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Neil Hodgson Checks in
9/07/03 - "Fantastic! I guess it couldn’t have worked out any better. I was a little disappointed after the first race because, as I said before, I really wanted to win both races. I had a fantastic weekend and was really relaxed about the whole thing and then it came to that first race and I think all the nerves that I hadn’t felt all weekend came in that first race. I tensed up too much and I suffered from real, real, real bad arm pump and on the final laps I just couldn’t even feel my front brake. Then I started to get cramp in my legs and I thought “What’s going on here? I’m falling apart.”

I just couldn’t do what I wanted to do on the bike and around Assen you have to be smooth and flowing. I crossed the line and just didn’t feel the elation that I wanted to feel. I know that sounds crazy but I just really wanted to win that race. I rode like a novice, really. I went straight into all the press conference stuff and then back to the box to phone Kathryn. She was a bit emotional and that made me a bit emotional and then it all started to sink in and I started to feel better about everything.

Then I had a bit of a panic on because I had to go do some more press stuff but I just wanted to get to the Clinica Mobile to get my arms fixed for the next race. When I got there I just said “Please sort me out because I’ve got to do this all over again but this time I’ve got to win!” They gave me a load of injections and I know I’ve said it before but I can’t thank the Clinica Mobile enough. They were absolutely fantastic, all of them. Luca, the guy that looks after me there, has been great all year. He knows me so well and he knows how to fix me up; in fact, I owe that second race win to him.

It was all a total team effort and to win a World Championship you need to be in the best team with the best bike with the best tyres and that’s what I’ve had all this year. From day one I’ve felt that I’ve been a real part of the Ducati Team and welcomed into the “family”. Right now, I’m sitting in my motorhome in the Assen paddock with my parents trying to shake off a hangover! We didn’t get in until 04:00 this morning after having a bit of a celebration. Obviously I’m on a real high right now and just want to get home to see Kathryn and Holly so we’re just about to set off for the airport. Before I go, thanks for all your great messages in my guest book. I think it’s all finally beginning to sink in!"

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Covergirls Janelle, Chandi and Joanna Krupa get down to work
in the 2004 Garage Girls calendar available right here.

Ducati will not comment on any of the pit talk, but reportedly they have offered Valentino Rossi $10 million dollars to ride for them in 2004. Valentino's contract with Honda is up for renewal at the end of this season. And while the Honda camp is "90% sure" that Valentino will resign with them for next season, you can also guess that any patriotic Italian would love to end his racing career winning another World Championship, but this time on an Italian bike.

Thisdecision will probably hinge on how long Valentino will want to continue racing motorcycles. We know he has a desire to move to car racing, either World Rally or Fomula One, and if 2004 will be his final year on bikes, the 1-year deal with Ducati for $10 million dollars would be the way to go. Staying with Honda for another MotoGP title offers no real challenge for the sport's most popular and talented rider.

Either way, it looks like Ducati will be putting together two, 2-rider teams for 2004 to help them clinch the MotoGP title. Two of the riders will certainly include their current team riders Loris Capirossi and Troy Bayliss. While the other two MotoGP riders will probably be their new 2003 World Superbike champ Neil Hodgson and possibly Ruben Xaus. We say 'possibly' for Ruben because his seat depends on Valentino Rossi joining the 2nd Ducati MotoGP team or not.

How do we know that Ducati wants to move it winning World Superbike team of Hodgspn and Xaus to MotoGP next season? Because the top Ducati privateer riders in the SBK series, Regis Laconi and James Toseland have been asked if they want to join the factory Ducati Corse team for 2004....

So where is the little Italian manufacturer getting all the money to field 2 teams in MotoGP in an effort to beat Honda? A number of possible senarios include reducing their factory financial effort in World Superbike by possibly making a top privateer team like HM Plant Ducati "their official" factory team. With no serious factory challenge to Ducati in World Superbike for 2004, and the next 2 top riders in the series points standings (Laconi and Toseland) riding for them, Ducati should have no problem repeating their Superbike title again in 2004 without Hodgson and Xaus.

The other possibility for Ducati getting the big bucks to field a 2nd Ducati MotoGP team could come from current Honda and Suzuki team sponsors Repsol and Telefonica. Just as Marlboro left Yamaha for Ducati for 2003, these other big sponsors could do so as well for 2004. The Spanish telecommunications giant Telefonica certainly can't be pleased with team Suzuki's dismal back of the pack finishes these 2 seasons in MotoGP and Telefonica would probably be very happy to go with Ducati if invited ( and Xaus is Spanish). While Repsol might also want to switch to Ducati if their top rider Valentino Rossi does so as well.

Plus you've got the European heritage factor to consider.
Telefonica and Repsol are European companies selling just in the European market. It is in their best image to sponsor a European factory team cabable of winning the MotoGP Championship with European riders, not a Japanese team with non European riders.

So just stay tuned as there could be a huge shake-up in World Championship motorcycle racing in the next few months as the once bankrupt little Italian manufacturer Ducati continues to take on the world...

MORIWAKI RACING Confirms an Entry with Tamaki Serizawa plus Honda MD211VF in
FIM 2003/2004 World Championship MotoGP
Moriwaki Engineering Ltd. will take part in FIM 2003 Road Racing World Championship Series beginning with Rd.13 “Gauloises” Pacific Grand-Prix as a “Wild Card” on 3rd – 5th Oct 2003.

Bringing in an originally developed MotoGP machine, MD211VF (Moriwaki Dream 211V Fighter), which carries “Honda RC211V” (MotoGP Champion Machine) V5 engine, Tamaki Serizawa (#25), who is a R&D rider of MD211VF, is selected to ride in the race. The team is declared as “Moriwaki Racing” and Mamoru Moriwaki, Representative Director of Moriwaki Engineering Ltd., will stand as the team director.

The purpose of Moriwaki Racing’s entry in Pacific Grand-Prix will be focused on a full season entry in 2004, which differs from the intensions of our spot entry in the opening round, Suzuka 2003. Focusing a full season entry in 2004, the purpose of the entry is specifically to review the development works done to the machine and to simulate it’s competitiveness in an actual race meeting. We, therefore, target and challenge to finish the race in the highest position possible, cutting into the factory machines.

Mamoru Moriwaki / Team Director
“We experienced a drastic improvement in the MOTEGI test a few weeks ago. The fact that the machine had overcome the focused problems, it proved that the development work put into planned and studied on the previous test is heading the right direction. Looking at the project as a whole, there still is a lot to be done before it is ready, yet we will keep on trying to solve the problems before the Pacific Grand-Prix to challenge MotoGP and accomplish the goals. This challenge is for us to appear in the 2004 series and we will look forward for the race”.

Dunlop Blowing Chunks
More than once this season AMA Superbike points leader Matt Mladin (and other) have had to pit for a new rear tire as the rear Dunlop on his 190hp Yoshimura Suzuki GSXR as his race tire has come apart under the stress imposed by the new 1000cc inline four Superbikes.

At World Superbike at Laguna Seca in July, Matt Mladin sat out the 2nd SBK race on Sunday because the offical line he "was too tired" after a full weekend of racing including AMA Superbike, which was probably true. But pit insiders also overheard Mladin throwing one of his tantrums and refusing to go back out for the 2nd race if he could get tires equal to what the other factory Superbike teams were using. Which Dunlop did not have.

This past weekend in World Superbike at Assen in Holland, Gregorio Lavilla with the GSXR and James Toseland on the HM Pant Ducati both found their Dunlop rear tires chunking and Toseland had to retire to the pits. Dunlop has being trying to enter the World Championship arena, but even in American Superbike, has been having a difficult time developing a new tire for the new generation of high horsepower 1000cc Superbikes.

Meanwhile, the Michelin and Pirelli tire shod Superbikes and MotoGP machines of Honda and Ducati with even more horsepower have not been experiencing and such extreame problems. Dunlop is attempting to make inroads in MotoGP with their tires being run on the factory Kawasaki GP bikes. But needless to say the back of the pack Kawasaki GP bikes don't have the power to overstress their tires like a well prepared Suzuki GSXR1000.

You won't find the other motorcycle press pointing out the faults of the current Dunlop roadracing tires because of Dunlop's advertising power in the America motorcycle market. But from our own personal racing and sport riding experience on Super and SuperSport bikes, both Michelin and Pirelli make a better handling, better wearing motorcycel tire.