Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

ImmmD~~_aw_~~~ e Jacky Martens (KTM) was the overall winner of round five of ' the World Championship 500cc MX Series in Norg, Holland, June 2. American Billy Liles (Kaw) finished second overall and Jo Martens (Hon) was third. Points leader Kurt Nicoll (KTM) crashed during timed practice and broke his left ankle and thigh. Nicoll is expected to be out of action for the rest of the year. Championship rival Georges Jobe(Hon) injured his foot and failed to score any points. Nicoll still leads Jobe in the standings, 132-113, with Paul Malin third with III points. Liles is eighth with 73 points. With Nicoll and Jobe sidelined, Liles is now a contender for the title. Stefan Everts (Suz) scored the overall win at round five of the World Championship 125cc MX Series in Roggenburg, Switzerland, June 2. American Bob , Moore (KTM) finished second overall and Yves Demaria (Suz) rounded out the top three. Everts leads Moore in the point standings, 171-147. Terry Cunningham (Kaw) was the overall winner in round six of the AMA National Championship Cross Country Series in Buckhannon, West Virginia, June 2. Ed Lojak (ATK) was the runner-I!P. while Scott Plessinger (Kaw), Fred Andrews (Suz) and Duane Conner (Kaw) rounded out the top five. For the third race in a row , defending Cross Country Champion Scott Summers (Hon) failed to finish . Larry Roeseler (Kaw) scored the overall win in round four of the AMA National Championship Reliability Series in Idaho City, Idaho, June 12. Roeseler edged runner-up Kurt Hough (Kaw) by four seconds. Steve Hatch (Suz), Dave Bertram (Suz) and Randy Hawkins (Suz) finished third through fifth, respectively. Defending '600 National Champion Chris Carr (H-D) kept his 1990 record perfect as he won round three of the 600 National Championship Dirt Track Series, the Peoria IT at Peoria, Illinois, .June 2. Camel Pro Series Rookie of the Year Mike Hale (HD) finished second with Rodney Farris (H-D) third. With three straight wins, Carr holds a commanding points lead over Farris, 60-to-26. Hale is now ' third with a total of 24 points. Jeff Eklund (W-R) won 'the Junior National Championship IT with Tim Selby (W-R) and Frank Kaiser (W-R) taking second and third, respectively. George Roeder (H-D) won the 21st Annual Dayton Old Time Newsies Half Mile at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds in Dayton, Ohio, June I. Rusty Rogers (Hon) was second and third went to Steve Morehead (HD). Earlier in the program, Morehead won th e $1000 Edgar Fuhr Memorial Dash for Cash. Georgie Price (H-D) won the Junior final and Rodney Mashue (Hon) topped th e Pro-Am main event. ISDE medalists Carl Cranke and Fred Cameron, co-founders of Team Slip-It, will be at the June 22-23 Trask Mountain Two-Day Qualifier in Oregon. Team Slip-It has won the Trask Team Challenge on 80cc bikes in four of the last five years. They are now challenging riders on all size bikes. Free sign-up at the Team SlipIt motorhome on Friday, June 21. They're urging four-man teams to try and top them, and they'll award prizes to the top three teams. If you plan on attending the June 2830 Road America Super Cycle Kil!p, Picotte win boy-cotted Mosport ith the top 31 ranked riders in the World ·Cham p io n sh ip Superbike Series making good on their threat to boycott the Canadian round at Mosport on June 2, Canadian Pascal Picone (Yam ) and Ohio's Tom Kipp (Yam) took advantage of the situation to split wins in the third round of the championship. However, mechanical failures by both Picone and Kipp in the races they didn't win let Picotte's teammate Linnley Clarke (Yam) and Yves Brisson (Hon) share the top overall point scoring honors. Both Clarke and Brisson finished the day with second and fourth place finishes. ' .Picotte topped Brisson and Steve Crevier (Kaw) in the first leg with Kipp beating Clarke and Rueben McMurter (Hon) in the second leg. Only 17 riders started the two races, with only American Tom Kipp _ and Canadian riders competing as the series regulars stood by their decision not to appear because of their dissatisfaction over the standard of safety at the Ontario circuit. Ironically, just one superbike rider crashed, without injury, during the three-day event. ' Mosport issued a press release on Saturday, June I, when it became apparent that the 31 riders were going to boycott. It said: "Simply and undeniably, the final authority to license circuits for international motorcycle competition rests with the FIM, the world governing body. Mosport currently holds a license for 1991 and 1992. It would appear that European superbike riders are now contesting this authority in that they feel this circuit requires even further work (almost $500,000 has already been spent to bring it to FIM standards) before it meets their requirements. "Mosport had received entries from a number of these riders all of which, other than seven were subsequently withdrawn. In any event these seven have failed to show. The action of these riders has cheated the public from seeing a full World Championship event. We have asked the FIM to take appropriate measures to ensure that such a situation does not occur again and hope to stage a World Championship Superbike race again in 1992. In an effort to be fair to the fans . who are in attendance this weekend, Mosport management have decided to make partial admission refunds to those who feel dissatisfied with the quality of the event. Please- retain your ticket stubs and mail to: Mosport Park Limited, 825 Denison Street, Unit 16, Markham, Ontario, LCR 5E4, Canada." W , 2 ~ Environmentalists I!laY- dirty- at Prescot~ T he American Desert Racing Association has had its problems during the 16 , years they've been o!gani~ing ~aces, but the I~th Annual Prescott 100 desert race, held May 26 m Arizona s Prescott National Forest, marked the first time that ecological terrorists have delayed an ADRA race. The Prescott National Coalition of Friends has been vehemently opposed to ADRA holding their race in the Prescott National Forest near Camp Wood, and as early as last year began mapping ,out a strategy to stop the race. A lengthy. legal battle ensued, but ADRA Race Director Phil Auerheimer was able to obtain the permit for the Prescott 100 at the last minute. , Unfortunately, radical environmentalists decided to take matters in their own hands and spiked the course wi th nails and altered course markings. When evidence of course tampering was discovered before the start of the race, Auerheimer called the Chino Valley Sheriff's Department and they spent much of the day attempting to chase down the perpetrators. One of the Sheriff's vehicles reportedly ran over the booby traps on the course and suffered two flat tires. Despite their efforts, logs were moved onto the course during the event, causing racers to crash. Colby Turner was one of those riders and was very upset when he reached the finish line. "Can't somebody do something about tho~ people?" said the 16-year-old racer. " It was horrible: People were throwing rocks at me, then I hit something in the road and crashed pretty hard. People were clapping when I went down." Auerheimer had met with law enforcement officials and Forestry Service Supervisors to review the problem, and according to Auerheimer the eco-terrorists' actions may have backfired. "These same people who were never concerned about a dirt bike race before are now very sympathetic to our problems," said Auerheimer. "They understand that we are a family-oriented group and that these idiots are endangering their lives." ' Weekend in 'Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. you'll have the opportunity to catch some American-as-apple-pie dirt track racing on Friday night, June 28. A Pro-Am short track will ,be run at the Sheboygan County Fairgrounds which is located in Plymouth, just five minutes south of Road America on Highway 67. The races are scheduled to begin at 7 p.m, and will include a $1500 purse pro program. "Made in Italy." That's what you 'll find inside Bell motorcycle helmets in the very near future in light of the fact that Bell Sports Inc. has concluded an agreement for the formation of companies in Europe and North America to design, manufacture and market motorcycle and snowmobile helmets bearing the Bell trademark. The helmets will be manufactured by the European company, to be known as Bell Motorcycle Europe, S.R.L., that will be backed by Bieffe Helmets, S.R.L. of Carraia, Italy. The North American agreement licenses a newly formed entity to be known as Bell Helmets North America, headed by Tom Doran, former president of Bell Sports motorcycle division. Bell Helmets North America will handle the sales, marketing and distribution of the made-in-Italy-by-Bieffe Bell helmets in North America. Auto racing and bicycle helmets will continue to be manufactured at the Rantoul, Illinois, factory of Bell Sports. HosPITal STOP: Melissa Malocco is fighting a rare form of cancer. The maf ignant tumor in her liver is responding to an experimental chemotherapy treatment, however, and she's spending the two-week periods between the hospital-administered medication at home. Malocco has been involved in motorcycling since childhood, traveling the dirt track circuit with her grandfather Shell Thuet. Her brother Morgan was a successful desert racer before his near-fatal Baja accident several years ago. She travelled the international road racing circuit with former husband, Steve McLaughlin and worked with Penny Nicolai of the public relations firm Concepts Unlimited on supercross pioneer Mike Goodwin's events. Cards and letters may be sen t to 260I E. 19th St., #29, Signal Hill, CA 90804; 213/597-0582. June will be a good TV month for fans of Camel Pro Series dirt track racing. The twice-delayed debut of The Nashville Network's "Winners" episode featuring Camel Pro champ Scott Parker is now scheduled for Sunday, June 23. Meanwhile, ESPN telecasts of '91 Grand National Championship events begins Thursday night, June 13, with one-hour coverage of the Pomona Half Mile. Air time is 12:30 a.rn, Eastern time and 9:30 p.m. Pacific time. Coverage of the Spnngfield Mile airs the following Thursday, June 20, at the same time, with the Louisville Half Mile slated for Thursday, June 27. Confirm these times via local listings and let TNN and ESPN know you like seeing dirt track racing on television. American 125cc GP contender Bob Moore has shaken off several injuries and holds down second place in the World Championship I25cc MX Series standings. "I dislocated my shoulder in Italy on Easter, and I also damaged a vertebra iri my back when another rider jumped on me at the German Championship opener,",said Moore at the May 26 Hungarian GP. "That affected my performance at the first two GPs." Despite those injuries and a twisted ankle in the May 26 Hugarian GP, Moore is 24 points behind championship leader Stefan Everts after five of 12 scheduled GPs. Defending 125cc MX World Champion Donny Schmit, who broke his right thumb and collarbone in the Hungarian GP, will almost certainly miss the next three l25cc GPs. Schmit could possibly have continued to compete if he had surgery to plate his broken collarbone, but the thumb injury made it impossible to contemplate a quick comeback and Schmit has decided to wait until he is properly fit to return 1.0 action. . Donny Schmit is riding with 'a Luxembourg license this year. "My ancestors, who emigrated to America, came from the Grand Duchy, so' it makes sense," said Schmit, who hails from Minnesota. "The reason for the change (from an AMA license) was the difficulty in obtaining the releases to race in Europe from the AMA. At times the release was not coming through

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