From a press release issued by Fuchs Kawasaki:


MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP 2003
19TH JUNE 2003 – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

YANAGAWA DETAINED IN HOSPITAL AFTER CATALUNYA CRASH

Fuchs Kawasaki wild card rider, Akira Yanagawa, will be detained in hospital in Spain until the weekend, after being diagnosed with two compressed vertebrae and ligament damage in his neck following his first lap crash in Sunday’s Grand Prix of Catalunya.

The Japanese rider, making his second wild card appearance of the season aboard the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-RR, was the unfortunate victim of a collision between his Fuchs Kawasaki team-mate, Andrew Pitt, and Proton Team KR rider, Jeremy McWilliams, just 30 seconds into Sunday’s race. While Pitt and McWilliams escaped injury in the incident, Yanagawa was transported to the local Granollers hospital after complaining of breathing difficulties on his arrival at the circuit medical centre. It was originally thought that he had fractured a number of ribs in the crash.

Following a thorough examination and a series of x-rays, doctors at the hospital confirmed that Yanagawa had sustained two compressed vertebrae and ligament damage to his neck in the first lap incident. The 32-year-old Fuchs Kawasaki rider will be detained in hospital until at least the weekend, but it is hoped that an immobilising corset currently being constructed by hospital staff will allow Yanagawa to fly home to Japan on Saturday.

A decision regarding Yanagawa’s planned wild card ride at this year’s British Grand Prix at Donington Park on July 13th will be made once the Fuchs Kawasaki rider has undergone a further medical examination on his return to his native Japan.



More, from a reader:

FIRST PERSON/OPINION

Via e-mail

Editor, Roadracingworld.com:

I read the press release regarding Yanagawa’s injuries sustained at the MotoGP race in Catalunya (6/19/03). I’m glad he is likely to survive with no permanent injuries.

However, Yanagawa’s acute, trackside treatment was distressing. As far as I could tell by watching SpeedTV, he was picked up, unconscious, and carried off the track as fast as possible. I saw him being bounced along, with his arm hanging off the stretcher. Hopefully, his fractures and ligament damage to his spine and neck were not aggravated by this added trauma.

This is no way to treat an unconscious trauma victim. It reminds me of the incident at Suzuka earlier this year in which a rider, Daijiro Kato, who had sustained extremely severe injuries to his cervical spine, was apparently thrown onto a stretcher and carried off. Despite considerable outcry, that incident has apparently failed to stimulate needed changes in acute trackside trauma care.

Thomas A. Warr, MD
Great Falls, Montana, USA

cc: ClinicaMobile.com


More, from another reader:

FIRST PERSON/OPINION

via e-mail

I have just learned that the Kawasaki rider who was injured in last Sunday’s Motogp race may have broken his back. I previously wrote to you regarding the sorry spectacle of the manner in which Kato was carted off the field. While I only saw a glimpse on last Sunday’s Speed presentation of the race, it appeared to me that the Kawasaki rider was being carted off in much the same manner, with one of his hands dragging the ground while the persons carrying the stretcher ran along, bouncing him every which way.
My prior e-mail was in response to a paramedic who complained of Kato’s treatment.

I will repeat its substance: One does not need to be a trained paramedic, nurse or doctor but only needs some common sense to recognize that someone who has taken a very rough fall, appears to be somewhat immobile and may have suffered some serious bodily injury, DOES NOT need to be tossed on a stretcher and hauled away. The rider needs to be properly immobilized with a proper exam by the appropriately trained person ascertaining the injuries. If that means stopping the race, then so be it. All anyone has to do is watch the Superbowl on television where they stop the big game when some player suffers some minute injury to his finger to realize that stopping a race where there may have been a far more serious injury that may easily be aggravated by movement is only common sense. Failing to do so reduces racing to an image it does not need.

Have these people not learned anything from Kato’s tragic accident? How many more must suffer before some change is instituted?

Lee Veness
Irving Texas

From a press release issued by Renegade Ducati:

BRITISH SUPERBIKE & SUPERSPORT CHAMPIONSHIPS 2003

19TH JUNE 2003 – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

TEAM RENEGADE DUCATI REV UP FOR THE OPENING OF TRAVELODGE LEEDS EAST

The pace is really hotting up for Travelodge, the UK’s number one choice in the lodge accommodation sector, with the opening of a new 60 bedroom lodge in Colton, Leeds East. To mark this winning occasion, the reigning British Superbike champions – Team Renegade Ducati – will ride into town on 24th June as guests of honour at the official opening, and local residents are invited to come along to join in the fun and meet the champs.

The new Travelodge, which recently opened its doors for business, is conveniently located just off the A36 Selby Road on Styal Hill Way, making it an ideal stop-off point for both business and leisure travellers. With rooms priced from £49.95, the new lodge offers all the benefits of Travelodge accommodation including en-suite rooms, King-size beds, tea and coffee making facilities, colour TV and a fast check-in, no check-out service.

The official opening ceremony will be under starter’s orders from midday on Tuesday 24th June and Ducati team members Michael Rutter, Sean Emmett, Nick Medd and Leon Haslam, will be on hand to meet guests and sign autographs.

The team, who are sponsored by Travelodge, will also be releasing 235 balloons to mark the opening of the Leeds East lodge, which is the 235th in the Travelodge network across the UK and Ireland. Each balloon will have a tag attached, which when returned enters you into a prize draw to win two nights stay at a Travelodge. So keep your eyes peeled as you could be a lucky winner as well as helping to raise money for Travelodge’s nominated charity, the British Paralympic Association as £10 will be donated for each tag returned.

Jane Keenan, Travelodge Marketing Manager said; “We are delighted that Team Renegade Ducati is taking time out from their busy racing schedule to be with us on this important day. We very much hope that local residents will be able to come along to join in the fun and meet the members of the team. As the gateway to Yorkshire, Leeds is an important area for Travelodge. The new facility will complement our existing lodge in Leeds Central and provide a convenient and comfortable overnight stop-off point for travellers.”

From a press release issued by HM Plant Ducati:

Bringing the heat to Misano

James Toseland and Chris Walker will arrive in Italy just five days after competing in the sixth round of the Superbike World Championship at Silverstone. The HM Plant Ducati riders wowed 83,000 trackside spectators and countless millions more TV viewers with their excellent performances at the UK circuit. The British stars are eager to continue their impressive run of form at the sun drenched Autodromo di Misano on Italy’s Adriatic coast.

Toseland is enjoying a remarkable run of form aboard the HM Plant Ducati. The talented Yorkshireman has shown skill and determination beyond his 22 years and currently occupies second place in the championship behind his countryman and former team-mate Neil Hodgson. A battling second-placed finish in the first race at Silverstone highlighted his emergence as a significant force in Superbike racing, just as his maiden race win in the previous round had shown him to be more than capable of beating the best in the world.

“Silverstone was fantastic,” said Toseland. “The first race was incredible but I was a little disappointed not to make it onto the podium after race two. I’m looking forward to Misano and the fact that we tested there a little while ago should make things a bit easier. I did quite a bit of tyre testing and Dunlop have been working really hard to help us out. Misano’s a top circuit, I’ve been round it a few times and I’ve got a decent set-up, so all the ingredients are there for a good weekend.”

The first six rounds of the championship have certainly not been easy for Chris Walker. Not only has he had to adapt to the HM Plant Ducatis after many years of riding four-cylinder machinery, but he has also been engaged in a private battle with fate. A spate of unfortunate injuries have so far prevented the popular Nottingham rider from fulfilling his undoubted potential, but Walker has still turned in some strong performances.

“Silverstone was very hard work for me,” admitted Walker. “I was really struggling to stay with the leaders despite all the support that we got from the British fans. I’m feeling much stronger now – although I’m still not 100% fit – and I’m hoping for a better time of it this weekend. I like it at Misano and I can’t wait to have a proper race where I don’t get out of breath after five laps.”

From a press release issued by Fuchs Kawasaki:

The Kawasaki Racing Team completed the second and final day of testing at Spain’s Catalunya circuit on Tuesday, with both riders and team technical staff declaring themselves satisfied with the progress made over the course of the two days.

Alex Hofmann joined Andrew Pitt and Garry McCoy for the test session in Barcelona, where the team continued to test both chassis set-up and tyres as part of the ongoing development of the Ninja ZX-RR MotoGP machine. Refinement of base-line chassis settings and evaluation of a revised specification of Kawasaki’s already impressive 990cc, in-line four motor were the main focus of the test.

The Catalunya test was also the first to be run under the direction of Kawasaki Racing Team’s recently appointed Technical Director, Hamish Jamieson, who brings with him to the team over twenty years of Grand Prix experience.

Garry McCoy
“We’ve made some progress over the past two days, but the most important thing is that we’ve had plenty of track time, which is something we need right now. With only two hours on track each day, GP weekends aren’t ideally suited to testing, but today we’ve been able to try a number of different chassis settings, which has allowed us to identify a frame and swinging arm combination that all three of us can use. It’s good for now, but we’ll obviously be looking to improve things further in the future.”

Andrew Pitt
“Overall I’m pretty happy with what we’ve achieved today. We’ve made significant progress with chassis set-up, to the point where I felt a lot more comfortable on the bike and started to regain some of my confidence in the front end. We’ve also found more traction, but I think that is as much down to the revised engine as it is the chassis improvements. The new motor accelerates faster and, more importantly, reacts a lot quicker to my input on the throttle, which makes the bike a lot easier to control both under braking and on the gas out of the turns.”

Alex Hofmann
“We’ve found some new settings during these two days of testing which have improved the bike, so I’m happy with the progress we’ve made. As well as chassis set-up we’ve also been involved in tyre testing with Dunlop and I think we’ve seen some progress there also. Most importantly, the improvements we’ve made during the past two days should stand us in good stead for next weekend’s race at Assen.”

Hamish Jamieson – Technical Director
“We came here with the aim of identifying a frame and swinging arm combination that all three riders are able to use and we’ve achieved that. Now we have a baseline chassis set-up, information we get from individual riders will be relevant to all of them and that should go some way to speeding up the development process. It will certainly make things easier with chassis and suspension set-up on race weekends, as we will now be able to directly compare data collected from each bike, regardless of who the rider is.”

From a press release issued by Ducati Corse:

HODGSON (DUCATI FILA) SETS RED-HOT PACE AS SUPERBIKE COMES TO SCORCHING ITALIAN ADRIATIC RIVIERA FOR ROUND 7

Just one week after racking up his fifth double win of the season, Britain’s Neil Hodgson (Ducati Fila) continues his red-hot championship pace this weekend as the World Superbike championship comes to a scorching Misano Adriatico circuit in Italy. Neil will not only have to contend with the summer temperatures, but also with his numerous rivals, including team-mate Ruben Xaus, twice on the podium at Silverstone.

Hodgson, who overcame a throat infection and a high temperature at Silverstone to win two of the best races seen all year, brings a 130-point lead to the Santamonica track as the championship moves into the second half of the season.

“After my two wins at Silverstone I feel 100% fit now” declared Neil. “I know it’s going to be a hot weekend here at Misano, but it’s great to be racing at what is more or less Ducati’s home circuit and I know there will be thousands of fans cheering me on come Sunday. Misano is not one of my favourite tracks, although I have set a couple of poles here and last year I finished third in race 2, whereas the year before my tyre exploded!. I’m feeling pretty confident for some good results here, although I don’t think the racing will be as crazy as Silverstone!”

Team-mate Ruben Xaus scored two third place finishes in Britain which have helped to boost his confidence and the 25-year-old Spanish rider now looks to capitalise on those results at Misano.

“I feel that when we find the right set-up, the 999 is great and we can go well but I need more testing time with the bike”, said Ruben. “As we saw in Silverstone if you work hard and find a good set-up for the race, then the results will come. I won here in Supersport twice and I was a bit unlucky last year. I hope to start working the best way on Friday, practice and practice and then the result will come by itself. The track surface and the heat are the worst parts of the Misano circuit, they’ve asphalted most of the track but not the back bit so you have to find the right compromise for that part of the circuit as well.”

CIRCUIT: The Misano circuit was designed in 1969 and started activity in 1972. Since 1992 it has continuously hosted the San Marino Round of the World Superbike Championship. The track’s location on Italy’s Adriatic Riviera and its mid-June date in the WSBK calendar have always guaranteed massive crowds for the race. The circuit itself measures 4.060 km and has four left and four right-hand curves, but the most impressive part is the long sweeping left-hander from Carro to Tramonto.

POINTS (after 6 of 12 rounds):
Riders – 1. Hodgson 295; 2. Toseland 165; 3. Xaus 158; 4. Laconi 145; 5. Lavilla 131; 6. Walker 110; etc.
Manufacturers – 1. Ducati 300; 2. Suzuki 158; 3. Petronas 52; 4. Kawasaki 51; 5. Yamaha 40; 5. Honda 21.

STATISTICS: Lap record: Kocinski (Ducati) 1:34.296 (1996); Superpole: Bayliss (Ducati) 1:33.525 (2002). Qualifying: Yanagawa (Kawasaki) 1:33.494 (1997). Race distance: 2×25 laps / 101.500 km.

2002 RESULTS:
Race 1 – 1. Bayliss (Ducati); 2. Edwards (Honda); 3. Hodgson (Ducati).
Race 2 – 1. Bayliss; 2. Edwards; 3. Haga (Aprilia)


More, from a press release issued by Foggy Petronas Racing:

Heat is on for Foggy PETRONAS Racing at Misano

Foggy PETRONAS Racing enter the second half of their first World Superbike campaign this weekend at Misano aiming for further progress in the development of the FP1.

With James Haydon ruled out of action through injury for this seventh round of the series, staged near the principality of San Marino, wild card Italian rider Lorenzo Mauri has been drafted in for a one-off ride. And, with temperatures expected to be the highest of the season, team boss Nigel Bosworth realises the heat is on for both Mauri and FPR regular Troy Corser.

He said: “We go into the second half of the season looking to improve on the development of the FP1 that we have achieved in the first six rounds. Work is underway on a modification to the cylinder heads and, when available, this should improve power and torque, produce better cooling, push the tyres and chassis more and result in us moving up the field. For this weekend, when it is expected to be very hot, we are increasing the pressure in the cylinder head to try to improve efficiency of a new water pump and therefore the cooling system.

“Lorenzo will have to go out and learn the bike first, as it is going to be very difficult for him on a new bike and with a new team. It’s never ideal to put a new rider on a bike at a race weekend, without having done any testing. But it is a great opportunity for him and we will do our best to make the most of this new input on the bike, as he has a good knowledge of Misano.”

Lorenzo said: “If necessary I will work 25 hours a day this weekend to make the most of this opportunity with Foggy PETRONAS Racing. It is very important for me and I am in great shape and very focused. After meeting the team today I already feel very comfortable with them and the FP1 is a very beautiful bike, although I have had to change the position of the bars and foot-pegs to suit my racing position. I know the Misano circuit very well and have been racing here for four years. I do not specialise in any one circuit, I just treat them all the same. This year, in the Italian Superstock championship, I qualified on pole here and was catching the leader, Lanzi, with three laps remaining when I had a problem with brakes and ran off track.”

Troy, whose fiancée Sam Davies is expecting their first child next week, said: “This is a track that I like and know very well as we used to do a lot of testing here with Ducati. It’s a very technical track and how you get onto the back straight is the key to a good lap time. The heat will be the most important factor for us.”

This just in, from Chicken Hawk Racing:

Attn: Roadracing World Action Fund Donations

We here at Chicken Hawk Racing would like to donate to the Roadracing World Action Fund.

It is great to see more being utilized and we have been encouraged by all the companies who are participating.

We would like to contribute $50.00 from each set of tire warmers sold through our website until the end of the year (all models).

We are happy to join the effort and look forward to seeing the positive results of the fund.

Tonya Gergely
Chicken Hawk Racing

Copyright 2003, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

Arclight Suzuki’s Scott Harwell is expected to be back in action for the Formula USA National round at Virginia International Raceway June 27-29 following surgery to plate his broken right hand.

Harwell crashed while running fourth in the first F-USA Sportbike race June 15 at New Hampshire International Speedway in Loudon, New Hamsphire. Harwell highsided in turn one and broke the third metacarpal in his right hand, near the wrist joint.

Harwell, who was just reaching full fitness following a serious right wrist fracture suffered in the middle of the 2002 season, underwent a 1.5-hour operation Thursday in Winston-Salem, North Carolina to insert a small plate and two screws into the fracture. The surgery was performed by the same doctor who treated Harwell’s wrist last year.

“He’s got a ‘Boxer’s Fracture,’ which as far as hand fractures go is not a big deal. But that’s easy for me to say because it’s not my broken hand,” said Arclight Suzuki Team Co-owner and Crew Chief Chuck Warren.

“It’ll depend on how much pain he can manage, but structurally the hand will be fine. The doctors told him the hand won’t be at 100 percent, but the hand will be 100 percent within six weeks, easily. And once the plate and the screws are in place, if he can tolerate the discomfort, the hand will be structurally sound.

“He’s been riding motorcycles at work, just moving them around the shop and everything and using his hand and using his braking finger. He says right now if he brakes with his middle finger, it hurts quite a bit and he can feel the bone move around. So once they stabilize that, it’ll just be a matter of if he can tolerate the pain or not.

“He seems to think this isn’t going to slow him down much.”

Following the Loudon Formula USA event, Harwell was tied for seventh in Sportbike points and was fourth in the Superbike Championship standings with four rounds remaining.

Copyright 2003, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

Announcer and former racer Richard Chambers today contradicted claims made by AMA Pro Racing officials that cornerworkers did not report Steve Rapp’s bike hitting a bare concrete wall during Superbike qualifying on Friday of the Road Atlanta AMA National.

When asked why no soft barriers were installed after Rapp crashed and before Woody Deatherage hit the same section of bare wall two days later, breaking his back, AMA Pro Racing CEO Scott Hollingsworth and Road Racing Series Manager Ron Barrick both said that AMA officials did not know that Rapp’s bike had hit the wall, because cornerworkers did not inform AMA officials at the event.

Reacting to a report on Roadracingworld.com (6/11/03, AMA: Miscommunication Behind Failure To Deploy Soft Barriers Before Deatherage Hit Bare Wall), several readers who were at Road Atlanta pointed out that they had learned about the incident when announcers Richard Chambers and Chris Carter discussed the fact that Rapp’s bike had hit the wall. The readers found it hard to believe that AMA officials were not aware of those discussions over the public address system. The report also pointed out that Rapp’s crew men had discussed the fact that the bike had hit the wall with AMA Pro Racing Tech Inspector Terrie Siegfried, because they had to explain why the bike caught on fire–the tank ruptured when it hit the wall–before AMA Tech would release the motorcycle Friday afternoon.

And reached by phone today, Chambers said that not only had he announced that Rapp’s bike had hit the wall, he also heard cornerworkers report the wall impact to race control over the AMA radio network.

“We made comment on how lucky he (Rapp) was to be able to get up from the crash,” said Chambers. “We made comment about the thing pounding the wall and how difficult it was for the cornerworkers to pick it up and move it. You could see the debris from where the bike had hit.

“We first saw it on the Speed TV feed, and when they cut away from it I started listening to the cornerworker network,” continued Chambers. “They said that there was an incident in turns 4 and 5, and I heard somebody say the thing hit a wall, over the cornerworker network. Control was asking them to describe the incident. They mentioned that it went into this particular area and that the bike had hit the wall.”

AMA Pro Racing brings in its own race control person at AMA Nationals.

According to Hollingsworth, AMA Pro Racing has a policy of installing soft barriers whenever a new wall impact area is identified at a racetrack. But at Pikes Peak, two weeks after the incident at Road Atlanta, AMA Pro Road Racing Operations Assistant Jay Hannam said, when asked if Airfence would be put up where a rider hit the wall outside turn two, “We can’t put up Airfence every time somebody hits a wall.” At Road America, three weeks after the incident at Road Atlanta, Barrick and AMA Pro Racing Safety And Equipment Director Hugh Fleming (who handles soft barriers for AMA Pro Racing) said that they had never heard of any policy to install soft barriers whenever a new wall impact area is identified at a racetrack.

In both cases, at Pikes Peak and at Road America, additional soft barriers were eventually installed in front of bare walls hit by riders, including an impact that sent Aaron Gobert to the hospital with a broken wrist.



More, from a reader and cornerworker:

FIRST PERSON/OPINION

Via e-mail

Just a note to correct some possible misimpressions. I cornerworked the Road Atlanta AMA race and have been a cornerworker for the past 18 years. At Road Atlanta there is a dual communications system, a hard-wired com. system used for cars and a two-way radio network. There was person in the Race Control position on each system for all of the event, sort of co-race controllers. There are a couple of reasons I was told why there is the dual setup. One important one being that, since the hard-wired person on each turn is limited in mobility by the length of the wire at each station, there is a radio available so that there is communication available from all sight lines. The AMA also has an observer that sits with Race Control. The observer does not usually talk on the communications system but works with the person at the Race Control position to make control decisions, presumably, as the AMA would like them to be made. This has been my experience at Road A., Daytona and Loudon.

I can’t be certain that the AMA observer working with the control people at Road A. heard the cornerworkers describe the crash over the com. systems at the time. Perhaps the description came over the wired system which may not have been available to the AMA observer. These are questions that the persons that were there in control could answer. I do find it dubious that the statement was made that the AMA did not hear from the workers that the bike had hit the wall.

I was on the scene (I called to stop the race) on Sunday for Mr. Deatherage’s crash. An AMA official came out to the turn while we were still cleaning up and I and others told him what had happened.

Ed McFarland
Derry, New Hampshire

From a press release issued by Honda Racing:

VERMEULEN AND CBR600RR CHASING FOUR IN A ROW

Honda’s Chris Vermeulen is looking to win his fourth successive World Supersport championship race in Sunday’s seventh round of the championship at Misano, San Marino.

Celebrating his 21st birthday today, Vermeulen enjoys a 47-point championship lead as the series arrives at the popular Adriatic coastal
circuit.

“We’re just on a roll and long may it continue,” says Ten Kate Honda team rider Vermeulen. “But last Sunday’s win at Silverstone in Britain wasn’t easy, the team worked long into the night on Saturday to make sure the race
set-up was good.”

Vermeulen’s closest challenger at Misano may well be Karl Muggeridge, his own team-mate in the crack Dutch Ten Kate squad. Muggeridge put a string of disappointing races behind to take third place at Silverstone.

“I’ve made some silly mistakes this year and it was time to get my championship campaign back on track,” reckons Muggeridge. “Third place at
Silverstone last week did just that.”

Of the eight Honda Europe supported riders it is the experienced Van Zon pairing of Ian MacPherson and Werner Daemen who will be aiming to put their Misano knowledge to good use as they take Honda’s new CBR600RR machine there
for the first time.

The BKM Honda effort fields Frenchman Christophe Cogan–sixth last Sunday at Silverstone–and promising young Australian Broc Parkes–looking to make amends for a disappointing retirement from last week’s British round.

The Austrian-based Klaffi Honda team fields French ace Sebastien Charpentier and experienced Austrian Robert Ulm.

Charpentier believes: “Misano will be a good test for all of the Honda teams. It’s a new track for everyone racing the new RR machine and we’re all starting equal on Friday morning.”

The Misano World Supersport action gets under way with free practice on Friday morning followed by the opening qualifying session on Friday afternoon. Friday’s schedule is repeated on Saturday while Sunday’s race gets under way at 1:20 p.m.

World Supersport championship points after six of 11 rounds: 1 Chris Vermeulen, Australia (Honda) 131, 2 Jurgen van den Goorbergh, Holland
(Yamaha) 84, 3 Katsuaki Fujiwara, Japan (Suzuki) 76, 4 Stephane Chambon, France (Suzuki) 62, 5 Christian Kellner, Germany (Yamaha) 59, 6 Alessio Corradi, Italy (Yamaha) 48, 7 Karl Muggeridge, Australia (Honda) and Pere Riba, Spain (Kawasaki) 46, 9 Christophe Cogan, France (Honda) 35, 10 Broc Parkes, Australia (Honda) and Jorg Teuchert, Germany (Yamaha) 30. 12 Robert Ulm, Austria (Honda) 22. 15 Sebastien Charpentier, France (Honda) 17. 16 Iain MacPherson, GB (Honda) 16. 17 Werner Daemen, Belgium (Honda) 13.

Manufacturers points: 1 Honda 140, 2 Yamaha 110, 3 Suzuki 102, 4 Kawasaki 50.

Misano statistics:
Circuit length: 2.52 miles – 4.06km
Lap record: Stephane Chambon (Suzuki) 1:38.856 (June 2002)
2002 pole position: Fabien Foret (Honda) 1:37.669
2002 winner: Fabien Foret (Honda)

Copyright 2003, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

FIRST PERSON/OPINION

Via e-mail:

Geez, Thanks for bringing this incident up! Talk about something being blown out of proportion!

Yes, I was fooling around with some friends and an unintended person did get mixed up in my horseplay. Yes, I was blacked-flagged out of qualifying and Ron Barrick was very, very upset with me. No, I should not have been playing around in such a manner.

Yes, a bunch of my friends talked to Ron and Merrill Vanderslice about what happened and cooled them down. A little.

All agreed that I was a dumbass. Or worse.

Ron and Merrill did give me a good talking-to. A couple of times! I deserved it, they were both mad but very civilized. There was never a mention of a fine to me by either Ron or Merrill. But I know that I’m on their list!

I realize that Ron has enough problems to deal with at a race (just listen to the AMA on their radio frequencies) that he does not need to have any nitwit such as myself causing more.

John France




More, from a reader:

I would just like to say Good Job to France on his response to Roadracingworld.com regarding his horseplay.

Not only did he accept the consequences for his actions but he owned up to them. This was a very classy move to put this in writing for all to see.

Good Job!

Roger Preston
AHRMA 4327