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.]