The back-straight crest at Road Atlanta has been lowered and smoothed out to decrease the chances of cars losing downforce and flipping over backwards. The crest was formed during construction of the track in 1970, when crews encountered a rock formation and paved over it instead of removing it, due to time considerations and an approaching Can-Am car race. During the years at least four race cars have flipped over backwards at the top of the crest. Work to smooth the crest began at Road Atlanta the week before Christmas and was completed early in January. The crest is now about 4 feet lower and the transition from the crest to the rest of the straightaway is smoother.

A January 17 public hearing held in Charles Town, West Virginia over planned expansion and proposed limits on racetrack operations at Summit Point Raceway was cut short when it was announced that the racetrack and its opponents had reached a compromise agreement. Details of the agreement were not revealed although a spokesman said that the track has agreed to certain restrictions on hours of operation and sound levels, which will be revealed after the deal is finalized and signed. Opponents had originally demanded a strict curfew and a 65 dBa noise limit on racetrack activities, including a ban on anything happening on track before noon on Sundays. (For reference, most tracks with noise rules limit racing vehicles to between 102 and 105 dBa). The track had been seeking permission to expand by building a new 2.0-mile road course in addition to the existing main racetrack and adjacent Jefferson circuit, which is mostly used for schools and track days. The main course is heavily booked for driver training programs catering to police and federal agencies. Meanwhile, opponents of a proposed new racetrack in Lake Elsinore, California are continuing to wage a vicious smear campaign based on disinformation and scare tactics, including claims that allowing the complex to be built will cause nearby property values to plummet, produce catastrophic pollution levels, attract drunken race fans who will clog city streets and run down citizens, and generate extreme noise that will be heard 15-20 miles in every direction. Opponents also claim that the track will not be financially viable and cannot possible attract enough business to stay afloat. Anyone interested in seeing the new facility be built–especially anyone who would be interested in renting the track for testing or would be interested in locating in an adjacent industrial complex–can help by writing or calling Lake Elsinore City Hall prior to January 25. Reality-based comments related to personal experience with racetracks, racing, race fans, and property values near major projects would be helpful. Estimates by team or business owners of how many rental days they might use the track in a given year would also help. Contact City of Lake Elsinore, 130 South Main Street, Lake Elsinore, CA 92530, phone (909) 674-3124, extension 5 for the City Manager or extension 4 for the City Clerk.

Current AMA Chairman Rick Gray has been re-elected and former AHRMA Executive Director Jeff Smith elected to the AMA Board of Trustees, representing the AMA North Eastern Region and North Central Regions, respectively. Smith is a former 500cc Motocross World Champion. Despite Gray being an incumbent, both men took reform positions in statements they provided to Roadracing World and which were published in the December 2000 issue. Gray ran against road racer Jerry Wood, who also ran a campaign based on reform of the organization.

World Sports will field Jimmy Filice in the 2001 AMA 250cc Grand Prix Series with backing from Mike Corbin, a manufacturer of custom motorcycle seats and electric vehicles. The official team name will be Team Corbin Racing. World Sports owner James Siddall, himself a former racer, will manage the effort and has signed Ed Toomey as race engineer and Mike Montoya Sr. as mechanic. The combination of Filice and Toomey won the AMA 250cc Grand Prix Championship in 1991 and 1993. Filice has won 23 AMA 250cc Grand Prix races as well as winning one 250cc World Championship Grand Prix race at Laguna Seca and winning a Ducados Open 250cc race at Jerez. He has also won four AMA Grand National dirt track races. World Sports won the AMA 250cc Grand Prix Championship with rider Chuck Sorensen in 1999 and 2000. Sorensen is now riding for GP Tech Yamaha in the AMA series.

Representatives of the U.S. motorcycle press have gathered in Homestead, Florida to ride the latest versions of the Aprilia RSV Mille and RSV Mille R on Tuesday, January 16. After a technical briefing, four riding sessions are scheduled for the morning and four for the afternoon at Miami-Dade International Speedway. Press representatives attending the new model intro hosted by Aprilia USA include John Burns, Don Canet, Kent Kunitsugu, Paul Carruthers, Leo Venega and Chris Ulrich. Canet, Kunitsugu, Venega and Ulrich are licensed racers. Conditions in the Homestead area were 80 degrees F and sunny when the journalists arrived.

An anti-track group has proposed severe limits on operations at Summit Point Raceway and will challenge plans to expand the track during a Jefferson County Planning Commission hearing in Charles Town, West Virginia tonight. The anti-track group, Citizens Against Raceway Expansion (CARE) wants operations at Summit Point Raceway limited to between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. on weekdays and Saturdays and to between noon and 5:00 p.m. on Sundays, with a dB(a) limit of 65. Racetrack supporters can attend the meeting, which is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. at 108 E. Washington St. in Charles Town. More information is available from Don Caldwell at (301) 384-3455, e-mail [email protected] or from Roger Lyle at (301) 933-2599.

Tul-Aris 780 builder Rob Tuluie increased power output and reduced vibration in a series of dyno tests held over the weekend. According to Tuluie, fitting 2mm larger carburetors (from 39mm to 41mm) and refining the jetting on the Lofgren Racing/Manley Cycle Dynojet dyno in Minneapolis produced 152 horsepower and 96 lbs.-ft. of torque from the 309-pound machine (weighed full of fuel). The machine made 143.8 horsepower and 92.4 lbs.-ft. of torque on the White Brothers Dynojet dyno during testing for the February 2001 issue of Roadracing World. Tuluie also reduced handlebar vibration by a factor of three, testing handlebars of varying designs and materials and fitting accelerometers on the handlebars and triple clamps to collect data during dyno runs. Tuluie plans more testing to further reduce handlebar vibration, which was so severe during on-track testing of the Tularis that Tuluie and rider Mike Ciccotto decided not to race the machine until vibration could be better controlled.

Reports out of Japan today (January 15 U.S. time, January 16 Japan time) indicate that both Yamaha and Honda are already testing four-stroke GP bikes in preparation for the 2002 racing season, when 990cc four-strokes will compete with 500cc two-strokes in the Grand Prix World Championship. While a two-stroke Yamaha YZR500 makes about 190 horsepower, the new four-stroke Yamaha already makes over 230 horsepower and has a 10 kph (6.2 mph) advantage in top speed on Yamaha’s private test course, according to racing sources in Iwata, Japan. The four-stroke’s lap times have not yet equaled those of the YZR500. The new Yamaha is thought to be a V3, although the sources would not admit to the engine configuration. If it is a V3 with round pistons, it would have to race with a minimum weight of 135 kilograms, or 5 kilograms more than the minimum weight for a YZR500 in 2002. A V3 with oval pistons will have to meet a minimum weight of 145 kilograms. Meanwhile, Honda has been testing both V5 and V3 four-stroke racebikes in Japan and plans to announce the configuration it will use in 2002 at a press conference to be held January 29. Competing engineering teams built the machines, an approach used before by Honda to determine the best configuration for a given application. Honda and Yamaha’s initial testing contributed to Bridgestone’s decision to enter the Grand Prix World Championship in 2002. Initial tests have shown both companies’ new four-strokes to be very hard on existing tires made by Dunlop and Michelin. Bridgestone recently contracted Erv Kanemoto’s Kanemoto Racing to test tires on a Honda NSR500 during 2001, in preparation for the 2002 racing season, although no official announcement has been made yet.