Noted Japanese tuner Mamoru Moriwaki plans to build a four-stroke racebike to compete in the Grand Prix World Championship in 2002. Moriwaki, who made his name building innovative complete chassis powered by both Superbike and 500cc GP engines starting in the late 1970s, has not decided which brand of engine to use in his racebike, according to his daughter, Midori, who handles export markets and manages the race team for Moriwaki Engineering. Moriwaki Engineering’s primary business is manufacturing aftermarket exhaust systems and camshafts. Mamoru Moriwaki’s son, Shogo, raced a Honda RS125 last year and will compete in the 600cc Superstock class of the All Japan Championship series on a Honda CBR600F4. Moriwaki was a key figure in the development of 500cc World Champion Wayne Gardner’s early career, which saw Gardner racing Moriwaki Kawasaki Superbikes in Europe and in Japan.

Attack Performance Racing owner Richard Stanboli says an AMA ruling on what constitutes a legal Formula Xtreme bike is vague and confusing, and allows the type of subjective enforcement that is typical of AMA Pro Racing. A new rule for 2001 requires that at least 50 percent of the frame of an eligible machine be used, but the rule doesn’t define how “50 percent” is measured. “I asked for clarification on the new rule,” Stanboli told Roadracing World. “Is that volume, mass, weight, length, surface area? They didn’t really clarify it as much as I would’ve liked.” Instead, Stanboli said, AMA officials told him that the Yamaha YZF-R1/R7 hybrid he built for the 2000 season and is now trying to sell would be legal even though Stanboli admits that it has nowhere near 50 percent of the original YZF-R1 frame by any possible definition. According to Stanboli, the AMA men said that they just needed to see 50 percent of the original frame to determine that it is from the original, eligible motorcycle. “This class was designed to be an unlimited class with unlimited modifications,” said Stanboli. “It’s based around the fact that you could run a big engine in a small chassis like the old 7/11 Suzukis. We went after that class with the same intention. Now they’ve muddied up the water even more. “Now that all of the major motorcycle manufacturers have 1000-based motorcycles that are competitive, the AMA can go one of two ways. They can say screw it and say that they all have to be 1000-spec motorcycles and have Superbike-type frame rules that say that you can add bracing but can’t remove. Or they can say, I don’t care if you build a prototype chassis as long as the engine comes out of a bike that is a legitimate streetbike. But they just said that they need to see 50 percent, which makes it real subjective. Either the rules are made to give those guys a lot of discretion, or they didn’t think it through.”

AMA Pro Racing officials have a history of making rule changes without timely notification of racers prior to the rule change taking effect, either without considering–or simply ignoring–the impact on all competitors, an AMA racer has charged. In an e-mail sent to AMA Pro Racing National Tech Manager Rob King and copied to Roadracing World, racer Dr. Michael Dube, MD, wrote “I raced several rounds of Pro Thunder in its inaugural season in 1998, on a 750cc Honda Hawk, and was looking to step up to a more competitive bike for 1999. I began work on an 850cc SuperHawk project just before the rule change to allow Ducati 748s was announced. I complained to you at the time that it would result in 748s dominating the class, and suggested several things, including limiting them to 750cc. Unfortunately, my 850cc SuperHawk proved uncompetitive in PT in 1999. Again at the end of the 1999 season, I made some suggestions regarding displacement (limiting the 748s or increasing the limits on non-desmo Twins). “When it became apparent that these suggestions were not going to be taken, I made the jump to an 800cc Ducati for 2000. I had more success, with my personal season highlight a fifth place at Willow Springs. Just before Willow, I had a second 800cc motor built, as a spare and looking forward to Daytona. “I think you can imagine my disappointment upon hearing the recent announcement that desmo Twins would be limited to 750cc for 2001. This will not, as you suggest, reduce costs. It will cost no less to take a stock 748 and build a full race motor under the new rules than it would to build an 800; in fact it might very well cost more as racers attempt to match the output of an 800cc motor. It will also be very costly for me (and others) to downsize an 800. I estimate at least $4000 per motor to downsize my two fresh, Daytona-ready 800s. “As soon as the 2001 schedule was announced this past fall, I began arranging my work, vacation and on-call schedule to accommodate racing at five rounds: Daytona, Road Atlanta, Road America, Mid-Ohio and Virginia. I sat down to complete my Daytona entry and noted that there were now no PT rounds scheduled at three of those five events. “It is neither feasible nor rational for me to invest the money required to downsize these 800cc motors to participate in just two AMA rounds in 2001. All of my racebike investments towards the end of 2000 were geared towards continuing (with) the same equipment in 2001. It does not appear possible for me to compete in the AMA again in 2001 under the current rules and schedule, which was to be my final year of racing at the National level at age 42. “To say I am angry is an understatement. If there is any chance that you will consider rational arguments as to why these changes should be reversed, I will be happy to share them with you,” concluded Dube. But while the AMA Pro Racing Board of Directors recently reversed a ban on quick-lifts during Superbike races on the grounds that teams had already prepared such equipment for the 2001 season prior to learning of the rule change, insiders say there is little chance that the displacement change in Pro Thunder will be reversed to accommodate racers such as Dube–simply because he is not affiliated with a factory Superbike team. And despite several Pro Racing Directors saying they are considering a new rule-making system requiring advance notice and an opportunity for affected riders and teams to comment prior to a rule taking effect, insiders say that AMA Pro Racing staffers strongly object to allowing riders to comment in advance and claim that all the required input can be had from the Road Racing Advisory Board. Critics point out that the Road Racing Advisory Board is hand-picked by AMA Pro racing staffers and is non-representative of the paddock at large, with several groups of what AMA Pro Racing likes to call “stakeholders” being ignored in favor of members affiliated with factory Superbike teams.

Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

Jeff Nash’s Advanced Motor Sports (AMS) has moved into larger quarters.

The Ducati tuning shop’s new address is:
11550 East Farm Road 917
Alvarado, TX 76009

Phone (817) 790-0200
FAX (817) 783-8883

Nash won the 2000 AMA Pro Thunder Championship, on a Ducati 748.

  By Mat Oxley

Honda officials have announced the configuration of their powerplant for the new 1000cc four-stroke GP series in 2002. During a year-ending event at Honda headquarters in Tokyo, President Hiroyuki Yoshino revealed that HRC engineers are building a V-5 engine. The new technical regulations–introduced to return four-strokes to GPs and thus bring the premier bike series into line with road bike sales–come into effect a year from now and will see 1000cc four-strokes racing alongside the 500cc two-strokes that have dominated Grand Prix racing for so long.

The Honda men wouldn’t reveal any further details about their latest Grand Prix racer, though they had earlier explained that four cylinders are too few and six too many under the new tech regulations, which allow a maximum of six cylinders and use different weight limits to handicap bikes according to the number of cylinders. Honda engineers believe a five-cylinder engine to be the best configuration to produce an ideal power-to-weight compromise.

Experts suggest that these new four-stroke engines will produce in excess of 200 bhp, around 10 bhp more than the current two-stroke V-4s. It’s believed the Honda V-5 engine is already running, since Honda engineers are expected to start testing the new machine any moment now.

The effective date of a new AMA rule banning the use of hydraulic, pneumatic and electric quick-lift devices in pit stops during AMA Pro Superbike races has been postponed until 2002. In a December 29 e-mail responding to a question from Roadracing World, AMA Road Race Manager Ron Barrick wrote “The Pro Racing Board decided that the implementation of the rule regarding powered stands be delayed until the 2002 season due to the fact that some teams had started preparing equipment for 2001 with the 2000 rule in mind.” No word if the same reasoning will be applied to the recent rule change limiting Pro Thunder displacement to 750cc instead of 800cc, a rule which was announced–without prior warning or notification–after several riders had already paid to have new 800cc Ducati 748 engines built for the 2001 season. Jeff Nash, the 2000 AMA Pro Thunder Champion, had already built 800cc engines for four customers when the new displacement limit was announced and says changing the engines back to 750cc will cost the customers about $3000 per engine in parts and labor. Nash pointed out that the Pro Thunder class has no representation on the AMA Pro Racing Advisory Board and that riders and teams in general have no opportunity to comment on or object to new rules prior to their announcement. The reversal of the powered-lift rule apparently came about because members of the AMA Pro Racing Board of Directors listened to complaints from factory Superbike teams.