Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

SINTHE WIND e ~ 0') 0') ~ ., ' 00 ;>C\l :;E / By Papa Wealey American Donny Schmit (Suz), th e defending I25cc MX World Champion posted 1-3 scores to earn the overall victory a t round two of the World Championship 125cc Motocross Series at T oulon. France. April 28. Stefan E verts (Suz) was second overall, wh ile Pedro Tragter rounded out . th e top three. Americans Bobby Moore (KT M) and Willie Surratt (Hon) finish ed fourth and fifth overa ll, respectively . Schmit has a 12-point lead over Everts in th e standings. 7260. Moore lies th ird with 57 poi nts an d Surratt holds fou rth at 45 po ints. Jacky Martens (KTM ) swep t bo th ' motos in ro un d two of the Worl d Champions hip 500cc MX Series at Vantaa, Fin land , Apri l 28. Kurt Nicoll (KT M) finis hed second overa ll with 4-3 mo to finishes, and Georges Jobe (Ho n) was third overa ll via 82 fi nis hes . America n Billy Liles (Kaw) finished fifth in mo to o ne but failed to mak e the top 15 in the second race. Nico ll lead s J obe in the point sta ndings. 65-51. Martens is th ird with 50 points, ' Aaron Hough (Kaw) was the overall winner in round four of the AMA National Championship Cro ss Country Series at Brownsville, Pennsylvan ia , Ap ril 28. Duane Conner (Kaw) fini shed second o vera ll and moved into the seri es points lead . Terry Cunningham (Ka w), Jeff Russell (KT M) and Doug Blackwell (Kaw) ro u nded out th e top fiv e overall . Defending Cross Country National Champion Scott Summers. wh o was the series points leader goin g in to the even t, fin ished l Oth. The open i n g ro u n d of th e AMA National Championship Reliability Enduro Series in Tulsa. Oklah oma , April 25-28, saw Larry , Roeseler score the overa ll and 250cc class win. Three-time Nat ional Enduro Cham: p ion Randy Hawkins (Suz) topped th e 125cc class. whi le Fred Hoes s (Kaw) scored the Open class victory. David Rhodes (H bg) an d K urt Wilcox (H bg) pos ted the 350cc and Open Four-Strok e class WIns, resp ectively. George Roeder (H -D) won th e Expert main event at th e traditional Ohio dirt track season opener, the Springfi el d H alf Mi le, Apri l 28 . Roeder was follow ed across the fini sh lin e by Larry Pegram (Hon) an d Steve Morehead (H -D). James Hart (W-R) won the J un ior fin al and R~ Mashue (Hon ) won the Pro-Am main . Chris Econo maki repo rts in Natio na l Sp eed Spo rt News th at the Agaja nians are hopin g to build a half mile oval at Glen Helen OHV Park in southern Californ ia to repl ace the one they ran races on for years at Ascot Park . T hey 're seeking ap p roval by the sta te go vern ment of a lon g-term lease which would make the construction of such a facil ity pr ofit able. And spea king of the Agajanian s, Chris Agaja nian is promoting th e May II Pomona Half Mile round of the Cam el Pro Series. Dirt track tans wh o attended the winter-ti me no n-National event in 1987 a t , th e Los Angeles County Fairgrounds facilit y wi ll recall that the track is a 5/ 8ths mile oval wi th long, lo ng stra ig htaways and tight cu sh ion turns. The latter has form er Grand Nati onal C ha mp io n G en e Rom ero . who is handling p.r. for the event, wondering if guys lik e Ronnie Rail and George Roeder will dig their hotshoes out of th e closet and make th e long tr ek ' to California. Papa doubts if those ma sters of cus hi on tracks will come out of retirement, but he's looking forward to seeing the cu rrent cro p of dirt trackers do th eir thing at Pomona. ' ~onnie J ones. wh o is curre nt ly tied (/ Efforts mad save 500(( MX GPs eto S~ries, A 2 campaig{;o save the World Championsh ip 500cc MX fronted by th e Engl rsh Federation and England's Trials & Mo tocros s News newspaper, received a tremendous boost at the April 7 Dutch 250cc MX GP when FIM Pr esident Jos Vaasen was just o ne of many prominent figu res to sign the petition ' or ga nized by the English publication. And at the openi ng 500cc GP in Payerne, Switzerland, a week lat er. FIM jury president Walter Angele of German y indicated that the cam paig n co u ld expect a further boost in the near future when representatives of the west European federations meet in Oslo, Norway. Angele said. " It is becoming clear that the time is not yet ripe for the 500cc GP class to be aba ndo ned, and the OMK (Germa n Federat ion) is als o co ncerne d at a ttempts to restri ct the 125cc GPs to rid ers under th e age of 22 years." In additio n to th e English, who condemnedthe CMS (the FIM bod y which governs motocross) proposals for th e future of motocross within da ys of th e FIM Spri ng Congress. the Ben elu x count ries and Switzerland have also indica ted their horror at the proposals. CMS president Tage Magnusson rem ains stubbornly ada ma nt that hi s pro po sals are necessary, but hi s support from the ind ustry is cru mbling. Kawasak i U.K. boss Alec Wright said in Payern e, " My compa ny is committ ed to making 500cc bike s for as long as a class exists. and I believe Hon da are sirniliar ly, comm itted. We would not be against a proposal to combi ne the 250 and 500s into an Open class, but Yam ah a and Suzu ki are against th at ." ' Wh ile Magnusson tri ed to suppo rt h is p lan s to abando n th e 500s wit h untrue , sta tements - he claims that there were insufficient ap p licatio ns for G Ps in the class even tho ug h countries made concre te offers wh ile San Marino and Sweden withheld app lica tio ns for tactical reasons - cracks are appearing in his coalitio n as, previous allies are turnin g in the hope of reh abili tati on amo ngst the caring mo tocross fraternity. Magnusson 's deputy Albert H ofh ui s cla imed th at the Japanese industry was unanimous in wanting to end 500cc production , a statement now refuted by Wri ght, wh ile tactical moves at the Geneva CMS meeting were made to deny the maj ority of co mm issio n members an oppo rt un ity to discu ss the proposal s at all. A preCongress meeting of the industry and CMS was turned into a farce wh en on ly Magnusson and vice-president Wolfgang Srb attended o n behalf of the FIM after notification of the meeting and its significance failed to reach potential o ppo nents of the plans, such as Albert Carter of England. An extraordinary meeting of the CMS is expected in June. .Alex Hodgk in son Y have the rightto remainsilent. ou C ycle N ew s reader Mark Henry happen ed to be on the scene with hi s camera to captu re John Kocinski being arrested by a Monterey County Sheriff sho rt ly after crashing o u t of the Uni ted States 500cc Grand Prix at Laguna Seca on Apri l 21. . Kocins ki, 23, was arr ested and charged with reckless driving. fleeing an officer and resisting a public officer as. h e attempted to leave Laguna Seca Internation al Ra ceway follo wing his early-la p crash from the 500cc GP. The incident caused quite a stir in the international press room when rumors of th e arrest were verified. The 250cc World Champion is scheduled to appear in court in Monterey, Californ ia, on May 14, only one day after the Spanish Grand Prix on May 13. Kocinski currently lies sixth in the 500cc World Championship with 28 points, but is still a factor in the title chase due to the new FIM rule that allows a rider to throw out his two lowest scores. Kocinski's Marlboro Roberts Yamaha teammate Wayne Rainey currently leads the po int standings with 55 points, four more than Australian Michael Doohan. Kevin Schwantz lies third in the 500cc championship with 46 Points. for th e lead in th e Camel Pro Series point sta ndin gs with Chris Carr, feels he's o ne up on his competitors as far as th e Pomona race is concerned. Jones recalle d th at th e 1987 ra ce at th e southern California tra ck was won by Alex J orgensen on a Honda RS750, the same type of bike Jones currently rides for George Garvis. So, Jones co ntacted Jorgen sen 's ex-tuner, Robert Staub. and inq uired abou t the set-up used four years ago. Staub had kept hi s notes and agreed to share them with J ones. "T he track is strange. It has long straigh taways like a mile track and tight turns like a quarter-mile track," J ones said. "The key to the race is going to be the bike set-up and gear ratio. Robert gave me the gear ratios he used in '87 and th at's wh at we're going to use. For most people, it's a guessing game. But aft er talking to Rob ert, I at least know we're going to be in the ballpark when we get there. " , WERA informs us that the Suzuki National C up c ontingency awards which were posted for the cance led April 13-14 Summit Point Raceway event will be reallocated to th e June 8-9 Nel son Ledges Road Course National Qualifier and the Yamaha contingency a w ards to the May 25-26 even t at Summit Point. The April Summit Point meet was cancele d du e to unsafe racing conditions caused by rain on the polished aspha lt sur face.,T he decision to cancel was mad e in the interest of safety. So ut h Caro li na 's ' Myrtle B eac h Speedway will hos t a $17,000 oval asphalt half mile race on Friday n ight, May 17, du ring the No rt h Carolin a H arley-D avidson Deal er s Associat io n 's 51st Annual Spri n g Motorcycle Rally. Competi tion will be run in the 600 and 750cc classes, p lus a Harl ey-Davidson Twin Sp orts class for th e Milw aukee marqu e 's 88 3 Sportsters. W ill Davis, th e current number o ne plate holder in asphalt oval racing , will be jett in g across the U. S. from th e May 17 Pomon a Nati on al Half Mile to com pete in all three classes, Davi s will then jet back to California for th e May 19 San Jose Nat ional Mile round of the Camel Pro Series, ,..-- -, The 14th A n nual SCO R E OffRoad Equipment a nd R e creatio n al Acce s s ories Show will tak e place May 3-5 at the Anaheim Con vention Center in Anaheim, California. Although th e majority of the exhibito rs are from the four-wh eel field, motorcycles are incl uded in th e show. The show is open Friday even ing, beginning at 5 p.m , Weekend hours are II a.m. to 10 p .m. Saturday, and I I a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday. Adult admission is $6.50. Children 6 to II years of age is $3, whi le kids under 6 will be admitted free. Five-time MX World Champion E ric Geboers will remain retired from active com petition as he announced at the end of last season , despite rumors that circulated throughout Europe earl ier this year that said he had was bored and would defend hi s 500cc GP title. Geboers was on hand to wat ch the ' April 14 opening round of the World Ch ampionship 500cc MX Series i n Switzerl and and sa id that EG Events, hi s promotions com pany, was keeping him busier than he 'd anticipated. Ceboers, who is a helicopter pilot, has also started a flying business with a fleet of four chop pers. Although Geboers said at the time of his retirement that he would race selected even ts th is year, he now says he has no definite p lan s to race in 1991. Wh at has Canadian Ross P ederson been doing since the Ga inesville AMA Nation al Ch ampionship MX? After fin ishing I Ith at the ope ning round in Flor ida in March , Pederson signed with Nor co, California-based Suzuki Co untry Ra cin g, and has been conte sting the Canadian National Champ ionships ' aboard a SCR350-kitted RM250 , In th e first two rounds , Pederson won three o ut of four motos a n d cu rren t ly leads , the p oint sta ndings, Benjie J ackson, president of Florida Motosports Complex, In c., has shed more light o n the sale of Oc a la Motocros s Par k in Ocala, Florida, that we reported on in our April 24 issue. "Ocala Motocross Park has gone out of business, " said Jackson. "Laurie Perry, who was the owner of Ocala

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