Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

There will be approximately 1500 linear feet of Airfence and Alpina air module protective barriers for the AMA races at California Speedway April 5-7. Andy Coffey, Director of Airfence Safety Systems Australia, was in Fontana, California, March 22 assembling the facility’s newly-acquired 500 feet of Airfence Bike product in preparation for the upcoming motorcycle events.

The latest 500 feet of Airfence Bike, together with the AMA’s 35 existing sections of Airfence and Alpina air module, bring the total amount of safety barriers available for use during the AMA Yamaha Superbike Challenge to nearly 1500 linear feet.

For more information about inflatable safety barriers, go to www.airfence.com, or to www.alpina.at.

* Air Fence is a registered trade mark of Airfence Safety Systems Australia.

Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.



This just in:

We have been looking for a way to get in touch with Nicky Hayden or the Hayden family. Our daughter is 9 years old and is crazy about Nicky. She met him at Road Atlanta on her 8th birthday. Nicky was more than gracious. He took the time to speak with her when surrounded by his teen friends. But, of course, she could mutter only one word. He asked how old she was today and she said “8”. We met his parents and were very impressed with their willingness to get our daughter a T-shirt of the Hayden boys. We lined up at the Honda transporter to get him to get an autographed poster and his mother Rose insisted that he sign the shirt even though it was against the rules. Our daughter had her picture made with him and he signed the shirt for her.

Long story short, she did a report in school on ‘A Fantastic Person’ and chose Nicky. It’s a really cute and I would like to send it to Rose or Nicky. If you could give me any ideas on fan clubs or any way that we could mail it to them, I would appreciate it greatly. Nicky, considering his age and his status in the racing world, is very grounded. Thanks for your time and I hope you can help.

P.S. You have the best publication on the market.

Thanks,
Mark & Michelle Horton


A Fantastic Person
By Lindsey Horton

I have met a fantastic person before. His name is Nicky Hayden. He is an 18-year-old famous motorcycle racer. He has raced since he was five years old. He has two brothers that also ride. they are Roger Lee Hayden and Tommy Hayden. I admire Nicky because he is a nice, responsible, caring motorcycle racer that loves his fans. I have two posters of him. One is autographed, one is not. He autographed my T-shirt and he autographed my book. My daddy’s building where he keeps his motorcycle has millions of motorcycle posters. I have a special place in there where I put his poster. I love and respect him. The best part is where it is close (to my) hometown. Another thing is when we went to see him it was my birthday. I love Nicky, he is my favorite rider.

With the recent news about tracks and racing associations purchasing Air Fence, the question begs to be asked, why can’t tracks, particularly high-profile tracks in the middle of high-dollar expansions (i.e. Sears Point, $50,000,000 and Laguna Seca) provide Air Fence for all motorcycle-related events? In the case of Sears Point if they spent 1 tenth of 1 percent of their expansion budget ($50,000) it would be enough to purchase over 500 feet of Air Fence. Would I, as a rider, be willing to pay a little more fortrack time to have Air Fence in place? Yes, I would. While I realize this oversimplifies the issue, my question is not intended to “bash” any individual track. Although I am curious as to why tracks do not provide this proven life-saving safety feature.

1 foot of Air Fence =$90.00

a prevented death or permanent injury =
priceless (pardon the plagiarism)

Thank You

Patrick Flora
Truckee, CA

From a press release:

Hot Bike presents the White Brothers
Los Angeles Calendar Motorcycle Show

2-Day Weekend Streetbike Extravaganza set for
July 20 -21st at the Queen Mary Event Park in Long Beach

Last year’s expansion from one to two-days of the Hot Bike magazine sponsored White Brothers Los Angeles Calendar Motorcycle Show at the Queen Mary Event Park, Long Beach, CA, was a huge success featuring 130 major manufacturers, race teams and leading custom bike builders from across America, together with a huge 30% increase in spectator attendance from the previous year. Sponsored by Hot Bike, White Brothers, Performance Machine, Bikernet.com and The Recycler/Cycle Buys, and featured on the Speed Channel’s American Thunder, The LA Calendar Motorcycle Show has continued to grow every year to become the biggest and most popular streetbike show in America catering to the custom, cruiser and sportbike markets. Always the 3rd weekend of July, the 11th Annual Show is scheduled for Saturday July 20th and Sunday July 21st, 2002.

The Show features all-weekend entertainment with live music by two incredible bands -Powder and Soto, the most competitive bike contest on the West Coast with it’s prestigious Hot Bike magazine Best of Show Trophy, and a Bikernet.com Party on Saturday night aboard the Queen Mary with a huge fireworks display. Other activities include The White Brothers West Coast Horsepower Dyno Shootout, a FastDates.com Calendar Girl Pageant, and of course the premier of the 2003 FastDates.com Calendars with the beautiful calendar models in attendance. Together with over 125 major Motorcycle and related Product Manufacturers, Distributors and select Retail Venders involved in the streetbike market. Event hosts include the legendary Keith Ball, a.k.a. Bandit, and the lovely Brenda Fox.

“Our change to the 2-day format last year was a necessity and a huge success as the Calendar Bike Show continues to grow every year,” explained event producer Jim Gianatsis of Gianatsis Design, a motorsports advertising design agency which also produces the popular FastDates.com Motorcycle Pinup Calendars. “Motorcycle enthusiasts love our show because of its quality and excitement, all the top custom and race bikes, beautiful models, and the fact it has been the only outdoor bike event in Los Angeles county, now located on the ocean’s edge at the beautiful Queen Mary Park.”

The expanded 2-day Show not only gives fans more time to enjoy it, but it provides real value. When most admission prices at sporting events, race tracks and outdoor amusement parks cost $40 – $50 per day, our Bike Show’s low one-day admission price is just $15 ($20 for both days) and includes free admission to the Queen Mary (a $15 admission to normal tourists).

With all the additional attractions that Long Beach has to offers including the ferry boat to Catalina Island with a day’s activities there, the Aquarium, the downtown restaurants and clubs, plus what greater Los Angeles has to offer, the LA Calendar Motorcycle Show is a must do attraction for across-the-country visitors and it will continue to grow as a major motorcycle week destination like Laughlin, Daytona and Sturgis.

Spectators and Exhibitors can find out more about The LA Calendar Motorcycle Show, the Bike Contest and all the available weekend activities online at www.FastDates.com.

This just in:

Dear Club PCS member/ entrant,

Due to lack of entries our Next Event scheduled for 3/30-31 Carolina Motorsports Park has been cancelled. I expect the Easter Holiday has effected turnout.

I am sorry for any inconvenience this may cause you, and will offer you option of applying your entry fee towards another event, next is Talladega Al 5/11-12 or Roebling Road Savannah Ga 5/30-31

or

complete refund via the same method you used for payment.

Please advise at your convenience.

With Personal Regards

Tony R Foster
Club PCS
386.451.9493
386.253.3578 fax
[email protected]
www.pcsdaytona.com

Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

Summit Point Raceway in Summit Point, West Virginia is apparently being lined with concrete walls, decreasing run-off area in the same manner as similar wall projects did at Road Atlanta and Laguna Seca.

According to a post on www.wera.com, the WERA BBS, WERA Race Director George Mood heard about the walls being installed and went to the track to see for himself.

“Summit point is begining to look like Road Atlanta as BSR (Bill Scott Racing, the track owner/operator) has recently installed concrete walls in certain areas,” reported Mood. “The walls are in 8-foot sections, about 12 inches thick. They are lined with one ‘layer’ of stacked tires…”

Mood then posted details of the wall sections, along with an observation that the track is apparently making and installing more sections of wall. The areas where new concrete walls are already installed include, in order of least worrisome to most worrisome: Outside turn 1, beyond the gravel trap; on rider’s left in turns 7-8; on rider’s right in turn 3; and on rider’s left between turns 4 and 5, with about 400 feet of wall in place, reducing run-off area by about two feet.

Although F-USA and CCS have about 560 linear feet of Air Fence available for use at Summit Point during the uncoming (May 23-26) F-USA National and regularly scheduled CCS regional events, WERA does not currently have any Air Fence.

Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

All Times Eastern Time

2:00 p.m. AMA 250cc Grand Prix, Daytona
3:00 p.m. U.S. Flat Track Championships, Daytona
4:00 p.m. Motorcyclist

7:00 p.m. Bike Week
7:30 p.m. Motorcyclist
8:00 p.m. U.S. Flat Track Championships, Daytona
9:00 p.m. AMA Superstock, Daytona
10:00 p.m. FIM World Supersport, Valencia
11:00 p.m. American Thunder
11:30 p.m. American Thunder
12:00 a.m. Bike Week
12:30 a.m. Motorcyclist
1:00 a.m. U.S. Flat Track Championships, Daytona
2:00 a.m. AMA Superstock, Daytona
3:00 a.m. FIM World Supersport, Valenica

Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By Glenn LeSanto

Troy Bayliss is already looking unstoppable this season after winning again in the second race at Phillip Island on his Infostrada Ducati. Bayliss maintained a 100% record this season after another battle up front with Colin Edwards.

Before the weekend Bayliss hadn’t even won a Superbike race at Phillip Island, now he’s got himself into the record books as the first rider to win four races in a row at the start of the season. If he keeps up this form at Kyalami he could go ahead of Ben Bostrom and Carl Fogarty in the records, they are the only riders to have won five races in a row in the World Superbike championship 15 year history.

Edwards did everything he could to keep his Honda ahead of Bayliss after the two swapped places several times. But as the race entered the final stage Bayliss took the lead again and this time Edwards, or more precisely his tires, had no answer for the Australian.

Behind the pair was Ruben Xaus, again riding prudently and taking valuable points for another third-place finish. Fourth position was a hotly contested battle between Neil Hodgson, Noriyuki Haga, Ben Bostrom and Hitoyasu Izutsu. But things got too hot for Izutsu who lost the front end on his Kawasaki going into ‘MG’ and crashed out of the race. Hodgson just out-dragged Bostrom to the line after the pair exited the last corner neck and neck.

The four victories give Bayliss a commanding lead at a very early stage in the title race.

“Unbelievable!” exclaimed Bayliss. “If I’d won Superpole as well it would have been great, that would have made it a clean sweep.

“I took it easy on the next-to-last lap trying to keep something in reserve for the last lap. I expected a big thing from Colin as I came round to start the final lap but then saw my board telling me he was way back. So instead I just cruised around the final lap and took it easy.

“The Superscreen (TV) at Lukey Heights gave me a little trouble, I kept giving it a glance in race one to see where everyone was and then making a mistake.

“There’s still a long way to go and anything can happen. There’s a tough weekend ahead in South Africa, Colin is fast there, I go well there and so does Ruben.

“The start to the season has been much better than I could have expected and it might mean I can relax a bit at Sugo, a track I haven’t got a great history on.

“For some guys the way they’ve arranged the races this year must be tough (Australia followed by South Africa and then back to Japan) but for me it’s worked out OK. I’ve been able to base myself in Australia for a while and see my friends and family.”


“We knew after the first race that the tire would be on fine line over race distance,” said Edwards, “but then the temperature went up three or four degrees and tipped it over that line. I tried to make a break early in the race and fried up my tire, which was a mistake. By the end of the race I started to feel some vibration from the tires. So I took it easy, 20 points is better than no points.

“Changing the gearing after race one helped. I had an extra 120 revs, not much but it just made the difference between hitting the limiter and being able to slipstream past Bayliss.”


“I got a bad start and it took time to recover,” said Xaus. “Ben Bostrom was especially hard to pass and by the time I got by my tires were gone. I managed to recover one second on the leaders but couldn’t make up the rest. So I settled for another third place and some more championship points.”



World Superbike championship
Phillip Island, 24 March 2002

Race two result:

1: T Bayliss AUS Ducati 34:35.633
2: C Edwards USA Honda 34:38.105
3: R Xaus ESP Ducati 34:45.315
4: N Hodgson GBR Ducati 34:54.546
5: B Bostrom USA Ducati 34:54.577
6: N Haga JPN Aprilia 34:55.206
7: J Toseland GBR Ducati 35:08.589
8: G Lavilla ESP Suzuki 35:08.634
9: C Walker GBR Kawasaki 35:08.718
10: J Borja ESP Ducati 35:37.515



More, from a Castrol Honda press release:

ISLAND DOUBLE FOR BAYLISS

Reigning champion Troy Bayliss won both races of Sunday’s second round of the World Superbike championship as he and Castrol Honda’s Colin Edwards–twice runner-up–did battle at the Phillip Island circuit in Australia.

The pair were locked in battle in both 22-lap races, Edwards making a mistake two laps from the end of the first race and suffering with a rear traction problem at the end of the second.

Bayliss’ wins pleased the 57,000 fans and keep him at the head of the championship while Edwards moved into second place with his pair of second places. “I wanted wins,” said Edwards. “Troy was on form, I missed a gear in the first race and lost grip in the second.”

Ruben Xaus took third place in both races as the only three factory Michelin tyre riders dominated the podium. Neil Hodgson lost out to Ben Bostrom in a first race battle for fourth place but the Ducati duo reversed their finishing positions in race two.

Second race result: 1 Bayliss 34:35.633
2 Edwards 34:38.105
3 Xaus 34:45.315
4 Hodgson 34:54.546
5 Bostrom 34:54.577
6 Noriyuki Haga, Japan (Aprilia) 34:55.206
7 Toseland 35:08.589
8 Lavilla 35:08.634
9 Walker 35:08.718
10 Juan Borja, Spain (Ducati) 35:37.515

World Superbike championship points after two of 13 rounds:
1 Bayliss 100
2 Edwards 69
3 Bostrom 53
4 Haga 50
5 Hodgson 45
6 Xaus 43
7 TIE, Izutsu/Walker 29
9 Toseland 27
10 Lavilla 25

Manufacturer points:
1 Ducati 100
2 Honda 69
3 Aprilia 50
4 Kawasaki 36
5 Suzuki 25

From an FIM press release:

2002 FIM World Champions’ Awards
December 21,2002 – St. Vincent

The 2002 FIM World Champions’ Awards Ceremony, organised by Dorna, will be held at the Palais St-Vincent in St-Vincent, Va; d’Aosta (Italy) on December 21. In the presence of FIM delegates and many guests, sponsors and VIPs, the 2002 World Champions in Road Racing, Motocross, Trial Enduro and Track Racing will receove their medals and trophies. Representatives of the Manfacturers’ World Champions will receive their diplomas.

The first 2002 World Champions have already won their titles: the Spanish rider Albert Cabestany, aged 21, is the Indoor Trial World Champion, and the Swedish rider Per-Olov Serenius won his second Individual Ice Racing World Championship title. Aged 54, Serenius took part for the 25th consecutive year in the Individual Ice Racing World Championship finals. He is also a member of the Swedish team, together with Stefan Svensson and Ola Westlund, who won the Team Ice Racing World Championship.

Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

About 40 friends and family members gathered Saturday afternoon at a GP Send-off party for young American John “Hopper” Hopkins, who leaves next week for Japan and the first MotoGP race of the 2002 season.

The party was hosted by Hopkins’ mother, Linda, at the family’s home in Ramona, California.

A film crew was on hand to interview notable figures in Hopper’s racing career, for a film project documenting life on the Grand Prix circuit.

Attendees included Barry McMahan, Hopkins’ mechanic during his AMA-Championship-winning 2000 (750cc Supersport) and 2001 (Formula Xtreme) race seasons, who flew in from Alabama for the event. Also present were Doug Gonda, Hopkins’ manager; Al Lyons, the 50cc, 80cc, 125cc and 250cc team owner who took John Hopkins under his wing following the death of Hopkins’ father, Roy, when Hopkins was about 12 years old; John Ulrich, owner of Team Valvoline EMGO Suzuki, the team Hopkins rode for in 1999, 2000 and 2001; Iain MacLean, representing Red Bull Yamaha; racers Leigh Crawford and Chris Ulrich; and many family friends and associates from Hopkins’ days as a young motocross racer.

A Red Bull bar was on site for the gathering.