Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

Pro Stoc k Mo torcycle Series will also award $5000 to the runner-up, $3000 for thi rd, 2000 for fourth , $1500 for fift h, 1000 for si x th, $750 fo r sevent h, $650 for eigh th, 600 for ninth a nd $500 for 10th in the final poi nt sta ndi ngs. Sponsored by Castrol GTX Mo tor Oi l for th e past three years, the Cas tro l series grew fro m a to ta l poi nts fund of $12,500 in 1987 to $17,500 in 1989. s Four-time Nat ional Ha re & H ound Ch ampion Dan Smi th (KT M) was th e o vera ll and Ope n class wi nner a t th e final round of the Casey Folk's Best in The Desert Seri es in Laugh lin , Nevad a , December 10. Second overa ll went to 250cc class win ner Mike Ba ker (Yam), with SCOLI Morris (KT M), Paul Kra use (AT K) a nd Garth Sweetl and (ATK) ro und ing out the top five. In addition to the Winston support, The Wax Shop is offering NHRA Pro Stock drag racers a contingency program, The Wax Shop will be posting $250 for t he Pro Stock w inner and $ 100 for the runner-up at each of the National events where Pro Stock competition is conducted . A $50 posting for each semi-finalist is also up for grabs. Mike Tripes (Hon) won the Vet Expert class at the 2nd Annual Brad lackey Christmas Grand Prix held at Carlsbad Raceway in Carlsbad, California, December 10. A larger-than-expected turnout of 596 entrants resulted in scoring difficulties for most classes, and winners of the $40,000 in contingency prizes ' will be contacted by Coast Racing, promoters of the event, in the very near future . T he AMA ha s released a tentat ive sched ule for the 1990 AMA Grand National Ch ampionship/Camel P ro Series. Once aga in, th e series will kick off with a sh ort track at Municipa l Stadium in Da ytona Bea ch , Flori da , o n Mar ch 10 a nd conc lude . with the ru n ning of the Sacramento Mil e a t th e Cal -Expo Sta te Fai rgro unds in northern California o n October 6. The schedule is almos t a mirror-im age of th e 1989 sched u le and 17 rounds are listed . (Sixteen ro unds were run in 1989 with th e Syracuse Mil e being ra ined o ut.) Sacramento, Sa n l ose, Ascot a nd Spr ingf ie ld will aga in host tw o ro unds eac h, runni ng one in th e sp ri ng a nd o ne in th e fall. Other ret urnin g venues a re Lou isville, Albuquerque, Lima, Hagerstown, DuQuo in , Peoria, and Indian a pol is. Co ns u lt the Ca lenda r sectio n for the co mp lete 1990 Ca mel P ro Series sched ule. Bill y Liles (Kaw) won th e Eu ro Racing U ltima te Ch allen ge Su pe rMoto eve n t a t Kent , E ng la n d, November 25-26. The Su per- Mo to is a cross betw een roa d raci ng a nd speedway o n motocro ss bik es, a nd is a Eu ropean reb irth of the Superbi kers events staged for television in th e U.S. in the '70s. Former 250 and 500cc MX World Champion , Georges Jobe was aboard a "water-cooled" Yamaha YZ490 at the Super-Moto event. The motor had a water-cooled cylinder and head mounted on ' YZ250 crankcases . Jobe is ' expected to ride the bike in the 1990 World Championship 500cc MX Series. Dean Lan e received th e Len Rossm an Mem ori al Aw a rd a t th e December 2 Texas Cross Co unt ry Racing Associa tio n's a nnual a wards ba nquet in Fort Worth, T exas. T he a ward is give n eac h year to the rid er who has ea rned the mOSI po ints duri ng the season. KTM rider La ne is sponsored by MS Racing and Du ral u be, An update on last week's item regarding the Mike Sponseller/ Skip Eaken Camel Pro Series racing team came in the form of a press release , The team will be known as ESP Racing and, as reported, team members will consist of Dan Ingram, Canadian Jon Cornwell and rookie Expert l a rry Pegram. Pegram will be riding an Eaken-prepared Honda RS750 that is owned by Ed Fisher and Johnny Goad . Goad w ill hand le the tuning chores during the season. In addit ion to the Pro riders, Sponseller says he'll cont inue his inv o lve m e nt w ith the Youth and Amateur classes on a reg ional le ve l " a s a n inve s t m e nt in the future of the sport." ' P ro Stock motorcycle drag racin g will be included under the NHRA Winston Drag Racin g Series ba n ner in 1990. Winston cigare ttes will award the 1990 P ro Stoc k cha m p 10,000 from a record points fund to taling $25,000. The series will be co ntested at eigh t NH RA Win ston National events . T he 1990 Winstori Effective January 1 , the AMA 750cc dirt tracker weight rule changes to 31 5 pounds across the board. Previously, dirt track bikes powered by 750cc four-valve engines were required to weigh a m inimum of 320 pounds while the m inimum weight for two-valve engine-powered bikes was 300 pounds. Other changes include a deletion of the Junior manifold rule (Junior riders will use the same AMA -supplied manifold restrictor plates as Expert riders). and the 12 fastest Juniors who do not advance to the final in a 600 National program w ill run a Junior m a in event. 8LM says "no more" 8-to- V races LONG BEACH , CA, DEC. I I Citing n u merous p robl ems associa te d wi t h co n d uc te d point-to-point off-ro ad vehicle races, the Bu reau of L a nd Man agement (BLM) has an nounced that they will not allow a ny more AMA Ba rs to w- to -Vega s H a re & Ho und races to take pl ace o n BLM co ntrolled land in so ut hern Ca liforni a 's Moja ve Desert. In add ition, th e Ca lifo rnia loop po rt ion o f th e SCO RE Pa rker 400, and th e AMA j ohnson Valley to Parker race, also kn o wn as th e Ch eck Ch ase, will not be allowed. " Based o n th e cum ula tive enviro nme nta l impacts of th ese events over th e years, th e sponso rs' con tinuin g p rob lem s in ma nagin g th e events, a nd th e emerge ncy listin g of the desert tortoi se as an enda ngered species, we feel stro ngly tha t furth er considerat io n of these races is inappropriate," sa id BLM Ca li fornia Sta le Director Ed Hastey. "A ltho ug h the America n Mo tor cyclist Association and SC O RE have tri ed d il igent ly to co ntro l th eir riders, in a hi gh-spe ed rdce situa tio n, it is nearly impossibl e to co ntrol the beh a vior a nd reactions of individual participants," sa id BLM Ca liforn ia Desert Di strict Man ager G era ld Hillier. H e added that BLM also had to co nsi der th e im pacts ca used by bot h crews a nd specta tors, which BLM said ca n be consi dera ble. " We recogn ize th at we are propos ing to end three majo r hi storic offroad vehicle events, bu t o ur primary co ncern has to be to conserve the na tu ral resources un der our ad mi nistratio n," said H astey. " The endange red sta tus of th e desert tort o ise is ca usi ng man y cha nges in th e management of publ ic lands, some o f . which are not po p ula r wi th o ur visit ors. H o wever, we feel confident .we have mad e the rig h t decis ion." News of th e BLM 's decisio n firs t carne fro m Rob Rasor of the AMA's Go vernment Rela tions Departm ent. Rasor ca lled Cycle News fro m his Westervill e, Oh IO, ho me at 6:00 p.m . (Eas tern time), less th an two hours p ri or to deadlin e for th is iss ue . "They' ve pulled th e p lug o n fu ture o Bvto-V 's." sa id Rasor. "T hey did n't O'l O'l even give the (race) organize rs ........ District 37 - th e courtesy of a br iefing meeting. I think much of th e bl ame must fall on envirornentalist grou ps wh o p ut pr essure o n the BLM - pressur e tha t saw th e BLM put ma ny sti pulations in pl ace just prior , to th e runn in g of this year's race, stip ula tio ns th at had District 37 jumpi n~ through hoops to sa tisfy." According to AMA District 37 President Ken Boyd, many of th ose stipula tio ns came just a few days , before the event was to take place. " We ad hered to everyth ing we pos sibly co u ld," said Boyd. " O ur ma in conce rn was not to kill a ny tortoises, a nd not o ne sing le tortoi se was kill ed." Rega r d i n g H a s tey's s ta te men t abo u t con tro ll ing the behavior arid reactions of ind ivid ual participa nt s, a mong the stip u la tio ns was a 25-foot ' co rridor a t th e start of th e November 25 Barstow-to- Vega s race. " Due to ' th e dus t, I'm s u re m an y rider s co uldn' t see wh ere th e 25-foot corrid or was," sa id Bo yd. " T he re were too man y stipula tio ns a t a lat e date a nd by design we were forced to race ' under restri ctions we felt we cou ld n' t ad here to." Bo yd also ci led nega tive press foll owin g th is year's race, such as th e report aired by Los Angeles' ABCaffilia te T V station, KABC, in which they used footage from the 1983 race. Boyd says District 37 will inv estigate wa ys to ma intain q ual it y raci ng, including th e feasibili ty of poss ib le court ac tion. Dunlop held the grand opening of its new $7 million tire pro ving grounds in Huntsville, Alabama. on December 5 . Situated adjacent to the Dunlop tire manufacturing plant, the center boasts facilities for dry and wetweather handling and noise testing, and expands Dunlop's Huntsville campus to 1 52 acres. Future plans call for an off-road tire proving grounds to be built on 30-plus acres just north of the existing facility, with a tentative completion date of 1991 . The U.S. facility joins Dunlop's other proving grou~ds in Japan. France. Germany and England. If the 1990 Camel Cycle Week at Daytona Beach is in your p la ns, you might want to take advantage of a new KO A cam pgrou nd inOrlando, Approximately a n ho ur drive from Da yt on a , Wa lt Disn ey Wo rl d / O rl a n d o So u t heast KO A has ex tended a welco me to Cycle Week attendees. For more information, ca ll 407/277-5075. AMA Superbike and 750cc Superspo rt Champ io n Jamie James w ill ride factory Ducati 851 Superbikes in 1990. Accordin g to sou rces with in Cag iva No rth America, James has inked a deal w ith Fast By Fe rracci to c o nte st the AMA Nationa l Cha m pionsh ip Superbike Series, and m a y a lso race in t he AMA Pro Twins Grand Prix and WERA Formula USA Series. Ano ther rumo r co ncerni ng Du ca ti has fo rm er 500cc road race Worl d Cha m p io n Marco Lucch in elli o f Ital y racing in th e United Sta tes in 1990. Wh ether " Luc ky" will race Superbi ke a nd/or Pro T win s, and in (Co ntin ued to page 69) 1

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