Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Cycle News 1991 03 13

Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles

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~ INTHE WIND By Papa Wealey e J im N e ese (Kaw) won both the 125 and 250cc A classes at the March 2 Ga ines.ille National Amateur MX at Gatorback Cycle Park in Florida. The event drew 550 en tra nts and was cut short after the first set of rn o to s due to heavy thunderstorms and the th reat of lightning in the area . Steve Morehead (H-D) won the 600cc fina l and Rusty Rogers (Hon) topped the 750cc main event at the first-ever mo torcycle race meet run on the paved half-m ile oval of Barb ervill e, Florida's Volusia County Speedwa y. T he MARS-san ctioned and promoted event was ru n on Sun da y, March 3. Quiz time answer: Last week we as ked yo u wh a t Da ytona records Warr en Sherwood holds that many feel will never be broken. Between 1950and 1971, Sherwood competed in a recor d 22 Dayton a 200 races and has th e record of th e most career miles in the race, 31871 Going int o this year's Dayton a 200, the closest acti ve racer to Sher- : wood's race and tota l miles records is John Lo ng of Florida . Beginnin g in 1974, Lon g has competed in 14 Dayton a 200 races, logging 1837 mil es. Lo ng's best ever finis h in the 200 was a sixt h in 1979. Quiz time: England has fiel ded several G ran d Prix Worl d Cha mpions in the Dayton a 200, riders like Mike Hail wood , Ph il Read, Rod Gould and Barry Sheene. Name the British rider who has fin ished the hi gh est in the 200. It now appears almost certain that Randy Mamola will be withou t a ride for th e 1991 GP racing season. Talk of the Californian riding an extra Yama ha possi bly on the same Kenn y Roberts " B" team as Doug Chandler have apparently died. " I talked to Kenny (Ro berts) yesterday," said Jim Doyle, Marnola's manager. " And it doesn 't look lik e there's an yth in g at this point. At this time it doesn't look like Randy will be racing thi s year." When asked if the popular Californian had give n a ny though t to World Superbi ke raci ng, Doyle said : " We'd have to have somebody approach us and then we'd talk about it." Doyle says he has entered Mamola in the March 24 GP season opener in Japan and th e form er Cagiva factory rider may head over there with leathers and helmet j ust in case a rid e ope ns up. In the meantime, Mam ola ha s plans to do some " b ungee jumping" in near by Tracy, California Camel Honda/Commonwealth Racing's Rich Aruaiz fractured the littl e finger on h is left hand during practice at Daytona Intern ation a l Speedw ay on March 3. Arnaiz crashed on a wet track on Sunday mo rning, destroying .his H on da RC30 and break in g th e finger. T he Californian underwent surgery on Sunday and will be cleared to race in the March 10 Dayton a 200 if he can prove he is physically ab le to without taki ng any med ica tio n tha t wou ld pro duce drowsin ess. 2 According to Ray Plumb, crew ch ief for th e Camel Honda team , reigning 600cc Superspo rt Series Champion and defending Daytona 200 winner David Sadowski will rid e Arnaiz's Honda CBR600 in Sunday 's 600cc lOOk Int ernational Supersport Fin al a t Dayton a. The rider change was made to allow Arnaiz to concen tra te on th e Daytona 200. Sadow ski had planned on sitting out th e 1991 road racing season in an effort to rehabilitate his oft-inj ured back. Two-time WERA C Superbike Cham pion Michael Martin has join ed Team Suzuki En durance for 1991. Mart in joins Ku rt Ha ll a nd Bri tt Turkington on the multi-time WERA End urance Ch amp ionsh ip-winning team. In addition, Martin will contest th e WERA F-USA Series on a Racing Engine Service-prepared fuel-inj ected Suzuki GSXRllOO and th e Suzuki Nat ional Cup Series o n Suzu ki GSXRIIOOs and 750s. World Champion Wayne Rainey returned home from the IRTA test sessio n in Jerez, Spain, rel atively happy with his 1991 Yamaha YZR500 and its Dunlop "tires. "It's getting there," Rainey said. " We've got some more work to do, but we're close. We got our bikes late; I didn 't even see the bikes until I got to Phillip Island (Australia). The new bike feels good, at least on these tight tracks (Eastern Creek and Jerez). " Reports from Spain said that Kevin Schwantz was having problems getting th e new, heavier Suzuki up to speed , and Rainey con curred. " Our bike was a Patriot and th e Suzuki looked like a Scud. " Wayne Rainey has also been bus y getting his WERA 250cc team ready for the co mi n g seaso n. The tea m recent ly moved into a new industrial facility in Modesto, Californ ia, which will serve as its base. The team's first race will be at Road Atla n ta on March 24, th e same day Ra in ey begins th e defense of his 500cc World Championship, and then rid er Allan Scott will take part in the 250cc class at the U.S. GP. " From what I'm hearing, th ings are going prett y smooth," Rainey said of the new team. I'm hoping we can be th e top privateer at th e U.S. GP." Rain ey says that Kenny Roberts , Jr. will not take part in the Grand Prix: " He 's on ly ridden a 250 three tim es. This year we just want him to get used to the bike, used to traveling, used to the different race tracks - just get him used to being a racer. " Rumors still circulating that H y per tek wheels are banned by the American Road Racing Associati on (ARRA) are false. According to th e ARRA 's. Earl Smith, the wheel s were banned for just one race last August after the bearing cups sep a ra ted fr om th e ca rr ie rs in one wheel, causing a motorcycl e to tank -sl ap. Further ins pec tion of th e wh eel , h owever, showed that the owner had assembled the wh eel without the cente r spa cer and the ban was consequently lifted for the following race. Hypertek now shi ps all of its wheel s sealed to prevent an y cus tomer work, and all hub, rim a nd bearing changes are made at Hypertek. Early- retirement for J--=---oh_ns:......:.....on ----'-t_ _ ith th e condition of Rick J ohnson 's troublesome righ t wrist taking a turn for th e worse, it now appears that the seven -time Supercross and Na tio nal MX Champion will be forced int o early retire ment. Johnson pulled his en try for th e February 24 Atlanta Supercross after two practice crashes were apparently caused by a loss of feeling in the wrist. On e of thos e crashes occu rred during a practice session at the San Diego Supercross, the other at a priv ate practice track. Johnson also sat out the Gain esville National and will miss the Daytona Supercross, although he will make personal appea rances a t Daytona. According to hi s personal manager, Dave Stevenson, Johnson has been exp erienci n g numbness and loss of feeling in the wrist, and feels that it wou ld be unsafe for him to continue racing. Johnson was unavailable for comment . "His right hand has 50-percent of the gri p strength of his left hand," said Stevenson. " He can't ho ld on and that's dangerous." According to Stephenson, Johnson has the option of undergoing surgery to remove a row of bon es that have begun to fuse in the wrist, which was injured two years ago when a rider landed on Johnson during practice for the opening round of the 250cc National Championship MX Series in Gainesville, Florida But Stevenson added that sur gery wouldn 't make sense since not much of the season would be left for Johnson, who had planned to retire at the end of the year anyway. " If Honda wants him to race in this condition, he can do it," Stevenson said. "We (Stevenson and Johnson ) think it's dangerous. We'll have to wait to hear from them (Honda)." Honda Race T eam Manager Gary Mathers agreed that the situation is potentially da ngero us but said he must meet with other Honda execu tives before any official anno uncement will be made regarding Johnson 's role with Honda for the remainder of his con tract, whi ch expires at th e end of the y.ear. " Fro m a safety standpoi nt, it 's okay if he doesn 't race," Mathers said. "There's no sense in everybody getting hurt. " "We would like to keep him for public relations," said Dave Arnold, a Honda race team manager in the field. " He is the best spokesman for our team." W 9 Puget Sound Enduro Riders Enduro School Enduro at the Mason County Fairgro u nds in Shelton, Washington. Roeseler will compete in the 10th Annua l Shelton Vall ey Enduro the foll owing day. The Dixie Classic Fairgrounds in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, will host supercross racing every Saturday n ight, beginning March 30. The Sunbelt Motorsports-prornoted events will run through September 21 on a newly construc ted track at the fairgro unds. Mini and amateur rid ers will run qualifying motos in the afternoon and th e class finals will be run with two Pro classes at night. Pro riders will compete for a $3500 purse. For more information, call 919/727-2236 or 9967410. Florida Winter AMA MX Series Open Novice champ Rodney Orr made his NASCAR stock car racing debut in the February 15 Florida 200 at Dayton a Int ernati on al Speed way. Orr DNF th e open ing race of the 16-round NASCAR Dash Series du e to a blown engine on lap II. The Robb insvill e, North Caro lina, rider/driver will run th e entire series. Spanis h road racer Carlos Cardus has ap paren tly mad e a successfu l return to form follo win g his po stseaso n cras h at th e Su perprestigi o International road race in Calafat, Spa in. Cardus, who suffered a broken leg in the accident, recently comp leted th e Austral ian portion of h is preseason test schedule. The ru nner-up to John Kocinski in last year's 250cc World Championship clocked a 1:35.9 at Eastern Creek in Australi a , a full ' second quicker than wha t he turned th ere a t th e end of last season. Cardus was joined in the tests at Phillip Island and Eastern Creek by the Rothmans 500cc Honda team of Wayne Gardner and Mick Doohan as well as Rothmans 250cc rider Luca Cadalora. A p roposed ordi na nce that would have prohibited motorcycles from th e city streets in Palm Springs, California, during college spring break was un an im ous ly reje cted b y th e city counci l, 5-0, February 20. Billed as a crowd con tro l measure, the proposal was designed to cu rb what Police Ch ief Don Burnet called a " noisy nuisance " and to elimina te public displays of nudi ty by vacati oning college students. . T he plan to eliminate mot orcyclists died after more than 40 motorcyclists voiced their opposition at th e meeting. Team Kawasaki's Larry Roeseler will be a guest instructo r at the Mar ch The AMA a nd the Na tio na l Highway Traffi c Safety Administrat ion (NHT SA) hav e reintroduced the ProRider public awareness campaign to encourage 'safe motorcycling practices. The Pro-Rider code en courages motorcycl ists to become properly trained and licensed to ride , discourages drinking, and promotes helmet . use. For a free set of red, white and blue reflective helmet decals, write to AMA Goverment Rela tions Dept., P.O. Box 6114 , Westerville, OH 43081-6114. The AMA is seekin to amend Bill Outlaw S treet S339, th e so-called •8 and Motorc y cle Gang Control Act of 1991," due to its direct references to motorcycles and motorcyclists. The bill seeks to im prove the government's ability to combat gang activity by enacting stiffer penalties and enhancing other provisions of the current law tha tcontrols th e illegal use of firearms and exp losives. Jim Bensberg, the AMA Government Relations Department's representative in Washington, met recently with key Senate Judiciary Committee staff aides to U .S. Senator D e nnis D eConcin i (D-Arizon a). Accordin g to Bensberg, th e inclusion of motorcycle language was apparen tly inadvertent. The AMA has been asked to draft alterna tive language lO replace all references to motorcycle ga ngs. . A six th publ ic meeting regarding organized competitiv e motorized v e hicl e events ou tside of designated off-highway vehicle open areas will be held by the Bureau of Land Management 's California Desert District at the Pasadena Con vention Center, Thursda y, March 21. The Schreiber Cup, th e opening round of the AMA National Championship Observed Trials Series, will take place at Lucerne Valley, California , April 6. The American Trials

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