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/127205
tinge ncies up for g ra bs fro m Yamaha, Suzu ki and Avon Tires, p lus the Race of the Rockies purse. Competitors seeking further information sho uld call 303/443- 7446 or 447-9559; for specta tor and lodging in forma tion con tact the Steam boat Chamber Resort Association at 303/ 879-0740. (Contin ued from pag e 42) Dr. J ohn Wittner's innovative Moto Guzzi ' pro to type has been absent from the last three AMA Pro Twi ns road races, and rider Doug Brauneck recently explai ned wh y: "They (the factory ) were doin g some testing on it. We tried to get it back, but they couldn 't get the testin g done before Ital y went on hol iday. It's stra nge, the who le country goes to the beach for the entire month of Aug ust ." Braun eck said that he recentl y rode j he street-go in g prototype, to hel p dial in the sus pensio n. Accordi ng to Brauneck, th e bike will feat ure a fram e and bod ywork similar to th at of Wittner's racer, but with Marzocch i M IR forks rather than th e racer's si ng le Kon i front damper. T he overhea d-cam, eig h t-valve, V-twi n motor has been tried with both fue l injection and carb uretors, reportedl y because the G erm an impo rt er wanted a ($1500 chea per) carburetoreq uipped versio n, and sho uld produce abou t 100bhp. "T he on ly thing that wasn' t finalized was the fuel tan k - it needs to be taller undernea th to clear the carbs," Bra uneck concluded. Sources in Europe report tha t the new mac hine is scheduled to debu t a t the an nua l Milan, Ital y, motorcycle show. The Bent Wheels Competit ion Club of Michigan. promoters of t he Bent Wheel IS DE Qualifier. will present IS D E-bo u nd District 14 riders Brad Lowe and Brian Mull wi th $250 each to help them defray expenses. T he Western Eastern Road racers' Association (WE RA) and Will ow Sprin gs Intern ational Raceway in Rosamond, California, are seeking corne rwor kers for the WERA 24Hour West on Septemb er 9-10. If you 'd lik e to get involved, contact Renard Fiscus at 818/365-8038. A " Iikely " schedu le o f 1 9 9 0 Grand Prix road races was c irculated at the Swedish G P. The schedule lists 1 6 events with the season starting in Japan on March 25. The opener will be fo llowed by the Australian GP on Ap ril 8. t he U.S. round at Laguna Seca April 22. Spain - May 13. Germany - May 27. Austria - June 10. Yugoslavia - June 17. HoIla nd - June 30. Belgium - July 8 . France - July 22. Britain - August 5 . Sweden - August 12. Czechoslova kia - August 26. Hungary September 2. Italy - September 16. and Brazil - September 30. 54 Septemb er 8-10 is the da te for the Mountain Roadracing Association (MRA) road races in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. Bu t ther e's mor e than road racing at this year 's 9th Annua l Sp eed Week West. T h e racing begi ns on Fr iday, September 8, wit h the T im berline Trailri ders ' Vintage MX on a nat ural terrain track laid out by former AMA Grand Nat ion al Champion Dick Mann. On Saturday, AH RMA Hi storic Cup (vintage) road racers take to the road race circ u it run over two mi les of public streets. And fin all y, there will be MRA mod ern road races on Su nday, with over $25,000 in con- The first edition of The Northern California Motorcycle Guide is now available from Bob Brownell's Roaring Fork Publications. Based on previous gu ides on the Rocky Mountains and southern California. the NorCal guide touches on most motorcycling activit ies incl uding raci ng. commuting. touring a nd rallies. with an additional section on personal watercraft. The guide is available free at motorcycle de a lers. or by sending $3 .95 to The Northern California Motorcycle Gu ide. Box 580. Pismo Beach. CA 93449 . Dayton a 200 win ner J ohn Ash mead o f West Palm Beach , Flo r ida , swi tched from a H onda VFR 750 to a Kawasaki ZX7 Superbike for the Mid-Ohio AMA Nati onal roa d race. According to Ashmead , the Kawasaki handles better, but its wheelbase is too lon g, even after they sho rtened it some. Ashmead borrowed a mot or from Dou g Cha nd ler's tun er Rob Muzzy for the Su perbike race after his dropped a valve, and finis hed 16th . " I was kin d of nervous runn ing with those guys (out of the top 10), but whe n I saw som e familiar names (when he was lap ped by the leaders), I started going faster. It felt like it too k a whi le for the rings to seat." The Rock Creek Tra il Riders c ha pter of the National Motorcycle Patrol will host a work day and weekend campo u t in the EI Dorado Nationa l Fo rest . September 23-24. Trail maintenance and brush removal w ill be conducted. plus a trail ride and fre e dinner for all attendees, A drawing will be held on Sunday for pr izes donated by Sun River Cycles. HiPoint Racing Products and Int e rlink Distributing . Interested parties should contact George Swetland at 916 /786-7456 (evenings). . Randy Sla ug h ter, manager of the WERA endurance road race team T eam Amer ica, reports that team memb er Crai g Renck is recoveri ng well after un dergoin g several weeks o f che mo the ra py . " H e's on th e comeback trai l and is expecti ng to be riding wit h the team agai n later this season ," said Slaughter. According to Slaugh ter, Team America is currentl y first in class (Med iumweight Superbike) and th ird overa ll in the WERA/EBC Bra kes Nation al Enduran ce Road Race Series. Clarksville. Tennessee's MidSouth Honda will be holding an MX Open House on Saturday. September 2 . in conjunction with the Labor Day weekend Moonshine Pro-Am MX Classic at B&J MX Track. The open house will feature a CR suspension clin ic. a display of the 1990 Honda CRs which will be available for demo rides. and a free fish fry for all Moonshine Classic riders and families. For more information. call 615/552-2205. Ed " Duct Tapes" Hertfelder will exhibit hi s world's worst rid in g style on Les Fren ch's Great Motorcycle Adventu re Mex ican trail rid e in November. If you can use a few laugh s, tag along - there are still a few open ings. Call Les " Gri ngo" French at 409/866-7891 or 800/6423933. Sharp-eyed readers might have caught mention in our coverage of the recent Camel Pro Series Albuquerque Mile of a film based on the life of former Triumph and Yamaha factory racer Don Castro. The film. Learning Curves. is the f irst movie-making attempt of producer Tom Negro. who also wrote the screenplay. According to an article in the Lodi (California) News-Sentinel. the movie will focus on Castro's late teen years prior to his becoming a professional racer. Negro's film crew was at Lodi Cycle Bowl on Sunday. August 13. shooting footage fo r t he feature film. O P EN ED: Redl ine Ra cing, b y former din tracker Dennis Pinheiro who specializes in pr ecision cylinder boring ; Redline Racin g also o££ers T ric k Ra cing G as, Blendzall oil products and O 'Neal products; 732 W. Whan on , Roseburg, O R 97470, 503/672-2696. The North Carolina General Assembly. on August 9 . passed into law House Bill 1175 estab- lishing a state program of motorcycle safety instruction. The bill. offered by Representative Walter B. Jones and four co-sponsors. w as ide nt ica l to Senate Bill 865 s pons o re d by Senators Tom Taft and R.L. Martin. "We have been pu shing t his leg islation for two ye a rs and persistence paid off. " said Me lvin R. Stahl. Motorcycle Safety Foundation Senior Vice President. Government Relations. The safety program will be administered through t he Community · Co llege System and funded thro ug h a $3 fee for each motorcycle registration. A provision of the law w ith respect to motorcyc le insura nce allows the Insurance Commissioner to approve reduced rates for -rl d e rs who satisfactorily complete the motorcycle safety instruction program. The legislation will become effective October 1 . Roger Edmondson, director of the AMA Championship Cup Seri es, held a ru les meetin g a t th e AMA's headquarters in Westervill e, Ohio , o n Monda y, Au gust 7, the d ay fo llowi ng th e Mid-Ohi o AMA Nat ion al. The rul es commi ttee consisted of tuners Rob Muzzy and Vic Faso la, racer David Sado wski, AMA technical inspector/journalist Kevin Cameron , endura nce race team captain/ American Roadracin g editor John Ulrich, Cycle News advertising sales manager Mike Ch urch, AMA marketin g agent Pat Murphy, Bob G orman a nd T om Kipp Sr. of Wiseco, and Supenech and AMA/ CCS personnel. The purpose of th e meeting, according to Edmondson, was to formul ate som e ideas for th e restruct urin g of Su pe rsp or t class rul es. The major Supersport rule changes will be as follows: 1. A return to stock a ir boxes and filters with no modifications allowed (no airflow management). 2. Cam t iming will be free. but stock cams must be used with no changes other than timing. 3. Maximum overbore will remain 1 mrn, but approved aftermarket pistons will be allowed. The allowable pistons (with no performance advantage over the stock part) will be list e d in the rule book by part number as well as in subsequent rider bulletins. 4 . Motorcycles. tires. exhaust pipes and aftermarket pistons must be approved for use in 1990. Approval will require a rider support package as well as sufficient documentation to allow for rule enforcement. 5. Motorcycles will be restricted to U.S. specification models. " All Supersport rul es will be rewritten for 1990 to in sur e that they ar e clear and mean the same thing to compe titors that they do to me," Edmondson said. "John Ulrich and Kevin Cam eron will be helping me in that procedure." Bill Boyce of the AMA's Professional Racing Department had the fo llowing to say about Peggy Dovel being replaced as AMA clerk of course: "Peggy has done a super job of amassing that money (entry fees) and being as accurate as can be. but we have to move int o the 20th Century. It has been suggested (by AMA/ CCS Director Roger Edmondson) that we use a computer. and the most logical person for that job was our computer man . Don Abbott. " Boyce explained that Abbott is working on a computer p rogram whic h will allow the AMA to integrate their entry and scoring functions. and in the future will be able to provide such info rma tio n as rider biographies. The computer will a lso allow the AMA to balance the entry money in fa r le ss time than it took a c lerk. " Fa c e it. we don'thire bank tellers: ' Boyce said. According to AMA/CCS head Roger Edm ondson, Peggy Dovel was not relieved of her duties because of a d iffer ence o f opi n io n ove r the manner in which " back ga te" mon ey pa id to Edm on dson was record ed as was reported here last week. In stead, Ed mo n dso n co nfi r ms wha t Bill Boyce said: " T he AMA has been working toward comp uterized scor ing for the last few years, and it has been my sugges tio n that the perso n in cha rge of the data entry sho uld be in cha rge of the whole scoring process. It was tim e to implem ent the next ste p a n d s he ( Do ve l) had expressed a desire no t to participate. She did it to herself, really." However, Edm ondson did admit to a person a lity conflict between he and Dovel. A re cent rerun of the television show That's Inc red ible showed a rid ic u lo us invention desig ned to " save motorcycle racers' live s:' A parachute attached to the rider's shoulders directly behind his helmet. was released by a tether when the rider sat up. pu lling the rider off the back of the bike. The show d id not explain how following riders wou ld avoid the open parachute and suddenly-slowing riders in the middle of the track. nor did it explain what would happen to the riderless motorcyc le. A ben efit fund has been started for Jim Cottet, an amateur motocrosser wh o su ffered paralyzing inj uries at th e AMA Nat ional Championsh ip Amateur /Youth MX at Loretta Lynn's, August I I. Donations can be sent to the Jim Couet Fund Raiser, Frontier Ban k, P.O. Box 278, Arlingtori, WA 98223. Cards may be sent to 11205 228th St. N.E., Arli ngton, WA 98223. The SCORE Off-Road World Championships has been rescheduled from September 8 -1 0 to May 11-13. 1990. at Phoenix International Raceway in Phoenix. Arizona.