Australia’s Damon Buckmaster was the big winner in WSMC action at Willow Springs International Raceway on Sunday. In his first race with Graves Yamaha, Buckmaster beat the best of the locals to win the GMD Computrack Los Angeles 600cc Superstock race and the Toyota Cup Unlimited Formula One Grand Prix race. In both races, Buckmaster had to come from the back of the grid, through the pack, and past his employer Chuck Graves and local star Vincent Haskovec to take the win.

Haskovec and Graves didn’t get shut out completely. Graves showed that he is the only team owner on the AMA circuit capable of beating his own rider when Graves bested Buckmaster early in the day in Performance Machine Open Superbike. Later, Haskovec beat Graves in the Hyperclub Formula Two final

White Tip Racing’s Ken Chase won both the L&L Motorsports 750cc Superbike and Maxima Oil 750cc Superstock races.

Young guns Tony “The Tiger” Meiring, 17, and Chris Peris, 15, collected wins in 750cc Modified Production and Roadracing World 125cc Grand Prix, respectively.

Sunday also featured the first road racing success for Mike “Godfather of Freestyle” Metzger. After a fast and flammable first attempt late last year, Metzger, 25, returned to Willow Springs to complete his first Novice race in promising fashion.

Freddie Spencer’s High Performance Product Line, the Michelin race tire distributor in for the western United States, has named additional at-track distributors and announced details of contingency programs for WMRRA, OMRRA and MRA regional racers.

Additional at-track distributors for Michelin tires in the western U.S. now include:

Washington, WMRRA, Seattle International Raceway, Spokane Raceway: Bellevue Suzuki Ducati, Alan Thain, Scott Casey

Oregon, OMRRA, Portland International Raceway: Rose City Cycles, Tom Young

Colorado, MRA, Second Creek Raceway, Pikes Peak International Raceway, Pueblo Motorsports Park, Continental Divede Racepark: Mark Schellinger

Racers in WMRRA, OMRRA and MRA are eligible for the Freddie Bucks contingency program.

In OMRRA 600cc Supersport, 750cc Supersport and Open Supersport, the program pays $200 for first, $150 for second, $100 for third, $75 for fourth and $50 for fifth. In OMRRA 600cc Superbike and 750cc Superbike, the program pays $100 for first, $75 for second, $50 for third, $40 for fourth and $30 for fifth. In OMRRA 125cc Grand Prix, the program pays $75 for first, $50 for second, $25 for third, $10 for fourth and $10 for fifth. In OMRRA 600cc Novice, 750cc Novice and Open Novice, the program pays $50 for first, $25 for second, and $10 for third, fourth and fifth.

In WMRRA 600cc Supersport, 750cc Supersport and Open Supersport, the program pays $200 for first, $150 for second, $100 for third, $75 for fourth and $50 for fifth. In WMRRA Formula Ultra, Formula Thunder and Formula II, the program pays $100 for first, $80 for second, $70 for third and $40 for fifth. In WMRRA 125cc Grand Prix, the program pays $75 for first, $50 for second, $25 for third and $10 for fourth and fifth.

In MRA Race Of The Rockies, the program pays $200 for first, $150 for second, $100 for third, $75 for fourth and $50 for fifth. In MRA Open Supersport, Heavyweight Supersport, Middleweight Supersport, Open Superbike, Heavyweight Superbike and Middleweight Superbike, the program pays $150 for first, $100 for second, $75 for third, $50 for fourth and $40 for fifth. In MRA Supertwins GTO, Supertwins GTU, Amateur/Novice GTO and GTU, the program pays $125 for first, $100 for second, $75 for third, $50 for fourth and $40 for fifth.

To be eligible, riders must use Michelin tires front and rear, display Michelin stickers on both sides of the motorcycle and on the fork legs or front fender, list Michelin as a sponsor, and fill out a contingency form and have it verified by a series official before racing begins on the day. All payments are in the form of Freddie Bucks, which can be used to purchase tires from Michelin at-track distributors associated with Freddie Spencer’s High Performance Product Line.

More information is available from www.fastfreddie.com or from Morgan Broadhead at (702) 591-8915, Bellevue Suzuki Ducati at (425) 747-7360, Rose City Cycle at (503) 320-2475 or from Mark Schellinger at (303) 944-0333.

After considering himself lucky to come out of Daytona with a second in 600cc Supersport and a 10th in Superbike when he could have easily had two DNFs, Nicky Hayden flew to California to have Dr. Arthur Ting perform surgery on his left wrist.

During winter testing training, Hayden, 19, realized that a new pain in his wrist was getting worse. X-rays discovered nothing, but an MRI showed a fractured scaphoid bone in Hayden’s left wrist. Hayden rode through the pain at Daytona with his wrist taped by sports trainer Dean Miller.

On Monday morning, March 12, Hayden flew to Ting’s California clinic and underwent another MRI, which revealed that Hayden’s fracture had gotten worse. “The bone was cracked all of the way across,” said Hayden on Friday, March 16.

On Tuesday, March 13, Hayden was put under the knife for the first time in his life and woke with a cast up to his elbow. “They said ideally they would like to have it in a cast for six weeks,” said Hayden in a phone interview from his Owensboro, Kentucky home. “But I don’t think that’s gonna work. I’m going back in two weeks to get it checked out and see how it’s doing. I’ll know more then.”

Hayden believes that he will be healed and strong enough for the next AMA Superbike round, scheduled for Sears Point Raceway in Sonoma, California on May 4-6.

The Harley-Davidson VR1000 project is better positioned for success than ever, executives inside the company say.

For years, the VR1000 project was simply contracted out to Gemini and existed as a line item on the marketing department’s budget with no real Motor Company support other than funding.

Now, the project has been integrated into Harley-Davidson with about a dozen engineers working on the VR1000 in one way or another, with enough senior executives involved that the project has representation on several executive committees within the company.

All of which means that more people inside the firm have a vested interest in keeping the project alive and seeing it succeed.

At least one of those senior executives was heartened by what he saw in the Daytona 200, where Mike Smith finished seventh and Pascal Piccotte ran well until his bike suffered a component failure. The executive described the results as being very good for a conservative effort with what amounts, in his view, to an all-new team.

And until encountering a problem with a slipping clutch, Jordan Szoke had the Austin/Bleu Bayou/Bell County Harley-Davidson VR1000 running with the works bike, a new development after what used to be just known as the Bell County team struggled for years with VR1000s that usually wouldn’t finish a practice session, let alone run well in a race.

The departure of Steve Scheibe, who resigned after heading the VR1000 project since its inception, shouldn’t be seen as good or bad, an executive with Harley-Davidson said. Instead, it should be seen as a change. Scheibe wasn’t fired or forced out, the executive added, but resigned after being effectively moved from being personally in charge to reporting to a new boss, John Baker.

All is not well within the team, however, with many crew members fearful for their jobs and afraid to talk to anybody about what is going on within the VR1000 program. Still, more information is leaking out of the VR team than did during Scheibe’s tenure in charge, during which, one Harley-Davidson executive said, the program was like “a black hole.”

During that time, Scheibe personally doled out information to journalists and magazines that he thought would put a positive spin on the floundering-in-terms-of-results program, and did not return phone calls or answer requests for information from journalists likely to ask hard questions.

Yoshimura Japan Co. Ltd. is developing a range of racing parts for the Suzuki GSX-R1000.

According to Keiko Oshimi of Yoshimura Japan, the company has already developed camshafts, a stainless-steel racing exhaust system and an ECU, and is working on a piston kit, valve spring retainers, head gaskets, a close-ratio transmission, an oil sump to go with the racing exhaust system, a 24-liter aluminum-alloy fuel tank and various ignition components.

Chassis parts being developed include a rear link and front fork inner cartridges.

“We do not know which parts will be available for sale and when and some products are used only for Yoshimura team,” wrote Oshimi in an e-mail written to Yoshimura customer Nigel Murison of South Africa. Murison posted the e-mail on gixxer.com.

Erv Kanemoto’s Bridgestone tire development team is testing at Catalunya, Spain today, March 16, the middle day of a three-day session.

Riders Shinichi Itoh and Nobuatsu Aoki are hard at it in Bridgestone’s drive to build competitive tires in time for the 2002 Grand Prix season. The team tested at Jerez February 11-13 and has many more tests already scheduled throughout Europe.

Itoh and Aoki are testing the tires NSR500 Honda V-4 two-strokes, but the goal is to develop tires suitable for use on 990cc four-stroke Grand Prix racebikes, which will be allowed in what is now the 500cc Grand Prix World Championship starting next year. Honda has built and is testing a V-5 for the series, while Yamaha has built and is testing an Inline Four.

Palm Valley Racing, Inc. announced March 15 that construction has begun on the new North Florida Motorsports Park. Located 20 minutes from the intersection of I-10 and I-75 in north-central Florida, the new 2.0-mile, nine-turn road course was designed by former racer, racing school owner, racing official, and racetrack designer Ed Bargy with motorcycle club racing in mind. The 36-foot-wide track will feature virtually no elevation changes, with flat or minimally-banked corners and large run-off areas free of obstacles, and can be run in either direction.

One of the signature features of the new facility will be large, old-growth oak trees in the paddock to provide shade, and on-site camping will be allowed.

Palm Valley Racing, Inc. is owned by Borge Larsen, who is President of the corporation. The project is being financed by Larsen, a businessman and motorcycle enthusiast.

Palm Valley Racing Vice President Julian Poczatek says that the track, although primarily designed for use by club racers and amateur organizations, would be open to hosting a National event.

The target date for completion of the track is July 4, 2001, but Poczatek admits that date may be a little ambitious. When the track is completed, Poczatek plans to hold an open house for racing officials, riding school organizers and representatives of the media. Plans also call for the establishment of a website with ongoing updates on construction.

North Florida Motorsports Park is located near Jennings, Florida, just off I-75 Exit 87, 100 miles West of Jacksonville and 90 miles East of Tallahassee.

For more information, contact Julian Poczatek at (904) 707-1737 or (904) 781-5814.

The oldest motorcycle road race in the world–the Isle of Man TT–is in danger of being postponed, or possibly canceled, due to an outbreak of Foot And Mouth Disease (aka Hoof And Mouth Disease)in the United Kingdom. According to British news reports, the Isle Of Man has been unaffected so far by the livestock epidemic that is crippling Great Britain’s international trade, and some Isle of Man officials want to keep things that way by postponing or canceling the 2001 TT.

Although island officials have already refused delivery of a shipment of 5000 haybales from England for use on the TT mountain course, no official word of cancellation or postponement has been issued by the Manx government. The 95th Isle of Man TT is still scheduled to take place May 26 through June 8 despite an ongoing disagreement between Minister of Tourism and Leisure David Cretney and Minister of Agriculture Alex Downie. Cretney wants to monitor the situation daily until the middle of April before making any decision on cancelling or postponing the TT. Downie wants the races postponed now to protect the island’s agricultural business, which is second only to tourism in impact on the Isle’s economy. Downie has asked Cretney to develop contingency plans to postpone the races but has also publicly acknowledged threats from Isle of Man farmers to block roads with their equipment if the races are held.

Other than in time of war, the Isle of Man TT races have only been postponed once before. That postponement was in 1966 during a national seaman’s strike, which disrupted transportation to and from the island.

Foot and Mouth disease is a highly contagious viral disease affecting animals including cattle, pigs, goats, sheep, buffaloes and deer. The disease is not usually lethal to adult animals, but is deadly to younger animals.The United States and Canada have banned agricultural products coming from the entire European Union, and authorities in England have ordered that 300,000 animals be killed, burned and buried, and the movement of animals in or from affected areas has also been banned.

Foot and Mouth disease is very contagious and is spread by contact and through the air, and the virus can be carried by wind and infect animals miles away from its original source. The virus can also survive in fresh, frozen and cured meats and in non-pasteurized dairy products. The good news is that the disease has only a mild effect on humans.

The only way to control the disease is through quarantine and by killing and burning animals that have been infected or have been in contact with infected animals, followed by cleaning and disinfecting the premises.

Indicating just how seriously the United Kingdom is taking the Foot and Mouth disease problem, the Auto-Cycle Union (ACU) in England (which puts on the Isle of Man TT races) has canceled all off-road motorcycle riding events, Scotland has placed its most famous sheep – Dolly the cloned sheep – in special quarantine, and Ireland has canceled the largest St. Patrick’s Day parade. The opening rounds of the Irish road racing season have also been postponed.

Meanwhile, U.S. authorities are requiring that travelers who have been on farms in affected areas overseas disinfect their footware upon arrival at U.S. airports. At some airports travelers are required to wipe their shoes with an alcohol and water solution, while a bleach-and-water spray is being used at other airports.

A racer and eyewitness says that a critical delay in deploying the pace car set off the incident that resulted in the Daytona 200 being red-flagged. And, over the two weekends of Formula USA and AMA racing at Daytona, race control, cornerworker deployment and decision-making were seriously flawed with resulting delays causing needless crashes, says racer Chris Norman, who himself suffered a broken arm in one incident.

“I was sitting in the infield at the exit of the dogleg (during the Daytona 200),” said Norman, of Antioch, Tennessee. “Anyway, the crash that started everything was Mike Ciccotto highsiding coming out of the west horseshoe. It was a pretty ugly crash and Mike didn’t move for almost a minute. Mike’s a pretty fast guy so he wasn’t too far behind the leaders that early in the race. I was wondering if they were going to bring out the pace car to help him out.

“About the time (leader Mat) Mladin came (back) into the infield Mike started to sit up. When Mladin had already passed and the big pack for second was coming through, Mike was getting to his feet. At the angle I was at, I could see Mike in the horseshoe and Mladin on the banking at the same time. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the pace car take off. I said to my brother, ‘What the hell are they doing bringing the pace car out now, he’s already up and they didn’t even wave the pace car flag.’

“Only then did I notice that the cornerworker at the entrance to the west horseshoe was in fact waving a faded-looking orange flag. It was hard for me to see and I was just standing there. I’m not sure if the cornerworker in the left-hander heading onto the banking was waving the pace car flag when the big pack of riders came through—it would have been close. I’m almost positive it wasn’t out when they were coming into the west horseshoe. But they were racing so hard I’m not surprised they didn’t see it.

“It seemed to me that the powers to be thought about bringing out the pace car for a good minute-and-a-half and then they decided to hurry up and throw it to get in front of the leader since he’s almost at the pace car spot. Basically they had over a minute to throw the flag and didn’t until Mike was on his feet. I personally think that was a bad decision. And that’s what caused the pile-up with (Jamie) Hacking and (Aaron) Yates which ultimately led to the (Scott) Russell crash.

“Of course, I already had a bad attitude concerning decision-making after I crashed in the Formula USA Unlimited Superbike race in the rain. I highsided coming out of the chicane. I’m not sure how many people crashed there but it was a lot. Like more than a dozen. The officials then shut down the racetrack and told everybody there was some slippery spot on the track and they couldn’t fix it. As far as I know I was just the second person to crash there. But after the third or so, don’t you think there’s a problem that should be checked out?

“And I sat in turn one for the AMA 600 Supersport race and saw Roger Lee (Hayden) blow a motor and had to watch crash after crash after crash after crash after crash. I think there were five. But that was about three too many. They had to know they had a problem there—everybody in the stands knew.

“I’m not trying to start any war. I’m just relaying my experience at Daytona. And I feel there were a lot of people hurt and a lot of machines destroyed because of some bad decisions made by people other than riders.

“I feel I’ve earned my right to bitch since my brand-new GSX-R is all tore up and I’m trying to type with a broken arm. But hey, that’s racing. I’ll see you guys in five weeks.”

Norman’s statement was originally posted on wera.com and is reproduced here with his permission.