve racking time for endurance riders but made all that much more difficult when the weather in the northeast was…yes, you guessed it, wet. If they weren’t soaked from rain, they probably were from sweat.

For those that made the Maine checkpoint, another list of bonuses was handed out and at 11am EDT Monday morning the Star Traxx web site showed the riders were again on the road. While we don’t yet know what the leg 3 bonuses look like, it is guaranteed it will again have a hydro-theme…if not because of the locations they will be visiting then because of the weather being brought into the central states by hurricane Katrina. If there are any bonuses located in the south, then it will only be the brash or fool-hearty who go after them. Southern Florida is without power and with roads that are still shut down from storm damage, New Orleans is flooded and Mississippi is reeling after being hammered by storms and record amounts of rain. The riders still in the rally that have GPS units appear to have split the storm…some hauling butt west to get into the mid-west before the storm blocked their path while others concentrated on the east coast, presumably hoping to head west behind the storm.

Information has been particularly slow to trickle out of Iron Butt central this year and data about the specifics of the bonuses are non-existent. I think most of the people following the rally were surprised to see that some crazy bonuses weren’t available in leg 2 with the stipulation that the Maine bonus could be skipped. This means that the big rally winning bonuses are in the leg 3 packet. Now the rally truly boils down to an endurance test…those that still have some shreds of energy tucked away in their body and can still collect their thoughts enough to ride hard for four more days are going to win. For the rest, its just a matter of dragging their tired bodies and tired bikes back to Denver with the hope they have enough points to qualify for a finishers award.

Among those that are going for the big finish is my buddy Jeff Earls. After the leg #2 points were tallied, Jeff was in second place 3,500 points behind Jim Owens and around 2,000 points ahead of third place Eric Jewell. So far he’s racked up 7.125 miles on his BMW R1150GS and even a direct ride from Maine to Colorado would put him in the neighborhood of 10,500 miles for the rally…impressive considering that is 11 days of riding, much of which was done in the rain. Even more impressive, Jeff has no plans to take the straight path back to Denver. Instead, he is off chasing one of the race winning bonuses. He should be one of the favorites if his bike holds together, his body can take another few days of punishment and his brain can deal with the sleep depravation just a little longer.

I’m heading down Friday morning for the finish and hope to have a final Iron Butt Rally report early next week. In the meantime, try not to buy any soda from the Denver area stores…there may be a rally rider that needs it come Friday morning.

[image from the Blackfly photo gallery web site.]