Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

- Itali a n ;\Iarco Lucchinelli . ex-500cc World Champion a nd winn er o f th e Day tona Ba ttl e o f The Twins even t, is o n th e poi nt of'.virtual retirement from motorcycl e racin g, " I ma y do a race o r two in Ita lv for Ducuti . but I will not be ridin g 'th e Cagiva in a ny Grands Prix thi s year. I have got fed u p being th e o n ly rider o n th e 500cc a nd everyo ne blamed me for th e faet that th e hik e was not co mpet itin ;. I a m goi ng to' ra ce a Formu la 3000 Lo la and sec how I gel a lo n g with car raci ng . You never know. I mig h t be good li ke H ailwood or useless like Ago , I wou ld a lso like o ne mor e cha n ce o n a good G P ma ch ine .i ust fo r the I tal ian GP a t Monza. " Anton Mang won the 100-mile Daytona Formula Two race on Dunlop ra d ia l tires, and although the rear was used in 1985 Grands Prix, the f ro nt had not even been tested on a 250 before the start of speed week. Michelin had been using radials front a nd rear on 250s in 1985 but Dunlop wanted to make a new molding rather than go the Michelin route of using radial construction in a c ross-ply shape. Dunlop's Peter Ingley, the tire technician looking after Mang at Daytona claimed that creating a new mold shape was the only way to make full use of the lightness of the radial construction. Mang commented that the large contact patch afforded by the radial construction was a real advantage. "I can go into the corners on the brakes much deeper w ith the radial." The same tire was tested by Wayne Gardner on the works NSR500 Vfour Honda in the Australian Swann Series before Christmas. Freddie Spencer did no t ride at Daytona after tota lly dom inating th e event in 1985. T he official reason for his a bsen ce was given by American Honda: Spencer had a sinus infect ion and after sufferin g a virus infecti on had lost weig ht and was not fit to rid e. On a television intervi ew Spen cer men tioned personal prob lems. John Long rode an RS250 Honda at Daytona sponsored by the Miami Kubans racing team, a group of expatriate Cubans led by real estate millionaire Raul Placencia . Using Kuban w ith a K to disassociate themselves from the communist regime in their old homeland, the team flag is a combination of U.S, and Cuban designs. Placencia was an enthusiast before he moved to the U,S . butthe sport is very limited in Cuba. He has spent h is seven years in Miami making h is fortune from real estate and now has great plans for the team, concentrating their efforts in the U.S. Championships in 1986 but looking to Europe and the World Championship in 1987. Along with Long on the 250, veteran Cuban Ralph Ferrer campaigns a Suzuki Superbike . 2 Effective April I, 1986, the AMA wi ll req uire a m inim urn of $ 100,000 spectator liabi lit y insurance a nd a n eq ua l amount o f parti cipa nt liabil ity in sura nce o n all sanctioned even~s , in c) ud - ing road event s. Tha t requ ired m in imum insurance wi ll cost sanc tio n holders $464 fo r one-dav o ff-roa d events a nd $ 186 for on e-day road even ts, At a lia bility in suran ce seminar h eld a t Daytona Beach , Florida, during Cycle Week, Al\I A p res ident Ed Youngbl ood ad mitted th at th e in surance requ irem en t would resu lt in ma ny even ts, particu larly roa d eve n ts such as poker ru ns. bei ng ru n wi thout a n A1\1A sanction. " T h is (ins u ra nce req uirement ) is going to hurt th e A1\IA. I t's go ing to be a very bad year fi na nc ia ll y," sa id You ngblood, wh o had stressed the need for lia bilitv insura nce to sem ina r au cn- 'd el'S. . Three-time Grand Natio nal Champion Jay Springsteen, who finished fifth aboard a Super Team Yamaha FZ750 in his first -ever Daytona 200, described h is first practice , session ride on the bike: "It was like my fi rst ride on a b ig motor (Harl ey- Davi dson XR7501 on dirt. Yo u know, the kick in the b utt you get w hen you f irst g as it. I' ve been rid in g XRs for 1 0 yea rs o r so n o w a n d have proba b ly gotten t o the point where they don't open my eyes all that wide. But that FZ sure d id ." . Dayto na Int e rna t io nal Speedway Vice President Jim France receives a fi ne art print depicting racing action at Daytona from artist Jeff Gundlach; the print is the third in series of Cycle News Famous Race Places. Didi er dekudi gu es, th e Belgian sta r wh o fini shed seco nd in th e 1982 350c(' World Championsh ip o n a specia l Fren ch-bu ilt Ch evall ier Yamaha is hack with th e sa me engineer after a vear's break in whi ch he rode NS500 i-fondas for H onda Bcn elu x. H e now ha s th e use o f th e NS. wh ich will be mounted in brand-new aluminum Ch cvatlier fram es for th e sta rt o f th e sea so n with a more radi cal carbo nfib er frame to foll ow . Backing is co m ing fro m Ph ili sh ave but th ere does not seem to be eno ugh m oney to run Frenchman Thierry Espic, who raced a Chevallier H onda last year. Ex -250cc World Champion Carlos Lavado of Venezuela has gained HB sponsorship for his Grand Prix effort on the works V-twin 250cc Venemotos Yamaha. Along with the 250cc Hondas of Harald Eckl and Reinhold Roth, who raced at Daytona, HB is also sponsoring a th ird West German, Manfred Herweh on the Italian Rotax-engined Aprilia. That makes for confusion as Herweh's Aprilia teammates Loris Reggiani and Stefano Caracchi are Marlboro-sponsored riders . Lavado's fellow works Yamaha p ilots Tadahiko Taira and Martin Wimmer are part of Agostini 's Marlboro Team . Wimmer was to be at Daytona but there was no V-twin ready for him to race. West Germany 's Rein old Ro th on qualifying for the Da ytona Formula Two race with slower rid ers on th e track: "Some of th e Am eri cans are dr eaming on the bike. I have to push th em out of the wa y to make space in th e ch ica ne. " Ro th , however, had th e most problems with Spaniard Carlos Cardus, Wh en Ro th ca me in the pits during qualifying to cha n ge th e gearing, he found hi s rear wheel with th e needed 32-tooth sprocket was gone. Cardus' mechanic apparently told Ro th 's mechanic that it was okay that Cardus used th e 32-tooth sprocket. T h e res ult was Cardus q ua lifying th ird while Roth quali fied fourth . Look for more coverage of AMA Professional racing results o n the Associated Press news wire. With the cooperation of Columbus, Ohio, AP sports editor Rusty Miller, plans have been laid for the AMA to provide direct electronic results input to ~I;te news service. . Kork Ballington Ko rk Ball in g ton may race Bo b MacLea n 's RS500 H onda s in the AMA Ca me l P ro Road Racin g Series Form u la O ne races after a schedu led test session at Willow Sp ri ngs. Four- time Wo rld Champion and wi n ner of 31 Grands Pri x in th e 250 a nd 350cc classes on Ya rna has and Kawasakis, Bal lington has had few ra ces since Ka wa saki disbanded its 500cc GP 'tea m at the end of the 1983 season . Apart from a couple of ou tings in Japa n o n four-strokes, Bullington had spent h is time a t home in South Afri ca looking a fte r his business interests . The less-than-bright prospects for bu siness in South Afri ca a nd th e uncertain political situa tio n have co n tribu ted to Ballington's push to ge t himself back into ra cing circles a n d h e co m me n ted that he was pl easantly surprised just how much he enjoyed gelling back into the riding at Da ytona. Stephane Mertens of Belgium, who finished 10th in the Daytona Formula Two race , was hobbling around the pits on crutches, Apparently the Johnson cigarette team member had a knee operation last year and reinjured himself while jogging prior to Daytona. Former World Speedway C ha m pion Bru ce Penha ll will cond uct th e Bru ce Penhall World Champion School of Speedway, March 22-23 a t Asco t Park , Ga rdena. California. T he two- day trai ning school costs $225 a nd o n ly 30 students will be acce p ted . For more information. contact Pete a t 2l3 /329-8~Q9 . The possible strikes that threatened to upset the 1986 World Championship Grands Prix seem to have been avoided since riders re p re sentative Mike Trimby and 250cc star Martin Wimmer have hammered out an agreement with the Grand Prix promoters headed by Dutch IT man Jaap Timmer. Compared with the original demand for 1 00% prize money increase across the board, the result for this year may not seem im p re ssive as the top stars rece ive nothing, but 500cc competitors who finish from 15th down will now receive 2000 Swiss Francs for qualifying, which is a 200% improvement over 1985 and boosts the privateer's income. All the top stars agreed this was " the most important as it is the thin competition in the 500cc class that is damaging the sport. For 1987, the FIM has agreed to an across-the-board increase of 30% for all classes and a yearly revision after that. Not all the riders will be pleased with the outcome after going for 100%, and both Eddie Lawson and Toni Mang said at Daytona they were not thrilled . Trimby said he thought the result was good as it had been obtained without a strike which may have resulted in a rider split which would have been very damaging to further progress. The H B Cigarette-sponsored H onda 250cc road racing team of Reino ld Ro th and Harald Eckl have an easy wa y around a law in Germany that prohibits the advertising of tobacco ' prod ucts at the races . The ow ner of the bikes is German Hartm ut Bischoff; thus the initials H B can be left o n the bike even at the West German Grand Prix. Anton Mang was under the impression that tobacco advertising was also illegal in the United States, Mang said his Honda NSR250 was not painted in Rothmans colors because he thought you had to be American to advertise tobacco in the U.S, The problem was quickly corrected with some Rothmans stickers. T he Phoen ix ro und o r the 1986 A MA I In sp ort Supercross Series will be held on May 10 in Sun Devil Stadi u m in Tempe, Arizona. e 5)

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