Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126792
Former World Champion Freddie Spencer will be Honda's only works rider in 1985 Grands Prix. Honda UK. Randy Mamola and Raymond Roche have been offered works machines but must find sponsorship to fund their own programs: Mamola's manager. Jim Doyle. reports that he hasn't put together a suitable program at this time. When asked if the rescheduled Springfield Mile would affect his October 28 running of the Superbikers at Carlsbad Raceway, event producer Gavin Trippe replied, "I don't know what the impact will be. I haven't talked to any of the entrants yet, but I don't expect some of the California riders to sit in Ohio for two weeks. We're going to race in spite of whatever the AMA does, and it's going to be a terrific race, anyway." Trippe stated that a full field of dirt trackers will be present including Kelly and Shawn Moran. Gary Scott, Alex Jorgensen. and Australian dirt track champ Jay NewTSCC Fo~man. TSCC Swirl Exhaust V_ Di_/lemm Tsec Profile Exh8uatV_ _ Tsec Profile 0i8melerl17mm Squish Are. Sp8tkpIug Hole Di8meler/lamm SIl8fllIllulI Hole Cyti.-Bore ProHIe InlakeV_ Oiamet8r/21mm O_112mm Squl8h Are8 ~Bore ProfIle Swirl In_V..... Oi_l19mm The Suzuki GSXR750 detailed last week (Cycle News, October 17) has larger valves than the GS750 it replaces and uses a redesigned TSCC (Twin Swirl Combustion Chamber) cylinder head. The new bike's intake valves measure 21 mm. the exhausts 18mm. up from the GS750's 19mm and 17mm valve; sizes. The combustion chamber shape is modified. and the·squish areas no longer overlap the edges of the cylinder bore. The U.S. version of the GSXR750 will displace 699cc to slide in underneath the high tariff imposed at Harley-Davidson's request. and the latest information from inside Suzuki Japan is that the company will mount a full 1985 Daytona effort through Yoshimura R&D of America. The attempt by the Harley-Davidson-backed Tenacious streamliner to break the current motorcycle land speed record has been postponed. According to a Harley press release dated October 5. Dennis Manning. owner ofTenacious. cites unseasonably heavy rains at Bonneville Salt Flats. 'where the speed record has traditionally been atl8l'llpted. and at Black Rock o..t in Nevada. Manning says that the rains have left both sites in muddy condition. thus making them unusable for any speed record attempts in the near future. If either course dries out sufficiently. a run will be attempted later this year. but it's more likely that it will be made next spring when conditions are expected to be more fIIvorable. Next year's Daytona Speed Week will feature an event sponsored by the Harley Owners Group, called the Ride-In show. All machines entered must be street licensed and ridden into the show area and will be judged on paint, engineering, seat and styling. The three-day show will have 10 classes, including those for customs, trikes, sidecars and antiques. The Ride-In Show will take place at the Holiday Inn Surfside in Daytona Beach. For more information, contact Harley-Davidson Motor Co., 3700 juneau Ave., Milwaukee, WI 53201. In Europa only. KTM has introduced a 600XC electric start dual-purpose four-stroke. It has a single shock. Pro-Lever rear suspension design; Metzeler tires; front disc brake and a rear rack. In the background is the all-new KTM 80cc water-cooled motocrosser. We'II have more information on the 80U: very soon. 6 Americans Ricky johnson and jeff Ward captured wins in the 250 and 125cc cl asses, respective1y , at the japan Grand Prix motocross in Suzuka, japan. In the I25cc class, Kawasaki's Ward won both motos, while Honda's Ron Lechien took second each time out. Yamaha's Johnson took second in the first 250cc moto and won the second for the overall. Honda's David Bailey won the first moto and took third in the second for second overall. Kawasaki's Billy Liles went 4-2 for third overall, while Honda's Bob Hannah went !I-5 for fourth. Eddie Lawson won the Yamaha Invitational road race at Sugo. Japan on October 7; Wayne Rainey was fifth in his first competition on a 500cc racebike. Lawson won both legs of the race. entered by top Yamaha racers and test riders from around the world. Yamaha Motors Corp. U.S.A. Racing Manager Ken Clark is recovering from a fractured wrist, two cracked ribs and a sprained ankle suffered September I!I in a Colorado 500 trailride/race get-off. Australian Geoff Ballard (C-A) was crowned the AMA/Hi-Point National Hare Scrambles Series Champion by virtue of finishing second overall behind winner John Martin (C-A) at the final round of the series in· Midland. Michigan. October 14. Kevin Hines (Hus) and Mike Keen (Hus) placed third and fourth overall. respectively. in the three-hour event. The final point tally shows Ballard with 128 points. with runner-up honors in the series going to Hines with 126. Martin scored 126 points to finish'out the season third overall ahead of Mike Melton. who tallied 103 points. Melton ON F the Michigan event. The AMA will be holding its annual professional awards banquet on Monday evening, November 5, in Newport Beach, California. R.J _Reynolds Tobacco. Bel-Ray and Wrangler will be co-sponsoring the event, which will be held at the Newport Beach Marriott, and will honor AMA and World Champions. as well as the Insport Supercross Champion. Tickets are $25 apiece and can be ordered from Pat McCoy, AMA, P.O. Box 141, Westerville. OH 43081. Reservation deadline is October 22. Permits will be required for commercial vendors operating on Bureau of Land Management land in Imperial County in southeast California will be required to have BlM and Imperial County permits. The Plaster City Open Area and Glamis Sand Dunes are among such areas. For more information contact the BlM EI Centro Resource Area office. 333 S. Waterman St.. EI Centro. CA 92243. 619/352-5842. Rescheduled: The Springfield Mile National, the final Camel Pro Series round of the season. to October 28 due to poor track conditions after nearly three weeks of wet weather. The October 14 cancellation of the Springfield National. after it had been rescheduled from October 13. came after nearly four hours work on the track left AMA official•• the organizing Illinois Motorcycle Dealers Association and the track crew of the Illinois State Fairground frustrated at the prospect of another four hours work just to get the track in semi-ready condition. Forecasts of impending rain late in the afternoon were also considered. Wayne Moulton ofthe AMA said that with the time fIIctors involved the riders would have gotten on the track sometime around four in the aftemoon for practice and that would. even with a very quick program. have meant running into darkness if not more bad weather. Although AMA officials had said that there would be a track ready to run on when the riders returned Sunday morning after Saturday's postponement. the track appeared to have had little or no work done on it. This aroused the ire of a number of sponsors and riders. especially those who had traveled from California and didn't like the idea of returning in two weeks with only a 50/50 chance that the weather and track conditions would cooperate. The plans for getting in the National when the riders return October 28 are simple-according to AMA's Moulton: "If we can'l get the National in on Sunday (October 28) then we'll stay until we can and run Monday or Tuesday or, however long it takes to get th~ race off and the title decided." The rescheduling of Springfield to October 28 rather than October 21 was due to the Illinois State Fairgrounds hosting a horse race - already rained out twice before - on that date, This year's spring and fall editions of the Springfield Mile National have been rained out a total of five times in six tries. The May race finally ran on july 22 after three rain-outs. The count is two and holding on the fall edition until the Camel Pro Series heads back to the Illinois State Fairgrounds on October 28. Terry Vance set a new NMRA Pro Stock elapsed time drag .racing record of 8,31 seconds on his Byron Hines-tuned Kawasaki at Atco. New Jersey on October 7, The October 13-14 IDBA World Final at Gulfort, Mississippi saw Sam Wills (Kaw) top Elmer Trett (Kaw) for the Top Fuel win. Wills turned in a 7.62 second. 185.80 mph run to Trett's 7.95/182.37. George Bryce (Suz) was the Funny Bike winner while Terry