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/126942
neat bike. Last year at Daytona I got on a road racer after not even riding a street bike for a year. I could barely ride it out of the pits much less race it. Things will be different this year." Jo Jo Keller (Kaw) had a perfect i-I day in the 500cc Pro class a t the second round of the '87 Florida Winter AM MX Series at Diamondback Raceway in Cocoa. Jim Kapitan (Hon) was second in the 500cc Pro class with a 4-2 tally. Multi-time champ Bob Hannah (Suz) logged a 2-1 moto performance to top the 250cc Pro class. Canadian Ross Pederson (Yam) was second overall with a 3-2 performance. Fred Andrews (Hon) and Guy Cooper (Hon) swa pped moto wins with Andrews' 2-lt:llly taking the overall win over Cooper's 1-2 in the l25cc Pro class. Yamaha Support rider Jeff Stanton injured a knee while practicing for Sunday's Florida Winter AM round and was flown to his home in Michigan to undergo arthroscopic surgery. Stanton says he'll e K in time for the Anaheim IC lifornia) Supercross on January 31. Ike hoads took the early lead in the AMA Pro Indoor Ice Racing Series after scoring 14 points out of a possible 15 in the opening round in Fon Wayne, Indiana, January 2. The first round of racing saw a three-way tie for set:ond as six-time champ Ganh Brow, Eddie Morris and Dave Hebb each came away with 12 points. Brow did win the main event, but only the round-robin heat races score points towards the championship. I Former Grand National Champion Ricky Graham will compete in the Daytona 200 on a Kawasaki Ninja 750. Graham has a practice bike at his home in northern California and is getting the race bike ready for the March 8 race. :'I've been riding around the hills of Big Sur," Graham said. "!love it. It'sreally a his teeth with the exception of one chipped tooth. "I'm back riding and will compete in the Anaheim Supercross (January 31). The thing that bothers me the most right now is the road rash on my knees." Despite signing an agreemelll with the team, Frenchman Raymond Roche will not campaign a Skoal Bandit Suzuki V-four in the 1987 Grand Prix Road Race season. Roche and Belgian Didier de Radigues have signed contracts with Cagiva to ride its V-fours in the upcoming 500cc GPs. Much like Scotland's Niall MacKenzie, who has signed to race factory HB Cigarette-sponsored Honda V-fours, Roche had signed ·an agreement with the Skoal Bandit team before coming to terms with Cagiva. At presstime Skoal Bandit had not signed a rider to campaign its new S'uzuki V-four in the GPs, but AMA/ Camel Pro Road Racing Champion Fred Merkel is high on the team's list of prospective riders. Australian Paul Lewis, who rode for the team last year, and Kiwi Richard Scott are the other two candidates for the Skoal Bandit ride. According to the Texas Motorcycle Dealers Association, 2100 blank titles were stolen from the Austin Regional Office of the State Depanment of Highways and Public Transponation, Division of Motor Vehicles. Purchasers of motorcycles should be alert to Texas titles with the following control numbers: Set One: The Great American Motorcycle and A TV Show will take place in Pomona, California, on January 9-11. In addition to the hundreds of 1 987 motorcycles, A TVs and accessories, the show will include seminars on how to get started in motorcycle touring conducted by the Gold Wing Road Riders Association. Former 250 and 500cc motocross World Champion Hakan Carlqvist looks set to ride a Kawasaki from the Swedish Kawasaki imponer in the 1987 500cc GPs. The 32-year-old Swede was dropped by Yamaha after finishing eighth in the 1986 SOOcc World Championship. Johnny O'Mara, who recently signed with Suzuki, suffered facial lacerations and "road rash" when he bailed while riding his bicycle near his Simi Valley home in southern California during the holidays. O'Mara's upper lip may require plastic surgery, but the motocrosser reports he escaped damage to Harley-Davidson has announced the 1987 FLST Special. Based on the Heritage Softail, this new "dresser" features a two-tone blue and cream paint job that was original equipment in the '50s, black/chrome powertrain with polished fin edges, windshield and running lights with the turn signals mounted directly below the spotlights like the Electra Glide's, leather saddlebags with studs and conchos. a new two-piece saddle with larger passenger seat featuring studs and conchos to match the bags, and a backrest with larger pad and a concho. The FLST Special's suggested retail price is $9999, just $520 more than the regular Heritage. 48597046-48597225;SetTwo:~8620326 -48622325. If you receive a title with one oftheabove control numbers,the TMDA urges you to contact your local police depanment immediately. BORN: Aaron Daniel Chivington, son of Camel Pro road racer Dan Chivington and wife Diana, on December 1, in Marion, Ohio. EXPANDING: The Honda Spon Touring Ass~iation, formerly the Honda V-4 Spon Touring Association, to welcome all Honda owners rather than just Honda V-4 owners to take pan in the association's activities; a sample newsletter and membership application may be obtained by writing: HSTA, 112 Bishopgate Rd., Columbia, SC 29210. Although initial reports had HoIland's Kees Van der Ven switching to the 250cc class for the World Championsip MX season, it now appears the KTM factory rider will stick with the 500cc class. Van derVen finished fourth in last year's 500cc title chase. Confirmed entrants for the Saturday night, January 10, AMA-sanctioned $5000 pro half mile race at Los Angeles County Fairgrounds in Pomona, California,.include Camel Pro veterans Alex Jorgensen and Terry Poovey. Run in conjunction with the Great American Motorcycle & ATV Show at the fairgrounds, racing Saturday night gets underway at 8. The final two rounds of the Florida Winter AM MX Series have had location changes, according to WoridSports Promotions. The January 17-1 8 round will take place at Croom Raceway in Brooksville, and the January 24-25 event will take place at Gatorback Raceway Park in Gainesville. Like father, like son. Tim Arfons, the son of Art Arfons of Green Monster jet-powered drag car fame, will be a gueston Motorcycle World with Larry Huffman, the satellite broadcasted radio show on Sunday evening, January 11. Tim Arfons has built a jetpowered Suzuki QuadRacer. He claims the four-wheeler will exceed 200 mph, thanks to power from a 1500 horsepower General Electric T58 jet engine. Check oUlthe Motorcycle World ad elsewhere in this issue for a list of stations that carry the show. JOINED: Chuck Lindsay, Lemans/ Parts Unlimited as sales rep in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio; formerly sales rep for Rocky for 11 years. 2 American Honda technical reps Gary Martini and Steve Carter will attend many NMA and AMA Amateur/ Youth Motocross Series events in conjunction with Honda's contingency suppon program. Martini, who has been on the circuit for five years, and Carter; whose credentials inel ude eight years as a Team Honda MX mechanic for Jim Gibson, Rich Coons and Danny Chandler and for the past three years ATV champ Marty Hart, will be equipped to assist all Hondamoumed riders with emergency parts needs for 1987 CRs and technical advice for all Honda riders. Sunday, January 18, will be a gold letter day for MXers Dane Wigington of Desert Knolls, California, and Jeff Pestana of Salinas, California. By getting the gas on in 1986 CMC-sanctioned motocross races they each won a specially painted 1987 Dodge Power Ram 50 truck. The Dodge trucks will be given to Wigington and Pestana at the Carlsbad Raceway round of the 11 th Annual Dodge Truck Golden State Nationals. Harley-Davi"dson will be offering free demonstration rides on their 1987 models a t the Jan uary 9-11 Nissan Great American Motorcycle & ATV Show atlhe Los Angeles County Fairgrounds in Pomona, California. To take advantage of the offer, you must be 21 years of age or older and have a valid motorcycle operator license. According to the Los Angeles Times. the third, fourth, eighth and ninth largest crowds that have been on hand for events at California's Anaheim Stadium were there to watch supercross races. The largest tumout for supercross at Anaheim Stadium, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary, numbered 6a,383 for the January, 1984 race. What is the Iarges1 crowd in the history of the stadium? A Billy Graham crusade in 1985drewBO,600.The1987Supercross season gets underway with the Anaheim round on Saturday night, January 31. • AMA announces carb restrictor rules WESTERVILLE, OH, JAN. 5 American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) officials have announced details of air intake controls designed to improve reliability of 750cc twin cylinder machines campaigned in professional dirt track racing. The new rules, announced in a January 4 meeting of the AMA Board of Trustees in Chicago, will take effect in early April with the first Grand National event of the upcoming season. Virtually all AMA Experts currently utilize one of two powerplams in half mile and mile track evems: HarleyDavidson'sXR7500r Honda's RS750. The new rules require use of AMAsupplied 33 millimeter manifold plates on those engines. That rule will stand for the 1987 season, after which adjustments - possibily including variably-sized manifold plates - will be considered for 1988. Previously or newly-approved enginesother than the XR750and RS750 will not be governed by the rule unless a clear need is indicated to maintain competitive racing. AMA (Continued to page 4)