Dr. Rob Tuluie’s Tul-Aris racebike will be on display in the Manley Cycle/Lofgren Racing Booth during the January 26-28 Advanstar Cycle World Motorcycle Show, at the Minneapolis Convention Center. The Tul-Aris was featured in the February, 2001 issue of Roadracing World. Ducati stars Larry Pegram and Doug Polen will sign autographs at the Ducati display at the show. Pegram rides for the Competition Accessories Ducati team, and Polen won the 1991 and 1992 Superbike World Championships on a Ducati. Ducati North America is giving away copies of the new Acclaim video game, Ducati World Racing Challenge, in a drawing held on Friday night at each Advanstar Cycle World Motorcycle Show. Ducati is also giving away a limited edition Ducati backpack made by Ogio, and a Suomy Ben Bostrom replica helmet, in drawings held on Saturday night and Sunday night, respectively at each show. The video game retails for $49.95, the backpack for $72 and the helmet for $399.

Racer Bill St. John has announced plans to concentrate on the WERA National Challenge Series instead of the AMA Pro Thunder Series in 2001. St. John finished fourth in the 1999 AMA Pro Thunder Championship and ninth in the 2000 Championship, and finished third in the Pro Thunder race at Mid-Ohio in 2000. St. John will compete in the WERA Heavyweight Twins class on a BCM Ducati 748 and in the WERA Lightweight Twins class on a Cycle Specialties of Athens Ducati 750SS. St. John said that his decision was influenced by new AMA rules limiting Pro Thunder bikes to 750cc and a 380-pound minimum weight, and by the news that the AMA plans to eliminate the Pro Thunder class from Pro Racing weekends entirely in the future. “It seems to me that the fastest bikes in the class were already 750cc and were already 380 pounds,” said St. John of the AMA Pro Thunder situation. “For the other guys, this is just going to make it harder for them to keep up. My bike was an 800 and was a little less than 380. The 748RS was already faster than we could be at 800cc. And the weight thing is bad because now you really have to have that bike (a Ducati 748RS)to compete. It’s not like (Mark) Ledesma is going to be able to go in there with a lighter (SV650) bike to compete.”

AMA Road Race Advisory Board Member and AMA 250cc Grand Prix racer Ed Sorbo has told Roadracing World that dissatisfaction with recent actions taken by the AMA Pro Racing Board of Directors permeates AMA Pro Racing, from the top down. Sorbo said that in his duties as an Advisory Board member he has personally heard AMA Director of Professional Competition Merrill Vanderslice and Road Race Manager Ron Barrick complain that the Pro Racing Directors thwart their efforts to properly manage AMA road racing, will not allow them to do the jobs they were hired to do and don’t know anything about the realities of racing. “The AMA is by far the best organization to race with and they do so many things so well it’s impressive,” elaborated Sorbo. “And that makes the stupid stuff they do seem even more frustrating. And furthermore, I know a lot of people who work for the AMA personally and they are wonderful people and I respect them immensely. But they are directed by these people hiding in the ivory towers, and it is incomprehensible how they come up with stuff up there.” By “these people hiding in the ivory towers,” Sorbo was referring to AMA Pro Racing Directors. AMA Pro Racing officials have recently complained that the Board of Directors needlessly blocked implementation of several important new rules and delayed implementation of new displacement and weight rules for the Pro Thunder class. As a result, the officials say, they have unfairly come under attack from irate racers negatively affected by the late announcement of new rules. Vanderslice and Barrick have declined to comment on the record regarding actions taken by the Pro Racing Board of Directors. In a puzzling development, Sorbo also revealed that riders who pre-enter for the entire 2001 AMA road race season will receive a mechanic’s pass free of charge under a new, unannounced AMA Pro Racing policy. Observers say they can’t figure out why the AMA would want to keep what is likely to be an extremely popular new policy secret instead of announcing it to AMA racers. The AMA Pro Racing Board of Directors includes Paul Dean of Cycle World magazine; attorney Rick Gray; P.J. Harvey of PJ1 oil; Mark Tuttle, recently retired from Harley-Davidson; attorney Cary Agajanian; and Ray Blank of American Honda Motor Co.

Racer Vaclav “Vincent” Haskovec has revealed that he tested Pirelli tires January 14 at Buttonwillow Raceway in Buttonwillow, California for Blackmans Cycles Racing, prior to bailing out of his deal with the Blackmans team. Haskovec did his testing on a Yamaha YZF-R6, comparing the latest Pirelli tires against comparable Dunlops. “I went as fast as I could on the Dunlops, then I put on the Pirellis and went one second faster,” Haskovec said of his test session. “Pirelli is fantastic tire. I came to Willow Springs and told Dunlop, ‘You must do something, because Pirelli is better. Pirelli has found something.'” Haskovec had agreed to ride an Aprilia RSV Mille R for the Blackmans team in the Formula USA Series but bailed out on the deal before signing a contract. Haskovec believes he is riding for an AMA Pro Supersport team sponsored by Corona beer and American Suzuki Motor Corp. and organized by Landers Sevier, but Haskovec has not seen or signed any paperwork on the deal. Suzuki officials have refused to comment other than to say that no deal has been finalized.

SFX Motor Sports Group announced the return of Doug Gonda to Formula USA with a January 25 press release headlined “SFX appoints Doug Gonda to Formula USA expansion efforts.” The release read, “Douglas Gonda has been retained by SFX Motor Sports to manage race track business development for road racing properties. Mr. Gonda will be responsible for all track negotiations and race scheduling for both SFX Motor Sports’ Championship Cup Series (CCS) and the Formula USA National Road Race Series. “Mr. Gonda has extensive experience in the business of motorcycle road racing over a period of nearly two decades. Aside from his background as an event organizer and promoter, Mr. Gonda has worked as consultant and business partner with AMA, CCS and WERA. Mr. Gonda was the founder of the National Championship Formula USA Series. The Formula USA Series was acquired by SFX from Mr. Gonda in 1999.” The release went on to quote SFX Motor Sports Group Senior Director of Marketing, Motorcycles, Dan Krolczyk as saying “Doug has been an important piece of the history of Formula USA road racing and of the new SFX Motor Sports road racing properties. We’re happy to keep Doug involved in the expansion of road racing.” According to the release, SFX Motor Sports has 92 motorcycle road racing events scheduled across the nation in 2001, 31 operated through affiliate organizations and 61 produced and promoted directly by SFX Motor Sports.

According to former racer Dennis Smith of Sport Tire Services, Dunlop’s grid fitment at the January 20-21, 2001 WSMC race shot up to a record 71 percent, up from 54 percent at the same race last year. Smith said that his sales at the track set a new record for his company at a WSMC club event, by a margin of 33 percent. Smith’s sales were helped by the fact that there was no Michelin sales and service operation at the event. Graves Race Tire Service did not renew its contract with Michelin, bailing out of the deal at the end of 2000. No new Michelin representative has been named yet, although Michelin North America officials are thought to be close to finalizing a deal with three-time World Champion Freddie Spencer, who won his titles on Michelin tires. Spencer is interested in putting together a tire sales operation with racer Dale Kieffer, who has been involved in trackside tire sales for about five years.

AMA Pro Racing CEO Scott Hollingsworth told Ducati North America Marketing Manager Jim Viola that the AMA ultimately plans to eliminate the Pro Thunder class from AMA National weekends entirely and to run it at non-AMA events, according to Viola. In a January 24th phone interview with Roadracing World, Viola said that AMA officials did not discuss new restrictive rules prior to those rules being imposed on the Pro Thunder class, but did reveal that the class has no future at AMA Pro events. Describing a series of conversations he had with Hollingsworth in an unsuccessful attempt to get the Ducati 748 declared legal for the 600cc Supersport class, Viola told Roadracing World “In the last conversation we had in September or October, they told me that they wanted to keep us. That we were a strong consideration, especially our 748, when it came to racing. Then they changed the rules for the 748 and this Pro Thunder deal without telling us. Then they also said they weren’t having it at all of the events. I don’t see any benefit there for Ducati. What Scott then told me was the eventual plan was to have it (Pro Thunder) at the local level. Am I happy about that? We really enjoyed the Pro Thunder class. We seriously need to discuss this with them.” Voila said that he was caught off guard by the changes in Pro Thunder rules and venue, especially since he had already proposed sponsoring the class and spending enough money to get Pro Thunder races televised on Speedvision. The way Viola tells it, Speedvision was not interested in his proposal. Asked what Ducati North America could do to help Ducati 748 racers who face financial hardship due to the announced-at-the-last-minute rules outlawing existing 800cc engines, Viola said, “We’re not really in a position to pay for the AMA’s decision making, but we are thinking about those guys. We can’t do anything for them this year, but we are thinking of ways to help our 748 guys out.” Speedvision Productions President Dan Murphy could not be reached for comment prior to posting. AMA Pro Racing CEO Hollingsworth did not return a phone call prior to posting.

The Competition Accessories AMA Superbike team of Larry Pegram and John Kocinski is not considering switching from Dunlop to Michelin tires for the 2001 season, according to Pegram, regardless of speculation caused by the sight of a Michelin-equipped team racebike on display last weekend at Competition Accessories headquarters in Ohio. The display included two bikes, one with P1 on its number plates and the other with K2 on its number plates. The K2 bike was fitted with Michelin Pilot slicks, while the P1 bike carried worn Dunlop slicks. Both Kocinski and Pegram attended Dunlop tire tests at Daytona in December, with Kocinski setting fast time of the tests on Dunlop qualifying tires. In the past Kocinski has been an outspoken advocate of Michelin slicks and an outspoken critic of Dunlop slicks. At one point during the 2000 AMA Superbike season Kocinski flatly declared that he would not show up for the next race if he couldn’t get Michelin slicks on his Vance & Hines Ducati. Vance & Hines team owner Terry Vance quickly issued a statement that the team would continue to run Dunlops and the controversy was smoothed over, at least in public. That’s all in the past, Pegram told Roadracing World when reached on his cell phone. “He’s definitely not running Michelins,” Pegram said of his teammate Kocinski. “We’re running Dunlops, no questions asked.” Pegram added that Kocinski evidently “liked the Dunlops when we were at the Dunlop tire test.”

Michelin North America plans to dramatically cut back its popular Bib Bucks contingency program but also plans to lower retail prices on racing tires, insiders say. According to sources close to the company, Michelin plans to offer Bib Bucks to racers at AMA Pro, Formula USA and WERA National races only, paying in all classes. Bib Bucks will no longer be awarded at regional events, if the plan proceeds as it currently exists, but tires sold at regional events will cost less. Michelin’s Randy Richardson declined to comment on the reports and referred Roadracing World to Michelin spokesman Steve White, who had not responded to a voice mail message at post time.

Rick Gray and Jeff Smith, recently certified as winning re-election and election to three-year terms on the AMA Board of Trustees, each won by less than 250 votes in their respective regions. Gray, re-elected from the Northeast Region, won with 830 votes compared to 599 for Jerry Wood and 184 for Bob Coy. There were some concerns that Coy, who runs the USCRA Vintage road racing organization, would be a spoiler in the election by drawing votes cast by road racers who would have otherwise voted for Wood, an active racer and official with LRRS who ran on a reform platform. But even if Wood had received all the votes cast for Coy, Gray would have still won by 47 votes. Smith beat challenger Dale Greenwald by 245 votes, 581 to 336, to take over the seat vacated by a retired Trustee. Smith served as Executive Director of AHRMA, a Vintage racing organization, for nine years until retiring from the position recently, and is a two-time 500cc Motocross World Champion. The election was certified by the accounting firm Ernst & Young of Columbus, Ohio. Election of three more Trustees will take place later this year, representing the three southern regions of the country. Several active road racers have explored running for the board as reform candidates, including Roadracing World Editor John Ulrich. Final decisions by those racers is expected within a few months.