Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

IN THE WIND By Papa Wealey Du catis, a 7S0 and a new 888 Sports Racer - whic h he will use to cont est th e AMA /CCS weekend, AH RMA H isto ric Cup races, AMA Pro Twins, and the Daytona 200. Information for T h e Rat's H ole 18th Annual Custom Chopper Show arrived too late to be included in our Daytona preview schedule; it will be held Saturday mo rning, Mar ch 10, behind th e Dayto n a Beach O cean Center. At the GFI Winter MX Seri es NorthSout h Show dow n he ld February 24-2S in Perr is, Cali forn ia, Erik Kehoe (H o n ) wo n the 12Scc P ro class , Ryan Hughes (Kaw) the 2S0cc Pro class, Gordon Ward (H on ) the SO Occ Pro class' an d Ron Turner (Hon ) the Vet Pro class . Mike Healey (KT M) wra pped up 12S, 2S0 and SOOcc Pr o class titl es at the final ro und of the CMC Golden Sta te National s in San Bernardino, California , February 2S. H eal ey topped the SO Occ Pro class wh ile Don Patton (Ya m) won th e 2S0cc Pro class a nd Jon Nelson (Suz) topped the 12Scc Pr os. Peter Murray (Suz) won the Vet Pro class and earned the series title as well. Randy Mamola's 2n d annual benefit auctio n at the Comedy & Magi c Club in Hermosa Beach , Californ ia, February 18, raised $II,S86 for the Save the Children Foundation. Among the items up for bidd ing were a Shoei helmet worn by Eddie Lawson d ur in g h is 1988 - SOOcc Wo rl d Cham p ionship -winn ing seaso n wh ich La wson h imself auct io ned off for $72S; a grani te etchi ng of Randy Mam ola whic h went for $700; and a day at the Laguna Seca U.S.G P with Mam ola which went for $67S. Mam ola him self was the highest bidder on MXer Bob Hannah 's helm et , whi ch he purchased for $300. " I didn 't care how h igh it went, I wanted H annah 's helmet," Mam ola said. Former two-time 12Scc MX Nat ional cha mp Micky Dymond has reco.vered from a sho u lder injury su ffered early in the year and will return to actio n at the open ing ro und of th e AMA 12S/ 2SOcc Nationa l Champio nshi p MX Series in Gainesvill e, Florida, March 4. Dymond will ride a Pro Circui t Kawasak i with backing from Mo tley Crue, the heavy metal rock group'. rNo ted road race tu ner and form er team owner John Lassak has announced that he will not field an AMA 2S0cc Grand Prix team in 1990. ''I' m not goi ng to stick my neck o ut like I di d th e last two years," La ssak said on February 22. Las sak cited insu fficie nt funds and a lack of in terest in motorcycle racing on the part o f pot ential outside-i nd u stry sponso rs for hi s decision to stay at hom e, but says that he wi ll cont in ue to do engi ne prep aration work, an d will aga in try to put a tea m toge ther for the 1991 season. Lassak's p ullo ut has relegated Sou th African road racer Robbie Petersen to privateer sta tus . Pet ersen , who fin ished fourth in th e 1989 AMA 2S0cc G P Series o n a Las sak Racing Aprilia, has purch ased a 1990 Yam aha TZ2S0A and will do the circui t alone. Glyn Robinson is alread y a Daytona win ner. The engineer from En gland wo n a trip to Camel Mo tor cycle Week from Britain's Mo to r Cycle News and O ld Ho lborn tobacco products. Ro bin so n 's hand-built Ducat i eig ht-valve Vtwin too k firs t prize in th e Specia l Bike of the Year competition . Road racing action at Dayto na Int ernationa l Speedway during Cycle Week involves nearly 2000 mil es of raci ng mi les o n the 3.56-mi le road course p lus a few th o usand mo re miles in practice and q ual ifyin g sessions. Two Brothers Racing's Craig Erion says that hi s team has reach ed an agreement with Dunlop tir es in j apan for support during the 1990 AMA Pro T w in s Se ries . " Wh en Michelin pulled o ut of raci ng I ca lled j im Allen at Dunlop (in Buffal o, New York ) and he to ld me there was no way he cou ld help us," Eri on sai d o n Februar y 26. " But 'it turned ou t we made some valuable connec tio ns wh en we went to j apan ." Erion said Dunl op j apan has al ready sent the team 24 rir es. . and will co n tin ue to do so th roughout the year. Erion also said that T wo Bro th ers racing will be receivi ng so me hel p Malcolm F e orbs:1920-1990 M a lcolm Forb es, th e billion aire publisher of the bu sin ess magazine that bears h is nam e, d ied o f a h eart a ttack o n Sa t urday, February 24. Known worldwide for his flam boyant life style and for the lavish parties he host ed , For bes was a motorcyclist. He was sched u led to lead th e parade from the AMA H eritage Hom ecom ing in Ath en s, Ohio, to the gra nd open ing of the Mot orcycle Heri tage Mu seum in Westerville, Oh io, on Aug ust 16. After gradua ting from Pr in ceton U niversi ty in 1941, Forbes was owner and p ublisher of a weekly newspaper in Oh io. He was dra fted into the Army short ly after Pearl Harbor and served as a n infantrym an in WWII . After the war , he joined th e family bu siness, publ ish ing Fo rbes magazin e, . which was founded by hi s father. H e was a member of the New j ersey sta te Sena te in the 'SO and ran unsuccessfully for go vernor of New j ersey. H e started riding s, motorcycles relatively late in life and often said that he was " ma king up fo r lost tim e" by bein g a very act ive motorcyclist. H e received internation al attention by taking motorcycle tr ips through Ru ssia, China and other count ries. -Steve Forb es, formall y Malcolm Steven son Forbes jr., will succeed hi s father as chairman of the board and chief execu tive officer of Forb es In c. and as editor- in-chief of Forb es maga zine. Forbes is survived by four sons - Steve, Robert, Ch risto ph er and T imo thy, and a dau ghter, Moi ra Forbes Mumma. H e is also survived by hi s forme r wife, Rober ta, and a bro th er, Robert. His will ca lls for h is bod y to be crema ted and the ashes bu ried on a famil y-owned island in Fiji . He asked that h is tombstone read: " While alive, he lived." G r Ptea~s try- two- way---=-..::..:ra:..: .: ..: dio-=---=--s_ _ ea m Ma rlboro R oberts unvei led a two -way rad io system li nking riders Eddi e Law son and Wayne Rainey with . crew mem bers in the p its d uring the final day of the recent threeday IRTA test session in j erez, Spai n. " Rig ht now we reall y don't know how we can use th em ," team owner Kenny Robert s said from his Hi ckman , Ca lifo rnia, hom e. " Right no w we' re jus t . . usin g them fo r p ra ctice a nd Eddie Lawson (above) and Kenny Roberts . testin g - the riders can talk all the way aro und the racet rack if they want. It 's some th ing they'll (the riders ) either get used to and like or they'll get used to th em and won 't like them . Eddi e (Lawson) reall y liked it. I cou ld give him his lap tim es befor e the start/ finish stra ig h t and he said it did n' t ;;other him. In the past we've tho ught th at h it tin g the button at the wrong tim e could ca use th em to lose concentratio n and spin o u t, but it didn 't bo ther him a bit." Rober ts said that as far as he kn ows, there ar e no rules prohibiting the use of th e radios du ring a GP. Wayn e Ra iney thinks the system has po tential. " It' s different ," Rain ey sa id. " Yo u can 't race full speed and talk at the same ti me or you' ll end up in the dirt. But they can tell you lap times and you can ·tell th em right away what 's wrong wi th the bik e. Maybe it would be good if th ere was somethi ng you needed to know - you could ask. One time in Spain we had a li ttle mis ha p with th e bik e and I thought it ran ou t of gas, bu t they told me (over the radio) I had plenty of gas , so I continued on. If they hadn 't been ab le to tell me I'd stopped ou t on the trac k." In addition to Roberts' squad, Team Marl boro Agos tini also used a two-way rad io with 2S0cc ri der Lu ca Cada lora du ring the Spanis h test. from Honda R&D after Daytona. Accordi ng to Eri on , Honda is pl annin g to release a 7S0cc Paris-Dakar replica called the Africa n and one of these engines, probabl y in 8SIcc form, may find its way into the team 's Honda Hawk chassis in time for the May S6 AMA National at Road Atlanta. They've already ni cknamed th e bike the " Africa n Queen. " Pap a' s been told that the San J o s e Amateur S u percross, a round of th e AMA Nat ional Championship Series. that was sched uled to be run in conj unctio n with the june 16Camel Supercross in San j ose, California's Spa rta n Sta di u m has been cance led d ue to th e need to exped ite th e removal of th e su percross tr ack from the facil it y. WoridSports, th e Florid abased promoter, says the y'll mak e every effort to see tha t ama teur supercross event s ru n with all California ro unds of the Camel Supercross Series next year. Dick Lague has been elected cha irman of the Motor cycle Industry Co unci l's board of directors. Lague is the pub lisher of Petersen Publish ing 's Mot orcycli st a n d Dirt Rid er maga zin es. John Ashmead, wh o o n J anuary 13 was arrested and cha rged wit h dri vin g under the influence after th e van he was d riving was invol ved in an acci dent in wh ich Jim Fili ce su ffered serio us inj uries, was arra ig ne d in Fresno (Ca liforn ia) Superior Court o n February 14. Ashmead , winner of the 1989 Daytona 200, faces a tria l confirmati on on April 19 and a trial set for May 3. Doug Polen, th e road racer wh o lost four toes off his left foot in a pract ice cras h at sou thern California 's Willow Sp rings Int ernati onal Racewa y o n Tuesda y, February 13, ha s returned to T exas after being di scharged from th e UCLA Medi cal Center in Los Angeles on February 21. According to his manager, Rodney Sheldon, Polen is scheduled to undergo more surgery next week. " H e' s healing well ," Sheldon said on Monday, February 26. " We th ink he 'll be back at it (racing) in the spring. He 's in good spirits and he's anxious to give it a go. H e's a real trooper. " After rehabilitation, Polen is planning to return to japan wh ere he will defend his All-Japan Formu la One and Formula Three Championships on factory Suzukis. Pol en was injured while testing the Yosh imura Suzuki GSXR7S0 superbike he was schedu led to ride in th e u pcoming Daytona 200. P URCHASED: Silverstate Raceway in Carson Cit y, Nevada, by Robert Hansen and Jim Holley from Vic Wil son and Ri ch T ho rwa ldso n; racing will ge t underw ay under th e new o wnership on Mar ch 18 and Holley will be cond uct ing MX schools at th e facili ty during the year. D ESI G N ATE D : T eam T oom er, as official trackside representatives of T Pro Body Arm or at all AMA Nati onal Ch ampionship Road Races. APP OINTED: Inter-Link Distribu- . tion of Rancho Cordo va, California, as distributo rs of HRP 's Flak J ak 2 ch es t protector a n d Al pi nes tars apparel. NAM E D: Motor cycle Stu ff Distributing, MotoRace Distributin g, Kenz & Les lie Di stributing a nd Mot oMan Distributing, as new distributors of Yokohama mo torcycle tir es. RETAIN ED: Tony McAndrew, by Bridgeston e; for the fourth stra igh t year, McAndrew, 39, will represent Bridgestone at cons u mer a nd trad e sho ws a n d co n d uct Br id geston espo nsored semi nars o n mot or cycl e tires.

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