Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

v Letters to the editor 0ICES INSIDE Just,say no! FEATURES SUPEll.CROSS DAYTONACYCLE WEEK DuHamel wins Daytona 200 crown 8 Stanton wins third straight Supercross 12 Eckltops 250 GP . • . ..... .. . . .. . . . . 14 Jones scoresCamel ProST win 18 Russell rules750cc Superspon ••••. . . ••20 Polen pounds ProTwinsGPI 22 DuH~mel wins 600cc Supersport • • • • . . . .24 Green, RopertopVintage Road Race . ••. 26 Alligator EndurotoSharpless 28 Overholtshinesin Amateur ST 30 Jonestakes RegionalShort Track 32 Rogers, Morehead top Barberville HM 38 Young, Lusk hotat ·Atlanta Amateur SX 34 Luke, Yezek top GatorlJack Amateur SX . .. .. . . ... . . •.. . . . . . . . 36 MOTOCROSS Neese captures Gatorback 35 Amateur event DEPARTMENTS LOCAL RACING CALENDAR WANT ADS RESULTS · 39 44 50. 62 ON THE FRONT PAGE: Miguel DuHamel (top) was the winner of the Daytona 200 by Arai Superbi ke National. Race coverage begins on page 8. Photo by Henny Ray Abrams. Jeff Stanton (lower right) won the Daytona Supercross by Honda for the third straight time. See page 12. Photo by Ken Faught. Ronnie Jones (lower left) topped the Camel Pro Short Track in Municipal Stadium. Story begins on page 18. Photo by Henny Ray Abrams. On Sunday, February 24, my wife and I an d our three children attended the AHRMA Vintage MX at Sandhill R anch i n Brentwood, Californ ia. What I 'e xpected was an en joyab le day of ra cing with bikes I used to ra ce. This was not to be l After getting to the track at 9 a.m. , I was shocked to see a former 500cc MX World Champion getting prepared to race by drinking beer. I was even more surprised when he lined up for his fir st rnoto still drinking. By the time the second m oto lined up it see med th is r ider 's ab il ity was impaired. Aft er a very reckless first lap, he a tte m p ted a wheelie to show off to ' h is drinking buddies and ended up looping it. It wa s quit e a show. I' m m ore than a little upset to see this happening in a sa n ctio ned event. I'm su re his name attracts a lot of fans, but how lo n g ca n a sanctioning body look the other way? Until an innocent racer gets hurt by h is actions? Not to m ention th e impression it m akes on th e younger racers and ch ild re n . We tell them to just sa y n o, when ex-World Champions JUSt say yes l B.B. Stein Pleasant Hill, CA America's weekly motorcycle newspaper Volume XXVIII Michael Klinger. Publisher Caroline Gendry, Ex ecutive Secretary to th e Pu blisher Editorial Jack Mangus, Associate Pu blish er/ Ed itor Kit Pa lm er, A. ssocial~ Editor Paul Ca rruthers, Associate Ed itor Na te Rau ba , Associate Editor Ken Fau ght. Assistant Ed itor Don n Maeda . Assistan t Ed itor Edwina Mangus, Calendar Ed itor G rap h ics and Production Ree Johnson . Produ ction Supervisor Mandy Loa. Production Ma nager Dennis Greene. Lab. T ech. Stacey Guest. Graphic A rtist Amy Harris. Graph ic Artist Advertising T erry Pra tt, National A cco unts Mana ger Mark Thom e, l-Vestnn Sal es l\-lanager Ron Davidson. Western Sal es Manag~ Thomas R. Gomer, West~n Salis Manag~ Mark Mitchell. East ern A ccounts Manag~ Greg Mitchell. Eastern Sal es Manager Curtis Campbell, Eastern Sal es Manager J oan R ussian, Westnn A d Coordinator Carla Borden Allen, Eastem Ad Coordinator Carolyn Branham. Typeselt ~ Circulation Rheb a Smith, Manager Sarah Taylor, Bill ing Coordinator Alma Anguiano , Processing Coordinato r Gabrielle Gilliam. Process ing Assistant · Dealer Sales Accounting/Data Processing Allen Dennison, Dealer R epresent at ive Marketing Be Promotion Mark Th ome, Manag~ . Want Ads Debbie Weller. Want Ad Sales Do n na Bryan -Diam ond, A / R Coordinator Geneva Repass. Assistant Herlane Lewis. Credit Service and Support Chris Ai tcheson, H eadquarters R eception ist Leonard Herring, Service and Support National Headquarters Eastern Office 220I Cherry Ave.. Long Beach . CA 90806. P.O . Box 498. Long Beach . CA 90801·0498 4190 Firs t Ave.• Tucker. GA, !0084; mailing address P.O. Box 805. Tucker, GA 30085-0805. (213) 427·7433 ; 213/636-8844. FAX (2 13) 427·6685 (404) 934-7850. FAX (404) 934-3112 Cycle News (USPS 141-340) is published weekly except the last two weeks of the calendar year for $50.00 per year by Cycle News, In c. , 2201 Cherry Avenue, Long Beach, CA 90806. Second class postage paid at Long Bea CA. ch, . . POSTMASTER.: Send address chango toCycle News, P.O . 10. 498, long Beach, CA 90801-0498. To determine the expiration date of your su bscri p tion . check the four numbers on th e Taking a bath in Syracuse H o w about givin g u s di rt track fans in the Northeast a break. Notice o f the cancella tion o f this year's Syracuse Gold Cup Mil e, o ne o f the longest run n ing G rand National even ts, ' was given a s much fanfare as so me junior exec chan gin g ti re co m pan ies. Was it ca nce ll ed j us t for '9 1, or have we seen the last o f th e G old Cup Miles? Is the rest of Speed Week (Geneva, Weedsport, Middleto wn) ca lled o ff as we ll? We'd really appreciate so me in fo as to what happened. T o add insult to injury, (p ro m o ter) Don Brymer never sen t us our m oney back . That's of minor co ncern, however , co m p ared with the lo ss of dirt tra cking up her e. P lea se keep up the otherwise outsta nding cov erage. Randy Ciocco H illsda le, NJ We've been unable to con tact Don Brymer, but w e do kn ow that the two consecutive rainouts at Syracuse (1989 and 1990) resulted in Brymer gett ing wet in a different sort of a way - he no doubt took a financial bath . We'll continue our attempts to contact him regarding his possible plans for racing in th e future at N ew York State Fairgrounds and th e short track and half mile events h e promoted in conjunction with the Syracuse M ile in th e past . We do know that a round of th e AMA 600 Na tional Champion ship Dirt Track Series will take place at Erie County Fairgrounds in Hamburg, New York. That half m ile race w ill take place on August 17 and will al so [eature a Junior Nat ional. . . . Editor. first line of your address label. The first two digics indicate the last issue number you'll receive and the last two characters indicate me year of the last issue . Subscri ption ra tes: Rates for the United States and its possessions for one year, (50 issues). $50.00; two years (100 issues), $95.00; six months, (25 issues), $26.00; trial sub (15 issues), $19.00. Canada and Foreign, one year (50 issues), $90.00 ; two years ( 100 issues), $175.00; six months (25 issues). $45 .00; trial sub (15 issues), $38.00. . Cycle News welcom es un soli cit ed editoria l ma teri al includin g sto ries, cartoons. pho tos. etc. Such material, if published..becomes the exclusive property of Cycle News. Such ac-' cep ted materia l is subjec t to revision as is necessary in the so le d iscretion of Clcle Ne ws. Unsolicited material which is not used will be returned if accompanied by a sel addressed . stamped envelope. All unsolicited material will be handled with reasonable care. however, Cycle News assumes no responsibility for the safe ty. Joss or da mage to such mat erial. Reprinting in whole or part only by permission of the publisher. Advertising rates and cir cu lation information will be sen t u pon request. See S.R.D.S. 6 W'I'BftA AUDITED V rt'\ CIRCULATION CopyrightS Cycle News, Inc. 1991. Trademark Cycle Newsregistered U.s. Patent Offict. All rigblS.rtSerVtd. Hindsight cannot change (acts The following is in response to Gary McDonald 's letter (regardin g the death of T odd Heming in a road race at Willow Springs) that appeared in the March 6 i ssue: The "well-known sanctio n in g body" is the American R oad R aci n g Association (AR RA). The " u se of co m m o n sense not exercised by the officials" went as follows: Throughout the day, we used both statio nary yell o w nags (the track is not bl ocked bUI be alert and passing is a ll o wed) and waving yell o w nags (there are bikes, riders, oil or other o bstacles on the track; no passing is allowed) in turns I , 2A, 2B, 6, 7, 8 and 9, due to wi n ds and blowing dust in the tum 2, 8 and 9 area. In addition to the use of yellow nags, three water trucks were used in the infield to try and reduce th e dust and blowing sand For the race in question, race #7, a two wave start was utilized with the Open Modified Production class in the first wave and the 750cc Modified Production class in the second wave. The riders took their warm-up lap and at that time tum 7 was under stationary yell o w, with turns 8 and 9 under waving yell o w. When the Open class came down through tum 5, turns 6, 7,8 an d 9 had been upgraded to waving yellow. As the Open class ri ders exited turn 9 and headed up the front straighta way to complete lap one, the 750cc class was entering turn 7 (turns 6, 7, 8 and 9 were still under waving yellow). By the time the 750cc class reached turn 8, a full co u rse waving yellow was called. At this point, the ra ce was over, no passing was allowed anywhere o n th e race track. Due to the lack of visibility, we (th e tower) were counting the bikes going into turn 8 and out of turn 9. When the 750cc class exited turn 9, so me pulling in to the . hot pit, I ca lled for a full course waving red. The crash truck and both medical units wer e sent to the turn 8/9 area because n ot all of the 750cc class riders had exited tum 9. What allowed the crash truck a n d med units to respond was the fact that AR RA requ ires riders . to " sto p as soon as possible and pull to the side o f the track " when a red nag is used. As for m y " regard for the safety of the rid ers," th er e were at lea st five riders that I know o n a personal level, so me sta ff members, entered in ra ce #7. Their safety an d the safety of all the riders is th e reason I do m y job. The reason for this response is not an exc u se, i t is a sta tem en t of the facts that occurred during race #7. We all know that it is eas y to judge someone or something using hindsight. The staff of ARRA does every th in g possible to run races as safe as we can. All the hindsight in the world cannot change the facts , Todd Heming lost his li fe. . Godspeed, Todd. Jim Rose Course Con trol ARRA Santa Barb ara , CA Letters to the editor should be sent to: Voices, Cycle News, P.O. Bolt 498, Lo ng Beach, CA 90801-6498. Published letters do not necessaril y rUlect the position of Cycle News, Inc. Letters sh ou ld not exceed 200 words an d all letters are subject to editing.

• Cover