Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By David Swarts

West Honda Pons rider Alex Barros will race a Honda RC211V four-stroke at the Pacific Grand Prix at Twin-Ring Motegi, Japan October 4-6.

A report appearing Friday on the West Honda Pons website quotes Barros as saying, “I am very excited about my chance of riding the RC211V. It is clearly one of the fastest bikes around at the moment and finally I have the chance of competing on the same level as Valentino Rossi and the other four-stroke riders. It will not be easy to be competitive immediately because I have had no time to familiarise myself with the bike. The first time I get on the bike will be during Free Practice on the Thursday of the Grand Prix. However, I have a lot of experience riding four-stroke Hondas in the 8-Hours of Suzuka races every summer where I have always performed very well. For this reason I am confident that I will adapt quickly to the bike and maybe I will be in with a chance of a podium finish on race day.”

Barros’ West Honda Pons teammate Loris Capirossi will remain on his Honda NSR500 two-stroke at Motegi. Capirossi has announced that he will be riding for the Ducati MotoGP team in 2003.

With the previous announcements that Gauloises Yamaha Tech 3’s Shinya Nakano and Olivier Jacque will be on Yamaha YZR-M1s and that Kawasaki’s Ninja ZX-RR will make its MotoGP race debut with Akira Yanagawa, there will be a total of 12 four-strokes and only nine two-strokes on the grid at Motegi.