r
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o
Watts didn't win was the 125cc class,
which was won by Thompson. Scot
Harden (KTM) won the Legends race.
Johnny Campbell and teammate Tim
Staab (Hon) captured the overall
='
According to a press release issued by
his public relations man, the Sugo round
of the World Superbike Championship
may be one of the rounds in which Eric
Bostrom takes part next season.
Bostrom recently raced in an All-Japan
Championship round at Sugo, finishing
event's Supercross race.
"Our working relationship with Speedvision remains strong," said
NOVEMBER 21, 2001
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Pier-Francesco Chili's World
Superbike future is still by no means
certain as he and his proposed NCR
Ducati team go on the lookout for the
final part of the sponsorship money they
require to compete on competitive
Scott Hollingsworth, AMA Pro Racing's CEO. "Speedvision's coverage has greatly assisted the development of the AMA Pro Racing
properties of road racing and flat track. We've been working with
Dan Murphy at Speedvision and expect to announce our AMA
Chevy Trucks U.S. Superbike Championship schedule soon with
expanded television coverage for the series in 2002."
Murphy added, "There will be some changes to the weekly program lineup in 2002 with the additional NASCAR programming.
However, Two Wheel Tuesdays and our live motorcycle racing will
remain intact, due to the support of the sponsors and viewers. The
viewers should really thank all the sponsors of the motorcycle programming because the sponsor support gave us another compelling
reason to keep all the motorcycle programming intact."
Speedvision, which currently reaches 45 million homes, is being
rebranded as Speed Channel and will be relaunched with new programming and a new logo in February of 2002. The relaunch will
come one month after the channel celebrates its sixth anniversary.
Speedvision, the motorsports cable channel acquired last July by
the Fox Cable Networks Group. has announced its continued commitment to AMA Pro Racing for 2002, according to a press release
sent by the sanctioning body.
Speed vision will be the television home of the AMA Chevy
Trucks U.S. Superbike Championships and will broadcast select
AMA Progressive Insurance U.S. Flat Track Championship races.
"We want to make sure our network satisfies the motorcycle
enthusiast market, an audience we consider extremely important to
the network," said Speedvision President Jim Liberatore. "The fact
that Speedvision received tens of thousands of e-malls from motorcycle enthusiasts shows the passion of that audience."
Bolstering Liberatore's assertion that motorcycle racing is an
important part of Speedvision's future is the announcement from the
network that it will proVide live coverage of the 61st Annual Daytona
200 by Arai in March and three hours of live coverage from the
2
11th. "It was real cold out dUring qualifying - it even snowed up in the mountains
- it was super cold and we were there
for testing only," Bostrom said in the
release. "I didn't care about the race.
We would have liked to have had a good
result if we had gotten the bike completely set-up in time, but it didn't happen. In qualifying, we had a bad deal - I
went in too fast in the beginning and
almost highsided, which took me into
the gravel trap and the bike got worked
a little bit. So by the time we got the
bike back out on the track after fiXing a
few things, there wasn't much time left
to qualify. And in the race, we got off to
a slow start and after I got used to the
bike, I caught up to Chris [Walkerl and
another Japanese rider and we had our
own little race. The track was a little wet
here and there, but it was fun. For a
while, I couldn't get the bike to turn in
how I want. but finally we made some
advancement with the bike on Monday
and Tuesday [after the race], and we put
down some decent lap times. And if we
can get just a little bit more handling out
of the bike, I think we'll be in the hunt
when we come back for the World
Superbike race in April." The trip also
allowed Bostrom to get to know
Kawasaki's two World Superbike riders
for next year, Chris Walker and Izutsu.
"Izutsu's a good dude, he's pretty
funny," Bostrom said. "He's a full-on
high roller, with his big-bodied Benz and
his Rolex - it's funny. But he rides real
hard. It bites him sometimes because he
falls off a bit, but obViously it's a different game in Japan, and he does great
there. Then in Europe he got thrown to
the wolves and had some pretty tough
results this season - next year he'll have
some ups and downs. But he's good
and I like him. And Chris [Walkerl is a
good guy too. He's funny to be around
and seems to try real hard when he gets
on the track. All the fans like him, especially the Brits. He'll be fun to ride with
next year." Bostrom will be flying to
Puerto Rico thiS week, along with his
brother Ben, to take part in a Red Bullsponsored trip.
s
machinery in the series next season,
according to World Superbike contributor Gordon Ritchie. "We still have to
find all the budget," confirmed Chili on
November 12. "We are all working
together to find the budget for the team.
I don't care at the moment for my own
budget - the main thing is to find the
budget for racing with Ducati. We will
see in the next 15-20 days if thiS is pos- I
sible." When questioned about the bad
feeling that Chili and Ducati have had (
about each other in the past he said,
"You know the time has moved on, I
don't have to be scared of anything and ,
they don't have to be scared about me.
This is the solution that I must have and
what I have to believe in." Chili also
gave some more info on exactly how
and why he split with his former Suzuki
Alstare team, run and owned by Francis
Batta. "I am not disappointed with Suzuki. I respect 100 percent the decision of
Francis Batta because [itl is also my
position. We make a decision together. I
said to him 'Okay, I don't want to be racing in these conditions,' but not for the
team. In the team everything was very
good. I like everyone in the team, but
this year I am not so happy. My feeling
was very low. I spoke with Francis and
the mechanics and explained my situation at that moment. We did not have
hard talking [an argument] just normal
talking and so that is very important
because I hope to be a friend to everybody and to have the opportunity to :
work with Francis again. You have to
stay friendly in life and then everybody is
friendly. The last two or three races "
maybe he was nervous because he has 'I
a lot of problems - but not because of "
me. " The final statement flies in the face '
of a press release issued by Batta at the :
final race of the 2001 season, which was highly critical of Chili. Chili also was:
intent on pointing out that his current :;
lack of ride for 2002 was not due to any
greed for a signing-on salary on his
behalf, after claims at Imola that he
rejected a high-salary offer from Alstare
to continue in 2002, and reports from
Italy that Chili was demanding too much
money for NCR to go racing. "Everyone
seems to be thinking that I am asking for
a lot of money for next year, but it is not
true," Chili said. "What I try to do is find
money for the team at the moment.
Then we can see if there is an opportunity or not [for his sa/aryl. When it is possible to have money, I have to have
money, but when it is not possible, you
have to look around so see what you
have to do." Chili also said the NCR
team will likely miss the early December
Dunlop tests in Kyalami, but hope to
attended the official World Superbike
tests at Phillip Island in Australia in late
December and early November.
Suzuki's British Superbike team
has done as- expected and turned over
its British Superbike Series effort to the
GSX-Rl000 rather than the GSX-R750 it
ran John Crawford on in 2001, according to World Superbike contributor Gordon Ritchie. Faster than the 750 in a
recent test, due to a 20 hp advantage at
the top and a huge slab of torque in the
midrange, the liter bike will be cam-
