SFX Motor Sports has issued a press release announcing that it has done a radio deal for coverage of its motorcycle racing events. The release read:

“SFX Motor Sports Group announced that Open Road Radio* is the official radio program of Formula USA motorcycle racing including the National Dirt Track Series, The National Road Race Series, Arenacross and more.

“Under the mutual sponsorship, Formula USA will provide exclusive race reports, live in-studio and phone-in interviews after race weekends,
offering enthusiasts across America the ability to listen in every Sunday evening through a syndicated network of radio stations and via the web.

“The Chicago based famous motorcycle talk radio show, Open Road Radio*, kicked off its first nationally syndicated broadcast on November 12th,
broadcasting from the Love Ride 2000, which had over 20,000 participants.

“A little under a year from tying for 1st place in TSL in the Chicago market at WCKG 105.9 FM and 5th place for men 18-49 by Arbitron Audience Estimates, Open Road Radio is hitting the national airwaves to travel into your home/garage with its newly acquired 29 station affiliates. (See the Website: www.chicagomotorcycleguide.com for station affiliates, pictures and more.)

“Open Road Radio has been on the air since 1997 at smaller stations in the Chicago area. It has been broadcast on the 50,000-watt station WCKG since last September. The show can be heard nationwide from 7-8 p.m. CST on the Talk America Radio Network, 8-9 p.m. CST on Chicago’s WCKG (105.9 FM), and can be heard by visiting www.formulausa.com.

“Listener’s favorite segments such as The Formula USA Speed Shop, S&S Cycle’s ‘Tech Talk,’ Yamaha’s ‘Dealer of the Month Profile,’ Biker Billy’s ‘Hot
Tips’ and Paczolt Financials’ ‘Consumer Awareness Corner’ are regular favorites of the shows success.

“‘Open Road Radio* has tremendous national potential and offers great content to motorcycle enthusiasts every week. Their format and our division’s relationship with our parent company, Clear Channel Communications was a marriage that was bound to happen’ said Dan Krolczyk, Senior Director of Marketing, Motorcycles for SFX Motor Sports Group.

“SFX Motor Sports Group is the producer and presenter of the American Motorcyclist Association EA SPORTS Supercross Series presented by Speed Stick, The Speed Stick National Arenacross, The IFMA Freestyle Motocross
Series, The Formula USA National Road Race and National Dirt Track Series, and CCS Championship Cup Series racing. SFX, a subsidiary of Clear Channel Communications (NYSE: CCU), is the world’s largest producer and marketer of
live entertainment events. SFX currently owns, operates and/or exclusively books 130 live entertainment venues, including 44 amphitheaters in the U.S. Each year, more than 60 million people attend approximately 26,000 events
promoted and/or produced by SFX, including: Live music events; Broadway and touring Broadway shows; family entertainment shows; and specialized sports and motor sports shows. SFX also provides strategic sports marketing sales
and consulting services to professional and college teams, leagues, venues and properties.

“In addition, SFX owns a leading full-service talent management company, specializing in the representation of athletes and broadcasters. SFX is headquartered in New York City. More information is available at www.sfx.com.”

Three riders were severely injured at Daytona International Speedway Sunday, March 11.

Dirk Piz lost his life when he hit Kiyo Watanabe’s downed motorcycle entering the chicane. According to accounts from cornerworkers at the scene, Piz’s motorcycle became airborne from the impact, sending the 45-year old racer from Denver, Colorado into the tire barrier on riders’ left. Funeral arrangements for Piz had not been completed at post time.

Scott Russell has undergone successful surgery at Halifax Medical Center to plate his broken left arm between the wrist and elbow and insert a titanium rod in his left femur. Russell has said that he will race again, as early as the AMA Road Atlanta round May 18-20, and is scheduled to undergo additional surgery today, Tuesday, March 13, to repair a drainage tube installed during the original surgery. Russell will also spend his last day in the Intensive Care Unit Tuesday.

Russell has requested that there be no phone traffic sent to his room and a restricted, approved list of visitors has been set-up to allow Russell time to rest.

Richie Morris is in the Orthopedic Ward of Halifax Medical Center after surgery on his shattered left arm. Morris will undergo additional surgery today at 5:00 p.m. to continue work on his wrist. Although reports are that Morris is not in danger of losing his arm, the damage is extensive. Morris may not re-gain enough use of his left wrist to race again. In a Tuesday morning phone interview, Morris said that the worst-case scenario is that doctors will have to fuse his wrist.

Both Morris and Russell are receiving cards, letters, and messages sent to the hospital and addressed to them. The address is:

Halifax Medical Center
c/o Scott Russell or Richie Morris
303 North Clyde Morris Blvd.
Daytona Beach, Florida 32114

The hospital’s phone number is (386) 254-4145, and the FAX number for the eighth-floor nurses’ station near Morris is (386) 947-1750.

AMA Pro Racing CEO Scott Hollingsworth’s vision of the future of AMA Pro Racing is based on Superbike and 600cc Supersport, and teams that want to move forward with the AMA need to compete in those classes.

That’s the word from Hollingsworth, who revealed the direction he is taking AMA Pro Racing in a conversation along pit lane at Daytona last week.

Hollingsworth sees the ideal future AMA Pro road race as having one featured class and one support class, much like CART open-wheel races. Those two classes will be Superbike and 600cc Supersport.

In practical terms, that could mean more moving of AMA support events and entire classes to the WERA National Challenge Series, which will host three rounds of the Pro Thunder Series this season.

Hollingsworth also defended the AMA’s late move to change Pro Thunder rules and outlaw 800cc 748 Ducatis–announced in December–by saying, “At least we did something and moved forward instead of sitting on something for another year.”

But Hollingsworth did concede that the change in Pro Thunder minimum weight for all machines was a mistake in that it unintendedly affected SV650s and Singles, saying “That was a mistake and we corrected it.”

Copyright 2001, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

The relative speed of the pace car, the similarity of the orange pace-car flag to a yellow flag and the part of the racetrack where the pace car attempted to pick up the field all contributed to the pile-up that caused the initial red-flag in Sunday’s Daytona 200.

Racing observers note that it would be safer for the pace car to pick up the field on a slower part of the course with more warning to riders– for example, exiting turn one after more-distinctive pace-car flags have been shown all the way around the course the previous lap.

The closing rate between riders and the pace car on the Daytona back straight in Sunday’s incident may have exceeded 50-80 mph with several riders unclear on the exact procedure and uncertain if the single flag they saw before encountering the flag was orange or yellow.

“I saw a guy where you go up out of the infield onto the banking out there with a flag out of the corner of my eye, and I was thinking, ‘Was that a pace car flag?'” said Aaron Yates, one of three riders involved in the incident, in a phone interview from his home in Milledgeville, Georgia on Tuesday, March 13. “I was looking at Kurtis (Roberts) and he was going, and I was right on his rear wheel, I was trying to look ahead and see where it (the pace car) was at.

“We stayed on the gas a little while, and then I saw it, I was rolling off, and I looked at Kurtis and he was slamming on the brakes. So I got on the brakes, and I was coming up too fast. I was kinduv in his draft, and I tried to turn it to get around him and I sort of clipped Kurtis. Kurtis was locking them down and I was trying to dodge him, and just barely got by. I felt like I hit Kurtis pretty good.

“Jamie (Hacking) said he kind of nailed me after that, he said I clipped Kurtis and was kind of wobbling around and then he hit me. Jamie said he hit me before I went down.

“I talked to Dale Quarterley, he was driving the pace car, and he said he was going about 80 mph, but it seemed like it was going about 20, we were going so fast. At that time (when I saw the pace car) I was just full-on. If I could have got out of Kurtis’ line I would have just blown on by the car and everybody, worrying about the guys behind me.

“It seemed like they would have had more pace car flags, there was only one I saw. So I was thinkin’ maybe we’d go around a lap and then they’d send out the pace car.

“As few laps as we had run, it seems as if there’s a situation where we need the pace car, they ought to just stop it (the race) and start over.

“I woke up in the ambulance one time. The next time I woke up they were unloading me in the hospital, and all these people were trying to talk to me. Finally I reached up and took the earplugs out of my ears and said, ‘Okay, what are you talking about?'”

Yates said he was released from the hospital about 5:00 p.m. Sunday, went back to track, gathered his things, signed a few autographs and left.

A Federal District Court judge in the Central District of Florida has ruled against the American Historic Racing Motorcycle Association (AHRMA) in its continuing legal battle with AHRMA co-founder and Team Obsolete owner Rob Iannucci. AHRMA has already been denied damages in its lawsuit against Iannucci and has been denied attorney’s fees as well. The ruling means that AHRMA members will have to pay an estimated $250,000 the association has spent to prevent Iannucci from using the class name BEARS. The court did rule, however, that Iannucci may not use the class name in the future.

Observers note that the battle over the term BEARS is akin to two racing organizations battling over the terms Supersport or Battle of the Twins.

As part of its ongoing dispute with Ianucci, the AHRMA Board of Directors revoked Iannucci’s membership and has banned racebikes he sponsors from participating in AHRMA events, with one notable exception: Daytona International Speedway officials have made participation by Iannucci’s team a condition of allowing AHRMA to hold an event at the speedway each March. Iannucci and his team are not allowed to participate in other AHRMA events.

The legal battle is expected to continue on other fronts until Iannucci is re-admitted as a member of AHRMA or loses big in the the courts.

Famed orthopedic surgeon Dr. Art Ting consulted with local doctors in Daytona before they operated to repair the compound fracture of racer Matt Wait’s upper left arm. Wait, who crashed during the Formula USA weekend at Daytona, also suffered a torn spleen and a lacerated liver which did not require surgery.

The recovering Wait was back at Daytona Sunday March 11 watching the ill-fated Daytona 200.

In Sunday’s Daytona 200, a number of riders restarted the race on back-up motorcycles after their primary machines were too badly damaged or suffered mechanical problems. Notable among these were Nicky Hayden, whose Honda suffered engine problems and Larry Pegram, whose Ducati burned after he crashed it in the chicane.

The restart became controversial in the minds of certain journalists not familiar with the rule book, sparking debate and conjecture unsupported by the facts.

The governing AMA rule reads as follows: “In Superbike only, when a race is restarted following a red flag, a rider who was present at the starting grid, but was unable to start or dropped out after the start, is permitted to restart on a back-up motorcycle using the following procedure:

1. Rider must obtain permission from the Chief Steward or Race Manager.
2. Rider will be gridded on the last row of the restart grid

Photos from World Superbike Race One, by Scott Fisher.

The lead pack early in the race. Regis Laconi (55) leads, followed by Colin Edwards (1), Tadayuki Okada (8), Troy Bayliss (21), Neil Hodgson (100) and Ben Bostrom (155).

Troy Corser’s (3) pass for the lead over teammate Regis Laconi (55) on lap four, as Colin Edwards (1) follows.

Troy Bayliss (21) and Ben Bostrom (155) setting up to take turns passing Regis Laconi in second place.

Results From Race Two:

1. Troy Corser, Aprilia
2. Troy Bayliss, Ducati
3. Gregorio Lavilla, Kawasaki
4. Colin Edwards, Honda
5. Neil Hodgson, Ducati
6. Akira Yanagawa, Kawasaki
7. Pierfrancesco Chili, Suzuki
8. Ruben Xaus, Ducati
9. James Toseland, Ducati
10. Stephane Chambon, Suzuki
11. Marco Borciani, Ducati
12. Robert Ulm, Ducati
13. Broc Parkes, Ducati
14. Juan Borja, Yamaha
15. Lucio Pedercini, Ducati
16. Javier Rodriguez, Honda
17. Mauro Sanchini, Ducati
18. Frederic Protat, Ducati
19. Bertrand Stey, Honda
20. Jiri Mrkyvka, Ducati
21. Johann Wolfsteiner, Kawasaki
22. Martin Craggill, Ducati

Regis Laconi, Tadayuki Okada, and Michele Malatesta crashed in turn 2 on the first lap. Hitoyasu Izutsu finished two laps before crashing. Ben Bostrom jumped the start and, while pulling into the pits for his stop-and-go penalty, earned another stop-and-go for exceeding the pit lane speed limit. He retired from the race a few laps later.

Troy Corser doubles at Valencia. Photo by Scott Fisher.