The Madness is in the Motor

Socially awkward lunch parties

2009-08-09T22:15:00.000-07:00

Bit of an awkward moment this weekend when we got home from lunch with my boss and his family at their apartment, and realized that one of his sons had bitten my boy hard enough on the calf that he left two half circle bruises with teeth marks.

Not Required Reading

2009-07-30T23:03:00.000-07:00

So, I wasn't exactly having a ton of fun working in Japan and starting to get a bit frustrated with the experience. While my wife and son were in the US on a three week trip to see family and friends, I decided that I was going to fly over for just a few days and be there in time for my son's 4th birthday party. We figured out when we originally moved here and I came three weeks before they did, that three weeks is definitely over the threshold of acceptable separation periods.

The flight from Tokyo to the US is 8ish hours, and should theoretically just be a very short nights sleep, and then you try to power through the subsequent day to a decent bedtime to avoid any funky jet lag. But, seeing as how I was flying economy on United, I knew there was no chance in non-medicated hell that I would be able to get a decent amount of sleep so instead I wanted to just make the trip as relaxing as possible. To help me on that front, I had a ton of movies on my PSP and wanted a book to help fill in the gaps. For the previous six months, I had been teetering between blushes of enthusiasm for the incredibly unique challenge of working in a somewhat hostile environment, and an overwhelming desire to tell them to go fuck themselves if they didn't want my help after asking me to move my entire family to Japan for two years. So with that looming over my mind constantly, I went into the bookstore to grab a little light reading material. Because I was at the airport, I had plenty of English language choices, as long as I wanted a book about Japan, or Harry Potter. What did I get? The Book of Five Rings, one of a half dozen books on breaking through the rice paper ceiling and succeeding in Japanese business, the history of Japanese baseball ... all appealing choices.

No, I got The Rape of Nanking. Brilliant. That will really help.

Alien in the Middle

2009-07-30T22:40:00.000-07:00

We've been living in Japan for 9 months now. I expected to be updating the blog much more often, but have rarely had the desire to post anything after the first few weeks. The reality of it is that while living in Japan is surprisingly easy and very entertaining, working in Japan is difficult and it's just made it even more obvious how incredibly work orientated my life had become. I define large parts of my personal happiness on success at work, to the point of my family time on evenings and weekends feel more fulfilling when I have busy, engaged work days. When I am productive and busy at work, then time away from work becomes a very separate thing and a needed break, but when work is a fairly blank 9 hours in the middle of the day, for me it makes everything else seem less defined and less entertaining.

I'd like to think that I haven't had any problems adapting to the Japanese way of doing business, other than the Japanese way of doing business including a dislike for accepting help from non-Japanese sources. As it seems to be with most companies, for years the Japanese team was operated as it's own unit, separate from the rest of the company. Japan is a different market with specific needs is the rationale. The more complete rationale is that Japan is an extremely isolated domestic market that wants to keep things that way. Even here, at an international company that is apparently very non-traditional for a Japanese office, getting involved in the business as a non-Japanese speaking person took more than 6 months. For 6+ months, I would come to the office and make up someone to do, or work on a project for my old team in Sydney, because no one would involve me in any meetings. After the first couple of weeks, I stopped asking to be invited. After the first month, I stopped expecting people to schedule follow-up meetings to discuss my input, realizing that "let's have a meeting about that later to talk again" was really a polite way of ignoring me. It took 6 months and many boozy nights out before I started getting involved in the management of the business here.

And now we are leaving. We are going to be here through November, and then it'll be off to California. I've got a meeting next week with my replacement, so I need to think about how I can accurately describe what it's like to work in Japan, without making him not want to do it, because once you get past the initial sense of isolation and rejection and just accept being an alien in their midst, it's an amazing place.

How to make a 4 year old seem quiet

2009-04-16T00:19:00.000-07:00

Send them 7000 miles away.

The house is amazingly quiet without the boy around as even when he is being quiet he still makes a lot of noise. He is never still, even when he is sleeping. It's like 4 year olds are the little human equivalent of a fluorescent light tube, just emitting a constant buzz. I have been watching this video of him singing the planets song from Blues Clues every day.

Swallows umbrellas

2009-04-14T21:18:00.001-07:00

Because I am wife and childless at the moment and our apartment is a lonely place with just me and the cats hanging around, I took off work a bit early and went to a baseball game last week. It was one of the first really nice days of spring, so I opted to go to outdoor Jingu Stadium to watch the Yakult Swallows play as opposed to heading over to the Tokyo Dome to catch the Yomiuri Giants ... that and people apparently are not as interested in watching a Swallows game as there were very good seats available compared to nothing at the Tokyo Dome.

If you want a really in depth review of what baseball is like in Japan, either NPB Tracker or Marinerds can give you a much more informative view than I can. Instead, I will give you the slack jawed yokel American view of their first NPB game. Jingu is a nice stadium to catch a game, although I would compare it to a big AAA stadium more than an actual MLB park. The same goes for the majority of the players, the majority of which would probably fall into the AAA or imaginary AAAA level of talent. There were definitely exceptions to that, and from what I understand neither the Swallows or their opponents that evening, the Chunichi Dragons, are exactly the cream of the crop, so the talent level for a team like the Giants might be significantly better.

If the stadium and the talent level don't remind you of the US minor leagues, then the pre and in game festivities would. It's a more casual, fun atmosphere with multiple stuffed mascots shooting shirts into the crowds, the players throwing out soft baseballs as they run out to take the field to start the game, a full squad of cheerleaders that come out between innings, and coordinated chants for every player that the entire stadium knows. Oh wait ... yeah maybe that last one we don't do so much in the US. I have no idea what they were saying, but every player would be serenaded for their entire at bat by a rhyming chant from the appropriate side of the bleachers. The stadium is pretty evenly divided in two for home and away fans, and plenty of people made the two hour trip from the Dragon's home town as well, so there was a constant stream of chanting. All of the Swallows players also had their own walk out songs for their stroll from the on deck circle, with the majority of them being the fairly standard hip hop, upbeat rhythm that seems appropriate for a professional athlete, except the shortstop. He is apparently partial to mid-80s soft rock and chose to go with Toto's lovely rendition of Rains of Africa.

I think the Swallows are my team for the duration of our stay here in Japan. For starters, Jingu Stadium is really close to my office so I can easily head over for an evening game without having to travel all the way across Tokyo. Plus, even if they are not really that good of a team, their center fielder, Norichika Aoki, is apparently one of the best hitters in the NPB, their closer wings it up there at 95+mph, and of course, I'll get to hear Rains of Africa at least three times a game. I am scheduled to go to another game later this month, but first I will have to get an umbrella, just like the 4000 of them in the picture above. Every time the Swallows score a run, the entire home half of the stadium gets out their umbrellas and does a coordinated shaking. Definitely not like an American game, but somehow way more pleasant than a bunch of random shouting, swinging around monkeys or white towlies.

Sakura sadness

2009-04-14T21:17:00.001-07:00

It's easy to see why people in Japan are crazy about sakura. It was amazing how precisely tied the blossoms were to the weather going from eye-watering cold to beautifully temperate to the beginnings of uncomfortably warm. One week the trees are barren and brown, the next week they are so pinkish white with blossoms it looks like it has snowed across just the treetops on every street, and then a week later they are gone and the green leaves are starting to bud. You'd never think that seeing green leaves in spring would be depressing, but they are no where near as pretty as the blossoms.

This is one of the things that makes Japan so interesting and will keep us happy here. The oppressive heat that I can already feel coming will not be one of those things.

Life goes on

2009-04-14T07:14:00.000-07:00

I realized yesterday that it has been 12 years since I last raced. I can't even remember why I ended up on the AFMs site, but I saw an on-board video from Buttonwillow and started to get nostalgic. I was disappointed that I couldn't find my name in the old results, even though I probably should be listed in some of the first sets they have on the site.

It was so long ago, when I was so much younger and had fewer commitments, and cared less about a few bumps and bruises ... for a little while, I forgot how expensive it was, and how much I hated getting up at 5am on race weekends, and the heat of Thunderhill in August, and the long nights rebuilding motors. For a little while, all I remembered was tucking in behind the fairing down that straight at Buttonwillow, the little shallow dip right past the start/finish line that you can hardly see from the side of the track but that can unsettle a bike flat out in 6th gear, the long tow that a 600 can give you if you suck in right behind them when they assume they are going to just walk away from the little two stroke, the little skip your heart makes when they pop up and hit the brakes 100 feet before your normal brake marker allowing you to fly past them, popping up with shoulders tensed for the weight transfer, that cracking blip of the Honda RS250 downshifting, then immediately down on to the left knee and looking for that perfect arc, throttle back on to settle the chassis and power winding in until you feel those little pulses, the little slips and can feel the RPM tick up slightly faster as the edge of traction is right there. And you do it all and think, holy shit that must have looked demoralizingly wicked from that 600.

That feeling of just doing it perfectly, that's what anyone who ever does any sport is after. For that little moment in time, it's perfection, or least as perfect as you can possibly make it. The trick is doing it perfectly 15 more times a race, and doing it on every corner at every track you go to ... or on every pitch, or every shot, every swing, every wave, every sprint. That's what I couldn't do, but I could do Turn 1, Buttonwillow Raceway, Buttonwillow, California perfect nearly every time.

Kawaii sells

2009-03-02T23:28:00.000-08:00

This is one of those pictures I mailed in from my phone, intending to add some commentary but then never quite got around to it, for reasons which I will go into later. But, since I actually got a comment on it from someone who isn't my wife (love you, honey), I should probably fill in the details.

This is the local used car dealer right up the street from our apartment. They usually have a dozen cars, all newer models and more often than not something unusual for Tokyo like a massive Benz, American full size trucks, or a Hummer. When I was walking by today, they had a model out front with the cars getting ready to take some photos. In the US, you get used to advertisements getting a little kooky and maybe sometimes trying to catch a little kitsch genre flavor like throwing in an Uncle Sam, going for the patriotic angle. You see it, shrug it off, and probably think it's a bit too corny to be effective. Not in Japan. Kawaii is the word for ultra cute, like Hello Kitty levels of cutsie, and it sells ... everything. This girl wasn't listlessly standing around waiting for them to get ready, she was bouncing around, practicing her poses, waving at cars, and when the camera was ready, it was on. She was tossing the head from side to side, smiling, winking, throwing one foot up, and always with the obligatory peace sign.

This is what sells in Japan ... everything has this type of advertising. If it's not cute little Japanese girls throwing peace signs, it would be a hyper-adorable little cartoon animal/monster of some kind. Kawaii ads are everywhere; my internet company, our mobile phone provider, my sewage and water bill, the instruction sheet from the garbage company on how to sort my trash into 18 different piles, the warning stickers on the subway doors advising how to avoid losing your fingers. Kawaii is just one of those Japanese things that makes the culture here so confusing and fascinating to the rest of the world.

If you have to ask ...

2009-02-12T21:00:00.000-08:00

As a point of reference, brand new uncustomized versions of these posh scooters are around $5k USD. When you lower it, do custom leather upholstery on the seat and throw on a wacky yellow metallic pearl lizard skin paint job, well ... that's just fuck money levels of extravagance.

Plenty of room

2009-01-29T23:09:00.000-08:00

It's always going to be hard to take pictures on the subway without looking like a weirdo creep, so this one is a little sideways. After the girl here squeezed into the train, another 4 people got on after her in the same Tokyo subway fashion; see a spot big enough for your foot, stick it in there, and then slide the rest of your body in to the car while simultaneously twisting to face the door and compacting the crowd of people behind you.

How many ways can you say "no parking"

2009-01-24T22:01:00.000-08:00

Apparently 'No Parking' in both Japanese and English isn't enough, even when combined with the international symbol of a bike in a circle with a slash through it, and threats of fines from 3000円 to 5000円.

Toilet humor transcends cultures

2009-01-24T22:00:00.000-08:00

Shibuya intersection, dirty window

2009-01-17T02:58:00.000-08:00

Orange moon

2009-01-13T16:10:00.001-08:00

The iPhone camera is not exactly adept at the long distance lunar shots. Still, a nice twilight shot of northern Setagaya, even if you can't make out how freakishly orange the moon was that evening.

Empty subways

2009-01-13T16:10:00.000-08:00

I finally managed to get a spot against the end of a subway car on the way home last night. This is important for a few reasons when it comes to taking pictures. One, you want to be able to show the entire car which you can't really do if you're standing in the middle of it. Two, with your back to a wall, no one can see that you're taking a picture of a train full of complete strangers.

This is actually a fairly empty car for a commute run. I left work a bit late last night, but on a normal night you would literally cram another 25 - 30 people into this picture. There are a dozen train lines leaving Shibuya, each of them sending a train out every 4 or 5 minutes at the slowest, and most every one of them will be absolutely stuffed to the gills for about 30 minutes on each end of the working day. This morning, I was jammed into a car so tight that I could feel the people around me breathing. Not that I could feel their breath, but I could actually feel their chests expanding and contracting. There were guys on the station platforms helping push people in to the trains, and then helping shove the doors closed so we could leave. On the plus side, you will never have to worry about falling over as there is simply no room. I'm just happy that I will never have to stand there with my face buried in someones back like all the 5ft tall Japanese girls do.

Phonetic translations don't always work

2009-01-13T16:09:00.000-08:00

This was part of the sidewalk in Akihabara, the area that is a computer/electronics geeks neon wet dream. Any piece of electronic or gaming related gear you can possibly imagine can be found here, as well as all the diodes, LEDs, cabling and circuitry required to build them all yourself.

Turnstile jumping with a walker

2009-01-12T01:05:00.000-08:00

A 75 year old woman completely jumped the turnstiles in front of my this morning leaving Shibuya. She just wedged herself in behind the guy in front of me and followed him through so closely that the alarm didn't catch her.

I am also still confused most mornings by the piped in bird chirping noises they play near the stairs off the platform.

The arrival of stuff and where to put it

2009-01-08T19:03:00.000-08:00

This is about a quarter of the stuff that was delivered today, and about half way through them unpacking the majority of the boxes. We have now moved four times in the last three years, with two of those being international relocations. At this point, I feel like a freaking expert on relocation companies and their services.

These guys today were very good; just as efficient as you'd expect a Japanese moving company to be. Every corner and walkway in the house was covered to protect it from damage while they were carrying things in and the unloading of the trucks was incredibly detailed. All the furniture came in, then a small break, followed by all 85 of the boxes with me standing in the kitchen marking the numbers off the inventory and pointing to a room, then it was lunch time. After lunch, seven guys tore through all of the boxes unpacking everything. Not putting things away, but at least unpacking them, and sometimes putting away when it was obvious. The end result is an entire house offloaded and unpacked in less than 5 hours.

Unlike every other crew we have worked with in the past three years, this one did not have the dimwit that is always responsible for breaking something, or leaving entire drawers unpacked. When we moved into the San Jose house, one of the packers left the entire bathroom untouched and got a beating from the crew foreman. Moving to Sydney was just a nightmare because of one guy primarily who thought it was super OK to stack dishes together with no padding, although that entire crew kind of sucked and damaged a lot of our furniture as well as being slow, over-priced and bitchy. The move within Sydney had a guy who liked to just put boxes randomly throughout the house, so a year later we would still be finding kitchen boxes in the garage, and I had to go back to the old house to retreive a few items they missed. This time, the packers in Sydney were about to leave a few things unpacked, like entire drawers full of clothes in our closet, until Jae caught them. We also are missing a bed ... an entire bed. We received the boy's mattress, but no box spring, headboard, or runners. It's not on the inventory for the items leaving Sydney, and definitely isn't still in the house there, so they must have put it in with the storage items Dimwits.

Out the office window

2009-01-06T23:02:00.000-08:00

FBI

2009-01-05T00:49:00.000-08:00

Community radio is not something that carries a good mental image in the US. It brings to mind live Grateful Dead recordings and 8 hour jazz sax solos. FBI in Sydney, however, was actually really good, which was a blessing as the commercial radio stations there really blow. Not everything they played was always something I'd listen to otherwise, but it was usually at the very least interesting.

I thought I had hit pay dirt when Jae sent me through an app for the iPhone that lets you play streams from online radio stations. But, probably as a result of being a poor, public supported station, the quality of their stream is really poor. It drops so often you can't even really listen to it. Shame.

Blue sky from the apartment

2008-12-25T00:40:00.000-08:00

Christmas Day in Harajuku

2008-12-25T00:36:00.000-08:00

Christmas in the most consumer orientated city in the world. The entire city is actually really well done up for the holidays, with trees strung with lights everywhere and plenty of small streets having huge light banners strung from poles, but it is more of a year end celebration than Christmas as it is a Buddhist country. As such, shopping wasn't really any more crowded than usual and we were able to get in for dinner at Gonpachi, although that was probably more due to Mark being a regular there than lack of a crowd.

In retrospect, this picture has very little to offer other than being another in my never ending series of random street shots. Too late to retake it now!

Tokyo customs

2008-12-21T23:22:00.000-08:00

The iPhone doesn't take the best pictures at night, but luckily Tokyo streets are pretty much daylight bright most hours. I see this scooter all the time near our serviced apartment, and despite looking like it sits directly on the ground it must move because it's not always there. There is a restaurant right next to where it is always parked, so I'd assume he/she works there.

This type of scooter is super popular around here, and they almost all have at least a modified exhaust. When they travel in packs, it's almost like there is a biker gang tearing down the street on Harleys with the way the exhaust noise reverbs off the buildings. Most are no where near as custom as this guy though, with his purple flame over metallic silver paint, 8ft of exhaust tubing, and overstuffed vinyl seat. The rear fender on this thing looks like it probably drags on the ground 90% of the time the bike is moving.

BFFs

2008-12-21T23:21:00.000-08:00

The boy's BFF is visiting this week, just in time to help keep his Christmas from being a massive mess. We move into our permanent apartment just two days before Christmas, and it is going to be completely empty other than our bed and a few little things we pick up here and there. The bulk of our stuff doesn't arrive until January 9th, and I don't think we will have time to get a Christmas tree, so without friends in town it would be a very barren Christmas.

Now if only they lived in Tokyo instead of Hong Kong, we would be set.

Holiday cheer in small places

2008-12-19T01:26:00.000-08:00

We had a going away/welcome/holiday party for our team last night in a restaurant on the 8th floor of a tiny buiding in Shibuya. What you can see in the picture is the entire place. I don't know how we found it even after we knew where we were going since I couldn't see a sign at all outside, and I've already mentioned how helpful Japanese addresses are.

I can't wait to head out to the bar district that has 200 bars in 2 square kilometers, most with a standing room capacity of 5 or 6 people. This is one of the things I moved here to experience.

Float like a Cadillac

2008-12-14T23:31:00.000-08:00

The last few days have been a constant stream of recycled SuperGT races on one of the Japanese sports channels, going through the entire 2008 season. If the boy has been asleep or otherwise distracted, I've been watching GT-Rs and NSXs banging the crap out of each other with pure glee.

I think anyone that has raced always wants their kids to be hot to trying it out, but the boy has never really shown more than a passing interest outside of the movie Cars. We went to Eastern Creek Raceway once when mommy was busy for the day and he seemed entertained by the motorycles and shifter karts, but he generally doesn't care that much unless it is me playing Gran Turismo. But yesterday, we hit paydirt:

The Lightning McQueen MR-S fielded by apr in the GT300 class. We are now having discussions about how he can't have his own race car until he is 15 years old, which must seem like a really, really long time because he tried to casually drop it to 11 last night to see if I would notice.

More random street scenes

2008-12-14T03:46:00.000-08:00

I can't help that I am completely fascinated by streets in Asia. I love the narrow back alleys with no names, the cars rolling through at pedestrian speed to match the flow of foot traffic, and the corners so tight that you need convex mirrors mounted on poles so you can see oncoming vehicles while making your three point right turn. I also find the lack of street names and addresses charming, especially since I don't drive and have only rarely actually needed to find anything by myself so far.

This is a street kind of close to where our new apartment is going to be, since we are not going to end up taking the tower apartment near the harbor.

At the exact opposite end of the spectrum from the 1 lane back alley ... the main Ginza strip at night. It's basically 5th Avenue in Tokyo, with Bentleys and Rolls double parked while Ferraris slink by.

The tower apartment ... I think that if we were Japanese, we probably would be moving in there. Because we are not, the owner of the development, the Mitsui Corp., kept adding new stipulations to the lease. The demand for two months key money was bad enough, but then they tossed on, after a lease contract had already been delivered to my company, that they also wanted us to prepay rent for January, February and March because we didn't already have direct debit bank payments set up. This is with a major, international corporation as my guarantor, and they essentially wanted 9 months rent in advance (2 months key money which we would never get back as it is a gift to the landlord for allowing you to rent their apartment, 3 months security deposit that Japanese landlords apparently try everything they can to keep for the smallest bit of wear and tear, 3 months rent in advance plus the rent for the rest of December after the lease is signed, and finally 1 months rent as a fee to the agent).

End result is we are not taking that apartment. Even if they exchange rate were not horrid at the moment and I had $25k sitting around to dump into the apartment off the bat, I wouldn't. Instead, we will move our to Setagaya-ku, which is about 15 minutes west of my work by train, and the area everyone in my office suggested we move. Zoom in on where the map is centered, and that (I think) is the apartment, on the back corner of that corner apartment building. Unlike the inner city buildings, it's not 50 stories high, but neither are any of the buildings around it. We will be on the 5th floor, so the view from our balcony will be of endless rooftops around us. Kind of cool, in a much different way than the skyscraper.

View Larger Map

The boy and his iPhone

2008-12-13T06:07:00.000-08:00

My real estate agent made the Denny's of Japan sound vastly different from the reheated grease served in the US, so we decided to give it a try. The boy was kept entertained watching Incredibles on Jae's new iPhone.

The verdict? It's no where near as bad, but it is still a cheap chain restaurant serving dull versions of standard food.

Emigration, naturalisation, and being tracked

2008-12-05T00:52:00.000-08:00

Aside from driving down tiny alleys to look at a dozen apartments, and one trip under an overpass only 1.5m high (so low that guys on bicycles have to stoop to ride through it), I've been doing some of the naturalising steps that come with moving to any new country, and some that are very specific to Japan.

First things first, I went to the Shibuya City Office to register as a legal alien. In addition to the fingerprinting and photo that go along with any foreign visitor entering Japan, if you're going to be here for more than 90 days you need to register. You take two passport photos and head on down with your passport/visa to the local ward office where you will go through one of the most orderly processes I have ever seen.

In Shibuya, it was almost insanely scripted. Walk into the building, stop at the information desk to find out where you are supposed to go. I could plainly see where to go by virtue of there being a big English sign pointing registrants to the second floor, but I was still directed to stop and ask the lady to point out that sign to me. Then I went upstairs, where I had to stop at another completely redundant information desk. Right, follow the sign, got it. The room looked like the DMV/RTA, so I was expecting the worst, especially when I had to take a number for service. I pop around the corner to the registration desk and there is no one there waiting, so I get called immediately. I think they just waited for me to walk up so they could change the number board and direct me to a seat. Fill out a few bits of paperwork, answer a few questions and it's time for her to process the registration, which means I need to get up and walk three feet behind me to sit in the waiting area while she sits 10ft away entering all my information into the system. Not 2 minutes pass before I am called back to the desk to read/sign my registration, and then I get to go back to the waiting area, 3ft away, so she can go make me two copies of my registration. After she has printed those out, she calls me back, again, and explains how I need to return to the office sometime during a window 12 to 16 days from that day to pick up my official registration card. I then need to carry this card with me at all times, and can be stopped and asked for it by a police officer for no reason other than to check that I am in the country legally. I also need to notify the city within 14 days when I move, just so they know where to find me in a national emergency, I suppose.

I also created an inkan, with our admin/translators help. The inkan is basically used in place of signatures in Japan. Every one of them is hand carved and thus unique, and must be registered with your local ward (luckily right next to the alien registration station, so maybe this time I can dodge the information desks). You can do them in Roman characters, or you can translate your name into kanji and pick a sweet ass stylised option for displaying it. I ended up picking 努瑠土, which phonetically translates to Dold, and is the characters for 'exertion', 'lapis', and 'earth'. When I go to pick up my alien card, I'll register the inkan and be one step closer to naturalisation.

Finding a shoebox in Tokyo

2008-11-30T19:11:00.000-08:00

All day last Saturday was spent driving around Tokyo with two real estate agents, inspecting a list of properties that roughly met some initial guidelines we had given the relocation company. The choice was difficult to make without Jae here, but a full day of driving, stopping at an apartment, shoes off, wander around taking photos, shoes on, back into the car ... that was 100 times easier without a 3 year old hanging around.

With typical Japanese promptness, the first agent picked me up at 930am, and dropped me off at 12:40pm, apologising profusely for running 10 minutes late. At this point I had 20 minutes until the second agent came to collect me and spent most of it feeling like I was going to throw up at the thought of not finding anything that would suit our needs. We had looked at 6 or 7 places, and while I knew going in that compromises would have to be made, especially for size, there weren't really any of them that I thought we would be happy in. They were all either too small (even with expectations of living tight), too old, too dark from being buried on the bottom floor in between 10 story buildings, oppressively expensive even for Tokyo, or just so inconvenient for me to ask Jae to live in with no real grocery stores or play areas for Nevan near by. I was starting to think that I was going to be in serious trouble, either with Jae for taking a place that just wouldn't do, or with the company for having to extend our stay in temporary housing.

The second agent must have been sitting outside the apartment literally waiting for the clock to hit 1pm because she called me on the tick and off we went. The first guy was nice but a bit like you'd find any other real estate agent in the world. The second agent was actually just nice, and a had a funny mean streak making fun of real estate agents who need a GPS in order to find their way around Tokyo. This girl was the driving equivalent of Rain Man, turning down 1 lane alleys so narrow she needed to do a 3 point turn to make the corner, cutting through wards to avoid traffic on the main routes that had led the first agent to being late getting me home, and every once in a while she would stop talking, start counting out something on her fingers and mumbling in Japanese before setting off again with the most polite driving I've ever seen. I wouldn't have been able to find most of these places with a GPS and a sherpa guiding the way seeing as how there are no real addresses in Tokyo, just building names and block numbers, and street names are very rarely posted even in Japanese except for on the main boulevards.

She had way more interesting places to show me, and more that were actually in our price range. As the cost of schools and regular expenses began to mount in our planning for Tokyo, as well as the housing depression in the US meaning I will have to keep paying the mortgage there as well, our price bracket had dropped several times. The other agent had places all the way from our original price down to our new limit, but I actually went into the second round of apartments feeling like I could afford them. After the morning session, I had narrowed down our original list of a half dozen areas to just two main wards, Setagaya-ku and Minato-ku. Luckily, 6 of the 7 places she had queued up were in those two areas and we managed to see them all.

Setagaya-ku was the popular choice around the office. My boss and one of the other managers on the team live in Setagaya or close by, its quiet and apparently really good for families, popular with expats who want to get out a little bit more into a Tokyo beyond the skyscrapers, and very representative of a normal Japanese ward. It is mostly 2 and 3 story buildings, with very few buildings that are even 10 stories tall. The streets are small, the train line central to town, and I thought it was excellently cute. I saw one place that was a serious contender, taking a ton of pictures of every apartment even if I didn't like it, just to be polite to the agent.

Minato-ku is more what most people probably think of when they picture living in Japan. 50 story apartment buildings with the most modern fittings you can imagine, each complex with its own grocery store, gym, movie room, and pool. It's also more expensive, not as endearing in a little back alley Tokyo kind of way, and more expensive. The convenience factor for my commute is about the same between the two, but for Jae, Minato-ku is just more ideal as we wouldn't need a car, schools are pretty close by, and there is a little play area next door for Nevan. We had looked at two apartments already, where I was dutifully taking pictures, when we walked into a corner unit on the 26th floor of Bloom Tower on Shibaura Island. The apartment is small, the walls in the living room are a strange yellow-orange color, it's at the very top end of our price range, but good lord the view. It looks out over Tokyo Harbor, with the entire Rainbow Bridge in view from the living room, master bedroom, and bathroom. It's the kind of view that totally made me forget to look at practical things, or take pictures so Jae can see it. So, yeah ... that's the one we applied for.

Further afield

2008-11-28T01:05:00.000-08:00

Monday was Japanese Labor Day, so I took the opportunity to try out the subway system a day early so that I wouldn't do my aimless wandering trying to find my station during commute times. I also needed to find a store that sold wrapping paper or gift bags so I could prepare the small presents I'd picked up in duty free for my co-workers. I got directions from the front desk of our apartment on how to get to the subway station and set off, emboldened by my inability to get lost the day before.

The subway entrances are all clearly marked, so finding that wasn't a problem. I was slightly stymied in my first attempt to get a PasMo card (rechargeable subway/rail ticket), thinking I had misunderstood the limited English signage, but it turns out that the machine I chose was just out of the actual cards at that moment. 160円 later and I was in Shibuya. Blind luck had led me to get on the train at exactly the right spot, so when I exited there was a stationary store directly in front of me so I got the gift bag purchases out of the way with no hassle.

From there, I just picked one of the many, many exits from the station and once again was rewarded with blind, stupid luck, coming out to look directly at the Cerulean Tower standing in the distance. I climbed one of the pedestrian overpasses to head towards the office, but had to stop to take some video of the intersection.

Yeah, once again, I'm not sure why I am so fascinated by Japanese intersections. After hanging out on the overpass for a bit like some kind of weirdo, I walked up to the office.

This is the side of the building that the lunch room and the bathrooms look out from, the bathrooms having actually a pretty nice view that you unfortunately can't enjoy at the same time as the heated toilet seats, at least not with any social discretion.

Having accomplished all of my immediate needs (gift wrapping, making myself feel better by preparing to avoid getting completely lost on the way to my first day of work), I just wandered around Shibuya for a while.

This is the famous Shibuya crossing from basically every American film set in Japan. I've been shooting all of these videos on the little flip video camera I won at the last poker tournament in Sydney, which makes for handy footage, if not slightly less impressive than you would see in a real movie. The crossing is actually really impressive in person, even though there were hardly anywhere near as many people in it than there are on a busy day.

Pac Man guards the entrance to an alley featuring what appears to be a gentlemens club, judging by the signage. I did not go in to investigate ... it was too early in the day and they looked closed.

The little pink building on the left side of the street is only about 3m wide and contains a condom shop, two or three clothing vendors selling different types of crap, and a Brazilian tattoo parlor on the top floor. Across the street is a pachinko parlor with the requisite hawker outside yelling about loose slots, etc.

I was starting to get hungry at this point, but instead of eating some place in Shibuya, I decided to take the subway back out to Ueno, where I had spent a large portion of my time on my last visit to Japan a decade+ ago. Ueno is home to tons of motorcycle dealers, some of them operating out of a storefront so small they basically have a desk and nothing else, with all of their bikes parked on the sidewalk out front. I ended up heading to a sushi bar that I had eaten in last time I was here and enjoyed my first real Japanese meal in a Japanese restaurant since I arrived.

Feet on the ground

2008-11-27T22:01:00.000-08:00

I finally arrived Sunday morning ... and it kind of freaked me out. For the first day that I was in Tokyo, I really didn't leave the apartment. The concept of going outside, into an environment where I would be totally lost and unable to talk to anyone was a little but overwhelming. Moving to Sydney was a lark, but this is a real foreign country and it does not cater to English speakers. Other than the subway system and some of the most major streets, there is no English signage, which means taking that interesting looking turn down a smaller street can realistically lead to being completely and totally lost.

Finally, after hiding in a video game for a few hours and some gentle chiding from the wife, I wandered out on to the street. I went out the backdoor of our apartment complex (ours is the one with the little red dot on it, in the middle of the map, and our apartment is at the far left hand side of the building) on to a little 1.5 lane alley.

This is a pretty boring video of it since I tend to leave a bit earlier than the average salaryman, apparently, so the street is deserted at this time in the morning. This also means that I have not yet experienced the Japanese subway crush, but it's coming. When I stepped out on to the street, there were a ton of people streaming along, moving to the side if a car or van drove past. I'm not sure where they were all going since it was a Sunday, but I hopped in to the flow and just followed them down the street.

That took me out, after a turn that I carefully tried to remember so that if I needed to come back the other direction I wouldn't miss it, to Aoyama-dori. From there, I basically just picked a direction and wandered around for a while.

For some reason, I am fascinated by intersections in Japan. This one isn't even that exciting, although if you were to walk in this direction for a kilometer or so you would eventually arrive at Shibuya station and then the office.

The Prada building which, once again, I found less interesting than the street. There was a snooty party going on there that evening, with massive sumo bodyguards out front that I decided probably did not want to be filmed.

After making this stunning contribution to the world of urban filming, I wandered around for a little bit looking for something to eat. I will admit, ashamedly, that I chickened out and went for McDonalds, where I could point and order by number. But, I at least ate there instead of scurrying back to my apartment, enjoying the smoke filled atmosphere while all the Japanese people inside laughed at the white guy who travels half way across the globe to a land of intensely great food ... to eat at McDonalds.

no one can hear you scream

2008-10-20T15:18:00.000-07:00

It makes me cringe when people emote in their blogs. If someone wouldn't understand that you were grinning when you wrote it without the added *grin* /grin (grins evily), then it probably needs to be re-written.

physically gifted, mentally retarded

2008-10-05T16:13:00.000-07:00

I'm looking forward to Japanese baseball, not in the smallest part because I can watch it and have absolutely no idea what the announcers are saying. Down by 4 runs, leading off the 7th inning in game 3 of the American League Division Series, and Harold Reynolds thinks you should bunt, to 'spark the bench up'. Yes, I would prefer to not understand what he was saying only because of a language barrier.

Marinerds has been whetting my appetite for Japanese baseball, especially of late with her photos of the retirement game for Kazuhiro Kiyohara, 5th on their all time homeruns list. There's nothing wrong with a bunch of grown men hugging and crying when one retires, and the flowers are a nice touch.

Some ideas are best expressed through ...

2008-10-03T18:30:00.000-07:00

interpretive dance. It's hard to accurately describe all the things I will miss about Australia, but this delicate, thought provoking display of artistic impression helps bring it all in to perspective.

It would be more moving if we weren't all laughing so hard that you can't hear the music.

Migration

2008-10-01T07:44:00.000-07:00

I hadn't been updating this blog at all, and had created a new one to deal with our migration from Sydney, Australia to Tokyo, Japan. Then, getting all nostalgic for my racing days, I was reading my old posts here and realized it was stupid to keep separate blogs for an ongoing story. I've migrated from 23 year old racer to 35 year old salaryman, so I combined the two of them, and hopefully will start updating more often than I have in the past.

Suzuki GSXR400 Ride Report

2006-03-31T17:04:00.000-08:00

Another unpaid contribution to StreetBike Magazines circulation, I wrote this ride report up on the long term loaner GSXR400 with which I had been spending some quality time. For the first 6 months this bike was in the US, I put more miles on it than it's actual owner as he went from one broken bone to the next. I also did a second article, or a first really as this was the second piece of the two part series, comparing this bike with it's two stroke equivalent, the RGV250, on the track at Laguna Seca. I don't know what happened to the first installment, but it came complete with action photos of me in the StreetBike leathers riding both bikes very carefully.

I had met the owner of the GSXR on an email list for two strokes as he owned several RGVs and I had an older NSR250. He, in turn, introduced me to the owner of Miyuki Imports (now GPStar/ Arthaworks, Inc.). I was surfing him to try and get some free rides on a couple of Japanese imports, and while he didn't actually have any bikes in stock, he was surfing me to get some free publicity out of the magazine. I ended up getting the RGV on loan from World Motors in Berkeley, who I think are out of business now. They were nice enough guys, despite some dodgy bikes occasionally making their way out of their shop, and they had the backing of a Japanese company which meant they usually had bikes sitting around their showroom floor, unlike Miyuki Imports.

Riding on a track can have little to do with the cold, harsh reality of life on the streets. The suspension that seems so taught and responsive around the grippy smooth turns of a race course can leave your kidneys bruised after riding over the potholes and speed bumps of everyday riding. The racer’s crouch epitomizes control, but how long will the luster last when a simple trip down to the pub leaves your wrists permanently twisted into awkward positions? So with these challenges in mind, I took to the streets on the 1993 GSXR400RRP, the same bike whose charms I’d previously sampled around Laguna Seca Raceway.

The riding position is still the ultimate in race replica - head down, ass up, hands at knee level. The immediate response is the same awkward groping for the controls you would experience at the track, followed by the overwhelming sense of control and feel the position brings. But out on the street, with the distinct lack of high speed freedom, a new feeling creeps in after a few dozen miles. It starts as a gnawing pain in your wrists, with the occasional jabbing spear across your lower back, until it begins to dawn on you that this is not the most comfortable position to be in for the trip to Grandma’s house. As the miles begin to build, though, the sensation doesn’t get any worse, as if your body has recovered from the initial shock and adjusted itself accordingly.

If one thing more than any other contributes to the GSXRs street-ability, it would have to be the suspension. The upside down units on the front are a direct connection to the ground at the track, logging every ripple in with your brain while the rear shock keeps things tracking through the corners with the utmost precision. Given the ultra sensitivity exhibited at the track, the expectations for its ability to handle the expansion joints and general shoddy road construction found unilaterally throughout the highway and byways of the city could remain appreciably low. So imagine the surprise when my ass retained its pasty white color instead of the black and blue bruising I expected to find after 300 miles of Cal Trans finest. The road irregularities were certainly felt, but it was more a case of the bike announcing it had just subtly dealt with another chuck hole than a punishment for not swerving to avoid it. Large portions of the credit have to go into the fiddling the suspension received, but even though it is set up for someone twenty pounds lighter than me, I could not get it out of shape even once, and that’s not for a lack of trying either.

If you are going to ride a 400cc bike for any distance through traffic, you will need to become well acquainted with its’ gearbox. The smaller the engine, the better the gearbox has to be to keep it spinning in the powerband. Missing a shift and losing the drive as you try to stuff it past the last 18 wheeler before the offramp is a quick way to learn your blood type, transfusions being eminent. The gearbox that was such a pleasure on the track is even more so on the street, where the shifts are more frequent and fatigue can set in quickly if things aren’t functioning properly. Except for a slight clinking noise between first and second, every change is something more to love. The lever is in exactly the right position, and requires only a tap to hop around the box, even going past neutral, which was never accidentally selected during any of the 300 miles.

The engine is still smoother than can be believed. While it is definately happier if it’s kept spinning at race revs, passing power can be had without changing down and carburation is spot on, with no flat spots to leave you for Volvo fodder. A cruising speed of 70 mph leaves the rev counter pointing in a limp wristed mockery at only 8,000 rpm, chiding you for not using the second half of the range. A quick glance in the mirrors to assure there are no lurking patrolmen is a pre-requisite to twisting the grip as hard as you would like because it is addictive, and you will likely find yourself parked by the side of the road enjoying the flashing lights of your local peace officer. It is as easy to ride fast on the street as it is on the track, pulling you unwittingly further down that dark road of juvenile delinquency.

Braking became the limiting flaw on the track, more by attrition than anything else as every other system behaved marvelously. Power is not the problem, the pad on the back of the tank is there for a good reason, but there is a dead feeling to the handle that seems out of place on this bike. It is not as troubling on the street, where there are fewer mad grabs at the handle from insanely high speed, but when the two old blue-haired menaces in their Cadillacs decide to set up an impromptu chicane in the middle of the street, it would be a bit more comforting to be able to feel things happening before the wheel locks coming across the inevitable manhole cover.

Screw enduro bikes as the best form of city travel. What good is it to be able to slice through traffic if it all just sucks you back in once you top out at 60mph. The GSXR400RRP is the same lithe, agile beast in the traffic as it was on the track, and you’ll get 50 mpg while taking the ride of your life.

Special thanks, once again, to John Young for the loan of his wondertoy. I takes privates the size of large hairy coconuts to lend your pride and joy out for an unsupervised roam around the mean streets of San Francisco. Also thanks to Miyuki Performance Cycle Imports for importing the bike in the first place, and helping arrange the gratis rides. Miyuki is available at (408) 365-7485 if you want your own little chunk of nirvana.

Grey Market Bikes in the US

2006-03-31T16:56:00.000-08:00

I have no idea who this article was written for, or whether or not it was ever actually published. I was fairly involved in the grey market bike scene for quite a while, owning several and riding many. I still consider my NSR250SE as the best streetbike I have ever owned, although I never really did get around to registering it for the street despite logging thousands of miles on DOT turf.

While legally registered grey bikes squirt down British roads, trying to get what are some of Japan’s finest bikes on the road in America can be more difficult than smuggling cocaine across the border to sell on street corners.

Official importation is a thing of the past, and will most likely remain that way. Yamaha made an unsuccessful bid in the late 1980’s with a smaller displacement sportsbike, importing the FZR400 from 1988 to 1990. A lack of sales forced them to stop bringing the cult favorite across the Pacific and no manufacturer has had any greater measure of success since, with bikes below 600cc languishing on showroom floors. One of the main reasons is the relative costs to manufacture the smaller bikes. Production costs, combined with the cost of their top shelf componentry, meant the smaller bikes had to be priced close to their 600cc brethren. The American buyer, when presented with the opportunity to have the extra 200cc at a minimal increase in cost regularly opted for the bigger bike. The past showroom failures now deter manufacturers from making the effort to do the bureaucratic slow dance with the Department of Transportation and the Environmental Protection Agency to win approval for importation of the four stroke 400s and 250s.

The 250 Grand Prix replicas fall even farther into the legislative quagmire. Ironically, the characteristic two stroke motor that provides them with the handling and acceleration advantage over bigger bikes is their downfall as the EPA turns up its nose at the fragrant haze they have a tendency to leave behind.

Thankfully, for the minority of American riders willing to go the extra distance to ride something other than the standard fare, grey market bikes are making their way into the country. The vehicle code contains special exclusions for off road/race vehicles, excluding them from DOT and EPA approval. Vehicles destined for the road used to come into the country as race vehicles on a regular basis. Both importers and private individuals simply crated whole bikes in Japan for transfer directly to American streets.

Over the course of the past year, US Customs, yet another agency with their finger in the importing pie, began to crack down on bikes being imported for an explicitly illegal purpose i.e., street registration. The biggest enforcement problem is that there is no way to separate the legal importers from the dishonest minority. Unlike cars, which require a special license on the behalf of the importer, motorcycles are unregulated except as their legality for entry into the country is determined when the crates are opened by Customs agents. When the flow of bikes was relatively small the system worked fine. As the amount of bikes began to increase, however, Customs began questioning the amount of track use a street bike complete with lights and mirrors would ever see.

The number of bikes making their way directly to the street contributed negatively to the situation. They cast a shadow of doubt on everyone bringing bikes through and ended the careers of importers who lacked the foresight not to insulate themselves from the illegal act of registration. Soon anything with lights was being turned back at the dock, raising the price for shipping exponentially as bikes could no longer simply be strapped down in a crate. Bikes now had to be partially disassembled in Japan by paid laborers as traveling to Japan to prepare and ship anything short of a container full of bikes is economically unfeasible. Proper precautions had to be taken as fewer and fewer bikes were making it through without preparation, and the cost of having a bike refused entry is prohibitively high as it involves shipping the bike back to its port of origin.

Legitimate importers, their lives dependent on the flow of bikes through the Customs warehouse, have begun to take steps to ensure quick approval of their merchandise. The first step is to help Customs identify the bikes as race vehicles by removing all lights, mirrors and other street necessities and adding number plates. Distancing themselves from any illegal use of the bikes by requiring the buyer to sign a waiver stipulating the vehicle will never be registered for use on the street is next. Of course, what the new owner does with the bike once he has trucked it away from the importers’ shop is up to them. The focus of the entire issue of grey bikes moves into a different regulatory environment, the Department of Motor Vehicles.

The DMV suffers from the standard level of governmental inefficiency which makes registering even normal vehicles a chore. Those same procedures which make any trip to the DMV into a trying experience, however, also open avenues for those grey bike buyers who never intend to race their new toys. Importers are uninvolved in the registration process once the waiver is signed and the cash exchanged, making the process of getting a grey bike registered a seemingly daunting procedure that itself dissuades potential buyers. Myths of bikes being seized and crushed, fines levied and licenses suspended abound, and are partially encouraged by those who have actually accomplished the feat. The amount of bikes coming through is still small enough as to not draw the attention of unsympathetic officials, but the potential for the loopholes to be found and closed off still exists. Bikes are also making their way to the street just as any other vehicle, processed through an unwary system by employees of the DMV who know nothing about the vehicles they are granting access to public highways. The system is more concerned with having the proper forms completed than keeping track of exactly what it is they are letting loose on the street, and is defeated regularly by its dependence on the honesty of the general public.

The call for grey market bikes is still limited. Their popularity has continued to increase, but the difficulty involved in importation and registration has kept most dealers small and unable to penetrate the mainstream market. The exclusivity of the grey market bikes ensures that they draw crowds whenever ridden on the street, and race classes for the 250s and 400s continue to grow as more bikes find their way into the country. The next logical step is the institution of a new system for vehicle importation more in line with the one currently in place in the United Kingdom. Current trends, however, are moving towards a down sizing in the bulk of the national government, so the idea has little hope of becoming reality. It appears that grey bikes will never be as popular as the pleasure that can be derived from riding them warrants.

AFM Race Reports - 1998

2006-03-31T16:33:00.000-08:00

1998 was my last season filling the role of race reporter for the AFM. I had become increasingly tired of racing in general, and when combined with the death of Joshua Scott along with my best friend dropping the AFM to concentrate on the AMAs and his business the previous season, none of it was as much fun anymore. I'm not sure that I raced even once in 1998, and my articles began to reflect my weariness. The Sunday night chore of preparing 4 different releases was also a bore, with Cycle News wanting top 6 for every race, RoadRacing World asking for only the top 5, and most other magazines asking for the top 3 only, plus providing a synopsis version for newspapers in the hopes they'd actually run the article, I got seriously tired of it. I acted as Rider Rep again this season but didn't try for re-election, sold my RS250 with the stated intention of buying a new one after a year off to rest, and then just never came back. I also had a couple of content distputes with RoadRacing World, where the editor felt I was editorializing too much. I finally just told him to print whatever the hell he wanted, while commenting on the irony of the situation given how much slanted content his magazine ran in general. With the ridiculous AMA schedule in California for 1998, two race reports were condensed into one due to time contraints, and I think I may have just outright missed one round. The AFM deserved better attention, so it was definitely time for me to step away.

March 8, 1998
The first round of the American Federations of Motorcyclists 1998 season was held in perfect weather, despite the ever present threat of rain in California this winter. The large pools of water and mud evident in most of the run off areas provided the only clue to the recent torrential downpours. Brian Parriott, off to Europe on the following Monday to test a World Supersport 600, left everyone with a reminder of why he is one of the best 600 riders the club has ever seen, winning both 600 races and being only narrowly edged from first place in Formula Pacific. Parriott, riding his Honda CBR600 backed by Parriott Motors, battled closely with the GSXR750 of Cory Call, leading most of the race despite the power disadvantage. Parriott out-rode Call at every opportunity until the final lap, when Call slipped past in the back section of the track and used the overwhelming power of his 750 to hold Parriott off on the dash down the front straight to the checkered flag. Number One plate holder Rob Mesa circulated uncompetitively in fourth place, losing third in the closing stages of the eight lap race to Mark Foster. Ed Marchini rode his Honda RS250 to fifth place, the first two stroke, just ahead of Jeff Short’s Chandelle Motorsports Suzuki. Short rode well despite being hampered with a broken shoulder and hand.

Call proved successful in the first defense of his Formula One title, finishing ahead of visiting Willow Springs rider Ken Chase. Both Suzuki riders, however, may have soon found themselves in a battle for position as Rich Snowden, aboard his British Top Brass/Miyuki Imports 1998 RS Honda 250, was steadily closing on the four strokes despite starting in the back of the pack. Snowden was coming off an impressive debut aboard his new bike in the Formula Two race, where he had charged from the fifth row to take fourth place, still gaining ground on the riders in front when the checkered flag was thrown. Daniel Reeser was circulating alone in third place behind a close battle for the lead between Dave Mason and Ed Marchini. Both riders shot away from the pack straight from the start, leaving none but the two of them with a chance at the victory. Mason took a narrow victory, ensuring that he, along with Marchini and Snowden, will play a major part in determining who succeeds the absent Brian LeFevre as Formula Two champion. Snowden’s teammates also had strong rides in Formula Two with both Roy DeGroot and Phil Snowden finishing in the top ten. DeGroot also finished seventh on Formula One, giving the British Top Brass team the only two strokes in the top ten in that class.

Michael Hannas II began this season as he left off last year, taking the victory in Formula Three. With Carlos Neves suffering from terminal engine failure and defending champion Thomas Alldredge having moved on to Formula Two, Hannas was the obvious favorite in the class. Rocky Wong returned from a third place in the championship last year to take second place. The invasion of the Japanese Twins hit the AFM in the Formula Twins race, with Brian Long taking his Suzuki to the front of the pack. Gary Jaehne, also riding a TL1000, finished fourth, sandwiching Paul Orlandi’s Ducati and John Burden’s homegrown EX500. Tim Kamholz returned this year to find himself in a position he has grown familiar with since the beginning of last season, second place in both 600 Production and Superbike behind Parriott. Call bested defending 750 Superbike champion Short by a place, taking the victory as the Chandelle Suzuki rider continued to battle despite his injuries. Jacen Puerta ran well in both 750 classes, finishing fifth in Superbike then taking the victory in Production.

April 12 & May 24, 1998
The American Federation of Motorcyclists visited Sears Point Raceway for Rounds Two and Three of the 1998 season, sandwiching three straight weekends of AMA action in the state of California. Rain shortened the April 12th event as both 600 and 750 Production had to be canceled due to a late afternoon shower. Round Two of the Formula Pacific race was unmarred by the inclement weather, with James Randolph taking a narrow victory from Cory Call. Randolph jumped out to a large lead early on in the race, but Call continued to charge and Randolph was only narrowly able to avoid being beaten in the closing stages. Round Three looked to be much of the same, but with Randolph astride a Honda RC45 instead of his normal Suzuki mount. He initially lead by a huge margin, but with a pack of riders lead by Call closing, he blew the chicane and then pulled off the track with an apparent mechanical failure. Call went on to a convincing victory, with Brian Parriott, who would win both 600 races on the day, third, followed by Jeff Short and Dave Mason. Novice Zach Kimsey continued to make a good showing, finishing the race in tenth on his Kawasaki. Mason has proven to be the most consistent of the 250 two strokes, his fifth place coming on the heels of a fourth place in Round Two. Mason also won his third Formula Two race of the season, overcoming the early lead of Richard Snowden in both of the last two contests. Michael Hannas is dominating the Formula Three class. After winning Round One, Hannas took his first ever victory at Sears Point, making a daring pass on the brakes into Turn Eleven to defeat Geep Terranova in April, then coming from dead last after stalling his bike at the start to walk away with the victory in May. Call remains undefeated this season in Formula One after running away from a diminished field following a re-start after a short rain delay during Round Two. The race was restarted after a short break, but with large portions of the field electing not to continue. Kimsey rode well to take second in both rounds, moving towards Top Novice honors for the year.

June 14, 1998
The American Federation of Motorcyclists made their first trip to the newly extended Thunderhill Raceway for Round Four of the 1998 season. Brief rainshowers marred practice on Friday, but the weekend was pleasantly sunny if a bit windy for Sunday’s races. Formula Three started the day off on an exciting note once again, with Michael Hannas winning another AFM event after withstanding a serious challenge from Carlos Neves. Neves appears to be back on form following his serious crash last season at Sears Point, and looks to be the challenge to Hannas’ dominance that everyone has been looking for. The two battled the length of the race, never more than a few bike lengths apart after the restart. Neves held his best moves for the back section of the track, regularly out braking Hannas on the new section of track in an effort to put himself in front when they crossed the line, but Hannas was able to edge him out by less than a bike length across the line. Neves’ efforts were made even more disappointing by his later disqualification for his part in an incident prior to the first start being red flagged.

Dave Mason continued to dominate Formula Two, leading the race from start to finish and extending his championship points lead once again. The race, like many during the day, had to be restarted, causing Richard Snowden, who had been one of three 250s to jump away from the field, to smoke his clutch leaving only Mason and Ed Marchini to battle for the win. Marchini slowly slipped back throughout the race, finishing within sight but out of contention for the victory. Paul Doyle came home a distant third, passing Roy De Groot in the closing stages of the race.

Zach Kimsey continues to impress many at the AFM, having become a serious contender in Formula One after spending most of last season sliding across the pavement. Kimsey once again faced of with William Scott, the two of them having swapped second place back and forth most of the season. Despite crashing in the 750 Superbike race, Kimsey posted another third place in Formula One, following up his eight place in Formula Pacific.

600 Superbike proved to be Parriott’s only victory this weekend as a crash in Formula Pacific while challenging for the lead kept him out of the Production race. Gary Hatfield’s debut season in the 600 class, after riding in the 450s, continues to show improving results. Hatfield finished fifth in Superbike and second in Production on his Suzuki.

Formula Pacific riders were just as prone to the crashes that proliferated in the other classes as any one else, with two riders crashing out of the lead group before the race was over. In addition to Parriott, a Muzzy Raptor also made an ungraceful exit from competition, but there were still the familiar faces at the front of the pack. Rob Mesa looked more like the Number One plate holder than he has at past meetings, finishing a convincing third, behind Jeff Short and just ahead of Mason’s 250.

Jim Fife returned from a brief absence to dominate the Open Grand Prix and Superbike classes on his aging Suzuki.

August 2, 1998
Jeff Short took his second straight victory on Formula Pacific, outdistancing Cory Call by a large margin despite a late race charge by the points leader. Call, aware of his place in the points standings in the chase to replace his ex-teammate from the now defunct RPM racing team as the Number One plate holder in the American Federation of Motorcyclists, has seemed less inclined of late to take the chances that may have put him at the head of the pack. He made a hard assault on Short’s lead when the Chandelle rider began encountering lapped traffic, but when Short broke free call was unable to easily pursue and didn’t take any unnecessary chances. Short’s Chandelle Motorsports-prepped GSXR750 was visibly faster than Call’s now self-supported effort, and the veteran crossed the line easily ahead of Call. The oppressive heat that dominated the weekend cost Jeff Hagan a chance at the victory, his Muzzy Raptor spinning and sliding on overheated slicks for the latter part of the race, dropping him to fourth behind the constant charge of Mark Foster. Dave Mason was running well again on his TZ250, sitting comfortably fourth on the track and third in points, until a high side in Turn Four put him out of the race.

Mason would return in what is becoming a battle of resilience in Formula Two, with all three major players for the class title having sustained a serious amount of bruising over the course of the season. Mason’s highside kept him on par with Richard Snowden, fourth on the day after a heavy spill in Turn Ten during Saturday’s practice left him severely bruised and sore, and Ed Marchini, jut now returning to the pace that saw him earn the Number Eight plate last season after a high speed get off in the Carousel earlier in the year. Marchini followed Mason across the line, both of them headed by Brian LeFevre, returning unsponsored and riding for Jesus, to take an impressive victory after starting mid pack, bereft of points as he is.

Formula Three became an eight lap race against attrition for an already depleted field. With Michael Hannas still out following a serious accident at Buttonwillow, Carlos Neves was the favorite but removed himself after lowsiding on the brakes entering Turn Seven in pursuit of early race leader Scott Anderson. Anderson would lead the race until the second to last lap, when exiting the chicane his victory went up in a screech of seized aluminum. After being granted first place, Peter Hoffman continued to run unmolested by pursuers, having already generated a sizable gap between himself and now-second place runner Peter Femenia. Femenia, riding an uncompetitive TZ125 to a competitive pace, was making his return to the class after destroying a TZ250 in the Esses following a mechanical failure in June. Femenia came quickly through the pack from his mid grid starting position to lead Miyuki Imports rider Chris Wallace across the line.

Call would not be shut out of first place entirely, taking the victory in Formula One, although Short once again got the better of him in 750 Superbike. Thomas Montano and Brian Parriott renewed their on track rivalry, with Montano getting the better of Parriott, both of them bringing the Hondas home ahead of Timothy Kamholz’s Suzuki.

AFM Race Reports - 1997

2006-03-31T16:16:00.000-08:00

1997 saw me once again doing the court reporter duties for the AFM, and at this point I was also serving as Rider Representative to moderate rider disputes and protests, while also racing a Honda RS250. It was a busy season, and ultimately my last as a full time racer. The general weariness I had begun to feel with racing in general was compounded by the death of a friend, Joshua Scott, and the whole scenario began to lose its luster.

March 9, 1997
Steve Rapp began the new season just as he left off last year, cruising to the victory in Formula Pacific by a large margin over Ken Hill. Despite the horsepower lost when the Cycle Gear backed Rapp changed from the familiar Kawasaki superbike to his current GSXR600, Rapp pulled away steadily after surviving the initial close battles off the start. Suzukis blanketed the top five positions with four 750s following Rapp across the line. Hill, new to the front of the Formula Pacific pack, led Cory Call, Dan Thorsen and Jeff Short to the finish just ahead of Rob Mesa. Mesa struggled off the start and on the narrow, fast confines of Buttonwillow found it difficult to work his way back to the front and had to settle for sixth. Last seasons fourth place overall Tom Aquino could not find a way around the CBR900RR of Mike Nissen and had to settle in behind the powerful Honda for eight place. John Hilton made the trek north from his regular Willow Springs haunt to campaign his Honda RC30, the unique drone of his V-Four engine made all the more catching by the absence of the AFMs resident Honda superbiker and number two plate holder, Joe Brett Williams. Williams was expected the provide a serious challenge for Rapp again this season, but like last year’s number three overall, Doug DeRyke, did not participate in the non-points event. Brian LeFevre finished tenth on his Yamaha TZ250, the first two stroke across the line. The narrow track made passing difficult all weekend, and when combined with the incredible speeds the track layout provided for made it difficult on the 250s to use their superior cornering speeds to pass and make it stick down the ensuing straight. Grid positions are all that was at stake this weekend as the AFM elected to run the track for the first time on a non-points basis before they return to Sears Point, so Rapp still has a long season ahead of him if he wants to retain his title. Only three of last seasons top ten riders competed in the opening round, with the Daytona 200 drawing several riders down to Florida and Geep Terranova sitting on the sidelines awaiting the funds to buy a new bike, so the competition should be even fiercer when the series continues April 6th at Sears Point.

The Formula II grid grew to such proportions for the first race of the year that the Open Grand Prix bikes were shifted to run as a second wave to the Formula I race, leaving the track a two stroke only affair for the 3rd race of the day. Formula 40 Champion Mark “Jaws” Ingalls returned for his 21st season of racing and led the early laps aboard his TZ250. On the third lap, Ingalls joined what would become a growing list of riders to take to the gravel on the outside of Turn 13 in an attempt to get a strong drive on to the front straight, but he managed to save the swapping bike and retain the lead, only to be passed shortly after. After a disappointing 1995, LeFevre put the decisive move on Ingalls and held on for the victory and a good start to the new season. Rocky Wong, riding a World Motors TZ250, made an impressive charge from the back rows of the grid, passing Ingalls on the last lap to take second place. Wong’s ride was made even more impressive by the difficulty passing most riders were having, and his own reputation as a frequent victim of his own aggressive riding. The battle for the Formula II crown should be one of the more exciting to watch this season, with an injection of new talent and the aggressive style of Wong making life tough on defending champion Dan Cook.

Carlos Neves fulfilled expectations and dominated the Formula III race, taking his B-kitted 1995 RS125 to the victory over Max McFarland. Neves was the heavy favorite entering the race after the departure of champion Craig Avery and perennial front runner Corey McGeeney, himself taking seventh in his first Formula II race despite starting in the back of the pack, and he did not disappoint. With six lap race drawing to a close, Neves had drawn within sighting distance of Joe Carillo, Jr., distant leader of the lightly populated 250 Superbike race gridded the wave ahead of Neves’ Formula III class. Like last season, the lap times turned by the Formula III bikes will surely continue to tumble downwards as the bikes get faster and the riders more aggressive. Wong turned in his second strong race of the day to finish third on board his TZ125 as the top five riders all caught and passed Josh Scott, running second in the 250 Superbike race on his NSR250, despite starting a wave behind.

The 450 class provided no surprises as Ross Wells III continued with the form that saw him win every Superbike and Production race except one last season. Wells led the 450 Production pack from the start as the first motorcycle race ever at Buttonwillow Raceway Park got under way and never looked back. The 250 Production race gridded in the second wave provided a shocking finish, with novice Erik Wenneker slipping past favorite Tom Dorsey unnoticed by everyone except the score keepers.

Steve Rapp used the 600 Superbike race as a warm-up for Formula Pacific, taking the victory despite a serious early challenge from Mark Foster. Foster came back later in the day to win the 600 Production class. With last seasons top runners, including Production and Superbike champion Erik Schnackenberg, not in attendance, both 600 races were open for the taking , featuring race long battles for position, and the rest of the season should be the same.

Unlike the 600 class where the new Suzuki was not as dominant as many anticipated, the 750 classes where almost overwhelmed by the GSXR750s, which took nine of the top ten places in both races. The Superbike class saw David Stanton leading a five bike train consisting of some of the fastest riders in the AFM with Ken Hill, Jeff Short, Cory Call and Tom Aquino following him home.

April 1997
The American Federation of Motorcyclists made its first trip of the season to their home track, Sears Point Raceway and played host to a packed house with a large number of Willow Springs regulars making the trek north to participate in the California Championship Series. The turnout was exceptional, with several of the CSC classes featuring wait lists and almost every grid packed with bikes.

Rob Mesa returned to the front of the Formula Pacific grid for the first time in over a year, taking a narrow victory from early leader Ken Hill. Hill made an early break from the pack and lead past the halfway mark on his GSXR750 and, with reigning champion and first round winner Steve Rapp pursuing contingency money at Buttonwillow, looked to be building an insurmountable lead. Mesa, however, was quickly cutting through the pack and began closing the distance on Hill. Mesa looked to be back on the form that earned him the number two plate for the 1995 season, catching and passing Hill. Hill was unwilling to take runner up for the second round in a row and kept Mesa from building a lead, making up for a horsepower deficiency with hard braking. As the pair headed into Turn 11 on their way to the white flag Hill made a move to retake the lead, pulling along the inside of Mesa under braking. Mesa had the faster outside line and held the lead, only to nearly loose it as he glanced back exiting the chicane to see Hill right behind him and driving hard. Hill swung to the right and began to slip past Mesa on the outside as they headed into Turn 1 but Mesa held his ground on the inside and kept the lead up the hill. With Mesa still leading as the pair came down through the esses for the last time, a move by Hill under braking seemed imminent, and he did not fail to deliver. The braking from the previous lap seemed extreme, but Hill went even further in his last ditch effort at victory. Mesa has always raced under the philosophy of running his own line and not deviating to try and block pursuers, letting them try and make the pass if they are able, and so once again allowed Hill to pull even on the inside at the entrance to Turn 11. Unlike the previous lap, they were still even as they reached mid corner and Mesa began laying down the power. Hill got on the gas as well, but his inside line and more extreme lean angle kept him from being as aggressive as he needed to stay alongside Mesa, who dove down for a late apex and forced Hill to bobble momentarily, giving Mesa the half second of breathing room necessary to take the victory. Mike Nissen came across the line in third, followed by a trio of GSXR750 riders in Jeff Short, Cory Call and Tom Aquino.

Brian LeFevre won his second straight Formula II race, outdistancing Willow Springs regular Michael Montoya as he took the first championship points in what should be one of the most competitive classes of the CSC series. Mark Ingalls led a trio of the AFMs fastest 250 riders following Montoya, with defending champion Dan Cook and former champion Jeff Leggitt in tow. Formula III featured national 250 rider Bobby Keith, riding a borrowed RS125, in a battle with the class championship favorite Carlos Neves. Starts can make or break the race in Formula III where the competition is fierce and evenly matched, and Keith was lucky to launch well from his starting position on the third row and set off in pursuit of Neves, leading from his position on pole. Every time across the line, Keith had drawn closer to Neves and finally made a pass for the lead, going inside of Neves in Turn 10 with both riders ripping along at speeds of over 100mph. Neither rider was willing to back off and they accelerated out of the corner together, staying even until Neves wobbled, thrown off balance by Keith, and lost valuable ground. Keith pulled away from there, taking a convincing victory. Neves held on to second ahead of another 250 national rider, Mark Foster. Fourth place looked to be Max McFarland’s for the taking until he clipped a bale in the chicane and crashed, leaving the position to Peter Femenia with Thomas Alldredge in fifth.

The 600 races were both won by Thomas Montano in a pair of events featuring two of the fastest 600 riders to race with the AFM in the past few seasons. Brian Parriott pursued Montano in both events, starting mid pack in the crowded grid, and finishing second in 600 Superbike after both he and Montano caught and passed quick starting Timothy Kamholz. The Suzuki GSXR once again dominated the 750 classes, taking the top six places and eight of the top ten in 750 Superbike, lead by Anthony Lupo, Ken Hill and Jeff Short.

May 25, 1997
Rob Mesa won his second Rohm Performance Machine Formula Pacific Challenge race at Sears Point Raceway May 25, using the overwhelming power of his RPM tuned Yamaha to push his way to the front of a competitive five bike battle for the lead. The lead pack developed early on as Mesa, reigning champion Steve Rapp, Ken Hill and Jeff Short pulled away from the field, staying in a tight group with Hill in the early lead. After winning the previous round at Thunderhill Park Raceway and moving in to a tie in the championship points standings with Mesa, Hill led comfortably through the first few tours of the circuit. The action behind him was less settled as Mesa and Rapp battled for position, most spectacularly on the brakes into Turn 11, where both riders would ride the front brakes deep into the corner before settling their weaving bikes back down and throwing them towards the apex. Short remained a constant reminder of the perils of any error on their part, lurking a few bike lengths back in fourth place but never losing pace with the leaders. Rapp made the first move towards the lead, passing Hill and putting his GSXR600 in front of the bigger bikes despite running on DOT tires. His turn at the front was short lived as Hill, after surviving a barrage of attacks from Mesa, pushed back around Rapp and left him to battle Mesa once again. With the laps winding down, Mesa began putting his horsepower advantage to work. Exiting the chicane, Mesa ripped past Rapp like the Cycle Gear Suzuki had been nailed to the track and stormed up the hill, then repeated the performance the next lap, but this time it was the slick shod GSXR750 of Hill that was close witness to the power of the Yamaha. Mesa begun pulling away from Hill just as Rapp began dropping back, the life span of his DOTs apparently two laps too short at the pace the leaders were running. Short took advantage of Rapp’s fade and his strategy of trailing the leaders without overextending his bike paid off as he moved into third place. The excitement at the front wasn’t quite over as Hill, trying to make up time on the brakes going into Turn 11 with Mesa in sight and Short close behind, low sided and slid out of second place and into the hay bales unharmed. The crash solidified Mesa’s lead on the track and in the championship, and pulled Rapp back into a podium finish, keeping his hopes of retaining the title alive. Adding a new flavor to the grid was the TZ125 of Thomas Alldredge, venturing into a field regularly dominated by the big bore four strokes where even a 250 GP is hard pressed to compete. Alldredge, starting from the last row, kept his Yamaha in front of a pair of 250s and was closing on a 600 before pulling off to prepare for his Formula III event in the following race.

Formula II featured another packed grid with over 60 bikes lining up for the start. The anticipated battle between reigning AFM champion Brian LeFevre and Willow Springs champion Michael Montoya never came to pass as LeFevre got off to a tough start and couldn’t overcome the huge lead Montoya had built after the first lap. The battle between the two now stands at a win a piece as LeFevre took the opening round at Sears Point. Troy Maturo, another Willow Springs regular, circulated unmolested for third place ahead of Mark Ingalls, hobbling on an injured ankle following a practice crash.

The face at the front of the Formula III grid continues to change. Class favorite Carlos Neves sat in a hospital with a badly injured wrist suffered in a Saturday crash awaiting a second surgery as the 125s rolled out to the grid, distancing himself even further from his championship hopes. A lead trio of Alldredge, Peter Femenia and Rocky Wong developed quickly and sped away from the pack. Every lap their positions would change as no corner went without a challenge made. The Yamahas of Alldredge, finally sporting new bodywork, making the bike look almost as fast as it is, and Femenia, running under the World Sports Imports banner, fought Wong’s World Motors Honda across every inch of track. The trio were never more than a few bike lengths apart and often closed so close to each other that a mistake by any one of them would have resulted in fourth place finisher Max McFarland being instantly vaulted to first. Turn 11 became a focal point for the intensity of their battle. Wong would drive in deep, hard on the brakes while Alldredge relied on his incredible mid corner speed to keep close to Femenia who consistently drove out of the corner fastest, usually pushing himself perilously close to the retaining wall on the exit. The race was eventually decided on the last lap by back markers from the concurrently-run 250 Superbike race. Alldredge led the trio past the white flag with Wong closest of the two trailers and continued to lead as the group approached Turn 11 for the final time. The 125s cut quickly past the back markers, but on the exit Wong and Alldredge were forced to split around a slower bike and Wong choose the better line, driving underneath and beating Alldredge to the chicane. The two were within a bike length as they crossed the line, but it was Wong in front with a well earned victory.

Rapp would return to the front of the pack in 600 Superbike, surviving early pressure from Brian Parriott to take another victory in the class. Parriott would return in the last race of the day to claim the 600 Production win over perennial top three finisher Timothy Kamholz’s Suzuki and former 250 National Champion Donald Greene’s Yamaha. 750 Superbike continued to look like a Suzuki Cup race with the GSXRs blanketing the top ten lead by Short, Anthony Lupo and Hill, in that order.

June 29, 1997
Jeff Short won the Rohm Performance Machine Formula Pacific Challenge at Sears Point June 29, outpacing the RPM tuned Yamaha of Rob Mesa. Mesa’s current streak of top finishes, should it continue, will undoubtedly place him atop the final standings as no one else has managed to put together as consistent a program this season. Chris Thorsen and Cory Call brought their Suzukis across the line in third and fourth, followed by the Honda 900 of Mike Nissen. Sixth appeared to belong to Brian LeFevre, coming across the line ahead of Brian Parriott’s Honda 600, but he was penalized for having jumped the start and dropped well out of the top ten.

LeFevre returned later to boost his points lead in Formula II, surviving the advances of Geep Terranova and Thomas Montano. After pulling out an early lead, LeFevre began to feel the pressure of former Formula II and Formula Pacific champion Terranova, racing for the first time this season. Montano had followed Terranova through the pack as they both advanced on LeFevre, until Terranova moved into the lead and began pulling away, leaving the two remaining members of the lead pack to battle between themselves. Pushing each other hard at every corner, LeFevre and Montano, aided by Terranova’s balking through traffic, brought the pair back within striking range as the laps wound down. It was points leader LeFevre who pushed past, returning to the lead and holding on across the line. Terranova fell back into third across the line, coming out on the short end of the battle for second with Montano.

Thomas Alldredge won his second straight Formula III race, overcoming the early lead of Peter Femenia to take the win. Rocky Wong was in third place after Joji Tukomoto’s run of bad luck at Sears Point continued and he crashed in Turn 11 following a very close pass by Wong.

Parriott continued to assert his dominance as the best 600 rider in the AFM, adding victories in both Production and Superbike to his sixth place Formula Pacific finish. Montano returned to the Honda 600 that had taken him to 20th overall at this years Isle of Man and managed a second in both classes to add to his Formula II runner-up spot. Short also took the victory in Formula I, followed by Corey Call who would later return to win 750 Superbike.

The weekend’s events were marred by the untimely death of Joshua Scott, 22, of San Jose, California. After making incidental contact with another rider in Turn 9 during Saturday’s practice session, Scott was thrown from his Honda NSR250 and run over by a trailing bike before sliding head first into the hay bales. Scott died from spinal cord trauma sustained when he hit the bales. He had been in the midst of his second season with the AFM, struggling so far with mechanical difficulties following an excellent ride in the final race the previous season that netted him second place in the 250 Superbike race despite starting from the last row of the grid. His organs were donated prior to his cremation. A memorial service was held Wednesday, July 2 before his ashes were spread along a local ridge road. Scott is survived by his mother, Sandy, and sister, Andrea.

August 3, 1997
Rob Mesa continued to dominate the Rohm Performance Machine Formula Pacific Challenge, jumping out to an early and ultimately insurmountable lead after the race was restarted following a three bike incident in Turn 11. Mesa had been leading Jeff Short when the race was black flagged after five laps. Brian LeFevre lowsided his Costalupes Construction sponsored Yamaha TZ250 at the exit to the right hand hairpin, leaving Geep Terranova and Michael Montoya with no where to go and eliminating three of the best 250 GP riders in California in a single incident. Mesa, fatigued and hoping for a short break following five hectic laps, jumped to an immediate lead on the restart, his RPM tuned Yamaha using all of its 170 horsepower to howl away from the field and build a comfortable lead by the half way point of the eight lap restart. Short suffered most from the re-gridding. A poor start left him in seventh place after lap one, well back from the second place position he had occupied in the first five laps. He did not remain at the back of the pack long though, making several aggressive passes on the brakes into Turn 11 and eventually moving all the way up to third position. Mike Nissen had been circulating safely in second, but soon was feeling the pressure from Short, who tried to take Nissen the same way he’d eliminated the rest of the pack in Turn 11. As Mesa took the checkered flag, extending his points lead, Short pushed his GSXR deep into the corner on the inside of Nissen’s RPM-tuned Honda CBR900RR. Drawing even but unable to make the pass, Short was able to keep Nissen within a bikes length as they entered the chicane and then attempted what would theoretically be an impossible maneuver, trying to outpower the bigger bike on the drive to the line. Short very nearly pulled it off, the two of them finishing with less than a wheel separating them, but Nissen prevailed and retained second place.

The excitement surrounding the Formula II race continued to grow during Saturday’s practice as in addition to the regular AFM contingent and the expected Willow Springs riders up to compete in the California State Championship Series, Chuck Sorenson and Al Salaverria came out in preparation for the upcoming AMA event. Both riders elected not to participate in Sunday’s races however, but the field was still one of the deepest the AFM has seen, even in this season of 60+ bikes filling the grid. Current points leader LeFevre and former champion Terranova would not make the grid following their Formula Pacific crash, but Montoya managed to get his bike back together and immediately jumped out to the lead. He remained unchallenged in the lead and looked certain to cruise to victory, but ran off the track on the final lap, rejoining the race only to finish 10th. The main benefactor to Montoya’s excursion was Thomas Montano who, having moved into second place from his starting position on the 5th row, inherited the victory. The battle for what looked to be third place was close the entire race. An initial pack of six bikes had eventually spread out, leaving Ed Marchini and Jeff Leggitt dueling for the position. The Honda mounted riders ran within a few bike lengths of each other for almost the entire race, and less than that distance separated them as they crossed the line for the final time with Marchini still in front for what ended up being second place.

Thomas Dorsey proved once again that he is the best in the AFM at getting the most from the least. Dorsey took his Kawasaki Ninja 250 to sixth place in 250 Superbike against the 250 two strokes, and then rode it to a 9th place finish in the Right There Racing/San Francisco Motorcycle Club 500 Twins race against the EX500’s after having already won the 250 Production race to virtually secure his class championship. Thomas Alldredge won his third straight Formula III race, taking the victory after Peter Femenia crashed his dominatingly fast Honda RS125 in the Carousel. Brian Parriott, for the second meeting in a row, won both 600 Production and Superbike, defeating AMA regular James Randolph in Superbike and Isle of Man contender Thomas Montano in Production.

September 7, 1997
Cory Call held off the advances of first James Randolph and then Jeff Short to take the victory in Formula Pacific at Thunderhill Park Raceway on Sunday. Short, by virtue of staying two places ahead of points leader Rob Mesa has mathematically kept his chances of earning the number one plate in the Rohm Performance Machine sponsored series alive, although it would require a major failing by Mesa at the final round next month. Call was always at the front of a close battle for the lead, and his RPM tuned Suzuki did not falter under the pressure applied by Randolph, who eventually faded back to a distant third and was in danger of being overtaken by Brian LeFevre. LeFevre, riding with new backing from Honda of Milpitas, was initially embroiled in a battle for eight place with Dave Mason, also riding a TZ250, until Mason pulled out with mechanical difficulties. This left LeFevre free to run down the four strokes in front of him and he began reeling off a succession of laps in the 1:16 range, including a 1:16.29 time that is certainly one of the fastest single laps ever around the three year old course.

Mason’s disappointing mechanical withdrawal from Formula Pacific could not overshadow his victory in Formula II. Mason won his first Formula II race ever at Thunderhill last year and repeated the feat this weekend, shadowed the entire race by LeFevre, now almost a lock for his second Formula II championship.

Call returned in the late afternoon to take the victory in Formula I, circulating alone for most of the race as the top six riders all spaced themselves evenly ahead of the pack. The British Top Brass Racing team had an excellent showing on their Honda RS250s with Richard Snowden coming from deep in the pack to take fifth just ahead of teammate Roy De Groot.

Another British Top Brass rider, Carlos Neves, made his much anticipated return to Formula III in convincing fashion, dominating the field in his first ride back from breaking both wrists practicing for the first points round of the season at Sears Point. His absence for most of the season opened the door for Thomas Alldredge who leads Peter Femenia in the points. Femenia, riding with at least one broken rib and a partially separated shoulder from a crash in Saturday’s endurance race, finished fourth to keep his hopes mathematically alive.

Brian Parriott once again won both 600 races Sunday as well as teaming with last year’s 600 Production and Superbike champion Erik Schnackenberg, only recently returned from a serious knee injury, to win the 4 Hour Endurance Race on Saturday. Tom Dorsey nailed down the 250 Production championship with another victory, and then finished fifth in 250 Superbike to secure a top five spot in the two stroke dominated class. For the first time in over two years Joe Carillo did not win 250 Superbike, losing to Tait Rush when, as in the Open Twins race where he also finished second, he chose the less than optimum line through lapped traffic in the closing laps.

October 12, 1997
Brian Parriott won his first Formula Pacific race of the season at Buttonwillow Raceway Park. In the last round of the 8 race AFM series, Parriott took his Parriott Honda sponsored CBR600F3 to the front of a three way battle for the lead featuring Jeff Short and defending champion Steve Rapp. Rapp had jumped to the early lead from his fourth row starting position, leading Parriott and Short, in that order, quickly away from the rest of the pack. Rapp was under constant pressure from Parriott, but never relinquished the lead until Short slid his Chandelle Motorsports GSXR750 past both 600s into Turn One. Parriott followed shortly, moving past Rapp and eventually using his comparatively nimble 600 to take the lead and the victory. Short’s second clinched second place overall while Rob Mesa, circulating safely in fifth place aboard his RPM tuned Yamaha 1000, clinched the number one plate. Cory Call spent the majority of the race in fourth place, unable to match the pace set by the leading trio yet well clear of Mesa.

Call returned to take the victory in Formula I, putting his GSXR750 atop results in a class that has been dominated this season by the Suzukis. The British Top Brass team got another superb finish from Rich Snowden. Snowden took his Honda RS250 to second place in the generally four stroke dominated class, making an excellent return to the track after an untimely DNF cost him a potential top three finish in Formula II earlier in the day.

Dave Mason won his second consecutive Formula II race, following up his Thunderhill victory and closing out the season on an upward trend. Brian LeFevre circulated near mid pack on his Honda of Milpitas supported bike to clinch the season championship, but may not have such an easy time of it next season with the improvements made by the rest of the field, especially Mason and Ed Marchini, who finished second in Formula II to back up his seventh place finish in Formula Pacific.

Formula III provided a surprise at the front of the pack with Michael Hannas II winning his first ever race with the AFM, leading nearly wire to wire to beat class favorite Carlos Neves. Hannas had finished second at Thunderhill, slipping past new class champion Thomas Alldredge at the line, but was not expected to be able to match the pace of Neves who had decimated the field during the AFM’s first trip to Buttonwillow earlier in the year. Hannas has been continually improving throughout the year, running with some assistance from Neves’ team, British Top Brass Racing, on a bike tuned by his father, and should be a contender for the title next season. Peter Femenia clinched second place overall with his third place finish, avoiding a meatball flag that would have cost him his spot in the championship by ripping the back half of the partially broken pipe off his World Sports Imports RS125, tossing it into the weeds outside of Turn One.

Parriott, once again, won both the 600 Superbike and Production race, both times beating the GSXR600 of Timothy Kamholz across the line. His Superbike victory was aided by a rare DNF from Rapp, who was forced to pull off after only a few laps, relinquishing a sizable lead.

Daniel Reeser had an excellent weekend, finishing a personal best third in Formula II after winning the Formula 40 race earlier in the day on his Yamaha TZ250. For the second straight race Tait Rush defeated Joe Carrillo in 250 Superbike, this time winning outright with little interference from lapped traffic. After being crowned 250 Production champion with a victory at Thunderhill, Thomas Dorsey finished off the season with another win, again over Brian Bartlow.

Erik Schnackenberg - circa 1996

2006-03-31T15:12:00.000-08:00

That is not Erik Schnackenberg, but it is the best photo that came up when I searched for his name in Google. As far as I can tell from the search results I could find for him, he moved to Colorado in the very late '90s and was still racing as late as 2001, posting a decent result in the Pikes Peak AMA 600 race that season. Apart from that last national entry, it looks like he settled for the CMRA and amateur racing, which is too bad because he was a fast rider and had proven himself competitive at the AFM with riders who regularly competed nationally. He was never as fast as Steve Rapp, but he could have certainly proven to be a top 15 national 600 rider for a small team.

The 600 Supersport class is one of the most popular and populated classes in modern roadracing. Hondas domination for the past two season has provoked greater efforts from the other three major maunfacturers and the number of factory level bikes and riders filling the AMA grids is only going to increase. So where does this leave the average spectator, having had their fill of the heavy handed factory efforts, but finding the average privateer too insubstantial to offer any real sustenance? They are in serious need of a Schnack. Erik Schnackenberg, fresh to the AMA scene, still unladen with the fat factory budget, but with enough tang of pure talent to elevate himself above his fellow self-supporters.

It takes fine ingredients to put together a potent 600 effort, and Schnackenberg has found the perfect combination of preperation and dedication. Mixed with a fast bike and supportive team that consists mainly of his supportive father, Randy, he is quickly perfecting the mix that will carry him to the next level of competition.

His career started aspiciously enough, his first race cut dramatically short when the Yamaha FZ600 he had chosen by default for his first race bike showed its limitations and the rubber band frame high sided him straight to the hospital with a broken femur. Schnackenberg was undaunted, and returned the next season with a Honda CBR600F2. Knowing the value of a good setup, it wasnt until late in the season that he got the Honda working to his liking. “We finally got the F2 going at the end of the year, and that got me going as well.” With the bike working properly, Schnackenberg began his run on the AFM, taking Top Novice honors and making a strong showing competition intense forum of 600 racing.

“Winning is all preperation,” says Schnackenberg. “I’m going to do whatever it takes to be the best.” Preparing physically for the pounding his body takes every lap is serious work for him, sending him running a two mile loop near his Carmel Valley home every other day. Suplementing his running with both stationary and mountain biking keeps his cardio vascular health on par with demands placed upon it. Alternating his daily workouts between his arms and legs and including 500 situps, Schnackenberg has built up the bodily strength necessary to muscle a 600 around the track, even one as demanding as the AFM’s home track, Sears Point Raceway.

Being as physically prepared as anyone on the professional circuit, let alone on the grid at the club, is not enough for Schnackenberg, who knows that there is another ingredient key to a winning mixture. Mentally preparing to defeat his opponents is a large part of his gameplan. “You have to learn why they are in front of you, and use that as part of your overall knowledge,” he explains. “I try and take a little bit of each rider, and use it against them.”

At five years old, Schnackenberg would sneek his 125cc Kawasaki out for unauthorized runs on the street, tearing around the block at 40 mph, already in love with the thrill of speed and competition and except for a brief stay in Colorado, he has spent his life in California, and he has grown up on 600s, starting with the very same Yamaha FZ that broke his leg in his first racing venture. The lost season after the injury taught him about the need for a competitive machine, one that could be ridden as hard as he likes to push, and led to the procurement of the Honda CBR600F2. After riding the F2 to the Top Novice position, Schnackenberg Racing made the decision to upgrade to a more competitive bike, one more likely to offer Erik a legitimate chance to meet his next goal of winning the 600 classes in the AFM. A CBR600F3 was the logical choice, and they managed to purchase a salvaged bike at an affordable price. “We bought it salvaged because that’s the only way we could afford it,” says Schnackenberg.

The F3 proved a suitable mount this season, taking Schackenberg to both the 600 Production and Superbike titles, with both series being decided on the final day of the season.

AMA Series - California Rounds 1998

2006-03-31T14:37:00.000-08:00

One thing that I have always liked about CityBike, and that I think most Bay Area riders respect as well, is their determination to provide a broad view of the motorcycling world. I was tasked with covering all three of the California AMA rounds for them in 1998, and it proved the death knell for my career as a moto journalist. Not because CityBike refused to publish what was a rather irate and ramblingly incoherent article, but just out of sheer exhaustion with the racing scene as a whole. By this time, I had stopped racing myself, but via my old teammates and AFM/AMA articles, I was still deep in the paddock life at most events, and the AMA scheduling all three California events on successive weekends sucked for the privateers I still associated with so closely. It was made to accommodate the national competitors so they wouldn't have to trek out to California three separate times, but while it saved them a few bones, it wrecked the privateers. Most people can't afford to take three straight 5 days weekends and still have a job when they get done, and for most privateers having only two local AMA events to run and having a few weeks to recoup financially between them had made doing the national events a fun addition to their club schedule. Cramming all three events into one month, and adding the Willow Springs even that necessitated driving out to the middle of nowhere to sit around in 100 degree heat to race at a track with poor facilities and even poorer attendance, made it a very unpleasant experience for those riders who felt they had to jump through those hoops to please sponsors and/or impress potential factory employers.

Long story short, my article was less than glowing, hardly comprehensive, and if I had been a bit more professional I'm sure I could have worked the same editorial opinion into a more standard race report. That said, CityBike actually published the article with almost no modifications other than adding in some actual results, and even let me respond in the next issue to one of what I'm sure were many of the displeased letters and emails they subsequently received. Oh, and I almost killed me and a friend driving out to the Willow Springs event at 2am Saturday morning when the two line highway I had been cruising down at over 110mph threw a barely marked and very unexpected 40mph turn at us.

The dog and pony show formally known as the American Motorcyclists Association Professional Road Race Series descended upon California like some sort of three week virus in April, leaving the local racing community exhausted. Unlike previous years when the professionals would saunter in to the Golden State at widely varied intervals, and only twice a year at that, this season the manufacturers played out their wars on our three best tracks on successive weekends. The glamour boys in their factory tractor trailer rigs rolled in to town, looking to dominate tracks that to them are just one more stop on their fifteen day a year jobs, but in a state that has bred some of the best racers the country has ever seen there lurked a host of locals who had every intention, and all the ability necessary, to show the big boys exactly where they could stick their eighteen wheelers and six figure contracts. While the majority of the state, and even most motorcyclists judging by the lack of attendance at any of the three rounds, may find the idea of paying $65 a weekend to watch grown men in brightly colored suits of recycled cowhide get paid more money than most people with real jobs by virtue of their ability to ride a motorbike at ridiculous speeds a bit ludicrous, there definitely exists in California a hard core subculture who were more than willing to put their lives on hold for nearly a month to participate in the spectacle.

Laguna Seca marked the first assault. America’s premier racetrack; beautifully designed, scenically located, and absolutely no chance that some upstart locale who recognizes every crack and twist in the pavement more readily than he would members of his own family could spring up to upset the balance of power between the behemoths. Most of the professionals visit the track more often than the racers who live close enough to hear the factory’s privately organized test days. Brilliant sunshine with a bone chilling breeze welcomed the series, a pleasant break from the ever present rain that has made life so miserable early this race season in California. If everything were to go according to the AMA’s plan, there would be a steady increase in the drama surrounding the Superbikes. The riders would continue to circulate ever faster, nipping at the track record until one of them makes a bold move on special tires available only to factory contracted riders and lays down a fast lap. Grown men would hang on the chain link fences erected to keep them a safe distance from the heated action, drinking beer from the sponsor of choice that weekend, alternatively weeping and cheering as their personal hero pushed his way to the top of the heap only to be knocked down a few rungs by the next couple of riders across the line. Intrinsic to the AMAs vision of it all would be riders with local ties who have made it to the big time who, for this one race here in their hometown, could set aside all the completely logical reasons not to try that extra 10% and risk crashing in order to take a stunning victory in front of a highly partisan crowd. The fans certainly did their part, what few could be bothered to show up, but as the Superbike race wound down towards its conclusion, the results were clearly inevitable. The highly erratic and thus exciting Canadian, the most entertaining rider destined to never win the championship by virtue of his love for riding the wheels off his Honda at every opportunity instead of going only fast enough to ensure a decent points tally swept to the victory, but not without nearly having himself off a time or two. The local hero, homegrown and defending champion, circulated second, closing when the Honda bobbled but never going out of his way to get around. The beauty of the whole scenario lay in that, for the first time thanks to the compacted schedule of races, Californians would get to see the race as part of a whole versus one glorious weekend in the early April sun. Attendance at Willow Springs the following weekend and Sears Point the weekend after that became unnecessary for someone with interest in nothing but the Superbikes; break track record, add one more win for Honda to their birthday celebration tally, Crevier does a two hundred yard burnout, repeat ad naseum. Pascal Picotte provided a momentary break in the monotony, rocking the outhouse Crevier had ducked into for a last minute reprieve before the Sears Point main event. Childish humor from grown men who have never had to grown up.

The only real Superbike excitement of the month was generated by local star and brilliantly nice human being, as well as a CityBike columnist, Steve Rapp. Justifying what most people who have been to see an AFM race anytime in the past three years have thought, at Willow Springs Rapp made the first of two guest appearances in the land of spare bikes for every rider, having been put aboard a Vance & Hines Ducati. Never mind that the closest thing to the 996cc V Twin he had ever raced was the dilapidated NSR250 he rode four years ago at club races, ignore the fact that Ducatis in general, while certainly one of the most aesthetically exhilarating motorcycles ever created, have a tendency to explode at regular intervals (see Anthony Gobert - Laguna Seca, Sears Point, etc.), the most vicariously rewarding part of the whole absurd situation is that he did so well. Finishing seventh after challenging for the lead at Willow Springs, absorbing the criticisms of the regular factory riders in the weekly cycle rag, then repeating his performance against their expectations at Sears Point. Only the sheer idiocy that seems to run rampant in AMA circles could prevent Rapp from leaving the land of mere mortals to join to upper echelon. Hopefully becoming a superstar will not make him forget the joy of sliding both ends of his 600, engine pegged at the rev limiter as he screamed past another factory tool.

For heated action, there is no better place than amidst a cloud of two stroke haze. In a class where the only riders who don’t buy their own machines are a crazed Japanese national who inspires more fear than he does respect on the track, and a petulant whiner awarded his bike more on the merits of the magazine run by his daddy, an even bigger self styled martyr of the industry than his son, than his own racing talent, the competition is fierce and rarely stops when the checkered flag is finally thrown. Only in California could Phil Snowden, a fifty two year old man who tunes Honda’s in his spare time, clock the third fastest speed through the traps, and only in California could three separate fist fights break out in the pits after the race, exclusive of the elbows thrown down the front straight on the dash to the checkered flag. Local riders who have yet to make their impact on the national tour, like Michael Montoya and Geep Terranova, made a definite impression on the regulars, and riders who haven’t seriously competed at their home track in years in deference to making the professional circuit still recognize the home crowd and give it the extra bit of throttle that could either take them to victory or send them over the bars. Most club racers, running the ragged edge of financially solvency as it is, did not bother making the trip down the hell hole that is Willow Springs (a track completely unfit for a national and not, as its general location would suggest, even remotely close to Los Angeles as one look at the locals and the locale will inform you), but everyone made the other two rounds. Everyone, that is, except daddy’s little boy who, as he has complained about in his monthly column, does indeed have a huge target on his back. His mistake being that it has not been placed there through the jealousy of his fellow riders, but instead by his increasingly annoying habit of parking his Yamaha mid-corner, leaving everyone else with no choice but to aim straight for his crash happy self. Sears Point was not in the cards for him, perhaps a bit too dangerous, filled as it is with talent.

The best racing of the month was provided by the exhibition 125 races, much to the chagrin of the AMA. They continue to stab themselves in the back, taking every opportunity to humiliate the 125 riders, putting all their faith in the continued defection of dirt trackers to supply the factory teams with their talent, ignoring the Mike Hales, Larry Pegrams and Tommy Haydens lurking at the back of the transports waiting for their contracts to expire. For every rider to get a factory contract and explode on the scene with a talent heretofore unseen, there are a dozen Mike Smiths circulating around the paddock, gradually watching their careers slide ever downward until one day they will find themselves celebrating their 40th birthday by taking the Central Illinois Scooter Racing Association championship. Not all of them will go out thumping the Bible and praising Jesus that they “no longer have to care if they ever win another motorcycle race again” (and the smattering of sponsors Smith has managed to maintain undoubtedly appreciate this new-found aspect of his racing philosophy), but eventually most will fade back to the backwaters from whence they came. 125 Grand Prix bikes however, represent a solid stepping stone for riders looking to move beyond the lardy Superbikes and into real racing, running the Grand Prix circuits of Europe and Asia. Despite his success in Europe and extensive experience running against top quality competition, Rodney Fee was barely able to edge out victories in the two races, speaking volumes for the amount of talent and dedication that lurks beneath the AMAs feet.

They came, they saw, they left ... but they’ll be back next year with more of the same. There will certainly be a few fresh faces behind the roped off pit areas, possibly even yet another incredibly stupid class along the lines of Pro Blunder. Hopefully, there will be some spark of excitement that could make attending three straight weekends of national events less of a war against ennui.

AMA 250GP - Laguna Seca 1997

2006-03-31T14:29:00.000-08:00

This is most likely my first article for CityBike magazine. By far the best free magazine available in the Bay Area, and far superior to the glossy nationals as well, I'd always liked CityBike and was more than happy to cover whatever they threw at me. Looking back at it now, I probably would have spent a few more years in the racket if I'd been with CityBike from the start, but they have always been a respectable rag and I continue to be a disreputable sort, so my time with them was limited.

There are no iron-clad guarantees in roadracing, especially at the professional level, but Rich Oliver is about as close as you can get. Oliver is untouchable and has turned the 250 Grand Prix series into a one ring circus again this season. Laguna Seca played host to the third round of the AMA Elf 250 Grand Prix series with a warm, sunny day dawning on Sunday after the previous two days had provided a mixed bag of heavy fog and light showers interspersed with sunshine.

Saturday’s heat races provided as much controversy as the series has seen of late, with a last minute change in gridding providing for an uneven split of riders between the two heats. The grid for Heat One was sparse as riders who missed the late change in gridding failed to show up. Oliver romped to victory, previewing his performance in the following day’s main, and only 17 other riders followed him across the line. Troy Maturo provided one moment of excitement, riding under new sponsorship from Bank of America and looking to make a good impression in his first 250 National race, he tried to pass 4 bikes at once going into Turn 11 on the final lap. Riding the rear wheel over a foot off the ground on the brakes, Maturo couldn’t bring the bike back under control and crashed. Unable to get the bike restarted but determined to make Sunday’s main event, he ran up the front straight, pushing his bike across the finish line in last place to secure his place on the grid. Not surprisingly, Randy Renfrow won the second heat after a delayed start resulting when all the riders who had mistakenly missed the first heat were gridded. The AMA’s effort to accommodate riders put out by the last minute change resulted in furious passing as faster riders had to make their way through the crowded grid after being put in the back rows in the five lap sprint. Renfrow won comfortably, followed by Mark Foster, racing with a broken pelvis that was already scheduled for surgery later in the week. Al Salaverria was third on the only Aprilia entered, running with semi-factory support on the finicky Italian 250. Seeking to make the same impact on the American market that they have in Europe and the World Championship series, Aprilia has been providing Salaverria with support and tuning, only to DNF for the third straight race as the bike was unable to make Sunday’s grid.

The grid for Sunday’s main was late in the offering Saturday afternoon as the AMA tried to sort out grid positions between the two widely differing heats. In the end, they opted to proceed with the standard format, taking the winning rider from Heat One, Oliver, for pole with Heat Two’s winner Renfrow sitting second, and so forth. The problem this posed, and an issue that the AMA choose not to address, was the disparity in lap times between finishers on the two heats. With the small starting grid in Heat One, riders who turned times consistent with the back of the pack of Heat Two found themselves gridded amongst the front runners from the second heat. It all made for an interesting start as the field came into Turn 2 even more bunched than usual, with Renfrow out in front for the first few corners, as several of the faster riders shot from their back room starting positions to the front of the pack. Notably back in the pack off the start was Roland Sands, forced to start in the ninth row after jumping the start in his heat race. Sands would spend the next seventeen laps sliding and slicing through the pack to a second place finish. Renfrow, after losing his early lead to Oliver, distanced himself quickly from the pursuing pack and looked to be a sure thing for second place once again until he crashed by himself exiting Turn 5. The bike began a sudden oscillation, with Renfrow staying on the gas in an attempt to settle the suspension before it spit him off and followed him sliding into the dirt. Matt Wait, also charged with jumping the start and forced on to the 10th row at the start, followed Sands through the club racers that make up the pack at the National events and finished third on his Honda. Coming home fourth was Toshiyuki Hamaguchi, regaining the position he held off the start after being called in to the pits for a stop and go penalty when it was decided he jumped the start.

Oliver decimated the field, with only the top dozen riders staying on the lead lap as he cruised to victory 31 seconds ahead of Sands. Averaging two seconds a lap faster than second place, he circulated casually and picked his spots as he made his way through the backmarkers he began encountering well before the half-way point. Over the course of the weekend, AMA officials managed to catch a half dozen riders leaving their grid positions early, but somehow did not manage to arrange those grid positions in anything resembling a fair fashion following their gridding gaff. The only saving grace was that it made for interesting passing as the normal residents of the front group slashed through the pack to their normal finishing positions, adding a small bit of excitement to what is becoming a standard procession of Oliver followed by the best of the rest.

AMA Series - Sears Point 1997

2006-03-31T13:56:00.000-08:00

1997 and I was back on the AMA trail, in what I believe was one of my final appearances for StreetBike Magazine as my favorite editor had left and the rag was in its death throes. As I found out later, it turns out she would pay me out of her own pocket when the magazine failed to cough up any cash. At this point, I was already starting to get a bit tired of the AMA series as a whole, but it only peeks through in a few spots. However, I was already, and still am, a bonafide Formula II snob, so the 250s got the extra attention they always managed to find in my articles.

The Sears Point round of the American Motorcyclist Association MBNA Superbike series is always a crucial round in the championship battles and this year was no different. Just as the weekend’s activities were ringing in the emergence of new stars and champions, so were they sounding the death knell for others.

Doug Chandler was seemingly unaffected by the frantic feeling filling most of the other Superbike pits, the defending champion having learned from past experiences, especially last year’s Sears round where Miguel DuHamel’s usually faultless RC45 failed, that DNF’s kill championship drives. Unhurried and well ahead in the points, Chandler was infallible all weekend until final qualifying on Saturday when DuHamel put the only blemish on a perfectly executed weekend by snatching pole by 0.067 seconds, both riders breaking Troy Corser’s three year old track record. DuHamel’s championship hopes were slim coming in to Sears and he rode like a desperate man, pushing the Smokin’ Joe’s Honda hard around the course that had effectively ended his chances of retaining his title last season. DuHamel extracted every possible point from the weekend, earning the bonus point for pole and leading every lap of the race on the way to his fourth straight victory and moving past Matt Mladin for second place, but once again his hopes are pinned on Chandler failing at the final round in Las Vegas. The Muzzy Kawasaki team holds the title in their hands again as Chandler’s points cushion leaves him only needing to finish 13th or better at Las Vegas to keep the number one plate.

While Chandler was using the Sears round to try and secure his second straight championship, Steve Crevier was looking to find a ride for next season having been informed by the Smokin’ Joe’s team that his contract would not be renewed after Las Vegas. Crevier made effective use of the open audition, posting his best finish in the last two seasons, following DuHamel across the line in second place. The most likely replacement for Crevier looks to be Ben Bostrom, who has been impressive this season on a supported RC45 running in Team Zero Gravity colors.

While Bostrom has been impressing teams with his consistent efforts on a proven bike, Aaron Yates has made himself the most sought after talent in the series with his flashes of brilliance on the unproven Suzuki GSXR Superbike. Winner of last year’s round at Sears, Yates was defeated this year by a deflating rear tire while challenging DuHamel and had to pit for an unexpected tire change, leaving him to finish in 14th place one lap down. His versatility came into play earlier in the day as he rode his 600 Supersport bike to a second place finish, fighting hard to reach the front of a competitive pack only to see teammate Pascal Picotte already long gone following the re-start of the race. Yates distinctive style (see sidebar) and affable personality ensure that he will be a fixture in national and international races in the future.

Yates’ and Picotte’s performance in the Honda Pro Oils 600 Supersport race did not come as a surprise, but the sudden jump to the forefront of the competition made by local rider Steve Rapp did. Rapp, 1996 American Federation of Motorcyclists Formula Pacific champion on a Cycle Gear backed superbike, took his GSXR600 to the front of the 600 pack before the factory backed bikes slowly clawed their way past. Riding in front of a highly partisan crowd, Rapp qualified on the second row and was running third after having briefly led the countries best when Takahito Mori’s crash in Turn 5 brought out the red flags. Regridded on the front row in accordance with the AMA’s restart policy, Rapp once again jumped to the initial lead, running up the inside of Picotte into Turn 2 and proved a difficult opponent to pass as the factory bikes began to deal with the usurper in their midst and eventually finished sixth. By the time Sunday’s 600 race began, Rapp had already had an exceptional weekend by privateer standards, placing second in Saturday’s Teamline 750 Supersport race on his 600. In a race marred by 4 red flags, Rapp never failed to be near the front of the pack and even led briefly following Anthony Lupo’s ramming of Doug Polen. With darkness rapidly approaching and Jason Pridmore running out front to secure his first championship, Rapp earned his first AMA podium and potential consideration for supported rides with the season coming to a close soon and teams beginning to look towards next year. Running a largely self funded effort, with the help of an exceptionally dedicated Cycle Gear crew, Rapp is hoping that his showing at Sears can lead into support for a full tour next season.

Pridmore’s emergence as the new 750 Supersport champion and his encouraging seventh place showing on his Hypercycle Suzuki Superbike and third place in the 600 race overshadowed the platonic state of the career of former Superbike World Champion and (most likely) current World Endurance Champion Polen. After being blindsided by Lupo and having his bike set the hay bales outside Turn 11 alight in a situation eerily reminiscent of his crash in Turn 3a during last years Sears Point round during which his bike was engulfed in flames, he just barely managed to make the restart of the race, coincidentally rolling out on a hastily reconstructed bike just as the rest of the grid began forming. It would be unfair to suggest that Polen’s past accomplishments accord him special privileges, but the restart may not have been so coincidentally timed for anyone other than a former champion. Regardless, his Pirelli shod GSXR was unable to withstand the advances of Pridmore, Rapp, third place finisher Mark Miller and fourth place Richard Alexander, Jr. and Polen finished fifth to compliment his 13th place in the Superbike event on Sunday. Hobbling badly on an injured ankle following his Supersport crash, Polen did better than could be expected, but the unusual turn of events seem to be closer to the norm than you would expect from a rider of his caliber.

Any doubts that the West Coast, and the AFM in particular, produces some of the best Formula II riders in the country were quelled after Sunday’s tumultive Elf 250 Grand Prix race. Nine of the first ten riders across the finish line are regular visitors to Sears Point or started their road racing careers there before taking their campaign to the national circuit. Rich Oliver once again dominated the race, recovering from a morning practice highside while riding a factory superbike for the first time since 1986. Initially, Oliver was going to forsake his signature class after locking up he championship again in Colorado, but instead the 600 machine was set aside to make room for the superbike. Oliver’s participation added excitement to the battle that already promised to be fierce as Chuck Sorenson and Al Salaverria, both having finished runner up to Oliver already this season and both former AFM racers with nearly as much track experience as Oliver, had both expressed intense desires to end Oliver’s win streak. There was a preview of the team changes to come in the off season in the pits, with Honda stalwart Randy Renfrow pitting adjacent but separate from the Moto Liberty team he has championed this season. Renfrow referred to himself as the “round eyed step child” in reference to the teams preference for Japanese national riders and especially the return of Mori. Attrition would play a large part in the race, with Salaverria seizing his Aprilia RSV250 in his heat race. Despite being added to the back of the grid on a promoter’s option, the lone Italian bike in the field would not make the start with a season full of mechanical difficulties plaguing Salaverria once again. Matt Wait, running a newly kitted Honda, looked to be a factor in Sunday’s race after defeating Sorenson to win his heat, but attrition caught up with him as well, although it was surprisingly not of his own doing. Wait crashed during Saturday’s practice, pushing the limits of the impossible by trying to outbrake Roland Sands into Turn 11 and bringing them both down. After escaping serious injury either on the track or at the hands of Sands, who has been known in the past for his temper, Wait crashed again in Sunday morning’s warm up. The final crash of the weekend wasn’t his fault, however, as he stalled at the line and was barely rolling forwards, hand in the air, when he was abruptly rear ended by Mike D’Ambrogia. Wait once again escaped injury, although D’Ambrogia required medical aid, and the race continued on without one of its potentially fastest competitors. The most dramatic accident would occur later in the race when Sands and Renfrow, in the midst of a six bike battle for third place, came together in the Esses. Sands was relatively unscathed, but Renfrow suffered several broken bones, most notably a broken leg that will end his season. The race was restarted as a five lap sprint, with Oliver winning easily, followed by Sorenson, equally clear of Bobby Keith. After taking the checkered flag, however, Sorenson ran on down the dragstrip instead of making turn one and was docked a position, elevating Keith to second on his first trip to an AMA podium.

The Sears round also marked one more nail being pounded into the coffin of the Harley Davidson 883 class, soon to be replaced by a Pro Twins series reminiscent of the one the AMA used to run. The Harley’s will be eligible for the class, being neither fuel injected, desmodradic or over 1000cc, but being ill handling, heavy and slow will certainly limit their competitiveness and thus their participation. Despite its lack of competitors of late (only 10 bikes completed the race at Sears) the class should be missed for the racers it brought in from dirt tracking who went on to success on real race bikes, namely Yates, Wait and Bostrom. Eric Bostrom clinched the final championship with a victory, following up his championship last year in the 883 dirt track series.

Yates side bar

Anyone who watched last year’s Superbike race can not help but remember Aaron Yates backing his Suzuki GSXR into Turn 11 lap after lap. This weekend, Yates took a moment to explain his preference for this extreme looking style:

Why do you back the bike into corners? To help square them off?
Yeah, kind of. It seems to help it slow down a bit. But I kind of like it. I enjoy it. I do a lot of riding at home on an XR100 trying to drag the handlebars and stuff, so when I go an get on the roadbikes it kind of just happens. I grab a couple of downshifts and depending on how much you rev it up or how fast you let the clutch out it just does it. I guess it also could be the way I kind of hang on with my legs ... I might push the bike over some. Its just all natural to me ... au naturale, you know.

So its not an intentional thing, then?
No ... its actually kind of hard to make the bike not do it unless I really try hard. I guess its just the way that I’m holding the bike and approaching the turn. I just run it in there and pitch it in, scrubbing speed off.

You do it all with downshifts and don’t use the rear brake?
The only time I use the rear brake is if I’m just kind of messing around, going slow and stuff.

The potentially intimidating sight of you sliding past kicked out like that wouldn’t be a reason you’d do it, would it?
(Laughing) What ever helps win races.

World Superbikes - Laguna Seca 1997

2006-03-31T13:48:00.000-08:00

When the WSB boys returned to Laguna Seca in 1997, I ended up covering the feature races for StreetBike magazine. Once again, free passes to the race, a decent sampling of press box cuisine, and an unpaid expense report made the weekend memorable.

John Kocinski improved on last year’s near perfect performance with a pair of victories in this season's US round of World Superbike competition. Despite losing pole position to Italy’s Pierfrancesco Chili’s Ducati by 0.069 seconds during Saturday’s final qualifying session, Kocinski was the class of the field in both legs of Sunday’s main event.

After taking the pole position last season with a furious lap at the closing of qualifying, Kocinski was expected to sit at the front of the grid once again, but while he made frequent trips to the top of the qualifying board, he couldn’t lay down a lap time that would stick in the number one position. After the first session it was fellow American Doug Chandler on provisional pole, recording a session-best time of 1:27.435 on his Muzzy Kawasaki. The AMA series champion ran well in the final session as well, improving his time and landing in the third spot on the grid, only 2/10ths down on Chili’s record pole time of 1:26.628. Chandler wasn’t the only AMA regular to qualify well as Miguel DuHamel posted 5th fastest time on his Honda RC45, and Aaron Yates outqualified a host of World Superbike regulars, including both WSB Suzukis, to put himself in the 9th position for Sunday’s races. Aaron Slight suffered continually, never finding the set up that would have allowed him to get a fast lap in, and was the only man to not improve his time in the second session, leaving him on the fourth row. The last spot on the front row was filled by Japanese WSB Kawasaki rider Akira Yanagawa, with Pier Bontempi, Scott Russell and Neil Hodgson joining DuHamel on Row Two.

When the red light flashed to green it was DuHamel who led the pack into Turn One, but was soon passed by Kocinski. Hodgson got off to a fast start from his spot on the outside of Row Two despite still suffering the painful effects of a broken leg that was supposed to keep him out of the race entirely. Chili’s race started poorly and didn’t get any better as he found himself in fifth place off the start. He managed to work his way past Chandler and Hodgson and into third place only to have his engine grenade as he crossed the finish line to complete lap five. Kocinski set the pace and DuHamel matched him, never falling beyond striking range and on the fourth lap he made his push for the victory, sliding past Kocinski and into the lead. The American Honda entry was nearly a match for the WSB machine on top speed and DuHamel’s extensive experience at Laguna Seca helped him to draw away slightly from the pursuing group which by this time included Carl Fogarty. Fogarty had qualified poorly, a combination of food poisoning and a Turn Two lowsided in final qualifying, landing him on the third row at a track that has seemed to favor the Ducati in recent years, but had managed to slowly work his way up from sixth place position off the start. Fogarty, not wanting to let his closest competitor in the points get away from him, was quick to get around DuHamel after Kocinski had pushed back into the lead on lap eight, and by lap ten Kocinski could hear the booming twin lurking close behind. Two days of winter testing had helped the former World Champion cure his dislike for the track and he did not follow for long, breaking in to the lead and trying to power away from Kocinski. By the half way point the two leaders had cleared off from DuHamel, now facing pressure for third from Hodgson and Simon Crafar. The Kawasaki mounted Kiwi had been steadily moving forwards through the field, taking Chandler’s place as the leading in-line four behind the variety of V’s in front as the American champion slowly faded back to seventh. DuHamel was determined to repeat his performance of two seasons ago when he showed the world the fast way around Laguna Seca on his way to a second and third place, and did not give in to the WSB regulars. Hodgson was able to briefly lead the trio, slipping back into third place for the first time since the early laps before lowsiding in Turn Two while being pressured from behind by DuHamel. Despite barely being able to walk on his injured leg, Hodgson picked up his Ducati and seemed determined to continue before realizing that the damage to his bike would prevent his finishing the race. By the time the Briton had departed the battle for third the race had already begun to space itself out. Fogarty continued to lead Kocinski with DuHamel battling Crafar a few seconds behind, and now another scrap for position had formed. Russell, who had come from tenth place in the early laps to inherit fifth place following Hodgson’s early exit, seemed to be clear of Chandler, who had stabilized his fade and settled into sixth place. What had seemed a safe gap with four laps to go became one of three intense battles for position as Chandler began reeling off some of his fastest laps of the race, including his fastest race lap for the day on the final tour of the circuit. Exiting Turn Two for the final time, Chandler positioned himself for an inside pass on the WSB Yamaha as smoothly as he does everything on the race track, and slipped past Russell at the entrance to Turn Three. The two were side by side as they exited the corner and crossed under the bridge on the way to Turn Four, but Chandler still had the inside line and Russell had to back off and pull in behind. Russell stayed glued to Chandler’s tail section hunting for a mistake, playing the part of the shark to match the fin on his helmet, but was forced to try a last corner braking maneuver to regain fifth. Despite Russell’s reputation as a crazed maniac on the brakes, Chandler held him off at the entrance to Turn 11 and powered up the straight still ahead of the Yamaha. Ahead of the fifth place battle, Crafar and DuHamel were fighting over the final podium spot. The last lap was the closest in this battle as well as Crafar tried every conceivable way to get around DuHamel, making three separate attempts between Turns Two and Three. First Crafar pushed past on the outside at the entrance to Turn Two, briefly getting a wheel ahead of DuHamel before the Honda rider pulled even and took the inside line. Then Crafar apexed the last half of the double apex corner late, trying to power past DuHamel on the exit and once again briefly pulled ahead, but DuHamel went into Turn Three deep on the brakes and, already having the inside line by virtue of his exit line from Turn Two, thwarted Crafar’s final attempt. Out front, the gap Fogarty had pulled on Kocinski had faded to nothing. As the pair crossed the line with five laps to go it became a drag race up the hill with Fogarty maintaining a narrow lead as they crested the rise and began to brake for Turn Two. Kocinski had been routinely showing Fogarty a wheel at the entrance to the corner for the past several laps, and as the two came down the hill Kocinski pushed the bike to its limits trying to force his way past the Ducati. Taking the inside line on the brakes, Kocinski backed the Honda in, sliding the rear out as he smoked past Fogarty to take the lead. Fogarty was forced to straighten briefly as Kocinski came sliding past and was out of position to try and out drive Kocinski on the exit. Kocinski tried to build himself a cushion quickly, but after initially pulling a gap on Fogarty he was once again shadowed by the red twin. Fogarty continued to lurk for the remainder of the race, but was never able to muster enough energy to seriously attempt a pass and settled for second place.

Two hours later, Kocinski was ready to try and complete the double he felt he was robbed of last year when his Ducati ran out of fuel on the last lap, and he made sure that no one would be in a position to challenge him from the outset. Chandler grabbed the holeshot and lead the field into Turn Two to the delight of his home town crowd, but by the time the pack crested the hill for the second time Kocinski was already in the lead. Joined by Chili, DuHamel and Fogarty, Kocinski and Chandler started an early break from the masses. Russell started poorly once again, coming around in 10th on the first lap, but was soon clear of the slower main pack and in pursuit of the front runners. The leaders remained static for the first three laps, with only DuHamel making a move, passing Chili for third, until on lap four Chandler had a major engine failure exiting Turn Four and coasted out of second place and to a stop as the field flashed past. Kocinski used the distraction caused by Chandler’s sudden cessation of acceleration and the resultant mad swerving of everyone behind him to break clear, and that is where he would stay for the remaining twenty four laps. Chandler’s breakdown left second place to DuHamel with the two Ducatis close behind and Fogarty pressing the issue trying to get around the Canadian and keep Kocinski in sight. For two laps DuHamel held off the two time world champion, but eventually Fogarty pushed past and was soon running alone in second place. For the next thirteen laps the top five positions remained unchanged as Kocinski continued to pull away from Fogarty, himself well clear of DuHamel. Chili was still lurking in fourth, but the only man in the top five still making up ground was Russell. Steadily gaining on the battle for third place, Russell was hot for a podium finish at an American race for the first time since he moved to World Superbikes for his initial tour of the world six years ago. With nine laps to go, Russell moved past Chili for fourth place and the Italian began to steadily slow the pace, his second bike having been forced into service following the detonation of his main ride and not serving his purposes quite as well. Eventually Yanagawa also got by, leaving Chili with a sixth place as his best result of the day despite having the pole position. The positions remained unchanged in the top six for the last seven laps. Kocinski crossed the line nearly five seconds ahead of Fogarty, himself almost four seconds clear of DuHamel. Russell once again came up short against an AMA regular and was unable to get past DuHamel, crossing the line less than a tenth of a second shy of third place.

“I put a lot of pressure on myself because I knew I could do it,” said Kocinski afterwards. “This track hasn’t been very good to the Honda, but today we proved that all wrong and its just nice to put Honda in the number one place.”

Fogarty was less enthused about his pair of runner-up finishes, his stomach ailments having caused him to vomit twice in his helmet during the second leg and was more than happy to cross the finish line still in first place in the championship, albeit by only 4 points.

Taking top privateer honors for the weekend was San Francisco based Mike Krynock, who was actually the only privateer with the fortitude to take on the world’s best. Partially sponsored by Big Rick Stuart of Live 105, Krynock continued to compete all weekend despite the obvious handicaps a private effort faces when confronted with factory WSB efforts. He finished both 28 lap races, which is something 11 AMA and WSB factory bikes failed to do.

AMA 600 Supersport - Laguna Seca 1996

2006-03-31T12:26:00.000-08:00

I was apparently too junior in 1996 to actually be given the task of covering the World Superbike races themselves, so instead I got tagged with the AMA 600 Supersport that was running as a support class that weekend. It was actually a blessing, as I got full press access to the entire event and only had to pay attention for 17 laps in return. This article was done for StreetBike magazine, and I'm going to guess that they probably never paid me for it.

Miguel DuHamel owns AMA 600 Supersport racing. Running in support of the World Superbikes at Laguna Seca, DuHamel once again dominated the field with an impressive wire to wire victory.

After allowing class newcomer Ben Bostrom to follow him around the circuit a few times, DuHamel got down to business during the Saturday morning qualifying session, placing his Smokin’ Joes Honda CBR600F3 on pole. “Ben is really riding good,” commented DuHamel. “We all think he has a lot of potential.”

When the green flag dropped later that afternoon, however, the tutoring ended and DuHamel took Bostrom and the rest of the field to school. DuHamel shot from pole position and into the lead straight off and stayed there, leading all 17 laps of the race. Bostrom had obviously paid attention earlier as he was the only rider capable of matching DuHamel’s blistering pace, following close behind throughout the event. DuHamel had everything well under control, occasionally pulling his lead out to a dozen bike lengths before relaxing his pace and allowing Bostrom to close the gap, but never pass.

Andrew Stroud rode most of the race alone in third place on the Erion Brothers Honda. he managed to keep DuHamel and Bostrom in sight until past the halfway point before slacking off to ensure the safe third place. Stroud almost relaxed too much as Jason Pridmore charged hard all race long on his Kinko’s Kawasaki ZX6R to compensate for a mid-pack start before running out of laps with Stroud within his sights. Pridmore’s teammate, and consistent front runner, Thomas Stevens was headed in the opposite direction all race long, finishing a disappointing 11th. Steve Crevier, riding the other Smokin’ Joes Honda despite still suffering from injuries suffered in a personal watercraft accident, rode well to a fifth place finish, passing American Honda’s Gerald Rothman in the closing laps to garner a few more valuable points.

The newly resurfaced track worked well, earning praise from everyone except the man who looked the best on it. “I was a little disappointed,” said DuHamel. “With a new surface, I expected it to be really smooth but there are still a few small bumps in the corners.”

Of local interest, AFM 600 Production and Superbike front-runner Thomas Montano finished twelfth, while Mark Foster came home in 16th place. Erik Schnackenberg suffered from mechanical difficulties at the start, but passed a dozen bikes over the course of the race to finish 22nd, right behind another AFM racer, Roque Torres.

AFM Race Reports - 1996

2006-03-31T12:06:00.000-08:00

Starting in 1996, I began acting as the press liason for the AFM. I had been racing with the club since mid-1995 and used my burgeoning career with StreetBike magazine to land the coveted position. It was actually quite a bit of work, racing and then watching every single other race, then getting the report written and out Sunday night after being knackered from a weekend's worth of being at the track. It was also hard to be completely objective as the AFM, like any other club, can get a bit soap opera-ish and there were definitely riders I'd rather have seen in the haybales who had to feature prominently in the race reports. Although they didn't actually get run by 90% of the newspapers and magazines I sent them to, they were always carried by all the US racing magazines. Big Rick Stuart would occassionally give the high level details on air with Live 105 before the station managers made him stop for some reason, and the AFM actually paid enough that it covered my second race entry fee every weekend, so it was all worth while in the end. I apparently didn't save every race report, but no one will do anything but scan for their own name in these anyway.

April 21, 1996
The American Federation of Motorcyclists made their first appearance at Thunderhill Raceway this season on Sunday, April 21, with new challengers and some notable absences in the grids making for very exciting racing.

There could be no better way to start a day of racing than how things got going on Sunday as the 250 Superbike event provided the venue for one of the best rides you could ever hope to see. The start saw last year's class champion and perennial dominating force Joe Carillo, Jr. on his Yamaha TZR250 on pole, from which he would take the holeshot into the fast sweeping left of Turn 1. Following closely behind was Joe Cubbage on his Honda NSR250, flanked on the outside by rookie Steve Mayeau on his Suzuki RGV250. Without warning, Cubbage changed his line erratically at the entrance to Turn 1, forcing Mayeau off track and up the muddy, rutted hill, seemingly ending his race. Mayeau refused to go down, however, riding the Suzuki 200+ yards across the face of the hill, the bike visibly swapping ends in violent jerks as both wheels would come off the ground over the ruts. Finally, Mayeau was able to relocate the track, rejoining the fray in dead last place, half a lap down on the leaders Carillo and Cubbage as they continued to battle through The Cyclone, oblivious to Mayeau’s unscheduled excursion. With the entire field before him, Mayeau put the hammer down and started reeling in riders at a frantic pace. Before the first lap could be completed, 10 bikes had been left in his wake as he passed riders at the entrance, apex and exit to every corner, using the curbing on the outside of Turn 9 as a berm, launching himself down the front straight-away and putting himself another two positions further ahead before he returned to Turn 1. Meanwhile, out front, Carillo and Cubbage continued to draw away from the field, separating their lonely duel for the lead from the pursuing pack. With three laps to go in the ten lap event, Mayeau had sliced his way to fourth place, trailing only Carillo, Cubbage and Kregg Williams on his beautiful Aprilia RS250. Coming down the front straight, Cubbage made his move, passing Carillo and then making it stick under braking for Turn 1 as Carillo looked up the inside but decided not to risk the pass, preferring to pressure Cubbage from behind for the time being. It proved to be a wise strategy by the champion as Cubbage, feeling the heat of Carillo at his back, lost control at the entrance to the Cyclone and sent the bike on a destructive tumble off the track, leaving Carillo alone and far ahead of the pursuing Mayeau, who by this time had already made short work of both Williams and Darren Slawecki on his Honda NSR250. Mayeau was unrelenting, continuing to reel off times at an average of a second and a half faster than Carillo, but simply ran out of laps as Carillo took the checkered flag and his second straight victory of the season. Mayeau finished with an amazing second, Slawecki coming across third followed by Williams and Phillip M. Torres on a Yamaha TZR250.

Bringing the excitement of the first race to a boil was the gridding of the Formula III race as a second wave. The requisite fierce battle for the lead being elevated to even more frenzied pace by the absence of two time defending class champion Dave Colbert following an untimely high side in practice prior to the first race of the season. With Colbert out, the class championship is up for grabs, and tight packs of the 125cc machines battled the length of the race, swarming past the slower 250 Superbike riders as they lapped at a furious pace. When the checkered flag dropped, it saw Colin White first across the line, followed by Craig Avery, Mike Mondo and Carlos Neves. The quartet of Honda RS125s was trailed by Thomas Preston Audredge on the lone Yamaha TZ125 in the field.

Thomas Montano had his way with the 600 classes on Sunday, taking the victory in both 600 Production and Superbike. Hondas dominated on Sunday, with Montano being pursued by the lone Kawasaki rider to crack the top five in either 600 event, Mark Foster, who took second in both his efforts. Kevin Holman rode his ex-Mike Hale CBR600F3 to third place in the Production race, but slipped his way to fourth place in the Superbike event with traction problems, most notably in the off camber Turn 3 area. Brian Bartlow and Dean Guenther filled in the remaining top five spots in the Production race, while Akiharu Shigeno took his Superbike to third place in front Holman and Steven Engelbrecht. Notably absent from both events was “Bad” Billy Vassiliou, who did the 600 Double last year in the final AFM event at Thunderhill, due to an incident in the first Formula Pacific race from which he is, thankfully, recovering well.

Continuing the theme of the day, Formula II class champion Brian LeFevre sat it out Sunday, his Yamaha TZ250 re-built but untested after succumbing to the same Formula Pacific incident that brought down Vassiliou. With Dave Leggitt’s and his Honda RS250 also absent, that lead wide open and Mark “Jaws” Ingralls took the initiative, leading a train of TZ250s across the line. Dan Cook took second, with Michael Altamirano third, Dave Mason fourth and Montano moonlighting in fifth. It was Ingralls second victory of the day as earlier he had circulated, unharried but for a brief challenge from Denny Doherty, to the checkered in the Formula 40 event.

Joe Brett Williams was another double winner, with his venerable Honda RC30 proving more than a match for both the Formula I and 750 Superbike fields. Paul Vogel pursued Williams admirably in both classes on his new Suzuki GSXR750, garnering a second in Formula I and a third in 750 Superbike. Williams proved the only rider capable of stemming the flow of Suzukis in the 750 Superbike class as Tom Aquino, Vogel, Cory Call and Tim Blasquez all brought their GSXRs home to a top five finish.

The Braking Brake Systems Formula Pacific Challenge promised to be an exciting challenge to new series leader Steve Rapp aboard the Cycle Gear Kawasaki. Rapp rode to a convincing victory at Sears Point earlier in the month, but the Thunderhill circuit is the polar opposite to Sears, and one which was not kind to the Cycle Gear team last year. Williams and his RC30 were the benefactors last year when defending champion Cal Rayborn III, on his way to dominating the series again, crashed out of the race, opening the door for the only other man to win a Formula Pacific race all season. While Rapp had carried on admirably for Rayborn at Sears, it remained to be seen whether he could hold Williams at bay through the fast sweepers of Thunderhill. All the pre-race questions were answered, however, as the flag dropped and Rapp shot anti-climatically into the lead, taking a wire to wire victory. Williams pursued doggedly, but was never able to close the gap and had to settle for second place. Geep Terranova, coming off a sixth place on his Yamaha TZ250 at Sears in Round One, ran the distance for a lonely third place. Last season’s Rookie of the Year Erik Schnakenberg managed to bring his Honda CBR600F3 around for an eighth place finish despite an earlier practice crash. With Round One runner up Leggitt not racing and last years number two finisher Rob Mesa retiring after one lap with a broken crank, Rapp’s points lead is beginning to grow, and unless someone can mount a determined challenge, it looks as though the Cycle Gear team will take the number one plate for the third straight season.

All the action and class battles will be renewed May 26 at Sears Point International Raceway for Round Three of the seven round series.

May 26, 1996
Sunday, May 26th marked the third round of the American Federation of Motorcyclists 1996 season, with the series returning to Sears Point International Raceway.

The unexpectedly cold, gray skies foreshadowed the afternoon in store for Steve Rapp and his Braking Brake Systems Formula Pacific Challenge series leading Cycle Gear Kawasaki. Rapp had dominated the first two races, winning both rounds comfortably, leaving him with a 14 point advantage over Joe Brett Williams’ RC30. The start was typical Formula Pacific, with the front row running side by side up the hill and into Turn 2, but by the time they had emerged from the Carousel the battle for the lead had already begun to break away. Rapp had managed to separate himself from the pack and was hard on the gas up the straight, leaving everyone behind except Geep Terranova on his Yamaha TZ250. Rapp continually laid down fast laps but was unable to shake the pursuing Terranova. Approaching the half way mark, Terranova made a push for the lead, running deep inside Rapp on the brakes at the entrance to Turn 11. Rapp managed to hold the line, forcing Terranova to back off and lose ground as he laid down the power on the exit and opened up a few bike lengths on the 250 Yamaha. Rapp’s break was a short one as Terranova caught him again in the hills and exiting the Carousel the two bikes were once again inseparable. Coming down through the Esses the positions remained the same, with both riders refusing to back off as they crested 8a and headed for the apex of 9, where the complexion of the race changed dramatically. As they reached the apexed, side by side, Rapp lost the rear end, getting the bike sideways and almost highsiding at speeds approaching 140mph. With Rapp’s concentration turned to keeping the bike upright, Terranova drove past and into the lead. The immediacy of the danger was quickly erased, as Rapp soon had the Kawasaki back under control and in pursuit of the fleeing Terranova. Terranova, the last rider to win a Formula Pacific race on a 250, was not to be caught and brought the Yamaha in for the victory, with Rapp taking second in the best race of the season so far. Rob Mesa showed the form that last year had him a constant facet of the front running group with a third place finish, with Williams following him home in fourth.

Last season’s Novice of the Year, Erik Schnackenberg, continued his progress through the ranks of the 600 riders, taking his first race win in 600 Superbike, and then following it up with a victory in the 600 Production race. Challenged in both races by Mark Foster, Schnakenberg was not to be denied. After leading most of the 600 Superbike race, Schnackenberg was passed by Foster on the final lap and it looked as if he might have to settle for second as the lead stretched to 5 bike lengths heading into Turn 11. Foster got on the brakes as late as he dared, but Schnakenberg went in even deeper, coming down the inside of Foster at an incredible rate and holding the line and the lead through the Chicane and past the checkered flag. In the 600 Production race, Schnakenberg had already built a sizable lead when the race was stopped short of completion to clear a multi bike pileup. After a 20 minute delay, Schnakenberg got right back to work at the drop of the flag, squeezing into Turn 2 side by side with Foster once again before running away and taking his second victory.

Terri Vogel survived a late race charge by Frank Mazur to take the victory in 250 Production. The hard charging Mazur had slowly erased Vogel’s once large lead until he was in position to pass on the brakes in Turn 11, going in hard and seemingly taking the position. Vogel held on, however, and managed to get a backmarker between herself and Mazur heading into the Chicane, securing the victory.

In 250 Superbike, defending champ Joe Carillo, Jr. ran away from the field by over half a lap and cruised for his third straight victory. Carillo was following up his fourth place finish in Formula II where he managed to grab the holeshot from his starting position on the outside of Row 1, looking to his inside and finding no one there as he drove for the apex in Turn 1. He was quickly swallowed up by Mark Ingalls at the entrance to Turn 2 and began steadily dropping back until settling in to fifth place. Ingalls proceeded to lead the next few laps before relinquishing to eventual winner Michael Montoya. It was then Ingalls’ turn to fall back, as first Dan Cook, then Richard Padilla came past. Ingalls looked secure in fourth position until disaster struck in the Chicane. Within view of the checkered flag, Ingalls came together with a backmarker from a separate class and went down, handing the position to Carillo.

Williams saw his domination of 750 Superbike come to an end as James Randolph ran his new Suzuki GSXR750 way out in front of the pack leaving Williams a lonely second. Williams managed to salvage an otherwise disappointing day with yet another Formula I victory.

Top Novice for the day goes to Corey McGeeney on his 1996 Miyuki Performance Cycle Imports Honda RS125. McGeeney, running eighth in the Formula III standings coming in to the day, chased the blazingly fast lead pack to a fifth place finish after already having taken Top Novice honors in the Formula II race.

June 16, 1996
Round Four of the Braking Brake Systems Formula Pacific Challenge Series saw Joe Brett Williams and his Honda RC30 nearly steal the victory from the previously dominant Cycle Gear Kawasaki rider, Steve Rapp. With Geep Terranova, winner of Round Three, missing, Rapp was the clear favorite. The start saw Doug DeRyke grab the holeshot, with Rapp and Williams close behind. DeRyke was quickly relegated to third as Rapp and Williams passed and pulled away at a furious pace. Surprisingly, it was Williams who was setting the pace, leading Rapp past the half way point. Rapp would close the gap down the straights and under braking, only to have Williams re-extend his lead through the hills and through the Esses. Rapp continued the pressure, which paid off late in the race as Williams lost control and crashed out in Turn 5. Rapp finished with a lead of nine seconds over the well deserved second place of Rob Mesa, who charged through the pack from his third row starting position. Third place fell to Chris Thorsen, with DeRyke’s fourth place moving him into second place overall in the points standings, proving once again that consistency counts.

In Formula II, last year’s class champion Brian LeFevre had his new Yamaha TZ250 sorted to his liking and charged through the pack and into the lead, only to see Dan Cook slip past in an incredible photo finish as he couldn’t keep his front wheel on the ground exiting the chicane and lost the extra drive needed to stay in front.

Thomas Montano took top honors in both 600 Superbike and Production with his Yamaha YZF600, pursued hotly in both races by Erik Schnackenberg. Schnackenberg was hoping to repeat his performance from the last meeting when he won both 600 events, but a badly slipping clutch hampered his starts and left him well back in the pack for both races.

The Formula III race proved as exciting as always, with novice Corey McGeeney taking the holeshot from the outside of Row 1 on his 1996 Miyuki Performance Cycle Imports Honda RS125. Leading a race for the first time, McGeeney set a blistering pace that left the field straggling behind, with only points leader Craig Avery to apply pressure. The pair were glued together, drifting their Hondas madly through the slower corners with McGeeney holding Avery at bay until the 5th lap when he managed to sneak through. McGeeney kept him close but couldn’t repass and finished with a hard fought second. Carlos Neves paraded his Honda around for a lonely third place.

The Yamaha TZR250 of Joe Carillo, Jr. was once again on top of the 250 Superbike results, with Ken Cohen finishing second once again and Top Novice candidate Steve Mayeau bringing his Suzuki home in third.

Grant Yanik made an impressive debut at Sears Point, winning the 450 Superbike race after coming down from his home track, Portland International Raceway. Yanik sat in fourth for much of the race, waiting until the closing laps to make his move on the Sears Point regulars. Aiding his charge to the front was the mechanical failure of points leader Ross Wells III. Wells came back strong in 450 Production though, taking the victory once again.

Former AMA 250 GP Champion Donny Greene dominated the 750 Production race, taking his Yamaha YZF750 to the victory by a huge margin over the old Suzuki GSXR750 of Tim Blasquez.

With Williams out due to his Formula Pacific crash, Thorsen took the victory in Formula I, barely beating a hard charging Akiharu Shigeno to the line. Shigeno once again fell victim to the power advantage maintained by the 750’s over his CBR600, but his second place finish leaves him as the top 600 in Formula I, third place overall.

July 14, 1996
Sweltering, 108 degree heat was the theme of the weekend as the American Federation of Motorcyclists 1996 season continued with another trip to Thunderhill Park Raceway.

After having his dominance of the series challenged at the last two meetings, Steve Rapp and his Cycle Gear Kawasaki once again obliterated the field in the Braking Brake Systems Formula Pacific Challenge. Rapp lead from the drop of the flag, running well clear of the close battle for second place between Rob Mesa and Joe Brett Williams. The pair dueled the whole race, first with Williams then Mesa leading, until Mesa crashed out while braking hard in the second to last corner of the final lap, handing the second podium spot to Williams.

Thomas Montano shrugged off the heat to win three events on the day. Montano repeated his 600 performances from the previous round at Sears Point with convincing victories in both Superbike and Production. In Formula II, Montano slowly reeled in defending champion Brian LeFevre before drafting past and into the lead down the front straight, and pulling away to another checkered flag.

Formula III was the scene of another impressive ride by Corey McGeeney of Miyuki Performance Cycle Imports. After crashing heavily at nearly 120 mph when a slower rider swerved in front of him during Saturday’s practice session, McGeeney quickly rebuilt his 1996 RS125 with help from the other 125 racers in the paddocks before earning a third place finish despite riding with a broken wrist. Craig Avery continued his domination of the class, extending his points lead to a nearly insurmountable margin, with Carlos Neves taking second.

Joe Carillo, Jr. continued unharrassed in his attempt to win every 250 Superbike race for the season, running well in front of second place finisher Ken Cohen and Top Novice candidate Steve Mayeau in third.

Zoran Vujasinovic enjoyed a substantial margin of victory in 750 Production, with Donny Greene making a hard late race charge to take second after a poor start. Tony Doran made his first appearance in the top three, running second most of the race before succumbing to former AMA 250 Champion Greene and finishing third.

Both 250 and 500 Production saw new winners for the first time this season, with Tom Dorsey knocking off the previously unbeatable Terri Vogel in the 250 class and David Chowenhill putting his EX500SuperMegaTwin across the line ahead of Ken Bauer. Bauer also saw his domination of the 650 Twins class come to an end as his Kawasaki was no match for the horde of souped up Hawks through the fast curves of Thunderhill.

August 4, 1996
The Braking Brake Systems Formula Pacific Challenge Series had a new twist added to the competition as James Randolph returned to the AFM from his tour with the AMA series to take the victory. Randolph cut through the field with ease, closing in on leader Steve Rapp and following only briefly before making the pass. Series front-runner Rapp fell back, seemingly unable to keep up the pace set by Randolph’s GSXR750. Spurred on by the new challenge, Rapp collected himself and a few laps later made an impressive run at Randolph, closing to a few bike lengths and presenting a serious challenge to the leader. Pushing a bit too hard in an attempt to make a decisive pass in Turn 11, Rapp went down, allowing Randolph to slip away to an easy victory, followed across the line by fellow AMA rider Mark McDaniel. Joe Brett Williams brought his RC30 home in third, best of the AFM regulars, followed by the much improved Chris Thorsen and the ever steady Doug DeRyke.

Erik Schnackenberg continued in his efforts to keep the 600 classes close, winning both the Production and Superbike races to narrow the points gap to first place with one round remaining. Using a newly worked motor, Schnackenberg held off all comers to take his second double victory day this season. In 750 Production, Novice Tony Doran had an impressive ride, jumping off the line and into the lead for the first time. Series front-runners Donny Greene and Zoran Vujasinovic eventually made their way past, using the second start necessitated by an oil-spillage to push Doran back to third place, where he received his first AFM trophy.

Tom Dorsey won his second straight 250 Production race, running alone most of the race as he left the rest of the class behind. Terry Vogel, who only needed to finish close to the top in the two remaining races to secure the class championship for the season, had no interest in pushing her Ninja and risking what would have been an extremely ill-timed crash, circulating a safe second to move into near lock for the series lead. Joe Carillo, Jr. won his sixth straight 250 Superbike race and is now one away from sweeping the season. Carillo’s TZ-engined TZR once again dominated the class, leading by almost 10 seconds after 2 laps and running out of sight of second place Ken Cohen the entire race. Top Novice candidate Steve Mayaeu was running alone in third place, several seconds behind Cohen but also several seconds in front of fourth place, when he suffered a mechanical failure on the last lap for his first DNF of the season.

Carlos Neves ended Craig Avery's string of Formula III victories at 5, although another strong race by Avery for second has virtually secured him the class championship. Corey McGeeney, having recently moved into third place in the class despite riding with a broken wrist, led the first lap and was pulling on Avery and Neves everywhere except the hard braking areas, where his wrist wouldn’t allow him to use the stopping power available on his 1996 RS125. On lap two, Avery made up nearly five bike lengths on the brakes for Turn 7, going around the outside of the tight right-hander to take the lead. McGeeney was making up ground with pure corner speed, simply not braking and it finally caught up to him two laps later. Leading once again into Turn 7, McGeeney held off the charging Avery and was beginning to roll the gas back on for the exit when the rear end stepped out, highsiding him and sending Avery off the track to avoid the wreckage. Neves took full advantage of the situation, entering the corner slightly behind the lead duo, he was able to avoid the crash site and drive hard out of the turn, holding on to the lead and ending Avery’s streak.

September 22, 1996
The final round of the American Federation of Motorcyclists 1996 season was full of close and exciting race action, highlighted by the championship winning performance of Steve Rapp and his Cycle Gear Kawasaki. To the surprise of no one, Doug DeRyke grabbed the holeshot in the Braking Brake Systems Formula Pacific Challenge on board his 1000cc Yamaha, but, as is usual, was quickly relegated to third place as both Rapp and Joe Brett Williams charged ahead on the exit to Turn One. Rapp began pulling out an early lead, distancing himself from the pursuing Williams as every lap moved him closer to the championship. The RC30 mounted Williams was making one last push for the number one plate, entering the day in second place, and ran off a string of fast laps to overcome Rapp’s seemingly secure lead. Williams efforts proved futile, however, as Rapp would only follow briefly before reclaiming the race and the series as his own.

Erik Schnackenberg fulfilled the expectations of last year’s Top Novice honors by taking the championship in both 600 Production and Superbike with another pair of excellent rides. Needing only to finish both races ahead of his main rival, Kevin Holman and his ex-Mike Hale CBR600F3. After taking the outright victory and the championship in 600 Production, Schnackenberg faced an extra challenge in 600 Superbike in the form of Brian Parriott, returning to the AFM after injuries left him unable to complete what would surely have been a top ten season in the AMA. The race proved to be a tight battle, with Parriott proving that he still had the skills that took him to third overall in Formula Pacific just two years ago, leading the two title challengers from the start. Schnackenberg and Holman were locked in battle close behind, with Holman leading early on until Schnackenberg went up the inside on the entrance to the fast left hander Turn One. Holman tried to square the corner off and retake the position on the drive out, but his front wheel tucked under, sending him and the bike tumbling off the course and out of the championship hunt.

Joe Carillo, Jr. won the final race of the 250 Superbike series, taking a clean sweep of the season series. Ken Cohen followed distantly, circulating at a safe pace unaware that Steve Mayeau was pushing his underpowered Suzuki RGV hard in pursuit of the TZ-motored TZRs of the front runners. As the race drew towards the final lap, Mayeau caught Cohen and looked sure to pass, but lost out to the Yamaha’s superior power down the front straight. Novice Josh Scott had an impressive ride, coming from the last position on the grid to take fifth on a borrowed Honda NSR250.

Corey McGeeney earned his first victory in Formula III, pushing hard in an effort to overcome Thomas Alldredge for third place overall in the championship. Alldredge, TZ mounted, had his best race of the season, storming back after a poor start had left him in sixth place to take third place in the race and in the championship, by two points, over McGeeney. Circulating safely in fourth was series champion Craig Avery, who needed only to stay upright in order to take the season series. Carlos Neves also ran well in the final race of the year. Charging hard to make up for McGeeney’s fast start, he erased a huge lead in the final laps, catching McGeeney just as Mayeau caught Cohen, all four of them exiting the hairpin Turn 8 together. Neves was unable to make the pass for the lead, and was forced to watch from behind as McGeeney routinely rear wheel steered his Honda RS125.

In 250 Production, Terri Vogel took the opposite tactic as Avery, foregoing the safety of circulating slightly off the pace to secure the championship. Another impressive ride earned her the race win, and a well deserved championship over Tom Dorsey, second in the race and the championship.

In the Four Hour Endurance Race run on Saturday, two 600s ran away from the big bikes and were separated by just over a minute as they crossed the line the final time. Sean Crane and Bobbie Keith took the victory, with Erik Schnackenberg, Brian Parriott and Brian Bartlow close behind on their Honda. The difference may well have come down to pit stops as Parriott’s first pit stop took over two minutes as the team tried refueling without a quick dump can. A neighboring team noticed the length of their stop and quickly lent them a can for the duration of the race, but the time differential at the line could very well be due to the time differential in that first refueling stop. The only non-Japanese bike entered, a Triumph Speed Triple ridden by Kevin Smith, Paul Shillito and Kevin Johnson, had to pull out after three hours when the realized they had worn their hard compound slick down to the cords on the left side. Tom Dorsey, Scott Elledge, Eric Bong and Robert Cunnington rode their TZR250, the only two stroke entered, to the victory in the sub 450cc class, proving that a two stroke will survive four hours of continuous red line running and perhaps opening the door for more entries next year. In a testament to the AFM riders and crew, there were only a handful of minor incidents.

1996 Season Summary
The 1996 American Federation of Motorcyclists season has come to a close and Steve Rapp has claimed the Number One plate, taking his Cycle Gear Kawasaki to the top of the Braking Brake Systems Formula Pacific Challenge. After winning the championship the last two seasons with Cal Rayborn III on board, the Cycle Gear team proved itself the top operation in the AFM once again, and Rapp, fresh off his Open Superbike Championship last season, proved he could do more than just twist the throttle of his 1100 Suzuki. The combination of last seasons Number Three Rapp and the fastest bike in the AFM was an immediate contender, but there were several strong challengers to overcome along the way. Rob Mesa was looking to improve upon his position as perennial runner up, having spent most of last season watching Rayborn’s black Kawasaki fade into the distance. Bike developmental problems, compounded with several crash injuries including a broken wrist, hampered Mesa’s efforts all season, however, and it wasn’t until late in the year that he began showing the type of finishes expected from him. By then, it was too late for Mesa to mount any charge on the championship and left him sixth overall for the season. Joe Brett Williams returned with his Honda RC30, trying to squeeze the extra bit of speed he would need from the aging superbike to improve on last years fourth place. Williams was a constant factor, pushing Rapp and himself ever faster, but eventually fell short in every race, despite leading on several occasions. He began to suffer from the same fate as Mesa last season; always within sight, but never quite able to hold the advantage across the finish line despite being the only man to win a Formula Pacific race the previous season while not on board the Cycle Gear bike. While not as dominant as Rayborn before him, Rapp won all but two races this season. Geep Terranova proved a match for Rapp, taking his battered Yamaha TZ250 to one race win this season, becoming the first man to win the Formula Pacific Challenge on a 250 since his last victory before the era of Cycle Gear dominance began in 1994. Terranova’s victory brought an intense spark of excitement to the series, and his race long battle with Rapp was interpreted as a foreshadowing of the exciting racing to come as the ex-AMA 250GP man returned to his home track, but mechanical problems brought on by seasons worth of hard running left Terranova uncompetetive or absent too often to be a championship contender. His impressive victory, combined with a third place in the first Thunderhill event left him eight overall for the season. The first race of the season saw another AMA 250GP man provide a challenge for Rapp as last seasons fifth place finisher, Jeff Leggitt, ride his Honda RS250 to second place and in position to make a run at the title, but it was a one shot ride for Leggitt, who spent the season fighting with Rich Oliver and company in the AMA series. With the AMA series coming to Sears Point in late August, James Randolph returned to the AFM for the for a refresher course, and stole the only other victory from Rapp. Randolph was the class of the field, cutting through to take the lead away from Rapp and pulling away just as Rapp had so often done to the AFM regulars. Not content with letting Randolph go even though he had no bearing on the championship, Rapp pushed hard and was soon right behind and pressuring for the lead. The pace was hard, and the admirable effort earned Rapp his only DNF of the season as he crashed out trying to find away around the AMA regular. Doug DeRyke proved the consistency counts when trying to win a championship, earning third place despite never actually finishing on the podium. A consistent hole shot artist, DeRyke was a constant factor in the early laps of the race and a consistent finisher, never coming in below seventh. The season got of to an auspicious start, with a multi-bike accident in the first corner off the start resulted in season ending injuries for last years tenth place finisher, “Bad” Billy Vassiliou. The only 600 in the top ten last season, Vassiliou was expected to improve on that position as he had been steadily picking gaining ground on the faster bikes. Instead, last seasons Rookie of the Year, Erik Schnackenberg, represented the 600 field in Formula Pacific, finishing seventh in addition to winning his own class championships.

Armed with a salvaged Honda CBR600F3, Schnackenberg lived up to expectations and earned both the 600 Production and Superbike titles on the last day of the season. Thomas Montano returned to defend his 600 Production title, and replace departed Todd Hoeft as Superbike champion, but neither came to pass for the Yamaha rider as the battle came down to a last race duel between Schnackenberg and fellow Honda rider Kevin Holman. Schnackenberg ran an excellent Production race, taking the victory and what is certain to be one of many championships, leaving Holman with one more chance at a title of his own. The entire season came down to a daring pass by Schnackenberg on the entrance to Turn 1 at Thunderhill and, exemplary of the hard fought battle at the top of the 600 class all season, Holman’s equally aggressive attempt at retaking the position. His failure to keep Schnackenberg behind him, and his crash while trying, gave the series crown to Schnackenberg.

Craig Avery replaced Dave Colbert as Formula III champion, racing at a pace that would have left last years champion off the podium. Lap times in the front echelon of Avery, Carlos Neves and Corey McGeeney dropped below the 1:50 mark around Sears Point as one of the most competitive series in the AFM screamed around the track. Avery was consistently the fastest rider on the track, winning the first 5 races convincing before finishing second after the ever improving McGeeney crashed out of the lead directly in front of him, forcing Avery into the dirt and allowing Neves to steal a victory. Making one last bid for third place overall, McGeeney charged hard all race long at the last meeting of the season and withstood a late race challenge from Neves to take his first victory with the AFM. Thomas Alldredge rode his best race of the season, however, and finished third ahead of the cautious Avery to take third overall by four points.

Joe Carrillo, Jr. once again dominated 250 Superbike, winning every race by a wide margin. After having his mainly TZ powered TZR250 ruled legal after several protests last season, Carrillo was untouchable all season and was never offered a serious challenge by second place finisher, again, Ken Cohen on a similarly prepared bike. An impressive third was Suzuki mounted novice Steve Mayeau. Down anywhere from 15 to 20 horsepower to the two Yamahas, Mayeau was consistently fast and provided one of the best rides of the season in the first trip to Thunderhill. After being forced off the track by an errant NSR on the outside of Turn 1, Mayeau rode the RGV over 200 yards across the rutted hillside, the bike visibly swapping wildly from as far away as the pit lane before rejoining the race with muddy tires in last place. Mayeau passed a dozen riders on the first lap and set off in pursuit of the front runners, passing riders at will until only Carrillo remained ahead. Closing at a rate of over a second a lap, the race may have proven even more interesting if the checkered flag had not flown before he could continue his charge even further.

250 Production was an entertaining class all season as Terri Vogel made a run at defending champion Frank Mazur. Vogel and Mazur, combined with race one winner Tom Dorsey, battled all season long until Mazur failed to appeal a crash and was forced to sit out a race, leaving only Dorsey and Vogel in contention. Vogel was unstoppable, and it is doubtful Mazur would have been able to overcome her quest for the championship. Dorsey finished second overall, 25 points down to the champion.

Ross Wells, III defended both his 450 Production and Superbike titles successfully, dominating the class in almost every race. Brian LeFevre, hampered by crashes and a new bike, was unable to defend his Formula II title despite his return to form by the second half of the season and Dan Cook earned the series victory. Chris Thorsen usurped Williams as Formula I Champion, although he was able to defend his 750 Superbike title by a wide margin over Tom Aquino. Ken Baer took the 500 and 650 Twins championships, using an Kawasaki EX500 based machine to take the latter from the pursuing Hawks of Mike Voelker and Bill Brinckerhoff. Douglas Elliott won the newly formed SuperDinosaur class on his 600 Ninja, while Jove Shapiro and his BMW unseated Dave Russell’s BSA in Vintage competition. Zoran Vujasinovic defeated former AMA 250GP champion Don Greene in 750 Production, holding off the late season charge of novice Tony Doran.

John Kocinski - circa 1996

2005-10-22T22:41:00.000-07:00

I was supposed to worm my way into see Kocinski at the WSB Laguna round in '96, but never actually managed to garner an audience with the boy tyrant. Everyone has heard the rumors of his eccentricities and moodiness, but when he wanted to, he could make a race bike fly.

The paddock empties rapidly at the end of the race day. Fans file out, heading for home while the teams begin packing equipment for the journey on to the next round. A throng still surrounds the Ducati Corse pit though, perhaps listening in as the GP Brat berates his mechanics for the unforgivable sin of shorting his bike its fuel load by a third of a lap. But there are no shouts, only laughter coming from the center of the group, where the auburn flat top of Americas best Superbike rider can be seen.

Smiling and signing autographs is not where anyone who has ever heard of John Kocinski would expect to find him after the race he just had. After the high of setting a new lap record in qualifying, followed by the dominating victory in Round One, previous misconceptions of Little John would have tent flaps closed and mechanics cowering. Kocinski is breaking free of the damning rumors and defying any pre-conceived notions, however, giving America a true championship contender for the first time since Scott Russell made the jump to the Grand Prix circuit.

The weekend looked prime for Kocinski to make a grand return to America. Returning in a championship series for the first time since his victory at Laguna Seca on the Cagiva 500, he made it obvious with 27 seconds left in qualifying that anyone who wanted to see the top of the podium would have to go over him. Armed with a fresh set of tires, Kocinski waited until a clear stretch of track appeared before knocking fellow Ducati rider Troy Corser off pole and out of the record books with a blazing lap. His style still resembling his season and a half on the Cagiva, with extreme lean angles and high corner speeds followed by the spinning rear wheel, Kocinski seemed unstoppable.

Victory on Sunday seemed inevitable, and Round One ended with Kocinski once again circulating the track waving to the crowd in triumph with his helmet, specially re-done for Laguna Seca, flashing gold in the sunlight. The victory was so well played as to seem pre-destined. It would have been a truly fitting and deserved finally to the weekend for a man who spent last year out of roadracing, cleansing his soiled image, but there was still another race to be run.

Round Two saw Kocinski following Anthony Gobert throughout the race as the Australian pushed his Kawasaki to the limit after crashing out of Round One. With two laps to go, Gobert went from leading Kocinski to fleeing from him, looking the part of the imminent victim as Kocinski drew up close behind, setting up for a last lap pass to complete the story book weekend. ThatÂs when things went awry, with the fresh engine in KocinskiÂs Ducati stopping half way through the Corkscrew, leaving him to coast downhill to the finish line. The bike came to a stop just past start/finish, and Kocinski calmly dismounted, leaned it against the wall and began walking back to his pits.

Crowds gathered as the lifeless beast was pushed back to the tent during GobertÂs victory lap in the parade truck, waiting for heads to roll as the old John Kocinski re-appeared to berate his team. Instead they got something no one could have ever expected from any rider, let alone one with KocinskiÂs reputation ... autographs and smiles. This weekend went a long way towards proving that Kocinski is back. Not Little John, not the GP Brat, but John Kocinski, champion.

Doug Chandler- circa 1997

2005-10-22T22:33:00.000-07:00

In stark contrast to Spencer, who I had spoken to just a few weeks before, Chandler was a humble Central Valley man who just happened to be amazingly fast. I was always disappointed when I heard people saying that Doug wasn't the type of rider that could let it hang out and ride his way to a better result than the bike itself provide as he started on to the downside of his Superbike career here in the states. Just a 'what have you done for me lately' mentality, I suppose, as Doug could certainly make most any bike do wicked things. Roadracing was his business, and he was very good at it. He also apparently has a great memory and reads even the worst motorcycle magazines, as he stopped me in the AMA pits a few months later to tell me he enjoyed the article.

The AMA Superbike Championship was a close battle for the first time in years during the 1996 season, with the win-or-die brilliance of Miguel DuHamel failing to earn him a second straight title as Doug Chandler returned to Kawasaki and took Rob Muzzy’s team with him to the championship. Returning from an injury plagued year aboard the Harley Davidson VR1000, Chandler was once again aboard the marquee that opened the doors to Europe for him following his first championship run.

Last season’s championship, however, did not mark the departure of another champion heading to Europe to challenge the world’s best. Instead, Chandler has remained at home to defend his title, an opportunity he missed the first time around. “It really just basically boiled down to how much money would you get to go over there and do it,” said Chandler. “When I was here at the end of 1990, it wasn’t worth doing. I mean, I was making more money than I was at the dirttrack, but it was nothing like you could make over in Europe.” With the issue of money settled, the decision for Chandler centered around the love for his family and home near Laguna Seca. “I would have a tough decision because I have a wife and three kids,” Chandler explained. “When I went over there the first time I only had a wife and the one son, so it was not so bad traveling in a motorhome, just the three of us, but now that there’s five of us ... it’d be almost impossible. Ive been over there once and seen what it’s like. I don’t really have a lot of desire to do it again.”

Remaining at home also provides Chandler with opportunities that the hectic schedule of world competition would never allow, like helping Muzzy with the development and promotion of his Raptor Formula USA bike. Chandler’s first trip to Daytona on the bike provided a vindication of Muzzy’s concept. “Rob thought he could build a bike that would be competitive right out of the crate and sell it for $25,000, and he has,” Chandler stated. “The superbikes, they spin the tire in first gear, maybe in second gear, but by the time your in 3rd gear its pretty much hooked up and going straight. On the Raptor, click into 3rd gear coming out of the chicane and the thing just kept wheel spinning, then it finally hooked up and tried to do a wheelie on the banking. I think it makes almost too much power for the tires we have here in the states,” he said. “When you sit on it, except for the color, it’s just like sitting on my superbike, but when you’re riding it there’s just a lot more at the stick. It’s fast, but it’s not really erratic. It’s (the power) actually smoother than on my superbike.”

Letting the bike slide around beneath him has always been a part of Chandler’s racing, starting with his first dirt track racer, a Honda 50. Turning to road racing in pursuit of a better living to be made allowed him to accomplishing the rare feat of being one of just four men to win a half mile, mile, TT and a road race; only Kenny Roberts, Bubba Shobert and Dick Mann had done it before him. Despite leaving the professional dirt track circuit behind, Chandler still feels the lessons learned on the dirt can be beneficial to a young road racer. “I think its really good for the first three years of your roadracing career,” he explained. “More so because you’re going close to the speed your going on the road bike, but in turn you’ve got the bike moving around and wheel spinning underneath you so it’s not really staying in line, where most guys who come from riding a streetbike into racing have never really had the thing spin the wheel off the corner or really get sideways underneath them and the minute the wheels come out of alignment its like ‘well geez, something must be wrong’ where to a dirt tracker, that’s second nature, that’s natural. I think that’s the biggest transition, that helps the guys the most. Helping Chandler make the transition from dirt to pavement was Keith Code, long time friend and a former Superbike rider himself. “I agree with 90% of the stuff he teaches and says. He makes you get the whole picture.”

Chandler’s championships have come at home, but abroad he has been teamed with some of the greatest American riders of the past 15 years, including Kevin Schwantz and John Kocinski, but the one teammate Chandler regards above all others is Wayne Rainey. “He’s the one guy that I admire most that I’ve actually gotten to work with,” Chandler said. “The trouble that guy would fight, to be able to go out there and compete and race for the win was really impressive. In my eyes, he’s the best.” Being neighbors has allowed Chandler to play the foil for Rainey’s competitive nature which remains undampened despite his injury. “Anytime that he’s home, he’s always giving me a call trying to get me to drive the go carts with him. When Wayne got injured, he wanted to compete somehow, to get back out there and race in some way. After Eddie (Lawson) built him that cart he’s been on me, wanting me to get one so we can go out and race.”

This season, for the first time, Chandler is heading into Daytona with a proven bike and an optimistic outlook for the race. “In the years past when Ive been here in the states and gone to Daytona, Ive always had something new and untested and its kind of tough,” Chandler remarked. “But this year, we’ve already had a full year on the bike and I’m a lot more comfortable with it.” With only a few minor updates, he will be riding the same bike that took him to the championship last season with very few mechanical ailments over the course of the season. “It’s called a ‘97, but its really the same as a ‘96. I think it’s more different visually, especially since at Daytona we will be using the single sided swingarm.”

The season ahead will be long for Chandler as he tries to retain his title, but he will not change his approach just because he is wearing the number one plate. “When you’re on the bike you don’t know what number is on the thing.” He will face another strong challenge this year from DuHamel, of whom he is not the biggest fan. “Uhmm ... he’s a good rider, and a fairly decent champion,” Chandler commented on the strengths of his closest rival, whose reputation was soured by his poor reaction following last season’s championship deciding final round in Las Vegas.

After a tough final year with Cagiva, where his desire to ride waned only to be rekindled shortly before the team was disbanded, and the troubled year with Harley Davidson, Chandler is happy to be back with Kawasaki and Rob Muzzy. “I was ready to quit, to give it up. Luckily I came back home and got my interest level back up,” he said. “I try to keep the enthusiasm level high, that way you have a lot more push from the inside to be successful.” His success this past season have allowed him to relax and enjoy his racing, and to look towards the future. “Id like to stay involved in the sport somehow, as an advisor or possibly running my own team. I feel that, getting out, Id have a number of years where I could really help a younger rider.”

For now though, Chandler will enjoy his current position as the best America has, racing on Sunday for the team that has now seen him to two championships, and still be back on his ranch by Monday with his family.

Freddie Spencer - circa 1997

2005-10-22T22:23:00.000-07:00

Of all the racers, team managers, AMA, track or club officials I met during my stint on the motojournalism circuit, Freddie Spencer had to be the most arrogant bastard of them all. He was a great racer, but if Schwantz and Rainey can each spare an hour for some no name hack, you'd think someone who wanted to add a line about his race school in every other sentence could have shared more than 10 minutes while walking to his car after setting up the meeting himself. It's too bad he doesn't do much announcing anymore for Speedvision, because he fits right in with the arrogant idiots they generally employ.

Seventeen years ago, Kenny Roberts dominated the Grand Prix scene, winning his first of three consecutive championships and introducing the world to the American style of dirt track style road racing and redefining how riders attacked the corners. A hard act to follow and even more difficult to directly confront and defeat, but a young, quiet Louisiana native was up to the challenge.
At 20 years old, Freddie Spencer was already a 500cc Grand Prix winner, the youngest in history, helping to develop the Honda NS500 Triple while watching Roberts win his third consecutive championship. It would be Roberts last as in his second season in the Grand Prix, Spencer engaged one of the greatest riders in history in an unforgettable, season long battle.

The 1983 season was a showcase of American talent with Spencer and Roberts battling for the lead at every race with Randy Mamola and Eddie Lawson never far behind. The parity between Spencer’s Triple and Roberts dominating Four cylinder machine helped add to the excitement with Spencer adapting a radically high corner speed to overcome the superior power of the Yamahas that routinely resulted in dramatic front end slides. “I had to have such a high corner speed that I’d routinely go into the corner with the front end pushing, and then wait until the rear end started to break away, then just grab as much throttle as I could to try and transfer the weight forward to get the bike to turn,” Spencer remembers. “The first time it happened it was really funny cause Eddie, Kenny and Randy were behind me and they all got off the throttle and for a moment it was just dead silent, and when I got back on the throttle they all did and we were all 1,000 rpm down and amazingly nobody got by me.” After building a points cushion in the early stages of the season, a crank failure resulting in his only DNF for the year let Roberts close the gap on Spencer, bring the championship down to the last three races. “ We knew going into those last three races that we would need to win at Sweden,” said Spencer. “Silverstone was a Yamaha track, so we needed to just try and finish as close to Kenny as we could, but if we won at Sweden I could finish second in the last race of the year and still win the championship, and that’s what we did.” Both Spencer and Roberts won six races in what would be Roberts final season, but the championship belonged to Spencer and the Honda Triple, making him the last man to win a championship on anything but a four cylinder machine. “I won the championship, but we were both winners.”

A series of injuries combined with Honda’s experiment of placing the bike’s gas tank beneath the engine and the resulting awkward handling left Spencer unable to seriously compete for the championship in 1984 and Lawson reclaimed the honor for Yamaha, but his accomplishment was soon to be overshadowed by the final results of a decision made that June. After introducing their new RS250 and failing to even qualify it at most of the circuits, Honda needed to prove its ability by winning races soon. So Spencer and tuner Erv Kanemoto embarked on the greatest single season campaign in Grand Prix history, competing in both the 500 and 250 classes. “Honda came to me and Erv and asked if we thought we could do both the 500 and 250,” said Spencer. A winter of testing both bikes back to back over race distances proved that it could be done and the Honda teamed entered the season prepared for a long struggle in both classes. The results will be a permanent fixture in Grand Prix history as Spencer became the only man ever to win both championships in the same season. After exploding onto the Grand Prix scene with a championship in his second season, he made an even larger impact in his final campaign, retiring from Grand Prixs after his grueling double.

There has not been a serious attempt at a repeat of his performance in the 11 years that have gone by, but Spencer doesn’t think his name will always stand alone as a double champion. “Any record is made to be broken,” said Spencer. “There’s a few guys who have the ability, but it would have to be the proper situation. It’d be interesting to see someone do it.” The most critical part of the challenge is adapting between the two bikes, and to the overwhelming media attention and pressure an attempt would generate. “There’s a dramatic difference between the 2 bikes, and it’s like in any sport; it just can’t be for the money.”

Spencer’s brief but brilliant Grand Prix career is filled with highlights and significant impacts. Twenty 500cc Grand Prix wins, seven 250cc Grand Prix wins and three World Championships in addition to the roles he played in the development of motorcycles as we know them today. “When Kenny and I came along, the bikes were in a transition. I feel lucky to have raced when I did cause I was there when the programs were being developed.” After winning Honda’s first World Championship on the 500 Triple, Spencer took Honda’s newly developed four cylinder machine to the top in his 1985 campaign, starting the process that continues today with the NSR500’s domination of the class. The development work he and Roberts did extends beyond the track as well. “The radial street tires we use today are just the same as what we developed back then,” explained Spencer.

Along with his accomplishments come lasting memories, most notably the opportunity meet Mr. Honda and dine at his home after winning the World Championship. “The last 15 years of his life, the only place he would go would be the racing department. He had no interest in the production department, the cars and stuff, and everyone was kind of scared of him because if he came in and saw something he didn’t like, he wouldn’t just say something and move on, he would crumple it up and throw it at the guy responsible. When you went inside his compound it was like going into a little oasis. When we got there, there was a guy in the backyard with coveralls on digging around in the plants and I thought it was just the gardener, but it was Mr. Honda. He came in and we sat down to eat and they brought out food ... Japanese food ... raw food ... and there’s no way I can eat this. I’m looking at him, they’re all looking at me, the foods looking at me, and I don’t know what to do. I won the world championship, but its his company Then he looks at me and says ‘You must eat first,’ and I just can’t do it. All of a sudden, he says something in Japanese, and Mrs. Honda comes into the room and she has McDonalds, and he laughs so hard I thought he was going to fall out of his chair. He got me good, and I had Big Macs with Mr. Honda.” Other mementos from his career with Honda include the 1983 championship winning NS500 Triple and 1985 250 Championship winning bike, both to be displayed at his new riding school opening this year in Las Vegas.

Spencer’s career on motorcycles began when most children are just pulling the training wheels off their bicycles. “I started riding at 4 or 5 year sold, and I would ride every day,” said Spencer. “I’d wet the ground in my parents yard so that I could gage my slides. I’d put a quarter out there and see how many times I could hit it, and I’d do that hour after hour after hour after hour and that created a process for how I go about riding.” Racing soon followed and developed into a regimen that included both dirt track and road race events in the same weekend. “I would race a 250 Bultaco, 360 Bultaco and a 750 Triumph and in the back of the truck we would have a 400 Yamaha production machine, a 750 Suzuki streetbike, a 125 Honda single road racer and a 250 Yamaha Grand Prix bike. I would race all those classes in one weekend - Friday night dirt tracking, Saturday would be heat races on the road track, Saturday night was more dirt tracking and Sunday was the main events. I’d never take my helmet of so by the time I got to GPs and I got to take my helmet off it was a nice day.” With only his father there to help out he had to ride around any problems they didn’t have time to fix, forcing him to learn how to slide the bike around corners to maintain speed. “Because we had so many bikes and there was so much work to do and it was just him he couldn’t even watch me race. He got someone else to push me off, then asked me how I did when I came back in.” Spencer’s dedication and resulting success lead to an invitation to participate in the Trans-Atlantic match races and opened the doors of Europe to him, paving the way for his move from Honda’s US dirt track program he entered in 1981 to the 500 Grand Prix bikes.

Now that he’s retired from roadracing, Spencer is looking to use the experience he gained by helping to usher in a new era of competitive American riders in the Grand Prixs, something that is currently lacking. “There was a period of time after all of us were kind of getting towards the end where there weren’t really any riders who could get the opportunity we had.” But things will change according to Spencer. “I believe, like all things, it really goes in cycles. There are some guys who are coming now, who are coming up from the dirt track ranks, and that really wasn’t happening for a while. All of us had a good dirt track program and background that we transferred into roadracing and that kind of stopped, and that has an impact on the road racing. You’re seeing some young guys who are aggressive, who are talented and who have the drive.” Calling on his vast experience in racing and development, Spencer is opening his own riding school at the newly constructed Las Vegas facility. As well as featuring small class sizes and utilizing telemetry to aid in individualizing the course for each participant, Spencer’s school will also provide Honda CBR600F3s, leathers, helmets and possibly hotel accommodations to help the students concentrate on nothing except improving their skills. “With telemetry on all the bikes, we can use that to help monitor how a rider is when he gets there and how he is when he leaves. For each person it’s going to be detailed, and focused on what they can do. Each person is going to feel like they learned something.” Offering three different levels of classes, the two day classes should suit everyone from street riders to aspiring racers, giving them access to the experience of a life long racer and world champion. “It wasn’t like I was an enthusiast who had a streetbike and then got into it, I raced for 30 years. I wanted to be the best at it. I raced my entire life, it’s all I really knew,” explained Spencer. “The school is based a lot on the process I used to become a better rider. Obviously it takes talent, but I really believe that there are approaches you can use in the mental and physical fundamentals to improve your riding.” Also participating as sponsors for the school will be Michelin Tires, Red Line Oil, Nankai Gear and Arai Helmets, with Nick Ienatch a possible second instructor.

Along with his new school, managing a team is also an interest that could surface in Spencer’s future, but for now is held back by the costs of running a competitive operation. “The problem is the cost, sponsorship and the cost, on the GP level,” said Spencer. “Maybe something here is possible, depending on how the school goes.”

Whatever the future has in store for Spencer, he has already worked his way to the pinnacle of roadracing and fulfilled the dreams he had as a young dirt tracker from Louisiana. “I always wanted to roadrace,” Spencer explained. “I was doing both, because I wanted to be Grand National Champion, then when I was in my late teens I started really thinking about winning the world championship, but back then that was a long ways away. Then when Kenny went over, it kind of exposed us to it. I liked the finesse of it, the speed and precision of it, but dirt tracking was always in my heart.” Over the past 12 years, Spencer has gone from youthful champion to experienced teacher, a role in which he will undoubtedly be equally successful.

Kenny Roberts Jr., Round Two - circa 1998

2005-10-22T22:20:00.000-07:00

The second time I sat down with Kenny was substantially shorter, and the KR3 he avoided discussing in 1996 had become a reality.

The fact that the Modenas KR3 project can be viewed as a minor failure in light of its rapid development and occasionally surprising results is a testament to the respect afforded Kenny Roberts, Sr. Now, in the second year of the new project, his rider and son, Kenny Roberts, Jr., is looking for the team to emerge as a new threat. “The team believes it is, and there’s a new bunch of guys this year that are going to be building it, so we still think its the way to go,” Junior says. “This year will be a big year as to whether we can prove that or not.”

The triple, in its maiden form, was not competitive. “We beat the Yamaha because we rode harder,” stated Roberts. “I don’t think we beat the Yamaha because we had better machinery. The bike still needs a lot of work. It’s nothing near a 250, even though you try and say you want 250 corner speed, it still 40 kilos heavier. We can’t go around the corner any faster than a four right now. We’re not gaining anything, maybe a bike length or two on the brakes.”

“I want to see it succeed and I don’t think it can go two or three more years without winning a race, without a top three or top five at least,” he said. “Next year if we make improvements every race and we start going faster and faster than I don’t think we’ll have to worry about it.”

This season definitely was a disappointment, but that was to be expected with the unachievable expectations ladled on to the team. “It was really weird year and we had a lot of ups and downs, but I’m happy, the teams happy, but, on the other hand, were not happy. Most of the time everybody wasn’t having fun.” Despite the struggle of making a new bike competitive in the highest form of racing, winning seems to be just around the next corner, and winning is definitely fun.

Kenny Roberts Jr. - circa 1996

2005-10-22T22:14:00.000-07:00

I managed to sit down with the son of the King twice, with this first visit in 1996 being substantially longer. At this point, Kenny was still riding for his father on Yamaha V4s, but the rumors of the all new KR3 500cc triple were running rampant.

Team Roberts Yamaha entered the 1996 Grand Prix season looking forward to the development of its three young riders, Norifume Abe, Jean-Michael Bayle and Kenny Roberts, Jr. With Abe in his second season and both Bayle and Roberts making their 500 debuts, results were not expected to be brilliant straight from the start, but no one could have anticipated the struggle ahead for Roberts. Despite two fourth place finishes and three front row starts, including holding the early lead at the British Grand Prix, Robert’s season fell short on his own expectations.

“Hopefully I’m getting all my crashes out early in my career,” said Roberts. “We had some bad races at the end of the year, but that was due to some problems with setup and miscommunication with the bike, so we feel good for next year.” A crash in testing prior to the beginning of the season left Roberts with an injured ankle and little seat time on the under developed Yamaha, but that crash and the assorted other incidents that left Roberts with only ten full races of experience to count on for next season has done little to dampen his desire to win on the 500, or his confidence in his ability to do so. He has been forced to learn quickly, suffering from the fact that he has not had a single day of testing the 500 outside of the race weekend since the season began, and the lack of experience is hindering his efforts. “I’ll find a good range of setup on Saturday, but guys like Mick are already working on it Friday morning even, so we’re still way behind,” he explained. “I used to think I had more talent than anybody else, and maybe its true and maybe its not, but what it comes down to is who uses his head most, who gets the bike set up the best that weekend.”

Making a difficult situation even worse is the often lamented lack of development on the part of the Yamaha factory. “They just don’t spend the money, or don’t want to spend the money, in the places they need to,” said Roberts. “At some tracks it’s a really good bike, but the engines not ever very ... great.” This ongoing lack of support and resulting declination in the amount of Yamaha’s on the victory rostrum has been a major source of fuel to the burning rumors of Team Roberts building their own bike to compete with in the upcoming season.

Aware of the public interest in his immediate racing future, but keeping his team’s and sponsor’s interests in mind, Roberts was non-committal about his prospects of campaigning an all-new bike in 1997. “I know there’s another bike in the process of being built, but whether we run that next year or not, I don’t know,” Roberts revealed. “I think it hasn’t been announced because we don’t want to be burning any bridges that we may need to be crossing here if something goes wrong. Ive been told it may not be the Yamaha, and if it isn’t, I’m sure it’ll be something a little bit more competitive than the Yamaha is, but I could be riding a Yamaha as much as a Honda ... or a Bultaco,” he joked. . “We just need to start doing some laps so we can start winning some races and put America back up there.”

Regardless of the exact specifications of the motorcycles, Team Roberts will continue to be backed by Marlboro. “I’m a Team Roberts rider, and we’re sponsored by Marlboro for the next two years. Team Roberts would never make a move without their biggest sponsor. They’re just as unhappy with the way the bike was developed.” Roberts and team mate Bayle are clear on what their job requires, and that it is completely independent of what tools they are provided to work with. “We’re just supposed to show up and ride the bikes, whatever they may be,” stated Roberts.

Whether he is riding a three cylinder machine or the standard V-Four fare next season, Roberts is convinced that the triple will eventual supplant the current crop of fours at the front of the Grand Prix pack. “If the three cylinder works the way they (designers/engineers) say it should work, it should be blowing off everybody. I think that it’s going to be the way to go,” he said. “I think four cylinders are just maxed out, and maybe this three cylinder is the way to go.” Engine design remains open at this point for Team Roberts according to Kenny. “I know its a three cylinder and its going to be a Team Roberts bike, but nothings bolted together yet. They have a lot of different prototypes, and at this point I’m not sure even they know what they’re going to do,” Roberts explained.

One thing he is certain about, though, is a radical change in the frontal area of the bike resulting from the excessive power output of current 500 class motorcycles exceeding their ability to cut forward through the atmosphere, leading to wheelspin and a wastage of tires and drive. “At Hockenheim, 202(mph) is the front wheel speed, but 236 is the rear. The thing’s not on the ground, it’s just spinning up,” said Roberts. “We’re just pushing air around and that’s what I think you’ll see, if a new bike gets built, it will be a dramatic change in the frontal area.”

The final round of the season was the scene of a controversial pass attempt by Repsol Honda man Alex Criville, an attempt that ended with both him and newly crowned World Champion Michael Doohan sliding to a stop in the grass runoff, and Roberts applauds the effort and the resulting interest it stirred. “I think it’s great. I think it’s good for the sport and Alex did the right thing,” he exclaimed. “He was never going to pass Mick and if he had another chance he wouldn’t have knocked him down, but I think Mick tried to bump him off the track (earlier that lap), it’s only obvious, and that’s good for Mick to, as long as they both get up and on their bikes and take off again. I hope next time I have a strong race they do it in front of me.”

With all the excitement of the championship taking place half-way around the globe, Americans are left watching late night television, hoping that coverage hasn’t been pre-empted and they can catch a glimpse of the Grand Prix stars. That is a situation Roberts would like to see remedied. “I’d love to have one here, but it’s not like Spain where we get a couple hundred thousand people at a race. If we had the support it’d be great.” One way to generate interest, according to Roberts, would be allowing the public access to the pit areas. “Ive been around racing all my life, and I don’t see why anyone would want to go to the track just to watch the bikes go around,” he explained. “They need to work on getting a riders day. I know the riders want to do stuff like that. If they can do it so that people can get to meet the riders and see their equipment it would really be worth peoples’ while.”

With a father like Kenny Roberts, Sr. present at all times as his team manager, one would think the pressure of the Grand Prix community’s expectations would weigh heavily on Roberts, but that is not so. “My dad was the best when he was riding, and that’s all I’m trying to do, is be the best in my era and I don’t really worry about anything else. He’s got his name up there in the championship and that’s all I’m trying to do.” Despite all the uncertainty about the team’s equipment next season, it is evident that Roberts ascension to the upper echelon of Grand Prix riders is imminent. He is a man who knows how to ride the fastest motorcycles in the world to their limit, and looks set to bring the number one plate back home.

Kevin Schwantz - circa 1997

2005-10-22T21:59:00.000-07:00

Kevin Schwantz bought me a beer, we chatted motorcycles for a bit, and then we sat down after Sportbike night was over to talk about his career, the reality of racing against and after Wayne Rainey, and why there will never be another number 34.

Kevin Schwantz’s accomplishments rank him amongst the greatest motorcycle racers in history. The AMA Superbike championship, the 25 500cc Grand Prix victories and the 1993 500cc Grand Prix World Championship are achievements that would set any rider apart, but Schwantz will be most remembered not for his many trips to the top of the victory podium but instead who he had to climb over to get there and the battles they fought. A champion is only as great as the competition he faced and in Wayne Rainey, Schwantz faced the best. The clashing styles and matching drive to dominate one another will link the two of them forever and any discussion of Schwantz would be incomplete without comparison to his arch rival.

“I don’t think I would have been the rider that I was, and I don’t think he would have been the rider he was, without each other,” says Schwantz. “The reason I rode in 1994 was because I was world champion, not because I wanted to, and that’s because Wayne wasn’t there.”

The relationship shared by Schwantz and Rainey is rooted in the early days of their racing careers, when they were both running superbikes in America and the Trans-Atlantic Match Races, and it began as an extremely competitive dislike. “Basically, any memories I have of myself and Wayne before 1990 was just hatred. He and I hated each other,” recalled Schwantz. “There was nothing either one of us liked about the other and we felt the world was not big enough for the both of us. There was no way we could both exist in grand prix racing and the Trans-Atlantic (Match Races) was our chance to prove it.” When the two met in the seven race series, overall victory was to take a back seat to direct competition. “Every last race was life or death ... my trying to beat him and him trying to find a way to beat me, and then after the race one of us trying to find a way to accept it.”

The pair came into Grand Prix racing together and their relationship began to evolve. There was still the overwhelming desire to defeat each other at all costs, but their constant struggles for dominance pushed both of them to the top of the racing world. “There was never anybody on the track that I was concerned with except him,” he explained. “If it was my number in front of him or his number in front of me, it made each of us push a little bit harder.” They were usually to be found racing together at the front, but the styles of the two could not have been more diametrically opposed. Rainey was the technical master, taking his Yamaha to its limits every race; Schwantz was the instinctive genius, pushing the Suzuki farther than anyone would have thought possible. No incident more epitomizes their rivalry and mutual respect than one of Schwantz’s passes at Hockenheim. Running behind Rainey going into the corner, Schwantz was caught off guard when Rainey deviated from the pattern he had set in the previous laps and began braking early. Schwantz was forced to take evasive action, pulling quickly to the inside of Rainey before he could even begin to try and brake. The result was a spectacular pass with Schwantz sliding past into the lead, rear wheel waving in the air as the front end collapsed and skidded under the force of the sudden deceleration. “I trusted Wayne and he was the only guy I would have put myself in some of those situation with,” Schwantz said. “When I passed him at Hockenheim, if he hadn’t moved over to give me a bit of space, we both could have been laying in the dust. And when he gave me space, he gave me the race, and I think there was a bit of intimidation in the fact that he couldn’t believe Id even thought about trying. He was the only guy I felt 100% safe with.”

The relationship that had begun in hate and the desire to defeat each other had gradually changed, the central focus becoming the thrill of competing against someone so equally adept at the highest level and the growing respect they had for each other. Their rivalry had intertwined their careers, each of them one half of the greatest Grand Prix show ever, so when Rainey suffered his career ending injury in 1993, Schwantz could not help but loose the drive that had made him one of the best. “When he got hurt, racing wasn’t fun anymore. I forced myself to compete in ‘94 because I had the number one plate, and I got fairly beat up because I wasn’t focusing,” said Schwantz. “I was racing because I felt like I had to. I wasn’t doing it because I wanted to, and I didn’t know how to tell everybody ‘I quit’.”

“I couldn’t have ever seen Wayne quitting. The only way he’d ever stop is with what happened to him. He’d race and race until there wasn’t any race left in him.” Schwantz’s tearful departure from the Grand Prix scene was less final and he is still susceptible to its lure. “You miss the people involved in it, you miss the lifestyle, but it’s something that I did for as long as I could do it and I think I’ve kind of accepted that fact now,” he explained. “The fewer races I go to the easier it is. The opportunity to go back and ride is there, but to test and help develop a grand prix bike you have to be able to push the thing to 95% and I just don’t feel with the beating that my wrist has taken that I could go out there and get to that.”

Looking at today’s Grand Prix racing as a knowledgeable veteran, Schwantz is both impressed and confused by what he sees. “I think the level of Grand Prix racing is higher than it’s been, as far as consistency through the field, but it’s hard to make comparisons,” Schwantz said. “You go to a Grand Prix and the guys’ lap times are slower than when we were there a few years ago. They say the track has gotten rougher. I say the bikes have gotten faster and the tires better, so it’s hard to say.”

The mark left by Kevin Schwantz on the Grand Prix scene is a permanent one, both as part of the greatest dueling duo ever and as one of the fastest men to ever ride a motorcycle. There has literally been no one faster since he retired, evidenced by his track records still standing, a fact in which he takes pride. “It’s always a big kick to go to a Grand Prix after you’ve left and see that your lap records are still there.” His impact is evidenced by the FIM’s decision to retire the number 34 he carried every race of his GP career excepting his season as defending World Champion. “Having my number retired, it being the first time the FIM has ever done it in any form of racing, means a ton to me.”

Schwantz was the perfect ragged foil for Rainey's glassy smoothness. This little clip is basically a quarter of a lap at Hockenheim, but it's representative of every lap the two ever raced together ... Schwantz pushing harder than the bike was probably capable of in order to catch Rainey.

Wayne Rainey, Round Two - circa 1998

2005-09-23T23:21:00.000-07:00

I met Wayne again at the same Sacramento sportbike night venue, this time two seasons further down the road. He was still managing the Marlboro Yamaha squad, although I think this time I was working for CityBike magazine.

To win at the highest level of motorcycle racing, 500cc Grand Prix competition, requires an intense dedication. A rider must be willing to sacrifice, to think, eat, breath, sleep and inevitably bleed for the sport. That is the formula the made Wayne Rainey a three time world champion.

As a team manager, Rainey has not enjoyed anywhere near that kind of success. His factory Yamaha crew has struggled mightily, escaping last place amongst the works squads last year only through Suzuki's ineptness. He has tasted success as a team manager only twice, although those two races (Norifume Abe's emotional win at Suzuka and Loris Capirossi's last lap gift victory when Michael Doohan and Alex Criville collided) can be counted amongst the most interesting in the Doohan dominated era. Rainey's problems seem to center around the inability of modern riders to understand his requirements of them.

"It's not that they (his riders) aren't trying as hard as they think they can," says Rainey. "It's just that they don't know how hard they can try, or how hard they need to try to beat Mick. They all come up fast and young without ever really having had to struggle." Capirossi was Rainey's first rider and his first major disappointment as a team manager. "Loris was a really good 125 rider," he explained. "So when he got the big 500 ride, he already thought he was somebody when he really hadn't done anything yet. He was making all this money and when things started to get a little tough he wasn't able to give it the extra effort it takes to race with the front guys every lap."

Abe is a new puzzle for Rainey. An incredibly young and talented rider who, as his victory in Japan showed, has the ability to force the under developed Yamaha past the best riders on the best Hondas in the world. The ability to do it more than every other lap is what still escapes Abe. Rainey attributes his tendency to sample the gravel traps to the distinctive style Abe brought with him into the GPs. "We've been working with him, slowly, to change his style and he is starting to adapt to one more suited to 500s."

Once again, despite disappointed with his lack of recent success and the inability to find a rider to his liking, Rainey is hopeful for success in the new season. Early season testing would seem to suggest that the bike is faster. "We were doing some testing, and my test guy was doing better times than my riders did at the track last year." Changes have been small and developmental in nature, but obviously had a great impact on the overall bike as it would be absurd to suggest that a test rider could best highly paid factory pilots.

If the Yamaha squad again fails to produce victories this season it wont be for a lack of optimism. "I really think that if we can get consistent and get up with Mick and push him from the start we can race with him," he says. "And if we can beat him this year, I think Mick will retire and hopefully my guys will be there to lead the way.

As a rider, Rainey internalized his own problems and rode around the bike's, but as a team manager he is responsible for teaching and motivating his inexperienced charges more than anything else. His determination is evident, and the day he finds a rider who can listen to the urgings to push the bike further than they think possible without the sight of one of the worlds greatest riders sitting before them in a wheelchair lingering in the backs of their minds as they take to the track, the championship will be his once again.

I was amazed, at the time, at how honest and open Wayne was about his own riders. Of course, he was right about Capirossi, who has shown over the ensuing years that he has never really had what it takes to push for a championship in the big boy class.

The magic of Google Video ... a 1987 Trans Atlantic match race between Rainey and Kevin Schwantz, when Rainey was still riding for HRC.

Wayne Rainey - circa 1996

2005-09-23T22:36:00.000-07:00

Meeting Wayne Rainey and doing this article was actually my introduction into moto-journalism. I had written for the high school newspaper, but had pretty much let it drop after that despite some minor intentions on pursuing journalism as a career. Then, a friend of mine from New York started working at StreetBike Magazine, doing copy editing from across the country. I went in to help out as an intern, and was sent to Sacramento to take a few photos of Rainey while he was appearing at a local sportbike night event. When I arrived and asked the host where I could set up to take some photos during the event, he asked if I wouldn't just rather go in the next room and sit down with Wayne, who was just finishing dinner. I was completely unprepared to meet the man who is one of the top 5 motorcycle racers of all time, but he was incredibly gracious and set me up with a great piece of dessert in addition to humoring me throughout my sad, slow, flailing attempts at an interview. I still have a signed photo and shirt from the night, soon to be framed and hung in my garage along with a copy of the article.

Three years removed from the accident that ended his career as a rider, three time World Champion Wayne Rainey still possesses the calm confidence and unfailing desire to win that marked his domination of Grand Prix racing. Now directing his own Marlboro Yamaha team in both the 500s and 250s, Rainey has quite a few reasons to look forward to the new season.

“This is as excited as I’ve been about motorcycles since 1991.” After a season plagued by inconsistent riding and technical difficulties, along with rumors of Yamaha abandoning the 500cc class unless the results improved dramatically, Rainey is excited by the potential he sees developing in the coming season.

Signing a two year contract to ride Rainey’s YZR500 is former Team Pileri Honda rider Loris Capirossi. The young Italian made a big impression on the 500 class last year, finishing 6th in only his first season aboard the big bikes, and is looking forward to riding for Rainey. Rainey has introduced Capirossi to the personal fitness regimen used during his championship-studded career, and brought in former dirt track and superbike champion Bubba Shobert to speed his progress. Pre-season testing on the YZR500 will not begin until January 29 at Shah Alam in Malaysia, but Capirossi and Shobert are already hard at work dirt tracking on XR100s.

With a young, talented rider in place, the Marlboro-backed Yamaha squad is poised to begin the tough climb back to its traditional spot atop the Grand Prix podium. Standing in the way of their ascension is the seemingly invincible Mick Doohan and his Repsol Honda NSR500. After dominating the past two seasons just as Rainey and the Yamaha did a few years ago, the pressure is on Doohan to clinch yet another title. “Doohan has a lot of pressure on him,” Rainey

Should Doohan falter under the pressure of a third straight championship attempt, who will be there to snatch the victory? According to Rainey, it won’t be ex-Kenny Roberts Yamaha rider Luca Cadalora, who did little to impress Rainey with his late season charge towards the front. “Someone who can only do it sometimes is wankin’ something. The Yamaha will always be competitive,” he said.

With Doohan firmly entrenched in the pole position, and Rainey looking more for development and growth from Capirossi than outright victories, Kenny Roberts, Jr. and Lucky Strike Suzuki mounted Scott Russell represent the best hope of bringing the championship back to America in the near future.

“I think Scott may be able to win one. It’ll be tough for him. It was a bigger step from Superbikes than he thought, and it’s easy to trip over that step,” Rainey said. He looks for Russell to make even more progress this season. He reasoned Russells’ better feel for the RGV500, and lack of distractions brought on by the contract dispute with Muzzy, may help the Georgian earn a spot on the podium.

Rainey says Roberts, Jr. has the necessary desire to be a winner, but Rainey is not sure if he can meet the expectations placed on him by race fans everywhere. “I just don’t know about Junior,” Rainey offers. “He’s reached a really high level of competition very quickly. He never really had to go through the bad schools.” Moving up to the 500s after a season in the 250s that saw him rapidly developing into a capable rider, Roberts, Jr. will face more pressure than anyone else on the grid this season as he tries to fulfill the legacy left by his father and team manager.

While Russell and Roberts, Jr. acclimate themselves to the capabilities of the 500s, Rainey is looking for a resurgence in American talent to reclaim the World Championships they dominated just a few years ago. And hopefully, says Rainey, his old school of dirt trackers turned road racers will lead the way. “The tires now are so good, it’s hard to slide them predictably, so more guys are going to the high corner speeds of the 250s.” According to Rainey, that is not the best way to maximize the potential of the 500s, so he keeps his eyes open for the increasingly rare talent needed to steer with the rear wheel, and do it consistently enough to win. “(Mike) Hale is on his way, but he has a long ways to go. Chris Carr on the Harley-Davidson is another one, and there are a couple of dirt trackers who don’t know I’m watching them that I’m keeping an eye on,” he said.

With more riders beginning to favor the high corner speeds offered by the increased adhesion of their tires, Honda has pushed technology even further from the style favored by Rainey and Roberts with the introduction of their 250-like V-Twin. Destined to go on sale to privateers for next season, the twin will represent a more affordable alternative to privateers than the Big Bang fours available through Harris and ROC. “I’m all for anything that makes it more affordable, but a big twin will never beat a good rider on a four,” Rainey argues. With a two bike team, Capirossi on the 500 and former champion Tetsuya Harada on the less expensive YZR250, Rainey’s team budget will still be in the neighborhood of $20 million this season.
Despite the accident cutting short his drive for a third straight championship, and the physical limitations he must now live with, Rainey says it was probably best that his career ended the way it did. It removed forever the possibility of a comeback as a rider, and has let him concentrate fully on running a competitive team. A new rider and increased factory support should make this an exciting season for Wayne Rainey, who hopes to electrify the crowds once again and eventually take home another World Championship.

I have wondered since who the dirt trackers Rainey was referring to actually were. I would have to go way out on a limb and say perhaps some kids named Bostrom and Hayden, if I had to put money on it.

the root of it all

2005-07-27T17:07:00.000-07:00

"Begin at the beginning," the King said, very gravely, "and go on till you come to the end: then stop."

This spot will primarily be used to host a series of articles I wrote during my brief, but entertaining, career as a motorcycle journalist. I worked for a variety of magazines, but I was primarily 'employed' by StreetBike Magazine and CityBike Magazine, starting my career with the former. To say that I was really employed be either would be to stretch to the definition of the term to the point of breaking. While CityBike did pay me for my work and often covered expenses, I was freelance all the way and probably made less than a grand from them total. StreetBike was supposed to be paying me, but other than my editor shelling out dough from her own pocket, I never saw a dime from them. They closed their doors technically owing me a few hundred dollars for stories they had printed, but what the hell. It was all worth it just for the experiences. I got to meet, greet, eat with and buy drinks for some of the fastest men on the planet.

I also was the club reporter for the AFM during this period of my life, racing a Honda RS250 and reporting on the various happenings at one of the largest motorcycle racing organizations in the US. I was probably often too opinionated to be a very good impartial reporter of the facts for the club, but I figured they owed me a little leeway for the long days I spent at the track after my own races were done and everyone else was lounging around in lawn chairs recuperating.

All of the stories are being published here as I have them, so they may differ from what was actually published in the magazines where they originally appeared. CityBike has granted me permission to republish these articles, and since StreetBike is long gone it was not feasible to contact them for the same permissions. Then again, considering they never paid me for any of them, I'm not sure they'd have the right to object anyway.