Modifications at two corners have shortened the Assen TT circuit, in the Netherlands, from 3.74 to 3.72 miles, and improvements to several grandstands have also been completed in preparation for the 75th Gauloises Dutch TT June 23-25. De Bult and Ruskenhoek corners have been altered, according to sources in Europe, and plans call for the circuit to be shortened even further after the 2005 World Superbike event at the historic circuit. A host of improvements have been made to the Winterdijk, Stekkenwal and main straightaway grandstands to improve the sight lines and overall experience of spectators. The brand new “floating” finish line grandstand will offer fans in its top row a panoramic view of the entire track, according to the circuit’s official website. Every grandstand will also have a large-screen, jumbotron-style monitor so fans can follow the action all the way around the long circuit.

WSB AND GP STAR GREGORIO LAVILLA TO REPLACE INJURED HAYDON AT BRANDS HATCH London, UK – Airwaves Ducati today announced that James Haydon will not race at Brands Hatch this weekend. However they bounced back with the immediate announcement of WSB and GP star Gregorio Lavilla as a replacement rider. The team withdrew Haydon this morning after damage to his left hand sustained during testing in Albacete, failed to heal in sufficient time. The announcement of Lavilla, the highly respected and experienced WSB and GP rider, is a huge boost for the team. Colin Wright, Team Manager, commented, “Obviously I’m very disappointed that James will not be competing this weekend, however, extremely pleased to have secured the services of such an experienced World Championship rider”. “James is working hard to recover his fitness in time for the next round at Thruxton. This decision is about him missing the first round in order to compete in the remaining twelve”. Wright is enthused to be back in the thick of the action and sure of the team’s proven abilities, expecting the usual high standard of performance, even at this early stage. “I could not have asked for a better replacement than Gregorio. Leon’s lap times have been excellent; we are on the pace and looking forward to the Championship.” The first round of the Championship takes place at Brands Hatch, 26 – 28 March 2005

PICKERINGTON, Ohio — AMA Sports, the amateur and pro-am competition division of the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA), has announced that its 2005 season will showcase more competitors, more events, and more championships than at any time in the AMA’s 82-year history. For the third straight year, the AMA Sports calendar will conclude with the annual AMA Sports Awards Banquet, scheduled for Friday, November 18 in Las Vegas, Nevada. This annual celebration will honor nearly 400 AMA Sports and ATVA national champions. Special awards include Sportsman of the Year; Athlete of the Year; Veteran/Senior, Amateur, Female and Youth Riders of the Year; Organizers of the Year in Motocross, Track Racing, and Off-Road; Website, Print-Media Journalist, Photojournalist and Broadcast Journalist of the Year for coverage of AMA Sports and ATVA events. Throughout the 2005 season, the most up-to-date information and official results will be available on AMADirectlink.com at ~http://www.ama-cycle.org/amrace/amasports.asp~ AMA Road Race Grand Championships: This championship event, to be held July 19-20 at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Lexington, Ohio, will feature club road racers from road-racing organizations around the country, competing both at the expert and novice levels to determine national champions. Special awards will include the Road Race Horizon Award, Club Challenge Championship and the inaugural Novice Rider Award. For the event schedule and official results, visit ~http://www.ama-cycle.org/amrace/2005/rr/index.asp~

WSMC Overall Championship Point Standings (as of March 21, 2005): 1. Jason Perez, 142 points 2. Kenny Kopecky, 136 points 3. Ritchie Thorup, 117 points 4. Michael Beck, 113 points 5. Jacob West, 112 points 6. Jack Pfeifer, 107 points 7. Robbie Dowie, 106 points 8. J.C. Gibbs, 95 points 9. Mark Watts, 92 points 10. Clinton Whitehouse, III, 90 points 11. Damon Buckmaster, 84 points 12. Mickey Lane, 81 points 13. Stephen Hewitt, 78 points 14. Sam Carnibucci, 77 points 15. Jeff Stern, 73 points 16. Claudio Szyszkowski, 72 points 17. David Siminski, 68 points 18. TIE, Jason Caldwell/Robbes Stieglitz/David Littlebrook, 67 points

Jerez ready to host final MotoGP preseason showdown The 2005 MotoGP World Championship teams and riders have their final chance to complete their preseason preparations in a three-day Official Test at Jerez this weekend, following on from the Catalunya session just four days ago, when Sete Gibernau claimed the fastest time and consequently drove home in a brand-new BMW 1 Series as the prize for the BMW Award – MotoGP test. There is no such bounty on offer this weekend but virtually the entire paddock has travelled south through Spain in a gradual convoy that has now set up camp at the Andalucian circuit, venue for the opening round of the season in exactly two weeks’ time. Whilst the 125cc teams tested on Monday and Tuesday, their 250cc counterparts today completed a two-day session in mixed weather conditions with Sebastián Porto setting a blistering pace. Porto ended today’s final 250cc session on top of the time sheets after taking advantage of a brief spell of warm sunshine to smash his own pole position record by almost a second with a stunning lap of 1:42.817. The majority of riders had not emerged on track until 1pm due to damp track conditions caused by overnight rain and were unable to push their machines to the limit because of limited grip, but Aprilia rider Porto was in the right place at the right time with a virtually perfect lap which also dipped under the unofficial circuit record of 1:42.9, set by current World Champion Dani Pedrosa during private tests in January. “It’s a really fast time, no 250cc machine has ever been quicker here,” reflected Porto, who finished as runner-up to Pedrosa last season. “I’m feeling good, we’re getting better every day, but there is still margin for improvement. We’ll have to work on that in the practice sessions for the Grand Prix but we’ve got a couple of weeks off now to relax and look forward to the season.” Pedrosa was second fastest today despite suffering from the same carburetion problems that dogged his Honda in Catalunya last week, whilst Randy de Puniet, Alex de Angelis and Andrea Dovizioso completed the top five. Marco Simoncelli had been the quickest rider over the two days of 125cc sessions, lapping inside his pole position time from 2004 with a lap of 1:47.274. Simoncelli, who went on to take his debut Grand Prix victory in the race here last year, was followed on by Thomas Luthi, Mattia Pasini, Mika Kallio and Fabrizio Lai. The MotoGP riders will take to the track tomorrow, with Gibernau aiming to continue his good preseason form at a circuit where he claimed victory in wet conditions last season. However, his compatriot Carlos Checa will not be taking part in the test after being diagnosed with a dislocated shoulder after MRI scans in Barcelona this week, following a crash at the Catalunya circuit last Saturday.

A love of motorcycles that started with riding street bikes led to Ichiro Yoda taking up a job with Yamaha immediately after graduating from Tokyo’s Metropolitan University at the end of the seventies. Yoda’s first project for his new employer was a single-cylinder machine designed for the Middle Eastern market; a far cry from the high-tech MotoGP machines he would work on in the future. But it was not long before Yoda made the switch to the racing department, where he was involved in projects as varied as a four-stroke 500GP machine and a 1000cc endurance racer, both of which were tested but never raced. Yoda also worked on the development of the OW61 500GP engine campaigned by Kenny Roberts, before taking over as project leader on the YZR250 machine that Venezuelan rider, Carlos Lavado, took to the World Championship title in its debut season. In 1994 Yoda returned to Japan to work on the 500GP project, but switched back to the quarter litre class in 1998 to win the All Japan Championship with a young Shinya Nakano. Yoda returned to Europe in 2000, with Olivier Jacque and Shinya Nakano finishing the season first and second in the 250cc World Championship standings aboard the bike that he had developed and built. Yoda joined KHI as MotoGP Technical Director at the start of the 2005 season, after spending his last four years with Yamaha heavily involved in the development of their YZR-M1 MotoGP racer. Q: After more than 20 years with the company your name is almost synonymous with Yamaha. Why did you make the decision to switch allegiance to Kawasaki after such a long time with one manufacturer? A: Basically I wanted a new challenge, which is why I quit Yamaha at the end of last year. I wanted to stay in racing, because I enjoy working in this environment and this is where my experience lies, so when Kawasaki approached me about working on the Ninja ZX-RR project I was very interested. After visiting KHI I decided that this is what I wanted to do; it was the new challenge I had been looking for. Q: Will you base yourself in Europe this year, or do you feel it’s more important to be involved closely in the development programme in Japan? A: The development work will be done mostly in Japan, using the data collected at races and tests, so that’s where I’ll be based. After each race or test I will return to Japan to continue the development work alongside the KHI engineers. Q: You’ve only been with Kawasaki for a very short time, but what are your first impressions of the company as a whole and the Kawasaki Racing Team in particular? A: Kawasaki Heavy Industries is a big company that produces many products, not just consumer products like motorcycles. They are involved in engineering projects in a wide variety of areas, from aerospace to shipbuilding. This involvement in such a range of engineering projects means that KHI has a good level of engineering expertise in many disciplines. And while the number of people working on the MotoGP project is only small compared to other projects, I believe we have the engineers necessary to make the Ninja ZX-RR a success. The Kawasaki Racing Team has a lot of experienced and well-motivated people. Everyone in the team has the same goal of improving our results on the track. It is a good environment in which to work and I think there is great potential for the future. Q: You’ve worked closely with both Shinya Nakano and his crew chief, Fiorenzo Fanali, in the past. Do you think already having a good working relationship with key people in the team makes the job of developing the Ninja ZX-RR any easier? A: Definitely, because we have worked together in the past it is very easy for Shinya, Fiorenzo and myself to exchange ideas and communicate our opinions on the development of the bike, and this speeds up the whole development process. Q: The development of the 2005 Ninja ZX-RR was well underway by the time you joined Kawasaki. Will you have a major input on the continued development of this year’s bike, or is your focus more on the 2006 season and the next variant of the Ninja ZX-RR MotoGP machine? A: Of course, I have to look to the future, but I also need to develop the bike we have now because this is the bike we will race this season. The tests we’ve done so far this year have allowed us to identify very clearly the development direction we need to take with this bike, and what the requirements are for the first race. I think that, with this knowledge, we will be in a position to achieve some good results by the midpoint of the season. Development can also be dictated by your competitors; if they’ve made significant advances during the winter months then your own development programme has to be flexible enough to reflect this if you are to remain competitive. It may be that we have to revise our development plan when we see what level our competitors have attained going into the new season. Q: It’s no secret that Kawasaki have been running a ‘big bang’ version of the Ninja ZX-RR engine during pre-season testing, but what advantage does running a revised firing order have over the more conventional ‘screamer’ engine? A: we can see some advantages already by looking at the data, but it’s equally as important for us to listen to the feedback we get from the riders. From the comments Shinya has made during testing it seems that the big bang engine makes it easier for him to control the bike, especially when the performance of the tyre starts to drop off, which it obviously does towards the end of a race. These four-stroke MotoGP engines produce a lot of power, but this power has to be transferred to the track and that is where the power characteristics of the big bang engine offer an advantage over the screamer motor. The way that the big bang engine delivers its power is better for the rear tyre, which can easily be overwhelmed by the more aggressive, peakier delivery of the screamer engine. Basically, the big bang engine allows us to make maximum use of the grip available from the rear tyre, and this has a noticeable affect on lap times. Q. There have obviously been some big changes in the engine department, but what of the chassis? Have there been any major revisions in this area over the winter months? A: We wanted to keep the basic chassis from 2004, as we have a good understanding of how this chassis works. Because we know how the chassis performs at the circuits we’ve tested at so far this year, we can see straight away the affect that the new engine has on the bike as a whole. I think we will only make some very small changes to the chassis this year, as we need to focus our resources on developing the engine. Q. Shinya Nakano has the smooth style typical of riders who cut their teeth in the quarter litre class, whereas Alex Hofmann has a more aggressive style on the bike. The two also have very different physical characteristics; Shinya is small and light while Alex is tall and 20kg heavier than his Kawasaki teammate. How difficult is to develop a bike that is suitable for two riders who differ to such an extent? A: It is sometimes difficult to change the basic ergonomics of the bike to suit the physical characteristics of both riders, but we have managed to do this with the Ninja ZX-RR. Once we’ve identified a good base setting on the bike I think both riders will be able to fine-tune their individual set up to suit their physical characteristics and their individual riding styles. In terms of the engine, if we can provide as smooth a power delivery as possible then I think this will suit both riders. I don’t believe a difference in riding styles really has any affect on the direction we take with the development of the engine. Q: On the strength of what you’ve seen of the Ninja ZX-RR and the Kawasaki Racing Team’s two riders during pre-season testing, what are your goals in terms of results this season? A: Racing is winning, so we must always aim to win. We’re not here just to make up the numbers, so it is important that we have a clear goal, and I like to keep our goals and targets high. First we must develop the bike into a race-winner and then we must put riders on the bike who are capable of winning races. If we can do this then I think we will see some good results this season. Q: Kawasaki originally came into MotoGP with a five-year plan that would see them challenging for the World Championship title in 2007. Do you see this as a realistic goal based in your experiences so far? A: Yes, I think this is a realistic aim, and this is what we are working towards with our development programme.

The FIM World Endurance Championship starts this weekend with the Assen 500km race. The Netherlands round of the series is run on the shorter version of the famous Dutch TT Circuit, with competitors having to complete 129 laps of the track and two compulsory rider change and refuelling pitstops. Practice and Qualifying takes place on Saturday the 26th, Easter Sunday is a day of rest and exhibitions, and the race takes place on Easter Monday the 28th supported by National and European races and the Dutch Stunt Championship. The usual endurance attractions and sideshows will keep the crowds entertained, and there will be a pit-walk before the start of the 500km race. The winter break has seen a number of changes for the leading teams. Suzuki Castrol’s Vincent Philippe will be joined by Keiichi Kitagawa on the French squad’s GSX-R1000; they are regarded by many as the team to beat. Yamaha Austria have recruited consistent podium finisher Gwen Giabbani and will run two bikes at Assen, while Warwick Nowland joins British team Yamaha Phase One Endurance; after a disappointing year in World Superbikes, Nowland is out to show his true potential. Italian team X-One have switched from Benelli to Yamaha for 2005, while Team 76 abandon Yamaha to become Suzuki Austria Team 76. Aprilia make a welcome return to the championship, bringing the number of manufacturers represented in the championship to seven (Aprilia, Ducati, Honda, Kawasaki, MV Agusta, Suzuki and Yamaha). Thirty four teams will start the race at Assen, with competitors drawn from 18 countries. With many teams having had their winter testing programme affected by the cold weather in February, this will be the first time that they are able to truly measure themselves against the competition. Can the Yamaha teams’ off-season R1 updates match the performance of Suzuki’s new GSX-R? Is this the year that Kawasaki returns to World Endurance form? Can Honda’s Fireblade match the other Japanese fours? Which of the Italian marques will dominate? The 2005 World Endurance season starts here”¦

TEAM GREEN RIDER, JESSICA ZALUSKY, PREPARES FOR THE 2005 SEASON After a busy snowboarding season, Jessica Zalusky has set her sights and focus on her racing for 2005. She has left Minnesota for the warmer climates of Alabama to prepare for the upcoming racing season. Zalusky has been training and testing at Barber Motorsports Park aboard her Kawasaki Ninja® ZX-10R and ZX-6RR. Zalusky will also be a guest rider at the upcoming NESBA track day event at Barber Motorsports Park from March 25-26. NESBA is a non-profit, volunteer-run organization that provides track time and riding instruction at premier racetracks across the country. For more information about Jessica Zalusky, visit her website at www.roadracinggirl.com.