From a press release issued for WERA Motorcycle Roadracing by Raven Communications:

WERA NATIONAL SERIES HEADS SOUTH TO TALLADEGA

OXFORD, Ala.- The WERA National Challenge Series and the Dunlop/WERA National Endurance Series will head south to Talladega Gran Prix Raceway this weekend, August 21-22, for round seven of the season.

At only 1.35 miles in length, Talladega is one of the shortest tracks that the series runs. The tight circuit is a popular venue for fans, who benefit from being able to see all of the racing action from the grandstands or pit lane. The short track also fosters exciting racing, with daring passes and close competition.

The four-hour Dunlop/WERA National Endurance Series race will begin at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, August 21. Vesrah Suzuki won the Talladega round last season on a Suzuki GSX-R1000 and they currently lead the points, but Team Velocity Racing was at the top of podium at Summit Point two weeks ago on their Yamaha YZF-R1.

Army of Darkness will also be a favored team at Talladega on their Mediumweight Superbike Suzuki GSX-R600. The team finished second overall during last year’s race, and they have the advantage of using Talladega as their test track during the winter months.

The WERA National Challenge Series sprint races get started at 12:30 p.m. on Sunday, August 22. Each race will be 12 laps in length.

Tray Batey has been the man to beat in the expert classes this season, but this weekend Mike Smith is returning to the series with his eye on the top of the podium. Batey and Smith each won two races when they competed at Talladega last year, and both will be anxious to break the tie.

Fans can catch three days of on-track action, including a practice day on Friday, for only $30. A two-day ticket costs just $20, and Sunday-only admission is $15. Camping for the weekend is also available.

The track is less than a two-hour drive from both Atlanta and Birmingham. Take I-20 to exit 185 (Hwy. 21- Anniston/Oxford). Go south for 10 miles, and the track is on the left. More information about Talladega Gran Prix Raceway can be found at www.TGPRace.com.

More information about WERA, including a full schedule for the WERA National at Talladega, can be found at www.WERA.com.

From a press release issued by Team Suzuki:

KIRK McCARTHY: THE PASSING OF A CHAMPION

Suzuki is today mourning the death of former Australian Superbike Champion, Kirk McCarthy.

Racing in the Supersport class of the Shell Advance Australian Superbike Championship, the 35 year-old rider was critically injured in a tragic accident during round six at Queensland Raceway on Sunday 15 August.

“Everyone at Suzuki is greatly saddened by Kirk’s death,” Perry Morison, General Manager – Motorcycles, Suzuki Australia said.

“Kirk was one of our sport’s most colourful and talented racing stars and his passing is a great loss to the Australian motorcycle industry – he will be greatly missed.

Kirk rode for the factory Suzuki World Superbike Team in 1996.

Suzuki Australia extends its deepest sympathies to Kirk’s family, friends and fans both nationally and internationally.

From a press release issued by Camel Honda Pons:

MotoGP restarts after summer break. Max, Makoto and the Camel Honda team ready for Brno GP

With nearly a month having passed since the British GP, the last race before the recent summer rest period, the world championships has been able to take a breath before setting out on the second, frenetic half of the season. Seven races across four continents, beginning with this weekend’s Czech GP, will decide the outcome of one of the most exciting MotoGP seasons ever to take place over the next ten weeks. Max Biaggi makes his way to Brno after having undergone a rollercoaster of emotions over recent races, which nonetheless have had a common denominator; his determination to fight to the end and to always look ahead, even when fortune has not been on his side. That’s also how Biaggi is looking at this Brno race, despite the technical problems at Donington he is calm and confident in his own and his team’s capabilities. In much the same way Tamada, who travels straight to the Czech Republic from his holidays back home in Japan, is preparing for the second half of the season looking to repeat the success of Rio at a track that he already performed well on last year.

Sito Pons – Camel Honda (Team Principal)
“I think that this summer break has allowed everyone who works in the world championships, including riders and engineers, to enjoy a well-earned rest after a frankly intense and challenging period. It will allow us all to attack the second part of the season with renewed energy and enthusiasm. Brno is a track where Max has always got top results and which also works well for Makoto, who loves the fast circuits. I’m sure that after Donington, where a technical problem prevented us from showing our true potential, we can find our way back to victory, as we did in Brazil and Germany beforehand. Our team has everything it takes to take the title challenge to the very end.”

Max Biaggi #3: (Michelin Tyres)
“I have rested over the last few weeks, I got in some sunshine and did some sport whilst holidaying with friends. My thoughts have tracked back to the race, I admit it, just because what happened in Britain is still getting to me, how can that have happened? This season has already proved however that nothing is decided until the end, and it is with this spirit that I will take on the second part of the year. I’m delighted that we kick off again with Brno, because it is a track that I like without a doubt, but I will approach it as I do any other. In the end every track is great when you feel at one with your bike and every track can be a pitfall when you don’t think it will be. So, it’s good to go to Brno, but the job more importantly than ever is to work well with the team, with Honda and with Michelin to get ourselves into the best shape technically by Sunday so we can fight for victory.”

Luca Montiron – Camel Honda (Makoto Tamada Team Manager)
Makoto was in Japan during the summer vacation, and we hope he returns rested and refreshed so he can take on the second half of the season in perfect condition, as the rest of the team is ready to do. During the break, Bridgestone has continued its own work and we are hoping ultimately to reduce the gap to our rivals to firmly establish our position amongst the top riders. It is because of this work that we look forward to Brno with great anxiety and we are sure that the second part of the season will be fundamental for us.

Makoto Tamada #6: (Bridgestone Tyres)
“The Brno track is one of my favourites; the design and the track’s rhythm are very special. I really think I can go well there. During the summer break the tyre development will have moved on, and with the right choice to suit the climate in the Czech Republic we can feature prominently in this race.”


2003 Podium

1. V. Rossi (Honda)
2. S. Gibernau (Honda)
3. T. Bayliss (Ducati)


Pole Position Record
V. Rossi (Honda – 2003)
1:58.769


Official Record
V. Rossi (Honda – 2003)
1:59.966


No. of Laps
22 (118.866km)



MotoGP timetable:
14.00 (GMT + 2)
*European Summer Time




Characteristics
Length: 5,403 m
Width: 15m
Right corners: 8
Left corners: 6
Constructed in: 1987
Last Modified: 1996

From a press release issued by Team Suzuki:

MISSION RESUMES FOR TEAM SUZUKI
Team Suzuki Press Office – August 17, 2004.

MotoGP racing resumes at Brno next Sunday after a welcome three-week layoff and for Team Suzuki, it is back to business as usual – to continue to develop and refine the ever-improving GSV-R MotoGP prototype racer.

There will be three of the blue Suzukis on the grid; team regulars Kenny Roberts Jr. and John Hopkins joined by official test team rider Gregorio Lavilla, a wild card entry for the Czech Republic GP. All will be going for the best possible race results then staying on for two days of testing – all part of the long-term programme to bring the traditional racing factory back to winning races and challenging for the championship.

The first half of the season – actually nine of the 16 races – was an encouraging and motivating experience for the Suzuki riders and team. Changes wrought to the third version of the GSV-R V4 brought out the best in the powerful prototype and a new alliance with Bridgestone tyres also brought rapid progress.

It showed in ever-improving lap times and race results: 2000 World Champion Kenny Roberts qualified on pole at Rio, the seventh round, where he led away from the start, finishing seventh, his best so far. Kenny was on the front row again in Germany for the next race where he and team-mate John Hopkins claimed a double top-ten finish. Hopkins’s best race was the British GP, after early-season misfortunes, pushing through to a fighting eighth after starting only 16th fastest.

The biggest improvement has come in rideability of the machine compared with earlier versions; at the same time a revised engine with different firing intervals – and a more musical exhaust note – has brought further progress, along with a raft of detail changes throughout the machine.

The three-weekend summer break gave tired riders and race crews a chance to recoup, regroup and relax. Roberts and Hopkins both returned to the USA in the break with Hopkins putting in a week in Hawaii.

Back in Japan, the factory race department was hard at work, consolidating the lessons and improvements of the first half of the season, to come back stronger still for the second part.

Team Manager Garry Taylor sums up the team’s philosophy, and the reason for the spirit that has re-enthused the factory squad.

“Everybody at Suzuki knows that we are capable of winning the championship – the riders, the team and the factory engineers. We’ve made a lot of progress this year which has been highly motivating. But this is still very much work in progress. We’re not where we want to be and we’re all anxious to get back to the programme,” he said.

One target for the factory engineers is to increase horsepower, especially important for Brno where a steep uphill straight out of a slow corner leads to the final turns of the long and technically-complicated lap. The sharp climb puts a heavy emphasis on pure acceleration at a crucial point of the circuit leading to the finish line.

With testing banned, the race will be the first chance for riders and team to resume progress with their machines. “We will be assessing the latest ideas and developments over the weekend for the race, then in more detail at tests for two days after the race,” said Taylor.

“Our goal is to maintain our rate of improvement until we are challenging for the title again,” he concluded.

KENNY ROBERTS – BACK TO WORK:

“The break was good but I guess we’re ready to start racing again. Over the past races, we’d been qualifying better and getting the best out of this year’s bike. The changes made it much easier to ride at the limit. Now we need to take the next step, with more improvements. We’re all ready for it, as a team and as riders.”

JOHN HOPKINS – AIMING HIGH AS ALWAYS:

“I headed to the USA for the summer and after six days in Hawaii I’ve been cycling and training. Temperature-wise it’s like training for Qatar! It’s been over 100 degrees pretty much every day. I like Brno and there have been tons of improvement to the bike so I’ll aim for a top five, as always.”

ABOUT THIS RACE:

There has been motorcycle racing at Brno since long before the birth of the World Championship in 1949, but the first GP was only in 1965. The country was then Czechoslovakia, behind the Iron Curtain, and the venue was an 8.6-mile (13.9km) public-roads circuit on the outskirts of the city, famed for its precision engineering (Brno gave its name to the famous Bren gun of World War Two). That track was itself the third version of what had been an even longer road circuit.

The last time the premier-class GP bikes raced there was in 1977, though the smaller classes continued until 1982 before the dangerous track was dropped from the GP calendar. Local enthusiasts achieved backing from the communist regime to build a show-piece new purpose-built closed circuit, with a long lap and a challenging layout, first used in 1987. Soon afterwards, political turmoil saw the Iron Curtain collapse and the Czechoslovakian GP last ran in 1991.

In 1993, the race resumed with a new name to go with the new political freedoms – the Czech Republic GP – and pit buildings and paddock facilities were rebuilt to keep the track’s standards high.

The race attracts big crowds, packing the vast natural grandstands. They also come for the liberated atmosphere and cheap beer of the new country, making Brno a popular and important fixture on the calendar.

ABOUT THIS TRACK:

A long lap of 3.357 miles (5.403 km) and an average speed of more than 100mph are the key to Brno which has wide sweeping corners and only short straights. “Vertical corners” are an added complication, riders struggling with treacherous front-wheel grip as the corners drop away for the first half of the lap. Speeds are high and Brno rewards handling finesse and high corner speed more than raw horsepower, but for that final uphill straight. “You have the bike on its side for a real long time and one corner flows into the next. At the same time, there are places where you open the throttle wide and hold it there. It’s probably my favourite track,” said Kenny Roberts, who claimed his first front row qualifying position there in 1996, his first year riding a 500.

GP DATA:

Brno.
Circuit Length: 3.357 miles / 5.403 km.
Lap Record: 1:59.966 – 100.747 mph / 162.136 km/h. V Rossi (Honda), 2004.
2003 Race Winner: Rossi.
2003 Race Average: 44:18.907 – 1900.02 mph / 160.937 km/h.
2004 Fastest Race Lap: see lap record.
2004 Pole Position: Rossi (Honda) 1:58.769.
2004 KENNY ROBERTS: 20th, qualified 16th (Suzuki).
2004 JOHN HOPKINS: 17th, qualified 13th (Suzuki).

Copyright 2004, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

Michael Jordan came to Jason Pridmore and offered to help him after hearing that Pridmore was out of money and couldn’t finish the 2004 AMA season.

Pridmore started the year as a rider for No Limit Motorsports, but the team said it was too expensive to race in Formula Xtreme and bailed out just prior to the AMA National at Barber Motorsports Park. That left Pridmore scrambling to race under the banner of his STAR school, but the program ran out of money and Pridmore planned to stop racing after the Mid-Ohio round.

Which is where Jordan came in, offering to help Pridmore, following a game of golf.

“I’m not sponsored by Michael Jordon Motorsports,” Pridmore told Roadracingworld.com Tuesday. “MJ just decided to help me. I’ve just become really good friends with MJ, and pretty much, I’ve been trying to keep it kind of quiet.

“Ohio was gonna be my last race of the year, because we were just out of money. As it turned out, when I was at Ohio, MJ asked me if we playing golf Monday, and I kind of hung out in Chicago for the better part of the month, because we had some schools in the area. I’ve gotten to be pretty good friends with him, played some golf, all those guys. MJ kind of caught wind at Ohio, when he heard I was in some trouble for the last couple rounds, and he offered to help me. It was really nice of him. He’s helping me as a personal friend and not as Michael Jordan Motorsports. He offered to help me out as a friend.”

As for a Michael Jordan Superbike program in 2005, Pridmore said, “Nothing’s even going along that road right now. He’s been helping me as a friend, I’m hanging out with these guys because they’re good friends, golfing and stuff, a lot of fun.”

Jordan is known to be interested in fielding an AMA Superbike program in 2005, but Pridmore said he hadn’t discussed that with Jordan.

See related post:

8/16/2004 Pridmore To Ride In Jordan Colors At Road Atlanta, VIR

From a press release issued by d’Antin Ducati:

MotoGP gets underway again in Brno

After a summer break, the world motorcycling championships get going once more this coming weekend with the annual visit to the Brno circuit. The track itself was constructed in the eighties to replace the old street circuit and became a pioneer for many modern tracks.

The d´Antin MotoGP riders are determined to getting amongst the top riders in this second part of the championship and tackle the Czech Republic Grand Prix with renewed enthusiasm, the first of seven remaining races this season.

Rubén Xaus is currently in eleventh place in the overall standings and is at the head of the rookies competition after some frankly stunning performances, whilst Neil Hodgson, currently sixteenth overall, could boast a smile over the holidays after he got his best result so far in his home British race. Both the Briton and the Spaniard are setting themselves new challenges every single time they take to their Ducati Desmosedici bikes on the track, but the characteristics of the Brno could allow them to rapidly get into the swing of things.

RUBÉN XAUS, who characteristically has had an action-packed rest period, confessed his desire to get back into action, “It was good to be able to disconnect a little over these days, although to be honest I can’t really just sit around and I’m keen to get into the next race. I know the Brno track a bit from my Thunderbikes days in 1996, although this just gives me a basic idea, however I remember liking the track: both the area and the complex… and the track of course. It’s a great track in every sense. I think it will be good for our bike and I intend to follow the same method of work we have used in every race, that is to say begin step by step, but giving one hundred percent to get a good result in the race.”

NEIL HODGSON took advantage from the break in competition to rest at his home on the Isle of Man, but is also keen to get back on board his Ducati at one of his favourite tracks, “I’ve really enjoyed these days off, forgetting about airports and such like, and in fact the rest has done my shoulder some good, which must have recovered another ten percent. I’m ready for the Brno race and I’m quite excited about it because it’s one of my favourite tracks, although I haven’t raced here since 1995. After tenth place in Donington I’m optimistic and I think that the results will show it as we make a constant progression towards the end of the season.”

From a press release issued by Advanced Motor Sports (AMS):

Ducati North America’s AMA Pro Thunder Champion 2002

Advanced Motor Sports Ducati is very sad to inform the Ducatisti Community that Kirk McCarthy has passed as a result of a racing incident in Queensland Australia this past weekend.

Kirk McCarthy is the fifth and final champion of the 2002 AMA Pro Thunder Series.

Kirk McCarthy was brought over to the United States by Advanced Motor Sports to participate in the 2002 AMA Pro Thunder Series. Kirk was to be an AMS guest rider for the Daytona opener, but his 11-second win over the competition resulted in him staying the entire season. Kirk dominated the Pro Thunder Series, winning four out of the five races, setting lap records at Daytona, Pikes Peak, Road America, and Brainerd International Raceway.

Those who had the pleasure of knowing Kirk, will understand the terrible loss we feel at this time.
Our sincerest thoughts go out to his family and friends.

Sincerely,

Jeff Nash



Kirk always had a winning attitude and the determination of a true champion. His beautiful smile and laughter always warmed everyone around him. My deepest sympathy goes to all his friends around the world and his family in Australia.

Sincerely,

Toni Nash


I feel fortunate to have known Kirk as a champion and most of all a friend. His charming character, thoughtfulness and great attitude affected all who had the pleasure of working closely with him. Kirk will be sadly missed by many of his friends around the world. My thoughts and condolences are with his family and friends.

Sincerely,

Brian Sharp


Kirk #306
We built the bike
You made it fast
You turned up a winner
The records will stand
No one can deny you are # 1
Ride on forever…

Sincerely,

Stuart Rust

Copyright 2004, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

Daytona International Speedway (DIS), located in Daytona Beach, Florida, suffered no significant damage during the passing of Hurricane Charley over the weekend, according to a posting on the Speedway’s website.

In fact, DIS served as a staging point for power line crews and provided a generator to the City of Daytona Beach during the post-storm recovery effort.

The huge renovation project at DIS, which includes construction of a large-vehicle access tunnel under NASCAR Turn One and a complete rebuilding of the paddock area, suffered no damage and was not put behind schedule.