Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

~ IN THE WIND e Camel Supercross and 250cc Nationa l Champ io n Jean-Michel Bayle (Hon ) of France won the Supercross du Pare held in the Pare des Prin ces Stadium in Paris, France, September 7. Belgian Stefan Everts (Suz), the 125cc Worl d Champion, finis he d second ah ea d o f American Dean Matson (Suz). Finland's Tommi Ahvala (Apr) won ro und 10 of the World Championship Observed Trials Series in Helsinki, Finland, Augus t 25. Italian Diego Bos is (Fa n) finished second and Frenchman Bruno Camozzi (Fan ) was third. Defending World Champ ion J o rdi Tarres (Bet), who finished fourth, leads Bosis in th e point standings, 175-155, while Ahval a's win moved him to third with 147 points. R y an Young.ta pr) won round nine o f th e National Championship Observed Trials Series in Wrentham : Massachusetts , on September 7, then topped the field aga in at the final round of th e series held the next day in Exeter, Rhode Island. The Rh ode Island win not only gave Young th e National titl e, but it also pu t him atop the all-time Nati onal Trial s win list with 28 victories. Marland Whal ey previ ously held the mark with 27 wins. Tom Farr (H on ) was th e runner-up and J eff Aaron (Apr) finis hed thi rd in Massachusetts, wh ile Aaron finished second ahead of Ron Commo (Bet) in Rhode Island. In the final 'sta ndings, Aaron was also the runnerup to National Champion You ng, while Mark Manniko (Fan) finished third in the fina l standings over Com mo . Larry Pegram (Hon) led runner-up Terry Poovey (H -D) and third place fin isher Dave Camlin (H- D) across the finish line in the Expert main event at the I-96 Speedway round of the AMA Na tio na l Cha mpions hip 600cc Dirt Track Series ro und at La ke Odessa, Mich igan , September .1. The wi n moved Pegram to within 13 po ints of series leader and defendi ng cha mp Chris Carr, 90-77, with j ust one round remainin g in th e series. Carr did not com pete at Lake Od essa. Wink Frietas (W-R) of Newman, California, won the fina l round of th e AMA J u nior Na tio na l Series. The win was the seven th in the 12 round series for the former Expert cla ss rid er who clinched the J unior title earlier in th e season. James Hart (W-R) finished second, with Dale J enn eman Sr. (H D) third. T im Frazier (BSA), wh o had won all fo ur ro unds of the AMA Na tional Championship Hillcl imb Series headin g into th e filth round at Middl ebury, Indiana , on Septemb er 8, kept his win strea k in tact by topping the 540cc class at the Iron Horsemen M.C.-prom oted eve n t. Paul P i n sonna u it (Ho n) fini shed second and Scott Everett (T ri) third in th e 540cc class. J eff Yoder (H- D) scored hi s second win of the season in the 800cc class, and that co up led with a pair of fourth pl ace finishes has him on top of th e point standings by 10 points over T o m Chatterton (H- D), 54-44. Cha tterto n was second on the day at Middl ebury, whi le Lou D. Ge r e n c e r (H -D) was third. Ricky Graham (Ho n) won th e Expert fina l at the August 31 Springfield Region al Championship Mile a t the Ill inois State Fairgrounds. Danny Koelsch (H- D) won the J unior mai n , a ndT T y Howard (W- R ) was the winner in the Pro-Am final. Michael Craig (Kaw) topped fello w Californian Dou g Dubach (Yam) and H oll and's Pedro Tra gt e r (Suz) in ro und two of th e Wor ld Ch ampion .ship R odil Supercross Seri es i n Gothenburg, Sweden, Sep tember 6. , Dutchman Racing (Suz) won the Motocrossdes Nations teams complete record 25 teams ha ve ente red the Septemb er 15 Mot ocross des Na tio ns in ' . Valkenswaard, Holland. The Roger DeCoster-man aged American team will be go ing for its lI th consecu tive titl e in the World Team Championship compe tit ion, represented by J eff Stanton in the 500cc cla ss, Damon Bradshaw on the 250 and Mike Kiedrow ski in the 125cc class. Camel Su percross and 250cc Na tional Champion J ean-M ichel Bayle appeared on the entry list in Fran ce's 500cc class slot, although Bayle said he wou ldn' t ride the event at the Sep tember I Wash ou gal 125/ 5OOcc National. The French team will consis t of Ol ivier Perrin (500), Yann Guedard (250) and Frederic Boll ey (125). The Dutch home team will field Gert-Jan Van Doorn (500), Edwin Evertsen (250) and Pedro Tragter (125). Team manager Gerrit Wol sink explai ned that he rejected Dave Strijbos as a choice for the 250cc class because he felt th at Evensen would be more committed to the team . , The Belgian trio has been confirmed as Dirk Geukens (500), Marnicq Bervoets (250) and 125cc World Champion Stefan Everts , th e sam e three riders who lost to the Americans by one point at last year's event in Sweden. England has nominated David Thorpe (500), Rob Herring (250) and Cra ig Pratl ey (125), although the fin al lineup won 't be cho sen until a few days before the event since teen agers Paul Mal in and James Dobb could be drafted onto th e sq uad. The Swedi sh team of Marcus Hansson (500), Peter J ohansson (250),and J oak im Karl sson could also undergo a last-minute change as Stefan Larsson may grab the 500cc cla ss berth pending the outcome of the Swedi sh National Championship. Each country 's federation was given an Augu st 16 deadl ine to file ent ries, and AMA Professional Motocross/Dirt Track Man ager Ro y J anson plan s to .question th e FIM on the legal ity of nations making such last-minute changes. All other European countries have named their best riders for the event. Michele Fan ton (500), Alessandro Puzar (250) and Andrea Bartolini (125) will represent Italy, Roland Diepold (500), Dietm ar Lacher (250) and Peter Beirer (125) are ente red for Germany, while Finland will send Kurt Ljungq vist (500), Pekka Veh konen ' (250) and Arto Panttila (125). Also sending team s are Austral ia, who will host the 1993 Motocross des Nations, New Zealand and J apa n, wh ile South Africa will compe te for the first time ever after being excl uded for several years. T he Ru ssian team will consist of riders from La tvia, Ukraine and Estonia, sta tes which recent ly declared independen ce from th e Soviet Union. Alex Hodgkinson A 2 Rainey wravs uv second straight World title W a yn e Rain ey o f Downey, Californ ia , wra p ped up his second stra ight 500cc World Road Racing Ch ampionship with a workmanl ike performance Sunday, Septemb er 8, in Le Man s, France. Needin g on ly a third-pl ace finish in the season 's n ex t-to -la st Grand Pri x, Marlboro Roberts Yamaha 's Rainey was content to circu late in th ird whil e Texan Kevin Sch wan tz battled for the win wit h Australian title contender Michael Doohan. Rothmans Honda 's Doohan needed a win, coup led wit h Rainey fin ishing four th or worse, to carry the points cha mpionship to the final event on Sep tem ber 20 'i n Ma laysia. Bu t Sch wa ntz guided his Lucky Stri ke Suzuki to a hard -fought victory over Doohan with Ra iney a comfortable th ird. Rain ey's teammate John Kocinski finished fo urt h alter earning his first-ever 500cc pol e pos ition on Sa turday. Rothmans Honda's Wayne Gardner rounded out the top five finishers with Cali fornian Doug Chandler finishing seven th on the Roberts Yama ha. Cagiva's Eddie Lawson missed th e French race af ter dislocating a shoulder and breaki ng a bone in h is thumb during practice at Le Mans. ' . Alter 14 of 15 events in th e 500cc World Championship, Rainey has 233 points to Doohan 's 224. Under a new point s system count ing each rider's best 13 scores, Doohan stands no hope of catc hi ng Rainey. Rainey wasn't the only champion crowned in France as both Italian Luca Cada lora and Brit Steve Webster wra pped up World Championships in the 250cc and Sidecar classes , respectively. Cada lora and h is Rothmans Honda finis hed th ird behind HB H onda 's Helmut Bradl and Rep sol H onda's Carlos Ca rdus, bu t it was enoug h to give h im his first 250cc cro wn . Webster also fini shed th ird , behind Rolf Biland and Ala in Michel 10 earn hi s cha mp ionshi p. Sunday's race in France rep laced the canceled Brazilian Gran d Pr ix on the FIM road race calendar. Rainey, Schwantz and Doohan have thoroug hly do minated the 1991 seaso n, winning all 14 even ts to date. Rainey leads in the win column with six, followed by Schwan tz with five and Doohan with three. The only rider ou tside the lead trio to finish as high as second in 1991 has been Kocinski, a two-time brid esmaid in his first full season on 500cc equipment. Rainey shifted hi s career to th e European-based Grand Prix circuit after winning AMA National Superbike crowns in 1983 and 1987. And his climb to the top in international road racing has been stead y and often specta cu lar. He won his first Grand Prix in 1988 and finished third in the cha mpionship sta ndings. In 1989, he was runner-up to fellow Californian Eddie Law son in the titl e ch ase and won three tim es. Seven wins carried him to the 1990 cha mp ionsh ip. And he can eq ual that impressive seven-wi n season if he manages to win the upcoming Malaysian Grand Prix. . , Sin ce Kenny Roberts broke the ice in 1978, Americans have captured II 500cc World Championships in 14 years. Five Americans rank among the world's top 10 after Sunday's Grand Prix at Le Mans: Rainey (first), Schwantz (th ird), Kocinski (fifth ), Law son (sixth) and Grand Prix rookie Doug Chandler of Salinas, California (nint h). sevent h round of th e AMA/CCS U.S. Enduran ce Championship Series at Heartland Park Topeka in T o peka, , Kansas , September 7. Dutchman 's Chris H aldane and John Choate combined to beat Team Mad Dog II (Yam) by a lap. T eam T oom er (Kaw) clin ched the GTU championship with a third place overall fin ish. The Toomer bik e was ridd en by Michael Barn es and Craig G leason . With two ro u nds remain ing Dut chman Racing leads Team Mad Dog, seventh in Kansas, 107-90. The Kansa s round of th e AMA Endurance Series saw th e return of 1990 200 w inn er Dav id Da ytona Sado w s ki. Sadowsk i, wh o hasn 't seen action since the 600cc Supersport race at Daytona in March becaus e of back surgery, was hired by team owner Hank Dow along with 1989 Daytona 200 winner John A s h mea d to form a second Mad Dog team in th e hopes of them getting in front of Dutchman Racing. The pl an didn 't pan o u t, tho ug h, as th e number one Mad Dog team of Ri ck Kirk and Mike Harth su ffered through two flat tires and cou ld fin ish no higher than sevent h. Sado ws ki a nd Ashm ead , how ever , comb ined to finish second overa ll. AMA Su perbike champion ship leader T hom a s Ste vens was motivated somewhat by a Scott Russell quote tha appea red in th e local newspaper i Topeka. Ru ssell told a reporter that "(Stevens has) only rode good on time, I thought, and that was at Mid Ohio, and he won it. Otherwis e, he' just fin ished . H e's finished every tim - he hasn't had a DNF." The runaway lead er in ' the Worl Charnp iorr sh ip Superb ik e Series Dou g Polen, was not on hand for th Kansas round of the AMA Superbik Ch ampionship even though there wa no con flicting round of the FIM series " He's sick as a do g," tuner Erald Ferracci said of the T exan . " He go sick in Malaysia, but I think it's jus from going to J apan, go ing to Europe " going to Mala ysia... " Dirt tra ck racer Joe Phelps , 18, 0 Corunn a, Michigan, suffered fata injuries in a Pro -Am ma in even accident at the Augu st 31 Springfiel Region al Mile. ' The Ridge R u nne r s M.C. of Santa Cruz , California, is accep ting en tries for their October 12-13 500-mi le dual spo rt rid e. The rid e begins and ends in Angels Camp, Cal ifornia, with an overni gh t stay in Car son Cit y, Nevada. For entry forms, con tact: RRMC, P.O. Box 5121, Santa Cruz, CA 95063, 408/ ,475-3619.:

• Cover