Cycle News

a nd the Team Tokoro H a rl eyDavidson 1200 Sportster SuperTwins entry is backed by Nordica Sportsystem J a pan , Su n dance Ra cin g P ro j ect , Sanyo Electric, and Mister Do nu t. The chassis was built by Over Racing and featured their trademark oval section aluminum tubi ng . The team was constantly shadowed by a video crew recording their every move for a planned television show about the Japanese racers . The team had ignition problems which were traced to a bad bearing on a camshaft gear. Kozono finished 32nd after a pushrod broke. Two-time Grand Nationa l Champion Ricky Graham broke the midd le fin ger o n his left hand o n the openi ng la p of his heat race at the Thursday night, March 5, Daytona Regio nal Sho rt Track. G raha m showed up at Frid ay's rained out 600cc National wit h a sp li nt o n his ha nd. " I do n 't th ink I'll be raci ng tomo rro w n ight," G raha m said . " But it's a long seaso n and I'll have p len ty of time to heal before the nex t rou nd. At least I didn 't break someth ing more serious." Graham did compete in Saturday night's Camel Pro Series race program, but fai led to mak e the main. Nick Ienatsch, Motorcyclist magaline's senior editor who finished third in last year 's AMA 250cc Grand Pri x Championship, won 't be co ntesting thi s year's series after a sponsorship dea l collapsed. "I was planning on doing it until th e Del Amo Yamaha money fell through," he said. "I had all my eggs in on e basket and it was pretty late and I didn't hav e the burni ng desire to pick up the phone and start ca ll in g peopl e. Once I thought about not racing, it was all rig ht. Last year my job (a t the magaline) definitely suffered. It's pretty important to me and I want to do it righ t." Ienat sch was a working crew memb er of the Yoshim ura Suzuki Superbike team at Daytona. A new AMA rule this year whi ch forbids riders fro m usi ng the same bike in SuperTwins and Superbike has angered a n umber of riders, incl uding j o urn a l ist/ racer A lan Ca thc a r t . "There's no t a single reason for the ru le. It only pe nalizes th e privateer. Riders like (Do ug) Polen and (Pasca l) Pico tte hav e two bik es anyhow. It gives more variety to th e grids." The AMA National T ech Manager Me rrill Vanderslice said, " Initia lly it was an attempt at limiting the $40-, $50-, $60thousand dollar bik e from dominating the top 10, without pointing out one particular bra nd and type of motor cycle. It was not our intent to chase people out the door. The new attit ude is no t to thro w up hurdles in their way. It wasn't in 't he SRs (suppleme n tal regu lations), but it was in the rulebook which just came out here ." Van derslice said that it also made sen se fro m a marketing standpo int. " O ne poi nt th e marketing people are tryin g to ma ke in attempting to sell the program to race promoters is that not all the same bikes are in all the classes. To see 250s and Superbike and Twins is impo rtant to people in the stands. The marketing people are attempting to make it appealing in tha t sense. Obviously, it's not going to help entries at o ther races. " One thi ng that surprised Cathcart was that the AMA actually sought him out to return his Superbike entry fee. T he new D unlop D -364 DOT tires fina lly arrived in Daytona on Th urs day afternoon , March 5, after bei ng stuck in ice for a week on the SI. Lawre nce R iver on their way to Du n lo p 's headquarters in Buffalo, New York. Originally, the y were to arrive o n February 17, but the dat e kept gelling pushed back becau se of the shipping problems, and th ey were. in the Dunlop garage in time for the afternoon qualifying session s. Dunlop's Jim Allen said the tires were developed for Daytona and Charlolie because of the high heat the banking generates. They're made in En gland at the race shop and cost considerabl y more than th e SportMax radials , wh ich will still be offe red to a ll customers as the main product. Allen also said that this year's slicks are the same tires that both Wayne Rainey and Doug Pol en used in th eir World Championship quests last year, and that the gap between spo rt and race tires was narrowing. " Th e leap between the sport tir es and slick tir es is closer than it's ever been ," he sa id. Fast By Ferracci's Pascal Picotte spent his off-season ho nin g his ice racin g ski lls a t hom e in Ca na da. "T h is is the first time I' ve ridden the Duca ti this year," Picotte said . " I didn't do any testi ng over the winter, but I did quite a bit of ice racing. It 's something I started doi ng about three years ago. It 's just for fu n, but I think it helps me quite a bit." Last year, road racer Tomm y L ynch rode as a full factory rider for Yoshimura Suzuki, but the teenager from Bakersfield, California, was d ropped from the team in the off-season.��Lync h, Harley-Davidson introduces '9 3 Heritage N ostalgiaat Bike Week H arley-Davidso n unv eiled the first of its 1993 lineu p at Daytona at a Wednesda y, March 1, press conference. The Heritage Nosta lgia features wid e whitewall tir es, cowh ide in serts o n the seat and saddlebags and a black and white paint scheme. According to H a r ley, th e specia lly designed tir es, manufactured by Dunlop, are the first wide whitewalls approved by the company's engi neeri ng departmen t for use on Harley-Davidso ns. Another first for Harley are the cloisonne em blems that adorn the Heritage Nostal gi a's fuel tank. The bike wi ll be a limited edition model and will be availabl e in August when the rest of Harley's '93 models are introduced, Harley displayed two preproduction H eri tage Nostalgias at Daytona. who combined with J eff Heino to win the AMAlCCS EBC Brakes Endurance Challen ge last unday in Daytona, is planning to pu t together an AMA 250cc Gran d Prix program for the rest of the series. " I wou ld like to continue to do the end urance racing to keep my four- stroke skills up, bu t I want to stay with race bikes and that 's wh y I think a 250 wo uld be good. That way I'd be racing with slic ks and stuff, rather th an racing Supersport. " Honda of Bloomington (India na) will ho st T eam Kawasaki 's six-time National MX Champion Jeff Ward and two-time 125cc National Champion Mike Kiedro wski at a special open house on Friday, March 20, from 6 p.rn. to 8 p.m. T he affai r is bei ng held in conjunction with th e Camel Supercross Series round tha t will tak e p lace the following eveni ng in the Ind ia na Hoosier Do me. The shop is located at 1006 S. Waln ut St. i n Bloo mi ngton; for more information call 812/ 339-0199. Ch eck out the Calendar section in this issu e for a revised World Cham pionship Superbike Series schedule that was released by the FIM last week. . Last year, Papa reported that Ted Simmons, the former major league ba seball pl ayer man y feel is headed for baseball 's H all of Fame, had acq u ired a Harley-Davidso n tattoo o n hi s upper left arm. At th e time, Simmons was the director of p layer development for the SI. Louis Cardinals, the team he starred on fo r man y years. But after being named genera l manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates la te last year, he anno unced th at while he would co ntinue to rid e hi s Harl ey in h is leisure tim e, he would stop riding it to the off ice, sayi ng he felt a genera l manager shouldn 't ride a bik e to work. Come on, Ted, loos en up. J erry Hebel is calling on rid ers in southeast Kent ucky to help him obtain a permit to open a new motocross facility, D anie l B oon e Motocross Park, near Corbin, Ken tucky. Hebel ha s run into opposition at the proposed site for the park, but p lan s to move it a few mi les from the ori ginal lo cation . However , h e mu st now obtain a n en tertainmen t licen se from a judge a nd urges riders to write Executive Judge Leford Karr, Laurel County Court House, London , KY 40741, in support of th e facili ty. For more informati on con tact Hebel a t 606/ 528-0130. \VER A has an nounced ' th at a fiveround Michigan Gran Prix Series will be held a t Grattan Raceway in C rauan, Michigan. The road races are ope n to both WER A Expert a nd Novice license holders o n unl im ited dis p lacement ma ch ines. Th e firs t round will take place o n April 19, followed by ro unds o n May 17, J un e . 28, J ul y 26 and September 13. For mo re in form at ion, ca ll \VERA at 803/681 9372. At th e March 5 AMA Daytona Jun ior / Expert Regional Short T rac k, Team H arl ey-David son 's Chris Carr expe rim en ted with Dunlop tub es in side hi s Good year tires. T he tubes are reportedl y sim ilar to Michelin's Bib Mou sse tub es that are"used in off-roa d racing. " I like the way they feel on this track, " said Carr. " T hey feel a bit different than regular tubes, and th ey wor k a bit better - at least o n a sli ppery track like this." Ca rr's Goodyears, front and rear , had yello w Dunlop stickers o n th e sidewalls. "Man, it will be hard to race with that box of Pam pers sitting in my lap," said dirt tracker Ronnie Jones at Daytona as he needled Cycle News associate editor Donn Maeda about his " Rating the sliders" article in the March 4 Daytona preview issue. Maeda had said, "Put Jones down for sixth (in the '92 Camel Pro Series ) and a box of Pampers. " The Pampers because Jones and his wife Trina are expecting their first ch ild. Jones reports that since his decision to switch from Ho ndas to Harley-Davidsons in 1992, "M y feelings about the whole thing have gotten better and better." Jones says he counts o n being a factor in th e Grand National Championship title chase. As Team Harley-Davidso n di rt tracker Chris Carr watched th e road races at Dayto na Intern ational Speedway, he remarked, " I'm definitely planning o n goi ng roa d rac ing eventua lly, bu t I have some unfini shed busin ess on the di n to take care of first." Carr has finish ed second to Scott Parke r in th e Gra nd National Champions hip Series for three years in a row, and hopes to improve th at in 1992. After winning th e March 7 season opener at Municipal Stadium, Carr says that he " has a good feeling abo ut the rest o f the year." At th e AHRMA board m eeting held at th e Deland H otel in Daytona .Beach , Flori da , March 3, Ch airman Fred Mork, Treasurer Mike Smith and Secretary Bob Barker were re-elected for o ne -year terms. At the AHRMA awa rds banquet later that eveni ng, Barry Higgins of Mabl eton, Georgia, was named Rider of t he Year. Ohioan Chance Darling, wh o had planned to field a Ho nda CR500 at the March 7 Camel Pro Series Daytona Sh ort Track, o p ted to compe te aboard his four-strok e Wood-Rorax aft er an un su ccessfu ll outing at the Mar ch 5 AMA Regiona l Short Track at Municipal Stadium. Darl ing, wh o competed with a fr eshly broken co lla rbo ne suffered in a hare scrambles race, said , " T he power (of the two-stroke) is too violent for this type of tra ck. It 's too slip pery to co ntrol su ch an on-or-off type of powerband. Plus, every time it twitches around, it abo ut kill s my sho u lder." On Friday morning, March 6, Darling's father, Wayne D arling , suffered a broken leg and a shattered kn eecap wh en he and Ch an ce bumpstarted th e H onda on a Daytona street and th e thoule stu ck open. Darling underwent reconstructive surgery th e foll ow in g da y at Dayton a 's H alifax Medi cal Center and wi ll spe nd at least eig ht months off h is feet. Cards and letters may be sent to Darling at P.O. Box 39, Northfield, OH 44067. Only a few of the new water-cooled R ota x motor s sold by Ron Wood were seen in mo torcycles competi ng a t Mun icip al Stadium duri ng Ca me l Motor cycle Week. " We rea lly had to wo rk to ge t it gea red righ t," sa id Junior James H art, who fielded one of th e new power pl an ts. " T here's a lot of potential in the motor, but we 'still have a lot of testin g to do." T he J am-On Pr od uctions A mer ican Motorcycle A uction cond ucted by National Au ction Sales at Volusia Co unty Fai rgrounds du ring Dayton a Cycle Week saw 53% of the 109 bikes offered for sale tak en hom e by new o wners. " T he au ction was an absolu te su ccess ," said a uct io neer S t e ve Dance . "Sixteen of th e bikes were sold to hi gh bidders from Eu rope while the - - - - -- Con tinued on page -I 3

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