From a press release issued by Cagiva USA:

The Supermoto World Champion Eddy Seel will compete in the 10th X-Games, which will be held in Los Angeles from August 5th to the 8th. This will be the first X-Games to feature Supermoto racing and it should prove to be quite a show.
Seel is extremely enthusiastic about taking part in this competition where he will have the opportunity to race against some of the best motorcycle racers in the world, including Ben Bostrom, Grant Langston, Jeremy McGrath, Travis Pastrana, Kevin Windham, Chad Reed and Jeff Ward.

“I’m really curious about the kind of circuit that will be set up for the race – Eddy Seel declared before leaving for the U.S.A. – I heard it should be made in a covered area. American people are specialist in creating astonishing shows, so I think they will give a great importance to this event too. There’ s a lot of attention and interest from the U.S. media in the X-Games and I’m glad I’ve been invited by one of the event’s managers to this Supermoto debut in the most extreme sports Olympiad.”

The X-Games will air on the ABC and ESPN networks. The race is limited to 450cc bikes, and Seel, for the occasion, will ride on the new Husqvarna SM 450R, on which Davide Gozzini just won the first round of the World Championship’s.

From a press release issued by Joe Rocket:

Joe Rocket is proud to announce the launch of its highly anticipated 2005 product line. Rocket 2005 presents the best there is to offer for the future of motorcycle apparel. Never ceasing to amaze, the grip that this premier brand has on the apparel market has again been strengthened with the introduction of Joe Rocket’s newest licensing partners, “AMA Superbike®”, “AMA Supermoto®”, “American Suzuki®”, “Yoshimura®”, and “Mat Mladin.”

“The work ethics, value system, and intuition that they possess are valuable assets and quite complimentary to the promotion and progression of the AMA®. We’re pleased to be working with them and we’re proud to be associated with Joe Rocket” says Ron Barrick, Road Race Manager within the American Motorcyclist Association

Among the most sought after pieces within the ’05 product lineup will surely be the “Suzuki Factory Racing” jacket, the “Suzuki GSXR Champion” jacket, as well as the all new “Supermoto” jacket pant and glove; all of which are officially licensed and endorsed.

“The authenticity of these Joe Rocket products via our licensing partners is a direct reflection of our racing efforts and successes,” said Bruce Parker, Director of Marketing.

The entire 2005 Joe Rocket line, including these new licensed and endorsed items will be available nationwide in mid September.

From a press release issued by Fastrack Riders: Buttonwillow & Barber Update

Fastrack Riders still have several slots open in each level for our Buttonwillow event on July 30th & 31st. Come on up and ride the fun and challenging Buttonwillow Raceway track in configuration #13. It has off camber turns and elevation changes to test and improve your riding skills. The temperatures are forecasted to be in the mid 90s!

Fastrack has rented the entire club house for the weekend, and it is air-conditioned to help you survive the heat. We will be playing race videos on the TV monitors in the club house for your relaxation and enjoyment. The temperatures are forecasted to be in the mid 90s! Wimps can stay home in their air-conditioned homes being couch potatoes!

Buttonwillow has installed a cooling “mist” area just in front of the club house which is a large enough area for participants and spectators to cool down. The temperatures are forecasted to be in the mid 90s! Only wimps should not register!

Did we mention the actual forecast for Buttonwillow is only to be in the mid 90s verses what usually can be 100 degree plus temperatures? Perfect for riding and racing! Hey, it ain’t gonna be blazing hot! There is no excuse for you weather wimps who are afraid of hot weather. It’s dry heat at that!

Still plenty of openings for our August 7th & 8th Barber Motorsports event. Mitch Boehm the Editor in Chief of Motorcyclist Magazine will be there providing riding tips for anyone that wants them. We guarantee temperatures in the high 80s and humidity to match!

The California Speedway August 7th & 8th events are starting to sell out. You must call Dana @ 877-560-2233 to register. Novice Rider School is sold out on the 7th with about four openings for the 8th. This is the first time in the history of Fastrack Riders we are doing two events on the same day! Larry Pointer will be running the California Speedway event and David Pyles will be at Barber Motorsports Park.

Call 877-560-2233 or e-mail dana@fastrackriders for any event.

From a press release issued by Raven Communications, WERA’s public relations agency:

WERA NATIONAL SERIES EXPECTING A COMPETITIVE WEEKEND AT SUMMIT POINT

SUMMIT POINT, W Va.- The WERA National Challenge Series and the Dunlop/WERA National Endurance Series will visit Summit Point Raceway this weekend, July 30-August 1, for round six as the series enter the second half of the season.

Last year, the Summit Point race weekend was full of nail-biting finishes. The excitement kicked off with the endurance race when race leader Tray Batey ran out of gas on the Vesrah Suzuki GSX-R1000. Batey, John Jacobi and Mark Junge went on to the win, and they will be seeking to do the same once again during the six-hour Dunlop/WERA National Endurance Series race on Saturday, July 31.

Vesrah’s biggest challenge is likely to come from Army of Darkness. The team of Sam Fleming, Scott Brown and Ben Walters is the only other team to win an endurance race this year, and the Washington, D.C.-based team will have the home track advantage.

The endurance race will begin at 11:35 a.m. on Saturday and will feature a full grid of both regular series competitors and talented local teams, comprising five classes.

The ten-lap WERA National Challenge Series sprint races on Sunday, August 1, will be the highlight of the weekend for many fans. The two-mile, 10-turn Summit Point road course has a challenging layout that includes high-speed turns and a hairpin, and the riders will be put to the test against both the track and each other.

There will be 11 races held on Sunday, beginning at 12:30 p.m. With contingency money available from Suzuki, Honda, Kawasaki and Yamaha, some of the top amateur riders in the country are expected to compete. The Open, 600 and 750 Superstock classes will have the toughest competition, since they are the classes that are eligible for contingency.

The championship battle is raging in the 600 Superstock class, where Bradley Champion, who competes on a Yamaha YZF-R6, is just six points ahead of Suzuki GSX-R600 rider John Jacobi.

Tickets for the WERA National at Summit Point are $25 for the weekend or $15 after 10:00 p.m. Saturday night. Camping is also available in Summit Point’s wooded infield for no charge. More information, including directions to Summit Point, can be found at www.summitpoint-raceway.com.

More information about WERA, including a complete schedule of the Summit Point race weekend, can be found on the Internet at www.WERA.com.

From a press release issued by Ducati Corse:

POINTS LEADER TOSELAND (DUCATI FILA) READY FOR BRANDS HATCH THRILLER

Brands Hatch (UK), 29 July 2004: World Superbike returns to Britain for the second time this season, this time to Brands Hatch in Kent, for its flagship event, which every year attracts well in excess of 100,000 fans.

Two gutsy races at Laguna Seca, California see Ducati Fila rider James Toseland return home as championship leader once again in this see-saw season, three points ahead of his French team-mate Regis Laconi, but only 14 ahead of the fast-emerging Ten Kate Honda rider, Chris Vermeulen, winner of the last three races.

The 23-year-old Toseland from Sheffield, whose singleton win this season came at the Valencia opener, knows that the Brands Hatch race is the one to win and will be making every effort to shine in front of an expected sell-out British crowd.

“Brands Hatch is my home track and there will be a lot of pressure and a lot of expectation not only from everyone else but from myself as well. I look forward to Brands, it’s always one of those weekends when you get to Sunday night with two good results and have a big deep breath and think ‘thank god that’s over and done with!’. My results there have been pretty good, I beat all the World Superbike boys last year, finishing third behind the wild-cards in race 2.

“The best part of the circuit is Dingle Dell. Although the new corner is not as good as the old one, it’s still very exciting, while the trickiest part of the track is Surtees, before you go onto the back straight, but there isn’t really one corner where I think ‘I can’t get round this one’.

“At Brands you’re close to the track, you can see a lot, there’s a fantastic atmosphere, and hopefully the weather will be nice. It’s just a great event, to see the bikes and the racers so close is what Brands Hatch is all about” he added.

Twenty-nine year-old Laconi, a five-time winner this year, also enjoys the challenging and undulating Brands Hatch track and will be doing his best to add to his victory total as the WSBK championship reaches moves into the final part of the season.

“The Brands Hatch race is important because I have to start to get some more good results for the championship and try to win there” declared Laconi. “I’m not really worried about the situation because we are doing a good job with the team and working very hard to see what we can do now and for the rest of the season.

“At Brands I like the right corner after the back straight, Hawthorn Bend. It’s very fast, you arrive and brake there and you need a lot of courage for that corner. For me the most difficult part is the chicane, Dingle Dell. Even though it has changed a bit, it’s still difficult to see exactly where to go.

“Now there are three of us fighting hard for the championship. It’s very important to concentrate on the last four races but I am ready physically and mentally. I know I have to be at 100% because for sure I have to win,” he concluded.

POINTS (after 7 of 11 rounds): (Riders) 1. Toseland 201; 2. Laconi 198; 3. Vermeulen 187; 4. Haga 162 ; 5. Chili 160 ; 6. McCoy 146; etc.

(Manufacturers) 1. Ducati 335; 2. Honda 194; 3. Petronas 134; 4. Kawasaki 91; 5. Suzuki 72; 6. Yamaha 39.

CIRCUIT INFO:
Name: Brands Hatch.
Length: 4.197 km.
Pole Position: Left.
Corners Left/Right: 3/6.
Finish Line Length: 380 m.

STATISTICS (modified track):
Best lap: Byrne (Ducati), 1:26.248 (2003).
Lap record: Byrne (Ducati), 1:26.755 (2003). Superpole: Reynolds (Suzuki), 1:35.706 (2003). Race Distance: 2 x 25 laps/104.925 km.

2003 RESULTS:
Race 1: 1. Byrne (Ducati); 2. Hodgson (Ducati); 3. Walker (Ducati).
Race 2: 1. Byrne; 2. Reynolds (Suzuki); 3. Toseland (Ducati).

From a press release issued by Foggy Petronas Racing:

Foggy hopes for best of British for FPR

Carl Fogarty is hoping for the best of British luck for his Foggy PETRONAS Racing team when the Superbike World Championship returns to home shores this weekend at Brands Hatch, Great Britain.

Riders Troy Corser and home favourite Chris Walker will be aiming to repeat the encouraging results of the first half of the season at round seven, following a mid-season spell plagued by inconsistency.

But, with both riders back to full fitness and having had further chance to make progress with recent engine developments, Foggy is confident of an upturn in fortunes and a reversal of his team’s poor showing on home soil.

Carl, who won three WSBK races at Brands, said: “Our three British rounds so far have been nothing short of disastrous. The riders will say its worse for them, but I need good results more than anyone this weekend! I am used to success and I become frustrated when things are not going our way. But all I can ask is that everyone is giving 100 percent and I know that is happening. The PETRONAS engine development team have been working day and night to solve any problems that they inherited and make the engine stronger as well as faster. I know there is a lot more to come from this engine.

“When you look at the characteristics of the circuit our bike should be as strong at Brands as anywhere. It is definitely a rider’s circuit – a big balls kind of track! With a good set-up and good tyre choice, you can be down on speed but still quicker around a lap. The slowest part is Druids but that is a smooth corner where you have to be a bit careful on the throttle and the drive out is downhill. That’s very different to the slowest corner at Laguna, onto the start-finish straight, where we struggled at the last round.

“This was always a special event for me when I was racing. It started to grow around 1995 and by 1999 was the biggest single-day sporting attendance in Great Britain. It felt like I was coming home to all my fans and I really hope we can give those supporters something to cheer this weekend. Being the home round for the British riders like Chris can sometimes be a disadvantage as you can perhaps try too hard. But he desperately wants and needs a good showing here and hopefully he can enjoy some good luck, which has deserted him in previous rounds. It was never my favourite circuit to ride but Troy has won there twice and been on pole once, so I am hopeful both riders can be back in the top six.”

Carl was also keen to clarify recent press reports of a proposed switch to MotoGP. He said: “This has not been discussed with anyone. We have two more years of a deal with PETRONAS to run a World Superbike team. As long as PETRONAS are happy in World Superbikes, then so are we. Once that deal is over we will examine our options. I guess this kind of rumour is bound to surface simply because I went to the British Grand Prix on Friday.”


Circuit information: Brands Hatch, Great Britain

Best lap (revised circuit): Shane Byrne 1:26.248 (2003)
Lap record (race): Shane Byrne 1:26.755 (2003)
Superpole: John Reynolds 1:35.706 (2003)
Pole position: Left
Circuit length: 4.221km
Corners: 3 left, 6 right
Corner radius: 180 degree maximum, 40 degree minimum

Points (after 7 of 11 rounds)

Riders: 1 Toseland 204; 2 Laconi 198; 3 Vermeulen 187; 4 Haga 162; 5 Chili 160; 6 McCoy 146; 7 Haslam 120; 8 Martin 119; 9 Corser (Foggy PETRONAS Racing) 101; 10 Borciani 94; 11 Walker (Foggy PETRONAS Racing) 82

Manufacturers: 1 Ducati 335; 2 Honda 194; 3 PETRONAS 134; 4 Kawasaki 91; 5 Suzuki 72; 6 Yamaha 39

From a press release issued by CRA:


Top 10 Experts
(as of July 26, 2004)
1st Wes Good 706
2nd Boyd Whiteoak 492
3rd Adam Dolney 396
4th Michael Sundstrom 373
5th Jesse Pruse 373
6th Willie Broten 307
7th Robert Jensen 304
8th Joseph Gill 281
9th Mark Sorensen 276
10th Jessica Zalusky 267


Top 10 Novices
(as of July 26, 2004)
1st Igor Frolov 603
2nd Joseph Jennings 496
3rd Stephen Ackermann 454
4th Brian Bornhorst 407
5th Anthony Gallagher 329
6th Jace Porter 297
7th Karl Rehpohl 295
8th Michael Mahe 230
9th Derek Marcks 186
10th Michael Williams 183

From a press release issued by Max McAllister of Traxxion Dynamics:

Traxxion Promotes From Within

We are pleased to announce that Mike Hardy has been promoted to Sales Manager at Traxxion Dynamics, Inc. Mike started with our company a year ago, and has proven himself to be invaluable to helping our customers meet their needs, and we look forward to him realizing his greater potential at our company in the future.

Anyone who has dealt with Mike knows how valuable he is to our success. He can be reached via e-mail: [email protected]

Copyright 2004, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

David Smith, 22, of Barrington Hills, Illinois, died Sunday, July 25, from injuries sustained when he collided with a deer while racing in a World Karting Association (WKA) 125cc shifter kart event July 24 at Summit Point Raceway, located in rural Summit Point, West Virginia, according to a posting on the official WKA website.

Confirming the incident to Roadracingworld.com, Summit Point Raceway owner Bill Scott said it was the second collision that he knew of between a deer and a vehicle at speed on the racetrack in the last 25 years. The other collision, according to Scott, was between a deer and a Porsche.

“We went to the game warden, and they gave us permission to shoot (the deer), as if it were an airport,” said Scott. “We did that for a while, but there’s just so many of them. We’re gonna have to figure out some way to identify that deer are in the place. They usually don’t come from the outside during an event. They come from inside the track. We’ll have to scout the woods before an event or everyday or something.

“It’s a tough one. I don’t know what to do about it. You put up Airfence to keep guys OK, but you could hit a rabbit and die. I’m a racer. I come from that background. So we try to make the place better and safer every year. You’re not looking at an owner who tries to side-step problems, but this one is very difficult.

“We know the problem exists, and we’ll do whatever it takes to not let this happen again.”

From a press release issued by FGSport Group:

Yamaha GMT94 Stretch Championship Lead

Following the Suzuka 8 Hours round of the World Endurance Championship, Yamaha GMT94 have extended their lead over Suzuki Castrol to fourteen points. The French Yamaha team made the most of their visit to Japan with a third-in-class result, while Suzuki Castrol’s second hour crash cost them dearly; they had finished ahead of GMT94 in all but one of the timed sessions until then and would have expected to do the same in the race.

Yamaha Austria used their good Suzuka result to close to within five points of Yamaha Endurance Moto 38 in third place in the championship standings, with the head of the table only a good result away. The Austrians have finished in fourth place in the points at the last two rounds, and will be looking to build on that success. Yamaha Phase One Endurance also benefited from their trip to Suzuka, moving from the lower reaches of the table to within site of the top ten, and perhaps more importantly raising the team’s morale after a disappointing start to the season.

Seventy Five Points Still Available

With fifty points available to the winner at the next round of the championship – the Oschersleben 24 hours – and twenty five more points to be won at the Vallelunga 200, the championship looks unlikely to be settled before the final round in October. While nine teams have a mathematical chance of winning the championship, it looks set to go down to the wire between Yamaha GMT94 and Suzuki Castrol, with Yamaha Endurance Moto 38 and Yamaha Austria pushing them all the way.

Current World Endurance Championship Point Standings:

1. 94, Yamaha GMT 94, FRA, Yamaha YZF-R1, 99 points
2. 3, Suzuki Castrol Team, FRA, Suzuki GSX-R1000, 85 points
3. 38, Yamaha Endurance Moto 38, FRA, Yamaha YZF-R1, 56 points
4. 7, Yamaha Austria Racing Team, AUT, Yamaha YZF-R1, 51 points
5. 7, Seven Stars Honda, JPN, Honda CBR1000RRW, 38 points
6. 12, Yoshimura Suzuki Jomo Srixon, JPN, Suzuki GSX-R1000, 30 points
7. 8, Kawasaki Bolliger, SUI, Kawasaki ZX-10R, 30 points
8. 4, Suzuki Jet Team, SUI, Suzuki GSX-R1000, 30 points
9. 5, WRT-Honda Austria, AUT, Honda CBR1000RR, 28 points
10. 6, Shell Endurance Academy, GBR, Suzuki GSX-R1000, 23 points
11. 1, Yamaha Phase One Endurance, GBR, Yamaha YZF-R1, 22 points