Troy Bayliss to Race in GNC

Road race hero Troy Bayliss, one of the proper good guys in world racing, is going to race a select number of GNC Miles on the Lloyd Brothers Ducati this season.

At the age of 45, the former car sprayer has had a second wind. He is Aussie dirt track and Supermoto champ. He raced at the Superprestigio (but didn't make the final) and hosts his own high profile, star-studded Troy Bayliss Classic flat track race in his hometown of Taree.

The announcement is getting non-FT fans very excited, which has only got to be good for the sport.

Bayliss is one of a handful of riders to win a MotoGP and WSB race (Bayliss didn't just win a WSB race, he won 52 of them and three WSB titles). Bayliss, Hayden, Biaggi, Kocinski, Checa... Who am I missing?

All Bayliss's wins were on Ducati, so the link with Lloyd Brothers make sense.

If Bayliss has a good showing (easier said than done), perhaps it will convince Nicky Hayden to pack in being an also-ran on an uncompetitive bike in MotoGP and go back to his first love.

The Lloyd Brothers Ducati won back in 2010 with Joe Kopp on board. It was Ducati's first and, so far, only GNC win. Two-time GNC champ Jake Johnson rode for Ramspur Winery-Supported Lloyd Brothers team in 2014, and had the choice of XR750, Kawasaki and Ducati (see above, our own snaps from Pomona in October).

Out of the 12 mile or half-mile races, he chose the Ducati four times; XR750 five times and the Kawasaki three times. In a very consistent season he was never lower than sixth,. He scored two seconds on the XR, one second on the Kawasaki, but 'only' three fourths and a fifth on the Italian bike. G

Bayliss in Australian dirt track action. 

On the 1098 Superbike.

And the Desmosedici. It's going to be great to see him on the Miles. He sounds confident and Jared Mees is quoted as saying he's ready (though he's hardly going to say he'll get his ass handed to him). 

Pomona Half-Mile

The final race of the season. The decider. Mees, Smith and Johnson can all win it, going into this race. Smith had already won the Dash for Cash (for the top six qualifiers) by this point... G

Pomona GNC Finale: Next Weekend

The 2014 Grand National Championship is going down to the wire next Saturday. Jared Mees is leading but Bryan Smith and, I think, Jake Johnson can still win the #1 plate.

Get your tickets here: flattrackfinals.com

Riders not in with a chance of the title will be going for the win, too. Sammy Halbert is on fire, winning the big money race at Willow Springs yesterday and the current number 1. Brad Baker won Pomona last year and the last weekend's Calistoga half-mile.

And, I'M GOING TO BE THERE.

I'll be in a black hooded sweat with Sideburn on the front.

I'll be at the big race at Perris the night before too. G

Pomona Half-Mile Round-up

Brad Baker won't be carrying that number next year. the 20-year-old won the Expert Twins and Expert Singles.

There are lots of rumours about Kenny Coolbeth's future. He came sixth at Pomona and fifth in the final twins standings, sixth in the combined.

Wyatt Maguire, who is from the same town of Mead, Washington as Brad Baker, won the Pro Singles class by one point from Ryan Wells.

Ducati leathers on a Harley. Henry Wiles was dropped by the Lloyd Brothers team, but rustled up an XR750 and made the main.

Bryan Smith could've pipped Baker to the title, if the younger rider slipped up, but he didn't put a wheel wrong.

Out-going champion, Jared Mees came fourth at Pomona and fourth in the title after an early season injury screwed his season.

Briar Bauman came in third in the main on a Suzuki SV1000!

Nichole Cheza wiping out.

Ducati v Triumph. Jake Johnson #5 would come out on top at the end of, but both he and Mikey Martin #91 made the main.
There were 11 Harleys (one was a Buell, I think), 4 Kawasakis, 2 Triumphs, 1 Ducati and 1 Suzuki in the 19-man Main.
Here are more stats from Tyler Porter's Inslide Line. Incidentally, Tyler has written for the next Sideburn, out next Month.

The unofficial dirt track statistical expert, Bert Sumner sent me an email this week that was just chocked FULL of awesome stats from the year. For instance, Brad Baker is the 4th youngest ever Grand National Champion. However, that is pretty widely known. Check out the rest of the facts that he sent along. For instance, this year we had 3 different OEM's on a mile podium for the first time since April 30th 1972 and we had 3 different OEM's on a half-mile podium since October 9th, 1976. We had the most first time winners this year since 2002 when a whopping 6 different riders won their first national. The last fact that I thought I would include was that for the first time since May 3rd 1987, we had a Grand National Mile without a Harley Davidson on the podium. Pretty neat stuff about our 2013 season. Thank you for sending that along Bert!!

The Dash. All those mentioned so far plus Sammy Halbert #7 who didn't finish the main.

A happy team.

All photos courtesy of AMA Pro Racing.

Chopper Dave at Pomona

Chopper Dave's Loud Fast Rules is one of the first blogs I ever came across and I visit regularly. Dave loves dirt track and speedway, he's raced a bit, and was at Pomona shooting. He posted a photo of someone in a Sideburn Gene shirt. Who are you, mister?
We have a feature on one of Chopper Dave's bikes coming up in Issue 5. GI

John Kocinski's Wood Rotax

Krumple said that John Kocinski turned up to race at Pomona on a nice Wood Rotax (he was hardly going to ride a nail, was he?). But, we didn't know just how nice until we saw these shots on Poppawheelie. This is beautiful. A monoshock with rare RWU Ohlins (UPDATE - I've looked at these photos more closely and the forks look like Yam R6, with nitrided stanchions. Sorry) and PM wheels. If, by any weird quirk, you are reading this Mr Kocinski, can we come take some photos of it please?
The 40-year-old Kocinski was flying, it seems, winning a semi in the Open Class and losing the final to the XR750-mounted Wiles, who won the National and was obviously on fire.
There's a cool interview on Cycle News.

This is one highlight

Do the [MotoGP] 800s interest you?
Nah... I enjoy the flat track racing and that's why I put this bike together. When I stopped dirt tracking at a very young age and went road racing, that's when the Rotax were just coming out. It was a bike I never got to ride and I always wanted one so I figured, ‘what the hell I'll start right here.' We've got a big task ahead of us to do well and we have to make sure we don't fall short of our expectations.

We told you John Kocinski was back into flat track exactly one year ago. We love the Wood Rotax patches on John's leathers. That's the respect Ron Wood deserves. Want to learn more about Wood's bikes? Buy Sideburn 3 for the eight-page feature. GI

Sideburn represented at Pomona 2

A few notes:
From Krumpledick...

Gene [Romero, organiser of the West Coast Flat Track series, that co-promoted Pomona] had a helluva few weeks leading up to that event. The Love Ride cancellation created a huge shitstorm. And as always, he prevails and pulls it off. The event ran nearly flawless, remarkable considering the unusual co-promotion with DMG.

The track was menacing. It tore up easily and although the equipment and prep crew was top notch, they only could manage a barely-raceable surface. But that slowed nobody down. Unlike the first two years, the stands were nearly at capacity - most remarkable considering the last minute Love Ride cancellation and all of the negativity that swirled around.

The sequence is from second practice at Pomona, Jimmy Sanchez, sponsored by Bud Riddle. Jimmy Sanchez's practice crash was grandiose. Fortunately, his stay in the hospital was quite short.
Bud wasn't very happy as Jimmy flew and Wayne Karcich brought along some tainted fuel and left it for Bud to deal with. Was a fantastic night. The highlight of the evening was Sammy Halbert. Sammy wasn't very fast in open practice, nor the heats. But once it came down to business, he found the setup... and just in time. Sidelined GP250 racer Stevie Bonsey went down, taking Halbert with him in turn 4. Bonsey retired, but Slamsonite remounted and started from the back row. At the drop of the flag he started what seemed to be the insurmountable peak. On lap 23 he battled up to third place. Given a couple of extra laps, my money was on him winning. Five laps, he likely would have won from last place.
And he did it all with a seriously mashed-up left leg. Heart, Big Heart.

Sammy's ride in the main was nothing short of remarkable. Bonsey took him out on lap two and on the re-start he just mowed through the pack, a solid third at the checkers. Five more laps and he could have won the thing.

The world's worst track food can be found at Pomona. $7.50 for a chili dog that was so gross, I still get a weak stomach as I think of it. All of the food was unfettered garbage.
The girls were better than average and that's saying something
Mikey Martin was the first WCFTS rider in history to win two championships. (Open class and TopGun 450 class).
John Kocinski had the trickest dirt track pits ever seen and he rode quite well on a pristine Rotax.

'Hey, you're on my shirt' Wayne K (whose Yamaha TT500 framer is in Sideburn 4) and Gene Romero).

Wayne K. An athlete. Look at the sweat rings on that Sideburn shirt. That's what you get racing at the front in Californian flat track races. Hey, it's pay day. Get your own Sideburn Gene shirt.

Your new number 1

Been away for a few days, so this is belated news but the new Grand National Champion is Sideburn 3 cover star, Jammin Jared Mees. Henry Wiles won the Pomona Main (and is the GNC Singles number 1). Looks like the had a big crowd. Hopefully, this means pro flat track has a foothold back in California. Coolbeth has to give up his 1 plate, finishing a close second. The sensational Sammy Halbert was third. Sideburn's favourite, Chris Carr was sixth overall. Brad Baker won the Pro Singles.
Were you there? Tell us what it was like. GI
Photos: AMA Pro Racing

Sideburn represented at Pomona 1

From David P in California.

Thought I'd let you guys know that Sideburn was represented at the recent Pomona Flat Track races. The Gene shirt (and mags) you sent made it in time. Wish I and the pic were more handsome but here I am showing off my all access backstage pass and Sideburn shirt in the Lloyd Brothers "pit" (aka easy-up).

The races were incredible and I gotta say thanks to you Brits for hipping me to something thats been growing in my backyard all these years. Lord knows how much of this I missed when I was living back in Kentucky. Flat trackin' is some low-down, neighborly stuff; the champs got an easy-up and camping chairs like everyone else and merchandising is so non-existent that we couldn't even find a program listing the riders and numbers.

More pics are here

Additionally, there was yet another Sideburn moment a few days before the races as the Italian moto shop whose web-site I look after (the same shop that received the Deus Mono) had a birthday cocktail party. Just before the party arrangements were made for the Lloyd Brothers to stop by and present their Aprilia and Ducati Flat Trackers for the assembled.
Best of luck, David

Ant at Pomona

Another beauty from Wayne. This is his brother Ant. Tres, tres jolie! Thanks Wayne. What's the engine and chassis? There seems to be a lot of spring compression on the back (my season's coming up and I'm in the dark on all that stuff), why? G

'This is at Pomona. My brother Anthony on one of Bud Riddle's bike. Ant is actually the fast rider in the family if the truth be told. The photo is by the Japanese photographer Shogo who is a kick in the ass to hang out with.'

Sunshine Superman

Regular SB blog geezer Wayne Karcich was looking through old posts when he found this one about a Yamaha TR1 race bike. And he wrote to ask:

'Dude! Where was this pic from? I rode this bike at Pomona last year. It's a 100 hp Yamaha, about 900cc. I'm hoping to beg a ride on it for the Stockton Ca mile race this year. It belongs to a guy named Bud Riddle.
Here's a pic of me riding the animal at Lodi and Pomona.'

Well, we don't know where it came from. Sorry, Wayne. Lovely shots of you riding though.

New third picture added, thanks to Poppa Wheelie. Shot in the paddock at Pomona.