Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By David Swarts

Ammar Bazzaz is leaving his position as Technical Liaison for the Yoshimura Suzuki team to start his own business.

“Basically, I’m going to go out and do some freelance work and do some design work on some projects that I wanted to work on,” said Bazzaz Tuesday at Daytona International Speedway. “The relationship with Suzuki is very good; there’s no problem there. I just felt, for me, it was time to look for some new challenges, both technically and personally.

“I’ll be starting out with some basic freelance consultation work, obviously using data acquisition as a pretty important tool, and also implementing integrated data acquisition and fuel systems for race machines. Then I’ll maybe move into some machine parts and possibly suspension, diversifying into some aftermarket fuel-injection equipment, throttle bodies or other aspects of racing, drag racing, etc. I’m working on getting a few projects going in racing. I’ll still be around (the paddock) next year.

“I’ll see where it goes. I’ve got plenty of work to keep me busy for a while, which initially was my fear but that’s gone away. It’s a little scary in one sense. In other ways, it’s a good change for me. It’s exciting, but it’s also strange to leave these guys. I’ve been here almost six years.”

Bazzaz was at the Daytona tire test filling as the data acquisition specialist for Yoshimura Suzuki in place of the departed Hiro Yamaguchi, who left to work with Cosworth Racing in the CART series. Yoshimura Suzuki is currently looking for a new data acquisition specialist.

Bazzaz’s first solo project will be working with the Annandale Honda team to set up the team’s data acquisition/engine management systems on its AMA Formula Xtreme racebikes.

Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By David Swarts

After three seasons in the Superbike World Championship, Ben Bostrom is back in the U.S., riding for American Honda. Bostrom will compete in the AMA Superbike Championship, and will make one guest appearance in 600cc Supersport, riding the new CBR600RR in the season-opening race at Daytona International Speedway.

As rain washed out the first day of the Dunlop Daytona tire tests Monday, most of the riders left the track at lunchtime. Bostrom, however, stayed until the end of the day, and Roadracingworld.com caught up with him in the garage area.

Roadracingworld.com: All the other racers have left. Why are you still here?

Ben Bostrom: Because my crew’s still here.


RW.com: What are your thoughts about coming back to AMA racing?

BB: I’m real excited, real excited. It’s nice to be home.

The last couple of months have been so fun. Right now, I feel that I’m in the best shape of my life. I’ve just been training and playing so hard. I haven’t done this in three years. I’ve almost forgot what it’s like to be feeling strong.

It’s good to be back with everyone again. I’m really fortunate that Honda took me back. I’m lucky, lucky to come home.


RW.com: Over in Europe, did you just have to do a lot of stuff in each hotel’s gym or run laps around the racetrack or what?

BB: Yeah, stuff that actually takes motivation to do. ‘Man, I’ve got to go find a gym.’ And that’s not easy to do in Europe. I can put on my running shoes and go for a run, but there’s a lot of cars, there’s a lot of smog. It’s just not easy to motivate yourself.

Here, I’ve kind of got my friends. I’ve got all my toys. The most important thing is to have my brother there – my life-long competitor. We get up, and we’re like, ‘Let’s do something.’ It’s not like you just go and ride your motocross bike. He’s on the track, too. So, all of a sudden, it becomes this race. Go climbing, and it becomes this who-can-get-to-the-top-off-the-rock-first race. Even if you’re surfing, we’re just going for waves. It’s kind of funny. Everything’s been a real competition. It’s good for your mind, body – I’m stronger than I’ve been for a few years. I’m pretty excited.

Daytona is such a long race. That’s why I wish we were testing right now. Daytona’s kind of a classic. I think everyone would like to say, ‘I won the Daytona 200.’ Just kind of something to put on the shelf there. I don’t think there’s any other race like this. If you think about all the races we have, the Daytona 200 is a classic. I’d love to come here and say we won it. I came to America just for this, to get another shot at it. I thought I’d never get another shot at winning this thing.

The track makes me nervous, but I still want to win so bad. You kind of have to (block the danger out), but it’s always still there. I remember in ’99 after testing, it was almost impossible to hold it wide open. I only did it one lap, and that was probably my qualifying lap, pin it over through (NASCAR) turn four. Otherwise, I would just kind of roll it off and roll it back on again. I bet I was giving up a half-second.


RW.com: What do you think about riding a 600 again, the new CBR600RR?

BB: Normally, I wouldn’t be too excited, to be honest. But in this case, I went and tried the bike out. I did about 10 laps on it, and the thing is awesome! It’s really unbelieveable. It’s probably the first time I could say the bike did everything right.

I’ve ridden several different kinds of bikes. It’s like you’re out in the corner, and no matter what, it’s going to walk the front end wide when you get on the gas. It’s just not going to stick. If you got it to where the front sticks good, you’ve got no grip. But that thing just does everything right. It’s pretty amazing, so I’m pretty excited.


RW.com: Some people say coming back here from World Superbike is a demotion. How do you feel about it?

BB: No, there’s only two good options, really. There’s either go to a GP team and be on A-equipment or not go at all, because it’s just not worth it. Either be on A-tires and A-equipment or just don’t go.

Or come to America, because World Superbike’s lost its…the top five guys left. It’s not going to be as much fun next year. I saw the AMA series would be more competitive, and more than that, I wanted to come home.

I was like, ‘God, I want to come home!’ And there was just no way to come home, because I want to come home to a good team and stuff. When this door opened up, I couldn’t wait to put my foot in there.

Plus it’s good to be back with Honda again. It’s a good company. It’ll be really good for ’03. It’s exciting. The last two months of my life are probably the funnest I’ve had in the last three years. It’s a good welcome home.


RW.com: Do you think the World Superbike series is a hollow Championship this year?

BB: Yeah, it is, unfortunately, because a couple of manufacturers dropped out. I think everyone’s going to be racing Neil (Hodgson). Neil’s got the best bike, the best tires. He’s going to be kind of hard to beat. Hopefully, Ruben will ride really well and push him. At least there will be two guys up there. Granted, they’ll both be on Ducatis, but Ducati stuck with it. So they’ll win the title for sure. It’s theirs for the taking.

But yeah, you come to America, you’ve got all the manufacturers, you’ve got several good riders in it. This is for sure the premier Superbike class next year.


RW.com: What were your options for this year?

BB: We had a couple of GP things and some World Superbike things, but nothing sounded better than coming home.


RW.com: Talk about tires, were they an issue last year?

BB: Yeah, that was an issue for about half the guys, really. What happens some times through history, you see one tire manufacturer, more or less, gain speed on the other one. It’s unfortunate. The first two years I was over there, there was quite the balance between Dunlop and Michelin; that made for really great racing. You’d see probably seven or eight different winners. It was really cool. Every race, it was guaranteed three or four guys had a shot at winning the thing. That was really fun. It was good for the crowd. As a matter of fact, I think that’s what kind of built up the whole crowd.

Then last year, unfortunately, Michelin kind of figured something out. They went ahead and did a good job. They did their homework and controlled the series. They had three riders with Colin (Edwards) and (Troy) Bayliss and Xaus. They pretty much (were the) top three the whole series. I mean, they did a good job and deserved it.

The Dunlop boys worked real hard. Every race they were bringing us a couple new development tires, trying to get it going on. We just never hit it. We were just kind of hoping at some point they were going to hit it and then it would be our turn to win, but it just never happened. I know they’re working hard this year, too, to catch back up.

From a press release issued by Honda Racing Information:

HRC Winter Test Jerez, December 10, 2002.

The Rain in Spain Stays Mainly on Jerez

The HRC winter test at Jerez, in Southern Spain, continued in inclement weather on the second day of the planned three-day test. Rain prevented serious work in the morning and, although it eased off in the afternoon the lack of sunshine saw the track develop half-dry/half-wet conditions for the four HRC riders to contend with.

MotoGP World Champion Valentino Rossi did not participate on day one of the test but took his RC211V Honda out onto the damp 4.423km track today, for nine laps.

“Unfortunately the weather is not good, the track conditions are very tricky. I asked the mechanics if I could take the bike out, even though I had nothing to test, I have not sat on my bike since the last race. But it was not much fun; the track surface was just too wet to enjoy it. I really hope we can get some dry time tomorrow,” said the World Champion.

American Superbike Champion Nicky Hayden had to test. The 21-year old Kentuckian has no experience on the RC211V four-stroke in wet conditions, nor on the Michelin tyres he will use in his debut season at MotoGP level in 2003.

Hayden, who completed 47 bone-chilling laps of Jerez said “For me everything has been positive today. I need to get as many laps in wet conditions as I can; I need to be able to have a good feeling with the bike in the wet. Any experience I can gain here will help me in races.

“I have only the Superbike to compare the RCV with but the RCV feels much more precise than the Superbike in the wet. Even though it is much more powerful than the Superbike, this bike is easier to control. I am beginning to get a very good feeling from it.”

Gresini Honda rider Daijiro Kato continued his testing programme. With no dry time to undertake test on the parts they came to Jerez to try out, Kato concentrated his time on wet-weather set-up.

Kato said. “The rain is not all bad. I had some problems in the wet last season and it’s good to be able to test the bike in these conditions. The four-stroke is heavier than the NSR and the tyres have a different feel. It’s hard to move around. I’m working on my strength to help this. So we can say the test turned out OK for me. But I hope it’s dry tomorrow so we can test what we need to test.”

Tohru Ukawa, the most experienced RC211V rider, was not at all disappointed by the weather and used the conditions to his best possible advantage. Ukawa is more at home in wet conditions than the majority of his rivals, and although he did not revel in the conditions he was happy at the end of the day.

“The weather is obviously not what we wanted and the lap times are not good but I’m happy with what we have done so far. At the very least we have found a really good wet set-up. We have not done all we wanted to but we have tomorrow, and I hope it’s dry. But really we learned a lot about the RCV in the wet,” Ukawa commented.

Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By David Swarts

The annual Dunlop tire test at Daytona International Raceway remained on hold Tuesday due to rain, but officials have arranged to extend the test for an additional half-day on Thursday.

Tuesday started with heavy overnight rains ending, and the prospects of riders getting on track looking good. Riders took trips out onto course in pit vehicles to inspect the drying process early, but rain returned to the famed World Center of Racing at 11:30 a.m. local time and continued into the afternoon. At 1:30 p.m. Eastern Time, some teams had loaded their bikes into their trucks and left the circuit.

Only a few riders actually came to the track Tuesday, opting instead to stay at their hotel waiting to be called to the track by their teams if the track dried enough to ride.

In the meantime, Dunlop National Road Race Manager Jim Allen has made arrangements to extend the tire test into Thursday, December 12 but only until 1:00 p.m. Thursday. Even then, Allen says Dunlop engineers won’t be able to accomplish as much as they had hoped.

“Right away, as soon as you lose track time, you’ve got to prioritize,” said Allen. “It’s very likely that some of the stuff we brought won’t get tested or it won’t get tested as fully as we would have liked it to. If we have a full day tomorrow and a half-a-day on Thursday, we’ll have a-day-and-a-half instead of three days. We won’t be able to test as much or put the distance on as many tires as we wanted to do. We’ll just have to do the best we can.

“Over the years, we’ve been pretty damn lucky, really. We’ve never lost a full day here that I can recall. All the December tests I can recall, half-a-day here, half-a-day there, but I don’t think we’ve ever lost a full day. That goes back to the early ’90s, maybe before. So quite some time.”

Asked if he could spread the new and different compounds, constructions and sizes of Superbike slicks and Supersport DOT-labeled tires over all of the different riders to make the most of the available time, Allen said, “We do that anyway. We sit down, and let’s use Eric Bostrom as an example, he has a really good feel for compounds. So Eric will do the compound testing. Kurtis has a real good feel for casings. So we’ll have him test the casings.

“You get two or three guys to do each of those tasks. Then you can sort of put them together. Eric said this. Kurtis said this. Miguel said this, but he also said this. Then we’ll try and get Eric to try the casings and Kurtis to try the compounds and see what they say there.

“That’s what you try to do. It’s always dangerous to put all of your development into one guy. If the guy’s wrong, then you’re wrong. You try to get two or three different opinions. If they’re all divergent, then you’re really screwed. If they coincide, then that’s a pretty good indication that you’re on to something.”

Allen said that Dunlop brought 21 different combinations of Superbike tires, front and rear, and 16 different combinations of Supersport tires, front and rear, to test. Most of the tires are Daytona-specific, and at least half of the tires are new designs aimed at withstanding the new challenges presented by the revised chicane layout and resulting higher speeds.

From a press release:

TORONTO, ON – The Parts Canada Superbike Championship, Canada’s national motorcycle road racing series will sport a new look when the 2003 season gets underway at Shannonville Motorsport Park May 15-18.

Professional Motorsports Productions, organizer of the national tour has released its final rules package for the coming season. Central to the new regulations are performance restrictions for the feature class, designed to control costs and encourage stronger participation.

Motorcycles racing in the new headline division, still called Superbike, will be faced with a 155 horsepower limit. Minimum weight has been set at 360 pounds while engine displacement is unlimited. There will be an ‘open’ tire rule, meaning slick, or non-treaded tires are permitted. However, they must be mounted on stock 17-inch wheels. Brake and suspension modifications are substantially restricted.

Horsepower will be verified post-race on the series’ official Dynojet Dyno.

“Thanks to the co-operation of Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki and Yamaha we have been able to develop a set of rules that should provide continued excellent racing in the Superbike class,” said Colin Fraser of PMP. “In today’s environment money seems to dictate who can excel in motorsport. We’re doing our best to open the doors for talented riders to compete at the top level, whatever their financial means.”

As part of the implementation of the new rules package, Honda’s RC51 and the Kawasaki ZX-7RR ‘works’ Superbikes have been grandfathered for the 2003 season. They will be allowed to compete next year with additional restrictions agreed between the four major motorcycle manufacturers and PMP.

Those two models were the most exotic equipment involved in the Parts Canada Superbike Championship over the past few years. Steve Crevier won the 2000 and 2001 national title on a Honda Canada RC51 while Owen Weichel placed second in points last year aboard the Canadian Kawasaki Motors prepared ZX-7RR.

In a further move designed to bring new blood into the feature class each of the four participating manufacturers will be required to provide direct factory support to at least three riders in the Superbike division.

Rules have also been finalized for the pro Yoshimura 600 Sport Bike and amateur International Motorcycle SUPERSHOW 600 Sport Bike national support classes in 2003. Power will be restricted to 110 hp and minimum weight is 360 pounds. Both standards are identical to last season’s Yoshimura 600 Sport Bike rules.

Manufacturers will also be required to field three riders in the pro 600 Sport Bike national class.

The Amateur 600 Sport Bike series makes its national debut in 2003. Full details on the new program will be released shortly.

After opening at Shannonville Motorsport Park near Belleville, ON May 15-18 the 2003 Parts Canada Superbike Championship will visit Calgary, St-Eustache, QC; Bowmanville, ON; Shubenacadie, NS; and Mont-Tremblant, QC; before concluding back at Shannonville Aug. 29-31.

The schedule is the busiest for the national tour in almost two decades.

Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By David Swarts

Attack Suzuki’s Jason Pridmore and Bruce Transportation Group Honda’s Marty Craggill are considering racing the 2003 Daytona 200 AMA Superbike race on their respective Formula Xtreme bikes, modified to fit the new-for-2003 Superbike class rules.

“That’s tentative,” said Attack Suzuki team owner Richard Stanboli. “I figured since we’re here it would be a shame just to run one class.”

Stanboli said Pridmore will also probably ride in the AMA Superstock race at Daytona before concentrating on defending his AMA Formula Xtreme Championship on a 2003-model Suzuki GSX-R1000.

Attack Suzuki’s Josh Hayes will also race Formula Xtreme on a new Suzuki GSX-R1000 and will race the Superstock class full-time on a GSX-R750.

Bruce Transportation Group Honda brought an updated version of its CBR954RR Formula Xtreme bike for Craggill to test at Daytona. The bike was fitted with a new ram-air intake system, with vertical intake scoops on the leading edge of each fairing lower, and a new airbox, which utilizes the fuel tank as the top of the airbox for extra internal volume.

“Basically, we’re testing with a Superbike-spec motor,” said Bruce Transportation Group Honda Crew Chief Joey Osowski. “With the (AMA Superbike) rule change, we are able to run the 200. We just have to see where we’re at with it (Honda CBR954RR).”

Osowski says he want to see how competitive the team could be with the CBR954RR before investing in the quick-change pitstop hardware necessary to run the classic 200-mile race. “Where we are right now, it would probably be a two-minute tire change, which is a lot (of time),” said Osowski. “So it’s kind of ridiculous. But if we can get up to speed and figure that we’re running somewhere near qualifying (lap) times, we’ll consider it. Again, we’re doing it as a test to see where we’re at.

“We’re actually looking to do more, again with the rule changes and stuff, looking at 2004 to see where we’re going to be then, whether we’re going to step up and do Superbike in 2004.”

In the meantime, Craggill said he has been preparing to race the Honda CBR600RR, losing nearly 20 pounds in the off-season to be more competitive in his first-ever season racing a 600cc machine.

From a press release issued by Honda:

HONDA RACING INFORMATION
HRC Winter Test Jerez, Spain, December 9, 2002

Heavy Rain Curtails Work on First Day of HRC Winter Test at Jerez

The first day of the planned three-day test session for HRC MotoGP riders, at Jerez, Spain was curtailed due to heavy rain, which poured down until after lunch, and again late in the afternoon.

American Superbike Champion Nicky Hayden took his RC211V five-cylinder four-stroke out onto the rain-soaked track. Hayden has little riding experience on Michelin tyres in dry conditions, less on full wet pattern tyres. The foul weather at Jerez gave the 23-year-old the opportunity to acquaint himself with the Michelin’s wet weather covers he is almost certain to use at some point during the 2003 season.

At the end of the session the soaking wet and freezing Hayden said. “The track is really running with water at times, it was better in the afternoon but rained hard at the end. Basically I was just getting in running time in the conditions. I have never raced on full wets in the U.S. The tracks are not as safe as in Europe.

“I first had to find my way round here on the RC211V. Once I had done a few laps I began to feel comfortable on the bike in the wet, I got a better feel as the day went on. In the end I felt very comfortable out there. The bike is very positive in the wet, and the tyres felt really good. It wasn’t very good for the team gathering information but it was good for my experience.”

Japanese MotoGP stars Daijiro Kato and Tohru Ukawa tested their RC211Vs but could do little more than confirm wet tyre performance. They did not undertake the marathon session Hayden did, both men keeping laps to the minimum necessary in the conditions.

MotoGP World Champion Valentino Rossi did not test today; the Italian preferred to wait for better climes and sat out day one. “It was too rainy today; we had nothing to test in the rain so I decided not to ride at all. Tomorrow I will ride, even if it rains. It’s a pity about today, we had important test for tyres, but slicks!” commented Rossi.

From a press release issued by Ducati Corse:

DUCATI CORSE PRESS INFORMATION
Valencia (Spain)
Monday 9 December, 2002

HODGSON (DUCATI 999 SUPERBIKE) SETS STUNNING LAP TIMES AT VALENCIA

Neil Hodgson (Ducati 999 Factory ’03) set some stunning lap times on the third and final day of Superbike testing at Valencia as the British rider started off his Ducati Corse WSBK campaign in the best possible way with a new unofficial track record. His 1:34.4 mark, set on qualifying tyres, was two-tenths of a second quicker than the time recorded by Bostrom (Ducati L&M) during qualifying for last March’s World Superbike race at the Ricardo Tormo circuit. Hodgson also lapped strongly on race tyres, setting a best time of 1:35.0 during his 89 laps of the track.

Hodgson, who today focussed mainly on Michelin tyre testing, was pleased with the results of the three-day session. “I’m really happy because I didn’t put myself under any pressure at all. We’re working one step at a time and today in particular I didn’t feel I was going for a quick time. I’m really pleased with the 999, and the feeling with it is so good. Even though Valencia is not one of my favourite tracks, I enjoyed riding here and the times came easily.”

Ducati Superbike team-mate Ruben Xaus also managed to set some interesting times during his 56 laps. The Spanish rider recorded a 1:35.2 early in the morning, and said he was enthusiastic about the new 999. “The bike is really good and competitive already”, commented Ruben, “and I like it a lot. We’ve still got a bit of work to do to learn its reactions, because it’s very different to the 998, but it’s already looking a good starting-base for the 2003 championship.”

Ernesto Marinelli, Superbike Track Technical Director, added: “We can consider ourselves satisfied with the outcome of the test. We completed the vast programme of tyre testing, which gave us excellent indications for the race. In addition both riders lapped strongly on race tyres and were satisfied with the bike.”

Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By David Swarts

The Dunlop tire test, scheduled to start today at Daytona International Speedway and run through Wednesday, December 11, is currently on hold due to rain.

Teams and riders in attendance for the test but currently sitting in the garages include:

American Honda: Miguel Duhamel, Ben Bostrom

Erion Honda: Kurtis Roberts, Jake Zemke, Roger Lee Hayden, Alex Gobert

Bruce Transportation Group Honda: Marty Craggill

Yamaha: Damon Buckmaster, Jamie Hacking, Aaron Gobert, Jason DiSalvo

Kawasaki: Eric Bostrom, Tommy Hayden, Tony Meiring

Team Yoshimura Suzuki: Mat Mladin, Aaron Yates, Ben Spies

Attack Suzuki: Jason Pridmore, Josh Hayes

Ducati Austin Racing: Anthony Gobert

The annual test is traditionally the first appearance of most of the following season’s AMA factory and factory-supported road racing teams. This year’s test was more important than in years past as Dunlop technicians needed to gather data from Superbikes running the revised chicane layout of the 3.56-mile infield road course.

In its race debut during the Formula USA/CCS event in October, the new chicane layout resulted in higher speeds on the east banking and much faster lap times, two seconds or more faster per lap. The higher speeds on the banking also led to tire problems for several racers in October, including Dunlop racers.

“Yeah, for sure there’s some concern there,” said Dunlop National Road Race Manager Jim Allen. “Everyone was having a harder time than normal this past October. So we were looking forward to learning as much as we can.”

AMA Pro Racing Superbike Operations Manager Ron Barrick told Roadracingworld.com that the new chicane layout and deciding how AMA Pro Racing would handle the new chicane was part of the reason he came to the tire test.

“Obviously, we need the guys’ feedback to figure out what to do, and we can’t do that with it raining,” said Barrick. “It is something that we have to look at. Whether we need to alter the chicane a little bit to slow their exit speed while still keeping the exit more parallel with the speedway remains to be seen, but the people from the Speedway seem to be willing to help accommodate us.” Barrick is also in Daytona to have his regular meetings with speedway officials to plan the March AMA Superbike race event.

In the past, Dunlop has had a fourth day available as a rain date, but not this year. “That’s how it’s been in the past,” said Allen, “but the track is completely booked. We would like to, but these days the track has the Richard Petty Driving Experience and the Skip Barber schools. So they’re booked up.”

Rain is forecast through Tuesday but not on Wednesday.

In the meantime, riders are killing time by getting acquainted with their new crew members, taking publicity photographs, sorting out their new riding gear, doing media interviews and watching their teams put the finishing touches on their new racebikes.

Honda, Kawasaki and Yamaha teams all have new 600cc Supersport machines; Yoshimura Suzuki has its new 1000cc Superbikes; and Ducati Austin Racing has its 2003-model Ducati 998RS Superbikes. Kawasaki also has its new 636cc ZX-6RRs, identifiable by the lack of swingarm pivot adjustability and black fuel tanks. The 600cc Kawasakis have adjustable swingarm pivots and green fuel tanks.