above: Hayden on the 2004 Repsol Honda - photo © Elliot L Doering

Laguna Seca is one of the most spectacular racing circuits in the world. Located in Monterey, California, the track includes one of the best known corners in competition, the notorious Corkscrew chicane. This is approached up an incline at speed, and at the crest the road goes to the left and at the same time suddenly dives steeply downhill, switching to the right in a curving run as the gradient brings competitors down into the final series of corners on the lap. It looks like the riders need to be brave on their first time through, as from the outside safety appears compromised to say the least. The remainder of the course is mostly fast, with a couple of tighter corners allowing for overtaking, not least the loop at turn two.

With America’s riders taking their place at the top of the sport during the mid-1980s, the United States Grand Prix was reintroduced at Laguna in 1988. The event was run seven times, but the GP circus has not been back since 1994, when the facilities were still relatively primitive, and the race lost money. After such a long absence, many of the current MotoGP riders were unfamiliar with the circuit, but experienced men Alex Barros, Max Biaggi, Carlos Checa, Kenny Roberts and Loris Capirossi had raced there in the early nineties. The last named won the 250cc race in 1993.

World Superbike events had been held here in more recent seasons, so that Colin Edwards, Troy Bayliss and Rubén Xaus have also been Laguna winners. Along with Roberts and Edwards, US racers Nicky Hayden and John Hopkins should also have known where they were going, something that wasn’t really true of Valentino Rossi, Sete Gibernau, Marco Melandri and the like. So although although the top guys are pretty adaptable, the new challenge meant there was still the prospect of a slight skewing of the familiar hierarchy.

And so it proved in qualifying, with Hayden dominating proceedings for Repsol Honda, and taking his first GP pole. The Camel RCVs of Barros and Bayliss were also well up, with Troy slotting in fourth, for his best grid position of the year to date. Alex was a place ahead in third. Hayden’s team-mate Biaggi was seventh, with Konica Minolta rider Makoto Tamada ninth. Title contenders Melandri and Gibernau were struggling on the MoviStar machines, respectively eleventh and thirteenth.

Either side of the Camel Hondas came the works Yamahas of Rossi (second) and Edwards (fifth). The marque was celebrating its 50th anniversary, and had gathered together a list of great champions from the sport, including Giacomo Agostini, Freddie Spencer, Eddie Lawson, Wayne Rainey, Kevin Schwantz and Mick Doohan - most of whom had ridden for them at some point. Additionally, the usual Gauloises bikes were this time painted up in the fetching yellow and black ‘bumble bee’ livery, as seen on ‘King’ Kenny Roberts’ title winning 500cc machines of 1978-1980, and on his domestic bikes before that.

Sixth place went to the consistenly impressive Hopkins, on the Suzuki GSV-R, with team-mate Kenny Junior twelfth. These bikes now sported Red Bull colours after an extended period without major sponsorship. Ducati’s boys were eighth (Checa) and fourteenth, with Capirossi feeling the effects of a dodgy stomach. Kawasaki were tenth and fifteenth, with Shin’ya Nakano again quicker than Alex Hofmann. Then came Xaus, Toní Elías, Roberto Rolfo, Shane Byrne, James Ellison and Franco Battaini.

The race got underway in hot and sunny conditions in front of a sell-out crowd. Hayden confirmed his practice pace by taking off in the lead, and he was already stretching away as the first lap unfolded. With Barros making a poor start, Bayliss initially held second, from Rossi, Biaggi, Hopkins, Checa, Edwards and Gibernau. Rossi quickly overtook Bayliss, whilst Gibernau’s charge soon took him past Edwards, and he then passed Checa at the final corner, turn eleven. The same location was the scene of a crash involving Barros and Melandri, and they were both out without a lap on the board.

Hayden continued to get away, and Rossi was likewise clearing the pursuing pack. Bayliss and Biaggi changed places a couple of times in front of Hopkins, while Edwards moved through to head Gibernau, Checa, Roberts, Nakano, Tamada, Rolfo, Capirossi, Hofmann, Xaus, Elías, Ellison, Byrne and Battaini. Edwards’ next move took him past Hopkins to fifth, whilst Biaggi soon completed his move on Bayliss for third.

In these early stages, much of the action centred on the battle for third place. A dramatically decisive moment came when Biaggi, Bayliss and Edwards fanned out three-abreast on the run uphill, with Gibernau lurking just behind them. Edwards was on the inside as they got to the Corkscrew, and passed Bayliss there. Biaggi was on the wrong side and so also lost out to Gibernau in a frantic few seconds. Edwards was now third, from Bayliss, Gibernau and Biaggi, but the last two changed order again when Sete overtook at turn eleven, the final left-hander. Checa also relegated Hopkins.

Now the race for victory was able to evolve, as Edwards set the fastest lap and began to drop the squabbling pack. The first three were soon each circulating alone, with Hayden holding 1.9s over Rossi. This lead was to grow to as much as 2.8s, whereas Rossi’s margin over Edwards began to come down. Of the leaders, Hayden, Rossi and Bayliss had gone for medium compound tyres all round, in contrast to the softer rears selected by Edwards and Gibernau - who were both benefiting at this stage.

Hayden stayed in command as he showed his skill by sliding the rear of the Honda. Meanwhile, Edwards had caught team-mate Rossi, and he made a move going inside into the left at the Corkscrew. It was a good pass, and he then proceeded to pull away relatively easily - helped when Rossi ran wide at turn two. Nicky’s 2.4s advantage was brought down to 1.9s, but it then began to fluctuate between this and about 2.4s again, as he started to respond to Colin.

Edwards’ advantage over Rossi had gone out to 1.3s, but in the final laps the Italian came back at him. With Hayden running out to an impressive maiden victory, about which he was obviously overjoyed, Colin’s fading rear grip meant that Valentino closed right up on the final lap. But he didn’t quite have enough in hand to try anything, so they finished together in that order. Rossi had been beaten by a team-mate for the first time in 22 outings.

In the ‘minor’ placings, Gibernau had lost out to Biaggi, who passed him on the inside through a tight right-hander on the flatter infield section. The two Honda riders had stayed close to begin with, but again the tyre factor meant that Sete had dropped away from Max towards the end, as the Roman even seemed like catching Rossi at one stage. By the flag they were fairly close again, but with Biaggi maintaining fourth position.

Bayliss had come under close attention from Checa, only for the Spaniard to slide off the track and out. This let Hopkins move back in behind Troy, with Nakano also in touch as Roberts dropped through the field from a one-time lonely ninth. In time Tamada had emerged to join the group, followed by the dogged Capirossi. Makoto made his way through to finish seventh, behind Bayliss and ahead of Hopkins, Nakano, Capirossi, Xaus, Hofmann, Elías, Roberts, Byrne, Ellison and Battaini.

The race had been a great success, especially for the experienced Superbike racers with their track knowledge. The home fans had seen an accomplished one-two for US riders, with class superstar Valentino Rossi bested on the day by both Nicky Hayden and Colin Edwards. In the title chase, Marco Melandri’s early exit meant that the points lead was up to 79, whilst Max Biaggi and Sete Gibernau didn’t really make any inroads. The 50th year for Yamaha is still looking like being a very good one for them.

Standings after eight races: Rossi 186; Melandri 107; Biaggi 100; Gibernau 95; Edwards 93; Hayden 85; Barros 74; Capirossi and Nakano 55; Bayliss 47; Checa 40; Xaus 33.

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