From a press release issued by Wurth-Honda BQR:

Report on yesterday’s second round of the Spanish Formula Extreme National Championship held on Sunday, June 20, 2004 at Jarama (Madrid, Spain)

Date: June 21, 2004

Yamahas Take Top Six Places at Jarama in Spanish Formula Extreme

Both Wurth-Honda BQR riders crashed out of round two of the Spanish Formula Extreme National Championship race at Jarama (Madrid), but a strong qualifying performance by reigning FX National Champion José David de Gea and a good come-back from American Kenny Noyes, who battled back from 26th on lap two to 7th on the next to last lap, only to crash out when he lost the front, showed that the Honda Fire Blades are capable of running with Yamaha R1 machines that took the top six places.

Former MotoGP and 500 rider José Luis Cardoso won from his Yamaha Laglisse team mates Ivan Silva and Javier del Amor, all on Michelin-shod Yamahas. This was the first time in the three year history of Spain’s new Formula Extreme class that a single brand has swept the top six finishing positions.

Suzukis took the next three places and a Kawasaki was tenth. The Honda CBR1000RR challenge faded when de Gea, third on the grid, crashed on lap 1 after getting a terrible start. His teammate Noyes also started poorly off the second row, and then had an off-track excursion at the end of the 170 mph home straight which dropped him to 26th on lap 2, but the young Californian charged back through the field only to crash on the penultimate lap just after taking over seventh place.

“I had just gotten past the three Suzukis and had no one else I could catch. I guess I just broke concentration going into the Monza corner and tucked the front while trailing the brakes. It was my mistake and I feel bad because the team needed a finish today,” said Noyes. “Both de Gea and I got awful starts and that probably caused us to make mistakes early in the race trying to take back the places we lost off the line.”

After two rounds, Yamaha riders, led by Silva and Cardoso, hold the top five places in the Formula Extreme points table. The pace of this race gave fans an opportunity to compare the new generation of large-capacity production machines with the 500s Grand Prix two-strokes of the last decade at Jarama, where, until yesterday, all records were held by 500s of the Rainey-Schwantz generation.

The last time 500cc two strokes howled in anger around the 2.392 mile Jarama circuit, just north of Madrid, the pole went to Kevin Schwantz (Suzuki) in a time of 1:33.940. The fastest lap in the race and the record race average were established by winner Wayne Rainey who lapped in 1:34.814 and averaged 90.021 miles per hour. The last 500 race at Jarama was held in 1991 in substitution of the Yugoslavian Grand Prix at Reijka which was cancelled due to civil war and has not been run since.

Running on the since unaltered Jarama track, Spain’s top racing class, known here as Formula Extreme but actually much more akin to AMA Superstock, broke all the old records. The new absolute motorcycle pole record of 1:33.565 and the race lap record of 1:34.660 were set by Ivan Silva, who was second. Winner Jose Luis Cardoso set a new race average record of 90.188 miles per hour.

Raul Romero, owner of the Wurth Honda BQR team of La Roca del Vallés (Barcelona), believes that the current Yamaha superiority, especially that of the three-rider Laglisse Sol de Imagen team of Madrid, is based upon extensive pre-season work and a helping hand from Yamaha Europe. “We got our bikes way too late and are still learning about them. Already our CBRs are as fast in a straight line as the Yamahas, but we are 15 pounds heavier and we have some clutch-related starting problems yet. We believe we have the riders, the bikes and the tires (Dunlop) to win, but we still have a lot of hard work ahead of us.”

The Wurth Honda team competes in both the World 250cc Championship (with Spain’s Alex Debon and Frenchman Eric Bataille) and the CEV with most of the crew leaving for the Grand Prix of Holland in Assen the day after the race at Jarama.

Noyes will have a one-off ride on a Suzuki GSX-R1000 in the classic 24 Hours of Catalunya, held at the Circuit of Catalunya near Barcelona. He makes the ride with the permission and blessing of the team. Said Raul Romero, “Honda Spain is not asking us to run the 24 Hours this year and Kenny’s contract with us includes a special clause that lets him ride the 24 Hours of Catalunya with another team if we don’t enter. He had an offer from Folch Endurance Yamaha, but that would have been on Michelin. Our contract with Dunlop stopped that, but then he got an offer from Catalá Suzuki, the team that won the race last year. We wish him luck in this one and meanwhile we’ll be working hard to sort out our starting problems with the Fireblades so that we can win in Albacete.”

Round three of the Spanish Nationals will take place at Albacete on July 11, the weekend after the 24 Hours of Catalunya.

Jarama Formula Extreme results:
1. Jose Luis Cardoso (Yamaha R1)
2. Ivan Silva (Yamaha R1) –4.747 seconds
3. Javier del Amor (Yamaha R1) –12.860
4. José Oriol Fernandez (Yamaha R1) –14.010
5. David Tomás (Yamaha R1) –24.798
6. Daniel Ribalta (Yamaha R1) –34.842
7. Josep Monge (Suzuki GSX-R) –47.271
8. Arnau Sanchez (Suzuki GSX-R) –47.613
9. David Gomez (Suzuki GSX-R) –47.614
10. Salvador Cabana (Kawasaki ZX-10) –47.871



Fastest lap: Silva 1:34.660 (Jarama race lap record)

Pole: Silva 1:33.595 (Jarama pole record)

Race average: Cardoso, 90.188 miles per hour (Jarama race average record)