Longtime rivals Jason DiSalvo and Roger Lee Hayden raced their first Moto2 event at Indianapolis this past weekend. DiSalvo finished ninth in the race and considered it a small victory and success. "It was a dream-come-true race," he said, "because I was less than thrilled with my qualifying. I thought it was going to be more of a nightmare, starting from back in 26th."
Both veteran riders said that the Moto2 start was more WWF-style wrestling than motorcycle racing.
| "The start was a surreal experience. I don't know that I ever want to have to go through that again." -- DiSalvo |
DiSalvo commented, "The start was a surreal experience. I don't know that I ever want to have to go through that again. I was actually pretty mortified that I had to go through it twice in one race. With 40 guys in the grid, it's really like someone pulled the pin on a grenade and threw it in the middle of the pack. When everything tightened up into Turn Two it was just survival, at that point. My first start was kind of like not so good, and so having it done, to having it to do over again, I wasn't thrilled about it. But in the end, I think it worked out the best, because we were sitting in a little bit better position. I was, maybe, a little bit more calm the second time around."
Roger Lee Hayden and the Team Honda entry were scrambling, playing catch-up from the first session when their bike suddenly sputtered to a halt.
"It was all good 'til the second corner," Hayden said. "I got a great start, made up a lot of spots. And once I started going into Turn 2, I knew it was going to be tight. I thought, 'You've already made up enough spots already. Just hold your ground.' And then somebody ran into the back of me. And then somebody ran over my head. And I got up. I was on the bottom of about five bikes. Once I got mine up, they wouldn't let me ride back around the track because the handlebar was broke off. So I started pushing it through the fans to try to get it back without the handlebar and, finally, I realized it was going to be a long walk, so one of them gave me a bump-start. It was a little interesting riding back through the fans and stuff, with the gas throttle laying in your right hand."
Both DiSalvo and Hayden have raced dirt track previously and, seemingly, a good comparison for a Moto2 start is the Last Chance Qualifier at a short track, right?
"Not even comparable," DiSalvo said, "because it would be like...think about this, too: How many guys start a dirt track race? Like 20, maximum? Eighteen? And that's intense. That's intense and amazing, and it's a great sensation. There's bumping around and stuff like that. But you don't worry about 40 other guys piling into you if you hit the deck, though. Man, it was so nerve-wracking. But the whole weekend, though, was just amazing. Except Turn 1 was a little nuts, that's for sure."
Hayden did an admirable job for a guy who'd had his head ridden over by a motorcycle. "The guys did a great job getting the bike back together, but it was mangled," he said. "It went for a nice little ride there. The rear brake didn't work. My head really wasn't all there, from getting run over. To be honest with you, I'm just glad to be up and walking, when you see rubber marks on my helmet. It makes you think a little bit, after some of the things that's happened this weekend."
For DiSalvo, that he survived the re-start on two wheels was an important part to his finishing well. "I just tried to stay steady and fast and just do the best I could, and it worked out kind of like how I thought it would at the beginning," the former World Supersport rider said, "because everyone's so tight in this class. Everyone just sort of stacked up in a train. I had been saying from the beginning, my plan was just get through the beginning safe, and then try to pick guys off one at a time. I knew I had the speed. I knew the bike was strong. On some of the corner exits, particularly the last corner, I knew we could get out of there really, really well, and that's where I made a lot of draft-pass moves on the straightaway, in going into Turn 1. So everything just worked out. I was really, really happy to be able to get that good of a result. Especially coming from back in the grid. So next time, we'll try to qualify a little bit better and then see if we can't make it interesting at the front."
Hayden, to some eyes anyway, ended up with the slowest Moto2 engine on the grid; on Indy's straights, it appeared to be a bike with rags stuffed in its airbox. And with the spec engine format, there was no pulling the engine apart to do a visual inspection. "You know, that's one thing we can't figure out, is why we were so far down on the mile-an-hour sheet," Hayden said. "Yesterday, after qualifying, we only had two or three guys behind us. In the race, we only had two guys behind us in speed. And I don't know if it's the aerodynamic package that comes with the bike or what it is, because everybody pretty much has the same engine. But we were 11K down yesterday, and nobody seems to (be able to) figure out why. So that probably is one of the most discouraging things for all of us, is, we don't know why we were so far down on the speed chart. Which makes for a long day, on production bikes, because I was having trouble eking by anybody on the front straight."
"Seventeenth place is not where we deserved to be," Hayden said. "The guys have worked way too hard, the mechanics, Honda, Erion guys. We're not really happy with 17th. But at the same time, we're just glad that we got to get back up and make the race. At one time, they said we were out, then we were in, then we're out. But we made it. We finished the race. And there's just...just not where we wanted to finish. We just had some bad luck through the race weekend. But hope to do it again. It was worth all the work, and the guys did great."
"What a weekend. I'm not sure that team management's something that I have much interest in, anymore," joked Hayden's Team Manager, former world champion Kevin Schwantz.
Schwantz continued: "The opportunity that I got given by American Honda and Moriwaki was, we knew it was going to be a challenge. Trying to get into this Moto2 field and make an impact, as far as results went, was never going to be an easy feat. And we had a hiccup early on. Cost us 30 minutes. We were 30 minutes behind all weekend. I think if we'd have had an extra 30 minutes, we'd have been better. We weren't ever going to race for the win here. But then we got a good start, and got knocked down in Turn 2. Scrambled to get the bike put back together. To see a team...we've had 25 people in the garage all weekend, and we used all 25 of them to get that thing put back together. But for the team to work together like they did, for our rider to keep his cool and be able to stay calm and collected when we were all running around like a bunch of chickens with our heads cut off, we did good. I think as a team, we got an A. For our result, maybe we got a B- or a C. But, hopefully it's something else we get the opportunity to try again sometime soon."
There are rumors that American Honda will now field a full entry in the Moto2 class next season with an American rider. Schwantz seemed cautiously hopeful that something like that would happen and that he'd be involved. "You know, this was what this whole effort was about, was this weekend. I haven't really had an opportunity to sit down and talk to Mr. Blank or any of the other people at Honda. I'd like to think that, if they were going to do something and possibly put forth an effort in Moto2, that they'd let me be the big chief. I think we could do a good job. I think we showed this weekend that we can be a team. Kevin Erion and the staff that he put together was a huge part of it. The Moriwaki family was in working on the bike. Erion and all his boys were friggin' running around slinging parts. It was definitely chaotic at best, but we got it all done."
