From a press release issued by HM Plant Ducati:
Superbike World Championship
Round eight: Laguna Seca, USA
Wednesday 9 July 2003
Event preview
Going to California
Round eight of the Superbike World Championship takes place at the picturesque and challenging Laguna Seca circuit. The undulating 3.6km track nestles between cool Pacific Ocean and burning Californian desert and is a firm favourite with riders and fans alike. The HM Plant Ducati pairing of James Toseland and Chris Walker are no exception and the British riders are hopeful of making this trip to America one to remember.
Toseland is crossing the Atlantic full of confidence. The only blot on his season so far has come by way of two unfortunate, ultimately unavoidable DNFs. Other than that, the 22-year-old Yorkshireman has proved himself to be one of the major players in the 2003 Superbike World Championship. Currently ranked third in the points table, Toseland has his sights set firmly on the podium and is hoping to give countryman, former team-mate and current championship leader, Fila Ducati’s Neil Hodgson a run for his money at Laguna Seca.
“Things have been coming together pretty well so far this year,” said Toseland. “The only real problems I’ve had were down to freak occurrences, like when my fairing came off at Phillip Island and when a fuel line split in Misano. Hopefully that’s all my bad luck out of the way now and I can stay consistent for the rest of the season.
“I really like going to Laguna Seca. Monteray – the surrounding area – is beautiful and it’s a great place to train and chill out. I love the circuit and have always enjoyed riding there, even if I haven’t had the best results. The team has got the HM Plant Ducatis working perfectly and I’m fully recovered from that big crash in qualifying at Misano, so I’m confident of a good result this weekend.”
Toseland’s team-mate Chris Walker is also hoping that he has used up his quota of misfortune for this season. He is rapidly regaining full fitness after a series of debilitating injuries added to the pressures of his debut season on the factory-supplied HM Plant Ducatis and he is aiming to get back to the sort of form that has twice put him on the podium. The man known as the Stalker is expecting to raise the stakes once more this weekend.
“Laguna is a wicked circuit and I can’t wait to get stuck in,” said Walker. “Last year I struggled to acclimatise but this year I have track knowledge and a far more competitive machine. The team has some good settings for the HM Plant Ducati and Neil [Hodgson] always went well there so I’m feeling very positive. It’ll be good to race against the wild card riders on factory Suzukis and I’m desperate for a good result so that I’m ready for the big one at Brands.”
More, from a press release by Michelin:
Hodgson and Xaus lead the championship
Neil Hodgson (Ducati Fila-Michelin) comes to Laguna Seca with 315 world championship points. His team-mate Ruben Xaus (Ducati Fila-Michelin) is second in the standings on 208 points. The Spaniard won both races at the last round, in Misano, and took the championship runner-up spot from James Toseland, now third on 185 points. “It’s a great result for Ducati ” said Ducati Corse Managing Director Claudio Domenicali after Misano. “Ducati wishes to thank its technical partners, including Michelin and Shell, for their excellent support. On the track, our two riders did the rest”.
Hodgson was 2nd in race two and left Misano disappointed but determined as ever. “I feel frustrated not to have won but I know I gave my best out there,” he said. “Finishing second only motivates me to train harder and go faster.”
Troy Corser (Foggy Petronas Racing-Michelin) gave his team something to smile about at Misano with two encouraging races. “Troy has promised us he will win races on the FP1 if we can find him some extra power,” said team boss Nigel Bosworth. “We feel like we are fighting again and hopefully we can maintain this progress for the rest of the season.”
Since the start of the world Superbike championship in 1988, Michelin riders have won 261 races out of 377 and taken 11 out of 15 world titles. Michelin won 25 races out of 26 in 2002 and 13 out of 14 races this year.
American riders and Michelin: a long-lasting partnership.
Michelin has worked with many of the American greats:
1988: Fred Merkel (Honda Rumi-Michelin)
1997: John Kocinski (Castrol Honda-Michelin)
2000: Colin Edwards (Castrol Honda-Michelin)
2002: Colin Edwards (Castrol Honda-Michelin)
26,500 people work for Michelin North America in 23 plants and 19 distribution centres. Michelin NA headquarters are in Greenville, South Carolina .
Laguna Seca and tires
“Laguna is a hard place for us because we don’t go there very often,” says Nicolas Goubert, Michelin’s motorcycling competitions chief. “We haven’t been back there since last year’s 2002 world Superbike race.” For Michelin, part of the challenge at Laguna Seca is the local knowledge other manufacturers enjoy there and the number of riders using other brands of tires. Most of the top American Superbike teams use Dunlop products. Dunlop riders clock many more test miles in America than the Michelin men do and also have the advantage of racing at Laguna Seca during the American Superbike round held there. With a limited number of riders using Michelin tires in America, development is not as brisk as it could be.
Laguna Seca Raceway was built in 1957 by SCRAMP, acronym for the Sports Car Racing Association of the Monterey Peninsula. A very difficult circuit, this track is a real challenge for tire manufacturers. Laguna Seca has many types of corners, very slow ones like Turn 2, an 80 kph left hander, and much faster ones. The section after the infamous Corkscrew is special because it’s all downhill. Laguna Seca is a hilly circuit with a maximum downhill slope of 30%. In 1988, the length of the track was increased from 2,9 km to 3,6 km (1,9 miles to 2,2 miles) to ensure world championship homologation. Laguna Seca hosted GPs from 1988 to 1994 and has been a World Superbike venue since 1995.
Laguna Seca is in California, 185 km south of San Francisco and 480 km north of Los Angeles. It’s about 15 km east of Monterey, near Carmel and Pebble Beach.
Michelin brings a total of 500 tyres (340 rears and 160 fronts), wet and dry, for this race. Sizes are 19 / 67-420 (16,5 inch) for rear slicks, rain tyres and intermediates. Front tyre sizes are 12/60-420 (16.5 inch) tyres.
Michelin’s on-site personnel includes one team manager and two tyre fitters.
9th round of the Superbike World Championship: July 27th at Brands Hatch (United Kingdom)
More, from a press release issued by the SBK Press Office:
Sbk Heads Back to its Spiritual Home
The last long haul event inked on the 2003 World Superbike calendar will see global Superbike racing make its annual pilgrimage back to the USA, the place where the Superbike concept first came of age as a racing class in its own right.
Based more closely on the machines bought and ridden by performance oriented street riders than any other global racing class of the time, Superbike racing rapidly grew to eclipse all other forms of four-stroke competition in the late eighties and early nineties.
Now an established FIM World Championship class, and with 12 races on the calendar in 2003, World Superbike’s recent changes in regulation mean that it has aligned itself even more with the original mass produced streetbike ethos, with 1000cc four-cylinder machines now eligible for competition.
Laguna 2003 will host the first US based race held under the new SBK technical rules, and a clutch of local wild card riders will be on hand as usual to push the regular riders to the edge and beyond once more.
As has become a modern tradition, Laguna SBK weekend hosts individual rounds of the AMA Championship classes, on top of the usual pair of world races. This provides a popular weekend format for the local fans, who’ve been swarming to Laguna in record numbers for the last couple of seasons.
Part of the attraction of the Laguna weekend is the track itself and it close proximity to the seaside resorts of Monterey, Big Sur and Carmel. Laguna, nestling in a natural amphitheatre within a raised dry lake bed (hence the Spanish Laguna Seca) features a wondrous natural topography, making it one of the trickiest and most undulating circuit in world racing.
The jewel in Laguna’s glistering crown is without doubt the Corkscrew corner. Approached along the ridge of the lagoon wall, the corkscrew drops down a 30% slope to the left – in a sudden lunge from the apex to the exit – with the drop followed an unfeasibly short time later by a tight right at the base of the compression and then another, longer, downhill left. A real eye opener for Laguna novices, the Corkscrew is a must see for any spectator over the race weekend, not to mention a perennial test for riders at all levels of experience.
At 3.610km in length, Laguna is one of the shorter tracks on the SBK trail, with the race lap record of 1:24.888 making for an average lap speed of 153.096kmph.
One of Laguna’s biggest fans is Neil Hodgson (Ducati Fila 999 F03), and although without a win at the American venue quite yet, Hodgson has been a virtual victory machine all season. In the previous 14 races Hodgson has topped the podium no fewer than 11 times, taken two second places and has failed to score only once – thanks to a crash at the most recent event in Misano.
In the shadow of Hodgson for most of the year, Ruben Xaus (Ducati Fila 999 F03) came out to bask in his own glory at Misano, both barrels of his big Ducati blazing as he took his first ever SBK race winning double. Second overall in the championship, Xaus nonetheless has a 107-point deficit to make up to Hodgson.
Xaus himself is now 23 points clear of the only other rider to have won a race in the 2003 season, James Toseland (HM Plant Ducati 998 F02). Toseland’s excellent win at Oschersleben in race two of round five was his first ever triumph in SBK, proving that the 22-year-old lad from Sheffield, England is maturing into a real contender.
Regis Laconi (NCR Ducati 998RS) will be a genuine force to be reckoned with at Laguna, a circuit where good set-up and hard but smooth riding finds great reward. Laconi was a SBK race winner for his previous factory Aprilia team, and a man the factory riders have had reason to fear as a threat to their status this season.
SBK’s second factory status Spaniard Gregorio Lavilla (Alstare Suzuki GSX-R1000) has come close to securing the first win for the 1000cc fours on his big Suzuki, while a succession of injuries and bad luck has prevented the perennially popular Brit Chris Walker (HM Plant Ducati 998F02) from emulating his younger team-mate Toseland’s race winning performance.
Seventh in the title chase, with number seven on his PSG-1 Ducati 998 RS, is Pierfrancesco Chili, the championship’s oldest competitor, but still one of the best. A mixed bag of misfortunes has seen him score five DNFs thus far, counter-pointed by five podium slots, including a near win at Oschersleben.
The Foggy Petronas FP-1 three-cylinder machine has yet to come close to a win, for either Troy Corser or James Haydon, but both should be back in action at Laguna, with Haydon having recovered from his neck injury to a large degree. Having suffered some problems in the development path of their unique three-cylinder 900cc engine, more new parts are expected to be in place for Laguna.
Aussie Steve Martin (DFX Pirelli Ducati 998RS) heads up a swarm of rapid Ducati privateers including his team-mates Juan Borja and Marco Borciani. Lucio Pedercini on his self-entered machine is one of three riders in his eponymous team, Nello Russo and new rider Luca Pederzoli being the others.
Thanks to the presence of one of the big name wild cards, Eric Bostrom, Ivan Clementi and Mauro Sanchini (Bertocchi team) will no longer be the only riders still on 750cc Kawasakis. Bostrom, who currently leads the AMA standings, cannot use his regular overbored ZX-7RR and thus will use a 750cc version for the Laguna SBK race – as per FIM rules.
Bostrom will not be joined at Laguna by his brother Ben (a multiple SBK race winner) but will have three times AMA Superbike Champion Mat Mladin and his fellow Yoshimura Suzuki competitor Aaron Yates in attendance on GSX-R1000s. In a peculiar slip of fate, Giovanni Bussei will be racing at Laguna Seca after all, but not for his regular UnionBike Yamaha team. He will race in the wildcard colours of Ducati Austin, for whom he has been competing in the AMA Championship for the last couple of races.
There will be no World Supersport Championship race at Laguna Seca, but all classes return to the fray once more on July 27 at Brands Hatch.
More, from a press release issued by Foggy Petronas Racing:
Foggy PETRONAS Racing
Haydon back for Foggy PETRONAS Racing in USA
The Foggy PETRONAS Racing team is back at full strength with the return of James Haydon for the eighth round of the World Superbike championship at Laguna Seca, USA.
Having been ruled out of action on the FP1 – the Malaysian superbike – for the previous two rounds at Silverstone and Misano, Haydon returns to the track although he has not fully recovered from the neck injuries suffered in a crash in Germany last month.
And team owner, four-times World Superbike champion Carl Fogarty, hopes that Haydon will use the track time in order to build his confidence ahead of his home round of Brands Hatch in two weeks’ time.
Carl said: “This was always a bogey circuit for me and did not really suit my style of riding. I
always had to ride harder here than anywhere else to finish anywhere between second and seventh. But it might suit James’ riding style a bit more, as long as he is not handicapped by his injuries as it is a very physically demanding circuit.
“After things went better for us at Misano, something similar at Laguna would be fantastic and I am hoping that Troy will be in the top ten again, with James achieving two points finishes. My worry is that we might struggle accelerating out of the very slow final corner and down the startfinish straight.”
James said: “It’s coming on really well and the referred problems in my hands and feet have
calmed down. But I’m not 100 per cent fit and am still suffering from the problems caused by the
prolapsed disc. I am just hoping that it will not interfere with my riding as I am desperate to get
back in action.”
Both FPR riders have knowledge of the Laguna Seca circuit, set in the hills outside the coastal town of Monterey, California, which features the famous Corkscrew section, at a downhill gradient of 30 per cent. Troy set the fastest lap of his previous visit here, in 2001, with a time of
1:26.144. James’ only appearance here was in 1994, in the 250cc Grand Prix.
Team manager Nigel Bosworth said: “Since the last round at Misano we have made a modification to the fuel injection system, aimed at providing a better throttle response. The heat will be an issue again but we are in good hands with Troy here, as he has a very good history at Laguna.”
Circuit information: Laguna Seca, USA
Lap record: Troy Bayliss, 1:24.833 (Qualifying, 2002)
Fastest race lap: Colin Edwards, 1:24.888 (2002)
Fastest Superpole lap: Noriyuki Haga, 1:25.475 (2002)
Pole position: Right
Circuit length: 3.610km
Corners: 6 left, 4 right, plus Corkscrew
Corner radius: 158m maximum, 14m minimum
Maximum slope: 30% downwards
Race times: 2000 and 2330 hours, GMT.
