Copyright 2004, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

Reigning Canadian Superbike and Sportbike Champion Pascal Picotte will ride for Jordan Motorsports in place of Montez “Tez” Stewart at the AMA Superbike event this weekend at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.

Stewart broke his left wrist in a crash during the AMA Supersport race at Pikes Peak International Speedway May 23.

“Tez is a maybe for this weekend,” James Casmay, co-owner of the Michael Jordan-backed team, told Roadracingworld.com Thursday in the Road America paddock. “He’s in San Francisco right now with Dr. (Arthur) Ting, but Ting told him four-to-six weeks last week. So he’s still a maybe.

“Pascal is going to ride. He’s going to ride in Superbike and Formula Xtreme, not Tez’s classes, Supersport and Superstock. So if Tex does ride, we’ll have bikes for everyone and in every class.

“Pascal was looking at doing this round anyway, and we knew we had to be here to represent for our sponsors.

“It’s kind of a good fit. Our guys already work with Pascal. Pete Mauhar works with Pascal in the Canadian series, and he worked with most of our crew guys (who are contracted from Gemini Racing) before too.”

“I know all these guys,” said Picotte. “Pete works with me in Canada, and I worked with all these other guys back when I was with Harley. It’s good to have good people to work with.”

Picotte said he found the Jordan Yamaha YZF-R1 and YZF-R6 to be “quite similar” to his Picotte Yamahas. “Same bikes, same tires, just with different suspension. We’re going to valve it and make it as close to mine as we can. It shouldn’t take me too long to get right on track,” said Picotte. “I’m just happy to be here. I feel kind of sorry to have to replace (Stewart), but if it’s what they need to keep the program going I’m happy to help.

“Maybe I can help them get the bikes set-up better for Tez for when he’s healthy. Maybe I can give them a direction to go in. And Tez will be here this weekend, so maybe we can spend some time together and I can mentor him a little bit, even if he’s not riding. He can listen in and see what changes I make to the bike to fix problems and such.”