Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

Nicky Hayden on a Honda RC211V was the fastest rider in two days of testing at Suzuka Circuit, Tuesday and Wednesday, according to reader Naoko Ota, who e-mailed:

“Tuesday was very, very cold. No sunshine! Nicky’s face was red with cold. According to the news, air temperature 10 degrees C.

“Nicky marked the fastest lap time on 2:08.9 (46 laps)
“Kawasaki, Pitt, 2:11.0 (50 laps)
“Moriwaki, Okuno 2:11.1 (58 laps)

“Wednesday was very windy and cold. According to the news, air temperature 12 degrees C.

“Nicky, 2:07.2 (45 laps)
“Kawasaki, Pitt, 2:11.2 (50 laps)
“Moriwaki, Okuno, 2:12.2 (40 laps)”

From a press release issued by WCM:

New MotoGP Racing Machine

A piece of history has been created with the announcement of a new name in Moto GP.



Harris WCM

Harris Performance Products and World Championship Motorsport have formed a partnership to build a new Grand Prix racer.

Harris bring 25 years of rolling chassis experience to the project including the manufacture of the Harris Yamaha 500 GP machines that started in 1992.

WCM has also been running a GP team since 1992, from 1997 as the multi Grand Prix winning Red Bull Yamaha Team.

MotoGP 2003 features the most impressive line up of machinery and riders ever assembled on the starting grid. Honda, Ducati, Kawasaki, Suzuki, Yamaha and Aprilia are all represented for the first time by full factory backed teams.

The demands of competing in such illustrious company are not to be underestimated. It is not impossible as the equally independent Proton KR team were a thorn in the sides of the major factories in 2002. Both Harris and WCM know very well how tough racing at this level is.

The Hertford based company built Harris Yamahas for sale from 1992 when Yamaha made their YZR500 engine available. In 1996, ’97 and ’98 Harris ran the official factory Suzuki World Superbike Team. Harris were chosen by Sauber Petronas Engineering as chassis partner for their MotoGP project.

Having campaigned the factory YZR500 Yamahas from 1997 to 2002 WCM has a huge body of knowledge that they add to the Harris experience. The Yamaha factory clearly used the same YZR500 as a starting point for the M1 MotoGP machine.

As a starting point for the engine WCM will employ much modified R1 components. More than anything this is necessary to fit in with the time constraints. The engine cases and cylinder head will be WCM designed items in keeping with the FIM regulations for MotoGP.

In charge of the WCM engine project is Dave Hagen. The West Sussex based engineer is one of the most respected names in motorcycle four-stroke racing and has plotted a clear development path. Right from the start the pistons, valves, cams etc. will be purpose built items but by taking this route there is no doubt that power plants can be made ready for testing along with the chassis in February. From the start of testing 180 bhp will be available increasing to 200 bhp or beyond.

The development of the engine is open ended and could eventually see a new unit designed from the ground up. On the other hand there is also the strong possibility that the partnership with Harris may continue into 2004 using engines from one of the major manufacturers and raced by them in Moto GP.

Harris WCM is not the only machine in the championship produced by an independent team. Team Proton KR had their first bike on the track in 1997 but for 2003 they will have an all new five cylinder four stroke.

For the time being thoughts of similarly starting with a clean sheet of paper are distant and the efforts of both Harris and WCM are focussed on the realistic task of having motorcycles for two riders being tested in February.

Riders and title sponsor will be announced in due course.

Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By David Swarts

Honda may enter a CBR954RR in the AMA Superbike series in 2003. That possibility was not ruled out Wednesday in conversations with key players on the Erion Honda and American Honda road racing programs.

Erion Honda’s Jake Zemke, usually a pretty straight-forward guy, seemed slightly uneasy with the question of if he would be riding a CBR954RR in Superbike in 2003, saying, “You’d have to talk to Kevin (Erion). As far as I know, no. That’s not really my call to make, so I don’t know. I just ride what they tell me to, but I don’t think that’s really in our plans. We’re gonna have our hands full with (Formula) Xtreme and 600 (Supersport). I don’t think we’re going to try three classes. We’d have to have a whole ‘nother (extra) crew to do that, I think.”

When we asked American Honda’s Chuck Miller, Racing Manager for all of American Honda’s racing teams, if a CBR954RR would be raced by one of his support teams in AMA Superbike in 2003, he said, “That’s up to the teams. It’s not a plan, no. That’s a question for each individual team on what their plans are.

“Our support with those teams is for the 600 class and then Formula Xtreme class. Some of them have discussed they might, they might not, they don’t know. But they have limited resources through American Honda and to do that they would have to gain additional resources, obviously, to try and support that. And, who can ride three classes at all of these events. It might be very difficult. Again, that’s up to those individual teams on what their plans are.”

Both Zemke and Miller pointed out how difficult it would be but didn’t exactly slam the door shut on the possibility. So Roadracingworld.com called Erion Honda team owner Kevin Erion and asked him if he would field a CBR954RR in the 2003 AMA Superbike series. Erion said, “We’ll just have to wait and see. I think at Daytona our focus will be on 600s. At the remaining races, it’s yet to be determined.”

No Limits Motorsports Honda’s Doug Chandler has mentioned in published reports that he is considering riding a CBR954RR in AMA Superbike, in addition to his Supersport and Formula Xtreme duties.

Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By David Swarts

American Honda has renewed its multi-year sponsorship/marketing/licensing deal with Universal Studios.

“Universal will be one of the team sponsors. Actually, all of our sponsors are the same on road race,” said American Honda Team Manager Chuck Miller Wednesday. “(The deal) was up for renewal, we have renewed, and we will continue our relationship with them – both on a sponsorship level as well as a marketing and licensing level. So it’s kind of a double-edged attack on our relationship and what we’re doing with them.

“Supercross, motocross, road race, all the same. Logos will be on the bikes, logos on the trucks, value to the team and marketing value also back to the company, as far as through our licensing agreement making toys and games and hats and whatever.”

Over the last two years, fans have become familiar with the promotional activities of the American Honda race teams for Universal Studios feature films such as The Mummy Returns, The Skorpion King, etc. But the relationship between American Honda and Universal will bear new fruit this holiday season.

“Actually, if you go into Target and K-mart, you’ll see bicycles, games and toys, everything with ‘Honda Racing’ – with our logo and the Honda name and our sponsors – on all of it,” said Miller. “This Christmas is really the big year that all the stuff is hitting retail. That also was one of the factors in continuing the relationship, to continue to nurture it.

“We’ve already seen the bicycles and skateboards and stuff in the stores. There’s like three different bicycles.

“There’s also this really cool thing they have, it’s an engine. It’s a Honda engine made out of plastic that you bolt onto your bicycle. I remember I used to have one when I was a kid. You rev it up and it goes, ‘BRRRP! BRRRP! BRRRP!’ really loud. So kids can bolt this on their bicycles and go riding down the street, and it mimics a motorcycle sound. It’s pretty cool, actually. It’s just a noise maker, but they’ve got different notes, too. They’ve got CR (two-stroke and four-stroke motocross) sounds, they’ve got road bike sounds.”

Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By David Swarts

American Honda held a two-day test session November 25-26 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in Las Vegas, Nevada for new Honda riders and teams to become acquainted before heading to the Dunlop tire tests at Daytona next month.

“Just to get everybody familiar working with their new crew. Nothing in particular. Just got new team members (working together) and everybody out there riding around and getting to know each other,” said American Honda Team Manager Chuck Miller. “It was in conjunction with the AMA awards ceremony. We were all out there, so we just went out to the speedway there as well to get a little bit of track time. It was windy and chilly, but we got some good track time. Again, more of it was just to get everybody in synch with each other; we’ve got some new team members this year. Before you can get into the deep testing and development, it’s more of just getting the personalities lined up and helping teach the new guys where everything goes in the truck. We’ve got the real testing starting at Daytona, then we have a pretty aggressive test schedule through the off-season to try and get prepared for (the season opening race at) Daytona.”

Taking part in the test were American Honda’s Miguel Duhamel and Ben Bostrom; Erion Honda’s Kurtis Roberts, Jake Zemke and Roger Lee Hayden; Bruce Transportation Group Honda’s Marty Craggill and Jason Curtis of the No Limits Motorsports Honda squad.

Honda only had one 2003 CBR600RR available, and the bike was shared by several riders. “Everybody rode it,” said Miller. “We had a few items we wanted to start Miguel with to test. Again, it was cold, and we weren’t there from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. or anything like that. The first day was kind of a slow start, and Miguel kind of rode it the first day. The second day, Ben and Jake and Roger. I think everybody but Marty ended up throwing a leg over the thing and taking it out for a little bit. Nothing real significant except that it was the first time they had all been on it. So it was nice to get everybody a little bit of time on it before we get to Daytona. We only have one, but we’re hoping to get our other ones here in the near future so we can all be testing on them at Daytona.”

“It was a street bike that they just put bodywork on; it had suspension and a pipe,” said Zemke of the CBR600RR test bike. “Miguel rode that quite a bit. Ben rode it a little bit, a few laps. I got like 10 laps on it, and Rog, I think, got four or five laps on it.

“It was good. Daytona (the race) could be tomorrow, and it would be just fine. (laughs) The thing is awesome, actually. I only rode it for 10 laps and the tires were completely roached by the time I got on it, but the thing was completely unreal! The thing is really, really good. Once we have time to play with it, them boys are in trouble this year, I think.

“We were just sorting through some stuff we already had,” continued Zemke on his 954 testing. “We tried a couple of things, a different set of forks, stuff like that. Just kind of fine-tuning it really. Not really anything new to throw at the thing, just trying to make what we’ve got a little better.”

Conditions were not ideal as the test was hampered by low temperatures, but more importantly, by the strong winds that have been ravaging the southwest United States recently. “The wind out there was unreal!” said Zemke. “The wind was just howling; it was blowing like mad! The first day was really bad. I think it was gusting to like 50 (mph). It was blowing you all over the place, so we didn’t really ride that hard. The second day, it was only blowing about 25, so it was a little bit better but it was still pretty bad.”

The conditions may have caught Kurtis Roberts out as he crashed the first day, injuring his thumb enough to not ride the second day. “He jammed his thumb. Nothing more than that,” said Miller. “It was sore, and again, the conditions were poor out there with the wind blowing. There wasn’t much testing going on. It was more just kind of some riding and joking more than anything else.

“It was sore the second day. He decided not to ride because the conditions were the same. He had just come from Vegas the week before. We had done some testing with him out there. He had very little to gain, so he opted to sit out the second day.

“He didn’t think it was going to be that big of a deal. He could move it, it wasn’t swollen, it wasn’t blue, nothing like that. So we don’t anticipate any problem there, and he is planning on coming to Daytona. Nothing major at this point at least.”

Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By David Swarts

Repsol Honda’s Nicky Hayden and Kawasaki’s Andrew Pitt are testing today at Suzuka Circuit in Japan.

After picking up his AMA Superbike Championship hardware Saturday, November 23 at the AMA Pro Racing awards banquet in Las Vegas, Nevada, Hayden flew to Japan for a two-day test on the Honda RC211V MotoGP machine November 26 and 27 at Suzuka.

Hayden previously tested the RC211V at Motegi Twin-Ring November 13-14 and has tested at Suzuka on a RC51 Superbike in December of 2000.

Hayden will share the Suzuka track with Australian Pitt and the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-RR. Pitt will not be joined, however, by countryman and teammate Garry McCoy. According to sources in Europe, McCoy is having surgical hardware removed from the leg he broke during testing prior to the 2002 season.

After the test in Japan, Hayden will fly to Europe where he will ride December 2-3 at Valencia in Spain. There, Hayden will be joined by fellow Honda MotoGP racers Max Biaggi, Daijiro Kato, Tohru Ukawa, Sete Gibernau and 2002 MotoGP Champion Valentino Rossi.

A few days later, Hayden will resume testing at Jerez in Spain before taking a holiday break until late-January.

After the Honda riders leave Valencia, Yamaha’s Olivier Jacque, Carlos Checa, Alex Barros and Marco Melandri will move in for three days of testing December 4-6.

From a press release issued by Infineon Raceway, formerly known as Sears Point Raceway:

Thanksgiving Food Drive Reels In More Than 1,000 Pounds of Food for FISH

SONOMA, Calif. (IMMEDIATE RELEASE) – Infineon Raceway made a donation of more than 1,000 pounds of non-perishable food items to Friends in Sonoma Helping (FISH) following the facility’s 2nd annual Thanksgiving Food Drive.

The food will be used by FISH to assist needy Sonoma Valley residents during the 2002 holiday season. Infineon Raceway has generated more than 2,000 pounds of non-perishable food items over the last two years with its Thanksgiving Food Drive. FISH supplied more than 1,900 households with three days of groceries in 2001, and more than 2,500 calls for food requests continue to come in each year.

Those who donated at least three non-perishable food items in 2002 were rewarded with a ticket voucher good for one admission to the raceway’s AMA Supercuts Superbike Challenge qualifying on Friday, May 2 (2003). In addition to Infineon Raceway, other partners in the program were: Destination RKA in Healdsburg, Maverick Media, home to Froggy 92.9 FM, The Fox 101.7 FM and Magic 97.7 KMGG in the North Bay, Sonoma County Mary’s Pizza Shack restaurants and Bay Area Cycle Gear locations.

Next up on the community calendar at Infineon Raceway will be the 2nd annual “High Speed Blood Drive” on Tuesday, Jan. 21, from noon-6 p.m. In association with the American Red Cross and “The Bone (107.7 FM in San Francisco)” Infineon Raceway will open its gates to help the Red Cross meet its blood demands. To help get hearts pumping before giving blood, those who visit the raceway between noon and 5 p.m. will be treated to a rare “hot lap” around the world famous Infineon Raceway road course by a professional racecar instructor. For more information, please contact Diana Rose by e-mail at [email protected] or at (707) 938-8448, ext. 118.

Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By David Swarts

Former World Superbike Champion Troy Bayliss will not get to run #21 in MotoGP in 2003. The #21 currently belongs to Suzuki’s John Hopkins.

Bayliss explained the situation in his online diary entry for today, on www.ducati.com, writing, “if anyone’s looking for me in the paddock, you’d better look for #12. I wanted to keep #21 but can you imagine someone coming into Superbike and asking me to give up #21? So next year I’m #12 and in the last three years I’ve been, #1, #2 and #21, so it’s just 21 backwards. I sort of wanted #32 as I won the British Championship with that, but anyway, I’m #12 from now on. When it comes down to it, it’s only really a number, it’s not that important, but I reckon it’ll look pretty good, just look for the red bike with #12 on it going round and round in circles… that’ll be me.”