Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

M ichelin's im m ediat e w ithdrawal from motorcyc le competitio n activities in North America, b ut w ill not effect t he ava ilability of M ichelin tires for rep lacement on motorcycles orig inally equipped w ith M ichelin tires. Those tires w ill be ava ilable throug h specific cha nne ls ." po inted . According to Lou Sea ls, head of Seals Communciations Co rp. , " W e produced 26 MotoW orl d shows under a contract we had with TNN and Sunday's show would have been the 27th of the year, ac t ually the f irst of a new year, but it didn't ha ppen and we've opted no t t o st ay wit h TNN f or the benef it of ou r sponsors." Seals said th at TN N had increased its rat es f or commercial tim e t o an unacceptab le point . " W e' re negotiating with ES PN and hope to be able t o air on that chan nel After agreeing to FAX the sta tement to o ur office, Vau ghn ca lled back a nd said, " I' ve been to ld not to FAX th e sta tement to you. We are issu ing the stateme nt and I will read it to you agai n. We are making a sta tement o nly; we are not ma kin g a press release. " Wh en asked if the move effected o nly No rt h America and that we co u ld assu me th a t Miche li n wou ld still be inv olv ed in Grand Pr ix racing in Eu rope, Vau ghn sai d , "That is a correct assum ption ." A record number of riders from 33 sta tes accounted for 847 ent ries a t th e ope ning round of the 20th Annual Florida Winter AMA MX Series a t Gain esvill e's Gatorback Motocr oss Park on December 30-31. In the I25cc Pro class, New York's Chris Col eman (Kaw) won th e first moto a nd th en came back fro m two cras hes in the second moto to fin ish second behind Florida's Ja y Ma nn (Kaw) to take th e o verall victory. Damon Brads haw (Yam) won bot h motos in the 250cc Pro class. Wa lt Schaefer, owne r of Walt Schaefer Cycle Supply wh ich has distributed Michelin race t ires in the Southeast for over 15 year s, sai d, " T h is i s th e t h ird t i me M ichelin has done this - they did it in 1975 and aga in in 1981 or 1982. They didn 't announce it then and I don't know why t hey are now. There 's a lot of stock in th is co untry and I expect to have t ires throughout the year . I'll be at Daytona and other races. I know the French are unhappy over this. They don 't wa nt to see M ichelin stopping their road race support in th is country because we have produced so many f ine racers over the yea rs. I've heard it (the rac ing pu llout ) is part of the work of a hatchet team that has been going to different countries and eliminating certain things as part of a costs saving process. " J eff Matiasevich (Kaw) was the overall w inner in the 250cc Pro class at round one of the southern portion of the GF I Cal ifornia Winter Series at Perris Raceway in Perris, Ca lifornia, December 31. Jeremy McGrath (Kaw) topped t he 125cc Pro class and Edd ie Hicks (KTM ) was the Open Pro class winner. Mike J ones (Ya m) won the Rodil Supercross World Cha mpions hip a t th e series fina le in Antwerp, Belgium, Decem ber 16-17. G uy Cooper (SUl) won both mai n events in Antwerp, whi le J ones combined 69 finishes to edge Finland's Pekk a Vehko nen (Ya m) for the title by one point. J ones is th e second American to win the Rodil Ch a mpionship; Ji m H olley won the ina ugural series in 1985. " Mike Klinger named publisher We are pl eased to announce the promotion of Mich ael D. Klinger to . the position of publ isher for the CN P ubl ish ing G roup, which includes Cycle News, Personal Wat ercraft Il lustrated and Motorcycle R oad R acer Illustra ted. The appoint ment will become effective in Apri l 1990, a t the begi n ni ng of our fiscal year. At the same time, Charles C. Cla yto n is " promoted to chairma n of th e board and Sharon Clayto n to presid ent of th e corpo ra tion. A long-tim e mo tor cycle a nd off-road racer, Mike Klin ger has been wit h Cycle N ews for 16 years. The last n in e years as comptroller a nd chief fina ncial offi cer, also a wr iter and phot ogra pher for th e pa per. As you can see from th e following biography, he kn ows and understands pub lish in g and th e recreational vehicle as fun a nd as a bu siness. We a re confi dent of Mike Klin ger's ability to carryon the traditions a nd future p rogress for th e cor poration. Erich Trunken pol tz, 58, chai rman of the board of KTM , di ed of a heart a ttack in Mattighoffen , Austria, o n December 23. The son of the founder of KTM , Trunkenpoltl had sold the maj o rity shares in th e co mpa n y earlier last year. H e is survi ved by his wife Er ika, two so ns a nd a dau ghter. God sp eed, Eri ch. Tom Vaughn, Michelin product information manager, called Cycle News on Wednesday, December 27, to deliver the following statement : " M ic h e li n announced today that given the insuffic ient production capacity to totally address the specificity of the motorcycle market, it will phase out motorcycle tires in North .America during the year 1990. This decision w ill result in If you tuned in cable television's The Nashville Network on Sunday, December 31, expecting to see MotoWorld, you were disap- CHARLES C. CLAYT O N Ch ai rm an SH ARO N CLAYTON President Michael D. Klinger Four-time 500cc World Road Rac ing Champion Edd ie Lawson, seen here incognito w ith generic he lmet and leathers, tested a Michelin-shod 1989 Yamaha YZR500 at Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey, California, December 15-16. A lso present at the test session was Lawson 's Team Marlboro Roberts 500cc GP teammate Wayne Rainey, as well as Roberts' AMA 250cc GP team of Richard Oliver and Bubba Shobert. ,- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - , :I: 00 ::::; Cl z w <{ a: ::;) ~ -'...-"'... > '" a I- '""~ ~ c, I remember th e da y in 1974, fresh ou t of Long Beach City Co llege a nd a brie f winter tryout with the St. Lo uis Cardinal s baseball orga niza tion , I a ns wered a part-ti me cler k typ ist advert iseme nt and jo ined the Cycle N ews tea m. As I wor ked in the acco unt ing dep a rtment, I ea rne d a Bach elor of Arts degr ee in Busin ess Admi nis tra tion concentra tin g in Fina nce fro m Ca liforn ia Stat e Un iversity a t Fu llerton . I then tra nsferred to the production department to lea rn th e day-to-da y operati on of developing a newspaper. My pho tography background pla yed a big part in my production development a nd also helped wi th my ed ito ria l assignments in the lat e 1970's. . , In 1978 I cont in ued on my business pa th and I advanced to acco unt ing man ager, whi ch also enco mpa ssed th e su pe rvis io n of o ur da ta processin g di vision. . In the spring of 1981, I was p romo ted to cont ro ller with major o pera ting a nd fina nc ia l responsibilities. At this time, I am very exci ted a nd ent h usias tic abo ut .my new po sition as p ub lisher. I a m en th usias tic to conti n ue the tradition of Cycle News, purs ue a new horizon in th e wa tercraft field with Personal Wat ercraft Ill ustrat ed and establis h an an n ua l focus o n hi g h performan ce roa d rac ing with M otorcycle R oad Ra cer Ill ustrated. . On a personal note, I a m 35 a nd I have been married for 14 years. My wife. Ju dy a nd I have two boys, ages 12 a nd 9. Our fami ly enjo ys ca mp ing, trail ridin g, boating and personal wat ercraf t ridi ng, with a" majori ty of my spa re time cen tered around head ing up my off-roa d racing tea m. For 26 years, Cycle News has served the motorcycle co mm unity a nd beginning three yea rs ago we ha ve ope ned our door s to the person al wat ercra ft field. T he cha llenge is grea t, bu t I receive th is challenge with open arms. MICHAEL D. KLING ER Publish er 2

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