Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

O"l 00 O"l - racer has bee n rewor ked " w i th outstanding early results. " Six da ys in Brazil's January mid-s umm er provided a blistering shak edown, according. to Mamola. " We were so down on every angle th at we had to mak e dr astic changes. But I don't regret any thing la st year: It made me ride harder and understand a hell uva lot more in th e areas of pushing it . to the lim its." (Continued from page 13) ... MOVED: Euro Performa nce System, l!':l In c., doing business as Foumales , Suspension, to a new facility at 502 >-- S. Post Oak Lane, #205, Houston, ' ~ TX 77056; p hone numbers remain ~ th e same, 713/ 850- 1524, FAX 713/ ~ 850-0708. ..0 (1) ~ Northern Ca lifornia's Hollister Hills SVRA will be the site of the Valentine's Day European Scrambles, a ' round of the District 36 Cross Country Championship Series , on Sunday, February 12. Bill "Big Tima" Spencer reports that the co urse markers will be "hearts." For more information on the event and/or the markers, call 408/249-4336. According to Ken Harvey, president of the Centra l Road Racing Club (CRRC), Texas World Sp eedway in College Station, T exas , will be closed to motor racing effective the end of . March . All CRRC races sch eduled for Texas World Speedway, incl uding the March 18-19 WE RA South Central Region meet, have been canceled. R ep o r ts indicate that Texas World Speedway will be co n verted into a horse racing facil ity . The CR RC intends to run a full schedule of races in .'89. Negotiations are on-going with a track owner in San An gelo, T exas, and a n ew schedule will be mai led to a ll CRRC members by the end o f Febru ary. In ' addi tion to the canceling of Texas World Speedway events, the CRRC race schedu led for February 18-19 in Monterrey, Mexico, has been ca nceled. For more in for mation, call 713/464-8545. The Cagiva facelift is radica l. Now 26 pounds lighter, w ith heftier cooling, new carbon -fiber brakes (Lockheed) and clutch, Ferrari factory w ind t unnel refin ing' and on Michelins, Italy's former, inconsist ent Pirelli-shod bid for Grand Prix kudos is "much leaner, stickier and faster;" according to Mamola. Clocking Go iania laps in track-record t ime, the revamped " v ery precise" lighter steering and sma ller, more-flickable feel "overwhelmed " Mamola. W ith more t o come: Marelli /Weber fuel injection giving 1200 more rpm , ' further weight loss, and, predicts Mamo la, M ichelin's special rubber upgrading to match rider and "impressive" machine capacity. Mamola's next test session of the George Vukmanovich-tuned V589 is scheduled for later this month in Spain or 'Y ugoslav ia, prior to an Aust ra lian d ress rehearsal for Suzuka's March 26 GP opener. Vows Mamola, "I plan on winning some GPs th is year, inst ead of finish ing one in third ." CORRECTION : Dave Rose (Hon) should have been credited w ith third place in the Open Amateur class in our coverage of the JanuarY 22 AMA National Championship Hare &. Hound held at Lucerne Valley, California. Mean while, Mam ol a is cam paigni ng hi s favori te benefit. Sa ve The Children; the international chari ty figureheaded by England's Princess An ne, lias been a long time Mamola crusade. Raising $15,000 in 15 minutes with help from fell ow racers a t last year's British G P, Mamola has since added more 'with po ster sales, a nd personall y carried vaccine by moto rcycle into Afri ca 's rem ote Soma lia. He and sou thern Cal ifornia's Pro Italia Mo tors will host a Save The Children event at the Co medy & M a ~ i c C lub in H ermosa Bea ch , California , on February 20. Mamola 's in -person a uction includes a day as his guest at the Laguna Seca U.S . GP and racing lea thers collected by . th e four-time World Champion runner-up. Seating do na tions for th e event ar e $ 15 each . For more infor mation and tickets , ' ca ll 213/3 721193. ' Ra ndy Marnola, back in' the U.S : from South America testing to ski Squaw Valley this past week end, told Papa that his Cagiva V589 GP road Stateside, Randy Ma'mola Racing wi ll back northern Californian road racer Rich Oliver in the AMA Castrol 250cc Grand Prix Series. Bubba Shobert recently t raveled to 't he Mt. Panorama road racing circuit in Batl}urst, Australia, for a secret filming session with his sponsor, Cabin. Shobert and his campaign manager Rick Spillman were tight-lipped about the team 's budget, but Shobert did disclose that his team was unable to sec ure 19 8 9 Honda NSR500s (production of that model had ceased) . Shobert will instead campaign an American Honda-entered, M ichelinshod 1 9 8 8 NSR500 during the early part of the season. 50 (\ , ,--------------~~~--~-i @; I " ,~______ 0 ....'" I ,_----""'"""1 o , 'r~~--." _ _ _ denotes old track The American Federation of Motorcyclists Los Angeles Chapter has scheduled four road races on a new shorter version of Riverside Raceway. Comparing the new layout with the old shows pavement added between turns seven and eight, and a modified entrance to turn nine. A 103dB noise limit will now be enforced 50 feet from the track. Oliver told Cycle News ' February 6 that he recently received two , 1 9 8 9 Yamaha TZ250Ws and reached sponsorship agreements w ith Arai, Dunlop, U.S . Kushitani and A lp inestars, in add ition to his previous deals with .Ho u se of Wheels, Air Tech Fairings and V ,P . Fuels. Oliver has been training by riding dirt bikes on a daily basis, and is so far pleased w ith his new tuner, Dan Kyle: "Dan 's do ing a great job. His preparation is meticulous, and he's adapting to the t w o- st okes well. I've been showing him some things that I know and we've discussed some of his ideas which I've never seen used on two-strokes. Hopefully, we 'll finish every race." Fu ture p la ns of California' s Prairie City Off-Highway Veh icle Park, in eas t Sacra mento County, will be discuss ed at a p ub lic hearing a t 7:30 p .m ., Wednesday, February 15, in the cafeteria of Cordova High School, 2239 Ch ase Drive, in Rancho Cordov a. Ownership of the facility will be transferred from the cou nty 10 the state in March. In the public meeting on February 15, sta te pl anners will present maps showing existing facilities ' and land use. T he p ub lic will be invited 10 share their ideas for future develop ment and management of the 836-acre OHV park, which is located 20 miles east of downtown Sa cra m ento. U pon transfer of the property 10 the state, th e Off-Highway Mo to r Vehicle Recrea tion Commission will classify the unit as a State Vehicu lar Recreation Area (SVRA). The park had been ope rated by Sacramento Cou nty Pa rks Depart ment from 1975 to 1986. It was clos ed to day use riding in 1986 du e to liab ility prob lems. Rob Iannucci reports that Team Obsolete will be contesting the " 3 50 cc GP, 500cc Premier and 750cc GP classes at the AHRMA Daytona Vintage Road Race meet ' on Monday, March 6. Dave Roper will be joined by British star John Cronshaw, who will ride the ex Dick Mann BSA triple, and Pat Moroney, who will ride the exScott Brelsford Harley-Davidson XR750. Team Obsolete will con centrate on these three classes during the remainder of the ' 89 AHRMA season, w ith occasional races in Europe also on the schedule. H onda teammates Ri ck J ohnson and J eff Stanton mad e a n interesting bet at th e Sea tt le Camel Su per cross, Februar y 4. The.bet is that whoever ' fin ish es behi nd each o ther in th e Camel Supercross Seri es fin a l po int sta ndi ngs, will have 10 ge t a job a t a McDonald 's restaurant an d work th er e for o ne week a nd ear n ' a pay check The two shook hands on it in front of 22,3 16 Seattle specta tors. Jeff Darland (Hon) was the overall winner of the American Desert Racing Association's 15th Annual Gila Bend Grand Prix in Gila 'Bend, Arizona, February 5 . Mark M iller (Hon) f inished second overa ll and Garth Sweetland (Hus) was th ird. Texa n Kev in Sc hwa ntz returned home to H ouston on February 3 after testing hi s new Suzuki 500cc V-fou r a t Phi ll ip Island in Austra lia. From Austra lia Sch wa ntz £lew to J apan for a phot o shoo t a nd wha t he calls th e " lo ngest .Iive d a ys o f hi s l ife . " Sc h wa n tz repo rt s th at th e n ew Suzuki is " a lot stro nger everywhere. It 's go t mor e gru nt off th e bottom and mor e top end. We had a few li tt le problem s but we'll get it worked out." Sch wa n tz was als o impressed wit h th e Ph ill ip Island circ u it, the site of th e Ap ril 9 Australian Grand Prix, wh ere he has thus far proved to be th e q ui ckest o f th e o ff-season testers. turning a 2:25.9-. " It 's pretty , neat . There a re two or three rea lly fast corners a nd on e big, thi rd-gear, left-ha nd corner a t th e top o f a h ill that 's follow ed by a firs t-gear corn er. It should be pretty good." 'S c hw ant z may have liked the Phillip Island circuit, but he wasn't too impressed w ith the local A ustralian fl ies . "They're not li ke flies here that just go on the dog or whatever. These f lies try and go up your nose and when you're eating they try and go in your mouth:' . , Georgians Mik e Smith and Pa ul Bray will ride a Suzuki GSXRIIOO for T eam Suzuki End uran ce in the WERA Nat ional 'Endu m nce Seri es. " My prim ar y objec tive is to win the c ha m p io ns hi p ba ck for Tea m Suzuki," sa id Smi th, wh o wi ll a lso r id e a Bob ' H artm an-prepared Yamaha T Z250 in the AMA Castrol 250cc GP Seri es wh en ever possible. ." I' ve been talk ing with a few diffe rent people, a nd the T ea m Suzuki dea l loo ks to be the best thing for thi s com in g year," di sclosed Bray , add ing that he'll al so race the WE RA Superstock and Formula USA Series. T earn Su zu ki' s machinery wil be prepa red by ex-Tea m Lo ckhart tu ner ' Keith Perry. i Lockhart's Wendell Phillips, when asked about his company's endurance racing plans, said, "Right now it's up in the air. We 're planning other racing involvement and will hopefully be making an announcement in the next two weeks." Aprilia has been busy testing a t Jerez in Spa in wi th riders Martin Wirn- • mer, Did ier de Rad igues a nd Ivan Pa lazzese. Wimmer thus far has been the fastest of th e tri o with Pa lazzese cras h ing and breaking h is hand. '

• Cover