Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

-WYND fiY p~p~ Wf~LfY T he first field hearing on HR780, th e Ca liforn ia Desert P ro tection Act, will be held in Bish op, Ca liforn ia, o n Satur day, Octo ber 28. Sp o rts Co mmittee District 37 AMA, Inc. has rented the fairgrounds a nd along wi th o th er m ultiple-use ad voca te groups wi ll host a post-h eari ng barbecue a nd en terta in me n t program. All motorcyclists are urged to a ttend. See the p ubl ic service ad on page 55 for mo re in formation . The Human Race Team's Kurt Hall, Andy Fenwick and Tim Morrissey (Yam) won round 13 of the WERA EBC Brakes Endurance Road Race Series, a six-hour event at Ind ianapolis Raceway Park in Indianapolis, Indiana, October 7. Team Suzuki Endurance's Paul Bray, Mike Smith and Wes Cooley (Suz) finished second overall, five laps behind the winners, and in the process clinched the 1989 · series title. Team America (Yam) took third overall to top the Mediumweight Superbike division. The Heavyweight Production class was won by E&H Racing (Suz); Mediumweight Production was won by Royale Racing II (Suz); lightweight was won by Raw Racing (Yam). T he Huma n Race Team's Kurt Hall (Ya m) won ro u n d seven o f th e WERA/ T o yo ta / Dunl o p Form u la USA Na tional Cha mpionship Road Race Seri es at Indian apol is Raceway Park,' Octo ber 8. Paul Bray (Suz) finished seco nd with T eam Suzuki teammate Mi ke Smith (Suz) third. Bobby Schwartz (GM) scored 14 points of a possible 15-point maximum .t o win the U.S. National Speedway Championship at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa, California, October 7. Billy Hamill (Gdn) finished second, just one point behind Schwartz. Phil Collins (Wes) won a three-way runoff with Shawn Moran (GM) and Brad Oxley (Wes) to take third. At 33 years of age, Schwartz is the oldest-ever U.S. National Speedway Champion. Following the Speedway Nat ion al, Collins announced hi s retirement from sp eedw a y co m pe ti tio n. T he Brit pl ans to move to Aus tralia to pursue a career in the electro nics industry. Another retirement announced at Costa Mesa was that of Irwin Moon, who served as referee for over a decade at the Orange County Fairgrounds. Sco tt Summers (H on) was th e overall w inner a t th e H a rd Ro ck 100 Na tio na l C ha mpio ns h ip C ros s Country in Fairmo nt, West Virgin ia , October 8. Rounding out the top three were Steve McSwain (H o n) and Gene Onail (Yam). CORRECTION: The suggested retail price for the ATK 604MX pictured in this section last week is $5495, not the price we listed. According to th e AMA/CCS 's Roger Ed mo nd son, Suzuk i will now pay co n tinge ncy money rn the Mi eweigh t, H eavyweigh t a nd Un limited Su persport classes in addition to th e Na tio na l Superspo rt Series ro unds at T alledega , Alab ama, October 14. Edmondson also reports t hat there will be a three-race winte r AMA /CCS series at Roebling Road in Savannah , Georgia, beginning on December 9-10. Edmondson says there may also be additional rounds added to the series at a later date. O n the subject of AMA/CCS Supersport raci ng, Edm ondson says th at the rul es will be tightened con siderably for next year's Na tiona l 600 a nd 750cc Supersport classes. T here will be new ru les written and a lis t of eligib le afterma rket eq uip ment will be made. The manufacturers on th e list will also be req u ired to p ut toge ther a rider-support package that Edm ondson says will help support a "S upersport hit man th a t wi ll do. nothin g but sniff around Su persport b ik es loo ki ng for ill egal i ti es. .. Edmo ndso n also repo rts that the AMA has been pr esentin g a very com p lete p rom otion al package for next yea r' s road race Na tio na ls, incl uding a print media pac kage, a TV co m merc ia l for pr om o ter use, a promo tio nal video that will be made ava ila ble to bo th teams and pr omo ters, and a TV package . The head of the AMA/CCS also reports that a five-figure budget has been a llo ted for th e program - but that bu dget does n 't incl ude the T V pac kage. Check out the Want Ad section in this issue for the all-new Collectibles section. The section will list 15-year or older bikes, collectible racing bikes, hard-to-find parts and motorcycle memorabilia. Desert Motorsports, an AT K dealer in Lancaster, California, will offer test rides on the new AT K 250, 406 and 604 models on Saturday, October 21, a t Los Angeles County Raceway in Palmdal e, Cal ifornia. Int erested p a rt ies sho u ld . co n tac t Dese rt Mo to rsp orts at 805/942-3335. Wall Street and Milwaukee were buzzing last week over reports that a group led by private investor Malcolm Glazer may attempt to acquire a controlling interest of Harley-Davidson Inc. Glazer, of Rochester, New York, said he and members of his family hold 6 .24% of Har ley-Davidson common shares, a total of 539,200 shares, including 187,700 shares bought between August 1 and September 29 when the shares sold for $29.31 to $40.18 a share, and may seek control of the company. Richard Teerlink, Harley's CEO, sa id management wants to remain independent and that the company has not been contacted . by Glazer. Harley management owns 10% interest; Harris Associates of Chicago is Harley's la rge st stockholder with a 12.9% interest. , NAMED: Lee J ason as mo torcycle public relatio ns represent at ive by Bell H elmets/ Vetter P rodu cts; J ason will operate from the Bell H elmets office in Norwalk, Ca lifornia . ' ENGAGED: Steve Lucero, the 1988 National Speedway Champion, and Wendy Brant, sister of speedway racer Scott Brant; wedding date is May 19, 1990. Don Ru ssell , J r., a speed way co mpetitor in sou thern Ca liforn ia events in 1987 and 1988, lost his life in an a u to accident in Mexico o n Saturday" Sep tem ber 30. Ru ssell 's fath er is still active in the sport and owns th e bikes cam pa igned by Scott Brant. Al Baker , wh o was inj ur ed in a plane RESIGNED : Bob Lenk from position of eastern advertising manager of American Motorcyclist, the AMA 's mo nthly magazine, to dedicate more ti m e t o his videotape b usiness. HIR ED: J.B. Norris by the AMA as eas ter n a d vertis i n g m an ager of Ameri can Motor cycli st; No rri s was th e AMA's director of dirt track racing in 1988. Former 250cc MX World Champion John van den Berk of Holland has left Yamaha to sign w ith Michele Rinaldi's Chesterfield Suzuki team for the 1990 GP season . Italian Alessandro Puzar, second to Trampas Parker in the 125cc World Championship, will move from the 125cc class to be van den Berk's teammate in the 250cc class. Amer ican Parker is still undecided as to wh ether he'l l stay wit h KTM to ride the 250cc Wor ld Championsh ips next year. Parker feels th at KT M's all-new 250cc mach ine was developed to sui t Broc Gl over, wh o did all of the develo pme nt testing this year. If Parker does n 't retu rn to KT M, he cou ld join th e EI Cha rro Suzuki tea m if Dave Strij bos doesn 't co me to terms with th e team. Following his strong performance in the 250cc class at the Motocross des Nations, American Billy Liles may move from the 500cc class to the 250cc GPs next season. Kawasaki Belgium can offer him another season in the 500cc GPs, but they are also considering the possibility of leasing the new KX250 for him. Liles' other option may be for the vacant spot left by van den Berk on the Yamaha team . En g land 's Rob H erri ng left th e H eron Suzuki tea m a nd signed wit h H onda of Great Bri tain to ride th e 500cc World Champi o n ships i n 1990. WorldS po rt, organizers of the 18th Annual Florida Winter National Olympics in Florida, have announced the following contin - . gency prize figures posted by the "Big 4 " manufacturers for the Thanksgiving Day weekend event: Honda , $17,100; Kawasaki, $10;240; Suzuki, $29,600; and Yamaha $57,600 . For entry information, call WorldSport at 813/ 822-8929. Yam ah a 's 1990 co nti ngency pro gram will have $4.2 million in cash and YZ Bu cks u p fo r grab s to Yam aha-mounted rnotocrossers a nd ro ad racers. Yam aha will sup po rt 13 individual roa d race series suc h as the AMA Superbike Championship and o ther club-level series with cash awa rds to FZR and TZ250 -mounted riders. Off-roaders riding Yamaha YZS and YZWRs are el igi ble for YZ Bucks whic h are good for merchand i se a t a ll p arti cipa ti n g Team Yamaha Cente r dea lers in 12 different series, hi ghlighted by th e Camel Supercross a n d AMA Na ti o nal Series. Larry Naston says he's reached an agreement with the Mickey Thompson Entertainment Group to announce all rounds of the 1990 Mickey Thompson OffRoad Championship Grand Prix Series. Naston says he'll also anno unce 1990 Supercross events. AMA Superbike rules revamped ...... Q) . LONG BEACH, CA, O CT. 9 ..0 T he AMA an nou nced today th at it will no lo nger require that motorcycles used in its Superbike class be stree t legal o and EPA certified. T hat and severa l o ther Superbike rul e cha nges wi ll go into effect for the 1990 AMA raci ng seaso n. In additio n to th e use of non- street legal mach in es, there are four o ther subs ta ntia l changes to th e 1990 Superbi ke ru lebook: I) the homologatio n of fro nt fork assemblies by the AMA; 2) th e raising of maximum en g in e disp lacement fo r twincylinder ma ch ines from 1000 to 1200cc; 3) the allowance of a 1% ove rbore to lera nc e in ma xi m um disp lacement for a ll Superbikes (th is allo ws disp laceme nt of up to 757.5cc for 750cc multi-cylinder mach in es and 1212cc for 1200cc twin -cylinder mach in es); 4) the m in imu m weight fo r mu lti -cylinder machines has been redu ced from 380 pounds to 370 pounds. (Min im um weight for twincylinder ma ch ines is unch anged at . 320 pounds). T he AMA also a nnounced that in 1991 th e maxim um allowabl e rear wheel wid th will be in creased fro m 5.5 to 6.0 in ch es; for 1990, however, 5.5-inches rem ains th e max im um wh eel width. In order to gai n homol oga tion by the AMA, a ll ma jor ma nufact urers (Honda , Suzuki , Kawasaki , Yama ha) mu st produce a mi ni m um of 1000 units wo rld wide of each model requested to be homol oga ted with 15 of those units co ming to the U.S.; all o ther man ufacturers of multicyli nder mo torcycles ar e req u ired to produce a mi nimum of 500 units worldwide with 10 coming to the U.S.; all other manufac turers o f twin- cyli nder motorcycles a re required to prod uce a minim um of 50 un its of each model with seven coming to the U.S. ! According to ru le 4.8, how ever, " homologa tio n may be wit hheld for any reaso n AMA deems in th e best interest of Superbike competition. " T he hom ol ogation of front fork assemblies goes in lin e wit h th e existi ng homologa tion of car buretors and cam shafts. " By regu la ting the ava ilabi lity and afforda bi li ty of Superbike performance components, we are striving to maintain con, troll ed developm ent of eq uip ment and to provide increased opport unities for in dependent teams," AMA Vice' P resident Ro n Zim m er m an said. In additio n to the Superbi ke class, all 1990 AMA Nation al Road Race Ser ies eve nts w i ll fea ture 250 cc Grand Prix, two div isio ns of Pro Twins , and 600 and 750cc Supersport classes. Many Nationals will also in clude rounds of the U.S. End urance Series a nd vintage eve nts organ ized by AH RM A. T he 1990 seaso n kicks off at Dayton a Intern atio nal Sp eed way on March II ; the co m p lete 1990 schedu le wi ll be a n n o u n ced i n th e n ea r future , according to the AMA. o .... u 1

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