Cool stuff abound in the paddock, from carbon fiber and magnesium swing-armed Ducatis to Agip girls with collagen implanted lips, pouty and ravishing. The factory supported World Superbikes, even sitting on their plywood work tables, appeared so decidedly different from their AMA Superbike brethren:  the tail wickedly high, front wheel tucked tight to the chin of the fairing lower, the Ducati of Troy Corser looking like a red street rod from American Graffiti. Obviously every rider in the WSC series came to Laguna with knowledge the place is like an amusement park in topography, hence bikes must be set up so that steering is razor sharp. With a chassis set up like this the bike will slam from a semi-stable acceleration mode to full crank in the flick of a brainwave.

The inherent dangers of this style set up, (in that the front wheel is perilously close to a loss of adhesion the majority of the time the bike at maximum lean) seemed to be lost on the major players of the series. World Superbike, like any world series is a tough game; you either learn to ride on the edge of death or you go back to wherever it was you came from. Interestingly, that set up was contagious, with AMA riders adopting the WSC chassis posture soon after the first practice session. It startled the AMA crowd that many of the WSC riders bolted their bikes together and ran high twenty-nines from the fifth lap of free practice. They may have been uncomfortable with the track, but they are nevertheless world class riders.

American Honda, with their 1995 "Yes, we’ll buy as many as you have on hand" approach to the HRC shopping network, came to Laguna the best prepared team in the paddock, the envy of even the Castrol World squad. Weeks before other teams contemplated coming to Laguna Seca, AmHon had been building WSC spec engines in the race shop and dyno-ing the same using a barrel of WSC spec fuel with favorable results. Coupled with the fact that the American Honda team had tested at Laguna Seca as many as five times since December of last year, they were confident that the purple and yellow bikes could run with anything at Laguna. 
Although nobody would actually say it, AmHon’s primary intention at Laguna was to beat the Castrol Honda team, trounce them if they could. Executives from Torrance showed up in droves including Mr. Nakashima and Mr. Koroda, who head American Honda’s US motorcycle arm, and they were motivated to show the HRC team what their team was capable of with a track advantage. Yet, some were of the opinion that actually winning races at Laguna was a long shot for American Honda and neither DuHamel nor Hale were overly encouraged to do so. Both contend for the AMA Superbike title therefore neither would be riding on the edge for an entire race at Laguna Seca, right? We’ll see.

Machinery was not of the same vein between the Yamaha and Ducati teams and their international counterparts. Several weeks prior, Yamaha US anticipated getting a factory engine for Tom Kipp’s machine yet after learning just how extraordinary the WSC machine was they abandoned the plans. Yamaha’s WSC Superbike uses none of the Yamaha kit pieces that the US Superbike is based upon, its frame is hand welded with plenty of internal bracing. Moreover the engine mounting points, ignition, wiring harness and ignitor (although similar to the kit machine) were different; so different that an engine swap was not in any way straightforward and the undertaking soon abandoned. "I doubt if there is anything that you could take off our bike and bolt directly on theirs," said one Yamaha Racing source. 

A sea of CNC milling machines and a deep budget do not always beget success though. Despite the WSC Yamaha’s aristocratic hardware, 1995 results are slow in coming and on a cost per lap the VHR kit bike is the economical victor.

US riders had one enormous detail on their side at Laguna Seca: circuit knowledge. Laguna Seca is one of the most technically challenging racetracks in the continental United States and the most challenging on the WSC calendar. The dry Lagoon is a mixture of two different pavements: the old rough area and the unruffled new section making traction and suspension tuning difficult. That, together with the fact that the track itself has features that the Euros have not seen before in their native country or on the WSC trail (the corkscrew obviously but the long crank up the hill to the screw and the dip leading into it) had many Laguna neophytes scratching their heads. The hump before turn one, taken at speed just as the machines shifted into top gear, was the scene of plenty of Isle of Mann style hurdling as the lack a set up WSC machines took flight for ten yards or so in the first practice session. 

The Euro riders found a common ground watching Americans riders intently or doing their own interpretation of the Laguna hustle. The first practice session confirmed that the Euros were struggling from a base line set up for Laguna Seca. Carl Fogarty and the Virginio Ferrari Ducati made some semi-fast laps from time to time, in addition he would nail a good split time from the exit of eleven to the exit of five, but he was never able to put an entire fast lap together. Fogarty spent most of his time whilst at Laguna bitching about the track and trying to get his Ducati to handle. Each time he put his head down the bike would go one way and he the other. After a session or two Carl was too battered to charge. 

Aaron Tony Slight too could not get around Laguna at a respectable (Russell) pace although he had the advantage of at least riding the track in early 1995. Slight took the Fogarty path and found problems at every turn, the track, the bike, the tires.  However, a reliable source got a look at Aaron’s data acquisition computer print out and reported back that Aaron had a weak wrist and was simply letting off the throttle every time the track wasn’t clearly laid out in front of him – especially in the corkscrew.

The phenomena of WSC spec machines wobbling with little grace was just not prevalent in Euro machines and riders - Colin Edwards who has raced many times at Laguna Seca on both 250s and Superbikes, found himself mystified by a front end chatter that would not go away and a missing baseline. His team (run by director/figurehead Christian Sarron and technician Fiorenzo Finalli) swapped front wheels perhaps ten times (in just the first session) in effort to cure the chatter, only rarely touching the suspension. Modifications only made Edwards faster to the point where the chatter pulsed in.

What an unrivaled set of circumstances at a World championship event at Laguna Seca. Slight, now using Michelin tires on the best equipped RC45 in the world, and Colin Edwards on what amounts to a Yamaha four stroke GP bike, obviously lacked a set up for Laguna and were floundering. The clock is ticking gentlemen. 

Thus, with sorry, if not truly embarrassing, results in hand and the promise of much more embarrassment to come in qualifying and the race, post the first practice session concessions were made. Long after the spectators had left and the sun went behind the mountains surrounding the racetrack, a Castrol Honda management type walked with deliberate pace to the Smokin Joe's trailer. After offering a salutation, he did not mince words. He said that they were in a hell of a pinch with Aaron only doing a handful of laps at Laguna on a Joe's Supersport bike six months ago and the very real fact that he was not in any way comfortable with the track. Could I please have some chassis set up numbers? We’re lost.

Hmmm. These are the very same HRC people who shanked the Joe's people last season when they asked for help.  Revenge ... cold plate. Yes, set up numbers, by all means, of course. An American mechanic went to the row of black vinyl covered notebooks on a table next to the transporter and ripped a page from a past Laguna test session, smugly he folded it in half and handed it to the Englishman. “Use this shock, this linkage, this geometry and this chip. You’ll be in the ballpark.”

Yamaha, too, did the same. Colin Edwards had nothing to lose in skipping his way from the Yamaha WSC garage, (if a canvas and two by four framed building can be called a garage) to the Vance and Hines trailer. He said, “Listen, those guys are smoking dope over there (Texas surfer lingo, they weren’t actually torching cannabis, merely chasing their tails in set up) and I need to know what our set up for Laguna was last year.” He was provided with such post haste. Yamaha is Yamaha after all. 

In the first qualifying session on Friday both Slight and Edwards made progress. Edwards made immediate gains, instantly slamming the Yamaha deep into the twenty-nines, a full second faster than he was able to go with the WSC set up, yet the chatter was still there (and it would remain for the entire weekend). Slight on the other hand appeared comfortable and the pre-owned set up ... well, it seemed to learned eyes that he had been provided a set up from early in 1995. Slight’s red white and green Honda was workhorse stable running into the corners but on exit the back end drifted wide and the wheel snapped back in line violently when he applied power. Just like the Joe's machines did last year at the Daytona Dunlop tire test. Hee hee.

In the Ferracci camp, Freddie Spencer’s Ducati featured a braced frame since a week prior at Brainerd and a shortened swing arm although team sources denied the second report. Spencer’s Ducati had better legs than it did at the AMA national at Laguna months ago but whether this was because of continued development or because, as rumored he had been given a Fogarty engine for the race was unknown. Regardless Spencer’s machine was bags healthier than Mike Smith’s Ducati, Smith was without his mechanic Philip for the weekend and incredibly, became a non factor in both qualifying and the race. 

Muzzy World Superbike rider Anthony Gobert was the Kawasaki A rider and although he had never seen Laguna Seca save ten or so laps in a wet practice session last spring, he was the great green hope - thus he received all the preferred equipment. AMA Muzzy riders Pascal Picotte and Steve Crevier, appearing more dejected as the season ages, received anything Gobby cast off. 

Among the jewels in Gobert’s possession was a trick sounding ZXR engine with some very peculiar hardware hanging off the side of the engine including a bolt running through the cam chain area. With Kevin Cameron, Mike Ross and others standing by the machine listening intently as the mechanic warmed the engine before a qualifying session, one knew something was up. The engine sounded much more copious than the Kawasaki Superbike engines of Pascal and Crevier, moreover, sounding much like a circa 1993 Commonwealth RC30 when run at speed. That meant only one thing: Kawasaki had a gear drive spinning around on the right side of the engine replacing the cam chain and bringing with it extraordinary cam timing capabilities.

Hard to get anyone at Kawasaki to talk about it though; Rob Muzzy, although friendly until the question of what exactly was inside the cases of the Go-Show’s cases came up, became curt in a split second. Tersely saying, “I can’t tell you that.” 

In qualifying it was Gobert who was the star for most of the two timed sessions. As he did at Daytona, Steve Johnson took Gobert aside between jaunts of qualifying and proctored the young Australian in the fast way around Laguna Seca. Gobert responded well. Johnson’s circuit knowledge and Gobby’s aggressive riding (and remarkable talent for riding right on the edge of stability) blended, and the green number seventeen was the fastest machine on the track. Several times Anthony’s bladder necessitated a quick run to the bathroom or behind a garage to enable him to charge. In the first session he came in jumped off the bike and stood there nervously, occasionally taking a glance at the monitor or at his girlfriend Beverly. Johnson seemed confused, split times were spot on, the tires were warm and fresh and the track clear in several sections ... why doesn’t the kid do a hot lap? 

Suddenly Gobert jumped the pit wall and ran for the transporter, returning two minutes later, announcing with a sheepish smile, “I’m ready now. Had to take care of some business.” He jumped on the bike, entered the track and ripped off several pole laps - in traffic. In the second session he had no time for a polite run to the bathroom and had to evacuate in front of God and everybody.

Troy Corser obviously had been to Laguna Seca before the WSC race, being the reigning AMA Superbike champion he’d raced at Laguna in 1994 (finishing second to Picotte) on a Ferracci Ducati. Calmly Troy plotted his strategy, finding areas in the track that he could quite seriously capitalize the advantages and underscore the handicaps the Ducati. Being the bike was red and from Italy, Corser possessed big power but the machine wouldn’t hold a tight line exiting the medium speed corners and he was held up quite a bit by the four cylinder machines. 

In a series of clear laps in the second session, Corser found the right combination and tore off a pole position that Gobert and no one else could hope to match. His time was a new Superbike lap record for the course, a stout 1:26.784, almost half a second faster than Mike Hale who qualified second. This made one theory all but certain: if Corser got out front with nobody heading him, he’d be tough to beat.

On soft tires plenty of riders became one lap heroes but there were actually only four riders who could consistently run sub minute twenty-seven laps: Gobert, Hale, Corser and Miguel DuHamel. Many, (Nagai, Edwards and Spencer among select others) had the capability of running an occasional twenty-seven but were comfortable only in the low to mid twenty eight’s. 

Colin Edwards II qualified a semi-curious sixth on the factory Yamaha, this after his team nearly ran Dunlop out of front tires attempting to detect where the mysterious chatter originated. Yamaha placed an impressive release on a table in the press room with quotes from Colin that stated this regarding his qualifying effort: "I was testing a few different tire combinations to find the right one. The settings are a lot better than yesterday and I don’t have the chattering I was experiencing." Hmmmm. This verbiage from our Colin? Well, at least they didn’t put "ascertained" in his mouth. 

Edwards, pulled the to privacy of the VHR canvas, confessed the real story on his qualifying endeavors. "I was either going to crash or get a good time. I took my brain out and put my helmet on to do that time, the bike is chattering everywhere. I almost crashed five or six times on my fast lap." And of his team and their propensity to swap the front tire to find the chatter, "You’d think after fifteen fronts they’d look at the suspension ... I keep tellin’ then to change the preload and stuff in the front but they just keep throwing new tires on it." 

American Honda riders Mike Hale and DuHamel completed the first part of their mission at Laguna, completely trouncing Aaron Slight and HRC in qualifying—Hale second fastest and Miguel seventh, both of them two seconds faster a lap than Aaron who safely rode around in eighteenth spot. Even Castrol/HRC support rider Simon Crafer pounded Slight, qualifying just behind DuHamel. Hale, Texan, had former Rumi Honda WSC technician Merlyn Plumlee in his corner as usual and Plumlee’s seasoning had much to do with the kid’s fast times. 

Thirty-three year old Freddie Spencer qualified fifth, just a tick outside of the front row, damn impressive, really.  

Corser had one strategy for the race: get out front and blitz. With nothing in front of him the Australian now living in Austria could conceivably make a huge advantage until the leaders met backmarkers, if things went his way from the start. "I’m not too surprised" said third fastest Gobert of the man who rode the Winfield Honda a season before him in Australia and now sat on pole. "I’m just happy to be where I am. I’ve been trying to get on the front row all year." 

The next two rows were predominately four cylinder machines and none of those riders had any intention of letting Corser go unencumbered; although Spencer was the lone Ducati rider apart from Corser in the top nine, Freddie would have no problem racing with the four cylinders in traffic, and perhaps beating them. 

Race one: 
Dunlop made available a small number of WSC spec tires to selected AMA riders including Miguel DuHamel and Tom Kipp. This is the same tire that Edwards, Gobert, Russell (until Donington) and Nagai have been experiencing traction problems with for most of the entire 1995 season, but because this was the latest variation of the compound both riders went with it. Kipp was given his set because Colin Edwards preferred the standard slick at Laguna Seca, that was not to last. 

In the first race, any advantage the national riders had was rubbed away in the first ten seconds of the race. WSC racing uses a stoplight style starting system and there was some confusion as to exactly when the riders were to leave, or exactly which light meant go. AMA Superbike riders sat calmly through the red light and treated the yellow light like the one minute board awaiting the green before launching. World Superbike riders launched on the yellow with ill prepared and confused AMA riders following them all muttering expletives into the chin bar of their helmets. 

Edwards knew the starting procedure and he was away with a slight lead but Gobert and DuHamel were close behind him. From the very first lap it was clear that Edwards would not be able to sustain a charge from anyone, his Yamaha slid and snaked everywhere—under braking and on acceleration most notably. He made a quick slide back in the order. 
Of the AMA riders, Tom Kipp and Mike Hale probably reacted the worst to the starting procedure, and both had to work to gain positions. Track knowledge came into play here and the pair passed European riders with ease for a short time, Kipp running around and underneath riders who had little experience at Laguna Seca. Hale rocketed by the faltering Edwards and Simon Crafer which put him in fourth, where he would stay.

At the front, Miguel DuHamel took the lead on the second lap but Gobert and Corser were right behind him, Corser storming through the pack to take third on lap three. Miguel gave the lead to Gobert on a miscue and Gobert was out to make some time between him and Corser, whom Anthony considered his biggest threat. It was a no holds barred fight as Anthony spun and slid his way around Laguna Seca. DuHamel wasn’t keen to let him go and with Corser just behind, the pair followed the young Australian until the three of them had made a huge gap over fourth place. 

DuHamel lost the pace entering turn one when the front end became unglued and he rode wide. From that point it was a two bike duel between the Australians for the lead with Gobert doing a fantastic job of keeping Corser at bay. DuHamel didn’t surrender the battle. To make up some time he began using the most curious line through the corkscrew, as the leaders would swoop wide to take the conventional route down the pipe, DuHamel would shoot down nearly beside them on the opposite side of the track - he’d turned the corkscrew into a simple direct path down the hill, squaring his line off at the top and bottom to keep the pace. It almost worked several times (if only Gobert’s expression could have been recorded the first time he swooped through the second bend of the corkscrew and looked directly over and saw Miguel on a near collision course  with him) but he seemed to lack momentum at the tail end of the hill. There he would be left in the dust and forced to pursue the pair, using standard lines until the top of the Corkscrew.

Although Corser tried on several occasions to duck inside or out-race Anthony and the Kawasaki through the run up the hill, Corser’s bike seemed to be moving around a great deal more than Gobert’s and a few laps into it, Corser realized he had made a poor tire choice. Or Anthony had just made a better one. With the Ducati effectively neutered, an epic battle ensued, actually the best race at Laguna Seca in years. The two riders were never more than a few feet apart with Troy trying everything he knew to get around the Kawasaki and Anthony riding hard enough to block Troy’s lines at every exit. 

Carl Fogarty had made up serious ground in the middle part of the race and in the closing laps nearly made it into fourth place by making a hard run on Mike Hale who struggled with an RC45 that had begun to bang off the rev limiter going over the hill because of a one tooth gearing mistake. Hale stayed ahead of the Brit for a solid fourth and Fogarty behind him for a credible fifth. 

Just behind that pair a pack of ten riders were strung out each nursing machinery or set up problems. Colin Edwards continued his dramatic slide back through the pack, yet he was not letting a rear chunked tire or an ill handling Yamaha deter him. Spencer’s Ducati was into the limiter as well but he passed the ailing Edwards on lap twenty-two and set out after Crafer who had a solid sixth nailed. Spencer missed him by four lengths at the line. Smith’s bike was behaving just as Spencer’s with it banging into the limiter in several gears because of a gearing miscue, Smith would finish eleventh just ahead of Tom Kipp. 

Although his low fuel light began flashing five laps before the checkered flag Miguel DuHamel made a late race charge to stay in sight of the lead pair in case they came together and rode off or fell, but in the end he was a distant third. His nemesis Aaron Slight finished ninth.

The Corser/Gobert battle did not wind down until the cool-off lap. Troy made several desperate attempts get around Anthony including a daring move on the last lap up the inside of turn two only to have Gobert take the inside line from him and re-pass for the lead. Prior to that, turn two was the scene of several dramatic moments with Anthony kicking the back end of the Kawasaki way out in the final laps and Troy driving out very wide with the front wheel at the very limit of adhesion as he tried to steer the Ducati to a tighter arc. It was obvious the front of the Ducati would only take so much before pushing wide and the front getting light in Corser’s hands - a precursor of the front going completely away.

Gobert was supremely confident with his third place qualifying effort and he said after the race, improvement in his Kawasaki notwithstanding, the reason for the race success after two thirds a season of disappointments was a soaring confidence level. “Roadracing is a head game and confidence plays a major part. This is the most confident I have felt all year. We had some crashes and some bike problems at the start of the year and that took me down a little bit but the last few races it has started to come good.” 

Gobert made absolutely no mistakes and crossed the finish line a quarter second ahead of Corser. His was the most perfectly controlled race from such a young lad since perhaps a circa 1983 Freddie Spencer. However, the fact still remained, if Corser got the Ducati to work with the steering head knocked back a degree or two enabling him to drive inside of Anthony and most importantly hold that inside line, Gobert might not have an answer. With a clear track in front of him, Corser might be very hard to catch. 

Race Two:

And he was. Although Corser was not as forthcoming as most scribes would have preferred in exactly what changes he made to the Ducati in the post race press conference, admitting only to a tire compound change and a change back to his “number one” bike, the way Troy dived inside of the Kawasaki on lap ten, diced with him for a lap or two and then simply checked out, made it obvious there were probably some fairly serious modifications made to the Ducati between races.

With the first race merely scribbled notes for the mechanics and a lingering taste of champagne for Gobert and company, major changes were happening everywhere for the second race. Obstacles were found at every camp, even Gobert’s. Anthony and company knew that Corser would make changes to his Ducati that would make block racing less of a successful tactic, thus softer tires were fitted to the gear driven Kawasaki ZXR. After the near debacle at Yamaha, Colin asked the team to shorten the chassis up and for Heaven’s sake get the good WSC tires that had been given to Tom Kipp in the first race. Still, Edwards was not confident, “The bike really is no better than it was at the beginning of the year. We’re struggling and that thing is like a tractor to ride, if the front isn’t chattering, it’ll go straight in the corners and I’m losing big time there. In the back we can’t get the power to the ground.” At VHR Yamaha Tom Kipp had the same problem, on a much smaller scale, the bike running wide on the exits. \

This isn’t a momentous problem for the US team, easily mended by bringing the chassis geometry up. “Tom’s set up is getting more and more like Eddie’s (Lawson) every day,” said Yamaha race engineer Tom Halverson. In addition the VHR team would swap the engine, going back to the mill used in the first qualifying session, a scheduled change. 

At AmHon, Merlyn Plumlee made some gearing changes on Hale’s RC45 by juggling the sprockets as there wasn’t time to split the cases to do an internal swap and Mike took a long undisturbed nap. Miguel was set to go but a bigger fuel tank was bolted on and his data acquisition studied very hard by his technicians. 

Hale’s modifications and the fact that he was ready when the light went green assisted him immensely as he grabbed the a strong lead as the pack head down the hill from the corkscrew and up the front straight. With Colin Edwards and Corser behind him Hale was nearly immediately under pressure from Corser and Edwards. And they too, with Gobert just behind them, charging into second place on the second lap. Aaron Slight ended the HRC team’s pain early in the second race when he was bumped first off line and then off the bike in a first turn crash. Freddie Spencer too was out early with transmission problems 

Hale stretched his advantage to a one second lead at one point with Anthony and Corser charging behind. The trio were making ground with a large gap growing over fourth place, DuHamel. Hale lead for several laps, more than any other AMA rider did in either race. Tom Kipp found himself riding through the marbles when he rode off the track in turn six on lap one. Kipp managed to keep the bike upright and re-entered the race in last place. “I’d like to say the Dunlop tires had excellent traction in the dirt,” Kipp quipped after the race and his thirteenth place finish.

Hale lost the lead to Gobert when he chose too low a gear (or just got in too hot) entering turn eleven. The Honda skated and Mikey instinctively began to put his left foot down to keep as much drive as possible but Gobert was by him and his drive blown by the slide, Hale was sucked up by Corser as well. He would chase the pair for the remainder of the race and finish an eventual and nonetheless impressive third. 

Corser would not be denied and he stuffed his way past Gobert for the lead several laps later in turn two. Anthony was able to hang with the Ducati for about five more laps until Troy put the hammer down and with a unencumbered trail in front of him, he simply disappeared. Corser ripped off a long string of 1:27 lap times and this nailed Gobert’s coffin shut. Hale would not threaten for second thus the top three positions were decided before half distance of the race. 

Pierfranchisco Chili had obviously been to Laguna Seca several times in the past on both NSR500s and Aprillia 250s although his qualifying effort (tenth) didn’t necessarily demonstrate that too well. Chili, on the silver Ducati with sponsorship from an Italian model car company, chased Miguel DuHamel for fourth place and just as he was about to close and attempt a pass of the Canadian, the Italian lost the front in three and slid off the track unhurt. From that point Miguel was not threatened and eased himself into a nine tenths pace for the remainder of the second race. That respite from full attack mode nearly bit him as Edwards’ teammate Yasutomo Nagai all but snuck by DuHamel in the final corner on the final lap. Miguel looked over his left shoulder mid corner surprised to see Nagia stuffing his way up the inside. The two drag raced to the finish with Miguel only a foot or so in the lead. Nagai pounded his Yamaha’s fuel tank in frustration as the pair crossed the line. 

The race was uneventful from two thirds distance on with most places secured. Carl Fogarty again showed the strengths of his Ducati: Fogarty had his hands full at times with lowly AMA riders in the corners but on the straight sections, especially running from eleven to turn one, Fogarty would gobble up riders like a hungry shark, finishing an eventual seventh. 

Colin Edwards made yet another stunning run from the front to the back and in the end he was under fire from the meek Kawasaki of Pascal Picotte. Edwards saved himself from that annoyance by finishing in ninth, not a bad result unless one took into consideration that Edwards had lead a good portion of the first lap and his machine did not suffer any mechanical woes, at least none acquired during the race. After he had pulled his helmet off Edwards launched into an emotional retort motivated by his frustration with the dynamics of the Yamaha WSC team. “Yeah, I got a good start but I’m sick of people coming up to me and saying, ‘hey, great start.’ I finished ninth. I don’t want to hear another great start.” Edwards confessed that the poor results had shaken his faith in his own riding ability, “I don’t know what was wrong or what I’m doing wrong,” said the over-wrought Texan. “From the first lap I was going backwards and I was riding my ass off. By the second lap the bike was all over the place and by half distance the (rear) tire went away. I just don’t know, maybe I don’t know how to ride a motorcycle. You get enough of these bad results and you start to think that maybe you don’t.”

The top three finishers commented on their performance. Hale said, “I tried really hard to run the pace with those guys and just wasn’t able to the bike was really loose. I was doing all the sliding that I could handle and I’m just happy to have finished third. That was my goal coming into the weekend - to put it on the podium.” Gobert said that his tire selection had hampered his charge. “I got a poor start and once I saw Troy up front I knew it was going to be a long race. The rear tire was not giving me the traction that it had in the second race, I was still trying as hard as I could but it was sideways every corner. I decided to have a good time and slide the bike around as much as I could, I’m sure the fans enjoyed it in a couple of corners. The way Troy was pulling away out of the turns I knew I wouldn’t be able to catch him.” Gobert said that he was making as much as a bike length up on the brakes only to lose two lengths on the exit. The winner of the event Troy Corser stated that a chassis change was the key to his win. “I don’t think I went any faster, I just kept it super-tight through the corner. And I followed Anthony for several laps and I could see that he was sliding a lot more than I was, he had a better grip than I did in the first race. Once I got out front I put my head down and that seemed to work.”

And so the story closed. Let it be told that the Laguna Seca race was not an international rider benefit, as American riders poking their noses in amongst the lead pack in both qualifying and the races. Although out-right victory went to the international riders, one can be assured that in two or three races time when the series returns to Europe and to the normal routine and players, several riders will have dinner in a small cafe near the track and the subject of Laguna Seca will be brought up.

Within the confidentiality of their own inner-circle, those riders will no doubt revel in just how tough the American riders and this American circuit was to conquer. ENDS

Dean Adams lives in Red Wing, Minnesota