Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

GIN THE WIND ByPapa Wealey ; Accordin g to sources in Europe, Michelin will withd raw its support from motorcycle racing in 1991 , and tha t su p port includes the FIM World C ha m p io ns h i p Road Race Series. Mi ch el in' s a n n o u nceme nt i n t he French national press cam e o n the same da y that th e major GP teams wer e informed of th e decision. Michel in will devot e its energies to Group C car racin g. The future of Cagiva' s GP su p port is al so in doubt. Ron Haslam and Alex B arros have been informed that th e next round of th e 500cc World Championship inSweden will be their last. Randy Mamola, on the o ther hand, will ride the Cagiva V-four up until the Hungarian round. Mamola, however, will not be racing in Aus tralia and will instead be doing TV co lo r co m men tary. Ryan Hughes (Ka w) a nd Brian S wink (Kaw) were two of the big winners at th e AMAlHonda Amateur Nation al MX Championships at Lor etta Lynn's Dude Ranch in Hurri cane Mills, Tennessee, Ju ly 31August 4. Hughes topped the 125 and 250cc A Modified classes , while Swink won the 125 and 250cc A Stock classes. Gene Naumec (Kaw) was th e winner of th e Open A class. Heading the Mini division was Ezra Lusk (Kaw), who topped both the 85cc (14-15) Stock and Modified clas ses. Phil Collins won the first round of the AMA U .S . Speedway Champ ionships at San Jose, California's Cal -Expo o n Saturday night, August 4. Collins topped Alan Christian, Bobb y Schwartz and Steve Lucero . The same facility will host the Coca-Col a In vitational Speedway Championship meet Friday night, August 10. Dutchman Racing' s Dale Quarterle y and Tom Kipp (Suz) won round seven of the AMA/ CCS EBC Brakes Endurance Challen ge Seri es, a th ree-h our event held a t Mid -Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington, Ohio, August 4. Dutchman II ' s Donald Jacks, Donnie Greene a nd J acques Cuen ene (Suz) finished second with The Human Race Team's Ra y Yoder (Ya m) riding sol o to fin ish third desp ite being docked a lap. T h um per Brothers ' J ohn Condron (Ya m) al so so loed to top theGTU class. Sidecar driver Kurt D illman a nd his . passenger Mark Wulf won the eigh tla p sideca r road race fin al a t Mid -Ohio, August 5. The race was the o nly round of the Sidecar Racing Association (SRA) Series to be held in the U.S.; the ba lance are held in Canada. Jeff Darland {H on) wo n the fifth round of the ADRA Desert Championship Series at Fl agsta ff, Arizona, August 5. Mark Miller (KTM) finished second, with Terry Sims (H on) taking third. Im media tely followin g the rain -out of the July 29 DuQuoin Mile, a round of the Camel Pro Series that was ca lled after only two laps of the final had been co m p le ted, R odn e y F arris stepped forward with $17,500 to claim th e Kenn y Tolbert-built Harl eyDavidson XR750 mot or of Came l Pro Seri es points leader Chris Carr. Mary lander Farris cam paigns Harleys for the Gardner Racin g team . The claim was the second to h it the Harl ey fact ory team this season, th e first occu rri ng on June 17 when Will Da vis cla imed SC Oll Parker 's Bill Wernerbuilt motor foll ow in g th e Albu querque Mile. AMA rul es protect a co m peti tor from fu rt her claiming Schmit, Geboers clinch MX titles A 2 merican Donny Schmit (rig h t) cl inched hi s first-ever 125cc MX World Championship by sweepi ng round nine of the Worl d Championship I25cc MX Seri es in Agueda , Port uga l, while Belgian Er ic Ge boers nailed down his second 500cc MX World -Champi on shi p a nd fifth-career World tit le with the overall win in round 10 of the World Championship 500cc MX Seri es in Namur, Belgiu m, August 5. Imm ediatel y after the race Geb oers, who was also celebrating his 28th birthday, announced he would retire after fulfilling his H RC Honda contract at th e en d of the year. Holland's Pedro Tragter (Suz) finished second overall behind Schmit's Suzuki i n P o rt u ga l, wit h Frenchman Yves Demaria (Ya m) completing the top three. American T yson Vohland (Suz) finished second in the first moto, but fai led to finish in the to p 15 in mo to two. Schmit, who hails fro m Minnesota, ho lds an ins urm o un table 71-point lead in the standings over fellow American Bob Moore (KT M), 285-214, with just one ro und remaini ng. Moor e failed to score any points in Port ugal, after su ffering a finger injury. Moore is assured of second in the standings, however, as he is 53 points a hea d of Belgian Stefan Everts (Suz). Ame rican Mike Healey (KT M) is fifth in the sta ndi ngs, o ne poi nt behind Ita lian Andrea Bart o lin i (H a n) and six ahead of Vohland. In the 500cc G P a t Na m ur, Geboers finis hed fifth in the first moto on his Honda after a la te-race crash, then came back a nd sto rmed to victory in mota two wh ich gave him the overall win by one point over a three-way tie for second. England's Kurt Nicoll (KT M) claimed second overall wit h 4-2 moto finis hes, wh ile Holland' s Kees Van der Ven (KTM) edg ed Engla nd's Paul Malin (Kaw) o ut of the fin al spot on the ros trum with hi s 3-3 fini shes. Depo sed 500cc World Champion David T horpe (Kaw) of England wo n the first moto, but retired from moto two aft er a crash. Nicoll holds second in the points standings behind Geboers and is 30 points ahead of th ird-place Dirk Ge ukens (Ho n). Two rounds remain in the Wor ld Championship 500cc MX Series, the August 12 Luxembourg G P a nd the final round at Glen H elen O H V Park in San Bernard ino, Ca lifornia, on August 26. Geb oers won 125cc Worl d Championships in 1982-'83, the 250cc World title in 1987 and his other 500cc crown in 1988. Roxy- Rockwood dead at 61 L o n g -ti me race announ cer Rox y Rockwood, 61, suffered a fa tal heart attack on Sunday, Jul y 29, in Mission Viejo, Califor- · nia. Rockwood's involvement in motorcy cling spa n ned his lifetime. H e co m peted as a professional racer, spe nt 14 years with the Los An geles Poli ce Departrnen t in the m o torcycle division , a n d wa s em p loyed by Triumph/BSA and Yamaha aft er leaving the police for ce. Rockwood (seen here interviewing Gary SCOll after he had won the 1973 Ascot loo-Iap TT) was best known for the countless races he an no unced, not only in California but across the country. He had announced every Nationa l dirt track race at Ascot Park in Gardena, Ca lifornia, since the faci lity first opened, and the final AMA G rand Na tional Championship/Camel. Pro Series at Ascot in September was to have been the last race Rockwood a nnounced before reti ring. For years he hosted a po pular radio show at the Hawa iia n Inn during Daytona Cycle Week. His la te so n, Tom, was a me mber of the T ri umph factory racing team during the early '70s and wo n the Ascot National Hal£ Mi le in 1971. Another son, Tim, survives his father. Funeral services were held in Torrance, Ca lifornia, o n Saturday, August 4. In lieu of flowers , the fami ly has requested that donations in memory of Ro xy Rockwood be made to the American Mo tor cycle Heritage Foundation, P.O. Box 6114, Westerville, O H 43081-6114. actio n for 45 days, but going into th e August 5 Peo ria TT round a rumor was goi ng around that a no the r of Park er 's or one of teammate Kevin Atherton's XR750 motors would be cla imed at th e August 19 Hagerstown H alf Mile. That move was stopped wh en Park er and Atherton excha nged clai ms at Peoria. The ingenious move protects both riders for the remainder of the season. As for the claim by Farris a t DuQuoin, G ardner say s Farris claimed Carr's engine because the team was having diffi culty gelling cases from th e Har ley factory for its XR750 mot or s. A claim of a differen t type hit the AMA during the July 21-22 AMA National ' Champions hip R oa d Ra ce Series round in Miami , Florida. A briefcase that belo nged to an AMA officia l a nd that contained $25,800 in prize money was stolen from the paddock a rea. According to th e AMA, only $2000 of that sum was co vered by insura nce, and fortu nately the rest of the purse money was in checks which cou ld be cancelled. Begi nning wit h th e next road race National in Kansa s on September 9, prize money will be a warded in checks only. Three-time World Champion Freddie Spencer did not show up at the Mid-Ohio round of the AMA National Road Race Series on August 5, despite making arrangeme n ts for the use of the Two Bro th ers Racing Honda RC30. According to Two Bro th ers' Kevin Erion, he spoke to Spencer o n Wednesday, August I, and Spencer co nfirmed that he was coming to MidOhio. On Thursday night the team was in form ed by a message a t their hotel that Spencer ha d encountered air trave l problems in Dallas, Texas, a nd that he wo uld be arriving o n a Friday morning Ilight, When Spencer failed to sho w o n Friday, Erion entered himsel£ in th e National on the RC30 a nd finis hed 15th. Donny Schmit, the Team Bieffe Suzuki ri der wh o cl inc hed the 125cc MX World Championship on August 5, will be on hand to sign autographs a t Bob's Cycle Supply at 65 West Viking Drive in St. Pa ul , Minnesota, o n Friday, August 17, from 2 p.m. to 5 p.rn. Schmit will compete in the Millville, Minnesota , National MX o n August 19. Bimota has announced that it will debut the race version of its Ducati 851powered Tesi ID in a round of the Italia n Superbike Championship at Misano o n August II. The bike will be ridden by 17-vear -old Lucio Pedercini, who was o ne of the main test riders in the Tesi development project. The production street version will not be unvei led until the Co logne Show, which ru ns from September 19-23. In this, its last seaso n of racing, AscotPark in Gardena, Ca lifornia, will offer Amateur, P ro -Am and Pro class riders one last cha nce to tackle the "IT co urse. The AMA-sanctioned event will take place o n Saturday, August 18, wi th sig n -up fro m 4 p.m. to 6 p.m ., practice at 6:30 p. rn., and racing at 8 p.m. For more information , call Ed Carroll at 213/540-9576 or Ascot at 213/321-5323. T ea m Yamaha 's Damon Bradshaw , who was bru ised a nd battered in a firstturn crash at the Troy, O h io, 125/ 25Occ National MX, will be back in action with team ma te Doug Dubach in tlie 125cc class at th e AMA I 25/500cC National o n August 12 in Washougal, Washington. According to team manager Keith McCarty, Bradsh aw ana Dubach will ride the first three 125/ 500cc Nationals, pl us the 125cc Support class at the U.S . 500cc MX G P, before Bradsha w heads to Sweden for the Motocross des Nations. Because Suzuki doesn't manufacture a 500cc MX bike, team riders Mike LaRocco, Ron Tichenor and Larry Ward, who competed in the 25Oci: National Series, will switch to the 125cc class for the remaini ng 125cc Na tionals . Tichenor, how ever, may sit out the Washougal National due to tendonitis in the kn ee he inj ured at th e 250cc U.S. MX GP at Unad ill a. T eamma te J immy Gaddis may also mi ss Washouga l as he reco vers from a lingering wrist injury. Steve Wise will co nduct a two-da y MX school at Mid-Amer ica Cycle World in Memphis, Ten nessee , o n Sep tem ber 23-24 to make u p for a school sessio n tha t was rai ned o u t on Jul y 28. For more information , call 816/465-7067. The Senate Environme nt and Public Wo rks Committee has scheduled a

• Cover