Hello!

Road Atlanta Wrap-Up.

OK, sorry it has taken me so long to write this blog, but I am kinda tired. I got home at about 1 am last night… yeah I know, whhhaaaaa whhhaaaa…

I will begin with the Superbike class… first off, Mat Mladin with his double victory. That was a great piece of riding. But it is VERY unusual for Mat to do a BIG burn-out in winner circle. I have been in winner circle for every single win Mat has had in the last 4 or 5 years and I can't remember him ever doing that! I have my theories, like his 50th win. Below are a couple shots I took with my camera.




Well the rumor mill if running wild for sure. It is out on the internet that Tommy Hayden is considering an offer from Yoshimura. I have known about this for a while, but thought it might have been for Supersport and Superstock. But it looks like the Yosh ride (if Tommy does not re-sign with Kawasaki) will be Superbike and Supersport. Tommy's ride could be filled with either Jamie Hacking or perhaps Neil Hodgson. However, someone made a comment to me that Neil once said in a book that he would never race for Kawasaki… ever. I would imagine that Yamaha has first right of refusal on Jamie (that is a pretty standard thing in a Factory contract these days) but I could be wrong. If Jamie gets an offer from Kawasaki then Yamaha would have the right to offer him the same thing and keep him. Why would Yamaha let two #1 plates go? It would be a big mistake if that happened. As for Aaron Yates, well rumors had him at either Jordan Suzuki or Attack Kawasaki. When I spoke with Aaron on Saturday he told me that he had not spoken with Attack at that point. But things change fast in that paddock. I did not have a chance to ask Ben Bostrom what he is planning for next year. Ben and Eric are on their way to Mexico for a little surf and turf. I will ask when he gets back to the States.





As for the rest of the classes… the factory riders need to be in place before anything else happens. The factories (Honda, Suzuki, Kawasaki and Yamaha) all want to get next year wrapped up as soon as they can. Hondas' dealer meeting is this week and Suzuki's is coming up. Suzuki wants to announce the teams at the dealers meeting, so look for things to be wrapped up real soon.

I have got to talk about Danny Eslick and his ride on the Yoshimura GSX-R 600 this weekend. After the races were over yesterday people were asking me why Danny did not do any better than 4th. The explanation to this is so detailed and is my opinion, so try and stay with me. Danny did not get a chance to ride the motorcycle until Friday morning. Basically Danny jumped straight on Ben Spies motorcycle with a slight suspension change. Spies tends to ride the motorcycle with the nose down a little. Danny rides his motorcycles with a little sag in the rear. So Tom Houseworth, Ben Spies crew chief (that is another part of the story I addressed in Fridays Blog) flattened out the bike to be right in the middle. A flat bike for a flat tracker tends to work better because flat trackers tend to like to control the motorcycle with the rear tire. Danny is about 4 inches shorter than Ben, so the footpegs were not in the proper position, handle bars… stuff like that. On top of the fit of the bike, the other part of the equation is the suspension. Danny runs on Ohlins, Yoshimura uses Showa. Trust me when I tell you that those two companies have completely different feels to them. On top of the motorcycle situation you have to add a new crew and crew chief. The rider does most of the talking to the crew chief, so it is very important that those two guys are able to communicate. That communication takes some time... a luxury that neither Tom or Danny had. In my mind Road Atlanta was used as a test for Mid-Ohio 2 coming up in three weeks. I am not 100% sure Danny gets to ride it, but it would make sense. I was watching Mel Harris from Suzuki (he is the top dog) during the Supersport race. Each lap he had his eye on Danny as he went by. Suzuki is really liking younger riders.



I have it on good authority that there will be a key change in AMA management at the race track. There will be a series insider who will move from a team to the AMA. That announcement will be made soon as well. It will be an interesting change for sure. Another announcement on the horizon is the Yamaha Superbike effort. Will it happen or won't it? My guess is yes it will. But there has to be official word from Yamaha which is coming without question by Mid-Ohio. But what will Jamie Hacking do?????

Other than that I don't know much. Roger Hayden is on his way to Japan some time soon. He is testing something, I have no idea what. I can only get so nosy! Nicky just sent me an email letting me know he is off to Malaysia and he is ready! I hope Nicky, Colin and Hopper kick some serious booty this weekend. Josh Harrin has inked a deal with Graves Yamaha for 2007, but the class he will be running is undecided.

This is one cool T-Shirt!



That is all for now, more when I can think of stuff. I am sure I will be on the phone quite a bit this week figuring out who is going where and what they will be racing.

L8R - G