This is a typical reader reaction to the AMA fining Mat Mladin $5000 and docking him one point for comments Mladin made in a post-qualifying press conference at Loudon.

“As a AMA member I am very disappointed the AMA has fined Mat Mladin regarding his comments in last week’s press conference. Objectively listening to the file downloaded from Roadracing World’s website it is evident that personal feelings entered into the decision to fine Mladin. The interview was courteous, truthful and not worthy of any type of penalty. If the press published the truth, perhaps racers would not be in the position to voice their opinions of the truth. I am glad Mat spoke his mind and set the record straight.”

Marco Zucchi
AMA # 406529
WERA # 205

Bluewave Computing
Director of Sales and Marketing

New Hampshire International Speedway Motorcycle Safety Director Jerry Wood issued this statement Monday morning, in response to cirticism of the racetrack.

“In response to the public accusations that no work has been to improve safety conditions at NHIS for motorcycles I would like to offer this summary.

“Three years ago NHIS changed turn one, turn eight and turn 10, removed trees and made other modifications working with the AMA’s TRACK committee. Over $150,000 was spent on safety improvements. When the pro riders returned in 1999 Mat Mladin yelled out at a rider’s meeting that the track had been made worse. Tom Kipp resigned the track committee in frustration. Mladin’s statement proved to be false as times dropped and injuries were few.

“I went to the effort of asking Mladin what changes he would suggest and we went for a track tour. Doug Chandler and Aaron Yates soon joined us. They asked for the following additional improvements:

“1. More Air Fence in turn two.

“2. The wall in turn three be cut back on the left side and a gravel trap placed outside the exit

“3. The entrance portion of the curb in turn eight be removed and a gravel trap installed

“4. The apex of turn 10 be moved out away from the wall with a curb and line.

“At the end of the meeting Mladin was smiling and made the comment that with these changes we would have a fun track. New Hampshire International Speedway made every single one of the changes requested. In addition to the requested changes, NHIS purchased the state-of-the-art Air Fence Bike product that proved to work very well at saving the rider and the bike.

“When the Pros left last year (2000) the ONLY issue was the slippery spots (old sealer). That was addressed with the new, high-tech, very expensive, traction coating.

“The sealer was applied to all of the areas that had traction problems in the wet as well as any parts of the racing surface that had patches or changes in traction. That included the entire turn three and turn 11 areas. The parts that were NOT coated were good pavement with good, consistent traction in both wet and dry conditions.

“I felt that with the wet traction resolved combined with all of the new Air Fence from the Roadracing World/AMA project that the track would be in great shape wet or dry. Lap times dropped despite the tighter line in turn 12.

“I have been racing and working road racing events for 34 years and am proud of Loudon’s safety record. In addition to the AMA National we run eight club events with about 1200 entries per weekend. There have been no wall-related injuries for the last three years.

“The Loudon course is tight and I will bet that it is demanding to ride a world-spec 180-hp Superbike there but the Pro riders are paid very well to do it. I watched Pascal Picote crash hard into the soft barrier and ride off, just like most people do. Our safety record continues to be one of the best in the country.”

Defending Superbike Champion re-gained the series points lead with a win in round three of the Parts Canada Superbike Championship Sunday, June 17 on the temporary course at Namao Airport in Edmonton, Alberta. Crevier launched his Honda RC51 from the pole position and led all 16 laps of the race to beat 1999 Canadian Superbike Champion Francis Martin riding a Suzuki GSX-R1000. Martin chased Crevier closely for 10 laps before slipping backwards. Kawasaki Canada’s Owen Weichel finished third on a ZX-7RR despite a freshly injured thumb to go with his week-old ankle injury.

RESULTS
PARTS CANADA SUPERBIKE:
1. Steve Crevier, Honda RC51
2. Francis Martin, Suzuki GSX-R1000
3. Owen Weichel, Kawasaki ZX-7RR
4. Brian Nielsen, Yamaha YZF-R1
5. Ben Pilon, Yamaha YZF-R1
6. Greg Boki, Yamaha YZF-R1
7. Jeff Williams, Honda CBR929RR
8. Kevin Lacombe, Yamaha YZF-R1
9. Andrew Nelson, Honda CBR600F4i
10. Tim Easton, Yamaha YZF-R1

Weichel came into the third round of the series leading Crevier in the points 106 to 96. Crevier now leaves Edmonton leading Weichel 156-143.

POINT STANDINGS (After 3 of 7 rounds, all 7 count):
1. Crevier, 156 points
2. Weichel, 143 points
3. Martin, 120 points
4. Pilon, 81 points
5. Jean-Francois Cyr, 71 points
6. Michael Taylor, 67 points
7. Nelson, 55 points
8. Nielsen, 53 points
9. Williams, 52 points
10. Boki, 50 points

Crevier also won the Yoshimura 600cc Sport Bike race at Namao Airport on his Honda CBR600F4i and enjoys a comfortable point lead in that class. Suzuki GSX-R600-mounted Clint McBain finished second ahead of Jeff Williams.

In International Motorcycle Supershow Open Sport Bike action, class points leader Frank Trombino crashed out of second place early in the race. Martin came through for the win on his GSX-R1000 in front of Jeff Williams, riding a Honda CBR929RR, and Ben Pilon, on a Yamaha YZF-R1.

The Parts Canada Superbike Championship will next be in action July 5-8 at Autodrome St-Eustache. For more information about the Canadian premier road racing series, visit www.cdnsuperbike.com.

Anthony Fania and KSW Racing have reached an agreement with Liberty Harley-Davidson/Buell of Rahway, New Jersey that will see the New Jersey racer campaign a Buell X-1 Lightning in the Formula USA Buell Lightning Series at Pocono International Raceway August 24-26 as well as in selected AMA Buell Pro Thunder rounds. Fania is also sponsored by Atlantic Motorsports, Arai, Dunlop, EBC, and Greenbrook Cycle & Marine.

Young gun Ben Spies, 16, underwent surgery Friday afternoon at Dr. Dave Kieffer’s Gem City Bone & Joint clinic in Laramie, Wyoming, to plate the collarbone Spies broke during 750cc Supersport practice at Loudon, New Hampshire a week earlier.

Spies expects to race at Laguna Seca in two weeks.

Dr. Kieffer, a racer as well as an orthopedic surgeon, competes in selected AMA Pro Thunder events.

By Glenn LeSanto

Two Ducatis battled it out under the hot sun at Misano, in San Marino on Italy’s Adriatic coast in a thrilling Superbike race this afternoon. Ben Bostrom led the race almost from the first corner and put on a stunning display of stylish riding, lifting the back wheel and waving it in the air going into corners. But Troy Bayliss, riding for Infostrada Ducati, caught and passed Bostrom on the L&M Ducati, lighting the fuse for an explosive last few laps that saw the pair swap places in a frantic fight for the win. In the end Bayliss won the battle, but only by a whisker, and Bostrom will be back for more in the second race.

Gregorio Lavilla, the popular Spaniard who rides for Fuchs Kawasaki, battled through the pack to claim third place. “I have a new helmet design,” smiled Lavilla pointing to his new gold crash helmet, “we call it the Goldfinger helmet. I don’t know if it brought me luck to help me get my second podium of the year, but I’m not going to change it now for the rest of the season.”

Bostrom was happy with his race, although you could see by the way he rode that he would rather have won. “It was a great race, and a lot of fun. And that’s what racing is really about,” said the American.

Bayliss stretched his Championship points lead even further as both rivals Edwards and Corser slipped back off the podium as the race wore on. “Ben rode really hard,” said Bayliss. “He led for almost all the race, I had it a little easier and relaxed a little and followed him. But I knew that I would have to work for the win and had to go really for it at the end.”

World Superbike Championship, Race One
Misano
Provisional Results:
1. Troy Bayliss, Australia (Ducati) 40:23.410
2. Ben Bostrom, USA (Ducati) 40:23.892
3. Gregorio Lavilla, Spain (Kawasaki) 40:31.782
4. Colin Edwards, USA (Honda) 40:34.796
5. Akira Yanagawa, Japan (Kawasaki) 4:39.613
6. Neil Hodgson, GB (Ducati) 40:39.744
7. Troy Corser, Australia (Aprilia) 40:39.747
8. Alessandro Antonello, Italy (Aprilia) 40:44.155
9. Tady Okada, Japan (Honda) 40:49.459
10. Ruben Xaus, Spain (Ducati) 40:57.514.

The audio file of the Loudon press conference that led to AMA Superbike Champion Mat Mladin being fined and docked a Championship point by AMA officials has been downloaded an average of once every 7 seconds since it was first posted on Friday.

That’s a whole lot of listening going on…

Radar Team Yamaha’s Robbie Baird took the points lead in the 2001 Yamaha Xtreme Tri-State series with the overall win in the four-leg race event held at Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit June 17. Baird finished 1st – 2nd – 2nd- 2nd in the four, seven-lap legs on his Yamaha YZF-R1 in wet conditions to surpass his teammate Jamie Stauffer for the series lead.

Also riding a Yamaha YZF-R1, Stauffer finished 4th – 4th – 4th – 5th on the day and slipped to second in points with only one round of the five-round series remaining.

Baird’s other teammate, 18-year-old Craig Coxhell finished 3rd – 3rd – 9th – 1st to move into third in the points before heading to the final round at Eastern Creek Raceway July 7-8.

Second overall at Phillip Island was Geoff’s Auto Spares’ Josh Brookes, 18. Brookes collected two wins and a second place finish at Phillip Island and sits seventh in the points having missed the last round while racing in Japan.

The youngest of the three Gobert brothers, 17-year-old Alex, finished 2nd – 10th – 5th – 6th as he and his Red Wing Honda team came to terms with their week-old CBR929RR. Gobert is now sixth in the series points.

RESULTS
YAMAHA XTREME TRI-STATE PHILLIP ISLAND:
RACE 1:
1. Robbie Baird, Yamaha YZF-R1
2. Alex Gobert, Honda CBR929RR
3. Craig Coxhell, Yamaha YZF-R1
4. Stephen Tozer, Yamaha YZF-R1
5. Jamie Stauffer, Yamaha YZF-R1
6. Damien Cudlin, Yamaha YZF-R1

RACE 2:
1. Josh Brookes, Honda CBR929RR
2. Robbie Baird, Yamaha YZF-R1
3. Craig Coxhell, Yamaha YZF-R1
4. Jamie Stauffer, Yamaha YZF-R1
5. Damien Cudlin, Yamaha YZF-R1
6. Steven Cutting, Suzuki GSX-R1000

RACE 3:
1. Josh Brookes, Honda CBR929RR
2. Robbie Baird, Yamaha YZF-R1
3. Damien Cudlin, Yamaha YZF-R1
4. Jamie Stauffer, Yamaha YZF-R1
5. Tony Rees, Yamaha YZF-R1
6. Alex Gobert, Honda CBR929RR

RACE 4:
1. Craig Coxhell, Yamaha YZF-R1
2. Robbie Baird, Yamaha YZF-R1
3. Josh Brookes, Honda CBR929RR
4. Jamie Stauffer, Yamaha YZF-R1
5. Alex Gobert, Honda CBR929RR
6. Luke Phillips, Honda CBR929RR

YAMAHA XTREME TRI-STATE SERIES POINT STANDINGS (After 4 of 5 rounds):
1. Robbie Baird, 279 points
2. Jamie Stauffer, 246 points
3. Craig Coxhell, 239 points
4. Tony Rees, 203 points
5. Damien Cudlin, 178 points
6. Alex Gobert, 168 points
7. Josh Brookes, 130 points
8. Luke Phillips, 116 points
9. Graeme Morris, 100 points
10. Stephen Tozer, 84 points


Springwood Suzuki Aprilia’s Brendan Clarke, 17, clinched the 2001 Aprilia Challenge Championship at Phillip Island with a 3rd – 1st – 1st performance.

California Speedway officials in Fontana, California announced June 19 that they would construct an all-new infield road course to possibly host AMA Superbike races.

In a press conference for mainstream media held June 19, California Speedway officials told reporters that ground was broken June 11 on a multi-layout infield road course designed by Associated Engineers, one of the designers of the speedway, and to be constructed by Yeager Construction, the same company that built the state-of-the-art speedway.

The new infield is scheduled for an early-fall completion, with four main configurations: a 1.5-mile, 13-turn course; a 1.55-mile, 17-turn section; a 2.36-mile, 21-turn layout; and a 2.88-mile, 21-turn circuit. The 2.88-mile course is labeled the “Auto Competition Course.” The 2.36-mile layout is called the “Motorcycle Competition Course.” While both of the shorter courses will stay completely within the infield of California Speedway, both of the longer circuits will utilize portions of the speedway’s 75-foot-wide, D-shaped oval. The infield road course will be built to FIM / FIA-specifications, 45-feet wide and will feature an asphalt racing surface similar in compound to the speedway’s pavement. Including the construction of a temporary drag strip located in the vast parking lot of the speedway, the whole project is expected to cost some where between $2 and $3 million.

Since its 1997 opening, California Speedway has had a 1.3-mile infield road course that has been used 85 days a year for testing, driving schools and TV commercial production, but not competition. The new addition to the Fontana racing facility is aimed directly at attracting additional spectator road racing events.

“This is an exciting time for California Speedway as we take the next step in our continuation as a premier motorsports facility,” California Speedway President Bill Miller told reporters June 19. “The development of this road course increases the opportunities for us to host additional events that motorsports fans in Southern California will want to experience.

“We’ve had preliminary discussions with AMA and Grand Am (Grand American Road Racing Series). Now that we’ve broken ground and are proceeding with the course, we look forward to intensifying those discussions and seeing what makes sense from an entertainment and business standpoint. We have not finalized anything yet, but we anticipate making an announcement later this fall.”

A spring NASCAR Winston Cup/Busch Series and a fall CART FedEx Championship Series/ NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series weekends are the two major spectator events held each year at California Speedway. The Spring 2001 NASCAR race attracted a sell-out crowd of 120,000 spectators. The speedway estimates that their new road races will, initially, attract crowds of 20,000 to 25,000. Those numbers are conservative considering California Speedway’s spectator amenities and ease of access from all of Southern California, Arizona, and Las Vegas area.

Roadracingworld.com broke the story of the possibility of the AMA racing at California Speedway May 9. Erion Honda owner Kevin Erion, along with riders Mark Miller and Jake Zemke, attended a feasibility test overseen by AMA Superbike Racing Operations Manager Ron Barrick and several executives from the racetrack.

“We did several, if not a dozen, entries on to the front straightaway from a proposed exit out of the infield,” said Erion’s Miller in a telephone interview with Roadracing World June 21. “It seemed to work just fine. The angle of attack was safe. It doesn’t look like we’re anywhere close to getting up toward the wall. On the brakes (for turn one), it’s not the most optimum runoff in the whole world because you gotta brake at some point to get into the infield. Obviously, there’s an oval wall at the exit, but it’s quite far away. It’s nothing like a Loudon, or a Phoenix. It could be an 1/8th-mile away before you would hit a wall. And again the angle of attack is actually bringing you down away from the wall if the proposed track is in fact implemented like we spoke about that day. It actually brings you down the front straight and angles you toward the infield before you brake. I think that’s gonna be just fine.”

When asked what kind of top speed he saw, Miller estimated, “I would say about 165 mph possibly, on the CBR929RR Formula Xtreme bike. It’s a huge oval. So the front straighaway is quite extensive, but we’re actually starting from a relatively low speed at the entrance to that straightaway where we’re coming off of the infield. It’s not like we have a big fourth-gear run off of the banking onto the front like Daytona.

“We tried to use a little bit of the oval, but it just did not seem safe in anyway. The bikes are so much faster than that oval will allow with the amount of grip available that the oval, other than the front straightaway, just had to be completely taken out of the whole lap. There’s not enough banking. It’s nothing like the 32-degree banking of Daytona.

“I think the layout that we had come to an agreement on, the basic layout, is going to be safe enough for motorcycles. Hopefully, it comes to fruition in the way that we talked about, and it doesn’t change because of different varying issues either be money or logistics or that kind of thing. It’s actually very, very, very similar to the new road course in Germany (Lausitzring) that the World Superbikes just raced at. It’s damn near the exact same thing that we were looking at,” continued Miller.

“I think the speedway has a lot to offer in the way of beauty and pageantry and history and also just the facilities, the garages, the bathrooms, and the stands. It looks like the fans will be able to see most of the racetrack. I believe they’re going to build a grandstand inside, or throughout, the infield as well which will also give you a complete view of the racetrack. So it should be a fantastic overall experience for fans. I think Southern California is a terrific market to go ahead and spend a little money in a wild racetrack. I’m looking forward to it,” Miller concluded.