From a press release issued by Proton Team KR:

The 2003 season begins at Suzuka in Japan on April 6. For Proton Team KR it has come a little bit too early. With their all-new V5 four-stroke still undergoing tests back at base in Britain, MotoGP racing’s only truly independent manufacturer will race field last year’s 500cc KR3.

Riders Jeremy McWilliams and Nobuatsu Aoki will be on the only two-strokes in the class. But the distinction need not be negative. Bad weather could play into their hands in terms of race results, since their lighter weight and lower power would become an advantage rather than a drawback.

More importantly, not only the riders but also the latest Bridgestone tyres will be gaining track time and getting polished up, ready for the arrival of the radical new four-stroke in the near future.

“We always knew there was a chance we would run the two-stroke at the first race, and at this stage I’m not going to put a date on when the four-stroke will be ready,” said team owner Kenny Roberts.

“We won’t run the four-stroke until we are confident it is ready. That doesn’t mean we’ve ruled it out for the second race,” the former triple champion and racing legend continued.

“The project always did have a crazy time scale,” “We’re just a little behind at this point. With the engine on the test bench, we found some details that are taking time to get settled. So while the engineering team carries on work in England, for this race we’ll be giving everyone a last chance to look at a racing two-stroke 500 – I guess we’re the last of the breed.”

The Japanese GP is the first of 16 rounds in the 2003 MotoGP World Championship. The next race is the South African GP on April 27, with the European season starting at Jerez in Spain on May 11.

Jeremy McWilliams: Underdog again
Obviously it’s disappointing to be on the old bike when we’re all looking forward to the new one. The four-strokes have so much speed in a straight line, and though we had some fun last year beating them through the corners, we were always the underdog. Same again for Suzuka. But look on the bright side: we’re out there racing again, and you never know what might happen on the day, if it’s rainy, or if the weather changes during the race.

Nobuatsu Aoki: Home track Runner
This is the first of two home GPs for me, and there will be a lot of friends and family and fans there. As always, I will try to give us all something to be happy about. For sure the race will be hard if it is dry. Last year, we had some results that surprised us, as well as other people, so I never say there is no chance. I’ll do my best, and see what happens.