Cycle News

Watson and Strank Win At White Rose g I County district attorney's o ffice said t he 0:' , z D ii nailing a 7.37 1-second ~ time . ~ "T he bike w heelied ~ over the breaker; and I o it knew I had a good run going, but th e bike bounced hard off the humps after the breaker," Strank said. Every rider was try ing to find a stra ight run up thro ugh the ledges and washouts at the bottom, and the next rider, James Wo lfe, kep t his Yamaha XS800 low and o n line all the way to the to p for a 7.87 7-sec o nd pass. "We changed a lot of things this week to get the bike to fit me better, and it rea lly worked out well ," Wol fe sa id. " I kne w the bike co uld run with everyone e lse if I cou ld get a good rewarding throttle con- trol, but round two of the 2004 AMA Natio nal C ha m pio nsh ip Hillclimb Series was pure ly survival o f t he fitt es t afte r Saturday' s rains . After scraping 12 inches of mu d o ff of the White Rose hill, the 540cc class got under way. Kreeger and Sons -backed Phil Ubhart, recently Freestyler Brian Deegan has been give n special permission by West Co ast Choppe rs ' Jesse James to auction off a cust om built 250 in orde r to he lp out C hris Acke rman . Acke rman susta ined paralyzi ng injuries w hile riding his d irt bike in March of 200 3. For mo re information on Ackerman and his recovery. visit www.chrisackerman.co m. This is the first and on ly Jesse Jam es Custo m 250 that will be made availab le for pur chase , acco rding to a re lease fro m Deegan. To bid o n t he bike , log on to www.eb ay.com. bid o n item number 24B09284 I0 and help co ntri bute to Acke rman's cause. ride in." recovered from the concussion he other t han that I don't think I ca n go any faster in these conditions. Today was a just a great da y. We finally have the bike working just right ." The Hill was the sto ry again in the BOOcc class, as all of the riders struggled with t he ruts. The big bikes didn 't have tro uble w ith the m ud , but the heav ier bikes had a hard time negotiating the ruts. Strank was fired up after his win ning Suzuki Castro1 W in A lbacet e 12 Hour Suzuki Castrol's team of Vincen t Phillipe , Olivier Four and Mallhieu Lagrive won the A1bacete 12 Hours round o f t he FIM World Endurance Championship, June 5-6 , t he team taking the lead on lap six of the 448-lap race and ho ld ing on to it for the next I I 3/4 hours. Behind them the battle for second place raged through the night as Yamaha GMT94 and Yamaha Endurance Moto 38 swapped pos itions repeatedly. Neither team was able to build up a convincing advantage until the final hour and a half of the race , when GMT94 took the lead after a pit stop by Endurance Moto 38. They were able to bu ild on this lead until they passed Moto 38 on the track - an advan- Co urt of Appeals ruled Apri l 23 tha t O ra nge Cou nty prosecutors had no authority to char ge Goodwin w it h t he slaying. Goodwin had pleaded not gu ilty to twa counts of murder and three special-circumstance allegatio ns of lying in wait, m urder for financial gain and multiple m urd e rs . O ran ge County mainta ined it had jurisdiction because part of the plann ing for th e slayings alleged ly occ urred where Goodw in lived . Los Ange les Cou nty, w here the killings occurred, has neve r filed charges . In ~ a great ride o n the 800 , The White Rose hill is typ ically a t im ing hill, su ffered at ro und one, dropped the hammer on his Trium ph twin . He fou nd a smoot h line over the large hump tha t sta rts the steep part o f the hill and was ab le to stay on the gas through the loose sections through the midd le part of the hill, trippi ng the timers in 7.572 seconds . Watson lined up in the cen ter of the hill and was fast o ff the bo ttom, clocking a 7.41 8-second run to knock Ubhart out o f the lea d. Strank Jr. was next and was the first to try the right side of the hill. His plan worked, as he was able to launch his Yamaha R6 up the hill in 6.9 seconds, the only run in the sixes all day in either class - and that earned him the w in. "Bob [Shr einer] has bee n working rea lly hard on the bike , and the bike pulled great," Strank said . "Th e front end came up a lillie high over that ledge at the transition, but case is under review. The 4th District . 11: 540cc run, and he put e spite a complete de luge on Saturday, June 6, which washed away the 3OO-foot Whi te Rose Motorcycle C lub Hill, seven-time and de fending AHA Nati onal Ch ampi on Dave Watson put together a great ride on Sunday, June 7, to beat Walter "Tiger" Strank Jr. in t he BOOcc class. In the 54 0cc class , however, Strank w as un beatable , posting a time o f 6.900 seconds fo r the day 's faste st run in either class. Briefly... tage wh ich they he ld until the end of the race. Fifthplace was equally doseIy fought. eventu ally being won by Y amaha Austria after Kawasaki Bolligerhad to change brake pads during a routine pit stop. WRT Honda Austria had also been in contention for fifth place until a series of gearshift problems dropped them down the standings. The race was incident-packed for the rest of the fie ld as well. Defending Wo rld Endurance C hampions Yamaha Phase O ne worked t he ir way up to fo urth place in the second hour, on ly to have thei r gearbox fail. forcing them to retire from the race. Spanish w ildcard e nt ry Yamaha Folch Endurance qualified in fifth place and ran w ith the leaders in The second BOOcc round was grueling, as the first eight riders failed to make it to the top. Watson came to the line with a d ifferent approach. " I tried a different setup on the first ride , and it d idn't work," Watson said. "So my dad said , ' Put it back to o ur normal se tup ,' so that's what we are going to try." He lined up in the ce nte r o f the hill and launched t he Spectro-backed Honda out of the ho le. "I tried to wheelieover that hump after the breaker, and it hit so hard , it almost threw me off the back, but I held on to it," Watson said. " I lined up in the center and decided to try and blast my way through the ruts, and it worked out for us today." He flew past the timers in 7. 112 seconds to sna tch the top spot away fro m Strank for his first 800ec win of the year. Th e next rou nd will take place on June 27 , a t Nashville, Ind iana 's Blue Po ny Hillclimb. Do vid L. Patton Jr. the ear ly stages until a minor crash forced them to pit for repairs. Five hours into the race, their slipper clutch failed, and the y were also forced to retire . The nex t round of the FIM World Endurance Champions hip is the Suzuka 8Hou r, o n July 25 . "It was a good race ," said Phillipe of the Suzuki Castrol team. "It was hard at the beginning, but then we got in fron t, and we had to concentrate to control the race. The Yamahas are very fast. so we must push on to make a gap; it's always possible to have a problem in the race. Th e last race was crazy w ith a big crash at the e nd , so this time it is good for Suzuki, and we hope for the best at Suzuka. If we win at Suzuka, I will be very happy." www.cyclenews.com When the Nat ional Promote rs Group lost legendary promot e r Bernie Yelin this past M arch. the entire motorcy cle industry paused to remember a man wh o donated a huge portion of his life to growing the sport of motocross in the New England states. Yelin had dedicated more t han 30 years to the Moto-X 338 track and was instrumental in bringing the AMA Chevro let Motocross C ham pionsh ip t o the un ique "all-sa nd" facility for the first time back in 1976 . " First and foremost. Bernie was a very generous man w ho was always w illingto give a helping hand to anyo ne ," said NPG member Diane Peebles. " He made Moto-X 338 what it is today." Peebles , who began w orking at Moto -X 338 in the mid-I 970s, started out as a "chec ke r," ta king riders' num be rs at the finish line , is Moto -X 338's successor to Yelin. Wo rking her way up th rou gh t he ra nks over t he years, Peebles progres sed to reg ist ra tion chair person, w orking with the track re feree on various iss ues, induding eve ryt hing fro m signing up ath letes to running the race. In 199 3, several years afte r Moto -X 338 inco rpo ra ted , Peebles became a co-owner/stockholder (along with seven o the r perso ns) of Moto-X 338 . In add ition to being the promoter fo r Sout hwick, Pee bles still w o rks as a secretary with a local race organization and conti nues to be an advocate of the sport o f motocro ss. She , like every me m ber of t he Moto -X 338 , st ill has fond memories of Yelin. "Be rn ie loved to dance," said Pee bles . " N ot many peo ple know this. He also had a great love for the o utd oors and dogs. And in his younger days Bern ie was a licen sed electrician and always had a hand in repairing electrical eq uipment ar o und the track." Wo rk ing clo se w ith Pee bles this year, as he had in the past with Yelin, is Mo to-X 338's track coordinator, Brad Belche r. CYCLE NEWS ��� JUNE 16, 2004 9

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