Copyright 2003, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

Competitors in the Suzuki World GSX-R Cup finals October 17-19 at Magny-Cours, France got no practice before the first timed qualifying session and only forty minutes of track time before the first race.

“They shorted us two practice sessions this year. The first time they hit the track was a qualifying session,” said American Suzuki’s Morgan Broadhead, who accompanied the American contingent of Chris “Opie” Caylor, Tray Batey and Corey Eaton to France.

In 2002, Suzuki World GSX-R Cup racers got two, 20-minute practice sessions and two, 20-minute timed qualifying sessions before their two sprint races. This year, riders got two, 20-minute qualifying session before running their races.

The Suzuki World GSX-R Cup ran with a FIM World Endurance race in 2002 and with the FIM World Superbike Championship in 2003.

The lack of practice was a factor in the performance of non-European Suzuki GSX-R Cup racers who had never been to the Magny-Cours track before, according to Caylor and Batey.

“The biggest problem was the small amount of practice we had to learn the track,” said Caylor, who finished sixth overall in the competition, the best-finishing American.

“There was no practice,” said Batey. “It was like, ‘There’s the track, now go qualify.’ We were racing against guys who had done 24-hour endurance races at the track.”

In addition, Caylor said the GSX-R750 supplied to him, from a fleet of supposedly identically-prepared machines, was “a dog. I couldn’t even stay in the draft of people. All the American bikes were dogs. I was second- or third-slowest on the trap speed sheets in every session. My bike was 14 kph slower than the top guys.”

Broadhead said discussions are currently under way to possibly bring the Suzuki World GSX-R Cup finals to Australia or to America, to run in conjunction with the AMA event at Road Atlanta in September 2004.

“We would explore that [AMA event at Road Atlanta],” said Broadhead.