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/127213
elbow in a club racing accident at Arizona's Firebird Raceway, and though he was in attendance, he was not fit to ride. , " A lapper cut across the track during the 100-kilometer endurance race and I T -boned him," Williams said of the incident. " My elbow is abou t 90-percent now . I cou ld' ve ridden if I had to, but I felt th e tea m had a bette r chance if I sat out." The second bl ow to the Ameri can team .carne in Thursday' s practice wh en Ri ck Sh aw , an officer of the Miam i, Florida, Metr o-Dade Police Departmen t and a profession all yranked AMA Su perbike racer, fail ed to qualify. . " I got stuck beh ind a cou pl e of Frenchmen ,': said Shaw. " I think th ey might have been doing som e block ing. I missed qualifying by a cou ple of tenths (of a second)." America 's hopes of a hat trick rested on th e sho u lders of those th at did qualify - -Bru ce Reim er, Mike Summers and Frank Domino. The battle for the lead in the Race of Nations was this close for the entire 1O-Iap duration. Bruce Reimer (center) led the American squad to second place overall. Here, he bench races with WERA's Buzz Pritz (left) and Keith Code. Police Olympic Motorcycle Road Racing World Championship French cops.tops at Willow Springs By Brian Catterson RO SAMO ND , CA, SEPT 28-0 CT I "A cop's job is 99 percent boredom and one percent terror," goes the old saying, but at the 3rd Annual Police Olympic Motorcycle Road Racing World Championship" 26 100 policemen from 14 coun. f d f f d'ff trres ace ear 0 a I erent type. For rather than confronting gun-toting criminals, this tim e th e officers sq~ared off against each other on essentially equal , raceprepped Kawasaki ZX600 Ninjas, for three days of competition on th e in timidating, high-speed, 2.5-mile, nine-turn Willow Springs International Raceway road co urse. There - they wat ched Mar c Granie lead the French team , twice bridesmai ds in this eve nt, to an o ver po we r i n g victory, taki ng hom e all but o ne of th e gold medal s in Friday's Kaw asaki Open P ur sui t Mat ch , as well as the win in Su nday's feature race, the California Superbike School Race of Nations. Briefing T he Pol ice Ol ym pi c Mo torcycle Road Ra cing World Ch ampion ship is the brain ch ild of two southern Califo rn ia officers, Bru ce Wil son and David Steele of the Los Angl es Pol ice Department, wh o first en visio ned the happening ba ck in May of 1985. " We origina ted th is project to help pu t mo to rcycling in a better light," reflected Wil son. " We figured th at if a kid told his par ents th at he wanted a mo torcycle, and he could show them that police officers were riding, and racing, for fun , he'd stand a better chance of downplaying th e old stereotype . We thought it would h elp th e m oto rcycl e indus try." As it turned out, the motorcycle industry was slow to return th e favor, and most of th e money needed to promote th is year's event cam e from out side sources, with mu ch of th e support com ing from a sports marketin g co m p a n y ca ll ed Group Dynamics. T he teams, on the o ther hand, were ex tre me ly co m m i tt ed . Norwa y' s effor t was a goo d exa mp le, wi th 15 men paying $3000 each to attend. T he French team , meanwhile, char. tered a pla ne a nd brou ght o ver 220 people! The first tim e road rac ing was in cluded in the Pol ice Olympics was in August 1986. That event saw 42 officers fro m 10 co unt ries in attendance. In '87; th at number grew to 80 officers from 15 co u ntries. Both times, Rick William s of th e Arizona Highway Patrol took top honors in the Ra ce of Na tions, and led the American team to the overall win at Willow Springs. After the '87 event, it was decided to hold the race every second year in conjunction with the World Police and Fire Games. This year , America's. .gold medal status was in jeopardy even before the event got .underway. In August, Williams suffered an injured left Kawasaki Open Pursuit Match The Poli ce Olympic road races were held this year as a special event of the World Pol ice and Fire Games, wh ich itself was held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, ba ck in ' August. That event drew some 8000 co m pe ti tors co m p etin g in most Ol ympic sports, plus a few pol iceo nly events suc h as thos e for poli ce dog s. T he format for the road ra cing compe titio n is simp le. Each team ' 'cart send as many riders as th ey want, and o n the Thursda y before th e race each of th em a tte nds a n ormal California Superb ike School session, with ma chinery, helm ets, leathers, etc. provided by the Keith Codeowned schoo l. The riders' lap tim es are electr onically tabulat ed , and at the end of th e day the teams select th eir three fastest riders for Friday's Open Pursuit Mat ch. Those results det ermine the fastest rider from each co u ntry, wh o is th en eligi ble to co m pe te in Sunday ' s Ra ce of Nations. Like th e Ol ympics, gold, silver and bronze med al s are awarded to the riders and team s in a variety of categories, including fastest individual lap, fastest individual three-lap average, and fastest individual and average laps for th e team . A scoring system awards 10 points for a gold med al, eigh t for a silver, and six, four and two for each of th e three bronzes, an d th e total number of p oints earn ed by the indi viduals as well as th e teams determines th e winners. When all was said and done, the French team of Mar c Granie, Francois Cicilliani and Thierry Cupillard took top honors with 108 points. The American team took a respectable second with 50 points, followed by th e Swiss team with 36. New Zealand (26), Germany (24), Italy (16) and No rw ay (6) we re th e remaining points earners. . France's Granie began his domination by earn ing the go ld medal for th e fastest sing le lap of the Open Pursuit Mat ch , a I:41.03, with th e silver going to th e second fast est rider, Ala stair Ni sbet of New Zealand, with a 1:41.42. Granic's teammates were th ird and fourth, with C iciliani stop p ing the clocks at 1:41.63 and Cupillard a tad slower a t 1:41. 77. Ital y' s O sca r Bellini claimed the thi rd and final bronze medal with a time of 1:42.37. ' T he only gold medal not won by France in the Open Pursuit Match went to Nisbet, whose consistent pace gave him the win in the fastest three-lap average category. Nisbet turned an average lap time of 1:41.46 to make that claim, .15 of a second faster than that of Granie. France's