Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

IN _THE_WIND _By-'-P_apa Wealey _ _ _ _ .... v ..0. o .... u o Randy Hawkins (Suz) wo n th e Rh od y Rovers Na tional Championship Enduro in Exeter, Rhode Island, Sep tember 30. Hawkins topped Kevin Hi nes (KT M) via a tiebreaker. Kevin Bennett (H on ) finished third with Jeff Russell (Yam) and Fred Hoess (Kaw) rounding out the top five finishers. With two ro u n ds yet to be run , Hawkins leads Hines by 10 poi nts in th e Nationa l Championship point standings. 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Use the order form in the IN THE WIND section or send your order. including payment (check. money order. charge to Visa or MasterCard) payable in U.S. funds, to: Cycle News, Inc. Attn. Circulation P.O. Box 498 Long Beach, CA 90801-0498 Phone (213) 427-7433 24 hr. FAX order line (213) 427-6685 2 (charge orders only, please) Newly-cro wned 250cc World Champion JohnKocinski (Yam) won the Solo Moto Superp restigi o road race in Spain , Septe mber 30; Kocinski won all thr ee legs in scoring th e overall victory . It was not known a t presstime who fini shed behind the Modesto , California, resident, bu t Kocin ski's cham pion ship rival , Carlos Cardus, was seriously injured dur ing pra ctice for the event. Cardus reportedl y suffered a broken ankle, a brok en knee, a punctured lung and a bro ken vertebra in the accident. Another racer who was injur ed at the Superprestigio road race was Californian Rich Oliver. Ol iver crashed in the second leg and reportedIy suffered a broken wrist. The Team Marlboro Roberts rider was schedu led to ride a Yam aha YZR500 in the October 6-7 WERA Formula USA round at Indiana po lis Raceway Park. T he 500 ride will no w lik ely go to O liver's team mate Robbie Petersen. The U.S. Grand Prix will be th e . third round of the 1991 World Cham p ionshi p Road Race Series and will be held at Laguna Seca International Raceway on April 21. The 15race series will get underway in Japan on March 24 with the Austral ian round taking place on April 7. Follo wing th e April 21 U.S. GP , the series moves to Spa in , May 12; Ital y, May 19; West Germany, May 26; Austria, June 9; Yugoslavi a, June 16; Holl and, June 29; Belgium, J u ly 7; Fran ce, July 21; England, August 4; Czechoslovakia, Aug ust 25; Hungary, September I; and Brazil on September 15. Malaysia has the reserve date on September 29 in case one of the other rounds is canceled. Two new venu es' are pa rt of th e 1991 Grand Prix schedule. The Spanish GP will be held in Catal oni a and the Australian GP will take place at Eastern Creek near Sydn ey. In addi tion , the French GP moves to Paul Ricard from Le Man s, and th e West Germ an race will be held at Hockenheim rather than Nurburgring. The October 6 Ensenada Gran Prix will take place at the Ojos Negros OffRoad Raceway, a p p ro xima tely 18 California desert bill hits last minute snag I t appeared that controversial Ca lifornia Senator Ala n Cranston had finally managed to get his so-called Californi a Desert Prot ection Act, better known as S I I, on track and headed towa rd approval on Wedn esday, September 26, in the Sena te's Energy and Na tural Resources Committee. However, the Cranston pro posal, whi ch wouldclose million s of acres in the desert to motorized recreation , was stalled whe n delibera tion s took place on several unrelat ed legi slativ e issues duri ng the mark-u p session in Wash in gton D.C. T he desert bill had been schedu led for mark -up , wh ich is th e first voting step in the legislative ap proval p rocess. But a po litical stalemate created by bill opponents prevente d the com mi ttee from reportin g the bill. As a result, tim e ran ou t on commi ttee memb ers and the last schedu led mark-up session of the year ended without the bill being heard. The Los Angeles T imes repo rted th at Cranston accused Sena tor Pete Wilson (R-Californ ia), who is ru nn in g for go vernor of Cal iforn ia, of " masterminding a procedural tactic tha t prevented the Energy and Natural Resour ces Com mi ttee from vot ing on the bill. " Wilson denied Cranston 's charge. But word has it tha t the bill isn' t dead yet. Accord in g to sources close to the American Mot orcyclist Association (AMA), there's a cha nce tha t Com mi ttee Ch air ma n J. Bennett Johnston (D-Lo uisiana ) ma y schedule a special mar k-up session on the bill upon returning to Washington on October 10 after campa ign ing for re-election in his state . It's al so possible that the bill cou ld make its way to the Senate floor if Cranston a ttaches the. bill to ano ther piece o f legislati on that cou ld be given more priority. r But for now , it appears that motorcyclists and other mul tiple use advocates have dodged yet ano ther bullet. " Obvio usly, oppos ition to the bill from motorcyclists, . ra nchers, miners and California residents has had a visibl e impact on lawmakers," said Robert Rasor, AMA vice pr esident of govern ment relations. Rasor al so pointed ou t that the ongoi ng crisis in the Middl e East has underlined problems in the Cranston bilL "The proposals contained in SII would certainly limi t the milit ary's train in g capa bi li ties in th e desert ," he noted . "T his is not just a Cal iforn ia issue. We all need to cont in ue writing letters op pos ing the Cranston bill. " Motorcyclists aro u nd th e country are urged to contact their sena tors asking them to oppose the Californ ia Desert Prot ection Act. Send letters to: Uni ted States Senate, Washington , D.C. 20510. miles southeast of Ensenada , rather than at the site or iginally anno unced. Origin all y, th e course was to have been located eig h t mil es from Ensena da, but becau se of th e drought that Baja is expe rienci ng, that particular parcel of land has remained extr emely dry and silty and because of that the decision was made to move the event to Oj os Negros wh ere water to keep the du st down aro und the course is available. For more inform ation, ca ll Baja Prom ot ion s at 818/340- 5750. Nick Ienatsch was slated to ride a Two Brothers Racing Honda Hawk in the Pro Twins GP2 class a t the final AMA National of the year at Will ow Springs International Raceway in Rosamond, California, Septemb er 16, but when he showed up at the track he was told otherwise. Said Two Brothers Racing's Kevin Erion : "T he plan was for Nick to smoke Fabi an (Cortez, who clinched th e GP2 titl e on an FBF Ducati ), but sin ce Fabi an didn 't come here , th ere's no point. " The plan also met with some resistan ce from Two Brothers Racing's Pete Johnson, who was looking forward to winning in Cortez's absence, Bimota unveils nroduction Tesi ID he September 19-23 Cologne Show marked th e debut of th e long-awaited production version of the hub-center-steering Bimota Tesi ID. The new bike, which Bimota says took five years to develop, will be available with two different pow erplants - a standard fuel-injected Ducati 851 engine or a 906cc version reworked by Bimota with different cam sha fts , co n nectin g rod s a n d pistons. Also introduced in Cologne was the new Dieci, the 10th Birnota to be pow ered by a Yamaha engine (in this case a carbureted FZRlOOO); it features Marzocchi inverted forks . Returning to Bimota's model lineup are the Yamaha-powered 600cc Bellaria and the II OOcc YB8. \ T and didn 't want Ienatsch to rain on his parade. As reported, Johnson won the GP2 final, while Ienatsch won the 250cc GP fin al. Curt Kimble, wh o ha s been making a nam e for him self riding a Kawasaki EXSOO on the Pro Twins circuit, was forced to mis s the final two AMA Nati on al s a t Heartland Park T op eka and Willow Springs du e to a broken collarbone suffered in a club racin g accident a t Sears Point on September 3. We caug h t up with Kimble at the September 22-23 WERA 24-Hour, where he said , "I didn 't race (at Will ow Springs) because of my collarbone, but when I heard the pace was I:35s, I wished I had. I can do 1:34s in my sleep . .. even with a broken collarbone!" Kimbl e had also planned to compete in the 250cc GP class on a year-old Yamaha TZ250W he recentl y purchased from Richard Moor e. Bimota, who pulled out of the World Championship Superbike Series early in the season, has entered Italian Vittorio Scatola in the Italian round of the series scheduled for October 7 a t Monza. Scatola will be aboard Bimota's homolgated YB4 EIR, and the team is expected to return to the series full tim e in 1991 using their Ducati-powered Tesi ID. The American Historic Racing Motorcycle Association (AHRMA) will hold its final Eastern Regional Championship Vintage MX of the year a t Raceway Park in Englishtown, New Jers ey, October 21. The event takes pla ce in conjunction with the Kawasaki Ra ce of Champions at Racewa y Park. Billy Sheffer, 65, suffered a fatal heart attack whil e trail riding in Michigan on September 17. Sheffer resided in Goshen, Indiana. He was an avid motorcyclist and since 1972 had semi-annually spent vacation time trail riding in . Michigan. Sheffer was a reporter at the Goshen News for 38 years prior to his retirement in Jan-

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