From a press release:

HARLEY-DAVIDSON REPORTS RECORD FIRST QUARTER

Milwaukee, Wis., April 16, 2002 — Harley-Davidson, Inc. (NYSE: HDI) today announced record revenue and earnings for its first quarter ended March 31, 2002. Revenue for the quarter was $927.8 million compared with $776.9 million in the year-ago quarter, a 19.4 percent increase. First quarter diluted earnings per share (EPS) were 39 cents, a 30.6 percent increase compared with last year’s 30 cents.

“We are proud to announce another outstanding quarter and to report that demand for Harley-Davidson products remains strong as we begin our 99th year of operations,” said Jeffrey L. Bleustein, chairman and chief executive officer of Harley-Davidson, Inc. “Our worldwide network of independent dealers experienced a growth rate of 20 percent in retail registrations during the first quarter. Based on this demand and ongoing capacity improvements, we are raising our 2002 production target for Harley-Davidson® motorcycles to 261,000 units, up from the previous target of 258,000.

“I am also pleased to announce that our Dyna family of motorcycles is now being assembled exclusively in Kansas City, after successfully transferring these operations from our York, PA facility. This comes on the heels of a new five-year labor agreement with our Kansas City unions and is another step in executing our manufacturing strategy,” added Bleustein.

Motorcycles and Related Products Segment

Financial performance for the entire segment benefited from five percent more scheduled workdays in the first quarter of 2002 compared to last year’s first quarter.

First quarter revenue from Harley-Davidson motorcycles was $747.7 million, an increase of 21.9 percent over the first quarter last year. Shipments of Harley-Davidson motorcycles totaled 64,669 units, up 10,515 units or 19.4 percent over last year and approximately 2,100 units over the Company’s announced target. “We worked additional assembly line overtime during the quarter to help meet strong customer demand for our 2002 model year motorcycles,” said Bleustein. To support the new 2002 calendar year production target of 261,000 units, Harley-Davidson is increasing its second quarter production target to 65,000 units.

First quarter revenue from Parts and Accessories (P&A), which consist of Genuine Motor Partsä and Genuine Motor Accessoriesä, totaled $131.1 million, a 20.4 percent increase over the year-ago quarter. General Merchandise, which consists of MotorClothes® apparel and collectibles, had first quarter revenue of $42.3 million, up 7.9 percent over the same period last year.

For the long term, the Company expects P&A revenue to increase somewhat faster than Harley-Davidson’s motorcycle unit growth rate and expects General Merchandise to grow slightly slower than the motorcycle unit growth rate.

First quarter gross margin for the Motorcycles and Related Products Segment was 34.0 percent of revenue compared to 32.7 percent in the first quarter of last year. Gross margin improvements were driven by the effect of the greater number of workdays as well as a stronger product mix and a greater percentage of domestic shipments. Operating margin followed gross margin and was 18.7 percent of revenue, compared to 17.4 percent of revenue for the same period last year.

Financial Services Segment

Harley-Davidson Financial Services, Inc. (HDFS), a subsidiary of Harley-Davidson, Inc., reported first quarter income of $41.7 million, up from $32.9 million in the year-ago quarter. HDFS operating income was $12.2 million, compared with $5.0 million last year. The increase was due in part to continued strong acceptance of its consumer financing programs as well as growth across all product lines. Also contributing to the income growth was the January completion of the remaining $93 million sale of receivables from HDFS’ fourth quarter 2001 asset-backed securitization offering. The Company expects HDFS operating income to grow at a rate approaching 25 percent for 2002.

Harley-Davidson Retail Data

Retail sales for Harley-Davidson motorcycles in the United States were up 21.2 percent for the period January through March 2002, when compared to the same period last year. Harley-Davidson retail sales in Europe and Japan were up 16.6 and 3.7 percent, respectively, when compared with 2002. At this time, only limited industry data is available for these markets.

Income Tax Rate

The Company’s effective income tax rate was reduced to 34.5 percent for the first quarter of 2002 from last year’s rate of 35.0 percent. The Company expects to maintain the improved rate of 34.5 percent for the remainder of the year.

Share Repurchase

During the quarter, the Company repurchased approximately 575,000 shares of its common stock.

Company Background

Harley-Davidson, Inc. is the parent company for the group of companies doing business as Harley-Davidson Motor Company, Buell Motorcycle Company and Harley-Davidson Financial Services. Harley-Davidson Motor Company, the only major U.S.-based motorcycle manufacturer, produces heavyweight motorcycles and offers a complete line of motorcycle parts, accessories, apparel and general merchandise. Buell Motorcycle Company produces sport and sport-touring motorcycles. Harley-Davidson Financial Services, Inc. provides wholesale and retail financing and insurance programs to Harley-Davidson dealers and customers.

Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

With three days remaining in the auction to benefit the Roadracingworld.com Action Fund, bidding on an unobtainable, autographed Miguel Duhamel Shoei X-SPII helmet has stalled at $800. The sale is due to close at 12:11 p.m. Pacific Time Thursday, April 18.

After drawing seven bids within the first few hours, there has been no activity in the eBay auction of the Duhamel helmet since the opening flurry. As it usually does, bidding may become much more active as the close of bidding nears. In the recent auction of Eric Bostrom’s leathers, the high bid went from $2025 to $3351 in the last 10 minutes of the bidding.

The original web post announcing the auction of the Miguel Duhamel helmet, photos of the helmet and a link to the bidding follows.

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This Miguel Duhamel Shoei motorcycle helmet was donated by Shoei Safety Helmet Corporation to be auctioned off to benefit the Roadracingworld.com Action Fund, a new non-profit corporation which has taken over the work previously done by the informally-organized Roadracing World Air Fence* Fund. Autographed by all-time AMA Superbike and 600cc Supersport win leader Miguel Duhamel, this helmet is technically not a replica, but instead is an actual Miguel Duhamel helmet.

Shoei only makes the X-SPII model in Duhamel’s Troy Lee-designed paint scheme for Duhamel himself to wear in races. Duhamel replicas that are sold to the public are only made in the less-expensive, entry-level RF900 model.

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This special lid is in brand new, never-worn condition. It is currently set up for a “Small” size, but Shoei’s Motorsports Manager Rob Vallejos says that the helmet can be re-fitted for any size, up to Large, with a swap of the helmet’s 3-D Liner internal padding system. Vallejos said he would be happy to help re-fit the helmet for the winning bidder.

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Like all new Shoei X-SPIIs, this helmet comes with a clear and a smoked CX-1 face shield, a breath guard, a chin curtain, a maintenance kit, owner’s manual, fleece-lined carrying bag, original box and a five-year warranty. Of course, only this helmet comes with Miguel Duhamel’s signature in white paint marker on the back!

Normal Manufacturer Suggested Retail Price for a Shoei X-SPII replica helmet is a little under $800.

The auction is due to close at approximately 12:00 p.m. Pacific Time, Thursday, April 18. To go directly to the auction, click on the following link:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1820700776

Roadracing World has a couple of items remaining that will be put up for auction in the near future, but we are always looking for more pieces of racing memorabilia, collectibles, products and/or services to be donated to benefit the Roadracing.com Action Fund. If you have an item that you would like to donate for auction, please call Roadracing World’s David Swarts at 909-245-6411 between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. Pacific Time, Monday through Friday.

The Roadracing World Air Fence Fund was established in April 2001 to raise money to purchase and deploy Air Fence and Air Module soft barriers to protect crashed riders from hitting walls and other hard objects at racetracks. In less than one year, the Fund has raised over $174,000, with over $11,000 coming from the auctions of donated racing memorabilia such as this helmet. For more information about the Roadracing World Air Fence Fund, including a full accounting of the collections and disbursements and stories about racers being saved by soft barriers, go to the www.roadracingworld.com home page and click on the Air Fence headline.

The Roadracingworld.com Action Fund has taken over the work of the Roadracing World Air Fence Fund and will continue to use donations to buy and deploy Air Fence and Air Modules to improve racetrack safety.

*Air Fence is a trademark of Airfence Safety Systems of Australia.

Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

The Yamaha YZF-R7 was not on the 2001 list of motorcycles approved for AMA Formula Xtreme competition.

On September 7, 2001, AMA Technical Manager Rob King sent the list, (which several team owners and managers have unsuccessfully tried to obtain over the course of the last two season), to an AMA member who inquired about YZF-R7 elibility.

The fact that the R7 is not on the list backs up a statement made by King in a related e-mail that the R7 was allowed to compete under a special rules exemption in 2001 and would not be allowed to compete in 2002.

In that e-mail, also dated September 7, 2001, King wrote, “There was some confusion about how much you could modify a frame and still have it be a frame from a street bike. A compromise was reached and the R7 was allowed to race this year. Next year they will not be used unless Yamaha sells the R7 as a street bike.”

AMA Pro Racing declared the R7 illegal in 2000, yet refused to accept protests of the R7 in 2001.

In the July 2000 edition of Roadracing World, then AMA Pro Racing Communications Manager Bill Nordquist was quoted as saying, after Attack Racing was not allowed to run a YZF-R7 in Formula Xtreme at the May 2000 Sears Point AMA National, “The R7/R1 situation came up, along with other topics, but at no time did Rob (King) say it was a legal combination. The R7 is produced as a racebike, and is not supplied as a streetbike to customers.”

Several teams protested Damon Buckmaster’s YZF-R7 following the April 7 race at Fontana, objecting to the AMA’s changing stance on the bike and the fact that AMA Pro Racing officials said one thing in 2000 (the R7 is not legal), another thing in 2001 (the R7 is not legal but has a one-year exemption, and won’t be raced in 2002, and no you can’t protest it), and yet another thing in 2002 (the R7 is legal and you won’t win any protest so don’t bother).

The date and origin code in the lower left-hand corner of the list reads “3/6/01/rk” indicating that the list was last updated on March 6 of 2001, by Rob King.


You can find the complete list here.

Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

AMA Supersport racer Michael Hannas says that new walls at Sears Point Raceway make the Sonoma, California racetrack much more dangerous than it was last year.

Hannas formed his opinion after competing in last weekend’s AFM club race at thr track.

Hannas grew up racing 125 and 250cc racebikes at Sears Point. In 2000 he competed in the AMA 600cc Supersport Series and in 2001 he finished third in the AMA 250cc Grand Prix Series. This season Hannas is riding a ZX-6R sponsored by Hayward Motorsports Kawasaki in the AMA Supersport Series.

An e-mail from Hannas follows:

Just thought I’d offer up my two cents on the changes made to Sears Point after riding it during the AFM weekend. In my opinion, the track is more dangerous now than it was last year. The front straight is narrow with concrete walls on both sides, which could be extremely dangerous when AMA level riders are going through there three/four wide fighting for position, and is definitely dangerous on the start, as evidenced this past weekend by the number of crashes that resulted in injury during the starts of more than one race. Think Scott Russell at Daytona, except with half the room and concrete on both sides.

Turn one is now wide open in fifth gear on a 600, with bumpy pavement seams that you cross over while at a pretty good lean angle, pointed straight at the same hillside/bridge that has taken at least one life that I know of back in the old days. Two through 3 are the same, 3a has a chunk of pavement missing right in the racing line as you crest the hill, four has a new pavement strip that appears to be an asphalt patch over some sort of drainage pipe that was dug into the ground.

Turn five is the one place that is worlds better, with new, smooth pavement and adequate run-off. However, as you crest the hill and drop in to the carousel, you are back on old pavement that is more torn up and bumpier than ever. The exit of six puts you back on new pavement and seems to have additional run-off, but not much, and walls still surround both sides down the straight to seven, which puts you back on the old pavement and points you directly at a concrete wall strategically placed right on the edge of the track, all the way around the turn. Lose the brakes there and you’d better hit the eject button. The second apex of seven has another one of those asphalt patches over a drainage pipe, which is very bumpy.

The actual track stays the same through the 8/8a esses, with additional run-off on both the outside of 8 and 8a, however, it is not nearly enough and instead of hitting a hillside if you tuck the front entering 8a, you hit a concrete wall where the hillside used to be. The exit of 8a down the hill is a lot better in terms of run-off, though. New pavement starts again entering turn nine, with a rough transition, and it seems even bumpier than the old pavement. There might be a little bit more run-off there, but not much and still not nearly enough before the concrete wall.

As you tip it into 10, you transfer roughly back to the old pavement right before the apex of the corner, where you are at maximum lean angle. The old pavement of 10 seems bumpier also. I don’t know if this is because the racetrack was used as a road for construction trucks or what. I can’t comment on the AMA 11 since we didn’t run it, but it looks like the exit to it will be even tighter and closer to a wall than before.

Leading onto the front straight is so much narrower that the already tight AFM chicane was made even tighter, which caught me out on the first lap of practice when I nailed one of haybales used to make the chicane with the inside of my knee while hanging off in a normal fashion, which compressed my foot onto the footpeg hard enough to actually lift the rear wheel off the ground. The result of this was what the ortho surgeon called a 3rd degree sprain and ligament strain of my ankle, all I know is I can’t put any pressure on it and was unable to ride above an 80-85% pace or shift the bike properly. Not really because of the pain, but the limited range of motion and strength. At that 80-85% pace, I was not fearing for my life around the track, but I could see there being some major issues when all the AMA guys show up.

It really saddens me that some riders continue to paint a rosy picture of unsafe racetracks instead of really telling it how it is. We all saw what happened at Fontana when we decided to just put up with something we thought might be an issue, I sincerely hope that isn’t what is happening here. I don’t know how many feet of Airfence the AMA has access to, but I’d say they better bring all they can get their hands on, and then some.

Michael Hannas

Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

Suzuki factory test riders Akira Ryo and Yukio Kagayama rode their prototype GSV-R four-stroke V4s to a 1-2 finish in the opening round of the eight-round All-Japan Road Race Championship at Central Park Mine Circuit, on the Southern tip of Japan’s main island, Sunday, April 14. Kawasaki factory test rider Akira Yanagawa finished third in the first race outing for the Ninja ZX-RR prototype MotoGP racebike, setting the fastest lap of the race.

Ryo, the 2001 All-Japan Champion, won by 3.3 seconds over Kagayama, while the top three finishers were 28 seconds ahead of the field after 26 laps of the 2.082-mile circuit.

Prototype machines, which do not race for points or prizes in the All-Japan series, finished in the top five positions. The highest finishing Superbike was a factory Suzuki GSX-R750 ridden by Atsushi Watanabe, 35.7 seconds behind Ryo.

Ryo started from the pole position after turning a qualifying time of 1:23.646, and Yanagawa ran the fastest lap of the race, a 1:24.824 on lap two. The fastest lap turned by a Superbike rider during the race was a 1:26.146 by Watanabe.

The next round of the All-Japan series is May 12 at the tight 1.294-mile Tsukuba Circuit near Tokyo.

Results follow:

1. Akira Ryo, Suz GSV-R, Prototype, 37:04.898, 26 laps
2. Yukio Kagayama, Suz GSV-R, Prototype, -3.322 seconds
3. Akira Yanagawa, Kaw ZX-RR, Prototype, -3.653 seconds
4. Tamaki Serizawa, Suz Tornado S-1, Prototype, -31.745 seconds
5. Keiichi Kitagawa, Suz GSX-R1000, Prototype, -32.987 seconds
6. Atsushi Watanabe, Suz GSX-R750, Superbike, -35.760 seconds
7. Takeshi Tsujimura, Yam YZF-R7, Superbike, -37.700 seconds
8. Wataru Yoshikawa, Yam YZF-R7, Superbike, -38.491 seconds
9. Yuichi Takeda, Hon RC51, Superbike, -40.305 seconds
10. Osamu Nishijima, Kaw ZX-7RR, Superbike, -75.731 seconds

Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

An AMA rule designed to keep factory Superbike riders out of Thursday practice has snared privateer Brian Livengood, who is currently ranked 4th in AMA Superbike points. The AMA rule bans the top 10 riders in points from participating in Thursday practice.

“Give me a break,” said Livengood when asked how he felt about the ban. “It’s really hard for privateers to have one day to learn a track and set up their bikes.”

In a recent e-mail, AMA Pro Racing Director of Professional Competition Merrill Vanderslice stated that the rule was made to “protect factory teams from themselves.” But instead of specifying factory riders, the rule is based on points.

“I haven’t ridden many of the West Coast tracks and this makes it very difficult. At Fontana I had two practice sessions then went straight out to qualifying,” said Livengood.

Top 10 privateers campaigning more than one class will find the rule even more restrictive when they attempt to learn a track, and then set up two bikes. The rule does allow for other track testing, but not within the week before the race. Privateer riders like Livengood, (who relies on Team HSA for his transportation to the track), simply do not have the resources to set up or participate in independent test sessions like those held by factory teams.

BRITISH SUPERBIKE CHAMPIONSHIP TEAM
NORTH WEST 200
From a press release:

KING RUTTER TO DEFEND HIS NORTH WEST CROWN

Team Renegade Ducati are pleased to announce that Michael Rutter will contest this year’s North West 200 in Northern Ireland. Rutter will return to the North West as the undisputed champion, after winning the three main feature races and dominating the event last time out.

The 28-year-old West Midlander, who counts the North West 200 circuit as one of his all time favourites, will compete in both Superbike races aboard the same Team Renegade Ducati 998 Testastretta that he currently campaigns in the British Superbike Championship.

‘Everyone knows how much I love the North West,’ said Rutter, ‘and it’s great to be going there with Team Renegade Ducati. We’ve got a brilliant package here, which puts us in a very strong position for the two Superbike races. I’ve always hoped we could work something out in terms of competing at the North West this year and thankfully its all come together. There won’t be a better bike on the grid, but there’s a lot of hard work to do between now and then if we’re going to get it right. The way my season’s gone so far, though, I’m confident we will!’

Due to the clash between the Isle of Man TT and rounds 9 & 10 of the British Superbike Championship at Snetterton, the North West 200 will be the only real roads event that Rutter competes at this season.

‘Obviously it would have been great to go to the Isle of Man TT races as well,’ added Rutter, son of former World Champion and TT winner, Tony, ‘but unfortunately there’s a date clash with both British Superbikes and the Silverstone World Superbike round. I’ve got a really strong chance of winning the BSB title and there’s just no way we could afford to miss a round of the series.’

The North West 200, the most prestigious event on the Irish road-racing calendar, was last held two years ago; the 2001 race was cancelled due to the UK wide foot and mouth restrictions.

Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

Aprilia USA has moved to new headquarters.

According to an announcement issued by the company, which distributes Aprilia motorcycles and scooters in the U.S., “Progress on the racetrack is measure in laptimes. Progress on the sales floor is measured in sell out. Progress for Aprilia USA is measured in square footage.”

The new address is:

109 Smoke Hill Lane, Suite 190
Woodstock, GA 30188
phone (770) 592-2261
FAX (770) 592-4878