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”.

Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By David Swarts

Despite news reports to the contrary, Ducati Motor CEO Carlo di Biagio said at the brand’s recent dealer show that Colin Edwards will race a Ducati Superbike in 2003.

That’s the word from Jeff Nash, who attended the Ducati North America dealer show in Napa, California last Sunday, September 29.

Ducati has not made any official, public announcement confirming that Edwards has been signed, and recent press reports link Edwards to Honda and Yamaha MotoGP rides.

Stay tuned.

From a press release issued by Honda:

HONDA RACING INFORMATION

2002 MotoGP 500 World Championship, round 13
Pacific Grand Prix, Motegi
October 4/5/6 2002

ROSSI TAKES ALL-CONQUERING RC211V BACK HOME
Newly crowned MotoGP World Champion Valentino Rossi (Repsol Honda Team RC211V) returns to Japan for the 13th of 16 World Championship rounds, safe in the knowledge that his current haul of 270 points is already unassailable. Rossi’s confidence in his ability to take yet another race win will be buoyed by the fact that he was the winner of the first ever MotoGP of the new four-stroke era, coincidentally held in Japan, at the classic Suzuka circuit on April 7.

Rossi’s renewed status as champion will allow him to concentrate solely on the job of winning races, unfettered by the need to keep one eye on the championship table. The combination of 23-year-old Italian Rossi and his new-for-2002 RC211V has been all but unbeatable this season, with the magic figure of ten race wins reached at the previous Rio GP on September 21.

Such has been Rossi’s prowess that only two riders have beaten him in 2002; one of them his team-mate Tohru Ukawa (Repsol Honda Team RC211V) and the other Max Biaggi (Yamaha), when a tyre problem ruled Rossi out of the reckoning at Brno. In addition to scoring 270 points from a possible 300, Rossi’s dominance has also run to seven pole position starts and eight fastest laps, seven of which were completed at lap record pace.

According to the rider himself, the secret of Rossi’s success has been simple, if far from easy in this tough and most important of all race classes. “This season has been great. Honda have made a fantastic bike,” he says. “We arrived at the beginning of the season with a good advantage. Yamaha have come good later in the championship but we have made a good season, without any mistakes.”

Rossi’s historic win was his fourth World Championship success but that fact has not slaked his thirst for more champagne before the end of the year. “I really want to win more races, especially on Honda’s own circuit,” he adds. “The weather can be changeable at Motegi but, as we have shown more than once, we can win in both the wet and the dry.”

Rossi now has a more than realistic chance to re-write the history books in only his third year in biking’s premier class. Despite his short reign at the very top, he now sits seventh on the all-time 500/MotoGP winners’ list, and requires three more wins from four attempts to overtake legendary Honda rider Mick Doohan’s 1997 record of 12 wins in a single season. A win at Motegi would equal Rossi’s personal best of 11 in one season.

Rossi already knows what it takes to win at the impressive 4.801km Motegi circuit, having been victorious last year on the way to his 500cc World Championship. Still the current lap record holder at the circuit, with a 1:50.591 (set in 2000), Rossi is a strong favourite to win in Japan for the second time this year, despite the enhanced number of Honda RCV four-strokes on the grid for this race. “I know there will be another Honda five at Motegi and that is obviously going to make things tougher, but for next year it seems everyone will have a four-cylinder anyway.”

Ukawa, injured at Donington Park earlier in the season, bounced back from that painful experience with a trio of podium places, the sequence only blotted by a crash in the rain at Rio, demoting him to third in the championship. Currently eight points from second overall, the Japanese rider is determined to give Honda a 1-2 championship finish come season end.

“Obviously I was really disappointed about falling in Rio, but now I have to think positive and look to the remaining four races to do my best, especially at Motegi,” he says. “I really want to regain second place in the championship and a good result at home in Japan will be the first step.”

The last current RC211V rider, Daijiro Kato (Fortuna Honda Gresini RC211V), put his four-stroke on the podium at his Brno debut but has been luckless since then, falling in Estoril and getting knocked off at Rio. Nonetheless, the quietly spoken 2001 250 World Champion is a force to be reckoned with, having won the Motegi 250 GP in 2000, and also having won four Suzuka 250 GPs. “I like to race at home in Japan and I hope to have more luck at Motegi than I have had at the last two races,” he says. “I’m sorry about Rio because we had really good settings for wet conditions, and I had improved the feeling I had with the five cylinder in the wet.”

The V5 promised to the West Honda Pons team mid-way through the season should be made available to the Spanish-based team at Motegi, making a total of four RC211Vs on the grid. Team riders Alex Barros (West Honda Pons NSR500) and Loris Capirossi (West Honda Pons NSR500) have been consistently the best two-stroke riders of the season, fighting a remarkable rearguard battle against the wave of more powerful 990cc four-strokes.

Barros in particular has been a front-runner, at Assen and Sachsenring, and if he can adapt quickly to the four-stroke’s characteristics, as all who have ridden the RCV have managed to do so far, he may be on for his first podium finish since his third place at Donington Park in July. An equally good rider in wet conditions, Barros is looking forward to Motegi: “Carlos Checa’s fall at Rio meant that I moved up the overall classification. Now I am fourth and if I ride the four-stroke at Motegi I will be able to fight to keep this position, especially as I won the ‘two-stroke race’ at Rio.”

For Capirossi, the 2002 season has been particularly challenging, thanks to a wrist injury that ruled him out of potential podium finishes. Coming off the back of a strong ride at Rio, the Italian will hope to be as competitive as possible on his NSR. “I think I have been riding well since I returned from injury but it is very hard to stay in contention with the four-strokes at any circuit,” he explains. “We have to take many risks to maintain our position in races.”

Tetsuya Harada (Pramac Honda NSR500) is another rider with good previous form at Motegi, winning last year’s Pacific 250 GP. Home advantage may also help the two-stroke rider, who has ridden into the top ten three times in 2002. “We have had the same problems all year on the bike, a lack of grip in races, and that seems to be in either wet or dry conditions,” he says.

Jurgen van den Goorbergh (Kanemoto Racing Honda NSR500) has declared himself happy with the progress his tyre supplier Bridgestone in all conditions but will be hoping for a dry track surface after his recent Rio experiences. “The front end was getting away from me running those lap times in Brazil and I found I couldn’t run with the other two-stroke riders I was racing,” says the Dutchman. “I suppose it was not a bad race considering the circumstances. I was on the limit, but I’ve lost the front too many times this year to take too many risks in these conditions.”

Italian 250 charger Robby Rolfo (Fortuna Honda Gresini NSR250) has had a changeable 2002 season as one of only two full NSR 250 riders in the championship. Occasional set-up quandaries in qualifying have held back some of his race performances, but Rolfo is one of the most combative riders in the whole GP paddock.

The latest of his four second-place finishes this season came at Rio, and second overall is still a realistic ambition for Rolfo. “Now I want to think about taking my first victory – for me, for the team and for the fans,” he says. “The Honda should perform well at Motegi and I know that second place in the championship is not far away.”

Team-mate Emilio Alzamora (Fortuna Honda Gresini NSR250) has had an even more eventful season than Rolfo, including a recent operation to relieve
arm-pump. Now fully fit, the former 125 World Champion is looking for his best result of the year at Motegi, hoping to go one or two better than his previous best of third on home soil at Jerez. “I’m in really good condition, I haven’t had a problem with my arm recently, and I can have a really good result before the championship is finished. Motegi would be the perfect place to start.”

Daniel Pedrosa (Telefonica Movistar Jr Team Honda RS125R) lies third in the ultra-competitive 125cc class, despite failing to finish the previous round at Rio. Suffering from some machine and set-up problems in recent races, Pedrosa chooses not to think of the past, but concentrate on the future. “I don’t want to dwell on it. Now I have to think of Motegi, and keep on giving it my maximum to the end of the season, to give my best efforts to the end of the championship.”

Masao Azuma (Tribe by Breil Honda RS125R) will be praying for wet weather after his astonishing feat at Rio, starting 18th on the grid but bursting through to win by almost two seconds in treacherous wet conditions.

After Motegi, the championship continues its whirlwind Australasian tour, with Sepang and Phillip Island following on consecutive weekends, before the final championship round at Valencia on November 3.

From a press release issued by Team Suzuki News Service:

SUZUKI SET TO RE-SIGN ROBERTS

Suzuki has agreed terms with Kenny Roberts Jr. that will keep the former world champion racing with the factory team for at least the next two years.

Roberts joined Suzuki for the 1999 season and the partnership proved to be an immediate success, with the Californian winning his first two races on the factory RGV-G machine and taking second place in the title hunt. The following year the Suzuki and Roberts combination improved yet again and swept to the 500cc world championship in dominant style.

Both Suzuki and Roberts have been keen to continue their successful relationship and the new two-year agreement clears the way for the continuation of the development program of the ever-improving new GSV-R MotoGP four-stroke machine.

Garry Taylor. Team Manager:
“We are already moving on with the next phase in the development program of the new GSV-R, so it was important to agree terms with Kenny in order that we can concentrate on the way forward. On top of being one of the very best riders in the world, Kenny is also an exceptional development rider with a rare grasp of all the technical aspects involved in making a bike work on the racetrack.

“A year ago the GSV-R didn’t even exist and now we are already in a position where we can lead races and win podium positions. We’ve come a long way in a very short space of time, but we are totally committed to making the GSV-R a race winner. With Kenny now agreeing terms a major part of the program is now in place and we can get on with the job.”

Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By David Swarts

The new Ducati 999 will make its racing debut at the final round of the 2002 World Endurance Championship at Vallelunga, Italy October 4-6, reports Octagon Motorsports, organizer of the FIM Endurance World Championship.

A press release issued by Octagon states that the new machine will be entered by Ducati France and will enjoy direct support from Ducati Corse, the racing arm of Ducati Motor Holding S.p.A.

Zongshen 2 has already clinched the 2002 World Endurance Championship, but Chinese motorcycle manufacturer Zongshen wants to finish the season with its two teams 1-2 in the final standings. To that end, Zongshen 2’s normal riders, Stephane Mertens and Warwick Nowland, will ride on the Zongshen 9 Suzuki GSX-R1000 while Bruno Bonhuil, Igor Jerman and Pierrot Lerat will man the Zongshen 2 machine.

With 25 points available at the final round, Zongshen 9’s position in the standings is within reach of Yamaha YZF-R1-mounted Endurance Moto 38 and Suzuki GSX-R1000-equipped GMT94, third and fourth in the current Endurance World Championship point standings, respectively.

QB Phase One, fifth coming into the final round, will do without the services of AMA Formula Xtreme Champion Jason Pridmore; his teammates Frederic Moreira and Mike Edwards will try to hold the team’s ground in the standings.

American/Belgian team Herman Verboven Suzuki has a chance to take fifth from QB Phase One and has re-secured the services of Americans Michael Barnes and Mike Ciccotto to ride the team’s Pirelli-equipped Suzuki GSX-R1000 at the final race.