Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Vintage Mo tocross Club in so u the rn Ca lifornia. The Oc tober 2 rou nd of the AMA N ati o n al Champ i on sh ip Hare Scrambles Series has been m oved from Nowata , Oklahoma, t o the J ohn Zink Ranch in Sandspri ng s. Oklahoma. ~y 'PfI'Pfi WfflLfY Califo rn ia n Wa yn e R a i n ey and Au st ral ian Ke vi n Magee, T eam Lucky Strike Roberts G P teammates, rod e a Yamaha YZF750 to victory in the j ul y 31 Suzuka 8-Hour in japan, Rainey and Magee fin ished one la p ah ead of T exans Kevin Schwantz and Doug Polen, who were aboard a Suz u ki G SXR 750, in th e Wo rld Ch ampionshi p Road Race Endura nce Series ro und. O th er Ameri can riders in the event didn 't fa re as well as Fred Mer kel and hi s tea mma te Virgin io Ferrari (H on) fin ish ed 16th ; Dal e Quarterl ey a nd j a pan 's T . O kad a (Hon ) were 23rd, Kerry Brya nt an d Rich Ol iver (Ya m) 29th, Doug Cha nd ler and K. Nakagawa (Hon ) 35th , a nd Bubba Sh obert a nd jim Filice (H on) 39th . Denmark's Hans Nielsen and Erik Gundersen won the World Pairs Speedway Championship at Brad ford, England, July 30. w ith a total of 45 points. The pair were the defending champs in Pairs competition . Tatum and Simon Cross finished second with 41 points, whi le Americans Sam Ermolenko and Shawn Moran were third with 39. Team Suzu ki (Suz) won th e july 3031 24 H o ur s of Nel son, ro und eight of the WER A T subak i/GS Ba ttery Na tiona l R oad Race E nd ura nce Series. T eam Suzuki 's Mike H arth , j amie j am es, Russ Paulk and Wes Cooley turned in 876 la ps at Garretsville, Ohio's Nelson Ledges Road Co urse, o ne mo re th an the total of laps logged by Human Race T eam (Ya m). Kayo Racin g (Yam) was th ird wit h 868 laps and series points lead er Solrnax Racing (Suz) finish ed fo urth with 853 laps. Rex Beauchamp, a former HarleyDavidson factory dirt track team m ember, suffered fata l inj u ries w he n he was struck by a car while riding hi s street bike on Sunday, July 24 . Beauchamp won four Gra nd National Championsh ip races in the 70s - the 1973 Terre Haute Half Mile. 1974 Toledo Half M ile, and the 1975 and 19 7 6 San J ose Mile events. Funeral services were conducted o n Thursday, J uly 28. in Drayton Plains. M ichigan, Rex is survived by hi s w ife Aud rey. a son and stepdaughter. CO RRECTIO N: In o ur coverage of th e july 16 Camel P ro Series Parkersburg (West Virginia ) Half Mile we incorrectly listed fourth p lace finisher Brian -Ather to n 's sponso rs. Athe rton is sponsored by Perry 's H D, H -D Motor Co., Scott Parker, Arai, NHI, Tsuba ki and H og Wash. 2 NAMED: Bill Berroth, to po sition of vice president of Acerbis Plas-, t ica USA; Berroth, the marketing director for Acerbis USA for the past two years, w ill be responsible for all aspects of Acerbis's efforts in the U.S . and Canada; Berroth replaces Fabrizio Persico who is returning to his home country of It aly where he'll oversee the sales de velopment of products that Acerbis im ports from the U.S .; Persico will also be respon sib le f or ca talog produ ction and r ac er specialties. SCO RE Internatio nal will restruc tu re severa l motorcycle classe s in 1989, accord ing to Sal Fish , preside nt of the off-road ra cin g organi zation, Class 30, for riders 30 years of ag e and o lder, will be rep laced by th e Veteran class for th e sa me riders. Class 38, for rid ers 38 a nd o lder, will be replaced by th e Senior class for riders 40 a nd older. These class names co nform to th e traditi on a nd policy of the AMA 's loca l d istricts. SCO RE will offer competit io n in six mo tor cycle classes in 1989. Contrary to what we reported in our June 8 issue, a motion to oppose Propostion 70. a $776 million bond measure to ra ise money for the Cal ifornia Parks Department, was ne ither made nor approved at the May 20 meeting of the California OffHighway Motor Vehicle Recreat ion Commission. "We never had such a motion. " said Commissioner Marge Sutton during the commiss ion's July 22 meeting held in Sacramento . " To Commissioner (Hugh ) McGuigan and myself, it's an important it em. If we would have (considered such a motion), Hugh and I never could have voted for it:' AP PO INTED: Scot H arden to the position of western regional sales manager for KT M Ameri ca, In c.; Harden is a world class off-road rid er; he's wo n th e Baj a 500 a nd Baja 1000 a nd recen tly pl aced in th e top five in international cross -country rallies in Afri ca, So uth Ameri ca and Eu ro pe ; H arden holds a degree in econom ics from the Uni versity of Nevada a nd ha s held posi tio ns as distri ct a nd na tiona l sa les managers within th e mo tor cycle industry. Four-time Na tional Enduro Cham pion T erry Cu nn i ngham (Cag / Hus), is recoveri ng well af ter injuring his ha nd a t th e Colorado . Na tio na l End uro, july 10. " The ha nd is doi ng good bu t it 's still rea l tender ," said Cunningham , who inj ured the bone between hi s littl e finger and wr ist. " In 1977 I broke my hand in the exact same spot, a nd in Co lorado I had th e same sympto ms as in '77, but I don 't think it's broken this tim e. I th ink th e bone is bru ised real bad. I have ridden since th en a nd I feel pretty good, bu t it still swells up with a lot of use. " Cunningham says he wi ll ride the nex t round of the Na tional Enduro Se r ies in Blai n , Pen n sylvan ia , August 7. A Canadian Moto rcycle Association-sanctioned hal f m ile race will be held at Trois Riv ieres, Quebec, Canada, o n Saturday night, September 3 . The $13,000 event is open to N ovi ce, A ma teur and Pro cl ass riders and Su nday, Sept em be r 4 , is sc hed ule d as a rain dat e. In addition to t he regular program, a Coors Challenge race w ill be run an d it'll pit t he six f a st est qualifiers aga inst one another with the w inner taking hom e $ 1000 from the winnert ake-all . five-lap race . For more information, call 819 /379-1931 . NAMED: Tom Swanson as special projects dir ector a nd j im Harmon as events coordina to r at Georgia's Road Atla nta; in additio n, j ack Roth has been promoted from property development manager to VP operations, acco rd ing to Ar d y Ara ni , R oad Atla nta's president; j ack Ans ley, form er gene ra l man ager, and Alan Suttles, former ope ra tions manag er, are no longer with the road race facility, bo th having left to pursue ot her interests; new owne rs Arani and Charles Sheron com mended th e pair for th eir assistance du ring th e tra nsi tion peri od. A n AMA-sanctioned $1500 half mile w ill be held at Harrington, Delaware , Sunday afternoon , A ug ust 28. The meet will feature Pro. Semi-Pro and Youth compet ition. For more information, call J oe Gately at 302/678-2440. or Norm Farris at 301 / 2 8 4 -5 3 3 0 . L ondon , England' s Ea rl s Cou rt Exhi bition Centre will host th e a nn ual Interna tional Motorcycl e Show , October 11-1 6. The sh ow , wh ich altern a tes between London and Birmi ngham each year, returns to Earls Co urt for th e first time since 1980. H ours are 9 a. m. to 7 p .rn ., October 11 -15, and 9 a. m. to 5 p .m . o n the final da y, October 16. Cag iva North America represen tatives will be at Loretta Lynn' s Dude Ranch for the AMA Youth / Amateur M X Championsh ips in H u r ri c an e M ills . T enn e ssee , August 9 -13, to give t echnical assistant and offer parts to all Cag iva and Husqvarna riders. A merican Honda w ill be offering over $ 1.2 million in CR contingency money in 1989. To get the inside line, see you r local CR support dea ler .and sign up to be an official CR support rider. Yo u have unt il September 14 to do so. If your local dealer is no t a CR . support dealer, check ou t next week 's Cycle News f or a list of participating dealers. BORN: Ronald Kyle Aldrich , j uly 23, to Ro n and Marlene Aldrich; Ron Aldri ch is th e president of th e Malcolm For bes, the worl d's wealthiest motorcycl ist a nd hot air balloon pi lot, is in the news again. This time for the balloon he had made for an u pco ming mo torcycle/ho t air balloo n advent ure in Turkey. The 21story ta ll balloon resembles Suleiman the Magni ficent, sultan of th e Ottoman Empire in th e 16th Century. 'The July 3 0 A MA Reg ional C hampions hip Short Tr ack .at Liberty, Indiana 's Wh itewater Speedway was canceled when. according to the A MA, t he prom ot er "failed t o meet A M A re qu i r em en t s. " Reportedly, t he pro mot er fa iled to have cash on han d for the purse prior to the sta rt of t he event - ' an AMA req uirement - and the referee ca nceled the event after refusing t o accept a check in the amount of t he purse . NAME D: Da vid Behl in gs, as p ub lic relations technician for Kawasaki Mo tors Corp ., U.S.A.; Behlings, 28, has worked for the past eig ht years in the service department of Wh ittier Kawasa ki in Whittier, Ca li forn ia; Beh lings wi ll be respons ib le fo r preparing new model products for newspaper/magazi ne testing. American Honda is planning the public debut of the 1989 Honda CR125 , 250 and 500 moto crossers at t h e AMA Youth / Amateur MX Championsh ips at Lo retta Lyn n 's Dude Ranch in Hurr icane M ills, Te nnessee, Wed nesday, 'August 10. The new bikes w ill be demonstrated by Team Honda riders R icky Johnson, George Holland and Guy Cooper. Following the exhibition, Johnson , Holland and Cooper will sign autographs. The new bikes w ill remain on display throughout the week. NAMED: Marc Stengel, as comm un ications manager for Burr oughs & Associates, In c., t h e N a sh vi ll e, Ten nessee-based advertising and p u blic relati o n s firm ; Stengel 's responsi bilities will incl ude p ress relations a nd he will serve as liason between th e age ncy' s clients and th e p ublishing and broad cast com m unities; Stengel will contin ue to serve as ch ief copywriter for th e ag ency ; Burro u ghs' clients in clude Allied Afte r mar ket Di visio n of AlliedSign al Co rp. , Bell H elmets/ Vetter Products a nd Crane Cams . Entries are now being accepted for the Best in the Desert Racing Association-promoted Peppermill /Mesqu ite Championsh ip Gran Prix. The September 24 100-mile race is being sponsored by the Peppermill Resort Hotel and Casino and will take place on a 17-mile course that winds through the streets, f ields. desert and river beds of Mesquite, Nevada. Starting positions w ill be determined by a drawing scheduled for August 24. For further information, contact Casey Folks, Best in the Desert, 3475C Boulder Hwy., Las Vegas, NV, 702/457-5775 . Colorado's j oh n Ho p perstad, the Mounta i n R acing Associ a ti on 's number one pl ate holder for th e past three years, recentl y set a new track reco rd at Bonnevill e Racewav in Salt . La ke Ci ty, U tah. Hoppers tad shattered th e old track record of 1 min ute, 07.47 seconds wi th a blisteri ng I :05.25 la p a b oa rd hi s Boul der Yamaha /M ot orcycle Parts Cen ter South/ BG Oi ls /Shoei /Walt S cha efer / Mi ch e l in-sp o nso re d Ya ma ha FZR 750. Tha t led to a bounty bein g placed o n H opperstad (Co ntin ued to page 16)

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