Hayden Gillim’s recent trip to race in the Czech Republic round of the World Superbike Championship further proved a simple fact: Flying to Europe for your one-off World Superbike debut halfway through their championship at a track you’ve never seen before against racers you’ve never raced before and on unfamiliar tires fitted to a World Superbike-spec Honda that you have little knowledge of, is an arduous task.
Gillim, the defending MotoAmerica Stock 1000 and King Of The Baggers Champion, got the late call from Petronas MIE Racing Honda to race at the Autodrom Most this past weekend as a replacement for the concussed Tarran Mackenzie, the son of former factory 500cc Grand Prix racer and three-time British Superbike Champion Niall. Tarran has a British Superbike Championship of his own on his resume and has also won a World Supersport race. Prior to suffering his injury, Mackenzie had scored seven points on the team’s Honda CBR1000RR-R SP. But Mackenzie is no slouch.
Gillim qualified the team’s Honda in 23rd with a Superpole lap of 1:33.756, his fastest of the weekend to that point. It put him 3.6 seconds behind arguably the hottest motorcycle road racer on the planet at the moment – pole sitter Toprak Razgatlioglu. Gillim was .795 of a second off his teammate for the weekend, Leandro “Tati” Mercado, who was also racing as a fill-in rider for the injured Adam Norrodin on another Petronas MIE Racing Honda.
Many AMA fans will recognize the Mercado name as the Argentinian started his career in the Red Bull AMA U.S. Rookies Cup and won an AMA Supersport Championship in 2009 before heading across the Atlantic to start an international career in the Superstock 600 Championship before moving to Superstock 1000 and ultimately World Superbike.
Mercado came into the Most round of the 2024 World Superbike Championship with 194 World Superbike races under his belt.
Gillim’s first-ever World Superbike practice session came on Friday morning and his best lap was a 1:35.726, which was a tick under a second slower than his teammate Mercado and 3.7 seconds slower than Razgatlioglu. In FP2 on Friday afternoon, Gillim lapped at 1:34.350 – 2.8 seconds behind Razgatlioglu and .357 of a second behind Mercado.
Free Practice 3 saw Gillim go a bit quicker with his 1:34.293, 3.5 seconds behind the World Championship points leader and a tick over a second slower than teammate Mercado. Gillim turned in his best practice/qualifying effort of the weekend in the aforementioned Superpole session with a 1:33.756 putting him 3.6 seconds behind Razgatlioglu and .795 of a second behind Mercado, who dipped into the 1:32s.
Gillim finished 21st in his first-ever World Superbike race on Saturday, just over a minute behind Razgatlioglu and 6.3 seconds behind Mercado. His best lap was a 1:34.046.
Gillim raced twice on Sunday in the Czech Republic. He finished 20th in the Superpole race with a best lap of 1:33.549 (his best of the weekend), 29 seconds behind Razgatlioglu, and 2.1 seconds behind Mercado in the shorter, 10-lap race.
Sunday’s finale was Superbike race two and Gillim took full advantage of four retirements by four of the top men in the championship to finish 18th, 53.367 seconds behind Razgatlioglu and 2.5 seconds behind Mercado. His best lap was a 1:34.375.
From watching the videos he made throughout the weekend you could tell that Gillim was loving every minute of the experience. Difficult? Yes. Worth it? Most definitely.
So, what was the most difficult part of the experience?
“I think the hardest part for me was just the bike being so different than what I’m used to,” Gillim said when we caught up with him and his wife, Summer, after landing in Chicago on Tuesday. “Like the way they had it set up from how different they ride it – with those tires (Pirellis) and everything. It took us awhile just to get me comfortable on it. We were joking about it, but I think the only thing that’s the same as my bike is that both bikes have engine covers.”
Obviously, more time would have taken care of much of what Gillim struggled with.
“I would have loved to have had more time on the thing just to try things and figure out what would feel better for me,” Gillim said. “Also, the way I ride the bike compared to how Tarran (Mackenzie) rides the bike… he rides a lot different than I do. I needed a lot more time on the bike to get comfortable and figure things out.”
With the experience gained at Most, what would Gillim advise to a fellow MotoAmerica racer thinking about taking on a similar task.
“Honestly, I don’t think there’s any way of speeding it up,” Gillim said. “It’s all about laps and time. Everybody is going to get comfortable at a different rate, but without laps there’s no ‘figure it out fast.’ Obviously, doing it at an easier track would help, maybe do it at the beginning of the season when they (the World Superbike regulars) aren’t in the full swing of things. They had just been on the bikes the week before, so everyone was gung-ho straight from the first lap.”
So, will the experience gained translate to an even faster Gillim when he returns to racing in a few weeks at the MotoAmerica round at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course?
“I think so,” Gillim said “With overlaying data from myself and similar corners from other tracks, to how Tarran rides the bike, and looking at Leandro’s (Mercado) data to looking at Xavi’s (Vierge) and Iker’s (Lecuona) data… there is stuff that I definitely need to work on as a rider. For example, how they come off the brakes and go to the throttle. There’s a lot of stuff that I learned and from following guys on track. I certainly hope I can find some more speed when I get back.”
