From a press release issued by Proton Team KR:

Sepang Preview

Proton Team looks for points again at home GP

The Malaysian GP is the home GP for the Proton KR V5 – and comes just one week after the radical new four-stroke’s best result. At last weekend’s Pacific GP at Motegi, Nobuatsu Aoki finished 14th, and took two points.

It was a landmark for the seven-race-old prototype, after a gruelling and fully public development programme for a motorcycle that only ran on a race-track for the first time only in May, after the season had already begun. Results have been steadily improving as the team worked almost day and night to solve inevitable teething troubles with the groundbreaking new design.

Now the Sepang race gives Aoki and his team-mate Jeremy McWilliams another chance to demonstrate progress, in the home of the team’s principal backers Proton Cars.

“We have a few new parts for this race – new exhausts for better engine performance, and a new fairing that should improve the aerodynamic performance,” said team founder and owner Kenny Roberts, World 500cc Champion from 1978 to 1980.

“Back in Britain, engineers are working on a new design that will fix the problems that were designed in to the first version. You won’t see any big improvements until then, but the bike has been getting better all the time.

“The thing that hurt us most was racing, rather than being able to concentrate on developing the machine in private,” he said.

Improvements have come race by race. Before the Motegi GP, the howling racers were already knocking on the door of the top 15. Detail improvements to electronic engine mapping and intake design brought a significant improvement in mid-range power, while a new slipper clutch solved problems with corner entry. All these improved rideability.

The most visible of the improvements in Malaysia is a new nose-piece for the fairing, lower and smaller than the earlier version, with the “shoulders” taken away from either side of the screen.

Aoki’s points were the reward, but McWilliams fell victim to another problem, crashing after his brakes suffered overheating problems early in the race.

The Malaysian GP is the middle of a trio of gruelling flyaway races. Seven days later the 15th round takes place at Phillip Island in Australia, with the final round a fortnight later at Valencia in Spain.

Jeremy McWilliams – Anything could happen
This track is okay for us until the last section, with the straights linked with hairpins, but I think we can be very close. A lot depends on how effective the new fairing is. But the weather means that anything could happen. Especially with the race at 3:30, which seems to be the time it starts raining most afternoons. Our Bridgestone tyres are good in hot conditions, if it stays dry. The bike’s okay in the wet too, with the latest improvements to the clutch. We’ll see how it turns out.

Nobuatsu Aoki – Maybe better than Motegi
Our chances here seem as good as at Motegi, and maybe better. Motegi is a typical stop-and-go circuit, which is hard for us. Here we have more corners, and that gives us more chance. We have some new parts here, and I will try 130 percent, even more than usual, because this is Proton’s home track.


More, from a press release issued by Alice Aprilia Racing Information:

MALAYSIA GP/PREVIEW

The Alice Aprilia Racing Team is ready for the Malaysia GP that will take place at the Sepang circuit close to the international airport of Kuala Lumpur. After the unlucky race in Motegi when both Aprilia RS Cubes were involved in a crash during the start, the team wants to show that the chattering problems they had in the past are going to be solved. New material managed for the development of the chassis setting will be tested this week end in order to give more competitiveness to Colin and Nori.

The Amercian rider spent a week of relax in Malaysia: “After all these flights and the jetlag I had to relax. I feel Ok and hope to get a better start this time”.

Nori Haga came here from Japan with his family: ” In my home GP I had a crash so my position on the grid was almost bad but I caught the firsts anyway. I want to get a good result here as well”.

GIGI DALL’IGNA (Project Leader): “I wish this race can be much more lucky for us: in Japan Colin was involved in the initial crash during the start and Haga was a bit late in the gird because of the crash he suffered the day before. We need a god result now! This Malaysian track is very fast and the air temperature is very high but I do not feel worried about the performance of our bikes: for sure the engine will be used at the maximum level. Anyway we will use new material in order to solve the chattering problems: swingarm, linkage and wheels with different setting to avoid the vibration. The chassis setting is very important as well because here the grip is rather short so the set up must be very precise. Unfortunately last year data are not very helpful cause now we use another tyres supplier”.


THE TRACK

Sepang F1: lenght 5.548 km equal to 3.468 miles

Lap record: Max Biaggi (Yamaha), 2:04.925

Pole position: Alex Barros (Honda 2002), 2:04.487


More, from a press release issued by MS Aprilia Racing Information:

TO MALAYSIA WITH A 18 POINTS ADVANTAGE

After Motegi it’s Sepang turn for the Malaysia GP this week end. Located at 50 km from Kuala Lumpur centre the Sepang track is 5548 meters long with 15 corners and the main straight is 920 meters. Another important feature is the width of the track: even 25 meters. Besides the track it must add the unsettled weather conditions as the damp is about 90% and the temperature is 30° when the sun shines.

Manuel Poggiali: “Here it’s better than Japan and I can relax and do train as there’s a big fitness centre in the hotel. I arrived here on Monday evening and during these days I thought to have relax and did a lot of sport cause it’s important to be at 100% with three races in a row. Compared with the last races I made some changes on my feeding adding some energy drinks to compensate the loss of the liquids due to the high temperature. I like this track cause it’s exciting but it ‘s also very wide and I need to find the right trajectories as I never rode a 250 bike here. In this moment I feel quite good and relaxed without nay pressure. Moreover the work ambience is peaceful and it helps me to concentrate”.