BQR surprised to find Brits available.

Contrary to recent reports suggesting that British riders Jay Vincent and Leon Haslam were second choices at the BQR team, the Spanish outfit admits that it could not believe its luck on discovering that they were still uncontracted.

Initial coverage of the double signing reported that the team had tried to sign two Spanish riders, but had found that both were scheduled to race elsewhere. This suggestion has now been counteracted by sources within BQR, which claim that the team is delighted to have snapped up a pairing of Haslam and Vincent's calibre.

"The truth is that BQR originally intended to continue with David Tomas and add David de Gea," Dennis Noyes told Crash.Net, "but the team was told that Tomas' results in 2001 were not enough to deserve acceptance [into the GP series]. Then de Gea decided to seek a superbike ride.

"The team had been considering making an offer to Jason Vincent since the Valencian GP and first spoke to him in Brazil. We were also interested in Leon Haslam, but believed that he had already signed with Sabre Sport. As soon as we learned that Leon was available, we contacted him and feel that we have two excellent riders."

The team, only a recent addition to the MotoGP fold after six years on the Spanish national scene, is wasting no time in attempting to make an impression on the GP250 class, and is not only signing riders to its strength.

"Our goal is to make the BQR Hondas the top private machines in the 250 class," Noyes continued, "We have just signed American George Vukmanovich as technical director, and are about to sign an experienced British mechanic to complete a technical staff of one American, one Brit, and four Spanish crews members."