Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By Michael Hannas

Greg Moore piloted his Michelin DOT-shod Suzuki GSX-Rs sponsored by Buzz’s Psycles to five wins Friday and Saturday during the WERA GNF at Road Atlanta. Moore won every race he entered, including B Superstock Novice, C Superstock Novice, C Superbike Novice, B Superbike Novice, and Formula 1 Novice.

Jeff Walker kept Moore honest in each race, with the best battle between the two coming in C Superbike Novice, where Moore made the pass for the win on the final lap when Walker was held up by a lapper entering turn 10a.

Moore dropped his lap times into the 1:28 range by the end of the day, which is less than two seconds off the best times done so far this weekend by GSX-R750 Suzuki Cup Final participants.

Walker came home with three second-place finishes and two third-places on a Suzuki GSX-R600 borrowed from Army of Darkness.

Other Novice winners on the weekend included Phillip Chapin, who won the Lightweight Twins Novice Sportsman race on his Suzuki SV650 but was DQ’d from victory in D Superbike Novice for illegal intake modifications. The D Superbike win was given to Martin Musi, who also ran a Suzuki SV650. Lance Pentecost took the win in Clubman Novice on his Ducati 750SS, while Kevin Cesar was the fastest in the Crusty Old Racers Class (a.k.a. CORC, for riders older than age 40), taking the CORC Novice win on his Suzuki GSXR750. Phillip Fortune took his SV650 to victory in Formula 2 Novice. The Lightweight Twins Novice National was won by Sam Snellenberger on a Suzuki SV650, and Snellenberger also took second to Brad Ervin on a Ducati 996 in the Heavyweight Twins Novice Sportsman race.

Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

AMA Superbike Champion Nicky Hayden will attend the final MotoGP race of the season next weekend, in Valencia, Spain.

Hayden is attending the race to get a feel for the MotoGP paddock.

Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By David Swarts

$80,000 worth of Suzuki Cup purse checks were stolen from American Suzuki at Road Atlanta.

“Unfortunately, I need to call on everyone to give us a hand,” said American Suzuki Sports Promotions On-road Specialist Morgan Broadhead at a rider’s meeting moments ago. “Yesterday (Saturday), someone stole $80,000 worth of Suzuki Cup checks out of our van.

“Unless I find those checks, there are going to be a lot of disappointed people.”

The main result of the checks being stolen is that Broadhead cannot distribute checks to Suzuki Cup racers Sunday night, which is what Suzuki representatives usually do. Broadhead said that the stolen checks cannot be cashed.

Broadhead said no questions would be asked if the checks were returned.

More details as they become available.


Update:

A black computer bag containing $80,000 worth of Suzuki Cup purse checks–which American Suzuki representatives thought were stolen–was found at approximately 11:30 a.m. local time near a Suzuki semi-truck in the Road Atlanta paddock.

“We don’t know where they were or how they got to where we found them; we’re just happy they turned up,” Morgan Broadhead told Roadracingworld.com.

Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By David Swarts

2002 AMA Superbike Rookie of the Year Brian Livengood suffered a broken left ankle when he hit a wall after crashing in an unofficial practice session at Road Atlanta Tuesday, October 22, before Air Fence and Alpina Air Module sections were deployed for the start of official practice. Livengood planned to race in the GSX-R750 Suzuki Cup Finals this weekend before traveling to the Macau Grand Prix in November but will now be out at least two to three weeks.

“Basically, I went into turn four, and the front just went,” said Livengood Saturday at Road Atlanta. “(Another racer) told me he saw a knee puck in the corner, and I think I might have hit it. Normally, you can feel the front end go, but this time the front just went.

“I slid on my butt and tried to spin, but I went into the wall feet-first. The bike went in first and cleared out the haybales, and I hit the bare wall.”

Livengood said he broke “a couple of bones” in his left ankle but underwent two hours of successful surgery to screw and plate the ankle back together at the Piedmont Medical Center in Atlanta, Georgia on Wednesday.

Livengood pointed out that he will still be training, as best he can, while off his feet and is still looking for a ride for 2003.

Vincent Haskovec will take Livengood’s place on the North American Macau team. Haskovec will ride his SGI-sponsored Suzuki GSX-R750 and will work with mechanic Mike Godin.


Meanwhile, young gun Matt Furtek was taken out of the Suzuki Cup Finals by an aggravated wrist injury; a surgical screw due to be removed after the GNF started backing out, causing Furtek’s hand to go numb. Furtek, 17, was riding for Valvoline EMGO Suzuki in both the GSX-R600 and GSX-R750 Suzuki Cup classes.

Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

American Suzuki’s Morgan Broadhead turns 32 today.

Broadhead is at Road Atlanta administering the Suzuki Cup Finals.

Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By Michael Hannas

Former WSMC 125cc GP Champion Kevin Murray has returned to racing after suffering life-threatening injuries during a dirt bike accident almost a year and a half ago. Murray raced his Yamaha TZ125 in the WERA 125cc Grand Prix final Saturday at Road Atlanta, marking his first race back since his injury. Murray finished 13th in the race, one lap behind winner Brian Kcraget, but had a good time in his return to racing.

“I just wanted to drive home on I-20 West without a crashed bike!” said Murray. “I felt pretty good out there, my balance is still a little messed up, so I just took it real easy. I was doing a little R&D, tried a longer rod which worked out really well; the thing was like a four-stroke Single it was so torquey. I was just really timid out there. My goal was to survive. I mean, I was on life support 16 months ago, which was actually like a vacation. I didn’t even have to breathe. This is more work, but it’s also more fun.”

Murray wasn’t specific about his future plans, but did say he was planning on getting another 250 sometime soon. He definitely still plans on racing though, saying “Yeah, you know me, I’ll probably be racing 125s till I’m 120 years old!”

Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By David Swarts

Mike Smith, John Haner, Tray Batey and Bradley Champion won Suzuki Cup qualifying heat races Saturday at Road Atlanta.

The GSX-R600 heat race featured a six-rider drafting war for the lead involving Marietta Motorsports’ Smith, John Jacobi, Robert Jensen, Vincent Haskovec, Jeff Tigert and Brian Stokes. Smith came from the fourth row of the grid to take the checkered flag a fraction of a second ahead of Haskovec, Factory Pro’s Tigert, Stokes, Jensen and Jacobi. Shan Ball, Danny Eslick from row 12, Chris “Opie” Caylor from row 15 and Scott Harwell rounded out the top 10.

SGI’s Haskovec will start Sunday’s 10-lap GSX-R600 final from pole position, because he was the highest-finishing regional points leader.

Smith, Haskovec, Batey, Haner and Stokes battled flag-to-flag in the GSX-R750 heat. Haner and Batey diced for the lead early in the six-lap sprint allowing Smith to catch up from the seventh row of the grid. Smith took the lead on the white-flag lap with four pursuers in his draft. On the final lap Haskovec caught a double draft down the back straightaway and passed Batey and Haner for second. Going for the trifecta, Haskovec tried to outbrake Smith at the end of the back straight but ran wide into the chicane. Smith got away cleanly to take the win while Batey, Haskovec and Haner exited the chicane three-wide. Haner nearly highsided coming up the hill leaving 42-year-old Batey and Haskovec to decide second. Haskovec held the inside line and was able to beat Batey through the final corner and to the checkered flag by a wheel. Batey took third ahead of Haner, Stokes, Jensen, Harwell, Caylor, Shawn Conrad and Scott Carpenter.

After the race, Haskovec’s GSX-R750 went over the 135.0-horsepower limit. Haskovec will start from the back of the grid. Haner will start Sunday’s 10-lap GSX-R750 final from pole position based on being the highest-finishing regional points leader.

Roadracingworld.com’s Haner got his moment in the sun when he ran Smith down from behind to take the GSX-R1000 heat race win. Smith held on for a close second with Haskovec third; Mark Junge was fourth with Geoff May, Caylor, Jensen, Harwell, Fritz Kling and Carpenter filling the top 10 slots.

By virtue of being the highest-finishing regional point leader, Junge will start the 10-lap GSX-R1000 Cup final from pole position.

Early in the afternoon race program Vesrah Suzuki’s Batey, the defending TL1000R Suzuki Cup Champion, ran away with the TL1000R heat race win. Lapping as fast as 1:30.2, Batey won by 11 seconds over Shawn Stinnett, Scott Brown, Fred Farzanegan, Tim Brewer, Russell Masecar and Doug Glass in the seven-entry TL1000R class.

Batey will start Sunday’s 10-lap TL1000R Cup Final from pole position.

The battle for the Suzuki SV650 qualifier win whittled down to five riders by lap four of six with Chris Normand, John Linder, Greg Harrison, David Yaakov and Champion in the lead group. MB Motorsports/Richmond Suzuki’s Champion tooek the lead on lap four of six and went on to win by 0.94-second. Yaakov took second while Harrison snuck under Linder in the final corner for third. Normand finished fifth with Brian Suffridge, Stinnett, Kyle Ray, Bernie Huntt and Bradley Duncan not far behind.

Champion will start from pole position for Sunday’s 10-lap SV650 Cup Final.

Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By David Swarts

Retired AMA and World Superbike Champion Scott Russell wants to make a professonal racing comeback with HMC Ducati, and says he wants to start his comeback with a win at Daytona before heading to Europe to contest the Superbike World Championship.

“It’s all up in the air right now,” Russell said Saturday at Road Atlanta. “We want to go racing. I’ve got some hurdles to jump over and hoops to jump through. So we’ll see what happens, legally.”

Russell did not want to discuss the specifics of the legal hurdles, thought to be settlement of a total disability insurance payout he received after he was badly injured in a starting-grid incident at the 2001 Daytona 200. Instead, Russell quickly changed the topic to say, “Money for sponsorship is what we’re looking for, for the team.”

Russell recently returned from two test sessions, one at the Pannonia Ring in Hungary and another at Mugello in Italy, where he rode Doug Chandler’s 2002 Ducati 998RS. “I tested the bike twice in Europe, and I love it. I still can go fast. I want to go win Daytona again.

“I’m 90 percent (physically). By Daytona, I’ll be 110, and I’m good mentally. I’m back. I wasn’t done anyway, you know. It was a bullshit deal what happened to me (in the Daytona starting grid crash). It was my fault, and I won’t make that mistake again.

“It could be a bit easier (to find sponsorship in Europe),” said Russell when asked about the decision to possibly race in World Superbike. “AMA is what it is. Of course, the World Championship is a lot more important to a lot of people. So we’re working on either or. It’s up in the air. Hopefully, we’ll do a little bit of both – most of the World Superbike and then Daytona and some in between.

“I don’t have a relationship with Ducati, personally, because I never got started with one. I would think, right now, we’re not looking to get too much help from them. We got what we got, and we’re going to have to buy what we need.”

Russell is at Road Atlanta to race in a SuperTT event during the WERA Grand National Finals weekend and is “just hanging out, having a good time.” Russell rode a Honda XR100 and a 660cc KTM LC4 SuperMotard bike on Maxxis tires Saturday on a course laid out in the AMA paddock inside the Road Atlanta road course.

“I’ve ridden a lot of different stuff,” said Russell. “I’ve been interested in riding this bike (KTM), and luckily they got one for me to ride. So we’ll see what it’s like. It should be good.”

Other road racers competing in the SuperTT event at Road Atlanta include Mike Smith, Kevin Schwantz and Brian Gibbs. 2002 AMA Supersport Champion Aaron Yates was expected to show up to race, but he hadn’t been seen at post time.

Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

Fastest Lap Times From Saturday’s Suzuki Cup Heat Races At Road Atlanta:

SV650: Bradley Champion 1:36.187

TL1000: Tray Batey 1:30.936

GSX-R1000: Vincent Haskovec 1:26.982

GSX-R750: Mike Smith 1:27.088

GSX-R600: Vincent Haskovec 1:29.512