Motourage

Motourage attended a Q&A session at the Corona Honda garage at the AMA Suzuki Big Kahuna Nationals at Virginia International Raceway. Corona Honda Riders Jake Holden & Neil Hodgson talked about racing and took questions from the group. Part one of this three-part video features Jake Holden.

Motourage was in the front row at the AMA Big Kahuna Nationals this past weekend when Mat Mladin was named the 2009 AMA Pro Racing American Superbike champion. His seventh title came after three years of losing out to World Superbike rookie Ben Spies, the most recent title loss partially due to a controversial disqualification at last year’s VIR round.  As of Sunday’s race, Mladin had amassed enough points to clinch the 2009 championship, and he was awarded the #1 plate immediately following race 2.

Throughout his 13-season AMA career, the 37-year-old three-time Daytona 200 winner has racked up an impressive number of records including most starts, podiums, poles, wins and championships.  He has been an outspoken opponent of many of the new DMG-instituted rules for the new AMA and an advocate for rider safety.  Following this year’s Heartland Park round, Mladin announced he would retire at the end of the season.

Today’s Motourage video of the day features Mat Mladin being awarded the #1 plate at this past weekend’s AMA Big Kahuna Nationals at Virginia International Raceway.

Although Mat Mladin only managed to reach the podium once at the Big Kahuna Nationals at VIR this past weekend, he still scored enough points to clinch the AMA Pro Racing American Superbike championship.  Motourage got the inside view of his Speed Channel interview immediately after Sunday’s Superbike race 2.

This weekend is the 10th-annual AMA Suzuki Big Kahuna Nationals at Virginia International Raceway.  If you were there last year, you’ll remember the way Mat Mladin dominated the racetrack, besting teammate and rival Ben Spies by eight seconds in race one and nine seconds in race two.  VIR in 2008 marked Mladin’s fifth and sixth consecutive AMA Superbike wins.

Without the challenge from Spies, the AMA American Superbike class has been the Mat Mladin show this year. He currently leads the championship chase by 83 points over teammate Tommy Hayden and could clinch the title at VIR, although Mladin refused to race at the last round in Topeka citing safety concerns.  Hayden, who finished third in both races last year at VIR, secured a Yoshimura Suzuki sweep of the previous Big Kahuna weekend and is very likely to continue his success at this track.  Although it’s obvious the fire still burns, Mladin’s domination had to come to an end sometime, and the six-time AMA Superbike champion has chosen to go out on top, announcing that he will retire from professional motorcycle racing at the end of the season.

Mat Mladin will certainly leave behind a legacy.  His six championships are an AMA Superbike record; no other rider has won more than three.  He holds series records for wins (75), poles (50), wins in a season (11) and poles in a season (10), and has won the Daytona 200 three times.  He is an outspoken advocate for rider safety, and, most recently, has been extremely vocal about his dissatisfaction with the decisions and actions of DMG in its management of the series.

In today’s Motourage Video of the Day, Yoshimura caught up with Mat back in June to get his views on mental toughness.  Enjoy the video, and we’ll see you this weekend in Virginia.

Today’s Motourage video of the day is Gearlink Kawasaki’s Chris Martin flying over the barriers at Hawthorn bend during the Fuchs-Silkolene British Supersport race this past weekend at Brands Hatch.  The crash resulted in little more than a broken ankle.  A painful injury, but it obviously could have been much much worse.

I don’t think any more words are necessary for this video.

Today’s video of the day takes you on a fast lap around Virginia International Raceway.

One of the first permanent race tracks in the US, Virginia International Raceway hosted its first official race in 1957.  In its early years, VIR hosted automobile and motorcycle races, and the list of competitors reads like a who’s who of hall-of-famers.  Sanctioned events took place regularly for nearly 20 years, until the 1973 fuel crisis hit American motorsports hard, and VIR closed its paddock in 1974.  The track lay dormant for 25 years until it was revived in 1998. VIR reopened in 2000 after undergoing a complete overhaul.  The track was widened and repaved, but stuck to the original course layout.

This weekend, VIR will host the 10th-annual AMA Big Kahuna Nationals, and the party starts on Thursday night and doesn’t stop until the last bike crosses the line on Sunday evening.  Head up early and join the Motourage team at “Race to Texas,” the official Big Kahuna Kickoff party on Thursday, August 13th at 8:00 at Texas Steakhouse and Saloon in Danville.  If you’ve purchased your Motourage Celebrity Weekend Hospitality Passes, you’ll receive your tickets in the mail shortly, and they’ll be accompanied by your official Motourage schedule.  If you’re reading this – regardless of if you’ll be joining us in the Pagoda – you’re eligible for some cool prizes this weekend.  Stay tuned to Motourage.net throughout the week to keep updated about what’s going on at the track and elsewhere.

Flat Track fans are accustomed to seeing V-twin Harley Davidson motorcycles banging handlebars around oval dirt tracks in the U.S., but something you don’t see everyday is spec 883 Sportsters duking it out in a road race.  Today’s Motourage Video of the Day features the 1991 U.S. Pro Twins event at Mid Ohio.

Although not very well known away from the dirt track, Harley Davidson’s racing history is long and proud.  In 1908, Walter Davidson, Harley’s co-founder and president, rode a stock single-cylinder machine to victory in the Federation of American Motorcyclists two-day, 365-mile endurance and reliability contest through the Catskill Mountains of New York.  At the 1912 Bakersfield Road Race in California, a new track record was set on a Harley.  Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Harleys dominated at Daytona, and even after HD’s racing operations shut down in the U.S. in 1969, the American-built 250 and 350s had success in Europe for the next 10 years.  During the late 80s and early 90s, Harley Davidson sanctioned several spec-Sportster classes in support of AMA-sanctioned road racing events but was unable to compete with the Japanese four cylinder machines in the regular series.

Harley Davidson returned to American road racing full time in 1994 with the VR1000, a bike that saw a flicker of success underneath Doug Chandler, Miguel Duhamel Pascal Picotte.  Like the Buell 1125RR, the VR1000 was criticized for being a race-purpose bike and unavailable in Harley showrooms in the U.S.  After the 1999 season, Harley ended development on the VR1000 and pulled out of AMA-sanctioned events, but the company continues to see success with their V-Rod in the NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle drag-racing class and the XR750 in the AMA Flat Track Grand National Twins.

In 2008, rumors began circulating about a Harley-Davidson XR1200 Trophy series as a support class for the 2009 British Superbike championship.  Originally slated to run at eight BSB events in 2009, the series will now be split into two seasons with 2009 declared a development season and the original schedule being run next year. Similar spec Harley series are run in Italy and Japan with varied degrees of success.

The Motourage team is back from vacation, and we’re bringing you the newest edition of the Motourage Video of the Day.  Today’s video features the action-packed, dangerous sport of sidecar racing.

In honor of Nicky Hayden’s birthday today, the Motourage Video of the Day is this tribute to the Kentucky Kid.

Born July 30, 1981, Nicholas Patrick Hayden’s racing resume is quite impressive.  In 1999, he won the AMA Supersport championship and earned the Rookie-of-the-Year title in AMA Flat Track in a season that also saw him named the AMA Athlete of the Year.  In his first full season as an AMA Superbike racer, he finished in third place.   In 2002, he won the Daytona 200, the AMA Superbike championship and placed fourth as a World Superbike wild card rider at Laguna Seca.  That same year, he won four AMA Flat Track races, beating Chris Carr’s string of 13 consecutive wins at the Peoria TT.

He was drafted into Honda’s MotoGP team, alongside reigning world champion Valentino Rossi, immediately following his Superbike championship.  He finished in fifth place and earned Rookie-of-the-Year honors.  Three years later, he won the MotoGP championship, breaking Valentino Rossi’s string of five titles.

The seasons since Nicky’s MotoGP championship have been unremarkable at best; however, since his move to the Factory Ducati squad, he has begun to make improvements on a machine that, until now, no one other than Casey Stoner has been able to tame.  A failed tire-selection gamble at Donington may have hindered Nicky’s quest for improvement, but we at Motourage hope for the best for the Kentucky Kid and wish him a speedy rise back to glory.

Happy Birthday, Nicky.

Today’s Motourage Video of the Day features a Motourage favorite, Jordan Motorsports’ Geoff May.  Geoff, the Jordan Motorsports team and the entire AMA Pro Racing roster come to Virginia International Raceway on August 14-16 for the Suzuki Big Kahuna Nationals.  This will also be the first official Motourage event, and we’re proud to be able to offer discounted Pagoda Hospitality Passes for our readers.  For more information about the Motourage Celebrity Weekend and VIR, click HERE.
Hope to see you in Virginia!