WERA West, Round Three, Vegas, Baby! Part Three

More pictures from Round Three of the WERA West event at Las Vegas Motor Speedway:

Christopher De La Torre.

Ken Pfister leads Armen Manougian, Brad Saenz, Terry Heard and Mookie Wilkerson.

Anas Sorhmat leads Matt Warnert.

Harm Jansen.

The Factory Effect

Jonathan Rea's string of victories to start the 2017 season sparked a (predictable, it must be said) cry among some quarters of the roadracing community that the Superbike World Championship needed help. The racing was too boring, the results predictable, etc. Never mind how close some of the victories were, never mind how much effort Rea and team had put into winning. Never mind how hard Chaz Davies and Ducati have been pushing Kawasaki. Never mind that the points table masks just how close the races actually have been.

For a world with an ever-decreasing attention span and an insatiable appetite for greater and greater stimulation, changes were needed to keep WorldSBK a viable enterprise, the argument went.

And just as predictably, the same simplistic suggestions on how to "level the field" were trotted out - at least, some of them. Problem for the complainers is that some of the obvious have been tried - and have failed to solve the perceived "problem."

The spec tire rule in World Superbike has been a success and a failure, depending on which year you look at, in terms of the outcome of races and the closeness of the finishes. There are a lot of positives to a spec tire approach, and generally Pirelli has done a spectacular job with a very difficult task, but obviously there are other factors that play as great or greater a role in determining the closeness and variety of race results.

Another simplistic suggestion is the tried-and-tired call for "spec electronics." Many motorcycle road racers and Technology Prima Donnas share a common trait, which is, to quote Scott Adams, the creator of the "Dilbert" cartoon empire, "an obsessive preference for old technology." The motorcycle version of this is a comment that I've heard muttered in paddocks: "If it wasn't on a Norton featherbed it's no good ..."

For this audience, computers and electronics are witchcraft and sorcery, the racing world would be a better place if they never had been invented, and banning ECUs and throwing them all into Mount Doom would bring about Nirvana.

Enough people bought into this specious argument that MotoGP now uses specified hardware, software and sensors. The impact has been exactly what many people (including myself) predicted: Virtually none.

The difference between the races in the relatively unfettered ECU era of MotoGP and the current era can be found primarily in Michelin's struggle to develop tires for the class. This process means that the company is bringing a wide variety of rubber to the track, constantly changing the compounds and constructions, and the teams can't develop their bikes around the tires because they are a moving Michelin target.

Throw in some unpredictable weather, some tracks where the surface is dirty, and you get some unpredictable finishes. But to conclude that the spec ECU made MotoGP racing closer is to mistake causation for correlation, the same sort of logic that resulted in many, many virgins being chucked into volcanos to make sure the sun rose in the morning.

No reason to take my word for it. Here's what Ducati's Ernesto Marinelli told bikesportnews.com recently about the proposal for a spec ECU in World Superbike:

"In any case a control ECU in MotoGP has been applied over the last couple of years and it doesn’t really change much on the performance of the bikes or the diversity of the manufacturer,” said Marinelli, speaking to bikesportnews.com. “Of course, if you put the same platform on every team, you have the guarantee everyone has the same potential but in the end the performance on the track is not only the electronics but the dynamics of the bike, the performance of the engine, the ability to set up the bike and having the best rider.

"Honestly, I think little bit levelling the potential of the electronics will not be that effective on downgrading the high-performing teams or upgrade the lesser-performing ones."

So if it's not tires, it's not electronics, what makes the factory Kawasaki and Ducati teams so dominant in World Superbike?

Call it the Factory Effect.

In a recent podcast posted at roadracingworld.com, Jonathan Rea pointed out that the ZX-10RR sold in the dealership incorporates feedback from world-level racers, and very specifically himself. The bike is designed around the feedback from Rea and Tom Sykes, the winners of three of the last four Superbike titles. They test the machine, and they don't just bring it back into the pits to change compression damping. Rea and Sykes fly to Japan to talk to the people who draw the machine. Their feedback alters the fundamental design of the bike. That's not marketing fluff. To misquote Ricky Bobby, 'cause that just happened.

Compare that to the approach of Honda in World Superbike and elsewhere, where the development of the new CBR1000RR has been left to the race shops or the individual teams. Kawasaki is punching race-oriented ZX-10RRs off the production lines. Honda is making streetbikes (and CBR1000RRs are really, really amazing streetbikes) but the Honda race teams are trying to keep up on their own with the development of Kawasaki's factory.

The results that you see at the track are exactly what you'd expect, given that scenario. Kawasaki runs up front, Honda struggles at the back. Effort equals results.

One of the really fascinating things about this, though, is that it's not just in WorldSBK that Kawasaki does so well. Think about it: The closer the bike is to race-ready when it comes off the assembly line, the less there is to do to it and the closer a lesser-funded team can get to the front.

There's a reason that Tech3 runs Yamaha and LCR runs Honda in MotoGP. The bikes are good, close to front-line factory spec, so while the initial investment is significant, they have the ongoing financial capability of fielding a machine that is competitive. How much would it cost a satellite team to make the Aprilia or KTM competitive in MotoGP? Honestly, no one knows, because not even the factories there have gotten it right yet.

But you look at privateer Bobby Fong in MotoAmerica, racing a Kawasaki ZX-10 in Superstock trim with no support from Kawasaki and giving some of the Superbike teams absolute fits on the track. You look at the teams that run Kawasaki in British Superbikes, and given a machine that incorporates the feedback from riders as amazing as Sykes and Rea, they're also running at the front.

Two things to wrap this up:

The Factory Effect is so powerful that in two widely different configurations, the ZX-10RR is a race-winning beast. In WorldSBK, electronics are as unfettered as they are anywhere in the world. In BSB, there's a spec ECU with no traction control. In both series, Kawasaki riders sit 1-2 in the points table.

In both series, the two machines that are closest to race-ready from the factory - the ZX-10RR and the Ducati Panigale R - sit at the top of the charts. And if you want to really drill into the facts, consider the standings in WorldSBK and British Superbike as of today, June 21, 2017.

Chaz Davies and his Ducati Panigale R (with full electronic rider aids) sat in third place in World Superbike points, with 185, compared to the 296 points of leader Jonathan Rea on the Kawasaki ZX-10RR. Davies has 62.5 percent of the points scored by Rea.

Shakey Byrne and his Ducati Panigale R (with no rider aids) sat in third place in British Superbike points, with 90, compared to the 141 points of leader Luke Mossey on the Kawasaki ZX-10RR. Byrne has 63.8 percent of the points scored by Mossey.

Racing works in mysterious ways.

WERA West, Round Three, Vegas - Part Two

More images from the WERA West round , May 2017, Las Vegas

 Ron Gentile.

 Yuri Barrigan.

 Brian Morris.

WERA West, Round Three - Vegas

Photos from the May 2017 WERA West round in Las Vegas:

David Guerrero.

Sahar Zvik.

Christopher Carron.

Erick Vizcaino.

Speaking Ducati

The names of Jorge Lorenzo and Marco Melandri are preceded by an honorific few humans ever will be known by: Grand Prix World Champion. Lorenzo has a title in every Grand Prix class in which he has participated; Melandri won the 250cc GP title in 2002. Melandri has finished second in the MotoGP championship with multiple wins on a satellite machine. Lorenzo has 44 wins in MotoGP alone to his name.

Point is, these two know how to ride a roadracing machine.

Second point: Both of them are having their hindquarters served to them on a silver platter by their teammates.

The names of Andrea Dovisioso and Chaz Davies are well-known to race fans, but they are not rated nearly as highly as Lorenzo, who rides alongside Dovi in MotoGP, and Melandri, who joined Davies on the Aruba.it Racing Panigale for 2017. Dovisioso, the 2004 125cc GP Champion, has fewer MotoGP race wins than Melandri, despite riding for the factory teams of Honda and Ducati and starting more MotoGP races than Melandri. Davies has spent most of his career on production-based machinery, and his only World Championship came in World Supersport.

And yet, so far, Dovisioso has a win and a second in MotoGP this season, while Lorenzo has taken a single third place. Since the end of 2010, Ducati has three MotoGP wins; Dovi has two of them. In the Superbike World Championship, Davies has eight podiums to Melandri’s six, but only Davies has won (twice) while several of Melandri’s podiums have come in races where Davies has crashed.

Third point: All four of these riders race Ducati.

What is the difference between the race-winning journeymen and the struggling superstars? At its core, the difference is that Dovi and Davies have learned to speak the language of Ducati.

Learning this language did not happen overnight. And perhaps it only happened because Davies and Dovi were kind of forced to.

Dovisioso only spent his third season on the Repsol Honda factory team because he had a contract that required Honda to provide him a factory bike if he met certain performance criteria. Honda had signed Casey Stoner and wanted Dovi to go away. Dovi reminded Honda of its contract, and to its credit, Honda gave him a factory bike for 2011. But at the end of the year, with Stoner and Dani Pedrosa already signed and Dovi out of contract, the Italian had to shop around for work. Dovi spent a year on the Tech3 satellite Yamaha, but was getting older and factories weren't returning his phone calls. And when Valentino Rossi bailed on Ducati, it wasn't like riders were lining up to ride the machine that Rossi couldn't tame, the machine that had a reputation as a career-killer. Ducati needed a rider; Dovi needed a factory ride.

Here's what Dovi chose to do/was allowed to do that no other Ducati factory rider has since: He stayed with Ducati. Teammates came and went, but Dovi was a faithful partner to Ducati. And he showed that he was married to the factory, for better or for worse, at the beginning of 2015. Even after no wins, one pole and two podiums in 2013 and 2014 combined, Andrea showed up at the pre-season test at Qatar with a diagram of the desmodromic valve gear stenciled across the butt of his leathers, alongside his new married name, "Desmo Dovi."

From that point on, Dovi wasn't thinking about whether the Ducati was better or worse than other bikes. It was all about learning to ride the Ducati MotoGP machine that he had between his legs at that moment. He wasn't going anywhere else; this was the bike he had, and he had committed to racing this machine as best he could.

That meant learning the bike intimately, figuring out how to read the inputs from a bike that was so different than other MotoGP bikes that riders like Rossi, Melandri, Nicky Hayden and Cal Crutchlow never quite unraveled the language that the bike spoke. That meant learning to speak back to the machine in a language that no other MotoGP bike responded to. Over the years, Dovi and the Ducati have come to know each other, and Dovi can, it is fair to say, whisper into the bike's ear and convince it to do things that no other rider - even a rider as supernaturally talented as Lorenzo - can get the bike do.

Davies found himself looking for a ride after his BMW factory Superbike World Championship team disappeared after the 2013 season. And once again, the factory Ducati team wasn't exactly desirable for riders looking for race-winning machinery. After Carlos Checa won 15 races in 2011 to take the World Championship for Ducati, the outdated 1098R took Checa to only four wins in 2012, and the new Panigale was such a poor racebike that Checa scored no wins in 2013 and quit the sport.

Davies didn't immediately drag the Panigale into the winner's circle, but he did score four podiums in 2014. The next season was better, with 18 podiums and five wins, followed by 2016 with 11 wins for the Panigale. So far, Davies is the only rider to take a Panigale across the finish line first in Superbike World Championship competition. And if the first job of a professional racer is to beat your teammate, Davies has accomplished that beyond any question.

Davies and Dovi are in long-term relationships with the unique machines that come from Bologna. Each has developed an ability to communicate with their racebikes in a way that their new-to-the-relationship teammates haven't quite nailed down yet. Given enough time, there isn't any reason that Lorenzo and Melandri won't be able to match or exceed the performance of Dovi and Davies.

But right now, there are no two riders anywhere on the planet who speak better Ducati.

Ramming Speed Track Days - Cool Bikes, Mellow Riders

Brady Walker and Ramming Speed put on totally cool track days at Willow Springs. Aimed at the vintage, classic, standard and non-supersport riders and machines, they are perfect for new riders, street riders, riders with cool old machines and riders who don't want to try to break the lap record. 

A walk around the paddock on a Ramming Speed day is worth the price of admission. Cool bikes, mellow people - what's not to like?

Next event is June 17, flat-track at Willow, followed by a full day on the 2.5-mile road course at Willow Springs.

Contact Brady at 310.980.7129 or at info@bradywalker.com. Register ASAP.

World Superbike Champion Jonathan Rea - The Podcast

I had the privilege of interviewing two-time and defending Superbike World Champion Jonathan Rea. We talked about how his amazing GP-like riding style emerged, the advantages and disadvantages of relying so heavily on mid-corner speed, and how the changes to Superbike specs have meshed with his riding style. You can listen to the podcast here:

Roadracing World - The Jonathan Rea Podcast