From a press release:

One Shot Racing To Host Charity Event For Aunt Hattie’s Place at Summit Point Raceway rescheduled for Nation’s only All African-American Motorcycle Racing Team to support
Baltimore Youth Facility with “Day at the Races”

WHO: One Shot Racing (OSR) and Aunt Hattie’s Place (www.oneshotracing.com)

WHAT: “Day at the Races” tour, instructional and safety demonstrations, photographs on track

WHEN: Sunday, June 13, 2004, from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

WHERE: Summit Point Raceway, Charles Town, WV (www.summitpoint-raceway.com)

WASHINGTON, D.C. – One Shot Racing (OSR), a pioneering all-African-American Professional Motorcycle Racing team, will host a “Day at the Races” with Aunt Hattie’s Place at Summit Point Raceway in Charles Town, WV on Sunday, June 13, 2004, at 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. The original May 2 date was postponed due to weather.

Launched in 1995, Aunt Hattie’s Place is a residential care facility for young boys, ages 9-18, who have special educational needs and are in foster care. Wrap around services reflect a holistic approach to care. Social work intervention is integrated with other services in response to the physical, social, educational, spiritual and emotional needs of the children. The facility is directed by Sarsfield S. Williams.

Activities at the raceway include: Tour of the racing facility, race track and pit areas, introduction to OSR racers and other competing race teams, education on motorcycle safety and the sport, assistance in timing of racers and other team related duties, participation in a “fantasy” race game and photographs of the kids on team race bikes.

“OSR is excited about the chance to provide a new experience for the children of Aunt Hattie’s Place,” said Jeff Coles, OSR’s President and CEO. “Racing is an exciting and rewarding sport that can provide many possible career opportunities. These kids will be able to experience this excitement – up close and personal. I know it will leave a lasting positive impression on their young minds.”

OSR began the 2004 season by receiving the “AFDIM Award” and “Horizon Award” during the 3rd Annual Awards Celebration Honoring Diversity in Motorsports on February 21. The AFDIM Award is presented to groups or organizations that educate African-Americans and other communities about the industry. The Horizon Award is presented to minority competitors showing great promise in motorsports. The Association for Diversity in Motorsports (AFDIM), Winston-Salem State University, Urban Sports Entertainment and NASCAR have partnered to produce this
event.

OSR BACKGROUND:

Based just outside Washington, D.C., in Bowie, MD, these pioneers are currently the first and only African-American owned, staffed and sponsored race team in the American Motorcycle Association (AMA). OSR will look to compete in nearly a dozen races this season, in three different race leagues and travel over 4,000 miles with two fiercely competitive riders poised for success on the track after qualifying for the American Motorcycle Association (AMA) Championship Race Series in 2003.

Business leader of this groundbreaking team is Jeffrey Coles, President and Chief Executive Officer of One Shot Racing. Coles, who earned his BA in Architecture from Howard University and MBA from American University, provides strategic planning for OSR’s future. Completing the visionary business team is Chairman and Chief Operating Officer Rudy Blyden, a television editor and graduate of Morgan State University, who partners with Coles, provided the initial inspiration behind this effort.

The riders on the motorcycles are two Washington, D.C. metropolitan area athletes.

William “Storyteller” Johnson, 31, of Fort Washington, MD, is the former 2001 WERA Heavyweight Twins Champion. A prolific personal writer, thus the nickname, Johnson races two Suzuki GSX-R 600’s and competes in the 600cc Supersport and Formula Extreme classes.

Adrian “Buzzoman” Jones, 26, of Upper Marlboro, MD, made his mark as a rookie 2002 WERA 750cc Superbike Champion. An information technology professional, Jones, races two Suzuki GSX-R 600’s and like his teammate competes in the 600cc Supersport and Formula Extreme classes.

OSR is a private entity launched in 2003 with no corporate backing, an amazing feat in today’s racing market. Sponsorship development is now in full-gear with the original backers coming from the Super Bike industry. “The fact that we made it to the AMA without corporate backing lets those potential sponsors know just how passionate we are about this sport ” Coles said.

SPEED Channel (www.speedtv.com), the leading racing cable channel in the U.S. reaching over 70 million homes, will broadcast all of the races OSR will compete in. Off the track, an important cultural and socio-economic component of OSR is their target approach for style and apparel for the Urban demographic, lead by Miline Leather (www.milineusa.com).

Copyright 2004, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

A funeral will be held tomorrow for Susan Murphy, who drowned while swimming in a Nebraska lake on Memorial Day.

She is the wife of Laguna Seca World Superbike/AMA Superbike race promoter Dan Murphy.

Funeral services will be held at Butherus Love Funeral Home, 4040 A Steet, Lincoln, NE 68510, (402) 488-0934, at 3:00 p.m.

Memorial donations can be made to the Susan Murphy Outreach Fund, c/o S. Freimuth, Colorado Business Bank, P.O. Box 8779, Denver CO 80201.

From a press release:

Monona, Wisconsin-based Team MS announces the kick-off of their new website. www.teamms.org

*The site is designed to allow individuals and their families who suffer with Multiple Sclerosis the research and information they can use when dealing with this disease.

* Theweb site also shows people how they can help in the fight against MS. Team MS is open to all individuals who compete in any endeavor. Be it running, bicycling, motorcycle racing or even walking around the block.

* Team MS announces the kick off of the Sticker Awareness Campaign. In an effort to increase awareness, people can request a Team MS sticker that can be placed on a window; helmet or anywhere people might notice. It is a small but effective way to let people know that a cure for MS needs to be found. Stickers can be requested at no charge on the team website.

For information about Team MS, contact:
Jim Haraughty
AMRMA #258, WERA #158
[email protected]

From a press release issued by Pirelli’s advertising and public relations agency, Plummer Menapace:

PIRELLI PREVIEWS THE ISLE OF MAN

History Past: The Origins Of The TT; History Present: Pirelli’s Domination Of Recent TTs

HISTORY PAST – THE BEGINNING: The Isle of Man. Just the mention of the words brings images of what is arguably the world’s most popular road race, with a history harkening back to the days when all road races were run on public roads, to the days of leather helmets, ribbed tires, megaphone exhausts. And iron men. The days before the corporate sanitation – and safety – of closed-course, purpose-built race tracks. A time when the “corner workers” were miners and farmers, and then boy scouts. An event that, except for a few notable exceptions like Joey Dunlop, Mike Hailwood, Steve Hislop, and most recently, David Jeffries, is run by racers whose names most Americans aren’t familiar with. An event we’re drawn to because of its uniqueness, its setting, its heritage. Its danger. The danger that has cost the lives of more than a few racers, including, most recently, Jeffries, the newest TT hero and multi-record holder who died tragically in practice for the 2003 event. An event that spawned a bike name as famous as the place itself, the famed Norton “Manx”, the 500cc thumper named after the island’s inhabitants and their particular dialect of the Gaelic (Celtic) language, now largely extinct, called Manx.

Pretty impressive stuff for a small island just 33 miles long tip to tip, in the middle of the Irish Sea, surrounded by England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.

The Isle of Man motorcycle races began as an offshoot of the automobile racing that had moved to the island because the British Parliament had prohibited racing on that country’s roads. It began when a venue was needed so the fledgling British automobile industry and its enthusiasts could have roads for the development of the English machines to hold trials to contest the annual international race between nations that had begun in 1900, created, oddly enough, by an American named James Gordon Bennett.

In 1904, the King of England gave his consent for the Isle of Man to hold automobile racing on its public roads after a proposition put forth by the Isle’s governing body. A year later, the idea was put forth that the maybe the Isle of Man would also be a great place to test and further the development of motorcycles because, although the first commercially viable British motorcycle first appeared in 1901, motorcycles were already outselling cars by 1902.

The bike companies wasted no time taking advantage of their new-found opportunity. England immediately challenged France to a “motor-cycle” race, and the first bike trials on the Isle of Man occurred in the first year of their approval, 1905, to choose the best British team to face the French. The date chosen was May 31.

1905 also saw the addition of the first “all-British” race to be run along with the international Gordon Bennett Trial, as it was known. Sir Julian Orde, the Englishman who had first brought the racing proposal to the Isle of Man’s governor, saw his new event as one for touring cars, with a new prize to be called the Tourist Trophy. And so began the Isle of Man “TT”.

The first motorcycle TT was held in 1907, with two classes that were determined by, of all things, fuel consumption. One class was for single-cylinder bikes that averaged 90 mpg, the other for multi-cylinder bikes that averaged 75 mpg. On May 28, 19 bikes lined up for the beginning of that first Isle of Man Motorcycle TT. The smart money was divided between the arch rivals Triumph and Matchless. A Matchless won the singles race; a Norton, the multi. That first year also included the first competitors from the Continent: two German NSUs.

A year later, 36 entrants lined up, Triumph beat Matchless, and a Belgian bike finished third. In 1909, another “foreign” bike finished second, just under four minutes behind the winner. It came from America. It was an Indian.
Also that year, the King decided he didn’t like car racing, and so the automobile TTs ended, leaving the Manx roads – and history – to motorcycles.

HISTORY PRESENT – PIRELLI’S DOMINATION OF THE LAST TWO TTs: As history has shown, the Isle of Man isn’t just about speed, but endurance as well, a real-world proving ground of what works and what doesn’t.

Last year, Pirelli riders won all six TTs they entered, captured 16 of the 18 podium positions, and took a staggering 54 of the 60 total Top-10 places available in those six TTs.

And Pirelli’s 2003 success came hot on the heels of its near record-breaking domination of the 2002 Isle of Man competition in which Pirelli-mounted riders not only won all six major TTs, but swept the podiums in all of them: the Senior TT, Formula 1 TT, 600cc Production TT, 1,000cc Production TT, 600cc Junior TT, and 400cc Lightweight TT. Pirelli racers also shattered no fewer than three IOM lap records in 2002: Jeffries, the then-reigning TT master, crushed his own Senior TT lap record by 21.6 seconds and his outright lap record by over 5 seconds. In the 600cc Production TT, Jeffries’ then-TAS Suzuki teammate, Ian Lougher set a new class lap record of 120.25 mph.

Looking forward to the beginning of the 2004 event beginning this weekend, June 5 and running through the 11th, Pirelli is again looking to turn fresh pages in the record books. Eddie Roberts, Pirelli’s International Race Manager, took a moment from his “manic” race schedule, to confirm that “all the top teams and riders” will again be present and racing on Pirelli’s latest generation of slicks and Supercorsa DOT radials. Among them are the TAS Suzuki team of Adrian Archibald, winner of last year’s Formula One and Senior TTs, and Bruce Anstey, who gave Triumph its first modern-era win in the 2003 Junior 600; IOM veteran Ian Lougher who took three seconds and a third last year in addition to two wins and three second places in ’02; Richard Britton, who finished second in last year’s Lightweight 400, and fourth in the Production 1000; John McGuinness, who combined a win in the 2003 Lightweight 400 with a second place in the Senior TT and a third in Formula One; and Jason Griffiths who had two fourth-place finishes – in Formula One and the Senior TT. “To name a few”, as Roberts put it.

It’s the Isle of Man. There’s nothing else like it.

From a press release issued by CCS Florida:

CCS Florida Region at Moroso Motorsports Park
May 31, 2004

Champion Racing Team’s Marco Martinez dominated the Memorial Day event at Moroso Motorsports Park, winning seven of the nine classes he entered. He began the day with a bit of a rough start, finishing third in the GTO and GTU races, but found his groove after the lunch break and finished first in all of his afternoon events.

Martinez was able to work his way quickly to the front and then open a gap on the rest of the field in most of his races. But he really had to battle the competition in the most exciting event of the day, the Unlimited Grand Prix race. Jim Pihokken had nabbed the holeshot with Scott Ritchey close behind in second place early in the race. Martinez was not far behind in third. By lap two, he had passed Ritchey and closed in on the leader. Martinez made the winning pass at the entrance to the turn three chicane in lap three. He maneuvered underneath Pihokken at the entrance to the turn and took over the lead. The rest of the race was a two-rider battle for the lead dominated by Martinez. Behind the leaders, Ritchey held fast to his third place position while his teammate, Ed Lis battle with Anthony Cabrera for fourth. In the white flag lap, Cabrera passed underneath Lis in turn two to take over fourth place. In a fight to the finish, Cabrera maintained his position through the checkered flag. Martinez’ lap times during the Shootout dropped to within a fraction of a second from the record had had previously set at Moroso.

On the podium, Martinez commented, “My hat’s off to Jim (Pihokken). He rode really hard. I didn’t think I had anything for him. I was so tired and my hands were hurting. I was cramping and trying to stay with him for the first two laps. And, I felt like, well, if I can hang with him, I can make a move. And then I stepped it up and I was able to get the lead. I don’t know how I pulled this one off. I was just about to be satisfied with third in the Shootout, but thank God, that I had a little bit of strength left and was able to win it.” He went on to praise his team and thanked all of his riders stating, “They did awesome this weekend. I’m really proud of them. And, my crew, Richard, everybody that comes to the track and helps me out. I couldn’t have done it without you guys.”

From a press release issued by Proforma:

MILLENNIUM TECHNOLOGIES SUZUKI READY FOR “LOCAL” RACE

Shawn Higbee, Danny Eslick and the Millennium Technologies Suzuki team head to round six of the AMA Chevrolet Superbike Championship this weekend, June 4-6, at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. For Shawn and the owners of title sponsor Millennium Technologies, it will be a short drive. Millennium Technologies is based in Plymouth, Wisconsin, just 15 minutes from the track. Shawn lives in Big Bend, Wisconsin, a little over an hour from Road America. The Suzuki bikes are tuned and maintained at KWS Motorsports in North Charleston, South Carolina, and will travel to Wisconsin while Danny Eslick will make the drive from Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, a suburb of Tulsa.

Shawn Higbee
While Shawn considers Road America his “home” track, it’s not a place that he gets to ride on a regular basis. “Like everyone else, I really like the track,” said Shawn, who finished seventh in both Superbike races in 2003, Saturday’s race in the dry and Sunday’s race in the rain. “If it rains, it’ll be to our advantage. I ran as high as fourth last year in the rain. Kevin (Hunt, team owner) and the boys are supposed to be building me a hotter motor, similar to what I ran last year, so that’ll help out a lot on the long straights. Up to now, we’ve been running a Superstock-legal motor.”

Danny Eslick
Danny turned 18 on May 29th, and rode at the Springfield TT for a bit of fun on his birthday weekend. “I rode my own DR-Z400 at Springfield, it’s just a stocker,” said Danny, who missed making the show by one position in his scratch semi. “My buddy John Haner showed up with his Hooters mechanic Mike Goden. Mike helped me out a lot, it was good to work with him. There were over 90 guys there trying to make the main, so I didn’t feel too bad about not making it on a stock bike.” This will be Danny’s first trip to Road America’s four-mile road course. “I’m lucky that there’s promoter practice on Thursday, so I’ll be able to learn the track,” Danny said. “But with lap times so long, I won’t get as many laps as I would at a shorter track, so I’m gonna have to make the most of it. I’ll be okay.”



More, from another press release issued by Proforma:

HAS/RACING HEADS TO THE LAND OF CHEESE

The HAS/Shogun Racing team heads to Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin for round six of the AMA Chevrolet Superbike Championship this weekend, June 4-6. Team rider Heath Small is healthy and ready to ride after mishaps earlier in the season saw him riding injured at certain rounds.

“I’m in shape and ready to go,” said Heath, who spent the Memorial Day weekend grading a practice dirt track on property behind the team’s race shop in Waller, Texas. “I got fifth at Road America in 2002 in Pro Thunder on the (Ducati) 748. I wasn’t able to go last year because of my hand injury at Pikes, so I’m looking forward to this year because I like the track.” Heath will again be racing in both the Pro Honda Oils Supersport and Lockhart Phillips USA Formula Xtreme classes at the four-mile Wisconsin track. With more power, better chassis components and a better selection of Pirelli tires for the 16.5″ wheels, Heath is anticipating good results on the team’s Yamaha R6-based Formula Xtreme machine. “The Xtreme bike will be a lot of fun,” Heath commented. “It’s not dramatically faster (than the Supersport bike), it just does everything a little bit better.”

From a press release:

Denver, CO – A fundraising event of unprecedented proportion is taking place in late June, 2004 at Second Creek Raceway in Denver, CO. This event will showcase a week-long motorcycle endurance race to raise money for children’s charities, by completing as many miles as possible on a closed-circuit road racing course.

Local and national motorcycle racers will ride from sunup to sundown from June 21 through 25. It is estimated that as many as one hundred racers will log nearly twenty thousand miles during the week. The event will then continue with a full weekend of AMA sanctioned sprint racing June 26 and 27, with the Motorcycle Roadracing Association (MRA). Over four thousand additional miles are anticipated to be pledged by the MRA racers during these two days.

Over one hundred people will also volunteer their time that week to provide the event staff necessary to maintain a continuous, safe race environment. The majority of these volunteers will come from the Colorado Sportbike Club, however anyone is welcome to donate their time.

This event has also attracted local and national media attention, with radio and television coverage already taking place. Due to the expected attention an event such as this will gather, sponsors and contributors will receive name exposure wherever possible. In addition to local media coverage, active promotion is taking place on Speed Channel and KBPI Radio.

Full details on the timeline and other information pertaining to the Racing 2 Save Lives event can be located on the organization’s website, or you may call Tony Baker or Ralph Forsythe to learn more.

For information: http://www.racing2savelives.org
Contact: [email protected]
Phone: Tony Baker at 303-680-7024, or Ralph Forsythe at 303-907-7499

From a press release issued by Telefonica Movistar Honda/Gresini Racing:

GP OF ITALY – ROUND 4

PREVIEW

It is the Mugello circuit which will welcome the fourth race of the 2004 Championship.
The Italian GP will be particularly difficult for the riders of the Team Telefonica MoviStar Honda MotoGP. The Italian riders in fact, sustained by their own public, will be for sure racing with extra motivation. Nevertheless, the Team “azul” accepts this challenge and will present itself during this home GP with the same motivation and concentration as the other Grand Prix with the goal of winning.

Sete Gibernau needs to defend his position as leader of the MotoGP championship on this Tuscan track which generally favors the Italian riders (in 2003 an all Italian podium with Rossi, Capirossi and Biaggi). Sete Gibernau will not disappoint, a rider who is loved by the Italians and who rides for an Italian team, and even he is considered a favorite here in Italy, favorite enough that the

Press considers him as the fifth Italian rider of the MotoGP.

#15 SETE GIBERNAU

“It is too early to think about the Championship. I will race this Italian GP with the same commitment and concentration of the past races. I still believe we have a lot of work to do. For sure it will be a difficult race as the Italian riders will be in front of their public, therefore they will have an extra gear as to be even more motivated that usual.

Plus Mugello isn’t exactly a circuit I particularly like. Last year on this track we had the worst result of the season, but for sure I will be racing to win. I have lots of Italian fans and it would be a fantastic gift for my Italian mechanics and for my Team.”




#45 COLIN EDWARDS

The Texan of the Team Telefonica MoviStar Honda MotoGP arrives to the Mugello extremely motivated. ” For many, my race in Le Mans went well, but not for me, I think it was a disaster. This isn’t my potential, I am used to being up fron! t and fighting for the podium.”

The Team believes in his riding skills even though during the races he still hasn’t shown his full potential. After the French GP the Team stopped in Michelin’s own home track of Claremont Ferrand for a two day test. These two days have proven to be fundamental for a better set up of the RC211V, in particular to study two problems the bike has: the jumping it tends to show while entering a corner and the tendency to wheelie while accelerating.

“After the test in Claremont Ferrand my feeling with the bike is much better, we had problems with the front wheel whenever the air temperature rose and it tended to wheelie excessively. We changed the forks and we resolved these problems. Now I can’t wait to go to Mugello.”

The Italians are given as favored but there won’t only be Rossi and Biaggi, Sete and I will be up there to fight also. Mugello is a special track, full of history, I like the atmosphere.”

From a press release issued by Kawasaki Motors Corp. U.S.A.:

RECENT REORGANIZATION AT KAWASAKI MOTORS CORP., U.S.A.BRINGS SALES AND MARKETING FUNCTIONS CLOSER TOGETHER

Part of company’s approach to increasing efficiency and improvingcoordination of operational activities

IRVINE, Calif. (June 1, 2004)—The reorganization at Kawasaki Motors Corp., U.S.A. (KMC), effective May 10, is intended to increase overall efficiencies and productivity within the various operational groups that have helped the company grow so markedly over the past decade. Among the changes taking place at KMC are the integration of functions that have a synergistic relationship—such as marketing and sales.

KMC’s president, Steve Hamada, stressed the need for shortening the lines of communication within the company, supporting management desires to remain responsive to dealers and consumers. Bringing together the marketing and sales operations under Tom Orbe, who moved from vice president, marketing to vice president, sales and marketing serves that need, “both for short and long-term KMC growth plans,” according to Hamada.

To further position KMC for competitive activity, Orbe is taking advantage of the talents offered by four key management individuals. Tony Murr, who had been vice president, sales, moves over to become vice president, marketing. “Tony’s involvement in marketing and communications will provide our internal staff and agencies with a clear view of the current situation at the dealership level and will prepare us to be very responsive to immediate retail needs,” said Orbe.
Rodger Howe, who had been director, communications, becomes director, national sales. “Rodger’s recent responsibilities in guiding the company’s communications efforts, coupled with his extensive field sales experience, will certainly give him the ability to address our needs in the sales arena,” said Orbe. Howe will be assisting Orbe, who also holds the title of vice president, sales.

Jim Weston, formerly west region sales manager, moves into the newly created position of director, sales planning and inventory management. Integrating sales & program planning, dealer order planning and vehicle/import planning, Weston will direct his field sales experience at optimizing KMC’s supply chain to support dealer needs.

Patrick Kelly, previously director, product management becomes director, product planning and research. Leading the combined activities of product management, accessory product development and marketing research, Kelly will be focused on enhancing future product development.

“The more effective we become at increasing management sensitivity to all areas of the company’s operations, the better positioned KMC will be moving forward,” according to Hamada. He indicated that Murr’s and Weston’s extensive sales experience, Kelly’s deep product management capability, along with Orbe’s and Howe’s marketing expertise, would bring fresh thinking and new dimensions to their realigned roles.
This blending of the sales and marketing activities compliments the overall approach Hamada outlined when announcing the reorganization earlier this month. Combined with the consolidation of several product-related functions into a product operations group under Dave Dora, vice president, product operations, KMC is “ideally positioned for efficiency and profitability,” said Hamada.

Kawasaki Motors Corp., U.S.A. markets and sells at wholesale Kawasaki motorcycles, ATVs, personal watercraft, utility vehicles, power products and general-purpose engines. These product lines are sold through a network of more that 1,500 independent retailers. KMC and its affiliates employ nearly 2,400 people in the United States, with approximately 400 of them located at the Irvine, California headquarters.

Kawasaki’s tagline, “Let the good times roll.™”, is recognized worldwide and the brand is aggressively carrying its heritage of power, performance, leading-edge design and exhilaration into the 21st century. Information about Kawasaki’s complete line of recreational products and Kawasaki affiliates can be found on the Internet at www.kawasaki.com.

From a press release issued by Honda Racing:

Max Biaggi aiming for top step on Mugello podium

The magnificent 5.24km Mugello circuit, in Toscana Northern Italy, plays host to the Italian Grand Prix on the weekend of June 4-6. Toscana so popular with Italians and tourists alike for the peace and tranquility of its rolling hills and long winding valleys will show its other face when the MotoGP circus arrives for the weekend. The race is bound to attract spectators in their scores of thousands to watch their hero’s battle it out in round four of the 16 round MotoGP word championship.

Mugello brings out the very best in all GP riders, a superb mixture of tight slow corners, fast sweeping curves and a long front straight form the perfect package that almost guarantees close high-speed racing. The stars of MotoGP are household names in Europe, Rossi, Biaggi, Capirossi and Gibernau chief among them and few will look beyond the four for a likely winner at Mugello.

Sete Gibernau, Telefonica MoviStar Honda, leads the series by virtue of two brilliant victories and a third place but the majority of the expected crowd of 75,000 will be cheering for one or other of the three Italians.

Of the three only Max Biaggi has yet to win his home GP. The Roman Emperor as he is known to his legion of fans, goes into Mugello with his best chance ever of securing the one race win he most wishes to have on his CV. He sits in second place in the championship ten points behind Gibernau having taken podium places in each of the three previous grands prix.

Biaggi won three consecutive 250cc grands prix at Mugello, but the big prize has eluded him. Max has raced in the leading group in MotoGP races at Mugello on several visits but a second place and two third place finishes from his last three appearances at Mugello have left him more determined than ever to win this time round.

The Camel Honda rider said of Mugello. “Of course Mugello is very special to me. First of all I love the track. Even if it was not my home grand prix I would love it, the layout is one of the best on the calendar…the long fast main straight, corners such as ‘Bucine,’ the section from which leads from ‘Casanova Savelli,’ to the two ‘Arrabiatta’ are poetry for the riders. And I also like the downhills so much; they give you a real thrill when you ride. Last but not least there are the fans, they really make you feel supported, they push you to give your best. With four Italians riders in MotoGP, with Ducati in search of revenge, and all the other riders keen to show they can also run at the front I can predict a new record number of spectators at the track.”

Biaggi refuses to be drawn into pre-race predictions but following the successful Camel Honda post race test at Le Mans the Italian was in buoyant mood on return to his home in Monaco.

“I prefer to approach this race as any other race. I feel in good shape, the bike is performing very well indeed so far, even with a few problems at Le Mans we got on the podium. I’m second in the championship. It’s only the fourth race; it’s not a case to make too much strategy. We did some good set up tests at Le Mans and we’ll see if they also prove useful for Mugello. Anyway, things have not been so bad so far, have they?” Said a very relaxed Biaggi.

Biaggi is not one for TV and lazy down time between races. In his free time since Le Mans Max has been actively supporting his favourite charities and was also a guest of the Renault team at Monte Carlo to watch his friend Jarno Trulli take pole position then go on to win the Monaco Grand Prix.

“Mama mia, no I don’t watch too much TV especially reality shows such as Grande Fratello (Big brother) I prefer to live my day rather than watch others doing it. It’s like a transfer, like switching on the TV and switching off yourself.” He said. “No, I like to follow he news, the sports programmes and a good movie. I like a lot of action movies. ”

Biaggi a passionate soccer fan has dedicated a lot of his free time to charity work over the years and is deeply involved in work for Solidarity. “It’s ten years already that I’ve been playing in the F1 soccer team for Solidarity. The idea appealed to me immediately because of its total transparency and immediacy, given that it wasn’t the normal way of doing things. It was more of an impersonal way to do something for good causes, but it required a direct and long-term involvement, and the results were there to see. They were tangible and concrete, and at the end of every evening you knew that a certain amount would be passed on to various charities. Also it involved my second greatest passion after motorcycles, soccer. We had a match on the Tuesday before Monaco F1 GP and it was a good way to relieve the tension of the Le Mans race. On Saturday I went to visit the F1 paddock and was happy watching Jarno getting his first pole from his pit garage. He made a perfect lap on Saturday and a perfect race on Sunday. In the paddock I met an idol of mine, Emerson, who plays for AS Roma, my favourite soccer team.”

His record of 41 GP wins, 55 pole positions and 101 podium places speaks volumes, Max has the ability and the equipment to achieve his goals at Mugello next Sunday. The Camel Honda team is working well, his confidence is high, and he will not lack support from his legion of very vocal fans, the rest lays in his hands.