From a press release issued by Octagon Motorsports, organizers of the FIM Endurance World Championship series.

Huge Number of Permanent Teams

A record number of permanent teams have already signed up for the 2003 World Endurance Championship.

Two of the top Yamaha teams are strengthened for next year, and Germany looks set to be a key player in the championship. Rider details are starting to be confirmed, and another Junior team will be entering the series.

Permanent Entries

About twenty permanent teams have confirmed their entry into the 2003 World Endurance Championship. This is a higher number than expected at this stage in the run up to the new season. Current World Champions Zongshen have confirmed that they will again run two teams. All the other major teams from 2002 have also confirmed that they will be entering next year.

Strong Yamaha Teams

Yamaha’s challenge to the dominance of the GSX-R1000 is expected to be much stronger in 2003.

Endurance Moto38 and Yamaha Racing France have announced close links, and the Yamaha94 tie up of GMT94 and Laurent Naveau will produced another very strong R1 based outfit. Will this year see Yamaha’s R1 take its first World title?

New Teams from Germany, Slovakia

Amongst the new entrants are two teams from Germany (Abbco Motorradwelt Kassel and Hofmann R.T.) and Maco Moto Racing of Slovakia – the latter widening the geographical profile of the championship still further. With rumours of two new Italian teams and a new entry from the Netherlands, the entry list is in very healthy shape for the forthcoming season.

International Racing Starts Here

QB Phase One are again running a senior and junior team, as are fellow British team Trackdaze. The World Endurance Championship is now regarded by many young riders as the perfect launch-pad for an international career.

Police Nationale have confirmed that their rider line up for 2003 will be Paolo Blora (ITA), Gwen Giabbani (FRA) and Takaharu Kishida (JPN) – details on their bike choice are expected soon. Yamaha Austria will run an all Austrian line-up of Karl Truchsess alongside Horst Saiger and Erwin Wilding, with team manager Manfred ‘Mandy’ Kainz as reserve.