Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

throug h Despa in 's company, Dave ' Despain & Associates. T he first offer: ing will be a ta pe' of ' last weekend's Asco t Half Mile whi ch was won by Steve Mor ehead . Mitch Payton, the former ace desert racer who suffered para lyzin g injuries 12 years ag o when he was 17, was the subject of a feature art icle by Shav G lick that a ppeared in th e May 14 Los Ang eles Times. Payton , who owns Pro Circui t, has won th ree straight SCCA Sho wroom Stoc k B class races, dri ving a hand cont rol-eq uipped Honda CRX. To min imize probl ems with 'hea t and dus t, th e May 20 A H RMA .Vin t a ge MX a t Arvin R a c e w a y in Arvin , Ca liforn ia, will start one hour earlier than p revio usly scheduled. Gates ope n at 6:00 a. m., practice gets underway at 7:30 an d th e first race in the vintage bike program will get th e green flag at 8:30. Sign-up will also be o pen fro m 5:00 to 9:00 p.m. on Saturday night and overnight camp ing is avai lab le. It seems that th e brak e failure that ca used four-time World Champion E d die L aw son to cra sh during practice for th e U.S. GP at Laguna Seca may have been the result of a design fault in the new six-piston ·N issin calipers, rather than a mechan~c's erro r as originally reported. A seco nd identical fai lure - in practice for th e April 22 Le Mans 24-H our -endu rance rac e - left Christophe Bouheben injured, and ha s thrown doubt on the efficiency of the ca liper retaining clip, a single pin retained by a small R-clip a t each end. Due to flooding in the Dallas, T exas , area, the third round of the Ya m a h a ,Y S R 5 0 Gold Cup Serie s has been relocated to Ka ty;: Texas, just outside of Houston. The 4/IO-mi le cement .track will host endura nce races on May 26 and sprint races on May 27. For 'm ore information , call 214/242-6440. Swi ss research co mpany S w issauto showed up at the Spanish Grand Prix with a turbocharged 250c c fourstroke e n gine in their sideca r. The company claimed they'd achieved 180 hp o n the test ben ch, nne 140 hp in ' race trim - but persi stent electronic fail ures me ant the ma chine o n ly com p leted a handful of slow laps. The engine uses a charge intercool er and fuel inj ection,'and revs to 16,000 rpm. Dim ensions are a n asto nis h i n g l y oversq uare 55.3 x 26mm. P ete Bollenbach, owner of IIlinoisbased Bollenbach Engineerin g, called Cycle N ews to clarify an item in our ,Pro T wins rac e report from Road Over 1 ,000 show un for Good Times 5 O Atlan ta. According to Boll enbach, he op ted to skip the Road Atlanta round of the series due to a "ton of business " and the illness of hi s mo th er, no t because his busin ess is "short-ha nded" as was repo rted here. (Bollenbach 's rider, Dale Quarterley, told a Cycl e ' N ews report er that Boll enbach " had to lay a few g uys off and wor k dicta ted tha t he couldn't bring the Twins bike." ) Additionally, Bollenbac h said that it wasn 't cost-efficient to send his Ducati 851 and a mechanic to the pu rse-cu t Road Atl an ta, and he will no t be field ing a tea m at the j un e 15-17 Loudon race for the same reason ; he will , however, field the bike at Elkhart La ke, Wiscon sin, june 29-j uly I. ver 15,0 00 m o torcycl ist s showed up at Marcu s Dairy ' in Danbury, Connecticu t, o n April 22 as part of Kawasaki 's "Get T ogether for Good T imes" advertising cam paign . The ca mpaign uses rea l destin at ions for motor cyclists wit h fictional dat es th ro wn in fo r a u the n tici ty. T hi rteen local deal ers parti cipated an d over 320 demo rides on 1990 Kawasak is were gi ven to licen sed riders. Apri l 22 was Eart h Day, and in honor of th e day Kawasaki provided Motorcyclists meet in Dan bury, Connecticut separate containers for recycling glass, paper, and a lumin um refus e; handed out flyers with ba sic recommendations for impro ving th e en viro nment; and distributed green ribbons for riders to tie o n their bikes, signifying support for Earth Day causes. . The foll ow ing is a list of sched uled Kawasaki Get T ogether for Good Times Events: june 3, Alice's Restaurant, Woodside, CA; july 14, OST Restaurant, Bande ra, TX; August 12, Lake Pepin, MN , August 19, Wildberry Inn, Mount Ranier, WA; September 16, Steamboat Springs, CO ; SeptemberSu, Guiseppe's, Colorado Springs, CO ; Octob er 7, Main St. , New Hope, PA; November 4, Rainbo w Inn; T emecula, CA. According to ' Protac's Doug Gonda, marketing age nt for WERA, S c ott R u s s e ll will ride a fuel-injected Kawas aki ZX7 s u perbike at th e May 19-20 WERA Pro Series event at Sea ttle International Raceway in Kent, Washington. Rob Muzzy a n d th e Kaw asaki crew tested the fuel-injection system in conjunction with a Dunlop tir e testing session at Road Atlanta following the May 5-6 AMA Nati on al Road Race. bikes will be available or a rider can sh ip hi s/her ow n bik e wi th assistan ce from Acerbi s. For mor e informat ion, call Acerbis USA at 619/5 62-1440. Harl ey-Davidson has announced that its 115,OOO-member owners club, the Harley O wne rs Group (H .O.G.), has mounted a motorcycle safety campaign whi ch rewards its members for participa tin g in rid er edu cation acti vities . In addit io n to H.O.G .'s existi ng rider ed uca tio n tuition program , whi ch reimburses members for comp leting a certified Motorcycle Safet y Foundation (MSF) course, Harley's expa nded fourpoint plan to encourage rider educa' tion co nsists of: Rewardin g members who su ccessfully complete a certified MSF co urse; re cognizing H .O .G. chap ters for encouraging members to tak e MSF courses; appointing additi on a l p ersonnel both in sid e a n d o utside the chap ters to assist with rider educatio n ; offer in g safe rid ing semin ars and motorcycle skill tests a t H .O .G. ralli es a n d re ward in g r ide rs wh o participate. A May 14 preliminary hear ing o n the law su it filed by the AMA and AMA' Dis trict 37 against the BLM because of the latter' s implem entation of a poli cy barring point-to-point races in th e Cal ifornia desert (such as th e Barstow-to-Vegas race) ended with th e judge recommending that the parties get together a nd " ta lk" a nd th en reappear before him. For th e seventh co nsecu ti ve yea r, K a wasaki will sponsor th e nation's oldest motorcycle meeting, the 67th running of an AMA National road race in Loudon, New Hampshire, o n june 15-17, whic h will ta ke pl ace for the first ti me a t th e new N ew Hampshire Internat ion al Sp eedw a y. " We are proud to have Kaw asaki 's cont inued sup port," said NHIS Pr esident Gary Bah re. "T hey. as is the g reat racin g, are becomin g a tr adi ti on a t thi s premi er even t. " Due to requests from a majority of the riders en tered in th e Lima, Peru, to Rio de j an eiro, Brazil, I ncas R ally , thi s August, Acerbi s Promoti on ha s decided to cha nge the event form at fr om a co m pe ti tio n even t to a n advent ure -type tou r. The course will rema in lar gel y unchan ged , bu t the riders will no lo nger be under the pressure of a time sched ule, instead they can ride at their o wn pa ce. Acerbis Promotion will still arrange for all hotels, meals and transportat ion of su p p lies. These exp enses will be covered in the $3,500 entry fee. Renta l . ( BORN : La uren Mari e, dau ghter of race an no u ncer Larry Naston and h is wife T erri , Ma y 7 in Palmd al e, Ca liforn ia . RESIGNED: 'D on Emd e, from his positi on of publisher of Dea lern ews magazine; Emde, winner of the 1972 Dayton a 200, will be pursuing a new bus in ess venture within the motorcycle ind ustry, publish ing a newslett er and book s, plus putting together train ing p rograms for deal ers; Emde will contin ue to' work wi th Dealemews as an editor ia l advisor. PROMOTED: j ohn Murphy, to th e 'positio n of publisher of Dealernews magazine; Murp h y has been with Dealernews for six years, most recently serving as associate publisher. HIRED: Ken F u n k h a u se r as a member of Bellevue (Wash ing to n) Suzu ki' s ser vice sta ff; ' Funkhauser formerly worked for Kawasaki, Starfire Racing, Yamaha and Van ce & Hines Racing as a road race mechanic. FORMED: Wid e Open Ra cing (WO R) by former factory mechanic and Golden Wrench Award winner Dave O st erm an ; the so u the r n ' California-based performa nce-rela ted business will specialize in engi ne and sus pens ion modificat ion s; Osterman can be reached a t 805/ 253-2247. CO R R ECTION: Sharon Dray, not Gray as we had it in thi s section last week , has been nam ed ad min istra tive assistant at WERA headquarters in Hilton H ead Island, Sou th Caro lina. FO RMED: Ca lif orn ia Sidecars of Californ ia, by Craig Arrojo, Barry Bates and Peter Smi th ; th e co m pa ny is ini tia lly offering a sing le-seat sidecar, and a two-seat model is under considerat ion; 6082 Atlas Dr., Huntington Beach , CA 92647, 714/8 97-9999. . '\ . ' . , I ~~---------------------~--------------------------------------------- I I SUBSCRIPTION ORDER FORM I I I I I I I I I I I I I . Name T his is a renewal Please bill me 0 Bill 3 payments of $11.67 0 Enclosed is my check or money order ~. 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