Pavel Blata and Peter Clifford

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Q. Why did you decide to enter MotoGP?
A. MotoGP is King of Motorcycle sport. I was not satisfied just to use thetechnology and abilities of our company only to develop minibikes when weclearly have the opportunity to use those resources in Grand Prix racing.Beyond that we believe that it is the people that are the most importantresource. Broadly speaking technology is available everywhere, we want tohave the opportunity to show what our people can do and to develop that resource.This is our aim, to pursue this and to be successful.

Q. Why did you choose a V6?
A. As an engine layout it offers a good deal in terms of power productionand balance in a compact envelope. The layout allows us to design what webelieve will be a good racing package.

Q. Don't you think that the weight and fuel regulations put you at a bigdisadvantage?
A. We know that in our racing debut we are not going to be challenging Hondaand Yamaha for the race win. That would be the case whatever engine we built.This project gives us the chance to learn while we do something interestingand different. The next two years will give us some valuable experience onwhich to base the decisions about our second engine and at the moment weare completely open about what configuration that may be.

Q. Does your company have the necessary facilities and experience to builda MotoGP machine?
A. We have very good facilities and we are acquiring more for this project.We use high quality technology on our existing products and we are investinga great deal both in the series production projects and the racing. We believethat the development is complimentary. Our company is not old, we started15 years ago from nothing and we must build up everything from zero. Forthis reason all of our technology and equipment is new and we are not weigheddown with old equipment and practices.

Q. How will you support the incredible cost of MotoGP?
A. We have not entered this sport to try and out spend the opposition. Weare budgeting for our own project and our own aims. We consider this a combinedinvestment in both the technology and the publicity associated with thisclass of motorcycle racing.

Q. What is your budget for this project?
A. That is confidential.

Q. Do you have the support of the Czech government?
A. Recently we were visited by the President of the Czech Republic, Mr. Vaclav Klaus, and several government ministers who all expressed their support forour work. I am sure that we can also count on their support for this endeavor.

Q. What will you consider to be successful results in your first year?
A. Firstly we want to build bikes that are exciting. We then want to showthat we can race with the other manufacturers. All the top motorcycle companiesin the world are represented here. It is a challenge just to race againstthem and that is what we intend to do.

Q. What riders will you have?
A. We are in discussions with WCM concerning this decision and the team willmake the announcement when we are ready.

Q. What is the relationship between BLATA and WCM?
A. This is a partnership. Broadly speaking we are the manufacturer and areresponsible for design and manufacture of the machine and WCM is the raceteam, responsible for what happens at the track. WCM's race workshop andoffices will be within the BLATA factory in Blansko 30km from here so itwill be a very close relationship, it already is.

Q. What is the status of the project, is the engine built?
A. We are well advanced in the design process, particularly with the engine.We will start the manufacturing process in September. Concerning the chassis,we have two solutions and following some further analysis we will make ourchoice.

Q. What is the schedule, when will you start testing?
A. Of course there is a testing ban between 1st December and 20th January.We will not be ready by December 1st so we plan to be testing late Januaryor early February.