Copyright 2001, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

FIRST PERSON/OPINION:

By Glenn Le Santo

Sport is supposed to be the substitute for war, or so the philosophers say. But the truth is that the competitive spirit nurtured by sport is often little removed from war, and can sometimes erupt into violence–and anyone who follows football can vouch for that.

Supersport racing often resembles war; the competition is fierce and the on-track battles are often very physical! And Imola last Sunday, things got ugly after an incident when Paulo Casoli and Karl Muggeridge had a coming-together on the first lap of the World-Championship-deciding race at Imola, in Italy. Casoli’s hopes of winning the 2001 World Supersport Championship evaporated as he slid into the gravel trap after colliding with Muggeridge. The two riders tell contrasting versions of the incident and the Italian television director seemed unable to bring himself to show replays of it to the press gathered in Imola’s vast pressroom.

Whatever the rights and wrongs of the incident itself, it’s what happened after the event that brings the comparison of sport with war. Casoli stormed into Muggeridge’s pit garage after the incident, while Muggeridge was still out on track, and in a rather cowardly gesture, shoved Muggeridge’s petite girlfriend, Isabelle, aside. One of Muggeridge’s technicians gallantly rushed to her aid, threatening Casoli with either a fist or a workshop tool, depending on whose version of the scuffle you believe.

Now one would think that once Casoli’s rage had cooled that would be it, the riders would hate each other for a while, as Pierfrancesco Chili and Carl Fogarty did after a similar incident a few years ago. But no, Casoli being Italian couldn’t let matters lie, and his team called a press conference at which they more or less accused Australian Muggeridge of purposefully nurfing Casoli off to aid fellow Australian Andrew Pitt’s title chances. As it happened, Pitt rode to a cool-headed fourth and clinched the title from odds-on favorite Casoli.

Why Casoli thought he needed to be contesting a corner with a hard-riding guy like Muggeridge for a front position, early on lap one, in a 21-lap race, when he only needed a 10th-place finish to wrap-up the title, is anyone’s guess.

A few hours later Muggeridge’s burly team manager, the aptly named Francis Batta, marched into the Belgarda Yamaha hospitality area and invited Casoli outside (for a fight). The Italian might be a fiery type but he’s intelligent enough to know he’s no match for Batta, especially when Batta’s flanked by five of his biggest mechanics! But Batta wasn’t going to take no for an answer and flung himself at Casoli. In the resultant melee, which involved Casoli’s teammate Jamie Whitham, fists were flung, eyes were blackened and the local police were called.

When you’ve got sport, who needs war?

Copyright 2001, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By David Swarts

Following Roadracingworld.com coverage of Chris Normand’s wrongful disqualification from a third-place finish in the AMA Pro Thunder race at Virginia International Raceway, AMA officials have reinstated Normand’s finish.

Normand was disqualified for being underweight, when in fact no minimum weight applies to his motorcycle, a Suzuki SV650.

Normand received separate phone calls from AMA Pro Racing’s Ron Barrick, Rob King and Merrill Vanderslice on Tuesday, October 2, and all three apologized for their mistake.

“Ron called me, Rob King called and Merrill Vanderslice called me,” laughed Normand in a phone call to Roadracing World headquarters. “They all called. Ron called me first and said, ‘We made a mistake. We don’t have an excuse for it, and we’re sorry.’ He said that they are writing me a check right now for the purse money, and they are working on getting the points straightened out. He also said that they are contacting Thomas (Fournier) on getting me my trophy.

“Rob King called me next and basically said the same thing, that he was sorry for the trouble. He said that he was blown away by it because the rule bulletin was by him and he didn’t even realize it at the time. He was also thanking me for being so nice and not raising a bunch of hell there at the track. At the track, I was like, ‘Well, if that’s the rule then I wasn’t playing by the rules.’ Because I didn’t read the rulebook or anything. I didn’t think you could cheat on an SV.

“Then Merrill called me up and just confirmed what Ron and Rob said. Merrill was the one who really made a big deal to say that there was no excuse and that they would put something into place so that this doesn’t happen again. ‘We made a mistake,’ was what he was telling me. He apologized too. All three of them apologized and congratulated me. He did seem like he felt bad about it. All three seemed very sincere in their apologies. I just didn’t think Merrill would call me. I mean, he’s the big guy, right?

“They didn’t say anything about the AMA putting out a press release about the situation. I didn’t ask, I didn’t want to seem like I was demanding an apology or anything. That doesn’t matter to me. I just want my little moonshine still back.”

Trophies at Virginia International Raceway were hand-made miniature replicas of old moonshine stills. Originally the AMA event was to be called the White Lightning 150 in reference to moonshine running that took place in the Southeastern U.S., according to VIR General Manager Jack Abbott. The “White” was dropped to make the name more politically correct but the moonshine-still trophies remained and were regarded by most podium finishers as a unique trophy worthy of keeping on display on the mantel.

In a message left on Roadracing World’s voice mail system at about noon EDT, Tuesday, October 2, Barrick said “You are correct. Tech made a mistake. We are correcting it. We are contacting the rider and apologizing.”

In a phone call to Roadracing World headquarters Tuesday afternoon, October 2, AMA Pro Racing’s Ron Barrick said that the October 2 post–an Opinion piece comparing what happened at VIR last weekend to what happened at Loudon in 1998–was not accurate or fair.

Barrick said that he ordered haybales to cover the wall that Tom Wilson hit at Loudon in 1998, immediately after Wilson was injured. No tire stacks were available, Barrick said, because they were being used to cover other sections of wall at New Hampshire International Speedway.

Barrick’s contention that no tire stacks were available directly contradicts NHIS Motorcycle Safety Director Jerry Wood’s version of the 1998 incident; Wood said tire stacks were available but were not immediately moved into position for fear that rain water that had collected in the individual tires would run across the racetrack and create further problems and delay practice and qualifying.

In his phone call today, Barrick admitted that the haybales he ordered did not arrive at Loudon prior to Miguel Duhamel hitting the same section of wall that Wilson had hit, with the same type of disastrous results.

Barrick also said, referring to our post dated September 29, that racer Jamie Hacking should have notified AMA officials that he had hit a bare steel barrier during testing at VIR; Hacking said Saturday that he had hit the same bare steel barrier during testing at VIR August 13-15 and told VIR General Manager Jack Abbott that the area needed Air Fence coverage.

And according to Barrick, Abbott said that Hacking did not hit the steel barrier in the same place on Saturday as he did in August, and the area Hacking hit in August was covered by foam blocks on Saturday.

Barrick said that the AMA was receiving an unfair share of criticism regarding Hacking’s two collisions with the bare steel barrier at VIR, given that other organizations had raced at VIR without padding in front of the bare steel barrier Hacking hit Saturday–including WERA and F-USA–and, in the case of WERA the weekend prior to the AMA National, well after Hacking hit the barrier in August.

“Hacking should have notified the AMA instead of the track manager,” Barrick said.

(The major point of the Opinion piece was that rider safety should always have priority over maintaining the event schedule.)

From a release issued by Andrew Stutzman, General Manager Rausch Creek Motorsports Park, via the Rausch Creek electronic mailing list:

“First the road course, things have definitely not been going as planned, but we are still 100% committed to completing the road course.

“Currently our engineers are resubmitting the drainage plan to the state. All the concerns of the Department of Environmental Protection have been met in the resubmit and we are now awaiting their inspection to allow our construction to proceed. This should be happening in the next few weeks.

“The original plan was turned down and the DEP mandated we stop track construction and will only allow work to amend the drainage plan until approved.

“In the down time from construction of the road course, we have solicited and gained support from local and state government for the project.

“Also the AMA has offered to support us in any way possible with future governmental issues we might incur. Thank you to everyone who has offered to support Rausch Creek.”

12:00 p.m. AMA Superbike VIR
1:30 p.m. FIM World Superbike Imola Race One
2:30 p.m. FIM World Superbike Imola Race Two

7:00 p.m. Bike Week
7:30 p.m. American Thunder
8:00 p.m. AMA Flat Track National Springfield, IL
9:00 p.m. AMA 600cc Supersport VIR
10:00 p.m. AMA Formula Xtreme VIR
11:00 p.m. Bike Week
11:30 p.m. American Thunder
12:00 a.m. AMA Flat Track National Springfield, IL
1:00 a.m. AMA 600cc Supersport VIR
2:00 a.m. AMA Formula Xtreme VIR
All times are Eastern Daylight Time.

Cruise America Grand Prix Racing’s Jason DiSalvo, 17, took a come-from-behind sixth place finish in the penultimate round of the European 250cc Championship series on Sunday, September 30, at Braga, Portugal.

According to a press release issued by DiSalvo’s team, the New York teenager got off the line well but suffered a big slide early in the final, ran off the track and dropped back to 11th. DiSalvo charged back up to fifth place but was repassed in the final corners of the race and ended up sixth.

DiSalvo’s next race will be the final round of the European 250cc Championship, scheduled for Sunday, October 7 at Cartagena, Spain.

Copyright Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By Glenn Le Santo

I haven’t spoken to a single person in the Superbike World Championship paddock who knows why the hell SBK/FIM want treaded tires on Superbikes. Even the tire guys, and I spoke to representatives from Pirelli and Michelin, can’t understand it and don’t really think it will
benefit their marketing. Team managers think it will make it hard to employ top riders, as they won’t want to ride Superbikes on treaded tires.

Highlights of the new rules follow (words in brackets are mine), with the text altered slightly from original poor English translation from Italian; Italian seems to be the official World Superbike language now, and all the awards ceremonies were conducted in Italian on Sunday night at Imola, much to the disgust of 75% of the international press representatives on hand.

1. Engines up to 1000cc, regardless of cylinders

2. Install (inlet duct) restrictors. Engine will stop if restrictors are closed(?) Details to follow (Say the FIM)
Restrictor sizes:
2cyl Dia. 30mm by 1 (duct)
Dia. 21.5mm by 2
4cyl Dia. 26.3mm by 1
Dia. 18.7 by 2
3,5 and more cyl, diameters to be decided and announced shortly.
MSMA to review restrictor size and decide by end of year.

3. Changes to fairing in vicinity of air inlets permitted only if unavoidable due to fitting of air inlet restrictors.

4. Treaded tires, tread must be visable at end of race within prescribed minimum area, position, depth, width and pattern. Tire manufacturers will draft regs. Only 15 sets of tires can be used in one event, except for rain. Officials to check the bar-codes on tires when exiting pit lane.

5. Minimum weight: 158kg for 1-3 cyls, 168kg for 4-5 cyls and 178kg for 6 or more cyls. Extra weights can be added (to reach minimum)

6. Other rules to remain unchanged from current rules.

Effective 2004.

Francesco Zerbi, FIM President says: “I am satisfied with the agreement reached as it enures a great development for the entire world of motorcycle racing.”

Maurizio Flammini, Octagon Motorsports Chairman:
“This agreement forms the basis for a great period of competitions development with Superbike machines, both at world level and at national and
continental level. It..guarantees its continuity and growth in the long term.”

Copyright 2001, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By David Swarts

Firestorm Racing’s Chris Normand was wrongly disqualified from his third-place finish in the AMA Buell Pro Thunder final on Sunday, September 30 at Virginia International Raceway for being underweight.

Normand told Roadracing World as he rolled his Suzuki Cup-spec SV650 out of the tech barn at VIR, “I weigh 352 (pounds) and they said that I have to weigh a minimum of 380 (pounds).”

But while AMA Pro Racing rules at one point established a minimum weight limit of 380 pounds for all Pro Thunder machines, a February 9, 2001 AMA Pro Racing bulletin issued by AMA Chief Technical Inspector Rob King announced that: “Due to our association with WERA and input from competitors, the following changes are being made.

“Effective immediately, the minimum weight rule is removed for the following two engine displacement sub classes, (Page 55, 2001 AMA Pro racing Rulebook):

“Unlimited 4-stroke single cylinders
“600cc – 850cc 4-stroke liquid-cooled twin cylinders (except desmodronic)(sic)”

The Suzuki SV650 is a non-desmodromic, 650cc, liquid-cooled, twin-cylinder machine and therefore exempt from the minimum weight requirement.

Yet when asked about the disqualification at VIR, AMA Media Relations Contractor Larry Lawrence confirmed the disqualification of Normand and produced revised results showing Thomas Fournier as finishing third in the Pro Thunder final.

Apparently, AMA tech officials at VIR were not familiar with the rule change and consulted a rulebook which had not been updated.

Contacted Monday, October 1 by telephone, Normand said, “I went to (AMA Pro Racing’s) Ron Barrick after I got disqualified and asked him, ‘Why do you guys make 70-horsepower machines weigh the same as machines making 130 horsepower?’ He was like, ‘Well you know, that’s the rules.’ I said, “I thought you all wanted SV650s to run in this class?’ He said, ‘Well, that’s what the rules are.'”

Normand stands to lose $800 in purse, $750 in Suzuki contingency and $300 in Pirelli contingency for a total of $1850 if the AMA’s mistake is not corrected. “That’s awesome!” yelled Normand over the phone when told that a mistake had obviously been made. “Thank you guys very, very much.”

At post time, official results posted on the AMA Pro Racing website did not include Normand’s name.

The applicable rule can be seen at:

http://www.amaproracing.com/rulebook/combuls/combul65.pdf

It was not known at post time if AMA officials will correct their error, and Ron Barrick had not returned a phone message asking for comment.

From a press release:

October 1, 2001

Dunlop introduces new D207 RR tire at Ducati Revs America, October 26-28, 2001

Buffalo, NY: Dunlop Tires, the official and exclusive sponsoring motorcycle tire company for Ducati Revs America (DRA), announced that it will introduce the company¹s next generation premium sport tire, the Dunlop D207 RR, at DRA.

The D207 RR merges together the best in track and street motorcycle tire technology to bring the ultimate in performance to the most demanding and discriminating sport-riding enthusiasts. This tire combines the race-winning grip of the D208 GP with the handling characteristics of the D207 ZR.

Since the D207 RR is Dunlop’s newest premium sport tire, Ducati Revs America provides the perfectly appropriate venue for the D207 RR’s American introduction. With the introduction of the D207 RR, Dunlop will expand its support of this groundbreaking event by offering special pricing to DRA participants on both the new D207 RR and the racing-version D208 GP. This will provide a unique opportunity for participants to enjoy exclusive, full-on Dunlop factory treatment at the Dunlop racing support truck, the same truck and trailer that services many of the top racing teams, including the two American Ducati road racing teams. Dunlop tire technicians will provide tire information and technical support, and will help participants choose the right tire for their specific riding needs.

DRA makes its debut in Las Vegas during October 26-28, 2001. This premier event marks the USA’s inaugural nation-wide gathering of Ducati aficionados.