Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Kenny Roberts' business manager recently called the AMA for a 1986 AMA racing license application. Nissan to sponsor Laguna Seca 200 By Paul Carruthers' ..... ..... .... 0.. < Belgian Andre Malherbe (Hon) was the overall winner of the opening round of the World Championship 500cc MX Series, on Sunday, April 20, in Sittendorf, Austria. The former World Champion finished third in the opening moto and came back to win the second moto. Defending World Champion David Thorpe (Hon) won the opening moto, but DNF the second. Leif Persson (Vam) , Georges Jobe (Kaw) and Bob Andrews (Kaw) tied for second overall with 22 points each . Je ff Morro l and Keith P in kstaff rod e Suzuki GSXRs to the 750cc and O pen Product ion class wi ns, respectively, a t th e April 20 OMRRA ro u nd o f th e V.S . Suzuki-sp onsored GSXR series a t Portland (O regon) Internation al Racewa y. Yamaha-mounted Stan Lojak topped Bob Elliott (KTM) to take the overall win at the April 20 round oUhe AMA/Wiseco/Suzuki National Hare Scrambles Championship Series in Tarantum, Pennsylvania. Kawasaki rider Paul Leman, Craig Martin and Joe Lojak rounded out the top five. Ital ians Andrea Bal estrieri (Hon) , An gelo Signo rell i (KT M) a nd Gualtieri Bri sson i (Bet) fin ished 1-2-3 in th e recent Inca s Rall y in Peru. Balestrieri , who fin ish ed th ird in this year's Pa ri s-Da kar race , finished 30 minu tes a head of Signorelli in th e eigh tda y, 2250-mi le race in South 'Amer ica. Nineteen o f the 43 starters fin ished the event, which was promo ted by the Acerbi s co m pa n y o f Ital y. Texan Kevin Schwantz made his European debut on a two-stroke Grand Prix road racer at England's Mallory Park April 19-20. Riding a 1984-vintage Harris-steel-framed Suzuki with a1986 RG500 engine, Schwantz led Saturday's feature race before being rammed by Honda's Roger Burnett and being knocked back to fourth place temporarily; Schwantz finished second to Burnett, ahead of Honda's Roger Marshall and Heron Suzuki's Paul Lewis. In Sunday's 25-lap Race of the Vear clutch-start feature, Schwantz led until lo.ing two of hi. bike'. four throttle cable.; Schwantz finished second to Mar• hall. In Sunday'. push-st.rt, 20lap MotoPrix 600, Schw.ntz wa. last off the line, but fini.hed fourth behind Burnett, Marshall.nd M.rk PhiHips(Suz); in the r.ce, Schw.ntz and Burnett tied for fastest I.p of the d.y at 62.3 .econd. for an average speed of 94.43 mph. Scott Gray swep t to wins in Open Stock Production and 750cc Stock Production at the April 20 AFM road race ' at Sonoma, California's Sears Point International Raceway, part of th e Suzuki GSXR National Cup Series. In Open co m pe ti ti on, Gray beat Chris Steward and Doug T oland, a ll three on Su zukis. In the 750cc clas s, Gray beat Malcolm Hill and T o la nd, all on Suzukis. 6 Interesting fact: Three-time 500cc Road Racing World Champion Kenny Roberts Sam Ermo len ko will ret urn fro m Briti sh League Speed wa y to race at Costa Mesa , Ca li fornia 's O range Co u nty Fairgr ounds for the May 9 Cycle News/ Motorcycle Rider's License Discount Night. Fans with a mot orcycle endo rsement on their Cal iforn ia Driver 's Li cen se will receive S1.00 o ff a dmissio n to a motor cycle swa p meet, (which starts a t 5:00 p.m.) and an o ther $1.00 o ff admission to th e speed way races, wh ich start a t 8:00 p.m. Vamaha will hold its 7th Annual Vamaha Family affair at Dollywood, Dolly Parton's new theme park, in Pigeon Forge, Tenne.see June 13-16. Tickets are available from Vamaha motorcycle dealers only; the event i. open to all motorcycle rider. regardless of brand preference. San Bernardino, Cal iforn ia's Inland Motorcycle Speedway will not run th e usual weekl y spe edway event on Ap ril 30. Ra cing will resume the fol lowing Wednesday night, May 7. A .pecialedition of Larry Huffman's Motorcycle World radio show will be broadcast April 27 on KOLA FM 99.9 in the Los Angeles area at 9:00 p.m.; the show, featuring Mickey Thompson, promoter of the Off-Road Champion.hip Gran Prix at the Pasadena, California Rose Bowl, will be followed by the regular Motorcycle World broadcast at 10:00 p.m. on KOLA; the 10:00 p.m. regular broadcast will also be heard on San Francisco's KTIM FM 100.9, San Diego's XTRA AM 690, and Sacramento'. KVLO FM 106.6. SuperSports will open Gainesville, Florida's Gatorback MX Park for practice on Friday, June 6 for riders competing in the track 's June 7-8 1986 Loretta Lynn Regional Amateur and Youth Qualifiers . A family cookout will be held Saturday nigh t, along with the showing of supercro ss/ mo tocross films. The Barstow, California Chamber of Commerce will hold a public meeting on May 14 to consider officially oppo.ing Senator Alan Cran.ton'. 5.2061 bill, which would turn most of the California desert into e national wilderne•• closed to motor vehicles. The meating i••cheduled for 7:00 p.m. at the junior high school on Armory Rd. (off Main St.) . According to AMA D-37 desert activists, a large turnout of riders at the meeting . will be crucial to gaining the Barstow Chamber's support in the battle against Cranston's bill, SAN FRANCISCO, CA, APR. 17 Nissan Motor Corporation has announced plans to sponsor the July 13, 200-kilometer, AMA Camel Pro Series Formula One road race at Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey, California. According to spokesmen for Laguna Seca, Ni.san sponsor.hip could be the first step in gaining a United States round of the World 260 and 500cc Road Racing Champion.hips in 1987. The press conference was attended by three-time World Champion Kenny Roberts. "Speaking as a motorcyclist, I'm here for a couple of reasons. My goal, and it ha. been for a long time, is to get Laguna Seca a World Championship. I see this as the first step, getting a major sponsor outside the motorcycle industry, to speed up everything it takes to get a World Championship," Roberts said. Roberts said he may be a participant in the inaug ural Nissan 200. "These aren't the only reasons that I'm here," Roberts joked. "The other reason is that I'm having such a problem with Vamaha that I was hoping to talk Nissan into building a motorcycle for me to ride at Laguna Seca. I can say at this time that I will probably be there to ride." . When asked what he might ride, Roberts replied, "I'm not sure yet. It may very well be Italian, but I can't say yet. This press conference is about three weeks before when I can announce what I will ride." Roberts has tested a 500cc Grand Prix V-four for the Italian Cagiva company. Asked why he prefers Formula One racebikes, Roberts said "What is happening now is that the real good (American) riders are going to Europe and riding the World Championship and we have some left over to do something called Superbikes. The only thing I can say about that is that I am strictly a Grand Prix racer and I run a team in Europe this year that runs strictly Grand Prix motorcycles. Without any problems, I think that Grand Prix team will be at Laguna Seca. I like the Superbike format, I like that kind of racing, but I don't think they need to step on one to build another one." John Borgen, Nissan's director of dealer support, explained Nissan's position on the sponsor.hip. "This race has become legendary for we.t coa.t racing fan. and, as a matter of fact, its reputation is well known throughout the world. Taking the premier riders from the United States and the world and putting them on one of the premier racetracks produces a competitive, exciting and entertaining event. "The sponsorship of this event 'wa. a natural for Ni.san.. .the majority of the motorcycl.ists in this country own pickup truck•. We feel that helping major events such as the Nissan 200 gives Nissan outstanding expOsure to a prime truck audience:' , Cranston has the .upport of the Sierra Club and as.orted elitist, anti-use nature groups; according to Cranston press relea.es, he wrote the bill after consulting with radical environmental groups; Cranston'. pres. materials don't mention any attempt by the Senator to consider input frol'!1 concerned motorcyclists and off-road . vehicle enthusiasts. Harley-Davidson Motor Company will be the first V .S. company to use a hi gh-stren g-th, wear-resistant a lu minum alloy wh en it starts making 1340cc-engine tappet blocks out of th e new material by July. The alloy, developed in Australia, will replace the cast iron now used; Harley-Dav idson engineers expect that the new material will make the V-twin engines . 2.0 pounds lighter. The list of motocro•• star. committed to riding the May 3 Mickey Thompson Gran Prix scheduled for the P.sadena, C.lifornia Rose Bowl ha. grown to include Johnny O'Mara, JaffW.rd, Rick Johnson .nd Brac Glover. The motorcycle race will be held in conjunction with Thompson'. u.ual ATV, truck and buggy race.; the motorcycles will run the course clockwise, opposite the direction run by the other vehicles, and will cross four additional jumps; a special reserved motorcycle parking area will be • vailable at the event. According to AAMRR President Steve Ross, th e May 17-18 AAMRR road race (which ca rries an AMA Championship Cup Series co-san cti on) will be run on a new 1.25-mile road course constructed in the south infield at Pocono International Speedway in Pocono, Pennsylvania. The new course incorporates turn one of th e tri-oval: that same tri-oval turn is used as th e last turn of the alreadyexisting, 2.5-mile Pocono road course. Riders entering the race track should still use gate one, but should pit in the south infield itself. not in the garage area: With new construction at the facility, a total of three different road courses are available for use; later in the season, AAMRR will run the 2.5-mile course. Changes in the WERA/EBC National Endurance Road Racing Serie. has the scheduled Pueblo, Colorado six-hour dropped in f.vor of. September 27 .ix-hour in H.llett, Oklahom., and the scheduled M.y 17 six-hour at St. Loui. Intern.tional Raceway moved to May 31 at the tr.ck's request. The ....on will wr.p up with .n enduranceonly weekend in T.lledeg., Alabam. on November 1. The AMA Championship Cup Road Racing Series schedule has been finalized and appears in the Calendar sec. tion of this issue. The schedule for the rest of the season includes 36 events in areas stretching from Colorado to New Hampshire; several of those events are co-sanctioned with organizations like Colorado's MRA a nd New England's AAMRR. Program funding for fiscal 19861987 is tightening up in California a. a result of declining oil price•. The state receive. 16% of the sales . price of oil produced in the state

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