Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

B Pa aWealey Spaniard Jordi Tarres (Bet) becam e th e first four-time trials World Champ ion when he won the Swedish ro und f the World Championship Obs erved rials Series , Sept em ber I. Ital ian onat o Miglio (AFr) finished second nd Frenchman Bruno Camozzi (Fan) claimed third. Tarres ha s an in surmountab le 30-point lead in the standings over Diego Bosis (Fan), 195165, with one round remaining in the series. Doug Polen (Duc) won the first leg f the September 15 German round of the Worl d Championsh ip Superbike Series wi th Raymond Roche (Duc), the defending series champion, fini sh ing second, just 1.36 seconds behind th e winn er. Roche turn ed the tables .n the second leg, winning the race over u nner-u p Polen by a wide margin ter Polen su ffered mechan ical probems on the next-t o-last lap. David e ardozzi (Due) was third in the first eg; Gianearlo Falappa (Due) third in he second leg. With three rounds emaining (six legs each awardi ng 20 ints for a win; a maxim um 120 are vailable), Pole n has a virtual lock on he tit le as he leads the point standings ver Australian Rob Phill is by 103 oints, 318-215. Roche is thi rd with II points. . enmark completed a whitewash of 1991 speedway honors by adding th e orId Team Cup uo it s list of chievements on September 14 at th e orld Team Cup Final at Vojens , enmark. Led by World Individual hampion Jan. O. P edersen , the an ish team easily regained the title y amass ing 51 points on their home oil. The Swedish team took secon d ith 30 poi n ts, and the American team Sam Ermolenko, Bill y Hamill, Greg an cock, Rick Mill er and Ron n ie orrey - finished third with 28 points. e arn Suzuki Endurance took the 1991 WE R A National Endurance hampionship with a win in the sixour Roebling Road Raceway round f the SBS/PM-sponsored series in eorgia on Satu rday , Sept emb er 14. urt Hall and Michael Martin ro de he team's Suzuki GSXRllOO 264 laps, overing near ly 581 miles at an average peed of 96.80 mph. They fin ished ee laps ahea d of second-place Hall N Still Racing and five laps up on Iiird-place DAK Ra cin g. T he victory as a record 70th and the titl e a record eventh for the team founded in 1980 y j ohn Ulrich and Bruc e Hammer, he team' s original riders. om Carson (Kaw) won the Pro class t the AMA Senior/Veteran Eastern otocross Champ ionships held Sepember 15in Mt, Morris, Pen nsylvan ia. a v e y Coombs (Suz ) finishe d econ d ahead of 1974 500cc Su percross ampion Gary Sernics (Hon). et er an speedwa y racer S haw n ' • oran an nounced h is retirement rom spee dway over th e weekend, aying he has lost his appetite for acin g. Moran spent the nine years cing with Sheffield Speedway in the orth of England until that track losed in 1989 and he moved to the elle Vue Club in Manchester. Moran aid, " I' ve lost the appetite for raci ng, nd also I have q uit the Swedish eague. It hasn ' t hel ped that I've roken my collarbone twice thi s year." oran, 30, has had his differences with he AMA in the pas t and was racing nder a Bri tish ACU license th is year. n unusual number of crashes in the OOcc class on the first day of psac tice or the Sep temb er 8 " Brazilian GP " at IN THE WIND Alternate GP serie~ faces OPDosition F IM President jos P. Vaessen has au th orized Dorna Pro mocion del Dep orte, the Spanish company wh ich holds a five-year TV rights con tract for the FIM World Cha mp ionsh ip Road Race Series beg in ning in 1993, to enter into binding negotiations wi th all parties in an attem p t to head off an alternative road racing championship being org an ized by International Racing , Teams Association (IRT A). . T he su rprising turn of events clea rs the way for Dorna to talk with teams , riders, sponsors, organizers and the j ap anese and European manufacturers only two days before IRTA was expected to sign a contract for TV and marketing rights with a company owned by Bernie Eccles tone on September 17. Mich el Metreaux, presiden t of IRTA, contacted Dom a an d agreed to hold . off the signin g of the contract be tween IRTA an d th e company sai d to be ba cked by Eccel stone until Wednesday, September 18, in order to give Dorna ti me to present the ir com p rehe nsive Grand Prix plan complete with financial cons iderations to IRTA. Eccelstone presently holds TV rights with the FI M th ro ugh the end of the 1992 season via In ternational Sports World Commun icators L td., a Bri tish company which obtained rights from th e FIM for a four-year period beginning in 1989 a nd ending at th e end of next seaso n. • Ri chard T . Go lding, managing di rector of Dorn a , a former R.J. Reynolds/ Nabisco executive until joining the h uge Spanish concern a year ago, contacte d Vaessen at his home on Sep tember II an d suggested that h e call on Dom a to com m un icate directl y with a ll parties as an authorized representative and partn er of the FIM. Dorna has also obtai ned from the FIM increased m arketin g rights wh ich will allow th e generation of th e increased income necessary to surpass th e finan cia l condi tion s bei ng o ffered to the teams and riders by IRTA and made possib le by th e as yet unsigned agr eement for TV righ ts wi th a new Eccelstone-backed company. Vaessen told Golding th a t he agreed this would be the best approach, but delayed granting FIM auth ori ty to Dorna until Saturday, September 14 after meeting wi th FIM Genera l Secretary Guy Maitre an d T reasu rer Tore Kibtilsen. Golding said, " Sin ce acquiri ng the TV 'righ ts from the FIM by outbidding several companies including one of Mr. Eccelstone's comp an ies, we have observed with in creasi ng concern the crisis that has arisen with Grand Prix racing and we decided th at it was time for us to act in defen se of th e FIM and our investment. " It is very difficult," Golding said in Madrid on Sep tember 14, " for an amateur sport ing federation to fight against such a carefully pl anned attempt, but our company is more than p rep ared to meet with all parties and work out the best deal for all. Presid en t Vaessen recognized th is instantly ana has given us complete · auth ority in this matter." ' Plans for, a breakaway series in 1992 are now at a very advanced stage and IRTA is p lanning to sign a contract on Sep tember 16, for the 1992 season and beyond with a company said to have been formed by persons clo se to Eccelstone. T he FIM decision to empower Dorna to dea l directly wi th a ll parties came after two very important meetings whi ch did not go well for the federation. The Sponsors' Association met with the FIM and Dorn a in Le Mans , France, on September 6. Dorna gave what wa s generally considered a very professional and promising presen ta tion which left the delegates with a positive impressio n of the Madrid-based company which is considered to be one of the worl d's top three ' in TV sports marketing. H owever, no package comparable , to the opposition's was p resente d as a whole by the FI M. Most sponsors' representa tives left the mee ting feeling tha t the FIM wasted a valuable opportunity. In th e words of one promotions manager for a major 500cc team sponsor: " I was disappoin ted that the FI M offered no overall plan wh ich is obviously what we were there to h ear . I left th e meeting with th e feeling th at the FIM had missed a last chance to convince the sp onsors to support the existing federation." Shortly aft er the FI M's meeting with the sponsors, a presentation to the same group by IRTA too k p lace in London, En gland, on Sep tember 10. With eigh t of the n ine asso ciati on members present, the Sponsors' Association heard a detailed proposal from IRTA and afterwards most spoke openly on their support for the IRTA p la n. Rep resen ta tives of the major sponsors (Marlboro, Roth mans and Lucky Strik e) said the y planned to send favorable reports to the japanese manufactu rers. However, mo st observe rs of th e Grand Prix scene feel th at th e japanese ma n ufa ctu rer s, especiall y Honda, are very uncomfortab le with the idea o f br eaking away with tradition and wi th th e FIM which has sanctioned th e Wor ld Championship since 1949. Whi le su p port for th e bre akaway championship is very strong among so me of the top teams, man y European teams and sponsors are still hesitant to break with th e FIM and with the traditions that the FIM embodi es. This hesitancy, wh ich is ofte n expressed in private conversations, was not evident at the IRTA Genera l Assembly in Brno, Czech oslovakia, on August 24 wh en representatives of the IRT A membership voted u nanimously to au thorize the IRTA leadership to discuss with groups outside the FIM th e formation of an alterna te cham p ionship. Until now, however, Dorna has remained in the backgr ou nd. Goldin g concluded hi s remarks to a reporter by sayi n g, " Now th a t the FIM have agreed to allow us to negotia te on' a broad ba sis we are certain that we can offer the best p ackage to the riders, teams and sponsors. It would seem illogical for any of th e parties involved to wish to leave th e FIM if a ll their legitimate req uests can be met within the legal federation. We bel ieve th at IRTA, th e Sponsors Associa tion , the j apanese a nd European manufac turers and, of course, the riders , will find there is abs olutely no need to go beyond th e FIM to achieve thei r goals." Whi le riders and tea ms p repared to head to Malaysia on Sep tem ber 14 for IRTA p rac tice sessions at the Sh ah Ala m Circui t near Kuala Lampur for the fin a l round of th e championsh ip on September 29, Dorna has opened tal ks aimed a t defu sing the "World Series" th rea t ' and satisfying legitimate demands wh ile at th e same time preserv ing the FIM as the governing and unifying body. Den n is No yes Subscription Rate Schedule ' CA Residents Add 7%% Sales Tax l:A County 8%% Sales Tax First Class Service DOMESTIC 1 year 50 issues $108.00 6 months 25 issues $55.00 Trial sub. 15 issues $33.00 CANADA 1 year 50 issues $122.00 $60.00 6 months 25 issues Trial sub. 15 issues $36.00 MEXICO 1 year 50 issues $122 .00 6 months 25 issues $60.00 Trial sub 15issues $36.00 . 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