Usgp
USGP
Coming (back) to America
Three-time 500cc World Champion Kenny Roberts pulled out all the stops to keep international bike racing alive in America, even going so far as to fork out millions of his own dollars to promote the 1993 and ’94 U.S. Grand Prix at Laguna Seca. But at the time, money wasn’t the only thing on his mind.
His pride was hurt.
Roberts loves motorcycles and racing and the people who share his passion for the sport. He stuck his neck out because he felt America deserved to see the best racers on the best machinery. Yet when he campaigned for support of the event, response was underwhelming.
Roberts contends getting race fans to come to California’s Monterey Peninsula has never been a concern. Corporate backing was the problem.
“It’s tough when the industry doesn’t support you,” he says, noting that it was all several major motorcycle makers could do to come up with the $35,000 cost of hospitality suites, let alone help underwrite the event. “Don’t come if you’re going to ask for more money,” was the response from one company on the eve of a KR visit.
But the situation is different now, he is quick to point out. “i don’t see how you could make the sport any better than it is. The racing has been great all year,” says Roberts.
And now Laguna Seca is back on the GP calendar. Last August, the Sports Car Racing Association of the Monterey Peninsula, which promotes all manner of motor racing at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, and Dorna Sports, the Spanishbased company that holds the commercial and television rights to the FIM MotoGP World Championship, announced an agreement to bring GP racing back to Laguna for five years beginning in 2005. The event, scheduled for July 8-10, will be known as the Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix.
The hitch is-or was-safety. Whereas natural-gas-rich Qatar dumped $55 million into creating a world-class racetrack (complete with astro-turf!) and promoted essentially a madefor-television event with just 1200 spectators, Laguna couldn’t come up with the reported $2 million needed to make the changes to the circuit requested by the MotoGP safety committee led by Kenny Roberts Jr. In the end, Yamaha stepped up big and provided the needed funds.
“Wayne Rainey called me and said, ‘The race is probably happening, but Laguna will have to make some changes. And it will probably cost about this much,”’ explains Yamaha’s Bob Starr. “My first response was, ‘It makes a lot of sense, but from a budgetary standpoint, it’s going to be difficult.’ But we made it work. Wayne’s influence-what he has done for Yamaha over the years-greatly affected our decision. The track may need further improvements down the road, but this ensures a five-year run.”
Work began last November to widen the front straight leading up to Turn 1 and increase run-off in Turns 2 and 9 (Rainey Curve). This includes moving the bridge over the latter to a safer location closer to the Corkscrew.
“I just want it to be safe,” says Roberts Jr. “Laguna has a of walls. Going up to the Corkscrew is like racing through a canyon.”
Two-time World Superbike Champion Colin Edwards, for ’05 paired with reigning series champ Valentino Rossi on Yamahas, is nonplussed. He says if MotoGP can race at the tight, twisty Sachsenring circuit in Germany, it could throw down at the local go-kart track. “In all my years of racing at Laguna, I have never-knock on wood-seen anyone crash in Turn 1,” he snorts. “We’re all pretty smart; we know when we can go and when we can’t. You just have to back it down. It’s corner, just like any other.”
Roberts Jr.’s 21-year-old Suzuki teammate John Hopkins was in kindergarten when the USGP first came to America in 1988. He feels the biggest safety issue isn’t necessarily the lack of run-off or the proximity of the walls, but an outwardly unremarkable hump in the pavement on the run up to the Corkscrew that aviates one or both wheels off the asphalt. “On my Formula Xtreme bike in 2001,1 would begin braking as soon as my wheels touched the ground,” he says. “And we weren’t going nearly as fast as a MotoGP machine. Are these bikes going to float off into space?”
Former AMA Superbike champ and factory Honda rider Nicky Hayden agrees. “Laguna’s going to be wild,” he says. won’t be easy to get around there quickly. Some people will love it, but for those who don’t have the setup or feeling for the track, it could be a nightmare. These things aren’t like Superbikes; when they ain’t workin’, they ain’t workin’l”
Rossi counts himself among Laguna’s supporters. “I always wanted to ride a bike there,” he gleefully admits. “If it is safe, think it will be very good, much better than Qatar and China and these places where we go and don’t understand why.”
Why travel to places like the Middle East and China, or for that matter, America? Because MotoGP is big, big business nowadays. Just ask Kenny Roberts. -Matthew Miles
To purchase tickets for the 2005 United States Grand Prix and AMA Superbike support races, contact the track at 800/327SECA or online at www.laguna-seca.com.
