Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128241
D D D The final and most anticipated piece of the Valentino Rossi puzzle was put into place on Monday, Novem ber ]0, when Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd. announced it had signed the' five-time World Champion to a two-year contract to spearhead its floundering MotoGP effort . The 24-year-old Italian will be joining Spaniard Carlos Checa in the Yamaha factory team based in Monza, Italy, and backed by Altadis, the European tobacco company whose largest market share is in France and Spain. Checa 's current teammate, Italian Marco Melandri, will move to the Tech 3 Yamaha team (currently the Gauloises Yamaha Team) . Both teams will continue under the Yamaha-Altadis umbrella sponsorship agreement with the Gaulo ises and Fortuna brands. Final colors and co-sponsors for the 2004 season have yet to be announced. At a news conference following his victory in the season-ending Community of Valencia Grand Prix just over a week ago, Rossi announced he was leaving Honda , where he's ridden for the past four years and to three World Championships, the 200] 500cc and 2002 and 2003 MotoGP crowns . That he was leaving came as no surprise, since word of his defection had been circulating for weeks. The rum ors were reported on cyclenews.com on October 8. But dur ing the press conference, he didn't reveal his destination , though his choices were known to be between Yamaha and Ducati , A few hours later Yamaha made it cl ear it was actively pursuing Rossi, circulating a press release stating that they were in contract negotiations which they hoped to finalize shortly . Rossi will join Yamaha's wholly owned factory racing team from January 1 and will begin the 2004 championship on the Yamaha YZR-M] in South Africa on April 18. That he's und er contract to Honda through the end of the calendar year means he won 't get to test in the next few weeks, before the Doma -mandated month-long moratorium on testing kicks in. It's possible, though unlikely, Honda will release him from his contract, clearing the way for early testing . The Rossi signing was sweet vindication for Lin Jarvis, managing director of Yamaha Motor Racing, whose missteps had put him in the crosshairs of Yamaha loyalists. In 2002, Jarvis thought he'd signed Nicky Hayden to a contract for 2003, only to find out a clau se in Hayden 's Honda contract allowed it to match any offer . The dispute between Yamaha and Hayd en's management group, International Racers Inc., was settled early this year . The second incident was the decision to release Max Biaggi, the Italian finding a hom e at the Honda Pons Pramac team . Biaggi was let go after the 2002 season, despite being the most successful rider of the Yamaha M 1. Biaggi won twice in 2002 and finished the season in second place . Checa hasn't won a race since 1998 and had one second place finish in 2002. This year he finished seventh and never made the podium. Biaggi won twice on his Honda RC-2] IV in 2003 and finished third behind Rossi and Sete Gibemau in the title chase. "We are all extremely happy that Valentino will be join ing Yama ha in 2004 : Jarvis said in a press release. "In our discussions with him it is clear that he relishes the challeng e of achieving our goal in MotoGP as much as we do. He is an incr edible tal ent and will make a huge difference. Obviousl y, there is a lot of hard work ahead of us, but we ar e confident that we c an give Valentino the means to achieve more World Championships, and we look forward to the challenge ahead. This is a very import ant step in our plan to reestablish Yamaha as a leading forc e in Grand Prix racing ." Unmentioned in the release is that Rossi will be bringing most of Ho nda ' s lineu p is as fo llows : Miguel Duhame l - Sup e rbik e a nd Fo r m u la X t re m e : Ben Bostrom - S u pe rb ik e on ly : Jake Zemke (Erion Ra c ing ) Su pe rb ik e and Formul a Xtre me: A lex Gobert (Erion Racing) - Fo rmula Xtre me and Su per stock. D D D D D D. M in ne sota G ove rnor Tim Pawl enty has com me nde d t he d ec isi on by Po lari s Industries Inc. to build a new pro duc t develo pment fac ility in W y o m ing , Min ne so ta , sayi ng it illustrates t he co mpa ny 's longstanding commitment to pro viding high -qu a lit y j ob s i n the st a te , acco rding to a release iss ued by Polaris. " Polaris was born here, has grown into a pow er spo rts pow erhouse here , and the company's 'Nort h Star' logo is an institu tion in the N orth Star St ate , " said Paw lenty . " W e cou ldn' t be mo re pleased that Polaris is co ntinuing to invest in the people and co mmunities of M innesota. " The go vern or's rem arks came du ring a joint new s c o nfe rence w ith Pol aris pr esident and C EO Tom Tiller , wh o announced that t he c o m pa ny wo u ld bu ild a 100,000 square-fo ot facility in W yom ing. The building wil l be hom e to engineering , design and development perso nnel for Po laris ' line of all-terrain ve hicl es , personal wa te rcraft, and Vi cto ry motorcycl es. " Over our nearly 50 -y e ar hi sto ry , new p rodu c t s have been t he lifeblood of Pol aris. The key to making high-quality prod uc ts starts w ith having high-quality peo ple and highqua lit y faci lities, " sa id Ti ller . " W ith ou r invest m ent in t he new W yo ming , Mi nnesota . p ro du ct d eve lop me nt loc at io n and the o ngo ing expansion and upgrading of our 94,000 square-foot Roseau, Mi nne so ta . prod uc t d ev el op m e nt faci lity. w e ' ll have tw o sta te-o f-t he-a rt loc at ion s that w ill allow us to focu s ou r resources , to co nt inue to att ract and retain the highest-quality people. and to deve lop worldcl ass pro ducts. " Constru ction is expec ted to beg in in 2004 , sho uld be co mpleted in lat e 2 0 0 5 and is ex pec te d t o cos t about $ 25 millio n. D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D Tick et s for th e m uc h-anticipat ed AMA Red Bull Supermoto Champ i onship fin ale in Las V egas . N eva da titled the Red Bull S upermoto-a-go -go are on sale at www.show tickets .co m or by calling 866/887-M OTO . Advance tic ket s are $25 w ith d isc o unts for children and s tude nts . The cha mpion sh ip finale wi ll tak e place at night on the gro unds of t he Rio A ll-Suit e Hot el & C asino in Las V egas on Friday , N ovember 2 1. Pre-rac e activities kick -off on Thursday , N ovember 20 , at 5 p .m . w ith a spec ial" M eet t he Riders " se ssion that incl udes rider autograph s ignings ,supe rmo to track demo n- EagleRider offe rs a fu ll line o f A TV, personal watercra ft and dirt bikes fo r rent at its va r io us locat ion s . acco rdi ng t o EagleRider. The co mpany has locati on s in th e fo llow inq ci t ies : Lo s An gel e s , San Francisc o . A lbuquerque. Salt Lak e C ity . San D iego . Den ver , Fresno and Orl ando . Eaglerider off ers M onday , Tuesday and Wednesday spe cials fo r as low as $ 70 a day unt il Novembe r 15. For ren tal and model availability at the variou s loca tions, visit www.eaglerider .co m. 8 D D D o D D D D D D D D. D D the same techn ical team he's had at Honda. The crew is headed by Aust ralian Jerry Burgess, a nine-time premier class crew chief, who probably would have stayed at Honda if he' d had the chance to work with Nicky Hayden. But that would mean taking Hayden away from current crew chief Trevor Morris, a move that would certainly have caused dissension in the garage . Th e second rider on the Repsol Honda team hasn't been named, though the name of Brazilian Alex Barros constan tly pops up . Having worked on the World Championship -winning crew of Freddie Spencer , and having been the crew chief for champions Wayne Gardner, Mick Doohan and Rossi, it is unlikely Burgess would have relished working with the journeyman Barros. Instead, he'll take his considerable skills to Yamaha, where he and Rossi have the da un ting task of developing the muchmaligned Yamaha MI. Henny Ray Ab rams stra tions , celebrity and media track rides, freestyle mo tocro s s exhibition s, and DJ music ente rta inme nt. Thursday' s event is a free, nontick et ed eve nt. For more information, visit www.redbullsupe rmo to .com. Am e r ican S uzu ki M o t or C orpo rat ion (A S MC) has announced it s supe rcross team for the 2004 seas o n. Fo rme r 125 and 250cc W orld Ch ampio n Sebastien Tortelli wi ll again campaign the S uzuki RM 2 50 , as w ill re turn in g Su zu ki rid e r Sean Hamblin. New to Team Suzuki is Nick Wey , who finished fourt h ov erall in t he 20 03 AMA Su percr o ss Series and OPENED: Progressive Suspension' s new online store on the World Wid e W eb . The site can be foun d at t he fo llowing addres s: http:// www.progressivesuspension.com. CORRECTION: Like the boneheads that we are. we forgot to give credit to Mitch Friedman for shooting the photos and providing the story for Brad Lackey's birthday bash in a recent issue. M OVED: Gary Rabe Intemational Products, the North America importer of Rock Oil Lubricants, to 22533 Echo Drive, Los Gatos, CA 95033. 408/ 353·68 19. GRA ND OPEN ING: At CK Moto X Racing Products on Saturday. November 15. CK Moto X is located on E. Huntington Drive in Duarte, Califomia. For more information, call 626/3 59-7051. HI RED: Dave Gnffith by Fasst Company as its West Coast sales representative, effective immediately. For more information, call 562/239· 7042. GRAND OPEN ING: At Three Brothers Racing new KTM store in Temecula, Califo rnia, November 14-16. For more inf ormati on, call 909/4 61-069 1. BORN : A baby girl. Christina Marie Alepa, to longtime District 6 and AMHOF Motocross committee member John Alepa and his wife. Lynda, on September 23. to to 2 NOVEMBER 1 9 , 2 003 • cue I e n e vv s . .. was a regula r top -10 finisher th rou ghout the season. "I have a lot of confidence int the 250 team , " said team manager Roge D eC ost er. "l n spite o f injuries, Sebastienan d S e an bot h race d re ma r k abl y last yea r , and I be lieve t hey are c apable of w inning o n t he RM250 . N ic k W ey , ou r ne we s t ri d e r , had a grea t sea so n last ] ye ar and sho uld exc el eve n more o n a Suzuki. " Leadin g the 125 charge is 2003 A M A 125cc East S uper cr o ss Ch ampion ' Branden Jesseman. " Branden is really an amazing at hle te ," sa id D eCo st er..... " He' s very quiet. and he j ust goes o ut and g ets the jo b done . He ' ll be a goo d ro le model fo r the res t of th e 125 riders w ho are ne w to f a ct o ry s u p po rt." Teamed w it h J e sse man is 2 0 03 AMA Sup ercro ss / M ot o c ro s s Ro okie o f t he Year B rian G ray and Broc Hepler, w ho turn ed head s aft er finish ing 11th in his f ir s t Pro M ot o c ro s s r ac e la s t ye a r . Ro unding ou t th e S uzuki 125 te am is Davi M illsaps. M aking his Pro debut this season. Millsap s has won a number of amate ur champ ion ship s and is the w inne of th e 2003 AMA M o t o c ro ss Horizo n Award . Jesseman and M illsaps w ill race S uzu ki RM 125 models , while G ray and Hepler w ill co mpete o n brand-new 2004 S uzuk i RM -Z 25 0 fou r-st roke moto cro ss bikes . The 2004 Team Su zuki race seaso n begin s on January 3 . 2004 . at Ana- COlltillued 011 page 86