Rider Files

(News Release)

EVENT: Grand Prix of Malaysia

WHERE: Sepang Circuit, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Circuit is 3.447 miles (5.548 km), with 15 turns. Race is 21 laps.

WHEN: Sunday, Oct. 10. It is the 15th of 18 events this season.

2009 RACE WINNER: Casey Stoner, by 14.666 seconds over Dani Pedrosa

2009 POLE WINNER: Valentino Rossi, 2 minutes, 00.518 seconds

U.S. TV: MotoGP race, 6-7 p.m. (ET), Sunday, Oct. 10, SPEED (delayed). Moto2: 5-6 p.m. (ET), Sunday, Oct. 10, SPEED (delayed). 125cc: Noon-1 p.m. (ET), Tuesday, Oct. 12, SPEED (delayed).

THE AMERICANS: U.S. riders Ben Spies (Longview, Texas, Monster Yamaha Tech 3), Nicky Hayden (Owensboro, Ky., Ducati Team) and Colin Edwards (Houston, Monster Yamaha Tech 3) will compete in the MotoGP race. Spies is sixth in the MotoGP World Championship standings, with Hayden seventh and Edwards 10th. Kenny Noyes (Borrego Springs, Calif., Jack&Jones by Antonio Banderas) will compete in the Moto2 race. Noyes is tied for 22nd in the Moto2 World Championship standings.

•Ben Spies (after practice Friday): “For how I felt on the bike, the lap times are not so bad because I honestly expected to see myself in dead last. I just didn’t feel confident enough with the bike to push it as hard as I normally can, but looking at the times, I’m actually not too far off. So I’m actually not as worried as I expected because if we can improve the bike like I know we will, I’ll be right up there and in a much stronger position. I’ve just got to keep plugging away, but today we were just chasing front and rear grip. The bike didn’t feel that balanced, either, but we’ve got lots of ideas, and I’m sure we’ll be quicker tomorrow and in a strong position to challenge for the top five on Sunday.”

•Nicky Hayden (after practice Friday): “We have picked up where we left off in Japan, which is not a good thing. We struggled a lot right from the beginning, over the bumps, mainly. I have a lot of front chatter, we got rear chatter, too, and I cannot carry any good corner speed. We’re 1.2 seconds off the top, which may not seem that much, but the reality is that it is a lot when the field is as tight as it is right now. That kind of gap is pretty much going to send you to the back. We definitely need to do something for tomorrow because today was not good.”

•Colin Edwards (after practice Friday): “I’m happy to be in the top six and really close to fifth, but we have still got a lot of work to do. We changed as much on the bike in one hour that we would do in one day at the test because I was really struggling with front and rear grip. We had to move a lot of weight off the front because I wasn’t as confident with the front tire as I have been recently. And I was changing the front and rear suspension a lot to try and improve the traction. I just didn’t feel like I could carry any lean angle, so considering some of the limitations I had this afternoon, the position is not too bad. I know I was losing time out there, so with some more overnight changes, I’m sure I can be faster.”

THEY SAID IT: “All I am thinking about is Sunday and if I can win the title. It’s been one of the dreams of my life, and it would be great to get it here in Sepang.” – Fiat Yamaha Team rider Jorge Lorenzo, who will clinch his first MotoGP World Championship with a finish of ninth or better Sunday at the Sepang Circuit

FAST FACTS: 2009 Red Bull Indianapolis GP winner Jorge Lorenzo must finish ninth or better to clinch his first MotoGP World Championship at this event. His closest pursuer in the points, 2010 Red Bull Indianapolis GP winner Dani Pedrosa, will miss his second consecutive event with a broken collarbone suffered in a practice crash Oct. 1 at the Grand Prix of Japan … Pedrosa is trying to return at the Australian Grand Prix on Oct. 17 at Phillip Island … American rookie Ben Spies has never raced at Sepang but participated in both 2010 preseason tests at the circuit … American Nicky Hayden never has finished on the podium at Sepang, but he has placed fourth five times … American Colin Edwards has a best finish of eighth in seven starts at Sepang … 2007 MotoGP World Champion Casey Stoner is the only rider to win in three Grand Prix classes at Sepang, MotoGP, 250cc and 125cc … Stoner will try this weekend to win three consecutive races in one season for the first time since 2008 … Toni Elias can clinch the Moto2 World Championship at this event depending on his finish and the results of his closest pursuer, Julian Simon … Spanish riders have won 31 races in Grand Prix motorcycle racing in 2010, a record for the nation in one season. Spaniards have won 23 consecutive 125cc races.

2011 tickets: For information on 2011 Red Bull Indianapolis GP tickets, visit www.imstix.com, call the IMS ticket office at (317) 492-6700 or (800) 822-INDY outside the Indianapolis area or visit the ticket office at the IMS Administration Building at the corner of Georgetown Road and 16th Street. Ticket office and phone hours are 8 a.m.-5 p.m. (ET) Monday-Friday.
The 2011 Red Bull Indianapolis GP is scheduled for Aug. 26-28 at IMS.
Race Day general admission tickets cost $40, with Friday general admission $10 and Saturday general admission $20. A three-day general admission ticket is $60. A Friday-Saturday general admission ticket is $20 if purchased before Sept. 13, 2010, $25 afterward.
Children ages 12 and under will be admitted free any of the three days of the event when accompanied by an adult with a general admission ticket.
Race Day reserved seat prices will start at $70.

At Silverstone Spencer got a terrible start, but moved up to as high as fifth before the famous Honda NR500 started slowing. Here Spencer, on No. 17, runs with a group that includes Michel Frutschi (23), Stuart Avant (directly behind Spencer), Alex George (49) and Dale Singleton (30). (Photos courtesy Honda)

In July of 1981 Honda decided to give Spencer a shot at racing its third generation Honda NR500, the revolutionary oval piston, four-stroke Grand Prix machine, which had failed miserably in GP racing. The venue would be the AMA National at Laguna Seca. The race, under skilled promotion by Gavin Trippe and Bruce Cox, was supplanting Daytona as the road race in America. With no GP at the time, Laguna marked the opportunity to see America’s stars who were competing on the GP circuit.

“Honda wanted the American fans to see the NR before they put it in a museum,” Spencer recalls. “Even though the bike was not producing results, it was an engineering marvel and was so far ahead of its time in technology it helped give Honda the background it needed to later produce its V-Fours.”

Spencer never had a chance to even sit on the bike prior to Laguna. His first laps were in practice for the race. The NR was unlike anything Spencer had ever ridden.

“It would idle at 6000 rpm,” Spencer smiles. “It was a weird feeling riding it. It didn’t have enough weight on the front. It felt like it had a very little engine turning way up in the rpm range. The powerband was supposed to be from 13,000 to around 19-20,000 rpm, but no… it wasn’t torquey enough to run well at the lower rpm. I geared it to where I was shifting it all the time. I figure the powerband that worked for me was 18 to 21,000, so I was over-revving it a bit. We had no rev limiters back then.”

By the second session Spencer was figuring out how to ride the NR. He was making it work by wringing the little NR’s neck.

In practice Spencer’s times on the NR were promising, but no one, even in the Honda camp could have dreamed what would happen in the heat race.

A close-up view of Freddie Spencer cornering Honda’s revolutionary oval piston NR500 at Silverstone. While the NR was not considered a major success, the engineering Honda used in its amazing Honda NR750 street bike, the most expensive street motorcycle ever sold at today’s equivalent of $90,000.

“It was only five laps,” Spencer said. “I figured anything could hold together for five laps. I knew the only hope of beating Kenny was to push the bike past its limits. They told me not to rev it over twenty-and-a-half, but I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if we could win something on this bike.’ So I revved to 21 to 21-and-a-half running down the hill that is now Rainey. There was no way I could have been competitive against the two-strokes had I ran the thing down around 13-14,000 rpm.”

Spencer somehow made the bike last and rode the NR to a jaw-dropping victory over King Kenny Roberts. The win reverberated across the Pacific all the way to Honda headquarters in Japan.

“You talk about excited,” Freddie remembers. “The Japanese engineers were jumping up and down and people were running off to call Japan. You would have thought I won the world championship or something. They were so excited they said, ‘Let’s pack it up and go to Silverstone.’”

It almost didn’t matter that NR didn’t make the finish of either race at Laguna’s doubleheader. Like a gambler who’d hit big once in Las Vegas, Honda clung to Spencer’s heat race victory over Roberts like a kudzu to Georgia oak.

In just a few short weeks after Laguna, Spencer was flown to England to race NR in the British GP at Silverstone. The NR wasn’t going to the museum after all; Honda thought it had finally found the man who could win on the bike.

The trip to England didn’t go according to plan. On Spencer’s first try bump-starting the bike he jumped too high and landed on the tank with a thud, bruising his chest in the process. The practiced dozens of times until Freddie could start the bike in just two big steps.

On the track Spencer found the NR’s lack of torque almost humorous.

Riders ready for the start of the 1981 British Grand Prix at Silverstone with Kenny Roberts (1), Jack Middelburg (11) who won the race, Barry Sheene (7), Keith Huewen (21), Dave Potter (8), Freddie Spencer (17), Boet van Dulmen (6).

“Silverstone – big racetrack, tall gearing,” Spencer said. I’d come off the lefthander onto to Hanger Straight and there’d be a slight breeze and I shift the thing and it would drop rpm. I’d learn to tuck in everything. I think I qualified pretty well, maybe top ten. In the race I ran maybe fifth or sixth and in the points, but then the valve springs began to disintegrate.”

The stark reality hit Honda like a ton of bricks after Silverstone. It was plain for anyone to see that Honda had the most talented young road racer in the world in Spencer, but even Fast Freddie couldn’t work miracles with the NR.

Even before Spencer temporarily breathed new hope into the NR program, Honda had its contingency plane in the wings. The three-cylinder two-stroke NS500. Two years later Spencer would be world champion on the four-cylinder, two-stroke Honda NSR500.

“As the years have gone on the main thing about riding the NR,” Spencer said, “was that I was happy to see all the Honda people so happy with that Laguna heat-race win. They were so frustrated after pouring so much effort into the bike and getting no results, that when I beat Kenny they were on top of the world even if it was for just a short time.”