This past weekend brought about two big firsts, one for a series rookie and another for a series wildcard. Bravo to both for their successes. The other news was the exact opposite by being more of what followers of the series have come to expect.

First, the inaugural MotoGP race at the new Shanghai Circuit in China. The weather made things interesting by raining most of the weekend meaning that riders got their first shot at comparing the rain tires from Michelin and Bridgestone. In practice and qualifying, Valentino Rossi seemed to show and unexpected weakness in his armor, generally being mid-pack. The Hondas and Ducatis, presumably taking advantage of their power down the long straight, rose to the top. But some race time, things were different. The first surprise was the two Suzukis which both took turns leading the sodden race. After a few laps, however, things returned to normal as Rossi worked his way to the front and steadily pulled out a seven second gap. Behind him, the Honda teammates of Gibernau and Melandri seemed to settle into the final rostrum spots. But two riders soon started to charge forward…Kawasaki wild card Olivier Jacque (replacing Hoffman) and Honda wild card Jurgen van den Goorbergh (replacing Tamada). Since neither rider is racing the entire series, both were able to take risks that the other riders may not have been willing to take. Olivier Jacque ended up turning the fastest laps of the race and actually passed the Gresini Honda riders and close down the gap to Rossi. In the end, Rossi could undoubtedly have turned up his pace if he’d really felt threatened by Jacque but the fact that the Frenchmen closed the gap down to almost 1 second by the checkers was amazing. Sete appeared to have bike problems and slipped behind Melandri. Other riders to have bike problems were Nakano and Roberts. Hopkins ran off the wet track but stayed up right. Checa threw the Ducati away and Bayliss followed suit with his Honda. van den Goorbergh came home a credible sixth for the Minolta team. The final order was Rossi, Jacque and Melandri. The second podium finish for Melandri was great but Jacque getting his first MotoGP podium ever was even more spectacular. Jacque raced the big four strokes for two years without getting on the podium so it was an emotional moment. With Jacque also filling in for Hoffman at the French GP in a week, this had to be a fantastic boost to his confidence and a nice way for Kawasaki to offset the disappointment of Hoffman’s injury and Nakano’s mechanical.

The AMA doubleheader at Fontana California was similar but the thing which shook things up there wasn’t the weather but a series of red flags. Mladin and this all conquering Suzuki again led all the practice and qualifying sessions, usually nearly a second clear of the rest of the field. The two Ducatis both seemed to “come good” with Bostrom and Hodgson qualifying well. The Hondas were all still mired back in the pack, showing they still have a lot of work to do. And so it was the three Suzukis leading the way again. In race one, Mladin checked out, leaving his two teammates and Hodgson to battle it out for the podium. Then the race was stopped with a red flag. On the restart there was another crash and thus another red flag. With the clutches on the Superbikes not ready to take a third round of 200hp abuse, the mechanics had to do some hasty clutch replacements before the next restart. On the third waving of the green flag, it was again Mladin who pulled away and again the Ducati/Suzuki battle resumed for the rest of the podium spots. But with a few laps to go, both Spies and Mladin appeared to have bike problems. Spies momentarily slowed but then picked up again. Mladin, on the other hand, appeared to have a severe clutch problem and eventually rolled to a stop. That DNF left Spies and Hodgson unexpectedly fighting for the win. Hodgson made a mistake in turn one on the last lap and gifted the lead to Spies. Yates also passed Hodgson, making for a Suzuki 1-2 finish. The Brit got things back under control to fill out the podium. This first Superbike win for Spies was a fantastic result. For anyone to win at this level, against the dominant Mladin, in only his forth Superbike race is simply excellant. I’m sure this is just one of the many which are still to come for the talented Texan. In addition to the win, Spies also moved into the series points lead, so it was a double whammy.

In the second race, Mladin went about setting things straight. He pulled out a commanding performance, taking off from the flag to win by a substantial margin. As I predicted, there was a Suzuki sweep in one of the races and it was race two as Spies and Yates came home two-three. The two Ducatis came home in forth and fifth but with Bostrom leading a flu stricken Hodgson home in race two. Duhamel crashed in the race and finished outside the points, dropping him down in the points chase. At the end of the weekend, Spies still leads the Superbike series by three points. Yates is nine points back from Spies with Hodgson three behind Yates. Mladin’s DNF has really closed up the points battle, mainly because of the consistency of the other three riders.

My big winners for the weekend? Jacque and Spies, both breaking into the big time with a podium for the Frenchman and a win for the Texan. Both rode hard races and are plenty deserving of getting to spray some champagne.

The 250GP, Superstock, Supersport and Formula Xtreme races weren’t televised on Sunday to I’ll try to report on those later.

[image from the Superbikeplanet web site.]

Normally, my Monday posting is a review of the weekend’s racing. Well, the weather threw a monkey wrench into things so the race review will have to wait until tomorrow.

As for the weather review, the story is pretty impressive. For the past few weeks we’ve had incredible spring weather. Warm temperatures, sunny days and the winter gravel had finally blow away revealing clean motorcycling roads. Then, starting last Thursday night, the snow flakes started falling again up in the mountains of Colorado. As the last of the frozen stuff fell this morning the measuring stick shows three foot of snow over the past four days.

This wasn’t the light fluffy stuff that usual graces the high altitudes but was a wet, heavy snow that bent trees and weighted down power lines. The all important electrons quit flowing to my house four times in five days. Ah, the joys of rural mountain living! The final tally was one dead APC UPS, three dead hard drives and two crashed servers. I spent the entire weekend installing drives from my spares pool, re-installing Solaris and restoring backup tapes. As of 4am Monday morning all the servers are back up, though one of them is still propped up with iffy parts and a computer geek’s prayer. I’ll finish that one up Tuesday night after I’m caught up on sleep.

Anyway, the power of the blog has returned. I’ll get the usual weekend race review posted tomorrow. Thanks for your patience with dorje.com’s ups and downs.

[image from my photo collection.]

This weekend will be a great weekend of racing. For the first time this year, there will be three different race series I can watch in one weekend:

First, the MotoGP season holds its third round at the new Shanghai Circuit in China. This track promises to make for some exciting racing for a few different reasons. For one thing it has the longest straight of all the tracks on the MotoGP calendar at nearly 3/4 of a mile in length. The long length of tarmac will mean everyone better bring their horsepower to the 3.3 mile circuit. Honda probably has an advantage in this arena. However, the teams can’t just focus on going fast because the designers threw in four 180+ degree tight turns including one that is nearly a full 360 degrees. Some of these turns are long enough that the bikes stay leaned over on the right side of the tire for a long time. The fourteen turns on the track mean that a good handling bike, like the Yamaha, may have an advantage. Finally, this is a new track so the teams will have to figure out tires (Michelin is basically bringing one of everything since they don’t yet know what the tire wear will be like), suspension settings, fuel usage, gearing, computer settings and lines around the track. The team that can get all these myriad details sorted out the fastest will have an advantage. This may be a place where teams like Suzuki, Kawasaki and Ducati can shine. I doubt they’ll close the gap to the top Honda and Yamaha teams but they can show their stuff within their own competition to be the best of the rest. It will be very interesting to see which riders are the fastest after the first practice and whether those same riders are still among the fastest in the last practice session, as it will show whether riders are slowly and methodically building their speed or if they get up to their max speed relatively quickly and then just fine tune. Any rider that can get up to speed quickly will then be making tire, gearing, suspension and computer changes that match the speed they are likely to run in the race. Everyone else will tune as they go and may well find new problems showing up if their race time is faster than their final practice time.

A more predictable situation will present itself this weekend when the AMA series returns to California Speedway in Fontana, CA. Unfortunately for the rest of the field, Fontana has been the sole domain of Mat Mladin for the past two years. With Mladin coming off two devastating victories at Daytona and Barber, things don’t look good for anyone hoping to break Mladin’s streak at California Speedway. Despite being built in the middle of a NASCAR oval, California Speedway is a reasonably interesting track…at least as interesting as a flat, concrete wall lined bull ring can be. The track designers managed to squeeze 21 turns into the two mile NASCAR track, including some high speed left hand sweepers that give the gutsy riders a chance to show their stuff. From what we saw at Daytona, this is going to favor the Suzukis, so I predict another Suzuki sweep in at least one of the two races. Those fast sweepers put a premiun on a rider’s ability to trust his front tire and that is a weakness for both the long wheelbase Ducati and the still developing Honda.

The final race of the weekend is the series opener for our local MRA roadrace series at Pueblo Motorsports Park in Pueblo, Colorado. Of the tracks in Colorado, Pueblo may be the most interesting. It is among the longest of our tracks and has the longest straight. The track is actually part of a motorsports complex which means that in addition to watching roadracing, you can ride dirt bikes, camp and even watch drag racing in the evenings after the racing. As for the races themselves, the usual suspects should dominate: Shane Turpin, Ricky Orlando, Dan Turner, Mike Applegate, Jon Glaefke, Jim Brewer, Dennie Burke, Mark Nudelman, Marty Sims and Rich Deeming. While there have been some impressive new riders joining the series in the past couple of years, no one has yet been able to step up in the premier Race of the Rockies class to challenge the veterans like Shane Turpin, Ricky Orlando and Dan Turner. In addition to the weekend’s MRA road races, the MRA also has a Supermoto class which runs on Saturday afternoons once the morning practice is over, which makes for an even more interesting race weekend. ‘Course all this assumes that our unseasonably late snow fall doesn’t force the cancellation of the event.

Because of the weather I won’t be driving down to Pueblo for the MRA races. Instead, I’ll be spending Sunday curled up on the couch with two foot of snow outside and the TV tuned to Speed….

[image from the Shanghai Circuit web site.]

This coming weekend will be another session of fighting with the big, round, black deamon from hell. Yes, its true, no sooner than I got all my tires mounted back in February I walked out one morning to find the front tire on the DRZ was flat.

Specifically, I found that the last time I rode the DRZ I ripped the valve stem out of the tube in the front tire. I remember that I was practicing stoppies on the dirt road leading to our house but a couple of things still make this flat tire surprising: 1) I was trying to brake hard on a loose dirt road so I’m surprised it generated enough stopping power to slip the tire on the rim and 2) I suck at stoppies so I’m surprised I was able to apply that much braking force without falling down.

Nonetheless, when I went to put air in the flat front tire, I heard the tell-tale sound of air hissing out into the rim rather than filling up an inner tube. This past weekend, I broke the bead on the tire and fished out the tube to find that, sure enough, the valve stem was no longer attached. Now I’ll have to completely remove the tire so that I can extract the stub of the valve stem. While I have the tire off, I’ll see if I can install a rim lock as the front tire on the DRZ400S doesn’t have one (that lack of rim lock no doubt contributed to the ease with which the tire rotated on the rim).

In addition to spending even more time fighting with tire irons I’ll get to add to that pleasure the delicate task of trying not to pinch the inner tube. The one bonus is that when I’m finished installing the new tube and remounting the tire I’ll get to try static balancing the tire on my new Rod Neff tire balancing stand which is shown in the background. (Don’t worry, I’m aware the balancing a dirt bike tire is overkill but I’d like to get some practice before I start doing tires where balancing is important.) I bought the adjustable stand that can also be broken down flat for easy storage. Its a well made unit and, assuming I get around to buying the $BMW$ adaptor for my GS wheel, I should be able to now mount and balance the tires on all the bikes in my garage. My buddy Jeff just bought a motorcycle tire changer from Harbor Frieght which I need to go check out to see if it will fix the problem of trying to juggle three tire irons while holding a tire flat and without bending the expensive brake rotors…as if I don’t have enough toys in the garage!

Ultimately, I’m just trying to find a way to make tire changes more interesting because at the moment I’m tired of fighting with the damned things and summer is just beginning!

[image from my photo collection.]

“I still think that riding motorcycles is much, much more than a sport; pretty close to religion.”
– Keith Code

This past weekend was the American debut of a documentary film made in Canada about multi-time AMA champ Miguel Duhamel. The film Adrenaline Rush, as with many other religious functions, was shown this past Sunday on SpeedTV.

The primary focus of the film was the 2003 AMA series, the year in which Miguel won his 41st AMA Supersport race at Brainerd. As if winning 41 of anything isn’t impressive enough that race win emphasized what a determined racer Duhamel is since a crash at Infinion Raceway six weeks earlier had broken his left collarbone in three places. The fix for the shattered collarbone was to insert a pin to strengthen the bone while it healed. The pin didn’t stay in place and by mid-season was protruding out of the bone enough to pierce the skin. After an attempt to hammer the pin back into place failed, Duhamel just taped foam over the pin, took antibiotics to prevent an infection and raced anyway. Taken as a second chapter to his stunning 1999 Daytona victory after a crash at Loudon the previous season left him with a crushed left femur, the collarbone stories shows just how much Duhamel wants to race and to win. Looking at his record: 32 career Superbike wins, 5 Daytona 200 victories, 41 Supersport wins, 9 Formula Xtreme wins, 1 Superstock win, the 1995 Superbike championship, five Supersport titles (1991, 1993, 1995, 1996 and 1997) and his being the 2004 Formula Xtreme champ shows just how successful he’s been.

This is basically the story that is told in the biographical film. There are home movies of a young Miguel riding mini-bikes with his siblings, race footage from many of the key races in 2003 and 2004, interviews with family members and friends and one-on-one interviews with Miguel himself. Some of the film footage, like the post race film from Barber in 2004 where he was taken out in a multi-bike accident with Ben Bostrom, shows the less glamorous side of Miguel. It clearly shows how he tried to force a red flag after the crash in an attempt to get back into the race. While this is understandable from the viewpoint of a racer, its of questionable ethical value when considering those still in the race. This film clip also shows how that very personal decision on Duhamel’s part affects both his girlfriend and mother who were watching the race.

Ultimately, these personal glimpses are what really make the documentary a decent film. Duhamel’s personality is entertaining and getting this view into the man behind the visor makes many of the trials and tribulations that much more human. Finally, I doubt a film about a less charismatic rider would be nearly as enjoyable to watch, and it would be very difficult to find a rider that has experienced as many highs and as many lows as Miguel has during the course of his career. Both of these factors make him the perfect candidate for such a film. While this isn’t the greatest motorcycle documentary ever made, that honor is still held by On Any Sunday, it offers some great insight into motorcycle road racing in particular and into one of the AMA’s greatest in particular.

For the moment, a trailer for the movie is available online. Check the SpeedTV program schedule to see if the program will be broadcast again.

[image from the Daytona International Speedway web site.]

Back in December, I did a blog entry about an ex-Colorado racer named Nicky Wimbauer who has gone on to race this season at an international level in the newly created World 600 Superstock championship. This class, along with World Supersport and World Superstock, are support classes for the European rounds of the World Superbike series. It is a more “stock” class when compared to the well established World Supersport class (which are stock framed and “superbike” engined 600cc bikes) and was specifically created to bring new talent into the series by giving young riders under the age of 21 that have risen to the top in their national series an arena for further competition. What makes this particularly exciting is that some of the existing World Superbike and World Supersport teams have already started to support the new class. Belgian based Moto 1, a successful Suzuki supported team in World Supersport, picked Nicky as their rider in World 600 Superstock and have thus given him a great opportunity to join the WSBK circus aboard a competitive bike.

This past weekend was the first race of the class as the World Superbike series opened its European dates with a race in Valencia, Spain. Wimbauer had some challenges in qualifying and ended up 17th on the grid for the start of the race. Once the green flag fell, he showed why Moto 1 put such faith in him by charging his way through the pack to finish eighth roughly 20 seconds down on the leader. The field ahead of him consisted of two Frenchmen, two Spaniards, a German and two Italians most of whom were older than the 17 year old Wimbauer. If he continues to ride smart, finish this well and to learn at each race you can be sure we’ll see him on a Superbike very soon.

You can follow the series and Mr. Wimbauer’s results on the Official World Superbike web site.

[image from the Nicky Wimbauer web site.]

This past weekend’s superbike races would seem, at first glance, to have been a story of old timers sticking it to the youngsters. In both the World Superbike and the AMA races, 30+ year old veterans won handily over a field that included both series regulars and bright young stars. Likewise, both riders took early commanding leads in two races each and those double wins put both in positions atop the points table with large enough margins to miss a race without threatening their advantage. Impressive stories to be sure. However, I found that the race reports show an equally interesting development further down the podium.

…but first, the race reviews:

In World Superbike, it was another Troy Corser weekend. As in the first two rounds, TC was unbelievable all weekend. In both races, he jumped out to an early lead and held that till the finish. The focus therefore shifted to what was happening behind him. In race 1, that was highlighted by a crash-fest. It all started before the race when Ducati mounted title contender Regis Laconi crashed in morning practice and was too concussed to race. In the race, nearly all the Australian riders, with the exception of Corser and Vermeulen, visited the gravel including Pitt, McCoy and Martin. German Neukirchner had a particularly nasty highside on his Honda early in the race that sent Muggeridge and Lanzi off track with Italian Lanzi breaking his collarbone. The later stages of the race boiled down to a fascinating battle for second between Honda’s Vermeulen and Yamaha’s Abe. The Pirelli tires appeared once again to be crap and in the second half of the race all the riders were sliding everywhere. This finally bit Abe and sent him down the track, handing third place to Suzuki’s Kagayama. Another notable finish was Frankie Chili crossing the line in seventh just two weeks after breaking his collarbone in Australia.

The second WSBK race started as a mirror of the first with Corser clearing off early. Vermeulen put up a better fight and stayed a little closer but it still seemed TC could manage the gap, upping the pace if necessary. Once again the focus turned to the Australian youngster in second place this time because Kawasaki’s Walker made a surprise appearance at the front. As with Abe in Race 1, Walker put a tremendous amount of pressure on Vermeulen. Also as in the first race, it appeared that the Honda used up the rear tire sooner than the following bikes which made Vermeulen’s job of holding off Walker all the more difficult. In the end, the talented Honda rider did just that to take home another second place trophy. Walker performed brilliantly to get onto the podium after struggling in the early races of the season. The other big surprise for race two was Ben Bostrom’s fantastic sixth place. It appears the Renegade Honda rider may finally be getting the new bike sorted out.

In the weekend’s AMA Superbike races, the headline was Mat Mladin’s continued romp towards a sixth title. In just the second race weekend of the season, Mladin has already pulled a 22 point advantage in the points chase. This is shades of seasons past where Mladin creams ‘em early in the season and plays it smart in the second half, while others come apart under the pressure. In both races, Mladin lead immediately and just pulled away throughout the race, turning laps a second a lap faster than anyone else. The trailing pack was limited to Suzuki teammates Yates and Spies, as well as Ducati’s Hodgson. Yates was easily the second fastest guy of the weekend, able to gap the following riders but not catch Mladin. The race for third in the first race boiled down to a wonderful battle between the ex-World champion Hodgson and the superbike rookie Spies. At the end, Spies threw down an amazing move through traffic and clinched the final podium spot.

The second day’s Superbike race at Barber Motorsports Park started with another rocket maneuver from Mladin. Second was briefly a battle between Yates and Hodgson with Yates eventually pulling a gap but then having a rear tire vibration which forced a pit stop, handing second place to Hodgson. The focus then trailed back down to Spies who was in a see-saw battle with Honda’s Duhamel. This fight came down to the last lap, when Duhamel pulled a brave last corner pass but was then pushed wide allowing Spies to sneak back underneath for the win. Another exciting race for the rising star from Texas.

The only AMA support race that was televised, the 600 Supersport race, was a thrilling race as well. Yamaha’s Jamie Hacking was on fire all weekend and took off from pole position (both times actually, as there was a red-flag induced re-start) with Kawasaki’s Hayden brothers in close pursuit. The race pace was very fast which eventually caught Roger Lee out causing him to run off the track and lose touch with the two front runners. Tommy kept pressure on the Yamaha and finally made a run at him on the last corner of the last lap but came up a little too short to make the move. Jamie’s victory ties up the points battle. Particularly noticeable in the race was how slow the Suzuki GSXR600s are this year. Despite some hard riding by the racers, the first Suzuki was in 10th place. Yamahas and Suzukis filled the first nine positions. Its time for Suzuki to put some of its GSXR1000 engineers to work on the smaller bike. Mention should also be made of Yamaha mounted privateer Robert Jensen who finished seventh. That is a phenomenal placing for a privateer in a class so loaded with factory backed talent and it definitely highlights the guy’s riding skill.

With all that out of the way, my focus will be on the two young stars that showed their metal through some extremely tough races. On the World Superbike stage in Valencia, Spain that star was Chris Vermeulen. While he didn’t quite have the speed needed to challenge Troy Corser, he survived two grueling race long battles with more experienced racers. In race one, it was ex-GP winner Norik Abe and in race two it was ex-GP racer Chris Walker. Both racers applied considerable pressure and in both cases, appeared to have tires in better condition and thus better mid-corner speed. Despite these advantages, Vermeulen kept his wits and rode a superb race to beat both of them. I’m sure his previous World Supersport experience really helped here since that class is all about racing in a tight pack. I also believe that him continuing to get this experience, as he did last year in Superbike, will forge him into a better and better racer. The guys that lead races from the front may become better technical racers but its the guys that know how to fight it out that build a skillset that helps them in the long run. Expect Chris V to be replacing one of the under-performing MotoGP riders next season.

In the AMA Superbike series, this same kind of performance was turned in by Ben Spies. He was able to go to school with ex-WSBK champ and ex-GP rider Neil Hodgson and then in race two do the same thing with multi-time AMA champ Miguel Duhamel. Both of these riders are smooth, precise and smart. All attributes that, should they rub off, will be useful to Spies throughout his career. The fact that the Suzuki rider bested both veterans in their respective races shows he is a quick study and that he has bucket loads of talent. If anyone is going to be able to step up and challenge Mladin this season, it may well be Spies as he continues to grow as a rider.

Bravo to both these riders, as well as the two old guard masters who should be their targets.

[image from the Italian Motorsport web site.]

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

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

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

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

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

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

The rest of the teams stack up like this:

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

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

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

[image from the Powersports Network web site.]

With Kawasaki’s Alex Hoffman out with a wrist injury for the next five weeks, Team Green has found itself in need of a quality rider for the next two races. The upcoming race is at the new track in China in a little over a week with the following race at Le Mans in France two weeks later. Since every rider will be equally challenged at the new Shanghai facility, team owner Harald Eckl needed to find a rider that knows Le Mans. He has decided to turn to part-time Moriwaki test rider Olivier Jacque.

Jacque’s resume is mainly anchored by his 250GP World Championship in 2000. That season he raced his Yamaha teammate and title challenger Shinya Nakano all season long and narrowly won the last race at Phillip Island to earn the championship. Before the 2000 season, Jacque had been a talented 250 racer but had only occasional notable finishes. Following his 250 title, he and teammate Nakano where brought into the 500cc Gran Prix class on second tier Yamahas with the Herve Poncharal Gauloises team but both failed to make much of an impression. With the change to four strokes in 2002, both riders struggled with the finicky M1 for a few seasons before being let go from Yamaha at the end of 2003. For 2004 Nakano moved on to Kawasaki and is in the middle of an amazing resurgence. For 2004 Jacque moved to being a French motorcycle magazine reporter and filling in on one-off MotoGP rides for Moriwaki and WCM. Now, for the next two races, the pair will again be teammates. The sense of deja vu is amplified because ex-Yamaha GP project leader Ichiro Yoda is now the technical director for the Kawasaki team.

While the Frenchman never seemed to find his stride with the four stroke MotoGP bikes, he now seems to have found his calling as the person teams call when they need a solid rider who already knows the tracks, teams and the politics of the Grand Prix circus. In this regard, he joins the ranks of other riders who have become better known as pinch hitters than Grand Prix race winners like Jean-Michel Bayle, David De Gea, Gregorio Lavilla and even Anthony Gobert. However, it would seem that being a stand-in for injured Kawasaki riders pays off more than with other teams. Alex Hoffman got his start with Kawasaki as a substitute rider for an injured Hitoyasu Izutsu. Izutsu, in turn, did some testing work for Kawasaki when then MotoGP test rider Akira Yanagawa was injured in 2002. Andrew Pitt, a Kawasaki factory MotoGP rider in 2003, also sub’ed for the injured Yanagawa. Clearly Eckl has a history of later hiring his substitute riders…

Personally, I don’t expect great results from Jacque. Any GP bike requires a lot of testing to really master so its unrealistic to expect him to jump on the bike and immediately be up at the front. However, having a second rider, particularly one with as much experience as Jacque, is bound to help the Kawasaki team continue to improve the ZX-RR. It is always possible that Olivier’s home field advantage at Le Mans, when teamed with a strong desire to impress team owners and hopefully get back into MotoGP full time, will lead to an inspired ride in three weeks. If nothing else, the Kawasaki ride should keep his skills honed so that when he gets his Moriwaki wild card rides later in the season he’ll be ready to race.

Being the guy that gets called in as a substitute rider isn’t all bad. It certainly wouldn’t suck to be the guy that periodically gets called to fly to some exotic location and ride a 250hp MotoGP bike around for a weekend.

[image from the Olivier Jacque web site.]

As I mentioned in a blog posting last December, I’m looking to add a new bike to the garage this year. After a few months of looking, I’m still not ready to lay down cash but the field has been cut down to just a few candidates.

Before talking about the contenders, let me explain how I narrowed the field. First, I got to spend two weeks riding the new BMW R1200GS during our recent Edelweiss tour in Spain. The new GS is a fantastic bike but ultimately it doesn’t differ enough from my current R1150GS to justify an upgrade. What was most apparent is that the new GS is lighter than the older model. I’m not convinced BMW has really gotten more ponies out of the motor but with less weight it feels that way. When it does come time to replace the R1150GS, the new 1200 will be the one but not this summer…

Another option was to replace my old FT500 Ascot based track bike with something newer but that was a long shot from the beginning because of how little I use the thing. Jonna really loved the F650GS during the Spain trip and has expressed an interest in replacing her SV650 with the Beemer. That leads to a possible situation where I sell the Ascot, turn her SV into a track bike and then get her a F650. However, when we looked at the cost difference between the Suzuki and the BMW, that option seemed less attractive. Again, maybe in the future but not this summer.

So with those two alternatives postponed I’ve started seriously looking at sport bikes. Any of the liter bikes are pretty hard to justify, given that they have more power and better handling that I’d probably ever use on the street, but when are bikes really a logical thing? If I can buy a 185 hp, tire shredding, asphalt melting monster why wouldn’t I? The Suzuki GSXR1000 and Kawasaki ZX-10R top the list of sport bikes that I’ve been checking out.

But there is one bike that I’m passionate enough about that I would buy it immediately: the KTM 990 Superduke. The bike just seems perfect…light weight, upright seating, lots of power but still tuned and geared as a brutal supermotard bike. I like the bike’s looks and think the KTM V-twin motor is really in its perfect environment in the Superduke…a physically small motor but with big power. Now for the bad news: KTM isn’t importing the Superduke into the US in 2005. A few of the local shops have them but only for display purposes, not for sale. KTM USA hasn’t announced any plans to import the bike in 2006 either, so the chances of the bike being available this fall looks pretty slim. For the moment, the closest I can get is surfing the 990 Superduke web site and watching the promotional video over and over.

If anyone from KTM USA is reading, consider this one vote for bringing the 990 Superduke to the States. If there are any grey market importers reading, then forget KTM USA, lets talk!

[image from the Sport Rider web site.]