From a press release issued by KTM:

Arnaud Vincent had to stop after 3 laps with a broken Piston ring. Roberto Locatelli finished 23th.

The first GP of the season takes part under sunny conditions. The weather during the practice sessions creates a lot of chassis setting problems for the KTM – Red Bull Team. After some successful changing’s, Arnaud Vincent makes up seven places from the start but he was stopped two laps later by a broken Piston ring. Team-mate Roberto Locatelli finished in 23rd position.

# 1 Arnaud Vincent
Retired after 3 laps

After the warm-up I made some changes on my bike and I was happy with it. I made a very good start and I follow the leading group. Two laps later I had a technical problem and I retire. I’m sure we will do it better in three weeks in South Africa.


# 10 Roberto Locatelli
23th

From lap to lap my riding style was coming back. It was our real first test. We have a lot problems but we try to do our best.


Harald Bartol
Team manager
We had today the same problem at Arnaud`s bike as we had at our first test in Valencia. It was our first complete weekend to use the brand new bike. We have a lot of work to do for the next race but we are working in the right direction.

Next GP : 25. – 27. April Welkom South Africa

From a press release:

Yamaha Manuals Go On-Line

Mount Laurel, NJ – There are more than three million used Yamaha motorcycles on America’s highways AND most of them without the owners’ manuals they came with. Add to that, the number of older models of Yamaha outboard motors, ATVs, sport boats and snowmobiles still in the market, and that’s a lot of missing manuals! In an effort to service their customers, Yamaha has hired Crestec Inc. to get these official service manuals into the hands of any owner who wants one – ordered through the Internet and available in hard copy. Within the year, the company plans to make the books available electronically.

Crestec, with offices in Los Angeles and Mt. Laurel, NJ, is well-equipped to handle the printing and digital transactions necessary to make the Yamaha plan a reality. Crestec LA is a Document Engineering™ company with both traditional and digital print-on-demand capabilities. This full-service printer also has a call center and extensive fulfillment capabilities. Their New Jersey counterpart, Crestec Digital Inc., has provided the Internet know-how through its suite of content management and e-commerce tools, allowing Yamaha owners to order any manual from a database of literally thousands covering more than 7500 products, going back almost twenty years. Orders placed on the Yamaha Web site or at www.yamahapubs.com are shipped within 48 hours. As in the past, manuals will continue to be available at Yamaha dealerships nationwide.

Both Crestec LA and Crestec Digital (NJ) are divisions of Crestec Company Ltd. of Hamamatsu Japan, a global network of companies with twenty years of experience in the content management/document engineering business. Crestec Los Angeles and Crestec Digital partner together to provide a full range of communication services in traditional printing, digital printing, and Internet services. Crestec Digital works with such diverse clients as Brother International Home Appliance Division, Oki Semiconductor, Oki Data, and Subaru of America. Crestec LA provides a full range of publishing services to clients such as Toyota, The Los Angeles Times, Suzuki, Canon, Epson, Disney, and American Honda. Crestec Digital and Crestec LA can be found on the global Web site at www.crestec.com.

From a press release issued by Proton Team KR:

PROTON TEAM KR SET THE PACE IN FLYAWAY-FRIENDLY PIT-LANE CHIC

Proton Team KR have raised the standard in pit-lane presentation this year, with F1-style pit furniture and layout, backed by an all-new flyaway-friendly system of containers that convert to offices and workshops.

“As the sport gets more professional, presentation becomes more important,” said team owner Kenny Roberts. “We’ve recruited a number of F1 engineers for our four-stroke GP bike project. This is another thing we can learn from F1.

“It also proves our commitment to developing the championship, that goes beyond just racing on the track,” the former triple champion said.

In the pit, already clean enough to eat off the floor, flat-screen TVs display essential information to the riders’ individual engineers, who sit behind glass in a central area. Each rider has his own station on either side, with space to stow helmets and gloves out of sight.

The greater innovation is in the “Track Shacks” – the trade name for the container systems developed by Quentor Cases, which means that containers tailor-made to fit into a 747 luggage hold then convert into self-contained office or workshop units.

These are also used by almost all the F1 teams for flyaway races, and as well as catering for the air-travel sectors are themselves part of an integrated pit system, consolidating tool boxes and spare-parts storage in a way that can be adapted to fit unaltered into the team’s road transport for the races in Europe.

The Track Shacks are fully wired for power, air-lines and telephone and internet connections. Proton Team KR had two at Suzuka, with one destined to be a clean and controlled engine-building environment for when the new V5 four-stroke motor comes on stream.

Chief mechanic and technical coordinator Les Jones said: “We have formed a partnership with Quentor to promote their products in pit lane. We will be using their latest innovations throughout the year, and I am sure the other teams will see the advantage.”

AMA Warns of Proposed Cuts to Rider Safety Programs

PICKERINGTON, Ohio — The American Motorcyclist Association warns motorcycle and all-terrain vehicle riders nationwide that cash-strapped states may try to raid funds earmarked for rider safety programs to balance their budgets.

In fact, Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D) has already asked her state’s Legislature to eliminate Michigan’s Motorcycle Safety Education Program and the Off-Road Vehicle Safety Education Program. She eliminated the programs from her proposed Fiscal 2004 state budget, which was recently sent to lawmakers for consideration.

“Michigan motorcyclists and ATV riders must act now to prevent the loss of these valuable programs,” said Imre Szauter, AMA legislative affairs specialist. “And riders in other states need to keep a close watch on their lawmakers to be sure that their safety programs aren’t threatened as well. We understand that several states are considering cutting their motorcycle safety programs as part of their efforts to balance their budgets.”

In Michigan, the AMA urges motorcyclists and ATV riders to contact the governor and their state lawmakers to tell them that the safety programs are self-supporting — paid for through fees collected from motorcyclists and ATV riders. And since the governor’s proposal would eliminate the fees collected to support the programs, the state would see no money savings.

Michigan riders can easily send messages to their government officials asking them to keep the rider training programs, by using the StateWatch section of the Rapid Response Center at the AMA website at www.AMADirectlink.com.

Riders in other states are encouraged to check out what issues face them by going to their state in the StateWatch section of the Rapid Response Center.

From a press release issued by the World Superbike Championship press office:

What does it take to get the SBK circus moving?

SBK International has recently released some interesting figures regarding the transportation of the Superbike World Championship freight to non-European destinations (Australia, Japan and the USA).

In order to relocate the SBK circus from its traditional European base, a dedicated Alitalia Cargo 747 with a capacity of 95 tons (or 37 pallets) is chartered from Milan to move the Superbike World Championship to its non-European destinations. Official factory teams take as much as 7,000 kilograms made up of race machinery and spares. Smaller teams take in the region of 2,500 tons.

World Supersport teams, running smaller capacity motorcycles, transport between 1,500 and 5,000 kilograms in race machinery and spare parts. Kawasaki France, for example, accounted for more than 4,500 kilograms of the total freight shipped. With the combined World Superbike and Supersport teams in action in Australia, more than 83 tons were recently transported to Melbourne for the second round of the 2003 Championship.

The latest manufacturer team to enter the World Championship, Foggy Petronas Racing, transported some 7,000 kilograms to Australia and the factory Ducati Fila team took in the region of 6,000 kilograms down under. Similar weights are expected for the upcoming Japanese round of the Championship that takes place at Sportsland Sugo in Japan from 25 – 27 April.

Copyright 2003, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

SuperTT Race Results:

Open Class:

1. Jeff Ward, Honda 450
2. Jeremy McGrath, KTM 525
3. Steve Drew, Honda 450
4. Mike Metzger, Honda 450
5. Richie Alexander, Honda 450
6. Rick Pearce, Honda 450
7. Casey Yarrow, Honda 450
8. Gary Trachy, Honda 450
9. Jimmy Lewis, Honda 450
10. Scott Russell, KTM 660

Middleweight Class:

1. Mike Metzger, Honda 450
2. Richie Alexander, Honda 450
3. Jason Chisum, Honda 450
4. Gary Trachy, Honda 450
5. Cory Call, Honda 450
6. Mark Cernicky, Honda 450
7. Mike Ulrich, Yamaha 450
8. Troy Lee, Honda 450
9. Corey Neuer, Honda 450
10. Brad Lackey, Suzuki 400

From a press release:

Arai Helmets will be the theme of Spectrum Motorsports’ April 8th Bike Night. Arai will have a display booth set up and Bruce Porter, Head of Arai’s Racing department, will be in attendance to demonstrate why Arai helmets are the safest and most comfortable fitting helmets made today.

The Bike Night will start at 6 00 p.m. There will be two Arai helmets to be raffled off; other raffle prizes include T-shirts, hats and a Fastrack Riders voucher.

Spectrum Motorsports, an Aprilia, Ducati, Honda and Polaris dealer, is located at 45 Oldfield Rd Irvine 92618 at the entrance to the Irvine Auto Center.

Refreshments will be available.

From a press release:

Every privateer racer listed in the AMA press release (touting the more competitive AMA Superbike field) has also made the switch over to MARVIC Piuma 16.5″ magnesium race wheels.

We at Yoyodyne would also like some of the credit for this reduction in lap times. Current reports show that our wheels with new generation rubber are worth a second to a second and a half at any racetrack.

Racers who want to go a second and a half faster are encouraged to call our race support office at 973-401-1954 for more details on our wheel program.

Copyright 2003, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By David Swarts

1993 500cc Grand Prix World Champion Kevin Schwantz injured his left hand when he crashed his Suzuki DR-Z400 in the STTARS Super TT race Sunday at California Speedway.

“(Mike) Cinqmars, the freestyle motocross guy, got into me at the start of the Middleweight race,” Schwantz told Roadracingworld.com Monday. “I tangled bars with his seat as we were coming out (of the first turn). He was trying to shove me into the haybales, and I fell.

“There’s something broken in my (left) hand, but I haven’t gone to the doctor yet. I don’t know if the handlebar landed on it or what exactly, but something’s not right. It may be all dislocated or it may be broke, I’m not sure. The knuckles aren’t even skinned up. The gloves, there isn’t anything even wrong with them.

“You know what I’m thinking maybe happened is when the handlebar got stuck in his seat and the handlebar started to get yanked out of my hand, I held on even tighter. And the grip I had may have jammed or dislocated some of the bones in my hand, because it yanked it real hard.”

Schwantz retired from professional Grand Prix racing due to a lack of mobility in his left wrist, the result of crash-related injuries, but the Texan says his wrist wasn’t affected in the fall. “My fingers are OK, my wrist’s OK, but it’s the back of my hand. I just got into Atlanta, and I’m going to get it looked at tonight. I’m going to see a doctor out here. We’ve got a (Kevin Schwantz Suzuki) school then the (AMA team) test and all that stuff coming up out here (Road Atlanta), so I figured I’d get it done out here.

“I stayed for the (Formula) Xtreme race and the start of the Superbike race, then I left to go to the hospital. But I got fed up with waiting in line with a bunch of crying, sneezing, S.A.R.S. (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome)-infected Asians. So I left. I figured S.A.R.S. will kill me, what’s wrong with my hand won’t.”

Copyright 2003, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By David Swarts

California Speedway officials estimated the one-day attendance for Sunday’s AMA Superbike event at their facility to be “over 20,000.”

Speedway Public Relations Director Dennis Bickmeier said the Speedway doesn’t give official attendance figures, but said Sunday’s attendance was “for sure over 20,000.”

While the main grandstand on the front straight looked relatively empty, the pit lane hospitality suites, pit-lane sky boxes and the infield grandstands were packed, according to Bickmeier.

“Did you see that new grandstand (by infield turn nine)? It was packed, and all of the infield grandstands were full,” said Bickmeier.

The newly-erected, 6500-seat grandstand Bickmeier referred to will now be a permanent fixture at the expense of space normally used to park recreational vehicles during oval race events. The grandstands were trucked out to California from Nazareth Speedway, a one-mile oval track in eastern Pennsylvania also owned by International Speedway Corporation (ISC), the owners of California Speedway.

Bickmeier also pointed out that the capacity of the Speedway’s parking lots gave a good indication of the fan attendance.

You can read one fan’s perspective on the Yamaha Superbike Challenge on California Speedway’s website at www.californiaspeedway.com.

Because most race venues choose not to announce attendance figures, it’s difficult to rank the two-year-old AMA event at California Speedway with other stops on the AMA Superbike circuit, however, one estimate puts Fontana ahead of the Pike’s Peak event, equal to if not ahead of the Brainerd race weekend and not far off the attendance at Virginia International Raceway.

The events at Road Atlanta, Sears Point, Road America, Mid-Ohio, Daytona and Laguna Seca are the most popular AMA Superbike events in terms of attracting spectators.