I think all sports fans probably feel that their favorite athletes deserves more pay (though I’m baffled by how fans of the “Big 4″ of football, hockey, baseball and basketball can possibly think anyone involved is *underpaid*). I’m also aware of the economics of the whole thing where the money available is directly related to the popularity of the sport. Despite all that I’m still appalled by how little motorcycle racers make relative to the risks they take. I just did some quick googling and found that most professional golf tournaments have purses *per event* in the range of $1 million. The 2005 Asia Golf Tour has a total prize over 14 rounds of $20 million. By comparison, last year the combined purse for all finishers in the AMA Superbike class at just one round was around $40,000. Now, its not that I have anything in particular against golf. I find it boring but then again I find a lot of things boring so that’s really not a big deal. But I can’t believe that someone can earn a $1 million bucks in one day for swinging little clubs at little balls while most professional roadracers are literally putting their lives on the line for a fraction of that per race.

Over the past few weeks I’ve done a couple of blog postings giving the health updates for the riders in the various roadrace series. Unfortunately, this past weekend has added new names to the list:

Topping the list is the popular Czech Team M4 Emgo Suzuki rider Vincent Haskovec. Vincent was seriously injured in an accident at Infineon Raceway when he crashed his Formula Xtreme bike. He was slammed into trackside tire wall and was then hit by his Suzuki as it cartwheeled into the barrier behind him. Initial reports show a broken collarbone, broken ribs, punctured lungs and an ominously vague “back injury”. There hasn’t been any updates on the Team Hammer web site despite surgery being performed on Monday. I’m trying not to be too grim but my fingers are certainly crossed for Vincent. Whatever the extent of the injuries my thoughts are with his team, friends and family.

Also on the injured list is Jason Pridmore who suffered a huge crash at Barber which very nearly killed him. He was highsided off his GSXR and came down flat on his stomach. The impact split open his spleen and started lots of internal bleeding. Thankfully, the injury was found but not before Jason lost a lot of blood. It was a welcome site to see Jason hobbling around the pits at Infineon and it would appear he is well on his way to full recovery. He will miss this weekend’s race at PPIR but should be back for Rd America in early June.

The French doctors got a chance to chat with MotoGP star Max Biaggi on Saturday after he got thrown off his RC211V. His hard landing resulted in bruising on his back and a knee injury. Max went on to race on Sunday and even netted an impressive fifth place finish but apparently the knee injury was bad enough that he skipped Monday’s test. Max started the year with a broken ankle and now has a bum knee. Not exactly how his dream year as a factory Honda GP star was supposed to work out.

Also visiting the hospital this past weekend, though thankfully for less severe injuries, were MotoGP riders Alex Barros and Shane Byrne. Barros had a painful visit to the LeMans gravel traps after loosing the back end of his Honda and getting slammed down on his back. He checked out of the doc shack with just a lot of bruising but the scene on TV of Barros lying in the gravel trap was a worrisome sight.

The other big name getting press for the wrong reason was KTM-Proton’s Shane Byrne who had a huge highside on the first lap of the MotoGP race at LeMans. The accident resulted in some cuts and bruises on Byrne’s back which, when combined with the scars on his hands after a scooter crash in Jerez, make him the Dr. Costa poster child of the ‘05 MotoGP paddock.

So its this grim news, week after week, that have me feeling that these guys just don’t make the money they should. Sure, there are big names that make decent salaries but other than the top few names in both the international MotoGP and national AMA series the bulk of motorcycle racers are getting a pittance for their effort. This is amplified when you take into account the relatively short time span of a professional roadracer’s career and the likelihood of injury during that time period. I just hope that AMA roadracing will eventually gain the popular following that it deserves and that if/when that happens, some of the money that will be generated makes it into the pockets of these gritty riders.

[image from the Team Hammer web site.]

Yet another week with more of the same when it came to the big race series…Rossi and Mladin showing why they are multi-time champions in their respective series. They are making it excruciatingly difficult for me to keep my blog interesting. I mean, how many times can I type the word “dominating” before people start wondering if they are reading a new post or an old one? Anyway, on to my re-caps:

First, the AMA series. Mat Mladin put on another commanding performance and won both rounds of the doubleheader at Infineon Raceway in California. In fact, his biggest challenge appeared to be trying to win a race with at least a 15 second margin of victory. Talk about confidence! In both races, Mladin started out fast, pulling a comfortable lead as soon as the green light was lit. The first race was started twice because an accident in the opening two laps resulted in a complete re-start so we got to watch him take off two different times. At the first attempt to run the race Mat took of with such amazing…dare I say?…dominance that he pulled a five second gap on the first lap. Wow. No one came close in either the second start of race one or in race two. In fact no one could even see Mladin on the track in front of them in either race. Behind the #1 Suzuki, the race was a little more interesting, especially in race two. The front runners in the first race were all strung out with Yates and Hodgson filling out the podium but never really dicing. In the second race, the two Suzuki teammates of Yates and Spies duked out it out to the finish with Yates getting the nod for second over the young Texan. Behind the all-Suzuki podium finishers, the real surprise was Jake Zemke storming through for fourth ahead of Hodsgon. What made this particularly exciting was that both factory Hondas had to pit in race one with tire problems so neither were expected to make such a huge improvement in 24 hours. Maybe the Hondas are starting to see some measurable results from their development work. It may yet be possible that we could see Zemke and Duhamel fighting for podiums during the rest of the Superbike season. With Mladin firmly back in control of the championship, we’ll have to find excitement whereever we can.

Perhaps the best televised race all weekend was the AMA Supersport race. It shows why Supersport racing should be more popular than the Superbikes. While Mladin was squashing his opponents like play things, the three front runners in Supersport were crawling all over one another and riding like they were the premier class. In fact, the top Supersport bikes would have qualified in the top 10 on the “premier” Superbike grid! Maybe Kawasaki should consider running their 600 in other classes like they did in the old 750 Superstock? In the Infineon Supersport fight Tommy Hayden, Jason Disalvo and Jamie Hacking couldn’t have been any closer for the entire race and all three put their bikes through the wringer. Head shakes, tank slappers, rear tire slides, stoppies and wheelies were the norm from start to finish. In the end, Tommy barely held ‘em off for the win with Disalvo taking second. This gives Tommy the points lead again over Hacking.

In MotoGP, it was Rossi again putting on a spirit crushing defeat to his main Honda rivals. This was particularly harsh for Gibernau who actually looked like he could win the thing. Despite the predictable result, the race started out interestingly enough. Rossi, Gibernau and Biaggi all got lousy starts and it was actually Colin Edwards, Nicky Hayden and Loris Capirossi who led in the early stages. Eventually the usual suspects made their way forward with Edwards leading Rossi for much of the race. As the laps wound down, Sete started charging forward on the Honda and actually gained time to the tune of half a second a lap on the two Yamaha riders. Meanwhile, Honda mounted Hayden found a reverse gear on the RC211V and went backwards. With the Spainard charging forward, Rossi made a move on his American teammate and started to pull away. Gibernau also got passed the Yamaha of Edwards and closed up to the back tire of the Italian. Despite consistent pressure, including fastest laps by both Rossi and Gibernau on the final lap, the highly anticipated pass never came. Rossi won again, adding more points to his championship lead, with Gibernau and Edwards finishing out the podium.

My cheers and jeers for the weekend:

Once again, a hearty thumbs up to Neil Hodgson for learning a very difficult, very technical circuit fast enough to get a podium in one of the two races. There are AMA series regulars that have been to Infineon for many years and are still struggling to learn the place.

The Ironman award goes to Ben Spies for racing another weekend with a fractured tailbone and carding forth and third place finishes in the two races. While he lost the series point lead at Infineon, he did what he could to keep his championship hopes alive.

My perennial favorite Tommy Hayden gets a “If only there were justice in the world” shout-out by again showed his maturity in stepping up to win a tough race and re-take the championship lead. Once again, Kawasaki should be bitch slapped for not having this guy on a Superbike.

A “Raise your hand if you’re surprised” prize goes out to Kurtis Roberts who didn’t make the second race at Infineon after a horrible finish on Saturday. The reason was because of a crash but given his attitude about riding and developing the Erion CBR it shouldn’t have shocked anyone to see the #80 missing from the grid.

The Oh-my-f’ing-god award goes to Rossi for again showing how amazing he really is. He got a lousy start, passed everyone like they were putzing around in practice and won despite huge pressure from Gibernau…Wow.

Consolation prize goes to Edwards for finally netting the kind of result at LeMans everyone was expecting in the first three races this season. If the Texas Tornado really wants to send the “up yours” message to his detractors, as he said in the press conference, then he needs to do this every weekend.

A reluctant jeer goes out to Nicky Hayden for turning what looked like a turn around ride into another let down. I don’t doubt the guys ability but this may be his last year to break through. The difference between MotoGP stardom and being an also-ran is getting the bike setup quickly, consistently running fast laps and then having the skill to ride around problems if/when they occur. He is tantalizingly close but its hard for a fan to keep the faith.

Another sigh of disappointment to the KTM-Proton team. Their first race on the new KTM motor didn’t last more than one lap before Byrne crashed his way to the hospital. They’ve gotta get some track time if they are ever going to move forward with their program and with only one rider, especially one who is regularly visiting Dr. Costa, it isn’t going to happen.

The final raspberry goes out to the MotoGP experts who predicted that LeMans would be a Honda track. Two Yamahas on the podium and a third win for Rossi shows that every track may now be a Yamaha track, or at the very least, a Rossi track.

[image from the SpeedTV web site.]

This weekend is another busy one as three different series offer up some viewing entertainment: MotoGP, AMA and MRA.

First off, the local MRA will be racing down at Pikes Peak International Raceway. While I’m not a fan of the track this weekend it does have two things going for it: 1) It is a chance for our local roadracers to get some track time at PPIR which can help them be more competitive next weekend with the AMA show comes to town and 2) since its does offer pre-AMA track time, some of the fast privateers who regularly race the national series may show up so they can get a leg up as well. As a result, this weekend’s MRA race should offer up some good racing and maybe give a sneak preview about what will happen among the non-factory boys on May 22nd.

The second event of the weekend will be the AMA double header at Infineon Raceway in California. All the press releases will be asking the question “Can anyone stop Mat Mladin?” but I’m a bit more cynical. I’m asking “How badly will Mat Mladin beat the rest of the field at this race?”. Mat has won three of the last four races at the Sonoma track. The other race was won by Miguel Duhamel. Given the problems the Hondas are having with their in-house development, I doubt Duhamel will be able to to repeat his victory from last season. The best chance for a challenge to Mladin will likely again be from his teammates. Yates as always run well at Infineon and Spies, the current Superbike points leader, has been a contender at most of the races this season. Infineon is a very technical track which means Hodgson will have to learn it quickly to have any chance of stepping up against the Suzukis. If its gonna happen for Neil, expect it to be in race two. EBoz seems to be coming around but I don’t think he’ll make a big enough leap to win this weekend on the Duc. The support classes are gonna be interesting as well. Supersport is a neck-n-neck battle between Jamie Hacking and Tommy Hayden. Can either stamp their authority on the series? Superstock has been a great battle manufacturers, a welcome change give the classes Suzuki dominance in the past. The top ten are separated by only ten points and includes two Yamahas, two Suzukis and a Kawasaki. Yamaha are coming on strong as the season develops can the others follow? Finally, only one point separates Zemke and Duhamel in the Honda Xtreme…oh, sorry…Formula Xtreme class. Can the factory supported teams keep up? Does anyone care? Should make for five exciting races over the course of the weekend.

The weekend’s menage a trois will be capped off when the MotoGP bikes take to the track at Le Mans for the French GP. This race is guaranteed to be interesting because the Honda versus Yamaha duel is heating up. Rossi has won two of the three GPs but the Hondas of Gibernau, Melandri and Barros have consistently run with him. Le Mans, at least on paper, is a Honda track. Lots of slow turns and lots of acceleration between corners. Then again, China looked like a Honda track but with torrential rain it became a Yamaha track. With the forecast calling for rain in France, the same may be true at Le Mans. If it does rain, expect a lot of unexpected riders to move to the front: Both Roberts and Hopkins are rain riders. Jacque nearly won China in the wet and being French would love to do the same this weekend. Barros seems to run well in the wet. Tamada’s replacement van der Goorbergh finished a fantastic sixth in the Shanghai rain and has nothing to loose in his last ride on the Minolta bike. Also worth watching: the KTM/Proton is back this weekend with a new motor, so lets see if they can finally move forward with their program. Nakano was running well at China before being sidelined with a mechanical. Can he bounce back to another top five finish like at Jerez? Melandri has been the second most consistent rider this season (3rd, 4th and 2nd) behind Rossi. He leads both Gibernau, Biaggi and Barros in the points and has become an unexpected challenger to Rossi. Can he step up and beat his friend Vale? Both Gibernau and Biaggi see themselves as Honda’s lead riders so better put in a good showing if they want to keep the R&D focus from shifting to Melandri.

There are a lot of questions for both AMA and MotoGP fans after just a few races in each series. Lets see if this weekend’s races offers any answers or just more question marks.

[image from the Gresini Racing web site.]

One thing I’ve been meaning to add to the web site is a section where I can give companies a thumbs up or a thumbs down for their customer support. I regularly see sites that review products but rarely do I hear a mention of people’s experience with a company, unless its a write up bitching about something breaking. Personally, I understand that things sometime break and what I care about is how the manufacturer deals with that more than I am about outright device reliability.

I’ve posted before on here that I’ve done some bone-headed things…Pretty much all of my “Box of Shame” postings are evidence of this. Despite the fact that they often reflect negatively on both my intelligence and skills, I post them in the hopes that others can learn from them and avoid some of those same mistakes. Well, this new series of articles will hopefully have a similar affect by giving readers recommendations of some companies that, at least at the time of the article, offer the kind of product and customer support that deserves mention. As an aside, many of these articles are necessary because I did something stupid and had to call for support in the first place. Even if the company information isn’t useful you will hopefully get some sort of sadistic pleasure in reading about my misfortune.

The Motorcycle Safety Foundation is a wonderful organization. They teach a lot of crucial information about safety and they help new riders become old riders. Among the nuggets of knowledge they pass along in their courses is the following “Always put your helmet on the ground or else gravity will put it here for you”. Wise words that. Still, despite having taken at least four different MSF courses, I still have the bad habit of leaving my helmet on top of my motorcycle when I park it in the garage at night. Well, this week I walked out to find that gravity had indeed done its work and my helmet was lying on the garage floor. I happened to have a HJC Chatterbox FRS-X2 on my Shoei at the time so that I could listen to MP3s while I rode. The weight of the batteries apparently helped make sure that the Chatterbox hit the floor first when the helmet took its dive. (Why scratch up a five year, beat-up helmet when you can crack a new $150 radio unit instead?). The result is that the removable panel which houses the batteries ad the latching tabs break off.

Realizing the only fix was to call HJC and humbly admit by idiocy, I picked up the phone and called the customer service number listed on their web site. A chipper fellow answered (why do I always get the cheerful guy when I call to tell someone I made a stupid mistake and broke their product?) and I hesitantly asked if they offered replacement battery compartment panels and how much it would cost me. Imagine my surprise then when, instead of greedily rubbing his palms and dreaming of record quarterly profits, he said “No problem, I’ll send you one for free”. Huh? Excuse me? I must have misunderstood. Did you say free? Yup, he popped it in the mail that afternoon. While I had him on the phone I asked him some questions about a problem I was having with my wife’s Chatterbox (the older model FRS-X2 won’t work with the new noise reducing headset but the newer model works fine with the old headset).

That’s my kind of company. Now I’m sure if everyone on the internet started calling wanting free parts they would have to stop this practice but I’m not worried about having so many blog readers that their phones will be ringing off the hook. What I do hope to accomplish is to show that there are companies out there that go the extra mile to make their customers happy and HJC is one of them. I’m willing to buy my future Chatterbox accessories, like the noise reducing headset I need, directly from them rather than trying to score a cheaper deal off ebay. I want to give my money to companies that care about their product *after* the sale.

As for the Chatterbox unit itself, I still have mixed feelings. The unit works pretty well as an intercom but I found you have to be very careful with the cable to the passenger’s helmet. If it flaps about in the wind, it will break something inside the connector. We went through two before finding a secure way to mount it. It is also very important that the helmets have some sort of guard around the chin area or you get so much wind noise that the voice activated mic is constantly on. Once I get the correct headset in my wife’s helmet, we’ll try the bike-to-bike radio functionality. My only other complaint is that there isn’t an easy way to use just the speakers. I’d like to attach a MP3 player to the speakers but the only way to do that is to mount the FRS unit and use the audio-in jack on the Chatterbox. If I could just wire up an adaptor that would go from an RCA jack on the mp3 player to the funky HJC mini-DIN jack I could use the speakers without requiring the FRS-X2. Those issues aside, the FRS-X2 seems to be a well made and reliable unit…just don’t leave it sitting around on top of your bike or you’ll learn a lesson you should have learned in the MSF course!

[image from the Kneedraggers.com web site.]

With the AMA Superbike season one third of the way over a few things have become pretty clear. One of those is that American Honda’s decision to build their own Superbikes has proved to be quite a challenge to the two factory riders and to the Erion factory supported team. While Duhamel and Zemke have made some brave runs on poorly handling bikes, they are inevitably racing for the honor of not being the last factory bike rather than having a chance at challenging the incredible factory Suzukis. Another thing that has become clear is that the pressure of being on an uncompetitive bike is again bringing out the worst in Kurtis Roberts.

The situation in Formula Xtreme is less clear. Honda CBR600RRs have dominated in that class but have also done so with no other full factory bikes on the grid as competition. The question can’t yet be answered of whether Honda’s AMA Superbike woes are because they lack the time to test the full variety parts available or whether they don’t have the R&D resources to compete with an established factory supported teams like Yoshimura or directly with factories like Ducati. Until some other factories enter Formula Xtreme, we won’t really be able to tell. What is clear is that the CBR1000 has sufficient power since their top speed has been on par with the other bikes. That means the problems they face are with the components like clutches, suspension and brakes. Clearly these are not combined into as complete as package that what is found on the GSXR and 999.

But where we can draw some comparisons are with the riders. While it seems unlikely that Roberts will be challenging Mladin on the track, he is giving the five time AMA Superbike champ a run for his money in the arena of bitching every weekend. As I’ve mentioned in a previous blog posting anytime there is a TV camera or journalist near by you can be sure Mladin can find something to complain about. Well, now it appears to be Roberts turn as he’s been pretty vocal after the past few AMA Superbike races about the state of his Erion Racing CBR1000RR. He even issued a veiled threat that he would quite riding the bike if results don’t improve…and the results thus far definitely haven’t been good: 9th at Daytona, a second in his one-off ride in the Daytona 200, back-to-back DNFs at Barber, a 12th and a DNF at Fontana. Ouch!

Now I’m not an insensitive type. I understand that a talented racer will always want to win. If the rider isn’t winning, especially if its because of inferior equipment, they will eventually start to complain. But given the fact that Kurtis spent last year venting about his father’s Proton bike it is getting pretty old to hear him griping about the Erion bike.

In the grand scheme of things, Honda made a big business decision last year. Roberts knew it was in the works when he signed with Erion. The two factory riders, both of whom are also struggling for results, have buckled down to the hard task of developing the CBR into a Superbike. Kurtis is getting a big fat paycheck and is certainly expected to do the same. If he can’t get his head around this task, stop bitching about the bike and start providing some meaningful effort then he’ll burn a very big bridge with both Erion and Honda. It would be a shame for the youngest son of King Kenny to talk his way out of a factory supported ride. This would be doubly tragic if it ultimately keeps him from ever having a shot at a Honda MotoGP ride, since Honda’s seven GP riders make up one third of the entire grid. Pissing off Big Red means he’d have just shot 33% of his chance of returning to the world’s premier series.

Mladin gets away with all his whining and griping because he has been on a great bike, with a great team and has put in great rides to bring home the goods for Suzuki. Until Roberts can do the same, he needs to zip it and use his considerable talent to help Honda build a bike that could be competitive in the future. If he can turn the CBR into a bike capable of carrying the number 1 plate then he’ll have a blank check for complaining about the bike, the riders, the tracks, the race organizers, the press and whatever else ticks him off each weekend.

[image from the Thousand Oaks Honda web site.]

My grandfather was a soldier in the US 3rd Army during World War II. For years he has had nightmares from a moment during the war when a German grenade landed in a fox hole with him. Regularly wakes up remembering that moment of terror that came with knowing it was about to blow up while he scrambled to escape. Well, while the severity of the situation is completely different, I think that Attack Kawasaki’s Josh Hayes may be having a bit of that stomach wrenching and cold sweets each morning before he shows up at the AMA races these days.

Josh is a fantastic rider, in my opinion he is probably the most underrated rider in the 2005 AMA paddock, and he seems to be a genuinely good guy. His performance last season aboard the then-new ZX-10R with the barely factory supported Attack Kawasaki squad was amazing and he finished the season in eighth place as the leading privateer. He made waves at some of the races by leading practice sessions and out qualifying factory bikes at some events including an amazing practice session at horsepower hungry Brainerd. This season it looked he would have a chance to improve on that by getting more factory support for the Richard Stamboli run team, along with the advances that can be made to a bike in its second model year of being raced.

Unfortunately, this season Josh has been sitting on top of a grenade at every race. His start to the season in the AMA Superbike race at Daytona was short indeed as his ZX-10R went bang on the first lap. Disappointing to say the least since the likable rider from Mississippi ran some credible times in practice and qualifying. Even his one-off ride in the Daytona 200 on a Attack ZX-6RR started off with a front row qualifying position but ended just a few laps later with a smoking motor. Just to show this wasn’t a one off occurrence, the Superbike spec Kawasaki has since retired at both Barber and Fontana. Even Hayes’ teammate hasn’t been immune to this explosive trend as his Daytona 200 ended on lap one due to a mechanical failure.

Clearly, the team has gone one step too far in their effort to get competitive power out of their Superbike and Formula Xtreme bikes. The only reason that Attack Performance goes racing is for the marketing for their performance parts. Their current results aren’t going to be doing much to drive customers to their sales counter, so I’m sure they’ll be working overtime to turn this thing around.

As I’ve said in other blog postings, I’m a sucker for the underdog, especially when the underdog is such a genuinely nice guy. I’d like nothing more than to see some of the AMA Superbike egos get popped by Josh and his non-factory Kawasaki. Unfortunately, they’ll have to make the ZX-10R less of a time bomb before that is going to happen. In the meantime, Josh will have to dig in a little deeper in his fox hole and try to keep that acid in the pit of his stomach under control with a little Pepto.

[image from the Attack Performance 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.]

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

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

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

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

[image from the AMSOIL web site.]

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

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

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

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

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

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

[image from my photo collection.]