Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Raci ng Team Katayama Honda RS250 in the 250cc G Ps, but only qualified for one race. T his year, he 'll be riding an '88 Aprilia chassis equipped with . a '90 Rotax tandem -twin motor. " I don't think riding a tandem twin (as op po sed to the V-twins of the newer Aprilias) will be a handicap in the .U.S.," said Leisner. " T he 'Vs' are wickedly fast, bu t they break down quite a bit and they have a fro nt end chattering problem. I' ll be safe on the tandem, a nd I' ll be $3D,000 richer. " Speculating on the final o utcome of this year's AMA 250cc GP Series: Le is ner said: "(Team Marl boro Robert s ri der and Irishman ) Gary , Cowan is rea lly , really fast. Last year in the GPs he had o ne of the absolutely slowest bik es, yet he could run with most of the factory g uys. If he can lea rn the trac ks here in th e U.S., he'll win the championsh ip easy." Speaking at a Yamaha Racing press co nference February 15, Terry Va nce said that while his Vance & Hines superbike tea m of Dav id Sadowski and T homas Steve ns w i ll co ncen tra te primari ly on the AMA Super bi ke Na tio na l Ch ampionsh ip , th ey will also co ntes t the o pening and closi ng rounds of the WERA Fo rm ul a USA Series at Willow Springs Internatio na l Raceway a nd Road Atl a n ta, as well as the U.S. ro und of the Wor ld Su perbike Series a t Brainerd Racewa y. AR RA Mill er H igh-Life F-I and WERA Western Regi onal F-USA road race champ Barry Burke experime nted wi th a n elec tronic fue l injection system on his Yamaha FZRIOOOpowered Superb ike in a n AR RA practice session at Will ow Springs, February 17. Bu r ke sai d that th e system, developed by Mark Dobeck of Dyne-jet, " is incredi ble - it makes carbs obso lete." Befor e th e day was over the system was o n its way back to Dyn e -j et in Montana for refinements . Burke plans to develop the system furt her a nd possibly use it in the WERA F-USA Na tio nal Series . Former th ree-t i me o bserved tria ls Worl d Champio n Thierry Michaud of Fra nce recen tly su ffered a broken leg r while co mpeting in an arena trial. Micha ud was Wor ld Cha mpion in 1985, '86 a nd '88, and the ru nner-up to J ordi Tarres in '87 a nd '89. Sign-u p a nd tech inspection for Da yto na Cycle Week's Alligator Enduro will tak e place fro m I to 5 p.m. on - Wednesday, Mar ch 7, the day befor e the end uro, east of th e Speedway tunnel. O n Thursday, March 8, the I first ro w of riders will start the enduro a t 9:0 I a.m . at the west end of the ..._._ - • Speedwa y. Trophies will be a wa rded a t the start a rea at 4 p .rn. T h ursday. T he 1990 A MA Amateur National MX Ch ampions hip s at Loretta Lynn 's Dude Ra nch in Hurricane Hills , T enn ess ee, have been resched u led for July 30-August 4. The original date for th e Am eri can Hondaspo nsor ed event wou ld ha ve conflicted with the AMA's H eritage Ho mecoming and grand opening of the Moto rcycle H eritage Museum i n O hio . "Many individuals, as well as American Honda as a corporate spo nsor , hav e keen interest both in th e Am ateur MX Nationals and the Heri tage H om e, co ming," said AMA Member Activities Director Hugh Fleming. " By resch edu ling the Amateur MX Nationals, we will be ab le to accommodate those who wish to attend both activities." I The NMA has announced tha t th ey were asked to re-schedule the August 7-12 Coca-Cola-sponsored NMA Grand National MX Champion ships at Po nca Ci ty, Oklahoma, but have opted to ho ld th e e ven t as sched uled. " We h a ve a very good working relationship with (promoter ) Dave Coombs and all the folks a t Loretta Lynn's, and tried to accommodate their request to move ," said NMA President Ron Henricksen , "(but) it's just too late to change since our nat ional participant mailing went out last Decem ber, p lus ads have been ' printed." The fact that many particip ants have al ready schedu led their vacations and made motel reservations was a lso cited. If yo u've missed no t hearing an nouncer Larry Huffman at Camel Supercross Series events, yo u ca n catch-. h im on the Fox TV network where he most recen tly d id promos for th e Married Wi th Children sh o w, o n Prime Ticket's Speedway America series, a t Costa Mesa on ce the southern California s peedway season gets underway, and - getthisl - a t Casey's Back All ey Bar & Grill in Costa Mesa , California, where he' s hosting li ve sta nd-u p comedy every Tuesday night. Tom n Sifto :1903·1990 T o m Sifton, 86, a legendar y figure in the Ame rica n mo tor cycle ind ustry, passed away on February 22 a t hi s San J ose, California, hom e. Sift on was a n influential force in the industry for many decad es, with special em p has is o n race engi neer ing and design. , He o pened a Harl ey-Da vidson retail o utlet, la ter known as Arena 's Harley-Davidso n, in th e' 1930s. La ter in life, he co nce nt ra ted his efforts o n Sifton 's Motorcycle Products Co ., which spec ialized in the design a nd production of mo tor cycle per formance accessories. But Sifton was probably best known . as one of the na tio n 's truly o u tsta nd ing engine builders a nd tuners. T h ree- time Grand Nati o nal Champio n J oe Leonard, San Arena Sr., La rry Headrick, Charlie West, Kenny Eggers a nd Everett Brashea r were a mo ng the racers who successfu lly co m pete d o n Sifto n-bu ilt mot or cycles. In 1972, he was the recipient of th e Dud Perkins Award, the highest individual honor bestowed by th e AMA. He is survived by hi s da ughter, J ean Hinman. Funeral services were co nduc ted in San Jose o n Satu rda y, February 29. At the request of Mrs. H inman , dona tion s in the mem ory 'of T om Sifton may be made to the Am eri can Motor cycle H erita ge Founda tion, P.O. Box 6114, Westerville, OH 43081-6114. Road racer Wayne Gardner may not be too far off wh en he says of Sito Pons: "He's probably doing better (fina ncially ) than all of us." Pons, the 1988-1989 250cc World Champion, is no t on ly the racer on the Campsa Honda 500cc GP team, but also the team owner. P o n s is th e Spanish equ ivale nt of bas ketball' s Michael Jordan; a sporting hero in Spain wi th lucra tive endorsement co ntrac ts. His one-rider team is sponsored by Campsa (Spa in ' s seco nd largest petroleum company) and Ban esto (Spain 's largest bank ). In addition, P o n s h as , a personal-endorsement co n trac t with Coca-Cola tha t doe sn 't even sti pu late that their logo be painted on th e bikes. According to sources in Spain, Po ns gets in excess of $6 mill ion to run his tea m - and if he runs o ut of money, he can get morel _ _._._._._ ...........•.......•......................... _ Name : : • • City This is a re ne wa l Pl ease bill m e 0 Enclosed is m y check o r m oney order C harge m y 0 Visa 0 Masterca rd i • ~: : : : : • : State Zip Order Date P lease start my su bscriptio n to Cycle News: 0 Every week for one year (50'iss ues) for $35. 00 0 Every we ek for two yea rs (100 issues) for $65.00 0 Six months second class (25 issues) fo r $18.00 One year (50 issues). 2nd class Canada or Mexico and all other foreign coun tries $75.00 (U.S. funds). Firs. class and airmai l rates available upon req uest. Sources in Europe say that Gilera will ma ke a return to Grand Prix road raci ng in 1991, co m peting in the 250cc GPs. Former 125cc World Champ ion Jorge Martinez won the first internationa l 125cc road race of th e season in Spain , a hotbed for 125cc racing. The big new s from the event was that Martinez won , on a JJ Cobas, a nd the top Derbi in th e race was ninth 1 R oad racing vetera n Kurt Liebmann, 47, of Scuderia Nostalgia wi ll be co mpeting at Da ytona for the 32nd tim e this year. Li ebmann will field six ID ' -orcvcles two BMW RS500s, a Honda CR450 a nd CR750, and two . . . . _.......•................................... 0 0 Address Accordin g to Spa in 's Solo Moto n ewspape r , Marlboro Yam aha 's Wayne Rainey turned in so me 350 laps a t Aus tra lia 's Phi llip Island las t week, la p p in g four-tenths-of-a-second under th e best la p o f a year ago tha t was turned in by K e vin Sc h w a n t z on the Lucky Stri ke Suzuki. Eddie Lawson, meanwhile, did 400 la ps and ended with a best lap of 1:35.10, a bo u t half a second slo wer th an Rainey. Italian Luca Cadalora was the fastest of the 250cc men a t th e Yamaha test sessio n, lapping a t 1:37.97 - the Marlboro Agostini rider later crashed, but was unhurt. John Kocinski circu la ted a t 1:38.80. West German road racer Martin W immer, who finis hed 10th in the 1989 250cc World Championship and ' six th in last yea r 's Daytona 200 , suffered facial injuries when he was rear-ended by I25cc rider Peter Oe tll during a plug ch op whi le testing at Rijeka in Yugoslavia on February 24. Wimmer u nderwen t fo ur h ours of surgery in Munich, West Germany to repair a broken jaw and lost teeth. Oetll, who fini shed second in the 1989 80cc World Championship, sus tained a broken arm in the acciden t. Although elsewhere in this issue you 'll see wh ere we na m ed Wimmer as a p oss ib le Day to na 200 winner, he will now m iss the March II race in Florida; he is ': SUBSCRIPTION ORDER FORM • • At presstirne, preparations were underway to have World Superb ike co m petitor P eter Rubato replace Wimmer in th e Dayto na 200. The Yam aha O WO I Wim mer was to ride a t Daytona, _ now sitting in the air-freight holding area at Miami Int ern a tio na l Airport, was borrowed from Rubato. J eremy McGrath led a Kawas a ki Team Green sweep of the top three places in the 250cc Ultracross class at round two of the Mickey Thompson Championship Gran Prix Series a t San Diego, Ca lifornia, February 24. Ryan Hughes finished second a nd Mi chael Crai g third. Road racer Richard Arnaiz, wh o finis hed third in th e 1989 AMA National Superbi ke Championship Series, has inked a deal with Italia n Oscar R umi to campaign two Honda RC30s in the European and Italia n FI Cha mpions hi ps as well as selected World Superbi ke events. The agreement a lso in cludes contracts wi th Pirell i, Nolan and Dainese. Arnaiz left for Italy on February 22, and will live on the Rum i esta te in Bo logna, Italy, in close proximity to his teammate, fe llow Ca lifornian and tw o-tim e World Superbike Champion Fred Merkel. : expected to be ready for th e season openi ng Grand Prix in Japan on Mar ch 25. .7 : • • : VISA L:'! __ • 1 : : • - Signatu re ' i• MCiVisa # • : : Expira tion Da te Sen d to: Cycle News, Inc., : P.O. Bo x 498, L ong Beach, CA 9080 1-0498 : : 213/ 427- 433 : 7 • ................................................................._•••••••_•••••••••_•••••••_._•••••••••••••••••_......... 5

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