From a press release:

WHO: AMA Chevy Trucks Superbike Series Riders – Scheduled to appear are Mat Mladin, Jamie Hacking, Aaron Yates, Anthony Gobert, Damon Buckmaster, Josh Hayes, Tom Kipp, Chris Ulrich, Jimmy Moore, Steve Rapp, Jordan Szoke, Jason Pridmore, Ben Spies, Tommy Hayden, and former World Champion Kevin Schwantz

WHAT: Get your favorite superbike riders autograph, up close and personal before the inaugural Yamaha Superbike Challenge at California Speedway April 5-7.

WHEN: Thursday, April 4th, 2002 from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

WHERE: Chaparral Motorsports, 555 South “H” St., San Bernardino, CA

** Chaparral Motorsports will also be offering some great deals on your favorite brands of street riding gear and apparel including AGV, Dainese, Joe
Rocket, Oxtar, Teknic, Heingericke, Alpinestars and Sidi **

For more information please email Todd Baldwin at [email protected]
or call (909) 889-2761.

Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By David Swarts

Attack Suzuki’s Ben Spies was the fastest man at California Speedway Sunday in round two of the FasTrack Association (FTA) Series. Looking for extra testing time at the Fontana track prior to next week’s AMA National, Spies entered four sprints on his Suzuki GSX-R1000 Formula Xtreme and GSX-R600 Supersport racebikes and pulled out of each race while leading.

Taking race wins at California Speedway were Ed Sorbo, Chris Ulrich, Phil Herrin, Owen Richey, Jeremy Toye, Ty Howard and James Compton.

After Toye pulled out due to what he later said was a bad vibration coming from his machine, Spies took the overall lead in the combined 750cc Superbike/Open Superstock/Open Superbike race, which saw the 750cc Superbikes start as a first wave followed by a combined Open Superbike/Open Supersport second wave. Spies used his Formula Xtreme GSX-R1000 to quickly build a big advantage despite running wide in chicanes three times, then pulled into the pits on lap 14 of 15.

After running wide twice himself, Team Valvoline EMGO Suzuki’s Chris Ulrich held on for the overall race win and the Open Superstock class win on a Jerry Daggett-tuned GSX-R1000. Herrin won in the 750cc Superbike class, and Chad Jensen was credited with the Open Superbike class win.

Later, Spies had the 15-lap 600cc Superbike race well in hand with two laps to go when he again pulled into the pits. White Tip Racing’s Richey, riding a Yamaha YZF-R6, and Michael Hannas, on a Hayward Motorsports Kawasaki ZX-6R, battled to the end with Richey taking the win by a small margin over Hannas. The 600cc Superstock race played out much the same way with Spies running away, then pulling out of the race after nine of 15 laps. Annandale Racing’s Ty Howard accepted the lead from Spies and won the race by over 30 seconds ahead of Hannas and Richey.

In the featured Open GP race, Spies opened up a 14-second lead before pulling off the track on lap eight of 15. Jason Pridmore stayed out to lead the next lap on his Attack Suzuki Supersport GSX-R600 before also pulling in. Annandale Racing’s James Compton, riding a GSX-R1000 Superbike on Dunlop slicks, was promoted to first on lap 10, extended his lead and won the 13-entry race over TZ250-mounted Frank Aragaki, Ty Piz on another TZ250 and Chad Jensen on a GSX-R750.

The best race of the day came in the 750cc Superstock final. Local ace Toye got the holeshot and led Chris “Opie” Caylor, DiSalvo, and Howard into the infield. The four GSX-R750 riders were virtually nose-to-tail for 15 laps, battling for position from corner to corner. After leading five of 10 laps, DiSalvo ran wide in a double-apex left and gave up the point to Toye, then pushed wide in the second chicane and dropped to third behind Caylor. DiSalvo regrouped, pushed forward past Caylor, closed the gap to Toye from 1.5 seconds to 1.5 bikelengths but came up short at the finish. Toye won over DiSalvo, Howard, Caylor and Herrin.

Using the same Bridgestone tires that he raced on in the AMA 250cc Grand Prix at Daytona, Ed Sorbo won the five-entry 250cc Grand Prix race after DiSalvo crashed his Team America Grand Prix Racing Honda RS250 out on the first lap.

Riders who made the trip to Fontana for the three-day FTA event and ran in practice but didn’t race included AMA 250cc Grand Prix racers Thad Halsmer, Chris Pyles, Perry Melneciuc, Rich Oliver, Roland Sands and John Williams.

AMA Superstock racers who practiced but did not race included Vince Haskovec and James Lickwar.

Josh Hayes, who was scheduled to practice and race on a Supersport-class GSX-R600, did not show up.

The FTA races on Sunday attracted 66 riders and 90 entries, with more riders practicing on Friday and Saturday. The low turnout could have been influenced by the fact that the event was held on Easter weekend and by relatively high practice and entry fees, although the 15-lap race distances were far longer than typical club events.

The turnout was boosted by riders planning to run in the AMA National next weekend and anxious to learn the track prior to the start of official AMA practice on Friday, in the absence of any Thursday practice.

“It cost me more money and it was a pain in the ass to come out this weekend,” said Haskovec. “I had to borrow a bike because I had no bike ready, I am still preparing my bike for the AMA weekend. But I had to do it because my competition has been on the track before. I had to do this because there’s no Thursday practice, which really helps to get you going. Thursday practice is very important for the privateer guy, and costs way less money than making a special trip here, man. This is my personal feeling, and the feeling of my friends. That is the way that it is, but the AMA wants to keep us from having Thursday practice while the factory guys can afford to practice all they want in special sessions. It’s no good. The AMA doesn’t care about anybody but factory riders.”

This just in from Kevin Pate of Annandale Racing, via e-mail:

I just wanted to make a comment about the failure to have a Thursday practice (at Fontana), which also affected our team and staff.

I feel the AMA and the manufacturers should want a day of practice to avoid mixing riders with track time and riders that are seeing the track for the first time. I am sure there are going to be 25-30 second-a-lap difference in the first Friday morning practice.

It should be exciting for the spectators, though.

Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By David Swarts

Motorcycle road racers on the WERA electronic bulletin board (BBS) were up in arms last week over the word-of-mouth news that concrete retaining walls had been erected around Summit Point Raceway in Summit Point, West Virginia over the winter. But before the week was out, a plan was in the works to remove the most dangerous of the new walls and the hillside behind it, with the cost being split 50/50 between the track ownership and racers. All the while, construction on a completely new road course at Summit Point has begun.

Roadracingworld.com contacted Summit Point Raceway owner Bill Scott, MARRC and Formula USA NRRS Safety Director Roger Lyle and WERA Race Director George Mood to get more information about the situation, but before we could collect all of the information and write the story, the ending already started changing for the better.

The original situation was first made public by Mood in a thread on the WERA BBS entitled “New for Summit Point…concrete walls!!!”.

“I went out to the track during a SCCA driver training day (Sunday, March 24),” said Mood, the WERA Race Director for Summit Point Raceway since 1996, in a phone interview. Mood went on to describe the location and proximity of the new walls, but he was most concerned about one barrier.

“The most scary one is the one that’s in ‘The Chute’ in turn four,” said Mood. “If contact were to be made, it wouldn’t be a head-on, like a perpendicular, because the track is angled toward the wall and there’s the turn. It would be less than a 90-degree contact. But the problem is that there is very little margin for error under the best of conditions. The edge of the track to the previous existing berm was some 30 feet, give or take a couple feet. It got narrowed down a couple feet by the installation of the concrete (wall).

“What bothers me is that this is the oldest part of the track, and it’s the area where people have a tendency to lowside in the wet and go into that with what I fear would be a really, really serious injury. We’ve had in the April event last year at Summit Point, we had a guy on a (Suzuki) SV (650) impact the tire wall. The guy was relatively okay, but SV virtually broke in half. The only thing connecting the front and the back of the bike was the wiring system. That SV turned out to be 20 feet long. It was up in the trees and (we) literally put a tow line around it and drug it out so we could load it up.

“I’ve really got some concerns about (the turn four wall). I don’t know what Bill Scott’s reasoning for putting it there was. I can only assume that it’s some type of a homologation for an organization or insurance.”

“It’s not changed a whit from last year except the backing of the tires, same tires, is a concrete barrier instead of an earth barrier,” said Bill Scott, Summit Point owner for the last 22 years. “It’s better for the cars, obviously the cars, whether it’s SCCA racing or any of the number of clubs that come up. A car is much heavier and the driver is much more protected and the energy-absorbing barrier is stiffer.

“If a motorcycle ran into the same barrier, the same tires is what it is, the human being is half the weight of the vehicle. So therefore we talked about Air Fences.”

Receiving angry e-mails daily from motorcycle road racers who saw the related thread on the WERA website, Scott was irritated but not so much that he wasn’t willing to make special arrangements to increase safety for motorcycle and go-kart racers faced with the new walls. Scott worked with Lyle to identify high-danger impact areas and decided to pay $30,000 toward purchasing Air Fence and Alpina Air Modules if motorcycle and go-kart racers and/or their organizations would pay the other half, $15,000 each.

“There are areas where the probability of impact at high speed is low, and so okay you don’t do them. You can line the whole track with Air Fences, but these things are damned expensive. We’re talking about $60,000 of Air Fences, which I’m going half on that. The go-karts are a quarter, and the motorcycles are a quarter. So if you combine my effort to make it safer for cars with the effort to add the dimension of the Air Fences for the motorcycles…let the guys come up and look at it. Most of them haven’t been here for six months. Nobody’s been here.

“Sure it’s easy to say, ‘Go spend $500,000 doing this.’ If I was to spend $500,000, I’d be a guy that wouldn’t give a rat’s ass for amateur motorcycles. I would be the type of person that’s thinking big, wants NASCAR, wants events like that.

“I don’t focus on spectators. My bias is not towards soliciting spectators and stuff like that. My bias is toward the competitors. Every CCS or WERA race has more participants than any place with less hassle. I’m not on you guys. I’m not reaching in the pockets of the riders, and that’s our history.

“You’re looking at a track owner that has focused on the amateur for the last 22 years. Track owners that are around are looking for big money. It’s either CART or NASCAR or something like that. It’s not usual to find a guy who’s focused on the amateur, not only the amateur but the competitor. I do. I’m proud of it. I love this job. I wasn’t born with any silver spoon. I love the motorcycle guys. I’m more in touch with the (motorcycle) guy that works in the local factory, or something like that, than I am with a lawyer with an $80,000 Porsche.”

Contacted later March 25, Lyle said, “I asked him (Scott), ‘Why did you put that wall in there?’ He said, ‘It’s to contain the cars, keeping them from flying up into the crowd.’ I said, ‘Well, there’s no crowd up on top of that hill. That’s why we should just take the hill out.’

“What we are working on is getting some Air Fence for that area (turn four) in particular. We talked to Dan Lance at Alpina and we talked with Andy Coffey (with Airfence Australia) just two weeks ago about Air Fence. Bill (Scott) is all for getting it and putting it in place.

“I said, ‘That’s a good, but that’s only going to last for five years. Then your $60,000 investment, you have to do all over again. If we can get that wall out of there, that embankment, then we won’t need Air Fence and we’ll be ready for another 30 years of safe racing.’

“But right now, he’s getting a lot of angry e-mails from WERA riders calling him an ‘asshole’ and ‘stupid’ and this and that. And that’s not helping the situation at all. So what we’ve got to do, I’m approaching him now with a letter saying, ‘Well, if these are the options that we have: we can put Air Fence in there, we can take the tires and walls out and be done with it.’

“I’m just trying to work with him and give him all of the options that are available to make safe racing for everybody, but for us, that embankment in turn four has always been a problem. Air Fence works really well, but if you’ve got nothing to hit, that’s the best situation.”

“I would like to see if it could be done, removing or moving the embankment back an average of 30 feet,” said Mood. “There’s a problem there the way the track’s laid out that you can’t move it back hundreds of feet because you’ll be running into the Carousel area. But if the embankment were moved back starting with 50 feet at the apex and angling down to five or 10 feet at the bottom where the embankment becomes parallel with the racetrack. If there had to be a tire wall there, let’s front it with a gravel trap, have some 20 feet of grass for people to try and save it, then a safety barrier before people get to the tires and the concrete. I realize that’s, I’m gonna guess, $20,000 to do that kind of thing with the amount of earth that has to be moved. It all depends upon if it’s solid rock or if it’s a looser rock.”

Late Thursday evening, March 28, Mood posted a new announcement in the thread he had started on the WERA BBS, reading, “Roger Lyle, Greg Harrison and David Yaakov met with Bill Scott about 15 minutes after I had my phone conversation with Bill Scott. As a result of that meeting, there will be a major change in The Chute. The following information was given to me by Roger Lyle in a phone conversation Thursday evening:
“There is an agreement that the existing wall and earth/rock hill behind it (turn four wall) will be moved back as far as possible. The plan calls for a 20-foot hard dirt run-off area from the edge of the track on rider’s left to a gravel trap. The trap will be some 300 feet long x 40 feet, with a minimum depth of 8 inches. Beyond the trap will be the concrete barrier fronted by a double layer of tire walls. The barrier will be to prevent crashing vehicles from entering the track in the T6 Carousel.

“Summit Point track owner Bill Scott has pledged to match dollar for dollar contributions to fund this project. Any additional monies will be used for Summit Point safety improvements that would benefit motorcycle road racers.

“In my conversation with Roger Lyle, he said any additional money could purchase safety devices for use at motorcycle events at Summit Point. The devices he and I discussed were the vinyl/fabric covered foam safety devices similar to the Alpina Defender, regardless of the manufacturer. This type of safety device is more resistant to impact by motorcycles than the ‘airbags’ such as Air Fence or Alpina Safety Module.
“Funding: Lyle will be setting up the ‘Move The Mountain Action Fund.’ He will contact an attorney tomorrow (Friday, March 29) before establishing an account on Monday. Lyle has agreed to be the contact person for this project. He can be reached at: email [email protected], voice – 301-933-2599, snailmail – 4413 Sigsbee Road, Wheaton, MD 20906.
“Do not send any money yet. Lyle will contact me or post here (WERA BBS) when contributions will be able to be accepted.

“Lyle feels the project could be done in time for the WERA April event at Summit Point.”

Contacted on Friday, March 29, Mood said that he had no new or extra information on the topic except to say that Harrison, in addition to being a racer and a team owner, owns his own excavating company, WGH, Inc. Mood added that he did not know if Harrison got the contract to do the Earth removal work in turn four or not.

Lyle was unavailable for comment before post time.

In the meantime, Bill Scott said that work will continue at Summit Point on a new, 2.1-mile road course that will feature an exact replica of the Nurburgring’s Carousel and a curve with a steeper drop than Laguna Seca’s corkscrew. Scott hopes to have the new course finished some time in 2002.

From an AMA Pro Racing press release:

YAMAHA SUPERBIKE CHALLENGE
COMING TO CALIFORNIA SPEEDWAY

PICKERINGTON, Ohio — The Yamaha Superbike Challenge at California Speedway in Fontana, Calif., will bring the high-powered action of the AMA Chevy Trucks U.S. Superbike Championship to Southern California on April 5-7. The Yamaha Superbike Challenge is the second richest race on the AMA Superbike calendar next to the classic Daytona races. The weekend will feature a Chevy Trucks Superbike doubleheader. Owensboro, Kentucky’s Nicky Hayden leads the series after winning the season opener at Daytona International Speedway in March.

In addition to AMA Superbike, the Speedway will host the second round of the Pro Honda Oils U.S. Supersport Championship and three support classes, including the opening round of the Lockhart Phillips Formula Xtreme Series.

The April event is the inaugural AMA Superbike race held at California Speedway and brings the AMA series to the Los Angeles basin for the first time since 1996.

“It’s important for the sport to have a strong presence in Southern California,” said John Farris, AMA Pro Racing’s vice president of commercial development. “Most of the manufacturers in AMA Superbike racing are based there and the market is obviously one of the country’s biggest in terms of active motorcyclists. It’s great to have a facility like California Speedway to be able to showcase what we feel is one of motorsports most exciting racing series.”

California Speedway’s motorcycle competition course was developed working closely with several of the current top stars in AMA Superbike racing. The new 2.3-mile, 21-turn road course has gotten rave reviews from riders who’ve tested there. The circuit even impressed former AMA and World Champion Eddie Lawson.

“The new road course at California Speedway is really incredible,” said Lawson. “The layout ensures that every race will be close and intense. With long straightaways and slow tight turns you’ll get a great mix of speed, hard braking and passing opportunities. This track actually makes me wish I was still racing.”

For ticket information of the Yamaha Superbike Challenge contact California Speedway at (800) 944-7223 or visit the website at www.californiaspeedway.com.

AMA Pro Racing is the leading sanctioning body for professional motorcycle sport in the United States. For more information about AMA Pro Racing, visit www.amaproracing.com.

A press release originally posted March 25 with the headline “Apparently, Ex-racers Who Are Now Hollywood Stuntmen Have PR Agents” infuriated Tommy McComas, the former racer in question, who said the headline was “slanderous” before hanging up in an angry phone call to Roadracingworld.com.

McComas also claimed that he did not have a PR agent.

The release in question arrived via FAX and did not include a headline; the words “FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE” appeared above the text. Contact information for Mary Laney appeared underneath the press release text, with no contact information for McComas. In other words, the press release looked like press releases typically issued by PR Agents and received by Roadracingworld.com by the hundreds.

Reached by phone on March 29, Laney said she was not a PR agent but had sent the release as a favor to McComas. Laney also said that the headline used on Roadracingworld.com was “sarcastic” and suggested that a better headline would have emphasized that McComas had found a stunt career after racing and was bringing other racers into stunt work.

McComas had not returned a phone message at post time.

The text of the original posting follows.

From a press release:

Think Fear Factor is exciting? Meet Hollywood stuntman and former motorcycle road racer Tom McComas. His life could inspire a decade’s worth of Fear Factor episodes.

McComas, featured in the March issue of GQ magazine and selected as one of Hollywood’s top stunt-doubles is photographed for GQ riding a 2001 Ducati 996.

You’ve seen his work in Amistad, Armageddon, Bounce, Coyote Ugly, Dude Where’s My Car, Lethal Weapon 4, Perfect Storm, Reindeer Games, Zoolander and numerous television shows.

Catch McComas in the upcoming Sum Of All Fears starring Ben Affleck and Morgan Freeman. McComas also stunt coordinated and re-created (along with racer Steve Rapp and former Daytona 200 Champion David Sadowski) several high speed (over 100 mph) road racing crashes in the yet-to-be-released World Superbike feature High Speed, shot on location in Italy at Imola, Misano, Vallelunga and other famous European venues. Former motorcycle racer and stuntman Jeff Jensen directed High Speed.

What’s next for McComas? Daredevil starring Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner.

From a press release:

Test ReportAMA Chevy Trucks Superbike
DateMarch 28, 2002
CircuitLaguna Seca International Speedway

Chandler fastest at Laguna

HMC Ducati rider Doug Chandler wrapped up a three-day test program fastest overall, clocking a 1:25.65 lap time, more than half a second faster than yesterday’s front man Nicky Hayden and only 0.28 seconds off the official lap record. The newly-hired Ducati pilot ran consistently in the low 26s, setting his fastest time on the last lap of a ten lap stint.

The team clearly achieved its goal of using the three-day test to make the bike totally comfortable for Doug.

“We just keep getting better and better each day,” said Chandler. “I think we’re off to a great start and I feel we can go even better with more laps under my belt. I couldn’t be happier with either the bike or the team.”

The HMC crew will take a few days sabbatical before heading to LA to prepare for the second round of the AMA Chevy Trucks Superbike series at Fontana Raceway.

The new Californian raceway sports a very different layout to that of Laguna Seca, but this doesn’t faze Chandler. “Sure I have a slight disadvantage as I didn’t test there like most other riders, but the way things went these past three days, I’m very optimistic.”

Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By David Swarts

HMC Ducati’s Doug Chandler, Kawasaki’s Tommy Hayden and Graves Motorsports Yamaha’s Damon Buckmaster finished a three-day test at Mazda Raceway at Laguna Seca with the fastest Superbike, Supersport and Formula Xtreme lap times, respectively, all on Dunlop race tires.

After lapping consistently in the mid-1:26s all week, Chandler mounted a fresh 587-compound, or “medium”, rear Dunlop to his new Ducati 998RS Superbike and turned a 1:25.65. The next fastest riders at the test did 1:26.2s.

“We did what we set out to do,” said a smiling Chandler Thursday afternoon. “I didn’t want to do anything silly. We’ve got a long year in front of us. There’s no sense getting in a rush trying to get used to this new bike. I took it one day at a time and got more and more comfortable with it. The times actually came easier than I expected. The first day, I didn’t expect to be as close to the rest of the guys as we were. I figured in three days we should be pretty close, but to be out front made me think we could go even better yet. It just makes me feel really good about the whole thing.”

Kawasaki’s Eric Bostrom ended his test on a positive note after clocking a 1:26.2 late Thursday on his ZX-7RR. “When it came down to just riding the thing this weekend, I probably didn’t do a good enough job. I had trouble switching from tester-mode to racer-mode. But still, I rode pretty well. It’s definitely a job to do 1:26s around here. As an example, last July on Saturday morning I went out and did some low-1:26s. In the afternoon session, I couldn’t even do a 1:26, (the track) changed that much.” Bostrom won the 2001 AMA Superbike race at Laguna Seca convincingly.

The key to Bostrom’s success during the test was finding and fixing a problem with the bike’s front end Wednesday night.

Team Blimpie Yoshimura Suzuki’s Aaron Yates worked with changes to the internals of his forks and shock to tie for the third-fastest Superbike time Thursday at 1:26.6. “I really wanted to work with the Superbike some,” said Yates. “We’ve been trying all kinds of different things. We had a big plan for the test, and we pretty much got through everything. The Superbike is feeling real good to me now, and I’m pretty happy.”

Another Yoshimura rider that was happy, surprisingly happy, was Mat Mladin. After riding about 30 laps on day one of the test, Mladin ended day two early after approximately eight laps, due to pain and stiffness in the left elbow he injured in a Daytona qualifying crash. Although he said that his arm wasn’t much better Thursday, Mladin gritted his teeth, put in a full day of painful riding and ended the final day with a best time of 1:26.6.

“I’m just recovering,” Mladin said of his effort at Laguna. “It’s just been difficult trying to get anything done when you can’t ride like you really need to ride hard to get the testing done. It’s been a bit of a pain in the butt, but that’s the way it goes sometimes. As the old saying goes, ‘You get that on the big jobs.'”

Team Blimpie Yoshimura Suzuki’s rider Jamie Hacking finished with a strong lap time of 1:26.8 in only one day of testing on his Superbike with two new crew members. “It went excellent,” stated Hacking. “I’m really happy with my lap time. This morning we were stuck in the 1:28.0s, then Boom! We went 1:27.2s right away. I think we can make that step again and drop another half-second easy. Another half-second and we’ll be right there with everybody else, right there with the Hondas.”

Hacking credited a change in wheel width and rear suspension for his improvement, but said that he still needed more power for better acceleration.

Yamaha’s Anthony Gobert ended his test program with a best lap of 1:27.4 on Thursday. Gobert started on his Supersport bike in the morning before switching to his Superbike before lunch. Gobert crashed unhurt just before the 12:30 p.m. break and then decided that he would sit out the rest of the day.

“Because of the injuries I got from crashing at Daytona, I wasn’t able to train really at all leading up to this test,” explained Gobert. “I got through the first two days and the first part of this day, but I’m just getting to the point where I’m feeling a bit fatigued. There’s really no sense in going out there and risking crashing and an injury or something when I’m not feeling 100%”

Despite no-one threatening his best Supersport time of 1:29.6, Kawasaki’s Tommy Hayden pushed his ZX-6R in the heat of the day Thursday afternoon to turn an even faster 1:28.96, 0.7-second faster than the next Supersport rider at the test.

“The biggest problem here for the 600 is chatter because the fast corners are pretty rough,” said the eldest Hayden brother. “It seems like every year, no matter what bike I’m on, I’m fighting that. I feel like we have a pretty good handle on that now.”

Hayden’s teammate Tony Meiring finished off the 12 sets of Dunlops his crew brought for the test Thursday afternoon preventing him from bettering his 1:31.00 from Thursday morning. “We’re getting closer,” said the 18-year-old. “We have a couple of things here and there that hurt me. We just need to keep working on it and get it better. We’ve just got to take our time to get there. We can’t rush things, can’t get into big messes or anything, gotta stay on two wheels, gotta stay running – that’s the way you learn.”

After the test of his Yamaha YZF-R6 Superport bike ended with unfinished business Thursday morning, Buckmaster was able to leave Laguna Seca Thursday evening with a smile. Not only did Buckmaster record the fastest Formula Xtreme lap time of the three days, but the 2001 AMA FX class runner-up found a much better set-up than what he used to win last year’s Formula Xtreme race at Laguna on his Yamaha YZF-R7 with an F1 engine.

Thursday’s best unofficial lap times:

1. Doug Chandler, Ducati 998RS, 1:25.65
2. Eric Bostrom, Kawasaki ZX-7RR, 1:26.27
3. Mat Mladin, Suzuki GSX-R750, 1:26.6
4. Aaron Yates, Suzuki GSX-R750, 1:26.6
5. Jamie Hacking, Suzuki GSX-R750, 1:26.8
6. Anthony Gobert, Yamaha YZF-R7, 1:27.4
7. Damon Buckmaster, Yamaha YZF-R1/R7, 1:27.4
8. Tommy Hayden, Kawasaki ZX-6R, 1:28.9
9. Anthony Gobert, Yamaha YZF-R6, 1:30.2
10. Damon Buckmaster, Yamaha YZF-R6, 1:30.4
11. Tony Meiring, Kawasaki ZX-6R, 1:31.0

Best unofficial lap times of the entire test (as provided by each rider’s Crew Chief):

1. Doug Chandler, Ducati 998RS, 1:25.65
2. Nicky Hayden, Honda RC51, 1:26.22
3. Kurtis Roberts, Honda RC51, 1:26.25
4. Eric Bostrom, Kawasaki ZX-7RR, 1:26.27
5. Mat Mladin, Suzuki GSX-R750, 1:26.6
6. Aaron Yates, Suzuki GSX-R750, 1:26.6
7. Anthony Gobert, Yamaha YZF-R7, 1:26.7
8. Jamie Hacking, Suzuki GSX-R750, 1:26.8
9. Miguel Duhamel, Honda RC51, 1:27.1
10. Damon Buckmaster, Yamaha YZF-R1/R7, 1:27.4
11. Jake Zemke, Honda CBR954RR, 1:28.0
12. Roger Lee Hayden, Honda CBR954RR, 1:28.4
13. Tommy Hayden, Kawasaki ZX-6R, 1:28.9
14. Anthony Gobert, Yamaha YZF-R6, 1:29.6
15. Mike Hale, Honda CBR954RR, 1:29.7
16. Jamie Hacking, Suzuki GSX-R600, 1:30.0
17. Aaron Yates, Suzuki GSX-R600, 1:30.0
18. Alex Gobert, Honda CBR954RR, 1:30.1
19. Damon Buckmaster, Yamaha YZF-R6, 1:30.4
20. Mike Hale, Honda CBR600F4i, 1:30.4
21. Tony Meiring, Kawasaki ZX-6R, 1:31.0
22. Roger Lee Hayden, Honda CBR600F4i, 1:31.1
23. Jake Zemke, Honda CBR600F4i, 1:31.2
24. Alex Gobert, Honda CBR600F4i, 1:31.7

From an AMA press release:

Federal Agency Poised to Reopen Closed Glamis Land to OHVs

PICKERINGTON, Ohio — The federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has proposed a plan to reopen more than 49,000 acres of southern California desert closed two years ago to off-highway vehicle use, the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) reports.

The action would partially reverse a closure enacted by the BLM in late 2000 that affected 49,305 acres in the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area, known to OHV enthusiasts as Glamis because of its proximity to that city in far southern California. The closure was part of an out-of-court settlement of a lawsuit filed by anti-access groups that alleged the BLM failed to properly consult with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service concerning the effects of the BLM-administered California Desert Conservation Area Plan on a number of threatened and endangered species.

On March 29, the BLM released a Draft Environmental Impact Statement and Draft Recreation Area Management Plan for the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area that would reopen about 16,000 acres of the Glamis area to unrestricted OHV use. In addition, more than 33,000 acres would be reopened to limited use, with a restriction on the number of riders allowed. A maximum of 525 vehicles would be allowed each day in that area for a year while the BLM monitors the impact on plants and animals there. Changes would then be made on OHV use of the parcel, if necessary.

“This proposed management plan is a significant development for all the OHV enthusiasts who ride at Glamis,” said AMA Western States Representative Nick Haris. “Under the terms of the California Desert Conservation Area Plan, open motorized recreation was restricted to less than 2 percent of the California Desert. With this closure, even that tiny amount was in danger of disappearing.”

The AMA encourages those interested in the future of motorized recreation in the desert to read the plan and comment on it. The BLM will hold six public hearings on the plan to gather comments. The hearings will be held from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. on:

April 9: City Council Chambers, 1275 Main St., El Centro, Calif.

April 11: The Grand, 4101 E. Willow St., Long Beach, Calif.

April 15: Phoenix College, 1202 W. Thomas Rd., Phoenix, Ariz.

April 18: Brawley City Council, 225 A St., Brawley, Calif.

April 23: Yuma Civic and Convention Center, 1440 W. Desert Hills Dr., Yuma, Ariz.

April 25: Marriott Mission Valley, 8757 Rio San Diego Dr., San Diego, Calif.

Reading copies are available at the BLM’s El Centro Field Office, 1661 S. 4th St., El Centro, Calif., and at the California Desert District Office, 6221 Box Springs Blvd., Riverside, Calif. Reading copies are also available at selected libraries in cities where the public meetings will be held, and the documents can be found at the BLM’s website at www.ca.blm.gov/elcentro.

Comments will be accepted through June 28. Written comments should be sent to the Bureau of Land Management, El Centro Field Office, Attn: Jim Komatinsky, 1661 S. 4th St., El Centro, CA 92243.

If approved, the plan could go into effect late this year.

Glamis is an extremely popular recreation area for motorcyclists, ATV riders, four-wheel-drive vehicle enthusiasts and others. The BLM reported that an estimated 108,000 people used the dunes during the President’s Day weekend Feb. 16-17. The area is approximately 40 miles long, five miles wide, and has dunes that rise 300 feet above the valley floor.

In 2000, the BLM agreed to temporarily close 49,305 acres in the 150,000-acre Algodones Dunes area that includes Glamis in response to a lawsuit by anti-access groups. The groups that filed the suit alleged that the ban was needed to protect the Peirson’s milk-vetch plant, a member of the bean and pea family. The plant is listed as “endangered” by the state, and as “threatened” by the federal government.

The anti-access groups made that allegation even though a BLM monitoring study showed that between 1977 and 1998, while OHV use was allowed, six plant species including the Peirson’s milk-vetch increased in the dunes.

The closure meant that more than half of the land set aside for motorized recreation in the dunes was closed. Previously, a 32,240-acre parcel — about 20 percent of the total — was designated as the North Algodones Dunes Wilderness Area and closed to OHVs.

The BLM manages more than 9 million acres of the 25 million total acres in the California desert. The California Desert Conservation Area Plan, which went into effect in 1980, and the California Desert Protection Act, passed eight years later, resulted in severe closures and restrictions on motorized recreation in the desert. They left open travel on some existing roads and ways through the desert, but confined open riding to a handful of specifically designated “intensive-use” areas, including the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area.

The lawsuit, filed by the Center for Biological Diversity, the Sierra Club, and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, not only shut down 49,000 acres to OHV use at Glamis, but also closed areas to campers and closed, or threatens to close, other recreational areas in the California desert.

Copyright 2003, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

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1. Chris Vermeulen, Honda CBR600RR, 1:35.291
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