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Ol’ #30 going thru “The Corkscrew” – Photo Credit: Chuck Lantz chucklantz.com

SIDEBAR:

Laguna Seca Track Tips.

Laguna is one of the high temples of Velocity – beautiful, but intimidating to the neophyte. I learned a few of her altar secrets on my journey to the heart of speedness:

Turn 1 – you gotta go over that hill flat-freakin-out. Do not roll off. As you go over the top, your back wheel will kick you in the butt as it comes off the ground and spins… if you did it right.

Turn 2 – don’t crash trail-braking at the entrance, ask Bobby Fong. But you can get on the gas hard at the exit thanks to positive camber.

Turn 3 – “toughest corner in motorcycling” according to the King, Tom Montano. He’s raced many tracks around the world, and won an AMA National here. It’s dead flat and loads the front end – Scott Russell found that out to his cost in 1998.

Turns 4 – trickier than you expect. It loads the front a lot but you lose a little camber at the exit so be careful. Slow down a hair going in, and gas hard coming out.

Turn 5 – lots of people crash in 5 – ask Lorenzo, Pedrosa etc etc. It’s heavily banked so your mid-corner speed can be very high, but it flattens off at the exit right when you’re hard on the gas and you can highside. Late entry and tight apex is the best line I found.

Turn 6 – don’t look at the vicious dip at the apex – turn the bike hard, set a positive throttle and go thru on power, looking across to the far kerb where you want to exit. Then full throttle up the hill as hard as you can.

Corkscrew – this corner is the nearest thing to an orgasm in full leathers – it’s wonderful. And less challenging then I expected. Take any entry line you like, launch downhill, but open the gas hard as you flick to the right.

Turn 9 – they didn’t name this Rainey Corner for nothing… it separates the men from the boys, and the World Champions from the men. The fast-bike line is straight to the apex, but I liked the Roi Holster-patented wide entrance: although it’s longer, you miss the bumps going in and you can drive the exit harder.

Turn 10 – always challenging you to go faster. I remember a mad, tilted, trajectory going through there in the race faster than made sense – a reality more video game than emergency room, hopefully

Turn 11 – like turn 3: tricky and easy to crash. Super-important to exit AFAP (as fast as possible) onto the straight.

Front straight – max throttle, everyone’s watching, feel the glory!

Saturday’s early morning qualifying session for Supersport was held – you guessed it – in the fog. I set out with confidence from having the Challenge experience, but I got stuck behind some slower riders for a few laps and then there was a red flag, not surprisingly. Finally restarted, I got a few clear laps and put in a 1:34something to qualify P15 out of 32, not too bad for a mid-season pick-up team with a borrowed motorcycle.

Our schedule later that afternoon was another time crunch, as the e-Power qualifying session was directly before the Supersport race at 5:15pm. Our highly trained crew set-up both bikes ready on the hot pit, and at 4:45pm I went out on Alex’s creation.

Now Alex built his electric bike as a commuter, and it’s a little heavy and a little underpowered. I quickly figured out I could hold full throttle everywhere except 2, corkscrew and 11, and I followed the inside line where possible to shorten the track distance. I pulled in after 6 or 7 laps as there was nothing left to gain, and despite all efforts, our fastest time was a 2:24 …and we failed to qualify as the cut-off was 2:08 – shame!

Again I jumped off one bike and onto the 848, but luckily there was a short delay that gave us a few moments to breathe and relax. We went round for the warm-up lap, gridded up… and the lights went out. Once again I was struck by starting-line blues, and a gaggle of competitors went past me accelerating over the hill. This time I shot up their inside into turn 2 and passed most of them back. Of course one of the kids highsided in front of me exiting turn 3, a quick dodge to the inside saw me safely past. The race settled down for a few laps, until the inevitable red flags came out as I crested the hill to the corkscrew, and saw a crashed bike laying in the middle of the track at the exit.

Start of Supersport race – top of Corkscrew – #16 Cameron Baubier, #30 Nick, #528 Jose Flores, and #91 Joy Higa

Photo Credit: Chuck Lantz chucklantz.com

My restart was no better or worse than the first time, and I came out of turn 2 in around 12-14^th spot. I spent the whole of the race, part deux, in a heated battle, trying to get past fellow San Franciscan Jose Flores. I twice cut to his inside at the entry of the corkscrew but he slammed the door on me, cutting across my nose, making contact the first time. I also tried an inside pass into turn 2, and again he cut my nose off, bumping elbows in full view of my home crowd. After a few laps of this, Jose scraped past Sam Nash for P11, and a lap later I stuffed myself past Nash in the corkscrew using my half-baked inside line. In the last few laps, Jose and I caught up to Michael Corbino in P10, and despite a last lap push, Jose came up a little short at the line to finish P11, I eased off as I was a little pooped and took an safe 12th.

My pit bro’ Roi Holster took a strong 14^th place behind Sam Nash, and AFM fast-gal Joy Higa took an unfortunate slide into the weeds outside turn 9, let down by a too-hard front tire choice.

On the cool-down lap, I cruised back around the fabled curves of Laguna Seca one last time, waving to the fans and taking mental snapshots of the glorious views.

With thanks to… the crew at Munroe Motors of San Francisco, Pat Blackburn of Trackside Moto, Ducati North America, Catalyst Reaction Suspension, Arlen Ness Leathers, Kyle USA, HJC Helmets, TCX Boots, Super Plush Suspension, Leo Vince USA, Yoyodyne, Sport Tire Services/Dunlop, and my impeccable team: Todd Chamberlin, Bill Brown and Linda Jung.

Top of the corkscrew – Sam Nash leads while Jose Flores and Nick Hayman swap paint

Photo Credit: Chuck Lantz chucklantz.com

The Friday morning schedule for the Challenge was, well, challenging. First we got 20 minutes of practice at 8:15am in the fog… my faceshield steamed up on the inside so I had to ride with it cracked open. Then we had 20 minutes of qualifying at 10:20am, I managed to post a decent 1:33.7 to qualify P8. Finally we raced at 11:50am …and I got the worst start of my life – front wheel up and down like a yoyo – a slew of folk going past me over the turn 1 hill. Furious with myself, I put my head down and pushed as hard as I could to get back past some of my competition. On lap 7, I nearly highsided my rearend to the moon accelerating out of turn 5 after passing Neil Atterbury… but I stayed onboard through superior luck. I wound up in 12^th place at the end of the ten lap race – not good after starting in 8^th position, but my best lap was a 1:32.5 which made me a little happier with myself.

I parked the 999 and walked down the hot pit to my world-class crew, who were ready with the 848 to start the 12:30pm Supersport practice session. At least I was warmed up and ready for bear. I put in a bunch of laps during the 50 minute session, partly to ensure our tire choice was going to last the 18 lap race, but mainly because the 848 felt surprisingly alien after the 999 and I needed the seat time to readjust my mental paradigm. As usual for Supersport, there were the plenty of kids in the dirt as they chased the glory of winning practice.

After our jam-packed morning we had the afternoon free, so we mounted a new set of the Dunlop AMA spec’ tires on the 848 ready for Saturday morning qualifying. We also spent some time race-prepping an electric bike, home-built by our new friend Alex Prilutsky, who works in battery R&D for Tesla motorcars. Earlier that morning, Alex had been looking for an AMA or FIM licensed racer to ride his bike in the FIM e-Power race, I was pitted nearby, and a coupla friendly AMA tech officials hooked us up. I was thrilled by the idea of getting to ride an electric bike in Sunday’s e-race.

Photo: Brian J. Nelson

Old Gun Nick Hayman is top Ducati in AMA Supersport at Laguna Seca, July 24th 2010

Following his unexpected modicum of success at the Infineon round of the 2010 AMA National Championships in May, Nick Hayman of Munroe Motors ran with the young dogs again in the AMA Pro Supersport race, Saturday afternoon at Laguna Seca, during the MotoGP weekend.

“I warmed up in Friday morning’s exhibition race, the Monterey Challenge courtesy of Big Jim Doyle. I had a bunch of fun and got some good seat time” said Nick.

“On Saturday morning I qualified 15th out of 32 entries in Supersport. Later that afternoon, I raced my butt off to get a 12th place result, sliding around pretty good near the end of the 18-lap race. Think there were only 4 or 5 kids crashed in the kiddy litter this time.”

Nick was the leading Ducati in the Supersport race, turning times in the 1:33 range on the 848, which he once again borrowed from friend, Pat Blackburn of Trackside Moto.

Munroe Motors resident maestro, Todd Chamberlin, added “…a few days before the race, I checked the 848’s valves for the first time in over 6,000 track miles since new – and they were all spot on. We did change the cam belts for reliability, but we haven’t even had the heads off yet. I tell you, that is one tough, sweet-running motorcycle.”

The crew are standing at intersections and freeway off-ramps trying to raise money to get to the September round at Barber in Alabama. “Barber is awesome – it’s like Infineon, but with more trees and funky statues – we’re going, if we can get the cab fare” said Nick.

Thanks to our friends for manifesting confidence… the crew at Munroe Motors of San Francisco, Pat Blackburn of Trackside Moto, Ducati North America, Catalyst Reaction Suspension, Arlen Ness Leathers, Kyle USA, HJC Helmets, TCX Boots, Super Plush Suspension, Leo Vince USA, Yoyodyne, Sport Tire Services/Dunlop, and of course our pit boss, the lovely Linda Jung.”

I drove down to the track early Thursday morning and set up the pit. My crack team of Munroe Motors master technician Todd Chamberlin, and friend and fellow-racer Bill Brown, arrived after lunch and we got new tires mounted on our 2008 Ducati 848 – on loan once again from our long-suffering friend, Pat Blackburn of Trackside Moto. I was entered in Friday morning’s Monterey Challenge, an exhibition race hosted by Jim Doyle, so we got my trusty 2003 Ducati 999S ready for that race too. The track was opened to foot and bicycle traffic from 2pm for an hour, so we took a nice stroll around, looking at the track surface, sighting bumps and camber changes, as well as admiring the views and shooting a few goofy pictures.

* Checking out the corkscrew – racer Roi Holster, Linda and Bill Brown

* Goofing off on the track walk – Roi, Nick, Bill, unknown scooter rider in back

Well I’m finally getting around to posting my first blog entry for the Laguna Seca AMA Pro Supersport race, coming up this weekend July 23-25th. I blame the Tour de France for being so exciting that I get home at night and watch the day’s stage recorded on the DVR, and then it’s midnight so I hit the hay without hitting the keyboard. Keeping my fingers crossed for Andy Schleck at this point after Contador failed to man-up and wait for him on the Port de Balès.

Anyway, as readers of my previous AMA race shenanigans at Infineon Raceway in May will know, the Ducati 848 I’m racing is borrowed from my friend Pat Blackburn – I picked it back up from him at Thunderhill Raceway at the last AFM round on July 10th/11th. It has been ridden and raced extensively by Pat’s friend Jason Butler amongst others, and it’s a testament to the 848 that it’s running strong and sweet.

* The two race bikes ready and waiting in the back of the Munroe Motors’ workshop

Last Thursday I took both the 848 and my Ducati 999 race bike up to Gerry Piazza in Napa to get the two chassis accurately measured – there are some handling differences between the two bikes and I wanted to see if we could measure them. I could see from the printouts that there some ride height differences, which suggested a coupla changes to try during the practice session on Friday 23rd. Over the next few evenings, Todd and I got stuck in to the bike here at the Munroe workshop…

Firstly we checked the valve clearances… and they were all in spec. I have to believe that’s the first check since the bike was purchased in 2008, and the bike’s been beaten like a rented mule, believe me!

Then we replaced the cam drive belts for prudence’s sake, and threw in some new spark plugs and a fresh airfilter for good measure.

Finally we fitted up the stock wheels and suspension, as Pro Supersport is a stock class and Pat has some fancy aftermarket parts on the bike – and with our own bodywork mounted, the 848 was ready to go.

I’m also taking the 999 to Laguna Seca because I’m entered in a run-what-you-brung race on Friday morning called “Jim Doyle’s Monterey Challenge”. For the Monterey Challenge we practice at 8am, qualify at 10:20am and race at 11:50am and that’s the end of it. Then, right after that race, is the 50 minute AMA Supersport practice session, so I hop off the 999 onto the 848 and go right back out. Gonna be tiring, glad I’ve been working on my cardio at the gym.

My master plan of course is to use the Monterey Challenge race to help drop my laptimes in order to kickstart my efforts for Supersport, so we’ll see…

* Picking up Pat’s Ducati 848 at Thunderhill Raceway, July 11th – a(nother) beautiful NorCal day!

My apologies for the slow posting of this last entry – work has a nasty habit of rearing its head and getting in the way of more fun stuff like racing and writing… Nick.

Second Race Day of AMA Infineon “West Coast Moto Jam” Double-header

Sunday dawned bright and clear, and was an altogether different prospect than Saturday. We’d enjoyed an extra hour of sleep, because the morning practice schedule put us on track at 9:30am instead of 8am thank goodness. And when we got to the track and set the pit up, we found that the intense nervousness we’d felt on Saturday was gone – we were now pro-fessional AMA racers, and we had it all under control. I was about to say to Todd that we’d already met all our goals for the weekend, when I realized there was in fact one more to fulfill: bring the bike home in one piece.

The twenty-minute warm-up practice was simply about kickstarting brain and body, and testing the yet-lighter rear spring we’d thrown on the bike the night before. The lighter spring made the whole bike feel more compliant this morning, without making the bike wallow around at all, and I came in mid-session to raise the rear ride height a touch, which complemented the softer spring nicely.

So now we were ready – just 18 laps of safe racing and we would go home feeling like champions.

* Nick leads Supersport rivals, sometime on Saturday – Photo Credit: Brian J Nelson

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