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.

Lockhart-Phillips today laid off Motorsports Manager Morgan Broadhead and discontinued its at-track race support and product sales program. Broadhead, who has worked for the company for two years, was in charge of the company’s at-track sales as well as its popular Team Privateer program, which offered varying levels of sponsorship support to over 900 racers in the U.S., Canada, Mexico and Australia. Lockhart-Phillips will no longer sell products at races, according to Broadhead. Broadhead can be contacted at (949)500-8695. “We will still be running the privateer program but we’re changing it internally,” said Lockhart-Phillips President Wendall Phillips. “I still haven’t finalized it. That’s really all we can say at this point. The privateer program will be maintained. We’ve been running the privateer program since 1986 and it has evolved into a program that really expanded the support of privateers across the country and that will continue. They can call into customer service and place orders and get feedback. I won’t have any other news for probably about two weeks.” Lockhart-Phillips U.S.A. is located at 151 Calle Iglesia, San Clemente, CA 92672, (949) 498-9090.

Additional dyno tests done at the request of readers and Yamaha owners alarmed by an almost-20-horsepower spread between Roadracing World’s 2001 Yamaha YZF-R1 test bike and Roadracing World’s 2001 Suzuki GSX-R1000 test bike did not reduce the power gap. Substituting one YZF-R1 for another and redoing the tests on the White Brothers Model 200 Dynojet dyno in Yorba Linda, California on Friday, January 12 resulted in the same spread, with almost identical horsepower figures to those seen in the first set of dyno runs. Running both bikes on North County Hyper Sports’ Model 150 Dynojet dyno in Oceanside, California on Saturday, January 13 increased the readings for each bike by about six horsepower, but did not close the power gap. On the Hyper Sports dyno, the Yamaha made about 130 horsepower and the Suzuki made about 150 horsepower.

Alice King, a former racer, is the new Press Relations Manager for Ducati North America. King, 36, owns three racebikes and last raced two years ago with LRRS, primarily riding FZR400 Yamahas with a Junior classification. (LRRS is unique among U.S. sanctioning bodies in that it currently has an intermediate rider ranking between Amateur–or Novice–and Expert.) King takes over press duties formerly handled by Gary Schmidt, who had been doing double-duty by handling press relations and advertising for the New Jersey-based company. Schmidt is now concentrating on advertising for Ducati North America.

New Zealand Open and 600cc Sports Production Champion Tony Rees is looking for a ride in the United States, according to Jonathan Bentman, Editor of Kiwi Motorcycle Rider magazine. Rees, 33, has dominated Sports Production-class racing in New Zealand since 1996, and last season finished third in the Australian Formula Xtreme Championship, rode for the Phase One team in the Endurance World Championship Series and qualified on pole for the Eastern Creek (Australia) 6-Hour, Bentman reports. Interested teams can contact Rees through Bentman at 011-64-9-416-5307, FAX 011-64-9-416-5308.

Derek MacKelvie King’s ride with GP Tech Yamaha for 2001 has fallen apart, and King is looking for another ride. “It was just some internal disagreements,” said King, who finished second in the 2000 Aprilia Cup Challenge Series and won an AMA 250cc Grand Prix race at Loudon in 1999. “We couldn’t come to contract agreements and just went ahead with Chuck Sorensen for the year and more than likely we’re gonna have Simon Turner riding also,” said GP Tech Yamaha Team Owner Geoff Maloney when asked about King. Maloney had earlier issued a press release announcing that the team would run King along with 1999 and 2000 AMA 250cc Grand Prix Champion Sorensen. Turner, 31, finished sixth in the 1998 British 250cc Series and had four podium finishes in the 2000 Irish Stock Sport Series, as well as winning an international Superbike race at Mondello Park. Turner also has experience riding a Honda NSR500V, and sampled racing in the Southeastern U.S. in 1999 while riding under the Irish Bike magazine banner.

GPRA 125cc Grand Prix Champion Vicky Jackson-Bell will campaign an Aprilia RS250 and a Honda RS125 in the 2001 Formula USA Series, competing in the Aprilia Cup Challenge and GPRA 125cc Grand Prix classes with sponsorship from Cruise America. Vicky Jackson-Bell, 36, of San Juan Capistrano, California, won the GPRA 125cc Grand Prix Championship in 2000, won the 1998 WSMC 125cc Grand Prix Championship, finished second in the 1998 AMA 125cc GP Exhibition Series and finished second in the 1996 and 1997 NASB 125cc Grand Prix Series. Bell’s husband and tuner, Tony Bell, is a partner in Spectrum Motorsports, a new Honda and Aprilia dealership located in Lake Forest, California.