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A Grand Prix
is like a heist.

Beating the best riders
on the fastest bikes
in the world

is more than a matter
of racing ability.

It requires expert teamwork,

elaborate preparation
and faultless execution
under massive pressure,

with no margin for error.

The race is on Sunday
at00 p.m.

The teams arrive
on Wednesday.

They have four days to crack
the code of the racetrack

and set up the bike for this particular collection

of twists, turns
and elevation changes.

The riders practice
on Friday and Saturday.

Two days to master the track
and prepare themselves

for racing combat

at speeds of over
200 miles per hour
on the fastest tracks.

There are 17 races
on the MotoGP calendar.

Each at a different circuit,

presenting different
challenges.

The Red Bull US Grand Prix
at Laguna Seca

is a particularly
difficult proposition.

Laguna is one of the most
technically demanding

and physically intimidating
circuits on the planet.

More than that,

this is the first Grand Prix
on US soil since 1994.

Most of the riders have
never been here before.

Among the Laguna rookies
is one very special Italian.

World champion
Valentino Rossi.

The Doctor, as he is
known to millions of fans
around the world.

As of July 2005,

the 26-year-old
has won 48 Grand Prix

and four straight
world titles in
the premier class.

After winning five
of the season's
six races so far,

he's well on his way
to his fifth
MotoGP championship,

and well on the way
to sporting immortality.

Among those who have
raced at Laguna before

are three Americans
looking for their first
MotoGP victory.

Colin Edwards and Nicky Hayden moved into MotoGP
in 2003.

John Hopkins,
the year before.

If ever there was a race
they wanted to win,
this is it.

The race before Laguna
was at Assen,

a classic fast flowing
European track,

almost three miles long,
and this being Holland,

as flat as a pancake.

It's a place Rossi likes.

He's won three
MotoGP races there,

including this one,
ahead of rising Italian
star Marco Melandri.

Third place at Assen
was Colin Edwards' second
podium of the season.

Hayden finished fourth,

Hopkins a distant 13th,
his Suzuki down on power.

Hayden's Honda is widely
regarded as the best bike
out there,

but he hasn't made it
onto the podium in any
of the first six races.

This is his third season
in MotoGP.

If he wants to hang
onto the top spot
at Honda,

he needs
to start winning.

Laguna Seca is
the complete opposite
of Assen.

This is Californian
earthquake country.

The only flat part
of the 2.3 mile circuit
is the dry lake bed,

which gives
the place its name.

And which contains
turns three, four and 11.

The other eight corners
follow the contours
of the hills

around the lake
and range from

steeply-banked fast
sweepers to hair-raising
blind descents.

After Assen, the riders'
thoughts turned
to the American race.

Edwards, Hayden and Hopkins
know Laguna well

and have won races here
in other championships.

At this point, the closest
Valentino Rossi has
come to it

is on a video game
at home.

This one is one
of the hardest races for me.

It's a different
type of track

compared to all
the other tracks.

A lot of strange points
like the Corkscrew.

As you
climb the Corkscrew,

it's blind,
all you see is the sky.

The Corkscrew
awaits you at the top
of the hill

on the south side
of the circuit.

The corner's blind entry

drops into a steep
left-right chicane,

which looks more suited
to downhill skiing
than motorcycle racing.

The big
drop-off is like
a roller-coaster.

Once you turn in,
you gotta have
the confidence

just to flick it right,
and wait for the suspension
to load up,

to open the throttle.

That's my
favorite part
of the track.

So much G-force right
when you get to the bottom
of the Corkscrew.

And then you just throw it
into the left-hander.

The corner's so banked
that you can just throw it
in there completely hard.

You want to stay mid-track
there, as tight as possible
coming out of that corner

and then you drop down
into the right-hander,
that corner as well.

From the Corkscrew to turn 11, it's just an unbelievable
sensation.

It's all
about momentum from
the top of the Corkscrew

till you put the brakes on
for turn 11, keeping
your speed up.

If you mess up one corner,
it throws that whole
section off.

The last corner,
turn 11, it's pretty simple
once you come out,

they really gonna wanna
wheel it. I'm sure we'll be
standing on the rear brake,

trying to keep
the front wheel down
so we can open the throttle.

Everybody talks
about the Corkscrew

and how it's the masterpiece
of Laguna.

Honestly, turn one is
a hell of a lot more
scarier than the Corkscrew.

Turn one
doesn't look like
much of a corner.

At over 150 miles
an hour, it is.

Corkscrew, you're
only in second gear.

Except at turn one,
your shift's tapped.

You want
to touch the rear brake,

It keeps the g-force
under the front end,

keeps the front wheel down.

Coming up over the hill,

you're gonna want
to pick it up and let it
run all the way out

to the white line
at the edge of the track
while braking.

And it takes
years of experience
to get to the level

where you can actually
feel the front end

and know exactly
the fine line between
keeping it upright

and sliding the front end.

Turn three
catches a lot
of guys off.

I'm no different.

It's just so flat.

You really
have to rely on your
front end.

That's gonna be where
you want the best setup
possible for the front end

and have as much feedback
from it as soon as it
slides out.

It's pretty open
on the way in,

then gets tight as you exit,
so that's what makes
the trick.

Turn four is really fast.

That's where you
make your time,
in the fast corners.

Turn five is a good one.

There's a couple
of different lines in there.

A lot of guys brake
a little bit early,

and try to set themselves
up for a good drive
up the hill,

and it's really just like
the pass. Turn six,

that's when
it starts happening.

I've crashed there
a couple of times
while testing.

It's a very
difficult corner.

You know, you think
it's a lot more banked
than it actually is.

You're carrying a lot
of speed into that corner

from that little short
straight you have.

It's very important
to get the best
drive possible

coming out of that corner,
so you want to have the thing
upright as soon as possible,

driving up the hill.

When you get to
the bottom of the dip,

it fully loads
your suspension
and then it unloads

right as you're trying
to accelerate, so,

there's no weight
on the rear wheel.

Turn seven going up
over the hill into
the short left-hand kink,

you've got to know exactly
where you are on the track.

It's very easy to just run wide and run straight off the track.

Laguna is
everything from

fourth gear corners,
to first gear corners,

uphill, downhill,
off-camber, camber.

It doesn't really have
a straightaway that
you can relax,

and even on a normal track,
it might only be two seconds,

three seconds on
a straightaway,

that you get to kind
of loosen the grip.

You miss that when
you're at Laguna

'cause you don't have
two or three seconds
to loosen your grip anywhere.

Laguna's different
than any other track.

Some of the new tracks
now, they're all the same.

They make 'em
on a computer,

and they're designed
for Formula 1,

but I can tell you,
this track, it definitely

wasn't designed on
any computer.

It wasn't designed by a guy
sitting in an office,
in a chair.

It's a real racetrack
with real character.

We live with these people.
I see these people
more than I see my family.

Big Jeffrey.

Tremblay.

Howard.

-Okay?
-Doing good.

You all right? Tom?

-All right?
-Yeah, not bad.

Wednesday,
we spend all the morning
to set up the garages.

And in the afternoon,
we start to do a little
bit of work on the bikes.

The crew chief,
with the engineers,

they started to make
a technical plan.

Each MotoGP team
consists of a group
of highly-skilled specialists

with clearly-defined roles.

They figure out the track
together, set up
the bike together,

work hand in glove
for four days

until00 on Sunday.

Then it's all down
to the guy on the bike.

We have a couple
of rocket scientists
on our team.

They process
the information.

It's up to the rider, really,
to kind of ask what he
wants with the bike.

But at the same time,
if your data guy
sees anything

or your crew chief
sees anything

funny on the day, he can ask you, "Hey, you know,

"you can't quite get it
to full throttle in
second gear.

"Does it have too much power?
Too little power?

"We can do this.
We can do that."

And it's definitely
a team effort.

Like a pyramid,
you've got the rider
on the top

and a lot of slaves
underneath, doing
a lot of work.

And they have their
individual goal of
winning the championship,

or winning the race,
and they get the full support
of the immediate team

and the engineering group,
all the way back to Yamaha
in Japan.

We got some old data
from Noriyuki Haga,
on the Yamaha,

and some of
what I remember

back in the superbike days,
and we kind of put
all that together.

At least it'll give us
a ballpark to start from.

When we are in
a new circuit,

we try to guess with some
simulation program,

and try to find
what can be the gearbox

and what can be the setup.

So by Thursday night,
the bike is ready to go.

What
is a MotoGP bike?

The rules of the sport
will tell you that
it's a prototype

with a four-stroke engine,
cubic capacity of 990 CC,

minimum weight
of 148 kilograms.

Maximum fuel load,
22 liters.

A MotoGP bike is
a purebred race machine.

Every other form
of motorcycle racing,

superbike, supersport
and so on,

is based on
production bikes,

the kind that you can
buy from your local dealer.

Pick an exhaust gas.

The same thing with
the lever, you see.

Yeah, titanium,
carbon fiber.

Temperature sensors
on them.

The only people in the world
that ride a bike,
anything like this

is myself, Kenny
and two test riders.

Everything on the bike
is nothing like
a street bike.

Everything's carbon fiber,
titanium, some steel bits
for strength.

Everything is the lightest
yet strongest possible metal.

Not only are you always
testing the limit with
the riders,

and finding the limit
with your riding,

but also Suzuki,
all the other manufacturers

are also finding the very,
very limit of what they
can actually use

as far as light
and durability.

I never try and get
into detail about how
the bike works

and how it all reacts.

I just tell exactly
what I feel, like,

if I'm going into a corner,

and the front just starts
to slide a little bit,

and I know that
I could go faster
in that corner,

that's when I come in,
talk to the crew chief.

The bike's sliding here.
It's doing this, doing that,

and it's his job to get
on the computer,

analyze it and then
make the changes.

As far as
the teams are concerned,

a MotoGP bike
is a practical object,

a multi-adjustable tool
for winning races.

You can change
the suspension,
the tires, the gears,

the chassis, the engine,
the electronics,

download data from
dozens of onboard sensors

monitoring pitch, lean, clutch pressure, brake pressure,

throttle opening, suspension,
travel gear position,

wheel speed, engine braking,
traction and grip.

In a sport where victory can be measured in thousandths of a second,

everybody involved is always
looking for an advantage
in every possible area.

The bike is
constantly evolving.

The development
and manufacturing costs

run into tens of millions
of dollars per year.

The development's
ridiculous.

How far these bikes have came
in just the last year.

Now we have so much power
and a lot of it's down
to tires and electronics

with fly-by-wire
and traction control

and all this stuff.

Now, that's the great
thing about motorcycles.

At the end of the day,
it's still the dude
sitting in the seat

who wants to twist
the throttle the hardest.

I love that smell.

Mm. Yummy.

Mr. Bayliss.

-How you doing, lady?
-Hey.

Oh, be a hotshot.

-You like that
old style?

-How's it going?
-All right, mate.
You okay?

You just get in?

What's up?

Oh, Martin, my man!

-What's happening?
-Good to see you.

It feels good
to be back.
See all my old people

and just hanging out.

I mean, I love Laguna.

You know, weather, the people,
everything about it
feels right.

Boy, that sound gives
me goosebumps.

I don't know
about you, but,

I still love the sound,
the smell,
you can get at the track.

Big Hawkmeister.

-Yeah, this track's
gonna be ugly.
-Yeah, yeah.

Dude, the first time we
went down with the car,
it's like,

over there and then
you go up the Corkscrew.
Where is it?

Whoa, straight down.

-Yeah, you're gonna take off.
-I know, going up the hill.

Valentino Rossi is
the biggest star motorcycle
racing has ever seen.

A once-in-a-lifetime
combination of talent
and charisma,

adored by fans
all over the world.

Rossi races motorcycles
because he loves to,
not because he needs to.

He is one of the 10
highest paid sportsmen
in the world,

around the $30 million
a year mark,

with the likes
of David Beckham
and Kobe Bryant.

Unlike Rossi, they don't
put their lives on the line
every time they play a game.

Thank you very much.

- At- 30
on Friday morning,

the track is open for the first
MotoGP practice session.

So far, the riders have only
been able to look around it
on foot or on scooters.

Reactions have
been mixed.

To the Americans,
this is home.

To the Europeans,
it's a bit of a shock.

It is an old-style track.

And different
than all the normal...

I prefer the other track.

The more normal style.

But it's for sure
something different.

Laguna Seca
was built in 1957

to host the Pebble Beach
road races,

part of the Concours
D'Elegance rally,

which is still held each
year in the town.

The races initially
took place in
Pebble Beach itself.

Spectators lined the road
as the cars tore past
a few feet away.

In 1957, one of the drivers
hit a tree and was killed.

They needed a proper circuit.

The guy that gets
credit for this is a guy
named Lou Gold.

He didn't even drive.
He was a bartender,

head of the bartenders' union,

very community-oriented,

and he realized
that this should stay.

That this Concours
D'Elegance

at Pebble Beach,
where he worked,
was important,

So we gotta
keep the racers here.

The track was
funded and built by

the Sports Car
Racing Association
of the Monterey Peninsula.

SCRAMP wasn't actually
a racing club,

but a volunteer group
of businessmen

keen to promote the sport
for the good of
the local economy.

Non-racing people came out here and by accident, found this place.

It was part of a military
reservation, it was part
of Fort Ord,

and they got a contract
to build a racetrack
out here.

The general said, "Okay."

Corps of engineers said,
"Sign here.

"Here's the deal. Thank you."

And that was it.

The design
of the track was overseen
by an architect from Salinas

named Wallace Holm,
who had never designed
a racetrack before.

His original plans called
for the entire circuit

to be laid out
around the lake bed.

He wanted to put the track

inside the hills so
you could see it.

A local engineer and his
tractor driver came out.

The guy with the tractor
said I can't turn that sharp.

So they decided to go
around the back.

That's why going
they went around the back,
as simple as that.

The whole thing
just happened.

The track
was an immediate hit
with the racers.

It was a driver track.
They had to work
hard at it.

It was a challenge
to drive the car.

My car might not be
quite as good as yours,

but I might still beat you
because I'm a better driver.

There was merit to that.
They liked that.

The only major
change to the layout
was made in 1987,

with the addition
of turns three and four.

Work began the day after
Pope John Paul II said mass
on the same piece of ground.

Right behind me,
where the lake is
down there,

the pope said
mass right there,

because he was
making a tour
of the United States.

They put grandstands
and they had roughly
50,000 people.

And the very next day,
we tore the track apart.

We started digging
it up so we could put that

three-tenths of a mile in.

So that we would qualify
for world motorcycle racing.

It was not for cars.
It was for motorcycles.

It was only
1.9 miles originally.
Now it's 2.3.

Since then,
the most significant
modifications to the track

have been safety measures
to accommodate ever-faster
race machines.

In the months
before the Grand Prix,

millions of dollars
have been spent

and thousands of tons
of earth moved

to create larger
runoff areas
around the circuit.

When things go wrong
on a motorcycle
at high speed,

you don't want
to hit anything.

Nakano suffered
no serious injuries.

A week after this crash,
he finished sixth in
the Catalan Grand Prix.

Yeah, on
a MotoGP bike, it's gonna
be pretty gnarly, no doubt.

I mean, there's some places
around here that it's gonna
be really tough,

like, especially the Corkscrew and also coming down
the hills.

Turn one. Definitely a few
places separating men
from the boys.

We need to improve
a little bit, the safety,
for sure,

because our bike
are very fast.

I'm all for safety
and making it better, but,

I mean, I feel comfortable
here. This is the kind
of tracks I grew up on.

I've heard a couple
of guys are still complaining

about a couple
of little minor areas.

Yeah, if they're complaining
already, that's good.
That'll psych them out.

First practice
on Friday is normally
a one hour session,

but it's been extended
to two because this is
a new track for MotoGP.

The teams will have
a total of five hours
and 20 minutes practice.

Two hours on Friday morning,
and one in the afternoon.

An hour on Saturday
morning and one
in the afternoon,

and 20 minutes
on Sunday morning.

Between now and Sunday,
the teams have to get
the bike set up

as perfectly as possible
for Laguna.

The first session
starts out pretty wide,

getting comfortable
on the track and getting
the transmission right.

Finding out what gears
you're going to run
and which corners,

and then suspension,
and then tires.

For Valentino,
the first laps is to get
familiar with the track,

to see how it is,
to see where the bumps are.

Where is the difficult point.

We start to understand
a little bit the track.

For sure, is very particular
for a rider to ride well,
the bike.

Laguna is
a bumpy circuit.

Coming out of the bottom
of the hill, you got
a lot of g-force,

and it's a really,
really bumpy corner.

It makes things a lot
less physically demanding

if you know where
the bumps are
going to be.

But the whole key
in Grand Prix
at the moment,

you have to get the bike
set up to suit you and be
100% comfortable on it.

You explain
in as much detail
as possible

what the bike's doing
and let your engineers
figure it out.

In this, Valentino
is very, very good.

Very precise, very sensitive
while riding the bike.

Technician can get
very good feedback.

Right there is
the biggest issue.

What's
going on there?

Getting in there.
It's just the feeling
and confidence in the front.

What's the engine braking
doing there?

-I mean, the engine braking
feels pretty decent there.
-Okay. Okay.

There's a bit of
a fucking nasty bump

-just at the wrong side
of the white line...
-Yeah, yeah.

The most
important thing at Laguna is

to keep the bike on the ground.

The track goes up, down,
there's blind rises.

There's not that much grip,
track's a bit dusty.

So, keeping the thing
bolted to the floor

and stable so the rider
has confidence is the most
important thing.

Quite often,
I'm watching on the circuit,

particularly when it's
a new track like here
at Laguna Seca,

to see what other riders
are doing.

It's not just about
the bike setting.

They've got to ride it
properly as well.

Just listening to the bike,
the Yamaha's getting like,

quite short gears.
It's like, pow, pow, pow.

They're getting to top,
almost fifth as well.

I wouldn't think they're
using a six-speeder.

Check again.

Rossi sounded like
he was using the gears.

Valentino
and I had different gearing.

That's just
from experience.

I've been there, you know, on superbikes for a few years.

I know what gears
I need to be in.

And I came in 10 minutes
after Friday practice
and said,

"Okay, second gear
needs to be longer.

"Third needs to be
a little shorter and fourth
needs to be, you know..."

His speed's very good,
over the top.

I mean, that's all
about stability.

Getting over the top.

Fuel's increased quite a lot.

Yeah, just found
a really good line.

Maybe a little bit
too high.

I don't think
any rider ever looks
happy in the garage.

You always want
something better.

You always want to improve,
and I think,

yeah, I'm never gonna
have a big smile
on my face

until the bike's perfect.

He's got quite an
aggressive riding style,

and he likes to get the back
sliding a little bit.

We'll probably
end up with

probably slightly harder
rear springs and things
like that,

than other guys would run.

It's probably a little bit
harder on rear tires,
occasionally,

but Michelin generally
have enough constructions
and compounds

that they have something
works well for him
pretty much everywhere we go.

That tire's a lot better.

Usually we bring five
different rear tires
and two different front.

It's not just
in the harder tire
or the softer tire,

it's different construction
and dual compound, you know,

harder on the right,
softer on the left.

A 325-pound
MotoGP bike

puts out close to
250 horsepower

A respectable amount for a car weighing 10 times as much.

The rider has to apply
that power to the track,

through a tire whose
contact patch

is about as large as
a credit card.

The contact patch
area of a tire

really varies on the load
you put on it.
At maximum speed,

more than 300 Ks per hour.

More than 80% of
the load is on the rear tire.

So we cleaned up the
contact patch for the rear,

going to go up.
Opposite for the front.

Because you've got
less load on the front

so the contact patch of the front is going to decrease.

When you're at maximum lean,

the contact patch size
is smaller.

Basically, the contact patch is getting smaller and smaller.

Until you crash.

It's easy enough
to find a tire
which gives good grip.

But there's always a trade-off between grip and durability.

You have to choose a tire that will last the race distance.

The tiremaker's goal is to make the tire as sticky as possible

and just durable enough.

We try to make it last
only the race distance.

So, if at the end of the race, analyzing the tire,

you would feel that
it could have done

two or three races
in a row,

then we're going to feel
we've missed something.

Choose the wrong tire,

and it can spell trouble
late in the race

as the rubber degrades.

That's when the tires get
real loose and everything

turns into Jell-O.

It's pretty much,
the bike goes from

being completely on rails

to being loose and on Jell-O.

MotoGP sees competition between tire companies

as well as between riders,
teams and bikes.

Michelin supplies the tires
to Honda and Yamaha.

Bridgestone to Suzuki, Kawasaki and Ducati.

They bring new types of rubber to every race.

The tire that wins this weekend

will be history in
a couple of races' time.

There are three big factors
of the tire.

The shape, the construction
and compound.

We change everything,
especially material of
the compound

and the material inside of
the tire.

We change that all.

If you look from the outside,

black and round,
is no different,

but the inside
is completely different.

That last change in tire
were better.

-Okay.
-The biggest thing still

is in corner exit
if you're trying to spin.

Does yours feel like that?

John Hopkins'
teammate at Suzuki

is Kenny Roberts Jr.

The 31-year-old Californian
beat Valentino Rossi

to the world championship
in 2000.

Rossi's first season
in the premier class.

Roberts won three Grand Prix that year but hasn't won since.

Rossi's dominance coinciding with difficult times

for Suzuki's MotoGP project.

The Kawi...

is hitting those corners and
standing and getting away.

And like,
I can maybe go in with him

but I won't be able to get on
the throttle at the same time.

So therefore I've got to go in
a little bit easier.

-So, all those corners,
those flat corners...
-Yeah.

-Because if you miss the exit,
you're fucked.
-Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Teammates
may share information,

but they're still in
competition with each other.

Out on the track,
it's every man for himself.

This track's quite difficult
to set the bike

because you have very flat
corners, you need grip,

and fairly
compliant suspension.

And then the corners after that
have got banking

and big dips in the middle
and the suspension is

a lot more compressed
and loaded.

You need the suspension
to support that kind of load.

Particularly as you dive
through the dip
into the Corkscrew.

It's gonna happen to somebody
at some point.

There's a lot of g-forces
coming off

of the bottom of
that Corkscrew.

And the bike compresses
and there is nothing left.
It hits the stops.

Swings it out to the right.

You're always wanting more
and sometimes it ends up

throwing you over the top.

That's a hard crash.

Good thing he wasn't hurt.

Several of the teams have
new engine parts to test.

Suzuki in particular is
looking for improvements.

We need more power.

At the very beginning
of the straightaways is

where we lose most of the time, right when you're getting it up off of the corner

and really putting the power
to the ground.

With the Yamaha, I'm finding,
that's where they're so good,

as they're giving you
good pieces.

Everybody looks at
JB and Rossi

and my team, and realistically, you have to thank the guys

that are behind the scenes
and say,

"Wow, they're giving us
the good stuff."

The process of developing and
optimizing the bikes

goes on all year round.

Here we are at
the airport again.

Seems like
we spend a lot of time here.

In mid-January,
the teams embark
on a series of tests

in Asia, Australia and Europe.

Malaysia, Australia,
back to Malaysia.

From there we go to Japan.

And we'll be testing
probably 20 days

before the start of the season and even
the day after the first race,

we'll be back testing
Monday morning.

I mean,
those are the hard yards.
That's where you really

come together with your team

and find out everything you
want to develop the bike.

With 17 races and as many
as 10 tests each year,

the teams spend about 100 days at circuits around the world

and 50 days
travelling between them.

The riders cover
thousands of miles on track.

Whether they're racing
or testing,

every lap is a fast one.

It has to be.

Unless you're going
race pace,

you're really wasting your time and just wearing out
the equipment.

So it's intense.

I'm not a techno geek
type guy

but I do like to work.

I like to go to the track,
I like to go testing

and I like to play around with suspension stuff
and electronics

and tires and
I do it for information.

The more information
you gather,
the more you have

to put into use, down the road. I really enjoy that.

Throughout the weekend,
the staff of race control

monitor the track action
on closed circuit TV.

They're in contact with
marshals and medics

stationed around the track.

Laguna's onsite medical center is ready to provide

immediate treatment
to injured riders.

For the first hour,
Nicky Hayden struggles

with the combination of Laguna Seca and MotoGP power.

I was riding around
like a squid, you know,

way off the marks.

I hadn't raced in America
in three years

and definitely it was a lot of hype, a lot of build-up,

you know, some pressure.

The first session was
kind of weird because

this is the first track
I've ever went back to

that I used ride,
like, 600 and superbikes.

When I got there on
the MotoGP bike,
the first session,

it just looked so different
than what I remembered.

All the lines
and the straightaways

felt so much shorter

and everything that's happening so much faster.

For much
of the two-hour session,

John Hopkins and Troy Bayliss
dominate the timesheets.

Bayliss held the track record
prior to this event,

which he set in the
World Superbike race in 2002.

A time of one minute 24.8.

At25, Hopkins is
the fastest man on the track.

At27, he's too fast.

It was just a mistake
on my part,

just, it's a blind corner,

you come up over the hill

and you always want to find
the limit of where you're at.

And...

just went in there with
way too much speed

and I was going
straight towards the wall

and I was doing everything
I could to get it back

and it just was coming back,
coming back, and then just

smacked into the wall
with my elbow.

Had cement marks all the way
down the side of my arm

and some on the side of
the bike

and luckily
was able to bring it back
onto the the track.

Fuck! that was close, man.

Man, I came inches
from the cement.

-Yeah?
-Yeah.

And like, fuck!

At the end of
the first practice session,

Troy Bayliss is fastest.

The first to break
his own lap record.

Nicky Hayden is second
and John Hopkins, third.

Colin Edwards and Valentino
Rossi are fifth and sixth

behind Spanish star,
Sete Gibernau.

At00, the riders
are out on the track again.

It's becoming clear that
Laguna is, above all,

a test of riding ability.

The bikes have so much power,

there's a limit to what
the teams can do

to tailor
the machine's behavior

to this tight, difficult track.

Physics is physics.

You can only accelerate so hard

to keep your front wheel
on the ground

but that's basically
what we're struggling with.

I mean, you'd like to
be able to hit it everywhere,

but you can't. You gotta keep
the front wheel down.

This was the hard part
of the track.

You'd come out at turn six,

you'd never get
the full throttle

all the way up that straight.

Which it looks like
we'd be at full throttle.

You just carry the front wheel about half a centimeter

all the way up
the hill and then just hit it down the backside.

If you got it down
the backside,

then you could keep
your momentum going.

But if you tapped your wheel
on the top of that little rise,

then it would
screw you all up.

So you're trying to get it over to the backside.

Just a timing issue.

Carry the front wheel
half a centimeter in the air,

all the way up the hill
at 150 miles an hour,

put it down just over the rise,

it's just a timing issue.

How do you do that?

MotoGP is full of people who live and breathe the sport.

But hardly anyone
can actually do it.

One of the first things
insiders will tell you

is that only a handful of men
in the world

can master a MotoGP bike.

What does it take to do this?

How do you become
a MotoGP star?

One thing that Rossi and

the Americans have in common

is families with racing

in their blood.

Rossi's father Graziano

was a Grand Prix rider himself

and Valentino started racing
as a child.

Kenny Roberts Jr. is the son

of three-times world champion

and current MotoGP team owner,

King Kenny.

Hopkins' father Roy competed

in the Isle of Man TT

as a teenager.

John was racing by the time

he was four.

Colin Edwards started

riding bikes at three,

but he was trying to get on

them when he was one.

My dad was always

a motorcycle enthusiast.

He had a supercharged
750 Honda.

I'd disappear and everybody
would be like,

"Where did Colin go?"

and I was one year old, not
even be able walk yet,

and I'd be out in the garage
up on top of the 750.

I was three and a half
when I got my first bike.

Did all the motocross stuff.

By the time he was seven, Colin had a motocross contract.

At 14, he was ready to quit.

I'd go to school and come home
and go ride for two,
three hours,

come back, wash my bikes,
clean the filter, wash my gear,

get a little bite of food and
get 30 minutes of homework in.

It was just a job.

I was like, 4'11,
weighed 80 pounds,

I was just a little pipsqueak.

All these other kids were like,
125 pounds with growing beards.

"They're going to kill me
out there," he said,

"I've had enough."

Just when Edwards Sr.
thought his son's motorcycle
racing career was over,

Colin made
an important discovery.

Asphalt.

Went to the racetrack, and a guy I used to motocross with,

Jeff Covington,
he was actually road racing.

And I used to beat him
pretty regularly motocrossing.

And I was like, "Wait a minute.
If he can do it,

"I know I can do it."

He was only out there like,
probably,

ten laps.

And he came back in and he said
"Man! Dad, this is fun,

"I can go faster than all these kids who are out here."

I said, "I can see that."

And I said,
"Do you want to do it?"

And he said, "Can we?"

And I said, "Hell yeah,
we can do it."

"I don't how we're gonna do it,
but..."

But I wanted to race with him.
You know, I was...

I was always wanting to race.

His dad paid for
Colin to race locally in '91.

A string of victories
earned him
a sponsored ride in '92.

He was on his way.

The 250 national championship
in '92.

AMA superbikes,
the top US category, in '93.

World superbikes in '95.

He won the World Superbike Championship in 2000 and 2002,

and moved to MotoGP in 2003.

Along the way,
he found his other true love.

Alyssia.

You know,
I met him and he was
in high school.

He was like, "I race
motorcycles."

And I was like,
"Get a real job."

There was the typical
high school drama, you thought,

"Oh, I'm so in love, and
I can't live without him."

But it was.
It was true love.

We've been married six years
but together, I think, 15.

There's a theory that when you get married and have children,

you slow down.

They always say
when you get married,

you lose half a second.

When you have a kid,
you lose half a second.

Each kid's half a second.

I got married in '99 and I
won the championship in 2000.

Found out my wife was pregnant

the beginning of 2002.

And then went undefeated
after that,

and won every race and
won the championship again.

So, okay, yeah. You think about your wife and kid,

but at the end of the day,

that guy in front of you is
the guy you want to beat.

You're gonna do everything
in your power to pass him.

The last thing on your mind is

what's back at home
or what's waiting in
the motor home.

-Just say "Ooh, I'm hungry."

-Hungry.

In 2005,
Edwards is with Yamaha,

where his teammate is
a certain Valentino Rossi.

A man he has yet to beat
on the track.

For me to say
Valentino's quite special is

something I've never said
about anybody,

'cause I always believed
that I'm

better and stronger
than anybody.

But when facts are facts, you gotta face the facts sometimes.

From Agostini to Kenny Sr.,

to Doohan and Rainey.

I think you can look at
all of them and say

that they were great.
They were really, really great.

But that term of GOAT,

Greatest Of All Time, I think

Valentino is definitely,
he's got my vote.

What does he have?

I don't know.

I wish I could tell you.

'Cause if I knew then
I'd try some of it.

The guy's got a determination
and a will like no other.

You know, everything he does
is kinda undercover.

They don't see a lot of
the stuff

that goes into what he does.

They just see him roll out of
the motor home,
he rolls into the garage,

he goes out and
gets pole position,

goes back to his motor home.

That's kinda what
everybody thinks, but,

he spends
a lot of time working.
It's like a kid

playing in the sandbox.

Doesn't get riled up.

Doesn't really seem like
he's out there

busting his ass to...

Just seems natural,
just kinda playing around.

I feel like when I'm out there
and I'm riding good,

I'm busting my ass,

I'm putting everything I got
into doing it.

As for the fact that
Rossi has never been

to Laguna Seca before...

He'll find a way to
learn the track.

He'll get behind
somebody that's
not paying attention

and00 on Sunday,
he's gonna be there.

Doesn't really matter
what track you go to,

he's still gonna be there.

Towards the end
of second practice,

all the top riders
have gone faster

than they did in the morning,
except Rossi.

He's down in tenth.

We have some problem now.

This morning was good, but,

this afternoon we try something

quite bad for the setting, so
we need to improve tomorrow.

Hopkins and Edwards
are fifth and sixth.

Number 69 is number one.

Everybody wants to know
why my number is 69.

So everybody wants to hear
this wild kinky story.

It was my dad's number
back in the day.

He was a pretty wild racer and

was upside down a lot
in fences and gravel traps.

They say they always knew
who it was

even when his bike
was upside down.

Racing's been something that's been in my family's blood.

It's always been
a family thing.

We didn't really
go to Disneyworld

or you know, to a waterpark.

We went to the track
and rode our bikes.

Nicky Hayden
inherited his racing genes

from his mother
as well as his father.

My dad used train
thoroughbred racehorses.

He raced and she raced

and he joked that he was always
trying to get

the bloodline right.

Said, "I'm gonna get me
a fast girl."

I've raced for 20 years and
my wife's raced for five years.

My wife's a lot faster
than I was.

I rode a 125 Honda.
On dirt.

It was powder puff
and it was all girls.

It's my brother's show
over here, so...

I've run 1-2 in
a 600 championships.

Nicky's older
brother Tommy and
younger brother Roger Lee

are both competing at Laguna in the AMA National Championships

which Nicky won
before moving to MotoGP.

Tommy is reigning US
supersport champion,

with Roger Lee just behind him in the rankings.

It looks like things have
worked out for the family.

You always think about it,
you know.

Wouldn't it be nice?
That's what
they would love to do.

But, you know,
this is such a hard thing.

And what made it really good was
we did it as a family.

Friday night, got off school,
we would take off

in like Texas, let's say
a thousand miles,
I'd drive all night,

and get there.
They're sleep all night,

and get up and then would
practice, say, Saturday
and race Sunday.

Sunday afternoon,00,
I'd take off, drive back.

and wake 'em up in time

take a shower
and go to school on Monday.

We raced at least
35 times a year.

And sometimes 40 times a year. So it's not many weekends off.

People thought
I used to make them race.

"Oh, their daddy pushes them,
makes them race."

I had to make them
brush their teeth,

make them take a bath.

Wasn't like I had to
make them race.

I wanted to race against
the best guys in the world.

That's where I've wanted to be since I could talk.

"Chasing the dream."
Maybe five years old.

It's gotta come
from yourself.

You've gotta be the one to make the sacrifices,

and be the one ready
to hang it out,

and get it done.

When Nicky
was about 11 years old,

we went to a race that
wasn't but 15 miles from here

and he made about $1200.

And we couldn't believe it.

I mean, getting paid
to do this stuff.

There wasn't many of those.

Most times, it was
Mama and Papa.

Every dollar,
95 cents went to racing.

It's all a part of paying
your dues.

If you don't go do that,
you're not going to be
in MotoGP.

The financial tide
turned for Nicky

on his 16th birthday.

He was old enough

and good enough
to be offered a contract

in the AMA National
Championships.

They're gonna furnish
all the bike's parts.

Bikes are gonna show up.

And all we had to do
was get ourselves there.

It's like Santa Claus.

Five years and countless race wins later,

Hayden was number one
in the USA

at the age of 21.

The following year, 2003,
he was off to MotoGP.

John Hopkins is the youngest of the MotoGP riders at Laguna.

Just 22, but already in
his fourth year in
the world championship.

I just knew
I wanted to do it.

Parents never said, "Oh,
you've got to go Grand Prix,

"You've got
to go Grand Prix.

"You got to do this,

"if you wanna
be a Grand Prix rider."

Stuff like that. It was just, basically, one thing at a time.

-How're you doing?
-Good, how are you?

Actually, I have met you before.

Five years ago or something,
when you were a rider for

Yoshimura Suzuki.

-John's team, right?
-John Ulrich, yeah.

When John was 11,

his future as a racer
was thrown into doubt

by the loss of his father
after a long illness.

The lifeline Hopkins needed

came from AMA team owner,
John Ulrich,

who discovered 1993 world champion, Kevin Schwantz,

and saw similar
promise in Hopkins.

At the age of 18, he delivered,

winning the 2001

AMA Formula Xtreme
Championship.

Hopkins made no secret
of his Grand Prix ambitions.

And in the same year,
Ulrich secured a test for him

with the Red Bull Yamaha
Grand Prix team.

In 2002, Hopkins found himself where he wanted to be,

racing in
the world championships.

But in the years
that have followed,

the results he dreamed of
have not materialized.

Unlike Edwards and Hayden,

he has yet to stand
on a MotoGP podium.

Few in the Grand Prix paddock
doubt his ability.

But a combination
of inferior machinery

and injuries have
undermined his efforts.

He's fully fit at Laguna.

But 2005 began the way
no rider wants.

In rehab, after major surgery.

It wasn't because
of a MotoGP injury.

The operation was to remove a titanium rod from his femur,

the legacy of a car crash
a decade earlier.

And also to take out some
metalwork in his ankles,

which he broke in a Motocross accident in the winter of 2003.

DR.John suffered
through a major injury.

He recovered very rapidly.

The resiliency of these guys

is one thing that
I am always amazed of.

They have a phenomenal
pain threshold.

Things that would bother
a normal person,

doesn't faze these guys.

It's been over 20 years
of experience

that I've watched this.

And I know what the average
person requires

for something similar,

who gets in a one-time
motor vehicle accident
but breaks his collarbone.

Hopkins, come in casual,
just the way he is,

and, "Hey, get it done.

"I don't have time, you know?
I got to go."

And he proved it.

And he was so fast, that it just
makes your job so easy.

I think Nicky had
a collarbone fracture

that he was recovering from.

I'm healthy. I mean,

for the most part, I mean,
sure I have some things that...

You know, still hurt.

The year before,
I got hurt in Italy,

I was out training,
riding supermotard,

and broke my collarbone
and my knee...

Man, that was kind of
not the most fun day of my life.

They opened me up,

put a plate and seven screws
in my collarbone,

and I rode Japan
two weeks later.

It didn't feel too good.

But once you get on a bike,
then it goes away.

While Hayden was
struggling with his knee

and shoulder injuries
in Japan in '04,

Hopkins was fit

and looking forward
to a strong race

after qualifying
in the front row.

Loris Capirossi's
wayward Ducati

dashed his hopes
at the first corner.

I broke three ribs.

I had a foot peg go straight up my back side.

Gave me eight stitches.

I got in to the medical center,

they said, "Oh, what
problems do you have?"

I said, well,
it's just my ribs.

And they're like, are you sure nothing else hurts?

I said, no, I'm all right.
Everything's fine.

I sit up in a complete
puddle of blood,

and they go, "Uh,
I think you have a little
more than a scratch."

These bikes ain't toys.

And there is times
you're gonna crash,

so, I mean,
you need to be able to

you know, take a good
lickin' sometimes.

DR.It's like
Darwin's theory,

survival of the fittest.

I think the injury thing
selects them out.

Kids that can heal faster,

and recover faster
and have higher pain thresholds

end up going to the higher
levels of motorcycle racing.

They're extreme
focus athletes.

They're a totally different
breed than the rest.

It takes a lot to get
on that bike,

go 200 miles an hour
and stay focused like that.

Every movement counts.

DR.
If you think of the risks,
and what they're doing...

If they push it
too hard,

yeah, it could cost them
their life.

The protective equipment
the riders wear,

and the track side
run-off areas

and air fences help.

But the best form of protection is staying on the bike.

Rossi and Edwards
each fell just once in '04.

Rossi has only paid one visit
to the Fremont clinic

in recent years,
with a fractured thumb.

Just about
every year in MotoGP,

you know,
knock on wood,

I've been fit.
I've never been a crasher
in the first place.

Through 11 years
of young Motocross,

I think I only had
two broken bones.

That's not really normal.
Just never been a crasher.

I think I knew it hurt.

-- How many to go?
-- One.

How long did it go?

-Couple of miles.
-Remember, nice and slow.

Six races into the season, and six months after the operation,

John Hopkins is in
the best shape of his
MotoGP career.

MotoGP, I wanna be
as strong as possible

and yet
as light as possible.

The week before a race,
when I'm cycling,

I truly visualize
every corner on that track

and what
my braking markers are,

where to get
on the throttle,
what lines to take,

who I'm gonna
be riding against,
where I wanna be at,

it all goes
through my head.

A lot of racing motorcycles
is all in your head.

It's just mind over matter.

Training also
helps you get ready

to be able to fight
when you get in a battle,

and the pace is hot.

I'm looking for
any edge I can get.

Gotta learn how to
push your body. If you can
push yourself saying,

"I know I can do this.
I know I can win this race,"

I'm gonna go in that corner
a little bit faster.

There's a huge
mental component

to racing, huge.

Valentino Rossi's the one,

mentally, he has
the ability to,

whatever it is,
visualize the track better,

instinctively make the turn
when he needs to.

It's all
the intangible things.

It's not like something like
if you go home,

and I say,
"Do 20 push-ups everyday,"

you'll be GP champion
next year.

That's too easy.
It's the intangible things.

Like they say,
you either have it
or you don't.

Preparation, training,
enhance one's potential.

You have to do everything
and have the genetics,
so to speak.

I guess it was '99
I got the bicycle.

Got the bicycle somewhere.

It's over there in the corner
tucked away.

Did the 20 miles a day,

get up at30 in the morning
and trained,

and went to the gym.
Fogarty still kicked my ass
in superbikes.

So, I thought, "Screw that.
That was a lot of work
for nothing."

And then, the next year
I basically did the opposite.

I just had fun,
going out on the water
and wakeboarding

and motocrossing,
and playing lots of golf.

And went out there
and won the championship.

So, at that point
I just kind of decided
it's in your head. And it is.

This is our go-kart building.

We got about
12 go-karts in here,
and we just get crazy.

Sometimes,
if it gets too easy,
then we do no brakes.

So you have to basically
steer on the throttle only

and then we'll do
one hand, no brakes.

And we kinda mix it up,
make it fun.

I was always strong.
I always was doing something,
I was active.

And I never really
felt mentally, like...

I was missing anything.

Like, I had to have
that physical training
to be mentally fit.

You know, it kind of
works hand in hand.

Whenever you do train,
you kind of set yourself up for failure in a way, as well,

because if you miss a day,

then you go to the trainer,
"Ah, I missed Tuesday.

"I really should've done this, I should've done that."

And you already have
that doubt in your head.

So I just discount
all that bullshit.

We stay in shape.
You're on the bike,

I don't know how many
days a year it would be.

Probably one in three.
You stay fit, can't help
but stay fit.

Whenever I'm working,
I'm working.

Whenever I'm not working,
I'm here having a good time
playing with my family.

You promised me
you'd win this race.

I did? All right.

I don't wanna
let nobody down.

I think Nicky's got
a lot of pressure on him.

What's happening, girl?

And I hope he just
doesn't overdo it.

'Cause he's got a lot
of the Americans
pulling for him.

We're rooting for you.

All right. Thanks, girl.

A couple
of months before the race,

People Magazine named Hayden
one of America's
50 hottest bachelors.

Then he took part
in a dating game
on theToday Show.

They brought
a couple of us in,
a country singer,

and an NFL football player.

Hayden won.

I got a hard time
from my boys back home.

They let me hear
about that.

We'd be eating lunch
or something,

a hot girl will be there.

"Go on, go talk to her.
You're the hottest bachelor."

But I don't know.
Didn't seem to help too much.

I didn't seem to see
any raise in the numbers.

Some of these countries
we go to really have
some beautiful girls.

It's a shame we don't
go to Brazil anymore.

A lot of talent in Brazil,
that's for sure.

But to be honest,
and I ain't just saying this,
lying,

I don't want to be
a paddock playboy

and be out chasing
honeys all the time.

You know,
I wanna win races.

The pressure
on Hayden has been building
for two and a half years.

When I got to Europe,
new kid coming in
from America,

you get a good ride date.

They want to see you fail.

Maybe I've got a little
chip on my shoulder,

now I want
to prove 'em wrong.

I remember when he first
started out in MotoGP,

I kept telling him, I said,
"Hey, where are you at?

"I didn't see you on TV.
You know, you gotta be
in the top three

"to be on TV."

He said, "I'm trying,
I'm trying."

Them people pay us big money,
they expect you to be on tv,
be on the box, win.

He's been used to winning
most of his life.

I don't think it's cutting it
that Nicky hasn't been
on the podium yet this year,

with the machine
that he's running.

I like the guy,
enjoy his company,

and we are friends
but I think he's had
enough time to

regularly be winning.

After Friday's
three hours of practice,

then top 10 riders
are less than a second apart.

It doesn't sound like much
but at 150 miles an hour,

a second is over 50 yards.

Lose a second a lap
and you'll be a mile behind
after 32 laps.

The race is 32 laps.

Rossi is a second down
on the fastest man, Hayden.

Between
yesterday and today,
I have a lot of problems.

It's very difficult to arrive
at the right setting
in this track.

This track is particular,
compared to the other
tracks around the world.

Like, a little bit worse
than before,

too much push on the tire.

And also, another thing,
important.

For 36 here, go up, brake,
on the track, down...

My new plan is to wait
because I don't feel
the result.

-Did you change something
on the front, too?
-Yeah. Yeah.

I didn't think
either end felt as good.

It felt like when I went
over the hill, turn one,

it got too loose.
When I went up

it felt like it kicked it.
What did you
change exactly?

There's no such thing
as a perfect motorcycle.

In some places
it's really good, in other
places it's still not perfect,

but if you make it really
good in another place, it
messes it up somewhere else.

Also, on the Corkscrew,

when I went like this,
on the top it felt

-real light in the back.
-Okay.

It didn't feel like
the change even
helped the chatter.

Chatter's a mysterious thing.

When you get it,
how you get it.

Different ways
affecting it, but basically,

it's just where the track
has rolling bumps,

the suspension is not
following the bumps.

It feels miserable.
Can't carry good
corner speed with it,

tires aren't planted.

We're just trying to fix that
without the detriment

of losing grip or anything
anywhere else.

Obviously, suspension's
probably the biggest way

and the rider, you know,
how you release the clutch,

how you feed the clutch out.

A lot of times you actually
open the throttle back up

to put a little bit
of tension on the chain
and the swing arm

and that helps
take away chatter.

With 20 minutes
pf practice left,

the teams are still
trying new tires,

not necessarily because
the riders want to.

We don't have enough
for this afternoon?

That's 'cause
you need to compare
in race conditions.

What are we doing
with the old one, though?

Why another one?
Why more?

We can start with the new one
but we're not gonna
learn anything.

We're their test riders.

They have 20 different tires
that they want information on

and if you don't test it
they're not gonna get
any information on it.

They're always gonna be pushing "Test this tire, test this one, test this one."

And basically, the rider
comes to a point where,

"Hey, I've tested ten tires,
I've found the one
that I want.

"You know, let's just
roll with that."

It can come
to that sometimes.

There is no magic setup.
That's the thing.

You still gotta
ride the bike,

and when the light
goes out on race day,

you gotta dig in and fight
with whatever you got.

At the end
of the day, bike preparation
is only half the story.

Rider preparation
is the other half.

With practice
and repetition,

the physical input involved
in riding a MotoGP bike

flat out around
any given circuit
become automatic.

Like a musician
mastering an intricate solo,

or a gymnast performing
a complex routine,

the rider is not consciously
thinking about his actions.

At the best of times,
he enters the altered state
of "the zone,"

where the laws
of physics and mortality
no longer seem to apply.

It just clicks.
Everything works,

you don't have any complaints.

You get in the zone
and you just feel like
nobody can stop you.

That's what it takes,
you know, to win races.

And once you get in that zone
you become superhuman.

Sometimes, you'll lose
the front,

whereas normally, you might
go, "Whoa, that was close."

When you're in the zone,
it's no big deal.

You just pop it up
off the knee and keep
going around the corner,

you don't lose any time.

The weirdest things
can pop into your mind,
not about riding.

Then you're going flat out
and the focus is just 100%,

yet you're able to just
concentrate on other things.

What I'm gonna have for dinner, what time the flight is
the next morning,

what I'm gonna do
the next week in England.

When that happens,
that's when I'm always riding
the best of my ability.

At the end
of Saturday morning practice,

Hopkins is up to third

behind Bayliss and Hayden.

Bayliss makes a last minute
push for the top spot.

Edwards is sixth,
Rossi fifth.

He's now the fastest rookie
on the track.

Laguna is filling up.

Fans, friends,
family, celebrities,

everyone's here.

I got my whole crew.
Both of my sisters are here,

and my mom, my dad.

Nieces, nephews,
aunts, uncles, mom, sister,

high-school friends,
everyone that's in my family
here in America.

We had probably
30 people out there,

probably more than that.
It was a little intense.

At Laguna,
Alyssia's pregnant with
the Edwards' second child.

If it's a boy,
will he be a racer?

The main event on Saturday
is the qualifying session,

which determines how
the riders line up
on the grid for the race.

Big target now,
get towards the front
of the grid

because I think around here
with the flowing nature
of the track,

and the S bends
it's gonna be
real tough to pass.

But when you qualify the bikes in the first couple of rows,

you get away
with the front guys.

Some tracks, you can
start second or third row,
it's no drama.

But here, you need
to be on that front row.

I'm rooting for Nicky,
but last night
in the restaurant,

we met Valentino Rossi.

He's a really cool guy, so...

kinda pulling for
both of them.

Come on, John! Go!

Hopper!

Colin Edwards!

Colin, all the way.
He's been holding
back all day,

little low on the board,
but he'll be there race time.

As much as I love Rossi,

I'd like to see the Hayden guy
get a podium place, too.

The mamas feel nervous
every time they race.

What I think about
the whole time is,

you know, like,
for him to be safe.

It's never over with until
that checkered flag drops.

Come on,
where's my boy?

Here he comes!
Here he comes!

Never really got
to see the family,

but you know in
the back of your head
that they're there.

I think it's crazy that
the speeds they're coming
down the Corkscrew,

but it doesn't
surprise me

because he's always
been like this

and he's always
raced motorcycles.

For the first
half of the session,

the teams keep working
on the race setup.

The real action
is in the last 20 minutes

when they put on
the super sticky
qualifying tires.

They're made
to give the riders
the maximum potential.

But on the other hand,
we cannot keep that maximum
potential for a long time.

They'll be able
to last only one lap.

Qualifying tires
are fun.

They're only good for one lap
but with that one lap

you can carry
so much more corner speed.

Basically,
with the qualifying tires,

you don't do anything
much different

except get on the gas
a lot harder and earlier.

Whenever you hit it,
you hit it hard.
But most of the time,

that qualifier will stick. But they have a bad habit every now and then of flicking you.

A lap consists of
just closing your eyes

and just hoping
for the best, really.

Come on, baby, go!

Oh, my. He's flying.

Oh, he's dreamed about this.
Come on, do it John-John.

I think here,
we had three qualifiers
if I remember right.

Went out with the first one
and it was terrible.

Hardly went faster than
I did on my race tires.

I put that second one on
and when I got to
about turn three,

it felt good.

I stopped after
my first qualifying tire.

I see the lap time
of Nicky was not so bad.

But with the second qualifier
we did a very good job.

It was
an awesome feeling.

I can't even tell you
how cool it is to see
all the flags and banners.

You know, last couple of years, I see all these guys at their home track

and I think, "Man,
how cool that must be."

Saturday, the Kentucky Kid
on top.

Colin Edwards'
qualifying run was spoilt by
a mix-up in the garage.

The new front tire he needed
went missing.

Just a wrong call
with some tire stuff there
at the end,

and left an old front on.

I was lucky to pull out
the lap I did.

There's a short
practice session
on Sunday morning,

one last chance
to make adjustments.

At the end of the session
the riders stop
out on the track

to practice
their race starts.

Many of the teams
are experimenting with
electronic launch control.

But the new technology
doesn't seem to be
too reliable.

We've done
start after start

and we're trying
to get this bike to get
off the line really good.

Valentino will tell you
the same, we had
a couple bad starts.

He was always
such a good starter.

Good start, and get
out front right away,

but in MotoGP
he's just been having hell
with it.

Getting them off the line
is definitely hard.

You can't just smoke the clutch 'cause they're not really
designed for that.

I mean, the first gear
in the bike is designed

to run 70 mile an hour
or something.

Launch control
was coming in,

and there's definitely
some teams running
that sort of thing.

But we still pretty much
do the old fashioned way,

the hardest thing
is just to

try to get the power down

without the thing
wanting to stand up
and wheelie.

- Between the warmup
and the race at- 00,

the riders faced the longest
three and a half hours
of the weekend.

Right after
morning warmup
to the start of the race

is the most intense time.

I don't like to be bothered
and then just do my regular
pre-race warmup.

I listen to some good music.

Being relaxed is
the most important thing
there is to do.

Start getting anxiety
and it's just gonna take
a toll on your body.

I mean, I don't mind
being around people
but I definitely

ain't in no mood
to make no small talk.

Once we get close to the start, do some stretching.

I have a stationary bicycle
in my motor home.

I normally ride that
to warm up

and get my heart rate
going a bit.

I'm the opposite.

I don't know if it's
a form of meditation
or what it is,

but I get trance-like
or sleepy.

I think it's just
to calm down.

Once I get on the bike
I'm ready, though.

While
the MotoGP riders
are in their motor homes,

Hayden's brother Tommy
is out on the track,
leading the Super Stock race,

about to lap
some slower riders.

Everything
was going really good.

Oh!
Contact with the number 811,
Skye Gerard

out of Palmdale, California,

sends the leader
into the gravel.

Tumbling almost
to the air fence,

Tommy Hayden
taking a big spill.

Then Tommy gets hurt.

The thing you worry about
Nicky, is this gonna
affect Nicky's ride.

You worry,
is Tommy okay?

My brother
broke his hand.

I was so bummed for him.
He actually helped me
before the race

to, you know, quit thinking
about the start
and everything else.

And before the race
I was actually quite relaxed.

I knew Nicky was gonna be strong and I knew Valentino would be strong.

Those are two things
I was certain of.

At the same time, Bayliss
had actually put together
quite a few good laps.

I had raced him there
on superbike

so I knew he wasn't
good at that track.

Bayliss had been there before
so I don't know.

I mean, there was
a few guys that just
had a question mark.

You didn't really know what
the day was gonna bring.

I knew how
important it was for him.

He had so much pressure
to do really well
for that race.

It was a little scary.

I was in the garage
because it's just so much
more intense in there.

The team's in there,
everybody's in there,
the reactions, it's awesome.

Colin's race tires
were better than most.

I was thinking he was
gonna fight for the win.

You know, after you've
done it for 13 years,

you don't really get
butterflies until

before the start of the race,
you know,
sitting on the grid.

If you weren't nervous
it wouldn't mean nothing.

60,000 people, live TV
all over the world.

I mean, if that don't
give you goosebumps,
you got issues.

And then you get these
stars like Brad Pitt
on the starting line,

telling you "good luck,"
and "you're on pole,"

"you've been fastest
all week."

I didn't wanna choke then.

I felt the pressure.

I was just feeling
good, I was pumped.

I wanted to get the race going and I knew I could ride
to my full ability.

I was healthy, I was fit.

It's game time.
When they pull
the tire warmers off,

when they fire their engines,
that feeling is what
I live for.

Everyone around you
has done everything they can.

Now it's time for you
to go out and do
what you have to do.

Alone.

Before the start,
the riders go out on
a single warmup lap.

One last chance to check
everything's okay with
the bikes and the track.

I normally go pretty hard
on my sighting lap,

to get the tires
up to temperature,

get the brakes
up to temperature,

get your mind moving fast.

For a minute,
it's eerily quiet
on the start line.

Kathleen and Jenny and I,

we were watching Earl.

My daughter,
she's an RN, nurse,

and she said, "Just make sure, Dad, you remember to
keep breathing."

We was more worried
about him than we were
worried about Nick.

'Cause I didn't know
if Earl's gonna have
a stroke or something.

And they're
expecting you to win. I mean,
these people, GasUp, Repsol,

it's about winning.
It's not about
"Hey, I got third."

or "I got whatever".

So it's just so big for Nick.

I knew how badly he wanted it, how hard he was working.

I'm just like,
hurry up and get it
over with.

You know, we'll go home
and watch it on TV.

Hayden
gets the dream start.

Heading into turn two,
he's already opened up a gap
on Troy Bayliss.

I'm just focused.
You don't feel nothing,

see nobody, hear nothing.

It's just you and the track.
That's a good feeling
right here.

Hayden's dream
is Edwards' nightmare.

I had a shitty start.

I remember coming
up over turn one,

and I had a Ducati
on one handle bar,

like wedged in between
a Ducati and a Kawi
or something.

I was sandwiched.
They were just
carrying me over the hill.

I thought, "Oh, shit.
This could turn out bad."

From fifth
in the grid he's down
to seventh at second corner.

Rossi is third behind Bayliss, who got a great jump
from the second row.

Unfortunately,
Bayliss stuck in front of me

and at the beginning
was very slow.

And straight away,
I lost one second from Nicky
on the first lap.

Going into
turn four, Bayliss runs wide
and Rossi dives through.

I ended up getting
off the line pretty well.

You know,
at the start of the race
I was just blocking.

I just wanted to stay
up in the front lead group

and try not to lose
any positions

in any stupid places.

Hopkins is up
to fifth behind Biaggi,

ahead of Checa and Edwards.

You know,
Hopper knows the track
really well.

And he was gonna be
hard to pass, doesn't matter
what bike he was riding.

And Checa on the Ducati,
Ducati was lightning fast.

I knew it was
gonna be hard.

Heading up the hill
towards the Corkscrew,

Edwards' first lap goes
from bad to worse.

Alongside him,
Checa moves left

slowing Edwards' approach
to the corner.

At the same moment,
Gibernau comes flying up
on Checa's right.

Then Sete went by

inside of the Corkscrew,
I got a bit screwed up.

Now I'm really pissed off.

Thinking about
slitting my wrists.

Gibernau and Checa
try to outbrake each other
into turn 10.

They run wide
and Edwards nearly rams
the off-course Checa.

Whoa,
that was a bit close.

In turn 11,
Gibernau pushes Checa wide

and Edwards follows him
past the Ducati.

Behind him, Marco Melandri

tries to get past Alex Barros
on the brakes.

Edwards is oblivious.

His eye's on the bikes
in front.

Obviously the pack,
now they're a good

15 bike lengths
in front of us.

And I saw Nicky
starting to check out.

I thought,
"Oh, gosh, I'm just making it
really hard for myself."

I came around
the first lap

and seen my board
plus point seven

and, man, I had a smile
on my face

'cause I knew I had
something for them.

Didn't know who got
a good start, who got what,

you know, I mean,
I was still nervous.

His father
is nervous too,

worried that Nicky might
have jumped the start.

Most time one guy don't get that kind of a jump.

I was hoping
it wasn't too good.

His other worry
is the man behind Nicky.

You don't want Valentino,
have to try to hold him off,

seven time world champion
or something.

You know what I mean?

He's always got
a little something extra.

You can never count
Rossi out.

I expected him to be
the toughest challenge

and I know
he don't like losing.

I tried to follow him,

but today he is very strong

and on some part
of the track
he is faster than me.

I didn't wanna
let him get too close to see
where I was fast,

some of my lines
and some other things
that I was doing good.

There was a few things
that I learnt

from following Doug Chandler
around there back in the day

when I rode 600,
like getting through
Rainey Curve.

There's one bump there

and that's the same line
I have used since I was 16.

Back in seventh,
Edwards is making plans.

The first lap,
you get sorted out.

You decide what
your next move is.

Just try to line up the next
guy in front of you,
playing chess.

I'm kinda the sit and stock

and kind of, plan my attack.

At this point behind Sete,

I knew he was having
a bit of trouble all weekend.

Biaggi and Bayliss
are fighting for third.

Hopkins is close,
but he's not too happy.

Our bike handled
really well.

We were just so down
on horsepower,

we were having to ride so hard in the corners

to try and make up
everything we lost
in the straightaways.

Heading up the hill
to the Corkscrew,

Edwards makes his move.

That line-up there
in the Corkscrew

is something I held
in the back pocket
pretty much all weekend.

I didn't really wanna
show anybody.

Basically,
you can brake straight,

you do lose a bit of momentum,

but once you get
in front of the guy

there's nothing
he can do anyway.

Just ahead of Edwards, Hopkins is getting frustrated.

See, I was trying
everything I could

to get by Biaggi
and Bayliss right here.

I mean, I'm inside,
I'm outside,

I was seriously being
held up right there

and I could see Valentino
getting away,

so, I mean, I was,
I was really frustrated.

The only thing
I could have done

is just completely nail him,
and T-bone him,

and that's something
I was willing to do.

I didn't wanna take myself out.

As Biaggi and Bayliss
accelerate away from him,

the writing is on the wall
for Hopkins.

All the ground he's
made up through the corners,

he loses down the straight.

That's pure horsepower
right there and there it is.

Edwards now has
Hopkins in his sights.

He passes him on the power
out off turn four.

The first couple
of guys I passed might have
been not so difficult,

but I've got Biaggi
who's been there before,

who carries lots
of corner speeds,
brakes hard.

Got Bayliss in front of him

who is a bear
around this track.

He's hard to pass.

I was kinda struggling
trying to pick out

how am I gonna
pass these guys

and get by them quickly.

Because at the same time
they weren't running
a bad pace,

it was just enough
to slow me down mid-corner

and kinda messing me up.

And then up in the distance,
you got Valentino and Nicky.

First off, I'm gonna have to
ride my ass off
to even get up there.

Half-way through lap four,

Bayliss and Biaggi start
tripping each other up.

These guys start
playing with one another.

I almost hit Troy here,

Max went a bit wide
and made a mistake,
slowed Troy up,

that kinda left
the door open for me.

Now I'm thinking,

really good,
Christmas came early.

You know?
I got buzzed on it one time,

so, now I just put
my head down.

As Edwards goes through,

Gibernau seizes the chance
to push Biaggi aside.

Edwards leads the pack
down the hill

with Gibernau behind him

continuing his all-out attack.

As far as Edwards
is concerned, though,

he's on his own now.

I'm out by myself,
me against the track.

There was no conserving tires.

Those rules
all went out the window

once I got a bad start

and found that I was
gonna have to make up
a lot of ground.

Anything and everything,

whatever you got,
I was thrashing all of it,

bike, engine, bouncing off the limiter right

just before you come
into that corner.

Just trying to squeeze
every little ounce
of everything.

Up at the front,

Hayden is monitoring
the gap to Rossi.

Rossi, a lot of times
he don't like to lead,

so, when I've seen him
back there

I knew that he might just be waiting till the last few laps

and I was gonna have
to be ready to hang it out.

Once I started
being fastest, fastest
at the end of the first day,

second day fastest,

and then to get on pole
by a pretty big gap.

If I didn't ran that race
I was gonna look like
a choke artist.

I didn't like to think I buckle under the pressure

and I didn't wanna buckle
that weekend for sure.

Lap nine,

Hayden first, Rossi second,
Edwards third.

Gibernau and Checa
have got past Hopkins.

He's now eighth, wondering how to counter-attack

the Ducati in front of him.

The Ducati
is probably the hardest
bike to pass

because of its
sheer brunt horsepower.

Checa does him a favor.

It was unfortunate
for him, but it was very
fortunate for me.

He just got in there
a little too hot

and tried to make up
a little too much ground,

and broke a little too hard.

Just too much front brake.

Checa's fall
put Hopkins seventh,

behind Troy Bayliss,

a rider
he's held in high regard

ever since he saw
the Australian

racing at Laguna Seca in 2001

in the World
Superbike Championship.

I remember going up
to Troy Bayliss when he was
racing World Superbike

and I was there
racing supersport.

I said,
"Man, I love your style."

'Cause he always went
really well
here on the World Superbike.

So, it was good
racing against him,

but dammit,
I wanted to beat him.

I was numb.
I was completely numb.

I couldn't feel anything
in my body.

Just aggression
and adrenaline,

that was the only thing
I was running on.

Like I was looking at the devil right in front of me.

It felt good.
That's why you race.

It's for the adrenaline,
for the aggression,
the excitement.

Right here I'm just trying
everything I can

and I knew I could be
faster than him if he wasn't
in front of me.

Bayliss was riding
to his maximum, blocking,

riding way in the insides,

just wasn't a possibility
to get by him.

With your body hanging
over the bike,

it's a really wide object,

with the width that Laguna is, being quite tighter
than most tracks.

Just left, right, left, right,

just back and forth like that.

It is one of the most
hardest places to overtake.

Nicky was going off
in the sunset,

so at this moment,

Valentino was just
another obstacle

that I had to get around

and he is by no means
an easy person to pass.

I spent a couple of laps,
I think, stalking,

just to see where
he had a weak point,

where I felt like
I was faster,

where he might have
been a bit faster.

He was fairly fast,

one, two, three, four,
the flat corners.

He just pulled a little gap
after those corners.

I knew from this area

up to a little bit
past the Corkscrew
I was pretty quick.

I fight with Colin very much.

I know he come in from behind.

Here I quite slow,
so I think he don't
overtake me straight away.

I start reeling
him in a bit here.

And then once I got up here,
I just said,

"Now is the time."

I don't expect
when he arrive he overtake me
at the Corkscrew.

I broke really deep
and I got in there a bit hot

and missed that apex
just a tiny bit,

but at the same time
he couldn't turn in on me.

I know Valentino's style,
his character,

he's gonna try
a counter-attack pretty soon.

At the same time,
my biggest concern was,

"Now is the time
to put your head down

"and do everything you can
to catch Nicky."

Sure enough,
Rossi hits back.

A little too hard.

That right there
is a typical Laguna mistake.

Guy in front of you kinda
drags you into turning too
a bit hot

and you run a bit wide.

He missed that apex there
as well.

I lost a little bit
anyway.

I'm not precise,
and my reading
is not very good.

He'll tell you,
you know, he makes
a lot of mistakes,

but he's just really
good at recovering.

He can recover a mistake

and hardly lose any time.

This lap, obviously,
he lost some time.

Right now, I'm just focusing
on that top gap,

minus one point eight,
minus one point six,

which is the distance
from me to Nicky.

Okay, here he's coming back
slow, bit by bit,

but is there enough time?

The best part of the race
was doing what
I'm doing right now.

Putting the laps in and I was catching up to Nicky.

The funnest thing
is just clicking off

as perfect the laps as you can.

When you connect every dot

and you have the line
that you want,

to me that's fun.

Catching up to Nicky,
I definitely strung
a few together.

That was the best part
of the race for me.

About a lap after that was the worst part of the race

when Nicky responded
and pulled the gap back out

a couple of laps in a row.

And, uh...

Oh, man, come on.

We kinda knew
what he could run

and we knew that he had another

almost a half a second in him.

And I was sitting over with the crew chief when Colin kinda got up to him just a little,

they signaled to him, you know, with the pit board

and he immediately
went couple of laps
so he could get back out.

Couple of times
the gap would come down
to those guys

and I was able to always
answer the attack
and pull it back out.

It's never comfortable
when you got them boys
breathing down your neck.

So much stuff can happen.
A lap rider,

tires go away,

sometimes he's hard on tires

more than the other people.

The rider with
the tire problem

is not Nicky Hayden,
but Colin Edwards.

I didn't really think
it was a gamble,

but I did choose
a softer tire

knowing that it would be
good in the beginning

and maybe suffer
a little bit in the end.

That's exactly what happened.

He responds, kinda,
knocks the wind
out of my sail,

but at the same time

the rear really goes away.

Once you lose the rubber
then you lose the grip

and that happens in every race.

New tires are always better.

Seven laps from the end,

Hopkins is locked
in a four-way battle.

Bayliss ahead of him,

Tamada and Nakano behind.

I was in a big group there

so I knew there were people
right behind me
I wasn't worried about.

I was just concentrating
on the people ahead of me.

At this stage of the race

it was like, "Unless these guys make a mistake,

"this is where
I'm gonna finish."

Behind him,
Makoto Tamada has
his own ideas

about where Hopkins
is going to finish.

That's a blind corner
and to come over the inside,

Tamada made
a pretty ballsy move.

He went a little kamikaze
right there.

You know, hats off to him,

but at the end of the day, damn it, I wanted to beat him.

That's where the focus
comes into the race,

most importantly is at
the end of the race.

Tires are worn,
body is worn,
the mind is worn.

I was extremely pissed off.

I ran wide there
and missed the apex there.

They got away a little bit.

It happens.
You get a little hot-headed.

When you try too hard,
that's when you start
making mistakes

and run wide,

or slip the rear,
get the rear spun up
a little too much.

You just wanna try and stay
as smooth as possible

and still have
that same aggression.

A few people asked to
talk to me during the race,

but I wouldn't dare
say anything during a race

because you could
say something

and the next lap
they could be on the ground.

You know, and so,
I wanna wait after
the checkered flag.

Edwards is not giving up.

Then I put
a second surge in there

towards the end of the race.

The only thing
you can really do is just

keep trying
to apply the pressure

and force them into a mistake.

It's not wise just to

drop off the face
of the planet
and let him go.

It's no parade.
It's intense
the whole 45 minutes.

You let up,
you're gonna go backwards,

so, it's a dogfight
the whole way.

When they come off
of the last corner before
they got to the finish line,

and I could hear the sound
of Nicky's bike,

but I got to where
I couldn't even look.

I just...
I knew on my stopwatch

at a certain second

that bike would be there.

And I was just hoping
I never not hear that sound.

Eventually, I knew his sound.
The Honda was different

than the two Yamahas

'cause Colin and Valentino
were second and third

and they made
a different sound.

And to tell you the truth,
I only watched

when he'd come past me,
just a little distance

'cause I just couldn't watch.

I'm struggling hard here.

Pushing as hard as I can do,

but I can't seem to get out
of my own shadow.

I'm exiting the corners
and spinning up,

and trying to keep it in line,

and at the same time,

I did not know

Valentino was coming.

In the closing laps,

Rossi's focus is absolute.

While Edwards has been
spinning and sliding
on his worn tires,

the world champion
has been smooth
and aggressive.

His choice of a harder tire

working in his favor
late in the race.

I come around
the last corner thinking,

"Okay, we've got one more
lap to go."

I look over at my pit board
and it says,

"Plus point five."

The last time I remember
it was like,
two point five seconds

I had on Valentino
or two seconds.

So, now I'm thinking,

"Did I read that wrong?

"Did that say point five
or plus five seconds?"

So, I look over...

And I saw a

track full of yellow
motorcycle behind me.

I say, "Yeah, I'm here."

Oh, man,
not the last lap.

Uh, I didn't want this.

So, now it was...

I was doing everything I could,

push as hard as possible

to keep him behind me.

The last couple
of laps I was trying
to stay focused,

but I was thinking about
when I was, you know, a kid.

My mom and dad,
just what they had done.

I can honestly remember
going to Daytona one year

to race amateurs

and our roof was leaking so bad

that my dad put buckets
under the roof.

Ninety-nine percent
of the people fix their roof,

but our parents,
they were just different.

I mean, they put every cent
they had into

taking us racing
and giving us
this opportunity.

I was thinking a lot about
people who'd been behind me

to help me
and all the sacrifices.

I've enjoyed the ride,

but it's been hard at times,

and I'm lucky to have
a great family

to get behind me,
support me.

I owe a lot to them.

I tried to put
a little bit of pressure
on him,

but anyway,
difficult to overtake.

I was kinda going,
"Oh, what's gonna happen?
What's gonna happen?

"I'm braking, braking,
is he coming?"

"All right, I got it.
You know, now I'm safe."

When Hayden
gets back to the pit,

he's supposed to go
to the winner's enclosure.

Instead, he takes his dad
for a lap of honor.

It was cool,
it was special.

That's what we do,
dirt tracking.

When I won my first
dirt track national,

I took my dad for a lap.

I didn't have it planned out.

It just kinda hit me
after the race

to do a lap with my dad.

Without Pops spending
all his hard-earned money

to take me racing
and helping me out,

you know, I'd probably be

in school right now,

working some job I hate.

-- Amigo,good one, amigo.
-- Thanks, man, thanks.

What's up, man?

You come back quick, huh?

I looked and it said
plus two seconds.

Whoo!

You know, it's obvious
that I wanted to win my home
Grand Prix.

I was happy for Nicky
at the same time.

You know, he's worked hard.
I've know Nicky since
he was eight years old.

To be there
and be part of

two Americans, one and two,
at the Grand Prix

was a memorable
experience, for sure.

Nicky Hayden!

...throughout the weekend,
so, uh...

But it's good to see
two Americans, one and two,
at the home GP.

Just wish it was me.

I was actually
very disappointed
at the end of the race

because where I finished,
it was...

it was very disappointing.

But then I looked back at it

and went through it all
in my mind,

and basically just said,

"I did everything I could.

"I honestly did everything
I could at Laguna."

That was probably
the best feeling,

it's just winning again.

You know, it'd been hard,
when you're used to
winning every week

and winning a lot and then

when you get beat,
you know, it's tough.

You keep
bouncing back mentally,

and putting everything into it

and staying focused,
staying hungry.

You just forget
how good it felt to win.

That's probably why
I was so happy.

It was definitely
the happiest day of my life,

just to stand
on that podium again,

just to win.

And that day was my day.