Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

MotoGP Top Speeds From Motegi:

1. Daijiro Kato, Honda RC211V, 177.2 mph, 285.2 kph

2. Valentino Rossi, Honda RC211V, 177.1 mph, 285.0 kph

3. Alex Barros, Honda RC211V, 175.8 mph, 283.0 kph

4. Carlos Checa, Yamaha YZR-M1, 175.8 mph, 282.9 kph

5. Wataru Yoshikawa, Yamaha YZR-M1, 175.7 mph, 282.7 kph

6. Tohru Ukawa, Honda RC211V, 175.1 mph, 281.8 kph

7. Max Biaggi, Yamaha YZR-M1, 173.4 mph, 279.1 kph

8. Loris Capirossi, Honda NSR500, 173.0 mph, 278.4 kph

9. Norick Abe, Yamaha YZR500, 172.7 mph, 277.9 kph

10. John Hopkins, Yamaha YZR500, 172.3 mph, 277.3 kph

11. Kenny Roberts, Suzuki GSV-R, 171.1 mph, 275.4 kph

12. Sete Gibernau, Suzuki GSV-R, 170.7 mph, 274.8 kph

13. Olivier Jacque, Yamaha YZR500, 170.4 mph, 274.3 kph

14. Akira Yanagawa, Kawasaki ZX-RR, 169.6 mph, 272.9 kph

15. Tetsuya Harada, Honda NSR500, 169.4 mph, 272.6 kph

16. Jurgen vd Goorbergh, Honda NSR500, 168.6 mph, 271.4 kph

17. Nobuatsu Aoki, Proton KR3, 167.9 mph, 270.2 kph

18. Shinya Nakano, Yamaha YZR500, 167.0 mph, 268.7 kph

19. Regis Laconi, Aprilia RS3, 166.6 mph, 268.1 kph

20. Jeremy McWilliams, Proton KR3, 165.8 mph, 266.8 kph

21. Pere Riba, Yamaha YZR500, 165.3 mph, 266.1 kph

22. Garry McCoy, Yamaha YZR500, 162.5 mph, 261.5 kph

Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

Friday 125cc Qualifying Times:

1. Daniel Pedrosa, Honda, 1:59.028
2. Andrea Dovizioso, Honda, 1:59.658
3. Arnaud Vincent, Aprilia, 1:59.696
4. Steve Jenkner, Aprilia, 1:59.843
5. Hector Barbera, Aprilia, 2:00.020
6. Pablo Nieto, Aprilia, 2:00.257
7. Gino Borsoi, Aprilia, 2:00.312
8. Mirko Giansanti, Honda, 2:00.397
9. Alex De Angelis, Aprilia, 2:00.541
10. Manuel Poggiali, Gilera, 2:00.555

Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

Friday Morning MotoGP Practice Times:

1. Loris Capirossi, Honda NSR500, 1:50.737
2. Valentino Rossi, Honda RC211V, 1:50.809
3. Alex Barros, Honda RC211V, 1:50.966
4. Daijiro Kato, Honda RC211V, 1:50.998
5. Max Biaggi, Yamaha YZR-M1, 1:51.021
6. Carlos Checa, Yamaha YZR-M1, 1:51.116
7. Kenny Roberts, Suzuki GSV-R, 1:51.120
8. Tohru Ukawa, Honda RC211V, 1:51.758
9. Norick Abe, Yamaha YZR500, 1:51.775
10. Jeremy McWilliams, Proton KR3, 1:51.931
11. Sete Gibernau, Suzuki GSV-R, 1:52.122
12. Olivier Jacque, Yamaha YZR500, 1:52.946
13. Pere Riba, Yamaha YZR500, 1:53.043
14. Regis Laconi, Aprilia RS3, 1:53.094
15. Akira Yanagawa, Kawasaki ZX-RR, 1:53.144
16. John Hopkins, Yamaha YZR500, 1:53.148
17. Tetsuya Harada, Honda NSR500, 1:53.305
18. Nobuatsu Aoki, Proton KR3, 1:53.373
19. Shinya Nakano, Yamaha YZR500, 1:53.469
20. Wataru Yoshikawa, Yamaha YZR-M1, 1:53.949
21. Jurgen vd Goorbergh, Honda NSR500, 1:54.030
22. Garry McCoy, Yamaha YZR500, 1:54.643

Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

Friday Morning 250cc GP Practice Times:

1. Marco Melandri, Aprilia, 1:54.339
2. Yuki Takahashi, Honda, 1:54.616
3. Fonsi Nieto, Aprilia, 1:54.773
4. Randy De Puniet, Aprilia, 1:54.881
5. Toni Elias, Aprilia, 1:55.028
6. Roberto Locatelli, Aprilia, 1:55.224
7. Emilio Alzamora, Honda, 1:55.294
8. Franco Battaini, Aprilia, 1:55.647
9. Roberto Rolfo, Honda, 1:55.750
10. Noboyuki Ohsaki, Yamaha, 1:55.862
11. Hiroshi Aoyama, Honda, 1:55.865
12. Haruchika Aoki, Honda, 1:55.974
13. Tekkyu Kayoh, Yamaha, 1:56.028
14. Katsuyuki Nakasuga, Yamaha, 1:56.153
15. Ryuji Yokoe, Yamaha, 1:56.252

Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By David Swarts

Colin Edwards will be riding a Honda RC211V in the 2003 MotoGP World Championship. That’s the word from Jerry Jirkovsky of Pirelli/Bridgestone tire vendor California Race Services.

“I’m out here at Firebird International Raceway (near Phoenix, Arizona) vending tires for the track day before this CCS weekend, and Colin Edwards just shows up,” said Jirkovsky. “There’s only about 40 bikes here. So it kind of blew everybody away.

“I asked him, ‘So, are you still riding the Ducati next year?’ He goes, ‘Nah, it looks like plans have changed. I’ll be riding a V5 Honda in MotoGP next year.” Edwards went on to tell Jirkovsky that he was in town to do autograph signings at local dealerships, but his Honda RC51, which was shipped over for the appearances, was held up due to the labor dispute at the port of Los Angeles.

Jirkovsky said Edwards showed up around 2:00 p.m. Pacific Time, stayed for about 15-20 minutes signing autographs and left.

Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

Friday’s 250cc Grand Prix Qualifying Times:

1. Marco Melandri, Aprilia, 1:53.078
2. Toni Elias, Aprilia, 1:53.667
3. Randy De Puniet, Aprilia, 1:53.756
4. Fonsi Nieto, Aprilia, 1:53.948
5. Yuki Takahashi, Honda, 1:54.119
6. Emilio Alzamora, Honda, 1:54.368
7. Franco Battaini, Aprilia, 1:54.601
8. Roberto Locatelli, Aprilia, 1:54.721
9. Ryuji Yokoe, Yamaha, 1:54.723
10. Alex Debon, Aprilia, 1:54.745
11. Tekkyu Kayoh, Yamaha, 1:54.853
12. Sebastian Porto, Yamaha, 1:54.860
13. Naoki Matsudo, Yamaha, 1:54.904
14. Katsuyuki Nakasuga, Yamaha, 1:54.970
15. Roberto Rolfo, Honda, 1:55.002


More, from a press release issued by MS Aprilia:

Provisional pole for Marco “Macio” Melandri. Four Aprilia 250s on front row of the grid.

The last few minutes of today’s session at Motegi looked more like a Sunday race than qualifying. The fastest foursome put on a spectacular show, with Macio coming out on top. A very special day for the great Ravenna-born rider: first in the free practice in the morning, and then provisional pole in the afternoon. Marco says he is all ready for the race and adds that, after two tactical races in the wet, he would not mind winning again. He thinks Sunday could be the right opportunity to enjoy the taste of victory. An all-Aprilia provisional front row in the Land of the Rising Sun is indeed a special pleasure.

# 3 Marco Melandri – (MS APRILIA RACING) – 1st 1:53.078

“I quite like the track, the grip’s good, there aren’t any potholes and you can make some great exits. Today was like being a race – at any rate, it seemed very like a dress rehearsal for Sunday. The bike’s perfect now: we’ve worked a lot and I feel we’re already prepared for the race. This track needs fairly soft tyres, although of course we’ll try out something different tomorrow and we’ll do a few simulations to test the tyres over a long distance. But, as I said, we’re ready. I’m feeling the need for a victory: after two cautious races I’d like be up at the top of the podium again. We’ll see if that’s possible here in Japan the day after tomorrow.”

Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By David Swarts

After several years campaigning the WERA National Challenge and National Endurance series, Arclight Suzuki moved up to be one of American Suzuki’s top teams in Formula USA in 2000. Since that time, Arclight has captured the Formula USA 600cc Sportbike Championship in 2000 and 2001 with rider Lee Acree. In 2002, Arclight planned to chase the Formula USA 600cc Sportbike and Unlimited Superbike Championships and compete in selected rounds of the AMA Superstock Championship with Pirelli-equipped Suzukis. But when Arclight Suzuki’s Acree led the AMA Superstock Championship after four rounds, including wins at Sears Point and Road Atlanta, plans changed and Arclight Suzuki set off on a wild ride.

“Lee and I discussed it,” Arclight Suzuki co-owner and Crew Chief Chuck Warren told Roadracingworld.com at the final AMA round at VIR. “When we realized there were no conflicts and we realized that we might be able to do it, Lee approached me with the idea that he wanted to know if we might be able to do it; he would like to go after it. We looked at the schedule and decided that we would go after it. Now that we’ve done two series like this, by the time it’s all done we will have done 18 race weekends. I don’t believe we will ever do it again.

“It’s taken an incredible toll on everybody — the riders, the crew, myself, Susan (Warren, Chuck’s wife and team co-owner). It’s just completely wiped us out.”

With the Arclight race shop in Concord, California, near San Francisco, and back-to-back race weekends, most in the Eastern half of the United States, Warren and his crew were forced to run their team from the road. “It’s been very difficult,” said Warren. “We knew that going into this and did our best to get as many spare motors built ahead of time so that we could carry the motors with us. Jimmy (Williams, Acree’s lead mechanic) and Peter (Hively, Craig Connell’s lead mechanic) spent a great deal of time getting prepared for the trip to make sure we had all the resources we need — all the spares, all the parts on the truck — so that we could work out of the truck for weeks on end without going home. At the end of these road trips, it starts to get pretty thin. We’re down to the very last of our parts and the last of our brakes and last of everything. So we’re looking forward to going home and restocking.”

To some, Arclight Suzuki’s Peterbilt, tandem-axle straight truck, equipped with a 24-foot box, looks big. But considering the truck has to carry six motorcycles, pit vehicles, tool boxes, spare wheel, tires, fuel, spare parts and enough supplies to run a constant string of National events, the truck filled up quickly. “You’d be surprised at how much stuff we can actually carry inside the truck, but we do have every nook and cranny stuffed with virtually everything we can think of,” said Warren. “We left on each of these road trips with multiple sets of everything we had — clip-ons, foot peg assemblies, pipes and everything we could get on. We came with multiple sets of bodywork, and we are starting to get low. I just had to order more bodywork. It’s at the painter being painted now, and it will be shipped to us at Pocono. That’s pretty much it.

“There have been several occasions when we have been very low on parts, and I’ve had to order ahead through Suzuki, have Suzuki send the parts to Susan and then she would bring them back when she flew to meet us at the next round. That’s how we’ve been stocking the truck for the most part when we’re short on parts.” In between most race weekends, Susan Warren has flown home to Concord where she works full-time as a registered nurse in an intensive care unit.

“We’ve been able to stay with Lee and Laurie (Acree) and stay with (Arclight WERA National rider) Scott Harwell (at their homes in North Carolina), and that gives everyone an opportunity to get away from the track and regroup. Peter and I have been driving the truck everywhere, so there are long stretches of time where we spend weeks on end living out of a room smaller than most people’s bathroom (the sleeper cab of the truck). It wears on you, no doubt about it.

“We’ve done two, nine-week stretches this season. In the first nine-week stretch, I believe we raced seven times in nine weeks. This time we’re going to race six times in nine weeks. So we’ve done 13 race weekends in 18 weeks. It’s a lot. I wouldn’t recommend it. We’ve been joking among ourselves, ‘I don’t know what the hell we were thinking, but we’ll never do it again.'”

Acree finished third in the 2002 AMA Superstock Championship, 20 points behind repeating Champion Jimmy Moore, while teammate Connell finished 11th in the AMA series. With one round of the Formula USA National Road Race Series remaining at Daytona International Speedway October 17-20, Connell holds commanding leads in both the 600cc Sportbike and Unlimited Superbike title chases with Acree fourth and seventh, respectively.

From an e-mail from Desiree Crossman, with John Hopkins:

Hello everyone,

Well, we are here in Japan at the Motegi circuit. We’ve been told it was out in the sticks, and to tell you the truth…it is. Some members of the teams stay here at the track and the rest stay in Mito, which is another 45 minutes away. Not to mention they drive extremely slow here.

Mito is a big city, pretty busy place. That’s where John and I were dropped off from the bus we took from the airport. 2 hour ride, then when we got dropped off–we had no idea how we were going to get to the track or where it was, for that matter. But luckily, John found Gaz (Garry McCoy) wandering around waiting for us. He was our pick-up, thank God!!

The track here is nice, though. If you ever seen the movie DRIVEN, there is a part in there that shows the CART cars testing at night around a ring. It’s called Twin Ring, that’s where we are at. So from our room you can see the track and that exact scene from our window. Pretty neat.

The Telefonica team arrived late, too. Their flight was cancelled as well so they didn’t show up until the same time we did. There was a typhoon here I guess, not as big as they thought but still big enough. For those of you who didn’t know, our flight was delayed on Monday for lack of crew. Then, it was delayed so long that they cancelled the flight ’cause by the time we got in Japan, there would be a typhoon so we stayed in San Jose for a night in this really nice hotel! REALLY NICE. The next day we were out so it wasn’t too bad. As I write this it’s 4:20 PST but 8:20 in the morning, the next day my time. Crazy how it works, huh?

Right-o, we are getting ready to go to the track in the yellow bus that transports you from the jail cell(the hotel) to the paddock. That’s what it really looks like, kinda resembles a mental facility, and the yellow bus doesn’t help the image either. LOL

Talk to you later.

Des and John