AMA Grand National Champion Chris Carr and 1993 500cc World Champion Kevin Schwantz have agreed to serve on the Board of Directors of the Roadracing World Action Fund., Inc. a new non-profit corporation now being established.

The Roadracing World Action Fund’s primary mission will be the acquisition and deployment of Air Fence for motorcycle racing use.

Other Directors will include Roadracing World Editor John Ulrich, Roadracing World Publisher Trudy Ulrich and former racer Bruce Hammer, who became a quadriplegic as the result of hitting a bare steel barrier during an AMA National in 1982.

The Roadracing World Action Fund, Inc. will take over operations of the Roadracing World Air Fence Fund, an informal fund which has collected over $150,000 for the purchase and deployment of Air Fence at road races in the U.S.; a dirt track division of the Air Fence Fund was recently established, with about $9000 collected so far.

Details will be announced as available.

Tohru Ukawa is on pole for Saturday’s Brazilian Grand Prix, at Rio. Times follow:

1. Tohru Ukawa, 1:51.431
2. Loris Capirossi, 1:51.462
3. Kenny Roberts, 1:51.767
4. Shinya Nakano, 1:51.820
5. Valentino Rossi, 1:51.863
6. Sete Gibernau, 1:51.874
7. Carlos Checa, 1:51.920
8. Olivier Jacque, 1:51.974
9. Norick Abe, 1:51.993
10. Max Biaggi, 1:52.011
11. Jurgen van den Goorbergh, 1:52.109
12. Alex Barros, 1:52.177
13. Garry McCoy, 1:52.324
14. Alex Criville, 1:52.771
15. Jose Luis Cardoso, 1:53.050
16. Anthony West, 1:53.764
17. Haruchika Aoki, 1:54.319
18. Leon Haslam, 1:54.557
19. Brendan Clarke, 1:56.254
20. Barry Veneman, 1:56.776



250cc Times:
1. Fonsi Nieto, 1:53.819
2. Daijiro Katoh, 1:53.860
3. Jeremy McWilliams, 1:54.011
4. Roberto Locatelli, 1:54.376
5. Tetsuya Harada, 1:54.474
6. Naoki Matsudo, 1:54.511
7. Marco Melandri, 1:54.598
8. Randy de Puniet, 1:54.644
9. Franco Battaini, 1:54.649
10. Alex Debon, 1:54.892
30. Katja Poensgen, 2:00.712


125cc Times:
1. Youichi Ui, 1:58.676
2. Andrea Ballerini, 1:59.085
3. Daniel Pedrosa, 1:59.133
4. Toni Elias, 1:59.187
5. Manuel Poggiali, 1:59.214
6. Lucio Cecchinello, 1:59.244
7. Joan Olive, 1:59.546
8. Jakub Smrz, 1:59.573
9. Simone Sanna, 1:59.661
10. Gino Borsoi, 1:59.749

Copyright 2001, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

Stuart Stratton’s view of an official standing on the grid at the start of the warm-up lap for the October 19 CCS GTO Expert race at Daytona may have been obscured by a second bike, an eyewitness said today.

Racer Jim Lester said that he saw another rider in front of Stratton as Stratton practiced a start and left for the warm-up lap. The second rider swerved around official Virgil “Spud” Davis but Stratton hit Davis before veering into the pit wall head-first.

“He was behind another bike,” said Lester in a phone call to Roadracing World. “What I saw was, the other bike veered over, and he (Stratton) hit the guy (Davis).”

Lester said he rejects the theory that Stratton was looking down at his instruments during his practice start and looked up too late to avoid Davis, who was walking down the grid and motioning riders to leave on the warm-up lap.

“Once you get moving, you look where you’re going,” said Lester. “Nobody does a start and keeps looking at their instruments, no way. He couldn’t see the official because he was following another bike.”

Stratton was fatally injured in the incident, while Davis suffered leg injuries and is expected to recover.


Another eyewitness was Tricia Matusick, who desribes herself as being “Crew Chief/Fiancee for rider #31, Dr. Jeffrey Purk, DDS”, and who desribed the scene and her reaction as follows: “Being up on the hot pit wall right where Stuart Stratton was killed, makes it very hard to be a caring, supportive, Crew Chief/Fiancee for my rider.

“I had just jumped back over the wall from sending my rider out for the hot lap. Looked down the rest of the grid and was watching all of the other riders take off. When I noticed Stuart taking off, all I could think was, what the hell was he doing. The next thing I know he hit Spud, I saw him go up into the air, lose his shoe and hit the ground.

“I was standing right in front of the wall when Stuart hit. The clutch lever came over the wall and hit the back part of my shoulder. As soon as Stuart stopped, I jumped over the wall to check on him. I yelled ‘Hello, can you hear me?’ There was no response. I started to yell for help. I reached down on Stuart’s left side to try and find a pulse. I couldn’t find one. In the meantime I was still trying to get help. The starter came over and helped. I told her I couldn’t find a pulse, and she told me to get security over there. Everyone was helping Spud.

“I was yelling and finally the ambulance got there and they asked me to get back. I will never forget what I saw that day and how bad Stuart’s injuries were. The blood, his eyes and how they looked because the faceshield on the helmet was gone, the feelings in my stomach that I had. All the questions I had to answer, the reports I had to write down. It was rough.

“But still to this day and forever I will always be supportive to my rider and any other rider who is out on any track.”

From a press release:

Lone Ducati 748 holds off Thundering Buell Hordes

Road Atlanta, Braselton, Georgia. Saturday October 27th, 2001.

On Tuesday October 23rd, Thomas Montano and the team from Munroe Motors arrived at Road Atlanta, Georgia, for the decisive showdown in the AMA Pro-Thunder series. Coming in to this last round, staged in conjunction with the WERA Grand National Finals, three competitors had the chance of winning the series… Ducati riders Montano and defending #1 plate holder Jeff Nash – who was a no-show owing to injuries sustained at the previous round in Virginia, and Buell-mounted AMA 750 SuperSport winner Mike Ciccotto.

The underlying battle was between the dominant brands of Pro-Thunder… title sponsor Buell was throwing in everything possible to try and win the series – Ducati had beaten them in previous years with Shawn Conrad in 1999 and Nash in 2000 – but Buell was determined to beat the Italian bikes. To this end they trooped out a couple of hired guns – Michael Barnes on Ciccotto’s back-up motorcycle, and Shawn Higbee debuting the new Buell XB9R Firebolt – in addition to their regular fast guys Dave Estok and Tripp Nobles.

The Pro-Thunder series has seen incredibly close racing up front this year, with any of these top competitors capable of winning, and Buell’s strategy for Road Atlanta was for Ciccotto to win the race, and have the other four riders block Montano out of a podium finish.

Montano’s team had their own plans however, when they hired AMA 250 G.P. Champion Jimmy Filice’s team owner James Siddall of World Sports to assist with chassis and suspension set-up. Siddall installed the data collection system off his 250 Yamaha onto the Munroe Motor’s 2001 Ducati 748R, and used his experience to optimize the race bike. Despite starting with their race-winning set-up from the last AMA round in Virginia four weeks previously, substantial changes were made to the Ducati… including different triple clamps for more trail, raising the front ride height 10 mm, raising the rear ride height 10 mm, and fitting stiffer fork springs with a raised fork oil height. All the efforts of the practice sessions came to fruition on Saturday morning’s timed qualifying session… Estok, Nobles, Barnes and Higbee all put in a quick lap to qualify, and then pulled in so as to leave the track clear for Ciccotto. Half way through the session, Ciccotto ripped off a 1:29.976 lap time, and pulled into the pits, his team confident of pole position – as Tom’s fastest time was only a 1:30.056. Montano stayed out on track trying to better his time, and then to the dismay of the Buell team members, Tom posted a scorcher of 1:29.862 to take pole position and the extra championship point.

Ciccotto came over to the Munroe Motors team and said ” If Tom can take it today, then he deserves it” – a very sporting gesture that shows the camaraderie of the competitors in Pro-Thunder.

Finally the time came for the race, and the strategy was simple: if Montano finished on the podium, he would win the championship. With the team crew members chain-smoking and biting nails at the trackside wall, the riders lined up for the start. At the green flag, Ciccotto shot away into the lead, and the pack spread out behind him. Barnes was in second followed by Higbee and then Montano in fourth. Estok was out immediately as his bike broke its clutch, and Nobles was trailing behind Montano as his bike developed a misfire. On lap two, Higbee retired when his bike broke, and then on lap three Montano passed Barnes to take second place.

Up front, Ciccotto was riding like a man possessed, and slowly drew away from Montano to lead by four seconds. Barnes was running about a second behind Montano in third place, while Nobles was a distant fourth. As the race wound down, Barnes closed in on Montano, and on the final lap was close enough to dive up the inside on the brakes going into the tight second gear turn 10 – from around 160mph off the back straight.

“I saw Barney coming up on my left side, his bike squirming hard on the brakes – but I’d been checking over my shoulder and I could see Tripp (Nobles) was a ways back in fourth place, so I just moved over and let him through” Montano explained, “…I knew third (place) was good enough, so I just motored around the last few turns and took the checkered flag”.

On the podium, AMA’s Ron Barrick handed Montano the Pro-Thunder #1 plate, as the teams congratulated each other on such a close finale and a great championship season.

Tom Montano and the team from Munroe Motors would like to thank the following companies for their support and for producing the finest racing products available in North America: DUCATI Motorcycles North America, ARAI Helmets, PERFORMANCE FRICTION Brake Pads, STM Clutches and Sprockets, NUTEC Fuels, AZIONE MOTO Performance Accessories, MBP Desmo Valve System, ALPINESTAR Boots and Gloves, DUNLOP Tires, and special thanks to James Siddall of WORLD SPORTS, and to personal sponsor VEHICLE SYSTEMS.

Copyright 2001, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By John Ulrich

AMA Pro Racing has issued road racing numbers for 2002, and in doing so has demonstrated its own continued disfunction.

Want an example?

Grant Lopez has been #5 in AMA Formula Xtreme for three years. In 2001, he finished 3rd in AMA Formula Xtreme points.

On the 2002 number list for Formula Xtreme, Grant Lopez has been arbitrarily assigned #19 while #5 has been arbitrarily given to Michael Barnes.

Why?

Lopez has also been assigned #19 in Superbike, a class he did not compete in at all during the 2001 season.

Why?

“This is the first I’ve heard of it,” Lopez told me when I asked him why he has suddenly become #19 instead of #5 in Formula Xtreme.

Lopez’s case is just one of many. Anybody who has actually been paying any attention to AMA Pro Racing for more than the past 10 minutes can easily spot other weirdness in the list of assigned 2002 numbers. In another case, Chris Ulrich’s request that he be allowed to retain #18 in AMA Superbike–a request first made the week after the cancellation of the Willow Springs round at which Chris was scheduled to race in Superbike, and repeated about four times since then–has been ignored and the number left unassigned, for unknown reasons. Meanwhile, Jason Pridmore has been re-assigned #43 in Superbike, although he, like Chris Ulrich, did not actually earn points in a Superbike race in 2001.

The underlying question is, why is AMA Pro Racing even issuing arbitrary numbers before the stated December 20 deadline for license renewals being turned in by riders wanting to retain their 2001 numbers? If the deadline is December 20, why is AMA Pro Racing moving numbers around now, almost two months prior to the deadline? Waiting until after the December 20 deadline would make a whole lot more sense, and cause a lot less confusion.

I can quickly name three organizations with more riders than AMA Pro Racing that do a far better job with number assignments and accommodating rider requests for given numbers: WERA, CCS, Formula USA.

Numbers are more than digits to riders. Many riders are attached to various numbers; many would like the same number in various classes they compete in.

The problem with AMA number assignments is nothing new. For 2001, AMA Pro Racing could have consolidated Lopez’s numbers in Formula Xtreme, 750cc Supersport and 600cc Supersport. Instead, he was assigned #5 in Formula Xtreme, #15 in 750cc Supersport and #65 in 600cc Supersport.

Why?

I have complained about this lack of logic in number assignments before. In response, AMA Pro Racing CEO Scott Hollingsworth suggested that, if asked nicely, his staffers would try to accommodate number requests. I guess that explains Lopez’s number problem–he didn’t ask them nicely to not give away his Formula Xtreme number without even telling him they were doing it.

The real problem is that trying to deal with the AMA staffers who handle number assignments is like trying to deal with a rock. They don’t get it, they never have gotten it, they never will get it, they don’t care what you want, and they’ll do what they want anyway.

A start toward improving the situation would be Hollingsworth asking his staffers to not give away a rider’s long-standing number–like Lopez’s #5–and to not assign that rider a completely different number–#19–for no discernable reason.

Numbers and number assignments are part of the basic rider services that appear to be of no concern whatsoever to AMA Pro Racing staffers, and I doubt that Hollingsworth even has a clue what the big deal is.

All the more reason why AMA Pro Racing needs a thorough housecleaning–from the top down–and a restaffing with people who understand the basics of racing and racing organization management.

Including rational number assignments.

Copyright 2001, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

Funeral services were held today in Mt. Carmel, Illinois for racer Tony Wright, 33, who was killed Sunday in a bizarre crash at Putnam Park Road Course in Mt. Meridian, Indiana.

Wright, from Mt. Carmel, died during a track day held by Cycle Options of Cincinnati, when he took his TTR125 Yamaha dirt bike out on the course during an open session and was hit by another rider on the front straightaway.

Wright had ridden in previous sessions on a Honda RS125 racebike. He normally competed on the RS125 as a member of Emerge Racing in the WERA North Central Region.

According to racer Jim Connor, who was also participating in the track day, “…during one practice session Tony decided to ride his Yamaha TTR125 trail bike. He was on the straightaway when he was rear-ended at speed by a GSX-R750 doing approximately 140 mph. Wright’s estimated speed was 50-60 mph. The Gixxer was third in a line of three bikes when they came upon Wright three-quarters down the straight. The two front bikes swung around Wright at the last minute, leaving the Gixxer surprised and unable to avoid colliding with Wright. He was thrown approx. 700 feet. Wright died within minutes at the scene. Godspeed, Tony Wright.”

Connor said that the track was staffed with minimal cornerworkers and that the person working pit-out when Wright took the TTR125 onto the track normally worked a corner.

Wright was hit by GLRRA racer Steve Scholz, who remains hospitalized in Indianapolis with two broken wrists and severe facial and jaw injuries.

Wright, who was Director of Telecommunications for Advance Micro Electronics, is survived by his mother, Delores Shoemaker Wright; his fiance, Teresa Howe and her daughter, Shea Howe; his brother, Shannon Wright; and his grandmother, Anna May Shoemaker.


Max McAllister Remembers Tony Wright:
“I am saddened to hear about the passing of Tony Wright. He was a Traxxion Dynamics customer, and really loved riding his RS125. He worked really hard at improving his chassis and his riding skills. He even loaded his bike into his van and drove from Indiana to Georgia, just so I could push on his suspension and help him adjust it! That is real dedication to improvement! God Speed, Tony.”



Racer Shane Williams remembers Tony Wright:
“From all the racers and fans from Cincinnati, our thoughts and prayers are with our good friend Tony Wright (a fellow GP’er) who was taken from us on Sunday the 28th for a higher calling. GOD SPEED, Tony Wright, Theresa, and both of their families. Everyone whoever met Tony knows we have suffered a great loss.”

From a press release:

G.M.D. Computrack Network-Boston is expanding into New York. A new shop will be open for business the first week of November 2001. The name will be G.M.D. Computrack Network NYC, 282 woodmont Rd. Unit 16, Milford, CT 06460. The phone number is 203-876-2477. G.M.D.

Computrack Network NYC will offer free chassis measurements during the month of November.

Contact Mike Martire at NYC or Peter Kates at 508-876-9407 in Boston to book your appointment.

Contact info:
Peter Kates
G.M.D. Computrack Network Boston
11 Summer St.
Bellingham, MA 02019
508-876-9407
[email protected]

500cc first qualifying session results:
1. Valentino Rossi, 1:52.479
2. Kenny Roberts, 1:52.523
3. Norick Abe, 1:52.881
4. Shinya Nakano, 1:52.914
5. Alex Barros, 1:53.015
6. Carlos Checa, 1:53.106
7. Loris Capirossi, 1:53.109
8. Max Biaggi, 1:53.127
9. Alex Criville, 1:53.241
10. Jurgen van den Goorbergh, 1:53.293
11. Olivier Jacque, 1:53.528
12. Garry McCoy, 1:53.575
13. Sete Gibernau, 1:53.750
14. Tohru Ukawa, 1:53.963
15. Jose Luis Cardoso, 1:54.315
16. Haruchika Aoki, 1:54.319
17. Noriyuki Haga, 1:54.624
18. Anthony West, 1:54.903
19. Leon Haslam, 1:55.950
20. Brendan Clarke, 1:57.665
21. Barry Veneman, 1:58.521

250cc first qualifying session results:

1. Marco Melandri, 1:54.803
2. Daijiro Katoh, 1:54.973
3. Tetsuya Harada, 1:55.175
4. Randy De Puniet, 1:55.266
5. Jeremy McWilliams, 1:55.350
6. Alex Debon, 1:55.662
7. Roberto Locatelli, 1:55.685
8. Franco Battaini, 1:55.957
9. Roberto Rolfo, 1:56.051
10. Naoki Matsudo, 1:56.089
Did Not Qualify, Katja Poensgen, 2:03.502


125cc first qualifying session results:
1. Youichi Ui, 2:00.221
2. Toni Elias, 2:00.765
3. Andrea Ballerini, 2:00.766
4. Manuel Poggiali, 2:00.801
5. Lucio Cecchinello, 2:00.929
6. Arnaud Vincent, 2:00.977
7. Mirko Giansanti, 2:01.009
8. Max Sabbatani, 2:01.074
9. Alex De Angelis, 2:01.271
10. Stefano Preugini, 2:01.391