From a press release issued by Foggy Petronas Racing:

Martin and McCoy’s PETRONAS FP1 Debut

Foggy PETRONAS Racing’s new Aussie pairing, Garry McCoy and Steve Martin, today experienced their first outing on the FP1 during the first day of a three day test at Valencia in Spain.

This Pirelli organised test sees nine World Superbike tyre development teams testing at the Spanish circuit, with Garry and Steve immediately on the pace in dry and sunny conditions, although slowed by the cool track temperature.

Garry McCoy said, “We started the day well, making a few minor changes to get me comfortable on the bike, which I now am. The FP1’s handling has always been well regarding, but it is actually even better than I expected it to be. There are of course still areas for development but I feel confident that with more time on the bike it will all fall in to place. We’ve found a good basic set up so we can now start on more specific chassis settings that suit me. My day was unfortunately cut short when I high sided going in to turn eleven just before lunch. I got a warning that something wasn’t quite right at turn six as the rear slid a little bit mid corner, but I kept going. I feel ok but have been advised to rest until tomorrow morning, when I’m looking forward to getting back out there.”

Steve Martin commented, “I mainly used today to get comfortable on the bike and find a basic set up, which we did so I’m happy with my first day. Every bike that I’ve ever ridden is totally different and my first impression of the FP1 is that it is a good bike that only really needs tweaking to suit my riding style. I like to brake hard so we’ve done some work on the front end so that I can feel comfortable enough to put a consistent lap together. The team is great to work with and it’s a good and new experience for me to have different guys to talk to for different areas of the bike such as engine, chassis and suspension. Over the next few days I’m just looking to spend as much time on track as possible for more familiarisation and also to get fully back into racing mode after the last six weeks away from riding a bike.”

Chief Engineer, Steve Thompson said, “So far so good! Both Steve and Garry have made good progress and got used to the bike quickly. Garry’s testing was unfortunately cut short due to a mechanical problem which caused him to crash, slightly injuring his upper back so he was advised to rest for the remainder of the day. There’s no doubt he’ll be back on course tomorrow. The tyre chatter problems we’ve experienced this last season seem to be reduced at the moment, due to the different riding styles of our two new riders, who both like to run with a less engine braking. Overall we’ve had a very productive day and look in good shape for the remainder of the test.”

The team is scheduled to tyre test for Pirelli tomorrow to evaluate new compounds and constructions, with further engine development work, in conjunction with the tyres, planned for the final day on Thursday.

From a press release issued by American Suzuki:

Suzuki’s Championship-Winning Racers Honored

BREA, Calif. (Nov. 16, 2004) – American Suzuki Motor Corporation (ASMC) congratulates its world-class, multi-championship-winning athletes for garnering well-deserved top honors in front of the racing community at the 2004 AMA Banquet, held at Paris Casino in Las Vegas, Nev., on Sunday, Nov. 14, 2004.

At the event, Team Makita Suzuki Racing’s Ricky Carmichael accepted the number-one plate for having won the 2004 AMA Motocross Championship. Carmichael has won three Supercross titles and eight Motocross Championships. During the 2004 Motocross season alone, Carmichael led 370 out of a possible 382 laps. Furthermore, he is the all-time wins leader in AMA Supercross/Motocross with 108 victories.

Not only was Carmichael honored for winning the AMA Motocross title, he was also awarded the prestigious AMA Pro Racing SPEED Channel Athlete of the Year. “I really appreciate this award,” said Carmichael. “I’m ecstatic to be accepting this and I’d like to thank the AMA and everyone who voted for me. The older I get, the more I appreciate this. I’d also like to congratulate everyone else who’s been up on this stage and hopefully we’ll have a Suzuki up here next year.”

Team Yoshimura Suzuki’s Mat Mladin was also presented a number-one plate, having won an unprecedented fifth AMA Superbike Championship this year. Mladin carded eight victories in 2004, becoming the all-time AMA Superbike wins co-leader in the history of the series.

Mladin, who lives in Australia, was unable to attend the event. ASMC Vice President of Motorcycle/ATV Division Mel Harris accepted on his behalf. “On behalf of Mat,” said Harris, “I’m really honored to accept this award. He had a great team with guys who were dedicated to winning a fifth Superbike championship for him. We at Suzuki are proud of the whole Yoshimura Suzuki crew.”

Also honored was Team Makita Suzuki Racing 125 phenom Broc Hepler, who was named AMA Motocross/Supercross Rookie of the Year. Said Hepler: “Winning this award was awesome. I look at past winners who have been so successful and I want to follow in their footsteps. I’d like to thank my mechanic and Suzuki for giving me such a great bike in the RM-Z250.”

Copyright 2004, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

FIRST PERSON/OPINION

By John Ulrich

I was minding my own business, editing a magazine story in my office when Associate Editor David Swarts walked in.

Swarts told me that he was working on a nice little website update on Ben Spies’ preparations for the 2005 season, and had gotten quotes from Spies. During the phone interview, Spies had said that he was working with a trainer who had been the first American to compete in the Tour de France.

Hey, we’re motorcycle guys, and all I personally know about the Tour de France is that it’s really, really hard and that Lance Armstrong wins it a lot. So I wasn’t surprised that, in the course of his routine fact checking, Swarts looked up the name of the trainer, Jonathan Boyer, on the Internet.

What did surprise me was the news that the routine background search didn’t just bring up verification that Boyer was the first American competitor in the bicycle classic, but also that he is a convicted child molester who pleaded guilty to 10 felony counts, including three counts of “penetration with a foreign object,” in a case that involved a girl who was 11 years old when the illegal conduct began. Boyer has since served time in jail and is currently on probation.

My first reaction was, we need to contact Ben Spies, and since I’m in charge of this operation, I need to do it myself. I called Ben Spies’ cell phone, and he didn’t answer. So I called his mother and manager, Mary Spies, and she answered her cell phone.

I told her that Swarts was working on a story, had done a background check on Boyer to make sure he had his facts straight about Boyer’s bicycle racing career, and that, to our surprise, found…

“I know about it,” Mary Spies told me, without even waiting for me to finish the sentence. “It’s out there. It’s hanging over his head.”

The short version of what Mary Spies then told me was, Boyer wasn’t really guilty as charged, and that he had his reasons for pleading the case to a conclusion instead of going to trial. She did not sound concerned on any level, and did not ask me to do anything.

What followed next in my office was a brief discussion of what we should do.

Based on my 32 years of experience in journalism, I believed that if we ran the story about Spies working with Boyer and didn’t mention Boyer’s legal troubles, we would soon receive e-mails from somebody who had read about the case in the Monterey Herald or the Salinas Californian (both published in the Laguna Seca area) accusing us of supressing the information because Swarts has been a personal friend and fan of Ben Spies since Spies showed up at WERA National races when he was about 12 years old. This isn’t a purely hypothetical concern–we’ve seen this kind of reaction in the past and try to avoid it when we can.

Worse, some paddock regular who travels to AMA races with a young daughter might later accuse us of endangering children by not revealing what had already been published in newspapers local to Laguna Seca. Again, this is not a purely hypothetical concern–I have often seen another racer’s young daughter hanging out in the motorhome area of the AMA paddock, and I know that I would have wanted to know about anything like this when my now-grown daughters were young girls accompanying me to races.

So I told Swarts, run the story with the information.

He posted the story.

And all hell broke loose, beginning with an irate phone call from Ben Spies himself, who yelled at and berated Swarts. To his credit, Spies called back his long-time supporter moments later and apologized for the yelling part, but he then added that he would never again answer any race-related question posed by Swarts, who should save both of them embarassment by not asking any questions in future post-race press conferences. And, added Spies, various American Suzuki luminaries are also very mad at us.

Then came the e-mails from Spies friends, fans and associates. They claimed that we purposely posted that Ben Spies was associating with a convicted child molester because we have it out for Spies, (and never mind all the magazine and website coverage of Spies doing great things on the racetrack that his entourage didn’t object to in the slightest). They said that we are irresponsible, and should have known better. They proclaimed that it’s all our fault, we made a bad decision to publish the information on Boyer, we’re arrogant, and we are very, very bad guys.

All in a day’s work, I suppose. But I feel bad for David Swarts, who is the hardest-working, most honest journalist I have had the pleasure of working with in my career. Here’s a guy who takes his work seriously, who does his fact checking, and who knows that his job is to accurately report all the relevent facts, popular and unpopular.

To the Spies contingent bombarding our e-mail inbox with condemnation, I leave you with this: In David Swarts’ profession, reporting what is true is more important that what is convenient, and asking him (on the basis of friendship with Ben Spies) to not report that Ben Spies’ new trainer is a convicted child molester would be like asking Ben Spies (on the basis of friendship with David Swarts) to not pass David Swarts on the racetrack.

As for making it look like Ben Spies is knowingly associating and working with a convicted child molester, the only person who has any control over that is…Ben Spies.

Copyright 2004, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

Suzuki MotoGP racer John Hopkins underwent surgery this morning to remove hardware from both of his ankles and a rod from his left femur. The operation took two hours and 10 minutes and was performed by Dr. Arthur Ting at the Fremont Surgery Center in Freemont, California.

Hopkins will stay in Fremont to work with Sports Medicine Rehabilitation Specialist Tuan Nguyen for the next two weeks before returning home to Ramona, California.

From a press release issued by Professional Motorsport Productions:

BUSY SEASON FOR SUPERBIKES

TORONTO, ON The busiest season in Canadian Superbike racing’s 26-year history is set to hit the track.

The 2005 Parts Canada Superbike Championship title chase will consist of eight races over seven weekends and the tour will visit six different venues across the country.

For the first time in almost a decade the season will not end at Shannonville Motorsport Park on the Labour Day Weekend. Instead the champion will be crowned a week later at the Mont-Tremblant circuit in Quebec.

And the race held in conjunction with the Molson Indy Montreal Champ Car World Series event will now count as a points round of the series instead of running as a non-championship invitational. Only the Superbike feature class will run in Montreal, however, not the Pro and Amateur 600 Sport Bike national support classes.

The Hindle Exhaust Pro 600 Sport Bike division will probably run a doubleheader at one of the existing series stops, giving it the same number of points races as the Superbike class.

The event at Mosport International Raceway in mid-July will once again run as a doubleheader. But after also featuring a doubleheader format last season the second round of the series at Calgary’s Race City Motorsport Park will return to a single race set-up, although it is the most likely venue for a second Pro 600 Sport Bike race.

“This will be an exciting season for the Parts Canada Superbike Championship,” said Colin Fraser of series organizer Professional Motorsport Productions. “Over the past few years we have added some impressive new venues and events to our schedule and that has allowed us to produce the most interesting and diverse schedule in our history for 2005.”

For the fifth straight year the Parts Canada Superbike Championship will open at Shannonville Motorsport Park on the May 20-22 Victoria Day Weekend. Competitors will once again tackle the 1.53-mile, 11-turn Pro track.

After a five-week break action will resume on the July 1-3 Canada Day Weekend at the high-speed 2.0-mile Race City circuit in Calgary.

From there the riders and teams will head back east to Mosport’s daunting 2.45-mile circuit for their lone doubleheader July 15-17. Feature races for the Parts Canada Superbike and Hindle Exhaust Pro 600 Sport Bike classes will run Saturday and Sunday, while the International Motorcycle SUPERSHOW Amateur 600 Sport Bike class will run Sunday only.

The second half of the season opens at the 1.46-mile Atlantic Motorsport Park track in Shubenacadie, NS, near Halifax Aug. 5-7.

The series then wraps up with a busy stretch in late August and early September. The Superbike class will run on the fabled 2.7-mile Circuit Gilles Villeneuve at the Molson Indy Montreal Aug. 26-28. There is still a chance this round may move a week earlier.

“We had a fabulous debut at the Molson Indy Montreal last year,” Fraser said. “Even though it was a non-championship event our riders showed their stuff in front of a crowd of 50,000 on race day. There was no question of us coming back.”

The Montreal round won’t be a full points-paying event. Every rider who starts the Superbike feature race will receive the same amount of series points.

The tour will return to Shannonville Motorsport Park for a race on the 2.5-mile Long Track on the Sept. 2-4 Labour Day Weekend.

A week later the season will wrap up at the 2.65-mile Le Circuit Mont-Tremblant in the Quebec Laurentians. This will mark the first time the national tour hasn’t concluded at Shannonville since 1996, when the Alma, QC street race was the final round.

Thursday test days will be held before the opening Shannonville round, as well as the Race City, Mosport and Mont-Tremblant events.

All events will again be televised on The Sports Network across Canada, and through the French language Reseau des Sports in Quebec.

Pascal Picotte of Granby, QC will be gunning for a third straight title in both the Parts Canada Superbike and Hindle Exhaust Pro 600 Sport Bike classes. Levis, QC’s Dominic Lavoie is the defending International Motorcycle SUPERSHOW Amateur 600 Sport Bike champion.


2005 Parts Canada Superbike Championship Schedule

Round 1 May 20-22 Shannonville Motorsport Park (Pro Track) Shannonville, ON

Round 2 July 1-3 Race City Motorsport Park Calgary, AB

Round 3 July 15-16 Mosport International Raceway Bowmanville, ON

Round 4 July 15-17 Mosport International Raceway Bowmanville, ON

Round 5 Aug. 5-7 Atlantic Motorsport Park Shubenacadie, NS

Round 6 Aug. 26-28 Molson Indy Montreal (Superbike Only) Montreal, QC

Round 7 Sept. 2-4 Shannonville Motorsport Park (Long Track) Shannonville, ON

Round 8 Sept. 9-11 Le Circuit Mont-Tremblant Mont-Tremblant, QC

Copyright 2004, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

Bidding for a racer-autographed copy of C. Edward Link’s popular children’s book The Little Motorcycle is currently at $200 with just under six days remaining in the eBay auction to benefit the Roadracing World Action Fund, which promotes the use of soft barriers to reduce racetrack injuries.

The book being auctioned was autographed by several top stars of AMA road racing during the 2004 season finale at Virginia International Raceway. Riders who have signed the book include: Mat Mladin, Miguel Duhamel, Jake Zemke, Ben Bostrom, Eric Bostrom, Aaron Yates, Doug Chandler, Roger Lee Hayden, Freddie Spencer, Kevin Schwantz and more.

Link will also autograph the book, if the winning bidder so requests.

The auction is currently live, until November 21, at the following link:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7934171230

For additional information on the Roadracing World Action Fund, go to:

http://actionfund.roadracingworld.com

Copyright 2004, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

1998 AMA Superbike Champion Ben Bostrom could announce his 2005 deal within the next week, according to his manager.

“Right now, we have some offers in World Superbike that we are fielding and working our way through and also a couple of AMA opportunities. We pretty much went through the offers, and in Ben’s mind he knows where he wants to be and what he’d like to do. It’s just a matter of, basically, looking to see what’s there and selecting the one that best enables him to accomplish his career goals,” Bostrom’s manager Fred Bramblett, President of OMS Sports, told Roadracingworld.com Monday. “Everything’s gone back-and-forth several times, so we should be in the last days of it. We should be able to do some sort of informal announcement on it between now and Monday.”

The AMA opportunities being considering are Superbike rides, according to Bramblett.

Bramblett is currently recovering from injuries sustained in a motocross crash four weeks ago.

“I fell off my dirt bike and shattered my right humorous and rotator cuff and tore my bicep loose, a bunch of different damage. They couldn’t piece me back together again, so they did a complete joint replacement. They went with a titanium prosthesis,” said Bramblett. “It’s a long slow healing process. It’s just one of those things you have to work through. I’ve got an immobilizer on, going to therapy. It’s a little bit of inconvenience with traveling and stuff over the next few weeks, but other than that, everything’s fine.”

Bramblett said he didn’t expect to ride again for six to eight months.

Copyright 2004, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

FIRST PERSON/OPINION:

Via e-mail:

I believe that it’s pretty common knowledge that liability waivers aren’t worth the paper they’re written on. We sign them knowing that we aren’t completely unprotected from negligent behavior. Whether Dunlop is negligent or not would be up to the courts if this does proceed. There have been a number of serious incidents recently involving Dunlop tires. The issue with Continental tires several years ago and the resulting exclusion from racing is the complete opposite of how the AMA has handled Dunlop’s problems. That’s pretty unfair and it probably comes down to the almighty dollar.

Lawsuits are bad for our sport but this is not a one-time event and the problem has been known long enough where something should have been done. Whether they knew about the problems before Livingood’s incident will be debated but they definitely knew afterward and there have been several failures since.

I won’t use Dunlops because I don’t want to worry about that extra nail in my coffin. The crap with testing dates last season is also another reason to not buy Dunlops.

Peter Rollins
Lincolnville, Maine


FIRST PERSON/OPINION:

Via e-mail:

I agree with the idea Dunlop (and any other manufacturer) should be held responsible if defective products, known defective products, are sold for any use especially racing. Dunlop had all their Factory riders in meetings at least 3 times last year stating to them (but not the press!) that they had discovered ‘The Problems’ with their 17 inch slicks and then their 16.5 slicks as well. Still failures occcurred and yet, it seems, Dunlop continued to supply doubtful tires. I believe it will take a lawsuit or at least the discovery phase thereof, to make Dunlop tell the truth…..and that’s too bad!

Scot M. Tway
Auburn, Alabama


FIRST PERSON/OPINION:

Via e-mail:

First, I will preface my statements with the fact that I have been a road racing competitor since 1987. I’ve raced GP bikes, endurance racers, production bikes, and some priceless Vintage machinery.

Second, I’ve had the great opportunity to race on various tires over those years: Avon, Bridgestone, Dunlop, and Michelin. Currently, I am happy to say that I have a great and long standing relationship with Michelin.

Racing certainly has an amount of risk that a person in the normal world does not consider to be necessary. Life IS full of risks, regardless. Racing, in general, is about the development of products under circumstances that allow manufacturers to test products for increased durability, better traction, develop new technologies, and so on. Again, these developments are not without any risk whatsoever to products, machines, or individuals. Nothing is ever going to be perfect all of the time. Developing these products on a racetrack are not the “normal” risks that most individuals might take.

As a racer that is on Michelin tires, I understand the care and concern that guys like Ron Wood, Jim Rhodes, Walt Schaefer, and Tom Mason have for me and my other fellow Michelin riders. However, having worked with Jim Allen when I was on Dunlops, I know that he and the staff he works with certainly would not recommend or utilize a tire without discussing options with a rider. Certainly, some tires just can’t be used. Others can be. But honest mistakes can be made during the process of manufacturing, mounting, and use, or a combination there of, that cannot necessarily be accounted for. Yeah, there are failures, but there are a lot of tires out there, too. Given the variations on everything, a rider must assume that something can happen at some point. That’s the risk we assume as racers.

I wish Brian all the best. Always keep praying and never give up.

“Super” Dave Rosno
Eagle, Wisconsin