Colin Edwards (Hon) 1:35.168
Noriyuki Haga (Apr) 1:35.460
Troy Bayliss (Duc) 1:35.495
Ruben Xaus (Duc) 1:35.648
Ben Bostrom (Duc) 1:35.650
Steve Martin (Duc) 1:36.127
Pierfrancesco Chili (Duc) 1:36.128
Lucio Pedercini (Duc) 1:36.223
Gregorio Lavilla (Suz) 1:36.423
Hitoyasu Izutsu (Kaw) 1:36.547
James Toseland (Duc) 1:36.558
Neil Hodgson (Duc) 1:36.619

From a press release:

EDWARDS FIRES NEW SP-2 TO HEAD OF LEADERBOARD

Castrol Honda¹s Colin Edwards recorded his fastest ever lap around the Valencia circuit in Spain on the opening day of a three-day World Superbike test session on Saturday.

Edwards topped the leaderboard and was one second inside the lap record at the Spanish track, the first visit for Edwards aboard the new-for-2002
Castrol SP-2 machine.

“The machine constantly improved all day today and by late afternoon I knew a good time was possible,” said the Texan who celebrates his 28th birthday next week. “I’ve gone a full second faster than I went here last year and we’ve still got two days to go.”

Noriyuki Haga, returning to World Superbike on an Aprilia, was second fastest with defending world champion Troy Bayliss third. Bayliss’s teammate, Spaniard Ruben Xaus took fourth place with the third of the factory Ducatis fifth, in the hands of Ben Bostrom.

Mark Heckles, riding the HRC kit Castrol Honda Rumi machine, completed a handful of laps for photography purposes, recording the 20th best time.

Heckles commented: “The SP-2 kit machine feels very good, a lot better than I expected. We weren’t quite ready for this test so we just came today to honour some other duties but the chance to get a few laps was a bonus. We’ll be in good shape for the first round here in two weeks time.”

Saturday World Superbike test times:
1 Colin Edwards, USA (Castrol Honda) 1:35.168
2 Noriyuki Haga, Japan (Aprilia) 1:35.460
3 Troy Bayliss, Australia (Ducati) 1:35.495
4 Ruben Xaus, Spain (Ducati) 1:35.648
5 Ben Bostrom, USA (Ducati) 1:35.650
6 Steve Martin, Australia (Ducati) 1:36.127
7 Pier-Francesco Chili, Italy (Ducati) 1:36.128
8 Lucio Pedercini, Italy (Ducati) 1:36.223
9 Gregorio Lavilla, Spain (Suzuki) 1:36.423
10 Hitoyasu Izutsu, Japan (Kawasaki) 1:36.547


From another press release:

Issued: Sunday February 24 2002

BAYLISS TOPS TIMES AT VALENCIA

Reigning world champion Troy Bayliss moved to the head of the leaderboard on Sunday evening after the second day of the three-day World Superbike championship tests at the Valencia circuit in Spain.

Bayliss edged out Castrol Honda¹s Colin Edwards from the top spot as Aprilia¹s Noriyuki Haga moved into second place.

Edwards stands third fastest with Monday¹s final action expected to see many of the title contenders end the final pre-season test of the year with their fastest laps.

Edwards said: “We did a race distance today on a potential rear race tyre from Michelin and it couldn’t have gone much better. The consistent lap times give us a lot of hope and expectation for the races here in two weeks.”

The 1000cc SP-2 rider continued: “I haven’t tried a Superpole qualifying tyre yet, that’ll come tomorrow and I know I can improve on my best lap.
When everyone gets going at the end of the final session tomorrow there will definitely be some fireworks!”

Ben Bostrom improved on his Saturday time and holds fourth place overall with his Ducati team-mate Ruben Xaus fifth despite crashing out of the morning’s opening session, escaping injury.

Pier-Francesco Chili, riding for the NCR Ducati team, improved to sixth place with Australian Steve Martin seventh.


Combined times after Sunday’s sessions:
1 Troy Bayliss, Australia (Ducati)
1:34.922
2 Noriyuki Haga, Japan (Aprilia) 1:34.957
3 Colin Edwards, USA (Castrol Honda) 1:35.168
4 Ben Bostrom, USA (Ducati) 1:35.260
5 Ruben Xaus, Spain (Ducati) 1:35.327
6 Pier-Francesco Chili, Italy (Ducati) 1:35.668
7 Steve Martin, Australia (Ducati) 1:35.962
8 Lucio Pedercini, Italy (Ducati) 1:35.962
9 Hitoyasu Izutsu, Japan (Kawasaki) 1:36.032
10 James Toseland, GB (Ducati) 1:36.305

Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By Mike Seate

If all goes according to plans, motorcycles should have a home for road racing in Western Pennsylvania by late June. Partners from Speed 4U, the investment group behind the planned Beaverun Motorsports Complex located 50 miles north of Pittsburgh, held a press conference on Saturday, February 23 to celebrate the imminent completion of Phase I of their multi-use road course.

Chief organizer and patent attorney Tim Silbaugh said paving will begin on the 1.6-mile North Course, designed by famed track designer Alan Wilson, by June.

Beaverun officials took investors on a tour of the complex which, at the moment, is still a muddy field. However, marketing director George Patterson said all $6 million needed to complete the first phase is in place and rough grading of the track has been completed.

Already the official VP Fuel distributor and contingency program administrator for WSMC events, L&L Motorsports has been named the official VP Fuel distributor and administrator for CCS Southwest and Pacific regional road races. In addition to sponsoring the 750cc Superbike class in the WSMC series, L&L Motorsports is an official Dynojet Power Commander tuning center providing high performance engine work and tuning services on a mobile Dynojet Model 250 dyno at WSMC, CCS and select CMRRA events.

For additional information, call L&L Motorsports at (661) 944-9043 or e-mail at [email protected] or go to www.landlmotorsports.com.

Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By David Swarts

Team America Grand Prix Racing’s Jason DiSalvo equaled the unofficial lap record at North Florida Motorsports Park during testing on Friday, February 22. Riding his A-kitted 2001 Honda RS250, DiSalvo turned a lap at 1:17.53 while preparing for the season-opening races at Daytona International Speedway starting with the CCS/Formula USA event February 28.

The lowest unofficial lap time at the Jennings, Florida track is also held by Team Stargel’s Chuck Sorensen on an ex-Jeremy McWilliams Aprilia RSV250 Grand Prix bike. A two-time AMA 250cc GP Champion, Sorensen will race against 18-year-old DiSalvo in the 2002 AMA season.

From a press release:

Lake Forest, CA – Spectrum Motorsports announced a series of track and school days for 2002; March 29th, May 9th, September 5th and October 17th on the big track at Willow Springs International Raceway. These events will have three skill levels, Beginner/Street, Intermediate/Advanced and Race. The guest instructors, well-known racers Steve Rapp and Vicky Jackson-Bell, will provide a mix of classroom and track instruction for the advanced and race groups. Race Tech’s Paul Thede will put on a suspension seminar and then have his technicians available to assist with suspension set up on rider’s motorcycles.

Spectrum owner Anthony Bell said, “Co-owner Jamey Mazzotta and I wanted to raise the level of this type of event so a rider can have track time but get a lot more from the experience and introduce things previously not seen at track days. Using an upscale group like Pacific Track Time, bringing in Race-Tech, and having Steve Rapp as a guest instructor made perfect sense to execute this idea.

“With so many events from which to choose it is often difficult to know which event will suit your type of riding, your skill level and what can you take away from the event. Our events are focused on giving riders real-world help and suspension tuning so they leave the event a better rider, with a better-tuned bike.”

Spectrum has enlisted Pacific Track Time and its staff to put together the infrastructure of the day and provide a support staff with course control and professional instructors. They will also provide continental breakfast, a catered lunch, photography, and refreshments during the course of the day.

During the course of the year Spectrum hopes to announce additional dates, venues and celebrity instructors.

For more information contact Spectrum Motorsports at 949-859-3186 or [email protected] or Pacific Track Time at 877-809-2170 or visit www.pacifictracktime.com to register online.

This just in:

“I want to take this opportunity to point out that your magazine has incorrectly reported why RPM raceclub cancelled the March TMS event. IT HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH MONEY!!!

“I spent all day Monday with Alan Blair and Pete Martins trying to figure how to make that track safe enough to race. We spent countless hours documenting the safety concerns, posted the information to the riders on our BBS. The final conclusion after observing that TMS did not make any changes from last year to address our concerns was to cancel the race.

“To my knowledge Sean Clarke had absolutely no direct knowledge of why we cancelled this race other than Alan reported to Evelyne (Clarke, President of WERA) that we felt it was not in the best interest of the racers to hold that race after having a ‘BBS referendum’ to ensure the racers understood why we were considering canceling the race.


“I consider that RRW headline/story disappointing. Please follow this link if you would like to read more about how the RPM process and decisions took place.

http://www.rpmraceclub.com/forums/viewtopic.php?TopicID=1505

“If you have any questions, you may contact me via this email address or Alan Blair-President, RPM at [email protected]”

Marcus McBain
WERA/Expert #95


(Editor’s note: The story McBain is complaining about was posted on this website moments before he sent the above reply. RPM is the regional affiliate of WERA.)