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/127128
8 tl a ~ schedule to only two races DaYtona and loudon, New Hampshire - " in order to conserve resources that can be applied to developing a new motorcycle ta ilored for superbike competit ion ." The : new road race bike, which is in the early stages of development, will sport a 1000cc, V-twin, four-stroke engine incorporating as much state-of-the art technology as possible, including water cooling, double overhead cams, multiple valves, fuel injection ' an d a significantly over- square bore /st roke rat io to inc rea se engine rpm. The Milwaukee , manufactu rer is using a computer-aided design system to design t he new engine "from the inside out." Current specifications call for the bike to produce more than 130 horsepower and weigh in at a maximum of 320 pounds. Ha rley hopes to debut the new motorcycle during the 1989 racing season; production will be lim it e d to between 50 and 200 ' un its. Contrary to several adver tisemen ts placed by motorcycle industry firms in this publica tion and others, the Laguna Seca ro und of the World Champion ship Road Race Seri es is not the firs t-ever road race Grand Prix to be held in th e U.S. On Februar y 2, 1964 the first U.S. GP was held at Daytona Int ern ational Speedway wit h Alan Shepherd winning the 250cc class on an MZ; in the 500cc class , the legendary Mike Hailwood took the win on an MV. ,T he foll owing year , on March 21, 1965, Hailwood again won the U.S. 500cc GP at Daytona on an MV whil e Phil Read won the 250cc GP on a . Yam ah a. Rothmans Honda's Toni Mang won his 33rd 250cc Grand Prix ' at the Japanese round held in Suzuka on March 27. Mang is the all-time leader in 250cc GP w ins, s ix ahead of the inactive Phil Read. Ma ng has a lso won a 125cc GP and eig ht 350cc GPs. There are only two active riders besides Mang in the top 10, Venezuelan Carlos Lavado and South African Kork Ba llington. Lavado's w in last year in Yugoslavia moved him int o a tie for sixth with Ballington at 17 wins. Ninety-four diffe rent men have logged at least one 250ccGP win . Team Lucky Strike Roberts riders Magee and Way e Rainey will be in the usual Lucky Strike Roberts paint scheme at Laguna Seca, but the words Lucky Stri ke will not appear on th e bikes . Lucky Strike in Europe is owned by a different company than in the U.S., thus the fained Lucky Strike circle will house the words T eam Roberts instead of T eam Lu cky Strike Rob erts. ~ I(evi n with 12, MZ with 7; three brands are tied for 10th with five wins apiece, Morbidelli, Morini and Real. In the 500cc class, MV Agusta hol ds a commanding lead with 139 GP wins. Yamaha is second with 65, followed by Suzuki with 53, Honda wi th 45, Gilera with 34, Norton with 21, AJS with six, Match less and Mota Guzzi wi th three and Kawasaki with two. J awa-CZ, Konig, Linto and Sanvewero are the other manufacturers with 500cc GP wins , each with one. Marlboro Yamaha team le a d er Giacomo Agostini spent his time between the Japanese Grand Prix and the Laguna Seca round of the World Championship vacationing in Hawaii. It was the mu lti-time World Champion 's first visit to the Is la nd s. Two-time World Champion Eddie Lawson entertained his Marlboro Yamaha 250cc teammate Luca Cadalora in Lake Havasu City, Arizona; the pair spent quite a bit of time waterskiing on the Colorado River during the break; , Texan Kevin Schwantz became the 68th ma n to w in a 500cc road race GP w ith his win in the Japanese Grand Prix on March 27. Schwantz, with his one GP win , is 67 be hind the all -time leader in 500cc w ins, G iacomo Agostini. Schwantz' win a lso increa se d the U.S.'s total 500cc GP wins to 78 as he joi ned Kenny Roberts, Freddie Spencer, Eddie Lawson, Randy Mamola a nd Pat Hennen on the list of America n w inners. The U.S . still trails Great Britain (135 wins) and Italy (103 wins) , in t he number of 500cc wins per cou ntry . Austral ia , thanks to Wayne Gardner's seven GP w ins in 1987, has moved into fourth place on the list, passing Rhodesia and Holland. , ' Yamaha leads all manufacturers in 250cc Grand Prix wins with 128' followed by Honda with 73, Kawasaki with 45, MV Agu sta with 26, Harley-Davidson wi th 24, MotoGuzzi with 18, Benelli with 13; NSU Camel Pro Series champ Bubba Shobert will ride a Camel-sponsored factory Honda NSR250 for Bob Maclean's (right) World Championship Motorsports team in the Laguna Seca 250cc GP. It's a one-time deal for the three-time Grand National Champion, a versatile dirt tracker I road racer who started his season by winning the first two rounds of the new AMA 600cc National Championship Dirt Track Series, finishing third in the Daytona 200, fifth in the Daytona ro und of the Castrol 250cc GP Series, and posting fast lap at the opening ro u nd of the World Championship Superbike Road Race Series and winning two races in the ann ua l Match Race meet in England over the Easter weekend. Randy Mamola's 500cc V-four Cagiva was filled with a Pirelli radial rear tir e mounted on a 6.25-in ch rear whe el at the Japanese GP. Pirelli, • however, doesn't have a radial front yet, altho ugh on e is expected for the Spanish GP on Apri l 24. "Having theradial front will allow us to run a softer compound -that will still last, " Mamola said in J apan. . Southern Ca lifornia 's _American Road Racing Association (AR RA) will require that steering locks be removed from all motorcycles, and that case guards or lower s be used on Suzuki GSX Rs starting with their" May 28-30 Willow Springs even t.: According to ARRA President Ear l Smi th, a rider recen tI y crashed after the forks of his Suzuki GSXR locked , during a race; there have also been some instances of forks locking after crashes, particu larly on Suzukis. r, whi ch makes the clean -up crew' s job ' difficult. The- ARRA joins several other road racin g clubs in requiring case ' guards - or lowers on Suzu ki GSXRs; the stock Suzuki cases 'have : been known to break in the event of a crash, dumping oil onto the racing surface. - , Two-time World Champion Barry S hee ne, who re c e nt ly m o ve d from England to Australia, was working as a commentator for Australia's SBS network and their live telecast of the Japanese GP on March 27. Mamola, who's finished runneru p in the 500cc World Championship four t imes, had th is to say about Freddie Spencer's recent ret ire m e nt . "I knew something had to break. During the w inter he tra ined and went rid ing with Niall (Mackenzie) and Doug (C ha nd le r) a nd he was making an effort. I know what it takes me to get ready and he was coming , off two d ifficult years. I th ink he fe lt he couldn't race at the same le ve l as he did in 1983. He 's definitely made his mark." A no-show at the J apanese GP was Suzuki rider Satoshi Tsujimoto. The Japanese teammate to Kevin Schwantz in last year's AMASuperbike Series, bro ke his femur in hi s comebackride during the Suzuka 24 international road race the week prior to the GP. Tsujimoto's 1987 season in the U.S. ended with his high-sp eed, neck-breaki ng crash in Brainerd , Minnesota. ' Three-time road racing World Champion Luigi Taveri of Switzerla nd d id a parade la p around the Suzuka Circuit in Japan prior to the GP on h is 1966 championship-winning, fivecyl inder 125cc Honda fourstroke. Also making a parade lap was recently , retired three-time Wo r ld C hampion Fredd ie Spencer; Spencer rode a Honda NSR500. Cagiva owner Claudio Cast igli oni was ask ed a t a press conferen ce heId prior to the Japanese GP how his co m pa n y ca n compete wit h the Japan ese in GP road racing without a maj or sponsor. He responded with, "We made $400 mi llion profit last year. It's no problem !" 80 while 'Alan Carter (Yam) won the F-USA lightweight class, with Rich Oliver (Yam) second and Renfrow (Hon) again placing third. - James Domay (S uz ) continued his dom ination of t he WSMA Fo rmu la USA Series by posting his th ird consecut ive series victory at Rosamond, California's Willow Springs International. Raceway on April 3. Paul Vogel (Suz) fin ished second and Randy Re nfrow (Suz ) too k-t hir d in the Unlim ited c lass, T eam Pepsi Suzuki's Rob. McElnea ' had an eventful trip to Japan for the Mar ch 27 Japanese Grand Prix. The big Brit arrived in Tokyo on March 20, but was denied entry because he didn't have a visa. McElnea had to promptly turn around and fly to La ' Angeles to ' get a visa. Since the em ba ssy was closed o n Sunday,' McElnea sp ent the afternoon at ' Ven ice Beach " watching the guy juggl e cha insaws." He returned. to J apan with a visa in time for p ractice, but was a Iittle tired. "T his time the' customs man didn't even check my visa." . The Continental Motosport Club (CMC ) has scheduled fo ur motocross events in 1988 at t he new Butterfield Park facil ity in Temecula, California. Round five of the Spring Classic Series will be held ' at Butterfield May 15, round two ofthe Summer Series July 17, the final ro und of the Trans-Cal Series October 23, and round three of the Fall Finale Series November 20 . For information on other events to be held at Butterfield Park, check out the Calendar section for dates and clubs. HosPITal ST O P: Amateur MXer Dwayne Bone of Macon, Georgia, remains hospitalized in the Augusta (Georgia) Burn Cent er du e to serio us. burns su ffered in a shop fire on February 23; Bon e has undergone three opera tions.' Cards and letters shou ld be sen t to Bon e's hom e address - 11648 Hurley Ct. , Macon , GA 31206.