Kenny Roberts. How much experience does he have as a referee? With
his team, he may be an expert by
season 's end.
o
O"l
O"l
......
America 's
motorcycle newspaper
Volume XXVII
Sharon O :lYlOft Publishn
.
M il~ Klin ger , Co m p troll n
Jack M:InRW. A.ssocUut' Publuhrrl Edito r
Rheba Smith. Ci rculation Moncg"
Caroline Cendrv . Exuutiw Sf"CTt'tOry to
thr Publisht"T
MOTOCROSS: Bayle shi nes at s t a r-st udded GFI Perris round " , , 6
Lamson. Fisher & He al e y t o p CMC Go lden State National , . . 8
Coleman . Mc Elroy w in at Dade C ity Winte r AMA MX
10
IC E RACING : Die m s kates to w in in Tu cs on
, . ,14
Ingram s lides to dou ble victories in Mic higan
16
HARE & HOUND : Noli n nails w in in Ba rking Spider
18
INTERVIEW: S uzuki' s Buddy Antunez a ims for the stars . . , .. " , 2 0
CALENDAR : Pla n for the fut ure
,
",
26
ON THE FRO NT PAG E: (To p) Jean -Michel Bayle (2 2) topped a starstudded field of 250cc Pros in the G FI California W inter MX Series
at Perris. Californ ia . See page 6 fo r co mplete coverage. (Midd le)
In a muddy CMC Golden State Nationals event in nearby San
Bernardino. Ph il Richmond (7 1 4) lea ds t he 80cc Junior class
through turn one. Coverage begins on page 8 . (Bo tto m ) The Indoor
Speedway Ice Racing World Championship came to Tucson.
Arizona . See page 14 for the complete story. Photos by Nate Rauba.
Donn Maeda and Michael Ross.
Editorial
j ack Ma ngus. Ed itor
Kil Pa fmet , Assoc iGlt' Ed itor
Pa u! Carru rbers, A ssoc;alt' Ed itor
Nat e Ra uba. As.wetaU' £dittn
Bria n Ca tterson . Associiue Editor
Ken .....ug tu , A ssistan t Ed itm
Edw ina Mangus. Ca lNidar Edi to r
Advertis ing
\
Tran slat in g th e R obertsese: Everyon e w ho is involved in bu ilding
motorcycles needed for Y am aha's
factory GP team s is busy doing so,
and it's expensive to add m ore
personnel to build the engines
R oberts has in mind . . . Edi tor.
Graphics a nd Production
Acco unt ing /Data Pro cessing
Dunn.. Bryan . Aeeb R uriVGbl~ Coordi n dlo r
Repass, " j,Jurant
Fran Hamwev, C.,t'dil
C~nna
Ci rc u latio n
SolrJlh Taylor . Assi.s'an'
Ai m .. An R;ui mo. Au u tan'
.
Herlane R ichmond , " j,Ju'an '
c.. tnl MdlQ;io. A j,J;S'4 nt
Dea ler S ales
F.T Reece, Man a!:,.,k
W a nt Ad s
Debbie Wr'lIM'. Wan' A d
S(J l~.s
S e rv ice and Support
Clu is '\ it(~o. H t'adq uartn .s Recepu on iu
Leonard Herr ing, Seroi ce and S lJ. p port
Nat ional Headquarters
T.lOI CIu-TTy Ave..
LollI(
Beach. CA 90806. P ,O ,
Missing point standings
I th ink it is great that you print
the fin al sta ndings of all the popular
series, such as th e AMA National a nd
Grand Prix road races, the end uro
series , a nd so o n. But isn ' t th ere so me
tha t you are forgetting? Such as the
National H a re & Hound Series
racers. They ride their butts orr a ll
year, and what do they get? A piece
of paper in the mail that tells them
what n umber the y earned for the year
(no t tha t tha t is your fault ). It would
ma ke a lo t of us feel better and give
us somethi ng to show our po tential
sponso rs (p u b lishing th e poi n t
sta nd ings) .
H are & hound riders love th e
exc iti ng a rticles yo u ha ve been
putting in o n th e series. Keep it up!
Blix ,198. Lo ng Beach, C,\ 9080 1-0498
2 1~ / 1 2 7 · 71~ ~ ; 2 1 ~ /6~f>RR11 .
FAX
2 1~ !127·6685
Eastern Office
1 190 FirM Ave., Tucker, GA . 300s1 ; maili ng
,lItd rMiIo P,O . Box SO!). Tucke r, CA 3()()S3.0 80!'J ,
1011931-7K:JO.
FAX
1(H!9~1 · ~ 112
Cyd l' News (USPS 1- 1-340 ) is pu blished wnlr discr et ion or Cycle News, Un sclicued
maleTia) which is no t u sed w ill br T lunlni ir
r
,u·cu rn p a ni t-d b y ;1 !Orlf a d d rrsst'd s lampnl
("n vl' lo pt' , All unsuli cil t'd m a lt'r ial w ill ~
h,lIJdlt'd with r('awlJOIbl r ca T huw('VIr . Cyd r
t'.
'
Nt'w s ..ssu m n no rt'Spunsibility ror It u' saft'ty.
lo~" or d.. ma~ 10 Sll('" h ma lM'i'll. Rt'p rin t in l/: in
wh n lr or p ;n l o nl y b y P<"rmission o r Ih t'
puh li r.h(·T. AdveTlisinK ra il'S and l:irculOlliun
infor ma lio n wi ll be ~'n l u pon rt'qurs(, & ('
S.R.ll .S.
'WBPA
4
AUD ITED
CIRCULATION
Copyright. Cycle News. Inc . 1990. Trad e .
m.rk Cycle News registered U.S . Patent
Office . All rights reserved.
The big boys
I just finis hed read ing the Kenn y
Roberts interview in the j an ua ry 17
issue. It's always interesting to hear
how the big boys do it, but doe s
an ybody else hav e difficu lty understand ing hi s comments?
"T he y're very interested in doi ng
it. Troub le is th e man power is all
tryi ng to do wha t we're do ing now
and to add more manpower to do
somethi ng else is not an easy thi ng
to do." H uh?
What rea lly pisses me oH is tha t
another year has passed wi thou t my
invi tati on to the H ickman H au l-Ass
Classic.
KIT FARLEY
Salt Lak e City, UT
Terry Prau. Senior Salt' s MO?lagt'T
Mark Thome. Wt'stnn Sal t'S M ana.~ r ,
Ron David son. Westnn S alt's Matla gt'1'
'n lu m a !!. R. O
omer, Wt'5ttTn Salr.! Mana g"
Ma rk Milchdl . Eastern StILt'S Mana gn
G K'K Milr hr ll. Eastern S41rs "'anego"
Juan Rusa ian , Wt'stnn Ad Coo rd inator
C~lfla Borden. East ern Ad Coo rdinator
Rre jnhn !;(m. Production Supervisor
Mand y Leo , Production Manag"
Ilt-n n is Greene, Lab. Tech :
Slacry C unl. G rap hic A rrul
J imm it' O'Dell. G rap hi c Arl isl
Carolyn Branham . T "p'st'Un
RANDY T OWNSEND
Redlands, CA
GS RACING
Fern ley, NV
Check out th e R esults section in this
issue fo r th e fin al point standings
fro m the 1989 AMA Na tional Champio ns hip H are &- H oun d Se ries
... Edito r.
RZvs. RZV
Does anyo n e hav e a Yamaha
RZSO for sale? What are som e of its
O
specifica tio ns , and what are th e
differences between an RZ500 a nd a n
RZV500?
JASON MO RSE
Lockport, NY
First of all, Jason, you should know
tha t Yama ha's RZ500 and RZV500
are powered by liquid-cooled, V-four
turo-stroke engines, and do not meet
U.S. emissions standards and are
technicall y illegal in th is country.
T his does not mean, however, that
there have not been any sold here on
the gray market. Your best bet is to
peruse our wan t ads, as RZs do tu rn
up there period ically. A Iso, the re are
a number of (predominantly Cana dian ) dealers w ho have sold RZs in
the past, and w ho advertise in Cycle
News on a regu lar basis. Th e RZ500
was introduced in 1984; it was a
worldw ide model eq uipped with a
steel chassis and a m otor that produ ced approx imately 95-100 horsep ow er (Can ad ian m o dels made
slig htly less hpJ. Th e RZV500 was
a Japan -only model featu ring an
aluminum chassis and a detuned
motor producing about 75 hp. We
did some checking, and were sur prised not to find an R Z owner's
clu b. If anyone knows of the existence of a club, please let us
kn ow . . . Editor.
R ig ht to ride
Scot H arden of KT M America is
right on the money in his letter in
th e january 24 issue. It is impossible
to design any type of orr-road product advertiseme nt tha t wi ll make
environ menta lists hap py. T he real
issues is, do we thin k we have a ri ght
to ride o n pub lic land? I believe we
do , especially in th e desert. H we
do n' t ba n together soo n a nd stand
up for th at rig h t we will be for ced
to ride in sma ll sta te-ru n parks, or
co m mercial motocross parks, a nd
nowhere else!
I appla ud Mr. H arden a nd KTM
for their courage. I spe nd my spare
time trying to keep th e desert ope n
fo r p u blic use a nd I do not apprecia te
the "en viro n me n ta lly-se nsi tive"
attitu des of most manufactu rers.
When m y prese nt bik e wears out , I'll
rem ember KT M.
KEITH CO L LINS
R idgecrest, CA
Don 't forget . , ,
With the G P abo ut to begi n, all
of the pre-season attention has been :
focus ed o n Eddi e Lawson's mov e to
the Kenny Roberts Yamaha team .
The idea that Lawson will win the
title aga in sou nds good, but don't
forget the other riders .
Kevin Schwantz is just a cou p le
of good races away from cha nging
th e pecki ng ord er, "Good races" in
hi s .case mea ns fin ish in g instead of
crashing.
Lawso n hi mself wi ll ha ve his
hands ful l. T he o ne-year stint o n th e
Honda may have tak en mor e out of
him than peo ple kn o w. Also . wit h
Wayne Rain ey asa tea m male, rivalry
will be in full bloom.
Finally, has everyone forgotten
Wayn e Gard ner? H he ca n stay
hea lthy and if the Honda handl es
betl er th is year , Gardner just ma y
mak e all th e dis cu ssion academi c. He
is Honda 's top dog aga in , so he can
co nce nt rale on what he sho u ld.
It will be in teresting to wat ch
Naive view
You r recent (Kenny) Rob erts interview and the (Ala n) Cathcart piece
o n the state of Grand Prix rac ing
were informative and well done, but
raised some issu es. Bo th Ca thcart
and Roberts tend to thi nk that the
health of the 500 class is excellent,
although Roberts canno t seem to
decide if money is or is not a big
issue among teams.
From a business perspective, it is
difficu lt to understand how a ny of
the supporti ng teams (or on a long
term bas is any tea m ). can run effectively with the current leasin g system
in place. No business ca n aHord to
opera te fo r man y years w itho ut
buildin g eq uity. Sponsorship is way
too ephe mera l, particu larly when
co u p led with the norm al eng inee ring a nd rider performance ri sk s
associa ted .i th any racin g to reli abl y
assu re tea ms of a co n tin ua l eco no mic
base. A year of bad engine problems,
bad tires, a hurt rider, etc. ca n plunge
a team from the top ra nks in a n eye
blink, a nd in the process dry u p
sponsorship. So me sort of stayi ng
abi lity [j.e. ow ners h ip of eq ui p ment)
is absolutely needed to sustain most
teams for a ny long period of time.
Int erestingl y, if the j apanese did
begin selling ra th er than leasing
equipment, I th ink other bu ild ers
wou ld soo n appear. Such a po licy
wou ld redirect the financia l structure
of teams in such a way that supporting engine and/ or frame builder s
outside the traditional j apa nese
firms would become poss ib le. But
expec ting teams to simulta neously
accept both the substantial busin ess
risk of restructuring their balance
sh eets away from a lease struct ure to
an ownership structure, as well as
amortizing th e engineering ris ks tha t
dev elo pi ng su ch en gi nes would
ent a il is a remarkably naive view-s-
L ipp is the CEO of R CM Go vernmen t Securities, a Boulder
Colorado-ba sed sec u rit ies dealer
.. Editor.
Publish ed letters do not ne cessarily re f le c t ··
the position of Cycle News. Inc . S end letter
to Vo ic e s . P.O. Bo x 49 8. long Be a c h. CA
90801 ·0 4 9 8 .
