From a press release issued by Team Suzuki News Service:

HOPKINS RETURNS

MotoGP. Round 15.
Australian GP, Phillip Island, Victoria
October 19, 2002.

Team Suzuki rider John Hopkins makes his return at this Sunday’s Australian GP, still smarting after a controversial one-race suspension from last weekend’s Malaysian GP, and determined to make up for lost time, with maximum effort for the second-last race of his first year with Suzuki.

Hopkins and team-mate Kenny Roberts both have track experience at the picturesque seaside Phillip Island circuit with the 2003 version of the GSV-R 990cc V4 racer, in pre-season tests. The motorcycle has taken a distinct step forward since then, with development throughout the year boosted by fresh engine and chassis parts that arrived two races ago at Motegi in Japan.

And both riders will be exploiting the nature of a track that puts as much emphasis on riding skill as on sheer horsepower.

Hopkins left Malaysia before last weekend’s race, and spent the time training and relaxing at Surfers Paradise and the Sunshine Coast, to be fully acclimatised for the Australian GP. He was angered when he saw that a similar incident to the first-corner crash at Motegi that led to his one-race suspension went unpunished. Ironically this involved chief complainant Carlos Checa, who knocked his own team-mate Marco Melandri off in practice. Checa had already been reprimanded for kicking out at a marshal after crashing the day before; he was not penalised for the crash.

Race Director Paul Butler said the nature of the incidents had been different, but admitted: “You can argue with the severity of the punishment for Hopkins.”

Suzuki team manager Garry Taylor said: “We protested the disqualification, but it was over-ruled. We have to accept the decision of the FIM race stewards – but we were very encouraged by the strength of the support for John from other riders and teams.

“Now we have to put it behind us, and do the best we can for this race.

“The latest parts have been a definite improvement, though not enough to get Suzuki back to the winning positions. But they are in the right direction, and we’re confident they will pay dividends at this circuit.

“We know that Kenny will get the best he can out of the machine, and there’s no question about John’s enthusiasm and dedication. He has a real point to prove.

“We’re hoping for a good weekend, with both riders claiming worthwhile championship points,” said Taylor.

The nature of the classic circuit, on an island south of Melbourne, almost guarantees close racing, with many opportunities for slipstreaming, and flowing corners where a determined rider can exploit the rhythm to make up ground lost in acceleration and top speed.

KENNY ROBERTS – WORKING TO THE LIMITS: Phillip Island is a flowing track that’s fun to ride. It’s hard to predict our performance – we’ve been struggling within the machine’s limits, but this is a track where the rider can make more of a difference than some other circuits. We’ll be aiming to do better than last year.

JOHN HOPKINS – NO TAIL BETWEEN MY LEGS: I’ve been up north, at Surfers Paradise and the Sunshine Coast for a few days. I watched the Malaysian GP, and heard about Checa’s problems there, without getting penalised, which made me pretty angry. This weekend I’m going out there to give it everything I can. I like the track, and we tested here at the beginning of the season. I’ll go for it, and see what I can do. I’m not going round with my tail between my legs, that’s for sure.



More, from a press release issued by Proton Team KR:

PROTON BRING FOUR-STROKE TO SCENE OF TWO-STROKE TRIUMPH

Phillip Island, the picturesque seaside venue for Sunday’s Australian GP, is a special track for Proton Team KR.

Last year, racing the three-cylinder 500cc two-stroke against the new 990cc four-stroke MotoGP bikes, Jeremy McWilliams qualified the relatively underpowered machine on pole position, with team-mate Nobuatsu Aoki also on the front row, third fastest. McWilliams’ lap time of 1:31.919 is still the fastest lap ever round Phillip Island by a motorcycle, and Aoki was barely half-a-second slower.

The pair went on to record a double top ten finish, in spite of a significant top speed deficit. Aoki was seventh, and McWilliams tenth, fighting his way through from the back after an off-track excursion in the early stages, and several times fastest rider on the track.

This year, the team bring their own 990cc four-stroke to the race – the radical England-built Proton KR V5. And they hope the way the track favours their combination of sweet handling, Bridgestone tyres and very determined riders will bring another good result.

The Proton KR V5 is lining up for only its ninth race, after the rush design and development programme saw the bike take to the track for the first time after the season had already begun. Ever since, it has been on a fast-forward development programme, teething troubles solved race by race, in full public view. At almost every event, new parts and new solutions were applied to take the bike another step from first prototype to maturing racer.

The progress has been inexorable, and the new machine scored its first points three races ago, at the Pacific GP at Motegi in Japan, where Aoki finished 14th. As impressive as the steady improvement in all-round performance has been the march towards reliability.

The Australian race is the third of three back-to-back flyaway races, a gruelling test of the still immature racer. So far, it has passed with flying colours.

“There’s nothing really different here from the last race, but we’ve done pretty well to get this far and show we can finish reliably,” said team manager Chuck Aksland. “We weren’t looking forward to these three races.

“This track is obviously one of Jeremy’s favourites,” (last year was his second time on pole), “and Nobu likes it as well.

“The tyres also work very well here. Bridgestone did a lot of testing here with Nobu before they entered the top class last year, and that has obviously paid off.

“We’re hoping for a good race,” Aksland concluded.

Nobuatsu Aoki: Pretty Optimistic
I’m pretty optimistic. As everyone knows, the Bridgestone tyres work very well at Phillip Island, and though for sure we will struggle with top speed there are other places on the track where we could make a lot of time up last year, when the situation was the same. I like the track, and I know it well. No race is easy, but I hope it won’t be as tough as the last few.

Jeremy McWilliams: Points on the Table
I like the track a lot, and it will be more like the conditions we’re used to. We won’t have to worry about extreme temperatures, that among other things affected the performance of the slipper clutch in Malaysia. We know the Bridgestones work very well here. I hope we can get some points.