Death in the Family

Opinion/Commentary
by Pete Hitzeman
for R6Live.com

It seems almost cliché to say that the motorcycle racing community is very much a family. But one has to look no further than Colin Edwards' post-race interview at Indianapolis, or the faces of the podium finishers today at Misano to know that it is completely true.

The past week has been uncharacteristically trying for those in the roadracing family. Last Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, 13-year-old phenomenon Peter Lenz was killed in what can only be described as a freak warm-up lap incident, just before the second USGPRU race. News of Lenz's passing reached the turn 1 grandstand, where I was sitting, just before the start of the Moto2 race via text message and mobile internet, and the mood among the gathered thousands immediately turned somber. For those of us who already knew, the excitement of the Moto2 race and even Ben Spies' masterful ride to 2nd place in the MotoGP race had a decidedly hollow feeling.

On Wednesday at the Manx GP, James Adam, a 28 year old Royal Navy officer from Prestwick, and Chris Bradshaw, a 39 year old traffic policeman from Tamworth were killed in the same accident on lap 2 of the Junior race. The race was immediately red flagged and later abandoned. Adam was declared dead at the scene. Bradshaw was airlifted to a nearby hospital, but later succumbed to his injuries.

Today, on the very day a moment of silence was observed for Lenz, 19-year-old Shoya Tomizawa crashed exiting a high-speed right hand corner on lap 12 and was struck by two other riders with nowhere to go. Tomizawa was a rising Japanese star, having won the first ever Moto2 race at Qatar. His riding style was bold and tenacious, but off the track he was known for his smiling, lighthearted demeanor. The entire Grand Prix paddock has been devastated at his passing, with many MotoGP riders declining to even comment on their races after news reached them.

Grid filler rules will not solve MotoGP's troubles

Opinion/Commentary
by Pete Hitzeman
R6Live.com

A significant portion of the epic silly season in MotoGP this year involves the future of the series itself, as Dorna seems poised to yet again revise the class rules, starting in 2012. While we're nowhere near any final version of the '12 rulebook, it seems clear that 1000cc engines will be returning in some fashion, be they true prototypes, production engines in prototype chassis (a la Moto2), or some sort of spec engine. Some talk has been heard of even allowing some of these bikes to enter races, on an exhibition basis, in 2011. There are also rumors of claiming rule teams, who would be allowed to claim the equipment of other teams for a set fee.

Dorna's motivation to put more bikes on the grid is certainly understandable. A mere twelve riders have finished the last two races at Sachsenring and Laguna Seca. With only a total of 18 riders on the permanent entry list and wildcard entries being a financial impossibility, it's clear that the size of the grid is the most glaring problem facing MotoGP's tenability as a world championship.

Mid-Ohio track owner rolls eyes at surface complaints

Opinion/Commentary
by Pete Hitzeman
for R6Live.com

Michelle Trueman Gajoch, President of TrueSports Inc., which owns and operates Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, was quoted recently, joking about the condition of the track surface at the venue. Apparently, Ms. Trueman Gajoch thinks that racers simply have nothing else to do but whine about external factors making them slower. While rider and driver safety may be a laughing matter to her, she would do well to pay attention to the criticism of those using her facility.

The track received a full re-pave in 2005, after suffering through a long period of mediocrity, with concrete patches and harsh bumps dominating the track. Initial reviews for the new, smooth surface were exuberant. The concrete patches in the corners were gone, some of the runoff was improved, the asphalt was pool-table smooth, and with one exception in the carousel, was free of bumps or dips. Finally, riders and drivers at the Lexington, Ohio circuit would be free to enjoy the universally-praised layout.

Then came the last weekend of September, 2006. Mid-Ohio was to be the scene of the AMA Superbike season finale. During the week prior to the event, news broke that Mat Mladin and Ben Spies, the series leaders by a wide margin, had agreed not to race in the rain there, due to safety concerns. When the weekend arrived, the riders' fears were realized, as it rained all day on Saturday. The decision was made to try and race anyway, and the Superstock race was started. Damon Buckmaster crashed hard, and broke his arm. On Sunday, track and series management tried to force the entire weekend's schedule into a single day, sans-practice, to the vociferous objections of all the riders and teams. The races were held anyway. By 2007, the AMA had removed the second Mid-Ohio date from the calendar.

2010 Season: Over before it started?

I injured my right knee just before Christmas, playing basketball at the gym.  I was just killing time while my wife finished up on the treadmill.  Went to change direction, planted my foot, but my knee kept going.  I felt a pop, then some searing pain, and I was on the ground.  I suddenly realized, as the high school kids I was playing with stared down at me with clueless expressions, that I was the old fat guy writhing around on the gym floor!  I ended up with a torn ACL, and tears in my lateral and medial menisci.  I put off the surgery so I could go to Gulfport for my job, and to get my interview with Josh and Melissa done.  There was no way in hell I was missing that trip!

Anyway, I finally had the surgery done this past Friday.  They grafted a piece of my patellar tendon, with a bit of bone on each side, into the center of my knee to replace the ACL.  Doing that required that they drill holes in my femur and tibia, to thread the graft into.  Then it's fastened on each side with screws.  The surgeon ended up trimming off a little bit of one of the menisci, but the other one had already started healing up pretty well.

Pictures of my knee, post-op, follow (Warning, kinda graphic!!).

Basically, I'm looking at 6 months of intensive rehab, so track season this year may not happen at all.  I'm going to make every effort to recover as quickly as possible, but it just has to heal, and that takes time.  The pain isn't terrible right now, surprisingly.  A portion of my lower leg, from my knee to about halfway down my shin, is still numb to the touch.  I assume the surgeon may have nicked a nerve during the operation.  Hopefully, feeling will return in that region eventually, but for now, I'm perfectly content for it to be numb!  I'm also on Percocet and Ketorolac, and just came off of Oxycontin on Tuesday.  So yay for drugs, I guess, but I hate taking pills, so I'll be getting off of those as soon as possible.  The Ketorolac will run out tomorrow.  After that, I'll probably switch to Ibuprofen, if I still need an anti-inflammatory.

Therapy already started Monday.  I'm doing a handful of muscle-activation and range of motion exercises for now, and a couple stretches, just at home.  I go back in for another assisted session tomorrow, then have my post-op with the surgeon on Wednesday of next week.  The staples should come out then, and my leg will look a bit less gnarly.

All of this simply continues the pattern of my on-track activities for the past few years.  In 2008, I got married in May, which pushed my track season start back to August.  In 2009, we bought a new house, which again delayed my start until August.  This year, depending on how quickly my knee is rehabilitated and I get clearance from my doctors, my track season may be delayed until August or later.

This brings me to an interesting decision.  Last year, I spent all of my track time trying to knock off the rust from the previous year, and saw precious little gains in terms of improving my riding.  In fact, I saw no gains at all in terms of lap times.  So once my knee is good enough to ride again, I will have to decide whether it is worth the time and expense to go to the track for a few weeks at the end of the season, or just to shelve it all for this year and come out swinging in 2011.  The bike needs new tires, a new exhaust, and a few other tid bits before it hits the track again anyway, so I might be better served just waiting, doing those things over next winter, and getting the most out of it next year.  But boy, is that ever depressing to contemplate.

Sheesh, 2011!  I'll be hitting the track on a seven year old bike!  I'll try to massage a few more ponies out of her, but chances are, I'll be increasingly outclassed.  As much as I hate to think about it, eventually, I'm going to have to upgrade equipment.  Still, I'm not particularly worried about that until I'm starting to race seriously.  No sense in blowing money on equipment when the rider isn't up to it, right?

But anyway, there's plenty for me to do in the mean time.  I'll be rehabbing the knee, then once that's good enough, getting back on the mountain bike.  I was in the middle of a weight loss program (and having some success!) when I dorked up my knee, so I'll need to get back on track with that, as well.  I'll do my best to keep this site up to date with my progress, and hopefully I'll have some more interview and article content to post as well!

Until next time...

America’s Fastest Couple

Interview with Josh Hayes and Melissa Paris
By Pete Hitzeman
for R6Live.com

Ride of a lifetime

On a chilly, but otherwise perfect February morning in Gulfport, Mississippi, two Ohio Air National Guard F-16Ds shattered the quiet morning with their thunderous afterburners. One by one, they streaked down the runway, raising up slightly at mid-length and retracting their landing gear. Abruptly and with afterburner still lit, they stood on their tails and hurtled skyward, subjecting their passengers to an enormous G load as the jets climbed to ten thousand feet in an instant.

In the back seats of those F-16s were none other than Graves Yamaha’s American Superbike star Josh Hayes, and his wife, rising Yamaha star Melissa Paris. While the pair are certainly no strangers to speed and agility, the two riders spent the next hour revising their definitions to those words. 9-G turns, dogfight maneuvers, and a host of aerobatics in the skies over southern Mississippi pushed jets and humans alike to their limits, but all returned safely (and with empty airsickness bags!).

For Josh, getting this ride was a lifelong dream, come true. He grew up just off the south end of the runway in Gulfport, and spent many hours as a child watching F-4 Phantoms and, later, F-16 Fighting Falcons taking off and landing. His reaction to his dream’s fulfillment? “You could just say I giggled a lot!” Maj. Bernie “Bunyan” Willis put the fighter thoroughly through its paces, giving Hayes the full experience. “It was fantastic; it was fun from the word ‘go.’… Everybody here at the Ohio Air National Guard has been really, really nice to me. I had a great time.”

While getting a back seat ride in an F-16 hadn’t been a lifelong goal for Melissa, she was equally awestruck by the experience. After being delayed slightly by a minor maintenance malfunction, her nerves eased a bit, but not entirely. “I was joking as we were taxiing away,” said Melissa “that this is like the minute that you’re strapped in the roller coaster, and it’s too late to say ‘man, I don’t really wanna do this!’” While Josh was giggling in his helmet, Melissa was “squealing” in hers.

Melissa has been the back seat rider for Chris Ulrich when he was going for a lap record. How did that compare to being a back seat rider in an F-16? “[The ride with Ulrich] was almost, in a way, more scary, because I know Chris Ulrich, and I know when he gets excited... I could see ten years down the road, him being like ‘hahaha, remember that time I was trying to go real fast, and Josh Hayes’s wife ended up getting pitched off the back of the bike!’ Somehow I just can’t see ZEB (her pilot, Lt. Col Zane “ZEB” Brown) over here being like, 10 years from now ‘hahaha, remember that time I was totally flying over my head, and I had to eject that chick out of the back!’”

Season Preview

Hayes is understandably optimistic about his upcoming season. Winner of seven Superbike races last year, to include three double victories and the last four consecutive races, he feels that they have a very strong starting place this year. Even over the winter break, Josh believes he can carry momentum into this season. “I think momentum is probably just a sly word for confidence,” he opined. “That affects how you’re riding more than momentum. …I’m confident rolling into the first race that I can race for the win.”

Paris is looking forward to a much more focused season this year, in several ways. Finally parking her 250 Grand Prix bike, she’ll be concentrating entirely on the Daytona Sportbike class this year. And her expectations for herself are higher, as well. After breaking her leg last year at VIR, she entered a very aggressive rehabilitation plan. Now that she has recovered, she’s turned to an intense physical training regimen, to be more ready to contest the AMA series.

For entirely different reasons, Josh and Melissa both feel they have unfinished business in World Supersport. Josh participated in the last three rounds of the series in 2008, riding for Parkalgar Honda, and putting on quite the show at Portimão, just missing out on the podium. But while he is eyeballing a return to the world stage, he has other goals to accomplish first: “I would love another opportunity to go and try that, and I would love to do it with Yamaha if possible. But right now I have unfinished business in the US, and I think that comes first. Not only do I want to … fulfill some of my goals of a Superbike championship, but I would also like to see if I can help build AMA Pro racing back to being a strong series that world contenders want to come be a part of, and help raise the level of our sport here in the US.”

Melissa became the first female to qualify for the World Supersport grid last year at Miller Motorsports Park, and was progressing well through the race when her bike suffered an engine failure. After the enormous investment she had made getting into the race, having it end that way was gutting. Nevertheless, she wants to try for it again, and this time, do it all the way. If she has the opportunity to race in WSS again this year, she’ll be entering on a properly prepared, WSS-spec machine, and with the added experience of racing on a pro circuit full time. Unbeknownst to many, her entry in the Miller round of World Supersport was only her second pro race ever!

Besides contesting the full AMA schedule and keeping an eye on World Supersport opportunities, the couple is considering some further action in endurance racing this year. With Graves offering a $40,000 purse in the middleweight class of the WERA National Endurance Series, a cameo appearance is tempting. “If she’ll let me ride her bike,” Hayes admits. To be fair, Melissa agreed to that, “If he lets me keep the winnings!”

While Graves Motorsports has increased its support paddock-wide for Yamaha riders, including offering factory-built customer bikes, Hayes will be the sole factory rider this year. But he doesn’t think that will present any real challenges through the season. Last season, he and then-teammate Ben Bostrom went different directions with the setup of the new-for-2009 R1, so the benefit of having a teammate for testing and bike development was somewhat limited.

Like many riders who have ridden for other manufacturers, Josh has been impressed with the familial atmosphere at Yamaha. “You feel like you’re part of a family. They’ve been very good about making you feel at home, and like you’re a part of the program there, rather than just a contractor. They’ve treated me really well. They’ve believed in me and given me the tools I need to do my job.”

Yamaha’s worldwide rider line-up this year reads like a who’s who of motorcycle roadracing. In MotoGP alone, their riders account for ten Grand Prix world championships and three World Superbike championships. In World Superbike, a double series champion has been paired with the defending World Supersport champion. In AMA, three time national champion Hayes carries the flag, and in even in BSB, former World Superbike champion Neil Hodgson has returned to vie for the title. It would appear that Yamaha has pulled out all the stops, looking for a clean sweep. Coincidence or clever strategy? “I think that’s what their goal is,” Josh agreed. “A lot of people are pulling back in this time. Yamaha is looking at this economic time as an opportunity to put their face out there, and make sure that when people are ready to start spending money on motorcycles again, it’s Yamahas that they’re buying... I think their approach is hey, let’s go out there and win everything we can. And I think it’s a smart approach… I feel lucky to be a part of all that.”

Life at the racetrack

But life for America’s fastest couple isn’t always sunny track time and F-16 rides. Both have had some hairy crashes over the years; Josh losing his brakes on a Superbike at Laguna Seca, Melissa breaking the crankshaft on her 250 at Road Atlanta, each with scary results. But despite the injuries and crashes (and in Josh’s case, pleas from his mother), neither has ever seriously considered quitting.

The pair have also had some unique experiences at the track, ranging from the painful, to the confusing, to the downright bizarre. Several years ago, at Brainerd, Josh was struck in the right shoulder by a two-pound bird. The impact knocked him off the race track and numbed his arm, but he proceeded, undeterred, to break the track record trying to get back to the front. Hayes finished 2nd in the race, and found bones and feathers embedded in the hump on the back of his suit after pulling into the podium.

Josh’s wildlife adventures have also included turtles on the track at Daytona and Jennings, deer on the back straight at Road America, and a seagull-hunting bald eagle in the International Horseshoe at Daytona. But more daunting than nature was the car he faced VIR, who thought it would be okay after spinning out to use the North Course as a shortcut to return to the South Course. “But he was going backwards, and I was ON the North course!” Josh explained. “That happens pretty quick… Your focus definitely gets pulled away from what you’re doing for a second.”

Perhaps more terrifying still was Melissa’s encounter with another foreign object on the race track ― a Harley. She was doing a track day at Infineon, and explains: “I’m coming down the front straight, clicking fourth gear, tucked in, and all the sudden a dude on a Harley cuts across the racetrack! Some dude on a Harley Davidson thought he could just go out on the race track and cut some laps. He’d been going along pit wall, and then realized that there was a chicane, and cut all the way across the race track in front of me. You’re out there, yeah, everyone’s going a different pace, but… It was a full-dress, like bags and everything, the whole nine yards. Just cuts in front of me and I’m like ‘uh………. Okay…’”

Hayes professes to not have a favorite race track, though he enjoys purpose-built, modern road courses far more than the infield courses at ovals. Melissa, however, is far less equivocal: “Miller Motorsports Park. Hands down, no question about it. It’s like a real race track! It’s fast, it’s nice, it’s super safe. The surface is good. …I think I’d take racing at Miller in the rain over racing in the dry at most tracks!”

While World Superbike and MotoGP have both enjoyed broad success in recent years with spec tires, Hayes and Paris maintain the jury’s still out on the experiment in AMA. “The idea behind it was to level the playing field and also reduce cost,” said Josh. “The problem is, it did level the playing field, it did not reduce cost.” Melissa points to the fact that many riders who were previously able to secure tire contracts or contingency deals with other manufacturers are now unable to do so. Her tire bill for this season, not including tests, is likely to exceed $30,000, an enormous amount for a privateer. Had she been able to stay with Pirelli, that cost could likely have been reduced significantly.

Hayes and Paris plainly enjoy their unique circumstance of being married to a fellow professional roadracer. Josh relates: “I’m very, very fortunate that my wife is my best friend. And for the amount of time we spend together, we’re very lucky we haven’t choked each other! ...It’s been really good to have her behind me, have a travel companion, and to have the backbone of all my program and my life right there with me everywhere I go, every step of the way, understanding how bad I want it, and how hard I’m willing to work for it, and how much I’m willing to risk to get there, because she’s living the same thing.”

Despite racing in the same series, and once even in the same race (last year’s Daytona 200), husband and wife each agree that the other isn’t a distraction. “I think we got tested this year at Virginia when I broke my leg,” Melissa admitted. “Josh came and saw me in the medical center as they’re ready to pack me into an ambulance to go to the hospital, and he had to walk out of there and go suit up and go race... The last thing I want is Josh sitting on that motorcycle and worrying about me. So I’m trying to put on the brave face. ‘Oh I’m totally fine, I’m totally okay, nothing’s even wrong… It doesn’t even hurt!’ I think when Josh went out and won that race while I was in the hospital getting my leg set and put into a splint, probably made [people] realize that he knows when it’s time to put his helmet on and go to work.”

Underlining the theory that opposites attract, Josh and Melissa’s pre-race demeanors are completely different. “Josh is so fun loving and joking around, having a great time,” said Melissa. “I’m like ‘don’t even look at me, don’t look in my direction.’ I’ve got headphones on and I hate everybody.” “My best rides have always been when I’ve been relaxed,” Josh explained. “And I think the best rides from Melissa have been when she feels the pressure and the need to go out and destroy everyone.”


Hayes and Paris will be putting on their respective game faces this week at Daytona, as Josh competes in the Superbike double-header, and Melissa races in the Daytona 200. The 200 will be broadcast live on SpeedTV, Friday evening at 8pm Eastern, and will feature Hayes doing some live pit reporting! The Superbike races will air back-to-back Saturday night, starting at 10:30 Eastern, also on Speed. And be sure to check out OnTheThrottle.com’s coverage of Daytona, as well as their feature video about Josh and Melissa’s F-16 rides!

Interview with Josh Hayes and Melissa Paris

Be sure to head on over to R6Live.com and read my recent interview with Yamaha AMA pros Josh Hayes and Melissa Paris!

http://www.r6live.com/content.php?r=82-R6Live.com-Exclusive-Interview-Josh-Hayes-Melissa-Paris!

Also, don't miss OnTheThrottle's coverage of their recent back seat rides in two Ohio Air National Guard F-16s:

http://www.onthethrottle.com/content/view/554/1/