Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

area at Daytona sporting a rather large bandage on her shin. When asked what had happened (fig uring she'd injured herself on her Yamaha Superbike), she replied. "Oh not hing . I just cut myself shaving." Sharpless and t ea mm a t e Kathlee n Coburn competed in the fi nal AMA/CCS enduranc e race, but re t ired w ith mechan ical p roblems . fiY P.AP.A Wf.ALfY , Human Race T eam's Kurt H all and Andy, Fenwick ' (Yam) clinch ed th e 1988 WER A Tsuba ki / GS Battery End urance Road Ra ce Series Ch am pionship with the win in the fin al . ro und of th e series, a six-ho ur race at Road Atla nta in Bra selton, Georg ia, o n Nov ember 4. Defending Champions Team Suzuki Endurance's Mike H arth and Jamie J ames" (SUl), who were in contention for the titl e coming into th is fina l ro und, suffered mechanica l setbacks, a nd . finish ed 29th to take second in th e title chase. Ka yo R acing (Yam) finish ed second overa ll in the race with T eam Sledgefinishing thirdon a L i ghtwei ght cl a ss Kaw asak i E~500 . Scott Russell. David Sadowski and Doug Polen split wins at the 3rd Annual Suzuki Cup Series Nationa l Final at Road Atla nta. November 5 -6 . Russell wo n the GSXR750 class, w ith Sadowski t a king t he newly-added 600cc Katana class and Po len w inni ng t he GSXR1100 race. Each t ook ho m e $5000 fo r first place. R ick Johnson (Hon) swept both motos of th e local Commotion by the Ocean MX in Carlsbad, Ca lifornia, Novem ber 6. Broc Glover (Yam) fin ish ed second overall wi th a 3-2 mo to performance and Mike Craig (Yam) was third overall with 2-3 tall y. S peaki ng of Johnso n, the ' 8 8 S u perc ross and 500cc National cha mp recentl y took a va cati o n t o spectate a t the Iron Man Triath lon in Hawaii where he met up with fo rmer multi-t ime cha mpion David Ba iley and 250cc National cham p Jeff Ward. Ward returned .ho me and fin ished 1 7 th in his class at t he Tr ick or Treat Tr iath lon in Irwi nd ale. California. Australia n road racer Mich ael Doohan has sig ned a two-year con tract with . R oth m an s . H ond a . T he Q ueensland residen t will jo in former _Wor ld Ch amp ion Wayn e Gardne r on a two -man team head ed up by crew ch ief J erry Burgess. Doohan im p ressed ma ny wi th hi s la te-season performances in Form ula One even ts in J apan , and also received offers fro m Yamaha and Suzu ki. Doohan ro de for the Ma rlb o ro Yam ah a Deal er Team in Au stral ia .in 1988. 2 Reports fro m Europe ind ica t e that Brit Ron Haslam will jo in Texan Kev in Schwantz on the Team Pepsi Suzuki GP road race team in 1989. Has la m . who rode the Elf 5 in its final yea r of competition in 1 9 8 8 , fin ished fourth in the 1 987 500cc World Championship a nd 11 th in 1988. It now appears tha t three-time AMA Grand Nat ional Ch ampion Bubba Shobert will go to Europe in 1989 to contest th e 500cc Wor ld Road Racing Championship. When called last week to ask what hi s 1989 Nati onal number wou ld be, Shobert ans wered, " I' m not go n na be here a ny wa y." Shobe r t is repo rted ly negotia ting a deal to run a n American H onda-backed GP team; and is also likely to ha ve di scu ssions wi th Giacomo Agos tin i regarding the still vaca n t r ides o n hi s Marlb o ro Yamaha-backed team. Shobert 'said he ha s beco me d isillusioned wi th . raci ng in the U.S . "I do n't think it's fair ," he said. " I don't w ant to enter into so mething th at 's one-sided. It 's too much pol it ics for me." Shob ert was d isqualified from the AMA Gra n d N a ti onal Ch am p ionsh ip Syrac use Mile when it was found that his H onda RS750 was 1.5 pounds under th e mi nimu m weight. Dr. John Wittner. tuner of the innovative overhead cam. eightvalve Moto-Guzzi campaigned by Doug Brauneck in AMA Pro Twins Grand Pr ix competition. will be heading to Italy for talks with the Ma ndello del Lario-based factory . Wittner. who is employed by Moto-Guzzi as a developme nt engineer. says that they'll be revising the cylinder heads. changing the valve geometry and the pistons. The team recent ly spe nt time workin'g w ith Do ug Libby of Crane Cams on the dvno , w here the motor reported ly made 1 1 5 hp. At t he recent Daytona P ro-Am . W ittner clocked t he Guzzi at 168 mph. some five mph faster than it had gone in March. so the development work appears to be paying off. "The only proble m . " he says. "is t ha t (pointing .to Eraldo .Fe rraci's Ducati 851) has picked up the same five mph ." The Guzzi suffered mechanical problems at Daytona. first when a cylinder stud stripped out and had to be hel i-coiled. and then when a cam follower broke whi le Brauneck was leading the Middleweight Grand Prix race. . , Donald J acks was too yo ung to compete in the Daytona 200 this past . March , but is looking forward to th e 1989 spring classic. T he l8-year-old Floridi an built a Yosh imura-k itted Suzu ki GSXR750 Su pe rbike which he raced for th e firs t tim e at northern California' s Sears Point Racewa y on Octob er 2, fini shi ng II tho J acks won th e Middleweight G P class a t th e Daytona Pro -Am , but cras hed in th e Heavyw eight Su persport race a nd broke h is hand. G ir l problems. Canadian race r Ton i Sharpless was se~n in the pit Most out-of-towners who saw the "Vote for Sheriff Ouelette" biil board approaching Daytona Intern ational Spee dway proba bly di dn't ta ke muc h notice, bu t AMA/CCS endurance competitors Team No Drugs sa w it as yet anothe r op portun ity. Brothers Kirk and J eff H oeppner approached O uelette, wh o agreed wi th the tea m's anti-drugs stance, a nd the resu lt wa s a .one-time-only spo nsorsh ip deal. Team No Drugs, wh ich con tin ues to be one of th e most innovati ve, a nd successful, team s in terms of ga in ing sponsorshi p , suffered a broken chain (the ir second in two outings ) on th eir Ya mah a FZR400 in the latter stag es of the th ree-ho ur race, resu lti ng in six th p lace in the GTU class point standi ngs. Jeff Russell (Yam ) was the overall winner in the final round of the AMA National Championship Enduro Series in Morrison. Illinois, November 6 . Russell drop.ped a t o t al of 24 points. Terry Cunningham (Cag) was second with 25 . Third went to Matt S tavich (Hon) with a 26. Jeff Fredette (Kaw) and Joe Zierman (Hon ) rounded out the top five. Ran dy Hawkins (Suz). who cli nc hed the title the week before in Lous ia n na. fi nis he d s ixth. At the November 5 AMA P ro Awards Banquet in Long Beach, Cal ifornia, the AMA a nd the R.j. Reyn o lds Tobacco Co . announce d th at Ca me l wi ll return as a sponsor of AMA pro racing in 1989. Alt hough it was announced that a new contract has been signed, de tai ls of the sponsorship remain a mystery. Camel Pro Team Manager Cu rt is Gray sai d, "Negotia tio ns are still go ing on. You'll be the firs t to kn ow ." Rumor s have th e '89 Camel Pro Series consisting entirely of dirt trac k events with only a few selec ted road races receiving any for m of Came l .su pport. Also rumored is a Camel sponsored Supercross Series. Four s o uth ern California radio s t a tions w ill be carrying live Baja 1000 re po rt s on November 1013. Larry Huffman will be phoning in reports to KOLA 99-FM (Rive rsideand San Bernardino area), KPZE 1 1 9 0 -A M (Orange and Los Ange les counties). KFMB 760AM (San Diego and Baja) and KOW 92-FM/1450-AM (n o rt h San D iego County and south Orange County). The Thursday. November 10. reports will feature pre -race interviews with top contenders in different classes. the Friday and Saturday reports will update the racing. and the Sunday reports will wrap-up race results. The reports vary in length from one-minute to a ha lf-hour and in most cases occur throughout the day on a regular schedule (for complete schedules. contact the stations) . The reports are being sponsored by the Southern Californ ia Jeep Eagle Dealers. Moon Nissan of Cerritos. and Off Road Warehouse in San Diego. Steve Mor eh ead , the 1988 KK Afterm a rk et R ace T eam Champion, picked up $15,000 for his effor ts, rep orts KK Race T eam Manager Gary Scott. " We' re 'delighted th at Steve won four Grand National Championship races in the process and wan t to thank all th e riders a nd tea m sp o nso rs wh o participated : B&S Pl ast ics, Bell Helmets, Carfel, Inc. (Cycle Craft), Clymer Publications, Du nl op Tires, K&N Fil ters, KK Mo tor cycl e Supp ly, MA C Exhausts, NGK Spark Plugs, PJ l L ubricants , Sunstar Sprockets, Tsuba ki Chain , Wiseco Pi stons, a nd Yuasa Batteries. I hope th e mo tor cycle dealers and riders will support th ese afte rmarket companies wh en p urchasi ng products because these companies support mo tor cycle racing," sa id 1975 G rand National Champion Scott. Look for former National Champ ion Ma rk Barnett to make a return to the National MX circuit next year. Barnett was on hand at the recent Suzuki dealer meeting in Las Vegas. Nevada. seeking bikes to ride under the Tuf Racing banner. Suzuki listened to his proposal and said they'd supply the bikes. The Illinois resident was one of the first mega-buck factory r iders and he had h is salary deferred over a 10-year period. reportedly at $100.000 per year. He says ha 'Il .train in Florida this winter. , The San Jose Mil e(s) is (are) back! That 's ri ght, accordin g to San J ose's Ken Clapp, Camel Pro Serie s mile races will be held a t the northern California facility in May and in Septemb er of 1989. Plans to pav e th e famed dirt track oval contin ue, bu t th e unforeseen del ays in su ch a cha nge have delayed the pa ving for a t least a year. " We're totall y com mi tted to ru n ning a full season of. ca r a nd mo torcycle races on the di rt oval," said Clapp. " I don 't see us movin g a ny dirt until Novemb er of nex t year, so the good word for dirt . track fan s is th e San J ose Mile is back." On Decem ber 4. Brad Lackey. the only American to ever hold the 500cc MX World Championship title. will return to southern Californ ia's Carlsbad Raceway and join forces with Coast Racing .Association in presenting the Brad Lackey Christmas G rand Prix . Serving as a track consultant. Bad Brad helpe d put together a course that w ill in cl ude portions of the facil ity's MX track. asphalt drag strip . and t he course that was used for the televised Superbikers race. Lackey will be on hand as the honorary starter and will be ava ilable' to answer rider questions a nd sign autographs. All classes will run one-hour races and there will be a Pro class that will offer 80% payback. For further inf o rm a t io n call 619 / 722-3292. The Peoria (Illinois) M.e. a nd T ote Gray will "co mbine forces and pro mote th e 1989 AMA You thl Amateur N ational Din Track Championships . Half mile, short track and TT event s will be held on Illinois tracks less than 50 mi les apart during th e week ofJuly9-15. The club and Gray hav e been a wa rded a th ree-year cont ract with a two-year option. The 5th Annual ' To ys for Tots Turkey Run. a benefit hare scrambles held in conjunction w ith the U.S . Marine Corps charity drive. will be held at East Palestine. Ohio. November 20. All proceeds from the event will go to the Toys for Tots charity fund . (Co ntin ue d on page 46)

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