Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By David Swarts

Pirelli tire technicians tested new 16.5-inch front and rear slicks with racers Geoff May, Mark Junge, Tray Batey and Bill St. John during practice for the WERA Grand National Finals Wednesday at Road Atlanta.

“We think we have DOTs we can win with at the factory level,” said Pirelli North America Racing Manager Rich Munson. “(Arclight Suzuki’s) Lee Acree and Craig Connell, I think, proved that this year. Now we want to prove that with our 16.5 slicks. We want to get our feet wet with a couple of teams to optimize the tires for the American tracks and create a database. We know they work in Europe; we’ve been testing there for the past two years.

“Basically, this is a pre-test to get familiar with the 16.5s. We’re testing different compounds and constructions with our riders that have 16.5-inch wheels to get ready for the 2003 AMA and Formula USA seasons. We want to push into AMA Superbike, Formula Xtreme and Formula USA’s new 600cc Superbike class next year. Geoff May will ride on the 16.5s next year.”

Munson also pointed out that Arclight Suzuki’s Dave Stanton won the AFM Championship using 16.5-inch Pirelli slicks on his GSX-R1000 for the second half of the 2002 season.

“I really like them,” said BCM/Project Monza’s Bill St. John of the 16.5-inch Pirelli slicks he tested Wednesday on his Ducati 998 Superbike. “I only did 10 laps, but I really like them. They make the bike steer better and drive out of the corners a lot better. That was a strong point of the 17-inch Pirellis all year, but these are even better.”

Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By David Swarts

EMGO USA’s AMA Superstock rider Chris “Opie” Caylor survived a high-speed impact with a deer and resulting crash while instructing in a Kevin Schwantz Suzuki School Tuesday at Road Atlanta.

“I had just passed a student on the outside of turn three, the left-hander, and was going down into turn four, the right-hand turn where Rich Oliver crashed his Superbike a few years back. I was in fourth gear and had just flicked back to the right when I saw a deer’s head pop up. I didn’t know if he was just sitting there or what, but as I came around the bend, he sprinted right into my path,” Caylor told Roadracingworld.com.

“I T-boned it, the deer, cut it in half. The hind quarters were laying on the track, the front half was over in the grass by me. I went into the haybales and the wall on rider’s left covered in blood. I’m okay, but I pretty much destroyed the bike.”

Caylor was riding a Suzuki GSX-R750 belonging to the Kevin Schwantz Suzuki School. Caylor’s bike was equipped with an on-board video camera used to record students riding, and Caylor said the video footage shows the impact clearly.

From a press release issued by AMA Pro Racing:

AMA Pro Racing Awards Banquet to be staged by leading production company PGI

AMA Pro Racing has signed PGI, one of the country’s leading event production companies, to produce this year’s AMA Pro Racing Awards Banquet on Saturday evening, Nov. 23, at the Venetian Resort Hotel Las Vegas — home of the Guggenheim Museum’s “Art of the Motorcycle” exhibit. In addition, AMA Pro Racing is proud to announce that Dave Despain, David Sadowski and Cameron Steele will be the hosts of the annual festivities.

“We are pleased to bring PGI aboard,” said Scott Hollingsworth, AMA Pro Racing’s CEO. “With the growth of AMA Pro Racing and the addition of TV coverage of the banquet, it became clear that it was time to bring in a highly-respected company like PGI to raise the level of production for the banquet.”

PGI has over a decade of experience in producing shows for many top companies worldwide, including the National Basketball Association, the Coca Cola Company and Ford Motor Company.

“PGI is looking forward to producing the AMA Pro Racing Awards Banquet,” said Robert Bishop, producer with PGI. “Motorcycle racing is a visually exciting sport and we hope to create a banquet program worthy of these remarkable athletes.”

Chet Burks Productions will provide video highlights of this year’s racing and will be taping portions of the banquet for Speed Channel’s Bike Week.

Motorcycle Hall of Famer Dave Despain will head up the trio of hosts for the awards banquet. Despain is one of the most recognizable personalities in all of motorsports. His motorcycling roots run deep, from his days as an amateur racer in his native Iowa, to heading up the Public Relations Department of the AMA in the 1970s and finally to his illustrious career as a national television announcer and show host.

Joining Despain on the podium at the banquet will be David Sadowski and Cameron Steele. Sadowski is very well known in the motorcycle road-racing community; he was winner of the prestigious Daytona 200 in 1990 and is a former AMA Supersport Champion. After his racing career, Sadowski has become an expert road-racing analyst for Speed Channel and Fox Sports. Steele was a noted freestyle motocross announcer before becoming the field reporter for ESPN’s AMA Chevy Trucks U.S. Motocross Championship coverage in 2002.

The 2002 AMA Pro Racing Awards Banquet will pay tribute to AMA racing champions culminating in the presentation of the AMA/Speed Channel Athlete of the Year Award.

The AMA Pro Racing Awards Banquet is open to the public and tickets are $100, which includes admission to the banquet, hors d’ oeuvres, dinner and admission to the film premier of “The Great Outdoors,” a documentary covering the 2002 AMA Chevy Trucks U.S. Motocross Championship.

For more information on the banquet, call AMA Pro Racing’s Michele Rossi at (614) 856-1910, ext. 1342, or e-mail [email protected]. Hotel rooms are $199 (all suites), plus tax per night and are available by calling the Venetian directly at (702) 414-1000 and asking for the AMA Pro Racing rate.

From a press release issued by Tony Bell:

Jamey Mazzotta and Tony Bell would like to invite you to the Grand Opening of Spectrum Motorsports’ new store.

Spectrum Motorsports, Orange County’s newest Honda, Ducati, Aprilia, Polaris dealer, will have a Grand Opening at its new location 45 Oldfield Rd., Irvine CA 92618 on Saturday, November 2nd, 2002.

The Honda Rider’s club of America will be present along with Honda racers for autograph signing. Erion Racing will bring their race truck and racebikes as will FMF Racing. During the course of the day raffles will take place, the top prizes being a full set of kid’s MX clothing, an Arai helmet, an Alpinestars jacket and a GP Star leather jacket.

There will be several exotic bikes on display including the new Ducati 999, the HRC VTR1000 SPI that Joey Dunlop rode to victory in the 2000 Formula One race at the Isle of Man, the Red Bull Ducati that won the 2001 British Superbike Championship and a Honda RC162 replica of the 1961 four cylinder 250cc racebike.

The event will begin at 10.00 a.m. – hamburgers, hot dogs and sodas will be available throughout the day.


California Speed Shop is proud to announce its affiliation with Spectrum Motorsports of Irvine California

Effective as of October 10, California Speed Shop is now the performance center for Spectrum Motorsports. You can expect the same high level of service along with greatly expanded parts and accessory availability.

Spectrum Motorsports is conveniently located in the Irvine Auto Center where the 5 and the 405 Freeways meet.

From the 5 Freeway south, take Lake Forest, exit and turn left on Lake Forest. Turn right on Rockfield Road at the second light, you’ll find us on the northwest corner of Rockfield and Oldfield about three blocks ahead on the left.

Please come and celebrate with us.

From a press release issued by Yamaha Belgarda, which is based in Italy:

YAMAHA BELGARDA SUPERSPORT CHOOSES PIRELLI

Yamaha Belgarda Supersport Team will use Pirelli tyres on their YZF-R6s in the 2003 World Championship with riders Paolo Casoli and James Whitham.

Yamaha has won four World titles (one rider and three manufacturer) in four superb seasons; Pirelli won the title in this year¹s championship.

The team will return to the track for first tests in November – with the aim of starting the new season next year in optimum competitiveness.

The 2003 Supersport World Championship will begin on March 2nd in Valencia (Spain).

From a press release issued by Rich Oliver:

Nicky Wimbauer is Mystery School Scholarship Student chosen for 2002.

Rich Oliver and partner Sean Edin have selected 14-year-old Nicky Wimbauer as their one and only scholarship student for this season’s Mystery Schools.

The 9th grader from Aurora, Colorado will join our 5-day Hard Core Pro Camp class starting November 21st, 2002.

Nicky has been racing a Yamaha R6, and a Honda RS125 in the MRA and WERA road racing organizations.

Rich Oliver comments on Nicky Wimbauer’s selection, “Nicky is a both a fine young man and a talented rider, so he fits into our program perfectly. He has a wealth of natural ability, the desire, and the drive to succeed in the tough sport of road racing. His parents are very supportive of his aspirations in racing and thought our Mystery School would be very beneficial to his progress.

“Both Sean and I are looking forward to working with him. We think Nicky will surprise some of the other students we have in that class with his abilities. But that’s how our school works, everyone learns from everyone else in the class, no matter experience level, age or gender.

“We will have another Scholarship student for 2003.”

Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

From an e-mail sent by Andrew Nelson’s dad, Rick:

Re: Andrew Nelson FUSA 600 Sportbike Race

Hi guys, I don’t know if there is any interest in this to your readers but I thought I’d send out an update regarding Andrew’s race-ending crash and his condition.

We’ve been inundated with phone calls and e-mail messages regarding Andrew’s condition after his early exit from the Formula USA 600 Sportbike race in Daytona on Sunday. He is fine and is in much better condition than his Shoei helmet.

For those of you who did not see the crash first hand, it would have scored a 10 on any judges score card. Fortunately Andrew only ended up with a sore shoulder and something less than a mild concussion.

Most of you are asking as to what happened as he had been in many races throughout the weekend without incident. Well we feel that the crash stemmed from three contributing factors.

Firstly, Andrew’s race strategy was very aggressive and was to push hard to the front immediately from the start. He knew that drafting some of the faster bikes was going to be tough, with that in mind, he wanted to be leading out of the chicane. (As it turned out, from 8th on the grid to 4th in three corners, was as hoped.)

Secondly, we opted for a harder compound tire for this 12 lap race as the track temperature was at or near to the hottest of the weekend. For the 5-lap CCS races a medium compound tire was used with warmers on for 30 minutes powered through our generator. With the harder compound we looked to warm the tire slightly longer.

On pit road, as we waited for the 5 minute board we noticed that our generator was running in the econo mode which saves fuel but dramatically slows the heating time of the tire warmers. Consequently, the tires would have been warmed equivalently to 10 minutes in regular power mode.

Thirdly, Andrew is always so anxious to get to pre grid he left pit road too early and then proceeded to tour around on his warm-up lap in heavy traffic not fully scrubbing his tires. With so few right hand turns at Daytona, this scrub lap must be done correctly.

In hindsight, our aggressive race strategy should have been curtailed as ‘you can’t with the race in the first corner.’

The result: Andrew is 20 seconds into the race at mid corner in the east orseshoe, knee down pushing hard through a right hand turn, with a cold nscrubbed tire, and completely gets sideways, then airborne, then in the hospital, now wishing he could have continued his weekend-long drafting/braking battles with Jason….congrats.

From a press release:

Foggy PETRONAS Racing Complete First Overseas Test

Foggy PETRONAS Racing, the World Superbike team owned by riding legend Carl Fogarty and backed by Malaysian petroleum giants PETRONAS, have successfully completed their first overseas test.

Although adverse weather and track conditions at the Eurospeedway in Lausitz, Germany, reduced the time available on the track, the four-times World Superbike champion was pleased with results.

Foggy said: “As we are a brand new team with a brand new bike, whatever testing we do at this stage is going to be worthwhile. The chassis is responding well to adjustments and I am confident we will be able to improve engine performance.”

Nigel Bosworth, Team Manager, added: “Given the stage of development and tuning of the engine, we are really encouraged by the riders’ lap times which are not far off the middle of the grid expectations. It is also worth bearing in mind that those lap times were set without a qualifying bike set-up or the best tyre compounds.”

Both Foggy PETRONAS Racing riders, Troy Corser and James Haydon, began the test by working through basic set-up evaluations to include front and rear suspension, rear shock positions, ride heights and rider comfort factors.

The development of the Foggy FP1 continued on the second and third days as efforts turned to geometry settings, tyre evaluation, engine mapping and temperature systems development.

Comprehensive rider feedback and telemetry data gained from the tricky Eurospeedway circuit – with its bumpy slow corners, awkward ‘S’ bends, long sweeping corners and fast straights – has provided the team with valuable data from the FP1’s systems and a greater understanding of the bike’s behaviour under different conditions.

Following on from track tests in England, and before moving to warmer circuits of southern Europe for testing throughout the next two months, the team continue to make significant steps forward in the build-up to their race debut in the 2003 World Superbike championship.

Experience Aussie rider, Troy Corser, commented: “We completed a good number of laps, made changes to the front and rear of the bike and definitely made some steps forward with the set-up.

“I didn’t want to go changing too many things but just take small steps at a time and really feel those changes to put the whole picture together and form a better way forward. I was going faster without trying any harder so the bike is clearly getting better.”

James Haydon, after his first experience of the Eurospeedway circuit, said: “I can tell we have made big improvements with my bike resulting in four seconds being taken off my lap times, which is great.

“I’m more comfortable on the bike as well and, all things considered, I feel we got as much out of this test as we could given the adverse weather and track conditions.”

From a press release issued by the AMA:

U.S. House Committee Backs New Motorcycle Crash Study

PICKERINGTON, Ohio — A key U.S. House committee has taken the first step toward updating the famous Hurt Study of motorcycle accidents by earmarking $2 million for detailed safety research into motorcycles and other motor vehicles, the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) reports.

The Hurt Study, officially called “Motorcycle Accident Cause Factors and Identification of Countermeasures,” was completed by lead researcher Harry Hurt more than two decades ago. Yet it remains the most comprehensive study to date on the causes of motorcycle crashes.

After repeated calls by the AMA for new comprehensive research on the subject, the House Appropriations Committee has recommended giving the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) $2 million to begin updating its 23-year-old study into the causes of motor-vehicle crashes.

For the past several years, the AMA has asked the NHTSA to conduct a nationwide study of motorcycling accidents that would help identify elements that can improve rider safety. In 2000, the NHTSA and the Motorcycle Safety Foundation released a National Agenda for Motorcycle Safety to serve as a blueprint for improving motorcycling safety. Representatives of the AMA, Motorcycle Riders Foundation, and others interested in motorcycling safety were part of a team that helped shape the plan, which calls for more research into the causes of motorcycle accidents and potential ways to reduce them.

In earmarking the $2 million, the U.S. House committee made it clear that motorcycles should be an important part of the new motor-vehicle crash research.

“While NHTSA continues to utilize the data from this old study, the information is clearly outdated. For example, the use of minivans, light trucks and sport utility vehicles were virtually nonexistent 23 years ago; vehicle technologies, such as antilock braking systems and stability control systems, did not exist, and distracting devices, such as cell phones and in-vehicle navigation systems, had not been introduced,” the committee said in a report accompanying the appropriation recommendation.

“An updated study is necessary so that NHTSA can continue to work on achieving substantial reductions in highway fatalities and injuries, particularly in those hard to reach areas such as alcohol-related fatalities and motorcycle fatalities,” the committee said. The Senate hasn’t taken a position on the appropriation.

Edward Moreland, AMA vice president for government relations, urged motorcyclists to contact their U.S. representatives and senators to ask them to support the House funding for motor-vehicle safety research that is included in HR 5559.

The funding is a far cry from the amount needed for a comprehensive motorcycle accident study, but it’s a move in the right direction, Moreland said.

“This funding proposal isn’t a done deal, so it’s extremely important that motorcyclists contact their lawmakers,” Moreland added. “It will take a lot of work, but I’m confident that through the efforts of AMA members and others in the motorcycling community, we’ll see the beginning of new motorcycle crash research.”

The AMA makes it easy for motorcyclists to take action. Just go to the Rapid Response Center at the AMA website at www.AMADirectlink.com and click on the “Fund National Motorcycle Crash Study” alert to find a pre-written message to send to your elected officials.

This summer, Moreland testified before Congress on the need for an in-depth study into the causes of motorcycle crashes.

“The last such study was completed and released over 21 years ago,” Moreland told the U.S. House Subcommittee on Highways and Transit. “The changing dynamics of motorcycling, infrastructure and safety measures demand modern, comprehensive and impartial research.”