Some of WERA’s top racers said they liked Miller Motorsports Park (MMP) after lapping the new course for the first time Thursday during a track-hosted practice day preceding this weekend’s WERA National event. Vesrah Suzuki teammates Mark Junge, Tray Batey, Lee Acree and John Jacobi turned several laps on their GSX-Rs and SVs Thursday and, generally, had good feedback on the $80 million racing facility. “It’s a fun layout,” said Jacobi. “Once I learned where I was going I liked it. There’s not much out there for reference, but overall I liked it. And the facilities, there’s nothing (on the WERA National schedule) that really compares to it, maybe Barber, but garage-wise, there’s nothing.” “I like the layout,” said Tray Batey. “It doesn’t compare at all (to any other WERA track). It’s a whole new standard. This is all new and exciting for me. I don’t like the dust (from continuing construction at the facility) blowing across the track. It makes traction different lap-to-lap, but they’re working on that and hopefully it will be a non-issue.” “I think it’s nice,” said Junge. “It’s like a mix of Carolina (Motorsports Park) and Barber (Motorsports Park). The corners in the first section (West Track) open at the exit, like Carolina, and the final corners (East Track) roll a little bit more and have more camber, like Barber.” Junge crashed his GSX-R600 Superstock racebike in “Clubhouse Corner,” turn 13, during the day, a crash caused by fluid on the surface, Junge suspected. Junge was relatively uninjured and reported that he found plenty of room in the impact area of the corner. “The facilities are nice, but we’re paying dearly for it,” said Acree, a regular on the WERA and the AMA Nationals series. “We’re paying $500 for this garage for the weekend. The surface is smooth, but there’s a surprising amount of patches.” MMP designer and General Manager/CEO Alan Wilson said the “patches” Acree referred to were a sort of concrete “band-aid” meant to protect sensitive seams in the wear layer of the surface that have been scuffed. The “band-aid” will wear away over time, after the asphalt finishes curing. According to Wilson, it takes a full year for asphalt to completely cure. On Friday, MMP will host a Fastrack Riders Association-organized track day and timed qualifying for Saturday’s WERA National Challenge Series feature races.

DiSALVO PREPARES FOR SUZUKA 8-HOURS RACE WITH YAMAHA JAPAN TEST Cypress, Calif., June 8, 2006 “” Current AMA Formula Xtreme points leader Jason DiSalvo is scheduled to test an endurance racing prepared Yamaha YZF-R1 in Japan at the end of June. The two-part test is intended to give DiSalvo an opportunity to familiarize himself with the bike he’ll be racing as a member of a three-rider Yamaha team during the Suzuka 8-Hours race on July 30. The first test rides will take place at a test track in Japan during the week of June 18th. DiSalvo will test again on June 26th at the famed Suzuka circuit. Commenting on the importance of the test, Yamaha racing manager Keith McCarty said, “This is an extremely important milestone for Jason. It will provide a great opportunity for Jason and the Factory to get to know each other and perhaps look towards the future.” The test is another step towards DiSalvo’s stated goal of premier class road racing in Europe one day. An optimistic DiSalvo said, “Nearly everything I’ve done in racing has been to get me ready for an opportunity like this. Obviously, my focus is winning a championship in the U.S. and doing the best I can every time I race””but I’d be lying if I said that the opportunity to race Suzuka doesn’t get me excited.”

Riders continued to take the initiative on safety concerns and met with an official at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course yesterday during a team test at the Lexington, Ohio road course. Mat Mladin, Jake Zemke, Eric Bostrom and Jamie Hacking joined Yoshimura Suzuki team manager Don Sakakura and Parts Unlimited Ducati team manager Tom Bodenbach in a meeting with Mid-Ohio’s Dennis Rhee, followed by a corner-by-corner tour and review of the racetrack. Riders are concerned with several issues. The repaved racetrack proved to be between one and two seconds a lap faster in the dry during the two-day test, depending upon the class of machine. But riders said the new pavement was very slippery when wet or even just damp with dew, with some riders waiting hours for the sun to completely dry the track before resuming testing after initial forays onto the pavement. “The new surface is grippy when it’s dry and with rubber on it,” American Honda’s Jake Zemke told Roadracingworld.com Thursday evening, “but not so much after it rains or when it’s green. It rained yesterday, so we started with a green track today and it was slippery!” Zemke added that the new surface was abrasive but not extremely abrasive as when he first visited Miller Motorsports Park or Barber Motorsports Park. Because the track is now faster, concerns about run-off room have been magnified in several corners. Riders also reported that the infamous patches in several Mid-Ohio corners have been sealed over, smoothing the transition. “There are patches, and I don’t really understand that,” said Zemke. “There’s some sealer patches where it looks like they’ve sealed up the corner at the exit of the Keyhole and in turn 11, the double-right that leads to Thunder Valley. There’s some smaller patches and sections of sealer in other areas, too. The sealer’s not a problem in the dry, but it definitely doesn’t have the grip of the regular asphalt.” New curbing is much more vertical (almost like a city street curb, according to one source at the test) than conventional racetrack curbing, with riders worrying about hitting their handlebars (!) on the new curbs. “The curbs are horrible,” said Zemke. “They are so gnarly you don’t even want to get close to them. They come up abruptly at a very sharp angle and are flat across the top. They are high enough that you could catch a front brake lever on them. “We had a safety meeting yesterday afternoon. The people with the track actually called the meeting because they wanted to know what we liked, what we didn’t like, what we want changed. It would’ve been more helpful if they had asked to meet with us before they did these curbs, but they were very receptive to our feedback. Hopefully, we can get the curbs fixed before the race here.” No AMA Pro Racing officials were present during the test.

2007 Loudon Classic Starts a New Tradition (LOUDON, N.H. June 8, 2006) — In 2007, the Loudon Classic at New Hampshire International Speedway (NHIS) will begin a new tradition of opening Laconia Motorcycle Week. The 2007 Classic will start on Friday, June 8, 2007 and end on Sunday, June 10, 2007. In making this announcement, Gary Bahre, NHIS president said, “We’re responding to a number of requests to have ‘The Classic’ at the start of the Laconia Motorcycle Week rather than at the end. The new schedule will give more people the opportunity to enjoy America’s oldest motorcycle race.” This year’s Loudon Classic will be held from Friday, June 16, 2006 to Sunday, June 18, 2006. Tickets will be available at the gate each day during the event.

Folch Endurance Clinches Spanish Endurance Title for Ninth Time Folch Endurance Yamaha, composed of American Kenny Noyes and the Spanish Salom brothers, Antonio and David, clinched the Spanish national endurance title for the third year in a row and for the ninth time overall with a comfortable win in the Six Hours of Cartagena. The team led all the way and won by seven laps. For Noyes it was a return to action after missing the opening round of the Spanish FX series with a broken bone in his left hand, the result of a crash during a tire test a month ago in Albacete. “It still hurts a bit, especially because we were racing without a slipper clutch and I had to use the clutch a lot on the braking, but it won’t be a problem next week in Formula Extreme,” said Noyes. The Folch Team competes next weekend in round two of the Spanish Roadracing Championship with Noyes and Antonio Salom riding Yamaha R1s in Formula Extreme. Six Hours of Cartagena 1. Noyes-Salom-Salom (Folch Endurance Yamaha) 208 laps 2. Perez-Gil-Lopotegui (Kawasaki Autoferro) 201 laps 3. Blancafort-Blancafort-Berti (Ausio Yamaha) 200 laps Final points: Folch Endurance: 70 (2 wins, 1 second) Kawasaki Autoferro 61 (1 win, one second, one third)

Fifty Entries Fifty teams have signed up for the race, with the permanent championship numbers swelled by a record number of wild-card entries. Amongst the more interesting wildcard entries is the Van Zon Honda of Michael Schulten, Werner Daemen and Stephane Mertens. Schulten and Daemen qualified in second place for the Assen 500 round of the championship and former World Endurance Champion Mertens will add his considerable endurance experience and circuit knowledge to the team at Zolder. Seven Manufacturers Teams representing seven manufacturers will compete in the Zolder 6 Hour race. 22 Suzukis, 17 Yamahas, 4 Kawasakis, 4 Hondas, 1 Aprilia, 1 Ducati and 1 Metiss special will take part in the race. The Metiss special is a hub-centre steered one-off machine based around a Suzuki GSX-R1000 engine, and one of the Yamahas is a locally entered 600cc YZF-R6. The Aprilia has been entered by RVC Endurance Team and the Ducati by Redfox; both are Belgian teams. Seventeen Nations Teams entries from Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Serbia, Slovakia, Sweden and Switzerland have been received and riders from Australia, Estonia, Hungary, Japan, Poland and Slovenia will also take part in the race. Race Next Weekend The Zolder 6 Hour race takes place on the 18th of June, with official practice and qualifying from Friday 16th onwards.