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

Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By David Swarts

Bob Moreland and Glenn Castro of Oceanside, California used a modified Suzuki GSX1300R Hayabusa to set six Southern California Timing Association/Bonneville National, Inc. (SCTA/BNI) Land Speed Records during the 54th Annual Bonneville Speed Week, held August 10-16 on the Bonneville Salt Flats, ocated approximately 90 miles West of Salt Lake City.

A rookie in land speed record competition, Moreland, owner of Moreland Choppers and Smather & Moreland (S&M) Racing, decided that he wanted to join SCTA/BNI’s 200 mph Club. To that end, Moreland approached North Country Hyper Sports owner Glenn Castro, based on Castro’s road racing results with the Willow Springs Motorcycle Club, to build a bike capable of going 200 mph.

Calling the engine he built “nothing special,” Castro used 3mm-oversize Wiseco pistons, a lightened APE crankshaft, Web camshafts timed to his own numbers, APE titanium valve retainers, APE valve springs, an HMF exhaust system, NGK iridium spark plugs, an ECM from a 1999 Hayabusa (which, according to Castro doesn’t have a top speed limiter), a ported and polished cylinder head, stock valves and connecting rods and a modified clutch and airbox.

The normally-aspirated, 1397cc Hayabusa made over 200 horsepower on Nutec Special 4 race fuel and, with stock bodywork, produced a best run of 211.323 mph en route to setting six new SCTA/BNI World Land Speed Records. In fact, the Hayabusa ran 197.146 without the fairing for one of the records.

“It was incredible!” said Castro. “I’ve been going to the racetrack for 30 years, and I’ve never experienced anything like it. I mean, everything just worked.”

Castro explained that he only did two dyno runs on the Hayabusa at his shop before loading it in the trailer and making his first trip to Bonneville. Castro finished tuning the engine, via its Dynojet Power Commander, on site but felt that chassis tuning made the difference.

“Most guys strap the front end down, like they do in drag racing,” said Castro. “I did it the road racing way and pulled the forks up in the triple clamps. Then I set up these Vortex clip-ons above the top triple clamp, which put Bob’s hands right at 10.5-inches apart (the minimum by rule) so they were out of the wind.”

Castro said he also fabricated new shock linkages, set the OEM Bridgestone street tires at 58 psi front and rear and used some special “weighting of the chassis” advice from Don Vesco.

To point out how well things were going for their team, Castro pointed to when the Hyper Sports/S&M Racing Hayabusa was protested on Saturday, the first day of the week, for the bike’s tail section being too long by a fraction of an inch. Castro said he cut a half-inch off the tail section and the bike went five mph faster. By the end of the week, according to Castro, every other Hayabusa at Bonneville had its tail section cut like his.

The highlight of the week for Castro, however, came when the team set its sixth record in MPS-G (modified frame, partial streamlining, modified engine, gas). With the 30 other Hayabusa teams that sought the MPS-G record packing up to go home unsuccessful at the end of the final day, Moreland made two last runs resulting in a new record of 208.770 mph, with a best one-way pass of 211.323 mph, on the organization’s spec-gasoline in the heat of the afternoon. Castro said the next-fastest entry did 204 mph. Overall, Castro said there were only three motorcycles faster than his at Bonneville; two were turbo-charged and one Hayabusa had a 2000cc engine.

Moreland rode the Hyper Sports/S&M Racing Suzuki to new marks in the “1650cc and below” division in the following categories:

A-F (special construction frame, unfaired, modified engine, fuel)
old record – 136.013 mph
new record – 196.515 mph

M-F (modified frame, unfaired, modified engine, fuel)
old record – no previous record
new record – 197.146 mph

APS-F (special construction frame, partial streamlining, modified engine, fuel)
old record – 136.563 mph
new record – 206.904 mph

MPS-F (modified frame, partial streamlining, modified engine, fuel)
old record – 205.195 mph
new record – 210.080 mph

APS-G (special construction frame, partial streamlining, modified engine, gas)
old record – 203.351 mph
new record – 206.915 mph

MPS-G (modified frame, partial streamlining, modified engine, gas)
old record – 202.883 mph
new record – 208.770 mph

Note: To set a record run during Bonneville Speed Week, the vehicle must make two passes with the average speed of the two passes better than the old record.

From a press release:

Tom Sera Racing has a new toll-free phone number, (866) 264-SERA (7372).

Tom Sera Racing offers AFM South racebike safety-wire service.

From a press release issued by West Honda Pons:

Motegi Marks the start of a New Era for West Honda Pons

The West Honda Pons team looks forward to the Pacific Grand Prix, the thirteenth race of the season, in high spirits and with great expectations, and all this is down to two things: first of all Alex Barros will be riding for the first time the famous and highly competitive Honda RC211V and secondly both the Brazilian rider and Loris Capirossi scored podium finishes at the race last year, where the Italian also set an extraordinary pole position. This Grand Prix marks the start of an intensive and exciting period of racing, during which the World Championship will visit Japan, Malaysia and Australia in three consecutive weeks before heading back to Spain for the final race of the season in Valencia on November 3rd.

Alex Barros:
“I am very excited about my chance of riding the RC211V. It is clearly one of the fastest bikes around at the moment and finally I have the chance of competing on the same level as the other four-stroke riders. It will not be easy to be competitive immediately because I have had no time to familiarise myself with the bike. However, I have a lot of experience riding four-stroke Hondas as an HRC rider in the 8 Hours of Suzuka races every summer where I have always performed very well. For this reason I am confident that I will adapt quickly to the bike and maybe I will be in with a chance of repeating last year’s podium finish.”


Loris Capirossi:
“Motegi is quite a peculiar circuit where the straights are very long and this could be a real problem for the two-strokes. The most important thing, however, is to try my best because all races are important, not just for me but for the team and the sponsors. Personally I am feeling in good form and as in every race I will give my all and try and be amongst the leaders”.

Sito Pons:
“Last year we scored a great result here at Motegi and our riders like the circuit a lot. After racing all season at a disadvantage, Barros will at last have the best bike available and, despite the lack of time to adapt to the new bike, I would not count against a good result from him thanks to his experience and that of HRC. The main thing is that these last four races will serve as preparation for next season. Loris, meanwhile, is a rider who never gives up and he has before him one of the last opportunities for a two-stroke bike to win a Grand Prix”.