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

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

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

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

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

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

[image from the Suzuki web site.]

I’m not a particularly patriotic type. Over the past few years I’ve come to associate a lot of flag waving and proclamations of American pride with bullheaded moralizing and blind support of an power mad government. But this past weekend I was genuinely happy to see Nicky Hayden riding a victory lap of Laguna Seca while flying the Stars-n-Stripes.

I had the good fortune of going to California this past weekend to watch the first running of a Grand Prix race in the US in eleven years. The event was huge, drawing over 40,000 on Friday for practice and selling out with nearly 60,000 showing up on both Saturday and Sunday. Cramming in practice, qualifying and races for the MotoGP stars, the AMA series and the SuperKarts made for a busy weekend. Adding in demo laps for the fans, a few laps of honor for the Motoczysz C1, Randy Mamola’s two-up rides and some stunt shows by Christian Pfeiffer meant every minute had something for the fans to enjoy.

Getting to see and hear the MotoGP bikes live was definitely the highlight of the weekend. The races could have been more closely fought but were interesting nonetheless. Likewise, the track experience could have been more enjoyable as the Laguna Seca staff seemed completely overwhelmed by the turn-out: hours long traffic delays, hours long lines for the souvenir booths, insufficient seating, insufficient food and overloaded bathroom facilities. To that add in $4 sodas, limited access to the MotoGP paddock with pit passes and embarrassing goofs during the national anthem to really challenge the fans. Having laid out all those complaints, it might seem I didn’t enjoy the MotoGP weekend. Fortunately, the thrill of experiencing the MotoGP race in person more than made up for the negatives and hopefully the Laguna staff will be working to improve these issues for future races.

As it turned out the race was Nicky Hayden’s to lose. From the first time he turned a wheel on the track on Friday he was fastest. In the first practice sessions, his closest rivals were the other riders with prior experience at Laguna Seca: Troy Bayliss, Colin Edwards, John Hopkins, Alex Barros and Max Biaggi. Seven different riders broke the Laguna Seca motorcycle track record in the first practice session giving some further evidence to explain why Suzuki isn’t just running their GSXR in MotoGP. This trend continued in Saturday’s qualifying session where Nicky was the only rider to break into the 1:22 lap times turning not just one but three different twenty twos with a best of 1:22.670 earning him his first pole position.

The race was the final opportunity for Hayden to strut his stuff and strut he did, leading from flag to flag. Nicky pulled a two second gap in the first three laps then maintained it for the next 29 for the win. Each time Rossi or Edwards tried to close the distance Nicky would crank up his lap times in response. It seemed the entire audience of 60,000 fans were urging the #69 Honda on and the final lap was one continuous explosion of noise. Needless to say, it was a popular win and was made all the more emotional when Nicky came around on the victory lap with his father on the back. We fans had all that much more to cheer about during the podium presentation because Edwards held on for second place with Rossi filling out the roster.

Equally interesting was to see how the various riders responded to the Laguna Seca track. Rossi was vocal about lack of safety at various points around the track particularly in turns one and six. Marco Melandri was even more vocal but less specific. Considering he had never been to the track, Rossi qualified second and finished third. Not bad. Melandri, on the other hand, had very different weekend by qualifying eleventh and then crashing out of the race resulting in his first result outside the top four this season. Another promising young rider who struggled at the Monterey circuit was Yamaha’s Tony Elias who started outside the top 15 and finished 13th while still healing from a broken wrist. Most disappointing was Alex Barros who started on the first row but was then taken out in Melandri’s crash. Likewise, wildly popular Troy Bayliss looked like he was going to return to front running form but then ran sixth for the entire race. John Hopkins rode much harder than his eighth place finish would indicate, regularly harassing the faster Hondas and eventually finishing as the top Bridgestone rider. His Suzuki teammate Roberts, Jr had an opposite experience fading lap after lap until he took the checkers a sad 14th.

All these stories are just sidelines though. The day was all about the young American Nicky Hayden and his maiden GP win…hopefully the first of many to come.

[image from my photo collection.]

There won’t be any new postings on the blog for the next few days as I’m doing the motorcycle geek equivalent of running away to join the circus. However, in my case I’m jumping on a plane and heading for Laguna Seca for the upcoming MotoGP races. While I’d love to have ridden out, I don’t have the vacation time at work necessary to turn a four hour flight into a two day ride. I chewed up most of my leave on our two week motorcycle trip to Spain earlier this spring. As a result, I’ll be arriving at the track each day in a car rather than on a bike.

Usually I post a race preview on the blog at the end of each week. Well, I wrote one up for the USGP and was thrilled when Roadracer X magazine agreed to post it on their website. Just follow the link and read my preview there. This is the second time they’ve printed one of my articles so I’d love it if you’d support them. Chris and his crew print an awesome publication and I’m honored to be associated with them, even if its only in their electronic format. If you like roadracing and enjoy what you read on the web site then you should subscribe…you’ll love it.

I’m really looking forward to being at Laguna Seca for the return of GP racing to this country. I’ll be there Friday collecting swag, checking out the track and watching practice. I’ll be back again on Saturday to watch qualifying and the support races. Then my wife and I will both be there on Sunday for the main event. I’ll probably be walking around in a moto-gasm induced stupor but will hopefully remember enough to do some write-ups next week about my experiences.

I’ll probably be wearing a floppy green hat, a yellow “Rossi” T-shirt and babbling incoherently. If you see me, feel free to say “hi’. If you have any suggestions on best places for spectating, I’d love to hear ‘em too. Thanks for reading and I hope you too will have the opportunity to be at Laguna Seca this coming weekend.

[image from Laguna Seca Raceway web site.]

Since there isn’t any road racing going on this weekend, I’ll take a second to catch up on some other motorcycle related news. Specifically, last week’s 83rd running of the Pikes Peak International Hillclimb. This event pits racers against a 12.5 mile course laid out on the road which goes to the top of 14,110 ft Pikes Peak. The road is a mix of asphalt and dirt making it the ultimate Supermoto race. The race as been run since 1916 so its got plenty of history behind it…second only to Indy when it comes to organized motorsports competition in the US. With vehicles hurtling up through the incredible scenery its a thrilling spectator sport with all the action of rally racing but with a wider variety of vehicles involved.

While the cages (cars, trucks, SUVs, semis, buggies, etc, etc…all with four wheels. Blech!) get the top billing, there are also numerous motorcycle classes. The five classes for two-wheelers are: 750cc Pro, 500cc Pro, 250cc Pro, Supermoto and Vintage. There are also sidecar and quad classes, though I’ll leave it up to the reader to decide whether they fall into the motorcycle or car catagories. (I’d split the two saying the sidecars are motorcycles with an extra wheel and the quads are small open wheel cars…Damned cagers!)

I’m sure that sliding a bike up the Pikes Peak road is a hoot, no matter what you’re on but the ones that interested me the most were the 750cc Pro and the Supermoto classes. In particular, I thought it was cool to see that Supermoto racer Micky Dymond won the 750 class with a time of 12:12.614, the fastest of any bike during the event and a new class record. Thats averaging roughly 60 mph…pretty impressive to do when broadsliding around switchbacks with 200 ft drops for your run-off. The Supermoto class was new this year and features an actual race style start with 5 riders going up at a time rather than the single rider timed stages used in the other classes. The winner Gary Trachy put down a time of 12:18.735 which is flat out hauling for a 450cc bike that isn’t using knobbies and is dicing with four other riders. Its made all the more impressive by the fact that this time was faster than the 500cc Pro class where Davey Durelle turned in a 12:22.491. The 250cc class was topped by Nathan Conley with a time of 13:00.651. Mickey Alzola is a vintage rider, having first competed in the Pikes Peak Hillclimb in 1975. This year he was also the top vintage bike thanks to a 14:28.140 time.

Another nice thing about this year’s Hillclimb was that the purse for the motorcycle classes was increased to $12,000 spread over the five classes. Lets hope that trend continues to fly skyward as well.

[image from the Big West Racing web site.]