Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

AMA Road Racing Operations Manager Gary Mathers refused Sunday morning to comment on rampant rumors that he is leaving his position with the AMA following next month’s National at Fontana, California.

Asked along pit lane at Daytona if it was true that he was leaving the AMA after Fontana, Mathers said, “Who told you that?”

When told the source, Mathers said, “I never told him that.”

Asked, “Is it true that you’re leaving the AMA or not?” Mathers replied, “I’m not saying anything. You can print anything you want.”

Prior to joining the AMA Pro Racing staff, Mathers was Racing Manager at American Honda. During his days at Honda, he was notorious for telling modified versions of various stories to different people, to see how far the information spread and to thus gauge a person’s “loyalty”.

At post time it is unknown if Mathers planted the rumor as a test of various Pro Racing staffers and/or Pro Racing Board members, or not.

According to the rumor, Mathers is frustrated because AMA Pro Racing has not adopted reforms he has proposed.

Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

Kirk McCarthy won the AMA Pro Thunder race at Daytona, running out to an almost-12-second lead on an AMS Ducati built by Jeff Nash.

Defending Series Champion Tom Montano raced Mike Ciccotto for second before crashing, picking up his Ducati and finishing sixth.

1. Kirk McCarthy, Ducati
2. Mike Ciccotto, Buell
3. Michael Barnes, Buell
4. Carlos Macias, Ducati
5. Tom Fournier, Ducati
6. Tom Montano, Ducati
7. Ricky Lundgren, Ducati
8. Josh Bryan, Buell
9. Paul Vitale, Ducati
10. Charlie Hewett, Ducati
11. C. Freatman, Ducati
12. Bryan Bemisderfer, Buell
13. Al Charles, Ducati
14. Shawn Higbee, Buell
15. S. Keener, Suzuki

Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

Red flag comes out as Bayliss takes his second win

By Glenn LeSanto

Troy Bayliss got a perfect start to the defense of his World Championship at Valencia with a double win. The second race was red-flagged after 20 laps when Mark Heckles ran off the track between turn eight and turn nine. He remounted and got back on the circuit, leaving gravel all over the racing line. Even without the incident Bayliss looked on for the win and was over a second clear of Noriyuki Haga at the time the race was stopped.

Again there was a fierce battle between Haga and Ben Bostrom, this time both riders were battling for the lead. After some hectic passing manoeuvres Haga got the better of Bostrom, but by this time Bayliss had got into his groove and soon overhauled both of them to race off to his second win of the day and a championship points lead.

Bostrom was by now struggling with his rear tyre and fourth place man Edwards soon reeled his fellow American in to grab third place before the red flag stopped play.

“That race was hard work,” said Bayliss. “We had a little problem with my bike on the grid before the start of the race and had to swap bikes. But it’s a sign of how well the team is working that it felt just like I was racing with my number one bike.

“In the opening stages Noriyuki and Ben were really fast. I got a little flustered as they made a break and started making silly mistakes. Then I realized than Colin Edwards was running up fast behind me and knew I had to get myself together and get past Ben and Nori and get on with it.

“I’m feeling relaxed, the bike works well, things have gone well in testing and today’s results have been great. But I know I can’t be on the top all the time. I know who all the fast guys are and I know it will be a long hard season.”

Haga said, “I changed some settings just a little for the second race. Troy was very fast and I couldn’t catch him–that’s all! I haven’t had much testing yet I need some more, I need to catch up.”

“It’s been a very hard weekend,” said Edwards. “We just didn’t seem able to get the bike to turn in. We fixed the problem a bit between races, but it still wasn’t right. We have some work to do before the next race. We thought after all our testing here that it would be better than it was, but for unforeseen reasons that I can’t reveal it wasn’t working like it should. But we’ve managed to take championship points away with us.

“When I caught Ben we didn’t have much of a battle as he was just going backwards because his tire took a shit.”



Second race result:
1 T Bayliss, Australia, Ducati, 32:03.384
2 N Haga, Japan, Aprilia, 32:04.562
3 C Edwards, USA, Honda, 32:05.669
4 B Bostrom, USA, Ducati, 32:08.528
5 N Hodgson, GBR, Ducati, 32:20.766
6 H Izutsu, Japan, Kawasaki, 32:29.194
7 C Walker, GBR, Kawasaki, 32:35.121
8 J Borja, Spain, Ducati, 32:36.591
9 S Martin, Australia, Ducati, 32:41.085
10 J Toseland, GBR, Ducati, 32:41.595



From a Castrol Honda press release:

SPANISH DOUBLE FOR BAYLISS

Troy Bayliss began the defence of his world title by winning both races of Sunday’s opening round of the World Superbike championship at the Valencia circuit in Spain.

The Australian rider was followed home in both races by Noriyuki Haga in both races with Ben Bostrom and Castrol Honda’s Colin Edwards taking a third place each. Despite opening race pressure from Bostrom and Haga, Bayliss led every one of the 23 laps to record the ninth victory of his World Superbike career.

Race two was led by Bostrom and Haga before Bayliss hit the front with five laps to go. His victory came three laps early following a red flag after a rider had crashed and spread dirt and gravel onto one corner of the 2.49-mile track.

With four laps to go Edwards grabbed third place from Bostrom and was closing in on Haga when the race was red flagged, Edwards said: “I’m not sure if I would have passed Haga but I was ready to give it a good go.”


Second race result:
1 Bayliss, 32:03.384
2 Haga, 32:04.562
3 Edwards 32:05.669
4 Bostrom 32:08.528
5 Hodgson 32:20.766
6 Izutsu 32:29.194
7 Walker 32:35.121
8 Juan Borja, Spain (Ducati) 32:36.591
9 Steve Martin, Australia (Ducati) 32:41.085
10 James Toseland, GB (Ducati) 32:41.595

World Superbike championship points after one of 13 rounds:
1 Bayliss 50
2 Haga 40
3 Edwards and Bostrom 29
5 Hodgson 21
6 Izutsu 19
7 Walker 15
8 Borja 13
9 Xaus 11
10 Toseland 10

Manufacturers points:
1 Ducati 50
2 Aprilia 40
3 Honda 29
4 Kawasaki 119
5 Suzuki 8

Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By Glenn LeSanto

Saturday, March 9 marked the exit of one three-cylinder motorcycle while another was waiting in the wings. Benelli, beset by financial problems caused by the collapse of the Italian scooter market, threw in the towel at Valencia after a weekend of engine failures. Meanwhile, the Foggy Petronas Racing team swaggered into town insisting that their ambitious project to invent a motorcycle company from scratch was on schedule.

It’s a sad day when the market for 50cc stink-wheels can sink a racing bike as beautiful as the Benelli Tornado. But these are the simple facts of life, money is power, and in the case of racing, money is horsepower.

Benelli enginees took risks to increase the power output from their three-cylinder engine. During the winter they were forced to concentrate their dwindling resources on getting the road version of the Tornado ready and so the racing project lay almost dormant from after Imola to just prior to Valencia. Then, in order to make up for lost time they made a few quick fixes in the last weeks prior to the start of the season. Unfortunately for the Benelli men the new parts weren’t tested properly, and one of them, possibly the camshaft, hadn’t been properly heat-treated and failed after only three laps every time the bike took to the track.

To make the whole situation even more poignant for the little Italian factory, two of the company’s road bikes showed up at Valencia. The bikes had been ridden the 1700 kms from the factory at Pesaro in Italy to Spain in one day, proof at least that the road bike has inherent reliability where the racer doesn’t. One of the machines had more than 10,000 kms on the clock and Benelli’s owner, Andrea Merloni, insisted these had all been covered trouble-free. The company won’t be at any of the fly-away rounds at Australia, South Africa or Japan. A question mark hangs over whether or not they’ll even be back at Monza, where they had originally promised to launch the road bike version of the Tornado. The little David trying to compete with the Goliaths of Honda and Ducati found its sling empty in Valencia.

Enter FPR, or Foggy Petronas Racing, in a whirl of hype. “Our project is right on schedule,” insisted former Superbike rider and four-time World Champion Carl Fogarty.

Fogarty said that the original Sauber-designed engine was a pile of junk that “wouldn’t have lasted more than a few laps,” but insisted that the new bike would race at Laguna. The new engine builders, Suter Racing Technology, were doing a better job with the new 900cc version of the Triple, according to Fogarty, who said the engine had to be engineered from ground up again.

Even the need to produce 75 working bikes to satisfy the FIM homologation rules to compete in the World Superbike series won’t hold them back, insisted Fogarty. “The road bikes will be here soon,” he said. The former racer turned team owner told the gathered press that the project is funded by one of the world’s largest companies and so should be taken seriously. “Don’t believe the crap that you read in some of the press, because they just make it all up,” said Foggy, looking directly at the man from the English weekly paper, Motorcycle News.

The FPR set up looks professional enough, and the crew roll call, both inside the offices and downstairs in the workshop, is impressive. But the press pack had one glaring omission, there were no pictures of the motorcycle in it. So far all are left asking, “where are the bikes?” The team is insisting all will be revealed very soon.

With Benelli out, for the time being at least, and FPR in sometime soon, it’s a case of one down and one up for World Superbike racing.

Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

Test times from Sunday at Catalunya, the second day of IRTA MotoGP testing:

1. Valentino Rossi, Honda RCV211V, 1:44.280
2. Loris Capirossi, Honda NSR500, 1:44.483
3. Tohru Ukawa, Honda RCV211V, 1:44.611
4. Carlos Checa, Yamaha YZR-M1, 1:45.229
5. Alex Barros, Honda NSR500, 1:45.405
6. Daijiro Katoh, Honda NSR500, 1:45.448
7. Max Biaggi, Yamaha YZR-M1, 1:45.681
8. Shinya Nakano, Yamaha YZR500, 1:45.870
9. Norick Abe, Yamaha YZR500, 1:46.025
10. Akira Ryo, Suzuki GSV-R, 1:46.069
11. Sete Gibernau, Suzuki GSV-R, 1:46.243
12. Jeremy McWilliams, Proton KR3, 1:46.319
13. John Hopkins, Yamaha YZR500, 1:46.366
14. Nobuatsu Aoki, Proton KR3, 1:46.407
15. Kenny Roberts, Suzuki GSV-R, 1:46.625
16. Jurgen van der Goorbergh, Honda NSR500, 1:46.796
17. Shinichi Itoh, Honda RCV211V, 1:46.808
18. Regis Laconi, Aprilia RS3, 1:46.899
19. John Kocinski, Yamaha YZR-M1, 1:47.054
20. Olivier Jacque, Yamaha YZR500, 1:47.112
21. Pere Riba, Yamaha YZR500, 1:47.345
22. Guintoli, Yamaha YZR500, 1:47.695
23. Tetsuya Harada, Honda NSR500, 1:48.565

Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.
Unofficial 250cc Grand Prix Practice Lap Times:
1. Jason DiSalvo, Honda, 1:57.172
2. Chuck Sorensen, Aprilia, 1:57.848
3. Michael Himmelsbach, Aprilia, 1:59.343
4. Perry Melneciuc, Yamaha, 2:01.613
5. Thad Halsmer, Yamaha, 2:01.870
6. Simon Turner, Yamaha, 2:01.968
7. Jeff Wood, Yamaha, 2:02.444
8. Neil Richardson, Yamaha, 2:03.197
9. Ed Sorbo, Yamaha, 2:04.377
10. Cory West, Yamaha, 2:04.618

Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

Speed Channel officials announced during a press conference in Daytona that the cable channel will carry live or same-day coverage of 86 motorcycle events in 2002, along with five hours of motorcycle coverage every Tuesday for a total of 250 hours of Two Wheel Tuesday TV programming this year.

Speed Channel issued a press release which quoted network president Jim Liberatore as saying “Coverage of all forms of motorcycle racing will remain a very significant part of Speed Channel programming. We expect Speed Channel to be a destination for all motorsports fans, and extending this relationship supports Speed Channel’s intention of showcasing many varied aspects of speed.”

Speed Channel is showing 10 hours of live coverage from Daytona this weekend. The AMA Superstock and Supersport races were broadcast live on Friday, March 8. Today, March 9, the AMA Supercross from Daytona will be broadcast live, and tomorrow the Daytona 200 will be broadcast live at 1:00 p.m. EST, following a pre-race show scheduled for 12:30 p.m. EST.

According to the release, this year Speed Channel also plans:

Live or same-day coverage of all 26 World Superbike races.

Coverage of all World Supersport races on Two Wheel Tuesday

Live or same-day coverage of all 16 MotoGP and 250cc Grand Prix World Championship events, with coverage of 125cc GP events on Two Wheel Tuesday

Live coverage of the entire AMA Superbike Series and of the AMA Supersport Series

Coverage of AMA Formula Xtreme races along with highlights of AMA Superstock and AMA 250cc Grand Prix races on Two Wheel Tuesday.

Speed Channel will also continue with its Bike Week and Motorcyclist shows on Two Wheel Tuesday.

The channel is also developing a new program called Ride On, for motorcycle hobbyists.

More information is available from www.speedtv.com or from (704) 455-3500.

Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By David Swarts

Contrary to what a medical update issued by Daytona International Speedway said, three-time AMA Superbike Champion Mat Mladin is still at Halifax Medical Center.

According to Mladin’s Crew Chief, Peter Doyle, Mladin was still in the hospital at 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time, and Mladin called Doyle on his cell phone from the hospital as Doyle spoke to a reporter.

Mladin highsided his Team Blimpie Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R750 Friday morning and was taken to the Daytona Infield Care Center for X-rays. The X-rays showed what could have been bone fragments or pavement debris in the open wound on Mladin’s left elbow. Mladin was then transported to Halifax to have an orthopedic surgeon examine the injury further. The physician performed a surgical procedure at approximately 7:30 p.m. Friday evening to clean debris out of the wound and found “a couple of bone fragments” and that “the sack of fluid around the elbow” had been ruptured, said Doyle.

According to his Crew Chief, Mladin had good movement in his injured arm and hand following the procedure, but stayed the night in the hospital.

Daytona International Speedway issued a medical report at approximately 11:00 a.m. Saturday morning saying that Mladin had been released from the hospital. But not only has Mladin not been released, Mladin and his team are still working hard to try to get him released, with no guarantee of success.

Doyle said that part of the problem is in actually getting ahold of and convincing the doctor assigned to Mladin to let him go; Mladin has only seen the doctor twice, including the surgery.

Doyle said that when Mladin’s doctor was reached early Saturday, he said that Mladin should stay in the hospital to receive more antibiotics and refused to release him.

Doyle said that he feared Mladin had been lost in the stream of injured street riders that have flooded Halifax during Bike Week.

As Doyle spoke, Team Blimpie Yoshimura Suzuki Team Manager Don Sakakura was asking doctors at the Speedway to contact Mladin’s physician and try to arrange his release. Mladin’s team is also lining up physical therapy sessions and pain-killing injections in case Mladin can ride in Sunday’s Superbike classic.

Doyle said that Mladin’s condition was improving but that Mladin was sore and the fingers on his left hand were swollen.

From a press release issued by Belgarda Yamaha, including the news that Jamie Whitham had to sit out morning practice for missing the riders’ meeting:

Team Yamaha Belgarda news
World Supersport Championship, Round 1, Valencia, Spain
Friday 8th March
Weather: Dry, mostly sunny 21 Deg C

CASOLI HAPPY.
Italian Paolo Casoli posted the day’s eighth fastest man and left the circuit a happy rider. When he rode at Valencia just two weeks ago, he was still in pain due to his injured finger and didn’t push hard. But now the finger is not causing any discomfort and so Casoli was able to ride without any nagging worries. Considering Valencia is his most unfavourite track, eighth quickest today was enough to bring a smile to his face.

Casoli’s teammate Jamie Whitham was forced to sit out the morning untimed session after arriving too late for the technical briefing yesterday afternoon. His connecting flight from England touched down just late enough to make him miss the briefing. The team informed the organisers that Whitham would not be present for the briefing beforehand and then there was a bit of a misunderstanding which led to Whitham not being allowed out for the first session. If the team had not tested at Valencia recently, this might have been a bit of a problem, but the bike’s setting was fresh in the team’s minds and they didn’t feel too disadvantaged.

Paolo Casoli ­ 8th, 1:39.446
“I’m happy because I have almost no pain from my finger and I was able to put in some laps that are OK.This is the first time I’ve ever been happy at Valencia and now I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s practice and getting further up the grid. I wasn’t looking forward to this race before, but now, it doesn’t seem so bad. Maybe one day I’ll get to actually enjoy riding here as well!”

Jamie Whitham ­ 10th, 1:39.608
“The bike was perfect this morning ­ but that’s probably because I never got to swing my leg over it! I’m not too fussed really, but I guess I would’ve been pretty angry if we hadn’t tested here so recently. This afternoon I took it nice and steady and cruised around, though I did feel that grip level was not as good as two weeks ago. We started off with my bike set up more or less how we finish the tests two weeks ago. That was set up more to Paolo’s taste then mine, but it seemed work OK for me, so that’s why we started like that. I am pretty happy with it and we’ll carry on the fine-tuning tomorrow. Tyres will be a factor here, so we’re going to spend quite a lot of time tomorrow trying a few tyres. Valencia is always a problem for tyres, so if I can some that’ll last the race and give good grip, I’ll be chuffed.”

Maio Meregalli ­ Team Manager
“It was a bit disappointing with Jamie not being allowed to ride this morning, but It didn’t really give us too much of a set-back. Just a misunderstanding really ­ nothing else. But I am surprised at how well Paolo went and surprised because he is happy! He has never liked this track before. His injury was causing him a lot of pain in the tests, so maybe he knew he couldn’t make a good result and relaxed and just rode. Now that the finger is much better and he has stayed relaxed, he was able to make some good lap times. Who knows what’ll happen on raceday, but we feel very positive and are hoping for a good result.”

Friday qualifying
1 Foret (F-Honda) 1:38.156
2 Corradi (I-Yamaha) 1:38.730
3 Chambon (F-Suzuki Alstare Corona Extra) 1:38.920
4 Cruciani (I-Yamaha) 1:39.085
5 Kellner (D-Yamaha) 1:39.245
6 Teuchert (D-Yamaha) 1:39.275
7 Vermeulen (AUS-Honda) 1:39.284
8 Casoli (I-Yamaha Belgarda) 1:39.446
9 Daemen (B-Honda) 1:39.585
10 Whitham (GB-Yamaha Belgarda) 1:39.608,