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/128309
Haga said in a release issued by FGSport, the pro moter of the series. "I can promise my fans that I have not lost my exciting style , and I intend to finally claim the World Superbike title. " Naturally, FGSport CEO Paolo Flammini is pleased to have Haga back in the series. w "We are de lighted to we lco me bac k No riyuki Haga to the World Supe rb ike ," (9 Flammini said. "He is a Superbike symbo l, and .. g we are sure he will grant the fans unmatch- 0 Supercross Suffers First Fatality Noriyuki Hogo is looking forward to a retu rn to World Superbike racing. Jaso n Ciar letta, 19, of Riverside , Ca lifornia, was killed in a cras h at round four of the AMA T HQ 125cc Western Regional Supercross Series at Q ualco mm Stadium in San Diego, California, o n January 24 . 8 able emotions throughout the current and future seasons." T he accident occurred in tum one during the sta rt of one of the preliminary qualifiers. Ciarletta was attended to by emergency per - broken neck to acute aort ic or arteria l damage, but an official cause has not been re leased pending an autopsy . Ciarletta's death was the first in the 30year history of th e AMA Supercross Ser ies. Clear Channel Se ries promoter Entertainment re leased a brief statement regarding the incide nt to the media before the racing program was concluded, thoug h no thing was annou nced to the quoted 61,062 in atten dance except for a brief tribute made sonnel for several minutes on the track 1D § The World Superbike Cham pionsh ip I starts on February 29 in Valencia, Spain. a. by 250cc win ner Chad Reed of his own voli- before he was tr anspo rt ed to Sharp Memorial Hospital in San Diego, w he re he was pro no unced dead. Speculation as to the cause of death has range d from a possib le (!J tion during the postrace interview. Cyc/e News and www.cyclenews.com will report memorial informat ion as it becomes available. Mladin Rides The GSV-R (Far left) Mat M ladin got the chance to ride Suzuki's MotoGP entry while testing in Malaysia. (left) Mladin listens to Kenny Roberts Jr. (Below) Just like old times: Mladin (riding his GSX-Rl000 Superbike) chases Nicky Hayden on the Repsol Honda. "To give them a proper confirmation, I'd have had to go through at least a day's worth of testing to make the motorcycle at least fit me a little bit better." - Mat Mladin n Malaysia with his Yoshimura team to test his GSX-RI000, Mat Mladin was given the o pportunity to swing a leg ove r I the newest version of the troubled Suzuki GSV-R 990 that Kenny Roberts Jr. and Jo hn Hopkins will take into MotoG P battle this year. Mladin and teammate Aaron Yates were testing at Sepang, outside of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, along with the Suzuki, Honda and Kawasaki MotoGP teams. "T hey told me be fore I arrived in Malaysia that they wanted me to have a go on the bike, but 1 didn't know if it was going to be for a cou ple of laps or whether it would be fo r a day to try and give them some decent feedback," Mladin said. "But as it turned out, I only did a few laps. "I didn't really do enough laps to have a think . I told the team I co uldn't really do much feed back, and to do that you need to have a motorbike set up pro perly. I on ly did abo ut 12 o r 13 laps [at speed], and it was my first time o ut on the bike, so it was impossible to think about ge tting down to any sort of time . 1d id a mid-2:07 or something. "I d id confirm a lot of what John and Kenny have bee n saying, but I never really got the chance [to do more]. To give them a proper confirmation, I'd have had to go through at least a day 's worth of te sting to make the mo torcycle at least fit me a little bit better. It's a GP bike that's easily capable of 2:04s or 2:05s, and 1did a seven , so you can't give positive feedback . I went slower on the GP bike than I did on my AMA Superbike. 1 couldn't be too critical because of the short stint I did. It certainly didn't seem fast or anything, but we know that Suzuki has had a bit of trou ble last year with speed. I got behind a 8 FEBRUARY 4,2004 • CYCL E NEWS couple of the guys o ut there, and I hung out beh ind Nicky Hayden fo r a little bit just to sort of see, and he definitely had better acceleration, for sure. There's a little bit of a delay on the gearshift, but they adjusted that , and it made it a little bit better." Matthew Bir t 40th Anniversary