Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

Cycle News 1991 08 21

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

Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127394

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 1 of 63

eIN THE WIND ~ ...-4 C\f .... en ;j bJJ ;j < B Belgian Georges Jobe ( H o n ) clinched the 500cc MX World Championship at round 10 of the World Championship 500cc MX Series in Folkendange, Luxembourg, August II , with 3-2 moto finishes that were good for second overall behind Eng. land 's Dav id Thorpe (Kaw), th e winner of both rnotos. Championship rival J a cky Martens (KT M) failed to score points in either moto. Mart en s enco unte red problems with a foamfilled tire in th e first moto and broke a shoc k in race two. jobe ha s an in surmountable lead in the point sta n d in gs o ver Marten s, 266-223 . Martens is assured of second in th e fina l standings as he is 54 points ah ead of Dirk Geukens (Hon ) with only the August 25 U.S. GP in San Bern ardino, Ca lifornia ," rema ining. T exa n Doug Polen (Duc) cont in ued to dominate the World Championship Superbik e Road Race Series by winning both legs of the August II Swedish ro und at Anderstorp. After a rai n delay of over an hour, Pol en took over the lead in the first leg on the opening lap and stayed in front the rest of the wa y. Australian Rob Phillis (Kaw) and Belgian Stephane Mertens (Due) exchanged seco nd place throughout the race , but Merte ns crashed in the final turn on the last lap while trying to pass Polen for the win. Phillis finished second, wi th Fabrizio P irovano (Yam) taking third. Polen took over the lead of the second leg on lap three and led the rest of the way. Phill is aga in finished second, passing fast qualifier Raymond Roche (Duc) in the last corner of th e final lap. Roche fin ished third. With six rounds rem aining in the series, Polen leads the point standings over Phillis, 217-161. Pi ro vano is third with 116 points. Ca lifornian B illy Hamill powered his way through the August I I Speedway Semi-Final in Rovno, Ru ssia, to top th e race card with 12 points, two more than his nearest rivals, World Champion Swede P er Jonsson and his fell ow co un tryman J immy Nils en. The performa nce earne d Hamill a Soichiro H nda,---=.19----=-.: .06--=...:-19=--=-..=91=-----_ _ 0 S 2 oich iro Ho nda , 84, founder of the Honda Mo tor Co., died in a Tokyo hosp ital o n Monday, AugustS, due to co mp licatio ns from a malfunctioning liver. Born in 1906, th e son of a blacks m ith who specialized in bicycle repair, H onda had only completed an elementary school education whe n he left his family ho me at the age of 16 to go to wo rk as an au tomobil e mechanic in Tokyo in 1922. He soo n beca me involved in car raci ng, but his racing career came to an end when he na rro wly escaped deat h in a vio lent crash at the 1936 AIIjapan Speed Rally. Honda formed his first bu sin ess, a pis ton ring manufacturing firm, in 1937. Discoveri ng tha t he lacked the kno wledge needed to operate suc h a cC?m pa ~ y , Ho nda attended technical high school and applied lessons learned to his b~s ll1~ss. Altho ug h h~ absor bed the lessons , he did not bother taking the req uired exam.InatlOns and was Info rm ed he would not receive a diploma. H e said that the dip loma "was wort h less th an a movie theater ticket. A ticket guarantees that you can get into the theater. But a dip loma doesn 't guarantee that you can make a liv ing." japan's invo lvement in World War II saw Honda's firm becom e a su ccess but his factory was destroyed by Alli ed bombing. He event ually sold hi s stock to T oyota. In 1946, Ho nda formed the Honda Tech nical Research In stitute and took his first step towa rd estab lishi ng his nam e as a household one. The compa ny produced ' mopeds, motor-powered bicycles, u tilizin g surplus en gines. Honda teamed up wi th financier Takeo Fuj isawa in 1948 and under the nam e Honda Motor Co., Lt d., they began to develop motorcycles. While Fuj isawa took care of . th~ firII!'s finances, Honda devoted h is time to , develop ment and ma nufacturin g, : f i 1/ { 11 In 19f~4'1 I;!9n~ i u~ a pu~li<: chall:nge to his eiJgineer~ that ma ny .con side;ed absu rd - to.. ~a" ~a then co nSidered to be -the .ul timate motorcycle. race, the Isle ofIMan'!l::,It tpo k H d rida seven year to .win the .race.,

Articles in this issue

Archives of this issue

view archives of Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's - Cycle News 1991 08 21