Soup :: Road America Notes #1, 2005

Road America Notes #1
by dean adams
Monday, June 06, 2005

Is Suzuki phenom Ben Spies signed to Suzuki for 2006, or not? While members of his camp have said that he is, there now seems to be some question on the matter. Suzuki sources say that he isn't signed for next year, but there is an option tacked onto his current contract that may possibly keep him at Suzuki. If he isn't signed up for '06, Spies will become a very hot property with Honda, Yamaha and Ducati certainly interested in his services for next year.
Have we seen this before? Well, the first factory contract that Nick Hayden ever signed was with Suzuki, but he was soon levered away by Honda.

What about Neil Hodgson? Hodgson said Sunday at Elkhart that he's still open as to what series he will race in '06-World Superbike and AMA being the choices, presumably-but he seemed to be leaning towards AMA, saying "It would be sort of silly to do one season over here, learn the tracks and then not follow it up with a second year."

Hodgson to Grand Prix? Would he make a return to MotoGP? Sources close to Hodgson throw doubt at that possibility, as his '04 season on year-old private Ducatis wasn't much, and he was owed large chunks of funds from his tenure when he left for America.

Many of the Superbike teams left Road America late Sunday night and headed south. Ducati, Honda, Suzuki, Kawasaki and others will be testing at Mid-Ohio this week before rolling back to California and preparing for the next round of the US series at Laguna Seca on July 8-10.

While the Ducati 999 won two races in a row (PPIR and Elkhart's wet race one), both US riders say very little has been done to improve the machine's lack of acceleration. "It's the same, really," said Neil Hodgson. "Top speed is good, but we just have nothing for them leaving the corner. It's been a bit disappointing to be honest, I really thought Ducati would come up with something, and maybe they will. Who knows?"

The Honda Superbike looked slightly more competitive at Road America with Jake Zemke scoring the team's first Superbike podium of the season in race two. Paddock rumors had boxes of HRC parts being sent to the track last week and an updated engine inside the chassis of both bikes, but Honda sources said the only major change to the bike since Pikes Peak was DuHamel going back to his '04 set-up and a modified front fork.

DuHamel's crewchief, Al Ludington explained, "We were going down a suspension-development road with pressurized-type forks, and we just could not come up with any kind of settings that were comfortable for Miguel. So we came in here with one bike with the pressure forks, and one bike without. He said 'Boy the ones without feel a lot better.' The big thing was lack of feel and feedback from the front tire, which the Suzuki riders and Mat in particular say how great their bike steers; how good the front-end is. We've been lacking that all along. Now it steers good, has good feedback and is good on the brakes—everything we were missing. Now it's a matter of fine-tuning the package, finding some more power and getting it dialed in to see if we can't go and run down the other boys down."

Eric Bostrom had a decent weekend at Road America, the former elkhart event winner in Wisconsin finishing fourth on Sunday. "I'm about 100%," the Californian said on Sunday night. I've got my confidence back and am riding pretty aggressively. I wasn't riding aggressively at the start of the season just because of my lack of confidence, but now I'm ready. The bike needs help in the acceleration department and hopefully that's coming, because if it did, we'd be tough. It's just so frustrating for us to keep doing this see-saw thing in races: fight hard for position and then you just get left coming out of the corner."

With the next round of the series being the highly popular USGP at Laguna Seca, the complaining about the AMA riders and teams being treated as red-headed stepchildren by the sanctioning body has already begun. While the situation now seems to suggest that there will be no extra passes for rider family members (wives, for instance) at Laguna Seca, that the AMA "paddock" will be shuffled off to a distant corner of the tarmac and practices will be short, AMA roadrace manager Ron Barrick said negotiations were still taking place between the AMA, FIM and Dorna on nearly all fronts.

Rumors have Barrick—roadrace manager for the AMA since the Roger Edmondson era ended—not renewing his contract for 2006. Barrick was a highly regarded tuner before joining the AMA—he tuned for F1 champion Randy Renfrow the season they beat Wayne Rainey for the title, and Superbike rider Dale Quarterley the year they became the first privateer team to win a Superbike race, beating the factories (at Mid-Ohio). Is he planning on a return to the tuning ranks? Barrick laughed and said even though he's old, cranky, cynical and tired, he's not leaving the AMA any time soon—and that he's an employee of the AMA, not a contracted worker, hence there is no contract to renew.

Road America didn't release crowd figures for the '05 event, but it seemed sizable on Sunday afternoon, even with the threat of bad weather. Road America used to attract 45,000 fans for a weekend of racing in the 1990s, and the crowd certainly seemed larger than that on Sunday.
One can only imagine what a World Superbike crowd at Road America would draw.
A Superbike weekend ticket at Road America cost $90.

One block of the '06 silly season wall seems as if it is being slid into place: sources close to Honda say American Honda is negotiating with Miguel DuHamel to renew and extend his current contract. DuHamel is in his tenth season with Honda's Superbike team and is undoubtedly their marquee rider.

It's interesting to speculate about DuHamel's career earnings at Honda, what with his long tenure there and the bidding wars that have started for his services several times over the past decade. Staying on the low side, if DuHamel averaged something less than a million dollars in salary for ten years—he was easily the highest paid rider in the series for the majority of the 1990s—his career earnings would be nearly nine million dollars.

Several bikes and people displayed a special decal or insignia for injured racer Vincent Haskovec at Road America, commemorating his competition number-three-with the word "Czecher" above it. Individuals said that they have visited with Haskovec recently and said he is progressing well in his rehab.

Loudon to return to the AMA schedule? The AMA's Ron Barrick, champion Mat Mladin and Kevin Schwantz will be traveling to New Hampshire International Speedway this weekend to discuss with the "Loudon" owners what it would take to get Superbikes back there. Loudon remains the oldest AMA-sanctioned event but has been off the schedule for years after a plethora of rider complaints about safety at the bowl-type facility.

Barrick is also visiting Mid-America Motorplex this week to do a facilities check, as MAM—located twenty minutes from downtown Omaha—is "keenly interested" in having a Superbike event at MAM's 2.2-mile long Alan Wilson-designed (groan) track. In addition, Miller Motorsports Park has broken ground and is progressing nicely, according to Barrick. "We're definitely interested in having a race there based on what we've seen of the plans and what the track will look like when completed," said Barrick.

While Barrick would not comment directly about any other tracks interested in holding an AMA Superbike event, saying it was too early to do so, sources say that Watkins Glen is again making noises that they would like to know what it would take in terms of track modifications for them to hold an AMA event. Watkins Glen underwent a track inspection in the 1990s, but the modifications recommended by riders were deemed too significant by the owners.

Barrick also said that Pine Run, a track currently being built in Minnesota, is interested in holding an AMA Superbike event when the track in completed.

ENDS

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