FIM Endurance World Championship Suzuka Circuit, Japan July 29 Special Stage Qualifying (a.k.a. Superpole) Results: 1. F.C.C. TSR Racing Team, 2:08.515 (Takeshi TSUJIMURA, 2:08.768/Shinichi ITOH, 2:08.515), Hon CBR1000RR 2. Seven Stars Honda 7, 2:08.560 (Makoto TAMADA, 2:13.073/Ryuichi KIYONARI, 2:08.560), Hon CBR1000RR 3. Toy Story Honda, 2:08.616 (Takashi YASUDA, 2:08.616/Yoshiteru KONISHI, 2:10.221), Hon CBR1000RR 4. F.C.C. TSR Honda (Yusuke TEJIMA, 2:10.144/Gaku KAMADA, 2:08.851), Hon CBR1000RR 5. YSP & Presto Yamaha, 2:09.149 (Shinichi NAKATOMI, 2:10.428/Katsuyuki NAKASUGA, 2:09.149), Yam YZF-R1 6. Yoshimura Suzuki, 2:09.195 (Nobuatsu AOKI, 2:09.754/Atsushi WATANABE, 2:09.195), Suz GSX-R1000 7. Yamaha Blue Racing (Colin EDWARDS, 2:09.252/Noriyuki HAGA, 2:09.307), Yam YZF-R1 8. Seven Stars Honda 11 (Osamu DEGUCHI, No Time/Tadayuki OKADA, 2:09.487), Hon CBR1000RR 9. Masked Rider Honda (Kazuki TOKUDOME, 2:10.734/Tatsuya YAMAGUCHI, 2:10.137), Hon CBR1000RR 10. Team Challenger Yamaha (Norihiko FUJIWARA, 2:13.367/Nobuyuki OHSAKI, 2:11.163), Yam YZF-R1 More, from a press release issued by Team Suzuki: Team Yoshimura Suzuki riders Nobuatsu Aoki and Atsushi Watanabe will start tomorrow’s Suzuka 8-Hour World Endurance fifth round from sixth position following today’s WSB-style Superpole one-lap final qualifier. Reigning World Champions and current series leaders Suzuki Castrol missed the session after finishing outside the top 10 qualifiers yesterday and will start in 15th position. World Endurance Champion, SERT Suzuki’s Keiichi Kitagawa, who is teamed with Matthieu Lagrive and Vincent Philippe, announced his retirement from the sport today. He said: “I have decided to retire this season. I often think about my retirement because I turn 40 years old next year. It is very difficult to keep motivation for racing this year, so when I got the 2005 World Endurance Championship, I decided my retirement. This Suzuka 8 hours is my last race in Japan and I would like to enjoy this tough race!” Nobuatsu Aoki: “We posted our GSX-R in sixth fastest but we did our job today. I’ve ridden the Yoshimura GSX-R for only two months but I feel very comfortable on this great Superbike! Atsushi and I made improvements in the engine and chassis set-up to GSX-R in very small steps day-by-day and we finally got a very good set-up for Suzuka. We want a good start and to run a very constant pace tomorrow and hope for a podium position.”

Shelly Gruber was involved in an on-track incident while participating is a motorcycle track day with Sportbike Track Time at Barber Motorsports Park, Sunday July 23. The accident took place at approximately 10:50AM. From witness accounts it appears this was a case where Mr. Gruber and another rider made light or “casual” contact near the apex of turn 4. Mr. Gruber rode his Aprilia Mille off of the paved surface, onto the grass and fell down. Mr. Gruber was attended to by on-site medical staff who reached him immediately. He was transported with “minor injuries”. On site paramedics evaluated Mr. Gruber and based primarily on his input decided that he should go to the hospital for diagnostics and to monitor his condition but that his symptoms indicated non-life threatening injuries. Urgent/Airlift transport was not deemed necessary. The investigation referenced in the news report mentioned below is focusing on events that transpired after Mr. Gruber arrived at the hospital. An investigation is standard procedure any time there is a fatality in any sporting event and this is no exception. While we are unable to comment further on the situation currently due to privacy laws and other legalities, any investigation will clearly show that Sportbike Track Time Staff, Barber Motorsports Park Staff and EMS/Hospital Staff all followed proper operational and medical procedures and that Mr. Gruber was indeed offered the finest medical care and treatment available. Sadly the story that was aired by WVTM reporter Karen Lehane covering this incident was overflowing with inaccuracies, most of which could have been avoided with simple fact checking and use of prudent and very basic investigative journalism skills including basic reading comprehension skills. We at Sportbike Track Time feel the public deserves a much higher standard of journalistic professionalism than that which was exhibited by Ms. Lehane im her coverage of this subject. We offer our condolences to the family and friends or Mr. Gruber. Godspeed. Monte Lutz Sportbike Track Time And now some reader comment: FIRST PERSON/OPINION Via e-mail: In regards to the death at Barber recently that I just read about on your website, my heart goes out to the family of the one killed. I have been riding, doing track days, and a couple of races for a couple of years now here in Sicily and Italy, and I can tell you that the U.S. (media) goes way too far overboard when something like this happens (trust me I do love my country). Every person that rides on a track knows the inherent risks associated with doing it, not to mention racing. Every single person willingly accepts this risk, as nobody forces someone to go to the track. Far more deaths at track days happen in the UK and Europe in general, but still they go. Track days are infinitely safer than riding on the street and it’s a shame that others can’t see all sides to riding and motorcycles in general. I also wish that when a news crew covers an incident such as this, that it isn’t with disdain and negativity (they couldn’t even correctly name the company). I apologize for the rant, but I get tired of watching non motorcyclists label and frown upon us and use it as a crusade to get rid of motorcycles in general because believe that they’re too dangerous. I would like fore once to see positive coverage (nationwide) about the great things that motorcyclists do (ride 4 life to name just one). I know I see far more 4 wheel crashes over here than 2 wheel ones because (and it’s for the most part in the States the same) there are far more distractions that people are worried about in the cages, i.e., phone, radio, map, make-up, and numerous other things that all of us have either seen or done while on the streets and highways. Thank you for your time. Respectfully, John Mabry Stationed at NAS Sigonella Sicily, Italy

Yoshimura Suzuki’s Akira Watanabe has put his GSX-R1000 into provisional second on the grid for Sunday’s Suzuka 8-Hour World Endurance fifth round as World Champions and series leaders Suzuki Castrol are currently down in 15th. Watanabe set a time of 2:09.636, which was just over 400ths-of-a-second behind pole-setter Yoshiteru Konishi on the Toy Story Honda. Due to an entry of 84, qualifying was split into two groups: The morning sessions were held in the dry, sunny conditions while the afternoon was more mixed and despite some rain, many of the afternoon qualifying sessions were declared officially “wet”. When a qualifying session is declared wet, the Suzuka-only ‘four sets of tyres for qualifying’ rule does not apply to that session and teams may use extra tyres during that session. With the ‘wet’ track almost bone dry, there was an opportunity for teams to use special qualifying tyres, which would only last two or three laps. Konishi took a chance and improved his time significantly from this morning’s session by 1.5 seconds, setting the fastest lap of the session and becoming the first rider to break into the 2:09s during timed qualifying. Watanabe was fastest in Group B and second overall ahead of Nori Haga (Yamaha Blue Racing). Suzuki Castrol’s Vincent Philippe improved slightly on his earlier time in the afternoon session along with team mate Keiichi Kitagawa who missed a chance to improve further when he crashed on the first corner of his final lap of the day. And third rider Matthieu Lagrive was third in his group. The final top ten grid positions will be decided tomorrow afternoon during the Top Ten Trial super pole style special stage.

Yoshiteru Konishi has taken provisional pole position for the Suzuka 8 Hour round of the FIM World Endurance Championship. Second place has gone to Yoshimura Suzuki’s Akira Watanabe and third to Yamaha Blue Racing’s Noriyuki Haga. The morning qualifying sessions were held in the dry and for the most part under a blazing sun. The weather for the afternoon sessions was much more mixed and despite little rain actually falling on the circuit, many of the afternoon qualifying sessions were declared officially “wet”. When a qualifying session is declared wet, the Suzuka-only “four sets of tyres for qualifying” rule does not apply to that session; teams may use extra tyres during that session. With the “wet” track almost bone dry there was an opportunity for teams to use special qualifying tyres which would only last two or three laps. It seemed that only one rider rider Konishi on the No.101Toy Story Honda seemed to take the chance, improving his time significantly from this morning’s session by 1.5 seconds, setting the fastest lap of the session and becoming the first rider to break into the 2:09s during timed qualifying. Yoshimura Suzuki’s Akira Watanabe was fastest in Group B and second fastest overall after Yamaha Blue Racing’s Nori Haga missed beating him by just 0.05 seconds after catching a slower rider while braking for the final chicane. Fourth place overall went to Shin’ichi Itoh on the FCC TSR Honda and fifth to Yamaguchi on the Masked Rider Honda. The two Seven Stars Hondas performed less well than expected, finishing in ninth and tenth place overall. Suzuki Castrol’s Vincent Philippe improved slightly on his earlier time in the afternoon session, as did Yamaha Austria’s Igor Jerman and Yamaha Acropolis Zone Rouge’s Michel Nickmans. Yamaha Phase One’s Damian Cudlin, Kawasaki Bolliger’s Patric Muff, Suzuki Fagersjo-el.se’s Paul Young and Kawasaki Diablo’s James Hutchins also improved in the afternoon sessions. Suzuki Castrol’s Keiichi Kitagawa improved on his time in his afternoon session but then threw away a chance to improve further when he crashed on the first corner of his final lap of the day. Suzuki Endurace Moto45’s Duprez also crashed in his afternoon session, despite this being the first session not officially declared wet. Matthieu Lagrive was third in his group, the last session of the day. His final lap saw him sliding, wheelying and spinning his way round the circuit, with no sign of traction control being used on the Castrol Suzuki GSX-R1000s! Unusually, two riders Kamada and Osaki have posted identical qualifying times. The final top ten grid positions will be decided tomorrow afternoon during the Top Ten Trial super pole style special stage. Provisional Qualifying Top Ten 1st 101 Toy Story Honda JPN Honda CBR1000RR Y.Konishi 2:09.176 2nd 12 Yoshimura Suzuki JPN A.Watanabe Suzuki GSX-R1000 2:09.636 3rd 45 Yamaha Blue Racing JPN N.Haga Yamaha YZF-R1 2:09.687 4th 778 FCC TSR Honda JPN Honda CBR1000RR S.Itoh 2:09.950 5th 48 FCC TSR Honda JPN Honda CBR1000RR G.Kamada 2:09.975 5th 39 Team Challenger Yamaha JPN Yamaha YZF-R1 N.Osaki 2:09.975 7th 04 Masked Rider Honda JPN Honda CBR1000RR T.Yamaguchi 2:10.018 8th 21 YSP & Presto Yamaha JPN Yamaha YZF-R1 K.Nakasuga 2:10.052 9th 7 Seven Stars Honda JPN Honda CBR1000RR R.Kiyonari 2:10.089 10th 11 Seven Stars Honda JPN Honda CBR1000RR T.Okada 2:10.199 Qualifying Times Permanent Teams 15th 1 Suzuki Castrol FRA Suzuki GSX-R1000 V.Philippe 2:11.795 38th 07 Yamaha Austria AUT Yamaha YZF-R1 I.Jerman 2:15.372 43rd 199 Yamaha Acropolis Zone Rouge BEL Yamaha YZF-R1 M.Nickmans 2:15.730 47th 3 Yamaha Phase One Endurance GBR- Yamaha YZF-R1 D.Cudlin 2:15.957 50th 8 Kawasaki Bolliger SUI Kawasaki ZX10R P.Muff 2:16.348 58th 012: Suzuki Fagersjo-el.se SWE Suzuki GSX-R1000 P Young 2:17.658 59th 666 Kawasaki Diablo GBR Kawasaki ZX10R J.Hutchins 2:18.659 60th 6 Shell Endurance Academy GBR Yamaha YZF-R1 A.Dubelski 2:18.808 61st 44 Suzuki No Limits & RT ITA Suzuki GSX-R1000 F.Jond 2:19.334 62nd 100 Suzuki Endurance Moto45 FRA Suzuki GSX-R1000 D.Briere 2:19.761

Tony “The Tiger” Meiring #56, racing for Safety First Suzuki, is pleased to announce his new official website: www.tonymeiring.net. Tony currently races in the AMA Supersport and the AMA Formula Extreme classes. Log on to get the latest updates with Tony’s career and feel free to drop him an email.