Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By David Swarts

Yamaha’s Anthony Gobert is irate over what he believes are false claims to the fastest laps turned during the April 16-18 AMA team test at Road Atlanta by his competitors, especially claims made in a press release issued by Steve Reeves, publicist for Team Blimpie Yoshimura Suzuki’s Mat Mladin. Mladin’s post-test press release stated that the three-time AMA Superbike Champion was the quickest, on race tires, with a best lap of 1:23.5.

“Mat’s just always talking shit,” said Gobert via cell phone, as he watched girlfriend Suni’s young son race mini-bikes in Las Vegas Friday. “Mat’s always saying he’s the quickest and talking crap in the press. He said at Fontana (test, February 12-14) that I cut the chicane and made up all this crap that’s just not true. I’m just sick of him talking shit, you know?

“If you’re the quickest, you claim it. If you’re not, you don’t. He was nowhere near quickest in Atlanta. He never even come near the quickest time. So he’s just full of shit.

“I was the quickest at Atlanta. I did 1:23.4. Nicky (Hayden) was second quickest at a 1:23.5.”

Collecting lap time information at an AMA team test session is tricky business. The information collected always needs to be taken with a grain of salt unless obtained from an independent third-party source, such as the AMA timing and scoring system that was in place during the December test at Daytona and the January test at Laguna Seca. The standard method of gathering lap times by reporters is to ask the riders or mechanics how fast they went and what kind of tire, qualifier or race tire, they used to do the lap. Obviously, the team can say anything they want to most reporters.

When asked if he did his fastest time on a qualifying tire, Gobert answered, “Everyone did their quickest times on a Q. It’s a crock of shit that (Mat) reckons he didn’t run a qualifier and he was the quickest on a race tire and that’s all lies. It’s just a load of shit. I was there when he put the qualifier on and went out.

“He’s not cutting it right now, and he’s just trying to make up stories to make himself sound like the best when he’s not. It just annoys the hell out of me. I’m not saying it for me, I’m saying it for Yamaha.

“I represent Yamaha, and when Yamaha’s the quickest, Yamaha should be acknowledged as the quickest. Mladin’s trying to say that Suzuki’s the quickest, and Suzuki’s not. Suzuki’s nowhere near the quickest. It’s been Nicky and I at every single test, and that’s how it was at Atlanta.”

A report on another website quoted Gobert as saying that Nicky Hayden used four qualifiers trying to beat Gobert’s fastest time. When asked if he made such a statement, considering that qualifiers are not routinely used at tests, Gobert said, “Yeah. Dunlop gave each rider two qualifiers. So he (Nicky Hayden) used his two and he used Miguel’s two. And he used one of Kurtis’ that was on the truck on the first day to set the 1:23.9.

“I was quickest on race tires the whole time. I was the quickest on the first day with a 1:24.4, second quickest was Nicky at 1:24.8. Then Nicky right at the end of the day banged in a qualifier and did a 1:23.9. He only did one lap and that was Kurtis’ qualifier from Fontana.

“Obviously, their bike (Honda’s) is way superior to the Yamaha. Obviously, they want to do everything they can to try and beat us because it makes them look bad when we’re quickest on the poor old Yammie.”

“On (another website) it had Gobert saying that I used four qualifiers,” said Nicky Hayden, when reached on his cell phone Friday. “Now he’s saying that I used five? He’s crazy, and you can print I said that. I mean, come on! Why would I waste five qualifiers for a test? I used two qualifiers, but I didn’t even go fast on them. I did 1:23.6 on a race tire and only went 1:23.7-1:23.8 on the qualifier. The only reason we ran ‘em (qualifiers) was because the guys weren’t happy with them at Daytona and Fontana, and Dunlop wanted us to test them.”

Best Superbike Lap Times And Tires Used During Atlanta Team Tests(as claimed by team personnel and reported on Roadracingworld.com April 18):

Mat Mladin, 1:23.4 race tire
Anthony Gobert, 1:23.48 Q tire, 1:24.20 race tire
Nicky Hayden, 1:23.6 race tire
Aaron Yates, 1:23.7 Q tire, 1:24.0 race tire
Jamie Hacking, 1:24.4 race tire
Miguel Duhamel, 1:24.6 race tire

From a press release issued by the FIM:

Superbike & Supersport World Championships
Sugo – JPN: Wild-card riders

The wild-card riders who will race in the Superbike World Championship round scheduled on the circuit of Sugo on April 21 next, are the following:

Start number, Rider, Team

42, Makoto Tamada (JPN-Honda), Team Cabin Honda
43, Wataru Yoshikawa (JPN-Yamaha), YSP Racing & Presto
45, Takeshi Tsujimura (JPN-Yamaha), YSP Racing & Presto
47, Kenichiro Nakamura (JPN-Honda), Blue Helmet MSC
48, Yuichi Takeda (JPN-Honda), Sakurai Honda
49, Akira Yanagawa (JPN-Kawasaki), Kawasaki Racing Team

– A compulsory briefing will be held for all riders who will be participating for the first time in the current Championship, at 17h00 on the day preceding the day scheduled for the first practice session.

From a press release:

Fastrack Riders will host race car driver Max Papis at Willow Springs International Raceway in Rosamond, California on April 19th.

Max will be riding one of the Fastrack bikes in the Superstreet group.

More information is available about Fastrack Riders track days and FTA racing events at (800) 560-2233 or online at www.fastrackriders.com.

Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

Mat Mladin rode his GSX-R750 Superbike onto the grass, laid it on its side and then lifted Doug Chandler’s crashed HMC Ducati off the trapped Chandler.

The dramatic incident came late in the final day of AMA team testing at Road Atlanta.

Chandler lowsided entering turn 10, the start of the chicane at the end of the back straightaway, and ended up trapped under the Ducati, close to the edge of the gravel trap, near the right-hand turn that concludes the chicane

Mladin, who had been about five seconds behind Chandler on the course, came upon the scene and rode to the rescue.

“He got stuck under the bike,” said Mladin. “I saw him wave his arms, I pulled over in the right-hander and he started waving pretty frantically. There was only one corner marshall per station and she was busy waving the yellow flag.

“So I turned in there on the grass, rode down there, laid my bike on its side and ran over to him.

“His foot was stuck between the wheel and the exhaust pipe, and his boot was burning on the exhaust pipe. So I got his foot out and dragged the bike off him. It had burned almost through his boot, and if I hadn’t seen him waving he’d probably have still been waving out there for another couple of minutes and had third-degree burns.”

Mladin said Chandler suffered no burns in the incident, and added that he (Mladin) suggested that the next team test include more corner marshalls at key corners.

Best radar trap speeds from the three-day test follow, as caught by Kelly Collopy:

Supersport:
Jamie Hacking, Suzuki GSX-R600, 156.4 mph
Tommy Hayden, Kawasaki ZX-6R, 156.2
Aaron Yates, Suzuki GSX-R600, 155.9
Tony Meiring, Kawasaki ZX-6R, 155.6
Anthony Gobert, Yamaha YZF-R6, 1:54.7
Tom Kipp, Suzuki GSX-R600, 153.9

Superbike:
Doug Chandler, Ducati 998, 175.2 mph
Nicky Hayden, Honda RC51, 174.0
Miguel Duhamel, Honda RC51, 173.0
Anthony Gobert, Yamaha YZF-R7, 170.9
Mat Mladin, GSX-R750, 170.8
Jamie Hacking, GSX-R750, 170.4
Aaron Yates, GSX-R750, 174.0

Formula Xtreme
Damon Buckmaster, Yamaha YZF-R7/R1, 167.4 mph
Tom Kipp, Suzuki GSX-R1000, 166.7

Best Thursday afternoon lap times (times and tires used as claimed by team personnel):

Superbike
Mat Mladin, 1:23.4 race tire
Anthony Gobert, 1:23.48 Q tire, 1:24.20 race tire
Nicky Hayden, 1:23.6 race tire
Aaron Yates, 1:23.7 Q tire, 1:24.0 race tire
Jamie Hacking, 1:24.4 race tire
Miguel Duhamel, 1:24.6 race tire

Formula Xtreme
Damon Buckmaster, 1:24.0 race tire
Tom Kipp, 1:26.2 race tire
Chris Ulrich, 1:29.3 race tire

Supersport
Tommy Hayden, 1:27.8
Tom Kipp, 1:28.1
Tony Meiring, 1:29.8

Superstock
Chris Ulrich, 1:27.7

And now HMC Ducati’s version of the test, from a press release:

The HMC Ducati Racing team finished three successful days of testing at Road Atlanta Raceway today. Doug Chandler clocked an impressive best lap time of 1:24 flat, although a minor crash spoiled his dash to better Nicky Hayden’s fastest time of 1:23.7. The team walked away with set-up information for the race here in mid-May as well as a good base set-up for the next round in Sears Point, which sports a similar track layout.

“We’ve made a lot of progress in the last three days,” said Chandler. “I’m happy with how the bike worked today and I think we’re ready when we come back here for the race. Atlanta is very similar in layout to Sears. When we started here we were out in left field but we’ve gone in the right direction on everything and a lot of this information will help us at Sears as well.”

Doug Chandler received only minor bruising and a small burn from the crash, and a new best friend in Mat Mladin (Suzuki), who stopped to rescue him.

“I moved my focus up the track, trail-braked too much into the turn, tipped it in and tucked the front,” Doug said. “We were trying new brake pads and they were a bit grabbier than what I am used to. It was a combination of grabby brake pads and not remembering to get off the brakes.

“I’m a little bruised and burnt. I got wedged up under the tire and muffler and Mat had to stop on the track, drop his bike and come over and get mine off of me. My boot was smoking from the exhaust pipe!

“It was a successful test. Each day we got better, making progress and running with the top guys. I think we’ve got things right and I’m sure we’ll come up with some stuff to make it even better yet.”

And now a release from Mladin’s publicist, Steve Reeves:

MAT MLADIN Racing – MEDIA INFORMATION
For immediate release
Friday, 19April 2002

MLADIN FAST AT ROAD ATLANTA TEST

Atlanta Georgia, USA: – With the AMA Chevy Trucks US Superbike Championship in the midst of a month’s break between rounds, a number of teams including Mat Mladin’s Blimpie Yoshimura Suzuki team have taken part in a three-day test at Road Atlanta, Georgia this week.

In many ways the test was a success for three time US Superbike Champion Mladin, as he emerged with the fastest lap time on set of ‘race’ tyres at the test. It also showed that the left elbow that he injured at Daytona will still require an amount of time before it is fully healed and strong enough to cope with the demands of riding a superbike.

After being the fastest on day two with a 1:24.1 lap, he bettered that time to end the test with a 1:23.5. A number of other riders were close to that mark at the end but were using softer compound qualifying tyres to set their times.

“I believe that I was the quickest out there on race tyres, so I’m very happy with that,” Mladin said at the conclusion of the test. “A few other guys went out on qualifiers, but I didn’t even bother. I’m not really here for that.”

The injury to his left elbow did however restrict the amount of track time that Mladin could utilise.

“We did a whole day on Tuesday (the first day) but late on Wednesday afternoon I tweaked it a bit and that caused a lot of discomfort. On the last day I only did about two and a half hours on the track and that was due to the arm. I took a few painkillers to get over the problems that I had with it yesterday and rested it for about four hours today. It’s a bit frustrating at the moment as I would have liked to have done more on the bike, but unfortunately I couldn’t.”

Mladin was hopeful of being able to conduct a number of back-to-back tests with his Blimpie Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R750, but these were restricted due to the soreness of his arm.

“We were hoping to try a few different things. We had one bike set up with the settings we used here last year and had planned to set the other up with some completely different settings just to see how they went. In the end we spent most of the time on the bike with new settings and had virtually no opportunity to run the other that had the old settings on it.”

Mladin has won three out of four races at Road Atlanta in the past two years, with the championship heading there on May 18 & 19 for rounds six and seven.

From a press release:

WORLD SUPERBIKE CHAMPIONSHIP

Round 4 – Sugo (Japan), 21 April 2002

PREVIEW

After Australia and South Africa, the third successive fly-away race in the 2002 World Superbike Championship takes place this coming weekend at the Sugo Sportsland circuit, near Sendai in the north of Japan. All eyes will be on reigning champion Troy Bayliss (Ducati Infostrada) to see whether he can extend his sensational early-season run of six wins on the run and equal the all-time record holder, Doug Polen, who notched up a seven-race winning streak for Ducati back in 1991. The championship leader will be up against two unknown factors around the 3.737 km Sugo track this weekend: Japanese ‘wild-card’ riders, who always go well here, and tyre performance.

Bayliss and Sugo have not exactly had the best of relations in the two years the Australian has raced here. In 2000, he failed to complete a lap after twice being knocked off by Japanese riders at the first corner, while last year he could only manage four points after struggling all weekend with tyre problems. “I’ll certainly be trying to get a couple of wins this weekend to keep my run going, but I know it’s going to be difficult. Every time I come here, I look for a good weekend, but it just hasn’t happened …. yet!” declared Troy. “I really like the Sugo circuit, it’s up and down, not exactly like Kyalami, where I won two weeks ago, but very undulating. I know it’s going to be a lot better this year than it was in 2001, for lots of reasons, not just because of the tyres”.

Ruben Xaus (Ducati Infostrada) continued his promising early season form at Kyalami with a third and a second place, but is under no illusions about the task ahead this weekend in Japan. “I would like to come away from here with as many points as possible”, he declared. “I like the track but it’s very difficult and the Japanese riders always go well here. We were unlucky last year, but I’m sure things will be different this time around. I’d like to be on the podium, but the most important thing is to work well for the race in practice and qualifying and then do your best on Sunday to score as many points as possible. There are a lot of races to go and the real championship starts in Europe”.

Last year at Sugo Ben Bostrom (Ducati L&M) out-performed everyone except the Japanese riders and the 27-year-old Californian will be hoping to shine in a race that sees him reunited with his brother Eric for the first time since Laguna Seca. “I’m more excited about this race at Sugo than at any other track. The tyres work really well here and I’ve forgotten what it’s like to stand on top of the box”, said Bostrom. “The wild-card riders will make it interesting as always, because none of the WSBK regulars ever win here. Last year we came very close to getting on the podium, so maybe it’s our turn now. I’m feeling really fit, I’ve been hanging out with my brother for a couple of weeks and just can’t wait to go here”.



THE SUGO CIRCUIT

Sugo was founded in 1975 as a test-track by Yamaha and since then has hosted a series of major sports events, such as All-Japan Roadracing Championship, and other international bike and car meetings. It first held a round of the WSBK championship in 1988 and has continued the tradition every year since. Sugo is located 300 km north-east of Tokyo and the complex also contains a hotel, an athletics track and a motocross circuit. Japanese riders have taken victory in every race held here since 1995 when Corser and Fogarty shared the wins for Ducati.



CIRCUIT RECORDS

Lap Record: Tamada (Honda) 1’29.522 (2001)
Superpole: Tamada (Honda) 1’28.797
Qualifying: Tamada (Honda) 1’28.658 (2001).

Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

Veteran racer Pete Martins has been contracted by RPM Racing, Inc., the WERA South Central Region affiliate, to be the Director of RPM Track Days and Rider Schools.

According to RPM Racing owner Alan Blair, Martins will develop school curriculum for intermediate and advanced rider courses. Blair added that MArtins is also working toward getting a Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF) certification to work with beginning motorcyclists.

“We are working on getting the certification for Pete (Martins) so that he can actually start at the ground-level with riders that are brand new to riding and racing because we see the need for that, too. A lot of guys go out and buy their first bike, and, without any training, go out there and have an accident and hurt themselves and never ride another motorcycle again. We think it’s good if you can train and help out everyone from the ground up because if you can teach them some things about safety, hopefully they’ll be a motorcycle rider for longer, maybe even like you and I, loving the stuff for the rest of our lives because we’ve been brought up the right way with motorcycles.”

RPM is one of few motorcycle road racing clubs that offer mentoring programs for new racers.

For additional information about RPM, go to www.rpmracing.org.

Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

The CMRA, (Central Motorcycle Roadracing Association), the CCS South Central Region affiliate base din Texas, has reached agreements with Mirage Timing and Scoring and with Lone Star Track Days.

According to an April 17 press release from CMRA President Brooks Gremmels, the new deal means that Mirage, (the official timing and scoring provider of Formula USA’s national road race, Arenacross and flat track series), will provide personnel and electronic scoring transponders for all competitors in all CMRA events and classes.

According to the release, the Mirage scoring system will allow results to be posted to the CMRA website, www.cmraracing.com, on the same day as the race.

Notable is the fact that the Mirage system can accept complete rider sponsor listings, unliked the system used by the AMA which is limited to 50 characters in sponsor listings.

The same release also announced that students of Lone Star Track Days, “the only track day operation licensed by the state of Texas”, will have the option of learning CMRA New Riders’ School curriculum and taking the CMRA riding and written test, making the students eligible for a CMRA/CCS racing license. Lone Star Track Days’ next event is April 20-21 at Texas World Speedway in College Station, Texas.

For more information about the CMRA, call (800) 423-8736, or in the Houston area call (281) 342-9032, FAX (281) 232-8602, e-mail [email protected], www.cmraracing.com.

For more information about Lone Star Track Days, call (281) 684-2981, e-mail Stephen Porter at [email protected], www.lonestartrackdays.com.

A photo from Aprilia’s press service, showing 250cc Grand Prix World Championship rider Marco Melandri with a real-life (young) version of the lion seen on his Aprilia RSW250 racebike.

From a press release:

United States Grand Prix Rider’s Union

The United States Grand Prix Riders’ Union is proud to announce the upgrading of two featured events on the 2002 125GP National Championship Series.

The Western Region Round previously scheduled to run concurrent with CCS at the Las Vegas Classic Course has been upgraded to run concurrent with Formula-USA at Portland International Raceway September 5-8.

The Eastern Region Round which had been previously scheduled to run at Rausch Creek has been upgraded to run concurrent with the Formula-USA Loudon Classic at Loudon, NH June 13-16.

Both events will feature open practice and multiple timed qualifying sessions as well as pre-event practice on the days prior to each event for a small additional fee. The Loudon practice will be a Promoter run event at $150 and the Portland event practice session will be run by Team Hammer, also at $150, with more information available at www.teamhammer.com or at (909) 245-6414.

“We look forward to working with [the USGPRU] to make the 79th Annual Loudon Classic a showcase of GP racing in America,” says Clear Channel
Entertainment’s Bill Syfan.

The USGPRU 125GP National Championship is sponsored by GP Star Hollywood, Silkolene, VP Racing Fuels, Vanson, Hjelm Motorsports, Tracktimer Software and Motion Pro. The USGPRU is a Formula USA / CCS Affiliate. The USGPRU has licensed over 70 125GP Riders for the National Series this year and registrant numbers continue to grow each week. Membership since the inaugural round at Daytona February 28-March 3rd has over-doubled and we anticipate membership of over 130 125 GP riders by year’s end.

The USGPRU Sanctions a 12 Round National Championship Series divided between three national regions (East, West and Midwest) in which regional GP Racers earn points which are carried forward to the US National Championship Final at VIR in October. National Series Events feature electronic timed qualifying for grid position and 50+ km events. Complete series information is available at http://www.usgpru.org or contact [email protected] for more information.

From a press release:

PRO HONDA OILS TAKES SPONSORSHIP OF FORMULA
USA SPORTBIKE CLASS

AURORA, Ill., (April 18, 2002) – Clear Channel Entertainment’s Motor Sports division announced today that Pro Honda Oils has assumed title sponsorship of the coveted 600 Sportbike Class inside the Formula USA National Road Race Series.

Pro Honda Oils 600 Sportbike features 600cc Inline Fours and 800cc Twins competing together with 112 maximum horsepower and 365 lb minimum weight limits, creating one of the highlight races of the Formula USA National Road Race weekend, when paired with the Lockhart Phillips Superbike Class. Lee Acree has been crowned champion of the Sportbike class for two consecutive years.

The addition of Pro Honda Oils as a national sponsor to the series will incorporate hundreds of national dealers into the promotion of the series and will secure a Pro Honda Oils display inside the Motorsports Expo areas of many events.

(Former racer) Rick Mitchell of Pro Honda Oils said, “We are proud to join forces with the National Road Race Series and we’re happy to get behind the Sportbike Class. The class is a breeding ground of champions in the sport and we’re looking forward to this season.”

The next Formula USA National Road Race Series event is May 24-26 at Summit Point International Raceway in Summit Point, Va.

For more information, visit formulausa.com.