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.

AMA officials recently issued a Competition Bulletin revealing that they were going to restrict Ducati 748s to 750cc for the 2001, instead of the 800cc allowed in previous years. Jeff Nash won the 2000 AMA Pro Thunder Championship on a Ducati 748 and runs Advanced Motorsports, a shop specializing in high-performance Ducati parts and work. You would think that AMA officials would have consulted Nash before making a rule change like this, right? Wrong. Nash learned of the rule change through a AMA Pro Racing Competition Bulletin in early December, just like everyone else. The trouble is, Nash first heard of the rule change after he had built four new 800cc motors for customers who planned on racing Ducatis in the 2001 AMA Pro Thunder Series. “For them to make a rule change without consulting anybody is typical AMA,” Nash said in a phone interview from his shop on December 27. “I understand that they are trying to make the class equal (for the Buells) and all of that. Whatever we need to do to make the series more interesting, I’m all for it. I think the Pro Thunder class is one of the only classes where a privateer can go ride the AMA. It’s popular, a fun class to ride, and it’s competitive. But you have to wonder where their thoughts really lay for the future.” Although he is going to work with his future competitors, Nash’s 800cc customers are facing $3000 worth of parts and labor to get back to 748cc. “We never really found any advantage with going to 800cc in the new motor,” Nash said. “My bike was a 748. Craig’s (Connell) bike was a 748, and he had no trouble whooping everyone. That’s basically because of the new motor and its ‘shower-type injectors.’ I suggested to the AMA that they add a clause to the new rule allowing 1999 and older models be 800cc. The new 748 engine will make as much power as an old-style, 800cc motor. I know more than a couple of guys who have bought used 800cc bikes to get into the class that are now going to require more money and still put them at a disadvantage power-wise from the start.” Nash called members of the AMA Pro Racing Board of Directors to discuss his suggestions and complain about the late notice of the rule changes, and said he reached one board member who wasn’t even aware that the Pro Thunder class had been dropped from the three Superbike doubleheader rounds, another late-announcement move reducing the Pro Thunder series to eight races. “I doubt very much of anything I’ve said will be taken to heart or anything done about it,” Nash said. “I don’t think they are interested, and no matter which point of view you take, they really don’t care.” Nash suggested that in the future AMA officials should have meetings concerning future rule changes, and allow affected riders to comment well in advance of the rule taking effect.

Wrenchead.com CEO Gus Conrades said December 26 that Wrenchead.com is renewing its sponsorship of the Formula USA Series and will not abandon the series to sponsor an AMA Pro team put together by Jason Pridmore and Rich Alexander. “That is the case. We are renewing the deal,” said Conrades in a telephone interview from his office in White Plains, New York. “There were rumors that we weren’t going to renew the series sponsorship, but that’s not true. The Richie Alexander and Jason Pridmore team, that’s not true, either. We decided not to sponsor any race teams. I just couldn’t get my head around it in ’01. I couldn’t get my right value that I wanted for the race teams. We did look at a couple of proposals, and the rumor was kicking around that we weren’t going to be doing the series again. The reason is, the negotiations about how much money we were going to have to pay them (Formula USA) for the series sponsorship were going on. But it’s happening. We are doing the series again. That announcement should be coming out in the next couple of weeks.”

Aaron Gobert, the 20-year-old younger brother of Anthony Gobert, has signed a one-year contract with Team Graves Motorsport Yamaha to race in Formula Xtreme and 600cc Supersport. The deal, signed on December 22, includes a first right-of-refusal clause for a second year. “This kid is the most talented kid I’ve see since Kevin Schwantz,” said Chuck Graves of Team Graves Motorsport Yamaha. “This kid has more talent than his older brother. I took this kid out to Willow Springs with a totally stock Supersport 600, he’d never seen the racetrack before, never ridden a 600 before, never ridden on Michelin tires, and by the end of the second day he had already gone 1:23.11. Some of the stuff that I saw him do in the Formula One race proved to me that not only could he do good lap times, but that he could race. And that’s a really important part. You see a lot of guys who can cut good lap times, but only a handful of guys who are real racers. I’m just really exited to have the kid on my team.” Gobert joins fellow Aussie Damon Buckmaster on the Graves Yamaha team. Graves also officially announced that his team has signed a three-year tire use and endorsement contract with Dunlop.

The telemetry system tested on Jamie Hacking’s Yoshimura Suzuki GSX-R750 Superbike during tire tests at Daytona earlier this month did not communicate with a pitside computer via satellite, despite an internet website’s claim to the contrary.

The system actually sent a radio signal from a small antennae mounted on the tailsection of the motorcycle to a larger receiving antennae mounted on a light pole along pit lane at Daytona.

“I watched the thing on the computer and it was sending the data in real time, with no interruptions,” said Hacking’s Crew Chief, Chris Weidl on December 20. “But it wasn’t bouncing a signal off a satellite.”

Weidl also commented on the same website’s fictitious reports that Suzuki was experimenting with traction control, citing a “disc” and “caliper” mounted on the chain side of the rear wheel. “It’s a Hall-effect wheel speed sensor,” said Weidl. “The sensor reads a spinning metal plate.”

In photos widely posted on the internet, the “disc” is clearly positioned too close to the sprocket for a “caliper” to fit around it, and there are no brake pad marks on the “disc.” Which did not deter the website reporters from posting the news of an important technical breakthrough.

“We read this stuff on the internet and it’s just hilarious,” continued Weidl. “They just make this stuff up. We know we don’t have traction control or satellite communications. They don’t ask us because we’ll tell them the straight stuff just like I’m telling you and that’s not exciting enough for them.”

Experiments to date with traction control on motorcycles have failed because having a computerized system interrupt power in the midst of a rear-wheel slide often results in a violent highside.

LaVaughn Montgomery Daniel will campaign the Roadracing World & Motorcycle Technology project Aprilia RS250 in the 2001 Aprilia Cup Challenge Series, run at Formula USA Series events. Daniel, 29, of Chino Hills, California, won the 1999 WSMC 125cc Grand Prix Championship and finished second in the 1998 NASB 125cc Grand Prix Series, riding a Honda RS125. Daniel was also the first woman to win a WSMC race for production-based motorcycles, on a Yahama FZR400 in 1996.

The motorcycle Daniel will ride in 2001 carried John Hopkins to the 1999 Aprilia Cup Challenge Championship. In 2000, Aaron Clark rode the machine in the final round of the series, to clinch the 2000 Aprilia Cup Challenge Championship. A series of articles in Roadracing World detailed the races run by Hopkins and Clark, including machine set-up. A similar set of articles will chronicle Daniel’s adventures on the machine.

“I’m really excited about competing in the entire Formula USA Series on this proven, title-winning motorcycle,” said Daniel. “It’s a great series and I’m sure it’s going to be fun.”

AMA Superbike double-headers at Road Atlanta, Road America and Mid-Ohio will feature Formula Xtreme, but will not include Pro Thunder. In an e-mail to Roadracing World, AMA Road Race Manager Ron Barrick wrote “We are not including the Pro Thunder class at the three Superbike double events. I did not tell Road America we would not include Formula Xtreme. Please research such stories in the future.”

Barrick was referring to an earlier news item based on sources at Road America who told Roadracing World that AMA Pro officials had asked them to not run Formula Xtreme due to TV broadcast time considerations at double-header events.