The Primedia / MotoMaster
USA SuperMotard National Championship Series featuring the
Los Angeles Calendar Motorcycle Show's FastDates.com National by Russ Brown

Los Angeles, CA, March 10th: SuperBikers2 and Moto-Master USA have teamed up produce the 2003 Primedia US SuperMotard National Championship Series. SuperBikers2 and Moto-Master USAhave announced this new 8 round series with the Primedia Action Sports Group and its magazines Sport Rider and Dirt Rider as its title sponsor with the Los Angeles Calendar Motorcycle Show hosting the Championship's showcase round in conjunction with the Calendar Motorcycle Show taking place at at the Queen Mary Event Park in Long Beach, CA, the weekend of July 19-20th, 2003.

The SuperMotard series will kick off in March and crown champions in 2 different classes in October. Headlining the series will be the Open Supermoto Extreme class featuring the open displacement, big bore thumpers that have made this sport what it is known for today. The equally impressive 450X class will feature a 450cc displacement limit that will showcase the latest machines from many manufacturers. SuperMotard USA, SuperMoto USA, Mile High Motard, and SuperBikers2, LLC will hold regional races to run as support classes in conjunction with national event for their host weekend.

The SuperMotard racer is one who has talents in various types of racing environments: motocross racing, dirt-track racing, and roadracing are all key ingredients to a successful SuperMotard racer. With strong rider base is key to making this series grow. By joining with the many regional groups, we have the critical ingredient for great racing action for our spectators to see. Add in some top level racing facilities and everyone is assured guaranteed a great time, for both spectator and racer.

Major National Championship rounds will be showcased at major events including the Phoenix Bike Fest on March 28-30th and the Los Angeles Calendar Motorcycle Show weekend on July 19-20 to bring supermoto racing to the racing public.

"We are really excited to have the Primedia US SuperMotard National Championship Series join us this year as just one more exciting feature at The Los Angeles Calendar Motorcycle Show. Other exciting new attractions and additions this year include The Iron Works magazine Readers Ride-In on Saturday to benefit The Olive Crest Home for Abused Children, the largest shelter system in Southern California. Plus we will have The Beu Sisters, the hottest new singing group in America, making their first West Coast appearance to perform from songs their hot new album "Decisions"

"No other streetbike motorcycle show in America offers motorcycle enthusiasts such an extensive and exciting weekend of entertainment for one low admission cost. While for major manufacturers, bike builders and venders this is the biggest and best event on the West Coast to showcase your products to the largest group of upscale streetbike enthusiasts at a very low cost for Exhibitor space. "

Complete details, Including Spectator and Exhibitor Information on The Primedia US SuperMotard National Round at the July 19-29th Los Angeles Calendar Motorcycle Show are available HERE.

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Loris Capirossi burns rubber in a full power drift out of a right hand sweeper on the way to shattering the lap record at the top speed runs at Catalunya.

MotoGP - IRTA Tests at Catalunya

Will the Japanese have to go back to World Superbike to hide?
Millions of TV fans watch as the factory Hondas get trounced!

Loris Capirosi shatters MotoGP world speed record at 202.5 mph and turns fastest lap times on Ducati Desmosedici V-4 Grand Prix Bike

DAY 1
Barcelona, Spain, March 15th Ducati MotoGP Team riders Loris Capirossi and Troy Bayliss commenced this weekend's first all-team MotoGP tests at Catalunya in fine form today, Capirossi's Desmosedici V4 clocking the fastest top speed ever recorded by a GP bike.The Italian rocketed through the Catalunya speed trap at a phenomenal 325.9kmh (202.5mph), proving that Ducati's engine and aerodynamics engineers have already done some great work with the Desmosedici. The previous best was 324.5kmh (201.6mph), recorded on Mugello's faster straight during last year's Italian GP. And yet Ducati MotoGP Team technical director Corrado Cecchinelli was quick to play down the remarkable performance.

"We're very pleased," he said. "But I'd like to say that whenever you have the best top speed but not the best lap time, it means that there are other bikes going around the corners faster, which means we still have some thinking to do!

"We've had a good day today. Troy is continuing to learn the track, because this is his first visit here, while Loris did some set-up tests and tried Michelin's 2003 tyres."

This week's tests, the team's penultimate session before the season kicks off at Suzuka on April 6, are particularly significant because they mark the first appearance of the definitive Ducati MotoGP factory
machines, as opposed to the pre-prototype bikes that have been used at all previous tests. The differences are in fact minimal – just detail changes to bodywork and a neater finish to some parts – but the bikes have performed well. Capirossi ended the day second fastest.

"I'm very happy with what we've achieved so far," said the former 125 and 250 champ. "It's great to be fastest on the straight, though top speed isn't so important. What I'm really happy about is the overall performance of the bike – it's very, very good – and it's getting better every day. I'm using the new bike for the first time here, so we're just working at fine-tuning now."

Bayliss, who clocked an amazing 90 laps during private tests here on Thursday, is steadily getting to grips with this complex circuit. "There's some places that are easy first time out, while other places take longer
to get to grips with," said the Australian. "We've been working on a lot of things here – mainly grip and handling – and I felt like I'd run into a bit of a wall this morning. We finally started to make some progress this afternoon, just as it started raining! Overall I'm pretty happy, but after going to so many new tracks, it'd just be nice to go to a track that I know, somewhere I'd know the limit."

At day’s end it was the Yamaha YZR-M1 of new Gauloises Yamaha Team signing Alex Barros that topped the official time sheets with a 1’44.112. Although the time fell slightly shy of the Brazilian’s personal best, set only days before, it was still well under the official circuit best ever lap – a 1’44.523 set during the 2002 MotoGP – despite the cold conditions.

Honda teams were at full strength at Montmelo. The four squads, led by the Repsol Honda factory team of Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden, will race, RC211V 990cc five-cylinder four-strokes in 2003. The Barcelona based Honda Pons squad race in Camel Pramac Honda colours this season, with Max Biaggi and
Tohru Ukawa as team riders.

Fausto Gresini, a former double 125cc Kingpin, paraded his Telefonica MoviStar Honda team of Daijiro Kato and Sete Gibernau at Montmelo. While Pramac Honda enter their second grand prix season with, new to MotoGP, Makoto Tamada aboard their RC211V.

The RC211Vs have undergone eight months of intensive development since the grand prix at Montmelo, in June of last year. The RCVs are now producing in excess of 200PS, and running at over 320km/h in a straight line, and consequently the Honda riders spent the early part of the day finding chassis and engine settings to suit the new RCV at the 4.727km circuit.

Fastest Honda rider on the day was local man Sete Gibernau, who lives in Barcelona. Gibernau used his circuit knowledge to good advantage to end the day in third place on the time sheet. Had it not rained Gibernau would
certainly have been faster today. As it was he set a time three-tenths of a second faster than reigning MotoGP World Champion Valentino Rossi in fourth place. Daijiro Kato was sixth fastest, followed by Tohru Ukawa. That was before a light rain shower and falling temperatures called a halt to serious action for the day.The Repsol Honda team treated the first day, as they would have race practice. Rossi and Hayden chasing chassis and suspension settings and testing a variety of Michelin tyres. Hayden is paying his first visit to Montmelo and was beginning to lower his times when the rain fell. With sunshine forecast for tomorrow the young American is confident of further improvement.

Team d'Antin's Shinya Nakano, the former 250cc GP Champ was the fastest Yamaha rider in 5th, withFortuna Yamaha Team duo Marco Melandri and Carlos Checa recorded the eighth and ninth fastest times respectively today.

Rain fell at Catalunya in the afternoon and the day ended with a dummy wet-weather restart, organised to allow riders to familiarise themselves with the new wet-weather restart procedure introduced for the 2003.

Lap Times Day One:
1. Alex Barros, Gauloises Yamaha Team 1'44.112;
2. Loris Capirossi, Ducati Marlboro Team 1'44.370;
3. Sete Gibernau, Telefonica Movistar Honda 1'44.793
4. Valentino Rossi, Repsol Honda 1'45.167;
5. Shinya Nakano, Yamaha Team d'Antin 1'45.328
6. Daijiro Kato, Telefonica Movistar Honda 1'45.476
7. Tohru Ukawa, Camel Pramac Pons 1'45.581
8. MARCO MELANDRI, FORTUNA YAMAHA TEAM 1'45.684
9. CARLOS CHECA, FORTUNA YAMAHA TEAM 1'45.733
10. John Hopkins, Suzuki Grand Prix Team 1'45.826

Everyone was elated over Capirossi's top of the charts performance on the new Desmosedici.

DAY 2
March 16th: Ducati MotoGP Team rider Loris Capirossi topped this afternoon’s official preseason test session at Catalunya in sensational style, outpacing his nearest rival by almost a quarter of a second aboard the
Italian factory’s all-new Desmosedici. Team-mate Troy Bayliss was also in brilliant form, bettering yesterday’s times by 1.81 seconds in his first visit to this complex Spanish track. Capirossi’s astonishing pace – 1.96 seconds inside the track record – underlined the remarkable progress made by Ducati since the start of the Desmosedici MotoGP project. The bike has yet to turn a wheel in anger but has already shown that it should be a real force once the 2003 MotoGP season starts in Japan on April 6. Today the machine also broke its own record for the fastest-ever top-speed figure in GP racing, tripping the Catalunya speed trap at 328.2kmh / 203.9mph.

Reigning MotoGP World Champion Valentino Rossi (Repsol Honda) started off as the fastest Honda rider in the afternoon timed session, the 'MotoGP best Qualifier' run live on television. Rossi topped the times as the session entered its final minute but his fellow countryman Loris Capirossi (Marlboro Ducati) and Brazilian Alex Barros (Gauloises Yamaha) upstaged the Italian in the dying seconds of the televised session. Capirossi and Barros were still out on track as Rossi entered the pits and both men promptly dipped under his fastest lap time of 1m 44.324s, Capirossi by a massive 0.690s, Barros by 0.446s.

“We weren’t really expecting this so soon!” smiled Ducati Corse managing director Claudio Domenicali. “And while we don’t anticipate being so competitive, so soon at every circuit, this does prove that Ducati has the capability to start a new project from scratch and reach a high level very quickly – all our engineers should be very proud. Of course, Loris also made a big difference today, and we found a perfect set-up for the bike, which really suits the high-speed nature of this track.”

Capirossi, whose spectacular best lap was watched on live TV by millions of bike-race fans around the world, was ecstatic with his performance. “I’m so happy, I really wanted that, so I rode 110 per cent!” beamed the Italian who had earlier suffered a minor fall, when an oil pipe split and leaked oil onto the rear tyre. “My fastest lap was hot – I went into a few corners a bit too fast but the bike still turned, no problem.”

Generous Capirossi immediately donated his BMW sports car – the prize for today’s fastest rider – to his mechanics, who will sell the vehicle and split the proceeds amongst themselves. “My mechanics have worked so hard for this, so they deserve it,” he added. “But we have a long season ahead of us, and a lot more work to do.”

MotoGP newcomer Bayliss ended the time one-hour session tenth and satisfied with progress. “This is my first time here so I just eased myself into it, did a lot of laps and things came good, so I’m happy, and I’m happy for Loris too!” said the Aussie. “We’ve been working on the same thing as always – making the bike go faster around the racetrack! And hopefully we can keep making progress in the run-up to Suzuka.”

Despite the mood of euphoria in the Ducati MotoGP Team pit, technical director Corrado Cecchinelli was keen to focus on the task ahead. “Now we have the highest top speed and the best lap time,” he said.
“But you have to remember – you only get points for races! That was an incredible lap from Loris – with the bike in race set-up with an average fuel load and the same tyres as all the other Michelin riders. We let him focus on riding today, rather than set-up, so he could get comfortable for the timed session.”

The top three men looked comfortably the fastest riders present when the session ended but in the free practice session that followed several riders put them under serious pressure. Tohru Ukawa (Camel Pramac Honda) had changed engine in his RC211V, made changes to front and rear suspension settings, then went out and put in a series of fast laps that culminated in him circulating the 4.727km circuit at 1m 43.832s, faster than all but Capirossi!

Local man Sete Gibernau (Telefonica MoviStar Honda) had been in sparkling form over the two days and, despite a crash that left him with an injured right hand, quickly emulated Ukawa's performance. The Spaniard setting fourth fastest time of the day, 0.193s behind Barros, who held on to third. Gibernau's performance pushed Rossi back to fifth place, while Daijiro Kato, Gibernau's teammate, dropped to sixth. Max Biaggi (Camel Pramac Honda) was fourth fastest in the televised session, having overcome chassis setting problems that slowed him on Saturday, but dropped too seventh after the final free practice.

The fastest seven riders at Montmelo this weekend were all under the pole position time of 1m 44523s, set by Biaggi for the 2002 grand prix. American Superbike Champion Nicky Hayden (Repsol Honda) was the RC211V rider who made the most progress. Hayden, just 21, makes his MotoGP debut this season and is paying his first visit to the Montmelo circuit. He is beginning to find his feet at the top level, clearly illustrated by his time of 1m 45.626s, almost 1.3s faster than on the first day!

The Ducati MotoGP Team now returns to Italy to prepare for the big trip to Suzuka, where Capirossi and Bayliss will test alongside their rivals on March 30 and 31.

MOTOGP - SUNDAY RESULTS
Top-ten fastest through the radar-trap and the results of the official timed session from Day 2 of the IRTA Test in Barcelona.
SUNDAY - TOP TEN HIGHEST SPEEDS: Rider, Bike, km/h / mph
1). Loris Capirossi, Ducati 328.2 / 203.9
2). Troy Bayliss, Ducati 322.8/ 200.6
3). Valentino Rossi, Honda, 320.9 / 199.4
4). Daijiro Kato, Honda, 320.7 / 199.3
5). Tohru Ukawa, Honda, 320.5 / 199.1
6). Shinya Nakano, Yamaha, 319.8 / 198.7
7). Nicky Hayden, Honda, 317.6 / 197.3
8). Max Biaggi, Honda. 316.5 / 196.7
90. Carlos Checa, Yamaha. 316.2 / 196.5
10). Norick Abe, Yamaha, 315.2 / 195.

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When she's not stuffing the net on a girls' collegiate basketball court, you'll find Ashley stuffing a wild bikini in the 2004 Fast Dates Calendar premiering in July.

Our own Los Angeles Calendar Motorcycle Show model pageant winner and hostess Ashley Esqueda, Miss Los Angeles, makes the finalists on ABC TV's ALL AMERICAN GIRL

March 18th, 2003: Hosting the 2003 Los Angels Calendar Motorcycle Show Weekend on July 19-20th will be beautiful Ashley Esqueda, a 20 year old university student, 6 foot tall school basketball star, and Miss Los Angeles 2002. Ashely entered and won the Calendar Girl pageant at the 2002 Show, and was awarded a paid photo shoot for the 2004 FastDates.com Calendars which will premier at this year's event. Ashley is presently appearing in ABC television's new reality show All American Girl where she made the cut into the top 15 finalists.

"If you weren't watching last night, I performed on All American Girl...it was stellar! I can't tell you how
excited I am to be doing this, even though my dancing looked (and was) about as graceful as a bull in a
china shop! Please show your support by watching the show!"

Follow Ashley's exploits on ABC TV each Wednesday 10-11pm as she advances towards the finals. And you can keep tabs on Ashley on her website at http://www.ashleye.us

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