Race News from Around the World, January 2004 c/o mcnews

Snow falls on first day of Dakar 2004, January 1^st, 2004.

Intense snow over the central massif in France and the city of Clermont Ferrand greeted competitors on the first day of Dakar 2004. The official start was given this morning but the weather conditions, very adverse during the prologue stage, lead the race organisation to authorise all motorbike riders to load their machines into the assistance trucks without having to make the liaison routes on the road, as initially planned.

Dakar 2004 continues through the mud, January 2^nd, 2004.

Heavy mud greeted the riders on the second stage today which again had many riders taking a cautious approach not to throw the game away so early in this mammoth adventure. Yamaha Motor France rider David Frétigné is the early leader on his two-wheel-drive WR450F 2-Trac. Commenting on his performance the ecstatic Frenchman said: “I was very impressed with how well the two-wheel drive system performed here. It allowed me to come out of the corners much quicker than I would normally have been able to and gave me much more stability on the straights.”

K1200LT offers more for 2004, January 6^th, 2004.

BMW’s K1200LT has long been lauded as the world’s best touring motorcycle but the German maker has still decided to improve the machine for 2004. An interesting new feature is an electro-hydraulic centre-stand. Lifting a large touring motorcycle on to a centre-stand when fully loaded can be quite a mission so BMW has come up with a system whereby at the press of a button the machine itself hydraulically lifts itself on to centre stand, with no need to even dismount from the machine. An electric pump builds up pressure in the system and simply extends the centre-stand by hydraulic pressure. A very clever development indeed, and one that others will surely copy.

Two wheel drive Yamaha takes another Dakar stage win, January 14^th, 2004

Yamaha Motor France’s David Frétigné took his all-wheel-drive Yamaha WR450F 2-Trac to its third stage victory of the 2004 Dakar rally, taking them into the top ten overall, despite having an engine capacity of up to 500cc engine capacity less than his main rivals.

Roma takes victory in the Dakar, January 18^th, 2004

Joan Roma and Repsol have clinched a deserved victory at the Dakar 2004. The last stage held today at the Dakar beaches did not bring any changes to the overall standings and Roma has been able to step on the podium as the winner, taking the first victory of a Spanish rider in the 26 years of history of the race.

Rossi getting quicker on the Yamaha, January 26^th, 2004.

In gruelling heat Valentino Rossi (Gauloises Fortuna Yamaha Team) was inside his own previous lap record of 2m 03.82 seconds at the 5.548 km Sepang track in testing today. He recorded a best time of 2m 02.75 seconds in the final session of this intensive three-day test, putting in a total of 59 laps.

Haga officially signs with Renegade Ducati for World Superbike, January 27^th, 2004.

Japan’s spectacular and very popular Noriyuki Haga yesterday signed with the British Renegade Ducati team and will rejoin the World Superbike Championship this year as team-mate to rising U.K. star, Leon Haslam.