Bridgestone GP Briefing Round 3: Turkey Tuesday 17 April 2007 Almost a month has passed since the previous race but the 2007 MotoGP championship is still in its infancy as round three is held at the impressive Istanbul Park circuit in Turkey this weekend. Bridgestone-shod Casey Stoner holds second place in the riders’ championship after his Qatar GP win and fine fifth place in Jerez, but Bridgestone is preparing for a tough weekend in Turkey, a venue where its tyres have struggled for grip and durability in the past. Tyre Talk with Hiroshi Yamada Bridgestone Motorsport – Manager, Motorcycle Sport Department Testing Restrictions “Unlike the opening two races of the season in Qatar and Jerez, we do not have the benefit of recent testing data from the Istanbul Park which makes the weekend a bit more uncertain. We must rely on data from last year’s Turkish GP, as well as the feedback we have received from our teams and riders in the two races of the season so far in order to determine our tyre specifications. We have continued apace with our development plan for this season and we were able to salvage a bit of dry running from the two day test session after Jerez GP which allowed us to evaluate the next generation of tyre compound which we will be introducing in Turkey this weekend.” Previous Turkey Performance “After two encouraging races in Qatar and Jerez during which we were able to show our tyres to be competitive and durable, we now face two strenuous events in Turkey and China where we have struggled in the past. Turkey has only been on the MotoGP calendar since 2005, so the database of information is less than other more established race tracks. Last year was also quite affected by wet weather which increases this deficit yet further. Chris Vermeulen scored a great pole position in the wet qualifying session last year, but the slick tyre performance in the dry race dropped him back to seventh just behind Loris Capirossi, who was the top Bridgestone rider in sixth.” The Weekend Ahead “Istanbul is tough on tyres, so we have developed mainly hard and medium specification tyres for our teams to combat the demand for grip and longevity over the 22 laps. The asphalt surface is smooth and that leaves tyres prone to sliding as they are not aided by immediate grip offered by the circuit. A poor chemistry between the tyre and the track accelerates tyre wear over race distance as the tyres continually fight to grip onto the track. As we saw in last year’s Turkish race our tyre performance gradually dropped as the race progressed and this has been one of our focal areas for improvement over the winter. Our development work has combined these past lessons, while utilising the more recent data from the first two races of the new 800cc era, which we hope will show a year-on-year improvement in Bridgestone tyre performance in Turkey.” Riding Perspective with Suzuki’s Chris Vermeulen “The Istanbul Park is one of the so-called ‘super circuits’ that have been built over the last few years, following tracks like China and Malaysia. It is one of my favourite circuits because it is a challenging circuit for riders, engineers and tyre technicians alike and great fun to ride. We have to be careful to set the bike up to cope with a wide, diverse range of technical aspects. We have one of the quickest corners on the calendar on the back straight towards the end of the lap, but then we also have slower corners to deal with. From a tyre perspective, we have to find a good compromise on edge grip because the lower speed corners see at us at high lean angles demanding a lot of grip, while we would normally run harder compounds through the faster sections. The Bridgestone engineers have been looking at a multitude of options to find the most competitive compromise. The tyre restrictions will have a big effect in Turkey because we have not tested there recently, so the selection of our 31 tyres will be more difficult, but we have complete trust in the hard work that Bridgestone has been doing in Japan. I was able to get pole position in the wet last year, my first time using Bridgestone’s wet weather tyres and my first time on the Suzuki in wet conditions, and it was awesome. I could not believe how much grip there was, I could get my knee down everywhere, I was totally in control and it was comfortable. Hopefully we will be able to do the same in wet or dry conditions and to improve on the seventh-place we got in last year’s race.” 2006 Flashback Race Winner Marco Melandri Honda Gresini 41m54.065s Top Rider on Bridgestone Loris Capirossi Ducati 42m10.747s Pole Position and Top Rider on Bridgestone Chris Vermeulen Suzuki 2m04.617s

Seventh for Jessopp British Supersport Thruxton Riders Racing Ducati rider Martin Jessopp secured a confidence building seventh position in the British Supersport Championship at Thruxton circuit this weekend. The 21-year-old from Yeovil rode a strong race despite the fact that a stone had put a hole in the radiator in the early stages of the race causing the Ducati to overheat throughout the race, this also effected the power delivery of the bike and therefore he had to bring the 749 home in a good top ten position. Despite the problem Jessopp made the most of his first ever-front row start in the Supersport class gaining a great start and was second into the first corner. He was pushed to third by Jamie Robinson and was holding off the chasing pack well until the hole caused the damage forcing Jessopp to fight for all he could. It has been a mixed couple of weekends for the Riders Racing Team when Jessopp scored his first podium position last weekend at Brands Hatch but was later excluded due to the machine not starting parc ferme after the race. This problem was caused by a failure internally in the starter motor, a problem which the team have never experienced before. Commenting he said “I’ve had a really mixed couple of weekends but glad to finally get on the points table in the Championship results. I had a couple of problems in the race, we were advised to run a slightly harder tyre compound and I just couldn’t get it to work right and I was struggling to get grip. I didn’t know about the radiator problem until after the race but I knew the bike was loosing power and was running at and exceptionally high temperature. I’m hoping Silverstone will be more encouraging and that we can improve on seventh place. Obviously I would have liked to have finished higher up and everything had been running well all weekend, we just had a couple of niggling problems on race day that we really could have done without.” The next British Supersport race is at Silverstone Circuit on 27th 29th April. British Supersport Result: M Laverty Suzuki J Robinson Honda B McConnell Yamaha J Westmoreland Honda S Easton Kawasaki I Hutchinson Honda M Jessopp Riders Racing Ducati D Cooper Honda J Kennedy Honda A Lowes Honda More, from a press release issued by Samsung Superbike: Thruxton woes for Samsung Superbike team. The Samsung Superbike team had a tough day at the office with only one race finish achieved out of three race starts. The mechanical gremlins were out in force for Dean Thomas on the Samsung Suzuki Superbike and his team-mate Jon Kirkham on the Samsung Ducati Superstock bike. It started to go wrong for the team in qualifying when Bennetts British Superbike rider Thomas suffered an engine failure and then an electrical problem, although he still qualified in fourteenth place. “I couldn’t believe it, my engine blew in qualifying and then my spare bike developed an electrical fault so I only managed five laps! I just had time to put in one qualifier and set my time,” he said. Thomas finished race one in sixteenth position but it was a struggle due to tyre choice, “I picked the wrong tyre and ended up sixteenth. There were two options and I chose the one that I tested and felt most consistent on but it just wasn’t fast enough, I was comfy on it but not fast.” Race two turned out to be a non starter and this time it was due to the clutch, “My clutch went, the bike just started to spin up on the second lap. We now know that each clutch only does two starts, but to be honest it has been a tough weekend on all the Suzukis. Chris Walker on the Rizla machine had similar problems.” Kirkham had similar luck to his team-mate as he explained, “My gearbox went during qualifying which was far from ideal. Then in the race I had a bad feeling from the front end of the bike. We had made some changes but obviously we went the wrong way with them. I felt there was no point in crashing so I pulled in. It is hard work trying to get the bike dialled in I just hope things go better for us at Silverstone. I’ve gone well there before; I’ve had good results in the past.” The team are hoping to test before the next round at Silverstone as Thomas explains, “We are hoping to make some progress before Silverstone. The plan is to test at Oulton Park but the guys need to rebuild the bikes, so we will see where we are at and take it from there,” he concluded. The next round of the Bennetts British Superbike Championship and the Metzeler National Superstock will take place on the 27th 29th April at Silverstone in Northants. More, from a press release issued by Richie Morris Racing: The Daytona H.D. Buell / Richie Morris Racing team finished third in the Grand Sport Twin class at the Suntrust Moto-ST event this past weekend in Homestead Florida. The team experienced problems with the brakes on lap 6 and went down 3 laps while making repairs. The riders, Shawn Higbee and Dan Bilansky then set a blistering pace to run down the field. When time ran out, they had positioned themselves in third place. “The week started out great with the Ocean Deck signing back on as a team sponsor. Practice went fairly well with the guys leaning the track. We don’t know what happened with the brakes in the race, somehow they got air in them. However, I am very pleased with the entire team for not panicking and making our way back through the field. We would like to send special thanks out to Henry Duga for helping us in the pit. Also congratulations to the Kessee family for their class win” stated Morris. The Daytona H.D. Buell / RMR team will be at VIR in 2 weeks with hopes of maintaining their points lead. The riders will be Shawn Higbee who is sponsored by Bartels H.D. Buell / New Castle Buell and Clint Brotz. Dan Bilansky will be riding his Hals H.D. Buell at the ASRA event in Topeka Kansas. More, from a press release issued by Tim Knutson Racing: EVAN STEEL PERFORMANCE RIDERS IVAN GARZA AND TIM KNUTSON FINISH 1-2 IN FORMULA 1 AT THE OPENING ROUND OF THE WERA WEST SERIES IN LAS VEGAS APRIL 15TH. Ivan Garza won the Formula 1 race and A Superbike and finished 3rd in A Superstock in Sunday’s race action at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. On lap 6 of a 3 way battle between Jason Perez Chad Lewin and Ivan, Jason and Chad came together entering turn 4 putting both riders down which brought out the red flag stopping the race giving Ivan the victory. Ivan, riding an Evan Steel Performance tuned K6 GSXR 1000 on Dunlops, ran his personal best lap time of 1:17.5 during the race to keep him in the lead pack. In the A Superbike race Ivan got off to a quick start leading from lap 1 to pull away to a 10 second victory over Premek Glinz and Tim Knutson who finished with in .051 second of each other. Tim Knutson finished 2nd behind Ivan in the Formula 1 race on a Little Big Racing Evan Steel Performance tuned 2006 Kawasaki ZX10. Starting from row 8 in the larger than normal field, Tim was able to get a decent start and work his way up to the 2nd spot on the podium. In the A Superbike race Tim just got edged out by Premek Glinz after a race long battle that included several close passes in the 8 lap final. Evan Steel Performance is a High Performance Motorcycle Shop located at 3442 Pennsylvania St Tuscon AZ (520)444-5125 More, from a press release issued on behalf of Dijon Compton: Broken Chain for Compton National Superstock Cup – Thruxton It was a disappointing end to the weekend at Thruxton Circuit for Dijon Compton. The 28-year-old from Huddersfield was looking strong throughout the weekend in the National Superstock Cup Championship and a loose chain in the race saw him having to struggle to finish in 23rd place. Compton, who was running consistently fast times throughout the weekend improved in every session. Taken two seconds off his time from first practice he managed to qualify in a strong 13th position in the grid. He was up to seventh in first qualifying but due to tyre restrictions used the same tyre in second qualifying and he got pushed back to 13th. Within the first lap of the race his chain had begun to loosen and he had dropped a position after lap one. As the bike began to loose grip and was spinning up throughout the majority of the remainder of the race the Yorkshireman decided just to bring his Astro Racing Kawasaki ZX10 home out of the points. Commenting he said “I’m disappointed not to have scored some more points this weekend but there was nothing that could be done. I was really enjoying the weekend and getting back into the swing of racing again after my time out. We changed the chain after morning warm up and it was brand new for the race, I knew it wasn’t right half way round the first lap. The rear tyre was spinning up and I wasn’t gaining the speed out of the corners that I needed. Hopefully this won’t happen again and now I can only prepare for Silverstone and hope for a better result there in a few weeks time.” The next race is at Silverstone Circuit on the 27th 29th April.

KONICA MINOLTA Honda head into the unknown at Istanbul Park KONICA MINOLTA Honda are heading into the unknown this week as the MotoGP circus heads towards Turkey and the Istanbul Park race circuit. With the new-for-2007 800cc MotoGP bikes never having been tested around the circuit, the pressure is on for KONICA MINOLTA Honda and their tyre partners Michelin to hit the ground running in time for the first practice session on Friday morning. With two 10th places so far, the pressure is now on both Team and rider to improve and close the gap on the title leaders. The Team’s rider 29-year-old Japanese star Shinya Nakano enjoyed a fruitful wet-weather test at Jerez after the race and is confident that his feeling with the new machine on the new Michelin rubber should begin to show improved results. Gianluca Montiron Team Manager KONICA MINOLTA Honda “To the outside World it may seem like there’s been a month break, but during this time the Team and I have been very busy! I’ve been involved in the planning of our promotional activities that we’ll do until the summer. We do this to create a better collaboration with our Partners offering them additional services compared to any other team. Now our organization is able to offer a good range of services, of which many of our Partners take advantage. With this work complete, now I can focus my attention to our racing results. I have high expectations from this part of the season, because I’m sure we can now expect a step forward in Shinya’s performance. I’m confident that at Jerez our rider began to understand better the characteristics of the new Honda RC212V. I also think that riding in the wet conditions at the Jerez test helped him to acquire more confidence with the machine and Michelin tyres. So we’ll go to Turkey to enter in the top eight positions and gradually race-by-race I hope we can stay in the top group. From the Turkish GP we have to come up with a Team strategy, along with Michelin, to select the best tyres for a circuit where nobody has tested before with this new machine. This will make things very interesting! Obviously we’ll do our best as always to give the maximum support to Shinya.” Shinya Nakano Rider, KONICA MINOLTA Honda “Our test after Jerez was very good for us as we managed to get the feeling from the front of the bike that I need for my riding style. This was in the wet, but this is the same feeling we’re chasing for the bike in the dry conditions too. This data is important, as once I have found a setting to give me the same feeling in the dry, then I know we will go much faster. I’m hoping we can find this at Turkey as I want to push hard and get even better results for both the Team and myself.” Giulio Bernardelle Technical Director, KONICA MINOLTA Honda “This will be the first race of the season at a circuit where nobody has tested during the winter season. This fact and the situation we have with the new tyre rules has given us a lot of work to decide the tyre list for the race. We’ve exchanged a lot of information with the Michelin technicians and we have decided to bring a wide range of rubber to Istanbul. The biggest question mark concerns the weather conditions. Last year, the weather was not so good; temperatures were low and the race was held in wet conditions. We stayed on Monday to test after the race but again weather conditions weren’t perfect. This year the situation should be completely different and we expect to have much higher temperatures. For this reason it was not so easy to decide the medium point on the tyre compound scale. Istanbul Park is a good technical track and we do not think we will have any particular problems to find the best set up for our Honda RC212V. We’ll proceed with our work to try to solve the problems that Shinya has with the dry setting. For this reason we plan to test something different for the front suspension in Turkey.”

Racer Chris McCauley, 45, of Misson Viejo, California, died April 16 from injuries he sustained in a WSMC race April 15 at Willow Springs International Raceway. McCauley, who was an experienced racer returning from a racing hiatus, was in a close, two-way battle for the lead of the 651cc-Open Novice race when he crashed in ultra-high-speed turn eight. He was airlifted from the track to UCLA Medical Center were he passed away last night. He is survived by his wife, Christine, and three children.

Le Mans 24 Hours First test, Thursday at the Bugatti circuit Teams are making their final preparations for this weekend’s Le Mans 24hr, the first of six races that make up the QMMF Endurance FIM World Championship 2007. The first official test starts on Thursday at the Bugatti circuit, Le Mans. The results and the falls from last weekend’s tests gave indications on some of the riders’ form. The first upset came from Suzuki when Matthieu Lagrive, GSX-R no 1 rider and 2006 World Champion, had a fall during the Supersport World Championship warm-up in Valencia, Spain, resulting in a broken bone in his arm. Matthieu is still expecting to start at the 24hrs alongside Vincent Philippe and Julien da Costa. In the Team Kawasaki France there is more uncertainty regarding team line-up. On the number 11 bike Britain’s Steve Plater and French rider Gwen Giabbani are confirmed riders, but the third spot will go to either English rider Scott Smart or Spain’s Julian Mazuecos depending on the results in testing. Over at Yamaha GMT 94, the Team is looking to be on good form. At the Supersport World Championship in Valencia, David Checa and Sébastien Gimbert finished 14th and 15th respectively and in the French Superbike Championship, Olivier Four has taken over from Patrick Piot, replacing him on the Yamaha GMT 94. Riding the R1 for the Yamaha Austria Racing Team, Sébastien Scarnato has recovered after his fall during the free tests at Le Mans and will be riding his bike supported by Igor Jerman and Damian Cudlin. We also eagerly await the first test to see the Kawasaki of the new permanent Championship team, Qatar Endurance Racing Team, which will be ridden by Jose-Luis Cardoso, Ivan Silva and Mashel al Naimi. Elsewhere BMW will be returning to the competition after 50 years of absence with the BMW R1200S which will race in the Open category. In the absence of Stéphane Mertens, who is injured, BMW have named the American Nathan Kern as their rider. Official Le Mans 24hrs testing begins on Thursday 19th April. The race starts on Saturday 21st April at 15.00. Editorial Note: At Miami-Homestead Speedway last weekend, Kern said that BMW is running a new Boxer engine with overhead camshafts replacing the high-cam/short-pushrod configuration in current Boxer engines. Kern said the bike is scheduled for production in the future.

RAPP SURPRISE LEADER OF AMA FORMULA XTREME SERIES Spies leading the way in AMA Superstock PICKERINGTON, Ohio (April 17, 2007) Steve Rapp earned the biggest win of his career last month by taking a surprise victory in the Daytona 200. Now the Attack Kawasaki rider approaches the rest of the Lockhart-Phillips USA Formula Xtreme Series presented by HMR with the confidence the Daytona victory gave him. Rapp will be one of the favorites when the series comes to Barber Motorsports Park, in Birmingham, Ala., on Saturday, April 21. Rapp is still basking in the glory of winning the historic Daytona 200 on March 10. Now the resident of Manhattan Beach, Calif., turns his attention to the balance of the Formula Xtreme season. He and teammate Ben Attard, who finished second in Daytona and comes to Barber ranked second in the series, will attempt to give Kawasaki its first Formula Xtreme title. Rapp feels his new ride with Attack Kawasaki may be the spark his racing career needed. “For me to be on a new team, on a new bike, with new tires, just makes me feel good that maybe over the years I just didn’t have the right combination,” said Rapp, who turned pro in 1996. “I never tried a lot of different things. I was always just with one team, one brand of this, one brand of that. Until you get around to trying everything, you don’t know. I think that’s the case with this. You get on a good bike with good tires on a good team, and it just suits my style. Not to say that the other teams weren’t good or the tires weren’t good, but maybe they didn’t work with the way I rode.” M4 EMGO Suzuki’s Michael Barnes is third in the Formula Xtreme standings after earning his first podium in the Daytona 200. Barnes, 38, of Boca Raton, Fla., is one of the most experienced riders in the AMA paddock and he feels like he is ready to make a serious bid at the Formula Xtreme title. “I’m really excited to see the progress Pirelli has made with its racing tires,” Barnes said. “They’ve shown their commitment to our team and the series and I think that’s going to pay dividends this season.” Another impressive performer at Daytona was young Brit Chaz Davies. Davies finished fourth at Daytona on the Celtic Performance Yamaha and he impressed a lot of experts with his speed and race savvy at Daytona. It will be interesting to see how Davies performs at Barber, a track that’s considered a real riders’ circuit. Defending series champ Josh Hayes got off to a less than stellar start to the season, with fuel-related problems with his Erion Honda at Daytona. He made it to the finish with extra pit stops and was able to salvage a sixth-place finish in the opener. Hayes realizes he now has a tall task of working his way back into the position to defend his championship. The Mississippi native will be among the favorites at Barber. While Formula Xtreme appears to be wide open in 2007, Ben Spies is a clear-cut favorite in AMA Superstock this year. Last year Spies seemed to approach his second class (last year Supersport) with less than 100 percent commitment, instead focusing on earning his first AMA Superbike title. This year Spies, of Longview, Texas, feels the situation is different. “Our Suzuki is so strong that I think it’s the best bike in the field,” Spies said. “Having the best bike is going to make things a lot easier on me in my effort to win two championships this year. I don’t think Superstock distracts from my Superbike efforts. The bike is so similar in many ways to the Superbike that it actually helps me for both classes. My goal is to win both titles this year.” Suzuki is loaded in Superstock with Spies leading the way and other top Suzuki riders hoping to keep pace. M4 EMGO Suzuki’s Geoff May, Jordan Suzuki riders Aaron Yates and Jake Holden, Matsushima Suzuki’s Danny Eslick and Chris Ulrich, of Roadracingworld.com Suzuki all are proven contenders in the class. Yates, of Milledgeville, Ga., is the defending Barber Superstock winner. Ben Bostrom, with the Graves Motorsports Yamaha team, is the one non-Suzuki rider with a serious shot at winning the title. A former AMA Superbike Champion, Bostrom finished runner up to Spies at Daytona and he loves riding the Graves Yamaha R1 Superstock bike. “I’m getting comfortable on the R1 very quickly,” Bostrom said. “If we continue to improve I think we have a legitimate shot at winning Superstock this year. It feels great because it’s been a while since I felt I had this kind of chance at a championship.” Tickets for the 5th annual Honda Superbike Classic at Barber Motorsports Park can be purchased via the website www.barbermotorsports.com or you can charge by phone at (205) 327-RACE or 1-800-240-2300. The Barber Formula Xtreme and Superstock races will be shown on SPEED on Tuesday, April 24 at Noon Eastern.