Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

GIN THE WIND Au stralians Michael Doohan and Wayne Gardner (H on) com p leted 699 miles at an average of 86.916 mph to win the Suzuka 8-Hour endura nce race on July 28 in Suzuka City, Japan. Doohan and Gardner topped the earlyleading duo of Doug Chandler and Kevin Magee (Yam) by three laps. Third rlace went to the British team of Car Fogarty and Steve Hislop (Ho n ). e r..: Other notables appearing in the Suzuka results were: Masanao Aoki a nd Tom Kipp (Suz) in ninth; Miguel DuHamel and Alex Vieira (Kaw) in 12th; Raymond Roche and Giancarlo Falappa (Duc) in 36th; Thomas Stevens and Larry Schwarzbach (Yam) in SOth; Dale Quarterley and Richard Arnaiz (Hon) in S6th. On Friday, July 26, President George Bush as ked Congress to approve the BLM 's proposal to ex tend wildern ess desi gnation to 2.1 million acres of Californ ia desert , rather tha n sup port Sen. Cranston' s so-ca lled Ca lifornia Desert Protection Act th at ca lls for 4.4 million acres to be set asi de as wi lderness and the crea tion of a new I.S-million acre East Moja ve National Park. T he , BL M's Cal iforn ia Desert Pl an was adop ted by the bureau in 1980 and was supported by enviro nmen tal groups a t that time. Cranston' s plan was dr aft ed by the Sierra Club and ot her environme ntal groups in th e late '80s. An aide to In teri or Secre tary Man uel L uja n J r. to ld the Los Angeles T imes that the President's proposal was "exactly wha t was in the pl an II years ago. At that tim e, the enviro nme ntal gro u ps were very su p portive . . . There ar e so me enviro n men ta l eli tes wh o would li ke to lock up every piece of land in the sta te." If Co ngress ap proves the BLM pla n, 4.8 million acres of BLMland in Ca li forni a that had been set aside for possi ble wildern es s designatio n wo u ld be returned to multiple-use man agement. Scott Plessinger (KT M) was th e o verall winner in ro und eig h t of th e AMA Nati onal Ch ampi on sh ip Hare Scrambles Series in South Edmons to n , New York, July 28. The runner-up was Scott Summers (Ho n), wh o unofficially clinched the series titl e at the previous round in Missouri. Rounding out the tOIl five were Thomas Norton (KT M), Ron Naylor (AT K) a nd Frank Keegon (KT M), respec tively. Randy Hawkins ( 12Scc Suzuki ), Kelby Pepper (2S0cc Suzuki ), Kevin Hines (2S0cc Suzu ki), Fred Hoess (SOO Husq varna ), Dave cc Bertram (SO Occ Suzuki ), and Drew Smith (3S0cc four-strok e Suzu ki) have been named as memb ers of the U.S. Trophy Team for the 1991 ISDE whi ch . takes pl ace in Czechoslovakia , Septem ber 2-7. Jimmy Lewis (12Scc KTM ), Steve Hatch (2S0cc Suzuki), Chris Smith (2S0 cc KTM ), a n d David Rhodes (3S0cc fo ur-stroke Husaberg ) will make up the Junior Worl d T eam. Cam el Pro Series com peti to r Tim Mertens, wh o su ffered a broken upper leg in a paved ova l hal f mile race in March , gave us some .bad news las t week when we ca lled to see if he was about set to return to raci ng . " I' m goi ng back in the hosp ital o n Fri da y (J ul y 26) to have the leg rebrok en ," Mert ens said. "T he bone rotated 20degr ees and now we'll have to start all over again ," Mertens had hoped to return to actio n before the end o f the '9 1 Ca mel Pro Series bu t will now be sideli ned until th e '92 seaso n. Friends and fans can help cheer him up by send ing h im a note or ca rd, cl o Bellevill e Honda, 2100 N. Belt West, Bellevill e, IL 62223. Du al- sport riders i n th e Gasto nia, North Caro lina, area shou ld ma ke no te of a n ew club, the Blue Ridge Pathfinders, that holds rides o n the th ird Su nday of every month. Founding member membersh ips are availa- Efforts to modify helmet-law portion of highway bill derailed he cause of freedom of choice for motorcyclists took a giant lea p backw ard recently despite efforts by mo tor cyclis t gro u ps to modify a proposal hidden with in a massive hi gh way bill that co uld for ce the passage of mandatory helmet laws for riders of a ll ages. On T uesda y, J uly 23, the Surface Transportation Subcommittee o f the U.S. House rejected an amendment, pr esente d o n beha lf of mot or cyclists by Rep. Douglas App legat e (D-O h io) , that wo ul d ha ve modi fied th e " Interm od al Surface Transportation Inf rastucture Act of 1991" (H R 29S0) by removing the bi ll 's manda tory hel met lan guage and rep laci ng it wit h a pro vision call ing for he lm et lise o nly among riders un der age 21. Rep resen ta tives of the American Mot or cyclist Associat ion (AMA), the Motorcycle Riders Fou ndation (MRF) and ot her motorcyclist rig hts groups had worked hard with Applegate to ensure tha t the amendment wou ld be introduced. But tig ht co nt ro l exercised over the h igh way bill by the so-called " Big Four" members of th e su bcomm ittee - Reps. Robert Roe (D-New J ersey), Norman Min eta (DCa liforn ia), Bud Shust er (R-Pen nsylvan ia) and J ohn Paul Hammerschmidt (RArkansas ) - effectively kill ed the alterna tive age-req uirement amendm en t. During a sp iri ted com mittee debate on the App lega te amendment, strong support was voiced by Reps. Thomas Petri (R-Wisconsin), Fra nk Pall on e (D-New J ersey) and Dick Swe ll (D-New Ham pshire). Prior to the hea ring, the am endment a lso received su pport fro m Reps. Glenn Anderson (D-Ca lifo rn ia) and Nick Rahall (DWest Virg inia). In ad ditio n, to the " Big Fo ur:' the ra nki ng democ ra ts and repub licans on the su bcommittee, oppositio n to the Applegate amend ment also came from Ca lifo rnia Rep ubl ican co ngressmen Fra n k Niggs and Ronald Deckard, as well as Rep . Mike Par ker (D-Mississippi). As expected, Rep. J im Cooper (D-Ten nessee), who incorporated the mandatory · hel met-use la nguage in the or iginal draft of the House's highway bi ll, lob bied heavil y in support for his proposa l during a " mark-up " sessio n o n the measure and contin ued to do so during deliberations on the Applega te am endment. Two days follo wing subco m mittee approval of the hi ghway bi ll, the Ho use Pu blic Work s and Transportat ion Committee also delivered its seal of a ppro va l. Consideration by the full House is expected during the week of Jul y 29, j ust pri or to the schedu led Aug us t congress ional recess. T 2 ble. For mor e in forma tio n , call AI Roof at 704/ 228-7210. T he 9th Annual Battle of the Brits, a British and European mot orcycle sho w, will take pl ace on Sunday , September 8, in Sterl ing H eights, Michigan . In the past, the show has dra wn over 100 entries, rangi ng from Ariels to Veloceues, For mor e informati on , call Alex Rob erts of th e Metro Triumph Rid ers at 313/ 6S2-4320. Pat Ms;Henry, a popular dirt track _ and road racer in the 'SOs and '60s and a cu rre n t participant in AHRM A vintage road races, and h is wife Beverl y were involved in a stree t bike accident near their Frankfort, Ill inoi s, hom e o n Su nday, July 21. Beverl y su ffered fatal injuries and Pat was critically injured. Pat is ex pec te d io reco ver full y. Godspeed, Beverl y. Kawasaki Team Green will be on h and a t both th e NMA Grand Na tio na ls in Pon ca Cit y, Oklah om a, an d the AMA Amateur MX Na tional s at Loretta Lynn 's Dude Ranch in Hurricane Mills, T ennessee. Team Green will make parts and technical advice available to a ll Kawasaki rid ers. Tech assista nce and emerge ncy race parts wi ll be availa ble af ter practice. The only excep tio n will be for those racers wh o tr a vel fro m th e N MA Na tio na ls to the AMA Na tio na ls. The 1992 KX and KDX models will be o n displ ay at both even ts. Team Kawasaki 's Mike Kiedrowski will mak e a gues t appearance at Pon ca City on Thursday, Augu st 8. Teammate Jeff Matiasevich will be on han d at Loretta Lynn 's o n Th ursday, August IS. The riders will be passi ng o u t team p o st ers a n d sig n i ng a utogra phs. T eam G reen will also be supplyi ng all Kawasa ki racers at both Pon ca City and Lo retta Lynn ' s w ith a free goodie bag.. In additio n, Kawasak i will once again be sponsoring the T eam G reen/Scott US A ho rsesh oe to urn ament and th e Team Green/Gear Racewear volleyball cha m p io ns h ips at . Loretta Lynn 's. Mot orcycle " earthq u a k e" messen ge r s . That's wh at so uthern California' s Orange Cou nt y Register is lookin g for. T he large-circu la tio n dail y newspaper is looki ng for a group of responsib le, du al-p urpose motor cycle owners who ar e willi ng to tra nsport film and vita l news materia l in th e event of a majo r eart hq uake. If yo u 're inte rested, send your name, address a n d ph on e number , p l us m a ke/ mode l/year of your mot orcycle to: Ken Stei nhardt , Orange Co unty Register Pbo to Dep art ment, 625 N. Grand Ave., Santa Ana, CA 92701, 714/ 953-7899. Mot ocrosse r Ron Tichenor suffered a broken sho u lder and com pressed fo ur ve rtebrae w he n h e cras he d whi le practicing for a supercross race in Fuk uo ta, Japa n, on Jul y 19. Ap parently there is no dam age to the spi na l cor d an d Tichenor is expec ted to be o ut of act io n for at least two mo nths. Ron Lechien (Kaw) was the winner of the even t. Altho ugh the lineu ps of the Motocross des Nations teams haven 't been officially announced, most of the lead in g Europea n sq ua ds fo r th e September IS even t in Val ken swaar d, Ho lla nd, are taking shape. Accordi ng to Euro pea n co rres p o n den t Al ex Hodgkinso n , Belgium, wh o gave the U.S. a close ru n at last year 's event, is certai n to field 12Scc World Ch am- pi onship leader Stefan Everts in the 125cc class and Marnicq Bervoets in Occ class is the 2SOcc class, bu t the SO open between the top two men in the SOOcc World Ch ampionship, Geor ges Jobe and J acky Martens, and Dirk Geukens. It is believed that Belgian team manager Johnny Strijbos will place faith in 1990 team m ember Geukens since he won th e SOOcc GP at Valken swaard in 1989 and was the runner-up last year. England was looking to send Rob Herring (12Scc), J ames Dobb (2S0cc) and Paul Malin (SO Occ) to the Motocross des Nations, but since Malin has been off form he ma y be re placed by David T horpe or J eremy Wh atl ey wh ile Dobb has stru gg led to co me 0 [[ an early -season in jury. Crai g Pratl ey cou ld be drafted for th e 125cc slot wh ich would see Herring move to the 2S0cc class. Holland also may have p roblems selecting a Motocross des Nations team as the on ly obvio us cho ice is Pedro T ragter for the 12Scc class. Although Dave Strijbos is the leading Dutchman in the 250cc World Ch ampi on ship, he has had poo r results lately and th e position co u ld also be o pen to Gert -Jan Van Doorn, Ed win Evert· sen or T eus Visser. The SOOcc class berth will lik ely go to ei ther Carlo Hulsen or vetera n Kees Van der Ven . J oakim Karl sson and Peter Johansson a re a lmost ce r ta i n to re p resent Sweden a t th e Motocross des Nations in the 125 and 250cc cla sses, while the SOOcc slo t cou ld go to eit he Stefan Larsson or Marcus H an sson. This year will see two major cha nges to th e Motocross des Nations. R iders now can o nly compete for th co u ntr ies for whi ch th ey hold a passport and not the co untry wh er they were issued an FIM competitio n license. In the pas t, American rid ers such as 1989 12Scc Wo rld Champion Trampas Parker and 500cc G P com petitor Billy Liles have participa ted in the event for the co untries where they were issued licen ses. T he o ther change will be tha t each co untry's three-man team will be scor ed o n their best five finishes instead of four, wh ich in the pas t allow ed the 1988 and '89 American teams to cl inch th e titl e · in the second moto of the three-race event. American Suzuki MX team ma nage Ray Tetherton called to say that Mike LaRocco Sr., mechan ic for his son Mike, didn 't brea k a pit sig nalli n board in half when Mike J r. fell whi l leadin g th e second moto of t h Un adilla U.S. 250cc MX G P. " The announcer kept saying he bro ke the board, but I gathered the boards at the end of the race and none were broken:' said T eth erton, LaRocco Sr. di d give hi s son a hug and handsh ake for win ni ng the rn o to , thou gh . Kaw a saki ' s first o fficia l Get Together for Good Times event of the year will take p lace from 3,:00-7:00 p.m . o n Aug us t 3 at the Oran ge Co unty Fairgrounds in Cos ta Mesa, Ca lifornia , foll o wed by speedway raci ng at 8:00 p.m. T ho usa nds of ri ders are expected to attend the even t, whic h will featu re a m usical enter tain ment , games, conte sts , souvenirs, Kaw asaki product di spl ays and priz e draw ings. All proceeds raised by the ga mes and · souveni r sales will be-don ated to Dru g Use is Li fe Abuse, a dru g preven tion and awa reness program sponso red by the Or an ge Co unty Sheriff's Depart men t. Adm ission to the Get Together

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