Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

From e-mails:


When I started riding, and even more so when I started racing, I caught much grief from some friends and family. It’s too dangerous, that’s insane, you’re crazy, they all said. I’ve been riding for 6 years now, racing for 3 and have been very lucky, a few falls. A couple of months ago, four of my friends were killed in a single head-on drunk driving accident. They were all sober, driving back from a movie when a stoned and drunk woman crossed into their lane. They lived fairly careful lives. They were a couple of the people who told me I was crazy. Maybe I am.

The day I learned about the accident I was at the track endurance racing. I couldn’t think of anything else to do, so I raced. I went faster and rode better than I think I ever have. I dedicated many of those laps to my friends. I think I know I’m crazy now.

I agree with your article. A book’s title, written by Ernest K. Gann, called “Fate is the Hunter” seems to sum it up better than anything else.

Do what you love to do, for tomorrow you may not be here to enjoy it.

Jess Johnson
CMRA #21





Thank you for writing the editorial about Randy Renfrow. It is especially timely and poignant given his serious injuries. It just goes to show that life is indeed precious and can be taken away in a moment’s notice.

We should all live our lives as if today might be our last day on this earth. Because one day that is the way it will be.

Stan Simmerson, RN
Duke University Medical Center



Thank you for your short on Randy. I’m a friend of both Randy and (his brother) Shawn. As a racer myself, Randy’s advice was like gold. The word tough can not even began to define Randy.

Yet very few know the struggles he has been through. I’m going to see Shawn this afternoon at the hospital to lend what support I can. Live today, we know not what tomorrow brings. Thank you again!

Donnie Unger



Bravo, I’m moving Monday of next week and need to pack. Yet there is a race this weekend in Donner and I’m in the points chase (SuperTT); I was on the fence as to race or not. It was almost as if you wrote that for me, thank you, I’m going racing. I’m very confident that we will see Mr. Renfrow and his brother at the races soon. My thoughts are with the Renfrow family.

Mike Foster

From a press release issued by Lawdog Sports Management:

Tony Meiring Sells Himself

Tony “The Tiger” Meiring is pleased to announce the launch of his first dedicated line of merchandise. The factory Kawasaki Supersport rider has partnered with Wateree Sports Group in an effort to provide specially designed “Tiger” gear for fans.

Jeff Reeves, vice president of Wateree Sports Group, commented on his company’s latest partnership. “This is a great opportunity for Wateree Sports Group to work with one of the youngest stars in this sport. Tony has proven his ability on the track. We can now offer his new fans a great new product line to help build his exposure both on and off the track. We are excited to have Tony as part of our AMA Pro Racing merchandising program.”

Starting with Eric Bostrom several months ago, Wateree has since signed several top U.S. road racing stars to merchandising deals. And although this season was Tony’s first as a factory rider, the Horizon Award winner has impressed many and proven that he is one of AMA Pro Racing’s brightest future stars. The 18 year-old is certainly excited about this new opportunity. “I can’t wait to work with these guys. They’ve come out with some really good products and designs, and I’ve seen what they’ve done for Eric and for Eric’s fans. So I’m looking forward to having products that my fans can support me with too.”

Fans will be able to purchase the gear at AMA road racing events, and will soon be able to purchase the gear online at www.amaproracing.com/speedshop and also on Tony’s website (www.TonyMeiring.com) following the site’s official launch this fall.

From a press release issued by Dunlop:

Yates wins AMA 600 Supersport title, marks Dunlop’s 16th championship in a
row.

Yoshimura Suzuki’s Aaron Yates wrapped up the 2002 Pro Honda Oils U.S. Supersport Championship at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course on July 28, 2002 by taking his fifth series win of the year. It marks the second individual AMA road racing championship for Yates, a 28-year-old factory Suzuki rider from Milledgeville, Ga.

Yates’ championship also extends an amazing racing record for Dunlop Motorcycle Tires. With Aaron’s 2002 championship aboard Dunlop’s dominant D208 GP tire, Dunlop riders have now won every single AMA 600 Supersport Championship since the series inception, 16 titles in a row.

Yates began the year by winning the prestigious Daytona round for the first time in his career. It was considered a big breakthrough for Yates to win that race.

Yates backed up his Daytona victory with West Coast wins at California Speedway and Sears Point Raceway to open up a big lead in the series. He then went on to win at Road America and Mid-Ohio and posted podium finishes at Road Atlanta, Brainerd and Laguna Seca.

With his 12-career victories, all of them on Dunlop tires, Yates is third on the all-time AMA Supersport wins list. Yates’ championship also marks the third AMA Supersport championship for Suzuki, with Yates following in the footsteps on Doug Polen (1988) and Steve Crevier (1998), the other AMA Supersport champions who rode for Suzuki.

With 16 straight AMA 600 Supersport championships, Dunlop riders have now won more than 250 races in the 600 Supersport class. That’s more than 90-percent of all the races since the series began.

Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By David Swarts

Aprilia is offering six RSW500V2 500cc Grand Prix bikes as raced by Tetsuya Harada and Jeremy McWilliams in the 1999 and 2000 FIM 500cc Grand Prix World Championships to collectors, according to www.aprilia.com.

The 498cc, liquid-cooled, 90-degree V-Twin, two-strokes are listed as producing “over 140 horsepower at 11,750 rpm” and weighing 242 pounds. Bikes come with 42mm inverted Ohlins forks, an Ohlins shock, 290mm carbon front brake rotors, Brembo calipers, a carbon-fiber swingarm and 17-inch magnesium wheels.

Aprilia will supply each bike in working condition with a declaration of originality, a list of races each bike participated in and results obtained. Aprilia, however, will not guarantee a supply of spare parts.

In turn, Aprilia will ask each new owner of the RSW500V2s to sign a liability waiver, in case the new owner decides to try and ride the bike, and a confidentiality agreement pertaining to the technology found within the RSW500V2.

No prices were listed for the RSW500V2s.

To see pictures, find more details or inquire about the Aprilia RSW500V2s, go to www.aprilia.com, click on the Aprilia Shop link, click on the logo for English language and then click on the link to the RSW500V2. There you will find a form to fill out and e-mail to Aprilia.

From a press release:


Team Numbskullz Racing has weekend filled with highs and lows


The fourth round of the F-USA/CCS series at Road America saw young gun Steve Atlas of Team Numbskullz Racing qualify on the second row in his first pro event.

The weekend started off on a low with the realization that Gary Carter would be unable to ride due to injuries sustained at the previous CCS round.

Friday’s practice went well for Steve, consistently turning times which put him in the top ten. After logging 4th fastest time in Saturday mornings practice team Numbskullz Racing was hoping for a good result in Saturday’s CCS Middleweight Superbike race. Starting from the 5th row Steve was able to work his way up to third place during the 5 lap sprint race.

With the confidence gained during his charge through the field in Middleweight Superbike Steve was able to turn a 2.21.1 during Saturday afternoon’s Pro Honda Oils Sportbike qualifying, 8th fastest, good enough to put him on the second row.

Sunday’s race began with Atlas getting off the line well only to out brake himself going into the first turn leaving him stuck in the gravel trap outside turn one. By the time he was able to return to the track Steve was many seconds behind the last guy. Not one to give up Steve put his head down, turning times in the mid 2.22s, was able to work his way up to 18th position.

It is worth noting that on lap twelve Steve posted a time of 2:22.575. This proving to be 9th fastest best time turned by any rider during the race.

The up coming three week break until the next CCS race will give Gary time to heal and hopefully Team Numbskullz will be back in full force for the remainder of the season.

Team Numbskullz Racing would like to thank the supporters who make their efforts possible: Mason Racin Tires, Woodcraft, Armour Bodies, Race Graphics, Sprocket Specialists, Pro Art Works, M4 Exhaust, Lockhart Phillips, RS Taichi, Spy Sunglasses.

From a press release issued by AMA Pro Racing:

AMA Chevy Trucks Superbike Championship Showdown at VIR

Pickerington, Ohio – It all comes down to this. The 2002 AMA Chevy Trucks U.S. Superbike Championship will be decided this weekend, August 9-11, during the VIR Lightning Nationals at Virginia International Raceway in Alton, Virginia. Honda’s Nicky Hayden and Kawasaki’s Eric Bostrom are the two riders left in contention for the title. Hayden comes to this weekend’s Superbike doubleheader at VIR the defending winner of the race and holds a 35-point lead over Bostrom in the series standings. Bostrom rides into the series finale having won two of the last three Superbike races and is looking to close the season on a winning note.

Hayden, who turned 21 last week, is having an outstanding season. He’s ridden his factory Honda RC51 to eight victories this year. That’s the second highest number of AMA Superbike wins during a single season in the history of the series. Hayden has an opportunity at VIR to match Fred Merkel’s 1984 record of 10 AMA Superbike wins in a year if he manages to take both rounds. If Hayden wins the championship, he will become the youngest rider in the history of the series to win the AMA U.S. Superbike Championship.

He seems cautiously optimistic on his chances of winning the title. “Any little mistake and it’s out the window,” Hayden said. “So I’m real excited about Virginia. It’s a track I like a lot and hopefully I’ll go in there and just get it done. I’m pretty excited about being in this position with two races to go, but I’m not going to let up at all. I’m just going in there to try to do whatever it takes to win the title.”

Bostrom’s plate has been full this year competing in both the Chevy Trucks U.S. Superbike Championship and select rounds of the World Superbike Championship. The results have been impressive. The world competition seems to have made Bostrom a better rider and the results have been showing during the second half of the season. Since the Pikes Peak round, which marked the midway point in the season, Bostrom has been the winningest rider in the series.

It’s possible that this could be the last opportunity for U.S. racing fans to watch both Hayden and Bostrom race in person for a while. Both are being mentioned as top candidates for world championship MotoGP and or World Superbike rides for next season.

While the focus will be on the Hayden/Bostrom battle, several other riders hope to close the season on a high note. Chief among those would be three-time and defending AMA Superbike champion Mat Mladin, who holds the official track record with a lap of one minute, 25.428 seconds at 95.238 miles per hour on a Suzuki GSXR750. At VIR, Mladin will be trying to keep from having his first winless season in six years. Last year at VIR, the Aussie was protecting his series lead, but this year he’ll likely pull out all the stops to put his No. 1 Suzuki atop the podium.

Miguel Duhamel is the all-time wins leader in AMA Superbike and is ranked third in the series coming into this weekend’s doubleheader. At 35, Duhamel shows little sign of slowing down. He’s added two more wins to his victory tally already this year with his Road America doubleheader sweep and would love nothing better than to end the season with another pair of victories. This is the second year of the AMA Chevy Trucks U.S. Superbike Championship has visited the recently renovated Virginia International Raceway. The facility has quickly become a rider and fan favorite with its scenic rural surroundings and the track itself offers a great combination of low and high-speed corners and offers viewers some spectacular vistas with its elevation changes.

For additional information contact VIR at (434) 822-7700 or visit www.virclub.com.

Same-day coverage of the Chevy Trucks U.S. Superbike Championship begins at 3:30 p.m. Eastern, Saturday, Aug. 10 (Superbike race 1), with repeats at 8 p.m. and 1 a.m. Sunday’s Superbike final will be live and coverage begins at 3 p.m. Eastern, with repeats at 9 p.m. and 2 a.m., Aug. 11, all on Speed Channel. For immediate post-race results, points, and live transponder scoring from each race in the championship, log on to amaproracing.com’s Superbike Mediacenter, the official home of the AMA Chevy Trucks U.S. Superbike Championship.

From a press release issued by Dr. Rob Tuluie:

Just a quick update from our first Formula USA National at Road America on Aug 4th:

For those of you unfamiliar with Road America, it is one of the best racing circuits in the U.S. and was a recent contender to bring the World Championship Grand Prix back to America. It’s north of Milwaukee, WI, is 4 miles long and features long straights, fast sweepers and several technical turns with elevation changes.

We had been to the track once before in April, but were unable to practice or race most of the time due to horrible weather, with high temperatures in the 40s and continual rains throughout the weekend. Not so this time, the weather was almost perfect and we got in all of our practice sessions. Early on, we noticed a substantial lack of power, which was most likely due to a change of transfer port roof angle I should had avoided in hindsight. We were able to gain some of this back before the race by advancing the ignition timing and praying that the Nutec GP2 fuel would hold the detonation in check (which it did), but were still down about 12 hp (according to the very convenient Formula USA dynojet dyno we used at the track) from what this strong Hot Seat Performance motor produced earlier in the year on the Manley Cycle dyno. While in April we had excellent top speed and the bike would power wheelie all the way to the start finish line, this time around it was noticeably slower on the uphill front straight and required lower overall gearing. In addition, our otherwise excellent AP Brakes proved a bit too aggressive for the entry into Canada corner, which required a very subtle brake manipulation while leaned over and braking hard from top gear into this 2nd gear turn. We retained the AP radial master cylinder but switched to stainless rotors (instead of the cast ones we typically use) and sintered EBC pads rather than the Performance Friction carbon pads which served us so well when we set the lap record at Blackhawk recently. Sounds easy, but it took us several practice session to arrive at the desired combination. So, with the limited practice time available for this huge race event, it was not until the Sunday morning warm-up practice that we finally had the right package together for Steve to put into action. Tom Mason of MRT mounted a fresh set of Michelin slicks and we were ready for the race.

Steve started the Unlimited GP race (also called the “shootout”) in 8th position and promptly knocked 4 seconds of his previous best practice time on the second lap! He was running in the front pack of riders that included Formula USA Unlimited GP champion Mike Himmelsbach, Eric Wood and Vincent Haskovec among others. However, on lap 3 or 4 Steve lost the draft and was unable to stay with the pack, eventually finishing the race in 7th place behind Mike Himmelsbach. On the other hand, Steve finished ahead of about 20 other racers, including many top club racers on GSXR 1000s and 750s, R1s, etc. All considering, a decent finish considering that this was essentially our first time racing at this track. We did learn that it is not enough to have the package all together come race day, but instead need to be closer when we get to the track so Steve can take advantage of a good setup and get used to it during practice. This way he can push the bike early on and allow us to make those subtle but important adjustments to our Ohlins suspension and bike geometry that gain a few tenth of a second here or there. One thing that amazes me is how huge of an overall improvement in laptimes we can produce by getting these details and subtle nuances right. Having a fast bike/rider combination is not just about power, weight or trick bolt-on components, but just as importantly about balance, feel, feedback and working with the rider to make the bike feel the way it works best for him. Using our Pi data acquisition with MTS software and some sound physical reasoning helps a lot in this respect, but experience is just as important. Considering that this was the first time we ran against the national level competition at Formula USA at this demanding track, Steve and I are pretty sure that the next time we can finish on the box! And, by the way, we had jet another full racing weekend of no mechanical/electrical failures or issues.

From a press release issued by Eric Bostrom’s manager:

Eric ready for VIR showdown

Although he still needs to erase a 35 point deficit, Eric Bostrom is going to throw everything he has at Nicky Hayden this weekend at the season finale of the AMA Superbike Championship. The finale will take place at the popular VIR circuit in Alton, Virginia (www.virclub.com). “It’s certainly one of the coolest tracks and facilities on the national circuit that we travel to. It’s got a challenging and clean layout, and it’s pretty safe. Unfortunately, passing is limited. It’s certainly a tough track to pass. But that makes you work harder and makes for really close passing.”

It’s clearly been a Nicky vs. Eric battle all year. And despite Nicky having a 250cc displacement advantage over Eric’s bike, it’s been a remarkably close battle between the two. Many people have asked Eric to describe his tough competitor. “Nicky and I first raced against each other back in ’96 on a dirt track. That was probably the first time. Since then, we’ve been going at it and have had some good battles. When it comes down to it, I think Nick and I are two guys you don’t really want to be racing with at the end. We’re pretty aggressive and we do what it takes to win. Maybe our strategies are different in that I really like to set the pace. I like to get out there and set things on fire early. But we both have an aggressive, charge-the-corners riding style. He’s a tough competitor. But I think the same of myself.”

In order for Eric to win the AMA Superbike title this weekend, he needs to not only win both races, but he needs for Nicky to make a big mistake. How does he see the drama unfolding come Sunday? “I don’t know, actually. That’s what’s great about racing. You never know. You obviously show up wanting to win, and nothing else is good enough. And no matter how it ends up, I want to win both races and hold my head up high. And if I can break away from the start and build a big lead and win like that, that’s certainly the ideal way to win. But if I have to race for it till the end, I’ll put myself in the right position to lead across the stripe. Any lower than first place would be a big disappointment for me.”

From a press release:

Virginia rocks to Aprilia Femmoto

Aprilia USA proudly welcome aboard Michelin Tires as a sponsor of their all-women’s test ride day at Virginia International Raceway, Friday August 9. The US importer will also host two workshops throughout the day, given by Ron Wood and Walt Schaefer, Michelin race specialists.

The one-day event, held on the track’s south course, is booked almost to capacity with only a few test rides left available in the afternoon sessions. This has pleased the Italian motorcycle importers no end, as the fleet available for test riding is made up exclusively of their sports and sports touring fleet. The day has attracted participants new to track riding along with female road racers.

For more information on Aprilia’s Femmoto, contact us directly at 414-305-9901.