Copyright 2003, www.mcnews.com.au, used with permission

By Trevor Hedge, www.mcnews.com.au

Australia’s fastest motorcycle racers converge on South Australia’s Mallala Motorsport Park this weekend to kick off the 2003 Shell Advance Australian Superbike Championship.

Over 180 competitors will ride this weekend in what is the opening round of Australia’s most exciting form of motorsport.

Shannon Johnson will be fighting through the pain barrier after a recent crash at the Victorian Titles left the young Victorian battered and bruised. But, like the true racer he is, Johnson is still looking forward to this weekend with confidence. “Mallala is a fairly physical circuit and there is absolutely no rest on the superbike around there at all. But if we can reproduce the times we did during testing then I know we will be challenging for the win.”

20 years ago Shannon’s father, the legendary Andrew ‘AJ’ Johnson, put in one of his most famous performances back in what was then the Australian 500 GP Championship. ‘AJ’ remembers the ride like it was yesterday, “The 500 Honda I rode that year was a particularly special factory bike and the way it howled up the Mallala back straight was just awesome, but the kink was always just a little ‘too’ exciting on the tyres we had back then.”

While the wicked two-stroke 500 machines are only a memory, the current crop of 180hp Superbikes are just as awesome around the South Australian circuit.

Young Sydney charger Josh Brookes joins Shannon to form the new Castrol Honda Race Team for 2003. Shannon is the current reigning Australian Supersport Champion while Josh won the Supersport Championship in 2001. Both riders will race the Supersport and Superbike classes this year.

But, like Shannon, Josh is heading to Mallala carrying injuries from last weekend’s round of the Victorian Titles. There he broke his collarbone and underwent surgery this week to plate the break. But the gutsy youngster will still attempt to score some important points in this first round of the Shell Advance Australian Superbike Championship.

One young rider with many reasons to be happy is Shepparton’s Craig Coxhell. This year the experienced 20 year old joins reigning Australian Superbike Champion Shawn Giles in the recently dominant Team Suzuki.

But the all-conquering power of the Phil Tainton tuned GSX-R1000 will have both Coxhell and Giles working hard around the extremely physical Mallala track.

“I aim to try and come away from this opening round unscathed and with as many points as I can, you can’t win a championship in the first round so this year I am aiming for consistency,” commented Coxhell.

His three-time Australian Superbike Championship winning team-mate, Shawn Giles, was due to test at Mallala last week but could not ride due to a chronic bout of food poisoning. The 32 year old is still coming back to full strength from that ailment, but in any shape Giles will always be a threat for the win.

The Suzuki and Honda camps will be under fierce competition from the new factory supported Nikon Yamaha Racing Team. This is the first time a factory Yamaha squad have raced at the South Australian circuit for two years and South Australian fans of the tuning fork brand will be hoping for a win. With Kevin Curtain and Daniel Stauffer in their armoury, the Yamaha boys are odds-on to do just that.

In recent outings the Suzuki has shown a horsepower advantage. But in the tight cut and thrust battles, which are a feature of Australian racing, the Yamaha has recently proven the more nimble machine. Around the tricky 2.6km Mallala track agility is vital for a good lap time, here the Yamaha is sure to shine.

A top field of privateer entries will also battle hard. Riders such as Alistair Maxwell, Stephen Tozer, Jay Normoyle, Nick Henderson, Brent George, Scott Charlton and Robert Bugden all add strength to what is a quality Superbike field.

While Kawasaki has no entry in the premier Superbike class they do field a strong effort in the 600cc Supersport ranks. New South Wales teenager Russell Holland heads the Kawasaki charge and will be backed up by at least half a dozen riders starting the championship on the all new ZX-6RR machine.

But the green machines will have heady competition in the shape of riders such as Kevin Curtain and ex-500 GP competitor Brendan Clarke. These two world class talents form a mighty duo in Yamaha’s quest to take the 2003 Australian Supersport Championship.

Shannon Johnson will be aiming to defend his supersport title for Honda but will have his work cut out for him as the new CBR600RR machines have only just arrived and will be raced in standard trim. Suzuki has no factory entry in the Supersport class but will be well represented by privateers such as Reece Bancell and Ross Cooper.

While the Supersport and Superbike classes are the premier events, a talented supporting cast of 46 Superstock riders includes 14 South Australians, the locals aiming for a home track advantage.

The slideways sidecars always entertain around Mallala and a 16 strong field of the three-wheeled machines is guaranteed to produce some major action.

In 125 Grand Prix a junior motocross star makes his road race debut this weekend at Mallala. Bryan Staring is a 15 year old Western Australian with a string of national and state motocross championships under his belt. He will gain plenty of knowledge in his first tarmac outing from experienced campaigners such as Peter Galvin, Paul Campbell, Cath Thompson, Tim Inkster, Josh Waters and Rudi Muller. 250 GP should also prove exciting and these thoroughbred machines will share the track with a good field of 250 Production bikes.

From a press release issued by American Suzuki:

Team Yoshimura Suzuki Sweeps AMA Superbike Races at California Speedway

BREA, Calif. – American Suzuki Motor Corporation (ASMC) congratulates Team Yoshimura Suzuki for sweeping victories at Rounds Two and Three of the AMA Superbike Championship Series at California Speedway in Fontana, Calif., on April 5-6, 2003.

Yoshimura Suzuki’s Mat Mladin qualified on pole for both of the weekend’s races, while teammate Aaron Yates qualified second. In the first Superbike race, Mladin came away the victor and Yates finished an impressive second. In the following day’s race, Mladin again captured the win while Yates finished a healthy fourth.

“It’s great to be winning races again,” said Mladin, a three-time AMA Superbike Champion. “In the off season, the Yoshimura Suzuki team worked extremely hard and it shows. The new 2003 Suzuki GSX-R1000 is running great and I’m not at all surprised to have scored wins so early in the season with such an impressive bike.”

AMA Superbike wasn’t the only arena in which Yoshimura Suzuki and the new 2003 Suzuki GSX-R1000 carded a win. Young gun Ben Spies qualified on pole in Sunday’s Formula Xtreme race and went on to capture the top spot on the podium.

“Obviously, we at Suzuki are thrilled with these race results,” said Mel Harris, vice president of ASMC’s motorcycle/ATV division. “Team Yoshimura Suzuki has the strongest team in the paddock. By combining riders of such high caliber with a competitive racing machine like the new 2003 Suzuki GSX-R1000, we’ll bring home the AMA Superbike and AMA Formula Xtreme Championships for sure. “

Team Yoshimura Suzuki’s next race will be May 4, 2003, at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif.

Copyright 2003, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

From an e-mail sent by a reader:

I have been following racing for many years and I still can’t understand why the AMA can’t keep up with the rest of the world’s professional racing organizations in the red flag & aggregate timing rules.

So many times I have watched AMA races get red-flagged at some point during the race, where someone has worked their butt off to secure a really good lead only to be red-flagged and have to start again without their lead taken into consideration (except for being re-gridded on pole).

In effect the AMA is saying that the first part of the race doesn’t count and doesn’t matter. It brings to mind a Superbike race a couple of years ago that was dwindled down to 6 or 7 laps due to a red-flag incident 16 laps into the race. What a joke! Why not delare the first 16 laps as “the race”?

With all the computerized timing systems surely it wouldn’t be that difficult for them to use aggregate timing like the rest of the professional racing world does in the event of a red flag mid-race. I am sure most riders would like to see it that way.

Oh, I forgot, what the riders think doesn’t really matter to AMA Pro Racing.

Frank Nolan
Hollywood, California


And our snappy editorial reply:

AMA Pro Racing Director of Competition Merrill Vanderslice has said, many times, that AMA Pro Racing will never use aggregate time as long as he is in charge, because it is confusing to spectators. Of course, we have not heard Mr. Vanderslice explain why assessing a 10-second penalty on many riders at Fontana was less confusing to spectators than using aggregate scoring.

And, as seen at Fontana, AMA Pro Racing is at times incapable of performing the most basic timing & scoring operation, that of producing results in a timely fashion following a race or qualifying session.

So, to answer your question, they don’t want to, and even if they did want to, there’s a good chance that they’d screw it up–and blame it on the racetrack afterwards.

Copyright 2003, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By David Swarts

David De Gea has been named by the Harris WCM MotoGP team as its second rider for round two of the 2003 MotoGP series in South Africa. De Gea will join Harris WCM full-time rider Chris Burns on the Harris-framed, Yamaha-based prototypes April 25-27 at Phakisa Freeway.

Spaniard De Gea, 25, has 38 Grand Prix starts since making his first appearance as a 125cc wild card at Catalunya in 1995. After sporadic GP appearances in the 125cc and 250cc classes from 1995 to 1998, De Gea raced Kenny Roberts’ Modenas KR3 in the 500cc class 17 times in 1999 and 2000 with a best finish of eighth at Catalunya in 2000. In 2001 De Gea campaigned the entire 250cc series, collected a best finish of third at Assen and finished 19th in the Championship.

Copyright 2003, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By David Swarts

Jamie Stauffer has reached an agreement to join the Yoshimura Suzuki team and race the GSX-R600 left vacant by Aaron Yates in AMA Supersport, say sources close to Stauffer’s current team, Libasci Racing/Ducati-Aprilia of Oceanside.

Speaking at California Speedway April 4, Stauffer told Roadracingworld.com he was in discussions with several different AMA teams regarding the remainder of the 2003 season, but any possibilities were contingent on him backing up the seventh-place finish he got in the Daytona Supersport race at Fontana.

Stauffer qualified ninth at California Speedway on the Yamaha YZF-R6 he built and was racing for ninth in the final when he dropped out of the race on lap 14 of 17, resulting in a 38th-place finish. Stauffer is now 16th in the Supersport Championship, 45 points behind class leader Jamie Hacking.

Evidently, the performance was enough for Yoshimura Suzuki, who reportedly signed Stauffer and plan to have the 23-year-old Australian report for duty at the AMA team test at Road Atlanta next week.

Attempts to reach Stauffer or a representative from Yoshimura Suzuki were unsuccessful at post time.

Stauffer’s current team does not plan to stand in the way of the young Aussie’s promotion, and at California Speedway, Alan Libasci, Team Owner/Manager of Libasci Racing, actually expressed pride in the possibility that Stauffer might get picked up by a factory team.

Copyright 2003 Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By David Swarts

Kevin Schwantz has three broken metacarpals in his left hand, the result of a STTARS supermoto race crash Sunday, April 6 at California Speedway in Fontana, California.

In a phone call to Roadracingworld.com Tuesday, Schwantz confirmed the fractures in the bones that run from the knuckles to the wrist, adding, “Everything’s lined up, and the breaks are toward the back at the big parts of the bones, which is better for healing than if it were the smaller parts of the bones.

“I’ll be getting a cast here in a couple of days. I’ll have that on for two, three weeks then probably go to a splint. But I should be ready for the first (AMA) Supermoto National in July.”

Schwantz plans on competing in the entire AMA Red Bull Supermoto National Championship on a modified Suzuki DR-Z400.

From a press release:

DONT MISS “ItalianCarFest 2003” ON SEPTEMBER 13
AT CROSS TIMBERS WINERY DURING THE 17TH ANNUAL GRAPEFEST IN GRAPEVINE, TEXAS

GRAPEVINE, Texas — The Fiat Club of North Texas has confirmed plans to hold the first annual all-Italian car and motorcycle show – ItalianCarFest 2003 – during the 17th annual GrapeFest in Grapevine, Texas, on Saturday, September 13, 2003. GrapeFest, the largest wine festival in the Southwest, is an annual four-day event held the second weekend after Labor Day in historic, downtown Grapevine. (Grapevine is located directly between Dallas and Fort Worth, near the DFW International Airport.) GrapeFest attracts over 200,000 visitors over four days, with the largest attendance day being Saturday, the day of ItalianCarFest 2003.

The venue for the show is Cross Timbers Winery, 805 North Main, one of six designated winery stops included in the route of shuttle buses used by GrapeFest to move attendees to and from the wineries and the festival. This 1 and 2/3-acre setting, located four blocks north of the festival area, was selected for a number of exciting reasons. The cars and motorcycles will be displayed on grass; the property includes a two-story air-conditioned facility with the first floor containing an area for hospitality and sponsor vendor tables; and the second floor features a private lounge area where complimentary wine, soft drinks and snacks can be served for show participants. In addition, food, wine and soft drinks will be available for purchase by the public at Cross Timbers Winery.

With increasing demand by enthusiasts to bring an upscale show for exotic Italian automobiles to the Dallas area, the Fiat Club seeks to provide an exceptional event destined to grow into THE show of its kind in the Southwest that will be exactly what everyone is looking for. The natural turf display field, the private lounge area, plenty of available hotel accommodations in Grapevine, and the link to GrapeFest are just some of the elements that will attract enthusiasts from Texas and adjoining states who want to display their cars at ItalianCarFest 2003.

For additional information about ItalianCarFest 2003, please contact Bob Dezzany at (214)827-2086 or by e-mail at [email protected]. For more information about GrapeFest and historic Grapevine, Texas, please call (800)457-6338 or visit www.grapevinetexasusa.com.

From a press release issued by the AMA:

AMA URGES SUPPORT FOR HEALTHY FOREST MEASURE

PICKERINGTON, Ohio — The American Motorcyclist Association asks motorcyclists, ATV riders and others involved in recreation to urge their federal lawmakers to support legislation to protect the forests.

U.S. Rep. Scott McInnis (R-Colo.) has introduced legislation to carry out President Bush’s “Healthy Forests Initiative” to help protect the forests from devastating fires.

Bush unveiled the initiative during his State-of-the-Union address to Congress on Jan. 28. In his address, he told lawmakers that “I have sent you a Healthy Forests Initiative, to help prevent the catastrophic fires that devastate communities, kill wildlife, and burn away millions of acres of treasured forest.

“Even more,” the president said, “I ask you to take a crucial step, and protect our environment in ways that generations before us could not have imagined. In this century, the greatest environmental process will come about, not through endless lawsuits or command and control regulations, but through technology and innovation.”

The Healthy Forests Initiative streamlines procedures to allow critical forest-restoration and fire-prevention projects to proceed quickly in forest areas that could easily be devastated by fire. The measure provides an alternative to the current appeals process, and directs the courts to take into consideration the long-term harm of inaction against the alleged short-term harms of forest restoration projects.

“This legislation is vital to help ensure that our forests are protected from catastrophic fires so the forests can be enjoyed by current and future generations,” said Ed Moreland, AMA vice president for government relations. “If Congress doesn’t act now, we could see more devastating fires like we did last summer. And those fires ruin forest recreational opportunities for all.”

Motorcyclists, ATV riders and others are urged to go to the AMA Rapid Response Center at the AMA website at www.AMADirectlink.com to send a message to their federal lawmakers asking them to support the Healthy Forests Initiative.

From a press release:

ANNOUNCING THE GOTHAM MOTORCYCLE CLASSIC

What: The First Annual Gotham Motorcycle Classic
When: Saturday, October 11, 2003
Where: Intrepid Museum, New York City

New York City needs an annual world-class motorcycle show. And just any location would not do. Because New Yorkers enjoy a reputation for doing things in a big way, the first annual Gotham Motorcycle Classic will be held at one of the most unique setting in Manhattan – the Intrepid Sea Air Space Museum complex on Pier 86.

Intrepid’s motto is “Step Aboard and Let Your Imagination Soar.” The Museum is more than a collection of historic ships. It’s a floating exploration center, a time machine into history and a launch pad into the future. See just how far your imagination can take you at New York City’s premier interactive adventure.

There will be 3 main classes for the all-brands domestic and import) motorcycle show:

Classic & Vintage (various classes for machines 30 years or older)

Military (domestic and foreign classes)

Custom (various classes in Street and Pro divisions)

Vendor space is limited. Applications may be requested via email from: [email protected]

Some of the final details are still being worked out, but we wanted to give you an advance notice to help spread the word to fellow enthusiasts.

Anything you can do to help get out the word is appreciated. Please feel free to share the shows details and dates.

Please email all questions and comments to: [email protected].