Japan

The spring MotoGP event at Twin Ring Motegi has been delayed until the fall. Motegi is on the northern edge of Tokyo's enormous urban agglomeration, about 1/3 of the distance, as the crow flies, between Tokyo proper and Sendai.

The Tokyo Motorcycle Show was due to start next week. The poster was adorable; it's been canceled. Talk about being left at the altar... (This is not the 'Tokyo Motor Show', where the first Honda CB750-Four was introduced in 1968. That's a biennial event that's mostly car-focused, held in Oct.-Nov.)

I haven't heard any detailed reports of damage to Honda's R&D facility, but with 1 person killed there and 30 injured (and considering Japan's strict building codes) it's safe to say damage to that facility was extensive. Honda's shut down all of its Japanese motorcycle factories for the time being; I haven't heard whether this was because of supply chain disruptions, or if there's some other reason -- maybe to reduce strain on the electrical grid. Japan is an island; all of it's electrical power is generated there, and I don't know what percentage of it was produced in the nuclear reactors which are now permanently offline.

Which brings me to this: There is a small crew of engineers and techs working in and around those reactors in the effort to prevent an exponentially more serious catastrophe. (I recently read that all but 50 to 70 workers had been pulled off the site.) Those who remain are all risking (or should I write 'certainly facing') cancer or worse. The threat is completely amorphous; they're doing it to save people who they'll never see or know, so it they simply chose not to come in, they'd save themselves without ever having to face any particular victim. They're doing it with no guarantee that it will work -- in fact, no one really even knows what 'working' would look like.

This is a special kind of courage and devotion to a larger cause. The people on that crew should be identified. The rest of us should know to whom our respect and gratitude is owed.

Monday Morning Crew Chief: Disalvo? Check. Daytona? Check. Ducati? Dual engines? Check and mate.

Ducati finally won the Daytona 200, breaking a winless streak that was beginning to take on the proportions of a curse.

But.

An engine change on a bizarre red flag initiated by Dunlop? That's not an '*'. It's an '*'.

I'm not taking anything away from Jason Disalvo, who's quick (especially so when he's just putting his head down for a few laps) and a genuinely good guy. He's a racer, and all you can expect him to do is go on green. Or from the Latus Ducati effort; their never-say-die engine swap was inspired. To say the least, the beers must've tasted great yesterday on the beach.

And it was, just, within the rules.

The relevant rule is this one:
2.23.c.iii. During the red flag hiatus period, repairs, adjustments and refueling may be performed on all competing motorcycles...

It's clear that in the absence of a definition for 'repair' that excludes swapping engines, Latus' engine-swap was legal. It's possible that no one on the Rules Committee ever really imagined a red flag incident long enough to do it, although you can be sure that top teams will now keep a spare motor, ready to swap in, in their hot pit arsenals. Latus was forced to swap motors because that deep in the race, just going to a backup bike was forbidden (it's permitted only if the red flag incident takes place in the first two laps.)

Ironically, while the team could change motors within the rules, they couldn't change the rear tire without the express permission of the Race Director, and even then would have had to start from the back of the grid, according to this rule:
2.23.iv. Tires may not be changed during such red flag hiatus period without the prior approval of the Race Director (who may confer with the official tire representatives as to the condition of specific tires).
1. After receiving specific approval, all riders who have changed any tires during such red flag hiatus period must restart at the back of the grid.
2. Riders who have changed any tire without the specific prior approval referred to above, may be subject to one or more of the following penalties: disqualification from restart, black flag and  disqualification, loss of championship points, suspension. Further official action will be at the  discretion of AMA Pro Racing.

Crazy, eh? Changing tires could be cheating, changing motors is fair game. There are many racing sanctioning bodies that require the Race Director's approval for any red flag repairs.

If I was one of the other riders in the lead draft at the (grossly premature) end of the race, I'd also have chafed at this rule:
2.23.f. When a race is stopped after the completion of two (2) or more laps by the race leader, riders’ re-grid positions will be determined by their race positions in the last official lap preceding the red-flagged lap. At the time the red flag is displayed, riders who are not actively competing in the race will not be classified for the restart.
Disalvo had blown one cylinder on his Ducati and was just circulating in to certain retirement when the red flag was thrown. When would he have been deemed 'not actively competing'? If he'd pulled into the pit? Gotten off the bike? In a two-hour red flag delay, could his team have swapped motors and sent a cab to pick him up at the airport ticket counter and rush him back to the track in time for the restart?

Like I said, this isn't a shot at Disalvo or his team, who tried anything to win; that's admirable. It's what makes racing, racing. But I do think that an engine swap changes the character of the Daytona 200. Part of the challenge to winning this race has always been the need to optimize durability and power. That and pit stops are what make it unique in the AMA Superbike calendar.

And I have to say, what's with the long, long mandatory tire swap? Surely we can find or make tires that won't come apart on the banking in less (sometimes a lot less) than 200 miles? And if we can't, should a tire stop in what is still (at least arguably) the blue-riband race in the U.S. series, take more than a few minutes? I could have swapped my own front tire in less time. Why open the door to tactics like engine swaps, which debase the original point of the 200-mile distance? Next year, at the very least, AMA Pro should just give all teams a window (say between 75 and 125 miles) and tell them, change both tires in this window.

Look, in some endurance races, teams run thousands of miles, and they make their own decisions about tire compounds, balancing grip with durability. Incidentally, those guys do change motors from time to time, and I've even seen them do it under green flags. But if they blew a motor in less than 200 miles, there'd be hell to pay for the engine builder.

It's hard for me to believe that decades ago, teams ran the 200 on TZ750s, calling their own stops according to their own strategies, but that now, we can't race 200 miles on production based 600s. If  there's some reason that teams competing in the Daytona 200 can't handle those big-boy tire decisions (or because the banking or the new surface are impossibly hard to compound for) then maybe it's time to forget about the 200. The race is a shadow of its former self anyway, why make it a travesty?

Last bits of Daytona trivia: It's the Hess of times, it's the worst of times...

Supercross was invented here. Or in Europe. Or in L.A.
In 1972, someone had the bright idea of building an artificial track in the Daytona infield for a round of the AMA’s motocross championship. The Speedway hired Gary Bailey to design the course. Although there had been a few motocross races held inside soccer stadiums in Europe in the '60s, and convicted murderer Mike Goodwin has a solid claim to having invented the modern version of the sport when he promoted his 'Superbowl of Motocross'  at the L.A. Coliseum. It was his event name that was condensed into the word 'supercross.' Still, there are lots of people who feel that '72 event at the Speedway was the first 'supercross' race. In 1974, the AMA conducted its first full (three-round!) Supercross championship and the first of those races, too, was held at Daytona.

If I see one more Harley, I’ll…
A trip to Main Street during Bike Week will remind you that, in America “Motorcycle” still equals “Harley-Davidson”. If you come for the races and want a night time dose of sport bike culture, forget biker bars near the beach. Head for the Hess garage just west of I-5 on International Speedway Boulevard. If you come on your own bike, feel free to bet on an illegal street race – just make sure you bet on losing. These guys are serious.

Even more Daytrivia. Cutting it close...

That’s Mister Daytona, to you

Scott Russell and Miguel Duhamel have each won the Daytona 200 five times. For my money, Russell gets the nod over my fellow-Canadian, because all of his wins came on Superbike-class machinery. Russell nearly won seven of the races; he also finished second in two races where the combined margin of victory totaled only .06 seconds.

Over the years, Miguel Duhamel and Scott Russell have racked up a lot of miles at the sharp end of the Daytona 200 field. Harley-Davidson drafted "Mr. Daytona" into the ill-fated VR1000 Superbike program. A gruesome start-line crash on the hog ended the competitive phase of the Georgian's career

Two of Russell’s wins were on Yamaha motorcycles. The tuning forkers have won the race 18 times. The only other manufacturer that comes close is Harley-Davidson with 16 wins, most of them on the sand.

The smallest margin of victory in the long-standing Russell-Duhamel duel was Miguel’s 0.01-second advantage over Scott Russell in 1996. For what it's worth, Duhamel has one claim to fame that will probably never be matched: he won his first “200” in 1991 and his fifth in 2005 – a fourteen year span.

Still more Daytona trivia. Now that's a classy race...

Classy, eh?

Maybe we've come to accept the "200" as a Daytona SportBike-class race. Or have we just tired of complaining that it's not a Superbike race any more? The fact is, like everything at Speedway, the 200 is completely controlled by the France family, who own the track. They’ve arbitrarily changed the rules on many occasions – often to the dismay of fans, racers, and even the AMA. 

From 1937-’76 the race was run under AMA Class C rules. Until 1968, Class C permitted overhead valve motors of up to 500cc and side valve motors (the type used by Harley-Davidson) of up to 750cc. In ’69 the AMA allowed all Class C machines to displace 750cc, effectively ending Harley-Davidson’s ability to compete and causing the tens of thousands of Harley riders who converged on Daytona for Bike Week to lose interest in proceedings at the track.

From ’77-’84 the race was for Formula 1 motorcycles – typically 750cc two-strokes like the Yamaha TZ750. When race fans were bored by years of Yamaha domination, the France family arbitrarily made the 200 a race for a new class of production-based racers called “Superbikes”.

It was a Superbike race from 1985 to 2004, when the Jimmy France announced another class change. Beginning in 2005, the 200 would be a race for Formula Extreme-class motorcycles. The reason: they wanted the race to be run under rules that would again allow a Harley-Davidson (aka Buell) to be competitive.

Dick Mann rode a CB750 Racing Type - not a CR750 'kit' bike like this one. But ironically, it was the availability of this kit that forced Honda - against its will - to field factory bikes in the Daytona 200. Over the winter of 1969, Honda told one of its U.S. execs, Bob Hansen, that it didn't want the CB750 raced in the 200. Hansen, who was already running an unofficial works team out of his basement, pointed out that several hopped up street bikes were already being prepared by private teams, and that none of them had a chance of winning. To preserve the company's honor, a full-factory effort was rushed together. Only one of the factory Hondas finished, but all anyone remembers is that it finished first.

“Win on Sunday, sell (wait a minute ­– Hondas?) on Monday”
In 1970, BSA, Triumph, Norton and Honda all had new, bet-the-company 750cc motorcycles hitting the market. A win was such a vital part of BSA’s business plan that the company even lured Mike Hailwood out of retirement to ride a new Rocket III in the “200”. Even Harley-Davidson had an all-new XR750 racer for Cal Rayborn. Virtually all of the factory bikes broke down in the race but at the end of the day all anyone remembered was that the last Honda running was the one Dick Mann rode to victory.That was the first time that any motorcycle not made in the U.S. or Britain ever won the 200.

What? A Thursday without a fresh Backmarker?

Dear Readers,

For the first time in living memory*, I haven't posted a fresh, full length Backmarker column today. If you don't mind, I'll plead in the alternative (as a lawyer would say) and explain that this rare slip-up could have been caused by any number of circumstances...

• Last night, at the monthly Heartland of America Motorcycle Enthusiasts (HoAME) club meeting, I drank a little too, um, enthusiastically.
• I've been slammed with work trying to push a couple of feature film projects to the next level.
• I've been working hard, too, to make Riding Man available on Kindle. Now that the first edition is sold out, I've heard of at least one copy selling for almost five times the cover price on Amazon!
• Last but not least, Mary and I are preparing a podcast of 'Searching for Spadino' - for release on the anniversary of the Mont Blanc tunnel fire.

The big news is, I've also been distracted by setting up a new media partnership for Backmarker. Once a month, starting soon (I hope!) a special Backmarker will appear on a prominent motorcycle web site. It's safe to say that it's already in your bookmarks. This is good news for me because it will expose Backmarker to a much wider audience than its ever had in the past. The first of these new Backmarkers will not disappoint you - it's a look at an entirely new form of motorcycle entertainment - something I played a small part in creating, with Micky Dymond, a multi-time AMA motocross champ, MXGP hero, underappreciated roadracer and all-round Backmarker favorite.

Stay tuned!

*Living memory of some organism that lives, say, four years.

More Daytona trivia from the Dept. of True Grit

It used to take true grit to set a record

Long before there was a Daytona International Speedway, races and record attempts were held on the sandy beachfronts of Daytona and neighboring Ormond, Florida.

At low tide the damp, hard-packed sand provided a straight, dead level surface that ran for miles. It was perfect for land-speed record attempts. In 1904, the pioneering aviator Glenn H. Curtiss rode his two-cylinder motorcycle 67.36 mph – a class record that stood for seven years.

In 1907, Curtiss returned to the beach with a motorcycle powered by one of his V-8 airplane engines. That motorcycle made about 40 horsepower – a heck of lot in the day. It reached a speed of 136.27 mph.

Curtiss’ V-8 wasn’t just the world’s fastest motorcycle – it was the fastest thing on wheels, period. The daring young man held the land speed record for twelve years until Ralph dePalma went faster in a Packard car, also on Daytona Beach. That was the last time that the outright land speed record was ever held by a motorcycle. 

Curtiss' V-8 design lacked the streamlining you'd expect in a land-speed-record holder, but it had what ballistics experts call 'sectional density.' So, he-man, feel like pushing a buck forty, on those tires, on sand?

It was nearly Miami International Speedway
Bill France Sr., who built Daytona International Speedway (and was the founder of NASCAR) was a mechanic in Virginia and Maryland in the ‘30s. Winters up there made working on cars in poorly heated garages miserable, so he decided to move to Miami. His car broke down at Daytona and he liked it so much he stayed. He joined in the local beach races, then became a race promoter. He built the Speedway in ’59. The AMA moved the 200-mile National Championship from the beach to his track in ’61.