From a press release issued by AMA Pro Racing:

SETTLEMENT REACHED IN AMA PRO RACING CASE

PICKERINGTON, Ohio–AMA Pro Racing reached an agreement in its dispute with Clear Channel Motorsports over the 2003 AMA Supercross Series. Among other things, the settlement agreement, pending arbitration, resolves the dispute regarding specific roles of the various parties.

“AMA Pro Racing successfully preserved the sanctity of the AMA Supercross Series,” said AMA Pro Racing CEO Scott Hollingsworth.

Provisions of the settlement agreement include Clear Channel Motorsports’ acknowledgment that AMA Pro Racing will continue to exclusively officiate the races in the AMA Supercross Series under the authority of the AMA Pro Racing Rule Book.

Federal District Court Judge James L. Graham was instrumental in assisting the parties in reaching an agreement. “We are pleased that the court will retain its jurisdiction over the settlement agreement,” said Hollingsworth. “Our focus has always been the fans, riders and series sponsors. This agreement is a victory for everyone who follows AMA Supercross.”

The 16-round AMA Supercross Series begins January 4 at Edison Field in Anaheim, California and concludes May 3 at Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By David Swarts

AMA Pro Racing has issued a check for $550 to racer Chris Ulrich for “refund purchase of guest passes” he purchased in 2001 when he was entitled to a free pass under a still-secret policy. Ulrich received his check–dated December 13–in the mail Monday, December 16, but other AMA Pro racers contacted by Roadracingworld.com had not received refund checks as of today.

For the past two years, AMA professional racers who pre-entered the entire road racing season were entitled to a one, free, season-long guest pass. The complimentary pass policy has never been publicized or included in the rulebook, entry mailings or Competition Bulletins issued by AMA Pro Racing. The policy has also never been mentioned at any riders’ meeting, and as a result several racers who were entitled to the free passes continued to purchase gate passes.

Several AMA Pro riders contacted for a July 10, 2002, posting on Roadracingworld.com knew nothing of the secret guest pass policy and had bought guest passes during the last two seasons even though one AMA Pro Racing staffer said at the time, “The riders know. All the riders who call here know about it.”

Now, eight months after the problem was brought to the attention of the AMA Pro Racing Board of Directors and AMA Pro Racing CEO Scott Hollingsworth in April 2002, AMA Pro Racing has apparently taken the first steps to make the situation right.

Today, Roadracingworld.com reached three AMA Pro riders who had pre-entered for an entire season, hadn’t been told of the free pass, and had purchased guest passes. None of the three have received a refund from AMA.

“It’s cold outside, but I don’t think Hell has frozen over,” said Larry Pegram, who pre-entered the entire 2001 AMA road racing season.

“No, man, I get nothing,” said Vincent Haskovec. “I hope you’re right. Man, that’s $500!”

“No, I haven’t gotten anything,” said Chris “Opie” Caylor. “Let me know what you hear on that.”

A call at 12:00 p.m. Eastern Time Tuesday seeking comment on the subject was greeted with a recording saying AMA headquarters had closed at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time for AMA’s holiday party.

From a press release issued by Ducati Corse:

DUCATI CORSE PRESS INFORMATION
Phillip Island (Australia)
Tuesday 17 December, 2002

THREE-DAY DUCATI MOTOGP TEST GETS UNDERWAY AT PHILLIP ISLAND – POSITIVE TIMES RECORDED BY BOTH RIDERS

The Ducati Corse MotoGP squad has made the long haul overseas to the spectacular Phillip Island circuit not far from Melbourne in Australia for its latest round of testing, the final session before the Christmas break.

After the excellent times recorded two weeks ago at Jerez, Loris Capirossi and Troy Bayliss were both right on the pace with the new Ducati Desmosedici in the first day of testing.

Conditions were excellent in the morning, but strong winds disturbed the work of the squad in the afternoon. High temperatures (air 24°C / track 33°C) , similar to those encountered during October’s Australian GP, allowed the two Ducati Corse riders to complete the workload for the Desmosedici, which revolved mainly around testing various cooling components and all-new Michelin tyres for the 2003 MotoGP championship.

Both riders tested on the 17″ fronts used in MotoGP, and Troy Bayliss, on his home track, was finally able to get to grips with this particular tyre solution. During his 87 laps, he was able to put home track knowledge to good use to set a quickest time of 1:32.8.

48 laps today for Loris Capirossi, who despite harmlessly sliding off at the Honda Curve with no damage to the bike, managed to return to the pits and resume testing immediately. A series of other minor problems prevented the Italian from stringing together a lengthy series of laps, but despite this he recorded a time of 1:32.4, which was close to the lap record set during the Australian GP.

The test also highlighted the performance of Michelin’s 2003 tyres, which remained at an excellent working temperature despite the particular difficulty of the Phillip Island track, which presents a long left-hand curve leading onto the pit-straight.

Tomorrow Wednesday will be a rest day for Ducati Corse at Phillip Island, while the tests resume Thursday and conclude the following day.

From a press release issued by Kawasaki:

KAWASAKI STAR GARRY MCCOY BACK IN ACTION
Sepang ­ Monday, December 16th, 2002

Team Kawasaki Racing’s new star Garry McCoy is back into action. A pin and several screws in his right tibia bone, the last memories from a practice accident in February 2002, were removed in a Vienna hospital in November, as well as another pin in his wrist from a previous injury.

Free from any metal remains in his body and well recovered after several weeks of rest, the Australian “King of Slide” happily joined his teammate Andrew Pitt and Kawasaki test riders Alex Hofmann and Akira Yanagawa for his first real test session aboard the all-new Kawasaki Ninja ZX-RR in Sepang, Malaysia.

Yanagawa, who had suffered a broken pelvis when he crashed out of Kawasaki’s Grand Prix debut race in Motegi back in October, also celebrated his comeback aboard the MotoGP prototype machine, after long weeks of strict bedtime rest in order to cure his complicated injury.

With all four riders fully fit, Kawasaki successfully completed the first of three days of testing in dry and hot conditions, with another three-day session in Malaysia scheduled for January 15th ­ 17th, followed by a three-day-test in Phillip Island, Australia, on January 21st to 23rd, before joining the other MotoGP teams for the official IRTA tests in Spain in February, 2003.

Garry McCoy (57 laps ­ best time in 2:09.1):
“When the pins, screws and staples taken were put into my leg back in February, the doctor said they could stay there for about six or seven months, and any more was going to be a little long. I obviously couldn’t get them removed half way through the season, so I had to wait until the last race in Valencia. After that, I went back to my surgeon in Austria and got all the metal taken out, and recovered from that in the weeks since. I basically went straight back to Australia and had a bit of time off, keeping my leg working and trying to get it right as soon as possible and to get ready for this test here. Now here we are, and things aren’t looking too bad. It’s really my first test on the bike apart from a few laps that I did straight after the race in Valencia, and there are still a lot of things that we have to work out. I’ve got to get comfortable with the bike and find a few settings to make it feel comfortable, and I think it’s just going to take time. Obviously, the new Kawasaki four-stroke machine is very different to the old two-stroke. It’s got a lot more acceleration right through the powerband, but it’s not as aggressive, not as snappy as a two-stroke, so it doesn’t feel as fast. There are a great deal of changes to be made before I’ll get comfortable and before I can start dropping the lap times. The power of the engine seems to be great, there is no need for improvement in that department. But the chassis at the moment seems to be quite challenging to ride. On the exit of the turns, I seem to be having the biggest problems, and we need to go through different settings and hopefully find something we like. Going into the turns is a little bit difficult for me also, because the bike has a slipper clutch that you don’t use on a two-stroke. Forcing a two-stroke into a turn is all about brakes, whereas on the four-stroke, you just back off, let the clutch out, and it starts to pull up on its own!”

Andrew Pitt (75 laps ­ best time in 2:08.0):
“The bike has stayed quite similar to the one we used at the race and during our last test session here in Sepang, there are just a few little technical changes here and there. I’ve just been trying to work on my riding style, to suit the big horsepower bike a bit more, and I feel I’m starting to get closer and closer to that. Today I felt pretty comfortable on the bike, we made a few changes, found a good direction to go, and it feels a lot easier to do a good lap time than last time I was here. But I suppose a lot of that is down to me being used to the bike now. First time I was here, I was using the wrong gear in every corner, whereas now I feel I’m starting to ride the bike properly, and as a result, everything is getting better!”

Alex Hofmann (67 laps – best time in 2:08.6):
“Today, I put more laps in than in all the three days of our last test session here at Sepang.I mainly concentrated on tyre testing, and went through ten different rears with different constructions and compounds. Instead of the new fuel-injected Grand Prix machine, I used Kawasaki’s first development prototype with carburetors, and I was surprised how easy it was to ride. It is almost as fast, but much less aggressive than you would think it is, much closer to a Superbike than to a thoroughbred GP racer. The reason that we’re using this bike for tyre testing is that there aren’t enough new chassis ready yet, and it’s definitely powerful enough for our purposes. Dunlop is working with different constructions, different compounds and different dimensions in order to find the general direction in which to go in the future, and it’s my job to help find this direction. Once they decided on the right construction, they will start working on the compounds all over again. Today, it was easy to find two highlights out of my choice of ten!”

Akira Yanagawa (46 laps ­ best time in 2:09.6):
“I am very happy to be back on a racing bike, because I had to stay in bed for most of the time in the last two months which was very frustrating. Compared to my previous tests here, the lap time wasn’t so good today, but I’m still happy because firstly I didn’t crash, and secondly, we got some good data. We tried different mappings and some different parts on the injection system, and the result was really good. We have tried many changes before, and they weren’t really effective, whereas today’s changes made a real difference. Especially at the initial throttle opening, this injection system used to be on or off, really hard, but now, it seems to be smoother. We have two more days of testing here, and I hope we can confirm what we established!”

Harald Eckl ­ Team manager:
“We have achieved a lot today. Alex completed a good program of tyre testing, Garry and Akira got back into action, and I’m confident that we will see Garry matching Andrew’s lap times tomorrow. We will re-build all of our chassis for tomorrow, and we have to wait and see where this gets us. But so far, so good ­ we are not only having all our four riders, but all of our new crew with us for the first time, and even though it will take a while for everything to run smoothly, everybody has done a great job so far!”

From a press release issued by Marietta Motorsports:

Marietta Motorsports, aka 1-888-FASTLAP and 1888FASTLAP.com, has announced that long-time racing engine builder and tuner Rodney Vaughn has returned to work at Marietta Motorsports.

Rodney worked full time at Marietta Motorsports until 1998, and now returns to head up the new FASTLAP engine building department, designed to offer professional level services to all racers.

In 2002, Rodney Vaughn motors were on the podium in 4 AMA races, set the AMA Superstock track record at Mid-Ohio, and occupied 6 out of a possible 9 podium spots in the WERA 600, 750, and 1000 Suzuki Cup Finals at Road Atlanta.

Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

Racer Ty Stranger-Thorsen married Misty Patterson December 11 in San Antonio, Texas.

Stranger-Thorsen is a Research and Development Specialist for ICE Prototyping, a manufacturing company specializing in laser-based production of titanium products.

Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

Ducati North America’s Marketing Department will be in place in new offices in Cupertino, California by the third week of January, according to new PR & Events Manager Joey Madrigal.

Madrigal takes over the PR function most recently handled by Gary Schmidt and the Events function most recently handled by Jim Viola; Schmidt and Viola both have left the company, being unwilling to relocate from New Jersey to California, Madrigal said. Schmidt’s last day was December 13.

All of Ducati North America’s operations should be in place in Cupertino by mid-February.

Dave Friedman photo/Don Emde Collection

From a press release issued by Octagon Motorsports, organizers of the FIM Endurance World Championship series.

Huge Number of Permanent Teams

A record number of permanent teams have already signed up for the 2003 World Endurance Championship.

Two of the top Yamaha teams are strengthened for next year, and Germany looks set to be a key player in the championship. Rider details are starting to be confirmed, and another Junior team will be entering the series.

Permanent Entries

About twenty permanent teams have confirmed their entry into the 2003 World Endurance Championship. This is a higher number than expected at this stage in the run up to the new season. Current World Champions Zongshen have confirmed that they will again run two teams. All the other major teams from 2002 have also confirmed that they will be entering next year.

Strong Yamaha Teams

Yamaha’s challenge to the dominance of the GSX-R1000 is expected to be much stronger in 2003.

Endurance Moto38 and Yamaha Racing France have announced close links, and the Yamaha94 tie up of GMT94 and Laurent Naveau will produced another very strong R1 based outfit. Will this year see Yamaha’s R1 take its first World title?

New Teams from Germany, Slovakia

Amongst the new entrants are two teams from Germany (Abbco Motorradwelt Kassel and Hofmann R.T.) and Maco Moto Racing of Slovakia – the latter widening the geographical profile of the championship still further. With rumours of two new Italian teams and a new entry from the Netherlands, the entry list is in very healthy shape for the forthcoming season.

International Racing Starts Here

QB Phase One are again running a senior and junior team, as are fellow British team Trackdaze. The World Endurance Championship is now regarded by many young riders as the perfect launch-pad for an international career.

Police Nationale have confirmed that their rider line up for 2003 will be Paolo Blora (ITA), Gwen Giabbani (FRA) and Takaharu Kishida (JPN) – details on their bike choice are expected soon. Yamaha Austria will run an all Austrian line-up of Karl Truchsess alongside Horst Saiger and Erwin Wilding, with team manager Manfred ‘Mandy’ Kainz as reserve.