Destruction AlleyWorld Superbike Championship: Laguna Seca Raceway 1998
(Note: I screwed up and printed that Haga took out Corser's brake lever in the second race when it was actually his clutch lever. It was on the plate by the time I discovered it. The text here is incorrect but in its original form--DCA)
The Vance and Hines Ducati team had been preparing for this event for months. They'd been receiving technical papers and faxes from the Ducati factory in Italy regarding which EPROM's to use with which fuel injection system and how to tune the bike when switching over to WSC-caliber fuel, all in preparation for a dominant display at Laguna Seca. All along they had been emphasizing to their rider, Anthony Gobert, how important the event was to them and to Ducati's new owners, Texas Pacific Group. TPG reps would be traveling to Laguna Seca to view the racing arm of their motorcycle empire.
As the time ran down to T-minus 14 days, the Terry Vance owned squad hunkered down and began working straight 18-hour days, six days a week to prepare new engines for the race at Laguna Seca. Ducati engineer, Ernesto Marnelli, who has worked exclusively with the team this season as a direct liaison between Ducati engineering and racing boss Mr. Bordi, spent most of his days at the local US customs office, signing for and loading up hundreds of pounds of new parts shipped to the Vance and Hines team from the Ducati Italy race shop.
The Vance and Hines Ducati team was not going to the party at Laguna to just look good for the cameras or to have a presence on the world stage. They were loaded for bear and looking to win. Gobert had been relishing this race in his mind for months--his favorite racetrack in the world, on the bike he has coveted for two seasons, and a full-on chance to show the world he is the best rider of all. He'd do that by beating all the World Superbike riders.
The team slimmed down by telling B-rider Tom Stevens to stay home, as they didn't have the budget to run him. Most thought this meant they just wanted to concentrate their entire effort on the one man they thought had a chance at winning both races at Laguna Seca: the infamous Anthony 'Tony G' Gobert.
Gobert too was suitably prepared. He'd actually trained a bit before hand, tried to live a healthy lifestyle and focused his immense talent on preparing for the race at Laguna. He expected good things and wanted family there to witness the happy occasion. His manager / mother, Sue Gobert, flew in to view her son's imminent rip-roaring success.
The gun was loaded, the hammer pulled back, and the racing world shook at the thought of what could come out of that barrel. A motivated Tony G on that bike with the right Ducati support could be like a fat man jumping into a wading pool. No doubt Gobert's foes were already rehearsing their 'we just got beat' speeches.
The big day arrived and the team had the number 95 Ducati 916s, in full WSC works trim, spit-shined and attired in tire warmers. Seven mechanics worked silently but hurriedly, and Terry Vance himself stood at the ready as the fog burned off the sky on Friday morning. With practice about an hour away from starting, Gobert himself strutted into the paddock, carrying a gear bag full of leathers and a slight impish grin on his face.
Then the FIM representatives, who had previously been in a jury meeting atop the tower at Laguna Seca, proceeded to the Vance and Hines transporter and asked to have a word with Gobert and Vance. They then dropped the bombshell of the season--Gobert had taken, and flunked, an FIM-mandated drug test and he was suspended from racing in the event. Gobert replied, according to an eyewitness, "You must be joking," but was assured by the FIM that they were not. He, with his mommy in tow, left the track and would not speak to reporters.
The entire Vance and Hines race-winning machine ground to a halt like a giant sausage grinder after a human body slips and falls in it. Mechanics were told the bad news in groups of two or three and they stopped working, looked at each other in desperation and just started putting their tools away. There was complete silence under the tent and the mood had gone from jovial expectancy to pure gloom so quickly and dramatically that even the air density seemed to have dropped.
In many, many ways, the 1998 Laguna Seca World Superbike round was a gloomy event. If you believe in karma, then some seriously bad karma settled over the event like Monterey fog and the race weekend was a series of bad incidents, one following the other.
Qualifying: Chandler Gets Ready
With Gobert out (and about to issue a press release in which he admitted to the word that he had indeed smoked marijuana after the Loudon AMA round) and DuHamel a non-factor because of that pesky leg injury suffered at Loudon, conceivably there were three AMA riders who might still be able to win a World Superbike race at Laguna Seca: Kawasaki's Doug Chandler, and the Yoshimura teammates, Mat Mladin and Aaron Yates.
Chandler said to the press before the event that, for him, "this is the most important race of the year" and from the moment he went on track Chandler was at his deadliest. In Friday's qualifying session Troy Corser put the Ducati on top with a not-so-fast time of 1:26.484 (Mat Mladin's lap record from the last AMA race is a 1:25.600. Mladin shadowed Corser by a few tenths, then came Chandler and Edwards. The only real surprise of the session was that Aaron Slight, who has proven himself hopeless at circulating fast at Laguna Seca, actually had the track figured out and was hauling the mail, coming in at fifth fastest. According to insiders, Edwards had sat him down and gave him a few "just do it" lectures about Laguna Seca.
Noriuki Haga went from zero to hero in the second qualifying session. Coming from a 1:28.1 in the first qualifier, and looking totally confused with Laguna, he knocked a second off his time and went fifth-fastest with a 1:26.6 in the second session. Chandler stepped up to go fastest in the second session with a 1:26.3 with Colin Edwards and Corser right behind. Top ten after second qualifying were Chandler, Edwards, Corser, then Mladin, Haga, Slight, the always dangerous Yanagawa, Chili, a surprising Hodgson and then Aaron Yates. Definitely off the pace were Scott Russell, (more famous for his off-track activities in Northern California than anything he'd done at Laguna Seca) in 15th, Carl Fogarty in 14th and Ben Bostrom, who couldn't manage anything faster than a 1:27.4 in qualifying, good for 12th.
If the grid stood at that moment, as it normally does, America would have been proud, with an AMA guy on the pole. But then came Superpole.
Superpole
Designed for television and to give a rider or team's sponsor moments of clean television time, Superpole is one of the strangest, and in turn, dramatic aspects of motorcycle roadracing. Each of the top qualifiers gets three laps of the track to themselves, a warm-up lap, a flying "Superpole" lap and a cool-down.
The Superpole machines are filled with as little fuel as possible to keep the weight low, engine management systems are chipped to full-bore since no one cares about the fuel mileage level, and the softest, most short-lived tire is fitted to the rear of the machine.
For a rider, Superpole is the most stressful moment of the weekend. All eyes and television cameras are on you, including a Jumbotron, and you've got one full lap to get up to speed and then must make one mistake-free lap to insure a good grid position. For many riders this is an impossible predicament, especially for many AMA riders who take ten minutes of every session just to get up to speed, check out the condition of the asphalt, and click rebound and compression damping knobs this way and that. And then, when they're comfortable, they go. To do that with one lap of warm-up was very hard for them and the stress showed on their faces.
First up for Superpole was the charismatic and wide-jawed Italian, Pier Francesco Chili. He's been to Laguna on a variety of machines from 500s to 250 and now on Superbikes and if he can get out of turn three without making the bike do violent summersaults, he can do a good lap time. Chili pulled off a 1:27.3.
Next up was Yoshimura's Mat Mladin and if there ever was a rider designed and built for Superpole, Mladin it is. Raised on short-lap Australian Superbike races where if you're not in the hunt on lap one, you're nowhere, Mladin has shown many times he can go very fast with little mental preparation. Mladin's crew pushed him off and the Australian didn't blink once, putting himself on pole with an extremely respectable 1:26.448, two tenths faster than he went in qualifying.
Troy Corser followed. It is said that he hates Superpole, yet he still manages to be more successful at it than anyone else. Corser too was raised in Australian racing where going fast on cold tires is of ultimate importance. Not surprisingly, he popped off a 1:26.325, good for pole. He rolled up to the pitlane as friends slapped his back, and coasted his bike up onto the tech inspector's scale so that it could be weighed. He looked up to the Jumbotron just in time to see Colin Edwards toss the Castrol RC45 away in turn two when the Honda's brakes refused to let go of the front rotor.
Jamie Hacking, rising star in America on the YZF750 Yamaha, knew he again had an opportune moment when he qualified for the Superpole portion of the program, (Yamaha WSC factory rider Scott Russell did not), and he wasted little time in trying to impress the WSC teams with his talent. After crashing out in front of Wayne Rainey at the Laguna AMA round of the series, Hacking made the YZF Superbike into a 355-pound coffee table by tossing the bike away in yet another crash, this one in Superpole. "He's on the one-a-day program," some pitlane jokester quipped after watching Hacking tweak yet another $100,000 machine. "He crashes a bike a day." The quip was unfair and cruel, but closer to the truth than to an untruth.
One after another the top riders went out and tried to do their best in Superpole: Slight went fifth fastest, Whitam seventh, Hodgson eighth, and Haga in ninth. Carl Fogarty seemed to have lost the edge he had gained last year at Laguna Seca and could only manage a tenth place position in Superpole.
Being that he had the fastest time in real qualifying, Doug Chandler went last in Superpole. The racing line around the track had a nice soft surface of rubber applied to it by then, thanks to all the other bikes that had gone prior to his Kawasaki, and being that everyone was rooting for a local boy triumph, Chandler might have been the one to pull off a startling upset. His ride was, as one might expect, flawless, and a picture of complete control, the motorcycle not an inch out of line. Yet, it was only good for a very anticlimactic sixth-fastest.
After Superpole, four young members of Generation-X stood in torn jeans and weird stocking caps at the guardhouse at the top of the hill leading to the Laguna Seca circuit. This is where race tickets are normally bought, sold or accepted. The lead slacker, although he'd seen a great afternoon of qualifying, wasn't satisfied and wanted his money refunded. "If Anthony Gobert ain't racing here, I'm not coming back," he said.
Even more foreboding--Carl Fogarty put his head down in the race-day morning warm-up and circulated second-fastest to Corser.
Race One: Utter Disaster
Troy Corser goes well at Laguna Seca; he always has. With him on the front row the only offensive move the rest of the grid could try was either to stay with him at all costs and wait for a mistake, or get in front of him and block as if life depended upon it. In the end, neither tactic was successful.
Lyle Lovett, attending his first professional motorcycle roadrace, sang the National Anthem. (No, neither Julia Roberts nor her Ferracci Monster attended). Chili's wife kissed him on the cheek and sent him on his way. And Mat Mladin prepared himself for the race of his career. Second fastest and just as adroit as Corser at riding blisteringly fast on cold tires, Mladin was the man many were looking at to foil Corser's plans.
In the end, nobody could hang with the former Australian Superbike champion and by the time the pack left turn two on the first lap, the quiet and confident Corser had the pack right where he wanted them: about a quarter of a second back. Haga came from nowhere to circulate in second place on the opening laps and the rundown then was as follows: Corser out in front in take-no-prisoners mode, then Haga, Chandler, Yanagawa, Mladin, Hodgson, Whitam, Bostrom, Sir Carl and then Edwards.
Mladin went out early with a misfiring engine and Haga tossed the Yamaha away when he lost the front entering turn eleven. Ben Bostrom had a great run from nowhere to battle past Chili, Whitam, Hodgson and even Carl Fogarty. He would finish fourth.
Chandler was under pressure from WSC Kawasaki rider Akri Yanagawa from the moment he took over the second spot. He blocked as best he could but it seemed he either had a problem lapping at that pace or that Yanagawa had motor on him. For ten laps, Yanagawa stalked the Californian and then on lap twelve he made it past Chandler in turn two. Though he instantly pulled a few lengths on Chandler, the reigning AMA champion was not about to give up the fight. Unfortunately, as Chandler entered the corkscrew on the brakes, the weld holding his right clip-on together crystallized and broke away. The clip-on swung out and Chandler drilled the rear brake to try and stop the bike, but in a few seconds he was down, taking out Chili and then, horrifyingly enough, Chandler's sliding Kawasaki drilled Yanagawa's bike just in front of the swingarm pivot, taking the Japanese rider out just as he started down the Corkscrew. Yangawa was flipped into the air, hitting the back of his neck on the curbing, crashing into the straw bales and the airfence, and finally coming to a halt in a heap, looking for all intents, dead. Veteran race-watchers and riders with more gray in their hair than color, said the Chandler/Yanagawa incident was the worst they'd seen in their lives.
The race was instantly red-flagged as everyone tried to get a bearing on what happened and the medical workers flew in a Medi-Vac helicopter to fly Yanagawa out to San Jose. Chandler sat at the top of the hill with the bewildered look of a man who had just been run over by a silent train. Yanagawa was stripped of his leathers and shorts, and a tracheotomy was performed on him tracked in effort to allow him to breathe. His mouth was a river of blood from what was later diagnosed as a bunch of teeth that were punched out in the violent crash. Yanagawa did have horrible teeth so that wasn't the worst thing that could happen to him. Moreover, he looked to have a chest wound and he wasn't yet moving.
All the while Chandler sat in the dirt on top of the Corkscrew, first holding his leg and then his wrist. He had the look on his face of a man who didn't really want to do this racing business much longer. Chandler was found to have a fractured bone in his ankle. His race, and his weekend, were done.
The grid re-formed 40 minutes later with an enormous hole in the front lines where Chandler, Mladin and Yanagawa were supposed to be. Some wondered openly why the organizers didn't just move everyone up two positions to fill the hole in the front row, and in about 15 seconds that question would become paramount in importance.
On the re-start fans called out to Carl Fogarty from the stands in front of the grid, yelling "Go Foggy!" and "Get 'em Carl". Then the race went green and everyone, just as all learned eyes expected them to, went diving for the two open spots on the front row. Ben Bostrom, Aaron Slight, Aaron Yates and others all squeezed into the ten-foot space and it didn't take long for disaster to strike. Yates touched Slight's clip on as they bumped, innocently making contact with his brake lever, which caused the Castrol Honda rider to tuck the front and crash. His crash took out Bontempi and from that point on the start was a demolition derby. James Randolph tried to get out of the way, rode into the dust and never came out. Just when you thought it was over, our own Rich Oliver innocently rode right into the melee and catapulted his bike over the crashed mess, throwing himself right into the wall on the outside of the track. Slight had bloody leg injuries and would be out until Brands Hatch, Oliver's weekend was done, Bontempi was flown out with internal injuries, and James Randolph was heavily rumored to be dead. Two hours later he was walking around the paddock with a tiny bandage on his finger.
The event was fractured, damaged from the start, and only growing worse as time passed. The PA announced that the race was cancelled and half-points would be awarded, which multitudes of race-watchers thought meant the weekend, not just the first race, was over. Cars were leaving the circuit, bumper to bumper, within 15 minutes. If the podium ceremony had happened, Corser would have been on top, Yanagawa second, and Chandler third.
The only good things to come out of the first race at Laguna were, most notably, that nobody died and it appeared as if everyone from Chandler to Yanagawa to Slight would be okay in time. Also, Troy Corser finally won his first WSC race of the 1998 season.
Race Two: Haga Makes the Move
A man who has almost disappeared into the fabric of the WSC community and is now no more recognizable than a Neil Hodgson or a Jamie Whitam or even an Alex Gramigni, is former series champion Raymond "Scott" Russell. The switch to Michelin from Dunlop rubber had been a Russell-directed disaster and the man from Georgia lost all confidence in himself and the Yamaha by the fifth race of the season. As always with Russell, his mood dictates his life and since his mood was in the dumpster, so was his life. A person who spoke with Russell before the race weekend said that he lacked any kind of motivation or confidence in himself or the bike and his answers to most questions regarding riding began with "I can't. . ."
From the fourth row then it was a complete surprise to see Mr. Daytona leading the pack into turn one. Of course Russell had jumped the start, but it was good to see one of the purest, talent-laden Superbike riders ever to come out of America, right up front and the pack struggling to stay with him.
Russell led a lap and a half. Then they black-flagged him for his obvious corrupt start. Russell was having nothing of it though, and he stayed out, intending to race as best he could from that position. Haga, Russell's teammate, went by him and led but Russell tucked in and looked to be intent on making a race of it, no matter what the leaderboard said. Running order on lap one was Russell in front, then Haga, Mladin, Whitam, Hacking, Foggy, Corser, Hodgson, Bostrom and Chili.
But Russell crashed out in turn three, losing the front trying to stay with Haga. Then came the most bizarre spectacle of the weekend: Russell got up from his low speed crash and appeared to be . . . jubilant. Most expected him to be angry at himself or doubtless someone else for the crash, and to wait by the side of the track to throw a helmet at someone, just like the rednecks do in NASCAR. Instead, Russell acted for all intents and purposes like he had just won the race, pumping is arms in the air and smiling to the crowd. He had been so drunken the night before he was reeling in the streets, according to the multitudes who had seen him, but even this was abnormal hangover behavior.
Russell, so say those who have stood with him behind closed transporter doors and reviewed data acquisition sheets with him, can go from downtrodden loser Scott, so listless and unresponsive, and convinced he is doomed to race the remainder of his career in the WERA endurance series, to the great Mr. Daytona in one fell swoop. All he needs is a hint, a clue from above that he can do the business again and he's back to his old form. What you saw after Russell crashed was jubilation that he got the sign. "You watch," said a man who used to sign Russell's paychecks, "he'll be tough for the rest of the season."
After that display, Haga took the lead and tried to make a run to the flag but Corser and Ben Bostrom made their way to the front and gave chase. Jamie Hacking kind of made up for his Superpole crash by running in the top three for a time, then the top five and finally finishing seventh. The Fog went out early when someone bumped into him and bent his swingarm, and Aaron Yates crashed out of the race on lap 13 when he got the Yosh bike loose in turn eleven and was he tossed off on the straight. Mladin made it 17 laps before his engine expired, again.
On lap ten Corser took the lead with a Gobert-like pass in turn three, and instantly pulled out nearly a half-second lead over Haga. A huge battle for third developed at this point with Bostrom, Whitam, Chili and Hacking all jostling for that position.
Bostrom made it by Chili late in the race and two laps from the end, Haga made a swell move to go by Corser at the top of the Corkscrew, whacking the Yamaha against the Ducati and snapping off the end of the 916's brake lever. Corser tried to run Haga down on the final lap but was unable to do so. As the pair crossed the finish line and rode throttle-off into turn two, Corser looked directly at Haga, pointed at him and shook his head in disgust for the move at the top of the hill. Bostrom beat at least ten world-class world Superbike riders, including works Honda rider Colin Edwards, to take a fine third place. Chili, Whitam, Hodgson, Hacking, Goddard, Gramigini and Edwards rounded out the top ten finishers.
Miguel DuHamel watched the races from the pressroom, stumbling around on crutches, taking large pain pills and sharing with friends an impressive hoard of Viagra jokes. After the second race press conference DuHamel walked up to this writer and asked, "So what was Troy's problem, did he say?"
Yes, Haga broke his brake lever off when they touched in the Corkscrew.
"No," DuHamel interjected, "what was his problem for the whole race? Why were his laptimes so slow? I watched him in turn three and he was obviously having some kind of problem. Was the surface cold or something?"
Nope. It seemed like he raced hard and just got beat.
DuHamel looked down at the time sheet with Corser's laptimes on it and said,"1:28s. Man, I had this race won."
ENDS
Laguna Seca Results
Race One: 1. Troy Corser, Australia (Ducati); 2. Akira Yanagawa, Japan (Kawasaki); 3. Doug Chandler, Salinas, CA. Kawasaki USA ZX7R; 4. Ben Bostrom, Granada Hills, CA. (American Honda RC45); 5. Sir Carl Fogarty, Great Britain (Ducati); 6. Jamie Whitham, Great Britain (Suzuki); 7. Pier-Francesco Chili, Italy (Ducati); 8. Aaron Slight, New Zealand (Castrol Honda); 9. Neil Hodgson, Great Britain, (Kawasaki); 10. Jamie Hacking, Great Britain/America, (Yamaha YZF750)
Race Two: 1. Noriyuki Haga, Japan (Yamaha); 2. Troy Corser, Australia (Ducati); 3. Ben Bostrom, Granada Hills, CA. (American Honda RC45); 4. Pier-Francesco Chili, Italy (Ducati); 5. Jamie Whitham, Great Britain (Suzuki); 6. Neil Hodgson, Great Britain, (Kawasaki); 7. Jamie Hacking, Great Britain/America, (Yamaha YZF750); 8. Peter Goddard, Australia (Suzuki); 9. Alex Gramigni, Italy (Ducati); 10. Colin Edwards, USA (Castrol Honda).
Championship Points after Eight Rounds: 1. Corser 241.5; 2. Slight 214; 3. Chili 211.5; 4. Fogarty 208.5; 5. Edwards 195.5; 6. Haga 193; 7. Yanagawa 132,8. Whitam 102; 9. Goddard 101; 10. Hodgson 80.5