Rider Files

(NEWS RELEASE)

A.J. Catanzaro rode to a top-20 finish for the first time in the Lucas Oil AMA Motocross Series, taking a sound 19th place finish at Washougal.

Hendersonville, North Carolina: It was the top of the world for Team Öhlins USA in Washougal, Washington, when A.J. Catanzaro rode to a top-20 finish for the first time in the Lucas Oil AMA Motocross Series, taking a sound 19th place finish.

The weekend started out well for Catanzaro with a 26th-fastest time in first practice for the faster group, and it quickly got better in Practice #2 when he laid down a lap ten-places faster, earning gate number 16 for the Moto 1 start, the highest up that Catanzaro has ever qualified for an AMA Pro MX race. In Moto 1 Catanzaro slid back to a 28th finish, the bike and him not in tune with each other. After a few changes, in Moto 2 Catanzaro rocked it, nailing his start and working the field for his historic Team Öhlins USA finish in 19th.

Also of note, Catanzaro wasn’t passed by the race winner until the last lap, finishing side-by-side with him. He considered unlapping himself as the leader slowed but didn’t want to disrupt the winner’s race, even though it allowed the 20th-placed bike to close up on him as he neared the checkered flag. For this spanking-new team with young riders, this top-20 finish is an accomplishment in which everyone at Öhlins USA shares the pride.

Team Öhlins USA’s Michael Clarke didn’t attend the Washougal event, and rider Garret Toth took part in qualifying but, due to being hampered by an injury suffered earlier in the week, for the first time he was unable to earn a gate for the mains.

Catanzaro said, “Overall it was a step in the right direction at Washougal. I’m finally starting to prove where I should be. It was a cooler weekend so my heat exhaustion issue luckily didn’t come into play. In practice I was able to learn the track quickly and I put in a solid time to qualify 16th. I got a good gate pick but I didn’t make it work on the start. I struggled with the bike in Moto 1, and found myself fighting it through the race. I got pretty severe arm pump and wasn’t able to push through.

“We made some changes on the bike for Moto 2 I made it work. I got off to a great start and just rode a solid race, making very few mistakes. I was able to charge the entire Moto, finishing 19th and scoring my first points. Hopefully I can keep the ball rolling and keep improving.”

Team Öhlins USA Off Road Manger and team principal, Stacey Berger, said, “This race weekend got off to a terrible start. Garret had a pretty bad practice crash on Tuesday, which injured his wrist. He was unable to ride or train for the rest of the week, throwing him out of his routine. He showed up in good spirits but physically he wasn’t close to 100%. I’m disappointed for him because I know how hard he works every week to get better and faster. He’s already been pushing through a torn ACL and a damaged MCL. He gave it his all and we’re all very proud of him for his effort.

“A.J., on the other hand, had a great weekend overall. His qualifying set up allowed him to run a very quick time in the second session. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the best race setup. We made a few changes to the bike for Moto 2 that really allowed him to push the whole race distance. I feel really bad for Trey (Canard) and we’ll be praying for him to have a speedy recovery. The restart after the red flag worked to A.J.’s advantage by getting him a couple of hot laps to get him warmed up properly. To score our first points as a team is a proud moment for all of us. I can’t say enough about how hard all of our riders and our mechanics work. This is another step in the right direction for us. Now we just need to work at continuing to move higher in the standings, rather than stopping here at being happy with a top-20 finish. Thanks to all of our sponsors for their continued support.”

Team Öhlins USA is sponsored by: Triangle Cycles of Danville, Virginia; Yamaha; GYTR; MX1 West; Acerbis; Ariete; Yoshimura; Kenda Tire; No Toil; Shoei Helmets; Gaerne; Leatt; Langston Racing Academy, which has been instrumental in providing top-level training for the riders; HIT Center (High Intensity Training) of Jacksonville. www.ohlinsusa.com

This week’s Cycle News Archives focuses on Dick O’Brien, the longtime director of Harley-Davidson’s racing team. Read it here.

by Tracy Hagen

The second-half of the 2011 MotoGP season kicked-off in Laguna Seca, and in much the same way that the first-half started at Qatar with Repsol Honda rider Casey Stoner a convincing winner, followed by Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo in second and Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa in third.

The 25-year old Australian wheelied his powerful Honda over the finish line after being frustrated in the last three races by tires and set-up issues. Stoner leads the championship by 20 points over Lorenzo.

Lorenzo’s race started off perfectly, as the world champion converted pole position into P1 and held it for the 26 laps of the 32 lap race. By lap 17 Lorenzo nearly had a full second over Pedrosa and Stoner. Then Stoner came alive, first swooping past Pedrosa on the inside as the pair were about to drop through the Corkscrew on lap 18. By lap 24 Stoner was less than two-tenths of a second behind Lorenzo even though Stoner was riding tighter lines than Lorenzo.

The pass for the lead, and the win, came at an improbable point of the track. Exiting the last turn, Lorenzo’s Yamaha started to slide away from him as the rear wheel spun up. Stoner pounced on luckless Lorenzo and aimed for an outside pass on the front straight. To pull off the pass, Stoner had to go beyond the demarcated track surface as Lorenzo moved all the way to the edge of the track. To be fair, Lorenzo’s line is the line he took on all previous laps. Riding across track, turf, and trash, Stoner passed Lorenzo right in front of the grandstands. It was a ballsy pass not unlike what Valentino Rossi did to Stoner at the Corkscrew in 2008.

Pedrosa, winner of the 2009 Laguna Seca GP as well was the race in Germany last Sunday, finished a solitary third.

Ben Spies was fourth overall, and the first of the four Americans. Spies started on the second row, right behind teammate Lorenzo, but did not get off the line quickly. Spies spent the first four laps making up for the poor start, and then the next 20 laps catching the lead group. Spies copped a pass on Honda’s Andrea Dovisioso for his hard work.

Sixth and seventh were the fickle factory Ducatis of Rossi and Nicky Hayden, respectively. Rossi, again, was on the GP11.1 evolution bike with a seamless transmission gear change, while Hayden raced his usual GP11.

Colin Edwards finished his uneventful race in eighth aboard the Tech 3 Monster Yamaha.

Ducati rookie Karel Abraham almost earned ninth but finished eleventh after his suspension broke on the penultimate lap. Hector Barbera (Ducati) and Hiroshi Aoyama (Honda) completed the top ten.

Loris Capirossi finished twelfth and in pain, as his injured shoulder wasn’t fully recovered. His teammate, Randy De Puniet, scratched after crashing earlier in the weekend and picking up a few fractures.

Toni Elias, the Moto2 champion, started from the last row and finished last in perhaps his last race on the LCR Honda. Elias, a MotoGP winner in the 990cc era, was behind his guest teammate Ben Bostrom until ran off the track on lap 6, Turn 2. Bostrom quit the race soon after a second run-off two laps later.

The Laguna Seca cornerworkers had three visitors: Cal Crutchlow (Yamaha), Marco Simoncelli (Honda), and Alvaro Bautista (Suzuki). All three escaped injury.

The championship resumes at Brno on August 14, an event where mid-season motorcycle updates often appear. There are a lot of bikes needing such this year.

Laguna chart by Tracy Hagen. (Click on chart for hi-res version.)

(NEWS RELEASE)

Hendersonville, North Carolina: For Öhlins it was three wins in the AMA Road Racing classes at this weekend’s combined AMA Pro Racing/MotoGP at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, located in Monterey, California, with Tommy Hayden taking the win in National Guard Superbike, Benny Solis in Motorcycle-SuperStore.com SuperSport, and Steve Rapp in the e-power FIM/TTXGP.

In Superbike, as reported in various media, Hayden’s Yoshimura Suzuki team has been experimenting this season with different shock brands, which is totally proper due to them not having an Öhlins contract — an Öhlins Racing AB’s policy of not sponsoring teams or riders. But since Hayden’s bike has recently been back on Öhlins, in both front and rear, he’s won the last two races — the final race at Mid-Ohio and this single race at Laguna Seca — dramatically improving his season points standing. With Josh Hayes taking second on the Graves Yamaha and Hayden’s teammate Blake Young earning third, it was a podium sweep in AMA National Guard Superbike for Öhlins.

In Motorcycle-SuperStore.com SuperSport, Benny Solis rode his Roadracingworld.com Honda CB600RR to a runaway victory, despite the rider taking a brief off-track excursion. In AMA SuperSport West, Solis has now recorded the most wins in the class and is ranked second overall, a mere seven points behind the championship leader.

The combined FIM/TTXGP race, for non-carbon-base fueled motorcycles, was dominated by the Mission R, piloted by Steve Rapp. During the weekend Rapp shattered the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca lap record for e-powered motorcycles, which was a record that Rapp set at a previous event at Laguna Seca earlier this summer. During Saturday’s qualifying, Rapp cut a lap at 1:31.376, nearly six-seconds faster than the second-fastest rider. For comparison, the MotoGP pole winner set a time of 1:21.202, and the AMA Superbike pole was at 1:24.480, putting the Mission R within ten seconds of the world’s best MotoGP bike. Second place in the FIM/TTXGP was taken by Michael Czysz on a Motoczysz E1PC, using an Öhlins shock. How cool is that to build a bike and then pilot it to a podium? Both the Mission R and Motoczysz suspensions were put together by Dave Behrend of Öhlins USA certified service center Fast Bike Industries (FBI).

Just a note of mention for clarity: since all machines in MotoGP use Öhlins suspension, that race win, podium positions, and all places, combine for a clean-sweep by Öhlins too.

Öhlins USA distributes and services the world’s leading performance suspension for automobiles, motorcycles, ATVs, and snowmobiles. Öhlins develops its proprietary and innovative suspension components at the highest levels of racing from open-wheel car racing, to Moto GP, to off-road competition on two and four wheels. Öhlins USA also provides training for service centers and dealers. www.Ohlinsusa.com.