Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

~ INTHE WIND Luxem bo u rg's Jacky Martens (KTM) was th e overall winner in round I I of the World Championship 500cc MX Series in Kohl enberg , Luxembourg, August 12. Martens topped the first moto over Belgium 's Eric Geboers (H on), who clinched the 500cc World Championship titl e last week at th e Belgian GP, Engl and's Dave Thorpe (Kaw), Finland's Arto Pantilla (Hon) and England's Kurt Nicoll (KT M). The second moto was won by Belgium's Dirk Geukens (Hon) and he was follow ed by Thorpe, Ni coll, Martens and England's Rob Andrews (Hon). Geboers now has 356 points in th e series, foll owed by Nicoll with 268 and Thorpe with 233. e \ The final round of th e World Championship 125cc MX Series, scheduled to have taken place on August 12 in Spa in , was cancelled due to dust It is not known if the event will be rescheduled. Minnesota's Donny Schmit had already clinched the titl e at th e previous round in Portugal. Three rounds of the AMA 600 National Championship Dirt Track Series were run in South Dakota last week, tak ing place in conjunction wi th the annual Sturgis Rall y. Black Hills Speedway in Rapid Ci ty" hosted a haH mile round on August 7 and Jason Fletcher (W-R) won the main event with Mike Hale (W- R) finishing second and 600 National Champion QIris Carr (H -D) thi rd. The Jackpine Gypsies M.e. hosted a short tra ck round in Sturgis on August 10 that saw Bryan McDowell (W-R) win the ma in event with Rex Fisher (W-R) finishing second and Randy Roose (H -D) third. Sturgis was the site of a half mile round on August II and Chris Carr scored the main event win with Dave Durelle (W-R) taking second and Terry Poovey (HD) third. The win helped Carr pad his series points lead in his quest for a third ~ traigh t 600 National title. With three rounds remain ing in th e eigh tround series, Carr has a commandin g 72 points, with Mike Hal e second with 38 points and Dan Ingram th ird with 36. T wo ro unds of the AMA Junior National Championship Dirt Track Series were run in conjunctio n wit h the 600 events at Stu rgis. Jeff Russell (W-R) won the Augu st 10 short tra ck fina l and James Hart (WR) topped the August II half mil e final. Scott Russell rode a Team Muzzy Kawasaki superbike to the win in round six of the WERA Formula USA Road Race Series, held at Road Atlanta in Braselton, Georgia, August 12. Team Suzuki Enduran ce's Mike Smith (Suz) finished second, 3.42 seconds behind Russell, with Team Mad Dog 's Mike Harth (Yam ) th ird to complete a Georgia sweep of th e top three positions. Smith's nearest challenger for the title. Team Marlboro Rob erts Yamaha 's Rich Oliver, cou ld only manage a seventh-place fini sh on his underpowered TZ250 at the high-speed road course; Smith now leads Oliver in the point standings, 90-81. Team Suzuki Endurance's Mike Smith, Kurt Hall, a n d Nick Ienatsch (Suz) too k th eir n inth victory of the season in round 10 of the WERA National End uran ce Series, a six-hou r event held a t Road Atlanta, August I I. The win , coming in a race which was red-nagged three times, virt ually assures T eam Suzuki of their sixth series title; The Human Race Team (Yam) needed a win to stay in contention, but could only manage second. Hall 'N Still Racing (Suz) survived a post-race teardown to finish third, and first in the Heavyweight Production class. Jeff D e men t (Suz ) and ' Jeremy McGrath (Kaw) captured the Minicy- Michelin drops out of GP road racing. I 2 n a shock move with wide implications, the French tire giant Michelin has announced it will quit active participation in Grand Prix motorcycle racing. The news came in a letter to the major teams , and a terse press release, whi ch said tha t although Michelin expected to continue to offer racing tires for sale, they would not supply the works teams with experimental tires, and they· would not send service personnel to the tracks. Michelin dominates the 500cc class in GP racing, and bikes mounted with Michelin tires have won every race this year. The last victory by rival Dunlop came at the Dutch TT last year, by Wayne Rainey on a Dunlop-shod Yamaha. Michelin also supplies a number of top 250cc teams , although th ey face much closer competition from Dunlop in tha t class. Questioned on the details, Amy Chatard, th e head of Michelin 's two-wheel competiti on di vision, was vague: "I do not know how we will pursue raci ng tire development, nor whether a better grade of tire will be available to the works teams at a higher pri ce. I do n 't even know what will happen to my job. "The decision came from Francoise Michel in , the head of the firm , bu t the deta ils ha ve to be finalized in a series of board meetings in August " The French firm closed its motorcycle tire operation in the United States at the beginnin g of the year, and is cutting back its labor force at hom e in France. They also announced a sim iliar withdra wal from World Championship car rall ying in favor of concen trating on World Endurance Sports Cars , where they are expected to support new works teams from Peugeot and Renault It is suspected that Michelin might be tempted to stay in motorcycle racing if the cash now is reversed .. . in other words, if th e works team s can be pers uaded to pay for the developmental tires th ey current ly get for free. . The decision threw the focus on other tire companies, who adopted a waitand-see attitude. Jerem y Ferguson, director of Dunlop's competition department, said: " We hope they will change their minds. We'd rather beat them on the track th an after they'r e gon e. A move like this will make everybod y else in vol ved , reappraise the ir positions." Peter In gley, in charge o[ Pirell i's motorcycle tire competition and currently concen tra ting on World Superb ike racin g, did not rul e out a return to GP s for the Ital ian compa ny. "T ime will tell ," he said with a smile. Ingley was bein g courted by team man agers of every hue a t the British GP . Yoko ham a and Bridgeston e bo th make slick tires [or the sma ller classes, and may take advantage of the confusion to move up to the 500cc class; Avon is also involved in G P racing, bu t only with car-type tires for sidecars. Michael Scott Raine w sSwedish GP Schwantz crashe in r eam Marlboro Rob erts Yamaha's Wayne ·Ra iney (righ t) virt ually assured himself of h is firs t 500cc World Road Racing Champion shi p by ta king hi s sixth 500cc Grand Prix win of th e season at And erstorp, Sweden , August 12. Ra in ey defeated hi s teammate Edd ie Lawson (Yam) by just over a second, wi th Wayne Gardner (Hon) third. T eam Lu cky Strike Suzuki's Kevin Schwantz, Ra in ey's only cha llenger for the titl e, fell on lap three of th e GP whi le in fourth place. With Sch wantz's crash givi ng Rainey a 47-po int lead in the championshi p, Rainey needs only to finish third in one of the three remain ing rounds to cli nch the titl e, even if Schw antz were to win all th ree. The 250c Swedish GP was won by Spaniard Carlos Cardus, who rode h is Repso Honda to a .080-second win over T eam Marlboro Roberts Yamaha's John Kocinski Japan's Masahiro Shimizu (Hon) was third. Cardus narrowly leads Kocinski i the 250cc poin ts chase, 173-166. Dutchman Hans Spaan (Hon) won the 125cc GP while th e French/British t of Alain Miche l/Simon Birchall (LCR) topped the Sidecar GP. c1e and Motorcycl e Grand National Championship titles, respectively, at the 15th Annual NMA GNC Motocross at Ponca Cit y, Oklahoma, August 812. Dement won the 80cc Stock Expert 12-Plus class and took second in the Modi fied division, which was won by Ezra Lusk (Suz). In th e Motorcycle Pro ranks, McGrath won both the 250cc Modified and 125ccStock classes, while R yan H u ghe s (Kaw) topped the 250cc Stock and 125cc Modified divisions. McGrath took th e Motorcycle Championship over Hughes via higher mota fin ish es in the qualifiers. The Bes t of O hio Summer Series (B.O.S.S.) half mile race that was rained out at Bu cyrus, Ohio, on August 4 has been rescheduled for September 3. On that date , amateur practice will start at II a.m. with the professional program scheduled to start at 2 p.m. at the Craw ford County Fairgrounds in Bucyrus. For more information, call 614/383-3887 or 614/ 389-1925. As reported here last week, Cagiva a nnounced t heir inte n t io n to retire from G P road racing at the August 5 British GP, after nine years o f lagging behind the dominant Japanese teams. The announcement came directly from Claudio Castiglioni, one of the two brothers who own the Italian CagivaiDucati company, in interviews with the Italian press. The withdrawal was to take effect after the Swedish GP, with Ron Haslam and Alex Barros out, but Randy Mamola to complete the European season in Czechoslovakia and Hungary, missing only the Australian GP. However, there was confusion over the details with Mamola saying he had persuaded the brothers to support Haslam also until the end of the season , adding: ''I'll go to Australia even if 1 have to pay for the whol e team myself. " Randy M amola also wrote an emotional open letter to the press, in an effort to persuade them to urge the Castiglioni brothers to re-think their decision. " It 's all going to bea bit more ordinary (without the Cagivas), don't you think?" he wrote. "When you write your stories, say what you have to sa y about Cagiva a n d Mamola . . . say I didn 't try hard enough, if that's what you think. But try and th ink of som eth ing encouraging for the brothers . . . tell them tha t for all the down stu ff, they were great, T ry to tell them we want th em back, we're go ing to miss th em. I don 't th ink we realize how mu ch." Despite winning the Suzuka 8-Hou four-time World Champion Edd" Law son vowed at the British GP th it would be his last endurance ra "It just seemed like we ran lap aft lap all day , then somebody told we'd won ." Including Lawson's win, one or mo Americans have been on the victo rostrum six times at Suzuka. Oth have been Wes Coole y and " B aldwin in 1978; Cool ey (with Au tralian Graeme Crosby) in '80; Bal win and David Aldana in '81; BaI win and Fred M erkel in '84; a Wayne R ainey (with Australi Kevin Magee) in '88. The September 15-16 2 nd Ann Buffaloe 500, a dual-sport ride th will take place in Indiana, has b granted a National sanction by t AMA. The Answer/Acerbis/Metzele sponsored ride is hosted by the Stan Lonesome M.C. and Honda Kawa of Bloo mington. In addition to t two-day dual-sport ride, a twostreet ride will also be held with bo rides beginning and ending at Stoney Lonesome M.e. grounds whi are located three miles east of Gna bone, Indiana, on Highway 46. F more information, call 812/399-01 (da ys) odI7/842-4927 (evenings). Following the path of fellow cart nist Gary Larson, creator of The F Side, J im S mith has informed us he's going to take a break from rigors of creating the popular cart strip, Team Smitty. Beginning wi this issue , we'll be reprinting Tea Smitty strips from the past Diggi through past issues to choose 0 favorites was a side-splitting pleas We hope you enjoy them as much you did th e first time you saw the By the way, th e next time you take United Airlines flight, ask one of flight attendents if Jim Smith is in cockpit. If he is, say hello. The August 25-26 AM AlCCS road ra meet at Blackhawk Farms in · Sou Belo i t, Illinois, will be the 4 Annual W egman Benefit , a no profit fundraiser for AMAlCCS ride who are seriously injured at Bla hawk"Farms. An auction will be he at the track on Saturday night folio ing the Wegman Benefit solo end rance races. Yamaha and Suzuki ha posted con tin gen cies for the weeken According to an AMA/CCS pre release, 1991 H arley-Davids 883 Sportst ers will not be legal f

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