Former racer Allan Engel said March 19 that he is still waiting for a refund on Dymag wheels that didn’t fit his Moto Guzzi and were returned to Andrew Wright’s Superbike Racing after months of haggling.

Wright originally claimed that the wheels did fit and could not be returned because they were a special order. After a letter from Engel explaining his plight was published in Roadracing World, Wright eventually admitted that the wheels did not fit Engel’s specific U.S.-market Moto Guzzi model and agreed to take back the wheels and refund Engel’s money. But when Engel returned the wheels, Wright then refused the shipment.

Months later, according to Engel, Wright finally accepted the returned wheels. But as of March 19, Engel said he did not have his promised refund, this on an initial order placed over a year ago.

In a March 19 e-mail to Roadracing World, Engel wrote:

“Here’s the latest. About two months ago I returned the wheels and Superbike Racing accepted them. Andrew (Wright) said a refund would be forthcoming following his return from the International Motorcycle Show in Chicago. I called about a week ago whereby he tells me that following the Chicago show he had to fly to Italy and that now his accountant/money person was on holiday and when she returned they would cut me a check. He promised that he would send the check out last Friday and that he would call me that day to confirm the check was on the way. He never called–I telephoned him today but he was out. I asked that he return my call. Hitherto he has not returned my calls or sent a refund.”

Wright has consistently denied that any of Engel’s problems are his (Wright’s) fault and that publication of Engel’s claims is an unfair persecution of Superbike Racing and Wright himself. Wright has also consistently claimed that he is an honest businessman who has been victimized and misled on wheel delivery dates and, in Engel’s case, on model fitment, by U.K.-based Dymag, and that he (Wright) has been unfairly portrayed by Roadracing World. Wright has also claimed that customer complaints sent to Roadracing World are untrue or unfair, and that his (Wright’s) personal honesty and fairness is proven by the people he and Superbike Racing are associated with.

Roadracing World called Richie Morris, (involved with Scott Russell, Dean Mizdal and John Pearons in a starting-grid crash during the first restart of the Daytona 200) at Halifax Medical Center in Daytona Beach to see how he was doing.

Morris said, “I just left the doctor. We’re trying to figure out the game plan. Tomorrow we’re gonna do skin grafting. We’re talking to Dr. Ting and other doctors as to who is going to do the actual surgery once we get the skin graft done. Right now there’s not enough skin to do anything with. They’ve already performed four surgeries on my wrist. It’s a mess. They’re fighting to save it as a useable wrist. Basically right now, they’ve taken the bones that were supposed to have been in the forearm section that were down in the finger section and have got them all back in the forearm section and vice versa. And a lot of the other bones were scattered on about because they were just shattered. They’ve pretty much bundled everything together in the right places with bags of wire, plates, and pins. Tomorrow they’re just going to make sure that we have enough skin.

“That’s when they’re gonna further repair everything. They’ll get nerves lined up with the right fingers and get everything straightened to where it will work. If they can just get it me on the track on the 25th (of April), I’ll come back for more surgery if I have to.

“They think it’s a miracle that I’ve maintained movement in my fingers. So we’ve got that much going for us. All my wrist is right now after you peel the bandages off of it, there’s the external (fixator) device and just raw nerves and ligaments and a few things gathered together by wires and pins. It kind of looks like Robocop. All in all, I think we’re gonna be alright.

“I got burned pretty bad, too. Thank God for Max McAllister. If you ever write anything, say a little that-a-boy for Max. I was laying there in all the kind of pain that you are in after an incident like that. All I remember is Max saying, ‘Richie, what can I do?’ I said, ‘Number one, do not let anybody touch my left arm. It’s broken bad. Number two, get my leathers off of my private parts and get some water down there. I’ve got Nutec spilled down my pants.’ He got that handled somehow. However he did it, I don’t know how, but the pain was unbearable. The burns aren’t a major deal now, thanks to Max.

“Mike Smith just left the room. He brought the tape to my room just now, and we were watching it. It could’ve been worse. That gas could’ve ignited. Some did on Dean’s (Mizdal) bike. We watched the tape at the nurse’s station. They thought it was pretty hairy. They had never seen anything like that. I haven’t got to visit Scott (Russell) yet. He’s been in and out of ICU. We’ve just sent each other messages. I haven’t felt well enough to go down there, and he hasn’t felt well either.

“If we can have a successful surgery on my wrist, my goal right now is to still ride (Formula USA at) Willow. I’m not saying that I’m going to miss Willow yet. I don’t know what kind of shape I’ll be in, but I want to win that (Buell Lightning) points Championship for Hal’s this year. I owe it to those guys to be out there.”

Richie Morris and his wife Lisa also thanked everyone who had taken the time to call or send flowers or cards with words of encouragement.

Ducati North America Press Relations Manager Alice King was laid off Friday, March 16 after just three months in the job. “As of Friday night she’s no longer with the company,” said Ducati North America Advertising and Communications Manager Gary Schmidt on Monday, March 19. “It’s part of some internal restructuring and internal reorganization.”

Asked if that meant that King had been laid off, Schmidt said, “I don’t know how else to put it, for all intents and purposes. It had nothing to do with her performance, it has more to do with corporate reorganization.”

Asked if that meant that Ducati North America is undergoing financial difficulties or is worried about a recession, Schmidt said “It doesn’t really have anything to do with a recession or being worried about a recession or being proactive about a recession. And this has nothing to do with Alice’s performance because the fact is that she was a stellar performer, but has more to do with some decisions the company had to make and some unfortunate timing. I wish Alice could have come to us at a time when we didn’t have to make those decisions. It was just the type of corporate reorganization that companies undergo from time to time.”

Schmidt is again handling press relations for the company, a duty he held prior to former racer King being hired. Schmidt also handles advertising and product placement for Ducati.

CMRA racer Larry Locklear has been arrested and is being held by the Dallas Police Department on motorcycle theft charges. According to CMRA Board of Directors member Eric Kelcher, Locklear was arrested in Mineral Wells, Texas the week after he finished 13th in the Formula USA Sportbike race at Daytona. Locklear was found in possession of a stolen motorcycle, arrested and charged. Locklear is still being held and Dallas Police are attempting to arrest others in what they believe is a ring of motorcycle thieves and stolen-parts dealers in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Kelcher told Roadracing World on March 19 that CMRA officials do not tolerate bike thieves and will provide the VIN numbers of racebikes–collected during tech inspection–and rider information to police when asked.

In 1998, a stolen vehicle task force consisting of Dallas-Fort Worth law enforcement officials stormed Oak Hill Raceway during a CMRA event on a tip that they would find specific bike thieves and stolen motorcycles. After blocking the exit of the facility so that the VIN numbers of every motorcycle on site could be checked, police only found one confirmed-stolen bike and that machine had been ridden to the race by a spectator.

However, police impounded several machines when their riders could no prove ownership or when engine numbers did not match the VIN number. Riders went through a lengthy process to get their racebikes back, and, in one case, the machine had been left out in an open impound lot for weeks in the meantime, and suffered severe corrosion damage.

Following the event and resulting uproar, police officials began working with the Texas-based CMRA in an attempt to learn more about racebikes–including Grand Prix racebikes–which may or may not have original VIN numbers, frames or original engines.

The Dallas Police could not be reached for comment at post time.

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.